Chapter 118 - 118. Getting Hype With All The Enchanted Trinkets

"THERE'S ANOTHER CASTLE BESIDE OURS..." the Ruler of Aermagh shouted when he heard about this as reported by his court's spies. His spies were called to report from time to time regards to the development of the City around Aermagh and it seems that there is another castle that sprouted in one of the towns in Ingmery.

"My Lord, it belongs to the Keating's. Somehow they had called it Castle of Keating-Macleod and it was an originally the House of Keating. He is the one that had brought you the elixir that contains the precious drop from the Fountain of Youth some three months ago." explained one of the spies.

"Give me a full report on Keating's. This is interesting. The hero he brought along was vanquished by our lowest ranking member of the legion, am I right?"

"Here's the full report, my lord. The hero name is Audemars Macleod and he was heard to be in a coma and had just awakened some weeks ago. He is a low key person and had completed 4 Quests so far in Ingmery. His reputation is considered the highest in town."

"He had established a store called Beauty World and has 2 store assistants. He also had 8 production plants with a total number of 220 workers. The production plant operates from 7 am to 3 pm and the other shift works from 245 pm to 1045 pm."

"He has 4 cooks and a cookhouse where they prepare food for the workers in the production plants. All the raw items were fully paid in advance and he has zero bad debts till date."

"He also had 15 advertising caravans and 15 delivery caravans and these 2 types of caravans made up of 60 employees which ply the trading routes of all 87 satellite towns around Ingmery."

"On top of that he had helped 4 orphans managed by the matron of the orphanage and he had taken over the management of the orphanage and turned it into Keating's Day Care Centre where the production workers can drop their children off when they go to work and picks them up after that."

"The welfare of Keating's Day Care Centre has been managed by a Silas Brown of Strongbow Tavern where Audemars Macleod had engaged him to serve 4 meals a day for the children. The centre is also managed by 3 scholars from Southern District."

"He had helped other business to grow and survive when he realised there were going out of business, which are the ones I mentioned earlier, the Atelier, Blacksmith and Bowsmith from Central Ingmery."

"I heard about a story where he helped the Blacksmith store to regains its stature during a bet by the Northern and Southern Blacksmith named Quentin and Romulus. Both Northern and Southern Blacksmith had lost the bet and had closed their business since."

"Audemars Macleod is married to Patricia Keating at the Council Chamber and he is putting up at the House of Keating. Somehow he managed to procure a castle through his accumulated wealth and with the blessing of Prius, the head of the Great Hall, the new building was called Castle of Keating-Macleod. They even hang the two family colours at the front of the great doors of the castle."

"We had discovered that he mainly stay with the children he had adopted from the orphanage and takes care of their welfare and wellbeing as well."

"As I've mentioned your lordship, he may have the stature of a noble or even royalty, but his demeanour is like a commoner. He greets everyone he met and exchange pleasantries was never a nuisance to the public and are law-abiding."

"Even when the rest of the Houses were accepting new members to join the House, theirs were quite dormant. The only activities were when he brings the children out to the Northern Forest to grind for wild boar meat and distribute to the Tavern and cookhouse."

"That's my full report, my lord. I will update your lordship when I have fresh news from him. Would your lordship wants me to continue the observation?"

"Hmm...that's all? I thought he was like a rampaging warrior, ready to spill blood wherever he went... But from what I heard from you, he's just a family man. Just leave him be. I don't think he could hurt a fly even." the Ruler of Aermagh concluded and decided there's no purpose to probe any more details that had been provided by the court's spies.

"All is good... Back to the story." the Ruler of Aermagh waved his hands towards the author and gestured that his part is finally over and we can concentrate on the MC and all the side characters instead.

....

I took out my whistle and blew to indicate that it is time to take a break. Since it was bearing lunchtime I decided to give them a pep talk. After evaluating everyone who is still in Level 1, all their base points were just at 5 across the board.

They had 4 attributes instead of 5 without an added INT. I asked them about their attributes and they realised that they have secondary traits under each attribute. Since their attributes were low at the moment, they distributed points within their secondary traits was truly abysmal.

