You have turned in your first quest!

You successfully rescued [Wesley Parsons’ family and 3 others]

You are awarded 120 experience points.

Congratulations! You have leveled. You are now level [3]. You have received +1 to Constitution.

Would you like to add a level to your [sharpshooting] class?

Yes/No

Our feet had barely touched the street when the System awarded us with successfully rescuing Wesley’s family. I’d half expected to receive credit when reaching his house. Still, I wasn’t about to complain. I’d just reached level three. I was, however, surprised at the last message. I had picked sharpshooting as a class, and now the System asked if I wanted to upgrade to the next level.

What would happen if I turned down the next class level? My feet were on auto-pilot as we slowly made our way toward the Parsons’ house. Even though I knew I wasn’t bulletproof—getting chewed on by the kobold was a humbling experience—I could still be impulsive. I selected No on my class leveling option.

Would you like to level up a second class? Yes/No.

I selected Yes, and a list of available classes appeared.

Student—Each level awards +1 Intelligence or +1 wisdom.

Soldier—Each level awards +1 strength or +1 constitution

Ranger—Each level awards +1 Agility or +1 Strength

Gunslinger—Each level awards +1 agility

Citizen—Each level awards +1 random attribute

Hexslinger—Each level awards +10 to mana pool

My eyes widened at the last option. Hexslinger seemed like something out of some weird western. I examined the class.

Hexslingers infuse mana into their [firearms] as a Universal Development System means of propellant. Hexslingers can unlock spells that modify actions.

Then it hit me, when I first examined the System infused cartridges for my rifle. The System had already hinted that there was a way in the System to infuse the ammo and it seemed I’d discovered how to unlock it. I let out an unhappy sigh. I needed more time to explore this. But the noise of the crowd pulled at me. Unhappy, I dismissed the blue floating boxes that obscured my vision.

Then, impulsively, I thought about the hundreds of currently useless infused rounds sitting at home; I didn’t give it another thought. I selected my second class.

Congratulations. You now have [1] level as a Hexslinger. You have unlocked the [mana infusion] spell. To infuse mana into your weapon, spend [10] mana for 100% effectiveness on [short] ranged attacks.

Damn, more information to unpack, but I had to push the floating box away and focus on the crowd surrounding us. Wesley had one arm draped across his wife’s shoulder and another resting on a young child. Despite the horror of the past half-day, he offered a smile as he raised his voice, “We found my family and also the wife and children of Frank McMillan. We defeated the, ah, kobolds who attacked our neighborhood early this morning.”

A voice from the back of the crowd cut through the din of voices, “What happened to Frank?”

Was that the name of whomever was roasting on the kobolds’ pit? I hadn’t known.

Wesley’s smile faded, “I’m sorry to say, he didn’t make it. He was dead before we arrived.”

What a way to sanitize what the kobolds had done to Frank McMillan. Poor Frank had been breakfast for the carnivorous monsters. As my eyes scanned the crowd, my respect for Wesley went up. These were not people who were ready to fully deal with the mixed bag of horrors and rewards dumped on them by the System.

Wesley continued, “Just because we defeated the kobolds this morning doesn’t mean they won’t return, or maybe even the goblins. And who knows what else is out there?” He gestured toward the woodlands before continuing, “We really need to think about consolidating into fewer houses. That would–”

Wesley’s features froze. I recognized that expression anywhere. Something had just flashed into his vision. That’s when I noticed an orb of blue in the corner of my vision. With a single thought, a floating blue box filled my vision.

Quest—Found a village

Requirement: A group of [20] or more people

Establish a level [1] village

Reward: [100] Experience Points rewarded to all members of a newly established village. Universal Development System creatures will not spawn inside System incorporated villages, towns, or cities.

This is a party quest. All party members must accept.

Do you accept? Yes/No.

“That’s not something I expected,” Wesley drawled. He made as if to swipe away something from in front of his face. I bit back a laugh. I’d done the same thing more times than I’d care to admit.

Wesley cleared his throat. “Turns out the System has just given us a quest to start a village.”

A young woman, who had just moved into the neighborhood a couple of months back, called out, “What’s involved?”

Wesley shrugged, “Dunno. We just received the quest.”

I leaned on my rifle. “This is the first time since the System arrived when there’s been enough people in one place to trigger the quest. If we found a village, at least it means the monsters can’t spawn in it. That’s worth something.”

The woman’s mouth twisted into a frown, “How’s that saying go? It’s always darkest before it gets pitch black. Still, protection against the monsters makes it worth it. I hope.”

