Chapter 3: Invaders

I created three more A level Treasure Chests. One was placed in the second empty house to the right of the entrance. I also summoned furniture for the ‘Bait’ house and had Ora live there for two days. She was instructed to not clean up after herself. She disliked the command but followed it.

Two new Monsters were listed which surprised me. One was Battle Slave for 100 DP the other Body Servant for a Paltry 1500 DP. Sheesh...

Calling my Soldiers over, I asked them about Battle Slaves. Ora gave me a one word answer. “Fodder.” Jessica’s wasn’t much better. “Meat shields.”

I summoned two. Not that if I had the points, I wouldn’t consider a Body Servant ... just that points were too precious right now. Later though...

Two human males with paired short swords, leather pants and bronze collars, with a disheveled but clean appearance appeared through a purple rift in space in before me. The only other upper body items they had were strong bronze bracers on each forearm and a one inch diamond shaped brand on the left temple. I was uncomfortable with the brand.

These two I put under Ora’s care and they were assigned to the second house with the chest. Not the ‘bait house’ one two houses further away from the entrance. She grinned evilly with her new assignment. Once the three were out of sight Jessica asked me why I wasted my time on them.

“What better way to seem weaker than we are, than to use bait.” I smiled at the thought. “When we get intruders, I will ‘encourage’ them to go to the right so they will encounter those two first. That will give us a measure of the strength of the invaders.”

Jessica thought about it, I watched the wheels turn. “Why do you want to appear weak?”

“Time.”

“Time?” She didn’t get it.

“The longer it takes for an army to get here the better our defenses. For now, have the attackers slowly build up the number of troops that they send. Lots of weak enemies sent in waves would be optimal. Go think about it.”

“Yes, Commander.” She paused. “Commander?” ‘Yes, Soldier?’ “Will we ever be able to venture forth with strength?”

“Of course. Just not now.” I acknowledged. She nodded to herself and left with a spring in her step. Patience Jessica, Patience.

I recognized her desire to not be a garrison soldier. Morale was important.

I had an experiment I needed to check. I summoned slicer number 23 and extracted his core having it fall beside him. I put it back in and did it again from twenty feet away and again with just the menu interface. Successful test on both counts.

Five days later, seven red blips appeared on my map. I had Cookie and her helpers stay in her house with four Slicers as guards. Two groups of two Slicers were to the left and three were on different rotations to the south and middle. Leaving the right fork ‘open’. Only six of the blips entered the Dungeon giving me a +300 and five +100 DPs for eight hundred. The girls waited beside me waiting my commands.

The Slicers were ordered not to approach and their seemingly mindless patrols opened the intruder’s path to the right unless they wanted an immediate confrontation. Our ‘Guests’ didn’t, and chose the right path as I planned. And hoped.

The Battle Slaves were told to ambush them. I couldn’t see their actions but only the positions on the maps as dots. I waited until the dots were grouped and sent in two Slicers with orders to support the Battle Slaves. With strict orders to not to pursue if the invaders fled.

I hoped that the bots would get destroyed but I needed to wait. One green and one red dot vanished giving me +25DP for the green Battle Slave and +200 for the red intruder. A second red went out before the two slicers arrived. Refunds ... I looked at the two women next to me vowing not to ever get refunds from either of them.

The Slicers hit the five remaining intruders and accounted themselves well with two more reds dying before they were destroyed. I didn’t know if the leader was entirely responsible or what. But for this to work, I needed to let the encounter play out.

An A chest vanished; the map showed the purple square disappear. I applauded. But with three men down what would our invaders do?

One dot separated from the others and slowly moved along the right sneaking into each house along the way. He found a second chest that I had planted. I didn’t buy any with traps. Those were extra and I considered it counterproductive, I wanted them to get away with some treasure. That purple square disappeared also. That was the signal for our counter offensive. I considered that B chest an investment in the future.

I sent Ora at a brisk jog with two Slicers to head them off preventing further intrusion, with Jessica encroaching up the middle with two of her own slicers, checking each house even though we knew that they were empty. There was always the possibility that there were methods of hiding from the map.

The scouting intruder fled rapidly at the sight of Ora and her Slicers and rejoined his companions. They slowly exited the dungeon. Ora reported later that one was moving slowly as if greatly wounded. I named the operation a success.

Repelled Invaders +300 +100 +100 DPs.

