Despite Mark’s concerns they made it to the third rankings day without an issue. However it was not as if the lull in the battle was still ongoing. Three more dungeons had fallen since their defeat of Nehemiah, bringing the total of surviving contenders down to 16. Two of the dungeons had been defeated in the last week. Based on harpy reports both Gale and Mareth had established their third settlements within the last week. Both dungeons had also bolstered their forces, including a good number of level 2 units. Gale was even starting to send scouting parties out of the swamp area. A first from the isolationist dungeon.
All were indications that although things had been relatively quiet for several months other than their own attack on Nehemiah things were heating up below the surface. It was only a matter of time before they reached a point where things started boiling over. Dungeon level 3 would take a long time to reach even with the level 2 MP production increase. Now that the nearby dungeons had maximized their production for their current dungeon level, Mark expected that either could attack at any point.
Not to be left behind, Mark had bought the Settlements II tech on day 110. As expected the tech allowed them to have a third outpost that could collect MP. It also allowed for the outposts to be upgraded to settlement, but since it cost 100,000 MP, Mark did not expect to do it anytime soon.
Mark had of course had their next outpost site already secured. The location was the garden sanctuary their frogman had stumbled upon. A large recess in one of the cliff sides of the garden sanctuary was a walled, secluded garden of trees, flowers and a crystal clear water pool, that received light from a large fissure in the rock ceiling. Honestly, it was such a beautiful sight, Mark could easily picture a billionaire spending a fortune to secure such a site for an excluded second home. It was too bad the garden sanctuary probably would lose a lot of its luster once they moved in.
The outpost building was rustic and kind of went with the secluded scene, but the frogmen units stationed there were already trampling down much of the natural vegetation. Black shades were already bustling back and forth to mine the seven mounds of coal. The mounds had a staggering amount of reserves, promising to last for a full three years. Far more than the 200 days their home base and Crassius’ dungeon promised. Since the succession battle might not even last three more years, Mark was fairly confident that this site would be one they held for the rest of the game.
On top of its beauty the garden sanctuary offered some passive benefits that made the sanctuary a promising base.
[Notice: You have built an outpost in the garden sanctuary. The garden sanctuary is near a place abounding in life. Units will heal faster and will receive the benefits of staying in such a location to include an increased vitality and stamina.]
It was not as great as Mark had at first thought. Units' vitalities would quickly drop back to normal once they left the sanctuary. It was a promising advanced base. it would be easier to defend, but it would not be a useful tool to give their units a boost before sending them to attack. The units would lose the boost before they even reached Gale’s new settlement that was also on the edge of the swampland about an hour away.
There had been a semi-unspoken agreement of not attacking one another’s outposts with Mareth for the last few months, and Gale had never ventured near their settlements. Losing a settlement would mean a decrease in MP production. Sure it would respawn, but it would take time. It would take even more time, if the attacker decided to occupy the outpost site until the owner could send a strong enough subjugation force.
Hampering your opponents MP production was a valid way to start pulling ahead of them, but up till now Mark had not wanted to hit Mareth’s settlement out of fear that she would soon retaliate stifling their own production. Neither side could afford to delay their progress, and neither side wanted to have to devote a large contingent to guard their outposts without delaying progress, but things would be different if things came to blows between their neighboring dungeons.
In the end they were able to close out the fourth month with the stalemate continuing, but it was clear it was more of a cold war setting. All three dungeons were building their strength, so the upcoming clash would be that much more on a grander scale. They were currently sitting on just over hundred thousand MP for such an occasion, but the other side would likely send an army that cost even more.
Still Mark had reached their goal of maximizing their MP production, which was up to 22,930 MP a day. The only way to increase it now would be to abandon coal mining at one of their sites for a more favorable one. Something he would consider if it would have a significant payoff.
For now they would focus on other things. The remaining level 2 units and other upgrades could almost all be completed in a day. The other dungeons were bolstering their forces, so they could not fall behind. Bolstering their fighting strength would be their next focus, while their RP slowly unlocked more techs.
