The two of them finished their exchange and Zhang Nu got his blueprints.

Those are two support type structures.

Dark Prison. Exactly as the name suggests, it's a prison. From a certain point of view, it too is one of the things that a Demon King's territory has to have.

The Tower of Fog. This structure can release a field of fog. Although it doesn't have any actual combat applications, it can obscure one's territory and make it hard for enemies to do any monitoring.

They're pretty good stuff.

They were quite worth it for Zhang Nu.

What he gave Han Kexin was the potatoes he had in storage, so it doesn't affect his sale of potatoes in the trade menu.

After around 20 minutes or so, all the potatoes were sold out.

They sold for 20k gold in total. Minus the trading fees, what ended up in his hands in the end was 19k gold. Thus, his current gold savings total around 40k or so.

He first spent 10k gold, picked 10 soldiers, and had them head over to the Altar to be promoted into high soldiers.

Zhang Nu watched as the ten draconians were enveloped by light. When they finally came down from the Altar, they've changed a great deal from top to bottom.

The draconian soldiers were a good size larger. All the scales on their bodies turned darker and more sturdy. Their simple spears have also turned into a wider bladed polearm.

[High draconian soldier]. Level 2 Elite unit. 180 HP, 50 MP, 15 Strength, 12 Constitution, 18 Agility, 9 Will. Loyalty 100% (Locked). Tiredness 10%. Hunger 10%.

Skills: Ragin Dragon Qi (D rank), Draconic Blood Awakening (D rank), Demi-dragon Scales (D rank), Spear Stab (E rank), Magic Resistance (E rank), High Speed Healing (E rank)...

The change is enormous.

The high soldiers' stats are more than double that of the normal soldiers.

Besides that, they also gained combat skills like the Raging Dragon Qi as well as several other new skills. They gained quite a few skills, even just counting the E rank skills.

Although they can't really compare to the Millennium Grudge Tree, that particular monster is among the most powerful of level 1 Lords.

However, the high soldiers do have the ability to match up against some weaker level 1 Lords.

Zhang Nu is already extremely satisfied. After all, the soldiers are merely the basic combat units. Thus, what's there to be dissatisfied with when they're already this strong?

If he assembles up to 50 high soldiers, he can even summon up a draconian general too.

Zhang Nu ten spent 20k gold to summon up 10 battlemages.

10 strange figures walked out from the Demon King Altar. All of them are strong and tough looking draconians, but they were wearing mage robes with a shield on their left arm and a spiked hammer in their right hand.

Are they really mages?

Zhang Nu checked their information.

[Draconian battlemage]. Level 2 Elite unit. 100 HP, 150 MP, 9 Strength, 10 Constitution, 12 Agility, 20 will. Loyalty 100% (Locked), Tiredness 10%, Hunger 10%.

Skills: Blazing Hammer (D rank), Freezing Hammer (D rank), Whirlwind Hammer (D rank), Combined Chanting (D rank), Shield of the Mind (E rank), Chain Fireball (E rank), Earth Spike (E rank) ...

No wonder they're called battlemages.

They really are a unit filled with interesting features.

Mage units are generally relatively fragile, but draconian battlemages go completely against that generalization.

If a draconian battlemage and a high soldier were to fight in their best condition, then the one to live in the end will definitely be the battlemage. Their combat power is a lot higher than even the high soldiers.

Draconian battlemages have very high one on one combat abilities.

At the same time, they also have the features of a mage.

Draconian battlemages have the Combined Chanting skill, which lets them cast magic in combination on the battlefield. Thus, they won't lose out even against a real mage squad.

With 20 level 2 Elites, the territory's combat strength has clearly increased.

Zhang Nu still had over 10k gold, but he didn't plan on spending it just yet. A portion of it needs to be reserved for the structures with upkeep costs like the House of Skeletons, Towers of Grudges, and Spirit Fields. Another portion is set aside for constructing the prison and Tower of Fog.

Of course, the construction of said structures needs to wait a bit, since there are a few more important things to take care of first.

"Master!"

"The cleanup of the battlefield is complete!"

"The minotaur prisoners have been placed under control!"

The demon subjugation army that Zhao Lei had led was completely wiped out. This is something that the Bloodhoof tribe will discover sooner or later, but in order to avoid the remnants running away ahead of time, it's best to first conquer the tribe right away!

The rewards for a level 2 Elite zone is definitely not small.

For the sake of efficiency, Zhang Nu only took the 20 new units, 10 high soldiers and 10 battlemages, with him.

He headed out first and looked down upon the lands below from the sky.

One message after another popped up.

[Giant Frog Swamp]. Level 1 Normal zone... Relatively low exploration value.

[Monster Mountains]. Level 1 Elite zone. Medium exploration value.

[Tiger and Bear Forest]. Level 1 Elite zone... Medium exploration value.

[Kobold Cave]. Level 1 Elite zone... Relatively high exploration value.

[...]

Zhang Nu passed through like so.

There really were a lot of zones and factions nearby.

He personally managed to identify nearly a hundred different zones.

That said, most of them are merely normal zones with the occasional Elite zones. Besides that, wild zones are far more common than villages or tribes. It's only natural though, given how thinly populated this area is.

Still, every little bit counts.

All of them are hidden resources for him!

Still, he's not after them this time.

Zhang Nu patrolled the areas near the Darkness Vally for about an hour before he finally discovered a very well camouflaged mountain base.

[Bloodhoof Tribe]. Level 2 Elite zone. This is a minotaur tribe. Although it's not particularly large, it's very strong in terms of power. It holds about 800-900 adult minotaurs... High exploration value. Possible Rewards: Bronze Chest, minotaur goods.

Found it!

T/N: The battlemages here seem to be like the ones from King's Avatar, which I think is based on Dungeon Fighter Online. Does anyone know of any other media where battlemages are more like the D&D Eldritch Knights?

Editor's note: Totally not what I was expecting for the description of a battlemage!