6th of October
With the final model researched, and at least one of each model Light produced, Selene was able to get a better idea of what each automaton could do before making her team. The civilian model had almost nothing involving features for combat, made solely for assistance in a quiet environment to do chores. It was useful for menial labor, laundry, cooking, building, setting baths, and in general tending to her needs or taking care of her home. While they could be used for combat, it should be considered a last line of defense, as there was absolutely no melee programming beyond punch and kick or grapple.
The Security model, surprisingly, was a step up from the Civilian model by a decent margin, with what looked to be the equivalent of police riot armor attached throughout the body. It even came with a mechanical arm attached to the back to hold a steel shield in front of it. It looked even less humanoid than the Civilian model, with more emphasis on armor paneling. It had melee and martial arts programming; by the looks of it in dummy combat to her the amount was roughly fifty percent, so they knew how to get rough in a fist fight or block an attack from a sword. While it was helpful when communicating, it seemed to have a deeper sterner voice than the Civilian model. The standard coloring for them seemed to be a blue and black scheme. There were two antennas attached to the left side of the helmet, probably for coordination or radar pinging the area for better knowledge of terrain. Gears and cogs could be seen attached to the pauldrons.
Military models were very impressive, changing how the head and body should look from smooth framing to blocky or angular edges to help deflect ballistics launched at it. It was the first model to have what looked like a backpack installed, which added quite a few hidden features, including a belt feeding system if needed for future firearms, jet pack nozzles, shoulder mounts for extended weapon systems, a secondary power system for use with energy weapons or defenses, and armor paneling that definitely sounded heavy compared to the Security model. That sound made her keep the military model in her inventory when not in use or away from her house, as their walking was not subtle, but that also meant they could take some hits from some very hard striking weapons. These seemed to have a fairly gruff voice that was no nonsense, though they showed utmost respect to her while communicating. The Military model was the first model to salute her once she was close. They seemed to have a seventy-five percent melee weapons programming, but also a seventy-five percent martial arts programming for CQB. Even if it was disarmed, it was still quite dangerous against a hostile. The helmets were blocky with the face replaced with two optics under a flattened visor and a steel grid for the mouth. Intriguingly, the standard color for the model was olive green with heavy camo. It also had a mechanical arm shield and one thick antenna on the left side of the helmet with what looked like a laser sight and flashlight installed. The laser sight seemed to be some sort of miniaturized spyglass inverted. These seemed to be the first models that could be adapted to different combat specialties, whether scout or sniper or general purpose, they were quite versatile in all regards.
The Honor Guard model looked like it had fantastic armor like the Military model, but it was quieter, almost the equivalent of the Civilian model. The armor itself seemed to have gold and silver filigree with etching on some paneling, making it look very pleasing to her eyes, made just for a king or queen to be escorted with. The backpack seemed to be streamlined to better fit the design, with very angled armor to look like wings on the leg paneling, or a winged helmet or visor, making them look like some legendary crusader. The one she made seemed to have a red cloak that was made from a steampunk Kevlar with hidden padding underneath, in the event it needed to cover her with it for extra protection. The face seemed to be just a full helmet with a visor dropped over the face, with the ocular systems hidden behind the one V opening in it and glowed a soft green. The mount points were barely noticeable through the cloak for shoulder mounts, but they weren't normally installed due to the cloth blocking movement. The combat programming seemed to be at one hundred percent, as expected for something there to protect royalty. There were open mod slots that weren't crafted for things like an energy shield and some sort of forcefield to block an entrance if enemies managed to get into a castle, among multiple others for defensive purposes. It had a voice that seemed to be capable of professional etiquette of a knight, speaking carefully and with respect. Its salute seemed to be bringing its right fist to its chest compared to the military salute. While the Military Model was adaptable for different combat situations, the Honor Guard seemed to not be meant for different specializations. They were probably supposed to look good and fight as a last resort.
The Special Forces model was… it looked like it shouldn't have been steampunk, more modern technology of the 21st or 22nd century. Angled and blocky armor, with skunkworks quality hydraulics and very menacing looking, the only thing missing was the hexagon looking design of material that most people seemed to think look futuristic, including her. The backpack was upgraded and had forgone the streamlined look for more features, with four over the shoulder mounts and two shoulder extensions, allowing for an impressive display of firepower for its size if the weapons were installed. The mounts allowed multiple target acquisition, fighting multiple hostiles at the same time and coming out on top. The model was far stronger than even the Honor Guard, belying reinforced actuators and manipulator hands that could survive… she didn't really know. A building dropping on it maybe? Some giant undead attacking? The heads were angled with no antennas beyond some small block on the back of the head, with soft light blue glowing optics, a combat knife strapped to the chest and a neck guard installed. If she looked very closely and requested it to open panels, she could still see gears and cogs moving inside the body where possible, telling her it was still steampunk and defying the idea that this shouldn't exist yet. It's combat programming was exceptional, with the fighting style looking well beyond one hundred percent in all categories, but the exact percentage she had no idea. This thing was made to slip in quietly and wipe out an enemy force before they knew what was happening; if things went south, it was more than capable of going loud. Oddly enough, it was the only one that came standard with a mana bar. They were also fast, very fast, capable of keeping up with a vehicle even, as well as being frighteningly quick to dodge strikes and fight back. The training auto dummy was in shambles in less than five seconds.
The Special Forces model also had one unique feature. It had a form of active camouflage that would appear when two curved rods, she thought they looked like bug antennas, came out of the backpack and arced over both shoulders, creating an invisibility field around the drone. This did not consume mana, only electricity which it had ample amounts of given it had three power cores. Apparently, it had power to spare in a lot of cases. She could only imagine what these things could do with advanced technology, whether steampunk or future tech. If she got to the higher tech tiers, it was possible to completely upgrade the drones to newer designs, really making them unstoppable beyond their level and current equipment shoulder allow.
Unfortunately, she was still trying to get the newer weapons developed, as she tested the lasers and tesla rifles and found them to be interesting but needed to have some improvements to the firing method. The lasers seemed to hit the target perfectly, but beyond starting a small fire and melting a clean hole through it, there wasn't much damage. This would be great to destroy armor or kill key targets like generals or captains, but it wasn't as effective against organic targets with low armor. The current set up was a pulse laser system, and in order to fire it continuously, the battery pack would be drained in one shot. Due to this, it was being put in research to create a continuous laser system and better energy containment system. If it could be improved beyond the standard schematic, it could cut down entire armies in one strike just by flailing the thing left and right.
The tesla rifles were great against just about everything, especially effective against armor as the electricity was amplified by the metal. An added feature was it tended to chain link to multiple targets nearby, allowing entire groups to be killed. The side effect was the charge up time to fire took almost three seconds, an eternity if someone is charging at you with a sword. Another side effect was the deaths of targets could be… gruesome, not so much as frying right there, but sometimes exploding with entrails launching everywhere. This was tested on some bags of vegetables… and one hapless squirrel nearby. Selene had a split second to realize there was a small creature running around before the arc connected and blew it up.
Nikolai Tesla was a fucking genius, and Insane, but still, genius.
