The Sovereignty System

Over the past three weeks, Ben had taken ten trained knights to live in the apartment on the third floor of his store. They are now working in shifts to stand guard at the front door during business hours and they patrol the store during the night in shifts as well.

Ben gave the knights permission to explore the city on their off times and allowed them to eat at the Greenhouse Restaurant and visit the other entertainment businesses in his new district for free. If they needed money for anything important he told them they could take it from his desk drawer or ask him to purchase what they wanted when he was around.

The popularity of Ben's new businesses in the old warehouse district was growing daily and the Observation Tower was a huge attraction. People loved to go up to the observation deck and look for their homes and the places they know or work at around the city. It seemed they also got a kick out of dragging their friends up to the observation deck who were afraid of heights and watching them have an emotional meltdown when they were forced to look out the windows.

The Observation Tower allowed you to see more than just the city. From the observation deck, everyone could even see the ocean out to the east. It allowed you to see so much of the surrounding landscape around the city that it could be used as a lookout tower in times of war.

The Theater had already put on a music performance of mixed music from Vistus and Earth. The king, queen, and the princess also attended the music performance in the carriage Ben gifted them. They absolutely loved the large luxurious VIP Room Ben had made for them. The king liked how he could be among his subjects and enjoy the shows with them while he and his family remained in a comfortable yet safe environment.

Ben had finally got around to opening the Auction House and had two [Springtide Rejuvenation pills], one [Impetus Advancement pill], ten [Expurgate Toxicant pills], ten [Unrelenting Potential pills], twenty [three-wheeled bikes with baskets] along with other interesting items.

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Auctioned Pills List

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Springtide Rejuvenation: This pill reshapes the body, revitalizing the blood, and imbues the skin with new life. An elder with a face full of wrinkles can regain the appearance of their thirty-year-old self.

Impetus Advancement: A cultivation stage advancing pill with a one-time use only. A cultivator will experience an instant breakthrough of a full stage after using this pill. This pill will lose its effect after one use and any further ingestions will be a wasted effort.

Expurgate Toxicant: This pill can cleanse the body of most poisonous. It may not be effective enough to cure high-grade poisons.

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Ben's Pharmacist was making hundreds of pills a day for him but he decided to only auction off a few at a time to make them seem harder to come by. A smaller available quantity would drive the price up on them. If he were to auction off a hundred Springtide Rejuvenation pills at a time, then no one would fight over them during the auction.

Over time he wanted to not only introduce new products besides these first items he choose to auction but he hoped to have traders from around the continent come to use his new auction house.

Up until now, Ben had only used his Mechanical Devices Factory to make typewriters, cash registers, and a few pedal/crank tools. The Mechanical Devices Factory also has an option to make bicycles and Ben thought the three-wheeled type would be popular.

The three-wheeled bike did not take much practice to learn how to ride and it could be used by regular people and businesses. It had a large metal cage basket on the back and a smaller cage basket on the handlebars. These baskets would help people with their daily shopping or it could be used to deliver goods by businesses across the city.

The city roads in Goldcrest were a little on the rough side because they were basically just smooth round rocks set into the ground. This would make it difficult to ride a two-wheeled bike around but the three-wheeled bike had great stability and the springs under the cushioned seat allowed for a comfortable ride over the bumpy surfaces.

As the season of Fall moved forward the leaves continued to change and the weather began to cool down. Ben had stopped building for now and used all his profits to purchase System Upgrades.

Each system level up until level 25 had been earned through constructing buildings. Ben remembered Athena telling him it was possible to purchase system upgrades when he was originally teleported to this world. When he looked into recently Ben found he could purchase upgrades through the system store at a reasonable price. For his future plans to work, he needed to expand his Build Zone.

Just as he had figured the Trareniel Kingdom had used their remaining soldiers to close off the roads leading into the Aregard Kingdom. The central market area out in front of Ben's store began to decrease in the number of stalls being rented and some stores found it increasingly difficult to replace their stock.

Aregard was virtually cut off from trading with the other kingdoms on the continent. They were forced to use the ocean to trade but ships were still primitive in this world. They had to stay close to the coast when they traveled so they would not get lost at sea and they were relatively small in size.

The Aregard ships would travel north up the Sandy River and into the ocean. From there they would follow the coast to sail to other kingdoms. It was an arduous journey that took months of travel. This was why trade was normally done by cart over the roads of the kingdoms. It would not be long before it began to snow and the Sandy River would begin to freeze and Aregard would have no way to import or export goods.

