Hmm, Lucky Bastard 12, Analyze 5, Tracking 5, War Party Leader 2, Mana Infusion 13, Mana Manipulation 12, Drilling Arrow 7, Blood Wrath 11, Heal Followers 2, Mana Drain 3.
I’ve accumulated a pretty decent skill list so far, although most were only at Novice rank. I tested how much it would cost to level up Lucky Bastard to 13.... 36 EP.
“Yep, the formula is different for Apprentice rank,” Vic chimed in, “It’s ten plus double next skill level”.
I gave some thought to raising my own skills, but resisted the temptation for now. Like my character levels, I could raise skill levels easily on my own, much more so than my goblins could, so the energy will be better used on them.
I did treat myself however, to 2 level ups in Drilling Arrow. It was going too slowly for my taste and I felt a serious weakness in my ranged magical attack abilities. And it only cost 37 points, I could afford that.
Ah what the hell, I thought, and invested another 20 EP and raised it to level 10.
I had 273 more points to spend.
Let’s think about goblin levels now.
I reviewed everyone’s level progress, and since no one was as close to leveling up as Tika had been I let it go.
Next, skills. As always, I needed more food, the new Gatherer skill was at level 1, but there was little point in investing EP in it when he’d level it up himself in a few days, same thing for the new Builder.
I realized the EPs would be most efficient when invested in mid-level skills. At first skill levels rose very quickly from being used, but around level 7-8 progress slowed down to about 1 level per day. Of course, if I invested EPs in their skills, my goblins would only hit their skill cap sooner. The cap was set by how many Attribute points were invested in the Physical, Mental, or Social stats. It might be more efficient to summon a horde of level 1 workers and let them reach their cap, around skill level 10, on their own. Damn, I grabbed my head with frustration at all these complicated considerations.
But then the food upkeep would be higher than our production rate. I wouldn’t be able to save enough food to summon more goblins. There were more parameters to consider aside from Energy costs.
Also, their character levels affected the daily energy gain, so a hoard of level ones wouldn’t cut it. It was better to summon half the number of goblins and immediately raise their character’s level up once, effectively doubling their daily energy contribution, and also increasing the cap potential, and then let them work and reach the skill cap on their own.
There! It’s decided! I thought with relief.
That would offer the most gain in the long term, which suited me just fine as I was stuck here for the long term.
With a bit of searching I got the interface to display the data I needed. There were six level 1 goblin workers. It cost 50 EP to raise each worker to the 2nd level. 300 in total. That left me with 173 energy in reserve. Lower than the 200 goal I set for myself, but I was reasonably sure I wouldn’t need to resurrect anyone for a while. I hoped.
I checked my daily EP gain, it had changed from 54 to 61 per day.
That’s enough Energy allocation for one day, I decided, and continued browsing the Settlement Interface.
I clicked on the Settlement Level option. I was thrilled, I’d finally found the detailed requirements for level two:
Level 2 (Hamlet)
Requirements: 2 Apprentice level buildings, 50 members
Hmm. Well, we were on our way to fulfilling those requirements anyway, so, as long as we survived the next several days, it shouldn’t be too difficult. At least there wasn’t some crazy condition like building a resource-guzzling monument to some useless deity.
Last one, holding my breath, I clicked on the Bosses option.
Promote a new Boss [1/2]: 1000 Energy
Boss Leader upgrade: Settlement level 2, 5000 energy.
Damn, they didn’t want much did they. 5000 energy for next boss level? That’s outrageous, at the current rate it would take roughly three months to accumulate that much energy. That’s if I didn’t spend any of it.
Damn, that’s a serious setback!
Or maybe… Could there be another way to gather energy, in addition to the daily clan allotment?
I took a steadying breath. It didn’t matter, I would simply have to stick to my long-term strategy. For now, I would use whatever energy, and any other resources I had at my disposal, to develop my clan as much as possible. Eventually it will yield a much higher daily EP.