The phlogiston flamethrowers were tried and true weapons, along with standard gunpowder rifles. While they took time to reload, it wasn't as bad for the brand-new lever action rifles and cartridge revolvers she just got from Pre-Industrial Era assisting steampunk designs. While they were considered rim fire cartridge weapons, they didn't need to be loaded from the muzzle, allowing quick reloading. Technically rim fire cartridges weren't invented until 1859, smack dab inside the Industrial Era, Advanced Steampunk seemed to allow a few advances in weapon designs, obviously. This also helped the revolvers, even though they were still single action, as cartridges were not used in them until 1871, with the first double-action revolver in 1877. All she'd need to do is get to Industrial Era and those would easily be available, probably allowing some radical designs in steampunk versions.
She had upgraded her consumables to Large now, including the skill potion and finally, the Stat Potion. Selene didn't drink one of them until the upgrades were at least Medium, as each one was precious to get an upgrade to the next tier. Before she got them made, she shoved her last remaining Attribute Points into Crafting Time, increasing it to one hundred fifty percent. It sped up the crafting of stat and skill potions from Medium to taking only half an hour, with larger ones taking quite a bit longer. She spent one day just drinking the potions where she could every hour to let her stomach settle, with yesterday not even touching them due to constant indigestion. That made her not exercise and feel like she was a little ill the entire time. Fortunately, she did get something out of consuming them, eighty Skill Points over the course of sixteen hours. This allowed 50 points to be placed in the Alchemy skill to speed the process up even further, as well as adding two abilities, one was passive. "Potent Mixture" gave a bonus to any consumables from the alchemy station or from a chemistry station equal to ten percent of her Alchemy skill. "Controlled Substances" completely removed any chance of anything blowing up while crafting, sacrificing or in general anything involving the stations.
Her perks were a bit upgraded and reworked, with the two fifty percent bonuses to bows swapped to guns, fifty percent mobility for chainmail armor changed to steampunk Kevlar, the two fifty percent accuracy bonuses for catapults were replaced with faster attack speed for auto mortars due to the accuracy already being controlled by an automaton, bonuses to all repair spells, speed boost spells, creation spells for things like spices and sugar and one bonus to a new spell called Mana Blast for use against other casters. She also took two fifty percent boosts for armor rating in her new armor, and three fifty percent boosts for stats now that she had professional gear. Her health was higher, basic stats like strength and agility increased along with dexterity. They weren't massive boosts, but it was mostly a twenty-five percent increase, with some not receiving anything. That allowed enchanting to fill the gaps. She now had really good gear for her level.
"Ok… time to get these models ready and stationed where they need to be." The dev had sacrificed almost all the Civilian models excluding Jeeves and the specialized gatherers plus five more to help around the fortress including a female maid version that she produced another five of which looked amazing, then crafted one hundred Light Security models for the walls and to guard the gate. She could make Medium tier autos right now, in which she had two standing at the gate entrance for intimidation factor. The Mediums seemed to look like they were the size of a king size bed in width and depth, with the height being somewhere around ten feet. They were completely covered in heavy armor with pauldrons that had extended panels hanging down the arms that kind of reminded her of big doggy doors that people installed in their houses. The things had almost no neck, at least none visible given the extended chest armor and neck guards, the pauldrons even had a raised point near the head. Two long armor skirts dropped down the front of the thighs with a thicker one draping between the legs, with the extremities being as thick as her waist.
The Military models she made sixty Lights, twenty Mediums along with six auto turrets to guard the entrances of the caves and act as secondary teams to meet up with and keep barricaded forked tunnels. One of the caves would be sealed off with only a light defense to keep it from being opened, while the spare teams would go through the second opening. There were eleven APCs built, one of which was a Special Forces model. Each one was fully automated, not even needing a driver. This went for all vehicles and planes, allowing her to be chauffeured around if she didn't want to ride Asterion. That was a good thing, as she still hadn't gained any pointed in Driving Skill. The set up was just too different from a normal car back on Earth.
Honor Guard models were not made beyond the one that was used as an example for Selene to see. She positioned it back at the house to look pretty. That left Special Forces.
Her first Super Medium was crafted as a Special Forces Model, with the head looking almost triangular with a single visible optic in the middle, with potentially far more sensors hidden. It had what looked like solid blocks with cut points for legs due to how much armor plating was layered on the front, making the actual legs look bigger than they actually were. The shoulders down to the arms were heavy armored, with what looked like latch points for spare ammunition, not magazines, but drum connectors. There were even smoke launchers on the shoulders, something that should have been on a vehicle. She was naming him Jorge. His accent sounded British but very deep, calming, and stable, with being the tank of the group meaning he'd need to be the solid foundation for them to continue forward. His main armament was a two-handed Morningstar mace, a tower shield which seemed more wall than shield, two double-barreled sawed-off shotguns that were technically just considered large fowling pieces attached to the shoulders that fired alternating buckshot or incendiary, to assist in evening the odds in a fight or draw targets to him. As a ranged weapon beyond the mace, he carried a steampunk smoothbore semi-auto 20mm cannon that latched to the back of his shoulder and fed from the backpack.
The second member of the team crafted was a Super Light that she named Ethan. She knew an Ethan in college that seemed to sound similar to the voice of this automaton. It had somewhat of a wedge-shaped head with angled helmet plating sweeping back on the sides, two thick antennas on the back of the "skull" that weren't standard for the Special Forces drone and two optics glowing a soft blue glow. His pauldrons swept upwards similar to Jorge's, with two hidden spots for combat knives under one. The front chest plate seemed to have a neck protector sticking out the top shaped like a V, multiple latch points that looked like metal versions of a MOLE vest, with a six-block panel skirt below a utility belt. Below that his leg armor seemed to rise up instead of down, with extensions from the knee joints and ankles providing better protection if he crouched. He seemed to be easy going, American accent, with a sense of humor at times. His main armament was a carbine with an underslung single shot shotgun, a revolver, a rapier and a large extendable shield. His back mounted shield arm was replaced with an alternating healing beam and repair beam system. He was there to help in all directions when required, as an off tank, spare damage, support or limited healing. A Jack of all traders but master of none.
The third member was a second Super Light designed for long range or rapid pistol action that she named Deacon. The head looked like it had a mixture between a spider's eyes and a theater camera projector squished under a helmet with four antennas that could drop down for stealth. Its backpack seemed to be inverted to allow him to hide more efficiently and if he laid down, the silhouette looked kind of like a boulder. Most of his armor paneling was like Ethan's, with the exception of a bandolier over the chest replacing the combat knives hidden under the pauldrons, with assorted ammunition the size of two of her fingers. There were two holsters on the thighs for revolvers and a latch point behind the right arm just before the backpack that was meant for a sniper rifle or carbine. He was going to be the marksman of the group, with his Australian accent and antagonistic quips towards enemies. With Ethan and Jorge, he was pretty likable and tended to make her chuckle, he just swore a lot in training combat, sometimes too much. His main armament was a 30mm sniper rifle with multiple different types of ammunition, two revolvers and a carbine when he couldn't snipe.
