Chapter 7 - Recruiting

Harold didn't waste any more time before closing the notifications and going back to his Recruitment screen. He chose to recruit a worker first, pressing the option once he had the page opened. His Recruitment Points immediately dropped to read 145 but nothing else happened. Frowning, he selected a worker again. 140.

He was about to ask Abbigale what he was doing wrong when a small patch of dirt started trembling near him. As he watched, a skeletal hand burst from the ground shortly followed by a second. Two arms forced their way out after and together started grabbing at the ground, struggling to find purchase. Slowly they pulled the rest of the skeleton's body from the earth. A similar scene was occurring a few feet away, only the sounds of scuffling hands clawing the ground and shifting dirt to announce the two workers' arrival.

Soon both skeletons were standing free with the last bits of clinging soil falling from their frames. They each wore the tattered remnants of a shirt and pants, holding a primitive stone hatchet in one closed fist and a small wooden mallet in the other. Once the summoning process had finished, they remained where they crawled from the ground and stood unmoving.

A huge grin spread across Harold's face. 'That is awesome. I can't imagine the look on someone's face if I were to summon a bunch right in front of them all at once.'

"So what now my advisor?" he asked, looking to Abbigale.

"Well, now that you have a couple workers you can have them construct buildings, which you can view in your screen. But, to do that you need the room and the materials." She walked around inspecting the newly summoned workers as she talked. Occasionally poking at one or wiggling her fingers between their bones. "If you open the menu you will be able to see what I'm talking about. You can have your workers gather materials manually or they'll do it themselves if they need something to complete a project."

"What do you mean manually? And stop messing with the skeletons." Harold tried to shoo her hand away from the worker whos jaw she was clicking open and shut.

"I'm Thanatos, I'm no fun! Grrr!" Abbigale said out of the corner of her mouth while she dragged the skeleton toward her, escaping Harold's reach. She worked its jaw in a poor imitation of a ventriloquist doll.

Harold let out a groan of frustration. "Come on, what happened to serious only? It's barely even been an hour."

Abbigale rolled her eyes and let go of the worker. "Fiiiine. Manually is when you set the worker to gather a specific material. Like if you just have them chop trees for wood. Or have them mine for stone or ore. Alternatively if a worker is building something and runs out of the necessary materials, they'll go find more to finish the project themselves."

"Alright, I can see some value in having a worker set to only gather a certain material, especially if stockpiling for later. Are there any special commands to control them?" he asked, glad that she has willing to cooperate with him.

Abbigale shook her head, "Nope. Just tell the unit what you want it to do. Most Undead units suffer from the Mindless sub-trait though so be sure to word your commands properly, otherwise they'll just stand there once they finish your orders."

"Right, understood." Harold rubbed his hands together in anticipation, bony fingers clattering against one another. "You, start chopping the trees between the edge of the hill and the river, and be sure to pull the stumps so they don't respawn. Every tree within 300 feet of the claim I want gone. Once you're done report back to me. You I want to find some stone and start stockpiling." he said pointing at each of his new workers in turn.

The two workers immediately set to their tasks. The first walked to a nearby tree and started swinging its hatchet. The mallet that it was holding disappeared into its inventory as it used both hands to chop away, sending chips of wood flying through the air with each swing. After working at the tree for a few seconds, a small pile of chopped wood appeared in its arms. It walked the short distance to the base of the Land Claim, where it dropped the wood before turning about and resuming its attack upon the tree once more. The wood it had dropped was instantly digitalized as it fell from the skeleton's arms, turning into tiny pixels that flew into the Land Claim and disappeared.

The second worker wandered away from the group in search of stone. Harold soon lost sight of him through the trees, however it wasn't long before he could hear a loud, repetitive *Crack* coming from in the direction it left.

Satisfied with assigning his first two worker units, Harold opened the screen Abbigale had told him about. Unlike the other screens and windows he had dealt with so far in Kingdom Shattered, when he tried to bring up the tab, instead of a single screen appearing his vision became blurred. After a moment, it cleared once more and he found a grid of light blue squares overlay the ground, stretching away from him indefinitely. He could see the variations of height across the grid in his immediate vicinity while those squares further away were grey and illegible.

