As the effects of his stats took hold, Eli immediately felt stronger. Blood coursed through his veins as his strength and constitution rose. New bulk settled onto his already impressive frame, causing his gear to adjust in size to accommodate the new muscle.

While his physical body changed before him, he felt a new sense of self-awareness. A new wave of confidence took hold, making him stand straighter. His facial features shifted slightly, becoming more inviting yet slightly more dangerous looking. The growing smile on his face beamed as he looked himself over, more than once. Liking what he saw, he turned his focus to the world around him. Feeling his connection with it stronger than ever, he closed his eyes.

Taking a moment to meditate, he felt his consciousness slip into a state of calm almost immediately. He knew, more than felt, that his increased spirit score would allow him to regenerate mana far easier. What he felt to to see, feel, or hear was his new and improved luck. Making sure he had actually increased the stat, Eli pulled up his character sheet and focused on the new modifiers sitting next to luck and charisma.

Charisma - 20 (+20% to all reputation gains and modifiers. +20% better prices when buying or selling from those with lower effective barter skill. +20% chance for favorable out come of negotiations when dealing with those with lower effective negotiation skill.)

Luck - 20 (+2% chance of increasing item rarity of loot drops, resources, and chests. +20% more gold from loot drops and chests. Other benefits.)

Seeing the last words of the bonus to luck Eli shouted, “Other benefits? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it says, there are other benefits to luck than just loot drops and getting more money. Remember what the stat does. It akin to divine intervention. What it seems to do is give you a small chance to gain an advantage in regular activities, or while in combat against someone with a lower luck stat.”

Thinking on her words, Eli responded quickly, “Then why doesn’t it just say that?”

Without pause, Aida sighed, “Do you have any idea how long that bonus would be if it listed every possible benefit from random, extremely minute, bonuses to nearly activity you do? Right now there’s maybe a one percent increased likelihood of something good happening one percent of the time you do anything. But that bonus is applied to nearly everything you do. So, you get, other benefits.”

“Okay, okay. I get it. I’m slightly better at basically everything sometimes, if I get lucky.” Eli said, shaking his head. “That’s just a little underwhelming. I mean Charisma basically increases my income and reputation by a flat 20%. Why is luck so stingy?”

“I don’t think you’re actually understanding what either bonus does Eli. The charisma bonus only applies when you are already better than the other person. You’re now operating at average of most low level NPC merchants. To put it simply, you’ve been paying the twenty percent bonus already. Now that you’re on more of an even playing field your prices will decrease, but you won’t actually get the bonuses unless you’re selling to someone whose skills and ability scores are worse than your. That’s after they have been combined to find the effective scores. So even with a twenty in charisma a merchant with a barter skill of twenty and charisma of fifteen will still gain the advantage on you. So your prices will be set to standard. If they have a higher level barter skill and higher charisma, you’re going to pay the extra twenty percent.”

“Well shit,” Eli said with a grimace. “That’s not nearly as helpful as I thought.”

Letting out a chuckle, his continued, “Think of it this way. The game cant completely favor people with higher levels and ability scores. If two people are of a similar level, but one hasn’t hit a milestone in an attribute, the shouldn’t be penalized or unable to compete. The bonuses give an edge, without making it impossible for anther player to overcome that disadvantage. If you really look at the strength bonus it only applies to the base damage of a weapon, not total. So if a weapon has a base damage of forty to fifty, that’s only eight to ten extra damage. It’s a meaningful amount, sure, but not an extreme advantage. Especially when fighting someone with a similar level or clad in heavy armor.”

“Because they are going to have similar bonuses in other areas and armor negates a portion of base damage, right?” Eli asked, scratching his head.

“Exactly.”

After a quarter hour of explanation, Eli sighed as Aida disappeared back into his subconscious. He wanted to search through the rest of his unexplored tabs on his own. Over the last few days, his menus had expanded faster than he was able to keep up. Between getting everyone settled, finding his former wife with a copy of himself, and nearly killing one of his friends, Eli forgot to really dig into the settlement management system. If he was really going to lead these people, or at lest set them up to lead themselves, he needed to know what he was doing.

As the menus opened he looked for a good place to start. When he saw a dimly glowing tab, labeled overview, he knew Aida was still guiding him. Opening the tab he was greeted with what looked like his character sheet, except changed to reflect his entire city.

Overview | Administration | Defenses | Resources | Structures | Special | Technology | Territory

Blights End

Owner(s): Eli Miller

FP: 02 | BP: 06

Settlement type: Town (200+ Residence) | Next level: City (500+ Residence)

Administration Building(s): Temple (Blights End Keep)

Alters connected: One

Spawn Location(s): One | Blights End Keep (Active)

Government

Type: Mixed - Oligarchy / Representative Democracy

Governing Body: Adventurers Inc.

