The token crumbled to pieces and a pulse of energy exploded out quickly moving beyond my ability to see. I was getting a feeling of what land had been claimed but I grabbed hold of it and forced it into my control with my iron will. Otherwise, the land area I would be claiming would have just radiated out from my current location but now I was controlling it.

My own land was quickly added to this boundary, and it was quite hard to make it stop expanding along those borders, but I managed. With those borders firm, the claimed land quickly expanded towards the South along the two rivers.

The village was quickly claimed but the token kept going long after it should have run out of steam. In the end, I claimed a huge area of land. The claim almost reached the county capital but didn’t quite make it far enough to claim the town. A huge part of my claim extended into the grasslands where so many rabbits live.

I do not know why I could claim so much but it was probably something to do with my class and ability. I will need to let David calculate the exact area but that will need to wait because apparently, I still have some decisions to make. I could feel my Baron trait changing into something bigger probably an Earl simply because of the land area that I now owned but I had to fight against it.

I could feel that idea fighting against my class and what it meant. I could let it happen eventually becoming a king, but I would be giving up a huge portion of my classes’ strength. No, I needed to change something but the more I resisted without any clear instructions for what I wanted to change the pain returned. I was angry that I needed to make those decisions now so fast, but I didn’t waver.

The first thing that formed in my mind was the name of my country. United Freeholds. This name gave the power to the idea of what I wanted. A place where an individual could hold land but still be a part of something bigger, but the regular noble system wouldn’t work.

There is no place for Barons or Dukes or even Kings something else must take its place. Only briefly the idea of clans crossed my mind but as soon as I had thought about it the idea was taken, and I no longer had any control over it.

I was being shaken and slowly I could hear some voices. Like a snap, I woke up and got to my feet pushing the people who are trying to wake me violently away before I understood what was happening.

I looked around and noticed Arthur who looked quite panicked, and the other people around here were much the same. I took a deep breath in and felt a lot better the next breath helped me centre myself and my racing heart finally started to calm down.

“Are you guys alright? Did I hurt any of you?” I asked the people who were slowly starting to get up. Having heard me speak I saw relief in them. Arthur was the one who spoke. “Rich you scared the living hell out of us. What was happening?” I took a moment before I answered. After my brief explanation, I started to look around and noticed the damage to the road.

Where I had stood the ground was cracked and sunken in like something heavy had hit it. I wondered how I was able to stand while bearing so much weight but when I tried to move again, I felt a sharp pain in my legs. It felt like I had pulled every muscle there, but I was still able to limp slowly towards the house. I had a lot of company who offered to bring everything else that I had brought so I no longer had any extra stuff that I needed to carry.

This made the walking easier and we spent the long walk talking. They didn't have much to tell me about their days as it was quite routine for them, but they thoroughly liked the story that I told to tell them.

They were like young children hearing an adventuring story for the first time but it helped me take my mind off whatever had happened. Arthur made me food and after I scarfed it down, I left everyone in the main room and went to get some sleep.

Before I got to bed, I winced a bit when I remembered how the wolves almost toppled me down when they rushed me. They were so glad to see me and I them that I almost forgot about the pain in my legs. Goose was the happiest that I was back, and I had really missed him. I gave him some meat and scratched him in his favourite spot while getting ready for a deep sleep that will probably take a few days. But before that, I opened the notification that I had ignored till now.

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You have claimed a land now called United Freeholds.

You own direct land in this country making you eligible for clan status.

No previous clan detected creating a new clan.

You are the head of clan Gray Eagle.

Not only did the Baron trait disappear it was replaced by a trait clan Gray Eagle. To my surprise, it even had a symbol associated with it. It was an eagle with three heads but two of those heads were wolf heads. It was quite a menacing symbol. I could feel that this would also be counted as a coat of arms for my clan, but the notifications didn’t stop there.

You are one of the administrators of the country called United Freeholds

New clan assigned clan administrators.

That came as a surprise as a second trait appeared called clan administrators. This also had a symbol. A fort with two towers and a gatehouse. It seems like there’s a lot more to this clan system than I originally thought. To be honest I barely remember the idea that I had before it was used to make whatever it now was.

I was so tired but I still wanted to know so I concentrated on feeling what the traits were telling me. The clan Gray Eagle was quite simple. It indicated that I owned land and was the owner of that land. Any children I have would get that trait so would my wife but apparently, I could also give it to my sworn servants as well.

The clan administrator one was a lot harder to understand and it will probably take a long time before its subtleties are understood. But in the short term, it was easy to understand what the purpose of it was. It was to manage land that wasn't controlled by any other clan and to be the unifying entity for all the clans that were part of the country United Freeholds.

But that took the last of whatever was still keeping me up. I fell asleep dreaming of what plants and trees was I going to plant and to where.

POV Salazar Dragontooth

The last weeks have been awful so many meetings that even the word itself makes me want to retch. But the anger I feel keeps me from going to some dungeon and beating out some of my frustration. It was now all but confirmed that the Wolgrite Empire did have some class or ability to change the plague to target people of a higher level, but the plague ended up getting out of their control and killing so many.

Plans are still being thought up and argued over, but the biggest problem was that the empire has quite a lot of high-rank people that are still loyal to it. And no one wants an open war in the high society. This will need to be handled carefully but most likely the empire will be torn to pieces with all its secrets taken and learned so we can be better prepared for the future.

I was glad that the raid dungeon finally collapsed, and I hope that no other raid dungeon would appear around here anytime soon. It was good to be back in my own office although the mountain of paperwork that I was currently working on was annoying. Thanks to me bringing that information to the authority I was given some helpers that will deal with a lot of my paperwork so when I was done with the piles of it, I will have so much less work in the future.

I took a moment to drink some tea and look at the people who had temporary tables in front of my table and were all working through a lot of the paperwork a lot faster than I ever could. I do not know why this isn’t standard practice but I’m glad that something good came out of all this trouble.

I was about to go back to dealing with some of the papers when I noticed one of my helpers looking at something with wide eyes. The surprise on her face was only there for a few moments before she looked at me and pointed towards the map.

I took another sip and looked at the map, but I already expected what I would see. Rich finally claimed land, but I can now see why she was a bit surprised. Looks like Rich was able to pick up a noble trait.

I had to stand up and walked to the map when I noticed how big the area started to become. I watched closely as the map changed and when the borders stopped growing, I was impressed, it was larger than almost all the city-states around this area and after a quick look he was in the 5th place by the land area claimed which was quite an accomplishment, but we will see if he can hold on to that much land.

Finally, the name appeared, and I was a bit disappointed and confused. United Freeholds, what a weird name but then again, he was a weird one. When I switched the map mode I was again quite surprised at what I saw. There was no Earl or Barony listed under the House of Rich Dirt but instead, most of the area was underneath something called clan administrators and at the very tip of the country was an area that I knew Rich lived in. That was shown as owned by the clan Gray Eagle.

Well, of course, he would create so much more paperwork for me, and it seems that this country is recognized by the land itself which means that no one can take it away from him at least not with politics only with brute force. I guess we will see in the following years if he can keep his country or not. I finished the tea and went back to work but I did wonder how everyone else will react to this.