The office door opened and Hirooku, Vatras’s other lieutenant, came in, catching his boss’s last words. “Why would you be worried about that? It’s been only four days since the takeover. The scouting party killed most of the mobs he managed to recruit. He’ll be lucky to have the same amount for the main strike force, let alone anything more powerful within the next two days.”
“He’ll have much more time than that to prepare,” Vatras said darkly, his brows knitting together.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Never mind.” Vatras waved his hand dismissively, “Just trust me on this: Oren is busy recruiting more and more mobs to his side and he’s doing it quickly. We need to be quicker. We can’t afford to lose the second team!”
“Don’t sweat it.” Hirooku eased his arms on the hilts of the twin swords at his belt. He exchanged a meaningful glance with his co-officer, who nodded back in agreement. “Tell you what, since you’re so worried, BigPill and I will babysit the second group. We’ll make sure they get there in one piece. Once we’ve arrived, we’ll let them loose burning and killing and provide them with backup. Sound good?”
A relieved smile touched the guildmaster’s face. “You’ll do that?”
The lean man stretched out his arms “Why not? Sure, it's been a while since we last chased some goblins. We’ll miss the next two clan raids, but you will reimburse us our lost shares, right?” He winked at BigPill. The clan never did more than one full raid a week.
Vatras frowned, then nodded slowly. “Agreed. If you are both willing to do the legwork, I’ll take it. I want you to take the anchoring crystal with you though. Just in case we have to use our backup plan.”
The hovering image flickered and faded away. Vatras turned around, staring accusingly at his lieutenant.
“What?” BigPill said. “You’ve already watched them walking for half an hour. I’m almost out of mana.”
“So once we get there,” Hirooku intervened, “and finish killing all of Oren’s mobs and burn all his buildings, then what? We kill Oren’s avatar? How do you know he’ll even be logged in?”
“For that matter,” BigPill chimed in, “how do we even know the goblin is Oren’s stupid avatar? I think it’s more plausible he just gave up on the game the day we kicked him out of the guild and simply avoided deleting his character out of spite. We might be going out of our way to destroy some faraway random goblin boss instead.”
Vatras’s eyes became distant. “Believe me, I know Oren. He might be a fool, but he’s a stubborn fool. He won’t give up without a fight. No, it’s him. Back there, deep in the Deadlands, plotting our downfall. I know it.”
His lieutenants’ faces betrayed their skepticism.
Vatras chuckled. “Alright, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Do you still have dear old Arladen in your contact lists?”
The two nodded.
“Try sending him a message.”
Hirooku made a few motions in the air, then paused. “I’m getting ‘player not found’ message. So what?”
“Hmm …” BigPill steepled his fingers. “When you message an offline player, you normally get a ‘player is away’ notification. They’ll get the message when they log back in.”
“And that proves what?” Hirooku countered. “It’s probably because of the race change thing. The game can’t locate him.”
Vatras raised one finger. “Except, when we kicked him out, I sent Oren a private message to taunt him some more, and I received the same ‘player not found’ notification, while his goblin avatar was sprawled on the ground at my feet. I have been sending him private messages every few hours since then, trying to track his gaming hours. And short of a small time window right at the start, they all returned this same response.”
The two lieutenants exchanged glances, frowning.
“That’s right.” Vatras nodded. “As far as I can tell, our fearless ex-leader has not logged out since our revolution. He’s still there, waiting for us, building up his forces.”
“So …” Hirooku said slowly, “once we locate him and destroy everything he’s built, we do what? Kill his character? You know he’ll just respawn.”
Vatras shook his head. “No. His goblin avatar is an unprecedented phenomenon in the system and is not governed by the standard PvP rule. We are free to do things to him we wouldn’t normally be able to do. Like, for example, put him in chains and throw him in a dungeon. Once he’s in our hands, we can persuade him to see reason.” Vatras gave a cruel smile. “His little monster empire won’t save him. Nor his gremlins or mutated freaks. He’ll be ours, and he will give us what we want.”
The two lieutenants looked uncertain.
“How do you know all that?” BigPill asked.
Vatras smirked. “I have … my sources.”
27 – Loss and Gain
I got up at sunset as the last few rays of light pierced the thick forest canopy.
Riding on Tempest, we sprinted through the forest at an incredible speed. I instinctively shut my eyes as we narrowly avoided colliding with the trees in our path, but Tempest was in absolute control. He jumped over bushes, circled trees, and evaded low-hanging branches, sometimes with barely a centimeter to spare.
Several hours later, we made it back to the valley, overtaking my troops just as they neared the entrance. Together we covered the short trek through the valley’s forest, finally arriving at the settlement.
We’d been away for nearly three full days. If Tal’s information was correct, we had less than 20 days before the first invasion force arrived. I had much to accomplish if I wanted to be ready for them, and with a few more hours remaining in the day, I decided to make the best use of the time.
I rode Tempest at a trot past the buildings, noting along the way that the line of cabins was longer than when I’d left.
Information streams flowed into my mind, alerting me to the changes and additions made in my absence. I’d have to review them all, but first things first.
