NOVEL NEXT 205- Time to Build the Town Hall. Part 6.
The next thing that appears in the interface is the blessings:
Lesser Fury
Effect: +10% attack and damage bonus for settlement members. Can only be activated in combat situations
Range: entire settlement territory
Duration: until combat ends or until inhabitants leave the settlement territory, whichever comes first
Cost: 10 miasma points. This cost corresponds to the current population of the settlement
Lesser Productivity
Effect: +10% gathering and crafting speed bonus for settlement members
Range: entire settlement territory
Duration: 24 hours Cost: 10 miasma points. This cost corresponds to the current population of the settlement
Lesser Protection
Effect: +10% physical, magical, and status effects resistance bonus for settlement members. Can only be activated in combat situations
Range: entire settlement territory
Duration: until combat ends or until inhabitants leave the settlement territory, whichever comes first
Cost: 10 miasma points. This cost corresponds to the current population of the settlement
What?!
Wait, I have territory? I have miasma?
What even is that? It reminds me of those games where undead generate some kind of ambient mana just by existing too long in one place.
And that "only activatable in combat" thing? Yeah, Ronan's going to hate that. I can already picture him trying to activate Lesser Fury just so the workers swing axes harder when logging.
One thing at a time. I start tapping different words and the interface changes:
The territory of Convergence is the former domain of the forest's bear king.
A map also appears, covering the cave area we have and a large part of the forest. Yeah, it definitely borders the ants on one side (which is all shaded black) and the wolves on the other. That's more forest, but it's also black. Oh, and through the mountains with those orcs, and on the other side of the forest with the humans.
By the way, the orcs haven't sent any more scouts. From what Ronan learned from the dead ones, if they don't come back, it means the bears killed them. The real problem would've been if they'd returned and reported that the one I call Papa Bear—because of his massive size and the way he fiercely protected his own—was gone. I imagine it's the same with the wolves, because the totem hasn't mentioned them coming back either.
I tap where it says miasma.
Miasma is the magical energy of the Convergence settlement. Due to its majority population of monsters, animals, and undead, the manifestation of said energy is miasma.
Miasma is produced by the concentration of settlement inhabitants in an area and can be enhanced through rituals.
Convergence's current miasma gain rate is 1 point of condensed miasma every 50 hours.
And why doesn't the main interface mention this anywhere?
I tap around, searching for where it might say how much I have, but I can't find anything.
When I give up, I check what the rituals are.
Rituals. Not available at settlement level 1. The spirit temple, totemic sanctuary, ritual altar, sacrifice stone, and shamanic totems are not available for unlocking at settlement level 1.
Great...
For now, I can't use any of the three blessings. At least, since it doesn't say anything about unlocking, I assume Convergence already has them available. If only I had miasma...
What would it look like, anyway? Some kind of toxic black fog? No idea.
The totem, by the way, hasn't taken his eyes off the interface. The other spectators are still watching to see if anything happens, but the totem, since he can read, must have seen the stuff about rituals and miasma.
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"You wouldn't happen to know how I get miasma, would you?" I ask him.
"The magical energy of the Splintered Fang tribe was feral glow. I don't know how it was stored, but my grandfather always used it from the spirit temple."
Makes sense—without a temple, no blessings. Because, for now, miasma only seems to be useful for that.
"Thanks."
I go back to the available buildings screen.
The temple, of course, isn't there.
On the other hand, I don't see a maximum limit on buildings to unlock. In principle, I could make my settlement learn and have all of them available. Still, given the influence point costs, it's clear I'll need to prioritize.
Or maybe not, since Ronan's already shown me we can research and unlock buildings the traditional way—it just takes longer.
By the way, every time my population has grown—and also when Ronan led his soldiers in the skirmish against the orcs—I've been given influence points. However, now 39 baby goblins have been born and I haven't gotten any points for it. The hundred points were for leveling up the settlement.
I turn toward the totem.
"Bianca, have you already chosen what you're going to build?" he asks when he sees me stop paying attention to the system screen.
"Not yet. I have a question: why didn't the newborn babies give me influence points?"
If the totem can read the interface and his grandfather handled a similar one, I imagine they also had those points and he knows what they are.
He looks at me a bit puzzled, as if I'd just asked him something obvious.
"They cannot give you influence points until they swear loyalty to you. They are too young for that. They do not yet understand language."
Oh, so that's it...
"At what age do new members of a goblin tribe usually swear loyalty?"
