Shall we follow him?

"Hey! You damn brat, wait for this old man!" Grandpa was shaking a fist at Twix' disappearing figure. "I wouldn't have told him if I knew this would be his reaction. Left us all in the dust, stupid boy." Grandpa was grumbling but the smile on his face gave away that he was just as excited about Spartan Fire's promotion as his grandson.

The old man looked at Mars and Kit. "Well, shall we follow him?" Grandpa then did the same as Twix and left without waiting for a reply. Kit felt this might be a family trait, a chuckle left his lips at their actions.

Kit felt his own itch to leave surface again, he turned to Mars with a conspiring smirk. "Shall we beat them there?" Mars raised a brow in reply. Kit smiled and handed him a bag of cookies, a large smile graced Mars face as he took the offered goodies.

"They will be so mad, I can't wait!" Mars looked positively delighted at the thought of getting there before them. He devoured the cookies without dropping a crumb, then smirked at Kit. "Shall we." Mars made a motion with his hands for Kit to go first.

"Lets!" Kit took off with a burst of laughter, he made sure he rushed past the old man on the way. "See you there!" Kit shouted as he rushed past, Grandpa hollered for him to wait, Kit burst out with more laughter and kept going. Mars was bouncing next to him the whole way back to the town hall.

They fell in heap of giggles when they got there, Kit flopped down on one of the chairs inside the main hall to recover. They had only just got themselves under control when Twix arrived with loud pants. "How did you beat me here?" He squeezed the words out through gasps of air.

"Bouncing steps." Kit replied.

Twix gave Kit a confused glance. "Bouncing steps?" Kit grinned and explained his newest creation. Twix pouted "Damn it, if I wasn't so excited to get here, I could have tried it! At least I beat the old man here!" Twix was chuckling with mirth. "He is going to be pissed that we left him behind."

A few minutes later Twix prediction came true. A red faced Grandpa huffed at all three of them. "You lot are lucky that you didn't start the promotion without me! I would have put itching powder in your clothes everyday if you had! I've been waiting for Spartan Fire to thrive before you were even born!"

Grandpa was working himself up into a lecture. "How could you race off on an old man like that. I almost had a heart attack trying to keep up with you youngins!" Grandpa started to wave his arms wildly as he spoke, Kit felt it was time to interrupt or this would go on for a while.

"Grandpa we couldn't do the promotion without you even if we wanted too. You have the promotion tokens remember?" Kit watched as Grandpa visually relaxed. "Ah, I forgot about that in all the excitement." Grandpa cleared his throat. "Should have remembered that before I ran here." Grandpa grumbled underneath his breath.

Kit was sure the old man didn't mean for them to hear that. Kit shared a smile with Mars and Twix at the old man's words. They all pretended that they didn't hear. Grandpa became side tracked as he opened his pouch to pull out the promotion token, the lecture forgotten.

Then with a flourish he handed it over to Kit. "There you go my boy." Grandpa started rubbing his hands together and stared at Kit with pure delight clear on his face. Kit looked at the token in the palm of his hand, then at his friends.

Before he did anything he decided to check that the promotion could go ahead. It would be embarrassing if they were missing something in their haste to complete the task.

Spartan Fire Regional Promotion Requirements

Village

Village promotion token 1/1

Population 670/500

Cemetery 1/1

Blueprints unlocked 15/15

Spartan Fire Prestige 1078/1000

Kit relaxed upon seeing everything was completed. Then he returned his focus back to the token in his hand.

Mars had the pleasure of activating the promotion to a small village last time. This time he felt it wasn't his turn, after looking at the amount of prestige that had accumulated. He really hadn't been active in bringing Spartan Fire to meet the requirements for this promotion.

He felt a pang of remorse that he hadn't been doing his duty as a founding member. He made plans to become more active in that role in the future. After his restaurant became a one star, he would dedicate one day a week to help met the requirements for the next promotion of Spartan Fire.

Kit pinched the token between his fingers then flicked it up into the air towards Twix. Four pairs of eyes watched the token descend towards an unexpected Twix. His friend reached out in reflex to catch the object heading towards him.

Twix snatched the token from the air, then turned confused eyes to Kit. "What was that for?"

"Oh, I decided to flip the coin to see who would promote Spartan Fire today. You won fair and square Twix!" Kit smiled at Twix. If he tried to just give the token to Twix, he was sure he would have met with refusal, this was why he chose this method to pass the token over.

Mars let out an amused laugh. "Congratulations my friend!"

"What?" Twix looked stupidly at the token for a moment, then turned to Mars and tried to shove the token towards him. "You have done so much to get us to this point. I think you should do it Mars."

Mars avoided Twix with a cheeky grin on his face. "Come now Twix, you did just as much as I did. Accept your fate man, you won fair and square!" Mars ducked behind Grandpa laughing at Twix' lost appearance.

Grandpa stopped Twix from following Mars. "Stop messing about and activate the token. I didn't run all the way here to stand around waiting!" Twix stopped his actions then nervously looked down at the token.

Kit was the opposite of his friend, he felt a rush of anticipation surge inside him. Twix was like a frozen statue staring at the token, the longer Twix looked at the coin the more Kit felt himself building to the point he wanted to explode.

