fics I read

This new hydra pouch was officially my favorite thing in the world. Not only could it hold pretty much anything, it basically resized things as they went in and out. I expected to have some trouble getting things in there but I was able to just shove the pouch into the bottom of a pile and fill the damn thing up. I was able to get everything into the pouch and then slip it back on my belt with Cherry's help, and by the time we were done there wasn't even a spare coin left in the treasury. I subvocally asked. "Hey Crassus, what's my GP at right now?"

[A hundred and twenty thousand or so. I forgot how quick you can top up when you're clearing out a storehouse. I raided a few places like this too, and they're usually good for a quick boost. Sadly the force you cleared out was pretty poor in the grand scheme of things. The gold coins didn't count towards your total because they're money, and they only had a handful of F ranked items. The rest was a mix of G or lower, though quantity is a quality all its own.]

That was actually pretty respectable. I could do quite a bit with that kind of point total as long as I didn't go crazy and splurge on huge purchases. I'd seen a few of the F ranked items as I was putting them in the pouch, and there were a couple real gems in there. No pun intended.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Bloodstone of Emerald- F rank. A stone filled with the concentrated essence of several weaker members of the emerald bloodline. A vessel prepared to allow for the purification of a member of the house of emerald to help their bloodline reach a new level of power.]

That one was interesting. It seemed like the big man in charge of the Emerald Edge wanted to pump up his powers a bit. He'd been killing off thin blooded house members when he got his hands on them to slowly create this gem for that purpose. Considering the bastard children of the bloodline apparently mostly ended up here it wasn't a surprise that he'd managed to get so many of them. Cherry had said the big boss was F rank, so I was assuming he needed to get this thing to E before he could use it to strengthen himself.

Aside from that though there, were a few other things that caught my eye as I was stuffing everything in the pouch. I hadn't appraised everything, I didn't have that kind of time, but Cherry pointed out a few of the more magically powerful items as we were packing everything up and I'd made a point to give them a once over just in case there was anything really good.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Hammer of the Broken Sky- F rank. A powerful war maul wielded by the Tiger's Eye Tyrant in ages past. Broken in battle with the Malachite Monarch this ancient weapon still possesses remnants of its owners legendary strength. With a single swing the hammer can shatter even the air itself, creating massive blasts of wind and concussive force that can strike enemies even yards away.]

That was pretty fucking awesome. Not to mention the thing was absolutely humongous. Like, even I would have to put some effort into swinging it. The head was about the size of my torso and my hands barely fit around the haft. It was honestly too unwieldy for me to tote around in combat, but Waylon was a decent amount bigger than I was even in human form, and I was betting it would be perfect for him. If not maybe Sally could use it, though I wasn't sure her hands would fit around it comfortably.

The one last F ranked item I'd bothered looking at (there were actually a few more they just hadn't really caught my eye) was a bit more understated. It wasn't exactly the most impressive item around here, but it was pretty uniquely suited for my situation and it was definitely something I was interested in testing out. It was a red crystal cup, a goblet really, that almost glowed with power.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Carmine Chalice- F rank. A vessel of sanguine power forged by the Baron of Blood, Gemworld's most notorious vampire. The Carmine Chalice possesses the power to imbue the blood of its owner into the body of the drinker. Used by the Baron to create his army of empowered thralls, the chalice grows with use, becoming more powerful the more blood is shed into its crystalline depths.]

This was perfect for me. It imbued the power in the blood to the drinker in a more direct way that allowed them to retain the strength. Granted it was F rank so I was guessing the effect wasn't going to be amazing, but given my insanely powerful blood, it should be good enough to get me a few ranked up villagers, not to mention it made thralls out of the drinkers, which in my case should effectively Brand them directly. I literally couldn't have asked for a better artifact to build up my kingdom.

I was assuming the Baron had died before he could get much use of the thing, or he hadn't been very strong, because the damn cup could grow, and if it had been used as much as I was planning to it would be MUCH stronger. Still, it would most likely take a while to get it to E rank. Once we'd cleared it all out I turned to Cherry. "Ok. This was...productive." She licked her lips subconsciously, clearly remembering the blowjob top up. "Now we just need to finish scouting, and then we can work on taking out the locals."

She raised a hand as if in a classroom. "About that. I had another idea that might be more helpful. Why not absorb them like you did with my crew? Just kill off the leader and keep the rest of them. You'd have to put them in their place and keep an eye on them but bandits aren't really known for their loyalty or dependability. There's a pretty decent chance just eliminating the boss and offering them a place to live would be enough to get their support, even without showing off Waylon's terror croc form to dissuade them from getting any ideas."

I couldn't really argue with that. There were only ten G rankers, which meant a bunch of H rankers to test my new cup on, and once we cleared out the big boss any of the G rankers should be cake for me. "That's a good idea. But how do we separate him from the others to take him out? I guess we could wait and kill him in his sleep. I wouldn't have any trouble putting someone like that down when he was unconscious."

She shook her head. "I don't think that's the way to play it. I think you should lean into their current structure. Just bust the door down and challenge him for control. Granted the G rankers might try to cheat and step in, but even if you couldn't swat them like flies I'm still here to help. I can keep them out of the battle if need be. Though it might not even come up, the boss might consider single combat a way to save face. If that happens he'd probably attack you head on to prove his power. He might now even let the others try to intervene."

