Chapter 34
[Blueprint: Minotaur Camp]. Costs life gem x1, wood x200, stone x200, gold x1000. You can construct a Minotaur Camp in your territory.
[Strength Crystal]. Consume for permanent strength +10!
There was a crystal along with the blueprint.
It can raise strength by 10 points.
This is no small number.
Zhang Nu has 40 strength in his draconian form.
1 point of strength is equivalent to about five or six healthy adult humans.
This means that 10 more points of strength is equivalent to a gain of 50 or so healthy adult men.
Such an increase is significant even for Zhang Nu.
This is the first time that he has gained a status crystal.
It wasn't hard to see just how valuable this kind of item is.
Zhang Nu grasped the crystal and absorbed it. He felt a warmth spread out through his entire body, infusing each and every cell with new power.
After returning, Zhang Nu immediately started doing some construction.
Right now, he has three blueprints on hand: Dark Prison, Tower of Fog and Minotaur Camp. Thus, he needs quite a bit of construction materials.
The Dark Prison's core material is the earth gem, the Tower of Fog's core material is the water gem, and the Minotaur Camp's core material is the life gem.
Zhang Nu only has a single water gem.
It was one of the gems that he got from the Darkness Ruins.
As for the earth and life gem, he doesn't have any right now, so he can only buy it from other Demon Kings via the trade.
Zhang Nu first set the Tower of Fog near the Castle.
[Tower of Fog]. Creates a fog barrier covering the entire territory. Enemy vision -90% within the barrier and it can resist long distance observation magic.
This is a defensive structure similar to the Tower of Grudges.
The Tower of Fog doesn't have any combat abilities. Its main function is to act as cover and disruption, covering the entire territory with a layer of fog.
This fog is made of magic, so it only takes effect against outsider units.
Zhang Nu and the units of his territory won't be affected at all. Not only will they not see any fog, their vision will always remain completely normal and clear.
If any outsider tries to observe from afar using long distance scouting abilities, their vision will be blocked by the mist, rendering them completely unable to make out the Demon King Territory's setup or military strength.
Any outsider who enters the valley will also be affected by the Tower of Fog. Their vision will be greatly restricted by the fog, making it easy for them to get lost within the fog.
Simply put, the Tower of Fog is basically a jammer.
It can hide the setup and secrets of the territory, so from a certain perspective, its value is even higher than some defensive structures.
Of course, the operation of the Tower of Fog does cost upkeep. However, it's only a few dozen gold a day, so this amount is next to nothing to Zhang Nu.
At this moment, Zhang Nu received several private messages.
Bloody Giant Wang Shi: "Bro, I got all the gems that you want!"
Wasn't this the guy who sold him the darkness gem a few days ago?
Zhang Nu: "You again? You got quite a lot of gems huh?"
Bloody Giant Wang Shi: "Hehe. The place where I'm at does contain a lot of gems. That said, it all needs to be obtained by risking my life. It's not easy making a living you know."
Zhang Nu: "Stop it with the pitiful act. Just tell me how much you want for them!"
Bloody Giant Wang Shi: "Bro, you name a price then. If it's suitable, then I'll make the trade right away. I'm quite a straightforward guy, you know!"
That guy's learned some smarts, getting Zhang Nu to make the opening bid.
Zhang Nu didn't waste his words: "Earth gem for 500 gold, life gem for 1000 gold. 1500 gold total!"
This price is pretty fair. It's actually even slightly higher than the actual market price.
Zhang Nu simply didn't care to drag this on back and forth for just a few pieces of gold here.
Wang Shi didn't waste any time either and the two immediately made the trade.
Bloody Giant Wang Shi: "Bro, I've got lots of all kinds of gems here. If you need any in the future, you can try contacting me first!"
Zhang Nu: "No problem!"
After collecting all the other materials, Zhang Nu built the dark prison near the Demon King Castle.
[Dark Prison]. Can imprison level 1 and 2 units. All successfully imprisoned targets will receive -95% to all stats and all their skills will be sealed.
Zhang Nu personally headed into the prison to look it over.
The prison was bigger than he had imagined. There were 50 enormous jail cells, with each being around the size of a basketball court. There'd be no problem with locking ten elephants in each one.
The most important bit though is that the prison comes with a sealing effect.
All level 1 and 2 targets, no matter how strong they are, will end up unable to use any skills at all when they're imprisoned. Plus, all their stats will be weakened by 95%.
It's basically impossible for them to escape!
The Hero Su Yan gained the honor of being the first prisoner for the Prison.
Zhang Nu hasn't quite decided on what to do with her yet.
There's no point in killing such a weak Hero, but it's also wasteful to just release her.
It's true that killing her won't yield him much reward.
As for working together, Zhang Nu was a bit tempted, but he still can't fully trust her. Thus, the only choice is to first lock her up for a couple of days and deal with her after taking care of some other things.
The Minotaur Camp is next.
The Minotaur Camp costs a lot of materials, but thankfully, his territory has more than enough resources and he is flushed with gold income. After he got the life gem, he immediately began construction.
As for the location, Zhang Nu selected the Mine of Sorrows.
This Mine of Sorrows is an enormous iron mine that yields all kinds of high quality iron ore. It's extremely valuable for both territory construction and equipment forging.
Minotaurs have strength on par with draconians, but their stamina is even better than draconians, so they're more suitable for mining work.
Besides that, minotaurs are skilled at smelting and they have fairly good talent at smithing, so they can create a lot of value for the territory in the future.
[Minotaur Camp successfully constructed!]
[New units unlocked for the territory: Minotaurs!]
[Minotaur Priests unit limit +50. Minotaur Warriors unit limit +500!]