Meanwhile, at the gold mine of Berserk Beast City.
The Demon King assigned nearly a thousand of draconian laborers and craftsmen to aid with the development progress.
The draconians built the corresponding facilities, as well as forged a variety of equipment and tools necessary for mining for the orcs with utmost speed
Because of this.
The mining operation began much sooner than expected.
The city lord of the Berserk Beast City, Gru was attentive to the development progress of the mines.
These numerous mineral mines were the hope of the orcs being able to feed and support themselves, and lead a good life in the future.
"City lord!"
An orc hastily rushed into the room.
This was Gru's newly appointed Master of Ten Thousands.
He was given the responsibility to manage the orc miners working in the gold mine.
Gru hurriedly and anxiously asked, "How is it?"
The Master of Ten Thousands answered with excitement, "City lord, the first batch of gold has been excavated without issues, and the quantity is far more than expected!"
Gru was jubilant at the news.
He went to inspect in person.
Only when the dazzling, gleaming, and heavy chunks of gold nuggets came into his view, he dared to believe that this was not a dream after all.
It turned out.
The orcs did not need to loot and plunder.
A heaping amount of gold could be just dug out from these damned and desolate barren mountains.
70% of the total output from the Berserk Beast City's mining operations must be handed over to the Demon King, only the remaining 30% could be kept by Berserk Beast City as city income. It did seem like a miniscule amount, but it was in fact the opposite.
Gru had worked out the calculations.
Just this batch of shared gold income alone.
Probably worth half a month of plundering for the previous Berserk Beast City.
One should be aware that at present, this income was procured from only investing a total of around 10,000 manpower into the excavations. In addition, the official mining operation had only been running for two or three days.
Moreover.
These 10,000 manpower.
Their efficiency was not that high at the moment either.
Afterall, the gold mine facilities were still in the midst of being constructed and installed.
Based on the gold reserves.
With the maturity of the mining operations and the expansion of its scale.
Along with the labor forces fully put into excavation.
Gru had no doubt that in the future, these ten thousand gold miners would bring in over eight, or even ten times more income for Berserk Beast City than the prior plunderings and lootings ever could.
The gold mine had very huge reserves.
It could ensure the Berserk Beast City's prosperity for ten to twenty years.
Gru enthusiastically thought to himself, there were dozens of mineral deposits to be mined in the barren mountains near the Berserk Beast City, and the city had sufficient labor force to match as well.
With the aid of the Demon King.
It would not be problematic for the orcs to mine these resources.
This would be the momentum for the Berserk Beast City to rise and prosper!
The future of Berserk Beast City was to be a city with riches and abundance, where orcs could live a decent and prospered life without needing to fight, kill and plunder.
They were truly blessed by the Goddess of War.
It was also fortunate that the old city lord was no more, killed by the Demon King.
Otherwise, how could he, Gru, be the city lord?
Otherwise, how could Berserk Beast City have today's changes and development?
Gru had come to a realization that if the Berserk Beast City were to continue to develop and flourish, it had to resolutely abandon the hideous practices from during the old city's era, and be firmly devoted to His Majesty, the Demon King.
The gold was delivered to the Darkness City.
[Gold discovered. Would you like to convert?]
[Gold successfully converted. Gold +64129!]
Having received the gold.
Zhang Nu felt pleased.
Although to him now, a mere sixty thousand gold was not much. But the fact that the orc's gold mining operation had only been running for a few days, and yet so much gold could be handed up indicated that the gold mine had great prospects ahead of it.
As the mining operations matured in the future.
It would bring in an additional daily income of over 100,000 gold.
This amount of gold was the net income that would be delivered into the hands of the Demon King. The Berserk Beast City only retained the remaining 30% of it, which still resulted in several tens of thousands of gold in daily income.
This was not a small amount of gold.
The Chaos Forest was no thriving kingdom.
The Berserk Beast City was even less of a developed commercial city.
For a primitive forest city, and a bunch of unsophisticated and rustic bumpkins, such income was beyond their wildest dreams.
