Desolate World

Ace then saw they entered the building. If the process was the same as how Ace had seen in the prologue video that he watched when he started the game, then Aria would put many kinds of weapons on the ground and start the ritual.

Ace then recalled that the town hall had just bought 3 grade A weapons from his guild's workshop. Although they were only low-level weapons, they were A after all. Knowing that they would become the offerings, Ace had a mixed feeling about it. 

On one hand, he felt it was an honor for the Guild. As some of the weapons that his guild was created would contribute to the development of the town. But, he felt pity that such good weapons couldn't be used in battle. 

After waiting for almost 15 minutes, he got a bombardment of notifications from the system.

*Ding*

[You are detected still don't have a settlement. Do you want to make 'Laketown' as your settlement?]

[Yes/No]

Ace was flabbergasted. He, who had thought Laketown as his home these few months, was confused with the system's notification. But then he remembered that Laketown hadn't been recognized by the system all this time. And with all ceremonies to create a settlement had been done, It made Laketown recognized by the system. 

It enabled Ace and his family to make Laketown as their resurrection point. Ace then said 'yes'.

[Congratulations, you have been recorded as a resident of Laketown. Your resurrection point has been set to Laketown]

[For becoming a resident of Laketown, your character panel had been updated]

[Settlements reputation information has been added in your character panel ]

[For becoming a resident of a settlement, settlement guardian ranking has been unlocked]

[Continental fame has been added in your character panel]

[For reaching level 21, continental guardian ranking has been unlocked]

[World fame had been added in your character panel]

[For reaching level 31, World guardian ranking has been unlocked]

[Congratulations, for witnessing the creation of 'Laketown', you get 3,000 experience ]

[Congratulations, on arriving at Laketown. You get 10,000 experience, right to use basic facilities of Laketown, and 7,500 reputation in Laketown ]

[Congratulations, for participating in a level 2 town's construction, you get 50,000 experience, a master thief's cloak, and a blueprint of a guild house. For exceeding the target of participation, you get additional rewards. You get 200,000 experience, four elements cards set, and a blueprint of the tower of glory.]

[Congratulations, you have levels up to level 31.]

[Congratulations, you have levels up to level 32.]

[Congratulations, you have levels up to level 33.]

[Congratulations, you have levels up to level 34.]

[Congratulations, you have levels up to level 35.]

[Congratulations, for being an elder in Laketown, you get 20,000 reputation in Laketown and the right to use all facilities in Laketown.]

[Congratulations, for becoming the core circle of Laketown, your quotas have been multiplied by ten. Your current quotas are 100.]

[Congratulations, to be the first person who founded an adventurer guild in Laketown, you get 5,000 reputation in Laketown.]

Ace was stunned. How couldn't he? He just got a total of 260,300 experience, so he leveled up continually for five times. Actually, this one and half months, he had consumed a lot of monster cores to meditate and ate many foods that contained experience to level up from level 26 to level 30. 

After that, he arrived at a bottleneck. Because the experience that he needed to level up had increased to more than 40,000 experience. Something that he couldn't rush with just meditating and consuming resources, or even leveling up, as he had outranked most monsters in the Misty forest by 10 levels a few days ago. So hunting wouldn't be as effective as before. So, he concluded that he did need to be patient to accumulate experience, just like all high-level people in the town.

But, who knew he could level up repeatedly just from the experience that he got from two quests' and an event's rewards.

He also got 32,500 reputation in Laketown on this occasion, so he had achieved one of five requirements to make another achievement, which was getting 10,000 reputation in five settlements.

He also had picked some best equipment that his guild produced to change his outdated equipment. What made him want to cry was, in fact, he had gotten a good cloak and he had upgraded his basic cards set. To actually get two pieces of equipment from a quest was mind-blowing for him. 

However, it couldn't be helped. The quest was just to contribute to building a level 1 village. But he helped Laketown to be a level 2 town in one go. Actually, he didn't understand what the level meant. Maybe he needed to ask Sofia or Aria about it.

