Two uneventful weeks passed on the homefront but only for their dungeon. During week four of the succession battle five more dungeons were culled from the succession battle, closing out the first month with only 27 surviving contenders. However the second month had gotten off to a poor start with another dungeon being knocked out on the first day or day 29.
However, the last five days had been quiet. Mark and Amelia had talked about it quite a bit. Their scouting teams had scoured the surrounding area, helping to verify that Crassius had knocked out the first dungeon as well. It confirmed what they had expected. Crassius had immediately gone on the warpath, likely due to the nature of his specialization. However, all of the other dungeons in the battle had spent the first few weeks developing themselves.
Whoever had taken out Crassius, had seemingly done so after having seen a good opportunity. Crassius had apparently not left enough defenses to protect his dungeon core, since there were no traces of battle. Besides for the disintegrated remains of one building there was nothing that would hint of there having been a dungeon here. Just mounds of coal in an open clearing.
It was readily apparent that Crassius’ dungeon had not been very developed. Still it was a mystery at how someone could have destroyed the core without leaving any trace of battle. Surely, Crassius would have had some units to defend. Crassius would not have been sleeping since he would have likely been watching his own attack, he should not have missed enemy units moving through his territory.
Regardless, besides for Crassius, week four was the apparent turning point where the other dungeons in the succession battle started to shift their internal focus to what was around them. It was Mark’s theory that the fourth week was the mass purge, as the stronger contenders wiped the weaker dungeons off the map, or perhaps some of the dungeons that fell just got unlucky and were attacked by multiple dungeons over a short period of time.
It was both good and bad news. It was good that there would be fewer enemies, but it also meant that dungeons across the map were starting to feel confident and secure enough to start the battle in earnest. The weaker dungeons were gone and some of the stronger dungeons now had special rewards for having knocked out one of the other contenders.
It was not exact since they had not unlocked the mapping feature, but Mark now had a good idea of their surrounding environment. The tactical map was still dark everywhere except for the mile diameter circle that was their territory, but Mark had hand plotted a map for everything within about two days of their dungeon based on what the scouts had relayed. It was far from perfect. Mark had to deal with the difficulty of understanding the hobgoblin scouts without Nasal to translate, and the plateaus that made up the endless bluff map broke the land up making it difficult to be sure of anything when going off the scouts verbal recounting of their missions. Still Mark felt they had a decent grasp of their surroundings.
Of note there were 3 surviving dungeons. The scouting team sent out after their last battle on day 20 had quickly found the construct dungeon belonging to Mareth Ingall. Of course they had bumbled their way into Mareth’s territory and been quickly wiped out, but Amelia had been watching the linked scout team and was able to note down some of the dungeon specifics.
Mareth seemed to be all in on building her settlement. The trees surrounding her dungeons had been cleared out for hundreds of feet. There were signs of multiple buildings. However, Amelia had not been able to see any specifics, since their roofs could just be made out from behind the wooden walls that surrounded the fort. The walls had periodic walkways with golems peering out from behind. Guard towers were nestled in each of the four corners.
All in all, Amelia had made it sound quite formidable. It was quite alarming that Mareth had been able to accomplish so much in a matter of three weeks, but Mark knew how she had accomplished it. Hundreds of constructs working day and night. Mark had already felt exasperated being stuck with goblins before, but for the last two weeks Mark was put in a sour mood every time he watched the goblins bumble around. Constructs or undead would have been better in many aspects.
Still Mark could only dream of the possibilities. To unlock a second tree would cost them a 100 RP. It was not something they could afford in the near future, and it was questionable whether it would ever be the right move since unlocking dungeon level 2 cost the same amount. Of course once they unlocked dungeon level 2 the option would be forever unavailable to them. At the very least, Mark would need to unlock another branch or two on the humanoid tree. They would need more versatility than one branch could provide, and then there were the cap limits. Mark could already picture armies needing to be well in the thousands by the end of the battle.
The second dungeon they had found was the kobold dungeon belonging to Nehemiah Rourk. It was the last day of week four when the linked scouting unit had provided Mark and Amelia the ability to glimpse their adversary. This dungeon was far less developed, with the lizard-like kobolds just now starting to build buildings. They were also working on an earthen wall and ditch reminiscent of the one the goblins had built. However, the biggest threat of this dungeon were that the kobold units were cheap like the goblins. There were perhaps more than 500 of them scurrying about, and the dungeon also sported a dungeon entrance, promising even more since dungeon defenders did not count against the unit cap.