The rest of the crowd agreed, and I accepted the quest. The blue box showed the rest of the party accepted the quest.

You have accepted a quest to found a village. To found a village, your party has received four stakes connected by System Mana. Stake out the corners of the village.

I blinked away the message and opened my inventory. Aside from the loot I collected between the goblin and kobold fights, I didn’t see anything new.

“Who has the stakes?” I asked.

The stakes materialized in Jayden’s hand, “Right here.”

Light-infused rope connected to several golden stakes. My friend gave each of us a stake, “Let’s form a square and see what that gets us.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The crowd parted, letting me, Hanna, Jayden, and Wesley form a square. I could see Jayden and Wesley by the time we’d pulled the mana rope taut. Several houses hid Hanna, diagonal from me. It appeared each section of the mana rope was about the length of a football field.

Pushing the golden stake into one of my neighbor’s yards wasn’t too difficult. It made me glad none of the corners were on a street. As soon as I’d pushed the stake into the ground, I pulled up the quest screen. A map of the area contained within the mana-marked boundary materialized. Each of the houses was shown to scale. Even the cars showed up on the screen.

I waved at Jayden and Wesley for them to come to me. Once our party had assembled again, we received another update to the quest.

Structures not incorporated into the Universal Development System detected. The UDS will integrate the raw materials, converting them into incorporated materials. The System uses incorporated materials to construct buildings from a list of available structures. Do you wish to found your village now? Yes/No.

Hanna swore, “It’s going to destroy these houses, guys.”

I glanced toward my house. It lay outside of the roped-off area. I didn’t want to see our house destroyed. Dad would kill me when he finally gets home.

Jayden shook his head, “Give me a sec, guys. I’m reading a help file about unincorporated buildings.”

After several minutes, the glazed expression faded, and he said, “All our houses, really all the buildings all over the world, are decaying a lot faster now that the system is in place. Within a month or maybe two, most of these houses are going to be nothing but ash.”

With a bit of help from Jayden, the rest of us found the help file. Thankfully, nearly everyone in the crowd had learned how to access the system and we were like a group of eyeless zombies while we read the help file.

The woman who had spoken for the group earlier finished reading first. When she spoke, I realized how she was only a few years older than Jayden’s sister. She said, “Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. If everything is going to fall apart, maybe you should move the stakes to make sure the area covers the biggest houses. There are a few houses in the neighborhood with in-ground swimming pools. Those have to be worth some materials. Right?”

We spent another hour moving the stakes so that the affected area included six houses, two of which also had below-ground pools. Then another couple of hours as the people who owned the houses grabbed whatever property they wanted to keep. Although I didn’t see what good it would do. It seemed to me even personal property that wasn’t systemized by UDS would decay sooner rather than later.

When I mentioned that to our party, Wesley came over and in a low voice said, “One shock at a time, Caden. We’ve all been through a terrible experience. Let them have this.”

Luckily, the days were getting longer as summer approached. Even so, the sun hung low in the western sky when the six houses were ready.

Do you wish to found your village now? Yes/No.

All four of us chose Yes at the same time. The mana infused ropes dissolved, and the mana spread across the landscape inside the marked area, until it covered every inch in a semi-transparent fog.

Calculating conversion of non-system materials to incorporated materials.

Time seemed to stretch out for an eternity. But it was probably only a handful of seconds before the System updated.

[1120] Wood

[950] Stone

[700] Metal

Before naming your village, do you wish to appoint a mayor or will you act as village council?

Before the system came into my life, the idea of having power like that of a mayor would have been amazing. But now, after less than two days, surviving was proving tough enough. I wouldn’t wish that kind of responsibility on anyone.

I didn’t have any idea what we should do. Only that there was no way I wanted power.

Wesley spoke up, “Alright everyone. When we tried to found the village, it asked if we wanted a mayor or if it wanted our party to serve as a village council. Are there any takers for mayor?”

The speed that people’s eyes shot to the ground or roamed anywhere but at Wesley confirmed nobody was that stupid.

He sighed, “Alright.” Then he turned and to the three of us, “Let’s accept the village council option.”

Error. In order to establish a village council, your group must have [5] members.

Hanna muttered, “Stupid system.”

The young woman, who seemed to be the only person in the crowd to have found her voice, stood a few feet away from me. If we needed someone else, she seemed a better option than anyone else. Wesley had a vacant look; He was reading something from the system.

I took a tentative step toward the woman, “We need a fifth party member to found the village. You game?”

She pursed her lips for a long moment. Mrs. Norris, my elderly neighbor, called out, “Go on, Sarah, you’ll do fine.”

