“The closest town is Apotoyuca, so I think we should check on them first.” Evren said as he pointed to the map, “But there are only four significant towns north of us, while there’s seven to the south of St. Gloria.”

Evren smiled, “Plus I really like the name Apotoyuca. It just rolls off the tongue.”

He looked at the others in the room. “What we really need is an ambassador with guards that can go around to all these towns and set them straight.”

“Can’t you do that Evren?” Ellis asked.

Evren sighed and said, “Yeah, but no. We’ve got to find a leader for all these towns, and a leader above them who can enforce the rules. It’s too big for the amount of people we have and I’m wondering if it would be possible to split the country into smaller ones, and if there is anyone capable and uncorrupted that would be able to take a lot of this stuff off of my hands.”

Evren took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “On top of that, we’ve got summoned coming in that we need to stay here for to ensure everyone gets freed.” Evren shook his head, “I need to get with Mr. Hill about finding more politicians to help out around here. Maybe we can vote for the best and make them leader.”

Evren shrugged and said, “I guess I’ll have to bring that up in today’s meeting.”

“How are the meetings going?” Walter asked.

“I’d like to say good, but we’ve lost about thirty percent of the recovered summoned to suicide.” Evren replied.

He walked into the cathedral and sat down in the priest’s chair in the sanctuary. Walter had sat down at the first set of pews and was chatting quietly with one of the summoned. As Evren was waiting for the morning bell to go off, he suddenly yawned.

He heard the morning bell go off and waited a few minutes before addressing the nearly full cathedral.

“Good morning, everyone.” Evren said as he addressed the crowd. He heard a chaotic chorus of replies from the gathered summoned. “Today I’d like to ask you for assistance, if possible. I’m looking for someone who has experience in politics and would like to be an appointed mayor of a nearby town called Dolbalt.”

One person in the third row raised her hand as well as a person near the back. He gestured to the person in the third row and said, “I forget your name, I’m sorry. I’m still having troubles distinguishing faces.”

The woman replied, “My name is Amiya, I’m a woman.”

Evren and everyone else got a laugh out of that, as everyone has already been informed, he has a difficult time distinguishing between the sexes.

“Thank you, Amiya.” He gestured to the back and said, “Who was it that raised their hand in the back? Could you come forward so I can hear you a little better?

A man stood and walked his way towards the third row where Amiya was sitting and sat down saying, “I’m Luke.” Luke had started to grow a beard, which is why he didn’t mention his sex, and Evren knew women didn’t grow facial hair.

Evren asked the both of them to explain what sort of experience they had in politics. Amiya was previously a mayor and was running for a congressional seat when her competition had her murdered. Luke was formerly a judge and had retired to work as a district council position.

“Alright then, that makes it easy. Amiya you’re going to be in charge, and Luke, you will go with her to support her.”

Luke said, “Are you sure she should be put in charge?”

Evren asked, “Why do you ask that?”

Luke replied, “Well, because she’s a woman.”

Evren nodded and gestured to Amiya, “Yeah, she said she was earlier. I remembered.”

“Well, wouldn’t it be better if a man became mayor instead?” Luke asked.

Evren nodded in understanding and turned to Amiya, “Amiya, I’m sorry but Luke won’t be going with you to Dolbalt. We’ll have to find someone else to give you a hand there.”

Evren then looked to the rest of the people in the room and was about to ask a question when he was interrupted by Luke, “Are you seriously going to put her in charge?”

Evren turned to Luke and asked him, “Are you seriously thinking a woman can’t do the job a man can do? What planet are you from?”

Luke replied simply, “Earth.”

“Earth? Earth? What a weird name for a planet.” Evren shrugged, “Is it the view of the people of earth that women are inferior to men?”

A few people in the crowd said, “No.”

Evren shook his head, “No? So, it’s just this guy being a bigot?” He looked down at the man and said, “Alright, you can go sit in the back again.”

Luke got up and said, “You’ll regret it.” As he walked to his former seat in the back.

Evren clapped his hands twice and said, “Alright, Miss Amiya is going to need some assistants. I’d like some engineers, some PR folks, someone who’s got a clue about security. I’ll take a clown who can make a balloon animal in record time. As long as you give your support, you’ll be welcome. Meet up with Amiya after today’s meeting and we’ll have a separate discussion.”

“Next on the agenda, does anyone want to leave this town to do something else? I know we’ve taught several of you magic and swordplay already. We can teach more people if you’re interested. There are other towns, other continents, dungeons and monsters that are present in this world. If you wish to tackle … what was it called?”

“Adventurer.” Walter said.

“Yes, thank you. If you want to become an adventurer, we can help you get you on your feet and out the door. Or if you just want to move and live a quiet life, that’s an option as well.” Evren said as he looked around the room. Several people had raised their hands and he gestured for them to lower their hands. “See Walter after the meeting.”

“Me?!” Walter asked.

“Yeah, you just volunteered, didn’t you?” Evren smiled, and Walter sighed.

“On the Aernide continent there’s a place called Aernide Fortress. It guards a dungeon called the Aernide Dungeon. That dungeon is at the least 151 levels. I think Nhagir said it was currently 200 levels in total. Anyways, inside that dungeon is a place called Anbuton. It’s a town. It’s what could be described as a peaceful place. There are no monsters there even though it’s inside a dungeon.” Evren explained.

“How is that possible?” someone asked.

“Well, the dungeon is large, and to keep people inside of it, I guess that it made a level that would allow people to take a break. Eventually a town was made there. Once the Holy State attacked the Fortress, everyone who didn’t fight went into the dungeon, and the entrance was collapsed behind them.” Evren said.

“If they were stuck in there, how’d they get out, and how do you know about it?” someone asked.

“Well, I dug out the entrance and fought my way to the floor they were on. Now they’re rebuilding the fortress. There’s also a town nearby, outside the monster infested forest, called Plinth if anyone wants to pioneer that town as well.” He added.

Evren then asked, “Oh, is Orion here?”

“Right here, dude!” he replied.

Evren frowned, “Are you eating?”

“Yeah, dude. I found some wild peanuts in the forest and roasted some up, my good man.” He replied proudly.

Evren scratched his head as a few people chuckled, “Orion has mentioned to me previously that he wants to explore the nearby forests to look for wild plants that can be used as food. If anyone has any interest in that, you can join up with him.”

“There is also a trio of people who are playing music for entertainment nights at the Misty Bamboo if you want to support them. Currently they’re using magic, but if anyone knows how to make musical instruments see Shane, Chad or Louise.” As Evren said this, Shane lifted his arm into the air and cast the ‘light’ spell.

“We’re right here!” he said.

A couple people laughed at that, and Evren finished the meeting with, “Ok, so those people who are interested in helping Amiya, come up here.” He gestured with his hand to the area she was sitting, “For those who are interested in going out and exploring this new world, come up here.” Evren gestured to the opposite side of where Amiya’s group was. “And lastly, for those interested in music, see the three in the back.”

Evren then said, “Thank you all for coming, don’t forget to talk to someone if you think you want to hurt yourself.”

Evren turned to Walter, “Can you take care of the adventurer group?”

Walter nodded and headed over to where they were gathering. “On it.”

Evren walked over to Amiya’s group and listened in on their conversation. A lot of hopeful and potentially promising people were there.

Amiya asked, “Evren, can you tell me a little bit about the town we’ll be going to.”

Evren nodded and said, “It’s a port town.”

They stared at Evren expecting him to continue, but he didn’t.

Amiya asked, “Is that it?”

Evren nodded, “You just asked for a little bit of information.”

Amiya’s expression fell and she gave Evren a dirty look. Evren just smiled as wide a smile as he could.

Evren then added, “To be honest, I don’t know much about Dolbalt, that’s why I’ll also be going with you. I know it’s a port town, and I know it’s about three weeks away.”

“Oh, that’s thirty days, ten days a week, three weeks a month.” Evren added.

“What’s your plan once you get there?” Amiya asked.

“Seafood.” Evren answered.

“And then after that, I suppose I can topple the government there and ensure a smooth transition to the new regime.” Evren added.

“By the way, what is the name of this new country?” Amiya asked.

Evren faked a serious face and said, “Evrendia? No, Bozdagland? Kingdom of Evren?”

“I thought you didn’t want to rule?” She retorted.

“Oh, I don’t. I’ll just be renting my name out.” He replied with a big smile.

“Renting it? Not giving it?” Amiya asked.

“It’s too amazing of a name to just give away.” Evren said with pride.

“Seriously, is there a name?” She asked.

“I haven’t thought about it. I figured I’d leave it to the people who are going to rule this land to decide on a name.” Evren said with a shrug. “I’m just the guy that sets everything in motion. It might be a good idea to talk with Mr. Hill before heading out to Dolbalt. If you two can hash together a name that represents the country well enough, then that’s good. If you can’t, I suppose that can be saved for later.”

Evren suddenly remembered something, “Damn, I forgot to ask if anyone was a computer programmer.”

A man standing near Evren said, “Computers? Do we have computers?”

Evren shook his head, “No, we have something better, magic.”