The Empires Rise

The first thing I hear after the countdown has finished is:

- Settlement Attack Event Commencing:

Attack type: Wave

Rules of Engagement:

To finish the event, you must complete at least ten waves of monsters.

The monsters' levels will start at average and increase as the waves continue.

The minimum monster count at the start equals the number of settlers plus ten and increases as the waves continue.

Variable amounts of experience will be awarded after each wave.

If the average level of the settlers has increased between waves, the waves will increase in difficulty.

Failure conditions:

Lose all settlers in the waves.

The Mayor's Manor is destroyed.

Note: The number of waves required to complete the event has decreased by one due to clearing a unique encampment.

First Wave: 34 Creatures Spawned

Average level of settlers: Level 2-

Looking out over the parapets, there are 25 monsters outside the wall. Eleven are goblins, and the other fourteen are giant rats. I don't know where the other ten monsters are right now, but I will have someone go and find them along the walls shortly.

I look to my commanders, and they start to kick things off. "Hunters and mages, go to the battlements and prepare to fire. Warriors, space yourselves out as best you can. Try to cover as much ground as possible. There is a lot of wall, and not many of us." Draemish calls out.

Everyone starts to climb onto the walls and spread themselves out. It takes them a minute to get to their positions when someone says, "There are five monsters on the north side."

Another voice calls, "There are five monsters on the south side."

With our defenses in place, those monsters might not get hit by the towers once they get too close to the walls. The commanders noticed this problem and ordered: "Send a hunter, a mage, and a warrior to go and kill those monsters before joining us back on this side of the walls."

With the order being passed down the two sides, I see six people split off the ends and head over to kill the monsters.

"How far out can we hit them while we are on the wall?" I ask.

"Our bows have an increased effective range of 45 meters, while magic can still fizzle out after 35 meters." Shadow responds.

"Area effect spells would be ideal for those ground troops. Let us see how well we hold up to these monsters before we cast for now." Draemish says.

Agreeing with her assessment, I hold off from casting Nature's Grasp.

Once the monsters are within 60 meters of the walls, the arrow towers fire upon them. Four arrows fly out of the towers closest to me towards the monsters in front, and I see all the arrows hit their targets. They don't kill in one shot but hinder the movements of those hit.

With the first arrows fired, the monsters start charging towards the settlement. Every three seconds, another arrow is fired out of the towers. By the time the monsters in front of us have reached the range of the hunters on the wall, four sets of arrows have fired out, and two monsters have died.

The remaining five archers on this side of the wall start firing their arrows. They all hit a target in the first volley, with two more monsters dying under it.

There were another two volleys from the archers and four from the towers. Two more monsters died from the archers, and six died from the towers. This brings the total number of deaths to 12 of 24, with half the wave killed without the mages doing anything. There are still another 30 meters before the monsters can even attack us, which doesn't include them having to navigate the spike-filled moat.

I look at Draemish, and she looks back before sending another order. "Mages, don't waste your mana on this first wave. Let's wait for the next wave and see how bad it is then."

Hearing this, the mages stand down for now, and the hunters keep firing. No less than two minutes go by before I receive a notification.

- First Wave Cleared.

Calculating Experience...

Contribution 0 Kills. No Experience granted.

Second Wave Starting in 1 minute -

No bodies are left looking out at the field where all the monsters died. They have all disappeared.

"What do you think we should do for the following waves?" I ask.

"What do you mean?" Draemish asks back.

"I mean, what do we do about making contributions? Those that make contributions will level up faster, meaning that the average level of settlers will increase faster." I respond.

"Yes, while that is true, there is one option we could take, but it is risky for a different reason."

"What is that?" I ask with my curiosity peeked.

"We could try and cheat the system and force the average level of the settlers down. But I don't know if that will work," Draemish suggests.

"What are you saying?"

"I want to try to summon new population members to the event. If it works, we might be able to complete more waves and get more levels out of it."

"That isss a risssky endeavor." Vranjaya

"I know it is risky, but I want to try. Do we know our average settlement level right now?" She asks me.

I flipped through the settlement information but found no reference to that number. Then I go to the quest information to see if anything has been updated.

