“Agreed.”
They moved to make their way into the dungeon, Dale in the lead. With the good tutors, clean Essence, and constant work, Dale had progressed to the F-rank six rather quickly, as well as put on some solid muscle. Now not only was he able to keep up in his heavy plate armor, he had a good handle on the skills and abilities he needed to decidedly defeat the deadly denizens of the dark dungeon. Within an hour of hard work, they had cleared the dungeon and were finishing off the Boss. As they did daily, each sat and cultivated, but an oddity in the behavior of his friends made Dale look up, noticing the men staring at the Silverwood tree.
“What’s going on guys?” He inquired dreamily, almost in a trance as he worked to gather the loose Essence into his center.
“The tree has been growing a lot recently. We are wondering if that is normal.” Craig let him know, frowning at an internal thought.
“We’re also trying to figure out how this tree will help us move into the B-ranks.” Hans stated. “It isn’t exactly a common thing to have access to, after all.
“Sadly, we won’t know until the Elves start making an appearance.” Craig derailed the conversation with a hand wave. “Well, let’s head on out, nothing more to do here. Dale you should work on integrating what you have absorbed into your Chi spiral, don’t fill up too much or it will be harder to process.”
Carefully making their way back to the surface, they were startled to see that the place was bustling with movement, people running around and shouting orders to each other. They noticed that Guild Master Frank was in the largest, loudest group, shouting at another, somewhat taller, man.
“No, you can’t have that space! We’ve had it roped off and claimed for the Portal Mage’s to build on for weeks now!” Frank was red in the face, spittle flying from his lips.
“You are going to deny the holy church an area that will be able to best serve the people? This will be the center of the goings on in the area, and who better to guide people than the church?!” The taller man angrily intoned, voice ringing out clearly in a manner trained to catch attention.
“The PORTAL MAGES!” Frank roared, throwing his hands into the air. “That is their exact job! They guide and send people where they want to go!”
“Well the church sends them where they need to go!” The tall man boomed back, unimpressed.
Frank saw Dale’s group walking over and visibly worked to calm himself. “It’s a moot point, the man who owns all this land is here, he’ll make the decision.” Frank declared smugly, knowing that Dale was a friend.
“Excellent, where is he?” The taller man demanded. Frank pointed at the group, and he walked over. Going directly to Hans, whose face he could see was grinning, the man introduced himself. “I, am Father Richard. A humble cleric,” Frank snorted at that pronouncement, “who has been promoted to run a church in this area, as it is obviously sorely needing guidance. That man,” he jabbed his finger at Frank, “has been trying to place travel and leisure over divine teaching, and I demand that you tell him that this is the perfect location for a church!” He finished in a ringing tone that reached every ear.
Hans looked from father Richard to Frank, “Well then. Frank, it is the perfect location for a church.” Hans told his Guild Master, and nearly burst into laughter at the look of triumph on Richard’s face, and the wry look on Frank’s.
“And. There. You. Have. It!” Richard crowed, throwing his hands in the air and beaming.
“Excuse me Father but-” Dale began, unfortunately he wasn’t able to match Father Richards pealing voice.
“The Lord provides, and we will have a beautiful place of worship and-”
“Hey!” Frank barked, thrusting his finger at Hans. “He isn’t the landowner.”
“He-” Richard whirled on the now maniacally laughing Hans and fixed him with a glare.
“Father, it is the perfect place!” Hans laughed so hard he fell over, “I… Ha-hah… I told him, just like you asked!”
Everyone was chuckling except the crestfallen priest, so Dale decided to speak up. Lifting his visor, “I own the land here, Father Richard.”
“Oh. You? Well. Right, lad, listen,” Richard quietly muttered, “I need this, I think my promotion to this place was a punishment. My branch of the church displeased the bishop, and when I was finally up for promotion to a location based diocese instead of being a wandering minister, I was told to come here and build a worthy house of worship. I can’t be put to the side, I just…” He sighed sadly, looking at the chunk of land he wanted. “I need to make something memorable here.”
“Does it need to be that exact spot?” Dale looked around and saw nothing really special about the area.
“It looks like all the other flat land around here is claimed. All these tents, I’m sure people have plans to build. How much of this land do you own? A few acres around the dungeon entrance?” Richard searched.
“Not exactly. I-” Dale began with a smile, only to be cut off again.
Richard interrupted with a frustrated growl, “Not even that? Rats, the land price here must have skyrocketed when this was found, I’ll never be able to afford to build a church near here-”
“Father!” Re-gaining his attention, Dale grinned. “I own this mountain.”
“What?!”
“When I discovered the dungeon, I originally did buy only the land directly containing the dungeon, it took everything I had. When the scouting team showed up, they left me with enough gold to buy this entire mountain, since there had never been anything useful found on it. And, well, since it is a contested mountain range, the price was right.” Dale revealed with a grin, adding on accomplishments to drive the price of renting land up subconsciously in Richard’s mind. “I bought the land from both the Lion and the Phoenix Kingdom, just in case. It helped that my intelligence as a sheepherder was somewhat underestimated. Both Kingdoms assumed I wanted uninterrupted grazing pastures, not a valuable resource like a dungeon.”
“Brilliant!” Frank whispered. He hadn’t realized the forethought Dale had put into his good fortune. When land was purchased, any deeds were signed with Mana-infused ink that was impossible to fake or forge. The contracts had to be honored by both Kingdoms, when before the contested nature of the mountain would allow one of the Kingdoms to attempt a hostile takeover if he had only bought from the other. In fact, the contract for the land would also be enforced magically, Frank wondered if Dale knew about this aspect of his purchase.
“Listen,” Dale tried to placate the priest, “I think you should move further away from here. What if beasts are drawn to this place and attack your church? What if something breaks out of the dungeon? Will you stand in the way and fight when creatures are attacking your followers? Will- “
“Yes.” Richard told him seriously.
“See-” Dale sputtered to a stop, train of thought derailed. “Wait, what?”
“Yes, I will.” Richard calmly promised. “I will protect them.”
Dale tried again, rubbing at his temples as a headache threatened, “Look, Father, praying at a problem won’t make it go away, it-”
“Yes, it will.” Father Richard chuckled darkly.
Dale tried again with a sheepish chuckle, seeing why Frank had gotten so angry, “Father, you aren’t understanding me.”
“No, you aren’t understanding me.” Father Richard grinned, and bowed his head. Murmuring a short prayer, he gestured at the empty lot that he had been after. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen as the sun rose higher in the sky. A word came out of Father Richard’s mouth that shook the air and made no sense to Dale, followed by a beam of light that tore from the heavens and settled into a perfect square on the entire lot for several glorious seconds. The sound created was amazing, a cross between a choir singing… and rock exploding. When the light faded several moments later, the ground had been fused into perfectly clear glass, three feet straight down. The heat coming off of the molten land was enough to singe Dale's eyebrows, even from this distance.