Chapter 22 – Preparations

“Welcome back to Fantasy Now!” Amanda smiles towards the camera. Her alluring smile the only thing that glitters more than her low cut gold dress that leaves little to the imagination.

“Tonight we have a treat for you all as we get to take a closer look at the main protagonist in one of our featured storylines. You all know who I’m talking about, right?” She asks, a coy smile on her lips.

The audience erupts into a grand applause, several voices chanting the very same name that has been on everyone’s lips this last week.

“Yes, you all guessed it. It’s the Avenger Storyline everyone!” Another, stronger applause explodes across the small studio.

Amanda shifts in her seat and leans forwards, staring deeply into the camera lense.

“For those of you who don’t know, or have been living under a rock for the past week, we are talking about a young player, Gregory Asbjørnsen, only twenty-six years old. He is currently the lead player in Fantasy Royale with two spectacular wins under his belt.” She pauses, creating an alluring atmosphere for the audience.

She slightly squints her eyes to seem more serious.

“What many of you don’t know is what drives young Gregory forward. Gregory is not what one would consider the typical hero of a story. He doesn’t have many friends, he isn’t rich… but I suppose he is a little handsome.” She winks to the camera.

“No, Gregory is an average child, born of tragedy. After his mother passed away, the sorrow stricken Gregory dove head first into the world of gaming. He became so secluded and angry, he lashed out at the world growing more bitter every day. It left him alone and vulnerable. Easy prey for bullies. And, he did get bullied.”

Her tone grows more serious as she pauses for effect allowing the information to seep into the audience.

“It got really bad for him. So bad that he lost his job. He had no way to fight back against the bullies. That is, until he discovered his bullies had signed up for Fantasy Royale.” She smiles.

She knows the audience is captivated; and, she exploits this to the fullest.

“Which is why Gregory decided to gamble it all. Every last bit of his life savings went to get his revenge. That’s right, to finally exact his revenge on his long time bullies, he gambled it all.

Logan Andrews, lead designer and creator of Fantasy Royale himself heard about Gregory’s plight. He felt compassion and decided to give Gregory a chance at this great stage. An opportunity to strike back at his oppressors. His tale of revenge is one of great sorrow, but also one that has a certain beauty to it.” She leans back in her chair, the coy smile back at her lips.

“Is he a hero? Or maybe a lost cause? Why don’t we delve deeper into who Gregory Asbjørnsen really is, and how his quest for vengeance transfers into his avatar, the devious Goblin Ranger, Greg’lok.”

The camera pulls back to reveal her two guests for the evening. Two men. One an overweight man pushing his fifties. He is wearing a well worn checker shirt, with a blue striped tie and a brown jacket. His thinning hair is greasy and pulled back. The uneven stubble of a beard fails at hiding his nervous smile. He waves awkwardly at the camera.

Beside the unkempt man sits a younger, sour looking young man in his early twenties. He wears a sharp tailored black suit with a black tie. He has a modern and stylish haircut with glistening white teeth to complete the perfect teenager set. His posture is that of a person used to authority. Everything about him screams that he comes from good money, which he definitely does.

“Today we guest the two players who faced their end at Gregory’s mercy. Give a hand for Harvey Williamson, also known as Harvalon the Harpy, and Quinn Daniels, also known as Qargon the Kobold.” Another cheer erupts. Harvey nervously waves at the camera, while Quinn sits stone faced with his arms crossed.

“Harvey… Can I call you Harvey?” Amanda says playfully.

“S-sure you can.” He smiles back, his cheeks blushing slightly.

“You started off the game in spectacular fashion… Not only did you defeat the first player within six hours of the game, but you also used a tactic so simple and daring that no one else thought of it. What made you use such an unconventional strategy?” She leans in closer, slightly increasing the size of her cleavage.

“Well…” He wipes some sweat off his neck. His eyes struggling to keep away from Amanda’s alluring form. “I’m a fan of the classic Real Time Strategy games. Starcraft, Warcraft, Company of Heroes and the like. They don’t make games like that anymore. It’s a dead genre. I believe this game is the closest we’ve come to these classic games. When I realised the potential, I figured, why try to reinvent the wheel? There are loads of timeless strategies out there.” He says confidently, clearly more comfortable discussing his passion for gaming.

