For the rest of the day all Shaun did was eat and sleep. Slowly he felt himself start to recover and by the time he woke the next morning he was ready to get up and start moving. He was nowhere near fully recovered but he could at least move around. Fighting would take some time, and until then, he was vulnerable.
When he moved out of the room he was in and into the main room he found that this place was pretty hastily put together and nothing like the terraforming. His guess was that this had been put together manually as no one but him was currently able to actually terraform here. They had gone through a lot of work to make sure that he was comfortable, or they did this because someone was staying up here while he was in the trance and after a while they decided on comfort over camping.
Not trusting his ability to use any of his skills at the moment he had to actually look around for the others. He found them outside, both Viv and the other guy from before along with Li. They stopped talking when he approached and he gave them all a short nod before speaking to them.
“So, what’s the plan now? I am assuming you will all leave here now that I am awake. I am probably going to spend a day or two recovering before making the trek down the mountain.” He got a questioning look from Viv which he just waved off. “Don’t ask.”
“The reason I am here was not only to check on you but to also talk through the options we have for the E grade settlement crystals. We never spoke about it before and now would be a good time considering it shouldn’t take much out of you.”
He thought it over and didn’t see any real problem with doing as she asked. He was just as curious as she was to see if there was anything interesting in there. He started walking over to the crystal which thankfully was no to far from where they were. As soon as he got close enough he got the notification he expected.
**Current options available for F and E grade settlement:**
Current buildings available for placement.
Manage settlement and resources.
Terraform E grade area.
Settlement Communication
Manage Settlement Crystal Link
The top three options were what he had expected to see, the last two though were completely different. Curious he clicked into the last one and the options were rather interesting.
**Current options available for F and E grade settlement link: Teleportation from one Settlement Crystal to any other claimed Settlement Crystal **
Settlement Owner – Set
Manual Delegation
All
Custom
Note: Each teleportation through the Settlement Crystal will drain a portion of its stored mana.
“Hey Viv, I think I just solved the issue of having to travel to the dungeons.” He explained to her the options he had, also that there was a cost involved.
It took her a while before she replied but when she did she sounded confident in what she had decided. “Hold off on any major changes for now. If you can just add Josh, Li and I to the list of being able to use it. I will need to think about how this will work. If everyone just used it constantly the mana would drain from the crystal and the ward would end up failing, right?”
He thought about it, and yeah she was right. The ward run on the mana in the crystals. It wasn’t being drained though unless the ward was active, so unless they were attacked they were all good. “I would suggest, depending on how much mana the teleport is maybe each person that uses is has to donate their own mana to the crystal to be able to use it? That might balance things out.” While he spoke he adjusted the permissions to include himself, Viv, Li, this Josh guy and also Eric and Gabe.
“Okay, we can figure it out when we get to that point. What other options does the crystal have?”
He explained that there was an option for Settlement communication, and after exploring it he found that he could communicate with other settlements not just his own. He explained this to Viv and she suggested they hold off on outer settlement communication until she could talk to Xavier, he had no issue with this as he didn’t want to start any political talks with other people anyway. Shaun looked through the other options and didn’t find too much different. They were more expensive than the other stores, so he guessed that they would have higher ranked stuff for sale or potentially something more unique, but unless he wanted to spend coin for no reason they wouldn’t be finding out any time soon.
Once he went through all of the options with her, they quickly made the decision to leave. Shaun decided to go first and when he accepted the prompt to teleport he chose the Settlement Crystal closest to the school.
The move was instantaneous and thankfully didn’t harm his body at all. The settlement crystal wasn’t too far from the school but at the pace he could currently move at it would take a while. He didn’t see a need to delay and just got started, taking it one step at a time.
Time passed slowly, although his focus never really strayed from just keeping his body going. He had started to regret coming here so soon, it would have been smarter to wait a day. When the school finally came into view he nearly dropped to the ground in relief. His body hurt, his head ached and he just wanted to lay down.
As soon as he made it to the edge of the school he noticed just how busy it had gotten. There was kids everywhere, adults who seemed to be teaching and looking after them too. He continued walking through the main area and when he spotted a lone adult he waved them over. “Hey, do you know where Eric and Gabe are?”
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The woman gave him an assessing look before she replied, unsure whether she should answer him. “I do, can I ask what you need them for? They are very busy people.”
“Just tell them Shaun is back and that I am going to my house to sleep. When they are free they can come over but tell them to wait at least a few hours.” He started to walk away before he turned back. “Tell them to bring food.”
He continued making his way to his house after that. He got some weird looks and even a few kids waving at him. He smiled back at them and tried to hide the pain on his face. When he finally did make it home he promptly went to his room and fell asleep. Not even bothering to change or shower. He just needed rest.
Hours later he woke up to the smell of food and it was now dark outside, he had slept the day away. He was much less sore than he had been before going to sleep but his body was also shouting for food.
He practically rushed out of his room, following the smell of food to a table that was filled with plates of all different types of meat and vegetables. He didn’t recognise some of it but he also didn’t care. He couldn’t see anyone else in the room so he just sat himself down and started loading up an empty plate and went to town.
