A Relatively Powerful Mage

Imri was pleased to see he hadn’t been the only one working hard. With the influx of population they had received from the refugees of Kansas City, the settlement had again become filled with people living out of tents. Fortunately, Celestia now had enough institutional infrastructure that most new arrivals had something they could contribute to. While there was a temporary slowdown in productivity as new people needed to be trained, having as many productive citizens as possible in the long term would be essential.

One of the busiest groups was the builders, who were constantly flooded with new construction requests. Several teams had become bogged down in large projects, and even with their incredible speed, it would take them a while to finish. This included several essential projects, such as expanding the mines and building a multi-unit apartment building. There was also a team focused on bringing Christoph’s temple to reality. While the council wasn’t happy to have so much time and money spent on a grand temple, they couldn’t entice the builders to put the project on hold. Fortunately, a couple of smaller builder teams were still focused on building homes. They were so efficient that they could build an entire home in a few days.

Several days after Rayden had left for New Chicago, the 50th building was completed. With that came a slew of changes to the settlement as the rank-up quest was completed.

Settlement Rank Up

Celestia has ranked up from a Village 1E to a Village 1D

Settlement Tier Up

Celestia has improved from a Village 1D to a Town 2F

Town of Celestia (2F), Level 12

Base Radius of Effect: 1 Kilometer (+300 Meters)

Base Bonuses:

Resource Regeneration 7.5% (+1.5%)

Experience 1.25% (+.25%)

Empire Management Feature can be unlocked for 1,000,000 credits

Empire Management: Establish an empire, starting at a capital Nexus. Once unlocked, each settlement tier 2 or higher will have an additional radius, Radius of Influence, extending as a percentage of the Radius of Effect. Whenever a settlement in your empire has a Radius of Influence that overlaps with another radius, it may choose to become integrated into your empire, gaining any applicable Empire Bonuses.

Nobility Feature unlocked

Nobility: This is granted through a title. Noble titles grant increased primary attributes depending on the average level of all settlements within the domain specified by the title. This bonus is reduced by 20% per noble tier established above you, excluding yourself. You may never possess more than 3 titles and only 1 below your highest-tier title. Each Settlement of tier 2 or higher will have a Baron and a number of Minor Nobles up to the tier of the settlement. To establish a noble title above the tier of Baron, nobles with a combined 4 titles of the appropriate rank that form a contiguous domain must agree to the formation of the greater title and the title creation fee paid to the system.

Title Gained

Baron of Celestia 12: You are the lord over the Barony of Celestia.

.2% increase to primary stats/rank (2.4% increase)

Imri Padar

Primary Stats

Strength 142 (+3)

Agility 113 (+2)

Constitution 133 (+3)

Intelligence 243 (+5)

Willpower 199 (+5)

Charisma 117 (+3)

Secondary Stats

HP 236 (+10)

FP 179 (+7)

MP 887 (+41)

Mana Efficiency 755 (+31)

Crafting Efficiency 861 (+35)

With all the changes, an immediate meeting was called. However, unlike most of the meetings, which took place in the large conference room, this one took place at the Nexus Crystal, so they could all review the new changes.

The meeting started once all the key parties arrived, along with an even greater number of gawkers. They started with the most straightforward topic, discussing the various improvements to the existing bonuses provided by the nexus. While no one would turn their nose up at improved regeneration and experience, the amount it had increased by wasn’t as dramatic as Imri had hoped it would be for a tier increase. Likewise, the system store had only marginal improvements in the variety of items it offered, including higher-level cores and slightly more exotic raw materials. After Christoph purchased several items, it was determined that there was also a marginal improvement in the stability of prices.

While those improvements had been somewhat underwhelming, the next change made up for it. A massive list of new bonuses was available to select from, and each could be purchased for 500,000 credits. The only downside was that they couldn’t have more bonuses than the settlements tier, which meant they would need to agree on which two to purchase. Judging by the heated debates, it would be a while before a consensus was reached. Imri took his time, reviewing each one of the options.

Available Arrays

Agriculture Array: Increase the growth rate of plants by 2.5% and the quality of plants by 2.5%

Bliss Array: Increases contentment by 2.5%, provides luxury goods in the system store

Commercial Array: Reduce the tax rate by a factor of 1.05, allow access to the system store anywhere within the radius, and allow for a local market to be established that can accessed anywhere within the radius

Core Energy Array: This array stores core energy within the nexus, allowing cores to be created or recharged, equivalent to a level 5 core/hour.

Education Array: Increase the rate at which mental-based abilities are learned or improved by .5%. Increase the rate at which base mental stats are improved naturally by .5%.

Fertility Array: This array increases the rate at which children are conceived by 2.5%, reduces the rate of pregnancy and birth complications by a factor of 1.05, and improves the maximum potential primary stats of any newborn who is born within the radius by .25%.

Information Gathering Array: This array adds information packets that can be purchased from the system store and allows the settlement to sell information packets to the system.