Amanda sits back in her chair. She slowly moves her left foot over her right one, making sure to capture the attention of the man she is interviewing. “It certainly worked for a while… Tell me… Being the fan of classic strategy games. What happened in your battle with Gregory?”

“Yeah, that battle surprised me.” His smile turns into a thoughtful frown. “I really didn’t expect him to pull out such a great counter to my strategy. I don’t really know how he knew what I was going to do. The way he kept his cool and realised I wanted to zerg rush him… I don’t get it.” He trails off into his own thoughts.

“Was it what you would expect from the actions of an enraged young man?” Amanda asks.

“Huh? No. Not at all. No angry person could be able to think on his feet like that. Not unless he’s an elite level strategy player, and there hasn’t been anyone of those around for at least two decades. Gregory is far too young to have mastered strategy games… He must be some anonymous RPG-player; but, there’s hardly any of those left. Not unless he is the famed Solo Butcher or some other unknown prodigy at gaming.” He nods to himself.

“Do you mean to say a professional RPG players wouldn’t do well in Fantasy Royale?” Amanda asks.

“Uhm… Well, they would, but not as well as one would expect I’d guess. Being a professional at one genre of games doesn’t automatically make you a professional at other games. It gives you an edge, yes, but it hardly qualifies you to master a new genre from the start.” He scratches his chin, deep in thought.

“If I would have to make a comparison, I’d say it would be like asking your veterinarian to perform brain surgery on a human. Sure, he would know the basics of anatomy and get by well enough, but it will still turn into a mess. Looking through Gregory’s recordings, he definitely struggles with the strategy aspects of the game. Regardless, he is definitely very skilled in any combat situation. More so than one would expect from an RPG-player.” He nods. Satisfied by his own analysis.

Quinn snorts from the side.

“As if…” He mumbles.

“What do you mean?” Amanda asks the young man. She perks up at the fact that the interview is starting to spice up.

“The guy is nothing but a coward that got lucky. There’s nothing special about him. If you think otherwise, then you’re nothing but a fool.” He sneers.

“Care to elaborate?” Amanda asks.

Quinn snaps his head towards her. Glaring at her. “There’s not much to say. He got lucky when he picked a class and his minions weren’t completely fucking useless. He just got a broken starting race is all. My blind grandmother could have won that fight with overpowered units. I’m of half a mind to boycott this stupid game. It got the worst balance issues I’ve ever seen in a game.”

A loud snort comes from Harvey. “Please. Have you even watched the recording of your fight? Unlike you, he trained his units every day. You did nothing but sit on your ass and turtle up, splitting up your units and send them off to die in bulk. Turtle players never win.” He chuckles.

Quinn glares furiously at Harvey, clenching his jaw. “What did you just say to me? I won’t take this crap from the idiot that sacrificed all his units to power up that lucky prick. It’s your fault we are both sitting here right now!” He snarls at Harvey.

Harveys eyes widen in surprise at the sudden outburst from Quinn. He shifts uncomfortably in his chair, a single strand of his dark greasy hair falling down over his face.

“I meant no offence… But, you have to admit, Greg’lok did outmaneuver you with his skill alone. I didn’t power him up at all. He threw most of his experience points after killing me into his diplomat stat. It wasn’t of any help to him in the battle at all. If anything, I did kill several of his goblins. Just as many as you did in fact.”

Quinn scowls at him. “Irrelevant. You gave him skill levels and extra gear.” He growls.

“He can’t use harpy equipment; and, the skill levels he gained was negligible compared to his gains from training.” Harvey retorts.

Quinns face reddens as he tries to stare a hole through Harvey’s face.

“It’s this stupid tier one race crap that’s at fault.” He eventually sneers. “It’s broken. I couldn’t do anything.”

“Well I must admit that you are correct that the tier one races perform worse in battle than their higher tier counterparts…” Harvey starts.

“What do you mean?” Amanda shoots in, trying to calm the tense situation and move the interview forward.

