Chapter 30: Settlement Challenge
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Somewhat unusually, the great doors didn’t open onto a room. Instead, the hallway split to go in two directions directly after the entrance door, each curving to follow the shape of the trunk. Their party moved to the right and Dominic soon found that they encountered stairs. It was the first time he’d climbed stairs as a quadruped and the dissonance felt a little odd in a way he hadn’t felt in a while. Still, it was little different from climbing over rocks so the feeling disappeared soon enough. 

They climbed higher and higher, continuing to curve around the tree. Dominic kept expecting to reach a flat surface of a floor wrapping around the main part of the trunk, but they never did. Instead, they just came to small landings every so often. Most of the time those landings were accompanied by a door or two on their left sides, but several times the landing instead only led to the other set of stairs which apparently wrapped around the tree in the opposite direction. 

By the time they reached their destination, Dominic felt that they must have gone around the tree at least three times. The windows that had opened outwards seemed to support that supposition as they returned to the same view several times, each time far higher up in the air.  

Please enter the meeting room,’ Alwen invited, pausing before a large door on the left hand side and then leading the way into the room that the opening door revealed. She was accompanied by the other elders and guards though Berion took up a position next to the door with the air of someone intending on waiting there.

Dominic eyed Nyx for a moment, seeing the same uncertainty that suddenly assailed him was present in her eyes too. 

If they try to trap us in here, we can break through the wood to escape, I’m sure,’ Nyx told him with more confidence than Dominic suspected she truly felt. 

I’m sure they don’t intend to trap us,’ Dominic replied, with the same false confidence. 

They need us,’ chimed in Leo. ‘They won’t do anything against us until that changes.’ 

It was a good point. Dominic did his job as the leader and led their way into the room, bracing in case they had read the situation incorrectly and this had all been an elaborate trap. 

Fortunately, their more paranoid musings were proven to be mere suspicions. The elders were sitting on one side of a large table – Alwen was sitting in the middle with the other four on either side of her. Their guards were standing behind them, not quite leaning against the walls, but obviously making an effort to not impose on the discussion.

Obviously, chairs weren’t going to suit any of the Pride members except perhaps Long-Ear, but the elves had clearly taken that into account, quickly pulling those on one side away and leaving space for them instead. Dominic advanced and sat opposite Alwen, his companions arranging themselves with Nyx on his left side and Sekhmet on his right, Howler and Long-Ear to the other side of Nyx, and Jenkins to the other side of Sekhmet. It hadn’t actually been planned that way but Dominic had to admit that he’d have probably directed them to do approximately the same even if he’d thought about it. 

Even sitting, Dominic and Nyx both towered over the table due to being quadrupeds. However, due to the size of the table, that didn’t mean they towered over the elves themselves. A clever arrangement, Dominic supposed.  

We apologise that we do not have any refreshments prepared,’ Alwen offered. ‘With the most recent attack, everything is currently in the canopy.’ Dominic had to guess that that meant something like ‘up in the air’ or ‘disordered’. 

It’s fine,’ he dismissed. ‘After the battle earlier, I doubt any of us are hungry. I’m far more interested in hearing how this all started and what exactly you’re facing that you want our help with.’

‘Straight to business, I like that,’ Illastir remarked approvingly. Alwen didn’t look quite as pleased, but she adapted well enough.

Very well. What do you know of Settlement Challenges?’ 

Dominic checked in the Pride chat but, as he’d expected, none of them had any more clue about it than he did.

Nothing,’ he answered a moment later. 

Then I shall explain. Under this new System, as a settlement with over five hundred residents, it seems we have to prove ourselves through three Challenges. Apparently, we have to justify that we are worthy of continuing to exist as we do now.’ Her voice was more bitter than Dominic had expected. ‘The first two Challenges we succeeded in passing – just – as they were healing and crafting orientated, but the most recent has proved to be more than we can vanquish alone. And it’s the most important of the Challenges so far. The other two offered bonuses if we completed them, but if we had failed them the consequences would have been manageable. This time, if we fail the Challenge…we lose our home and the survivors will be forced to wander the dangerous lands around in search of a new one.’ Her tone made it very clear that she knew the low likelihood of success of that.

