Chapter 32
Peace Treaties and Hijinks
Emily was a little out of her mind, more confident than anyone should ever be, which wasn't exactly ideal, because she now had more money than sense. The water in the fountains had been replaced with wine. Bards sang on every corner, while caterers filled tables in the street with food, and innkeepers handed out free tankards of ale like people were dying from thirst. The outskirts of her threshold party looked like a free street festival, but the closer you were to her mansion, the wilder things grew.
Illusionary monsters flew through the skies between flaming pillars and animal-shaped clouds. High-level adventurers lifted boulders the size of cars in feats of strength, while others fought mock duels at speeds that were impossible to follow. Every form of entertainment the Capitol offered had been squeezed into her street, and the success of her second threshold party meant none of the students were going to their classes.
It was utter chaos.
And a hell of a lot of fun, even if I was responsible for chasing after Emily to keep her out of trouble. Thankfully, she'd finally drunk enough to pass out. Otherwise, I never would have been able to put her to bed and leave the party to visit the palace.
I bit down on a yawn as I waited outside the king's throne room to make my petition. The master of ceremonies gave me another uneasy glance, having misinterpreted my earlier nervousness as something related to what was going on beyond the doors. His unease was why I had clasped my hands behind my back, so I didn't fidget.
I glanced inside the throne room, hoping they would speed things up.
Durg'un was acting as Ririon's emissary, surrounded by a dozen champions. He'd already announced the founding of Ririon's kingdom and was in the process of establishing a minor trade treaty on his king's behalf. As Radian had no standing treaties with King Ririon, the two kings could not communicate through their interfaces, which was why Durg'un was here.
I was here to pass along what the dwarves had discovered about King Gririon's giant-killing weapon. It was a show of good faith from Ririon. The first step to establishing a proper peace treaty, which would hopefully protect me from the fallout of the dwarves building a tunnel to Blackwood.
However, with Emily through her third threshold, I'd decided to capitalise on the knowledge Durg'un had shared with me instead of giving it away for free. It wasn't what they wanted, but I was reasonably certain they would forgive me.
Reasonability.
The king finished signing the treaty, and I watched the paper disappear in a flash of light, like when I took an oath. The king's features sagged from the aftereffects, and the champions took small steps to place themselves between Durg'un and him.
Even I could tell the king was defenceless, so I was a little surprised they didn't outright block Durg'un's path. Durg'un reacted to the king's change in health by bowing, turning, and walking towards me, removing the threat he posed from the equation. Radian's champions followed, moving in lock step. With the treaty signed, there was no need for Durg'un to remain in the throne room and every reason for him to leave. There was no pomp or ceremony as he made his exit, but Durg'un stopped when he reached me.
He looked up and smiled. "I hold your oath fulfilled, Crown's Champion Arnold. And I name you as a friend to King Ririon before these witnesses."
Durg'un then carried on walking without waiting for a reply. I barely registered this because I was too stunned by the notification that had appeared.
Your relationship with King Ririon has improved from Acquaintance to Friend. As a Friend, King Ririon can be relied upon to keep your secrets and help you when you are in trouble, but don't go asking for something crazy, or he is likely to say no.
I had a few friends, but none of those friends was a king until now, so I didn't know how to react to what I was seeing. The ramifications of this notification were far more meaningful than the words implied.
Not everyone was capable of being the kind of friend recognised by the system. Only a certain type of person could trigger these notifications. These were the types of people who would go above and beyond for their friends. The ones who treated their friends' needs as equal to their own.
The fact that this notification had appeared told me all I needed to know about whether I could trust Ririon. Whether or not he would try to help as he'd claimed.
Ririon was going to bat for me.
He might not move heaven and earth, but he would keep his promise and try to end the war before it began.
As Farentine passed me, she threw a flirtatious smile in my direction. "I thought you were joking about all the discoveries you were going to make."
Her playful banter snapped me out of my thoughts.
