Reborn as a Baron Lord (Light Novel) (A Steampunk LITRPG Light Novel Book 1)

by Han Yang

  “How do we prevent that here?” Joana asked.

  “I… I don’t have a clue. Like the east gate will only give back what it gave the first time, with an excess of time. Maybe taking blimps to new lands will do it. Actually that makes a lot of sense,” I said and they both eyed me like I was crazy.

  My pole almost shot out of my hands as a fish pulled on the line. I grew flustered. “Here Becky.”

  She rejected the offer. Forcing me to fight the leviathan that had to be hidden under the murky depths of the dock.

  I reeled and reeled and… caught a three-inch fish.

  I thought it was going to be a monster the way it fought. Little stinker popped off the hook before I could get him out of the water.

  “Enjoy your free disgusting liver,” I said to the fish. Baiting my hook and returning to the topic at hand I said, “What’s wrong with distance farming to keep your wilds fresh.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe building a blimp tower to nowhere might earn some scorn,” Joana said, rocketing her hook out of the water. “Sorry, sorry. Something bit. Anyway. Bad Idea.”

  “Great idea if I get the materials first,” I muttered defensively.

  “It’d have to be a big secret,” Becky said.

  Joana shook her head. “The idea is good, fine, take his side. Just run it by Duke first. He’d be the machine ta calculate the costs to benefits.”

  “We have to get to the mines, and you know, survive winter first. I’d like to have our own bed,” I admitted.

  “Tell me more,” Becky said in a tease and I groaned. “What!? I’ll be a woman soon. In like ten years. Then you won’t be so rude!”

  I rolled my eyes, hearing the line stripping off the fishing pole. “Alright, time to catch a fish.”

  The line kept going out to the point I stood, angling the rod to make the run harder.

  “No!” the vendor said, coming over with a net.

  Too late, the large fish breached and shook his head in anger.

  Splash!

  The line went limp, only to continue to strip out. The fisherman guided me step by step on how to fight what felt like a monster. Ten minutes of back and forth resulted in the fat whiskered fish being guided into a net.

  Tonight there would be a celebration with fish on the menu, tomorrow a surprise welcoming, and then off to the mines.

  CHAPTER 26

  Three days later we had the first snowfall of the year. A light dusting that was quick to vanish, but the bitter winds stayed. The cold weather didn’t mean our mission stopped though and I did manage to acquire a nice coat.

  I was desperate to get any mine operating.

  A few things had been bugging me. My bed wasn’t here, I shared a room with five people, and Corvo’s wife said she’d only move here if the walls were upgraded to tier three.

  I recognized this was growing pains. People want stability, they want to know the community they’re moving to is worth investing in, and I could rationalize that.

  Thankfully, Corvo accepted the challenge and stayed.

  Joana put her foot down on joining us, and her dad was given a hunting pass to join us. Even Lei came to add her long range high aim to the team. The bonus was we had six highly functioning venturebots too.

  The six of us rolled out the western gate with two arctic bears pulling Ginli’s carriage. Behind that were two wagons loaded with steambots, tools, camping supplies, and mining gear. Those were pulled by woolies trumping their happiness to be off the train and getting to work.

  Not even five minutes into the trip outside the gate we were ambushed. Those swan turkey creatures gobbled out of the woods angrily.

  “Three hostiles on the right. Small arms only!” Corvo shouted.

  I readied my pistol, tracking the nearest target.

  ZIP! ZIP! ZIP! ZIP!

  I was stunned when Ginli and Corvo dispatched the three targets before I could even fire. Each shot was a clean kill and they hit the middle bird twice.

  Leon nudged me and said, “Damn.”

  The caravan halted, with the woolies watching the dead intently. A half dozen venture bots secured the area while three steambots moved the prizes to a wagon bed.

  “Damn! That’s a military formation,” Corvo exclaimed as the venturebots spread out, providing cover against potential threats.

  Ginli chuckled and said, “Yeah, they have a few upgrades. Nothing too much, but I bet Hexpa and Dardin start sending military bots here to get upgrades… For a fee.”