It was a decent plan. Granted it could go wrong, but hell, if that happened I would just kill all of them like I'd planned in the first place and I wouldn't lose anything. "Alright, since you're the one who came up with the plan I'll let you handle our entrance. Try to make sure we leave and impression, but other than that you can be the one to decide how we bust in." Personally I was partial to blowing a big hole in the wall and stalking into the room, but Cherry clearly had her ideas about how this was going to go so I'd let her do her best to impress me.

She grinned and held up a hand. "Ooh! I love making an entrance. Give me a bit to scope out the feast hall and we can see what I can come up with." She bolted from the room, so excited she passed right through the wall of the hallway after exiting the big ass double doors. She spent a few minutes scoping out the place, and given her stealth skills, her phantom lady abilities, and the fact that ninety percent of these assholes were still at dinner I wasn't too worried about her getting caught, finally she came back, excitement shining on her face. "I have the perfect entrance in mind! Follow me!"

There wasn't much point in dragging my feet now that I'd cleaned out their treasury so I did, trailing along behind her through a few halls, then up a short flight of stairs until we got to a seemingly innocuous hallway. She grinned. "Ok, now you just need to bust through the floor..." She trailed off, grabbing my shoulders and moving me over to stand above a specific place. "Here. But just so you know, there's going to be a bit of a drop once you get through, so brace for that."

I raised an eyebrow, expecting a bit more, but apparently she wanted this to be a surprise so I figured I'd just go with it. After that I just had to get through the actual floor. I considered just smashing through with my foot or something, but I'd come through a bit at a time and it would look like shit. I took the time to crouch down, shift into my lifestorm form, and slowly dig out a circle in the stone with my claws. Not all the way through, but enough to create a stress point. Then I stood back up and shifted back, just so I didn't give anything away.

I took a deep breath and nodded to Cherry, then hopped up into the air, and as I came down, slammed my feet into the partially carved out circle of stone. As expected, the circle was punched out of the ceiling instead of breaking, since I held back quite a bit. I rode the thing down through the hall below it, and was still standing on it when it smashed into the table. Surprisingly the table itself actually held up under the impact of two hundred plus pounds of muscular wyrmkin and who knew how many of dark heavy stone, but that didn't matter.

I didn't pay too much attention to that, I was too busy looking the slight man in the throne on front of me in the eye. The green haired, bearded wisp of a man was staring right at me. I almost face palmed. Of course she thought it would be awesome to drop me literally five feet from the boss. I shrugged internally and just went with it. She wasn't wrong. I could work with this. I glared up at the boss man, though not far up because I was tall as shit and standing on a table, and even the stage under his throne didn't give him that much height on me.

He glared back, but before he could speak I boomed out, in my most intimidating voice. "I'm here to challenge you for leadership of the Emerald Edge! Will you accept and test your worth? Or will you prove yourself a coward in front of all your men?" I really hoped he accepted, I would be annoyed to waste all these potential experimental subject-er minions. Either way, I jumped down off the table and stalked up onto the dais. If he did try to mob me maybe I could put him down first and avoid having to kill too many of them.

February 10th 2016 Gemworld 6:00 PM EDT

I'd honestly expected the big boss to be...bigger. Or more bosslike. Or just more impressive in general because I honestly wasn't seeing it. The guy was youngish, probably only a bit older than me, six feet at the most, and kind of thin. His green hair was tousled in that kind of careless way that makes it clear he spent at least an hour on it, though I wasn't exactly sure how that worked in a fantasy world. Did they have gel here? Regardless, his stupid goateed mouth (which was black for some reason and not green despite his hair obviously being natural) was set in a scowl of challenge, and he was clearly itching to fight me. I gave him a quick appraisal.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Malcolm MacDougal- F ranked Scion of Emerald. The bastard son of a minor Emerald noble, Malcolm was born with a higher than average concentration of the Emerald bloodline. Despite this, he lacked the power of any legitimate Emerald heirs and was cast aside by his father's wife. Feeling sympathy for his illegitimate son, Malcolm's father arranged a place for him in the Emerald Edge, where most of the nobles unloaded their bastard offspring, and through ruthlessness and cunning, Malcolm eventually rose the position of leader.]

Huh. I'd known he was F ranked, but I hadn't expected that to come with so much baggage. I'd gotten most of this from Barbie's breakdown on the situation as she knew it, but still, it was impressive he'd managed to get to the top of this snake pit. Unfortunately, Malcolm was exactly the kind of ambitious go getter I DID NOT want working for me. Ambition is fine when it's tempered by pragmatism, but the ceaseless drive to get to the top is the worst possible quality someone like me can see in an employee. I wasn't absolutely certain I had no choice but to kill him, but hell, better safe than sorry.

With me standing on a big ass table and being easily several inches taller to start with, Malcolm didn't have a chance of coming across as more imposing. Surprisingly though, he didn't try. He raised an eyebrow imperiously at me. "Are you worthy?" I had to admit. I was impressed. The sheer disdain in his tone was almost palpable. It was the smart move too, I'd put him on the back foot, pushed the impetus to him, and most people would have taken the bait, but by tossing the issue back my way, he made it my job to prove I was good enough to fight him rather than the opposite.

Unfortunately for him, I was much better at this game than he was. I hopped down from the table with a grin, spreading my hands to show I was unarmed. "Does it matter?" His raised eyebrow furrowed in confusion, clearly not seeing where I was going with this. Good. I turned the the crowd of bandits, I did so love to play to an audience. "Does it matter who I am? I don't know how bandits work here, but where I'm from, a leader has to be willing to defend his position at a moments notice. If one of you decided to challenge him, would he get away with claiming you had to meet some standard before he'd agree?"

