Chapter 256. War or Trade?

If I wanted to go aggressive, I should probably start by having my minions thin out the enemy numbers. With fewer than ten of the rock gnomes working outside, my team, even without the mana slayer drone, should have no trouble defeating them before reinforcements arrived. The perfect opportunity for a first strike was presenting itself, and maybe this was the system’s way of goading me in that direction.

Given that I wasn’t sure how to open any kind of negotiations, I supposed that attacking the gnomes was the best option. I sure wasn’t going to leave my headquarters and walk over there, ignoring the rest of my kingdom building activities to talk to a bunch of system generated gnomes. Khurr crept closer to the gnomes, while the goblins and Elida in their shiny armor kept out of sight behind a pair of rocks.

I was about to order them to attack when the gnomes working outside began shrieking and running toward the cave entrance. It looked like my team had been spotted and the gnomes were fleeing. Reinforcements were likely already on the way, and my people were going to have to pull back if they didn’t want to be overrun by the entire cave full of gnomes.

As Khurr moved back to join the others, movement was spotted at the edge of the forest, which grew much closer to the gnome cave entrance than it did in front of my kobold kingdom. Wolves, like the packs my team had defeated earlier, stormed from the forest, making a beeline for the retreating gnomes.

It wasn’t just five or six of the beasts this time around, it was a huge pack that seemed to endlessly stream from the forest. Leading the pack was an alpha wolf, nearly double the size of the others. The alpha was carrying a screaming gnome in its huge jaws. As I watched, the wolf bit down and split the gnome, who must have been one of their scouts, in two.

Instead of stopping to enjoy his meal, the alpha ran down the fleeing gnomes, quickly tearing apart the one lagging the furthest behind. The last of the wolves emerged from the forest and I finally got an accurate count of their numbers. There was a total of 21 wolves, counting the alpha. I suppose my thoughts of them being an endless stream were a bit exaggerated, but given the relative weakness of the gnomes, a pack this large would probably devour them all.

If the wolves killed off the gnomes, would they grow stronger, somehow absorbing the resources and expanding the pack? I had a hunch that the system would do something like that. If the gnomes didn’t somehow manage to thin out the pack now, it would likely be on my doorstep tomorrow.

Not only would it be on my doorstep, but the pack would also probably be even larger after feasting on the gnomes. If I fought the wolves now, while they were also engaged with the gnomes, I could put an end to the threat immediately. In addition, maybe this would unlock a way to negotiate with the gnomes.

“We’re going to have to help the gnomes after all,” I said to myself with a hint of disappointment over having to change my plans. Ordering my team to attack the wolves from the rear, I watched the battle unfold. Thankfully, I had a perfect view of the action from my headquarters, and even better, I could communicate with my minions like I was standing right there with them.

Unlike my cave opening, with its rickety barricade, the gnomes had no fixed defenses in place. The lack of defenses gave them a wide area to defend, but I could already see a dozen gnomes standing by to repel the assault, and more were arriving by the second. They were all armed with simple weapons, wooden sticks sharpened to a point, large rocks, or makeshift clubs of firewood.

Just before the lead wolves arrived, a half-dozen better equipped gnomes showed up. These had real spears, albeit with simple stone spearheads, and looked like they knew how to use the weapons. Reinforced with the retreating gnomes, the two sides had parity in numbers, but were not even close in quality.

The wolves ripped into the thin line of gnomes, tearing apart several. Unfortunately for the wolves, they had no formation, and were strung out based on how fast each individual wolf had been. When they hit, and each wolf seemed intent on making a kill or stealing the kill from a fellow, rather than work together to bring down prey. This allowed the gnomes to gang up on a few of the wolves and inflict some casualties of their own.

More gnomes were streaming to the defensive line from further inside the cavern, but if they were about as numerous as my kobolds, there weren’t many more reinforcements to be had. With the fight at the cavemouth drawing all the belligerent’s attention, my team was able to sneak into range of the fight and begin to pepper with wolves with arrows, hand crossbow bolts, and sling stones.

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One by one the wolves fell to our attacks. A few were just wounded by the strikes, often turning to charge down the hill at my minions, which made them the focus of all our ranged attacks, killing them off long before they could get into melee range. With some of the pressure on the gnomes relived, they were able to group up and provide a better defense against the wolves.

