The Forgotten Legacy

Rather than wait in the house for Eric to arrive, Shaun took Eli on his back again and they flew through the air to track him down. It only took a few minutes for Shaun to locate him and the rest of the kids, when he did they dropped down in front of them causing them all to stop and stare at him like he was a super hero, all except Eric of course.

The look on Eric’s face when he saw him was one of pain and self-loathing. Grace had clearly filled him in on everything that happened and he was taking it all personally. He couldn’t blame him for it either, he was the one that put these homes together and to find out that what he had done had led to some of the kids being put into terrible situations would weigh on him.

“Okay everyone, gather around.” He motioned for the whole group of kids to come in closer, and they all did with excitement clear on their face. “I am going to offer a choice and it is entirely up to you which one you go with. I am going to set up my own home out of the cities and further away. You are all invited to join me. I won’t always be there, but I am going to get some help so that when I leave you will still have someone I approve of around to help. If you agree to come you will all get the chance to train with me, both in fighting and also in some crafting. You can come with me and not join the training as well. If you don’t want to come with me then we can find you a new home, one that is safe and loving. Its up to you. Eric and I are going to give you some time to talk it all out alone, yell for us when you are ready to decide.”

He gestured for Eric to follow up and they walked a good distance away to give the kids their privacy. “I gave Viv all the coin she needed and she said for you to catch up with her as soon as possible.” He cut straight to the point with Eric, seeing no need for small talk.

“Are you really planning on taking the kids and moving further out of the city and looking after them?” Eric completely ignored what he said, acting like it was not important at this moment.

“Yeah, I am. I won’t always be there, but the plan is to have someone else with them full time, maybe even two people. We will be going out to the goblin dungeon, I am going to set up a huge area there specifically for training the kids and giving them a place to grow and be safe. Why?”

“I want in. Let me help you.” The look on Eric’s face showed how serious he was, he didn’t even show a single bit of hesitation.

“Why? Don’t you have more important things to do for Viv?” He tried to push him to see what his reaction would be to spending less time helping Viv, if he agreed for Eric to join him, even on a casual basis, he needed to make sure his heart was in the right place.

“I might have screwed up with some of the homes, and I fully plan to rectify that. But what you are doing is better for these kids than the homes. They may be young, but they will grow up in this new world where fighting and growing stronger is going to be an important part of life. Getting them used to that now will help them well into their adult lives.” Eric looked down at the ground before he continued. “I fully plan to find my kids, and when I do, I would want them to have every advantage, including a place to grow stronger, to learn from the best. This provides that.”

Shaun could understand the motivation behind Eric wanting to join, and in a way he respected it. “You didn’t answer the question, what about Viv?”

“I like Viv, I really do. And I will help her where I can. But ruling? Even in a small capacity, isn’t what I want to do. I will support her and help her get her feet under her but I want freedom to do what I want to do, just as much as you do. I have spoken to Gabe and he agrees with me. All of this ruling stuff, it’s not for us. We want to be able to run dungeons, to enjoy ourselves, to live our own lives the way we want to. At the moment, all of our time is spent doing what Viv needs us to. Its exhausting Shaun. The most fun I have had since getting here was the freedom I felt running the Prime dungeon, even if I hated fighting the robots. It still felt freeing.”

He thought about everything that Eric had said and if he was being honest with himself, a lot of what Eric said he could completely understand. “You can join me, so can Gabe. But you need to talk with Viv first. I don’t need her blaming everything on me if things go to shit because you both take a step back from helping her rule.”

Eric agreed to talk with Viv before fully joining him but said he would help move the kids to the dungeon if they all agreed to come so that he could rush ahead and start getting the area ready. It was then that he realised the biggest difference between his relationship with Eric and Gabe, who he truly did consider friends, versus his relationship with Viv, which if he was being completely honest was not friendship but a need to use one another to get what they each wanted.

He thought he would feel more upset about the realisation but since the beginning it had seemed a little forced. He had tried to treat her like he would Eric and Gabe but it never felt right. Deep down he always knew that they were never going to be friends, they were just too different to be able to really connect like that.

They finished talking at the perfect time as Eli waved them over. Both Eric and Gabe joined the kids again, all of whom had smile son their faces.

“We are all going to join you.” Eli spoke for everyone but even then, some of the kids let out exclamations of excitement, unable to hold back their emotions. “But we also don’t want to limit it to us. Can we also see if any of the other group homes want to join as well? We don’t want them missing out on this just because you found us and not them.”

Shaun was taken back for a moment at the ask. He hadn’t expected it but the more he thought about it he didn’t really see an issue with expanding, especially if some of the actual caretakers of the kids were good people. That would only help. “Eric, how many homes are there? How many kids would move with us if every single one of them agreed?”

Eric thought for a moment, trying to remember just how many homes and kids were set up. “From memory we set up homes in every city, with anywhere from 10 to 20 kids per home. I would say there is anywhere between 150 to 200 kids altogether that were in the homes, all from the ages of about 12 to 17.”

“I can work with that.” Shaun said it more to himself than anyone else. He then looked to Eli and smiled. “Agreed. Anyone that wants to join can. Once we are set up we can have a tour of all the cities and visit every home and propose that they join us. You can do this while I finish off a task that may take a day or two. Does that work?”

