The Safe Haven granted by the System after the Raccan Siege came and went, though the time was spent busily and with as much productivity as the Clan could manage.
George spent his time hunting and cooking. If he spent all of his time on it, he could usually make enough food to cover a large dinner, though they still needed to supplement the meats with other foods from the System Store to stave off malnourishment. Nimbus never left his side during that time, and the two grew even closer as George began to recognize the various meows and chirps his cat gave him beyond what anyone other than Sarah could. His Cook class finally crossed 15 after cooking for so many, and his new skill - Efficient Prep - which simply made him move faster and more accurately while chopping, dicing, mixing, and many other minor actions that weren’t the cooking itself. He even got some minor spells, though his MP was never high enough to be a frequent caster.
Sarah spent her time working with animals. A single mule and Nimbus were the sum total of the animals within the settlement, but it was enough to finally get her to her next skill at Animal Handling 15 - Gentle Approach. It was a passive that made her less concerning to a panicked or skittish animal. Not entirely useful yet, but Sarah found a measure of satisfaction in both of her classes being similar in level.
Miriam went on an Enchanting spree. Every single log, nail, plank, and tool within the walls was fortified with a durability enchantment. It applied to entire tools, as well, so when she got to the bladed tools, the workers were ecstatic about how long they lasted without needing to be sharpened. They were harder to actually sharpen, sure, but at least the dock workers confirmed that it was a worthy tradeoff. She managed to raise her enchanting level up to 12, but the experience dropped off after that - she would need more complex enchantments if she wanted to push her level further. Her Level 10 skill was a wash anyways - it would help her learn new enchantments from a mentor or colleague with more ‘comprehension’, whatever that was supposed to look like.
Mitchell managed the settlement with the help of Kyla and Dalton. The Advisor quickly proved his worth, as just after the potato harvest, the farm was reset to tomatoes. He explained that in stage-based growth, plants like vines and trees would be better than full harvest crops. True to his words, once the Tomato vines had grown, they produced a new batch of tomatoes every day. Even more importantly, Tomatoes were a novelty on the System Store just like Earth art, and so they were actually able to sell them for an F-coin per dozen. With an acre of farmland, their income shot up. The main roadblock at this point was having the manpower to harvest enough of the tomatoes, though Dalton assured him that as their settlers gained in their levels, they would gain skills to help with that as well. Given they could harvest thousands of tomatoes in a day, that ended up being twelve and a half E-coins per day. Even more importantly, it got Tommen to the point of gaining another skill, and he was now able to make requests for purchase on the System Store, instead of just browsing and hoping.
Dalton assured them that the price wouldn’t last forever, so the majority of the harvest either sat on the vine unable to be picked or was sold.
Kyla spent her time rearranging jobs. A lot of the new, unskilled Aspirants didn’t have any sort of class yet, and her Administrator class’ level ten skill gave her some intuition into who would be best placed in which profession. It also gave her experience for doing so, though she ended up just short of the last level before she got another new skill. However, she did finally assign various people to be the heads of their various workplaces, which increased efficiency even more and finally allowed the Docks to begin constructing a small fishing boat once they had a foreman. Kyla even assigned a man to become the first fisherman, though at this point he just bummed around at the docks. According to Dalton, all of his fishing equipment would spawn in when the boat was finished. It looked like it would take a couple more days for that, though.
John trained up his Legion with Jack’s help, and the two of them managed to whip a full tent worth of Legionnaires into shape. He assigned them to be gate-guards, as the week’s work had also included removing the roadblocks they’d placed for the siege. With 8 soldiers, he had them working in shifts of 3 each, with either Jack or himself filling out the last position. His Centurion class levelled to the point where he also got a new skill, though one he didn’t see being used any time soon. He gained the Fortify skill, which allowed him to create small outposts that would count as a defensive structure so long as it was manned by 20 or more Legionnaires. Given that he only had ten, including the disabled veteran Aleks, creating such an outpost was simply not possible.
