The Greedy Queen

When the Void Pool reached Level 10, an unexpected set of options appeared.

"Seriously, this isn't even a choice."

The Void Pool was the very foundation of the legion. Choosing anything other than option three here would be sheer madness.

My gaze shifted to my remaining points.

"Did they plan this?"

Perhaps it was because I knew the Tower was watching me, but I couldn't help but suspect it was playing some sort of prank.

"Sigh... I was planning to buy a few decent special abilities and upgrade my skills."

But now that an offer I couldn't refuse had appeared, my hands were tied.

Unlike the previous floors, the fourth floor took place in a city. I wouldn't be able to use the strategy of mindlessly grinding down trees to pump out resources.

"Ugh, looking at the special upgrades for the Void Pool and Void Dogs is just going to make my stomach churn..."

Squinting my eyes, I skipped past the descriptions of the newly unlocked skills and checked only the prices. Unsurprisingly, they were all over 3,000 points.

"Look at this, Poppy. Does anything here seem more important than evolving the Void Pool?"

"Woof."

"Cut the crap and just evolve the Void Pool, you say?"

I had no choice but to select option three.

I decided to save the remaining points.

"Next, I should look at my stats..."

After a moment of deliberation, I distributed my remaining stat points.

A clean set of stats. Honestly, I had planned to see how I fared against the evil god's mental attacks on the third floor before deciding whether to invest more in Mana. Unfortunately, the evil god never showed up on the third floor.

Having finished spending my points and distributing my stats, I exited the Tower to conduct some experiments.

"Alright, let's go."

"Woof! Woof!"

Accompanied by the Void Dogs that had been faithfully guarding the fourth floor, I headed toward the Void Pool I had created earlier.

The purple Void Pool dominated a small stream. To construct a new Void Pool, I first had to reclaim the existing one.

Though it was incredibly small compared to the Void Pools I had built inside the Tower, reclaiming it took a whopping thirty minutes.

Considering that the larger a Void Pool was and the more resources it consumed, the harder it was to reclaim, it would be difficult to dismantle a pool built inside the Tower and set up a new one during an emergency.

The only reason I had been able to consume the vanguard and establish a new Void Pool on the third floor was because I had kept one of my pools small in advance.

"I need to test the maximum size of the Void Pool too."

I turned my gaze toward the lake before me. It was a massive body of water, too vast to take in with a single glance.

While the Void Pool in the stream might show up on satellite imagery, this was a city overrun by monsters. The government was unlikely to pay much attention to a small purple puddle of this size.

However, if a lake of that scale turned purple, the government might assume a mutant entity had appeared and dispatch an expedition team.

"A bit of a shame, but I'll have to test it inside the Tower."

"Woof!"

"Huh? You caught more? Good job."

While I prepared to construct the Void Pool, Poppy and the Void Dogs kept bringing back goblins to serve as resources for the new pool.

Wood was the easiest resource to obtain, but if all the trees in the vicinity suddenly vanished, it would draw unwanted attention.

Until I amassed enough power, it was best to avoid doing anything conspicuous.

After waiting a short while, the old Void Pool vanished, revealing the dry bed of the stream.

Purple liquid began to fill the dry stream bed. On the outside, it looked no different from a standard Void Pool.

But the resources required to produce the legion units—

Void Grub (50)
Void Dog (100)
Void Flower (500)
Seeker (10,000)

—the cost to spawn these children had been cut in half.

"Poppy."

"Woof."

Poppy nudged the piled-up goblin corpses into the Void Pool one by one. As soon as enough resources accumulated, I ordered the production of a Void Flower.

Ten minutes later, a brown stalk slithered out of the Void Pool like a snake. The stalk stood upright in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠front of me, turning its head to survey its surroundings.

When I pointed to the second floor of the adjacent building, the snake-like stalk scaled the wall as if climbing a tree.

Settling into the spot I had indicated, the Void Flower bloomed into a massive pink blossom.

"Can you come down here?"

At my gesture, the suction cups gripping the wall detached, and the flower descended. The vines connected to the blossom swept across the ground like serpents.

"How high can you climb?"

A purple tentacle emerged from the center of the flower and pointed toward the sky.

"Up there?"

The tentacle was pointing at a nearby twenty-nine-story apartment building. It was the tallest structure in the area.

"Is that your limit? Or..."

The Void Flower waved its tentacle from side to side.

"There's no limit?"

The Void Flower curled its tentacle into a circle.

While I was conversing with the Void Flower, newly spawned Void Flowers crawled out of the Void Pool.

