Chapter 205 - 131: A Sword Hidden in a Smile
Since I’ve already made Elite Heavy Hammer Skeleton Warriors and Giant Skeleton Warriors, I might as well create some Skeleton Hammer Warriors too.
[Create: Long-handled Bone Bull Horn Hammer - Skeleton x3 units]
Summoning one Skeleton Hammer Warrior required a total of 5 units of Skeletons, 1 unit of Beast Hide, and 80 units of Soul Energy. That really wasn’t a lot—even less than a Giant Skeleton Warrior. The system’s evaluation of the Skeleton Hammer Warrior was practically a roast, dripping with disdain.
But Li Ziyu didn’t care. After seeing the cost of the Elite Heavy Hammer Skeleton Warriors, the price for these Skeleton Hammer Warriors was truly low. Even with the extra unit of Beast Hide, it was no big deal. For Li Ziyu, Beast Hide was useless for anything other than trading; his Warehouse was already piled high with the stuff.
’Low resource consumption, low cost, low rating, poor quality... Well, I’ll just make up for it with quantity. I’ll treat them like regular Skeleton Warriors. I’ll start with 200 to test the waters.’
Besides the new unit type, he also needed to replenish his Skeleton Warriors. In the last battle, the Basic and Intermediate Skeleton Warriors had been nearly wiped out. They had been useful, but not by much. The High Level Skeleton Warriors, on the other hand, had been great, holding out until the very end.
He calculated the resources needed for the three types of Skeleton Warriors. For ease of calculation, he considered them in groups of five. Creating one group of Basic Skeleton Warriors required 2 units of Skeletons and 500 Soul Energy. A group of Intermediate Skeleton Warriors required 14 units of Skeletons and 500 Soul Energy. A group of High Level Skeleton Warriors required 39 units of Skeletons and 500 Soul Energy.
Comparing the performance of the Skeleton Warriors in the last battle with the resources in his Warehouse, Li Ziyu decisively abandoned the Basic and Intermediate Skeleton Warriors. He chose to summon only High Level Skeleton Warriors. The reason was simple: he wasn’t short on Skeletons, and they were the most cost-effective!
With a grand wave of his hand, he brought the number of High Level Skeleton Warriors up to 500.
After that round of summoning, over 80,000 units of Soul Energy had been consumed. Li Ziyu finally understood the joy of being rich. ’Throwing around wads of cash—er, Soul Energy—is just so damn satisfying! No wonder rich people love shopping so much. This feeling is incredible!’
The Fox Maidens, hiding in the corner, looked at Li Ziyu with increasingly bewildered expressions.
They couldn’t see the system interface. From the Fox Maidens’ perspective, Li Ziyu was just sitting there, gesticulating wildly at the empty air. He would occasionally let out strange bursts of laughter—"HEH HEH HEH," "HA HA HA," "BWAH HA HA!"—while his expression shifted constantly from delighted to frowning to furious. Sometimes he even cursed aloud.
"It’s over. Master’s gone mad," Spirit Maiden said miserably to the other three Fox Maidens, her little face crestfallen.
"Hush, don’t be ridiculous! Master would never go mad. He’s just..." Mei Ji trailed off, turning to look at Li Ziyu. He was slumped on the White Bone Throne with a look of pure satisfaction, as if in a post-exertion trance. She was left speechless, unsure how to finish her sentence.
"It’s merely hysteria. Humans are prone to it. I’ve seen it before," Ice Princess chimed in, her voice as cold as her name.
She had seen many Humans, particularly Human soldiers. In her view, ordinary Humans were a Race with frail bodies and weak Spiritual Power. Hysteria was simply a result of their Spiritual Power becoming disordered. It was best ignored, as it would likely resolve on its own.
Li Ziyu’s current state looked exactly like the cases of hysteria she remembered.
"Heh heh heh... Master is so charming..." Yan Ji let out a chilling laugh, her eyes glued to Li Ziyu as drool trickled from the corner of her mouth—or it would have, if she had any.
"Hmm, Yan Ji seems more hysterical than Master does," Spirit Maiden commented, tapping her lips.
After replenishing his standard Undead troops, Li Ziyu suddenly remembered the Skeleton Ox Demons. Their performance in the battle had been outstanding, making them an excellent unit. He checked his resources, found he could afford another batch, and summoned 40 new Skeleton Ox Demons. This used up nearly all his materials for creating Ox Demons and consumed another 2,000 units of Soul Energy.
His 1.7 million Soul Energy had dropped to 1.6 million in the blink of an eye.
Li Ziyu mentally tallied his current forces. Counting his resource-gathering units and the survivors from the last battle, he had a good 150,000+ Skeleton Undead. For his combat troops, he had over 300 Skeleton Longbowmen and 1 Dark Skeleton. He previously had 10 Skeleton Ox Demons and just added 40 more, bringing the total to 50. On top of that were the newly added 500 High Level Skeleton Warriors, 100 Elite Heavy Hammer Skeleton Warriors, 100 Giant Skeleton Warriors, and 200 Skeleton Hammer Warriors. His fighting force was now even stronger than it had been before the battle with the Jackal Wolfmen.
He had fought a battle and come out stronger than before. How infuriating was that?
This was a unique advantage of the Undead. Any other Race would find it incredibly difficult to replenish their forces so quickly after a battle. They would have no choice but to retreat and lick their wounds.
The last battle had shown Li Ziyu the Undead’s greatest weakness: they fought with a complete lack of tactics. The Skeleton Undead, in particular, would just swarm forward mindlessly. As a result, only the front ranks could engage the enemy, while those in the rear just pushed from behind, unable to reach. This allowed the Jackal Wolfman Long Spear Team and the Kobolds to dish out damage with impunity, leading to unnecessary losses.
’I can’t keep fighting like this. It doesn’t matter how many resources I have; I can’t just squander them. What’s the difference between this and lighting cigars with hundred-dollar bills?’
’What should I do...?’ Li Ziyu’s eyes darted about as he pondered.
’Directly controlling an army of tens of thousands is easier said than done. After all, I wasn’t a military academy graduate in my past life. I have no professional training for this sort of thing. I just can’t pull it off.’