The orcs could use this income to purchase food, supplies, equipment, and various food from Darkness City and Giantree City, as well as invest in their own industries, which was enough to allow all the orcs to live a life of comfort.
When that time comes.
Berserk Beast City would no longer be a despised den of bandits, but rather a beacon for the orcs and the hope of their race, then the orcs from all over the forest would rush to join their ranks.
Compared to Berserk Beast City.
The potential of the Giantree City's elves was even greater.
The farm area near the Tree of Life was still expanding.
Currently, it's size and scale.
Was no smaller than that of the goblin farms.
In the future, it would become even larger, with great potential and prospects.
Several tens of thousands of elves had been organized to engage in large scale planting, animal breeding, medicine production, and alchemy.
The income generated by the Giantree City for the Demon King was quickly catching up and was soon to match Darkness City, the main base. When the Dark Dragon Chamber of Commerce had opened up the market, there would still be a huge growth potential to be tapped.
Just like Berserk Beast City.
The Demon King would take 70% of the income.
This would still be enough to make Giantree City several times wealthier than before.
Just then, the high priest Li Si came over, "Master, urgent information, there's movement from the Divine Sword guild."
Zhang Nu's spirit perked, "They're finally making a move? What are they planning to do this time?"
Li Si reported the content of the intelligence.
"According to the information provided by Su Yan, there's currently a staggering scale of flying units assembling in the Scarlet Valley near the vicinity of the Bloody Fortress."
"Regarding this Scarlet Valley."
"Su Yan had made a thorough investigation the other day."
"That is a lair of a Vampire King, one of the earliest Demon Kings recruited by the empire, and has most likely broken through to Level 4."
"Now, more than ten Demon Kings have sent out their flying troops to converge in the Scarlet Valley. This servant believes that the Divine Sword Heroes are forming a large-scale aerial force!"
Zhang Nu nodded and remarked, "Indeed, this is no small movement from them and the target seems very clear. There's an 80% probability that they're heading right over here."
Why the large-scale aerial units only army?
If they were assaulting Berserk Beast City, Giantree City, or any other places.
It was not necessary for the Divine Sword Heroes to spend so much effort to mobilize so many aerial forces. Even if they did deploy aerial forces to attack these cities, they should be accompanied and paired with ground troops.
Now, in this situation.
It is possible that they were worried that the deployment of ordinary ground troops on a large scale would be difficult to conceal, becoming easily detected and guarded in advance by the target, thereby losing the significance of the surprise attack.
It might also be because the place they were planning to assault had extremely treacherous terrain around it, and not easily accessible to the ordinary ground forces.
Taking all factors into consideration.
It was likely they were aiming to launch a surprise raid on Darkness Valley.
The intelligence from Su Yan was quite timely.
Although the construction of the Tower of Evil Eye had made it impossible for the Darkness City to be raided, as long as the attackers were within 500km, they would be detected.
However, the city might still suffer some losses due to inadequate preparations.
But now.
There was at least one whole day before they arrived.
Zhang Nu had plenty of time to prepare.
He had ordered for the farm barriers to be activated right away, the goblins in goblin town, along with the minotaurs in minotaur camp to seek shelter, and the laborers who went out to gather wood and stones to return to the city at once.
Furthermore, he deployed more elites in the vicinity of the vital facilities, including the Temples of Nature and War, Altar of Inferno, Beholder's Lair, etc. to prevent them from being damaged in the upcoming battle.
Zhang Nu was preparing for what needed to be prepared.
And would protect what needed to be protected.
He was confident in the strength of Darkness City.
The Darkness City was home to the draconian legion, and had various facilities to aid in defending the large-scale aerial raid. Withstanding the upcoming assault would not be difficult.
The only thing that was necessary to be considered.
Was how to minimize the damage.
Draconian soldiers did not have the ability to fly unless they reached the level of a super soldier. This meant that the Draconian Soldiers and High Draconian Soldiers would be easily restrained by enemy flying units and incapable of achieving their full combat power.
