Chapter 25

“The last thing that needs to be done is the new army screen. That you will find in the physical version of the dreamscape.” Aimee told me. "It will still be a week or so before the guilds are fitted with the new portals. I will wait with the explanations until then. Grim and Sissy will also have been briefed on skills and level-ups related to the army. They can tell you about that themselves."

As that was the last bit of housekeeping to be done, I spent another half hour or so hanging around with the Chosen. I found out that I was just as bad at cards as I was at music.

After I woke up and had some breakfast, the group all got together in the living room.

I started off by explaining some of the changes to the troops, and Moira informed me that her level was tied to the Chosen or that their level was tied to hers which way around didn't matter, and that she would gain skills and abilities with them as well. Right now her only ability of note was Wolfs Howl. an area taunt and damage buff, with the target of the taunt being the Chosen.

Grim was next, he picked up some levels in quartermaster. Once the army system is operational he would give the whole army buffs to morale and decreased upkeep in terms of food. Other than that he would still give buffs to any food cooked by him or his staff when he had those, and the fairies working at 3M counted to that as well, as long as they were working off his recipes.

Aura got levels in armourer, giving an army she was attached to a reduction in weapon and armour maintenance costs and speed. Any weapons and armour she personally made or adjusted would also get damage or defensive buffs.

Missy picked up more spells. Her training with Bob meant that she was able to specialise into elementalist and got a few area of effect fire spells. Her power was still linked to her lorekeeper level, which at the moment meant that she didnt do that much overall damage right now, but could turn into a real powerhouse later once we got her library up and running.

Sissy picked up levels in scouting. Once she was assigned a unit in the army her unit would be of the same level as she was. While she had the ability already to command multiple units. Only one could be designated as part of the army at the moment. Her unit sizes were also a lot smaller at only 1 CP per level instead of the 2 that I got. We decided that she would use her gargoyle summon as the army scout unit. And her other summon was just 2 earth elementals, as they were very expensive CP wise but would be a good defense for the back line.

Her biggest bonus to the army would be an army map, Once the army room was unlocked everywhere she or the army scouts have been would be added to an interactive map inside the room. Having the gargoyles be airborne would help the accuracy. It would only update if new things were spotted though. So a river drying up, or a landslide wouldn't be on the map unless it was scouted again.

For my second summoned unit I would have to see what commanders I could pick from. Aimee told me that whenever I felt like it I could meditate and get a chance to pick from a few different units. I would like to get some more ranged capability if I could.

As the new unit would start at level 1, the group felt that it was a good idea to pick the unit now and then do a few small quests until the expedition back.

Grim and Aura would work on our now trio of wagons. Grim decided that he and the twins would have their own wagon. Mostly Filled with books for Missy. My wagon would be the army food stores. Aura would have the workshop, kitchen and armoury wagon.

Missy would go book hunting, and Sissy would focus on getting some scouting done in the direction the expedition would take. As she wouldn't get her own wolf mount until the army screen unlocked Luna would travel with her until then.

With that the meeting broke up and we all went our seperate ways. I retreated back to the bedroom to meditate.

When I entered the throneroom Aimee was waiting for me. I woke up sitting on the throne, and the center of the room was fully cleared, with no sign of the long table and chairs.

"We have no time crunch at the moment, you can take as much time as you want today, once you made your pick the timer will start as usual though." Aimee gestured to the room. "The room is setup to have some space available as some units or commanders might be bigger than expected, even I don't know what will show up so better safe than sorry."

She pulled out a deck of cards. "In a minute you get to pull three cards from the deck. Each is a commander, and don't worry each one in the deck will have already volunteered for the position, if you want to know why you should ask them. Any that you dont pick will go back into the deck. Some commanders will be common and have multiple copies, dont worry if you pick one the other copies will be removed for now, others will only have one copy in there and will be a much rarer pick."

Figuring what the hell and lets get this over with i reached over shuffled the deck and drew three cards.

The first card was a white background with a skeleton archer on it.

The door opened and a human in a leather outfit carrying a longbow on his back entered the room.

"Rene duPont reporting for duty. As you might deduce from my outfit and the card in your hand, I command a skeleton archer unit. Specialized in longbows and long range accuracy. All of them championship archers, volunteered for this duty as the next challenge."

The second card was a green card with a bat on it.

Again the door opened, and a bat came flying out, Once It got next to Renee, it transformed into a stereotypical vampire. Dressed in a butler costume and a red cape.

"My name is Lord weatheringham the third, Earl of Lockshaven, Baron of Darkgrove. As you might see I'm a vampire and apparently your great-great-great-great grand-sire. My lair was found millenia ago and my death spawn timer was already a million years. So I decided to give up on that existence and volunteer for this duty. My unit is direbats. I'm an alchemist, and my unit specializes in bombing runs dropping my concoctions on the enemy, or rocks when they run out."

The last card I turned over was purple and had a flaming skull on it but strangely with blue flames.

The door opened and a young-looking man in a blue robe and a turban on his head seemed to float in. He seemed to have two sets of arms and on closer inspection no legs but just some blue whisps of something coming out from beneath his robe.

"I am Rajeem ibn Khadir. Djinn and Grand Wizard. Unlike most of my kind, I specialize in ice magic. It is why I volunteered for this duty, I wanted to see more of the world than just the deserts of my home plane. I command a unit of skeleton mages. All specialized in ice magic. We can throw ice bombs that freeze or slow the enemy, also raising walls of ice for defense."

Having a quick look at the stats I found that the archers would be 1 CP per, the bats 5 CP per, and the mages 2 CP per. I wouldn't even be able to field a bat until it got to at least level 3.