NOVEL NEXT Aftermath Up Top – Chapter 267
Ace sighed as the lady left, though Jim didn’t let him relax long.
Jim, “So uh, I don’t think we’re getting rid of this platform any time soon.”
Ace frowned, noticing that the changes the lady had made to the platform persisted. In fact, the entire structure looked more stable than the wall behind it. “I don’t want an executioner’s platform outside my town’s gate.”
Jim snorts, “I don’t think you get a choice about it. Give the town menu a quick check to see if it got added there.”
Ace nods, “I don’t want to, but that is the best way to figure out what is going on.”
It takes Ace a few moments to find the platform in the menus, but find it he does. The platform is actually under a special structures menu, which before this only listed the dungeon. Annoying because all the entries give is a description and not even a complete one, but that is more than nothing.
{Masterwork Bone Pillories of Suppression and Execution
Description: a wood and bone platform containing 60 enchanted pillories. Through strange means, these pillories are capable of draining all the power from a person who is detained by then. This drained power first goes towards increasing the structural stability of the platform and then is dispersed into the ground. The ruler of the town this structure is attached to can command the pillories to suck the life out of anyone contained by them. While the platform and pillories are not indestructible, they draw power from the surroundings to repair themselves, even if completely destroyed.}
Ace groans as he shares the description with Jim. “I guess we’re stuck with it. What kind of nonsense enchantment is that? You manage to wipe out the entire structure and all that will happen is it slowly repairing itself?”
Jim shrugs, “I think we should look at it as a good thing. Right now we don’t have any strong trouble makers, but give it a few years. With this, as long as we can catch them, we can hold them.”
Ace gestures at it and the gate right next to it. “Sure, I understand. This thing is a huge boom. I just don’t want it next to our main gate.”
Jim laughs, “That’s your fault. I wasn’t the one that had the thing built there. Besides, you could always move the gate.”
Ace groans, “No, we can’t move it now. There is a ton of stuff already built and land rented based on the current position.”
Jim, “Rebuild it all and move the claims. We both know those buildings are actually the worst of the lot. We used the bad building specs to handle Ms. Bennett. That could totally be rolled into a general overhaul. If anything, the skill experience our builders gain may be worth it.”
Ace frowns for a second before pulling out some paper and a pencil. From there, he spent a few minutes of hurried scribbling out notes and math. At first he isn’t sure if it would work, but the more things add up, the stranger his expression gets.
Ace, “I think we might need more than just that.”
Jim raised an eyebrow, “More?”
Ace nods, “Not just this once. Of course, the system buildings aren’t going anywhere. However, we should set up a cycle of rebuilding. If you were even in a city before this mess, I’m sure you’ve seen it.
“Buildings left in disrepair, areas that look abandoned, and just decay in general as even well kept colors begin to fade. We lived in a culture that worshiped capitalism and applied it almost without restraint. Now, I’m not against the idea of money.
“If anything, it makes it easier to deal with outside powers and for some reason, I doubt we could get rid of coins, anyway. However, it should not be able to reach its hands into stuff like water supply, power generation, medical, and the like. Someone making widgets is one thing, but when that widget is required to live like insulin, its production and sale should not be based on chasing ever greater profits.
“Infinite and constant growth is a myth, even now that we, in theory, have an entire universe to play with. To believe otherwise is exactly why before companies would fire workers, even if they needed them, at the end of the year. It would make the companies profits look bigger for when they have to report their income because they suddenly weren’t paying all those wages.
“Anyway, building maintenance is one of those things that gets left on the wayside and buildings are allowed to sit empty. We can’t have that. Instead, while we can’t do it to the whole town, we should do renewals regularly. This time would, of course be different as we aren’t just building back up in the same place.”
Jim rubs the back of his head, “That sounds like a bunch of work for you. All those owners are going to scream bloody murder if they learn it will be a regular thing. What is your real purpose for this?”
Ace shrugs, “Let them scream, this is my town. Though I definitely won’t turn my nose up at giving our builders even more experience and skill levels. For a while there, construction skills were the highest level skills we had.”
Jim, “What kind of effects do you think a high level builder would have?”
Ace, “Obviously durability, though that will likely make it harder to then later take it down. Besides that, we don’t know how to integrate magic into our buildings yet. While the pillory over there is a masterwork, the system buildings aren’t and they have enchantments.
“That points towards the bottleneck of needing a masterwork thing to enchant not working the same way for buildings. While the current houses don’t seem to be an option for enchanting, we might get a jump on things with some slightly better buildings.”
