POV - Tad

Sated, I turned my attention more fully to consider my next steps. I was still isolated. In my own personal apocalypse. It was most bizarre. Intellectually I knew that the entire world had been isekai‘d. But I had just about nothing to do with nearly all of them. In fact apart from Dom I knew no one else. I had been delayed, my orientation stalled through a freak occurrence where my iAPD had stymied my introduction. Going through the repeated notifications advising me that I had improved my STA was surreal seeing I had no memory of my gormless state.

And then by the time I had rejoined humanity in the land of the conscious, the entirety of the uplift had passed me by. I was late to the party, I had missed the boat so to speak. Left in the starting blocks. A laggard. And completely unprepared and ignorant of how the System worked having missed that foundational introductory arc.

And then, before I had really made any progress, I stopped myself. No, I had made good progress, excellent progress in fact. I shouldn’t make light of it. I had unlocked a Gold Skill. And it was a fundamental, foundational Skill. It had completely opened up the way I could interface with the System mechanics. It was a paradigm shift. A game changer. And just in time. Just as I was starting to get myself together I had been bundled up and out and dumped. Already isolated in time I was then isolated in reality. Alone and adrift in the trash zone. Where Levels and Essence were unregulated. And the monsters too. I was fortunate to have survived the zergling rush of Trashbugs. To have been missed by the churning vacuum cleaner of a calamity. Even to find my way out. Without my [Prospect] Skill I would have been completely and hopelessly lost in that featureless wasteland. I wondered how many other unfortunates had met their end wandering in the dump. What a terribly sad way to die.

But I had found an exit. And I had exited that desolate place. But I hadn’t returned to Humanity’s Domain. I hadn’t returned to the fold. No, I was still alone. On my lonesome. Still solo. A true solo apocalypse. Even my minion had deserted me. It was most distressing really.

I hadn’t really thought of myself as a people person. Yet I realised I had always been around people. From the closeness of my family to the almost constant presence of nursing staff, there had almost always been the hum of human activity around me. It was going to be a real challenge in this new Level. In my domain. My kingdom of one. I chuckled, king of all I surveyed indeed. Sovereign. More like Soloreign. I would need to keep focused lest I go stir-crazy.

I needed to formulate a plan of attack. To plan my advancement. I had made a good start. But that was not enough. No, never satisfied. Hah. That was the way of everything. My Core hummed in agreement.

I returned to the Shop menu, still sitting there open while I enjoyed my repast. I sat and considered what to do. I was surrounded by opportunity. A Level that had been abandoned for trillions of years. It was mind boggling. Surrounded by danger too. There was a whole ecosystem out there which I didn’t understand. Where I was the invader, the interloper. And yet I was now Sovereign over it. I needed to know more about this Level. About the previous inhabitants. And about my Sovereignty.

What could I discern? What could I buy? The future, which less than a day ago seemed so bleak, was suddenly wide open with possibility. With wonder, adventure and opportunity. But where to start?

I queried my Sovereign Title. What benefits and bonuses did it provide? How could I leverage this?

Sovereign of Oreol

Defence Economic Administrative Diplomatic

I opened up the first heading.

Defence

As Sovereign you are the Commander in Chief and the highest authority in marshalling the Defences of your Dominion.

Recruit Invest Build Strategic Overview

Oh-ho! Strategic Overview. That sounded like a mini map. That would be fantastic. I expanded the interface. A new window opened. It was filled with grey cloud. Arrgghhh. The fog of war. Of course. There was just one tiny section where it had been exposed. And there I was. A speck. This level was massive. Hang on, things were changing. While the fog was still there, it was thinning in places. I concentrated and zoomed in. Ahhhhh. These were the positions of the System Shops. Which I had claimed. Ha. Bought site unseen indeed. I zoomed back out. There I was. Right next to a Kiosk. And then there were two more, reasonably close. I could extrapolate that these were also in the same city. And then another grouping of three. Here, here and here. Hmmm. Does that mean there are four cities of similar size to the one I was in? They were roughly spaced out with one in each quarter. Then there were another eight Shops interspersed in between them. Maybe in towns or villages? Or something else?

Anyway, a total of twenty Shops. And well spread out too. I wonder what the roads are like. Or, my eyes widened, was there fast travel? That would be massive in organising the Level defence.

I closed down the Defence tab. I had no one to recruit or need to invest in or to build fortifications at the moment. That could come later. In the meantime I had discovered good intelligence on the size of the Level and the scope of the challenge that I had. Good but daunting.

