It wasn't that Gor didn't have suspicions; he simply found it impossible to believe such a thing.
The sudden appearance of creatures with strange origins and no magic cores, which had managed to sweep through most of the northern lords in one wave—this was something no one would have believed in the past.
Any explanation felt extremely forced.
If a connection had to be made, then the recent exile of the Princess was the event that had the greatest impact on the kingdom.
In reality, the exile of the Princess was merely a microcosm of a much larger issue.
On the surface, it was the result of court struggles within the kingdom, but in truth, it marked the moment the King's power was completely hollowed out.
Of course, only ministers like Gor knew the finer details of these matters.
During the decisive battle involving the three legions, the frontline battlefield entered a period of silence that lasted for an entire day.
Seemingly shocked by the news, the remaining legion commanders did not dare to continue their advance for a time.
Some legions began to integrate, preparing to form a much larger army.
The zergling units wandering and scouting in the wild intercepted many messengers. From them, they obtained news that the Falcon Legion, directly under the capital's command, was about to take action.
Compared to the two or three hundred Falcon Knights assigned to each individual legion, this air force directly belonging to the kingdom's high command numbered a full ten thousand. Furthermore, many of the knights within it were quite powerful, with no shortage of Tier 7 experts.
The legion commander's strength was as high as Tier 8.
“An air force is quite a nuisance. Since it seems to be a period of silence right now, I might as well have the swarm expand into the forest,” Xia Jin mused.
She was considering accelerating the expansion speed of the insects.
As for gathering energy, the issue wasn't particularly large.
The next level of the Zerg Hive required 60,000,000 units of standard energy, 300,000 units of high energy crystals, 200,000 units of gold, and 400 units of mithril.
Regarding the mithril, she had continued to contend with that troublesome giant squid, repeatedly fighting over it. Without realizing it, she had already accumulated over 300 units; she was almost there.
The gold had been gathered directly from the lords in the northern occupied territories.
Even if these noble lords were dissatisfied, there was nothing they could do. Besides, for those who had been modified, the idea of not proactively handing it over was unthinkable.
As for standard energy and high energy crystals, the battles in the underground world had actually yielded quite a bit. The previous battle with the three kingdom legions had provided over 20,000,000 units of standard energy.
It might actually take two days if she sent out all the insects in the territory to focus solely on fighting without producing more.
“Then I'll just stall for a bit.”
Xia Jin decided that even if the kingdom truly launched a full scale advance, she would simply abandon the frontline territories. At worst, she would just fight another four legions.
Regardless, upgrading the base to produce more and stronger Zerg species was the priority.
Thus, she waited patiently.
Time passed quickly. On the morning of the second day, several legions completed their integration.
The 4th, 5th, and 6th Legions, after integrating and resting for half a day, immediately began moving north. Xia Jin dispatched cheap locusts to harass them. Although they killed few enemies, they effectively served to interfere with the enemy's progress.
The remaining legions were moving slowly. Thanks to the ubiquitous locusts, their location data was transmitted clearly into Xia Jin's mind.
As some legions advanced slowly, the insects did almost nothing more than occasionally dispatching a few hundred units for harassment.
The enemy began to send out large numbers of Falcon Knights attached to each legion for aerial reconnaissance.
Occasionally, locusts in various places would lift their heads and see a small dot flying high in the sky.
These scouting Falcon Knights flew extremely high, leaving the hydralisks with almost no way to deal with them. Relying on their excellent vision, they quickly grasped the distribution of the swarm.
Of course, even so, the humans remained cautious. Because of the previous battles, Xia Jin had already sent the enemy an important message: many insects possessed a burrowing ability.
Furthermore, she intentionally had several insects burrow into the ground right in front of the Falcon Knights in the sky, creating the illusion of an ambush.
Such tactics indeed made the legion commanders more cautious during their advance. After a whole day, they had only moved forward about 30 kilometers.
The time gained allowed the main swarm of seventy to eighty thousand to kill repeatedly within the Border Forest.
Many magic beast kings themselves did not exceed Tier 6 in strength. Suddenly attacked by a swarm starting at Tier 4, they were left with absolutely no ability to resist.
As teams of the swarm sprinted across the land, hydralisks and lurkers constantly initiated the slaughter of magic beasts from a distance. The terrifying infestors lay in wait on the ground, turning the killed magic beasts into their own puppets. The swarm's territory pushed nearly 30 kilometers deeper into the forest within two days.
Finally, all the resources were gathered.
“60 million... I originally decided to use it for producing insects, but now it seems... upgrading is better.”
While quantity was important, from the current perspective, the gains from a quality increase were greater.
Because the daily production of insects was limited by resources, and the acquisition of resources actually required the insects to demonstrate stronger combat power.
If she was weak and the exchange ratio was poor, the returns would not be very high.
Rate on N.U.
