"You have reached the end of my assistance. Good luck," the voice belonging to the being that Mark had met with at the beginning of the integration.
Before Mark could process what that meant, he was inundated with notifications and prompts from the system.
[Pillar of Civilization Activated]
Would you like to broadcast your location to the region? Note: this can be toggled on or off later, but will stay active for one week once activated.
Mark immediately selected no. He had no clue what was out there and did not wish for someone who had simply power leveled for the last two days to come and find him.
[Title earned: Prime Noble of Earth]
[Commander Lvl 3 -> Lvl 4]
[Town Management Menu Unlocked]
Do you wish to view the Town Management Menu now?
Since there didn't seem to be any sort of danger around them for the moment, Mark went ahead to see what the Town Management Menu contained. The first thing he noticed was that there were a lot of grayed-out options. The only thing he could build right now was the town hall. Luckily, it was free.
He glanced around to see where everyone was standing since he didn't want to purchase and crush somebody. Though he wasn't sure what would happen when he did. As he looked around, everyone was just staring at him. He realized it had been nearly five minutes since he touched the pillar, and hadn't moved at all in that time.
"I'm fine, I've just gotten a lot of popups. Everyone stand back a little, I'm gonna build the town hall."
Everyone, except for his soldiers, stared at him, perplexed. He made a shooing motion with his hand and they took a step back. He made the motion again and they seemed to snap out of it and moved a good ten yards away. Now that he felt he wouldn't accidentally harm someone by dropping a building on top of them, Mark selected the town hall to be built.
When he did so, he was slightly surprised that it did not immediately construct, or at least begin constructing. What he saw was a top-down view of the area as if he was standing on top of the pillar. Instead, he saw the area the building would take up as a blue outline roughly five yards by five yards, with a marker that showed where the door would be. Mark wanted to place it so that the pillar would be inside the structure, but it wouldn't let him do so. He settled for placing the door just a few steps from the pillar and confirmed the location.
He watched with bated breath expecting a full structure to rise out of the ground. What he got was less than expected. Around a dozen tent poles appeared, rising out of the ground, at least. The tent poles stopped at three yards sticking out of the ground, then green canvas stretched out from each tent pole creating a roof. The canvas unfurled from the roof to the ground, with an opening for the door, as well as clear plastic windows that could be rolled up. The door was simply two pieces of canvas that could be zipped together, or tied apart to keep it open.
"Well, I expected more," Mark said to everyone watching the construction. "But at least it's shelter."
"How did you do that?" Arlo asked.
"When I touched the pillar, it said it was a pillar of civilization. It asked for 100 basic resources to claim it. I had some from the wolves we killed, plus the bear, so I went ahead and claimed it. At least we have some shelter now."
"What is up with the resources anyways? Doesn't it seem kind of weird that we just have these unknown 'resources' that can apparently be used to create stuff like that tent, but where did the stuff come from? Those wolves couldn't have been used to create that tent even if we skinned and tanned them."
Now on the receiving end of a tirade of questions from Arlo, Mark had some sympathy for Cyrus. "I'm not really sure how to answer any of those questions. I know as much about all of this as you do. My best guess? It's some kind of currency. Maybe if I keep looking through this town management menu that I used to build the tent, I can figure something out. It could also have something to do with professions. Crafters have a use for resources, and it could be that these are the resources they use for creating things."
"I know you don't know. It's just really confusing to be going through all of this. And it's frustrating not to have answers."
"Maybe the more people we meet, the more answers we'll get. Plus, if this is supposed to be a 'pillar of civilization' like this thing says, we're gonna need more people."
"Well, let's check this thing out. Maybe there are answers inside. At the very least it's out of the elements."
Mark and Arlo went in to investigate the new tent, or town hall as it was, and to Mark's surprise, Mike and Naomi tagged along. Mark left his soldiers on guard in the front but told them that they'd be able to rest soon. He still didn't know the extent of their humanity but it couldn't hurt to treat them as people.
Inside the tent, the front of the canvas structure had a room with a desk that looked like where a secretary or guard would sit. Off to the desk's left was a flap leading to a room with several cots inside. On the right side of the entrance room was a bigger office that looked to be for an administrator or mayor, complete with a desk and computer terminal. The room was not very big, but could comfortably fit the four as they made their way inside. Behind the desk was a flap that led to a more private bedroom than the cots on the other side. The bed in this case was still a cot, but it was at least private.
With their tour concluded Mark led the others back outside, "It's not much, but it is a start. I know I have dragged you guys along, but this was somewhat my goal. I truly didn't know what was at the red dot, but I did want to start a town of some kind. I wanted to try to create some sort of haven for people. I know that's rather lofty, but I can see things getting more dangerous. Plus if there is somewhere safe, then people can be more free to focus on non-combat professions instead of trying to keep themselves safe." Mike hadn't followed them out and had gone straight for the cots, but Arlo and Naomi were nodding along to his short speech.
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Arlo was the first to respond. "I don't think that's very lofty. Maybe an overstep to think we can protect some high number of people, especially when we don't know what's out there, but I see where you are going, and I'm in. I'm also very tired and need to get some rest. We should probably check out the surrounding area and see what's out here tomorrow." Arlo headed inside immediately after leaving Naomi and Mark outside alone.
