Crackling, whirring, and popping could be heard from somewhere in the camp behind where the teams were saying goodbye.

"Come in, I repeat, we have completed the quest to set the machines right. We are now safe from the danger it posed." Mike said through a portable HF radio he had brought with him.

There was a long pause on the radio before a response finally came through.

"Copy that, this is Joe of the guild Vanguard in Dallas Texas. I read you loud and clear." Joe's voice came through on the radio.

"Wait, Vanguard? Where have I heard that name before?" Mike said.

"By any chance, did any of our team members make it to your location for the fight? They left a while ago and we haven't had any contact with them." Joe said.

"Who did you send? There are a pretty good number of people here." Mike replied.

"There were eight of them in total. They were led by a man named Tom." Joe replied.

"Tom? Oh, yeah! he was here. He helped lead the raid party that finally took that son of a bitch down." Mike said.

"That sounds like our Tom," Joe said. "Is he still there with you by chance?"

"He was just about to leave, let me see if they are still nearby. Hold please." Mike said and moved away from the radio.

Tom had just finished shaking hands with the other team leaders when Mike came running over to them.

"Mike? What's up, man? Came to say goodbye?" Tom asked.

"No, no, no. Well, I would like to say goodbye, but there is someone on the radio who claims to be with your guild. Says his name is Joe." Mike said.

"Really? That crazy old bastard got a radio working?" Tom asked.

"Well, he was a prepper. It would make sense that he had one in his supplies." Derek said.

"He wants to talk with you if you can be available," Mike said.

"Sure, we don't have to leave right this instant, lead the way," Tom replied.

Leading the way back to his tent where the radio had been set up, Mike walked over and picked up the mic.

"Hey Joe, you still with me?" Mike said.

"Sure am. Did Tom already leave?" Joe asked.

"Yup, that's Joe alright. I would know that voice anywhere." Tom said.

"He's right here, Joe. I'll pass the mic over to him." Mike said, reaching out to hand Tom the mike.

"Hey Joe, how you doing you old coot?" Tom said depressing the button and talking into the mic.

"Tom? Oh, thank god it's you. Are you all alright?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, we're alright. So you had a radio in your supplies I would guess?" Tom asked.

"Of course I did. What kind of prepper would I be if I didn't? I'd have been a laughing stock." Joe replied.

"Well, it's still good to hear from you. How is everyone else doing there?" Tom asked.

"Oh, they are doing as well as they can be. Of course, we are still fighting off monsters, but I'm sure there is no one in the world who isn't. Brian has been doing an amazing job of getting people integrated into the guild. Some people have shown up saying they met you and wanted to join." Joe said.

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"That's great! Did they say where they were from?" Tom asked.

"The first group was from Irving." Joe began.

"Awesome! Kedron will be super happy to hear that." Tom interrupted.

"Another group came from Decatur. Then a few people from Albuquerque just showed up telling some wild stories of what you did there. A brutish bunch was leading them, but they listened to everything TJ said. He had to beat the shit out of one of them, but the others were ready to listen." Joe continued.

"That's our TJ. Glad everything is going smoothly." Tom said.

"Oh, and Herbert got the power back on for the building. It went a lot faster than he first thought when everyone else began pitching in with what they knew." Joe said.

"So he figured out the machine he was working on?" Tom asked.

"I don't really know how it all works. He tried to explain it to me. Something about having some kind of mana collectors on top of the building that feed into like a battery or something in the basement. Then it goes through some kind of magical converter that changes the mana into electricity to power the generators that were already a part of the building. But apparently, we have to be careful with how much magic is used in the area. Normal use seems fine. but if a bunch of people start casting spells it could deplete the ambient mana enough to stop the whole damn thing from working." Joe said.

"What does that mean for our fighters protecting the building?" Tom asked.

"Herbert and some of the others have a theory that the mana collector thingies on top of the building will be pulling enough mana from the air to stop the monster spawns. It seems that they were appearing so often because of that mana. With less in the area, it should drastically decrease the number of monsters that appear." Joe said.

"That sounds like good news to me," Tom said. "What about the rest of the rest of the guild? Everyone else doing okay?"

"Well, some people have gotten hurt, but Rebecca and a team of clerics have been working in the area set up as the hospital ward and have been able to heal everyone so far. We also found some people who were interested in farming and they were able to get professions in it so they have been working on growing food. They actually have some magic that makes the plants for faster. A new project to expand into a plot behind the building is already underway."

"That sounds amazing! How much faster are they growing?" Tom asked.

"Seems to be that they can grow a crop in about a week if they use their spells daily. There is some worry about taking the mana from the collectors as the operation grows, but Herbert is already working on a solution to increase the mana that can be pulled. A new person joined from Decatur who is a contractor and he's working with Paul, the architect, to build the protections for the expansion in the plots behind the building." Joe replied.

"Wow! A crop a week! That's unheard of. Magic is truly something else. That means our food problem is solved?" Tom asked.

"Not quite. Protein is still a big lacking factor. We have hunters going out for now to bring back game. But we will have to find a way to get livestock at some point." Joe said.

"That makes sense. But for now, we are sustaining ourselves fine. And the farming team is making plans for livestock. It will happen at some point." Joe said.

"So it sounds like everything is going smoothly. The rest of the team will be so relieved. We were worried that something might go sideways while we were gone. I'm glad that isn't the case." Tom said. "Oh and get this! We found a vending machine repairman while we were out here. Hoping he wants to come back with us as well."

"A vending machine repair man? How would that help? All the vending machines changed." Joe said.

"No, he is a repair man for the current vending machines. His knowledge is invaluable to us in this world." Tom said.

"That's definitely good to hear. We still have so many questions that need answers." Joe said. "But I didn't reach out because everything is all sunshine and rainbows, Tom," Joe said.

"What do you mean Joe? It sounds like everything is going great." Tom said.

"You remember Shandra? From that other guild in Dallas?" Joe asked.

"Yeah? Though I thought she was coming out here. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her here." Tom said.

"Yeah, apparently she decided against it. She came back and has been holed up in her tower. She hasn't just been idle though. She's been taking her people out to fight monsters as well. We just thought that she was working on building up her forces to keep her people safe." Joe said.

"What aren't you telling me, Joe?" Tom asked.

"Well, until recently she had been cordial and was just working on her team. But she started approaching some of the members of our advance teams to join her. She was not happy when they continually turned her down." Joe said.

"I imagine not. So she's trying to poach our people?" Tom asked.

"It gets worse. She got pissed when some of the newer people came and started joining our team. You need to get back here fast Tom. Shandra has declared a feud between our guilds and it looks like it may break out into a war before we can do anything about it." Joe said.

Tom froze. Unable to say anything else, he spoke the only words he could feel in that moment," Oh shit."

End of Grand System Vending Book 1