The Start of an Empress II
"Now, before anything else happens, I need to talk to mayor Stafinson, who will continue with his duties as mayor here and his fine work in taking care of all of you while I am busy doing… regal stuff. I… will do my utmost to protect all of you, don't worry. You may see… things… popping up outside, if they look like the previous creatures I brought with me, then they are mine. That would mean they are there to watch out for the village. Leave them alone please, they are there to do a job." Just then, Bronze Team decloaked nearby, with Jorge crossing his huge arms over his chest and nodding. "About time our girl stepped up to the plate that's been waiting for her" Jorge whispered to the others. "Damn straight. She'll do a bang-up job, I know she will. It's gonna be the ant's pants around here from now on, just you watch" Deacon chuckled out as he hit his knee with his hand while he crouched. "Finally, our builder gets to show what she is made of. She's going to need constant help to create this new empire, and we'll be right there with her" Turnie seemed to say while beaming in pride. "It was about time she shot for the stars. With these people, she is loved. With everyone else, she needs to be feared, if she cannot be both" Orlo told the others. "Oh, we'll make sure of that" Ethan snickered out.
The villagers kneeled before her and looked at the ground, some even looking like they were praying to her as a goddess. After a few moments, she stepped away from them and tapped the mayor on the shoulder. "We need to talk about taxes and requirements of the people." Everyone stopped kneeling and watched. "Will you continue with the normal taxes? Of course... of course, you'll need the funding for the empire to help it grow" Stafinson said as he wrung his hands. The others were looking at her wondering how high she would set the tax rate to, due to all the efforts she had put into easing costs for traders and her own goods. "I… first off, what was the tax rate set at again?" she asked. "It was forty silver a month, not including earnings from our jobs." Selene looked at him as if he was growing flowers on his skull. "Um, wow, ok, how much of that went to local government? Like, here, or to you?" He looked around at everyone. "I received a small stipend of five silver per head in the village every month, with another one gold per month for my job. It… sometimes it isn't enough, sometimes it's plenty. For the village… I haven't the foggiest if we've ever had money provided for use. I've usually had to pay for anything to keep the village going."
"Alright, then may I know how much you have saved up?" she asked. He leaned in and whispered. "Six gold." While that wasn't poverty level like others were, he was willing to give up two coins to pay for Brilne last time. "Alright, so let's do the math. We have, what, one hundred…" she looked around at people standing there "One hundred thirty is the headcount ma'am" Jorge said over the coms into her head. "We have one hundred thirty villagers now, I'd say that's the start of a town. Ok, what's the average amount anyone makes around here per month?" Abby walked up. "For most people here, it's around fifty silver, if that much." A woman walked up and looked at the men. "That barely affords us food for the month or clothing."
"Ok. So here's how this will work. Whatever job you do, fifty percent taxes on the earnings kept on paper. All store owners, smithies, or amenity buildings will from now on provide receipts upon sales or work paid for, signed and verified by the recipient. Keep your receipts, I'll have a new tax collector roam around every month and collect after it checks through the receipts." Everyone was looking at each other and smiling. "That's half what we were paying before" one man mumbled to another. "Now, I'm hearing some say it's half. That may go up due to your job requiring you to do more work as more people decide to move here, so you won't make as much money if your wages increase. This is to offset the quality of life improvements that will be built around here. For one thing, I'm getting a fucking hospital somewhere built, and a school for the kids to learn some stuff. Things are going to change, hopefully for the better." People were cheering at what she was telling them, it was like a presidential candidate at a rally.
"Now, of that fifty percent, twenty-five percent goes to me, I'm your empress, I get to use that for stuff in the royal treasury. The other twenty-five percent, ten percent is going to the mayor. The other fifteen percent goes into paying for village maintenance and funding projects to… liven this place up a bit, pay for artists and sculptors, there's not a single statue anywhere or murals. Get some people here to work on making this place nice looking, public musicians, paying for building a market for traders to come instead of just lining up on the road." The people could see the vision she was painting. And it would be paid for with their taxes, their town would look amazing because of their money, not just seeing it disappear.
