[D'sP] Expanding The Circle - Chapter 447
Added 2025-05-23 11:44:39 +0000 UTCA crowd gathers near the stage where Ace is standing. While this is important, the very reason for the celebration, most had an idea what was being announced and so continued to celebrate.
Ace strode to the front of the stage and clapped his hands and with a touch of magic is more than enough to quiet everyone down. “It has been over a year and look at how far we’ve come!
“But it wasn’t just you or I who made this! It was all of us together. All of us! Now, I’ve been running the town as well as could be expected. We haven’t gone hungry and despite the upheaval, we even still have freedom of religion. Which, given the circumstances, wasn’t a guarantee.
“Now, though, the town is expanding and we have new neighbors who need their own representation. We likely won’t be able to manage this for every new group that shows up, but for the moment it is not only possible, but necessary.
“First it was the Wolfkin and they had a clear leader who was able to mesh with the current structure. Now, though, we have the Deerkin and the Raccoonkin. They arrived as refugees without leadership and in their time of need, we allowed them the space and time to get back on their feet.
“That time has come! They have stood up next to us as friends and associates. They have chosen amongst themselves those who will lead them and in doing so, it is only fair that we in turn recognize their efforts!”
Ace gestures and from behind the stage’s backdrop, a pair of people walk out. “First, let me introduce Marigold Sole who was chosen by the Deerkin as both leader and head warden of the forest.”
Ace turns to the crowd with a beaming smile, “Mary and her direct family will be joining the inner circle not just to help us properly represent her fellows. She will also be taking some of the weight off our overworked guild leader as the town’s head forest ranger.
“A role made critical with the introduction of monsters.” Ace turns to the lady, “Mary, I place the town’s safety in your capable hands.”
Mary bows to Ace and then the crowd. “I plan to not only live up to your expectations, but exceed them. All I ask is that you continue to treat my people fairly and that my daughters always have a home if something happens.”
Ace solemnly nods his head, “It is dark that such thoughts are not just expected, but likely the new norm. I swear that your family will always have a home among us, as long as they desire such a thing.”
Ace turns to the other person on stage and smiles, “But don’t let that keep things down as we have another person to introduce! He was the mastermind behind their compound, which has been nothing but a boon for our merchants. Darren Silverwhiskers, the new leader of the Raccoonkin!”
He steps up next to Mary and nods to the crowd. Ace smiles, “The biggest shame is I don’t have a position similar to Mary for him to take over. Not that he needs it! While I can’t put him in charge of the town’s merchants, I practically don’t have to, anyway.
“Through his business savvy, Darren has risen to the top. And while not the leader, is trusted by many. His advice and guidance are what allowed our people to spread across the entire community.”
Darren waves at the crowd, “I’ll be happy to help all merchants grow. Your world is advanced in ways I can hardly imagine, but the current situation is my life! Let me guide us through barter and trade. Not a forgotten art among your people, but haggling certainly isn’t the norm.”
Ace chuckles, “It definitely wasn’t where I lived. Now, can I have a round of applause! The both of them have my trust and I hope they can earn the same from you all!”
The crowd certainly doesn’t let him down and it takes a while before he can finish. Not that Ace had expected anything less. “Now, to close out this boring part, I open the floor.
“There are honestly too many people for us to accept shouted questions, which is a shame. We really do need to get a news agency of some sort up and running. Except I’m not touching that with a foot pole! You all will have to manage it because government controlled news is anything but healthy.
“So instead, we’ll spend the rest of the day here for people to ask questions of and we’ll post the Q and A later this week. I hope you can accept them as I have, but I also understand not all of you know them yet. So, take this chance to fix that! Have a great day and enjoy the rest of the celebration!”
At this point, Doyle turns away from the event. ‘So, that’s a thing. More people for the inner circle. I wonder if they’ll succeed on the cliff?’
Ally laughed, ‘They already failed! Their situations are different and didn’t have the drive like Ace and the others had. Honestly, the fact you got so many all at once? A fluke of the highest order. Expect things to happen over centuries, not months.’
Doyle, ‘Meh, I half expected Ace to have it as a requirement to join the inner circle.’
Ally, ‘He was tempted.’
Doyle, ‘What made him give up on that?’
Ally shrugs, ‘I think he just realized how crazy hard it is. Though Jim helped him come to that realization by providing stats on the people who have tried it. Which you never heard about because it’s the second floor and no one gets to the top.’
Doyle, ‘Huh.’
Ally nods, ‘Yeah, at this point most melee types give it a try. Though it is rarer for others to give it a go.’
