During the entire journey, nothing stood out requiring his attention; Jackalopes, other Greywieners, and even a sleeping Scaly Bear that she avoided with a great amount of caution were the only creatures they encountered. Eventually, however, they came upon something of great interest to Milton – a large area of hilly terrain. Most of the forest had been relatively flat, the occasional hill appearing was no larger than a dozen feet tall at most. With this new area, though, there was the prospect of future areas to mine for metallic ore.
Excitedly approaching the area, the grass, shrub, and small tree-covered hills looked like a small verdant mountain range – if the mountains were only about 50 feet tall. He sent his Greywiener scrambling to the top of one of the hills to see if he could get a better feel for how large an area this was. Once she reached the top, he could see – as much he could through the trees – that there were a good 20 or more large hills, most of them the same size as the one he was standing on, but a couple of them were a little bigger.
Realizing that he didn’t really have the proper tools or units to “prospect” these hills, he had his Greywiener start at the bottom of one of the hills and dig until she hit rock. If most of it turned out to just be dirt for some reason, he would at least know that it wasn’t worth looking into with more resources. Within minutes, his dogs’ sharp claws had dug through the sparse vegetation and about a foot of dirt, exposing a hard, solid stone that Milton – with his limited knowledge of rocks – thought might be a good place to start mining. Bands of different colors – from a light grey, to a medium brown, and even a dark black – hopefully promised a beneficial payday.
He instructed his Greywiener to scratch at the colored bands, hoping to learn a little more about it before moving on. Certain colors were “softer” than others, and flaked away with a little effort, signaling to Milton that they were probably something different than regular rock. He wasn’t sure if that meant they were metallic or something else – but it was strange enough that he would have to find some way to get a drone or Clawed Badger here to investigate. As he stopped his dogs’ scratch-testing, he got a notification.
Congratulations!
You have acquired the skill: Introductory Geology (Level 1)
Using your investigative skills, you have personally discovered a potential source of metallic ore! With this discovery, you have gained the skill Introductory Geology, granting you the knowledge of the basic forms of geological formations and their creation. Further upgrades to this skill will expand your knowledge, including – but not limited to – uses for geological materials, advanced geological formations, and other geological experiments.
Milton quickly turned his attention back to his shell and warned ALANNA, “I just learned something new, I might—”. That was all he got out before he was bombarded with the knowledge being imparted by the Introductory Geology skill. The overload of information caused him to black out again, and when he “woke up”, he was back in his Core looking at a sleepy-looking and bored ALANNA floating on top of the water and resting against his shell.
Groggily, he slowly asked her, “Ugh…how long was I out this time?” Startled at his voice, she jerked and fell over, temporarily losing her water-walking ability and splashing into the water. Picking herself up and spluttering, she admonished him, “STOP scaring the shit out me like that! That’s the second time, and two fucking times too many. Warn a girl before you start talking next time, ya fuck.”
Milton was still trying to collect himself as he absorbed the amount of knowledge he had gained. As he distantly watched as she floated on top of the water again and shook all the water off, he thought about the stone he had found with his Greywiener before he was struck down. With his new knowledge, he surmised that the striations in the rock were very good indications that some sort of geological event happened in the distant past causing an up-thrust of the surrounding area, which meant that some long-buried minerals most likely were pushed up along with it. It might have been a fault in the bedrock and something shifted, or some other minor event. If it were something major, I would see some more evidence in the surrounding areas. He figured that with more upgrades to his skill, he might know enough to determine how it happened.
Thoughts about his discovery almost made him miss what ALANNA was saying in answer to his original question, “As to how long you were out, it wasn’t nearly as long as last fucking time. Only about five days this time – which is a marked improvement. Even a small bump in your shitty stats are helping you cope with the amount of knowledge you are sucking up. What did you learn by the way?”
Milton told her all about the discovery of the hills, his “prospecting”, and his discovery and subsequent skill gain. She seemed as excited as he was but cautioned him from celebrating too much. “It sounds like it is a long way away from here – your drones can only function in multiples of 100 feet with your Communication/Charisma stat. So, at a 500-foot range, you’re fucked until you can create Communication Arrays which will allow you to boost your neural communication distance. Of course, just like everything else, you’re going to need a fuck-load of metal to create them. Now that you know it’s there, you can mine it in the future when you have more shit to spend – for now, leave it alone.”
Although Milton saw the wisdom of this, his spirits were a little diminished at how long it would take to get there. Thanking ALANNA for the unneeded “kick to his junk” – to which she graciously said, “you’re welcome”, he turned his attention back to the Greywiener he had abandoned when he gained the Introductory Geology skill. When he tried to connect to it, he got an error saying that it was no longer available. Something must have happened to it after I left. Remembering that everything was automatically recorded for all his units, he replayed the last 5 days starting from when he left.
