Vesuvius opened options to set up a custom subsystem for factions, and many options immediately flooded his interface. However, most of them were locked, requiring a higher level of faction. He felt overwhelmed just by the sheer number of options. There were options to set up a rewards system, faction store, faction quests and plenty more. There was even an option to create custom faction abilities, but it was locked, requiring an unspecified faction level to unlock.
'I can see how it can be useful to control large factions, but I do not currently need to set it up. My faction is small, so I don't need an automatic system to manage it. Hmm, I can see some parallels with a guild subsystem.'
He was sure that other NPC factions also had a similar system, even if it was managed automatically by the game system without NPCs even knowing about it. There were no doubts about it. For example, players playing as priests of the holy light church were gaining faction points by praying and hunting demons and heretics. Then they could redeem these points for items in the faction store through their interfaces.
The dragon grinned, 'Church officials probably don't even understand why players so eagerly pray and hunt demons with meagre rewards church NPCs are giving. They probably consider them pious and devoted, but in reality, they are just greedy.'
Even though most of it looked useless for him now, there was still one part of the custom faction subsystem that made him seriously think about implementing it. Together with custom faction abilities, it was one of the two most remarkable differences compared to the guild subsystem, 'It looks like the rewards given through this subsystem are somehow supplemented by the system managing the game. I am sure that there must be some limits.'
As a greedy dragon, he couldn't let any potential resources go to waste, so he decided to check how faction rewards worked in more depth.
After a few minutes of research, he discovered that there was an assigned pool of points determined by the number of members of the faction and their levels that he could assign and redeem as rewards for his underlings. It wasn't much, but it was still something. This pool would get refreshed every month. So he should be able to throw players a few potions and coins monthly in rewards.
However, there was one big limitation. All the items he could use as rewards were either absolute basics like coins and healing potions or stuff with faction themes. In the case of the Dragons faction, all of them were somehow themed around dragons, so he couldn't get free holy water like players playing in holy light church.
As a proper greedy dragon, he immediately tried to create a bullshit mission to make himself richer.
Ding!
// New repeatable faction mission denied
Objective: Give the faction leader one silver coin
Reward: 2 silver coins
//
However, the system simply denied his entry.
A wave of disappointment flushed over him, making his dragon heart hurt, 'I can't give them rewards without proper justifications, as the system doesn't allow it. I must give it in the form of rewards for something that makes sense. I guess it is not easy to cheat autolearning AI running on quantum supercomputers.'
So, he took some time thinking about a mission to add, as his draconic hearth would be crying for wasted resources.
Ding!
// New repeatable faction mission saved
Objective: Spread the story about the fight with the drake and about the reward of the elder wyrm
Reward: 1 silver coin per a person informed about the story
//
'This should be enough for now.'
Then his stomach growled, again reminding him that he was still hungry.
Vesuvius nodded at the announcement and walked out of his lair. He jumped down from the cliff, gliding downwards to find something to eat. He quickly accelerated as he kept getting closer to the ground.
He reached the forest under the mountain in a few minutes and quickly focused his hearing on finding something to eat.
Suddenly dragon's sensitive senses detected vibration in the air that kept closing towards him. He made a sharp turn, flapping his wings to increase his speed.
A long metallic bolt glowing in blue light blasted through the air. Its sharp metallic tip with hooks on its end designed to get stuck in the flesh pierced the air creating a loud screeching noise. However, what struck Vesuvius most was the disgusting aura radiating out of the bolt. That aura went against everything that dragons symbolize, sending shivers through his bone. It was an aura of dragon-slaying weapons.
It was a creation of dragon-slaying weapons that gave humanity the power to defeat dragons, as the power of numbers had its limits. It made no difference how many attacks headed towards ancient dragons if they couldn't get through its scales. The creation of dragon slaying weapons changed it, giving even relatively weak humans the power to pierce otherwise nigh indestructible scales of ancient and primal dragons and kill them. Of course, the dragon god reacted by changing the effects of his blessing to counter dragon-slaying weapons. However, it was too late as all of the primal and ancient dragons were already dead by that time. This gave them their nickname: Downfall of Dragons.
The bolt was long as a small car, making it impossible to be fired from a small weapon.
'Was it a freaking ballistae bolt?'
He quickly swept the surroundings with his gaze, but he couldn't spot any heavy weaponry. Then the air vibrated again, this time from another direction. The dragon stopped flapping his wings and dived toward the ground. The dragon's body, surrounded by smoke, pierced through the tops of trees, breaking them as he abruptly landed on the ground.
Another massive bolt blasted above him just a moment later, trees moving from the air movement that the massive bolt caused.
'Whoever is shooting at me must be on some higher location... Shots came from different directions, so multiple weapons must be placed through the forest. They were definitely enchanted bolts. The ballistae are also most likely enchanted from the speed of the projectiles.' Vesuvius quickly analyzed the situation.