Mark Fields used his fingers to comb over his light brown hair. There, that was the look. He was wearing his best set of khaki slacks and a sharp gray button up over a plain white-T. Combing his hair over with his fingers overall improved his look by a not marginal amount, although it was an exercise in futility since he did not use a spray or gel to hold it into place.
Not that it would matter since using his fingers to comb over his hair was a very habitual practice for him. He did it when he was stressed or thinking or any number of other reasons. Likely, he did it, at least several times an hour unconsciously, so in theory a gel or holding spray would not make much of a difference.
Mark flashed a smile to check his teeth. Perfect, Mark wondered for a moment whether he had ever looked this good before, before shaking his head. He was wearing brand new clothes. Not having been washed, their colors were sharp and not faded like most of the rest of his wardrobe. Not typically important for him, but for today, it was.
A date that he had spent much of the last year secretly hoping for, along with likely any other single guy that had been around Emily. She was a voluptuous beauty with vibrant red hair that was likely not her natural hair color. Not that it mattered. Her allure was like an exotic red flower pulling the gazes of all around her.
Honestly, Mark doubted that today held the same significance for her as it did for him, but a guy could hope. As a prior mechanical engineering major, college had not been quite what he had hoped it could be. There had been perhaps one or two girls for every ten guys in his classes, and even the best of them would be several ticks below Emily on a beauty scale. It was not like he had much free time to participate in other extra-curriculars, so he had missed out on that aspect for the most part.
After graduation, Mark had scored a good job at a water utility company. Emily worked in the financial department, and had for several years when he had been hired. She was at least a couple years older than him. His first day, Mark already knew about her despite not having met before. Emily was basically a legend that passed amongst the employees. A god amongst mortals practically untouchable since she was supposedly dating some hot shot lawyer.
Mark’s interactions were fairly limited since he only occasionally went to the main office building, but in his mind they had gone well. Once the word passed that she was single, he had mustered the courage to ask her out to coffee. She accepted with an enchanting smile, although she more than likely had other prospects. Mark doubted that he would be the only one to jump at opportunity, but he was the one with his foot in the door.
Mark gave one last glance at his bathroom mirror. “Now to go meet with my destiny.” Mark turned to exit the bathroom. One moment the mirror displayed his back as he turned around. Next it showed a partially opened door. Mark had blinked from existence with a “Poooffff.”
* * *
Mark felt thousands of lights whir past him. It was like in one of the many shows where a spaceship went through hyperspace, but it only lasted a moment. He found himself in a dark space with a girl and a blue pulsating orb sitting atop a pedestal.
Mark’s eyes blinked. “What the hell, had just happened?” He looked around. There was indeed nothing else around him, so his eyes shifted back to the girl standing across from him.
She was young, perhaps thirteen or fourteen. She had short blond hair in what resembled a pixie cut. Only a few inches in length but it was already starting to curl at the ends. Pixie was a befitting term in all other aspects as well. The girl was short, maybe not even five feet tall. Additionally, she was skinny, likely not even close to a hundred pounds in weight.
The girl's eyes reflected the blue pulsating orb, but that was not what she was looking at. Her eyes were scanning him. Her mouth was contorted, as if she was silently ‘ooooooing’. For a second Mark wondered if he had died and this girl was some sort of angel. She definitely had the right look.
He felt a tinge of panic at the thought. ‘Why today of all days,’ Mark entreated silently, but then his rationality took back over and he dismissed the thought. ‘That was stupid.’ Despite the strangeness of the situation, he did not think that he had died. This being a dream was even more out of the question. His mind did not even settle on the thought as his mind blazed through explanations. Luckily, he did not have to think for long.
“Wow it worked,” the girl exclaimed excitedly. Her hands clasped together in front of her face as if she was going to pray, mumbling a squeal of jubilation. “He’s even better than I was picturing,” she mumbled quietly, but Mark still heard it.
‘Great whatever this is, is her fault.’ Mark thought subconsciously. He was supposed to meet a red headed bombshell in a half hour, and instead he had been summoned by this little blond brat.
Being summoned by magic or advanced technology had of course been one of the few ideas that had come to mind in the fifteen seconds that he had been here. Based on the mesmerizing blue pulsating orb, Mark had a hunch that it was the former.
Blue light was seemingly pulsing from the center of the orb in short bursts. Mark did not have a great understanding of optics and refraction, but he knew it was unnatural. The blue light was appearing seemingly from nowhere and then radiating to the surface in a steady heartbeat like rhythm.
