Khondur, the Kobold leader, stepped out into the edge of the torchlight. Mark and the accompanying reds flinched slightly in surprise despite Mark having been following the kobolds progress on his tactical map. Unit wise Khondur was a kobold lord which had a base power rating of 1.5, but like Cedrick Khondur was all the way up in the mid 2’s at 2.6. To either side of the five foot walking reptilian were a pair kobold mystics, another top tier unit type in the strict kobold caste system. Following close behind was their own goblin scouting party.
It was the first time that Mark had actually met the Kobold leader. It was slightly disconcerting facing the three kobolds, especially after the last time he had almost died facing one. It did not help that it was still dark outside, sunset several hours away. The kobolds spent most of their time underground, so preferred not to be out in the daytime.
Mark had Nasal and two reds by his side, but he could easily die if things came to a fight. Not that Mark expected for things to go that way. They already had an established relationship and this meeting was mainly to offer the kobolds more benefits, namely access to the dungeons' magical mine.
“Ssssoooo, this is the magical mine,” Khondur said stepping further into the torchlight, emanating from the torches held by the reds to both sides of Mark. The flickering torches reflected as yellow glows on the creature's eyes.
“Correct, this is the magical mine that will exist as long as our dungeon remains. The entrance leads into a subspace that we believe should be free from dangers. Well external threats, doesn’t mean shaft cannot cave in or something,” Mark said. It would not hurt to emphasize that their continued existence was a precursor for the mine’s existence.
“Haek, haek, haek…” The kobold made a gutter cough like noise. Mark could only assume it was its laugh. “A sssshaft will only cave in if we want it to,” Khondur said dismissively. “Can you proove, that the mine containsss sssspecial minerals and other ressscourssse that are difficult to find outsssside?”
Mark shared the entry on the interface detailing the types of resources that could be found in the mine. The reptile's eyes shifted. Good, it appeared the creature could read. Also like Cedrick and the other gnomes, the kobold leader was quick to accept the game-like function.
“Very well, we are interessssted,” Khondur said, smiling waving a hand as if to brush the screen away. Mark dismissed it. Well, Mark thought the leader was smiling. It was hard to tell, since the reptilian's teeth were always visible. The gums just had receded slightly more making them very prominent.
“Good follow me, I will show you inside,” Mark said, turning. It only took them a minute to precede through the entrance and into the antechamber. “Now this wall,” Mark said pointing to the right untouched wall. “Will be by your side. Just imagine the wall plane extending out and don’t break it. The gnomes and goblins have already started with this in mind.”
“Haek, haek, haek.. You don’t have to worry about thingsss from our sssside. We would never make a missstake like that. Our tunnelsss are alwaysss well mapped out. I would worry about your ssside of thingssss” Khondur said giving the already started tunnels a disapproving glance.
“Okay this hole in the middle is a void hole. Any refuse or materials you do not want can be dumped down endlessly. Just don’t fall in.” Mark said, pointing to the swirling purple vortex.
“Interesssting,” was Khondur’s reply.
“Just outside is our dungeon’s forge, which the kobolds are welcome to use. Our workers will mainly be using it during the daytime anyways. Other than that, I think we just need to talk about querying stones to protect the mine and the percentage of our take,” Mark said, rubbing his hands together. The kobold leader gave a toothy smile in return.
The negotiations did not go nearly as smoothly as they had with Cedrick. The kobold’s were not apt to handing over anything shiny, gems or precious minerals like gold or silver. They also would be unwilling to hand over any higher tier metals that they might find. Lesser materials like iron or copper the kobolds would hand over everything over what they needed directly, and Mark was able to get a promise to receive 50% of any base essence the kobolds might find although Mark was not entirely sure that the kobolds would disclose if they had found anything additional. They were definitely less trustworthy than the gnomes. Mark had a sneaking suspicion the reptilians would hand over just enough to keep the piece.
But while frustrated, Mark could not be upset with the deal. It was basically free labor, and Mark did not have to give up anything. The deal ensured they had another source of strategic resources like iron, which hopefully, with their own mining efforts they could meet all their basic resource needs. More importantly, the Kobolds agreed to query stone for them. A sort of tax for the kobolds. Each kobold in the mine would be expected to produce a daily quota of five blocks according to Marks specifications. For this, Mark could enforce since they could keep track of how many kobolds entered and were in their mine at any given time.