"Alright... All of you are on the first Level so as I've learned, only the Guild Master is able to pass all of you a 100 points each. This only occurs on every level that you had upgraded. When I pass you the 100 points, I want you to distribute them evenly. Understand?"

All of them nodded in apprehension and they never believed their luck when the first time they met us and secondly were being accepted as new members of Castle Keating-Macleod. Thirdly, they were given a set of battle gear and weapons and had an opportunity to be a multirole versatile fighter that is good in ranged and close melee.

Fourth, they were given spellbooks that only existed for Mages and Wizards but were available to a higher class than them and they had read and learned all the spells and shouts. Fifth, they are now about to be given allocations points from their Guild Master and it was like a dream emerging into a reality.

100 points... A person can get that many points only when he or she reaches Level 10...!!! And they can't believe that all this were given for F-R-E-E. As they queued up to receive the points, they were deeply moved by the generosity of the House that they had been accepted to.

The points received were distributed evenly as instructed and now each of their attributes had a +25. The sudden spike in their attributes made them reach a higher sense of strength and other attributes as well.

"There's more... Here are three rings and an amulet. Each of these increases your STR, WIS, DEX and CONS by +12. Seniors, please assist in distributing them accordingly.

"Another +12 for our attributes? How cool was that? From +25 it now becomes +37 across the board." whispered one of the girls to her peers.

After everyone had gotten their rings and amulet and had placed them around their necks and fingers, they noticed the improvements that were brought about by the items.

"I guess you are now feeling much better, stronger, wiser and so on. Remember the badge on your tunic? That would make all of you to Level up even faster and once you had surpassed level 1, the Castle of Keating-Macleod would be on the top already, I guess."

"We are late bloomers, I guess but it's better late than never. Seniors, once more, please distribute these clip-on earrings, bracelets, anklets and headband. These are +15 to all attributes and right now you would +97 across the board, am I right?"

Our children helped to hand out all the trinkets to their juniors and when they put it on, their attributes surged and they felt a sense of awakening. It was as if they were on top of the world right now and no House could compare with the Castle of Keating-Macleod.

One by one the juniors kneeled before us and bowed to show their gratitude. "Ah well...Might as well don't disappoint for those who are hopeful." I thought to myself.

"Last but not least, here's a booklet which you can never reveal to anyone. These are the basic Quests that are available from Central here mostly. There's no battle quest so for those who have not done theirs, can proceed to perform them right after lunch."

I also passed the 4 booklets to the children as well but I need them to Level up by today.

"Do not go in groups to perform the Quests. Pair up and organise yourself. Seniors, delegate those who would be going for their quest and once they are done with one, they can proceed to another. Perform 3 quests today and don't make it obvious that all of you are going to the same quest at the same time."

The junior members' hands quivered when they held on to the booklet as if they were given a testament from God and it comes in a 10-page booklet with details of 20 quests and who to look for.

"You are now Ranger-Assassin-Warrior-Wizard so act discreetly. Treat what i said to you as part of a quest. All of you get what I'm trying to say?"

"Yes, Sir...!!!" came a loud crisp answer from the 20-strong junior members.

"Alright, lunch is now being served. Seniors, I would like to talk to you in private." I gestured our children aside as the cooks wheeled out the lunch that had been prepared inside several chaffing dishes.

It seems that the cooks were happy to hear about the role of being senior chefs after a round of apprenticeships as well as an increment into their salaries that they whipped out a sumptuous lunch for everyone.

"Children, after lunch Mummy would bring you all out to the Northern Forest. Level up ASAP and once you're done, return back here immediately. After that, I need you to go to QM Becky and get to the quest. I'm sure you're confident enough to take down hostiles that retaliated back."

"Once you are done, separate and observe the other Houses' activities because once the junior members level up to 2, there would be a commotion going on and everybody would definitely get riled up as we would be bringing up the rear."

"Yes, Daddy... Understood." chorused the children and then the seniors and the cooks helped to serve the food from the chafing dishes. Seeing them perform such tasks really made an impact on me since these children were able to act like adults and were ready to take on bigger responsibilities.