Once the token was placed and the array activated, a burst of energy rippled in waves, with the town as the epicenter. The energy changed the weft and weave of the land's energy. My territory more dynamic than it had been as the energy that the world produced was now created with another additional facet.

The land that I had claimed was seeded with a small amount of my own Qi. My energy signature acting as an overlay and model for the territory. As the energy changed, as my Qi signature became fused with the area around the token and then began to expand in a cascading effect, that feeling I had when I first crossed the boundary became more pronounced. The tie between the land and me, that feeling that allowed me to know this land was mine solidified and strengthened.

The change to the world energy was subtle, so slight that it would take someone with a higher cultivation Realm than mine to notice it normally. As the ripple effect between the token and the land quieted, the eddies of change bouncing back and completed a circuit between the token, the fief, and me. The land settled, while the world energy quieted, both content with the changes, both willing to accept my Qi signature.

I stumbled for the briefest second as the changes finalized, a kind of vertigo affecting me I experienced a type of dual vision. It was as if my perception had grown, reaching out to every section of my land, and I was both me and the land.

"Careful," Yvonne said as she steadied me, reaching out to grab my shoulder and help me remain standing, "the strain to your perception will only last a few seconds before it settles."

I was thankful for her words and her support, and I had already begun to return to normal. My perception becoming mine to control again. I tested that control, happy to find that I had gained range after binding. Not a lot, but it had increased and extended about a third more than it had when I breached the realm and became a Qi Gathering cultivator.

My control over my perception lasted the briefest of seconds before I began experiencing the opposite effect. Instead of expanding to include the whole of my territory, my perception narrowed, resonating with the array and token that had transformed from town stone to territory token.

I found a menu system programmed within the token, a set of parameters and permissions I could set that would begin the process of defining my territory. I couldn't change the name of the territory, that seemed hard-coded into the menu I was manipulating, something the clerk had done it would seem.

I was now the Baroness of Fief Myche; the Empire considering the land and I one entity.

I did have the option of assigning a town as Capital and naming it. The ripple of energy that had spread out across my entire territory had included information about each of the small settlements, villages, and towns that had been already been built. A least those places that had been built using a town stone.

A three-dimensional map, not unlike the one that Storm was creating for me, had been etched within the territory token, establishing borders and highlighting those areas where town stones were placed.

It hadn't mapped resources, ores, herbs, or monsters, the token's harmonics also created to identify Elven Qi and the shape and scale of the land. It gave me a relatively accurate census count of who and where the people of my territory were living. As well as the lakes, flats, forests, and mountains that were mine to control.

There were some exceptions, any child that hadn't reached their majority were not counted, their Qi fluctuating and in transition made it hard to identify them as Elf, and almost impossible for the array to accurately count them. Still, I got a relatively accurate count of how many people were living in my territory. It was better than I'd expected or had a right to expect.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I was shocked to find that there were already fifty million people living in the small hamlets and villages that I now ruled. The town I was in did have the highest population, barely. Still, the town had over a hundred thousand people, not an insignificant number.

There were fifty other towns that had almost the same number of people, towns I might have selected as the Capital if I hadn't discussed the unprecedented number of ships that docked here and what that activity might mean with Patriarch Umbra and Elder Shadow. It had made sense to claim this town as my Capital, the smuggling operation had created a trade nexus that I would legitimize and make use of.

Patriarch Umbra and Elder Shadow had tasked me with finding out what was going on here, and what was being smuggled. They were certain something untoward was being done here. The increased number of ships trading could only be interested in smuggled goods. The town itself wasn't developed enough to sustain this level of demand, and they had nothing of real value to export.

I toggled this city as the new Capital and named it Xiwang, keeping with the Asian theme Patriarch Umbra and the Empire had embraced. It was rooted in the Chinese language and translated to 'hope', my wish for the town, the land, and the people.

There wasn't much left I could do within the framework of the menu the token contained. I did award each of the hamlets and villages that had been established with official charters, recognizing them. That recognition came with some protections, enough that it might make it easier to find people to live there. It also came with tithes and taxes. Something I'm not sure anyone had been paying until now.

"Yvonne, what do you think would be a fair tax rate?" I asked. "I doubt anyone has paid anything but a small amount of tribute to whoever is ruling the network of towns sprinkled across my territory."

"Most people would who claim a territory are claiming one already established or new land that abuts the Empire. This is the first territory to be claimed on the island and most people would probably begin with a lower rate thinking they could always raise it. I think those who use this logic are making a drastic mistake.

"Think about it. Your people are going to be angry no matter what rate you set, but that anger is only going to grow if you have to keep raising the tax rate once you dig into territory finances and find out how much you are going to need to spend to create infrastructure and defenses.

"It's better to set it higher in the beginning and lower it if you find you don't need the funds. The people will still resent you, but if taxes come down and they see you making improvements, those resentments should be manageable."

Her insights made a certain sense, I thought. I did wish I had had time to go over the material my computer sprite had accumulated and highlighted that discussed macro-economics, good government practices, and what business and bureaucratic models worked, and which failed.

I decided to set three tax rates, five percent for all sales, fifteen percent for property and inheritance, and twelve percent for wages split evenly between employer and employee. I had a world seed I planned on establishing as soon as I found a suitable place to plant it and knowing I would have a mine that constantly replenished spirit stones gave me some wiggle room.

As long as it didn't take decades for the world seed to begin producing spirit stones once I had planted it, I would have a steady source of income. That didn't include the income that the spirit mine and lotus pond were already supplying. I had already earmarked those funds for cultivation and professional expenses.

Once I was finished and saved the changes to the token menu, it began sending out feelers, branching Qi threads that began connecting to everyone that had established a community using a town stone.

Not every place was connected, I would have to purchase a plethora of stones and deliver them to those settlements that had built a community without the protection the town stones offered. Those people had to be very brave or very desperate to try to create a niche on Delph Island without any kind of defensive protection. But of the stones that had been used, the tax rates were automatically applied.

I didn't really understand how the array and town stone worked together to track transactions, but it was accurate enough that there was no way for a town to hide amounts owed or fudge a set of accounting books. The stone worked like a built-in auditing system, sending out Qi pulses each time a transaction was made. An energy pulse that created a record of every transaction, something every owner, customer, and employee could understand. I suppose it only made sense that the Empire would find a way to keep track of the taxes that it was owed.

I did stop and wonder if there was a way to add functionality to the energy pulses the town's stones released. If they could monitor transactions, couldn't they be used as warning beacons for beast tide attacks? Or serve as the foundation for messaging systems?