After watching Nurse Joy leave, Caleb looked up at the sky. In the distance, the siege warfare had stained the horizon red, and the special effects of smoke from breached cities hung in the air, giving off a distinct feeling that a storm was about to break.
He opened his map and stared thoughtfully at the remaining player bases in the Glazed Volcano region. Then he casually swiped his fingers across the interface a few times.
The next second, the sky above his territory was blanketed by an overwhelming mass of shadows, surging outward from the city with unstoppable force.
Once outside the city walls, the swarm split into several streams, each racing off in different directions.
[Level 5 soldiers: Salamence]
Known for its ferocity and aggression, Salamence's base stats in this game far surpassed those of troops from lower tiers.
Naturally, such exaggerated stats also meant its recruitment cost skyrocketed. But for Caleb, who had the ability to farm resources effortlessly, that wasn't an issue at all.
So, right after upgrading his territory to Lv5 and reviewing Salamence's data, he immediately disbanded all his Lv1 troops and spent every last resource he had to recruit 100 000 Salamences.
Level 5 was the cap for territory upgrades in this game, and no further upgrades were possible.
Under these circumstances, aside from recruiting troops, Caleb no longer needed to grind like crazy the way he had in the past few days.
An Lv5 barracks could hold 200 000 troops, and capturing another player's territory added 100 000 more to that capacity. This meant it was extremely difficult for players in the early game to overwhelm enemies purely through troop numbers.
This put solo players with no allies at a serious disadvantage.
That was exactly why Caleb decided to launch his offensive today...
Most players' territories were still stuck around Lv3. Without Caleb's resource-farming ability, they could only survive by gathering from resource nodes in the wild.
And as territory levels increased, the amount of resources needed for each upgrade grew larger and larger. With limited wild resource nodes available, their leveling speed inevitably slowed down more and more.
Terrence and Hatsumi still hadn't contacted him, and Caleb couldn't tell if they'd already been eliminated by other players.
With his teammates missing, he had to make the most of his level advantage to unify the Glazed Volcano region and push his barracks' troop capacity as high as possible...
...
And so, on this day, the other players in the Glazed Volcano region were hit with a terrifying assault.
One player who had just sent his entire army out to attack another player's base suddenly got a notification that his own territory had been raided. Before he could even begin to retreat, another alert popped up, informing him that his Lord's Hall had been destroyed.
The player's eyes widened in shock as he stared at the timestamp showing how quickly his territory had fallen, utter disbelief written all over his face.
It had taken the attacker just one minute and twelve seconds to go from the city walls straight to the Lord's Hall!
'Was my freshly upgraded Lv3 territory really that fragile?' He seriously suspected the perpetrator was cheating.
But as soon as he saw the attacker's name, his shock and disbelief instantly vanished, "Oh. Well, if it's him, then yeah... that makes sense!"
The player numbly gave up resisting. His avatar dissolved into scattered particles of light and was kicked out of the Instance.
This sudden turn of events also stunned the defending player on the other side.
"What the... One second we're fighting, the next he's just gone? Did someone–" But before he could even figure out what was happening, the sky above him suddenly went dark.
The moment he looked up, his eyes threatened leave their sockets as shock played on his face: "!!!"
'A swarm of Salamences!' The moment the thought crossed his mind, darkness swallowed the land.
Under the assault of the Salamences and their commander, Hydreigon, the sturdy Lv3 city walls crumbled like tofu, shattering at the slightest touch.
This was a scenario that only occurred when high-level troops attacked low-level territories.
In the blink of an eye, the ravenous army had broken through the defenses and reached the Lord's Hall. At that moment, this random player vaguely understood what had just happened to the previous guy.
He numbly glanced down at his panel. As soon as he saw the attacker's name, he immediately chose to stop resisting and just lay back, accepting his fate...
...
Twelve hours later, the Glazed Volcano region was officially unified.
Caleb stood atop the city wall, with Mewtwo and his other Pokémon beside him, silently watching as his territory's map now covered the entire region.
A series of pleasant notification sounds rang out:
*Ding!*
[You've conquered Player
*Ding!*
[You've conquered Player
"…"
Caleb closed the panel and prepared to head down to refill his barracks, but before he could move, another alert rang out:
[Beep! You've received a message from a friend!]
"!"
Caleb quickly opened his interface:
{Terrence: Hey?}
{Caleb: You're way too slow. I thought you could build the Council Hall once your territory hit Lv3.}
{Terrence: ?? Bro, what are you talking about? "Build the Council Hall at Lv.3"? What do you mean?}
Caleb: "…"
He'd almost forgotten that other players couldn't farm resources like he could.
He didn't bother explaining further. Instead, he immediately sent Terrence an alliance request through the friend feature.
Alliance was a built-in function of the Council Hall, similar to a party system. Once allied, players could see each other's positions on the map, and as long as one survived, even eliminated teammates could still earn placement rewards.
Terrence accepted the request without hesitation.
Just as Caleb was about to ask about Hatsumi's status, a flood of messages came pouring in:
{Terrence: WHAT THE F*CK! YOU MONSTER!!!!!!}
{Terrence: When the hell did you reach Lv5?! Wait, how are you already at Lv5?!}
{Terrence: No wonder Hatsumi kept saying she needed to cling to your leg... Now I want to say it too: Daddy, please carry me!}
{Caleb: Calm down man.}
{Terrence: Waaaah, I can't calm down! Do you have any idea what kind of hell I've been living through here? This stupid map has barely any resource nodes, and the players are all bloodthirsty maniacs; fighting nonstop every damn day. There's no way to develop properly, I haven't slept in peace once! Those bastards keep attacking my base at 3 a.m.! I haven't closed my eyes in 24 hours!}
Caleb: "…"
'Yeah, that does sound pretty rough.'
He checked the map. Now that they were allied, Terrence's territory location appeared clearly on it.
It was in a region called Diglett Basin.
Caleb zoomed in. Thanks to Ho-Oh's presence, he could directly view the resource nodes in that area.
After a moment of thought, he asked:
{Caleb: What spawn location did you pick when you entered the Instance?}
{Terrence: Random! You know me, I'm the kind of guy who loves challenging the unknown.}
Caleb automatically ignored the last part:
{Caleb: What's your City Lord skill?}
A skill profile was quickly sent over:
[Builder: A Lord-exclusive skill that allows you to freely reshape the terrain around your territory; turning plains into rivers, grasslands into hills. Construction time varies depending on the terrain...]