Cynthia

Cynthia along with the rest of the world were in shock. Richard Lambert, the third place holder, had spent the last four days marching an army South to pincer Jack Wynham’s dungeon with the other republic of Neurim contender, Leonard Boulevic. An obvious show of the two republic dungeons coordinating their efforts despite in battle communication being currently disabled.

The fact that they had found away to coordinate was not nearly so surprising then the fact that the two were doing so for the benefit of Leonard and not Richard. Richard had been assumed to be Republic’s main, while the other two contenders played blocker and support, but either that assumption had been wrong or the republic had changed their plans.

Neither option would be too surprising, although from a battle standpoint most leaned towards the later. Truth was that Richard was involved in a three way stagnant struggle with the 5th and 6th place dungeons in the Northeast. None of them could gain an edge against the others and the three way struggle had actually caused them to start to fall behind. However this new move would likely end that struggle.

Richard had committed far too many resources to wipe out the other republic’s main competition in the southeast region. Several hundred DP had been converted and added in with an additional 300,000 MP. The half million MP army devastated Jack Wynham’s surface forces, and Leonard’s army moved in before Jack had a chance to summon more construct defenders. Leonard being able to sweep through the dungeon levels with a full untouched army of orcs and gnolls was a foregone conclusion.

It changed the game board. Once Leonard finished off Jack, he should be able to gobble down the other three dungeons in the southeast given enough time. He would emerge dominant in the Southeast region. Nicholas Holt would do the same with the Southwest region. The north would almost certainly be claimed by Daniel Hale, the beastmaster. Whereas Derrick Blackwell from the Atlin empire would face off against Avery Kingston the model from Magnum. Richard had already lost both of his outposts, in his weakened condition it was unlikely for him to be able to make a comeback or aid Leonard after this.

Seemingly the breakout of three of the regions had been decided. Four by most estimates, since Gale Barbary was assumed to be the emerging power in the Northwestern region. Cynthia was not entirely convinced since she did not think her client or Mareth would go down easily, but perhaps she was too deeply involved to see the truth of the matter.

Gale Barbary had just unlocked the troll branch, making her the only contender to have unlocked two level 2 unit branches. Now with Amelia and Mareth squaring off with each other Gale would only pull further ahead. She already passed most contenders in regards to unit upgrades. She had more level 2 techs researched then anybody else, and her swamp fortress was becoming more and more formidable. Only real reason she was number 9 on the rankings list was that she had not done anything. She had not gotten any unique rewards, but she was ahead in everything else.

The real question was when the major powers would be done consolidating their areas. Nicholas Holt and Daniel Hale would likely be done in another couple of months. Leonard would likely need a few months more since he had three more dungeons to knock out. The Northeastern battle could happen at any time. Although many theorized that either Avery Kingston or Derrick Blackwell would emerge victorious sooner rather than later since they both had fallen behind due to the other and Richard Lambert. It was clear they both wanted things settled, so that they could move on unencumbered by other nearby dungeons.

Day: 133 Avery Kingston

Avery smirked as she watched the last of Richard Lambert's undead fall before her forces. Fifteen enraged vegetative state Treants led the charge into what was likely the final floor of Richards dungeon. Myconid healers followed behind healing the already durable rampaging treants. The cherry tree mystics would lob spells and their special cherry bomb attack from behind them all.

Avery had started the battle opening the plant tree, and the cheapest fungus branch. Soon after she had unlocked the tree branch to give herself a little more physical strength. From there she had been offered a unique reward for her first and only conquest. The unique reward unlocked the humanoid tree requirement for her, allowing her to get the myconid branch.

The fungus based humanoids were welcome in many regards, but also introduced the headache of having to advance classes and eventually skills as well as the germination paths for her plant type units. Her resources had already been stretched thin dealing with Richard and Derrick for the last few months. Thankfully, Richard had basically just removed himself from the competition. It had been expected for one of the republic contenders to make the move. Avery could only be thankful that Richard had apparently become the republic's sacrifice.

