When I got to the lobby where the mission board was there were dozens of adventurers milling about taking requests. The mission board here was the pinnacle of magical engineering. It looked like a real life version of the blue screens and people could do searches and everything on it and it would make the quest show up. I was told that it was a relatively new invention by the towns university and no other towns or villages had one that worked like this yet.

I filtered the quests so that it would show only the easy quests near or in town. I found one that was supposed to be for a party of 4 but my army should be able to handle it.

**

Hunting expedition

Escort a bunch of hunters and skinners while they go after a pack of wolves that have been plaguing the area.

Risks bigger predators might attack while the animals are being butchered. Also a group of bandits was seen in the area and wolf pelts are expensive.

Reward. Choice of 10g per pelt or a 1 (cow) leather chest piece per pelt. With a minimum of 50g or 5 chest pieces. Additionally rewards 10 SP upon completion with bonuses depending on how the mission goes.

**

The chest pieces would go a long way to outfitting my unit and if I went with 16 skeletons armed with spears it would scare of most bandits and we should be able to deal with any large animals that show up. After I picked up the quest it told me that the contact would be the leather worker just outside the southern gate. Leather-working being a very, lets say stinky occupation it made sense that the shop and tannery would be outside the walls. Nice thing was if you didnt count the gate and being held up there it was only a few minutes walk from where my barracks would be.

So I made my way to the southern gate. This would be my first official time exiting the city after coming here. Normally those under aged were not allowed to go outside the city perimeter as it was way too dangerous. But of course boys being boys me and my friends had done a little bit of exploring before.

After talking it over with the leather-worker the expedition would all meet up in front of his shop at first light and would hopefully be back before it got dark. After that as it was nearly time for lunch I made my way over to what would be my barracks. My dad was already waiting for me when I got there.

He had already sent some men around to move all the carts to the other warehouses so it was just a big empty space. It was larger than expected with a small yard out the back with a well. Inside it was a large square space about 100ft to a side and about 2 stories high with just dirt floors for now. As I had the space and some privacy I decided to summon my unit for the first time.

So I summoned my 16 skeletons. 16 piles of dirt started to form on the ground in front of me where the skeletons crawled out of. All were armed with rusty swords and heavy damaged small wooden bucklers.

To my suprise they formed up in 3 ranks of 5 with a single skeleton stepping out in front without me giving orders. “First squad reporting for duty sir” another suprise as I didnt expect the skeletons to be intelligent. “Im the lance corporal in charge of this sorry lot. None of us have names until you designate one. Speaking of which whats the name of our squad sir?”

“Name” I asked still a bit shook that the skeleton was talking. “Yes sir it would help if you gave each squad a name, makes it a bit easier in giving orders.”

“I suppose that makes sense. Ive decided to name you guys the bone-shakers. Until I get my feet under me you and corporal Dughan will have to give me a bit of a hand. Bear with me a minute while I summon the two specialists that are joining your squad.”

With that I summoned the two zombie dogs. Again I didnt get what I expected. Both didnt look too much different than regular dogs apart from some patchy fur and the red eyes. But the two dogs couldnt be more different to each other. One was what looked to be a saint bernard that after crawling out of the ground just slumped on the floor and went for a nap. The other one was more what I expected and seemed to be a pit-bull. When I looked into the spell a bit more I saw that the dog breed summoned would be random and could range from huskeys to Chihuahua’s so I guess I got lucky that I got two of the bigger breeds this time around.

After that I told the bone-shakers about our mission the next day, and that I was going to try and equip them with spears. “The rest of the day we are going to make this into a proper barracks. As it will be your home for the foreseeable future any recommendation. Dughan and lance corporal?” I really should think of a good name as saying lance corporal each time would get old fast.

“Sir even tho we technically dont need sleep we do like to rest when not on duty so some basic cots for each troop would be appreciated. Also some weapon racks and some armour stands that way we dont have to carry everything around all the time and will make it simpler to switch our loadout.” The lance corporal said.

Dughan then chimed in “Also sir, if I could make a suggestion. Why not convert the backwall of the warehouse and add in a small office for you and your dad the quartermaster to use, and maybe add a small sleeping quarters for yourself as well.”

“Well dad seems like im moving out.” I chuckled. While my dad went out to order the materials we would need and get us 16 spears, I set my guys the task of clearing out the bits of debris and cleaning up the extra dirt from the summoning. In future I might need to see about using the small yard out the back for the summonings instead. By the time my dad came back with the stuff we needed everything was cleared. It took us a bit but with 16 extra pairs of hands that didnt tire out getting the shell of the office and the small living space built went pretty fast. I had them put the office on one corner and my living quarters on the other back corner so there would still be access to the back door between them.

With some future expansion in mind my dad had 30 cots ordered and delivered and placed alongside one of the walls. The other side we built a few weapon racks with the swords shields and spears all getting their own section.

As I would have to get u early the next morning and the meeting point was just a few minutes away I decided to bunk with my men the first night. My dad would have some of his men deal with getting the office up and running, and my living quarters decorated and all my stuff moved over while we were on mission tomorrow.

Just before heading to bed I decided to have a look at my army screen.

***

Army

Units (1/1)

Unit 1 (0/100 xp)

Squads (1/1)

Squad 1 Bone-Shakers

15 skeletons.

1 skeleton lance corporal

(apart from designation no stat differences)

Upgrades available:

Permanent equipment options:

Pick one, choice is permanent

Sword and shield 10SP

Spears 10SP

(if equipment is bought)

Bows 25SP

Armor options unlocked when equipped with armor.

Troop upgrades:

Better leaders 50SP

Increases stats of the lance corporal who can also be equipped with a different loadout.

Drummerboy 50SP

Extra troop wich has a musical intrument of choice, default is drums.

When played while marching increases marching speed of unit.

Standard bearer (unit) 50SP

Slightly increase combat capabilities of unit

Regen: 1 per hour

Specialists 2/2

Options:

2 Zombie dogs (1 per point)

Regen 1 per day

***

Ill need to see how the mission tomorrow goes before deciding what to actually equip my first unit with. Some of the other upgrades looked pretty good too. But that was for another day, time to finally get some much needed sleep.