Alignment: Neutral

Allies: None

Enemies: None

Settlement Scores:

Agriculture & Production: F

Economy: F

Education: F

Health: D

Military: D

Morale: F

Religion / Faith: D

Reputation / Infamy: F

Stability: D (*N/A)

Technology: F

Workforce: D

Overall Score: D

*Stability not applicable for first ten days after establishment of a new settlement. After which time, stability reflects chances of rioting and revolt.

With an open mouth, Eli stared at the screen before him. Seeing how poorly his settlement was doing, he hung his head. Everything he needed to know was staring him in the face. What he saw, terrified him.

If he was correct, the settlement score system worked on a simple F to S ranking. His over all score was sitting at a low D. Half of his scores were the lowest grade possible, their ominously colored crimson F’s pierced his soul. As he sat gaping at the letters his population fluctuated. The number going up and down by one or two every few minutes. People were leaving. Not many, but enough to be worrying.

As things were there was no way to feed everyone or any real form of military. His people were little more than armed peasants shambling about to hunt what the could in the nearby woods. Those with any kind of skill were attempting to build ramshackle structures using broken materials, scrounged from the ruins of a crumbling city. Their health and safety were abhorrent. He needed to do something, anything, to improve their situation as fast as possible.

Breaking himself from his spiraling sense of self loathing, Eli slapped himself. His vision blurred as he mentally selected individual scores. As expected, each acted as a tab. When opened, they expanded to show a more in depth breakdown of what factors went into the overall rating.

His F rating in agriculture was simple. There was no production, at all. There were lines for harvesting, farming, hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry. Each was compared to his current population and given an individual score. Other than hunting and fishing each, was a bright red F.

Economy was a simple factor of income versus expenses and population. Clicking on income and expenses brought new lines into view as well, sowing him exactly what the town was spending or making money on. Health was a breakdown of how many sick residents were in his settlement, as well as who they were and the likelihood of serious illness or plague. The only thing preventing it from being an F was the fact that they had a resident nurse and medical adviser.

Each line expanded, offering concise details about everything he needed to know. For the most part it was how much of what thing each the section referred to had verses population. The only outliers were Morale, Reputation, and Stability.

Morale was a factor of the overall scores combined with specific buffs and debuffs. With no special bonuses active, his moral was terribly low which caused his population to decline and adversely effected almost every other statistic. Reputation and infamy was how the rest of the world viewed his settlement. Due to the fact that it was new, there was little on the list. The good news was that Reputation only effected the likelihood that new people would join or travel to his settlement. He could worry about that later. What concerned him the most was stability.

Stability measured education and moral, versus military strength. In short, a well educated populace with low moral would revolt or riot, unless a strong enough military force prevented them. This force took the shape of active military and guards. He had neither.

With a grumble, Eli let his shoulder collapse, “Damn it.”

As if mocking him, Aida bobbed around the room lazily, “Now you see why these menus are important.”

His grumble of irritation turning to a growl, covered his eyes, “Yeah, and the only thing preventing everyone from leaving or revolting is the fact that most of them are too uneducated to think they could do a better job. That’s kind of disheartening.”

“That, and the ten day period before stability goes into effect,” Aida responded, mentally. “Which ends in a few days.”

Laughing, Eli slammed flopped to his bed, “Well fuck. Add possible revolution to the list of things I need to fix.”

“Not I. Why do you keep saying I.”

“Sorry, we. Things we need to fix.”

As if hiding the tab would make his problems disappear, Eli focused on one labeled Administration.

Overview | Administration | Defenses | Diplomacy | Resources | Structures | Special | Technology | Territory

Blights End

Owner(s): Eli Miller | Transfer Ownership…

Faith Points: 02

Build Points: 06

Settlement type: Town

Administration Buildings: Temple (Blights End Keep) | Select New Building…

Alters connected: One

Alters within territory: One

Spawn Locations: One | Blights End Keep (Active) | Activate & Deactivate…

Government & Economy

Type: Mixed - Oligarchy & Representative Democracy | Change…

Governing Body: Adventurers Inc. | Change…

Alignment: Neutral

Allies: None

Enemies: None

Constitution: Informal (Non-binding) | Change…

Economy: Distributism | Change…

Taxes: 10% (Low) | Change…

Fees: Low | Change…

Holdings

Blights End

Type: Town | Status: Claimed | Release…

Dryads Folly

Type: Dungeon | Status: Unclaimed. Unexplored | Claim or Release…

Wildwood

Type: Territory | Status: Partial ownership. Contested | Release or Contest…

Population

Citizens: 123 (*Change)

