The cold, decisive voice of Meta rang in Ben’s ears.
Well done, Protector. You have grown. But remember, you must reach 10,000 citizens by the end of the year, little more than nine months remain. We will help, but you need Tier 2 dungeons to support your infrastructure to that level. Move faster.
Good luck.
He knew better than to open the notifications in public. He waved to Adam, who had the far-away look of someone reading messages. They would meet soon after Ben had parsed through the notifications.
He quickly returned to the HQ and settled down on his bed, as had become his custom for major milestones.
Congratulations on reaching Settlement Level 3, a Stockade.
As a boon from the systems you are granted a Guild Hall (small, upgradeable).
At Level 3 and above, you can choose a specialization for your settlement.
You have the opportunity to select a new blueprint for your settlement.
New buildings have been made available and prices for infrastructure and the System Store have been adapted.
Citizen management and taxation features have been expanded.
Settlement Credits for slaying Energy-born creatures within the Protectorate have been eliminated.
The ability to vassalize another settlement has been added to your Settlement Interface.
Your attributes will now increase by +1.
Ben felt the familiar surge of Energy crash through his body, but it was gone quickly.
There was a lot to process, and there were still notifications waiting for him.
A Guild Hall sounded very exciting. He couldn’t wait to build it and see what features it had.
Specialization was a mystery for now and he set it aside until he could read whatever details were provided in a notification or the Settlement Interface.
The blueprint would probably be the last thing to choose once he knew what other buildings were on offer and what the specialization would mean.
Citizen management, and especially taxation, he would leave to Adam, until he told him otherwise. He wasn’t too worried about the SCs from slain creatures—it had been a nice boon at the beginning, but now only a very small part of their income. It would have been better to keep it, but nothing to get hung up on.
Now, vassalization sounded like Pandora’s box; he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what that was—but Adam would make him check without a doubt.
Before getting lost in speculation, he opened the next notification.
Mission alert – Tier 2 Dungeons
This mission is a reward for reaching Level 3 and an incentive to accelerate growth.
Objective: Add two Tier 2 dungeons to the settlement infrastructure within the next 20 days.
Reward: 10,000 Settlement Credits
That was massive. Without knowing what new buildings were available, Ben was sure that the reward would help them tremendously. It was twice the amount needed to unlock the add-on for the Energy Enhanced Evolution Chamber—something they had pushed back so far but was still very high on their priority list.
He had wanted to explore toward the dungeons that were shown on his map in his office anyway, but now the incentive was clear, and no other priorities would make him delay this further.
He opened the last notification waiting for him.
Starting with Level 3 upon leveling up your settlement you can choose a specialization.
They are meant to help focus the growth of the settlement in specific areas, attracting talent in line with the specialization and unlocking specific infrastructure to support it. Specialization is not required but permanent. On subsequent levels you can choose to either deepen the specialization or add another.
Your options are:
Military: Strengthen your defenses and unlock the potential of your fighters
Arts: Turn your settlement into a source of inspiration and beauty
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Academia: Evolve your civilization with research and education
Crafting: Make your settlement the production capital of your world
Trade: Create wealth by exchanging goods across your planet and beyond
Growth: Enable unprecedented population growth in your settlement
Choose wisely. Good luck!
If Ben had ever been sure of one thing, it was that he should not make that decision on his own and without proper deliberation. He closed it and messaged his fellow council members—he was sure they were already waiting for him.
***
A few minutes later, he was sitting in his office relaying the messages he had received.
“Adam, I am sure you have already sifted through all the changes in the Settlement Interface, am I right?” he asked his friend.
The man nodded. “I have. The changes are quite substantial. Maybe I start with some of the things that are not immediately relevant just so that they are out of our minds. First, the taxation features are in line with what we already had in mind, probably even more powerful than what we need. We can discard them for now. The citizen management system is more interesting, but it will only show its strength over time. It tracks compliance with settlement values even more closely. I would suggest we deprioritize it right now. It has the potential to be quite helpful, but it could also turn into an Orwellian surveillance nightmare. Let’s not worry about it for now, as nobody but Ben and myself have access to it. The one thing that it brings, which is very helpful, is enforced contracts. They work similarly to the oaths that you have recently discovered, can involve multiple parties, are registered with the Protectorate Administration, and will therefore be enforced by us, not the systems.
