“Ahahahaha, yes a bit of life essence will do. Hahahaha… brilliant,” the lone red hobgoblin with flowing white hair said. He was wearing a yellowish lab coat full of what looked like soot stains as he bustled about his basement lab cackling madly in between strings of self narrating his actions. To say he had a few screws loose would be an overstatement. Perhaps the cause was that the red had insanely high intelligence without a corresponding upgrade in wisdom.
The red hobgoblin’s name was Ezekiel. As a unique single addition unit, the red hobgoblin had automatically been awarded the ability to be named. Mark had found out when the hobgoblin had named himself. To say the goblin was difficult was also an understatement. Ezekiel was a genius and therefore considered all lesser minds beneath him and not worthy of consideration. Mark had zero ability to order the goblin about.
Mark had originally wanted to put the mad scientist in the research hut. Logically, it was the right choice since Ezekiel's work would not combine for projects with the other focuses. Might as well move pharmacology over, to allow for combination projects, but Ezekiel had claimed one of the ten men basement rooms. Citing that a basement was a proper place for a genius scientist. Mark did not miss that the goblin left off the mad part. Regardless, pharmacology stayed where it was and one of the basement rooms became Ezekiel's lab and the other focused on embuing.
Mark mentally swiped away the zoomed in tactical map of the lab. By all appearances, the mad scientist had several projects already in the works despite only having existed for a couple of days. Already, Mark could see the beginnings of what looked to be a giant wooden nutcracker like puppet. When and how had Ezekiel even found time to carve out the sharp features? It did not seem like a lot of time, but Mark was not sure if Ezekiel even slept. Perhaps he had twice the time to work as anyone else, and work, he did. Besides for the occasional inspiration gathering walks outside the mad scientist focus was entirely on his work.
But the puppet was far from complete despite being structurally together. Seemingly the mad scientist was actually trying to bring the puppet to life, by using life essence. Hopefully, it worked since the mad scientist had run off and collected about twenty plus measures worth of the essence at some point draining what had accumulated in the essence spring. Mark rolled his eyes at the seeming direct correlation of the scientist making his very own Frakenstien’s monster. If Mark had been able to name the goblin, perhaps he would have gone with Frankenstien as the name, or Dr Jekyll since they were the only other mad scientist names he could think of.
Ezekiel had a couple other benches with vials and materials that the scientist had seemingly collected himself. Raw iron and copper ore was included among them, solidifying the fact that the mad scientist considered any and all of the dungeon resources to be free for the taking, despite never being told he could take them. Perhaps they needed to start locking everything up, but then again that might just encourage the mad scientist to come up with ways to get around any security measures.
Regardless of Ezekiel’s seemingly instant progress, Mark doubted that things would come together quite so easily. Otherwise, he would be too overpowered destroying the game balance, if only a little. In the meantime, Mark would just have to accept that Ezekiel was a bit of a nuisance in the hopes that what came out of the lab would be beneficial.
After completing the lab, the gnome builders had shifted to expanding the crafting house. The single room was far from sufficient. Sure goblins could craft arrows and other items outside the crafting house, but they would be lower in quality than what the same goblins could do in the core building. The level of quality of the arrows went far beyond the arrows flying a little better and hitting a little harder, after all they needed at least average quality to even attempt two inscriptions, but good quality made the chances of success far better.
Even the green goblins could produce average and good quality arrows in the crafting house provided they had a large amount of experience in doing so. The reds who acted as inscriptionists were getting better and better as well, proving the benefit of having dedicated units in auxiliary purposes, Although the improvement only happened for units working consistently in the crafting house.
The addition would more than double the space. After that, the builders could shift to various small add ons. The first would likely be a glass kiln addition onto the forge. It would save MP in the long run if they were making their own potion vials for units to carry around. Right now, Mark was basically paying a premium of 2 MP for each vial from the store. Not to mention there could be other uses for glass in the future.
Mark shifted his tactical screen to their newest unit. Currently kept hidden away in the deep forest in their secret training area stood an eight foot tall goblin arachne. Like a typical arachne the creature was the top half of a green goblin adjoined onto the body of a spider. The body was black and hairless like that of a black widows, supporting the upper half with eight sleek black legs. The green goblins features were more evil looking than the standard green goblin. Instead of a little three foot tall goblin loafing around with a dumb expression, the archnes upper half was already three feet in length from where the two creatures adjoined together, and the face was always twisted in a wicked smile. Very creepy… even by Mark’s standards. Amelia had stated the beast would haunt her nightmares.
