It was finally the end of the party; Fred had been harassed by all of the local barons showing off their daughters to him. What was worse was the way the girls were acting, they were trying to flirt with him in ways that didn’t suit their age, but they did it in a slightly unnatural way. Fred guessed it was their mothers and older sisters who gave them a pep talk on how to act, but the kids didn’t understand the meaning of their actions.

The guests were staying for a few days and so the next day devolved into another party as well. But this time, Fred was meeting with all the boys, he wanted to get an understanding of what he could get out of them, and how useful they would be,

“What do you think of Derek and his friends?” Fred asked Rudy and Delphine, they had just greeted them and conversed for a bit, before separating.

“They seem ok, they might make a good cavalier, I’ve seen them train at school, and they are not lacking” Rudy replied, they were all looking for men to join them, in this period, because of their noble rank, they would be expected to source their men.

Initially, the three would look for roughly 7-9 men of their own to form a unit, and then they would join together with other lords to form a regiment. Once they had gained enough experience managing a squad, they would start expanding their forces.

“They are not in the line of succession so they will be eager to look for merit,” Delphine chimed in. While men did most of the fighting, in this world, women also participated in the war, they made good support units, whether that was magic buffs or battle-camp medics.

Matt was going to be a battlefield medic; the difference was he would be either part of a combat unit during the fight or would be part of a specialist unit that performed emergency first aid in the thick of combat.

They spent the next few hours chatting with different kids.

They had made many connections and only time will tell if this will bear fruit.

___

Fred had gone to school, and came back for summer, he was nine now. And would be going into his last year of juniors.

Over the summer there wasn’t much to do, the shipwright and the steel complex was coming along nicely, although, many of the buildings for the steel complex weren’t getting built yet as neither supply nor demand needed them, still, the space was laid out for them.

Residential housing was starting to be built in parallel to the complexes, this would reduce commuting, but the problem was, this area now needed walling.

Fred had plans to wall the shipwrights and steel plants, and now he needed to wall the residential, this was a catch twenty-two, as walls would limit plans, and put pressure on available space.

Right now, only naval factories and weapons factories were in production. But this only provided state-run businesses, Fred wanted to bring in outside money to his county and would need to invest in commercial workshops and industries. This would allow for greater taxes, and it would be able to produce goods and commodities for people.

He had a discussion about this with his family, and they decided it would be a good idea to get the merchants and craftsman guilds on board. This was a plan within their expertise, and if handled poorly could be seen as a challenge to them, and they had quite a power base.

They chose to make plans, and next summer discuss with the other party’s,

___

Fred spent his last year in junior school and was now 10. And was hounded again during the End of year celebration.

It was coming up to July when Fred got a notification,

*Conditions met* you have met the conditions to unlock the spare stat points, you have 1101 spare points to use.

*Conditions met* you can now select a legion trait.

Legion trait

Personal bonus; Effects only you

Civil class

Military class

Dark Angels

Knight exemplar: +15% Pow, Den and End, (triple on horseback.) +10% lance skills

+10% Light affinity

+10% Wind affinity

Theologian

Statesman - Noble

Heavy Cavalry,

Knight,

dismounted Knight

Emperor's Children

Skill perfectionist: +40% Dex, +20% sword skills

+20% Light affinity

Statesman - Artist,

performer

Light Infantry, Skirmisher infantry

Light Cavalry

Iron Warriors

Iron within +15% Den, End, Int, Wis, +10% to cannoneering skills, hammer skills, +10% Metal affinity

+10% Lightning affinity

Engineer

scientist

Heavy crossbow/Infantry

Heavy Cavalry

Siege engines

White scars

born in the saddle: +20% Pow, Dex and horse archery skills on horseback

+20% Wind affinity

Hunter

Statesman army organizer

Heavy Cavalry

Cavalry archer

Light infantry pace

Space Wolves

Northern blood: +15% Pow, Den, Vit, +10% Hammer skills, Axe skills, +20% Ice affinity

Beast tamer

Brewmaster

Medium infantry

Skirmisher infantry

beast infantry

Imperial Fists

Citadel: +20% Den, Vit, End, +10 shield skills

+20% Earth affinity

Architect

statesman - Military engineer

Heavy crossbow/Infantry,

Siege engines

Nightlords

Terror troops: +15% to all stats during night-time. Causes fear (multiple fear traits stack to Become Terror then dread)

