"That is really informative." Xanthippus stated, patting his son on the back with pride at his question. They had a good understanding of what they were joining and knew that they would all have a role to play within it at some point.
A Guard arrived, interrupting Xanthippus, as he passed a note to Xun You. Xun You read it, smiled and then had it passed to Xun Yu across the table. The Two, Uncle and Nephew, were key to everything that happened in the Kingdom, even if they technically sat on opposing sides of the table. Xun Yu read the message and also smiled, before standing.
"I bring good news, the families of Pausanias, Nicomedes, Xanthippus, Masistius, Megabyzus and Mardontes have all arrived in Riverside. Three houses have been set up for the night for you all to rest, before manors will be provided to you all personally tomorrow. Our Builders have been busy and all of the Heroes of Riverside receive one." Xun Yu stated, before turning to Penthesilea. "We have arranged lodgings for you at General Tomoe's house this evening, before your own place will also be arranged tomorrow."
Penthesilea nodded in thanks, whilst looking at the heavily armoured Tomoe who was eating some food whilst sat on the table near her, not on a seat like everyone else. Penthesilea was sure that even though she was an exceptional warrior and would be confident at fighting against most of the people in the room and winning, both Tomoe and the imposing Zhao Yun were Warriors she could not defeat. She then looked towards Subutai, who was leant against a table and felt a tinge of fear as he looked at her. These three were intimidating, she then looked towards Shang Yang and felt a similar level of fear, the old man seemingly reading her mind.
"Lady Tomoe and General Subutai are amongst the earliest Heroes to have arrived in Riverside." Ling Tong whispered down to her, noticing her situation. Ling Tong was also relatively young compared to most in this room and Penthesilea was most likely a good seven or eight years older than him. "Lord Lazarus is quite relaxed and has fought alongside them many times, General Liao Hua is the same. General Gan Ning is one of the most important Generals here and has slept beside the Lord under the stars, whilst General Sun Ce is his brother in law. The situation here is quite relaxed, we are mainly formal because Elder Shang scares most of us. When we are all on campaign together, we all have a laugh and joke around. If you look at Lord Lazarus, you will see his is also uncomfortable with this."
"You are just lucky he is here at all." Andrew whispered, joining in. "He often wakes up late and I have to get him to class on time."
Both of them looked at him with wide eyes as he was so relaxed, but Ling Tong smiles in response. He didn't understand all of Andrew's words, but knew that he was Dom's best friend and knew him better than anyone else.
[World Conquest Online will shut down for forty eight in game hours in three hours. World Conquest Online will continue running, but player access will be paused. This is to make essential updates based on Player Progress and Rewards gathered from the Previous Battle Map and other Golden Token Quests that have taken place since World Conquest Online Launch]
[Please make sure you are in a safe location in three hours, you will be given a ten minute warning]
Dom suddenly looked confused, causing all of those in the room who looked at him to wonder what was happening, but Kai and Andrew had similar looks on their faces. Dom turned to Meritamen and Shang Yang, wondering how to let them know.
"I need to go in three hours and will not be back for the next two days." Dom explained to them, causing Meritamen to raise her eyebrow, whilst Shang Yang nodded in acceptance.
"Why so sudden?" Meritamen asked, whilst Sun Shangxiang also looked confused.
"Whilst unfortunate, your return on day three will be timely. We will arrange the coronation and founding of the Lazarus Kingdom in that time. We will integrate these new forces and have everything prepared for our next steps." Shang Yang declared before standing and facing the crowd. "Thank you all for coming, I need to have a meeting with the Senior Leaders to discuss our next steps. To the new Generals, welcome to Riverside and the Lazarus Kingdom, our current Generals will take you for some drinks and explore both the Theatre and the Tavern, whilst tomorrow they can take you through the different unit types that we have. We will make sure that all of the Civilians and Warriors that have come with you are housed for the evening and assigned roles in the coming days."
Everyone began to stand up and leave, with only Shang Yang, his Wives, the Two Xun's, Lucius, Hatshepsut, Cicero, Crassus, Subutai, Zhou Yu, Andrew and Kai remaining. Andrew and Kai would soon leave, but they both wanted to stay for the beginning as they had things to say and had received a similar update.
"Astrid also came, she's joining us. She just needs a Trireme and can be a Captain in the Navy, her Longship has also arrived. She will take a role in our Players Guild." Kai explained as Zhou Yu nodded in agreement.
"She was an exceptional Captain and she performed well at Mycale, without her I doubt you would have purchased the two Islands." Zhou Yu agreed as he turned to Crassus who began to speak. "Her crew arriving also adds some more experience."
"Artemisia did try to persuade her son, but whilst he wanted to come with her, he was mainly relieved she was alive and he now wants to become a successful King of his own realm. Him selling Kos and Nicyros to us is already a big step. I believe he will try and influence the Ionian's to the north to enter his realm." Crassus explained, "The Arrival of Astrid is a positive though, if others are willing to join Lord Lazarus, then we can only grow more powerful."
