Due to making a deal with the local government, you have acquired a new quest.

Defeat the Pirates

The Kingdom has been under threat from constant pirate attacks interrupting its shipping lanes. As a new noble of the realm, you are expected to provide levies to help defeat this threat. Due to a deal made with the local Duchess you, in particular, are expected to deploy your frigate towards this.

Objectives:

Remove the pirate threat

Rewards:

Increased favour with your kingdom

Further rewards based on participation

Due to acquiring a damaged capital ship you have acquired a new compound quest.

A ship of your own

While you have gained a frigate through luck and bargaining, it is in a sorry state indeed. Repair, re-arm and man this vessel to bring it back to its full potential.

Objectives:

Repair and Rearm:

Fully repair ship components (0/3723)

Refill missile reserves (0%)

Refill Torpedo reserves (0%)

Refill Fuel Reserves (4%)

Skeleton Crew:

Hire pilot 0/1

Hire chief engineer 0/1

Hire assistant engineers 0/3

Hire communications officer 0/1

Hire sensor operator: 0/3

Hire weapons officer: 0/1

Hire fighter pilots 1/4

Hire gunboat pilot 0/1

Hire fighter support personal: 0/3

Rewards:

A working ship

Due to being granted a noble title, you have acquired a new compound quest

Noblesse Oblige:

You have been granted a startlingly high noble title out of the blue. Many will question whether you have the ability to manage your new lands, and prove them wrong.

Objectives:

Develop your capital village into a city 0/1

Develop three new towns 0/3

Acquire Viscounts 0/3

Develop fifteen villages 0/15

Acquire Barons 0/15

Hire levies to protect your holdings 0/1000

Time Limit:

Five Years

Rewards:

Continued use of your title

It doesn’t ask for much, does it? I thought in shock as I read through quest after quest, each seemingly harder than the last.

While the first one was difficult and vague, it at least wasn’t something that I was expected to do on my own. The entire kingdom would work together to clear out the pirates. This was reflected in my rewards being based on how much I took part.

The next one related to my ship felt more difficult, though it was something I already meant to do. Seeing it all laid out, however, was rather overwhelming. Having over three thousand parts to repair or replace on the ship, and Seventeen new people to hire, was crazy.

Though with the AI I could cut out a few of those, I mused with a sigh. The communications and sensor techs at least will cut it down by four. The only good thing about it was the reward basically promised me that the ship was fully fixable.

Then came the last, and hardest, quest. While it was again something I had already planned on doing, the timeframe for it felt insane. Building up a city, three towns, and fifteen villages in just five years? Where am I even going to get that much population, let alone all the resources to do it?

The rewards for it were concerning as well, when combined with the description, it suggested that my title might be at risk if I didn’t pull it off. I don’t even get anything new! I thought in despair, All of that just to keep what I’ve already got.

I spent a few minutes wallowing in despair about that before I pulled myself together. The game had never given me an impossible quest before, I would just have to hope that this was the same.

And really, it wasn’t like I wouldn't get anything out of it. While I wouldn’t be rewarded directly by the system, I would certainly get a lot out of all that development. Just the land taxes from all of that alone should be a solid chuck of continual income coming in.

That left me with the question of what a compound quest meant, however with no information to be found I had to assume. What I eventually came to was it just meant that the full set of objectives was in a single quest, rather than as part of a series of ongoing ones.

That made me a bit concerned about the pirate one, as it wasn't a compound quest. I couldn't help but worry that there would be more to come after that. Still, it wasn't time for that and I tried to shake those worries off.

All I could do was try my best, and keep pushing forward. On that note, I drew out my latest Elixir and prepared to drink it. Just as I pulled out the stopper, I was interrupted by a notification.

Warning: You cannot gain more stats from enhancements than you have naturally. If you use this elixir at the current moment, some of it will be wasted.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Oh, was all I could think as I stared at the message in shock. While I had kind of registered that there would have to be a limit to using these, I hadn’t really expected to hit it so early.

Though I guess it’s only a temporary limit, I mused as I pulled up my character sheet and started running numbers.

Jared Hope

Class: Psion

Level: 10

XP: 900/5500

Statistics:

Brawn: 9

Toughness: 37

Agility: 9

Perception: 9

Mind: 25

Will: 35

Free points: 0

Skills:

Archeology level 2

Translation level 2

Pistols level 3

Psi Sense Level 4

Light Blades Level 1

Technokinesis Level 4

Packmaster Level 2

Skin Hardening level 2

Scouting level 2

Ethereal Roots level 2

Traits:

General:

Database of Alien Languages

Psionic Abilities:

Skin Hardening (Initiate)

Ethereal Roots (Initiate)

Greater Psionic Abilities:

Technokinesis (Master)

Status:

Uninjured

Full Energy Well

So I gain seven points per level naturally. Two Toughness, Two Will, one Mind, and two free points. That means that I currently have seventy natural points. Each time I take an elixir, it gives me three points in each stat or eighteen points in total.

Four times eighteen would be seventy-two, so I’m just short of being able to utilize it fully. While it would have been nice to have the boost now, If I just had to wait for a single level, then it wasn’t worth wasting any points.