+20% Death affinity

vigilante

Mobster

Cavalry archers, skirmisher Infantry

Skirmisher archer

Blood angels

shock troops: +20% Pow, Dex, active: triple stats for a short period

+10% light affinity

+10% blood affinity

artist,

Statesman - Diplomat

Medium cavalry

Medium Infantry, Light infantry

Iron Hands

The flesh is weak: +15% Den, Int, Wis, +20% hammer skills

+15% Metal affinity

Engineer

Craftsmen

Medium infantry

Medium Cavalry

Volley Archer

World eaters

Bloodhounds: +40% Pow, +20% axe skills

Gladiator

Dualist

Light infantry

Light cavalry

Ultramarines

All-rounder: +5% all skills, 5% weapon skills

when casting an elemental skill, half your natural affinity is used instead of a quarter

statesman - administrator

Philosipher

Medium Cavalry,

Medium infantry,

Volley archer

Death Guard

immovable: +40% Den, +20% Halberd skills, +10 nature affinity

Herblore

Brewmaster

Heavy infantry

Medium Infantry

Volley Archer

Thousand sons

Seeker of knowledge: +40% int, Wis, doubles all affinity (Applied as a bonus) and affinity bonuses

Scholar

Alchemist

Sorcerer,

Enchanted heavy cross-bow/infantry,

Sons of Horus

Luna Wolves: +15% Dex, Int, Wis, +10 great sword skills

+10% Shadow affinity

+10% light affinity

Statesman - Diplomat

Politician

Heavy infantry,

Medium infantry,

Volley archer

Word Bearers

Bearer of the word: +20% Vit, Wis, +15% mace skills, +20% heavenly affinity

Theologian

Inquisator

Chaplain

Light infantry

Salamanders

Into the fire: +15% Pow, Den, Dex, +20% hammer skill, +20% Fire affinity

Enchanter

Pyrotechnic

Enchanted Heavy Cavalry

Enchanted heavy infantry

Volley Archer

Raven guard

The shadow: +20% to all stats during night-time and in shadows,

-20% foreign spy detection

+20% shadow affinity

rogue

thief

Skirmish cavalry

Skirmisher infantry, skirmisher archer

Alpha Legion

I am Alpharius: changes name to Alpharius, assassins have a 20% chance of killing a lookalike instead of you. +20% Dex

when casting an elemental skill, half your natural affinity is used instead of a quarter

Statesman - Spymaster

imposter

Scout

Saboteur

spy

hit squad

all legion Astartes cause Fear (multiple fear traits stack to Become Terror then dread), and reduce fear on themselves by one level,

“Holy shit, this status is totally ripping off Warhammer” Fred was impressed with the choices, according to what he learned at school he can learn two classes now and then the sub-classes at 16, or one now with its subclasses and the other at 16.

Does this mean he would be able to choose two legion traits?

When he clicked on one to have a look, there was a box for hidden bonuses. ‘Does that mean the class will evolve?’

He wanted to go into a magic-based class, the only one for that really was ‘thousand sons’, but he could hold off for that, right now he was working towards opening up the steel industry and he wanted to be able to work on some projects,

The best legion to go with would be either Iron hands or Iron warriors, none of the traits affects guns, is that because they haven’t been invented yet in this world. ‘Wait, what did Jess, Holly and Matt choose,’

Fred went off to find Matt and Jess, holly had gone home for the summer.

“Hey, Matt, what did you pick for your legion trait or class?”

“Er, I picked word bearers for my secondary legion trait.”

“Second, what about the first.”

“It locked me out, it said you have to pick that one as you are the Progenitor super-soldier, and we would all get bonuses from it when we fight together.

“O, Wow”

“What about you Jess?”

“I… er… chose a thousand sons.”

‘I need to speak to Rudy and Delphine, I have a guess what they would pick, and if I pick Thousand Sons, that will give all of us a boost in our professions.’

“Fred”, “Fred” Delphine and Rudy came running over to him.

‘Speak of the Devils.’ “Calm down what’s happening.”

“We just unlocked our class choice,”

“What? Wait just now?” Fred was confused.

“Yeah, why?”

“So did I, but your like 4 months older than me.”

“O, yeah, it’s because we finished Junior school, the system takes into account our school years, and although we finished a week ago, the system recognises the first day of July.”

‘Wait how come I’m only finding this out now.’

“Er… Ok, what are you guys choosing.”

