Chapter 249. Token Transformation.

I returned to my personal space, happy to see everything was in order. A servant was waiting with the standard beverage and warm towel for me. It was a luxury I was going to miss back home. Tzes’zod wasn’t in the personal space when I arrived, though he had left a rather sizeable mess on his desk, with lots of papers scattered around.

He wasn’t exactly keen on me poking into his business, so I made a point to avoid looking at anything on the desk as I headed to the reward chest to see what my latest adventure had gotten me. As expected, the return gauge was full, and I’d be able to head home after I sorted things out here.

One thing I had checked out on the database at Refuge, was how long we had to prepare inside the personal space before the system just forced us back home. It seemed the time varied, but the consensus was that the higher your tier and rank, the more time you’d be given. There was no reason for me to push the limits, so I’d try to be efficient with my time here in the personal space.

Sorting for new items, I opened the reward chest.

Reward Chest.

New Inventory.

1. Silver coins, 1112.

2. Gold coins, 43

3. Minion ability/spell token (2).

4. Minion equipment token (6).

5. Minion experience token (1).

6. Token Transformation Attachment.

Everything was pretty standard except for the one new item sitting there, the Token Transformation Attachment. Since it had token in the name, I figured it would be better to inspect the attachment before activating the other minion tokens. The item was a small wooden box that seemed completely sealed. The system gave me information once I had the item in my hands.

Token Transformation Attachment. This item is an attachment for your rewards chest. It allows you to transform minion tokens into different types at varying costs. A list of costs, and possible transformations are included below. To install the attachment, merely hold it to the side of the reward chest and the item will be automatically installed.

Tokens may only be upgraded, you cannot take a more powerful token, such as a veterancy token, and downgrade it into multiple equipment tokens. This attachment may be upgraded further once you have obtained your first veteran minion.

Token Transformation Costs.

1. Ability and equipment tokens may be transformed into the other type at a cost of 2 to 1.

2. Experience tokens may be created by transforming any combination of 5 ability or equipment tokens.

3. Veterancy tokens may be created by transforming 10 experience tokens.

This was really going to come in handy once I’d maxed out either the equipment or abilities of my minions. Until that time, I’d probably keep using the tokens normally, as the transformation process was costly and inefficient. At least I wouldn’t end up with a pile of minion equipment or ability tokens I could never use, though I would probably always have a need for them if I kept receiving new minions every five ranks.

After one of my minions was maxed out and became a veteran, I’d have to see how much of a difference it made. If the transformation to veteran was a powerful one, it might make sense to pump every token I could get into making a few key minions into veterans. That was a problem for the future, for the present, I had plenty of minion tokens in my reward chest that would be useful right now. I began with the ability/spell tokens.

Khurr’s Scout ability has improved to Rank 1.

Glem, Glamb, and Glurk have unlocked the ability Recruit, Rank 0.

The system had randomly assigned the ability tokens, and I pulled up the related ability for each of the lucky minions to see what had changed.

Khurr, gnoll scout, Tier 0, Rank 7.

Scout, Rank 1. At this rank, Scout allows Khurr to notice nearby danger, traps, and potential defensive positions that others might miss. This ability has a slight chance to detect invisible threats.

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Glem, Glamb, and Glurk, goblin raiders. Tier 1, Rank 6.

Recruit, Rank 0. The goblin trio may recruit one additional minion into their horde, applying the bonuses of Horde Tactics to the selected minion. The minion must be goblinoid in order to be recruited.

Khurr could now help us with any invisible threats out there, giving me a bit more survivability against hidden assassins, or monsters that were invisible. It should probably work on invisible undead, like specters and the like. So far, I hadn’t encountered anything like that, but from the database, I knew they were out there and were some of the more troublesome foes you could encounter.

My goblin trio could now recruit Blieek into their horde, which would help my least powerful minion to improve his usefulness. It would also lend more weight to adding future goblinoids to my roster, a 10% bump to both attack and defense was nothing to sneeze at. I’d have to do some research back home to see exactly what types of creatures were considered goblinoid by the system.

Next up were the equipment tokens. I activated them and waited for the system to do its randomization thing.

