Kingdom Tiers

Four months quickly passed since the war's conclusion with the Samara Kingdom.

The lives of the citizens of Wujin City (Formerly Lockridge and Samara City) have already stabilized and one can easily tell that they're happy with their current lives based on the smiles on their faces.

Their enthusiasm as they walk toward their destination in the bustling streets of Wujin City is evident on their faces.

Blanc smiled widely on the balcony of his throne room as he happily observed the positive changes in Wujin City under his governance.

His short moment of satisfaction was cut short as the grand marshal of Rougenfort Kingdom, Helena Laurelei, suddenly entered the throne room.

She then looked around and upon realizing that there were no other people inside, Helena decided to make the conversation casual.

"Blanc, how's the finances? Do you think we can start the mass recruitment today?" Helena asked in a slightly excited tone.

As the grand marshal, one of the things that made her happy was seeing the Rougenfort Army grow stronger, hence, she decided to take the initiative to talk about the mass recruitment instead of waiting for Blanc to summon her.

"Oh? Helena! Perfect timing, I was about to ask John to summon you. Indeed, the finances to fund the mass recruitment are now ready as per Adelaine so we can start the mass recruitment."

Blanc replied enthusiastically as he turned around to face Helena.

"Great! I'll ask Alexander to personally start the mass recruitment. By the way, how many trainees are we planning to recruit this time?" Helena asked

Blanc rubbed his chin with his fingers as he slightly pondered before replying :

"Hmm…Since we are rushing to become a tier 3 kingdom as fast as possible, I'd say around 21,500 men since that's close to the limit of our budget for the war against the Kairuku Kingdom."

Helena thought that they would at least try to recruit 30,000 men this time since their last recruitment was 20,000.

Unfortunately, it seems that the recent war burdened their finances quite heavily so it can't be helped.

Still, 21,500 men is a sizable increase and once this batch of recruits graduate, they would have a whopping 50,000 men army close to that of a tier 4 kingdom's army requirement.

Speaking of kingdom tiers, Helena only knew that there were different tiers of kingdom depending on their military might, etc.

However, she didn't know the exact reasons why a kingdom is recognized as tier 5, tier 4, etc. so she couldn't help but be curious and ask the all-knowing King Blanc Rougenfort.

"I see, we'll recruit 21,500 men then. Apologies for only asking this now, but I'm just curious, how is a kingdom classified into tiers?" Helena asked with a slightly curious and embarrassed look on her face.

She thought that as a grand marshal, she should've already learned of this a long time ago, hence, she was a bit embarrassed.

Naturally, Blanc wasn't gonna judge her as he was simply too happy that Helena took the initiative to ask this question to him.

When they were young, Helena abhorred listening to such informative lessons so seeing that she was willing to learn now for the sake of becoming a better grand marshal made Blanc happy.

Blanc activated his age-old nerdy explanation mode as he adjusted his imaginary glasses, raised his right hand to around his chin and neck level, and pointed his index finger towards the heavens.

"Ahh! Let me explain to you in detail. Kingdoms are classified into tiers based on three easily quantifiable elements, total population, military size, and military leaders."

"First, the total population is quite self-explanatory, however, if you want to learn about the exact number of the population needed for a kingdom to advance through the ranks, then listen carefully"

Blanc said as he took a quick glance towards diligent student Helena Laurelei, however, he almost couldn't suppress a laugh upon seeing her appearance.

Helena's brows were furrowed, her eyes absolutely focused, her hands raised up until the chest level, curled up into fists while her mouth was slightly open.

He wasn't judging her at all, he only thought that her appearance as a student was quite cute. Fortunately, he quickly managed to control his urge to laugh and continue with his lesson.

"A tier 5 kingdom should have at least 50,000 citizens, tier 4, 100,000, tier 3, 500,000, tier 2, one million, tier 1, five million."

"As long as a kingdom could achieve the total population required for the next tier, then they could mark that aspect as achieved. Still, before they could rank up, they had to achieve the other two aspects as well."

Helena nodded after fully understanding the first aspect, the total population. Seeing that she fully understood, Blanc immediately started talking about the second aspect, military size.

"The second aspect, military size, was simply how many soldiers a kingdom has. A tier 5 kingdom is expected to have at least 20,000 men, tier 4, 50,000, tier 3, 100,000, tier 2, 500,000, and tier 1, a million or more."

As expected, Helena easily understood the second aspect as well because it just means the total number of soldiers a kingdom has.

"Lastly, the military leaders aspect is a bit complicated when it comes to being a higher-tiered kingdom. The reason for this is because of the next stage, The Runic Swordmaster tier"

"Once a Swordmaster learns how to condense a rune into his/her sword during combat, then he/she can be considered as a tier 1 Runic Swordmaster. The more runes one can condense, then the higher the tier of the Runic Swordmaster."

Helena's eyes sparkled in excitement as the gears inside her brain finally clicked in unison upon realization of what she was missing.

'So that's why I'm having trouble trying to break through to the next stage! Turns out that I have to study condensing my sword intent into sword runes! Why didn't I just ask Blanc about this?! Could've saved a lot of time!'

Helena thought to herself, fortunately, timely theoretical guidance from Blanc helped her find the right path towards the next tier.

She was currently a tier 5 Swordmaster so this advice was very useful to her. Her momentary loss of focus due to the useful information was cut short by Blanc as he continued explaining the final aspect, military leaders.

"For tier 5 to tier 3 kingdoms, the military leaders aspect is quite simple since it is only based on how many Swordmasters a kingdom has. However, for tier 2 and tier 1 kingdoms, battles are decided by Runic Swordmasters."

"In theory, one Runic Swordmaster is equal to seven tier 5 Swordmasters so that's where the complicated part begins."

"A tier 5 kingdom is expected to have 2 Swordmasters, a tier 4, five, tier 3, ten. This number of Swordmasters doesn't have any limitations on the tier of the Swordmaster however, starting from tier 2 kingdoms, the tier of the Swordmasters matters."

"A kingdom's military leaders aspect could be considered to have reached the tier two level as long as they have either one Runic Swordmaster or seven tier 5 Swordmasters."

"No matter how many tier 4 Swordmasters a kingdom has, it wouldn't matter because only seven tier 5 Swordmasters could stand up to a Runic Swordmaster"

"Thus, even if a kingdom has a hundred tier 4 Swordmasters, their military leaders aspect is still considered as that of a tier 3 kingdom. If and only if they managed to gain one Runic Swordmaster or seven tier 5 Swordmasters could they advance to a tier 2 kingdom.

"Lastly, a tier 1 kingdom is expected to have at least three Runic Swordmasters or 21 tier 5 Swordmasters…"

Helena felt dizzy after such a massive amount of information. 

Although she was still a bit confused regarding the military leaders aspect, as long as she managed to break through to the Runic Swordmaster stage, then they would at least become a tier 2 kingdom and that's all that mattered to her right now.