On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Fifteen

The inside of this room was filled with dog-sized cockroaches. I nearly vomited at the sight of them, barely managing to swallow down the acrid bile that rose up my throat. They were all black chitin and wavy feelers, and were totally disgusting. I’d almost rather have the spiders…

As they rushed me I hefted the spear and thrust, feeling hard shells give under the strike. Foul guts gushed everywhere, and as I swung and slashed, the air soon became unbearable.

“I don’t care how good cockroaches may turn out to be in combat…” I muttered, almost choking on the stench. “I’ll not be having any spawned in my Territory!”

With that I let out another cry and attacked once more, my spear dancing until my arms were leaden and the floor was covered in broken bodies. Each was worth little ether, only a bit more than draining lesser spirits, but they came in numbers. Fortunately, despite being vastly outnumbered, I had triumphed again. I repeated this process several more times in other rooms, coming across various other nasty insect monsters. The only time I was genuinely in danger was when a several-metre-long centipede dropped down from the ceiling and nearly ensnared me, but luckily I managed to spear its head quite quickly. Once I had cleared the last room I felt a surge of ether, at least several hundred points' worth, and my Territory swelled, swallowing the building.

So it’s just as I thought. None of these are strong enough to form an actual Territory, but it is just like when I captured my own apartment building, I need to clear out the enemies within first…

I moved to another building and proceeded to deal with everything inside. This one had a lot of lesser spirits, in addition to more insects. At the centre of the building in the superintendent’s office there was another large spider, but again I dealt with it by torching the webs with a blast of aether. The building became mine and now there was only a couple left within my Territory that I needed to claim. One was a smaller building, a two-story single house rather than one of the many apartment blocks that filled the area. The other was another three story block like mine was. I decided to take the smaller one first.

Moving to the front door I again kicked it open, only to be met with the barking of dogs and a volley of small steel-tipped darts flying at me. Swinging up my spear I deflected the ones headed towards my face with the shaft of my spear and dodged others, but several struck me, inflicting minor pain. Backing off I dodged another volley, darts hammering into the door and wall in front of me.

“Out, out!” someone barked. “This is our hideaway. Safe here. Get out, get out!”

This was followed by another volley of the darts. I swept them aside with my spear quite easily though. I supposed if they hit me in the eye or throat I might take some serious damage, but other than that they were only really a nuisance. I took a few steps inside and deflected more attacks, only to see a group of small dog-faced humanoids huddling in the corners of the room, piles of the small darts at their feet. The largest of them was about four feet tall, with a black dog-face and huge floppy ears. In its hand it clutched a crude pickaxe, the metal rusted and pitted with dirt. Okay… not a fan of dogs, but these guys don’t feel threatening. I can deal…

“I told you to stay out, out!” it barked, hefting the pickaxe in the most aggressive manner it could muster. “This is our place. Safe here from the other Seelie and the bad things. Go away, before we fight you, fight you!”

Behind him the other dog-faced creatures started to bark and growl threateningly, but it came off as rather pitiful. This was really starting to sour my mood. Compared to the ghouls or weaselkin I had fought before these were… pretty weak, and could even be considered cute in a good light. More to the point, they can communicate and are clearly afraid. It really feels like I’m bullying them. I’m all for hunting monsters like the undead, and the weaselkin came for me first… but here…

Lowering my spear I let out a long sigh. “I don’t really want to fight you, but this building is within my Territory, I’m not sure it’s safe for me to leave it unoccupied here. I can let you leave, it isn’t a problem.”

“Not leaving, our place. Safe here, not safe out there. Bad things like dead walking and night hunters kill kobolds. Seelie not protect us, just use us like slaves. Stay here and be safe. You go, you go!” snapped the biggest… kobold… I guess.

I pondered as they readied another volley of darts. Making sure I made no threatening moves I spoke again. “Well, how about you stay here but agree that this is still part of my Territory? You can… pay rent, I guess?” I wasn’t sure if what I was suggesting was possible, but having read the description of the Barracks it should have been.

“Not slaves, not for you. You leave now! Last warning!” he barked at me, the others nodding and growling furiously.

“Look…” I sighed. “I don’t want slaves. We can work together here and make it safer for both of us. My claim in this Territory is new, but already it’s far bigger than yours. If it came to a fight…” I gestured to my spear with its wickedly sharp knife-head. “… I’m pretty certain you would come off worse.”

At that some of the smaller kobolds shrank back in fear, the biggest one baring its canines in as menacing a fashion as it could.

“On the other hand, if you agree to join my Territory, not only can you keep this building you can expand out a bit when your numbers grow. I’m working on gathering ether to set up some more defences, as it would be a lot safer. All I ask is that you contribute a bit in exchange. Isn’t that better than fighting me?”

“So many kobolds are slaves of the Seelie, or other bad things.” The leader growled. “We have been tricked before, not again, not again.”

“No tricks, I promise.” I said soothingly.

“You must promise, not treat us like slaves, protect us from the bad things. Then we work. Kobolds work good.”

“All right, we have an agreement.” I said, nodding. “I will treat you well, and keep you safe. In exchange you will join my Territory. As the first to join up you will naturally enjoy many advantages. Let us work together to improve our Territory together!”

I stepped forwards slowly and offered my hand. Some of the kobolds shrank back, but the leader offered a vaguely paw-shaped hand in return and took mine. The moment he did I felt my Territory expand to cover the building, and silver lettering flashed into my vision.

