Chapter 263. Human Negotiations.
The humans approached cautiously, and I expected the worst given the odd makeup of my minions. To my surprise, the humans hailed our people from a distance, and didn’t just attack once they were in range. The system translated their greeting into another choice I had to make.
A newly discovered faction, the village of Millstone, has made claim on the remains of your kill. Do you wish to allow them rights to harvest the kill? Y/N.
That was unexpected. Given the way they were dressed and armed, this might have been some kind of hunting party. If they were as weak as the other factions that I’d encountered so far, I was willing to bet that the birds would have slaughtered them.
Did I want to give away our kills? Would it be seen as weak or generous by the human villagers? I considered the offer, but then tried something new, I tried to make a counteroffer, including what I wanted in exchange for giving up what I already had.
Your kobold faction has offered a peace treaty and trade agreement with the village of Millstone. In return for these treaties, your faction agrees to surrender the ten ripper bird kills that your minions have just made. The leaders of Millstone will momentarily decide on your offer.
Well, at least I’d get some chance at negotiation. Prior to this encounter, I’d just had take it or leave it offers. The human village decided quickly what they wanted, so the system didn’t leave me hanging.
The village of Millstone has rejected your offer. They have countered with a temporary truce of 72 hours and claiming your kill. During this time of truce, both parties will have access to observe and explore the other party’s territory. Do you accept this counteroffer? Y/N.
I hoped to have a quick trade agreement here, but it looked like this village wasn’t going to jump into anything too quickly. They also really wanted these birds, which I was fine with giving up. It was pretty far for my kobolds to make it all the way here to harvest them, and I could probably find something closer to home if I looked hard enough.
You have granted the kill to the village of Millstone. A 72-hour truce between your peoples is now in effect. As long as no hostile actions take place, either party can traverse freely throughout the other party’s lands. Should either side break the truce, a substantial number of resources will be taken from the offending party.
Wanting to make the most of the truce, I had my minions separated into two teams again, sending them both out to explore as much of the grasslands as we could before the truce expired. I wanted to at least see where the human village was in case there was eventually trouble between our people.
As my minions explored, back in my cavern, the new farm and housing complex were completed. My next choice for an upgrade to rank two was the marketplace. New eggs were already placed outside each kobold home, and my population was about to explode. To help feed everyone, the farm upgrades added a larger raised planter section, allowing about a third of each farm to double up on mushroom production.
The planters for the special mushrooms remained the same, but I could see the density of mushroom clusters inside each was greater, giving us a better yield for my main trade good. Mushrooms weren’t my only trade good, though, and I noticed a team of kobold workers heading toward the elf village on a building contract. Once they were on site, the kobolds would generate a small stream of resources back to our cavern for as long as the elves had hired them.
I wasn’t sure what elves needed the help of kobolds for, but I’d figure that out once my kobolds arrived. The market upgrade confirmed that I had a new caravan ready to assign to a trade route. When I tried to attach the caravan to either the gnomes or the elves, I received an error message telling me that route was already sufficiently serviced by trading caravans. It looked like I needed to find a new trading partner if I wanted to put the kobold traders to work.
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At least my other two caravans had been upgraded. Instead of three kobolds, there were now four in each caravan, providing a nice bump in the number of resources the caravan could bring back on each trip. After the market, I scheduled the barracks, the crafting stations, and finally, the quartermaster’s hut for upgrades.
The barracks expanded a bit more and added a second gate at the rear of the building. Another guard was placed in a tower over the rear door, giving me a second free warrior defender. From the sounds coming from inside the barracks, I would soon have another squad of warriors trained up, giving me four to work with. Once they were complete, I’d assign them to join the defenders here in the cavern.
My elvish ally was also expanding and upgrading. I could see their tree buildings were slowly increasing in size and quality, and they finally were helping to guard the trade route between our lands. The elf squad was a bit smaller than my kobold squad, only two elves with spears and one with a bow were on patrol. Despite that, I had a feeling they would still wipe the floor with my kobold team.
The growth and expansion of your tribe’s infrastructure has been noticed and appreciated by your people. By expanding trade, you have maintained a peaceful atmosphere and have allowed new goods to be brought in that your people are enjoying. Morale has improved from Disgruntled to Neutral.
Nice, I’d take neutral over disgruntled or about to revolt any day. A quick check revealed that the teams of kobolds out in the forests gathering lumber had taken the new upgrade in morale to heart. Now, over half of them were actually working, and the flow of resources they provided bumped up a bit.
My people had a long way to go, but at least they were improving and not falling deeper into sloth. Another curious action began among my troops. It started with the existing squad inside the cavern. When the new squad from the barracks emerged, the old one marched inside. The system explained what was happening.
With an upgrade to your barracks, your troops can be further trained. One squad will be upgraded at a time, and if you have more than one squad assigned to a single area, one of the squads assigned there will leave to relieve the next one in line for additional training. By doing this, you will allow your troops to get experience by rotating through various duties, further improving their usefulness.
I’d take any benefit to my troops that I could. It was too bad the barracks didn’t seem to upgrade their equipment yet. Maybe that would resolve itself when the crafting stations upgraded. We needed better weapons and tools to improve our productivity and to protect my growing empire.
Speaking of empires, my minions were still exploring the grasslands, which encompassed much more territory than the forest had. The goblin team had finally set eyes on the village of Millstone. It was a small collection of about a dozen buildings with a low, palisade wall around it.
A gurgling stream flowed nearby, and several sections of land were planted with what looked like wheat or something similar. I wasn’t a farmer by any means, but I could tell there was something wrong with several of the fields. Much of the crop, which looked ready to harvest, was trampled and ripped out of the ground. A few farmers were in each field, frantically trying to replant the damaged areas.
If I had to guess, I’d say it was probably the same birds my minions had killed that had caused the crop damage. That would explain their eagerness to claim our kills. There was probably a food shortage going on, at least until the fields they were repairing were back in business.
Maybe that was going to be my leverage with the human village. If they needed food, we had a surplus of mushrooms. I pulled up the diplomacy tab on my headquarters interface, making the village of Millstone a new offer.
You have offered to trade with the village of Millstone. The village has been informed of your main exports and will take that into consideration. Please note that making too many diplomatic offers in a short period of time will annoy many of the other factions.
Point taken, system, I wasn’t going to spam trade treaty requests. The prompt hadn’t mentioned me annoying the human village yet, so I figured this most recent offer was fine, but I shouldn’t try again for a while if this one was rejected. It took a bit longer than I expected before a response came back from the village.
The village of Millstone was intrigued by your offer to trade food. Instead of agreeing to trade between your peoples, the village of Millstone has threatened war with your faction if you do not provide ongoing food tribute to their village. Do you wish to provide food tribute to the village of Millstone until such a time as they release you from obligation? Y/N.
Not a chance. In fact, I was able to get the system to show the village what I thought of their offer.
You have declared war on the village of Millstone. Eliminate the population of the village or destroy their town hall to claim victory.