The hobgoblins are looking for us specifically? Why? What do they want? Damn, we need to get stronger!
That gave me an idea. Guba said that goblins often formed pacts with other types of monsters, well, I was a goblin, so I could try it.
“Ask her if she’s willing to join us, Vic” I said. “Tell her that she and her babies will be safe and fed. We will be her new pack. If she’s not interested, she can leave the valley unharmed.”
Vic relayed my words to her, and listened to her reply, nodding.
“She’s willing to accept. But she wants to stay in the forest. Her kind doesn’t take well to open land, and they can find their own food here in the forest. If you agree to that condition, she will join you.”
Tree dwelling monsters, no food upkeep, who will guard the forest for me? Uh yes, sign the dotted line please!
“I agree,” I said. “What now?”
She bent down, lowering herself to my eye level, and lowered her head. On impulse I laid my hand on her head.
Quest completed: Make The Forest Safe Again
You convinced the surviving apes to join your clan, effectively eliminating the threat.
Reward: +100 clan reputation, 3 new followers
Cool, my own forest squad. I chuckled. Well at least they will be once the babies grow up.
I looked at the female. I couldn’t keep referring to her as ‘the female ape’ all the time. She needed a proper name. “I name you Grilda“ I said to her.
She grunted.
”You can roam freely in the forest, but don’t leave the valley. It's your duty to watch over the entrance, if anyone comes in, let us know immediately, alright?”
She grunted in response, clearly understanding my meaning.
“Great.”
What an unexpected benefit. They might even breed, and I would end up with a formidable pack of Dire apes patrolling and guarding my forest.
With the quest taken care off, it was time to get back to urban development. I bid my new followers good-day and returned to the camp.
It was midday when we made it back to camp, everyone was still busy at respective assignments.
“Vic, go find Vrick and Bek, tell them to resume patrolling the forest. Make sure they understand Grilda and her young ones are our allies now, and are not to be harmed.”
Even with only a few more hours of daylight, their patrol should still prove beneficial; both for training their skills and increasing our food supply.
Vic let his displeasure be known being made an errand boy. “Oh, alright.”
“One more thing,” I added when he turned to leave, “find Tika and let her know she can resume hunting in the forest.” He nodded and left.
I went over to Guba and handed her the ape meat.
She gave me a disgusted look. “Lemme guess, you be wanting steaks for yer precious breeders?”
I nodded.
“Fine!” she threw her arms in the air. “But ye better be getting some decent cook here soon, or ye’ll be eating dirt next.” She turned her back on me and went back to work.
I sat down at my usual spot and checked my character screen.
Title: Esteemed Totem
Level: 10, (75%)
Race: Monster Race [Goblin]
Type: Boss I [Totem]
Deity: Corgoram
Attributes: [0 points available]
- Physical 2
- Mental 12
- Social 0
Pools:
- Hit Points: 152
- Mana: 305
- Armor: 7
Skills:
- Lucky Bastard 11 (86%) (Prime)
- Analyze 4 (32%)
- Tracking 3 (12%)
- War Party Leader 1 (80%)
- Mana Infusion 7 (5%) (Prime)
Skills (Spells):
- Mana Manipulation 12 (0%)
- Drilling Arrow 7 (37%) (Prime)
- Mana Shield 15 (80%)
- Blood Wrath 11 (75%)
- Heal Followers 1 (90%)
- Mana Drain 3 (62%) (Prime)
I was showing solid all-around progress. For my level I had a staggering amount of health and mana. I noticed Mana Manipulation had increased to level 12. I must’ve missed the alert during the chaos of battle.
I didn’t feel like doing anything at the moment, ape-killing was a tiring job. I stayed there and fiddled with my settings.
I clicked on the Mana field, and my regeneration rate appeared: 43.74 mana points per minute, impressive. Curiously, I clicked on it as well, and a long formula appeared:
12 (M) + 5 (Totem Staff) + 10 (level)] * 1.62 (MM skill) = 43.74
I had several contributing factors that weren’t available for normal players. Namely, my level and the Mana Manipulation skill. My regeneration was huge for a 10th level player. At its current size, my mana pool would take seven minutes to replenish completely.
Hmm…Drilling Arrow cost six mana each, and I can cast them every 5 seconds, which is 12 times per minute. So, if I cast Drilling Arrows continually, it would cost 72 mana per minute. But I’ll be regenerating 43 as well, so I’d actually be spending 29 mana per minute. It means I could theoretically stand in place and blast enemies continuously for over 10 minutes straight, like a sort of stationary magical platform cannon. That was roughly 120 Drilling Arrows before I exhaust my mana reserves.
Those were pretty amazing numbers. Mid-level mage players usually were only able to engage in combat for 2-3 minutes before mana depletion. They would have to use a mana potion, or wait for their mana to regenerate to continue.
Being a boss certainly has its merits, I mused.
Guba finished cooking the steaks while I was playing around with my stats. I watched from the corner of my eye as she stalked away with a tray load of food, headed for the Breeder’s Den. I opened its interface.
