All three of them were surprised, when less that a minute after the soldier had disappeared inside the base, someone else came out to greet them. It was a middle aged man, who walked with a slight limp, but each step the man took, Owen was more and more sure that the man approaching was someone in charge. There was a look of surprise, when the man got close enough to make out their features. He clearly wasn't very involved with the system so far, and a quick use of keen eye, told Owen everything he needed to know.

*Kenneth Wright - Level 10*

It was a little surprising to see someone at such a low level, despite having essentially gone through two different tutorials. Despite the low level, the man still gave off an aura, and as he got closer, he scowled as he looked at each of them. "What the hell has the world come too, my whole base is shuddering in fear, because three children have arrived at my doors." Kenneth grumbled and Owen saw Myra fighting back a response. Kenneth looked between them all, before sighing. "I have no doubt you're powerful, but still these are wild times."

"I suppose you can follow me, but don't touch anything inside." He said, before he abruptly turned and began walking back towards the base. The three of them followed and Kenneth told them a little bit about the history of the base. They were mostly ignored while they were lead through to an office building, though there were still plenty of stares thrown their way. By the time they had reached the building and were sitting down inside of a meeting room, Kenneth had just finished wrapping up the history lesson he was giving, before he eyed them all again.

"Why are you here?" He asked abruptly, and Owen looked immediately to Myra and Peggy, though Peggy at least seemed prepared. "We don't want to fight any of you anymore, for starters." She answered, and she fully turned towards Kenneth. He nodded for several seconds. "Yeah, that raid was a real shit show. Throwing civilians into a mess like that." He responded shaking his head. "It was unfortunate, but it is what happens when things that were considered sacred get thrown by the way side." It was Kenneth's turn now to fully face Peggy and both Myra and Owen did their best to stay quiet.

Peggy stared for a moment, but continued just as confidently as before. "We had only respect for the military and it was only once we were attacked that we responded. We had been fully willing to help out with any requests, but you resorted to violence first." Peggy huffed, before continuing. "Now, we are going to be having enemy guilds, vying for world domination due to the system event, which we all saw." She said and waited until Kenneth grunted his agreement.

"Not only that, but with most all electronics missing or unusable, we need resources, but most of all help. Are you familiar with the guild store?" Peggy asked. The next several minutes were a conversation between Peggy and Kenneth, as she explained how guilds worked and Myra chimed in with anything Peggy forgot. Owen stayed mostly silent throughout, not quite sure how to help. Once Kenneth had learned that they could get supplies from the guild shop, he went quiet for a long time.

"I don't think I am ready for this world," Kenneth said as a tired sigh escaped his lips. he sounded tired, though Owen was thankful he didn't sound defeated. "If I understand you correctly, you two," He said pointing at Owen and Myra. "Are planning on rushing through as many gates as possible to both collect credits needed for this guild shop and to prevent gate breaks?" It was phrased as a question, but he looked at both of them with new eyes and Owen was happy to see they had gotten his respect.

"What do you need from us?" He eventually asked after another silent minute. "We need you, more than anything, to help calm down the civilians in Rochester, since the last thing they saw was us fighting you guys. After a day or so, they should know things have been patched up at that point, and then your troops can get trained to clear gates." Peggy stated and it looked like she was waiting for an argument, but Kenneth just nodded and spun his chair to open a cabinet behind him.

Owen was expecting something like a map or intelligence they had gathered on gates, since they had been talking about them, but the bottle of whiskey in the man's hands quickly dashed Owen's souring spirits. "Alright, I understand." He said as he poured himself a drink. He quickly gestured around the table and shrugged when no one took him up on the offer. "What do we get in return?" Kenneth asked, after taking a sip.

"Survival, and I don't mean this as a threat. Your weapons don't work anymore, at least none of the ones that can truly threaten us." Peggy stated calmly, but for the first time, Kenneth was clearly alert. She waved him down, but after he didn't respond, she continued. "I only say this because tier one and tier two gates will break in less than three days. If you don't find a way to combat them, then you will be overrun in three days."

Kenneth just stared for a moment, before he took a long drink from his cup, though we kept drinking until his glass was empty. "Well, isn't that great. If we don't help you're saying we die." He said, as he started pouring himself another glass. "No, even if you choose not to help us, we have a plan to try and take care of as many gates as possible. We also wouldn't intentionally let you guys die from something like a gate break. We helped out Rochester without getting anything out of it." She said, in a matter of fact tone.

