The next few days passed rather slowly. Thanks to Wesley’s help, we had managed to determine that it would take a single gold coin to give me one point. When we learned this news, we found it rather… unfortunate. One gold coin was no small amount of money. Even Wesley wouldn’t be able to fund any major renovations like that, especially not when I was getting fourteen points for free every day.
Like that, a week passed, with people becoming more and more used to life in this small settlement. It was still a bit sad to see only one child present, but there wasn’t anything that we could do about it.
On the seventh morning after I purchased the General Goods store, I noticed both Prim and Wesley gathering together just as dawn struck. We all knew that today would be the day that my points reached the limit of one hundred, so we would see what the high-level buildings that I could purchase now were.
Noting their eagerness, I opened the window myself to look, a small smile crossing my features.
Prim closed her eyes, receiving a communication from the Land. Upon opening them, she smiled towards Wesley. “It is as we believed. There are two new options available for the Land today.”
“Two?” Wesley asked, unsure whether to feel excited or disappointed. “I had hoped that there would be even more. No matter, what are the new options?”
“The first one is territory expansion,” Prim explained, relaying the information that she had obtained. “It allows the Land to increase his territory by one extra hectare. However, there is a special note that this option can only be purchased at full price each time, rather than the discounted prices other buildings have offered after their initial purchase.”
Wesley’s eyes widened briefly. “I see… I suppose if you were able to buy repeated expansions for only ten points, that would get a bit out of hand. What about the other option?”
“The other option is listed as a Treasury, allowing the Land to convert points into currency, and vice versa. This one has an additional note that it is necessary in order to run most shops.”
When Wesley heard that, his eyes shone. “If there is a note mentioning other shops, then perhaps more will unlock after it is purchased? I think the Land should definitely go with that one this time, and see what new options become available.”
Prim nodded her head in agreement. She turned to look towards the general goods store, gesturing Wesley over. “He said that this building is rather large, so he will be putting it next to the shop for now.”
As they walked over, a new building began to sprout from the ground, fifteen meters wide and twenty deep, with two floors. The door was at the center of its front wall, and the two entered as soon as the building was complete.
Inside the building were several counters, closed off from the main area by decorative wooden barriers that allowed people to see through without the ability to reach beyond a certain range. The two looked over this building before Prim’s ears suddenly stood up. “Sir Wesley, it appears that there are three talents in the settlement suitable to work here.”
That got Wesley’s attention, and he looked over at her in interest. “Oh? We should go and get them to help us figure out what the special features of this building are.” This chapter was copied from NovelPing without permission.
Prim’s face turned somewhat awkward at that. “Among the three… you have the highest skill level.”
Wesley blinked in surprise, before a small window suddenly appeared in front of him.
You have been offered a job at the T1 Treasury, using your Management Skill: Level 2.
If you accept, you will be allowed to oversee the finances of the territory, including the currently available points and all unlocked facilities. Due to your skill level, the conversion rate of Points will increase to 1,000 gol. You will be paid 10% of all transfers between Points and Gol.
Do you accept this position?
Wesley studied the prompt for a short while, stroking his chin thoughtfully. They had tested this with Hilda previously, and there was nothing stopping employees from either quitting their position or leaving the territory. Hilda had been able to quit her job at the tavern, only to immediately be rehired after the experiment was concluded.
“I suppose that there’s no harm in doing the experiments myself. It will help cut out the middle-man,” Wesley smiled, agreeing to the position.
Given the layout of the building, he walked behind the counter and sat down. As soon as he did, another window appeared, showing him the state of the Land’s finances. “Zero C-Points, that’s understandable, since we just spent them all. But nine M-Points? Those must be the monster points. And I’m not seeing anything to spend those on other than trees, so we can leave them be.”
He continued reading, soon finding the currency transfer option. Reading it over, he clicked his tongue in regret. “It still takes one gold coin to get a point, but now one point can be transferred back into a large silver. And given that wage, it should mean that I’d get a small silver for every such transaction. Or a big silver if a point is purchased with gold.”
“Most likely, converting points to gol is a feature for when he’s sitting at the point cap, or if his territory is in a financial crisis,” Wesley added, leaning back in his seat. “Once he gets back to a hundred points, until he has something new to spend them on, it would be a good idea to convert his daily earnings into gol, that way he is passively generating money. Not a ton of money, but still.”
“I see… are there any other features that you can find?” Prim asked, and Wesley scrolled through the window again, before shaking his head.
“It seems like the job opening at the treasury can only read the data, not create anything new like how the chef can.”
