Arriving at the guild building, the party poured out of the GS2 leaving the doors open in their haste to enter and find out what had happened. As they got to the main lobby, Brian was already there waiting for them with a large crowd of people standing around with worried faces.
"What the hell happened?" Tom blurted out, unable to control his curiosity and panic.
"It really isn't that bad. People are blowing this way out of proportion, but someone broke into the guild building and stole part of our food supply. We can always recover it; they didn't cause any major damage and everyone is safe." Brian explained.
"How did they get in?" Derek asked.
"Looks like they just walked in the front door," TJ offered.
"And we just let them?" Derek asked again.
"We don't have a policy in place to check everyone. We don't have a system that says this person is part of the guild or not and we haven't been just barring people from entering." TJ replied.
"Sounds like we need to go ahead and make that a priority," Tom said.
"We already have," Brian stated. "As we speak we are looking at the options for identifying guild members and non-guild members. Almost everyone has now been interviewed that is within the building and nearly one hundred percent of them are willing to join the guild and contribute. The outliers are being talked to specifically about what their plans are so that we can make sure we know who is with us and who is not. I did look at the guild tab and found some interesting things about building options, but we should discuss that privately."
"OK. Then can we bring this meeting up to the Conference room? Bring anyone you feel should be included in this meeting to help make decisions." Tom said.
"Very good. We also have moved your items out of the conference room so don't be alarmed that they are not there. We have rooms set up for you now individually." Brian assured them.
"Thank you, Brian. I appreciate you looking out for us." Tom said.
Moving to the elevators to go upstairs, the entire building suddenly lost power.
"Damn. We knew this would happen, but we had hoped to be further along when it did. But nothing can be done about it at the moment. To the stairs!" Brian directed.
"Further along with what?" Tom asked.
"Well, we had Herbert working on a new prototype item. He was able to buy some schematics from the vending machine that pertained to a profession he obtained so he could begin making things." Brian said.
"Wait, a profession? What is that?" Tom asked.
"Apparently it's like a class but has to do with jobs you perform related to things like crafting. Herbert became an Engineer as he had been in the former world because of his continually implementing new things here in the building and making machines." Brian replied.
"I wonder why none of us have professions?" Jay asked.
"Likely because we have been spending all of our time running around fighting and putting out fires that we can't perform jobs. Warrior is a class, not a profession." Derek offered.
"So professions play a role in what happens in a vending machine as well?" Tom asked.
"That appears to be the case," Brian replied.
"Will the machines still work with the power out?" Kiera interjected.
"We have been looking at the machines and there doesn't appear to be any power cords attached so we see no reason they should stop working, but I will have someone go check it out," Brian said.
"Back to the issue at hand, what is the project that Herbert was working on?" Tom said attempting to get the group back to the issue at hand.
"It's a mana battery of sorts that will feed into a power generator for the building. It has to be connected to mana collectors that can be placed on the building but it should allow us to get the power back up and running even though the power grid has given out." Brian explained.
"So like how solar power works in collecting energy and storing it in a battery to power things in a house?" Kevin asked.
"Exactly, but the generator has to be available to allow for the conversion of mana to electricity," Brian said.
"That's amazing!" Tom exclaimed. "I hope he's fairly close."
"It's likely to take a while. Probably another month, but we have others who are getting crafting professions that will be going work with him on the project as a top priority." Brian said.
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The party arrived at the conference room and sat down. Fortunately, the conference room was located along the exterior wall of the building and had windows that they were able to use for light.
"While we wait for the others to get here let's look at the building options in the guild menu really fast as there are a few options I think we should look into," Brian began once they had all been seated.
Pulling up the Guild menu, Tom noticed there were several tabs along the right side of the screen. Selecting the one that said "Building" Tom was created with a blueprint-style drawing of the Trammel Crow Center with information about what was on various floors.
"If you are on that screen you will notice that there are several drop-downs on the left side of the building menu that are filled with options. These appear to be upgrade options we can purchase with the Guild Points or GP. GP is located at the top of the page and we have a fair number already plus we still have the free guild reward for being the first to form the guild." Brian began. "In the drop-down marked security, there is an option for doors, in the sub-menu for the doors there is the option for coiling doors. These are those roll-up doors that are used in many shopping centers to secure an opening. I would advise we use the free reward on this if possible."
"There are so many options in these menus. How can you be sure we shouldn't use it for something else?" Tom asked.
