If you're a fly, then so am I

<Beep! The user has discovered an iron-ranked Town. Currently unoccupied does the User wish to claim Iron Town? Note once Town is claimed Monsters will periodically attack new Settlement. Unlike Novice Village can be destroyed.>

" Yes I will claim Iron Town." Draven answered the system.

<Beep! User Has Claimed Iron Town and has become its Mayor.< p>

Please select a name for Iron Town.>

Draven pondered for a minute and couldn't help but pick a name from the game it just fit so well.

<Beep! Iron Town shall now be known as Ironforge.>

As soon as the name was confirmed the Barrier's light dimmed to be nearly non-existent and a flood of messages from the system popped up in front of him.

System can you please summarize all those messages for me?

<Beep! 5000 6500 In Summary, the User has now taken control of Ironforge and as its Mayor, you have rights over facilities assets. You can tax usage buildings terminals well set prices rooms to sleep in. also ban individuals from entering or disallow anyone who is not a recognized citizen entering. The maximum number registered citizens no more than are allowed inside at any time. As may select Vice Mayor up near equal authority. mayor privilege using United Auction House Town Communication Terminal.>

"Son, is everything alright? The barrier is almost gone." James called out. Draven hadn't moved or said anything for a couple of minutes and everyone was dying of anticipation. Draven blinked a few times yea sorry was out of it for a second. Everyone welcome to your new home. As of now, you are all Citizens of Ironforge and you may enter. Everyone cheered loudly as they all began to excitedly pass through the barrier to enter the town. A new tab on Draven's menu opened by itself that read Town leadership.

Ironforge – Registered citizens 1454

Building A1 – 30 Rooms unoccupied Price per room - not selected

Building A2 – 45 Rooms unoccupied Price per room - not selected

…

This list went on and on of all the buildings and costs that Draven could select and edit.

There was also a tab for a Town Shop where he could spend money to purchase more buildings and amenities to increase productivity and raise the maximum number of registered citizens. Draven was a bit overwhelmed with all the things he could do but he needed to properly take the time to think before he did anything. Draven walked with his Dad into Ironforge and motioned to him to come over to chat. He quickly explained the essentials of what he could do and asked if he wanted to be the Vice Mayor. James quickly agreed especially explaining to his father about the town's Communication Terminal Draven added "I think we should check that out first. If we can talk with people from other towns we can exchange information and maybe meet up with others." Draven said exceiteldy.

"That is important but it is not on the top of our to-do list. James said. "First we need to get people settled in they are tired from traveling and could get a bite to eat. James was right so Draven naturally agreed. "I have plenty of food on me let's celebrate with a cookout and in the meantime I'll sort out the living arrangements," Draven said. But before we go please call the orb hunters and some others with ranged classes to keep a lookout over the perimeter of the town. We will be attacked periodically and I have no idea when that will start or how often it will occur." Draven said after giving it some thought. "Now you're talking like a leader." James praised while clapping his son on the shoulder. "I'll round some people up to stand watch while get a grill set up afterward ill cook and you work on the living arrangements," James said as he turned to look for some Orb hunters. 

Looking at the town shop Draven clicked on amenities and scrolled through it looking for a community grill. It took him a few minutes as he was distracted from all the cool things he could buy from pools to basketball courts but looked past all that for now and landed on the community grill. It took the shape of two half circles placed slightly apart allowing people to walk into the circle. it was roughly the size you would expect the foundation of a house to be so it was quite large and accommodated many people to cook at the same time. in the middle were several tables to allow the cooks to prep the food before cooking. Utensils such as knives, tongs, and cutting boards were included for the low price of 1400 gold without materials this could be reduced to 200 gold if Draven offered 1250 kg of stone and 200kg of Iron. 

"I have more than enough Iron but what about the stone can i just remove chunks from the mountain or does it have to be a certain type of stone?" Draven asked in his mind.

<Beep! Any Stone will do. Keep in mind that when using different types of stone the structure not be uniform.>

"Helpful as always Draven said fondly as he took off towards the mountain pickaxe in hand. He went crazy on the side of the mountain and gathered more than the required amount easily enough. He was surrounded by stone so building resources were plentiful. Draven walked back to town and placed the large community grill in the center of the town. Others might put a fancy fountain or something artistic but why waste the space with something useless? Draven decided the centerpiece of his town would be coming together to eat.After purchasing the Community Grill small robots came from the buildings and began constructing the Grill. 