"Now, you. Keep everyone inside the village until… until I have some defenses set up. You received that sheet of paper today, right? How long until you expect an army to show up?" the mayor looked up at the sky and brought his hand up to his bearded chin. "Um, I was in an army before. I know how long it will take" one of the miners raised his hand. They all looked at him. "Go on my friend, how long?" Stafinson asked. "You got that sheet today, it'll take three days at most before they reach here given there are a few forts just south of the Azaltos Mountains, before Glass Dale. Given Glass Dale is destroyed, they won't be able to resupply, so… they might pillage a little if they reach us." He looked around at everyone as if he was a black sheep. It was probably a normal thing for them to do that against an enemy town when he was a part of the military.
"Fine, they won't reach you, I'll have something set up before that. They won't even make it down that road there." Selene pointed at the road heading towards the ruins of Glass Dale at the front of the village. "We believe in you your majesty, your… eminence." Brilne the alewife was almost in reverence of her. "We'll do as you say."
"Alright, I'm going to go get prepared to take on this task, the rest of you, go about your business but don't leave the… the… you know what, Gold Pine is no longer called a village, it is a town because I say it is so." The "townsfolk" cheered. If things kept getting better, it could turn into a large town, then a city, or even a metropolis. Giles was almost reaming while standing, thinking about how Gold Pine could become even more of a trade hub than Silvinholm. Selene walked back with Giles and Abby as the people still followed her, just before she got back onto Asterion they all did small salutes with their hands over their chests. "Alright, let's go get started guys, we have a lot to do." Bronze Team had disappeared back to the SF APC, rolling back to the castle. As they entered the main gates, her security looked scarier than fort Knox with auto turrets, manned turrets, security models patrolling the walls, there were even anti-air weapon systems ready to fire against an attack from the skies, whether gryphon or even dragon.
As they entered and she dismounted from Aster in the stables and took his saddle off, she turned to Bronze Team and was trembling a little. "Look, I'm gonna just say this now. I'm going to need help. No real leader does it on their own… so… here's hoping you guys, and gal, are with me on this." Jorge looked at the others and then looked right at her. "Ma'am, we'll always be loyal to you. We'll always stay by your side to get things done. You deserve this, we all know it." "Good, because I'm making you my commanders for special forces. I'm going to need a chain of command for each tier to handle things, so I don't always have to interfere. I have an inventory set just for you guys, let me know whenever you need stuff and I'll make sure you've got it. Same goes for my military and security. I'm going to fortify the hell out of this valley, make it so everyone wants to live here in safety with amenities fucking everywhere. We're gonna make the Artinian kingdom wish it never messed with us, while showing its people the grass is practically glowing golden on our side." Deacon shot his fist into the air. "Atta girl! We've got your back, whatever you need." She thanked them and told them to get ready for the coming war, then turned around and surveyed her unfinished castle. That wasn't the only thing she now needed to build up. Tech up was ready. Industrial Era was ready to be entered.
(Recommended Song: Two Steps From Hell – El Dorado)
"Time to work up a sweat and get this thing finished." She set her harvester drones on full power, set her fabrication units to start pumping out civilian models, security models, military models, honor guard models and special forces units. She then set on building construction drones and had them leveling the outside, set her sights on finishing the castle with some help of the construction units and sent her military on full patrol through the valley. Anything was hostile, they'd eliminate it. She needed to make sure it was safe so Gold Pine didn't get attacked from behind, with plans to add checkpoints and guard stations down the secret path through Azaltos mountains and along the road to Glass Dale. Another plan she would build right after the castle was an airfield for bi planes and later, turbo props. If she could, she'd get jet fighters too, given there were a few used in World War II. With the construction crew helping, the castle was practically building itself, with crafted cranes moving materials everywhere, pouring concrete into reinforced steel rebar. Marble was installed on the walls to make the whole thing look majestic.
