To my immense relief, the faction window which appeared before me was not a massive sprawl of details and graphs. Instead, it was a very manageable little screen which gave me a short rundown. It was when I delved a little deeper that the page expanded to a more detailed view. If I wanted to see the separate buildings, or even the different members of the faction, all I needed to do was focus on an area of the faction window. Same with the gold value, which broke down the materials on hand in the city as well as any special items. There was nothing particularly surprising there, though I was impressed with the numbers when I saw them. The people had really been working hard.

  One of the more interesting changes with this window compared to others: it was the first with System guidance.

  …

  The list carried on, but clearly I was ahead of the city building curve because I could already upgrade the lot. There were many more buildings listed. Nearly all of them were homes, which were much cheaper than the specialised structures. I was surprised to see the arena on the list, but less shocked than I was to see a surplus of materials required even taking the fighting space into account. It also became clear that these monsters of mine had been preparing for my return as every special requirement was met where they appeared on my list.

  I was a little touched, and a little uncomfortable at the thought of making them wait. “This is going to be interesting,” I warned Merownis. I gestured to the faction window, although he couldn’t see it. “Looks like our new town is ready to be upgraded already. Do you think I should do it now? We’ll need to get people out of the buildings. I think you were asleep last time I did this? Either way, it’s not a casual process and people might get hurt.”

  “Trust me, everyone’s ready and you won’t be upsetting anyone. I’ll get started, and it’ll happen like wildfire. There’s a meeting spot over towards where you were encased in the crystal in case of emergencies, so people will gather there and then you can go.” I had no reason to argue with that plan, so I nodded and began making my way over to the waiting place Merownis pointed me towards.

  He wasn’t wrong, either. Within minutes, every denizen of my faction was surrounding me. Despite their sentience, some of the monsters were still more primal than others. Separately or in small groups, they were fine, but all gathering them together like this in one place was a recipe for fights. I saw Naru and a few other ents creating makeshift compounds from their branches to keep the gangs of gnolls and goblins away from each other.

  Even those scraps were generally good humoured from what I could tell, but I wasn’t paying much attention. Somehow, the town itself seemed to know what was coming. Spirit was gathering in the air over the place like it was waiting. Waiting for me. The cage which had been around my Spirit Well in the past was well and truly destroyed and I felt the pull towards an achievement from within. With no reason to wait, I didn’t.

  Like a waiting predator, the Spirit in the air dove towards the town and flooded it with power. An absolute thunderstorm of percussion exploded outwards as a clattering, hammering, sawing cacophony sent a shockwave through the woods. None of us were too close, but I could see a cloud of dust being kicked up into the air by the motion. In far too short a time for me to analyse the System’s working, its job was done and the dungeon returned to quiet. Most of the denizens began jogging or sprinting back, excited to see the changes for themselves.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I saw Ayseral and Naru together standing apart from the crowd and made my way over to them. “Thank you,” I told them both, “for all of your hard work keeping things together. I can see the ents are doing a good job at tending the forest. Are you excited to see the new groves?” There were four, one in each corner of the city and each had been upgraded with different seeds as per their special requirement. From Naru’s bouncy fluttering in her leaves, she was very pleased at the idea.

  “Has anyone thanked you?” Ayseral asked, her yellow eyes intense. Before I could answer, she seemed to make a decision and knelt with her left knee in the dirt. “From the centre of my soul, I thank you, Grant Kaeron.”

  “Oh I didn’t do-”

  “It does not become a leader,” Ayseral interrupted, still in her kneeling position, “to deny their successes or the feelings of their subjects. You may not see us that way, but many of the inhabitants of this dungeon view you as more than someone who shares our space. You are more than that, even if you deny it.”

  “But no, I really didn’t do anything special.” I wasn’t trying to be humble, I just didn’t see it. I hadn’t done anything I wouldn’t have already done without the support of the forest zone. Especially with the achievement sitting in my prompts waiting for me to have a look at it, the thanks felt unearned. This was for me as much as anyone else.

  Ayseral just shook her head and stood. “You are still learning. The scorpions attacked this area once, and you destroyed them like an unmoving rock destroys a ship. The actions of a leader. Your choices are meant to benefit yourself, too.” Feeling a little beleaguered, I looked to Naru for support. I wasn’t sure how it was possible for the ent to convey that I was on my own, but with a tightening of her branches and a series of shuffling steps away, she did just that.

  I didn’t have an argument beyond feeling uncomfortable, so I swallowed my dissent and nodded to the cheetah Sundercat. “I’ll think about it, even if I don’t accept your thanks just yet. Wait until we survive the dungeon, maybe.” Without waiting for her reply, I excused myself to explore the town. In reality, I just wanted to flee the conversation, but what I saw took my breath away.

  A short distance from the waiting area, a road appeared. Not a stamped path created by footfall, but a neat and tidy set of actual roads made of stone. They were comfortable to walk on, and there was room to the sides which allowed for walking amongst the trees which were still there. Following the road, I walked into a gorgeous little village like you might see in a period movie.

