[Congratulations! You have obtained over forty ordinary subjects (below Silver rank). Your Monster Lord profession level has increased to LV.2.]
[Next profession level up:
Complete a battle victory for your territory (0/1)
Obtain one hundred ordinary subjects]
With a pleasant chime, Sivis felt a warm surge of energy course through his body.
His strength hadn't increased. Monster Lord was a leadership class, so leveling up wouldn't directly enhance combat power.
Before him appeared two glowing scrolls made of light.
[Please choose the talent you wish to acquire from this upgrade.]
Here it comes!
A professional talent, ready for selection!!
Sivis's eyes gleamed with anticipation.
Monster Lord was a highly random class. Each time a development goal for the territory was met, a new level would allow the selection of one talent from several options. Some talents would enhance the territory, some would enhance the individual, and others were more specialized. The chosen talents would shape the direction of the Monster Lord's development.
"Give me something strong!"
"Please!"
"I'm an Evil God! I demand some shady luck!"
Sivis muttered in his mind.
Seconds later, the two scrolls solidified, revealing their details.
One was a combat-related ability:
[Corpse Resurrection]
[Cost: Depends on the corpse being revived. The strength of the revived corpse cannot exceed one major level below the Lord.]
[Effect: Revives the corpse and transforms it into a monster unit, with 80% to 95% of its original strength. The revived unit can be enhanced using soul points.]
The other one depicted a furnace-like magic circle:
[Soul Sacrifice]
[Cost: None]
[Effect: When you capture a living unit, you can choose to sacrifice it, refining additional soul points. During the refining process, based on the unit's traits, there is a chance of producing special resources.]
"Both skills are pretty good." Sivis thought to himself, and without hesitation, he chose the second talent, Soul Sacrifice.
[Corpse Resurrection] was a powerful Monster Lord playstyle—a key ability for the "zerg" strategy, allowing him to sustain his forces through battle.
After a battle, using this talent to resurrect both friendly and enemy corpses, Sivis could quickly amass an enormous army just by feeding off the slaughter.
The problem was, this strategy lacked early combat strength, and with a small number of monsters, it was hard to conduct enough battles to collect large amounts of corpses. Therefore, it wouldn't be very useful at the start.
In his past life, Sivis had randomly received this talent in the game and would lead his monsters to slaughter villages and towns.
Victory meant rapid territorial expansion, while defeat meant simply restarting the game.
In reality, he couldn't "reload" a save, so Sivis wouldn't have chosen this talent.
However, Soul Sacrifice was just as powerful as Corpse Resurrection, and it was a standard developmental talent. Getting it at the second career level was incredibly efficient!
This meant that from now on, as long as Sivis could capture live units, he would significantly increase the benefits from battles!
The development speed of his territory would increase by at least fifty percent!
More importantly, the material refinement function of Soul Sacrifice would greatly accelerate the growth of his territory.
Sivis recalled that when he wanted to refine the Saintess Werner into a "Light and Dark Priest," he needed a resource called "Holy Light Crystal," which could only be found in the Church and wasn't for sale.
In the game, attacking the Church could grant this resource. After crossing over... Sivis still wanted to live for a few more years and didn't have the courage to do so.
As an Evil God, obtaining the Holy Light Crystal would be extremely difficult.
But by using Soul Sacrifice to refine priests and knights who had trained in the Holy Light, there was a chance to directly acquire it.
In other words, the value of this talent in the real world had just dramatically increased!
Many resources that would have been hard to obtain could now be acquired simply through sacrifice!
The difficulty in developing his territory would be greatly reduced.
"This is some good luck!" Sivis thought to himself, his eyes full of joy.
After this.
The benefits from the annihilation of the adventurer squad would skyrocket!
If he could sacrifice a few more, Sivis estimated he could gain hundreds of soul points!
He opened the store and his excitement grew even more!
Sivis was planning to buy the Bronze-level Mana Source for himself. It cost 100 soul points and would permanently increase his cultivation speed at the Bronze level.
