Not one

Ethan enjoyed listening to Elynn and couldn't help but smile. Grinning, he said, "Alright, we can talk about this later. What brings you here? Wait—hold on. You're hurt? Is it serious?"

His brows furrowed as he focused on Elynn.

That's when he noticed—both Elynn and her mount, the Silver Pegasus, were injured.

"Thank you for your concern, Master. It's just a minor wound, nothing serious…" Elynn's eyes softened with warmth as she gazed at Ethan. "Respected Master, here's what happened—I just finished capturing a lumber resource point when I unexpectedly discovered a hidden special resource point."

"It's a crystal mine. I wanted to scout it out, but I was spotted by the defending troops—7th-tier units, Ogres…"

"A crystal mine?" Ethan's eyes immediately lit up.

A special resource point—now that was a real treasure!

In the world of Glory Lords X, there were various types of mineral resources, primarily wood, ore, mercury, crystal, gems, and sulfur—six major resources in total. The first two were relatively common.

The latter four, however, were much rarer, making them highly valuable and classified as special resources.

Because of this, the production rates of wood, ore, and the four special resources differed significantly.

In Glory Lords X, resource points were categorized into five tiers based on their production capacity: Small, Medium, Large, Huge, and Giant.

But special resource points were incredibly rare, so they typically only had three tiers: producing 0.5 units per week, 1 unit per week, or 2 units per week.

Wood and ore mines were more common, so they usually had four tiers: producing 1 unit per week, 2 units per week, 4 units per week, or 8 units per week.

Gold mines were also considered resource points and were the most widespread, covering all five tiers: generating 2,000 gold per week, 5,000 gold per week, 20,000 gold per week, 100,000 gold per week, or even 600,000 gold per week.

Resource points were essentially physical manifestations of the world's magical energy, meaning they wouldn't run dry in the short term (within ten years) and would continuously produce resources.

That said, in the game, gold and all major resources were still incredibly expensive!

Special resources, in particular, were always at sky-high prices, never dropping.

It wasn't just that they were valuable—it was that there was never enough supply.

Price gouging was the norm.

Why?

Simple.

Even for the smallest resource points, at the current tier level of global players, only the largest guilds had the strength to capture them. For everyone else, the number of players capable of doing so was pitifully small.

According to the game's mechanics, the highest-tier defending units that could appear in a small mine were 6th-tier troops.

And what did that mean?

It meant that taking over a resource point would come at a massive cost in troops and resources. You might be able to afford that loss once, twice, or even three times—but what about five times? Ten times? Twenty? Thirty?

It was a bottomless pit of losses. Even the biggest guilds couldn't sustain that kind of drain.

Because capturing a resource point didn't mean it was yours forever. Every in-game month, on Recruitment Day, the defending troops of all resource points would respawn.

In other words, you had to fight for them again. Every. Single. Month.

It was an endless cycle—unless you owned a castle.

Once you had your own castle, depending on its level, any resource points within its territory would become permanently yours after a single capture—until they were depleted.

Or until someone else took them from you.

But for Ethan, none of these drawbacks mattered at all!

For one, while no other player on Earth had a castle—

He did!

As for someone trying to take it from him?

Let them try. Let's see who even has the ability.

A resolute confidence radiated from Ethan's face.

He wasn't the same as before.

Looking at the global player base—there wasn't a single person who could stand against him.

Not one.

"Elynn, where's that crystal mine? Take us there." Ethan's voice was calm but firm.

It was obvious—he had already made up his mind. That crystal mine was his.

After all, let's not forget—Emerald Castle's Dragon Cliff still had an unused recruitment slot for a Tier 13 Legendary Unit—Green Dragon.

Sure, the recruitment cost—12 million gold and 800 crystals—was enough to make anyone's scalp tingle just thinking about it.

But as the old sayings go: A towering skyscraper starts from the ground up. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

With his current foundation, all he needed was time.

12 million gold? 800 crystals?

So what?

He, Ethan, would make it happen.

No doubt about it.

"Yes… Respected Master, and Your Highness Seraphina, please follow me." Elynn nodded quickly and took the lead.

Not long ago, she had been worried about how to deal with the defending troops at the crystal mine.

But now? That worry had completely vanished—swept away like dust in the wind.

Nine Tier 7 Ogres?

So what?

Before the great and invincible Seraphina, those brainless brutes could multiply tenfold, and they'd still be nothing more than lambs to the slaughter—utterly meaningless.