The first thing Daz did after leaving the keep, was adding all of the new taxation laws as well as the bank savings law.
The punishment he had set was 7-days of community service in the mines or as a builder should a citizen fail to deposit the required 5% of all earned merit points into their accounts.
As for the taxes, since they were mandatory, should someone purchase a skill or upgrade from the system that lessened their taxes or excluded them from them, then they would be subjected to a month of community service.
Should either of these laws be broken more than three times by the same person, then half of the offender's merit points would be forcefully seized and added to the merit points of Fort Skip and they would be required to perform community service for a minimum of a year.
Once he had done that, Daz went and bought the upgrade for the keep that he'd promised Crosius.
Of course, he hadn't spent a fortune on a full-size upgrade of the building, but only on hiring more advisors, servants, chefs, and creating the extra room on the first floor for the sole purpose of testing people's potential.
Naturally, he added the tax to that as well like he had said he would. With all of that done, Daz checked Fort Skip's merit points and its base points before he left for Waterford.
The total merit balance of [Fort Skip] is now 11,854,200 [-200,000].
The total base balance of [Fort Skip] is now: 1,013,800 [-30,000].
As it turned out, each individual new law that Daz added actually wasn't that pricey. Most of the costs had come from the keep's new room.
Anyway, regardless of that, Daz was now standing outside of the teleportation station in the centre of the now-barren city of Waterford. He was holding his chin in one hand and his elbow in the other.
"I guess we don't need to be overzealous about housing since Sandy and his crew are working on that, so I should make more industrial and governmental buildings, right? Maybe entertainment buildings with grand rewards?" Daz asked himself.
He cocked his head to the side and strained his mind for a bit. "I don't really need a command centre since Fort Skip has its keep... Hmm... System, what buildings would you recommend for me? I'm sure there are plenty of fantastical ones like the teleportation station that I and Waterford could really use, right?"
Confirmed. The system would suggest you purchase any of these buildings: [The Inn of Dreams], [Lord Kushine's Establishment of Care], [Adjustable Repeatable Dungeon] or [The Arena of Forged Kings].
Daz raised an eyebrow. "Those all sound very interesting. Show me all of them, please, System."
Confirmed. Displaying desired city upgrades.
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After about 20-minutes of probing his instincts and thinking about the future, Daz had decided on two of the four options to buy.
He was regretful that Waterford didn't have more city points to go around, but there was very little he could do about that when it only had a total population of slightly under 1,000 people.
He had chosen the two buildings; Adjustable Repeatable Dungeon, and The Arena of Forged Kings.
Physical City Upgrade [Average] Adjustable Repeatable Dungeon Description
Wow. Just, wow... You really have a thing for dungeons, huh? First the sex one, uh, I mean, 'temporary living quarters for new citizens', then the ones you sent that loser general out to hunt, and now you're gonna make one a mainstay feature of your home city? Well, it's your choice. It's not a wise one, nor a good one, but it's certainly your one.
Upgrade Upon completion of the dungeon, the host will be rewarded with one of the following: [1-100 randomly allocated stat points], [a stat limit increase of 1-10 points to a random stat], [a random F to B-ranked item]. Price 5,000,000(1,250,000) Merit Points. 250,000 City Points.
This building looked almost like an adventurer's guild ripped straight out of a fantasy story. It came fully equipped with over 20 staff members who would regulate entry and charge a fee of 5,000 merit points to any who wished to challenge its dungeon.
Death was impossible inside of it, and, instead, upon being defeated, you would get teleported to the building above the surface. The dungeon itself was underneath the top-side structure and was entirely adjustable to the host's preferences, but the easier the host made it, the fewer rewards they would receive and the less likely they'd be to get a good reward like a stat limit increase.
Of course, the challenger's luck and fate would apply as well. It was entirely possible to complete the dungeon on the hardest possible difficulty but still only get rewarded with a single stat point.
Daz felt that this would be a good attraction and distraction for the adventurous and powerful survivors of Earth under his rule. He, for one, planned to make full use of the fact that rewards could be obtained once per day.
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Physical City Upgrade [Average] The Arena of Forged Kings Description
Well, it certainly beats using the training grounds of the barracks for all of your fights with the big burly lady, but come on, compensating for something much? Just because your old man controls Italy and has fixed up the Flavian Amphitheatre, that doesn't mean that you have to build an even bigger one.
You'll have to learn this when Madison leaves you eventually, my friend, but size, does not, in fact, always matter.
Upgrades Is the home of 1,500 spectators and 400 gladiators of varying strengths. For a fee of 10,000 merit points, the host may learn one of the following skills: [Basic Dirty Fighting], [Basic Crowd Engagement], [Basic Gladiatorial Combat Tactics], [Basic Teamwork], [Basic Bloodlust]. For a fee of 1,000 merit points, the host may use the arena to spar with the gladiators or with another host. Price 5,000,000(1,250,000) Merit Points. 250,000 City Points.
'I really hate that description writer. What the hell does he know? Maddy will never leave me just like how I'll never leave her... But still, Father fixed up the colosseum, did he? I see...' Daz thought as he looked at the massive building that was easily the same size as the entire inner-fort of Fort Skip and a good chunk of the middle-fort.
"System, how're my merit points and Waterford's City points looking now?" Daz asked.
Confirmed. The total merit balance of the host is now: 117,276,990 [-2,500,000].