  “Uh… Tier three walls here we come,” Corvo said with a cheer.

  As quick as the ambush started, there was silence. Ginli and Lei sent the carriage rolling again. Joana and Corvo snapped the woolies into action and I didn’t need to use the reins. The woolies from our wagon went on their own.

  “So… you brought the whole family,” I said to Joana’s father.

  Leon’s massive grin was contagious. “The whole way here Lei and I talked and talked. Joana’s all grown up. We can move on from her. We wanted to race here to ensure she was safe and then the plan was to give her space.”

  “Ha! And now look at ya,” I said with a friendly tease.

  “Exactly. Babies are rare and really bring ladies together. Lei and Ginli. Those two might as well become handmaidens. Lei has convinced me we should regularly try again,” Leon said, roaring into laughter as I soured from the troubling mental image.

  “What do you think of Norn?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.

  He shrugged, his fur coat bouncing. That was one thing we had to wait on. Fancy coats. Tessa, Corvo’s wife, hand stitched us thick furred coats. They certainly helped fight the chill.

  “I think in due time it can be something great. I also think a city of arctic bears is almost as nifty as the steambot upgrades. There is -”

  “Left side, honksha. Fire for the eyes!” Corvo shouted.

  I whipped Darcy off my back, narrowing the choke. A metallic bird reflected sunlight off its silver hide. The seven feet tall ostrich type beast ran for a wooly.

  ZING! ZING! ZING! ZING!

  The hybrid creature’s head snapped back, sending the expensive bird into a tumble.

  When the body stopped rolling, I saw it was shot dead through the left eye. A cheering Joana had me grinning with surprise.

  Even Corvo was stunned. I didn’t get to fire this time either.

  “Hey Baron. That’s worth... like half the walls to three if traded smartly. Requesting permission to head back,” Corvo said.

  Leon grumbled, “Not a good point to test him.”

  “I wouldn’t. Not that kinda guy. The man knows his stuff. I can acknowledge my lack of expertise,” I said. I turned to Corvo. “Sounds great.”

  We didn’t even get the honksha loaded when a trumpeting sound burst from the woods on our right. That sounded like…

  “Alpha wooly. Set formation to the right, advance into the trees to slow the charge. Bussies on narrow!” Corvo commanded.

  “By the devils, an alpha wooly,” Leon said with fright. “They’re native to this area, just… why here.”

  “This is what happens when no one claims the woods. Stupid Hexpa council. I told them this was a flipping gem mine over here,” Corvo said in a stern tone.

  I felt the forest vibrate under my feet when I left the wagon. The venturebots rushed into a spread out formation. One of them went further than the rest to the right side of our hastily formed battle line.

  We didn’t have to wait long.

  A twenty foot tall mammoth sent aspens flying as it barreled for our position.

  We lined up, spreading out the best we could to protect the caravan. The half dozen humans and five venture bots tensed as the white furred monstrosity neared.

  The rightmost venture bot leveled a steampistol at the alpha.

  ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

  Each trigger squeeze resulted in a hit, steering the mighty creature for the venturebot. The chase was on. The venture bot ran left to right, turn
ing the mammoth at the last second. I saw the thought process: give us a broadside shot, and stall the charge.

  An aspen tree zipped over my head when the alpha pivoted. The beast was a blur of motion, its bulky body swiveling to catch the venture bot.

  I had hope for the little guy, I really did. That mammoth caught him in an instant, pausing to crush his foe.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  I hadn’t frozen as the others fired, I had waited. Bluish orbs zoomed, crashing into the mammoth as it stomped the venturebot underfoot.

  The intensity of its destruction of that poor bot only intensified when there were flares of pain. For whatever reason, the alpha thought the dead venturebot was harming it, spurring it into a frenzy.

  I ran forward, getting to within eyesight of a massive black iris that swiveled to lock onto me.

  A tusk whipped out at blinding speed.

  My brain fired a command to my augmented leg and I dove over the tusks. I felt the presence of both tusks just barely missing. I aimed up at the underside of the neck, hammering the trigger down.

