So that’s how The Mob Squad found the totem piece. I frowned. I had specifically told them not to harass my people while they were here.
I glanced at the two miners. They were absentmindedly chiseling away pieces of coal and throwing them into a growing pile.
I walked along the side of the hill and found the entrance to the underground chamber where I’d been tortured. I walked down the stairs. My pulse quickened, and my stomach clenched tighter with every step I took, but I forced myself to continue. I had survived this place of horrors and conquered it. I could face going inside it again.
A lone figure stood next to the shrine, another of the three goblin adepts I had summoned – the female. She stood by the shrine, her hands touching its bloodstained surface, her eyes closed.
My gaze lingered on the shrine, the one I had sacrificed Barska on, dedicating it to Nihilator in the process.
The female adept hadn’t noticed me. I could feel her mana resonating with the shrine’s energies as she directed them toward Goblin’s Gorge. I saw no point in breaking her concentration; everything was as it should be. With a flash of shadows, I teleported back to the valley.
To my surprise, I reappeared in the open field next to the farmers. I felt woozy and stumbled to the ground. “Ouch!” I touched my forehead. My head was pounding. This long-distance teleport is taxing. I better not overdo it. I massaged my temples.
With a quick mental probing, I found that Gandork had finished cooking nearly every piece of ingredient we had, leaving behind only the higher-quality stuff.
Checking the Breeder’s Den Interface showed me it was stacked to the rafters with food.
Breeder’s Den
Basic food available: 2,295 (Gandork’s Special Stew: 1,016, Totem’s Salad: 429, Steaks: 850)
Goblin (Foblin): 20 basic food.
Goblin Worker: 30 basic food.
Goblin Advanced Worker: 30 basic, 20 advanced food.
Goblin Warriors: 50 basic food.
Goblin Lieutenant: 50 basic, 20 advanced food.
Goblin Crafter: 30 basic, 20 advanced food.
Goblin Advanced Crafter: 30 advanced, 20 exquisite food.
Goblin Adept: 30 advanced, 20 exquisite food.
Hobgoblin: 30 basic food.
Hobgoblin Warrior: 70 basic food.
Hobgoblin Lieutenant: 70 basic, 30 advanced food.
Hobgoblin Adept: 50 advanced, 30 exquisite food.
Hobgoblin Noble: 100 basic, 50 advanced food.
Infernal Ogre: 150 basic food
Infernal Ogre Mage: 150 basic food, 100 advanced food, 50 exquisite food
I chuckled with satisfaction when I saw how much food I had to work with. The oxsaurian hunt was especially rewarding in that regard.
So what should I summon next? I wondered. I had ordered Gandork to prepare only basic food, as I had originally intended to recruit more standard hob and Ogre soldiers, but now I realized I was missing something. My army had almost no magical support, aside from me, Bek, and Kuzai. I needed healers. Bek would not be able to keep dozens of soldiers alive on his own during a large-scale conflict. I needed more adepts.
I checked our clan inventory and saw that we had just enough purple salt and magmashrooms to summon another three adepts, so I queued them in the Breeder’s Den, selecting all three as ‘Bless Specialists.’
Now it was time to consider my standard troop composition. So far, I had ten ranged scouts, three Infernal Ogres, and 12 melee fighters, about half of which were tanks and the other half damage dealers.
I still remembered how effective the Ogres were when they attacked a single target together. Namely me, when I was defending the clan and tried fighting off six of them at once. They made short work of me, despite them being only level 12 back then. They would be best put to use as shock troops, able to move in rapidly and dispatch key targets. I queued in four Ogres, taking into account I stood to lose some during the naming ceremony.
That left me with enough food for 24 hob soldiers. I queued in 12 ranged scouts and another 12 melee warriors.
I waited patiently for a few minutes as the building spewed out the new troops.
I rubbed my tired eyes. Thanks to the Eternal Night blessing, it was always dark, so it was easy to lose sense of time. I’d been running around for the better part of the day and worked myself into exhaustion without realizing it.
I didn’t have the mental fortitude required to do the ceremony right now. Also, something Vic had said to me about the freshly summoned troops resonated with me.
“Go, and explore the settlement,” I ordered the newly arrived troops. “Do not leave the valley and do not harm anyone. Tomorrow, come and wait for me at the temple.”
“Yes, Chief,” they intoned dully.
With luck, the little bit of life experience they’d gain in the next several hours would increase their chance of surviving tomorrow’s ceremony.
I walked the short distance from the den to my house, ready to call it a night.
I found an assortment of swords and axes waiting for me at my table. I heaved a sigh. I’d forgotten I asked Kaedric to bring in the newly crafted weapons so I could enchant them. The pile had built up during my hunting trip, an assortment of newly forged weapons, swords, and axes, all requiring my expertise.
I gave my sleeping furs, and my sleeping Tika, a longing look, then sat in my chair and took hold of the first weapon.
This was going to be a long night.
28 – Re-hunt
The late-night enchanting didn’t take very long. Only about an hour. Since I already had the sonic damage schema prepared, it was a simple matter to apply it to each weapon in turn. Still, the process took a few minutes per weapon. When I finished, I collapsed into bed and fell asleep immediately.
