"Reginald Coulan, the player behind House Aurellion."
"Of all the players I oversee, he is one I can never completely figure out."
"But out of everyone, he had one of the strongest starts in the game."
"Even landed nobles may not have the power or foundation that he set up that has nothing to do whatsoever with their territories."
"Because a truly terrifying dynasty is one that without a landed title….
"Can still stand up to the power of a vice count or even a count!"
Friend System administrator for Dynasties Online.
…..
Once the event was done, Railius was once again taken out of the game and into the world of clouds, a place he had become increasingly familiar with as every time he had to wait for a time skip, he would return here, where every player goes through character creation and standing in the clouds again was the same avatar the Friend System used last time, that of a man in a black suit.
Railius was excited because he knew what came next and looked forward to the coming stream of notifications.
The rewards for the many quests that he had done throughout the Dynasty History System and for completing his last event made the young player once again salivate with greed, but one notification from the Friend System put an end to Railius' celebrating and instead changed his mood to one cursing the Friend System.
[Congratulations to player Rising Pelican of Loyalty for successfully getting through the Dynasty History System. Your quest and event rewards are the successful implementation of all your dynasty projects that you started in your third dynasty history event.]
'WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!!!!'
Railius thought angrily, his body visibly shaking as he tried to contain his anger. The Friend System, as if he could read the young player's mind, reprimanded him instead of consoling him as this young player truly wanted too much.
"Why are you angry now? Is setting up a basic educational system, a small network of taverns throughout a kingdom, a marital arts dojo to help you gain contacts with merchants and other important people and be a base for your future Pelican Guards not enough of a reward for you?!!"
"You want more?"
"Is balance a foreign concept to you?"
The Friend System asked sarcastically, reading the young players' facial expressions for what Railius had achieved through the Dynasty History System, which is something that an ordinary player would struggle to do even with years in the game.
Setting up what Railius had in-game was no easy task. Not only did he have two masters and a grandmaster loyal to him despite his age and under his control, but also over a thousand loyal war veterans, but he had reorganised many of them into mercenaries to help make his dynasty some money.
He had a basic information network, bases for his men to rest throughout one of the nations of the world and a basic education system all set up before the game had even officially started. To put it simply, the moment that House Aurellion can get itself a territory and a landed noble title, Railius will be able to develop it almost immediately and will not need to even worry about human resources or training up officials as he will have a small set that he can use immediately led by Baron Malwin.
Compared to what the average player started with, this was a massive amount of resources and backing for one player to have and control from the start of their Dynasties Online journey that, in the long term, will only become more valuable and useful. Even businesses will struggle to set up such a strong foundation so quickly because no matter how much money they have, getting people in the right positions without attracting too much attention like Railius was doing was almost impossible to do without spending a lot of time and years in game plotting and scheming.
One should not underestimate the difference in time for the NPCs between someone doing what Railius did over 8 years compared to something like two, especially when considering that despite being
Of course, all of this came at a significant cost, and Railius will find that his noble house's financial resources will be stretched in the early game, especially so he won't be able to pull any money from any of his ventures because they can barely upkeep his current expenditure.
Let's take the 6000 people that Railius now needs to provide food for. Just this expense alone would amount to around 12,000 gold a year, if not more, because that is the most conservative estimate, and this does not include the cost of finding them housing or weapons and writing materials for their children's education or any other expenses they may incur.
Even if some of them will be able to provide for themselves, there will be those widows and children of dead Pelican Guards, if only a few to provide for, and so, as a result, Railius will be unable to move many funds around when he starts the game for real having to rely on his starting 25 gold and any gear he gets from his starter kit in the initial phases.
Add to that the ongoing costs for education as the people who teach the next generation of Pelican Guards would be unable to make money and so would need to be paid for and be taken care of by Railius alongside the cost of buying or renting the farmland, taverns and other costs means that even if Sigismond Security Company can make a lot of money due its now renowned reputation all of that money will be invested elsewhere.
The only thing he will have is a set of loyal soldiers to help accompany him as guards on his many ventures, which initially will be mainly business and merchant-related activities, so alongside his taverns and other establishments, he will be able to get information from other countries far away.
His merchant activities, which will include building a business, will also give his exiled noble house another source of secret revenue and contacts that can be manipulated in any way that Railius sees fit.
To put it simply, the young player and lord of House Aurellion is planning to weave a giant web far larger and more imposing than the one Lucius was known to set for his enemies, where he could find whatever information he wished and have multiple streams of income to help make the financial situation of his noble house more versatile.
Whether it was the movement of goods, other nobles or even countries, Railius always wanted to be in the know so that no matter what, he would be prepared for what was to come and so wanted to have information from taverns, the underworld, the merchants alongside that of Nathia's military to help him make the best moves.
He even planned to create a handbook of all his blackmail material on important and influential people so he could manipulate them to his will, a thing that in the future would inspire fear from even the most powerful people within the Kingdom of Nathia and even the world itself.
