Eli was finally getting the rest he needed, his women were satisfied and letting him sleep. He drifted in and out for almost two days until he felt like he had enough rest. His magic wasn’t completely settled, only time could finish it at this point. During that time the next monster horde event would come and he needed to decide if he was going to stay and fight, potentially making the difficulty much harder, or if he would leave and let the people living there handle it. It was tempting to leave, but with the safe zone not having a lord, there could be problems. He would talk it over with Tara, see how she feels about the abilities of the safe zone to defend itself.

  A more immediate concern was that he needed to go for a swim in the pond on the ground below his town. It wasn’t to have fun, although he did briefly imagine skinny dipping with all the women in town, but he pushed that aside. He had noticed that he was way hornier when he was at home than when he travelled, something to do with his own bed he guessed. He needed to check how the town was connected to the magic in the planet to see if it was possible to move his town. There weren’t high hopes for the safe zone nearby, plus a change of scenery could do them some good, especially for recruitment.

  He got out of bed and got in the bathing pond to clean himself up and get ready to go down to the ground. He guessed that there would be people down there wanting to get into his town so he wanted to look the part in case some theatrics were needed. Walking out of his home, he saw the small park with a fountain that was directly outside his door and smiled to himself, it was peaceful and cozy. Glancing around there wasn’t anyone around, he wasn’t sure if people were just in their homes but he decided he didn’t care and he took a casual pace to the portal stone.

  On the ground he was shocked to see a dozen people, all in some kind of argument, Lucy and Alora were about to come to blows, Tara was between them trying to calm them down. Bethany, Arinya, and Beau were holding back a crowd of six that were trying to get to the portal stone pillar he had just appeared next to. He wasn’t wearing his mask, just the ape underwear and his pendant, his hair was still a little wet and a lot of it was dangling in front of his face. Standing there with his arms crossed, he was trying to pose like a dad who walked in on his kids fighting and was going to wait until they noticed him before stopping them. To give them enough rope to hang themselves further, he stayed still and quiet.

  Lucy and Alora were arguing over which one of them he would want to handle this, Tara was in full mother mode trying to make everyone get along, and the others were keeping people back. The people were a mystery, they seemed to want some kind or retaliation or retribution for something that one of them had done. They seemed to notice him all at once and everyone stopped and stood still staring at him. There was a long tense pause as most people froze in place, then Tara walked up to him.

  “Finally awake my love, we seem to have a situation.” Tara said in a calm and motherly tone. When Eli didn’t respond, she continued. “That other girl you brought back with you woke up, she was catatonic so we just put her in an empty house and had Ghost watching her. She came to and ran away, jumping to the ground before he could catch her. I sent Alora and Lucy to go find her but she apparently killed someone inside the safe zone. She was hit with the penalty and got scared and ran into the forest. These people want her head.”

  Eli pointed to one of the people, she was the oldest looking among them. “You, come here.” The person hesitated but then walked up to him. “Let me hear your side, what is it that you think we can do for you.”

  “Well, um sir, we want justice for our faction leader. He has done a lot for us, protecting and providing for us. We aren’t strong enough to take care of ourselves, but he was helping us get there. With him gone we will be taken and marked as slaves.” The woman said. He motioned for her to go back to the others.

  He whispered to Tara, “How long was I asleep?”

  “Twelve days, the monster horde is in three days.”

  “Oh, wow, I thought it was only two days. I’ll need you to fill me in on things after this. So, what are your thoughts here? Should I go full tyranny, or should I use this as an opportunity to give someone some purpose?” He was looking at Lucy when said that last part and she knew what he meant.

  “You already know what I’m going to say, and I already know which one you are going to do, so let's just get on with it.” She said, giving him a wink and smile, but he couldn’t help noticing a tired look in her eyes. This was not the only thing happening while he had been asleep, there was going to be lots to do before the monster horde.

  “Lucy, come here.” Eli said.

  She walked up with a smile she couldn’t hide, happy to be getting his attention. “I am going to test you with this, I expect good things from you.” He then walked up to the people with his hand on Lucy’s back. “This is Lucy, she will be assigned to you for protection for 10 days. In that time she will teach you how to survive on your own. You had better learn because after those ten days, you will be on your own. Lucy is in charge.” He pushed her forward and motioned for everyone to follow him far enough away to not be overheard.

  “Find Gwen, All of you, except Tara, find her and bring her here before the monster horde. I’m asking you as a friend, please do this for me.” he said, doing his best to take the edge out of his voice.

