124 Are You Excited?

"System, use the Palace Guards Green Cube!" Dom ordered, directing it to be spawned beside the Hoplite Warriors Hall. This would be his fourth Warriors Hall alongside the Hoplite, Legionary and Horse Archer Warrior Halls that they already had.

[Spawning Palace Guard Warriors Hall]

The ground shook and Dom stood in excitement, awaiting the structure to appear, out of the ground appeared a building similar to the other Warriors Halls, made from the same Silver Wood as the rest of the buildings in Riverside. Unlike usual however there were no engravings on the doors.

"View Stats." Dom asked.

[Warriors Hall of Riverside 4

Hall Grade - S

Hall Level - 1

Spawn rate - 5 Warriors a day (can be upgraded with Village growth)

Spawn Level - up to grade S, type dependent

Spawn Type - Error]

Dom was confused as to what the system meant by error, but was happy with the other stats, grateful that it was a Grade S building again as the other cubes had been, he felt that his Grade S Town Centre had been a bit of a cheat for him, but he was very grateful for it.

"System, what does it mean by error?" Dom asked.

[Error when spawning, Palace Guards from associated Cube are unable to be spawned]

[Re-Rolling for a similar Palace Guard within World Conquest Online's scope]

[Roll Commencing....]

Dom realised that his hope of the Warriors from the Ancient Underground City appearing as members of Riverside were now most likely not going to happen. He wondered what unit type he would now get, the system had defined that it would still be a Palace Guard type unit, so he was excited to see what it could be. He tried to think back to his history books of known Palace Guards throughout history, thinking that there had been hundreds, if not thousands of kingdoms and empires across the history of humanity.

[Roll Complete....Tang Dynasty Imperial Forbidden Troops - Early Tang Dynasty]

[Tang Dynasty Imperial Forbidden Troops (Grade A+)

The best and most loyal troops of the founding Emperor of the Tang Dynasty volunteered to stay in service of the emperor after a general demobilisation order was passed. They were granted land and became the founders of what would eventually become the Forbidden Guards of the Tang Emperors.

The second Emperor of the Tang Dynasty further evolved the Guards, choosing the greatest archers and the greatest warriors, with a strict regiment based on their appearance, strength and skills. The majority of these were chosen from the upper classes of the Tang Dynasty.

By the time of the third Emperor the Forbidden Guards began to take shape, and these are the Guards that will spawn within Riverside. These were the best and greatest of the decedents of the above two Guard Units that had been formed. Originally the unit started as the top one hundred warriors, but soon grew to the top one thousand under the well known Empress Wu the sixth leader of the Tang Dynasty. Eventually the unit would grow to ten thousand and they would guard key leaders, buildings and court.

The guards dropped in quality as time passed, as less people saw the pride of joining the guard and sent proxies in their stead. The Tang Dynasty Imperial Forbidden Troops of Riverside are the most loyal and talented of the Tang Dynasty at it's peak, with their individual quality ranging from Grade B to Grade S.]

Dom was excited at this, an all rounder unit with strong Cavalry, Archery and Infantry skills who could adapt to the situation. This was a unit that could defend Riverside and allow the other units to push out and attack. This unit was also more historically advanced than any of force he had, so their quality of weapons and armour should be at an improved level. The Doors now had the engraving of a sword lay across a bow, with a crown placed above it. He then continued to read the notes on the Tang Dynasty Forbidden Guards Warriors Hall.

[Upgrade Options - Relevant General, Modernisation Tactics or High Grade Mount]

"So what did we get?" Subutai asked him.

"Tang Dynasty Palace Guards." Dom replied, "They are from ancient China around 700AD, they are multi skilled and will be the perfect unit to defend Riverside."

"How many do we spawn a day?" Subutai asked.

"5, but I am going to use the upgrade token before I spawn them." Dom replied, "We need more units and I don't want these to fall behind the others."

"I think that is a great idea." Subutai agreed, "A multi skilled high level guard is what we have been missing, once we have some foot archers we will have a full army. Personally I would prefer more Cavalry, but the Archers and Lancers that are spawning daily are enough for now."

"System, please use one of the upgrade tokens." Dom asked, nodding his head in agreement at Subutai.

[Upgrade Complete]

[Tang Dynasty Forbidden Guards

Hall Grade - S

Hall Level - 2

Spawn rate - 8 Guards per day, (Can be upgraded with Village Growth)

Spawn Level - Tang Dynasty Imperial Forbidden Guards Grade A+

Spawn Type - Long Wu and Yu Lin Guards

Effects: (Give Me More S Grade - All spawn related buildings will have a random increase in daily spawns or reduction in spawn time)

Upgrade Options - Relevant General, Modernisation Tactics or High Grade Mount]

"System, please spawn units." Dom asked.

Suddenly the doors opened, and eight armoured men walked out from the Warriors Hall, getting in to formation on the small parade square in front of the building. They wore heavily layered iron armour, with a blood red and black clothing that was underneath it. They wore thick boots and had long metal greaves that went up to their knees. They wore a golden belt, which the face of the Sabre Tooth Tiger of Riverside on the front, and had matching engraved shoulder pads. On their heads were a golden winged helmet with a red feather on the top.

