• The Guard Tower of the Desert (Lv 1) has been completed.

• Through the exceptional construction abilities of a skilled architect, all combat abilities have increased by 20%.

• The public order of the base has increased by 5.

• From now on, ‘Elemental Magic Defense Towers’ can be built.

• Do you wish to check the information of the Guard Tower of the Desert (Lv 1)?

Ian, who stood in front of the Guard Tower that was wrapped in a white light and stood tall towards one side of the rampart, read through the messages that popped up along with the completion of the construction as he nodded his head.

“I will check.”

As he did so, information related to the Guard Tower popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.

Ring-

• Guard Tower of the Desert

Lv 1 (0/98,500,000)

(The requirements needed to level up have not been met.)

Offensive Power: 6500 (+1300)

Defensive Power: 4500 (+900)

Vitality: 200,000 (+40,000)

Attack Speed: 0.85/Sec (+0.05)

Field of Vision: 2652 m

Inherent Ability

*Steel Catapult

When attacking, a steel catapult with a 15% chance of ignoring 50% of the opponent’s Defensive Power is launched.

The destructive power of the steel catapult is 150% of its basic Offensive Power.

It is the most basic defense building the desert tribes can build on a base.

Although its Attack Speed is on the slower side, if hit, there will be an unavoidably large amount of damage.

“Keuh!”

After reading through the explanation, an exclamation naturally flowed out of Ian’s mouth.

This was because, although it was a normal defense tower that was exceptional in single targeting and couldn’t even have an Inherent Ability, its abilities were tremendous.

‘As expected… Even though it is a basic tower, is it like this because it’s the central continent?’

As the map where the base was built itself was a different class from the northern continent from the beginning, even the basic towers had such incredible combat abilities.

On top of that, thanks to having brought over an exceptional architect NPC who was in charge of almost all of the construction in the northern continent domain, they were even granted additional stats, so it had outrageous stats to be calling it a basic defense tower.

“They’ll be completed in order now, right?”

Ian mumbled as he surveyed the defense towers that were being built along the rampart.

And shortly after, just like he said, they began to be completed in clockwise order.

• The Guard Tower of the Desert (Lv 1) has been completed.

• The Guard Tower of the Desert (Lv 1) has been completed.

Ian wore a pleased expression.

“The money that was poured in wasn’t a waste!”

At the thought that they could now block off the attacks of Desert Warriors even with their eyes closed, laughter continuously flowed from Ian’s mouth.

Fiolan, who stood next to Ian and watched the grand sight of the defense towers being completed with him, asked him.

“Ian, then are you planning on building higher-ranking towers now? Thanks to the training ground, we do have enough funds…”

Ian nodded his head as he replied.

“We should. The performance of the basic guard tower is satisfying, but still, as it is a single target-type and on top of that, its attack speed is slow, if they come in floods, there will definitely be a limit.”

The Elemental Magic Defense Tower, which was the defense tower that was just one step above the basic tower, was a defense tower that could attack using AoE magic.

As they had arranged enough single target-type towers, it was definitely now time to build AoE attack towers.

Ian continued his words.

“And as we build elemental magic towers, let’s extend the rampart more as well. I think that we’ll need at least three layers for the defense wall to be at ease, for me that is.”

At those words, Fiolan’s two eyes slightly rounded.

“Three layers? If you plan on doing that, the resources and the labour force that is required will be tremendous.”

Ian nodded his head.

“That’s right. Since we’re going to build it twice from the outer wall, the volume will also increase more than the pre-existing rampart. However, it is necessary. I have too much of a bad feeling right now.”

“About what?”

“I’m talking about how we don’t know how far the Luspel Empire’s Line of Defense will be pushed back.”

Fiolan scratched the back of her head as she spoke.

“Pfft, still, it probably won’t be pushed back further than the line that our base is on. I think that since other guilds are also building a line of defense on the line that our base is on, if the line of defense is formed around here, we should be able to block them off, no?”

However, Ian was incredibly pessimistic.

“I’m not sure…”

Fiolan opened her mouth again.

“But even if we set aside the resources, we lack manpower. In order to extend the rampart as well, even if we employ all of the manpower we have, I think it will take a couple months.”

Truthfully, Ian was also worried about this part the most.

This was because there was even a limit to pulling over manpower from the outside using money.

However, just then, Herz, who was just silently listening to the two people’s conversation, opened his mouth.

“Jinsung, I have a good idea.”

And Fiolan and Ian’s gazes turned towards Herz at the same time.

“What kind of idea?”

At Ian’s question, Herz grinned as he replied.

“Let’s ask your fan club to help out a little.”

“Fan club? What are you talking about?”

Instead of Ian, who wore a puzzled expression as he didn’t know the English words, Fiolan agreed enthusiastically as she raised her voice.

“Ah, right. There’s that method. If it is them, they may be a little willing to gladly help us.”

“Huhu, as long as we prepare a small reward in return for their work, that is.”

While Herz and Fiolan excitedly mapped out their plans, Ian, who had absolutely no idea on the existence of the fan club, couldn’t do anything else but continue to be puzzled.

“Anyways, Yoohyun, so then are you saying that you can take care of the manpower problem?”

Herz nodded his head energetically.

“Yeah, definitely!”

