Mark selected the profession, but nothing changed. There was no influx of information, no surge of power that he could tell. He checked his character screen to make sure, and it was there. His profession now showed Mayor. The only difference that he noticed was that he felt a little calmer. Next, he checked his Town Management Menu and saw that a lot had changed. He could see several new tabs that showed him information on population, existing structures, building upgrades, and a map of the surrounding area. The map included terrain details and topography but only stretched a mile in each direction. When Mark inspected the structures that could be purchased, there were several more that he could construct. The limit of three structures due to his town hall level was still in place. He looked to upgrade his town hall but sadly realized he would have to put it off for some time as it would set him back 1000 Basic Resources. He looked for a few more minutes, but his mind was already made, he would build the barracks first.

Since no other options were unlocked for defensive structures, he reasoned that the barracks would provide the most immediate safety. His town hall would supply reinforcements, but he assumed that it was not producing at an optimal rate. It was going out slightly on a limb, but at the current rate, it would take more than three weeks for him to reach his maximum number of soldiers, and that was if he did not level up again between now and then. His mind made up, he purchased the barracks.

Once again, he was staring down at the ground as if he was standing at the top of the pillar. He was originally planning on placing it beside the town hall, but the barracks occupied a much larger space. It was roughly three times the size of the town hall, but he couldn't see what would occupy the space as all he had was an outline. He decided instead to place it a short way away from the town hall, as there could be other buildings that would do better to be placed by the town hall, and it would provide room to place auxiliary structures nearby. The first would be a motor pool, but he still had nowhere near the basic resources needed for it. The motor pool would also require a mechanic as a citizen, but he hopefully already had that covered. He placed the barracks fifty yards away from the town hall to the north.

He snapped back to his own body and rushed outside to see it being built. It did not have the flourishes the town hall did but instead rose as one complete structure out of the ground. What Mark saw was a single long gray concrete building. As he got closer he put its measurements at three yards tall, ten yards wide, and forty yards long. He entered and observed that the interior was at odds with the exterior. The entrance even had an electronic lock, that unlocked as he reached for the handle. Inside was a mantrap, but past that was a guard desk and private quarters. Past the guard desk was a series of divided rooms with two beds in each. In all, it could house forty men, plus the private quarters. He exited to gather his soldiers and checked the notification he had gotten once it was built.

[Barracks Unlocked]

Do you wish to change the soldier spawn point?

Mark selected yes, and received another notification.

[Barracks Selected. Soldier spawn rate now four per day.]

He was elated at this. It now meant he would have all of his troops in under a week. It was still longer than he had spent with the System in place, but it was a massive improvement.

Once he was back in the town hall, he walked over to his soldiers and told them that the barrack was complete and they could move in now. They didn't say anything, but they seemed to have relaxed some. It made some sense as it was more what they were used to, or so Mark assumed. He also went to check on the injured soldier and was surprised at the rate he had recovered. The soldier still had to use some makeshift crutches, but according to Will, would be able to fight again by the next day.

Mark next checked the town map to see if the barrack was on there yet. There was also something that wasn't adding up. When he had constructed the barrack, it had a much larger footprint than the building occupied. He thought it was odd and on the map could see the concrete building as well as the outline of its footprint, but the two didn't match up. The outline seemed like it could fit three more barracks of the same size and his suspicion was confirmed when he saw the upgrades available for the barracks. It forked, with one path that would take it toward a full military facility complete with an armory, a motor pool, and private offices. The other direction was completely focused on more housing with adding levels to the barracks and additional barracks that could occupy the space. Both included an assembly area as part of the upgrade path. He decided to leave that decision for later, as he was strapped for resources at the time.

He only had 230 Basic Resources remaining, but the barracks had unlocked a new structure for him. He could now build a firing range. He was worried about using one of his three town structures, but it was classified as an attachment to the barracks and would not use a town slot. This boded well for future structures as they would most likely also have attachments. It did seem that the System would not provide housing or any other types of residential buildings. It seemed to only want to provide things related to classes or professions.

