As soon as Su Qin entered, he saw rows of bookshelves all around. Fortunately, it was daytime, so there was no need to light candles.
The bookshelves stood against the walls, leaving only the side near the windows clear. Two benches faced each other beside the study windows, with a large table between them that could seat four or five people.
There were also two single beds in the room, set behind the benches. Simple and practical.
Su Qin recalled what the former owner had told him before leaving. The man was certainly loyal to Yaron, though his competence was questionable.
The indenture contracts should have been inside a hidden compartment behind one of the bookshelves. After feeling around for a while, he finally found the switch for the concealed door.
Once he opened it, he found only a stack of indenture contracts inside.
Su Qin picked up the stack, sat by the window, and slowly began opening them, reading carefully...
Almost an hour passed before Su Qin finally finished reading the indenture contracts of everyone in the manor!
Rubbing his eyes, he said, "Most of those left behind were probably out of favor. Such a large manor and so much farmland, yet only a hundred-odd people remain."
Su Qin slowly rose and put the contracts back.
He closed the concealed door, moved the bookshelf back into place, and sat at the desk, beginning to consider his current crisis.
Yes, Su Qin did not feel safe.
At this point in time, the Mad King and Rhaegar were both still around, the four great duchies had yet to rebel, and Tywin coveted the king's lands around King's Landing like a venomous snake.
The world's original course had changed as well. He did not know whether the Night's King up in the North had also changed.
Everything was unknown, and that meant danger and fear.
Besides, Elys Arryn and Jon Arryn were now fighting over the succession to the Vale, and he had already been drawn into their struggle.
Rubbing his eyes, Su Qin checked the time. It was the afternoon, so he lay down on a bed in the study and took a nap.
Before long, evening arrived.
Su Qin slowly woke and, still lying in bed, opened the system to examine the exchange system!
There were only ten items in the exchange system.
[Corn seeds, exchange price: 1,000 gold coins per set]
"Can't afford it. Skip!"
[Chili seeds, exchange price: 5,000 jin per set]
"Can't afford it. Pass."
[**Forged! Steel!** Technology, 5,000 gold coins]
"Pass."
[Yin-Yang Dragonglass...]
"???... Pass."
[...]
"Pass!"
After reading through everything, Su Qin stared at the ceiling like a salted fish.
"So I'm just a broke bastard!"
"I only have 50 gold coins in available funds right now! And even that was funded by the Earl!"
[1,000 copper = 10 silver = 1 gold]
Su Qin could not afford any of the good things in the shop. All he could buy was a set of antibiotics.
[Antibiotics: 10 gold coins per set, 10 pills]
He looked at the very bottom again.
[Refresh time: the first day of each month]
After some thought, Su Qin exchanged for the antibiotics.
It was a set of capsules. Su Qin knew what they were and tucked them into his clothes. These things were quite precious in an era like this.
He shifted his attention to the summoning menu.
[Summoning: before the main territory's culture changes, targeted summoning of blue- and white-grade character souls is available to improve the aptitudes of people in the real world. Current character templates are drawn from figures of the Chinese Han Empire before AD 280. There is a chance of drawing figures from other dynasties. Figures after the Ming Empire cannot be summoned for special reasons.]
Su Qin sat bolt upright.
This was the truly awesome stuff!
After thinking for a moment, Su Qin asked,
"System, if I draw Lü Bu and give him to someone in the real world, will that person inherit his personality and memories?"
[No. Inherited abilities follow an incremental system: they only increase, never decrease. Every investment yields a return. Only abilities change, not memories.]
Su Qin's eyes lit up, and he asked again, "Can I specify a dynasty or army to summon from?"
[Yes.]
Su Qin immediately opened the summoning button.
An option promptly popped up inside.
[Dynasty] [Civil officials] [Military officers] [Military affairs] [Politics and culture] [Peerless beauties]
There were quite a few choices.
After some thought, Su Qin set the dynasty to the Three Kingdoms. After all, it was an era that produced talent in abundance.
He would test the effects first. He tapped the button, and the system presented an option.
[Spend 50 gold coins to randomly draw a blue-grade character, or 10 gold coins to draw a white-grade character?]
