[Character Panel]
[Host: Ludwig Talos (Minor NPC)]
[Status: Healthy]
[Association: Grandis Empire | Court Noble]
[Title: Court Viscount]
[Reputation: 100]
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[Power]
[Level: 12 | 34.480/130.000]
[Path: Junior Arcane Wizard (Bronze Mage)]
[Profession: /]
[Skills: Arcane Bolt (I), Arcane Shield (I), Focus Mind (I), Arcane Manifestation (I), Arcane Manifestation (Permanent) (I)]
[Talent: Arcane Mind (I), Magic Control (I), Noble's Charm (I)]
[Achievements: Noble of the Grandis Empire (Viscount)]
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[Stats]
[Wisdom: 200]
[Constitution: 100]
[Vitality: 72]
[Intelligence: 108]
[Free stats: 0]
His stats were a lot lower than Bran's, but in comparison, he has more skills, three talents, and an achievement.
[Arcane Mind (I)] – You have a higher talent for Arcane Magic. When using Arcane Magic, +10% Spell Effect, -10% Mana Cost, learning Arcane Spells is easier for you, focusing on Arcane Magic is easier for you.
[Magic Control (I)] – Your control over Mana has reached a higher level, it is superb and influences every aspect of your magic!
[Noble Charm (I)] – Born with a noble appearance, your charm has reached a higher level. Social skills are more effective. Nobles of the same rank start with +10% favourability, nobles higher start with +5% favourability, nobles lower start with +20% favourability. NPCs who dislike nobles will start with -20% favourability.
These three talents are rather self-explanatory, magic control is a bit vague, but Ludwig had tried it out and found out that it was a general improvement over magic control – improving spell stability or aim are just one of the many advantages.
As for the achievement, it is a basic achievement that exists in various forms, whether as noble, priest rank, official, and so on.
[Noble of the Grandis Empire (Viscount)] – You gain 100 reputation and various rights, authorities, and responsibilities inside the empire and in countries who respect the empire. You are a targeted enemy for enemies of the empire.
In fact, Ludwig knew that his talents were rather mediocre. Maybe for a normal NPC these are good stats, but for him who reincarnated, this was definitely far from what he could do!
Fortunately, he had many ways to fix this issue!
Having satisfied his urge, he thought about his money issue again.
If players just appeared and took on the jobs he searched for, he would for sure be able to earn money…
'Since I can make people players, why don't I just continue with my idea?!'
He felt as if a spark of inspiration hit him right then and nodded to himself – this was indeed feasible.
Although a lot of things he prepared now were useless, that is to say, the general introduction books and starter gear, that wasn't an issue.
These things could be sold or stored for later, when new members enter the guild.
Now that he had the ability to assign player roles, why wouldn't he?
Just then, he had another question in mind – could he assign NPC roles?
He looked at Bran while materialising this idea in his mind.
Just a second later, there was a pop-up –
[Assign Bran the role Mob NPC?] – [Yes]/[No]
He looked at it confusedly before understanding – these were the ranks of NPCs.
As a player, he usually ignored every rank and just categorised them into "Main NPC" and "Non-main NPC" – Main NPC was the highest role and they usually had the greatest influence on players.
Their NPC rank was defined from a multitude of things, such as importance, strength, role in disasters, and connection to players.
The village chief of the starter role was one such Main NPC.
Although he didn't know what their different rights allowed them, he knew a general outline of the ranks – Mob, Minor, Intermediate, Major, and finally Main. It is said that Mob NPCs don't have any direct relation to players, or rather, they were just on their own and ignored players.
Basically, as long as a character had a certain status in the world, the levels of minor, intermediate, and major would appear.
A character like Ludwig, who had the title of Court Viscount, was guaranteed to have a Minor role.
And it seemed that he could assign people an NPC role below him.
It made sense, but he wasn't quite ready to do so just yet, not to mention that Mob NPC was a lower role than player.
Although he wasn't sure of the specifics, he knew that Mob NPCs didn't give any quests or missions, and their own screen was rather blank in the game.
Starting from Minor level NPCs, they were more like real people who could even sometimes be confused for players.
With the rise of ranks, NPCs would have special powers. Especially Main NPCs could heavily influence players!
The starting village's Village Chief, for example, was able to directly ban players who have a bad reputation – banning them wholly from the game!
This was why people were all wary in the starting village, and no player walked out of line.
There were many complaints about this, but the game website just replied that the starting village was where all players originated from and their legitimate "place of birth" – if it was destroyed, every player would be a vagrant wherever they were.
Only a small part of players were willing to take the risk, others refused and just said they were a bit bummed.
Of course, the starting village is not just one, there are countless all around – but when Ludwig visited them in the week before the game was supposed to start, he was surprised to find that there was no village.
Even a week after the supposed game start, there was no such thing.
He could only guess that things related deeply to players wouldn't exist… but besides the starting village, there was nothing else related to players this early in the game.
Not thinking deeply about it, he looked at Bran and asked, "Bran, if I wanted to open a Guild, where would I get members?"
Bran was surprised for a second, then regained his calm.
Looking at all the preparations of the young master over the past months, he had already guessed something similar.
"In our empire, there are many guilds that have different functions, but generally, the main guilds are the Mercenary Guild, Craftsmen Guild, and Merchant Guild.
The mercenary guild is a guild established by many mercenaries that have gathered in our empire – as a central position of the Vasto Continent in the eastern region, the mercenaries of our guilds operate in all the surrounding kingdoms too.
These mercenaries generally take on the tasks of nobles, such as escorting, hunting, protecting, and so on. There are many smaller guilds that have a similar role, usually local guilds spread all over the empire. Their power is often stronger in the local area, but only the Mercenary Guild has higher-ranked fighters.
The Craftsmen Guild is a large guild composed of many smaller guilds. Whatever kind of craftsman you need, you will find there. They are more like an alliance than a sole guild, so while there are many other craftsmen guilds, they are all connected to this main guild.
Lastly, the Merchant Guild is a gathering place of all merchants. It's very exclusive, and they have commercial rights over many things. Half the empire's economy is in the guild! Of course, half the shares of the guild is owned by the empire too."