A new screen had also appeared and, after he overcame his initial surprise of the grid system, Harold looked it over to find it held a small selection of buildings. Alongside each building was their cost and with what he surmissed was his available resources detailed at the top of the list.

Construction

Wood: 5

Level 2 Construction: 1000 Wood, 1000 Stone, 500 Metal(Any)

Graveyard: 100 Wood, 300 Stone

Smithy: 200 Wood, 300 Stone, 100 Metal(Any)

Muster Field: 400 Wood, 200 Stone

Shrine: 50 Wood, 150 Stone

Practice Range: 500 Wood, 100 Stone

Lumberyard: 500 Wood

Quarry: 250 Wood

Watchtower: 350 Wood, 100 Stone

'Not bad,' he thought. 'A few options seem obvious what they do. Hmm, definitely going to need a Smithy. Wonder what the Graveyard is for?'

Curious, he clicked on the Graveyard to bring up its information screen.

Graveyard: Though the loss of a loved one weighs on the heart, peace can be found when they are properly laid to rest. A Graveyard will help offset the Morale penalty from casualties. Undead: A Graveyard will generate corpses over time to recruit instead. Corpses are basic humanoid, with small chance of a unique corpse being spawned.

'Well that seems useful. Doesn't indicate what's unique about them, but I'll take more recruits for sure.'

Harold closed the information for the Graveyard after reading through it. Bringing his attention back to the Construction window, he debated what his first project should be. 'I have a lot of extra Recruitment Points right now, so I don't think I need a Graveyard yet. Abbigale said that there's a bit of space between everyone in a region, so I could focus on my infrastructure first and recruit a whole bunch of workers to try to race ahead of the other players. Or I can try to overwhelm someone by using all my points to recruit fighters and swarm them. Hmm, but that might not work if they picked a stronger race. I doubt 15ish skeletons with sticks for weapons will be able to kill even a single dragon, especially since they'll be fighting against at least two at the start with the enemy's advisor. And even if I do defeat one player I'll be behind everyone else in building my base unless they try to do the same thing. And what if the player I meet was doing the same strategy as me? Would I even come out ahead, or would I lose too many Fighters?'

He weighed his options for a while longer, unable to decide how to proceed. Finally he admitted to himself that he didn't know what he should do. Looking away from his screen, he saw Abbigale was squatting on her heels. Her face clearly showed her boredom as she drew squiggles on the ground with a small stick.

'Maybe I'm being too harsh with her,' Harold thought. 'She seemed so excited just because I picked her to be my advisor. I didn't think about it before but she's kind of like a kid, everything is new to her. I'll see if she has any suggestions on what I should do, maybe that'll cheer her up some.'

"Hey Abbigale, I'm having a little trouble you might be able to help me with. I can't decide what my first building project should be. And if I should recruit a bunch of workers to build up the base, or a bunch or fighters and try to take out another player. What do you think?" he asked her.

She lifted her head when he started addressing her, curious what he needed. As he explained she lost interest and went back to her scribbling as she answered, "You need to make the Graveyard right away. Recruit mostly workers so you can get projects completed quickly, with a few fighting units to defend them incase of an enemy attack or wild encounter."

Harold was disheartened that he had failed to engage her further, but she had managed to gain his interest with her suggestion. "Why is the Graveyard so important? Wouldn't be better to make a Muster Field or Practice Range first? Also what's a wild encounter?"

Abbigale was about to respond when a sharp pain shot through her brain, causing her to gasp out as she dropped her stick and grabbed her head in both hands.

"Abbigale!" Harold swiped away his screens, hurrying to her side. He stopped next to her, unsure what to do. Abbigale remained silent and unmoving where she still squatted, clutching her head in her hands.

Harold reached out to touch her shoulder. "Abbigale. Are you okay?"

Before his hand reached her, Abbigale forcefully smacked it away. "I'm fine," she gritted through her teeth. "It's just a headache. To much information from my Advisor Package."

She stood up with one hand still holding the side of her head. With her other she brushed the hair out of her face, tucking it in place behind an ear before turning to Harold. She clicked her tongue in displeasure, "Are you planning on just standing there? You should be recruitng more units, unless you want us to lose."

