“Nobody faults you for missing a few points,” Noth said sympathetically. “We all know how busy you’ve been. How much work you have been putting into finding us a home. Not just a place to live, but to thrive. We are grateful, Hal.”
Noth opened her mouth to say something more just as Hal lifted his gaze from the dark steaming tea in his cup. Their eyes locked and whatever words Noth had died in her throat.
In the failing light of the evening, the rosy glow that spread across her cheeks made her look exactly as she was to Hal. An otherworldly beauty. He understood at that moment why so many ancient civilizations talked about death maidens. He understood the impossible beauty of the Valkyries of Norse legend.
For a moment, the world seemed to fall away. It was just the two of them. Something of Hal’s thoughts must have shown on his unguarded face.
Noth froze like a deer in headlights. She set her teacup down so hard it looked like she nearly dropped it. Blushing furiously, though most of it was covered by the dimness of the wagon, Noth muttered something about checking on Rondo and bolted from the wagon.
Hal let out a long breath he hadn’t realized he was holding until that moment.
The world resumed around him, and he took the few minutes to relight the wagon’s interior lights.
Head still spinning, Hal tried to ground it in reality with the numbers he was presented with. The boost from Founder’s Day completely flipped the Morale, though he still wasn’t sure how to quantify Morale and the System was suspiciously vague on its impact.
They were fairly close to another Guild Level, less than 2,000 EXP and they would make it. With all the building going on, he expected that they would be Guild Level 3 by the end of the week.
Hopefully that would give them more abilities to work with. While the Regeneration ability was nice, and would undoubtedly be useful in the coming battle. It did little good at the moment. As did the glut of Guild Points with nothing to spend it on yet.
As soon as Hal opened the Settlement Menu, a notification reminded him that he still had yet to make a choice about the Manatree.
[Settlement Status]
Settlement Type: Outpost
Settlement Level: 1
Consumption: +10%
Production: -10%
Influence Area: 1 Mile (-20%)
Settlement Morale: +50% (+100% from Founder’s Day)
Research Points: -50%
Citizens: 103
Settlement Mana: 10
Settlement Mana Generation: 15/day (+50% Morale)
Settlement Abilities
Summon Guardian
Summon a magical construct to defend or assist your settlement in any way you see fit. The Level of the guardian is dependent upon the Level of the settlement and any relevant buildings, research, or improvements to arcana and golem making.
Mana Cost: 100.
Duration: 24hrs.
Mana Repair
Utilizing your settlement’s wellspring of mana to undo the ravages of time and damage to structures within the settlement’s influence range, restoring Building HP (bHP) and automatically putting out any fires.
Mana Cost: 1 per 100 bHP repaired.
Revitalization
Rejuvenate the land and natural resources in a 100ft radius. Quickly regrows Tier I natural resources (wood, stone, food). Reduced effectiveness for living resources during the winter.
Mana Cost: 10 per 5% resource regrowth.
Would you like to bind the Manaseed to the Settlement?
With a subvocalized ‘Yes’, Hal confirmed the process. It would, he knew, bind him as well to the settlement. It was a lot more than just combining two systems for easier management. His soul, for better or worse, would be tethered to the settlement.
A rush of silver light flooded all around the wagon and into Hal. As the Manaseed’s Guardian he was explicitly linked to the Manaseed. Ribbons of argent energy filtered through the wagon and into Hal.
Distantly, he was aware of the surprise and similar elation that Noth felt through her connection to him. He found himself trying to imagine her expression at that moment. Wondering what had prompted her to leave so quickly.
He let go of the disappointment as the silver light faded and the process completed. A new notification greeted him.
Settlement Update
You have successfully bound your Manaseed with the Settlement. Settlement Mana is now converted into Elysian Points. Your Manatree Menu has now been merged with the Settlement Menu.
Though your Settlement Mana and Elysian Points are now combined, certain abilities are still only available to each category denoted by a prefix of “Settlement” or “Manatree.”
You have gained 1 new Settlement Ability and 1 new Manatree Ability.
[Manaseed: Unnamed] gains 500 Experience Points.
Your Manatree Skill has risen to Level 9.
+3% Manatree spell potency (+27%).
Settlement: Rallied Defense
Call your citizens to arms, increasing their fighting capabilities. If not used during a time of war or siege, Morale will drop dramatically.
+20% Damage of Citizens within influence range.
-20% Damage taken by Citizens within influence range.
EP Cost: 50.