Casualties mounted, and the leader of the gnomes finally made an appearance. This system-controlled faction didn’t have another summoned being to lead them, so it added a rather well decked out rock gnome instead. Their leader entered view as he charged from the depths of the cave and smashed the head of the alpha wolf with a large hammer.

The strike wasn’t enough to kill the oversized beast, who snapped back and snatched up the gnome leader in his jaws. I ordered my minions to focus their fire on the alpha, trying to bring down the largest threat. I was shocked to see the gnome leader wasn’t bitten in half; he was wearing what looked like armor made entirely of stone. Teeth cracked as the wolf bit down, but the alpha was powerful and hurled the gnome leader deeper into the cave and out of sight.

A rain of arrows, stones, and crossbow bolts began to pepper the alpha, who howled and charged down the hill toward my minions. His howl brought a couple of the regular wolves along with him as Glem and Glamb prepared to meet the charge. After firing one last shot from his hand crossbow, Khurr drew his shortsword and moved to support the two melee goblins.

Elida surprised me by using an offensive spell. Burst of Light popped into being right in front of the alpha wolf’s face, causing it to stumble and shake its head. The two regular wolves pulled into the lead, one skewered easily by Glem, and the other colliding with Glamb in a ball of blades and teeth as the two chopped and bit at each other.

Khurr came to the rescue and began to stab Glamb’s attacker. It was too late for my dual wielding goblin, who burst into mana vapor, but Khurr’s attacks were able to finish off the wolf. The alpha wolf quickly shook off the blinding effects of Elida’s spell, and then, it seemed to have a change of heart as it howled at the pack and ran toward the forest.

Glurk never stopped his attacks on the alpha, and his next arrow managed to kill the alpha just before it escaped out of range. With the fight turning against them, and the howl of their deceased alpha ordering them to flee, the remaining pack members ran off in a panic.

My minions picked off a few more, but at least five or six managed to make it to the safety of the nearby forest. The threat of a giant pack was over for now. A quiet hush reigned over the battlefield as the gnomes looked warily at my surviving forces.

The gnome leader, limping from the injuries sustained in his fight against the alpha, shouted down to my minions, causing a series of system prompts to appear.

You have encountered a significant threat and eliminated it. A resource bonus has been split between both participating factions.

The leader of the Gurtzam Rock Gnomes has initiated negotiations between your people and has offered a temporary truce between your peoples. Should you agree to this truce, neither side will be able to take any offensive action against the other for a period of 48-hours. If this truce is violated, a penalty will be assessed.

Do you agree to this temporary truce? Y/N.

I had to think this over. The gnomes were weakened, but I was down a minion. There was a good chance I could best the remaining gnomes and wipe them out, but it might also be good to see how the system planned to handle diplomacy between the factions inside my challenge domain.

You have agreed to a temporary truce. A new tab has opened in the trade interface at your headquarters. A small bonus to resources has been added to your reserves for opening diplomatic relations with a new faction.

Nice, I ordered my team to continue their patrol, leaving the gnomes in peace, at least for the next 48-hours. It was probably for the best, discovering what else was out there was likely more important at this time than a war with the gnomes. With the resources I’d just gained, my newest farm and housing complex would be completed momentarily. Between all the bonuses, the resource reserve was now almost a third full, but depleting rapidly as they funded the ongoing construction efforts.

While I waited for the structures to complete, I checked out the trade tab, which had changed from just trade to now read trade and diplomacy.

Trade and Diplomacy.

Current trading partners:

None.

Current Diplomatic Status.

1. Gurtzam Rock Gnome Tribe. Temporary truce.

The tab for the gnome tribe was greyed out, and when I tried to access it, I got a system message.

Occasionally, you may attempt to further diplomatic relations, or attempt to open trade negotiations with a discovered faction. Currently, this faction is unwilling to accept further diplomatic negotiations.

I sort of figured that wouldn’t be open to further discussions given how the gnomes had lost a good chunk of their population fighting off the wolves. They would likely need time to recover if they didn’t want to negotiate from a position of weakness. It looked like the first encounter with one of the system-controlled factions in my challenge had gone about as well as I could have hoped. We had a tentative peace, and I was pretty sure that if the gnomes wanted to start something, we’d be able to beat them.

Given that the system had granted resources just for opening diplomatic relationships, it looked like going on a killing spree wasn’t the only option going forward.