Uncle Galloway sighed. “First off, I’m not going to call you Milord or anything like that. You’re Artie to me forever and nothing will ever change that.” He cracked a small smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

  Starting small, I can’t help but wonder what the bad thing he’s going to ask for is.

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Titles like that make my ass itch.” I paraphrase Dad’s dad’s favorite thing to say when his Clanmates got too stuffy. “What’s next?”

  “I need to speak with Dominus, privately, as soon as is feasible.” He winced. “I have two questions I need answered that even Light couldn’t, or wouldn’t, let a mere mortal hear the answer to.”

  Still not that bad, if a tad pushy. Where’s the other shoe? What is he saving for last?

  After a few moments of consideration, I nodded. “From what I understand, the sooner we can assemble a permanent shrine to her, the sooner her power will return.” I grinned. “Though what I did today should help out a lot on that front as well. The souls of true believers hold some serious power and Dominus got to glut herself on seventy of them today.” I heard a soft grunt somewhere behind me and was immediately made aware that Dominus didn’t appreciate my phrasing.

  Sorry, Dominus. I just wanted to put him at ease. I paused before continuing. Can you talk to him through my body after he heals Raiju? I’d gladly give you half an hour to do what you needed to.

  A warm sensation ran down the backs of my arms before I heard her sensual voice in my head. ‘As long as he doesn’t need my full power, half an hour should be fine for you to host me. Plus, you might get a boon out of it if the System is feeling generous.’

  “She says it should be possible.” I added as Uncle Galloway stared in wonderment. “I asked and she let me know she can use my body as a conduit. If she doesn’t want me to know what you asked, I won’t.”

  He narrowed his eyes before nodding. “I can accept that.” He moved to the side and hit a few buttons on the System window next to Raiju’s pod before returning to stand before me.

  “Come on, hit me. What’s the big and bad thing?” I was tired of beating around the bush. “Your first request was a gimme and the second was reasonable, assuming I could grant it. What is it that you don’t want to ask?”

  He took a step back, like I’d slapped him, before covering his mouth as he began to laugh. “You are definitely Hildy and Neil’s son, of that I have no doubt, even if I was there when you were born, and I was.” He waggled his eyebrows before sighing. “My last request is for help in locating and ending my mother’s abuser.” He hung his head in shame. “I’ve looked for the better part of twenty-five years and have come up empty.”

  I blurred forward and pulled him into a big hug. “I’d have done that regardless of you becoming a vassal, of course we will.” I drew back and raised an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you ask your party for help? I know Mom and Dad take that kind of shit seriously.”

  As did I, given how merciless I’d found myself reacting against that prick back in Cliffhaven. They’d instilled the need for mercenary justice in cases like that one and I took it to heart.

  “I’ll explain more once I have Raiju healed up,” he shook his head, “but before that. I have something I need to do.” He reached out and tapped the button to accept my offer of vassalship and the world exploded in gold light.

  As he looked over his options, a pair of new windows appeared before me and my grin grew the more I read.

  “This is amazing!”

  [Congratulations Arthur! For recruiting someone more than three times your level to join your Domain, you have completed the Secret Quest, Architect of the Unlikely. Please select from the following reward options:

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Domain Storage – You and your most trusted advisors will have access to a connected extradimensional storage space. The available storage space will increase as your Domain grows in power.

  Resourceful Nation - You and your vassals will receive ten percent more loot, that is again ten percent more likely to be of a higher than normal rarity, whenever you kill a monster.

  Dominion (Dominus) - When this option is chosen, whenever someone joins your Domain, and whenever your Domain reaches a new tier, all those who serve your Domain loyally will have their Classes boosted by a full Rank (Max B as a Tier 2 Domain) the next time they level up. For every twenty-five percent of their natural lifespan they serve, this will occur again. In addition, your vassals will find their Skills growing twenty-five percent faster than normal as long as they revere Dominus over all other deities. In addition, your Domain will now be referred to as “The Dominion”. You will not benefit from this upgrade personally, as it is a minor reflection of the effect Chosen of Dominus has on Skills.]

