Chapter 7: Strategy and Leadership

Having devised some new ideas, if they don’t turn out well, please don’t blame me!

Now that Li Bin understood the entire situation, a comprehensive plan had already taken shape in his mind. After he explained everything to Damon, Damon agreed with his perspective and added some of his own thoughts to perfect the plan further.

Three days later, Li Bin arrived at the gates of Uyada City with his men. The construct golem guards stationed at the entrance stopped him.

“My apologies, but this city has no necromancer facilities, so you won’t be able to replenish your troops or supplies here.”

Li Bin caught the meaning behind the construct golem’s words—there was nothing here for the undead, so entry was forbidden. But he had come prepared. Smiling, he replied, “I’m here to obtain some supplies for the Artificer class.”

The construct golem’s rigid face was full of skepticism, but when he saw Li Bin dismantle a death ballista into heaps of parts before reassembling it right in front of him, he was left dumbfounded.

In the end, the golem had no choice but to let Li Bin leave his troops outside the city while he entered Uyada with his lieutenants.

Inside the city, Li Bin experienced an entirely different atmosphere. The streets were wide, and countless mechanical creations surged through the avenues. Many beings and machines—ordinarily Artificer combat units—strolled along the boulevards fresh from the factories, assembling only when recruitment orders were posted, at which point they would gather at a designated location to be assigned to a player or hero.

On either side of the thoroughfares stood armories established by players or heroes, where unique units were being continuously produced. If you needed special troops, you could enter an armory and negotiate directly with the owner.

Li Bin’s own objective was related to this. In Carter’s office at the city hall, he presented his plan to establish an armory in Uyada.

Carter regarded the bandaged mummy before him and chuckled. “Outsider, you should spend more time in our city. You’ll see that we already have every kind of unit imaginable—there’s no need for any others.”

“Perhaps. But I believe Artificer units are overpriced, and ours are different. Semi-undead, semi-artificer troops require fewer resources. In fact, bring a few corpses to my armory and I can create forces no weaker than those others forge from vast quantities of precious metals.”

“Outsider, that sounds impressive, but how can I trust in your abilities?” Carter questioned, not letting up.

“These are the fruits of my years of research. You may have a look.” Li Bin casually produced a stack of blueprints and laid them before Carter.

Carter flipped through them page by page. These were designs Li Bin had adapted from what he’d learned aboard the Joshua Merchant Guild’s airship. To a master artificer like Carter, most of them held little appeal. But when he reached one particular design, his expression changed. He shoved the blueprint back toward Li Bin and said, “I accept your proposal. You may look for a place in the city to build your armory, but I will only supply half the resources.”

Li Bin gathered his blueprints, satisfied that Carter had taken the bait. After all, the construct lich design in his hands had an extremely high success rate—it was the best choice for someone like Carter, who craved immortality but had no desire to become undead.

Upon leaving city hall, Li Bin did not immediately search for a suitable location for his armory; instead, he walked, contemplating the finer details of his plan. Though the first step had succeeded, he dared not grow complacent.

As he walked, he suddenly noticed a commotion in the crowd. Looking up, he saw a towering suit of armor, three meters tall, standing in the middle of the street. Polished to a shine by elemental magic, the armor’s interior was faintly hollow.

The armored giant reached out to a passerby and declared loudly, “Come learn the art of leadership with me! I assure you, you’ll master it in no time!”

Li Bin immediately stepped back, just in time to overhear two gargoyles muttering nearby.

“What a lunatic, strutting around in that heavy armor, claiming to be a master artificer.”

“Exactly, and teaching the Artificer class about leadership? Doesn’t he know that our kind isn’t affected by leadership skills?”

Li Bin was about to laugh at the armored fool, when he heard him loudly declare to a construct golem, “You may not realize it, but mechanical units can actually benefit from leadership skills—a positive influence! I’ve discovered a talent called Artificial Glory. If you’ll learn leadership from me, I’ll teach you that too.”

“Complete nonsense.” The construct golem shoved the armored man aside and moved on.

Still undeterred, the armored man continued grabbing at those around him, but all the Artificer units in the vicinity had vanished. After two failed attempts to seize another, he finally spotted Li Bin, grabbed him, and began, “Come, learn leadership with me, I promise—”

“All right, all right. I’m undead, even less in need of morale than the Artificer class,” Li Bin replied, shaking his head. “You’d best look elsewhere.”

“You’re wrong about that. Don’t you know—”

Before he could finish, Li Bin interrupted, “What, do you have a skill that lets the undead benefit from morale?”

“I don’t have one that lets the undead use morale directly, but I do have other abilities. For example: Retribution. For each point of morale, your troops’ attack and defense increase by five percent. What do you think?”

“What did you say? Could you repeat that?” Li Bin demanded, eyes fixed on the armored man.

“Still not satisfied? How about this: Death’s Stand. Every time a batch of your troops falls, the rest gain attack power equal to the morale bonus.”

Li Bin was stunned. Seeing his reaction, the armored man hurriedly added, “Still not enough? Then perhaps—”

“All right, all right. Tell me, how many of these unusual leadership skills do you have?” Li Bin cut him off.

“Ten in all, specifically designed for Artificer and Undead factions—those who normally don’t require morale,” the armored man replied.

“If I wanted to learn them all, how long would it take?” Li Bin pressed.

“What, you want to learn every one?” The armored man was thrilled. “Don’t worry, it won’t take long. When do you want to start—”

Appendix: Artificer and Undead Leadership Skill Branches

Artificial Glory: Mechanical units receive positive morale effects. Prerequisite for Artificer Leadership conversion.

Inspiring the Undead: Undead units gain positive morale effects from leadership. Prerequisite for Undead Leadership conversion.

Retribution: Each point of morale increases subordinate units’ attack power by 5%.

Death’s Stand: Each point of morale increases subordinate units’ defense by 5%.

Death’s Charge: Each time a batch of your troops falls in battle, the rest gain attack equal to the morale value.

Brave the Oppressor: Automatically negates the intimidation of dragons and other powerful beings, up to morale value.

Double Time: Each week, Artificer units of levels 1–5 train additional troops equal to morale x3.

Death Knell: Each point of morale increases the success rate of necromancy by 1%.

Immunity: Each point of morale increases subordinate units’ resistance to ranged and magical attacks by 5%.

Forced March: Each point of morale increases subordinate units’ movement speed by 1.

If you encountered these leadership branch skills and could master them all at once, would you?