Mystic Calling：Stone of Glory
Chapter 343: That was the gap

Chapter 343: That was the gap

"We’ve got 52 Gold Dragons left from the Tier 14 Mythic Units," Elynn reported, her voice steady but heavy. "Sacred Kirins—20 units. Ancient Behemoths... only 3 left. That’s a total of 75 Mythic Units still standing."

"For the Tier 13 Legendary Units: 64 Green Dragons, 40 Gem Dragons, 12 Behemoths, 40 Kirins, and 3 Ancient War Trees. That brings us to 159 units total."

"As for the Tier 11 and 12 Royal Units, I didn’t do a full count... but we’re probably down to around 500 units. Maybe even less. On the bright side, all the heroes made it out alive—no casualties there."

Ethan’s eye twitched.

His face twisted in pain, like someone had just stabbed him in the wallet.

Honestly? The losses among the Tier 13 Legendary Units and the Tier 11 and 12 Royal Units didn’t hit him that hard. He could live with it.

Not because he was heartless—but because this was war, not some casual game of make-believe.

Soldiers die. That’s just how it is.

Every battle costs blood. Sometimes, everything.

So in his mind, the fact that none of the heroes had died? That was already a massive win.

Hell, that was lucky.

And more importantly, all those Tier 11, 12, and 13 units? He had full control over their respective Creature Dwellings. Like the Dragon Cliff for Green Dragons, or the Behemoth Lair for Behemoths.

Which meant—yeah, they died. But he could bring them back.

Sure, the resurrection costs were gonna be brutal—probably enough to make a grown man cry—but as long as they’d won the war?

Totally worth it. Just another line item on the bill.

But the real problem?

The Tier 14 Mythic Units.

Those guys weren’t so easy to replace.

Why?

Because in the world of Glory Lords X, reviving Hero Units required a Hero Altar. And for regular units, you needed their specific Creature Dwellings.

Like Dragon Cliff for Green Dragons, Behemoth Lair for Behemoths, and so on.

So unless you controlled the exact Creature Dwelling tied to a Tier 14 Mythic Unit?

Forget it.

No amount of gold or resources could bring them back.

They were gone. Permanently.

A straight-up, irreversible loss.

As for the Tier 14 Creature Dwellings?

Yeah... Ethan didn’t have a single one.

Not even a clue where to find them.

And the worst part? Those dwellings were basically all monopolized by the major faction powers. Every last one of them locked down tight.

That realization hit Ethan like a punch to the gut. Compared to those massive, established factions, Emerald Castle was still a newborn—barely out of the cradle. And the way those factions hoarded the Tier 14 Mythic Unit dwellings?

It was terrifying.

"If I don’t get my hands on a Mythic Unit Creature Dwelling... there’s no way I’ll ever catch up to the major factions," Ethan muttered under his breath, his voice low and grim. "Even if I’ve got Crimson Ultimate heroes with Tier 14 Mythic Units under my command, I still wouldn’t be able to compete. That’s the power of monopoly... and it’s damn terrifying."

Take the simplest example.

Let’s say, somehow, he managed to match the major factions in terms of army size, hero strength, even outclass them a little.

But if he didn’t have the Creature Dwellings for Tier 14 Mythic Units?

He was still screwed.

No chance of winning. None.

Why?

Because the logic was brutally simple.

Up until now, most of the battles he and his Hero Units had fought—big or small—were carried almost entirely by the overwhelming power of the heroes. The regular units, even the Mythic ones, didn’t seem to matter much. They looked like background noise compared to the sheer destructive force of someone like Seraphina or Cicero.

But that was just an illusion.

A dangerous one.

The only reason it seemed like the Mythic Units weren’t pulling their weight... was because he didn’t have enough of them.

And because the battles he’d fought so far were still relatively low-tier.

Seraphina, Cicero, Kyros—these Crimson Ultimate heroes were operating on a whole different level. Against weaker enemies, they were like wolves in a chicken coop. Of course it looked like they could solo everything.

But when the day came that they had to go up against other Crimson Ultimate heroes—real, evenly matched enemies—everything would change.

And in that kind of war?

If the enemy had a massive army of Tier 14 Mythic Units?

Then yeah—quantity would beat quality.

A thousand ants can still kill an elephant.

And if Ethan didn’t have the Creature Dwellings to replenish his Mythic Units, then no matter how powerful his army looked on paper, it was all just a façade.

A one-time force.

Once they were dead, they were dead.

No respawns. No second chances.

Because without the proper dwellings, there was no way to bring them back.

Meanwhile, those major factions that did control the Mythic Unit dwellings?

They didn’t care if their Mythic Units died.

They’d just pay the price and bring them back like nothing happened.

That was the difference.

That was the gap.

In truth, the weaker a faction was—the more fragile its foundation, the more lacking its resources—the more its war strategy relied on one thing:

Throwing bodies at the problem.

Whoever could outlast the other, won.

But that kind of victory? It was the definition of pyrrhic. Kill a thousand enemies, lose eight hundred of your own. Even if you technically won, it didn’t mean you came out ahead.

Hell, more often than not, you’d still end up bleeding resources and manpower. A win on paper, but a loss in reality.

Now flip that around.

The stronger a faction was—the deeper its roots, the more terrifying its reserves—the more evolved its approach to war became.

They didn’t fight with numbers.

They fought with resources. With infrastructure. With national power.

And that changed everything.

Because once you reached that level, your combat effectiveness didn’t just increase—it multiplied. Tenfold. Twentyfold. Sometimes more.

And when you won, you really won. Clean. Efficient. Profitable.

No more of that "we won, but we’re broke and half-dead" nonsense.

And even if you did lose?

As long as your capital wasn’t razed to the ground, as long as your Creature Dwellings weren’t stolen or destroyed, all you really lost was some resources.

Painful? Sure.

But recoverable.

And that’s exactly why the major factions’ monopoly over the Tier 14 Mythic Unit Creature Dwellings was so terrifying.

It wasn’t just about having stronger units.

It was about locking the door—permanently—on any upstart faction trying to rise.

It was class warfare, systemized and enforced.

And the worst part?

That was just one of the choke points.

There were others.

Like the Tier 14 Mythic Unit heroes themselves. You think those aren’t being hoarded too? Please. If you don’t even have access to the Mythic Unit dwellings, how the hell are you supposed to get Mythic Units in the first place?

Let alone evolve them into heroes?

It was a closed loop. A rigged game.

And that’s what made it so damn dangerous.

Tier 14 Mythic Unit heroes represented a faction’s ceiling—its ultimate potential. But the Creature Dwellings? Those were the foundation. The key to even qualifying for the big leagues.

Without both?

You were just a big fish in a small pond. And sooner or later, someone bigger was gonna come along and gut you.

"...Which means," Ethan muttered, eyes narrowing, "from here on out, our entire development strategy has to shift. Everything needs to revolve around two things—Tier 14 Mythic Unit heroes... and the Creature Dwellings that produce them."

That was it.

The core of the core.

The absolute priority.

He had a vague lead on the hero side—Cicero. That was something. A start.

But the Creature Dwellings?

Nothing.

Not a clue. Not even a whisper.

It wasn’t just out of reach—it was out of sight.

He didn’t even know where to begin.

And just as Ethan was deep in thought, trying to piece together a plan—

Ding!

A crisp system notification chimed in his ear.

...