The fourth team member was the healer, which looked about half as tall as everyone in the group. "She" had an Icelandic accent and had an incredible bed side manner. Selene decided to name her Turnie, shortened from Tourniquet, given she couldn't figure any other name for her besides "Doc" and it fit well. She didn't have any legs, rolling around on a massive ball bearing covered in a metal skirt for movement with what seemed to be an anti-gravity field and booster nozzles to jump over obstacles. She could easily keep up with everyone else in the team, there was no trouble with that, and small rocks and stairs didn't stop her in the slightest with the gravity field. She had six arms that looked kind of like a French battle maid's uniform in design, two of which had healing beams that could be shot out of the palms, two of which could fire what looked like wielding beams that seemed to repair parts on the damaged training auto dummy, two that fired a smoke screen, oil or sleeping gas. She had what looked like a Brodie helmet reminiscent of World War I, with two blue optics just under the lip. A smaller backpack was seen, with what looked like a tow cable attached to the very back, telling the dev she had more torque than the heal bot let on with the anti-gravity field. Her armament wasn't weaponry as is, with a flashbang launcher and stun mine deployment system to be the closest she had. Her systems were four arms for healing and repairing, a pulse emission system that could be turned on for AOE healing and repairing around her, a heal mist gel condensing launcher so it wouldn't run out of ammo, a concussion system to knock back enemies that got too close, a panic system that was ear splitting for the enemy and warned she was under attack, and a shield generation system similar to the next team member. As a side gear package, she also had a sewing kit and bandages with poultices and balms, as well as a multitool for when she ran out of mana and energy to keep the team going.
The final member of the team was an interesting one, as instead of choosing to make an ornithopter or automaton, the dev decided to make a Light helibot, which seemed to be the size of about two meters in width. What showed up from the design was… awesome. It looked like a flying saucer with hover fans at three parts of the ring body attached to gyroscopes, three jets on the underside and was the support for the team. She decided to name him Orlo, which he was happy to have. Surprisingly he had a German accent and seemed to be very good at psychology. The domes seemed to serve as his personality core and sensor suite, stronger than all the others combined. Surrounding the two domes were four pods on the top and bottom totaling eight, with a double engine system on the "rear." The pods contained a phlogiston flamethrower, a small auto turret, rocket pod, mortar system, a mana battery that slowly recharged and acted as a secondary mana bar that Turnie could siphon from, a grenade launcher with multiple types of dispersion grenades for debuffs and poisons, and a shielding system that could encompass the entire group for about thirty seconds until it needed to recharge. The final pod had a "mini drone system" that apparently had five little drones that looked kind of like Batman's batarangs but could provide harassment of enemies with small slow firing tesla pods. The little drones could be replaced with some sort of beam from the bottom dome firing into the ground, somehow pulling materials up like her Molecular Reformation ability and using the very same pod to rebuild the small flight of micro fighters like a mini fabrication unit. They were also great for disposable reconnaissance.
All the team had an assortment of steampunk grenades to use when required, along with auto repair as a standard feature, some spells dependent on their "class" and all of them were painted straight black, with their icons on her mini map for her Hud showing Jorge as Green, Ethan Blue, Deacon Red, Turnie White and Orlo Purple. The interesting thing Selene noticed was once the team was assembled, she found out each had their own special abilities for what they were built for. Jorge seemed to have all defensive abilities to somehow gain "aggro" from enemies or keep himself from getting damaged, Deacon had similar abilities to her with aimed shot and rapid fire as part of the list. Turnie had, as a healer should, quite a few healing and repair abilities along with backup defensive capabilities. Orlo was entirely support, so it stood to reason he had debuff and buff systems available to turn the tide along with his armament. She had no idea how some of the abilities should even work in real life, as aggro was just a set up to allow tanks to do something in games. The abilities seemed to come from the personality cores, as the regular drones didn't have them. What she also noticed was their levels. Each one was level 78 while the tank, Jorge, was a whopping level 104. It seemed being Special Forces gave a thirty percent boost to their level, along with Steampunk Mechanical Engineering doubling the level for all automatons. Even the military models were level 66, with the Mediums level 88. She never tried checking the levels of the APCs sitting outside the walls.
Unfortunately, due to the shoulder mounts potentially causing more problems than benefits in tight enclosed areas and the weapons being researched for improvements, none of the automaton team had them installed. While it might be helpful in some cases, they all begrudgingly agreed with Selene that the chances of bringing the tunnels down on them was too high, even though she could feel that each one of them thought they were more than capable of using them without issue and were being handicapped due to a worried creator. Maybe she didn't have enough trust in their abilities, but it was the first time they would be heading out.
As an emergency precaution, Selene had in her inventory multiple auto turrets and portable blast shields, wall and door bracings, consumables to keep herself up and a cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner ready with a few snacks. She had absolutely no idea how long they'd be in there. There was even a premade campfire and bedroll with blanket just in case she needed to rest while the team watched over her, but there were also anti-fatigue potions and stamina potions available with Lesser or Greater Rejuvenate spells ready to cast. Some might consider what she put together overkill for the adventure, but she wanted to make sure that they succeeded. Giles had told her the survival rate of adventurers in the area was fifty percent, so one half of them never made it back. The dev intended to increase her odds as high as possible with "the power of steampunk". Sadly, she wasn't yet at the capability to tech up to Super Steampunk or Space Steampunk afterwards, but right now, both really were overkill. Industrial Era was a good choice in the future.
There is no such thing as overkill, there is only open fire and I need to reload.
Once she knew all about her team's capabilities and had all her gear ready from the two spare days, they all stepped outside to the waiting Armored Personnel Carriers that she built. The piston arms on the sides were heavily armored to turn the giant wheels and give decent horsepower and torque, with the wheels being an adaptive tire that pushed inwards like piano keys with smaller hydraulics depressing. This allowed the hulking things to even go over fallen trees. There was a Medium auto turret installed on the top of each one for defense, a 70mm burst fire cannon.
"Scared ma'am?" Ethan asked as she stood there watching her military drones pile into the APCs and get situated, with Jorge coming up behind her and listening in. "I… yeah, a little. I mean… no, I'm scared a lot. This will be the first time assaulting a place, not defending. I was pretty gung-ho before, but now that I'm doing it…" Jorge softly put his giant paw of a hand onto her shoulder. "You've got us ma'am. No need to worry. We'll get you there and be back before you know it." She exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding and looked at both of them. Deacon jogged right by and looked at her. "She'll be apples ma'am. Back before dinner."
Trust your new team and automatons. This isn't some random adventurer team of newbies, this isn't a Pick-Up Group, these are Special Forces Units with MILSPEC automatons. The fort is safe with Security, the wolves are napping. I'll be fine.
As much as she wanted to psych herself up, she was a civilian with combat experience compared to these things. Granted, they were fighting goblins, which was proven by one of the ornithopters catching view of two of them coming out of a cave and then catching something outside. "Bronze Team" as she wanted to call them due to being steampunk, got inside their own SF APC as the hatch door closed, with the entire thing driving without need for a navigator. There was a decent amount of space in the vehicle, given it was made to carry a full team of five Medium autos inside or as many as ten Lights. Asterion was finally going to have to stay home, though he'd get ridden to Gold Pine later so as not to scare the villagers with her mechanized army. Turnie was latched into the very front near the "cockpit" that had no one inside, with Jorge right at the hatch door to exit first. Deacon and Ethan sat near Jorge, while Orlo latched himself to the ceiling and provided more intel as they moved. That left almost an entire seat bench for her to lay down on if needed, with extra padding and a medical cot that could fold out.
