War Aeternus 3: The Culling

by Charles Dean

  Okay, so I understand that Defensive Strength is how well we can repel attackers, but what exactly does Economic Strength measure? Is Economic Strength how fast the town earns money or how much money the town has total?

  It is a measurement calculated by assessing how much money the average person within the town makes in a given year, how much money they already possess, and how much money an invasion can make transferring plunderable valuables directly into currency. This figure does not include your own personal savings, as it is assumed a statesman would flee with his wealth still in his inventory in the case of defeat.

  Well, that explains why the rating is so low, Lee thought as he stared at the number. Lee had a ton of money. Having earned it through a combination of hard work and killing a few very wealthy dirtbags, Lee possessed enough wealth to probably buy the materials and pay the people needed to build Satterfield a few times over. If that wealth were factored into Satterfield’s Economic Strength rating, then there was no way that the stat would be so close to the dismal Defensive Strength score it had now. The only probable reason its economic stat was listed as a 3 was the fact that the repaired version of Ramon’s former bar--now the Church of Augustus’s central establishment--was bringing in a ton of cash. There weren’t a lot of tourists, but a small trickle was consistently traveling through to try out the fried chicken, and some were paying extra to get their hands on the only bacon in this game world.

  Wait. Lee thought for a moment, realizing that there must be more options than the ones listed. After all, these ratings were given by the system, not as a response to his ownership of the territory. This was just his Statesman class interpreting what was already there. Is there any way for me to do something about that low Defensive Strength rating from where I’m at currently? Do I need to go all the way back to town and fix the buildings, or is there a function of the class Statesman that would help me solve this? Lee asked.

  The statesman, as an experienced political overseer of a territory, is offered a number of projects or initiatives that will allow him to augment a town’s score. He may change the town’s governing leadership and social system, enact or repeal laws, and lastly order the construction of unique civic building projects with his own personal funds. These projects may be started manually, or you may use the statesman’s ability, Delegate, to send status window orders to a leading representative of your territory.

  As a Herald, you are also offered an additional skill in which your class skills and Heraldic skills synergize. For you, this unique synergy skill is ‘Spirit Builder.’ When activated, if you personally meet the crafting requirements necessary, you may sequester a portion of both your mana and mana regeneration for the sake of creating and assembling unique civic building projects through magic instead of the town’s personnel. It should be noted that the cost of this will be impacted directly by one’s public persona gauge. The requirements for this vary based on the project and are listed next to each one.

  Woah, that’s a lot of . . . Why didn’t you tell me this earlier when I first got these skills?

  You did not officially own territory when you first got the skill. Thus, this information was locked to you, even if you had asked.

  You could have told me when I first got the territory, and they became unlocked.

  And you could have thanked me for being so helpful with previous prompts. We both failed to do things within our ability that would have been nice for the other party.

  What? Lee blinked but then decided not to even let himself think anything else since the system, like Augustus, could read all of his thoughts. Fine, thank you. Thank you very much for being so helpful and kind throughout my stay in this world.

  You’re welcome. In that case, here is the list of unique civic building projects you may choose to remotely assemble using your current skills and abilities. Please read it thoroughly.

  Okay, great . . . so . . . um . . . I’m waiting. Let me have it, Lee thought to the system. And also let me know which one you suggest since you’re usually very smart at this, he thought, deciding to throw in a compliment too.

  I already generated the list for you. Did you not read it thoroughly?

  I didn’t see it. There was nothing there. Lee even double-checking the previous pop-up window and looked around for a potential new one to make sure he didn’t miss something.

  Good, then you read it thoroughly as advised.

  So, there is . . . nothing I can build with my current abilities? Is there a list of total things I can build? I mean, if it’s not too much trouble, Lee thought, trying to be as polite as possible since this system clearly had more of a personality than he had previously realized.

  Yes, there is a list of available projects that you may delegate to your town representative at any given moment. That list can be found within your Herald’s tool, or, in the event that your Herald’s tool does not display the text, I can provide you with a list of available options if you specify your goal.

  So, if I want a little help here, I have to know what I’m aiming for in the same way my book requires me to know what I want to make before it will show me a how-to for it. Thanks. That’s helpful.

  And that wasn’t difficult, was it?

  What?

  Saying thank you.

  Would it help if I said I was sorry too?

  It might.

  Well, I’m sorry. I’ll be politer in the future. Lee fought back a sigh, not wanting to sound disingenuous with his apology as he pulled out the Book of Augustus. Are there any projects you would highly recommend I take a look at first? Lee asked. You’re the expert on what it is to be a Statesman.

  Yes, of course. The likelihood of an attack against your people is roughly determined by dividing your territory’s Economic Strength by the total Defensive Strength. However, even though this should make your town a prime target for invaders, due to the fact your total Economic Strength as well as Influence and Tourism rating are both under 25, it is unlikely that anyone would consider the town as a potential target or even know of its existence. As such, I recommend avoiding Defensive Strength boosters until either one of those scores exceeds 20. Projects focusing strictly on Economic Strength or your Influence and Tourism rating, however, will give you immediate gains in finance and population but may require more points later on to update as you increase your Tech and Utility rating. For this reason, I highly recommend you focus on Tech and Utility civic projects.

