Congratulations, Master.
The Update has been completed successfully.
New System details will now be explained.
Notice
Due to the significant amount of Creation Energy used by the System, further siphoning of Creation Energy will no longer occur without permission.
Also, due to the Update, details regarding the Maker’s Gift Special Ability have been unlocked. Relevant to the first part of this Notice, it appears that the first creation using the Maker’s Gift Special Ability was set to siphon Creation Energy during all uses of the Maker’s Gift.
Replacement
The Leveling functionality has been deleted in accordance with your latent desires.
It has been replaced with the Class and the Rank functions.
Class
Class is determined by an individual’s occupation & skills, and will determine bonuses to Skill and Stat growth, as well as what Classes will be available upon Class Evolution.
Class will also affect what Quests are available to you.
Rank
Rank indicates the relative ability of an individual's Class.
Classes will be separated into several Ranks.
Upon reaching the highest Rank of a Class, Class Evolution will be unlocked.
Class Evolution is only available to yourself and Subjects with a Loyalty >= 75.
Subjects
Individuals who are legally under your command are Subjects.
Using the Subjects function, you may review any information on any of your Subjects, including Stats, Skills, Abilities, Location, and more.
Territory
Owned lands will receive bonuses from certain Skills, Abilities, Quest rewards, and Subjects, which can be viewed in the Territory screen.
Notice
The Leadership Lv2 Special Ability and the Ruling Rank F Skill have been combined into the Rulership Lv1 Special Ability.
Rulership Lv1
Permanent +20% to all Territory Functions.
Active Skill: Encouragement
Active Skill: Command
Active Skill: Oversight
Level Up Requirements:
Have 3 knights sworn to you: Incomplete (1/3)
Have a population of 3,000: Incomplete (1,258/3000)
Have a reserve army of 100 man-at-arms: Incomplete (7/100)
Build Function Unlocked
Build allows you to create schematics for new buildings, which may be built by your subjects so long as you have the necessary materials.
Alden, overcome with fascination, smirked as he read the blue screens. There was a time when the System, his first creation after awakening in this world, proved to be almost detrimental to himself. Siphoning power from what he wanted, at the time, was a frustration difficult to reconcile. That any power or item he might have made with the Maker’s Gift would possess the same functionality was, simultaneously, a relief and an annoyance.
That such a thing was at an end was cause for celebration. More deserving of celebration, however, were the myriad new abilities now within his possession.
Opening the Subjects screen he saw a list of names, beside which, he noted, was a number indicating the relative increase to their powers they would receive fighting in his name. The highest of which, belonging to Amice, was a staggering +75%.
Moving on to the Territory screen, Alden reviewed its details.
Territory
Prosperity
+20%
Determines the rate at which food is grown & the resulting quality. Also affects medicinal herbs.
Animal Husbandry
+20%
Determines the quality of reared animals.
Engineering
+20%
Determines the quality of buildings & the speed at which they are built. When using the Build function you may reduce the resulting quality in order to decrease the time required to build, and vice versa.
Defence
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
+20%
Determines the combat bonus applied to your subjects in case of invasion.
Trust
+20%
Determines the general populace’s belief in your rule.
Trade
+20%
Determines the cost of goods bought and sold by your Territory.
Of great interest were the bonuses provided by Rulership, which were extraordinary. There would be, Alden imagined, a compounding effect as his barony progressed, and further increases to Rulership would prove invaluable. And then there were the three Active Skills, Encouragement, Command, and Oversight.
Encouragement
Grants a +10% bonus to target Subject's Stats.
Command
+25% chance that target Subject will obey an order.
Oversight
Can visualize Territory and the Subjects within using a map interface.
Utilizing Oversight, Alden reviewed the landscape of his barony. The southernmost territory in the Empire, Lyonpool stretched south along Chaudlac Lake, which sat to the territory’s east, until it reached the mouth of Tejin’s Strait, where it ended in a flat line, which Alden recognized to be the canyon in which he had fought the flesheater. To the west, past his borders, was a stretch of lands controlled by other nobles of the Empire, and further beyond them was another body of water that Alden knew to be an ocean.
Lastly Alden perused the Build option. The screen that appeared before him was all complication, a mess of details in separate boxes, none of which could be easily discerned at first look. Continuing his observation of the screen, however, revealed to him the meanings of the individual parts, which were separated into numerous components: materials, workers, layout, location, and purpose, among others.
Immediately intrigued by Build’s potential, he began the intricate work of fashioning a new building. The variety of the building was without question, as for too long he had persisted with a building which could never hope to be his true seat of power. Large as it was, by far the largest in Lyonpool, it was too close to the makeshift village forming at the lake’s edge to have any privacy or security, and its size was, in comparison to the great manors of Titemore and Coalben, despicably small. A new manor, then, was always within his plans, and with Build now at his disposal he possessed the greatest tool needed to begin his work.
Greater size was paramount; from the doors to the halls to the rooms, they would all need to be, from the viewpoint of others, excessively large, though to himself they would be merely spacious. Filling up this massive space with all that a nobleman might be expected to have would prove the greater issue; though Build allowed for the creation of furniture and decor, their requirements were, as expected, costly. Chandeliers required gold and silver and glass, at other times crystals; tables required expensive wood; paintings required canvas; and silk was required for all sorts of fabric based items, from drapes to sheets to the cushioning of chairs.