  Homes with thatched roofs, shops with window displays and businesses declaring their services were dotted around all over. Separating them were beautiful paths and lanes that almost glittered with their pristine appearances. I took in the “untouched snow” feeling of the place now, because the energy of celebration was high in the air and it would not stay this clean forever. Well, maybe with Naea’s abilities… who knew? The fairy still hadn’t returned from her own feast, so I’d have to ask how she wanted that handled.

  As I walked through the changed, paved streets of the new and improved Ascentown, I considered what it meant that the System was offering guidance to me now. By suggesting these things as goals/materials to focus on for future upgrades. It made sense for the System to be hands off up to a point and only invest energy in people of a certain level. As my understanding of the workings behind the scenes increased, the reasoning behind certain choices started to make sense.

  The Tree was at the centre of all things. Yggdrasil in the myths of Earth, called many names by those who live upon it. “The Greater Connection” of Yggdrasil created the System and uses it to influence life. It does this to create energy in the form of… something. Something to do with the shape and size of the soul, and perhaps I had passed a threshold. Maybe it was just a faction thing. Ultimately, the System hadn’t told me to do anything before because it simply didn’t care. I wasn’t worth anything to it amongst the trillions of lives it rules.

  Now that I lead a faction, perhaps that was different. It was certainly different for the monsters I now called my faction members. The monsters which the System creates are lesser beings of a kind. Merownis had been altered, but it took some energy from myself to change him into a “true” System being with his own character page. It hadn’t been too much, but even that expenditure would be astronomical on a grander scale. Instead, it created diluted versions of the real thing and let them run wild on a planet.

  Maybe if a monster did well enough, it would gain a level of sentience and freedom from the System, but I wasn’t looking to find out how that happened.

  I also got an achievement for becoming the first faction leader on the planet. It felt like I didn’t do enough to earn it, but I decided to take it as an additional reward for defeating the second claimant. Ayseral had told me that just because I gained something didn’t mean it wasn’t something for others to be grateful for. I could at least respect her opinion by not being a brat about gifts.

  Achievement Unlocked - Faction Leader (World First)

  Bringing a group under a single banner is never a simple thing. Not just an alliance of opportunity, a faction requires a leader which it can trust. That leader is you. As the first in your world to perform this task, the rewards have been increased.

  Effect: Allies receive a slight increase in Recovery and Regeneration when near you.

  +2 Command per level

  It was apparently going to be a day of them. I was pleased with the leveling gains, which would be a great boon for my maximum mana over time, and walking around with a smile. The sound of metal on metal caught my ear and by following the noise I found a lumbering grey hulk of an orc toiling over some molten metal. Krueger looked up as I entered the new smithy, but continued with his work. I watched in silence.

  He was surprisingly delicate in his motions. I realised he was actually crafting a ring, and he was nearly finished. With a loud crack, he smashed apart the clay on a mould and gently pried the metal away from the debris. Before I was even halfway ready, he flicked it right at my face. With the orc’s strength, it became a genuine bullet. However, even off guard it would take more than a bullet shot from across a room to get me now. I caught it in front of my face, quickly inspecting the ring to ignore the fact that the quiet Orc had done that on purpose.

  Item - Orken Ring Of Power (Uncommon)

  A simple Orken ring, created with pride. This gold ring was forged with decadence, as it was created for a leader.

  Effect: +5 Power Attribute

  I felt the magic on it as soon as it touched my skin and I wasn’t surprised to find it was more impressive than my own creation. I held it out to give it back, and the orc held up a massive hand. “It’s your’s,” the orc shook his head, the jowls of his piglike face wobbling as he did so. “I don’t even use magic.”

  After being told not minutes before to accept thanks, I couldn’t very well turn this down. It almost felt planned between the two, but that was unlikely. “Well, I’ll have to find you something the next time I go out…” I murmured awkwardly. Surprising me once again, Krueger burst into a hearty laugh. I truly hadn’t expected the orc to even be able to laugh, his demeanour normally so serious.

  Once he could stop laughing, Krueger slapped his knee and shook his head a little more. “You have done much already, chieftain.”

  “Chieftain?” Was I a chieftain now, on top of everything else? It was a lot to keep track of.

  “You have taken in cultures not of your own, and placed them under your banner. Therefore, just as they respect your rules, you should also respect the cultures under you.” After my conversations with Ayseral and Merownis, it was easier to remind myself that I outright agreed with Krueger generally. Being uncomfortable with the power was probably a good sign anyway, I told myself.

  Unwilling to be ambushed by any more positivity, I rushed to find my new and improved workshop where no one would disturb me. The reason I had heard Krueger was because his smithy was nearby. For self-explanatory reasons, my workshop was in the manufacturing district. The new building was not much different from the old design, except for it now having an additional storey to the place.

  Once the heavy door closed behind me, I slid a lock into place. My eyes widened at the once-more-improved tools and facility in front of me, but I needed to see upstairs. My Perception was strong enough that I could smell the scent of fresh linen from above and I wasn’t disappointed when I found a decent sized bedroom. I didn’t even have time to think before I crashed onto the bed and had an actual sleep for the first time in far too long.