Everyone stopped at the top of the rise for a minute, to look at the town.
Endurance had expanded again. It now looked the way it had appeared in Jake and Letisha's design. To judge by the shape of the wall, there was a third terrace level now, butting up against an increasingly dented hill, and the Safe Zone had also expanded slightly westward, almost to Walnut Street. Twenty acres. We're getting there. I wonder what they added inside?
However, Endurance was now hemmed in on all sides: the hill to the east, Post Road to the north, Walnut Street to the west, and the marshes to the south. I guess we'll have to cut one of the roads and build across it next time. Something for the town council to decide.
Ethan cleared his throat, and Karl looked over. Judging from the reactions of others, he must have just dropped Stealth. “Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you.”
“Thanks for coming, Ethan.”
“Mm.” Ethan sighed a moment. “Thanks for offering, Sir Karl.”
“Sunset's coming soon. Let's go, everybody!” Terry sprinted ahead as the rest of them walked, and was soon waiting by the wall.
“That's new,” Chenelle commented. She was looking at a postern gate that had been added to the left of the main gate. It looked just big enough for one large person or one horse to pass through at a time. Karl approved. The smaller gate opened by the time they reached it, and Paul's brother Chad greeted them.
“Welcome back...!” He stopped and stared at Jo. “Whoa.”
“Hi, Chad,” Jo rumbled and waved.
“Is that...Jo?”
“Uh huh.”
“Wow.” Chad backed up and led them in through the gate. Karl got a look at the interior of the Safe Zone and frowned thoughtfully. He could see that the lodgings had been expanded again, but he didn't see other improvements. I wonder what else they did while I was away. Glad I had already given Jake and Letisha authorization before I disappeared for most of four days. But first things first, Karl. Focus. He cleared his throat.
“If everyone could tag along to the cafeteria for a few minutes while I do introductions?”
“Of course,” Chenelle answered as everyone nodded.
A lot of people were already reacting badly to Jo's new appearance. It helped that Tabitha was still riding on her shoulders. The little pyromancer stayed there as they walked through the Zone. Dinner was still being served, so Karl took advantage of that. They entered the cafeteria and the noise of people changed; at first it was hushed, then got louder as everyone started talking at once. Bringing the duo and Ethan along, he walked up to the wall where he usually gave speeches.
“Attention Citizens of Endurance!” Karl projected as hard as he could and willed all his Charisma to work. Apparently it had some effect, as the room started to quiet down. He saw some new faces and thought he heard some muttered questions about who he was. Karl stood up straight. Public speaking was getting easier with practice.
“Our own Jo Bell together with Tabitha has saved us many times. They have brought us many new people and a great deal of food. Three days ago, Jo fell in battle.
“By acting very quickly, Druid Williams was able to save her, but at a cost. Her body has changed, but she is still our Jo. Tabitha can testify to that.
Tabitha raised a fist. “Hordeslayers!”
Clinging to Tabitha with one hand, Jo raised the other in a fist and boomed, “HORDESLAYERS!” The volume startled a lot of people. Then Jo waved. “Hi, everybody! I'm still Jo, just... a little messed up right now.”
Karl put one hand on Jo's arm when she dropped it to her side. “Everyone, I want you to take a good long look at Jo. I want you all to memorize exactly how she appears now.” He paused for effect, as many people did take the excuse to stare. Jo shifted nervously and Karl willed reassurance at her through his grip on her arm. “This is our Jo. She is not a monster, not a spawn. She looks very different, I know. She looks alien. But that's the outside. Inside she is still our Jo, only stronger and tougher.
“I do not want anyone, anyone from Endurance to ever mistake that, not out in the wild, not in the heat of battle, never. So look good and hard at what one of our heroes looks like now.”
“Let's make her an armband or a headband or something to mark her as one of us!” Chenelle called.
Everyone, including Karl, was surprised when Tabitha suddenly shouted, “BE NICE TO MY JO!”
Karl pointed up at her. “And...her girlfriend can throw fireballs, so let's all remember that,” he said with a big grin to take the sting out of his words. A few people smiled back.
