The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

"I don't meant that literally," I explained. "Of course you would find something better for them to do other than digging pointless holes and then filling them out - but the point is that even if that were what you asked them to do, it would still be effective. Those people would no longer be loafing around, and the money you'd give them would circulate to other places, boosting other things like shops and the like. They would also send money back to their villages if they could, and like that, things would trickle around so long as you put money in the hands of the common worker."

I paused, wondering if I should continue. None of the three gave any sign that I should stop, so I went on. "Now, you just need to think of a few plausible jobs that they could actually do and that the nobles won't be opposed to - like paving all of the roads in the capital for example. It would have the dual benefit of boosting the economy leading to lower crime rates, and also, the roads are now paved. I'm sure there are a few other civil engineering projects or the like that could benefit the country, but are not undertaken because they would normally be too costly. But because there is this additional benefit, you can justify them. I gave the example of digging holes and filling them in only to illustrate that you don't need to worry too much about what you are employing them for, only that they have something to do. In practice, of course you'll choose something more productive."

This strategy was based off basic policies I'd read about back home. It did have some drawbacks of course. Modern countries were far wealthier than their older counterparts, and I didn't really know if the Crown could pay for such a project, and if so, for how long. Modern countries could also print their own money and control their own fiscal policies to a far greater extent than countries relying on actual gold and silver like Chipker could. The other drawback was that people might become dependent on these kinds of labor projects, and never want to return back to their farms preferring employment in this new venture.

But what did they think of this?

I waited as none of the other three said anything, instead mulling over my words.

"I see," is all the king said initially. Clearly none of them had heard of anything like this and they thought the idea was interesting; either that or it was so catastrophically stupid they were left speechless. "Let me consider your idea and bring it up to my other advisors later on," he eventually mumbled.

Wait - was he really going to take something like this seriously?

I had just said something offhand based on what I knew from back in my world, but that didn't mean it would work here in Chipker! I didn't want to be responsible if my idea backfired somehow and had unforeseen consequences. How did I say 'But IDK though' like I might in an Internet forum in this situation at the end so that I could wash my hands of any responsibility?

"Ah, well, like I said, I'm still inexperienced, so I'd definitely reflect on it before going forward with such a thing," I said. It wasn't just inexperience, it was also the fact that I had no clue about Chipker's financial situation and how it worked at large.

"No doubt, but I still see wisdom in your words," the king said.

Chestnut and Kyle both eagerly nodded at those words - right, that confirmed it for me, they were definitely here as sycophants.

The dinner continued, but nothing else of real significance happened. Mulling over the dinner, I had to say that I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the king. He seemed like a nice old gentleman at first, but given that was also how Lance presented himself when he was actually quite wary of me behind the scenes, it made me doubt this first impression of mine. He was the king, after all, and if he wasn't born shrewd he would've become shrewd after reigning for so many years.

I couldn't really take something that people like him said at face value - that was one of the main reasons I preferred hanging out with Drake and not Zeke.

The very next day, I received my tokens and went to the castle where the royal treasury was to get my reward.

Much like back at the guild, this was hidden behind several layers of security, and the claustrophobic feeling was much worse here than back there given how the castle just had to be made that way. I tried to ignore it as I scanned the Rank Three grimoires they had which I could pick from.

There were some which gave skills or spells that I already had, like [Ansoon's Blessing] and [Grand Fireball]. Ignoring those, the selection really wasn't that big. It was a testament to how rare Rank Three grimoires were that even the king's own treasury had so few of them.

That said, I knew that this wasn't everything that the king owned. There were grimoires reserved for only the royal family, the Rank Four [Magma Pillar] was one such grimoire. If there was a copy or even a template of that grimoire, it would definitely not be here. There was also probably one that could help you fly among them, but again, those were not for me.

Perhaps if I made a new Rank Four grimoire, I could negotiate for something like that, but right now, there was no chance they would give me something like that.

Still, I could fill two Rank Three slots even though that wasn't all that I was trying to do right now, but if I were to ever get my hands on a Rank Four grimoire, or just wanted to experiment with making one, I did need to fill those slots. I just didn't feel the earlier urgency to do so, because even if I reached Rank Four that was going to be the ceiling of my power unless something really crazy happened. Now, I had to be more careful with what I learned, especially if it was a Rank 3 grimoire.

I looked over the choices carefully.

There was [Devouring Fire], a Rank Three fire elementalist spell that damaged a single target rather than being area-of-effect like [Grand Fireball] was. I wasn't dead set on pursuing the fire elementalist route as of now, and I didn't really need something with this kind of firepower so it seemed like overkill.

I saw one that gave [Icicle Lance], a Rank Three ice elementalist spell that damaged a single target similar to [Devouring Flame]. Notably, I recognized the handwriting as being that of Master Jiah Pei's, so this was either bought from him, or had been donated by him to the treasury. I didn't need something like this, and secondly, I would need to adjust part of my build in order to learn this, which I didn't want to do.

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[Mystical Veil] - this was a very powerful defensive ability, which would reflect Rank Two and lower spells back at an enemy caster, and stop most Rank Three spells in their tracks. The issue was that it was a physical barrier that faced only one direction, so it could be bypassed by attacking from another direction. The real issue with it, however, was that it only worked on magical attacks and not physical ones. It would not block, say, an arrow or spear throw. And I didn't anticipate fighting other Liberomancers, so this was a hard pass from me. Picking it up, I also found that [Crimson Lance] interacted with it in a way that would bypass it completely, meaning it gave no protection from demonic spells either.

