Chapter 38: The New Government

“Wonderful gentleman, my next question involves the setup of my kingdom. Does my basic plan of ministers comprising a ruling council still seem workable to you?”

“Yes sire, however we do think that you should consider hiring a professional for the positions of Minister of Magic and Minister of Dungeons at least until your people start to understand more about the Great Game.”

“Very Well, if I understand correctly Edward is my Minister of Education, I should hire a professional Mage and Explorer for Ministers of Magic and Dungeons which leaves 4 positions open to natives. Defense, Law, Trade and Transportation, and Health and Wellness. This should allow people from Earth to feel that they are not being overwhelmed by new arrivals. Randolph, I envision the Minister of Defense as more of a position for a professional quartermaster. Someone who can allocate funds, plan logistics, and keep the behind the scenes working. They will not be in charge of tactics or division of troops, that will still be your realm of command. You just need to work with them for pay and appropriations. If they start trying to command or lord it over you, please speak with me directly and I will set them straight.”

Randolph looked relieved. The rest of the impromptu meeting was putting together the following adverts for hiring a minister of magic and a minister of dungeons.

Wanted: Long Term Minister of Magic

Minimum Level 50, Any Gender, Race, or Bloodline Welcome

Minimum Length of Contract 5 years with resettlement rights granted at the end of the initial contract.

Contract will be extended in five year increments until 20 years or until one party declines renewal.

Minister must be able to oversee all aspects of magic education, rules and enforcement for a new Great Game kingdom

Salary and Terms Negotiable Based on Experience

Wanted: Long Term Minister of Dungeons

Minimum Level 50, Any Gender, Race, or Bloodline Welcome

Minimum Length of Contract 5 years with resettlement rights granted at the end of the initial contract.

Contract will be extended in five year increments until 20 years or until one party declines renewal.

Minister must be able to oversee all aspects of dungeon and adventurer development, rules and enforcement for a new Great Game kingdom

Salary and Terms Negotiable Based on Experience

If I can fill these positions and the other minister positions in the next few days my kingdom should be in much better shape. I quickly send the adverts into the Great Game and will interview and hire soon. My lunch meeting with the leaders of each city guard and the possible candidates for the other minister positions should be here soon. I ask Jacob to get the smaller banquet hall prepped for the upcoming lunch meeting.

20 Hub and Satellite cities and their guard leadership plus 3 people each is almost enough to overwhelm the smaller banquet hall. As everyone finds their place I stand up and wait until everyone quiets down.

“Hello, many of you already know me and some I am meeting for the first time. My name is Mark Anderson and I am the king of Appalachia Kingdom. I know that this is something new to those who were previous residents of Earth. I was the sole survivor of the Great Game beta trials, however due to constraints placed upon me I was unable to prepare the general population for the change over. Instead I prepared myself and supplies to the best of my ability for those who would return from the tutorial. I understand that some of you question my leadership role as king as you have never experienced this type of government before. This meeting is to help alleviate some of your concerns as you have been noted by my guards as leaders in your local area. I will also be interviewing some of you for council positions that need to be filled in my new government. If you choose to be part of the new kingdom, then I encourage you to sign up to be interviewed for a government position in an area where you have experience to help out.”

After my opening speech I fielded questions all throughout the working lunch meeting. Most dealt with standard things now such as what were the rules of the new kingdom, why I chose to be king, what gave me the right to be king, how big is the kingdom, what are you doing now and in the future to help people, and my favorite is there another option for government or what if the US government disagrees with what you have done? The final question I knew was coming and I was ready for it.

