Chapter 6: A 3-Star Elite? Surround It with a Thousand Undead!

Pshk!

The last Wasteland Boarfolk, standing over two meters tall, had its throat pierced by seven or eight bone spears at once.

Its massive body crashed heavily to the ground.

Its limbs twitched twice.

Then it stopped moving.

In the upper-right corner of John’s vision, the Gold counter climbed rapidly before finally coming to a stop.

Gold: 540

Standing atop the rise, John raised a hand and opened his army interface.

The formation of one thousand Undead Spearmen that had been at full strength only moments ago was now littered with casualties.

A rough count put the number at ninety-six.

These were only Level 1 units, after all.

They had just fifty HP.

One solid swing from a Boarfolk’s heavy club was enough to smash them apart on the spot.

But when John glanced at the interface, his eyes narrowed slightly.

[Notice: Exclusive trait of Undead Sovereign activated.]

[When an undead unit under your command is destroyed, its soul automatically enters a dormant state.]

[The Lord may spend 50% of the unit’s original recruitment cost in Gold to awaken it from dormancy.]

Normally, when an ordinary Lord’s unit died, its data was permanently deleted.

Its icon would turn gray on the interface.

Dead meant dead.

But this notification meant...

"Recruiting one Spearman costs one Gold."

John’s eyes lit up.

"So reviving one only costs... half a Gold?"

He didn’t hesitate.

John tapped the interface.

"Revive all."

"48 Gold deducted."

"Remaining Gold: 492."

"10,000× Acceleration activated."

"Revival time reduced from 3,000 seconds to 0.3 seconds."

Hum—

Across the muddy ground, the shattered white bones suddenly began glowing green.

Broken pieces of skeleton seemed to be pulled by an invisible force.

They scraped across the blood-soaked earth and rapidly reassembled themselves.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

In less than the blink of an eye, bones that had been scattered across the battlefield snapped back together into complete skeletons.

All ninety-six Undead Spearmen returned to their feet.

They immediately picked up their bone spears and marched back into formation.

John exhaled and rolled his wrist.

"Half a Gold per life, and they revive almost instantly..."

He gave a low laugh.

"In a war of attrition, who the hell is supposed to beat an undead army?"

"This is broken as hell."

The words had barely left his mouth—

"ROOOAR!"

A deafening roar erupted from inside the camp.

The shockwave carried a foul-smelling gust of wind with it, blasting outward and sending more than a dozen ragged tents flying through the air.

Mud exploded in every direction.

Thick wooden barricades shattered apart.

From the wreckage emerged a towering shadow more than three meters tall.

It was a Boarfolk.

But one far larger than any of the others.

Its entire body was covered in heavy chainmail crudely stitched together from rusted iron plates.

In its left hand was a rough square shield forged from refined iron.

In its right was a massive serrated battle-axe.

John’s gaze sharpened.

The creature’s status panel immediately appeared.

[Wild Monster: Wasteland Boarfolk Chieftain]

[Type: Elite Boss]

[Faction: Beastkin]

[Tier: 3-Star]

[Level: Lv.5]

[HP: 2,100]

[Attack: 150]

[Defense: 50]

[Skills: Bloodrage Charge, War Stomp, Blood Roar, Triple Heavy Strike]

John’s eyes lit up.

"Not bad."

"An Elite Boss at the very first monster settlement."

Elite monsters were difficult to kill.

But their drops were correspondingly valuable.

Suppressing his excitement, John thrust his right hand forward.

"All units, attack!"

"Surround it!"

"Rotate Piercing Thrust attacks. Don’t give it room to build momentum or break away!"

Clatter!

The orderly formation instantly split apart.

One thousand Undead Spearmen advanced together with perfectly synchronized steps.

"ROAR!"

The Boarfolk Chieftain locked its blood-red eyes onto John and unleashed another furious roar.

Its thick right leg slammed backward.

BOOM!

