World Conquest Online

Dom sat eating a beef and cheese burger, that he had ordered from one of the Lakeview Bars, whilst sat on the breakfast island in the Kitchen. The food price was included and the delivery was extremely cheap, making Dom realise that he could easily step in to a life of laziness if he wished. He had asked Mr Khan how people earnt money on Campus, and he had explained that a lot of students got jobs in the local shops or restaurants within the University grounds, but that Dom shouldn’t need to worry about that if he was in a Lakeview Manor.

He had also decided that tomorrow he would to a little bit of exploring, before relaxing by the pool. The weather outside was hot and sunny currently, with little clouds in the sky. If he hadn’t wanted to log in to World Conquest Online after such a long time, he would probably go and relax by the pool now.

Dom had read through Golden Sun’s Blog for the last thirty minutes, with the usual stories taking place. The most interesting things had been in relation to some other historical locations or people being spotted around World Conquest Online. There was a large section about an Arena in the middle of the continent where people were travelling to fight. There was also some mention of living on islands that were far from the Continent, the players who spawned their living a very different life to those on the mainland. One person had mentioned seeing what he believed to be a long necked Dinosaur on those islands, but this had been disbelieved by Golden Sun and others in the comments, as a ploy to try and make those areas seem more interesting.

He had specifically looked through the last weeks worth of blogs to see if there was any mention of anything happening in the South East of the Northern Continent. Dom hadn’t seen much, there was mention again from the Player who was in the very corrupt Town that Dom had offered to help, saying that things had been getting worse, but a small rebellion was forming within. Another interesting thing was that a small merchant group had lost half of it’s fleet when a storm had split the group in half, the first half arrived unharmed, but the second half had completely disappeared, he hoped this storm hadn’t impacted Andrew, but the south east was an extremely large place. Dom was grateful to see that there wasn’t anything else that was being shouted about in this area.

There still wasn’t any mention of the Southern Continent, but some explorer and pioneer type players had began their journeys to bypass the wall that separated the two continents to do some exploring. The Lord player UglyHermit2465 had offered his growing town as a base for those wishing to explore. Dom was interested himself in what was happening, but even though he was in the South East, he was still hundreds of miles away from the border.

After placing his food waste in the correct bins, and washing the plate he had taken from the cupboard, he headed upstairs to log back in to World Conquest Online. Before doing so, he made sure all of the doors were locked and had set a setting on his device to inform him in game if anyone came to the door.

Dom climbed on to his new double bed. It felt hard and the foam of the mattress seemed to form around his body. Now comfortably laying on his new bed, he put the headset on.

.....

"Long time no see stranger!" Game Support welcomed Dom as he appeared in the white space that she often sat in. She was sat playing a board game against herself, whilst her combed her red hair behind her ear with her fingers when Dom arrived. "I thought you had decided to quit playing."

"I had some personal things this week unfortunately." Dom replied apologetically, not sure why Game Support always intimidated him in this form.

"That’s what they all say!" She laughed teasingly, "Well, it is good you are back in time, it’s going to get very busy in the coming week!"

Before Dom had time to reply and ask what she meant, Game Support smiled at him and he suddenly felt like he was falling through the sky, before waking in his bed in his small Palace in Riverside.

.....

Dom climbed off his bed and headed towards the bottom of it, where lay across a chaise lounge was some clothes prepared for him to wear. The clothes felt freshly cleaned and he suspected that they had been changed daily with the hope of his return.

Before dressing, he headed towards the balcony in his room, so that he could look out on Riverside and see changes from his month of absence. His eyes were wide open as he looked at the now sprawling city in front of him, the commercial district that led from the Docks to the Town Centre where full of shops that were built in and around the other buildings in that area such as the Bank and the Market. There were also some small food stores open, such as a bakery and restaurants that were all bustling with Civilians that were walking around.

To the East and West of the city were hundreds of houses, some that were two or three stories high, where his civilians were living. Most of the houses even had planted rooves, giving Riverside a welcoming and natural look. There was no refugee camps to the east as there had been when he left and Dom felt confident that the thousands that had come from Tongpai Town were now settled in comfortably.

To the North, the Manufacturing District was in full flow and Dom could see that more warehouses had been built. The Forest lines to both the North and West had been cut back significantly, with a long road heading to the North West where the Mines were based. Dom could see a huge amount of labour working in the North, with the Lumber Camp clearly working at full capacity.

