As John looked at his STATUS, someone came up the tower.
"Haytham, what is it?"
"The taxmen came to the village early, and said they still don't have enough to pay." Haytham had grown to like the villagers over the past few weeks, and began to somewhat care about them.
"I'll go. You stay here and oversee the construction."
Haytham saluted the same way he did last time and John jumped from the tower to the ground.
"You gotta teach us how to do that, Chief."
"Maybe one day I will." John joked. He walked casually to the village, where he saw four knights in white armor and a man with green and purple clothing. The knights all had a silver crest on their chest, while the man in green and purple had his on his right shoulder.
As John walked up, Well looked passed the knights. "Ah, Chief! Your back!" After saying that the man and knights turned to look at John.
The man in green and purple walked up to John, completely unfazed by his clothing and helmet. "So, you're the one in charge?" John nodded. "Well, your village can't pay the tax of 20,000 gold coins. We will be taking some of your people as-"
"Sorry, I'm just wondering, why is the tax that large?"
"The King has decided that it is important for the people to give back for his protection, whether that be with money, joining the military, or giving 10 women to the nobles."
John took out a gold coin. "20,000 thousand of these? What's your name, if I may ask?"
"Matthew Holmes."
"Okay, Matthew Holmes, tell yourself king that if he expects broke villages on the outskirts of his capital to pay him that extensively, he could actually send soldiers out this far."
Matthew looked deep into the red eyes of John's mask. "I assume that means you won't pay?"
John nodded. 'These knights are only level 12... I should be able to do this if I use my points right.' He raised his Strength: 7 -> 9, Intelligence: 5 -> 7, and Vitality: 9 -> 11.
'Show me my skills.'
[Force Manipulation Level 1/10]
[Experience Gain Level 1/10]
John raised his Force Manipulation to level 4 and his Experience Gain to level 3. He drew out both his vibroknife and sword, before he slowly began to back up from the knights.
"That's too bad..." Matthew said. "Arrest him."
As the four knights walked up to John, they took out their swords. "Sir, please come easily."
John raised his left hand which held the vibroknife. "I don't think so." He pushed the 4 knights back, grabbing hold of Matthew. "I'll pay the 20,000, as long as you tell the king what I said."
Matthew and the knights left shortly after, wondering what he just did to force them back.
"Well, how much gold do we have?" John asked as he was watching them leave.
"We've got 5,000 gold from the harvest, usually it's much higher but-"
"Make sure you hide it away somewhere. I'm going to be going to the capital soon, I'll have some of the higher leveled men take me." John began walking back to the new outpost.
[Main Quest Started: Fortune and Capital; Go to the Capital and make 15,000 Gold coins.
Current Gold from Capital: 0/15,000]
[Reward: 300 Experience, Random Kit]
John smiled under his mask and made it back to his tower. He climbed up, sending Haytham back down to oversee construction.
"System, can I go into debt with gold?"
[Maximum Gold debt is 10,000. Would you like a loan? Y/N]
"Yes. I want to build at least one droid factory as soon as possible."
[Current Debt: 10,000 Gold. It will take one week to construct the droid factory. Would you like to construct it under: The Outpost? Y/N]
"Yes." With that, the ground shook for a split second and John walked down the tower. He made a latch door on the ground where he set the entrance to the factory. He walked a few hundred feet away, and saw a metal door flush with the ground began to appear out of nowhere.
"I'll have to get rid of these bandits and villagers eventually."
As the construction of the factory and outpost continued, John had the system set it as his home. John stood outside as he opened one of the rare Arc Trooper kits.
[1x rare Arc Trooper Kits opened: 2x Arc Clones, 2x ARC Trooper Armor, 1x DC-15S Blaster Carbine, 2x DC-17 Hand Blaster]
When the two clones and gear suddenly appeared before John, the bandits began to freak out. "Don't worry, they work for me."
One of the clones stood up and saluted John. "Sir, CT-7204, reporting for duty. My brothers call me Indigo."
The other clone stood up and saluted as well. Unlike Indigo, he had a scar down his left cheek. "Sir, CT-6367 reporting for duty. I'm known as Fix, can't deal with anything being broken."
John nodded. "Welcome to the outpost troopers. Put on your new gear and come to the top of the tower to speak with me."
"Yes sir!" The clones said. As they put on their armor, John thought to himself,' I'll have them understand the droids are under my control.'