The Promote option was interesting. If I understood it correctly, at my current settlement level, I could have another Boss NPC, other than myself. And I could select any of my followers for promotion.
“Yep, pretty much,” Vic replied to my unspoken thoughts.
Well, that was it for now. Hours had passed while I sat there, searching the Interface, and it was already late into the night. I got up, leaving my new home, and went over to the campfire to have dinner with the rest of my clan.
I sat among my people and casually chatted them up, getting today’s progress report.
The day’s food income stood at 13 rabbits, 3 fish, 15 pieces of meat from hunting, and a handful of edible fruits and vegetables the new gatherer brought in. The gatherer also collected two handfuls of something called ‘ingredients - simple’, it looked like a mash of herbs and roots, but it wasn't marked as something that could be eaten as it was.
The increase in population also upped our daily food upkeep, Tika was barely able to keep up with the demand now on her own.
I tried not to be disappointed with the amount of food the gatherer brought in. I knew it would take time to develop the skill level.
I decided to take a look at the Gatherer skill description. I accessed the worker information and clicked on the skill description.
Gatherer(S)
Live off the land. Find and collect roots, vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, and other edible flora. Possible types of gathered material: Edible, Ingredients.
Alternatively can be used to efficiently harvest a field.
The Valley: can accommodate 7 gatherers. And has a max daily yield of 27 units per gatherer. 45% edible, 55% ingredients. It is possible to focus on one type only which increases the potential by half. (67% edible or 82% ingredients).
Level 2: Novice
Effect I: gather up to 16% of available resource (default setting: 45% edible, 55% ingredients).
Effect II: harvest: 120 units.
That was one complexly worded skill. The harvest option was clear enough, but I didn’t have any fields or the farmers to grow them. But what about the rest of the skill?
“Guba,” I called out to the goblin cook who was busily re-filing plates, “can I talk to you for a moment, please.”
She approached me, wiping her hands on her apron, then picked her nose.
“Eh. What do ye want, youngling?” she asked bluntly, her embedded finger making rolling motions.
For some reason she was being ruder than normal. I decided to sidestep that issue. Knowing Guba, she’d bring up her grievances soon enough.
“Any idea what these are for?” I asked and showed her the lump of ingredients.
She glanced at the mess “It be some cooking ingredients, you use them for cooking.”
“What exactly are they used for?” I insisted.
She rolled her eyes. “Complex food requires more ingredients than simple roasted raw meat. Them ingredients can be used in a variety of dishes, you be needing to know the recipe and be having a good ‘naf cook to make it.” Seeing my bewilderment, she relented and in a slow, deliberate voice said “You can be making advanced food with ‘em. Fer yer precious breeders”.
I brightened up at that.
“Guba, any chance you can…”
“NO!” she interrupted me. “I been telling you countless times. I. Am. Not. A. Cook!!! Even if I do sometimes be getting lucky with a piece of fillet. I be having no proficiency with the stuff, I’d burn half the ingredients to make anything edible out of it.”
“Guba, I fully intend to request a new Cook to replace you from the Breeders, but they require 20 units of advanced food, and currently, we only have the two pieces you were lucky enough to make. You see my problem?”
She stared at me for a long moment. Then with a grunt she continued in a friendlier tone, “So if I would be giving you 20 advanced food, I’ll be rid o’ this Corgoram’s awful task?”
“Yes!” I banged my staff on the ground for emphasis.
“You got yerself a deal youngling!” she said. “Just don’t be blaming me If I burn half the meat and ingredients!
“It’s a deal. I’ll get some more gatherers, to bring you more ingredients.”.
“Hmph” was her only reply.
I had a total of 18 spare units of food. Not enough to summon a new goblin at the moment. I also had to decide what Zuban’s next project would be.
I brought up the settlement interface and selected the Buildings menu. The list of buildings had expanded with new building options, including Apprentice level buildings:
● Tanning house, small: work pelts and skins into leather crafting components. Can produce leather items.
Requirements: 20 wood, 20 stone, Constructor: Apprentice, one worker, BP: 200,
● Smithy, small: Smelt ore into blanks, produce tools.
Requirements: 20 wood, 20 stone, 5 metal, Constructor: Apprentice, one worker, BP: 250
● Workshop, medium: An open workable location with general purpose facilities to enable basic level crafting. Enable crafting for Novice rank. (higher ranks require a dedicated building)
Requirements: 40 wood, 10 metal, 20 stone, Constructor: Apprentice, BP: 300
● Lumber Mill, medium: process a raw log into 4 pieces of construction worthy wood.
Requirements: 40 wood, 20 stone, 10 metal, Constructor: Apprentice, one worker, BP: 300
● Armory, medium: Dedicated workshop for crafting various armors.
Requirements: 10 wood, 10 metal, 50 stone, Constructor: Apprentice, one worker, BP: 360
● Weaponry, medium: Dedicated workshop for crafting various weapons.
Requirements: 10 wood, 10 metal, 50 stone, Constructor: Apprentice, one worker, BP: 360
● Chemist Lab, medium: Allow production of various chemical based items.
Requirements: 10 wood, 50 stone, 10 glass, Constructor: Apprentice, one worker, BP: 400
● Glass house, small: produces glass, and glass related items.
Requirements: 10 wood, 30 stone, 5 metal, Constructor: Apprentice, one worker, BP: 250
Interesting, I thought as I browsed the details of the building. All the Apprentice ranked buildings required stone.
Damn.
I should have planned for that, and started stockpiling stone.
“Hi Zuban,” I called out to my chief constructor.
“Esteemed Totem? I trust that everything is fine with your new Chief’s House?”
“Yes it's great Zuban. I wanted to talk about our next construction project. I see that all Apprentice level buildings require stone, and most also require metal. But we’re a bit lacking in those resources.”
“If I may suggest something, Esteemed Totem?”
“Go on”
“First, we should build a stone Quarry, it's a simple building that will speed up the production of stone we need for construction. Then our next project should be the smithy.”
That was unexpected. I was leaning toward the Workshop myself, it seemed like the perfect solution for our crafting problem, it would have enabled us to produce some weapons and armor and other required items, even though they’d only be low-level items, that would still be much better than what we’ve got now, which was a big nothing.
Zuban waited a moment before continuing, “The thing is, we can construct any of the buildings, but then they would just stand there, unusable because we don’t have proper tools for the workers. For example, the Lumber Mill requires a large circular saw blade, where are we going to get that? My builder would also soon require advanced building implements. A smithy is the solution for all our tool problems.”
I hadn’t considered that. Then I remembered how ill prepared I was to supply Cobie with a fishing Rod. And I still hadn’t been able to get him decent gear.
Now that I thought about it, I was lucky that Breeder and the Gatherer workers only needed knives, which we had brought with us to the valley.
Zuban was right. Damn I was lucky to have him. But something still bothered me…
“It says that the Smithy requires 5 metal and we don’t have those. What can we do?”
To my surprise, Zuban grinned, “Two days ago, I’d be stumped to answer that, but now new thoughts and ideas come to me all the time. It's actually quite simple. The metal is for the anvil and some basic smithing equipment; tongs, hammers, and such. But we can construct the building itself, and most importantly the forge. Even without proper tools, a Blacksmith will be able to smelt ore into workable metal blanks, then we would have metal to complete the building. Simple, right?”
“Zuban, you’re a genius! That’s exactly what we’ll do! Tomorrow the quarry, and then the Smithy!”
“Good! We’ll start at first light, now that I have three Builders to use, it shouldn’t take us more than three days to finish the Quarry. You just make sure to get a goblin or two that are Stonemasons.”
“Will do. Stonemasons are next on the list for the Breeder’s Hut.”
Everything seemed to be taken care of for tonight, So I left the campfire and went back to my new house.
I snuggled into my furs, and relaxed comfortably.
