Maxwell

After we finished looting the dungeon, we checked it over for anything else that might be of value. The cave was filled with minable veins of ore and other stone materials, but none of us had the proper skills to harvest it. We could use our attack skills on the veins, however, that would take time and mana that we were lacking currently. Not to mention, most of us just wanted to take the rest of the evening off.

Once my mana returned to full, I teleported us back to the village. It was almost refreshing how everyone separated without much of a word to each other. It reminded me of the good old days of pick-up parties that were common in online games. I wasn’t complaining though. I was tired from the dungeon.

I made my way to the manor. Once inside, I dropped into a chair and just let out a long sigh. The party worked well together, but there was tension in the air the whole time. I wasn’t quite sure where it came from. I didn’t want to say anything, but I had felt like the only one really doing damage in the dungeon. Stone monsters were difficult to damage with edged weapons and basic spells. Spatial Tear was strong in that regard at least.

Dungeon dive aside, I was pleased with the result. I got nearly a hundred mana stones to spend toward the village. Adding in the nearly two dozen that I had from Razz, then I was sitting pretty. I approved the next few buildings on the list then took a look at the resources. We would have to increase metal ore gain to keep up with construction. That being the case, I went ahead and used ten of the cores on golems to add to the workforce.

It was nice that the buildings were built instantly. If this were earth, the village would still be working on its first few houses. Either way, we were well on our way to becoming a decent place to live. With the admin details out of the way for the moment, I crawled over to my bed and dropped down closing my eyes despite myself.

Constantly using so much mana as well as emptying my gauge repeatedly was draining. I just wanted to sleep for the night even though evening had just started. A nap wouldn’t hurt, I suppose. If this was going to be my life from now on, I had to start enjoying it a bit more. I finally closed my eyes and was out like a light.

A crack of thunder woke me up. I sat up and glanced out the window to find a storm raging. It must have come on quickly since the skies were clear earlier. I checked the time to find that it was just past midnight. I had managed to sleep well over seven hours.

I also noticed a message from Razz. I clicked on the icon. The member of his party that died during the dungeon had respawned. I could only take a few shallow breaths as I read the next part. The man had suffered a traumatizing level of pain when he died and when he respawned a few hours later. Razz was still in the middle of calming the man down, but had wanted to let me know.

Closing the message, I fell back on my bed. That was one mystery answered. We didn’t feel pain when we got hurt. That was a left over feature from the game. This new detail about how we respawned… was that a herald to more to come? For now, I decided that I would do everything in my power to avoid dying. It was a good thing that I was able to teleport.

Stretching, I got up and walked into the kitchen. The manor I selected to use for my village came with a number of rooms, but I hadn’t really had the chance to use them. I enjoyed eating with the villagers at the canteen. I peeked into the cupboards expecting them to be empty but found a few selections. I checked them over carefully, but they were fresh. Almost as if they had been added just today.

A few short minutes later, I had a decent sandwich in my hands as I headed for the study. Just as I sat down at the desk, there was a ding in my ear. A notification appeared in front of me announcing that Alflona had been prompted to Town.

Congratulations! Alflona has reached the level of Town. Because you are in unclaimed territory you are able to establish a City-State. This will create the Diplomacy stat and War Stat. Being a City-State will influence population growth, tax revenue, military strength, and culture gain. A City-State can be promoted to nation-state with the declaration of a capital and having a second town under your influence.

I read the message a few times before dismissing it. I was surprised that we could suddenly become a city-state. It might invite trouble with the Goblin and Orc nations that were in the forest, but at the same time the territory was unclaimed anyway. There was also the influence on population. If we could get even more people daily, then that would speed things up even more.

Putting that aside for the time being, I opened the city status screen. I wanted to see what being a town entailed compared to that of a village.

--

Dark Elf Town LV.1

Name: Alflona

Population: 1,207

Players: 27

Lord: Maxwell Orfen

Government: Monarchy

Religion: Goddess of the Void, Voasis

Architecture: Magi-Work

Defense Rating: 37

Cultural Rating: 11

Health Rating: 15

Buildings: 101 (Open Build Menu)

New Settlement Bonus: Protected (Safe for one month from outside forces.)

Dark Elf Village Bonus: Magical Structures (Elves pride themselves on their magical prowess. Their structures require mana but take half as many resources.)