The bandits looked contemplative, and also slightly amused, presumably because they were in the middle of dinner and were enjoying the entertainment, so I kept going. "Unless I'm wrong about how you do things. As far as I know bandits choose their leaders from among the strongest. Or is a coincidence this kid in charge of you happens to have the most power here? I say I have more power." I turned to him with a grin. "Whether I'm worthy or not will be decided by who lives and who dies."

His eyes narrowed. The little brat was pretty sharp, but I'd been literally raised to handle people, especially groups of them. Business was a battlefield, and the old man gave me all the weapons I needed to succeed. Just because I hadn't really gotten into my role when I was younger didn't mean I didn't listen. Some jumped up little nobody had a long way to go before he was in a position to out bullshit someone like me. I did a lot of things well, but the thing I did better than anyone else was talk.

I could see him realize he was boxed in. Tricks aside I was right. My strength was what was in question here, and I would obviously be proving that in battle. Once I'd pinned him down any further sophistry would just make him look like he was floundering and weaken his position. Since he wasn't an idiot he decided to just cut his losses. He stood regally, or at least as regally as someone in his early twenties really can, which honestly wasn't that regally except by comparison, and gestured outside. "Then shall we take this outdoors? I'd hate to ruin the dining hall while I'm killing you."

He sounded damn confident in himself. Of course being an F ranker I could imagine why, he had plenty of warriors around but hadn't seen anyone close to his own level. He was complacent. But I wasn't. Being F ranked might put him in my weight class but it didn't mean I knew his tricks. My only real advantage was all the loot I'd grabbed from the treasury. I had several powerful weapons if I needed them, and he had no idea. Still, I was definitely going to have to keep my eyes peeled for tricks.

I followed him outside, impressed he was willing to show me his back, but I didn't take the bait. He would definitely have something set up for that and breaking the sanctity of the duel would give him a reason to have everyone dogpile me. While I was sure I could take them I'd have to murder several of my potential experimental subjects, which I was not going to do if I had a choice.

We stepped out into the clearing in front of the fortress, all the bandits following, still holding beaten metal plates covered in food they were snacking on even as they trailed behind. Finally we reached a spot about a dozen yards from the front entrance (we'd come out a side door off the main gate, which I assumed they didn't want to raise for no reason) and Malcolm came to a stop, grinning at me cockily. I didn't like his grin. I DID like the possibility of slapping it off his stupid smug face though, so I figured I'd let him babble.

As expected, he took up a dramatic pose (points for style, negative points for dragging things out) and began to speak. "I imagine you aren't familiar with the Emerald bloodline or our magics." I sighed internally. Great. A monologue. Which meant he had some sort of annoying ace up his sleeve. No one ever monologues before a fair fight. You only monologue before you deliver someone a righteous ass kicking. "Since you've clearly come from far away, allow me to be the first to welcome you to the Emerald Dominion." There was a thump.

At first I thought it was an earthquake and that he had some kind of geokinesis, but then a few seconds later there was another thump. The leaves on the trees shook like a candle flame in a windstorm, and I finally figured out what was going on. My internal sigh became an external one as another thump sounded. Something was walking. Something fucking huge. Malcolm clearly knew I'd realized it too, because he was grinning like a loon, even as the shaking became more and more pronounced.

I saw the trees jerk a little way off and a cloud of birds streaked off into the air in fright. They were followed by more birds as the shaking trees got closer and closer, forming an obvious path, and I was able to easily tell how immense the asshole in the trees was but the way the trees were shuddering. Maybe not an exact size, but whatever was coming was huge. Finally the shaking grew close enough to reach the edge of the forest, and a pair of massive trees were shoved aside to make way for an absolutely colossal form as it emerged from the foliage.

Malcolm grinned even wider, so wide I was honestly worried his face may split. "Bear witness challenger, to the fabled empathic animal control of the Emerald bloodline." The form has been in shadow, but it finally emerged, bright sunlight draped over...fur. Lots of fur. A very specific and obvious pattern of fur that I had not been expecting. Malcolm gloated maniacally as a fucking panda bear emerged from the woods, lumbering on its back legs and big enough to lay down lengthwise in an olympic swimming pool and touch both ends if it stretched out its arms.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Thunk- F rank Giant Panda. A normal panda Malcolm found as a cub and slowly imbued with Emerald magic, Thunk is absolutely loyal to his master. Surprisingly easily frightened by anything that can actually manage to hurt him, he is also prone to playing dead when threatened.]

I just blinked. At the giant panda. Just...standing there. I ignored what I suspected was a terrible pun (bear witness was too on the nose to be an accidental slip of the tongue) and looked at Malcolm. He was smiling smugly at me, and honestly I didn't blame him. A giant ass bear was a hell of a trump card, even if it was a panda. Still, it was F rank, so I was pretty sure I could handle it. Malcolm's smug expression was pretty short lived, because he wasn't the only one that could be intimidating.

I shifted into my wyrmkin form. The antlers emerged from my head and the scales washed over my skin as I felt my claws emerge from my fingers. Lightning played over my body as the storm inside me raged over my skin, mixing and combining with my mantle of raiden into an even more potent defense, or at least a more obvious one. I grinned at the Emerald lordling, and I let him get a good look at my razor sharp teeth, perfect for tearing into flesh and snapping bone, as I took a step toward him.

