Summoning the Holy Sword

In the blink of an eye, the flickering interface enlarged before him and revealed the bird's-eye view overlooking Rhode's territory with the additional weapons and buildings that emerged after the system upgrade. Rhode estimated that if he could upgrade the weapons and buildings to their maximum level, perhaps the Four Legendary Generals would have a hard time dealing with him. Now, not only could he construct magic buildings, but he could also construct hero buildings. The latter was somewhat similar to the existence of a class-advancement palace in the game. In those buildings, experienced NPCs could advance in their classes and they could also recruit and train various military units. However, the buildings were expensive to build and a lot of them were required to be effective. Moreover, every hero buildings had to appoint a qualified personnel to manage the place and they were usually rare to find.

In order to construct and upgrade all the weapons and buildings, he would need to spend at least one billion, and this didn't include subsequent maintenance costs.

Therefore, this could stay as a fantasy for him.

All in all, he was better off focusing on the matters on hand.

Rhode twitched his brows as he shifted his gaze away from the dazzling list of weapons and buildings. Then, he tapped on one of the icons.

[Holy Maiden Statue (Quantity: 1) selected. Please choose to build or upgrade]

Rhode nodded and made his decision. Suddenly, two golden light beams erupted from the ridges on the left and right sides of the fortress and rushed into the clouds. The glaring, holy radiance responded to the Holy Maiden Statue inside the Fortress and blended into one. Two spotlessly white Holy Maiden Statues emerged within the light beams, just like the one inside the Fortress.

"Ah…"

Rhode let out a long sigh. Even though this seemed like a simple procedure, 600,000 gold coins had been used in the process instantly. 600,000 gold coins—a small to medium-sized Trade Association was far from earning this amount in its entire lifetime. These statues were truly the legendary artifacts of the Dragon Soul Continent.

But… this wasn't all.

Rhode shifted his gaze to the system information.

[Holy Maiden Statue (Quantity: 3) selected. Please choose to build or upgrade]

[Holy Maiden Statue Level Upgrade. Level 2 — 300,000 Gold Coins. Lv 3 — 500,000 Gold Coins. Total gold coins required to upgrade all Holy Maiden Statues: 2.4 Million Gold Coins. Confirm to upgrade?]

Even though Rhode was mentally prepared for this, he still gritted his teeth. The Holy Maiden Statue indeed had its deserved reputation. At this moment, its value had once again proudly proven to Rhode why they were the best choices for rich players to show off their wealth. There were a total of three levels for the Holy Maiden Statues—it would require a total of 800,000 gold coins for each statue to reach from the first to third level. With the three statues in place, Rhode had to spend a total of 2.4 million gold coins to upgrade all to their maximum level. In addition, he had also spent 600,000 gold coins to construct the other two new statues. In the blink of an eye, three million gold coins were gone. Even for the wealthy merchants and superior nobles, they would have a hard time forking out this amount.

But it was necessary to spend them.

Upgrade!

Rhode nodded with might and the radiance of the environment suddenly dimmed.

The radiance bursting into the clouds from the Holy Maiden Statues gradually dimmed. Their dazzling brilliance weakened and the barrier enveloping the sky disappeared, leaving countless light balls encircling the crystal statues.

Then, the Holy Maiden Statues reacted.

Their crossed arms slowly stretched forward and displayed a gripping posture. The light balls slowly gathered as though attracted by their extended palms. They twisted, transformed, and shrunk abruptly. Countless light dust fluttered and formed a pure, white spear.

The statue maiden clutched the spear with both hands and pointed it to the sky.

The dazzling white radiance vanished entirely. But everyone felt the holiness in the air. The sacred, elegant, and brisk atmosphere had as though merged with the land, air, and water as one.

I succeeded.

Rhode nodded in satisfaction. Even though the statues didn't seem as conspicuous after their level upgrade, their effects had highly increased. Everything within their range would possess holy attributes, where even the rivers of the moat had become holy water. Of course, their effects wouldn't be as effective as the Church's holy water. But, the water had become no different from sulphuric acid for the Undead Creatures. Not only that, but the Holy Maiden Statue range had also expanded after the upgrade, where they enveloped a part of Grenbell, Deep Stone City, and even the territory belonging to the Undead Creatures. Any Undead Creatures that entered the range would be weakened immediately. Only those in the Peak Master to the Legendary Stage and possessed their own rules and awakened talents could save themselves from death. Not only that, but the holy power would also corrode their bodies from time to time and the weaker Undead Creatures would self-destruct to the holy powers even before the battle started.

The Holy Maiden Statues' most valiant weapons were their holy spears, which possessed the most powerful, long-range attack spell among all the legendary weapons with holy attribute. The holy spears could eliminate thousands of Undead Creatures. Low level troops were useless trash before its might and medium level troops would also be harmed. Even though high level troops wouldn't be damaged too badly, they were also evasive of this spell. Unless one was a being in the Peak Legendary Stage, one could forget about resisting this spell. Besides, as legendary artifacts, the Holy Maiden Statues had unlimited source of power as long as they were under the protection of the Light Dragon Soul.

Of course, the flaws of the Holy Maiden Statues were that their effects were only effective on Undead Creatures and the holy spears needed to charge up. However, this was also why Rhode spent such a huge price in constructing the three statues—with the three Holy Maiden Statues, he could rotate the usages of the holy spears without interruptions.

But this wasn't enough.

Rhode admired the upgraded Holy Maiden Statues and shifted his attention to the system interface. As a Fortress built by the border, more safety arrangements were required and he didn't have an official and complete defense system on hand. Previously, he succeeded in taking down the Undead Army from catching them off guard. Moreover, the Undead Army had only ambushed and didn't attack the Fortress directly. It could be said that there was not much to choose from between both sides. Rhode relied on Mini Bubble Gum and Canary to settle the opposition, but this wasn't a permanent plan, after all. It was essential for any border fortresses to set up a complete defense system.

