If there was one thing which the beings created by the System’s magic understood, it was rules. Before they had been freed from its control, the System inserted rules into their lives and rewarded them for following the orders it gave. If the System said “rampage,” then they happily would. When the voice in their mind and the grip on their souls were loosened by my victory over Master Thorn, they searched for new rules.

  For some, that meant taking on roles which had been ingrained in them from even before the System took hold of their life. An ent’s prime directive was to tend to the natural places of the world. If you were looking for the arboreal people, you could find them out amongst the less ambulatory trees. Sundercats were, aside from ferocious combatants, seemingly born merchants. The more physical side of labour would generally be handled by an Orc, their natural muscles lending themselves to the work.

  I had struggled to see what profession the goblins or gnolls had as they were more chaotic and individualistic than the other races which graced the forest. Dragging Merownis from the third and top floor of the goblin-run madhouse, I realised maybe I hadn’t been looking hard enough. Nearly every table, of which there were dozens on each floor, were filled with the smaller creatures. Multiple fights broke out as I stalked across the fairly wide room to collect my feline party member.

  I had never spent much time in casinos after losing at everything I tried for a full hour in the first one I visited. Since then, I had never had an interest. Casting my eyes about as we left, there was one thing which became immediately clear to me. None of the creatures, be they at a gambling table or not, were looking in our direction. I recognised the energy of children who weren’t ready to go to bed and my instinct to shut the whole place down was stymied.

  Jovie, the female goblin who was the unofficial leader of her species in the dungeon, watched me with unblinking eyes from a seat in the corner. Her mottled grey skin was covered in a close approximation of a tuxedo, though where she got it from I had no idea. As my eyes scanned the room, the croupiers and dealers withdrew their curious looks from me and got back to work. They were all in uniform, a pair of black pants and a brown waistcoat for each. My presence had unsettled the fun for a moment, but the clamour quickly returned as dice began to roll once more.

  Jovie - Goblin Leader (Level 19)

  I nodded to the goblin leader. Pitboss, more like, I joked in my head. She had climbed a decent amount of levels in a short time. Continuing my initial train of thought, I sized her establishment up. As much as gambling had a bad reputation, that didn’t make the place a danger. I connected the disparate thoughts all at once as I realised that this simply a place of rules. The gambling hall, the System, the world at large even before the arrival of magic had relied on them.

  That didn’t stop me from voicing my concerns to Merownis, who was already a few steps ahead of me. “It’s just…” I struggled for the words to explain my discomfort. While I could see the general benefit to keeping certain less desirable energies contained in one place, was it right to encourage an arguably debauched behaviour? “It’s problematic?”

  “You are easily the person I most respect in the world, as I don’t know many. However, you need to grow the fuck up.” I blinked as Merownis’ harsh words hit me, but I didn’t bite back. He glared at me for a moment, daring me to interrupt. When I didn’t, he continued. “Stop being na?ve. This is your world. You just don’t understand how it has changed yet. You don’t even see how you have changed. I see it in your eyes, you know?

  “You have an innocence in your mind which doesn’t match the actions of your body. The magic of the System instils us with a general understanding of your world as we are born, but unlike us System-born creatures, you humans have to learn the hard way. Be honest, you reacted negatively to the simple idea of a place like that. Yet, you walked into the desert and killed thousands just a short while ago.”

  “That was-”

  “Different? I’d say so, but only because what you did hurt something.” Merownis’ interruption was fair and I decided to really let myself think I might be wrong. It wasn’t a common decision for myself, but I was trying to be better. My platitudes were only to soothe myself. With Tag sitting inside the Mind Palace, it wasn’t even possible to lie to myself like that anymore. “What do you even have an issue with?” The Sundercat asked, genuine anger clouding his expression.

  “I’m… not sure,” I admitted in the face of his emotion and hard truths. “Gambling itself isn’t a problem between two people, but when there’s an establishment involved there are so many ways vulnerable people can be exploited.” As I spoke, I felt myself gain a little confidence in my words. Even if I had been a hypocrite for thinking that way, it was sound logic. For the old world, maybe.