With Communication is Key special ability, she could hear her automatons communicating to each other, which made her cut the different models into "chat rooms" to know which ones were talking about what. They could always contact her with an emergency if she was in the wrong chat room. The ride wasn't bumpy at all given the hydraulics built into both the wheels and the shocks, as the APCs rolled towards their destination. "So, everyone knows the plan?" Ethan asked. All of them nodded as Selene looked at her map. "We're going to block off one entrance to the far right with boulders, then we as a team will enter the far-left cave opening while Bravo team will enter the middle. They will check and hold any forks in the tunnels, using barricades and spare auto turrets to watch their backs until they find the time to double back and move down the other tunnel."
"Meanwhile, we go spelunking in the scrungiest cave possible. Eh, time to get fuckin dirty anyways, need to pick up the shiny at the end and push some shite into the green gobs" Deacon added in. Selene smiled at that while suppressing a chuckle. The ride was mostly uneventful while she listened to chatter from her task force. "APC 1 clearing forest, no hostiles detected." "APC 3 reporting visuals of large game in area, suggest hunting season start early." As they neared the caves, with all of them heading to the right most one first to seal it off, the doors slowly lowered with Jorge leaping out, his shield ready to go and mace in hand, an audible thump heard as his feet landed. "You are an absolute unit Jorge" Deacon chuckled out. There was no sign of enemies anywhere, with the soft chirp of birds nearby. There were eleven APCs in total to carry her spare task force, not wanting to risk having to pull each one out of her inventory in the event of things going bad as soon as they got there. APCs 11 through 9 had stopped at the cave they were going to enter, with 8 through 5 setting up at the second cave. 4 through 1 were ready and preparing the defenses as Selene collapsed boulders into the opening, which seemed to be about the size of Jorge. The other two caves were almost triple his size, making her worry there were things even larger inside that could take him on.
A Troll? Ogre? What if Jorge can't tank one of those? They might be far bigger than him, he'll get swatted around like a fly! God, I hope there aren't any in there with the goblins…
"Time to see how many Derros are in there" Deacon said as he headed towards the first cave, swapping his sniper rifle for a lever action on his back. Given that he was the ranged damage dealer for the group, she didn't doubt for even a second if he could rapid fire all rounds and reload to clear a room. It would only get better with higher end equipment. The team headed for the cave and stood at the entrance. "You ready ma'am?" Ethan asked. She took a deep breath and nodded. Her new Professional tier steampunk Kevlar armor having a dust grey and black quilt sheen, with paneling on the front and back. The dev was carrying a lever action rifle and a revolver, like Ethan, with a short sword and shield ready in case she got into melee. Her spear was waiting in her inventory to fast equip at a moment's notice. As backup weapons, she brought along crossbows for any silent takedowns. It was doubtful they'd ever run out of ammunition, given she could manufacture more just from her stations in her inventory.
Bronze Team headed inside with some military drones and turrets set up along with the APCs watching their backs. Bravo Team was heading into the second cave alongside them. "Keep alert, there may be hidden passageways" Jorge quietly said to them through chat as he led the group forward. Orlo pulsed the area to track enemies within fifty meters, seeing via X-ray through some unknown sensor in his dome. "Second floor everyone, I doubt they know we are here." He fed his tracking into her Hud along with sending the data to the rest of the team. This wasn't an adventurer group that had to communicate via voice, they were all talking via Communication is Key, making the ability priceless. "Entrance expands up ahead." Ethan was watching the left side while Deacon tracked anything on the right as they moved forward. The tunnel started to head down and reached a fork in the road. "Left sends us to an underground cavern, right connects us to another fork. The cavern will continue to… ruins…" Orlo explained as even he was surprised by what he found. "Any idea of how stable the ruins are?" Jorge asked. "Unknown, though the rubble seems structurally sound. Just don't go rampaging through collapsing support pillars and we'll be fine." The helibot marked multiple pillars with small waypoints, letting them know "do not touch."
"From how high are we coming out in the ruins? I have a feeling the buggers are living there" Deacon said as he looked down at the floor towards the underground theorized nest. "Third floor, just above the original main entrance it seems. Advise caution, multiple other caverns branch from that location." As they continued down, Selene got a report from the second team they reached a fork as well, placing auto turrets and sealing up one opening with a barricade so they can explore the other tunnel. She acknowledged and followed her team further inside. "Hold, patrol of two heading this way. Neutralize or avoid?" Jorge asked. "Wha? Uh… um… possible to neutralize quietly?" she asked. The dev, despite being their creators, didn't have the full tactics and strategy knowledge that they had as the Tactics skill hadn't been taken yet. "Copy." She made a mental note to max the hell out of that skill as soon as she got the chance.
All of them turned on their invisibility fields, cloaking from view. Her backpack had the same equipped, with a spare power core installed. It was a little heavy given it was originally made for an automaton and altered significantly. The bars arced out of her pack as she saw a distortion around her while two goblins slowly turned the corner with torches. One seemed to have constant drool coming from its mouth, the other was making some sort of low growl for no reason. Just as they reached Jorge's position, Ethan came up behind the first and slit its throat while Jorge just grabbed the second by its head and popped its head off with his giant gauntleted hand and thumb as if it was a cork on a bottle. Neither had a chance to even make one noise. The bodies were laid down slowly to further keep any noise from carrying down the tunnel, with Orlo listening in for any other movement they might have missed. The team was very efficient, having training that shouldn't normally be available until far later. The training programs of navy SEALs took years to perfect, with most of the skills developed not being thought of until the 20th century or later.
"Small clearing up ahead." The team reached the clearing without any other issue, with a small light orb being cast for the woman to see. There would be no torch use in the caves, as the autos in her team didn't need light to detect their surroundings, with the light orb being extinguished each time they were informed hostiles were nearby. Selene really needed to make some low light goggles to wear in the future, she felt like a spare tire sitting in the back of a run flat car that wasn't latched down. "Hostiles just up ahead, gated entrance down" Ethan quietly said via her "coms." They counted six goblins, two were playing some sort of dice game, with another two sitting at a table chewing on what she only hoped was animal meat. The last two were watching down the tunnel, all of which seemed to look completely moronic. "Think we can get them all in under ten seconds?" Jorge asked. "Are you fucking with me? I got 4 if you got two Ethan." The GP auto acknowledged as they both readied their weapons. They counted down from three, two, one. Six shots rang out from both, four of which Deacon fired, each hitting a head. Ethan's shots were center mass, not going for a vital point. All of them dropped dead on the ground, with Jorge not even needed to tank.
