Second World Novel

“There are 43 empty spots in these officer ranks. Do you have suggestions for someone to fill them with?” Jack asked the three natives.

He was not keen on checking the expansive list of candidates and reading their data one by one. He also wasn’t worried that filling up these empty spots would add to the kingdom’s expense too much. From the country overview screen, there was still a healthy margin between income and expense. He preferred having a full roster of officers so they could help him in ensuring this kingdom operated as intended.

Duchess Isabelle and Thaergood gave their suggestions. They were the ones who had interacted with officers more, so they should have a better insight into who could be trusted and who was a better employee. Jack followed their suggestions and appointed those officers to the empty spots.

Jack asked if Duke Alfredo wanted a spot. The duke politely declined. “I prefer my freedom,” the duke answered.

‘So am I,’ Jack lamented internally.

After Jack was done, he asked Peniel, “Where is the mass pay function?”

“Go out to the main screen,” Peniel informed.

𝐧𝗈𝒱ℯ𝔩𝒩𝑬xt.𝒞𝗈𝐦

Jack did so. He saw it then. There was a mass pay button under the Officer Overview main screen. Jack clicked on it and there were four options 50 gold coins, 100 gold coins, 200 gold coins, and 300 gold coins.

After pondering, Jack chose the 200 gold coins. He didn’t want to be seen as too royal by choosing the highest amount, but he also didn’t want to appear stingy by choosing the lowest one. The sum in the kingdom coffer was still more than enough for this.

Jack had filled up the spots for all 569 officers. But since John couldn’t receive pay, there were only 568 officers who could. 200 gold coins for each officer totaled 113,600 gold coins. This number was automatically deducted from the kingdom coffer and the coins were magically transferred to the officers.

Jack clicked on the portraits randomly. The officers’ loyalties had increased, even if not by much. Emris’ loyalty went up by 3 points to 79.

Jack noticed the mass pay button was greyed now.

“You can only do mass pay once a week,” Peniel caught his attention.

“Okay,” Jack said. The next time he would just go for the 300 gold coins option. That, of course, if the coins inside the kingdom coffer were still sufficient. He had a feeling that before this day ended, the coffer would see a huge decrease.

He moved to the next screen then, which prompted John to whistle.

When Jack looked at him, he said, “This is my favorite kind of game. I’m glad I can see these screens.”

“What is it?” Jeanny asked. She was now the only one in the room who couldn’t see the screens. She felt left out. But unlike John, she didn’t fuzz about it.

This next screen was City Overview. It listed all the settlements in Themisphere, a total of 57 settlements. Eleven main cities with the metropolis level were at the top of that list. The capital, Thereath, was of course the number one.

Jack clicked on Thereath. A large overview map appeared, allowing them to see the 3D projection of the whole city.

“Cool,” Jack remarked.

Jeanny kept her urge for asking what was cool. Jack still explained anyway. “It’s the map of the capital,” he said to her.

“This is the list of its facilities,” John pointed. Beside the map was a list of building names. There were lots of them. Among them were temples, schools, markets, farms, mines, lumberyards, granaries, libraries, barracks, courthouses, and so on. These buildings had numbers on them. These were the number of those specific buildings that had been built inside the capital.

There were also buildings without a number. Peniel explained those were buildings where only one could be built in each city. Some of these were the adventurers association, the hunters association, the League of Champions, the Order of Magi, the palace, the city wall, and many others.

There were also statistics on the city. These statistics were divided into three groups.

The first group was resources. Consisted of population, food, mineral, lumber, mana, and specialties. Thereath’s population was eight million, a combined population between natives and outworlders. The capital was just short of two million from becoming a megalopolis.

Food determined the growth of the population. If it wasn’t enough, the population might decrease. The current number on the food was in green. Peniel indicated the color green meant it was enough for the current population to have healthy growth. Food came from farms and the number of food that could be stocked depended on granaries. If food was in red, these two structures would be the ones that needed building.

Mineral and lumber were the two primary resources needed to construct a building. Some special buildings needed mana as well. Mineral came from mines, of which they were in abundance due to the existence of Mount Thenias behind the capital. Lumberyards were fewer but were still enough due to nearby woods. Mana came from special buildings like mana shrines. Temples also produced a little mana when people came to pray.

Specialties were not represented by a number. They were special products that were unique to the city due to the terrain. Thereath had three specialties. Orichalcum ore, Magicite ore, and Deep Earth Weed

“This city has Orichalcum ore?!” Peniel exclaimed after reading.

“Is it great?” Jack asked.

“Great? That is one of the two legendary-grade ores for smithing,” Peniel said.

“Legendary? Awesome!” Jack also exclaimed after hearing Peniel. He remembered that his Transformation Prism could only fuse materials until the unique grade. Which meant he could only get the legendary material from normal means. Now, one of these means had presented itself.

But then he thought of something and asked Thaergood, “Um… This orichalcum ore. Is it only for kingdom use? Can I take it?”

“Your Majesty may take them if you wish, but you will need to pay them using your private coins or merit points,” Thaergood said. “However, the production yield of this orichalcum ore is very low. Less than five ores are mined each month. Currently, our warehouse has no more than one hundred orichalcum ores in stock.”