Elena woke up late the next morning. For her Civilians, the day would start at 6:00 when the restriction on construction was lifted, but she wasn’t up until 7:00 when it was time to start the Arch of Champions upgrade. After that, she went back to sleep again until 10:00 when the upgrade finished.
She’d not slept in for decades. Usually her day started at 5:00 and ended at 1:00 in the morning. However, that was when she was alive. Elena was dead now so what was the point in being such a busybody. After all, most of what needed done around here could be handled by her citizens.
Take her daily intel for instance. It refreshed at 8:00 while she was asleep, but as per her instructions, Malik had gotten up, checked out the location and brought back the Daily Draw Token he’d found.
After getting up, and before heading to the Arch of Champions to do her daily draw, Elena went to the Canteen. When she’d woken up earlier she’d handled several small tasks which included building the facilities in the Canteen and appointing a Cook from the rescued Civilians, a man named Míng Liàng who claimed to have been assigned as a cook in previous iterations.
The menu for today was rather simplistic, meat porridge, it was still a hot meal. Thankfully, even though they only had Meat, the Canteen would automatically convert some of it to other types of food when a Meal was prepared. While she was eating, Elena pulled up the system pane to take a closer look as she hadn’t been able to earlier.
----------------------------------------
CANTEEN
A large tent with cooking equipment and a single large table. Turns food Resources into Meals.
Low-Grade Kitchen Tent
Durability: 40/40
Shield: 4
MENU
Breakfast
Meat Porridge
Lunch
Dumplings
Dinner
Barbecue
WORKERS
Chef
[None]
Cook
Name
Species
Loyalty
Míng Liàng
Human
100
FACILITIES
Cooking Station Lvl 1
A place to prepare and cook food. Can only cook Simple Meals which must be eaten in the Canteen and expire after twelve hours. Employs one Civilian as a Cook.
Cooks: 6 Simple Meals per hour
Upkeep: 6 Meat per hour
Cost: 5 Wood and 1 Iron
1/2 Built
Dining Table Lvl 1
A dining table at which Citizens may eat.
Seats: 12
Cost: 6 Wood
1/2 Built
UNLOCKED BUILDINGS
Well (Low-Grade)
A stone well from which 100 Water can be drawn each day.
Durability
30
Shield
3
Cost
15 Stone
5 Wood
1 Iron
Build Time
5 hours
UPGRADE
A massive tent with cooking equipment and several large tables. Turns food Resources into Meals.
Durability
80
Shield
8
Cost
120/15 Wood
22/5 Iron
Build Time
3 hours
----------------------------------------
According to Míng Liàng, upgrading the Canteen would increase the quality and diversity of meals which would provide various small buffs such as increased Loyalty. It would also become possible to produce real Meals instead of Simple Meals. Unlike Meals, Simple Meals would decay after a certain period of time and only Meals could keep indefinitely. The man had also asked Elena to be on the lookout for special materials that would increase the quality of the food he could make.
When she finished, Elena walked over to the Arch of Champions which was now at the Standard-Grade Camp level. It was slightly higher quality looking but not in a particularly discernible way. She opened the system pane so she could initiate her daily draw.
----------------------------------------
ARCH OF CHAMPIONS
The heart of a Lord’s territory used to summon the spirits of the dead as citizens and soldiers.
Standard-Grade Camp
Durability: 1500/1500
Shield: 15
AVAILABLE SUMMONS
Daily Summons
Pull ten times from the Standard-Grade Camp summons pool. Guaranteed to draw one Personnel and one Gear from every draw!
Resources
45%
Personnel
25%
Gear
20%
Vouchers
4%
Lifespan
4%
Special
2%
Meals
10 5%
100 10%
1000 3%
Civilian
69%
White Common
50%
Speedup
Building 45%
1 Week
45%
Skill
50%
Water
10 5%
100 10%
1000 3%
Soldier
20%
Green Uncommon
45%
Experience
20%
1 Month
20%
Ability
40%
Pelts
10 5%
100 10%
1000 3%
Artisan
10%
Blue
Rare
5%
Enhancement
20%
6 Months
20%
HIDDEN
?%
Wood
10 5%
100 10%
1000 3%
Champion
1%
Damage
7%
1 Year
10%
HIDDEN
?%
Stone
10 5%
100 10%
1000 3%
Stamina
7%
10 Years
4%
HIDDEN
?%
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Iron
1 6%
10 4%
Generic
1%
25 Years
1%
HIDDEN
?%
0/1 Used
Loot Summons
Defeat enemies to earn loot tokens, then sacrifice them to make a draw. Unique draw pools for each token!
35 Used
UNLOCKED BUILDINGS
General Store (Low-Grade)
A store where a Lord can buy special items and receive deals.
Durability
100
Shield
5
Cost
100 Gold
Build Time
2 hours
Smithy (Low-Grade)
A blacksmith’s shop that can accommodate two Blacksmith’s Apprentices.
Durability
100
Shield
5
Cost
100 Iron
Build Time
4 hours
Workshop (Low-Grade)
A woodworker’s shop that can accommodate two Woodworker’s Apprentices.
Durability
100
Shield
5
Cost
100 Wood
Build Time
4 hours
Tailor (Low-Grade)
A tailor’s shop that can accommodate two Tailor’s Apprentices.
Durability
100
Shield
5
Cost
100 Pelts
Build Time
4 hours
Lamppost (Low-Grade)
A wooden pole with a brazier attached. Allows civilians to work at night.
Durability
10
Shield
1
Cost
1 Wood
Build Time
5 minutes
UPGRADE CONDITIONS
The heart of a Lord’s territory used to summon the spirits of the dead as citizens and soldiers.
Durability
2000
Shield
20
Cost
0/100 Citizens
0/10 Soldiers or Champions
0/1 Smithy
0/1 Workshop
0/1 Tailor
0/1 Standard-Grade Command Tent
0/1000 Gold
0/1 Arch Fragment
Build Time
8 hours
----------------------------------------
Elena read through the information and nodded to herself. Malik had mentioned most of this to her in passing yesterday. Three of the new buildings were for Gear repair and, eventually, creation. The last building, the General Store, was the equivalent of the cash shop in a normal gacha game. However, there was one item that Malik hadn’t mentioned.
“Malik, is an Arch Fragment what it sounds like?” Elena asked. “Something obtained after destroying the Arch of Champions?”
“That’s correct, my Lord.” Malik said, pleased that she had picked up on the point so quickly. “Arch Fragments are dropped from a destroyed Arch of Champions. A Low-Grade Camp drops a single fragment and each level above that drops one more. You can also get an Arch Fragment from the monster camp but that's an option unique to the first stage of the tutorial.”
“And how many fragments will I need for the upgrade to a Pinnacle-Grade Camp?” Elena asked.
“The cost doubles each level.” Malik said. “At least for the levels I have seen.”
Malik had explained the intricacies of the three stages of the tutorial to her yesterday while they were marching back from the dungeon and she had formed a vague plan for how to deal with the other Lord in what Malik called the Duel Stage. Originally she planned to have Malik assassinate the enemy Lord during the monster tide. They likely wouldn’t expect an attack during that time, and Elena was confident in surviving the monster tide even without Malik’s help.
However, the news about the Arch Fragments changed things. She’d originally wanted to crush the enemy Lord without giving them to develop and potentially turn the tables, but that would be far too wasteful. According to Malik, most Lords wouldn’t be able to upgrade their Arch of Champions until after the monster tide. They would either lack the manpower or resources necessary. This made it too risky to kill the other Lord before knowing whether they had managed to upgrade their Arch of Champions since she would only get one Arch Fragment for killing them before upgrading, but two if she killed them afterwards.
Elena had an enormous advantage in the Duel Stage, but in the Battle Royale Stage that strength advantage would drag her down by turning her into a public enemy. Even if the other Lords didn’t rally together to kill her, they would at least stop her from killing any of them. As such, it would be difficult for her to obtain more Arch Fragments until the very end of the Battle Royale Stage. Thus, if she wanted her territory to reach the Pinnacle-Grade Camp level before finishing the tutorial she needed to obtain all three possible from the Duel Stage.
While thinking about the changes to her strategic plans, Elena absent mindedly activated her free daily draw. After upgrading the Arch of Champions the number of pulls she got with one draw doubled and the odds of rare items increased significantly.
Malik watched eagerly as the light from the summoning faded. His Lord’s luck had been outstanding so far and he was looking forward to seeing if that luck would hold up. Unfortunately, the higher one’s hopes are, the more crushing it is when you get let down.
Elena’s draw wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t very impressive. She drew four Citizens, but all of them were Civilians. She also drew two pieces of equipment, but both of them were White Common and neither was immediately useful. Naturally, she drew some resources as well, but they were all low quality draws: 100 Water, 100 Wood, and 1 Iron. The only pull of note was a voucher redeemable for a one week lifespan increase.
Although it may seem absurd, everyone had a finite lifespan in the afterlife. No matter if you were a Lord or a Citizen, you would return to the cycle of reincarnation after a hundred years. The only way to extend your lifespan was to draw a lifespan voucher from the Arch of Champions. Unlike other vouchers like the enhancement or aptitude vouchers, the only source for lifespan vouchers was the Arch of Champions. At higher levels, it was possible to draw decades or even centuries of lifespan each day, but with a large enough army, it was only a drop in the bucket.
To make matters worse, lifespan was the currency of choice in the cash shop. A Lord could pay a certain amount of their lifespan to buy extra draws, special items, or Resources. As everyone knows, it's almost impossible to beat a pay to winner when you’re free to play. As such, many Lords had to carefully balance spending lifespan vouchers at the cash shop and extending the lives of their powerful, well nurtured troops.
The smallest unit of lifespan was a day and could be redeemed for a hundred of a common resource like Wood or Pelts, or ten of an uncommon resource like Iron. A week’s worth of lifespan was only worth seventy Iron which was only slightly more than they had earned after clearing the dungeon. Thus, even though it was a rare draw, it was unimpressive.
Malik couldn’t help but feel that maybe his Lord’s luck had been spent. It was already impressive how far she had come on her second day in the afterlife but he’d hoped she could go even further. While he was lost in thought, Elena threw the Daily Draw Token he’d found that morning through the Arch of Champions.
Once the light cleared from the arch, Malik looked over and immediately felt another wave of disappointment. This roll was even worse than the last one. There were seven crates of Resources, two people, and one case for Gear. Seven crates of Resources. Out of ten draws. There was only a forty-five percent chance to draw a resource on each pull and although Malik wasn’t good at statistics, he knew that this had been a low roll. Malik sighed. His Lord truly had used all of her luck the day before.
“My Lord, I am Alexander Papadopoulos.” One of the Citizens stepped forwards and introduced himself, drawing Malik’s attention. “Welcome to the afterlife, my sword is yours to wield.”
Malik’s jaw dropped to the floor when he got a good look at the man. He was clad in armor with a longsword at his waist and gave off the aura of a fierce and experienced Warrior. No matter how Malik looked at him, Alexander was obviously a Champion just like him.
How ridiculous was that? Drawing two Champions in as many days? Most Lords would only draw their first Champion after finishing the Duel Phase, but Elena hadn’t even finished the Preparation Phase and already had two! Taking a closer look at the other Citizen, Malik noticed she also had on armor, though she was only a soldier, not a Champion.
Malik’s mind reeled from the implications. If he counted the Lord, who could be considered at least on the level of a Soldier, the territory now had a full raiding party for a beginner dungeon. If they’d had this kind of firepower when clearing Gnarsh’s Domain, not only would they have been able to complete it without casualties, they would have been able to proudly assault each room without tactics and still win.
At the same time, Malik couldn’t help but feel his position as advisor to his Lord was being threatened by the appearance of this new Champion. Although every Champion would spawn with the same stats, there was something about Alexander’s demeanor that told everyone else around him that he was better than them. Swallowing his jealousy, Malik took a position at the right of Elena to show the new Champion what the hierarchy around here was.
Oblivious to Malik’s thoughts, Elena quickly took stock of the rest of her draws, an assortment of useful but not impressive Resource pulls and a White Common Cloak, before turning her attention to Alexander, her new Champion.
----------------------------------------
ALEXANDER PAPADOPOULOS (CHAMPION)
What a cute, prideful reaction from that archer. He seems to be worth bullying.