Ian wore a slightly doubtful expression, but as Herz nodded his head with an expression full of such certainty, he decided to trust him.

“So then, the process of making a blueprint for the fort for perfect defense only remains now.”

This time Herz wore a confused expression as he asked Ian back.

“What blueprint? Do we even need a blueprint for building stacking up the outer wall? We can just stack them.”

Ian shook his head as he replied.

“No, no, I have no intentions of making such a simple rampart. We’re going to make it like a fort.”

Fiolan asked Ian with an excited expression.

“Then are you planning on personally drawing the blueprint, Ian?”

Ian wagged his index finger.

“No, no, why would I draw the blueprint?”

“Then?”

“We’re going to bring an expert.”

“An expert?”

“Yes. Professor Lee Jinook has already requested him.”

Herz wore a dumbfounded expression as he asked.

“What are you saying now?”

Ian grinned as he replied.

“The architecture professor at our school is also a Kailan user. Professor Lee Jinook has gone to give him a recruiting offer.”

“…”

“It is VR, but if it was a job where he needed to plan a blueprint for such a large-scale fort like this, he said that he will definitely want to do it, so not to worry.”

“I, I see.”

Herz and Fiolan could only be astonished at Ian’s detail.

* * *

The middle of the desert zone towards the east of the central continent.

In the middle of where three giant guild flags were flapping, three men sat in front of the round table of the temporarily-built barracks.

They were each the Guild Masters of the 3 largest guilds in the Luspel Empire, the Splendor Guild and the Oaklan Guild, as well as the Valiant Guild.

And the expressions of the three people were incredibly serious.

“The fighting power of the Titan Guild and the DarkRuna Guild are incredibly stronger than expected. We are somehow still holding up, but the loss towards our guild is also too big. We may even end up having to give more than 2/3 of the central continent to our opponents if this continues.”

At the words of Samuel Jin, who was the Guild Master of the Oaklan Guild, the Guild Master of the Splendor Guild, Martin, replied.

“But it’s not like we have another choice, no? We need to hold up the front line no matter what. By any chance, we may not know. That is, that we could obtain an artifact that comes close to the Mark of Magellan from the mysterious shop.”

The mysterious shop was a merchant NPC that appeared at a random coordinate once every so often in the central continent.

An item that inclines gambling could be purchased by using up Specialty Points from him, and recently, Martin had obtained a decent item from the mysterious dealer.

Samuel Jin slightly frowned as he replied.

“You were lucky, Martin. Excluding you, I’ve never heard of someone obtaining a good artifact from the mysterious shop.”

“That’s true, hm…”

The Master of the Valiant Guild, Roy Chen, who had just been listening to the two people’s conversation while remaining still, opened his mouth.

“Then how about this method?”

“What kind of method?”

“From what I’ve found out, high-ranking guilds in the top 50s occupied bases at the front lines, which had low competition in comparison, and were building a line of defense. After we intentionally retreat up to where their base is and form a front line, how about we use their defensive wall and their defense towers and proceed with the war in defense-mode?”

At the words of Roy Chen, who had a point, the two remaining people were momentarily submerged in their thoughts.

The silence continued for quite a long time, and the first person to open his mouth was Samuel Jin.

“It is a good idea, but I think even that is dangerous.”

Roy Chen asked back.

“Why’s that?”

“Even if they are guilds ranking in the top 50s, aren’t their fighting power obvious? It’s not like a penny or two goes into building defense towers and a rampart, and the chances that even they temporarily occupied a base at the thought of ditching and retreating if they slip-up are high. They probably won’t even be able to play the role of our line of defense properly either. From what I’ve seen, there are guilds that are even close to the outside of top 100, not top 50.”

“Hmm…”

As expected, his words did prove a point.

Samuel Jin, who momentarily organized the thoughts inside his head, opened his mouth again.

“In my opinion.”

“Go ahead.”

“I think that it would be better to sturdily build a line of defense with the mid-back area where the bases of the guilds that are in the top 10-20 have mainly formed and block off opponents there instead.”

Martin, who sat there wordlessly, nodded his head as he agreed with Samuel Jin’s words.

“My thoughts are the same as Jin’s. We won’t be able to block off the attack of the empire’s military and the giant Kailan guilds with a line of defense that the guilds in the top 100 built.”

The more rear of an area it was, where a base could be grown more safely in comparison, guilds that were higher in ranking had preoccupied, so naturally, the bases of the giant guilds had formed in the back.

At the two people’s words, Roy Chen fell into a conflict.

This was because it was an opinion that could look sensible at a glance, but it was also an incredibly selfish thought as well.

‘What to do… If we just let go now instead, most small guilds that have settled down at the front lines will all be annihilated…’

However, as expected, the most important thing was their own profit, and in the end, Roy Chen also nodded his head.

“Let’s do that, then. It can’t be helped, but it looks like this is the best choice.”

At Roy Chen’s consent, Samuel Jin nodded his head as he grinned.

“Okay, then we will take it as everybody here has agreed and starting tomorrow, we will start pulling back guild members that are supporting the front lines.”

Martin nodded his head as he opened his mouth.

“As we may not have time to build a defense base in the back if the line of defense collapses too quickly, let’s pull our troops slowly.”

Roy Chen nodded his head with a slightly leery expression.

“… Let’s do that.”