For the Demon Kings who did not possess strong combat units.
The altar type structures would be very beneficial.
Zhang Nu's own units were already formidable.
But even so, it could still be strengthened by structures such as the Altar of Inferno.
However.
There was a limitation on the altar's enhancement.
That was one single unit type could only harbor the power of a single altar.
If Zhang Nu obtained something like "Altar of Wind" or "Altar of Water" to strengthen his Infernal Draconian Warmonger Royal Guards again, the newest enhancement would overwrite the old one. These strengthening powers were not compatible and stackable with each other.
Secondly.
If an enhanced unit was being upgraded at the Demon King Altar, the Demon King Altar would cleanse the altar enhancement from the unit.
For example, if Zhang Nu strengthened a Draconian Super Soldier into an Infernal Draconian Super Soldier, and then sent it to the Demon King altar to be upgraded into a Warmonger Royal Guard. During the upgrade process, this super soldier would lose the altar's power, Inferno's Might. The unit would then need to be re-enhanced after the upgrade to become an Infernal War Guard.
In that case.
There was no need to strengthen the lower level units.
It was only necessary to enhance the high level units.
Zhang Nu sent the remaining four War Guards onto the altar for strengthening, making five Infernal War Guards in total.
Five lord rank units.
The combative power was not to be trifled with.
Combined with the special skills of the royal guards themselves.
The five Level 4 lord units could appear right beside Zhang Nu at any time and take the enemies by surprise.
However, five royal guards were not quite enough for Zhang Nu.
Zhang Nu contacted the Bloody Giant Wang Shi.
He planned to order 100 of life gems and dark gems each in one go. Due to the rarity of these two gems, they were more expensive.
The current average price was 2,500 gold per gem.
The price of 200 gems was totaled at around 500,000 gold.
Not even Wang Shi could deliver that many gems all at once.
He could only provide 20 life gems and 10 dark gems for now. The remaining gems would be delivered gradually in the coming week.
Zhang Nu still had some life gems in hand.
So he took out the gems, plus an additional 200,000 gold coin, to recruit 10 more War Guards and spent another 1.2 million gold to enhance them all into lord units.
With this.
Zhang Nu now has 15 Infernal Draconian Warmonger Royal Guards.
An entire squadron of 15 lord units. If they all strike simultaneously, even against an overlord of the same level, they could hold their own ground.
Furthermore, the War Guards have the skill, War Dragon Formation.
The more royal guards there were, the stronger their combat prowess.
These 15 royal guards would become a mighty weapon under Zhang Nu's command.
Zhang Nu was very satisfied with the Warmonger Royal Guards' strength and started to wonder how good the Mystic variant of the royal guards would be.
The summoning requirements of a Draconian Warmonger Royal Guard were: a Draconian Super Soldier + 20,000 gold + 10 life gems.
And the summoning requirements of a Draconian Mystic Royal Guard were: a Draconian Mystic Battlemage + 50,000 gold + 10 dark gems.
In terms of summoning cost, Mystic Guards were more expensive than War Guards.
Zhang Nu just happened to have sufficient materials in hand.
So he picked one of the Mystic Battlemages and upgraded him into a Mystic Guard.
[Draconian Mystic Royal Guard] Level 4 elite unit. HP 400, MP 600, Strength 29, Constitution 40, Agility 42, Will 60, Loyalty 100% (Locked), Fatigue 10%, Hunger 10%.
Skills: Instant Summoning (Talent), Abyssal Drake Transformation (B rank), Abyssal Armored Drake Transformation (B rank), Abyssal Amphibian Drake Transformation (B rank), Mystic Dragon Barrier (B rank), Blazing Hammer (C rank), Freezing Hammer (C rank), Whirlwind Hammer (C rank), Lightning Hammer (C rank), etc.
From the unit description, the Mystic Guard inherited the abilities of Mystic Battlemages, possessing combat capabilities to fight on naval, land, and aerial terrains, as well as close and long range combat, physical and magical damage, and myriad other combat modes.
This unit was extremely versatile.
The individual combat strength of a Mystic Guard was slightly better than a War Guard.
However, since the War Guards have a battle formation, so when their number was large enough, their overall combat strength would be greater than Mystic Guards of the same quantity.
Mystic Guards did not have a battle formation, but they did have their Mystic Dragon Barrier royal guard exclusive skill. This skill could be utilized for protecting their master, or used to seal and trap their enemies. Similarly, the more Mystic Guards there were, the more powerful the barrier would become.
The Mystic Royal Guard was sent onto the Altar of Inferno.
[The strengthening costs 100,000 gold. Proceed to strengthen?]
[Strengthening completed! HP +200, MP +80, Strength +15, Constitution +15, Agility +20, Will +10. Acquired new skills: Inferno's Might, Fire-Based Attack Enhancement!]
It was probably due to being stronger than War Guards, the Mystic Guard's enhancement cost using the altar was lower.
In this way, the creation cost of the two Infernal Royal Guards were actually quite similar.
Presently, Zhang Nu was not short of troops. There were more than 10,000 elite elven troops in Giantree City, and elites in Berserk Beast City could form an army of at least 10,000 or 20,000.
With the current territory size, there were more than enough troops to safeguard the land.
Zhang Nu did not intend to expand his draconian army on a large-scale.
He decided to take the route of building an army of elite and high-end units. He was set on creating more High Draconian Soldiers, Super Soldiers, Mystic Battlemages and the two variants of Draconian Royal Guards.
But of course.
It would not be easy.
After all, the necessary investment was too much.
Zhang Nu spent nearly half of the gold he had saved just from creating a dozen of these lord rank royal guards.
Such an exorbitant expense was unimaginable for any Demon King.
Many Demon Kings only maintain a small number regiments on a daily basis.
Only when the need arose would they start to summon and pile up a mob of units and send in the low-end units as disposables.
In the short term.
It did seem to be more cost effective.
Demon Kings had the ability to summon an endless horde of soldiers anyways.
Yet it was not suitable for long term development. Only by making great efforts and spending resources to build elite and high-end units, could one solidify their foundation and march further.
It would appear.
Zhang Nu needed to acquire more gold.
Not just gold, but also gems and other materials.
Zhang Nu was aware that in order to gain more gold, he would need to invade, expand, occupy more cities and take over more territories as well as resources.
In the present.
Within the vicinity of Chaos Forest.
There was only one obstacle to this great Demon King's expansion plan.
It was the Divine Sword Guild, or more accurately, the forces behind them, which was the empire they represented.
Zhang Nu wondered if there was any progress at Su Yan's side.
...
Meanwhile at the Scarlet Valley.
Within the Bloody Fortress.
He Tianzong's expression was grave as he asked, "Are all this information confirmed?"
A Hero of the Divine Sword hurriedly answered, "We have inquired as well as confirmed that both Giantree City and Berserk Beast City are indeed under control of the dragon Demon King from Darkness Valley."
A few days ago.
He Tianzong sent out a Hero, Liu Qingcheng, who was under his command.
Liu Qingcheng was a special emissary of the Divine Sword Hero Guild to make contact with various Demon Kings. He Tianzong initially sent him out with the intention to impose pressure on this dragon Demon King and force him to submit.
Unexpectedly.
They did not manage to put pressure on the Demon King.
Instead, Liu Qingcheng got himself killed.
He Tianzong immediately carried out an investigation on this Demon King. Only now did he understand the reason why the Demon King had the courage to defy the empire's will.
He had seized two large forest cities.
More frighteningly, when the Giantree City and Berserk Beast City were captured, they were not razed to the ground and became a ruined city. Instead, the city as well as its population was very well preserved.
The regular combat forces alone were more than 100,000.
Not to mention the tens of thousands of elites who also submitted to the Demon King.
No wonder he was reluctant to obey, the Demon King was sitting on so much authority. No one would be willing to part with such power and just hand it over if they were in his shoes.
A senior member of the Divine Sword frowned, "Damn it all, we did expect him to be powerful, but not this unimaginably strong. This is going to be difficult."
