Mark watched the gray and blue dots break from the tree line on his tactical map. It was dark outside so he would not be able to see them for a while. Not until they entered the firelight where he waited with Henry, a half dozen legionnaires, and a pair of red mages. If things did somehow come to blows there would also be the two surviving yellow scouts. Of course the two survivors from the four unit scouting party would be the two veterans. Accompanying them was Khondur the kobold leader and a dozen other kobolds.
Mark had an idea of what they were coming for. Several weeks ago one of the scout teams had left the dungeon to get guidance from the kobolds. The mission had been a success. They now had an underground route mapped to Mareth’s territory. A couple days of travel would allow Mark to drop an army right on Mareth’s doorstep. Probably less than a quarter of a mile from where Mareth’s territorial boundary began. The best part was that the beginning of the route started from the cave where they had found the cave bear all the way back during week 1. Their troops could be spawned and enter the cave in a matter of a couple of hours under the cover of darkness, without Mareth being the wiser. There had been just one snag.
“Niccceeee to sssseee, you again dungeon lord,” Khondur said with his gravelly voice, stepping into the edge of the firelight.
“A pleasure,” Mark replied. “I understand our scouting team and your guides ran into a bit of trouble. Sorry that a few of your men got killed helping us out.”
“A knownnn adversary of ours, yet their patrols have been venturing further. Challenging the territorial boundaries that have existed for generations.”
Mark nodded. Right after the first dungeon had hit level 2 neutral parties across the map had attacked the various dungeons they were nearby. For Mark and Amelia, it had been a gnoll army. For Mareth, the harpies had described that she had been attacked by giant humanoids. From what his scouts had described, Mark now suspected trolls, since the ones the scout party had run into were not giants.
“The trolllsss, might hinder your plansss of sssending an army underground. They would sssurrely, attack such a forcsse that came within the area,” Khondur finished.
“How many trolls are we talking about?” Mark asked. “And what types?” he added.
“Our estimates would put their numbersss at 500 or so. The bulk of their forcsse conssitsss of lowland trolllsss, but their plenty of regular trolllsss and hill trolllsss as well. Of coursssse, they will alsssso have ssssome cave trolllsss.”
Five hundred was not a small force. Then there were four unit types, and since trolls were a level 2 unit branch, Mark would expect them all to be above the 2.0 power rating threshold. At least one of the four types was likely a level 3 unit type. Since a couple dozen cave trolls had obliterated the surface of Mareth’s dungeon, Mark could not underestimate them. If they had even a couple of class or experience upgrades the cave trolls would likely have a power rating well into the 4’s.
Mark calculated how much taking out such a force would require. Definitely over a hundred thousand, probably closer to two hundred thousand. It would take more than a weeks worth of MP to challenge it. Another week of production that they would potentially fall behind the other dungeons, but what was the alternative, fight Mareth in a straight out fight on the surface. That might be even more costly in the long run.
The trolls had found and attacked a goblin and kobold scouting squad with only 10 units. What were the chances that an army of over a thousand could get through? Maybe the trolls would not want the trouble?... No, they most definitely were not that lucky. If he wanted to go through with the plan to sneak up on Mareth’s dungeon the trolls would have to be dealt with. Seeming to understand Mark’s predicament, Khondur spoke up again.
“There may be something else you would be interested in at the troll encampment,” the kobold leader said grinning. Although his alligator teeth made it seem more like he was sizing up how Mark would taste for dinner. Mark’s attention was on the kobold leader. It had already been verified that essence sources could be co located with various neutral factions on the map, but what Khondur said next was even more appetizing.
“There are black coal mounds in the troll settlement, eight of them,” the kobold leader said, revealing his teeth even further. The reptilian knew Mark would be interested in that.
Eight coal mounds could not be disregarded. It was one more than even the garden sanctuary. Mark had not done the math recently but they only had another 3 months of coal at their home base, and the Crassius site had just a few weeks more. Mark smiled. There was no reason why he could not switch one of the sites before they ran out. Sure it would be an upfront expenditure, but it would also leave them with an outpost site to fall back upon if one was destroyed or occupied. They only produce MP at three sites, nothing said they could not have outposts ready to go at other sites.
Of course right now, Mark would have to turn off the Crassius site. They had manna bellows and manna pumps at the home base, which would also count against their MP production site limit, but there was also an answer to that. When the homebase ran out of coal, Mark had already been planning to use DP to move the buildings to one of the other sites, so that he could mine coal somewhere else.
An underground outpost would be extremely secure from the other dungeons, so would make a good location for them. However, that would require Mark to upgrade that location to a settlement. Something he would not spend a hundred thousand on, but 20,000 for a new outpost that increased their daily MP production that was definitely a worthwhile expenditure.
Still there was no reason why he should not try to get a little help with obtaining it.
“Would you be able to support our forces in wiping out your enemies?” Mark queried.
“Haek, haek, haek,” the reptilian laughed. “Dungeon lord, I would not attack the trolllsss even if I could sssend a forcsse of two thousssssand. Although from what we have witnessed from your dungeon, you should be able to manage it,” Khondur added.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Mark frowned, but he would not be deterred. “What about in just a support role. The kobolds take out the troll scouts and guide our forces. I’m sure that you know the ins and outs of the troll territory, if you have seen their base.”
“”Perhapssss,” the Kobold leader said, once again his snout formed its wicked smile. Khondur stood for a minute in contemplation. “Sweeaten the pottt?” the kobold leader asked contemplatively.
