“Bahhh,” Mark said once again, throwing his hands up. Then he broke into another tirade against the succession battle’s creators and the damn frogmen. Amelia just sat there quietly. If she had known the notification would come the moment she had sat down she would have waited a bit. Now she was stuck sitting one cushion away, as Mark seemingly talked into the air as he likely furiously scrolled through his interface screens. It would be awkward to leave now, after just having sat down.
Amelia sighed, and he had been so happy the night before. Not only had they won the battle, but they had gotten a new spawner, and he had been all about the ‘statistically improbable,’ choice they had been given. Out of the hundreds of units that had entered their dungeon last night only three had been orcs, so it was a bit odd that the spawner would focus on them.
The spawner would spawn three level 2 warrior brute orcs at veteran experience level and would resummon them every time a new enemy entered the floor. Amelia had not been as excited about it as Mark had been. Brute orcs were strong but only getting three of them did not seem like much of an upgrade. According to the encyclopedia, spawners should be getting better with the more floors they unlock.
It was not until Mark explained that the brute orcs would all have power ratings of 2.5 that Amelia got it. Units from their first floor spawner randomly got level 1 or 2 scout or warrior class. The brute orc that had fought for them last night only had a level 1 scout class. Which was the worst it could have had. They only got a 10% chance to get a brute orc, so not even getting a power rating boost due to getting the scout class was a bit of a slap in the face. However, this spawner would always put out level 2 warriors and with the veteran experience level they would get an additional 20% for a 40% in total boost to their base power rating.
Then there was the respawning condition. Three powerful brute orcs would be respawned every time enemies entered the floor. It meant that once they got more floors adventurers would constantly have to fight the three brute orcs on their way through floor 2, and right now adventurers were what Mark was most afraid of since they could bypass their main dungeon’s defenses and strike at any time. Paying the 10 DP to get the spawner would delay them unlocking floor number 3, but it was worth it.
According to Mark’s calculations the jackals only had a base power rating of 1.6, so the brute orcs 1.8 was the best unit they could have had the spawner focus on. That and Mark seemingly had a fascination with the ferocity of the orcs. It had been his game plan for a while to unlock the orc branch next.
Amelia knew that if Mark had things his way he would have gone the undead or construct routes when starting the battle, and even during the first few weeks of the battle Mark had been hoping to unlock them at some point. Eventually though, he had realized that unlocking another tree would just be too much MP and would delay their progress too much. He then had settled on the idea of getting the orc branch. Now it seemed unlikely given the new notice.
[Notice: Pollywog # 7 has discovered a unique location, Garden sanctuary. Due to the boon of your research building you will now have access to the flower branch under the plant tree. However, the rest of the plant tree will remain locked until unlocked naturally.]
Apparently, one of their unlinked frogmen units had likely stumbled upon a unique location some time ago. The task had just registered due to the frogman squad that had just entered their territory. The two red hobgoblins had zoomed in on them almost immediately upon them entering. Eight tadpoles approached, led by one pollywog. Amelia was not sure Mark had noticed due to being absorbed in his own screens after the notice.
The squad was smaller than it should be. Supposedly, they had just over a hundred units out there, but sure enough there were only 79 of them now. The interface had likely updated the numbers as soon as the squad had entered their territory. It appeared they had run into some trouble since the last update. The frogmen were sent off to scout, and were supposed to provide updates every week or two, but the frogmen were as lazy as the goblins, so every two weeks seemed to be the standard. However, this party was a day late. They should have been here yesterday, just in time to accept the new batch from the fishery before returning to the swamps. Of course there was no batch for them to take back since they had died in the attack yesterday.
“It’s not really a bad thing. I mean, just look at it as if we got another branch of units for free,” Amelia said. Honestly, she was a bit excited, like a kid that had just received an unexpected present, and unlike the last one this present was not so repulsive. Mark likely felt differently about it, although he was most likely repulsed due to his doubts about their usefulness and not their existence like she had been for the creepy crawlies. It was kind of funny how the two had reversed stances on the two rewards.
“For free, ha! That is only if you don’t look at the underlying costs. I swear the creators are doing this because no one bloody picked the flower branch. Sure they just want to showcase their creativity,” Mark said, pulling up his interface screen. “See here, we got an entire new tree of upgrades to make our units stronger. In games like this, you have to keep your focus on growing the power of a certain number of units, and then spam them like crazy.”
Amelia looked at his screen. It was true there was a third section on their unit upgrade page. The first section was the classes and was the only section they had used so far. The second section was beast bloodlines. The new section was the plant germination section.
Beast bloodlines had four options: Fierce, Swift, Tough, and Mind. Each of the four options would enhance one aspect of a beast. The Fierce aspect increased strength and endurance. The Swift aspect would increase agility and strength. The Tough aspect would enhance endurance and vitality, and the Mind aspect would enhance intelligence and wisdom. Each aspect enhancement would add 10% to the beast’s power rating.
