Chapter 242 242: Part 1: The Return I

When Cole logged back into the 3rd floor, it was right where he had left, but there was a clamor filling the air. He turned in the direction the sounds of unrest was coming from and discovered it was coming from the entrance of his Valley, or better yet his territory. He moved towards it, Delarosa seamlessly sliding out of his shadow to walk a little ways behind him. Even if he would never admit it, there was a part of him that was just absolutely giddy about having a bodyguard that was his literal shadow.

"Guys you should all calm down, but ultimately there's nothing I can do about this. This all belongs to the World Breaker and he has already imposed the rules necessary and those rules have been implemented by the system. And you all should be smart about this, what you all are asking for is impossible, he owns everything that you can see, asking him to let you harvest his territory's resources without paying a task is wrong."

"But this resources was open to all of the Glade before he came and stole it from us, why should we suffer for another man's greed! And you! One of the leaders we voted! You're in support of him, how is that fair, how is that working in our best interest." Cole's amused chuckled broke through the din as Thunder-Jack turned around in surprise to see Cole there, the Aspirants of the Glade all took a few steps backwards.

​

It was one thing to be talking about Cole when he was absent, but it was another to do so in his face. He was rumored to be the most powerful aspirant in the universe, of course those were just rumors, but many had used their eyes to see the carnage he has wrought in every floor up until now, he was DANGEROUS written in all caps! But they were desperate, the rate of growth for the Glade had slowed down with his monopoly of the Glade's renewable resource nodes.

And what was worse he had half the leadership in his pocket, beyond that too he was not around to accept people into whatever fucking faction he had made. Plus things were heating up in the Glade now that people have Become comfortable and other Glades have been found. There were already disputes for territory and resources happening outside of an assigned Glade's territory. They were getting frustrated and many of them had stagnated in strength instead choosing to play Harvest Moon instead of Rune Factory.

"You guys have a problem with the way I run my business?" Cole asked as his voice took on an edge, as he did so Delarosa's sword flew out of her robes into her hands as she pointed it at the ground and released a bit of it's power, causing a patch of grass close to where they were standing to wilt.

"You guys have a lot of nerve to come here and bother my man like this, he doesn't make the decisions, I do. And I see you all trying to pressure him into being disloyal. And even worse you want to reap where you did not show. Everything here I earned through my blood, sweat and occasionally tears from the sheer amount of pain I have to go through. I didn't steal anything, I purchased it, it's mine now, I didn't steal anything from you, if you could afford it you would have bought it yourself too. Anybody who makes trouble here again would be banned for life, then you can go get your resources from elsewhere. Now you all can fuck off, Raen Valley is closed for the day."

Cole then turned around and left, Delarosa sagged behind long enough to glare at the massive crowd before she too turned and followed, making a show of returning into Cole's shadow as Thunder-Jack seemed torn between the people and following after Cole. But in the end he followed right behind Cole, speeding up his strides in order to catch up.

"ummm Cole, don't you think you might have been a little heavy handed there with the Gladers. I mean it's not as if you're wrong, but still they have been struggling quite a bit since we monopolized the resource nodes." Cole paused then he turned to Thunder-Jack.

"I like how you used the word we, Because that's what I'm all about, family and unity. The things is they're human beings, that's what we all are, forget the fact that many of us now have distinct and very different races. And we like free stuff, just as we're ungrateful and expect mana to fall from the sky everything we bitch and moan about it. This is not the exodus and I'm not fucking Moses.

I want our species to survive and thrive, and giving handouts is not the way. They need to wake up to the reality as Madara once said. The world we're going to end up living in would be terrible, if they can't go to huger floors and have instead relegated themselves to the third floor then I have to find ways to toughen them up. Never the less time would reveal whether this method is the right one."

Thunder-Jack nodded his head in understanding as Cole did something next that shocked the hell out of him. With just a wave of his hand an entire crowd of people along with one massive truck showed up. He stumbled backwards, wondering if this was an illusion or Cole just teleported almost two dozen people here from God knows where. Then he spread his arms with a flourish as a wind from God knows where started blowing as he said.

"Phoenixborn Clan….. welcome to Pangea and welcome to Raen Valley! Let's make sure to get along, now do make yourself at home, now show me how to make bombs!" Irma blanched as she looked at Cole with an annoyed look, while at the same time blinking her eyes rapidly in an effort to get used to the brightness and the fact that she could see the sun and not a blanket of smog over the sky.

"Bombs? What do you need bombs for?" Her father asked as he too, took in their surroundings, the only response Cole gave them was a grin.

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