It turns out they were bluffing.

  I’m not sure if they really would’ve forced the other people gathered to pay the tax or they were bluffing from the beginning, either way, they backed off and simply left the area. I didn’t know where they went nor did I care at the time, we just continued on our way and entered the Dungeon.

  I still didn’t understand their purpose, but I decided not to let it bother me. My focus was needed to make sure my cousins survived the run and actually learned something.

  It wouldn’t be for a couple days later when I learned that the situation with the Dungeon wasn’t going to be the only situation like that we’d have to deal with. Once again a completely different set of people tried to charge others for entry into the Gauntlet Dungeon but stopped after some pressure.

  A few days after that, they tried with the shop, and they would just try with a bunch of different things but never really commit to any one thing. That’s when it all added up. They were once again testing just how far they could push the people in this community.

  But what were we going to do? We weren’t in the business of fighting people just because of a little annoyance so we chose to do nothing. As long as they didn’t try to do anything to the members of our family, the compound, or start a massacre for some reason, I doubt we’d do anything.

  Was that the right approach? I’m not sure, but the second we went down the path of playing the neighborhood police, I had a feeling that there would be no going back from that decision.

  So for now, minding the business that pays us while making sure to pay attention to the movements of the community is our best bet.

  Anyway…

  As of late everyone in the family has just been focusing on training and pursuing their own personal goals while still being a family. We trained together, bonded over the lack of toilet paper, fought together, and just continued to grow. This of course included any rewards gotten from the Gauntlet Dungeon. Unless it was a piece of armor or a weapon that the person rewarded simply couldn’t or didn’t want to use and it was given to someone else, whatever they got would be for them.

  And since money wasn’t really an issue for us anymore, no one ever chose that as a reward these days.

  Until Grandpa decided to forgo choosing something for his own personal benefit. I mean it made sense. He was the rock of this family and he had always taken it onto his shoulders to carry any weight or burden for us that needed carrying.

  Thankfully for him though, the monetary reward he received was anything short of a burden. In fact, it might’ve matched the benefits of receiving a nice skill considering what this money would do for us.

  Grandpa was a little behind me on the battle counter, and he had just completed battle 29. He could’ve kept going I think, but he chose to call it quits there and picked coins as a reward.

  Long story short he received 60 Gold Coins for his reward. A full 60. Considering the prices of everything in the shop, and the cost of the Faction Node in particular, surely that meant we were rich now? It had to.

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  We were definitely going to buy the node, but beyond that, this amount of money should last us a good while.

  Grandpa went to the store and made the big purchase. Well big in terms of money since the actual item he brought back was nothing but a small metallic disk. It really didn’t look like anything special, but Grandpa mentioned that it was prompting him to place it where the faction would be established.

  With the entire family gathered, we stood outside just in front of the main house and watched with curious and expectant eyes as Grandpa placed the small disk down on the ground. A couple silent seconds passed and right before it got awkward Grandpa spoke up.

  “It’s asking me some stuff, give me a sec.”

  Ah okay, I wish we could see everything it was doing too but this makes sense I guess…

  POV Lance Williams

  Please answer the following to proceed with the activation of the Faction Node

  Designate a Faction Leader:

  Well until one of these spawns of mine are ready to lead this family in this new world of ours, or I finally kick the bucket, I’ll hold on to that role.

  Faction Leader designated: Lance Williams

  Please name your Faction:

  This one is easy enough.

  Faction Name Designated: The Williams Family

  This Faction Name is now restricted for the use of any other official within Planet ENWPI70059.

  Note: This Faction Node will claim all unclaimed territory up to at most a 1-mile radius from this point.

  Note: This territory is not defended by the System, nor is it visible. All non-Faction members will receive an alert when entering and leaving said territory. The Faction Leader and designated officers will receive alerts when such individuals enter and exit the territory.

  Note: To add Faction Members, have the individual in question place their hands on the node and proceed from there.

  Note: There is a small period of 6 local hours to allow for anyone currently within the faction territory to leave once the node is active before they are designated as intruders, hostile or otherwise.

  Proceed with activation of Faction Node?

  Hm, I think I once wrote about a similar piece of technology in one of my first books. The one about the arrogant flame boy. Either way, this is easy enough to understand, let’s get on with it.

  Faction Leader approval received.

  Faction Creation proceeding in 3…2…1…Ding!

  Congratulations, The Williams Family is now an Official Faction Recognized by the System.

  Alert: This Faction Node was activated within a Pre-Int World in the midst of a Pre-Int Subjugation. Gold to System Credit Conversion is Activated. Restrictions have been applied to Faction System Shop. All Concessions have been Activated.

  System Credit? And a Faction System Shop? Freddy, Rakeon and Mack are going to love this.

  Oh a light show.

  …

  “Hey someone go get Vera and company, everyone else come touch this one by one.”

  POV Fred Williams

  Honestly it killed a little bit of the excitement just sitting here like statues as we watched Grandpa stand still for a couple minutes as he went through whatever questions the node was asking him.

  And then finally, the little disk made a clicking noise, then a blinking white light appeared in the middle of it and after a few moments it stopped blinking. The disk then started spinning slowly as it rose calmly into the air till it reached about three feet in height and it just stayed there.

  Hovering and spinning slowly.

  Ah that was dope as shit not gonna lie.

  “Hey someone go get Vera and company, everyone else come touch this one by one.”

  Looking around, no one seemed to be in a hurry to run off to Miss Vera, and well I didn’t blame them, we all wanted to touch it and see what it all meant.

  “Ah I got it you lazy bastards.”

  After saying a silent thanks to Uncle Lenny I might’ve accidentally used a Surging Step to get to the floating disk first, and while ignoring the comments from my other family members, I placed my hand on the node and immediately my eyes lit up almost as bright as it did when I saw I got an Unbound Skill.

  I had to stop myself from laughing.

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