“Did you bring me here?” Mark said, his eyes shifting back to the girl.
Her face registered a brief flash of panic, as Mark’s words disrupted her chain of thought. Her face immediately took on a more serious business-like expression. “Oh yes, I can’t believe I wasted even more time. We already have so little of it left.”
The words were more for herself than for him, but Mark did not miss the connotations. She had indeed done something to bring him here, and they apparently did not have much time till whatever began. Mark’s mind threatened to run wild thinking of the possibilities, but he focused it in a practiced manner. He had been through countless tests in college where time was limited and the problems on the test seemed so daunting. Trick was to break it up into smaller pieces or steps and tackle them one at a time.
Mark already felt he knew the answer, but he had to ask, “Will I be able to go back?”
This time the panicked and now guilty expression did not leave the girl’s face. She looked down and quietly answered, “No,” after a few seconds. Mark pictured Emily’s visage against a black backdrop, and he felt it slowly fade from view as he resolved himself that the dream date was not to be.
More thoughts and questions threatened to bombard his mind, but he shut them down. He needed to focus on what was before him. From what he had observed about this girl it was clear that she was overwhelmed by whatever was going on. Her body trembled a bit like she had the shakes from too much caffeine, and her demeanor was…frantic?
The situation was obviously urgent, perhaps even life threatening, but the girl's mental processes seemed to have shifted down from a wide field of view to what was right in front of her. Mark would likely have to lead her to get what information he needed.“What’s your name?”
“Uh, Amelia, It's Amelia Crowwell!” she answered, while performing an awkward curtsy.
“Well Amelia, my name is Mark. You mentioned that you brought me here, and that we did not have much time left. Could you…”
“That’s right,” the girl shrieked. Her eyes shifted to something else, although her eyes never left him. “Only fourteen minutes left,” she exclaimed, her voice faltering. Mark took a quick look behind him. There was nothing there but the surrounding darkness.
“Amelia,” Mark snapped in a serious tone. It might have been a little harsh, but it was the best way to break the girl from the dazed look. It was as if her mind was shutting down. “You brought me here for a reason. Take it step by step.”
“Ohhhh, right,” the girl started. “I summoned you as my champion.”
Another five seconds passed before Mark once again ushered the girl on. “You said there were only fourteen minutes left. Fourteen minutes to what?” Mark could not help but feel agitated by the situation. His mind was already working to hold all the implications of the situation and the prospect of his life as he knew it being effectively over.
“The succession game for the Arcadian throne. I’m one of the contenders,” the girl said softly, her eyes shifting to his.
Her apparent joy at having successfully brought him here was gone, and in its place he could see both a mix of fear and excitement. Based on her words he could speculate as the cause. While it was a thing of the past, Mark knew that royal succession battles could be bloody, and she had brought him into it. The term champion was also not lost on him. ‘Was he going to be fighting on her behalf?’ He hoped it was not some kind of gladiatorial battle.
While he would like to get a complete and full picture of what they were getting into, time was ticking away. His earlier attempt to awaken the girl from her stupor seeming to have failed. “Amelia, how is this succession battle taking place?”
“Oh, uhhh…” she stammered. This time only a few seconds passed before a moment. “Just say main menu!” she finally said.
“Main menu,” he said gingerly. A translucent aqua screen with boxes and texts appeared before him. ‘No way!’ Mark felt a surge of excitement despite the tension. A game interface, he would not say he was an avid gamer, but he had racked up a lot of time playing games nonetheless. He once again stifled the thoughts and the misplaced excitement given the seemingly grievous situation.
The aqua screen was split into an upper and lower half. The lower half looked like a normal menu screen homepage with multiple tabs, but Mark’s eyes were drawn to the top half. Which he instantly recognized as a welcome message.
[Welcome Mark Fields. You have been chosen as the champion for Amelia Cromwell. Your life and hers have been linked during the upcoming succession battle, Age of Dungeons! Fight the other 34 contenders for your survival and to win the right for Amelia Cromwell to take over the Arcadian throne as high queen. The whole realm watches and awaits.
Gather resources, Advance your dungeon, Build your armies, and conquer your foes.]
Mark felt his eyes bulge. He let his mind dwell on the message considering what it said. He immediately thought of the turn based strategy games he had grown up playing, although it had been a while. In the last few years he did not have enough time to dedicate to the time intensive games, although for some reason he felt it was unlikely that turns would be a thing in a real life version.