They would have a couple of months until they would be truly secure. Masonry would be finished in another week and a half. Then they would be able to start on their fortress. Based on Gale’s progress with doing the same, building a fortress in four or five months was not beyond the realm of possibility. Of course, the dungeon fortress was not the only one Mark had planned. The garden sanctuary would at least get a stone wall for defense. With such a limited entrance it would be pretty easy to hold.
After finishing Masonry, Mark would start dedicating their RP towards unlocking dungeon features II. They could easily afford the fourth and final floor available to them since they were currently sitting at 115 DP, but they would need more floors in another month or two. Mark was fairly sure the third floor would hold for now, with the addition of the 24 bugbears, but getting more floors was definitely something they needed to work on. Once they had unlocked some more upgrades and level 2 units, they could man the fourth floor.
Rankings would post soon. He was curious where they would fall but Mark was more looking forward to the completion of the research lab basement. He had long decided on what the next two focuses would be. The spell focus would increase the versatility of their mages. Currently, it seemed that mages only got the first two initial spells for level 1 and 2, although Mark knew they would pick up the magic lance at level 3.
For the second focus, Mark was thinking embuing. Embuing would allow them to make magic items, weapons, and armor. Their magic mine had churned out a handful of gems over the last few weeks, which were the best for the embuing process. Magic items were far stronger than enchanted or inscribed items of the same type. The main difference was that the embuing process required higher quality materials. Mark could never equip a full army with magic equipment, like they were doing with enchantments, but he could create ultra powerful individual units.
In addition to a couple gems, the mine and forge were proving their worth. The kobolds had found an iron vein in addition to some other lesser metals. The goblins, under the gnome's guidance, were progressing far more slowly, but had also found the vein of tin they would need to combine with copper to make bronze. Unfortunately, it proved to be just a tease since like Mark expected they were not able to make various alloys of metal. Steel and bronze were still out of reach.
The forge was already putting out copper or iron equipment. They were making some swords and knives, but mainly were focusing on arrowheads for the copper. The copper would dent out of shape far more easily, but that hardly mattered for their arrows that were single use, and copper arrowheads were better than stone. The iron supply was still limited, so it was better to save it for melee weapons and crude armor and helmets.
Mark had of course quickly made use of their forges’s special feature, quenching items in a variety of different liquids. The toxic and life essence worked about exactly as Mark had anticipated.
Blood was interesting, but not particularly useful. They first used pig's blood after draining one of the goblin’s pigs. The resultant arrowheads would have increased lethality against pigs or similar beings. Which made Mark wonder if orcs were close enough for it to have an effect. Other bloods had the same effect, which meant they could potentially harvest the blood from fallen enemies to use for item creation… It would be a lot of work for too little of a payout in Mark’s opinion.
The black sludge harvested from Winnie did not have the same effect. It did not make weapons better against the undead, but it did cause necrosis. Which would be useful in certain situations. Any amount of necrosis would fight a unit's ability to regenerate. They had not really encountered anything with a high regeneration rate, but it was something they could potentially face in the future. It would be a hassle since he would have to collect it himself, but Mark would build a small stockpile for such an occasion. Overall though, Mark thought the special feature was not as game changing as he had first had thought. Still it was one more thing that would boost their strength.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Mark shifted his attention to the enchanting tab. Over the last three weeks they had researched three additional enchantments. Light and smoke were not too exciting, but they could be useful in certain situations. The flame enchantment on the other hand added a lot to their capability. Mark could picture all sorts of ways to use it, of course flame arrows were the biggest of priority. After all, one of their neighbors did have a bunch of units made of straw. The manna reserve project he was anticipating was still in the works as were a handful of brand new undefined projects.
For their class projects, there was only one that would finish any day now. The goblin war hammer class. It was the best solution that Mark had for combating constructs and undead. Blunt force was the perfect way to deal with both. Unfortunately, the goblin units were on the weaker side, so Mark had quickly shifted away from blunt weapons as the opportunities came, but this class would be perfect for the much stronger bugbears. The tattooist class was only at 72%, so it would still take awhile. Only one other class was currently defined, the beast handler at 31%.
