The List of 1 Million
Somewhere in the Orc Empire…
"My King!" A Messenger Orc knelt in front of the massive Orc King, "The reports are starting to come back. The Castle's forces were stronger than we thought. Only 40% of the attacks have succeeded. Should we send more troops?"
The King seemed rather unaffected by this piece of news, leaned back on his throne, and stared out of the window. After an uncomfortable silence, the King responded, "No, what about Gul's team? They were the strongest we sent out. How many slaves did he capture?"
"This…", the Messenger Orc hesitated. He really didn't want to get his head chopped off for delivering bad news.
Seeing his servant's hesitation the Orc King got an uncomfortable feeling in his gut. "Speak, fool!"
"Gul's life crystal has shattered."
The King was momentarily stunned, this was not something he had anticipated.
Gul was a Tier-7 High Orc and not only did he lose a fight, he even died in battle.
Recovering from his momentary lapse away from his usual calm he said, "Inform the Raguk family of his passing. Arrange for a scouting team to survey the Castle where he was sent."
The Orc King might be extremely arrogant, but he was no fool.
Orcs were known for their aggressive tendencies but His Majesty Ergoth was different and known in the lower Dark Court as a brilliant strategist.
Whenever a warrior cultivated to the King-Tier they experienced a rebirth of sorts.
Not only did they become exponentially stronger, but their bodies were also no longer mortal. This extended their lifespan by a minimum of 5000 years and upgraded their intelligence, no matter the race.
This meant that a Goblin King-Tier powerhouse was just as intelligent as a human, if not more so.
This is exactly what happened to Ergoth, and as one of the only King-Tier powerhouses of the Orcs, he quickly manipulated his way to the top.
Gul had been the son of the Raguk who was one of the King's biggest supporters, so the King was clearly not pleased.
"Yes, my King!" The Messenger Orc replied and hastily got up and left the throne room.
Gazing out the window, the King was lost in thought about the upcoming war and the ancient texts he had uncovered about the God-King Throne.
Somewhere in Enzo's castle….
Enzo, not realizing that he was now on the Orc King's radar, was currently tallying his new stash of prizes he had earned from the first Castle Siege.
Enzo just couldn't stop smiling. If there was one thing he loved in all three worlds, it was money.
He had acquired a total of 2,575 monster cores just from this battle alone.
Enzo wondered how any other Castle Lord would survive after the first Castle Siege was over.
He couldn't imagine how the System thought that others with only Tier-3 troops could survive.
Enzo opened the Castle Bank panel to see exactly how much he had gained and then put the monster cores in the Warehouse Converter.
[Dragon Phoenix Bank (Castle Warehouse)
Level: 2
Material Storage: 51765 wood, 51987 stone, 5403 iron, 260 Azure Orbs, 20 Azure Crystals
Item Storage: 15 Blueprints, 18 Tokens
Use: Convert Beast Crystals to Blueprints, Tokens, and Azure Orbs.
Upgrade Requirements: 50 Azure Orbs, 5 Azure Crystals]
Grinning, Enzo pulled out the new blueprints and tokens which added to a total of 9 blueprints and 10 tokens.
The rest were from his previous week of monster hunting.
Out of the 9 blueprints, 3 were rare ranked or better. Putting the rest aside he looked at the three blueprints with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
[Blueprint: 3-Star Inn
Rarity: Rare
Building Requirements: 1,500 wood, 1,500 stone]
[Note: Raises loyalty of subjects. Has a very low chance of attracting non-citizens to abide in your kingdom]
[Blueprint: Middle-Tier Troop Building
Rarity: Epic
Building Requirements: 10 Azure Orbs, 1 Azure Crystals]
[Note: When built this blueprint will turn into a Troop Building of the same camp of the Castle Lord's initial troop]
[Blueprint: Barracks (Troop Dependent)
Rarity: Legendary
Building Requirements: 15,000 wood, 15,000 stone, 1,500 iron]
[Note: When built this blueprint will turn into a Barracks of the Castle Lords' highest-ranked troop. The specific effect will depend on the rank of the troop]
All three of these blueprints were great but the real winners were the last two, the Middle-Tier Troop Building and the Barracks.