Jim, “While interesting, I think we better wrap this up for now and focus on the crowd. Most of them look alright, but some are riled up in all the wrong ways.”
The two of them leave the side of the stage and mingle with the people. Suffice it to say, people were more than a little worried about what had just happened. There wasn’t any build up. No trial happened. A strange lady showed up, declared some things, killed some people, and left.
Sure, people realized this wasn’t Ace or Jim’s fault. Most of them were even able to understand why the punishment was so harsh. Though few realized this was actually not all that harsh, but rather more of a finality sort of thing. After all, they just died instead of being tortured or what have you.
Of course, of those who were there, the most worried were the people from up river. Those people all wanted to rush back and rush them, but the town also needed food. So, they nominated one of the teams to head back.
On the way, that team was worried that no one would believe them as they hadn’t realized everyone on the planet saw what happened. Though they would soon find out it might have been better if the council hadn’t seen this. At this point, the trip up the river was safe, if slightly slow.
Once they did get there, the widespread nature of the broadcast was revealed to them, though they still headed towards the council to report in person. This in a way proved important as when they arrived at the council meeting, the old men had almost convinced themselves the broadcast was fake. Though in another way, it proved useless.
Unbeknownst to the regular farming teams, Three of the seven raid teams were sponsored by the council. As while they were dead set on denying the system, they weren’t above wanting a bag of holding to smuggle more supplies out of the dungeon without being noticed. While most of the members on those three teams weren’t natives of their town, they had spent more than a few coins to hire them. Now they don’t even get any extra meat.
Not only that, but the fact that the message was broadcast so far and wide made them feel targeted and besmirched. After all, how dare they judge the council’s citizens by some rule the council doesn’t even recognize? They didn’t break any pre-system laws, after all.
Also, the council was very annoyed at the “fake” sense of power the lady put off. No one could be that powerful. Projecting that sort of feeling was obviously a tactic to make it seem like the place had more power than it did, except they went too far. Who could possibly be that strong?
Suffice it to say, the council didn’t look too highly on this event. The only thing holding them back from sending more mercenaries to cause trouble was their own disdain for coins. While their steady supply of food might be attractive, for those who could actually cause trouble, food wasn’t a problem anymore if they could afford to head out and adventure.
So, instead, the council was forced to stew in their discontent. Oh, and of course they “shot” the messenger. The farming team was disbanded and given menial tasks around the settlement. Not that any of those six stayed around town long enough to actually do their new jobs.
Maybe the councilors could disbelieve in how powerful that lady was. Those who had experienced it in person did not have that luxury. Though it certainly helped that they had seen and experienced what power under the system truly meant. No delusions of grandeur from a few rounds of guard duty against small forest monsters.
Though with them “defecting” to Wolf’s Rest, the place upriver started to lose power over their farming teams. Before, they could hide in ignorance of what the council’s policies actually meant. Plus, while they didn’t like the council, their friends all lived there.
Now though? Melonie was working overtime, recruiting those she could. Not that she stopped them from sending the food they got back upriver. In fact, she insisted they keep sending the food so her town wouldn’t starve. This alone ingratiated all the farming teams to her and made sure that even those who didn’t take her up on the offer right away, didn’t report anything. After all, at this point, they fully realized the council would rather cut them off and starve some of the population, then it would admit such a loss of power.
So, after a bit of unrest, things seemed to settle down for the council. Not that this stopped them from throwing a few demands at Wolf’s Rest to return their “wayward” citizens. A request that Ace just laughed at and asked when had they ever signed an extradition treaty?
Of course, Melonie was actually using those dungeon farmers to spread her power back into her settlement. Ben had basically uprooted any power he had left, when leaving. This had left their group in a lurch as no one was up there to report on the conditions.
Though once news started to flow back, they all realized things were much worse than even the farmers had known. Any signs of advancing through the system were ostracized. Even just a single extra level, if admitted to, would make someone an outcast.
Nevermind the fact that the council members themselves were looking healthier and younger every day. That must just be the fresh air, said no one ever. However, the people in the settlement had taken a turn for the worse. Melonie wasn’t willing to call what was forming a cult, but some of her informants weren’t so kind.
Though as this had all happened, something else took place. The shark-toothed lady hadn’t just left. She was still around, just taking care of another tasks that happened to require her to go into the dungeon. Not that anyone realized this as Jim’s surveillance stuff came from the Guild in the first place.
