On a plain somewhere on the endless continent...
"Like I thought, there are definitely other lords with top grade units who sell food to get resources quickly and level up units at the same time."
A beautiful western-looking girl couldn't help but exclaim after seeing the rapid exchange of food on the system panel in front of her.
"But how can he get so much food so quickly when even my units couldn't make it?"
She wasn't unreasonably arrogant, as she had already asked one of her angels where they ranked among all other species in terms of strength.
They told her that along with the greatest demons from Hell, they rank highest among the top-grade units.
"Just..."
Just this one unique race born to become gods are above them.
Dragons!
"Impossible!"
She was also told that dragons are too proud and arrogant a race to serve a lord.
What she didn't know was that dragonlords did exist in the past, only so much time has passed that only the oldest among the gods might possibly remember such a thing.
When a dragonlord leads the dragons, other gods stand in the way, which is why most generational changes among the gods in ancient times followed the appearance of a dragonlord.
Back at Darkheart Castle, Dark looked at his body with a strange expression on his face.
"Although I felt like I was getting stronger somehow, it seems like I broke through some kind of barrier to progress to the next level of strength."
"Wait"
With a vague idea of what's going on, Dark opened his Lords panel.
[Castle Lord: Alberu Darkheart]
[Alias: Dark]
[Strengh: Tier 1]
[Castle: Basic Castle
[Buildings: Dragon nest, Warehouse]
[Military units: 1 True Dragon]
[Energy Stones: 7]
[Energy Crystals: 0]
[Equipment: none]
____________________________________
"I really level up by killing enemies, but if it's like games, that means I only get a small portion of Egolas. I wonder if he leveled up after half a day of hunting?"
As he wondered, not far from him lay several corpses of gray wolves under a majestic golden giant.
Grrrrr!
The Tier 5 Elite Giant Gray Wolf gazed at the dead bodies of his pack with a mixture of sadness, anger and fear.
It couldn't help but feel fear while standing so close to whoever had put its pack in this state.
"Hmpf"
Egolas, who had already entered Tier 4 after intentionally targeting Tier 3 and 4 monsters, coldly snorted at the monster in front of him and planned to kill it as cleanly as possible to even out the monsters beneath him that had been practically torn to pieces during the fight.
Swoosh!
Emitting a blinding light, Egolas flashed forward.
The wolf wanted to flee, seeing no hope of winning a fight, but after being temporarily blinded, he couldn't see where to run.
Slash!
In one clean and quick move, Egolas finally cut off his head.
[Killed a Elite Giant Grey Wolf +50 Energy]
"Oh?"
Dark had a pleasantly surprised expression on his face upon hearing this news.
"I wonder if I'll get anything other than Energy Stones"
High tier monster corpses work a bit like loot boxes here, you have to dissect the monsters to get energy stones etc.
Only a few minutes until sunset. That's when Dark ordered Egolas to return. So Dark took this time to gather his resources from [Space Exchange] and look through the [World Chat].
[You obtained +2,600 Wood, +500 Stone through Space Exchange]
[World Chat]
[Man I'm so jealous. Do y'all see these lucky bast*rds who started out with Top-grade units selling their leftover food and earning resources in the Space exchange]
[Looking for ninja tools to equip my mutant turtles]
[Does anyone have winter jackets, my lizard people can barely move in the cold :(]
[Can I move in with some of the Top lords I no longer wish to live at the foot of a bare cliff]
Looking at the numerous complaints from various lords, Dark once again could only sigh at his incredible luck.
Not only has he probably got the strongest unit, but his starting position has looked promising so far as well.
Crash!
Meanwhile, Egolas dropped the remaining dead monsters in the castle grounds nearby.
"With this much, not to mention an intermediate Castle, I might even be able to level my Castle up twice once I've sold all that food."
Looking at the small mound of corpses, Dark smiled happily and got ready to dissect all but the Elite Tier one.
[+315 Food]
[+14 Energy Stones]
[+39 Materials]
Wasting no time, he placed 310 units of food on the [Space Exchange] before moving on to the largest wolf body.
"It would be great if elite monsters gave me something special."
He murmured before dissecting the last corpse for the day.
[+10 Elite Food]
[+5 Energy Stones]
[+4 Materials]
"Is it because Elite monsters don't drop other things, or have I already used all the luck from this life and my previous lives to get the Dragon's Nest?"
He Ask disappointed as he made his way to his castle and opened the [Space Exchange] on the way.
"Lord, you should eat the flesh of elite monsters, it will help you strengthen your body."
"Hmm, does Elite Food really have that effect?"
[Ding Ding! Yes, flesh from Elite level monsters and above carries a strengthening or various other effects. The stronger the monster, the greater the effect.]
"Okay, I then just sell it for three times the price of regular food, it's not like I have any competition in the market anyway."
There are currently many people who are desperate for personal power as not everyone can have their units hunt alone.
On the other hand, many people started with natural resources in or just off their territory.
It's just that as long as there's no one to sell them food, people with a gold mine in front of them will starve too.
"By the way, Egolas, has your strength increased after all the hunting?"
"Yes, mostly thanks to the elite monster. I'm now just one step away from Tier 5."
"Great"
"Rest now and go hunting again in the morning. Make sure to focus more on elite monsters, but run immediately if you come across an opponent that you can't beat."
"Understood, my Lord"
"Now, next on the list"
[You obtained +4,140 Wood, 1,030 Stone trough Space Exchange]
"Let's upgrade my Castle and see what happens"
When Dark stood in front of his castle, he didn't hesitate any longer and immediately started the upgrade process.
[Castle Upgrade]
[Confirmed necessary recourses for upgrade]
[Do you wish to use 2,000 Wood and 1,000 Stone to upgrade Castle(basic) to Castle(intermediate)?]
[Yes/No]
"Yes"
[Ding...upgrading Castle]
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
As the upgrade process began, the castle before Dark began emitting a white light as it grew in size.
And finally, after about a minute, the light dissipated and Dark could see a fancy 15 meter tall castle that looked brand new.
Stone dragon statues stood atop the roof and on either side of the entrance.
Dark could also sense a familiar aura emanating from the castle.
He felt it from the dragon's nest and Egolas.
"It must be some kind of dragon aura"
"The territory has also increased significantly"
[Castle(basic) upgraded to Castle(intermediate)]
[Castle durability increased]
[Caslte territory increased]
[Castle reputation increased (reputation increases the probability of native forces to discover, attack, trade, or join your Castle)]
[Congratulations on being the very first among the otherworldly lords to upgrade your castle]
[Lords are rewarded for certain achievements to encourage the rest to perform at their best]
[Of course, accepting the reward means sharing certain information with other lords]
[By posting your achievement you will get the reward]
[Do you wish to make it public?]
[Yes/No]
"Of course, yes"
Showing other lords that he's ahead of them and making himself known to billions of lords brings Dark no real disadvantage.
Interactions between Lords are limited to chats at the moment anyway.
[Confirmed... Lord will receive a random reward consisting of one of the following resources, Energy Crystals, Blueprints, Equipment]
[Rolling...............ding!!]
[Rewarding Lord...]
While Dark waited to find out what his reward might be. The world chat erupted in a tremor because of the world message each lord received.