I instructed both Jessica and Ora to follow and spy but make no hostile moves and if approached to immediately flee. Both were unhappy with the last part. I explained, “If you kill them, it disrupts my plans. I know that you can kill them easily, but don’t. We want more intruders remember, and hopefully a few parties of adventurers. Pay specific attention to their outfits. I need to know if they are part of the guards or mercenaries.”

Jessica acknowledge the order, and said they would return shortly, heading off at a brisk pace. After the adventurers left the base, I checked my new DP total. I had two fifty at the start of the day and gained 1750 DPs more. Though I did lose the two battle slaves, four Slicers and two chests it didn’t compare to my gains. I checked the Slicers to see if the cores were intact but both were split apart and the cores removed along with the remaining ring projectiles. The battle slaves and the three defeated invaders were stripped of anything useful before the intruders retreated. I used the Menu and had the bodies of the battle slaves absorbed by the dungeon. The slicers were to be recycled for parts.

I was pleased that the intruders made a profit and a loss. I eagerly awaited the news from Jessica and hoped that they were mercenaries or guards. I wanted adventurers or more mercs to come, hoping the word would spread with decent rewards from the chest and the good equipment from the battle slaves and the cores from the Slicers.

Four anxious days later Ora and Jessica returned. “Report.”

“Commander, by their actions and apparel, they were mercenaries. They are still at the village recuperating from their wounds. All three of the lightly wounded will recover I believe, but I’m not sure if the seriously wounded one will be able to fight again without high level healing.” Stated Jessica.

“When they entered the village, the leader yelled at the villagers for ten minutes, before entering one of the houses with his companions. We did not get closer according to your orders and returned after ascertaining that no further sorties would be forthcoming.” Continued Ora.

“Good work. This is the best conclusion for us.”

I summoned two more Soldiers and equipped a house near the first one and sent all four on their way.

Sigh ... back to being broke again.

The next week I had the four explore the area and make a usable map a mile radius. I didn’t believe that we would get another group visiting us soon. I also didn’t want to raid the village with the mercs there. I instructed that ten more Slicers be constructed and assigned five to each of the new soldiers.

I needed to find a way to stop hovering around zero DPs.

The arrival of two more women Ferans Soldiers made me doubt that any male would become a Soldier. Based on their scarcity, I would wager that men had specific Caste restrictions, the less dangerous ones.

Since it was quiet, I had the two teams alternate between watching the village. Once they were sure that the mercs departed on a cart path heading away from our cave, a raiding schedule began. An irregular one. My soldiers also scouted further out to farmsteads surrounding the outskirts of the edge of the forest. Once these were located and mapped, raiding homesteads also were added to the list. Dozens of farmsteads were discovered over the next few weeks. I even saved up enough to add a second blueprint: Atticus Sentry. Atticus was built on a different line than Slicer. Slicer was meant for close range while Atticus was medium distance, five to fifty feet. Aside from its thinner cylindrical body, it had a revolving head with a port in the center which shot out solid dart-like projectiles with much greater accuracy than the disks from Slicers, whose rings lost most of their power and all of their accuracy after twenty feet.

The Atticus were not great at hitting moving distant targets but that was to be expected. At a price of 750 DP for the blueprint and two stacks of materials for assembly, they were twice as expensive to build, but I needed some longer range attackers. Thankfully, the lowest level core still worked to power the bots. I halted production at five, for now, and assigned one to each soldier in exchange for a Slicer for my personal use. Twenty five Sentries total, five groups of five, with one Soldier leading each team plus mine. That was all I could do for now with the points available, and I started saving again.

Near the end of the fourth week from the initial invasion, both groups returned in a hurry from scouting and minor pilfering from the local farmsteads. Guests were coming!

Pila stepped up to report. “Commander Twenty soldiers arrived in the Horta Village.” Cookie had progress with communication with her new helper and provided that name. Even she admitted that the girl was dumb for a human though she worked hard. Betts had slimmed under Cookie’s ‘care’ and took over the ever increasing stockyard of plundered animals from Dorothy who maintained a supervisory role while she saw to the rest of her duties. Seeing Betts spend most of her time on with the animals, Cookie declared that she was no longer fit to work in the kitchen.

“The stupid girl is just not clean enough, Commander.” Cookie complained at wits end so she passed her off to Dorothy.

Soldiers and twenty of them? Well it was still within expectations. How to handle this ... if it were mercs or adventurers I would make sure that some would escape safely unless they were truly a danger.