The kids all jumped with excitement, Eli and Grace more restrained but the beaming smiles on their faces could not be restrained.

“Eric is going to take you all to our new home. Eli you and I are going to go a head and get set up. We have a lot to do, it will take some time for all of the terraforming to complete. Sound good?”

“As if I am going to say no to flying again!” I have created a monster.

It didn’t take long for Shaun to iron out the final details with Eric. Traveling by foot with all the kids would take a day or so to get to where they needed to go. They had also agreed that they would stop in each home that was on the way and talk with all of the kids to see if they wanted to take them up on joining. Shaun also informed them that they would have their own crafting buildings, be supplied with materials, he would purchase all the stores they could possibly need, and they would have access to training grounds and a dungeon. All free of charge. It would be a selling point that they should know before they started talking to others.

Shaun and Eli left shortly after, traveling at a quick pace through the air so that they could reach the settlement crystal and get stated as soon as possible. Eli was just as excited as every other time they flew, but also quieter. He took every moment in and just enjoyed the ride.

They reached their destination without issue and when they landed they both went up to the settlement crystal. Shaun got the notifications as soon as he placed his hand on it, providing him with options.

**Welcome King Shaun Clermont, please choose an option for F grade settlement.**

**Current options available for F grade settlement:**

Current buildings available for placement.

Manage settlement and resources.

Terraform F grade settlement

He picked the terraforming option first, he knew the basics of what he needed to do but he hadn’t really thought through exactly how he wanted everything to look.

“Eli, for housing everyone should have their own rooms right?”

“Yeah, if that’s possible? Who doesn’t want their own rooms.”

“Even for the younger kids? Or do you think they would prefer a roommate?”

Eli looked deep in though on that one. Shaun was going to need to ask a lot of questions when it came to housing as he wanted to make sure that they were comfortable with the arrangement. After a lot of back and forth they agreed that single rooms should be for ages 14 and up, anyone younger should share a room with one other person. Boys and Girls should be separated but also not too far from each other so as not to feel isolated. Sharing bathrooms with too many people sucked, as did communal toilets so they factored in enough of each. Shaun also went all in and designed housing for about 500 people, not wanting to have to adjust it later.

In the end he made what could only be called a mansion, there was three separate wings, the west wing for the younger boys, the east for the younger girls, all having multiple levels. The third wing, if it could be called that, was for the single rooms and was set towards the back of the mansion. It was a huge piece of work, spanning hundred of metres. There was bathrooms throughout, adjoining the rooms and had a large communal kitchen, dining hall as well as multiple rooms for relaxing. He also made sure there was rooms that were specific for caretakers, knowing that they would need adults mixed in if all of the kids decided to come and join.

Separately he created smaller homes in a separate area, these would be for trainers like him, Eric, Gabe and anyone else that would eventually join. Along with all of this he added in training areas for everything from working out, running, archery, swords play and magic practice.

Along with all of this he also built a large forge for blacksmithing, a building for enchanting, as well as one for leather work, alchemy and a general use building. All of this was in close distance to the dungeon so that they could easily move to and from it. All together his terraforming was going to cost close to a million TE, the biggest expenses coming from the mana facilities that he included in the training and crafting areas as well as the kitchens and bathrooms. Still he had plenty to spare so he didn’t really care.

He confirmed the terraforming, which indicated it would take nearly 12 hours to complete which was fine, then move don to purchasing stores. He purchased a great deal of them and placed them between the training and crafting areas. He got enough that they would have everything they could possibly imagine at their fingertips, all for a little bit of coin. The stores would be done around the same time as everything else, so now all they needed to do was wait.

Shaun looked at Eli and smiled. “We have 12 hours before everything is done. You ready to train?”

“There is something I need to tell you first, about how I got the level.” Eli looked uncomfortable even brining it up. Shuan had asked him about the level before and he was told that it was pretty much none of his business. “You might hate me when you find out. I am not a bad person though, I swear!”

“I know your not a bad person Eli. I won’t be mad, you can trust me.” He had some idea of what Eli was about to tell him, but he knew that if Eli was going to move past it, he needed to get it off of his chest.

Eli took a big breath before starting, and before he even did he started to shake. “Before I got here, I was traveling with 3 guys. We all appeared in the same place when the tutorial finished. I had finished school and was out to meet up with some friends and was on my bike going through a quiet part of town.” Eli shook is head slightly, getting caught up in the memory. “It doesn’t matter. One of the guys, Jeff, he was an asshole! He snapped on the second day and killed the other two guys, they hurt him though as well. He tried to come at me and I swear I was just protecting myself. I picked up a rock and hit him with it, over and over. I got the level when he died. I killed someone Shaun.”

Eli had started to cry by the time he was done and Shaun took him into his arms and gave him a hug until he calmed down. When he thought enough time had passed he sat on the ground and had Eli join him.

“You are not a bad person for protecting yourself, Eli. And I don’t hate you, not even a little.” He though for a moment and decided that the best way to make him feel better about what happened was sharing himself. “Let me tell you about what happened to me in the tutorial.”