Chapter 24 Hope

"Over a hundred thousand...," Golaium covers his face after murmuring this and falls back into deep thought. There's no way we can defeat such a large number if they decide to attack our city. Even if they don't attack our city, we can't allow such a threat to exist this close to our kingdom, we'll have to try to slowly kill them over time but with the sheer number of newborn spiders, they can produce at one time we would be fighting a losing battle of attrition, the king thinks to himself.

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Aware of the king's thoughts I decide to ask Neph to see what he thinks the best course of action would be in order to help the dwarves out.

(Well, I never thought this kind of thing would happen, I knew of the mutation in the Death Spider, but I could have never guessed that they would turn into this much of a threat to this kingdom. Its might be because I stopped being so deeply involved in the happenings of the different floors in order for them to have a more natural path of growth, but this is unimaginable).

"So, what do you think we should do? I don't really have that great of ties to this kingdom, but I also don't want to see a bunch of innocent people be massacred by a bunch of monsters," I reply back.

(Well, there are only two options I can think of. One the dwarves can find a different mountain and set up a new city to live in but eventually they'll have the same problem because the spiders will just keep growing in number and if they go this route they'll end up in an even worse situation).

"Yeah, I had thought of that, but I ruled it out because it'll only make things worse in the future, you mentioned two options, this was the first so what's the second?" I say as I try to think of a solution.

(The second option would be to add this city and all its people into your Familia and Floor).

..."What do you mean add everyone and this city into my floor? My floor is on a completely different floor, how would that even work?" I ask in utter confusion.

(It's true that the floor you govern is on the floor below us but since you're my successor you have authority over this entire crypt. That being said you'll only be able to manipulate the floors you've visited and only if you have the consent or submission of the individual that rules over that floor, in this case it's Golaium).

"So, let me get this straight, if I can make Golaium become a part of my Familia I'll be granted control over this entire floor and I'll be able to add Marbelium to my floor? I ask uncertainly.

(Correct, the king of the dwarves has been assigned the role of floor guardian by me when I created the crypt millennia ago. Each floor will have a designated guardian that you'll need to interact with in order to gain the ability to add said floor to your domain and increase the features available to you in your management feature in your system).

"So that's how it is, but wait, if every floor has a set guardian, why didn't I have to interact with the guardian of the first floor? I ask confused by this new information.

(Well since you ended up finding my hidden castle you ended up interacting with me instead of the floor guardian. Being as this was the case and you ended up becoming my successor I kind of bypassed you needing to encounter the floor guardian).

"Ah, that makes sense, now I know how I need to proceed moving forward. I'll have to rethink my plan; I was planning on just going through every floor as quickly as I can so I can leave the crypt. If I can interact with the floor guardians and expand my floor it'll make me stronger in the long run it'll also give me more allies by adding the floors due to the races inhabiting each floor," I say to myself as I start remaking all the plans, I had, incorporating this new information.

During my inner monologue Paul, Damian and Golaium were all staring at me as I was standing there with a look of deep thought with an occasional look of surprise and then understanding. Damian watched me knowing it has something to do with my system, so he wasn't as confused as Paul and Golaium. Paul and Golaium were utterly confused as to why I was having so many different facial expressions when I wasn't saying anything, and I appear to be deep in thought.

After several minutes I finishes my inner conversation with Neph and notice that everyone is staring at me. Noticing their stares I get flustered wondering why I was the center of attention right now when all I was doing was standing there.

"Why is everyone staring at me?" I ask nervously thinking I missed something important in the conversation.

"What were you thinking about? Your face was going through a myriad of expressions just now and we're confused as to why that was," Golaium asks me in curious confusion.

"Ah," I say in realization, my face must have been reacting throughout the conversation with Neph due to the number of new things he was telling me. I didn't even realize that I would be outwardly reacting during our conversations, I am normally too focused on what we're talking about.

"So, this is going to be a lot of information and a lot of it will seem impossible or outlandish but what I'm about to tell you is the honest truth," I say with an earnest and serious tone.

Damian looks at me in concern having an idea of what I was about to tell them, he isn't so sure as to why I'm choosing now of all times to talk about it, but he trusts me and it's only thanks to me that he's where he is today because of me.

Paul and Golaium look at each other in confusion and they both look back at me. "I've been traveling with you for the past few days, I know your character and I know that even though you say something that seems impossible to me it's always been the truth," Paul says with conviction while also letting Golaium know that he shouldn't discount whatever I am about to tell them.

I nod my head in appreciation before I begin my narration of how I have been chosen by Nephelium to be his successor and how I am currently on a quest to conquer all one hundred floors of this crypt. I also explain about my Animus System and for it works differently from the rest of the world in terms of making me stronger along with those that join my Familia. After mentioning my Familia, I go into detail about how this Familia feature of my system works similar to their guilds and their kingdom put together in a way and that those who join my Familia will gain a copy of my system.

Lastly, I tells them about the floor that I govern after becoming Nephelium's successor and how after Damian agreed to join me on my journey, which caused the creation of my Familia feature I gained a city scape in the center of my floor. I further explained that those that join my Familia will be able to build their own personal house in the city, wherever they want location wise and that those that are the first to join that have a trade will be able to make a workshop for that trade.

Since Damian has joined me and he is a blacksmith he was able to create a blacksmith workshop inside of the city so from here on out those that join the Familia and want to be blacksmiths will have to work at Damian's workshop. This way there won't be a competitive struggle for resources by multiple different blacksmith workshops.

My explanation took over an hour to finally reach its end and by the time it was over Paul and Golaium were in a state of utter disbelief. Everything that they were just told was utterly impossible and nonsensically fantastic, they'd never heard of something so bizarre and wonderful in their long lives. After taking several long minutes to mull over all the information they just received from me, Golaium looked at Damian and asked him, "is all of this true? It's all so utterly mind shattering that it just doesn't seem possible."

"Yes your majesty, everything that James just said is indeed true, I was of the same mind as you when he first told me about him being the successor of the great Nephelium, but after I agreed to join him I had received a copy of his system and I was able to witness his governed floor and the city scape that it holds within it," Damian replies to Golaium in a deeply respectful manner since he is in fact talking to the king of his entire race. Never in a million years did he ever imagine that he'd ever talk to the king.

Having gotten confirmation from Damian once again Golaium looks at Paul since he vouched for me before he began his entire explanation. "So, what do you think about all this?" He asks Paul in a calm and somber tone.

"Honestly it is a lot to take in but being Nephelium's successor does explain how he is able to do some of the impossible things that I've seen him do on the expedition," Paul says scratching the back of his head.