Leonel had to function with the assumption that if he could accomplish something, although he was ahead now, that didn't mean others couldn't accomplish it in the future. In fact, there were probably multiple paths to accomplish the same thing, that meant in the future there would likely be others claiming seas and Leonel knew that he had to be one of them. More importantly, he had to be the first among them.
Right now, the only advantage he had outside of his own combat strength was that he was the first to form a Gold-Grade territory. But if he was complacent, soon, others would begin to catch up. If he idled any longer, his advantage would be swallowed up. This was why he had taken the risk to march on the day side continent in the first place.
However, this decision was still many times more difficult. The simple fact was that he didn't see a simple path toward clearing the Heir-Grade upgrade challenge, let alone three times it. He had fought the Heir-Grade threats personally just now, they were monsters.
With the improvements to his strength, he could likely take one down easily now, but a single wave would have a hundred, a fusion challenge would have 300. Most of his subordinates couldn't battle even a single Gold-Grade threat, let alone 300 Heir-Grade threats.
That didn't mention the other elephant in the room… 100 million Gold-Grade threats, or 300 million in this case. That was the population of a decently sized country back on Earth. In the grand scheme of the Human Domain, it was a small number, but it was a crushing mountain to the current Leonel. Even if he had the option he wouldn't be able to control that many soul constructs either, even if he factored in the recent improvement to his Dream Force.
Leonel took a breath and exhaled, closing his eyes.
This had to be done. The only thought process now should be figuring out how.
His eyes snapped open and his focus seemed to have increased. He scanned through the remaining rewards, most of which were still miscellaneous until he landed on one.
This reward was in the shape of a conch one could blow into. There were two options, the first was to summon 10 Heir-Grade threats, the other was to summon one million Gold-Grade threats. All of them would be oceanic beasts.
Leonel's gaze narrowed. 'It seems that I'll have to bring out one more of my trump cards.'
Those watching likely had no idea just how much Leonel was holding back currently. He had many methods that he hadn't used, but that was because he was aware that he was being observed and his goal was never just to win the Heir Wars. His eyes had been on the war that was doubtless to follow once he did win.
In his eyes, this was nothing more than a precursor.
But in order to assure his victory, it seemed he would have to bring out a bit more.
He raised the conch to his lips. His chest expanded and he practically roared into its body. A billowing sound that caused the ocean to become agitated echoed time and time again. Then, he lowered it.
"You all go and rest. When you feel refreshed, continue with the same plan, we'll keep pushing forward like this, there'll only be just one slight change.
"The rewards from dungeons are less predictable and there's no reproducibility. Focus on challenges for now, namely challenges with the highest possibility of producing upgrade clear rewards. Once we've found one more Gold-Grade upgrade challenge clear reward and a territory displacement reward, change your focus back to dungeons."
The others nodded and Leonel handed a ring to Aina.
"Aina, these are the corpses of the Heir-Grade threats I've dealt with until now. From now on, I won't kill them. Is this enough."
Aina swept her senses into it and looked up with a nod. "It's enough. This will last me a very long time."
"Mm. Good." Leonel nodded before flickering and vanishing.
Leonel appeared on the tall city walls, looking down to the churning waters below.
One after another, large oceanic beasts began to appear. Each was at least 20 meters large and they were all stingrays glistening with a silvery black color.
These stingrays were all Gold-Grade threats and with the conch by his side, they were all under Leonel's control.
Leonel hopped down from the city walls and landed on the back of one. He inspected it for a moment before diving below the raging waters.
The scene below could only be described as fascinating. These stingrays went for as far as the eye could see, especially in these dark waters. Their majesty was great and their beauty greater, but this wouldn't do much to help Leonel.
He tested it just now and the amount of control he had over these stingrays was incredibly limited. At beast, he could point them toward a direction to attack and he could group them up. As for how they attacked, that was left up to them.
This army of a million seemed majestic, but they would get chewed up and spit out by an army of 300 million. Even the three million from Leonel's Gold-Grade challenge would have laid waste to them.
However, Leonel still inspected them all one by one. If one was paying attention to his mind, it would be possible to see a perfect replica of each stingray being carefully slotted away. They were accurate down the finest millimeter, completely flawless.
After several moments. Leonel resurfaced.
He commanded the stingrays to stay near the surface and avoid running into the territory of the ocean beasts below. If he lost a few of them for a stupid reason, it would be too late to regret.
Leonel appeared back with his city and exhaled a breath.
Each stingray was a slightly different size, it seemed that he couldn't rely on the Segmented Cube this time.
Although it might be possible to create something simple like a collar with an adjustable size and mass produce it that way, the effects wouldn't be what he wanted. The power would be limited.
Leonel's gaze glowed.
It seemed he would have to act personally again.
As for Leonel's plan… it was about time he put an idea that had been swimming in mind to action.
Back in the Cataclysm Zone, he had seen a concept for armors that could allow troops to fuse their power into one and output more strength than just the sum of their parts. It was akin to working in formation, but with warriors being the nodes instead of something else.
If he wanted to clear the Heir-Grade upgrade challenge as quickly as possible, he would have to create an army of Gold-Grade threats that could destroy a threat 300 times their size.
Little Tolly squirmed from its position on Leonel's wrist, clearly feeling Leonel's battle intent. Or, maybe... It should be called Crafting Intent.
A cold smile spread across Leonel's lips.
These old bastards would have to watch carefully now. The number one Crafter of the younger generation had been him for a very long while, if they truly thought he had opponents, they would be in for a rude awakening.
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