Ace politely claps as the orc finishes his presentation. “A bit out of our price range but I’m excited to see my people outfitted properly. With how quick the dungeon is growing, it shouldn’t take too long.”

The orc nods, “I will admit that gold can be tight. But that is why this isn’t a farmers store. No! This is a store for delvers. While most common folk can live their entire lives using silver, adventurers are a different breed. They might not be nobles or merchants but they are truly a group that epitomizes the concept of boom or bust. One lucky kill out in the field or a decent drop in a dungeon can catapult their worth.”

“Now, while I would like to talk more, I’m sure you have other stores to check out. While this might be my first time taking charge of a store, I know that most can’t help but check out anything dungeon related as soon as possible.”

Ace smiles, “You’re actually the last shop. I just have the town hall left to check out. While a store devoted to delvers is important, I didn’t want to end up stuck in here window shopping.”

The orc taps his tusk, “Huh, well I hope for a long relationship then. Few who can afford a town next to a dungeon can hold back.”

Ace shrugs before leaving. He had wanted to check things out but no matter what the orc said, the shop wasn’t important or interesting enough to check out first. The things directly around the dungeon, now that was what really mattered.

Ace shakes his head and refocuses. The town hall is right in front of him. While from a distance it looks exactly how Jimmy had built it, up close Ace can tell that isn’t quite true. Jimmy had used normal wood, bones, and so on to build everything. Whatever the building is made of now that is no longer the case.

The wood grain that Ace can see is oddly twisted in on itself and has a deep warmness to it that well cared for wood will gain over the years. Maybe someone with a decent set of pre-system tools or advanced wood shaping magic could replicate it but Jimmy had neither. Besides that, though, the bones are even stranger. You could almost mistake them for being lacquered but Ace can tell otherwise. Whatever beast the bones came from was a strange one. The very structure of the bones is like a translucent crystal. A jeweler could probably add some facets to them and make them look like true gems in the shape of a bone.

Besides that, Ace notices one other detail. Some might have missed it. Ace, however, had enjoyed reading old books talking about mysticism and such. Before the system it was all forgotten details and half truths tainted by accidental lies crafted from mistranslation. Post-system most of it was still nonsense, but he had picked up a few tricks. The important one at the moment allowed him to see flickers of magic out of the side of his eye.

A simple enough thing which likely came from a very natural part of how the human eye works. With how the eye is structured, you can actually see some things in your peripheral vision that you couldn’t when looking straight on. Stuff like faint stars in the sky and what not. Some, however, believed you could catch glimpses of the supernatural with the same trick. The fun part is this wasn’t wrong.

Whether it was the buildup of magic right before someone cast a spell or the distinction between the edge of the dungeons territory, Ace could catch glimpses of it. Well, he used to catch glimpses of it. Now, with training and a very welcome skill, he could pierce the veil at will and see those strange new energies. But that didn’t mean he stopped giving things the side eye. Peripheral vision was just so much more attuned to magic that it allowed him to see things he shouldn’t be able to.

In this case, it was runes within runes that weren’t runes. Sigils of power that burned themselves out of his mind no matter how much he tried to hold on to them. Apparently, even the system had to use magic to protect things and it wasn’t just a matter of it being a system building.

Then the system bombarded him with a bunch of messages that boiled down to how he shouldn’t have seen that and how the town hall would get a free upgrade. Ace smirked at this as the building was quickly covered by the magic oil slick nonsense again. While he couldn’t be certain, his guess was that the system cheaped out because it didn’t think anyone would notice.

Soon enough the building was once more revealed to Ace and this time he didn’t catch anything out of the corner of his eye. Not that he blamed the system. For a new town in a new world, there was probably a good chance that the place wouldn’t survive long enough to make the investment worth it. Ace of course planned to beat the odds.

Though as he approaches the door Ace notices that he feels relaxed for some reason. That shouldn’t be the case so he once again delays going in to figure out what is going on. This takes some soul searching but then it hits him. Until now, he had been worried about how the System was giving away the anchors at such a cheap price. Now, however, he knows the reason. It isn’t really giving them away for cheap but rather selling cheap knock offs. Since he caught the system instead of admitting to it, the system just spent the extra resources to put in the real deal.

With a smile, Ace pushes open the door and enters. The first room is simple enough. There are a couple large notice boards up on the walls and the back third of the room is blocked off by a counter, behind which stands a receptionist. Not just any receptionist though but rather a brown rabbit girl and not the classic internet rabbit girl. Rather, she looks closer to being a rabbit than not.

