Shaun was silent for a while after Eric spoke, he needed a moment to process everything that he had said. The first thing that he was curious about was how Viv could communicate with Xavier and he was never given anything to communicate with The Alliance. Although the more he though about that he guessed it had something to do with having joined the faction in an official capacity, something he couldn’t do until he fully left Earth. If he had, everyone would know that these dungeons had been claimed by The Alliance. The other thing that made him wonder was why. This deal that he was being offered was almost desperate. He knew that the factions wanted Earth, badly, but to go so far as to completely reverse their previous decisions on him and literally put a deal in place to provide him protection against them? That was not something he ever expected.
‘Shaun you still there?’ Hearing Eric again broke him from his thoughts.
‘Yeah, just thinking. Do you know why they are offering this? It seems pretty extreme on their part, like they are desperate.’
‘Give me a sec.’ there was silence again for a minute before Eric spoke again. ‘Sorry, Viv is speaking to Xavier while I am speaking to you. Viv said tat Xavier said that Earth is more important than you are. Having a fully claimed cluster this early on would put them so far ahead of The Pantheon that they would struggle to catch up. He also said that if anyone had a hope of claiming a D grade dungeon before the year is up, it would be you. If you manage that and hand the rights over to Viv, it would put her so far in the lead for Planetary ruler that The Pantheon wouldn’t be able to fight against her claim. So really what they want is for you to do all of the work in claiming the dungeons and then give it to Viv with a bow on top. You spend all of you TE on the dungeon and then we get to come in after and use ours to make it what we want after.’
‘Give me a second to think about this. It a lot to take in.’ This was not how he saw this conversation going and he needed to think it through. Protection from over half of the factions would be good, especially for the next year, but if he continued on with his plan he wouldn’t exactly need it. However, having the others here meant he would no longer need to deal with the issues of managing the F grade areas, and eventually the E grade ones as well. What he only really needed was the D grade when the time came. If he did go through with it he would need agreement that the D grade dungeon as his area alone and only by his invitation could others enter the area. It would solve some of his issues, and he would no longer feel the need to help anyone that came across the cluster, he already knew in his hear that he wouldn’t be able to turn away the vulnerable that came to him, and with this he wouldn’t have to. The only thing that worried him was how all of this was going to be enforced. ‘Eric, say I agree. I have conditions, but how would the deal be enforced? I wont just accept it if its just his word I am going off of.’
‘Xavier assumed that already. He will form a binding system contract with you, along with the other factions. To break it would mean that a portion of their power would be sacrificed and go to you. As the contracts will be with the factions themselves and not just a single person, breaking them would practically cripple them in the war. It would also provide you with so much power that it would practically make you a god in an instant. Like you said Shaun, they are desperate here and truly want Earth more than anything.’
Shaun really hoped he didn’t regret this. But he had to put some faith in his friends here. ‘Fine I will agree to the deal, however some further conditions. I wont fight in the war unless I choose to. I will still hold control of the area until the choosing of the ruler unless I chose to give it up earlier. The D grade area is mine and mine alone. No one can enter unless I give explicit permission from someone to do so. No one can claim any dungeon here but me.’
Eric was quiet for a while, he assumed he was passing information to the others who were then passing it to Xavier. Eventually he got a response. ‘That’s acceptable. The only further conditions from their side is do not merge the areas until we arrive, do not place any settlement crystals or build anything outside of terraforming unless we agree. Also when it does come time to do these things you give Viv full access to the F grade areas immediately, and when you claim the D grade dungeons you will need to give her access to all the E grade areas. Is that okay?’
‘That’s fine, but she can’t remove any protections I put in place.’
Eric didn’t reply immediately but when he did he was somewhat uncertain. ‘Xavier is asking what type of protections.’
‘Magical ones’ There was silence again for a while before he got an answer.
‘Xavier said that if you manage to put in those type of protections that he will put a clause in the contract to have you paid for it when you hand over the cluster. The amount will depend on what protections you manage to put in place.’
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‘Okay, agreed.’
‘Alright, give it a second. You should get a notification soon. Let us know when you accept it.’