Although increasing the stats was seemingly just a part of the aspect enhancement. For example a beast given a fierce enhancement might grow longer claws or become more muscular. A Swift enhancement might make a beast become lighter or make its limbs longer, so it could reach faster running speeds. The changes would be fairly subtle for each enhancement, but when added together they could change the beast entirely. It was all leading up to the evolution feature after five enhancements, which of course was not available for level 1 dungeons.
Although unlike classes, the aspect enhancements could be mixed and matched as they pleased. They could create a super fast beast giving it five Swift aspect enhancements, or they could do a little bit of it all. Certainly there would be benefits and drawbacks to the various combinations. Unlocking them looked to be on the cheaper side for how much of a power boost it would give. After all it only cost 1,000 MP to unlock the four different aspects. After that they would just have to unlock the ability to place a second aspect on a beast. It was better than the class system where they had to unlock each different class individually.
The plant germination section seemed to be more similar to the class section. There were three sprout options: killer, health, and support. From what they could tell, each of the options would then also branch out like a growing family tree, meaning a wide variety of options. Each sprout cost 1,000 MP and promised a 10% power rating increase. However it was clear that the plants could only start down one of the paths. They would either be killer plants or one of the others.
Amelia knew what Mark was getting at. Unlocking all these options would cost MP or RP. They now had three different sections to progress to make their units more powerful. Paying 45,000 MP to unlock the orc branch might seem like alot now, but it would pale in comparison to having to unlock options along the new flower branch unit upgrade section. Whereas after the onetime cost of unlocking the orcs they could use the classes they already have.
They could of course choose not to use the new flower units, but the problem was that the orc branch now cost 67,500 MP to unlock. It had gone up by 50% once again. Perhaps it would still be worth it to unlock them and ignore the flower units, but then they would be unlocking a fourth branch making the costs go up even more. They had no idea if that would translate into increased costs when trying to unlock better branches later in the game.
The possibilities were endless. Amelia knew, since Mark had said so, going on and on about them. Speculating about the possibilities seemed to be a favorite pastime for the guy. It was good that he was constantly thinking and planning and all, but did he have to constantly inundate her with the ideas during their daily meal.
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“Just saying, you seemed to be okay with the last time when we got a free branch” Amelia teased.
“Well, of course. We needed mounts, and we basically got them for free, without having to unlock the beast tree. Not to mention our beasts will be far more versatile than standard ones. Can you imagine them walking up the side of the bluffs, like the cyan wasps did. Plus we have the possibilities of flight and venomous attacks to look forward to. Should I even say how perfectly the goblins and them go together…” Mark paused briefly, his voice took on a more irritated tone.
“But now they give us flowers. You know what I would say doesn’t go well with goblins or our creepy crawlies…? Flowers, Now what the hell am I supposed to do with that?” Mark said exasperated. He folded his arms. “Trees might have been cool. I could imagine some giant Treant-like creatures roaming through the a dungeon laying waste,” he added as an afterthought.
Amelia looked at the units tab. The flower branch had four options.
Flower Branch: Unit Power Rating Unit Cost Cost to Unlock Wild Lily 0.4 50 MP 500 MP Daisy 0.8 120 MP 2,000 MP Snapdragon 1.2 200 MP 5,000 MP Creeping Ivy 1.6 400 MP 8,000 MP
“Snapdragons sound pretty cool…” Amelia said, earning herself a glare. “So what are we going to do then? Are we going to pretend we don’t have the flower units.” The only response she got was Mark tapping his fingers against his thigh. “Are we still going to unlock orcs?”
“No,” Mark said finally. “Other than building what we need in the meantime, we will start saving up for level 2.”
Although it had only been about five minutes since they had received the notification, Amelia could tell that he had already made up his mind, despite not being happy about it. It was actually remarkable how decisive and yet flexible he could be. She would go back and forth agonizing about a decision like that for far longer. Then she would second guess it forever afterwards, unless it was somehow proven to be the best decision. On the other hand, she doubted he worried about such things. He learned as much as he could, made a decision, and then dealt with the fallout confident that his initial decision had been the best with the available information.
“And for the flowers…?” Amelia asked.
“We're going to use them,” Mark said, sighing. “If we can’t put our focus all in one area then we can at least expand our options. We might not be as strong as those who focus all in one area, but we should have fewer easy to exploit weaknesses. Versatility is a type of strength in itself. Can’t quite picture how yet, but I’m sure flower units are good for something.”
Amelia nodded. To be honest she was a bit excited about the different possibilities the flower units would offer. The classes and beast bloodline options seemed to just make units better in that one aspect, but germination… It sounded like each of the plants were a seed and each stage would be them growing into something completely new, starting with the sprouting stage. Mark could keep the creepy crawlies. The flower units would be hers.
When it came down to it. Mark did not want to be the one talking to their frogman arrivals, and Nasal would not respawn till the next day so it was up to Amelia to talk to the frogmen. Mark seemingly hated them even more than the goblins. Which was saying something since he loathed the goblins. The reason was that they were even more lazy and less useful, especially in a fight. Then there was the fact that their speech was so drawn out. Mark would rather deal with the goblin’s grunts than deal with the long winded frogmen again. The fact that they were the catalyst for the new unit branch probably did not earn them any favor. In Mark’s mind they had effectively shut the door to what Mark actually wanted.