Harvey raises his eyebrow. “Huh? Oh. Right. Well, I’ve spent the last few days looking through a lot of the game footage from a lot of different players. It does indeed look like the tier one races struggle to fight off the larger races. Evidenced by the large battle last night where the player Richmeister with his tier three dragonkin race completely dominated another goblin player. The goblins didn’t seem able to even scratch the dragonkin, even with copper weapons.”

“Would you say tier one races are useless then?” Amanda inquires.

“Nah. It’s definitely harder for them. They may be weak in combat; but, their utility is by far the greatest. More hands means things get done faster. They are by far the most industrious of the tiers. They feel more like… a support kind of race.” Harvey says while scratching his chin.

“Support race?” Amanda furrows her brow.

“Ehm, yeah. They seem to be the best race to form an alliance with, or just subjugate through the diplomat stat. There’s this example where the Lizardmen player Xterm1nat0r subjugated the gnome player YoloLyfe36…”

Quinn jumps to his feet. “It’s complete bullshit is what it is! Support player my ass! It practically means tier one players only gets to be other peoples bitches. I demand...”

“Please, sit down mister Daniels.” Amanda orders the young man.

With fists clenched, Quinn looks over at her with rage in his eyes before he remembers where he is. He takes a deep breath and slowly unclenches his fists. He sits down in his chair, blushing, but still scowling.

Amanda salvages the tense situation and directs the camera towards herself.

“As you can see, everyone, tension is high here in the studio. We can’t wait to see what will happen with Gregory and his tribe. Is Gregory’s reason to play this game really fueled by the rage for his bullies, or is it something else? I promise you we will soon find out.” She once again smile coyly into the camera.

“One of his bullies shares his biome after all…”

----------

Quest Alert!

You have received a general Minor Quest!

Objective:

Wipe out two beastlairs within your territory (0/2)

Reward:

A moderate amount of Resources

A moderate amount of Experience Points

18 Summon Points

That’s the wake up call I received the very next morning after my meeting with Lydia and the Swift Mist tribe.

Do you know how annoying it is to have your eyes shocked open by a loud metallic ringing sound? It’s barbaric is what it is. And, it’s because of a quest. A really average looking one at that. It seems like it’s a generic generated quest that builds on the wolves quest I finished. It’s a grinding quest. Simple as that. A pity it’s twice the work for less rewards. But, I don’t complain. The rewards are still good.

As long as the beasts don’t start to hunt my workers again…

It’s now been three days since that event, actually; and, I’ve spent the time preparing.

I managed to grind myself two more levels to my [Crossbow Specialization], six levels to [Riding] and another level to [Tracking]. Yeah, I got bored one day when I was out running with Scarfang. Ooh! And, I also gained a new ability for [Riding]. I can now use [Charge]. It’s not as fancy as one would expect; but, it gives me a significant movement speed bonus when attacking an enemy head on.

I don’t think I will use it much... If the charge didn’t kill me, then Gut would afterwards.

At least grinding skill points is a lot quicker now that I dumped even more points into my [Trainer] stat. I’ve seen quite a huge bonus to skill level acquisition already among my troops.

Gut also eventually explained the meaning behind the [Gold Coin]s. It seems like NPC-beasts drop their own form of currency. Gold Coins. Who would have guessed? Apparently, I can spend the coins if I build a [Marketplace]. I can exchange them for upgrades or resources. It goes without saying that I can also sell excess resources for more coins there. Hooray for capitalism, am I right?

But, who cares! It’s a new day, with new opportunities. Just let me get all the boring stuff out of the way first.

I’ve been producing buildings front, left and center these last few days. The increased skill levels of my [Builder]s have skyrocketed; and, the results are undeniable. I swear, my first days in this game was excruciating compared to this. Back then, it could take me two to three days to complete a building. Now, I can do it in one. Do you know how sick that is?

If I keep this speed up, I’ll have built everything I need by the end of the month.

That’s a real kicker, isn’t it?

The game isn’t that simple. It never is. How could you think otherwise, you noob?

Of course I can produce buildings quickly. The problem is, my buildings are crap. Literally. They are hastily erected hovels created from a minimal amount of resources. They give me small bonuses and provide for nothing more than my most basic needs. Hell, the quality of these buildings is so poor, a hastily thrown fart is enough to cause the building to collapse upon itself.

