Zhang Nu carefully studied the stats of Nancilia.
[Giantree City Lord, Nancilia] Level 4 overlord unit. 1000 HP, 2500 MP, 25 Strength, 105 Agility, 45 Constitution, 424 Will, Loyalty 99%...
Skills: Elven King's Bloodline (Talent), Elven King's Elemental Covenant (A rank), Elven King's Astral Shield (A rank), Elven King's Sealing Art (A), Elven King's Blessing Art (A rank), Instant Teleportation (B rank), Meteor Rain (B rank), Meteorite Arrow (B rank), etc.
After the young city lord had completed her advancement.
Her skills and stats have grown significantly.
The amount of A rank skills she possessed was impressive enough. It even integrated multiple aspects of combat - offense, defense, control and support.
For the moment.
Within the vicinity of Chaos Forest.
There were very few existences that could rival her.
And this was far from her limit.
Nancillia was already tremendously strong at this point.
She also had the power boost from her top grade equipment, Elven King Scepter.
If she was pitted against the current Zhang Nu.
She probably could still have a back and forth fight against him.
At the very least, she could last a couple dozen rounds without losing.
Zhang Nu also noticed that the young city lord's loyalty to himself had skyrocketed to 99% after this incident.
This was nearing the level of die-hard loyalty.
Only the directly summoned units could achieve absolute 100% loyalty. As a recruited subordinate, 99% loyalty was already the highest level of loyalty, and there was almost no possibility for treason.
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
The young city lord knelt down on one knee before Zhang Nu.
Zhang Nu calmly asserted, "Rise. There's no need to thank me. This is your own strength and power."
The young city lord was immensely moved.
In fact, after her bloodline was awakened.
She gained a lot of new knowledge.
Which included the ones regarding the Elixir of Awakening.
She came to learn that the potion was extremely arduous to procure. There were very few who could concoct such a potion, not to mention one of the required ingredients was the heart of a Level 4 overlord daemon.
It was hard to imagine.
How did the Demon King achieve all these within such a short timeframe.
Even for an existence like him, the amount of effort spent and price paid for the potion would be inconceivable.
Nancilia became even more grateful at these thoughts.
She continued, "Your Majesty, I've grown stronger. From now on, I shall stand by your side in the future and defeat all who dares to challenge you!"
Zhang Nu replied, "Calm down for now. You've just had a breakthrough and gained some brand new power. It takes time to familiarize yourself with it."
The present Nancilia would indeed become a powerful helping hand for Zhang Nu.
He was planning to challenge the sealed gate within the Giantree Forest in a couple of days.
With her assistance, the odds of success would be elevated significantly. But for now, Zhang Nu shall wait until she has adapted to her new powers properly.
Zhang Nu was preparing to leave.
Then he ran into the Demon King Chen Guoguo.
The Flower Fey Demon King was a close friend of the young city lord. She had been very concerned about the latter's condition and had not even returned to her own territory for the past two days.
"Nancy is fine now? That's great news!"
Zhang Nu glanced and examined her, "You're already at Level 3?"
Chen Guoguo let out a chuckle, "Recently, I bought a few souls from the Demon King market. I just barely managed to reach Level 3, and I haven't had the time to activate my talents."
So that was how it was.
It was not easy to purchase souls from the Demon King market.
The soul itself was not a scarce commodity, but the demand was so great, it was simply bottomless. The Demon Kings would generally spend the souls on themselves when they get their hands on souls. Very few Demon Kings would be willing to sell the souls on the market.
In order for Chen Guoguo to level up, she went and bought the Hero's Souls from the market.
Not only were the souls hard to come by in the market, the price was exorbitant and not one bit economical.
Zhang Nu had considered that Chen Guoguo, for the sake of supporting him, had given up on large-scale military construction. Even the security of her own territory was now the responsibility of the draconian army.
In this regard, it was necessary to compensate Chen Guoguo.
This was not entirely out of benign.
The higher the level of Chen Guoguo's, the better the capabilities and competence of hers, and quality and quantity of her units would also rise accordingly. In the long run, it would be a win-win development.
"From now on, you shouldn't acquire souls from the Demon King market anymore.
Zhang Nu continued, "If you have a need for souls, just buy it from me. I'll give you a 50% discount based on the average market price."
'50% off the average market price?'
Chen Guoguo was flabbergasted, "Is this really OK?"
Zhang Nu nodded, "You're currently working for me, therefore I won't mistreat you. But, you should pay heed that these souls could only be used on yourself. Understand?"
"Yes!"
"I understand!"
"Thanks for looking after me, Boss!"
Chen Guoguo was overjoyed.
She never did like all the fighting and killing. She was presently quite well off just by selling seeds. Coupled with the development of her own crops and animal farming industry, she had tens of thousands of gold income per day, and the income was still growing rapidly.
She could be considered a wealthy woman amongst the Demon Kings.
Other miscellaneous stuff such as blueprints, skill stones and equipment were all obtainable from the Demon King market. As long as one was willing to spend their coins, these items were easy to come by. Only the Hero's Souls were difficult to acquire even with money.
