The Empires Rise

After the second arrow connects the other undead turn and start heading in our directions. With only 15 meters distance between our group and theirs we have a several seconds that we can start casting spells.

All four mages in the group fire a salvo of arcane shots at the oncoming enemies. Only my shot hits the target out of 4 shots sent. It hits the rib cage of the skeleton that is on our right hand side.

I hear Strauvana mark the other one and fire a shot as well. She hits the skeletons shoulder and causes it to dislodge from its body. With both of the skeletons that are in front of the zombie taking a step back from our shots the zombie is able to get in front of them and proceeds a bit faster towards us.

As prepared as he could be, Uxa steps forward with his shield raised and sword ready to slash at him.

The zombie is now 7 meters away from us and the skeletons are both 8 meters away.

"I am firing my last shot for the next little while until I can get my mana back." I hear Laxreal call out before a dark shot runs past, missing the zombie hitting the wall instead with a flash of light.

"Great," I sigh as now there are only 3 spell casters with mana and one ranged physical between the 6 of us.

Uxa shouts, "Power Strike" and sinks his blade into the zombie, dealing 7 points of damage to it. The zombie swipes at him dealing 4 points of damage, and Uxa drops backwards towards us and is groaning on the ground.

I look at his party icon to see that he has 1 health left. This is leaving me very perplexed, I will have to figure it out later considering that we are still in battle.

One more arrow is sent out and hits the left hand skeleton and it drops to the ground dead.

I send out my shot and so does Ritotorous, with his hitting and mine missing and the skeleton explodes from the damage that Ritotorous' shot does.

Zul'Zara sends a swing of her staff towards the zombie and knocks it back with another 5 points of damage done to it.

Focus firing on the last monster Strauvana deals another 4 points of damage. I take careful aim at the zombie's head wanting to kill it in one last shot since we have a party member unable to get up.

Channeling my mana through my staff as best I can I launch my arcane shot, and it hits right on the zombie's forehead causing what little flesh to explode outward from the impact.

And I wait for the prompt to come up as combat is done for now and I am not disappointed.

"Congratulations, you have killed 3 level 2 skeletons and 1 level 3 zombie. Rewards: 10 Experience points (Experience distributed based on contributions to battle. You have received 3 Experience points, and your soul bonded companion has received 1)"

"Congratulations, you have killed a Control Point Guardian. You can now claim this Control Point. Would you like to claim it? Yes/No"

I mentally select yes subconsciously as I am trying to get some bandages on the new wounds that are on Uxa's body from the zombie while still being confused but also determined to never go out and try conquering something without everyone being topped off on their resources.

We are able to get him stabilized and we decide to use the remainder of my old robes and two of the staves to try and make a makeshift stretcher to get him back to the settlement. I am kicking myself now more than before as I don't have a hut to put him in at this time.

Thinking about it , he will just have to stay in mine for the time being and I will look and see if there is anything that I can do to build some of the huts faster.

We are able to get him on our poorly made stretcher and move him out of the cave that is more lit up than it used to be and I can now also see torches on the walls that have lit up.

We make it out of the cave and head back to the huts. I have Ritotorous on lookout to make sure that there aren't any monsters on the way back.

While on the way back I see that there are additional pouches on everyone's hips other than Uxa's.

"What are those pouches?" I ask.

"They are the reward from the personal quest that we got and completed." Laxreal mentions in passing.

"We all seem to be waiting to open them when we get back to the huts." Strauvana continues and from what I can see she seems a little embarrassed still from the failed shot earlier.

We make it back without any issue other than it taking almost three times as long as it would normally. I do hear from Ritotorous that there was a slime but he was able to kill it.

Once back inside of the walls I do note that the construction on the other buildings has completed so I queue up some more and have Ritotorous bring all of the materials to the sites so we can get the process started and then sped up.

I choose to make a blacksmith and two huts with this next batch. That way everyone has a place to rest on their own as well as a place that we can start to use some of the ores that we are finding once we have the tools to work the shop.

With 100 units of Tier 1 Wood, 20 units of Tier 1 Stone, and another 20 units of Tier 1 Metal being pulled out of the chest I note that we are starting to get low on wood with having less that 200 left and also have more buildings to make for the other professions and no trees in sight currently.

Putting Uxa in my room I go out and get the materials onto the buildings so the time is sped up and I also look at the Iron Time Reduction Token that is in my chest.

- Iron Time Reduction Token: Can speed up the construction of 1 building by 2 hours. One time use. -

Thinking about it and checking the time it is 5pm and there isn't much time left before it starts to get dark. Making the decision I use both of my tokens on one of the huts.

"Item Used: 2 X Iron Time Reduction Token. Time until construction complete: 1 hours 25 minutes"

Seeing that the time is under an hour and a half I breath out a sign of relief. Uxa will have his own place for the night soon.

Taking a breath I am able to focus on the rest of the prompts that I got after we conquered the Tiny Mining Outpost. And they come flooding in one after the other.

"Congratulations, you have taken control of a Tiny Mining Outpost. Materials produced: per day without a worker: 10 units Tier 1 Stone, with a worker: 20 units Tier 1 Stone, 2 units of Tier 2 stone, and an additional chance to harvest Tier 2 metal."

"Congratulations, for having conquered your first outpost you can receive one of the following rewards.

1 X Random Profession Tools Box

1 X Random Settlement Token Box

1 X Random Level Resource Box (up to silver ranked)

1 X Population Box"

I minimize that prompt as I don't want to pick anything and think it would be pertinent to consult everyone to see what they think. I continue to look at the prompts I am receiving.

"Congratulations, you have killed your first Control Point Guardian. Please select one of the following rewards:

1 X Outpost upgrade token

1 X Equipment box for all party members there at the time of defeat

1 X Specific Profession Tool Box

1 X Random Profession Schematic Box"

"Congratulations, you have completed your first personal quest. You have been given:

1 X Specific Defensive Equipment Box

1 X Specific Consumables Box"

I reach out to get Ritotorous' attention. "How come it says I have completed my personal quest?"

"Personal quests get auto-completed the moment the person they have been given to is out of danger. You didn't see your reward as you were focused on getting Uxa back to Caelnova. I picked it up in your stead as I am your soul bonded companion. I can do that. Was just waiting for the right time to tell you that I had it."

"Ahhhh," I reply mentally and continue down my prompt list.

"Settlement buildings have been completed.

2 X Basic Tomb Level 1

1 X Small Cemetery Level 1"

Reaching the end of my prompts I head back to my hut from where I was standing next to the new buildings.

"Hey everyone, I have some things that I want to run by since we have some options for the settlement that seem like it will help us out but I want to give a vote since it was about the control point that we now have under the settlements control."

"We are listening to Drake."

"Yes, tell us what you have found and what our options are."

Strauvana just nods her head. And Uxa stirs before sitting up in the bed and starts to freak out.

"What happened? Where am I? Was all that happened not a dream? And where is my sword!"