King of the Mountain

60: Moving On

I teleported into the main courtyard of the castle back in North Carolina. This was a good thing, because I had forgotten to switch forms. The Great Game must have just teleported me to the closest open area that would fit my full dragon form. I quickly transformed back into my more human looking form and apologized to the various people who I had scared. It must have been pretty startling to see a giant dragon just teleport into existence near you.

“Jacob, Where are you?”

I jumped almost 3 feet in the air when he replied, “Right behind you my lord.”

“I swear Jacob you do that on purpose. How on earth do you sneak up on me without me noticing all of the time? Are you part ninja?”

“Not that I know of sire. I will try and make myself more known in the future.”

I don’t really believe him as I can see the corners of his mouth turning up in the barest hint of a grin. He enjoys this. I guess it is pretty funny, but one day I will figure out how he does it.

“Ok Jacob, please set up a nice dinner with the family tonight and let the ministers know that there will be a meeting to update everyone on everything that is happening tomorrow at 9 a.m. and please make sure to have lunch ready for us. We are going to work until we finish addressing several problems and situations that have arisen.”

“Certainly sire, I will set it up right away.”

I retreated to my room immediately following the conversation. I needed to make some decisions immediately regarding World Perks and how I was going to choose a successor. Some of the World Perks would be saved so the council could help e make some decisions based on their knowledge, but there were several things I needed to make sure were done immediately. Help, how many World Perks do I actually have?

You have a total of 41 World Perks.

My gambling really paid off. Only thirteen of those were from winning the championships. The rest were all gambling profits. Please show me a list of available World Perks.

As planetary leader you may select perks from the following list.

1. Base Stat Increase (3 Uses Only)

2. One Year Increased Experience

3. Increased Crafting Knowledge (Single Use Only)

4. One Year Increased population fertility

5. One year Increased food/fields fertility

6. One year immunity from invasion tickets

7. One world invasion ticket

8. Tier 3 Level Cap (Single Use Only)

9. Part 1 of 5 World Teleportation Network

10. One year Increased Mana and Health regeneration for natives

11. One year Increased resource regeneration

12. Increased Magic Knowledge (Single Use Only)

13. One world connection for World Teleportation Network

14. One world Resurrection Point for World Natives

15. One year protection from natural and monster related disasters

I feel confident in selecting 10 years worth of immunity from invasion tickets, Increased Crafting Knowledge, Increased Magic Knowledge, and all 5 World teleportation network upgrades. That is 17 of my World Perks spent. With a Great Game competition every three years this will give my replacement 3 competitions to prepare and get ready. The one time boost to crafting and magic seems extremely useful, especially since we have transitioned to the Great Game recently. Finally, since everyone cannot afford teleportation scrolls or have the skills I do I think it is a great idea to have a world wide teleportation network for both trade and to let people visit family.

I mentally select my choices from the list and see a Great Game message.

This is a planet wide notification. Your current planetary leader, Mark Anderson, has purchased 10 years of immunity from invasion for Planet Earth. He has also increased crafting and magical knowledge, all research will be 5% easier, each crafter now has a 1% chance to increase the level of their product. Spells now cost 10% less mana to use on Planet Earth. Finally he has established a World Wide Teleportation Network of the highest level.

Level 1 establishes 1 free main teleport area on each continent.

Level 2 establishes 3 free secondary teleport areas on each continent.

Level 3 establishes 5 free tertiary teleport areas on each continent.

Level 4 establishes free teleport areas in each city of 50,000 or more Great Game users.

Level 5 establishes free teleport areas next to five randomly selected dungeons of levels 25, 50, 100, and 200. Every time the tier of the planet increases 5 new randomly selected top tier dungeons will have teleport areas established next to them.

Well there is no turning back from that. I hope people understand and I will discuss the other choices with my council tomorrow.

That night I caught up with my daughter and the rest of the family. Nicole had watched the tournament and said it was very exciting. She was also looking forward to the moment she leveled up enough she could get her own hybrid and full dragon forms. I found out that Nicole seemed to be holding a little infatuation with one of her guards. For a brief moment I considered sending him to guard something far far away, but realized she was a grown adult and I needed to be more mature. So instead I messaged Randolph and had him perform a thorough background check on the boy. He will report to me tomorrow before the meeting.

Sleep time came soon enough and I sent everyone off to their respective rooms and areas. In the morning I met with my ministers after a late breakfast.

“Welcome gentleman and ladies. There are several things I need to update you on and some things I need your advice on. However, first I would like to hear an update on the visiting dignitaries that were supposed to come before I was teleported away for the competition.”

My minister of Trade and Transportation Stephanie Landers replied.

“The negotiations went well. We agreed not to expand into their existing territories in exchange for concessions on trade items, immigration, and the guarantee that they will follow some basic rules in their kingdom such as no slavery that you were adamant about. Mostly they are just groups of folks like us trying to make it in a bad situation. I would like to say after hearing the stories of these delegates we made them available to speak to the regular population. After hearing how much worse it is in some areas there is much less grumbling in the kingdom.”

“Excellent. Now I need to update everyone on several things. First off I will no longer be the planetary leader soon. I have exceeded the limit on levels that the Great Game set and I am required to select a successor. I want you to know how I am going to do this. First I will pay for a world-wide announcement that I will host a tournament to select the next planetary leader. This will happen in one week. Along with that announcement will be a set of rules that all participants must agree too before competing. The winner will be taken by me and I will power level them for one month to make sure that they are the highest level on the planet before handing over the title of planetary leader.”

