After the battle, Mark had quickly made several changes. He spent 50 DP to send over the manna bellows and manna pumps to the garden sanctuary. After that it was a simple matter to build their new subterranean outpost and 16 shade henchmen. Their homebase henchmen could standby. If something ever happened to one of their other outposts, they could begin work immediately. Making the move had increased their daily production by 4500 MP since they were effectively mining 5 extra mounds of coal. They had moved from 22,930 to 27,430 MP just like that.

Mark decided to keep the leftover goblin infantry and spider to guard the subterranean outpost. The archer division, spiritualists, a few red mages and healer would all return with Nasal and Henry. The guards would not protect from much, but at least it would take some monstrosity to take down the outpost and not something like a pack of dogs.

After that it just took a day to resummon and reform the regiment. The 38 bugbears were the first on the list. They would take over at the barracks as soon as the current class of yellow mages were done. The regiment was built a day later, and went right back to working on the wall.

Then this morning Mark had found one more unexpected benefit from the expedition, that had returned last night. Both yellow veteran scouts could become named units. Leading several successful expeditions had been enough to make them notable characters. Mark did not give it much thought, naming them Lewis and Clark. Like Nasal, they were only yellow hobgoblins, so they would never be true champions in battle. However, Mark would always welcome more dependable units.

After only a few minutes of thinking, Mark decided that he had the perfect task for the two. He would send them on another long term expedition. Their mission would be to seek out and explore the map for the other dungeons. Of course, to get the most benefit of such an expedition they would need to unlock mapping. It would cost 100,000 MP, but Mark was tired of their whole map being black except for their territory. They had half the MP already, even after rebuilding their forces. In two more days they would have the rest and then Lewis and Clark could set off.

As far as RP, they had just finished their most recent project, the health vegetative state. Once again, only a similarly named health budding option was offered for the 4th tier upgrade, but the 3rd tier upgrade already came with a new spell, Blessed Aura. It took Mark a couple hours to determine the limits of the spell, simply due to the spell's duration. The spell lasted for a full hour and provided minor healing effects on all friendlies within range. Since the range appeared to be around 200 feet from the unit, the spell covered quite a large area. However it did seem the spell likely could come with a long cooldown since ten minutes had passed since the spell had ended.

Mark had summoned two midnight lotuses with the upgrade. The lotuses were ideal since they already needed to be protected in the center, but they proved to be even more ideal since they already had their malevolent aura that radiated out to empower plant types. It would likely take another lotus to cover the entire fortification, but Mark held off. If he wanted to buy mapping in two days he could not afford to do much else, but support upkeep food and drink costs for the units.

Now Mark was just left with what to do with their RP going forward. Just like mapping he would probably buy another tech upgrade once they had the MP. It would just take too long to use RP, so Mark decided to focus on the small unit upgrades like they had been. As far as their defense was concerned they had the germination upgrades that he had wanted to defend their base.

Mark looked at the class upgrades. It really did not seem worth it to him to pour too much MP into advanced classes, where they would have to upgrade the base class and then pay double to upgrade the advanced class. However the specialized classes had one benefit in that they could be used at the level of an upgraded base class. Right now, they only had the warhammer and spiritualist specialized classes that could take benefit from this, but there were three more in the works, and at least two of them promised to be fighting type classes.

The witch doctor class was likely a combat type class that would fall under the mage class. Then there was the known Ranger class. It was only at 9%, but Mark could already see it becoming the default for both their scouts and their archers going forward. Maybe their archery or scouting would not be quite as good as straight up scouts or archers, but at least Mark would not have to pay MP to advance the archer class any more. Not to mention they would be more versatile which was always good. The final class was the beast handler class. It was the next one closest to finishing, but it sounded like a support class like the goblin drummer class.

The latest project to finish was most definitely a support class, tattooist class. It also gave Mark a new way to spend base or any other kind of essence. The premise was that a goblin with the tattooist class could inscribe tattoos on the other units. Like enchantments or anything else, the tattoos would provide benefits based on their quality. Interference would also come into play, so having multiple tattoos on a single unit could have adverse effects.

Since the tattooists would be doing the majority of their practice on their goblins, the tattooists would need to be very experienced before Mark would let them go that far. Still the benefits that it could bring would be welcome. If the tattooist used base essence he could improve the goblins overall attributes. Mark took that as simply a direct improvement of their power rating.

Other essences could have other effects. The stone essence might improve a goblin’s defense, or it might allow them to geomance for all he knew. Everything seemed in the realm of possibilities. It all came down to what designs the tattooists could come up with and what benefits they would bring.

Of course it was not a pure boon to the dungeon. It would require resources as the tattooists developed their skills, let alone use. Then there was the fact that it was said they would work better in their own building. Mark rolled his eyes when the tattoo parlor became an actual add on for the crafting house, but of course he had immediately shifted the gnome builders to working on it.

The gnome’s were curious about the tattoos and what effects they would have, but they did not seem interested in pursuing it themselves. They would be content to watch the goblins deface one another.

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Mark had only added three more reds as tattooists, then he added five more reds as full time crafters and brewers. It brought them up to 45 reds being used in support purposes including Ezekiel, but that still left plenty of reds for combat purposes. The current cap was at 166, and it would likely increase again when they hit dungeon level 3.

