20

The Witcher: The last King of the elves

Chapter 20 - The Blood of the Battlefield

In this war, all the blood spilled on the ground belonged to the elves. The dead did not bleed; they only brought destruction to the world that belongs to the living.

Thranduil, as the last Elven King, understood the sacrifice he had to make so that his race could rise from this world and claim with force what rightfully belongs to them.

Humans were never invited, nor were the dwarves. The elves are the masters and rulers of this world, and for that reason, they will claim it sooner or later.

If the humans do not respect that, the same thing that is happening in this war will happen again.

The battle continued until after midnight.

The army of 100,000 undead was finally annihilated successfully. Except for a few high-level undead with a certain degree of intelligence who escaped, all the other undead were wiped out.

As for the elves, almost all who participated in the battle were promoted in strength.

In these kinds of situations, thanks to the blessing of the Tree of Life in boosting their abilities, all the elves became much stronger.

Some elves could now be selected as true leaders who could win wars on their own.

As for Thranduil’s power, it also increased, reaching the highest levels of power this world had seen in a long time.

Upon reaching this level of magic, one surpasses the reach of common men and can be considered a strong being.

Thranduil was now capable of establishing his dominance over the world.

Overall, after this war, the general strength of the elven territory increased enormously.

If something like this happens a few more times, it will be easy for the elven army under his command to sweep through all the ruins in the center of the city.

However, although the gains were great, there were also losses.

The injured elves were not considered losses in this war; they could be healed thanks to the water of life.

What truly hurt was seeing the elven soldiers who died in this battle.

After a post-battle inventory, Thranduil learned that a total of forty-seven elven soldiers had died in this battle, most of whom were elven swordsmen on the front lines.

They faced the siege of the undead army and suffered the most severe damage.

Fortunately, the Tree of Life has the ability to resurrect fallen elves.

Whenever an elven soldier dies on the battlefield, their bodies decompose into pure elemental energy, return to the Tree of Life along with their souls, and are directly transformed back into elves.

Thranduil only needs to consume a bit of energy crystal to revive them. After resurrection, their previous memories do not disappear.

At most, their level returns to its initial state. Of course, this is only a minor issue. With the ability to "gain experience by killing enemies," their levels can rise quickly.

…

"Their bodies are here, but that doesn’t change the fact that they died, Haldir." Thranduil looked at the resurrected elves.

Haldir said nothing; he considered his king’s words a painful truth. Even though they could come back to life, it didn’t change the fact that their essence had died.

If an elf has a family, he will remember nothing.

That is what death meant for all of them, which is why they needed to win. And since their numbers did not diminish, this was a sacrifice they were all willing to make.

As usual, some elves cleaned the battlefield and gathered the exploded energy crystals.

Another group of elves transported the undead bodies together.

During the process, an elven mage who mastered the fire element took action and burned all the piled-up undead corpses to ashes, which made Thranduil feel much more at ease.

The post-war cleanup was finally completed.

The elves handed over the collected energy crystals to Thranduil, as usual.

"Your Majesty, this war produced more than 98,300 energy crystals. In addition, there are more than 500 pieces of various weapons and equipment that we can reuse."

"All other useless items were destroyed."

"That sounds fine to me." Thranduil nodded in gratitude. Every type of elven soldier is fully armed when trained, so it’s not necessary to re-equip them.

The captured weapons and equipment can only be collected temporarily. When a building similar to a forge is built in the future, we may consider recycling them, just in case we need them one day.

"You all should also go down and rest. Remember that everyone must drink a cup of elven spring water. It is very helpful for healing wounds and restoring magical power."

There was now no shortage of elven spring water. There was still plenty of elven spring water that had been previously extracted.

Furthermore, the magical spring constantly condenses new elven spring water, and Thranduil naturally would not be stingy with the elves under his command.

"All hail, His Majesty the Great Elven King!" The elves were deeply moved and quickly bowed.

After the elves left, Thranduil opened the system task.

The missions had been successfully completed, especially the one to cleanse the elven territory. And if it weren’t for the fierce battle at that time, Thranduil definitely wouldn’t have been able to build the Temple Given by God.

“[...

A territory building has been successfully unlocked!

[Temple of the Gift of God]

Description:

This is a special building that can comprehensively enhance the war strength of the territory.

[Initial construction requirements]: 1000 energy crystals.

…

"To improve the strength of the territory comprehensively?" Thranduil thought that if this was as he imagined, it would be something incredible that would greatly strengthen them.

Thranduil immediately found a vacant lot near the Tree of Life and built the Temple of God.

Just like the name.

The Temple of the Gift of God is a building that resembles a temple.

Although it is not large in scale, it emits a faint golden light, and it can be said to be extraordinary at first glance.

“[...

Temple of the Gift of God.

[Building information]: If the territory wants to grow stronger, the Temple of the Gift of God is essential.

[Currently unlocked upgrade categories]: Weapons: low-level physical attack, low-level physical defense, low-level magical attack, low-level magical defense.

[Upgrade requirements]: 10,000 energy crystals.

[Special Tip]: Upgrading the Temple of the Gift of God will unlock more upgrade categories and increase the upgrade level.

…]”

Thranduil knew that if he had had this tree supporting his territory, those elves who died would never have been defeated.

The only problem is that it was too expensive to obtain advanced benefits, and each specialty had to be upgraded separately.

The nearly 100,000 energy crystals just obtained on the battlefield, rounded up, are only enough for two upgrades.

And that’s only low-level.

When [Intermediate Upgrade], [Advanced Upgrade]... appear, the specialties he wants to enhance will definitely be more expensive.

That’s why Thranduil contacted the system again. He needed to deeply understand the enhanced functions of the Temple of the Gift of God.

To put it simply. One-time enhancement, lifetime benefits as long as they are within elven territory.

For example, if Thranduil performs a [low-level physical attack upgrade] for the elven archer, then both the existing elven archer and any elven archer trained in the future will carry this aura enhancement and be permanently effective.

The same applies to other types of troops.
The difference is that different types of troops do not share upgrades.

This was also something the system told him.
For example, the physical attack upgrade that Thranduil improved for the Elven Archer cannot be enjoyed by the Elven Mage, and even if he obtains this aura, it is useless.

This enhanced function of the Temple of the Gift of God will only provide greater benefits if the number of troops is higher.

"After all, the number of my troops is currently too small..." The continent was very large, and Thranduil’s troops were no match for the human kingdoms.

Instead of spending fifty thousand energy crystals on a single enhancement, it would be better to use them to train and expand the ranks to twenty thousand elven archers.

Thranduil plans to wait until the number of a certain type of troops reaches several thousand before strengthening them.

Before that, the focus should be on training more types of troops. After all, he still has a mission to complete.

If he had an unlimited number of energy crystals, all physical and magical attacks would have to be deployed across all troops under his command, regardless of their usefulness.

However, he is still far from rich enough to do as he pleases. He wishes he could split one energy crystal into two halves, but his dreams were just that—something that could not exist.