Leonel and Aina swiftly swept through the challenge once the gates collapsed. Although they didn't gain any kill exchanges, the value of the rewards weren't to be scoffed out.
Having Silver-Grade walls ahead of time meant that they could access Wall Upgrade ahead of time, which meant they could form a half-step Gold-Grade wall before even facing the Silver-Grade Upgrade Challenge.
But to Leonel, this was less important than the doubling in territory size. Although it was said to be double, mathematically, it was much more than that. Increasing the radius of their territory from 50 kilometers to 100 kilometers meant that so much more would be within range.
The two split up. Leonel returned to the village to use the upgrades they had gained while Aina had set her sights on the last three challenges that were within their current territories.
Upon returning, Leonel used the upgrades. The village wands expanded, grew taller and much thicker. At the same time, they changed from mud walls to walls built with thick cement blocks, rising to just over ten meters in height.
Leonel began to go through the upgrades one by one, adjusting his calculations. His pupils flickered back and forth and he went through an obscene amount of information in just a few seconds.
Unfortunately, not all of the rules of the Heir Wars were known in full detail ahead of time. Well, the rules themselves were, but some small details like these and upgrades weren't hashed out ahead of time, otherwise Leonel would have long memorized them and not even wasted time.
"Most valuable upgrades are double height, double thickness, and the addition of the moat. Of these, the moat is most important because this region has no water whatsoever and the land is especially dry. It's also very flat and doesn't have many terrain advantages..."
One might wonder why Leonel was worrying about water. At this stage, he could last months even without food, water or sleep... normally, anyway.
Unfortunately, much like how he felt the need to sleep regularly in the Cataclysm Zone, this region had an added suppression that forced others into a similar state. Soon, food and the like would become necessary.
For now, the speed of choosing a barren land trumped the future potential troubles that it could bring. However, this wouldn't last forever, so Leonel was already thinking of methods to deal with the issue. And, as he had deduced, because of the gamified nature of the Heir Wars, there would be plenty of methods of dealing with this.
"The total needed for these upgrades is about 20 000. Plus what we'll need for the Silver-Grade upgrade, and that places our needs at around 70 000 points right now. There's no easy way to gather that quickly, we'll have to change our strategy after clearing out the region and look for some dungeons or bosses. If we're lucky..."
Silver-Grade challenges were rare at the start of the Heir Wars. The only way to get them to appear and thus gain more points per challenge was to upgrade to a Silver-Grade territory, or to explore the wilderness and hope you stumbled across one by luck. Leonel wouldn't waste time on the second, and the first was obviously out of reach due to the lack of points for a Silver-Grade upgrade to begin with. So, everything came full circle.
Leonel shifted his attention from the upgrade list and scanned the new territory map.
"Excellent."
With a flicker, Leonel vanished and used the same strategy as Aina. He picked out three challenges and carved out a path between them. He would start with the simple ones first and leave the more complex ones to last. If the more complex challenges could be completed quickly by him alone, he would move forward and do so.
If it required the two of them, he would return to the territory and work together with Aina to clear the challenge. If the both of them ran into such a challenge, they would clear both before rinsing and repeating.
The silence in the Human Domain while watching this scene was palpable. Leonel and Aina's movements weren't even the most entertaining, but they were so precise and well-oiled that it was suffocating in its own right.
In just half a day, the two had cleared two dozen challenges while the next closest group didn't even have a dozen despite the fact many were working in groups larger than just a pair by now.
Leonel and Aina were supposedly the weakest, they were in the smallest group, and yet they were leagues beyond.
After all the challenges in their territory were cleared, Leonel and Aina gained 22 000 points and several other rewards. The many rewards were mostly related to territory upgrades, including irrigation systems, farms, carefully bred animals and the like. Leonel's favorite, however, were the three outposts they had gained.
Outposts could be placed on the outskirts of their territory and they gain an additional 10 kilometers of range to their territory map.
Leonel planted two and took the third with him as he and Aina headed toward the final challenge within their territory.
As for the points, rather than using it on the village, Leonel used 10 000 to trade for Aina's battle ax and another 10 000 to trade for the White Lion Bow, and finally the remaining 2000 points on more raw materials.
The members of the Constellation Bow Alliance could only seethe when they saw this, there was nothing they could do.
Ancestor Mito's gaze turned malevolent, but he calmed himself. Soon, the bow would return to where it was meant to be. Now that he had brought it out and set such a challenge, it was only a matter of time.
Nearby the dungeon Leonel and Aina were headed toward, three members of the Constellation Bow Alliance had already appeared and scouted out before preparing to return with the information to the main group.
But how could Leonel not know what was happening within his own territory?
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