‘I see,’ Dominic replied thoughtfully. ‘And the Challenge is to defend against a whole load of beasts. For a period of time or what?’

‘There are multiple possible win conditions,’ Ilastir answers seriously, ticking them off one by one on his fingers. ‘If we can defend against the beast waves without losing more than a certain percentage of our population until the double new moon, we win. If we can instead somehow destroy all of the beast forces set against us, we win. If we can convince the beast lord candidate to give up, we win. If we can instead kill the leader and its most important captains so that the beast forces lose cohesion, we win. If we can bring another force to do any of those things on our behalf, we will win too, though I suspect that there are consequences to that option,’ he sighs.

What kind of consequences?’ Dominic asked warily. 

We do not know,’ Alwen answered, taking the lead in the discussion again. ‘Believe us, this is not our preferred option either, but our forces are too weak and our settlement is too indefensible to allow for any of the other options. We have only been facing them for less than half the time we would need to do so, and yet we have already lost several of our number and the beast waves are only increasing in size and strength.  Had you not intervened in this last battle…’

‘Our forces would have most likely been overwhelmed, allowing the beasts bent on slaughter entrance into our city and our vulnerable populations,’ Ilastir interrupted grimly. ‘And we cannot afford to just retreat inside our trees – we do not have the food or water supplies for such a siege. We would most likely suffer far too many losses – even if fighting the beasts directly would probably result in greater loss of life. Our strategy so far has been that of stalling, but with the increased frequency of the beast waves as well, I do not see that strategy lasting us much longer.

Dominic thought that it rather reflected their desperation that they had revealed just how dire their situation was and in the middle of a negotiation to boot! He wasn’t exactly experienced, but even he knew that you didn’t show the other party just how much you needed them unless you absolutely had to. Either elven negotiations were very different from human ones or these elves were willing to take any option that seemed like it might work – no matter the cost. 

‘But I saw what you did with the hedges,’ Dominic argued, finding himself oddly wanting to encourage the elves, even if that played against his own best interests – or did it? It seemed like their odd negotiating strategy was catching. ‘You had the beasts forced into a narrow gap. Couldn’t you do that all around the town, only allowing certain points of entry?’ He was no strategist, but that made sense to him. 

Melia and Lystar sighed in unison.

We’ve tried that over the last few days,’ the white-haired elf answered. ‘Unfortunately, our town is too big for it to be possible. Our mages and farmers are badly affected by our transplantation into this new land. Any changes to the earth or plants takes far more mana than it should and we don’t have access to many of the mana-restoring tools that we used to. Too many of them have already been used without replenishment. And we still need food, the production of which takes up most of our mages’ and farmers’ time for the same reasons. And while we now have more than enough meat thanks to the attacks, we become quickly ill if we only eat that.’

‘We have been considering condensing our population into a smaller space around the Great Mother just to make it more defensible, but then we still have the same issue as with retreating to our trees with no access to our main food supplies,’ added Melia.

But then Berion appeared and spoke of you and the strength of those in your following. He said that you even managed to defeat the final challenge in the dungeon,’ Alwen says with a tone of admiration.

We did,’ Dominic answered slowly, his mind turning over what he’d learned. The mention of a beast lord candidate was interesting. He remembered that he had a quest to reach Tier 3 with certain conditions which mentioned something about a title. Could this be something similar? ‘It sounds like we need to do some scouting. Then we’ll know better how to help you,’ 

You still wish to do so?’ Alwen checked; the other elders looked quietly hopeful. 

Dominic huffed.

I would like to investigate the situation on the beasts’ side first, but I would say that we’ll do our best to help you as long as it doesn’t appear to be a hopeless situation – in exchange for certain benefits.’

‘Then let us discuss those,’ Alwen declared. 

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Because of a bit of chapter mismatching, if you join the Patreon, go two chapters back. So chapter 30 on here is chapter 28 on Patreon. I will catch up at the end of the book, but for now just pay attention to the chapter names to find where you've got to. Or ask me. 

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