After taking it, he would definitely gain one level in strength, and his future training would speed up considerably.
There was also...
Goblin Enhancement Potion, costing 400 points, which would upgrade the Goblins to Elemental Goblins with a maximum strength of Bronze 10th level (can be used for 100 units).
Hard Plaster Potion, costing 400 points, which would increase the strength limit of Stone Demon-type creatures to Bronze 10th level (can be used for 100 units).
...
Originally, Sivis had planned to buy the Mana Source first and then save up soul points to buy the enhancement potions for his monsters. But now, after taking care of the adventurer squad, he would have the chance to get them immediately!
As mentioned before, the enhancement potions for monsters could be substituted with real-world resources, reducing the soul point cost by up to 50%. Goblins and Stone Demons didn't require rare materials, so the resources Sivis had left in his family's vault were more than enough to meet the demand!
With the soul points gained from this battle, boosted by Soul Sacrifice, reaching over 300, his territory would experience a major boost!
At this moment, as Sivis made his choice, a beam of light flowed into his body.
He felt a complex array of magic formations enter his mind.
Sivis closed his eyes, meditating for a moment, while the Stone Demon tribe knelt beside him in respectful silence.
"Alright, let's go back to the territory."
He commanded with a neutral expression.
"As you command, my lord!" the Stone Demons responded.
They followed Sivis and returned to the territory through the teleportation portal left by the system.
After stepping through the portal, the ordinary Stone Demons showed no change in expression.
The crystal Stone Demon's expression flickered, and the crystalline mass resembling an eyeball in its gaze gleamed with a look of surprise. "That teleportation portal just now seems to have crossed a vast distance. What immense power must be behind it! To follow such a master is truly a blessing for our tribe!"
Its eyes burned with even more fervor.
Sivis looked at the Stone Demons, who were waiting respectfully to the side, and waved his hand.
The Goblins, sensing the return of their lord, rushed forward and knelt to the ground.
Sivis introduced both sides to each other.
At that moment, he could see from the system page that the loyalty of both the Stone Demons and Goblins was nearly maxed out. After a brief exchange, they began to accept each other.
However, when the Goblin chief and the crystal Stone Demon bumped fists, there was a brief flicker of "fire" in their eyes.
"Has someone new arrived? No matter," the Goblin chief thought to himself. "Ever since I formed a contract with Lord, I feel the immense potential within me. I'll prove who the greatest general under the lord is!"
The crystal Stone Demon glanced at the small Goblin, slightly sneering. "A Goblin, huh? Such a weak species. It seems that the most loyal servant of the lord must be me!"
...
As the Stone Demons and Goblins became more familiar with each other, there was a subtle tension in the air.
Meanwhile, the older Goblin led his tribe to report to their lord.
"Have you finished notifying everyone?" Sivis asked absentmindedly.
"Yes, my lord," the elder Goblin replied. "We've told them that a group of adventurers might come to fight us, and we urged them all to leave."
"You didn't force anyone, did you?" Sivis casually asked. As a monster lord, he still considered himself a person. As long as it didn't hinder the development of his territory, he didn't want innocent civilians to suffer unwarranted harm.
The old Goblin showed a somewhat strange expression. "We did threaten them, but it was according to your instructions."
"We told them we were about to fight the adventurers, and those villagers said they wanted to help. I saw them trembling in fear, so I chased them off."
"Some young people, though, pulled out farming tools and insisted on staying to fight with us. I deliberately scared them, saying I would kill them if they stayed and caused trouble. That's how we managed to send them away."
"For that, we even had to mobilize all the Goblins in the territory."
Sivis nodded. "As long as everything was handled properly."
He then frowned slightly in confusion. "You needed to use all the Goblins in the territory to scare off a few young people?"
The old Goblin helplessly explained, "My lord, you may not know, but while you were undercover, the word spread among the civilians that our territory was safe. We even offered to teach them new farming techniques and provide tools for cultivation. Eleven or twelve households have already arrived near the territory, and along with the six or seven families that were already here, there are now over sixty villagers."