“What’s this?” I asked, looking at the small treasure in his hands.
“The resources required for the building’s upgrade. It shouldn't take long.”
“Where did you get–” I started to ask before it came to me. “The daily contribution from Koboldoptia, right?”
He smiled. “Yes, Dire Totem.” He handed out gems to the goblin builders who took them and climbed back onto the building, placing them at equal intervals.
The work didn’t take long, and once the workers were done, the embedded gems shone as one and morphed into a more uniform shape. The Breeder’s Den now looked like a bejeweled version of itself.
Zuban nodded approvingly. “It is done.”
Breeder’s Den upgrade complete: Essence Absorption
“Good job, Zuban,” I said.
The hob bowed his head. “Thank you. If you have no further need of me, I should go oversee our other projects.”
“Sure.” I watched my chief constructor for a few seconds as he headed to the residential construction site, then turned my attention back to the Breeder’s Den. “Time to see what the new upgrade can do,” I murmured.
I approached the building and took out a Pyrolith scale from my inventory. I tried pushing the item through the door flap like I’d seen done a hundred times before, but my arm wouldn’t pass through. The flimsy looking leather covering was as rigid as a sheet of steel. I didn’t have to ponder the issue long; the information tendrils the building was giving off declared in no uncertain terms that my offering was incompatible.
That was too bad. I still had a few dozen of the scales, and using them to upgrade my summoned soldiers could have been incredible.
I took out the scorpion queen’s heart next and tried feeding that to the building. This time, I had no problem pushing it through the cover. I jerked my hand back as I felt something brush against it, snatching the heart away from me. Pulse hammering, I stared at the closed cover. I’d often wondered what was going on inside, but I never had the desire to look. I was sure that whatever was going on in there was too creepy to behold, even for me. As long as the Breeder’s Den worked as advertised, I had zero interest in poking at its insides.
With the heart successfully accepted, I accessed the Breeder’s Den Interface.
Breeder’s Den
Basic food available: 16,500
Advanced food available: 6,475
Exquisite food available: 777
Unique: Scorpion queen’s heart
The rest of the list looked normal, detailing the various types of goblins, hobs, Ogres, and kobolds I could summon.
Now let’s see. Who do I want to have a scorpion’s heart? There were no obvious details for the heart’s effects, but I could still discern the outer surface of its capabilities. Whoever I summoned next would have a warlike disposition and some very interesting abilities.
I already had a champion and several powerful bosses. Summoning a common warrior for the heart and not making him a boss seemed wasteful, and I couldn’t promote any more bosses since the quota my clan could support was full. Of course, I could always use it on an Ogre Mage; those brutes were tier 1 bosses by default, but Ogres were vicious beings who only cared for violence and were hard to control. I imagined an Ogre with the heart would be a nearly uncontrollable berserker.
I raised an eyebrow. Since when do you need my permission to speak up?
Yeah, like Kaedric received the Mind Eater bloodline, and Bargush the Argush-Blooded one, which gave him four arms.
I cringed. It all led up to that, didn’t it?
Vic chuckled.
I did. Vic couldn’t resist a pun, a burn, or a cringe-delivered reference, but he had a point. The two individuals who had received the bloodlines by chance had been tremendously helpful to my clan’s development, but there was no question which one of them was paramount. I couldn’t see myself running the GreenPiece Clan without Kaedric. The hob noble had proven his worth over and over again. And it just so happened that I needed another one of his peers. Vic was right.
I selected Hobgoblin Noble from the list and approved the cost of 100 basic and 50 advanced food.
The Breeder’s Den started emitting churning noises, and the gems embedded all around it began glowing an eerie red light. The noises culminated in haunting shrieks, and I had to stop myself from covering my ears at the horrendous sounds.
A few moments later, the cacophony ended, and a hobgoblin appeared out of the structure. He was short and wide for a hob, with thick arms that ended in scorpion-like claws. His eyes were bright orange and when he stepped outside, a scorpion tail was revealed behind him.
The monstrous hob looked around, his glowing orange eyes finding mine. He gave a curt nod and opened his mouth, revealing normal-looking teeth. “I am at your service, my lord.”
“Glad to hear that,” I said. There was something intimidating about the hob that went beyond his level. It was more subtle than the menace of an Ogre. The hob exuded an aura of exquisite cruelty.
Analyze.
Ra’av, Hobgoblin Noble
Level: 5
HP: 85
MP: 85
Attributes: P:5, M:-, S:5
Skills: Administrator 10, Etiquette 10, Agonizing Poison Stinger 10, Subjugation 10
Traits: Goblinoid (+1 Physical, -1 Social), Scorpion-Hearted (+3 Physical, +3 Social, Dominion)
Background: Ra’av was recruited to the GreenPiece Clan by a Dire Totem goblin. His scorpion-hearted bloodline gives him a hierarchical lookout, making him perceive all lesser beings as his subjects, demanding obedience at all costs.
