“No,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “I empowered you to use the energy to raise the level of the new trader.” I had been fearing something like this might happen if I gave him too much authority. Expecting the worst, I started channeling my mana, preparing a preemptive attack.
“Ah, I see the confusion, my lord, please forgive me.” Kaedric bowed low. “As you recall, you have given me access to the clan’s energy to ‘increase the new guy’s level.’ I deemed it optimal to increase his level to 3.”
“That still does not explain nearly 2,000 of missing EP.” I eyed him cautiously, though some of the tension left me.
“That is correct, my lord. After using the energy on Gazlan, our new trader, I realized it would be optimal to raise all the workers to level 3.”
“You what?” I stared at him.
“All senior members of this clan are at least level 4, which means all the other level 2 workers were a recent addition to the clan. I took that to mean they fell under the ‘new guy’ category, so I increased their levels as well.”
“What? You’re talking about at least ten goblins!”
“Thirteen, to be exact.”
I clenched my teeth. “That still doesn’t explain all the missing energy!”
“Yes, my lord. I have observed that most of our advanced workers were overextended and their efficiency could be optimized if they were aided by gofer helpers. Since you gave me permission to access the Breeder’s Den without strict limitation, other than to summon the new trader, I deemed it optimal to recruit new workers.”
I felt my heart sinking. “How many did you summon?”
“Well, Gandork required two helpers, Barzel one, Vrick and Zuban each –”
“How many?”
“Twelve, my lord.”
My head was swimming. “And you increased them all to level 3?”
“Yes, my lord.”
That explained the loss of energy, the sudden overpopulation, and the increased food upkeep. “Damn you, Kaedric!”
His mandibles jittered. “My lord, have I done something to upset you? I only had the clan’s best interests in mind.”
I sighed. There was no sense in crying over dead dwarves. “So how much energy did you end up using?”
“Two thousand three hundred ninety-two.”
I cringed. There was no sense in crying over wasted energy, either.
I plucked an information stream out of the air. With Kaedric’s recent recruitments and level-ups, my clan was generating 394 EP each day.
“Okay Kaedric, I don’t like you making such strategic decisions without me, but I guess it does contribute to our clan.”
“We should see a return on the energy investment within two months,” he volunteered.
“Right.” If we survive that long.
I walked toward the southern side of the valley, heading to the newly constructed marketplace. Kaedric kept pace.
Three lowly foblins came sprinting from behind a building, all fighting over a piece of rotten meat. They crumpled into a heap at our feet, brawling and biting. The damn critters were useless. They didn’t contribute anything to the clan and their fighting abilities were ridiculously low. At least they don’t cost me any upkeep, I thought grudgingly.
Then it occurred to me that everywhere I looked I saw scattered foblins, running around, digging holes in search of food, or just brawling with each other.
“Kaedric, how many foblins do we have?”
“Sixteen, my lord. If you recall our past conversation, instead of breeding such lowly creatures, the females can be instructed to –”
I shook my head firmly. “Nope, not going there. This isn’t open for a debate.”
“Yes, my lord.”
We reached the gremlin marketplace. I stood outside, taking in the sight of the large structure. It was like nothing I had ever seen before in NEO.
A tall, wooden column, about 20 meters in height and at least three meters in diameter stood at the center. A huge canopy spread from the column’s apex, covering at least an acre of ground. Several wooden stalls stood below it. But what really caught my eyes was the machinery. Metal rails spread out from the main column in all directions over the entire area. What looked like cranes with many cogwheels were attached to the rails. As I watched, a single crane whirled around, holding a large box. With spinning gears, it drove to the other side of the marketplace and deposited the cargo neatly on top of a pile at the stall with the sign ‘GGG’ on top of it. It looked like our gremlin merchant friends had acclimated nicely to their new place of business.
“That’s … pretty incredible.”
“Thank you, Dread Totem,” a familiar voice sounded behind me.
I turned around and saw my chief constructor approaching. “Zuban! Glad to see you. This marketplace is impressive.”
“It is. Getting all the machinery in place was tricky, but my workers know their job. Having three smiths and five gofers to craft all the fine metal parts helped speed things up, though Barzel had to come here himself to install some of the more delicate equipment.”
I continued to inspect the marketplace. A goblin, one of my own clan, was sitting in an elegant stall. He didn’t have a lot of wares on display but there was decent variety; a few swords and axes, some pieces of armor, rations, arrows, and assorted tools. In short, everything a newbie adventurer would need. Good.
“Dread Totem, welcome!” Yeshlimashu drew near, beaming. “Your foreman has acquitted himself well. This is one of the best-constructed marketplaces I have seen, not including the one at Zemitpozes, of course.”
“Hello, Yeshy. I trust you find everything to your satisfaction?”
“I do indeed! My fellow traders have all claimed a stall. So far business is slow, but I’m sure it will pick up soon.”
