Chapter 69: This Time's Haul is a Bit Large
"Boss!"
Chen Guoguo flapped her wings as she flew up to him.
The Flower Fey Demon King has a very petite body. She has a green dress on and wears a crown on her head. Along with her pair of butterfly wings, she's really cute looking.
Chen Guoguo was very excited at this first offline meeting.
The boss looked even more amazing and cool than she had thought. It made her feel quite safe!
Zhang Nu asked, "How's the situation on your side?"
Chen Guoguo replied, "Thanks to your help, boss, there wasn't much damage."
Zhang Nu spoke, "Your territory is simply too weak. I suggest that you just focus completely on production and leave all defenses to my side."
Any other Demon King would likely have a very hard time agreeing to a demand like that.
To abandon all combat units and just devote everything to production is extremely risky.
As for trusting another Demon King to provide all defenses for their territory, isn't that basically equivalent to handing their own life to the other person?
"Yes!"
Chen Guoguo agreed without hesitation though.
She trusts Zhang Nu very much. Besides which, it was basically impossible for her to hold off powerful factions like the Ironblooded Heroes Guild or Giantree City no matter what she does anyway.
In that case then, why not just completely abandon combat and devote everything to production and construction?
In this way, not only will she be able to lend Darkness Valley with strong logistical support, it would also allow her to focus on investments and to save up wealth, allowing her to reach higher limits in the future.
"My lord!"
"What should we do with these prisoners?"
The draconian general Wang Ar had already finished bounding up the entire elven army, so they were already completely under the control of the draconian army.
"Take them back with us and put them in the prison!"
There was a reason to not kill those elves.
The elven race is skilled in planting, potion making, and alchemy.
If he could get these elves to work for him, then it would definitely be a good thing for his territory's development. However, Zhang Nu cannot use these elves just yet.
These elves had surrendered under Nancilia's order.
They were not willingly submitting to Darkness Valley of their own accords, so their average loyalty is only about 10-20 points or so. Not only do they lack any sense of loyalty to him, it could even be said that they still consider him their enemies.
Thus, there's no real other choice than to imprison them for the time being.
Li Si dropped a Teleportation Field to allow the troops from Darkness Valley to take the prisoners back.
Zhang Nu did not send the entire army back. He had left a small division of about a hundred soldiers here to keep guarding the Myriad Flower Valley and keep Flower Fey Demon King Chen Guoguo safe.
When he returned to Darkness Valley, the battle here had ended as well.
Zhang Nu found Zhang San to ask for a report.
At least 80% of the Heroes and demon subjugation army led by Zheng Xiao had fallen within Darkness Canyon, but at the last moment, Zheng Xiao had managed to escape with a small squad.
Zhang San's first priority was to protect the territory, so he did not pursue too far and this leader of the Heroes had escaped. This made him feel rather depressed.
Zhang Nu personally didn't mind this result all that much though.
His gains were already more than enough, after all.
One more or less really didn't matter at all.
He immediately started tallying up the totals, and his proceeds are as follows:
Level 1 Hero Souls: 189!
Level 2 Hero Souls: 12!
Skill Stones: 9!
Gold: Over 120k.
Zhang Nu was rather dazed by the time he had finished totaling everything up. For him to have gained so much Souls and a good majority of it came from Giantree City.
In other words, during the process where Zhang Nu flattened the Heroes Guild and the Ironblooded Heroes Guild headquarters, he had wiped out well over a hundred Heroes who were gathered within.
That's insane!
The Heroes were practically mowed down like grass!
This would definitely be something unimaginable for any other Demon King!
[You've sacrificed a level 1 Hero Soul. 3 Talent Points gained!]
[You've sacrificed a level 1 Hero Soul. 2 Talent Points gained!]
[You've sacrificed a level 1 Hero Soul. 3 Talent Points gained!]
[...]
[You've sacrificed a level 2 Hero Soul. 21 Talent Points gained!]
Everything was sacrificed in a single go.
He gained 731 Talent Points!
This is a nigh unimaginable number!
Since he had 74 Talent Points left over from before this, he now has 805 Talent Points in total!
Zhang Nu used 100 Talent Points to activate the final level 2 Talent.
[You've activated the level 2 Talent "Hell Thunderflame!"!]
[All level 2 Talents activated. Level up conditions satisfied!]
Zhang Nu could feel it.
After activating all the Talents, every cell in his body was giving off a reaction akin to nuclear fusion, constantly giving off an enormous amount of energy!
[Level up successful!]
[MP +800, HP +400, Strength +50, Agility +100, Constitution +50, Will +100. Your Dragon Flame, Dragon Fear, Thunderflame, Devouring, Adamantine Dragon Body effect +100%...]
The level up was completed.
All stats increased greatly.
Nearly all active Talent Skills have multiplied in effect.
Zhang Nu has fully become a level 3 Demon King. His powers now can't even be compared to what it was back when he was level 2.
He hurriedly checked his current status.
Name: Zhang Nu.
Level : 3.
Race: Abyssal Dragon (Demon King Race).
Base Stats: 800 HP, 1600 MP, 90 Strength, 180 Agility, 90 Constitution, 180 Will.
Level 1 Talents: Abyssal Draconian, Dragon Flame, Dragon Fear, Lightning Control, Beginner Anti-Magic.
Level 2 Talents: Adamantine Dragon Body, Abyssal Devouring, Hell Thunderflame, Medium Anti-Magic.
Level 3 Talents: Dragon King's Sanctum, Evil Dragon's Descent, High Anti-Magic.
Other skills: Healing (D Rank), Blood Sacrifice (D Rank), Blessing of the Gust (D Rank), Earth Spike (E Rank), War Trample (E Rank).
Talent Points: 705.
In summary, Zhang Nu's power has suddenly grown by leaps and bounds.
He noticed that there's only 3 Level 3 Talents though.
Every single one of them costs 1000 Talent Points to activate though!
Zhang Nu couldn't help but flinch at that number. 1000 Talent Points. That number is way too much. Just how many Heroes would he need to kill to accumulate that much? He had originally thought that he had a lot of Talent Points now, but he didn't expect that he didn't have enough to even activate a single level 3 Talent.
Of course, thinking about it more carefully, there's actually nothing wrong with that kind of number.
A level 3 would be considered fairly strong even placed against the wider continent.
As for a level 4? That would be a powerhouse capable of holding a major region all on their lonesome!
If it really was possible to break through to level 4 that easily, then wouldn't a level 4 Demon King be just too cheap and common? The gate fee of 1000 Talent Points might seem extremely high, but in actuality, it wouldn't take all that long to accumulate if one were to hunt and kill Heroes en masse.
In summary, the growth speed of Demon Kings is amazingly fast.
This is also one of the main reasons why Demon Kings are so widely feared.
Although he wasn't able to directly activate a level 3 Talent, Zhang Nu did just activate a new level 2 Talent, "Hell Thunderflame".
He checked out the effect of the skill.
Hell Thunderflame is basically just combining the Abyssal Dragon Flame and Abyssal Lightning and using them together. After combining those two different powers, the effect and element generated has completely changed!
The Thunderflame has long range, is extremely fast, and it also has the high burning temperature and continuous damage effect of fire. It's definitely a very powerful skill.
Of course, the MP cost of using it is similarly terrifying.
This technique is good for taking down enemies in a single surprise attack or to deal with powerful enemies who resist both lightning and fire damage.
Actually, for a Demon King, the best part that came from this level up isn't actually the increase in personal power.
It's because no Demon King could conquer the world on their own. Thus, compared to the boost in personal might, territory development and the military setup might be more important.