“I chose to create the Kingdom of Appalachia and become a king only after much thought and consideration. I have analyzed and used the help section of the Great Game for almost a year and realized a few important things. Number one, an existing government of elected people is not recognized by the Great Game as having any authority and ownership. This means that they cannot access some of the Great Game functions such as building and protection that I have as king. These functions are what allowed me to hire guards, build sanctuaries and provide shelter and food for you and your friends and family. I originally intended to just create a small kingdom that would only deal locally, but after much deliberation I decided to make it as large as feasible with my resources to help as many people as possible. Please understand that I could have built what essentially would be an impenetrable fortress kingdom and just ignored the rest of the world, but chose to help others instead. Finally, I considered the response of the US government and came to this conclusion. How will I know that the government agent or persons contacting me after such a world-wide upheaval will actually be the people they are saying they are. The majority of our elected leaders are elderly statesmen that have a very low probability of survival for the Great Game tutorial. I do not know if the president is alive, the vice-president, or any others in the line of succession. I do know that even if they are they would not have the resources to help out like I do. I do not agree with what the Great Game has done, but we have to live the consequences. The reality is the Great Game rewards and encourages centralized rule. I am trying to be fair by setting up a council of ministers and others that will run the day to day operations of a kingdom but ultimately I have to be in charge in order to get the perks that are necessary to help myself, my family, and my friends survive.”

I could see that this speech alleviated some of the looks I had been getting from various people. After a long lunch I started interviewing those that wished to help out. By the end of the day I had my choices for the initial 4 Earth ministers for the kingdom. While interviewing for the positions I had the candidates under the influence of the gem of truth. With the huge level gap between us I was easily able to notice when there answers varied from the truth. This allowed me to dismiss several candidates that looked good for their mistruths in answering. In the end I hired on a 3 month temporary basis the following people to be on the Ministers council.

Fred Jones a former major in the National Guard would be my new Minister of Defense. He completed Level two of the tutorial and has had the necessary experience as a quartermaster in the military to work well with my new kingdoms guards.

Alan Regrisso was an immigrant who used to live in Charleston SC who had put himself through law school and was a circuit court judge. He would be my new Minister of Law. I felt that with his history with both the US court system and the judicial system of his former country he might be more flexible in helping set up and implement new laws for a new world.

Stephanie Landers was a unique individual. The best way I can describe here is as a former trucker and survivalist. She was intimately familiar with transportation and the area all over the East Coast from her trucking experience and with her survivalist tendencies would have a good grasp on what was necessary now. Luxuries could wait until survival was secured. She would be my Minister of Trade and Transportation.

Finally, I chose my Minister of Health and Wellness from Havana Cuba, Lucinda Gutierrez. She was a practicing general doctor and had worked under some impressive restrictions. I felt she would have the flexibility to help design a new health care system in my new kingdom.

Defense, Law, Trade and Transportation, and Health and Wellness, and Education Minister positions were now filled. Starting tomorrow I would interview for the positions of Minister of Magic and Minister of Dungeons. The initial reports out of the sanctuaries that I had built were peoples grief and acceptance of something outside of their control. No real challenges to authority were made and most cities cited large influxes of people from outside the sanctuary. Luckily there were only a few reports of human on human violence and even fewer reports of monster attacks, but there were some.

The orphans that were in stasis were teleported in front of the headquarters of the guard units in every city. From what the care takers could gather from the children they remember nothing about being gone for a week and most just want their parents. This is one task I am selfishly glad I do not have to deal with personally. It must be heartrending to have to tell the children that their parents are not able to come back. I will make a personal visit later and try and boost morale, but I believe I would serve no good purpose at this time interrupting what must be a tough transition for these kids.

24 hours has passed and the guards report very few people not selecting to become citizens. Those that knew they were not going to stay vanished in a teleportation haze and I have no idea where they were transported. Now that citizenship and most of my council is in place I need to select my perks as Planetary Leader. Out of the 15 perks that were listed several have peaked my interest and the list as a whole has solidified some of my ideas about what the Great Game competition is actually about. From what I can tell the Great Game competition pits various Great Game worlds against each other in a bid to find the strongest or best competitor.