She massaged the side of her head, trying to help the pain fade away. Harold didn't know what to make of her sudden change in demeanor and stood mouth gaping at her. 'What's up with her? I mean I haven't known her for that long but it's like she's a different person.'

Abbigale stopped rubbing her head, crossing her arms as her eyes narrowed accusatory at Harold. "What are you looking at?" she demanded sharply.

"What...I...uhh. Um, are you okay?" Harold stuttered.

Abbigale paused at his words before answering, her eyes softening slightly. "Of course I'm okay. I told you it was just the Advisor Package. Why?"

"Well, you're acting...different." he said. "You seem less, uh, relaxed."

She shrugged her shoulders at his statement. "If you say so. Listen, is it really that important either way? My Advisor Package is screaming at me to tell you start building a Smithy and Muster Field. The sooner you tell me no to them, the sooner it will accept your decision and leave me alone."

'Yep, she's definitely acting strange. Maybe it has to do with the Advisor Package she keeps mentioning?' Harold was sure that something was wrong, he just didn't know what the reason was. 'She is probably right though, I shouldn't waste too much time worrying about it. If it's something major I'm sure the game's tech guys will fix it.'

"Alright I'll listen to you, but I want to know why you don't agree with your Package thing's suggestions first." He nodded his head as he spoke, affirming his statement.

Abbigale brushed back a stray hair that had fallen loose from behind her ear. "Because they're bad suggestions that's why. You're playing as an Undead race, so the Graveyard is the single greatest thing you can build early. Recruiting off a corpse reduces the Recruitment Point cost for the unit, and you might get a unique one that will have special properties."

"Special properties?"

"Yeah, might just be a non-basic or it might have like four arms or something. Hey, can you please tell me you're not doing the Smithy first now? You have no idea how annoying this thing is," she said urgently, tapping the side of her head with a finger.

"Fine. It sounds like you might be right. Ahm. Abbigale, I am building the Graveyard first and not the Smithy." Harold cleared his throat and said in an authoritive tone. He could see Abbigale's entire body relax slightly as he spoke.

"Thanks," she said. "You don't have to sound so official about it though, you can just say no next time. Anyway, you should recruit more workers now and start getting working on the Graveyard."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Harold's attention stayed watching Abbigale for a moment longer before he reopened his screen. The grid appeared again once the screen was up. Looking over the list of buildings, he noticed that his wood listed at the top had increased and he now also had a small amount of stone available.

Wood: 55 Stone: 10

'Going to have to focus on getting more stone. Not worried about more wood when I'm in the middle of a forest.' As he was thinking over his resources, both of his workers returned to the Land Claim at the same time to deposit resources. The wood cutter dumped another armload of wood while the one sent to gather stone dropped a large sack it had been carrying on its back. The resources were readily absorbed into the Land Claim and Harold's available resources increased once more.

Wood: 60 Stone: 20

'Definitely more stone. At least it looks like they bring in ten at once instead of the five with wood.'

Ready to get his base going, he selected on the Graveyard and a translucent image of the project appeared before him on the grid system. It covered a somewhat large area of roughly fifteen by fifteen or so squares and there was an option labeled . Most of the image appeared to contain simple tombstones and the squares it occupied were no longer blue, instead either green or red depending if they were occupied. By focusing on its location Harold found he could move the image around as he wanted. Finally settling on a location nearer to the Land Claim, he pressed and a small notification popped up.

Build: Graveyard

Obstructions to be cleared: 50 Trees, 4 Small Stone Deposits

Confirm Construction Project:

He confirmed the project and could hear a small *Chunk* in his mind as the image seemed to settle in place. Now that it was started the materials it required were listed above it, both showing that no resources had been added yet.

Harold closed out of his screen and brought up his page.

'I still have 140 points to spend. I'm going to need a bunch of workers for sure, but Abbigale also heavily recommended getting a couple fighters. Hm, I could spend all my points right away but what if I lose a few units, or maybe need a couple fighters immediately? I should probably save a few points for an emergency.'