It was semi skirting the rules, but nothing popped up from the interface to directly prevent it. Still Mark was worried about a patch, so it was best to keep from broadcasting the fact that they were querying stone before having finished the masonry tech. Hopefully, people will overlook and not notice it. The battle managers could not see every little thing that was happening.
As far as the design, it was Mark’s own. Was it perfectly structurally sound… probably not, at least not to modern civic engineering standards. But it was likely better than what people in the middle ages could put together, and some of theirs had stood for hundreds of years. Mark only needed for the fortress to hold together for a handful of years.
The kobolds would maintain custody of the stone blocks until they had finished up with the tech. Then the kobolds would be responsible for bringing them and all future stone blocks to the surface. Since there could potentially be up to or more than a hundred kobolds in the mine. They would quickly add up to meet the need for the tens of thousands of blocks they would need to build their fortress.
Khondur departed immediately after their deal was struck. Likely the kobold leader had an entrance to their tunnels somewhere close to their dungeon and would be able to be underground before daybreak in another hour or so. It was slightly alarming that there could be miles and miles of tunnels everywhere in the surrounding area, but Mark did not expect an attack from the kobolds so it did not matter overly much.
Still Mark at least gleaned promises from the lizard that they would inform them of any forces that attempted to approach them from the underground. When asking how far and where there tunnels led to, or whether they led to Mareths dungeon. Mark had just been given a “Perhapssss,” in response. It was not a bad thought, moving an army all the way to another dungeon’s doorstep so as not to let them make any preparations. It was perhaps the only way to make that happen after the last patch… Well, unless they got flying units in the future.
Regardless, it was clear that another dungeon would not fall so easily in the future. Mareth was surely aware that it had been Mark and Amelia that had conquered Nehemiah’s dungeon, and made preparations despite the patch. She had more than doubled her forces immediately after they had wiped out Nehemiah.
The additional troops included level 2 units which much to Mark's annoyance included big stone golems just like the ones they had encountered in Nehemiah’s dungeon. They also apparently included Jack-o-lanterns. Scarecrows with pumpkins for heads. Which sounded fairly cool, except for the fact that they would be even more deadly and vicious than the creepers had been.
Mark paused briefly at their forge. A large single story building with a gravel floor instead of wood like the others. It included a variety of features including three different furnaces, a half dozen anvils, several tool and work benches, and stools and other basic furniture. The gnomes were still working on the well that would provide water for drinking and various forge uses. In total a good 20 people could work comfortably in the forge at a time.
One furnace was located in a not fully enclosed lean to portion of the building abutting the main building. This was the blast furnace and would be used to extract iron or other metals from ore. The smelting process would produce usable metal that could be then taken into the inside furnace . After being placed in a crucible, the ore would then be melted down and poured into clay casts that could be made in the opposing lean to part of the building. The other lean to included the third furnace or kiln that would be used as required for the clay molds.
Overall the forge would produce metal weapons, but notably not the steel weapons that Mark was more accustomed with seeing. Likely, it was a level 3 dungeon tech, they would get in the future provided they lasted that long.
The forge had practically sprang into existence in a matter of days. The gnomes had given it their full attention. Still there would be another day or two till it would be fully completed. Which was just as well, so far the gnome foreman overseeing the goblins mining efforts had found nothing but rock. They currently only had two shafts that were progressing at 10 feet a day straight out from the antechamber, which only put them about 50 feet long at this point. They would continue on straight out and make smaller tunnels to branch off these tunnels to look for resources. Eventually they would make a second lower level and then a third, keeping them extremely organized.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Right now, Mark just had the goblin patrols alternating in and out of work, but soon he would need to devote some serious manpower to the mines if he wanted them to get anywhere. Since they would likely have at least half a day warning before they were attacked, they could hopefully still pull out most of their units to fight and defend the dungeon.
Once they had the masonry tech they would begin building the fortress. If Mark could make an unassailable fortress they could at least never lose the battle as long as adventurers could not conquer their dungeon, but it also depended on how many levels the dungeon could be upgraded. The first era would have been the whole hunter/gatherer/stone age era. Now they were basically moving into the bronze age. Level 3 would be more like medieval times. Would level 4 be an industrial revolution? Mark laughed at the thought of goblins carrying rifles.