“Salamander, not only does it help with enchanters, but my mother’s side is Fire affinity, they come from an off branch to the royal family.” Rudy was hyped.

“I was thinking of Death guard, but I don’t like that name. or Thousand Sons,” Delphine answered.

“Well, it’s just a name, I was thinking of Thousand sons for the primary, as it would benefit everyone. Then I was thinking of going Iron Warriors myself.”

‘status’

Status

Name

Frederick

????

Age

10

year

5

month

Ascension

3

Level

4

Body

Pre-teen

Super-Soldier

Esper

Race group

Human

Culture

Franconian

Social

F Earl/ M Duke

Bastard

Exp

220/320

69%

Exp Mod

200% (Pre-teen)

Sub-Race

Adeptus Astartes

Assimilation 13%, *2.1 modifiers to stat points

Military

Rank

Recruit

Level

3

Command structure

0

None

Affinity

Lightning

27% (+28%)

Fire

10% (+21.2%)

Metal

5% (+21.2%)

Legion Trait

Legion Trait

Subclass

Subclass

Subclass

Subclass

Stats

points

Condition

Health

200

43352

Stamina

150

38933

Mana

150

66197

Modifiable

Power

1598

85.91

Density

1805

97.04

Dexterity

1205

64.78

Vitality

1546

83.11

Endurance

2025

108.86

Intellect

3128

168.16

Wisdom

3056

164.29

“Here we go,” he added,

Selecting Thousand sons for Primary. He saw a fiery glow under the 5 of them for a few seconds.

“How is everyone?”

“Great,”, “Yep,” “Wicked,”

“Erm,” Jessica was unsure.

“What’s wrong Jessica?”

“Well… you know I picked Thousand sons for my secondary.”

“Yeah”

“Well… I still have it.”

“What?”

“I have Thousand Sons twice?”

“O, erm, what do they do.”

“Well, the primary is applied first, then the secondary”

“What does that mean?” Rudy asked

“Well, my affinity was 21% with no bonus, I gained 21% as a bonus from the first thousand sons, and then a 42% bonus from the second, so I’m sitting at 84% affinity with an extra 20% from neutral mana, meaning my fire spells should be 104% of the mana I put into them.”

“Wow,” the crowd were impressed.

“I also feel a headache coming on,”

“Well, you should have nearly doubled your Int and Wis as well doubled your affinity.” Fred comforted her, “Why don’t you sit down for a while.”

Fred was ready to add the Iron Warriors skills. The same glowing effect happened around Fred.

Finally, he still had 1101 points to add. Ideally, he should add all of them into End as it increases all 3 of his stat bars, but most of his skills rely on his other stats. Dex would be good to increase as it was the one lagging, but He didn’t see the point in being an all-rounder,

Den would be good for his ideal build, he wanted to go for heavy infantry or Cavalry, and Den would help him with weapons that had a difficult centre of gravity like a polearm, hammer, or axe. And considering he had bonuses to Den, he’d get more bang for his buck.

Fred decided to bring his Pow to 100, this would mean spending 263 points on Pow, and the rest he could add to Den, he would just have to look for skills or ways to increase his Dex and Vit so he could increase his stamina.

‘Stats’

Status

Name

Frederick

????

Age

10

year

5

month

Ascension

3

Level

4

Body

Pre-teen

Super-Soldier

Esper

Race group

Human

Culture

Franconian

Social

F Earl/ M Duke

Bastard

Exp

220/320

69%

Exp Mod

200% (Pre-teen)

Sub-Race

Adeptus Astartes

Assimilation 13%, *2.1 modifiers to stat points

Military

Rank

Recruit*

Level

3

Command structure

0

None

Affinity

Lightning

27% (+93%)

Fire

10% (+52.4%)

Metal

5% (+57.4%)

Legion Trait

Thousand Sons

Class

Scholar

Legion Trait

Iron Warriors

Class

Engineer

Subclass

Subclass

Subclass

Subclass

Stats

points

Condition

Thousand sons

Iron Warriors

Health

200

74341

Stamina

200

58004

Mana

200

132088

Modifiable

Power

1861

100.05

100%

100%

Density

2643

163.40

100%

115%

Dexterity

1205

64.78

100%

100%

Vitality

1546

83.11

100%

100%

Endurance

2025

125.19

100%

115%

Intellect

3128

270.74

140%

115%

Wisdom

3056

264.51

140%

115%

Things were looking up.

