Ling Ye opened the nest management panel, eyes fixed on the newest addition to his growing army.
[Fire Elemental Nest]
Output: Tier-4 Basic Fire Elemental
Training Time: 3 minutes per unit
Cost: 20 Mana Crystals per unit
He let out a low whistle. "Expensive… but worth it."
Compared to the Tier-2 Centaurean Cavalry that cost a mere 5 Mana Crystals each, the price of a single Fire Elemental was steep. But there was a universal truth in this world: you got what you paid for. A higher cost almost always translated to greater strength, and Ling Ye needed power more than he needed savings.
With over 4,000 Mana Crystals in reserve, he didn't hesitate. First, he rounded out his Centaurean Cavalry to an even two hundred riders. The rest of his mana reserves would go all-in on Fire Elementals.
[Mana Crystals -80: +16 Centaurean Cavalry trained.]
[Mana Crystals -4000: +200 Fire Elementals trained.]
The Infinite Golden Traits – Instant Training effect triggered immediately. The molten pool inside the nest began to boil violently, spewing waves of searing heat. One by one, blazing figures floated up from the lava, their entire forms engulfed in roaring flames. They had no legs, their bodies tapering off into whirling streams of fire as they hovered a few inches above the ground.
Ling Ye opened their stats window, eager to see what his massive investment had bought him.
[Fire Elemental]
Rank: Tier-4 Basic Unit
Level: 1/10
Daily Food Consumption: 6
Stamina: 100%
Hero Buff: 210% (stats shown below are base attributes before buff)
HP: 900
Defense: 40
Magic Attack: 150
Movement Speed: 23
Skills: Fireball Barrage, Scorching Aura, Molten Trap
Even unbuffed, these numbers blew the Centaurean Cavalry out of the water. With Ling Ye's combined 210% buff, their power would rival even Tier-5 units, and that was before factoring in their area-of-effect magic attacks.
Fireball Barrage for long-range bursts.
Scorching Aura to melt anything foolish enough to get close.
Molten Trap to control the battlefield and punish enemy advances.
Ling Ye grinned. Now this is what real firepower looks like. With cavalry tanking at the front and fire elementals raining destruction from behind, his army would crush anything in their path.
But deep down, he knew this setup wouldn't last. At the rate he was growing, Tier-2 cavalry wouldn't be able to keep up with his needs for long. I'll need higher-tier nests, and soon.
That meant one thing: going after wild nests.
In the Lord World, wild nests were monster lairs scattered across the wilderness. Taking one down wasn't easy—each was fiercely guarded by beasts—but the rewards could be incredible. Defeating these lairs offered a chance to obtain Nest Blueprints, the only reliable long-term way to expand a lord's military options.
Luckily, Ling Ye wasn't moving blind. His memories from his previous life gave him an advantage, and he already had several coordinates in mind where top-tier nests had once spawned. Securing them was a top priority—not just to dominate early, but to prepare for the monster horde a month from now, and for the server merge that would follow shortly after.
That would also be the time he would hunt down Ethan, his old-world nemesis. A so-called "chosen one" with an SSS-rank talent and a Tier-3 nest start, Ethan had monopolized nearly every opportunity in Zone 223, founding the infamous Dragon Soul Alliance, one of the strongest factions in all of Water Blue Star.
To topple that empire in this life, Ling Ye needed overwhelming strength. And he would get it.
For now, though, his immediate priority was securing food for his rapidly expanding army. Opening the construction panel, he selected a plot east of the Lord's Hall and queued up a farm and ranch.
[Construction: Farm LV1] -100 Wood, -100 Stone, -0.5h Time Scroll → Completed.
[Construction: Ranch LV1] -100 Wood, -100 Stone, -0.5h Time Scroll → Completed.
Two square plots, each fifty meters across, sprang up from the ground in an instant as the system's mechanical chime echoed.
[Farm LV1]
Planted Crops: None
Production Bonus: +100%
Upgrade Cost: 200 Wood, 200 Stone
[Ranch LV1]
Livestock: None
Production Bonus: +100%
Upgrade Cost: 200 Wood, 200 Stone
Food production in the Lord's World depended on three factors:
Crop quality: ranked from E to SSS, determining base yield.
Farm/Ranch level: providing multiplicative production bonuses.
Additional buffs: from heroes, technology, scrolls, and traits.
Ling Ye had struck gold with his loot earlier: an S-rank Ghost Pumpkin seed and an A-rank Pine Resin Piglet. Compared to the basic E-rank crops, the system gifted new players, which only produced 100 food a day; these were a massive leap forward. The Ghost Pumpkins alone had a base yield of 20,000 food units daily, while the piglets would add another 5,000.
Planting and raising them took seconds. Green vines unfurled at supernatural speed in the farm plot, blooming with glowing pumpkin flowers, while the piglets in the ranch grew plump and sturdy before his eyes.
[Food Production: 25,000 units/day activated.]
With current consumption at 1,600 units per day for his 200 cavalry and 200 fire elementals, he was more than set. The surplus would be stored for future use or sold later for profit. He knew the first famine wave would hit the new lords in three or four days, and when it did, food would become the most sought-after commodity in the entire zone.
Smirking at the thought of making a killing off desperate lords, Ling Ye wiped his hands and surveyed his domain. With food secured, an elite army forming, and his city steadily expanding, his plans were finally falling into place.
Just as he was imagining the empire he would one day build, a soft thud vibrated beneath his feet, followed by Claria's alluring voice drifting from outside the hall.
"My lord," she called, her tone sweet yet laced with anticipation, "the island is in sight."
Ling Ye's eyes lit up. The next stage of his conquest was about to begin.