She built one hundred mediums for the sole purpose of sacrificing for heavy tier automatons, more mech than infantry. She posted two of them at the gate as military models, easily capable of soloing those five thousand soldiers coming to attack Gold Pine at levels 150 apiece. With digitigrade legs to help with balance, and entirely automated, each one standing at a height of twenty-five feet tall, they easily dwarfed Mediums in everything but versatility in buildings. Her thoughts made her think it might be a good idea to add a Special Forces Super Heavy to Bronze Team as massive firepower and anti-vehicle support. Her research was completed for new ammunition for a variety of damages, including magic shield piercing. It didn't do anything else, but magical shields didn't do anything to the rounds. There were acidic rounds, high explosive, armor piercing, tracers, flare rounds, rubber rounds for riot control, rifled slugs for shotguns, fragmentation rounds, the list kept going. Production in vehicles also increased, with some LRVs or Light Reconnaissance Vehicles used to help get visual on ground targets and help patrol the valley, LAVs which were Light Attack Vehicles expressly there to move in fast and hit hard then disappear, Light Armored Personnel Carriers for rapid transit to drop off security models with capability to support as a barricade with two Light auto turrets on top, Medium APCs for enforcing borders and cities and Heavy APCs for military grunt work and long term transport across lots of terrain.
Light tanks were also being made for fast hard-hitting mobile artillery that can be easily transported, Medium tanks or Main Battle Tanks for rear defense and support, Heavy Battle Tanks for showing the enemy whose boss. Aerial support was ornithopters, helibots, bi planes, soon to be turbo props and jets… and more than likely, some airships. She was going to show these bastards what a real military can do, but not quite just yet, she didn't want to show her hand completely. "Jorge, can you hear me?" she asked over coms. "Always ma'am." She made sure the rest of the team was listening as well while she worked on the castle floors. "I've been thinking about the first deployment, to stop this army. I don't want to use the normal military. I was thinking, can we take them out in a stealth surprise attack so no one can make it out alive? Middle of the night catch them off guard, they'd never know who they're fighting, because we can't have anyone report back what they saw. Sound good?" she asked. There was a slight pause from them.
"What do we have to work with" Ethan asked, Jorge chiming in on that as well. "Ethan, Jorge, you know me. Anything you ask for, just make sure it's as quiet as possible so you can get the jump on them. Not one of them survives. Chances are, if they're sent this far out into butt fuck nowhere to take on a little "village" then they're probably just mooks with no real intelligence, no intel to gather, right?" The team didn't seem to be deliberating, just trying to figure out what they'd need. "Understood. We'll get it done ma'am. I'll have a requisition order made up" Jorge told her. "Nice. Thank you." "We're here to serve ma'am, to protect our glorious fucking empire!" Deacon said almost too happily. He was ready to start cleaning up the filth that had the citizens of the Artinian kingdom cowering in fear.
As she completed the first and second floor of the castle with the building crew, she received the requisition order from Jorge and checked through it, then set the fabrication units to craft everything. They were Special Forces, they needed the best to do their jobs. She had so much faith in them after getting the orb that she knew she didn't need to be looking over their shoulders, that would just hamper them. Selene would just get a report once they completed their mission or let her know if any issues arise and she needs to send back up. Given how things have gone so far with steampunk, she highly doubted they'd need any help beyond what they requested. Jorge was smart, really smart. She was glad to have him and the rest of the team with her.