Then it would be another two levels till I could use a fifth, even if I managed to get another one. Still, it at least meant that there weren’t any super-rich players out there with thousands of stat points from elixirs or cybernetics, avoiding that was worth a bit of a wait.

Placing the elixir back in my pack, I pulled myself up and dusted my clothes off. I had gotten through pretty much everything that had been stacking up, and it was time to check out my new domain.

I was soon making my way down the boarding ramp of the ship, where I found Brian waiting for me.

“Jared!,” he practically shouted at me as he waved his hands around. “I should have known this had something to do with you when the young lass walked out of the ship. What’s going on? I nearly dropped my beer when you went and landed right next to my cabin.”

A glance over to my right indeed showed Brian’s little fishing cabin, right next to his VTOL. It seemed like the military pilot had dropped us off right near the edge of time, and thus right next to where Brian had set up.

“Ah sorry about dropping in like that,” I said with a wince. “I didn’t think when I asked the pilot to take me to the village, we should have landed further out. But yeah, this is kind of my ship now.” I finished, gesturing back toward the frigate.

I almost laughed at his shocked look, like he didn’t know what to think. It took him nearly a minute to pull himself together enough to speak.

“What the hell, laddie? I know you’ve been doing a lot to help the city, but they don’t just go handing out capital ships to anyone who asks. You just got here! And I don’t even recognize that model.”

“Oh, yeah,” I muttered, as I floundered for a moment. Then I remembered that the Duchess had planned to tell everyone anyway, so it probably wasn’t a big deal to tell him the details. “It’s old Arkathian tech, I found a few of them and the Duchess let me keep one of them.”

I had thought that Brian looked shocked before, but it was nothing to what he looked like now. Given that I had to make it to my meeting, I decided to try and pull his attention back.

“Anyway, you said you were trained to fly a cruiser, right? Well, it’s not one of those, but I’d like to offer you a job as the pilot, anyway.” While I might be able to find a newly trained pilot at whatever academy the kingdom used, I had a feeling that graduates from there would be in high demand soon.

Besides that, Brian had been competent and helpful to me ever since I arrived. It just felt right to offer him the position and it would get me someone that I already knew I could trust.

There was something I should probably tell him first though. “Just so you know,” I continued, with a bit of a wince. “There was a cruiser found as well, so you might want to go for that job instead.”

Brian’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally burst out laughing. “Nah, that job will go to some new hotshot from the academy I would bet. No one wants a washed-up old veteran like me.”

“Well,” he continued with a shake of his head and a grin. “No one but you, it seems, Jared. I think you're crazy for asking, but I’ll be happy to take the job anyway. I’ll need to see about getting a refresher course or something.

“Great!” I said with an answering grin before moving forward to shake his hand. “Oh, and if you have any buddies who were trained as well, could you refer them to me? I need three more fighter pilots and a fourth for a gunboat about the size of your VTOL.”

He tilted his head In thought, before nodding. “I know a couple of guys, two or three maybe. I’ll contact them and forward your details.”

We spent another minute chatting before I left, promising to tell him the full story over a few drinks sometime. Unable to stop myself from messing with him, I threw a few words over my shoulder as I left.

“Oh, and just so you hear about it from me first. I’m a Count now, lord of all the lands around here. The Duchess promoted me for finding all the ships.”

This time I couldn’t help myself from laughing at the spluttering sounds coming from behind me. Maybe I could have some fun with this, even with all the hard work that lay ahead.

We had landed less than a mile from the village and I soon entered the outskirts proper. While it was hard to tell for sure, I thought there were probably about four or five hundred people working and living here now.

I could see several ships out on the lake, while more were already unloading their catch. Seeing this, I made a note to make sure we didn’t end up overfishing the area. I was going to be overseeing these lands for a long time and I didn’t want our first industry to dry up.

The village itself seemed to have descended into a mountain of speculation, with people whispering to each other on every street corner. That was something that I would have to rectify as soon as I met with their leader, the people here deserved to have a clear idea of what was going on.

The details that Linnea had sent me brought me to the middle of the village, where a larger hall-style building had been erected. It certainly hadn’t been here the last time I checked the growing village out, so I took it as a good sign that the area was developing.

In my mind, at least, you didn’t construct a community building like that unless you had met all your basic needs. Hopefully, it means whoever has been running things so far is competent, I mused with a grin.

In an ideal world, I would find someone like that to continue growing this village into a town, while I just provided the resources and the big-picture direction. I already had ideas of where I wanted to take the area, but I didn’t want to get bogged down in everyday administration.

I had far too much exploration to do for that. Particularly with the ridiculous requirements my noblesse oblige quest had inflicted on me. Even ignoring the fact that I had to build them all, I still had to find fifteen villages and three town locations.

That was for later, however, and I put those thoughts aside as I walked up to the doors.

It hadn’t been long since I had learned that I would be running this area but ideas had already started coming to me. While it was far from complete, I had an initial vision of where I would like to take the village.

It was time to put that vision into motion.