He did, however, talk the rest of the Core group into allowing him to purchase some minor upgrades for his Legion using the tomato profits. Proper, steel-tipped spears, sturdy boots, and a barrel full of javelins. It ended up running them 25 E-coins, but considering that was two days worth of income for the whole village, he knew he wouldn’t be getting such a large share for the Legion for a while. They even made a show of it all, upgrading the gear in exchange for their service during the Siege. Most of the Legion wasn’t there, but it was important to have the Legion itself be seen as a consistent entity even if the members might change.
The most important thing though, was finally being able to pay the people who worked for the town. A handful of F-coins here and there, and all of a sudden people were walking away from the market, smiling. One woman bought a quilt. Another man bought a bag of grain. People finally had the means to address their needs, and Tommen was more than happy to accommodate. He was quickly becoming the richest man in Old Mill Town.
All in all, the town was beginning to actually act like a town, rather than a group of desperate refugees, and it was this state they were in when the Safe Haven status finally ended just after sunset on the seventh day. Kyla had scheduled a meeting between the Core group, despite not being part of it herself, and Ezekiel was invited to attend as well.
----------------------------------------
George again lounged by the fire, Nimbus purring on his lap. The cat had grown with the Ranger, but still managed to fit on his lap, despite the black fur spilling off the sides. Everyone was here, John had assigned a pair of his Legionnaires to guard the longhouse at Dalton’s insistence, and Dalton himself was standing below the small raised platform, in front of and to Mitchell’s left. Kyla had dragged over a stool, but was at the same spot on his right.
Mitchell took a deep breath and began. “Alright. Thanks for coming, everyone. I think that with all the work we’ve done, we can finally take a breath. Our people have money. They are starting to fit in with their jobs. The town is gaining experience. We have food, even though I’m getting a little bit sick of tomatoes. So I wanted to open things up so we can determine our next steps. So far, I know we need to expand our farms, we need to create the rest of the buildings we have available, we need to expand the Legion, and we need to finally explore the area around us and map it out. Let’s deal with the last one first. Has anyone found someone with a Cartographer class or something like that?”
Ezekiel raised a hand. “Patriarch - do I need to call you that, still? - I still don’t have a secondary class. I could try to get that cartography class for us?”
Miriam cut in before anyone else could speak. “It seems silly now, but he's planning for if we grow. The UN used some rules none of us know, but the general respect of titles is a good idea.”
There was a beat of silence, then it was broken as Sarah answered the original question. “Only if it’s what you actually want. Classes become a large part of yourself, and if you hate drawing maps, we won’t force you to draw maps.”
The Archer shrugged. “At this point, I’d take anything. My Race level is still locked at 5, which means most of you have at least ten points over me in pretty much everything. If drawing maps is what we need, I’ll start drawing maps.”
“If it were up to you?” Mitchell asked, gazing curiously at the relative newcomer.
Ezekiel paused for a moment before answering in an embarrassed tone. “I like to explore. When I was younger, I would always be running off into the woods when we went on family hikes. Going down into caves. Climbing trees and rocks. It made me happy to see something and imagine nobody else had ever seen it, that I was the first. I don’t think ‘Generic Explorer’ is a class though.”
Dalton raised a hand. “No, but you could acquire the Pathfinder cla- What’s so funny?”
Mitchell waved it off, stifling his chuckle. “Nothing, nothing. Just a game we used to play had the same name, so it’s always good to get someone new on the Pathfinder bandwagon.”
Dalton blinked twice. “Allright… Well the only requirements for Pathfinder are quite simple - go find an animal-made or natural trail and follow it to a significant geographic location. A beach, mesa, rock formation, lake, cave, or any other deviation from the standard layout of the local region. Then, leave path markers on your way back. It needs to be on land though, if you do it on the water you’ll end up with Navigator.”
Ezekiel rose without further words and walked out the door. It was so abrupt that nobody stopped him.
George sighed and stood, Nimbus hopping deftly off his lap. “Suppose I should make sure he doesn’t get eaten by wolves or coyotes. Or Spinebears. Or Giant- You know what, I’ll just go with him.”
Nimbus let out a meow, batted a stray stick into the fire pit, and followed George out the door.
“Don’t worry, Ezekiel’s just a do-er. It’s been bothering him all week.” Kyla excused. “Though I may go ask if they wouldn’t mind heading down-river. Riverfish are nice, but the ocean is pretty much endless food. I'll try to delay them until morning, at least.”
