Chapter Forty-Eight: Town Builder, Extreme Mode.

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Mentally swiping the notification away, Aiden stepped forward, touching the edge. As his fingers caressed the earthen surface, it flashed brightly, rapidly expanding into a large stone tablet. A large interface, like a notification mixed with three dimensional holographics, appeared in front of him.

He looked at Anna, and it seemed she couldn’t perceive what he saw. “Try touching it.”

She rested her hand on the tablet, shaking her head. He looked for any way to share the holographic notification with her, but there was no option to.

Frowning, he sighed. “It probably only lets me see because I’m the Gate Leader. I’ll just tell you everything I see.”

She nodded, sitting down against the stairs with her elbow on her knees, her chin resting on her palm.

Observing the different menus revealed a plethora of information. The first tab was labeled “Overview”, and many things were blank. His current population only numbered eight with one building - the Town Hall.

“This is a lot,” he muttered.

Anna tuttered. “Wish I could see it. What’s it say?”

“Everything.”

“What?”

“It shows every detail, big or small, and has options to change everything - or set everything, since they’re all blank.”

Overview
[Unnamed Settlement]
Size	Settlement
Population	8
Gate Leader	Aiden Pearce
Main Buildings	1
Supporting Buildings	-
Magical Buildings	-
Resource Generation	-
Amenities	-
Entertainment	-
Description:	[Unnamed Town] was settled and claimed by the Gate Leader, Aiden Pearce. It currently lacks any functionality.

Each section could be expanded on, and Aiden tested a few. Under Population, everyone’s names showed in addition to their ages. Selecting one of the building categories showed greyed out options by alphabetical order with zeroes as far as he could see. Swiping away the Overview interface, he looked at the various tabs available to delve into.

Political

Military

Economy

Infrastructure

Social

There were only five tabs, but that was a deceptive number. Selecting Political dropped down to a second window.

Political
Internal	External

But that wasn’t all. The menus continuously extended, allowing for even more options. This will take some time to get used to.

Internal
Law	Trade	Hierarchy	Association	[ADD]

There were several defaults prepared by the system, but when he selected the option to add, another massive window appeared. This one had so many nooks and crannies to fiddle with, he closed it and rubbed his temples. A problem for future me to figure out.

He wouldn’t be limited to the defaults, allowing him freedom to modify all the preexisting options as well as create anything else he may need.

Digging deeper into each category revealed different policies. Law contained different setting for penalizing misbehavior, ranging from petty theft to premeditated murder.

“So, there’s a lot to unpack here. The first page is an Overview, but then there are five tabs for Town operations. Selecting one drops down subsections, and then selecting one of those drops down even more options. It seems like everything you can imagine is modifiable,” he explained, stepping away from the dais. The hologram-like notification faded, allowing him to focus on Anna.

“The Gate Leader introduction said something about magically creating buildings. Did you see anything like that?” When he shook his head, she grumbled, “That’s just great. We need to find water and food. The Town Hall can be a shelter for now.”

“The Hierarchy of Needs?” Aiden asked, raising a brow. “Never thought that would really be relevant.”

“It was always relevant, but convenience stores existed before. Now we have an issue.” She sat next to him on the steps, staring at the Town Control Hub. “It has a lot of things that it can do, but it sounds like it’s something that we’ll have to put a lot of work into.”

“I mean, we only have a population of eight. We don’t even really qualify as a Town. We’re a Settlement.” He clasped his hands and leaned his elbows on his thighs. “We need more people. Do you think we should-”

“No.”

“You didn’t even let me-”

“Searching for Adam and the others would be a big time burn, especially since we have no idea where to look for them or if they’re anywhere near the school anymore.” She raised a brow, daring him to refute her.

Humming, he closed his eyes. “So, what now?”

“I think we need to figure out what the Associations can do. As soon as that’s done, we get to doing what we have to,” she said, shrugging. “It’s as easy as that.”

“Easy, huh?”

Standing up, he returned to the Hub, sifting through different options until he found what he was looking for.

Hierarchy
Gate Leader			Aiden Pearce
[ADD]

Selecting the option to add, he found Anna’s name in the list of Population and went through the hundreds of different titles. The system required he give her a salary of at least one percent of their Town’s revenue or a set amount of Essence and Cores.

Strange, but if I look at it like a job, it makes sense. He set her income to one percent of the Town’s revenue to start at. He nervously swapped between one and three, unsure. He left it at two just in case he couldn’t change it later.