"Because now that the power is out, security is going to be our main concern and if those are on the first floor entrances we can be protected from not only intruders but monsters," Brian explained.
That did make a lot of sense to Tom. He looked through a few more menus and then, feeling completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices, decided to trust Brian and selected the coiling doors.
"Done. I have no idea how that works, but I used the freebie on the doors." Tom said.
"Thank you, Tom. I appreciate your willingness to trust me." Brian said.
"Why do we have so many Guild Points? It looks like we already have almost a thousand of them." Tom asked.
"It appears to be based on the size of the guild and overall level of happiness based on what I can tell from the other screens and the tiny bit of information I could get from the System helper," Brian replied. "Having nearly five hundred people willing to join the guild, put in work, and the basic consensus being that they are as happy as they can be given the circumstances means we are getting a lot of points. I'm sure that the happiness will change because right now they are mostly happy you saved them or that they aren't on the frontlines. Now that power has gone out I expect a drop in the happiness."
"Yeah, that's going to be true. Hopefully, Herbert can get the generator going so we can improve their lives again." Tom said.
"I'm sure he will. And until then we can still have meals because the stoves and ovens are gas and that will keep running for a while yet. Oh and here are a few other people we can rely on." Brian said looking at the door to the conference room and gesturing for the people there to enter.
"Joe and Andrea you know already, and the other person here is Chris. Chris has shown a desire to help your team with clearing the area. He has some military experience just like Derek and should be a fine option for forming another adventurer team. We need to get someone in place that can be here more often as well to help train up more of a militia." Brian explained. "Since we met with Shandra, I have felt we need more people who can help with defense and level up faster so we can be prepared for if something brings with the rival we seem to have."
"An excellent idea. I have been wanting to do that, but haven't had time yet to help train anyone." Tom said.
"And Joe and Andrea here are working together on the farming topic. Andrea has set up some great planting boxes, and Joe actually had a large supply of seeds we can grow to help begin to expand our farms." Brian explained.
"Yeah, I was hoarding those knowing the apocalypse was coming. But I figure now that we are here, there isn't much use in keeping them. We will have to move everything outside eventually as we won't always have enough room here, but the upper floors should do for now if we can remove more of the roof." Joe said. "That being said, we need to make an area somewhere outside for trees so we can have some more fruits."
"The variety of seeds Joe had has changed our trajectory massively. We can now focus on growing things and gaining more seeds rather than having to go out and hunt for them." Andrea added.
"This is excellent! I know it will take time to grow these things and we will have to find food until then, but I think being here already means that we are already further ahead than we could have been." Tom said.
"We definitely are. We should be able to move forward with these plans to be prepared for most situations." Brian said.
"That's wonderful to hear. A big weight off of my mind. Now Chris, let's go over some things so that you can be the most effective teacher you can be." Tom said.
Tom spent a long period of time with Chris and his party, everyone giving input on things that could be used to create effective fighters and teams. And with that, everyone went about their business as usual with plans being put into place to allow daily life to progress in this new world.
Chris worked with Tom to help train up several teams that could be used as adventuring teams and hunting teams that could roam the surrounding area looking for monsters. After about a week of training Chris came to Tom with several teams he thought were ready to go out on their own. After evaluating them, Tom and his team agreed that they should be good to go out on their own.
There were three teams Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. Tom's team was deemed Leader, and Chris' team was deemed Omega. With Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie teams able to go out on patrol, that left Tom and his team with the opportunity to look at something different.
"Why don't we set our sights on dungeons?" Derek offered. "In games, they were always the best way to farm for resources."
"That seems like a good idea. But we only know where the one is right now." Tom said.
"Yeah, but I could go in for more dickshots," James said, pulling out a handgun and looking through the sights.
Rolling his eyes Jay looked at them and offered, "Is there no way to track where they are? We should be able to find a way to detect them. Or maybe some other guild in the area has seen some."
"I guess I could reach out to Shandra and see if her team has any leads," Tom said.
"Ugh, that bitch never wants to help out. You tried to talk to her a couple of times since that one meeting where she basically threatened us, and she was a stuck-up cunt." Kiera said.
"Yeah, but it's the only other option we have right now other than praying we blindly stumble into one," Tom countered.
"I know. I just hate her." Kiera said.
"For now, we should have the teams run the dungeon we do know of," Derek said. "That way we get them acclimated to tougher opponents and team strategies, and they can get some gear. I don't see why running it at least three times a week per team isn't doable."
"Sure, let's start with that and see if we come up with anything else." Tom agreed.