Two months went by, I had only a handful of nights to myself. The things I'm gonna do for my country, as Vin Diesel once said.
I even had one very awkward night where I didn't do anything lewd but still wasn't entirely free.
"What are you doing here?" I asked when the woman entered my bedroom. I also immediately donned some clothes, courtesy of {Summon Arms & Armor}.
"I drew the lottery, today is my night!" Mona protested. "It would be odd if I wasn't on the waiting list. But I have great news. Madge's is two days from now but it is a secret. Oh, damn. Can you pretend to be super surprised when she enters your room?"
"I'll do my best," I answered with a chuckle. "So, what do you want to do? Keep the clothes on, please."
"Spoilsport," she snickered, then climbed on the bed. "Could you..." I turned into my female twin self, changing my clothes into a silk neglige. "Damn, I look hot," she said staring at me.
"Not bad," I quipped.
She shoved me. I didn't move. "You're so mean! Why do you insist I keep my clothes on if you are exactly like me and dress like that? I can see everything! And it's not like you want to see me naked anyway when you can just look at yourself in the mirror! You're so mean, sister!"
Asking for me to take on my female form was Mona's way of coping with the fact every other woman (except Amina and our mothers) was having the time of their lives while she was left only with a lonely [Pódi Deluxe].
"I got a new game," I revealed to her.
Yznarian's first video gamer girl perked up. "What is it?"
"It is about an Adventurer who headbutts brick blocks and stomps dragon-turtle monsters, traveling the land, the depths of the Labyrinth through metal pipes, and the heights of the sky, to rescue his princess who's never in the same castle he conquers. And he needs to do everything as fast as possible." In for a pence, in for a pound.
"Gimme!" She pounced me.
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"Who's the sadistic monster that put fire whips underwater?"
While she kept dying on the custom levels, I mumbled an apology for not remembering each level perfectly. Worse, I think I mixed some sadistic community levels from a later game [1] in there. The System preserved my memories from when I arrived in Yznarian to now but anything from Earth was only as good as I could honestly remember.
I was designing my population-harvesting devices. Every prince needed to be a bleeding asshole in one way or another, and I decided to kidnap people in vulnerable situations like street urchins, orphans, vagrants, drunkards, and so on, to repopulate Raswaria. I would give the kidnapped people the choice of release elsewhere but I doubt any of them would refuse the opportunity I would offer them.
Food, shelter, general education and a trade, along with a plot of land to farm or an apartment in town. No serfdom, no leases, I would deed the property to them on a short-term loan. As the early 1600s pilgrims learned, private property was the way to incentivize productivity and foster happiness. Without the incentive of personal gain, people became lazy and would only work when forced.
Black, horseless, and sinisterly decorated carriages would soon scour the Imperial capital and rid the streets of its undesirables. Teams of black armor-clad faceless soldiers would ride on such dreadful boxes, doing my dirty work.
Rumors of the terrible things I did to them would be on every mouth, each more outlandish than the other. Provocateurs hired by intermediaries on my behalf would make sure to spread these. Since it was already known I was secretly a [Blood Mage], most of them would gravitate around terrible things I did to the blood of these unfortunate souls.
I believed it would be enough misdirection to keep my charitable initiatives hidden from prying eyes until it was too late.
But for that, I needed the carriages, the soldiers, the black armors, a place to hide these people for a long stretch of time, and a way to ferry them in secret to Raswaria.
At least I didn't have to worry about controlling that piece of scorched highlands. As a tradition, each [Imperial Prince] was granted lordship over their mother's territory of origin or another fief that fell from grace before the [Emperor]'s eyes. My father could bestow another territory to me but most probably it would be salt-and-ashes Raswaria, "as is" with no warranty.
"Sister, can you pass this part for me? I can't time these moving platforms right for the life of me." I grinned and sat next to her, producing a second controller. "What are you doing?"
A green Adventurer, leaner and taller, appeared and started on his journey along with his brother.
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I dismissed any nightly visitors for the day. My task today was to convince Rhiannon to undergo a therapy session. Just like [Baker] could make anything that fit three criteria, nominally "is a food", "has dough or batter", and "cooks inside an oven", [Physician] could treat any malady of the body or mind.
I found her in the music room, playing a sad tune on the piano. I stood to her right and behind, out of her field of view while the instrument bemoaned her worries in haunting notes. As she finished and rested her shoulders, Rhiannon turned to lay her eyes on me.
What troubles you, my son?"
"Mom, can you spare an afternoon for just the two of us?"
"Of course. What's the occasion?"
"I want to talk to you about Raswaria. Before you were taken hostage by my father."
She sighed, clearly uncomfortable around the subject, "I should've resisted. What good did it make if everyone ended up dead anyway?"
"Yes, that's why we should talk. Open yourself up and share some of this burden with me, mother. Come, I have good news regarding our Highland Home."
We moved to the solar and I gave the guards express orders to not let anyone bother us unless it was either Mona or Madge.
