Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 556: Hathaway Fort

Very soon, four to five hundred people crowded into the conference hall on the first floor of Liwei Fort.

These were the middle and high-ranking officials of the legions and the five departments.

It couldn't be helped. With a large number of people, they had to be managed, and management required giving authority. Once authority increased, they became the middle management of the territory.

Soon, everyone took their seats one after another, while Li Wei led the twelve Territory Advisors to sit at the very front: Hathaway, Li Yue, Second Aunt, Zhao Xuanxuan, Thomas, He Yibo, Tar, A Su, Jocelyn, Victor, Chekhov, and Zhao Qingshan.

Well, as the territory expanded, the number of Founding Share holders also had to increase. So over the past eight years, after weighing the options, especially after comprehensive consideration of all aspects, Jocelyn, Victor, Chekhov, and Zhao Qingshan were included as Territory Advisors, each given 0.5% of the Founding Shares.

Among these considerations, Loyalty was an important factor, but it didn't represent everything.

First and foremost, their comprehensive abilities had to be strong.

Chekhov had already advanced to a 3rd-Tier Spellcaster, with a Loyalty Level of 100, so he was naturally qualified.

Zhao Qingshan had barely managed to advance to a 3rd-Tier Night Warrior, and his Loyalty Level was ultimately forcibly pulled up to 97, which was already pretty good.

As for Jocelyn and Victor, one was a heavy cavalryman trained in the Blazing Territory, and the other was a Heavy Cavalry Veteran who came from Ah Qing's Territory.In terms of ability, both were currently no inferior to Li Yue.

Especially Victor, this Heavy Cavalry Veteran, was even superior when it came to commanding troops.

This was very good.

It was equivalent to freeing Li Yue up, whether to stay at home and take care of the children or to guard Liwei Fort; both were good options.

As the cornerstone of the territory, Liwei Fort had to have an outstanding heavyweight figure in all aspects to hold down the fort after Li Wei led the army on an expedition.

It is worth mentioning that over the past few years, Li Yue successfully completed the adjustment of her Profession Cards, and then, with Adai's help, smoothly advanced to a 4th-Tier Dawn Knight.

Actually, Li Wei had suggested that she upgrade her Dawn Knight Card to Radiant, or at worst, to Aurora.

But Li Yue believed that the price was too high. She only needed to stay behind to guard Liwei Fort, and advancing to the 4th-Tier was enough.

It wouldn't be too late to upgrade the prefix if there was a chance in the future.

Just like that, the position of Legion Commander of the Blazing Legion was officially handed over to Jocelyn, while Victor, Javier, and Chang Wei served as Deputy Legion Commanders and concurrently Chiliarchs.

All four of them possessed outstanding abilities, and at the same time, they balanced the two factions of the Blazing Territory and Ah Qing's Territory.

In the past eight years, these four also upgraded their Profession Cards to Rare, and currently all of them had advanced to 3rd-Tier Dawn Knights.

Although the 4th-Tier was undoubtedly better, in legion combat, the gap between the 3rd-Tier and 4th-Tier wasn't actually that large. The legion itself was more important.

Currently, the total troop strength of the Blazing Legion had expanded to 1,000 men, but in reality, two hundred of them had to stay behind to guard Liwei Fort.

Among these thousand men, aside from the newly added recruits, the remaining 832 Veterans had all without exception reached the level of 3rd-Tier Night Knight.

As for those forty Centurions, they had all uniformly reached 3rd-Tier Dark Moon Knight, each with a 5-Star Warhorse. Such combat power directly occupied nearly half the field.

As for He Yibo's Ice Legion, it had added four new Chiliarchs, also split evenly between those originating from the Blazing Territory and those from Ah Qing's Territory.

He Yibo was currently a 4th-Tier Dawn Warrior.

And the four newly added Chiliarchs—Leonard, Noddington, Wang Chi, and Chen Bo—had all worked hard to reach 3rd-Tier Dark Moon Warrior.