It would only take 100 Basic Resources to construct the firing range, so he went ahead and purchased it, placing it at the outer limits of the town one mile away to the north. It was slightly difficult as he wanted to find ground with a natural backstop as the description did not confirm that there was one included. It also occupied a lot of land because it supported targets at up to 200 yards. He confirmed the placement and went to gather anyone who wanted to go.

Before he went, he checked the arm the wolf had chewed on as he didn't want it to affect his aim. He washed off the foam that was still on it to find that it was nearly completely healed. There were scars in the shape of the wolf's mouth all along his upper arm, but as he flexed and moved it, he had a complete range of motion. He was satisfied with the healing and made a mental note to ask Will what exactly that spray-foam was.

An hour later, still early in the morning, Mark and two of the soldiers were gathered at the firing range. He wanted to get everyone some practice at once, but could not justify taking all of the soldiers with him and leaving the town defenseless. He also left Arlo there in command to hopefully get some experience in working with the soldiers. The firing range also showed its dual purpose. There was an ammunition resupply point, and he could manufacture rounds at a rate of 500 rounds per Basic Resource. He was annoyed that it would cost him to resupply. It appeared that the System abided by some version of the conservation of mass to a certain degree. Mark didn't understand how the Basic Resources worked as he automatically gained Basic Resources when he killed something, but he had no choice but to accept it. He started by purchasing 500 rounds and chuckled when a green case appeared on the ground in front of him. The mental image of 500 rounds had set him off and with the stress of the last few days, he needed something to laugh at.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He and the soldiers reloaded their magazines and set about target shooting. He still wasn't sure how much good it would do to have the soldiers doing target practice, but the line from his class selection about being responsible for their training was running in the back of his mind. He also wanted the target practice for himself as his Rifleman skill seemed to help some, it still required focus and there wasn't always the opportunity to slow down in the middle of an engagement.

Now, with time to focus on his aim, he worked on ingraining the rhythm of shooting. Breathe out, pull the trigger, let the trigger barely reset, and repeat. In just thirty minutes, he and his soldiers had exhausted all of the ammunition. He went back and bought 2000 rounds this time, and quickly fell back into the rhythm. He also paid attention to setting the habit of reloading efficiently. He wanted to be sure that every part of it was muscle memory.

In the downtime of reloading the bullets into magazines, he questioned why he wanted to be skilled with a rifle. As he saw it, each level brought him closer to being more of a commander and less of a combatant. Even just at level ten, he would have forty soldiers, once they had all been spawned. There was no way he could continue leading the assault as he had been. His monstrous stats leaned more toward a combatant as well. He realized that he would eventually have to step back and let his soldiers do most of the fighting. Some part of him enjoyed the life-and-death struggle that was a part of every combat, but the more logical side of him reasoned that he needed to be alive to protect people, and his soldiers would most likely go with him. This would leave the people he had charged himself with guarding mostly defenseless. He was getting too ahead of himself and refocused on his marksmanship as he ultimately knew that the experience would let him better command his soldiers as he would know what was possible for them in a fight.

Two hours later and he and his soldiers had run out of ammo once again. Mark decided to take a break there and go back to get Arlo and the rest of the soldiers. As he walked he reviewed the notifications he had received at some point during the training.

[Leadership Lvl 4 -> Lvl 5]

[Rifleman Lvl 7 -> Lvl 8]

[Rifleman Lvl 8 -> Lvl 9]

[Rifleman Lvl 9 -> Lvl 10. Max level reached]

[Rifleman Tier 0 -> Tier 1]

Mark stumbled when he saw how much his Rifleman skill had advanced. It had even gained a tier. It was beyond what he had been expecting. In the game, skills did not have tiers and were mostly active skills with passive ones being highly coveted. So far, it had seemed the opposite since the integration with the only skill he had that was active was Identify. He opened his character screen to see if the description had changed, and he was thrilled with the result.

Rifleman (Tier 1; Level 1): Marksmanship is second nature to you. Adds a small bonus to accuracy based on Dexterity.

