“Welcome back, my lord,” my seneschal greeted me.
I turned and smiled. The hob had lost some weight since I’d last seen him but still had an impressive girth that made him look distinguished. Mandibles notwithstanding. “Hey Kaedric, how’s my clan doing?”
“Quite well, my lord. The army’s upkeep and increased need for equipment are putting a substantial strain on our production chains, but aside from some small inconveniences, I’m pleased to report that we’re holding our own. The work chains you established are admirably efficient. Would you like me to go into finer detail?”
“Not right now,” I said. “Let’s cross out the big things on the list first. I see we have new buildings.”
“Quite right, my lord. The Warlock Tower and Essence Capacitor were finished while you were away, as well as five new cabins, and, of course, our new cathedral.”
My eyes widened at that. I turned, looking toward the overhanging bluff above Nihilator’s cave. The tall and gothic Dark Temple was gone, replaced by an awe-inspiring edifice. It was smaller than the one I had claimed in Akzar but no less grand. The new cathedral was built entirely out of black obsidian stone with metal spikes protruding at equal intervals. Anyone trying to climb or attack the structure was going to have a really painful day. The building consumed the entire stone shelf it sat upon, completely covering the observation deck I had dubbed ‘Totem’s Watch.’ Instead of a ladder, a grand staircase led from the ground to the entrance. The skull-embedded double doors were tall enough to admit even the tallest Ogre. The top of the cathedral was adorned with battlements and murder holes visible every few steps.
The town’s new church looked more like a fortified castle than a place of worship. Its sheer size would demoralize even the staunchest attacker.
I grinned. “Not bad. I should go take a look.”
“Yes, my lord.” Kaedric bowed his head. “Shall we conduct a full survey?”
I was itching to dive into every nook and cranny, but my small settlement was rapidly growing beyond my ability to micromanage. “No. Let’s just stick to the main issues.”
We’re well beyond the days when the biggest issue was getting enough lumber for simple huts. I need to focus on supporting the army.
Thanks, I said dryly. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some things I need to review.
I accessed the Settlement Interface, intending to view the new buildings, but a number at the top instantly drew my eyes. “Holy …”
Just before the last time I’d left the game, I had used up our entire supply of energy. But in the five days I was gone, we had somehow amassed over 300,000 EP. I stared at the number indicating our total daily energy yield: 43,770. As if in a dream, I clicked on it.
Daily Energy Gain
● Goblin’s Gorge: 26,531
● Akzar: 53
● Koboldtopia: 3,186
● Novenguard: 14,000
The numbers were staggering. The amount of EP my clan now generated each day could be used to resurrect the entire army three times over, promote dozens of bosses, or construct every single building in the settlement from scratch in an instant. I was going to have to adapt my thinking to accommodate the new riches.
Still feeling like I was dreaming, I navigated the interface to the ‘Building’ tab and started viewing each of the new buildings.
Essence Capacitor
This building absorbs and stores ambient mana. The mana stored can be used to power up rituals, enchantments, or mana-dependent devices. The rate of absorption depends on the ambient mana in the area.
Recharge rate: 21,000/day
Current capacity: 92,500/120,000
Consumers: Dreamer’s Lodge -2,500/day
It seemed that Hoker, our resident enchanter, was already taking advantage of the new building to speed up his work. Even with the extra drain, the capacitor was filling up quickly. That was good since I intended to use it to experiment with area enchantments just as soon as I found some free time for myself.
Area enchantments were an advanced type of Runecrafting, which required a staggering amount of mana – a thousand MP per rune used. That fact severely limited the experimentation one could achieve using only his mana pool, but with the Essence Capacitor at my disposal, I could experiment with dozens of different configurations before running out of juice.
I navigated the Settlement Interface to the next new building.
Warlock Tower
Houses and trains spellcasters. Includes a summoning hall, library, and ritual chamber.
Increase magical skill and spell training speed by 20%.
Available Lodging: 50
That was interesting. The text provided was rather bland, but by reaching deeper into the metadata layer beyond it, I learned that the tower helped spellcasters grow more powerful by providing a safe place to practice their spells as well as a fixed bonus to their training rate. The bonus varied greatly based on the spellcaster’s level. A level 10 adept might increase his spell effectiveness by a few percent, while a level 100 one would be able to discover new spells on his own. The library provided a fixed bonus to anyone studying within its walls, and I made a mental note to use it when I had a chance to dig into the Runecraft skill book I’d plundered from Akzar. The summoning hall provided a warded area to practice summoning powerful entities, and the ritual chamber allowed several spellcasters to combine their power to achieve greater results. All in all, the tower sounded like a useful construct, long term.
I switched to examine the final new building.
Cathedral
Place of worship. Unlocks higher faith-rank tiers.
The description was lacking, but again, the metadata helped fill in the missing details. A cathedral was a more advanced form of a church, allowing access to a higher tier of blessings and higher faith ranks.
Faith Rank! I smacked my head as I realized something. Following the conquest of Novenguard and conversion of its temple, I’d earned enough faith points to ascend to the next Faith Rank.
“My lord?” my seneschal asked.
“Hold on, Kaedric, I have to do one thing real quick.”
I teleported away, appearing inside the new cathedral.
As expected, the interior was larger than before with the ceiling towering ten meters above my head. The altar, which used to be composed mainly of bone, now stood on a raised platform and exuded a tangible field of dark power. I was sure that for anyone outside of my clan, it would have felt cold and malevolent, but it felt refreshing to me. I stood taller, bristling with energy and mana.
“ It has returned,” a growling voice said. Kuzai stepped out from the darkness.
“You again,” I sighed. “Didn’t I leave you with the rest of the army?” Sadly, the demented priest also had the power to teleport freely between our deity’s zones of influence.
“My place is at the master’s prime place of worship unless I’m called forward to fight in his name and spread darkness over the heretics.”
“You’re a veritable straight-A student. So why are you brooding alone in the corner?”
“I was not brooding. ”The demented priest’s eyes lit up with zeal as he looked over the brand-new place of worship. “I contemplated the master’s greatness and how I might serve him better … like it ought to do.”
“So, in short, you brooded.”
Kuzai snorted. “What does it want?”
“That’s ‘Mr. It’ to you, buddy.” I took great pleasure in tweaking the other high priest’s nose. “And I just came here to claim the next Faith Rank. If you’ll be a good boy, I’ll let you watch.”
Kuzai scowled at me. “ It may p
roceed.”
I looked at him pointedly.
The dark dwarf snarled, revealing rows of thin, sharp teeth. “High Priest.”
“That’s better,” I said encouragingly. “We’ll teach you proper manners yet.”
I approached the altar and put a hand over its surface. A surge of power thrummed through me.
Faith Rank 5 reached
● Unlock rank 3 of faith blessings.
● The following divine spells are unlocked: Communal
● FP required for rank 6: 18,000 (current: 8,655)
Accessing the third blessing’s tier wasn’t all that exciting. I felt my clan was relatively secure with the current blessings I’d purchased. I hoped Communal would prove to be a powerful ability since it was going to take a long time for me to reach the next rank and unlock some new spells.
Communal
A potent ritual only usable by high priests. Requires a religious ceremony. Draws power from attending believers to request favors or small miracles from the governing deity directly.
My eyes lit up. Now that was interesting. The metadata was hard to read, but from what I gathered, it was basically a general ‘wish’ spell. I could use Communal to achieve pretty much anything I wanted, from mixing a drink to opening a pit large enough to swallow an entire city. The only limiting factor was the number of believers I needed to gather to perform the ceremony. As the chief and Totem, I had a hell of a lot of followers I could call upon.
This is going to be fun. I already had a pretty good idea of what I was going to wish for.
Kuzai approached, almost hesitantly, reaching for the pulsing altar. “The power of the master grows … he will deign to answer our prayers now, to bestow a portion of his vast power onto us lowly minions.”
“Speak for yourself, minion,” I said. “Now I gotta run. I have some business to take care of then I’m off to a date with a higher power.”
The dwarf’s face filled with rage. “Blas–”
“Toodles!” I said and teleported away.
I felt immensely satisfied with myself for leaving the annoying priest hanging like that. I materialized in front of the mandibled hob, still chuckling.
“My lord?” Kaedric seemed taken aback by my mirth.
“Don’t mind me,” I said with a smile. “Just a high priest doing his thing. So, what’s our next topic?”
“Our food situation, my lord.”
I grimaced.
“With the influx of ingredients from our vassal settlements, as well as the number of ingredients our own clan processes every day, it has become quite a challenge to keep track of finalized food production. I’ve taken the liberty to streamline the production chain to standardize output yield, my lord.”
I stared at him vacantly. “Eh?”
“Ah,” I said, “it does sound more efficient.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
“Let’s see what we have.”
Breeder’s Den
Basic food available: 16,950 [daily yield: 963 - 832 upkeep = 131]
Advanced food available: 12,696 [daily yield: 122 - 34 upkeep = 88]
Exquisite food available: 965 [daily yield: 110]
“Hey Kaedric, how come we have so much available food? Didn’t I use it all to raise an army before marching on Novenguard?”
“You did, my lord. We had a large surplus of seldomly used food ingredients – such as mushrooms, which I converted, albeit at reduced efficiency, to finished goods. They were doing us no good just sitting idly in our warehouse, my lord. In addition, by raiding Novenguard’s stores, we received a one-time supply of flour that was converted into bread, which is a type of basic food.”