Loyalty: 75
Class
Discipline
HP
AC
SP
Brute [1]
Strategist [1]
32/32
5
150/150
Survivability
Lethality
Awareness
Dungeoneering
Exploration
2/11
2/14
3/4
0/9
3/9
SKILLS
Basic Longswordsmanship (Lvl 3)
Provide proficiency with longswords, removing the untrained damage penalty, adding +2 damage, and mitigating 1 Durability reduction every five minutes.
White Common
Warrior (Lvl 1)
Increase Health by 12.
White Common
Basic Shield Techniques (Lvl 1)
Provides Proficiency with shields, allowing their use.
White Common
Command Tactics (Lvl 1)
Allows you to keep track of the exact location and status up to 100 Soldiers within 100 meters.
White Common
ABILITIES
Heavy Strike (Lvl 1)
Focus your energy for a mighty attack that deals +3 damage
Cost: 25 Stamina
White Common
Second Wind (Lvl 1)
Restore 20% of your maximum Armor rounded up.
Cost: 10 Stamina
White Common
Flanking Manuvuer (Lvl 1)
Order your forces to flank the enemy. Provides a 15% Move Speed buff to up to 100 Soldiers for five minutes.
Cost: 25 Stamina
White Common
Tortoise Formation (Lvl 1)
Organize up to 100 soldiers in a defensive formation providing each with 1 Shield for as long as the formation is held.
Cost: 10 Stamina
White Common
GEAR
Steel Longsword (One-Handed)
A longsword made from quality steel.
Durability: 25/25
Damage
1d4+4
Type
Slashing
Quality
2/5
Green Uncommon
Shield (One-Handed)
A shield that provides +1 Armor.
Durability: ∞/∞
White Common
Leather Chestpiece (Body Armour)
A piece of leather armor that provides +1 Armor.
Durability: ∞/∞
White Common
Leather Helmet(Hat)
A piece of leather armor that provides +1 Armor.
Durability: ∞/∞
White Common
----------------------------------------
His system pane screamed Warrior and his Class only confirmed it. He was a combat machine built for dealing and taking damage. He was exactly what she had been missing when she’d cleared Gnarsh’s Domain the day before.
Elena talked with Alexander for a few minutes, mostly to confirm many of the things Malik had told her. She’d tried to do this with the various Civilians and Soldiers she had, but none of them had gone very far on the path of a Lord so they didn’t know much. It wasn’t that she distrusted Malik, but in her line of work, you were expected to trust but verify.
Satisfied that their answers matched, Elena passed the newly pulled Cloak and, with reluctance, Eclipse, to Alexander. Although it pained her to admit it, Eclipse would be most useful in his hands.
She then left to go visit the Command Center. Now that she had the resources, it was time to upgrade the command center to the Standard-Grade level. Once she did, she would unlock multiple build queues, making it easier for her to do some of the larger projects she had planned such as Palisades for defense during the monster tide and a path to Gnarsh’s Domain so she could establish control over the dungeon.
As soon as she turned around, Alexander gave Malik a cocky and knowing look while holding up Eclipse. A perfect Blue Rare weapon was close to the best weapon possible in the tutorial and it had been granted to him, not Malik. Despite knowing it was a provocation, Malik seethed with rage. Even with her back turned, Elena could see their antics plain as day. In her opinion, competition like that was beneficial as it would make both easier to control.
After starting the upgrade for the Command Center, redirecting civilians away from the Tents she had queued earlier, Elena sent the two Champions out to hunt monsters. During the night, countless monsters had spawned and although most had retreated after daybreak, there were still several around.
She never said it was to be a competition, but she didn’t need to. Malik was eager to prove that he was still a useful advisor and hunting was his strength. Alexander on the other hand seemed to not care about being valued so much as making Malik upset. It figured that after millennia, Elena had learned Alexander was from Ancient Greece, the man had developed some weird habits to keep himself entertained.
While those two were occupied, Elena organized all of the unemployed Civilians aside from the two working on construction under her two soldiers to go collect wood outside the Novice Barrier.
The day before every corpse within the barrier had been picked clean and Elena still didn’t have access to logging tools. Although she had hundreds of units of Wood, it was far from enough to build a comprehensive defensive line.
Once she was done with her chores, Elena found a nice sunny spot on the grass and laid down on a blanket, taken from one of the Tents. She had four hours until the command center finished and she had decades of sleep to catch up on from her life on Earth.