CHAPTER XXXX: HAMLET GROWTH
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{10:39 LOCAL TIME 2ND JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
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FORT CHAVEZ
SUGAR AND ADIA
Adia and Sugar watched Colonel’s party leave. They were going to save the Monks with the three professional spies from the Los Angeles Stronghold. Sugar wanted one of them to stay so she could learn more about the local area, but they were adamant that they should stay together. She couldn't blame them either; she was not as close to her teammates as they were and longed to go with them. Even though she had to find out about Victor and Jeremy, she didn’t want to take firepower away for the Colonel’s mission either way. So she asked a few questions and let them go with her teammates.
“Shit.” She said under her breath, thinking about her son and husband. Her husband was known, but her son not so much. The chuckles on the girl's faces made it clear what he was known for, but Colonel was on a time crunch, and she wasn't going to stand in the way of saving holy monks. She was sometimes a Buddhist, after all.
“Nope, no time for that. Believe in your family, or get stronger, no whining, ladies don’t whine, let the boys do that.” Adia said with a winning smile to Sugar.
She chuckled, “Yeah, you are right. I need to focus. I can’t do anything until I am stronger and have more information.” Sugar had a lot to do, but first, she looked at what she was working with. If Jeremy is alive, Victor would be, or she would kill him so she could cross that bridge when she is ready to burn it.
The Events were one of her first priorities.
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< STRONGHOLD CONFLICT EVENT >
EVENT NAME: Hamlet to Village
DESCRIPTION: A large group of players have left their Hamlet with the intent of joining your Hamlet. Once they made this decision, they packed up their things and started to make their way to your Hamlet. They don’t know exactly where you are located, but they had to escape before the Chancellor figured out their plan to leave. They failed. They are being pursued by the Noble guard of the Chancellor.
Objective: Stop the Noble guard from catching the escaped players.
Objective: Guide players back to Fort Chavez.
Rewards: EXP, At cost Hamlet upgrade to Village, 10 Lesser Uncommon Mana Stones, a 1 Rare Mana Stone, Upgrade to Trade Skills of citizens old and new.
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“Okay, let’s head back to the Tactical table.” Sugar looked at the backs of her teammates and nodded, confident in them completing their task.
“Copy that, ma’am,” Johnny said as he stood beside her, a glass rifle in his hands. It was made by one of their ten weapon smiths whose Trades and proficiencies had gone up when they had woken up in a Hamlet instead of a Camp that very day.
Sugar had an identification ability through the Stronghold. It cost Mana from the Fort Bank, so she used it sparingly. She needed permission to use it on anything the citizens owned or anything not owned by the Stronghold. The Stronghold paid for this weapon, so it belonged to Fort.
It was government-issued like the player holding it—a G.I. in truth.
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< STRONGHOLD IDENTIFY >
{Creation Name: Tempered Glass short rifle
Creation Type: Gun
Creation Rank: Low Diamond
Creation Durability: 10003
Description: A mana-powered semi-automatic rifle that fires glass rounds that shatter on impact and cause bleeding.
Weapon Damage:1500. Mana. Cost:75 Mana per shot. Max Effective Range:1200 meters
RARE ATTACHMENT: Reduced Cost: Mana cost is reduced by 15%.
PLATINUM ATTACHMENT: Bleed: Every round has a 41% chance of causing bleeding.
DIAMOND ATTACHMENT: Self-clean: Rifle malfunction because of lack of maintenance is now a thing of the past.}
< NOTE >
{Tempered glass becomes brittle with every shot. Durability decreases by 100 per shot but recovers over time based on Mana infused.}
Prerequisite: Rifle Style or Professional, Sworn Citizen of UGN.
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Colonel had really been pleased with the new combat leap the Fort would take with this rifle. Sugar was not so sure. Mana pools were limited, and 75 mana was a lot since everyone started with barely 150.
Sure, while in the AOI of the Stronghold, the cost to them was like 75% less, but they weren’t always going to be on their land.
As the Mana problem solved itself while in the Stronghold with regen bonuses. What really made it feasible was race upgrades. All of the NPCs had passed their Race quest and upgraded to Enhanced Human, at least. It gave them a Magic stat and a deeper and bigger Mana Pool. The rifle users could get off over 100 rounds inside the AOC with their bonus Effects and Mods on the individual rifles. Not all of them were made the same, and Johnny currently had the best rifle made. Hopefully, the new citizens can help solve that problem. Potions were not infinite, despite all of the loot the Colonel brought back with him. They burn through any new Potions made and have kept all of Colonel's Potions from his trial for the horde.
Sugar looked at the new walls of the Stronghold, they almost tripled the size of the Fort which also meant more wall for Johnny’s guards to watch. Colonel solved that problem. He had a Professional make an Autocannon blueprint with a Trade skill, and now an Auto Cannon was being built every hour with the help of the other weapon smiths. Colonel lost a rank in his Trade to make the blueprint, and it would cost double the amount of EXP to rerank it up, but it was worth it.