Alden’s head throbbed as he sorted the mess that was to be his new home. Money, in the end, proved to still be an issue, and this at a most inopportune time. The first of many payments to Lord Axemere was soon due, and with not enough money to pay it.
Money. How he wished the System could create it for him, instead of taking it from him in return for items! There was nothing to do but to shelf his impromptu plans for a new manor in favor of returning to the age-old problem. With the speed that the Build functionality permitted he might be able to develop a new racetrack by morning, if not sooner. By noon, thanks to the bonus to Engineering granted by Rulership, he could have it built. After that he could race his horses and study DNA at his leisure.
A racetrack, at its simplest, was a simple endeavor, requiring only wooden fencing to contain and guide the horses. Where the true challenge came in was from the surrounding space, which must, in order to build a truly exquisite racetrack, be a gallery with enough finery and comfort to accommodate, at the least, the simplest of betting individuals. With a gallery and a slew of races for people to gamble on, money would soon flow, if not from the races themselves then at least the tourism the races would provide.
Tourism. The word struck him to a halt as it passed through his mind, igniting in him a not-so-distant memory of a letter. A letter from Arvolt, offering a guild branch in his barony, an offer which he had long since forgotten to reply to. Rather, he had been unable to reply to it, unhappy with the offers demanding an exemption from taxes and unable to provide the coin or materials to build the branch office himself. With Lady Aelfwynn’s purchase of a fragment of the flesheater’s skeleton, however, there were no such issues. He had the coin and he had the men. All that was needed was a plan.
Smiling to himself, Alden redirected his efforts once more, this time to a guild hall. Laying out the foundation of the building itself, and using Oversight to scrutinize the potential locations, Alden fine tuned the design over the course of several hours.
Skill Development
The Design Skill has been created at Rank F.
Satisfaction arrived from the design some hours before dawn, whereby he studied the design a half dozen times without finding significant flaw, leaving him with warm pride in what was done and cold expectation for what would come. Weary of designing, and realizing, somewhat late, that his designs would need to be inscribed on paper if he were to give it to his subjects to build, he instead began the doubled process of detailing his design and cultivating.
Invisible energy enveloped him as he scrawled, suffusing the air around him until, having reached a density similar to the energies within himself, he could collect it into himself. Layering it over the core of energy within him, the energy soaked into the core, penetrating its delicate barrier and mixing with the tumultuous power within.
Stat Development
+10 to all physical Stats
In the space of his office, devoid of the finery one might expect of a nobleman and lacking even in base furniture, the very walls and floor could be felt against his skin. This, despite his being seated at his desk and clothes from head to toe, with not an inch of skin in contact with the cold, smooth wood from which his manor was built. The rug, too, which sat at the center of his office and emblazoned with his house sigil, could be felt, its fabric soft and fuzzy against his senses.
Perturbed by the sudden sensations Alden opened his eyes in shock, and thusly realized his eyes had just been closed. Closing them again, the image of his office blurred in his view. Yet, despite his eyes being closed completely, Alden could see.
You have ascended to the Six Step of the Divine Steps Realm.
+25 to all physical Stats.
+25 to Wisdom.
Special Ability Unlocked
Enhanced Senses Lv1
Energy reverberated within his core as the ascension took place, a sensation felt throughout his whole body. The room, once spacious and empty, was now small and filled with such an alacritous clutter of surfaces that he could barely withstand it.
Stat Development
Due to reaching the limits of your brain Intelligence has increased.
+15 to Intelligence.
He didn’t remember standing from his desk, nor of his walking to the office’s right side door which led to his balcony. But, stood there before a smooth door of dark wood which, by all accounts, should have separated him from the outside world, Alden knew at once what he desired. Turning the doorknob he felt the coldness of the brass, as well as a thousand tiny imperfections so small that they could not be seen by the naked eye.
Outside, Chaudlac Lake shimmered darkly by starlight. In the air was the faint but distinct smell of freshwater and fish coming up from the lake, while from the west and north was dirt and grass and manure. The brisk air stung his nostrils, his skin prickled from the cold, and his heart sped its beating as he began to sense his subjects. It was early morning now; the sun would rise in just a few hours, yet many were already awake, and among those awake were those who threw themselves into passionate dealings with their loved ones.
Part of him might have been disgusted, if not for his own similar inclination. There was something thrilling about his newfound power that made him drunk with calm euphoria. Sifting through his senses, which attacked him all at once in a constant flood of feelings, he searched for Amice and found her, surprisingly, behind him.
“I’ve ascended again,” he said, his face flushing with heat that was embarrassment and shame and desire. Amice said nothing as she wrapped her arms around him, pressing herself against him. Even before touching him, and without turning around, he had known she was naked. And yet, separated only by the thin barrier of his own clothes, his heat rose and his heart quickened again, and all other sensations were shut out from his mind.
With her arms wrapped around him, and her hands flush against his chest, he could scarcely breathe. He stopped breathing altogether as her hands slid down his shirt.
“We might be seen,” he protested. He could feel her smile, almost hear the muscles of her face contracting. Is this how she sees the world?
“It’s too dark for the others,” she replied. He took her word for it, or, rather, he didn’t care to argue further. He was focused only on her, and the hand that kept creeping lower and lower.
Skill Development
Sexual Arts has increased to Rank A.