Mark had gotten off topic. He pushed for their RP to go towards unlocking level four warrior class. The bugbear’s including Henry could get another 15% power rating increase in a matter of 10 days worth researching. That was the best thing he could do for their army. Then there would be the level 4 beast bloodline upgrade which would take another 10 days.

Mark scowled. There went his decision making for the next week or so. As the game progressed, the times that he needed to make new directional decisions were becoming fewer and further in between. Guess there was nothing to do, but go to the crafting house.

Day 156

After the return of the expedition the next 10 days passed quite quickly. Lewis and Clark had set out a week ago. Now that Mark had bought Mapping using MP, they were carving a swath out of the darkness with each day. They had not run into other dungeons, yet but they were making decent headway as they traveled living off the land.

Conversely the other scouting parties were expanding the area around their own dungeon. In just a week, Mark had the entire swamp area mapped thanks to the dozens of frogmen teams that traversed the area. Then the other goblin scout teams had unveiled all the area within a day or two travel from their dungeon. It was not all clear, but the shaded gray showed Mark a picture of what was there.

Mark was surprised by how much relief it had brought both Amelia and himself. They were finally getting a clear picture outside their little bubbles, and things felt less constricting. With how far Lewis and Clark had traveled and not located any other dungeons, Mark now knew the scale of the map was absolutely massive. Every step they took expanded the darkness, showing what little piece of the map they actually inhabited.

But things would not be quiet for long. Mareth’s forces were starting to increase. In another week or two, she might attack again. They would be ready, but Mark still held off on sending their own army to wait at the subterranean outpost. He was not ready to start the increased daily expenditure that would mean quite yet.

Mark eyed their MP. They were sitting at above 190,000 MP. He did not think they would need to spend too much to complete either their defenses or attack force. Which left some room for him to unlock something. Warrior class level 5 could be knocked out for 100,000 MP now that level 4 had finished today, but it was extremely unlikely that they would have enough time to send the bugbears to the barracks long enough to pick up the class level. Level 4 was probably already pushing it. Another week for level 5 did not seem likely.

Their RP was set to unlock the fourth beast bloodline upgrade, although it would not likely come into play for the battle either, but it would be quick. Mark shifted his attention to the techs. There were only three left, but there was only one for 100,000 MP, dungeon features II.

It would be a bit before they had enough DP to get another floor, but there could be other benefits.

What the heck, Mark thought, unlocking it. Their MP dropped in half, but he did not regret unlocking the tech. Their DP rate increased from 3 to 4. Five new dungeon levels became available. The first would cost 100,000 MP to build, but what really caught Mark’s attention were the new features.

The barracks could now have a higher occupancy. Instead of only being able to have 25 units go through each side of the barracks, they could now have up to 50 gaining experience or upgrading their class.

Finally, there was the maelstrom feature. Mark had always wondered why the dungeon floors were so large despite only getting 25 defenders to guard each level. Defenders that dungeons would coordinate and have fight together since it would be foolish not to.

However, the maelstroms would provide monsters that would wander throughout the whole level either by themselves or in small groups. However, they would avoid rooms where the defenders presided, so would not help in the final battle for the floor. The numbers of wandering units spawned could be anywhere from 25 to 50 units. It was apparently random. Of note, the maelstroms would not summon when the dungeon was being challenged, so they would not replenish between waves of adventurers or while an army marched through the front door.

Mark was slightly peeved when he read the next part. Maelstrom units would be 10-25% weaker than the average power rating of the defenders. For their first level or two, the units would be little more than units to be swept aside, but they would have to build them. They had to build the first floor maelstrom, before they could move onto level two. It was only 25,000 MP for the first floor, but the cost was sure to go up.

Mark contemplated whether he should use DP to quickly grab the first floor maelstrom, but he decided against it. They were at 40 DP now. It would be better to just wait fifteen more days to build a whole floor. Another floor would be far more effective against any type of attack.

The gnome builders were now working on a new project, the greenhouse. The plant unit version of the barracks. The tattoo parlor had been completed. Like the apothecary add on, the tattoo parlor did get a bonus.

[Tattoo Parlor: Due to the nature of your Tattoo Parlor, tattoos produced in the parlor will get extra benefits to endurance. Benefits gained will be dependent on tattoo quality.]

Mark was not sure how helpful the boon would be. Perhaps his units could fight harder slightly longer. On an individual level, it probably would not amount to much, but if an entire force had boosts to endurance it might make a small difference.

That being said the three tattooists had been at work for over a week now. Neither Mark or Amelia had any desire to try their hand in the new field, so they were the lone force proceeding to advance the strength of his units. Mark could not even help come up with designs like he could for enchantments either. There were no pamphlets to guide the way.

So far the tattooists had been relegated to performing their own work on the goblins from the mining division. Since there was no desire to throw them into combat, it would be better if they were the ones stuck with the duds. Beneficial designs could be found and then be paired with the units that would find the most benefit. Not much had come from it yet.

There were several finished designs. To Mark’s eye they were simple, little better than cavemen pictures, but Mark guessed they had to start somewhere. The poor quality designs did not add much. Even the boost to endurance was not enough to be reflected on the unit’s attribute points. It was not saying much since the goblins had such low attributes in the first place, but Mark could infer that the boosts they were receiving at the poor quality level were definitely less than 10%.