"What are the news?" She asked, half-excited and half-worried.
"First, lie down on the recliner and close your eyes, mom. Now, hold this orb for me. Don't open your eyes and relax."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
She was brimming with tension. Pandora's {Gifted Divinity} aspect started to slowly ease her worries."What now? Is this some sort of prank, my son?"
"No, mom. But before I tell you what it is, tell me about Raswaria. What was it like when you were a child there?"
Raswaria was a highlands country to the north of the capital. It was composed of a flat plateau and rolling hills, with a dry climate. Visibility on the plateau was great as one could see for miles and miles in each direction. The land was fertile and Raswaria never suffered any famine. It had no beaches, though it got adequate rain from the sea. A strip of lowland separated Raswaria from the northwestern coast. The clear skies and dry air, combined with the clouds and lack of obstacles to the west made the sunsets last longer and tint the clouds in shades of red and orange.
If you drew a line north from the Abode of War going all the way across the continent, it would pass over Raswaria after crossing the Dragon Peaks, the world's tallest and widest mountain range.
Unfortunately, it was on the opposite side from Theria, the werewolf country. North of Raswaria was a land of ice and nomadic people, full of dangerous monsters where some Empire nobles liked to go on long hunting expeditions. Some monsters there yielded enchanted furs that were extremely valuable. To the east, a splintering spine of the Dragon Range blocked the passage, separating the Empire from the eastern untamed lands beyond the mountain range.
"I miss home," Rhiannon bemoaned.
"Now, the news. Mom, the System gave me a Quest. It wants me to rebuild Raswaria. At my debutante, the [Emperor] will grant me a territory. Even if it is not Raswaria, I intend to claim it."
Startled, she stood up. Pandora zipped out of her grasp and vanished as the Wisp hid in my soul.
"I never heard about the System giving Quests like that! What happened?"
"One day in the Labyrinth, I claimed Raswaria in jest, the System granted me the title [King-in-Exile] and this quest. I have less than nine and a half years to complete it. But don't worry, I already have everything planned."
She stood and approached me, giving me a hug. "I trust you completely, Percival."
"I need one more thing." Here it comes. "May I help you level up, mom? I have some captured monsters. Let you, Marion, and Amina stay in a room. I stay next room and kill the monsters. You'll share Exp with me so you can earn levels without any risk."
She backed away, clearly afraid of the consequences, "No, it's too dangerous. The [Emperor] knows I have not left the Palace, he'll grow suspicious we have something going on," she rambled, paranoia taking over her. "We need to look as normal as possible to avoid his attention!"
She had this fixed idea of avoiding his attention but that was not possible. If we appeared meek, the Empire would eat us alive and chew the bones for their marrow.
"Mom, look in my eyes. It's fine. Even if the [Emperor] himself comes to give me a physical checkup, he'll never see anything wrong. Even down there. I fixed it. Right now, from head to toe, I'm fully male."
"As it should be, my son. My son," her eyes unfocused as she succumbed to her fantasy. "I had only one son. No daughters. No, no. I didn't give the [Emperor] a daughter."
I threw a Force wall over the door to block it from opening entirely. The last thing I needed was Mona wandering into the room absentmindedly to overhear her birth mother's ramblings. Flag avoided.
"Wouldn't it be even more abnormal if you hadn't gained any levels?" I tried.
And failed miserably, "Oh, no! You're right. We are doomed either way..."
I hugged her and soothed until she calmed down. I had no idea why I couldn't heal her mind as her trauma was too strong for me. I almost used a spell to probe her mind. Almost. How could I do that to my own mother?
Maybe not mental magic but a little goading with the help of the System.
"Unless we gain a few levels! Right now! Let's gather everyone!"
> > Contested Charisma test won.
"Yes, you're probably right," she mumbled. "A few levels won't hurt."
Such was the power of the System.
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The next day, I gathered everyone in the ballroom, leaving Amina, Marion, Rhiannon, and the girls on the balcony. I set everyone as one party as my limit for Exp sharing was half my Charisma score, more than enough for everyone in the Palace.
Enclosing myself in a room made of opaque Force barriers, I started to raise the dead monsters and butcher them until they were no longer able to come back to life. Between kills, I would harvest the bodies of anything valuable as the missing parts would be rebuilt if they didn't represent a significant part of the body. A missing limb or the head? No problem. A few glands, organs, and the Core? Also a non-issue. The Core didn't reappear on every resurrection, however.
It was hard work and it took a lot of time. I spent a month working on the killing and butchering, raising everyone to the second rank on two paths. As they reached level fifty on both paths, they were excused from the room. Each person needed fourteen billion Exp to reach that level on two paths, and to gather that much Exp I had to kill around three thousand monsters. It also bumped me halfway to level 93.
One of the last people to leave the ballroom was Ena. She had a skip on her step, as happy as the day we spent the night together. To someone like her, reaching the second rank was a pipe dream, something unattainable. Yet all she had to do was to sit in a room for several hours for a month.