“Oh yeah,” I said. “You’d fit right in with Akzar.”
It seemed that aside from his monstrous visage, Ra’av had assumed the scorpion queen’s monarchic view. Since he was a leader, all of his lessers must be his followers. It was pretty similar to every monster leader I’d encountered so far.
The scorpion-tailed hob stared at me, and his clawed hands clicked.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Are we going to have a problem?”
“No, my lord,” he said, bowing his head more deeply than before. “I am at your service.”
“Good, then I hereby appoint you as Akzar’s new ruler. Your mission is to keep the city running efficiently and increase its military strength. Think you can do that?”
“Yes, my lord,” Ra’av said. “I’ll make the nest strong. We’ll overflow and take over all who oppose us.”
“That’s the spirit,” I said lightly. “Go ahead, use the portal in the cathedral.”
He bowed one last time and left. I noticed that the workers, and even the soldiers, who crossed his path moved aside to let him pass, bowing their heads at him with obvious apprehension. He was going to work out just fine.
You know, I’m starting to get the feeling I should ask for a cut of the revenue.
I still didn’t like my life in the game being broadcast publicly for the entertainment of the VI host, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. A sudden thought occurred to me and hit me like a slap. Wait a second – so when I’m alone with Tika in our room…
I breathed a little easier.
I groaned. I don’t want to know.
I said I didn’t want to know.
“I need to get out of here,” I muttered audibly.
I didn’t bother to respond and simply teleported away.
17 - Kingdom Management
I materialized out of the shadows, finding myself back in Woodhaven.
The small hamlet was buzzing with activity. Hob soldiers had already restored the destroyed palisade and were working on strengthening it even further.
There were discernibly fewer soldiers than normal and only a handful of Ogres.
I approached a group of hob lieutenants that were training nearby. “Anyone know where Savol or Sullivan are?”
One of the hobs turned and banged his fist on his armor plate. “The general and strategist are in the command tent, Chief.”
“Command tent?”
Wordlessly, the soldier pointed at a luxurious blue tent. It seemed we had confiscated the defeated commander’s pavilion. I made my way over and stepped inside.
Savol and several players were gathered around the customary table holding a map of the area that was situated in the center of the tent.
“Oren,” Sullivan called out when I entered. “You’re here. Good.”
“What’s up?” I said, looking around at Malkyr, Hoshisu, Kyth, Nero, Panda, and Julee. “Where is everyone?”
“Most of the other players weren’t interested in sitting for hours to discuss strategy, so they’re out with their squads,” Sullivan said. “The rest of us are brainstorming our next move.”
I shrugged. “March on Everance and take it over?”
Malkyr chuckled. “You don’t do things small, do you, Chief?”
“We need to move carefully,” Sullivan explained. “The other settlements are now aware of our presence and the threat we represent. Thankfully, since this is just a game, Everance is the only major power around these parts. All the other settlements are considerably smaller and weaker, but they can still pose a challenge. We’re working on a plan.”
“Savol sent big companies to take small villages,” the goblin general said proudly.
“I see,” I said. “So where do we stand?”
Hoshisu moved to the map and indicated several spots. “There are four villages here that supply Whitebanner and Storg with food and resources. Our intel indicates those villages were left with garrisons of less than a hundred guards each. So we formed four companies, led by some of the players, to take them over. Once we capture the bigger towns, we’ll be effectively in control of the entire southern half of this zone. We can then utilize its resources to take over the other half, finishing with Everance.”
I frowned. “You sure a single company per town is enough? Shouldn’t we all go with them?”
”No,” Sullivan said. “We don’t want to risk getting caught by another counterattack while scattered. This place is fortified and can hold out against superior forces while we wait for reinforcements to arrive.”
“Besides,” Kyth added, “the players we sent are smart kids. They’ll get the job done.”
Hoshisu said, “Once the southern part is secured, we’ll be able to move on Whitebanner and Storg without needing to worry about an attack from behind. Then all we’ll have to worry about is conquering the towns. It won’t be easy.”
“Why?” I asked. “Didn’t we just annihilate the majority of their armies?”
“Not exactly,” Sullivan said. “We fought a united coalition of forces drafted from several settlements. Whitebanner and Storg provided most of the highly trained forces, but they’re far from depleted. We estimate over a thousand defenders are left in each town, and that’s not counting their high-level elites. Since both towns were originally player-centered locations, they each have mage and adventurer guilds. Those establishments are always run by high-level NPCs. They’re not part of the militia and don’t usually leave their hometowns. But if attacked, they’ll probably join to defend it, and that could be a problem.”
“I still don’t see why,” I said. “We’ll just use the same tactic we did in Novenguard; keep storming them while resurrecting our soldiers until they’re all gone.”
