Soon, Sylvia also joined the faction. Since she already had a Tier 10 Aura Rank, she only received the flat basic combat score bonus.

Ding!

[Combat Score: 1.04 -> 6.04]

After they finished managing the faction creation, Caelus and Sylvia went to check on the newly upgraded Level 3 Cabins.

They chose to inspect Caelus’s cabin first.

It had significantly expanded. There was now a proper living hall separated from the bedroom, and a bathroom with a see-through glass door.

Caelus had actually never bothered powering the bathroom with a water rune. Honestly, he did not know any water-related skills to charge it. He would either have to ask someone else to power the water rune running through the cabin, or just ignore it. But he could definitely light up the room with his Lightning Skill.

He charged it up by four. The basic cabin function runes could hold six skill charges, he saved some space for water. Soon, the entire room lit up with bright, crackling light.

But because these were dedicated cabin function runes, they could never be used for spamming skills in combat like his solitaire cards.

Speaking of which, currently he had 10 solitaire cards charged with Lightning Singularity. 10 charged with Holy Disintegration. 10 charged with Myriad Moves of the Heavenly Sword. 10 charged with Glacial Prison.

"I really need to find some strong beasts to increase my Origin Spirit Legion," Caelus muttered. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

His Origin Reflection power was basically gathering dust at this point. He initially wanted to use it on the Divine Beasts in the special zone, but he could not because he was ejected from the cave directly after forming his Divine Halo.

But it was fine. He would find even better targets later.

Speaking of beasts, he looked at the mysterious egg sitting in his inventory. It had been incubating for quite a while now. He got it as a reward from the hidden tower that he and Sylvia used to encounter darkspawns for the very first time.

[Item: Unidentified Egg (Mythical, ???)]

[Details: An egg hailing from the olden era. Who knows what is incubating inside it.]

[Target required to hatch the egg: (13,390/100,000 monsters killed)]

"Still a long way to go," Caelus clicked his tongue.

At the same time, he checked the progress for building the Cannons, Mortars, and Hidden Towers.

The materials needed for them had already been gathered by the other players in the region. They were highly efficient. Since that was the case, he should most definitely put them to use.

He brought out the city layout map and began placing the defensive buildings.

These structures had levels too, and they required the Engineering profession to be placed down since their blueprints were all Mythical rarity. Since his Engineering profession was maxed out at Bronze I, he could do it easily.

The base levels of the Cannons, Mortars, and Hidden Towers might be low starting out, just Bronze I, Level 1. but he could upgrade them. As long as he fed them ores, he could level them up.

"Speaking of which, now is a very good time to try out the Void Trials, isn’t it, Sylvia?" Caelus asked, turning to her.

"Sure. I am curious about it as well," Sylvia nodded.

Since everyone else was gone doing their ascension quests, they could use this free time to get some resources from the Void Trial and also enhance their troop levels.

Starting the day he got the update for troops, the Transmutation Matrix no longer functioned the same way. There were just linked to Barracks.

Inside them were troop circuits. The Arc-Weavers and the Golems had transformed and appeared in his inventory as "Troop Cards" at the Epic rarity. The Barracks had levels too. Currently at the Bronze level, each Barrack could store roughly 200 troops. The defense towers placed around the walls could hold four troops each.

When deployed, the troops would start at Bronze Rank I since they were a Tier 2 Region. The way to level them up was by participating in Void Trials and by using beast materials.

"So many updates. It is almost like this is just a testing ground for something bigger," Caelus mumbled.

Then, he tried to use the new Troop Cards.

Ding!

[You cannot use these troops.]

[Your town possesses the Aura of Chaos because you successfully founded the Chaos Faction. As the Region Leader, across all your towns, you can only deploy Chaos-aligned troops and defenses.]

[You can spend Resource Points to change the alignment of your current troops and defenses.]

[Convert existing troops into Chaos Troops: 100 Resource Points.]

[Convert existing defenses into Chaos Defenses: 100 Resource Points.]

"There is such a thing?" Caelus was taken aback.

He had 1,997 Resource Points. Therefore, 100 Resource Points was absolutely nothing. Speaking of which, he had not even claimed his daily Resource Points today.

He instantly received 65 more for the Mythical Grade Evaluation. that Evaluation has never went down because their region was doing just as good.

In the end, before he upgraded the troops, he decided to upgrade the defenses first and see how the Void Trial played out.

Ding!

[Resource Points: 2,062 -> 1,962]

Every single defense structure in the town gained the word "Chaos" in its name. It was interesting how faction alignments worked.

Then, Caelus initiated the Void Trial.

Ding!

[Please choose a difficulty: Low, Normal, High, Abyssal.]

"Abyssal difficulty?" Caelus turned to Sylvia.

She swiftly nodded in agreement. As they were right now, they were extremely strong for their rank.

The sky above Region Cluster 513 suddenly darkened. A massive Void Storm hit the area. It caused the region’s space to glitch rapidly as monsters began spawning in.

Ding!

[Darkspawns have spawned across the Region Cluster. Eliminate as many as you can in one hour.]

Caelus and Sylvia got straight to work. They both activated Projection Frame. Without hesitation, they split apart and began rapidly hunting down the darkspawns.