Getting another Troop Building was a game-changer for Enzo as it not only allowed him to get more troops, but the building would also be in the same camp as the Dragon Phoenix Pavilion.
The camps were separated into Light, Neutral, and Dark. After talking with Chua and Kai, Enzo knew that the dragons and phoenixes were the rulers of the Light camp and the Hydras and Titans were the rulers of the Dark Camp.
In the current Apeiron, without the influence of the Light rulers, the planet had most likely been taken over by the Dark camp.
This would prove a big hindrance if he wanted to compete for the God-King Throne because if any Hydra or Titan got wind of his existence, they would do everything in their power to destroy him.
But all hope was not lost. It was very unlikely that anyone besides the Hydra or Titan clan could recognize a dragon or phoenix, just like the Orc commander mistook them for flying lizards.
He just had to keep an eye out for other Castle Lords.
Clearing his thoughts he decided to look at the tokens.
Aside from the 10 Top-Tier bloodline and recruitment tokens, he brought out the 3 Epic ranked tokens and the special reward he got for an SSS evaluation in the first siege.
[Aerial Mount Token
Rarity: Epic
Use: Recruits an Epic Ranked Aerial Mount]
[Radar Token
Rarity: Epic
Use: Scans all lifeforms in a 1-kilometer radius around the user
Charges: 3]
[Disguise Token
Rarity: Epic
Use: Can disguise the user as any race for 1 Hour
Charges: 3]
[Alliance Creation Token
Rarity: Legendary
Use: Create an Official Alliance]
[Note: Must be used by a Castle Lord with a Duke-Tier kingdom]
Sighing Enzo put back the four tokens into his Castle Bank.
He kept running into problems because his kingdom was not Duke-Tier, and it was slowly driving him mad.
After deciding that he had to turn his kingdom into Duke rank as fast as possible, he was about to build some of the buildings he had looked at earlier when a sharp sound chimed in his ears.
[Global Announcement: The First Castle Siege is now complete! Congratulations for surviving and taking your first step towards glory!]
[The Castle Lord Initiative is now complete and the New Era Initiative has now been launched!]
[The following functions are now open for all Castle Lords:
1. Global Chat & Global Trading
2. Alliance Functions (To create an Alliance you first need an Alliance Creation Token)
3. The List of 1 Million (Open to ALL Inhabitants of Apeiron)]
Right after the string of global announcements a series of messages reached the ears of every intelligent entity in the world of Apeiron.
[The New Era Initiative is now active and with it, the List of 1 Million has been opened for the world of Apeiron!]
[The List of 1 Million holds the top 1 Million Ranked Kingdoms of Apeiron]
[Every Kingdom is required to either claim a spot on the List of 1 Million or give up their participation in the Trial Of The Gods]
[365 Days from now the list will close and the Trial Of The Gods will commence!]
Seeing these announcements Enzo was at a loss.
Enzo had heard of the list of 1 Million from Chua and Kai, but it had never crossed his mind that it would be related to the God-King Throne.
This was no longer a fun Castle Builder but a fierce Battle Royal.
For the next 365 days, there was sure to be a non-stop war.
Understandably most people were freaking out in the global chat.
"I suck! I will never make the 1 Million."
"You suck? I can't even figure out where I am most days."
"Ok, you both suck. I am going to be on the list of 1 Million and stomp you both. But first I must eat some steak."
"How can you eat steak at a time like this?"
"Maybe we should all form an alliance and kick those Orc guy's ass."
"Yeah, those bastards killed over 100 of my scorpions! I must have revenge!"
"Agreed. If I go down. I want the Orcs to die as well."
"I finished my steak, time to whoop some ass!"
Enzo closed the chat. What a collection of idiots! He cleared his thoughts and set his sights on the end game. He knew his overall goal was the God-King Throne as, if you didn't play to win, is it even worth playing?
Having set his end goal, he knew the first step on his road to Godhood was first to get on the pesky List of 1 Million.