You are Summoned

Chapter 278. Surge Pricing.

Things were bustling inside the cavern as all the upgrades took place and new kobolds entered the workforce. I had more workers than projects at the moment, so I sent more to gather lumber, which at least generated some benefit for me. With the rank five upgrades for everything, the workers had changed their slacker ways and were now all contributing. The system seemed to agree, granting us a bump in morale.

Combined upgrades, and the newly enhanced power of your empire has inspired your population. Morale has improved to Happy and Productive. You will receive a bonus to productivity of 5% for as long as you maintain this level of morale.

My workers were squared away, and the existing warrior squads were starting to rotate through the barracks, receiving more training and upgrading their equipment to the new standard. It would take some time before all the squads, including the far-flung ones patrolling the trade routes, were able to be upgraded.

The expanded barracks also allowed for a single squad to be upgraded while new ones were training, which should help to speed things along. Only one last building was still in the process of upgrading, my lizard pits. There was no system prompt as to why it was taking longer, but it may have been that the structure was something I’d discovered by exploring, not one that I purchased or unlocked normally.

When the glow around the expanded lizard pits finally dimmed, and I got a good look at the rank five building. It was now a much larger, circular pit dug into the stone floor of the cavern. Stalls for the lizards, as well as their nests, ringed the outer perimeter of the pit, and in the center was a large corral where the kobold workers trained the newly hatched lizards.

The beasts themselves had grown. Now, they were the size of a pony and looked downright dangerous with their tooth-filled mouths and sharp claws. Newly trained lizards began to walk out of the corral on their own. To my surprise, half walked to the barracks, but the other half walked over to the marketplace.

At the marketplace, a caravan to the gnome cavern was about to leave. The kobold merchants waved over the first two lizards to arrive and hitched them to their wagon. That freed up several of the workers who had been helping to haul the wagon. Now, those workers could shoulder packs full of even more goods as the lizards went to work.

Since the caravans had a limited ability to defend themselves, I figured the addition of the giant lizards, even if they hadn’t been trained for war in the barracks, would boost their ability to fight off attackers. As for the lizards that had gone into their barracks, they exited a short time later. When they left, they didn’t head out to bolster my warrior squads, instead, they headed to the quartermaster’s hut.

At the hut, workers strapped on a studded leather harness that would add a nice layer of armor protection for the lizards. Combined with their rather sturdy looking scales, they should be well protected against most threats. Over their front claws, razor-sharp steel extensions were somehow glued on. When they were fully kitted out, the lizards started to disperse to the various squads of warriors I had under my command.

None moved to join the squads out on trade route patrol, but I figured they would join them when they were rotated in for new gear and training. With a war lizard added to each squad, I was feeling even more optimistic about our chances against whatever the pending apocalypse turned out to be. With the lizards squared away, I noticed that my trade income had almost filled a silo, which meant it was time to shop at the consortium.

All I had to do was think about trading with them and the system did the rest, simplifying things for this arena challenge. The offerings from the consortium had changed since the last time, but there was still plenty that I wanted.

Gavelox Trading Consortium.

Current Inventory. Please note that the inventory and stock levels will now change every 3 days.

Mercenary contract, Tier 0, Rank 5 (3).

Mercenary contract, Tier 2, Rank 0. (1).

Mercenary replacement structure (1).

Defensive upgrade package (1).

The system seemed to have shifted the items offered away from the structure upgrades and purely into military related stuff. Prices had also adjusted, and the tier zero, rank five mercenary contracts were only half a silo now. The tier two mercenaries were another story and cost a full two silos worth of resources. A quick check of the other two offerings triggered a system description for each one.

Mercenary replacement structure. This structure slowly regenerates any troops lost by your active mercenary companies. The rate of replacement is 1 random mercenary every hour. At least one surviving member of the mercenary company must be present for it to be eligible for replacements.

Defensive upgrade package. This package contains a random defensive upgrade with a random number of activations.

The mercenary replacement structure cost another two full silos. It was a bit of an investment, but I wanted it. I would be adding a lot of mercenaries, and it would be nice to be able to generate some replacements as they took losses. I’d just have to be careful and make sure to pull back a mercenary group from the fighting before they were completely wiped out.

As far as the defensive upgrade was concerned, it was more of a gamble, but I was a sucker for those. At only half a silo of resources, it wasn’t going to be too expensive to roll the dice on that one. All I had to do now was wait for the resources to build.

