Town Builder - 89 -

Chapter 89:

There was a convergence of events coming. We had less than a day left to complete the dungeon, and pushing to the final floor had been a challenge for Mad Dog’s group, even with two high level members. I had a lot to manage myself—in two days, the NPC auction would close, and the Lost City of Elyendell would appear on the same day. Three days after that, the next Incursion event would happen. We would not discover what realm was invading us until the portals opened.

I had chosen not to search for the lost city, but a small expedition had been sent, and I hoped to get lucky; maybe the next time it appeared, I would be in a better position to take advantage. As we prepared for the delve, I continued to place bids and take notes on the NPCs I was interested in. There was so much activity in the auction that it was hard to keep track. Someone was screaming bloody murder when one of the popular master NPCs disappeared from the list. I assumed someone had earned one of the special tokens like the one I had received to obtain my grand master archeologist.

Entering Phoenix’s Rest, there were a number of players from Disciples of the Horde here—sixty-eight, to be precise. The contract we signed divided the allocation into 24-hour blocks in-game. Essentially, we were delving on opposite days. I sent myself some notes to build some structures to extract gold from these elite gamers. Adding an inn and a few shops offering level-appropriate gear would be lucrative.

As my team approached the gatehouse, I checked the levels of the Horde; level twenty-four was the lowest. The highest was a level thirty-one earth elementalkin, who would have ranked fifth on the top ten list, but he had chosen to remain anonymous. His name appeared as Thirteen Shadows, and I took note of him as I passed.

“Is Thirteen Shadows a top player?” I asked Mad Dog as we entered the dungeon.

“Thirteen Shadows?” Mad Dog nodded. “Yeah, he’s one of their best, but he prefers to work alone. He mostly hunts player killers and takes bounties. I’m guessing he’s here doing a favor for the Horde leadership to map the dungeon for their guild. Don’t be fooled into thinking he’s a good guy just because he hunts player killers. He’s a greedy SOB, mate. At least, from what I hear, when it comes to loot division in a party.”

We entered the dungeon, and Mad Dog used some tokens to bring us all the way to the end of the second level. The boss was already dead, so we descended immediately. We did this again on the third and fourth levels. My interface credited me with clearing all three floors even though I hadn’t killed any of the bosses. Grinder smirked, “A little cheat to get you down here. Takes a day for floor bosses to respawn since a few members are left in the party that cleared them. If it was an entirely new party, the bosses would reset. You can now teleport to any level, but we are not certain if it will translate when the dungeon scales.”

We were on the fifth level of the Crypt of the Phoenix King. A massive black stone cliff stood to our right, and we were positioned on the edge of an ice shelf, or rather, a glacier. The drop seemed to stretch on forever with a misty cloud hiding far below. I walked up to the black stone and used my analyze skill on it.

Black Granite, Tier 1 Stone

I moved along the cliff and found some tier 2 stone, but not much. Seeing my disappointment, Mad Dog smiled. “Don’t worry. As we make our way to the final boss, there will be alcoves, minor crypts, on our right from which we will be rushed. Those caves have higher-tier stone,” Mad Dog informed me.

“Also, experienced miners can tier up stone when it is quarried. Unfortunately, all this dungeon has is black granite. We have ten hours and forty-six minutes,” Grinder reminded us. There was a steep penalty for every minute over our allotted time. I think it was 100 gold in the contract, but I would have to check.

We moved out, and I asked Danny, “How was it delving with the group?”

She reflected on her experiences, “It was—educational. I learned a lot about working in a group, but I still have a ways to go. If it wasn’t for my level differential, I probably would have been useless.”

“Well, you and Mira are going to have to do the heavy lifting without Forgotten Swan here,” Mad Dog said.

“How are we going to do this without a healer?” I asked, confused at the party composition.

Mad Dog thumbed a finger at Mira, and she replied, “I have healing spells.”

“And I brought a crap ton of potions, but Mira’s basic healing spell was twice as powerful as Forgotten Swan’s due to her level,” Mad Dog said.

“That’s my girl!” Grinder said, slapping the demonkin Farstrider on the ass. She didn’t shy away, smiling, but promptly punched him in the jaw, knocking Grinder to the ground.

He got up smiling. “Foreplay,” he explained to me. To each his own. As long as Grinder didn’t make Mira leave my service he could do what he wanted to woo her.

We crunched on the stony, icy ground to the first cave entrance. It had an elaborate entrance with statues carved into the cliff. A wailing sound echoed from within cave, and out rushed six creatures that I analyzed.

