Chapter 5: Choosing the Territory, Inheriting Three Lordships!
“Do you dare to face me in a team battle three months from now? The loser dies immediately!” Wang Kun challenged boldly in the public chat.
“Fine!” Su Mu agreed without hesitation.
In the Dark World, there were no laws—only strength mattered.
Though team battles between lords resulted in casualties, the victorious side could seize all the defeated party’s resources.
The strong grew stronger, the weak grew weaker; this was the sole survival law in the world of lords.
After making the wager with Wang Kun, Su Mu immediately closed the chat interface.
Then, he opened the electronic map to carefully search for a suitable place to establish his territory.
This was the Dark World; empty talk solved nothing.
His immediate concern was survival. Starting amid a horde of monsters was incredibly unlucky. Fortunately, he now possessed an electronic map, giving him a step ahead of others.
With this device, he could perfectly avoid the habitats of powerful dark creatures, turning danger into safety and preserving his strength.
As soon as he opened the electronic map, a luminous screen appeared before his eyes.
It was densely dotted with black and red points—black dots represented dark creature territories, red dots human lord territories.
Looking out, the entire map was dominated by black dots; human red dots were nearly swallowed by the darkness, showing just how insignificant human power was in the Dark World.
One small blue-purple dot stood out, marked with his name and coordinates—this was Su Mu’s current location.
He clicked on the dot, and detailed information appeared before him:
[Coordinates: (136, 1236)]
[Location: Northeast Corner of the Dark Forest]
[Danger Level: S]
[Territorial Ruler: Dark Queen Natasha (Physique: Dark Sacred Body; Strength: Level 10; Skills: Song of Ice and Fire, Dark Blade, Dark Explosion!)]
“So, I’m currently in the northeast of the Dark Forest, ruled by a powerful dark lord!” Su Mu realized.
He then clicked on the blue text reading [Northeast Corner of the Dark Forest], revealing a detailed map of the area.
As for the great lord Natasha, Su Mu didn’t pay much mind.
Every region in the Dark World was governed by a great lord—this was common knowledge, even human children knew it.
Generally, these great lords did not intervene directly; they only unleashed waves of monsters to attack invading humans.
At certain times, the dark lords would launch a “Dark Tide” to purge all humans.
This cycle had repeated for countless years.
A flash of white light appeared.
The holographic map of the Northeast Corner of the Dark Forest materialized before Su Mu.
He was currently in the Valley of the Undead, danger level C4, ruled by a minor boss under Natasha named the Zombie King—Zang Biao.
Zang Biao was a level 3 lord.
Beyond the Valley of the Undead lay more of the Dark World, mostly marked as danger zones ranging from D1 to A6 in level.
The Dark World’s regions were classified into five danger tiers—D, C, B, A, and S—each tier subdivided into six ranks, with D1 the weakest and S6 the strongest.
Three major dark powers dominated these territories.
In the northwest by the Blood River was the level 6 lord, Vampire Queen Bloody Mary.
In the northeast dark domain ruled level 7 lord Fallen Knight King Yu.
In the southwest dark cathedral resided the Dark Patriarch Shengxiong.
These three zones were marked as extreme danger B5-level areas, each spanning several hundred square kilometers.
All other regions were also marked as dangerous, ranging from D to B levels.
Su Mu felt troubled.
His original plan was to find a safe zone to build his lord’s domain—someplace easy to defend, hard to attack, with few monsters and abundant resources.
But that dream was shattered. The northeast Dark Forest had only him as a human lord, surrounded entirely by powerful dark creatures.
“My luck is terrible, landing in a monster lair. But no matter how bad, it’s my fate. Luckily, I have the Kill-to-Grow system; hopefully, it will bring me good fortune.”
Though a bit disheartened, thinking of his system renewed his spirits.
“Skeleton Warrior, come forth!”
Su Mu summoned his skeleton warrior.
He needed to assess his skeleton warrior’s overall strength before making any decisions.
Su Mu planned to find a weaker monster gathering, wipe them out, and establish his territory there.
There was no other choice; the entire area within a thousand miles was dangerous. Reaching a safe zone meant breaking through the entire northeastern Dark Forest.
If he had that strength, he would have unified the northeast Dark Forest long ago, no need to painstakingly choose a territory.
Better to take down a minor boss first.
A flash of white light, and the skeleton warrior appeared before him.
Nearly two meters tall, it exuded a strong oppressive aura, clad in tattered armor, wielding a rusty steel blade, its white skeletal frame glowing with twin golden ghost flames in its eyes.
Though a ragtag figure, Su Mu felt as if the universe’s greatest warrior stood before him, filling him with immense confidence.
“As expected, my skeleton warrior just gets cooler looking. From now on, your codename is ‘Blade Slash’! I’ll take you to roam the Dark World!”
Su Mu chuckled and opened the status panel.
[Necromancer: Skeleton Warrior]
[Level: 1]
[Strength: 220]
[Agility: 184]
[Spirit: 150]
[Constitution: 227]
[Skill: Blade Slash Lv30 (Charges for half a second before unleashing an elliptical deep-blue slash sweeping 30 (1*Skill Level) meters, dealing 2700 (10*9*Strength*1*Skill Level) damage; cooldown 2 seconds)]
[Loyalty: 100]
“My skeleton warrior’s combat power is currently 2700, equivalent to a golden-level dark creature. The strongest in the Valley of the Undead is Zombie King Zang Biao, a level 3 lord. By rights, my skeleton warrior should be able to defeat Zang Biao.”
“If I can break through the Valley of the Undead, I can seek out a relatively safe area beyond to establish my domain.”
“If nearby regions are only level D or C in danger, my territory can hold firm there!”
After evaluating, Su Mu decided to immediately break through the Valley of the Undead and find a safer place to build his domain.
Why not settle directly in the Valley of the Undead? The reason was simple—the valley was too close to Vampire Queen Bloody Mary’s territory, and Su Mu had no intention of provoking such a terrifying power at this stage.
Soon, Su Mu selected a new territory: the Overlook Plains, a C4 zone at coordinates (1136, 1123).
This had originally been a human lord’s domain.
That lord had advanced to a level 3 lord but was wiped out during a Dark Tide by dark creatures.
His territory was now occupied by a group of vampires.