Tapping Rocks for Beginners

There was plenty of daylight left. He had time to forage for more supplies but he really didn’t want to. He needed stone and no doubt it could be found on the mountain. Ore he wasn’t so sure about but hoped it had some correlation with stone. The problem was the location itself.

Above the tree line the mountain was little but weathered rocks and scrub brush. Completely open to the elements. Not much cover for a solitary orc. Crevasses and cliffs cut off lines of retreat. High level adventurers challenged the summit regularly for its rare monsters and materials. There were even some incredibly nasty monsters that could fly and ambush from above. Worse was the higher up the mountain one went, the stronger the monsters were in general. The kobold tribes were a bit of an exception but as they served the great boss Wyrm who tunneled from the mountain’s peak down to its heart, they were generally left unmolested. One did their best not to anger the king under the mountain.

The orc really hoped the worst thing he would encounter today were the shaggy mountain goats who nimbly climbed about the shear rock formations. He slipped from his cave unsure what exactly he was looking for. Probably the same kind of sparkle that the harvested trees gave off, though he was not about to spend the afternoon punching rocks. Maybe his new hammer would come in handy?

Not far into his journey along the narrower side trails of Mount Imporne he found a suitably odd looking boulder. It was a little too round, the coloring slightly off from the muted greys of its surroundings, much like the resource trees of the forest it felt different. On closer examination he found the tell tale sparkle obscured by the reflecting sunlight. He gave the rock an experimental tap and was rewarded with a progress bar with the tiniest sliver of green filled in as well as an additional pop up

Harvesting: Skill Penalty, Tool Penalty, Dexterity Penalty

Here goes nothing, he thought to himself pulling the hammer out of his inventory and striking the boulder again

Harvesting: Skill Penalty, Dexterity Penalty,
Tool Bonus

Ting

Ok that was a bit louder than he was comfortable. He quickly surveyed his surroundings, once again making sure he hadn’t gathered any unwanted attention. On the positive side though the bar had leaped forward. It was better progress than punching trees.

A few more swings of the hammer and the bar filled completely. A new pop up displayed the reward for the orc’s hard work.

Scrap Ore - (uncommon)???

Well that answered one question. He could get ore here, but what about stone? Was the uncommon drop simply a result of his higher luck attribute?

The orc continued to pound the boulder, filling the progress bar four more times before the system warning appeared.

Resource node depleted 7:59:45

He ended up finding three of the common stone drops and another of the scrap ore before the sparkle disappeared as the resource node reset. He had managed to gather them much quicker than the wood but he also had less total from the spot. Years of deaths and loosing everything had him check his inventory compulsively.

Inventory:
Hammer x1 - (tool)
Hide x1 -(common)
Pork Belly x15 -(common)
Soup x1 - (common)

Just like his wood and plants the stone and ore had disappeared from his inventory. Hopefully they were being stored in some new dungeon inventory he hadn’t figured out how to access just yet. Otherwise the only thing waiting for him back at the cave would be the shirt he had discarded.

Now that he had an idea of what he was looking for, the orc found several more of the odd boulders as he navigated slowly up the mountain. Eventually he found himself on a broad exposed plateau of sorts. There was still plenty of mountain above him but it seemed a nice flat spot to rest or make camp. Not that the orc had any interest in doing either. Several of the boulders clustered together as though they had fallen from higher up the mountain. Much like his favored tree farm area, this too seemed to be a good gathering spot. He made a mental note to remember the location.

The orc quickly went to work. So far he hadn’t met another living thing and he felt as though he had pushed well beyond any sane measure of luck today... or not. The first drop from this boulder was different

Gemstone - (rare)???

“Don’t think about it, just hammer and get your ass out of here!” The Orc muttered to himself as he redoubled his efforts. He would call it quits once he has emptied these rocks of their resources.

This time his luck held true, though he didn’t allow himself to relax until he was back in the relative safety of his dungeon cave.

“Ok, let’s try this again,” speaking out loud to oneself was a bad sign but it helped steady his nerves.

Building location detected.

Available resources:
Pine Wood x12 - (common)
Stone x59- (common)
Sweet Grass x5 - (common)
Creeping Moss x3 - (uncommon)
Scrap Ore x14 - (uncommon)
Gemstone x2 - (rare)

Natural Features Detected:
Water Spring

Unique Feature Available:
Altar of the Dark Ones

Remodel:
Imporne_Orc_Cave_43.7_Location_1 into Baal's Dungeon Entranceway for 10 Stone, 2 Ore(Any)?
Warning! This is the required first step to unlock many of the features of the Keeps and Settlements 1.0.0.0.0.2 update!

The orc stopped before he hit accept and read, then reread, the pop up. Then for again for good measure.

Unique Feature Available:
Altar to the Dark Ones

A unique feature?! He had to strain to remember the item rarity scale. Even common items were such a hard thing to come by for him.

1. Common
2. Uncommon
3. Rare
4. Special
5. Legendary
6. Unique

Unique items were the rarest of the rare. Un-tradable. Un-buyable. Relics of untold power. And he had one waiting to be placed for free?! An altar to the dark ones, it had to be related to his blessed feat. What sort of price would this power end up costing him? Did he care?

