Chapter 2:

Jay Northsand made for a poor image of a noble. It wasn’t that he was covered in grime, or that his clothes were that of a well-to-do peasant, or even that he was standing in a poorly constructed archaeology style tiered pit. No, the stupid fucking look that was on Jay’s face while he gawked at his system messages was what sold his look as a piss-poor peasant.

Eventually though, Jay slapped himself, ”Action, Jay. Action.”

“System, display ‘Northsand Barony Crystal’ interface.”

+++

Crystal grade: Greater (2314/2500)

Type: Territory

Territory: Barony

Allegiance: Stansa Kingdom

Subordinate Crystals:

Aligned: N/A Unaligned: 3 ‘City’ crystals, 7 ‘Town’ crystals, 32 ‘village’ crystals Subjugated: N/A

Functions:

Stansa Kingdom Market: ACTIVE Inter-Kingdom Market: ACTIVE Message Box: 1 new message! Blessings: No active blessings Defenses: Anti Core tracking (Great): Active Illusion masking (Minor): Active Divination resistance (Minor): Active Crystal Management: N/A Storage: INACTIVE Map

+++

Jay went down the list, ”Holy fuck, greater?! Well, if word gets out about this I’m invaded.”

A snort escaped the little Baron, ”What fuckin’ am I, an Earl? This place must have really been something in that Theocracy, wonder why there aren’t more ruins around? This place really isn’t known for its rich history.”

“Tut, tut. I guess they all are set to ‘independent’ rather than ‘unclaimed’. Must be a pride thing.”

Jay slid down the wall of the pit, ”Oh well, this way only Duke Stansa and King Stansa know that I’m here. They don’t care about a damn Barony, I probs’ have a few months before people start pestering my territory.”

It was with careful thought that Jay combed his memory, ”If I remember correctly, then those three cities should be…”

“A port/fortress city run by a Stansa National Army General. Should be a lower ranked general, since they’re out here, but who knows, it is the northernmost port of Stansa, after all.”

“A city on the only Lake in this territory. The Lord there controls all farming done on the river that feeds the lake, and mines salt on the lake beds.”

“And a City that controls all trade with the races of the desert. Only Lord in this Barony that isn’t a Stansa national.”

If drugs didn’t cause debuffs in this world, Jay would have picked that moment to light up, ”Hahhh, and I’d reckon almost all of those other towns and villages are claimed by those three cities.”

“You know, Farming villages and towns around the river, villages around water sources to the north for the wandering nomads, and…”

“...”

“...I don’t fucking know, woodcutting vilages? They’ve got to have something, damn it. Maybe little smaller forts around the coast so the enemy can’t just set up an invasion force some 20 mins away. Gotta make that naval superiority matter, yeah?”

Jay took a moment to realize that he was talking to himself like a maniac, then realized he was doing the mental equivalent of ‘gawking like a fucking idiot at a system message’.

He snorted, ”Rambling about medieval fantasy socio-economics isn’t action, Jay.” He steeled himself, ”Action is action.”

+++

From: Stansa Dukedom Crystal

To: Northsand Barony Crystal

Dear Baron Northsand, congratulations are in order for the successful claiming your lands and title. However, for the sake of future relationships and clarity.

Duke Stansa has granted you your land and title for your grand accomplishment of saving young Master Simon Stansa the Fifth’s life. However, he has not granted you his support or the authority to use his name. Claiming otherwise will now be considered fraud and mayhaps treason, depending on the context of such a situation.

For your consideration,

Fidal, Head Missive Scribe to Duke Stansa the 4th

+++

Jay tilted his head to the side, ”That’s… cordial, I fucken guess.”

Baron Northsand then burst out in laughter, ”No skin off my teeth. I wasn’t damned dense enough to take a dukes name in vain anyways.”

Having done the second most important thing of his agenda, Jay thought of dozens of things to do before checking that which could set his life up forever. He could set up food and water storage better than the temporary enchanted containers on his cart. He could turn his dig site into a proper shelter. He could even start searching for the closest watering hole.

But no, it did no good to delay the inevitable, ”Manifest: Seer’s stopwatch!”

With a sound of shattering glass, blue fire manifested itself over Jay’s right hand. Fluidly, that fire formed into a golden stopwatch with a clock face and a single button on top. Out of the bottom of the stopwatch flowed a chain of the same blue fire.

Jay waved his hand, the chain made a sound of faint crackling glass. ”Well, I’ll be… System scan!”

+++

System scan… Failed!

+++

“Ehh, Description?”

+++

Description...Failed!

Soulbond Discovered!

Description:

An item created by the ancients to see through time.Time itself has long been guarded fiercely by those of the divine realm, but this device does not function via the manipulation of the flow of time. It functions via copying the soul of the user, and then scanning all of causation, and sending the copied soul into an alternate reality.

Takes one day to fully function, once fully functioned, the copy soul will have lived for one full year. It then merges the souls. Due to the nature of souls, memories cannot be contained. Physical materials can be transferred.

‘Divine’ intervention cannot be accounted for. Items graded ‘epic’ or above cannot be replicated.

+++

Before he read the description, Jay’s input was, ”Damn, that’s the longest ‘description’ I’ve ever got. I wonder what a ‘soulbond’ does to that skill?”

After he read the description, his input was, ”WOOOOWEEEEE, BETSY, OL GAL, WE HIT THE FUCKING MOTHERLOAD!”

“Hee-haw.”

“DAMN STRAIGHT GIRL, THIS IS AN ‘EPIC’ REWARD! ALL THOSE WHO OPPOSE ME CAN SUCK MY COCK!”

Anyone on that world would tell you that saying such a thing was a bad idea, and many from Jay’s world would tell you the same. However:

“I’M ON TOP OF THE FUCKING WORLD!”

Jay didn’t seem of quite of the right mind at the moment.