Selecting through different titles didn’t take long, resolving to add her as an advisor. When he selected the role, it dropped down with a select bar of different responsibilities and permissions that Anna would gain access to, including viewing things on the Town Control Hub.

The option to allow her modify things was greyed out, apparently unavailable to the advisor position. Time to go searching.

The next few minutes sent him on a wild goose chase as he searched for a role that allowed her access to modify things in the Town Control Hub. He didn’t find one, grumbling in frustration when he submitted the addition of Anna, The Advisor to the Hierarchy tab.

Anna Michaels added as Advisor!
Only one modification can be made to Hierarchy every twelve hours!
Time Until Reset	11:59:45

“Wow, that was unexpected,” Anna said, approaching the Hub. “I see you found a solution to our issue. Advisor though? You could’ve gone with secretary, just like in all the por-”

Aiden cleared his throat, rolling his eyes. “You should be able to view things on the Hub now.”

He reactivated it, the holographic notification spinning to orient towards him. He swiped past the Overview page back toward the tabs, allowing her a chance to see everything he’d mentioned. Taking her through the same route he’d explored, he showed her the different Internal Politics options. Once she got a basic runthrough, he went back to the main tab page.

Grinning, he turned toward her, raising a brow. “So, Advisor, what do you think we should do next?”

Holding out her hand, she started counting as she spoke. “Let’s consider this. The Shadowborn probably aren’t done with us, there’s a crazy mind mage running around, and there’s still a whole world we’re unaware of around us. Not only that, we still need food, water, a way to store all that, fortifications, and a better understanding of the surrounding area.”

“That’s a lot…”

“Not to mention, we still need to take care of the next Quest you have.”

“Let’s do that first,” he said, swiping away the Hub.

The potential within the Hub was massive, and he would have to commit a lot more time playing with the menus and options to figure things out once he and his group found a source of water and food.

“Do you think I should do it here, or…?” he asked, pulling out the Summon from his bag. He pulled the Alliance Contract, staring at it. “Better late than never.”

The thing had been a reward for defeating the dungeon boss. He didn’t think he’d be using it for some time, so he hadn’t bothered with checking it out. The name made it seem rather self-explanatory, so he’d let it sit inside. But there was no harm in analyzing it now.

Especially if they might summon something - or someone - worth using it on. When put like that, it sounds like enslavement. Better to check it out to know for sure.

He removed the silver and gold twine wrapping the Contract, unfurling it. Blue and red lettering glowed mystically as he observed it.

Alliance Contract - Temporary

A rare item used to forcefully establish an alliance.

Nervously, he flicked the item notification over to Anna. It took her a moment to read it, but she stared at the item in disgust. “That sounds like slavery, Aiden.”

“It can’t be, right? It says it establishes an alliance, even if it does so forcefully. I’m thinking about using it on whatever appears from the Summon.” She frowned, opening her mouth to speak. “Anna, really. You just listed off all the things that we have to do, all the issues we have to overcome. Do we really have a choice?” She glared back at him, folding her arms. “Really, I don’t think this is what you think it’ll be.”

“You don’t know that. This could be exactly what I think it is, and I don’t like it.” She huffed in frustration, but he could see the calculations running through her head. “I really don’t like it.”

“I get that. I don’t really want to temporarily enslave people either, but I doubt the system would give us that power. I really do think this will just keep some murderhobo that’s way stronger than us from treating us like Avacyn. I don’t want a repeat of that.” He shook his head. “Ever.”

“See, but using that thing would be like doing what Avacyn did but worse. She didn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to,” she adamantly refuted. “You-”

Aiden shook his head, and she clamped her mouth closed. “We’re not getting anywhere like this, and as you said, we have a ton to take care of. Let’s just…”

“Whatever,” she grumbled, leaving the room.

Blizzy nuzzled against his leg, chirping quietly. Reassuring energy passed through their bond, and she licked the tips of his finger. Despite how frustrated he was with the quick spat, he couldn’t stop himself from chuckling.

“You’re such a good girl, Blizzy. You’ll never get angry and stomp off, right?” She chirped happily in response as he pat her head, careful to avoid her sharp horns. “What do you think we should do? Things are getting worse by the hour, and I don’t know what to do…”

Blizzy chirped back, nuzzling against his leg again.

He grinned. “I get it. Thank you.”

Together with his dragon, he stepped out of the Hub room and followed Anna downstairs. He’d see about figuring everything else out once he finished the Quest.

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