I paused as a thought struck me. Defence seemed to be solely reactionary. Where were my options for mounting an attack? This seemed like a major oversight. After all, the best defence is a strong offence. This could be a problem. But again, it was not important right now. I moved on to my next heading. Economics.

Aha. My tax take. Oh. And my upkeep. Thankfully both were zero. I sighed. Imagine if my Shops had an overhead? Like rent or staffing costs. I was suddenly pleased that the Shops were kiosks. Unmanned ATMs. Otherwise this could have been the shortest Sovereignty on record as I would have been completely insolvent within the hour. That would have been somewhat embarrassing. I fiddled with the settings. I could set a Level wide tax at anywhere from 1% to 100%. And I could tariff all goods or any selection of goods the same as well. Oh. I could also filter by species, immigration status, social position and any other number of factors. I left both at the default 5% for now. Moving on.

Admin. Ahh. Reports on population, city status, and local resources. And the various rifts and dungeons were considered resources as well. Interesting. Well, I suppose that made sense. All blank and empty now but, given time, oh, I paused my rapid flicking through the reports. Here was one which was overflowing. And it was the damage and repair reports. Hah I sighed, of course that would be full. Interesting that they were listed out even though I hadn’t really discovered them yet. Yes. I had a lot to do if I wanted to make a go of this Sovereign gig.

I moved on to Diplomacy. Borders, Relationships, Espionage, Agreements, Keys. I checked the status of my borders. Closed. Hmmmm. Did I want to open them right now? No, I felt too vulnerable. I made a note to revisit once I was stronger. Or at least more confident. I skipped over the rest, having no relationships at all. And I came back to Keys. That was a bit weird. What was that? I expanded it.

Keys to Aggression, to Battle, to Conflict. Aha! Here was the offence. War; the pursuit of diplomatic outcomes with other means. Yes. Here I could unlock policy which looked to be increasing in intensity from a general attitude through to specific battles and then to open conflict. This was powerful. I could theoretically direct the response of the whole Level. It seemed like a lot of work. I was having second thoughts about this kingship role. It looked like it might be a bind. Stop me from growing, from improving. From ascending. And that would be a bad thing.

I frowned. This did not feel right. I didn’t have a handy minion to question but, my eyebrows rose, I did have a handy Shop. And a 50% discount. I pulled up the search menu. Time for some strategic shopping.

SYSTEM SHOP

EXP:

16932

SEARCH:

[Ascension Guide]

[SUBMIT]

FILTERS:

[Tier]

[Category]

[Grade]

[Price]

SPECIALS

RANDOM

SPONSORED

Waahoo. A healthy EXP balance too. I hadn’t really noticed before while buying my steak n’ mushroom with black pepper sauce pie. No, I had been focused on feeding myself. And the discount had meant two for the price of one. It was excellent.

There was just one option returned. A pamphlet entitled Arise. And it was a restricted item. Ohho! Another benefit of being the boss. I could override the restriction. It was five EXP. That seemed quite expensive for a pamphlet. And that was after the 50% discount too.

I bought it anyway.

And it was just one page.

With five words. What a scam. How on earth was this worth 5 EXP? That was one EXP per word! I felt cheated.

Achieve Rule Influence Slay Explore

Oh. Cute. It was an acronym. Arise. And presumably these were the various paths to power. Ways to improve yourself. Ha. If I sat down for an hour or so I could probably come up with this on my own. But I hadn’t. And frankly, I had better things to do. Like exploring my dominion. Which, I paused, was one of the ways to grow. As I considered this the pamphlet shimmered and Explore expanded.

Oh. Well that was slightly more helpful then. It was interactive. Just like the System notifications.

Explore

The fine art of exploration is very rewarding. Discover new places, special locations and hidden secrets. The thrill of the Tourist chasing new experiences is a popular and exhilarating means of growth and advancement.

I opened the other one which immediately pinged my interest.

Rule

The role of a leader is to rule; providing guidance, direction, correction and discipline. An effective leader is crucial to a species advancement.

Any position of leadership, from the party leader, to the head of a family, or political positions in a city or council, to the Sovereign of the Level, the path of the Ruler is directly commensurate with both the number of followers and effectiveness of their leadership.

A ruler receives a tithe of the tribute of all the experience of those in their domain.

Okay. This could be powerful. Especially as I had a whole Level to populate. Hmmm. Perhaps this Sovereign stuff is worth something after all. But I was lacking that all important part. Somebody to rule. Subjects. I would need to remedy this if I was going to be serious about being a Sovereign.

But first. I needed a safe place. To level up and to grow my stats. To claim this Domain in truth. To claim my magic. Yes There was a lot to do.

And I needed to get doing.