Turn 26
Hunting goes smoothly with no real danger, at this point the Serene are a well oiled machine with regular demons reduced to much the same status as cows it's starting to feel like. Though the battle against the Class 3 demon in the middle of the month proves that they've become a bit complacent.
Manual creation
You have a revised manual made with the broad strokes of what you learned from the development of the Serene, priorities about training when you can afford it, the pros and cons of switches between hunting methods, how to balance your manpower between hunting, working, and training as you get more people.
It ends up little more than a glorified pamphlet. And it's largely distinct from last month's edition, more focused on the role of the leader than the individual girl. You've essentially ended up with two separate pamphlets, one for any meguca, and one for leaders. You also have the original one edited for grammar and to replace phone numbers with a free email account you setup.
Business
You arrange with Kyuubey to get a PO box to have deliveries made to and purchase some extra Kevlar in disguise. The identity won't hold up to any real scrutiny, but it can't be traced back to you.
You had to pull a couple workers off of normal jobs this month, but your remaining worker and Hainako pull in their typical incomes. The courier business picks up a bit this month as some more of the old residents of Mitakihara trickle in and the economy in general improves. Profit picks up a little bit but you couldn't take all the jobs available with your current manpower. ($8,000 monthly income from Mitakihara courier unit)
Your restaurant setup goes off beautifully. Months of paperwork and years of speaking to people let you skillfully convince Mr. Ogawa to help with the loan and get a good rate and even a bit extra. Though it's a bit daunting to realize you're now in debt for more money than the Serenes have earned in their existence.
You find just the right location for a great price due to the lingering local recession and Kyuubey handles securing the proper permits and identities as agreed in a far shorter time than any normal method would. Inspectors arrive right as needed rather than weeks later, paperwork isn't lost or delayed, and everything is right on time.
You let Kit and Akane handle equipping the place for the most part due to your limited time, but they seem to handle it admirably well. It's nothing fancy but it's clean and efficient looking in the kitchen while rather homey in the front.
You have the other greens assigned distribute flyers about the opening and even take out an ad in the newspaper.
The restaurant opening goes surprisingly well and you're swamped at the opening. Great food at a good price goes a long way. It's practically the stereotype image of a family diner right now, and you end up catering more to students than you expected, though you conclude your girls probably distributed flyers at their schools.
Akane is a veritable dervish in the kitchen during the rush times and you're glad they opted for a more concealed kitchen than usual. You greet and seat customers with a hard earned skill at organization and politeness. (Good roll, reduced startup time 1 month, +$4500 this month)
Research
Having developed the methodology to test the rate of decay of enchantments last month Keiko moved on to testing more varieties and combinations of material this month.
Over a year ago she'd observed anecdotally that wrapping shields in a layer of leather had made the enchantment last a little bit longer before dissipating, but that had been rendered irrelevant by the hand off technique she later developed. With as much time as has passed since then she's developed a bit of a theory she's been itching to test.
She purchases a series of copper wire of the same type of several thicknesses as well as various other materials including leather, felt, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, some Styrofoam which she melted down with acetone to form into polystyrene plastic, and some cheap two component rubber from a hobby supply.
She then tested wire with no coating, ones covered in each of these materials in various combinations, and of course extra thick wire with no coating to match the overall size of the coated dowels. It rapidly confirmed her previous theory. All of the coated dowels outperformed the uncoated dowels, however the aluminum foil coated one only barely did so. The plastic wrap, rubber, and the leather coated ones were in the middle with substantial increases in duration. While the ones covered by felt and especially polystyrene lasted significantly longer, hours even.
She reported to you at the end of the month that she believed that magic behaved similar in this way to heat, with much of it leaking away the moment it was no longer controlled actively by a meguca. The tendency to start with high conductivity metals due to the usefulness of their strength likely only made the appearance of quick decay worse.
Diplomacy
Your attempt to recruit in area 10 doesn't succeed. You learn there are 3 girls there working together, all green in this case, and the demon strength is around +8, but they aren't too interested in joining your group. Demon strength there is on the downswing as it's a 4 cube territory and they feel like things are getting better on their own.
Given how it went last time you sent a girl to area 1 last time this time you're more circumspect and try to signal from the edge of the territory rather than diving in and being too aggressive seeming. While the previous girls might have been replaced by now, you're not willing to bet on it. The girl you send for this plan basically sits on a rooftop on the border and plays on her phone for days on end. But one day a card with an email address is on her rooftop when she arrives.