  Okay, that’s . . . very helpful. Thank you. I’m glad you saved me the trouble of figuring all this out by explaining it to me that way, but what Tech and Utility should I undertake first? Lee asked as he began opening the book and thinking about projects that might fall into that category. He saw several that seemed very interesting, but the requirements were far out of his reach. Even something as simple as a gear-shift windmill required him to reach a Carpentry skill of Initiate Level 8. An aqueduct, while amazingly cheap in terms of materials and gold cost, more so than Lee had initially expected, required a fairly high level of Masonry. On the other hand, there were some projects that seemed very easy to reach. A water reserve with pipes to help facilitate running water seemed to only require him to gain a Carpentry skill of Initiate Level 2. He already had the prerequisite Spirit Smithing, and with his Intelligence, Lee was confident that he could gain and level a skill to Initiate Level 2 within a few hours at most.

  Lee looked over the cost of each project. For the water reserve, which would raise Satterfield’s Tech and Utility rating by 10, it would cost 275 gold pieces to remotely build it using the Spirit Builder function. The base price was actually only 250 gold pieces, which Lee assumed was mostly for acquiring the metals needed to lay down the initial piping for the entire town, but he had to pay an additional 25 gold pieces due to being listed as a Savior, or +10 on the public persona scale for Satterfield.

  He glanced over at other projects and realized that there could easily be a synergy between them. At the moment, the 250-gold water res
erve and running water system was built around the concept of using gravity to create the pressure needed to push the water through to different parts of the town. This meant that they would still have to manually pump the water into the tower, and as such, the tower came with a well pump that would dig into the ground and allow the villagers to manually pump the water into the reserve. Once there, the sheer height of the tower would allow gravity to draw the water through the Spirit-Smithed magical filters and into the ever-narrowing pipes until it reached the buildings.

  That said, Lee noticed that there were other buildings he could add in the future to augment this system. If he combined an aqueduct with a water wheel, used the water wheel to raise the water to the right height, and then used the aqueduct to transfer it over the town and into the reserve, then no one would have to be pumping the water at all. This would all be in the future, though, as the river near Satterfield was a good ways off, and Lee didn’t have the Masonry skill needed to even consider this feat yet.

  Lastly, next to the selection, there was a timer for how long it would take to assemble through Delegate and through Spirit Building. Through delegation, it estimated that the people of Satterfield would be able to finish the task in two to three weeks at the earliest, and the material cost was rather high. Spirit Builder, however, only required 48 hours to do the project, 35% of his mana to be sequestered and 35% of his mana regeneration to be sequestered. If he gave these up for only two days, by this time the day after tomorrow, the people of Satterfield would have running water, even if he wasn’t there to see it.

  The other option that interested him was a proper bathhouse. It wasn’t tempting for the fact it increased any scores--in fact, it only promised to increase the Influence and Tourism score by 1--however, it was cheap. It was an entire building and a tourist spot that would only cost Lee 27.5 gold pieces as well as 5% of his mana and mana regeneration. It still would, however, require 48 hours to complete, making Lee wonder if the fluctuating part of the spell was not the time it took, but rather how much or little of his money and mana it required to complete.

  Wait, can I do both of these at once? Lee asked the system. I can afford it.

  No. Future tiers of the Statesman class may allow it, but I am not at liberty to divulge those changes yet.

  The last option that interested him somewhat was a rail system. Much like the bathhouse and the water system, it didn’t require him to gain that many levels in a new skill, and just like the bathhouse, it wasn’t that expensive. A local railway was only 55 gold pieces and would connect all seven of Satterfield’s farms through a simple manually-operated rail cart system to the center of town. Then four sets of rails would connect the center of town to the outskirts of the town in all four directional sides. This didn’t seem like a big deal, but a frictionless, fast way for the people of Satterfield to transport their heavy materials to and from the town would save a lot of people a lot of time as well as encourage more trade. The only reason Lee didn’t clinch this option, was, much like the bathhouse, it’s rating improvement, a 4 to Influence and Tourism, was still lower than the running water. This was likely because it only generally improved the quality of life for farmers, and they’d still have to operate the lever carts manually.

  Well, thanks for the help. I’m off to get the Carpentry requirements.

  “Long day?” Miller said as he came up behind Lee while the Herald was still looking through the menu. “Need a beer?”

  Lee looked up. “Actually, I need to get more work done.” Lee sighed, pulling up the music device in the book of Augustus he had wanted to build earlier for his church. “Do we have any equipment for woodworking?”

  “What is that?” Miller didn’t answer Lee’s question at all as he glanced over at what Lee had open in the book. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Do you have these where you’re from?” Lee asked.