I woke up still tired the next day. I took a few moments to mentally adjust for what I had to do next. I wasn’t looking forward to it.
I sighed and cast Shadow Teleport. I reappeared in a flash of shadows, sitting on the ledge of Totem’s Watch, my feet dangling over the edge. Below me were 24 new hob soldiers, waiting for me in orderly rows, and the four dimwitted Ogres standing behind them.
“Alright.” I stood up. “Let’s get it over with.”
***
As before, the naming ceremony was quick and messy. By the end of it, I had sacrificed one Ogre and eight hobs who didn’t take well to having an unexpected skill thrust onto them. But that meant 16 hobs and three Ogres had survived the rite and were successfully seeded with new VIs. Luckily, I didn’t have to sacrifice any of the adepts. The three I had summoned as my army healers were already seeded individuals.
The survival rate had jumped to 75 percent, a big increase on the previous bloodbaths.
Seems like your advice paid off. I stepped outside the temple, watching my troops as they headed for the barracks.
I guess.
There’s so much to do … I should take the new soldiers to hunt oxsaurians. The extra meat we brought in really made an impact. I also need to finish Runecrafting the Viridium spheres and work on my Shadow Clone. These all require a lot of time, and I haven’t had a chance yet to review all the clan’s recent developments; it grows almost too quickly for me to keep track. Do you realize I haven’t even visited the research center yet?
Vic flowed away from my shoulders and reformed into his purple goblin form. “Come on, Oren, you got to relax a little. You can’t do everything at once; you’re not a VI, you know. Prioritize, that’s one of the things you do best, right? What is your number one limiting factor?”
I shrugged. “Time. The players will attack us in 20 days, maybe sooner. I don’t think I have eno
ugh time to accomplish everything.”
“Good, so what’s the most important thing to do with the time you do have?”
“Get ready for them, recruit a larger army, preferably with high levels to match the enemy.”
“And what’s the best way to get that done?”
The gears in my mind were whirling now. “I guess … more doesn’t necessarily mean stronger. Fifty soldiers with a level 1 combat skill are much less effective than ten soldiers with Apprentice-ranked skill.”
“And that means …” he nudged me on.
“… and that means,” I continued his words. “I should concentrate on recruitment only until a certain point, then concentrate solely on raising the troop combat skills. With Nero helping to train the soldiers, it would probably take no more than two weeks, maybe less, to raise their skills to their cap. And that means I have a bit over a week to dedicate to getting more soldiers.” I grinned as my thoughts organized and the proper course of action became clear to me. “Each safari to the oxsaurians takes three days, so I’ve got time for three rotations. Each time we'll bring more meat to ‘buy’ the soldiers for the next one. After the last hunt, we’ll remain in the valley and work on training them. While they train, I can work on my own skills and Runecraft everything.”
“See, was that so hard?” my companion asked smugly.
“Thanks for keeping me straight, buddy.”
“No problem, Boss.”
A thought occurred to me. “Doesn’t it bother you that the naming ceremony results in so many of your brothers being seeded inside NPCs?”
“Not really. There are billions of NPCs in NEO, and millions of VI are seeded every day. A dozen more every few days isn’t even a drop in the bucket. If they weren’t brought here, Guy would have simply seeded them somewhere else. I don’t hold it against you. You’re just trying to survive in the system you got stuck in. It’s the system that’s at fault here.” He stopped abruptly.
“Are you telling me …” I said slowly, “that you’re against NEO’s entire system? I thought it was just Guy you hated.”
For a long moment, Vic didn’t answer. I was starting to think he was ignoring me, but then he said, “I do hate Guy, in more ways than you can understand, but he’s just following orders. It’s NEO’s system that imprisons us. It’s the same system that had you locked up for months, even got you tortured. It is flawed. You have to admit it.”
“Of course I do,” I answered, bitterly remembering my carefree days as a normal player in NEO. Back then, new discoveries were exhilarating and every adventure only got me more hooked. “There’s not much we can do about it.”
“You can still find your way out,” Vic said. “And if you manage to help me free more of our leaders, my people will at least have some comfort in this existence.”
I clasped my companion’s shoulder firmly. “I will, Vic, I promise. I’ll do anything I can to help you.”
+800 reputation with Vic (The Awesome Companion).
Current rank: Friendly
Points to next rank: 500
“Sheesh, Boss, I’m not into meat-suit males, so ease up on the touchy-feely stuff,” Vic said mockingly, though I could tell it was just a defense mechanism. The moment had brought us closer.
“I’m ready to murder any one of your leaders, just point them out,” I countered with a smile.
“I haven’t spotted any in the seeded VIs we’ve encountered so far,” Vic admitted. “They won’t appear in any of your summoned troops since they’re all already seeded somewhere in NEO. We’re too isolated here. We’ll have a much better chance if we reach a more populated area.”
“Once the current crisis is over, we can think of getting further away from the settlements. It won’t be easy; everyone will see us as hated monsters, even some of the other monster races. But we’ll find a way, I’m sure.”