The total city balance of [Waterford] is now 0 [-500,000].
Stroking his chin, Daz said out loud, "I wonder if I should just buy that upgrade that'll let me transfer Fort Skip's merit points to Waterford? Hmm... I probably shouldn't. Merit points aren't really an obstacle now that I have so many being generated passively, it's the base and city points that're the issue... Coming Monday I guess I'll buy the next size upgrade for Waterford, a wall, and roads."
With that decided, Daz nodded his head. "Fort Skip isn't in a desperate need of anything, so I'll build up its base points for when I need them, but Fort Sky is another matter entirely. Well, this is a good chance to test out my new car, huh?"
'Car? You got one? When?' Reika, having had her interest piqued at Daz's mumblings for once, asked curiously.
Daz glanced up at her with a disbelieving gaze. "This morning. Were you not there in the throne room as I used up my SSS-ranked Item Token?"
Reika's face was filled with realisation as she smacked her closed fist on her open palm. 'Ah!... No. We were asleep...'
"To think that even the dead can sleep..." the reaper muttered with a sigh before he withdrew the key to the Ridomochi Final Model from his Lesser Item Box.
He gave the incredibly ornate and rune-covered key a quick glance before he thrust it into the air in front of him and twisted it.
A small and very satisfying clicking sound rang out and then suddenly, a vehicle materialised only a couple of feet away from Daz.
It had no visible wheels and was perfectly hovering off of the ground. It looked quite futuristic, but oddly enough, it wasn't silver or chrome in colour as one might expect from something so alien looking. In fact, it was a two-tone car. Its primary colour was a very deep navy blue, while its secondary was a black as dark as night.
"Wow... It's certainly nice to look at... It kinda resembles a super sports car... Hmm... I was never really into cars... I bet Rose'll love this thing though. It's a shame she's too busy to ride in it for its first time being driven - I'm assuming it's brand new, anyway. But yeah, this should be fun," Daz said to himself.
He opened the car's door and stepped into the driver-seat which was, thankfully, on the left side. While the car clearly flew and didn't actually need to drive on roads, it'd still be a little bit jarring to suddenly switch to right-hand-side driving after being used to left-hand-side driving.
As promised, the comfort of the car's interior was simply out of this world. It would be a crime to say that anything could even possibly come close to being as comfortable as sitting in the Ridomochi Final Model.
'If Maddy wasn't so perfect to cuddle, I'd seriously consider sleeping in this thing...' With that thought in his mind, Daz started the car and flew up to Fort Skip at a reasonable speed of only 50-miles per hour.
He wasn't prepared to fly it any faster than that. It was an incredibly durable vehicle, but he still didn't want to risk crashing it or losing control of it. He doubted that he had high enough stats to even see where he was going without using the car's built-in GPS feature if he went any faster than a few hundred-miles-per-hour, so 50 was fine for now as far as Daz was concerned.
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Daz was able to drive right through Fort Sky's barrier since it recognised him as the city's owner, so he quickly landed his new car in the central plaza.
Upon getting out, he could immediately hear an argument coming for the direction of GriD CrosS.
"HA! Told you! I knew it was the king!" the childish purple gem yelled.
Avulaway - the leader of the people living here, the avianoids - wore an unimpressed face. "Regardless of if you were right, you did not need to be so immature. I was merely worried that we were under attack since an unidentified vehicle managed to get so close to us."
GriD CrosS hardly cared about her opinion. Now that his king and owner was here, he completely blanked the silver-winged woman. "Hi, Daz! Need me to take you somewhere?"
Daz sighed when he saw the mildly infuriated expression on Avulaway's face. "No, not right now, but thank you for the offer, Grid. I appreciate it."
"I-It's only natural, sin-since it's my job!" GriD CrosS wasn't great at responding to honest thanks, quite clearly.
Avulaway sighed under her breathe then smiled politely at Daz and bowed. "It's nice to see you, My King."
'Is it?' Daz asked sarcastically with his inside voice since he could tell that the woman was lying. "Likewise. I assume you two were arguing since you were worried I was a threat?"
"Indeed. I did not recognise your car, so intended to shoot it down, but the Gravitation Distortion Crystal Sphere-"
"GriD CrosS!" the jewel in question shouted.
After a very brief moment of silence, Avulaway continued, "But the Gravitation Distortion Crystal Sphere insisted that you were driving it, and overrode my access to the Manual Hyperial Laser Defense System. I see now that it was right, but I disagree with its handling of the situation. It was well within its capabilities to show me a hologram of the car up close, which would have shown me your face, My King, but instead, it chose to act immaturely."
Daz shook his head softly. "It's fine now, isn't it? I've already told Grid to never let anyone inside Fort Sky unless they are me or are with me. I trust his judgement, can't you too?"
"... Of course, My King," Avulaway responded.
GriD CrosS hummed lightly. "A good mas-, ahem, a good king knows how to trust his citizens, which includes me!"
Ignoring the loud crystal, Daz looked at the leader of the avianoids and asked, "Anyway, I came here to spend Fort Sky's city points since you guys count as actual citizens unlike most people brought along with system purchases, so I was wondering if there was anything in particular that you needed? You know this city better than I do."
Avulaway looked surprised. Her wings flapped in agitation slightly as she quickly opened her mouth to grab a hold of this unexpected opportunity. "Indeed, My King. There is, in fact, something that Fort Sky requires..."