[Ding~ The items you put up as rewards have been dealt with. You have lost 12 desert horses and obtained the spring water fragments *4.]

Richard saw the reward message in the morning as soon as he opened the [Forum Chat]. At this time, there was already a deal.

But this time, he was not as lucky as last time. All he got were spring water fragments.

But even so, he was so satisfied.

Because in this way, since he had six fragments of spring water in his hands, Richard could directly combine the fragments into two springs.

It was already laborious for that poor well to provide for a hundred people.

Now, there were 150 more people, which was simply critical.

The water consumed every day was almost beyond the well’s supply.

Now that he has these two springs, Richard can finally solve this serious problem.

However, just as he took out the spring water fragments and was about to combine them, a notification appeared in the Black Gold System.

[Spring Water Fragments — Three pieces combined into a 1-star treasure: Spring Water]

[Ten pieces combined into a 2-star treasure: Medium-scale Spring Water]

[Thirty pieces combined into a 3-star treasure: Large-scale Spring Water.]

Richard was startled when he saw the information that suddenly appeared. It was pleasantly a bombshell.

“A treasure also could be combined?”

This hint temporarily caused Richard to set aside the idea of directly combining water fragments.

Although a 1-star spring water was sufficient, it might not be long before it reached a situation, where water became insufficient, once his city expanded.

Since that was the case, it would be better to upgrade spring water immediately to medium-scale.

This could at least support thousands of people, right? Richard wouldn’t have to think about this problem again soon.

He glanced at the information on the reward column about the unsold items.

[20 desert horses — for 1-star treasure: Russian Olive Seeds]

[20 desert horses — for a special delicacy: Desert Honey]

[20 desert horses — for purchase of resources and treasures (not limited to types). Note: The deal requires the consent of the party offering the reward.]

After Richard thought for a while, he removed the information about the reward for desert honey that was still hanging. He continued to use the 20 desert horses to trade for spring water fragments.

Merchant Onyx from the Phoenix-Tail Flower Chamber of Commerce had never even heard of the desert honey. The number of desert honey was pitifully few without even thinking about it.

It was not too late to offer the reward when the food was sufficient. Richard had to deal first with the most urgent matter.

At the same time, he took out a portion of the prey he had hunted today and exchanged it for 20,000 units of resources.

Including the prey he had sold during the hunt, Richard now had 30,000 total units of resources in his hands.

However, the amount didn’t seem like it was enough to cultivate a rare-level troop lair.

However, he wasn’t in a hurry. Richard would wait until he found a suitable troop lair.

He began to search for the troop lair excitedly on the [Trading Market].

The bandaged mummies and the scorpion warriors at the front row were enough.

What he lacked now were long-ranged troops.

He felt a headache when he thought of the half-metal giant.

The rare-level soldiers made of meat were truly difficult to deal with. Without long-ranged troops, it was impossible to move forward.

[Desert Camp Soldier]

[Berserk Hydralisk (Normal 3-stars) — sold for 900 units of wood]

[Desert Lizard Man (Normal 2-stars) — sold for 700 units of iron ore]

******

After looking at them for a while, Richard eventually came to his senses.

A troop lair upgraded only once a week. If one wanted a rare-level upgrade at once, one should only buy the elite-level upgrade.

Richard changed the search conditions…

[Desert Camp: Elite-level Troop Lair]

[Quantity: 198]

“One hundred ninety-eight? Less than 200?”

Richard was a bit amazed.

It seemed that an elite-level troop lair was still exclusive to top players at this stage.

He did not hesitate and immediately flipped through it.

[Desert Greater Rat Elite 1-star — sold for 8,000 units of wood]

[Desert Wanderer Elite 2-stars — sold for 10,000 units of gold]

[Desert Wolf Elite 3-stars — sold for 1.5 player iron ore]

******

It did not take long for Richard to read through all of these.

But after reading through them, he could not help but feel slightly disappointed.

There was not a single suitable one among them. Most were melee units, and their skills were quite inferior.

There was no value in nurturing them.

