Word finally reached them midmorning on day 19, an army was marching through the eastern pass. The alert came from some gnome scouts. An orc army 200 plus strong would likely reach their territory by early evening. The ranks were filled with orc regulars and there were more than a handful of the orc brutes. After informing him, the gnome scouts retreated back to rejoin the others monitoring the force. The gnomes would watch, but mainly to see if the force was headed for them. The gnomes had a vested interest in the dungeon surviving the attack, but it was not enough to come to their aid.
The news was not wholly unexpected, although Mark secretly wished he had been given another day or two. He spent a few minutes dwelling on the information. The army was only 33% bigger than the last force, but it also had a higher number of higher quality troops. Last time they only had a couple dozen orc regulars and one brute orc. The scout had noted that there was likely at least 50 orc regulars and around 10 brutes.
The scout had also noted that nearly a quarter of the enemy force bore shields, and there were a handful of orcs carrying a staff, likely being mages. Their arrows would not devastate this force, and enemy mages could blast their defenses. Mark dwelt on the fact that his predictions were spot on for how Crassius would improve his forces. It did not bring any comfort. Besides for their mages, Mark did not have any countermeasure against units with shields. As far as the mages, he would have the archers target them as much as possible.
Mark had loved to see what his mages could do, but it was concerning to have those same capabilities turned against them. A well placed fireball could wipe out half a dozen goblins easily, and with their low vitalities it was unlikely that they could survive a single magic bolt. The orcs on the other hand could likely shrug off the magic attacks unless they were a critical hit or were hit directly for the fire ball.
Mark silently went through a tirade of swears. It was not fair. The orc army had a lot of power houses and their numbers were not small. In fact Mark’s forces only barely outnumbered them, although they currently had 6386 MP that Mark would use to increase that gap.
Outside the dungeon, they had 8 scout teams, 12 squads, 10 mages, the 24 entrance guard, 36 frogman, and 20 legionnaires. Only about 5 of the scout team would be present to aid in the defense. Other than that only the mages and the legionnaires could Mark realistically count on to beef up their defenses. The rest were just numbers and unless they at least doubled the enemy numbers they were basically fodder.
Brown Goblin Legionnaire 20 (4/83) Warrior lvl 1 (conscript) Power lvl: 1.2 Morale: 50 (content) Strength 13 Attack: 4 Defense: 2 Endurance 14 Abilities/Skills Agility 11 Vitality 11 Intelligence 5 Wisdom 4
Luckily, the legionnaires were exactly what they had expected. Their physical stats were all three times higher than that of the green goblins. Even their intelligence and wisdom was only a bit below that of the yellow hobgoblins. At 200 MP they were far more expensive but would be necessary to keep their defensive lines from instantly collapsing against the oncoming orcs. However they would have to be interspaced with weaker units, so the lines would still likely not hold out all that long.
In the last attack the hobgoblins and green goblins had been too far outmatched. The legionnaires were a good deal bigger standing a foot half foot taller than the hobgoblins with more defined muscles. Hopefully with the earthen wall it would be enough to last long enough for their range attackers time to whittle down the numbers.
The earthen wall had not really been changed too much. It was maybe a half foot taller from the newly dug dirt pulled from the ditch at its base. The ditch was six feet wide, but only about a foot in depth. In total it was around a five and a half to six feet height difference that the attackers would have to contend with. Hopefully, it would prove difficult for the orcs to assail.
It was not as much as Mark had wanted, but they had only a few days of work to get to where they currently were. The pitfalls and other defenses that Mark had designed had not come to fruition. It was clear it would have taken several weeks for their defenses to get up to standards with the plans Mark had made.
Mark brought up his units page. He needed to both bolster their numbers as well as build some of the more beneficial mages and legionnaires. It was clear they would need more legionnaires to man the walls. Mark summoned another 10 legionnaires. It was all that Mark felt he could spare for the expensive units. They would be interspaced with the other troops, but 30 should be enough to only have a 10 feet gap in between them if they manned the entire wall. Which likely they could cheat quite a bit on the backside. With both forces only having a couple hundred units the circumference was far too large to be effectively attacked or defended at every point, and if Crassius tried it would likely play in their favor.
Mark also summoned another 10 mages. They would provide the firepower against enemies with shields. They would stay in the middle of the fortification and shoot till they ran out of mana. Luckily, Mark did have an answer for that thanks to the gnomes.
The method for manna recovery that Cedrick had talked about was rather crude. Along one of the eastern plateaus there was a mineral called Eres rock, that could basically serve as a manna recovery salt lick. The mineral would be broken down based on a unit’s manna pool size. A unit could consume an amount that would restore their manna pool twofold. The recovery happened fairly quickly. A unit could pop it in like a jaw breaker and actively suck on it as required. The only downside were the side effects. Even a little would make a unit sick. The rate varied depending on the unit’s stats.
