POV Vesuvius:
Vesuvius hovered above a group of players, his wings sending waves through the clouds of smoke around him. His golden eyes were locked upon the players as his mind ran threads of thoughts on how to solve the problem brought by his new minions.
Soon, he concluded, ‘If I can’t convince them that I can be defeated, then I have to convince them that just fighting me gains them some reward.’
There were still multiple problems with what it should be, ‘My scales, my blood and claws are out of the game as they could easily give away my identity as a dragon.’
p Vesuvius kept racking his mind over the issue but couldn’t find anything that would work.
‘I also can’t just throw random magical items on them as that would feel forced and unnatural.’
Ultimately, Vesuvius decided to push the problem for later, ‘It is not essential now. Players will soon vanish with the upcoming update, and a lot will change by the time they return.’
The dragon opened his mouth, his cold voice descending towards the ground, “Minion, I already heard rumours of this cycle coming to an end, so you will get a long-term solution by the time a new cycle arrives.”
Without waiting for the response, the dragon flapped his massive wings and rose high into the air, his new minions quickly turning into small dots as he rose above the clouds.
He threw them his last glance while his voice boomed downwards through the clouds, “For now, try to do whatever it gets to organise another attack on me.”
The dragon flapped his wings again, propelling his body forwards, leaving behind thick trails of smoke.
‘This new faction function is really convenient.’
He briefly glanced into the system’s log to read more thoroughly through the changes that happened after his minions stormed the church.
Ding!
//
The members of your faction managed to defeat a miniboss.
The faction reached a threshold to level up.
//
Ding!
// Faction subsystem
Faction level: 2 reached!
New function unlocked: Faction Unique Titles
Description: Allows predefining a limited number of new unique titles and binding them to specific ranks within the faction.
Rules:
– Created titles must fit the theme of the faction and the rank that they are bound to
– Created titles will get effects based on their description
– Created titles have to fit into one of these categories: Leaders (Max: 1), Officers (Max: 6), Special (Max: 2, Used: 1), Standart (Max: 20)
– Each category has its own budget for titles, and the maximal amount of titles distributed to the faction members
– Budget and maximal amount of allocated titles increases with the faction level
– The generated effects will depend upon a budget for the title
– After the creation and allocation of a title, its effects will be fixed for a period of time: 1 year for standard, 5 years for officers and special, 10 years for leaders
//
As Vesuvius read through the rules repeatedly, a wild idea formed in his head that made his inner gamer cry in the excitement of what he could do with it.
‘I wonder if I can give a title to an NPC or myself. Nothing is mentioned in the rules about it, but it wouldn’t be the first time that system would stop me from utilising some loophole. Well, I can try. At worst, the system will scold me.’
The idea didn’t come out of thin air, as Vesuvius already guessed that it could work based on his knowledge. In his previous life, he observed that leaders of factions weren’t the only ones that became stronger much faster than they should be. It also applied to their officers and occupants of other important posts.
The dragon slowly flapped his wings, not even using extra mana to fly as he wasn’t in a hurry. His massive body leisurely flew above the sky, the tall black tower on the horizon slowly growing.
‘Well, I can try to create a title for me. There is nothing to lose and at least something to gain.’
Vesuvius was already familiar with the process as he had already created one title, so he quickly got into the creation process.
‘What should be its name? It must be worthy of a dragon while fitting into the faction’s theme. Grand Master? No, that sounds too plain and generic. It fits some weak human puppeteering from shadows but not a mighty dragon like myself.’
The dragon felt his brain going on override as he pushed his naming sense and imagination to their limits.
‘Grand Magnificence? No, that sounds too exaggerated, and it misses the elegance of dragons.’
His mind started to feel strained as if he was casting a complex spell as hundreds of strings of words passed through his draconic brain.
Finally, his eyes flashed in bright golden light as he found something that he liked.
“Golden Dragon.” The cold voice of the dragon whispered the name of the rank that he wanted to take for himself, ‘It is simple yet elegant and perfectly describes the majesty of dragons.’
He was a little worried that someone might use his rank to deduce that he was a dragon, not just a wyrm, but he felt that it was very unlikely, ‘Most will likely assume that is just a symbolic title without any deep meaning behind it as I am not even gold. And by the time the players return, I will likely have enough power to protect myself or at least escape if something goes very wrong.’
The dragon finally reached his black tower. He bent his wings slowly, drifting towards the black roof. His body softly landed on the tower’s roof, only a few small shakes shaking the massive structure.
His long tail ending with a complex crystal pointy organ capable of launching powerful projectiles curled around his body like a snake.
‘I still didn’t have the opportunity to use it. Well, it doesn’t matter, it is always good to have a backup weapon, but that doesn’t mean that I have to use it instead of my main weapon.’
The dragon quickly became comfortable as he returned to creating his title.
‘It will be part of the leadership category, giving it a lofty budget to generate powerful options. Luckily the theme of the golden dragon title can encompass a large scale of powerful options.’
Vesuvius closed his scale-covered lids, his mind leaving the material world to entirely focus on the problem before him.
The black dragon with magma leaking out of the cracks in his regrowing volcanic armour wasn’t moving, with his large body sprawled on top of the tower. It looked as if he was sleeping even though his mind was fully awake.
Ding!
//
Choose one of the descriptions that describe the title. (Be careful effects will be generated based upon the description):
1st: Golden Dragon as a leader, must be faster, stronger and more resilient to suppress all of their enemies while having the intelligence to far surpass everyone around them.
2nd: Golden Dragon as a leader, must grow faster than those of lower standing to leave them far behind.
3rd: Golden Dragon as a leader, must lead their forces into combat with their glorious form boosting the power of their allies.
//
Vesuvius quickly read through all three of the options, trying to predict their effects from their vague description, ‘The first sound like a general boost in stats with emphasis on intelligence. Maybe bonus stats, but scaling is also possible with it being the leader title.’
An annoyance at the weird description shenanigan of the system kept nagging him as it felt out of place to him when most of the time system gave him much more concrete data to work with.
Still, he suppressed his annoyance as he kept analysing the options, ‘The second one speaks about growth, so that likely means a boost to XP. While the third one is out of the question as it sounds like something that would boost my allies, and that is not for me.’
Finally, his eyes snapped open, their golden light penetrating through the thick clouds of smoke surging around him, ‘No, I don’t need more XP. It is definitely a nice bonus, but not as good as more stats. Stats scaling is more important. With it, I can kill more, more effectively, which will compensate for the smaller amount of XP. And all of these extra stats will be useful during my upcoming metamorphosis.’
The dragon’s whole body twitched as he finally found what he wanted, confirmed his choice, and gave himself the new rank. His whole body tensed as he waited for the system’s verdict, hoping it would get approved.
Ding!
//
You have gained a faction rank of Golden Dragon; You have gained a title [Golden Dragon of Dragons]
[Golden Dragon of Dragons]:
Conditions: Have the rank of Golden Dragon within the faction Dragons
Description: Golden Dragon as a leader, must be faster, stronger and more resilient to suppress all of their enemies while having the intelligence to far surpass everyone around them.
Effects: +1.25x INT scaling; +1.1x scaling of all other stats
//