He stopped pouring himself a drink and seemed to mull it over before he shouted towards the door to the office. "Soldier, let the officers know they need to gather everyone together in one hour." He then turned back to them and smiled. "I should let you know I don't have any real power, but I have been here long enough that everyone left should still listen to my instructions."

Taking a small sip from his glass, he looked back at them again. "I want two other things though." Peggy gave him a quizzical look, "Didn't you just say you have no real power?" He waved his hand and smiled, "Even if I don't have military instituted power, I have their respect. They will listen. There are still the two things I want though." Peggy gestured for him to continue. "You need to help me create one of those guilds here. Even if it is a subsidiary to yours. I would also like to maintain control over my men. Meaning my orders come before yours."

This time Owen couldn't help himself. "Even if we wanted them to report to us, just look at us, who wants to take orders from a kid?" Kenneth laughed and it was a loud booming chuckle. "Well at least I won't have to say it, but I want one last thing in that case. I want these two training a group of my men." He pointed at both Myra and Owen. Peggy looked at them and then back at Kenneth. "Do you have any idea how valuable their time is? I know you think you have an idea, but I really need to express it in a way you can understand. Each of them could clear all of the tier one and tier two gate breaks by themselves. In fact even if you added all of the tier three gates, I am positive they wouldn't have an issue."

"They are going to be the foundation of power that the guild needs to function. If we want any sort of economy to develop, then we need credits coming in and right now, they are some of the only people in hundreds of miles that can bring those credits in." Peggy said, all the while staring at Kenneth incredulously. Kenneth seemed frozen in place and his smile had long since disappeared. "Truly?" He asked. Owen could imagine what the man was thinking, even though there was a lot said that they didn't actually know if Owen and Myra could do, it was still a good way to describe how powerful they each were.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Though a part of Owen wondered why Peggy didn't add herself to that list of people. She was someone who already gave off a presence and she was the same level as both him and her sister. Pushing it from his mind he just kept up his stare at Kenneth and realized Peggy was waiting for him to say something. "I could take up to three people with me when I clear gates, but I would need to be in charge of them and they would need to answer to me before anyone else. Otherwise, I am not sure how I could keep them safe when I go to clear tier fives and sixes."

Kenneth gave Owen a hard stare and let out a puff of exasperation. "How long do we have to decide?" Kenneth asked, looking back at Peggy. She in turn looked between Owen and Myra and shrugged. "We have a meeting back in Rochester tomorrow morning, but we were hoping for an answer today. If we get an answer today, we can get the guild set up here and sign it on as a subsidiary. Then we can get some people here tomorrow and hopefully to go through some of the lower leveled gates with some of your teams." Peggy said as she turned back to Kenneth.

He looked like he was debating whether to down the rest of his drink again, but his hand pushed it away and he got to his feet. "I suppose we can go set that guild up now, but there is one last thing you should keep in mind. My duty above all else is to my country, if I find out later that there are effort to bring back the US government I will help my country." He said as he once again started leading them through the compound. Owen was slightly confused about the phrasing of Kenneth's last statement, it had made it sound like Kenneth wasn't necessarily on the side of the government, but the US itself The only problem with that was Owen knew he could be misunderstanding the statement, but on the other hand, even if his guess was right he wasn't sure where the line was drawn.

He spent some time thinking it over before remembering he had technically agreed to train up to three soldiers. He hadn't done a great job trying to find the time to train Lucas, so he wasn't actually sure how he was going to pull it off. His mind started racing as he thought of everything he could do to try and make them strong. As the minutes slipped by and he heard Kenneth's voice in the background, he had thought he had come up with a decent plan. Then they were suddenly standing in front of a crowd of soldiers and Owen fought to not dart his head back and forth at the crowd.

"This is...This is a city representative from the city of Rochester. As I am sure you all are aware, the previous Sergeant General had wanted to capture this city after our nations fall, in the hopes of reestablishing ourselves as a power. I didn't agree with the methods, so we are left in a predicament. We led an attack that put the lives of civilians in danger and we are now in a more hectic time than ever. The system has declared that people can claim ownership of earth by conquering it. We need to band together because of this, so we will send squads to go help in Rochester, and they will send people here to train you all." Kenneth said, as he stared out at the crowd of soldiers

He continued to explain the situation a little, before he gestured at both Myra and Owen. "These two may be the strongest system users on the planet. They have agreed to take small teams of three into some gates as a method of training. If they choose your group of three, you answer to them and them alone. Even if it goes against a direct command of mine. The only caveat is that it can't be anything you consider to be an attack against the military or civilians." Kenneth said and shouted another command for them to group into three people.