She laughs seeing how Ace is a bit stunned. “Welcome o’ great and mighty town leader! My name’s Lily. I bet you’re wondering what I am, but don’t know a polite way to ask?”

Ace nods and Lily giggles before going on. “There really isn’t a good way to ask. Being a base-line human you won’t have too much trouble yourself but I’m sure once your planet starts interacting with the greater universe some things will filter in. To get a head start on it though, consider including your species when introducing yourself. It isn’t rude not to, some people do like to keep such things under wraps, but it isn’t rude to do it either and people are likely to share their own.”

“In fact, it could almost be seen as a way of asking without asking. Luckily though everyone the system will bring in to work the town hall will have had proper training in handling your people. Now if you’re still curious, how about we give our introductions again?”

Ace swallows, “Ah, yes, that would be, um. Hello, my name is Ace and I’m a human.”

Lily giggles again, “Hello Ace! My name’s Lily and I’m a rabbit folk. Though that likely doesn’t mean much to you either, now does it? The short and sweet of it is that despite how human biased the universe is it is also big enough that every type of animal has at some point fought its way to sapience. Those that end up closer to human than not are the kin so out there are like a number of rabbitkin. Folk on the other hand are those who are closer to their base animal. There isn’t really a good dividing line so most just rely on the system to make the decision.”

Ace coughs, “Fair enough. Now do I need to play twenty questions or is there some tutorial speel I get to listen to for using the system to run my town?”

As Ace finishes asking, he notices that Lily shifts around and he starts to think again. Before he can say anything though Lily claps her hand paws, “First things first, learn to recognize social Skills! And I don’t mean being good at social situations but rather with a capital S. Normal social skills won’t ever get you to do anything against your best interest. The problem is that your best interest is based on your own perception so the trickier sorts can still get you to do oh so much more.”

“Until now you’ve at best experienced someone with sub 30 in a single social skill or maybe a few all below level ten. To say the least, I am well beyond that and the only reason you noticed when I stopped their passive effects is because I cut it off instead of easing it off and I intended you to notice. As luck would have it though, being a town official you do gain some system granted protections to stop some silver tongued sought from talking you into giving them the town or betraying it. While I won’t tell you that you need a social skill, sometimes the best defense is a good offense.”

Ace nods, “I can see what you mean. Though I have to ask, I assume some of the other people brought in to man the stores should have similar abilities. Did they get me?”

Lily shakes her head causing her ears to flop back and forth. “Like I said, as a town official you get some protection. One of those is that system provided workers are blocked from hiding such manipulations. Also, since your world is still in its tutorial period they are restricted to using the same level and quality of social skill as those talking to them. I was allowed to use my own to the full extent to provide an example of why it is an important thing to protect against.”

Ace rolls his eyes, “Well if you put it that way. Though I have to ask, can I order them to continue to do that even after the tutorial period is up?”

Lily shakes her head again. “You can order a lot of things but the system considers the use of their skills a part of their job. It would be like telling a master smith to make crude nails. A cruel and unusual punishment if there ever was one. Some things can be restricted of course like you did with the butcher but just to be careful you should always ask if the order is valid from now on.”

Ace sighs, “Well, at least that took. Not even going to ask how you know that.”

She chimes in, “I’m the main receptionist! One of my purposes is keeping track of the town to help you.”

Ace continues, “Fair enough, now is there anything else I need to know or is it going to just be a bunch of spreadsheets and system windows?”

Lilly claps her hands and sparks fly out to form a projected map of the area centered on the dungeon. “Most things are relatively obvious once you get into the system windows. Just two things to make note of and one has to deal with the size of your town and the dungeon. With most towns, the area of control is centered on the town hall. Since you built your town close enough to that unnamed dungeon, the town will be centered on it instead of the town hall. This doesn’t matter as much as you might think as the area extends out quite a bit if not interrupted so you can have farms and such. On the other hand it isn’t mentioned anywhere and most literature on the subject will assume any dungeons aren’t that close because for some reason kings and such don’t like it when a single area has easy access to unlimited supplies.”

“The other thing is to do with the options you will have in relation to the dungeon. What you see isn’t all you might end up able to do. While the system will control most of it since it is a newborn and so still asleep, that doesn’t mean the options update instantly. You could make a selection only to find a week later that it was undone and the option gone. That or an hour later the yes or no option has turned into a slider for finer control. So check it regularly so you aren’t caught by surprise.”

Akhier

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