He already had a plan as to how to build a complete defense system.

He extended his hand and swiped on the system interface. Shortly after, a few familiar names emerged.

[Core Building: Magic Spring (The tide of magic flows under the earth) Construction Cost: 50,000 Gold Coins]

[Magic Building: Spell Tower (The supreme spell above the sky represents all matters) Construction Cost: 150,000 Gold Coins]

The Magic Spring was the core strength of all fortresses with magical attribute. It could coalesce the magical powers of the region and provide energy for the equipment, buildings, weapons, and enchanted fields. Back then, Rhode didn't possess such an artifact and also had no intentions of purchasing one. The reason was that the Magic Spring's construction blueprints were in the hands of the Royal Mage Association and various Mage organizations and never sold to the public. If he wished to rely on them in building the Magic Spring, he would need to give them some benefits. Besides, the Magic Spring was the driving core of the Fortress and he wasn't confident in handing it to outsiders. Moreover, it would take a long time to build the spring, where more than a couple of years was needed to search for the magic coalescing point.

It would be better if he didn't need to spend any money…

The Spell Tower was commonly referred to as the Mage Tower. If the Magic Spring was the driving core, the Mage Tower would be a steady tool. Powerful Mages would distribute and utilize the powers gathered from the Magic Spring in their own Mage Towers. During battles, they could also use the interactions between the Mage Tower and Magic Spring to release large-scale defense enchanted field and attacking spells to drive enemies away.

Of course, this was only the start. A computer with only hardware would be useless without software and operating system. But it was Rhode's priority to settle the hardware and operating system first before dealing with the others.

Rhode quickly made a decision.

Build the Magic Spring, Spell Tower, upgrade the city walls to level three, and build the Silver Tower.

The ground trembled.

The Fortress swelled and twisted strangely. The three-meters-wide city walls beneath his feet extended and ascended to the peak of the mountain by the side and distinct steps emerged from the flat surface. The tall, cross-shaped platform on the Silver Tower formed a stable defense net. But miraculously, even though Rhode was among the transformation, he felt that his footing was oddly stable. If he shut his eyes, perhaps he wouldn't feel anything as though nothing had changed.

Rhode shook his head and turned the other direction. On one of the empty fields, a fountain-like construction emerged from the ground and azure 'spring water' squirted from its center—that was the matchless, abundant magical powers.

A pitch-black, tall tower twisted into shape.

The gigantic tower rose silently with the Magic Spring in the middle. The solid city walls were as though soft soil that merged together with the six to seven floors tall, circular tower with a spire. At the same time, magical rays flashed from the pitch-black tower, which formed exquisite, hovering runes. The surface of the tower cracked, shattered, and revealed its white, beautiful appearance. The platform floating in midair was connected by a silver-whitish suspended spiral stairs that extended downward. A round gem flashing with colorful magical powers hovered at the peak of the tower while faint magical rings expanded with it in the middle and brought about a mysterious vibe.

"Phew…"

Rhode let out a sigh of relief. He had spent much less than he did on the Holy Maiden Statues. The upgrading of the Magic Spring to level three had cost him a total of 180,000 gold coins while the Spell Tower cost 300,000 gold coins. The extension and strengthening of the city walls cost much lesser at 50,000 gold coins only. In fact, Rhode had already realized that the cost was much cheaper than he had to pay to the Mage associations, where the lowest price that they charge would be starting from 500,000 gold coins while he didn't even need to spend more than 180,000 gold coins using his system. It seemed that the system only calculated the cost of raw materials and manufacturing, without the consideration for manpower and transportation.

However, the next was the main event.

"Leader, surely you don't intend to rely on these things to defend the Fortress?"

"Of course not."

Rhode shook his head.

"Our biggest problem now is the lack of manpower and it won't be enough to rely on you two and the mercenaries. We need much stronger firepower to defend the Fortress!"

"Heh… Huh?" Mini Bubble Gum responded instinctively. Then, she exclaimed in astonishment and gazed at the system interface. "Hey, wait. Leader, don't tell me you're…!"

"Of course." Rhode curled his lips. At this moment, a line of system text emerged before him.

[Weapon: Mid-range Magic Cannons (This angry attack is unstoppable) Level 1. Cost: 50,000 Gold Coins]

[Quantity: 100]

The sleek city walls transformed while square holes emerged in the walls. Enormous cannons forged from fine, gold steel spurted white steam. Steel capstans taller than humans spun continuously and pushed the cannons out from the holes of the city walls. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of magic cannons arranged in two straight rows were seen. Not only that, but dozens of holes for the cannons also emerged in the observation tower wall above. The cannons reflected an ice-cold radiance under the illuminating moonlight. In an instant, the entire Fortress appeared seemingly like a threatening monster baring fangs and brandishing its claws.

"Thicker armors. Stronger firepowers. Higher quantities. This is the essence of my cannon turrets."

Rhode gazed at the menacing cannon tower and snapped his fingers proudly. "It's a pity. If I have enough money, I would have built more than 500 magic cannons…"

"Tsk. How boring. What's the point of having that many cannon turrets?" Mini Bubble Gum let out a snort.

Rhode turned around with his emotionless face and swept a quick glance at her. "What's wrong with relying on the cannons?"

"Hmph." Mini Bubble Gum sneered while Rhode shrugged.

"Alright alright. Both of you. Stop bickering… Isn't everything fine as long as the cannon turrets are useful?" Canary showed a bitter smile.

It seems like they haven't changed at all.