Shaun had never been one for inspiring others, especially not with words. But he these people seemed to listen to him and he saw just a small kernel of hope bloom in some of them. “You really claimed that dungeon, didn’t you?” Shaun just gave the man a nod. “And your strong, I can’t even see your level. I mean, sorry. I shouldn’t have identified you. I am Jeff by the way.”
“Its fine, I identified every one of you. I am Shaun.”
“It is a blessing to meet you, I think. You’re going to create something here, right? I have heard that with enough TE you can do almost anything with an area that is claimed.” Shaun saw where this was going and although he felt for these people it wasn’t part of his plan. Besides letting them stay put them in danger they didn’t even know about.
“I know where you are going with this Jeff, but trust me, staying here with me is probably more dangerous than going out alone and finding somewhere else.”
“Please, I will give you all the TE I have, all of us will, if you can make us somewhere to stay, even if just a while. Right everyone?” All the adults in the group pleaded with him, asking for his help.
“That’s not how it works, even if I did create a home for you to stay for a while it would take time for it to complete, hours at least. And like I said it would……”
“That’s fine, we will wait! Will you do it, please?”
“…be dangerous for you stay near me.” Shaun let out a breath when he was done with his sentence. He looked over the group again seeing just how desperate they were for help. “Fine, I will be gone for a few days anyway. But when I’m back you will need to go. You seriously don’t want to have any connection to me. I am a hunted man.”
“Hunted by who exactly?” This time one of the mothers spoke up, giving him a wary look.
“At this point? Pretty much everyone. All of the major factions, the clans. I pissed off a lot of people.” Shaun saw some of the kids eyes go wide. “I mean, I annoyed a lot of people…” Now I have to watch my language.
“That’s……how exactly did you manage to get on the bad side of, uh, everyone really?” Jeff started to back away from him slowly.
“It’s a long story, not really a secret though. Pretty much all the major factions offered me a spot with them. I turned them all down. They weren’t happy about it so put out a kill order on me. That, as well as the war that’s about to start, doesn’t make this place the most safe one, not yet anyway.”
“I’m sorry, you got offered a place with the factions, mind you all of us have heard of the factions, and you turned them down. Just because of that they all want you dead?” Shaun thought it through and although he had never really heard the situation described so simply before, it was true.
“Pretty much, yeah, that’s the gist of it. I am, valuable, I guess? They also don’t like being told no.”
Jeff just stared at him, opening and closing his mouth until he finally shook himself out of the shock. “That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard. You tell them no and their reaction is to have you killed? Are they children having a tantrum? My god, you’re telling me this is how the most powerful groups in the multiverse behave? I…I just….how ridiculous!”
Shaun didn’t even bother holding back his laugh, never, not in a million years, had he expected someone to say what Jeff had just said. He had assumed that the factions had spread the word about him through to each and every person in the tutorials, slandering him and ensuring that he was hated more than the devil himself. But right in front of him was a group of people that found the situation so absurd that they would outright call the factions children throwing a tantrum.
“Okay, I will do what you are asking, you know the risk in associating with me, even just like this. After I finish claiming the rest of the F grade dungeons though, you should seriously consider leaving. I wont make anything fancy, but enough that you will shelter.”
“Thank you Shaun! You have no idea what this means to us. Please take all the TE we have, we don’t want to put you out.” Shaun received notifications, nearly 30 in total, asking him if he wanted to accept the TE that was being given to him by those that had any. Altogether it totalled less than 50,000, such a small amount that he wondered what any of them even did in their tutorial. Shaun accepted it, not because he needed it, but because he didn’t want to argue with them around him not needing it. Instead he decided he would use it as they wanted it to be used. To make them a place to stay.
He had a quick chat around how many houses they needed, whether they wanted on big one or separate. In the end they just said to do whatever he could with what they provided. When they were done he went back to the dungeon and finished off the terraforming. With the TE he was given he had enough to make houses for everyone, they weren’t fancy, but they would suit their needs. He connected them all around one side of the lake, including a large kitchen in a central area, that was where the majority of the cost went as creating the mana powered appliances was more expensive than he realised. In the end it only added an hour onto the time it would take until completion, he even chose to have the houses done first over the wall. He then went back to the group and gave them a parting gift.
“The houses should be done in an hour or so over there.” Shaun pointed in the direction that he had chosen to build. “Also here is enough meat and stuff to get you through the next few days.” He the pulled out enough to feed everyone there for a week, it looked like a huge amount but when split between 50 people it wasn’t really that much. “A communal kitchen will be built with mana appliances, they are easy enough to use so don’t stress too much about it. I will be back in a few days depending on what else I encounter.”
The goodbyes from the group were emotional, for them at least. He however felt mixed feelings. He had done something good for these people but at the same time may also be bringing them more danger in the future. He realised that there was going to have to be some kind of balance, leaving people to die outside the walls, especially when there were people out there that truly needed help with nowhere else to go was just something he didn’t have the heart to do. He knew what it was like, having nothing and no one, being discarded by others. He couldn’t do that, not to kids, not to their families. But that added a layer of complexity to his plans that he didn’t have a solution for at this moment.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Rather than focus on it for now he decided to throw himself into claiming the remaining dungeons, if these people had made it here than there was a chance that others would too. There was no longer time for rest at the end of the day, he had to push, and push hard. He was so close to finishing off the first step of his plan and he refused to faulter now.
It took 2 more days to finish his loop of the area, when he claimed the last of the F grade dungeons he finally felt like he could take a moment to relax and take a breath, he had done it. This had been the most stressful part of the process, in 18 hours he would have a completely walled in area, one that spanned an area larger than the biggest cities pre integration. If the area was completely urbanised he guessed he could easily fit millions, however that was not his plan.