"What the fuck are these. and where did they come from?" Draven yelled out they were small spider-like robots roughly the size of his hand and they were numerous. They easily cut the stone as required and began construction as their metallic limbs constantly changed turning into a different tool. in 10 minutes the entire project was completed and they ran back into the building and were gone. Draven even chased a few down but once he lost sight of them they disappeared. The rest of his citizens were equally in shock and some even broke the floor in a house to see if they were hiding there but found nothing. "I guess those robots are a function of the town and are in charge of building and repairs?" Draven said to the crowd that started to form wanting answers to the robots hiding in the buildings.

"I don't think they will bother us but let's keep an eye out just in case," Draven said but even he was creeped out a bit. On the bright side, however, the grill was completed and looked amazing there were 12 grilling stations within the 2 half circles giving plenty of space to cook for the whole town. Draven then proceeded to place 20 Boar corpses he had in his inventory on the tables that should be more than enough to get started Draven thought. As he began to look into living arrangements. 

Draven wasn't entirely sure how to handle this he didn't he understood the importance of building an economy where money was flowing into the town which would allow him to purchase more expensive things in the shop or build other facilities in the town. so it was best people paid for the rooms they lived in. Doing this also meant those who contributed more in terms of adventuring or helping those adventure through professions would earn more money allowing them to stay in better homes. Whereas the people wanting to be lazy would live in the cheapest accommodations. But this was the first day so Draven wasn't going to make anyone pay anything for now as no one had any money. He also had to be careful where he placed people otherwise it would look like he was kicking people out of their homes later on when he decided to start collecting rent. 

All this was giving Draven a headache. The longer he took to decide on this the longer it would take to get people settled in. Seeing Draven deep in thought James would had arrived decided to keep quiet and started carving the boars on the table extracting the meat skillfully. Draven began to start with deciding on prices. And who could best help him crunch numbers other than his loyal System? 

"System based on the resources from monsters in the area and Profession materials that can be found in this region what would be a reasonable price that people could afford to pay rent in each of the different types of home in this town?"

<Beep! 25 50 100 200 400 700 1000 Calculating living costs based on the housing accommodations present in Ironforge with cost of resources found this area Auction House average person should be capable earning a minimum gold day 1% Low being and High gold. To create stable economy rent not exceed one-fourth their income. I would then suggest apartment-style homes most units priced at while building fewer offering more space is day. Small Townhomes small stand-alone The larger remain empty until has formed for those who can afford them as prices per>

Draven didn't question the system as those prices were better than anything he would have come up with. Good save those prices to those buildings but do not activate rent as of yet.

<Beep! I have added the prices to all homes and will wait for confirmation begin charging rent.> 

Satisfied Draven now just needed to decide on where people were going to sleep until they could land on their feet and start paying rent. Looking at the housing tab there was more than enough space for everyone present in the apartments where the prices range between 25 gold and 50 gold. Draven decided it was best to have everyone start with an apartment and then work up from there that way they would either have to downgrade to a cheaper apartment or stay where they were as it was still within their means with a bit of work. This was better than someone staying in a house and then being told they had to move out into an apartment if they couldn't pay the rent later on. Having finally found a solution to the living accommodations Draven came back to reality as all the screens in front of his eyes disappeared and began smelling some grilled boar.

Looking over Draven saw his Father and some other people filling up all the grill stations and cooking the boar meat. A large crowd started to form waiting patiently for the food to be done. "You get everything figured out bud?" James asked looking over to Draven. "Yeah, all figured out I'll let everyone know after we finish eating." He replied. James simply nodded as he kept cooking. Many pieces of meat were ready and were passed out immediately to make room for the next pieces of meat on the grill. After an hour everyone including Draven and his dad were now eating some grilled pork. 

After they were done eating Draven made an announcement and explained to everyone that they were free to find a home in the apartment building that they liked. He then explained in further detail the cost of the rooms and other homes and that they would have a week to live for free so that they could get situated first. Many had a big problem with this as they were living for free in Novice Village before. But after enlightening them about the auction house and the store menu for crafting buildings, defenses such as stronger walls, and other amenities such as pools and nicer homes they quickly saw the need to pool money if they wanted to survive and keep growing. Now they were all excited and the majority headed over to the apartment building to get settled in. Okay, Dad let's head over to the town hall now" Draven said calling out to his father.

After glancing at the map Draven located the town hall and they both went over there to check it out. The Town hall was impossible to miss it was the largest building in the Town and looked grand from the outside. It was a tall building that had a small garden in the front and two statues of dogs on either side of the entrance. Draven walked towards the large wooden double doors.

<Beep! Downloading Data please wait.< p>

… Download complete registering User Draven as Town Mayor

… Registration Complete.

