Chapter 839: Upgrading the Towers
After he had determined the usefulness of his new title Quinn went on a quest assigning rampage. Unfortunately, his initial enthusiasm was hampered after he discovered that different quests would give him different amounts of reputation points.
The good news was that even those that couldn’t see the quest screen interface in front of them had been able to complete their quests, earning him more points. Timmy was one such example.
When asked about it, he had told Quinn that a flash of white light had simply appeared before him falling into his hands to his utter shock.
It sounded quite similar to the time Quinn had traded his beast crystals with the system for the items in its shop. The quests appeared to work with the same concept in mind, transporting the item from Quinn’s storage directly to the one assigned the quest no matter where they are.
In order to not shock everyone about his new system power, he had limited the quest to only those within the castle.
There were a few more things he found, the same quest couldn’t be given twice, and he would only earn reputation points if the system deemed it as helping the tenth family, leading to a bit of mental exhaustion on his part.
Also, what appeared to influence the number of reputation points he would receive, was not the person completing the quest, but the opinion of the tenth family from Quinn helping them out as their leader.
A few days in, he also discovered that depending on his reputation he would also benefit from a passive daily amount of those points until he eventually ended up with a total of 6,000 reputation points to spend as he wanted.
The only thing he had bought so far was the flag, which he had not set up yet. Looking at the shop there were only two other items that he could buy. The tower, and the statue that looked like a gargoyle.
Quinn decided to purchase two towers, since he already knew where he wanted to place them right away. He walked out to the front inner castle gate to see for himself how the process would work.
In other castles this area would have at least a couple of guards patrolling the area, but with the lack of personnel there was no one there. The lack of security was the main reason why others still hadn’t asked to join the inner area, despite news spreading about the tenth family having a leader again.
Usually there would be at least some vampires who would join a family for an easy promotion into the inner castle since that would guarantee them a grand life feasting on more blood than they could wish for. However, there was just too much risk of another attack happening and they all knew it. What was the point of untold riches if they would soon have to pay with their lives?
’Let’s see how this thing works.’ Quin motivated himself as he navigated the system screen. A holographic outline of the tower appeared on a map. At the same time Quinn could see that holographic display in front of him, making him aware exactly where, and how big the tower would be.
"Okay now for the points.’
[1000 reputation points have been used]
[Tower is being built]
In front of his eyes, the wireframe holographic display was coming into existence. It was taller than the outside wall, almost double the size and it matched the material that the castles had been made of.
Then at the very top there was a platform with four pillars allowing for an open area, and then a pointed roof above that. With his eyesight, Quinn could make out a strange circle orb on the inside.
’It really did just come out of thin air!’
’That is the power of equivalent exchange.’ Vincent explained. "I have to admit I’m quite envious. If I had to do this with my own powers I would have had to gather the correct materials and then prepared beast crystals as an energy source before I could even begin.’
’Yet here the system conveniently takes over that task for you. It judges everything you have done, assigns you a type of currency, and then, by spending that currency, it allows you to create something like this without any other requirements."
Vincent was honestly frustrated. Quinn’s system was pretty much a cheat. What’s worse it appeared to him as if his own powers had been upgraded and he was benefiting from it. However, when remembering what Quinn had gone through, and his own life that had been sacrificed to create the system, he didn’t feel like he should complain.
It didn’t take long for the tower to catch the attention of the vampires in the polling area. A large structure that hadn’t been there before had appeared out of nowhere. It was only natural that a big crowd had gathered watching that right next to the first tower, not the other side of the gate, another tower started to appear.
[Please supply the tower with energy]
The system allowed him to use the beast crystals he carried in his dimensional space. When selecting a basic tier crystal, Quinn could see a bar that he assumed displayed how much energy it would provide the tower with. Selecting a higher tier crystal would fill it up more.
’So this is its source of energy.’ Quinn thought.
Looking at the towers, Quinn could see that they could be upgraded to level two, each for 500 points. Before doing that, he first wanted to test out the strength of the level one tower.
Quinn started to walk out of his own front gate, noticing the vampires from the main settlement area, all standing there staring at him blankly.
’It wouldn’t hurt for you to inform them of what you’re doing. You’re an official leader, so you should address the people.’ Vincent suggested.