I turned my head to follow her, forgetting the notification. "You have no one to blame but yourself," I replied just as playfully. "You never should have given me access to your library."
Farentine laughed as she followed Durg'un. "Giving you access to my library was the best decision I've made in years. Last night, the king reassigned me to nurturing your potential. I'm going to be sunbathing while these poor bastards are elbow deep in monster guts."
Durg'un barked out a laugh and glanced over his shoulder. "Lass, you don't know Crown's Champion Arnold half as well as you think you do if you believe following him around will keep you away from monster guts."
The master of ceremonies struck the ground with his staff behind me, drowning out Farentine's reply. "Crown's Champion Arnold, you may approach the king with your petition!"
I turned back to the throne room and started walking, not willing to ignore the king for casual conversation. I kept my gaze downcast, only looking up when I reached the foot of his dais. Being here no longer made me nervous. No longer made me question my self-control. It was just another day at the office.
As my gaze landed on the king's face, my body folded into a bow, because the man before me deserved such recognition. His sagging features had given him a gentle appearance, showing all who looked upon him that he would bear any burden to assist those he served. This had never been in doubt, but it humbled me to see it in action.
The king gave an exhausted sigh. "You may rise, Crown's Champion Arnold, and present your petition." His tone wrapped me in reassurance that I was safe, protected, and seen.
Eric and the king's other advisors entered the throne room from a side door as I rose, and I waited for them to climb the dais. They bowed to the king and then motioned for me to continue.
I met the king's gaze. "I come before you with an offer, Your Highness. I wish to trade knowledge that will substantially increase Radian's security for a reward that I will only name after you agree."
Eric moved to speak, but the king waved him down. "I accept your terms, Crown's Champion Arnold. Your actions have undoubtedly ended this war before it began and helped me gain something I have been trying to acquire since the founding of this kingdom. No reward could possibly repay you for this. Now what do you wish to share with me?"
This was the most straightforward answer I'd ever received from the king, and it threw me for a second.
I took a deep breath to refocus my thoughts and then dove in. "Your Highness, the dwarves have discovered that any dwarf who kills a level 100 giant, with the giant-killing weapon King Grorion created, becomes a chief who has a weaker version of my champion ability. Their ability, while based on mine, has a tenth of the strength of my own, but is capable of being used every day. This method of becoming a chief likely applies to our people as well. I am basing this assumption on the fact that I am now a champion. Through Regent Katella's deal with King Grorion, Radian can now produce ten champions each year."
The king had the power to make those weapons a controlled good, and I felt a rush of vindictive pride as I removed them from Katella's control. She would still benefit from them like everyone else, but it would irk her that I was the one who had taken something so valuable from her. If she had her way, she would use them the same way King Grorion was.
The king turned over his right hand, and a surprisingly large gold crystal of experience appeared, confirming that the deal he had made with me had strengthened his kingdom.
Eric and the other advisors took several steps forward to get a better look. Their entire lives were devoted to helping the king strengthen his class, so anything new had to be studied. The king handed the crystal to his nearest advisor, so they would back off. Even I could tell they were going to fidget if he didn't let them study how much had been generated.
The king waited until they had moved away before continuing. "What do you wish in return for this knowledge?"
"I would like you to help three individuals of my choosing use these weapons to become champions, starting with Lady Emily, Blackwood's noble. She has passed through her third threshold and can use the weapon to pass through her fourth threshold, provided you can give her the security, assistance, and training she needs to be successful."
The king nodded as colour slowly returned to his complexion. "Upon the weapons' arrival, one will be placed in reserve for Lady Emily, to be used only after we understand how this is done. Is this acceptable to you?"
"More than acceptable, Your Highness."
"Do you have the names of the other recipients, or are you planning for the future?"
"Planning for the future, Your Highness."
The king offered me a weary smile as another crystal of royal experience appeared in his hand. His advisors rushed over to investigate, before remembering where they were.
