One thing I found out about very early in my life in this world, when I was an aspiring mage, was information always cost money, there were no public libraries when I was alive, either you had to go to the bookstore, or pay to be admitted into a school to use their library. But there was a distinct difference in what the two offer you, if you want general knowledge, go to the bookstore.

If you wanted information on how to progress your skills, or gain them, then school libraries were the answer. There are some private libraries some people have, that if you have the connections, you can enter. I myself had a small library that mostly consisted of my research notes, not valuable to me, but some people would pay money for access on occasion.

I walk down the road and enter a small quaint storefront that designates it ‘Rook’s Books’. Inside has at a glance, 800 books, a rather large amount for the area, but could just be the change in times. I look towards a counter, and there is a middle-aged man with graying hair. He is transcribing a book it seems, he briefly looks up and nods with a “Welcome dear customer.” and looks back down.

I look at the rows of books, they seemed to be organized into general seconds ‘History’ ‘Laws’ ‘Geography’ etc. I make myself over to the geography section, and I just start grabbing every unique book, next to the geography stack is a few bins of maps. I take one of each after confirming they are different.

The storekeeper is giving me a curious glance, as I bring more and more books to his counter, taking practically one of each book, regardless of what they are. He got concerned at one point until I flashed him a couple of gold coins, I nicked one off a food vendor (Which I returned after I made more), then he calmed down and went back to transcribing with more enthusiasm.

After I cleaned out more than three quarters of his store, was there were no more books on display, I walked up to the counter and asked if he had any skill books, which was a no because this place is too remote. Skill books are items from the system which directly give skills, and they are almost always in hot demand. People with high levels of a skill can go to people with scribe classes or similar, to have skill books made.

I absorb all the books, luckily space type storage items and skills are somewhat common, so the shopkeeper is not too surprised. I make my way towards an inn, I have to sort through the books and read the important ones first. I find a small inn that has a few rooms open and pay a few copper coins for a single night.

I pull out the large maps showing the continent, and finally confirmed something that has been bugging me. Where my dungeon core is, is exactly where the capital city was, but now there are mountains there, a small cluster of mountains in an almost perfect circle in the middle of a vast plains.

I scramble over the geography and history books before I understood what had happened. About 150 years ago, give or take a few years, a huge elemental explosion happened, there were firestorms and tornados, tons of water just everywhere, and mountains started growing, these phenomena lasted for about fifty years before they died down. It took another 50 years before it was explored.

It is filled with a large variety of avian beast. There are three rivers going through the mountains, that would be prime merchant highways, if not for the high level beast living in the way. After finding some reasons why there were next to no people, I sigh with some relief. I then turn to the books on law, I found that the ‘Earth Spike’ Mountains, are bordered by three kingdoms.

I look at laws for land acquisition, and as it was in the past, with most laws being standardized from kingdom to kingdom, All I have to do is pay a fee to anyone who has claims on the land. I plan to buy all the mountains, it will definitely cause a huge stir, but I will still do it, I look at the cost for land and find one for ‘Frontier Land Acquisition’ which is luckily identical between the three kingdoms, just some minor price changes.

I started calculating the money cost, and if I weren't a money printer, I’d probably pale. It will take me at least three days to just make the amount of gold coins required. Luckily coins are judged by weight to be ‘System Worthy’ if your coin is not within a specific margin, then it is not considered coins, this ties within many merchant and related classes.

There are no worries about price inflation, because of the prior mentioned merchant classes, use coins to convert to experience to level up, so more coins are always welcomed. Every class can level up from killing, but every class has specific ways to level up besides leveling skills. I head down to the innkeeper and pay for a week.

I return to my room and start ‘Printing’

Over the next few days I was making enough gold coins to make someone cough blood, sadly I did not have access to higher levels of currency. (Copper>Iron>Silver>Gold>Platinum>Mithril 100 of each denotes the next) I went to the stores around the town, and bought some seeds and metals. There was not a large variety of stock, I got potatoes, carrots, and cabbage seeds. I also got aluminum and silver.

I will have to travel to a larger town in the near future. I have to buy blueprints for various public buildings and to design a large city, luckily I won’t have to pay for labor. I make my way to the administrative building, a little giddy about how many people will flip their hats. I always had a mischievous streak in me.

I come to the front of a basic stone building, nothing indicating it is a government building except a small sign ‘Land Purchases and Disputes’. I push open the door and a little bell dings. I walk in and there is a young lady at the desk, looking extremely bored. She raises an eyebrow and ask, “How may I help you Sir?” Odracir smirks, “I would like to purchase some land under the ‘Frontier Land Acquisition' law.” The receptionist seems surprised, but pulls out a large map anyways.

“Where would like to purchase, all the areas in green are unclaimed, whereas red is claimed. Blue is disputed by neighboring kingdoms, so you will have to pay money to them as well.” she says. I look at the map and see that luckily the entirety of the Earth Spike Mountains is covered in blue.

Odracir takes a deep breath, then he points his finger on the map and circles the mountains, “I would like to purchase the Earth Spike Mountains entirely.” You could see the young receptionist mouth drops open before she seems to gather herself and says, “Are you s-s-sure s-sir?” with a nod from Odracir she gulps, “T-then do you want to pay directly, or pay over time?” One word is said from Odracir, “Directly.” At that a box appears in front of him.

Notice!

You are about to purchase land from the ‘Ashrine Kingdom’. You chose to pay directly, the amount will be deducted from your [Internal Storage Skill] If you wish to continue select yes.

[Yes]/[No]

Odracir is at first confused about the skill he did not know he had, but then realizes that it just did not show in the status screen and has been using it all along, this is common with racial skills. He selects yes and receives a few prompts in succession.

Notice!

You have purchased land from the ‘Ashrine Kingdom’ As you purchased as a frontier, you will be subject to the frontier laws, you can add laws to your owned land by your discretion.

The land you are purchasing is disputed by another country! Please also purchase the land from them to avoid disputes!

Notice!

You are about to purchase land owned by the ‘Hroving Kingdom’ from another kingdom, to purchase the land directly from the ‘Hroving Kingdom’ Please select yes.

[Yes]/[No]

Notice!

You are about to purchase land owned by the ‘Defer Kingdom’ from another kingdom, to purchase the land directly from the ‘Defer Kingdom’ Please select yes.

[Yes]/[No]

He selected yes again to both prompts, and all the generated gold coins were taken and deposited into the respective kingdoms treasuries. He nodded to the slack jawed girl and turned around and left to make his way to the nearest large city that contains a builders guild.