“You didn’t want to wait for us?” Gabe came in with a bottle of something to drink which he handed directly to Shaun. He didn’t hesitate to try it and found it to be both refreshing and sweet. “I am not going to make you talk, clearly food is at the top of your priority list right now. But either nod or shake your head. Are you okay?”
He considered the question for a second and then shook I head. He wasn’t okay, not really. He was a long way from fighting form.
Eric chose that moment to come into the house, he gave Shaun a worried look before taking a seat at the table and getting his own food.
“We have been worried about you. You said a few days, it’s been over a month.” Eric took a deep breath to calm himself down. “Eli has been asking about you every day. Telling people that you are creating a ward that would protect everyone wasn’t exactly a believable excuse for you prolonged absence. At least it wasn’t until the entire place lit up like a Christmas tree.”
“I’m sorry. For disappearing like that. The ward must more complicated than I expected. I couldn’t really feel time passing when I was doing it. I know a month has passed but to me it feels like only days.” He felt guilty about making a promise to Eli that he would be there for him and the others and then only days later just disappear with no word. “I will talk to him in the morning. It will still take a bit for me to fully recover before I can really start teaching any classes or even fighting at all really, but I will make sure that I am here for a while.”
“A lot of people were worried about you. I know that seeing you up and about will really bring peoples spirits up.” Gabe smiled at him before he got to eating some of the food he had bought himself.
For a while they just ate in comfortable silence. When they had finished off the food, most of it eaten by Shaun, they moved to a lounge area to get comfortable and really catch up. “So, anything big change here while I was gone? I noticed that the school has grown significantly.” And it really had, from his estimates it looked to have doubled in both the amount of students but also in some of the housing.
“A few things you should know. Word was put out across the entire settlement a few weeks back that a school had opened and what we were doing here. All of the orphanages were moved here and a lot of parents have sent their own kids here as well. We were able to secure a good amount of people who wanted to join as trainers, both for combat classes as well as profession related stuff. It has changed a lot since we started and it now really is a full blown school.” Eric update was short and to the point, just like how Shaun liked it.
“When Eric and I took over running the school full time, we were both given an option from the system to change our professions. Eric was offered the profession Head Master and I was offered the profession Head Teacher. We both took them, even though we ended up having to start our professions again from level 1. We both want to do this long term, so it was the best move for us. But that’s not the best part.” Gabe was getting excitable the more he spoke, barely able to sit still.
Shaun had never heard of changing a profession like that but he guessed that when you made a huge life change and were willing to start from the beginning again why shouldn’t you get the chance? Still, it seemed odd and something that was probably very rare.
“I found my kids Shaun. Or I guess they found me.” Shaun looked at Eric in shock, he knew that this was something that had been weighing on him for a while and now he looked almost carefree as he spoke. Truly happy.
“How? Don’t get me wrong, I am happy for you! But… wow.”
“It was about 2 weeks ago. Fiona, my ex-wife, made it to the settlement with Jace and Nicola. They had been traveling with a big group and one of the scouts found them and brought them here. When Fiona found out there was a school she bought them straight here. The moment I saw them I thought I was dreaming, but they are here.” Shaun had no idea what the odds of that happening were, although if they lived close enough to the city the chances of them ending up at the closest settlement was pretty high.
“How did it go? Reuniting with everyone after so many changes and such a long amount of time?” He was curious as to how reunited families would go, people had changed, and quickly, since the integration. He could imagine that it wouldn’t always be for the better.
“It was….hard at first. We spent hours talking and going over everything that had happened. But in the end we were all just happy to be together again. Fiona is seeing someone new and seems happy. Jace and Nicola were a bit hesitant at the start, not sure how they should react to the new world and dynamic, but over the last few weeks they have really settled in and are doing well. I will introduce you to everybody tomorrow if you are up for it.”
Shaun agreed immediately, he was curious as to what Eric’s kids and ex were like. They never really spoke about their old lives, at least to Shaun. Not that he could blame anyone he wasn’t the most social person and even though both Gabe and Eric were his friends, they weren’t ones for heart felt conversations and pillow fights.
They spoke of a few more things after, Shaun told them that they would be able to use the crystals to teleport around in case they ever wanted to do some of the E rank dungeons. They also touched on what they would need from Shaun once he had recovered. Apparently, a lot of the basic combat classes were going smoothly but the more advanced stuff was harder to fill. Being one of the only E ranks around, he could probably start to help out in that area when it came to it. Magic classes were much harder to teach, especially without the kids having skills, Shaun had some ideas for that but would need to do some testing before he committed to anything.
He also some things that he needed to work on. The first was his skills, he had the gift from Commander Alserio that would help him train his skills to the max. The Box from Queen Elivasia that would help train his affinity to a new level and also the dragon core which he had promised to mediate on which King Shrakein had given him. He also had the Life and Death natural treasures that he could use.
The box and core he could take with him wherever he went, but the skill instance that was given to him by Commander Alserio could be placed only once. He had planned to only use it when he claimed the D grade dungeon, but now he was hesitating. A lot had changed since he had been to see the King and Queen, would they be angry if he placed it near the school? It was going to be left here regardless so he didn’t think so, but he would need to think on it before he bought it up with Eric and Gabe.
When they finished talking he sent to bed again, sleep and food were helping him recover quickly and for now that was what he needed to focus on. Everything else could wait for now.