Why it does this I have no idea. However, if my guess is correct worlds can invade and rule over others (the invasion and immunity perks). Since we get those for free this time I need to focus on other things that could only help us become stronger. The three perks I think will do Earth the most good in both the short term and long term are #1 Universal Language, #2 One Year Increased Experience, and #8 Tier 2 Level Cap.

The universal language should break down any communication barriers for the entire world allowing us to hopefully in the future pull together and work as one people. The one year increased experience will benefit everyone on the Earth and allow them to reach a higher level more quickly allowing them to improve and provide for their own safety and well being. Last the Tier 2 level Cap. I must be getting pretty close to the level cap, which I bet is 100, and the ability to exceed that as a new Planetary Leader I think will be a great advantage in the next competition. I earned the perk of having no limits, but no one else has it so I need to get this perk to make sure the world can keep progressing smoothly.

Some people will think that I am being selfish for not choosing the protection from natural and monster related disasters or the world resurrection point, but I have some pretty good reasons to avoid those at first. If we never experience monsters or other disasters how are we to grow and get the experience we need to survive in the future. I will admit the resurrection point for world natives was tempting, but a couple of things held me back from selecting it.

It could cause carelessness. It could be camped by a group that would then dominate anyone who needed to resurrect. The other choices will help everyone improve better quicker.

I have the suspicion but no one can verify it that when I participate in the Great Game competition I will be competing for more World Level Perks. That is the only thing that makes sense as it has various things like part 1 of 5 for world teleportation grid. This implies that there is a way to earn world level perks in the future. Either by conquering other worlds (the invasion perks) or by getting it as a reward.

This realization to me means that I need to quickly shift my focus from management of my kingdom to becoming as strong as possible as quick as possible. I need to be able to do well in the next Great Game competition in order to earn as many of these world level perks as I can. This should keep the Earth protected for longer and allow for our growth so the Earth can start protecting itself. I assume after reaching a certain point in level development that the attractiveness of invasion starts to fade for other worlds and societies.

The next day flew by as I helped to end disputes and set up more infrastructure as needed. I also managed somehow to interview and select my final two ministers for the ruling council. After only 3 interviews I was able to easily select my Minister of Magic. A level 55 mage of the Vampire Noble heritage named Baron Grefantle. This was his actual name and not his noble rank. This name made me want to indulge my inner third grade child and instantly make him a baron in nobility. Then everyone would have to call him Baron Baron. I was able to resist but it is something to giggle about in the future. I did clear up many misconceptions that we had on Earth about Vampires without I hope being offensive. First they can exist in sunlight (no they do not sparkle) but they suffer a penalty to their strength. They are less focused and are about as strong as a level 1 human. At night they get a bonus to their strength and mental acuity. They are able to see in low light and can consume blood for a quick boost to abilities but it does not last long. They also have the racial ability to sense living things within a certain range. This range extends as they get older and stronger.

My Minister of Dungeons was the first person of Draconian Heritage that I have seen since changing my bloodline. She looked “normal” or at least what I would have considered normal before the Great Game except for a faint shimmer of green and white coloration on her bare arms. Her name was Anna Cloudkin and she identified as a mix between and Earth and Sky dragon. At level 60 she explained that she was still young for someone with draconic heritage and needed to find a place to set down roots to help her grow. I learned that as time and power levels increase the abilities we receive from our draconic heritage increase. Also the stronger a bloodline is the more features of the original creature/monster are displayed. For instance, the horns on my head indicated a very powerful bloodline for my lower level.

Anna had a vast experience with dungeons and leveling through the Adventurer’s guild and will make a great Minister of Dungeons. However, her knowledge on draconic bloodlines was what cinched her the spot for the Minister position. The most interesting thing I learned from the brief time of questioning her was that when I passed “Level 100” and rose into the second tier I would gain a partial transformation ability and would be able to fly. This was something to look forward to and also explained the Tier 2 level cap. I am glad I selected this option as my growth would stagnate without it.