“I'm sorry we had to be away for so long, but it was worth every minute to get Jo back.” Karl patted her arm again, then turned to Ethan. “We also gained a new ally. Ethan saved my life in a fight against a rare spawn just this morning. He has accepted my invitation to join us as a fellow resident of Endurance. Have any other new people joined us today?”
“Two,” Sarah called out from her table. “Peter Vine and Candi Smith.” Karl was glad there were others, and acted as emcee for the introductions.
Peter Vine turned out to be a mage who had lucked into a scroll of Mana Dart in his first fight, and then holed up in his house alone, shooting any monster that came close. He'd actually made it to third level just from that, but eventually he ran out of food and was found by Mandy's search party.
Candi Smith was another jittery Rogue. She was third level as well. She'd managed to create a temporary Safe Zone on two of the nights. She joined a small party that then wiped out with her the sole survivor, and was alone for days after that. She broke down in tears of relief at having found Endurance and gotten admitted.
Finally it was Ethan's turn. He stood there, took a deep breath...and froze.
It took Karl a few moments to realize what was happening but as soon as he saw the problem he stepped closer and spoke quietly. “Ethan. Whatever happens, I've got your back, you hear me? You're a good guy, and I always protect the good guys.” Then he raised his voice. “Yeah, I hate public speaking too.” That got a few sympathetic smiles from the audience.
Ethan coughed and unfroze. When he spoke, his voice was a little over-loud for a moment, then settled.
“I'm Ethan. I, uh...I'm a scout type class, been on my own since the first day. I guess I'll be doing that when I'm needed.”
Karl added, “he saved my life this morning, by the way. Ethan's a bit on the shy side, so everybody be nice to him while he's getting settled. Welcome, Ethan, Peter and Candi. And welcome back Jo!”
“Jo, how do you feel?” Jake asked from the back.
Jo lifted one hand and looked it over. “Really weird. I'm...kinda dumb now, and I lost a level...but I'm really strong and tough!” she added with an obvious determination to be cheerful. “And...and I can reach the top shelf now!” That got some smiles. “And Tabby still loves me, and I can still be her Protector, and...that's what matters.”
The crowd started throwing Jo a bunch of questions, and Terry went over to Tabitha and whispered quickly, then grabbed a chair, stood on the seat, rocked it back on two legs and then balanced to show off her Agility. “Okay, story time!” she shouted.
“So no shit, there we were, sneaking up on a couple of Uncommon spawns...” the cheerleader began. Peter and Candi returned to their seats while Karl and Ethan went to get dinner. They took a bench off by a different wall and both started shoveling down their food quickly.
Karl gave Ethan a few minutes of quiet before murmuring, “that wasn't so bad.”
Ethan scowled. “So far.”
“Don't borrow trouble.”
“Trouble don't care if it's invited or not.”
They finished quickly, and Karl was considering getting himself more food from the Shop when Maria came over to him. “Sir Karl, welcome back. We're planning to have a town council meeting in a few more minutes. Would you care to join us?”
“I would, thank you, Maria.”
“Better get it over with,” Ethan muttered, then spoke up. “Sir Karl, can I come?”
Maria looked surprised. Karl blinked. “To the meeting?”
“Yeah. I got some shit to tell you people.”
“Is it about a danger?” Maria asked.
“Yeah.”
“Immediate, or not today?”
“Not today.”
“Then let's get you to George first. He's the one to hear it, and then he can either bring you in with him or give us a briefing when the meeting starts.” Ethan looked a question at Karl and he nodded in encouragement. Ethan ran a hand over his mouth and chin worriedly, then stood up. Karl did likewise.
“Thank you, Ethan,” Karl said quietly as they separated. Karl headed up to the meeting room and actually got there first. It wasn't long before Jake arrived, then Maria, then Kat and Paul together. Sarah showed up several minutes later, and then they had to wait a while longer. Karl answered questions about Jo and the vigil to pass the time. Finally George came in, looking grim.