Su Qin began weighing whether to draw.
"A 50-gold draw is definitely out of the question right now, but will a white-grade character from a 10-gold draw be useful?"
He had to try. After a moment's hesitation, Su Qin immediately clicked [Yes].
Then he selected civil officials for the character category and the Han dynasty for the dynasty. A burst of white light flashed across the screen, and the summoning succeeded.
When Su Qin saw the summoning material's attributes, he immediately sat up.
[Local clerk: after use, adds 3 politics and 2 intelligence to the original character. Usable at a loyalty of 90.] [Note: each person in the real world has only one opportunity to use this.]
That increase was truly substantial. After reading the description of his own martial prowess attribute, Su Qin understood just how impressive a single attribute point was.
For example, each point in politics represented the level of affairs a person could handle, while intelligence represented the level of incidents they could handle well and their ability to establish an intelligence network.
Su Qin's own template was actually far from low!
[Su Qin's five attributes: command 10, politics 10, intelligence 10, charisma 10, martial prowess 20]
He could currently command a force of 1,000, handle the governmental affairs of a level-10 city, and devise some strategies or establish a decent intelligence network!
His martial prowess, especially his strength, made him alone comparable to 200 ordinary militia. Other people's martial prowess might include skill, but Su Qin's relied largely on strength.
If he gave this drawn template directly to Luke, those attributes would be usable right away. However, each person only had one chance, so he still needed to be cautious.
For now, Su Qin would not use it on him! He wanted to cultivate them into trusted confidants, and there would be better ones.
Right, Su Qin remembered settlement levels as well, so he turned the system instructions to the settlement-level section.
[Level-1 town: 1,000 households of permanent residents. Level 2: 2,000 households of permanent residents, ...] [Level 5: 5,000 households. Level 6: 10,000 households... Level 10: 100,000 households! Once an earldom reaches 100,000 households, the lord's seat will officially become a city! Cities have an additional faith bonus.] [Each household must have at least three people.]
"The Gull Territory's four subterritories cover over 3,600 square kilometers in total. If developed well, that means a city! One city could recruit tens of thousands of soldiers! For this world, that's actually terrifying!"
Su Qin browsed the shop a little longer. It was far too strange. This time, it contained only around ten products, but its wares included modern medicines like antibiotics as well as magical items like Yin-Yang Dragonglass.
He did not know how it would refresh next month.
He also felt a little worried. The system brought him concerns as well. Nothing was ever that simple...
Once he had put everything in order, Su Qin walked out of the room. Only Luke remained on guard outside.
Su Qin scanned Luke's panel information in his mind.
[Luke: command 0, politics 0, intelligence 1, charisma 1, martial prowess 1] [Loyalty: 92 (loyal service)]
He opened it, took a glance, and immediately closed it. This man still needed a great deal of training! His loyalty, however, was sufficient.
That meant he would not stab him in the back as long as he did not do anything too outrageous.
Seeing Su Qin emerge, Luke immediately said, "Good evening, my lord!"
Their positions had changed. There was no going back.
Su Qin patted Luke on the shoulder and said, "Luke, come on. Join me for dinner!"
With Luke leading the way, Su Qin slowly headed downstairs, asking as they walked,
"Luke, where did Nack go?"
Holding his spear, Luke had never expected his old buddy to become his lord, holding power over the lives and deaths of everyone in the territory!
Luke dared not be remiss and immediately answered, "My lord, Nack went with the head maid to lead the others in preparing dinner. This afternoon, we took turns having the maids show us around the lord's castle."
Su Qin nodded...
Soon, the two reached the dining room. It was a very spacious room, with a table seven or eight meters long and over a meter wide!
It was also covered with food. Two somewhat pretty maids stood just inside the doorway and said softly to Su Qin, "My lord, the administrators responsible for registration and distributing rewards and grain have returned!"
Su Qin nodded. Looking at the long dining table, he told the maid beside him, "Call them over to eat with us."
These administrators had served the former lord and were not his own people, but replacing them was not appropriate for now. He needed to win them over and divide them first, to see which could become his people and which needed replacing.