The exchange was tense, but posh.

Will and Marksman met on the 5th Floor, sliding into a booth in an Akul restaurant that came highly recommended by Alicia Zodiac.

I suppose an office would probably be more appropriate, but I was hungry, Will thought as he surveyed Marksman’s guards.

There were no less than three bodyguards standing around their booth, glaring at any curious Climber who gave them a second glance.

By the pattern and density of the miasma inside them, Will roughly guessed their Classes were in their mid-fifties, with one debuffer, one rogue, and one nuker.

They didn’t bring a warrior archetype, which made sense, given that simple warriors were poorly matched against Will.

Of the three, Will was most concerned with the rogue. Will leaned pretty hard on his high Acuity, and a rogue might have a way to bypass his senses. The other two Classes relied on big, flashy Abilities that Will would see coming a mile away.

All three of them, plus Marksman, were dressed to kill. Quite literally. Their drip was expensive, shiny and head-to-toe.

Will wasn’t slacking, either. He was wearing his full kit, mask and all. The armed-to-the-teeth nature of their meeting had some of the more cautious Climbers choosing to dine elsewhere.

Will lifted up the trunk and set it on the table, opening it to reveal the Burning Court set, glittering with orange fire in the dim light of the restaurant.

“Excellent, Lets-“

“A couple things you should know,” Will said, forestalling the deal for a moment.

“I’m fairly certain this set is cursed. It would be irresponsible of me not to mention it. Use it sparingly or it will blow up in your face.” Will said.

Or maybe just blow up in your face later. Will thought.

“And the other thing?” Marksman asked, his jaw tensing.

“I would prefer it if you don’t immediately use this in a direct conflict against Carrie Envar or her people. She’s already pissed enough at me for making this deal.” Will said.

“You must be aware that you can’t dictate the terms of my use of the set.” Marksman said. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

“I’m aware. Once it changes hands, that’s that. Just consider this me hedging my bets. Trying to convince myself that I’m not responsible for whatever fucked-up situation you create with it once it’s in your hands.”

Marksman tapped his finger on the table in silence for a moment.

“…Understood.”

Marksman turned to the Contract specialist seated beside them.

“Make the contract.”

Influence 38,722 -> 488,722

The deal wrapped up bloodlessly, and Will went back to his Stronghold, with nearly half a million Influence.

Will couldn’t say he felt great about the trade, but his Stronghold needed things only Influence could buy.

With this much Influence he could designate four resource nodes, up to five in a month or so when his total exceeded 500,000. Will was planning on saving two hundred thousand for administrative purchases and other considerations, leaving only enough to buy three resource nodes.

Which was why Sammohan and Badur were currently bickering over a map of the surrounding lands.

The burly miner and the stick-thin logistician made an odd pair, looming over the map detailing known resources, their heads nearly bonking as they pored over the details.

“We need rock salt and clay, obviously. There’s an excellent deposit over here.” Badur said, pointing at one of the deposits in a nearby valley.

“Clay? Clay doesn’t pay the bills. You want ruby sand, Flash glass and anchorite.” Sammohan said, pointing to where his camp was. “We’ve found several rich veins that would work well as the focal point of the burned Stronghold’s industry.”

That ‘focal point’ was on the other side of Emilie’s new Stronghold. Will had just purchased it, but he was hesitant to absorb the land into his domain. Just like The Burning court was a poison pill, he wouldn’t be surprised if Marksman had plans of that nature.

“I suppose you like eating unsalted food directly off the table, then?” Badur asked, crossing his arms. “And if we’re going to expand, we’ll need bricks.”

Will frowned, reviewing his personal map. The veins that Sammohan and Badur were bickering over weren’t the best ones. Will had kept the best ones under his hat for this situation exactly.

“Badur, you get one. Which’ll it be, rock salt or clay?”

Badur thought for a moment. “Salt. It’ll raise morale and food preservation, and we can sell it to Zodiac and Bakton easily and corner the market above the 8th Floor.”