- We're Going to Need a Bigger Wall

As you have leveled up your settlement, forces have started to take notice. Plans are brewing to attack your fledgling settlement. You have given your settlement more time by destroying one of the encampments. But be warned, sometimes more time is worse.

Tasks: Prepare defenses for the attack (13/5)

Destroy encampments to delay and reduce the attack force (12/0)

Average Settler Level: 1.8, Difficulty Rounded up to 2

Waves Completed: 1/9

Rewards: ???

Penalty for Failure: Death and destruction of the settlement

Note: Increasing the population could help or hinder the attacking force. Be careful.

Special Note: The threat level has decreased due to the completion of a Unique Trial Encampment. -

I showed Draemish this information. "From my information, we could try to do as you are saying, but this is important; what happens if we summon someone who isn't willing to listen to reason? I don't want to kill someone just because we couldn't get the information that they require."

"There is one solution to this problem," Draemish looks at me. "There is one population box in your manor for a specific population; if we can summon some of my subordinates, we could easily help hold for longer and rack up more rewards."

I think about it for a second. "What happens when the waves become too tough for us to handle and we haven't completed the minimum number of waves?" I ask.

"We just have to push harder or fall back to the manor. There isn't anything we can do. I think it is worth the risk, and who knows, we might get something worthwhile out of it." She looks encouraged.

Shadow looks between us, "This is weird coming from me, but we need more frontline fighters; having the extra hands can help us in case we get overrun; as we stand right now, there are 12 hunters, 8 warriors, and 5 mages. This includes Ritotorous. If we can raise the number of frontlines to range to at least a 1:1, then we can have a buddy system. Those who want to hunt individuals will always have someone to back them up."

"That isss a valid argument," Vranjaya states.

- Second Wave starting in 5 seconds -

We can talk about this after we finish the next wave. We break off and prepare.

The second wave consists of 44 monsters; this time, I can see all of them. It is the same mish-mash of goblins and giant rats. They come forward, and the arrow towers fire at them, and then the casualties appear on their side.

From a couple at first to half a dozen at a time with each volley. The hunters are getting better at firing, at the very least. It isn't long before this wave has been completed. Again, we have the mages hold back from using their magic. However, one odd thing is happening: I saw a couple of hunters hand their bows to the warriors and have them shoot.

- Second Wave Cleared

Calculating Experience...

Contribution 0 Kills. No Experience granted.

Third Wave Starting in 1 minute -

I ask my commanders, "Why were some warriors using the hunter's bows?"

"To get experience, of course," Draemish says.

"But isn't that a waste for the hunter?"

"It would be, but once a hunter gets to level 3, the experience for these monsters drops, and someone else should get the experience and stats that come with leveling up." Shadow responds.

I am not arguing the point; I look to see what the average level of the settlers has reached.

- Average Level of Settlers: 1.92, Difficulty Rounded up to 2 -

"Do you still think we should summon some more people?" I ask Draemish.

"We should summon one person and see how much that brings the average down."

I look at the others, and they nod in agreement. "Alright, I will go and open the box, then you can summon your people. I hope they are subordinates of yours."

With confirmation that the walls will hold without my help, I run back to the manor and open the box.

- Received: 10 X Specific-Race Population Scrolls -

When I returned to the walls, the third wave had already started. There were 54 monsters this time, and some goblins had begun riding the rats.

The process for this wave isn't different from before, and we see them fall right as they get to the walls. Some rat riders charged straight into the wooden spikes, impaling themselves, while others ran to the gates and were quickly burned to a crisp by the flame towers.

This is the longest wave because there were so many enemies, and shots were missed due to their speed.

- Third Wave Cleared

Calculating Experience...

Contribution 0 Kills. No Experience granted.

Fourth Wave Starting in 1 minute

Difficulty has increased to Level 3 -

"Anything I need to know?" I ask upon returning to the battlements.

"Nothing new yet." Draemish says, "Just some more people using bows."

I see four warriors holding the bows of their compatriots, and those hunters are teaching them what they can.

Seeing the difficulty has increased, I check the quest.

- Average Level of Settler: 2.08, Difficulty Rounded up to 3 -

I look at Draemish, "Do you want to try your plan?"

Still adamant her thoughts will work, I hand her one of the scrolls.