Owen was somewhat surprised to hear to final addition to the Kenneth's statement and he supposed it was at least a method to make sure he wasn't giving away soldiers that would later be used against him. Either way, Owen didn't mind too much and began walking around scanning the groups of soldiers, but he wasn't some wizened old master in a cultivation series and had no means to try and determine someone's potential from a glance. Sighing, he randomly pointed at a group and gestured for them to come over.

Myra started doing the same, though she must've had a method more refined that Owen's random selection as she walked through the crowd and stared at each of the three people per group. Owen turned his attention back towards his group and smiled. Kenneth had started shouting directions in the background and Owen gestured for his group to follow him. When they found a spot that was far enough away they wouldn't interrupt, Owen turned his attention to his new team.

"I am Owen Cain, I suppose none of you have identify?" He asked as he quickly used keen eye on each of them.

*Maria - Level 11

Shaun - Level 13

Dillon - Level 11*

They all shook their heads no, and Owen nodded. "Well, introduce yourselves and tell me how you spent your time in the tutorial." They each took turns introducing themselves and all described a very bland tutorial. They had only fought when attack, but had ran away with a group more often than not. They hadn't been placed together, but Owen's hopes fell when each of them essentially recounted the same story. He had to change how he had planned on training them, but either way he didn't want to start today, he merely gestured towards the city and gave them each a look.

"If you want to be trained to be stronger with the system, then you'll need to show up in Rochester tomorrow before noon. I have some errands I need to do it the city that day, but I should be open to train you all, starting that day. We have some things we will need to take care of first though." Owen finished and motioned for them to go back and join the group that Kenneth was talking to.

Owen spent some time watching him shout commands as the soldiers started running back and forth grabbing things for a several hour march back towards the city. Peggy soon joined him and threw him a glance. "Are you positive you want to train a group, I expected you to try and find any excuse to grind gates with Myra." She said in a teasing tone. "No, while I would enjoy that, unless we pick a gate that we both have a chance of dying in, we will just be holding ourselves and each other back from real progress." Owen said, he tried to hide the fact he was a little sad at the prospect, but Peggy caught on quickly.

"You know you guys can hangout outside of gates right?" Peggy asked. "You could even ask her out on a date, I mean its already been an entire month." Owen knew she was teasing him a little bit, but she was right. He added it to the list of things he wanted to get done, but he turned to Peggy before he could get lost in his thoughts again. "What are your plans now though? We have all kinda of gotten to a point that unless we want to try and clear something like a tier seven gate, we aren't really able to do stuff together as a group anymore and you don't really seem interested in fighting anymore." He asked and Peggy stayed quiet for several seconds, before turning to Owen looking more serious than he had seen her in a long time.

"I like what I am doing now. I enjoy navigating things like this and running a guild, even if it is Myra's." She rolled something back and forth in her hands for a moment before she continued. "I also want to keep my parents safe, since even if Myra spent all of her time clearing gates, that'd only keep them safe from monsters. I am strong now, but fighting doesn't really appeal, I'd much rather spend my time working on magic and managing the guild, maybe that will change in the future, but for now I'm happy doing what I am doing." She said, as she opened her hand and a vortex of energy appeared that began to suck in mana from the surroundings.

Owen opened his eyes wide in shock at the level of control and threw her another look. She was definitely more powerful than she let on, because that level of control over her energies and keeping the resulting elemental power from immediately exploding was something he had only seen from Xerxes. "You'll have to teach me that trick soon, but I'm glad you're happy, hopefully we can keep up our little corner of paradise." Peggy scoffed and Owen grinned. "Though we will have to try and find time to hangout as a group, I'd hate to get close with both of you, only for duties to immediately push us apart." Owen said as he tried to mimic the trick Peggy had done, with little success.

Peggy looked at him with mock incredulity, "You want me to actively third wheel? Ridiculous," She scoffed. They talked about how some of the upcoming days would go and Owen told her about his basic training plan for his three people. Thankfully, Peggy had already been planning on purchasing the materials required for tempering people, so all that was left was getting credits and they'd be ready to go the following morning.