They all took their usual seats. Most of them looked to Maria, who cleared her throat. “Sir Karl, in your absence I have been chairing the meetings. All major decisions have been put to a vote, and minor ones delegated to the members most directly supervising or with relevant expertise.”
“I hope you haven't had an election without me,” Karl said with a smile. “I might actually want to run for this office.”
“We've been talking about holding one, but we're still hashing out a Town Charter,” Kat McPhee answered. “Once we establish actual roles, duties and terms of office, we will have an election.”
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Karl nodded, impressed. “That's great. Maria, not to derail your plans for the meeting too much, but may I have a very quick overview of what has happened while we've been away? Particularly our current population, food supply, and what was built in the expansion?”
“Of course, Sir Karl.” Maria tapped a tablet a few times. “Our current population is 206. Our current food supply is expected to last nine days, up to twenty if we ration carefully. The expansion of Endurance was accomplished yesterday at noon, as soon as we had the requisite metal gathered by the recyclers. In that expansion we built another lodging, expanded the existing one and the barracks, and created three fields on the middle terrace. These are System fields that will hopefully give much larger yields than ordinary farming would.”
“Oh, so that's why I couldn't see anything. Fields are flat,” Karl commented with a smile.
“Thanks to some auctions that did well, the town treasury now stands at 48 gold. Paul, would you summarize our military situation for the past few days?” Maria asked.
“Well, the thirty second version is this: patrols have continued, low level spawns are removed regularly from an area surrounding the Zone. Groups have been leveling slowly, using those same spawns. Kat has led a number of assaults on parts of the marshes, and yesterday evening the town was threatened by a marsh folk counterattack, which was repulsed without any fatalities. There have been no more attacks on the town by Uncommon or Rare spawns. The Archery Defense Force has twenty-two members, and all have reached third level and a skill of three or better in Archery. We now have eight Systemized rifles and plenty of ammunition, though only five people so far have used a Skill slot on Shooting.”
“Thank you, Paul. Is there anything else I need to be made aware of urgently?”
The council members looked at each other. Then George cleared his throat. “I have something, but it can wait for my turn.”
Karl looked at the town Financeer. “Maria, would you like to keep chairing the meeting, or shall I do it?
“If no one objects I'll pass the chair back to you, Sir Karl. That way you can smoothly ask more questions as needed.”
“Thank you. And thank you all for doing all this volunteer work for the town, and for covering in my absence.” The others nodded. “All right, the usual order then. Paul, you've already given me the summary; how are things with the hawk?”
“Letisha's making progress. She thinks it's safe for people to approach the mews but not to come inside yet. She named the thing Sky Song, by the way. Some people have been complaining about the meat being spent to feed the hawk, so Letisha joined a party today and got some experience, and more to the point she got some loot so that she can feed Sky out of her own pocket by buying appropriate bird food from the Shop. I had someone guarding the entrance to the mews and let no one else in while she was gone.”
“We might want to give her a salary when we're ready for that.”
“I'll speak to that during my report, Sir Karl,” Maria told him.
“One other urgent matter: we have a new Rare spawn to worry about.”
“The Giant Owl you mentioned while we were waiting? The one that almost got Wendy from Lazy Circle?”
“Exactly. The damned thing almost made off with me right in the middle of our camp in front of everyone. We need air defenses for Endurance. If we can spend stone to get more stone gargoyles or stronger ones we should do that ASAP.”
“I'll start looking into that,” Jake cut in.
“That's it for me for the moment. I've got more but it's all details,” Paul finished.
“Thank you, Paul.” Karl turned to the Tinker/Quartermaster. “Jake? What's new in your area?”
Jake consulted his tablet. “We've got 238 metal in the supply, most of that brought in by the recyclers before dinner. We're also starting to stockpile lumber since wood units keep being taken for building projects and the Zone has already eaten a lot of the closest trees. Stone as usual is no problem. At this rate we can expand again in about another week.”