“Not for only that much support,” Mark stated, taking a hard stance. “Besides, it is rather strange how we have not seen any of our 50% of higher level resources from your miners. Perhaps we need to revisit that…” Mark stated smiling.
“Haek, Haek, haek, just so happens we actually just located some essence in the magic mine. I was waiting for usss to finish collecting it all before we distribute your ssshare,” Khondur stated revealing his teeth.
Essence… in the mine? Mark’s eyes widened. But his mind refocused back on the task on hand. “Yes, we will await our share. Now how about the support?”
“Very well, we will guide the army and deal with the trolllsss patrolllsss. I guess that will concludddee tonightsss dealingsss. Till next time,” Khondur said, turning.
“It will probably be a week, maybe two before the attack. We will let you know when we are ready,” Michael shouted after the departing kobold lord. The kobolds seemed to dislike being above ground and social interaction, so the couple times they had met the meetings had been kept brief. It was fine with Mark.
The news of essence being found in the mine was welcome news. Since Khondur departed in that direction, perhaps they would know what type it was soon. Mark had to wonder how many other high level things the kobold miners had found. The goblins had found quite a few different basic metals including iron and copper, but nothing game changing so far.
Still with the amount of iron they were mining, their armor would soon all be made of metal. Plate armor for the bugbears and perhaps other units like the arachne, but chain mail was also in the works. With the gnomes' knowhow it was a simple thing for the goblins to make long lines of iron that could then be cut into segments and cinch them together in the crafting house. The goblins' handiwork might not be the greatest, but even a poorly made set of chain mail would provide a defensive bonus equivalent to their best hide armor and defensive enchantment.
Since chain mail could be counted as an undershirt a piece of hide armor with an enchantment could be worn over it doubling the defensive bonus. Well…it would in the future. Based on one of their samples, they did not have the required tech to do so. Mark was pretty sure it would be the intricate design tech, which was available for 150 RP.
Right now they were working toward unlocking one of the vegetative state germination route upgrades, but perhaps in the near future Mark would work to get intricate design unlocked.
Day 134
“What do you mean, Ezekiel took it,” Mark asked angrily. Just the moment before he had felt like it was Christmas. The kobold leader had come through. They had delivered quite a few measures of their newest essence, lightning. Now their crazy resident scientist had absconded with it.
It was a wonder the scientist could find out about something so soon. It had only been a matter of hours. It was like the scientist had created spy bots that had infiltrated the entire camp. Perhaps that was giving him too much credit, spy bots would be too high tech. The more reasonable option was that someone was telling him. Mark’s eyes scanned the goblins just now arousing throughout the camp. The bastard must be bribing them with something. Just like they were bribing the harpies to bring them information.
“Well actually sir, he only took about a quarter of it,” Henry replied with his gruff voice. “We still have 16 measures of it left. I delivered a few measures to the research lab and secured the rest in the stone essence chests. Boss, if I may… If we are expecting to get more essence from the mine in the future, we will need some more stone essence chests for storage.”
“Very well, I will let you work that out with the gnomes,” Mark agreed. Sixteen measures was not bad, their life essence source could barely produce that much in a month. Maybe he should not worry too much about what Ezekial had taken. Sixteen measures would likely go pretty far with whatever methods the researchers found to use it for. Not to mention a mad scientist and electricity made a pretty good combination.
“Continue with the morning report,” Mark said finally, realizing that Henry was just standing by awkwardly.
“Oh yes, well, the only other thing of note, other than the normal projects is some information we received from a harpy this morning.” That got Mark’s full attention. “The harpy reported a new unit type at the lizardmen dungeon. Large gray humanoids. From the descriptions, they sound like trolls that the scouts ran into on the underground mission.”
That was certainly news. Gale had unlocked the troll branch, and since she already had giants it meant she had unlocked both level 2 options. It was quite alarming. There had been quite a bit of alarming news recently. Two days ago the number four dungeon had fallen. Then only the day after the number three dungeon had followed right after it. According to Amelia, they were both top contender prospects from major factions.
Big moves were being made across the map, and now there were only 14 contenders left. Yet Mark and Amelia were only aware of what was happening in their immediate area. The only glimpse they had of other dungeons were the few alternate entrances they had discovered, but since they had not sent anyone through, they had no idea who they belonged to. Perhaps they needed to do something about that soon.
Regardless, Mark was starting to get the antsy feeling again. The same one he had gotten in the weeks leading up to the first dungeon hitting level 2. With how much MP their dungeon was pulling in daily, they could save up the million MP for dungeon level 3 in two months of dedicated effort. Some dungeons had been level 2 for nearly 3 months at this point. That was plenty of time for dungeons to knock out quite a few of the level 2 techs, and start eyeing the level 3 dungeon upgrade.
Mark’s worst case estimate gave them at least another month. There were a host of things for dungeons to spend MP on, and surely the other dungeons were at least running into some problems of their own. Still it was a good idea to have some idea of when other dungeons would progress.
“Anything else,” Mark asked, realizing that once again he had Henry hanging around awkwardly.
“Not really boss, the regiment is making a good headway on the outer wall for the fortress. We have thousands of blocks standing by, but in a matter of weeks the reserve will run out.”
“Have our miners start producing blocks as well. If that slows down mining too much, we could have members of the regiment go and mine the difference,” Mark said dismissively. The kobolds were producing 500 plus stones a day, but the regiment was burning through the ten thousand surplus that had been built up before work could begin. They would just have to produce more on their own.
Henry continued with other aspects, but Mark only half listened. His mind was going over with how he wanted to go about taking care of the troll problem before moving onto their true target.