Chapter 65 – Spoils
“Well, this is awkward.” Matt stated as he looked out at the crowd of people. Many of the classers were taking tentative steps back while others were kneeling on the ground, heads down. A few among them had actually passed out or just sprawled on the ground looking like they were asleep.
Van was still in a kneeling position when he raised his head and spoke. “What… What happened? I feel… I feel… more.” He rumbled in Matts mind.
“Yeah, about that.” He opened the first of many System messages vying for his attention.
You have absorbed: Iconic Essence (Unbound)
You have absorbed a fragment of raw and unbound iconic essence. As a living being, the essence will naturally aspect to you over a period of time and become bound to your personal aspect. To strengthen your personal aspect, gather more iconic essence. Protect your iconic essence from others.
Note: This essence may have an effect on your natural aura.
**Note**: This essence will react to your aura domain. Good luck.
Matt sighed heavily and began reeling in his aura again. It took a significant amount of time to figure out how to properly manipulate it since his domain had grown so much in an instant. He briefly wished he could have had a few weeks to adapt to the changes.
After struggling for several minutes to contain both his and Van’s aura, Matt began to go and wake people up. Most of them popped up with a gentle tap or wiggling their foot but one elf in particular proved to be a little stubborn.
“Jess….Jess….” Matt tried again to shake her. “Jess… Hmm, lets try this.” Matt summoned a small item out of his storage ring. A plastic tube with a twist top. After uncorking it, he dumped a smaller plastic and felt tube into his palm before dismissing the container back to storage.
“Look I am really sorry about this. Hope you forgive me.” Matt muttered as he cracked the encapsulated smelling salts and wafted it under the elf girl’s nose.
Jess’s eyes flew open, and she sat up gasping and coughing. “Ach. What. Acha. What the fuck is that! Oh, gods it burns!” she began flailing her arms, batting at Matts hand and knocking the vial into the grass. Echo, curious padded over and sniffed at it for a brief moment before scrunching his face and sneezing while backing away as fast as he could.
“Huh, looks like some races have harsher reactions to smelling salts than others.” It made sense to him. He doubted that the company had done testing to ensure safety on elves, orcs and beast kin. Not that they ever had the chance. He thought wryly. “Good, you’re up. Let’s finish policing everything and head back. I think that was the last wave but let’s be sure and not have any more surprises.”
Jess just stared at Matt as he walked back to the commander’s corpse, stored it in his ring, picked up a small disk like item, then climbed up into his mech and started off toward the city. “What the fuck are smelling salts?” she murmured under her breath before climbing back into her own mech and following after the rest of the classers and pilots.
On his return journey, Matt opened and read the rest of his messages while Van took control….
You have killed Possessed Commander. Level 51
You have defeated Icon of Conquest. Level N/A
*
Class Pilot- Gunfighter is now level 55.
Stat Points Awarded
*
Skill Selection available.
Please select from the following skills.
Unarmed Strike (Uncommon)
Any attack delivered without a weapon in hand has greater effects on target. Exploit openings with greater ease.
Assassinating Strike (Uncommon)
Deal extra damage to high-ranking enemies when you single them out. Can be used with Ranged or Melee Weapons.
Inspiring Presence. (Uncommon)
Allies following your commands will experience bonuses to attack and defense. Effect can reduce the effects of: Fear, mental attacks, sympathy.
Challenge Opponent (Rare)
Issue a challenge to an enemy of your choice and forcibly confine both yourself and them. You may issue the terms of the challenge, but your enemy retains challenged rights.
Convert Resource (Epic)
The restrictions of internal resources no longer apply, and you can convert one to another… for a cost.
“Alright, how can I say no to that. Its literally the big red button of skills.” Matt said as he selected the convert resources skill. For the 3rd time that day, he experienced a burning sensation sweeping through his soul while body, locked with spasms that reminded him of being tazed. It was a good thing he transferred control to Van otherwise the entire city would have seen a break-dancing construct.
“God damnit.” He said a moment later when the sensation faded. “I have had enough of this shit.
“But you got a good skill.” Van reminded him.
Matt took another look and couldn’t disagree. While the conversion rates were not the best for some resources, it would keep him alive in a pinch and he thought there might be a cheat with potions if he was willing to spend the money. “You’re right as always, Van. Let’s just get back and get this shit sorted out.”
*****
Franklin was rereading his screen for the 5th time since the end of the last wave. He was currently experiencing a mixture of emotions. Relief, pride, sadness, resolve, and many more besides. He looked up as a few people began filtering into the meeting room on the administrative floor. With a wave of his hand, he gestured for them to sit and got right to the point.
“Thanks for coming everyone, we have a few things to discuss before we get too far along. I am sure you all saw the completion announcement from the System. It should be of no surprise that it was only the bare minimum of information.” A chorus of knowing chuckles went around the room. “These are all of them that I received. I also just put the generic one in there since we all got it.