Perhaps if contenders survived long enough they would have tanks and aircraft, but Mark did not feel that it was too likely. What was the purpose of power ratings if technology got to the point where a weak unit could easily kill something so much more powerful. Mark somewhat doubted that near modern weapons would ever make an entrance in the game. Not to mention they were already down to 19 contenders. Likely that number would drop substantially before they even hit level 3.
Mark had wasted enough time meandering about the mine and forge with the two reds quietly following, serving as his guards. By the time he reached the settlement the sunlight was already touching their now completed tower. The light red clay tiles that served as the building's roof blazed in the sunlight. It was a bit annoying that they had just completed it, and were already gearing up the next project that would render it obsolete, but Mark guessed that was the way of progress.
Mark would be lying if he said he was not looking forward to seeing things progress. A half year from now, who knows perhaps he would be looking out from the inside of their fortress as the sun rose out from behind the plateau.
Mark stayed there and just watched. There was not a whole lot going on. No new projects. The gnomes would finish the research building basement in another couple of weeks. The goblins were now working purely in the mines, other than the researchers and crafters.
After the battle the only thing Mark had done was to perform some class unlocks. He unlocked swordsmen up to level 2, their limit until they pushed the warrior class up to level 3. Unlocking the first two levels of the advanced class only cost 12,000 MP. The rate was double what it was to unlock the warrior class for each of the same levels: 1,000 MP and 5,000 MP. Mark would unlock the third warrior class eventually, but first he had spent the 25,000 MP to unlock the second level of mage class.
The spiritualists had captured their capacity’s worth during the last attack, but there was no reason that they could not level up their class once Mark unlocked the prerequisite mage class. Mark currently had the 10 spiritualists at the barracks working to upgrade their class. Along with the first 24 bugbears, who he had started as level 1 swordsmen.
They were currently only sitting at around 23,000 MP after the expenditures, but they were for the purpose of strengthening their units. So it was not like they were leaving themselves over exposed, although they were currently a little vulnerable. They would not be able to defend the surface with what they had. Mark would end up having to rely on their dungeon to eat through what survived of an attacking army. Would it be enough? Probably not, but it was not too terrible of a risk at present. Level 2 was still fresh for most dungeons, so they should have some time before vast armies once again became a threat. Regardless, Mark thought the future looked bright.
Bugbear (1/45) Swordsmen lvl 1 (recruit) Power lvl: 2.5 Morale: 50 (content) Strength 16 Attack: 5 Defense: 3 Endurance 15 Abilities/Skills Agility 10 Vitality 12 Intelligence 10 Wisdom 10
The bugbear lvl 1 swordsmen were already at a 2.5 power rating at the recruit experience level. Which with the barracks could improve both their level and their experience in a matter of weeks bringing them up to 3.1. Mark could only build 45 of them for now, but there were the other level 2 unit options as well. As for these 24 bugbears, they would serve as the third floor’s defenders. Mark had decided to go with four bugbear mages for the dungeon since they had about the same intelligence and wisdom as the reds and after they became defenders they would not count against their capacity. Worst comes to worst, they would be able to fight hand to hand a lot better than the reds could.
Dragon was a force to be reckoned with, but adventuring parties would only be getting stronger. Both the number 3 and number 4 had already seen what their dungeon had to offer, 25 3.1 and 2.9 power rating bugbears could definitely make a difference in keeping pressure off Dragon. They already had 64 DP, so could build the fourth floor immediately after filling up the defender positions.
Mark did not have a line on another beast for a dungeon guardian, but perhaps they were moving away from that. They had a few other uses for the life essence and would only get more. Besides, dungeons could come up with ways to deal with the reanimated corpses, leaving a glaring weakness if that was all their dungeon depended on. There was no reason why they could not get one of their standard units up to a pretty high power rating with the available boosts.
Nicholas Holt: Day 93
“Jeeves!!!” Nick shouted. He only needed to wait a moment before the short bald butler dropped what he was doing, ran over, and snapped to attention. “I’m ready for my daily report.”