They still only had the two essence projects completed. They had built a couple of vitality bombs and squirreled them away, but they were producing as many rock skin pills as they could. In fact Mark was currently working on one right now. The pill would drastically increase a unit's natural defense for a period of time. The increase and duration were dependent on the pill’s quality. There was only one non-combination project underway. Craft hardening was at 51%.
Pharmacology only had four completed projects. Although they mainly focused on the healing potion and the newly finished vitality recovery potions. They had built up a decent stock of the eres rock manna recovery potions already, but the need just was not as strong since they only had so many mages. Mark wanted to get to the point that every elite unit carried a couple potions including the mages. The healing potion would restore their health. The vitality recovery potions would magically replenish blood loss and vigor, leading basically to a full recovery. On top of a couple of healers interspaced throughout their force, Mark could keep his units in the fight far longer.
Mark allowed himself to dwell on their dungeon’s prowess only a moment longer before his attention went back to the rock skin pill. It was an arduous process. Perhaps comparing it to cooking was not too far off. On top of the rock essence, the pill required a couple of various herbs that their scout teams were constantly tasked with finding. The research for the pill dictated the ingredients required and then gave a bunch of principals to take into account for the process, but it was not as simple as a clear set of instructions. Mark had to figure out the timing and what to do himself.
Unfortunately, his process really only worked for himself. Too much was affected by the individual. Others could use his process as a reference but would have to make their own deviations to find a process that worked for them.
A bunch of ingredients went into the little cauldron. In reality it was more than ten times the quantity that what would actually end up in the pill. During the process Mark would have to continually remove the waste materials as nutrients were pulled out of them, Mark used a small ladle and some manna to pull them out of the mixture. At other points Mark would work to push certain ingredients together. The process took nearly a full hour to complete, and only resulted with one rock skin pill.
But the effort could not be said to be wasted. Even a poor quality rock skin pill increased a unit’s defense by 2, and it went right up to 3 for a below average quality pill. Mark expected for the strength of the pill to continue to increase as the quality went up. He had a feeling there was no limit like there was for inscriptions or the potions. It was all based on his skill at the task. Unfortunately due to the large amount of time it required, Mark could only focus on the task for a few hours each day.
Amelia on the other hand could not manage the process at all. She did not have the patience or focus that it would take. It was Mark’s only win in the crafting house. Even potions required the manna manipulation that Amelia was far better than him at. Potion quality was highly based on its ingredients and how they were prepared. Manna manipulation could push the quality up only a few levels. The rare difficult to find ingredients would be what kept them from getting up to the artifact level easily. Each pamphlet contained a variety of different recipes using various ingredients.
Still it was a marvel with how many ways they could increase a unit's strength. Potentially, Mark would be able to give his units a greater defense with both inscriptions and this pill. Other inscriptions could increase the appropriate stats. Then if they unlocked the soak skill. A unit would pretty much be able to wade through a field of carnage. The bugbears had a natural defense of 3. Mark could easily see them tripling that number soon with the rock skin pill and a good quality vest. While the goblins could not produce a good quality vest, the gnomes could. The cost would be worthwhile for an elite troop.
Mark carefully sifted the expended excess out of the boiling water. He would have to concentrate from here out. The three quarters of the process was relatively benign, but things happened pretty quickly near the end. Mark’s ladle and manna went in and out of the mixture furiously, removing as much of the excess as possible. A few minutes later, Mark knew that he was done. Despite there still being plenty of impurities, Mark needed to move on to the forming part of the process.
Mark used his manna to compress the ingredients together. He was able to remove a couple more impurities that had formed into large clumps inside the mixture, although he just used manna to throw them toward the edge of the cauldron while he worked on. A minute later, he brought out the finished pill with his ladle and smiled. He had completed his first rock skin pill of average quality. It would raise a unit's defense by 4 points. The duration was 14 minutes. Which was not too bad.
Maintaining the balance between defense increase and duration was a delicate dance. Mark had gotten a below average pill up to 4 points before, but the duration was only for 43 seconds. It was still potentially useful, but Mark had considered it more of a failure. It was the more common failure. Mark generally focused on maintaining the defense increase at all cost which would take its toll on its duration. Although the pamphlet said that the pill should have a duration of about 20 minutes, anything over ten met Mark’s standard.