The Aregard Kingdom has a few mines located in their northwestern mountains which are used to supply ore to their kingdom but a large part of the ore mined there is exported to the other kingdoms. The money they made from their mines is a big part of the kingdom's treasury and without that money, times would soon become difficult in the Aregard kingdom.

Ben had no problem keeping his store full of merchandise and food because he made everything he sold but once the other local businesses began to suffer layoffs would begin and the economy would suffer. This would eventually hurt Ben's sales because people would not have the additional income for luxury goods and entertainment.

This is why he developed a plan to buy up enough System Upgrades while he was still making good money. Ben planned to expand his Build Zone until encompassed the entire Wayward Woodlands.

At system level 47 his Build Zone had reached far enough south that he could build a road all the way through the Wayward Woodlands. His fortress was located closer to the Aregard border than the center of the Wayward Forest and this allowed his Build Zone circumference to now extend into the Aregard and Trareniel Kingdoms.

The Trareniel Kingdom was not officially his land but his Build Zone was so large now it would be possible to build a couple miles west of their capital. Inside of the Aregard Kingdom, his Build Zone now reached halfway to the northern Sandy River bridge.

To make his system-level an even number and to extend his Build Zone even further, Ben went ahead and bought enough upgrades to reach system level 50. He was secretly hoping to unlock a new building of some kind and was pleasantly surprised when his system notification began to flash when he used the last upgrade.

Ben was hoping for something cool as he crossed his fingers and opened his notices but he had to reread it a couple times because he just couldn't believe it.

[Notice] [The system has advanced a level! System Level 50!]

[Notice] [You have unlocked a new structure! You unlocked the Steam Engine Factory!]

[Steam Engine Factory]: Produces steam engines for industry, ships, locomotives, and vehicles. Once the Steam Engine Factory is built it will unlock other steam engine based structures! [locked until: built steel mill-water treatment-research center- system level 50][consumes: steel, water] [requires: stone, wood] [Cost: 10000g]

Goodbye Iron Age, hello Industrial Age! Once he had 10000g or 1000 platinum coins he could build a Steam Engine Factory! The description said these steam engines could be used for industry, locomotives, and vehicles!

'Athena, is this true? I can make trains, ships, and vehicles with steam engines?'

*Ding!* [I can't tell what other building will unlock yet but by looking into the options of this now unlocked Steam Engine Factory it does offer a selection of different types of steam engines. There are engines specifically for trains, ships, automobiles, and trucks. With each these options to choose from it would make sense once you build this Steam Engine Factory it will unlock the other factories to build these different forms of transportation.]

When Athena answered Ben it startled him because his system sounded like a human woman speaking to him and not a program using text to speech. Athena had begun to advance as the system level went up but this was the first time they had spoke during the rapid leveling up.

He remembered her saying that as she leveled it opened up locked sections of her core programming and it was similar with a child growing up into an adult. Now that Athena had gone from level 25 up to Level 50 it was a huge change.

When Ben asked her about the change it seemed she had gone from a program who simply waited to receive commands to now being a fully aware Artificial Intelligence. She was like a regular person now but she had a quantum computer brain and an unlimited amount of memory that allowed her to remember everything she experienced. Obviously, she is still lacking human emotions which can be a good or a bad thing given the circumstances.

Ben currently had enough money to build the newly unlocked [Steam Engine Factory] and he was tempted but it would have to wait for now. He had plans to open his borders soon and let the rest of the continent know that he was creating a new kingdom so he would need to prepare for the worse.

There might be other kings out there like the power-hungry king of Trareniel who may attempt to invade and steal his land so he needed the manpower and fortifications to defend it!

Back at his fortress he built another Cavalry Stables next to the first one and purchased another one hundred horses to house in this new Stables. At the Ground Forces Barracks, he recruited replacements for the men and women lost in the Sandy River Bridge battle. Then he purchased one hundred and ten Human Male Mounted Knights. There was now a total of two hundred Mounted Knights under General Justinus command.

He only had enough room for 460 recruits left in the barracks so Ben purchased 450 Human Male Heavy Infantry Spearmen and a Human General/Mounted Knight named General Kaeso to lead them.

Ben had learned his lesson now from having to make so many custom tailored armors and clothing. The new knights and spearmen all had the same exact bodies with different faces.

The new saved male soldier body is a human male who is six feet tall, two hundred and fifty pounds with twelve percent body fat. It shows good muscle development without looking ripped. This new template body was almost as impressive as the Generals who were only a few inches taller.