Recovering – This settlement was recently attacked and suffered lost of life. The people are still recovering. -5% productivity (1 Day 23 Hours)

Vassal – Free-Mud (Goblin, Metalworks) +15% Morale

The Influence of the Void – Dark elves that come to this settlement will be corrupted by the void eventually becoming Void Elves. +10% to void magic, +10% to mana gain while in territory borders.

Declaration of War – The dungeon core Aurora has declared war against Alflona. Morale suffers during a state of arms. Current penalty -0.5%

--

My little settlement was quickly growing up. It was hard to believe that we already had over a thousand people living in the town. If only we could do something about Aurora. Sadly, from the looks of it, she was dead set on fighting against us. If the conflict grew too much, I would have to consider relocating my village to a new area. It would be difficult, but it was possible.

I dismissed that thought for the time being. I knew Aurora was an unreasonable type of person, but everything had its limits. Even she would have to come to her senses at some point. I just hoped there wasn’t too much death in between this point and that one.

Sighing, I closed my menus. In the morning I would have to start going through all the NPCs to select ones that were good at certain jobs. It was a tedious process, but it had to be done to make sure everything in the village was being handled properly. It was times like this that I envied Razz. He was able to just give everything over to me so that he could just be a player. A player with a decent army, but a player, nonetheless.

At some point the sun began to peek through the window. I stretched with a yawn. What would today bring to my doorstep, I wondered. It would be nice if it wasn’t deadly for once.

~~~

Teleporting to the Immigration Gate, I went through the usual motions of introducing myself and explaining the situation to the new arrivals before teleporting them back down to the surface. While doing so, I got the idea to set up a one way teleporting rune to put me out of a job. My rune crafting skill was nowhere near high enough, but it was a goal for the time being.

Looking over the new arrivals, I felt this batch was pretty combat oriented. Most of them were covered in scars and carried themselves with poise similar to that of a trained soldier. They were also quick to accept the explanation. It made my morning easier, but I went ahead and informed the Guard Captain about it so that he could be on watch. I knew the arrivals had to sign a contract of sorts with the system before they could accept the teleportation, but I had no way of knowing the complete details of said contract. Better safe than sorry.

I was about to head to breakfast when I got a message from Razz. Running my hand through my hair to try and relieve some of the tension, I just knew this was going to be a hassle. Resigning myself to my fate, I teleported over to Free-Mud. The town had already returned to its former… glory. For a goblin town at least.

Heading toward the Chieftain house, I spotted the heads of the inquisition that Razz had taken. Goblins pointed them out with wide grins and seemed to be genuinely excited about the sight. I just shook my head at the sight. I was glad that I had gone with the dark elves. Of course, to please my people in the same way was going to be far more expensive. Dark elves, and by extension Void Elves had fancy tastes. They liked magical artifacts, delicious food, fine jewelry, and everything else that had to do with high society.

Knocking on the door, I pushed my way inside. Razz sat at a desk reading a parchment with some of his party members sitting in the lounge nearby. Looks like whatever the issue was, was serious. “Anyone home?” I called since it looked like my knock went unnoticed.

Razz looked up with a black stare before his focus returned. “Ah. Maxwell. Sorry to bother you so early in the morning.” Razz’s tone was nearly devoid of all its usual energy.

“It’s not a problem,” I said as I walked over while subtly looking at the rest of the faces in the room. They were all grim as well. “I’m guessing this isn’t to ask me to brunch.”

“Not this time. Here.” He held out the parchment to me. I took the parchment and gave it a once over before really focusing on the contents. It was just a few lines, but it was like the weight of the forest was pressing down on me. The system announcement that followed didn’t help matters.

The nation of Eblos has declared war on Free-Mud Town. As a result of this being a declaration against your vassal, your town of Alflona is required to answer any calls for aid. Failure to do so will have widespread consequences. Declaration of War - -10% Morale, -5% Production, +10-50% Wartime Production, -5% Immigration.

I glared at the paper for a long moment then just let out a drawn-out breath. “Well. I think I still want to get some brunch.” I crumbled up the parchment. If there was one caveat of good news, Eblos had been kind enough to inform us of their coming army of nearly ten thousand strong was going to crush us. Whether we could use this to our advantage, that was still to be seen. I should probably thank the goblins for being stupid enough to give that sort of information to the enemy while trying to brag.

I took a seat since my legs were feeling strangely weak. Looking up at Razz, I managed to just barely coax out a smile. “At least today can’t get any worse, right?” I knew as soon as I said it that I shouldn’t have. My prediction came true less than ten seconds later.

The Nation of Scarlet Night has declared war on you!

All this and I hadn’t even had breakfast yet…