I unleashed the final spell I'd been building during the fight. Necromantic power washed through the room, raising the dead wherever there was enough of a corpse left to raise. It washed out the door and into the city. I wasn't that large of an area, though. Just enough for the guards we'd killed. Maintaining that spell while fighting had drained my mp to almost nothing. The staff really was overpowered beyond all reason. I hurriedly equipped my staff as I started on a new one. Raising spells were becoming my favorite magic. I would never stop building them in the back of my mind again. I needed to keep my mana below full for my regeneration skill to level up effectively, and that would be just perfect.
I turned back to my new governor. "Keep in mind, being my vassal has its perks." One of the skeletons I'd just made walked up to him. "Teach him all of the abilities you have access to. Including the Warlord's ability to command demons." he was nowhere near Delfina's level, but nothing of mine could be useless. Not even a pencil pusher.
My new army of undead was waiting for orders, since my blanket orders for undead were different from the other pets. They were all zombies, level eighty five. Their knight's armor was scratched and dented, and not quite as black as the skeletons, but they almost looked more deadly for the wear on their armor than the pristine darkness of the two remaining level two hundred skeletons. Since they didn't have weapons, they were still weaker than they could be, but I'd worry about that later. I glanced at the windows to see the city that surrounded me. This was a pickle, wasn't it?
"We own the Governor. Now it's time to figure out what that means." Now I had to go to the bank. To see what difference owning the Governor made. The npcs could run away or gather to fight me as they wanted. Knowing where I stood with the bank needed to happen now. "Ten zombies guard the Governor. Ten go to each gate, make sure nobody leaves. The rest of you gather every npc outside of the bank." they probably wouldn't succeed, they weren't high enough leveled, but at least I'd know which direction the powerful people ran. "Make sure you kill every guard that resists and bring the corpse. I want all of them." Against all of the legends, my zombies rushed out of the door like there was no tomorrow. Who was afraid of a slow zombie? "Lethe, want a helmet?" she shrugged as I handed her the legendary helmet. The glow seemed very out of place on her dark form. The robe would have been more appropriate, but none of the stats worked with her build. She was still pretending to be a rogue, after all.
We exited the building and I looked up to see the floating black skull. So it was the same for cities as it was for towns. Good to know. Hell was playing with a pair of gauntlets that looked like they'd been made from skinning a porcupine. Oddly, they were legendary. "What did you get? Apart from the ax and the helmet?"
"A sword and shield set, a focus, and robe. None of us use them, so I didn't give them to anyone." I would have asked about them, but Lethe had two new daggers that she was cleaning and Hell had a pair of glowing pauldrons in addition to the gloves. I glanced at my inventory idly and noticed two more legendaries. A staff and a cape that the skeletons had given me while I was fighting. I checked the staff over until I noticed that it blocked all mp drain, just like mine. It wasn't as good, but it looked fancier. I handed it to Lethe behind Hell's back. The cape was a piece of shit. Level two. The only interesting effect it had was to give the wearer the ability to levitate two inches over the ground with no cooldown or cost. Maybe I'd give it to a skeleton to see if they could level gear.
The bank drove thoughts of distribution of equipment from my mind. Now we'd get to see what I owned. I walked right to the real estate office. "What can I do for you?" this banker was inhumanly happy. His pale skin and silver hair proclaimed him a High Elf, his tone and disposition showed that as a lie. That he was talking to a Dark Elf made the difference all that much more apparent. Were the tellers npcs? Or were they soulless puppets of the banks? Was the bank an uber, maybe? Or a god?
"I'd like to know what I own in this city." It would be nice to know if I owned the city itself. Or maybe I just owned the Keep. I stopped trying to think of what my guild sigil appearing above the city meant. This cheery banker would tell me.
"You currently own the city, keep, temple, bank, walls, and barracks." That was helpful. I'd gotten all of the most expensive buildings at once. Strange to gain ownership of the keep when the governor didn't own it in the first place, but banks could be strange in any world.
"Why does my guild sigil appear over cities and towns I own?" that was a question I wanted answered. I might own everything, but how did that make my guild the god of the city to the point that the primary source of light was a guild seal? It was awesome and terrifying at the same time. Would the light change despite fog of war? It seemed like the kind of thing that would be noticeable despite all sorts of limitations.
"Since the city belongs to you, it wishes to show it. The flags that fly over Zezhria also bear your sigil. As well as the tabards of the town guard. Even maps will show current ownership, if they've been connected to the city in question. To own a city is a wonderful thing, Emperor, the world itself recognizes it as such." I guess I didn't need to kill the town guard. As soon as I owned the city, they belonged to me anyway. Npcs could be fickle, though. Would a hostile takeover lead to more problems from the guard that buying it properly? Probably. "Any city that is your vassal city will show a guild cursor, just as any npc or pet that is your property." I guessed that made sense. In a way. Wait…vassal city? I didn't have a tab for those.
