Chapter 11: The Mad God's Philosophy of Command

Seeing the look of earnest attention on Li Bin’s face, Alastair paused for a moment before continuing, “Judging from your current level, you probably haven’t realized why, even after reaching level twenty, a player can only directly control a handful of heroes and eight or nine battalions of troops, have you?”

“Um…” Li Bin was taken aback, and finally shook his head, admitting, “I never really thought about it.”

“Therein lies one of the crucial factors that can sway the tide of battle—the campaign prowess of the commander,” Alastair explained slowly. “What you don’t know is that a hero’s attributes not only affect the units directly under their command, but also those under subordinate heroes.”

“What?” Li Bin jumped up at this astonishing revelation, but upon checking the stats of his subordinate heroes and their troops, he saw no discernible change.

“What’s wrong? You don’t believe it?” Alastair smiled.

“It’s not that, just that this…” Li Bin trailed off.

“It seems too hard to believe, doesn’t it? Here, take a look at this.” Alastair casually tossed him a longbow of gleaming gold.

Still in a daze, Li Bin caught the bow. Before he could say anything, a system prompt rang in his ears, “You have equipped a level-three artifact, the Golden Bow…”

Startled, Li Bin practically leapt up. Alastair laughed, “Don’t look at me—look at the units under your direct command and those serving under your subordinate heroes.”

Following Alastair’s instructions, Li Bin selected two soldiers for inspection. He found that the skeletal archer directly under his command had gained thirty points of ranged attack, while the undead elf archer under Deirdre, his subordinate hero, had also seen an increase—six points.

“Now do you see? Troops under your subordinate heroes only receive one-fifth of the benefit from your campaign attributes. That’s why you currently can’t significantly affect the performance of their forces,” Alastair explained patiently. “And when we talk about a player’s campaign attributes, we have to talk about skill selection.”

The mention of skills made Li Bin sit up straight, though what surfaced in his mind was the real battle formations and tactical maneuvers he’d witnessed that day.

“I bet you’re thinking about the Tactics skill, aren’t you?” Alastair glanced at him knowingly.

“How did you know?”

“Never mind that, we’ll get to it soon. First, let’s discuss skills. Let me ask you—how did you acquire your current skills?”

“You start with a few upon entering the game, then when your campaign level goes up, you choose one out of four options. I heard you can also learn from cities and other heroes.”

“Do you know how many skills a typical expert player selects over the course of their entire career?”

“Um…”

“You don’t, do you? Let me tell you—rarely more than ten basic skills in total,” Alastair said.

“Why?” Li Bin asked, puzzled.

“Because from those ten, you can branch out into hundreds of advanced skills. Just choosing the right ones among all the possible branches is enough to give any player a headache. Why would they take on even more?”

“I suppose they wouldn’t,” Li Bin replied.

“That’s why a competent player considers their future path right from the start—they select ten basic skills at the outset. Then, every time their campaign level increases, they just pick a specialization of what they already have. You, on the other hand, have already wasted three prime opportunities,” Alastair said, pointing at Li Bin.

Recalling the choices he’d made at each of his three campaign level-ups, Li Bin understood. Humbly, he asked, “Then what should I do from here on?”

“That depends on what kind of path you want to follow. Tell me, how do you envision your future role?”

“I, well, at first I thought… but now that I think about it, I really haven’t decided,” Li Bin hesitated, unable to articulate a plan.

“You… Well, I’ll give you a hint. If you want to be an outstanding commander, you should learn Tactics, Leadership, Luck, Offense, and Defense. If you want to be a master of battlefield magic, you should go for Spell Power, Intelligence, Scholarship, and the various schools of magic. If you want to be an adventurer, then Logistics and Diplomacy are your friends.”

“I understand.” Li Bin nodded repeatedly, already weighing his future route in his mind.

Seeing that Li Bin was beginning to grasp the essentials, Alastair pressed on, “Now let’s talk about unit counters. I think you’ve done a decent job here, but it’s not enough—you still put too much stock in unit rank.”

“If not unit rank, then what should I focus on?” Li Bin asked, confused.

“Unit stats and growth potential. Tell me, young undead, do you know what’s the maximum level a soldier can reach?”

“If they don’t die early or become heroes, I think they can get up to level twenty,” Li Bin answered after consideration.

“Is that really what you think?”

“Well…”

“Then do you know what’s the highest level for units trained directly in the city?”

“It’s thirteen, I think.”

“Correct, thirteen. But do you really believe that top-tier units like little angels or demons, who start at level thirteen, have reached their full potential at level twenty?”

“You mean every unit can be raised to level twenty?” Li Bin’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Let me ask you: in a battle, if you had to choose between a level-one and a level-thirteen unit, which would you use? If you had to sacrifice a group, which would you give up? And if the two units are the same level, how would you decide? Which one can advance more quickly and safely to the top tier?” Alastair fired off his questions in rapid succession.

“I would… I’d choose…” Li Bin muttered under his breath, but his eyes grew brighter with understanding.

Seeing that Li Bin had grasped the idea, Alastair dropped the topic and shifted to terrain and formations. After a lengthy discussion about the importance of formations and tactics, Alastair suddenly asked, “Young undead, do you want to learn the Tactics skill?”

“Yes, of course I do!” Li Bin exclaimed happily.

“Then you need to do something for me. If you agree, I’ll teach you the basics of Tactics right away. And once you complete the task, I’ll even give you an artifact that can sway the course of battle,” Alastair said mysteriously.

“A task? What kind of task?” Li Bin asked cautiously.

“Find the goddess Avia, protector of the Amazon tribe,” Alastair enunciated clearly.

“What? Find a goddess? How am I supposed to do that?” Li Bin cried out.

“What’s so impossible about that? When you first accepted the Amazon camp mission, you knew there was a deity in the temple, didn’t you? Now I’m just asking you to find the temple’s original owner—what’s the big deal?” Alastair laughed heartily.

“But back then, I only heard there was a deity. Now you’re asking me to actually find her!” Li Bin faltered, a little afraid.

“So what if you have to find a goddess? Aren’t I a god? Haven’t I done you no harm?” Alastair patted Li Bin on the shoulder.

After thinking it over, Li Bin finally agreed, albeit reluctantly. “All right, but I want to know the whole story—especially your relationship with the Amazon goddess.”