The Empires Rise

Once his remains have been gathered, I look to find Slyvasti holding Ritotorous. Inspecting him, I see he is low on health but not dead; his wings have been damaged badly. Knowing this, I turn to Xelyphe. "Can you do me a favor and take a look at Ritotorous? I want to make sure he will be able to fly again."

They nod and make their way to Slyvasti. With a solemn air, I approached Draemish. "Can you show me which of the tombs was his residence? I want to follow your traditions as best we can."

She agrees and leads the way. We bump into a couple more people in the settlement along the way. Noticing the air around us gives us space to continue on our journey.

Heading inside the first tomb, several books and some candles line the walls. "He did like to study a lot," I said off-handedly.

"He didn't want to make a school for no reason," Draemish says.

"I am more shocked about how calm you are with what has happened," I mention.

"This isn't the first time an instructor has been killed by a student going through mana unblocking. He just forgot how lethal it could be. There is no blame on you. Those beings you saw were there for show. They try to lure anyone on the path to unblock their mana veins. Sadly, it happens more often than we hope back home. That is partly why we knock out anyone going through the process."

"He did mention knocking people out while clearing their mana veins," Eleanor defends.

"But he forgot the main reason, other than pain. Those bastard demons take more than is acceptable." There is fire in Draemish's words. "They target the weak and try to get them to follow their path toward chaos."

"That sounds awful."

"It is. I am glad your will was strong enough to fight back," She gives me a sad smile. "Even if it was at the cost of our scholar..."

We arrived at the main room not long after entering. Seeing the empty coffin before me, I approach with his remains. I gently set them inside and then step back.

Draemish comes to my side and swings the lid onto it. Several pots line the walls, but nothing of note catches my eye. I do hear Draemish comment under her breath.

"You old fool, what were your plans?" before she followed behind me.

"Today has been too much for me," I say aloud. "I am going to sleep before anything else happens to me."

As I head back to the manor for the final time today, nobody stops or approaches me. I do hear whispers, but nothing that I can make out.

When I got home, I was about to go straight to bed, but I remembered one last thing I needed to do before I slept.

I am about to enter the meeting room before Xelyphe grabs me from behind.

"Drake," they say softly. "You don't have to go in there again. At least not now."

"Why not?" I ask, feeling tired down to my core.

"We have moved everything out of there. It is all in the dining room."

"Thanks," I acknowledged. I moved to the dining room and opened the resource chests immediately. We get 780 of every material and 235 food, all tier 1.

With some of the wood, I finish putting spikes in the moat around the settlement.

After finishing that task, I went to my room and passed out.

There is a heavy knock on the door before my father walks in. "Drake, it's time to get up. We only have five hours left before the attack. We need to get organized and put our final defenses in place."

I look up groggily and start moving. Never to see a task unfinished, he pulls me to my feet. "Everyone is waiting for you. I think they hope you might have some words of encouragement for them before we start."

Rubbing my eyes as I stagger to the door, I look back. "Why don't you? You have more experience with this than I do."

"Because I don't want to, and it's not my position. I am just a regular settler like everyone else."

"Regular my ass," I mutter under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," I go down and get some food before starting my day.

Munching on bread from the Lord's Chest, I walk outside and am immediately bombarded by my commanders, who are vying for my attention.

"Drake, can we make any more defenses?" -Draemish.

"Should we try opening chests this morning for more blueprints?" -Shadow.

"I sssay we ssshould be working on our coordination. We haven't tried any joint tacticsss." -Vranjaya.

Sighing, knowing I won't get a break from this until the attack is over, I start with Shadow's question first. "While it would be great if we could get more blueprints, I don't think that would be beneficial now. We should work with what we have and try to use them best."

"For your question, Draemish, I have finished the spikes surrounding the settlement. I don't think anyone will leave today if they get caught in the middle of the attack and cannot reach safety. Let's get some more defenses up once we get to the walls. I want to see how things look from there."

"Finally, for you, Vranjaya, I don't disagree that we should get joint training for the hunters and the mages. We might be able to get a rotation setup since I don't know how long it will last, and getting everyone set up might ease the burden overall."

"Are there any other questions?" I ask, already tired, and the day has just started for me.

"Can you show us what defenses we have and what defenses we could build?" Draemish asks.

I pull up both lists and share them.

- Current Defenses for the Settlement:

Wooden Fence Level 1 X 1 (10 Meter Radius around the Major's Manor)

Earthen Bulwarks Level 1 X 1 (100 Meter Radius)

Wooden Pallisades Level 1 X 1 (100 Meter Radis)

Stone Gatehouse Level 1 X 1

Wood Arrow Tower Level 1 X 1 (Located right near the western wall)

Moat Level 1 X 1 (102 Meter Radius)

Spike Traps Level 1 X 1 Layer (102 Meter Radius)

Building Options:

Wood Arrow Tower Level 1: Automatically attacks individual monsters that get within range. - 80 units of Tier 1 Wood, 20 units of Tier 1 Stone.

Wood Flame Tower Level 1: Automatically attacks groups of monsters that get within range. - 80 Units of Tier 1 wood, 20 units of Tier 1 Metal.

Combat Support Tower Level 2: Increases chance to hit by 10% and increases damage by two while in area of influence. AoI: 100 Meters X 100 Meters.

Wooden Fence Level 1 - A low fence to help keep out small monsters and critters. It has a very limited health pool for those who are attacking it. Provides limited defense while behind it. 10 units of wood per 40 meters

Earthen Bulwarks Level 1 - A basic defense made of earth and wood. It can increase durability by using stone or metal in place of wood. It can also be used as a platform to build further defenses. 10 units of a resource per 5 meters

Wooden Palisades Level 1 - Wooden walls with a walkway to fire ranged attacks. Has moderate durability. 10 Units of Tier 1 Wood per 10 Meters

Stone Walls Level 1 - Stone walls with a high defense and a walking path that can accommodate two people standing shoulder to shoulder. Reaches 7 meters in height. 10 Units of Tier 1 Stone per 5 meters.