She took one last glance at the new defenses.
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< STRONGHOLD IDENTIFY >
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
{Creation Name: Auto Cannon
Creation Type: Defensive siege system
Creation Rank: High Platinum
Creation Durability: 93,000
Description: A self-powered single-barrel weapon system that fires Platinum ammo on any hostile target in range.
Weapon Damage: 500 per round. Cost: 100 Mana per shot. Range: 500 meters.
Duration: 5 weeks
Status: Active Scanning.
MP: 5000/5000 regen 50 per minute.
RARE ATTACHMENT: Stealth tracking: 30% chance to sense stealth hostiles(60% in Fort).
PLATINUM ATTACHMENT: Round bypass: Rounds have a 40% chance of bypassing all walls, barriers, and standing shields(100% if the walls are made by the Forger).
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They had one of them completed and three more nearing completion in the next few minutes. The blueprint allowed similar Trades to build a creation. The Colonel had blank blueprint paper, and they happened to have an NPC with the Trade skill to copy the Colonel’s original weapon system.
Adia looked at them with great interest. “You are about to find out how effective those things are. They are Platinum, which is already powerful for this Period of creatures. You are fortunate. For now. In a year, you will have to upgrade, but that is a future Sugar Problem.”
Just then, a grey Honda Civic-sized condor swooped down to one of the weapon smiths’ locations. Adia’s eyes flicked to the bird, but she relaxed as she looked back at the auto-cannon. It spun on a swivel lock, fired two quick shots, then began scanning again.
The puff of feathers and a white loot globe were the only things remaining of the grey condor, and even those two things began to be absorbed by the Fort Bank. The surprised NPC stumbled back and chuckled. “I should have known that Colonel would still have our backs.” The other tradesmen nodded approvingly.
Sugar smirked at Adia and the NPC’s reaction. Colonel and Soto had hooked them up.
“I feel much more comfortable with those up. We should have ten built by the time that group showed up. Twenty by tomorrow, if the blueprints last.”
“They won’t,” Adia said confidently. “There are significant penalties for using blueprints made for other trades. One of them is burning out the blueprints faster.” Adia said, amused. “At least you have your southern wall protected.” She shrugged and walked back.
A runner approached them. He saluted, and Sugar returned the salute. She didn’t even know how she knew how to do it so perfectly. “Report.”
“The scouts have made it to the convoy, ma’am. They require guidance.” The runner said.
“Okay, tell them to observe, and we will give more guidance in a few.” Sugar said.
“Yes, ma’am.” The runner said. He saluted and ran off after Sugar saluted him. She could feel her arm getting tired already.
On the walk back, she looked at the two new buildings that the Colonel had built before he left. They were long houses, but they were very high-tier ones. He had blueprints of it; they exploded into flames after he built the second one, and that was really lucky. He said he had more but not the time to create them.
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{Building Name: Spatial Long House Apartment.
Building type: Housing.
Building Rank: 1
Building Tier: Peak Platinum
Building Description: Spatial Long House Apartment is a building that expands to accommodate more players on the inside than can be seen on the outside.
Building Durability: 100,000/100,000 regen 1000 per month per rank.
Type rooms: 5; Name Current Capacity.
1: 5000(1B/1b), 2500(2B/2b), 500(4B/3b)
2: Complimentary Laundry area; 1 per floor.
3: Complimentary Convenience store; 1 per building.
4:LOCKED
5:LOCKED}
< NOTE >
{Once the apartment is at capacity, the Stronghold will use the extra resources to expand the building once(3 times if built next to another Spatial building.)}
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The stacking buff made it possible to house over forty thousand families of all sizes. Sugar nodded to Johnny, and they continued their walk back. “You have a plan for settling them?” she asked him.
“Depending on numbers, I will have them line up and make an oath not to break the rules on their progression while in the AOI. If they choose to become citizens, then their Oath is not restricted to the AOI. We have contracts from the crafters for those who don’t want to do the Oaths.”
“What do the contracts do?” Sugar asked.
“I don’t know. One is on your soul. The other is on your blood.”
“That's basically it. An Oath is on your soul, and a contract is signed with your blood.” Adia said.
They both looked at her for more explanation, but when they saw there wasn’t one coming, they just shook their heads at her.
“What?” Adia said defensively. “Oh, right, this is somewhat common knowledge in Runic worlds. Your blood dies with you if you have no children, and even if you did, contracts can only bind a few generations and players weaker than you. An oath is infinite. You can technically bind your future lives through your soul with an Oath; the breaking of the Oath might actually kill you, though, so you probably wouldn’t even remember being bound, which in and of itself would weaken the bond. This is giving me a headache.”
“Yeah, the Oath is only for five years unless they become citizens or service members, then they have to sign twenty-five or fifty-year-long contracts,” Johnny said. “I need an assistant.”
“Well, hopefully, the convoy has enough people so that we all can have assistants. We have a long war coming to us, and we will be the first and last line of defense if this is all we have. We need bodies. I feel like I have ideas that are not my own ever since getting this Job position.” Sugar said, shaking her head.