Goblin Arachne (1/37) Swordsmen lvl 2 (Recruit) Power lvl: 3.5 Morale: 50 (content) Strength 15 Attack: 4 Defense: 4 / 1 Endurance 14 Abilities/Skills Agility 15 Weak Regeneration Vitality 18 Intelligence 13 Wisdom 12
Mark had gone with a level 2 swordsman for the sample unit, but the stats also proved that the Arachne would be an effective mage with intelligence outpacing the reds by quite a bit. It would make a lot of sense for Mark to use them as mages since their upper half was pretty vulnerable compared to the black armor-like shell that encased the spider portion of the body. One arrow or well placed spell could take out the expensive unit. Not to mention, the special condition of the arachne. Their manna, stamina, and regeneration were 50% greater than what the unit's stats would normally entail.
The regeneration was nothing special. Its wounds would close fairly quickly, but it would take a fairly significant rest period for the unit to recover any vitality. The unit would survive longer in a heated battle provided they did not get hit in a critical spot. Mark expected that there would be units who could regenerate far faster, otherwise that necrotic weapon stockpile they had started would hardly be worth the effort.
Then there was the fact that the arachne did not play nicely with others. One of the green goblins had been cleanly decapitated by the goblin arachne. The reason… Perhaps the goblin has just wandered too close when delivering the arachne’s meal. The other goblins had already been keeping a wide berth from the arachne, but the distance had increased even further. Mark understood, he certainly would never go close to the creature himself. It was definitely a detriment to their versatility, but once he got the top half sufficiently armored they would be powerful units.
Still Mark had decided to unlock another of the level 2 unit’s before manning their fourth dungeon floor. Once Amelia got up and around, they would unlock their most powerful level 2 unit option, the violet scorpion. Mark would man the dungeon with 20 of them with a couple of bloodline upgrades. Then he would make four level 2 arachne mages and one level 2 healer.
It would be impossible to keep them a secret since he would have them train in the barracks to raise their experience level from recruit to regular. There was no sense not getting the extra 10% boost. Perhaps, if anything, the sight of them might be a bit of a deterrent for the dungeons that might be keeping tabs on them. Which they might need a bit of since unlocking the appropriate upgrades and summoning the units would drain their accumulated MP. Still Mark needed to get the units built and man the fourth floor as soon as possible.
Mark felt the tension level rising. According to the harpies, Mareth likely had nearly 2,000 units in existence. That was a lot compared to the just under 400 that they currently had summoned. Sure they had been keeping around 100,000 MP to bolster their forces if an attack were to occur, but if Mareth were to bring all of her units to attack her force would likely cost several times that with the average unit cost being well over a 100 MP per a unit. Not to mention, if she was going to attack she would likely summon additional units to increase her numbers even further.
Still Mark knew that they would not be able to have the numerical superiority if a battle occurred in the near future. While the 100,000 MP they had been holding in reserve was becoming far from sufficient, Mark could not afford to increase the reserve by several fold to be able to match Mareth unit for unit. Holding a defensive position and their ever growing arsenal of enchanted weapons would have to make up the difference. Using 20,000 MP plus would be more useful to summon a bunch of units in the near term, but unlocking a higher class level or a level 2 unit was better in the long run.
Gale was less worrisome although she had clearly unlocked one of the level 2 branches. The harpies had referred to the new level 2 units as giant humanoids, but Mark could not nail down which branch based on what the harpies had said. He could easily picture units from the troll branch being considered giant humanoids. Regardless, of which of the two branches she had they would be powerful units.
Thankfully, Gale still did not give any indication of leaving her ever growing fortress. They would be in trouble if she truly went on the warpath, because their dungeon was closer to Gale’s than Mareths was. They were not quite in the middle of the two, the three dungeons actually formed a triangle, but Mareth was likely a good 30 or 40% further away. Not to mention that both of their two outposts were even closer to the swampland.
A flickering of his tactical map indicated that Amelia was ready to go. It only took Mark a few minutes to descend from the second level of the watchtower. It was a good place to watch the sunrise from. Far away from the goblins or their stench. It was as peaceful as it got for someone who would not venture out of their 2 mile territory cage they kept themselves in. The actual places that they dared to go were even smaller since they would not go near the boundary even with a contingent of guards.
Mark met Amelia outside the dungeon entrance. She had already scampered across the gangplank by the time Mark arrived. Mark studied her for a moment. It was clear that she had just showered and changed into a green knee length dress with a black waistband. Her still damp bangs were now swept to one side. Four months had been enough for her pixie cut to extend by several more inches. Another year and it might be down to her shoulders, if they lasted that long Mark reminded himself grimmly.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Just want to go to the barracks since our units will have to train there anyways,” Amelia posed as Mark made his way down the gangplank after her. The gangplank bounced up and down slightly with every step.
