Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory-Chapter 172: Devils attacking

"That’s exactly it..." As soon as Elynn said it, Ethan nodded right away, clearly agreeing with her.

The situation at Emerald Castle right now was pretty straightforward—they had top-tier combat power, sure, but their mid-tier and basic forces? Seriously lacking.

And that was a huge problem when it came to expanding their territory.

Actually, it made expansion damn near impossible.

Why?

Simple.

You could send Seraphina, Cicero, and the other elites to storm enemy fortresses, take down Legendary Units, Mythic Units, even those high-level orange-tier Legendary heroes or crimson-colored Ultimate heroes—no problem.

But asking them to go mine gold, gather the six core resources, or scout random areas?

Or worse, to clear out small, medium, or large Gold Mines and resource points?

That’s just a massive waste of talent.

Honestly, their mid-tier forces—like Tier 7 and Tier 8 Elite Units, Tier 9 and Tier 10 Champion Units—not to mention the white Common heroes, blue Rare heroes, and purple Epic heroes—they barely had any of those!

It was nowhere near enough.

No faction can survive relying only on its top-tier powerhouses.

That kind of development is totally lopsided.

All it takes is one unexpected problem, and the whole thing could collapse from the inside out.

It’s just not worth the risk.

The ideal setup for any faction is a balanced one—where the top-tier elites and the mid-tier backbone grow together, while the basic forces keep flowing in steadily.

That’s how you build a strong, stable, and sustainable power structure. No weak links. No ticking time bombs.

And that’s exactly the challenge Emerald Castle was facing now—and what they needed to fix.

But knowing the problem was one thing.

How the hell were they supposed to fix it?

"Master, I’ve got an idea," Eldorin suddenly spoke up.

"Go on," Ethan turned to him.

"For where we are right now, I think the best move is to slow down a bit—take some time to build up. Focus on recruiting and developing more mid-tier units. Strengthen our foundation."

"So, my lord," Eldorin continued, "what if we try recruiting from the wild unit tribes in the southern region of Sylvanwood?"

"Recruiting wild unit tribes?" Ethan blinked in surprise, then his eyes lit up. "Go on!"

So, what exactly were wild unit tribes?

Basically, they were groups like Balthazar’s—units led by a unit hero or a special-type commander, living independently out in the wild. When these kinds of units banded together, they formed what were known as wild unit tribes.

"From what I know, it’s not just the southern part of Sylvanwood—actually, the entire Sylvanwood region is full of these tribes. They vary in size and strength, but there are a lot of them," Eldorin explained smoothly, clearly having thought this through. "And among them, there are even blue-tier Rare heroes and purple-tier Epic heroes."

"We’re not in a position to mess with all of Sylvanwood just yet," he continued, "but the southern region? I think Emerald Castle can make a move there. If we can recruit them, great. If we can win them over, even better."

"At the same time, we should start training and developing our own low-tier unit heroes as fast as possible."

"Push both fronts at once. That should help solve our manpower shortage," Eldorin concluded.

He paused, then added, "Also, for the recruitment mission, I suggest sending Lord Cicero. He’s the best fit for the job."

Ethan’s eyes flickered thoughtfully. He turned to Elynn and Cicero. "What do you two think?"

Elynn hesitated for a moment, then glanced at Cicero. "I think it’s a solid plan. Lately, I’ve noticed a few promising individuals among our low-tier units. Give them some time, and who knows? Some of them might awaken."

Ethan immediately caught her meaning.

In the world of Glory Lords X, "potential" and "awakening" meant one thing—those units had a shot at becoming heroes.

And compared to the difficulty of evolving high-tier units into unit heroes, low-tier units actually had a much better chance—especially when it came to white-tier Common heroes and blue-tier Rare heroes.

Their emergence wasn’t all that rare.

With that in mind, Ethan turned to Cicero.

He agreed—Eldorin had nailed it.

Cicero really was the best choice for this mission.

First, because he was smooth, experienced, and diplomatic. Second, because of the sheer intimidation factor of being a Crimson Ultimate Green Dragon hero.

As a Green Dragon, he had a natural advantage when dealing with wild units from the Forest faction.

It boosted recruitment chances.

Made success way more likely.

"Alright, alright..." Cicero rolled his eyes, clearly resigned to the task. "No point fighting it. Don’t worry, Master—I’ll handle it."

"Appreciate it, Cicero," Ethan said with a smile. Then he turned to Lilith. "Lilith, I’m leaving the Dungeon entrance to you. If anything happens—anything at all—I want to know immediately. Also, if the opportunity comes up, try to feel out those phoenixes living nearby."

"Feel them out?" Lilith blinked, then nodded slowly, catching on. "Understood, my lord. If I get the chance, I’ll give it a try."

"Good..."

Ethan nodded, then looked to Eldorin and Bromir. "Eldorin, Bromir—you two stay on castle defense duty, same as before. Keep Emerald Castle secure."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Understood!"

"Alright, that’s it. Everyone, move out."

Ethan gave a final nod, then logged off to take a break.

With nothing better to do, he hopped onto the most popular game forum to see what was buzzing.

