｢City-State Name: Vita Capital City
Tier: 7
Loyalty/Upset: 100/0
Gold: 0
Worldly energy: 100%
Aetheric energy: 25%
Tax rate: 5%
Population: 0
Personnel: 0
Food: 0
Lumber: 0
Stone: 0
Metal: 0
Prestige: 20000｣
Draco was quite surprised with all he had seen so far, and so were the members of Umbra. Due to the presence of Aetheric Energy in the upgrading of the Settlement, it gained new and unique properties.
First was the bonus experience modifier. That usually only appeared in special areas within certain buildings or zones within a Capital City of an empire. For example, Leviathan Empire had such a feature for its noble residences only.
And most of them were gained per day and were capped at 30%. However, Vita Capital City allowed anyone to gain 1% per hour and was capped at 70%!
Should one stay in the City for at least 70 hours, they would be able to quest or dungeon while earning 70% more experience for everything they did.
In fact, another smart thing they could do would be to finish a lucrative and hard quest, rest in the Capital City while accumulating the buff, and then submit it for nearly double the exp reward.
Then there was the success rate boost for creating. Draco was extremely thankful for this, not so much for himself, but more so for his Guild's Tradeskill members. They could now gain Tradeskill levels quickly and catch up to him if he provided good teaching as well as materials.
Not to mention all the items they would create would be 20% better, meaning they could easily sell it for more. With more money they could buy better materials, making this a profitable cycle for Umbra.
This would attract Tradeskill players all over the world crazily, not counting that many already had wanted to join Umbra but had failed the tests. Now, Umbra would have to re-open recruitment since they had so much land with such potent benefits.
NPCs usually disdained player settlements and cities. There were already endless kingdoms and empires in the world. Why should they leave their homes to join yours?
What did you have to offer that these long-established kingdoms and empires didn't? Even if they were poor or homeless in their current kingdoms, at least there was a chance to find shelter.
You, who had just built a city and needed occupants to make money, how were you going to feed them all?
However, the life expectancy boost would drive various NPCs mad. This, coupled with the immunity to common diseases as well as heavy resistance to deadly diseases ensured that they'd live longer, healthier lives.
The amount of them who would clamor to enter Vita Capital City, or to move their clan roots here, would be immense. Draco was also expecting various Hidden Powers to visit and try to claim a spot for themselves.
Even with the backing of Richmond, they would be barely hospitable. Most would be fair, while some would be forceful. However, none of them would take no for an answer.
Despite being only Rank 1, Draco was looking forward to their arrival. His pulsing reds eyes gleamed with a blackish light and the Black Dragon in his soul also yawned while shooting out a fake Orb of Destruction.
Not just crafted items, but also created techniques would become 20% better when completed. In other words, those who trained or worked here would see extra benefits for the same amount of effort.
Coupled with the fact that technique creation in Training Halls within the Vita Capital City was boosted by 10%, this place would become a haven for combat players too.
Now that Training Halls were seeing hefty player use, and techniques had risen to prominence, this particular boon would be well received. It might even allow the playerbase to catch up to the two old monsters in time.
Of course, Draco wasn't bothered. Even in the previous timeline where everyone had reached their pinnacle, he and Riveting Night had strongly remained in their number 1 and 2 spots.
Even if the whole world became reincarnators with their future memories, this fact wouldn't change.
However, it was the last boon that shook Draco's heart and cemented his change of plans. 500% boost to natural population growth meant that should NPCs or players copulate, their chances of conception would be much higher.
It also meant that pregnancy would be shorter and children born would be healthier than those outside. If one wanted to limit Vita Capital City to a specific race or clan, it was very possible to fill it up in a few years as long as they were hard working.
That's right, this was Draco's plan. He planned to rent some of the land in the soon to come business district to the various merchants and hidden powers out there as a form of compromise, but he wouldn't sell any private land.
The only people allowed to become the citizens or residents in Vita Capital City would be primarily his descendants and the members of Umbra. No one else would be allowed to set up a family or legacy here.
Thinking along those lines, Draco turned to the excited and flabbergasted members of Umbra and observed them silently for a few seconds.
When they saw their Guildmaster scrutinizing them, they immediately settled down and regained their composure. They gazed back at Draco while waiting for him to speak.
"How many of you live in the Central Country?"
Draco's question surprised everyone, as it was the last thing they expected to hear at this time. Many shared unsure looks, but those who did live in the Central Country raised their hands.
It amounted to slightly more than 35% of the members of Umbra, which was to be expected. Draco paused and pondered for a bit before he called out to Akainu.
"Take every Common and Uncommon item in the Guild Warehouse and sell it in the Intermediary Trade Center. Use the funds from that to assist the non-residents of the Central Country to travel to us."
Everyone became even more flabbergasted by Draco's words. To travel all the way to the Central Country… for what? What at all were they supposed to do when they arrived?