Once the rainy season had ended, Mark had set the goblins to repairing the earthen walls. The dungeon entrance and main fortification had been combined together. Now the earthen wall would have a gourd like shape with the entrance portion having a smaller diameter than the larger fortification. They had expanded the walls some, which would allow for around a thousand units to fight comfortably. That was not even counting the hundreds of units that could man the massive two level watchtower in the center.
“Sure, as good a place as any,” Mark said, feet hitting the earth. The two of them started to make their way up to the eastern edge of the clearing where the large barracks compound now resided. A dozen legionnaires fell into step behind them.
“I guess, you still won’t be convinced to unlock one of the level 2 plant units instead,” Amelia posed.
“Definitely not,” Mark said confidently, falling in step shoulder to shoulder with her. They had talked it out several times over the last few days. They would move into unlocking beast bloodlines first since they had the overwhelming offense that their dungeon floor would need and would pair well with the arachnes. He chose the scorpions over the weevils since they had the higher power rating. Not to mention scorpions would likely be pretty fearsome in an enclosed space… Well they should be. “Just think, if you find them awful to look at, so will our enemies.”
“Yes, but our enemies don’t have to live next door to them. They will basically be our neighbors,” Amelia wined.
“Not like we have to let them come into the core room?” Mark said.
“Who is going to watch the dungeon feed when we are asleep. They will be the only intelligent creatures on the fourth floor,” Amelia said, narrowing her eyes at him. They had already seen that units from the lower floors could not bypass higher floors to make it to the core room. Neither could they descend floors. Only the highest level floor defenders could make their way into the core room. Mark and Amelia could not always watch the feed. Someone would have to monitor it, and the scorpions did not seem like likely candidates.
“Well… Okay they can watch the feed and you can send them away before exiting the hut,” Mark said smiling. He got a glare in return. “Maybe we will get a good spawner? Or perhaps we won’t have to wait too long before we get to the fifth floor.”
“We could just use a bugbear again or one of the units from our sponsorship package,” Amelia pleaded, batting her eyes.
“Nope,” Mark said resoundingly. “Whoever said that survival was fun. You can get over it.”
The corners of Amelia’s mouth twitched. “I hope we do survive. When I am queen, I am going to make you serve as my footstool when I sit atop my throne.”
“I would be glad to be your footstool if we ever make it that far,” Mark smiled.
“Creep,” Amelia said, increasing her pace.
“Wait, is there really a throne?” Mark called after her. “Sounds a bit pompous in my opinion,” he added, getting no reply.
Mark checked their sponsorship page while they moved on. Still just the one level 3 package. They had gotten it a few hours after the last rankings had dropped. Likely, a benefit of having made their way into the tenth spot. The package gave a dozen true fiend imps with a power rating of 2.0. Mark could assign any of the classes that they had unlocked, although the power rating would remain locked at 2.0. Likely, Mark would choose mages when he summoned them since the creatures were small in stature. Still 2.0 was far too weak, for what Mark wanted for their fourth floor. They would continue to hold off on summoning the units until they needed them. Not like they had a host of other packages to choose from. The one package a week was not an issue.
Mark had just over 163,000 MP to work with. He opened up his interface, so that Amelia could follow along. He started with unlocking the scorpion for 24,000 MP. From there he moved to unlocking the four different bloodline aspects for 1,000 MP a piece. The unit upgrade page updated. The option to unlock a second aspect slot was provided. It only cost 10,000 MP, so Mark immediately unlocked it as well. A unit with two bloodline slots filled would cost an additional 30 MP, the same as a unit with a level 2 class. The third slot upgrade became available for 25,000 MP, but Mark held off for now.
Mark prepared a violet scorpion like he was going to summon it. Just like he had understood from the description, he would be available to add any combination of the fierce, swift, tough, and mind aspects to the beast. He could double down on one attribute or could make the beast more balanced choosing different aspects. Satisfied, Mark dismissed the potential creation, going back to the unit upgrade page. Except this time he went to the skills section. Mark immediately chose the Soak skill, unlocking it for 10,000 MP.
The second skill slot option became available to unlock, but the cost was 100,000 MP. That was quite the jump. Mark had hoped it would only be to 25,000 MP or at the very least only 50,000 MP, but it did make sense. Even these basic skills sounded pretty powerful. Mark could hardly be disappointed, since it also meant that units possessing more than a skill or two would not be showing up anytime soon.
Mark went back to the unit summoning page. As expected, he was unable to attach a skill onto the scorpion. The beast bloodline upgrades basically took the place of the class and skills that were available for humanoid units. Mark tried it again with one of the flower units, getting the same result. Finally, he swapped the unit out for a goblin arachne. The soak skill equipped to the arachnid as it would for any other humanoid. It made sense, since the unit was under the humanoid tree and not the beast or plant trees. Units either went one way or the other. It was slightly frustrating since improvements in one area would not affect the others, but there was nothing Mark could do about it. Better to have the options than to not.
