World Conquest Online

"Before we start, I have some surprising news!" Xun Yu began as Dom sat and waited to see what Shang Yang had wanted him for. Xun Yu has an extremely happy look on his face and part of Dom worried as to what was to come. "Lucius used the four Black Cubes when he did the daily spawns, for us these are a basic item that just gives us additional people. We have received some great people in the past, such as those from your original town who were originally part of our citizen guards, however normally we see them as a minor population boost as our daily spawns dwarf them. Crassus had even mentioned using them as trade items with other Lords in the future. However, this time we had a surprise."

"What type of surprise?" Dom asked, wondering if some niche Civilians had arrived with a certain skill set that could have an impact on the growing Kingdom.

"Family." Xun Yu replied simply, "Each spawn brought a part of a different Heroes family, unlike the Orange Cube for family that brought additional Heroes such as Elder Qiao and Sun Ce, this one brought wives and children of different Heroes in Riverside."

"Who has benefited?" Dom asked in surprise, the reward was from the friends reunited side quest, so he wondered if that was the link.

"One of Subutai’s wives and two of his son’s have arrived. He has stated that both of his sons could serve in the Military in junior roles. He was happy at their arrival, but also disappointed as they were neither his favourite sons or his favourite wife!" Xun Yu laughed, and Dom knew that with Subutai’s personality he had probably said that as well. "I believe it was his second wife Zainshi and his two sons Tengziin and Wengzi."

"That is fantastic news, I know he has been putting in full effort since we founded Riverside so it is nice to see that he has someone to go home to and share that with. Who else?" Dom laughed, still imagining the excitement and then disappointment on Subutai’s face. Subutai had once mentioned about his favourite son and Dom suspected that if he was in the game, he would be a B level Hero at least himself.

"Lucius was also treated by the arrival of one of his son’s, Caeso Quinctius. He reacted in happiness at seeing his youngest son, however Cicero explained that his son didn’t grow in to the best of people. His son was accompanied by some of their workers and Lucius has taken them all to Elder Qiao to have them take control of the wine development." Xun Yu explained, "His Son has also been nominated to join the military in a junior role."

"I am sure that Lucius will be able to do a better job with his son this time round! It is also great to see we have some more depth to the lower ranks of our officers." Dom agreed, as he could see excitement on Hatshepsut’s face.

"My daughter Neferure has also arrived! She will be great as a priestess in one of the new temples! She has come with some of her priestesses, who will be a great retinue for the Ladies in your Palace." She smiled with a proud look on her face, before attempting to tease Dom. "If you hadn’t already married Meritamen, I would have offered her to you, but I expect you would decline."

"I would have to decline." Dom agreed politely, seeing that Hatshepsut didn’t seem to mind his response.

"There are many other bachelors!" Hatshepsut grinned. "However, I am not the happiest of the Heroes to have been rewarded by this situation."

"Who is then?" Dom asked, looking at Shang Yang and wondering if the old man’s wife had arrived.

"Tomyris." Shang Yang stated flatly, having understood Dom’s look and appreciated that Dom was thinking off him.

"Her son Spargapises arrived." Xun Yu explained, "A younger version than the one she remembered, but she’s happy regardless. She said that he had originally died in battle, having drank too much the night before. She said that he is banned from drinking or consuming any opioids and can also join the military as a junior."

Dom realised that he had somehow gained some new very low grade heroes or elite level civilians through some black cubes that he normally didn’t think much on. He was grateful that the system had rewarded his heroes, but he also knew that some of the Town Centre perks were related to families.

Dom asked the system to show him their stats, they all had interesting histories. Both of Subutai’s son’s would eventually grow in to average commanders, but they were currently in their late teens and were E grade Military Heroes. Caeso had attempted a mini rebellion against the lower classes during his time and his father had to sell his land to save his life, even though he had exiled himself. Caeso had limited skills and was also an E grade Military Hero. Spargapises was similar to Caeso, he was an average commander who had been defeated by having an intolerance to different forms of alcohol, both of his parents were good commanders and Dom knew that he would have the potential, even if he was also currently an E Grade Military Hero.

