Chapter 44: New skills!

As I read through the descriptions, I couldn’t help but celebrate with joy.

Some of these new skills were exactly what I had been hoping for!

First, [Vassal’s Eyes] was amazing!

The ability to see whatever one of my citizens was seeing? Absolutely perfect!

With this, I would finally be able to see beyond the same boring forest clearing, the empty rooms inside my walls, and the gloomy basement I had been staring at for far too long. After so many days stuck in this place, I had grown incredibly sick of these limited views already!

And the best part was that the skill didn’t just let me see through my citizens’ eyes. I could hear through them too.

Soon, I would be able to listen to the gentle rustling of leaves deep within the forest, the soothing sound of a river flowing over rocks, and the distant calls of unknown birds and beasts.

It would basically be like having a live stream straight from my citizens’ point of view.

There was literally no reason to hesitate.

[Ding!]

[You have successfully purchased the Sovereign Skill, Vassal’s Eyes!]

The System notification announced that my purchase had gone through.

Only 100 Points?

That’s cheap!

Even if it had cost 500 Points, I would have gladly emptied my entire stock of Points for it.

Too bad it was already night.

Otherwise, I would have immediately issued a quest and sent Gopuro running around the surrounding forest, giving me a personal tour through his eyes.

Still, it was a little disappointing that the skill had a strict 5 km range limit.

Good thing I could upgrade the range later. I just hoped that one day, I would be able to remove the limit entirely and explore this world without any restrictions.

Now, regarding the second skill, [Ruler’s Voice].

Only 100 Points?

"Damn, what’s wrong with the System’s pricing today?"

Cha-ching!

[Ding! You have successfully purchased the Sovereign Skill, Ruler’s Voice!]

Purchased!

Another skill in the bag!

This was also exactly what I needed.

If I didn’t know Goblish, then perhaps this skill wouldn’t have been very useful to me. After all, without knowing the language, being able to speak directly into their minds would be completely pointless if none of them could understand a single word.

But now, with Goblish under my belt, the entire situation had flipped.

No more painstakingly filling out complicated quest forms just to have a simple conversation with my citizens. I could now talk to them freely, whenever I wanted!

"Ahh... what a wonderful quality-of-life upgrade!"

And for some reason, I also had a strong feeling that this skill could be abused in a few absurdly overpowered ways in the future.

After all, the ability to send messages directly into a citizen’s head reminded me of some insane technologies from my old world.

Radio? Podcasts? Telephones? Walkie-talkies?

Hello? Moshi-moshi???

Exactly!

In times of war, this could be incredibly useful, if not completely broken!

Combined with my ability to see and process multiple viewpoints at once, I could send clear commands across great distances in real time without any communication delay.

Even coordinating thousands of troops across different battlefields could potentially become as easy as cake.

That aside...

The last skill, [Devolution], left me feeling a little confused.

If I understand this correctly, this skill would allow me to... devolve my citizens?

But why would I ever do that? Why would I willingly make one of my citizens weaker and lose part of their progress?

But as I thought about it more carefully, I began to understand the real purpose behind this skill, and exactly who I might want to use it on.

Ah, I see...

If my hypothesis is correct, then this could actually be very useful indeed.

But well... there’s no need for it right now.

So I left it alone for the time being and moved on to check my other skills.

*****

Just like that, my net worth plummeted at an alarming rate.

Still, even after spending so much, I couldn’t help but open the full list of what the upgraded Level 2 Sovereign Skills had to offer.

Yup, it’s the skill I wanted right there...

[Goblish Lv. 2]

Effect: Allows you to become more fluent in Goblish.

Upgrade Cost: 200 Castle Points

I immediately purchased it, and the moment I did, another mountain of information suddenly flowed into my brain!

"Uwaaaaaahhh!!!!"

It was like downloading an entire dictionary directly into my head!

My vision went static, and I felt a little dizzy for a second. But soon, the discomfort faded, and my mind quickly returned to normal.

I shifted my attention back to Gopuro and Gopuran, eager to test out my newly upgraded language skill.

And indeed!

I could hear them much more clearly and understand them waaaay better than before!

It was like someone had suddenly turned the subtitles on in my brain.

And right after that, the System prompted me again.

[Would you like to purchase another upgrade? Goblish Lv. 3 is now available!]

"Ooohhh!"

I immediately checked the skill, but the moment I saw the price...

[Upgrade Cost: 1,000 Castle Points]

"Nope!"

At my current level of fluency, I should already be able to have normal conversations with them without much trouble. There was no need to spend that many Points right now.

Maybe in the future, yes.

But definitely not right now.

Anyway, I moved on and started checking my other skills.

And the moment I saw one particular skill, I was stunned into silence.

"Oh god... I really don’t want to spend more Points."

"But damn!"

"This skill... it’s so freaking good!"

[Lord’s Blessing Lv. 2]

Upgrade Prerequisite: Possess the skill [Vassal’s Eyes]

Effect: Spend Points to raise a citizen’s level or upgrade their skills.

Additional Effect: The Ruler can now spend Points to grant citizens powerful temporary blessings.

[Blessings Available at Level 2]

Blessing of Haste: Grants 50% increased Speed.

Blessing of Strength: Grants 30% increased Attack and 30% increased Defense.

Blessing of Life: Grants 20% increased Max HP and 0.1% Max HP regeneration per second.

Blessing of Protection: Prevents any new negative effects from being applied. The effectiveness and damage of existing negative effects are reduced by 50%.

Blessing of Sharp Senses: Greatly enhances perception, night vision, and reaction speed.

Max Duration: Unlimited

Point Cost: Varies and is deducted over time depending on the strength of the blessing.

Limit: At the current level, only one blessing can be active on any individual citizen at a time, though multiple citizens can be blessed simultaneously. Once a blessing is turned off, you will need to wait at least 1 minute to apply another blessing. Further upgrades to this skill will unlock additional blessings and the ability to stack multiple blessings.

(This skill shares the same range limit as [Vassal’s Eyes]. Upgrading [Vassal’s Eyes] is highly recommended for maximum effectiveness.)

[Upgrade Cost: 1,000 Points]

One...

Thousand...

Points!!!

My soul practically cried.

I had just spent 400 Points upgrading the Sovereign Shop and another 200 on upgrading Goblish, and now the System was asking me to throw another 1,000 Points into the same money pit.

My carefully accumulated fortune was disappearing at an alarming rate.

And yet...

I stared at [Lord’s Blessing Lv. 2] for several seconds.

How the hell was I supposed to resist something like this?

Fifty percent more Speed.

Thirty percent more Attack and Defense.

More HP and regeneration.

Resistance against negative effects.

And enhanced perception on top of all that.

...

Oh man...

Should I buy it right now????