Zhang Nu casually opened the treasure chest.
[You've opened the Mythminite Treasure Chest. You've gained "Gold" 20 million, additional "Gold" 10 million, "Blueprint: Spirit Prison" 1, "Blueprint: Imperial Infantry Barracks" x1, "Level 5 Building Upgrade Scroll" 1, "Life Gems" 5000, "Fire Gems" 3000, "Earth Gems" 3000!]
The rewards for capturing Elro City were quite good. As Zhang Nu was a Demon King ranked on the leaderboard, conquering new territories or even eliminating targets came with a 50% bonus in gold. Just from this city alone, he gained 30 million gold. In addition to that, among the two newly obtained blueprints, the Spirit Prison was a Level 5 special building blueprint, and the Imperial Infantry Barracks was a Level 4 ordinary blueprint. The former was a functional building, while the latter was a barracks-type building.
Zhang Nu reviewed the effects of the Spirit Prison. The "Spirit Prison," similar to other types of prisons, was primarily used for detaining prisoners, and the higher the level of the prison, the higher the level of units it can detain. The main reason the "Spirit Prison" was classified as a Level 5 special building was its "Psychic Hypnosis" effect. This prison can hypnotize the targets held within, completely controlling them and even creating a psychic branding effect.
In simple terms, the additional ability possessed by the Spirit Prison was somewhat similar to a lower-tier version of the "Permanent Charm" of the Succubus Queen. The psychic branding of the Spirit Prison can affect up to overlord rank units, and as a Level 5 building, the targets it affects cannot exceed Level 5.
This meant that from now on, any unit below the rank of an overlord could be forcibly branded by the Spirit Prison, turning them into units utterly loyal to the Darkness City, significantly enhancing its management capabilities. However, as a functional special building, the Spirit Prison's abilities could not be activated for free. Each branding required a payment related to the cost of recruiting a unit of the corresponding level. Therefore, it would only be necessary to brand some prisoners of war or key units. There would be no need to brand every single vassal or prisoner of war.
In fact, during this period, in addition to Elro City, the Darkness City's army had successively captured eleven cities. Throughout this process, Zhang Nu accumulated three gold-quality chests and eight silver-quality chests, with a total gain of over 150 million gold, and about twenty blueprints of Level 3, 4, and 5. The majority of these were defense-type, barracks-type, and production-type blueprints, with a few being special function-type.
Zhang Nu planned to use most of these blueprints obtained during the conquest of human territories back in the conquered human areas. These blueprints could effectively enhance the production and defense capabilities of the Kregi and Elro regions, greatly improving the local order, thus quickly stabilizing and integrating these areas.
As the conquered territory continued to expand, Zhang Nu's resources also increased. Now, Darkness City alone had 120 dragons. This was not a small number; the military strength generated by these 120 dragons was absolutely terrifying, comparable to several imperial official legions.
At the same time, Han Kexin came back to report two pieces of good news. The first piece of good news was that Han Kexin had completely taken control of Holy Tides City. She used the influence of the White Sand family clan, along with her own decisive actions, to make all factions in Holy Tides City submit. The second piece of good news was that the arms business of the Chaos Federation had successfully kicked off.
Han Kexin explained, "The chaos within the Azure Water Federation has fully erupted, and currently, at least dozens of forces are on the verge of breaking out into war. We released information through the Dark Dragon Chamber of Commerce about selling a large quantity of magitek weapons, and almost immediately, we received purchase requests from various powers."
Zhang Nu nodded and asked, "How much can we sell this time?"
Han Kexin answered, "At least two billion continental gold coins for the first batch, which is at least two hundred million Demon King gold. This number will continue to grow."
Zhang Nu was somewhat surprised, "That much?"
The Chaos Federation had built several imperial workshops in Kolo, all of which were dedicated to producing magitek weapons and equipment. Now, the Kolo area had become the federation's largest production base for magitek weapons. However, despite the rapid increase in production, a significant portion of the magitek cannons produced were being used to arm the human cities to enhance their defenses. Only half of the production was being exported, and Zhang Nu had not expected it to generate such high revenue.
Han Kexin calmly said, "It's not surprising. Given the current situation in the Chaos Sea, all parties urgently need to engage in an arms race. The market demand is huge. With supply far less than demand, it's naturally easy to sell at several times the price."
At this point, Han Kexin paused before continuing, "Actually, aside from magitek weapons which can be exported over the long term, the market for traditional weapons and potions remains open as well. Conservatively estimating, the weapons and armor stored in Iron Heart City and the potions in Giantree City can generate revenues of at least one billion Demon King gold."
Over one billion Demon King gold? And that was a conservative estimate. Zhang Nu was also taken aback when he heard this number. He couldn't help but exclaim, "It seems that the Dark Dragon merchant guild's business hasn't been affected by the war."