“And Sammohan, you get two. Which two will it be?”

The giant miner grunted with displeasure, but he couldn’t complain too much.

“Anchorite and flash glass are the best for heavy industry. Ruby sand is mostly decorative…although it has some uses for casting.”

“Alright, then it’s decided.” Will said.

“We’ve located several deposits here and-“ Sammohan started before Will caught his gaze, holding up a hand.

“I’ve got some places in mind already.”

Will guided them to a large empty field a mile outside of the Burned stronghold.

The three men scanned the empty field, watching as a spotted bird chased a lizard into a bush.

“What am I supposed to be looking at?” Badur asked.

Will stomped the ground sending a series of ripples through the ground, tearing up a layer of earth before seizing it with Titan’s Grasp and moving it aside.

Will repeated this a handful of times until they were looking at an anchorite deposit hundreds of times larger than the one Sammohan had scouted.

And he’d been proud of it, too.

“Son of a bitch.” Sammohan spit. “What did I do all that work for?”

“You still have first claim on the ones you found.” Will said. “You’ll just have to lease this one from me.”

“This one’s a thousand times bigger! And the quality is better too!” Sammohan complained.

“Which should make fifteen percent an easy ask.” Will said.

Sammohan’s brows went up, and Will could see him doing the math behind his eyes. With a vein this rich, he’d be pulling out many times more anchorite than he had been before. He’d still be coming out way ahead paying fifteen percent.

“Fair point.”

“How did you even find this, milord?” Badur asked.

I spun my Map while highlighting anchorite deposits, showing me everything in a dozen miles in every direction. There were a few bigger deposits, but they were buried so deep underground that Will didn’t think they’d be worth the effort of transporting them.

“A Lord has his ways.” Will said, nudging the System. “Now let’s make this a Resource node.”

Do you wish to make this space a Resource Node?

Yes.

Designate an area to-

“WAIT, milord!” Sammohan shouted, waving to get Will’s attention.

“Let my people cut and clear the area around it and prepare some scaffolding. If you designate it as a resource node before we set up the mining operation, then they’ll have to clean and dig around the anchorite every. Single. Day.”

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

That’s true. Cancel. Will had been a bit excited to see what a resource node could do and almost skipped a couple steps.

“Do you have any other hidden spots in mind?” Badur asked.

“Of course.”

There was a cliff face harbored an enormous slab of rock salt behind a stone façade, and there was a massive bed of flash glass only a half-mile beyond the anchorite.

Will made packed-dirt roads to connect them to the city and let Sammohan prep each of the sites to his satisfaction.

Two days later, Will was able to seize his first resource nodes as a Lord.

Designate an area to become a resource node. Base area is 100x100x100 yards. Nonliving objects that are a permanent fixture at the moment of creation will be restored by the Tower over the course of a week if they are removed.

Will traced the vein with his eyes, watching as the mineral began to glow in his perception.

Once the entire vein was selected, Will confirmed the selection

Creating resource node.

Creating resource node…

Complete.

490,172 -> 390, 172 Influence remaining.

“Did…it work?”

Sammohan asked,

“It says it did.” Will said, motioning to the miner. “Go nuts.”

“Let’s make some money boys!” Sammohan shouted, raising his pickaxe high.

Will went and created the other two nodes, dropping his Influence down to 190,172.

While the miners swarmed over the resource nodes, Will went back to town and sat down in his office, reviewing the other purchases available to him.

Courthouse – 15000 Influence

Sheriff’s office – 10000 Influence

Incarceration zone – 1250 influence

Town Hall - 30000 Influence

Security Gate 1250 Influence

Vault – 10000* Influence

Lord-specific Purchases:

Traveler’s roads –5000 Influence

Helping Hand – 40000 Influence

City maps – 15000 Influence

Will selected the first one and reviewed it.