Though it seemed insignificant, the difference between sleeping outdoors and sleeping inside a stout dwelling was significant. It felt more...secure and relaxing. I understood how the lack of proper housing was causing morale penalties.
I closed my eyes, and slept peacefully.
***
I woke up late the next morning. The sounds of construction and activity penetrated the walls of my house faintly. I stood up, stretched laboriously and went outside.
I had three more days before the attack I foresaw in my vision happened. I planned to spend the rest of the day preparing and tomorrow exploring the cave.
Everyone was already off for their daily routines. All except Vrick, Bek and the two warriors, who stared aimlessly at the cooking fire while Guba attempted to use the new ingredient in a weird cooking experiment.
She was steaming ingredients in a kettle, using a piece of meat as a lid, I tore my eyes away from that weirdness, and turned to the others.
“Tomorrow we are going to scout the cave together,” I informed them, garnering an enthusiastic expression from Vrick that contrasted with Bek’s horrified look.
“So today, we’ll train and practice some group fighting tactics, follow me.”
I led them toward the open area the warriors usually trained in, and took out the steel buckler I’d looted from the hobgoblins, handing it to Vrick.
He held it awkwardly and stared at me in bewilderment.
“What am I supposed to do with this chunk of metal?”
“You protect yourself with it.” I explained, “Here, strap it to your hand,” I showed him how to bind the shield to his arm. The hobgoblin I took it from, used the buckler as light extra protection that didn’t overly hinder him. For a goblin, it resembled a full-sized shield. Once Vrick knew how to hold it, even if awkwardly, he looked much more impressive.
“I can barely move with this thing,” He complained, “How am I supposed to use it?”
“That’s easy,” I replied, “First put your spear away.”
He shrugged and threw away the spear.
“Now,” I continued, “Simply concentrate on using the shield.”
He shrugged again and held the shield with both hands, in an awkward position. I choose not to correct him.
Understanding will come soon enough, and said, “Good, now all you need to do, is defend yourse
lf with the shield.”
He seemed baffled again, “Protect? From what?”
“Them,” I pointed at the two warriors, then turned to them, pointed at Vrick and commanded, “Attack!”
The two, their faces expressionless, leveled their spears at Vrick, and moved in to attack him.
Vrick swore in surprise, jumped back and tried to swipe away the spears with the shield, while still holding it in both hands. He managed to parry one spear, but the other struck his chest. Luckily his new plate vest proved to be good protection, and all he got was a small scratch.
“Again!” I commanded, and the warriors resumed their attack. Again and again they stabbed their spears at Vrick, he managed to swipe away a few of the attacks, but got stabbed more often than not, though his armor prevented any serious damage. He swore profusely and kept trying to evade, dodge and parry awkwardly.
“Bek, monitor his health, make sure to heal him whenever he’s below 70%” Bek nodded. Luckily, the mechanics of game were automatically translated for NPCs into terms they understood, so it was not a question of being intelligent enough to understand how to calculate 70%.
They kept at it for many more minutes, Vrick kept swearing, jumping and bleeding, while Bek occasionally darted into the melee to heal him.
Vrick kept looking more and more furious, as he sustained more and more minor wounds. Finally, he roared in anger, removed his unbound hand from the shield and wielding it properly with one arm. He easily swept both spear thrusts to the side with it, then jump in and backhanded his warriors, tripping them to the ground.
I checked his character information and saw that he gained a new skill: ‘Shield: 1’
“Well done Vrick!” I applauded him.
Vrick turned to me and with eyes full of fury started closing the distance between us. His whole demeanor screamed murder, and I actually took a step back in alarm. I didn’t think he’d attack me, as I didn’t get any prompt that I had lost reputation with him, but still, the visage of the small, shield wielding furious goblin was daunting.
He reached me with one hand, grabbed the front of my shirt with his fist, and easily lifted me up to my toes, bringing our faces close together.
Life Reset: A LitRPG Novel (New Era Online Book 1) Page 36