Three Days Later, Midnight
(Recommended Song: Cyrus Reynolds, Gregg Lerhmann & Keeley Bumford – The Wolves)
Three SF Heavy lifter Helibots flew low over the road heading towards Gold Pine, with visual of the army that had set camp for the night. They'd be on Gold Pine's doorstep the next day. All three helibots dropped their cargo silently into the night, landing near the Boramar Mountains behind the edge of the Gold Pine Forest, with small parachutes engaging then disconnecting. Bronze Team along with three other Special Forces teams slammed into the ground and charged through the forest almost silently and completely invisible, their speed well exceeding seventy-five miles an hour. The teams got into position as lightning mines crawled nearby, ready to engage. "Most of the soldiers are done eating and already sleeping, tracking one hundred guards on patrol." Orlo was providing intel from above as he pinpointed targets with a full network of SF ornithopters spread out above them, silent watchmen. Little icons appeared over each of their heads as the teams moved in and started their work.
"Go for the casters first, make sure they can't get any spells off, then hit tent armory. Down the commanders right after" Jorge commanded them. He was de facto leader for Bronze Team, and he was doing it well. Deacon was hiding at range on the mountain side with his sniper rifle tracking three wizards sitting next to each other. "I count nine, cancel, make that twelve of the fairy dusters." He zoomed in with both his optic cameras as well as the scope, allowing him to see the whites of their eyes. "Team 2 in position" "Team 3 in position" "Team 4 in position" was heard from the drone teams. The mines moved in as a grid pattern throughout the tents, with five being regular spider mines to detonate the armory. "Three, two, one. Execute" Jorge commanded.
The mines latched onto multiple guards and electrocuted them quietly in the shadows, with Jorge pulling one behind a tree and snapping his neck. The rest of the teams followed quickly through, making their ways to the other tents and killing quickly. Deacon took out the casters by himself, rapid tapping two shots per second, each hitting a head without need to reload. There was no noise from the silencer system built in. They had enough time to realize their friends were dropping like flies before falling themselves, no way to even get a word out. About halfway through, someone found a body and an alarm was sounded, but by then it was too late. The explosive spider mines detonated, obliterating a massive amount of spare equipment, sending swords flying into nearby soldiers and ending them. Lightning mines continued to latch onto panicking men as they tried to figure out where the enemy was coming from, who was attacking.
The commander shot out of his tent and looked around with a torch to see a slaughter as little creatures grappled his soldiers and fried them, with humanoid like creatures slipping about and snapping necks or firing some sort of weapons in their hands or on their shoulders that seemed almost silent. One clotheslined one of his soldiers and flipped him end over end as it continued towards another group, with anyone who made a noise quickly dealt with. Another was a massive creature charging through the remainder of his ranks and launching bodies into the sky like they were confetti. He was about to panic as well, turning around running as fast as his legs could carry him from the tent city down the road. He stopped mid run as he saw a few glowing blue lights appear in front of him, all looking at him. His breath caught in his throat.
"Oh gods… oh gods… what… demons… stay back… stay back!" he was trembling as he waved his torch around to keep them at bay, then tried to turn around. He came face to face with Jorge who crept up right behind him. His giant paw of a gauntleted hand doused the torch, consuming the area in darkness. A muffled scream could be heard from that position followed by silence. "Op completed" Ethan confirmed over coms. Not one soldier survived the assault. No one would be providing a report back as to what happened to them. Not one single automaton, spider mine or humanoid was damaged in the entire quiet battle beyond the explosives in the armory. Orlo swept to the wizards and collected the ammo with a magnet to make sure there was no evidence bullets were even used. "Bronze 1, have visual on something, check right bearing 230, cave entrance noticed" Deacon said in a serious tone. He didn't do that unless there was something that peaked his interest and made him stop swearing.
2 am, 14th, October
Selene was asleep in her bed as she received a coms request. Her eyes shot open as she breathed in and looked around, still hearing the request. She acknowledged it and waited for whoever was on the other side to talk. "Sorry to wake you up ma'am, but we have a report to provide you" Jorge informed. "Um, yeah, sure, no worries, it's fine. How'd the operation go?" There was an ever so slight pause as Jorge reviewed his data. "Op was a success, no survivors, no damage accrued, no wounded on our side."