Spike Traps Level 1 - Basic spikes that can be placed inside pits or around the defenses. Requires 2 Units of Tier 1 Wood per 3 meters of spikes.

Moat Level 1 - A bare ditch dug out around the settlement. No materials are required.

Wooden Gatehouse Leve 1 - A basic gatehouse that will provide access into and out of the settlement. The gatehouse is 5 meters wide, 5 meters long, and 7 meters high. It is reinforced with heavy wooden doors and a crossbeam to shut. Requires 30 Units of Tier 1 wood.

Stone Gatehouse Level 1 - A stone gatehouse that will provide access into and out of the settlement. The gatehouse is 7 meters wide, 7 meters long, and 10 meters high. It has metal reinforced wooden doors with a portcullis. Requires 30 Units of Tier 1 stone, 10 Units of Tier 1 wood and 10 Units of Tier 1 metal.

Ballista Towers Level 1 - These defensive ballistae fire bolts at a maximum rate of 2 per minute while they are manned. Requires 5 Units of Tier 1 wood and 3 Units of Tier 1 metal

Wall-mounted Catapults Level 1 - Attached to a stone wall, these artillery placements lob large boulders at attacking forces. Fires at a rate of 1 stone per minute for larger boulders and 2 per minute for smaller shots. Requires a stone wall, a journeyman foreman, 5 Units of Tier 1 wood, and 3 Units of Tier 1 metal. -

When they see the options provided, I can see the hope to increase our survival radiate from their eyes.

"What is the resource count at?" Shadow asks.

Again, I show them that menu.

- Material Count for Caelnova:

Tier 1

Wood - 715

Stone - 1075 (+10 daily Tiny Mining Outpost)

Metal - 2625 (+0 from Small Mine)

Food - 830

Tier 2

Wood -

Stone 10 (+2 Daily Tiny Mining Outpost)

Metal -

Food - 1 (+1 Per 5 days Fishing Pier: Time remaining till next fish 4 days) -

I can see their concern. "We are sorely lacking when it comes to wood. It's sad that most buildings also require wood," Shadow says.

"I would have to agree, Ssshadow, but there are ssstill many thingsss that we can make even with the limited wood sssupply." Vranjaya comforts.

Turning to Draemish, she is deep in thought. "What do you think Draemish? Any thoughts on what we can do to improve our chances?" I ask her.

"These buildings all have level 1 next to them, with a select few with level 2. Is there a way to increase the level of the blueprints?"

"There is, but you need blueprint parts. I haven't gotten the option to use them yet, either."

"Interesting; stepping back, I don't think we need second-level defensive buildings. At least we don't need to build them. If we can level some buildings up with tokens, that would be wonderful."

"There are upgrade tokens available." I offer, "There are three iron, one bronze, and three silver. They correspond to the levels of buildings it can upgrade."

"And those levels would be?" Shadow shows some impatience.

"Iron can level a building up to level 2, bronze to level 3, and silver to level 4." I patiently reply.

"Have you tried using a silver token on a level 1 building?"

"No, I haven't yet. Which building should I try it on?"

The three of them look at each other and then at me. "The walls," Draemish says.

With the other two's agreement, I take out the tokens we will use in short order. With a silver token in hand, I select the wall in my interface and then select the silver token to use. Then, a notification pops up.

- Error: Unable to upgrade building as it does not meet the requirements. -

"It didn't work. It says it doesn't meet the requirements." I inform them.

"Try the bronze one next." Draemish offers.

Taking the bronze token in hand, I repeat the process.

- Error: Unable to upgrade building as it does not meet the requirements. -

"Still didn't work,"

With some skepticism, I grab an iron token and repeat the process for the third time. And it works immediately.

- Upgrading Wooden Pallisades Level 1 to Level 2 -

There is a brief flash of light, and the walls change. Thick bands of iron connect the different parts of the wall. "Let's see how much the wall has changed," Draemish says excitedly.

We all follow along as fast as we can. It still takes us a couple of minutes to reach the walls. Upon reaching the base of the wall, I can see that the foundation has changed along with the palisade on top.

At the base of the wall, a stone layer reaching one meter high is visible. At the top, rough crenulations have begun to form. Looking at the rest of the group, I ask, "Should we try the bronze token now?"

"Yes(ss)," they all say.

I take the bronze token out again and try to level up the walls again. Once again, it was successful, and the walls flashed once more.

- Upgrading Wooden Pallisades Level 2 to Level 3. Maximum level achieved. -

When the walls become visible again, the stone has crept up to cover two meters from the base, and a solid plate is now holding the timbers together. The last observation is that the crenulations have formed, and there is a place to put a torch spaced out for those patrolling at night.

"Now use the silver token," Shadow pushes.

"I can't. The building is at the maximum level." I respond.

"So, wooden buildings can potentially only level up to three; if my thoughts are correct, we need to replace them with stone buildings." Draemish muses out loud.

"That seems like it should be right." I acknowledge.

"We continue to level up the defenses as we make them, using tokens provided when possible." Shadow butts in.

"I couldn't agree more. The one issue we face is that only two more iron tokens are left, and we need to build more defenses." Shaking my head in dismay.

"We collected many chests yesterday; why don't we open some of those and see if we get more of those level-up tokens." Draemish offers a solution quickly.

"That sssoundsss like a wonderful idea." Vranjaya agrees readily.

"Let's head back to the manor then... and man, do I get a workout from constantly walking back and forth..." I breathe out, and then we all run back, knowing we don't have much time to fine-tune the defenses.