“Savol prefers not throwing lives of soldiers,” the general said.
“The kid’s right,” Kyth said. “Besides, by now, there’s no way they’re not aware of this tactic. As soon as you try to build a war camp anywhere near the town, they’ll send some high-level mage to destroy it, probably from far away.”
“We will, of course, maintain a resurrection point at some defensible location at the rear,” Sullivan said. “But Kyth’s right. This can’t be our go-to strategy. There are better, more efficient ways to wage war.”
“I’m all ears,” I said.
Julee let out a soft chuckle. “That’s funny.” She looked around at the other players. “You know … because of his goblin ears?”
I winked at her and looked up at Sullivan. “Lay it on me.”
“We can take the towns if we play it safe,” he said. “Their walls aren’t particularly high, and we outnumber their standing army. We estimate they have between 10 to 20 high-level NPCs. I believe that between our champions, bosses, Aidanriel, and Swarm, we can efficiently counteract them. We’ll put up a few catapults to take down their walls and be ready to intercept their counterstrikes with our archers. If we can get rid of some of their forces from a defensible position, it will make our attack a whole lot easier. Once they’re sufficiently tenderized, we’ll move in to take the town.”
“Alright, sounds like you’ve got everything figured out,” I said. “So what’s the problem?”
“The other town,” Nero said simply.
Sullivan added, “ Storg and Whitebanner are less than a day’s travel apart. We’re pretty sure that if we attack one of them, the other will send reinforcements and attack our rear.”
“Hmm.” I mulled it over. “And as the defenders, we won’t be able to use our resurrection option.”
“You’re starting to see our problem,” Sullivan said. “But we have an idea of how to counter that, too.” He looked at Hoshisu.
The white-haired woman picked up her cue. “When you took over Novenguard, their surviving guards stopped fighting us immediately.”
“Yeah …?” I asked uncertainly. “That’s because they became part of our clan.”
“Exactly.” She stared at me meaningfully.
“I can’t conquer an entire hostile town on my own,” I protested. “Okay, yes, it worked with Akzar, but that was different; I could walk around and gather allies there. I can’t approach anyone in ‘civilized’ towns, and their soldiers will kill any monster on sight–” I stopped when I realized what they were suggesting.
“But there will hardly be any soldiers left,” Malkyr said with a big grin. “Since they’ll all come to try to flank us. ”
“And you don’t have to go alone,” his sister added. “Take a few players or soldiers along with you.”
“I see …” I said. “So you want me to sneak in while their army is away. Hmm … that’s not a bad idea. The army they sent will convert, so it’s actually us who’ll be getting reinforcements.”
“Exactly,” Sullivan said. “But you’ll have less than a day to capture the town, and they’ll no doubt leave some forces behind. It won’t be easy.”
“I can’t say I like it,” Kyth added. “If something goes wrong, we’ll have a war on two fronts without the ability to resurrect our dead.”
“We can prepare to intercept the incoming force,” Sullivan objected. “Keep the catapults attacking the town walls to maintain the pressure but divert the bulk of our army to protect our rear.”
Kyth shook his head. “Then the besieged town will simply send out their forces, and we’ll find ourselves fighting on two fronts anyway.”
“That’ll take too long,” I said. “Our growth will be much faster with both towns as our vassals. I can do it.”
“Great!” Sullivan clapped my shoulder. “Then we’ll march out tomorrow. I think we’ll want to target Storg; it’s a more central location. The four companies we sent out should finish up and converge with us along the way. We’ll be able to launch the attack in three days. You and your group will need to reach Whitebanner about the same time as we do and make your move as soon as they send out their forces.”
“I’ll get back to the clan and recruit some more soldiers,” I said. “I should be able to add a couple hundred more lieutenants.”
Sullivan nodded. “Every little bit helps, but we’ll need a hell of a lot more soldiers to be able to challenge Everance.”
“How many?”
“I estimate that unless we show up with at least 10,000 soldiers, Everance will simply send out their forces to annihilate us.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah, that would be bad. I’ll work on that.”
“Good. But for now, what we’re missing most are more goblin adepts. We’re seriously behind on our healers-to-warriors ratio.”
“How many adepts do you think we need?”
“One for every ten warriors would be nice.”
That meant about 150 new adepts on top of the two dozen or so we already had. Like all types of spellcasters, adepts were a costly unit that required advanced and exquisite food to summon. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“More golems would also be nice,” Malkyr said.
“Preferably saner ones,” Hoshisu added.
“Yeah … sorry about Swarm, guys, he can be … intense. I can make more golems pretty easily if I have what I need, but I’ve already exhausted most of our obsidian supply trading the materials for making Swarm. But that’s not even the hardest part – the problem is finding raw consciousness to drive them.”
Life Reset: Conquest (New Era Online Book 5) Page 30