  BOOM!

  A lot of things happened in mere fractions of a second. The trunk of the mammoth that was trying to smack me, reversed course as the head flared back in pain.

  The neck exploded in a shower of gore, sinking into the body, and ejecting bubbles of bloody air.

  Darcy was firm against my shoulder, however, I fired while in the air. I was sent flying, away from the mammoth and tried to flee.

  I tucked my limbs in as I went for a tumble, coming to a gentle stop for once. The alpha gave the saddest trumpeting cry ever, before keeling over with a thud so jarring I bounced off the ground.

  There was a finality to the moment when the beast twitched but once.

  In the distance, there were probably a thousand cries of mourning. Not me though. I shot up off the thick leaves, cheering for the death of the behemoth.

  “YES! Wahoo!” That went on for a full minute. “Why is it so big?” I asked.

  Corvo walked over with Leon, both were shaking their heads.

  Leon said, “Bradley… foolish moves, but daring. Good job. That’s an alpha. As for the size, that is nothing compared to the furless sand mammoths or the valley mammoths high in the mountains.”

  “Whoa! Those sound like fun to hunt,” I blurted, clearly on a victory high.

  Corvo snickered, “Welcome to the wilds. That right there. There is yer wall upgrade and even before Tessa could leave.”

  “Get to work bots, the herd will not come to challenge whatever killed their boss,” Ginli shouted and the steambots fired up tools.

  Joana walked over to hold my hand. “Darling… I… I… You make my heart ache when you do things like that.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, trying to sound earnest. I felt a finger flick my ear. “Ow!”

  “Just like Leon, ya are,” Lei said. The woman hardly ever said a word and I probably earned some scorn.

  I grumbled, rubbing my cold ear that flared with pain. “How long for a new alpha, or should we fight the herd and claim the young?”

  “Six months or so, and no. This is something Hexpa failed at. Hold on. Before I get too far into it, understand that there are debates in every city across Gearnix. How do you maintain your hydrox income?

  “Some will say Gearnix set it up to make things progressively harder on purpose but there is always hydrox to be harvested at levels meant for each city size. They aren’t wrong. If people in Hexpa were more cautious in their hydrox uses there wouldn’t be a shortage.

  “A mother using eight steambots to help rear a child with eighteen lights is too much. Hell, look at this convoy. These steambots should all be offline for the drive but that steambot master fella, Duke, wants them awake.

  “Things like that add up quickly and then drain what this alpha provides. So it comes down to if there is only enough to run a city if the residents conserve… and they choose not to. What is the option?”

  “I was thinking of rotating hunting grounds via blimp or something. Give zones time to recharge,” I said with a shrug.

  “We’re of the same mind. The wilds are meant to be managed and that is part of the Gearnix process. You balance, weigh, and calculate your steam expenditures as well as your wilds.

  “At other times... yes thin the area, like that herd may not leave the expansion zone between four and five. Does that make sense?” Corvo asked.

  “Ah, yeah, I think so. Going to take a guess. Killing half the herd means it regrows faster than if we killed the whole herd,” I asked.

  Leon clapped my shoulder and said, “I can only speak for Langshire. When I was a young adventurer, we cleared a lizard nest called gezskin. The next time I saw that clearing there were lions in it, and the next it was centaur type creatures. That clearing could be challenging. Every time we pulled back and only did a partial clear… well, they grew back quicker and in some cases stronger.”

  The sounds of steam blades hissing pulled my attention. The steambots were equipped for this grisly work. There was a slurping noise as sliced fur was peeled back. Oh man, this would make an epic hall decoration.

  That thought had me dreaming of a massive gathering hall with an excessively long bench table or three. Adoring the walls would be trophies from epic hunts. People would feast and think about where the skulls came from… After all, we did eat a community meal…

  While I became lost in the thoughts I helped the steambots skin the mammoth. As much as I wanted a humongous rug, we had to cut the alpha’s hide down to big sections.