Trial and error was a large part of the process. Mark used the principles of the pamphlet to come up with a process and then tweaked it based on the results. There were several methods he could use to affect the process. He could change the timing if different components were added. He could move certain components next to each other or separate them at various points, speeding up or delaying their reactions. Then he could increase the temperature.
Although it was boiling water he could use manna to keep it pressurized raising the average temperature of the water. Mark had left this method alone. It would decrease the time it took to refine a pill, but in another line of thought it would decrease the amount of time that he could take to fish out the impurities and excess. Maybe some prodigy could mess with that type of method.
Once Mark had a process ironed out he could almost guarantee the defensive quality of the pill, but the duration could still fluctuate plus or minus a couple of minutes based on his performance. This time he had pushed adding the eres rock back by another 30 seconds and impurities formed into larger clumps making it easier to fish them out. Still he likely would not be able to push adding the ingredient back too much more if at all before a more adverse effect started to occur.
Mark set the pill aside. That would be it for the day. The rankings would post at 1800. It was just past 1700 now. A perfect amount of time for him to collect Amelia from the inscription side of the crafting house. Then they could prepare for dinner and the rankings. He would of course make sure to rub in his most recent success.
Mark and Amelia had already finished eating when they got the notice detailing the completion of the research lab.
[Notice: You have completed all available options for the core building, research lab. Daily RP has been increased by 1. Unique research class unlocked.]
[Notice: You have unlocked the unique researcher class for the goblin branch, Mad scientist]
Getting an additional RP a day was a definite boon, but they had to look up the mad scientist class in the encyclopedia.
[Mad Scientist Class (non upgradeable): an individual with this class will get plus 25 points for intelligence and will act in accordance with their ever changing obsessions. Their creations have the potential to be game changing. Issue is that they will only ever make one, before their deranged mind moves to their next inadvisable project. Mad scientist requires a room of the research lab to use for their laboratory. Limit: only one unit may hold this class.]
“Uhhhh… well it certainly sounds interesting,” Amelia said. Her eyes shifted to Mark to see what he thought about it.
“We will lose a focus… but it will probably be worth it for the “game changing creations” the class promises,” Mark said, thinking through it logically. “Of course, we will just get whatever the guy comes up with…” Mark trailed off.
“I say we go with it, it sounds interesting,” Amelia said excitedly. Then her smile faltered but which of the two focuses would you give up… Or would you want to change one of the ones we already have?”
Mark sighed, in the minute that had passed since they had gotten the notification he had quickly thought through what he wanted to do. “We will never give up enchanting. It is the strongest aspect of our dungeon. Specialized classes, I would not mind giving up at some point in the future. Although I definitely want to finish up the three in progress. Then we will see if the next ones sound as promising.”
“We could still use some more projects from the pharmacology focus, and the essence focus we will likely never give up. Of the two new focuses, I would rather give up the spell focus. The embuing focus just sounds too overpowered to give up. Besides we would not have any other use for the gems that are starting to turn up, but to embue them, well unless we wanted to trade to the kobolds for something.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense. Ooooo! The rankings are out.” Amelia exclaimed. Both of them hurriedly scanned through the rankings. It only took them a second to find themselves. “Wow we made it into the top ten!”
Mark stared intently. They were in tenth place, sandwiched by Gale who was in ninth and Mareth who was in eleventh, but after studying the rankings for another moment Mark knew the placement was not exactly a vote of confidence. Twelfth through sixteenth were held by the other medium sized factions still remaining in the game including the former ninth and eighth place. It was almost as if they were falling down the rankings due to being on the chopping block by whatever stronger contender was near them. The reason Mareth and themselves were lower on the list was likely due to no strong dungeons being located nearby.
The battle was shifting. Even Daniel Hale, the only other non major faction contender in the top ten had fallen down to second place, now behind Nicholas Holt. Other than that the major factions had held their places, except the republic contender, Leonard Boulevic, moving from tenth to seventh, and Gale moving into ninth.