"If that didn't tell them we're here, I don't know what will" Jorge said as they started to lightly jog forward, the gate on the door ripped off its hinges by the big guy. The auburn-haired woman got a report from the second team the tunnel they were heading down connected to ruins, they'd meet up with them on the third-floor veranda. Surprisingly, they had only come across eight goblins, with no hidden spots for them to ambush the team. Even if they did, Orlo was keeping his "ears" open the entire time. The team slipped through the new opening and headed to the large cavern. Jorge stopped all of them and crouched. "One hostile, large. I'll hit him, the rest flank." Jorge slowly crept up towards a hulk on the ground that seemed to be ignoring the tunnel they just came from. As they got closer, she saw what it was, a troll.
Fuck! I knew it! That thing looks huge! No wonder the caves are so big. Can Jorge really take that thing on? Don't trolls usually die from acid and fire? Orlo I think is the only one with a phlogiston flamethrower beyond the incendiary grenades we have.
Jorge came up right behind the thing before it even knew he was there, and just as it turned its head and started to get up, he slammed his mace into its head, collapsing it with a resounding crunch. There was no guarantee it wouldn't regenerate even with an imploded brain, so Orlo came up and sprayed the thing with the flamethrower to cook the body while Deacon watched the second entrance heading towards the ruins. "Ma'am, permission to speak freely?" Jorge asked. "What? Yes, of course, you guys don't have to ask that from me." Ethan and Jorge shared a little look between each other. "These things have almost no wits to speak of. It's like it's been sapped from them. Not one of them has kept a proper eye on their surroundings. I believe we're fighting idiots, ma'am."
Witless… is that the reason the last time I fought them I couldn't understand what they were saying? They spoke almost in baby speak, and if I was able to understand the villagers of Gold Pine, it stands to reason I should have understood what those things were saying. Is someone using the Orb of Experiences to drain them? So… an army of goblins that turns out to be an army of cannon fodder.
The team slowly moved through the next tunnel expecting some sort of attack given the sounds from the flamethrower. Nothing happened. "They could be setting up a massive ambush for us" Turnie said to everyone via coms. "Possible, but that should have happened back there" Jorge replied as they all kept on their toes. As they reached the entrance to the ruins, the team saw down below the number of goblins just lying around. There were a good two or three hundred of them, with one goblin shaman sitting on a worn throne on one side of the place. Sitting next to him was a dais rising from the ground with what looked like some sort of dragon's claws grappling a glowing orb. There were four branching tunnels from the ruins below them, with an unknown potential for enemies inside, until at least Orlo could check them. His pulse only extended so far past his position, hence the need to use the drone fighters he was equipped with for reconnaissance any further.
"Should we take out the pint-sized Joe Blo first and mop up the stragglers after?" Deacon asked as he surveyed the area. "Wait, hundreds of goblins to you are stragglers?" Selene asked in surprise. He looked at her, then at Jorge. He nodded an acknowledgement to her. Just then, Bravo Team made their way into the ruins near them, the sound of their armor making a little racket up above. "Time to move!" Jorge shouted through coms as he leapt off the third floor and slammed into the ground, startling the goblins with the intimidating visage of an armored mechanized infantry that took one swing with the mace and splattered five of the green creatures. Deacon opened up with his rifle, taking out six goblins and taking out another twelve with his revolvers. Bravo team was doing work cleaning house, with their lever action rifles putting holes through goblin chests everywhere. Selene ran down a destroyed ramp to the second floor and climbed down some rocks, with Turnie following to keep Jorge and her creator safe.
Jorge used an aggro gaining ability, "A New Challenger Arrives" as an AOE gather, causing all the goblins to charge his way. The problem for them was Deacon and Ethan, along with Bravo team, all threw incendiary grenades at the pile. Huge amounts of the Demi-humans were dropping like flies, with the goblin shaman trying to attack with spells, not against Jorge, but against the only human in the ruins. While the tank of her team was busy keeping the waves of little attackers under control, Selene figured it was her turn to be useful in the group as she dodged the spells or ignored the damage with her heavy resistance. The resistance didn't stop her from feeling the heat before the spells struck, it just stopped the damage, so she still recoiled occasionally, due to instinct. She aimed and fired a bullet from her rifle, with the round pinging off a protective shield surrounding the shaman. He started to cast something, but she was faster as she threw most of her mana into throwing chain lightning and a magic arrow to penetrate the shield.
"You think you can hurt me with those little strikes? I am magic now! I have all the knowledge of the stupid adventurers that brought this thing here, along with all my nest. You cannot break through. I'll add your knowledge to the list, ha ha!" the shaman cackled out just as two trolls charged out of one of the branching tunnels and headed for Jorge. Two more came from a different direction, with some goblins charging up to fight against the Lights on the third floor providing ranged fire.
So physical attacks are useless towards him, my team must fight hundreds with trolls coming in. I… if I don't pull back my team, they might be destroyed, but if I… I'm going to trust my team to handle that while I deal with this asshole. I can't physically hurt him, but there's one spell I at least learned for anti-caster combat… Mana Blast. Molecular Reformation is my back up.
Selene cast the spell on the shaman as he cackled against her futile attack, but then realized how bad it was going to be as all his mana charged up at the same time and detonated, blasting chunks out of his body like it was swiss cheese. He was still alive, though critically hurt and interrupting his shield. Apparently, he didn't have the resistances that she had with all the resistance casts and potions she drank before coming here. She fired a second bullet, piercing his chest and puncturing through his heart. His body collapsed on the ground, giving the dev enough time to turn around and see the trolls leap at Jorge. "JORGE!" she screamed out loud as the world seemed to move slowly as he took a defensive stance with the first one slamming its arm down on his shield… and it held.
For a moment, his hydraulics shocked downwards a little, before regaining composure and knocking the troll's leg out from under it with the mace, ripping the knee out with the strike and sweeping up with his shield to slam into the second troll to send it flying. The other two couldn't reach him as his movements brought him up behind the second giant creature, jumping onto its back and ripping its head off, with Orlo coming down and firing an acid grenade at the other two and firing off his flamethrower at the head. Turnie bounced back up to the third floor and repaired extremely minor damage to one Light that got stabbed at the left leg, only scraping some paint and scratching a gear a little bit, not actually doing anything to the automaton. That was the extent of her needing to be there along with one flashbang to blind the things. Selene was in awe at how fast they dealt with the goblins and trolls, with Jorge and Orlo just wading through them like they were nothing. Jorge just wasn't even taking any damage, with one troll landing a strike on his shoulder and he just shrugged it off as a love tap or a pat on the back. He could have easily dodged it, he just didn't care. The movements of her tank were so fluid, like watching Tai Kwon Do being done by a fully armored knight. If she didn't know any better, the military model that got stabbed once probably didn't consider the goblin a real threat, given it only scratched the paint. This was practice for them, they weren't fighting for real. The few Military Mediums that had gone with Bravo team were just stomping things, not even putting any real effort in moving.
Orlo's drone fighters flitted out to distract the third one as Jorge cleaned the fourth's clock, firing incendiary shells straight into its chest on auto over the shoulder while Orlo fired more grenades at the third one reducing it to a pile of goop. Deacon was an absolute gunslinger upstairs, while Ethan swapped to rapier and cleaved the little creatures up into bits and pieces. For all she knew, this was training practice for them, probably even easier than that, as none of them seemed to be moving near half the speed she saw at the fortress. They were just taking their time, tearing through this army. She didn't really know their top movement speed yet, as they never got to that point during test training. Even the military models were fighting like it was a field trip to some museum, "oh look at that one, it has missing teeth, let's kill it." Now that she could see just how brutally effective her automatons could be, there wasn't a semblance of a doubt. She had a legendary team, a legendary army… a Steampunk army.
