Chapter 5: First Encounter with a Player

The first upgrade of the Graveyard Demon required three days. During this period, the controller of the Graveyard Demon could continue to construct any desired buildings inside, but could not move the Graveyard Demon itself.

So, over these three days, aside from leading his subordinates to sweep nearby monster gathering points and seize some resources, Li Bin spent most of his time inside the Graveyard Demon, studying the newly built medical workshop and the new potions with Lockman.

Through their research, the two managed to create a potion that allowed lower-tier undead to fully recover their health within a single day. As long as Li Bin’s troops weren’t killed on the spot in battle, they would be back to their normal state for the next day’s fight, ready to rejoin the fray.

Because of this, Li Bin became much more generous in combat. On the second day of the Graveyard Demon’s upgrade, he led his team on a rampage, not only raising another batch of skeleton soldiers to level two but also gaining a level himself.

This time, he was rewarded with +1 Charisma, a common Nature skill—Basic Luck—and a level 7 treasure: the Golden Banner Pole.

According to the treasure’s description, as long as a hero’s battle flag was hung from this flagpole, their troops would receive a +1 morale bonus. Yet for undead and mechanical units, who were unaffected by morale, Li Bin couldn’t see any real use for this flagpole.

Just as the day was coming to an end and the third day of the Graveyard Demon upgrade was about to begin, Li Bin suddenly received a report from his Ghost Wolves: a large tree had appeared to the southwest.

Before Li Bin could make sense of it, the ground trembled—an enormous banyan tree had already walked up to the front of the Graveyard Demon.

“A player?” Li Bin immediately reacted, taking a small squad of newly promoted skeleton archers and two squads of skeleton soldiers with him as he moved forward to confront the arrival.

“Don’t be nervous, I mean no harm,” a voice called from the tree. A group of elves riding pegasi flew down from its branches.

Among them was an elf knight on a golden pegasus, smiling at Li Bin. Instead of the long sabers his companions wielded, he carried a banner made of three green leaves.

“So, what brings you here?” Faced with such strength, Li Bin couldn’t help but ask cautiously.

“I’ve accepted a quest to deal with a group of gnolls here,” the elf knight replied with a smile, “but it seems someone got here before me, completed the task, and claimed the place...”

“I only—”

“I know, you’re upgrading your Graveyard Demon. I’ve done the same before,” the elf knight said, still smiling.

“I’m sorry to have inconvenienced you.” Seeing the visitor bore no hostility, Li Bin relaxed a little. “I’m Li Bin, a newcomer. I didn’t know these gnolls were your quest target. Sorry you made the trip for nothing.”

“It’s no trouble. I, Radiant Gleam, am a fairly advanced player. If not for the reward, I wouldn’t have bothered with such a minor quest,” the elf knight replied casually. “But now that you’re here, it’s not a wasted trip.”

“Why is that?”

“Undead heroes always have a habit of collecting corpses. If I’d met a player from another faction, I might have left empty-handed. But with you, perhaps we can strike a deal,” Radiant Gleam said confidently.

“You really are an experienced player,” Li Bin remarked, gesturing for his Will-o’-the-wisp slaves to bring out all the gnoll corpses stored in the corpse chamber and lay them before Radiant Gleam. “Here are the bodies. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.”

Radiant Gleam was surprised by Li Bin’s gesture and secretly raised his estimation of him—anyone who could let go so easily was no ordinary person.

With a smile, Radiant Gleam produced a tablet resembling a stone stele. “I can’t just take advantage of you. This isn’t much use to either of us, but it should fetch a decent price. Please, accept it.”

Li Bin took the tablet. Its front was covered with strange, ancient script, and on the back was a single symbol: that of a gargoyle.

At this, Li Bin understood—it was a Summoning Stone for the Spirit-mechanical gargoyle line. Any player could install this item in their city and, according to the contract on the stone, summon a batch of gargoyles every seven days.

However, as with other Spirit-mechanical summoning stones, only players of the Spirit-mechanical faction could fully utilize the summoned gargoyles; to others, they were merely motionless statues. For most players, this made it almost useless.

But for Li Bin, it was a rare treasure. His special ability—Undead Mechanization—not only allowed him to mechanize undead units but also to imbue mechanical units with undeath. He could inject souls into these gargoyle statues, turning them into a new type of undead troop.

Li Bin handed the stone to the Will-o’-the-wisp slaves, instructing them to bury it in the graveyard like a tombstone. As soon as it was buried, a squad of gray gargoyle statues appeared around the central tomb of the Graveyard Demon.

Li Bin pointed at the statues and asked Radiant Gleam, “What do you think? Aren’t they much more attractive than before?”

Radiant Gleam was taken aback, then laughed. “Indeed, they look much better. Well, these are all yours. Until next time, my friend.”

“Wait.” As Radiant Gleam turned to leave, Li Bin quickly stopped him. “Brother Radiant, could you tell me which direction the city is in? I’ve been traveling for days without finding one.”

“Southwest—three or four more days of travel,” Radiant Gleam laughed. “But if you abandon the Graveyard Demon, you might make it in a day and a half.”

Li Bin smiled nonchalantly and said nothing more. After watching Radiant Gleam leave, he returned to the Graveyard Demon.

After dispatching the Ghost Wolves to patrol the perimeter, Li Bin opened the Graveyard Demon’s attribute panel to examine the properties of the newly acquired Gargoyle Summoning Stone.

According to the contract on the stone, as long as Li Bin provided 25 gold coins’ worth of energy each day, he could summon a squad of ordinary gargoyles from the stone every seven days—the weekly output of a small gargoyle sculpting workshop.

As for animating, upgrading, and advancing the gargoyles, that would be up to Li Bin himself.

After a moment’s thought, Li Bin gave an order: “Someone, move a gargoyle to the Undead Research Lab and activate the Undead Conversion Array. I want to conduct some research…”