Giant Ice Zombie, Level 26

The battle quickly commenced, with Mad Dog and Grinder acting as shields while Mira and Danny used their bows. I provided support with my two best offensive stone spells, summoning boulder and hail of stones. They had obviously prepared for the dungeon as the arrows did heat damage to the zombies, causing them to wail louder in pain and try to get to our archers.

More ice zombies emerged from the cave, and soon, we were starting to get pushed back. Mira began to heal Grinder and Mad Dog intermittently between shots, but I felt she let Grinder’s health drop slightly lower than necessary a few times. After twenty giant ice zombies, the flow finally stopped. I didn’t receive a single experience point from the fight, and we quickly looted the bodies.

I started to walk toward the cave, thinking there was more loot inside, but Mad Dog stopped me. “No time, mate. This was the only cave we explored, and we don’t know how far it is to the final boss. If there’s time, we can check out the minor crypts after.” I wanted to see the quality of the stone inside, but I nodded in acceptance as we moved to the next crypt entrance.

Even though these minor tombs only took fifteen to twenty minutes to clear, Mad Dog started to get anxious, urging us to progress faster, which nearly cost Grinder his life. After six smaller tombs, we came across a large bend in the path that allowed us to see quite a distance ahead. A much larger stone crypt on the side of the mountain was visible from afar. Two gigantic statues, partially carved against the mountain, flanked the entrance.

“Seven hours, forty-two minutes,” Grinder informed Mad Dog.

Mad Dog shook his head. “We are not going to make it. But I don’t think the Horde will be able to make it all the way down here in a day.”

“But it is right there!” I said. “There are only three more minor crypts on the way there.” I pointed out the obvious entrances along our path.

“That is just the entrance to the boss’s tomb. It will be a long trek deep into the mountain to reach him, with other minor bosses on the way. The other floor bosses warned us. We will get as far as possible,” he conceded defeat.

Mad Dog was right. An hour later, we reached the massive entrance into the mountain. For our first obstacle, the two statues came to life, and we had to retreat while wearing down the statues. We were fortunate they were relatively slow. One even misstepped when Danny used a confusion ability and fell into the clouds below. We got the death notification a moment later. Mad Dog muttered, “At least we were learning useful tactics.”

It took almost two hours to whittle down the health of the second statue, even with our powerful archers. It also almost pushed us all the way back to the floor exit. “It had a high resistance to piercing and some magic,” Danny said as she reviewed her combat logs. It did yield good loot, including many earth essences, gold, and a very heavy shield that Grinder took.

Titan’s Guardian Shield (30), +10 strength, +10 constitution, +25% health pool. Ability: Shield Wall

The shield wall ability could be used once every hour and allowed the player to place the shield in the ground, and not be moved for sixty seconds. If you had a hundred players with this shield, they could form an impenetrable wall for a brief time to withstand an onslaught. The drawback was the shield was extremely heavy and required level 30 to equip.

“We need a more balanced party,” Mad Dog lamented. “The challenges to reach the boss room will likely rotate each chamber. We returned to the final crypt and entered, and he was correct. The first room reminded me of the terra cotta soldiers, and rows upon rows of clay statues greeted us in an expansive chamber. After analyzing from a distance, Mad Dog informed us, “They are weak but immune to magic. We need physical area-of-effect attacks to clear it quickly.”

Mira pointed out some of the soldiers appearing in carved robes, “Those soldiers in the back can restore damaged or destroyed ones. We should take them out first.”

“No, we’re bloody done,” Mad Dog announced regretfully. “Let’s head back and plan our next attempt with the knowledge we’ve gained. We haven’t been gaining any experience, and it will take us hours to defeat the terracotta army.” The lack of experience wasn’t entirely true. Mira had gained a level since we started the delve. However, Danny was level-locked, and the level differential between Mira and the rest of us meant we weren’t gaining experience.”

We explored the smaller crypts we had cleared on the way back, each containing trapped reward chests inside. Mia quickly disarmed the traps, allowing us to access the loot inside. I searched the smaller crypts for stone. The good news was that the large granite blocks were already cut and used in the construction. The bad news was that most of it was tier 2 stone, with the deepest room being tier 3. Grinder patted my shoulder in response to my disappointment, saying, “Don’t worry, Tallis. I’m sure as the dungeon scales, the stone quality will scale as well.”