Just like everything else in this game, the buildings are tiered. Better quality buildings give better bonuses and, in turn, cost a hell of a lot more to build. Both in resources and time. They are worth it though, no doubt about it. The little shacks and hovels I have now are just to get my production capabilities active. They are just mere placeholders for the real deal.

We wouldn’t want the game to stagnate out of boredom would we?

No, sir. No we do not.

I’m just going to keep building all the basics and adjust thereafter.

Yup.

So during the last three days, I built a few more shoddy buildings. First of all, I finished building the [Bowyer’s Hut] to start producing myself some ranged weaponry. Finally. I really wasted way too much time doing needless shit before I built this one. I’m still kind of beating myself up over it.

Ah, well. Better late than never, I guess.

Next up, to Gut’s dismay, I once more decided to throw in another wild hunch from the sidelines. I’ve neglected the entire morale aspect of the game for a while. With the large influx I’ve had of goblins lately, I figured it’s about time I doubled the available lodgings for my men. The huge morale deficit I ramped up by having them sleep outside has been killing me.

I corrected this by building another [Longhouse]. That’s thirty more goblins that can sleep inside for those of you who are counting.

Since this building didn’t take too long to build, I also built myself a [Watchtower] to the north of my base. I’ve been neglecting security for too long already. It would be nice to get an earlier notice if enemies are approaching, after all. Every second counts. I probably shouldn’t have built it this early; but, the resource cost and time required to build was negligible. It’s a nice platform to place my ranged units on in case of an attack as well.

And, no. I’m not putting the [Fire Mage] up there alone. I’m not stupid.

Finally, I started building the [Barracks]. And yes, Gut still gave me the stink eye. I’m not sure what his problem is. Can the [Altar] really be that great?

...

Meh.

I have to make decisions that I think are best. If I weigh my choices, and considering how many troops I have spawned these last few days, then I’m definitely correct that I need to focus more heavily on getting the skillgain bonuses for my troops.

And, it’s going to be finished just in time for me to spawn my daily batch of goblins. Hot giggedy!

Oh, yes, the goblins. I spawned a lot more of those green little buggers. The first day I naturally had to spawn myself three [Bowyer]s to start grinding those production skill levels. I also spawned myself three goblin [Fighter]s to start practising to become archers. It took a few hours for the [Bowyer]s to actually finish the bows, though. So, the [Fighter]s had a lot of time to practice their [Concealment] levels along with the new [Scout]s.

Oh, yeah, the two new scouts finished their training last night! More on that later…

The next day I spawned another three [Fighter]s to start practicing to become archers. I also spawned three [Hunter]s to keep up with food production. I decided to go all out on recruiting [Hunter]s over [Forager]s because the [Hunter]s produce both leather for my armorers and feathers for my bowyers. Counting the food, that’s three resources in one. It’s a great day to be a goblin with my thirty percent bonus to hunting!

And, today… Today it’s time to spawn six more of these little devil spawns. I think I’m going to focus more on melee units. My supply of meat shields… I mean, stalwart defenders, are running low.

“Chieftain!” One of my goblin builders interrupts me. His copper hammer resting over his shoulder. “Your barracks is completed. Do you have a new project for us?”

Ooh! Perfect timing!

“Awesome, thanks dude!” I beam at the goblin. “Let’s see… I believe it’s time for you to start making that [Altar]. How fast can you have it done?”

The goblin takes a moment to think. Scratching his beardless chin. Is this guy stealing my moves?

“I think we can have it finished by midday tomorrow.” He eventually says smiling.

“Great! Do that then.” I laugh as the goblin salutes me and heads off.

“Ooh! And one more thing!” I shout after the goblin. His head pops back through the door. “Tell Gut what you’re working on. It should please that wrinkly old bastard.” I grin.

“Aye aye, Chief!” The goblin salutes me again before he heads off. Leaving me to chuckle alone.

Allright! Where was I?

Ah. Summoning me some new [Fighter]s. Let me just bring up the good old summoning window…

Summon units.

Available SP: 12

SP generated per day: 12

Goblin Fighter: Cost 2 SP

Goblin Warrior: Cost 2 SP

Goblin Worker: Cost 2 SP

Gray Forest Wolf: Cost 2 SP

My jaw drops.

