Castle Bank

Enzo stood at the edge of a cliff a sea of monsters surrounding him. He was covered in blood from a brutal battle and had wounds all over his body.

Just when the monsters closed in… Enzo jolted up. Sweat chilled his body. "Oh! It was a dream," he thought. Then he looked around and realized he was in a castle, and today was his third day in this crazy new world.

Calming himself down he jumped out of bed and stretched.

He all of a sudden noticed he was not sore at all from the battle yesterday.

After finishing his stretches he checked the Regional Chat and Trading Hall. He grinned when he saw the food he put up for sale the day before was all sold out.

In this early stage, Castle Lords had a fairly rough time finding food, so there was plenty of need for it.

Yesterday's food sold for 5 units of wood or in some cases, 5 units of stone. Wood seemed to be the more popular choice.

Enzo would have preferred to trade some for iron but at this stage, no Castle Lord had access to iron, or if they did, they wouldn't trade it for a measly unit of food.

Thrilled at having collected 1275 units of wood and 1150 units of stone from yesterday's sales, Enzo deposited them into the warehouse and looked at the main item he got from the Tier-5 monster core he traded in the day before.

[Warehouse Upgrade Token

Rarity: Epic

Use: Upgrades the Castle Warehouse to a Castle Bank]

"Why is the Warehouse Upgrade Token considered Epic?" Enzo wondered.

Then he realized his stupidity. The warehouse could turn monster cores into blueprints, any upgrade to it would be a big gain, especially if he had it ahead of everyone else. "Of course!"

He walked across the courtyard and pulled open the doors of the castle's warehouse. He activated the token. It flew into the air and burst apart immediately. Around him, everything began to shift. He felt like he was in a funhouse full of warping mirrors, distorting reality.

The castle's large paintings began morphing into dark openings covered with intricate iron bars. The large stones of the castle were replaced by smaller, neatly stacked stones. Overhead, a sign on a flat rock began to take shape and the gilded work BANK filled the space.

As he looked around, somewhat confused, a prompt popped into his vision.

[Dragon Phoenix Bank (Castle Warehouse)

Level: 2

Material Storage: 1765 Wood, 1987 Stone, 125 Iron

Use: Convert Beast Crystals to Blueprints, Tokens, and Azure Orbs.

Upgrade Requirements: 50 Azure Orbs, 5 Azure Crystals]

[Note: Beast Crystals above Tier-5 can be directly traded for Azure Orbs of proportional value.]

Although the bank didn't specify how many Azure Orbs could be traded for at a time, this was great news for Enzo. He finally had a way to get Azure Orbs!

If he could find a way to procure Azure Crystals, then he could upgrade his Dragon Phoenix Pavilion and get even higher-ranking troops!

Leaving those thoughts for later, he went over to the Pavilion and started to recruit his new warriors.

He knew from his first two recruiting sessions that he needed to find a carving to create his dragon and phoenix fighting combination.

He began to get excited when he saw a carving of a dragon and phoenix slithering together down a gigantic mountain of ice. He stood in front of the carving, and soon enough, the shapes started to move, then twirl, then two eggs were again thrown out of the wall.

The eggs cracked. "Greetings Master!" Both the dragon and the phoenix gave Enzo an ice-cold gaze. Their stares pierced the void and made Enzo's heart shiver.

[Young Ice Dragon

Tier: 3

Loyalty: 100

Growth Potential: Ice Dragon King (Peek of King-Tier)]

[Young Ice Phoenix

Tier: 3

Loyalty: 100

Growth Potential: Ice Phoenix Queen (Peek of King-Tier)]

Seeing a blue phoenix threw him off for a moment, as even Arvu was still a blazing red phoenix with just hints of green scattered throughout her body.

"Welcome to our small nation. Your new name is Fingal, and yours is Vetle." Enzo pointed first to the light blue dragon and then to the unique-looking phoenix.

He was going to have to come up with a naming system. He definitely didn't want to be responsible for naming hundreds of troops.

After establishing the newest recruit's names, Enzo quickly went over the game plan for the day with his expanding team.

The day would be spent hunting. Enzo climbed on Tormu's back. This time he felt more comfortable as they lifted into the air. The dragon's spikes still encircled Enzo's legs, but not as tightly as the previous day.

Little did the team know that while they were to spend the day hunting, other things were going on in Apeiron.

"My King!" A huge Orc messenger knelt on one knee and looked down, not daring to meet his King's gaze, "I have the report you asked for regarding the mysterious castles that have been popping up."

The Orc King sat leisurely on his immense throne which was carved out of hundreds of beast bones. His rippling green muscles pulsed when he shifted slightly. His large green head stared straight ahead, teeth curving up his face, and his chin jutted out at a strange angle.

He closed his eye slits. Soaking in the slight breeze coming from the Nymph's wings, he opened his jaws, his tongue darting out in all directions. The Nymph easily dove away from his fly trap, and the Elf, as if knowing this would happen, already had a cut of meat ready to toss on the King's lapping tongue.

Yawning and chewing, the Orc King grunted and casually moved his hands indicating for the messenger Orc to continue his report.

"We have discovered over 200,000 castles already near our borders, and while we can't get inside their protective domes, we can feel them weakening with every day that passes."

"Our mages estimate that the domes should be breakable in four days," the messenger Orc said with his head still bowed, "What are your commands, my King?"

The King Orc turned his neck side to side. Each turn made a crushing noise, like bones breaking from a hundred men.

The Orc King bellowed, "Ready the troops to attack each of the castles when the barriers weaken enough. Scout each castle and send an appropriate number of troops to kill them all."

After his loyal servant left, the King sighed and made all of his female attendants leave him not realizing the look of relief that flooded their tiny faces.

"I wonder if the prophecy is true?" Looking out the window, he seemed to be looking for something in the distance, "Will the God-King Throne really appear?"

Just like this meeting, there were similar conversations happening all over Apeiron.

Almost all forces local to Apeiron had heard the news of the many appearing Castles. But only a few knew the true meaning behind the Castles sudden appearance and what it meant for the future.