‘I guess that makes it a real-time strategy game.’ he thought. It had been even longer since he had played one of those. He had always preferred turn-based games since he liked to think through decisions, and real time games felt rushed. Regardless, a countdown timer at the top of the menu screen flipped from 13 to 12:59. He was under 13 minutes now.
Mark shifted his eyes to the main menu below. The message above seemed to minimize into the first tab labeled notices which was the tab that was open. That was neat. He only needed to think about it, for the menu to shift to other screens. He noticed that there were more notifications.
[Welcome Amelia Cromwell as one of the 35 contenders in the Age of Dungeons. Winner will become the successor for the Arcadian throne. The whole realm watches and awaits]
Map placement of contenders will be random with a minimum distance of 20 miles in between. Contenders will start with a Level 1 dungeon core to be placed within your territory, which can be moved once every 24 hours as long as it is not currently being threatened. Dungeon core will generate 1 dungeon point (DP) and 1 Research point (RP) per day. Rates may be increased. Destruction of core will result in disqualification of contender from the succession battle and will result in their death.
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Contenders will also start with one coal generator and an initial coal deposit. Manna points may be freely converted to DP or RP at a rate of 1000 for 1. Contenders may pick one specialization and will start with 100,000 MP to start your dungeon.
Contenders have 1 hour to choose specialization and familiarize themselves with the interface. Failure to select a specialization in the given time will result in one being assigned at random.
Gather resources, Advance your dungeon, Build your armies, and conquer your foes.]
It was similar to his message, however it was far more helpful in illuminating what kind of game this succession battle would be. There were a few more notices, so he continued on. First step, he needed to see what the girl had already done.
[Notice: Amelia Cromwell has chosen Social Interaction for your specialization. Your units will be able to interact more efficiently with each other and with others. Social Interaction increases intelligence and diplomatic ability for all units. Dungeon will start with Logistics and Military Organization]
[Congratulations!!! you have successfully learned logistics. Logistics encompasses the ability to coordinate resources and people. Researching Logistics enables units to more efficiently carry out long term expeditions. Decreases food spoilage and wastage.]
[Congratulations!!! You have successfully learned Military Organization. Military Organization encompasses the ability of units to organize into effective fighting forces. Researching Military Organization unlocks the troop size and rank functions in units.]
[Notice: Amelia Cromwell has spent 50,000 MP to open a humanoid tree in the unit list. Amelia Cromwell has chosen to open a goblin branch on a humanoid tree.]
[Notice: Amelia Cromwell has spent 10,000 MP on the one time option to summon a champion. Champion will be linked to the contender and will have equal rights to make decisions using the interface. Amelia Cromwell has elected to have champion selection be randomized based on specified traits.]
The last bit caused Mark to unconsciously glance at the girl. Specified traits? What had the girl specified to end up with him? Mark was definitely above average intelligence wise, but there had been plenty of people in his engineering classes who could run circles around him. He also thought of the countless seemingly impossible high scores people had somehow racked up on any game he had played. The girl shied away from meeting his eyes, seemingly aware of his accusatory glance.
Mark sighed before shifting his focus to the other tabs. Above the screen tabs his current DP, RP, and MP were listed. The first two were still at 1, but MP was now down to 40,000 from the initial startup. He would have to see all the options to judge her decisions. Unfortunately, it did not seem like I had access to the specializations. Whatever list she had picked from, did not seem to be available anymore. It was a shame since knowing what others picked would be beneficial, but he could not do anything about it.
Social Interaction with bonuses in diplomacy did not exactly sound like the best choice in a domination scenario. Likely, there were better options. On games he played, there were specializations that would give bonus to every unit or would decrease cost of things.
Mark could not help but ask, “Why did you choose social interaction?”
“Uh…uh…It was one of the few specializations that came with a Tier 2 research.” Amelia stammered her eyes falling to the floor. She continued hesitantly, “It will also allow us to get better outcomes when dealing with independent forces.”
Many turn and real-time based strategy games had barbarians or beasts to get things going in the early game. The benefits that could be gained could definitely be beneficial, but Mark typically preferred things that would provide better benefits throughout.
Mark frowned as he flipped to the research tab, deeming it the most important. There were several tabs of research options. The page he was looking for was the one that was open initially under the research tab, the technology tree. There were also tabs for units, enhancements, and dungeon features, although the last one was grayed out inaccessible.
