NOVEL WEB 17 - Hidden Valley Village
Chapter 17: Hidden Valley Village
When my new villagers are finally loaded on the buses, I lead the caravan back to my castle and feed them lunch. During this time I go out and find the exact route to the Hidden Valley Village. It would not look good if no one could give the bus drivers directions. We finally arrive at my new village. I see an interesting mix of medieval architecture through pre industrial construction and buildings. None of the bus drivers seem to notice anything weird so the “Great Game” confusion seems to be working just fine. After I manage to get everybody off the buses and back into their normal housing Village Head Edward takes me on a tour of the village and invites me to stay for a celebration that evening. It is around 2 p.m. so the festivities will begin in a few hours.
I let him know that this sounds great, but in the mean time I am going to wander the local area of my new territory. He smiles and says he understands. I start to wander around and access my kingdom menu. I want to set everything up before the celebration so I can announce it during the festivities. First I set taxes to 5% + a mutual defense pact. I have resources of my own so I do not need that much, but I do have to charge them something. I find some interesting sub menus as I walk along. I can set up war time taxes and immigration policies among other things. Ok press here, confirm there, accept, and finished.
Now I am going to prepare a little surprise, and gift for the village. I have about 4 hours left until the celebration which with my new mana levels should be more than enough. I start enchanting some decent size boulders. I need them to be big enough to hold a decent amount of mana, but small enough for me to move. About 200-250lbs should be about right. I start laughing out loud. I can’t believe that I can now easily move such weight around. I pump each stone with around 500 points of mana and set them up in a giant octagon around 500 to 600 meters out from the boundary of the village. Almost to the line of where I can feel “my land” ends and another land begins. This should be a great surprise for them. I tie all of the stones together into one large enchantment and head back for the celebration.
After a wonderful BBQ of something I was pretty sure was not beef from Earth and songs and dancing I told Edward to gather everyone up. I had a few announcements to make. I welcomed all of them again to the Kingdom of Appalachia and began my spiel. “Alright everyone we need to go over a few rules, expectations, and some non-fun things like taxes.” I could see them all tense up. “First taxes in my kingdom are set at 5% in peaceful times and 10% in times of war.” It was hilarious to see their expressions. It was obvious that they expected something much worse.
I continued, “This can be in currency or its equivalent in goods the kingdom requests. For safety and defense the Kingdom of Appalachia requires each village, town, or city to hire and maintain 1 guardsmen per 75 people. All citizens ages 16-35 will participate in twice monthly militia drills and be on call to defend their homes when needed. In the event of war each town shall muster a squad of 10% of their current militia age population as a levy for the Kingdom’s armies and defense. Anyone who falls in defense of the kingdom will receive 1 years guard wages delivered to their closest relatives. To encourage innovation and good will any citizen who is recognized as contributing greatly to the kingdom in any form will be exempt from taxes for 1 year. A town’s tax rate cannot exceed the Kingdom’s tax rate. All towns will elect a leader once every 10 years or as necessary. Leaders shall report twice yearly to the king. As a welcome gift from the kingdom and to help with the defense of Hidden Valley Village, I will be sending construction people around to modernize all homes and to build some new structures like barracks and such at no cost to the village. Remember, they do not know about the “Great Game” yet so keep with the story about being reenactors. As a final gift for your safety I give Hidden Valley Village a new defensive wall. I activated the enchantments I had placed in the stones around the village. Using my stored mana they started growing into a 5 meter tall 1 ½ meter thick octagon shaped wall surrounding the village with two entrances. No gates yet, but that will be taken care of by the craftsman I will send to you. Last but not least, remember my simple motto. Be Good, Be Loyal, or Be Punished.”
After much cheering and well wishes I excused myself after promising to visit soon and headed back to my place for some rest. I also wanted a chance to relax and choose my rewards from the “Great Game” store. Lying in bed later that night I was scrolling through my possible choices for rewards. I easily chose a random assortment of magic weapons and armor for the common and uncommon items. These rewards just mean that there is less for me to have to enchant later. Next is the rare item. What to get, skill books? I can buy skill books? As I read further I realize that skill books can only be rewarded through dungeons and not purchase through the store. Alright which rare skill do I want? Hello what’s this? Magical tattooing? It seems to be a mix of enchantment and drawing. Requirements to learn are master level in one of the 2 skills and advanced level in the other. This means that with experimentation I might be able to combine other skills and discover new ones in the future. I already have master level enchanting so if I get the skill book I will need to learn and advance my drawing skill. Ok I will purchase it and learn it as soon as I can.
Finally I can choose one unique skill or item. What is available? Bloodlines, intelligent weapons, man how am I supposed to pick just one thing? Wait Loot King? This skill bestows a title and gives me infinite inventory, daddy like. I click on my choice before I can second guess myself.
“You have been awarded the title of Loot King +2. As the first person to receive a unique skill on Earth you are granted the title of Snowflake +3.”
Ooh a bonus title. The description of Loot King reads, “This skill allows the user to store an infinite amount of material only limited by mass. Level 10 gives the user 10 tons of hauling capacity, and every 10 levels after that doubles the amount that can be carried. If the user reaches level 100 all restrictions on inventory weight will be removed allowing for an infinite storage capacity in an alternate sub-dimension. This skill can be combined with others to allow living things to be stored, but initially only non-living items are storable.
I just got an infinite bag of holding. Yes, it is the holy grail of all D&D nerds. Time for a happy dance, what, even kings need a happy dance every now and then. No size limit means I can build and carry a house or base eventually, just like in those eastern fantasy novels. If I can figure out which skill will let me store living things, I could sneak armies into different places. This skill is outrageous. The best thing is that it is unique. That means no one else on Earth can have it as long as I am around. With my current level of 23 I can haul around 20 tons of material. How awesome is that.
After playing around with my new ability, I mean practicing for the next hour, I fill my inventory with every supply I can think of including beds and an empty tool shed, just in case it rains and I need a premade shelter. This should make adventuring and dungeon diving much easier. Speaking of which I have less than a month to grind levels, raise points and map out local dungeons for use of my people. Well sooner started sooner done. I will arrange for an extended trip and come back 3-5 days before the “Great Game” changeover.