As the fighting died down, with reports of goblins trying to escape the horror that had just beset them down below, she heard her cave security was cleaning up. The whole fight took maybe five minutes at maximum before everything was quiet. The dev even got a kill in, with taking down the shaman herself. That cheered her up quite a bit. "Area clear ma'am, no more hostiles detected" Orlo reported as he hovered nearby. She turned around and looked at the dais with the orb set in it. "Want me to help?" Jorge offered as he looked at the thing. "No, I think the claws are just a container." She looked around the sides of the dais and found a rotating lever that she spun until the claws slowly opened.
As she looked down at the orb, small sparkles were flitting throughout the sphere showing colors of amber and pink with a little lime green and silver in the mix. "A shame you couldn't suck the knowledge from the dressed-up pig there like an oyster" Deacon commented as he jumped down to the first floor. Selene slowly moved her hand to the orb, expecting it to react to her touch. Nothing amazing seemed to happen as her fingers wrapped around the sphere and picked it up. An ever so slight glow appeared as she tried to focus on it as if it was a plasma ball toy, seeing if there was any experience left inside; sadly, none remained. As she unfocused from it, the glow dissipated, as if she disconnected from using the thing. At least she knew it wasn't a for life kind of deal.
"Got what we need?" Ethan asked as he looked at the dais. "Found something else" Deacon shouted as everyone turned to see where he had gone. The sniper had entered one of the side tunnels that opened up to a large cavern. As he came back out to the ruins with everyone wondering what he got, his hand was holding a dragon scale, a very old one. "Whoa. Are there anymore?" the dev asked him. "Only saw one ma'am, and I doubt the lizard could fucking fit down here anymore with its fat arse." There didn't seem to be any opening large enough for even a drake to fit near them. Maybe in the past there might have been a den, or someone who lived here owned dragon pets, but not now. That time had long since gone for these old hallways and rooms.
"So, yeah, these guys were about as dumb as door knobs. I take it the shaman was sucking their brains dry?" Ethan commented. Selene nodded. "It's as I thought. Little bastard sacrificed his nest or tribe for more power. In the end, all these guys were just brainless drones drooling on themselves and knew the pointy end of a knife." Turnie looked between everyone. "Well, now that our little excursion is tidied up, what say we head back? A little fresh air for ya ma'am should do some good." They started heading back up to the APCs, with the whole "adventure" lasting about two hours. Selene wondered what it would have been like with Civilian models. Would they have succeeded? Would they have taken the whole day to fight off the small goblin army? Would they have failed, with her head on some pike? She didn't really know, but one thing was for certain, she was happy with the outcome. She had no worries about having the shoulder mounts installed after this.
As they reached the top and saw daylight, the world welcomed them back to the valley, with the APCs prepped and ready to leave. Once all the equipment and automatons were packed up, they headed back. The whole thing didn't feel like a dungeon at all from a video game, with the fights lasting all of a few seconds or minutes at most due to the number of enemies and close quarters restricting certain fighting styles for the autos. She sat there looking at the orb, as if trying to decipher its capabilities with her eyes. There was no level or quality for the thing, which made her believe it was an artifact without being artifact tier, maybe special or unique. Given the effect of it, the orb was probably just an early magical camera someone created, but she still wanted to run some experiments on it.
Once they got back to the fortress, she got out of the APC and requested a Driller drone to come over. She wondered if it would even work on a drill arm to touch it, but she just had to see if her first experiment would yield results. If it didn't, the thing would be a nice trinket trophy showing her first successful adventure. As the tip of the drill touched the top of the orb, it glowed. She didn't dare use it on her automatons that had personality cores.
Was that a connection?! That was a connection! Oh… wait wait, don't get excited, you still need to see if the next step of the experiment works.
She ordered the Driller to head down into the mine and gather ore. The Woodcutters and Drillers were previously told to stop gathering due to the abundance of resources she now had given it didn't disappear anymore with her teching up. Once the Driller was in place, it started to dig, with Selene's eyes glued to the orb to see if it did anything. There was a sort of experience bar, if she could call it that, showing on the orb as she had temporarily connected to it herself. It showed zero of… there was just a dash at the end, telling her it could store unlimited experience. The experiment she was running was to see if experiences or memories were the same as experience points for her.
What she saw in the orb after a few seconds had her elated. It had gone up by three points, which wasn't much. Now she just needed to connect to the orb and drain the experience. Due to how the drone wasn't a living creature and programmed to work a certain way, with the capability to "learn" via computer data instead of brain waves, she wondered if the drone would just keep going about its business without losing anything to the orb, being a machine and all. The three experience points were added to her bar. On top of that, she gained something she wasn't expecting, one action point. The Driller looked to be completely unaffected by the orb as she had hoped, meaning any automaton, regardless of it learning her habits or other programming she could provide, would not lose any of it, continuing to function at peak efficiency. It wasn't a transfer of a program for them, more like copying data and sending it to the orb like sending an email with an attached file. She may have just found a loophole in this special treasure.
While the experiment was successful, this meant she'd have to leave the orb alone for a while as it gained experience and action points. This also meant that all her gatherer drones would need to be connected to the orb, with a potential renewable resource they could easily gain to build up the points. She needed to max her Gathering Skill to make the most use of Renewable Resources special ability. If she could get a tree farm, an orchard, a regular farm and an herb farm going, with lots of specialized drones on them, the orb would probably fill up fast. The problem was making sure she didn't wipe out the forest near the fortress and lake, as each of those farms would take a sizeable space, with not even factoring in extending her walls to protect those farms. Middle Ages farms weren't usually behind the castle walls, making peasants run for safety and leaving their homes and vegetables out to be trampled and destroyed to save their lives during a siege. This would be a massive undertaking to get all the land leveled for efficient farming. A 1 km2 claim for each farm could work, only using the area she's already cleared for sight lines from the fortress. Her main problem was expanding the walls, adding defenses and just getting everything up to speed with irrigation, compost, greenhouses, organic pesticides, good bugs to keep around, even trying to get a beehive or five up and running with domesticated hives. It was possible to create a vertical farm with each one layered on top of each other to not use so much land.
Could help with a full trade line to Gold Pine too. Food, clean water, oil from algae, etc. get some more actions each day by having my own shop built there… could put the general store owner out of business though… he is kind of a dick.
Selene checked her clock, noting it was 1 pm. The expedition barely took the morning, with enough time to get in a late lunch and check with Gold Pine for new traders, maybe get the resources she needed to start building the farms. While some of it wouldn't be truly required to buy, given that beehives could start near the trees if she just grew them, the vegetable farm would be in greenhouses, the orchard would be the only one needing some good bugs. She just needed seeds really. "C'mon Aster, let's take a ride." Asterion was saddled up and mounted with Bronze team ready to follow her. "Wait, I don't want to scare the villagers, no offense meant by the way." Ethan looked around at the others. "Ma'am, did you forget we can cloak?" he asked. She felt like a ditz. "We'll keep out of view, promise!" Turnie saluted her with one of her hands. "Ok, fine." They took an SF APC with the same invisibility field equipment installed and followed her on horseback.
As they neared the village, with Bronze Team exiting the APC just outside the fence and disappearing from view, the dev headed in, greeted by the people living there. "Hey there Selene! I got some nice meat from a hog this morning, interested?" One of the men asked as others offered to hand her things for free. "I'm fine, really, just here to check if any other traders are here with seeds." Abby walked out of the smithy with a pot to go to the well. There was one trader just up the road with decent supply of things that could be used by these people, shovels and farming equipment along with seeds and even fertilizer. While she was able to buy apple seeds, orange seeds, lemon seeds and lime seeds, there were no pears or peaches, no berry seeds, and one guava seed. She had no idea where he got it, but all of them were paid for. There was no guarantee the guavas would grow around here, even in a greenhouse, but she could try.
Abby came by to see what she was buying and talked to her while they headed towards the smithy. "Hey, guess what I did this morning?" Abby asked. "Um… lemme see… learned a few tricks in the smithy?" The smithy wife shook her head and smiled. "Worked the bathhouse?" Abby shook her head again. "I got the plans for a new road for mayor Stafinson. I like drawing and painting when I have free time, and it spruces the home up which Giles is happy with. So, I offered to draw up a new road for people to build houses on a little further out. That brings up another thing, people are coming to live here now!" she jumped a little with her hands bunched up in front of her in excitement. "That's great news! Soon this place won't be called a village, but a town instead. Glad to hear you're doing the city planning." Abby looked a little confused. "But… it's for a town, not a city." Selene laughed.
"That's what it's called, city planning, getting the design prepared so that utilities and transportation can be set up nearby to stop residents from being cut off from everyone else." Abby mouthed an Ah with her lips as she thought. "The mayor paid me thirty silver for it! He wants me to-" Both of them stopped as they heard a commotion behind them at the front entrance to the village at the sign. People were gathering there to watch something. "What's going on? A speech?" The auburn-haired woman asked as she saw the top of the mayor's head in the front, but it sort of looked like he wasn't facing the crowd. There was a stage coach waiting at the sign with a driver and two light plate wearing guards with halberds.
"I wonder what's happening. I don't remember the mayor saying anything was planned." They both walked back towards the main road connected to Gold Pine to get a better look. Selene slipped through the crowd with Abby right on her heels as they made their way to the front. There was a man dressed in elegant clothing with a beret and a really stupid looking mustache with a pointed goatee. "You've got to give us some time, we're just a small village. The people can't pay that!" The mayor was trying to convince the man about something with money. "Your people are only allowed to be here under the express funding of the Artinian kingdom. It is not our fault you can't pay back your loans or your taxes required of citizens of our most beloved king. We have been lenient with the past few months, but now you must pay in full what you have missed." The villagers were getting angry, raising their voices as they told him to leave them alone.
The mayor turned around, looking at the peasants, the hard-working people who lived here. "Please don't do this!" "Stop taking our hard-earned coin!" "We can't afford to live without that!" The mayor asked each person to head back to their homes and get their purses. The crowd sadly agreed and left to get their money, given it wasn't really needed to carry around unless they were buying something. "How much are they wanting from each person?" Selene whispered to the mayor. "Two gold each worth of coin." She gawked. These people had maybe one gold in total coinage, maybe not even that. It was highway robbery. The villagers slowly walked back, with most of their purses being small little bags that could be tied to their belts. A few of them were crying. The people handed whatever money they had to pay their taxes to the mayor, who collected the coin and put it in a larger drawstring bag to hand to the tax collector. "Hmm, I noticed she didn't give the full amount required." The man pointed at the alewife. She looked around embarrassed at everyone and visibly looked frightened. "Please, have mercy! There haven't been many traders due to the bandits and-" "Why you do not have the coin to pay your amount is not my concern. If you cannot pay required taxes, you will be arrested."
The two guards walked up and tried to grab at her arms. "Unhand her!" the mayor yelled as he got between them. "Are you willing to take her place to pay for this?" the tax collector asked. "I'll pay her amount. Just leave her alone!" The mayor jogged back to his somewhat larger home and picked up his purse, pulling two gold coins and bringing them back to the ugly man. Once the coins were in his hand, the tax collector clinked them together and looked at the mayor. "Now that the payment is complete, Mayor Stafinson, for interfering in the arrest and disrupting justice, I will have you arrested in her place!" The guards walked over and grabbed his arms, pinning them behind his back. "You can't do this! He paid! He was just trying to give you another option!" The villagers were in open protest now as they led him to the coach.
"LET HIM GO!" Selene roared out, with the crowd quieting down and the tax collector looking her over. "Are you a new villager? You seem a little more… refined. Almost look like the daughter of a nobleman. Which house are you from?" "Let him go, now, or I swear I will end you." She looked furious. He looked her over, her attire and her stance. A small yawn escaped his lips as he came to a conclusion. "Oh, I see, playing adventurer, venturing on your own, just like all the others rebelling. Well, I'm sure your parents would be happy to have you back. Again, which house are you from?" Selene was getting angry. "I'm not from any house you dumb ass."
What the fuck? You think I'm a teenager? Am I supposed to take that as a twisted compliment? Technically at my age people would be considered middle aged or even elderly due to quality of life and lacking medicine.
The tax collector looked at his finger nails and picked at them. "If you are not willing to tell me, we can bring you in and have notices sent out for the nobility to come and pick you up. Guards?"
The guards started to walk towards her as they slammed the stage coach door closed. That's when Selene drew her revolver and cocked it. They didn't stop, given they had never seen something like it or considered it a weapon. She fired once then cocked and fired a second time, both rounds killing them easily. The tax collector was visibly scared, a full brown pants moment happening to him as he backed away with his hands up at his face with his mouth letting out a mix of a screech and a yelp. The driver got up from his seat and pulled a crossbow, but a light click was heard behind his head. Deacon had a revolver to the base of his skull. "Want your head air conditioned? See what these things do to your brain pan? Then keep doing what you're doing."
The entire team decloaked surrounding the coach, with Jorge coming from behind a building and bringing his shield to just barely in front of Selene. Two guards came out of the coach with swords only to be met with Ethan and Orlo aiming at them, with Orlo's flamethrower lighting up. "Get the mayor out of there." Jorge walked to the stage coach and ripped the door off its hinges, not because he was trying to use his full strength, but due to the door being so fragile. Stafinson stepped out with manacles on his wrists, Orlo removed them with a special tool. He had a lockpick system installed, which allowed him to easily get through any door.
"You… you won't get away with this! The kingdom will come to avenge me!" the tax collector said as he had his hands up with open palms in defense. "You're going to leave, now, before I change my mind in letting you live." The man scurried and stumbled towards the coach and leapt through the opening that was once a door, with Deacon getting off the side and the two guards jumping in as well. The driver whipped the horses into turning and headed down the road towards the ruins of Glass Dale. The entire village looked at the mechanical creatures in awe and a little fear when Jorge walked up to Selene along with the others. "Think they'll send an army next?" Ethan asked. "I doubt they'd go that far. It's a village, with no guards. There's nothing threatening them." The mayor walked up to Selene, wary of the hulking automaton in front of her. "These… creatures… they helped us…" The dev sighed. "These creatures are mine. Don't worry. Sorry I kept them hidden from you, I didn't want anyone jumping into a panic or running for the hills. I've… well, I figured you'd all think they're evil incarnate."