Courthouse – 15000 Influence:

Designate a building as a courthouse. Inside the courthouse, Abilities are prohibited. Agreements and settlements between Climbers are binding and made a matter of public record, documentation automatically created and stored in the records, or the town hall, if available.

You may designate a judge. Within the courthouse, a judge has a limited power to control the courthouse. They may also mediate disputes and assign guilt in criminal cases.

Upgrades:

Deceit prevention - 5000 Influence

Bailiff position – 5000 Influence

Public Defender position – 5000 Influence

Prosecutor position – 5000 Influence

Speed boost – 15000 Influence

Well, that’s handy. Next.

Will had already used the incarceration zone, which was the jail cell that prevented people with Abilities from breaking out easily.

Next.

Sheriff’s office – 10000 Influence

Designate a building to be a Sheriff’s Office. Within this building, the Sheriff will receive notifications from security gates, incarceration zones, and courthouses. They may summon documentation from the town hall or courthouse at will.

Sheriff has limited control over Incarceration zones and Security gates.

Upgrades:

Tracking board – 1000 Influence

Incarceration Zone integration – 1250 Influence

Deputize – 5000 Influence

Calming music – 1000 Influence

Next.

Town Hall – 30000 Influence

Designate a building as a Town Hall. Within the Town Hall, records are stored. Land sales, Licenses, leases, taxes, and any other aspect where the lord’s government intersects with public life are administered from this location.

Paperwork is completed semi-autonomously, records are immune to damage and will manifest when requested by clerks.

You may assign administrators and clerks. Administrators are given limited control over the Town Hall, and the authority to do certain tasks at the Lord’s discretion, such as hiring contractors, tax collection and land sales.

Clerks are given more limited control over the Town hall, enabling them to summon and store paperwork at will. They also gain a minor buff to speed.

Upgrades:

Minor->major speed buff – 10000 Influence

Calming music – 1000 Influence

Industrial Scales – 5000 Influence

Self-updating map of surrounding parcels* - 10000 Influence

*Added by Map Primary.

I’m gonna need to get that eventually. Even now, Badur was getting strained with handling all the taxes that were flowing in.

In a day or two Sammohan was going to start bringing in nearly a dozen times as much tax as before, and this was an excellent opportunity to give Badur a better toolset to do his job with.

It was strange that Will’s Abilities had any effect on the options, but not entirely unexpected. The System was adaptable.

Security Gate – 1250 Influence

Designate an entrance as a Security Gate.

Designate an individual as a guard. The guard may send notifications to the Sheriff’s office and collect toll fees if desired.

Upgrades:

Traffic tracking – 1000 influence.

Automatic Notifications for those with criminal records – 5000 Influence

Scales – 2000 Influence

Paperwork integration with Town Hall – 2000 Influence

Next.

Vault – 10000* Influence

Designate a room, 10x10x10 feet.

The walls, door and lock of the room are reinforced. Objects inside the room are protected from weathering and rot.

The Lord may whitelist certain Climbers, allowing them to unlock and enter the vault at their discretion.

*A larger sized Vault may be purchased for a corresponding Influence cost.

Upgrades:

Intruder expulsion – 7500 Influence

Inventory tracking – 1250 Influence

Inventory Shrinking* - 10000 Influence

*Added by Phantom Hand Primary.

I wonder if I could use a Vault with intruder Expulsion as a bedroom? Will thought. Sure, it was originally intended to store things safely, but the security effects might be handy for making sure nobody killed him in his sleep.

On to the Lord-specific purchases, Will thought, eager to see what the System had cooked up for him.

Traveler’s Roads – 5000 Influence

Designate a road as a Traveler’s Road. Roads assist movement, providing a passive boost to movement speed and reduction in stamina spent. Heat on the road may raise or lower by 15 degrees to achieve a more comfortable temperature. Extreme sun and wind are mitigated.

Road resists muddy conditions, ice build-up, or erosion. Road gradually cleans and repairs damage over the course of a week.

No upgrades available. Upgrades to Aspect of the Immortal Serpent may cause changes to Traveler’s Roads.