Mitchell waved his permission, and Kyla took off out the door too. “Not much of a meeting anymore.”
John shook his head. “Nothing on the docket has to do with hunting, so we should be able to keep going.”
Mitchell pondered that, then continued. “Well, someone can fill him in later. Next, I’ll tackle literally everything else in one go. Here’s my plan - we sell the next batch of tomatoes, all of them. The price is already starting to drop, though, so we expect only 8 E-coins from that. We use those coins for 8 more farms - unless there’s any reason we shouldn’t?”
Dalton raised a hand. “You would need to clear enough land for them, but the spread of crops would be more than worth it. You could even remove reliance on the System Store, at least for foodstuffs. Tomatoes are a good cash crop, but you could also plant water-grains or dry-stalk grains. I imagine you eventually wish to repair the Mill, which I would heartily recommend - even beyond foods, Mills are used to process parts from carcasses into magical reagents. Luckily, you have a Tutorial Instance with wandering monsters.”
“I don’t like what that implies.” Miriam commented.
“Which part?” Mitchell asked, “the Tutorials being different, wandering monsters, or the idea that wandering monsters could be considered an economic factor?”
Dalton shook his raised hand to regather attention. “I can address all of that. Yes, there are multiple types of tutorials, and multiple instances of each type. The one you are in appears to be some sort of survival focussed one, though it is odd that you haven’t received any sort of Tutorial Quest. Usually that will tell you what the goal of the tutorial is, how to complete it, and the various fail-states.”
Miriam’s face paled. “The only thing we ever got was a survivor count.”
Dalton whipped his head around. “Excuse me? Like, once you get down to a certain amount of survivors, the tutorial ends?”
“No. It only says Survivors 2203/5000” John said flatly. “Which means we passed half of us at some point since the Siege.”
Sarah looked visibly ill at the news, while Mitchell sighed with sadness and rubbed his brow. Miriam raised an eyebrow. “I mean, we did expect this, right? We didn’t exactly take a long time to get set up here, and I imagine most groups were like Kyla and Ezekiel, not much more than a camp in the woods. Then we had to defend. We knew the Raccans went for their camp. I assumed we were all just not talking about the fact that they likely assaulted every camp or settlement in the area.”
“So it’s our fault.” John answered easily. “2000 people dead, and it’s our fault.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Dalton cut him off before he could continue. “I wouldn’t presume so much. This is even worse than a Survival tutorial. That just takes away all resources and gives you a time limit to survive for. Usually wandering monsters get tougher as time goes on, but that’s it. There shouldn’t be any dungeons, or Settlement Stones - access to those is usually given to the higher ranked as a reward after the Tutorial, not lying around for just anyone to find.”
Sarah glared, the annoyance cutting into her nausea. “I wouldn’t say it was just lying around.”
“Trust me when I say that comparatively, it was. There are much more cutthroat Tutorials. This one seems like there's a hidden condition, which is not unheard of. All you can do is make peace with the fact you might be in here a while.”
Mitchell held his tongue about the singular quest still sitting in his Status screen. He desperately hoped that the end of the Tutorial did not involve what he thought it did, because if that was the true end-state, he would have to find out some other method. The very thought of being the last one standing filled him with revulsion.
“Alright, so let’s make the best of it.” Miriam declared. “You know a lot about the System and how it works. You know about tutorials. You have an overview of our town, our population, and what we can do. What would you suggest for next steps?”
Dalton hummed in thought. “You have the right idea with the Farms, though I would definitely get the Mill as soon as possible. Some buildings won’t show up as an option until you have the prerequisite goods they need to run. For example, without both leather and metal, you will never be able to create an Armourer. Without grains of some sort, you wouldn’t be able to create a Mill, though you have ruins on your land which overrides the requirement. Once you have a milled grain, you can create whatever Earth’s version of a grain-loaf is.”
John coughed. “Do you mean bread?”
Dalton waved it off. “Different planets, different grains, different names. New varieties of grain-loaf and the powdered grains-”
“Flour.” Sarah provided.