Another Divine Sword senior member nodded, "The strength of this Demon King is far beyond our manageable boundary, so recruiting is not feasible. We must get rid of this one as soon as possible!"
"Agreed."
"Though he is powerful."
"But to face us is to face death itself!"
The dragon Demon King was difficult and troublesome for the Divine Sword to handle.
However, it was merely troublesome, and they might have to pay a price to deal with him. It was nowhere near enough to make them desperate.
He Tianzong thought the same.
With the support from the empire backing up the guild, the Divine Sword's forces were interconnected with both the Heroes and Demon Kings.
At the present, with the vampire Demon King Bai Hongzhuo as the leader, a total of eleven Demon Kings with adequate strength had agreed to the terms of Divine Sword as well as the empire and joined their ranks.
They had also reached a cooperative relationship with five more forest cities.
The construction of the Bloody Fortress was undergoing smoothly.
The whole plan was coming together and it was near its completion.
No matter how powerful or influential the dragon Demon King was, he was but one man. What was he going to use to fight against the Divine Sword? Did he really think he could overturn the entire Chaos Forest on his own? That would be such an arrogant and naive thought.
Just then.
Another senior member reported.
"Deputy chief, another group of forest Heroes joined the guild. This is the list of the reserve members, please have a look personally."
He Tianzong nodded his head.
Enlisting Demon Kings was only Divine Sword's duty to the empire.
In the end, they were still a Hero guild, and Heroes were the very foundation of their guild. After arriving at the forest, they have been working hard on recruiting elite Heroes into their rank.
"Not bad!"
He Tianzong swept through the list.
There were a total of nine reserve members for this batch.
Except for a few lone wolf type Heroes, most of them were native tribal chiefs, or one of the top executives within their tribes. They would prove useful for the Divine Sword in controlling major tribes and expanding their influence.
"Huh"
"Why is there a Level 2?"
The ordinary reserve members were not not necessary for He Tianzong to personally oversee.
The list of Heroes that could be presented in front of He Tianzong were all future elite members of the guild. Hence, eight out of the nine elite reserve members were already Level 3.
Except for one.
There was a Level 2.
A Hero with only such strength could only become an ordinary guild member.
"His name is Su Zhan, a lone Hero. Although he's only a Level 2, he had reached the rank of a lord. His strength is slightly higher than the average Level 3."
Heroes with higher levels were not always better.
Some Heroes with high levels were actually very weak.
Besides, some Heroes were not keen on raising their levels.
After these kinds of Heroes obtained their talent points, most of them would rather use them to enhance their stats and skills. They would also seek large quantities of skill stones to further improve their abilities.
This sort of Heroes.
Their levels might not be very high.
But their strength was very well established.
This Su Zhan was obviously one of these Heroes.
He Tianzong granted direct approval, "Let them intern for a period of time. If there's no issues, they can be promoted right into the elite group."
"Understood."
Su Yan was exhilarated.
She had infiltrated the guild successfully.
Ever since she got sent out by the Boss to investigate the Divine Sword Heroes Guild.
She took a Winged Beast for her transportation tool, as well as utilizing her Hero status as a cover, and visited several forest cities before finally discovering the Bloody Fortress.
Due to the amount of people who had already seen her in Giantree City.
Su Yan decided to put on a guise for safety reasons.
She initially wanted to transform into orcs, elves, and so on. But when she thought of the Boss's reminder, she knew the Divine Sword would have many powerful individuals in their ranks. If her guise was exposed, she would be neck deep in trouble.
After weighing the consequences.
Su Yan decided on not changing her race.
Instead, she took the form of a male Vulpine Hero.
Since it was only the appearance and gender that were changed, it would be much harder for others to see through her disguise.
She took on the name of Su Zhan.
With this identity, she passed the examination test and became a trainee member.
Not a single soul in Divine Sword suspected her, and with the identity of Divine Sword Hero, it was much easier for her to gather information.
After a rough survey.
She was flummoxed.
Su Yan could have never imagined that the Divine Sword Heroes Guild would have such large scale forces.