Breath of the Undead

Chapter 24: Aridowei City

Chapter 24: Aridowei City

[Notification! You have gained control of a city (Aridowei)!]

[Discovered an undead city belonging to the player. Do you wish to designate it as a Death City?]

Although Gu Xi had not yet seen the information about Aridowei, he made his decision immediately.

"Lock it!"

[Lock successful. Death City - Aridowei. To unlock the city, please choose an unlocking mission!]

After the message faded, Gu Xi finally looked at the map in front of him.

Gu Xi discovered that the map on the table depicted most of Aridowei, excluding the 0.9 square kilometers that had become his territory. The map also included about one-third of the surrounding city.

The map used black skulls with crowns to mark the locations of key structures. Triangles, squares, and pentagons represented small, medium, and large plots respectively.

Within the 0.9 square kilometers, there were five small plots, one of which was already occupied and served as a well and sewer entrance.

There were three medium plots, with one occupied by a candle factory.

There were two large plots, one of which housed a church.

Whenever Gu Xi focused on a plot, corresponding prompts appeared, indicating the function of occupied plots, the conditions needed to activate them, or what could be built on unoccupied plots.

Additionally, there were paths on the city's periphery leading to other cities. Gu Xi counted five paths in total, each marked to indicate the regions they led to.

Each path was currently marked with a cross, indicating that none of them had been cleared.

From the current situation, it was clear that once these paths were cleared, the rest of Aridowei could be occupied.

After examining the city's general layout, Gu Xi glanced at the information at the bottom of the map to understand Aridowei in detail.

[City Name: Aridowei

City Type: Death City

City Trait: Contested Territory (more than half of the city is uncontrolled, subject to attacks from enemies in the uncontrolled areas. Conquering these areas will automatically expand the city's territory)

City Level: Level 1 (9/10, the city gains 3 experience points for each core building and large building, 2 points for medium buildings, and 1 point for small and auxiliary buildings)

Core Building (1/1): Council Hall (provides 500 negative energy points daily)

Large Building (1/2): Church (inactive, requires 20 skeleton soldiers to activate. Once activated, it can be upgraded to a Dark Church, training 20 skeleton soldiers weekly)

Medium Building (1/3): Candle Factory (inactive, requires 20 units of eerie corpses to activate. Once activated, it can be upgraded to a White Candle Factory, providing 300 negative energy points daily and 30 units of white candles weekly)

Small Building (1/5): Well (inactive, requires clearing the first street sewer to activate. Once activated, weekly soldier training capacity increases by 50%)

Auxiliary Buildings (0/10): None

Guarding Hero: None

Guarding Troops: None]

Gu Xi had learned a bit about the features of various buildings in cities during his schooling.

The core buildings are essential structures present in all cities. As cities level up, new core buildings become available, starting with the Council Hall. Other essential structures include the Magic Tower, Blacksmith, Market, Barracks, and Warehouse, which are present in all types of cities.

Large buildings are of two types: those like training camps, such as the inactive church here, and those unique to certain cities, like the Gladiator Arena in orc cities or the Stables in human cities. In undead cities, these buildings often include structures like the Dark Canopy, Crypt, Skeleton Conversion Site, and Soul Summoning Tower.

Medium buildings primarily provide resources, with some common across cities, such as farms, fishing spots, mines, enchanting sites, and slaughterhouses. Others are specific to certain races, like the Magic Pool in elf cities or the Treasury in dwarf cities.

Small buildings enhance the city's combat power or troop capacity, including walls, arrow towers, luck fountains, and mana pools. The city gate, moat, and drawbridge in Gu Xi's new Death City are also considered small buildings.

Auxiliary buildings are simpler, like streetlights and signposts, which are not critical but highly inconvenient to be without. Some statues for achievements also count as auxiliary buildings, and like core buildings, their number is tied to the city's level, with each level increase allowing ten more auxiliary buildings.

For rapid city upgrades, building many auxiliary structures is key.

However, Gu Xi was not in a hurry. Now that Aridowei was in his hands, even if he exited the game, he could freely enter and exit Aridowei. His immediate priority was ensuring the city's security.

Gu Xi noted that Aridowei was classified as contested territory, which he understood given the circumstances. The entire city covered 2.9 square kilometers, and he controlled only 0.9 square kilometers, less than a third.

The remaining city was in enemy hands. If this wasn't considered contested territory, nothing else would qualify.

Three of the five roads outside the city led to other districts of Aridowei, one led to the mirrored underground palace from which they had come, named Aridowei Tower, the mirrored counterpart of Victoria Tower and the core of Aridowei.

Conquering this tower would double the city's resources and production speeds, and at level 17 of a Death City, the combat fortress drop would also be this castle.

The last road led outside the city, marked only with the word "danger."

Gu Xi decided to activate the three buildings within his territory first before dealing with anything else.

Aridowei was now his, and he could come and go as he pleased. The priority was dealing with his troop situation.

At this moment, Luna floated in.

"Sir, I have an idea about this city."