Elida Silverbarrow’s armor has improved to Rank 5. This is the maximum rank for her armor at this time.

Elida Silverbarrow’s weapons have been improved to Rank 3.

Khurr’s armor has improved to Rank 1.

Mana Slayer Drone’s weapons have improved to Rank 2.

Mana Slayer Drone’s Stealth Field Generator has improved to Rank 1.

Mana Slayer Drone’s armor has improved to Rank 4.

Elida and the drone were today’s big winners. I took a look at all three of the improved minions to see what had changed.

Elida Silverbarrow, halfling healer, Tier 1, Rank 2.

Equipment:

1. Armor, Rank 5. At this Rank, Elida’s wears a steel breastplate over a set of leather armor. This armor is imbued with simple magical protections, reducing any damage taken by 5%.

2. Weapons, Rank 3. Elida wields a wooden staff with steel caps on the ends. She also now has a leather sling to deal with ranged threats as well as the basic skills to use the weapon.

Khurr, gnoll scout. Tier 0, Rank 7.

1. Armor, Rank 1. At this rank, Khurr wears a padded jerkin that provides limited protection.

Mana Slayer Drone, Tier 2, Rank 1.

1. Armor, Rank 4. At this rank, the Mana Slayer Drone’s armor consists of overlapping composite plates that are effective against all types of physical attacks and resistant to any elemental damage. The plates will shift on the drone’s body to reinforce areas that the drone deems critical. The armor includes a self-repair feature.

2. Weapons, Rank 2. At this rank, your minion is equipped with a pair of bladed hands that can extend for up to twice their length to attack more distant opponents. In addition, a shorter pair of mechanical arms provides your minion with the ability to manipulate objects or function as close-range, simple bludgeoning weapons. When needed, the mana drone can form simple weapons for the smaller arms to wield.

3. Stealth Field Generator, Rank 1. At this rank, the stealth field generator may operate for up to two minutes per Tier. The field leaves behind a slight distortion which may be used by more observant foes to track your minion. Higher ranks will improve the generators’ ability to conceal the minion, as well as block other forms of vision and scrying.

The upgrades were solid all around. My drone’s stealth field would operate for longer, his main attack arms could reach further, and his armor’s self-repair was now always active, even in combat. Khurr finally got some armor. It was a simple padded jerkin, but it was better than the dirty tunic the gnoll was wearing before.

Elida had maxed out her armor ranking, which enchanted the steel breastplate and leather armor combo she was already using. Even better, her weapon upgrade consisted of a ranged weapon, the sling. I was reluctant, for obvious reasons, to send Elida into melee with her staff, but we could always use another ranged attacker, allowing her to contribute to the fight instead of waiting around for someone to heal.

I was happy with the improvements, especially since they’d all come from a single summoning. Granted, the train job was a longer summoning, but the number of tokens I was being given was improving.

Last, but not least, was the experience token. None of the minions had ranked up from the last summoning, but a few were getting close again. I activated the minion experience token and waited for the results.

Your minion Blieek has gained 15 experience.

Blieek has reached Tier 0, Rank 2.

Blieek has gained the ability, Charge.

Nice, Blieek hit a new rank. In addition to the minion getting just a bit stronger, skilled, and more durable at each rank, he’d also unlocked an ability. Pulling up his information, I checked out Blieek’s Charge.

Blieek, goblin spearman, Tier 0, Rank 2.

Abilities:

1. Charge. Blieek can charge up to 10 feet, quickly closing the distance with a foe, and granting him a 10% bonus to hit and damage for his next strike on that foe. Charge can be used 1/day.

All in all, it was a solid upgrade for me and my minions. Having sorted through all the new rewards, the right side of the rewards chest began to glow. I realized that I was still holding the Token Transformation Attachment. One side of the box in my hands was glowing as well. Placing the two glowy bits together, the attachment sealed itself to the reward chest.

When I opened the chest, I now saw a prompt to activate token transformations. Ignoring it for the time being, I activated all the upgrades for the minions in my armory, something that had now become automatic for me whenever I finished with the reward chest. Now, the only thing left to do was to go home.