After quickly fast-forwarding through four boring days of the Greywiener wandering around the hills, catching a random Jackalope, sleeping, running around, and sleeping/eating some more, he finally got to the timestamp of about 6 hours ago. While she was running through the hills, she stopped as she sensed danger around the corner. With standing orders to investigate anything abnormal, the curious dog crept around the base of the hill, staying low to the ground to potentially avoid notice. When she crawled around a larger boulder sticking out from the hill, she saw a large cave placed in the side of the hill about 10 feet up from the ground. Inching closer and using her nose to determine what it was, she was within about a dozen feet when she instinctually recognized what it was – wolf.
Realizing that she had inadvertently crept up on a wolf’s den, she turned around – only to find that she was surrounded. Turning back, she watched as additional wolves emerged from the mouth of the cave and made their way down to the ground, while a low whine started among the assembled attackers.
Milton almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation, but after watching his Greywiener tremble in fear he figured there might be something to worry about. Instead of massive wolves with huge jaws filled with scary looking teeth, these wolves were smaller. Actually, a lot smaller. In fact, he would classify them as Pygmy Wolves for their small stature. Individually, they were about the size of a small Pekinese dog, about half to a third of the size of his own Greywiener.
Also differing from a normal wolf, these Pygmy Wolves were a dark purple color, had six legs, and for some strange reason had two tails. They were almost cute, until they opened their mouths and he saw the large, almost sabretooth cat-looking teeth sticking out of their jaws. That was when he didn’t hold out much hope for his own dog – if even one of the 30+ Pygmy Wolves latched onto her, she was a goner.
Once all the wolves were in position, almost as if on cue they attacked at the same time, rushing ahead and throwing themselves upon his Greywiener without thought of defense. She held her own for about five seconds, catching three of the leading wolves by their heads and jerking back and forth quickly, snapping their necks. By the time she let go of the third, an additiona
l five jumped her, bringing her to the ground and biting everything they could reach. Struggling to rise and shake them off, she was further “dogpiled” by an additional ten wolves and the last thing Milton saw was the sight of wicked long teeth in his face before the recording ended.
Congratulations! Your Greywiener (1) has defeated Pygmy Wolf x3! You gain (20x3) 60 experience!
Experience: 825/1500
Shaken by the sheer ferocity in such a small package, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for his dog. She couldn’t help but stay where he left her and by doing so caused her death. After a few moments of self-reflection, he determined not to become too attached to his units – especially his Combat Units. He didn’t want it to feel like he didn’t care about them, but they were there for a purpose and it was inevitable that he would lose a few of them. Well, probably more than a few.
He had made some progress with his exploration and, despite them being killed, his Greywieners had performed relatively well. They were able to move quickly, covering a lot of territory in a short amount of time, and were able to defend themselves against smaller opponents. It was only the unfortunate fact that they were extremely outmatched that they died. In the future, he would make them run first at the first sign of danger – that was their strength after all.
After making two new Greywieners, he watched as they frolicked and played in the water again – I can’t deny it makes me inwardly smile when I see that – and waited until ALANNA wore them out, before he sent them out through his dungeon again. With the help of one of his drones, they were able to make it out again without setting off any of his traps.
Just as they emerged from the entrance, Milton received an insistent warning from the one unit he didn’t want to connect to but kept around for emergencies such as this. After connecting to his Blood-thirsty Squirrel unit, he ensured he was only seeing and hearing through its eyes and ears. The last thing he wanted was to feel like he was the squirrel – that thought sent imaginary shivers through his mind. Refocusing on what caught his scouts’ attention, he was shocked when he saw small deep purple shapes flitting through the trees. The Pygmy Wolf in the lead had its nose to the ground, as if it was following a trail.
When Milton instructed his squirrel to look at where they came from and the direction they were heading, he couldn’t help but think back to where his Northern Greywiener initially headed. Although they were probably still about a mile out, he suspected that – even though he wasn’t observing this particular dog during this stretch of forest – this was the same path she had traveled while exploring Northward.
This was worrisome for a couple of reasons: 1. Either these wolves were excellent trackers, or 2. Somehow the “scent” of his leaking radiation was infused in his units, allowing them to be followed back to their source. Milton decided to err on the side of caution and figured #2 was the culprit, for the simple reason that he couldn’t imagine these wolves would travel so far outside their territory unless they were being “lured” in by his leakage. This didn’t bode well for future exploration since anything that he encountered could theoretically follow his units’ trail back to his dungeon.
But, that was a worry for another time. Right now, he had a pack of about 30 vicious killer Pygmy Wolves headed in his direction and not much time to prepare. He figured he had about five minutes before they arrived, meaning that he had to devise some sort of defensive plan before they got close.
Chapter 18 – The first engagement
Looking over what he had to work with[18], Milton determined that he didn’t have the numbers to take them head-on – therefore, he would have to use his units’ strengths as effectively as possible. He also didn’t have time to create any more, nor did he have the excess Basic Metal units yet to construct much. He was slowly getting some from his drone mining away at the deposit found by his Clawed Badger, but there wasn’t enough extra to build more – especially since he had just spent 50 BM units on his new Greywieners. Instructing his Combat Units to gather in front of his entrance, it took a precious minute before they were close enough to see all of them. Once he had them assembled, he looked at each group, trying to determine how to best utilize them in the upcoming defense.
