Leaving the house, Matt followed the road to a town center where several hundred goblins were preparing defenses for what must have seemed like an existential threat…which to be fair, probably wasn't far from the truth based on what they'd heard.
To be clear, none of this changed Matt's purpose, but he'd rather not kill intelligent people indiscriminately if he could avoid it.
He was perfectly content with being sent elsewhere, so long as it enabled him to grow stronger.
Was this a callous way to approach a town cowering in fear?
Absolutely.
Did that change his mind?
Of course not.
The Bureau had trained its Uplifters to potentially kill teams of Walkers when needed and that conditioning had carried over to pretty much every situation.
Sapience in a Gate was exceedingly rare, but not unheard of, which prompted the Bureau to prepare its members to do whatever it took, even if the Walkers in its employ were largely left to act as they saw fit, within certain boundaries of course. Mindless slaughter, while allowed, was frowned upon as a waste of opportunities and resources, which isn't to say it didn't have its uses from time to time.
Uplifters and Bureau associated Walkers who relied more heavily on indiscriminate violence were directed toward Gates that were close to crashing or set against other Walkers that had begun hunting mundane citizens. The System didn't seem to have a problem with it, but nothing is perfect and the Bureau was perfectly content to shore up its blind spots.
Thinking through his options, Matt decided that being honest and direct was the best course of action and walked directly along the road with his hands up in a show of tenuous peace.
Slowing to a stop as he reached the edges of the town, he shouted, "My name is Matt! I have no intention of attacking this town without just cause!"
A low chatter arose from the crowd, now wholly focused on the dangerous murderer trying to make peace with them. He had a feeling they might force him to fight, but waited patiently as an undercurrent of fear began to race through them.
Two Goblins left the crowd, slowly shuffling towards him without weapons. It was possible they were mages, but the risk seemed reasonable to avoid fighting a minor war all by his lonesome.
The first, an older goblin with thinning hair that had long gone shock white from age, asked in a low voice, "Would you be willing to make a System contract that you mean us no harm?"
Learning the knew of the System and its contract function was a surprise, but he took it in stride.
"That's reasonable, so long as its the only condition. If you all decide to attack me, I don't think dying on the spot is fair if I try to defend myself."
The second Goblin, much younger and muscular shouted, "US?! Attack you! You're the one who --"
His older companion, who stood with a noticeable hunch, raised a hand to his shoulder and said, "I understand you may have encountered some of our…lesser brethren on your path to our construction site. It pains me to say, but I can understand why you might have assumed we were all that way."
Shuffling that concept to the back of his mind to ask about later, Matt answered, "Unfortunately yes. I took action before I considered the situation and I'm sorry."
"Yes, it is unfortunate. Many who the System sends our way are under the impression that our whole race is little more than a means to an end, but we are more than that."
The Goblin shifted uncomfortably, leaning more heavily on his cane as he continued after waving his hand, "We only intend to discuss and resolve this peacefully, if at all possible."
Accepting the contract, Matt nodded and put his hands down as he walked toward the pair.
"I didn't realize this was a True Gate, or I would have proceeded more carefully."
The younger Goblin raised an eyebrow and asked, "True Gate?"
"The humans from this most recent integration refer to World Gates that way. You would know this if you bothered to read the information sent by the Empire when we left to found this town."
The mention of an empire sparked some curiosity in Matt, but it would have to wait for another time. After all, Matt hadn't come this far by being easily distracted by things that likely had nothing to do with him…or anything not related to his path for that matter.
Waving away the extra information, Matt said, "I'm only looking for places to train and get levels. Do you have any suggestions?"
Talking with the pair had made him change his mind about attacking the town if they didn't know.
Turns out, making a direct connection with someone made it difficult to consider killing them for levels.
Who'd have guessed?
A wicked smile crossed the elder's face as he said, "If you're amenable to something less palatable, I can direct you toward what you want."
Raising an eyebrow, Matt gestured for the man to continue.
"A tribe of up and coming bandits have been gathering and attacking us for our food and weapons. Our major concern is them getting smarter and becoming more dangerous than they already are. If you're willing to fight them, you'll get some levels and we'll issue a quest so you get some extra rewards as well."
"Get smarter?"
The idea of these Goblins sending him to wipe out another group didn't faze him in the slightest.
Civilization had developed heavily by wiping out opposition, though it didn't hurt that these Goblins were of the criminal variety.
The elder nodded and said, "Goblins are what you might call a gestalt. The more of us that are gathered and allied to each other, the smarter we get as a group. This spans a certain area that's decided by the quantity of Goblins included and can span immense areas. The Empire, for example, has trillions of subjects and its range covers entire solar systems."
There was a lot to break down in that brief explanation.
What stood out to him was that number.
Trillions.
Humanity barely broke into the realm of billions, and who knew how low that number would drop after the tutorials were over.
This was, for obvious reasons, a significant problem.