On the way, a quest popped up from the Chaos Faction system.

Ding!

[Chaos Faction Quest: Eliminate 1,000 Darkspawns.]

[Reward: 100 Chaos Points.]

[Faction Level: Level 1 (1/200)]

"Interesting," Caelus smiled seeing this. Buying the Quest Giver Kit was a fantastic idea after all. These automated random quests were the exact ticket needed to climb higher in the faction levels.

Soon, the hunt began. Sylvia locked down one side of the region while Caelus slaughtered everything on the other.

From the outside, other Region Lords were staring up at the darkened skies over Region Cluster 513.

In Region Cluster 312, the royals were looking at the sky with deep frowns.

"Does Player 555 already have the Void Trial update?" Isolde asked, a grim look settling on her face. "How did he get it so fast?"

"Does he also have connections with someone from "that" place?"

----

An hour later, the Void Storm finally passed.

Ding!

[You have successfully completed the Void Trial for a Tier 2 Town.]

[You can attempt another Void Trial tomorrow.]

[Evaluation: Mythical Grade]

[You eliminated 90% of the Darkspawns.]

Caelus took a deep breath. These monsters were not that much of a threat. The highest Combat Score he saw was 150 CS at Bronze III, but there were only a few of them—maybe three at best. They both completely avoided the bosses and focused on clearing out the lower-ranking mobs to maximize their kill count, reaching a full 90% wipeout.

Ding!

[Your town has obtained the following rewards:]

[1. X-Bow Blueprint (Mythical, Tier 2)]

[2. 1,500 Resource Points]

[3. Volcanic Drake Troop Card (Mythical, Tier 2)]

[4. 4x Resource Level Up Cards (Legendary)]

[5. Era: Cyber-Arcana Blueprint]

[X-Bow Blueprint (Mythical, Tier 2): Usable in Tier 2 towns. Can shoot both flying and grounded enemies.]

[Resource Points: 1,962 -> 3,462]

[Volcanic Drake Troop Card (Mythical, Tier 2): Usable in Tier 2 towns. Spawns powerful drakes that shoot volcanic flames capable of destroying anything in their path.]

[Resource Level Up Card (Legendary): Use one on a target to level it up a whole rank. Can be used on Defenses, Troops, or Barracks. Example: Bronze I -> Bronze II.]

[Era: Cyber-Arcana Blueprint: Use this to unlock the Cyber-Arcana Era.]

[Ding! You are the first person to initiate a Void Trial in your Region Domain. You have received +50 reputation points]

[Reputation: 0 -> 50]

Caelus became extremely excited seeing the loot. It was a good thing he did not upgrade his basic troops earlier. He just got a very powerful Troop Card straight from the Void Trial. He could now use it and change its alignment to the Chaos Faction.

Then, the Chaos Faction quest window appeared.

Ding!

[You have completed the quest.]

[Reward: +100 Chaos Points.]

He then went back into his town menu and used his Resource Points to change the alignment of the new Troop Cards.

Ding!

[Golem -> Chaos Golem (Epic)]

[Arc-Weaver -> Chaos Arc-Weaver (Epic)]

[Volcanic Drake -> Chaos Drake (Epic)]

Caelus excitedly moved forward. He placed down the Chaos Arc-Weavers in the defense towers along the wall. Then, he assigned the Chaos Drakes and Chaos Golems into the Barracks across all his towns, well, the towns that had a Barrack built.

This was his domain. Now, if anyone dared to invade his territory, they would have to face the wrath of his Chaos Drakes. They were absolutely terrifying to look at.

And now, each of these troops could unleash waves of chaos erosion debuff and even more destructive might.

The Chaos Drakes started at Bronze I rank, but he swiftly used the Level Up Cards to push them to Bronze II. Their base Combat Score at Bronze II was a solid 10 at Level 1. They were terrifyingly powerful.

The Golems did not lag behind either. Caelus did not upgrade them with cards, but at Bronze I, they had a decent Combat Score of 5.

He could still convert Beast Materials to level them up manually, but the amount of Beast Materials he had at the Bronze rank was very low.

Ding!

[Bronze Rank Beast Materials: 1,344]

It was barely enough. After the players came back from their ascensions, he would make sure to have them hunt down Bronze beasts and manually upgrade the existing materials to the Bronze rank.

He used his duplication on them and somehow, all of them came out as error.

Sighing, he swiftly gathered the resources needed for an X-Bow by sacrificing a lower-tier Mortar, and began putting down the new defenses as well. He placed Cannons and X-Bows near the center of the town, and positioned the Hidden Towers near the outer edges.

He also spent another 100 resource points to convert the X-Bow into Chaos X-Bow that now dealt Chaos Erosion Debuff.

[Resource Points: 3,462 -> 3,362]

He could only place down one of each in his own main town and a few more right now. As for the rest of his territories, setting them up would take time.

"Unless there is an update for that too," Caelus muttered. "Doing that across all town, won’t it take days?"

Since he was done here, it was finally time to call out to a certain fatty, the disciple of Allstar.

He might have some answers to Caelus’s questions. Especially regarding if there were more hidden updates, and if it was possible to acquire a Chaos Awakening Stone.

---

A/N: If you are enjoying the book so far, support it with a power stone or two. Thank you.