NOVEL WEB Chapter 293: 290 -
The candles in the room burned lower as the first hints of dawn began to creep across the new provinces sky, painting the distant horizon in streaks of rose and gold.
Within the palace, the newly refounded provincial council answerable to the imperial court was still buried in parchment and ink, with hundreds of voices shouting updates, requets, and concerns-each vying for the Emperor's attentions as the foundations of the new province and the empire at large were being lain down.
But at the center of all this whirlwind, Julius remained calm and collected.
he was focused admist the chaos.
Resolute against the challenges ahead.
His fingers were tracing the desk in front of him, like a player tracing the keys of a piano.
His paperwork skills were superb, as he quickly dealt with anything that came his way, before returning his focus to the floating system interface before him.
Thanks to the recent system upgrade he had the potential to change the world in grander ways than he had already done.
His empire was comprised of five provinces with a few nations also being listed as vassal states currently.
Julius had been doing his best to keep up with his nations advancement but the limitation being that he would need to go wherever an enhancement was needed was a serious limitation, one that had been removed from him now.
Taking a quick glance at his table he saw there was still no new paperwork for him to deal with, and the next batch would still be a few minutes away as he checked over at Serena's table.
Seeing this he resumed his ministrations while his mind turned to the system
Romanus Empire
[Tech Points] 596
[Build Points] 10,423
[Edict Points] 20
[Current National Relics]
[Population] 27,483,219
[Military] (Legion) 150,000 - (Auxiliaries) 250,000
[Provinces]
[Latinium]
[Lunalia]
[Brigantia]
[Rosaria]
[Parthia]
[Carthago]
[Greecia] - Partial Vassalization
The system overview showed him that his empire was growing but in doing so took away more of the lesser important things from before, such as specific territory management, these were consolidated together into the overall provinces themselves freeing up his attentions to focus more on the bigger picture.
First things first Julius having seen the current state of his empire, invested 1,500 build points to upgrade all the existing roads within the boundaries of his empire to proper roman roads.
All across Romanus, Partia, and Carthage every single road that hadnt already been upgraded flashed with a golden light before it was replaced with a dual lane roman concrete road which would further his nations militaristic and economic ambitions.
The roads allowed for traffic in either direction, and thanks to the 'paved' nature it allowed carriages and wagons to travel at a constant speed not worrying about the uneveness or bumpiness of the road surface ahead.
The military meanwhile would also speed along since maintaining a constant march on a smooth surface was also easier comparied to having to shift and avoid rises, or go around obstacles in the legions way.
But even as elated as he was to receive the system response that his chosen upgrade was being conducted across his empire.
Julius's gaze turned away to his accumulated tech points instead.
Choosing to upgrade his nation's tech levels before going through the trouble of upgrading the cities lest a better builiding being unlocked wasting his build points.
[Civil Tech]
Stage 1; [Completed]
Theology [3]
Civil Service [5]
Currency [1]
Engineering [3]
Metal Casting [5]
Stage 2;
Compass [1]
Education 4/5]
Chivalry [1/3]
Machinery [4/5]
Physics [1/3]
Steel [4/5]
with 596 tech points, he could finish off all the categories within the 2nd stage, though the question would still be should he?
Civil tech was only one side of the coin, with Military Tech being the other side.
Though he had already started to unlock Level 3 military tech's so the need for it would be lessened, while the advancement of the civil side would allow for greater growth of tech points allowing for faster military growth to occur if he was willing to wait for it.
Purchase confirmed, -175 Tech Points
[Civil Tech]
Stage 1; [Completed]
Theology [3]
Civil Service [5]
Currency [1]
Engineering [3]
Metal Casting [5]
Stage 2; [Completed]
Compass [1]
Education [5]
Chivalry [3]
Machinery [5]
Physics [3]
Steel [5]
Stage 3;
Divine Right [0/5]
Paper [0/5]
Guilds [0/3]
Banking [0/3]
Calendar [0/1]
Architecture [0/5]
Apprenticeship [0/3]
The unlocking of the entire 2nd stage also opened up the 3rd stage of the tech tree, and the powers that drove those tech's was immense for a burgeoning empire such as his.
and with 421 tech points still remaining... the choices werent exactly endless but they were certainly not lacking either.
[Civil Tech]
Stage 3;
Divine Right [1/5]
Paper [2/5]
Guilds [0/3]
Banking [1/3]
Calendar [1]
Architecture [2/5]
Apprenticeship [1/3]
After making his selections, Julius sat back as his mind thrummed.
His new empire would be the driving force to bringing the world back to a proper state like it had been under the rule of the ancient empire.
His choices were varied and rather than sinking his points in and maxing out some of the tech's he spread them out for now.
Divine Right was the main tech that he only needed a single point invested for now, his own people already had a concept forming in their minds that he had a divine right to rule, but now with the systems tech advancement the belief wouldnt be just a passing fancy, now the people would begin to equate their emperor with that of a living god, just like the Japanese had raised their own emperors to.
But Julius feared to quick a rise, if he were to max the tech out, would this rise every emperor or king in this world or solely his own status.
Or worse that everyone else would recognize that he was favored by the divine which would make him become a threat to their own rules and cause the world to band together in an unholy alliance to extinguish his divine light.