And holy hell—he wasn’t ready for what he saw.

Right at the top of the forum, pinned in the most prominent spot, was a post titled:

"A New Chapter Begins? The Devil Descends!"

The thread was blowing up—millions of views, hundreds of thousands of comments, and climbing fast.

...

"Devils attacking? Don’t tell me it’s..."

Ethan’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly tapped on the post, and a video popped up. The moment it started playing, the screen filled with a terrifying sight—waves of grotesque Inferno Devils, both familiar and yet somehow more monstrous than he remembered, rising from the sea.

And behind them... an endless tide of Infernal Legions.

"Tier 13 Legendary Units—Inferno Devils... and Tier 14 Mythic Units—Inferno Arch Devils?!"

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. He immediately scrolled down to the text description.

Last night, the main empire of the Tower faction—the Silver Empire—was hit hard by an all-out Infernal Legion assault. The damage was catastrophic. In a single night, the Argentum City was drenched in blood. Many of the Tower faction’s top brass were slaughtered under the scythes of the Inferno Devils—dead before they even knew what hit them.

The comment section was exploding.

Post after post, people were freaking out—shocked, stunned, totally blindsided.

"Holy crap... Inferno and Tower factions are going at it? Is this for real?"

"No joke! Europe’s basically lost its mind right now! Most European players have their base in Argentum City, and the Inferno Devils just steamrolled the whole place with their legions. No one escaped—they got wiped out over and over again. Their levels dropped like crazy. It’s a bloodbath. Seriously, it’s the kind of thing that makes you cry just hearing about it."

"Damn, that came outta nowhere!"

"This is brutal. Like, next-level disaster."

"Dude, those Inferno Devils and Inferno Arch Devils look insane! Tier 13 Legendary and Tier 14 Mythic Units? They’re badass! I wish I had one of those."

"You? Keep dreaming, man. Go back to sleep—dreamland’s the only place you’ll get one. In dreams, you can have Gold Dragons, Archangels, Arch Devils, Black Dragons—take your pick, unlimited supply!"

"Yo, check out the video again—there’s Tower faction’s Tier 13 Legendary Unit, the Arcane Colossus, and the Tier 14 Mythic Unit, the Titan Giant! They look sick too! Wielding thunder and lightning, shaking the heavens—10/10 for visuals and destruction. Straight-up gods of thunder!"

"Well, duh. They’re Mythic Units! You know what that means? They’re basically gods in the game. Of course they look epic!"

"Man, Mythic Units... I’m not even gonna pretend. I’m keeping it real. I don’t dare dream that big. But if God could just bless me with a Tier 13 Legendary Unit, I’d be happy. Any one of them, I’m not picky. I’ll take whatever I can get!"

"Get outta here! You think you’re getting one of those? You must’ve dropped your shovel today and started floating."

"Alright, I’m out. New day, new grind. Brick by brick, I build my fortune—and my pride!"

"Guys, seriously—can we talk about how big this is?"

"What’s there to say? Just sit back and watch. Looks like Inferno and Tower factions are about to go to war. I heard a rumor once—supposedly, these two factions have had bad blood going back tens of thousands of years in the lore of Glory Lords X."

"Let ’em fight. Doesn’t affect us. The more they go at it, the more fun it is to watch!"

"Co-sign that. Bring on the chaos!"

"But... do you think this war might spill over to our side?"

"Pfft! Don’t jinx it, man! What are you talking about? The Inferno faction isn’t stupid. They’re not gonna pick fights with both the Tower and Castle factions at the same time. What, you think they’ve got a death wish?"

"Exactly. No matter how strong Inferno is, there’s no way they’d go up against two major factions at once. We just need to chill, grab some popcorn, and enjoy the show."

"...You sure about that?"

...

Reading through the comments, Ethan couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

But beneath the smile, his expression was tense—his eyes serious.

"Inferno faction’s making a move on the main world now?"

Ethan already knew it was coming.

But now that it was actually happening, he couldn’t help the rush of adrenaline—his heart was pounding.

The Inferno faction stepping into the main world meant one thing: a full-blown faction war was probably right around the corner. And when that happens, the entire world of Glory Lords X is going to explode into chaos—storms brewing, alliances crumbling, everything going to hell.

"But I really didn’t expect them to go after the Tower faction first..." Ethan muttered under his breath.

The terrifying thing about the Inferno Devils was their mastery of teleportation. They could appear and vanish without a trace—ghosts in the battlefield. Once they locked onto a target, that person usually died a horrible death before they even knew what hit them.

But there was one exception.

The Tower faction’s archmages.

Those guys were masters of all kinds of magic—including spatial magic. So even the Devils’ teleportation tricks weren’t enough to catch them off guard. The archmages could sense the spatial ripples in advance and prepare accordingly, calmly countering what would’ve been a surprise attack for anyone else.

Which is why, on paper, the Tower faction should’ve been the hardest target for the Inferno faction to crack.

And yet... they went for them anyway.

They chose the toughest opponent on purpose.

That alone said everything about the Devils of the Inferno faction—how confident, how arrogant, how absolutely insane they were.