Chapter 18: CHAPTER 16

Ray

Over the next four days Ray and his motley crew of barely sentient monsters, and Gale, fought off three more incursions. Gale recognized early on that there was a pattern of one per day, as that was the number of Hexes that bordered them access-wise to the north. The other two Hexes had destroyed bridges, preventing them from getting over into Ray’s territory. Probably for the better, as each incursion grew slightly larger than the one before.

During this time, Ray made several discoveries. First and foremost that he was heavily limited in the number of slaves that he could buy. He was limited both by infrastructure, food and potable water, and weapons and armor.

Population types other than slaves also required consumer goods, something he produced zero of. And while he had been instructing the Orkin and Goblins to gather materials and place them into the converter between waves, they were short the actual NEX to outright build new buildings. This brought Ray to a nexus of choice. Hire some temporary workers with his small amount of wealth and build some ramshackle buildings to upgrade, or purchase a specialty slave for nearly everything he had and hope he could build some slightly higher quality buildings.

Gale stared at her employer in mock disdain after having been presented with his two ideas. “Thou art an idiot Ray,” she said, causing him to choke on his water. “Thou hast come up with several ideas that, while not the worst choices overall, art some of the poorest thou could have chosen.”

“Well then, as my advisor maybe you should advise me then?” he said. “It's not like I am a master of the system by any means.”

The Drakling snorted in amusement, “Of that, we are agreed.” Before Ray could quip back she pressed on, “Open thy contractors tab. Go to the very bottom. There art two options there that may be of interest to thy plans.” With that, she went back to meditating. Or napping. Whatever Drakling's did that is.

Doing as Gale had instructed, Ray navigated to the very bottom. As soon as he got there, he slapped himself in the face. ‘For fucks sake, really?” he groaned as she smiled in amusement, eyes still closed.

“Music to mine sweet ears. Now, make thy choices and let us progress,” Gale responded cheerfully.

Rolling his eyes Ray moved his attention back to the two tabs in question:

*IMMIGRANTS*REFUGEES*

“I should have explored them all before trying to lock myself into a choice,” he grumbled.

Gale nodded, opening her eyes and looking at him, “Indeed. Thou may use a hammer to pound nails, but fishing with one is most difficult.”

“Right. Metaphorical bullshit. Gotchya,” Ray said offhandedly as Gale rolled her eyes and huffed at him. He opened the Refugees tab first, expecting those to be the easier options for gaining anything resembling skilled labor. Boy was he wrong.

“What the fuck is up with these requirements?” he complained loudly. “These fuckers have nowhere to go, and they need more than a small army of slaves or mercenaries do!”

Gale nodded as Ray looked up at her. The Drakling’s expression was grim, and he swallowed wondering just how he had fucked up this time.

“Indeed, thou hast noticed such stringent requirements. When thou hast nothing, thou must provide. None who have lost everything are willing to settle for nothing. Tis a rare group seeking refuge who will risk their loved ones' lives after surviving such horrible events,” Gale explained grimly.

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He stopped to think about that for a moment. While he did, his advisor continued, “Mercenaries bring their own lodgings and equipment. Slaves are but slaves. Thou art limited by infrastructure, certainly, but they require little in the way of amenities.”

Ray sighed, “Got it. Your point is made. Now, what do I do? If the refugees are this demanding then just how bad will the immigrants be?”

“The same. In actuality … there are no differing in requirements,” she admitted, “However, hope is not lost. I have done research prior to mine suggestion, there are but two groups that fit thy needs well. However, thou will need to … negotiate heavily with them.” She flicked her fingers in his direction and an icon popped up in his vision.

Ray was growing frustrated. He wanted to bring back humanity, not introduce new races to his home world. He had expected the Goblins and Orkin to die fairly quickly, not survive. They were a stop-gap measure really. But now … now he was bringing even more sentient competition to Earth. And he said as much to Gale.

“Indeed, thou art bringing in possible issues to your doorstep in the future. However, thou needs this, or thou wilt perish and humanity will remain wilted and dying,” she said bluntly.

Pissed off he whirled from her and opened the blinking informational icon. Immediately two screens popped up. Both describing races right out of a fantasy novel.

DWARFLING CLAN
POPULATION
21 ADULTS		9 CHILDREN
SKILLS
LABORERS	MINERS	BUILDERS	CRAFTERS
WE ARE SEEKING A NEW HOME AFTER OUR HOLDING WAS WIPED OUT DURING AN INTER-CLAN WAR. OUR NEW HOME DOES NOT HAVE TO BE SAFE BUT REQUIRES THE POTENTIAL TO DEVELOP INTO A POWER CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING THE CLAN AND PROTECTING OUR FUTURE PROSPERITY

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