One that was so far above Matt's paygrade he almost immediately shut down the idea of addressing it himself, filing it away to mention to Elric to pass up the chain of command.
Hopefully to someone who cared, but Matt knew his role, right now anyway, was more ground level and didn't intend to get involved with any potential conflict that involved the words solar system.
Stopping a tribe of bandits fit into his 5 hour plan perfectly though, and he said as much.
Then came the matter of the reward.
The town had enough resources to grow, to be sure, but to pay for a mercenary to wipe out an entire tribe on his own? Less so.
Looking around at the town and its inhabitants, now considerably calmer, Matt had an idea.
It wasn't uncommon for Uplifters to use their strength and connections to set down roots somewhere outside of Bureau grounds. They were contracted with the organization for a few years, of course, but weren't limited to barracks or even asked to remain on Bureau property. Several had even started families of their own, using their salary and additional income from Gate Walking to create whole communities.
A similar idea came to mind as he asked, "How would you feel about having the reward be to allow me to live here?"
Matt was pleasantly surprised when the younger Goblin said, "We expect all residents to contribute to the town and its growth. How you do that is up to you, but that's really all we ask."
Having expected significant pushback, considering he'd killed almost fifteen of the towns residence, which had even greater ramifications than he'd initially realized, Matt was willing to agree.
The elder Goblin said, "It occurs to me we haven't introduced ourselves. My name is Sezzikex, and my grandson goes by Sozzikex."
That was..confusing, to say the least but Matt didn't comment on the strange naming sense.
"I'm Matt," said instead and offered his hand to shake.
Sozzikex grabbed it and squeezed, testing Matt's strength, a test he welcomed and easily dominated.
Its important to remember that even though Matt's stats were evenly distributed, he got a LOT of them with every level, hence his success against the stronger, at least visibly, Goblin.
"So, is there a way for me to get here directly, or will I need to use the…World Gate I came here through?"
Sezzikex reached into what Matt could only assume to be an inventory space and pulled out a small coin and said, "Of course not. We may not be as large as the Empire, but we have our own magic and technologies. This is a teleportation token that you can bind to your soul and gain access to our teleporter. It was one of the first things we built upon arrival and its already up and running. Honestly, its the only reason the bandit tribe hasn't already pushed us to the breaking point since we can import supplies, even if it is rather expensive."
The two Goblins led Matt to a small house and tapped some System screens, allotting it to him and giving him access to the town's Merit system. Merit, while not used much on Earth…yet, was a way for communities to measure contributions and even get rewards for their efforts.
Access to the Merit system also gave him the ability to look at their Quest Board and see that there were all kinds of ways to contribute to the village, from fighting monsters, rival tribes and towns, all the way to harvesting or crafting items and supplies the town was in need of.
In short, it was awesome.
He could come and go as he pleased, get stronger while increasing his standing in the town, and even expand his house…somehow. The Merit system was a little vague on that note, but he figured it must be worth it considering the insanely high amount of merit it required.
The best part, however, was how it was paid.
Matt had worried he'd need to keep track and pay a tax or something, but the system had a much simpler method. It simply took a portion of any merit he received as payment and automatically contributed it to the town's resources. It kind of felt like that meant the town was connected to some greater kingdom, but Sezzikex assured him the things the Merit system provided were directly from the System itself.
Apparently the System put a high priority, and reward, on settling new areas as well as establishing a presence in dangerous places.
Looks like even other races weren't free of the System's high priority on getting stronger.
It was fair at the very least.
By this point, most of the citizenry had made their way back to their jobs or homes, doing…whatever it is a small community of Goblins did with their time.
The thought struck him as he realized he didn't really know what anyone did with their time since he spent most of his training or fighting.
Elric had suggested picking up some kind of crafting, but that didn't really feel like it fit with his current mentality. Matt had spent ages working for these exact moments, to fight with his life on the line while seeing new and impossible things.
How could he spend even a second at a work table hammering away at something?
Putting the thoughts of hobbies and crafting to the bottom of his mental list, he turned to his Merit tab, freshly added to his System menu after joining the town.
He saw, not all that surprisingly, that he was a few points negative and moved past it. Killing members of your community had to have consequences obviously, though the amount it cost him was interesting, sitting at a negative thirty which seemed more arbitrary than calculated. Seeing as he had no intention of killing anymore Goblins from his home, he shrugged and flicked through the list.
Apparently there were options to directly contribute materials and gear to the town, as well as directly build improvements. It was all very new and fun, to him at least, so he spent quite a bit of time before moving all the materials and random bits he'd gathered while fighting earlier.
Bumping past his debt, he found himself with over four hundred points, which he immediately put into building the Goblinoid Soul Wall improvement.
Several seconds passed before a deep rumbling shook the town as massive walls grew around the town, taking up a much larger space than he'd expected.
With a quick glance, he estimated the walls extended past the town by at least a mile on each side, only properly visible because of their sheer height.
