The Empires Rise

With the beheading of the chieftain, a notification appears.

-You have completed the unique trial encampment. You have been awarded: 1 X Tier 1 Personal Evolution Box and 1 X Tier 1 Settlement Evolution Box. -

Following that, the notification about continuing with clearing encampments comes to view. I look behind me to see that my army needs rest.

"Have we looked through the entire encampment?" I shout to everyone.

"Not fully. We are still trying to get into the chieftain's hut. It is locked, and no one has the strength to get it open from the scout squad." Shadow shouts back.

"Draemish, is anyone from the warriors who could knock down a door?"

"Yes, Oria, Rognar, or Ramona should be able to do it." She replies.

"Has anyone looted the chieftain?" I ask out of curiosity.

"No," Draemish says.

"Then maybe he has the key to open the door?" I prod.

Hanging her head a little, Draemish reaches down to the headless body of the chieftain and starts to go through his pockets. After searching for a couple of seconds, she finds the key to the hut strapped to the inside of his belt.

Taking the key and handing it over to Shadow, he runs off to open the door. I follow along to see what is inside the hut that needs to be locked. Inside are seven Treasures of the Fog and three more Tokens of the Fog. While PUN is teleporting out the treasures, I look around the hut one more time to see if there is anything that I have missed.

On my final time looking, I saw a small box underneath the bed. It is positioned so that it would have been wholly missed unless you were looking for it. Grabbing the box, I analyze it.

- Mythical Treasure of the Fog: Upon leaving the fog, this box will give you options for what it can provide. -

After analyzing it, the treasure is sent back to the settlement. I pull up the quests to see what progress we have made.

- Settlement Quests:

Preparing for the Storm

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 (1/?)

Destroy encampments to delay and reduce the attack force (7/?)

Time until attack: 48 hours

Rewards: ???

Penalty for Failure: Death and destruction of the settlement

Note: Increasing the population could help or hinder the attacking force. Be careful. This quest will be completed upon victory or defeat of the attack.

Special Note: The threat level has decreased due to completing a Unique Trial Encampment.

Extermination

Upon entering, you have found yourself in front of an encampment. Kill all the inhabitants of the encampment.

Task: Eliminate all the inhabitants of the encampment (6/1)

Rewards: Ability to go back to your settlement, one Treasure of the Fog

Army Quests:

Wet Behind the Ears

This is your first time being in command of a force larger than the amount of digits on your hand.

Task: Clear the encampment without helping them in any way other than through orders. (1/1)

Reward: ??? -

I gather everyone together with two of the three quests completed upon leaving. "Are we all ready to leave?" I ask to make sure that everyone has the things they require.

"Yes," is the reply I get from the commanders. With a thought, I select the option to leave. When we get back, we are in the territory. It is late in the afternoon, and there are many things that we need to finish before we can rest tonight.

"Alright, everyone. We must return to the settlement to collect our rewards for everything we have accomplished today. We have two days before there is an attack on the territory. I recommend to those who want to keep leveling up to get groups together and explore the fog in those groups. There are many treasures out there for the taking."

Having said my piece about what to expect next, I start the walk back to the settlement. I complete my quests, so the chests are there when I arrive.

It takes another ten minutes to get to the settlement, and I can see that some people want to lay down where they are after their exhausting battles. Well, at least that is the case for the warriors and scouts. The mages seem to be doing fine, almost like they were meditating while waiting for things to happen.

While walking, Oria comes over to me. "Tombs done. Finish my place later. Bulwarks half complete, almost out of material."

Hearing this, I look at my materials menu to see less than 100 wood and stones left in the Tier 1 category. "Looks like we need to focus on getting more stone mined and maybe some more out of the treasures we pulled back."

This is my only hope, as we don't have anywhere to get wood. After returning to the settlement, I go straight to my home and open the door to see piles of treasures on my floor. For the rewards from completing the two quests, the settlement received ten more treasures, and I received a noble's skill chest.

I go around and touch all the treasures to see what chests I receive.

Building Blueprints:

3 Tiny

1 Small

2 Medium

4 Large

Resources:

3 Tiny

4 Small

1 Medium

1 Large

2 Extra Large

3 Gigantic

Tokens:

3 Medium

2 Large

1 Extra Large

2 Gigantic

Population:

1 Tiny

4 Small

5 Medium

I open the resource boxes first to get them out of the way and receive 1,150 units of Tier 1 Wood, Stone, and Metal. Also, the settlement received 400 units of Tier 1 Food.

With that chuck of boxes out of the way, I can finally make my way over to my bed to sit down. It isn't long after I sit down that I look up again to see I haven't shut the door, and in the doorway is my family. I beckoned them inside, "Today was great for all of us. I was able to get plenty of resources not to have to worry in the immediate future about running out of wood or stone again. We still need to find a way to harvest those more efficiently."

"Son, you seem to be taking all of this alone. Again. Would you like your mother or I to help?" My father asks.

"I would love to have some help. I don't know how, though. Everything is so new to you and me that finding the most efficient solutions isn't easy."

"Well, maybe what you need right now isn't efficient solutions but ones that can help our immediate survival chances. Could you explain some of these boxes to us? We might be able to find something that you have overlooked." He offers.

I nod and start explaining the boxes and what they give or, to the best of my ability, what they can provide.

"It would seem that the given tokens would be useful for our current predicament. Why don't we open those boxes next and then start using them to complete some tasks before it gets too dark outside." Mother says.

She has always been the family planner, so I am not too shocked that she took control. "How many of each token do you have currently so we can get things organized?" She asks.

- Tokens:

1 X Wood Instant Completion Token

1 X Bronze Instant Completion Token

1 X Silver Instant Completion Token

3 X Wood Time Reduction Token

3 X Iron Time Reduction Token

3 X Bronze Time Reduction Token

1 X Silver Time Reduction Token

2 X Wood Resource Reduction Token

6 X Iron Resource Reduction Token

1 X Bronze Resource Reduction Token

2 X Silver Resource Reduction Token

2 X Iron Instant Level Up Token

1 X Silver Instant Level Up Token

1 X Outpost Upgrade Token -

"I haven't used any since I have been getting them. I didn't want to accidentally make something I could have completed while I was away or sleeping." I explain as to the reason there are so many.

"Well, I think it is time to use some of these. You could have saved a lot of stone if you had used one of the Silver Resource Reduction Tokens." She scolds me.

Thinking about it, I look at that specific token to see its effects.

- Silver Resource Reduction Token: Reduces construction cost by 20%. -

She is right, I screwed up royally this time. Knowing the bulwark could have been closer to completion if I had used what I had at my disposal sooner.

I crack my knuckles, "It looks like we need to open some more boxes and work on fixing my screw-up." I look at my family with renewed hope, knowing I can be with them.