As for the original 1,500 Veterans of the entire Ice Legion, five hundred of them had smoothly advanced to 3rd-Tier Night Warrior. The remaining one thousand Veterans were actually qualified as well, but they simply lacked enough resources and could only wait for the next wave.

Then, based on these 1,500 Veterans, the Ice Legion continued to expand to six thousand men.

From two hundred thousand commoners, picking out some qualified soldiers was naturally not a problem.

Moreover, these troops were actually quite formidable. Because the upgrades for 1-Star Profession Cards and 2-Star Profession Cards didn't require Clearance Tokens, and as long as they had enough Experience, they could continuously produce 1-Star Profession Cards and 1-Star Attribute Cards.

So in reality, apart from the children who were too young, these two hundred thousand commoners from Ah Qing's Territory started with All-Attribute Level 1 Awakening on average. Their Destiny Grids easily exceeded 70+, and some even reached the maximum value of 100, which was very powerful.

For example, the more than one hundred new recruits in the Blazing Legion, and the four thousand five hundred new recruits in the Ice Legion. They were recruits in name, but in reality, they were all able-bodied men in their fifties.

Those in their twenties and thirties who wanted to enter the legions were not qualified and could only join the second-line troops, because their Destiny Grids were not high enough.

And over the past eight years, on one hand, these recruits had eaten well, and on the other hand, they relied on Adai going out hunting when it had nothing to do. On average, every three to five days, it would harvest a 5-Star or 6-Star Gold Card, which could be exchanged for Tokens and then broken down. Thus, ultimately, all of them could reach the level of a 3-Star Professional.

Fighting hard battles and siege battles was definitely out of the question, but following the main force into battle was absolutely no problem. As long as they had good luck, after one or two battles, these recruits could rapidly advance to 5-Star. There was no helping it; the foundation laid by their Primary Class and Secondary Class was just too good.

Especially since Hathaway had taken the time to enhance their Primary and Secondary Class cards to Rare. Who told them not to lack mana?

What they lacked was Destiny Grids, and what they lacked was Experience.

And aside from these six thousand men in the Ice Legion, Li Wei also conscripted five thousand second-line troops, which were those young commoner recruits in their twenties and thirties. They would be responsible for guarding Liwei Fort.

This was not a problem, because Liwei Fort had undergone further expansion over the past few years, using up the remaining one-third of the 5-Star Ore. Thirty miles to the northeast of Liwei Fort, deep in the valley where two mountains intersected, another main-city-level fortress was built. The third and fourth Magic Power Mines were built there, and Mage Towers were constructed on all of them.

This fortress was named Hathaway Fort. After all, she had given Li Wei a good eldest son.

Of course, these were all trivial matters.

The important thing was that this main-city-level fortress was built against the mountain, forming a multi-level interlocking defense system with the large fortress to the northeast and the surrounding twelve small and medium fortresses.

In this way, the U-shaped valley where Liwei Fort was located was completely occupied and locked down.

On both sides were steep mountain ridges topped with city walls and fortresses, and in the middle was a fertile basin plain.

In front of Liwei Fort was the Ness River, and behind Hathaway Fort were the Locke Mountains, with steep terrain and complex geography. While this terrain might not be enough to serve as the foundation for dominating the world, it was no problem to use it to defend their core territory and project power over a radius of three hundred miles.

If they couldn't be Lords, couldn't they at least be local magnates or an Imperial Aristocratic Clan?

It is also worth mentioning that Second Aunt currently occupied Mage Tower No. 3, which was a 1st-Tier Mage Tower, located right in Hathaway Fort. As a 3rd-Tier Alchemist, and practically a 2nd-Tier Spellcaster, relying on this Mage Tower gave her a decent deterrent capability.

Of course, Second Aunt was primarily engaged in alchemy and preparing Magic Potions.

As for Mage Tower No. 4, it was under the charge of Chekhov. He would not march with the army either; guarding the home base was very important.

