After taking the Bireme to Mountview, Dom had a quick catch up with Gan Ning and Tomyris, before heading to a room that had been prepared for him. After removing his armour, he lay down and logged out, waking up on his new bed at the Manor at Central University.
Used to his normal morning routine that he had tried to maintain for the last few years, except for when he over slept, he headed in to his new and much larger bathroom. As usual he took a quick shower and brushed his teeth. After dressing in some comfortable clothes, he headed downstairs to the large food area and sat on the breakfast bar. He realised he didn't have any food in and would have to do a shop.
"Maybe I can order a shop here?" Dom pondered out loud, before realising that was a very lazy mentality.
He headed towards the main door, before remembering he had no shoes on. He ran upstairs and put on a pair of sporty trainers, before heading back to the main door again. Dom decided he would explore the local area alone, potentially visiting one of the nearby shops and getting some food to stock up the fridge.
His first stop was the Lakeview Restaurant where he could get some free breakfast made by someone else. He decided to follow the coast back in the direction he had originally arrived in when he had his slight tour on the way to the Manor. After walking for a couple of minutes, heading first past some other Manor's and then some more normal accommodation, he came across the Lakeview Restaurant. It was a large wooden building, that was built on a small pier that headed out to the Lake itself. There were some sun loungers and small boats that were parked on the beach beside it, but they were all currently empty.
The only people Dom could see was a small group of people running together on the beach in exercise clothes, or the people on the pathways that were carrying shopping or heading to their jobs around Central University.
Dom headed up towards the Restaurant, and after showing his ID to the smartly dressed Server, he was taken to a table. Dom had an awkward moment when he was asked how many where in his Party and he had responded as he was alone, but the Server didn't seem to be surprised. The Restaurant was busier than outside, with around half of the room full, which surprised Dom as he expected that most students were still on a break. Dom ordered some sausages, eggs and toast. After enjoying his food, which in his opinion was of a great quality, he left and decided to explore and find a shop.
The shops were only slightly inland from the Lake. There were a few shops on the Lakes edge, but they mainly sold items such as swimming or sunbathing equipment and Dom didn't plan on purchasing any sunscreen or an inflatable banana. The first group of shops he came to were surrounded by small apartments, with a little gardened area in the centre. There were two clothes Shops that seemed to cater to the higher end market, as well as a Salon that did both hair, makeup and nails. There was also a Barbershop, high end Bar, Butchers, Bakers, General Store and several others.
After visiting several stores and having his hands now full of paper bags full of food, he headed back to the Manor. He filled up the refrigerator with some items, as well as the cupboard, before grabbing his device to check Golden Sun's blog.
[Golden Sun VI's here with my Daily Blog on World Conquest Online
Firstly, I need to address the extremely large elephant in the room. The First World Conquest Battle Map! I must firstly say thank you to Biscuitlover212. I believe we all suspected that if anything was triggered, it would be from one of the Top Ten, and Biscuitlover212 has not disappointed.
Unfortunately we haven't any information from them on how the quest was triggered, so that will have to continue as a mystery for now. From the research I have done and your amazing comments, we can confirm that they are all from the same or similar time period: The Battle of Plataea, The Battle of Mycale, The Battle of Lize and the Clash with the Veii.
It is interesting to see what areas are fighting in which battles. Unfortunately, I do not have the information from all regions or the island nations, however from what I have gathered, different areas are involved in different battles. It will be interesting to see how alliances and enemies are formed for the future.
The Battle of Plataea and Mycale were large battles between the Ancient Greeks and the Persians. Both seem to bring a lot of opportunities for Players involved. As a Civilian Player, you get the opportunity to join before the Battle and support in the Cities and help prepare the Warriors. Where as Warriors and Lords are more involved in the fighting. I do think that the impact of Players and their knowledge of these Battles will make them unpredictable.
The Battle of Lize was fought in China, during the Spring and Autumn Period between the State of Wu and the State of Yue. Another large scale battle which can be impacted by the Players and their knowledge of History. The situation is similar here for Civilian Players, and I think they can have a big impact if you can improve their armour or weapons.
My main worry is the fourth Battle, the Clash with the Veii. I haven't been able to find much information on this one yet, but I believe that it is a prequal to the Battle of Cremera that was fought between the Roman's Fabii and their neighbour Tribe the Veii. The numbers in this battle would have been minor in comparison to the others. So I suspect that this Battle will mainly be a battle between Players, with little need for the NPC's.
Regardless, these all sound like exciting opportunities, and it would be great to see what the impacts of these battles are on the wider World Conquest Online Map.]
