Atlas ordered her skeleton laborers to fill buckets—bought from the store—with water from the lake in her domain. She began storing them in her inventory one after the other. Each water stack took just a single slot, with the quantity indicated numerically. Very convenient, she thought.
She then established a private trade channel with Seo-ah and shipped the water over, smiling mischievously as she summoned another hundred skeletons.
She wasn't going to let Lord Seo-ah drink and drop the bucket before she slapped her across the face with a global notice of her clearing the C-Rank Tomb of Al'zarr, a smirk playing on her lips.
According to the Fragment of the realm map, it should take the average duration of 45 minutes to clear the dungeon. But unlike Seo-ah, she wasn't aiming for a solo clear, but the fastest. She wasn't going to stress and burn herself out, but planned a full-blown SWAT raid on the spider queen's nest with an army of the undead.
The only problem with her plan? The skeletons were too weak—even with the advantage of numbers. That would drag out the battle longer than she planned, but—
"Kelsey, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She asked, staring seductively at the [Transmute] skill she just unlocked from her class advancement.
[I… don't think that would work.]
"Why not?"
"The skill description stated: 'Converts common crafting materials into rare components at a high mana cost, giving access to advanced item creation.' But it clearly mentioned 'crafting materials,' and so did the repair skill—before she discovered she could repair her skeletons. So why can't she 'Transmute' and merge them to create an advanced skeleton knight?"
[I just know it won't work. The Keepers would never let such a bug slide—]
[Ding! You have merged (2) Lv1 Skeletons to create (1) Skeleton Soldier]
[Choose a specialized role for the skeleton]:
• Warrior
• Archer
• Mage
• Lancer
"Yeah, baby!"
Kelsey was still talking when Atlas grabbed two of her newly summoned skeletons to cast Transmute. The skeletons were swallowed in a bright beam that merged them into one, sturdier skeleton: a Skeleton Warrior.
[Okay… but that should definitely be the limit—]
[Ding! You have merged Lv1 Skeletons (2) to create Lv1 Skeleton Warrior]
[Ding! You have merged Lv1 Skeleton Warriors (2) to create Lv1 Skeleton Knight (1)]
[Ding! You have merged Lv1 Skeleton Knights (2) to create Lv1 Skeleton Captain (1)]
[…]
[Ding! You have merged Lv1 Skeleton Captains (2) to create Lv1 Skeleton Lord (1)]
[I think you should stop now—]
[Ding! You have merged Lv1 Skeleton Lords (2) to create Lv1 Death Knight (1)]
[Ding! You have merged Lv1 Death Knight (2) to create Lv1 Lich (1)]
[You're overdoing it now. You don't want to alert the game masters—]
[Ding! You have merged Lv1 Lich (2) to create Lv1 Dracolich (1)]
"Oh, shit!" Atlas stared in awe at the colossal undead dragon standing tall before her. She had sacrificed exactly 88 skeletons to create the Dracolich.
[Yeah baby!]
"What was that about the game masters?" she asked, amused.
[Yeah—I gotta go handle something real quick. BBS]
"What? Don't go snitching on me Kelsey," Atlas screamed after her system, then quickly turning her attention back to the colossal dragon that calmly lowered its head before her feet.
Her entire domain went silent as every skeleton paused to stare at the colossal dragon in awe and respect, including the captives and their lord, Kaelstorm.
"Woah. So fucking cool~," Atlas said as she reached out a hand to rub the dragon's head. But before she could reach it, her vision suddenly swarmed and she collapsed on the paws of the dragon, who swiftly caught her.
She had gotten so excited about upgrading her skeletons that she forgot the most crucial thing—her mana. She was now suffering from severe mana depletion.
[Chats]
BlingBling: Hail Goblin Queen
Dogtag: Sorry Seo-ah, I'm switching back to Goblin Queen
[CrabKing: I told y'all bitches! Never underestimate #GoblinQueen.
[JustFriends: That's a fucking dragon! Did you see the size of that thing?? Chat we're cooked [Skill Emoji]
[PoisonIvy: How tf is she even doing that?!!
[ClassicDad: It's high time we start paying tribute to Goblin Queen to stay alive [Sneezing Emoji]
[LetHimCook: We let her cook and she burnt the kitchen.
[LeaveMeAlone: I WANNA GO HOME~ I WANNA GO HOME~
[Kaelstorm: Guys, follow for more premium contents on my buddy Goblin Queen. At just 10 shards per click Only.
[MrPresident: @Kaelstorm damn bro, how'd you get to meet Goblin Queen? Hook me up.
[PoisonIvy: Day 2 of creating awareness that Goblin Queen is hooking up with devs. (My boobs are bigger)
—
Unknown Desert
Lord Seo-ah's Domain
Seo-ah immediately downed two buckets of water as soon as the trade was completed, then made it back across the hot desert to her domain—a barren cave in the middle of nowhere. It was too rocky to erect any infrastructure foundation. The only hope for the cave was mining deeper to create an underground network of passages to build her empire.
But for mining, she needed the suitable race. Her hands were too soft and fragile to handle a pickaxe, and it certainly couldn't be the humans she summoned who were now dead in the Desert Temple.
She had decided to check the chats for any important updates when she began seeing—once again—everyone hyping Goblin Queen after her short-lived glory.
A growing trepidation made her scroll to previous chats to find out what Goblin Queen might have done, half-expecting the 'almighty' trendsetter to have just been making fun of her in the chat. Then she began coming across messages about a dragon, until she stopped at the right chat: one from Kaelstorm that seemed to have been the catalyst for the entire frenzy.
She tapped on his profile, and scrolled down to the latest video on his platform which cost 10 shards to view. It had 15 million views and was posted only a few minutes ago.
Gritting her teeth at the absurd cost of the video and glancing at the few crystal shards in her inventory from the Desert Temple, she deliberately tapped the video, which automatically deducted the amount from her account.
The video began with an army of skeletons lined up before a beautiful lady—whom she speculated to be the Goblin Queen—pausing the video and zooming in to stare at the figure for a while longer, nibbling at her nails. When she resumed the video, Goblin Queen tapped the first two skeletons, which merged into one with a blinding light, though there was no major difference.
She repeated the process with another pair of skeletons, then merged the two upgraded versions into a sturdier, fiercer-looking skeleton. She repeated the merging process again and again with the smaller skeletons until they matched the upgraded one, then merged those. Then again, and again. She continued until nearly all the army of skeletons was sacrificed, leaving two final, fully upgraded skeletons who looked like the final boss of an S-Rank dungeon. She merged them one last time to create a behemoth beast of a dragon that bowed its head at her feet. That was where the video ended.
Seo-ah was speechless after that unexpected end. She replayed the video over and over again before pausing and zooming in on Goblin Queen once more, nibbling at her thumbnail.