by Aleron Kong
Five minutes later, the mist cleared and the entire village caught sight of their new building. It was a clear amalgam of goblin and human architecture. White walls of marbled quartz shone in the noonday sun. It was two stories high and a heavy wooden door, banded with metal, was set against the northern side. Small windows were set into the first floor, but they were rectangular and too small for a normal-sized person to fit through. The roof was braced by thick brown beams, but spikes of black wood jutted out from the sides, making the Townhall look like a horned monster.
Total Settlement Points Remaining: 5,071
“Well that was just… awesome!” Richter exclaimed with an excited grin.
“Awesome indeed, my lord,” Randolphus agreed, nodding.
Roswan’s response was a bit more effusive, “What in the name of the mustached god is happening?”
Richter just chuckled and realized he was hungry. Extensive healing depleted the body’s resources. As soon as he mentioned that there might be eggs, the Dungeon Keeper got on board with the plan. The three of them walked towards the feast area. Richter’s people were exclaiming and remarking about the wonder of the newly improved Townhall, and many sent smiles his way. As they walked, Richter thought about building a Barracks again. After seeing how great the Townhall was he was eager to spend more Settlement Points. When the interface reappeared, he saw that the top part of the window was the same as before but, to his delight, there was now an option to build a level three Barracks. He dismissed the other options and just examined the newest perks!
BARRACKS
*Cost is in Building Points
Level
Cost* for W/S/MQ
Effect
3
1,109/1,664/1,941
1) Can train 4 basic units at a time
2) -30% training time
3) Unusual unit upgrades available
4) Provides housing for 100 people (No drop in Morale for housing nonfighters)
5) Can train 2 specialized units at a time. 2 Specialized Units currently available: Meidon Archers and Pixie Scouts
6) Training in a Barracks increases acquisition of Martial skills by +30% (cumulative with trainer bonus)
7) Can train War Leaders
8) +25% Building Durability
9) This is a Fortified Structure: +20% to Attack and Defense for friendly fighters while in this Building
10) Fighting Spirit of Barracks-trained Units increased by +1 rank
The overlay in Richter’s vision showed him what each level of the Barracks would look like. A “0” level, the type of building that could be constructed without a Blueprint basically just looked like a cleared field with a few weapons stands and training dummies. Level one appeared as a one story central building with an archery target, more training dummies and a few weapon racks. Level two had a small wall surrounding several buildings and more sparring areas. Level three looked like something else entirely.
A fortified compound appeared in Richter’s vision. It was rectangular though almost a square, and had fifteen-foot-high walls. Four large stone buildings dotted the corners as well as lookout towers, with training yards on the inside. A level three Barracks wasn’t just a place to train his army, it was a fallback position if the walls were ever breached. Richter promised himself to buy more Blueprints as soon as possible. The benefits of high level buildings just couldn’t be ignored.
Not only did it increase the number of units that could be trained at once and make the process go faster, but it also gave another fortified position in his village. Perhaps even better, Barracks-trained units had a boost to their Fighting Spirit. Every positive rank they had in it increased the damage his forces dealt in battle. It also made them less likely to break and run or succumb to debuffs like Fear. Currently, his village was only rank one in FS, giving them a 5% bonus to the damage they inflicted. His Barracks-trained units would be immediately bumped to a 10% boost!
With a smile on his face, he purchased the Level 3 Barracks.
Total Settlement Points Remaining: 4,683
Once again, a great dome of mist rose from the ground. He’d chosen a position relatively close to the longhouses, so people could retreat into the compound in an emergency. Several minutes later, the mists cleared and the village’s newest building appeared. It looked exactly the way he’d seen it in his mind. Right after it appeared, a quest prompt appeared in his vision.
Congratulations! You have finished the Settlement Quest: Battle Prep I
You have finally (you were given this quest twice by two different people) created a Barracks. Though it took a great deal of time… you went above and beyond by creating a Level 3 building. The Rewards for doing so will be increased accordingly.
Reward: 5,625 (base 1,500 x 1.25 x 3) Experience Points
Reward: Village Loyalty +45 (base 15 x 3)
More snark, Richter thought. Still, he wasn’t complaining. The experience was great and earning that many Loyalty Points was always a cause for celebration. Richter grinned and accessed the next category on the Settlement Points prompt, Research.
Just like the Buildings status screen, he found he could exchange Settlement Points for Research Points.
You may convert Settlement Points into Research Points at a 1:5 ratio. You may only research technologies in this manner when you have met the requisite conditions, ie – knowing the preceding technology, etc.
This was much more straightforward. When Richter accessed the Science tab of his city screen, he only needed to divide the required Research Points by five. Just out of curiosity, he examined the one branch of advanced tech he had access to.