"At eight months."
Well, considering how fast they grow and develop, I imagine that's equivalent to a human child. What I don't know is how many years old.
"Thanks. I'll do that."
"However," he adds, "you must consider whether it's worth waiting until they become warriors or hunters. Children and non-combatants give one influence point. Combatants give two."
Interesting. Also, it's true: that's how it was when the tribe swore vassalage to me. The totem, who was their chief, gave me three.
"Totem, you gave me three. Do leadership positions give more points?"
"That is correct. As your village grows larger and you can appoint more leaders, they would give you more points if they swore loyalty to you then. But normally you promote a goblin who is already loyal to you, so no additional points are generated. This is more useful for when, after a war, you conquer a rival settlement."
In my head, an image of battles starts to form, like from a conquest video game, where I begin annexing all the non-human settlements in the area. Well, I think Ronan wanted to go after the orcs.
Definitely, now that I know if we conquer them and they swear vassalage to me I'll get lots of influence points, annexing more former dungeon creatures doesn't seem so terrible anymore.
Dark queen?
Nah.
Greedy gamer, if anything. Besides, the mountain pass is on the border, in a kind of no-man's-land between kingdoms. So I wouldn't get into trouble with any human kingdom.
Also, now that I have affinity for darkness and I'm still myself, I realize that maybe the poor demon lords of old were just leaders seeking the good of their people. After all, the name "demon" automatically paints them as evil, but I only know the version from the otome lore, where they were evil because they tried to conquer the human kingdoms.
Maybe someday I'll ask Myrthaxya and be surprised.
For now, back to work.
"Thank you very much, totem; I'll keep that in mind. Since I think you're all waiting to see if I unlock something, here we go."
I think about a blessing, one that's useful to us. Oh, and the tannery. I don't need to ask Ronan since he's mentioned on occasion that we need a way to tan the hides from the prey the goblins hunt.
Let's start with the second one. I go back to the available buildings screen and tap unlock. I was expecting something—I don't know what—but certainly something more than the simple green glow that shakes the stone pedestal. The goblins start chattering, excited to see that sudden glow that quickly fades.
If they're waiting for a building to grow out of nowhere, I think they're going to be disappointed.
Tannery unlocked. Remaining influence points: 164.
Now, if I want to build it, I need 75 gold coins or 1 gold coin, 8 logs, and 600 stone bricks or 1 gold coin, 8 logs, and 120 stone blocks or spend 150 influence points.
The settlement's gold is 0 coins. It doesn't count what I own. I imagine I could transfer it.
"Is gold stored somewhere specific?" I ask the totem, imagining that maybe that's how the system counts it.
I hope it's not in a chest in the totem's bedroom.
"There are several options. The simplest are in a treasury if one is built, or inside the town hall. The cabinet you already have works too. From our previous village, we couldn't take any gold. My grandfather spent everything trying to build better defenses."
I nod and thank him.
If I learned anything in my previous life, it's not to mix your personal economy with business. Sure, I worked as an office worker, but my father had a company that ended up going bankrupt. So my gold is for me. I'm not going to enslave myself running dungeons to transfer gold to the village. It's one thing to pay the single coin it asks for if the logs and stone are provided, and another thing entirely 75 gold coins.
I don't even consider the influence points, since I'll need them to unlock other structures.
So I think the best thing will be to hand over one of my gold coins, ask the goblins for eight logs, and figure out what size those 120 stone blocks are, because I think I'm going to have to make them.
I sigh, resigned.
"I'm going to build the tannery. I'll need you to bring me eight logs. I'm going to one of the caves I want to expand to extract stone. We need blocks."
And besides, I'm going to put the gold coin in the cabinet so the system counts it.
A while later, after having all the materials (I made the blocks the size the totem indicated), I return to the pedestal and open the system interface.
I select the tannery and the third construction option. It asks me, on a map of the settlement, to select a location. I do, right in the cave where I just finished extracting the stone, near the forge.
A green glow emanates from the pedestal and I start hearing cheers in the distance. I think it's the goblins who stayed watching from outside that cave.
Congratulations. The tannery has been built.
That was fast, then. I follow the totem to the cave where I placed it and, sure enough, it's now filled with large stone vats and wooden structures to hold and stretch hides there. And it smells bad. Must be the chemicals.
Incredible how the system works, especially considering it only asked for wood and stone.
The goblins, by the way, keep cheering, delighted that their powerful leader is improving the village with magic.