Available food: 0
…
Guba was getting closer to the building.
Available food: 0
…
She knelt at the entrance and laid the tray down and pushed it into the hut under the cover flap. I could almost hear her indignant huff.
Available food: 30 simple, 1 advanced
Please select a creature to summon
...
“Guba, how did you manage to cook advanced food?” I asked when she returned from her food delivery.
She shrugged, “Pure luck by me reckoning. One of them meats turned out to be a fine fillet.”
“That’s good news, keep it up!” Lucky Bastard at work again.
I selected another goblin worker, and assigned him the Builder skill. The usual ruckus ensued, once it was finished a new goblin emerged. To my surprise, this time a female.
Goblin worker, female
Level: 1 (0%)
HP: 16
P:2, M:0, S:-1;
Skills: Haul 1, Builder 1
Traits: Noncombatant
“Welcome to the GreenPiece clan” I welcomed her. “follow me.”
I led her to Zuban’s construction crew. They were still working on the Rabbit Warren.
“Zuban, I have a gift for you.” I called out as we reached the structure.
He stopped hammering at one of the wooden struts, wiped his brow and stared blankly at us. As we got near, he grasped what my ‘gift’ was, and broke out into a huge smile. “Builder?” he inquired, still grinning like a fool.
I nodded.
“Excellent.” He beamed. You!” he bellowed, pointing at the Miner. The hapless Miner who was holding a beam in place, “Go away. You!” He was now pointing at the new builder, “come here and get working on that fence.
“Oh, I just remembered, here this is for you.”
He threw a small object to me. It was a necklace made from a thin leather strap with the Cougar fang I gave him hanging as a pendant. It looked quite nice. I put it around my neck.
Nothing wrong with keeping up appearances, I reasoned. I was after all trying to play the part of a savage go
blin leader.
Zuban and his building crew were already completely absorbed in their work, no longer even aware of my presence. I was left standing next to the now unemployed goblin. I felt slightly guilty for costing him his job.
“Sorry.” I apologized.
The worker did not reply.
“You’re our Miner, right?”
“Yes, ‘Steamed Totem” he replied in a drab voice.
“Good, take your pickaxe with you, and go look for some good veins of tin and copper in the valley walls and start mining some ore for us. From now on, this is your daily job, stack the ore that you collect in a single pile. Oh, and stay away from the cave opening, no matter what. It’s dangerous. Understood?”
“Yes, ‘Steamed Totem,” he replied, and ran off to follow my orders, his pickaxe bouncing in a sheath against his back.
It was back to normal, peaceful and quiet again, the valley’s forest was safe again and everything was moving along smoothly.
The hobgoblins were still roaming outside the valley, but I was content to wait for the time being, guardedly of course. There was little chance the hobgoblins would discover our hidden valley.
And if they do, I thought grimly, they won’t live long enough to report back to their bosses about it.
That left the cave as the only remaining unknown. I still felt I ought to stay away from it. I couldn’t explain why exactly, but every time I thought about exploring it, I was overcome with feelings of doom.
I spent the rest of the day planning the layout of the settlement. Using a stick I drew a rough representation of the valley on the ground. I placed several intended buildings, trying to get a feel for how they would look and work together, once they were built and operational.
The hours rolled on unnoticed, with me immersed in my thoughts and plans.
As night fell, everyone gathered around camp. The commotion drew me out of my fugue, reality replaced contemplation. I stood, stretched a bit, and walked over to have dinner with my goblins, and receive the day’s progress report.
Between the scouting party, Tika and the fisherman, we grossed 17 units of food. The daily upkeep consumed 12 units, which left 5 units placed in our stores.
On an amusing note, Vrick kept sneaking glances at the newest member of the clan, a stupid grin smeared on his face. He was obviously infatuated with her.
Everyone had made progress in their various skills. The harsh conditions of the outdoors were ideal for training skills.
The senior builder goblin had reached skill level 10, while the new female was already at skill level 3. By my calculations, with Zuban they generated 23 Build Points per day.
The fisherman had reached skill level 5.
There was no need for my goblins to watch the entrance to the valley anymore, since Grilda was much more suited for the job, so I told Vrick to station both warriors to watch over the cave entrance.
With what little time remained until sleep time, I decided to explore the Settlement Interface more deeply.
Settlement Interface
Efficiency: -10%
Population: 15 (11 goblins, 1 hobgoblin, 3 dire apes)
Food Upkeep: 12
Buildings: 3 (chief hut, cemetery, breeder’s den)
Fortifications: 0
Food production: 17 (2 fish, 10 forage, 5 misc)
Resource production: 3 (3 copper)
Crafting production: 0
I was pleased to see the population count included our newest members, the apes.
General efficiency was still low, due to the low morale. Housing was becoming a higher priority, but I had other more vital building to construct before.
I clicked the Buildings options next.
Buildings and Construction
Max Constructor skill: 10
Builders count: 2 (skills 10, 3)
Daily BP: 23.5 (7 + 10 + 6.5)
Under construction: Rabbit Warren (67 /130 BP)
Available resources: [require a Construction Yard]
Alright, that helped understand the construction system much better. My construction crew was putting 23 BP into the construction per day, which meant they’d finish the Rabbit Den in three days. At which point I’d need to summon a worker with the Breeding skill to run it.