Of the eight Forbidden Guards, four held long halberds with long straight Dao swords at their waists, the other four also had the swords at their waist, but they had long red engraved bows in their hands, with quivers on their backs. At the site of Dom, all of the eight guards got to one knee and saluted him with their right fists.

"We greet the lord!" They said in unison.

"I like this bunch." Subutai said as he inspected them closely.

"Please, stand!" Dom said, still not getting used to people bowing to him, even if they were characters in a game. They eight of them stood at this order, with one of them taking a step forwards.

"Captain Chen Lu at your service." The man, Chen Lu, stated.

"Welcome to Riverside." Dom said kindly, "We are grateful to have you join us."

"We are happy to be here and contribute." Chen Lu replied.

"This here is Commander Subutai." Dom introduced, "He is our lead General and the overall Commander of our Military, he will get you settled in and explain the current situation to you."

"Thank you." Chen Lu replied, bowing towards Subutai respectfully.

Dom turned to Subutai to see what his thoughts were so far, he could see that Subutai looked pleased with the new Warriors and Dom decided that this would be a great opportunity to surprise his General.

"System, use the Blue Cube on the Tang Dynasty Forbidden Guards Warriors Hall." Dom whispered as Subutai started talking to Chen Lu about Riverside and it's current military situation.

Suddenly the doors to the Warriors Hall opened and a large group of Forbidden Guards exited and got in to formation on the grounds around the eight who had already appeared. Subutai who was stood at the front of them talking to Chen Lu gasped and stood back, before turning to Dom and staring daggers at him. Dom did a quick head count and counted that another 92 had arrived, taking the total up to one hundred Forbidden Guards, which was one full unit.

"One hundred excellent warriors!" Subutai said as he re-joined Dom who had stood back with Homer and Hector as Subutai had been talking away to Chen Lu.

"Are you excited?" Dom asked happily.

"Very much so, Chen Lu seems a great guy and I think he will fit in well with Octavian, Alexander, Pullo, Banas and the rest." Subutai agreed. "They have asked if we have any spare horses, as they can work as both a foot and cavalry unit. They don't all need Cavalry, but if we can spare enough for a third of them, we can split them evenly between Archers, Infantry and Cavalry."

"We only have the Red Hare's and they are currently occupied." Dom lamented. "I may need to upgrade the Stables."

"What else were you going to use your wooden tokens on?" Subutai grinned excitedly, "Come, let's go!"

Subutai then turned and looked back at the hundred guards that were stood waiting for orders.

"Chen Lu, please follow us. Hector, please take the rest of them to the School to register and then find Gan Ning who can give them a tour." Subutai ordered.

They soon reached the area of the Stables and the Horse Archer Warriors Hall which had an attached stables as well. Riverside currently had two horse types, the Red Hare which were used by the Spartans, Commanders and the current Guards. The other type were the Steppe Horses which were specific for the Horse Archers and Lancers which were within that unit.

Just as Dom was about to use his Upgrade Token, he remembered his mission for the morning. He pulled out the Green Cube for the Beast Hall.

"System, please use this Green Cube." Dom asked.

[Spawning Beast Hall]

Suddenly a building appeared beside the Red Hare Stables, it looked very similar to the stables, but was enclosed like the Animal Husbandries on three sides, with just the entrance way open. As Dom peaked in he could see multiple stable like doors. The stables all seemed empty which disappointed Dom.

Dom could also see empty racks that were placed against the walls, as well as an open space in the centre which Dom assumed was for training the Beasts. He was surprised by the space and assumed that the necessary items would appear once the Beasts had spawned.

"Show Stats."

[Beast Hall of Riverside

Beast Hall Grade - S

Spawn Rate - 2 Animals Per Day (Can be upgraded with Village Growth)

Spawn Type - To Be Placed

Beast Hall Level - 1

The Beast Hall is for none standard creatures that can be tamed and trained, domesticating something that wouldn't normally be domesticated. This is a rare building type and the necessary creature must be tamed and placed within the Beast Hall by the Town itself. Creatures within the Stables can spawn their own kind through natural means.

Beast Hall can be upgraded with the appointment of a skilled Beast Tamer]

"Damn, so we don't automatically get a beast." Dom lamented.

[Riverside currently has 5 Beasts that can be placed within the Beast Hall. Please select from the below]

[Hyena

Sun Bear

Lynx

Red Snake

Sabre Tooth Tiger]

"Erm Subutai, what do you think of having our Forbidden Guards having Sabre Tooth Tigers for a mount?" Dom asked.

Chen Lu, Subutai and Homer all looked at Dom with their mouths agape. Colour draining from their faces at the scary fought. A Sabre Tooth Tiger could be as long as 3 and a half metres, so not as tall as a horse, but slightly longer than the average one, but much more deadly.

"Did you say Sabre Tooth Tiger Lord?" Chen Lu asked, looking down at his belt buckle.

"I did." Dom replied with a grin as he selected his option.