She dipped her head, “Fine. Send me an invitation.”

Jayden had started the group and he invited her. After Sarah joined the party, she received the quest too. And the group received the following prompt.

Do you wish to found your village now? Yes/No.

After we selected Yes, and then selected the village council option, we received a new prompt

Name your village

I had all sorts of ideas for village names. Most of them were from the online games Jayden and I played. Before I could offer my amazing selection, Wesley said, “Sarah, you’re the new addition. Why don’t you pick a name?”

Sarah scanned the crowd, as though seeking someone. After a long moment, she said, “What about Columbia?”

There was a nearby street with that name, so it actually made a lot of sense. Although why she picked some South American country was a mystery to me.

Wesley smiled, “That’s an illustrious name. The goddess of liberty.”

Jayden quipped, “I thought you were a preacher. Going on about goddesses. Who’d a thunk it?”

A genuine smile crept across Wesley’s face. “If you knew your history, you’d know Columbia was the mythical representation of America after the Revolutionary War.”

Village Council of Columbia, Level [1] village, you now have access to the village layout screen.

All the houses, cars, swimming pools, just about everything, had been condensed into several large stacks of wood, stone, and metal. The village layout screen was bare, waiting for us. There were icons at the bottom of the screen representing various building types. The first thing I noticed about the houses icon was the distinctly old fashion design of houses.

Hanna muttered, “Wonderful. They’re all from the dark ages.”

The next thing I noticed, the number of houses from which we could pick was vast. I focused on what I assumed was a two-story English wattle and daub house. The cost of construction was a hundred wood, sixty stone, and ten metal.

Just thinking about the house let me explore the model. The first floor held a large living space, including a kitchen. The second floor held a couple of bedrooms. It wasn’t big, but it would suffice.

I pointed it out to Wesley, and he came back, “Pretty cool design, but if we want to build a stockade around the village, I don’t think we’ll have the resources for that.”

A stockade hadn’t crossed my mind, and I felt a fool. Aside from getting shelter before our homes decayed to dust, the biggest reason for the village was security for the neighborhood. Still, I wasn’t quite ready to move on to another option. I spun the design and noticed the back of the building was made of stone.

Then it clicked. Lots of old forts had homes built against the interior walls. We could do something similar if we built the houses side-by-side. I said, “Look at the house again. The back wall is made of stone. No windows.”

After a bit of discussion, everyone agreed it was suitable. Hanna discovered it was possible to modify the house with add-ons. We added narrow windows on the second floor. They came equipped with sturdy shutters. They made perfect places from which to shoot.

We bought five of the medieval homes and placed them closest to the woodlands, their stone walls facing back. We also bought a gatehouse that spanned the street. The gatehouse was three stories. We were able to configure the top floor to serve as the village council’s room and several rooms that could serve as offices if the village grew. Better yet, the thick, heavy gates could be closed.

Because of our limited supplies, there was a hundred-foot section between the row of houses and the gate. We bought a wall slightly taller than the average man for two hundred stone. It was a temporary measure, but it helped to connect the homes to the gatehouse. We also built a stone well that the system guaranteed would provide water for at least fifty villagers.

The last building we bought was an inn with a tavern on the bottom floor and rooms on the top floor. We weren’t sure about food for the long-term, but we figured a common area for cooking would come in handy.

While the inn was the last building, it wasn’t the last thing we bought. Jayden had grown tired of watching us place the houses on the system’s map interface. When we were close to putting the final touches on the design, he nearly yelled, “Hot damn! There’s a system store, guys. Imagine what’s available!”

For as many ways as the system could create a store, there were patterns for it. We finally settled for a system store we placed on the gatehouse’s second floor, to the left of the gate. With that addition made, Wesley looked at me, “The houses were your idea, Cade. Why don’t you do the honors and select the finalize option?”

The cost to complete the selected construction is [1070] wood, [730] stone, and [200] metal.

No sooner had I chosen that option than things started happening in the mana-covered village area. As though under their own power, wooden boards, blocks of stone, and bars of metal flew to the pre-planned placement of the various houses and buildings. Dumbfounded, we stood back and watched wooden frames and walls form on their own. Stone walls rose under their own means.

Sarah shook her head, “Damn, if only Tony were here to see this. He’d feel those years working construction were wasted.”

I didn’t know who Tony was, but from the golden band on her left hand, I assumed it was her husband. Still, she was spot on. In the span of twenty minutes, all the buildings were complete.

And not a moment too soon. From deep in the nearby woodlands came the howl of a monster.