The king gave a tired, happy chuckle. "This petition is concluded."
I bowed again. "Thank you for receiving my petition, Your Highness."
The king rose from his throne and handed the experience off to his advisors. "Walk with me, Crown's Champion Arnold."
He climbed down the dais with slow steps and headed for a side door. I fell in beside him the moment he finished his descent, and his guards moved to clear our path.
The king still wore a weary smile. "You've been busy since we last spoke."
"King Ririon approached me with this plan, Your Highness. All I did was agree and do my part."
"I was referring to your discoveries. Lunar could see the beacons from her palace windows. She messaged every time one appeared to ask what you'd discovered. It was far more often than either of us expected."
"You sound quite pleased, Your Highness."
"The historians inform me that the last time lore was expanded this quickly was shortly after the previous cataclysm. If she weren't such a dear friend, I might have feared you would never return."
We passed through the double doors, entering a wide, lavish hallway which led to the section of the palace where the king lived. "Have I complicated matters for you, Your Highness?"
The king shook his head. "Lunar values the farmer experience you generated for her kingdom far more than your discoveries. She is only curious about what those discoveries might mean for her kingdom. Reassigning Farentine to assist you is a little more problematic, but the news you brought just now will more than make up for her absence."
"It will?"
The king nodded. "Radian has dozens of old adventures who do not need powerful champion abilities to assist them in clearing our more problematic dungeons. These weapons of King Grorion will finally bring the stability I've been searching for."
"I'm glad I haven't caused more problems."
"I didn't say that." There was no heat in his rebuke. "I read the notifications the system offered you. I saw every branch of lore you discovered and expanded. Together, they suggest that not only am I doing something wrong, but possibly everyone in my kingdom. This is certainly a problem."
I sighed. "I believe you are correct, Your Highness."
"Can you help me fix this? Can you help me grow my kingdom?"
"I believe so. However, everything I've discovered so far will only point us in the right direction."
"What do you need from me?"
"Time, educated advisors, and people who can take my theories and test them. Preferably in Blackwood."
"What do you want in return? You don't lack for gold, experience, promotion crystals, or anything else that I would be willing to offer you. I'm happy to have my people test your theories in Blackwood while I fund your research, but I receive far more from this arrangement than you do. This imbalance negatively affects how much experience I will receive for assisting you, which can't be overlooked considering the magnitude of your discoveries."
The king wasn't asking me to charge him more for my discoveries; he was demanding I did.
The problem was, he didn't have anything I wanted.
A few weeks ago, I would have asked him to rescind his order and let us level Blackwood. However, based on what I'd discovered, I now knew this was a bad idea.
Jeric and I had forcefully manipulated the village's growth, and the only way to get away with it without the system punishing us further was to prove that our actions brought benefits to the system. The better Blackwood did, the faster land prices would recover.
However, killing monsters had helped less than my theories said it should have. Generating so much mana for the system should have fixed the problem, but the system didn't seem to care.
I was missing something.
Something important.
My understanding of the system was greater than ever. However, I still didn't have a unifying theory that would let me understand it as a whole.
We walked in silence for a few moments before another idea came to me. It wasn't a new idea, but something which had been bothering me for years. And it had the potential to be much more useful than leveling Blackwood.
I turned to the king. "Where I came from, we had an institute called a patent office. This was a government institution where you registered new inventions. When you registered an invention with this institution, you effectively owned it for 20 years. No one else was allowed to profit from it, and they would receive legal reprisal if they did. Creating a patent was similar to discovering an exploit."
The king frowned, showing his displeasure. "This would delay my people from being able to take advantage of new inventions."
"You would think so, but it actually has the opposite effect. Without legal protection to take advantage of new inventions, individuals and businesses aren't willing to invest time and money in creating something new. My trap method is a good example. I hid its existence for years, because I was afraid someone would copy it and take it from me. If I had been able to hold the patent for it, I would have long since sold it off to anyone who was interested. The lack of legal protection completely disincentivised me from sharing it with your kingdom."