I had until then to decide what our next construction project would be. There were a ton of things I needed to build; housing to address the morale penalty, Construction Yard and Woodcutter’s Hut to increase construction efficiency, to name a few.
But they would all have to wait. Zuban’s Constructor skill was stuck at level 10, until, according to him, he built either a Mess Hall or a Chief’s House.
The Mess Hall would go a long way toward raising overall morale, and would surely help with producing higher quality of food. On the other hand, the shabby Chief’s Hut we had in the clearing now, was vulnerable. With hobgoblin forces roaming around, a group of them might get lucky and destroy it before I’d be able to stop them. If that happened, I’d lose access to the Settlement Interface, and the overall clan development would be crippled until I could get it back. Besides, the flimsy Chief’s Hut was really only meant to be a decoy.
The Chief’s House would be our next project. I already had all the special resources it required, pelts and some metal. But we needed more lumber.
I could wait until the construction crew finished their current project and then have them chop down more trees, but that would mean losing two days of construction.
I grimaced, there was no getting around it, I would have to pick up an axe and go pick a fight with the trees.
Tomorrow is going to be a boring day. I thought gloomily.
With that in mind, I went to sleep.
***
I dreamt.
I was floating high in the air, looking down. It felt strange, but now I recognized this experience for what it was; a Totem vision.
I saw our valley and the settlement below me. I could clearly see our small camp, and the nearly completed Rabbit Warren.
Suddenly, the dark night sky sped up, clouds flew from west to east, chased by the sun, which then descended below the horizon for another quickly passing starry night, and then the sun rose again on the other side, a new day.
The sky kept moving, rotating around the earth, faster and faster. Again and again the cycle continued as the days flew by, day turning into night, darkness giving way to light. With every new cycle, the days became less bright, and shadows grew darker and more encompassing. Then the sky stopped on an especially dark night, not even the stars were shining.
I looked at the scene below me, my eyes were drawn to where the darkness seemed to emanate from.
The cave.
It radiated an intense darkness, casting deep shadows over the valley. I watched the darkness grow deeper and more menacing.
Then something stirred.
A blot of inky shadow, poured from the cave mouth, swelling higher and higher, reaching taller than the surrounding mountains.
Then the looming shadowy mass erupted, and a wave of utter blackness washed over the entire valley. Everything was drowned in the heavy darkness, even the trees.
Eventually the blackness receded slowly back into the cave, like storm water into a drain. When it was finally gone, no sign of my clan or the settlement remained. The darkness had consumed it all.
My heart pounded in my chest.
“Oh no…”
14 - Visiting Relatives
I woke up in a cold sweat, shivering, the vision of destruction vivid and imminent.
How many days in the dream before the darkness wiped us out? I desperately tried to recall. Ten days? Twelve? I should have counted them!
The vision changed my priorities, I had to investigate the cave sooner than I’d originally planned and try to find a way to stop the disaster I’d seen from happening, whatever it was. I still had time to prepare for the excursion. The hobgoblins were still searching for us effectively penning us in the valley.
Besides, we’d never find another hiding place as perfect as this one. I thought.
I couldn’t stop the events of my first vision from happening, this time I had to find a way to change the outcome. I had to prepare.
And that required trees.
Walking over to the clan’s equipment pile, I dejectedly picked up one of the axes. It was a crude implement, almost too heavy for my thin goblin arms. With only two points in Physical, I wasn’t the best candidate for conquering trees.
I’m a magic user, not a lumberjack, dammit!
I had the power of magic on my side, I needed to play to my strengths, which were...
I looked at the axe and a plan started coming together.
I walked over to forest edge where the cutting crew’s activities had left a small field of stumps.
I swung the axe a few times, getting a feel for it. It was heavy and unwieldy.
I circulated mana and pushed it through my hands, into the axe. The axe took on a blue sheen, glowing with the mana it contained.
I activated Mana Infusion and felt the mana course through me, fortifying and invigorating my muscles.
The mana I forced into the axe, made it a temporary extension of my own body. Because of that, the Mana Infusion skill affected the axe too, making the edge harder and sharper; just as I had hoped would happen.
I hit the nearest tree once with the axe. The axe bit deeply, the mana-covered metal blade almost disappearing from sight.
It worked! I love it when a magic theory pans out. I thought smugly.
I hacked at the tree, timing myself, then stopped and checked my logs to figure out my progress. Mana Infusion was consuming 30 MP a minute, and my mana pool was still full. My mana regeneration rate was 43 MP per minute, high enough to compensate, I could work the entire day without stopping for lack of mana.
Pleased with the results, I dove back into work. It took me about half an hour to cut down the tree, and another half hour to strip all the branches from it.
I didn’t get the Lumberjack skill, but I didn’t expect to. This was a magical effort, not the brute muscle hacking at trees. My Mana Infusion skill even increased to level 8.
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