Desolate World

After taking the shadows to the cave. Ace came back to his house. Nothing special had happened again that day, except that a dragonling came to tell Ace that his presence was required the next day in Mars's mansion. The meeting would be held in the morning. Ace easily agreed.

That evening, when every family member was having dinner, Sampson talked about the progress of the recruitment. Many people, especially the human villagers, wanted to join.

However, with the arrival of other races, Samson wanted to try if they could get some of the other races to join in. Ace basically agreed with his brother's opinion. But, it seemed Sofia had a different opinion.

She said that they shouldn't pause the recruitment. As the recruits' levels would restart to level one after they changed jobs. As Ace had brought the 8th race, they didn't have much time for training. Because, Aria surely would speed up the building of the facilities. 

She wouldn't wait for all the villagers to get houses, as it would be too long. She would build the village wall to mark the initial protected area of the village that would be covered by the barrier. At most, they had 3 weeks to train the personnel of the guild, before the city core was activated. So, Sofia told Sampson to finish the recruitment in two days at the latest.

***

The next morning, Ace and Sofia went to the village plaza. As Ace went to attend the meeting in Mars's mansion, for Sofia it was her routine to go to the village hall. As the two places were next to each other, they decided to go together.

When they arrived in front of Mars's residence, which was almost complete, some people they knew had already arrived. Like Phil, Noah, Kira, and Andrea. They also saw the new elders, Avril, Torin, and Ali. As for Aria, she should have already been inside. Sofia then excused herself to the village hall.

Aria had made her a room in the village hall building. In that room, Sofia usually drew blueprints or did her usual writing practices. Aria also often sought her help for administrative matters. It could be said it was her second house.

A minute later, a dragonling said that Mars demanded them to enter. The meeting would be started as all people who were invited had already arrived. 

As Ace walked in through the big doors, he saw Mars in his big dragon form sat on the giant chair like a king with two dragonlings standing behind his chair. They then entered the conference room where ten stone chairs were placed. They were arranged in two lines, extended from the middle of the room to near the big chair where Mars was sitting.

Besides every stone chair, there was a small square stone table. On each of them, there was a plate of several snacks, a ceramic pot of tea, and a small ceramic cup. Behind each chair, around four meters from it, next to the wall, there was a dragonling who was on standby.

On two closest chairs to Mars, had already been sitting Aria and a dragonling. Aria seemed to have many things in her head, as she stared blankly at the floor.

As for the dragonling, he seemed to be in the dusk of his age, with many wrinkles on his skin. Ace then checked his information.

[Dino]

Race: Dragon (dragonling)

Level: 32

Based on information from Gon in the past, when a dragonling passed level 25 without evolving into a dragon, he would stay as a dragonling for his entire life. Dino seemed to be one of them. 

Ace also found Eric, Erica, and Uriel standing in the corner of the room. They seemed to be gloomy. Ace guessed they came here to listen to Mars's decision about their punishment.

Mars then asked them to sit on the stone chairs that had been prepared. As Ace thought himself not an elder, he chose the farthest chair from Mars.

After everyone had already sat on their chosen chair, Mars stood up and said, "Welcome the elders of Laketown village. We will start our routine meeting. I plan to hold a routine meeting every week from now on, to discuss the village's matters."

Ace was stunned. He seemed to hear wrong.

'An Elder? I'm an elder? It's not true, right?' Ace thought.

Ace then stood up. He looked at Mars with doubt and asked, "Excuse me, Boss? As it is an elder meeting, I should not sit here, right?"

Mars smirked. He then said, "Surprise? I think so. Boy, there is no mistake in my arrangement. You belong here. As I appoint you to be the elder. 

You deserve this position. Because, no one has a bigger contribution than you. Well, except for Aria. You two have helped me build this village from scratch. While Aria, who was helped by your wife, was busy making sure the development of the village went smoothly. 

You, on the other hand, roamed the Misty Forest searching for refugees. A total of about 1,500 people from three races you have saved and took to this village. You are also the one that enables us to find the crystal garden and human refugees on the first day we met. 

So, I hope you will help me continue to strengthen this village as an elder. How is it?"

Then a floating notification appeared in front of Ace.

[Do you want to accept the position of Laketown village's elder?]

[Yes/No]

Ace was ecstatic. Not only because he would get a high position in the settlement, but because he recalled something. He then asked the guide.

'If I accept it, will I make another achievement of entering the core circle of this settlement?'

'Yes, but your quota can only be multiplied by 10 times when the settlement is formed officially,' The guide answered.

Ace couldn't help but smile. With this achievement, his quota would become 100. It was definitely good news, as he could save another 90 people. 

He then said resolutely, "Yes."

***