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Book 2: Chapter 5

Felix waited a few minutes for Noah to adjust and sift through notifications and screens before approaching him. Conveniently, he wasn't in the middle of the crowd but rather appeared just a few meters in front of Felix, facing him.

"Hey Noah, welcome to Trenus… and also Atalus." Felix gestured around himself.

"You renamed the city?"

"Tri-Peak doesn't exactly make any sense given." He once again, gestured around himself.

"I guess not. I kind of liked the name though."

"I also want to be taken seriously and not have to explain to everyone at the world council why our town is named the way it is."

"What is that? and what's a world event?"

"Oh, you didn't get a notification for that at the end of the tutorial? No idea about the world event though, we'll just have to wait till the meeting. I'll try to catch you up as best I can, follow me inside."

Noah looked thrown off but followed Felix, with Amelia in tow, into the building. It seemed like everyone else was happy enough for now to look around and explore their new home. Felix led them into the main room and to the lonely table in the middle.

"So yeah, everyone who owns a Major City," Along with a Wizard's Tower, "gets voting rights at the world council. Not exactly sure what it is other than that me and my representatives get teleported to council chambers where we get to talk to everyone else with a vote."

"Uh… Ok then."

"I was thinking I'd bring you and was thinking maybe we should find someone sociable and… political, to deal with other cities. I get three representatives, you can choose who they are, you know the people better than I do."

If you go representing the votes of your tower, can you send someone in your place for the city? As in send 4 people? Grim asked.

Oh, good question. Or do I get representatives for the tower?

Doubt it, seems like a very solo thing.

World Council

Representatives.

As the holder of a Major City, you have 5 votes. You may send 5 representatives of the city, which must include yourself. As the owner of a Wizard's tower and continent, you have 25 votes however, you alone must represent them.

Representatives (1/5):

Felix Kade

"Scratch that, I can send 4 people. I'll be going separately though."

"Why? What's happening?"

"I have special votes or something… Don't worry about it too much. Bottom line, if you want to go to that and choose three people to bring with you, I would love to appoint you as my representative."

"I'll go, since I manage as much as I plan right now, but I agree, I'll find someone political to throw into the fire."

"Excellent. Now the city, as you can see, we have only a single building. A bunch of the buildings from the city in the tutorial got exchanged for points or something. We can use those to buy new buildings for the city. You'll also need to choose locations for the unique buildings like the vault. I avoided buying anything until you got here so you could see the location I picked and put together a plan. Sorry to just kind of dump this on you, but people are probably going to want their homes and shops back."

"Of course they will, they can wait though. That's nice though that we don't have to start from scratch. You could have at least bought your tower though."

"Yeah… We'll get back to that. We have an area around this building of 20,000 kilometers reserved for the city, so I don't expect us to run out of space anytime soon."

"Holy shit, did you have to reserve that much? I feel like a dick now. That's the circumference of the earth isn't it?"

"Uh something like that, I didn't choose the number, it just came with the city. Also Trenus, the new planet, is a lot bigger than earth was. Like many times."

"Still, that's an absurd amount of space. How are we ever going to use all that?"

"I have no idea. We seem to have gotten the most so far. When I checked the map, only two other's had claimed their land and had much smaller circles around their cities."

Noah zoned out as he opened his map. Felix watched as Noah's face went from shock to interest and wonder then finally settled on a frown that gradually deepened as he panned around.

"Felix."

"Yes Noah."

"Aren't you the Stormbringer?"

"I didn't know it would claim the whole continent, I swear. I just wanted a little tower on a volcano. This is what I got. I'm just happy I didn't try and put it on this continent."

"Yeah, you chose the second biggest one, not the biggest. Oh how generous you are."

"Don't make me smite you."

"Uh huh. You really didn't know?"

"Had no idea, just told me to pick a spot for the tower. Volcanoes are cool so I picked that spot."

"I take it that's where the special voting rights come in?"

"Yeah…"

"Alright so you'll go as the Stormbringer and we can go as the first city allied to them."

