As everyone was finding places to settle in, Ennolf finished a large feast. The meals were simple, easy to prepare in large quantities, but it was still food. And, more specifically, it was good food, prepared by an expert chef.
While we ate, I learned about some of my new residents and their stories. The more I heard, the more my stomach turned. Because of how quickly I traveled, and the fact that I typically avoided areas with heavy foot traffic, I never came across instances of serious abuse against Fallen.
Sure, there was the situation with Evergreen, but compared to what some of these people went through, that was nothing. For instance, there was a halfling girl named Clara. Her player was part of a gold farming scheme. She had to watch as she mailed away all of her starting funds, and then walked off to a small camp near the city.
Some players had gotten their hands on a respawn anchor, and used it to make a death farm. People like Clara were walked into a cage, and then their players deleted the character. As soon as they were Fallen, the floor gave out beneath them, and they fell to their deaths. However, they would respawn back in the cage, doomed to fall again and again.
Their only reprieve was when the players running the farm stopped long enough to loot the bodies. Once their traits were looted, they were subjected to poison, fire, or cold, forced to obtain resistance skills just so they could be looted to farm the skill books. I’d like to say that stories like Clara’s were rare, but there were quite a few with similar experiences.
Then, there were the Johanna quartet. They weren’t related, but they looked completely identical, all blonde catfolk with abundant figures. They believed that they were all abandoned by the same player in the first days after the game went live. When the player seemed dissatisfied with their traits, she sold everything they had and mailed away the money.
Most of these people were found by sympathetic players and led to Fallowton, where Nuoda and Ennolf readily accepted them. There were even nearly a dozen Drakes, all believed to have been from the same guy that abandoned me.
At some point, Diane had appeared, listening to the stories with me. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, fists clenched at her sides. I could see her shoulders trembling with barely-contained rage. With her own history of being abandoned, these stories no doubt struck a nerve for her.
As for the players that had joined them, they were unable to stand by as so many people were abused and tortured. It felt nice to know that there were other players that saw us as people, and were even willing to give up their own time of enjoyment to help others. Although there weren’t many, there didn’t need to be. All it took was a few willing to make a difference.
“So, what’s your plan now?” Ennolf asked as he walked around to collect dirtied plates. “I’m sure that you’ve still got your own goals, don’t you?”
I thought about that for a moment, looking over at Diane and Bella. “I’d like to continue my travels. However, for that, I need someone to handle things while I’m gone. Thanks to all the people you’ve brought with you, I have a few noble slots.”
“That’s easy. Give one of the slots to Nuoda.” Ennolf said with a cheeky smile. “She was always the one to manage things back in Fallowton, even though I was officially the lord.”
Nuoda groaned from nearby. “That’s because you were always obsessed with your cooking. You were either in the kitchen or out hunting ingredients.” After she said that, Nuoda looked at me with a gentle smile. “If you want, I can manage things here. Though, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do here. This area is a lot higher level than Athua, so our players will need to do a lot of grinding to be able to defend the city.”
I nodded my head sympathetically. “There’s a village just down the road with powerful NPCs. They can help train people, and can even learn skills if given skill books or quests. But be careful with them, they don’t respawn.” I said, and Nuoda’s eyes widened. “My plan right now is to find other nearby villages, maybe start expanding towards the rift. That’s the only way we’re going to get any new residents.”
Nuoda pursed her lips, giving the idea some thought. “I’m not against expanding. Obviously, we need some more people that can properly defend the city. However, I wouldn’t advise expanding any further north. Don’t forget, that rift also connects to the demon realm. Even if we recruited high level players, we’re not equipped to fight back the demons. And it would be hard to get the Fallen on your side.”
“Once we’re able to create our own defense line, then we can head north. Until then, I think we should focus on expanding south and west. As for recruiting other players, we can have Sarah as our lifeline to the prime realm. Anyone who wants to sign up, we’ve got a forum for them online, and Sarah can go bring them here.”
“I suppose… though, I should ask since you two probably know more about it. How do these dungeon tickets work? Do you get to choose what type of dungeon appears? Or even what level range?” I asked, and Ennolf’s lips twitched.
“Those things are super expensive. I raised enough money in Fallowton to buy two of them at one point. To answer your question, there are no customization options for the lord buying the ticket. The only thing the ticket does is force a dungeon to generate near the city. You don’t even get to choose where near the city it appears.”
My brow furrowed, but I nodded my head. “Still, we need at least one local dungeon, whether it’s for training or for the economy, and there’s no telling how long it will take for one to naturally spawn. Tomorrow, I plan on buying one or two dungeons, and raiding them with Bella and Diane.”