"I am going to go and check on the Guild, see what rewards the members got from the quest and check on Astrid." Kai stated, before turning to Dom and Andrew, "We can chat about it when we get up, I expect it will be late at night so it may be worth sleeping for a few hours first."
"I will go and check my rewards at my Manor and then help Kai." Andrew agreed as he winked at Dom. "Make sure you give your wives a good goodbye."
The two of them left, whilst Dom facepalmed at Andrew's comments. He looked at those waiting for him so they could plan what to do in the next days of his absence, whilst also using the new buildings cubes that he had.
"Tell me about the newcomers, I didn't see them fight, what should I be aware off?" Subutai asked. Dom knew that he would speak with Ling Tong, Gan Ning and Sun Ce later, but what he was asking was more about grades.
"Pausanias and Xanthippus are of the level of Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong, however they are for Infantry and in the case of Xanthippus navy as well." Dom explained, as Xun You and Zhou Yu also listened in. "Nicomedes and Masistius are both of the same level as Gan Ning and the majority of our senior Generals. Nicomedes is also an Infantry General, but he also has Civilian skills that could make him dual roll such as Tomyris at Noctus. Masistius is a Cavalry Commander, which I know you are desperate for more of."
Subutai nodded his head in response as he looked at the Map in the middle of the room, trying to mentally place his new pieces that had just arrived. Xun You whispered something to him, whilst Zhou Yu tilted his head slightly whilst looking at the Map as well.
"Mardontes, Arimnestos, Penthesilea and Megabyzus are all of the level of Hua Rong, Su Fei and Qin Ming." Dom continued, "Mardontes is Naval, Megabyzus is Cavalry and the other two are Infantry. However again, Megabyzus has a lot of potential in the Civilian path as well. Pericles is the outlier, he is young and at the moment at the level of the Halberd Twins, which is impressive enough. But Pericles has the potential to rival or surpass you."
"Interesting." Subutai replied, a small smile on his face. "We'll make sure that he reaches that potential then."
"What of Rewards, I am aware we have gained new cities, but what else?" Crassus asked, having already been made aware of Kai's rewards from Kai. "Andrew got some buildings that he will use to invest in his guild, I received some additional ships, two Docks and Quinquereme schematics."
"Building Quinquereme's will be great, especially with a fleet of Trireme to support them." Zhou Yu agreed, "However, more ships but no crews for them is a risk. We would also have to descope one of our current ships being built, and our current queues are important."
"That is why I believe we also received two new Warriors Halls. A Marine Hoplite Warriors Hall and a Trireme Rowers Warriors Hall." Dom explained, which made Cicero laugh.
"How are Rowers Warriors?" Cicero questioned, "Compared to our other forces they aren't going to fight in the front line."
"No, but we are lucky with the level of forces we have." Dom replied, remembering some of the other forces he had come across so far. "But these will both help fill those new ships."
"We can retrain them and continue to develop them in to better forces, as we have with all of the rest." Lucius countered, whilst Crassus smiled from the side.
"It allows us to push it as a professional role now if we have a Warriors Hall, which means that recruitment externally will be better. Row for a certain amount of years, earn some money and gain citizenship to the Lazarus Kingdom." Crassus stated with a wry smile.
"And Plataea, Megara, Oeum, Kos and Nicyros?" Shang Yang asked, making Dom realise he had only checked what was at Plataea when it arrived. After checking he saw that both Megara and Oeum had Hoplite Warriors Halls with them, Megara had similar buildings to Plataea but it also had a Dock and a Shipyard. What surprised Dom was that Megara was actually larger than Plataea and his original calculations that it would become in the top six was replaced with it being close to the second city after Jia already. Whilst Oeum was very much a standard town with the Warriors Hall and a Bathhouse. Kos also had a Docks, Shipyard and a Trireme Rowers Warriors Hall, whilst Nicyros was even smaller than Oeum.
"The new Docks will come in handy in expanding our Kingdom, we can place some of them in the new Southern Cities such as Elpis or Futurus. The two Shipyards should be moved to so that it stays as our centre of Military production. Mainly as it's easiest to get access to the raw materials and we can bring the experts from Megara and Kos here." Hatshepsut declared, "We can also bring the many new Warriors Halls here, as they will all need re-training. It is also very interesting that we now have two Rowers Warriors Halls, plus three new Hoplite Warriors Halls, as well as the Marine Hoplite Hall. This is a big increase in the number of Greeks coming to the Kingdom."
"A similar situation to when we completed Sun Ce's Quest and brought back a large number of Han people, or when we took over Tongpai Town and had them join. Once again another switch in numbers. Once these are all placed, it will have a huge impact on our Military." Xun Yu commented.
"And our food resource." Lucius stated, which received nods of agreement from around the room. "We have outgrown what the Granaries provide and our food production is vast, but will soon become not vast enough. We need to expand farming in the south of the Calm River which will now be the East of Plataea and the South of Tranquility. We also need to invest in growing farming in the Infinity Plains, with Oeum, Elpis and Futurus being built around it."