"You could, it might make people mad at you though. I suspect people will hate me and I've been thinking about going incognito."

"You might be right, on the other hand, someone strong enough to claim a continent is kind of a scary thought."

"Could tell them I'm an ancient friendly lich or something that values their privacy."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Yeah, but then how the hell did you get onto this planet?"

"I was sent as a protector from The System to keep the planet safe from unwanted invaders…?"

"That's actually… not the most far fetched thing."

"We can talk about it later, we have 3 weeks till the council."

"Wait, how do you get to your tower? That's more than an earth's circumference away."

"I can teleport back and forth, a perk of killing all the world bosses."

"Well that's convenient. Back to the city though, this seems like a good choice of location, we have water, wood and stone as well as farmable land. You have anything in mind for how to lay it out?"

"Nope, up to you however you think it should work. You're the city planner. My ideas were mostly fantastical, homes in the cliff, segmenting the city on the upper and lower levels, stuff like that."

"I don't want it to look like we think less of all the people below the cliff."

"Could put the whole city above the cliff then just the farms below. Then the cliff is like a protective wall."

"That would be such a pain to transport things up and down."

"Could probably buy or make elevators, they wouldn't be that hard to make."

"Maybe, we would also have to eventually build into the mountains though."

"Yeah but the rock is much more stable to build on." Amelia added.

Felix shrugged, "Like I said, entirely up to you. In fact, I was thinking we should probably have like a government. I don't want to be king or make laws so either we elect a prime minister or make a council and go with an oligarchy or something like that."

"We can probably just use the war council for now, then we can have the positions elected either after the world council meeting or the world event. Whenever we manage to settle ourselves."

"Sounds good to me."

"I guess that makes you the emperor then? A figurehead."

"I guess? Figurehead for sure, I do not want to have to be involved. I expect that if you call on me, it'll be because the city is being invaded by some stronger force or there's a monster you need me to kill."

"So we can call on you to come back and defend the city?"

"Yeah, of course. As long as it's not for anything minor. At this point, every other city is a major city from the tutorials so if they attack, they'll be just as strong as our city with me participating. I still own the city, for now, and I will do everything I can to protect it. Plus I can just teleport back once a day. So just don't die right after I leave."

"Good to hear."

"Oh hey, whatever happened to Broxus and that other guy, after they were captured?"

"We just kept them tied up till the end of the tutorial. No idea what happened after that. They probably just got teleported somewhere on Trenus."

"Alright, let me know if you need anything."

"What do you think of Benjamin, Will and Alan?"

"They're cool…"

"I'm thinking we use them as representatives for the world council."

"Why them?"

"Thought about Susan and Henry, but she's selfish and a little stuck up. He's… rough around the edges, not exactly the most charismatic. Those three are the only ones I can think of that are sociable and can be conniving if they want to. They are also heavily tied to the city and would die for it."

"Really?"

"They just sent for their kids to move here and have already asked for houses for them. Benjamin nominated Will as the chief of police because, and I quote, ‘There is no one I'd rather have protecting my kids'. Alan also talked about starting up a scouting party and I want Benjamin to head up an army, at least from a desk, no need to go into the field and endanger him, not when he has kids at home."

"Uh… Yeah I'm good with that. I'm going to need to talk to them first though."

"Why's that?"

"I kind of lied to them a few times…"

"Wore the mask?"

"Yeah…"

"Hah! I'll go get them."

"Wait, why not Amelia?" Felix looked over at Amelia.

Noah laughed then looked at Amelia, "Would you like to be a city representative at the world council meeting?"

"I'd rather die, like actually die."

Noah turned back to Felix, "She hates politics and stuff like that."

"Ah, my bad. Benjamin, Will and Alan it is."

Noah popped out of the building for a few minutes then walked back in with Benjamin, Will and Alan. They all walked in looking like they had been called into the principals office and stood nervously at the end of the table.

"I want you three to come with me to represent the city at the world council meeting in three weeks time." Noah said.