Amelia felt the opposite. While things were not turning out how they expected. They now had three unit branches open on three different trees. What were the chances one of the other dungeons managed that. Even better, they also had their reanimated corpses which likely belonged to the undead tree. In reality few other dungeons would likely even open a second tree.
Amelia shook her head as she exited the dungeon. It was midmorning and the camp was already a bustle of activity. Mark had already resummoned an entrance guard and 6 of their standard patrols, sending one to their outpost. The new goblins were already back to work on the tower and the barracks. The reds that multitasked between managing the projects and crafting had not been lost so progress had not been overly delayed. The gnoll and orc army had done no real damage to their dungeon structures, so they did not need to wait for things to respawn.
The gnome builders were already hard at work on the crafting house’s apothecary addition. It was the next obvious choice, since once their new research focus started finishing projects they would need the apothecary to actually make the potions, poisons, or pills. It was also one of the relatively shorter projects for the gnomes to work on.
Amelia asked for ten of the legionnaires to follow her before she walked across the gangplank. It was currently sunny, although it looked like it might rain later. It was the rainy season after all. The crisp morning air was welcoming. It did not even hint at the hundreds of units that had died here last evening. Thankfully, the bodies would just seemingly dissolve in the ground. Not as fast as in the dungeon proper, but after a full night there was not a trace.
To the right of the dungeon entrance was a pile of equipment. Mark had immediately summoned units and had them work to collect as much as possible. As long as the equipment was actively scavenged it would not disappear along with the dead. In the pile were weapons and clothing from both their units and the enemies, but it also included many of the enchanted items that they had crafted. Hopefully, they had salvaged most of the good stuff.
For a brief moment last night, Mark had been poised to build and send off an army toward Mareth’s dungeon. Mareth had allegedly suffered a major attack from some giants, herself, according to one of the harpies. After which, Mark had decided to send their linked scouting team, freshly returned from scouting the approaching gnoll army, to evaluate. The scouting team had arrived to find the aftermath of another serious dungeon leveling battle. Hundreds of kobold bodies and constructs littered amongst the charred remains of the buildings. Mareth had survived two attacks.
Mark for a little while had contemplated sending their own force to capitalize on what must be a severely depleted dungeon, but in the end he had decided otherwise. They only recouped 12,131 MP from their enemies last night. With only about 36,000 MP of their own, they would hardly be able to send an army and defend their own dungeon. Sure Mareth would likely be in a similar position, but in the end Mark had felt that it was an all or nothing risk, since they would bottom their MP to perform the attack. It would be great if it was successful, but what if it wasn’t…? In the end he decided it was a risk they did not need to take. Instead they would advance forward, hoping Mareth’s setback would make her fall behind.
Amelia sent the legionnaires to scout the tree line before she arrived. The dungeon was mostly muddy with puddles of water, but it was currently sunny. So the Frogman had set themselves up in the shade to keep from drying out. Most of them were just lounging against tree trunks, or sitting in puddles. The tadpoles had a dull olive colored skin. The pollywog skin on the other hand was more green, so she readily picked the squad leader out of the group.
Amelia got right to the point. “What can you tell me about the garden sanctuary that you guys found?”
“Ffffooowwwwwnndddd ahhhh recccccsss, bbbbbbiiiiinnnnd sssssuuuuummmm vvvvvvvvinnnnnnnsssss, nnnnn daaaaaaa rrroooockkkk. Fffffaaaarrrrrr ffffffrrrroooommmm errrrrreee wwwwaaattttrrrrr nnnn Ttttreeeeeeesss nnnn ffffffflllooowwwwrrrssss nnnnn bbbbblaaackkkkk rrroooockkkk,” Pollywog #4 responded. Correspondingly he pointed at one of the puddles of water, the trees, and flowers. Finally, he pointed behind Amelia, so she looked back.
She could not see the black coal mounds, but got the picture. Her heart quickened. It was likely several days toward the center of the map, but they had found a new coal source. One that was not one of the dungeon start points. It was the first neutral coal resource they had noted. “How many mounds of black rock did you find there?” Amelia asked.
“Sssssvvvveeennn,” Pollywog 4 responded.
“Seven,” Amelia exclaimed. The pollywog nodded in response. It was a big deal since the amount of resource collection sites they could have was limited. It was the main reason they had built their first outpost at Crassius’ dungeon. His dungeon had 5 coal mounds versus the 4 the other defeated dungeons in the area had, but this new one had seven. Which meant a higher amount of daily MP production, and from the sound of it, it was hidden away. Obviously it was a unique enough location to give them a boon.
She asked a few more questions to get the garden sanctuary’s location. She gave up midway. It became clear that they would need to keep one of the ones who had been there to guide them. Or perhaps the harpies would be able to find it from the air, After all if it had trees and flowers it would require sunlight, which would be visible from the air. What she did understand was that it was on the other side of the swamp, which should be closer to the center of the map.