“Well, well.” I rubbed my hands together. Our daily food production was nothing impressive, but with the amount of food we now had in store, I could increase the size of my army by a good amount. Of course, doing that would further increase our daily upkeep which would make it harder to amass more food, but I wasn’t too worried. Novenguard was just the beginning, and if it was any indication for the future, we were in for some delicious bounties.
“I’m going to summon some more troops now,” I told my seneschal. “They can train here for a few days, then I’ll send them as reinforcements for the army, but I’ll keep some here with you. I don’t like leaving the valley protected only by foblins, even if we have tons of them.”
“Very wise, my lord. Might I suggest limiting the number of simple soldiers you wish to summon? Our current food yield will only support up to 260 new mouths.”
“Good point.”I checked our equipment situation. We had enough weapons and armor to equip 120 hobs and 24 Ogres. That would do for now.
I queued in 120 hob lieutenants and designated them as melee warriors. A lieutenant cost 50 basic and 20 advanced food, whereas a simple soldier cost only 50 basic food. But lieutenants were already thinking individuals and had a slight combat advantage over a standard soldier. They also spared me the naming ceremony.
For the Ogres, I opted to go again with the Mages. The magic-wielding giants had proven their worth in the attack on Novenguard. They kept on fighting while normal Ogres fell around them. Their ability to use the spells I’d taught them made them a force to be reckoned with. As with all other types of spellcasters, Ogre Mages required exquisite food. I queued in 19 of the brutes and stood back to watch.
The Breeder’s Den had already churned out a long line of hob lieutenants wearing nothing but a loincloth. Several moments later, the building’s grunting noises increased, adding a whole slew of screeching and shrieks to the audio show. The leather flap cover over the building’s entrance was flung open as huge arms emerged, followed by a body that somehow squeezed through the narrow doorway.
I looked over the organized rows of lieutenants and the growing line of hulks behind them. Thanks to the capital’s military status and the bonuses from my vassal settlements, the hobs were all level 6, while the Ogres were level 15. The +2 level bonus from Novenguard brought up the level of the veteran Ogres in my army, but the hobs needed training.
“Damn,” I muttered.
I just realized something, I said mentally. The lowest-level soldiers in the army are level 10. The newly summoned hobs are four levels behind. It’s not a huge gap, but it might have been more prudent for me to wait until we conquered a few more towns to gain more level bonuses before summoning them. On the other hand, any troops I summon early would have more opportunities to gain XP in combat and raise their skills. So I’m having trouble deciding which path to take.
Vic chuckled.
I guess you can call it that.
He had a point; some of the Ogres were thumping their chests, looking for a challenge. I turned to address them before things escalated.
“Welcome to the GreenPiece Clan,” I said. “You are to be our protectors and the blade we wield against our enemies.” The soldiers exposed their teeth in vicious grins at my words. “Fight well, serve the clan, and I promise you – for as long as the clan stands – so will you. If you die on the battlefield, you will be returned to life to fight another day. For the GreenPiece Clan!”
“For the GreenPiece Clan!” they cheered after me.
“Uhm … you, Dwax.” I pointed randomly at one of the hobs. They were all named lieutenants and bosses, so it didn’t matter who I chose. “Lead everyone to the barracks to receive their gear. Send raid parties into the sewers, and kill every hostile monster you encounter. Rotate the squads so those not hunting the sewers are training in the arena. Tenragan, our arena mas
ter, will take over from there. Oh, the Ogre Mages can train in the Warlock Tower.”
Dwax saluted. “Yes, Chief!”
“We have the 248,160 energy points required to raise everyone to level 10,” Kaedric pointed out.
I shook my head. “They’re probably going to stay in the clan for a few days before I send them out. It’s more cost-effective to let them train and gain XP on their own first. We’ll cover the difference when we’re ready to move out.”
“Understood, my lord. In that case, might I suggest another use for the abundance of energy points?”
“Sure. What did you have in mind?”
“I am merely suggesting that we conceive of a way to efficiently use our excess energy, my lord.”
“Ah.” As smart and as observant as he was, Kaedric was still limited in his ability to come up with completely new ideas. He could suggest new methods of optimizing our existing projects, sometimes in ways that hadn’t occurred to me, but coming up with a whole new concept from scratch required innovation – something that the NPCs, and the VIs who controlled them, lacked. Lirian was unique in that regard.
“Well …” I started thinking out loud. “As always, food is our most pressing concern. The more troops we summon, the more food is consumed every day for their upkeep. We can use the energy to quickly raise new factories and increase the level of our workers, but we’ve already hit the wall in what the valley can provide us with.”
“I agree, my lord. Any further investment will have diminishing returns.”
“Which seems to suggest that we should expand.”
“My lord?”
I raised a finger as the gears in my mind kept spinning. “We have two conquered settlements that are pretty much deserted.”
“Yes, my lord. Raider’s Camp and the Ogre Fort.”
Life Reset: Conquest (New Era Online Book 5) Page 3