Several people started to talk and ask questions.

“Quiet! There are still several things I need to get through and then we can discuss. Next, I now have enough resources that we can hire and build just about anything we need to in regards to the kingdom. I will deposit 100 million mithral coins into the treasury later today for the kingdom to use over the next 10 years. I plan on expanding our territory to the limit within the next 6 months so you need to figure a few things out. I can claim 600,000 acres of land an hour now. This means we could have a kingdom the size of the Former United States in less than 4 months with everything we already claim. You need to decide on what, where, and how much we are going to claim within the next few days. After 6 months my mana may or may not be available for land claiming. We will NOT invade other kingdoms or areas unless they are demonstrably using slavery or causing some terrible situation. Live and let live.”

This set off another round of people trying to be heard. I growled in my dragon’s voice to shut them up one more time.

“My familiar Walter, my four dragons and myself will be talking our soldiers and leaders on week long power leveling trips over the next five months. I want to make sure that the kingdom can defend itself from anything without my help. I soon have to travel to another world. I hope that I will be able to come back whenever I like, but I want to prepare for emergencies. Finally, I have 24 World Perks left and while I have some ideas on how I want to spend them I would like your input and opinions just to help me make a final decision. Now you can talk, argue and ask questions.”

The next 3 hours before lunch was horrible for me. I had to answer question after question. I knew it was necessary but I hated it. I was so happy when Jacob interrupted the meeting to announce that lunch was ready. We had made great progress on the situations.

First off it was decided to use natural barriers as much as possible for borders. However, to not infringe on the existing kingdoms to the North we would concentrate on West and South. I would try and claim everything west of the Mississippi river that was the old United States and then start claiming Mexico through Central America into South America as far south as the Amazon river and Ecuador on the West Coast of South America. Included in this would be the entire Caribbean, and I would also try for Hawaii and a few Pacific island groups. I also personally decided to claim at least 50 square miles around each of my dragon’s lairs so if someone started moving into the area we would get notified.

If we ran into any existing kingdoms or other claimed areas we would offer them the choice of remaining independent and establishing trade or absorbing them into the kingdom if they so chose. It was decided to keep the 4 existing armies and 1 sea based force and to just expand them. However, the areas they were going to be in charge of would change. We would divide the kingdom into the following five regions:

East of the Mississippi

West of the Mississippi

Mexico and the Pacific Islands

Central America and Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia

Caribbean and the rest of South America above the Amazon River

Our plan was to continue what was working. We would identify areas of need and create Large bases with housing and then satellite cities as needed. With the coins available we could tie everything into a teleport network throughout the kingdom. After eating lunch I told my ministers that they could finish the rest up on their own. I was going to start working on the planetary leader tournament. Please keep me informed, but I had things to do. Don’t forget to schedule a week’s worth of time to level up with the help of my companions or me.

I retreated from the meeting as quickly as I could and started to compose the message I wanted to go out to the world. I ended up with this.

Attention Citizens of Earth, this is your Planetary Leader Mark Anderson.

I have exceeded the level allowed by the Great Game to represent Earth in the Great Game competitions so I must designate an heir.

I will be holding a tournament to determine who will be the next Planetary Leader after me.

All participants must understand that they have to follow several rules during and after the tournament.

1. The tournament will only proceed until the top four contestants are decided. Level does not matter, effectiveness does. I will level the final choice myself.

2. Only one pet or familiar is allowed to compete with you.

3. The final winner will be decided by one on one interviews with Mark Anderson.

4. You may not use your position to force yourself sexually on anyone.

5. You may not participate in or tolerate any form of slavery.

6. You will honor all established agreements with other worlds unless the other party violates the agreement or cancels it.

7. The safety of the Earth and maintaining it is your first priority.

I reserve the right to come back and punish you or remove you permanently if you violate any of these rules.

I had also gotten some great advice and decided on my final World Perk selections.

This is a planet wide notification. Your current planetary leader, Mark Anderson, has purchased 2 years of protection from natural and monster related disasters for Planet Earth.

This is a planet wide notification. Your current planetary leader, Mark Anderson, has purchased 5 years of increased experience for Planet Earth.

This is a planet wide notification. Your current planetary leader, Mark Anderson, has purchased improvements of 30 points in all base stats for all residents of Planet Earth.

This is a planet wide notification. Your current planetary leader, Mark Anderson, has increased Planet Earth to Tier 5.

This is a planet wide notification. Your current planetary leader, Mark Anderson, has connected Planet Earth to the Planets Estrore, Wagliv, Snerore, and Testra. All citizens may teleport to these planets through any Great Game teleportation circle for a nominal fee.

This is a planet wide notification. Your current planetary leader, Mark Anderson, has purchased 7 Respawn Points for the Planet Earth. Which will be placed next to the main teleport areas on each continent. Each citizen on Earth will receive one free respawn each year to the nearest respawn point. A second respawn will cost the citizen 10 levels of experience. A third will cost 25 levels of experience. There is no 4th respawn. Those that die from old age will not respawn. If you do not have enough levels to be respawn then a 3rd party may donate levels within 24 hours to have you respawn. Respawning will only work on Earth for Earth citizens. Please remember there are special dungeons that do not allow for respawn, be careful.

The only thing left now is to host the tournament and start leveling everybody up as soon as possible. Once my responsibilities are done here I can travel to the Dungeon World and experience it for myself. I hope that it will give me the answers I need.