Volume 10: The Call from the Sea Chapter 1: New Troubles Brought by the Ghost Ship

Encouraged by the smooth success of the stone statue ballista, Liam grew even more enthusiastic about his research. He plunged straight into the undead laboratory and worked for nearly two months.

During this period, Liam created several new and powerful types of troops. One example was the Mercury Skeleton, a tier 8 unit crafted by mixing tier 7 skeletons with a unit of liquid mercury. This skeleton possessed a fluid, near-mechanical form; while a single unit was only average as a tier 8 entity, a squad of these skeletons could merge into a liquid defensive line capable of holding back a charge of a full squad of Death Knights. It was the finest defensive troop Liam had produced during this time.

Another was the tier 7 Toxic Sand Mummy—a sand-formed mummy that had been soaked in venom for a long period. When transforming into its sand state, it moved like a dust storm carrying a cloud of death.

Then came the tier 9 Venomous Sweeper, a mechanical carriage that used Toxic Sand Mummies as ammunition, instantly launching them deep behind enemy lines. Liam was currently researching new varieties of mummies that could also serve as ammunition, such as Iron Sand Mummies embedded with metallic particles.

Additionally, these days of research had advanced Liam's Undead Mechanics skill to the Intermediate level. Utilizing this technology, he successfully created a tier 11 troop: the Plague Wraith. This unit was formed by forcibly infecting a large number of ghost soldiers with plague gas and then fusing them together.

This was Liam's first experiment with ethereal constructs, so the result could only be considered a semi-finished product. Even so, it was quite extravagant. Composed of at least five level 7 or higher ghost soldiers, the Plague Wraith possessed the ability to expand naturally, rapidly swelling to cover an area of about one kilometer.

Within its coverage zone, the Plague Wraith not only possessed the ability to attack enemies using toxic gases and sonic waves, but it could also obstruct enemy vision, communications, and even the transmission of mana, making it an exceptionally useful auxiliary unit.

Liam originally intended to continue his research, but Fat Croc arrived to report that he had completed the pseudo-undead transformation of all public cities within the new territory.

Only then did Liam realize that too much time had passed. By now, Chanas City was already developing under Morgan's management, following the blueprints Liam had designed.

The new troops Liam had researched over these days were each assigned dedicated training grounds, and the forces under Liam's heroes had been correspondingly replenished.

In Liam's office inside the municipal hall, a new territorial map hung high on the wall. From the map, Liam could see that his territory had developed quite well during this period.

In the new territory, aside from the eleven public cities, there were now five private cities. These cities continuously provided residents, slaves, and laborers to Chanas City.

Across the entire domain, all seven stone quarries, four metal mines, four mercury refineries, three crystal mines, three gem mines, and four sulfur mines were firmly under Liam's control, providing him with a steady and sufficient supply of resources every day.

In the old territory, Jessica had acted as she promised. Aside from the original twelve cities, Jessica had devised her own means to construct three relatively large human cities, creating an imposing momentum as if the human cities were surrounding Liam's old territory.

Furthermore, the new and old territories had been connected by a road. Since the region between Liam's two territories was occupied by Disya, and Liam had no desire to place everything regarding his territory into the hands of outsiders, he had instructed Shui Yuetian to find a way to connect the two territories from another direction before his research began.

With the help of other heroes, Shui Yuetian actually managed to secure such a passage. This passage was located in the underground world, with its two exits situated right beside a public city in Liam's new territory and near the City of Blessings.

With this passage, Liam's two territories were properly linked together, allowing the new territory to obtain urgently needed resource supplies from the old territory.

Moreover, Liam decided that once the affairs in the new territory were settled, he would immediately launch outward expansions from the old territory, conquering at least all the territory Disya had originally promised.

After all, having witnessed the strength of major guilds and the experiences of Fat Croc, Liam understood profoundly that if he wished to avoid being swallowed up by a major guild simply because of certain skills he possessed, expanding his own strength was the most direct solution.

However, Liam's renewed expansion plan still lacked the opportunity to materialize. On the very next day he prepared to expand outward, a ghost ship drifting in from the ocean changed all his plans.

This ghost ship had been discovered by a Plague Wraith that Liam had sent out on patrol. By the time it was spotted, the vessel had already plowed into the toxic green sea stretching out in front of Chanas City.

Although located by the coast, Liam did not have a single naval vessel of his own. To prevent outsiders from discovering his city, Liam had no choice but to order the Phantom Undead Archers to attack the ghost ship.

To his surprise, before the attack could even begin, the ghost ship rapidly hoisted a white flag. Glancing at the other vessels appearing in the distance, Liam gained a rough understanding of the situation.

He had Reed use a bone dragon to drag the ghost ship ashore, and then summoned a large contingent of ranged troops to prepare for the enemies pursuing it from behind.

However, when those pursuers caught sight of the glowing green seawater before them, they all retreated and swiftly departed from the area.

At that moment, a skeleton leaped down from the ghost ship. The moment it saw Liam, it shouted loudly, "Help me out! I'm being hunted down!"

"Don't worry, the people chasing you have already left. Can you tell me your origins now?" Liam asked while secretly calculating whether he should build some artillery fortresses or similar defensive installations along the coastline; otherwise, enemies coming from the sea would spell a major trouble.

At this point, the skeletal mage spoke up: "My name is Pasa, a newcomer. I just came out from the Novice Continent. Thank you very much for your help this time."

"You don't have to be so polite. Tell me why you were being hunted down by them." Having spent a long time in the game, Liam's perspective had broadened considerably, allowing him to grasp the crux of the matter at a glance.

"Well... actually, I just took a few minor things from them," Pasa said, lowering his head, though it was truly impossible to read any expression on his skeletal face.

"A few minor things? Can you take them out for me to see?" Liam said casually. "Don't worry, I won't snatch your things."

Pasa hesitated for a moment before finally taking the items out. Looking at the three fist-sized, silver-gray eggs before him, Liam hardly knew what to say, for he recognized at a single glance that these three eggs were the extraordinarily rare sea dragon eggs.