"That's… that's great news, glad to hear it. Looks like the walls we were planning to build around Gold Pine won't be needed much after all." She rubbed her left eye to get the grit out as she looked at the still sleeping wolves lying on her bed. "There's another issue though ma'am." She stopped rubbing her eye as her right eyebrow rose. "Is everything ok?" Another pause. "The op was a success, but we found a cave entrance."
"O…. k…. what… are there hostiles inside or?" she questioned as she didn't have all the details yet. "From what Orlo has been able to find, this was the bandit camp used before they came to attack you, before we were made." The dev cocked her head a little backwards. "Don't tell me there are bandits still on the roads that are using it." "No ma'am, it's been abandoned by them, all of the brigands went to attack your fort." She felt relieved, no more thieves and cutthroats to worry about. "The issue is what was left behind."
Selene was interested now. "Ok, what, materials, grains, food, weapons, some magic stuff pillaged?" she asked. "The sacking of Glass Dale ma'am, they had captives. These people were taken as prisoners." Her blood froze. "How many." "Two hundred fifty ma'am, one hundred women, seventy-five children of varying ages, twenty-five men. All of them are in poor health." Her head was reeling with thoughts. Are they going to die? "Shit. Their homes are long gone. Signs of abuse?" "Plenty ma'am, the women were used for… gratification, the men were used for paid fights. The children… sometimes for target practice."
Holy shit. This is a really bad situation. How… I've been an empress for all of three days and this is the first thing I have to really deal with beyond an army waltzing towards my town?!
"What do you want us to do with them ma'am?" Jorge asked. The question to her sounded rhetorical, but maybe he was really wondering what she would order him to do. Hell, if she wanted to, there's nothing stopping her from commanding them to exterminate all of them and be an evil bitch. Lucky for them, she was anything but. "Get them to Gold Pine, wake up Moira. Tell her to get some rooms ready for them. Remainder we'll… I'll get military teams sent with tents to set up and supplies. Have Turnie check on them and heal where she can, I'll have auto docs on standby." Jorge acknowledged. "Ma'am, there's a woman here whose gone into labor as well."
Fuck!
"Ok, um, auto docs will help with the birth, keep her taken care of, APCs are already going. Make sure Turnie stays with her." She sent an immediate flash order to military units to pack and send supplies to Gold Pine. More helibots were being sent to pick up the spider mines and SF teams beyond Bronze Team. She immediately built more manufacturing stations for blankets, pillows, cots, even teddy bears for the kids and told Jeeves to stash some sweets in her inventory, along with making spare rations with Food of Ash spell and then flavoring them with Flavor from Nothing to combine with fruits and vegetables with some meat cooked into meals by Jeeves and the maids. Her chemistry benches went into overdrive as a pile of healing potions were crafted with antibiotics and scrolls to Cleanse Lesser Infection, even antidotes in case of poisons. She even crafted pain killers for the woman in labor, along with more maid automatons to help keep people calm and act as assistance mechs for the frail or old. The large inventory hopper had military models pulling out crates of supplies and stashing them in APCs and helibots.
God damn it! I haven't even built the road to Gold Pine yet from my capital!
(Recommended Song – Jeremy Soule – Fear Not This Night (Guild Wars 2) (feat. Asja))
Selene jumped out of bed and got dressed, calling Jeeves to make a quick cup of strong tea to help wake her up. There was a cake made with the sugar and other ingredients she now had available by the auto maids, in which she ate a small slice for the sugar boost and ran to jump into one of the waiting helibots. "Go go go!" she said as it took off over the gates and headed after the convoy going to Gold Pine with all props spinning, immediately using Blitzkrieg to speed up the convoy. "ETA three minutes" she heard from Jorge as the SF helibots could be seen in her Hud, little markers against the night sky due to them being almost completely invisible even without cloaking. As they set down and people were pulled out carefully to not hurt them, small rations were provided along with blankets and medical aide. The whole town was waking up as they came out to see what was going on, with two hundred fifty people being air lifted to their location.
