Chapter 54: The Aftermath of War!
Dozens of dazzling golden alerts filled Kaiden's field of vision. He caught only scattered fragments of them — he was in no state to review them properly while still inside this dark tunnel. Even so, he had grasped the most important piece of information among all of them: he had killed the Lord of the hostile territory. The possibility had occurred to him during the battle, but now it was confirmed.
At the same time, he noticed that the sounds of fighting behind him had completely ceased. The clash of weapons, the explosions, and the roars that had filled the tunnel moments ago had fallen silent — but the disappearance of the battle's noise revealed something else far more clearly: the groans of the wounded. No enemy remained alive, which meant those sounds belonged to his own men.
Kaiden turned around and began walking with a heavy heart.
The elite soldiers had fought a brutal battle on this side of the tunnel. He saw many of the wounded receiving Health Recovery Potions from their comrades, while others busied themselves stopping bleeding or helping the injured to stand. Among them he spotted Golan — his face and body completely covered in red and purple blood. Despite his numerous wounds and several still-bleeding gashes, he moved steadily among the soldiers, checking on each of them as though his own pain were of no concern to him.
When Kaiden checked Golan's status board, he discovered he had already reached his rank threshold. That came as no surprise — Kaiden himself had reached his threshold too. This fierce battle had yielded an enormous amount of experience, and many elite soldiers had come close to hitting their rank limit. But those gains had not come without a price.
His steps slowed when his eyes fell on the side of the tunnel where three bodies had been carefully laid beside one another. During the battle, system notifications had been flooding his vision without pause, leaving him no time to focus on them. Now he understood that some of those notifications had not been about enemies.
They had been about his own soldiers.
At that moment he heard Ibla's sorrowful voice inside his mind.
I'm sorry, master… I couldn't stop all of them from getting past me.
Kaiden exhaled quietly before responding:
It wasn't your fault, Ibla. Without you, the casualties would have been far greater.
Those weren't merely words of comfort. They were the truth. Had she not cornered that large number of Liclron inside the tunnel and prevented them from advancing, the losses would have been far worse.
Even so, that understanding did nothing to lighten the weight pressing against his chest.
His soldiers had fought in several battles since arriving in Aurandra, and he had understood from the beginning that losses were unavoidable.
Especially in difficult battles like this one — fighting enemies who possessed strong racial advantages and battling within those enemies' ideal environment.
He also knew that the wars to come would be far fiercer, and that more soldiers would fall as his conflicts expanded in scale.
But knowing something and facing it are two different things.
When he stood before the three bodies, he felt grief seeping into his depths despite every effort to approach the matter rationally. He had known these men — remembered when he had summoned them and how they had grown within the territory, remembered their names and their faces too.
Then his eyes lingered on one of them longer than the others.
There was a wide hole in his chest where his heart had been. The moment he saw it, he recognized him immediately. How could he forget? He had promoted him to elite soldier with his own hands that very morning. He still remembered the excitement that had filled the man's face during the ceremony, the genuine gratitude in his eyes, the wide smile that never left him throughout the entire promotion.
He had been one of the very first militia soldiers Kaiden had summoned since the territory's founding.
His name was Gerald — the swordsman.
"They all fought with courage to the very end, my lord."
Kaiden raised his head to find Golan had stopped beside him. The grief in his voice was unmistakable as he looked at the bodies.
"Gerald especially. When one of the enemies caught him off guard and managed to tear out his heart with a sudden attack, he didn't fall back. Even as he was dying, he killed his opponent with his sword before collapsing dead alongside him."
Kaiden stayed silent for several seconds before nodding slowly.
"They were truly brave."
He concealed his feelings as best he could before adding in a steady voice:
"Clean up the battlefield and carry our soldiers' bodies. I'll be waiting for you above."
And the moment he heard his soldiers' responses, he began climbing.
It had been a long day.
Everything had begun with the sudden appearance of this threat, then escalated into a life-or-death battle, and ended with his territory's first real losses.
He felt a strange heaviness with each step he took toward the surface — his pace far slower than the speed at which he had descended.