Despite the lack of defenses, the numbers by themselves would make the dungeon difficult to attack. There were plenty of different types of kobolds and it was evident that all of the base classes were in use.
The final dungeon in the surrounding area was the lizardmen dungeon belonging to a Gale Barbary found in the swap land. Two rounds of frogmen had been spawned in the fishery since it had been built. Once Mark had deemed their dungeon to be secure enough, he had sent them out to scout the swampland that dwelt to the south east.
If Mark considered Mareth’s dungeon to be fortified, Gale’s dungeon was a literal fortress in the making. The dungeon already had walls made of mud blocks that stood six feet high, and the lizardmen were hard at work to further fortify the base even more. Mark could not even begin to think of taking this dungeon. Just the fortifications and the natural defenses created by the swamp would make it difficult for his troops. Then there was the fact that the lizardmen were on the same tier as the orcs when it came to fighting capability. For the near future, taking out this dungeon was simply impossible.
Based on what the scouts had found over the past few weeks, it was apparent that the other 22 dungeons were not near enough to be a factor in the near future. Not that it mattered. The three dungeons in their backyard were formidable enough. Unfortunately, it seemed being under threat from Crassius for a couple of weeks had taken its toll on their development when compared to two of their neighbors. It was fortunate that none of them had elected to attack. Two weeks of peace had allowed their dungeon to go from being under the constant threat of sudden destruction to being at a point where they could contend with the other nearby dungeons.
Two weeks had been enough time to complete the foraging tech along with two of the other research options. The dungeon receiving 2 RP a day made knocking out level 1 research options pretty quick. Basic minerals had been next in the queue, and finally Settlements 1 finished today leaving 1 RP to start the next project. Mark had decided to start to unlock the Red hobgoblin unit option for 7.5 RP. None of the three remaining techs seemed to be needed, and Mark had wanted to unlock the most expensive goblin unit available for a while.
Foraging and basic minerals were a must since not having them would decrease the effectiveness of their research lab. They would also prevent his units from recognizing or collecting resources. Mark had then elected to pursue settlements 1 for 15 RP. The thought was that settlements 1 tech would allow them to build another base and collect more resources increasing their MP production.
Fortunately, Mark had been right. Settlements 1 allowed them to build up to two outposts. The actual limit was 2 resource locations, but since their home dungeon was still collecting coal they could only have one additional outpost. Outposts were limited settlements. They could not build their own units, needing to be reinforced from the home dungeon. Still they allowed resource collection, which was the main concern. Mark had already had their expedition set out first thing on day 34.
The selected site was of course Crassius’ dungeon since there were five mounds of coal to mine. They would not last forever since like their own, the coal would only last for 200 days, but that meant there was still 180 days left since Crassius had been wiped out on day 20. The site was also far away from the other known dungeons, making a perfect choice.
With that there were only three techs left for level 1 dungeons: domestication 10 RP, Mining 15 RP, and Contender capabilities 20 RP. They promised their own benefits, but nothing that Mark felt could not wait. Perhaps it was just because Mark did not understand their use. Mining and domestication were fairly straightforward, but they currently did not have anything to mine. Domestication would provide another source of food and unlock mounts, but Mark did not feel the need to go in that direction yet. The mounts would not be a gamechanger when attacking fortified positions. Contender capabilities tech was a complete unknown. It would likely unlock a few good features, but Mark could not really get himself to desire what he did not know.
“Boss, the gnome builders have stated that the crafting house is finally complete,” Nasal’s voice came through from the pedestal at the dungeon’s entrance.
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“Excellent, I will be up shortly,” Mark replied.
Day 34 was proving to be a very eventful day. Early that morning, Mark had sent out an expedition of goblins to secure their first outpost after seeing the specifics that Settlements 1 tech had unlocked. The two week respawn timer had elapsed, so Nasal was back, finally Mark would once again have a buffer from the other goblin unit types. Then there was a fact that the crafting house had been set to be completed, for which he had just received notification.