"It also forced you to invest in the idea so you could take advantage of it, leading to the creation of something much grander than it might have otherwise been."
He wasn't wrong, but he also wasn't right. "It might have worked out for my trap method, but this doesn't change the fact that I've been forced to hide my other inventions. It might be decades before I can share some of my world's better pieces of technology."
The king's frown grew. "You're holding back other discoveries."
"I have to. Otherwise, I won't recover the money I've spent on recreating the technology of my world. And I know I'm not the only one doing this. Your kingdom has hundreds of speciality workshops which hold the secret to producing certain goods. Each one of these workshops guards its secrets because if someone finds out how they do what they do, their entire business crumbles. Sometimes these businesses even collapse because the only person who knew the method to an important step died unexpectedly or without an heir."
The king gave another tired sigh, but the frown receded like the tide. "Why limit these patents to only lasting twenty years if they are so beneficial?"
"From what I remember, it incentivises those who hold the patent to take advantage of their invention as quickly as possible. It also prevents them from creating a lasting monopoly. They gain the initial reward from their invention. Then others stepped in to figure out how to produce their invention more cheaply when the patent ends."
"I find it hard to believe this will help my kingdom."
"That's because you're thinking about immediate ramifications, not the long-term changes that patents offer. You're not slowing the dissemination of technology. You're creating a world where individuals benefit from making improvements. Where individuals or groups can safely invest in trying to improve their lives because they know they can recoup the costs of doing so if they are successful. Right now, the only people who can afford to attempt this are you, nobles, and those with wealth like my own. Everyone else is forced to get by, using what currently works, and when they do find something better which offers benefits, they hold on to it, gatekeeping the discovery."
The king had been leading the way, turning down hallways which looped around. We weren't going anywhere in particular, just walking and talking. He lapsed into silent thought, considering my request.
I hadn't expected to have this discussion today, but now that I was actively thinking about it, I knew this was something I truly wanted. This wasn't just about the things my research and development teams were creating. This was about making it easier for everyone to improve their lives.
Based on a documentary I once watched, I knew patents were initially disasters, creating monopolies that did more harm than good, but the modern version was much more effective. If I could convince the king to create a patent office like the modern ones, I honestly believed it would incentivise people to invent new technology.
I had a sudden thought. "You could also allow individuals to patent blueprints. A unique method for creating something is essentially the same thing as inventing something new. And I'm pretty sure manufacturing processes could be patented where I-"
The words froze on my lips as I read the notification that had suddenly appeared before me.
Congratulations, for your services to the kingdom, your Crown's Champion mark has leveled. Your Crown's Champion mark is now level 9.
Heavy is the head who wears the crown, but blessed is the man who helps him. The king has marked you for your services to the kingdom. Now the kingdom offers its support in return, no matter how great the cost.
Crown's Champion Mark
Level: 9
Effect:
Champion's Body:
+9 stamina regeneration per second.
+9 health regeneration per second.
+9 mana regeneration per second.
+45% to stamina.
+45% to health.
+45% to mana.
Champion's Might:
+45% to base armour.
+45% to base damage.
+45% to base speed.
+9% chance to do critical damage.
Crown's Favour
+45 to all attributes.
+9% to the quality of your farm's produce.
+45% to the quantity of your farm's produce.
+45% to experience gained on your farm.
-45% to the negative effects of disease and pests on your farm.
-45% to the fertiliser requirements on your farm.
If a field on your farm is below level 9, it will immediately level to this level.
The king and I had both stopped walking, and we were staring at each other with the exact same stunned expression. Whatever I had done to gain another level for my mark had clearly affected him as well.
However, I was much more used to these sorts of surprises, so I recovered first, displaying the witty banter I was known for. "Ah, what just happened?"