Marc enters the black marble floor hall with red markings and white walls, but briefly greets the people there. Mostly men, but they are not armed.
He climbs the stairs quickly, today is Dungeon's day and dungeon day is the best day! Technically, for people here every day is a dungeon day, but Marc can only participate every 2 days.
The first floor of the tower is the armory, several men are here putting on their uniforms. Marc has 3 types of soldiers for now. The firstline, uses a huge wooden shield and an ax, they only have an extra protective copper helmet, this is the cheapest and bulky unit in the army, but they need a lot of training (25 guys are axe man). Then there is the second formation, a small shield, a large spear, they have medium armor, protecting the neck, chest and head, easy to train but expensive to make all these armor (10 guys are spear men). And the last and most neglected formation, archers. They need a lot of training, a lot. And arrows are not a renewable resource. Only 5 soldiers are dedicated to archery so far. Another thing that leads to this proportion in training is affinity, most people liked to fight with axes and hammers.
Marc is planning to create 3 more types of units. The pike man, will use two-hand halberds, cloth armor and ring armor. The light spear man, a small spear, and several javelins. And lastly the light axe man's, will have several launchable hatchets and a smaller shield.
It doesn't fucking matter now! I'm getting distracted!
Marc takes out a shield and an ax. He puts on his helmet, it's a Spartan helmet without the broom on top. "War face boys! Today is what?" On the wall before the stairs there is a white board with a written table. The group responds enthusiastically! With screams and grunts! "WAR!"
He finds the day of the week that it is, a smile forms on his face. "Oh yesss! WAR DAY!" War day, is when the dungeon is configured so that the participants invade a village/small town/city/metropolis. In our case, it must be a small town.
When Marc was setting up the dungeon he was very confused about what to put as a loot. For example, if the loot is swords, it will destroy part of a blacksmith's business. If it is fish, it will destroy the entire economy of the city and so on. But, there are 3 things that the city needs and doesn't have. Construction materials (wood and blocks), grains and ores. War day challenge, the loot is grains and a small amount of ore. But many, many grains.
This doesn't affect the economy as the farmers are still out there, but just like before, they do not plant grains, only vegetables.
Marc starts to go up the stairs and the boys follow. When he reaches the last ladder, he steps on a different dimension.
Rolling hills, a forest and a river. Marc and the soldiers appear in the middle of a sheep pasture.
Looking at the captain of the archers I say "Find the farm and question the owner, in which direction is the town" looking for someone else "Where's the supply boys?" Archers begin to follow trails or go to observation points.
Out of nowhere, Parrot and 10 other boys holding wheelbarrows appear. "Why didn't anyone call us? If it weren't for the war cry's, I wouldn't even know that you guys have already entered"
The supply boys are volunteers with the intention of joining the army. Marc is the only under 18 in the army. Not to mention the spawn citizen. They are less than 1 year old, but they look and behave like adults, Marc let them participate in the army on condition that they remain studying. Technically the army has more than 250 people, but the majority are citizens in the reserve, finishing school.
"My mistake, Parrot, I was very happy with today's challenge, the last two times were escort missions." Marc says.
"I know, it's amazing what this tower can do, last week we attacked a village in the desert, I like this place more!" Parrot doesn't say much, escort missions are a favorite among supply boys.
"Sir, we find the farmer house, but will not be necessary to question him, the town is that way, 3 km." Cap. Isiah says.
"Good job, Cap. Parrot, bring the boys to the farm house, make the place secure and stay there! Soldiers! The town is 3 km south, we will go down hard and fast!" He turns his eye to Isiah "go forward, and scout the path ahead."
"UH AAA!"
Altiorens are fast. Theirs size and physical might give an impressive velocity, even with gear.
In a quarter of an hour, they arrive close to the city. "They already saw us" farmers run inside the gates of the small town, it is the first time that Marc and the soldiers are seeing a gate so well-made in a dungeon, it is made of wood with metal reinforcements and the walls have a layer of clay (cement? ) over. A soldier points out "look! They have archer towers too!" Marc knows what happened "The tower makes challenges more complex over time! I think this is the first evolution of our dungeon" Dungeons evolve two or three times and then stagnate. If Marc wants more challenges after that stage, it will be necessary to buy another better dungeon.
The soldiers talk and set up a strategy while the farmers run in. They could attack now, but that was only going to force the guards to close the gate prematurely, and killing civilians doesn't go down well and doesn't score in the end. The soldiers begin to tear down the houses, taking wood and tables.