Ben was confused during the recruitment on what the difference was between a Heavy Armored Swordsman and a Dismounted Knight. He can buy a [Heavy Armored Swordsman] for 20g each but a [Dismounted knight] would cost him 50g each.

When He discussed the differences between these two units with Athena he found out that the Dismounted Knights has the knowledge and skill to wield a spear and sword along with a shield. The Heavy Armored Swordsman has the knowledge and skill to wield a sword with a shield upon recruitment. Ben was also informed that the Dismounted Knight is stronger than the Heavy Armored Swordsman upon recruitment.

This made the Dismounted Knights similar to a dual-class that cost 1000g but not as strong as a dual-class. The dual-class for 1000g can wield two weapons but they were much stronger than a regular soldier and could even be compared to a mid-level stage one cultivator in strength.

Each of Ben's generals is a dual-class soldier and they could easily fight off ten dismounted knights all at once.

So the Dismounted Knight did not have the power of a dual-class but they came with the expertise to use two different weapons upon recruitment. It is still possible to train the Heavy Armored Swordsmen how to use a spear along with their sword it would only take the time and lessons needed to train them.

Across the street, from the now full Barracks, Ben built a Small Tower Hotel exactly like the one he had built in Goldcrest.

[Small Hotel Tower]: 100 units, 10 stories,

Each Unit Has

1 Bedroom: 2 queen size beds, nightstands, dressers, area rugs, vanity, ceiling light.

1 Bathroom: flushing toilet, hot/cold running sink, bathtub, shower, mirror, towel closet

Small Living Room: sofa, two reading chairs, coffee table, two end tables, ceiling light.

Small Balcony: table and four chairs

First Floor has an indoor swimming pool and game room. [costs: 4000g]

Ben had to make a few alterations to the hotel blueprint by adding six lockable closets to each room. Once it was built he sold the 200 queen beds from the hotel rooms to the System Store and purchased 300 military bunk beds with the money.

Each hotel unit had three bunk beds and six private lockable closets. They still have the small living room but they were now even smaller because of the new closets Ben had added. This new hotel gave him room to house 600 military recruits.

After selling off some resources and allowing his businesses to generate more money over the next few days he saved enough money to recruit 600 Human Male Dismounted Knights and had them move into the new hotel across the street from the barracks.

There also was a new Human Male General who was a General/Mounted Knight name General Decius who was assigned to command the 600 dismounted Knights.

The fortress was now defended by 350 Elven Archers, 200 Mounted Knights, 450 Heavily Armored Spearmen, and 600 Dismounted Knights. With a total of 1600 troops, Ben could almost match the number of troops the other kingdoms could levy. There was one huge difference though, Ben's troops were trained soldiers and the other kingdoms were using drafted civilians.

His numbers might not stack up against the other kingdom's army sizes but his troops were true soldiers who were being trained daily whereas the other kingdoms were grabbing men off the streets or out of the fields and handing them a weapon.

Generals Victor, Justinus, Kaeso, and Decius all had homes next to one another with system-link chairs to allow them to study and improve their military knowledge and skills.

Ben also set up additional classrooms for his new troops who shared most of the lessons the veteran troops were studying along with a few new lessons specifically designed to help them improve in their specialized classes.

For the first time, Ben's fortress had enough troops to defend its walls and this took a huge weight off of his shoulders. With the addition of the Magical Turrets, Ben was constructing on top of each of the fortress towers his men shouldn't have any problem defending against any army on this continent.

There also was another little item he added to the fortress. Under the Defences section in the Build Menu, he found [Anti Climb Wall Spikes].

[Anti-Climb Wall Spikes]: Thin six-inch long razor-sharp metal triangle shaped spikes that protrude from the wall at differing random angles to hinder the enemies attempts of scaling a wall. [requires: iron]

They did not cost him anything but iron and he currently had loads of iron in his Warehouse. All along the sheer rock cliffs of the plateau and his concrete walls, he added these nasty razor sharp spikes that stuck out of the walls like assassin's daggers.

They were all facing different directions and would slice anyone who tried to climb the walls. If somehow an enemy army were to fill in the twenty foot deep and twenty-foot wide moat surrounding his plateau they would have to climb the walls which were littered with these spikes while the defenders and magic turrets shot down on them.

Ben called it a night after he finished with the new defenses and went to dinner with Mythia who was now attending Intermediate Education For All school. She would attend grades one through eight there and then move onto High School Education For All or the Military High School.

When she went off to Bed, Ben slept for a few hours for once. He was a little mentally exhausted from the running around he had been doing so he decided to recharge with a few hours of sleep.