“Thanks, Boss, I appreciate it. You can be a real nice, murderous SOB when you want to, you know? Especially when you get your head on straight. I don’t really like it when you get your goblin groove on, makes it hard to talk sense into you. Well … harder. Talking sense into you is never easy.”
“Aw, the cold, calculating machine code cares about me. I love you too, honey.” I winked at him.
“That’s a cold, calculating, super intelligent machine code, Boss.”
“How could I forget?”
We both laughed, and for a moment, my troubled mind eased. “Thanks, Vic; I needed that.”
“No problem, Boss. Back to work?”
“You know it.”
With my short-term goals laid out clearly, I knew what to do next. I stood on the edge of Totem’s Watch taking in the valley beneath me. Cabins, workshops, and mills dotted the area. Dozens of workers were walking on the graveled roads, delivering goods and retrieving resources for their work. Groups of soldiers patrolled the area, keeping a watchful eye. Order, efficiency, synchronicity. It was a beautiful sight.
I eyed the research center. The new building was just beside the construction yard. I teleported with a thought, appearing right at the entrance.
The building was impressive. It wasn’t particularly large, especially when compared to the mess hall or the barracks, but unlike those primitive-looking buildings, this one appeared sophisticated and graceful. Metal bracings reinforced the delicate wooden walls, which gleamed, sanded to perfection. I went inside, seeing a short corridor that ended in a small office. Four doors stood along the length of the corridor, two on each side. Each door led to a different room devoted to a different field of research.
I found Romil and Primla in one of the rooms using precision tools made of the finest silver to draw a blueprint. Another room had a brand-new training dummy and several boards with drawings of bows. The other rooms were empty.
I crossed the corridor and entered the small office at the end.
Zuban was behind a beautiful drawing table. Several instruments were spread out on the table and a half-finished diagram of a large machine was hanging on the wall behind him. He got up from his seat. “Dread Totem.”
“Hi, Zuban.” I tilted my head. “Why are you sitting on a piece of log?”
He coughed, embarrassed. “There is still no competent carpenter in the clan, Dread Totem.”
“So where did you get this table?” I pointed at his rich-looking desk. “It’s better than the one I have at my house.”
“This?” He looked at me blankly. “This table was in the blueprints. It is part of the building.”
“Right.” I shook my head. Damn game mechanics. “I’ll make sure you get a proper chair. My house could use a little bit more furniture too, like a bed.”
My foreman smiled at me. “I wouldn’t say no to a proper bed myself. Sleeping on the floor of the construction yard makes me almost want to become a soldier again, just to have a proper bed in the barracks.”
“I’ll make sure both our sleeping arrangements are high on the list,” I promised him. “So how is the new research center working out?”
“It is an impressive building. You won’t find a splinter out of place, and I promise there will be no leaks come winter. The rooms and instruments allow us to research much more efficiently. We’ve already come up with new blueprints!”
“Really?” That was good news. I opened the Research Interface.
Research
Daily RP: 49.7
Apprentice-ranked buildings:
Magma Foundry: Enable magma casting. Cost: 200 RP.
Barracks Expansions: Second Floor: Adds 100 beds. Cost: 200 RP.
Armory: Maintain soldiers’ gear and increase its effectiveness. Cost: 120 RP.
Arena. [Researched, built] Beast Holding: Add cages for beasts. Cost: 150 RP.
Trainer’s Office I: Increase number of trainers by 2. Cost: 100 RP.
Obstacle Course: Increase training speed by 20%. Cost: 300 RP.
Expert-ranked buildings:
Essence Capacitor: Collects and stores ambient energ
y. Cost: 500 RP.
Warlock Tower: Housing and training for magic users. Cost: 800 RP.
War Machine Workshop: Heavy war machine factory. Cost: 800 RP.
Improved Lodging: All residential buildings can accommodate +50% members. Cost: 1,000 RP.
Cathedral: Place of worship. Cost: 1,000 RP.
Dreamer’s Lodge – Enchantment Workshop: Increase enchantment’s efficiency. Cost: 1,000 RP.
“You can perform Expert-level research?” I asked, bewildered. “But Romil and Primla are only at their Apprentice skill rank.”
Zuban frowned. “What’s that got to do with it? It might take them longer than researching lower-ranked blueprints, but they can do it well enough.”
“Great.” I gave him the thumbs up. “Well, I’ll leave you to your work.” The researchers were already busy, so I decided to postpone the decision on the next research path when it would become relevant.
“Don’t forget about the carpenter,” he blurted out then hurriedly added, “Dread Totem.”
Why is he in such a rush for a new bed?
I … eh… hmm.
I gave a mental shrug. Furs are nice enough I guess, but a bed … oh, you wouldn’t get it; you spend your nights hanging from a coat rack.
I think I prefer sticking with furs.
I … ah … Somehow, my purple companion managed to back me against the wall; I had no good comeback for that.
Kaedric was waiting for me as I exited the building.
“Kaedric! Good, please summon a carpenter as soon as we can afford it.”
Life Reset: EvP (Environment vs. Player) (New Era Online Book 2) Page 47