Mana Creation Array: This array allows the nexus to store up to 10,000 mana and is automatically charged at a rate of 100 mana/hour.

Mana Density Array: Increase the ambient mana density of the area within the radius by a static .25.

Manufacturing Array: Increase the quality or efficiency of crafted items by 2.5%

Mining Array: Increase the formation rate of natural minerals and metals by 2.5% and increase the quality of natural minerals and metals mined within the radius by 2.5%

Natural Wonder Array: Improves the quality of a Natural Wonder within the radius by 2.5%

Passive Income Array: Provide 100 credits/hour to the Nexus, which can be withdrawn by the Nexus's owner or any designated individuals.

Physical Improvement Array: Increase the rate at which physical abilities are learned and improved by .5%. The rate at which base physical attributes improve naturally is increased by .5%.

Religious Array: Increase the quality of holy sites within the radius by 2.5%, and miracles cast within the radius cost fewer devotion points by a factor of 1.025.

Sanitation Array: Reduces the effective spread of pathogens by a factor of 1.1, allows for the removal of waste for a credit charge

Security Array: Reduce the effective stats of hostile creatures within the radius by a factor of 1.01. Monsters are less likely to enter the radius. Harmful effects that originate from outside the radius and target something within the radius have a reduced efficiency by a factor of 1.025.

Stealth Array: Provides natural camouflage to everything within the radius and reduces the effectiveness of harmful divination-based spells and effects by a factor of 1.1.

It was an almost overwhelming list, and Imri could see an argument for almost all of them. Even some of the ones he had first thought strange had merits. Slowly, they eliminated options one by one.

The first array eliminated was the Stealth Array, which had already been obsolete when the war with the Chixel started. Likewise, Imri argued against the Security Array, pointing out that most engagements happened on the mountain passes, and having enemies weaker while near the settlement would be insignificant. Next, they eliminated the three arrays that statically generated resources: Core Energy, Mana Gathering, and Passive Income. While all three were helpful in the short term, none scaled well. Similarly, Mana density was eliminated, as the static increase was small relative to the existing mana density level.

There were moral arguments made against Bliss, with a large enough majority finding it disconcerting to have the system altering their mental state. Sanitation was dismissed as not impactful enough for their current situation. Agriculture, Mining, and Natural Wonder were eliminated as the Nexus wasn’t in range of those resources. Likewise, Information and Religious were eliminated because they were specializations that didn’t fit Celestia at this time.

From there, eliminating them became much more challenging, and the most contentious was Fertility. Some argued that it was negative, that enough people didn’t want to have children in this situation, and increasing the likelihood of pregnancy was a detriment for them. While Imri saw their point, the decrease in complications wasn’t in question. The slight increase in potential max stats, while not being a massive bonus, was significant throughout the child's life. The main argument against it was the lack of immediate benefit for their survival, with only future generations directly seeing the benefits.

Commercial, mainly championed by Christoph, was another intriguing choice. The ability to buy and sell anywhere in the settlement, not just at the Nexus, was a nice quality-of-life feature. However, it wasn’t essential, as it was easy enough to access the Nexus directly. Its main selling point was reducing taxes to the system while still gaining the same settlement experience. While it was only a fraction of a percent, it would be incredibly impactful at scale.

Physical Improvement and Education were discussed as a set, as they had identical effects for the two different attribute types. While they didn’t have eye-popping numbers, they were broad in their improvements, especially at scale. The increase in the rate at which abilities could be learned was similar to the effect provided by a class, and Imri considered it one of the most powerful effects. Likewise, the bonus to base stat improvements was impactful, even if it was also a low percentage increase.

The final option under consideration was Manufacturing. It was simple and effective, improving the effectiveness of the crafters by a decent amount. All the crafters, including Imri himself, were pushing hard for this option. What pushed it over the top was when Caroline pointed out that this would probably have an even more significant effect on the economy than Commercial, with higher quality crafted items being traded for a premium, especially when they had other cities to trade with.

With Manufacturing as a tentative selection, the two attribute-focused selections lost some support, as many had been considering them together as a pair. Without consensus on which of the two was more critical, many discarded it in favor of something else that left Commercial or Fertility.

Imri knew he was biased in this selection, as he wanted every potential advantage for his future child. He would also do just about anything to ensure there were no complications during the pregnancy or birth. The actual percentage increase in conception was where the hangup was, and Imri also considered it the least important of the benefits. However, he could admit that it could have far-reaching implications at scale, but he didn’t care.

Eventually, Imri won everyone over. Even Christoph relented when he realized he would get more by having Imri owe him a favor than relentlessly campaigning for slightly reduced taxes. With everyone having reached a begrudging consensus, Imri locked in the choices and mentally confirmed the choices, spending a million credits from the settlement's account to purchase Fertility and Manufacturing.