___

Fred, Isabella, and George, along with Butler Mike, and director of the steel complex Jay, were having a meeting in the ‘business room’. Fred had it designed based on board rooms from his old world. It used an octagonal design to give off a cross between a rectangle and oval desk, with chairs on either side of the long edges.

Jay was originally the foreman who helped Fred with his cannons, and due to his excellent work with the steel complex, Fred gave him this promotion. It was a made-up rank, but people could hear the prestige in the title.

And now the shipwrights were going crazy to be noticed. To them, it was obvious that there was positioning for the Dockyard complex. And with Fred mentioning a complex for commercial factories the merchants and craftsmen guilds were eager to get that position under them.

In the room on the other side to Fred was a few representatives of the merchant’s guild, the craftsman guild, the blacksmithing guild, and the shipwright’s guild.

The blacksmithing guild was doing great in this city, originally, they had scepticism, and feared this was a takeover of their industry. But the main houses were interested in developing the foundries. However, not only did it not encroach on their turf, but they were also the biggest beneficiaries. It was like their own town in a town. And best of all, it was starting to rival the capital.

“So, I believe you all know why we are here today,” George started, the family had been discussing this for the past year, although it was Fred’s plans, the family needed to look like they had confidence in this project, and to do so, they had to show their understanding of it.

“We received word you want to open up a commercial factories complex.”

“Well, it won’t be a complex so to say,” Isabella, chimed in.

The merchants raised an eyebrow at this. “What do you mean by this?” the first person to speak continued.

“A complex suggests heavy involvement and management from us, is that something you want?” Fred asked

The merchant laughed at this. “I see, I see. So, what would it be?”

“Zoning, we will zone a map of an area, and if you wish to build the corresponding buildings there to match, we will provide tax relief and other benefits,” Fred commented.

The merchant looked at George and Isabella but found no contradiction from their faces.

“And what are the other benefits?”

“At the moment I can’t think of anything,”

“That doesn’t sound reassuring.”

“You’re missing the point, it’s up to you to bring what benefits you want to our attention. You don’t ask, you don’t get.” Fred added.

“I see,” this was a good thing for the Traders and Craftsmen, but it was also clear that they would be the ones seeking his help and therefore give him the advantage. “And what if we don’t want to do business here.”

“I’ll do it myself, and I have the means to back it up.” Fred had been implementing new technology in the wineries, and the merchants have noticed its increased production. They had also noticed the vast increase of crop production, and the expected Harvest failure two years ago never came.

Fred had shown he had the means to vastly increase the production of goods, if it wasn’t for the Western heavenly empire sitting on an array of metal mountains, Fred would have been the number one producer of Iron goods. And he was only just beating them due to the quality of his steel.

Furthermore, due to the expansion into the wood elven territories, the county now had a very strong supply of wood, and it was the wood most suitable for shipbuilding.

So, the question was would they join him, and get a share of the profits or go against him and gamble

“So, what are your plans for these ‘zones’,”

“First let’s talk about the trade district. I believe it needs an expansion, the only problem is it would either cut into the residential area in the main city or it will be in conflict with the Noble slipway to the port.”

“Yes, with your plans it would cause a problem to keep the district to the size it is now.”

“Secondly, it is unable to reach inland too well. You have to go round the barracks through the residential zone.”

“Yeah, our traders complain a lot with the layout.”

“I was thinking of swapping the sides of the residential with the commercial in the city.”

“That would take a lot of work. And who would move first?”

“I was also planning to use the land that the barracks is on.”

“Where would you put the barracks?”

Mark got out a map, “3 miles east is a stone hill, we plan to build a fort there, and move the castle over there followed by the noble district. In fact, it’s already under construction.” This had been in the plans for a while now, due to the ongoing circumstances, the military had grown to 1300 men, and the barracks had reached its capacity, as well as all the forts to the north in use.

Down south, Thomas had recruited up to 400 men and now sat at 700, the two remaining counties under the Aquitaine banner to the south and south-west was up to 300 each themselves.

While the county to the east, which was a neutral count, had 200, although he was neutral, Isabella had been improving relations with him, especially now they were his sole customer and was eating up all of the iron he produced as soon as it was ready.

“I was wondering what that was, it didn’t look like anything I’ve seen before.”

“It’s a new design.” Fred was going off a star fort style, it would be easier to mount the cannons on the walls.

“So, you are separating yourself from the city?” one of the Craftsmen said.

“No, we expect the city to reach there in 2-3 years.”

