You are Summoned

Chapter 266. Map Revealed.

It wasn’t only my kobold empire that was growing, each of my trading partners were starting to expand and improve. The rock gnomes’ trading caravans were now the same size as mine, and even had the same pushcart full of goods. Their patrols were also better armed and equipped. Each gnome warrior now carried a heavy, stone mace, a stone shield, and a slingshot for ranged attacks. They also wore basic leather armor like my kobold warriors did.

Each of the expanded gnomish trade caravans that arrived now granted additional resources, which were fed into my own expansion. In addition, I started to accumulate stacks of stone building blocks at the market, and when I focused on them, the system explained what was happening.

Your trade efforts are starting to amass resources that your minions are not capable of gathering or producing on their own. The Gurtzam Rock Gnomes are renowned for their stone cutting skills. Each caravan that arrives will deposit a few of their choice building stones. Over time, your kobold structures and defenses can be reinforced by this stone.

In return, your trading caravans are bringing exotic healing mushrooms to the gnomes, who use them to help heal wounded soldiers and workers. This continued, mutually beneficial trade between your peoples has fostered improved relations and the Gurtzam Rock Gnomes are now friendly toward your faction. Continue to develop this relationship between your peoples to unlock benefits for all parties involved.

We were both benefiting from the exchange, and I could now see part of the gnomish home territory where my trading caravans walked to their version of the market. It looked like they were expanding nicely and had recovered from the earlier wolf attacks. As long as they continued to see us favorably, I hoped they would become stronger and keep feeding me more resources.

The elves were doing better as well. As a confederated faction, I had more insight and view over their domain. Their tree houses were expanding, and their guards assisting the caravan patrol routes had expanded to five warriors each, three melee and two archers. The elf caravans didn’t have carts yet and consisted of just four elves walking with overloaded packs.

Last and least was the human village. Some system shenanigans had allowed them to instantly rebuild the town hall and they were working on repairing the damage to the outer wall. My attack had slain all their warriors, but I could see three or four armed humans now wandering around the village. None were on patrol yet, so my squad protecting that caravan route was on its own.

My minions had grouped back together to begin their exploration of the desert. This was the area furthest from our cavern, and I didn’t know what kind of threats we’d face just yet. It looked like sand stretched out into the horizon, but as my team explored the edge of the desert, they did come across a trail of sorts. A paved road, wide enough for two wagons to pass, which started at the edge of the plains and disappeared into the desert.

Sand had reclaimed much of the road, but having Blieek dig down a bit, I could see that the road was still in good repair, just covered up. The road was our best chance at quickly finding the final faction, so I gave up on my usual method of exploration and had the team just follow the road. The journey would take some time, and I estimated that the desert covered an even wider territory than the plains had.

It also appeared the road was safer than just traipsing along in the desert, as they were spared from any encounters with wildlife. Near our cavern, killing wildlife was great, as it turned into easily gathered resources. Far out in the desert, whatever we killed would just go to waste, or maybe the human faction would send a team out here to harvest, but I doubted it.

The relatively flat desert made the road run pretty much straight through, without having to waste time on detours around terrain features. It even seemed like my team was moving faster than it normally did. After my observation, the system confirmed what was happening.

Your minions are traveling on an Improved Trade Route. These routes increase speed by 10% and reduce the dangers from hostile wildlife and bandits by 75%. Look for opportunities to build this type of infrastructure inside your lands.

Roads between my trading partners would be great, but so far, I had no option to build them. I had a feeling the system was teasing me, and that infrastructure construction would unlock at the next headquarters rank. I had finished all my rank three upgrades, and resources were stockpiling nicely, so rank four wasn’t going to be too far off.

I was distracted from watching my minions when I received notice that a caravan was under attack. It was one of my kobold caravans on the route with the human village. A smaller pack of the killer ostrich-looking birds were attacking. The five traders had huddled next to the cart and were brandishing their daggers at the birds.

Unintimidated by the bone daggers of my traders, the birds pressed closer, lashing out with their razor-sharp beaks, and kicking with their huge feet. Each foot was tipped with a long claw that would eviscerate anyone it hit. One of the traders was already down, and a bird jumped in and dragged him away from the others.

While they feasted on their kill, the survivors tried to make a break for it. At the same time, I ordered the patrol on that route to come to the rescue. My caravan was around the midpoint between our two villages, and the guards were closer to the human village at the present time.