He inched back, clearly not at all comfortable with the turn the situation had taken. To my surprise the bear backed up too. I made a mental note of that. I'd prefer to keep the bear. It was kind of awesome, and I'd never been an animal abuser. People were dicks, but animals were pretty cool. I'd still eat them obviously, but I was perfectly fine letting random farm workers do the actual killing. Plus I heard bear meat tasted like shit anyway.

Regardless, I was hoping to put down the noble and add the bear to my collection. Worst case I could just have Waylon show it who was boss. His full sized terror croc form was also huge, and probably way stronger. I turned to Malcolm, ready to end things. I was curious what he was going to do. He'd shown himself to be slightly competent, so I wondered if seeing me draconic features would be enough to shake his confidence.

Which was why I was absolutely floored when he stared at me in absolute terror for about thirty seconds before throwing up his hands. "Nope. I surrender. I don't want any of this nonsense. I'm not fighting a dragonkin." I...froze. I didn't know what to do. I had absolutely no plan for how to handle this situation. I'd been about to kill him but now...I didn't have any idea. What the fuck had just happened? I turned to see the rest of the bandits all kneeling, clearly offering their supplication. I was pretty sure I had missed something here.

February 10th 2016 Gemworld 7:00 PM EDT

"So you're saying dragons are a big deal here?" I was sitting in Malcolm's throne inside the fortress, with all the bandits staring at me raptly as they crowded around me. I was still transformed, since they seemed to be responding to my antlers and scales, but honestly the abrupt change in attitude that came with my shift was kind of jarring. As I thought over it again though, I supposed it kind of made sense. In a magical fantasy world dragons must be apex predators. Being a person with that kind of power would definitely give someone a pretty decent reputation boost.

Malcolm, who seemed almost giddy to be around me, grinned and nodded eagerly. "Extremely, sir. Dragonkin are considered pinnacle existences here. You have to understand that dragons on their own are among the few creatures capable of standing up to powerful pureblood nobles. A human with the capabilities of a dragon is considered a perfect blend of strength and intellect." I was actually wyrmkin to be fair, but I wasn't going to tell any of these people that. Their obedience was useful to me. No need to go running my mouth off.

I was interested in what he said about the nobility though. "How do pureblood nobles stack up to you? You seem pretty strong, you're not a pureblood though. Is it really that big of a difference?" Figuring I might as well get this out of the way since it was bound to come up with me asking all these questions I added."I'm not from Gemworld. But is there really that big of a difference?" I was curious if the whole bloodline thing was legit or just a way the nobles stayed in power. Malcolm probably wasn't top tier or anything, but if he was able to reach F rank he had to be at least slightly impressive.

To my surprise though, the question only elicited a harsh laugh from him. "Oh trust me, there is. In terms of ability I haven't exactly been sticking to traditional paths. I've been cheating a bit to increase my power. I sacrifice those who challenge me to harvest their bloodlines. In exchange I've managed to elevate my bloodline to a more powerful state, bringing me to a point where I can be considered as strong as a member of the nobility" When I heard that, I had a sneaking suspicion I knew where this was going.

Sure enough, as he kept talking a pattern I recognized emerged. "Still, only a lesser noble is comparable. I'm roughly as powerful as a Viscount at the moment, though my strength will reach the level of an Earl soon enough. I've elevated several of my people to roughly the level of a Baron through similar measures." Which confirmed my guess. The levels of nobility here roughly corresponded with ranks as far as the system was concerned.

That actually made a lot of sense. Ranks were mostly based on a specific scale, and it wasn't exactly insane that there were other systems that worked similarly. The system's appraisal wasn't really worth much if it wasn't accurate, and someone else had to have managed to suss out a similar way of identifying things. I wanted to know more about this though. I also made a note to talk to Levka, since he was apparently on the level of a minor noble. That could just be a factor of his value as a smith though. Maybe craftsmen were ranked differently? Still, I figured it didn't hurt to ask. "Can you tell me more about the nobles?"

Malcolm's face twisted in annoyance. "The differences between the power of each noble rank is distinct. The Kings and Queens are obviously the strongest. But there aren't any of them active anymore. The great nobles have mostly faded from the world. The current dynasties are ruled by Princesses and Lords. Below them are Dukes, then Marquis, then Earls, then Viscounts, then finally Barons. Barons are barely considered nobility, bastards and particularly powerful thin bloods are usually at about this level."

Which meant that he'd managed to elevate a dozen of his obviously thin blooded bandits to the rank of minor nobility with that blood sacrifice gem, but they weren't on a level of an actual threat. Still, it meant they wanted to move up in the world, which I could work with. People were infinitely easier to control if you knew their motivation. It also meant I was going to need to rethink my approach with Malcolm. He was ambitious and driven, which would have been an issue, but his obvious hatred of the nobility gave me a level to use to keep him in line.

I also needed to get stronger. Amethyst was a princess. Which granted could mean either the daughter of a king or the daughter of a Duke (at least if nobility worked like it did on earth), but even if she was the latter that would put her at probably Marquis level and thus, if I was understanding the system right, D rank. I was assuming she wasn't the capital P Princess because that would make her fucking B rank and therefore completely beyond my ability to fuck with. If needed I could find a lesser Amethyst noble, but from what I'd learned from Malcolm the direct line of succession was almost extinct.

All of this basically came down to me realizing I needed to break through to E rank and make sure my village was damn impressive before I got in contact. Whatever level of nobility they were, if I showed up as, in their parlance, an Earl, with a prosperous city, they'd have to take me at least a bit seriously. That just added one more item to my to do list while I was here, along with building up a serious stockpile of points for my contingency plan to deal with Doctor Gotham. Even I was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed with this shit.

That wasn't helpful though, so I tossed the brief flash of uncertainty aside and focused on my new bandit crew. They seemed pretty interested in working for me, but that wasn't really binding. I wanted something a bit more permanent and they wanted more power. Luckily I had a new toy that could do both at once. I reached into my pouch and pulled out the Carmine Chalice. The bandits looked mildly surprised, but not shocked. I hoped they were happy about the power up because I wasn't putting all of that shit back, though I might return the bloodline emerald once they were all Branded.

I held up the chalice. "Alright, I'm sure you all know how this thing works. I'm guessing none of you were able to use it on the others or you would have. Not sure why, but I can think of a few reasons. Regardless, I can use it on you, if you're willing. You know the price though. So...who's first?" I'd been expecting to have to force at least a couple of them to drink from the Chalice, but considering the dragon fanaticism I wasn't worried as much about that anymore. Once they get a proof of concept they're be lining up.

An H ranker, one of the random bandits, was the first to volunteer. I slashed open an arm with a claw and drained a bit of blood into the Chalice, which began to blaze with a soft crimson light. The wound closed without much fanfare, my abundant life force making the regeneration for a small cut the next best thing to instant. I was curious if this would work too. If it did, I would have a pretty solid way to farm points, and I could really start going nuts. I didn't have enough right now to really do what I needed to do. A hundred twenty thousand was about enough to make a single E ranked item if I built it from the ground up, with maybe a bit left over.

So I passed the Chalice to the man, whose name was Wesley Frink, and let him drink. He took the Chalice, but contrary to my expectations he didn't seem nervous or worried at all, just eager. He downed the blood in a single pull before slowly setting the red crystal cup back down on the table and stepping back. His eyes began to blaze with light, his blood literally glowing through his skin, lighting up his veins like crystal traceries of blazing emerald. As that happened the Chalice began to glow as well, until finally both went out. Curious what the affect had been I appraised him.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Wesley Frink- G ranked Lifestorm Gemsworn. A Gemworld peasant imbued with the traces of a Lifestorm bloodline, Wesley now possesses enhanced healing capabilities and unnatural stamina, as well as a relatively large well of mystical power. The bonds of blood and greed link him to his master, Nicholas Lord, and cannot be undone.]

I checked, and sure enough, I had another thousand Greed Points. Which meant I had a way to pretty much manufacture points. I grabbed the chalice, slashed my arm and let it drain into the bowl of the goblet. Which did not, unfortunately, begin to shine. I gave it a quick appraisal to confirm but I already knew what was wrong deep down. Fucking thing had drained itself making the conversion. It needed to siphon ambient magic to recharge. The blood would probably help, but still, the damn cup basically had a cooldown. Fantastic.

I turned to the others with a smile. "Seems like it'll be a bit before I can do the next one. In the meantime, why doesn't Wesley test himself against one of the Barons? I'm curious to see what he can do." I wasn't sure what the lifestorm bloodline would actually do aside from making him tougher. I imagined he might be able to use lightning magic, though I assumed he'd have to actually learn some to do much with it. Still, he was G rank now, so I was sure he'd be able to do something.

Wesley looked perfectly fine with that, his eyes, still slightly more green than before were lit with excitement as he prepared for battle against one of the emerald Barons. Cherry sidled up next to me as they got ready to fight. "Just so you know, while that did push him over into G rank territory it wasn't that big of a boost. You won't be able to get the other Barons to F rank. The distance between them and the next level is too wide." I cursed internally, but I wasn't too surprised. Still it would let me Brand them and get some points. I could worry about the rest later.

We watched the battle with interest. Wesley was stronger than I'd expected. Probably about as strong as I'd been at G rank. Granted raw power hadn't really been what I was best suited for at that point, but still, it was an impressive upgrade. To my surprise there was a bit of natural lightning magic in his combat style, nothing crazy, just electricity dancing on his fists, but it was something. Hopefully he could learn to channel some of the magic power he had into the lightning abilities to increase their power.

In the end though he couldn't win. He needed training. The Baron had a coherent and systemic approach to training his magic honed through years of the emerald bloodline's supremacy in the region. My Gemsworn just didn't have a way to counter that. Hopefully once there were more of them they could figure out how to use the abilities they got from me a bit better. Still, it was progress. I'd found a way to build my power base here. Once I used the points to arrange for my own rank up I might be able to do even more. Things were finally starting to come together.

February 13th 2016 Gemworld 4:00 PM EDT

It took me literally days to finish converting all the bandits to Gemsworn (I called the village to let them know I'd be away, Barbie had pouted). Cherry had been right sadly, none of the Barons made it to F rank. They had been too weak among G rankers for the small bump from the chalice to get them to the next level, though it had actually had a larger effect on them than on the civilians. The Lifestorm bloodline synergized pretty well with the emerald bloodline, even a small amount of it. The Barons had been pretty much entry level G rankers, and were about halfway through the process now.

The biggest difference (though again, not enough to cause a rank up) was Malcolm himself. The spectrum of F rank was much wider than G, with ranks appearing to work sort of like an upside down pyramid. The higher you went the bigger the potential scope of each rank, but Malcolm, who had already been pretty solidly F rank, was approaching the peak of that ranking now that I'd managed to imbue him with my own bloodline.

All in all my Greed Points had reach two hundred and sixty thousand. With the ten thousand from Malcolm added to the hundred and twenty thousand from the treasury, I was up to to one hundred thirty, which left me with a hundred and fifteen newly G ranked bandits, and about fifteen upgraded Barons. It was hardly the be all end all considering Barons were pretty much literal trash here, but it was more than enough to be a good start.

I had been planning on leaving the Emerald Edge in place to keep operating as they had been, at least after Cherry

proposed it, but given my new point value I had much better options now. The points I had were more than enough to get both myself and the village to E rank and still have a nice nest egg of forty thousand points or so, and that wasn't even counting the income from all the new people who would undoubtedly flock to the new town. I'd be able to top back up pretty quickly, plus imbue my bloodline in hundreds if not thousands of new citizens to keep expanding my power.

The biggest issue I had been facing was startup capital, and the second had been force accumulation, and this fucking cup had solved both of them at once. I legitimately couldn't imagine how fast I could grow now. Granted I still had to save up enough for my big plan once I returned, which would be running me about ten million points, but I had a million coming from when I finally dicked Zatanna into line and another million (probably) once I got this Amethyst girl under control. The rest could be done one step at a time.

I'd expected this trip to take months, but at this rate it was looking more like weeks. I made a note to call and tell Dinah and Whisper. They'd probably be happy to have me back sooner, and I was admittedly excited to see what pregnancy had done for Dinah's already luscious tits while I was gone. I turned to Malcolm, who was sitting at one of the nearby tables while I lounged in his former throne. "Alright, that's everyone right?" I hadn't really been paying attention to the conversion. After a certain point I just had them hand me the cup once it had recharged. I was pretty sure we were finished since they'd stopped, but I could have been wrong.

Malcolm had become much more excited about working with me as he saw the insane change in his forces. Keeping in mind that he'd spent literally years getting his Barons up to a nobility rank, seeing me manage the same with almost a hundred and fifty people in a few days had him thoroughly convinced working for me was a good idea. With the insurance of the Brand now adorning his arm courtesy of the chalice, I officially had a new F ranked lackey to use, and one who was relatively familiar with the local conditions.

The former bandit lord shot me an enthusiastic grin. "Entirely, my lord. Every member of the Edge had now reached Baron status. Even the peasantry. I'd...I'd only ever dreamed of a force like this. Even most of the major noble houses don't have forces like this. Our foundations are incomparably strong." I wondered how excited he would get after my rankup when I gave everyone a second dose. I didn't think it would be enough to get everyone to F rank or anything, but I suspected the existing Barons would be close enough to make the jump to Viscount, and Malcolm himself would become an Earl.

Not that I was going to fuck up my own ascension just to get some stronger minions sooner. I'd make the jump when I found the proper materials. Still, I was confident it wouldn't be too long before I was able to track those down. Still, I liked the sound of being stronger than the noble houses. "Are you saying we might be strong enough to take down one of the weaker noble lineages if we declared war on them?" I wouldn't be doing that obviously, it was a surefire way to both get wrapped up in local politics long term and accidentally piss off the Amethyst bloodline, who were apparently goody goody busybodies who loved to interfere in other people's affairs.

As expected though, I got a strong head shake. "No my lord, not even close. If we can keep expanding at this rate we might surpass the number of Barons the nobles possess, but each Lord and Princess has at least half a dozen Dukes, and each of those have a dozen Marquis and so on. Even if we fielded a thousand centuries of Baron soldiers past a certain point there's just a qualitative difference. Forget the Lords themselves, or even the Dukes, there's almost no number of Barons that can kill a properly trained Marquis."

I'd figured that honestly. The difference between ranks seemed to grow as they went up. I knew at F rank even I could probably take down every G ranker in this fort, so hearing a D ranker could do the same with ease wasn't surprising. Quantity may be a quality all its own, but there were diminishing returns involved in relying on numbers when the stratification was this drastic. Still, I'd needed to know exactly what we were dealing with so I had a proper understanding of our position and a strong stance from which to bargain.

I was confident I could be enough of a threat to be worth talking to soon enough, and that once I reached that point I could convince princess Amethyst to hear me out. Even in the worst case scenario where she was a capital P Princess and was all the way at A rank, I was confident in my people skills. Pretty girls surrounded by sycophants weren't actually any harder to seduce, you just needed to find the right pressure points. I looked over to Malcolm. "Alright Mal, you and the boys are coming back with me."

Malcolm looked surprised. "I'm sure you've thought this out my lord, but might you share your plan with me? I was under the impression that your new village is still small, even if it's very comfortable and well made. If you bring us all back won't you overpopulate and lower the standard of living?" I could tell he was hesitant to leave behind the fortress where his people had built their reputation, but he would if I pushed. Even if I didn't compel him with the Brand, I'd established myself as a gravy train, and Malcolm wouldn't disembark unless I crossed his bottom line.

I appreciated his tact. I mainly let my people have plenty of rope to hang themselves, when you micromanage every aspect of your operation your subordinates lose the ability to act without guidance, and that just makes more work. I sought out competent subordinates specifically so I could avoid having to hold their hands. Still, as a side effect my people never really had the fear that my old man's subordinates had. I wasn't planning to change that, but having at least one sycophant on the payroll would be a nice change, even if I figured the behavior would be unlearned pretty soon.

I appreciated it so much I decided to actually answer. "I've got that taken care of. I have a way to quickly make the village more hospitable to a larger group." I didn't mention any specifics obviously, but he would find out about my merging ability soon enough anyway. As long as I didn't let on about the points or my specific limits no out would be able to easily work around my abilities, so letting people know incomplete bits about what I could do was really only an asset to me in the long run. Just meant they would draw the wrong conclusions if they ever decided to cross me.

That was enough for Malcolm. He knew exactly what I was capable of when necessary, the fun thing about creating miracles was the people got used to the idea. Sure, they expected you to pull a magic solution out of your ass every time something went wrong, but that was as much of an asset as it was a hindrance. I'd done amazing things, so if I said I could do them again it was much more convincing. In this case I actually could, but in the future if I couldn't I could still bluff my way out. Reputation was a hell of a thing.

Hell, Batman had figured that shit out from day one. He kept Gotham in check even the small amount that he did because he was a brutal son of a bitch. He was everyone's boogeyman. Sure, Batman might not be waiting around the corner to stomp your teeth in, but he could be, and every fucking criminal in the city knew it. Reputation could do much more for a person than brute force ever could. A person was only capable of doing so much at one time, but there was no limit to the hypothetical.

Malcolm scurried off to gather the bandits, not that I was worried about it. I could summon them all with their Brands and make them line up in neat little rows easy as you please. But this would let them get used to obeying me. You could force your dog to go outside to take a shit whenever you saw him squat down, but it was ten times easier to just teach them to go to the back door. Once everyone had gather I hopped to my feet and we headed off into the forest, retracing the path we'd taken a few days ago to get to the fortress.

We obviously weren't bothered by any creatures or anything. We had a literal army of G rankers with us, and we made pretty solid time since all the lifestorm gemsworn didn't get tired. Finally, we ended up back at the village, and I had all the others make camp outside. I told Malcolm I needed him and the others out of the way for an important ritual to upgrade the village, and then headed in to talk to Barbie. Since I was passing by I also wolfed down some of those delicious ass berries.

I decided to knock because why not, and when she answered she almost bowled me over in a lunging kiss. I caught her and spent a few minutes with my tongue down her throat before I set her down and slapped her on the ass, sending her back inside. Once she sat down I plopped into a chair. "So, I'm back, we have lots of new mouths to feed, which is pretty great, but also a pain. I've been away a while and built up some extra power, so it's time to officially take things to the next level. Gather everyone in the village and take them outside the walls. We're going to turn this village into a town."

February 13th 2016 Gemworld 6:00 PM EDT

It was time. I'd been waiting for this for a while. This was going to be an extremely important step in creating my new kingdom, not to mention a proof of concept for some very interesting possibilities for my powers. Granted, it was going to cost a shit ton of points to manage, but it would be worth it. I laid out a few important items in front of me, materials I would need to merge to make the item that would give me the best outcome for this next part. Just to be sure though, I gave the village a quick once over with appraisal.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Lord Village- F rank village. A low level community created by Nicholas Lord using luxurious magical buildings. The smouldering embers of a town about to spring into being.]

Perfect. I'd known the village was F rank. While I did have mostly G ranked buildings here, they were mostly low level G rank and besides, as evidenced by my earlier experiments F rank was a wide gap to bridge. If I merged two G rank items I got an F rank, but I suspected the Greed System multiplied rather than added. By adding a bunch of G rank buildings I had brought the village to F rank, which would be more than enough, because if I merged another F rank item into it that would bring it to E rank.

Of course an E rank town, while amazing, wasn't going to be full of legendary buildings or anything, not if I pushed for size like I was going to, but still, the quality should be pretty fantastic across the board. This was all just speculation though, I'd need to see exactly what would happen for myself once I used the system. Before then though, I needed to create the item I would use to elevate the town. I'd had to make a few hard calls about what to focus on, but I had a pretty solid idea.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Growing obsidian- I rank. A brittle grey stone that expands over time, growing larger by accumulating magic from the air. Growing obsidian is known for its characteristic sparkle, and is often used with molds to create statues with little effort.]

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Blackcrag gravel- I rank mineral. A sturdy material known for its magical density. Blackcrag gravel radiates magical energy at a consistent rate]

These two materials actually kind of sucked on their own, but I was positive combining them together would get me something decent. Of course, there were other useful abilities I wanted my material to have, but I wasn't half done here. This was just the initial merge, there were still two more ingredients to add. I focused and merged together the two types of stone, winding up with a new material.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Blackcrag obsidian- H rank mineral. A sturdy material that crows at a consistent rate, turning its own magical byproducts into physical expansion. When used in a structure, the magical energy generated can even repair minor damage.]

That was a perfect start, of course, it wasn't exactly what I needed yet. I had another material I wanted to make sure to add, one that would elevate the level of the stone to something really special. I checked out the material I had in mind before combining it with the obsidian to create my new G rank material.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Earthbone- H rank mineral. A unique mineral that increases in hardness as its magical density rises. Earthbone is a material that grows over time, and at its most durable is nigh indestructible. As a small piece of relatively young Earthbone, this sample hasn't developed to the extent you would see in larger, more magically dense deposits.]

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Blackcrag Earthbone - G rank mineral. A magically dense material that grows larger and harder as more magic is produced, even repairing damage over time. A prime material for city building.]

That was the best combination I could have hoped for, and it was just about time to finish my base ingredient. The material would allow my city to grow larger and more durable when I merged it. I couldn't create effects from nothing, I had some input over what result I got, but that input was entirely based on combining aspects of the existing materials. Luckily I had one more ingredient that would make it absolutely perfect.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Manastone- G rank mineral. A crystalline stone made from pure condensed magic. A magical battery created by the earth itself, manastone is often used to power massive complex workings of magic. Despite being an incredibly small and diffuse piece of the material, the value of this chunk of manastone is staggering.]

From what I could tell this stuff was basically magical nuclear material. It was a crystalline blue deeper than the depths of the ocean and this was apparently shitty bad quality manastone. Still, it was exactly what I needed to complete my preparations, and I was itching to see exactly what the result would be. I triggered the merge, combining the manastone with the blackcrag earthbone.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Deepvein Titanbone- F rank. A powerful mystically dense material that grows over time. Whether size, durability, or even quality, deepvein titanbone is an excellent material that grows into a more suitable substance for whatever form it happens to be shaped in, a learning mineral that becomes more outstanding over time.]

I was almost drooling. This was perfect. I'd been hoping for something similar to this, but the quality of the materials I'd had to work with had blown even my wildest expectations out of the water. This shit wasn't just magically dense and sturdy. It was magically dense and fucking intelligent. Not in a sapient way obviously, more like a deeplearning kind of thing, but still.

The material would generate magic and funnel it into whatever area the crafted item needed. If it needed to get bigger it would, if it needed to get harder it would do that too, hell from what I could tell the shit could evolve into a better material given enough time and magic. I picked up the gorgeous shimmering metallic ore. It kind of reminded me of hematite, but much more shimmery. It was also heavy as fuck. Even as an F ranker this thing was hard to pick up. Which was fair enough considering I'd spent eleven thousand one hundred points making it.

Two hundred thirty nine thousand nine hundred points left, at least for the moment, though that number could start going up once we got the town upgraded, even if it would have to drop first. When we had the facilities, we could easily let a bunch of people in to be citizens and have them all drink from the chalice. In terms of ability it would mean every single person I had working for me would be Baron level, and while I wouldn't have nearly the power the higher level nobles had, a starting point like that would be a hell of a place to start.

The ability to build up massive amounts of points while simultaneously binding them to my will made the cup the key to my success. But the key to using it was that I needed space, which meant I was going to need to go big. That was the main reason I'd chosen to create a growth material for the city. I wouldn't be staying here long enough for this place to grow into its proper form, but having this material would allow me to push for a quantity over quality structure for the town without sacrificing long term value.

Cities were complicated things, for instance, Gotham, which I had checked on before leaving was D rank. Mostly this was because ninety nine percent of the structures in Gotham were I ranked buildings made of shitty J ranked materials. Because the city was fucking humongous however, it was still D ranked in its entirety, though higher in the D ranks now that there was an insane magic formation spewing out mystical power all the time. I imagined it would upgrade over time, but that wasn't the important part.

This showed me that I could go wide with the village instead of tall when I merged it. I carried the deepvein titanbone over to the spot I'd picked out and set it down, stepping back as I triggered a merge between the powerful growth material and small village. The power of the Greed System lit up the area around me, the buildings, the earth, the sky, everything became a sea of light as the world itself was reshaped by my power. I felt the hundred thousand points funnel out of me, fueling the magic as it reshaped reality. Finally, the light faded and I gazed at what I'd made.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Lord Town- E ranked town. A powerful rising territory under the control of Nicholas Lord, created to house his budding empire. A flickering flame of civilization on the verge of becoming a blaze.]

As the light faded away, I heard everyone behind me gasp in awe, and honestly I kind of got it. The village was gone, the small farms and the forge replaced with something different. The forge and farms were actually mostly untouched though they had been moved, but that new rank had come from other places. Buildings lined the now cobbled roads, made from much lower quality deepvein titanbone that would need to grow back to its previous strength. Hundreds of houses, tens of shops, all basic and mostly unadorned besides being decent quality, but still H rank at the lowest.

It was perfect. The deepvein titanbone's value was based on magic density, and most of that had been spent as it became so diffused throughout the city, but that would replenish with time. This city would grow, would become larger and more powerful over time, in whatever direction was needed. Despite planning to leave I wasn't abandoning my efforts here. I had big plans for my Gemworld empire, provided I could get princess Amethyst on my side. Having a fantasy world to source magic materials from was going to be useful as hell.

I turned to the others gesturing toward the town. "Aside from Levka, who of course maintains control of the forge, and the farmers, the rest of you can pick one of the houses. Go get acclimated to your new town while I deal with some details. I'll be requiring visits from all the farmers and Levka himself pretty soon to discuss the new territory and how things will work, but there's no rush." I was actually mostly just letting the chalice charge up, but sounding magnanimous was always a good way to get brownie points.

While as a noble I could do pretty much whatever I wanted, leadership was most effective when your underlings felt like you had their best interests at heart. Of course, all of my people would be bound to my will so discipline wouldn't be an issue, but even once the rest of the civilians showed up and I was going through the slow process of converting them all I'd still maintain a wise and benevolent image. I had a huge army of bloodthirsty bandits to put people in line and play bad cop if I needed them, meaning I could be loved while they were feared.

With that I dismissed everyone except my girls, having all four of them follow me. As we headed through the new town and I looked over all the buildings and the potential the place had, I was almost giddy. This was what the Greed System was really for. Amazing earthshaking magic items and personal upgrades were great, but the power to LITERALLY change the world? That was a game changer. I'd only just begun to scratch the surface of what I could do with power like this. I had so many ideas.