“Glad to hear it. If I remember correctly, I am now entitled to a discount.”
“Yes, of course. You have also set a very reasonable three percent tax. So kind of you to keep it at the lowest rate.”
I frowned. I had yet to check the new Commerce option in the Settlement Interface. Which meant that three percent was probably the default tax value. Oh well, I could always raise it later.
I was glad the gremlins approved, but that was just a bonus, not the main reason for the building’s construction.
“Zuban, how is the research for the Export Office going?”
“We’re finished, Dread Totem. I have been looking for you for the past several hours to give you the good news.”
Vic morphed into his goblin shape. “Our Stud Totem here was busy making it up to his girlfriend.”
I rolled my eyes.
Zuban looked outraged. “It is Dread Totem, not Stud Totem!”
“Yeah, whatever you say, puppet Bob.”
Zuban’s expression became mystified.
“Just ignore him, Zuban,” I intervened. “So the Export Office blueprint is ready, good. I want construction to start immediately.”
“But we’re nearly done with the barracks!” Zuban protested. “We could be finished by tomorrow at daybreak.”
I shook my head. “The Dark Temple is our main objective. So we need the Export Office. Hopefully, it’ll let us import the missing resource, glass, for the temple’s construction.”
“Yes, Dread Totem.” Zuban bowed his head. “If I divert all available builders, it should take us no more than three days to complete construction.”
Three days for a lousy extension project? That did it. I’d had enough of all of these minor delays and ridiculous prerequisites. In light of Kaedric’s expenditure, my constant attempt at trying to save up for ‘a rainy day’ looked ridiculous. It was time to use the accumulated energy with a little spendthrift show of my own.
“Just have the builders bring all the required materials,” I instructed. “Then set them back to work on the barracks.”
“Yes, Dread Totem.” Zuban turned and left.
I only had to wait a few minutes before the
builders started to arrive, each bearing a heavy load of construction materials. A builder could carry twice his own weight, and their haul skill was maxed out. In under ten minutes, a neat stack of wood and other construction resources stood at the base of the main column.
I waited for the last worker to drop its load, then opened the Construction Interface.
Buildings and Construction
Max Constructor Skill: 15
Builders Count: 8 (skill levels 16, 16, 17, 16, 16, 16, 9, 9)
Daily BP: 150.2
Under Construction: Barracks (457/600 BP)[rush], Mining Hut (46/80 BP) [rush], Export Office (0/300) [rush]
Available Resources: lumber 135, stone 70, metal 61, bone 129
Research
I focused on ‘Export Office’ and mentally clicked on the ‘rush’ option. A prompt showed asking for confirmation, which I did, paying the required 300 EP.
The neat stack of resources started shimmering, glowing a faint blue. A transparent ‘ghost’ of a building came into view. It was a round structure, wrapped around the base of the main column. Pieces of wood, leather, and stone began to disappear from the pile and reappear on the ethereal structure. The physical matter formed as patches over the template’s frame. It took only a few moments for the process to complete.
New building expansion added to your settlement: Export Office
I took a step back and observed the new edifice. It was a small, round wooden structure with a stone roof. There was a tiny doorway with a window beside it. More than anything, it looked like a little kiosk.
Now came the moment of truth. I took out the Dimensional Trade Orb from my inventory and entered the building. The place was empty, but I could clearly feel tendrils of information stretching out from the column toward the orb in my hand. I went to the column and reached out with the orb. Tethers of magic started flowing from it, connecting with others coming out of the column. A section of it shimmered and disappeared, leaving the entire weight of the column and the attached machinery floating in the air. There was no question what I needed to do. I placed the orb in the empty space and let go. It remained floating at the exact center of the open space. Then it started humming softly and a white light emanated from it, patching up the missing column section with opaque white energy.
“Yeah, okay, that’s pretty cool,” Vic admitted.
Time to get this show on the road. I flexed my fingers, opened the Settlement Interface and selected the ‘Commerce’ option.
Commerce
Tax: 3%
Clan Traders: 1
External Traders: 3
Export Office [missing Exporter worker]
Right, so all it needed now was an export worker. With a few well-practiced mental clicks, I opened the Breeder’s Den menu.
Breeder’s Den upgraded
By controlling a new race’s settlement, their units have become available for recruitment.
Conquering additional races’ settlements will add additional units.
Damn, it had almost slipped my mind. I was so engrossed in the small details, I nearly lost sight of my main objective. The reason I took that little trip to the Ogre’s fort in the first place.
I scanned the list of available units, looking for Ogres.
I found what I was looking for, though it was not what I expected.
Infernal Ogre: 150 basic food
Infernal Ogre Mage:150 basic food, 100 advanced food, 50 exquisite food
Wow. The Ogre mage alone was worth almost as much as two lieutenants and two adepts.
I want one of those, I couldn’t help thinking. This was a new kind of greed for me.
