Greed God chapter 110

February 13th 2016 Gemworld 6:00 PM EDT

It  was time. I'd been waiting for this for a while. This was going to be  an extremely important step in creating my new kingdom, not to mention a  proof of concept for some very interesting possibilities for my powers.  Granted, it was going to cost a shit ton of points to manage, but it  would be worth it. I laid out a few important items in front of me,  materials I would need to merge to make the item that would give me the  best outcome for this next part. Just to be sure though, I gave the  village a quick once over with appraisal.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Lord Village- F rank village. A  low level community created by Nicholas Lord using luxurious magical  buildings. The smouldering embers of a town about to spring into being.]

Perfect.  I'd known the village was F rank. While I did have mostly G ranked  buildings here, they were mostly low level G rank and besides, as  evidenced by my earlier experiments F rank was a wide gap to bridge. If I  merged two G rank items I got an F rank, but I suspected the Greed  System multiplied rather than added. By adding a bunch of G rank  buildings I had brought the village to F rank, which would be more than  enough, because if I merged another F rank item into it that would bring  it to E rank.

Of course an E rank town, while amazing,  wasn't going to be full of legendary buildings or anything, not if I  pushed for size like I was going to, but still, the quality should be  pretty fantastic across the board. This was all just speculation though,  I'd need to see exactly what would happen for myself once I used the  system. Before then though, I needed to create the item I would use to  elevate the town. I'd had to make a few hard calls about what to focus  on, but I had a pretty solid idea.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Growing  obsidian- I rank. A brittle grey stone that expands over time, growing  larger by accumulating magic from the air. Growing obsidian is known for  its characteristic sparkle, and is often used with molds to create  statues with little effort.]

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Blackcrag gravel- I rank mineral.  A sturdy material known for its magical density. Blackcrag gravel  radiates magical energy at a consistent rate]

These  two materials actually kind of sucked on their own, but I was positive  combining them together would get me something decent. Of course, there  were other useful abilities I wanted my material to have, but I wasn't  half done here. This was just the initial merge, there were still two  more ingredients to add. I focused and merged together the two types of  stone, winding up with a new material.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Blackcrag  obsidian- H rank mineral. A sturdy material that crows at a consistent  rate, turning its own magical byproducts into physical expansion. When  used in a structure, the magical energy generated can even repair minor  damage.]

That was a perfect start, of course, it  wasn't exactly what I needed yet. I had another material I wanted to  make sure to add, one that would elevate the level of the stone to  something really special. I checked out the material I had in mind  before combining it with the obsidian to create my new G rank material.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Earthbone-  H rank mineral. A unique mineral that increases in hardness as its  magical density rises. Earthbone is a material that grows over time, and  at its most durable is nigh indestructible. As a small piece of  relatively young Earthbone, this sample hasn't developed to the extent  you would see in larger, more magically dense deposits.]

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Blackcrag  Earthbone - G rank mineral. A magically dense material that grows  larger and harder as more magic is produced, even repairing damage over  time. A prime material for city building.]

That  was the best combination I could have hoped for, and it was just about  time to finish my base ingredient. The material would allow my city to  grow larger and more durable when I merged it. I couldn't create effects  from nothing, I had some input over what result I got, but that input  was entirely based on combining aspects of the existing materials.  Luckily I had one more ingredient that would make it absolutely perfect.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Manastone-  G rank mineral. A crystalline stone made from pure condensed magic. A  magical battery created by the earth itself, manastone is often used to  power massive complex workings of magic. Despite being an incredibly  small and diffuse piece of the material, the value of this chunk of  manastone is staggering.]

From what I could tell  this stuff was basically magical nuclear material. It was a crystalline  blue deeper than the depths of the ocean and this was apparently shitty  bad quality manastone. Still, it was exactly what I needed to complete  my preparations, and I was itching to see exactly what the result would  be. I triggered the merge, combining the manastone with the blackcrag  earthbone.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Deepvein  Titanbone- F rank. A powerful mystically dense material that grows over  time. Whether size, durability, or even quality, deepvein titanbone is  an excellent material that grows into a more suitable substance for  whatever form it happens to be shaped in, a learning mineral that  becomes more outstanding over time.]

I was almost  drooling. This was perfect. I'd been hoping for something similar to  this, but the quality of the materials I'd had to work with had blown  even my wildest expectations out of the water. This shit wasn't just  magically dense and sturdy. It was magically dense and fucking  intelligent. Not in a sapient way obviously, more like a deeplearning  kind of thing, but still.