Finally, it was down to the big three. Or five, as I intended to let the girls gain a level or two out of this. I reformed the party in my interface, inviting all five on the balcony and setting the shared Exp notification to the bare-bones minimum. They would only see "Percival has shared N Exp (multipliers)." That was necessary because I would farm Exp from people as well as the high-level monsters. Also, my brother, her mother, and their knights gloriously ceded their accumulated Exp to strengthen the people important to me.
The three older women reached the 3rd rank in their main path only, while M&M were only bumped up one level. My multipliers at this stage were higher than the disparity between ranks so I stayed twenty levels above them. From there, I brought my mother to the half-point of the 3rd rank.
> You reached Anima Lancer (4th rank) level 18
>
> You gained 15 Attribute Points.
>
> Ultimate Surpasser Granted you 42 Attribute Points.
>
> You gained 10 Strength, 15 Dexterity, 10 Endurance, 10 Mind, 15 Willpower, 5 Charisma, 15 Magic, 10 Ego, 5 Luck, and 5 Soul.
>
> You gained 6 rank 4 Perks.
SIX Perks! What a bounty! I snorted inside full of derision and sarcasm at the shrunk Perk allowance.
And all my effort so far amounted to only 25% of the amount needed for the level cap.
I opened my Perk list to shop for rank 4 Perks. More Imperial goodness with Attributes attached, it seems.
* Imperial Dungeoneer(very rare): +5 Endurance and Willpower. You gain 25% more Exp in the Labyrinth.
* Imperial Armsmaster (very rare): +5 Strength and Dexterity. You gain weapon Proficiencies 5% faster.
* Imperial Vassal (very rare): +5 Charisma and Ego. Improve loyalty of all subjects of your fiefs by three steps so long you are in good standing with the Empire.
* Malleable Tissue (ultra-rare): Increase the effect of your Flesh and Blood spells by 50% on willing subjects (excluding yourself).
* Psychic Therapy (very rare): increase the beneficial effects of your Mind magic by 100% on willing subjects (excluding yourself).
These last two unlocked a new Perk that wasn't on the list. Spoiler alert, it was a trap.
* Anima Surgeon (unique): Your medical, spiritual, mental, and flesh healing techniques can now be used in tandem and with perfect harmony. Increase the effects and costs of healing magic by 200%. Furthermore, you can permanently sacrifice your HP and Energy to impart permanent Perks on willing subjects.
> Anima Surgeon, Fairy Godmother, Progenitor Matriarch, Fae Ancestry, Create Cloth Golem, Centaur Heritor, Aspect of Incarnation, Soul Shepherd, Improved Last Chance, Mass Last Chance, Spirit Pact, Last Chance, Royal Exp Tithing, Noble Specimen, and Elder Elven Kinship combined into Anima Incarnator.
* Anima Incarnator (combined): You can spend Divinity along with (500*Rarity) permanent points of both Energy and HP to grant Perks. You can purify souls by infusing them with your Energy. A purified soul is friendly for 24 hours. You can contract these souls for 200,000 Energy, plus 20,000 per day. Contracted souls can cast magic using your Energy. You can revive purified souls back in their former bodies, reincarnate them at level 0 in a new body you created (costing at least 20,000,000 Energy depending on complexity), or bind them to a golem body if they are willing. Golems or creatures you create or reincarnate (but not revive) gain +2 to all Attributes. Revived creatures have their Strength and Dexterity reduced to 1 for 1 hour (but no other debuffs) and give only 1% of their normal Exp award during that hour. Creatures revived more than once in the previous 12 years lose 1 level. You sense heritage sites and traits at a range of Soul x500 meters. You can create new creatures and species. You gain 1% Exp tithe from your creations and people sworn to you. Increase reaction from your creations and their descendants by ten steps: Star Elf, Silk Creatures, Satyrs, Kin, Rainbow Lamia. You gain an extra 3 reaction steps and may purchase Perks from the following species: Human, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Elf, Kin, Silk-creatures, Lamia, Fae, Sasquatch, Harpy, Scylla, Giant, Mantid-folk.
Another combined Perk of dubious utility. While the losses are more than balanced by the gains, I think they snuck one little tidbit in there to stop another exploit. The 1-hour resurrection sickness now also affects Exp awards.
> Level 98
> Strength*: 168+77 (245) / 188 - Dexterity*: 177+108 (285) / 188 - Endurance*: 168+95 (263) / 188
> Mind*: 150+94 (244) / 188 - Willpower*: 188+94 (282) - Charisma*: 188+103 (291)
> Magic*: 188+77 (265) - Faith*: 113+12 (125) / 188
> Ego*: 188+86 (274) - Luck*: 141+88 (229) / 188 - Soul*: 115+88 (203) / 188
> HP 677.409.781 (9.326.966 HP/s)
> Energy 775.436.050 (1.353.378 E/min)
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[1] - Called "Mario Maker" if you live under a rock with no internet access.