The Technology tree was basically a list of research options all delegated under a Tier level. It was a slightly different format than he had seen on similar games. The Tier 1 research options were listed in bright white letters. The associated costs seemed to fall between 10 and 20 thousand MP. Based on getting 1RP a day it would take 10 days to research even 1 without converting from MP. Mark quickly sifted his eyes through the Tier 1 options. He noted that they were basic things such as building, crafting, foraging, etc…
Military organization was under the Tier 2 list and was white amidst a bunch of other grayed out and indiscernible options. Unfortunately, it did not indicate how much the option had cost, so Mark could not glean whether getting a Tier 2 option now was that great of a boon, but then he noticed that the Tier 2 research was restricted until dungeon reached level 2, so it was something that they would have that others would not get for a while.
He shifted to the units research tab. There were multiple different categories apparently labeled as trees. Amelia had purchased the humanoid tree for 50,000 MP, so it was further broken down into what was called branches. There were quite a few options in bright white letters, but also a good deal that were grayed out and indiscernible. The goblin branch was also open and there were a good variety of different goblin types. The green goblin (base) was the only one that did not have an associated cost, so Mark assumed that it was what they were given to start.
Mark took another moment to glance at the other trees. Constructs, beasts, undead, plants, and other. All of them cost 100,000 MP. Was humanoid the cheapest, or had the price increased for the others? There was a notice at the top that seemed to indicate the latter.
[Notice: All trees not unlocked when Dungeon reaches level 2 will become locked and will no longer be available. Branches will only be available during the level of the dungeon that they were first unlocked.]
Since the price of all the others was exactly double what the humanoid tree had cost, it seemed likely that the price had increased after Amelia had purchased it, otherwise there would not have been much of a choice. It seemed like they were trying to restrict participants and limit the types of units they could field. Which was a shame, there were several options that Mark would have rather gone with other than humanoid, but then again humanoid probably worked the best going with their specialization of Social Interaction.
Mark grimaced as he shifted to the next tab. The enhancement tab was fairly self explanatory. They were things that could be researched to make units stronger. There were classes and even another tab for skills although that was restricted till their dungeon reached level 3.
Regardless, Mark did not need to worry about it now. The dungeon feature research tab was grayed out, so Mark shifted his attention back to the other main tabs. He had noticed that Dungeon Features was on the tech tree, so likely he would have to research that to even open the tab and see what was available.
“What are you doing,” Amelia said, shifting up to Mark, who glanced her way.
“Nothing right now, just looking through things still,” Mark said, noting the countdown timer. He had just under 7 minutes left.
“Well can you share your screen with me then?” Amelia inquired despondently. She had closed the distance to stand only a couple steps away. “That way I won’t have to wonder.”
“Sure, I didn't even know that was an option,” Mark said, willing his screens to be viewable by her. Her eyes shifted from him to where his screens were, so it must have worked.
Back to where he was at, he shifted his gaze to the dungeon status tab. There was a grayed out tab for floors, The tab did not have much. It listed the dungeon level and upgrade criteria, which apparently only required them to spend 100,000 MP. It also listed dungeon features such as production. Under which there was one coal generator. There was a daily production rate next to it, which right now was at 0.0.
It was not lost on Mark that upgrading the dungeon required the same amount of MP as unlocking a second unit tree. It only cemented the fact that whomever created this succession battle wanted contenders to stand out from each other. The notices did say that the realm was watching, so maybe the creators of this succession battle wanted participants to be readily identifiable from each other. It would not be fun watching everyone with similar armies fighting one another.
It also meant that dungeons could have clear strengths and weaknesses, and getting more versatility could only be done at the cost of delaying dungeon progress. Mark would likely want to delay for a little while, but he would not be able to afford delaying for too long. Doing so would risk someone with vastly superior troops storming through his dungeon.
Mark shifted to the units tab. Currently he had zero units, but he did have two options of units that he could buy. The first was a shade Henchman. The second was the Green Goblin. The desire to have more information on them, automatically opened a window with a little more for him to go off of.
[Shade henchmen (Cost 500 MP) durable slow moving elemental constructs that can perform various functions around the dungeon without requiring food or sleep. They cannot attack and cannot leave their master’s territory.]
