So Shiny

"Are you sure?" Dom asked Gan Ning seriously.

"I am." He replied.

Dom looked at him and nodded in agreement. He hoped the sisters stories were true, and by Gan Ning declaring he would take them as his loot, he was saying that they were now his responsibility and he would deal with them if he needed to.

"Are we to be your slaves as well then?" Tayanna asked matter of fact, she hoped for a better life for her and her sister, but she was currently just happy to still be breathing.

"We shall see." Gan Ning replied, before turning away and walking towards the large pile of loot that was being gathered.

"Keep up the good work." Dom said to Tomyris, before looking at Tayanna and her sister Atzi, replying in Gan Ning's place. "Slavery is not something I agree with."

Dom then turned and began following Gan Ning to the loot that Alexander was gathering. A visible look of relief on the faces of the sisters, who just had to prove their honesty.

"Quite the haul here!" Alexander exclaimed excitedly as he was joined. "We have fur, fishing tools, a variety of materials, and these."

He removed some of the furs, releasing to the light, a collection of shiny objects in a variety of shapes and sized that were gathered in one of the baskets that were used for cleaning clothes. Dom walked forwards and put his hand through the shiny objects, rolling them through his fingers.

"Jewels." Dom replied in shock.

"Lots of jewels!" Alexander commented with a grin, "I remember Lucius saying we needed things for when we met cities we could trade with, I think we have found that here."

Dom looked at Gan Ning, to see that his eyes were wide and his mouth agape, with a slight bit of drool appearing at the side.

"So Shiny!" Gan Ning exclaimed.

"Regretting your decision?" Dom asked Gan Ning, wondering if he would trade in the ownership of the two girls for some of the jewels in front of them.

Gan Ning smiled back at him, "I have many regrets in my life, but this is not one of them. For if I need something, I'm sure you'll get it for me anyway."

Dom and Alexander laughed at this response, before continuing to sift through the loot in front of them. There was a large quantity of furs, mainly from boar, but also from jaguars, bears and wolves. There was also an array of hand tools and well crafted baskets.

They had also collected a large amount of clubs, fishing spears, javelins and daggers from the warriors and villagers and collated them as well. Not enough to equip an army, but possibly enough to equip guards and scouts for future excursions. The fishing spears would be a great addition and he hoped to give them to the Helena and her fisherman family.

Subutai and Tomyris soon joined them at the pile, also looking down at the small gathering of items.

"We have quite a nice bit of wealth here." Subutai commented seriously. "They must have been busy to amass such a decent amount of jewels, I also see some gold and silver in there."

"It's enough to make lots of purchases." Tomyris added, "It's a shame we don't have a local currency that is in use, that we can measure it against."

"I feel this is more of a Lucius conversation." Subutai replied, "I would however say, that if we took a meals worth of grain as 1 unit, then a poorer material such as bronze would be 1 unit in response to that. From memory, 100 units of the lower denomination would become the next denomination, which I would say is Silver. There seems to be a bit of Silver in here."

"Then what would be next?" Dom asked in interest.

"100 Silver would be 1 Gold. Jewels would then be different values of gold." Subutai replied.

"If we are working on your idea." Tomyris commented, "Then we could be looking at hundreds to thousands of gold units here!"

"We need to make sure this is returned and kept safe." Dom interrupted.

"Agreed! I have also spoken with the two survivor sisters, and it seems this place was hell for some and heaven for others." Subutai commented. "We obviously have a nice pile of loot here, even if we ignored the jewels and gold, but there are also some useful materials in the small huts. We need to decide what our next steps are with this location."

[Would you like to claim, relocate or absorb the Town Centre of Gluttonous Chief's Village]

Dom was surprised by the random notification from Game Support, wondering which option would be ideal for their growth.

"What do the different options mean?" Dom asked Game Support.

[Claim means that you will claim this Town Centre. The Town Centre will stay in the same location as it currently is, with the same stats. It will become an outpost or secondary location for Riverside. Allowing it's current spawns to continue, and allow other buildings to be spawned around it.

Relocate means that you will claim the Town Centre, The Town Centre will be moved to your preferred location. This must be within the current scope of Riverside's boundaries, and a location that has been explored and is not near another Town Centre not owned by Riverside. You can currently relocate it to any location from Riverside to your current location.

Absorb means that this Town Centre will cease to exist, allowing you to upgrade your own Town Centre or surrounding buildings. There is no guarantee on what the upgrades will be to Riverside, however due to this Town Centre being a D grade, the changes will be on a smaller scale to absorbing an S or an A Grade Town Centre]

"Originally, I thought that we could use it as an outpost." Dom replied to both Game Support and Subutai, "However I think it would be best if this location ceased to exist."