System event #1 has been completed.
Please wait while individual scores are calculated, and rewards are distributed.
Note: Reward distribution may vary based on individual contribution.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
*
You have cleared your first system event. After the final scores are calculated you will gain access to the following:
City Upgrade Shop (Limited)
System Shop (Regional)
Exchange Portal (Limited)
*
Due to the selection, you made before the event, you may receive a System enforced transfer of refugees. The number of refugees is variable. The status of refugees is defaulted to: Slave. Condition: Stasis
Refusal of refugees will send them to the nearest System approved slave market. Compensation will not be awarded for refused refugees.
“Umm, What the actual fuck.” Matt deadpanned. Seeing he was getting a lot of strange looks he decided to clarify. “Ahem, I mean. What the actual fuck do they mean slaves.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Franklin said. “This city was founded by free peoples and will remain for free people. I don’t think I have to explain our position on that one?” He asked, looking around the table at everyone shaking their heads. “Good. Now I am not sure how they will be… erm, delivered but I am sure we can handle it. It is my hope that we can accommodate their numbers, but worst case, we are cozy for a little while.”
“We have much food. Share garden with everyone.” Tengi said. He had to stand in his chair to be at the same height as the other but didn’t seem bothered. “But they help. We will have no… no… freeloaders.” He had to sound out the last word one syllable at a time.
“Exactly right. Thank you for your support in this, Tengi.” Franklin looked to the dwarf sitting to his left. “Sothrun, what do you think about our housing situation?”
“Welp, we might have only just figured out individual housing, we have 30 or so barracks that are empty and another 40 that are just filled with supplies. Given what we have right now and how much extra wood, stone and such we have, I think we could double the population before having significant issues.”
Rohm stood at that moment. “While I am all for helping those in need, we also need to consider their disposition. We need to prepare for people showing up with nothing and remember that they might not all be friendly.”
“Beat me to it, Rohm” Matt said. “There might be more than just impoverished folks showing up. I think it would be best to prepare our citizens for a possible culture clash.” He looked around and got a lot of thoughtful looks. “At least we won’t have a language barrier.” Matt said the last part in a joking voice and got a few smiles and one forceful exhale of a laugh.
Franklin rapped his knuckles on the tabletop to regain everyone’s attention. “Alright folks. We have 5 days and 20 hours before the event actually ends. In that time lets rest and recover. Matt, Tobias, Rohm, Sothrun, and Tengi, if you could stay for a few moments, everyone else is good to go.”
After everyone else filed out of the meeting room, Franklin opened a new System window for them all to see. This window was like his city management screen but instead of having stats of the city, it had a bunch of prices. “This particular window opened early. I have my thoughts, but do you see anything else that we should focus on?”
City Upgrade Shop (Limited)
Please select upgrades from the list below.
Note: any excess points will be returned as credits at a rate of 10-1 to the city coffers.
Note: you may not purchase more than the allotted points.
Optional alterations and upgrades.:
Forge Facility (+)[1]
Perimeter Wall (+)
Secondary Wall (+)
Terrain Adjustment (+)
City Infrastructure (+)
Defensive Barrier (+)
Relocate City (+)
Teleportation Hub (+)
Training Hall (+)
…
The list was extensive and seemed to be never ending with options. Out of curiosity, Matt touched the plus icon, and it opened a sub menu with even more options. He was about to read through the list under the teleportation hub but was interrupted by Franklin.
“I have only made one preselection and that is the enhanced forge. The rest are open for debate. I would like us to create a list to go through, so we don’t have to figure this out on the fly.” Franklin was passing them each sheet of paper.
Tobias was the first to speak up and rain on the orc’s day. “Frank, we don’t need the forge upgrade. I have already worked out a path for that through my class. We would end up surpassing the upgrades of the forge within a couple months.”
“Oh, well, um.” Franklin stuttered.
“I would say we look at things we don’t have or would be very difficult for us to do.” Matt said. “Like this training hall. It’s not just a big weight room, it’s a virtual training simulator.” He finished by showing the pop up from the interface.
The training hall would allow them to set predetermined scenarios and fight through them or even fight each other. The words on the package promised that all equipment, skills and abilities would function flawlessly.
“We can also look at this wall expansion.” Sothrun began. “While we can house nearly double our population, we cant easily get more space. It says here that we can expand the walls out and up without destroying anything. If we move the walls out and alter the terrain a little, we can have an even more defensible city.”
“The second wall can be built at any time, but I think it would be a waste since we don’t even have enough classers to man the damn thing.” Rohm piled on getting a nod of thanks from the dwarf.
Franklin smiled. “And this is why I asked for all of you to come. Ok, so. Who wants to go first?”
The next hour was spent discussing the pros and cons of each option and generating a series of lists. They ended up making several different lists based on the amount of points they receive, trying to balance the most cost-effective options.