“That's just the job. You will periodically get suggestions from your superior. You can listen or not. I would, until you get your own feel of the growth of your Stronghold. But I’m not you.” Adia said absently.
Sugar wanted to forget the weird feeling of outside influence and hoped for an event prompt or something.
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< STRONGHOLD CONFLICT EVENT UPDATED >
EVENT NAME: Hamlet to Village
DESCRIPTION: A large group of players have left their Hamlet with the intent of joining your Hamlet. Once they made this decision, they packed up their things and started to make their way to your Hamlet. They don’t know exactly where you are located, but they had to escape before the Chancellor figured out their plan to leave. They failed. They are being pursued by the Noble guard of the Chancellor.
Objective: Stop the Noble guard from catching the escaped players. (The Guard has caught up and is planning to engage in 45M:58S)
Objective: Guide players back to Fort Chavez. (10,000/10,000.)
Rewards: EXP, At cost Hamlet upgrade to Village, 10 Lesser Uncommon Mana Stones, a 1 Rare Mana Stone, Upgrade to Trade Skills of citizens old and new. (All rewards will be held at Stronghold Bank for your convenience.)
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She scowled at the rewards. She was still processing the Hamlet upgrades.
Johnny whistled, “Ten thousand. I am going to be up all night checking them in.”
Sugar’s eyes widen at the forty-five-minute timer. She looked at the Command Building as the runner returned to her.
[Command this is the Lady of the fort. What is going on? Over.] Sugar sent a message through stronghold chat as she looked at the new upgrade for the fort.
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< STRONGHOLD ALERT >
< YOUR FORT(CAMP)HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO A FORT(HAMLET) >
FORT NAME: Fort Chavez
FORT LVL: MAX
A Hamlet can accommodate up to 10,000 people comfortably in peacetime and 100,000 in war or horde time X level.
Fort Chavez can accommodate 50,000 people comfortably at all times per level.
The base area of control(AOC) of a Hamlet is up to 1000 sq meters times level.
Fort Chavez's area of control(AOC) is 8000 sq meters X level.
The base area of influence(AOI) of a Hamlet is 3 X the AOC.
Fort Chavez (AOI) 10 times the AOC.
Creature spawning in the Base Hamlet AOC has a Major reduction chance.
Creature spawning in Fort Chavez AOC is nonexistent outside of Hordes. During sieges and hordes, the structures of the fort will try to actively kill the enemies if they have the mana and capabilities to do so.
Creature spawning in the Base Hamlet AOI has a Minor reduction chance.
Creature spawning in Fort Chavez AOI has a Minute increase chance.
Base Hamlet Mana Tax gained every Common Period per citizen is 10 per level of citizen minus 1 per 2 levels of hostile players per level.
Fort Chavez Mana gained every Common Period per citizen is 1000 per level of citizen minus 1 per tier of hostile players.
Base Hamlet EXP gained every Common Period per NPC citizen is 2.
Fort Chavez EXP gained every Common Period per NPC citizen is 500.
Base Hamlet Effects: Well Rested & Well Defended: While in the AOC of the Hamlet, allied players gain 1% per level bonus CON and DR.
Fort Chavez Camp Effect: Well Powered & Might: While in the AOI of the Fort, allied players gain a 10% per level bonus to all physical stats.
Free Buildings Updated: Fort Vault to Fort Bank. Campfire+, Smithing station, Chow station, and Alchemy station to Crafter’s Hall. Command Tent to Command Building. Guard Towers X4 to Guard Tower X8. Latrines & Locker rooms are added to the new building Barracks.
Due to your Commanding officer’s titles, all buildings and building upgrades are prerequisites free as long as your Stronghold meets the level requirements, and you can provide the Mana cost.
While in the area of control of the Hamlet, citizens do Minorly more damage and take Minorly less damage from enemies.
Bonus Effect: Skill, Ability, and Trades advance Minorly faster in the AOC of your Stronghold. (This is a racial Effect.)
{Type of Government: This Fort is always led by the highest tier individual, best fighter, or appointed officer.
Current leader: Lady Sugar.
Current Nation leader: Colonel Jacob
Authority Points: 10 regen per day: 10
Stronghold Points: 20 regen per day: 2.}
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Colonel had told her to find out about the Authority and Stronghold Points before he left, and she was going to look into it after everything else Colonel dumped in her lap this morning. She liked being depended on. What adult didn’t? Her father’s most significant advice for reading people had always come down to how they spoke to people with less assumed power than themselves. Colonel treated everyone the same. He spoke with respect and was very clear about what he wanted. A leader worth following.
[The Scout team reported ma’am, it's bad] Modeski said from command, his thick Boston accent, showing his nervousness over the chat.
[Alright, I’ll be there in a minute. Prepare to brief the guard commander and I.] Sugar replied.
[Copy my lady.] Command replied.
[Out.]
Sugar turned to Adia, “Let’s go to command.” The desert Elf nodded and followed Johnny trailing them both.