A colossal gold mine

"Map?" Ethan's eyes lit up as he looked down at Cicero in his arms. "Mission accomplished?"

"Chirp, chirp..."

Cicero puffed out his chest proudly, looking like a little boss showing off. His whole demeanor screamed, Piece of cake!

Ethan immediately brightened up and turned to Elynn. "Alright, you keep drawing. Don't mind me."

"I'm actually almost done. My esteemed master, you just need to wait a little longer..." Elynn replied before continuing her work.

Before long, a vividly colored map appeared before Ethan.

On the left side of the map, there was a lush green valley, while the right side was dominated by ominous black mountains, smoke rising into the sky.

Between them, in the lower-left section, lay a massive canyon.

At the canyon's far end stretched an endless ancient forest.

As for the location of Emerald Castle, it was roughly in the lower third of the left side of the map, right at the edge of the canyon, bordering the black mountains.

The map wasn't particularly detailed—if anything, it was a bit rough—but it was clear and easy to understand. One glance was all Ethan needed to grasp its contents.

"This is the Doom Mountains?" Ethan pointed at the black, smoke-covered peaks on the right side of the map.

"Yes..." Elynn nodded, then began pointing out the other locations. "This valley here is called Wishing Valley. It's massive and rich in mineral and crystal resources. On top of that, His Highness Cicero discovered nearly a hundred Creature Dwellings scattered throughout Wishing Valley!"

"Nearly a hundred?!" Ethan immediately perked up. "How many exactly? And what kinds?"

"Most of them are for lower-tier units," Elynn explained. "For example, from the Conflux faction, there are Pixie Gardens and Advanced Pixie Gardens, as well as Altars of Air and Altars of Storms. From our Rampart faction, there are Centaur Stables, Advanced Centaur Stables, Dwarf Cottages, Dwarf Barracks, and Homesteads, among others."

Pixie Gardens could recruit Tier 1 Pixies.

Advanced Pixie Gardens could recruit Tier 2 Sprites.

Altars of Air and Altars of Storms were used to recruit Tier 3 Air Elementals and Tier 4 Storm Elementals from the Conflux faction.

Meanwhile, Centaur Stables, Advanced Centaur Stables, Dwarf Cottages, Dwarf Barracks, and Homesteads allowed recruitment of Rampart units: Tier 1 Centaurs, Tier 2 Centaur Captains, Tier 3 Dwarves, Tier 4 Battle Dwarves, and Tier 5 Wood Elves.

Creature Dwellings were always valuable—the more, the better. But at this stage, Ethan wasn't particularly excited about buildings that only recruited Tier 1 to Tier 6 basic units.

"What about Tier 7 and above?"

"In Wishing Valley, His Highness Cicero found two Enchanted Springs, three Altars of Fire, one Upgraded Altar of Fire, and... a Unicorn Glade!" Elynn's eyes sparkled with excitement as she spoke.

Ethan's pupils shrank in shock. "A Unicorn Glade?"

"The recruitment site for Rampart's Tier 11 unit, the Unicorn Glade?!"

A Tier 11 recruitment site!

Now that was a real treasure!

Especially since, if Ethan remembered correctly from his past life's game experience, Unicorns had one of the best cost-to-performance ratios among Tier 11 units.

Why?

Because they were cheap!

Aside from the Conflux faction's Psychic Elementals, no other faction had a Tier 11 unit that was as affordable to recruit as Unicorns.

And being cheap meant they were easier to amass and could be produced at a much faster rate...

For Emerald Castle, which was currently struggling with a shortage of mid-to-high-tier combat units, this was an incredibly tempting find.

As for the Enchanted Springs, Altars of Fire, and the Upgraded Altar of Fire, those were also extremely valuable recruitment buildings!

The Enchanted Spring was self-explanatory—it recruited Pegasus Knights, which, thanks to Elynn's hero talent, could be trained into Tier 8 Silver Pegasus Knights!

That meant these two Enchanted Springs were essentially Tier 8 recruitment sites.

As for the Altar of Fire and Upgraded Altar of Fire, they corresponded to the Tier 7 Fire Elementals and Tier 8 Energy Elementals from the Conflux faction.

Their cost-effectiveness wasn't the best, but having them was still better than not!

Even if they didn't use them, they could always sell them—there would be plenty of factions willing to fight over them.

"Not bad. But if we want to take control of that Unicorn Glade, it's probably not going to happen anytime soon," Elynn said, nodding before letting out a helpless chuckle. "According to His Highness Cicero, the defensive force guarding the Unicorn Glade is in the double digits!"

That was no joke.

Any unit guarding a recruitment site was already strong by default.

But double-digit Unicorns?

That was a whole different level.

Even if Seraphina and Cicero were fully grown, they might still struggle against that kind of force.

"Double digits?"

Ethan's expression stiffened for a moment before he shook his head. "In that case, let's put the Unicorn Glade on hold for now. What about the other Creature Dwellings? Can we take them?"

"No problem," Elynn confirmed. "With Their Highnesses Seraphina and Cicero, it's just a matter of time."

"What about resource points?" Ethan asked next.

"One large ore mine, two medium, and two small. Three medium crystal mines, four small crystal mines, and two small gem mines."

"Damn, this place is loaded."

Ethan couldn't help but marvel at the sheer wealth of Wishing Valley.

Even though he had inherited his predecessor's memories, he still found it hard to believe just how rare and valuable these resource points were.

Especially special resource points—even within the territory of a Baron's main city, you'd be lucky to find more than a handful.

Some Baronies didn't even have a single special resource point! That's how rare they were.

And yet, in just this one region—Wishing Valley—there were so many of them, including multiple medium-sized ones.

This place was insanely rich.

If they could capture all of it, Emerald Castle would skyrocket in power overnight—like a starving man suddenly stuffing himself full.

But Wishing Valley was just one part of the map.

What about the other regions?

Could they be just as wealthy?

"Tell me about the other areas," Ethan said.

"Yes, my esteemed master!"

Elynn nodded and slid her finger down to the massive canyon on the map.

"This is Verdant Ravine. The terrain is rugged, full of cliffs and steep drops, and it's crawling with wild creatures. But it also has two medium ore mines, four small ore mines, eight small gold mines, five medium gold mines, and…"

She paused for dramatic effect.

"One colossal gold mine."

"A colossal gold mine?!"

Ethan's voice shot up several octaves, his eyes lighting up with excitement.