Oh, and the intensely bright teal bubble that grew over the town.
Two hundred points and an eye watering bright light later and the Soul Wall dimmed enough that it wasn't blinding him while he watched.
A notification flickered into view, alerting him that the wall would be self-sufficient with ambient energy for the next two days and recommended building a Soul Influx Array to generate power for the wall and future structures.
It cost fifty Merit, so he hit the button and selected the strongest model, costing an additional fifty points and supposedly powering over a hundred structures before needing to be supplemented. Thinking for a moment about what would happen if Walkers found the town, he added several back up batteries to store the energy and bolster the defenses, just in case.
The whole affair left him with thirty Merit to spare, which he dumped into a basic furniture set for his house…and a crafting set up for a spare room.
Bottom of the list was still on the list, after all.
Originally his plan had been to set out and take out the bandit group immediately, but seeing the wall gave him enough confidence to think the town would be fine for at least a few days.
This assumption would prove overwhelmingly correct as Sezzikex came over with a look of awe plastered on his face.
"Did you do this?"
Matt nodded, immediately concerned he may have made a mistake and done something that endangered the town. It was a massive, multi-mile wide glowing teal barrier after all, the damn thing could probably be seen for miles.
"Should I have not?"
Sezzikex shook his head vehemently and said, "No, no, no, nothing like that. We weren't expecting to build a wall for at least another couple of years. The Merit for it was so prohibitive that we thought we'd need at least another thousand Goblins before the price went down to something manageable."
Filing away the information that Goblin population affected Merit prices, he asked, "It was only two hundred Merit though?"
Sezzikex laughed and said, "Only two hundred!"
Unsure what was so funny, Matt raised an eyebrow as the older man continued, "Two hundred Merit would take an average citizen over a year to accrue. You've put us almost a decade ahead of schedule."
This surprised Matt and he mentioned the batteries he'd purchased, which got another shocked look and frantic thanks from the older Goblin…who had begun to look younger.
Not by much, but noticeably so.
"Goblin technology, while generally very advanced, works very much with the Soul by its original nature. The higher the concentration of Soul energy, the greater its effects on our bodies, making us stronger, younger, and even smarter if enough is present."
It was all very interesting, but since it didn't impact Matt directly, he decided he'd do what he could to improve the town's Soul energy as much as he could to bolster its strength and people. They were his neighbors now, and he knew that helping each other out could only be a good thing.
Out of materials and basking in a sense of safety that had been absent less than twenty minutes prior, Matt walked up the road to his new home and opened the door.
Despite originally being built for the noticeably smaller Goblins, his home felt perfectly sized for him and people like him.
He doubted he'd have many guests, but was glad to see that the basic furniture set he'd bought had filled the house from top to bottom with the necessary couches, beds, and yes crafting surfaces. Materials were conspicuously absent, but seeing as even low level materials could range in the hundreds of System credits, he wasn't surprised.
The currency dissonance was something Matt hoped would solve itself over time, since balancing old world dollars and System credits was confusing enough, and now he was adding Merit to his mental list of money types to keep track of.
Before the System arrived, the world ran on money and with its appearance, that hadn't changed. Credits were the only currency the System allowed and it had no exchange rate with the old stuff, a fact that took some groups longer than necessary to accept.
As the governments dwindled in relevance, banks and exchanges followed suit, until eventually only the wisest and most enterprising groups remained.
Adapting as fast as any company with tens of thousands of employees could, the few remaining banks switched from maintaining currency to storing items and facilitating large scale material trades between guilds and particularly wealthy individuals.
Despite every person now having an inventory, the amount they could hold varied from person to person and were nowhere near infinite. It wasn't entirely clear what made that difference, but the fact that it existed made external storage exceedingly valuable and some people even carried storage items to keep their personal inventories clear and more easily manageable.
There were also those who felt like the System managed inventory couldn't be trusted to begin with. To be fair, these were also the same kinds of people who kept their money in their mattresses or walls instead of banks, so ultimately it was neither surprising nor much of a loss.
Outliers like them always existed, and despite their misgivings, what it usually meant was some lucky crafter or walker made a few extra thousand credits after selling a storage item to them.
Turns out even after the world changed so radically, nobody can really escape the system they're part of.
All of this, to Matt, worked out to an ever more complex system of diplomacy that felt unnecessary.
The Bureau had the right of it, that it was time for Humanity to begin pursuing a united front in the wake of even more intense changes to come.
The Goblin's World Gates all but guaranteed that other races would be joining Earth in one way or another, and right now it seemed that those other races would have internal standardization and perhaps even rules and contracts in place with each other to make sure that there were no undue difficulties in growth.
Humanity wasn't ready.
Matt was slowly, but surely, starting to believe it was already too late to get ready for what was coming.
In the wake of that unreadiness came a single hope, one that Matt was positively ecstatic he'd have no role in establishing.
Diplomacy.
yay.