Mark had not been able to collect the Eres rock with his units due to not having the mining tech. Foraging would have been another contender, but they had been able to collect the essence. Mark had thus determined that if a resource was identified they would be able to collect it. Well as long as it did not depend on another tech such as the mining tech. He could only assume that basic minerals worked in the same way as foraging. Regardless, they could not do it. Luckily, it was easy enough to convince the gnomes to bring them a large quantity.
Cutting them down to the appropriate size was another manner. Without the crafting house that was currently in work the results were far from standard. Eventually, Mark had sidetracked one of the gnome builders for a few hours. The result was a heap of hundreds of manna recovery rock licks.
Mark kept most of them in the dungeon since a unit could only take so much at once anyways. A size that would provide double the hobgoblin mages manna pool had been found through trial and error. That amount would already debilitate the unit soon after consumption. Any more would exponentially increase the sickness till the unit became comatose or even died. Although Mark had not tested near that far.
Mark had a good idea on what the amount a unit could consume was based on. Based on estimates from the gnomes he had linked it to intelligence, wisdom, and vitality. Unfortunately, the goblin’s three weakest areas. Supposedly, the gnome mages could recover 3 or 4 times their manna pool size. Just one more reason on why they needed to unlock another branch. Mark sighed.
After summoning the legionnaires and mages, they currently had enough MP to summon another 6 standard goblin squads. He would have to do at least this much for numbers. He would be able to make a couple more squads as they gained more MP throughout the day.
Counting his 3 squads of frogmen they would have over 300 defenders outside the dungeon. Inside the dungeon they had an additional 6 orcs from the spawner. They had one regular orc and five imps. The only other new addition was his new trap in the amphitheater room. A large wooden rolling pin with thimble like studs that would roll down the incline mowing down enemies trying to climb up the center of the room. A crank would raise it back to the top. The whole contraption was currently stationary, but in the future Mark wanted to add grooves so it could roll across the top to be able to drop down anywhere on the amphitheater’s slope.
But it was all he had been able to get with the 4 DP they had available this morning. With the help of this trap the amphitheater would be the place of their final stand this time. The enemy already knew about three inclined hallway fork they had made their last stand during the first battle. The rest of the dungeon would once again be just more distance the enemy would have to transverse.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
It had always been a bit of a mystery why the layout was so much bigger than the amount of troops that could be stationed on the floor. Ten additional units from the spawner would hardly make a difference. Most of their first floor would remain unutilized.
“Will it be enough?” Amelia asked hesitantly, stepping up beside him. She had likely been spying on him and was already up to speed.
Mark shrugged. “Well we will have about a hundred more units than last time, but then again the enemy will have more as well. Our unit quality has improved, but theirs has more so. I guess we will see. The goblins will do what they can to improve our fortifications in the meantime.”
“Going to be another close call,” Amelia breathed deeply. “It's a shame, we could not finish some of the research lab projects before they came.”
Mark nodded. It had only been a couple of days but there were a few projects already under way. The lab was manned by 20 gnomes and their initial 10 hobgoblin mages. The gnomes had 15 working in the essence room, 3 in the enchanting room, and 2 in the specialized classes room.
The goblins had two specialized class projects already started, although there was currently no information on them. They each had only progressed a few percentage points so were apparently not very well defined. The gnomes had another class of their own, also undefined. Then there were 3 undefined enchantments. There was only one project that was defined, a simple piercing enchantment that was already at 12%.
So far there was not a single essence project. Although they had secured a measure of life essence for the researcher's use. The gnomes had brought a measure of stone essence as well, yet no progress had been made. Luckily the gnomes already had a couple uses for their stone essence.
One of which was an effective measure to keep essences from dissipating when away from their source. The gnomes had done this by mixing stone essence with clay. The resulting clay pots would keep the essences from dissipating. It was a good thing since their life essence source seemed to be far more limited. The clay pots would keep it good for months.
Mark could only imagine what a game changer even the one piercing enchantment could make. Would the arrows be able to pierce through shields or armor. Would their spears or hatchets dig deeper into their enemies bodies. Mark sighed it probably would not be that much of a game changer, hopefully they would survive so that he could soon see it.
Their research points were once again designated to the foraging tech. On top of not being able to collect resources The research lab had revealed that research techs were a limiting factor. Until they opened things up on their tech tree the project options would be limited. For example, they would not get anything to do with metal until they had unlocked that tech. It was dependent on the dungeons tech tree, so having the gnomes was not a work around.
Mark had a theory that these limitations were the reason they did not have an essence based project. Basic minerals were likely one of the culprits behind their lack of progress with stone essence since stone was made up of minerals. Foraging was likely related as well since the researchers were not able to use collected plants or other life based things to develop projects. For the future of their dungeon, they needed to unlock those so that progress would not be stifled.
Mark had also discovered that he could not try to help by talking through scientific principles with the researchers or otherwise trying to lead them. Mark had dreamed of using the right ideas to help get things that would be beneficial, but he had soon had to dismiss the idea. He had gotten a notice for attempting to do so. He could not get too upset with the fact since others would likewise be unable to do so.