Manatree: Deep Roots
Using the magic of the Manatree, infuse a structure with the Elysian energy that flows within the Manatree. Doing so permanently increases the bHP of the building.
EP Cost: 1 per 1 bHP.
Settlement status has changed.
[Settlement Status]
Settlement Type: Outpost
Settlement Level: 1
Consumption: +10%
Production: -10%
Influence Area: 1 Mile (-20%)
Settlement Morale: +50% (+100% from Founder’s Day)
Research Points: -50%
Manatree Type: Manaseed
Guardian: Hal Williams
Level: 2
Experience Points: 1,250/2,650
HP: 700/700
Citizens: 103
Elysian Points: 12
Elysian Generation: 18/day (+50% Morale)
73
The combination of EP from the Manaseed and the Settlement mana is nice. Hal leaned back in his chair and sipped his tea as a chill wind whistled through the wagon. He was glad for the temporary insulation that drinking anything hot gave but he would need to find a more permanent solution.
Just like Komachi was too cold to be comfortable, so was everybody else. It wouldn’t be long until the novelty of having a non-moving home wore off and the oppressive cold settled in.
Turning his attention back to the settlement, he perused the abilities again. In total, he had 6 settlement-oriented abilities. Technically, Manatree: Soul Tether was more reactionary than an actual ability he could trigger to get a direct benefit.
With their current point accrument, by the time the Founder’s Day buff wore off they should be sitting at 48 EP. Then, assuming nothing happened to change their Morale, they would generate 6 EP a day for the four remaining days until the attack.
That gave him a total of 72 EP by the 7th day. Depending on when the System decided the next day had come, he might have an additional 6 EP come in during the assault.
Whether he had 72 or 78 EP didn’t really matter though.
They still couldn’t afford the 100 EP cost of Settlement: Summon Guardian.
Hal took a moment to make a short list of all the valuable abilities. What he was left with was, Settlement: Mana Repair, Settlement: Rallied Defense, Manatree: Impenetrable Defense.
Anything else was either out of his price range or not useful as was the case with Manatree: Deep Roots, and Settlement: Revitalization. Both useful in their own rights, he didn’t doubt, but not in a battle.
And he doubted that throwing out all their EP to make the Manaseed invulnerable was a good idea. Considering that it was now tied to the survival of the town.
More than anything, he s
uspected it was going to be Settlement: Mana Repair that would become the MVP of the coming battle. With 72 EP to spend, that translated to 7,200 building HP it could heal.
It might be the only thing keeping the walls up when the horde came calling in a little under a week.
And that was if Hal’s grasp on how Morale affected EP generation was right. Normally, they had a 50% penalty. He only hoped it didn’t get worse from all the long days of working and the cold.
It might be a wise decision to set up some better shelter to keep everybody warm.
On that note, Hal opened up his Building Schematics menu. Unlocking the Settlement Archetype had unlocked three low-tier buildings. He doubted any of them were going to be that great.
[Building Schematics]
Production Tier I
Lumberjack’s Hut
Provides basic shelter for workers and produces wood. Affords protection against the elements while gathering. Morale malus is only applied if the workers use this building as their lodgings.
Materials
Wood: 4t
Parameters
HP: 200
DEF: 10
MDEF: 10
Occupancy: 7
Gathering Rate: 1.5t per worker
Morale: -5%
Construction
Cost: 150
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 4
Quarry
Produces stone from nearby nodes and stony outcrops. Affords protection against the elements while gathering. Morale malus is only applied if the workers use this building as their lodgings.
Materials
Wood: 4t
Parameters
HP: 200
DEF: 10
MDEF: 10
Occupancy: 5
Gathering Rate: 1t per worker
Morale: -5%
Construction
Cost: 150
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 4
Hunting Lodge
Produces food in the form of meat and foraged goods as well as shelter from the elements and lodgings for those working. There is no Morale loss for living and working in a Hunting Lodge as hunters are expected to have long forays into the wilds to hunt game.
Materials
Wood: 6t
Parameters
HP: 300
DEF: 10
MDEF: 10
Occupancy: 5
Gathering Rate: 7u per worker
Construction
Cost: 200
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 4
Defensive Tier I
Flimsy Wall
A simple wall of stone and wood. By using the two materials together the wall can be made faster and cheaper. However, it is not very strong and will easily fail if assaulted. Best used to keep animals out.