"What do you mean when you say a vassal city?" a vassal I understood. It was a pet that happened to be an npc and wasn't linked to my mind, gaining my skills and abilities. So how did I have a pet city? Were cities as alive as the world? Would the actual masonry become alive at some point?
The cheery elf didn't even falter. He really was impervious to any and all influences on his mood. Like the other banker I'd met. Maybe they didn't have souls. "Vassal cities are your property. You can raze them and start over, if you wish. As an added bonus, you get all of the important player landmarks of the city or town. I see you are aware of the basics, as your vassal town has been completely refurbished. It cannot be bought until you die. It can be conquered, however the governor must be killed for the change of ownership to be possible. The governor might die in another way, but the replacement is automatically added to your list of slaves. Sorry, vassals." maybe they did have souls. It was pretty mechanical, though, and his expression didn't change even a little bit. "They do not like it when people call them slaves. There is a bit of a distinction, but it is all semantics." He grinned so wide I almost thought his lips were gone. Was he trying to imitate a skull? "Would you like to make a purchase? Nobody in Melasia has purchased the deed of a building. Apart from you, that is." Did they take my hostile takeover as a purchase? They really were neutral. I was beginning to like the banking system of this game. Uncanny as fuck, but undeniably useful.
"Sure. I'll buy all of the buildings. Rent and costs maintained at whatever they were before, just like Zezhria. Actually, no. Raise them five percent in Melasia and lower them in Zezhria by five percent." My capital deserved to be a better place. Cities flourished the less you implemented taxes and other extraneous costs.
"I'm sorry, Emperor, but pricing and upkeep is the next door over." Was there some vicious satisfaction behind his smile, or was that just me? He continued like there was nothing behind his eyes, though. "Would you like to pay for Melasia with the guild account or your personal account?" his grin was starting to piss me off. I idly wondered what would happen if I killed him. Probably nothing. He might be impossible to kill. Or I'd aggravate a monster that could turn the entire world's economy against me. Conquering showed me that there were other ways to gain property than buying, but that didn't mean I wanted to conquer every house and shop.
"I'll pay for it myself but all the revenue goes to the guild account." I nodded to him as he congratulated me on becoming a prestigious landowner. I turned around and headed for the next door. Had I not changed the rates in Zezhria? The fat woman that sat behind this desk could have been the real estate banker from Zezhria. If she wasn't so pale. Otherwise, they were identical. Down to the bored expression on her face. "I'd like to change the rent and costs and all that stuff to forty five percent maximum in Zezhria and fifty five percent maximum here." best to make everything as simple as possible.
Her eyes almost looked glazed, they were so filled with boredom. "Since you are a new landowner, if I might give some advice to your Majesty. Maxing out the sale prices and lowering the rent is the best way to increase a city's worth though you will make comparatively little profit from your residential properties and competitors will have an advantage undercutting your businesses. High taxes will increase upkeep costs, as well. Fifty percent is quite high, for taxes." Taxes. I ruled the cities, so of course taxes went to me. Had Zezhria not been paying me any taxes this whole time? "Would you like to continue your previous command?"
"No. In Melasia I want ninety five percent costs and ten percent rent. In Zezhria I want eighty five percent costs and one percent rent. Taxes, thirty percent in both cities." That should cover it. No, I needed the name of my town too. And the real estate banker had said she dealt with upkeep as well. "What's maintenance?" that would make keeping cities a lot harder. Luckily I had undead to drive my industry forward.
"Maintenance, and upkeep, is the amount of gold you put into the improvements of the city per year as well as the retention of quality. You can also commission new structures to be built. As well as miscellaneous construction projects." So…that would be mines and such. A city needed stone to grow, and buying it would be ridiculously expensive. "You can commission them individually, or simply give a list and a resource pool that will finish the goals you give it. The default upkeep keeps everything in the state it was bought in, deducted from your profits before they are allocated to you."
Sounded simple enough. It took me a minute to figure out how I wanted to work all of that, but it wasn't too difficult to assume what I'd need. I could always change it later. "All taxes from Zezhria will go toward maintenance in Zezhria. Twenty percent of the taxes Melasia earns will go into Zezhria, the remaining will go to maintenance in Melasia. The improvements I want in Melasia are six mines, two fields of wheat, eight fruit orchards, five vegetable patches of equal size to the orchards and fields, domestication of the local boars into beasts of burden and milk-providers, six fields of whatever sugar they use here, a paved road to…my town, and reinforcing the walls. Additional funds will be spent to improve those and other facilities of Melasia in equal proportion. Fifty percent of all stone, metal, wheat, fruit, vegetables, meat, sugar, and milk are to be sent to Zezhria. Zezhria will spend all of their taxes improving the standard of living in Zezhria." That should keep it running well enough without my active control. The banker nodded as she accepted my commands. That should be it for the bank. Today.