You have attained new Territory. You have gained a Kobold Den Rank 1 Special. In addition thirty-two Kobolds and one Kobold Miner have joined your Territory as your subordinates. You may now recruit Kobolds from your Barracks when it is constructed.

As I suspected, to use the Barracks instead of the Spawning Spire, I had to recruit some of the species first, before I could create them. Kobolds were hardly the most awe-inspiring of creatures (in fact I reckoned a weaselkin with a bow and arrow could have killed half of them easily) but I had to start somewhere. And to be honest I’d feel pretty bad killing them off… maybe I am too soft, but whatever, I don't want to go against my conscience.

I decided to take a quick look at the description for the Kobold Den before I did anything else.

Kobold Den- Rank 1 Special- Special Rank facilities cannot be levelled up by Ether, they level as their requirements are met. This den is the warren where Kobolds live and are spawned. All Kobolds' Level caps are increased by one Level. This allows the construction of Kobold Mines.

Kobold Mine Rank ??? Special- Kobold Mines can be constructed for the cost of 4000 Ether. They can be constructed anywhere without limit, but what is found there will be dependant on where it is constructed. It will also only produce resources if it is worked by Kobold Miners, or those the Kobolds permit. All mines produce some Ether, as well as Etherite ores, metals and gems. Kobold mines focus on gemstones, so their rate of finding these within are higher than average.

Most interesting indeed. Anything that generates ether is good. Four thousand ether was quite the cost, but when I looked at upgrading my facilities (especially the Ether Spires) to Rank 2 I noticed that the average cost seemed to be between four and six times as much as the original Rank 1 facility (for example the Ether Spire was seven and a half thousand ether at Rank 2). I could see Kobold Mines being useful, if I could grow my kobold forces and also find a suitable spot or two. I wasn’t sure why I needed metals and gems, but hell, who didn’t want gems?

“All right then, do you want to have a quick look around?” I asked. The kobolds nodded, cautiously following behind me, looking as if they would flee at any minute. As we left the building that housed their Den they glanced around, eyes shining.

“As you can see, this is our Territory now. I just have to capture that last building and we will have consolidated the whole area. Feel free to go everywhere you like except for in there.” I pointed to my room. “That’s my headquarters so I need to keep it clear so I can build things. If you have a pressing need to go there just ask first, okay?”

“Yes, we get it, we get it.” The miner barked.

“If you are happy with your Den in that building then we have no problems. I would suggest you look for a site for a Mine though, we would be much better off if you could find a good place for one.”

At that the kobolds paused. “Not working as mine slaves, no slaves!” the miner said with a wary growl.

“Of course not.” I laughed lightly. “You’ll be able to keep a fair chunk of what you mine in the Territory. I’ll need some, especially the ether and the Etherites, so we can build more facilities, but as for the gems and metals, you can keep a good amount, I’ll only take what I need. Sound fair?”

There was a long pause and the kobolds nodded, yapping excitedly. I spent another few hours showing the kobolds around and discussing our plans going forwards.

“Now that we’ve agreed with all that you guys can relax. I’m going to secure the last building, all right?”

The kobolds agreed, returning to their Den, while I approached the last building. Once I had captured this, I felt I would have achieved most of what I had planned for this venture to the Boundary. Breaking through the first door, I prepared for battle…

********

It took me a fair while to clear most of the rooms, as they were full of nasty bugs again, ranging from spiders and crickets up to more massive centipedes. They were not really a match for me with my spear though, although I shuddered to think of how unpleasant it would be having to take them on hand-to-hand. Since I had the clear advantage I took my time taking them out, practicing how to use the spear. It was too early to see the fruits of my muscle training, but I definitely felt a bit sharper in battle.

As I prepared to enter the next room an announcement scrolled across my eyes. The Rank 1 Spawning Spire had finished construction. Checking out my list of options that I could summon, I decided to queue it to spawn degraded weaselkin, as they had given me the most trouble myself. I decided to set it to spawn them from my incoming supply of ether rather than from what I was holding, as I had almost accumulated enough for the Defensive Emplacement, which would finish off my first round of construction.

These small buildings don’t give anywhere near as much ether as the ghouls' Territory did when I capture them, probably because they are not an actual Territory, rather just an occupied area, but even so, with the large number of insects filling them, even a bit of ether for each one quickly adds up.

As I stormed the next room, spear stabbing out into the chitinous belly of a massive grasshopper, which fell with a squeal, I considered my next move. It might be prudent to try spending ether on upgrading the Ether Spires to Rank two, despite the large cost, as the sooner they are upgraded, the sooner they would start paying for themselves…

Lost in thought I massacred the inhabitants of the building until it finally became mine, cleared out entirely. With that, the whole area was my Territory. My ether supply had also just reached a level where I could afford the fifteen hundred ether for the Defensive Emplacement. Heading to my room, I started construction, which would take two Astral days to complete. I set the construction point as the roof of my building, so that it would have a good field of view to attack intruders. My Territory was now generating more ether, even accounting for the drain of creating degraded weaselkin, as since I now occupied the full hundred-metre radius around my Anchor, the base generation was significantly higher than when it first started.

Now that I had achieved my goals (and my stock of aether was starting to deplete at an accelerating, rapid rate as time passed) I decided to spend my remaining time practicing my Chakra exercises while I could take advantage of the easier visualisation and aether flow here. I continued for a couple more hours, until my aether ran dry and I opened my eyes back in the Material world…

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