The Empires Rise

The next encampment comes into view. Looking at it more closely, I see this time, we are near a cave. There is lava not too far from our current location. The smell of brimstone is in the air. Then a notification "dings" in my mind.

- Extermination

Upon entering, you have found yourself in front of an encampment. Kill all the inhabitants of the encampment.

Task: Eliminate all the inhabitants of the encampment (1/1)

Rewards: Ability to go back to your settlement, one Treasure of the Fog -

There is only one change in the task being completed. I ignore it for now. Sending the scouts go and scout. The mages get into meditative positions to regenerate what mana they can. The Warriors are getting more instruction from Draemish on handling their weapons.

This goes on for 20 minutes, and the first scouts return. Nothing is following her, as she reports. "There are only eight enemies this time. One is level 2, while the rest are level 1. The opponent is a demon, more specifically, imps. They are unable to fly, but they have wings on their backs. I get the feeling they are newly born demons."

Ending her report, I ask, "Has there been any sign of treasures? Or is it just the imps?"

She looks dismayed, "We didn't look specifically for treasure. We wanted to get the information about the enemy back first."

"That is a good start." I credit her on the report. "Are the demons in the caves or out in the open?"

"They are all located in one of the caves. And here is the basic information for them."

She shares a screen with me, which shows the stats of the imps.

- Lesser Imp

Level 1

HP: 4/4

MP: 6/6

Imp

Level 2

HP: 8/8

MP: 18/18 -

With the two imps having mana points, I figure that they are spell casters. Knowing how much a single spell can hit, I ask, "Is there any way that we can kill them off one at a time since they have such low hit points?"

Autumn nods, "Yes, we should be able to pick them off slowly. They aren't near each other, and it wouldn't take more than just the scouts to clear this encampment."

Hearing the good news, I tell her to bring back my affirmation to kill everyone. With that out of the way, I ask Draemish, "Do you want to look around the area to see if there are any worthwhile materials we could bring back with us?"

Shaking her head, "No, I think the warrior and mage's time is better spent getting ready if we have more challenging battles ahead of us."

With all the groups dealing with their things, I look at Ritotorous. "Want to go and do some exploring?"

"Why not? Maybe we can find some treasure that has been missed." He agreed.

While wondering, we found three Treasures of the Fog and one more token. I analyzed the token.

- Token of the Fog: Use to receive a special type of token for settlement purposes. When merged with other tokens, receive a higher tier token when used. -

Once we have done a quick scope around the outside of the caves, I hear cheers from inside. The scouts are coming out. One of the scouts comes out holding his arm. There are burn marks visible. Approaching him, I ask. "I have a healing spell. Would you be alright with me healing you so we can continue?"

Jemol nods, and I get to work on casting the spell. There is a flash of light, and I can see that I have healed the burns. There aren't any scars left behind. I look at my mana total to see how much it costs for that one spell.

- MP: 30/36 -

Down a whole six mana for the one spell, I see we have a timer before we are brought to the next encampment. After dealing with Jemol, I start to look for Shadow. Spotting him standing near the rest of the scouts not far away. I head over, "Hey, Shadow, did you find any treasure inside the cave that we needed to grab?"

"We found two more Treasures of the Fog down there. I don't know why you are obsessed with getting test treasures."

"I am obsessed with getting them because they could provide us with more resources, population summoning scrolls, blueprints, or tokens for the settlement. The best part is that they are random; this allows us to have larger chests open with more of these items. There is also the chance that the chest is higher quality."

"Okay. So, I should also have everyone look for these chests when scouting the area?"

"Yes, it will make clearing these much faster and more efficient."

Draemish speaks for the first time in this conversation. "I will also have my people do the same. We can never have too many eyes looking for these things."

Wrapping up with this conversation, I look for Vranjaya. "Are your people ready to head to the next encampment?"

Nodding in affirmation, I shout. "Everyone be ready to go to the next encampment. Please gather up."

It only takes a minute for everyone to be ready to go, and then I select "Yes," and we start all over.

We repeat this process three more times. The first time is will a Gnoll encampment. There weren't that many Gnolls. Similar to the imps, there were 8 in total. The main difference is that they stayed together for the most part. A couple of the Gnolls had bows, while the rest had clubs.