But now, everything went well for Chen Guoguo.
She could now acquire souls from the Boss with a discounted price.
With this, leveling up would be possible.
Zhang Nu already had a lot of souls in hand and he had brought back another fifteen Level 3 Hero's Souls from the last trip.
And yet the sum of these souls were not even enough to activate a single Level 4 talent.
Selling a small few of these souls to Chen Guoguo would have little impact on him. Zhang Nu took this as an opportunity to strengthen his subordinate.
After returning to Darkness Valley.
Zhang Nu took out the blueprint he had acquired this time.
[Altar of Inferno] Level 4 Blueprint. Costs "Gold" x 500,000, "Fire Gem" x 500, "Stone" x 10,000. You may summon an Altar of Inferno within your territory.
The cost of construction for Level 4 blueprints was truly expensive.
Zhang Nu currently had plenty of gold and a couple hundreds of fire gems in hand. He went and bought some more fire gems from the market and so, all the required materials had been readied.
Without any hesitation, an Altar of Inferno was constructed in the Darkness City.
[Altar of Inferno construction successful!]
A 20-meter tall trapezoidal altar emerged in the territory, which appeared unremarkable on the outside and had no distinctive features.
However, how could a Level 4 building be ordinary?
Zhang Nu understood the function of the building through further investigation.
There were many kinds of altars, hence the varying functions among the altar type buildings.
As for the Altar of Inferno.
It belonged to the strengthening and enhancing type altars.
It could strengthen any unit from Level 1 to 4, granting the target unit the power of flames and a boost in their strength.
To put it more bluntly.
The function of this altar was:
Normal units would be strengthened into elite units.
Elite units would be strengthened into lord units.
Lord units would be strengthened into even mightier lord units.
The ceiling for the altar's enhancements were Level 4 and lord rank.
"This altar!"
"It's intriguing!"
Zhang Nu decided to give the altar strengthening a try with his five Draconian Warmonger Royal Guards.
The Warmonger Royal Guards were Level 4 elite units, and according to the ability of the Altar of Inferno, it could theoretically strengthen them into Level 4 lord units.
[The strengthening costs 120,000 gold. Proceed to strengthen?]
It did seem a bit pricey.
But for an elite unit to become a lord was a leap in quality.
Even the Draconic Marshal Zhang San and the High Priest Li Si were only Level 3 lord units.
If it did succeed, then the 120,000 gold would be worth the money. After all, these units could be mass produced without any restrictions.
"Strengthen!"
Zhang Nu confirmed his selection.
The altar immediately trembled.
A ball of flame engulfed the Warmonger Royal Guard that was receiving the enhancement. However, the raging fire did not burn or damage the royal guard. Instead, it entered his body through his pores for a continuous transformation.
[Strengthening completed!]
[HP +200, MP +80, Strength +15, Constitution +15, Agility +20, Will +10. Acquired a new skill: Inferno's Might!]
Zhang Nu noticed some changes in the Draconian Warmonger Royal Guard.
His scales have turned fiery red and there seemed to be some vague sparks of ember in between his scales. The royal guard's aura and grandeur were also visibly intensified.
[Infernal Draconian Warmonger Royal Guard] Level 4 lord unit. 700 HP, 380 MP, 70 Strength, 59 Constitution, 76 Agility, 48 Will. Loyalty 100%(Locked). Fatigue 10%. Hunger 10%
Skills: Instant Summoning (Talent), Raging Dragon Qi (B rank), War Dragon Formation (B Rank), Inferno's Might (B rank), Draconic Blood Awakening (C rank), War Drake's Scales (C rank), Qi Impact (C rank), Magic Resistance (C rank), High Speed Healing (C rank), Aerial Scouting (D rank)...
To be fairly honest.
The strength of this Warmonger Royal Guard had indeed surged significantly after the Altar of Inferno's enhancement.
Nevertheless, his strength could not be considered high among the lords of the same level. It could only be regarded as below average. This was still the result of strengthening his top Level 4 elite unit.
If elite units with mediocre strength were used for strengthening, not only would the cost be even higher, the resulting strengthened units would be the weakest of weak among other lord units.
Being the weakest of lords notwithstanding, a lord unit was still a lord unit.
Even the most powerless lord unit would be stronger than an elite unit.
Not to mention the Infernal Draconian Warmonger Royal Guards were not at the bottom in terms of strength. At least they were deemed to be only slightly below average among same level lord units, which was satisfactory enough.
Since there was no restriction in summoning or strengthening. Hence, theoretically speaking, as long as there was enough gold, Zhang Nu could build a whole army of "Infernal Draconian Warmonger Royal Guards".
Even if a single Warmonger Royal Guard was not too strong, but once such existence came in dozens, hundreds or even thousands, what kind of spectacle would that be?
An army of lord rank monsters!
Forget the others.
Even Zhang Nu's scalp tingled at the mere thought.
As expected from a Level 4 structure, the Altar of Inferno.
The immediate effect of its strengthening ability was truly astonishing!