The Empires Rise

While my thoughts latch onto the one piece of information that will give me a chance to cast spells, the succubus comes back into the tent.

"My lord, we have cleared out the other enemies around the camp," she says as she falls back into the chair across from me.

"Did you find anything at those locations?" I asked her.

"Nothing worth noting," she responds to me.

"How are the troops?" I ask absently, as my mind still thinks about how to improve my mana control.

"They are fine. They picked up some meats from the enemies and are eating now."

With her saying this, it forces my mind back to the conversation. "Do I need to worry about feeding the troops? I haven't seen anything that would make me think they have an upkeep cost."

"No, you don't have to worry about food; they get sustenance from the barracks building. Upgrading the foods they eat can help them in battle, but that is far down the line," she winks at me and proceeds to lounge in her chair.

Nodding along with what she says, my mind slips back into figuring out my mana control.

"Drake," I hear in my mind. Stop getting engrossed in your mind and figure out what to do next." Looking over at Ritotorous, he gives me a look, saying he wants to get on with the battles.

Projecting my thoughts to him, I return, "If I can get my mana control to a higher level, I will be able to help with the defense, though."

"Do you think we will have issues with the camp's defense? We have a hero and a decent group of soldiers. The last battle wasn't that hard, and we only lost two bats. And even since then, they have respawned back in the barracks, so we haven't lost any troops yet."

"Fair enough," I agree with him before standing up and heading to the tent flap.

- Would you like to start the battle? Yes/No -

Selecting 'Yes' and then proceeding to the outside, I look out and find the troops already standing at the ready. Well, as prepared as a group of gnolls can be. Their spacing is off, and they keep shuffling their feet, anxious for another fight. Several of the gnolls have blood on their snouts.

Seeing them prepared for combat, I send out the bats and ask Ritotorous to scout. All the remaining forces stand idle as we wait to hear about the incoming troops. When the scouts return, not more than two minutes pass.

"We have found the enemies. Twenty troops are approaching. They are a rag-tag group of goblins with three large wolves. They aren't wielding any advanced weapons, and the wolves are on leashes held by four goblins each, held in the middle of the group."

"Thank you, Rito." Hearing about the wolves makes me curious. "Is it possible to break one of the ropes holding the wolves and see if they will attack the goblins?"

"I would say yes, but I don't have control over mana enough to cast spells currently."

I think about it some more, "Is it possible to have the bats swoop down and get in the faces of the goblins, making them let go of the ropes?"

"We can try. There isn't any harm in the attempt."

The succubus approaches us and asks, "What are you planning?"

I told her the report and my plan. "That doesn't sound like a terrible idea; you have the command points to spare, so why not try it with a group of bats? The worst that happens is they die."

Considering the options, I have to agree with her assessment. As much as I don't want to lose the troops if they can cause the wolves to attack the goblins around them, then we have a higher chance of success dealing with the rest. Immediately following that thought, I sent out a group of bats.

Walking to the front of the gate, I watch as the bats approach the goblins. They are noticed quickly, and the five goblins who aren't on wolf duty prepare small spears to throw at the bats. With the spears' poor quality and weak arms, they throw them and completely miss the incoming bats.

With no more immediate attacks incoming, the bats swoop down and swarm two goblins holding the ropes. With two bats on one of them and three on another, they flail their arms, trying to bat the bats away, leading to them letting go of the rope.

I hear the wolf snarling; before I know it, it pounces on another goblin. The bats fly off and try the same tactic on another set of goblins, and it works again. This time, it isn't entirely because of the bats; the wolf has torn the throat out of the goblin it pounced on, leading the rest of the goblins to try and figure out if they should run or try and hold off the wolves, leaving them open for the bats to harass them.

It isn't long before the three wolves are freed. Seeing the wolves are free, two goblins run back the way they came and disappear. The succubus walks beside me and says, "I recommend trying to tame these beasts."

"Tame them? How? Also, why?"

"If we can tame the beasts, they would be good companions for the gnolls, and they can improve scouting abilities. And it isn't hard to tame them. Have the gnolls take on the task. They might even be related." She snickers at the last comment.

Sighing, I order her to take the gnolls to clean up the rest of the goblins and see if there is any way to tame the beasts.

The battle wraps up quickly after the gnolls join in the fray. They are clearing the goblins rapidly and grabbing hold of the ropes that are attached to them. Once the last goblin has been killed and the wolves are controlled, I am teleported back to the tent.

- You have received resources:

Total Tiles Claimed: 5

Tiles Lost: 0

Total Resources Received: 5

Troop Upgrade Path Discovered. -

"Interesting," I mutter, "does this mean I can start upgrading my troops?" Looking over my menus, I find there aren't any options available for me to upgrade troops. Sighing, I look at the amount of resources I have accumulated.

- Resources: 13/200 -

I have enough resources to get the last building for the command post. When I select it, a small training yard appears on the map, and I see a couple of new options.

- Training Yard:

Train Skills

Train Troop Tactics

Upgrade Troops

Troop Upgrade Paths -

Selecting 'Troop Upgrade Paths' first, I am shown another screen.

- Troop Upgrade Paths

Gnolls: Wolf Companion: Adds one wolf to each troop upgraded down this path. The wolf allows the groups to scout out locations. It requires consistent access to wolves and 10 resources to provide permanent access to this upgrade path. -

Looking at the option, I let out a breath. "It seems I can't upgrade the troops with the wolves quite yet, but what happened to our current wolves?" I ask out loud.

Seeing no magical response provided, I go through the other options.

- Train Skills:

Basic Spearmanship: Provides basic information about wielding a spear.

Basic Swordsmanship: Provides basic information about wielding a sword.

Basic Archery Training: Provides basic information about wielding a bow.

Troop Tactics:

Basic Training: Provides training for the troops to form a basic formation and increases troop morale.

Upgrade Troops:

Gnolls: Wolf Companion, troops available to upgrade: 4/4; Available upgrades: 3/3 -

Seeing that I could upgrade some of the units, I upgraded as many as possible. The number of scouting units I now have under my command makes me glad that the goblins were too stupid to tame these wolves

Returning to the main map, I have a notification waiting for me.

- All buildings have been completed. Would you like to upgrade the Central Command Post? Yes/No -

Selecting 'Yes,' there is a brief flash of light. Looking around, I don't notice anything different than what is already here. Returning my vision to the map, I see that new options are available to build for the command post.

- Building Options:

Upgrade Central Command Post Tent - 10 Resources, Including expanded living quarters for the noble and living quarters for heroes. Includes a small window to view the camp.

Expand Defenses - 5 Resources Per Tile. Expands the small wall and ditch to include another tile.

Upgrade Defenses - 10 Resources Per Tile. It increases the height of the walls and provides a landing for troops to stand on. The ditch is further improved to become a moat, and small wooden spikes are placed around the outside of the walls. Requires 'Basic Defenses' to be built on the tile before this option can be selected.

Build Basic Barracks - 5 Resources, Includes basic housing for troops. Capacity 10 Command Points of soldiers. One per tile.

Build Basic Troop Research Facility - 10 Resources, Allows the research of different troop types and paths.

Build Small Blacksmith - 5 Resources: Consumes resources to provide equipment for one group of troops per battle. -

Looking at all the new options, I can't help but want to get them all. One thing at a time, though: I need to get more resources, and the only way to do that is to claim more tiles.