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  Surprised at him requesting this in such a pleading manner, they all nodded and ran off. Then Eli grabbed Tara’s hand and touched the stone to go back to town. He wordlessly walked over to the fountain and sat on one of the benches with his face in his hands.

  “What is it?” Tara asked.

  “I should have just killed her. Look at what mercy did, but I don't want to just kill everyone I disagree with either.” Eli said. He seemed to be talking to himself more than her, but she responded anyway.

  “Well, look at it like this, do you want to be the person who shows mercy and screws up or the person who kills and regrets it.” Tara asked.

  “So basically, regret is possible on both sides, but with mercy, I have a chance to fix things. That makes sense, it sure was easier when my emotions were locked away and I didn't have to worry about this.”

  “Now you're just lying to yourself, you had emotions back then, they were just muted. But even with that, you still had feelings for me, and you were always looking to do what is right. Even if the whole world is against us, I’m not going anywhere, you need to trust yourself like I trust you. Make a decision and move on, the world isn’t slowing down so you can second guess yourself.”

  “That sounded like a round-a-bout way of telling me to quit bitch and nut up.” Eli said with narrowed eyes and a smirk.

  “Well, I’m not your mother, I’m your wife. I tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Now grab those giant balls of yours and get to work!” She said with a smile and a playful push.

  He kissed her deeply and walked up to his room, then up to the roof. His people could find her, he needed to figure out what to do when they did. He sat cross-legged and was about to tap the telepathy rune so he could talk to goshen when a system window appeared.

  “Attention: There will be a planetary conference of lords after the next event.”

  “As the paragon of your planet, you will lead this conference.”

  “You need to decide the rules and what will be voted on.”

  He stopped before the next window and ran to get Tara. “I want to get your opinion on this,” he said to her while she was sitting in the sunshine on the bench he had just left. He showed her each window as he was looking at them including going over the one he already read.

  “Options for rules:”

  “Is combat allowed? y/n”

  “How many people can each lord bring? 1/2/3”

  “Each person gets 1 vote, or votes weight by strength.”

  “Forced title and name displays? y/n”

  “Time for discussion before a vote is cast 1/3/5/7 hours.”

  “Can votes be purchased for credits? y/n”

  “Force uncast votes to align with yours? y/n”

  “How much time after arrival does the voting start? 3/5/7 hours.”

  “Well, what do you think?” Eli asked.

  “I’ll be your sounding board, but you need to make the choices.” Tara said

  “I’m not asking for you to pick for me, just if you have any thoughts before I start.”

  “I think you should pick maximum people and time for everything, it will give everyone time to get to know each other and work out side deals. And yes, I want to go with you,” she said.

  Eli went through and started setting the rules. He checked ‘no’ for combat allowed and another system window came up.

  “Rule selected, you are not subject to this rule.”

  That was an unexpected twist, he was exempt from some of the rules it seemed. He continued on, he chose three people. Again the window came up saying he was not subject to this rule. Then he chose votes to be weighted by strength and when no window came up he chose to have forced title and name displayed. He guessed that if a window didn't show up saying he was not subject to a rule that he had to follow it. Next he picked 7 hours between votes, ‘no’ to votes being purchasable from each other, ‘yes’ for uncast votes to go with his vote, and finally he chose 7 hours before the voting started. And with that done more system windows came up.

  “The rules have been set.”

  “You must now pick what is to be voted on, you must choose at least 4.”

  “Constant auction or system assisted auction. (7 days)”

  “Increase or decrease the kill penalty in safe zones.”

  “Open center of the continent (lvl 100-150 area.)”

  “Allow rare monster spawns on the outer continent (lvl 110 to 140).”

  “System store: rare gear or rare crafting materials (7 days)”

  “Building store: luxury homes or improved defenses.”

  “System store: luxury clothes or improved basic armor.”

  “System assisted magic training or martial training (for kids)”

  “System built roads or safe zone barrier selectivity”

  “Make the top 100 list public”

  Eli figured that choosing some of these was going to be bad, but he would let the world's strongest decide. He did not want to rule the world, whether it prospers or it burns, he would not be what drove it there. The next system window gave him pause, however.

  “All participants in the lords conference will be given the rules upon entrance.”

  “They will also be informed that the paragon of the planet chose the rules.”

  “Awe damnit!” Eli said then showed Tara.

  Her eyes got wide, “Damnit is correct. Looks like the system doesn’t want this to be easy for you.”