The strategy is simple, those who do not have shields will stay away and those who have shields defend the woodcutters who are going to knock down the gate, archers have an essential role in suppression. Tables and timbers will be placed at the gate as extra protection. "Next time, we'll prepare the archers better, with incendiary ammunition. But defeat is unacceptable, let's conquer this town!" "UH AAAA!" "Uh AAA"
The huge shields are an impenetrable barrier to the arrows, and the soldiers arrive at the gate, but instead of starting to try to break down the entrance the boys struggle to fix the tables, the guards throw heavy stones at Marc and his soldiers, they hurt a lot and even killed a guy, but they cannot stop their task. As soon as two tables are set, boiling water is released by the guards, the woodcutters and some soldiers managed to protect themselves under the table, but Marc was among those affected.
While the skin cooks, the nerves scream in panic, but the regeneration starts to work! Marc gets better faster than his soldiers, but they endure and don't lower their shields at least! "BREAK THE GATE!" "MURDER THEM" "SHIT HEADS, BREAK THE FUCKING GATE!" "I WILL TAKE THAT AX FROM YOUR HAND AND FUCK THE GATE WITH" "BREAK THE GATE OR I BREAK YOU!" "MURDER THEIR LAZY ASSHOLES" It is not because they can take it, that they like to suffer. The soldiers send affectionate warnings to their colleagues ahead of them to work faster. The soldiers retreat a little to stay out of the reach of the stones but continue to apply pressure, if the archers stop attacking us, we throw the stones back. And we can throw those stones back, with a lot of strength and hate!
But still, it is not a quick process, two soldiers died, arrows in the eyes. But after 10 minutes, finally a hole in the gate!
"SPEARS FORWARD! KEEP BREAKING THE GATE" On the other side of the gate hole, the guards try to prick whoever enters with their spears. Many guards focused on a single point, it is necessary to widen the entrance! The pressure from above eased a little, some guards went down to reinforce the gate.
Minute by minute chips of wood fly, man screams at each other and finally the opening is big enough. "FORWARD! KILL THEM!" It's time for the meat grinder. A row of shields, a row of spears and the rest behind. For the meat grinder to be effective, you need two sides pressing each other, and people with sharp and pointed objects. And people who bleed to death. Altiorens has a big advantage in the requirement to bleed to death. My soldiers are strong, resilient, and experienced. Much more than the guards on the other side.
Marc is at the front, he is hit by 3 spears, but they all hit the thick shield he holds. Marc has been training diligently, his points are now not just brute force, there is a technique guiding his dodges and defenses. Not to mention his army is on a tight formation that is putting pressure on enemies. The problem, are the arrows coming from strange positions, murder holes is the name of these windows, these arrows have already killed more than 5 soldiers since the gate fell.
"AAAAARGGG", Marc screams and returns an ax to the enemy who can defend himself. But his enemy shield can't take it, the ax goes through the wood and cuts the meat and breaks the bone behind it.
"PUSH!" One of my commanders yells, and the soldiers push and propel their spears at the exposed guards, I am among my soldiers again.
Is a slow grind, but my soldiers are much stronger. Now, with only 20 soldiers left, we walk through the gate and are in the small town, two guards and a bunch of peasants holding farming forks and kitchen knives.
Marc and the soldiers are covered in blood and guts. Two-meter men who destroyed the city gate and passed over the guards as if they were nothing. The commoners are shaking with fear.
"I'll tell you the truth, if you all fight against us, you will win. But we will kill at least half of the entire city before that happens. My advice? If you give up now, we will take the beans and go. "
Marc speaks as the cuts on his face regenerate, some people have realized this and are trembling with fear, and whispering to others around them. One of the guards, the only one in armor, looks at people "If they take the grains, we will not survive the year"
"You may not survive the year without the beans, but you definitely won't survive if you don't deliver." People look at Marc and the soldiers and drop their weapons. "Take the beans, then." The crowd disperses, some stay, the women come running weeping for the children and husbands lost in the fight.
Marc stays with the soldiers at the gate, sending an archer to run to the supply boys. Shortly thereafter, they arrive, the boys and 5 more soldiers go to the granary to pick up the bean bags.
"Don't forget to get iron ore from the forge."
A white-haired man is riding towards us, he has a sword at his waist, following him an adolescent is riding behind. "Who are you, invader?" "My name is Marc, sir. I suggest you continue with the deal and watch from afar"
The old man seems intrigued by something, his face is uncertain, but he has the resolve to ask me. "Why do you take our food? I can pay you in jewels for you to leave"
"If I wanted jewelry, I would go to your coffers and take it" That closes the subject. The old man continues to watch in silence. The boys have bags and bags piled up in the wheelbarrows. They pass the soldiers and continue towards the entry point. Marc waits for the boys to have an advantage and then leaves with his soldiers.
.
.
Alexander looks at his grandson "if we survive this winter, I want you to strive to protect our city from invaders and conquerors. These great warriors were honorable, but the next may not be" He sighs. Today 40 soldiers have completely defeated his city, and he never even heard of that commander. "our world is full of surprise"