You are Summoned

Chapter 261. Coming Soon, Now Go Away!

I waited for my housing complexes to respawn replacements for our losses and for the quartermaster’s hut to be built. While that was happening, I ordered my minions to check out the log fort. The elves had avoided it, but curiosity was getting the better of me and I had to know what it was and if it was a threat. A system prompt appeared as I waited, confirming that I’d finished a side quest.

Side quest completed. Completely harvest the remains of your first skirmish with a native threat. A small number of resources have been granted as a reward for your efforts.

The system wasn’t lying and the resource totals in the interface increased by a small bit but were quickly being drained by the quartermaster’s hut construction. When the hut was done, I would probably be able to upgrade my headquarters again which would start the cycle of upgrades for my other structures. For the kobolds that had been harvesting the wolf corpses, I sent them out into a different part of the forest to harvest lumber.

Another quest for looting more battle sites didn’t appear, and the one I had just completed must have just been used as a system reminder to not waste things in this contest. To bolster my minions, who were closing in on the log fort, I sent Glamb back to join them. I’d just have Blieek to defend me, but I had consumables and Melvin’s armor to help protect me if anything nasty showed up at the door to my headquarters.

A pleasant surprise was the arrival of the elf caravan. They’d made it despite the pathetic forces I had assigned to the task of defending the route. The elves walked into my cavern without a hint of trepidation and made their way directly to the marketplace.

The marketplace wasn’t all that exciting, just a collection of several crude stalls that my kobolds would occasionally visit. Leaving their packs behind at one of the stalls, the elves made their way to a different stall and grabbed new packs. Hefting the packs onto their shoulders, the elves began their slow trek back to the elf village.

I did notice a slight bump in resources as they dropped off their packs, showing me that the trade between our people was having some benefit. As both our factions grew, I could only expect the trade and the number of resources it generated to grow. Having confederated the elf nation was starting to pay dividends.

Your quartermaster’s hut has been completed, and you have unlocked a new structure that is an addon to your quartermaster’s hut. You may now construct the resource silo addon. The resource silo provides a physical location for all your resources to be stored in, and also generates a small number of resources at a rate based on the building’s rank. Once built, your resource silo will automatically upgrade when your quartermaster’s hut is upgraded.

Only one resource silo may be created, and it is susceptible to attacks from enemies. Should an enemy destroy the silo, they would immediately capture the resources inside. Natural predators in the world may also be attracted to the silo, creating a threat, but also an opportunity for your troops to gain experience and for you to harvest the fallen as valuable resources.

It seemed like the silo upgrade was a two-edged sword. I wanted constant resource generation, and overall, having it attract creatures would be a benefit if it wasn’t an unstoppable horde attacking us. The current resource situation, where they existed only as bar in my headquarters interface was safer, but there was no doubt that if I didn’t build the silo, I wouldn’t be able to further upgrade the headquarters.

Having to take the risk, I ordered the silo to begin construction. The timing was great, as my minions had also reached the log fort by the time I was done with all my administration duties. Instead of an attack, or some dire system warning. My minions came across a sign posted outside the gates of the fort.

Go away! We’re not ready to open yet. Solicitors will be killed, their gear taken, and their bodies sold off to the highest bidder.

Right below that rather rude sign was a second one, its tone completely the opposite of the other.

Coming Soon! The Gavelox Trading Consortium and Food Court will be opening a trading post at this location. On opening day, come by and peruse the goods and services we offer. Mention this sign for 10% off your first order!

A magical clock under the sign was counting down the time until the trading post opened. It was supposed to open just a day before the first stage of the challenge was completed. I’d have to check it out once it opened, but I wasn’t sure exactly how I was supposed to pay for things. Given the system had simplified this whole process, it would probably siphon off resources when I wanted to make a purchase.

All I could do now was wait. My structures were being built, and my minions were starting to slowly explore the area around us. They moved in a large circle, and with each rotation of their patrol, more of the unexplored area was revealed. After a few days of exploring, the rock gnomes sent me an offer.