  Once the fur was off, then the saws were onto the meat. Boy oh boy, I thought the wagon axles would snap at one point. The moment of truth came when we got to the heart.

  “Pentasocagon, impressive. Better than I thought, but not much,” Corvo said and everyone else gave ohhhs as the shiny heart was wrapped in a blanket.

  Leon slung an arm around Lei and said, “That’s enough to buy a nice place in a big city for a few years. Or to do something amazing for Norn. Never seen a wall upgrade in my life.”

  “Me either,” Corvo said.

  I gave a sad glance at the skeleton as the head was being sawed free. The cycle of vicious life mixed with justified death.

  My only faith in Gearnix was this would come back, or something else would replace it if allowed time.

  The death of those leopards in Hexpa haunted me enough that I sent a sternly worded letter to the council. I let the thoughts go as we headed home.

  We had to drag the skull behind the steam carriage for the ten minute ride back to the western gate.

  Shocker, the tusks were too wide to fit through the gate. A problem for later.

  Our arrival was met with commotion. I saw a curious Duke, spying the tusks outside the gate.

  “I take it no ore yet?” he asked with a tease.

  “Uh… crap. No, and not that. I didn’t tell the team I have an odd meat system going with the citizens. I did land the killing blow though.” My words were met with confusion from Leon.

  “While we’re not here for free, we understand the town is taking priority over our own wealth.” A finger went up. “For the moment. Heavy taxation for a just cause is fine. Slavery is not.”

  I held the big twenty five sided shape in a blanket on my lap. “I want to upgrade the walls. May I deposit this and still view the upgrade transformation?”

  “Of course, I’ll have the bots handle the meat and get the wagons ready for the next trip. Just leave the wagon here.”

  Duke spoke with a loudspeaker voice in the robot language. There was an instant reaction from the steambots as they rushed to form chains to unload the wagons.

  The hybrid bot turned to me and said, “I may have to… build a second freezer. I’ll figure it out while you're away. Come, come.”

  Leon stayed on the wagon while I headed into the Gearnix City Station. The door creaked open, needing oil. I said hello to the guards who didn’t respo
nd and I was okay with that. Or so I told myself.

  The manager became alert at my appearance. “A deposit, Baron Lord?”

  “Indeed. I’d like to upgrade the city walls to 3,” I said and it pointed at the board behind me.

  Norn Statistics:

  Citizens: 389 +1

  Visitors: 0

  City Debt: 2980 cubes of hydrox.

  Citizen behind on taxes: 0

  Buildings behind on upkeep: 0

  Buildings behind on taxes: 0

  City projects slated for downgrade: 2

  Upgrades in progress: 0

  Complaints in progress: 12

  Immigrants this month: 18

  Emigrants this month: 6

  Rating: 100

  Walls: 2

  Docks: 2

  Taxes: 2% on residents

  I went over to taxes and changed it to 5%. I set the big twenty five sided cube on the desk.

  “How many Gearnix cubes is this worth?”

  “3,391 cubes,” the dry voice told me. “Do you wish to extinguish the city’s debt?”

  “How does the debt work?” I asked.

  “There are taxes due to Gearnix. Gearnix lowers and raises the taxes per city on a very wide array of factors. If you fail to pay your taxes you cannot upgrade,” the manager said.

  I winced. “And the cost to take walls to three?” I asked.

  Duke gave a chime, pointed at a tablet hanging beside me.

  Wall Upgrade Amounts:

  Tier 1: 100

  Tier 2: 500

  Tier 3: 1000

  Tier 4: 500,000

  Tier 5: 2,500,000

  Tier 6: 25,000,000

  Tier 7: 500,000,000

  Tier 8: 15,000,000,000

  Tier 9: 5,000,000,000,000

  Tier 10: 5,000,000,000,000,000,000

  “What!? A city has hit tier ten walls!?” I exclaimed.

  “Six cities through perfect management over millennia,” Duke said proudly. “I have a trick for you. You’re six hundred shy of upgrading the walls. Downgrade the docks. You can do that when they are at full repair. Or ask if anyone has six hundred cubes.”