Oh I like that. Will had seen the men transporting ore trudge into the stronghold covered in sweat and grime, and he couldn’t help but wonder how much faster their wagons would move with these roads. Not to mention the self-healing effect.

What’s the next one?

Helping Hand – 40000 Influence

Creates an altar anywhere in the lord’s Stronghold. A relic may be Sacrificed on the altar. The entire Stronghold will gain a diminished version of the Relic’s affixes until a different Relic is sacrificed.

No upgrades available. Upgrades to Phantom Hands may cause changes to Helping Hand.

Oh, wow. Expensive, but powerful. If I got a crafting relic, I could give all the crafters in the city a passive boost that could increase production drastically.

Next.

City maps – 15000 Influence

Creates a map stand on the corner of every intersection with the Stronghold that lists the location of the map itself, street names and businesses. Climbers may search for limited things such as certain streets, businesses, or congested traffic.

I mean…that’s very convenient for the people who use it, but…My stronghold isn’t big enough to justify it. There were only a few thousand Climbers in his Stronghold, and everyone knew where everything was. It wan’t like anyone got lost.

It would be wonderful in a place like Akul, but in a frontier town like here? Not so important.

Not to mention…Will’s Map Ability was something he didn’t like revealing too many details about. It was why he’d given Badur and Sammohan a half-hearted reply.

Keeping my cards close to the vest.

If he applied this purchase to his Stronghold, someone might gain unwanted insight into how his Map Ability worked.

“Milord, I think you should see this.” Badur said, ducking his head into Will’s office.

“Eh?”

Will followed Badur back out to the entrance to the warehouse at the base of his tower.

There was Sammohan, standing beside the lead wagon in a train that snaked all the way around the corner and out of sight.

“Are we supposed to take fifteen percent of that?” Will mused, wondering if they had enough space to fit the entire thing.

“This IS fifteen percent!” Sammohan shouted with glee, pulling back the tarp on a wagon to reveal an enormous pile of flash glass.

“The anchorite boys are probably going to make it here by tomorrow evening. Then we’ll go back out and do it again, You’ll probably get a delivery like this twice a week.”

“…I’m gonna need a bigger tower,” Will muttered.

“We don’t have the space to accommodate it, Milord. Where should we put it?”

Inventory Shrinking* - 10000 Influence

*Added by Phantom Hand Primary.

“Bring the wagon and come with me.” Will gestured for the two to follow him into the warehouse.

“Would there be any problem with using anchorite and flash glass as building materials? Will asked as they walked.

“Typically, it would be outrageously expensive to do so, without much benefit, but if we get two deliveries this big every week…” Badur said, glancing over his shoulder at the train of wagons.

“I’ll see if we can put the word out and hire some specialists to work with the materials. We won’t be able to sell all of this. Especially if Sammohan is going to be selling the remaining eighty-five percent downstream.

Will arrived outside the empty room in his warehouse.

Purchase Vault x4?

Yes.

190,172 -> 150,172 Influence Remaining.

Purchase Inventory Shrinking Upgrade?

Yes.

150,172 -> 140,172 Influence remaining.

Thank the gods they only charged him once for the upgrade, which meant the shrinking upgrade was relatively cheaper the bigger the vault was.

Will whitelisted Sammohan and Badur and watched as the oversized miner pushed the wagon of flash glass into the room.

As it passed the threshold, the large freight wagon shrank down to the size of a man’s fist.

Sammohan peered down at the toy-sized wagon in confusion.

“Huh.” He grunted and picked up the wagon, walking into the vault.

Sammohan dumped the flash glass out into a dinky little pile in the corner, showing good judgement as he placed the toy-sized wagon down and rolled it forward on the way back out, avoiding a problem as it sprang back to full size.

“…I’ll put the word out and get started on some shelves.” Badur said.

“I need someone to build a town hall.” Will replied.

“On it, Milord.” Badur said, half-sprinting out of the room.