He finally pressed accept and the world around him began to bend and morph. The uneven natural rock walls began to smooth themselves into strait lines. The hard packed earth floor slid and cracked into even blocks. The ceiling bent into a high arch. The natural rock became large blocks of stone, carefully cut and fitted such that it was unmistakably artificial. The narrow crack that served as the cave entrance was now a chiseled stone archway. His tiny room was longer now as well. The walls were lined with more stone archways, three on either side, and a final archway at the end of the hall away from the entrance; but unlike the open entrance these arches were filled in with solid stone. Rough black metal sconces hung on the walls between the closed archways, their flickering flames illuminating the now much deeper hallway.

This was more like it!

The blank arches seemed strait forward enough, options!

Construction:
Baal's Dungeon

A new menu appeared. There were myriads of rooms, hallways, tunnels, ladders, stairs, pits, and specialized functions. There were decorating options, lighting options, design options. The cost for each was laid out. There were resources he had never heard of before, coins of the realm, even mana requirements, and more words he didn’t understand.

He closed the menu. This would also need some thought. It seemed that for every amazing new ability he unlocked it only revealed how much more he actually needed. Simple resources he could gather given enough time. But did he really have that time? What was it he most needed from his dungeon?

Sitting with his back to the newly smooth stone wall, his attention fell to the un-equipable shirt now laying in the center of the hallway. He needed more knowledge. He needed protection.

He reached into his inventory and pulled out the skull bowl of soup. Still warm. Still mouthwatering. His long day had made him hungry enough to eat far less than the delicious food available.

The dear carcass would have spoiled due to his lack of skill to properly dismantle it. He could have used a sharp stone to skin it and receive a poor quality hide, but he couldn’t have quartered it and rendered the component venison items the way the goblins had. He could only chew the thing whole and try to eat what he could before the thing decayed. Likewise no matter how many pigs he killed, he wouldn’t receive the tasty looking pork belly sitting in his inventory. Only skills could produce items like that, and only items could fit into inventory. Inventory itself was a magical space, operating on its own laws. Items inside would not age or spoil, would not change temperature, took up less space than they should, even weighed less. How did that work?

Knowledge

Protection

The orc began a blueprint in his mind as he ate. He was a mage, at least of sorts. He knew that mages lived in towers. Constructing a tower out of the side of the mountain would be pure foolishness... at least for now. It would only advertise him to the world and until he was stronger he knew he needed to stay hidden. Besides the mountain itself was the greatest tower in the land. One day, perhaps he would transform Imporne itself to his needs. How would the Wyrm feel about that? Oh well it was nice to dream big. For now though he just wanted that foundation. A tower... inside the mountain.

With his dinner complete, and at least a rough plan in mind, the orc went to the single arch at the far wall from the entrance. He opted for a large circular room, two stories tall. It would be an open floor plan, free of any columns or clutter, but the center half of the floor would be nothing but a pit dropping down to the floor below. Around the edges of the room two staircases would spiral parallel to one another, connecting the floors in a double helix pattern. Twelve more of the filled archways would ring the room, with the exception of one each missing when the stairs swept down to the floor. Twelve more archways dotted above where the second floor would have been, except this time where the stairs closed up to the floor above. He designed three of these two story floors, starting at his current level then dropping down two more times. As for the stairs leading up from this level, he designed an even wider circular room to crown the hollow tower. This top floor would have a third story that curved as a domed roof. The wider section of the top floor would be layered like steps. When it came to the pit of the top floor, rather than being another round empty void, a small circular island hung in the air connected by a single long outcrop of stone for a path from the far wall. This stone island hovered in the very center, suspended above the six story drop. A fitting place for his altar. On the bottom most level he shaped a slightly smaller bowl of a pit as a place for the water spring to pool. Mindful of the resource cost, for now he went with a dim lighting option and the same cut stone design as the entryway throughout the new construction.

Content with the current design he pressed the wall again

Construction:
Baal's Dungeon Spire
Requires:
100 Stone,
16 Ore(Any)
8 Wood(Any)

Ok maybe not. Keeping the other floors as blueprints he re-selected the option just to build the current level.

Construction:
Baal's Dungeon Spire Floor 3
Requires:
25 Stone,
4 Ore(Any)
2 Wood(Any)

Well it was a start. The orc pressed accept and a large progress bar appeared. Pulling the hammer from inventory once again, he gave it an exploratory whack. The bar blinked. There was maybe the slightest hint of green peaking from the left corner. Or possibly the orc was humoring himself.

This was going to require more hands. He could use the summoned skeleton of course. But it normally produced a mere fraction of his own output. He remembered the minion feature of his new Fame menu. He ought to have enough to choose a simple follower, but did he really want to use his fame for that? Plus it would mean another mouth to feed. But it would also give someone to watch his back, and possibly help gather the mountain of resources it looked like he would need. Maybe something like his skeleton that wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t tire, would only mindlessly follow orders; but did he really want to surround himself with undead? Wouldn’t that attract the wrong kind of attention he was trying to avoid?

He scrolled through the list of minions he could afford before one in particular caught his eye.

Yes. He though with a smile. That one will do nicely!