"So the reward you get from your final dynasty history event is a sturdy foundation for your dynasty, and that's it."
The Friend System said as if it were natural as it appeared that the young player in front of him underestimated just how many people would kill to have what Railius would start with.
"What do you mean that's it?"
"I set up that foundation thanks to my own ideas and decisions that allowed me to keep talented people around me."
"What about those quests I did?"
"Surely, I'll get the rewards from them right!"
"Also, weren't there achievements from my first Dynasty History Event that I need to get rewarded for?"
Railius argued as if he had been denied something that was rightfully his, but unfortunately, it was the infallible and completely unbiased Friend System who decided whether his rewards were enough and in the Friend System's infinite wisdom, Railius and House Aurellion had already been rewarded sufficiently for their efforts.
Actually, what House Aurellion started with even terrified the Friend System, and the supercomputer was thankful that no other player was as troublesome as the eccentric lord of Aurellion because right now, Railius was in the top 1%, if not 0.1% of players for Railius would never know that the Friend System was the hidden hero behind his ability to accomplish all he had in the Dynasty History System.
"You do."
The Friend System said nonchalantly as another set of notifications appeared in front of Railius, though if the young player thought that he would get too much more, he was destined to be disappointed.
['A Young Lords Training' quest completed. Please choose one of your physical attributes to upgrade.]
It did not take long for Railius to come to a decision as each of the attributes was important for him, who wanted to ensure his physical abilities were as balanced as possible so that while he did not have any overwhelming strengths, he also would not have any overwhelming weaknesses.
The attribute he chose to increase was Dexterity. The main reason for this is that it affects how well you can wield a weapon and will help him if Railius ever wants to learn how to use a ranged weapon in the future.
One look at Naguk, the monstrous orc from the first Dynasty History Event who used his club like a baseball bat to send people flying or a giant, is all you need to discover their great strengths and weaknesses.
It is because of these glaring weaknesses and due to the low population of giants that, in the entirety of DO, only 1 or 2 nations have been established by the lumbering race, and these are primarily in cold mountains where other races see little value in conquering because once someone's weakness becomes well known, it is easy for others to exploit it.
Because of this, while Railius would focus on intelligence and Charisma as his main stats, he would not neglect his physical attributes that were essential to the survival of a character in the game because these were much easier to upgrade compared to mental attributes or at least that is what the young player assumed which is why he will have to be careful in the early game or when he takes over his characters descendent as that will be the time where he is the most vulnerable to attack because of his poor skills and attributes.
Let's say that you play a general who is 40 years old and dies in battle while this character was alive; the player behind it has managed to become a master-level fighter or even a grandmaster fighter, yet you suddenly die in battle and now have to play an 18-year-old character, and this is if you settled down to have a family in the game early if not then you may have to play a child at which and enter regency.
In either of these cases, the skills and reputation of your previous character are lost, and now you have to play an 18-year-old character who only has expert-level skills if they are lucky and who also likely has fewer attribute points than a veteran general in this circumstance you are far weaker than you were.
Even if you can quickly become a master fighter, it will take some time to break through, so even if you can fight equally with one, you will not do the same amount of damage that you would have done with your previous character meaning, it will take a few more hits to kill someone than you are used to unless you hit one of their vital organs like the heart as if you are hit there then even a beginner swordsmen can kill you in one hit.
As a result, when a player takes over a new character, in many cases, that player and their noble house are at their weakest, at least in terms of character strength and just like how hostile countries will wait for a wise king to die before making any moves, people will wait for a player's powerful character to perish before trying to pull a dynasty down from power.
Either way, with that out of the way, there were only a few more achievements left that the system needed to reward Railius for.
[Rewarding player with 10 gold for being the third player to create a player quest.]
[Rewarding 1 level in a skill of the player's choice for being the second player to complete a player quest.]
[Please choose a skill to gain a level in. This can be a skill you already have or a new skill you do not have yet.]
This would need more thought than Railius expected because many skills in the game could be helpful; however, people rarely ever had the time to master more than a handful of skills if they were lucky.
Skills in DO come in two forms. First are basic skills such as swordsmanship, polearm mastery, and the like, which are always passive. Even deception, negotiation, politics and basic administrative skills are passive.
Active skills are based on passive skills. For example, Railius' Rallying Call skill is an active skill that uses the leadership skill as a base. People can think of active skills as special moves or abilities unique to each character, as while two people learn swordsmanship, their active skills can be completely different depending on their styles.
Looking at the seemingly endless list of skills, Railius finally decided on one he thought could help him no matter what path he chose to take in the game.
Insight.
A skill many overlook, and while it is possible for people to feel that someone is lying, this skill helps, just like how the deception skill helps players lie to NPCs and even players themselves.
It could also help you gauge people's moods and whether they are uncomfortable at a high level.
[Are you sure you want to gain the insight skill.]
[Yes/No]
Pressing the yes option, Railius finally finished everything he needed and decided to bring up his updated character sheet.