Even though they respected Draco and were loyal to Umbra, this was far too arbitrary to agree to so suddenly. While they all had better situations in the real world now thanks to their earnings in Boundless, most of them still had many considerations to make before traveling anywhere.
While him taking care of their traveling cost made things a lot easier to swallow, it was all too sudden.
Draco noticed this and smiled warmly at his guild members while explaining: "As you can see from the benefits alone, the value of the Vita Capital City is endless. I don't want to share this pie with anyone other than us, the members of Umbra."
"However, if we do so, we'd have a hard time growing our population organically. All of you must be aware that we can have sex in this game, but for some reason, you can't impregnate others, whether it is other players or NPCs."
The members of Umbra nodded sub-consciously. Of course, many of them had either fucked or been fucked already by someone - or in the case of those with rare fetishes, something - as was natural.
After all, a virgin girl in the real world might dream of giving her first time to her beloved husband. However, this did not mean that she did not have any interest in sex at all.
Stuck in such a quagmire, she might end up giving in to lust and lose it to some random fuckboy who was sweet on the ears.
The buried regret would be there for years to come, but with Boundless, one could circumvent this.
One could have what felt exactly like sex here without having their real body soiled, as it was all a thing of the mind.
So many people had been unrestrained.
This was nothing new, as it has already happened countless times in other virtual reality games, only that Boundless managed to make it feel completely lifelike.
Many girls who were very religious or uninterested in sex at their age tried many things, even with the most unlikely guys, just to see what it was like.
Curiosity to perform an act when there was no consequence was a terrifying thing. Many guys who were legendary virgins in the real world had also experienced this biological pleasure with either NPCs or other players.
So, it was hard to find a player who hadn't had sex in Boundless yet. Luckily, the helmet wouldn't work on those below the age of 16 due to their underdeveloped brains. It was only the game pods that would support all ages, from babies to old age.
Another reason why Update 5 was so horrific.
Draco continued: "If we aren't going to allow outsiders in, we must naturally fill it up with our own people! Do you understand what this means?"
How could they not understand? The Guildmaster wanted to give them a way to impregnate or be impregnated from the way he was going, and they needed to come to the Central Country for that.
Normally, people would be extremely hesitant to become parents because parenthood wasn't a joke. Raising a child was a serious thing and couldn't be half-assed.
It involved money, time and maturity to raise a child. It was a process that required commitment and devotion.
However, in Boundless, they were the members of Umbra! They were the best and they also possessed high wealth (relative to the world they lived in).
Not only that, but it was all digital. There were no real consequences that childrearing would give them in the game world that would affect the real world.
As stated above, curiosity, when there was no consequence for an action, was troublesome. These men and women, who would be extremely hesitant to even discuss this topic in the real world, were filled with excitement at the prospect.
The guys couldn't help but picture themselves impregnating an elf girl, or a wolf girl, a fox girl or even… a catgirl! What would children with them be like? This was something they'd never be able to do in the real world.
The girls also couldn't help but feel their ovaries twitch when they thought about children with those macho lion men, or those devilishly handsome fox men. Or even those gentle and shy cat boys! Kyaa!
Draco smiled at their response. "If you are interested in gaining a means to do so, please submit your details to Akainu. They will handle your matters from there."
Everyone nodded and reined in their excitement. It was clear that Draco was nowhere near done yet.
"Next, you shall all follow Sublime Notion and select your lots for your future clans in order of rank. When you do so, you can hire whoever you want to build it for you however you like."
"But remember to make sure that external builders do not stay in the City for over a week at a time."
"Also, I would like to point out to you, that this is a perfect chance for you all to climb the ranks. It will be up to every one of you to develop your own place, and if you do a good enough job it's not outside the realm of possibility to rise from a basic member to a core member."
The members of Umbra finally lost their cool and cheered aloud. It was time to select their plots! This was going to be epic!
'Thank God I joined Umbra!' was pretty much what they were all thinking.
Draco smiled and blinked away with Riveting Night and Hikari, leaving the rest to sort themselves out. He sent a private message to Jada and Jade to sort out the slaves and settle them in.
Draco and Riveting Night appeared before the changed Mayor's Hall, which was now called an Aether Hall. What had once been a Manor was now a proper Town Hall with a size almost rivaling Draco's Castle in the real world.
However, a swirl of Aetheric Energy surrounded the building, which made one's heart palpitate with a strange feeling. It was like staring at pure life energy or the clearest pool of water which contained infinite energy.
Draco entered the Aether Hall with his two women and was stunned to see that the interior was… automated!
It wasn't modernized, but automated. In their words, it looked just like a normal medieval town hall but instead of electricity, everything was powered by Aetheric Energy.
Suddenly Draco's mind tingled. This was a feat of Magical Engineering too!
In fact, no… he hadn't noticed it before because he had used the Eyes of Caelo first, but the City Upgrade Token was also something made by Magical Engineering!