Will and Alan looked at each-other, "Why us?" They said in unison.

"Because you are both sneaky and sociable and can get away with a lie."

"What about Benjy over here?" Will asked.

"He's sociable when he wants to be, but also the complete opposite of you two. If someone is put off by either of you, we send him in. He's honest but smart enough to get what he wants from other people. My other options are Henry, Susan, Jen, Kenneth and Anthony. Who amongst those do you think I should send?"

Will and Alan looked at each-other than looked back, "Benjy it is." They said in unison again. Felix was starting to wonder if they had a skill to do that.

"Also, Felix has to talk to you three."

They all looked at Felix and their faces made it seem like they were preparing themselves for a scolding.

Do I really look that scary?

Guess so. They look like children that are about to be grounded.

Or dogs who jumped on the couch when they knew they shouldn't.

"If you guys are going to represent the city, and potentially be the heads of police and whatnot, I need to be honest with you guys."

"Head of police? Who?" Will asked.

"You, silly." Benjamin said.

"Me? How'd you know about this? Why do we need police?" Will asked.

"In the tutorial, The System policed the city. Out here, not so much." Noah answered.

"I nominated you. Gonna have my kids running around the city and you're one of the only people I trust to keep em safe." Benjamin said, "Plus yer pretty good at taking down just about anyone with minimal damage in just about any situation."

"I second that." Alan jumped in.

"Really? What about Alan? or Felix for that matter? Why me over them?"

"Alan isn't great in the city, better in the forest and you know he was thinking of starting a scouting team. I suspect Felix has better things to do than deal with petty thieves." Benjamin explained.

"And I don't?" Will asked, slightly offended.

"Would you rather risk your life fighting crazy monsters and invading armies? Risking your life when you have kids and a husband at home?"

Will paled, "On second thought, petty thieves sound right up my alley."

"Thought so." Benjamin said.

"Speaking of Alan, any interest in being a spy? Or being the head of a spy guild?" Felix asked.

"Spies? That's what you need to be honest about?" Alan inquired.

"No, this is a separate thing I just thought of." Felix replied

"Oh, uh I'm not sure, what does it entail?" Alan said after shaking head to clear it.

"No idea, but it's one of the functions of the city's upgrade path. Noah, you can deal with it right?"

"Yup, I can catch him up later." Noah replied

"Ok, back to the whole not being honest thing, remember when you guys escorted a guy from Bastion of Hope to the dungeon through the caves?"

"Yeah, John. We thought that might have been you, but your level is too high. You know him?"

"I am John, I have a mask that lets me disguise myself and my level."

Will, Alan and Benjamin looked at each-other, "Why did you act like you didn't know who John was when we came up to your tower the first time?"

Oh yeah… I hadn't figured this whole thing out at that point. Grim said.

"Uh, I was just gonna keep lying to you. Made things easier." Felix improvised.

"That's kind of a dick move." Will said with a frown.

"Yeah, if you hadn't saved Will's life back during the siege, I might actually be mad at you." Alan added.

We really need to catch each-other up. Or you me since you can just read my memories now.

"Side note, do you have any more of those grenades?" Benjamin asked.

"Not on me I don't."

"I see, we can talk about it later."

"Alright, we can talk about the world council meeting day of. In the meantime, have fun with planning the city, Noah."

"Sure thing, I'll let you know if we need anything."

"Sure."

"Actually I have no idea how to contact you."

"Oh, good point. I can just stick around here for a little while. Pop into town every once in a while."

"Sure, see you around then."

"Wait, you aren't even gonna live in the city?" Benjamin asked.

"Not exactly, ask Noah about it." Felix said then hurried out of the building to avoid any more questions.

Before anyone could stop him, he flew south east into the plains. He didn't want to head north into another forest and west would have required ascending mountains so he headed into the plains instead. The plains were not perfectly flat, instead they were hilly and rough with stones jutting out here and there, at least close to the city they were. With some work removing rocks, the land would be perfect for farms, or at least Felix thought so. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .