Graceful Longbow
Description: An elven-crafted bow. This excellently crafted bow is enchanted in such a way to make it more effective in the hands of the beautiful, educated, and well-spoken.
Runecraft Viability: Can hold up to 4 runes.
Type: Weapon [2 hands]
Rank: Magical
Durability: 67/90
Damage: base 20-25
Effect: Adds half the wielder’s Social attribute value to damage.
That was a nice find!
This would be a good upgrade for Ash, I thought and put it in my inventory.
Overall, it was an unimpressive haul, considering we had defeated five level 20 travelers, but that had been expected. Travelers did not drop all their possessions upon death. Instead, they usually lost an item or two from their inventory and a handful of coin.
I put all the loot in my inventory, including the three large void crystals. I threw a glance at the crystals’ stats and once again was pleasantly surprised. They were all around level 200, more than my entire clan’s daily yield! That cheered me up a bit. It looked like travelers produced void crystals ten times more powerful than a normal monster.
Next to me, Rhynorn had finished collecting the items from our fallen warriors into another pile. Unlike travelers, my people dropped all equipped items upon death. Luckily, items that were in their inventories usually remained. Some of the corpses had already begun to disappear, absorbed into NEO.
I looked at the stack of weapons and armor the Ogre had collected from the corpses and felt suddenly crestfallen at the sight. There were a lot. How can I hope to stop a larger force? I brooded.
“Rhyno, please carry those back to the clan.” Calling him ‘Rhyno’ seemed simpler.
He grunted but obeyed. Bending down, his huge hands scoped up most of the pile. A few smaller, unfamiliar items clattered to the ground.
“Hold on a moment.”
I moved closer to inspect the new items.
Gold Necklace
Description: A beautifully crafted gold necklace with a silver unicorn pendant. The unicorn’s eye is made of sapphire.
Bear Trap
Description: A spring-loaded metal jaw that activates when stepped upon. Includes a loading mechanism.
Effect: Requires brute force to open: 40 Physical.
“Where the hell did those came from?” I mumbled.
“It’s not a great mystery, Boss,” Vic said. “It’s just random loot generated by the game engine.”
It irritated me when Vic referred to it as ‘the game.’ I was pretty sure he was doing it on purpose.
Anyway, that was good news. It meant that in case of death, my people’s inventories were safe, as the world itself generated the dropped items. It reminded me of the quest-granting system, where the gods, or NEO itself, were in charge of generating the tangible rewards.
“Yep, pretty much.” Vic confirmed my internal thoughts. “It also follows a certain logic. That bear trap, for example, was left behind by the scout. I have no idea who dropped the necklace though. It probably had less than one percent chance of dropping, so … good for you, Boss!”
Lucky Bastard skill level increased to 25.
The last of the corpses was slowly being claimed by NEO. In a few hours, no traces of the battle would remain. My heart was heavy; our victory had cost us greatly.
I turned to my remaining men and waved for them to follow. “Let’s head back.”
It was morning by the time we arrived back at the settlement and everyone was sleeping the day off.
I went straight to my house and closed the door behind me. I sat at my stool, resting my head on my arms over the table.
Yep, it was brooding time.
3 – Break’s Over
Despite the late hour, I couldn’t sleep.
No matter how I tried to work it, I couldn’t see a way out of this mess. There was no strategy, no trick, no plan I could use to get my clan through this calamity.
I was screwed.
That’s it, game over, I thought miserably.
Shut up, Vic.
My secret was out. My clan was as good as dead.
My nemesis, Vatras, was looking for me, and if he didn’t already know where I was, he would soon. I couldn’t even run since my soul was bound to the clan’s cemetery from the moment I’d established it.
They’ll come for me and they’ll destroy everything we’ve worked so hard to build. I continued commiserating to myself. There’s nothing I can do to stop them. We barely stopped a small, level 20 group. No matter how strong my clan gets, the invaders will be stronger.
Vic, in his purple goblin form, watched me worriedly, fidgeting.
“Eh, come on, Boss. It’s not all bad. We still have time. You can wall off the valley; that’ll keep them out for a while.”
I didn’t bother raising my head from the table. “And what good would that do? I’m the highest level here, and I’m only a 20. My old clan could field over a hundred level 200 warriors. At least. They would smash through every one of our defenses. Effortlessly.”
“Oren, come on. You have time, plenty of it. Remember the time difference? Look at what you’ve accomplished in just under six weeks. You have at least a few more weeks to prepare. We can do it!”
I appreciated his attempt to raise my morale, but he simply didn’t get it. We could never hope to match the strength of the travelers, the undying scourge upon our world.
“Just leave me be, Vic,” I said tiredly.
He grumbled something, and a moment later, I heard the door shut as he left the house.
Leaving me to wallow in despair.
But just a few moments later, the door opened again.
“Damn it, Vic, I said I wanted to be left –”
I stopped when I saw Vic lead Tika, and of all people, Bek, into the room. Both looked haggard, having barely slept themselves.