“Yes, well, they tend to also sell highly, especially if you can bring it above your current Tier. I can see confusion, so let me break down production: An F-grade crop of grain harvested by a mid-level F-Grade Farmer will gain the ‘Quality’ tag. Your Cook lucked out in that regard with the skill he’s got. Quality grain processed by a mid-grade Miller will gain the High Quality tag. Having a mid-grade Baker create bread out of that will create the Exemplary tag. Any further boosts will change that Exemplary tag to a Low Quality tag of the next Tier. So the more processing you can do in-town, the better your profits will be. The same applies to any other goods you make here.”
“Define mid-grade for us?” Miriam asked, having procured a sheaf of parchment and a charcoal stick at some point during the explanation.
“Mid grade is generally considered from levels 40 to 60 in the applicable class. Most crafters end up getting enough skills by that point to reach outside their previous bounds.”
The room collectively slumped in disappointment. “We’re only at… I think Kyla has a 20+ Warrior class, but that’s it.” John provided as explanation.
Dalton grinned. “Oh, it’s even worse than that. Your NPC’s won’t be able to reach 40th level until your town reaches 4th level, which brings up my next question: Is there a specific reason you are holding out on upgrading buildings? You have close to twenty residential buildings out there, which is almost triple what you actually need if you keep them upgraded.”
Mitchell sighed. “First, I didn’t know it was possible. Second, we’ve been kind of busy lately. Third, we have no idea how any of this works, so I think we’ve done alright so far.”
Dalton held up both hands. “Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. But you had to have seen that the Clan House was all the way up to level 3? It’s a small investment in either coins or materials, but the upgrade happens instantly. It will increase production, and because of that it will also increase the growth rate for workers there. My own city had a road called Woody Way, and I had eight Carpentry Shops there, low and high from Tier F to Tier C. We were a B Tier Nation, so it wasn’t too much of a burden, but we can bring a fresh NPC from F to C grade in no longer than 2 years.” He said this last part smugly.
“Define Tiers, if you would?” Miriam asked, her charcoal stick writing so fast she almost appeared to be scribbling.
Dalton looked at her oddly as he dropped his hands. “F,E,D,C,B,A,S. Seven Tiers of existence. We refer to F and E as the ‘Mortal’ tiers, D and C as the ‘Hero’ tiers, B and A as the ‘Immortal’ Tiers, and S’s are just S’s. Each tier is a qualitative leap above the previous. For humans - and I can only speak to your Race level, as I’m fairly certain gaining dual classes is new to humans - once you hit level 100 in your Race, the System asks if you’d like to evolve. It isn’t mandatory, but almost nobody refuses. Your 100 levels of stat boosts are locked in, half of them are consumed to fuel the transformation, and you end up as an E-Grade Human. Any racial skills tend to evolve, and you’ll get more stat points per level. You also gain an extended lifespan, doubling what you currently have.”
“And these NPC’s - still need that defined as well - will also evolve? I imagine the Town will too?” Miriam asked rapid-fire, her charcoal not stopping.
“Pretty much anything can evolve so long as it meets the requirements.” Dalton answered. “N.P.C. stands for Non-Prior Citizen. We use that term to refer to System-created persons who were not present on the planet before the Systemization - they tend to interact differently with the System than natural borns, clones, or the Initiated. You’re Initiated, by the way, if you ever end up interacting with other Systemized worlds.”
John stood up with a groan. “It’s too late for all this crunchy stuff. I’m gonna make a round then head to bed.”
Sarah joined him. “I’ll do the same. See you all in the morning. I imagine you’ll have some sort of plan for us?”
Mitchell nodded. “Not sleeping until I have at least the next week planned. Have a good night, guys.”
“‘Night, Mitch.” John said, and the couple walked out into the cool night air. Mitchell threw another log on the fire, noting absently that they needed more firewood. The log crackled and sparked.
“I meant that, Dalton. We aren’t going anywhere until our next week is planned out.”
“It doesn’t seem like it would need much planning. You need to build more farms, use their output to gain more income, use that income to create processing buildings, make even more income, then diversify.” The Advisor answered.
“That’s a nice plan. Let’s talk details.” Miriam said with an almost predatory glint in her eye.
Dalton squirmed on his bench, then they all got to work.