"I recognize you," Naomi said. She caught Mark off guard. The only times she had spoken before this was if she was asked a direct question. "From your streams," she clarified when Mark didn't respond.
"Oh. That feels like so long ago, even though it has just been a few days."
"I know. I feel the same way. I just figured I should let you know. I figure you must have gotten some good stuff for being at such a high level in the Tutorial. One is clearly the advanced race."
"Yeah, Arlo said the same thing. There's not much I can do about it. I picked it 'cause it had the stats that I wanted. Wait, did you meet with a really weird being? I was in some weird office when I got my race and class."
"No," Naomi paused, seeming as if she wasn't sure should be giving away this information for a reason unknown to Mark. "I did have a meeting, though."
Mark picked up on the hint and decided not to press her further on it. "Did you at least get a good class?"
"No again. I found that I could pick a good profession if I wanted it."
"Oh, what did you get?"
"It doesn't sound very cool, but it's mechanic. I was assured that it would be very good, but it seems shitty to give me a class like mechanic, but we're stranded in a forest with no vehicles of any kind in sight."
"Tell me about it. To give us a game with all that sci-fi weaponry, tell us it's the Tutorial, then strand us in a forest seems ridiculous. I'm hoping that this Town Hall will have something that can help us advance, but I'm not going to hold my breath."
"I hope so, too. It's late though, and after two days of trying to survive in a forest has me exhausted." With that, Naomi bid Mark a good night.
Mark stood outside the tent for a few more minutes running over the events of the day in his head. Just as surprising as the pillar and town hall were, it was equally surprising to have such a long conversation with Naomi. It was a complete one-eighty from her original demeanor. Mark did one last scan of the grasslands surrounding the tent before heading in for the night. He didn't find anything out of the ordinary but was at least going to stay awake for the next few hours until he could wake one of his soldiers to take watch.
Heading in, Mark set most of his gear beside him as he took a seat at the desk in the front room of the tent. It was a relief to get all of that weight off him for a while. Sitting at the desk, he finally opened his system interface to see what some of the notifications he had missed were for.
[Title earned: Prime Noble of Earth: First to claim a Pillar of Civilization and establish yourself as a Lord. +1 to all stats. Nobility Level set to Duke.]
Mark was shocked by the bonus to all of his stats. When he considered that each stat point gained represented a nearly exponential gain in power, it meant that his already insane strength and charisma were possibly hundreds of levels beyond what they should normally be. Normal in this case was still high above what most people on Earth would have achieved before the integration. He also remembered that there was a hidden "race level" in the game that was equal to half of your highest level in profession or class. At certain breakpoints, this would allow someone to advance their race gaining attributes that strengthened abilities dependent on that stat. He wondered how that would work when it would physically change your body but would have to wait until he reached that point. The next notification was a little more straightforward.
[Barracks-Type Structure Unlocked: Town Hall Note: The Town Hall is not purpose-built for troop housing and will only provide a limited benefit to troop spawn and healing rates.]
Mark was glad to finally have something that could supply him with the soldiers he was missing but was still disappointed that he would still have to build or find a true barracks. Seeing this notification prompted Mark to open his character sheet to see what had changed.
[Status]
Name: Mark Anders
Race: Raxxor ( C)
Class: Commander (Level 4)
Profession: Pending
STR: 18 DEX: 16 CON: 17 INT: 10 WIS: 10 CHA: 18
HP: 54
VP: 12
STA: 57
Units:Rifleman: 3/16 (+1 per day)
Subordinates: 1/2
Arlo Rollins (Soldier Level 2)
Skills:
Leadership (Tier 0; Level 2): NPC soldiers respond to all reasonable orders.
Rifleman (Tier 0; Level 3): Basic understanding of how to aim and fire a rifle including during combat.
Identify: (Tier 0; Level 2): Focus on a target to gain information.
Land Navigation: (Tier 0; Level 2): Basic understanding of how to navigate using a compass and map.
Titles:
Sergeant (Rank; Class Specific)
Duke (Nobility Rank)
Progenitor Noble of Earth (Award)
Basic Resources: 70
The first thing that drew Mark's attention was the change to his profession. He realized he had missed a notification.
[Profession Available: Mayor]
Do you wish to change your profession to Mayor? Note: You have one week to decide
Mark focused more on the notification but was disappointed when it did not give him any more information. He assumed that it would help with governing a town. He also saw that he had become a duke, not that he felt any change. He was curious how this would change his dealings with Mike and Naomi, but he recognized that they were most likely not considered citizens since there were no real houses here. He quickly checked his Town Management Menu and saw that the population listed there was one.
With little information given, Mark was unable to conclude whether or not he should accept the Mayor profession. If he had arrived with a large group and thought he would need something to help with management, he would select it in a heartbeat. But with the current situation, he couldn't see a need for the profession. He at least had a week to decide. If things changed, and it seemed people would be showing up, and they wished to live in his small town, he would come back and accept it.
Having chosen a course of action, Mark woke Adam to take watch and walked through the private office to what he had claimed as his bedroom. While very spartan, it was much better than sleeping on the ground, and Mark was able to get some good rest. Tomorrow, he would go hunting.