They ran the whole way back, Billy setting a pace Logan could barely match one-handed and out of breath.
The Undead notification had said thirty minutes. Between the walk out of the cave and the sprint through the trees, they burned through half of it just getting home.
Fifteen minutes left. Maybe less.
The territory wall came into view through the trees, and Logan didn’t slow down until he was through the door.
’Territory.’
He didn’t waste a second. Four thousand two hundred and fifty Tower Points sat waiting, and none of it did any good just sitting there.
He opened the panel and spent the first thousand without blinking.
```
[ Territory upgraded to Level 2 ]
Congratulations on upgrading your territory.
+1 Tower Minion generated for free.
```
Light gathered near the Summoning Circle, and a fourth Minion rose out of it, gray clay settling into the same square-faced shape as the other three.
Logan didn’t have time to greet it properly.
```
[ Player Territory ]
Level: 2 (Tower Points for level up: 2500)
Size: 35 meters radius
Facilities: Summoning Circle, Territory Core Healing Area
Tower Minions: 4
```
The walls he’d built hours ago now sat well inside the new border, a wide ring of open ground surrounding them on every side.
Good. He had room to work with.
He pulled up the blueprint next.
```
[ Blueprint Learned: Mounted Stone-Arrow Crossbow (Tier-1 / Common) ]
Requires: 10 Wood, 10 Stone
```
He checked the stockpile. His Minions had been cutting and quarrying for hours, and the pile behind the wall was well past a hundred of each.
More than enough.
He willed the first crossbow into place on the wall facing the clearing, and it rose out of the wood and stone like the wall itself had grown it, a thick frame bolted together with a crank-loaded stone bolt. Five more went up around the perimeter, one for each side he could reach.
The trenches were already dug, six feet deep and ringing the old wall, courtesy of three Minions and several hours of digging while he’d been underground.
No water in them yet. That would have to wait. Empty was still better than nothing.
Now, with the bigger border, Logan opened the Building Interface again and looked at the wide ring of open ground around his old walls.
Six crossbows. Six directions. He needed the Undead funneled into them, not spread out across open ground where numbers would matter more than aim.
He walked the new border, willing narrow corridors into place, each one running from the outer edge straight toward a mounted crossbow. Walls rose on either side of each path, tall and solid, leaving no room to spread out or flank around.
When he stepped back to look at it from above the summoning circle, the shape clicked into place in his head.
Six points. Six corridors. A wall connecting each point to its neighbors, and lines cutting straight through the middle to the old walls at the center.
A hexagram. A six-pointed star, with his territory core sitting safe in the middle of it.
Anything coming from any direction would have exactly one way in, and that way led straight down a corridor lined with wood and stone, ending at a crossbow with a Tower Minion’s hand on the crank.
He almost smiled. Instructor Hale would have called it overbuilding for a first match. Instructor Hale wasn’t the one who’d have to survive tonight.
"Get in position," Logan told the four Minions, pointing them toward the corridors. "One of you on each crank."
The nearest Minion crossed its arms and turned its blank face away from him.
Logan blinked. "Did you just..."
All four of them stood there, unmoving, square faces somehow managing to look sullen despite having no features to show it with.
"They’re hungry, boss," Billy said from the doorway, not even trying to hide the grin in his voice. "Been working since sunrise on an empty tank. Even clay’s got limits."
Logan didn’t have time to argue with constructs about their feelings. He pulled the wolf meat from the storage ring and split it four ways, dropping a portion in front of each Minion.
"YAYAYA!"
"HEYAYAYA!"
The three of them looked at the 4th one that just came, and started shouting and pointed at him and his portion.
Why was he getting the same portion as them?! That guy hasn’t worked yet!
"Okay, okay!" Logan gave a small piece to the new one and gave bigger pieces to the other three.
The nearest one picked its share up, and something about the way it turned the meat over in its hands looked almost pleased.
"Eat fast," Logan said. "We don’t have long."
He left them to it and turned to the summoning circle. Every second he spent standing around was a second wasted, and he still had a great deal of Tower Points left to spend.
Billy took up a position at the door, blades slowing to a watchful idle, eyes on the tree line.
Logan opened the Summoning Circle interface and looked at what was on offer.
```
[ Upgrade Summoning Circle ]
Cost: 500 Tower Points
```
He spent it without hesitating. If there was ever a night to gamble on a better pull, it was this one.
```
[ Summoning Circle reached Level 2 ]
Normal - 50% | Uncommon - 40% | Rare - 9% | Epic - 1%
```
Epic-rank summons now existed in the pool, at least as a possibility. One percent wasn’t much, but it hadn’t existed at all an hour ago.
He had two thousand seven hundred fifty Tower Points left. Everything on Floor 1 stayed at Tier-1, no matter the rank, but rank still meant the difference between a Minion with a sharp stick and something that could actually hold a line.
He started with Combat Summons.
```
[ Summon: Combat Unit ]
Cost: 100 Tower Points
```
Five times he spent the hundred points, and five shapes rose out of the circle’s light one after another.
A spearman in patchy leather, plain and serious, planted the butt of his weapon against the ground the moment his feet solidified.
```
[ Spear Guardian (Tier-1/Normal) Summoned ]
```
A squat figure with a round iron shield strapped to one arm rolled his shoulders and thumped a fist against his own chest plate, testing it.
```
[ Iron Buckler (Tier-1/Normal) Summoned ]
```
Something built like a boulder with legs cracked its knuckles, each one the size of a fist on its own.
```
[ Stone Fist Brawler (Tier-1/Uncommon) Summoned ]
```
A lean figure wrapped in briars and thorn-vines nocked an arrow made of the same material without needing a quiver.
```
[ Thistleblade Ranger (Tier-1/Uncommon) Summoned ]
```
The fifth light took longer to settle, and when it cleared, something with silver-white fur and frost curling off its breath sat back on its haunches and looked at him with pale blue eyes.
```
[ Frostmaw Direwolf (Tier-1/Rare) Summoned ]
```
Logan stared at it a second longer than the others. A wolf, after everything the last one had cost him. This one just yawned, unbothered, ice crystals drifting off its fangs.
"Guess that’s the theme tonight," he muttered.
He moved on to Production before he could get distracted.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter