Boundless Family Upgrades For The Deadbeat Lord

[ Ding! ]

[ Congratulations! Main Mission Completed! ]

[ Mission: Surviving the Winter Famine ]

[ Objective: Establish a sustainable, high-yield food source and secure sufficient grain reserves to feed all 1,200 citizens throughout the four-month winter season. ]

[ Evaluating Mission Rank... ]

Raymond’s eyes went wide with pure, explosive excitement the exact millisecond he witnessed the golden user interface flash across his consciousness.

Before his brain could even fully process the initial prompt or formulate a single baseline reaction, a secondary cascade of system notifications began popping up in a dense, blinding stream of text.

[ Additional Achievements Detected ]

[ Territory-wide civilian loyalty dramatically increased. ]

[ Agricultural infrastructure successfully established. ]

[ Clean water infrastructure established. ]

[ Food preservation infrastructure established. ]

[ Civilian workforce successfully reorganized. ]

[ Population mortality crisis prevented. ]

[ Final Mission Evaluation: B-Rank ]

Raymond held his breath the moment his eyes locked onto the final evaluation rank, a slight knot of tension forming in his chest before dissolving into pure relief.

Given the absolute state of the starving, resentful population he had inherited just a month prior, pulling off a solid B-Rank on his very first mandatory task was an undeniable victory.

[ Calculating Rewards... ]

[ ×30 Bronze Summoning Tickets! ×10 Silver Summoning Tickets ]

[ 30,000 Gold Coins! 50,000 System Points. ]

[ ×1 Tier III Land Upgrade Card, ×5 Agricultural Specialist Summoning Tickets, ×1 Tier-I Grain Processing Workshop Blueprint, ×2 High-Capacity Preservation Storage Artifacts, ×1 Basic Livestock Starter Package. ]

Raymond’s breath hitched completely when he scrolled through the final itemized layout of the rewards panel, his pupils practically glowing with an intense heat as the sheer density of the loot manifested in his mind.

”My Lord... is everything alright?”Gideon’s worried, raspy voice abruptly pierced through the digital chime, shattering Raymond’s internal focus and forcing him back to reality.

Raymond slowly lowered his outstretched hand, forcibly suppressing the wild, chaotic excitement that threatened to make his facial muscles twitch under his mask.

He looked down at the two kneeling farmers, clearing his throat smoothly to adopt his standard, serene lord persona before giving a firm nod.

”I am entirely fine, Gideon,” Raymond replied, his voice smooth and dripping with composed authority. ”I am merely deeply excited about the rapid, unprecedented progress of our town. The Goddess has seen our labor, and she is pleased.”

Without waiting for either of the men to stand or voice any further questions, Raymond turned on his heel toward the stairs. ”Gather those master ledgers and send the reports directly to my study the moment the sorting teams finish the final wagons. I have critical administrative matters that require my immediate attention.”

Throwing that definitive sentence over his shoulder, Raymond hurried down the wooden steps of the observation platform, his pace increasing until he was practically running along the dusty road back toward the castle hill.

Gideon and Harlan exchanged deeply confused, bewildered looks, staring at their lord’s rapidly disappearing back as his silk garments fluttered in the chill wind.

They shook their heads in silent amazement, chalking up the strange behavior to another mysterious divine vision from the heavens, before turning right back around to supervise the final baskets of the harvest.

-------

BANG!

Raymond slammed the heavy oak door of his study shut behind him, locking it with a sharp twist of the iron bolt before collapsing heavily into the high-backed chair behind his desk.

He let out a long, ragged breath, his fingers trembling slightly with pure adrenaline as he rapidly summoned the main interface with a focused mental command.

”Status panel,” he muttered.Instantly, the massive, vibrant blue screen manifested directly in front of his face, illuminating the quiet, dusty study with its cool holographic glow.

