Nasal was standing by to greet Mark as he exited the dungeon. It was a bit unusual. Typically, Mark would have to send one of the core guards to track him down, if Mark did not have the time to make his way to wherever Nasal was. The Lieutenant was normally quite busy keeping on top of the goblin affairs. Checking up on the mining, the forge, the crafting, and work projects were just the big named items. Nasal also dealt with all the squabbles and issues that arose with infuriating frequency.
Mark was finding himself, more and more reliant on the hobgoblin. He almost felt like keeping Nasal away from combat to serve purely in an administrative role. It was really frustrating to have to pick up his Lieutenants duties for two weeks each time he died, but in the end Mark could not afford to do so. Although Nasal's named status seemed to give quite a bit of clout. Units were only getting stronger. Nasal needed to progress or at some point he would be unable to effectively be in command.
Luckily, Nasal had advanced another step in the right direction. His power rating was now sitting at 1.6, now that his experience level had jumped from regular to veteran status, and his power rating boost went from plus 10% to 25%. Mark was not quite sure what caused the upgrade, but he guessed that combat and time both played a role. Not that Mark had many data points to pull from. Other than Nasal, only two other yellow hobgoblin scouts had reached veteran status. Somehow the two had survived all the way from the time, Mark unlocked the scout class and started using four-unit yellow hobgoblin teams to scout their surroundings. Quite a feat, since teams fairly often lost a member, and occasionally even whole teams went missing.
Regardless, Mark needed the unit to get stronger. The only options he had were to send Nasal to train to obtain higher class levels or for him to increase to expert status. Expert status would double Nasal’s current 25% power rating boost that he received from being a veteran. Expert was probably far off, and currently Mark could not afford to let Nasal go train unobstructed at the barracks for a couple of weeks.
Mareth was most definitely gearing up for an attack. Since Gale’s dungeon was practically unassailable and all of the other dungeons appeared to be pretty far off, it was little guess on where her forces would be headed. In fact, It was likely the reason that Nasal was waiting for him. The harpies were being rewarded generously to bring frequent updates on troop types and numbers. Nothing could be hidden from the winged beings aerial view.
“Report,” Mark commanded as he stepped past Nasal. A second later the two of them were making their way down the gangplank and away from the dungeon entrance towards the research lab where he had left Amelia. A half dozen legionnaires fell into step behind the two..
“This morning the Harpies reported that another group of stone golems had finished their time in the barracks. As of yet, a new set has not taken their place. In addition, it appears that another couple hundred of the various weaker units have been summoned. That puts their numbers at around 2,500,” Nasal paused. “And, boss… They are forming up.”
Mark stopped, and looked back at his lieutenant, but Nasal had nothing more to offer. Mark glanced at the sky. They still had several hours worth of daylight left. “When did you receive that report?”
“Around 1400 boss,” Nasal replied curtly.
Mark nodded. “Okay, if one of the harpies stops by, see if they can do a check in that direction in the next few hours, or during the night. We will pay whatever they want.”
It would take a good 12 hours for the slow moving constructs to cover the distance. If they wanted to perform a night attack then they would have to leave soon if not already.
“Yes, sir. They already agreed to check around sunset. Just in case a couple teams of our scouts have been stationed at each of the passes that lie between us. Unless they take an indirect route they should be able to put eyes on them hours before they reach our dungeon.”
“Look at you,” Mark expressed, although he stopped his inclination to pat the goblin on the shoulder, but it was nice to see him showing some initiative. “Uhmhm, Good work. Anything else to report, Mark asked as he made his way toward outer wall gangplank.
Over the last month a lot of work had been completed expanding their defenses. The outer earthen mud wall now encompassed the dungeon entrance, which would now serve as more of an inner keep. The size of the rudimentary fort would now allow well over a thousand defenders to fight comfortably. Which was good since, battles now would range in the thousands.