We returned to the surface defeated, with less than two hours on the timer before the Disciples of the Horde would be allowed entrance. Mad Dog sent a message to one of the Silver Linings Playbook secondary groups to use the limited to for grinding on the first level. Finished, Mad Dog asked, “Mate, going to join us on the next attempt? Now that we know what to expect, we can equip better and have an entire day to reach the dungeon boss.”

“I don’t know. The NPC auction will be finished during the next attempt. I need to be actively following the closing bidding,” I explained, and Mad Dog nodded. This was not a duty I would pass on to someone else.

“Sorry, I let you down, mate. We were too slow in clearing the upper floors. Hopefully, the Horde will not be able to clear the entire dungeon in a day,” he said, looking over at the group getting ready. They ranged in level from 28 to 31 and looked about as bad ass as you could get with current-level gear.

I rode back to Malcum on Titan and checked my messages and notifications. There were some player problems out in Goatyah. Without Danny there and all most of Silver Linings Playbook busy, some players had gotten bolder. I quickly assigned a build team to add two more guard houses.

Very Rare Stone Guard House, Requires Masonry 43, Masonry: Foundations 43 (Generates one level 50 Combat Mage Commander every seven game days, limit 2) (Bonus: Houses 8 Watchman, Spawn Rate 1 per day, Level 30, limit 8) Structure Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects)

I couldn’t assemble my best teams to divert higher quality stone for building bonuses, but I also couldn’t wait. Upon checking, I realized I didn’t have enough time essences for the build, so I switched to ice essences, of which I now had plenty from my dungeon. Ice mages would provide powerful debuffs and control spells. They weren’t on the same level as the Temporal Mage Commanders I had spawned from these structures in Malcum, but at the very least, they could deter players from causing problems in the short term.

The NPC auction was becoming more chaotic, and I had been outbid on nearly every NPC in the last twelve hours. Arriving in Malcum, I headed straight to my draft room in the Lord’s Manor to finish the two guardhouses and when I finished, I opened my interface for the NPC auction. There were many nasty messages and threats from players who were being outbid. Since the bidding was anonymous, they were mostly empty threats, but if you discovered where an NPC ended up, you would know who had won the bid. So, in a way, you could make good on your threats.

I avoided the more popular NPCs. Meanwhile, I addressed the weaknesses in my production within my Duchy and worked toward my ultimate goal of a functioning Grand Epic Library. In this regard, I concentrated on lower-valued book manufacturing skills—bookbinders, illustrators, calligraphers, paper makers, etc. I hoped they would assist in the production of skill books in the future while also contributing to populating the library once it was complete.

Kuba’s acquisition specialists were working in the world and had already gathered over a thousand books for the library. Completing the library was my focus now that the dungeon was secured. The library needed to be completed to retain Kuba’s services. It would also become a player hub for questing. There were infinite hidden quests in the game since they were continually being created. Some players liked to play detective and take on these more involved quests that required research.

I kept checking on a message from Mad Dog as I worked. We were both anxious to see how far the Disciples of the Horde would get in the dungeon. If they completed it in just a single day, that would be an amazing feat and lock us out from the first clear bonus. Mad Dog was already assembling his team for his next run and having the alchemists brew dozens of explosive potions for the Terracotta army.

Jaesmin and Joy came by while I worked, and I ate with them. Joy’s mannerisms were of a young girl, excited to explore the world. She even surprised me by casting a weak arcane dart spell. It was not an actual spell but a focused concentration of her mana. “Is that normal?” I asked Jaesmin.

Jaesmin explained, “It is not a spell but just from her mana manipulation skill. The skill increases mana efficiency for spells, and that is a practice exercise that she was taught. Her skill is already level seven.”

“Level seven? But she is level zero, how can she have a skill higher than her level?” I inquired while looking at the beaming Joy.

“We aren’t limited by your rules. We might level up skills much slower, but we have no restrictions,” she replied. I glanced at Joy, who enjoyed the best of both worlds. She had a player interface yet also didn’t face the constraints that hampered our growth by level. She could develop into a formidable NPC. I made it a point to spend more time with her.

I asked, smiling, “Do you want to spend some time with your father and learn drafting?”

She blew a raspberry, “Boring. I don’t mind watching, though.” Jaesmin shrugged and left us alone.

With Joy agreeing to stay while I worked on one of my plans, I glanced at my project list and chose one of the more important projects. I needed to draft an improvement for the portal stone. I wanted to increase its range and create secure portals for my cities, towns, and outposts. I had several ideas on how to achieve that but was concerned about the eventual essence cost of building multiple portals.