Back in the south, the Docks was overflowing with Merchant Ships docked and unloading cargo, with more waiting further upstream, guarded by two Bireme that Dom suspected where left behind to police the docks. The Cargo was being either stored in the warehouses that now surrounded the docks, or being pulled by Cart and Oxen to other locations.

Beyond the River’s edge and across the moveable bridge that had been built, Dom could see that there were also a large number of buildings on the southern shore. Dom could tell that these were mainly houses and shops. He felt it was great that Riverside was now expanding to the unclaimed south, with high hopes for that becoming the future development direction of his future kingdom.

The Military Area in the North East of Riverside didn’t look overly different, but Dom could see a large group of people doing symmetrical movements, which he hoped was training and not a strange cult that had invaded Riverside in his absence.

He quickly got himself changed in to his clothes, strapping his sword back to his waist. He left his Slaying Spear that was in pride of place on his weapons rack, beside his black armour, hoping that he would have no need for these during this log in period.

After dressing, he headed down the stairs, through the floor that was set aside for his future family or guests, and then through the ground floor where the palaces audience chamber was based. He had passed a couple of servant staff as he exited to the ground floor, which caused them to quickly disperse in to different directions, most likely informing the key members of Riverside that the Lord was back.

As Dom was leaving the building, he decided to check the stats of the Town Centre and see how much growth had happened in his absence.

"System, please can you show me the stats for Riverside and it’s affiliated Towns." Dom asked politely.

[Government Centre of Riverside

City Grade - S

City Level - 5

Riverside City Occupancy – 8.4K

Tranquillity Town Occupancy - 1,782

Serenity Town Occupancy - 1096

Kingdom Civilian Occupancy - 11.2K

Military Occupancy - 3,556

Kingdom Cities - Riverside, Tranquillity, Serenity

Buildings: Numerous.....

Level Advancement Quest:

Have 20 level 2 buildings, not including Granary and Houses - 12/20

Have 5 level 3 buildings, not including Granary and Houses - 4/5

Have 1 Level 4 building, not including Granary and Houses - 0/1

Have a Population of at least ten thousand – 8.4/10]

"Thank you Game Support." Dom replied as he read the key information, in his absence the population had increased by a large amount, both in Military and Civilian numbers. He suspected that Military was kept separate from the Civilian numbers as they weren’t based in any of the specific Towns anymore. He would speak with Subutai, but he suspected his General had made some changes in his absence.

The increase in population was much higher than he anticipated, even if it was still way below what he felt it needed to be to compete against the Kingdoms and Cities that were already part of the World Conquest Online map. He needed a meeting with his three Government leads, Shang Yang, Lucius and Subutai, so that he could see how things had progressed.

He stepped outside of the Palace, and was greeted by two of his guards, Gregorios and Trojan. The two were original Hoplite that had joined Riverside on it’s first day, but since then their roles had massively changed. Rather than their original long spears, light bronze armour and round shields, they now wore iron armour, with short iron swords and improved reinforced shields. The two seemed to be in one of their usual conversations, this time Trojan was laughing at Gregorios who had been unsuccessful in his pursuit of a woman recently.

"I said, I am the main Guard of the Lord of Riverside, if you become my partner there will be many opportunities!" Gregorios stated, "Then she replied, yes, but you are only the Guard."

"You aren’t even the main Guard." Trojan laughed, "You should have asked about her, rather than bragging about yourself. You aren’t that interesting, all you do is pretend to be busy."

"I will have you know, I am a very busy person." Gregorios replied with fake hurt, "What am I supposed to ask?"

"Ask about her favourite things? Ask about her job?" Trojan replied with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, at least I asked for her name." Gregorios laughed loudly, Trojan was going to laugh as well, but saw Dom’s appearance at the door.

"You should always ask for their name." Dom agreed, understanding that this was due to Dom not asking for Ophelia’s name. Ophelia was Helena, the leader of the Dock’s eldest daughter, who Dom had many conversations with, without asking her name.

"See, even the Lord agrees!" Gregorios replied laughing, before his eyes went wide and he shut up.

"Welcome back Lord Lazarus." Trojan interceded, "It has been a busy month in your absence."

"I can believe it! Let’s head towards the Town Centre." Dom agreed as he took a step forwards, before pausing and looking at Gregorios with an evil grin. "Congratulations on your promotion as the Main Guard."

Trojan laughed loudly, whilst Gregorios looked away in embarrassment, before quickly jogging to catch up with Dom and Trojan as they walked towards the Town Centre that was nearby.