Jake paused. “Sir Karl, farming is going to become a big concern in the near future and I recommend we find someone to be in charge of it, either on the council or reporting to me. It's too important for me to try to juggle it with other things.”
“All right. Sarah, any prospects for that position?”
“No one leaps to mind but I'll go through my notes and also look for volunteers,” the young mother answered.
“Good. Now that we have System fields, I don't want them lying vacant any longer than necessary. As for other things, we've got a large and growing inventory of items in the town's Supply, and so far I've been winging it using my judgment on who gets what, but a more systematic approach would be good to have.”
“Do you want the council to set some rules?”
“For the time being. I thought Maria and I could brainstorm that, maybe with Sarah's input as well. Then we could bring a proposed list of rules tomorrow or the next day.” He sighed. “It's been a real exertion saying 'no' so many times to so many people, and I'd love to have a sense of fairness in my rulings to back me up.”
Karl glanced at the women mentioned; both nodded. Jake looked at Maria, who made sure she had everyone's attention, then started her report.
“We have a preliminary budget of two gold per week for defense and one gold per week for intelligence gathering, plus another two gold set aside for purchasing emergency rations from the Shop. The town still doesn't have a proper income yet, but until the auctions dry up I think we can sustain those while meeting other obligations.
“In personal news, I hit fifth level yesterday and had to take the day off. You were right; fifth level hits hard. I'm coping and back to work today, as you can see.”
“Yeah, welcome back,” George put in. “We missed you yesterday.”
“Thank you. Now, for the town's economy. I'm not going to give an economics lecture, although it is fascinating material. Here's the bare bones and the results, the TLDR version if you will.
“To anchor the economy, we have the Shop's prices. Any kind of meal is available for a silver. That means three silver per person per day is enough to get by but not get ahead. I am proposing a salary of four silver per day for town employees, including those working full days on defense. Reserve fighters could get two silver per day. Paul will have to figure out how much work each category will entail there.”
“I can work with that.”
“I'm estimating thirty people are doing full time work for the Zone as a whole, rather than just for themselves. That comes to a gold twenty silver per day outgo from the budget, or eight gold forty silver per week. That may not be sustainable, but it means we would have about a month's supply of funds available and that much time to figure out how to get more.
“I hate to bring up taxes, but that's one way to get the town an income.” Everyone at the table groaned. Maria threw up her hands. “I know, I know, but we have to do something.”
Jake cleared his throat. “Maria, I think there are automatic tax systems for the town that will kick in once we expand some more. Those options are currently locked out, but every time we expand, more features become available. I'll keep an eye on it and let you know when they unlock.”
“Thank you.” Maria looked as if she were going to say more, but paused. After a few moments, she said, “Sorry, I'm still getting used to the extra Intelligence points. My new improved brain is telling me to leave the details in a written report later and pass the baton. George?”
“I'll go last this time, if no one objects.”
Karl glanced around the table. “All right, Kat?”
“Thank you, Sir Karl. There have been a few small fights over ownership of items, nothing Duncan couldn't handle. It highlights how badly we need a new set of laws, though. Under the old legal system, every one of us is a looter and a criminal. We need property rights defined. We've gotten too big for everyone to agree to “need before greed” like in a game. Communism doesn't scale up, after all. I hope nobody here thinks otherwise.” Kat glared at everyone for just a moment.
“Go on.”
“Well, if the System could magic up a fair and consistent set of rules we can plug and play, that would be great, but until then, I've had to improvise. A beginning rule I made is, 'if it's in your apartment, it's your property, barring items people carry inside and keep on them.' That fixes some problems but it creates a lot of others. I don't want people stealing things and running back to their apartment to declare ownership like some twisted schoolyard game. I need help. I'm supposed to enforce laws, not write them.”
“All right, we'll spend a while brainstorming that after everyone's report is in and we finish the most urgent agenda items. Anything else, Kat?”
“Yes, about your new friend Ethan—“
“Kat,” George interrupted. “I'm going to talk about Ethan in my report so you can jump in then, okay?”
