Those words seemed to cast a shadow across the woman’s face as she reasoned my situation out. “I am sorry for getting you tangled up in this,” she said after a minute. “Perhaps I should just capitulate. It would spare you from trouble and wouldn’t implicate your House in this mess.”
An incredibly generous offer. There was no way this woman was holding any information over my head. Not with an attitude like that. I went to speak, but she continued. “It’s funny, you know? I hated the idea of ever losing my power. But the last few months have been pleasant, honestly. My new husband is just as grumpy and miserable as I am, and in a lot of ways I think we get along well. And it’s nice not having to always be watching my back, waiting for the axe to fall.” She let out a deep sigh and I could see a look of contentment spread across her face as she sipped on her tea. “I always thought forced retirement was my definition of hell. Turns out I was actually living in hell before, just for so long that I thought it was normal.”
“Huh…” I mumbled. The famed Lady Efera was honestly considering to retire? Just what happened to her? “You’d really give it all up?”
“That’s the thing. I’m not really giving up anything, am I? I’ve already lost it all. I can stay in the past or move towards a new future,” she replied. She let out one more sigh and reached behind her neck, fumbling to unclasp her necklace. After a moment of work, she set her Starmetal Signet free, holding it up to me as an offering. “Just take it. Don’t throw your whole gentry away in my behalf. It’s just not worth it. Trust me.”
I glanced at the silver pendant. The slight green energy shimmered from its mystic origins. Taking such a piece would be easy. Handing it over to the Baron would put this whole thing to rest. But…I hesitated. Call it pride, foolishness or a desire to protect my new family member, I just could not accept her surrender. I reached out and gently forced her hand closed. “If you want to retire and let others manage your claims, that’s fine by me. But you’re family now and that means it’s my responsibility to protect you.”
“Cut the chivalrous crap,” she said. “I’m married to your niece’s grandfather-in-law. I don’t even think there’s an actual word for who we are to each other. You owe me nothing.”
“Blake family tradition would dictate otherwise,” I replied, thinking of my uncle. The man had no responsibility to take two more children as his own. Hell, even my little sister was an adopted orphan that Arnison had taken in just a few years ago. I remember him speaking so vividly about the event. While I was fuzzy about why he took the babe in, he was stern about her role in all of our lives. “This child is your sister, Richard,” he had said that night, cradling her in his arms as she slept. “Not half-sister. Not step-sister. Just your sister. And you owe her all of your love and protection.”
In my curiosity, I had asked why I owed her anything. I’ll never forget his reply. “Family is more than blood. It is bond. And you choose who you have these bonds with. Some brothers will forever hate one another and be worse than strangers. And some strangers may come together and love one another deeply through a mutual struggle. You choose who your family is, boy. Simple as that.”
Wise words spoken by a man who had given me everything and asked for nothing. If this was the one thing in life he had wanted from me, to love his new daughter as if she were my own blood, then I would. Hell, sometimes I’d even forget she wasn’t actually my kin. I think my uncle would be proud to hear that.
Those words echoed through my mind as I pushed the woman’s fist away from me. “You’re family. Regardless of what you think or believe, the Blakes handle family affairs quite seriously. I can’t accept your surrender of your homeland to that fiend. I’d rather handle it the hard way.”
“I suppose it’s your funeral then,” Juliet replied, pocketing her pendant. “But…thank you, Richard. Truly. If you manage to somehow win and we can get my land back, I’ll give you one of the mines. Hell, I’ll sign over the full property claim so the land is yours too.”
“That’s not necessary…but I’m not going to say no to that offer,” I said, watching as she scribbled down a few names on the parchment. Looks like I was really in it to win here. But foolishness aside, the chance of getting a fully functional crystal mine? A hard opportunity to pass up.
Juliet Efera finished writing and slid the paper to me. “Three caches, each containing roughly 2,000 crystals. Which ones have been already found, I don’t know. But I wish you luck on the attempt.” And with that, she stood and put two fingers in her mouth and whistled sharply. The pitch caused Mister Slug to stop his incredibly slow charge towards one of the maids who had been trying to ward him off with a rake. He stopped moving and more importantly, stopped screaming.
“Wretched things,” Juliet said as she whistled once more to catch the creature’s attention. It began to follow her towards the shed. “My father was terrified of them and I had to learn how to lead them away when hiking. The fool thought they eat humans whole! Can you imagine?”
I watched as she fearlessly led the Slugtine to its lair. I decided against telling her that they were indeed human-hungry if not fed meat at least once a week. No reason to cause a panic when she was standing so close to it. Besides, I had a heist to plan!
Chapter 26
“Now we’re talking!” Joeth’s voice echoed through my ears as I scanned the map, searching for the three lots that Efera had written down. “A hostile extraction? Perfect in every way. We could use the crystals for our wall defense and more importantly, you could use some more ranking rewards. Pulling this off should get you up another rank.”
I grinned at that. Joeth might be a bit of a jackass, but I liked his enthusiasm for this project. I’d have to postpone his knuckle sandwich until after this whole thing was over. My eyes scanned the various properties over in the Baron’s ever-expanding blue border. Finally, I spied my first target. The Sunkissed Hills, lot number 3.