  Part of me was screaming to pick [Domain Storage] but, despite how useful it would be once I had a bunch of land to traverse to reach my allies, right now it kind of did nothing for me since my Party had access to the Party Interface, which linked into each of our spatial storages anyway. I ended up pushing it to the side, hoping I could get it some other way later.

  While [Resourceful Nation] was more immediately useful than [Domain Storage], I realized that I hadn’t even checked the loot we’d received from the Tower yet, barring a single item from the first floor. If that were the case, [Resourceful Nation] was going to have a similar problem to [Domain Storage], the Party Interface kind of made it obsolete. Since we didn’t have to touch to loot, my Party could work far faster than most, earning us more loot in the process. The chance at increased rarity was sweet, but ten percent didn’t feel like enough to even make me consider it given the last option.

  [Dominion] was on an entirely different level from the other two rewards. Back in the Dungeon, Jaegan’s reaction to the [Rainbow Elixir] told me that people weren’t always happy with their Classes. If knowledge that joining The Dominion would cause someone’s Class to jump a Rank? I’d be beating new vassals away with a stick. There was a risk in that, given how jealous other monarchs would become if I started poaching their citizens en masse.

  That was to say nothing about the increased Skill growth from the second half of the reward. For most people, Skills could take years to raise even ten percent if they weren’t used exclusively, so increasing that speed by twenty-five percent would be a serious increase. I had an image of people who’d been stuck at bottlenecks for decades having their Skills upgraded in an epiphany after joining me and it made me smile.

  That’s the kind of place I want to rule, somewhere people can focus on bettering themselves instead of worrying about having enough to eat or wars on the horizon. We may fight, but we’ll always fight to win decisively, not letting the war grow to become one of attrition. History told of dozens, if not hundreds, of nations who had won a long war of attrition, only to fall apart less than a decade later. Not The Dominion, I decided right there. I won’t let that happen to my nation.

  With a thought, I picked [Dominion] and there was a flash of red-gold light that filled the room before pouring out over the entire glade alongside the next notification, as I was later told.

  [Arthur Bajbub Neilson’s Domain has a name: The Dominion. May its citizens live long and prosper!]

  The window hiding behind the Secret Quest reward was less exciting, but I was still glad to see it, though I knew I’d need to discuss its contents with Gabby to fully benefit from it.

  [Gaining your fifth vassal at one time has increased the Tier of The Dominion from Tier 1 to Tier 2. You now have access to the following:

  Vassal Chat - Pick two vassal positions and gain the ability to speak to them regardless of the distance, this number will increase to match whatever Tier your Domain is. As you have access to the Party Interface, you may instead speak to twice as many vassal positions.

  Capital - You may now claim a location as your capital, which will grant it a number of benefits based on the traits of the location. Regardless of where it is, a small keep will form unless you have a Court Architect, in which case, they will be able to form whatever you request up to a certain size.]

  I immediately tagged Treasurer as one of my four vassal positions for Vassal Chat, leaving the other three open for the moment. With a childish grin, I messaged to let her know we’d Tiered up, sending her down the rabbit hole that was the Domain system. She let me know she’d poke around and let me know if there was anything I really needed to address.

  “I almost can’t believe it.” Uncle Galloway held his hands out as he inspected the backs of them. “This power, it’s borderline intoxicating.”

  “Wait until we hit the next Tier, it’s going to be nuts.” Padding over to him, I patted his back. “Do you have what you need to save Raiju now?” I tried not to plead, but my worry obviously seeped into my voice from the look he gave me.

  “My [Divine] is over nine hundred now. If I can’t do it? No one but one of those monsters your grandfather hangs out with could have done it.” He cracked his perfect knuckles and moved over to the crystal cover over Raiju’s pod. “It’s time to get to work.”

  How do you like the Empire-Builder elements so far? I know it's only just getting started, but that's kind of where I'm aiming to take the series long term.