Next Mark unlocked the level 2 healer class for 25,000 MP. It would make the lone floor healer stronger, but it would also be useful in the future. A test with a goblin healer had proven that they could heal anything living including beasts and even the flower units. Although the healer could not restore the daisy’s vitality the unit lost after using its natural petal storm skill.
Mark checked their MP. They had just over 90,000 MP left and would still have to actually summon the units. That would cost quite a good portion of what they had left. Mark contemplated it for a minute, finally he unlocked the third bloodline slot for 25,000 MP. They would use most of their MP, but it was not like it was not going toward the defense of the dungeon. It would only be disastrous if they were attacked in the next couple of days or so.
Amelia gasped after seeing how little MP they had left, but she did not say anything about it, so Mark continued on. Now for actually summoning the units. Summoning the 20 scorpions dropped their MP down to around 12,000 MP. Mark decided to go for the balanced approach, giving each scorpion one dose of fierceness, swiftness, and toughness. Amelia, squealed despite anticipating the appearance of the 20 giant scorpions.
Violet Scorpion 1 (1/34) Bloodline X3 (Recruit) Power lvl: 3.8 Morale: 48 (content) Strength 23 Attack: 4 Defense: 7 Endurance 14 Abilities/Skills Agility 8 Bloodline enhancements: Fierce, Swift, Tough Vitality 17 Intelligence 3 Wisdom 2
The violet scorpions were indeed formidable looking. Their main body was only about six feet in length, but the creature seemed far larger. The two massive dark pincers extended a good three feet in front of the body, and the tail was likely at least 20 feet curving back and up over the creature's body. The creatures’ deep purple body sat at chest height on top of its six legs. It would be difficult to pick out the creature's eight dark eyes against the dark purple carapace. The creature by appearance was closer to black than purple, but the violet from the name likely came from the lightening of the color on the creature's belly, which was closer to the violet color.
“Well they aren’t as ugly as the spider monster, but I definitely would much rather face one of them than these guys,” Amelia said out from behind his back. Like hiding behind him would do any good if these things attacked, Mark thought, shaking his head.
“Well I guess, we will see after you see the arachnes up close,” Mark said, opening back up his interface.
A minute later five arachnes had joined the 20 scorpions, four level 2 mages and one level 2 healer. All five were given the soak skill. Hopefully, the skill would be enough to help keep them alive. Mark would of course have armor and enchantments ready to go for the creatures as well in less than a week. Hopefully, by then they would have hit the regular experience level giving them an additional 10% boost. Mark had no trouble assigning the units to the barracks. The barracks could not increase their bloodline, but beasts could still use the training section to increase their experience level.
Amelia bowed out soon after they were complete. Retreating back to the dungeon with the guards. Neighbors indeed, the poor girl would be squirming at the thought of what the core room door connected them too. Mark stayed to observe the units as they moved into the training area. He had to make sure the purchases were worth all the effort since they were currently sitting at just over 23,000 MP. If they got attacked before their MP pool built back up, hopefully these guys were worth their weight in gold.
The arachnes hissed at the scorpions, but made no move against them. Likely since in a one on one fight they would not stand a chance. It was hard to believe that there was only a point two power rating difference between the two, but after observing them for a while longer. Mark understood. The stats had hinted at it, but the scorpions were not meant to be very mobile creatures, and that was with the Swift bloodline boost he had given them.
It took a bit of mentally encouraging himself, but Mark finally got up to the point where he got up next to one of the scorpions. The scorpion studied him with its black beady eyes, but otherwise did not move. Still Mark carefully set out to accomplish what he meant to accomplish.
The scorpion's natural armor was thickest in the front and on top of its body. The underbelly was more like a tough hide than the hard shell that covered the rest of the beast. However, it was unlikely they could shore up the weakness with manmade armor, without restricting the scorpion's mobility nearly completely.
Having studied the beast closely, Mark quickly moved back allowing the scorpion to go back to what it was doing. He would not be doing that again. He would not say as much, but he was just as creeped out by the monstrosities they kept acquiring. Even Bruce the giant wasp drone was too creepy to approach, and he definitely would not approach Dragon, the behir. Winnie was scary, but the bear look was not as unsettling, so when Mark needed to harvest the undead blood goop, he went there.
The scorpions were not mobile movement wise, but were still extremely agile. In a close quarters fight their pincers would be extremely deadly, and their tails could lash out incredibly quickly covering the midrange. Further out from that they would just be slow moving tanks. Mark would have to design the dungeon floor to take advantage of their advantages while still allowing the arachne's free range to devastate with their spells.