The Baron’s lots were all visible to me, though I couldn’t see the defenses set up around each area. Instead, I could just see the building types. But lot number 3 was just an empty field with nothing on it, as were the other two lots in the collection. I could spot a construction symbol over one of the lots, indicating that a Strawberry Farm was going up, yet the work appeared to be paused.
“Why would someone pause lot construction?” I asked as I examined the nearby road. There were enough connection points to this road to make travel easy and perhaps even stealthy.
“They ran out of money, interest in the project or forgot to unpause it,” Joeth said. “Oh! Or they don’t have a high enough administration score.”
Administration score…that was related to becoming a Lord or higher. I tried to search my memory for this information but Joeth began lecturing before I could recall the pertinent data. “Once you hit Lord, you’re allowed to have vassals. Rather than try to run everything yourself, it’s better to place lots and territories underneath your own vassals, so they can administrate for you. However, if you want to run everything yourself, you have a built-in administration score assigned by the Grid that dictates how many lots you can own and manage at a time.”
“What determines the score?”
“Building types and your Magistrate’s skill level,” Joeth replied. “So the Baron’s probably unable to work on that Strawberry Farm because he’s out of admin points. He’s probably waiting for everything to calm down before he starts handing out properties to his vassals.”
I frowned at his words. “How did you know it was a Strawberry Farm?”
“I can see the Grid, bucko,” my instructor said. “Anything you can see, I can see. Call it Instructor Vision. Or don’t. How do you think I’ll evaluate you?”
Interesting. But if I could survive having instructors hovering right over me while pouring noxious liquids, I could survive his scrutiny. “This looks like a good spot to hit,” I said, returning the conversation back to the heist. “Can’t see any real security in th
e area and the hills are isolated.”
“No Watchtowers nearby either. A barony of that size needs to post them up every few lots, otherwise he’ll have no vision over you,” the Erudite agreed.
“So that is option number one,” I said, checking my notes once more. The next lot was in Efera Estate’s backyard—well, relatively speaking that is. There was a great forest known as the Rolling Hillwoods (yet another hill-named location) with eight lots, all of them empty save for a single Watchtower. Lot number 5 was supposed to have another cache, buried deep beneath the earth, hidden away from view.
“Watchtower…” I mumbled. “So definitely not the first one we’ll try and attack.”
The final lot was deep, deep in the east, so far from us that it would take at least a week of nonstop travel to reach. The rest of the lots were about two or three days away at the most, round trip. But I still looked anyway, to see if there was anything of note. This lot was located in the…Thundering Hills territory (what was with these people and hills?)
Unlike the other lots, this area had some active construction happening. In fact, from the looks of it, a mining operation was taking place. That meant either the cache had been found or was in the process of being discovered. Either way, I wouldn’t be making a push for that area.
Still, two out of three was pretty great. Worst case scenario, I’d abscond with 2,000 mana crystals. Best case? 4,000. More than enough to build up my wall defenses and repel the enemy forces coming my way.
But before I committed to this invasion, I had some housekeeping to take care of first. With the 100k donated from my allies, I was free to keep my own coin to utilize for some other projects. The wall would be composed of Stonemetal, the third tier of defensive material. Stonemetal was stone on the outside, metal on the inside, meant to create a pleasing aesthetic for those who wanted to avoid the unpleasantness of a metal wall. On a tactical level, Stonemetal was useful for it concealed its true strength to the enemy. An invading force would look at the seemingly stone wall and make the fatal mistake of assuming it wouldn’t take much effort to break it down. The opposite would be quite true there!
And since I didn’t have to fund the wall in any level, I was free to use the extra coin I had gained from mustering. Twenty thousand silver was enough to buy a building and some upgrades. The Meadowlands had one free lot left and I was eyeing the Combat Forge structure.
The Combat Forge would allow me to research golem upgrades, something that I didn’t have steady access to, since I had chosen the Sentinel Path. Stronger golems were always handy to have and the building would make up for my lack of upgrades every other rank level. Plus, it wasn’t terribly expensive, as it only cost 300 silver. The only trouble there was the lot size of the forge was 2 spaces and I already had three buildings on the property: the Watchtower, a Mana Crystal Farm and a Construction House.
The Watchtower and Construction House were necessary and couldn’t be given up. I needed the ability to see upcoming invasions and I needed Construction Golems to build the wall as quickly as possible. But the Mana Crystal Farm? It might be worth getting rid of it for now. It only generated a measly 1 crystal per day. Maybe if I had a large swathe of empty lots, I could put dozens of crystal farms out there, but my space was limited. I’d get more mileage out of empowering the golems I currently had available, rather than purchasing more.
So, with a shrug, I selected the crystal farm and ordered it to be demolished. At once, the entire building fell down into the earth, leaving the lot as empty as the day I had acquired it.
“Good call, good call,” Joeth murmured. “That’s one of the starter traps. A crystal farm will never be worth it alone.”
