The colonel had been pretty clear about not having the time to share what he knew about Gavin’s prize, but he’d also indicated that there was no harm in experimenting.

Gavin was calling himself a king, but he’d said his interface called him a “ruler,” and Cassie had already agreed to be his subject. Six-year-olds and four-year-olds aren’t the best at answering questions, and Pointy was ignoring me… but she shared the details she had with Sueann after getting Cassie’s permission.

“I can no longer see Gavin’s interface, but I can see the effects on Cassie. Being ruled appears to take a twelfth of the Money we earn. I assume it will send it to Gavin. I am not sure if there are any other deleterious impacts, but it does offer two benefits: we have a one-in-four chance to earn double any time we gain Points, and we may send a brief Message to Gavin once per twelve days.”

“Hey,” said Sueann. “That’s pretty good. Want to be my king, too, Gavin?”

“Yes! Uh, I mean, I will let you be my royal subject.”

Gavin’s effort at dignity was hampered by his excitement. He bounced up and down as both Sueann and William accepted him as their ruler.

William made a big production out of it. He went down on one knee and bowed, lifting his weapon above his head. “My liege! I offer you my sword. Will you accept my service?”

“That’s a table leg!” Gavin giggled. “But yeah.”

Privately, I wasn’t sure I agreed with Sueann's assessment. Accepting someone as your ruler seemed a little lackluster in terms of benefits. I wasn't counting the "downside" of having to give part of your earned Money to your ruler. As long as everyone in the group trusted each other, that was a purely decorative downside. It was just that 25% extra points wouldn't amount to much. It sounded huge, but when each twelveday's monsters were giving double the points of the previous set, it was more like a temporary advantage than a permanent lead. Apparently, each stabcrab was only doling out three money - up one from the two offered by the slimes, mobmu, and bladetails - but they were each giving a whopping 48 Points, as opposed to the last set's 24.

What was the big deal about getting 25% extra points, if the Points monsters gave continued to double? Yeah, you might earn 375 Points to another guy's 300, but the next week, he'd earn 600 while you earned 750. Hm. I guess people with “rulers” would reliably get extra abilities a little before those that didn’t. That could be a decisive factor if two large groups of people decided to fight. Get a bunch of followers, grab lots of Points in the early days of a new monster tier, then attack while you had more Abilities than your opponents.

I made a note to mention the possibility to the colonel. It was pretty obvious, and I was guessing that someone in the Arsenal leadership had figured out the same things I had, but I’d rather not make assumptions. Better to give unnecessary warnings than to let people be blindsided and killed.

The weekly Message was more exciting to me. It wasn’t the same as having the ability - you couldn’t carry on a discussion or chat casually - but would be amazing in emergencies. If enemy humans ambushed you, you were trapped by a herd of mobmu, or got injured far from home, you’d be able to call in aid even if you didn’t have the right ability setup.

“Gavin, can you tell us anything else about being a ruler?” I asked.

“My crown is very cool?”

“...Anything from your Interface?”

“I have a picture of some dots. Oh, and it says three slash one-four-four.”

I mentally translated that. 3/144. I knew he was ruler to Cassie, William, and Sueann, so that was probably the three. The 144 suggested that there was a limit to the number of people he could rule. “Anything else? Can you kick them out of your kingdom?”

Gavin looked offended. “I don’t want to kick them out!”

“You’d probably be able to put them back.”

My middle child looked rebellious.

I sighed. “Fine. We don’t have to test that now. I’m sure we can find out later. Anything else?”

“Um… some words.”

I raised an eyebrow, and he looked nervous as he scrunched up his face. “Uhh.. Grow in person strain or ackwiree more ruler ship tokens to incree-ass beanfits to and from subjects.”

I had to puzzle that out. Okay… Grow in personal strength or.. Ackqwiree? Acquire? Yeah, acquire more rulership tokens to… ah, yes, increase benefits to and from subjects.

So his rulership was something that could grow. Where would you get more rulership tokens? There was one obvious possibility, which seemed doubly obvious when I considered how the rulership benefits would give groups a huge advantage when fighting against other humans.

Maybe it could be handed over voluntarily, but it would take a lot to convince Gavin to even try. Plus, my middle child was devious sometimes. I could just see him claiming he’d tried to hand it over to someone and it hadn’t worked. I’d have no way of knowing if he was lying or not, at least initially.

Better to know whether or not it was possible before I gave the order. If the Arsenal had sent nearly two dozen trained soldiers to the Challenge, there’d almost certainly be adults with the same prize Gavin had. Actually, given that the colonel had seemed familiar with it, there definitely were. I could get the facts first, then talk to Gavin.

“Mommy powers” would be credited for my remarkable truth-sensing abilities.

Talking to other adults is 100% a mommy power. Just… a less supernatural one than the kids assumed.

Nothing wrong with that.

Gotta keep them guessing.

I turned to Sueann. “Do you know what the status is with the vehicles and the hostage rescue? Are we gonna be able to head home today?”

Sueann frowned. “It’s not looking great. The new monsters broke the windows on the bus and popped a wheel on the truck. They’re trying to get them patched up, but it’s hard figuring out solutions that won’t just break again.”

That startled me. “We have people watching the vehicles. The monsters busted them that quickly?”

Sueann nodded. “They’re hard to kill, and speedier than you'd think, especially when they're climbing things critters their size ain't oughta be able to. Brick, car siding… it slows them down some, but they can still climb it without much trouble, just stabbing their legs right in, like.. Uh… crampons?”

William interrupted, “Crampons are a climbing tool, but they’re more like cleats. I think you mean pitons. They’re the metal spikes.”

Sueann accepted the correction. “Pitons, then. Anyway, the little holes they punched in the side of the bus aren’t too big of a deal, at least in the short term, but they can shatter a window in an instant. We can cover the windows with cookie sheets and the like, but we can’t do that for the windshield or the driver can’t see.”

I grimaced. “And we can’t really drive around with monsters hole-punching the walls of the bus.”

“You got it.”

I could see why the colonel had called them a headache.

“Well,” I said. “I have Analyze at a pretty good synergy. Let’s go get a look at these things.”