At the same time, one of his tasks was to provide protection for Second Aunt. After all, her importance was beyond doubt. So, Kidman, a 2nd-Tier Spellcaster, also came along to share the guard duty, while also cooperating with Chekhov to take charge of the daily defense of Hathaway Fort.

Li Yue would permanently reside in Liwei Fort, while Tucker and Hathaway, these two 3rd-Tier Spellcasters, would depart with the army.

As for the two 2nd-Tier Mage Towers here, they were presided over by the 2nd-Tier Spellcasters Liu Huan and Hank.

These had all been discussed and decided in advance.

However, compared to the Blazing Legion and the Ice Legion, the changes in the Ranger Legion and the Guard Legion were very small.

In the Ranger Legion, only one hundred 5-Star Archers had successfully advanced to 3rd-Tier Night Ranger, but Li Wei immediately transferred fifty of them to the Guard Legion, skimming the cream of the crop.

As for the Ranger Legion, they recruited another five hundred and fifty new archers, who would also march into battle with the army this time.

And the Guard Legion, over the past eight years, had been fully dedicated to grinding Destiny Grids and Experience. Aside from enhancing all their Profession Cards to Rare, only fifty men had advanced to 3rd-Tier Night Ranger.

In addition, Zhao Xuanxuan was also officially incorporated into the Guard Legion this time.

She was the most outstanding Master Enchanter Blacksmith, but now she had also trained a large number of qualified blacksmiths. Furthermore, over the past eight years, she had forged enough Weapons and Equipment, so marching with the army was not a problem.

However, there was really no way she could join the Blazing Legion. Although she also had a 5-Star Warhorse and her riding skills were equally superb and proficient, she was truly out of place in the current Blazing Legion, which followed a route of high-level technical and tactical coordination with a high degree of tacit understanding.

In a sense, Zhao Xuanxuan was also once one of the founders of the Blazing Legion. Over a decade ago, she had led a squad of cavalry to fight endlessly with Magic Zombies on the great plains of the Blazing Territory, rampaging and charging recklessly; she was very formidable.

Now, she was truly phased out. What the Blazing Legion needed were Legion Skills, and her joining would only disrupt the original rhythm.

Moreover, her ability to command troops was just average; serving as a vanguard charging recklessly was her greatest use.

Of course, then again, with Zhao Xuanxuan's personal Blood-Burning +25, Perception +15, Collective Sanity 15, the maxed-out Destiny Grid of 150 for the Rare Blacksmith Card, the 120 Destiny Grid for the Rare Miner Card, the 80 Destiny Grid for Knight, plus a mount like the 5-Star Warhorse, her burst damage output was also top-tier, just like a reckless Zhang Fei. As long as she didn't encounter a hard-counter profession, she was a can-opener weapon on the battlefield, able to play a critical role at crucial moments.

The above was the military force developed and cultivated in Li Wei's territory over these years. The ones he could take out numbered only 8,300 men. If the one thousand men of the Logistics Battalion were included, they could claim to be a grand army of ten thousand.

Li Wei would personally serve as the Commander.

And holding a meeting at this moment was equivalent to a pre-battle mobilization. Although the assembly time given by Tyrant William was six months, in reality, Li Wei had already decided to depart with the entire army in three days, heading out to farm the wilds and develop a bit first. There were too many Veterans in his legion clamoring to be fed and waiting to upgrade.

Now that the power of the Great Frost had downgraded, the spies of the Nean, Samsara Travelers, and Contractors would likely not remain lonely and would infiltrate over. That was perfect; he would launch a comprehensive grand sweep. Now, all sides, front, back, left, and right, were friendly forces. Leading a large army to cross borders would definitely not be a problem.

But he absolutely could not let the enemy infiltrate and cause sabotage and launch surprise attacks in the rear. Although this was unavoidable, it would obviously be excellent if they could deal a heavy blow to the enemy so that they wouldn't be too arrogant.