Mist Lord

[Congratulations on your territory reaching level 3! Please select your second troop building.]

1. Militia Training Camp (10 militiamen recruited daily)

2. Half-elf camp (recruits 3 half-elf archers daily)

3. The Forgotten Burial Ground (Former skeleton knights who lost their mounts have fallen from Tier 3 to Tier 2. You can recruit 3 skeleton warriors who have lost their mounts every day.)

For new lords, their second troop building usually yields a Tier 2 troop, unless they're extremely unlucky. As for Tier 3, the probability is still incredibly low. Let alone Tier 3, most Tier 5 lords don't even have Tier 3 troops.

That's why Song Jing was so highly regarded by the alliance leader Tang Ce, who recruited him with almost no investigation.

Xia Yuan had a stroke of luck in the Hall of Heroes before, drawing a legendary-quality black armor. His luck was actually pretty good this time too; both the half-elf archers and the skeleton warriors were top-tier tier-two units.

Logically, the half-elf archer should be chosen.

After all, they would be facing the Avengers from the Yingzhou Alliance in three days, and the enemy just happened to be a flying unit.

Even setting aside the revenge factor, archers, as ranged units, are a rare commodity whether they participate in attacks or defend cities, and they can form a good combination of close and long-range attacks with sword and shield dogs.

Option three, the skeleton warrior, is also quite unique.

Each time a warhorse carcass is thrown into the burial ground and transformed into a skeleton horse, a second-tier skeleton warrior can be instantly upgraded to a third-tier skeleton knight.

In a sense, this is actually more outrageous than directly drawing the Skeleton Knight.

Because you can only recruit one Skeleton Knight per day, but three Skeleton Warriors per day. If you can get enough warhorse carcasses, it's equivalent to having three Tier 3 barracks at the same time.

The further you go, the greater the potential becomes.

Moreover, compared to half-elf archers, skeleton warriors have their advantages: they are not afraid of pain, do not need to eat or drink, and have far less need for territory logistics than half-elves.

The later the time goes on, the greater the pressure on the territory's food supply.

In the early stages, they could supplement their food supply by killing fog monsters, but as their troop strength increased, it became insufficient to support their daily food consumption.

Unfortunately, even if they cleared land and planted crops, it would be difficult to achieve much output in the next six months.

The advantages of the skeleton warrior become particularly prominent.

In addition, the initial hero of the territory, Black Armor, is also a skeleton, and he has a natural ability to command skeleton warriors, which can maximize the combat power of skeleton warriors.

Choose option 3!

After careful consideration, Xia Yuan made a decisive choice: he could not sacrifice the long-term for the sake of immediate troubles.

The Avengers always have a way to solve this.

And once such a special opportunity is missed, it is very likely that it will never come again.

[Select Confirm]

With a flash of enormous white light, Xia Yuan placed a miniature version of an ancient battlefield ruin in the western suburbs outside the city, perfectly blending it with the western suburban cemetery. Instantly, wisps of black mist rose from the ground, enveloping the entire cemetery and obscuring everything. Even from a distance, it exuded a chilling aura, inspiring fear in all who beheld it.

[Architecture]: A Forgotten Burial Ground

[Rank]: Second Rank

[Recruitment Limit]: 3 people/day

[Recruitment Fee]: 5 silver coins/person

With the blessing of the war statue, the Burial Grounds can recruit an average of 4.5 skeleton warriors per day. Combined with the existing 18 skeleton warriors, a skeleton army will be assembled in no time.

At this point, the rapid increase in troop strength has become a "trouble".

Besides logistical challenges such as food supplies, there is another dilemma that we cannot avoid—

Population cap for a territory.

A level 3 territory has a population cap of 640 and a troop cap of half that, 320. At a rate of 15 sword-and-shield hounds and 4.5 skeleton warriors per day, the cap will be reached in less than half a month.

If you can't upgrade your territory to level 4, you'll be stuck there forever and won't be able to recruit any more.

That's a huge loss!

The longer the time drags on, the harder it becomes to overtake the old lords.

They were forced to keep rising.

However, the higher up the territories, the larger the population, and the greater the food shortage. Even with a signed treaty of dependent territories and the support of a powerful lord, there is always a limit.

This creates a paradox.

That's why Xia Yuan reluctantly gave up the half-elf archer and chose the skeleton warrior instead.

The logistical pressure was immediately reduced by half.

.........

After receiving the rewards, Xia Yuan finally had time to dismantle the corpses of mist monsters such as scorpion-tailed flies and gray mist rats, obtaining another batch of materials and 375 mist bud crystals to replenish his previous consumption.

With the rapid expansion of troop strength, this small amount of mist bud crystals is simply not enough.