That can’t be right. I rub my eyes for a few seconds before I read through my summon list once more.

…

What. The. Fuck.

Are you for real? I can summon fresh new [Goblin Warrior]s straight from the get go!? WHAT THE HELL MAN!? … How?

“GUT!” I shout with all my might.

I breathe heavily for half a minute until I can hear the familiar hobbling sound of Gut approaching from outside the door.

“What’s the matter, Reckless One?” He says, his grip tight around his staff in case of an enemy attack.

I go into an unnecessarily loud explanation of what I just learned, using far too many expletives and outraged hand gestures. Gut listens in silence, cupping his chin with his right hand.

“I see.” He mumbles as my explanation comes to an end. “This is all natural, Reckless One. After gaining a new class of units, you will similarly unlock a corresponding military building to train more of that class. It will speed up their training immensely, but it will also lock their class paths going forwards. I thought you understood this, as the barracks only unlocked after you gained your first [Warrior]?”

My jaw drops once more.

…

I open up my list of buildings and narrow down the list to only show me my available military buildings.

Barracks

Basic military building. Grants 10% increase to Melee Mastery level acquisition.

Allows for basic military units to be trained.

80 Pinewood, 20 Stone, 50 Grass, 5 Pelt

Scout’s Tower

Basic Military Building. Grants 10% increase to Tracking level acquisition.

Allows for basic military units to be trained.

80 Pinewood, 20 Stone, 20 Grass

Mage’s Tower

Military building. Grants 20% increase to Spell Mastery level acquisition.

Allows for military units to be trained.

60 Marble, 20 oak, 40 Stone, 10 Clay Tiles, 5 Pelts

Hrmpfglmrf!

Really, game!? What’s up with these descriptions. ‘Allows for military units to be trained’ my ass. How vague can you get? I always just dismissed that part for it being geared towards skill grinding specific soldier types. It doesn’t say anything about unlocking classes for fresh spawns!

“GUT!” I shout once more, startling the old mage. “The description is a lie!”

“Keep it down, will you? And calm yourself. You are more hysterical than a mermaid with her tail stuck in a fishing net.” He grumbles. “And, grab hold of your damn ballsack. Are you a chieftain or a witless worm?”

“Hey fuck you too man. I have every right to be upset about this shit.” I curse as I thrash around a little.

*Smack*

Oww fuck!

“You little fucker! Come here you…”

*Smack*

“Okay fucking stop it already!” I yell as I massage the double sided bump on my head.” I swear, my [Leather Cap] is useless.

I sit down in my chieftain’s chair and caress my hairless head. “I can’t believe you kept this information from me…” I mumble as I throw an accusing glance towards Gut. “Do you know how many days it takes to grind the [Warrior]s up to weapon specialisation level ten? Four fucking days man. That’s four days we could spend hunting down our enemies, or get even stronger.”

“What are you talking about, Reckless One? They don’t gain any extra skill points…” He says while looking at me as if I’m an idiot. Which I probably am, because I just give him an empty stare back.

…

He sighs.

“Why don’t you spawn some [Warrior]s, and you’ll see…” He mutters while shaking his head. Cursing my incompetence between every breath.

I do as he says. And, soon there are six fresh new [Goblin Warrior]s standing in front of me.

I stare at Gut again.

“Now inspect them.” He sighs.

Goblin Warrior

Class: Warrior

Perk: None

Morale: 10%

Skills

Class skill (Passive): [Enhanced Strength]

Melee Mastery: Level 10

Huh.

It seems like the benefits weren’t as great as I first feared.

…

Never thought I’d say that sentence.

Apparently, the warriors only gain [Melee Mastery] when I spawn them, and not any levels in weapon specialization. This sort of makes sense I guess. It seems like I can’t spawn natural killing machines right off the bat after all. Just a bunch of soldiers that gain skill levels at a much quicker pace. Not bad. I think this will effectively halve the amount of time it takes for them to reach an acceptable level of competence with a weapon.

That’s pretty sick, really. And, it does speed up my development a lot.