When he finally emerged from the opening Ibla had made, he felt like a different person from who he had been just a few hours ago. It wasn't simply a matter of victory or defeat — it was an experience that had left its mark on him. He seemed calmer and more mature, but also more subdued. For despite emerging victorious, he had understood with new depth just how fragile humans were compared to many of the other races in this world.
He let out a long breath and expelled those thoughts from his mind.
In truth, what he wanted more than anything right now was a cold bath — but there was still something important to complete before the day was over.
He raised his eyes toward the Lord's Hall.
After obtaining the large quantities of iron, he now possessed nearly all the upgrade requirements — but the Lord's Hall was still at Level Seven, meaning he needed to upgrade it twice before he could take his next step.
He confirmed the first upgrade immediately.
White light flooded the entire building, but Kaiden was not in the right state of mind to inspect the new improvements that Level Eight had brought. All his focus was on the requirements for the next level.
Fortunately, he still had enough iron.
So the moment the first upgrade finished, he began the second without pause.
White light enveloped the newly expanded Lord's Hall, and the transformation process continued for some time before the light gradually faded, revealing the building's new appearance.
It had to be admitted — the changes this time were immense.
Having reached Level Nine, describing it as the "Lord's Hall" was no longer quite fitting. "Lord's Palace" was a more accurate term.
A full third floor had been added to the building, and the entire structure had expanded into a balanced square shape. Even so, the new floor wasn't what drew Kaiden's attention most.
On the building's roof, four massive polished stone platforms reinforced with iron-bracketed corners rose roughly two meters above the surface, distributed across the palace's four sides. And atop each platform rested a formidable defensive mechanism — an enormous iron ballista mounted on a rotating base that allowed free and flexible rotation.
Despite the night having fallen, Kaiden could make out the sharp metallic gleam of the bolts loaded into them. Those bolts were so large that each one looked the size of a small tree.
It was a tremendous addition.
With these defenses in place, he no longer needed to worry about the Lord's Hall being targeted by airborne units after the protective barrier's removal.
As for the rest of the improvements — he could inspect them during the day.
Now, with all requirements met, the time for the most important step had arrived.
Upgrading the Lord's Crown to the Silver tier. Kaiden selected the upgrade without any hesitation.
In the next moment, white light swept across the entire territory, and a new wave of expansion coursed through the lands under his control. The process continued for several minutes before a system notification appeared announcing the upgrade's completion.
[System Notification: Congratulations! The Lord's Crown has been upgraded to the Silver Crown tier.]
---
[Lord's Crown]
Tier: Silver
Attributes:
- Territory Area: 6,000m × 6,000m
- Daily Summon: 50 residents (cooldown period)
- Territory Resident Upgrade System
- Lord's Status Interface
- New: Crown Fragment Absorption
- New: Victory Options Unlocked
Upgrade Requirements:
- Upgrade Lord's Hall to Level 12
- Total of 100 buildings constructed
- Total forces under the Lord's command: 100 (Elite and above)
- Origin Points: 200
- Feed the current Lord's Crown with 10 Black Iron-tier Crown Fragments, or 3 Silver Fragments, or 1 Gold Fragment
---
Kaiden studied the interface with great interest.
The changes were considerable.
The first thing that caught his attention was the territory's area doubling to six thousand meters by six thousand meters — roughly thirty-six square kilometers. An enormous expanse, frankly larger than he could manage at his current level.
Fortunately, the walls and defensive structures would be built automatically when the Beginner Protection period ended. Otherwise he would have needed years to build suitable fortifications around this vast area — which was entirely impractical in a fast-moving world like Aurandra.
The number of residents that could be summoned daily had also risen from twenty to fifty.
And that was excellent news.
His territory was currently suffering from a severe shortage of both workers and soldiers, and every increase in population would directly accelerate his growth rate.
But what drew his attention more than anything else were the last two lines under the attributes.
The upgrade had added two entirely new features.
He raised an eyebrow with interest.
"Crown Fragment Absorption… and Victory Options?"
---
— End of Chapter Fifty-Four —
Author’s note: For anyone who’d like to support me so I can continue this long journey, there are ten advanced chapters available on Patreon for just $5. Here’s the link to my account. Thank you!
/c/strangerforgets/membership