The ground beneath its hoof collapsed into a crater.

Skill Activated: Bloodrage Charge!

The Chieftain’s enormous body transformed into a dark-red blur.

It barreled directly into the approaching formation, the air screaming around it.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

More than a dozen Spearmen were smashed apart instantly.

Then the Chieftain swung its massive axe in a brutal horizontal arc.

Over thirty skeletons around it were cleaved clean in half.

But John’s orders came almost immediately.

"Second rank, forward!"

"Third rank, close in!"

"Fourth rank—raise your spears and strike downward!"

-1!

-1!

-10! — Piercing Thrust

-12!

Each individual bone spear dealt almost no damage.

But when dozens—

even hundreds—

struck the same target at once...

the numbers became terrifying.

The Boarfolk Chieftain was clearly far more agile and experienced than the ordinary Boarfolk.

It had barely lifted one leg to activate War Stomp when more than a dozen spears stabbed down and pinned its ankle directly to the ground.

The Chieftain roared in fury and hacked its enormous axe into the undead surrounding it.

It smashed ten apart—

twenty more immediately took their place.

It destroyed fifty—

there were still nine hundred left.

Against overwhelming numbers...

against dead things that knew neither fear nor pain...

individual strength was completely smothered.

Two and a half minutes.

That was all it took.

The HP bar above the Boarfolk Chieftain’s head plummeted toward zero.

Pshk!

More than thirty bone spears plunged into its chest at the same time.

Its massive body froze.

Then—

THUD!

It crashed to the ground.

[Your units have slain Wasteland Boarfolk Chieftain Lv.5 — 3-Star Elite.]

[EXP +2,000]

[Gold +150]

[Congratulations, Lord.]

[Loot obtained: 3-Star Chest ×1]

Brilliant light gathered above the Chieftain’s enormous corpse.

A bronze-colored treasure chest decorated with beast-head carvings slowly took shape.

John jumped down from the rise and walked straight toward it.

"Open."

Click.

The chest burst apart into countless motes of light.

When the glow faded, three items floated silently in the air.

[Gold +200]

[3-Star Unit Altar Stone ×1]

[3-Star Unit Training License: Ironclad Guard — Human]

John reached out and took the card radiating a cold silver-gray glow.

He ran a thumb across its surface.

Godfall Continent had a well-established system for training units.

The Spearman Altar he’d received at the start was nothing more than a free novice benefit from the system.

It hadn’t required any special materials to construct.

But if a Lord wanted to recruit stronger, higher-Star units later on, two mandatory conditions had to be met.

First—

the corresponding Unit Training License.

Second—

a Unit Altar Stone of the matching Star tier.

Only after obtaining both could a Lord construct the appropriate altar and begin recruiting that unit.

John opened the card’s information.

[Unit Training License: Ironclad Guard]

[Tier: 3-Star]

[Role: Heavy Defensive Infantry]

[Traits: Refined-Iron Heavy Armor, Heavy Tower Shield, Stonewall Defense, Taunt]

"Heavy shield infantry."

John nodded in satisfaction.

His Spearmen had numbers.

And their Piercing Thrust gave them decent offensive power.

But they were fragile.

Against powerful area attacks or high-burst enemies, they could easily be wiped out in large groups.

Ironclad Guards would solve that problem.

Once he had a formation of 3-Star Ironclad Guards standing at the front and absorbing the enemy’s attacks...

his undead army would finally have a proper frontline.

"You lot, gather every useful resource in the area."

John issued the order to his Spearmen.

Then he turned back toward the Boarfolk Chieftain’s corpse.

Apart from the blood covering its body, a fist-sized fleshy heart was floating above the remains.

John opened its description.

[Item: Heart of the Boarfolk Chieftain]

[Effect: If you later acquire a Beastkin — Boarfolk Unit Training License, this heart may be fused into the altar during construction.]

[Doing so will permanently raise the base rating of the recruited Boarfolk units to 3-Star.]