One thing is clear…

I need more of these buildings. ASAP. I quickly look over the other military building options available to me. The [Scout’s Tower] and the [Mage’s Tower]. I suppose they are only available because, apart from the [Warrior] class, I’ve only unlocked the [Scout] and [Mage] classes. Wow. I just got a new incentive to try and gain as many new classes as possible. I can’t wait for my cavalry and archers to unlock their classes.

I need these buildings. The [Mage’s Tower] is out of the question at the moment. I still haven’t gained most of the materials needed for this building. And, there doesn’t seem to be a lesser version of it. I guess I’m not supposed to have a bunch of magicians running around at this point?

Hmm.

At least the [Scout’s Tower] is available. I didn’t build this earlier because of the increased cost and build time. But, I definitely have my eye on it now. It’s the first building I’m making after Gut’s beloved [Altar] is done.

Or maybe I can postpone it? I don’t really plan on recruiting any more [Scout]s anytime soon.

We’ll see.

...

At some point, anyway.

Anyway! With all that boring stuff out of the way, let me tell you of all the heart blazing action that has been going on for these last three days.

Due to my new unwanted fame, I have sighted several enemy scouts inside my territory. I obviously ran into Lydia and the Swift Mist herd from the north; but, I also ran into and brutally murdered a human scout that came in from the northwest. The poor guy didn’t see it coming until I hit him in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt and Scarfang proceeded to tear his throat out. It was a quick kill; but, he did take a whole lot of damage before he succumbed. Higher tier races are scary.

A coalition between a human scout and a demon warrior from the northeast managed to reach all they way to my base before my sentries spotted them. Sadly enough, they managed to escape. A well placed [Fireball] from Gut incinerated one of the demon’s wings though.

Finally, I met a dryad that came in from the west. It must have been some sort of a [Mage] because, as soon as I ordered the attack, the dryad cast some insane spell that created a barrier of thorns between us. She was gone by the time we managed to make our way around it.

So yeah. Things are really starting to heat up. And, it’s scary as hell that there don’t seem to be many tier one races left in the vicinity. When I brought up the list of already defeated players, I noticed how the majority of the dead players seemed to indeed be tier one races. Combining that with the logical fact that most people would avoid playing as a lesser race, I doubt there are many of us left.

The bottom line is that it might become really busy around here soon. I need some more defences… or more [Scout]s. Yeah, probably the latter. Should I teach them how to use the bow?

Yeah, why not? It would keep them reasonably safe, and marginally increase my combat potential.

I’ll get right to it.

My [Scout]s have been busy these last few days too. They managed to scout a larger portion of my territory in all directions. We found the two beastlairs that spawned nearby. There’s a cave full of spiders to my east, near the border to Harvalon’s former territory. Yeah I know. It sort of completes the trifecta of low level fantasy creatures doesn’t it? There is always spiders, wolves and goblins in every game. Why would this game do anything different? It would be silly if they weren’t here I suppose.

There’s also an aquatic type of monster to my north along one of the bends in the river. It’s some sort of waterdevil creature called a ‘Draug’. They look like armless toads that lurk in shallow water using two vine looking tentacles to snag their unsuspecting prey underwater if they come too close. It sounds super creepy; but, I won’t turn down a great source of experience points.

Which is why I sent Gut, Wrex, all my veteran warriors, my main [Scout], two [Fire Mage]s, a [Blood Mage] and all six of the archers to wipe out the spider lair yesterday morning.

I could have gone myself… But, hell no. Spiders freak me the fuck out. There’s just no way I’m going anywhere near the place. If a creature has more than four legs, it’s a big no-no in my book. I told Gut to burn those bastards with fire.

Lots of fire.

It took some convincing to make Gut leave without me; but, I managed to mollify him by promising to have Scarfang by my side at all times, and run away at the first sight of trouble. Which means that Scarfang and I spent some time picnicking by the lake the whole afternoon. They returned later in the evening reporting their successful extermination of the spider’s lair. With no reported casualties nonetheless!

Turns out fire really is a spider’s weakness in any game. Thank you for that, Green Baby Jesus.

I think I’m gonna have my death squad go wipe out the draug today. I could use the extra Summon Points sooner rather than later.

I figure it’s about time to head south.

To war.