I was a bit concerned. The consortium offerings would change every few days, and it wasn’t certain I could afford all of them before they changed over. To prioritize this batch of offerings, I would save up first for the mercenary replacement structure, then the tier two mercenaries. If I had time after those two, I’d buy the defensive upgrade package, then try for as many of the tier zero, rank five mercenary groups that I could.

By now, my minions had explored almost all the out-of-date areas of the map. It looked like the lizards and the dungeon had been the only things out there for me to find. I wondered how many other contestants had the opportunity to explore as much as I was able to. My minions really gave me an advantage in this challenge. Maybe the system provided something for those with only individual power, since they would be forced to waste a lot of their time working at the headquarters.

Other contestants’ problems weren’t mine to worry about, I had a zone to defend. I figured this apocalyptic event was going to be some kind of attack, otherwise, the system would be asking me to build storm shelters and stockpile supplies or something. With that in mind, I pulled my minions back to the cavern. If the expected attack occurred nearby, they would do me no good traipsing around the desert.

While I waited for the resources to pour in so I could start my purchase plan at the consortium, I checked in on my allies. Starting with the gnomes, I was finally able to get a peek inside their cavern now that I had a squad of my troops helping to defend them. Their cavern was a mirror image of my own, the only difference was that gnomes were not up to rank five structures yet.

Most of their buildings were rank three, with the headquarters, barracks, and marketplace at rank four. The barracks must have been a recent upgrade, and I could see a fresh squad of troops emerging. There were four gnomes carrying stone clubs and shields, as well as one with a staff which must have been their equivalent of a mage. The squad was led by a bigger, meaner-looking gnome with two clubs instead of a club and a shield. As for their armor, they all wore leather harnesses with stone plates attached.

Their gear should have been too heavy for them to lift, but they must have had some kind of bonus for that type of gear given the name of their race. Their caravans had a small cart with six gnome traders assigned to them. They were also trading with the other factions in the zone, which was probably what was fueling their improvements.

The elves and humans were in a similar spot as the gnomes, both had headquarters and barracks at rank four, but only humans had also upgraded their marketplace to that rank. There wasn’t a whole lot of time left, but they should all be able to get a few more upgrades before the final stage of the challenge.

I was going to be able to keep track of their military capabilities by watching the squads sent over to my barracks from the mutual defense pacts. The elves currently had four spearmen with shields as their main, frontline fighters. An elf with two scimitars led the group, and they were bolstered by two archers with longbows.

As far as their armor was concerned, the elf warriors all wore leather, and their weapons seemed to be of decent quality. The humans mirrored the elves in numbers, and armor. Four of the human warriors in the squad held longswords and wooden kite shields, while two others held crossbows. The leader of the human squads was a larger man in chainmail with a steel mace instead of a sword.

The caravans arriving, along with the steady income from several structures allowed me to hit two silos of resources quickly, and I ordered the mercenary replacement structure. I found room for it on the opposite side of the barracks from my headquarters. It wasn’t much to look at, just a series of three large tents. The first replacement for my human mercenaries spawned as soon as the place was active.

My observations were interrupted when a system prompt appeared. It looked like the other factions in the zone now knew about the pending apocalypse.

A wise sage and trusted diviner in the town of Shoremarch has warned of the pending apocalypse. The city seeks the aid of their trading partners as they organize an evacuation. To properly protect the evacuation, their forces guarding the trade route must be pulled back into the city.

If your faction can man the patrols from the entire route, the city of Shoremarch will send a special caravan of goods to reimburse you for their expenses. Do you wish to agree to these terms? Y/N.

I wanted to see about a mutual defense pact, but that option was greyed out in the interface, as were all other options for Shoremarch. A notice of pending evacuation was there, preventing all other diplomacy. Since I had more squads now, it wasn’t a problem to assign one to the section of the route the city had normally patrolled.

You have agreed to the offered terms. Additional caravans carrying the goods the city will not be able to evacuate in time will begin to spawn. You must assign kobold workers to fetch them, and ensure they are adequately protected.

As I watched, a wagon full of goods was pushed out the city gate, just waiting for me to come and grab it. I assigned several work teams to the task, the system allowing a total of three to join the efforts. Just to be safe, I added another squad of troops to protect the route from Shoremarch.

Given the current uncertainty in the region, the Gavelox Trading Consortium will be adjusting their pricing to reflect demand. Existing offerings will be kept at their current pricing levels, but all new offerings will follow the demand surge pricing model.

Well, the trading consortium was about to start gouging me on prices. Hopefully my marketplace would generate some more options before the apocalypse arrived.