The leader of the Gurtzam Rock Gnomes has offered to trade with your people. Their offer is contingent on agreeing to a permanent non-aggression pact. Should you accept their offer, the trade and continued observance of the non-aggression pact will slowly raise your reputation with the Gurtzam Rock Gnomes.

As your reputation grows, new options for both your factions may become available. Do you wish to accept or reject this offer?

It was time to make a decision, do I go the way the of the conqueror, attacking and subjugating the gnomes like I’d done with the elves, or did I work together peacefully with them? The system was giving me, and I assumed the other contestants, different ways to handle our growing empires. My minions made us strong, but the kobolds themselves were a bit disappointing in their military prowess.

Going to war would seem to be the easiest way to deal with the gnomes, but I had a feeling that taking the easy way out might not be the best long-term option. I also wanted to see how things progressed with a faction that was a happy trading partner vs. the elves who had been forced into a confederation. Of course, the elves had it coming because they had attacked us first.

You have accepted the trade and non-aggression offer from the Gurtzam Rock Gnomes. As they were the ones to initiate the trade offer, the gnomes will lay out a trade route between your people. Each faction will be responsible for protecting their half of the trade route. Should you fail to properly defend the trade route, your reputation with your trading partner will suffer.

By opening trade, each partner will be granted limited visibility over the trade route of any caravans or defenders traveling along it. The longer this trade route remains in operation, the better the resource gain between your peoples. Trade may also make items available that your people cannot create for themselves.

I had another drain on my limited number of kobold guards. With the expanded barracks, a new squad was starting to train up. I’d have to place the new group on the gnomish trade route while keeping another on the trade route with the elves. The final squad of guards would remain here in the cavern. The gatherers out in the forest would have to fend for themselves for the time being.

Limited protection was probably justified since my gathering teams were being so lazy. Maybe they’d realize that I could only offer troops to protect them if they gathered enough resources to build up our population. Something told me that the kobolds under my benevolent rule didn’t have the mental capacity to understand that logic.

Surprisingly, the trade route with the gnomes proved to be a bit different than I was expecting. I figured they would just follow the shortest distance around the mountain to the cave entrance of my cavern. Instead, they were tunneling directly through the mountain toward us. The exit would be near our market, which seemed logical.

I was a bit worried about opening another way into my domain, but this was what I’d agreed to with the gnomes. When I had more resources and soldiers under my command, I could just build some defenses around the trade route entrance. The route the gnomes had selected was a good one and used several natural caverns and passages to cut down drastically on the amount of digging they had to do.

Dwarves had always been the natural miners in my view. But my view was tainted with far too many fantasy games, books, and movies. These rock gnomes were making rapid progress and seemed just as happy digging away as any dwarf I’d met. I wouldn’t hesitate to hire them if I ever needed some excavation work.

A single patrol of five gnome warriors started to patrol their half of the trade route. Their equipment was about the same as my kobolds. They wore no armor, but their spears did have crude steel tips on them instead of the cheap junk my kobold guards were wielding. All in all, they weren’t much different than what I was working with.

As the gnomes breached our cavern near the market, my existing team of five kobold guards protecting the cavern headed to that area, ensuring that there was no funny business going on. Just as we had agreed to, the construction team simply cleaned up the mess, then turned and headed back to the rock gnome village. Back at my marketplace, a trio of kobolds entered the trade tunnel, each carrying an oversized pack.

So far, the trade with the elves had been one sided. For some reason, I had kobolds starting to trade with the gnomes on their own. Even better, the trio of kobolds hauling their packs weren’t part of my population cap, which was confirmed by a new system prompt.

Your marketplace will occasionally generate trade caravans that can be assigned to one of your existing trade routes. These traders are part of the marketplace structure and do not count against your population cap, and do not consume any resources. Improve your marketplace to make this process more efficient and to expand your trading reach.

My great empire of trade was just starting to take off, it was too bad I could see a red dot on the unexplored trade route. It was moving toward my kobold traders, and the guards that I had assigned to the route weren’t ready yet.