- Gnoll

Level 1

HP: 6/6

Defense: 2

Gnoll Hunter

Level 1

HP: 6/6

Defense: 2

Gnoll Chieftain

Level 2

HP 18/18

Defense: 3 -

Combat was quick and easy. The hunters on our side could sneak around and pick off the two hunters on the enemy's side before we confronted them. The mages, including Ritotorous and myself, cast our spells and defeated the level 1 melee combatants. My warriors charged forward to finish off the chieftain. It bashed Rognar with its club, knocking him onto his back. I rush forward and heal the injury as swiftly as I can.

After seeing that one of our own was hit, the rest of the squad focused on combatting the chieftain. It wasn't long after that it fell, not dealing any more damage to anyone.

The fourth encampment that we come across is another bandit encampment. Doing what we have done before, we lure some of them out and finish the rest without issue.

The fifth encampment is another imp encampment. With another easy encampment, we stop briefly after clearing it out to take stock of what we have received. There are 15 Treasures of the Fog and three more tokens.

I received a new notification.

- You have cleared out five encampments. Would you like to go to a unique trial encampment as a reward? Yes/No -

I asked Ritotorous, "What does it mean by a special trial encampment?"

"That is a reward encampment. It is a reward because there are possibilities for higher-quality treasures to be gathered. It will also pause all counters you have running like your time until the attack. During this unique trial, there will be more enemies and higher-level enemies. They will provide double the amount of experience, and there isn't a time limit to head to the next encampment after you have finished clearing it. It provides plenty of time to gather resources. Another thing is you will still receive the quest progress you would normally get for completing a normal encampment. It will be scaled to the level of the encampment, though, so it can be better overall."

Hearing this, I can't help but get excited about the prospect of more loot. I quickly communicate with my commanders and tell them the good news.

"This seems like it will be a good challenge. However, we must be extra cautious about what we will face once we arrive." Draemish comments.

"More scouting needs to be done, and we also need to work on some more tactics than throwing things at the enemy in hopes that they topple over." Shadow critiques.

I was cringing at Shadow's words. "I know we need things to work on. This is my first time dealing with tactics for real battles. And though they have worked well in these small instances, I would appreciate the help from all of you when making these choices."

Shall we continue to the next encampment?" I ask the group.

Everyone agrees that we should continue. With everyone ready, I select yes. We are again teleported to another encampment. When we first arrive, we are in a forest. There have been obvious signs of logging happening. It takes us 10 minutes before we see the encampment.

This one is larger. There are small walls around it, so we don't know what it holds yet.

Looking at Shadow, I gesture at him to start the scouting process. While they are scouting, I look to see that the warriors and mages are already ready. "We should split into smaller groups and scout in our general vicinity. I want to know what there might be around us."

Draemish nods and starts to get organized with the warriors to set up a perimeter. At the same time, Vranjaya has the mages ready to cast spells at anyone who should arrive. We have a perimeter set an hour after the scouting team and Shadow comes.

"We haven't found any Treasures as of yet. I think they might be inside of the encampment. We got a brief glimpse into what the encampment could provide. It is another encampment of bandits. We found at least ten bandits inside. The most disturbing thing is that there are at least two at level 2. And they have different stats than the level 2 we have seen before." He shows me a screen for the new bandit type.

- Elite Crazed Bandit

Level 2

HP: 15/15

Defense: 2 -

"Let's get everyone over here to discuss our options for this encampment." Shadow gives a slight nod and then goes and gathers everyone.

It doesn't take long before everyone has gathered. "We might have a small problem. These bandits have higher levels than the previous groups, and they seem to be more organized. From what I can tell, there might be some gate or opening on the wall that we could see through. With that information, it gives us the option to do some more damage."

Laxreal looks around before he asks. "Drake, I don't mean to undermine everything you have done. There is a wall; we can all see that. Why haven't you let Ritotorous look at the encampment to see if we can get more information?"

I smack my head hard, "Ritotorous, can you do that for me? It shouldn't take you too long, and if anything happens, come back as soon as you can."

He takes off from my shoulder with a light flap of his wings. We wait for five minutes before he comes back. "Well, I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that there are only 19 bandits, and they don't seem organized. The bad news is that half of them are level 2, and there is also one at level 3."