Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

waiting until the monsters are killed, activate the cleanup mechanism which will absorb the monster corpses, then simply summon them again.”

“It’s good that the mages and their men are all in one room, then,” Ben remarked. “The best strategy will be to summon as many monsters as possible in that room, and just keep summoning them as they are killed.” A thought occurred to him as he discussed the plan. “What about controls for the doors? Can I prevent them from leaving?”

Sir Gallant swept his hands to a series of runes near the camera controls. “You’ll find all you need right here. Simply ask me, and I’ll let you know how to operate the doors.

Ben nodded, satisfied so far with what he was hearing.

“One other thing,” Sir Gallant added. “I believe summoning the monsters will consume your mana.”

Ben’s eyes flashed at this important bit of information that he was just now learning. “You didn’t mention that before.” Ben looked at him, with a raised eyebrow, wondering if he had failed to mention anything else.

“We rarely had visitors in the dungeon. I never exhausted my mana,” Sir Gallant explained with a shrug. “Although I was very close when you all came to visit.”

“Fair enough. I’m thinking I’ll have to test this summoning a couple of times.”

Ben navigated on his screen to the kitchen. He pressed the button allowing him to communicate with the nymphs, who were still preparing a meal.

“Imogen, I need you to go to the south atrium, if you could,” he announced through the intercom.

Imogen looked up at the ceiling, startled.

Lulu nearly dropped a pan on the floor. “That sounded like Ben.”

“It is me,” Ben said. “I’m talking through a … a magical voice box.” Ben himself had no better way of explaining whatever this technology was. “I’m going to summon some monsters in the atrium and I need Imogen to kill them. It’s just part of a test. One at a time I think you’ll have no problems.”

“I’m on my way, Ben.” Imogen washed the flour off her hands and took off her apron.

Ben watched as she traveled the hallway to the south atrium. When she got there, she stood in a defensive stance, looking around her.

The screen was focused on the south atrium. Ben put his left hand on the glyph totem representing the gravel ghouls. An icon lit up on the screen below the feed. It showed a tall humanoid monster, with a three next to it.

Another number appeared to the right. Control limit: 100/100

And lastly, on the other side of the gravel ghoul was a “1”, with two arrow buttons beside it. Ben flicked the up arrow button, and saw the ghoul count increase. He dropped it back to one. He only needed to summon one monster to test it with Imogen.

With his right hand, he selected a spot on the atrium floor and confirmed. The control limit dropped to 97/100. It seemed that the gravel ghouls cost three points of his control limit.

In the footage, he saw a hole in the floor opening. A deep rumble sounded out, and a gravel ghoul rose from the hole. It seemed that the whole tower must have been built to allow for summoning monsters. Ben hoped that would apply to the dining hall as well.

As soon as it fully emerged, a series of options showed up on the screen. Ben selected the option to attack on sight and dragged an arrow toward Imogen, signaling that the summoned gravel ghoul should attack her.

Immediately, the monster woke and began stomping toward Imogen.

The mountain nymph didn’t hesitate. With a lightning-fast series of kicks and punches, she demolished the stone armor of the monster, letting its gelatinous body collapse to the ground.

Ben saw an option to reabsorb the monster, and chose it. The gelatinous body disappeared, and the control limit returned to full. Ben noticed that his mana had dropped slightly, but it quickly regenerated. He realized that all that fighting in the dungeon had paid off by strengthening his ability to regenerate his mana.

Accumulated knowledge: Greater Stoneskin

Ben touched the notification, and more details appeared on the control panel’s screen.

Gravel ghouls now have access to Greater Stoneskin, which increases the damage mitigation of their hardened exteriors.

“Interesting,” Ben said. “It looks like the monsters gain experience and learn new abilities. I wonder if my previous self ever played any video games, because this feels a lot like how things work in those.”

“The only games Benzhameen played were those of warfare,” Sir Gallant the Elder said. “And he was very, very good.”

“Let’s hope some of that comes back to me,” Ben said before he turned his attention to Imogen in the atrium. “Now I’ll give you a vine monster to face, Imogen,” he announced through the intercom for that room.

He wanted to check that placing a static monster was the same process. Vine monsters only consumed one unit of his control limit, so he would be able to summon more of them than of the gravel ghouls. They had more vulnerabilities, however, so a delicate balance would be needed.

The gravel ghoul could only be stationed on the floor, but vine monsters could be placed anywhere in the room, including the ceiling. He knew that could come in handy later.

Ben placed the vine monster on the floor, a short distance from Imogen. A circle showed the vine monster’s range, so he could station it away from Imogen, so that she would have a moment to prepare for the monster’s attack.

Again, the process went without a hitch. Ben placed the monster on the ground, just outside of Imogen’s range. With a squelching noise, the monster’s head burst out of the ground, solidifying out of plant juices. The head began to wave about in the air, as a long stem grew out underneath it, spurting ever upward and outward.

At last the noise stopped, and the head came to a halt, lazily bobbing about at the end of its long neck. Ben scanned the screen and