I nodded at this advice and quickly set the construction order for the brand new Combat Forge. Immediately, a grand building appeared on the map, stretching across the two lots. It was a mighty forge with a great brick chimney that released billows of smoke high into the air. I could see that there were large platforms in front of the building, with special winches designed to lift golems on and off the platform with ease. Truly impressive.
Selecting the building, I was greeted with a series of choices to make in order.
Select Staff Quality:
- Apprentice: Basic research speed. Budget Addition: 0
- Journeyman: +20% research speed. Budget Addition: +100 silver per employee
- Master: +50% research speed. Budget Addition: +250 silver per employee
- Grandmaster: +75% research speed. Budget Addition: +1,000 silver per employee
I wasn’t made out of silver, so Grandmaster and Master were out, but Journeyman seemed like a decent cost. An extra hundred per employee for a faster research time? Since upgrades ultimately increased the value of existing golems without needing more mana, this was essentially a way to convert silver into mana crystals. After all, better existing golems meant I’d be spending less on numbers later on.
Next, I was prompted to hire between 1 to 10 employees. Before I could touch the slider, however, Joeth piped up. “Employees are required for projects,” he explained. “So you don’t need to have a permanent staff on site. It’s better to just hire as needed for specific jobs, so look at the projects first.”
That made sense. I complied with my instructor’s words and selected the Research Projects tab to check what was available. Two different categories popped up in my vision. There were Global Upgrades and Model Improvements. From what I could tell, Global Upgrades affected all golems regardless of types, whereas Model Improvements only applied to specific golems.
“Impressive,” I muttered as I read through the list. The potential for this forge seemed endless!
Global Upgrades List
Reinforced Frameworks:
Base Cost: 1,000 silver
Engineers Required: 2
Research Time: 24 hours
Description: A proper combination of unguents and armor spells will increase all golem hit points by 500.
Precision Targeting:
Base Cost: 2,000 silver
Engineers Required: 3
Research Time: 72 hours
Description: Drastically improves all golems’ ability to hit targets that move quickly.
Haste Infusions:
Base Cost: 3,000 silver
Engineers Required: 5
Research Time: 80 hours
Description: Grants all golems an 8% move speed increase.
Model Improvements List
License Level 0 Unit Upgrades
Base Cost: 500 silver
Engineers Required: 2
Research Time: 24 hours
Select Upgrade from below:
Stone Golem:
- Dimly Aware: Stone Golems can now be directed to move to a single location once per wave.
Shield Golem:
- Reinforced Shielding: Units gain 50 points of armor.
- Explosive Exit: When destroyed, the Shield Golem now deals 500 points of damage to enemy units within a 4 square radius. This unit cannot be repaired once fully destroyed and must be repurchased.
Karrack Golems:
- Rapid Positioning: When ordered to move to a location, golems will move at twice their regular speed to reach the area.
- Ice Crystal Infusion: Reduces attack cooldown to 15 seconds.
Siege Golem:
- Retractable Shell: Unit is invulnerable during the 2 minute warm-up time.
- Stride Blessings: Siege Golems now move 20% faster.
Wrench Golem:
- Group Cohesion: For each Wrench Golem working on the same structure, add +10 to the total repair amount per second.
- Sturdy: A Wrench Golem may now take 2 hits before being destroyed.
License Level 1 Unit Upgrades
Base Cost: 2,000 silver
Engineers Required: 4
Research Time: 48 hours
Select Upgrade from below:
Berserker Golem:
- Undying: When a Berserker Golem reaches 0 hit points, a 30 second timer begins. The golem is able to continue fighting until the timer reaches 0, after which it is slain.
- Leap: The berserker gains an activated ability that allows it to leap up to 5 squares away. This cannot be used if the berserker is engaged in combat.
Frost Golem:
- Fatigue Frost: Enemies struck by the Frost Golem’s ice spikes are slowed by 20% for 10 seconds.
- Heart of Ice: Frost Golems inside a polar vortex will gain a massive health regeneration boost for as long as it lasts.
Chase Golem:
- Multiplying: Purchasing one Chase Golem automatically grants you a second one at no cost. This does not affect the base price of Chase Golems.
- Latching: Chase Golems grow barbed hooks that sink into the targeted golem. If removed in any way, each Chase Golem deals critical damage to the attached target.
Banner Golem:
- Tall Banner: The rally marker now affects golems within 100 feet of the banner.
- Banner Transformation: You may now change your rally marker’s effect during the round, once per round.
Quite the assortment of choices. Of the universal upgrades, the one that caught my attention the most was Precision Targeting. Fast-moving units were always a problem for my Stone Golems. They were big and brutish, sure, but quite slow when it came to making attacks. Faster units would move past them before they could get a solid hit. By increasing the precision of their swings, I would essentially be increasing damage across the board. And the price wasn’t too bad either. When factoring in the cost of hiring the engineers, I’d be paying 2,375 silver. Hopefully it would be worth the cost.
Once I selected the upgrade, a timer appeared, and the rest of my options greyed out. Additional Workshops Required! hovered in my vision as I tried to select another project.
Gentleman's Wars 2: A Tower Defense LitRPG Series Page 16
