The Empires Rise

As we are moving into the cave I quickly take stock of the area around us. The cave entrance is only wide enough for two people to walk a breast or one person to stand in the middle and be able to swing a weapon efficiently. I also see that throughout the cave it isn't that dark as there is a light blue glow coming from around the edges of the cave.

- Luminescent Cave Moss: Provides small amounts of light in caves and dark caverns. Can be used in alchemy and inscription. -

I quickly nudge Zul'Zara and motion for the cave moss, she nods her head and quietly mentions. "Ah, you be seeing quite a nice item. That be good for some smaller potions from what I remember. Will be needing to come back and grabbing some later."

Next I check to see everyones resources, the only one that I am concerned about right now is Uxa, so far he has the lowest health currently sitting at 4/10. While not much lower than all of us, it is still a concern as he is right now in front of all of us.

Strauvana whispers that we should stop as she hears more clacking of bones other than what we already have with Laxreal with us. Going ahead of us at a very light job she readies her bow and looks around the corner. When she comes back she mentions that she saw 2 skeletons and right behind them is the fog wall that has surrounded us.

Nodding slowly and cautiously, when we are in range of everyone to cast their spells or shoot an arrow we determine the order of cast, I will go first followed by Ritotorous, then Laxreal, then Zul'Zara. Since we need to make sure our mana can last for the length of the time we are in here.

Stepping up I take aim at the skeleton on the right hand side and immediately down while Strauvana misses her shot. Following the order even though now we have alerted the skeleton of our presence and as it approaches us Ritotorous casts his shot also downing the skeleton quickly.

With the two skeletons down quickly we get the experience 2 total, one going to me and the other to Ritotorous. We enter the small cave that they were in and I walk up to the fog and receive a quick prompt.

"You are about to enter an area not within your territory. Would you like to progress? Yes or No?"

Curious, I look back at the group and explain to them what I see, then I look at Ritotorous and see if he has any further explanations that I should be aware of as I progress.

"If we proceed we will have the potential to fight monsters of higher levels or in much larger groups. There are more rewards to killing things outside of the immediate territory but know that any killed monsters don't add to the settlement experience pool.

Also there are sometimes chances to conquer areas outside of the territory making them further accessible without a large amount of danger."

"Are you saying that there are more ways to increase the territory's size other than by just leveling up the settlement?"

"Correct, but do know that those territories can then be taken back if monsters get to the control point and stay there for a day."

"Gracious." I exclaim. "There are so many things to keep track of, and so many things that we will need to keep a watchful eye out for."

Halting the mental communication to Ritotorous, I explain what he has told me to everyone else. They all nod their heads in understanding and then I ask. "Do we proceed further forward or do you want to stop here?"

"I vote we go forward." Uxa volunteers.

"I second that." Laxreal.

The other two just nod their heads and I proceed to mentally click yes. Once I do that the fog swallows us whole and we can see a new prompt.

"You have entered a Tiny Mining Outpost. It is currently infested with monsters, so please clear out the monsters and proceed to the control point."

Several more prompts appear before me right after that one is closed out.

"New Quest:

Settlements First Conquest

You have found a location that you can conquer. You seem to have gotten bored already of the territory waiting for monsters to show up, so you decided to bring the fight to them!

Tasks: Claim the control point (0/1)

Rewards:

1 X Wooden Resource Box

1 X Wooden Building Blueprint Box

1 X Settlement Experience Bag"

"New Personal Quest

*These quests are rare and hard to find typically. Do more to increase your growth at a faster rate*

Head Over Heels

For when double-tapping something isn't enough just blow off their heads.

Task: Kill 3 enemies by shooting them in the head while you are in this conquest. (0/3)

Reward: 1 X Class Experience Bag"

Getting the two different types of quests I ask, "Hey Rito, what is the deal with a personal quest as compared to a normal quest?"

"The difference between the two is that the normal quest is actually called a settlement quest. They are there for the lord to work on and build up the settlement. A personal quest is something that anyone can get to them though they will only see it as a normal quest since they will not typically see a settlement quest.

The only way for that to occur is if you promote someone into a position of governance, at that point they will start to receive the settlement questions as normal quests."

"Thanks, Rito. I appreciate the information." I gently stroke the top of his head.

"That's what I am here for!" Leaning a bit closer to me.

I look to the rest of the party and ask, "Did anyone else get a personal quest for this?"

Zul'Zara raises her hand. "Mine be telling me to bash some of the skeletons. Thankfully I be not needing to kill them."

And going down the group from there. Strauvana needed to kill 2 enemies without them noticing her.

Laxreal has to run out of mana and then keep below 50% mana till the end after the initial drop.

Uxa has to deflect 6 strikes. I also proceed to tell them what my objective is.

