[Ding!…]
[Host, you can save the people by upgrading Ashkelon from a normal-grade city into a mythical-grade city.]
[Warning! To upgrade a city into a mythical one, the host needs more than my energy. Certain items are needed to fulfill upgrade criteria.]
Asher’s eyebrows furrowed. He recalled warning the system about upgrading things that would cost him without his permission.
[Items needed for an underground mythical city are 20,000 earth crystals, 15,000 fire crystals, 10,000 water crystals, and 5,000 air crystals. (All must be of the mythical grade!)]
Asher felt the world become silent for a split second. In that split second he could remember looking at a screen on Earth where some grade of elemental crystals were identified with ‘???’
Mythical was amongst them.
These were elemental crystals that had formed since the forgotten era! To find such crystals, he needed more than influence but also power to fight empires!
[Ding!…]
[Would you like to exchange 2.5 million gold coins for the required items? Yes or No?]
‘2.5 million.’
Asher chuckled bitterly inwardly. What was going on? Where was the system that was at his beck and call, doing everything for him without a cost?
Although he knew upgrading a city into a mythical one altered the world too much to be without a cost, Asher wished for it.
Plop!
He fell on his bottom, leaning against the bulwark and staring at the snowing skies.
“My lord!”
The King Swordsmen beside him rushed forward, but Asher raised his hand. “Let me be.”
[Host, the entire amount in your domain is up to this amount. Why don’t you proceed?]
Finally, after a long time, Asher heard that female voice, but this time, it was slightly compassionate.
‘I have thousands of workers building the wall of Tiberias. I have thousands of soldiers to pay. I have officials and farmers. The economy will collapse without money.’
[But you have a gold mine.]
Asher’s eyes widened.
‘How did I forget the gold mine!’
[If I am to proceed using the gold mine, I shall absorb 7 years worth of mining effort to gain the amount needed to upgrade Ashkelon. Would you like me to upgrade the city? Yes or No?]
‘Do it!’
Boom!
It was as if the earth split open. People began to look around, searching for the cause of such a fearful feeling of the ground shaking so much as if it was about to be torn open.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The trembling became so much that Ahekelon’s great wall began to fall! This was the first time an upgrade caused a destruction.
Luckily, a white barrier transported the soldiers and the civilians to safe areas as buildings began to crumble.
At first many didn’t notice, but after a while it became apparent that the clouds were going higher and higher.
Asher discovered that it wasn’t that the clouds were going higher; they were the ones going down!
Rocks burst out of the ground, destroying the ends of the city as they rose. Meanwhile the city kept sinking until Asher saw earth cover the skies.
They had gone underground!
Boom!
White light burst out, causing Asher to feel dizzy. He struggled to stand, but he became so weak that he finally fainted.
After what seemed like hours, Asher’s eyes opened. As he got to his feet, he saw his men recovering.
His focus quickly left his men to the city, which was now underground. Their roads were rock hard, but the buildings were made of wood.
There were several two- and three-story buildings well built with stone foundations.
They looked much better than the buildings in the former Ashkelon.
On the earthen wall above the city were glowing stalagmites; they illuminated the city and also produced a soothing warmth.
Asher gasped.
Turning, he saw the new walls, made of white stones, in contrast to the city’s dark theme. The walls were thick enough to mount war machines.
The gates were made of reinforced steel, and above the gate was the giant sculpture of a wolf head.
Asher looked down. He realized he was standing on the fourth floor of a magnificent mansion with sturdy fences and a large courtyard, big enough to house him and hundreds of servants and officials!
From the window of the fourth floor, he could see the expanse outside the city. It wasn’t too bright but not too dark.
The theme was calm and soothing. But he could see it. A stream!
There was a glowing azure stream that went around the city. Its source was a hole in the earthen ceiling where pure, untainted azure water descended from.
It was like a mystical place.
The fire crystals, merged into the stalagmites, gave the underground city warmth. It would increase or reduce depending on how cold the weather was, and the air crystals generated air inside the underground space, which spanned 5000 square kilometers!
All the extra, which the former Ashkelon had, was cut off because it was massively out of proportion, and a huge section of the former city could not be put to use because the population was too small for it.
Ashes exhaled, and when he saw no white mist, a smile appeared on his face.
Turning back to the city, he saw the stunned people celebrating with each other. Some of them bring those who were sick to see the beauty of the city.
It seemed like for the first time, the system decided to give them a time element of surprise.
Asher could sense that the system was changing.
[Ding! You now own a Mythical-grade city: Ashkelon, city of the dark knights!]
The name puzzled Asher. Wasn’t it Ashkelon, City of Centraks?
While he pondered, he heard rumbling, causing him to turn toward the source. The sound came from outside the city.
4000 strong, clad in thick black armor with their long crimson lances, rode jet black, handsome Centraks that had black crystals in place of those bone spikes and golden eyes.
Their white cloaks fluttered as they galloped toward the city.
Their menacing aura billowed, coming as a ferocious tide.
“Wow! Uncle Lambert’s unit has gotten another upgrade.”
Nero, who was hovering by flapping his wings, softly remarked.
Without being told, he knew the Bladebreakers benefited from the city’s change.
They were now the Black Knight Cavalry!