An emergency tent hospital was set up, followed by the most fortunate being brought in by Moira who was still groggy and almost stumbling. APCs rolled in, dropped their doors with crates opened with food. Selene brought maid autos with her to help ease the crying kids and handed out teddy bears and small toys to keep them occupied. Security was set up at the town road entrance. "What can I do to help" the mayor said as he came up behind Selene half asleep. "Uh, grab those blankets, we gotta get this woman into the hospital, she's going into labor." Turnie rolled inside to take charge of the hospital with the auto docs assisting, with pain killers provided. The dev ran to people who still had cuts and bruises, with so many of them crying and thanking the automatons and her for rescuing them. Whatever fear they might have had at the beginning was completely gone, as the automated army got them to safety… to hope.
"Alright, they've got malnutrition, keep them from wolfing down those rations right now, they could die from eating too much." Some of the people had their food forcibly taken from them, almost seeming cruel as the auto docs checked on each patient while cots were set up in spare tents. The total time to get everything ready was maybe a half hour at the most. The children were confused but at least in better shape with the toys and healing provided, but were confused when they were being helped by the maids, with some of them getting candy that was made by Jeeves for Selene. Given she told them to use whatever to calm them down and take their mind off things, it worked perfectly once they got some sweets. The woman who was in labor gave birth after another three hours, just as dawn started to break. Selene was exhausted taking care of these people, but she didn't do it alone. The entire town was out trying to help, with her military aiding and protecting. The new baby girl was going to be named Mirai; it meant "miracle."
I don't believe it, I just did what FEMA does.
"I've never seen anything like those soldiers" "Those… things… they saved our lives…" She kept hearing the people whisper to each other. "Those are her soldiers right there, our Empress." Some started to ask about her as she moved from one tent to another. "She's an empress? What happened?" "Gold Pine isn't part of the Artinian kingdom anymore, they declared war on us because we couldn't pay the taxes. She's taken over, she's incredible." The refugees were watching her, now getting more information due to their time in the caves. "Glass Dale is… gone? Our homes… our… our families… friends…" one woman started crying as she realized everything she had was gone. "Please, don't let them touch me again, I'm begging you!" another screamed as she held onto her son, who probably had to watch things being done to her by bandits. Traumatized citizens of the Artinian kingdom were sitting in her lands, with the now dead army not even caring if there were survivors from Glass Dale.
"Should we tell them they are technically citizens of our enemy?" Jorge asked quietly to Selene. "No, that won't do any good, probably scare them even more. We'll tell them their homes are gone, but they can make a new life here if they want, or we can transport them near any towns or cities they wish to live at, give them a small purse of coin to start up. It's the best we can do. At least here they can get some help with their traumatizing experience." As the people calmed down and daybreak arrived with the sun coming up, all of them safe and at least somewhat healthier with slowly provided food and water, she stood with the mayor in front of the tents.
"Listen up! There's an announcement to make. You are currently in Gold Pine Township, under the protection of her Divine Majesty Empress Selene of the Clockwork Empire. Your homes are gone, Glass Dale is in shambles. You have two choices once you are well enough to move on your own, with those being to stay here and start a new life; you may think that Glass Dale had many shops, many opportunities for jobs. Gold Pine has far more to offer you, if you give it a chance and help it build. If you do not wish to stay, the alternative is our majesty has allowed transportation to any other town or city for you to start anew. A small amount of coin is generously being provided by her highness if you choose to leave to help you in that new life or if you wish to be here, among a new community, among friends."
