Chapter 2017: Immediately

Before Leonel set out again, he paid keen attention to the changes in his abilities as the new owner of an Heir-Grade territory.

Many things were pretty standard. For example, there were upgraded outposts, and there were also some defensive measures unique to Heir-Grade territories.

Right now, the walls Leonel had access to were already quite fantastic. They were a hundred meters tall and over 10 meters thick. On top of that, they were forged of a powerful metal alloy. However, other than that, they were relatively simple.

Many of the options included infusing it with certain large scale Force Arts that could greatly strengthen it. There were also methods of banning flight within a certain range of the city, the more he paid, the larger the range would be.

What was more interesting to Leonel, though, were the unique upgrades he could gain since he had a special ocean territory. Many of these things, unsurprisingly, were related to ice.

The most intriguing of them was what was called Cold Force. Leonel didn't think that such a Force actually existed, but it must have been created for the Heir Wars quite specifically. It was a Force that could be emitted from his island and act like a domain that covered the city.

Those that entered this domain would feel as though their own Force was icing over. Their blood would flow slower and their bodies would become stiff. Depending on how stronger the over strength of the targets were, one could lose anywhere between 10% to even all of their combat prowess.

The price, though, was quite steep. Just for the lowest setting that would work with 100 meters of his walls, it would cost him over a trillion. The maximum setting, that would work for an entire 10 kilometers, cost ten times that. That maximum setting cost three times more than what Leonel had.

Seeing that the first thing he wanted was actually so expensive, Leonel held off on buying it immediately. That was because he knew that if one thing was actually so expensive, then most other things would be as well.

After a moment, and scanning through all available rewards, Leonel realized that these outrageous prices were unique to, ironically, the unique territory rewards of his city. But it was also because of this that they were likely to be the most useful.

The Cold Force Domain was a game changer. Anyone believe the Gold-Grade threat level would be incapacitated and no different from fish on a chopping block within its range. Those on the weaker side of the Gold-Grade would lose as much as half of their combat strength, while those who were the strongest would lose at least a tenth. Only Heir-Grade threats would be capable of entirely ignoring it.

At the strongest setting, costing over ten trillion, even an Heir-Grade threat would have a 10% reduction in their strength within a 10 kilometer range.

Another unique reward was the Ice Moat.

Leonel felt that a better name for this reward would be the Ice Maze. That was because it formed a maze of ice in the water that could hinder the advancement of oceanic beasts. The walls of this maze would be incredibly sturdy, comparable to about half that of the base city walls. Simply put, no single creature would be able to take down even a single wall without many hours of effort.

The best part about the Ice Moat wasn't its defenses, but rather the fact that it forced the oceanic beasts swimming below to split up, disallowing them the ability to gang up and use their potentially overwhelming numbers.

It functioned essentially like a funnel, forcing the oceanic beasts to fight alone.

The Ice Moat would also be quite useful in case anyone came to attack Leonel with boats and the like. Although it was an underwater design, it still peeked out of the water over three meters or so. Unless a ship wanted to destroy its hull in a battering ram attempt, they would likewise had no choice but to follow the path of the maze.

Of course, the best part was that running into a dead end wasn't impossible. At that point, you would only have two options: to turn back or to take the effort in attempting to knock down the wall. But if you chose the second option, you might run into yet another dead end on the other side.

Both of these rewards were incredibly intriguing, but the Ice Moat was even more expensive. Just its most basic level cost 2 trillion more than what Leonel had. The good news was that it could cover an entire kilometer instantly, but the bad news was, obviously, that he couldn't afford it.

The last unique reward that had caught Leonel's attention was a unique territory protector. It was, of course, of the Heir-Grade, but it was exceptionally powerful.

This protector took the form of a Star of Ice. When activated, in exchange for a billion points, it could trigger an area of effect attack that worked like a rain of ice meteors. These ice meteors froze water on contact and had great blunt force damage.

The lowest setting could target a 100 meter region. The highest setting could attack all around the city, though it was still limited to 100 meters, there was clearly a difference between one 100 meter region, and the entire 100 meter radius around the city walls.

Unsurprisingly, this was the most expensive of them all at 10 trillion just for the lowest setting and close to 100 trillion for the highest.

Leonel faced a situation where he had to choose whether he would save up or not. With his army of stingrays, he could take on the Heir-Grade upgrade with quite some ease and guarantee himself anywhere from one trillion to three depending. He already planned to do this three more times, so if he was patient, by the end of it, he would be able to afford the Star of Ice.

However, Leonel shook his head.

Sometimes, sitting on a pile of cash was worse than spending it. Even if you didn't do anything and were frugal, as time passed, your money would only become worth less and less, that was the way of the world and of inflation.

Thinking to this point, Leonel bought the lowest setting of the Cold Force Domain immediately.