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The next morning, John and Sarah were there to see the exploration team off. They’d packed light, though George insisted he had everything he would need. The sounds of the town awakening were beginning to become routine. The distant drone of collective conversation wafted over from the Market, and the sound of wood planers scraping against timber cut over from the river.
“It’s just a walk through the woods. I’m the deadliest thing in the woods. Stop worrying so much.”
Sarah scoffed. “I’m not worried, I’m just here to make sure you all know what to look for.” With Dalton’s advice, she’d spent a small fortune - a single E-coin - on a Beginner’s Alchemical Testing Tube. The device was designed to hold a specimen, and destructively analyse it for alchemical properties. Sarah had also procured a loosely bound sheaf of parchment, even gaining a Bookbinder class out of an old man named Thorn. The man seemed very happy to finally have a defined place within the town, and promised to bind any books the Core group needed free of cost.
Dalton told her all they needed now was some books to bind, at least until the craftsman hit a high enough level that he could create the materials wholly from MP.
She handed the tube carefully over to Ezekiel. “Please, as many flowers, mushrooms, or colourful insects you can manage. I have the Mastery required to start making potions, but literally all of Earth’s flora is undocumented right now.”
“Wish we could just eat things like-”
“No, George, do not stick unknown objects in your mouth.” Sarah repeated for the third time.
He rolled his eyes and gave a quick gesture. Nimbus hopped from his shoulder up into a nearby branch, and Sarah marvelled at how said branch was at least ten feet up and five away from where they stood. The little cat was getting stronger.
“Well, we’re off then. Three days max.” Ezekiel said. “If we’re not back by then… well, I don’t know. Mourn us with alcohol.”
George nodded solemnly. “Copious amounts. Get Miri drunk for me.”
John grinned. “I’d bet there’s worse things than a drunk wizard, but the list can’t be that long.”
Sarah nudged John with an elbow. “Safe travels. Come back safe.”
George gave a lazy mock salute and began loping off down the very minor trail that had formed through foot traffic. Kyla and Ezekiel gave each other a glance, then followed him.
“So?” John asked. “What’s on the docket today?”
Sarah shrugged. “No idea. Mitch’ll tell us when he’s up. Until then, I was going to go say good morning to Archie. Wanna come with?”
John frowned. “Who’s Archie?”
Sarah smiled coyly and gestured him to follow. “Incredibly reliable dude. He’s hard-headed, stubborn, but a hard worker. Honestly, John, he was one of the first males to enter the settlement.”
“Oh?” John pushed down the growing jealousy. He wasn’t an outwardly jealous man, but it always stung a bit to hear her compliment other men. “Does he have a job or a class or something? Maybe I do know him.”
“I mean, he’s one of a kind. And really, we just understand each other so well that… John?”
John had stopped and was squinting at her. “Are you talking about the donkey?”
Sarah kept a straight face for all of three seconds before she burst out giggling. “The mule, you big genius. Yea, I go see him every morning to grab a bit of experience for my secondary class. We really only have the one labour animal to work with, so I want to keep him in good shape.”
John chuckled himself. “Really? I could easily outdo any animal you put in front of me.”
Sarah rubbed her chin in thought. “So you’re saying we should make a rickshaw for you to carry us around in? I suppose you would be faster and stronger than a mule…”
John caught up to her and urged her to keep walking. “Whoa now, could does not mean would. Or will. Or anything like that. I ain’t pulling a cart.”
She laughed. “We’ll see…”
The morning was quiet, and John spoke a few quick words with the Legionnaires on duty as they passed by. Despite the small group, they all seemed to hold him in very high regard, latching on to each word and saluting with pride. It made John uncomfortable, but he hadn’t realised it had shown outwardly until Sarah brought it up.
“Every time we walk away from your guys, you look like you just bit into a lemon. Like, you thought it was an apple and just went for it, but were surprised to find it sour.” Sarah nudged him gently with her shoulder. “Wanna share those thoughts before they get too stuck in?”
John glanced at her out of the side of his eye. “It just feels weird, that’s all. I don’t think I’ve done enough to deserve that level of res- Ow! What the hell, Sarah?”