Joy pulled up a chair, climbed up, and rested her elbows on the table as I started. In the middle of my work, I got an urgent message from Sunflower. She was leading a team of guildmates to look for the Lost City of Elyendell. They had encountered other guild parties looking in the mountains and asking leadership if we should cooperate with any of them, combining resources. I let Mad Dog handle it as he had a better handle on which guilds were trustworthy.

Joy didn’t move the entire time I worked, as if she were studying the lines I was laying down on the paper. I was drawing from my prior plans to incorporate spawning NPCs and, hopefully, correctly transcribing the basic portal stone runes as well. The results were surprising.

Very Rare Portal Stone, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Enchanting Ritual Magic 43, Health 25,000. Range: 5,000 miles. Spawns One Controller Golem-cooldown 24 hours.

The range of the portal was disappointing, but the rest of the plans worked. I had been trying to spawn an NPC to supervise who entered and exited through the portal and instead got a golem. He was a gatekeeper and could prevent NPC and players from entering through the portal. The one negative was that he required a major golem core, and the golem was level zero, so it could be easily destroyed. But if the golem was destroyed, the portal stone would become inactive until it respawned.

With the appropriate stone, we could get the range of the portal stone to 7,500 miles which should be good enough for our needs. Happy, I queued up the build. I only had one NPC with a high enough ritual magic skill, and he was being kept very busy.

I started working on copying plans to sell, and soon, Mad Dog sent me a message. The Horde had made it down to the fifth level but had not defeated the boss. That meant this delve was all or nothing for us. He asked again if I would join them, but they were better off with someone else, and the NPC auction was closing soon. When I looked up, Joy was gone. She had watched me for hours, so I expected she went to rest as NPCs were on a game day-night cycle.

When the auction ended, we went into the competitive bidding phase. Almost all my NPCs were novice skill level, with just four being expert and one being a master bookbinder. The bookbinder ended up costing me 16,200 gold, but all the remaining NPCs came in just under 15,000 gold. Other than not being able to add any more builders, I was happy with this round. I spent some time sending off details for others to greet the new NPCs before taking a break.

I joined Jaesmin in our bedroom when I was interrupted by a message from Sunflower. They had found the Lost City and were descending into the valley to enter it. They would be out of communication while they were there. Since Mad Dog was in the dungeon, I was in charge and told them to gather as much information as possible. They were with two other small guilds, Thundering Skies and Got Nothing Better To Do.

When they exited the city and were able to communicate, Sunflower relayed her experience, “It was amazing! The city was a technological marvel using magic. The citizens welcomed us, but you needed to do quests in the city to earn special coins to use in their shops. The problem was that the window was so short; we didn’t get much done. But the city had hundreds of grand master crafters! Golden Storm got an artifact that raised his skill ceiling in metal crafting skills and some other skill books. I spent my time in the spell library—it was enormous! Thousands of spells, but you needed their tokens to check out a book to study.”

“I am sorry I missed it. Did you get any clues as to where it might appear next time?” I asked. Of course, the game made it so the Lost City appeared when the NPC auction closed.

“Some clues. I had a group on it, but the residents were not as forthcoming,” she said.

“Good work. Get back here, and you can brief Mad Dog when he comes out.” I closed the communication and now knew why the Matriarch had given me the book. The city was a haven for crafters. Maybe I could take some of my top NPC crafters the next time the city appeared?

It didn’t take long after for Mad Dog to exit the Crypt of the Phoenix King with news of his success. It had been an expensive endeavor for us, but the rewards made it worthwhile. Each member of his party received a personalized artifact suited to their level, along with the accolade they sought. Upon completing the dungeon, they were asked if they wanted to scale up the difficulty and rewards. Surprisingly, Mad Dog declined. It was challenging enough as it was.

As a guild, we consolidated in Malcum over the next day. The next Incursion was coming, and with our player population being so high, the difficulty was increasing again. When we stood on the walls two days later and watched space tear open to create the Incursion portal, the shit hit the fan.

Large draconian men marched out in neat columns. Hundreds of them emerged, followed by others mounted on monstrous drakes. Then a sapphire-scaled dragon sped out of the rift, immediately soaring high into the sky. We were being invaded by the dragon realm this time. Mad Dog muttered, “Why couldn’t it be kobolds.”

But my angst did not end there. Danny, further down the wall, sent me an urgent message. A guild is attacking Goatyah!

© Copyrighted 2024, 2025 by AlwaysRollsAOne

No Permission is given to translate, copy, or repost this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon it has been stolen without my permission and is a violation of DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA.