Second World Novel

“Great! I have not much need of merit points anyway, I will use those points to exchange,” Jack said.

“Use your coins if you wish. Your merit points are even more important now that you are a king,” Peniel said.

“Huh? What for?” Jack asked.

“I’ll explain later. Anyway, these other two specialties are also great. Magicite ore is a unique grade smith material, while Deep Earth Weed is unique grade alchemy material.”

“That will be useful if our guild found recipes using those items,” Jeanny said.

Duchess Isabelle chuckled. “Unfortunately, the kingdom also needed those materials. But sure, if we have excess, we can sell them to you.”

The second group of statistics was the city stats. There were four of them. Economy, productivity, security, and happiness.

Economy indicated how prosperous the city was. The higher the value, the more coins the city would produce. Productivity influenced the speed by which the city constructed new buildings or produced special goods.

Security and happiness had their values shown in percentage. 100% in security meant that the city was completely safe. No crime would happen in such a city. Happiness affected the citizen’s mood. The higher its percentage, the happier the mass was. Hence, less likely to rebel.

Thereath’s current security was at 62%. Its happiness was at 76%.

“I don’t reckon this number is good…,” Jack said.

“No, it’s not,” Thaergood said. “Both security and happiness also affect the city’s economy and productivity. If either fall below 70%. The economy and productivity will be less than the value stated here. On the opposite, if both security and happiness are above 80%, it will boost them more than their normal value.”

“This 76% happiness is already due to the boost from Goddess Serenity’s blessing. Without it, I bet it will be less than 70% as well,” Peniel said.

“It can’t be helped,” Duchess Isabelle said. “The people had just gone through two wars, lost their king, which is succeeded by someone, I am sorry to say, no one expected. They have to process a lot of stuff.”

“Don’t forget that many of this capital’s original troops had been sent to reinforce the borders,” John added. “I believe the absence of sufficient troops contributes to the lack of security, doesn’t it?”

“That’s right,” Isabelle replied.

“So, the first order of business is to restore the security. Let’s use the draft function,” John said. His hand went to the screen.

𝐧𝗈𝒱ℯ𝔩𝒩𝑬xt.𝒞𝗈𝐦

Jack again, smacked his hand away. “Hey! One by one. We’ve not yet finished reviewing all the details on this screen.”

“Sigh, I already understand the mechanic in just one glance. But fine, I will match my pace with our king’s sluggishness. Hurry it up, will you?”

Thaergood had the urge to ask Jack if he probably wanted to discharge this impolite outworlder from the royal advisor rank. But Jack didn’t show any sign of being offended by John’s rudeness, so he didn’t say anything.

Jack resumed his review. The third group of statistics was the general information. The first information showed the city’s governor. For Thereath, the governor was someone named Aquinas.

Jack slightly remembered someone with this name during the swearing of fealty two days ago. He thought it should be the same Aquinas. The governor of the capital was sure to have been invited during his coronation.

Aquinas wasn’t among the court or military officers, but Jack could still check his data. When he clicked the name, a portrait appeared with his info. He had rather impressive social stats. His leadership was 81, discipline 72, wit 86, and politics 98. He also had a trait called Management, which increased the city’s productivity if he was the city’s governor. His loyalty, however, was only 72.

‘Hm… Can’t have the governor of the capital has such low loyalty,’ Jack thought. He saw similar functions of pay and gift by the side. He clicked the gift button.

A list of goods appeared. They were mostly luxurious jewelry, furniture, rare books, ceremonial weapons, and such. Peniel explained these goods gave no effect on outworlders. So, they were mostly ornament goods.

“These are luxurious goods collected by the kingdom,” Thaergood explained.

“Can gifting increase loyalty higher than paying coins?” Jack asked.

“If the gift is an item the recipient covets, then yes,” Peniel answered.

“Anyone here knows this Aquinas fellow?” Jack looked at the three natives in the room.

“I am quite familiar with him,” Thaergood said. Being an advisor of the palace, it was only natural for him to know the governor of the city he lived in. “He is a complex person, but he likes to read. If you want to present him with a gift, books will be a good choice.”

“Thank you,” Jack appreciated the tip. He looked at the series of rare books on the list. With Thaergood’s help, they picked one that contained poems and literature.

After sending the gift, Aquinas’ loyalty went up by eight points to 80.

Jack nodded with satisfaction, but doing this personal gifting was too troublesome if he had to do it to everyone. He would only do this for special individuals.

Below the governor was the info about city troops. 18,000 was the number listed there, it indicated the number of troops stationed in the city.

“Before the invasion and civil war, we have 50,000 troops stationed in the capital,” Thaergood explained. “That’s why our security value had fallen, we are lacking sufficient soldiers to patrol the streets.”

“Thank you for repeating my point,” John said. His tone caused Thaergood to glare at him, but John acted as if he wasn’t aware.

Jack ignored the two. He was still studying the screen. Below the city troops were coin income and expense. Thereath coin income was 200,000 gold coins, while the expense was 80,000 gold coins. Giving a net income of 120,000 gold coins monthly.

Isabelle explained that Thereath and Theneward were two cities with the highest economic value in Themisphere. Hence, the high coin income. Most of the total kingdom coin income was generated by the eleven main cities. Smaller towns generated just enough to cover their expenses. As for villages, most of the time they needed assistance to help with their expenses.

Below the coin income was mana income and mana expense. Thereath had 50,000 mana income and 20,000 mana expenses.

Isabelle explained that mana was mostly only produced and needed from the city level and above. Town normally had no output of mana nor any building that required mana upkeep. Villages were even more so.