Unskilled Workers:

Farmers:

Skilled Workers:

Artisans:

Military:

Guards:

Militia:

Active Military:

Inactive Military:

*Professionals:

Doctors:

Scholars:

Merchants:

Researchers:

Engineers:

Architects:

Faithful:

Priests:

Druids:

Clerics:

Monks:

Paladins:

Worshipers:

Officials:

Nobility:

Leadership:

Non-Citizens: 132 (*Change)

Adventurers:

Thankfully, the tab was slightly smaller than the overview tab. Some of the information was the same, but explained in more detail. It also allowed him to change the foundations of his settlement in an instant. He could change ownership, set new spawn locations, and fine tune his economic and governmental structures.

What surprised him was the listing of the settlements holdings. Not only did they own the island itself, they owned a large portion of the Wildwood as well as the rights to a dungeon. A dungeon that he was completely unaware of until that moment.

For a moment, Eli considered releasing his claim to the dungeon, but held off until he spoke to someone with more insight into what that would do. After speaking with Aida, he realized that an unclaimed and unexplored dungeon on his land was far more dangerous than one sitting dormant, waiting for adventurers to find it. With the thought of monsters pouring from the mouth of a cave leaving his mind, Eli focused on the line for the Wildwood.

The territory was contested by two other governments, who divided it up into three unequal sections. Dawnport controlled the westernmost quarter, while Daggerfang Keep controlled nearly half. Their influence stretching to within a few miles of his old cabin. Blights End controlled the north eastern quarter, backed up into the tallest peaks of the Clutches.

While his portion was small, it held access to valuable resources. Which is why the governments of both Daggerfang Keep and Dawnport had already contested his claim. Luckily, he still had a few days of protection as a newly established settlement. But that period of grace was coming to an end, soon.

His options were to press his influence with those contesting his claim, or release the territory. The idea of releasing the only land capable of raising crops and livestock was a non-starter. Eli knew that the future of his people relied entirely on their ability to hold and utilize the Wildwood. They needed to turn a large portion of it into farmland and future expansions.

Thinking over the issue for a while left him without answers. No matter how he spun his wheels, he always ended up stuck. He needed help, from someone a little more diplomatic than his AI companion.

With yet another set of issues to find solutions for, Eli turned to the population section. Even though it contained the most detail, it was the section that provided the least issues. There was a full breakdown of his entire population, including individual classifications and assignments. The basic classification system created a tiered list that ranged from unskilled laborers to nobility and leadership. It was further broken down into specific jobs, and non-citizens and adventurers.

Unskilled laborers were just that, workers with little skill an any specific field. A step up from that was farmers and those with more agrarian skill-sets. Then it moved onto the skilled laborers, artisans, military and professional roles. Each had their own section, that further explained the various roles and positions NPCs and Players could take within society.

For nearly a quarter-hour Eli opened and examined each individual role from the most simple farm hand to master of coin. He found options to assign roles for each, along with who would suit them. While some of the jobs and roles had already been filled, with Aidas help, most were left empty.

The most common issue Eli ran into while trying to assign roles was a lack of training and education. Very few of the NPC’s were qualified to do anything other than farm, act as unskilled labor, or join a terribly managed militia. Knowing he had to rectify the issue, if he ever wanted to achieve his goal of self sustainability, Eli added it to a rapidly growing mental list that he affectionately called shit that needs to get done yesterday.

Focusing on what was in front of him, he found several citizenship options. With a mental click of a button he could add or revoke privileges, including citizenship, or exile those with low enough reputation with the city. Eying the name of the man who tried to sneak into the portal, Eli grinned. For a long moment he thought of just exiling the man and being done with it. Knowing it would stir up even more issues, that he had little time for, he closed the tab and eyed the rest of his menus.

For the most part, the rest of the tabs held little information. The Defenses tab was self both self explanatory and nearly empty. Their only completed defensive structure was the temple itself. While it had several active and inactive defensive abilities, they could not prevent any form of large scale incursion. There was also the issue of faith points. Most of the more potent defenses, like the magical dome, cost a substantial amount of energy.

Diplomacy was similarly sparse and disheartening. The only active diplomatic endeavors were the two neighboring territories contesting his claim to the Wildwood. Looking closer, Eli saw his options. He could declare war, send a diplomatic envoy, or engage in trade-craft. While not a new issue, it was yet another he would need to bring up in what was becoming a more urgent meeting.

Moving on, Eli peered over he resources tab. In a flash, a simple yet lengthy list of current resources appeared in his vision. Next to each of the towns current resources was the rate at which they were increasing or decreasing. Everything from lumber and stone to meat and hide were decreasing at a rapid pace. To make matters worse, their supply of medical equipment was nearly gone and their stockpile of weapons was sitting at zero.