This shook Draco so greatly that he almost collapsed. Did that mean if he worked hard enough, studied this Tradeskill as well as the items themselves, he would be able to make his own upgrade tokens in the future?
It made sense, since Boundless pursued realism. Even if one could arbitrarily upgrade buildings with tokens that were awarded, there had to be an in-game reason for it.
As players and gamers, we understood the meta reason. These tokens were rare stuff that allowed you to skip the grinding and just pay to upgrade your stuff.
But how did such a thing fit into the world of Boundless?
There must be a way for it to make sense within this world, and Magical Engineering was the answer! This Epic Tradeskill could allow Draco to invent or build contraptions and items that could do the seemingly impossible!
However, Draco sobered up immediately. He knew this AI very well. If something could produce great rewards, one had to put in an equivalent effort.
Draco had no advantage in Magical Engineering because he never even took basic Engineering in his past life.
Even with his talent, he would have to trod the beaten path just like everyone else, only that he would be slightly better off. He was comforted by the Insight passive skill which would help him greatly.
He would be able to learn and create faster than usual, so he could shorten down the time it took to master this Tradeskill by half. If he were to find a teacher for that Tradeskill it could even be shortened to a third.
Still, his happiness bled away when he remembered how abysmal the leveling speed was for Epic Tradeskills.
Even after commanding a huge army to fight an overpowered enemy like the Metal Dragon, he had only gained 15% experience for the Tactics Tradeskill. He hadn't even gone up a single level.
It made sense though. If Epic and above Tradeskills were so easy to level up, wouldn't any random Joe who had been lucky enough to get one become unparalleled under heaven?
The rewards for the practice of the Tradeskill was high, so the effort required was just as high.
Draco suppressed his urge to activate the Magical Engineering Tradeskill and walked into the Aether Hall with Riveting Night as well as Hikari.
The two women were just as stunned as he was, for differing reasons.
Riveting Night was shocked because she had never seen a building with its own life like this Aether Hall. Stairs moved and shifted about, brooms swept the floor without any handlers and dusters cleaned the window sills on their own.
It was like that old movie series about that loser nerd looking boy who had a lightning scar. They had some strangely named school they attended which was just like this.
In Hikari's case, it was because she couldn't understand how Aetheric Energy could do this.
As the child of two God Ranked Dragons, she was mostly used to Divine Energy, which was what the small realm in the old Aether Mine was made out of.
Just like every other Dragon, she felt Aetheric Energy was nothing but a waste product that others seemed to value, so they collected it and used it to trade. Since others liked it so much, why not?
As such, she viewed an Aether Crystal just like how Draco and Eva would view 1 bronze coin.
She had no idea this energy could make such wonders and provide many material benefits. Since Divine Energy was scarce - with the gods having receded into heaven - Aetheric Energy had taken over the number 1 spot.
They walked through the Aether Hall, checking out every floor and seeing how it generally functioned.
They all came to the same conclusion that this place should be forbidden to others. With it being automated and self-sufficient, they would need no serfs or slaves to take care of it, so it could become the perfect home of their descendants.
Draco sent a private message to Sublime Notion to later bring Roma and all the females Riveting Night gathered for him and settle them in the Aether Hall. Draco would bring Zaine over too, though at a much later date.
After that, they went to the place which had formerly been the office of the mayor.
Now, it had transformed into a blank white room with blue lines running through the walls, along with a terminal pedestal in the center.
(Author's Note: This should help https://i.imgur.com/eZVxOh6.jpg)
Putting aside the strange visual, Draco walked up to the terminal and saw that there was a groove for a hand to fit in. Naturally, he placed his own hand there and waited for it to finish scanning him.
However, he flinched a little when a needle pierced the center of his palm and extracted some of his blood.
After seemingly processing his blood, he finally saw the Aetheric Energy move like a cyclone and coalesce into an energy lifeform. This one had taken on the shape of a male of a greenish-blue color, with glowing yellow eyes.
His form looked a lot like Draco's actually, as if he were a humanoid energy lifeform replica.
He spoke in a voice that echoed on itself as if many people were speaking through him.
"Greetings, Hall Master. I'm the avatar of your Aether Hall, which is a marvel of creation in this era. Aether Halls have existed in the old era before the recurring Great War, but even then, they were extremely sparse and few."
"Seeing as this is the only one of this era, I shall educate you on what this unique building can and will do for you."
The energy lifeform floated down to ground level but continued hovering in mid-air. It approached Draco and floated just a few feet away from him as it spoke slowly and calmly.
"Even though Aether Halls have existed before, none have reached this level of concentration or possessed an Aether Mine below that contained a small world made of Divine Energy."
"This has created some… unique… functions that I think you'd find very agreeable, Hall Master."
"However, before we begin, I require an official name. As an avatar of your Aether Hall, I can tell you that this whole building is me and I am it. We are one. We are sapient and we are aware. We wish to serve, but we also desire an identity."
"Will you give us one?"