Clearing his throat, Quinn started to give his speech.
"Greetings, everyone. As you’re aware we have recently suffered from an attack. As the tenth family’s leader it’s my wish to make sure that we can protect others if something similar was to ever happen again. These towers are the first step to make my wish come true!"
Quinn’s speech was wonderfully effective in getting the vampires to speak more about him and his family, but for the moment he chose to ignore them. The towers would only attack those perceived as enemies, so Quinn manually assigned himself to be treated as one.
After he was selected as a target, Quinn approached the gate slowly, step by step, until he entered their range and both of the towers fired a ball of energy towards him.
The attack wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t slow either. He just stood there taking the hit to make sure just how effective they would be. Two small explosions injured his body.
[-5 HP]
[-5 HP]
After taking the first two hits, he could see the towers were getting ready to fire again, so quickly left the tower’s range. The energy bar underneath the towers had lessened after the first shot. Quinn estimated that with the basic tier crystal each tower could fire off a total of 20 shots.
’That’s way better than I thought.’ Quinn praised their performance.
Quinn wasn’t wearing any armour, but he had a strong body as a Vampire lord. Being able to damage him to this degree was something good to have.
[People are impressed by the tenth family’s new contraption]
[500 reputation points awarded]
It looked like his little display was good publicity, capable of impressing some people in the crowd.
’Well there’s more where that came from.’ Quinn mused as he spent 500 points twice to upgrade both towers. Now stepping closer, the shots fired from the tower were quicker and stronger and when it hit Quinn this time, they took off ten points of HP each.
Looking at the system, the towers were displayed as level 2/5 towers, meaning they could be upgraded three more times. However the upgrade to level three cost 1,000 reputation points.
Quinn was curious about the performance, but decided to prioritise placing more towers at crucial points around the tenth area including the castle.
"Hey, that castle thing looked kind of impressive?" One of the spectation vampires noted.
"Yeah, It looks like the new tenth family leader is trying to show us what he can do!" Another cheered for Quinn to give them a good show.
"If we get close will it attack us?" A third was a bit worried about their safety.
Seeing Quinn now walk through the gates with no trouble, some dared to walk forward, happy the towers didn’t do anything to them.
’Don’t worry!" Quinn shouted to them while not turning around. "They will only attack anything that the tenth family deems as it’s enemy."
[People are impressed by the tenth family’s new contraption]
[Reputation points earned 500]
After testing out the store and reading what the statue could do, Quinn paid 2,000 points to place a statue a little bit away from the castle door.
’This thing is pretty impressive as well.’ Quinn said as he tapped the statue a few times. It looked as if someone had frozen over a winged bloodsucker. Even if it didn’t do anything he thought it was something nice to look at, but its effects were impressive as well.
As for the rest of his reputation points, Quinn decided that he would keep them for now, building them up to purchase something expensive perhaps. With the construction speed as fast as it was, there was no need to do it all at once.
After meeting up with everyone, Quinn informed them of the towers he had created and their function. The students, as well as those from the Cursed ship, were excited to hear and see the news.
Done with their meal, everyone almost instantly went outside to take a look at the improvements Quinn had made. Xander and Amy were among the last to leave. They hesitated for a little, looking at each other, seemingly wanting to tell him something, but ultimately shook their heads and just followed the crowd.
That just left Quinn and Leo, as he had asked the Vampire knight to stay behind.
"It feels like I haven’t been able to rest since coming here." Quinn sighed. "Now that it’s just the two of, there’s a lot I wanted to ask you. Hard to believe how fast time passes when you’re wrapped up with things."
"Indeed, but a busy life is not a bad one, and as long as it’s for the future we can work hard." Leo argued.
"You’re as hard working as always, Leo. As the person who has taught me Qi, I will forever be thankful to you. It has helped me in many situations and I’m sure the same is true for you, so I was wondering... are you aware that there are the different stages of Qi?"
Leo opened his white hollowed eyes and raised his eyebrow, as if he didn’t know what Quinn was talking about.
’If this Leo has only mastered the first stage and is already this strong... just what kind of monster will he become after learning all the others?!’ Quinn couldn’t help but get excited at imagining the future.
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