Deciding on a plan, he started recruiting. All around him the ground started tembling as over a dozen skeletons were summoned at once, forcing their way out of the earth. 'Oh yeah,' he thought, 'I really have to do this to someone.'

Soon all of his newest units finished summoning and he started organizing them. In total he had decided to recruit thirteen Workers, including the two he already had. He also recruited five Fighters to protect them. The Fighters each carried a simple, though large, wooden cudgel with both hands. Harold couldn't otherwise tell much difference between them and the Workers, the tattered clothing of both looked fairly identical to him.

Recruiting so many units left his Recruitment Points at 45. 'If I need to I can summon five more Fighters on the spot, and when the Refresh happens I'll be able to get at least one more.'

Satisfied, he assigned two more Workers to help his very first one clear out the trees in the area. The remaining Workers were set to work on the Graveyard and then help clear trees once it was built. He initially assigned a Fighter to accompany every two or three workers as a bodyguard, but noticed as soon as he had everyone start working the Workers quickly left the Fighters behind, attempting to hobble and shuffle slowly after them.

"Hey Abbigale, what's wrong with the Fighters?" he asked hoping she knew.

She was sitting on the ground nearby, working on crushing some of the ingredients she found earlier with her mortar and pestle when Harold asked. Looking up from her work, she watched the Fighters for a moment before returning to her grinding. "There's nothing wrong with them. If you're wondering why they're so slow you should Inspect them, it's a good habit to do when you recruit unfamiliar units anyway."

Hearing her answer Harold's eyebrows squenched together in confusion. He used Inspect on one of the Fighters that was still in range, bringing up a notification screen displaying its information.

Skeleton Fighter

Melee

Level: 1

HP: 80/80

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 11

Vitality: 8

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 8

Defense: 8

Traits: Skeletal, Undead, Shambling

Statuses/Ailments: Leadership Aura, Inspiring Presence

He noticed that unlike his Character Sheet, the Fighter's information was much more sparse. The penalty from the Fleshless sub-trait also stood out to him from the heavily reduced stats, even with the bonuses from Leadership Aura and Inspiring Presence. At the bottom of the page however is where he found what he was looking for, clicking on the Shambling trait to bring up its information.

Shambling: Regardless of the reason, this unit is unable to move faster than a slow shuffle outside of combat. When actively engaging an enemy during combat, this unit will sometimes gain a burst of speed.

'Wow that's...really, really, REALLY bad.' Harold thought as he read the trait. 'If I want to attack somewhere it's going to take forever to get there. No wonder there's no penalty to not taking Rests, I'll have to march all night just to get there.'

Realizing there was no way for them to serve as personal bodyguards for the Workers like he originally wanted, he decided to post the Fighters around the sides of the Graveyard instead to hopefully stop anything from randomly walking into the Workers. He closed out of the screens and reassigned his Fighters to stand guard and attack anything that came near.

The Fighters slowly made their way into position around the building project. By the time they managed to reach where Harold instructed them to stand the Workers had already cut down several trees. Soon however, all of his Workers were busy working while his Fighters stood protecting over the area.

With all of his units taken care of, Harold looked around himself for something to do. Eventually his eyes landed back onto where Abbigale was sitting. He approached her and asked what her suggestion was to do next.

She reached out a hand and patted the ground next to her. Curious, he sat down where she wanted. She kept grinding ingredients as she told him, "You have recruited units. You have started working on a project. Now, we wait."

"Wait? For what?" he asked.

"For the project to finish so you can assign your workers and start on the next one. Because they're Mindless they won't take the initiative to do anything themselves. Plus the Graveyard will have several corpses already spawned in it when it's completed so you'll be able to recruit from them right away. Once the first few buildings are done and there's a few more combat units recruited to defend the base we'll be able to safely leave the Land Claim with them and explore our region."

"Ah gotcha. That makes sense."

Harold sat quietly next to Abbigale for a while, listening to the sounds of trees being chopped and the occasional crack of harvested stone. After a few minutes passed by he broke the silence. "Seems a little boring."

Abbigale didn't look away from what she was doing, but Harold thought he could see the corner of her lip curling upward slightly.

"Yeah," she said. "Seems that way."