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Avery’s only regret was that she had not made her move earlier. It was extremely likely that the forces he had sent away had already accomplished their mission. Richard had done a good job concealing his intentions. Both Derrick and herself had been wary for several days, having both lost sight of Richard’s massive army. While they had each taken the opportunity to take out one of his outposts.

It was unfortunate, if Avery had not had the misconception that Richard was the republic’s golden boy, she could have finished him off before his army went to the aid of Leonard, the soon to be last surviving member of the Republic. How funny would that have been, if she had taken him down while his army was in transit?. At least after today, she would be left with a standup fight with Derrick. With only two of them, they could fight it out without worrying that someone else would intrude. Well at least not someone local. Hopefully her next unique rewards would give her the edge in the upcoming struggle.

Once she had taken control of her region of the map she could catch up with the other contender finalists. She was not under any misconceptions. The three way struggle had caused them all to fall behind. The only respite in their constant struggle had occurred after someone hit dungeon level 2. They had all shifted their focus to reaching level 2 themselves. Of course the pause only lasted a couple of weeks, before something had inevitably restarted hostilities.

But Avery was far from discouraged. Apparently, very few contenders had unlocked the plant tree. Few could understand what it could offer. The humanoid class and skill system was far less versatile, than the germination pathways that she had only begun to unlock. Unlocking its mysteries would forever take precedence for her. The myconids would only be advanced enough to supplement the plant types.

The myconids did offer new avenues in one area. Construction. All of her buildings before getting the fungus men branch had been grown and warped together out of trees. Now she had units that could work with stone. She already had ideas on how to fuse the two techniques to form a stone palace covered with vines and trees. Her own jungle fortress, where the stone would protect the vital areas of the plants, allowing the plants to attack with impunity. The plants would use the research projects from her trap research focus. The result would be a stone palace, with non unit plants that would seek out, entangle, and kill any who entered.

The treants finished off the last of the defenders and exited the floor. As expected, the fourth level was Richards last line of defense. None of them had unlocked dungeon features II, so five floors was all any of them had, since they all had also devoted one of their floors for a mine. Her treants entered the core room, and destroyed the core. After her last conquest, she knew that she would have to wait an hour before she could look at her unique rewards. Just enough time to get the tension she had been carrying out of her neck and shoulders. The three way struggle had been quite stressful..

“Mckayla, can you set up for a massage,” Avery said stretching.

“Yes miss Kingston,” Mckayla said moving to the opposite side of the core room.

Mckayla was her champion, but had been her aid for over a decade prior. Avery had picked her since she could do practically everything, including massages, aromatherapy, acupuncture, and make the perfect cocktail.

Avery had not spent the 10,000 MP because she needed a champion. As a model she had always spearheaded major decisions herself, but she could not bear roughing it alone. When the battle could easily last several years, bringing in Mckayla had been an easy decision.

***Below is a graph of who is left in each region, their rank, and their troop types if specified, for you visual types. Just note their are now only 14 contenders. Ranks are based on the last months ranking and do not account for the Number 3 and 4 being taken out of the picture.***

Remaining Contenders: 14 Northwest Region North Region Northeast Amelia Cromwell (rank 10) Goblins, Creepy Crawlies, flowers Daniel Hale (Beastmaster)(rank 2) Several beast branches, and tree branch Avery Kingston (rank 5)) Fungus, Tree, and Myconids Mareth Ingall (rank 11) Golems, Scarecrows Simon Heath (rank 8) Not specified Derrick Blackwell (rank 6) Not specified Gale Barbary (rank 9) Lizardmen, Giants (Lvl 2), Trolls (Lvl 2) Southwest Region Southeast Region Nicholas Holt (rank 1) Skeletons, zombies Leonard Boulevic (rank 7) Orcs and gnolls Unnamed (rank 16) Not specified Unnamed (rank 14) Not specified Unnamed (rank 15) Not specified Unnamed (rank 13) Not specified Unnamed (rank 12) Not specified