The walls might actually hold up decently in the upcoming battle. Taking a cue from Nehemiah, the goblins were now haphazardly utilized wooden lattice framework to keep the wall together. Sections still occasionally collapsed, but things were slightly better now that nearly a week had passed since the last rain. Perhaps the rainy season was over. It was a welcome relief for their defenses, although it would not be a big factor for too much longer. They had finished researching Masonry today. They would not have to put up with earthen walls for too much longer.
“I have identified the boundaries of the area the archers in the tower can cover. While they can not hit the settlement buildings the top deck can practically reach the tree line to the west. Things are already a bit clustered up there with the archers we have. Since the tower does not improve the range of mage spells. I think it would be a waste to add anymore that you may summon up there.” Nasal stopped waiting for Mark’s input.
“Very well,” Mark sighed. The tower might not give them a greater range, but it did give them an excellent vantage from which to strike from. Still the range of the spells meant that mages on the tower would not be able to reach much past the outer wall, if even that far
. “With our limited MP I don’t think I can summon too many more mages, and the ones I do will be needed to lead and support the infantry. However, that will mean that you will be the lone commander for the tower.”
Currently, there were around 300 archers allotted to man the tower in the upcoming attack. The majority were green goblins, but a handful of horned goblins were included in the count to serve as sergeants of the 30 designated squads the greens were assigned to. The horned goblins were just strong enough to keep the greens in line, but it was far from enough to say that the division of archers was well managed. However, Mark could scarcely afford the MP to solidify the division. The ground troops needed the stronger units far more. Green and horned goblins only needed to pour as many arrows out during the attack as they could.
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“Yes, boss. All of the scouts not currently out on mission will be stationed in the tower. They can help me maintain things.” Nasal replied promptly.
A thought struck Mark. Mark pulled up his interface real quick. He could not help but chuckle. It appeared there would only be one scout team out over the next day. It was an important mission to the kobolds that had been planned for days, but wouldn’t you know. Both the veteran ranked scouts were a part of the four unit team.
They were either incredibly lucky, or they were incredibly perceptive. It was not exactly a secret that a potential dungeon ending force would be headed their way soon. Perhaps that was how these two had lasted so long when the other scout units were lucky to last a month or so. Mark could just picture the two volunteering to go on this mission while the other scouts were doing everything they could to not be selected.
There was a good chance it might work out for them. Mark was confident Mareth would not be able to conquer their dungeon, but there was a decent possibility that the surface forces would be annihilated. Still the two were also going through miles and miles of underground tunnels, since there were potentially more beasts like Dragon down there… They were not exactly dodging the draft. Unless their luck held out they would have to fight, and with far less support.
“Oh, um… continue,” Mark said, realizing that Nasal was giving him an odd expression.
“Yes, boss. We have plenty of arrows for the tower. We should be able to fully equip around 50 more units with a full set of enchanted gear, not including the shields. We have just over a hundred of those in total. Other than that we have an additional 45 enchanted hide vests, and maybe a dozen extra arm and leg braces. As far as necklaces, we have a surplus well over a thousand, although half of them are below average or even poor quality.”
Mark nodded. The vitality necklaces required the least amount of manna and were the easiest to make out of the various enchanted items their dungeon produced. New transcriptionists always started working on them to develop a feel for enchanting and to develop their skills.
“Prioritize outfitting our ground forces first. Anything extra can go to goblins in the tower. I will decide how many and what type of units to summon in the next few hours, and will summon them as soon as we get confirmation that Mareth is indeed attacking. Is there anything else?”
“No, boss.” Nasal said, snapping to attention. Mark continued forward toward the research lab. Nasal was soon left behind to go about his duties.
Mark opened up his interface as he walked. They were currently sitting at just over 34,000 MP. On top of the 300 units to man the tower, Mark had an additional 20 patrols of ground forces. Over half of them even had horned goblins instead of the cheaper green goblins. If they were not at the horned goblin unit cap they would all have horned goblins. On top of that they had the sample plants and extra arachne.