[Green Goblin (cost 25 MP) (Power level .25) base unit for the goblin branch. Goblins are humanoids that vary in size and color. The bigger they are or the closer their skin color is to black the more dangerous they are. Green goblins are 3 to 4 feet tall. They have high agility but are lacking in everything else.]
Mark immediately bought one of the shade henchmen. He was going to use them to mine the coal deposit that they would start with. He would have them standing by to begin collecting more resources as soon as the game started, but after buying the henchman he found that he could already assign it directly to his initial coal deposit as a miner.
[Shade henchman 1 assigned to mine coal deposit at main base location. Deposit can be mined by up to 6 personnel. Units assigned (1 of 6)]
Mark immediately bought 5 more and assigned them to the same job. Their current MP was now down to 37,000. It was a non-negotiable purchase, so Mark had not given it a second thought. He quickly shifted to the last 3 main tabs without another thought. The first was a tactical map which was fully blacked out. The second adversary tab had 34 other names that meant nothing to Mark. They were grayed out, likely indicative that they had not met in game. These two tabs were hardly useful for now. The store tab was grayed out. Thinking about it was enough.
[Notice: Store is restricted till after succession battle begins]
After a precursory glance at everything Mark only needed a minute to think through his priorities. His main objective was maximizing the collection of resources for their dungeon. It would be difficult to win if they were not amongst the best in this aspect. The succession battle would likely be similar despite being far more complex than any game he had ever played.
The second goal was to play to their dungeon's strength. Which in this case, had been decided by Amelia prior to his arrival. Social Interaction likely would not have been the specialization that he would have chosen. It seemed like a boon early in the game, but would likely taper off as the game progressed. Other contenders likely had specializations that would benefit them either equally throughout the game, or would get stronger as the game progressed.
They really needed to hit the ground running and nail the start if they wanted to stand a chance of coming out on top. However he decided to wait and see what their environment looked like prior to making a game plan for meeting it.
As far as the main objective, Mark had noticed something during his precursory look through the tabs. He flipped back to the tech tree.
[Magic Energy Production (cost 20,000 MP) Increases production ability. Enables building of Manna Bellows]
There was a small icon of a fan-like object with two sides that could be compressed. Mark could only assume that it would increase his MP production if he could build one. Hopefully, he had enough MP to subsequently build, and even more hopefully it did not require other resources or something.
Mark cheeks puffed up as breathed out. Their remaining MP dropped to 17,000.
[Researching Magic Energy Production has made Manna Bellows available. Dungeon features are currently unavailable until the appropriate technology has been researched.]
Mark cursed silently. He ran his fingers through his hair before sighing and spending 10,000 more MP. He had kind of committed them on this course of action.
[Researching Dungeon Features enables use of the dungeon feature tab and enables adding traps and buildings to the dungeon. Additionally, it unlocks the first five floors of the dungeon for purchase.]
The dungeon feature tab was fairly simple since everything was grayed out other than the manna bellows. Likely, he would have to complete research on the tech tree to open more options. Just researching buildings and traps would likely open much of it. Not that he had the MP to do so.
[Manna Bellow (cost 5,000 MP) A MP production device that separates the manna out of the ambient air and converts it into usable energy. Device can be operated to a maximum efficiency by two shade henchmen. Limit (0 of 3)]
Luckily, they could afford one. There did not appear to be any other resources required, so Mark bought one.
[Manna Bellow purchased by Mark Fields for 5,000 MP. Limit (1 of 3) Due to location not being specified the manna bellow will be automatically placed in a strategic location.]
Mark ended his purchase spree by buying two more shade henchmen and assigning them to the bellows. They now had only 1,000 MP remaining, or 2,000 MP if he converted the 1 DP they had for the first day to MP. Hopefully, the bellow was worth it. He had just spent 36,000 to get and man it. Their chances at having a good start at the game would be severely hampered if it only gave something like 100 MP a day. While he had gotten other benefits from the technologies unlocked, he needed some payback from this investment.
The remaining MP would be saved for future use. There was not much that he could do with it, and there was less than a couple minutes left now. He turned toward Amelia, “You ready.”
The girl nodded. “Sorry,” she said hesitantly. After the countdown timer had decreased to under a minute she had composed herself more. “I did not have anybody else that I could trust with this.” She paused for a few more seconds. “And I had thought I would be able to do it by myself, but in the end I just couldn’t.”
“It’s okay,” Mark responded solemnly. The timer was at ten seconds.
“Thanks, I’m just glad I’m not alone.” she said, and with that the light flashed around them.