age of lords I! The Call of Death

Chapter 3 War Machine

"Is it for real? Is this really... a starting building?"

Sebastian exclaimed as he looked at the Abyss Hatching Pool in front of him.

"Recruiting from level 1 to level 100 units, and this is just a level 1 building. If I upgrade it to a higher level, how much stronger will its recruitment effect be?"

"Unfortunately, it's a bit expensive."

Cost of Abyss Hatching Pool: Ten thousand resource points and can only be constructed in the Abyss or similar lands.

The cost of the Abyss Sacrificial Altar and Abyss Gate is one hundred thousand and twenty thousand, respectively. Just like the territory, the buildings within the territory can be purchased and upgraded. However, the effects after upgrading the two differ.

After upgrading the territory, you can construct new types of buildings, such as the Hero Altar for recruiting racial heroes, the Mage Tower for accommodating and recruiting mages, or upgraded versions of other basic buildings, like the Forge Workshop for crafting higher-grade equipment and the Metallurgy Hall.

Upgrading regular buildings allows for recruiting different types of soldiers, reducing a small amount of resource consumption, or even decreasing the recruitment time for soldiers.

However, the appearance of the Abyss Hatching Pool shattered all these commonly known rules!

All the units displayed in it can be recruited directly, with no technological requirements or recruitment restrictions. As long as Sebastian can activate it and provide the corresponding resources, he can recruit without any limitations.

"Oh right, activate it."

At this moment, Sebastian suddenly realized a problem. The Abyss Hatching Pool is still in an unactivated "dried" state.

In fact, it's not just the Abyss Hatching Pool! The entire Endless Abyss gives Sebastian a very strange feeling. The Endless Abyss itself, including its countless dimensions, seems as if it has been dead for a long time. In half a day, Wu Wei hasn't encountered any living beings in the Abyss. There are no animals or plants—nothing!

Except for the vortex in the sky, which is in a perpetual state of rotation, the entire abyss is in a creepy and frightening state of deathly silence. The term "dried" isn't just applicable to the Abyss Hatching Pool covered in countless black tendrils; it seems to describe the entire eerie silence of the Abyss.

"Regardless of the situation with these dimensions, it's none of my concern. I should focus on finding out how to activate the Abyss Hatching Pool."

With this in mind, Sebastian sat on the Abyss Throne and started searching for ways to remove the current dried state of the Abyss Hatching Pool. The search results relieved Sebastian.

【To remove the dried state of the Abyss Hatching Pool, invest 500 Souls.】

Seeing this answer, Sebastian truly breathed a sigh of relief. Because, for him, meeting this condition wasn't really difficult.

Ordinary souls are available in the Celestial Market, known as Soul Stones, priced at approximately 1 resource point each. Sebastian's initial resources can be directly exchanged for these Soul Stones containing souls. Moreover, since Sebastian initially chose the double random option, he has 1.5 times the resource points, totaling 1500 resource points.

"So, all I need is Soul Stones to remove the dried state. Activating this building isn't too difficult. This is normal, considering it's a starting building. If it were too challenging, probably no one would be able to complete it."

Sebastian glanced at the Soul Hatching Pool in its dried state and then shifted his gaze to the other side.

"Besides, there's a third building, like a gate, called the Abyss Gate."

"What functionality does it have?"

Sebastian clicked on the Abyss Gate to examine this building. The description of the Abyss Gate was concise.

【Ignore any dimensional crystal wall rules, open a two-way indestructible but cancellable teleportation channel.】

Simple, yet not straightforward!

Sebastian widened his eyes, repeatedly reading the description of the Abyss Gate. Finally, he confirmed that he didn't read it wrong.

"Ignore any dimensional crystal wall rules? Indestructible, but cancellable teleportation channel?""All these combined... is it really a..."

"Basic building?"

In most cases, teleportation gates are not considered regular buildings. In ordinary territories, the technology to create teleportation gates is only available at a minimum level of three. Moreover, the manufacturing cost of teleportation gates in regular territories is extremely high and easily susceptible to destruction.

However, such high risks also mean potentially high returns. The timing of building teleportation gates will ultimately determine whether these new lords can successfully pass the assessment.

Because the Lord's assessment consists of two main elements. First, building a territory of at least level 10 and ensuring it remains intact. The higher the territory level, the better the performance in the trial. Second, by the end of the trial, having accumulated 100,000 resource points. Whether you gather resources by logging, farming, hunting, mining, or raiding others, as long as you amass 100,000 resource points, you pass. Similarly, the more resource points you accumulate, the better your final trial performance. Your trial performance will determine the quality of the rewards you receive after completing the trial.

These trial rewards include additional hero units, mutated species, strengthened Lord skills, and more. The higher your trial performance, the better the quality of the rewards you receive. However, accumulating 100,000 resource points is actually a very challenging task. Relying on the meager resources around your territory is generally impossible, especially since the initial environmental resources for many races are not abundant. Even if you manage to barely scrape together these 100,000 resources, it's just a passable result.

In this trial, where are the resources most abundant? Which location allows you to accumulate 100,000 resource points more quickly?

The answer is clear – all new Lords in this trial can teleport to the trial continent! The trial continent is a one-time land generated by the Celestial System, and its resources are artificially stacked to an extremely rich extent. Every aspiring Lord aiming to pass this trial must build enough portals, send their subjects to the trial continent, establish colonies, and bring back the collected resources.

However, since everyone wants to go to the trial continent, you cannot simply send peasants, servants, or slave-like commoners to gather resources there. Once competitors spot an opportunity, they won't hesitate to eliminate your civilian units, plunder the gathered resources, and, if possible, destroy your portals. Therefore, alongside establishing colonies, you must have an army capable of protecting your civilians.

Only by doing so can you smoothly pass this Lord's trial. Sebastian, having just established his territory, already possesses a portal, making him question whether his luck is good or bad. The downside is that his initial environment lacks any gatherable resources. On the positive side, he hasn't done anything yet, and he already has a complete set of paranoid war structures.

“Wait, I understand now..."

Suddenly, Sebastian, lost in thought, looked at the Abyss Sacrificial Altar, Abyss Incubation Pool, and Abyss Gate.

He finally began to connect the dots between these three structures.

"This world once thrived on war."

Sebastian lifted his head, gazing at the vortex in the sky.

For some reason, the vortex seemed to sense Sebastian's gaze.

At its center, the eye-like vortex responded subtly to Sebastian's scrutiny.

"The Endless Abyss lacks precious resources; it doesn't need to exploit so-called riches."

Sebastian observed the vast desolation beneath his feet and the distant skeletal remains.

"Because the Endless Abyss itself survives by plunder!"

"It's a living war machine!"

"Nurtured by conflict, stoking unending flames of war – that's the survival mode of the Endless Abyss."

"It doesn't require any civilization, nor does it need communication, yet every civilization can understand its meaning."

"Because its appearance signifies the impending arrival of war."

With this realization, Sebastian finally cast away the previous gloom and melancholy. His eyes gleaming, he approached the Abyss Incubation Pool, exchanged 500 resource points for 500 Soul Stones, and one by one, he threw them into the pool.

"Boom!"

As the Soul Stones were deposited into the Abyss Incubation Pool, the black tendrils covering it retreated, and a strange rumble echoed from the depths of the Endless Abyss. It was the eerie roar of the war machine, long dormant and now awakened.

"I've longed for my beloved war, the endless war I crave..."

Sebastian chuckled, gazing at the sky, locking eyes with that black and crimson vortex above.

"Is it finally about to begin?!"

A desire he had deliberately suppressed was finally getting a chance to be unleashed.