Dom was surprised by the other Battles that were taking place, it seemed that what ever Biscuitlover212 had triggered was related to this particular time period, rather than a particular nation. He felt that his advantage was definitely in the Battles of Plataea and Mycale. However, Lucius was alive in Rome around that period and could have been a good asset if they had fought at the Clash with the Veii. He didn't have any assets from that part of the Spring and Autumn Period of China, so that was his weakest one. Shang Yang was his eldest Chinese Hero and he wasn't born until later in that period, and he was also from Qin, which was an enemy to both Wu and Yue.
He scrolled through more of the blog, before putting it away and deciding to relax in the garden for a few hours before he could log back in. The Large Manor felt empty without anyone around and he was excited for Andrew and Kai arriving. He wondered how Stephen, Rosie and Jessica had settled in, as he suspected they would have all arrived by now as well.
He decided tomorrow he would explore a bit further in to Central Universities centre and see if he could find them. He suspected that Captain Kelly, Captain Stirling or Annabel Howard would contact him soon enough with some information. The Garden was hot whilst he though, and he decided to go for a swim, before exercising and then relaxing on a sunbed beside the pool.
After a few hours had passed, Dom headed back inside and grabbed himself some more food, this time from what he had bought earlier. He decided to try out the kitchen appliances and was happy that he hadn't broken anything or burnt his food. Eventually he finished eating and headed upstairs to log back in to World Conquest Online.
...
Dom awoke in the room that was prepared for him at Mountview Fort, he put on his armour and grabbed his weapons, before leaving the room. Outside, waiting for him was Gregorios and Trojan as usual, who both quickly helped him fasten his straps on his chest piece, before falling in beside him as he headed to the Command Room that he had held the meeting with Xun You and the Generals last time.
"Good Morning Lord Lazarus." Gan Ning greeted him as he entered, the Generals all ready and waiting for him. "You are a little earlier than I expected, but that is even better."
"How have the preparations been going?" Dom asked. "Did we get any other information from Itzel?"
"Preparations have been going well." Xun You explained from the top of the Map that centred the room. Tomyris was stood beside him, fully armoured with her sword on her waist and her shield on her back. Gan Ning was stood closer to the door where Dom had entered through, he was also armoured, with a blade that had been improved by Ou Yezi strapped to his waist. Lu Fang and Guo Sheng were stood in the middle, both with their Halberds leant against posts whilst their arms were crossed. "We expect that Subutai and Tomoe will already be moving at this time, whilst Sun Ce should also have departed. We need to leave within the next two hours to reach the Battle point at the same time."
"Is there a signal arranged?" Dom asked, intrigued at how they had arranged the timings for the battle.
"We all have arrows that can whistle. The target is for when the sun reaches a certain point in the sky that we all launch an arrow. If we are all in position at that time, we should hear each others Arrows. If they are not, then we wait fifteen minutes and then repeat." Xun You explained. "We haven't based this solely on the rise of the sun, we have members of our units that have been trying to track the time, we should be synchronised."
"I need to depart with my ships in thirty minutes, so it's great to see you before we depart." Gan Ning replied, he had the shortest distance to travel from his entry point, but he had to get to his entry point first.
"What did Itzel say?" Dom asked, anticipation and excitement now building inside of him.
"We haven't been able to get a lot from her as she is still very unwell, however she was visibly excited when I spoke to her yesterday evening, before I departed for here." Xun You explained, "We have been given a rough outline of the cities structure. There is a temple that is to the north and central, with a quarry and stone masons to the south west, a housing area towards the south east and most of the prison type buildings are held towards the north east and north west."
"Our target is to rescue the Prisoners, whilst Subutai and Sun Ce's role is to draw the enemy forces attention." Tomyris stated, pointing towards the map. "Gan Ning will aim for the Temple area and then the North East, where I will aim for the North West. Sun Ce will aim for the housing area and is expecting to hit the worst of the enemy, where as Subutai is aiming to hit the South directly and the centre, Tomoe will be clearing the Quarry and blocking any escapes."
"So a full encirclement?" Dom asked, impressed by the organisation.
"A full encirclement." Xun You agreed. "We will rid our lands from them for the last time."
"We will free the people of Nakbe as well." Gan Ning smiled, "I am looking forward to a battle, it feels like it has been too long."
"It has been just over a month." Tomyris countered with a grin. "But I am feeling it as well."
"Then, let's get ourselves in to position." Dom ordered, as the Heroes in the room prepared to depart.