Leonel appeared in his ice island city, his attention immediately turning to James who tossed over a glass orb to him. When Leonel saw what was in it, his expression flickered for a moment.
He had already guessed that the unique ocean territories wouldn't all be exactly the same, but this one was actually quite different. Of course, the name uniquely spoke for itself, but its unique attributes changed Leonel's plans a bit. At the very least, he couldn't be in as much ease as he had hoped.
The unique ocean territory this time was probably more accurately called a unique water territory instead. If this was called an Ice Island Territory, then this unique water territory would be quite accurately called a Water Lotus Territory.
Rather than forming a huge island of ice, it formed a huge island in the form of a blooming lotus.
This didn't seem like a big deal, until you understood that a Water Lotus was a freshwater plant. While it can handle slightly salty water, specifically brackish water which is a combination of river waters and ocean water, it wouldn't be able to live in a full on salt body of water.
In line with this, this Water Lotus Territory would turn the surrounding territory into a fresh water body. The surrounding 10% of territory would become pure fresh water while the remaining 90% would be brackish.
This was actually good… if this had been Leonel's only territory. This was because there was a permanent debuff to oceanic creatures who entered this territory's waters. Within the brackish water, they would experience a 20% reduction to their strength. In the freshwater, they would lose as much as 50% of their strength.
Of course, this scaled with the city's grade. A Gold-Grade city could limit the strength of up to the Gold-Grade, while an Heir-Grade city would be able to infect even Heir-Grade threats. However, there was a very obvious problem here…
Leonel's army of stingrays were saltwater creatures. As a result, they were subject to the very same debuff.
This was the obvious downside of this city. There were no freshwater creatures in the region to begin with, this was the ocean. And unless you bought freshwater creatures from the Water Lotus city itself, you would be out of luck.
There were fresh bodies of water on the supercontinents, but Leonel didn't have the time to divert his attention to them in an attempt to find freshwater creatures on a large enough scale for them to be useful. And there was obviously the largest problem: Leonel didn't have the time to spare to make another huge batch of armors.
Leonel took a breath and exhaled, his gaze frighteningly calm.
It wasn't impossible to find freshwater creatures. He owned the entire supercontinent and thus had a method of scanning the entire territory for what he needed. The issue was that doing so was useless for the reason of time.
Anyone else would be ecstatic to receive such a territory, but Leonel's own skill had ironically painted him into a corner.
This situation wasn't as bad as it seemed. After all, these debuffs would be suffered by the creatures of the upgrade challenge as well. That meant his stingrays and the enemy would be on the same playing field.
But the larger problem would be if Leonel was ever attacked. There was no telling if others had access to freshwater creatures or not, or maybe even creatures who could exist in both. How pathetic would it be if he was suddenly at a disadvantage in his own territory?
The other problem was that because this territory came with such a large advantage right from the outset, the benefits one could get afterward was limited.
Leonel tossed the territory reward up and caught it again, his mind spinning with several thoughts.
'Seems that it's time to reveal another trump card.'
"Call the commanders of the Skies family here."
It wasn't long before a long line of Skies family members stood before Leonel. All of them had on extremely respectful expressions, which was a far cry from how things had been just a month or so ago. They were the only group Leonel had never sent out on missions, so everything Leonel had done, they had personally witnessed.
The kind of strength Leonel could display at such a young age left them in complete awe. All of them were less than a hundred years old and were relatively young as a result. Seeing the difference between them let them understand why it was their patriarch had lowered his head.
"It's about time, you all prepare yourselves."
Leonel waved a hand. Exchanging several million points, he brought out over a hundred spatial rings.
The generals of the Skies family that he had appointed already knew what these rings were for. So, without a word, they immediately turned and left, rushing to get into place one after another.
Leonel turned back to the others. "For the next half day, stay outside this range of waters."
After issuing his orders, Leonel flashed and vanished. With great speed, he found the location of waters he wanted and threw the Water Lotus orb out. It immediately burst from its glass orb and expanded wildly, surging out in all directions until it formed an enormous lotus.
Large and thick green pads extended from the sides, while in the center, a gorgeous pink flower bloomed, its thin petals gently waving in the wind.
For extra defense, the green pads could close, though it took a few hours to finish. So this had to be done well in advance. It could be said, though, that this territory was designed to be purely defensive. If he wanted it to be a deathtrap, it would be up to him.
One after another, over the horizon, the Skies family members dashed across the water's surface, swiftly catching up with Leonel.
Leonel's gaze sharpened as he sent forward several more rewards, triggering the Bronze upgrade challenge and then the Silver and Gold upgrade challenges right afterward.
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnovel(.)com