Chapter 3: Unveiling the Special Item Worth Tens of Millions!

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Su Mu approached the nearest cluster of light. He saw it fly toward him and land on his hand. In the next moment, the light cluster shattered.

[You have unlocked a skill cluster and gained 1 skill point!]
[Please choose a skill to allocate points to:]
[1. Draw Slash]
[2. None]

“System ability activated?!” Su Mu’s heart leapt with joy.

“Draw Slash!”

Currently, the Skeleton Warrior had only one skill. Even if he wanted to invest points elsewhere, it was impossible!

[‘Skeleton Warrior’ Draw Slash has been upgraded to Lv3!]

“What a powerful ability!”

Normally, in this world, whether a lord or a pet, skill upgrades required skill points. But before reaching level one, no skill points could be obtained.

However, Su Mu could gain skill points by killing monsters.

Even if the Skeleton Warrior remained level one forever, it could possess skills comparable in strength to a Bone Dragon!

A single strike capable of slaying saints and annihilating gods!

“Keep collecting the light clusters!”

Feeling the power of skill points, Su Mu excitedly moved toward the surrounding light clusters.

[You have unlocked a skill cluster and gained 1 skill point!]
[You have unlocked a skill cluster and gained 1 skill point!]
[You have unlocked a skill cluster and gained 1 skill point!]

...

As each light cluster was absorbed, the Skeleton Warrior’s skill level rose higher and higher!

“Open the necromancy panel!”

After picking up the last light cluster, Su Mu focused his mind.

[Necromancy: Skeleton Warrior]
[Level: 1]
[Strength: 220]
[Agility: 184]
[Spirit: 150]
[Constitution: 227]
[Skill: Draw Slash Lv30 (charges for half a second before releasing an elliptical deep-blue slash sweeping a radius of 30 (1*{skill level}) meters, dealing 2700 (10*9{strength}*1{skill level}) damage, cooldown 2 seconds)]
[Loyalty: 100]

“Holy crap! 2700 damage! This is insane!”

Among dark creatures, the famed golden-level ghoul only had about 2500 attack power!

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It had been less than five minutes since landing!

The Skeleton Warrior’s skill strength was already comparable to that of a golden dark creature!

At least a hundred times stronger than before.

Moreover... he was still in the midst of a monster horde. There was nothing here but monsters!

If he cleared all the monsters here, the Draw Slash skill could reach several hundred levels!

One strike would render hundreds of meters ahead utterly lifeless!

At that time, calling the skill Draw Slash would be an understatement—it would be more fittingly named Godslayer Slash!

“Hmm? What’s that?”

Suddenly, a dazzling light caught Su Mu’s attention.

At the edge of the illuminated area, several points of light flickered. Su Mu cautiously approached.

The next second, three black cards fell into his hand.

On each black card’s face, three faintly glowing pentagrams shimmered.

[Congratulations! You have obtained special items—Building Acceleration Cards x3!!]

“Damn! Item cards!”

Su Mu’s face was filled with astonishment.

In this world, item cards were among the most valuable possessions, each worth millions, with building acceleration cards being the rarest.

Because they could reduce the construction time of any single building in a lord base below level twelve, each acceleration card was worth tens of millions and extremely scarce.

Even noble families wouldn’t hand out such precious items at the start to their descendants; they saved them for powerful lords at levels ten or eleven and above.

After all, a high-level powerhouse’s value far exceeded that of a new lord.

In short, drawing building acceleration cards meant Su Mu was extraordinarily fortunate.

A new lord wanting to reach level one had to use empire-given resources to first construct three buildings—the Holy Water Storage, Barracks, and Lord’s Residence.

Even with spirit stone acceleration, building these three took three hours, but he could upgrade instantly.

The more Su Mu thought about it, the more excited he became.

This meant he could reach level one in under an hour, truly leaping ahead of all other new lords worldwide.

With this in mind, Su Mu no longer cared about killing monsters and immediately went to the edge of the Holy Light Altar to open the construction interface.

[Territory: Unnamed (Not yet level one)]
[Owner: Su Mu]
[Territory Name: 0/10]
[Area: 31,400 square meters]
[Buildings: Holy Light Altar (1/1), Lord’s Residence (1/1), Holy Water Storage (0/1), Houses (0/5), Warehouse (0/1), Barracks (0/1)]
[Resources: Wood 1,500 units, Stone 3,000 units, Holy Water 60 units]

The Holy Water Storage, Lord’s Residence, and Barracks each required 500 wood and 1,000 stone. The initial resources in the lord’s bracelet were just enough to build these three.

“Actually, the difference in lords’ talent shows up right at the construction of the first building!”

Generally, lords had two development paths early on.

The first was to spend some resources building a wall for protection, then build barracks to produce troops, slowly gathering resources to develop before upgrading to level one.

This was the choice for lords with less talent—steady but sacrificing speed.

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The second choice was to forgo building walls, saving a large amount of resources to instead build the three buildings immediately, quickly upgrading to level one, focusing on getting ahead—this was the choice of talented lords.

What? You ask what happens if a talented lord has no money?

Some powerful factions actively invested in talented but impoverished youths.

At the moment of awakening their talent, several great powers approached the original lord, offering a top-tier undead creature plus one million Dragon Kingdom coins as investment!

But... this came with conditions!

Accepting investment from a great power required signing a contract of servitude!

Often lasting decades!

Because of the debt, during the contract period, the lord had to obey all orders from the great power!

No matter how dirty or exhausting the task, it had to be accepted unconditionally!

Sometimes, to complete missions for the great power, lords had to borrow more money or request further investment!

This led to ever-growing debts and longer servitude contracts!

Ultimately, they became nothing more than dogs to powerful factions and corporations!

For the original lord, this was completely unacceptable, so he uniformly chose to refuse!

He wanted to rely on his own ability to find a growing undead creature!

The result was becoming a lord forever limited to level one.

Since contracting a Skeleton Warrior forever capped at level one, Su Mu’s “academic genius, prodigy” aura immediately turned into “trash, waste.”

Not only did some small groups centered around him instantly dissolve, but some classmates even bet against him, wagering he wouldn’t survive three days in the dark world.

Though Su Mu was furious, he was helpless.

Originally, given the monster horde at the start, he didn’t even have the option of the first path, but who cares? He had a system.

As the saying goes: grinders can’t beat pay-to-win players, pay-to-win players can’t beat cheaters.

Compared to others, Su Mu was a cheater.

“Accelerate construction!”

Next, Su Mu chose to build the Barracks, Holy Water Storage, and Lord’s Residence simultaneously, selecting construction and using the acceleration cards.

Instantly, the three buildings appeared around the Holy Light Altar like opened gift boxes, materializing from nothing.

[Detection: Your lord base can now advance to Level One!]
[Would you like to upgrade immediately?]
[Yes] [No]

“Yes!”

[Upgrading to Level One requires three minutes, please wait!]

While waiting, Su Mu opened the lord panel in his bracelet. To the right of the lord and necromancy attributes was a “chat area.”

This was the only way for lords to communicate with the outside world after entering the dark realm.

The chat area was divided into three parts: World channel, Regional channel, and Friends.

Su Mu clicked into the Regional channel.