When he claimed the last of the F grade dungeons he received multiple notifications that he had not expected. The first was a title upgrade, moving from Mayor to High Mayor, gibing him an extra 5% boost in the area. The second notification was more obscure, one that he didn’t quite understand.
**For fully incorporating the entirety of F grade clusters in an area, please visit a claimed settlement crystal for further upgrades. Note: No settlement crystal placed, please place a settlement crystal by visiting a claimed dungeon that is no longer terraforming the area.**
It seemed that there was more going on with claiming dungeons than just terraforming and being able to keep a dungeon. This was an added complexity that he did not have on his current to do list, but seeing as he had some time before all of the walls were finished he figured that he would visit the original dungeon he had claimed, deal with whatever this notification meant and then check out the wall before heading back to the people he had allowed to stay.
Now that he had the ability to pinpoint everything in the areas he had claimed, getting to the dungeon was a decently quick journey, and when he finally arrived he walked up to the dungeon and instead of being provided with just one option, entering the dungeon, he was offered a second.
**Welcome High Mayor Shaun Clermont, would you like to access F grade settlement screen?**
Shaun didn’t see the harm in looking through this, he needed to figure out more information on what exactly this screen did and what potential upgrades he could obtain. He also needed to figure out what this settlement stone situation was, so he confirmed that he wanted to access it.
**Current options available for F grade settlement:**
Current buildings available for placement.
Fully merge all claimed F grade dungeons (Can not be undone)
Place settlement crystal. (This can only be moved by the owner of the settled land)
Manage settlement and resources.
The screen had a number of options he wasn’t certain about. The first thing he did was go through the buildings available and what he saw was a shock. There was options to build a city office, a store linked to some multiverse network where buying and selling good could be utilised, a stock warehouse and so many more buildings that all had descriptions that in some way described a higher level of complexity than would be available from just terraforming. The downside to all of this was that it didn’t cost TE, but coin to build them. He quickly backed out of this screen, completely overwhelmed by all of the options.
Thankfully the next two were straight forward, merge the areas, and place the crystal, both of which made more sense. When he tried to access the last one he got push back saying that the settlement crystal had to be placed first. He was way over his head with this stuff, all he wanted to do was claim his dungeons, place the items he had been given by The Alliance, and get to training. All of this needed to be dealt with though and he had no idea what to do.
‘Eric, are you there? I need some advice.’ He had taken out his stone and hoped that Eric would be available to help. He would have a much better idea of how to sort this stuff than he would.
‘You’re coming to me for advice? You really must be in trouble. I have an update for you as well. But first, what do you need?’ It had taken a minute for Eric to reply but when he did he seemed in much lighter spirits than he had before.
Shaun gave him a quick rundown of the issues he was having with the whole dungeon thing and then he also spoke about the people who had come to him and how he should be approaching that issue. When he was done there was silence for a moment and then he got a weird reply.
‘Can you wait 30 minutes? A lot has happened since we last spoke and I don’t think this is something I can answer until you are caught up.’ Shaun agreed to wait, it wasn’t like he now had to be anywhere immediately and he really did need some advice on this stuff. Fighting monsters, getting stronger? That was where he excelled. Managing this stuff? Nope, not in his skill set.
He didn’t just sit idly during the 30 minutes, instead he pulled out the book on wards and magical protections and got to reading, looking through all of the different options that were available and the different complexities of each. The one thing they all had in common was the need for a power source, which if he was right, could be supplied from the E grade dungeons. That was why King Shrakein had told him that he would need to plan before claiming nay of the E grade dungeons. The 30 minutes passed by quickly and he soon heard Eric through the stone again.
‘You still there?’ After Shaun confirmed Eric continued. ‘I am here with Viv and Gabe, I have already given them a quick rundown of the situation you’re in. Shaun, things are bad out here, really bad. People are hungry, lost and confused. To make things worse anyone with an ounce of power has let it go to their head and is proclaiming themselves rulers, and not in a good way. We have come across a few areas where some of these people have claimed some of the F grade dungeons but they are fractured and there is fighting on these areas, everyone is trying to take control of the clusters. That’s not all though, the factions have all taken sides. The Pantheon has somehow recruited Death's Legion, The Nine Circles, Collective of Beastial Creatures and The Unending Void. Everyone else has sided with The Empire is backing Viv. Everyone is trying to consolidate power and the best way to do that is to claim the dungeons and create a stronghold. The worst part is that this has made areas around the clusters hot spots for fighting, but they are also the only places that offer immediate protection and a place to stay through the terraforming. You might not like this next part though.’ Eric was silent then, he didn’t know if he was waiting for a reply from him or if he was talking to the others.
‘Go on Eric, just say what you need to.’
‘Viv has a way to communicate with Xavier. We don’t know how but apparently all the major factions can monitor Earth’s dungeons and see what is being claimed and which faction they are ultimately apart of. Currently there is only one cluster, on all of Earth, that of all dungeons claimed belongs to one person, which we now know is you. Apparently, that should be a near impossibility at this stage, it should take months to get to that point, sometimes much longer. Viv has spoken to Xavier and he has a proposition for you.’
‘You guys told him everything I told you! Eric what the actual hell!’
‘Just listen Shaun, please. The deal is, if you allow us to use your cluster and you agree to hand it over to Viv by the time the year is up, all of the factions that have sided with The Empire for this war have agreed to not just put the kill order on hold but they have agreed to completely stop all actions against you, both now and in the future, as long as you don’t go against them. They have even agreed that they will put in a clause that they will never, either anyone from any of the factions or in their clans, do anything against anyone to try and get to you, either directly or indirectly, ever.’ Eric spoke quickly, getting it all out before Shaun had an opportunity to interrupt. This was a complete 180 compared to what went on in the tutorial, and he needed to know why.