I made my way to the marketplace, dismounted, and went to see Anikosem. I found the elderly gremlin sitting in his booth, cleaning the glass display.
“You’re back,” he noted nonchalantly. “How was the hunt?”
In reply, I dropped the 18 oxsaurian horns on the counter.
The old gremlin jumped to his feet, his eyes wide. “Cogs and gears, that’s a lot of horns! Must be a whole herd in here. This … this is incredible.”
“So now will you teach me the Zu rune of motion?” I pressed, not wanting his excitement to distract him from our deal.
“What? Oh yes, yes, of course.”
Quest Completed: Oxsaurian Horns
You have given Anikosem the 10 oxsaurian horns he asked for and then some.
Quest type: Simple
Reward: ‘Zu’ rune, 800 gold, 5,000 XP
Level up! You have reached Character Level 32. You have 1 ability point to allocate.
The old gremlin pushed over a piece of paper and a stack of gold. “Here you go.”
Cool. I added the point to Mental, bringing it up to 36, then examined the drawing on the paper, studying the lines of the new rune.
You gained knowledge of a new rune: ‘Zu’
I finally had the Zu rune. I could continue my experiment, but later. There were too many small things to take care of first.
I stepped outside the marketplace’s large canopy and looked for Tempest. The demon wolf was gone, probably asleep next to my house.
As I scanned the open field, I got a weird sensation. Something didn’t feel right. I studied my surroundings carefully for a full minute before I realized what was bothering me. The lumber yard was silent. The constant low background noise of logs being sawed into lumber was gone.
A lone figure was making its way hastily toward me through the open field. Kaedric.
My seneschal arrived and bowed his head before me. His mandibles twitched slightly, and his breath was labored. “My lord, forgive the delay. I came as soon as I de
tected your return. Your pet mount is quite swift.”
“Don’t worry about it. Why is the lumber yard quiet? Where’s Woody?”
Kaedric’s eyes lingered on me for a moment, then he lowered them. “He is dead.”
“What?”
“I’m afraid I bear bad news, my lord. While you were away there was an accident. The large buzz saw broke while Woody was operating it. The momentum sent it flying, killing the goblin and causing some structural damage to the building.”
“Damn it!” I seethed. It seemed Lady Luck was repeatedly sabotaging our wood production efforts; first the murder of my lumberjacks, and now this.
“Let’s go.” I motioned my seneschal to follow and we made our way to the nearby lumber yard.
Wolrig and his crew of low-ranked builders were in the process of repairing a damaged wall section. The large buzz saw, over a meter in diameter, was embedded in one of the walls.
I frowned. What the hell could cause that? I went to the remains of the saw’s base and inspected the damage. It looked like the wooden axle had broken while it was spinning. I took a closer look at the axle and my frown deepened. “Wolrig, come over here.”
The small goblin constructor approached me. “Yes, Dread Totem?”
I pointed. “What do you see here?”
The goblin looked at the broken axle and shrugged. “The axle broke; it obviously couldn’t take the constant pressure.”
“Look closer.” I raised the piece of jagged, broken wood. “What do you see?”
“The outer edges of the break are … clean,” he said slowly. A look of comprehension spread over his face. “Someone cut a groove into the axle to weaken it. It was sabotage!”
“Yep,” I said grimly, dropping the axle piece. “Have it replaced with a steel one.”
“Yes, Dread Totem.”
“Kaedric, what do you make of it?”
My seneschal did not answer right away. His mandibles twitched as he appeared deep in thought. Eventually, he snapped out of it and shook his head. “I’m afraid it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint the culprit. The sabotage could have happened days or even weeks before. Nearly all the newcomers have visited the lumber yard at some point. Any one of them could have done it.”
“Damn it!” I clenched my teeth. Someone was messing with me and my clan, and I didn’t like it one bit. Once I catch them, I’ll throw them down the cave to become Nihilator’s new chew toy. That ought to teach them a lesson, I thought darkly. Our dark deity’s ‘Devourer’ ability could permanently destroy any character, including a player’s. That was why he’d been hunted down in the first place and left shackled deep underground. And I had a strong hunch who the responsible party was.
“Have The Mob Squad returned yet?”
“No, my lord. They haven't been in the clan for several days, not since you sent them on the quest to escort the goblin adept.”
It still didn’t rule them out. That annoying dwarf could have easily rigged the accident before they left. But I had to admit, I hadn’t really let them have much time to hang around after our last confrontation, so I couldn’t be sure.
I crossed my arms. “Why haven’t you resurrected Woody yet?”
“Wolrig reported it would take two days to repair the damage, my lord. Woody would have been out of work if I had recalled him immediately. I determined it more efficient to postpone his resurrection until the lumber yard is fully operational again, which should be shortly.”
That made a morbid kind of sense.
I sighed. “Very well. You handled the matter appropriately, Kaedric. Thank you.”
He bowed his head slightly at the compliment.
I made my way out of the building with Kaedric behind me. “Any other updates while I was away?”
