But just flaunting his real world wealth was not the only thing he was doing. Being a leader was good and all, but right now there was no efficiency and he would not be able to do what he really wanted as long as he took up that burden. Plus Raven was trying to use the Goodwill of the people to buy himself clout and authority, however if even his own person would rather betray him, no matter how much of a victim it has made him seem, there was something wrong with Raven as a person and Cole had not been remiss in exposing the fact that Raven was or is power hungry.
"Also effective immediately I step down from my position of mayor, a vote should be carried out to see who would take over that position from amongst the current Council members. I will work hand in hand with the mayor to make sure that this Glade grows and we complete the quests that would see us heading to the next floor as soon as possible. We all need to be able to work together to be the first to the next floor, I just don't see how being a leader that's constantly being attacked by a person even more unfit to lead would help me or the rest of us achieve that goal.
We all should vote for who would be mayor from amongst the four that is left on the council. Then we can have another election or a campaign of sorts from amongst the highest ranked contributors outside of Raven Nightmoon's corrupted guild, that can fill in the position for the remaining Council seats. As for the voting it would be done by the system, the most votes would go to whoever we all feel should be the mayor and they would take up the position. I believe this should keep some power hungry bastards who want nothing more than my down fall satisfied, and at the same time you all get a chance in picking who should lead you all and will not have to deal with an all powerful tyrant like me. So you guys should carry on with it."
Cole had a racial refinement waiting for him, and he had to pick augments for the stats that had reached Iron V. But of course before he could do any of that he would have to deal with the mess he had just finish making. And he could tell there was a lot to deal with as Cassandra dragging behind her the same youth Cole had seen around her along with Farida rushed towards him. He held up his hands for them, then beckoned them closer as he turned and moved away from the crowd that was currently clamoring and arguing about who would be the next mayor.
It did occur to Cole that perhaps this choice he had made would make things a lot more complicated and slow things down, but ultimately it was still up to democracy to get everything up and running. The two Council members following after him more than proves he still had the power in the Glade, plus it wasn't just Cassandra and Farida that were following behind as Thunderbolt-Jack was not too far behind along with shockingly enough the final member of the council who's name was still somewhat eluding Cole.
He found a quite place to sit, right between the boundary of the forest and the Glade. He crossed his legs and looked up at them as they came closer. The first person to start talking was already yelling from a distance causing Cole to since due to how loud her bloody voice was.
"Farida you should tone it down a bit, I have really sensitive hearing." Cole said to her as he promptly ignored the remaining stream of words that came out of her mouth. When she realized that he was ignoring her, she shut her mouth with an audible click and threw her leg forwards in a kick straight to his face. Cole's hand shot out and grabbed her foot in the air, he applied pressure, going harder until he heard her since in pain.
"I will only indulge such a character because I know I pretty much increased the load of work you currently have. It is one thing to keep the Glade and every aspirant in it productive, it's another thing to deal with the aftermath of an upended government or seat of power. You would have to restructure a lot of things in order to ensure that everything else is still running and not coming to a screeching halt from the, as you put it. 'Colossal clusterfuck' of problems I've laid at your feet.
But my dear Farida if I didn't think you could handle it, I would never had put all of this stress on your head... okay scratch that I would still do the same thing. Your comfort doesn't matter to me, this just became too much of a hassle and it was best if I just took a massive step backwards. You seem more fit for the job than I am, and through it all you are still maintaining your position on the rankings. It means there's a good head on your shoulder, which is why you are the only person with a direct line to me in this Glade or anywhere else for that matter."
"But this is still too much of a problem to deal with!" Farida continued as she stat down on the ground with a thump, the rest did not stand on ceremony and joined her. Cole raised an eyebrow at that, because he noticed a few other groups of aspirants coming closer and also sitting down cross legged on the grass as if to listen to whatever it is he had to say. Cole didn't care, it was not as if he had anything important to say, he was just giving an explanation to the council… or whatever the fuck was left of it.
"It is a problem yes, but you all can deal with it faster. I might not like the guts on Thunderbolt-Jack or Cassandra's face or even for the life of me remember the name of the fourth council member, no offense lady, or are you a guy? Damn! This is a whole other level of lazy writing. It either way you all have good heads on your shoulders and you've made it work so far. All we need to do is to keep gathering resources and the leveling up will happen, of course the biggest problem would have to be with that bloody nest, so instead of whining about who would lead which is really stupid I think the best thing we can do now is get a raid group together or just any damn group, as long as there are people behind me that can mop up any darkling I miss, we should be able to clear and have the entire forest and the nest under our control by the end of the day. Too much talk means nothing gets done." Cole said to them, as they all fell silent as if to think on what he was talking about.
"Do you have a plan of attack?" Cassandra asked, her voice even but she had spoken in such a way that seemed to give Cole some reverence….it was weird. Plus Cole knew she was looking for an opportunity to make her demands, never the less, he was sure there wasn't a thing she would ask for that he could not deal with.
"the darklings for all of their animalistic tendencies and characteristics are intelligent. So we can't all just match up and attack, that is why we have been loosing so far. I've been in there, and let me tell you that what you've all been dealing with is just a tip of the iceberg. Ranged attacks would help us out in the forest, it is the best bet, we can attack all of the darklings that come out of the nest at distance whittling down their numbers as we rotate in between our ranged attackers.
There are a lot of them but they're not endless. A sustained volley of ranged attacks would help us get closer to the nest, assuming of course you don't just throw me at them, it would be akin to running a hot knife through a slab of butter. But there would still be darklings that could get past me. So instead I think we should follow the ring. The forest encircles the Glade before ending at a barrier the further in you get. We should have attack from the east and the west, killing every darkling in our path and felling all the trees too until we meet at the nest.
That way we can ensure that no darkling flanks us. And it would work since the darklings can't cross into the Glade. Then we can just keep killing them as they come out of the nest using ranged attacks. Eventually we would be allowed in, and then tanks can form a wall while ranged attackers keep up the heat from behind. A few warriors capable of sustained battle can fight in the tunnels within the nest to reduce the pressure on the tanks or give them a chance to switch with fresher tanks in case they're low on energy. Everyone else would be on support until we reach the cavern and underground lake."
There was silence all around, Cole raised his head to notice that at least 75% of the aspirants in the Glade had gathered around to listen to what he had to say. He had to be honest, his heart immediately skipped a beat as the worst case of stage fright that he has ever had in his entire life assaulted him immediately.
He bent his head and idly began to draw in the dirt, hoping that would be enough to deflect people from the fact that he had suddenly become self conscious. It was weird, but in the end Cole was still human.
"All these plans…" Cassandra started to speak, causing Cole to raise his head, but he was not the only one paying attention to what she had to say. The rest of the massive crowd that they had gathered was still giving rapt attention to the topics being discussed.
"That you have laid out, you're 100% sure you can lead us into completing it and gaining victory over the darklings." Cole raised an eyebrow and said.
"If I wasn't worried about the darklings getting tired and just having an Ursaling bite my head off every time they see me, I'd kill them all myself. They're weak, the only true power they have and are leveraging against us are their numbers. We field that advantage and with just a little bit more strategy and we will wipe them out in less than a day. So it's not just victory I'll give you guys, it's a massacre!" Then Cassandra smiled as she got up raised her fist into the air then yelled.
"World Breaker for MAYOR!" it wasn't what she said that shocked Cole, it was the fact that those words were mirrored back by hundreds of voices! Things just never seem to go according to plan.
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