"For now, take up positions on that street over there and hunt some monsters."

I pointed toward the street where my hideout was located. A two-lane road ran in front of my hideout, and monsters occasionally wandered by.

In truth, even if they positioned themselves twenty-nine stories high, the length of their tentacles was limited, so it wouldn't be very practical.

In any case, now that I had verified the effects of the new ability, it was time to climb the Tower.

I returned to the fourth floor of the house I had claimed earlier and entered the fourth floor on Impossible difficulty.

As the safe zone dissolved, a room resembling a medieval noble's bedroom came into view. It featured a luxurious bed with frilled curtains and a massive window.

Without hesitation, I rushed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to the window.

The city landscape unfolded beyond the glass.

A five-meter-high wall enclosed the small city, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a harbor where large ships lay anchored was visible in the distance.

Beside the harbor stretched a white sandy beach.

Beyond the distant city walls, a forest loomed behind a translucent white barrier.

Except for certain turning points, the floors of the Tower were interconnected. This meant one could anticipate the missions of the next floor based on the monsters encountered on the previous one.

The fourth floor was a defense mission where players had to hold off waves of enemies until reinforcements arrived in the city. Depending on the scenario, the city could be situated in the middle of a plain or have a cliff at its back.

And among those, the most difficult environment was, without a doubt, a coastal city. While other cities could leverage the defensive advantages of their walls, a coastal city vulnerable to attacks via the harbor and sandy beach rendered its walls practically meaningless.

Of course, one could abandon the coast and defend from the inner castle, but...

"Unless the Count is completely out of his mind, there's no way he'll abandon the citizens."

"Woof."

"Threaten him? No. The Count's support is absolutely essential for this fourth floor."

It was impossible to cram nearly ten thousand people into the cramped inner castle. Even if we somehow managed to squeeze them all in, the sheer density of the crowd would paralyze any proper defensive operations.

Having finished my assessment of the situation, I immediately leaped out the window.

"Lord Haram, breakfast is ready."

It sounded like someone was knocking on the bedroom door behind me, but now was not the time to waste on trivialities.

I had awakened in a third-floor bedroom. Below the window lay a small, well-tended garden, with water flowing from a fountain at its center.

While water wasn't strictly necessary to create a Void Pool, having it allowed the pool to grow much faster.

"Poppy."

"Woof!"

Crack!

I converted the fountain into a Void Pool and tossed the surrounding trees into it.

"Lord Haram! What on earth are you doing?!"

The sudden commotion threw the mansion into an uproar. Amidst the servants watching the spectacle from a distance, a man dressed in a tailcoat appeared and rushed toward me.

"Fetch the Count. This is extremely urgent."

"What is the meaning of this sudden..."

"I haven't received the reward I was promised in the forest yet, right? Tell him I'm collecting it now."

"...Very well. What you have accomplished, Lord Haram, cannot be compared to a mere garden. However, please, at least inform me beforehand next time."

I placated the man, who appeared to be the butler, while waiting for the Void Grub to emerge. After five minutes, the Void Grub crawled out of the Void Pool.

I scooped the Void Grub into my arms and climbed onto Poppy's back.

"Poppy, let's go."

"Woof!"

Poppy leaped forward, bounding into the air. Once we reached the top of the city wall, I could see the dense forest in the distance, partially obscured by a translucent barrier.

The white barrier marked the boundary of the fourth floor. Approaching the barrier, I set the Void Grub down on the ground and pointed toward the distant forest.

"Alright, move out."

While climbers scaling the Tower could not pass through the white barrier, the NPCs native to the floor could cross it without any trouble.

Poppy and I were blocked by this barrier and could not reach ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the forest, but how would the Tower classify a Void Grub produced by the Void Pool?

Oblivious to my racing heart, the Void Grub crawled sluggishly toward the barrier.

If the creatures spawned from the Void Pool were treated as NPCs and could cross the barrier, gathering resources would become infinitely easier, and my strategic options would expand exponentially.

The moment the Void Grub made contact with the barrier, its body slipped right through, stepping into the outskirts of the forest.

"Poppy."

"Roar!"

The moment my command fell, Poppy began digging into the ground like an excavator.

"Lady Haram! What is this urgent matter you spoke of?!"

The city gates swung open in the distance, and the Count came rushing toward us accompanied by his servants.

"Tomorrow morning, right after sunrise, enemies will swarm the city's shores. Gather everyone living in the city."

Though Poppy and I could not enter the forest before us, we had nearly ten thousand excellent workers at our disposal.