Miscellaneous
The huge force you used in response to the Class 3 demon really soaked up a lot of your planned time this month and you didn't end up with the time available for the sports day.
Predictably there are a couple spirals amongst the girls that were in Seto's group even with the victory over the demon in the end. It end up taking 4 cubes just to save Tsutsumi the barrier specialist, who predictably blames herself for failing to protect the other girls as she's supposed to. The fact that none of your girls could have shielded against it by herself is only cold comfort. The other vet there had nightmares as well, though they weren't as bad. (-5 cubes)
Three of your greens make veteran this month.
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Resources
- 5 Elite Meguca: Mami (+20% persuasive), Kyouko (can act as if two Elites), Taya (Scouting Bonus), Seto (Elite teleporter)
- 44 Veteran Meguca, 8 Green Meguca, 1 Associate
- Upkeep: 19.5 Veteran, 8 Green, 1 Associate
- 2.5 vet + 0.5 green demon finding training (+20% grief cubes)
- 2.5 vet + 0.5 green on pack tactics (-4% pack hunting, -2% pair hunting)
- 1 Vet, 2 Green working jobs
- 1 veteran (Hainako) Translation service
- 5 veteran + 3 green working courier business (Minimum 3 vets)
- 2 vets on dispatch service (+30% grief cubes additive with demon finding, -1% casualties)
- 1.5 vet on telepathic communication (-2% pair hunting, -1% pack hunting)
- 1 Veteran, Paperpushing
- 3 Vets (Akane, Kit), 2 Green, 1 Associate
- Grief Cubes 62.1
- Money: $42,290
- Upkeep $16,820
- $1120 upkeep on cellphones (-2% solo hunting, -1% pair hunting)
- $500 upkeep on cable (increased due to new housing)
- $5500 upkeep on apartments
- $4000 upkeep on house
- $5700 upkeep on stipend
- Income $27,400
- Normal Jobs: +$3000 per turn
- Translator: +$3000 per turn
- Courier Business, Mitakihara: +$8000 per turn
- Courier Business, Kasamino: +$4400 next turn
- Restaurant +$9000 next turn
- Morale: [3 of 10] Morale falls quite a bit this month. Partly due to the realization that there are monsters out there far beyond the demons in your area that pose no real danger anymore, but more impactful is the poor morale of the girls from Seto's group that join yours, the deaths hit them hard and the overall impact on morale is significant.
- Assets
- Tiny household shrine: Somewhat reduces losses to morale from deaths. (Bonus Increased by omake)
- Shields: -3% Casualties
- Basic General Combat Training: -2% Casualties (May decay with losses or recruitment).
- Basic Solo Combat Training: -.5% Pack Hunting, -1% pair hunting, -1.5% Solo Hunting (Decayed).
- Defending Others Training: -1% Pair Hunting, -.5% Pack Hunting (Decayed).
- 29 Bicycles (Mobility Bonus)
- 16 Bulletproof vest (-2% casualty)
- 15.8? Sets of Kevlar Clothing (-4% casualty)
- 3 Sets of Leather (-2% casualty)
- 9 sets hardened leather (-3% casualty)
- Housing (56/71)
- Apartments (43 capacity)
- House (25 capacity)
- Mami's Apartment (HQ of sorts) (Can be traded for $1200 per turn)
- Territory
- Urban
- North
- Demon Status: Strong 11.3
- Sustainable Harvest: 28
- South
- Demon Status: Average -0.1
- Sustainable Harvest: 27
- Rural
- Demon Status: Average +0
- Sustainable Harvest: 3
- Seto's territory 5.3 DS
- 8 Urban
- 4 Rural
- + some Nomadic harvesting
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Seto's territory not yet included since that can be a hassle. As an elite teleporter she can make nomadic harvesting pretty effective (her solo can basically do nomadic at the rate of urban, but keep in mind that you'll have little control of demon strength in nomadic areas). Also her territory is significantly larger than your initial indications. Something to keep in mind is that besides your own territory, all territory markers are basically speculation, and don't expect other groups to necessarily give you accurate data.
Upkeep costs reassessed.
Let me know if this ended up missing anything. This update ended up really scatterbrained in my writing with around 60% of it written before the event and the remainder written up now. Starting to consider organization of update.
Also some of the comments from players made me take another look at where I had Seto's territory. It's a lot further from Tokyo proper than some of you think, I think. There's still a good deal of decent territory in between there and Tokyo deathscape (hence this being the first time a high danger demon wandered over).