Next, Imri explained the little bit he knew about the nobility system. It was essentially another avenue for stat growth, though somewhat more fluid than the others. He would gain a slight increase in stats every time the settlement leveled up, but the flip side was that he could lose it all if Celestia were ever conquered.

Imri explained how the nobility system would work beyond a Baron. To become a county, they would need to integrate 4 baronies. From there, it would take 4 counties into a duchy and 4 duchies into a kingdom. This also explained why the maximum number of titles a person could possess was 3. It forced people to work with others to create a higher-level title. Imri suspected this was why the Baron of New Chicago couldn’t form a Count title; it was disadvantageous for someone to fall under someone else's higher-level title, as it reduced the benefits by 20% per tier, making it hard to gather support for a higher tier title.

With Celestia being a tier 2 settlement, he could give out two lesser nobility titles. Instantly, a chorus of people tried to convince him why they deserved it. Imri just shook his head and silenced them with a declaration.

“The two titles are already spoken for. They are going to Emelia and Zhaire,” he said.

There was a brief silence, but eventually, everyone murmured their agreement. While he was showing a bit of favoritism in giving the title to Emelia, few objected to giving the bonus to their highest-level healer. He would honor his promise by providing the second to Zhaire, and he hadn’t even considered giving it to anyone else.

The system required him to spend 100,000 to create each title, which he paid with his own money this time. Emelia informed him it gave .08% per settlement level, slightly less than half his title. It would have been a full .1%, but there was a 20% reduction for having a title that reported up to a higher-ranking noble.

The subsequent discussion was about the Empire Management feature. Like all the system's new features, it required a hefty number of credits to be unlocked. This one needed 1 million credits, a significant portion of the settlement's remaining credits. Imri offered to give the town some of the credits, producing a glare from Christoph, who had made a similar offer but as a loan. Emery waved off both offers, insisting the settlement could afford it. Imri went ahead and unlocked the feature.

The Celestia Empire has been established

The capital of the Celestia Empire was established in Celestia, and all empire bonuses are doubled within Celestia's Radius of Effect.

Celestia Empire is now Level 2

Bonuses:

All Settlement Effects improved by 2%

Town of Celestia (2F), Level 12

Radius of Effect: 1.16 Kilometers

Radius of Influence: 1.35 Kilometers (116.48% of Radius of Effect)

Bonuses:

Resource Regeneration 8.73%

Experience 1.45%

Conception 2.91%, Reduction in birth and pregnancy Complications 1.058, Max stats of newborn .29%

Crafting Quality 2.91%

The empire bonus was applied multiplicatively to the bonuses from the settlement level, meaning Celestia now had effectively gained over 4 levels with the capital. The influence radius was currently just beyond the radius of effect. When they built a second settlement, it would be integrated into the empire as soon as their influence radia intersected.

The empire level wasn’t calculated from taxes but was a rating derived from the amount of land, the average mana density of that land, the cumulative total tiers of all settlements, and the cumulative levels of all permanent citizens. All these factors were multiplied together to create the point total and then used to determine the empire level. Celestia had reached Empire level 2 because of the high mana density of the area and the higher-than-average levels people within the radius had gained.

Finally, with all the features unlocked, they began discussing what to upgrade. The cost of the first upgrade was 100,000, which was a fairly reasonable amount. However, with the price increasing exponentially, they could only make a few upgrades in the current tier before the cost became untenable. Each upgrade provided a 10% increase to the specific bonus it was improving but could only be selected once until each upgrade had been taken once.

While Imri liked expanding their borders, starting another settlement wasn’t feasible while establishing Celestia. He would reconsider that once they got Celestia to E in the town tier.

Of the four remaining options, none stood out as definitely better or worse than the others. The crafters again lobbied for the Manufacturing to be upgraded further, and Imri agreed. They could get it, with the concession that the experience upgrade was not one of the other choices, as that also primarily benefited the crafters. The other benefit they selected was the recovery bonus, which would help most people, as they didn’t have Imri’s monstrous mana regeneration or the Transcendent Meditation skill.

While the settlement could technically afford a third upgrade, doing so would put the town too low on credits to cover all their daily expenses. Again, Christoph offered loans, but the councilors unanimously agreed to hold off, not wanting to be further in debt to the merchant. Likewise, they could purchase a second Nexus but held off for now.

A system notification caught their attention as they were wrapping up the meeting.

System Event Seeding Capital has ended

New System Event

Grand Auction: An auction will be held in two months. The system will award items to be auctioned off for all settlements that have reached tier 3 or higher, with the quantity and quality of items depending on the settlement's tier, rank, and level. The auction will include natural treasures, elixirs, enhanced items, and enchanted items, all of which are of a quality and tier superior to most items found on a newly integrated world. You won't want to miss out.

Imri cursed the system's timing. They would likely need to participate in New Chicago’s auction. He would need to gain as much capital as possible before the auction and bring as many of his enchantments as possible to auction off.