The gnome researchers and builders were still here, but they would likely bugger off well before the attack. Mark had already cut off the MP going to buy ale and food for the gnomes. They were not going to stay and fight, so they were not his concern. He would only have to spend a few hundred MP to buy the daily food rations for his units, so that they could be at full strength for the up and coming battle. The 10 hobgoblin mage researchers would have to fight. It would be a shame if they died in battle since it would set back their research since different individuals would have to take over. Different individuals would have different ideas and may not be able to carry on with what their predecessors had done or might do so at a reduced rate. Not that they had much of a choice. They only had 20 mages in total and were hardly in a position to safeguard those 10.
It was all a moot point unless they survived the upcoming attack. Their upcoming dungeon development showed great promise but would not help them today. Mark ran his fingers through his hair. They were only in the third week of a battle that would likely last several years and they were already under threat of being wiped off the map for the second time.
Mark conversed with Amelia for a few minutes, but soon excused himself to go and supervise the preparations. There was not much else that he could do. Amelia had agreed to not spend MP so that they could buy as many units as possible. Based on the timetable, Mark knew for sure he would be able to summon 3 more squads, but he was hoping to get a full 4 squads. It would depend on when the army would arrive.
A couple scouting teams had been sent to monitor the enemies progress. Unfortunately, their link was already attached to another scouting team that had ventured far from the dungeon, so Mark and Amelia would not be able to actually see their enemy for themselves. They would have to depend on the goblin runners sent back from the scouting team. Since the goblins could not really estimate numbers very well, Mark was going to just stick with what the gnomes had said.
****************************************************
Crassius monitored his army as they exited the pass. The land sloped down as his troops poured out from between the plateaus. It was his largest army yet, with 206 units, although it was not as big as he would have liked. He had hit the unit limit cap with both his imps and orc regulars. All but 2 of his imps were part of this force, and 56 of his 76 orc regulars were participating. The other 20 regular orcs were a part of his military academy's first class. The class was not set to graduate for another 3 days. It was a shame, but they would not be able to participate today. However they were all that was left that could protect his base since he had brought almost everything else.
He had however received his second medal to give to this force’s commander. His second colonel currently had a power rating of 3.8. It was not as high as the leader of his last attack, but the unit only had recruit level experience versus the veteran experience level his last colonel had. However, unlike his last force he had 9 other brute orcs participating including 3 brute orc captains each with a power rating of 2.4. The platoons each of them led were only at half strength with about 60 units a piece. The other 6 brute orcs made up a half strength squad.
Crassius was happy with the army that had cost nearly 40,000 MP, but he was also frustrated. Unless he unlocked another branch this was about as big as his army could ever be. He had thought of opening one of the cheaper branches, but had dismissed it. Goblins and kobolds would allow him to build a lot more units but would also increase the daily cost of providing food. It might take him a week or so of dedicating all of his MP, but he would rather unlock another branch of powerful units.
Crassius had gotten a few updates on this dungeon, but had lost his scouting team days ago due to the gnomes that lived in the area. A second scouting team had not even made it out of the pass. It seemed the gnomes were actively guarding it. Crassius had no doubt that they were currently monitoring his forces' progress. After this dungeon was destroyed, he would deal with them next.
While he did not know the specifics, It was clear that this contender had negotiated some help from the gnomes. The gnomes were building for them and also scouting and protecting their eastern flank, or they could just be guarding the pass to protect themselves. Crassius did not know whether they would participate in the fight, but he was confident this army would do well even if they did.
Regardless, Crassius would deal with this dungeon and then find and destroy the gnome village. He had already wiped out most of the neutral villages around his dungeon. Doing so had actually helped him unlock a few techs, on top of eliminating potential threats it was a big boon to his dungeon. Now he felt relatively safe leaving his dungeon with so little defense. The 2 imps that were not a part of the attack were monitoring the last dungeon bordering his own. It was a dungeon to the south on the edge of a swamp. The natural and built dungeon defenses made it quite clear he would need a stronger army to tackle.
Nope, first he would take this dungeon. He already had some bad blood with them since they had wiped out his last army. It had been frustratingly close. While they had likely made preparations for his return, Crassius had also prepared for the assault. Every unit of one of his platoons was equipped with shields. They could effectively protect themselves against the deadly arrow barrages. They would be the vanguard and breach the enemy, then his other troops would come in and finish the job. Crassius would have liked to get all his units' shields, but he was currently buying them from the store and was paying a premium as it was.
Then there was the fact that he had a dozen mages and 10 brute orcs. Even that pesky bear would not be able to fight a couple brute orcs working together. Not that they would get the chance. His mages would turn those 2 undead to crisps, hopefully before they were able to do anything. He almost dared for them to try the same method of blocking the narrow tunnels that they had used last time. A fireball would wreak absolute havoc on them if they tried.
Yes, this would not turn out like the last time.