  “Yeah, but not really? I don’t know. I haven’t seen one in ages. This is brilliant. Lee, you’re a damn genius. We can listen to good music while we drink with this. It’s the one thing that’s been lacking. How can a man drink beer in silence? You son of AUGUSTUS, YOU’RE BRILLIANT!” Miller’s enthusiasm drew over Ling, who had just been watching in the distance as Lee turned one pile of sand into a statue after the other, to check out what was happening.

  “I don’t understand,” Ling said as she looked at it, “What is it?”

  “It’s uhh . . .” Lee tried to think about how to say exactly what it was. “It’s a surprise. Come on, let’s go get it made over some drinks.”

  “Right, crafting and drinking. This is exactly what Augustus would want,” Miller agreed, nodding heartily. “I’ll have the men go fetch lumber and supplies while we go eat and start in early on the boozing.”

  “Can I help?” Ling asked as she eyed the book. She eventually took it from Lee before he could stop her. Her Sleight of Hand speed was surprisingly much faster than Lee would have guessed.

  “Yeah, sure, can you work wood?”

  “Yes. I’m very good at working wood,” Ling nodded proudly. “To be a good archer, you have to be able to handle wood perfectly. Each shaft must be polished and topped with even care. The bow must constantly be cared for, and you--”

  “Nope, nope. I’ve got the point,” Lee interjected cutting her off immediately.

  “What?” a voice Lee recognized but couldn’t put his finger on interjected itself into the conversation. “You didn’t want to hear about how she’s going to manually polish your wood with love and care? I mean, if you’re not interested, I am. I could use a good story, and I got plenty of wood, and I would love to hear about how a woman would polish it.”

  Lee turned to see Pelham, fully geared up with extra swords strapped across his back, heading toward Lee.

  “Thought you’d be with Connacht.” Lee brushed off the sudden turn toward innuendo. That was enough dirty jokes for one day, and he didn’t need to add more.

  “Meh.” Pelham shrugged. “I also thought Dave would be at the bar waiting for me to finish work, but lo and behold, I go to meet up with him, and they tell me he’s off chasing miracle beer. Honestly, after seeing all the bodies at the entrance to the damn place, I kind of wish you’d waited for me.”

  “Well, if you were just drinking on the job with Dave, you wouldn’t have been late,” Lee chuckled. “In the future, drink more on the job, so you don’t miss out.”

  Pelham nodded. “That’s sound advice, boss. Anyway, where did the old fart-whistle go? I’m going to see what he’s up to.”

  “Oh, he clocked out early like an old man,” Lee replied with a shrug. “Go grab some beers from the dining room and bring them to him. We’re just going to be working in there anyway.” Lee didn’t bother asking him if he was going to join them tomorrow on their expedition. He thought it’d be rude at best, downright insulting at worst.

  “Sounds good. I’ll leave you and the big man to practice polishing your woods with the lady. I’m off.”

  You just had to word it like that. Lee shook his head. “Well, let’s get cracking on this monstrosity. Even with several hands helping, I imagine it’ll take all night to complete.”

  “Do you want the paladins to help? I was going to let them take a breather after all they’ve done for me today.” Miller had a concerned look as he glanced over at his troop of warriors. Half of them, if not more, were from Satterfield, but there were plenty of new faces too. As more of them showed up, Lee even saw a few Firbolgs and Leprechauns in the mix. There weren’t too many of those, but there were enough that Lee had hope that he wouldn’t end up with a mono- or bi-racial army like Devin. He even laughed when he noticed that one of the Firbolgs had copied Miller’s outfit and how he wore it down to the letter, as if he had gone full fanboy.

  “Yeah, let them rest.” The three of them went into the dining room, and Miller’s paladins set up the supplies they needed to get to work. The men then poured themselves drafts of beer and sat around at nearby ta
bles so that they could watch what was going on, and Lee provided them with some of the bacon he kept on hand for occasions just like this.

  As the wood, some crude tools that basically amounted to knives, marked rope for measuring, a saw and a makeshift workbench came in, Lee realized exactly how difficult this was going to be for him.

  “It doesn’t have to be difficult, though,” Lee heard Augustus say in his ear. “I mean, you can shape sand into glass with your mana, and you can shape metal into . . . you know, different shapes of metal. So, you should be able to do it with wood too, right?”

  Huh? Lee looked down at the wood. That’s right! It’s simply using my spirit to reshape an already existing material. This should be easy. “Welp, time to try doing this the easy way,” Lee announced as he picked up a 4-inch-diameter, 5-inch-long block of what looked like unfinished tree stump.

  “What are you up to?” Miller asked. “You going to make us some magic beer?”

  “No, I’m going to see what I can do with this wood,” Lee responded, focusing on the little bit of log. He concentrated on its dimensions as he planned out exactly how he wanted to shape it. Okay, I’ve got about 10% of my mana back after spending so much on the glass statues. That should be enough. He poured in 2% of his total mana into the block of wood, trying to use his spirit to shape and control it.