His Lollipop Snakes were good at hiding in the tall grass prevalent in the clearing, where they could strike out at unsuspecting prey. His Jackalopes worked best if they had room to run and impact their enemies with devastating force. The Greywieners were fast and could easy handle a Pygmy Wolf one-on-one, but if they were attacked en masse then they were in trouble.
With these strengths in mind, he assembled his forces into three attack positions. First, however, he had his Greywieners run back and forth from the trees to his dungeon entrance, hopefully permeating the air and ground with his leakage scent so that they would follow a straight pathway when they got to the clearing. Along the Western side of this pathway, set about 20 feet back from it, he assembled his Jackalopes so that they had room to run and impact the incoming wolfpack. When they impacted the wolves, the – hopefully – damaged wolves would be thrown out of line, right into the jaws of his Lollipop Snakes, hiding along the Eastern part of the pathway. His Greywieners would play the part of the tank, lined up in front of the entrance, preventing any from getting past.
When the Pygmy Wolfpack arrived at the tree line, they yipped and growled as they saw their destination in sight. Consumed with getting to the source of the radiation they had been following, they traveled along the freshest and most saturated concentration of it – the pathway his Greywieners had created. Rushing along without a care, they didn’t notice – or bother – saving five of their members as they were violently hit from the side by Jackalopes, removing them from the pack. Even their pain-filled yips and whines were ignored as his Lollipop Snakes jumped on each one, two or three snakes per wolf, attacking them in vulnerable areas like their necks and eyes.
It was only as his Jackalopes rushed back to position further down the line and hit another five that they stopped and took notice of their dwindling numbers. While the Lollipop Snakes scrambled to finish off this next group of impacted targets, they were attacked by revenge-seeking pack members. With very little defense except for their small size and speed, his snakes tried to retreat into the grass for better positioning but ended up losing more than half their number to the enraged wolves. This delay in the wolves’ forward progress – while detrimental to his snakes’ well-being – was fortunate for his other forces to get into position.
Given the time to reposition, his Jackalopes were able to get in one more good strike. Two of them Kamikaze’d, instantly killing their wolfen targets with their antlers shoved so far into their bodies it snapped his Jackalopes’ necks on impact. A third Jackalope missed its target when it shifted at the last moment, only to get snatched up as it went past, sliced up and killed instantly by the outrageously long, sharp teeth of the Pygmy Wolf it had missed. The remaining two knocked their targets into the range of the remaining 6 Lollipop Snakes that had retreated in time and hid in the tall grass.
While the wolves were occupied with attacking the snakes and trying to avoid Jackalope impacts, his Greywieners had sprinted across the battlefield, attacking like perfectly-paired teammates, decimating the stragglers on the outside of the pack. Quickly dispatching them by picking them up by the head and snapping their necks, they managed to kill 6 of them before the remaining 12 realized what was happening. The pack members instantly targeted one of the Greywieners with half of their number, while the remaining 6 ran for the entrance of his dungeon. Attacking all at once, they piled on top of their targeted Greywiener, inflicting serious damage before they were picked off one-by-one by the other dog. The damage had been done, however, because the wounds inflicted by the wolves were so severe that the injured Greywiener bled out and died moments after the last wolf was killed.
Meanwhile, the remaining Pygmy Wolves raced for the dungeon entrance, leaving their doomed pack members behind. His remaining two Jackalopes rac
ed to head them off, with one managing to impact the last wolf in the group, leaving it to the mercies of six Lollipop Snakes. The last five wolves made it into the dungeon and were so far ahead that none of his units would be able to catch up.
I guess it’s up to me now. His traps were as prepared as possible, his drones were in position, and he was ready to see how they performed. As they raced toward the first bend in the tunnel, the two wolves in the lead suddenly dropped out of sight as they slid down the tilting floor, frightened yelps abruptly cut off as they were impaled upon the spikes at the bottom. As the floor tilted back up into position, the other three wolves skidded to a stop.
Cautiously traveling along the sides of the pit, where it was safe, they made it past the trap and started running again toward their destination. The closer they came to the source of the radiation, the faster they seemed to move, seemingly pulled by an invisible force that encouraged them to run full-out.
When they arrived at his slicing blade trap, he was worried that they were so small that they could duck underneath the lowest blade. Apparently, they had the same thought as the first two wolves performed an epic sliding move underneath the blades, trying to avoid being hit by them. Milton’s worries were alleviated when they were unsuccessful, the spinning implements of destruction impacting them with very little resistance and practically cutting their heads off. The third, and last, wolf watched what happened from farther back in the tunnel and somehow intelligently calculated the precise angle and height needed to jump through the gaps in the blades.
Using one of its dead pack members as a stepping stone, it launched itself through the air, sailing over the lowest blade and narrowly missing the blade just above it. It didn’t walk away completely unscathed – one of the blades took out an inch of both of its tails when it flung upwards on the wolves’ downward arc. With a series of yelps finished up with a howl, the wolf let the world know it was in serious pain with the missing portion of its tails. Still whining in pain, it continued down the corridor, oblivious to anything in its path.
The Station Core_A Dungeon Core Epic Page 13