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[ STATUS PANEL ]

Host: [ Raymond von Althoff ]

Age: [ 20 ]

Race: [ Human ]

Title: [ The Deadbeat Lord / Head of House Althoff ]

Noble Rank: [ Disgraced Baron ]

Personal Strength Tier: [ 8-Star Bronze Rank Knight ]

━━━━━

[ HOST ATTRIBUTES ]

• Strength: 30

• Agility: 40

• Stamina: 45

• Endurance: 50

━━━━━━

[ FAMILY CORE METRICS ]

• Family Grade: Tier-1 (Barony)

[ Upgrade Progress: 12% ]

• Family Funds: [ 71,200 Gold Coins ]

• Total Population: [ 1,200 / 5,000 ]

• Total Land Mass: [ 150 Square Kilometers ]

• Developed Agricultural Land: [ 15 Hectares ]

• System Points (SP): [ 161,000 SP ]

• System Shop: [ Locked ]

• Active Main Mission: [ None ]

━━━━━━━

[ INVENTORY ]

• ×30 Bronze Summoning Tickets

• ×10 Silver Summoning Tickets

• ×1 Tier III Land Upgrade Card

• ×1 Tier-I Grain Processing Workshop Blueprint

━━━━━━

[ HOUSEHOLD SUBORDINATES ]

• Active Summons: [ 28 ]

— Bronze Rank Knights: [ 20 ]

— Silver Rank Knights: [ 8 ]

• Agricultural Specialists: [ 5 ]

• Bloodline Successors: [ None ]

• Total Population: [ 1,200 ]

• Loyal Citizens: [ 1,200 ]

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Raymond’s hands continued to shake slightly as his eyes parsed through the neatly organized text blocks of the user interface.

He didn’t pay much attention to his personal attribute bars or the minor core metrics for the time being; instead, his gaze locked directly onto the dense listings inside his inventory box. The addition of thirty Bronze Summoning Tickets and ten elite Silver Summoning Tickets meant his hidden private army had effectively tripled in size overnight.

Furthermore, the massive injections of thirty thousand gold coins and fifty thousand system points brought his total operational balances to a staggering 71,200 gold and 161,000 SP.

But out of all the premium items glittering inside the digital slots, the single Tier III Land Upgrade Card was the specific reward that caused his breath to hitch completely in his throat.

He moved his finger forward, clicking on the glowing green icon to pull up its full, detailed operational data sheet.

[Item Name: Tier III Land Upgrade Card ]

[Description: Permanently transforms up to 100 hectares of designated territory into highly fertile arable land, greatly .improving soil quality, crop growth, and agricultural yield.

Does not provide automatic irrigation. ]

Raymond almost dropped clean out of his seat in pure shock, his eyes bulging as he reread the geometric parameters of the terraforming card.

One hundred hectares. This card possessed the absolute, logic-defying capacity to transform up to one hundred hectares of barren wasteland into premium, high-utility agricultural land with a single deployment.

In the wealthier, southern territories of the Solaria Kingdom, such as the fertile Valmere Region, a plot spanning one hundred hectares might have been considered nothing more than a common, ordinary noble estate.

But within this god-forsaken, abandoned Zulor Region wasteland, an area of that magnitude was a literal life-saving miracle. It was a sacred farm capable of shifting the entire balance of power in the region.

Raymond’s mind rapidly performed the necessary calculations.

Their tiny, fifteen-hectare basin farm had been more than enough to force the town to produce over a hundred metric tons of fresh food within a single month. If a mere fifteen hectares could yield that much abundance under the system’s influence, what would happen when he deployed an upgrade covering an area nearly seven times larger?

How many thousands of metric tons of food could they cultivate once the spring thaw arrived?Raymond felt his heart beating at a frantic, erratic speed just by mapping out the explosive economic possibilities.

It took him several long minutes of deep, controlled breathing to fully calm his racing thoughts before he could scroll further down to examine the descriptions of his remaining rewards.

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[Item Name: Agricultural Specialist Summoning Ticket.]

[Description: Summons one highly skilled agricultural professional suited to the Host’s current territorial needs. Possible professions include farmers, livestock breeders, irrigation

specialists, millers, and agricultural managers. Summoned personnel possess 100% Loyalty.]

[Item Name: Tier-I Grain Processing Workshop Blueprint.]

[Description: A complete construction blueprint for a basic grain-processing facility capable of threshing, cleaning, drying, and milling harvested grain. Construction materials and manpower must be provided by the Host.]

[Item Name: High-Capacity Preservation Storage Artifact.]

[Description: A magical preservation artifact that can be installed inside a storage facility, greatly reducing food spoilage by regulating temperature, humidity, and pests.

Does not completely stop deterioration.]

[Item Name: Basic Livestock Starter Package.]

[Description: A territory development package containing 20 cows, 30 goats, 50 sheep, 100 chickens, and 10 breeding pigs. All livestock are healthy, fertile, and suitable for establishing

a sustainable livestock industry.]

”Holy shit...!”