MIST VILLAGE TECH (TIER 12 from Unknown Tech)
TECH
COST
DESCRIPTION/REQUIREMENTS
Portals IV
2,302,583
At level three, you are able to build a portal that can be linked to the same number of portals as ley lines in the immediate vicinity. The receiving portals must be built upon ley lines that mirror those upon which the home portal is built. Successful research of Portals IV allows receiving portals to be built upon any type of ley line.
MIST VILLAGE TECH (TIER 13 from Portals)
TECH
COST
DESCRIPTION/REQUIREMENTS
Local Portals I
67,956
This tech unlocks the Blueprint for local Portals. Local portals are linked to a home portal and only allow travel between these two points. This ignores the limitation of portals being built a minimum of 50 miles apart. Local portals do not count against the maximum number of portals that can be linked to your home portal. At level one of this tech:
- Local portals can be built within a ten-mile radius of the home portal.
- One local portal can be created per ley line present.
- A traveler can enter the home portal and arrive at the local platform.
- Travel is not possible from the local portal back to the home portal.
Pedestal Activation I
32,743
The process of placing and removing an activation key to control the workings of a portal can be laborious and time-consuming. The creation of a pedestal key will greatly streamline this process. The creator of the pedestal can assign varying access rights to individuals or allow unrestricted access.
Microportal I
58,311
Learning this tech unlocks the Blueprint for microportals. Microportals are devices that will give instant transport back to the home portal the device is linked with. At level one of this tech:
- The maximum distance this device can be used is five hundred miles.
- You must be in close proximity to a ley line of the same type that the portal is built upon.
- Individuals and objects within five feet of the microportal user can be transported as well.
Richter shook his head. Even if he used all of the Settlement Points, there weren’t nearly enough. The Portals technology truly was beyond the re
search capabilities of his village. In fact, rank four of the tech had basically been beyond the ancient and powerful Tefonim civilization. He closed the Research window, but an idea began to tease the back of his mind.
The next category on the Settlement Points page was City Mechanics. Mentally clicking it, he saw that it let him affect Morale, Loyalty, Health or Corruption. He could give a permanent change to any of the mechanics or a temporary one. The conversion rate improved based on how short-lived the effect would be. Richter couldn’t directly affect any City Dynamics like Productivity, Population Growth or Crime, but honestly this tab didn’t interest him overly much. The village was already in good shape overall and the new Townhall would give a steady increase to both Morale and Loyalty.
The Resources option, on the other hand, was fascinating!
You may use Settlement Points to upgrade the known resources within your domain.
The wording of the prompt caught his attention. Only “known resources” could be altered. It meant there might be hidden treasures all throughout his domain that he didn’t know about yet. He had found a small amount of moonstone out in the forest, which had already been completely farmed and turned into ingots. The white metal was being used to make some of the village’s strongest weapons, but it was quickly running out. Having stronger metals might mean the difference between life and death for his people. That made him think about his iron mine. A prompt appeared that was not only interesting, but informative.
Know This! You can only access information about the 1st level of your mine. To gain further information, clear the 2nd level of monsters and obstacles.
Mist Village Mine (Level 1)
Purity
Metal Type
Amount
38%
Iron
20.1 Tons
For a moment, Richter just absorbed the information. He had known it was an iron mine, of course, but he’d had no idea what the purity was and just how much ore he had. Seeing as how there were 20.1 tons at 38% purity, that meant there were almost eight tons of iron ingots. Each ton was about nine hundred kilos. Given that a soldier wearing a full suit of chainmail, along with his weapon and shield, weighed in at forty to fifty kilograms… That meant each ton could outfit about twenty of his guards. Gearing up one hundred and sixty would deplete the entire first level. That didn’t even take into account sundry items like nails, horseshoes and rivets.
Richter shook his head. This was yet another facet of village life that he’d just been letting Randy handle. The chaos seed had received a quest weeks ago to venture into the second floor of the mine and clear out the monsters there. Now he understood why. His Place of Power had been trying to let him know about a future problem. He promised himself that he would start clearing his quest log as soon as the lich was dealt with.
Thankfully, metal depletion wasn’t a serious issue yet. He now knew just how finite one of the village’s major resources truly was now though. If he didn’t fulfill the quest, the Forge of Heavens might just run out of raw materials. Maybe there was something he could do right now though, to stretch what they already had.
Richer thought about each number on the iron mine prompt in turn. As he did, he learned that there was no direct conversion of Settlement Points this time. It varied based on what Richter thought about doing. Increasing the purity of the ore would let them pull more metal per piece collected. Increasing it to 50% would cost twelve SPs. Increasing the purity to 60% though, cost thirty-one points, so it had diminishing returns.
Next, he thought about transforming the iron mine into the next strongest metal, orichalum. Weapons made from iron actually removed a point from their base. Steel had no change, while high steel added one point to attack damage. Orichalum added two points. Richter’s eyes widened as he saw the cost.