Neferure was the only Domestic Hero amongst the group, also an E Grade. There wasn’t much information about her, mainly that she was the daughter of Hatshepsut and had been the face of Hatshepsut’s reign, primarily from a religious perspective. She was also relatively young and Dom could see that with these four, Ling Tong, Lu Ji and Cheng Zi, there was also a future generation appearing.

"That is great news!" Dom replied to Xun Yu, "I expect it has been a morale boost for the Leadership?"

"Morale was already high, but it has definitely improved the mood even more. Riverside’s Heroes district is starting to become rather busy." Xun Yu laughed, before continuing, "I have actually compiled a list of all of the Heroes direct family trees, so we can look for them in the wider world through Crassus’ growing networks."

"That is a great idea, we have a lot of talent here and it would be good to attract their families to join us." Dom agreed, especially when so many of his new Heroes were connected to Sun Ce and Sun Shangxiang. Dom then had an idea, thinking back to his own youth when his parents had still been around. "We should create a family day where people can travel from our growing Kingdom and enjoy things together with their families."

"A great idea young Lord." Hatshepsut agreed, "Once the temples have been built and the other buildings Sostratus is planning are placed, we can easily create a celebration for the next stage of the cities growth."

"We can incorporate it into the founding of our Kingdom." Xun Yu agreed, whilst Shang Yang nodded.

"Now I know that Shang Yang wanted to speak with me, but was there anything else that needed updating?" Dom asked the group, mainly towards Hatshepsut and Xun Yu.

"Noctus and Renatus have both been built, with the buildings we planned for them also in place. Xun Yu has also organised work forces for both of them to build additional accommodation." Hatshepsut began, before turning to her counterpart.

"I have also reallocated some of our newcomers to Renatus, whilst Noctus has been for specialists only." Xun Yu explained, "Tomyris has been assigned as the Mayor of Noctus, where as we have temporarily assigned Da Qiao as agreed for Renatus, but we all agree that Su Fei is a better fit."

"He can oversea the Navy on the Tongpai Lake as well as manage the growing town." Shang Yang stated, "Both myself and Lucius have interviewed him separately and believe he is a good option as he has both Military and some government knowledge. Da Qiao would also prefer to spend her time with her family for now but will be re-joining as part of our government in due time"

"Has the navy been moved to Tongpai Lake?" Dom asked, having not looked at the Calm River yet.

"Some Mengchong’s escorted the transport ships there yesterday afternoon, but the rest is still in place until the Military Reorganisation meeting planned in two days." Shang Yang explained, "Zhou Yu has joined Subutai and Xun You in discussion, I think you will be pleased with the plans." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"I appreciate the hard work!" Dom replied seriously, grateful that he had been given Heroes that could manage the painful tasks of a Kingdom Building aspect of a game.

"I have also used the Cubes that were left for me." Hatshepsut continued, "The random building cube was a Light House and has been placed in Serenity. Sostratus has had some comments and is already planning some upgrades to it. This will be a huge growth opportunity for our future as a trade platform."

"Crassus believes that we will eventually be able to replace the northern trading city, we just need an auction house and the time to continue growing and perfecting Serenity." Xun Yu added, "Artemisia also believes we should place our naval fleets across Jia and Sun Ce’s northern fort at the top of the Serene Wetlands."

"We also had three wooden tokens, two that you provided and a third that was found on a body in Noctus." Hatshepsut continued, "We are currently interviewing survivors to see who this person was, as if he was holding the Wooden Token then he may also have other good items. We have upgraded the Bathhouse, one of the Blacksmiths which has taken the Weaponsmith route and the School."

Dom was surprised by the choices she had made, however Hatshepsut continued before he had chance to ask why.

"The Bathhouse was key for health, I am also working with our engineers on our own underground system for dirty water, heating and better transport routes for clean water." She explained, "The Blacksmiths was at request of Ou Yezi, it’s arrival also spawned a group of blacksmiths from a tribe called the Bahaya. They have an impressive forge that can heat the metal to levels that Ou Yezi could not believe. He expects with these new techniques he can work on much stronger materials to create a whole new and improved direction for our Kingdom’s weapons."