It even had a modifier now. It wasn't specific, but with his high dexterity, compared to others, it was quite the boon. He had planned on staying in the town when Arlo went to the firing range, but now he wanted to go see how much his aim improved. He quickly dropped the two soldiers at the town hall and picked up Arlo and the other two soldiers. He nearly ran to the firing range, almost forgetting that he was out of ammo.

He purchased another 2500 rounds and set up Arlo and the other two soldiers and quickly told them what he had been working on. He placed a target first at 100 yards, twice what he had been shooting at before. When he looked down the sights, all of his training clicked. Each shot was perfectly placed, even at 100 yards, and through the iron sights that the guns had it was even more impressive. He pulled back his target and saw that each shot was within millimeters of the other, with some being nearly through the same hole. Ecstatic at the results, he placed the target at 200 yards, the maximum for the range. Still, each shot landed exactly where he wanted it, and his purchase was completely justified. If he could get his soldiers to this level of marksmanship, they would be a force to be reckoned with.

Once he was done with his testing, he was able to stand back and observe Arlo and the soldiers. He watched as with every magazine that was emptied, there was a noticeable improvement. They were not to his level yet, but it did good for their spirits to see their improvement. He couldn't expect that they would reach his level quickly as he had the advantage of his stats. Once the rounds were done, he purchased one last set of 2500 rounds that were specifically for defense, and the group headed back to the town.

Back in the town, Mark approached the others to see if they were willing to join the town as citizens.

"I'm not already one?" Naomi asked.

"No, not at least as far as the System is concerned." Mark replied.

"Well, it can consider me one then, but I want something in return."

"Sure. Name it and I will do my best." Mark didn't know what she wanted, he just hoped it would be within reason. He couldn't afford to promise everyone something, but some concessions would probably need to be made.

"A workshop."

"You want a workshop?"

"Yeah, I've been stuck at level one because there's been nothing for me to work on or build. I need it for my class and Mike told me that you could build one."

"I can definitely do that. I was already planning on building something similar anyways so consider it done."

"Awesome, then put me down as a citizen."

Mark inspected his Town Management Menu and saw that she had been added. It had gone better than he hoped, and he was looking forward to being able to construct some vehicles if it was at all possible. The rest of the people were also willing to join, the only one that didn't answer was Trinity as she was still in denial of the whole thing. Now that he had citizens, Mark now had to solve two problems. How would he feed them, and how would he acquire the resources to build the structures people would need for various classes?

For the first one, he knew that they could not subsist on wolf meat alone, so he would likely have to find someone who knew how to farm, and also a way to get them farming equipment and seeds. He asked around and no one knew the first thing about farming. Until they found one, it would have to be wolves and small game, supplemented by what few berries they could find. For the second, wolves also would not work forever. Mark searched through his Town Management Menu and saw that one of the available buildings was a basic factory. According to its description, it could both process minerals and natural resources into Basic Resources, as well as produce basic goods. In what was becoming normal System fashion, most things were either too vague or only provided short explanations. He knew that he would have to go hunting again before he could build it, but it was luckily somewhat cheap, only costing 250 Basic Resources.

By the time he had finished his rounds for citizens, his first specialized unit had arrived. It answered the question of how the new soldiers would spawn, one at a time instead of once per day. He was also curious as to how it determined which specialized unit to spawn as all it said was that the specialized units were prioritized in the queue. He didn't have the answer yet, but what did arrive was the machine gunner. When he went to inspect, the soldier happily showed his equipment, and it was impressive. Instead of the normal rifle that all of his soldiers had so far, he had a large fully-automatic belt-fed machine gun. The belt ran from the side of the weapon to a backpack that carried all of the ammunition for it. When asked, the soldier told him that it was capable of up to 850 rounds per minute. Mark was very interested in the belt connected to the backpack as it was the closest to anything sci-fi that he had seen so far.

With the mini-inspection complete, Mark walked back to the town hall to do something he had put off long enough. He felt confident enough to do it now that the machine gunner had arrived. He pressed his hand to the Pillar of Civilization and activated the beacon.