User may enter Townhall.

Draven opened the door and stepped inside. It was quite luxurious in an old-fashioned kind of way. Everything in the interior was made of solid wood, to the floors and the stairs while the walls were made of stone. There were many rooms and a large meeting area with a table that could seat 20 people easily. James took a minute to walk around saying he would catch up as Draven made his way upstairs to the Mayor's office and placed his hand on the terminal causing the door to unlock and open. Inside was a large space with a seating area on one side and a desk on the other. The walls were filled with bookshelves and in the corner was even a small bar stocked with alcohol. On his desk was another terminal, after placing his hand on it came to life and showed two options.

Town Communication

Auction house

Draven naturally tipped on Town Communication.

A new window popped up that read

Active Iron Towns

- Ironforge

It seemed no one else had activated another Iron Town Draven was both pleased over his achievement and sad that there was no one else to talk to to gain information from other parts of the world.

Draven returned to the main menu and entered the Auction house. And to his surprise, it was filled with items to buy. At the moment the screen listed random items from weapons to potions going for a crazy amount of gold but Draven could also search for individual items or filters through types of items such as weapons, consumables, armor, raw materials, and blueprints. Within each tab, there was an endless list of items to buy from.

Draven couldn't understand where all these items were coming from if he was the first person to activate an iron town then how could the Auction house be filled with so much stuff? Who was putting things in the auction house if he was the only person who could use the auction house? Draven was about to look for armor pieces for himself when he heard a knock on the door. "Draven are you in there?" His Dad called from outside the door. Draven stood up and let James into his office. James took a look at the room and whistled "Man you really moved up in the world!" he laughed until he suddenly stopped everything he was doing and briskly made his way to the stocked bar. "Draven look they have ale I'm assuming that is as close to beer as I'm going to get." he laughed wholeheartedly this time as helped himself to a flagon and chugged it down releasing a satisfied sigh. "I really needed that!" he said smiling from ear to ear. So what did you find out? He asked in anticipation. "Well for one we are the only people who have activated an Iron Town so there's no one else to talk to until someone else does as well. The confusing part is the auction house is full of stuff to buy and I have no idea who could be selling so much if no one else is at our level of progression."

James' expression went from relaxed to serious instantly. James took a seat and browsed through the auction house himself. There's so much stuff in here it would take months just to quickly glance over it all. This is a well-established economy. Something like this isn't built in a month this has been going on for years. Look at the prices of certain items they are all very similar to each other which means the prices have stabilized and there is a consensus on their value. Whoever these people are that are selling these items have either been here a lot longer than we have or are related to our captors. James said with a serious expression. As much as Draven didn't want to admit, his father was right. "So that means I am actually incredibly weak Draven muttered out loud.

James had a confused look on his face. Son if you're weak then what am I? A fly? he asked sarcastically. "Look at the armor some of the more expensive pieces have a level requirement that must be met to wear them. Draven said pointing to the screen. James pulled up the armor tab of the auction house and randomly clicked on one that was outrageously expensive. The Breast Plate of Hellfire level requirement is … 45! James shouted surprised. That's what I mean in order to get level 45 equipment to drop you have to kill things at that level so you have to assume those people are also at that level or higher. Draven said feeling a sense of dread looming over him. "So these people are at least 3 times as strong as you? James said with a look of shock on his face. "No, you get stronger exponentially at higher levels in the same way that to me the difference in strength between someone that's level 1 or 5 is negligible the difference between my strength and yours would be negligible to them. If you're a fly, then so am I.

The same look of dread that Draven had on his face now showed on his father as well as the realization sank in that even though they were out of Novice Village they were still just at the beginning and could not afford to act like they were some kind of Powerhouse. One thing doesn't add up though James said as he pulled himself together again. If there are people so much stronger than us and have been here for so long how is it that no one else has activated another Iron Town? Before Draven could think about it a loud bell rang twice within the town. Do we have visitors? James said baffled. Draven was completely confused as he had no idea what the bell ringing twice meant. Get up, there are other people at the gate. James called out as he grabbed Dravens by the arm to force him to get a move on. Draven got to his feet and quickly sprinted out of the Town hall and made his way to the gate. What Draven saw next would change his view on humanity forever. A large group of over 120 humanish people was inside the town and slaughtered everyone they could find. A large man with half his body covered in some kind of stone seemed to be the leader as he called the shots.

"KILL EVERYONE! LEAVE ONLY THE WOMEN ALIVE! He yelled out. THIS TOWN IS MINE!"