That was all I could do for now and would just hope that the killer birds were content with a single kobold for dinner. The four survivors of the caravan were pushing their cart away from the scene of the attack, but they weren’t exactly fast and if the birds wanted a second meal, I didn’t see much they could do to stop them. I’d keep an eye on the situation.

A replacement for my fallen trader would eventually respawn, but that caravan would bring fewer resources back home until a replacement was ready to work. The birds took their time feasting, and when they were done, they took off after the fleeing caravan.

It didn’t take them long to catch up, but as they did, the kobold patrol was almost there. A second caravan member was slain, and like before, the birds stopped to feast, ignoring the fleeing survivors. My patrol of warriors was going to catch up to the birds before they finished their meal, and I was curious to see how the rank three improved kobolds would fare against the birds.

My attention was drawn back to my minions when a system prompt appeared.

Your minions have encountered a random trading caravan that wishes to offer you some goods, do you wish to trade? Y/N.

I could see a brightly colored, oversized wagon drawn by two large elks with impressive sets of antlers. The driver of the wagon was a halfling dressed in a garish purple and silver robe. I accepted the trade offer and looked at what I could buy from him.

Norber’s Fine Goods:

Structure upgrade token. Why waste time waiting for your structures to upgrade when Norber can get the work done for you in a jiffy! This item immediately upgrades any non-headquarters structure by one rank. Your headquarters must already be at the improved structure’s new rank for it to activate.

Crate of healing potions (1 gross). Keep your minions alive and in the fight! Now in black cherry flavor! Each potion heals a Rank 5 minion for 25% of its health. Diminishing returns are active with this product.

Out-of-date zone map. Want to know what’s out there? Buy Norber’s old map! Who cares if this was drawn a century ago, it’s not like the terrain would change all that much. This item uncovers the unexplored areas of your map, up to a maximum of 20% of your zone’s total area. Please note that some information on factions, threats, and areas of interest may be out of date.

Friendly Gift Basket. Want to make a good impression on your neighbors? Norber, has you covered. Send this gift basket to any faction in your territory to increase your reputation level with them by 1 step.

This was odd, the halfling wagon driver, who I assumed was Norber, seemed to stare directly at me, despite me seeing them through my minions. As I inspected each offering, I got an image of my resource silo emptying by a specific amount. The worst culprit was, oddly enough, the gift basket. If I bought that it would almost drain my resources completely.

I wasn’t going to delay my next headquarters rank just to bump a reputation by one step. As it stood, I was in no immediate danger of revolt, so I could safely pass on the gift basket, even if I was curious about what was in it. The healing potions were also not that great, and though they only took about a quarter of my resources to purchase, I didn’t see a need.

My kobolds were rather weak to begin with, and a 25% healing bump wasn’t going to win a fight for me. The number of potions was nice, even if it took me a while to remember that a gross of something was 144. With my Health Bloom, and Elida’s Minor Healing Burst, I felt we had healing covered.

The structure upgrade token was something I wanted, and though it took half my resources to purchase, it was a good buy, and only slightly more than I’d pay to do the upgrade myself. A more than fair price to instantly construct a building. The last item, the map, had a negligible cost of only 10% of my resources, and I took a risk on it.

You have purchased the structure upgrade token and the out-of-date zone map. Norber thanks you for your patronage and asks for permission to return to your lands in the future. Do you wish to allow Norber access to your lands in the future?” Y/N.

Nice, the token turned out to be a flashing icon on my headquarters interface where I could activate it when I needed to. When I received the map, I found I could choose where to explore. Before I did that, I allowed Norber access to my lands in the future, excited to see what he might bring next time.

Activating the map, I found it was just shy of what I needed to complete all the unexplored areas of the map. With a bit of tinkering, I was able to explore everything but the path I figured my minions would uncover by following the road to its end. Several icons appeared in the newly discovered area, though I was a bit wary of accepting the information on the map as gospel, given the warnings the system had decided to include.

Norber thanks you for the access pass to your lands. A notification will appear whenever he is in this zone.

I waved away the notification about Norber and focused on a point of interest out in the middle of the desert. It showed a dungeon called the Temple of the Forgotten Ones. I knew the information was out of date, but I couldn’t pass up sending my minions to see what it was all about. Before I would have them do that, I wanted them to finish their journey on the road.

They would uncover the last bit of unexplored area on the map, and since there were no other factions listed in what I’d already uncovered with Norber’s map, I was sure that at the end of the road, we’d run into our last neighbor.