“What?”

“The mainland is overcrowded, and with fear of internal conflicts in the mainland as well as increased aggression with the Western Heavenly Empire, a lot of migrants are requesting entry to our city. There is news of Normandy and Toulouse filtering migrants from Burgundy, savoy and the centre lands towards Aquitaine on the mainland.”

“I see, we have seen a lot of newcomers in the ports the last few months.”

“If we are early about this, we can cherry-pick talents.”

“Do you have the infrastructure to match?”

“You should know better than me, I’ve heard you’ve been crying out for more workforce, and with these commercial factories in the works, we should be able to accommodate.”

“And how are you going to pay for all this?”

“Simple, I’m going to lower taxes. That way, you lot are going to pay for this.”

“What? How is lowering taxes going to make us pay for it?”

“I am going to waver the 30% tax we pay to the crown when the king goes into hiding and 10% knocked off from us, reducing taxes from 65% to 25%.

The room was stunned, even the people on Fred’s side was stunned.

“Wait, wait, wait, if your reducing taxes won’t your tax revenue go down too?”

“Perhaps for the 6 months, the next six months we will be back to normal, and after that, the tax revenue will just skyrocket. And I’ll be sitting back laughing while all of my neighbours start shitting bricks.” Fred said while putting his hands on the back of his head.

“Am I the stupid one here, how come I don’t understand.”

“No, I don’t understand either,” his colleague said.

“God, you call yourself merchants.” Fred rubbed his head. “You have 1000 gold coins to invest, there are 10 cities, all charge 65% tax yes, that’s standard throughout the kingdom. So, what do you do, 100 gold per city?

You make 100 gold profit per city. Each city earns 65 gold. You are left with 1350. Yes?”

“Yes,” they all nodded.

“Scenario two, you have 1000 gold, there are ten cities, 9 have 65% tax, the tenth is on an economic boom, and is selling the right stuff to take advantage of a crisis that is coming, take our city, for example, we’ve just expanded steel production 10-fold, and a civil war is on the horizons, as well, we are only charging 25% tax,

The other 9 have a stagnant market and are not as ready to profit from the crisis, do you think you are only going to make 100 profits for 100 investments in our city?”

“No,”

“So, are you going to spit your capital around the cities or take advantage of our situation?”

“It’s quite the gamble, but I like the pay-out. I’d invest 800 in your city and split 200 between two other cities.”

“That’s reasonable. You have to make as little as 260 gold for me to receive 65 gold coins, me reducing the tax means you are going to play with more money in our city.”

“That makes a lot more sense, but how are you going to make your neighbours ‘shit bricks’”

“You’ve just excluded 7 cities from receiving 100 gold coins in investment, what’s 65% tax on 0. To top it all off, the products you make in this city, you would be selling abroad, right. That gold is coming back here”

“They will catch up eventually, and would be sending spies to find out your secrets,”

“Great.”

“You’re not worried?”

“How much is gold worth if you have nothing to buy?”

“I see”

“I will be the first to profit, and I believe I have the means to stay ahead of the game for 40-50 years. My only concern is that they don’t try to catch up.”

“Why?”

“Because that would cause an economic crash, I would have all the gold, and nothing to buy, they would have everything to buy and no gold to buy it with.”

“What about the commercial industry?”

“I want to promote textile factories.”

“Textile?”

“My families lands on the Island to the south have a lot of sheep, and the wool is of good quality. Furthermore, my family in the Castilian area have found a plant called cotton and can grow it there, although it’s not worth their investment at the moment, I have worked out a method to process these materials into fabrics and cloth, with high production.”

“These methods, are they reliable?”

“I’m willing to invest in them.”

“What are you offering?”

“I can ignore the land tax, offer the technology, the building material, and have connections to get the input product, I want 65% ownership.”

“And what can we offer you?”

“Investment, we can reduce the building material to the base cost, but we need money for labour and construction, as well as your connections and logistics to sell.”

“You drive a hard bargain. We can provide, but we want 60%”

“I’ll give you 39%

“55%”

“43%”

“52%”

“47% final offer.”

The merchant looked at his colleagues, “deal.”

___

Fred thought the talks went well.

He would be able to move forward with the plans, the merchants were willing to help with this factory, and if it went off to a great start, more adventures were to come in the future.

It was time for him to return to school now, only he would be going as a senior this year.

And near the end of his first month back, news broke out, the king had gone missing for a month.