Malcolm Specter sat alone by the fire, keeping it alive. Dusk was encroaching the camp, and only a few men and women were still going about their business, or chatting by the moonlight. All of the agents were in the Den. His men needed sleep.

He was too involved with his project to sleep anyway. Relying on Logan to make them things and use this resource had been foolish. But using Numa was not only difficult in general, it was impossible for most people.

That day he had gone through every individual in the camp, a total of 48 people, and checked them for affinity for Numa. There were three people in total. Four if you counted the boy, but Logan was nowhere to be found.

As long as that foolish boy hasn’t gotten himself killed. I’m used to him going off the grid for weeks on end, but the environment is hostile here. Then again, I must admit he seems to be able to handle himself.

Malcolm held in his hand an [E-grade Numa Crystal, 23%]. He had asked people to perform whatever action came to mind easiest on a leaf of a tree. That young woman Kat had made it crumble. Dr. Rosenberg had made it cut cleanly in half. Freya had made a leaf sprout a branch from the stem.

It had cost a significant amount of Numa energy, but they were necessary tests. It seemed that performing actions with Numa was costly when it did not directly relate to your class. Yet people could use their skills and level up in their sub-classes even without Numa. But from what Malcolm understood such was not the case for Logan. Perhaps his class was like that. Malcolm’s own class seemed to work off passive effects. He would get a sense of a person’s feelings and whereabouts when they were done with a task.

Malcolm would know approximately how well the task had been done and how the person felt about the job done. Listening to this feeling and working in accordance with it had leveled up his sub-class of [Management] to 9. While talking to people individually about their Numa affinity and their class had brought his [Leadership] up to 5. The levels weren’t unwarranted, as Malcolm was tired. But he needed to understand classes and Numa, that much was clear.

It was a fortunate thing that they had a [Healer] with affinity to Numa. That would stave off most injuries and make even the agents braver in their exploration. If there ever would be trade with other groups as Malcolm hoped, Dr. Rosenberg would be an extremely valuable individual.

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That young girl Kat would be a powerful pawn in terms of military power, be it monsters or other people. But while fighting ability was necessary for survival, they needed the basics first. They had set up another building, since there were starting to be a lot of people. It was a ramshackle of a thing, but it made people sleep better.

We really need that damn boy to show up and bring those crystals he stole.

Despite Logan’s shortcomings, the boy was resourceful, and they could use resources. Their food situation was sorted as long as there was fish in the river and mushrooms to be found. But mushrooms were seasonal for the most part of Earth. If they were to run out…

Clothing was a major issue. Whatever they had had on when they had come to this world, was starting to tear apart at the seams, literally. They had three crafters working on their levels, and one of them even had the [Tailor] class. But it would take a while before they would manage to produce something they could use.

We need to find more people. Those who can use Numa are high-value individuals. We need to trade the goods they can produce and accrue resources.

The smoke of their fires kept attracting people. Malcolm had also sent out a group of agents to post signs with around the area to attract people. It was working well. There had to be more people around, perhaps even another settlement.

Malcolm decided he would send agents as envoys to find other settlements or groups of surviving humans. There was strength in numbers, and they needed every Numa user they could get.

Finding and attracting more people would be better than finding settlements to trade with. They couldn’t specialize yet. And only Logan had a class with Numa-affinity that they could leverage. That was a damn shame, considering the boy’s personality.

Freya had still not picked up a class, so she had potential to produce something valuable. Malcolm was reaching the end of his leniency towards the girl. Such indecisiveness bothered him. They had many shoes to fill, and the girl was smart enough to do something important well.

For now the girl had been doing whatever menial tasks were needed around the camp. Malcolm had been doing the same things and still was to a lesser extent. But now the amount of people in the camp warranted some actual management. He was the captain of this ship, and the crew needed to be doing the right things.

Malcolm admitted that he had a soft spot for Freya. The girl was too good for Logan that was for sure. But she had kept Logan out of trouble countless times, and always tried to make him see reason, when he was being ridiculous.

Malcolm thumbed the crystal in his hand. Why could they use this power, but he could not? Was there a way to rectify that? He wasn’t so concerned for his own sake. Not that the crystals did not intrigue him, but he could do his job without them.

Suddenly Malcolm heard a dry stick snap behind him. He had decreed that they scatter them all around the immediate perimeter as a detection measure. Malcolm drew in a breath and felt his senses sharpen.

“Who’s there?” He called and got up.

From the shadows into the flickering light of the fire, came to view three short figures wearing black cloaks and carrying arms.