With everyone knowing each other's goals we proceed on carefully. For the first bit we stumble upon 6 skeletons, they don't seem too challenging since we have a confined space. It gives us the perfect choke point so we don't have to face them all at once.

Strauvana marks one of them to start to try and get one of her kills right off the bat. Shooting her bow there is a quiet "twang" as the arrow is released and one of the skeletons collapses to the ground.

Releasing his own skill through his staff after seeing me do it a couple of times Laxreal fires off his spell dealing only a single point of damage to another of the skeletons.

From there we continue our small barrage on them. With the skeletons being slow I am able to take careful aim and kill one of them via a headshot and receiving a "ding".

Uxa steps forward as does Zul'Zara. And she swings her staff at one of them dealing another point of damage to the skeleton Laxreal has hit staggering it backwards.

One of the skeletons swings at Uxa and he deflects it with his shield.

With that the fighting continues with us missing more often than hitting and the skeletons trying to also hit Uxa but his battle experience against the undead comes into play and he is able to deflect them.

I can see him starting to gasp as the last strike is deflected and look at his stamina bar to see it is running low. We continue our assault on the skeletons.

We send another barrage at the skeletons. Strauvana hits the front most skeleton that has two points of damage on it already and gives it a third sending hits left arm flying off. I send a bolt to the skeleton and at point blank range am able to just point my staff directly at its head and it blasts off. Three down, three to go.

As we continue Zul'Zara is able to hit one more time and takes down the skeleton that is low on health. The two remaining skeletons come up to swing at Uxa. He dodges one of the blows while using his sword to deflect the other that was coming at his face.

Laxreal calls out, "I am below my halfway point, I will be holding back unless more mobs come our way."

I cast one more time and just missed the skeleton's head and instead hit it right in the spine, dislodging the head from it and killing one more skeleton. Uxa swings him with a power attack and hits the other skeleton, killing it as well.

With all of the skeletons down a prompt comes up.

"Congratulations, you have killed 6 level 1 skeletons. Reward 6 Experience points (1 point per party member and 1 point to your companion.)"

Thankful that the fighting is over for now I take a look at everyones resources.

Uxa:

Health 5/12

Stamina 4/8

Laxreal:

Health 4/4

Mana 4/12

Strauvana:

Health 4/4

Stamina 10/12

Zul'Zara:

Health 6/6

Mana 8/8

I see that Uxa's wounds have started to bleed again through the bandages so I tear up some more of my old mages robes and put them on him hoping that it will help even a little bit with his healing.

"Are we good to keep going forward?" I ask quietly to the group. They all give a nod of approval and with Uxa in the lead we continue into the cavern. When we get inside the space opens up so we can all have a little bit of comfort not feeling so enclosed inside of a tunnel.

Strauvana calls out gently once we are in the room. "I see glinting in the walls around us." Which is also confirmed by Laxreal to everyone.

Specifically to me, Ritotorous mentions. "This seems to be quite the mining outpost. There is a Tier 2 metal here as well as a small amount of Tier 2 stone. While it isn't the best to use for some of the projects we have around the settlement currently you never know."

I relay what he has said to me and everyone lets out small gasps that he can determine that much. Mentioning one of his skills being to find shiny objects, or in this case valuable things they understand.

At the far end of this little cavern we are passing through is another tunnel. Proceeding through that tunnel Zul'Zara stops when she is 40 meters into the tunnel.

"I be seeing some enemies ahead. We should be getting them to come to us like last time."

I nod and Strauvana steps forward. "So there are 3 skeletons and a zombie ahead if I am seeing things right." She marks one and then grabs her bow making a stance to fire upon them.

"Hold on." I stop her before she can lose her arrow at them. I walk to where I can see them and analyze the zombie and skeletons.

- Zombie: Level 3; Health ???; -

- Skeleton: Level 2; Health ???; -

So we have 3 level 2 skeletons and 1 level 3 zombie, everyone gets ready for a solid fight and I nod to Strauvana to signal I am ready to start the battle.

She marks one of the skeletons and fires her arrow. It launches into the room but misses all of the monsters. They hear the racket come from behind them and turn around to head in that direction.

I give her a look and from what I can tell in the dim light of the moss she seems to have a blush on her deathly pale face.

"Sooooooo, that was something." I tease lightly to her.

"I am still not used to these weapons, I was never a bow user when on my planet." Trying to hide the shame she has for missing all of the targets.

Laxreal pipes up. "Oh I know, the Void family was renowned for their assassins more than their hunters. If only that was a class available to you, you would have been able to wipe the floor with those zombies, huh?"

She nodded her head and then nocked one more arrow to fire. This time she hits her target and the arrow shatters her marked enemy's head. One skeleton down 2 to go, and also a zombie.

In my gut I can tell that this is going to be a long day.