The Structures and Technology tabs were nearly identical, each showing progression trees with several branches. Most of the trees consisted of gray blocks with the icon of a lock. What could be seen was the most basic structure or technology in each branch.

Eying the structures tab, Eli saw why Myr was so adamant about building a manor house. Even the most basic option, a Simple Wooden Manor, had nearly the same defensive capability as a barracks, while also being able to house up to four hundred people safely. It also offered minor bonuses to moral, stability, income, storage space and education. The only issue was its cost.

That single structure was eating up the large majority of his resources, including what little skilled labor he had. Because of this, and their materials shortage, the Inn and housing were delayed by several days.

Seeing a tab for building priority and build order, Eli asked his first question in nearly an hour, “Hey, Aida, if I rearrange this build order will the construction team start allocating resources to those projects automatically, or will I have to get some sort of approval from Myr?”

With a yawn, Aida told him what he already knew, “You’re the owner of this entire stronghold and the place of power it’s connected to. Your word is law.”

“But should I mess with it? I mean he has enough skill to be a city administrator.”

“Look, Eli, No matter what the cat-man says, you’re the one in charge here. If you don’t think he’s making the right call, or want to focus on something else, do it. NPCs don’t have nearly as much information as players. What they do have, they learn through work and records keeping. Its usually incomplete and requires a lot of time. Players are the only ones with magical calculators keeping track of everything in real time. So he may be a better administrator, but he doesn’t have all of the information. Does that make sense?”

Frowning, Eli grumbled his response, “Damn. I was kind of hoping I could get out a bunch of work.”

“Hey, at least you can automate the process.” Aida said, changing her hue to a soft salmon color.

For the next ten minutes, Eli set about rearranging the build order and resource allocation for his town. He knew he would change things around after speaking with everyone else but he refused to spend all of his resources on one building, no matter how beneficial it might be. In the end, he made minor adjustments to the existing plan. Before they focused on administrative buildings, they needed food and supplies.

Build Order and Priority

Shrine | Priority: High | Completion: 90%

Plot of Farmland | Priority: High | Completion: 0%

Logging Camp | Priority: Medium | Completion: 0%

Sawmill | Priority: Medium | Completion: 0%

Quarry | Priority: Medium | Completion: 0%

Emergency clinic | Priority: Medium | Completion: 5%

Workshop | Priority: Medium | Completion: 0%

Inn | Priority: Medium | Completion: 10%

Barracks | Priority: low | Completion: 0%

Training Field | Priority: low | Completion: 0%

Simple Wooden Manor | Priority: low | Completion: 20%

With his build order set, Eli stared at the completely blank technology tree. A half-dozen gray blocks sat mocking him, the words Requires Professional or Researcher to unlock. Unable to start the process of researching new technology, he glanced at the special and territory sections.

Under Special, was a list of available bonuses and buffs that would effect the entire town. Listed was two small boosts to moral and faith. One for nearly finishing the shrine, the other for having an altar within his territory.

He could also convert what little BP he had to increase build speed at a rate of two build points per hour of increased build time, replace some required resources at a rate of ten BP to one ton of required resource. Immediately, he dumped the his six build points into the shrine to speed up the build process by three hours.

With that done, he looked at the map of his territory. In its current state, his territory looked like a misshapen circle with the island in its center. It stretched for miles in every direct. To the north, it encompassed the mountainous region known as the Clutches. Looking closely, he saw what looked to be three unclaimed mines, an existing plot of clear land, and a tunnel that lead north by north east.

His western border stretched nearly halfway to Dawnport, where he saw it end only a few miles before a yellow circle indicating the larger cities own area of influence. To the south was a massive red blob that covered everything from the coast to his old hunting grounds.

Before closing the tab, not wanting to see even more reasons to panic, Eli saw a small blue dot of what looked to be a positive reputation with the coastal town of Misty vale. Bringing the territory up with a thought, he noticed something odd. A single line of text showing +250 reputation, Don Nutello, sat below the name and description of the small village. Apparently, those in a position of leadership had a minor effect on the overall reputation of his territory.

How Don had increased his reputation to a point where it gave his settlement a bonus, Eli had no idea. What mattered was that the people in charge of his city directly effected how the rest of the world thought of Blights End.

With that in mind, Eli double checked his alarm and let his head hit his pillow. He had work to do, but it was late. If he wanted to be any use to anyone, he needed sleep and so did his friends. He could call a meeting later. As it was, he would only get four hours. His problems would still be there in the morning, of that he was sure. At least he had his build figured out and the beginning of a plan stirring in his head. The next few days would be hell.