"I'll see to it." Subutai replied. "We'll dismantle and take back any materials that will be useful, and we'll burn the rest."

[Absorb selected, Town Centre will loose it's power and resort to a normal building. Upgrade Token will be found in personal chest]

Dom had decided to absorb the Town Centre, as the grade was quite low at a D Grade, He also didn't have an ideal second location as of yet. He also felt dirty when looking around this place, and if possible didn't want anything to be left.

Gan Ning and Tomyris both nodded their heads in agreement with Dom's decision to destroy Gluttonous Chief's Village, whilst Alexander stood aside to listen in, but not being involved in the aftermath discussions.

"I think you should head back with a small detachment." Subutai said to Dom. "You can give Lucius a full update and make preparations for the materials and our return."

Dom agreed with him, not seeing the need to be here any more and wanting to see his mission rewards in his personal chest.

"I will send Hector and Homer with you as escort." Alexander commented.

"I will also go with you." Tomyris added, "Gan Ning can help Subutai with anything else."

"Should we take the basket of jewels?" Dom asked.

"Not for now." Subutai replied, "I'll bring this back myself with the next detachment when the first lot of villagers arrive."

The group agreed, and soon Tomyris, Homer, Hector and Dom were following the river down towards Riverside.

A couple hours later they made it back to Riverside, to the sound of applause from the smiling Lucius who was stood awaiting him. On the journey back they had cross paths with a small group of villagers, led by Paul who were heading in the opposite direction to help. They were pushing a small handcart that had been made by the craftswomen of the Lars family. They had been using similar handcarts to move materials from the lumber camp to the building sites throughout the last couple of days.

"Welcome back." Lucius smiled. "Congratulations on the victory. When the runners made it back with the news there was a lot of very positive emotion and celebration within the town."

"Thank you." Dom replied, "It was all down to Gan Ning and Subutai's meticulous planning in advance. I must also add, that I would not want to come up against an army of Hoplite, if you are in front of them, there is no chance."

"I would have to agree on that." Lucius replied, "Having seen them train it's an impressive sight, we just need to find a way to protect their flanks for larger excursions. It's a shame that I couldn't see them in action."

"Definitely, we also got a reasonable amount of loot and materials, which will hopefully be back over the next day or so." Dom continued, "I think there will be enough to arm a small defence force if needed."

"That is great, my main worry with this excursion is that we are pretty defenceless when the Hoplite are gone." Lucius replied, "Duncan and Paul are great, but it's just the two of them. We also can't risk loosing key villagers like Lars and Wang Shu."

"And yourself." Dom replied, "We can't loosing risk you."

"I'd rather not loose me either." Lucius joked.

"There was also a bucket full of jewels and some gold." Dom added.

"A bucket of jewels and gold?" Lucius exclaimed!

Dom had soon finished filling Lucius in on the achievements on the campaign, before leaving him with Tomyris and heading in to the Town Centre. He walked in to the town centre, but before heading up to his room to check his rewards, he decided to check on the three Sabre Tooth Tiger Cubs, who were currently asleep and curled up together. He wanted to give them a stroke, but the lady was currently looking after them, gave him the do not wake these up or I will slap you look.

When he made it to his room, he headed straight to his Personal Chest. He opened the chest, to see 4 small cubes inside and a wooden token.

[Green Cube - Warrior Hall Town Building]

[Green Cube - Animal Husbandry Town Building]

[Green Cube - Random Building Spawn]

[Red Cube - Random Elite Villager Spawner]

[Wooden Token - Building Upgrade Token]

Dom was expecting the top two items, due to them being the rerolls of the Trainee Jaguar Warrior Warrior Hall and the Wild Boar Animal Husbandry. He was also expecting the Wooden Token, even though he wasn't sure on what would happen with it once used.

He was however grateful to see the real mission rewards that he had gained. The first being another building type, which he was very excited to see what this would become. The Lumber Camp from his Lucky Box had been a huge help in the initial set up of Riverside, with the Lars family taking advantage of it's improved efficiency and helping Riverside keep up with the housing needs.

The item that excited him the most however was the Random Elite Village Spawner. He was intrigued to see what this would spawn for him, as it had clearly stated it was for an Elite Villager, and not a hero.

He decided he needed Lucius's planning to agree where to place the buildings, he wanted to make sure he stook to the Stage One district plan, and not put the wrong building in the wrong place. The risk would be the Random Building Spawn and he hoped that Game Support put that in the correct location.