But the pride and joy of the force was the 45 unit squad of bugbears Mark had spent the last five days forming. All of them were fully outfitted with enchanted gear. Although there was one difference. The metal back and breastplate Mark had gotten the gnomes to forge for them would take the place of the hide vest, although it carried its own version of the same defensive enchantment. The better material gave an additional point in defense. In addition, the 45 bugbears each hefted massive warhammers that came as the standard loadout of the goblin warhammer class.
The platoon of bugbears had one purpose, to obliterate the thousands of constructs coming their way. Similar to an advanced class the warhammer class granted units a 15% power rating increase in addition to adding a point to strength and endurance for each class level. What's more, similar to the other specialized classes they had access to, Mark did not have to spend MP to unlock higher level classes. He could summon units with the warhammer class up to the level of the associated archetype base class. Which in this case was warrior.
Mark had decided to unlock level 3 converting 27 DP to help cover the 25,000 MP cost. It was not like they needed too much DP for their dungeon purposes. Even after buying the fourth floor and making the conversion they were still sitting at 83 DP. Mark would even consider converting some more if he felt like the upcoming battle required it.
The bugbears power rating sat at 3.2 a piece not counting those with ranks. Unfortunately, Mark did not have time to get them above the recruit experience level since the barracks was until recently being used to increase their fourth floor defenders. It nearly took a week for units to increase their level in the barracks and a majority of the defenders had started to hit that level today. If the attack came before the few holdouts made it, Mark would be forced to send them in as defenders as recruits. Although hopefully, the future dungeon defenders would not be involved in the upcoming battle
Hopefully, the elite warhammer platoon would perform as well as he expected. The 3.2 power rating was a bit deceptive. Since the units enchanted gear was all good quality, they could easily be a 3.6 or higher, and that was not even considering their defense. With the metal breast and backplate they were sitting with a 7 in defense. Not to mention each carried a rock skin pill that would add at least 3 to their defense during the pills duration. A handful even had a pill that increased their defense by 4. On top of that, each had the soak skill so could further take a lot of damage over the course of 1 minute.
The one platoon had cost over 57,000 MP in total to summon, and encompassed the entire bearbug population that they were capped at. But hopefully the result would be a very difficult to kill, platoon of rock smashers. Which considering the reports of what was coming they would very much need.
According to the harpies, Mareth had over a hundred of the level 2 dungeon rock golems. The exact number was difficult to discern, but it was clear that Mareth had well over what a level 2 unit cap should allow. Either there were multiple similar unit types offered or Mareth had other means. Although based on the descriptions, essence was most definitely involved.
Some looked like normal rock golems. Others were as black as the coal mounds; all the dungeons were mining. Others had glowing orange streaks throughout their body, like there was molten magma within, but the biggest giveaway were the rock golems with the glowing green eyes. They already knew that Mareth had access to brimstone essence since some had been brought into their dungeon during Mareth’s last attack.
However the rock golems were not the only threat. Other unit types had similar variations of essence use with the same characteristics. Although she was apparently mainly using it on her level 2 units. While the bugbear platoon would be Mark’s answer to the rock golems, he could only build standard fighting units and depend on their enchantments for the rest.
It did not take Mark long to decide on what more they would need. He would summon an additional 50 legionnaires since Nasal had put together that many sets of enchanted gear. Other than that, Mark would summon a good number of mages, a couple of healers, and some more patrols. Then perhaps another troop of units to support the bugbears, he would include the sword wielding arachne in that group.
Mark soon found himself descending the steps of the research lab and into the basement. He had dedicated an entire room to the mad scientist. It had not been very long, but hopefully the mad scientist had some way to contribute. Just a brief stop and conversation here, then he could go to the crafting house where he had initially been headed before Nasal’s report.
Then he would inform Amelia of the likely attack. She was probably wondering why his bathroom break was taking so long. Mark sighed before knocking on the door, just a couple of quick conversations and he could be back at the cauldron. A couple more average quality rock skin pills could be helpful.