Kat looked at him a moment, then gave a jerky nod. Visibly gathering her thoughts, she smirked a little and said, “One other thing. I made sixth level yesterday, so I've nearly caught up to you, Sir Karl.”
Karl did his best to hide his grin. “Congratulations, Kat. I just made eighth level myself.” Kat's expression soured. That was entertaining but he didn't want to be petty, so he added, “I'm leveling very slowly these days so at this rate you'll pass me soon. I only gained one level in an entire week.”
“That's it for my report,” Kat answered shortly.
Maybe you should put a point into Personality like I did, Sheriff, Karl couldn't help but think. And maybe I shouldn't goad the sheriff, he chided himself mentally. He cleared his throat. “Sarah?
“We have enough housing for the moment,” Sarah began, to cheers from around the table. She smiled, nodded and waited for everyone else to quiet down, then continued. “Let's hope it stays that way. As for jobs, we're starting to have a bit of a problem with laziness.”
Karl grimaced. “Uh oh.”
“Yeah, I knew that was coming,” Kat muttered.
“How many people, Sarah?”
“We're up to thirty people who don't seem eager to find anything to do, and another couple of dozen who are wavering and waiting to see whether the thirty keep getting food and housing for free.”
“Communism doesn't work,” Kat reiterated.
“Yes, we're all aware of that, Sheriff. I've been a little busy trying to keep people from getting eaten by monsters and getting roofs over their heads. But sounds as if we can't put this off any longer. Suggestions?”
“Whatever we do, the punishment has to have real teeth or people will just ignore it,” Kat was quick to point out.
“We could stop feeding people,” Paul suggested. “Give them housing for free so they don't die, but make them work if they want to eat. We're already pushing the bland stuff.”
“Some people will happily eat oatmeal and pasta every day if it means they can lie around safe and sound while others work,” Sarah told him.
“So we stop giving them the oatmeal and pasta.”
“What about children?”
“Kids eat for free,” Karl declared. “Certainly the young ones. Maybe we drop it to two meals a day for the older kids and then cut them off when they become adults. But I've always felt this way. There are plenty of ways the government used to waste my money, but one thing they didn't do enough of was in making sure no kid goes hungry. I'm all in favor of fewer benefits to adults so long as kids are covered better. No kids go hungry on my watch.”
“Sounds like a good principle to me,” Jake put in.
“We'll need to find the money for it,” Maria warned. Karl nodded acceptance.
“Sarah, do you think you can tell pretty well who's being lazy and who's just confused about what to do?” George asked.
“For now, but if we keep growing I'm going to need to hire someone to track all that, and they'd better be trustworthy.”
“Sir Karl and I can interview them,” Kat declared.
“For a start, we could make a list of the people we're willing to feed, and Sarah can be in charge of putting people on that list or taking them off, until she finds a judge or monitor or whoever.”
“I can do that for the moment, but you're going to have to make an announcement about this, Sir Karl. It's your Safe Zone. You're the one who can kick people out if need be, and people know it.”
“All right.” Karl sighed. “I'll tell everyone that they have two more days of free food, then the adults get cut off. That should give people time to go through denial and anger and bargaining and so forth.”
“I expect I'll get flooded with people who have suddenly found motivation to get jobs. Everybody let me know how many employees you need or want for your departments and I'll see what I can do.”
“So...we're still going to have the food crisis, but at least everyone will be working harder?” Jake summarized.
“Best we can do for the moment.” Karl nodded. “Sarah, you might want to consult with Lazy Circle and pick their brains about System farming, see what jobs you can scrounge up that way.”
“I've already been doing that for two days, Sir Karl.”
Karl grinned. “Sorry. I've been out of touch. Thank you.”
“That's the main issue in my department. I'm done.”
“Thank you,” Karl repeated. “So, now, we have Kat and George. Who wants to start?”
“I'll say my piece and then we can get to whatever important news George has got,” Kat declared. “That new person you brought in, Ethan Hollis? He's an escaped prisoner from Solworth Penitentiary.”
Karl sighed. Here we go.