There was almost dead silence as everyone listened to the mayor speaking, with Selene sitting down in a chair, trying to stay awake. Jorge came up quietly and draped a blanket around her, which she was grateful for. "I have a question" one man asked. "Yes, go ahead." "Why didn't Artinia come to save us? No soldiers arrived, no protection, and without them no hope!" the mayor sighed. "We are no longer part of Artinia. They have betrayed the citizens that worked so hard to fill their purses without care for our needs, let alone our wants. The Artinian kingdom declared war on us, a village that is now a town, because we wouldn't, couldn't, pay taxes to fill their coffers. Our majesty has done more for us in a few weeks than the Artinian kingdom did for us in decades. Join us and you can know what it's like to be under her rule. After all, her army was the one who saved you, when no one else would even lift a finger, they pulled you from death's door and brought you here to us, to care for you."
A child walked up to Jorge, looking to be no taller than halfway to his knee plate and looked up at him. He kneeled, with the child looking right into his light blue optics. The Super Medium didn't move, just rested his arm on his knee as they looked at each other.
Hearts and minds.
The boy touched at his "face" without receiving any retaliation from the massive automaton as the town watched. "Well that's a painting waiting to be made if I've ever seen one" Abby whispered to Giles, who nodded in agreement. By the start of the morning, with everyone so tired, the town was allowed some time off, a sort of holiday agreed upon by Selene and the mayor. Not one person that was saved wanted to go anywhere else but stay in Gold Pine, or if she managed to rebuild it, Glass Dale, if it was under her rule. Temporary homes were already planned beyond the tents, with permanent homes being marked by Abby and Stafinson on a crudely made map. "Hey Jorge, I think we're done here, I'm going to go back to the castle now to get some sleep." Jorge acknowledged and brought Bronze Team with them as they got into a helibot and flew back, making all the new refugees stare in awe.
"I'm going to need a flag symbol or something soon…" she weakly said as Selene laid down on a pillow in the helibot. "I can think of one thing that would look good" Ethan commented. "The inside of a clock" Turnie answered for him. She agreed, but her thoughts though were drifting not to cloth flapping in the wind, but maybe to a mechanical statue of gears and cogs turning for each town or city, Gold Pine and beyond. As they touched down inside the walls, the empress got out and headed to the house to her bedroom. The castle's palace wasn't complete yet, so her royal quarters weren't actually made. Until the next few floors were finished, it was going to be her little custom cottage house, although she could sleep in a guest room already built. "Get some sleep ma'am, you deserve it" Orlo spoke up as he floated just outside the door. "Yeah, after coordinating that, I feel like I could sleep the whole day away." She yawned and stretched as she closed the door and went upstairs, the wolves blinking at her as they wondered where she had gone. "Back to bed for me guys, I'm sleeping in today." They lowered their heads and stretched out, enjoying the extra time to snooze with their alpha.
Before she fell asleep, she opened her character sheet and noticed she received two levels from that entire event, now a level 40. She threw all forty skill points into Strategy and Tactics, raising it to 53 percent. There were no stat or skill potions used in the past few days, as she didn't want to have an upset stomach while trying to build her castle. The twenty attribute points went into Molecular Reformation Crafting Time to help improve the speed at which she could get things built; given what she was going to have to do soon after the castle and Gold Pine, it seemed the most logical thing to invest in. She was going to rebuild Glass Dale, along with giant walls in front of Gold Pine and another before the road from the ruined town. Any traders traveling down that road would be well protected.
She received an ability for reaching a much higher skill level for Strategy and Tactics, "Time for Heroes," which allowed any of her forces to once a day double in levels, stats, skills and equipment capability for one hour if they are defending a location.
The speed of how she had dealt with the issue through the night, getting supplies rapidly produced and brought to the town in a few minute's notice along with helping save each life had given a decent chunk of experience and knowledge of what to do with situations like that. It also provided her some self-confidence. She didn't need to be on the front lines, she needed to be in command, leading her forces to a new beginning. One with the Artinian kingdom not running things, where the people had some real hope for once.