Regardless of the list, they had a consistent top 3 of the barrier, perimeter wall and training hall. Tobias was sure that they could figure out all 3 of those but saw that the barrier and training hall were upgradeable and would have a lot of longevity.
“I think the teleportation pad would be cool, but it really isn’t that useful, all it would do is let us get to the mine and dungeon quicker.” Matt said. They were walking out of the hub, having decided to reconvene once they knew more.
Tengi nodded. “Wasteful when have good legs for walking.” The little dweller had been rather vocal about making sure the garden orb would stay put. When asked why, he explained how the orb mimicked what was around it. If they covered it, then it would be dark inside, if it was wet then it would be raining and so on. The pocket dimension was a fickle little thing and the dweller tribe had only just gotten it perfect.
Matt waved goodbye to the group. “Have a good night, folks, I am calling it a day.” He started to his house, Echo emerging from a small stand of freshly planted trees. He would have stayed to chat, but Tori had ‘called’ and asked to meet with him.
After setting up the ritual circle in his living room, Matt sat down and started the process. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in a very strange place.
It looked like a mix between a small theater and a stadium. The center was a glowing crystal which emitted a soft rainbow of light that played gently across the railings of the private boxes that surrounded it. Matt was standing in one of those boxes looking outward when he felt a presence approach from his right.
Taking his eyes off the mesmerizing crystal, he turned to face Tori as she greeted him. “Welcome back to the Exchange. Well, in a way.” She said.
“What do you mean in a way?”
Tori smiled. “Well, this is a fringe part, added long after the Exchange was first established. Also, you are not really here.”
‘Huh, so what part is this then?” Matt asked, curious as to why Tori was talking about this or summoned him here.
“This, my dear prime, is where we watched your performance during the event.”
Matt was giving Tori the side eye. “What do you mean we? And why here when you can literally watch me from anywhere.”
“Here partly because of tradition and also it is some what of an event for the universe. And We is Myself, Weltgan, one of my other primes, some gods you haven’t met and Lyrenthea.”
Matt wasn’t surprised at the words until the last name. He began looking around, wondering if the veiled queen was there with them. Finally, he just asked. “Is she here?” voice filled with a mix of emotion. His aura billowed out as he lost his grip on it. “Shit, sorry.” HE said as he began reeling it back in after seeing the look on Tori’s face.
“That is something we have to work on.” Tori said, in a more serious tone before reverting back to her normal voice. “She is in the exchange but not here. I will make arrangements for us all when the time comes.”
Matt nodded, feeling a little silly for how he acted. “Ok, well, I will try to do better about the aura thing.”
“Yes, well.” She summoned a crystal from her storage and held it up for Matt to see. “My other prime took it upon himself to take copious notes.” Matt reached for the crystal but Tori dismissed it to her ring. “Sorry, System wont let you have this yet, I can give it to you after the event finishes.”
“Oh, well when what was it you wanted to talk about?”
“Slaves.” Tori said in a flat voice. “I understand your opinion on the matter but wanted to head this off before you misunderstand something.” She was staring at the crystal in the center of the room. “I purchase slaves for the order by the hundreds. But I don’t keep slaves.”
Matt was sure there was a good explanation and waved his hand for Tori to get on with it. “Come on Tori, lets get to the point.”
“The System is very particular about what it calls balance. When someone becomes a slave they are trading more then freedom, they are trading responsibility. Either voluntarily or unwillingly, they have chosen to give up responsibility for a certain guarantee of safety. The problem comes from what you want to do.” Tori was on a roll, building momentum.
“I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to give them freedom but they need to earn it or the System will not see the exchange as balanced and they will inevitably stagnate. You need to convert them from slave to indentured. They have to work off the ‘debt’ of the System saving their lives.” The paused for a moment before looking him in the eye. “This is the same thing I do with all the slaves we purchase. We convert them to indentured and they work off the debt of what it took to purchase them. Yours will have a relatively low cost and I wouldn’t be surprised if many were free within a week.”
“What kind of work are we talking? I cant imagine that System will let them work off the debt via combat or the like.” Matt asked.
Tori smirked. “Got it in one.” She did finger guns at him.
Matt cringed. “Tori, your amazing and honestly I respect the hell out of you but please, never do that again.”
She frowned. “I thought that was from Earth.”
“Oh, it was. But that was also decades ago when it was considered cool.”
“Ah, got it.” She seemed to make a mental note. “Anyway, back to the matter at hand. They will have to do menial work or at least work that isn’t inherently dangerous. You could have them assist a craftsman, run errands for the city leadership, help dig ditches, it doesn’t really matter.”
Matt thought on that for a few moments. He could probably come up with a plan to help but also needed to tell Franklin about the development. One thing was for certain, he didn’t want to end someone’s path by such means.