Mark took one last glance at the screen before starting toward the core room door. They currently have 21,830 MP. The first week of the last two weeks Mark had spent the MP as they got it to bolster their defenses, but once their dungeon felt secure Mark had elected to start saving up MP for when Settlements 1 was completed. Which was a good thing since the outpost building cost 20,000 MP to construct. They would then have to spend an additional 5,000 to build 10 more shades to mine the coal. It was a big cost, but would pay off pretty quickly once production was underway. There MP production would be effectively doubled
Mark took a look around upon exiting the dungeon. Their defenses were really coming together. The earthen walls had been fixed and further strengthened over the last two weeks. They were thicker and slightly higher standing at least 6 feet tall now. On top of a ditch surrounding the base of the wall that was about 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep. It was at the limit of what they could achieve with digging and piling dirt. The earthen walls would collapse if they were any higher. Already there were hundreds of crude wooden poles stuck into the ground along its length as braces to strengthen the wall and keep it from collapsing. All of the other defensive projects that Mark had thought up were just now getting started.
The 20 legionnaires and 5 yellow hobgoblin mages stationed as the entrance guard snapped to attention as Mark made his way to the gangplank leading out into the settlement. One of the reasons that Mark had quit spending MP was also because many of the unit types were approaching their limit cap. In total Mark had summoned 30 goblin squads, 50 legionnaires, 35 hobgoblin mages, and 8 scout teams. Although, 2 scout teams had been wiped out leaving them with 10 scout teams currently in service. The units had cost less than 33,000 MP. Which was quite frightening when Mark considered he could build a force of that many units in about 8 days.
Just what were the other dungeons doing with all of their MP since they had not been forced to expend MP to replace their units as Mark and Amelia had done. Mark could only imagine that they had tens of thousands of additional MPs at their disposal. Settlement 1 would make 10,000 MP not too big of a thing, but surely the other settlements were also looking at making additional settlements if they had not already. They were likely unlocking higher level classes and would unlock additional unit branches or entirely different trees. If other dungeons were building settlements then Dungeon level 2 was not such a far off thing as Mark had thought.
At first look the crafting house was not altogether different from the research lab. It was a single story building with wooden walls and thatch roof. However it was only one big room. There were several sections available for add-ons, which Mark would hopefully have utility for soon. One add on Mark was already looking for was the apothecary section that would allow them to brew potions and pills as well as normal stuff like alcohol. It would definitely save on upkeep costs for the gnomes and goblins. However, the add on was almost as big as the crafting house itself, so would take at least 2 weeks to construct.
Still Mark had other projects he would rather have at the moment. They did not have any pill or potion research, and they would not until they had one of the rooms of the research lab focus on it. However they currently only had three focuses available, and Mark would not be able to switch out any of the focuses they had anytime soon. Therefore it would make more sense to do one of the research lab expansions first. Then perhaps they would have some research well underway when the apothecary was built.
The other option was to use the builders to increase their defenses. Mark was picturing one massive guard tower in the middle of the earthen walls instead of just the raised earthen platform. However, Mark was feeling more than secure for the moment. He could not see the other dungeons striking anytime soon, so Mark would go with the research lab expansion.
The expansion option Mark decided on was the separate building. Downside was that projects could not combine with the other focuses. However it would give an additional RP and would take a third of the time as the basement expansion. Part of Mark felt he should have done the expansion immediately, but the crafting house had benefits that were also very pressing for dungeon development.
“About time,” Amelia said emerging from their new crafting house. The girl was excited at the prospect of begging to work at the crafting house.
“You look excited. I guess we are able to work in the crafting house after all,” Mark posed.
“Indeed… Come and see,” Amelia said ushering Mark in. “On this side of the room are the basic crafting tables.’ The other half of the room is for inscribing, for when we get enchantments.”
There was currently only one room in the crafting house. The middle of the room was full of tables and chairs. Work stands, tool drawers, and storage bins lined the walls. There was an assortment of tools around the shop. Most were nothing out of the ordinary. Mark would expect similar items in any carpenter’s workshop. However Mark took a second to examine the inscription tools which were basically pens of different sizes.
“So to inscribe, you just carve into the material using these pens. Seems kind of easy to turn out a lot of strong equipment if that is all it takes.”
“Well for lower quality and basic stuff yes. However, for better stuff we will need base essence,” Amelia said.
“Base essence?” Mark said questionably.
“Yes, base essence.” Amelia smirked, apparently loving the fact that she knew something he didn’t. Mark frowned at her. She was likely just saying what the encyclopedia said, and what she had discovered while waiting for him. “My understanding is that perhaps any of the essences can be broken down to base essence, not that anyone would choose to do so. The other option is to use these inscription pens.”
Amelia picked one up. Soon runes along the side of it were shining a faint white. Mark's eyes widened. “Don’t worry you should be able to do it as well. Apparently, anyone with manna could use these pens.”
“What!” Mark exclaimed, picking up the pen. After only a moment of effort he was able to push something of himself into the pen lighting the runes. The pen was practically a vacuum almost demanding the intangible energy from him. Mark could not believe it. They had manna. Would he be able to cast spells in the future? Did this mean he had stats? It would not be that weird since he was technically a summoned unit, but he was not on the unit screen and was not able to see his stats if he had any. Then there was the fact that Amelia could do it. Perhaps they could only do auxiliary tasks like crafting and spells would be prohibited?
“You should be able to do it for a while. Well assuming you have as much manna as I do. I kept a pen going for about 10 minutes and only felt a little bit tired,” Amelia said with a smirk.
Ten minutes, had the crafting house even been fully completed for that long. Mark's eyes narrowed. ‘Don’t tell me, the girl delayed telling me while she checked things out. It was certainly possible since she had the highest authority and could override anything he did. Besides if manna was based on intelligence like it was for the other summoned units wouldn’t he have more than Amelia.’ However, Mark knew it would not be wise to say as much.
“That will be very good for us since a couple of the enchantments should be done in the upcoming days,” Mark said finally.
“On top of that there is the crafting house’s special feature. Did you see it yet?” Amelia asked squirming.
“No,” Mark sighed. He could easily see what it was if he pulled it up in the menu, but the girl wanted to tell him. He carefully pretended like he was just hearing it from her as he pulled up the screen.
[Due to the nature of your crafting house, there will be less interference between inscriptions.]
“So it should allow us to put more inscriptions on various items. Instead of our arrows having one inscription a piece perhaps they can have two. Of course the talent of the inscriptionist also comes into play,” Amelia began.
Item creation in the succession battle was fairly simple. There were seven different qualities that ranged from poor all the way up to artifact. Higher quality items would be more effective. It was one of the reasons for building the crafting house in the first place since at best items created without the crafting house would be limited to poor quality. The units would come with average quality items when summoned, but archers could easily shoot more than 20 arrows in an extended battle. Then spears, knives, and tomahawks occasionally broke or came apart. The poor quality replacements would definitely make itself apparent in large scale battles.
Then item quality also affected interference when it came to inscriptions. A high quality item would have less interference. A poor quality item may not even allow an inscription normally. However, their crafting house’s special feature would start their items at a higher starting point. It was the first real boon to come from having the gnomes build for them, since the research lab special feature had yet to do anything for them. Mark was still wondering what constituted meeting unique people groups or discovering interesting places intelled.
Inscriptions had the same quality breakdowns as items. Where higher level inscriptions would create less interference, so that they could be closer to each other or even written over one another. A standard arrow might only allow for one inscription normally, but depending on the arrows quality as well as the quality of the inscriptionist there could be two or even more.
Mark’s mind was ablaze with the possibilities. At this point their research building had a bunch of different projects underway. There were a bunch of common level enchantments that were at various points of completion. Piercing and a defense enchantment were the closest to completion. Perhaps they would even be completed in the next day or two, but there were boost enchantments for all of the stats except for wisdom and intelligence well underway as well. Then there was the uncommon duplicate projectile project that was in the works.
There were definitely things to look forward to. Soon all the archer goblins would be filling these benches to increase their arrow stores. Arrows would be consumed pretty quickly in a major battle. He would have spares made of other weapons, but at most he would only need a small stockpile to reequip his troops. They would all be rendered obsolete once metalworking and other techs were unlocked, but Mark did not think that would happen anytime soon. They would have to get to dungeon level 2 first.