Tika came to me, laying a comforting hand against my cheek, bending to whisper in my ear, “Me help. All the clan help. You not worry, you good chief. Tika have belief in you.”
Just being there, she calmed my angst a bit, but my outlook on the clan’s future remained bleak.
“I appreciate that Tika, but you don’t know everything. I … I don’t know what to do.” I looked up into her sweet face. She gave me her beautiful, loving smile, and I couldn’t help smiling back. It did make me feel a little better.
“I know. Vic tells. Bek knowing way.”
Bek? What can the munchkin goblin possibly know that will help thwart a horde of bloodthirsty, high-level travelers?
“Hear him out, Boss,” Vic suggested.
I looked at Bek, doubtful.
The little goblin appeared uncomfortable with all the attention focused on him. He cleared his throat. “Bek be praying at shrine to Dark God. Bek sleeps. Bek sees great darkness come from shrine, make night-time everywhere. Clan be strong in night-time, not-clan be weak.”
I looked at him with incomprehension.
Vic rolled his eyes. “What he means is that you have options. You have a powerful, tier 8 boss as your clan deity, remember? And as luck had it, he’s stationed just under your feet. This is his place of power. You can use that to your advantage.”
I frowned. “How?”
“You can purchase permanent buffs and blessings with Faith Points, remember? There’s one blessing that matches this pinhead-puppet’s description. Eternal Night.”
Instead of trying to remember, I simply willed up the Zone Blessings details. There it was.
Eternal Night: The zone of influence will be covered with perpetual darkness. Cost: 1,000 FP
My shoulders slumped. “It just says the area will be shrouded in darkness. How could that possibly make any difference?”
Vic gave me a pointed look. “For a meat suit who’s advanced enough to see and manipulate the connections to his own puppet, you sure are slow on the uptake sometimes. Ignore the user descripti
on. Look deeper, find the metadata.”
That was unexpected. Usually, Vic disapproved of the connection I’d achieved with NEO. I closed my eyes and directed my thoughts at the Eternal Night blessing. I could sense thin streams of data coming from the world around me as NEO fed me with information. The short description I’d read a moment ago suddenly looked pale and inadequate compared to what I found. There was a lot more to it than a simple perpetual darkness effect. That blessing was a shroud that emanated directly from Nihilator and manifested through his shrines, converting the surrounding land to his domain. Under it, only his Shadow-Touched minions may pass unharmed. All other living creatures, especially those who served the light, would be weakened and suffer various debuffs.
My mood began to lighten, the worry lines easing.
Vic raised one purple hand. “There’s more, keep digging into it.”
I concentrated, tapping more deeply into the tightly woven streams of information.
I saw … and understood! That was one of the major advantages my kind had over travelers; we had an innate connection to the world around us. I now understood that the Eternal Night blessing could be much more powerful than first indicated.
While it could be activated using a shrine, that limited the effectiveness of the blessing. Activating it with a Dark Temple would produce a stronger result. Better yet, it would open other blessings and options that could enhance and expand the original. Though I could sense the other blessings had various potential effects, exactly what they did was not clear. Those information streams were too ‘distant’ for me to reach.
My previous gloom evaporated completely. I jumped from my seat, rubbing my hands together.
“What are you all standing around for? We have lots of work to do!”
***
I paced impatiently in my living room. There were a ton of details waiting for me to attend to. Revitalized with new hope, I’d sent Vic to fetch Zuban; we had much to discuss.
I hadn’t made the best use of my time these last couple of weeks. After we repelled the Ogre attack, I let myself relax from the furious pace we’d been keeping up to that point. I spent many hours with Tika, talking, walking together, and deepening our relationship. I relaxed the work schedule, allowing the clan to labor at a more leisurely pace, building the settlement unhurriedly. I purposely avoided spending too much of our accumulated food and energy, not willing to commit to a particular path. I cut back on my own training and didn’t even invest much effort in my Runecrafting, despite my newly deepened understanding of its inner working.
All I had to show for the last couple of weeks was a slight increase in my skills, two or three points at most.
Well, then, I guess break time’s over.
I had new goals and obstacles in my path. But I was a seasoned clan chief now; I knew how the system worked. I formulated the goals I had to achieve:
The first priority, obviously, was to build the Dark Temple, but we lacked its blueprint.
The second concern was Faith Points. I needed 1,000 FP to purchase the Eternal Night blessing. I currently had exactly 457 at my disposal, so I had to collect more. I could convert Energy Points to FP, but with a ten to one conversion rate, it would take 5,430 EP. I almost had enough energy for that now, but energy was a valuable resource that could be used for other things, and I preferred not to squander it in an unfavorable exchange unless I absolutely had to.
Another concern was that even with a temple and the Eternal Night blessing, our forces would still be weak. The barracks should help. I could sense that now, but I’d have to wait for the structure to be completed to see exactly how it would work.
And as always, I needed soldiers – lots of them. I needed them to be as high-level as possible, which required combat experience or energy. However, buying levels for my followers using energy was progressively expensive. Raising a soldier from level 1 to 10 would cost 2,569 EP. I needed better ways to level up my future army.