“Several, my lord. The research center has been completed. Romil and Primla have relocated there to continue their work and already have some ideas for researching new Master-ranked blueprints.”
At least there was some good news.
“The barracks’ Advanced Warfare Center has been completed as well. I used our entire supply of crude bows in order to import the resources required by the Advanced Warfare Center. Those bows were the ones Bosper, our bowyer, had fashioned before acquiring his Apprentice rank. Luckily, it was enough to purchase the required material for the Advanced War –”
“Just call it AWC,” I interrupted, “or this conversation will take twice as long.”
His mandibles jerked. “Very well, my lord. The 40 bows were enough to import all the resources required for the AWC’s construction. You may review it at your leisure.”
“Then let’s go.”
We made our way toward the northern part of the valley.
“I see you built a few more cabins as well while I was away,” I noted.
“Yes, my lord. Now that our second team supports six builders, construction is much quicker. Zuban’s team finished the … AWC … yesterday. For now, I’ve assigned them to help with the cabins, until you decide on their next project. The two teams work impressively fast. I believe they will complete the fourth cabin shortly.”
“Hmm …” That was quicker than I had anticipated. We’d already finished building all the high-priority buildings, so I could have my workers begin on less critical projects now. “What blueprints are the researchers working on now?”
“The barracks’ armory, my lord.”
I opened the Settlement Interface and navigated to the construction tab to view the buildings we still hadn’t made.
Apprentice Buildings
Leather workshop, small – Work pelts and skins into leather crafting components. Can produce leather items.
Requirements: 30 wood, 30 stone, 10 metal, BP 300.
General Workshop, medium – An open workplace with general-purpose facilities and workbenches to supplement basic level crafting. Enables crafting for Novice rank. (higher ranks require a dedicated building)
Requirements: 40 wood, 10 metal, 20 stone, BP 300
Chemist Lab, medium – Allows production of various chemical-based items.
Requirements: 10 wood, 50 stone, 10 glass, BP 400
Glasshouse, small – Produces glass and glass-related items.
Requirements: 10 wood, 30 stone, 5 metal, BP 250
Pens – Raise domesticated livestock for meat and other products.
Requirements: 30 wood, 30 stone, BP 200
The leather workshop wasn’t a high priority in my book; we were already doing pretty well on that front. The general workshop, however, sounded much more interesting. I’d had a bunch of goblins – the bowyer, the tanner, and the fletcher – working on the ground for weeks instead of in a proper building. They could all do with a workshop of their own.
“Let Zuban’s team build the general workshop next, Kaedric, and have Wolrig’s team continue working on cabins.” Due to our recent rapid expansion and worker recruitment, we were experiencing morale penalties from the lack of lodging again.
“Yes my lord. I have notified Zuban. He shall commence construction at once.”
Seeing the chemist lab on that list reminded me that I hadn’t spoken to Guba since giving her the chemistry set. I should do it soon, I mused.
The glass house was not worth the effort. We didn’t have access to sand, the raw material, and would have to import it. Though it was cheaper than glass, we didn’t require much of the resource in the first place to justify manufacturing it on our own.
The pens blueprint was new, recovered from the Ogre fort. I would have loved to grow cows and pigs. Farm animals would surely provide a greater yield than our own rabbit warren, but as we didn’t have access to such animals, that building was off my list for now.
At least the increased construction rate made it redundant to spend energy on rushing constructions. I checked our current EP status, smiling as I saw the number: 6,296 EP. That was huge. I frowned as I recalled having barely 4,000 only a few days ago. Concentrating briefly, I plucked
the daily EP figure as well.
“Oh wow,” I said, drawing a look from Kaedric. My clan was generating 752 energy points per day. A huge amount. I dove deeper, looking for the reason. We had 136 individuals in the clan, mostly workers that contributed three or four EP. Another 40 were foblins that generated one EP each. The biggest contributors, however, were the soldiers. Now that I’d power-leveled them all above level 10, they were generating the lion’s share of the points.
That realization reaffirmed the course of action I had decided on. In the weeks to come, I would continue to recruit more soldiers and take them on oxsaurian hunting expeditions for quick leveling. Then I would make them train in the barracks until their combat skill raised to match.
In between, I would work on enchanting their weapons and armor and on my own projects. Hopefully, by the time the attacking players got here, I’d have a large and strong fighting force to face them.
That reminded me that the oxsaurian hunt provided us with a ton of raw meat. I accessed the warehouse interface and checked our current stocks. We had exactly 1,150 pieces of raw meat and a few dozen units of the other ingredients. That’s a lot of steaks. I chuckled. “Kaedric, please ask Gandork to cook all the simple food we have in stock.”
“Yes, my lord. Our cook has also discovered a new recipe for the unused gathered ingredients. I believe he calls it ‘Totem’s Salad.’ Shall I have him prepare those as well?”
“Yes. Have it all delivered to the Breeder’s Den.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Sounds of metal clashing on metal, roars, and war cries welcomed us as we neared the barracks. We passed through the gates into the inner courtyard and looked down into the training pit.
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