Thinking about how tough it was to level up a Crimson Ultimate Hero, Ethan couldn’t help but feel that bittersweet mix of pain and joy.
"Back to the grind again, huh..." he muttered to himself.
Just then, Elynn came flying over from the distance, her face lit up with excitement.
"Master! Great news!"
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What kind of news? Did you find something?"
"Our scouts just discovered two Level 4 Special Resource collection points—Storm Magnetite veins!" Elynn reported eagerly.
"Storm Magnetite veins?" Ethan blinked, then it hit him—this must be the system reward kicking in!
"What’s the scale?" he asked quickly.
"Colossal! Both of them are colossal veins!"
"Colossal?" Ethan froze for a second, then his eyes went wide with excitement.
"Hell yes! Cicero, looks like your Storm Magnetite is covered!"
He’d expected the system reward to maybe give him a medium or large vein at best. But two colossal ones? That was a hell of a bonus!
In the world of Glory Lords X, all resource nodes—whether they were one of the six basic resources or Special Resources—were ranked by abundance: Small, Medium, Large, Grand, and Colossal.
Which meant these two Storm Magnetite veins were the highest tier possible.
Sure, there were only two of them, which didn’t sound like much on paper...
But in terms of actual output? They were more than enough.
"Seriously? That’s amazing!" Cicero’s eyes lit up, visibly thrilled.
He’d been wondering how to even bring up the topic of Storm Magnetite with Ethan, and now—boom! Two colossal veins, just like that. Maybe not enough for the long haul, but for the short term? More than enough to get started on his evolution path.
"Master, what’s next?" Seraphina suddenly chimed in, practically bouncing with energy. "Can we head out into the world now? The Dungeon army’s gone, and I’m itching for a fight! I’ve got nowhere to vent this energy—it’s driving me nuts!"
With the Dungeon forces retreating, Seraphina had basically run out of worthy opponents in Sylvanwood. And for someone like her—a battle maniac through and through—that was pure torture.
So now, her attention had shifted to the Inferno Devils lurking beyond Sylvanwood’s borders.
Sure, she admitted those sneaky, twisted bastards were probably even tougher than the Black Dragons, Red Dragons, or Shadow Dragons... but that didn’t matter.
She was Seraphina, proud warrior of the Green Dragon clan. And she never backed down from a fight.
"Not so fast..." Ethan said, shaking his head.
"For now, I want all of you—Seraphina, Cicero, Elynn—work together and sweep through every inch of Sylvanwood. I want a full-scale search. No detail is too small. Leave nothing unchecked."
"Ugh... fine," Seraphina groaned, clearly not thrilled about the assignment.
Still, it was better than sitting around doing nothing.
As for Cicero and Elynn, they didn’t mind at all. To them, the task itself didn’t matter. What mattered was that Ethan had asked them to do it—and that meant they’d give it everything they had.
"Oh, and Elynn," Ethan added, "I need you to compile a full report on Emerald Castle’s current status. Everything—resources, units, infrastructure. I want it all in one place."
"Yes, Master!" Elynn nodded without hesitation.
Not long after, she returned with a neatly organized report, detailing every aspect of Emerald Castle’s current state.
Ethan took the report in hand, eyes scanning quickly.
He still had two unclaimed troop rewards waiting: 500 Tier-13 Legendary Units, and 200 Tier-14 Mythic Units.
Now was the perfect time to make his picks.
Capital: Emerald Castle
Core Territory: Sylvanwood
Vassal Territories: Stellamaris Kingdom, Crimsonstar Kingdom, Gemspire Kingdom
Resource Points: Multiple gold mines and various basic resource nodes
Special Resource Nodes: Magic Pattern Vein (Level 2)
Dragon Cliff (Green Dragon) ×5
Additional dwellings for Tier 1–12 units (various)
Sacred Kirin ×20 Googlᴇ search nοvelfire.net
Tier 11–12 Units: 1300+ (various types)
Tier 1–10 Units: Numerous (various types)
Crimson Ultimate Heroes:
Green Dragon Seraphina (Lv. 60)
Green Dragon Cicero (Lv. 58)
Ancient War Tree Oakenmaw (Lv. 15)
Legendary (Orange) Heroes:
Unicorn Elyra (Lv. 68)
Elven Unicorn Knight Elynn (Lv. 44)
Treant Eldorin (Lv. 56)
Dragonblood Elf Lilith (Lv. 58)
Mana Crystal Dragon Zyraxis (Lv. 69)
Bronze Golem Karnak (Lv. 63)
The Tidebreaker Paxton (Lv. 66)
Archmage Eldrin (Lv. 75)
Epic (Purple) Heroes:
Gold Golem Halston (Lv. 60)
Gold Golem Arbachel (Lv. 60)
Treant Bromir (Lv. 60)
Tideborn Spirit Thalassa (Lv. 51)
Merfolk Seer Mareth (Lv. 55)
Multiple Common (White) and Rare (Blue) heroes
Ancient Behemoth Balthazar
Stellamaris Kingdom: Basic Fortress
This was the final, streamlined report Elynn had compiled after carefully organizing all the data.
And as Ethan scanned through it, he couldn’t help but be a little stunned.
When did I get this strong...? he thought to himself.
He hadn’t even realized it, but somewhere along the way, his forces had grown into a true powerhouse.
"Thanks, Elynn. You really went all out on this," he said sincerely.
Then, glancing back at the report, he asked casually,
"By the way, where are Cicero and Seraphina?"
Elynn gave a small, helpless smile.
"Seraphina couldn’t wait any longer. She took the Green Dragon army and charged off to sweep through Sylvanwood on her own. Cicero had no choice but to follow her."
"I stayed behind to report to you first, so I haven’t joined them yet."
Ethan blinked, then let out a sigh and shook his head with a wry smile.
"Figures. That girl’s got zero patience..."
Still, he didn’t seem too bothered.
"Eh, let them go. It’s not a big deal. With those two out there, nothing’s gonna get past them anyway."
Then he turned to Elynn, his expression shifting slightly.
"But you—actually, you’re just the person I wanted to talk to. There’s something I need your opinion on."