"We're definitely not something you want to fuckin mess with" Deacon mumbled out. The mayor was almost in shock at how big Jorge was, his towering form armored from head to toe and looking very dangerous. "Are these… demons you summoned?" he asked. "Hey, who are you calling a demon ya arsehole?" Deacon snapped and pointed at him. "Deacon, seriously. Settle." He stopped pointing and slowly meandered to the village sign. "They're not demons. Just… just understand I made them; they won't hurt you, unless you try and start something with them, then all bets are off. So… I know this sounds like I'm slow but bear with me. That was the tax collector from the Artinian kingdom? He finally came here?" she asked.
"Yes, after five months of no sight of those blasted vampires, they rear their ugly heads." "Ugly doesn't begin to describe that goatee on his face, I'll tell you that much" Ethan chimed in. "Well… you're safe now." The mayor came up to her and held her hands softly. "I don't think you know what you've done Ms. Selene. You just put yourself in danger. They won't stop like you think they will. I'm sure they'll send more next time, and you only have, what, five of these… men?" he told her. "Hey, who are you calling a man, simian?" Turnie barked. The mayor twitched a little in surprise and some fear as the rolling automaton yelled at him. "Easy Turnie." She mumbled something under her "breath" as she rolled down the street with Orlo. "I have more, many more. If it comes to that… I'll come in and make them see reason. There's no way they can see coming to this village in force worthwhile. Maybe they can rework the tax system for all of you temporarily if someone just talked to someone… less of a… less… ok, not a complete dick hole."
"Damned chunderhead better not show his face around here again, these battlers don't need that shite." Deacon looked around through the trees in the event the coach decided to come back. "If they do come back, will you… I know this is a lot to ask, but could you come to help with the negotiations? I… I'll need help Selene." She nodded and put a hand on his shoulder. "Once we get a chance to talk to these people, I'm sure things will go easier. I know what people say about governments, usually they don't know how difficult it is to run one or manage even a city or town. It's probably not as evil as everyone thinks it is." Stafinson looked away from her and coughed. "I… believe you are wrong Ms. Selene, but I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. I just hope through some miracle you can make them see reason." The dev agreed and looked at the bodies of the guards. "Hey, Jorge, help me get these into a grave?" she asked. He nodded as he picked up the bodies and walked behind his Lady as she headed outside the village and dug two graves for them to be thrown in. Once the bodies were in, she covered them up and put small headstones.
"You show more respect for the dead than those vultures, lass" Giles said as he saw what she was doing from the fence. She then casted Dry on the blood on the ground and told the mayor to just sweep and it would come off. "Ms. Selene." She turned around as she walked back to Aster. "Where do you live if I need to send a messenger?" he asked. "Don't worry about it, I'll know if they're coming before you will." It was true, with her ornithopters keeping an eye throughout the valley, she could easily see if another army went up the road… and she now had a Quick Response Force ready to take them on if they were looking to fight.
The village might be under the control of the Artinian kingdom, but if they threatened her friends, she'd show them just how aggressive she could be. The dungeon she just finished improved her sense of confidence, as even though her team had killed most of the goblins, she at least took out the leader. There was also no telling just how effective the Orb of Experiences was going to be. Abby ran up to her as Giles walked behind. "I was going to tell you both, I… remember that story Giles?" she asked as she glanced over her shoulder and continued on. "I do lass, what of it? You aren't seriously thinking of going, are you? It's just a myth-" "It's no myth, because I already have it. Got it this morning." Both Giles and Abby stopped dead in their tracks. "You what? You… you actually found it?" he asked in surprise, his brown eyes widening. "Goblin nest hidden in some caves up North, wiped them out and got the Orb. Nice little toy, works like you said it would." She didn't want to tell them the full features that she experimented with, it was doubtful they'd understand.
"That's… incredible… you… you really got it? You're not lying?" Abby questioned her. "Why would I lie Ab? I got it and it's back home. Wasn't too difficult." Abby started mouthing something, but nothing would come out as she looked at Giles. "You're a legend lass, there are few out there willing to waltz into a goblin's nest for some worthless trinket."
It's not as if I did it alone.
"Eh, did it, got it, now to plant these seeds." The hero of Gold Pine dropped some ingots on his counter and mounted up on Aster. "No payment?" "No payment this time. Just worry about taking care of Abby and the others." They waved goodbye as Bronze Team walked to the APC and got inside as Selene cantered Aster back to the fortress. As they headed back home, the dev opened her character sheet and checked her level. Three levels gained, probably due to group experience with her team and exterminating the goblin nest. That meant thirty more Attribute Points and sixty more Skill Points, three more Perks to work with. Given she was going to need better stats for Molecular Reformation soon for building the farms, she threw the Attribute Points evenly between Control, Power, Crafting Speed of the ability, Range and AOE, with her last remaining five into Control, which would now allow three stalagmites at the same time, she just never attempted it on more than one target. She threw fifty Skill Points into Steampunk Electrical Engineering to match Mechanical Engineering, adding an even larger number of upgrades and improvements for steampunk equipment and automatons, along with speeding up production. Mediums barely took any time now to build, allowing her to focus now on Heavies and maybe Very Heavies.
Her last thirteen points were shoved into Strategy and Tactics, immediately increasing her knowledge of how to perform basic flanks, how to be aggressive and defensive, how to feint weakness and draw enemies into a counter, basic ambushes, targeting commanders first, pincer maneuvers, combined arms even. This would only improve with more points added, which was going to be a major priority with skill potions. The few things she knew before gaining the skill was "target healer first, then the rest of team collapses due to no heals" for pvp, as well as how to raid with a set movement for each boss. She gained one ability so far from it, "Blitzkrieg" which allowed a boost to all army or team movement speed by one hundred percent for one hour. This allowed any forces she had to rapidly get to one place or another or get into position even faster to fight. This made a QRF extremely dangerous. The three Perk points would add another bonus to stats while wearing steampunk armor, with another boost to mobility to make it feel like she was wearing nothing but a set of clothes. The final one would be fifty percent boost to Crafting Time when working on Research for steampunk. She was going to work on new ammunition schematics to pierce magic barriers, along with debuffs even if the round didn't pierce defenses. Currently only grenades conferred those benefits, with shotguns shooting incendiaries or fragmentation rounds. There needed to be a closure of that gap, for all weapons, not just gunpowder.
As they got back inside the gate, she looked around at her home. It was still a little empty given most of her stations were in her inventory, but that could soon change with a Molecular Converter along with a few other things. "Need to change the name of this place. No more Fortress of Solitude, I'm not alone here and that was stupid to call it that." She thought for a moment as she looked at her team and the other automatons. This wasn't some superhero place to live, this was her home, build from steampunk utilities and should be called something to reflect that. "What do you guys think about Clockwork Castle?"