**System contract initiated between The Empire, The Creators Guild, Life's Union, The Holy Light, The Elementals, The Dynasty as well as all clans associated with these factions and Shaun Clermont**
What followed was a full breakdown of everything they had spoken about, including the conditions that Shaun put in and the agreement that he wouldn’t do anything before Viv arrived. At the end, as Eric had promised, was the punishment for breaking the contract. The only way for Shaun to break it was if he didn’t hand over the cluster before the ruler event, if he did anything with the buildings and merging plus the settlement crystals before Viv got here as well as giving her full access at the agreed times. He read through it five times, not finding a single way that it could be misinterpreted. It was very clear with no wiggle room from either side. When he was comfortable he agreed to the contract and he felt the bindings settle on him immediately.
‘It’s done Eric, I agreed.’ He really hoped he didn’t regret this.
‘Viv confirmed that everything is in place. We will start mobilising and heading your way. Anything we should look out for?’
‘Just look for the giant walls, they will be hard to miss.’
They didn’t speak for much longer after that, they didn’t know how long it would take to get to him but they would move as fast as they could. Now that he had no reason to stick around at this dungeon he decided he would head back to the people he had left near the other dungeon and give them an update, then all that he needed to do was study and plan out the best magical protections he could. He knew that would take time but it needed to be done before he could go into the E grade dungeons.
It only took a few hours of travel before he found himself back at the lake, the moment he saw the group he knew he had made the right decision. He found kids swimming in the lake, being watched by their parents. Others seemed to be practicing with weapons, honing their class skills while some of the others were playing around with materials, clearly utilising their professions. Overall though, they looked happy, safe and nothing like they had when they first got here. When Shaun made is presence known by dropping down from the sky, the kids practically screamed in excitement at the display, probably having never seen a person fly before.
“Shaun, we can’t thank you enough for these past few days. I can not explain to you just how much it means to us. I know you said that we would have to..”
“Relax, I am not going to make you leave Jeff.” He interrupted him before he could finish. “There has been a change of plans. Some more people are on their way, I have made a deal with some of the powers. This place is going to get a lot busier when they get here, a lot is going to change, but I trust these people, you will be safe.”
Shaun spoke loud enough for everyone to hear, some of the people present burst into tears at the relief they felt at not having to leave, the kids practically jumped in joy at not having to leave their new lake.
“You have saved our lives. We are truly in your debt.” Jeff put his hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “We need more people like you in this world Shaun, you are on of the good ones.”
“I figured I could stay around here for a while if that’s okay? I have a lot of study to do and I don’t know how long it will take. I need to get it all done before I can claim the E grade dungeons and then the D grade. If you rather I went elsewhere….”
“Nonsense, this is your home as much as it is ours, if not more!” Jeff cut him off. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you studying?”
“Magical protections and wards. Probably some ritualistic magic thrown in. From what I have read some rune work too.” Shaun told him, not really thinking anything of it.
“That’s……impressive. Is it safe?”
“Oh yeah, don’t worry about it, I will just be studying around here. Won’t do anything to harm anyone.” He nearly smacked himself in the face. These people had never seen these sorts of things before, and here he was throwing these things around like it was his everyday, which it kind of was.
“I hope you don’t mind me saying but…I assumed you were more of a fighter than a profession guy.” Jeff chuckled a little nervously as he said it.
“I guess? My class is way higher than my profession at the moment but hopefully I can change that soon.”
“I know I shouldn’t ask this, we were told it was rude. But none of us can see your level, so I assume your in the E grade, if you want to, and in no way do you have to, what level are you?” Jeff started visibly sweating as he asked him about his level, he couldn’t blame him either, it was an unknown to them just how strong he was and he had asked to live nearby.
“I’m level 63, but a chunk of that is from my class.” Anyone at E grade could see it anyway, not really a secret.
“That’s over halfway to D grade! That incredible! We were told that no one would make it to D grade for years!”
Shaun chuckled and after a bit more small talk he went over to the dungeon and built himself his own house. He couldn’t really call it that though, it was more like a bedroom, bathroom and a giant study, but it suited his needs.
He settled in easily once everyone got used to his presence. They even made him dinner which turned out a lot better than he expected. He found out that a man and woman both had the Chef professions and afterwards he dumped a good amount of food and ingredients into the kitchen for them to sort through. They had agreed to do all the cooking which Shaun was more than happy to take them up on. After spending a little more time talking after dinner with the group he retired to his room and got started on fully focusing on the next step of his plan. This would be the hardest thing he ever did in terms of his profession, wards and magical protections were one of the hardest forms of magic due to the power needed to fuel them and the complexity of ensuring they were both hard to break through and stable. He also refused to go with anything basic, he wanted to put his own spin on it to fully incorporate his own skills. The more he put into it the better it should turn out, hopefully.