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  “That might have been true in the past, and yes, Jovie isn’t running a charity. But you’ve got it wrong, Grant. These actions which you are looking down on can be used to gain experience.” I barely needed Merownis to continue. I hadn’t considered the possibility of that, and I immediately felt silly. I was cringing at the side alley I had dragged the Sundercat into, but I said nothing. It was his turn to go on a roll. “Not everyone could or would go out and kill monsters, Grant. Most will, don’t get me wrong. It will likely always be the fastest and generally the most lucrative way of changing your level of living. Your level in general, too. The economy will likely always flow through hunters, but it could not exist on only those people.”

  I nodded along, our postures switching until Merownis was the one leaning over me. “You changed the rules when you freed us,” Merownis said, surprising me by referencing thoughts I had just been having. “Before you gave us the option, the only rule from the System was to fight. Fight each other, fight you, fight the humans which will come later… Now we can do something else. Now?” The Sundercat wrapped an arm around my shoulder and dragged me out of the alley we had gone into. I let myself get pulled into the bright lights of the entertainment district.

  “We can be free.” Merownis finished, gesturing around and forcing me to take an unbiased new look at the place. With the consideration that everything gave experience, there was likely less need for Jovie or anyone else to stack the odds. Her level had jumped since my battle with the Scorpion Queen, and I realised now it was likely from building the gambling hall and running it. Likewise, the general level of monsters within the growing village was probably something similar, like when I gained experience for making Merownis’ breastplate.

  I didn’t say sorry right away, as growing up with siblings had taught me never to do so, but I did eventually. Merownis wasn’t upset, smiling easily and taking me back inside where I apologised again for making a scene. I spoke to Jovie for a short time about what she planned to do with the place, but her decision making only really went as far as “if it’s fun, I’ll keep doing it.”

  With that surprisingly sage opinion on life from the goblin, I left the entertainment district to its devices and found my workshop with Merownis. He walked me through a few of the other changes around the place so I wouldn’t be surprised again but nothing was on the level of Jovie’s hall so there was no more convincing needed. Especially once Merownis told me to check the building menu at this point. Opening the workshop options, I saw that nothing had changed there.

  No, the change was in the sheer amount of options. Most were cheap to start with but there were dozens of options and costs to look through. There were homes, pubs, stores, warehouses, artisanal buildings and more. There was even an option for paying gold to improve some of the gardens around the area.

  It was honestly too much for me to even look at, but Merownis helped me there, too. “It’s normally Naea doing this right? Where is she- ah, the boss monster. I understand. So, the building menu has everything in your claim range, and whether it can be upgraded. It’s overwhelming, but that’s because you’re already at the point where you’re above the single building menu. You’re on the level above now.”

  The level above was apparently called the Faction Menu. Merownis said it would be less specific than the Building menu, but I couldn’t see it right away. Before I could do anything in that regard, a pair of prompts appeared which completely froze me in my tracks.

  Faction must have a name. Would you like to name a faction now?

  Village must have a name. Would you like to name a village now?

  I hadn’t even once considered this, and I felt a horrible dread in my gut. I had never been allowed to name anything official since I won a raffle to name a class hamster. Eleven year old Grant thought “Beaver” was a great name, but apparently it was not. My mind began to race with options, a few of them mumbled under my breath.

  “Aspect of the dragon… The Tree… you climb a tree… Dragon’s fly, so maybe the faction could be called… The Ascent? Not too bad I think, but would that mean that the village would be called something like… Ascentown?”

  Ding! Names accepted.

  “What the fuck do you mean ‘names accepted’, you evil piece of-” I cut myself off as I saw that the System had indeed taken my first rambling thoughts and slammed them down as unchangeable names for the faction and village which surrounded me. For a single moment, the dragon inside of me roared in outrage and I considered tearing the whole place to the ground. Instead, I took some deep breaths. The bloody System took my first suggestions and went with them without confirmation. Now I was stuck with Ascentown. The Ascent was a good, draconic name at least…

  If I didn’t need equipment and a new skill, I would have left the place immediately out of shame. Instead, I apologised to Merownis one more time, not entirely sure what for even. Then, I opened the faction menu.

  That, at least, put a smile on my face.