“Hi everyone! I work at the Lazy Circle Farm up on Route 3. We give riding lessons, rides for kids, take care of some people's horses for them, regularly or when they are away. Jack Swift is our boss, me, Zack and Dwayne's. Anyway, we were there when the System hit. We didn't have a lot of time to pick things, and we couldn't pick our guns. So we made do, like everyone else.

“We figured the most important thing was to protect the horses, because if we didn't, who would? And it's a good thing we were all together in the barn, too. There were way too many of those varshath things, sprouting like weeds. I guess it was better than some options would have been; the horses have some instincts and training when it comes to facing snakes. At any rate, they pitched in like regular troopers, and we must have killed two dozen of those nasty things. We lost Zack in the first few minutes when...well, anyway.

“When the dust had settled, just about all of us were level two—including the horses.”

“Horses can have levels?” someone called out.

“They sure can. Inspect them when you get a chance. Turtle is a level five ally now. Bun-bun is a lazy thing and only level two still. Most of the rest are level four. We team up whenever we go out hunting, human and horse; we're much stronger together than apart, let me tell you.

“All eight horses survived the first attack. When we lost Zack, there were four of us humans, counting Jack's son Jeremy. We went patrolling and found some more nasties. We figured out pretty quick that we got better the more we killed things. So we patrolled quite a ways out. We humans got offered the Cavalry class. Jack took it, Dwayne ended up with Trader somehow, and I got Cavalry Medic. I'd really like to compare spells with your healers later.

“So of course we started worrying about what was going to happen after dark. We all stayed in the barn and kept watches the first night. In the morning half the main house was wrecked by goblins. We had to go inside on foot and clear them out. So we learned our lesson and set about making a Safe Zone. We had to get help from the horses to tow cars, but eventually we got enough onto the property that we could build the place.

“The three of us adults all put our tokens together, and that let us get power and running water. We realized we needed more. So we set out to find survivors nearby, and we charged them their token as the price of residency. We figured out that people got a token when they got their class, so we pushed everyone to get at least a warrior class if they couldn't get anything else. One stubborn kid insisted he wanted to be a mage, so we let him stay on condition that if he couldn't figure it out in two weeks he'd take warrior and give us his token then.

“Another few days of pulling cars, and we were able to expand. With two dozen people, we had enough tokens to start building other buildings. We've got one lodging, a proper barn, a greenhouse, and two fields. Food and shelter. We went out searching for farmers specifically, and found Brad and Wendy and Mark. Brad and Mark got the Farmer class. Wendy got some kind of scout thing going on, but she knows her way around a farm. They're trying to get us started on our first crops, but it's slow going.

“We've been riding out to scout around, and we've found another Safe Zone north of us about seven miles. That one is more in the suburbs, so they didn't have so much trouble getting metal. I think they've expanded twice, in towards the city both times.

“We've been trying to get a good feel for what's around. It's getting a bit more dangerous out there with the rare spawns, though. We've seen giant moose, and something that looked like a giant owl; Wendy says she just barely got away from that one. And this thing that looks like a hobgoblin but it's huge.”

Karl abruptly sat bolt upright. Jack hadn't gotten around to mentioning that to George while he was there. If it drops a Hobgoblin Monster Core like the War chief did, and we kill it, we might be able to expand beyond eighty acres. It's not an urgent need, but those don't come around every day.

“Jeremy figured out Shop stuff, and we decided to try writing a little newspaper and selling it. Just a page to start; we have to make the things by hand and don't have a lot of paper. So you can buy it here at the Shop, and if you're doing that, we'll make sure we keep writing new ones every day. Feel free to write back! We don't have a lot of coin but we can afford a few coppers for that.

“We had twenty three people, but we lost three when the inmates attacked.” The crowd started a questioning murmur and Cecily hastily explained about the inmates escaping from Pennyworth Penitentiary.

Kat spoke up. “They had 130 inmates last I knew.” Karl blinked. How did she know that? He realized that he didn't know what Kat did before the System. Maybe she already was a cop. It would explain why she's so on top of being sheriff and why she turned purple when I accused her of being a lawyer.

Cecily wrapped up her story, then excused herself to check on the horses. Valerie, Annie and Mandy went with her to talk healing spells.

* *

After that, they had a town council meeting with Jack as the guest of honor. It felt like an intelligence briefing, which it mostly was. Maria also explained the agreements she had negotiated with Dwayne. Karl listened attentively, then tried to sum up.

“Okay, let me see if I've got this. You need another ten people or so to come take up residency, at the cost of their lesser System token.

“In combat skills, we're going to send someone willing to train up your people in Archery, and train your mage. In return, you're going to teach horsemanship to people here who want it.

“In non-combat classes, we're doing an open exchange, negotiated with the individual trainer for their time. We need Farmers, but not until we have System fields, because those are much better than the plain dirt we have on the upper terrace now.

“Someone from Lazy Circle will come by twice a week with intelligence updates for our maps, sightings, and so on.

“And Endurance is giving Lazy Circle an interest free loan of five gold for their own basic recycler.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Does that about cover it?” There were nods all around. “Excellent. In that case, I think we're finished here. There's only one more major item for the evening. Jake? Can Letisha be spared from the mews?”