[Panacea] - an extremely powerful healing skill that could be used three times a day. It healed practically any disease or poison the target was afflicted with, and since I had learned Rank Two [Unicorn's Blessing] I was able to meet the criteria to use this spell. The main issue was that it didn't do anything for injuries, only disease and poison.

It was a pick I was considering - not for the disease-curing effect because I couldn't see myself becoming so sickly ill anytime in the future, but for the effect to cure nearly any poison. Also, it could be used on other targets, in case I wanted to take a job as a healer at some point in the future. I didn't want to right now, but it could be something viable during my travels as nearly everyone needs a healer.

Was it worth it to specialize into becoming a healer and summoner? I didn't see myself joining a group anytime soon, and that combination was more of a supporting role. I might not have someone to support me in the future though.

I would keep [Panacea] at the back of my mind for now, but if I saw something better I'd take that instead.

[Summon Giant Squid] - while this was another potential Rank Three summon, it had to be used in a large body of water unless you wanted it to die almost immediately, limiting how effective it was. I was probably going to skip this too, unless nothing better came up. I didn't even have [Second Summon- Rank Three] so I couldn't use both it and the Tyrant Arachnea in the same twenty-four hour period.

Giant Squids in this world were larger than any kind of squid I had seen back on Earth, and I would bet any that existed during ancient times as well - one evening, after a storm, one had washed up near the shore of Arconia. I had thought that the stories that I had heard about their size had to be exaggerations up till that point - but no, that thing had looked large enough to easily capsize a ship and drag it to the murky depths of this world's oceans with little to no effort.

And that was not even the most dangerous creature in this world's oceans - not by a long shot.

No doubt, Libraria was not a place you wanted to be if you had thalassophobia. Or arachnophobia for that matter. Or liked dogs.

Come to think of it - would I really recommend it as a place to go on vacation if you could freely come and go? I mean, this world did have a lot of positive aspects as well, but given all the dangers it had…

Perhaps not, I figured, as I went to see the other grimoires.

[Whirlpool] - the same spell I had seen Drake use, but would be limited in effectiveness unless there was a large body of water nearby.

[Fires of Youth] - a spell that got stronger the younger the caster was. If you were older than twenty-five you couldn't learn it, and if you already had it in your repertoire when you reached that age, it would just do nothing if you tried to cast it. This requirement felt very limiting, and I didn't really need another offensive spell.

[Enchant] - this was a stronger version of the Rank Two [Charm], which would place a [Charm] effect on a target, with a higher chance of success based on your Charisma stat. It was basically a form of mind-control, which I found repulsive, and so this was a hard pass too.

[Draconic Scales] - a powerful defensive spell that would make tough scales grow over the user's body, able to resist both physical blows and magical attacks. The problem was that it could only be learned by a lizardman, so I moved on from this.

[Demoiselle's Deceit] - a spell that would let a person create all manner of illusions. None of them could cause physical damage, but were very realistic and could even mimic smell and sound in addition to sight. The grimoire could only be learned by woman, and it required one to also have a Rank Two spell which had an illusory effect in order to learn it. I met none of those requirements and so I moved on.

[Cacophony] - a spell that created a massive amount of noise that could be used as an area-of-effect attack. It had the power to break every single window pane in an entire city block. The issue was that the user was also affected, so you needed to have something like [Sound Barrier] or [Ear Guard] to make sure that you weren't hurt by it as well. Because of these requirements, and also because it was hard to control the spell and could very easily hurt your allies, I decided against this immediately.

[Memory Bank] - a skill that lets you store memories up to a certain amount. I hadn't really understood how it worked when I had looked it up while reading earlier, but when I picked it up, its effect was clearer. It was like having a USB drive in your head that you could store information in - not just words like a regular book, but things you had seen or heard as well. You would never forget whatever you stored in there. The reason why I understood it this way was because I was from Earth and could comprehend an explanation like that.

I had been looking for something like this, the only issue was that it wouldn't help you store any information that you'd already forgotten. Also, if you remembered something wrong and put it in there, you could be misled in the future. If I had had this when I'd first been brought into this world it would've been quite useful. Now though, I felt that it was better if I just jot down some of the things from Earth I didn't want to forget rather than using up a slot for this.

There was another issue with it - there was a limit to how much you could keep within its storage, and if you added things beyond that storge it would delete whatever you put in first rather than giving you a choice of what to get rid of. This felt rather limiting.

What I really needed was a grimoire that could help me remember things I'd forgotten. Whether it was trying to make one myself or trying to find one - both endeavors were unsuccessful.

There was a dictionary written in the lizardmen language that gave a grimoire which would allow me to translate the written lizardmen language without needing any kind of device - it would even work on normal text as well. The issue with this was that it would still be a bit wonky much like using a translation device would be, and I was planning on leaving the country anyway. It would be useless outside of Chipker.

There were other grimoires that didn't give spells or skills, but stats instead, but I could potentially make something like that later. As you rose up the Ranks, it was recommended to dedicate fewer slots towards stat-boosting grimoires. At Rank One, it was recommended to keep two-thirds of your slots towards stats, fifty percent at Rank Two, and one-third at Rank Three.

I would much prefer some kind of good skill or spell to something that raised stats, since even Rank Three grimoires would only raise them by one point.

Looking at all of the grimoires though and the variety of skills on display made me appreciate just how vast the field of Liberomancy was. Some of them were written in languages I didn't recognize meaning they were from outside of Chipker. I was sure that other countries had their own signature skills and spells like Chipker had 'Ansoon's Blessing.' Spells and skills I could never dream of. I used to think highly of myself before when regarding all the education I'd gotten on Earth, but compared to the vast world of grimoires out there I was little more than a frog in a well.