But first things first. I didn’t want to exhaust my food stores on an impulse buy. So instead, I followed up on my original intent and queued in a new ‘Advanced Worker’ goblin, an ‘Exporter.’ The building was already loaded with 60 units of advanced food, from my previous recruitments, so I only had to wait a short while for my workers to haul in an additional 30 units of basic food.
I stood inside the Exporter Office, staring impatiently at the Breeder’s Den Interface. A few moments passed before the amount of food updated. First, the extra food appeared and then disappeared a heartbeat later as the Breeder’s Den consumed it to fulfill my order.
From outside the Export Office, Kaedric tapped at the window. “My lord, I have ordered the new worker to come here. It will be but a moment. Shall I increase his level?”
“Yeah, I guess. You might as well raise him to the third level like the others.”
“At once, my lord.”
I waited until the new goblin arrived. She looked like the elven version of a goblin, tall and lithe, yet powerfully built, for a goblin.
“Welcome to the GreenPiece Clan …” I plucked her name from the air “… Trillian. I need you to operate this Export Office, I trust you know how to use a Trade Orb?”
She nodded gracefully. “Yes, Dread Totem. I do. It is a great honor to operate such an advanced facility.” Her voice was clear and confident.
“Do you require anything for your job?”
“No, Dread Totem, though a gofer would help accelerate the preparation and transportation of goods.”
“Kaedric, see to it.”
“Yes, my lord.”
I rubbed my hands expectantly and opened the Commerce Interface again. This time the ‘Export Office’ option was enabled. I clicked on it and reeled back as my mind was assaulted by a torrent of information. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it; it was just too much.
The flow of data abated and a large screen opened instead, filling my entire view. Dozens of options, tabs, and lists were displayed.
I blinked a few times, trying to make sense of it all.
At the top was a drop-down list labeled ‘Trading Partners.’ I opened it and selected the only available option: Zemitpozes, the gremlin settlement.
The rest of the screen reorganized, listing new tabs with various categories. Crafting resources, construction resources, minerals, magical, miscellaneous, and such. There were a bunch of filters on the left and a list of categories to sort by on the right. Everything was jumbled together, making my brain hurt as I tried to piece it all together.
You know what I’m looking for, Vic, sort it out, please. You’ve done this plenty of times before.
The screen flickered and reorganized. That was much better. Zemitpozes was listed as the trading partner and below it was a long list of resources: wood, stone, copper, tin, marble, cogs, and finally, glass!
That’s what I need. Now to get it … I tentatively clicked on ‘glass.’ The number ‘1’ showed on the right and a new list opened.
Select a resource to trade for [glass]
Resource
Available Amount
Exchange Rate
Gathered Ingredients
Arrows
Rabbit Pelts
Lumber
…
625
545
423
380
…
62
120
54
5
…
The list went on and on, detailing every item we had stored in our clan, showing those with the highest quantities on top. It was easy enough to understand. The ‘Value’ column clearly showed how many units of the resource were needed to barter for a single piece of glass, but something didn’t add up.
“Trillian, please clear up something for me. How is it that glass takes 120 arrows, while only requiring 5 pieces of lumber?” I knew for a fact that the base price for the lumber was 2 gold, while the 120 arrows went for 6 gold. This conversion table di
d not make sense.
“It is simple, Dread Totem. The ratio is not determined by monetary worth but by the availability or rarity of each resource for the trading partner. For example, if you wanted to trade fish for swords, a fishing village might require over a hundred fish per sword, while a desert village might give you ten swords for a single fish.”
Ah, that made sense. “So it’s beneficial to have as many trading partners as possible. Preferably at different geographic locations.”
The lithe goblinette nodded. “Exactly.”
That made a lot of sense. As a subterranean settlement, Zemitpozes probably lacked a supply of good lumber, while we had a large forest within easy reach. I clicked on ‘Lumber’ and increased the amount to 50 units.
Export 50 lumber for 10 glass? Yes/No
Yup.
A goblin I had never seen before came running at us. A level 3 worker, Trillian’s new gofer helper. The new goblin was hauling in several pieces of lumber, straining under their weight. The lumber was brought into the Export Office. Then the gofer and Trillian went running to the nearby lumber yard. This was going to take a while.
“Kaedric, let me know when they’re finished.”
“Yes, my lord.”
I checked my inventory. I had a few items I needed to unload and a few people I wanted to talk to. I left the marketplace and made my way toward the mess hall.
I took a detour to the pond and gave the fishing kit I found to the fishermen. One of them was using a crude fishing pole and the upgrade increased their daily fish yield by four.
I entered the mess hall. Gandork’s two new gofer helpers were running between the tables, collecting dirty dishes and cleaning the tabletops.
I spotted Bek sitting alone after having long finished eating his meal.
“Hi Bek, how are you doing?”
He fidgeted and lowered his eyes. “Bek is sorry, Dread Totem!” he piped.
Life Reset- EvP Page 31