Jitters started to make his limbs jerk unconsciously reacting to all the adrenaline coursing around his body. When Twix eyes finally held firm resolve, Kit blew out a long shaky breath, this was it!

Twix loud voice rang clear in the silent room. "Promote Spartan Fire."

The token in Twix hand began to glow with a soft golden light. Soft tiny transparent threads of gold started to emerge from the token. As Kit watched, excitement hummed through the room, he couldn't stop himself bouncing on the tips of his toes in anticipation. The threads suddenly bust out in a golden mass rushing to find a target.

Kit's eyes darted around the room trying to keep his eyes on all the threads. The ribbons continued to flow until the whole room was filled in a golden flood of transparent golden threads. Kit remembered this from the previous promotion, he then recalled what came next.

He turned and dashed towards the exit not stopping until he was a fair distance from the door. His eyes then swung back to the building.

Golden threads had followed him outside worming their way over the entire plot of land that the town hall was built on. Suddenly the golden threads started swirling around the building, when they picked up in intensity so did Kit's heart.

This is what he had been waiting for, last time he hadn't been able to see what was happening outside of the building when the town was promoted. He didn't want to miss the spectacle this time, because he was sure it would be breathtaking.

All the threads that had been following him out the door were now all being pulled into the vortex that had formed where the town hall stood. Kit had to squint his eyes against the intense light the golden tornado was now producing.

He felt his breath hitch when the vortex pulsed, a loud explosion followed the pulse and Kit's breath caught in his throat. Golden glitter rained down all around him, laughter spilled from his mouth and he raised his hands to catch the falling golden rain.

Joy filled his heart at the sight, he had been right, the sight explosion of gold had been spectacular! He felt each golden rain drop fall on his skin then dissolve as if it had never been there. Kit felt his eyes crinkle in delight at the beautiful rain covering the town hall. At that moment he felt like dancing in the golden rain, so he did.

Ding!

[Spartan Fire promoted to village]

Please check Spartan Fire promotion information for new requirements.

Mars exited the town hall and caught him doing a rain dance. Instead of being embarrassed Kit tried to encourage him to join in. "Come and join in, its fun!"

Mars shook his head, amusement was clear on his face. "I'll leave the dancing to you. I just want to watch the rain." Grandpa and Twix soon emerged as well, Kit had stopped dancing by then and had joined Mars sitting on the ground staring at the beautiful golden rain.

Grandpa rushed over to Kit and Mars and plonked himself down. "I'm sitting with them, now spill!" Grandpa was glaring at Twix.

Kit chuckled at Grandpa actions, he was like a little kid following instructions because he wanted something in return. "Ok Grandpa I'll tell you the next promotion requirements now." Kit let out an ahh sound when he found out why Grandpa had been acting that way.

Kit flicked open the information to read along with Twix.

Spartan Fire Regional Promotion requirements

Large village

Village promotion token 0/1

Population: 670/5,000

Library: 0/1

Guild: 0/2

Blueprints unlocked: 15/30

Town Hall Level: 1/3

Spartan Fire Prestige: 1078/10,000

Kit sucked in a lung full of air when he looked at what was needed for the promotion to a large village. That was a hell of a lot more prestige than last time. They also need two guilds to move to the area, how were they supposed to manage that?

He was sure it wouldn't be as easy as constructing a guild hall and wham its all done. At least the library shouldn't be hard to build. His eyes then landed on the town hall level, they needed the town hall to be level three before they could promote to a large village?

He quickly flipped to the town hall upgrade section, he had forgotten what was needed for the next promotion of the town hall.

Town hall upgrade requirements.

Spartan Fire government buildings/land 3/3

Road infrastructure 1/1

Residential buildings 520/100

Commercial buildings 8/3

Industry buildings 4/3

Administration employee 0/1

Clerical employee 1/2

Upgrade Building requirements: wood, stone, small light stones, purple floating crystals.

A bit of his anxiety eased after seeing that they were almost ready to promote the town hall. Then his eyes landed on the building requirements. He wondered if anyone had done anything yet about collecting the small light stones and purple floating crystals.

He raised the question to the others in front of him. "Basil and Olive brought some back with them. The mountain behind us has a treasure trove of minerals if one knows where to look and can face the dangers in the wilderness up there." Grandpa informed him.

Grandpa looked pleased as punch that his grandchildren had the skills to navigate the Devouring ranges. This news made Kit even more determined to go up the mountain, if Grandpa knew where to go to get his hands on rare minerals he could make a small fortune selling them.

Grandpa started to chuckle when he saw Kit's greedy expression. "Kit get that idea out of your head right now. The places to find the best minerals are all guarded by high level spiritual beasts. Actually the whole devouring ranges are covered with the creatures. That's why there are not many people who venture up the mountain."

Grandpa patted his shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Kit, I know living in Spartan Fire can deceive you about the surrounding dangers in the forsaken state. I think it's time I told you a few things so that you don't run off and get yourself into trouble."

Kit had an ominous feeling at the weight in Grandpa's words as he spoke.