I sighed. Suddenly, the 5,079 EP we had accumulated didn’t seem like much.
A light tap on the door tore me away from my musings. “Enter.”
Zuban came in, letting a few rays of sun into my house. The hobgoblin bowed respectfully though he looked tired. “You summoned me, Dread Totem?”
I nodded. “Please have a seat.” I motioned at the table, seating myself.
He looked at me searchingly. “I heard you had a tough fight and that our casualties were high.” He took a steadying breath. “Did Ash …”
I raised my hand. “Don’t worry, Zuban. Yes, we suffered casualties, and yes, Ashlazaria was among them.” Seeing his stricken expression I swiftly added, “But they will return to us. Nihilator as my witness, you will have Ash back very soon.”
You have made a vow in the name of your deity, Nihilator.
Condition: Resurrect the hobgoblin scout Ashlazaria within 12 hours.
Failure: Nihilator’s Wrath debuff, -1,000 reputation with Nihilator.
Success: 5 FP
Crap, I really should watch what I’m saying better. Otherwise, I might wind up finding myself biting more than I could chew. Nihilator was not an easygoing or benevolent god; I did not want to get on his bad side.
At least Zuban seemed somewhat assured by my vow.
I decided to get down to business. “You and Romil are currently looking into the research center building, right? And you …” I closed my eyes for a moment, “you have researched 18 of the 100 required points, correct?”
He looked impressed at my knowledge. “That is correct, Dread Totem.”
“Hmm …” I rested my arms on the table. “I need the Dark Temple to become a priority.”
He nodded grimly. “Yes, your purple companion has briefed me on our situation. We will switch to research the temple immediately.” He made to stand up.
I raised my hand. “Hold on, Zuban, there’s more to consider.” I rubbed my chin and tried to evaluate the amount of time I had.
The forest around us was located in the middle of the Deadlands – a vast, barely explored territory. The nearest traveler settlement was hundreds of kilometers away. It could take up to a week for a sizeable force to march that distance. A smaller, faster force with strong, swift mounts could probably make that in a day, but even a high-level strike force would be delayed by monster encounters. Our forest was considered to be a relatively low-level zone. There were other zones all around us inhabited by monsters with levels over 200. So even the most direct route would probably take a fast-moving force at least a day. Considering the time difference, that meant I had between two weeks to about three months to get ready. In any case, there was enough time to complete researching both structures. After all, it was a shame to lose the research points that were already gained.
“Keep working on the research center blueprints,” I instructed. “As soon as you finish, start on the Dark Temple. I’m going to summon another researcher to help you.”
His worried expression relaxed. “Wonderful! With two researchers working in a proper workplace, we will be able to come up with new blueprints much faster, and I can get back to overseeing the construction.”
I nodded and opened up the Construction Interface. I could simply pull the information directly into my mind, but I wanted to see it laid out in front of me.
Buildings and Construction
Max Constructor Skill: 15
Builders Count: 6 (Skills 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 16)
Daily BP: 112.2
Under Construction: Cabin (5/125 BP) [rush], Cabin (12/125 BP) [rush], Barracks (31/600 BP) [rush]
Research (Daily RP: 25.7)
Available Resources: timber 10, stone 50, metal 17, bones 137, pelts 42
We had three different buildings under construction; the last two cabins and the barracks. For a moment I was tempted to hit the ‘rush’ button and use energy to instantly complete them, but I resisted. Every energy point was precious. Besides, in an emergency I can always use the ‘rush’ option if
needed, I reasoned.
As for the research, with the current daily RP our researches were generating, both blueprints would be finished in about ten days. Another researcher would shave two to three days off that.
The interface also drew my attention to our low metal supply. We had 17 units in stock, and though it might be enough for our construction projects, I planned on manufacturing weapons and armors for my troops, so we would definitely need more metal.
Better start stockpiling it now, I decided.
That meant I needed to recruit another miner. I should have done that earlier. Our one miner couldn’t supply all the clan’s growing needs by himself.
Zuban waited while I reviewed the clan’s information. Finally, he asked, “Was there something else, Dread Totem?”
“It looks like it’ll take about a week to complete the cabins and the barracks.”
“Seven and a half days exactly,” he corrected me.
I nodded. “That’s about the time it would take you to finish researching the Dark Temple, so let’s make that our next project.”
“I understand.”
“And then we’ll have to build up our military strength. We’ll need to manufacture armor, weapons …” I trailed off in thought.
Zuban brought me back to the present. “If I may offer a suggestion?”
“Of course.”
“It will take time to build weapon and armor workshops. And they will have to be manned by proficient craftsmen. I suggest you summon them now, let them improve their skills in the smithy. They won’t be able to produce high-quality items at first, but when the workshops are ready, they should be able to produce more, and better works, at a higher efficiency.”
“Good idea, Zuban, I’ll do just that.” I really should have thought of it myself.
Governor skill level increased to 8.
Life Reset- EvP Page 4