Ennolf seemed to agree with that. “Alright. Just let me know if there’s anything good in there. You know, ingredients and such like that.” He said with a grin, though Nuoda just rolled her eyes.
“Are you planning to buy a resource dungeon, too?” She asked, but I shook my head.
“Resource dungeons are far too expensive. It’s probably because they basically print money, but with the price tag of fifty platinum… there’s no way that I can afford one right now. Maybe if the profits from the new dungeons can add up, I’ll be able to afford one later. But for right now, I need to leave a little money for the shops, so they can buy items from players. Then, we can have Sarah go to other cities to sell those items and bring the money back. That should keep our economy stable.”
Of course, we’d pay Sarah for her trouble, just like Slithers and other traveling merchants. Nuoda nodded her head in agreement at the idea. “Thankfully, Sarah’s really good at errands like this. Not so good in a fight, but that’s the drawback, I guess.”
“Not good in a fight?” I blinked in confusion, glancing over towards the red-skinned orc. “I assumed spatial magic would be extremely powerful in combat. What type of monster can withstand the space around them collapsing, or being split in half?”
Sarah seemed to hear us, smiling wryly and looking over. “It’s not that easy. There are always distortions before the spatial effect, and it’s hard to distort space that’s already occupied. I could force my way through it, but I’d only get one attack off before I run out of energy. Maybe two with this new buff. My main way of leveling up so far has been quests, and occasionally killing boss monsters that I can take it with my one big shot.”
I chuckled at that, nodding my head. “I’ll work on a long-term quest for you overnight, and give it to you before we tackle the dungeons.” Sarah’s eyes seemed to light up at that, as a long-term quest was essentially official employment by the city with both a steady wage and reliable experience.
After the meal ended, we helped the new residents settle in. Nuoda revealed that she was a tailor, so I passed the furs I had collected over to her, so she could make any blankets or clothes that the new residents needed.
Thankfully, there were more than enough houses for everyone, as quite a few people had gathered together in small families. Meanwhile, Diane and Bella sat in the living room of our house, across from me. “You both heard earlier, but I’ve got slots I can use for nobles now. I’ve got one slot each for Viscount and Baron, which according to the system will get the six-star variant of my trait. Aside from that, I have three Lord slots, which each get a fifth-tier variant.”
Bella and Diane looked at each other, seeming to contemplate. “What’s the reduction like for a six-star variant?” Diane asked, but I shook my head.
“I don’t have any way to know that, either.” I answered honestly, and she nodded.
“In that case, I think you should make Nuoda your Viscount and Chancellor. Bella and I can be basic Lords until you have higher tier slots available for both of us.” Diane said in a firm tone, looking at Bella for confirmation.
The elven girl hesitated, but ultimately nodded her head. “Right. Better to keep us at the same rank to prevent others from thinking you favor one of us over the other.” She said, her cheeks rosy.
With a nod, I assigned the two of them the Lord title. In doing so, I was given the option to grant them a settlement to govern, but I left that blank for now. The two quickly decided on their surnames, with Diane choosing Kagemura and Bella choosing Greenwood.
I could understand Bella’s choice, but I looked at Diane in confusion. “It means Shadow Village in a language among Players, and ninjas are often associated with that language.” She explained proudly, as if showing off her knowledge.
Bella and I simply chuckled, amused by her choice. With that taken care of, the three of us turned in for the night.
The next day, the first thing I did was present Sarah with the quest that I had promised her. Basically, it was a long-term quest for her to sell items from the city’s shops to other cities in the prime realm, and bring back the money. In exchange, she could keep two percent of the value of any trade she performed as part of this quest.
Two percent didn’t sound like a lot, but that was intentional. The less I offered her in terms of monetary value, the more experience the system would include in the quest to make up the difference. And with two percent, that still meant she’d be making two gold for every platinum worth of goods she traded. Not a huge amount, but enough to add up after a few trades, and with a low difficulty level for her.
Sarah seemed pleased with the quest, so I was sure that the experience made it worth it for her. Of course, there was currently nothing for her to sell just yet, so she was left waiting around for now. Meanwhile, I walked to one of the tall towers lining the city’s walls, before finally purchasing the dungeon ticket.
At first, nothing seemed to happen, until I felt a slight tremor in the ground. Using Hawkeye-X, I surveyed the area from a bird’s eye view, soon spotting a ruined fortress tucked between two mountains a dozen kilometers away from the city. That fortress had clearly not been there before, so I could only assume that was our new dungeon. As for how powerful the monsters within it were… well, it was about time for us to go and find that out.