Sarah rubbed her reddining palm from where she’d slapped his arm. It wasn’t a light tap. “What is wrong with you guys? Why is George the only one that's actually fine with where he’s at? Miriam won’t stop studying her book. Mitchell literally did a suicide mission and dragged me along. Now you think you don’t deserve the respect? John, are you forgetting you single handedly stood between our people and death? Literally being eaten alive, if Mitchell is to be believed? What about defending during the rest of the siege? Even before the town, you were the entire reason we didn’t get eaten by Pokey the Bear. You’re hot shit, baby. I’d join the Legion too if I wasn’t so busy.”
John laughed, his concern alleged, if not forgotten. “Oh? You want to serve under me?”
The things Sarah said next were quiet and private, but after her words, John took off running for the Market, and Sarah couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. Both of their faces were bright red.
----------------------------------------
In a clearing hours away from any other person, a scraped marking in dirt sat beneath a willow tree. An Archer and a Warrior piled stones from the surrounding woods. The stones sat layer over layer in a pyramid formation, or as close as one can get without any stoneworking. A Ranger watched from the nearby trees.
The third layer was carried with stubborn stoicism. The fourth with the beginnings of fatigue shadowing their movements. The fifth saw the first tear fall.
“Damnit!” Kyla yelled, throwing the rock she’d been carrying back into the forest. Her voice was tense, and she sniffled before speaking again. “He was such a piece of shit!”
“He was our piece of shit.” Ezekiel murmured as he passed by her, a heavy stone held in two hands. “He fucked around, and he found out.”
Kyla whirled around on him. “That’s all you have to say about it? You saying he deserved to be eaten?”
“No.” Ezekiel said simply, placing his stone and robotically returning to the woods to find another.
Kyla looked at him exasperated, pain writ large across her face. “Why are we even doing this? He doesn’t deserve our efforts, right?”
“He was ours. Nobody else will, so we do.” Ezekiel answered in that same monotone voice.
“That’s bullshit, dude! You know how many people died Before and had nobody? They still cremated or buried them or whatever!”
“By the government. As a health measure. His corpse was gone.”
Kyla’s gaze snapped over to where George waited patiently against a tree. “Well, spook? What’s your government gonna do about the deceased?”
George shrugged, choosing not to engage with the second question. “I’m not that spooky.”
“Yea, you are!” Kyla latched onto the argument. “You’re dropping out of trees. Shooting people when they didn’t even know you were there. You’re literally the definition of spooky. You have a black cat, for Christ’s sake!”
George frowned. “That points more towards witch than spooky.”
Kyla gave a pained laugh. “You are a spook. Don’t think we don’t know why you came with us.”
George leaned off of the tree he was propped up against, sensing the shift in emotion. “Oh? Why don’t you tell me?”
“You’re here to take us out, just like you guys used the siege to kill Singh. Sure you all put on a pretty front, but I know you’re a dictatorship. If that Patriarch of yours-”
“Watch it, Ky. Don’t say anything you can’t take back.” Ezekiel warned as he placed another stone.
“I don’t give a fuck! You think he’s not infallible? Who’d he make do it? Kill an unarmed, helpless prisoner? Tell me!”
George frowned deeper. He really wouldn’t put it past Mitchell to just get rid of Singh. It was a thought he’d often held himself, so it wasn’t impossible for the Patriarch to have it too, but… “Nah. I see how you got where you did, but Mitchell isn’t that type of guy. Refused to let us gag him when he was singing all day. Stopped some violence a couple of times. He’s probably beating himself up over it all right now. Now, if I was in charge, I would never have taken him prisoner. He was an enemy to us, so…”
Kyla glared at him. “Asshole.”
George scoffed in surprise. “Bitch.”
“You’re both being stupid. I’m not leaving until we’re done, so either help or shut up.” Ezekiel said flatly, placing yet another stone.
Kyla looked between him and George, then grumbled something venomous and returned to work.
In a clearing hours away from any other person, a scraped marking in dirt still sat beneath a willow tree. An Archer and a Warrior continued to pile stones from the surrounding woods. The stones sat layer over layer in a pyramid formation, or as close as one can get without any stoneworking.
A Ranger sighed and spitefully helped to carry stones. He wasn’t an asshole.