Under this situation.
The only solution was to equip them with crossbows in advance.
Or deploy a large number of mage units to deal with the aerial force.
However.
Compared to these measures, the Demon King had a better option.
Zhang Nu then spent 900,000 gold to summon up 10,000 beholders.
After the summoning was completed.
A group of strange and eerie beings emerged from the Beholder's Lair. These magical creatures were relatively rare on the surface world.
They did not possess a body, limbs, or even a brain.
These creatures had a very simple body structure. They were composed of a mass of tentacles and soft tissues that supported a large eye.
They could move using their tentacles.
But their speed was comparatively sluggish.
At first glance, these creatures, although bizarre looking and a little empty headed, gave the impression of not being very strong or threatening. It would be a grave mistake if one would really think so.
Zhang Nu took a look at its stats.
[Beholder] Level 1 elite unit.
Skills: Beholder's Beam (C rank), Slow Ray (D rank), Eye of Detection (D rank).
As a Level 1 elite unit.
It surprisingly had a C rank skill.
C rank skills were usually only available to Level 2 elite units.
This Beholder's Beam was the core ability of these beholders, with an attack range that could reach over a thousand meters away. It was incredibly fast and powerful, and if it directly hit its target, it could instantly kill an elite unit of the same level.
Beholders were the classic "fragile, low HP, low speed, super high attack" units.
One or two beholders were not that scary or threatening.
And yet, now, Zhang Nu had summoned ten thousand beholders.
Who could withstand this!
If these 10,000 beholders simultaneously focused their attack on the same target, the intensity of the attacks generated would definitely be above the power of an A rank skill, enough to severely wound a Level 4 overlord existence in an instant!
But of course.
Spending 900,000 gold.
To summon up 10,000 beholders.
Their purpose was not solely to deal with this invasion.
These invading insects were not qualified for Zhang Nu to break the bank specifically for them. Zhang Nu originally had the intention to mass summon beholders anyways.
The beholders were not suitable for battles in the wilderness.
They were, however, particularly suitable to be distributed to territories, such as the Giantree City, Berserk Beast City, and various other towns and villages as a fixed-point scouting and defensive tower, which could effectively enhance the defenses of these places.
The strength of a beholder was not just in its strong and long ranged attack.
With its big eye, it possessed remarkable vision.
Not only could it see far, it could also detect stealth, and serve as an observatory and alerting function, which was also a great help to the security of the territories.
Zhang Nu promptly issued an order.
The 10,000 beholders squirmed sluggishly and they took several hours to be finally distributed to various positions in the Darkness City. The beholders began to stare at the sky with their single giant eye, standing by.
Other than the ones who could fly.
The draconian legion were no longer needed to actively engage with the enemies this time.
As their primary mission was to assist the beholders in combat.
After the deployments were done, Zhang Nu began to wait patiently. At midnight of the very same day, the Tower of Evil Eye found the targets.
The Tower of Evil Eye was shaped like a tower with a giant eye. It directly projected the image seen through the eye as a holographic projection.
This was a lot more advanced than an All-Knowing Crystal.
Zhang Nu, as well as Zhang San and Li Si saw a large swath of flying units were taking advantage of the night sky to fly beneath the moonlight, and wherever they passed by was like a sea of overwhelmingly dark clouds.
Li Si was a little astounded, "They've sent so many?"
Zhang San replied with an excited tone, "They are all here to die!"
Zhang Nu pondered and spoke, "Have the beholders standby for my command. Do not let them attack as soon as they find the targets. Otherwise, the enemies would just flee in fear before the battle even fully begins."
From the scale of it.
There were 40,000 to 50,000 of them.
Even though most of them were just fodders and small fries.
The scale of this army was indeed not small at all.
Zhang Nu reckoned this army was assembled by expending a huge amount of fortune from their own pockets.
Which was why, after this battle, it would be difficult for the Divine Sword Heroes and the dozen Demon Kings to form another aerial unit army again in a short period.