[D'sP] Ace Answers A Few Questions - Chapter 297 (Patreon)

So with the Selas taken care of, that left the mob of people lucky to still be alive. Because those on the roof certainly weren’t. There was no leniency for idiots who thought using pre-system guns was a good plan.

Ace shook his head before turning back to the crowd. “So, we have a few terrorists here. Now, if this actually was feudal times like they seem to think I’m trying to reduce the world back to, they’d be dead men walking.

“I do not, however, plan to kill them. To be honest, we just don’t have the rules in place yet to effectively judge this sort of crime. There aren’t many rules yet and insurrection honestly wasn’t one when I learned of their plan.

“To be fair to them, I will not try them under a rule they didn’t know about, even if not trying to overthrow the government shouldn’t be something you need to be told to do. Whether the people in charge are corrupt or beacons of morality, that is a generally accepted rule.

“Instead, I’m going to give them a chance to leave. That or exile them. Anyway, only a few settlements will actually take them. In gathering here, many of their old settlements have managed to kick the whole ‘being bigoted’ thing these people have going on.

“Oh, and those settlements that can’t seem to accept that humans aren’t the only people anymore? We won’t cut them off from food as that would just be killing them through starvation. No, instead we will levy tariffs against them and anyone trying to help them evade said tariffs.”

The crowd had stayed mostly silent as Ace was making his announcement, bursts into shouting and yelling. Questions of all kinds bombard Ace and the other founders on stage. Suffice it to say, it takes a decent amount of time to regain order.

Once it is quiet enough, Jim is the one to step forward. “Stop. Being. So. Narrow. Minded! By all the Deities! Sure, humans are the most common thing in this dimension, but that doesn’t mean we’re the only sapients out there.

“Besides, even among humans, there is a large variety. Nevermind those races which in this dimension would be referred to as demi-human. You know, stuff like elves and dwarves. Of course, if we lived in a dimension dominated by elves instead, humans would be seen as demi-elves. That sort of stuff all comes down to perspective

“As the local highest ranking official for the Adventurer’s Guild I have something to say. Once the world opens up, anyone being too centered on humanity will fall behind. Even animals and monsters can be sapient and just as capable of thinking as we are. Sure, different beings will focus on different things, but that doesn’t matter.

“Wolf’s Rest will apply our laws to all sapients who are within our borders. Whether that means a human, animalkin, or a talking dog. Seriously, get over yourselves! We now know just how un-unique we are.”

This riled up the crowd again, but Ace stepped forward before it could get too bad and pointed at one person in the crowd. It took a moment, but they eventually realized he was being allowed to ask a question.

“How can you know all those people are complicit? Mobs sort of just do what they do.”

Ace shakes his head, “While true, that would imply we didn’t already know everyone going into this. I’m sure they had planned to group together in the first place, but we took it a step further. Not only did my people assure that all our targets were in the same place. We even placed those who weren’t fully sure about it at the back so they could change their minds.

“I am happy to say that some did. Though don’t try to look for them. Part of what I did included shuffling those people into the rest of the crowd.”

Someone yells, “But how can you be sure they weren’t just biding their time or noticed what you were up to?”

Ace shrugs, “Eh, I don’t really care one way or another. If they held back, that at least shows restraint or decent observation skills. It isn’t like these are the only people. We know of a few spotters who didn’t plan to join the attack and they haven’t been scooped up either. I’m not a tyrant and I’m not going to police your thoughts, just your actions.

“Now, how about you? What’s your question?”

The person being pointed at looks behind them before realizing Ace did actually mean them. “So uh, I guess my question is how often do you uh, plan to add people to the inner area? Like, I hear it’s pretty swanky in there. Nice digs and all that.”

Ace laughs, “Fair enough question! The answer is we don’t have a plan. Camila got in because she is the leader of the wolfkin who now make up a decent percentage of our population. Her family got in because she got in.

“Though beyond that, they got in because we like them and are friends. Is it selfish and self serving? Yeah. Will we also allow the leaders of local minority leaders into the inner circle? No.

“At this point, we are very much playing it by ear. However, we will likely end up with a council of sorts for people like that to join. Honestly, the inner circle is more like a gated community and we don’t plan to continue to have it as the center of our town’s government.

“After all, would you want to live at work? As for how nice the houses and amenities are? Well, we built it all so it is all as good as we can manage. In fact, we plan to reconstruct everything in there at least a few more times until everything is up to masterwork quality.

“And you, you just raised your hand so I assume you have a question related to what I just said?”