The cost to convert 100% of your Iron Mine into an Orichalum Mine is 4,956 Settlement Points. Do you wish to convert your mine? Yes or No?
Richter quickly shut that down. It would cost almost every SP he had, and most of those were already spoken for. He was about to dismiss this idea as a loser, but then he read the prompt again. It had specified “100%.” What if he did less? What if he did just a fraction of a percent?
Know This! The minimum amount of a resource that can be transformed is 1%.
Well that didn’t work, Richter thought, so he tried to convert 1% of the mine.
The cost to convert 1% of your Iron Mine into an Orichalum Mine is 29 Settlement Points. Do you wish to convert your mine? Yes or No?
Yes! Richter thought. He quickly summoned to mind every metal he knew. A series of prompts appeared. Some, unfortunately, were a negative red. Even more unfortunately, the first negative prompt was just because he was a bonehead and was moving too fast.
Cannot convert Iron Mine to a Steel Mine. Steel is an alloy of iron.
Richter breathed a heavy sigh at that before going on to the next window.
Cannot convert Iron Mine to a Glass Mine or Darkstone Mine. Glass and Darkstone are Level 2 metals. The prerequisite metal is required to be present in the mine first.
Cannot convert Iron Mine to a Necromium Mine. Ambient Death energy is insufficient.
Cannot convert Iron Mine to a Duranium, Vibranium, Elementum, Thorium, Titan Steel, Mithril or Adamantium Mine. The ambient mana level of your territory is too low to support such powerful metals.
Cannot convert Iron Mine to a Naquadah, Unobtanium, Dilithium or Badassium Mine. These are nonsense words.
Again, Richter felt like a simple “No” would have sufficed instead of the snarkiness of the last prompt. It didn’t help that he now knew those prompts only came because it was the Universe reflecting his own assholiness back at him. On the other hand, it was cool to know that Vibranium was real though. That had been a real hail mary. Anyone that thought he wouldn’t totally make a Captain America shield complete with stars and stripes and Black Panther armor would be wrong… completely wrong.
The second to last prompt also helped him with a question that had been nagging him. He had heard both Randy and Hisako talking about how Dungeons could increase the ambient mana of the area around them. He hadn’t known why that was important. The prompts about advancing the village’s Adventurer Specialization had also said something about mana seepage and refinement. Now he understood at least part of the importance of that. Without a high mana level, certain high-level resources couldn’t exist. Maybe that was why elementum was referred to as a “fey” metal, and why it wasn’t naturally occurring on Richter’s plane of existence.
The fact that his domain couldn’t support necromium also proved that there would probably be some things that were beyond even how his “Limitless” potential affected his settlement. At least, he thought with a smile, for now. Even with those angry red prompts, Richter was pleased with the prompt that showed up last.
The cost to convert 13% of your Iron Mine into a Silver, Gold, Platinum, Tin, Osmium, Iridium, Palladium, Rhodium, Orichalum, Moonstone, Quicksilver, Cobalt and Ebony Mine (1% each) is 623 Settlement Points. Do you wish to convert your mine? Yes or No?
Despite the massive cost, this time Richter chose “Yes.” The point wasn’t the small amount of metal they could pull from the mine. The point was to get at least one unit of useable ore that he could feed to the Dungeon. He had a feeling that if the Dungeon started growing these metals, then this initial investment would be a very small price to pay. Richter shook his head. He was really starting to understand how valuable Dungeons were and why wars were fought to obtain them. The chaos seed just wondered how many other benefits he would uncover in the days to come.
Total Settlement Points Remaining: 4,060
There was more Richter wanted to do with his Settlement points, but now that he had so many metals in his mine, he wanted to try for one of the level two metals again. It was the only reason he had added moonstone seeing as how he already had access to that type of ore. His experiment was a partial success.
Cann
ot convert Iron Mine to a Glass Mine. Glass is a Level 2 metal. The prerequisite metal is required to be present in the mine first.
The cost to convert the 1% of your Mine that is Moonstone into Darkstone is 92 Settlement Points. Do you wish to convert your mine? Yes or No?
The cost was massive. Just converting this one metal into its level two equivalent was almost as much creating three level one metals. Based on how excited Bowdin had been when he’d seen the metal though it would be worth it, especially once an ingot had been mined and fed to the Dungeon.
Total Settlement Points Remaining: 3,968
The next resource Richter thought of was the crystal garden. It would be amazing if it could all be changed into a concentrated crystal. That idea got shot down two seconds later when he saw that it would cost more than seven thousand SPs. Yeah, that made sense, Richter thought to himself. The very cool thing about crystal though, was that, given enough time, it grew.
The cost to convert 1% of your Crystal Garden into a Concentrated Crystal Garden is 103 Settlement Points. Do you wish to convert your garden? Yes or No?
He chose “Yes” again and told Randolphus to halt all farming of the garden until Sion could inspect it.