Chapter 25: The Kingdom Grows Quickly

As I flip through the screens, something I have been contemplating finally comes forward in my brain. If what I am thinking is true than starting my kingdom is going to be a lot easier and a lot quicker than I originally planned for. In fact, it might even be a loophole that the Great Game did not plan for. Oh, this could be fantastic. I reach the screen in my kingdom status and select claim new land.

“As the ruler of Appalachia Kingdom you may claim 1 acre of land per unit of mana spent. You can designate borders for your kingdom and have mana drawn out automatically to claim all unclaimed land in that area. If the amount of claimed land exceeds 150% of another person’s claimed area you may choose to annex the already claimed land. The owner has 48 hours to accept the annexation or declare war. If war is not declared annexation happens automatically. How much mana would you like to use?”

This is fantastic. I hoped that there would be some sort of system in place so people just can’t take over everything. However, I found a loophole. I am the only person who can claim land for the next week. No one is left to protest or declare war. I can make my kingdom as large as I want. With my huge mana pool and ridiculous recharge rate I wonder how big it can get?

I go and get a map of the United States. Alright Mark, don’t be a pansy, go big or go home as they say. I mark out a territory that follows the Mississippi river in the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to the Ohio river. Follow that east until you get to the town of Huntington on the borders of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio. Then continue heading East by South East to the tip of the Chesapeake Bay and claim Norfolk. That’s a little more than 8 states worth of territory. Let’s see how long that takes to claim. If I have more time before the end of the week finishes, I may try for the entire Eastern Seaboard.

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I instruct the Great Game system to draw 10,000 mana over a period of 3 minutes and 5 seconds. This will leave me with a few hundred mana for emergencies. I want to see how much territory I can actually claim. It should be 45 million to 50 million acres every 24 hours. That is such a big number that I cannot actually conceptualize it. I am not sure how much space that actually is in real life. I will have to check it after 24 hours and see.

I start cleaning up the castle. The sudden departure of everyone for the trial has caused there to be quite a mess left behind. Wait a second I have vassals in Hidden Valley Village, why am I doing all this work. I was going to check up on them anyway, I might as well head over and see if any of them are willing to help out for a few coins.

I decided to jog over to Hidden Valley Village for two main reasons. 1st is the fact that after several sedentary years of life I can actually run the 5 miles to Hidden Valley Village and 2nd is that running used to help clear my mind and let me think. As I jog towards the village various ideas start rolling through my head. I suddenly feel a sharp pain in my neck. Dang wasps, I reached up and felt something actually sticking out of my neck. I yanked it out and stared at the small arrow.

How did, who is even left, why? No time for questions, react, adapt, and counter attack. I dive behind a tree on the side of the road just as several other arrows start to move in my direction. I manage to crash gracefully behind cover as only a king can and quickly assess the situation.