The material would generate  magic and funnel it into whatever area the crafted item needed. If it  needed to get bigger it would, if it needed to get harder it would do  that too, hell from what I could tell the shit could evolve into a  better material given enough time and magic. I picked up the gorgeous  shimmering metallic ore. It kind of reminded me of hematite, but much  more shimmery. It was also heavy as fuck. Even as an F ranker this thing  was hard to pick up. Which was fair enough considering I'd spent eleven  thousand one hundred points making it.

Two  hundred thirty nine thousand nine hundred points left, at least for the  moment, though that number could start going up once we got the town  upgraded, even if it would have to drop first. When we had the  facilities, we could easily let a bunch of people in to be citizens and  have them all drink from the chalice. In terms of ability it would mean  every single person I had working for me would be Baron level, and while  I wouldn't have nearly the power the higher level nobles had, a  starting point like that would be a hell of a place to start.

The  ability to build up massive amounts of points while simultaneously  binding them to my will made the cup the key to my success. But the key  to using it was that I needed space, which meant I was going to need to  go big. That was the main reason I'd chosen to create a growth material  for the city. I wouldn't be staying here long enough for this place to  grow into its proper form, but having this material would allow me to  push for a quantity over quality structure for the town without  sacrificing long term value.

Cities  were complicated things, for instance, Gotham, which I had checked on  before leaving was D rank. Mostly this was because ninety nine percent  of the structures in Gotham were I ranked buildings made of shitty J  ranked materials. Because the city was fucking humongous however, it was  still D ranked in its entirety, though higher in the D ranks now that  there was an insane magic formation spewing out mystical power all the  time. I imagined it would upgrade over time, but that wasn't the  important part.

This  showed me that I could go wide with the village instead of tall when I  merged it. I carried the deepvein titanbone over to the spot I'd picked  out and set it down, stepping back as I triggered a merge between the  powerful growth material and small village. The power of the Greed  System lit up the area around me, the buildings, the earth, the sky,  everything became a sea of light as the world itself was reshaped by my  power. I felt the hundred thousand points funnel out of me, fueling the  magic as it reshaped reality. Finally, the light faded and I gazed at  what I'd made.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Lord  Town- E ranked town. A powerful rising territory under the control of  Nicholas Lord, created to house his budding empire. A flickering flame  of civilization on the verge of becoming a blaze.]

As  the light faded away, I heard everyone behind me gasp in awe, and  honestly I kind of got it. The village was gone, the small farms and the  forge replaced with something different. The forge and farms were  actually mostly untouched though they had been moved, but that new rank  had come from other places. Buildings lined the now cobbled roads, made  from much lower quality deepvein titanbone that would need to grow back  to its previous strength. Hundreds of houses, tens of shops, all basic  and mostly unadorned besides being decent quality, but still H rank at  the lowest.

It was perfect. The  deepvein titanbone's value was based on magic density, and most of that  had been spent as it became so diffused throughout the city, but that  would replenish with time. This city would grow, would become larger and  more powerful over time, in whatever direction was needed. Despite  planning to leave I wasn't abandoning my efforts here. I had big plans  for my Gemworld empire, provided I could get princess Amethyst on my  side. Having a fantasy world to source magic materials from was going to  be useful as hell.

I  turned to the others gesturing toward the town. "Aside from Levka, who  of course maintains control of the forge, and the farmers, the rest of  you can pick one of the houses. Go get acclimated to your new town while  I deal with some details. I'll be requiring visits from all the farmers  and Levka himself pretty soon to discuss the new territory and how  things will work, but there's no rush." I was actually mostly just  letting the chalice charge up, but sounding magnanimous was always a  good way to get brownie points.

While  as a noble I could do pretty much whatever I wanted, leadership was  most effective when your underlings felt like you had their best  interests at heart. Of course, all of my people would be bound to my  will so discipline wouldn't be an issue, but even once the rest of the  civilians showed up and I was going through the slow process of  converting them all I'd still maintain a wise and benevolent image. I  had a huge army of bloodthirsty bandits to put people in line and play  bad cop if I needed them, meaning I could be loved while they were  feared.

With  that I dismissed everyone except my girls, having all four of them  follow me. As we headed through the new town and I looked over all the  buildings and the potential the place had, I was almost giddy. This was  what the Greed System was really for. Amazing earthshaking magic items  and personal upgrades were great, but the power to LITERALLY change the  world? That was a game changer. I'd only just begun to scratch the  surface of what I could do with power like this. I had so many ideas.