To continue rapidly upgrading troop combat levels, the only option is to continuously venture deeper into the fog zone and actively eliminate fog monster lairs.

For the territory, the mist monsters are both a threat and a source of resources.

They were destined to love and hate each other.

It seems all the good luck was used up by drawing troop types and buildings. The three bronze treasure chests that were awarded this time, including the three wooden treasure chests dropped by the Mist Monster Boss, didn't contain anything of value.

Apart from two architectural drawings of courtyard houses, everything else is rubbish and only fits to be sold to Yunwu Pavilion.

After cleaning up the battlefield, Xia Yuan finally had time to check the updated territory panel.

[Territory Name]: Mingguang Village

[Lord]: Xia Yuan (First-Class Baron)

[Territory Level]: Level 3

[Territory Population]: 175/640

[Territory Hero]: Black Armor (Peak Tier 3)

[Territory Troops]: Elf Archer *1, Elf Ranger *1, Heavy Swordsman *1, Warrior Swordsman *62, Wanderer Swordsman *24, Skeleton Warrior *18

[Note: The size of a territory's military force cannot exceed 50% of the territory's population limit.]

[Territory Area]: 16 square kilometers

[Territory Funds]: 375 Silver Coins, 345 Copper Coins

[Territory Resources]: 375 Mist Sprout Crystals, 550 Wood, 200 Stone

[Special Building]: War Statue

[Military Buildings]: Hall of Heroes, Burial Grounds, Sword and Shield Dog Training Camp, Simple Arrow Towers *5

[Commercial Buildings]: Basic Blacksmith Shop, Woodworking Workshop, Leatherworking Workshop, Mushroom House

[Population Building]: Primary slave camp (holding 32 prisoners of war)

[Residential Buildings]: Courtyard House*1, Chicken Coop*1, Sheep Pen*1, Granary, Mill, Well

[Upgradeable Buildings]:

[Lord's Courtyard]: The lord's residence and the core council chamber of the territory. Upgrade requirements: 300 units of wood, 100 units of stone. Upgrade time: One day.

[Blackstone Altar]: Level 3, the core structure for defending against the invasion of gray fog; if destroyed, the territory is destroyed. Consumes a fixed 4 Mist Sprout Crystals daily. Upgrade requirement: 48 Low-grade Black Crystals.

[Earth Wall]: A basic defensive fortification with a circumference of 4 kilometers. It offers some defensive capabilities and can resist enemy invasion. Upgrade Requirements: 4500 units of earthwork, 800 units of stone. Upgrade Time: Three days.

[Medium-sized Fog Lighthouse]: Observes activity within a 2-kilometer radius of the lighthouse using a super fog light. Construction requirements: 200 units of wood, 300 units of stone. Construction time: Two days.

[Buildable Structures]:

[Clock Tower]: A war early warning facility. A bronze bell can be rung to sound an alarm when the territory is attacked by foreign enemies. Construction requirements: 200 units of wood, 200 units of stone, and 50 units of copper ore. Construction time: Two days.

[Demon-Sealing Tower]: A tall tower-like structure that can suppress demonic creatures, gradually draining their demonic energy and restoring them to normal. Construction requirements: 200 units of wood, 300 units of stone. Construction time: Two days.

[Territory Upgrade Requirements]:

① Complete all basic construction

②The territory's population reached 640

③ The lord's rank reaches that of a first-class baron.

④ The territory covers an area of ​​64 square kilometers.

Compared to level 2 territories, level 3 territories represent a significant leap forward. First, the maximum territory size reaches 64 square kilometers, which is roughly the size of a small village.

Only at this point can Mingguang Village truly live up to its name.

Of course, everything is still in a state of disrepair and needs to be rebuilt.

Once the territory is upgraded to level 3, the Lord's Lodge, Wooden Walls, and Mist Lighthouse will all receive a major upgrade, and two new buildings, the Clock Tower and the Demon Sealing Tower, can be constructed.

Especially the Demon-Sealing Tower. Once completed, it will no longer be necessary to kill all the demonized creature tribes in subsequent campaigns.

Apart from a few buildings constructed using blueprints, the area both inside and outside the city remains completely barren. The area outside the city, in particular, has yet to undergo any development.

This will also be a key focus for the next stage of territory development.

After surviving the initial beginner trials and the first civilization trial, new lords must learn how to manage their territories while continuing to accumulate war potential.

For this reason, compared to the monthly Civilization Trial for Level 1/2 lords, the Civilization Trial for Level 3/4 lords has been adjusted to once per quarter.

The next one won't be until August.

This means that there will be no fighting in Mingguang Village in July.