I had to admit, I was somewhat disappointed by the treasury. Given its design, I knew that it was based off of the idea of a bank, so I thought that there might be a system for people to store money and retrieve it later. Or maybe a card like what Wesley had. And, there was actually a vault in the basement, but it was not connected to any type of system.
In other words, if people wanted to store their money in this way, it needed to be done manually with written ledgers. I wasn’t entirely against that, but we didn’t have the population to worry about such things yet. The only one that had a surplus of money to spend at the moment was Wesley himself, who was also the sole employee at the treasury.
With a mental sigh, I went back to idling, just watching the settlement go about their business. Every few days, Wesley would get a message on one of his attuned items asking for a report. Previously, he had written down that there was nothing unusual, or that he had fought off the goblin wave. This time, he mentioned the existence of the treasury, which allowed point-to-gol conversion, but included how inefficient and unprofitable it was.
I wasn’t surprised that he mentioned the treasury, since it wasn’t as ground-breaking as the items in the tavern or the general goods store. And since he had yet to report either of those, that meant that the attention from the guild was kept to a minimum for now. In a way, it allowed him to monopolize the resources, but it also prevented actual greedy nobles or merchants from coming in to try and squeeze out the people present.
Another week passed like this, and my points had risen up to ninety-eight. Not wanting to wait an extra day and waste a dozen potential points, Wesley donated two gold coins to push me up to one hundred. Then, both he and I checked the new unlocks, both of us looking at the list in surprise. This chapter is updated first at NovelPing.
There was still the opportunity for territory expansion, but there were also two new shops. These were the Blacksmith and the Tailor, both priced at one hundred points. When Wesley saw this, he gulped. “Hey, Land… I don’t think I’ll be able to cover for you after these come out,” he warned. “Given the results of the last few shops, I can’t imagine what a blacksmith would produce here. If word managed to get out about that, we’d both get in major trouble if I didn’t say anything.”
Although regretful, I knew that he was right. Though, that was only if the products really were that sensational. Still, between a tailor and a blacksmith, I knew that we were in greater need of a blacksmith at the moment. We had no access to basic tools like hammer and nails, which had already started to limit how much the residents could do with their solo building project.
Thus, I bit the proverbial bullet and bought the blacksmith, placing it behind the general store. Given that I currently had no method of moving buildings after they were placed, I was doing my best to plan ahead. In the future, I’d need to set up specific districts for residential areas or businesses.
Noticing the drop in points, Wesley jumped up from his seat to leave the treasury, looking around and spotting the new blacksmith shop. It was just as large as the general goods store, with a storefront area at the front and a workshop in the back.
Wesley approached the counter nervously, finding the familiar shopping window appearing. As soon as he saw what was displayed, he let out a sullen sigh. “Yeah… I won’t be able to not report this.”
The window displayed basic copper, bronze, and iron weapons and armor, allowing for the customer to customize their order. There were multiple types of each sword selected, though it was obviously not possible to get into full detail. Moreover, items like wands or staves weren’t listed as options.
If it were this alone, Wesley wouldn’t think much of it. The problem came after the material and weapon type was chosen, at which point the customer could choose what special effects they wanted on their weapon or armor. As Wesley scrolled through the options, he noticed that only the more common options were present, and selecting any option increased the overall price of the weapon. There were also not any enchantments available, such as the enchantments on Brock’s shield and hammer.
Moreover, the weapons purchased in this way were more expensive than what Wesley would expect to find in a normal blacksmith. Not by an obscene amount, but enough that most people would prefer to purchase from the normal blacksmith… if that blacksmith happened to have exactly what they were looking for in stock.
The problem came from the fact that these options could be customized. Although they were common options, getting two or three common effects that you want all on one item makes the item itself no longer common. Typically, customers would have to compromise, taking an item that was missing one or more of the effects that they wanted, and maybe had ones that they weren’t looking for.
These effects still increased the price of the item at a typical blacksmith, whether or not the customer actually wanted them. This way, it was a guarantee to have what you wanted in stock, though the price would be slightly higher.
Hearing the door open behind him, Wesley already knew that it would be Prim. “...It’s Leonard, right? I remember that he was a decently skilled blacksmith.”
Prim hesitated for a moment, before finally answering. “Leonard and Brock both. Though, Leonard’s skill level is higher than Brock’s.”
Wesley gave a small nod, already anticipating the results. Most likely, it would end up like Hilda, where the worker could produce items that could be sold separately, at a cheaper price.