I teleported into the main courtyard of the castle back in North Carolina. This was a good thing, because I had forgotten to switch forms. The Great Game must have just teleported me to the closest open area that would fit my full dragon form. I quickly transformed back into my more human looking form and apologized to the various people who I had scared. It must have been pretty startling to see a giant dragon just teleport into existence near you.
“Jacob, Where are you?”
I jumped almost 3 feet in the air when he replied, “Right behind you my lord.”
“I swear Jacob you do that on purpose. How on earth do you sneak up on me without me noticing all of the time? Are you part ninja?”
“Not that I know of sire. I will try and make myself more known in the future.”
I don’t really believe him as I can see the corners of his mouth turning up in the barest hint of a grin. He enjoys this. I guess it is pretty funny, but one day I will figure out how he does it.
“Ok Jacob, please set up a nice dinner with the family tonight and let the ministers know that there will be a meeting to update everyone on everything that is happening tomorrow at 9 a.m. and please make sure to have lunch ready for us. We are going to work until we finish addressing several problems and situations that have arisen.”
“Certainly sire, I will set it up right away.”
I retreated to my room immediately following the conversation. I needed to make some decisions immediately regarding World Perks and how I was going to choose a successor. Some of the World Perks would be saved so the council could help e make some decisions based on their knowledge, but there were several things I needed to make sure were done immediately. Help, how many World Perks do I actually have?
My gambling really paid off. Only thirteen of those were from winning the championships. The rest were all gambling profits. Please show me a list of available World Perks.
I feel confident in selecting 10 years worth of immunity from invasion tickets, Increased Crafting Knowledge, Increased Magic Knowledge, and all 5 World teleportation network upgrades. That is 17 of my World Perks spent. With a Great Game competition every three years this will give my replacement 3 competitions to prepare and get ready. The one time boost to crafting and magic seems extremely useful, especially since we have transitioned to the Great Game recently. Finally, since everyone cannot afford teleportation scrolls or have the skills I do I think it is a great idea to have a world wide teleportation network for both trade and to let people visit family.
I mentally select my choices from the list and see a Great Game message.
Well there is no turning back from that. I hope people understand and I will discuss the other choices with my council tomorrow.
That night I caught up with my daughter and the rest of the family. Nicole had watched the tournament and said it was very exciting. She was also looking forward to the moment she leveled up enough she could get her own hybrid and full dragon forms. I found out that Nicole seemed to be holding a little infatuation with one of her guards. For a brief moment I considered sending him to guard something far far away, but realized she was a grown adult and I needed to be more mature. So instead I messaged Randolph and had him perform a thorough background check on the boy. He will report to me tomorrow before the meeting.
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Sleep time came soon enough and I sent everyone off to their respective rooms and areas. In the morning I met with my ministers after a late breakfast.
“Welcome gentleman and ladies. There are several things I need to update you on and some things I need your advice on. However, first I would like to hear an update on the visiting dignitaries that were supposed to come before I was teleported away for the competition.”
My minister of Trade and Transportation Stephanie Landers replied.
“The negotiations went well. We agreed not to expand into their existing territories in exchange for concessions on trade items, immigration, and the guarantee that they will follow some basic rules in their kingdom such as no slavery that you were adamant about. Mostly they are just groups of folks like us trying to make it in a bad situation. I would like to say after hearing the stories of these delegates we made them available to speak to the regular population. After hearing how much worse it is in some areas there is much less grumbling in the kingdom.”
“Excellent. Now I need to update everyone on several things. First off I will no longer be the planetary leader soon. I have exceeded the limit on levels that the Great Game set and I am required to select a successor. I want you to know how I am going to do this. First I will pay for a world-wide announcement that I will host a tournament to select the next planetary leader. This will happen in one week. Along with that announcement will be a set of rules that all participants must agree too before competing. The winner will be taken by me and I will power level them for one month to make sure that they are the highest level on the planet before handing over the title of planetary leader.”
Several people started to talk and ask questions.
“Quiet! There are still several things I need to get through and then we can discuss. Next, I now have enough resources that we can hire and build just about anything we need to in regards to the kingdom. I will deposit 100 million mithral coins into the treasury later today for the kingdom to use over the next 10 years. I plan on expanding our territory to the limit within the next 6 months so you need to figure a few things out. I can claim 600,000 acres of land an hour now. This means we could have a kingdom the size of the Former United States in less than 4 months with everything we already claim. You need to decide on what, where, and how much we are going to claim within the next few days. After 6 months my mana may or may not be available for land claiming. We will NOT invade other kingdoms or areas unless they are demonstrably using slavery or causing some terrible situation. Live and let live.”
This set off another round of people trying to be heard. I growled in my dragon’s voice to shut them up one more time.
“My familiar Walter, my four dragons and myself will be talking our soldiers and leaders on week long power leveling trips over the next five months. I want to make sure that the kingdom can defend itself from anything without my help. I soon have to travel to another world. I hope that I will be able to come back whenever I like, but I want to prepare for emergencies. Finally, I have 24 World Perks left and while I have some ideas on how I want to spend them I would like your input and opinions just to help me make a final decision. Now you can talk, argue and ask questions.”
The next 3 hours before lunch was horrible for me. I had to answer question after question. I knew it was necessary but I hated it. I was so happy when Jacob interrupted the meeting to announce that lunch was ready. We had made great progress on the situations.
First off it was decided to use natural barriers as much as possible for borders. However, to not infringe on the existing kingdoms to the North we would concentrate on West and South. I would try and claim everything west of the Mississippi river that was the old United States and then start claiming Mexico through Central America into South America as far south as the Amazon river and Ecuador on the West Coast of South America. Included in this would be the entire Caribbean, and I would also try for Hawaii and a few Pacific island groups. I also personally decided to claim at least 50 square miles around each of my dragon’s lairs so if someone started moving into the area we would get notified.
If we ran into any existing kingdoms or other claimed areas we would offer them the choice of remaining independent and establishing trade or absorbing them into the kingdom if they so chose. It was decided to keep the 4 existing armies and 1 sea based force and to just expand them. However, the areas they were going to be in charge of would change. We would divide the kingdom into the following five regions:
- East of the Mississippi
- West of the Mississippi
- Mexico and the Pacific Islands
- Central America and Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia
- Caribbean and the rest of South America above the Amazon River
Our plan was to continue what was working. We would identify areas of need and create Large bases with housing and then satellite cities as needed. With the coins available we could tie everything into a teleport network throughout the kingdom. After eating lunch I told my ministers that they could finish the rest up on their own. I was going to start working on the planetary leader tournament. Please keep me informed, but I had things to do. Don’t forget to schedule a week’s worth of time to level up with the help of my companions or me.
I retreated from the meeting as quickly as I could and started to compose the message I wanted to go out to the world. I ended up with this.
I had also gotten some great advice and decided on my final World Perk selections.
The only thing left now is to host the tournament and start leveling everybody up as soon as possible. Once my responsibilities are done here I can travel to the Dungeon World and experience it for myself. I hope that it will give me the answers I need.