As he was excited about getting new equipment and a weapon, he wanted to check them right away. But, it was impossible for him to check it there. As Jordan and the others maybe would see his unsightly manner when he was too excited. After all, he was their higher-up. He should maintain his image in front of his subordinates, right? As he thought, maybe he couldn't control his mood, if he got a jackpot this time.

"You continued to watch. I will go down for a while," Ace said with a poker face. 

"Oh! Okay!" Jordan said casually. 

The others also nodded. But as they looked at Ace, they showed a horrified expression.

"Di-Director?! How could your level increase so much all of a sudden?" Aprilia asked with a terrified expression.

"Yes, how come?!" Jordan asked.

Eric, Erica, and Uriel also asked similar questions.

Ace then smiled proudly. He said, "What is to be surprised about? I'm a guardian, right? I can get experience from doing quests. Just now, I have completed some quests that related to the construction of our town. It has already been a few months. I'm really glad to finish them all in a stroke," 

"That's not fair…," Ace heard Aprilia mumble. Although he could hear that with his super-hearing. He didn't respond to it.

The rest of the people also looked at him with envious gazes. Ace just smirked and said, "Hey come on. You know, I have been pretty down all this time, because my level is so low compared to most of you. And furthermore, most of you are elites that have 10 times of HP than ordinary people and greater strength. Just let me get a little face by at least reaching your average levels, okay?"

Jordan, Eric, and Uriel only smiled. But Aprilia and Erica became gloomy. After all, two of them were special cases. Although they were just ordinary people, they could enter night guards because of their special circumstances. Aprilia was included as a member because she had an elite pet, and Erica was included because she was a dragon. As it was known, that ordinary dragon was only a little worse than an elite with the same level.

In fact, Ace had recruited many more ordinary people for helping do the cores of the bureau, or because of their special abilities, like monster tamers, elven hunters, and shadow stalkers.

Ace then looked at Aprilia and Erica. He said softly, "Don't worry. I believe there is a time for you two to reach an elite template. Don't be down or too impatient."

Aprilia and Erica looked at Ace embarrassedly. Maybe because Ace had read their thoughts. They then nodded.

"You are right, director," Aprilia said with a smile.

"Nice words, Ace. Thanks," Erica said gratefully.

Ace then left them on the rooftop. When he reached the restaurant, he asked one of the cooks to bring some snacks and drinks for five of his subordinates. As the ceremonies had ended. What was left was the party. Ace didn't know if it was good or not for the townsmen to partying every day. As the grand banquet that was held every day could be considered as a party. 

He recalled that on an occasion in a weekly elders meeting, Ali suggested holding the grand banquet once a week. To be opposed greatly by Avril and Aria. Avril argued that it had become a custom of their town and it's already become the townsmen's favorite activities. Removing it would upset all people.

Aria nodded. She also said that actually, the consumption of ingredients such as vegetables, fruits, and meat of monsters was lower than the overall consumption of breakfast and lunch that were prepared by all households in the town.

As their town was a semi-communal community that every hunting and gathering that was done by townsmen must be given 10% of their harvest to the town. And although every day the ingredients were used to prepare the great banquet, the leftovers were still plentiful. So Aria had to keep them for the next great banquet. 

In fact, at the moment, the leftovers that could be used to hold the great banquet, was more than enough to hold 3 months of that scale event, even without the supply from the townsmen. When heard it at the moment, Ace recalled the harvest that he and refugees got from killing so many monsters when the monsters went crazy 2 months ago. They had given them all to the city hall.

Ace then entered the corridor that would let him go to the storage of the restaurant. At a certain point, Ace knocked on the wooden wall that didn't look suspicious at all.

He said, "Zero wants to take a rest."

Then Ace heard an answer from behind the wall, "Who is the most handsome man in the town?"

***