After a quick thought for a while, Richard changed to another faction to search—Undead.

[Elite troop lairs: 320]

Although there were many more, there was a limit to how many were.

Elite-level troop lairs were very rare for lord-ranked players of any faction.

[Skeleton Warriors (Elite 1-star) — sold for 6,000 gold coins]

[Evil Spirits (Elite 2-stars) — sold for 8,000 units iron ore]

******

After a deep thought for a long time, there was still nothing suitable.

They were all normal soldiers who did not have any prospects.

Apart from the undead, most troop lairs were unfit for survival in the desert.

For example, if there were too many human soldiers, just drinking water every day would cause tremendous pressure on logistics.

Another example was the elves.

Some soldiers could only be born on the grass, and they only ate fruit every day…

Where could Richard get fruits in this vast desert?

After looking around, Richard was truly determined to reject the idea of logistics as a burden in recruiting soldiers.

Undead creatures were undoubtedly the most suitable for the desert. Their skin was sturdy, and they did not require logistics. They were also very appropriate for the Sand Transformation skill.

Thinking about it, the dwarven alchemy robots of the fortress race could also do it, but that thing needed engine oil to maintain…

Richard was slightly disappointed after he finished looking at the elite-level troops.

The soldiers of Twilight City had to be suitable for the desert.

That was his home ground.

He reopened the normal-level troops.

Since there was no suitable elite-level soldier, Richard could only start cultivating the normal ones.

Anyway, there were only seven days of cooldown time. Once the seven days were up, Richard could immediately level up.

He searched for a mummy.

[Mummy Protector (Normal 2-stars) — sold for 600 gold coins]

[Mummy Dual Blade Warrior (Normal 3-stars) — sold for 800 units of wood]

******

After a long time, Richard’s eyes suddenly glowed.

After looking through thousands of troop lairs, he finally saw one that satisfied him.

[Curse Pyramid (Normal 3-stars) — 3000 units of iron ore]

[This troop lair could recruit Cursed Pharaoh (soldier) – An extremely rare magic troop.]

This made Richard very excited.

Although the price was several times higher than the others with the same level, he did not hesitate to buy it.

At the same time, Richard spent 2000 units of resources buying two recruitment lairs of bandaged mummies.

After sending out 12 bandaged mummies to protect six search and rescue teams, he was extremely short of troops.

A Curse Pyramid’s troop lair was not enough to satisfy his appetite.

And the bandaged mummies were indeed in line with his troop strategy. Of course, they were also powerful enough.

After preparing three troop lairs to cultivate, Richard spent 15,000 units of resources to purchase 30 normal-level troops lairs.

With everything prepared, he went out of the Lord’s mansion and built three troop lairs next to two troop lairs in the front yard.

Richard chose to build them directly.

[Ding~ Do you want to spend 400 gold coins, 400 units of iron ore, and 400 units of stone materials to build the Curse Pyramid?]

[Ding~ Do you want to spend 400 gold coins, 400 units of wood, and 400 units of stone materials to build the Great Mummy Pyramid?]

[Ding~]

…

After the consumption of resources, three small-scale pyramids immediately began to grow. In just a dozen breaths, they rose to 3 meters.

The overall structure of the new pyramids that were connected was almost the same.

But there was a big difference in their appearance.

The Great Mummy Pyramid that could recruit bandaged mummies was a piece of weathered sand that was very rough.

The Curse Pyramid that could recruit the pharaoh was a structure engraved with twisted and colorful patterns. It looked like it had a peculiar religious charm and was quite mysterious.

The Black Gold System’s prompt came as expected.

[Do you want to consume ten troop lairs to raise the level of the Curse Pyramid to Elite 3-stars?]

[Do you want to consume…]

With a thought, the 30 troop lairs turned into a bright light and merged.

The 3-meter-tall soldier structure immediately rose to 4 meters.

Its appearance also became more and more ancient and mysterious.

With a heart full of anticipation, Richard opened the attribute panel of the new troop lair. He was preparing to recruit an elite-level soldier—Cursed Pharaoh.