“Vassalization could become a big thing eventually. The way I understand it, we can essentially give existing settlements or cities a Protectorate Pillar ‘light’. There are different modes whether this is done in alignment with existing leadership or through some form of conquest. The settlement would not count towards our population targets and we couldn’t build infrastructure the way we can do here, but there are two key features that the cities get: a safety zone in which no Energy-born creatures can spawn and System Store access via the Pillar they get.
“Per million citizens in that settlement, we would have to dedicate a dungeon tier to it, which means we would receive no SCs from that dungeon anymore at the end of the month. In turn, we can set taxes, our values and laws would apply, leadership would be appointed by you, and we can pay for a permanent portal to the city.”
Allison chuckled. “There’s a Simonston-sized elephant in the room.”
The others laughed as well.
Barry cleared his throat. “It would simplify our support to them dramatically.”
Allison nodded. “Indeed. Think about all the time we spend travelling back and forth to deliver goods to them and bring people back.”
“I hate to be the money guy, but also think about the revenue we can generate.”
Ben frowned. He had not started the Protectorate to conquer people and his desire to get involved in that place’s politics was limited.
But he also saw the obvious benefits to all involved.
He nodded. “I understand. I would suggest that you go to them and present this as an option. Define the terms clearly, but make sure they understand that this is their decision, but the rules and values are non-negotiable. We will continue to do our best to support them even if they choose not to take that opportunity. Can you also update your economic model to see how that would play out?”
Adam nodded, visibly excited. Ben wasn’t sure whether it was for the opportunity to negotiate with the city council or for all the incremental taxes he saw coming in. He chuckled.
“Now, the System Store will be a boon to Simonston, but I think the portal to us will be more valuable. The reason was this: the store has become a lot less attractive.
“The offering has grown and now includes several Tier 2 items that you might want to check out, but the prices for food and other necessities have increased dramatically. When before it was about 5 Credits to feed an adult in a day, it is now closer to twelve.
“Should we, or rather they, go for vassalization, it would be better for us to build many greenhouses…”
“Okay, understood. Now, what about infrastructure?”
“There are lots of changes and lots of additions. Unfortunately, some of the buildings, especially apartments, got slightly more expensive, but nothing drastic. Some highlights of the additional infrastructure include: we now have access to schools and stores. There are more administrative buildings like a guardhouse and a courthouse. Some nice-to-have facilities like a bathhouse, and some defensive structures. The most interesting is maybe the surveillance network. It is a number of small towers that need to be placed at the borders of the Protectorate zone and will feed data into the map,” Adam pointed to the 3D map on the conference table.
Allison leaned forward. “That sounds like something we should definitely consider. Forewarned is forearmed!”
Ben nodded. “I agree. Anything else we should know right now?”
“Yes, there are also some next-level crafting buildings. For example, an advanced forge, which seems necessary to process Tier 2 metals. Some discounted parks and playgrounds. And an auction house.”
Barry cleared his throat. “Any specific reason you bring up the auction house? It’s not obvious why a small town like ours would need it.”
“I would have agreed with you up until a couple of days ago when Jane approached me. She made a strong pitch for the settlement needing some sort of exchange with the increased number of people delving into the dungeons and the associated inflow of resources. Without that, either people need to shop around their goods to many different merchants or form exclusive agreements, which would then lock out competition. She said she had already considered ways how she could corner the market, which would make her a lot of Credits…”
“But?” Allison asked.
“Well, she didn’t think it would be the best way for us to kick off the economy.”
Ben scratched his head. “It sounds like a good point. Does she want to run it?”
“That’s what made me pay even more attention. She said she could do it, but it would give the platform more credibility to be neutral if you were the owner. It would also make you a lot of money in the long term, which she thought would be better than other forms of taxes.”
“But I don’t want to run an auction house—and don’t I already make enough money?”
“First of all, as Madeleine said, you’re cash-poor,” Adam laughed. “Second, you obviously wouldn’t have to run it yourself. Jane said that she had plans for her whole family to go into various businesses, but she herself would be available if we wanted to hire her for it.”
“It sounds plausible to me,” Allison weighed in.
Ben nodded slowly. “It does. Allocating resources is a hassle and using the auction house would make it transparent for everyone. Good. Let’s see whether—or rather when—we can afford it and instead of just hiring her, we could make it a partnership where she owns at least part of the business.”
The others nodded and Allison turned to Ben. “Isn’t it time to talk about the elephant in the room?”
“What elephant?” Ben asked innocently.
“Specialization!”
“Ah, yes, maybe we should,” he grinned.
Which specialization will Ben pick?