Jake nodded. “She doesn't have to be there 24/7. She just needs to bring a chunk of meat every time she goes back.”

“Then let's go check if we can expand the lodgings.”

They all headed down to the build pedestal. Karl was starting to get used to working with it, so he called up the menu.

You have insufficient resources to increase your Safe Zone.

Resources required:

Wood: 1450/1500

Stone: 1500/1500

Metal: 458/1500

Designated power source for Safe Zone: Monster Core – uncommon – good

This power source will sustain four expansions from base. (1 / 4)

“Hm. Jake, why do we not have enough wood?”

Jake adjusted the hologram so it was easier to see. “We're digging further into the hill as we expand eastward. Huge excess of stone, but not quite enough trees. We can fix that by expanding a little west as well. But eventually we're going to have to build across the road or down into the marsh. I know we didn't want to block the road, but we might grow enough to simply have gates on either end and expect the traffic to enter the town. Or we could do a walled arch that traffic could pass under, and basically have two sections of town joined by skywalks.”

“But we don't have to decide this expansion?”

“No. We can adjust a bit, like so.” The green area on the topographical map shifted to encompass less of the hill and a bit more of the trees to the west of town. “Yeah, that should give us enough wood.”

“Building another terrace level?” Jake nodded. “We'll have to start turning some of that into fields. But that's for a few days from now. Let's see what we have to work with tonight.” Jake nodded again and called it up before Karl could.

Wood: 512

Stone: 330

Metal: 458

“Okay, Jake, what can we get for that?”

“I think it's time to bring in Letisha. Give me a few minutes.”

Karl and Jack talked about the options on their build pedestals while they waited. After a while Jack commented, “at the farm, we've got some big fields around our Safe Zone, so there's only one direction we can expand in to capture enough trees. But with the recycler and some patience, we'll be able to expand in any direction we want. I'm thinking it might be smart to wait a bit and get a better shape for the zone.”

Karl nodded. “I can see that view, but I'm concerned about how fast events are moving. So I want to expand as quickly as possible, but we keep being delayed by building more housing. It costs resources.”

Jack grunted. “You've got a point. But we can probably build a lodging and upgrade it, and maybe take some of your people and ease the population pressure here a bit.”

Jake returned with Letisha. “Hey, what did you do?” she demanded, looking at the adjusted expansion design.

“We were short on wood.”

“Never mind that, the recyclers will bring in plenty. Put it back.”

“We can talk about it after, but right now—”

“We're doing an upgrade, not an expansion,” she finished.

Jack took a step backwards. Karl eyed him, then backed up to match. The other Safe Zone owner leaned closer and murmured, “God damn that's an exotic beauty.”

“She is that,” Karl agreed quietly with a slight emphasis on the pronoun. He thought he saw Letisha's eyes flicker in their direction for just a moment. Jack grunted; Karl couldn't tell if it was acknowledgement, apology, or something else.

Letisha tapped Jake on the shoulder, who looked at her in puzzlement for a brief moment, then got a look of comprehension on his face. “Okay, Sir Karl, we can expand the lodgings vertically or horizontally. We don't have elevators, so vertically means people with high constitutions probably want the uppermost stories.”

Karl followed the thought. “And those people tend to be on the ground floor so they can get to a fight faster in an emergency. Okay, let's do horizontally then.”

Jake and Letisha started muttering to each other. “No, toward the wall.” “Windows.” “Huh?” “You'll block the sunlight in those windows that way.” “Right. But not too close to the gate, we might expand the barracks later.” “Got it.” It was only a couple of minutes of that before they looked up and nodded. “Ready.”

“Anything else we can build tonight? What does a barn cost?”

More muttered conversation. Jake answered, “Three hundred wood and a little metal. We don't have enough to do it and both the lodging expansions. We could do one lodging expansion and build it, though.”

Karl smiled at Jack. “In honor of our guests, let's do that. Jack, do you have a preference for placement of a barn?”

“Close to the gate would be ideal. Thank you, Sir Karl.”

Within a few minutes it was finalized, and a couple of onlookers went to warn people. Once they got the all clear, Karl approved the expansion, and people went outside to watch. It finished a few minutes later, and they went inside to inspect it.

He poked with his foot. “Where did the System get the hay?”

“Where does it get anything?” Jack countered.

“Fair enough. Is this good?”

“Yeah, this will be just fine. Thank you.” Jack stepped outside and whistled, and the horses came trotting over. A bit of whispering and encouragement, and the horses walked around inspecting stalls and each picking out their own.

Karl walked over to the new lodging expansion, and found Sara already inspecting it and making notes. “Sarah? I'd like to reserve two of the rooms on the first floor, for visitors.” Sarah frowned a little, then nodded.

“Are we getting the same number of apartments again tomorrow night?”

“Assuming all goes as usual with the recycling teams.”

She nodded acceptance. “Okay, you've got it. The two on the end,” she said, pointing. Then she squinted, turned and looked down the corridor. “God damn it, the rooms got renumbered! Jake!”

Karl hid a smile and showed the guests to their literally new quarters.