Back in the town, Ace is standing off to the side as people crowd the two stars of the show. Not that he is completely free of the rush. More than a few people take this as a chance to ask him questions. Many of which Ace chooses not to answer.
That mostly being because the answers aren’t “on topic”. Ace is fine with answering questions on what was going to happen around the town. He wasn’t going to answer questions about his own life or what the depths of the dungeon is like. Because goodness gracious! Everyone wants to know about the dungeon.
A topic that Marry and Darren are thankfully free from as they hadn’t gotten all that deep. Oh sure, Ace hadn’t even considered letting them in until they had made it past the second boss. Still, the deeper floors had become quite the time investment.
Soon Ace can sneak away and enjoy the festival. Though being able to take in the town as a whole, is nice. Most times he goes out there would be countless people trying to get something from him.
Oh sure, Ace makes sure he does still go out, despite that. He isn’t going to be one of those who ruled from their ivory tower. A statement that, given some of the construction around town could become a bit too real.
Though he is also jealous of the Barrais and their ability to disguise themselves. They had offered to help him with that, but the effort was too much. To change himself enough that he wouldn’t be spotted by Skilled individuals? Ace simply didn’t have the time or skill slots.
Right now, it is different. Oh sure, that is partly because Ace made sure to lay down some serious threats on what would happen if people ruined the day for him. However, the general stop to business as a whole seemed to be doing more.
Ace sighed as he passed one of the buildings he had been thinking of with the ivory tower but. It is a “guild house”, like a video game. Except if it was in a video game, they would be called gold farmers.
One of the more active cattle farmers and not the traditional sort. And their mansion of a house? It has taken a while, but the entire place is built of bone. Which is crazy!
Not that they built it of bone. Someone had figured out a spell they decided to call Marrowmeld or some such. It is basically like a stone shaping spell, but for bones. That meant most of this structure didn’t even look boney beyond the color.
The whole place honestly looked like someone went into a video game sandbox and swapped the textures out for bone. Still, the structure is more than sturdy and they aren’t the only ones. It is simply the most obvious. Others did not have access to the needed supplies for such a large place.
Ace puts it out of his mind as he wanders more. Though soon comes upon another structure of some fame around town. It was likely a subconscious thing on his part to cleanse his mental palate.
Now this place! It looked right proper impressive. Ace looked up at the crenulations. And old style, built with modern imagery and ideas.
Ace had seen a few old buildings and while they had a certain gravitas, they felt old. It isn’t even that they are all old. The style just didn’t match the modern world.
Or rather, as this building proved, the way people built with that style didn’t. Ace is uncertain who designed the place, but they maintained the feel of a stone or brick building. All the while looking modern. He couldn’t wait for magitech and such to advance enough for this sort of past and present to get mixed with the future.
A post modern medieval style further mixed with the neon and chrome of cyberpunk? Magic honestly made that so close, especially since it took a lot of the pain and removed it. Chrome looking smudged? Bam, cleaning spell! Shines like new!
Oh, and it wasn’t like the building didn’t include an ivory element. They had just used it as an accent instead of the only building material. Ace shuddered as he considered what the McMansions of the future would look like.
Still, the town was shaping up. Ace wasn’t going to let the old world style of governing ruin his town and so far has come out on top. This very festival is proof.
Though now it is time to make sure the rest of the world didn’t burn down around them. Ace sighed to himself. He would love to just keep playing blocks with how the town was shaping up. Except they aren’t an Island.
Bennet town had been acting as a buffer and for that, Ace is thankful. That wouldn’t last forever. There would be new towns forming around Wolf’s Rest. Towns that Ace was going to have to make certain didn’t pop up too close to them.
So to get ahead of that all, meant two things. Diplomacy and even more power. Right now, the inner circle is an iron fist in a silk glove. They acted nice, but had the power so they didn’t have to.
Except, the other fists weren’t staying flesh and bone. Oh sure, they aren’t quite iron yet, but wood can resist more than flesh and numbers would eventually get there. Despite how strong he is, Ace was under no illusion that numbers can’t beat him.
It almost made him regret not going all conqueror on the community. He couldn’t any longer, but at the start Ace figures he could have swept through the other settlements with ease.
Whether he could have held onto it all? Well, they would never know the answer to that. Still, in the early days, his power was unmatched, at least locally. Now? Well, it still is unmatched by outsiders, but more like 10 to 7 instead of 4 to 1. The difference didn’t really change. The numbers had just gotten big enough for that difference to mean less.