“Of course, young master,” Jeeves pulled out a notebook for reference. “Since completing the magic energy production II and Settlement II techs, we have backfilled all of the level 1 techs as well as completed dungeon features II and metal casting. We are currently sitting at just over 70,000 MP. For special rewards we have 12, 3.6 power rating fiends and a group of six, 3.4 Cave bears. We have more than a dozen options for our next summoning in five days. Other than that, we currently sit at just over a thousand units. Of that only 30 of them are level 2. Half of them are currently in the mines, trying to find more gems or other resources. We have three essence projects underway, five enchantments, and 2 spell embuing process projects in the works.”
The old man ended the report, putting his hands behind his back. A standard pose of the butlers indicating that he was completed with his tasks and awaiting further instructions.
“Hmm.. very good. Do you have any recommendation changes?” Nick said a blank expression on his face.
“No, sir we will save up MP for another couple of days. Then we build the next dungeon floor. Once we have filled a fifth dungeon floor we should be secure enough to focus on other matters. A couple of weeks worth should be enough time to unlock a sufficient number of unit upgrades. After that it would not take more than a month or two to conquer the other four surrounding dungeons, depending on their hidden measures and other expenditure requirements. According to my estimates we would need to build another floor or two to ensure our continued safety. Unless, you want to change your mind and push for dungeon level 3?” Jeeves said suggestively.
They knew from prior intelligence that leveling up the dungeon again would increase the limit on the sponsorship feature. They were not quite sure what the new limit would be, but more reward packages would always work in the Holt family's favor. There was definitely a reason for them to continue to push for advancement. They could hit one million MP within 2 months. It was Jeeves recommendation along with improving their defenses along the way in doing so, and to continue to ignore the surrounding dungeons. From there they could improve their production and backfill the level 2 Techs like they had for the level 1 techs.
“No, like I said. We cannot afford to advance too fast. If we get too far ahead you know we will become the main target of all the other dungeons. Once the intergame chat feature becomes available it would be a simple thing for them to all start working together against me. Besides, I would like to start getting some of these unique rewards we keep hearing about. If we wait too long the four nearby dungeons could fall to someone else,” Nick said, picking up a grape and inspecting it for a moment before plopping it in his mouth.
Jeeves grimmaced. The intergame chat feature was something they had gleaned through their intelligence prior to the commencement of the battl. It was reportedly coming. Since it had not been unlocked for level 2 they could only anticipate it becoming available once someone hit level 3. Just like the sponsorship feature it might instantly become available to everyone, which took some of the edge off them having reached it first. The fact that the sponsorship feature had instantly become available to every dungeon was a matter of some frustration for them. It decreased the advantage they had sought to establish, but the chat feature could be extremely detrimental if they became public enemy number 1.
Still Jeeves thought they should go for it. Even if the other dungeons supposedly made alliances they would all be shaky with the potential for backstabbing at any time. That was, except for the two republic contenders that would be working together for the good of their top candidate. With the increased distance between dungeons attacking across the surface would be long and arduous.
The only worrying thought was coordinated dungeon assaults. Where dungeons had groups of adventurers constantly bombard a dungeon. It was impossible for now, but when dungeons had a dozen floors, likely every surviving contender would know of one entrance to each of the others. The battle managers would probably ensure it. With only five new floors per a dungeon level how could they possibly outlast such an assault with only 25 defenders per a floor.
Dungeon features II had alleviated some of Jeeves' concerns. In addition to allowing five new floors the tech had given them the potential to strengthen all of their floors including the ones that had already been locked from editing. Otherwise, Jeeves would have felt hopeless.
Regardless, the decision was the young masters. Even if his decisions would likely lead to their deaths, Jeeve would have to follow. It was up to him to mitigate the risks for anything that the young master ordered. For one, the young master technically had more authority interface wise. He could restrict Jeeves abilities completely if he wanted to, but more concerning was that Jeeves would lose all credit for undertaking this dangerous mission.
Worse case if things went South, Jeeves died alongside the young master and his family got taken care of as long as Jeeves faithfully fulfilled his duties. There was no doubt that his family would be taken care of if things went poorly. The Holt family would not renegade on that unless they had a reason to. No, they would ensure Jeeves’ family's position for a long time.