"We also think this material can be used for other things as well, our mines are working overtime to bring up iron ore for Ou Yezi, his apprentice and his Bahaya assistants to play with. The White Resource Cube was also used here with expectation and Iron and other materials did arrive." Shang Yang added, before Hatshepsut continued.

"The Bahaya also brought seeds and fruits for these curved green fruits, the taste was impressive and Lucius is very happy as usual." Hatshepsut laughed before explaining the school. "We now have a lot of young population and it has been agreed that education for all is important in our Kingdom’s ethos. Therefore the school needed to be increased in size and level to accommodate. The upgrade has brought additional teachers to support Gu Kaizhi and the lead teachers, the siblings Kento and Minato."

"How many Bahaya arrived with the upgrade?" Dom asked, having never received more than a couple of people before from a building spawn or upgrade.

"Four, two men and two women, we believe that this was due to the Town Centre perk." Xun Yu explained, "The men are both exceptional blacksmiths whilst the women are multi skilled and are helping for now in the blacksmith district."

"Hopefully now that we have some of them, other will join." Dom replied, impressed with their luck so far. "Was there anything else to discuss?"

"I am looking at moving the two temples from Jia to the west of Riverside near the Mausoleum. I also intend to build the other three there as well. The current two temples are based on ancestors and family. Umako and myself have been in discussion about the new ones and have come up with a shortlist of religions or gods that would fit in with the current trajectory, whilst not pushing for anything over your bottom line." Hatshepsut continued.

Dom felt a sinking feeling as he asked her who was being put forwards, but felt relieved by her response.

"We looked at where the majority of the current Civilians or Warriors are from, a large number are from Ancient China or the Mediterranean Sea such as Greek, Roman or Hittite and Egyptian. With the influx of those from Ancient China we would have prioritised them, however as both the Ancestral and Confucian Temples align with them partly, we have decided to prioritise some of the others." Hatshepsut continued, and it was clear to Dom that both herself and Umako had put a lot of time and effort in to this decision. "The first is the Greek Goddess Demeter, she is the god of the fertility of the lands, a key part of our kingdom is agriculture and we felt she would be an ideal target for the beliefs of our thousands of farmers."

"She makes a lot of sense and would appeal as well to our large percentage of Greek Warriors and Civilians." Shang Yang stated, having already approved of their choices but had not agreed to their placement until Dom agreed. Dom also felt she was a good option, with his own research he had seen that she had also been the goddess of seasons and he was sure that Lucius would have agreed to this choice.

"The next one was an Egyptian goddess, Isis. She has been revered throughout Egyptian history, however from my time, through to Meritamen’s and then even the Romans and Greeks that controlled those lands afterwards. She has evolved from Minor to Major god over those years." Hatshepsut continued, "She is the goddess of Fertility, Marriage and Medicine. We hope her involvement will push for more families to be created, which is another of our goals for natural population growth, and also gives people who are in need of medical help a spiritual outlet."

"I expect she has also had positive responses?" Dom asked, seeing nods from his three Heroes.

"All of our doctors are in support, as are the majority of our Central Government department." Shang Yang replied, himself backing the choice.

"The third one is aimed more towards our Military, we were torn between two choices for this, with both having different potential impacts. Umako wanted Bishamonten, a god from his land that has other names in other lands, who is a god of war and Buddhism. However, we have instead decided to go for Bellona, the Roman Goddess of war." Hatshepsut explained, "Bellona is female, as are the other two choices, which we think will help promote the inclusivity of gender you have pushed for. Bellona is also a safer choice and doesn’t link to other religions as of yet. We believe that the majority of our Warriors and Generals will be happy with this choice."

"So three temples, one to Agriculture, one to Fertility and Medicine, with the final being for war?" Dom asked, seemingly surprised and happy with the choices, knowing that the impacts were minimal in terms of what they did to his Kingdom, but were an outlet for those that needed them. They also promoted the key parts of what they were trying to achieve in Riverside.

"That is correct, I am also proposing for my daughter Neferure to look after the temples as the head priestess." She continued, whilst Shang Yang and Xun Yu didn’t seem to disagree with her.

"Very well, I am happy to agree with this." Dom stated, causing a big smile to appear on Hatshepsut’s face. Dom wondered how the arrival of her daughter and Lucius’s son would impact their own slowly forming relationship.