I'd need to repeat the process every time I took a city. And I could take cities much easier, now. The cost had gone down considerably since I didn't need to buy any of the most expensive buildings. The price had gone down from the hundreds of trillions to the hundreds of millions. I could buy tons of cities. I could afford all the cities for a race! I pulled out my map. I didn't want to expand to the next continent until I owned this one. That meant I could go north or south. North were two more elven cities and three pixy ones. Including the pixy capital of Shaltyr. South, on the other hand, was much more populated. All six of the conventional orc cities were there. As well as the other three pixy cities. The outcast orcs and the fairies were over on the central continent. So if I took this whole continent I could buy the orc and pixy crowns. It was a pity that the elite sub-races didn't have crowns like the outcast ones did, but that just made the crowns more valuable. I grinned at that prospect of owning three.
Before all that, I needed to finish with Melasia. And all of the citizens should be gathered right outside the bank. At least, the vast majority of them should be. I almost skipped as I went out into the glow of my giant sigil. The population was quite a bit larger than my little town had been. "I'd like to welcome all of you elves to my little greeting party! If word hasn't spread yet, I'm Emperor Void of the Dark Elves. I now own the city. All of it. And every building in it. Consequentially, I think it's appropriate that I own all of the residents. I don't have the crown to make you my subjects, so I'll just take your oaths. All of you are faced with two choices. Option one is becoming my vassal. Option two is dying. I will share a secret with you, every one of my vassals will be trained in combat magic of their choice. Undead are enough for menial chores, so you don't have to do anything you don't want. Choose now."
One elf bolted. My new zombie soldier hacked him almost in half with an ax. I shot a quick raising spell at the corpse and a zombie stood where a free elf had been. Level one hundred. Nice. All undead were raised at the minimum of the raiser's level, assuming you didn't modify a regular raising spell to affect a wide area. I'd forgotten that. Now that they could continue to raise their levels and I assumed they didn't have the rebellion that other pets did made Necromancers much more powerful than they'd been in the beta.
"Speaking of which, what happened to the garrison?" my zombies and guards in, truthfully, excellent new colors started pulling forward thousands of armored corpses. Wonderful. Not good for the prospects of conquering other cities, but wonderful. Guessing off the top of my head, I thought the loyal were right around a half of the total garrison. While it was disheartening that loyalty was so low, at least I hadn't been building raising spells all through that tedious learning experience in the bank for nothing. I blasted stack after stack of corpses with the animating power of death. All of the zombies I raised were level one twenty five or above. I giggled and clapped my hands as the army that had fought me was turned to the most loyal of servants. I assigned two hundred of them to protect the city and another five hundred to report to Delfina while the rest fell under my mass orders. "Wonderful! Anyone else like to make a choice?"
A few elves on the outskirts of the massive throne tried to run. The rest dropped to their knees and started swearing their loyalty. It was a beautiful feeling as I felt my list of vassals grow to rival my list of pets, despite the pain of expanding an inventory that was supposed to max out at ten. "Congratulations, Emperor. You took Melasia in under a day." Hell chuckled behind me. "Only a year and a half into the game and you own two cities and a town. What happens now? Rest?" Why?
"Only in your dreams Hell. I could drop you off somewhere on my way to the next stop, if you want. We'll be taking the orcs next. You like orcs, right?" Hell chuckled and shook his head. Of course he didn't like orcs. They were all as big as he was. Most males were bigger than him by a good six inches and a hundred pounds. Or more. "I just wish this world offered maps for sale. It would make finding all the little towns so much easier." I felt the last of my vassals join the ranks. I decided I wanted them as good as possible. I set aside a hundred of the skeletons to teach the npcs of Melasia to fight. Having such an easy way to teach them to fight was awesome. It would come in handy as I took the whole orc empire. I doubted I'd take the whole world the same way. It would stop being fun if I won too fast, even if, by some miracle, no other players had found an exploit or several that made them my equal. There had to be someone somewhere that could match me, even beat me. I was good, but I had no illusions that I was the best. Maybe not the typical people, as they'd all be playing within the rules, but there were always cheaters. Maybe Ryne had even let some log in with developer consoles or cheating software enabled. Compared to either scenario, I was small time. Not that I was complaining. Hail Ryne.
If I'd come to this city alone, without my skeletons, those player killers might have beaten me. Their organization was pretty good. And they'd managed to force all of the npcs in the city to give up their valuable items, or they'd convinced the governor to do it for them. It was the only way they could have gotten that much high-quality gear so fast. Maybe someone had managed the same feat without killing all the players in the city and could give it to people capable of using it to the best capability instead of the mish-mash we'd encountered.