"Not only has it not been affected," Han Kexin said, "but due to the outbreak of this war, the Dark Dragon's business has become even better than before, which is almost an inevitable result."
Zhang Nu was slightly puzzled, "Why is that?"
"The reason is simple," Han Kexin explained. "After the Chaos Sea plunged into chaos, although it became difficult for us to sell goods outside the Chaos Sea due to the disruption of shipping routes and the rampant piracy, the channels for importing goods into the interior from the outside world were also cut off."
"The Chaos Sea used to connect more than a dozen major powers, and the Azure Water Federation itself doesn't have strong manufacturing capabilities. Its weapons, equipment, potions, magical items, etc., were almost all imported from large commerce guilds across various empires through very stable channels and systems."
"Now that the Chaos Sea is in complete turmoil and the original trade system has collapsed, plus the war has significantly increased the demand for weapons and medicines among the sea tribes, it has given us the opportunity to step in and capture the market from the inside."
Understanding dawned on Zhang Nu. With the revenue from the Dark Dragon Chamber of Commerce, the development of the Chaos Federation was even less of a concern.
Han Kexin continued, "Next, the situation in the Chaos Sea will become even more complicated. Although we have the trump card of the Azure Water Empress, I still don't have enough people under my command. I would like to request the upgrade of Qiuyue and Dongxue to Level 6."
Different Demon Kings had different structures of troops. After advancing to Level 6, Han Kexin couldn't unlock mythic-class units, but she could summon six different Level 6 monarch-class units. However, the summoning cost for monarch units was extremely high. After much consideration, Han Kexin decided to first upgrade her old subordinates, Qiuyue and Dongxue.
Zhang Nu directly said, "The transactions of magitek weapons, traditional weapons, and potions this time will supplement a large amount of gold and resources for the Darkness City. Currently, the stock of souls in the Darkness City is also quite sufficient. Let's just summon all of your six monarch units at once!"
Hearing this, Han Kexin was naturally overjoyed. The total resources spent on bringing out all six demonic monarchs would be no less than upgrading Zhang San and Li Si. This was definitely a huge sum for Han Kexin. However, after the merger of the Darkness City and the Gloom City, the troops of the Gloom City became the troops of the Darkness City, and the monarchs of the Gloom City became the monarchs of the Darkness City. Zhang Nu was generous enough to allow Han Kexin to achieve this in one step. Given Han Kexin's current strength and Shui Lan's influence in the Chaos Sea, plus the assistance of six monarch-class demons, he believed that even without his direct intervention, such a lineup could suppress the Chaos Sea.
After reporting her work, Han Kexin went back to her busy schedule. Zhang Nu also prepared to make a trip to the newly conquered cities. He had two main objectives for this trip.
The first task was to build some facilities in the new territories. After all, he had quite a few blueprints at hand, some of which were obtained from recent conquests, and others were part of the Darkness City's own inventory.
Strictly speaking, the Darkness City did not have many blueprints in stock. Most of the blueprints Zhang Nu had were from Gloom City. Since the merger of the Darkness City and the Gloom City, resources were shared between them, allowing the Darkness City's various facilities and resources to be open to the demons of the Gloom City, while the blueprints and resources from the Gloom City's inventory became the collective property of the group.
Not to mention anything else, just within the inventory of blueprints from the Gloom City, there were four Teleportation Tower blueprints. Zhang Nu planned to deploy one of these towers in the human territories to facilitate future troop movements, as it wasn't feasible to activate the Stellar Gateway for just a few individuals each time. While that mechanism was highly efficient for moving troops, its cost was simply too high!
The second task involved a ruin near the Elro territory, a place Zhang Nu had always wanted to visit. This ruin was related to the Level 6 Hero Yan Qianjun, who had obtained the S-rank skill "Rebirth from within the Flames" and the epic equipment "Heart of Space" within it.
It's important to note that even among S-rank skills, Rebirth from Fire is considered a top-tier skill, and the Heart of Space is no ordinary piece of equipment either. According to the adventurer notes left by Yan Qianjun, when the great adventurer explored this ruin, he only uncovered a very small part of it. Due to insufficient strength, he couldn't fully explore it, and it remained undeveloped as he never got the chance to return. This suggested that the ruin was at least of a Level 5 monarch's caliber, or else how could it have made a Level 6 adventurer decide to retreat?
A place that reached the level of a Level 5 monarch would certainly pique Zhang Nu's interest, let alone the possibility of finding numerous precious treasures within. It's worth making the trip personally, especially since there's not much else to do by staying in the Darkness City all the time.
Zhang Nu specifically took Nancilia, Zhang San, and Li Si with him. All three have the potential to reach the mythic level and could benefit from the experience. This was particularly true for Nancilia, who is only a small step away from reaching the power level of an Elven Empress. Having another mythic unit would be a significant boost for the Darkness City."