The person nods, “What is masterwork quality? Like, I know it is the point at which you can make something magical, but that doesn’t really say much. All the dungeon loot is masterwork quality and I’ve seen better stuff pre-system.”

Ace gestures at Kelly who steps forward to take the question. “The answer to that is multifaceted. I don’t know if it is commonly known, seeing as none of the guides seemed to be crafters we can’t be sure.

“Anyway, there are two types of masterwork products. True master’s work and stuff which is simply magic ready like the dungeon loot. My best guess is the term masterwork is the result of the fact the first masterwork gear people new to the system will experience is the crafter kind. From that, most probably assume that is the only way to do it.

“That kind of masterwork represents the pinnacle of what people can create without magic being involved. After all, a sword can only be so sharp and still work. Too sharp and the edge dulls the moment you use it.

“So, by making something of such quality that any changes you can make to it would either be a side grade or change what it fundamentally is, you have made a masterwork. There is a lot more to it and we don’t have time to go into it. The biggest take away is that for a true Master’s work, the only way to improve it further is with a supernatural force.

“The second kind of masterwork is simply primed for magic to be introduced. This generally involves some natural process which being dropped as dungeon loot counts as. This is actually the kind of stuff that potions are based on.

“Those stories of hundred-year-old ginseng? That represents the wild ginseng having lived long enough it has been primed for magic. Cultivated herbs are a mix of the two styles. They’re a natural wonder and through diligent work can be ‘crafted’ such that they’re ready sooner.

“Witchcraft and druidry tend to lean on this sort of stuff for their bigger rituals and such. If you’ve ever seen something about using unworked stones and the natural dew off of a flower, that can be seen as a form of masterwork ingredient. Though of course people have to throw a bunch of terms on it. Stuff like heavenly treasures, earthly wonders, and a ton of other more specific terms such as spirit grass.”

At this point, Ace stops her. “Yes, I’m sure more than a few people will be interested to hear more about that. Afterwards. For now, though, we need to actually take care of our captives.”

Ace steps to the edge of the platform and looks down on the people entangled in his spell. “I’m not going to waste too much time on you all. I don’t have an exact count, but there are certainly more than a hundred of you so I’ll try to make this quick. I have one question for you all, will you leave?

“Doing so involves being escorted to the edge of town and not being allowed back in for a year and a day. For this, all I ask is that you swear to follow through and promise to not try and re-enter during that time period. I won’t even ask you to not scheme against the town because I know it would be pointless.

“To get through all of you I can’t have you all saying whatever so instead I will be allowing you each to speak one at a time. If you agree to the terms, when I release you to speak, say exactly ‘Yes I system name, so swear’. And no funny business, we dug up all of your system recognized names.

“If you don’t start to answer right away or deviate from that answer, then it will be understood that you aren’t accepting the terms. Don’t worry, we understand that some of you chuckle forks won’t take us seriously. So with that in mind, you’ll have a few chances to agree to the terms.

“Now let’s get this started!”

Of course, the first few people all try to curse Ace out or go off about being a traitor to humankind. They are quickly re-gagged and put to the side. Others are more cooperative and give the correct answer.

Though of course not before, a few of them test Ace’s claim about knowing who they are. He does and so those jokers are set aside as well. In fact, by the time they had all been gone through, there were still more than a hundred who hadn’t agreed to leave.

This number is more than cut in half on the second round, leaving about 40 objectors. That meant around a fifth of the group still wasn’t willing to swear they would stay away. Of course, Ace doesn’t for a second believe that all the people who swore actually planned to stay away, but that was for later.

Right now, he could only caution the last few that this was the last time he would be asking. Despite this and the oddly heavy atmosphere that seemed to have fallen over the area, many still curse at him.

In fact, only a handful more drop out leaving 38 people who won’t even bother pretending to swear to leave. An honestly shockingly high number of people. Though that might partly be because Ace had right out said they wouldn’t be killed.

To be honest, Ace was kind of sad at this last group. They managed to gather together more people than the inner circle even after adding the Selas. Yet none of them had realized their situation and at least pretended to swear they would leave.

Now, Ace was cognizant that if he had wanted even more to drop out, this wasn’t the way to do it. He would have had more of them swear if he had asked them privately so the others would hear their answer. This would be especially true if he had exaggerated how many had already promised to leave.

That wasn’t his goal, though. It seems no one took the last time he exiled a person to heart. Maybe it hadn’t been passed on to others properly? This time, everyone would see.

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