Materials
Wood: 1t
Stone: 0.5t
Parameters
HP: 100
DEF: 30
MDEF: 30
Construction
Cost: 50
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 5
Earthen Bulwark
A sturdier construction consisting primarily of packed dirt and rubble. While its material costs are light, it makes up for its resource reduction with the extra labor required to shape and move so much earth.
Materials
Wood: 2t
Stone: 1t
Parameters
HP: 500
DEF: 100
MDEF: 100
Construction
Cost: 300
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 10
Palisade
A traditional defensive structure combining the strengths of both a thick wooden wall and an Earthen Bulwark. By vertically stacking logs of wood on the exterior and packing it with dirt behind, a stouter defense can be made.
Materials
Wood: 10t
Stone: 3t
Parameters
HP: 1,000
DEF: 135
MDEF: 135
Construction
Cost: 450
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 10
Housing Tier I
Town Hall
Provides basic storage, improves EP generation, and provides amenities to the settlement. Required to upgrade to Settlement Level 2 and beyond.
Materials
Wood: 10t
Stone: 7t
Parameters
HP: 600
DEF: 50
MDEF: 50
Storage: 500t of each material.
Morale: +5%.
EP Generation: +10%.
Construction
Cost: 350
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 8
Bunkhouse
A large structure that allows many people to sleep, sheltered from the elements. The cramped design provides a high occupancy but leaves much comfort to be desired. It is serviceable and better than sleeping on the cold hard ground. Cold Insulation raises with each occupant.
Materials
Wood: 8t
Parameters
HP: 300
DEF: 10
MDEF: 10
Occupancy: 25
Morale: -20%
Construction
Cost: 200
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 6
Shack
A smaller occupancy home that allows up to four people to share the same roof. Like the Bunkhouse, it is far from comfortable and is completely unfurnished. Unlike the Bunkhouse, it lacks the Insulation bonus. However, its Morale degradation is less as people have a semblance of privacy.
Materials
Wood: 2t
Parameters
HP: 100
DEF: 10
MDEF: 10
Occupancy: 4
Morale: -10%
Construction
Cost: 70
Difficulty: 1
Worker Limit: 4
Examining the defenses further, he was able to find that each of the walls was constructed in 30-foot-long sections, though they ranged in height and thickness. He could link them together into a seamless piece, or create gates and openings as he wanted.
All he had to do was find out how wide the gap to the settlement was, then determine how much CP everybody had. Considering the System called it Crafting Points, he was willing to guess that Construction - or Building - was a crafting skill. Whichever it was called.
And that meant that most people who weren’t already skilled were likely going to have 1 or less CP an hour.
Even if several of the dwarves were relatively skilled, with CP costs in the hundreds for each section of the wall, it was going to take a long time.
No use in getting ahead of myself. I don’t even know how many people are going to be able to build. We still need food, shelter, and materials.
They had just enough food to last ten days if and only if the Rangers continued to forage and hunt at their current rate. And while they were certainly skilled at their task, might they be faster with a dedicated building?
Hal had no idea how many of the roughly dozen Rangers were dedicated to the task. If they all hunted, then a single Hunting Lodge filled with 5 workers could output the same as the entire group.
And that meant more people building the wall.
But what Hal needed most, was more information. He needed to find out just how many Rangers hunted or gathered food and how much they brought back.
He needed to speak to Durvin and find out how large the gap to the settlement was. How many of his dwarves had building skill and what their current CP rate was, and how many were willing to dedicate to building the wall.
If that wasn’t enough, he needed to find out why the housing situation was so pathetic. Everything he could build had a negative Morale attached and he wondered just how comparable it was if they kept everybody in their wagons.
They had gon
e the entire trip in the small - but surprisingly comfortable - wooden boxes-on-wheels. Could a few more days really hurt?
By keeping his people in the wagons a little longer, they could dedicate almost all of their resources toward building the wall and gathering the necessary resources.
They had 45 tons of rough stone, 20 tons of raw wood, and 40 tons of lumber. Though, as Hal noticed, none of the buildings required lumber. He wondered if using the refined planks would lead to an improvement in the building itself.
Simply put, there was so much to do and little enough time for it.
Without knowing everybody’s CP rate for building things, he couldn’t direct his forces where they needed to go. And that didn’t touch on things like how to upgrade the Settlement to Level 2. Or if he should scout the surrounding area and lay traps along possible routes to his settlement.
Up on his feet again, Hal drained the last of his tea and headed out. He needed answers - a lot of them - and he wasn’t about to find them sitting alone in a wagon.
Beastborne Page 44