Rick was up before dawn, the sky barely beginning to lighten.. The campfire outside was long extinguished. There was no one around, but the air was filled with a delicious aroma. A thin trail of smoke curled from the chimneys of the dining wagon.

The smell of breakfast and a friendly "Morning, boss," from Gambit greeted Rick as he opened the door and stepped inside. Half a dozen people sat around the compact room, some with half-eaten plates of food, others nursing cups of something hot and dark. Nia sat at a table by herself, though the space was too small for anyone to truly be alone. She cradled a mug in her hands, her eyes heavy with exhaustion.

"She's been there all night," Gambit said, nodding toward her, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear.

Nia glared at him. "No, I haven't," she mumbled, taking another sip from her mug.

"Don't worry, he'll be back soon," Gambit said, his tone casual. "A couple hours, I think."

"Fifty minutes," Nia snapped, then flushed and looked back down at her mug.

Rick pulled out a chair across from Gambit and glanced at her. "It's okay to be worried, Nia. This place is dangerous, but Theo will be alright. He knows what he's doing, and he wanted this."

"That's easy for you to say," she shot back. "You're the one who sent him."

"And he was eager to go," Gambit began, but Rick raised a hand to cut him off. He didn’t want this to turn into an argument.

"You can't protect him forever, Nia," Rick said gently. "And even if you could, he wouldn't want that."

She frowned into her mug, which probably held tea, judging by the pot on the table. "I just... I just feel responsible," she admitted softly.

Gambit opened his mouth, a smirk already forming, but Rick shot him a look. Whatever snarky comment Gambit had been about to make, he thought better of it and closed his mouth again, still smirking.

Rick tried to think of something more to say, but his thoughts were interrupted as the door swung open. The cook, Elliot Mason, bustled in, carrying a steaming plate. He set it down in front of Rick. The dish was a mix of rice, small chunks that might have been potatoes, and darker pieces that could have been meat. The aroma was tantalizing, though Rick couldn’t quite place the flavors. His stomach growled loudly.

"Do you have coffee?" Rick asked.

"We have something the system thinks is tea," Mason replied, pointing at Nia. "But you'll have to wrestle the pot back from her."

Rick chuckled and picked up a spoon, debating which part of the meal to try first. Before he could take a bite, Gambit pulled something from his bag and dropped it on the table—a pair of thick, heavy leather gloves.

"Check these out," Gambit said.

Rick picked one up. It felt solid but soft, the kind of material that could take a beating. He studied it until his inspect window popped up.

[Brawler Gloves

Leather Armor

+2 Stamina

+2 Strength]

"Nice," Rick said, setting the glove back down.

Gambit nodded and tucked the gloves away. "You need to give me—give all of us, really—permissions to start missions. That one only took Diego a few hours, and we could’ve had more gear going already."

Rick considered. "We don’t want to overwork everyone."

Gambit shook his head. "I was talking with Slate. He is pretty sure when you select someone, it will auto adjust the time if they need rest."

"I thought he didn’t know how the crafting wagon worked," Rick said.

"He doesn’t," Gambit replied, "but there’s a feature in Towns that works similarly. We need to crank through a bunch more of these crafting missions and fill in our weak slots. We need a list of what everyone needs most. I think we can all use this leather gear the missions make.”

“I’m the only caster and I can use leather too," Rick agreed. Rick did a quick scan through his own needs. "Pants are the priority, but my boots aren't much, and I have no jewelry. So those are all possibilities, I there are jewelry missions."

He had not been using a weapon because he was avoiding melee combat, and they only seemed to get in the way. But there had to be staves or wands that a caster, could use.

“So I'm also very interested in those possibilities of weapon crafting missions."

Gambit's needs were similar. He had a chest slot item and boots, as well as the new bandolier which went over his chest. It wasn't clear just how many more types of gear could be worn. The interface for gear didn't show empty slots; it only showed what was already equipped, which included undergarments.

"Could we find a magical t-shirt?" Rick wondered aloud.

Rick had already discovered he could wear his leather headband, which didn't have any stats, under the hood that was connected to his mantle. Would that still work if the headband had stats on it? Would it work with any head slot item that could fit under the hood? There were many questions and things to try out.

Rick took a bite of his food, and a variety of new flavors exploded on his tongue. They blended together harmoniously. He couldn’t help but make an appreciative noise.

"If you like the taste," Gambit said with a grin, "you’ll like the stats even better. Just wait 'til you see the well-fed buff."

A few minutes later, as Rick was almost done with his breakfast, Theo came in with a big grin and a large crate. "Theo!" Nia called as she jumped up. She tried to move to him, but in the aisle between the tables there wasn't room, and she had to dodge to the side for him and his crate to come through. He dropped it to the floor with a thud, narrowly missing a chair and Rick’s foot.

"Radishes!" he said, spreading his arms wide and almost hitting the light fixture above the table on the left side.

"This should last us a few days," Elliot Mason commented, "or much longer, depending on how many recipes I can figure out for them."

"How was it?" Nia asked Theo.

Mason bent to inspect the goods. "Ah, excellent, excellent! Here, help me take you to the back." Theo picked up one side of the crate, and the cook picked the other, but staggered under its weight. Theo shifted his hands, and it was obvious he was holding most of the weight as they backed carefully into the kitchen.

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Rick followed along, eager to hear Theo’s answer, with Nia on his heels. They crowded into the entrance of the kitchen as Mason started stowing their bounty, with Theo standing by, looking proud.

“Not hard, not really. It was fascinating! Completely different than other game mechanics I’ve seen. Or perhaps I should say it’s like several strung together.” He gestured with his hands to indicate, “like a series of train cars. We asked around for a location and then we had to do some searching. Each of the steps had a skill check, but it was very simplified.”

Rick had seen the skill icons on the mission board. There had only been six different skills across their party. The missions had only been using three of those and two skills more no one in the group had. So, that was 8 unique skills so far, though there might be many more they hadn’t seen yet.

Theo nodded. “It was a lot of fun. The final challenge was when we arrived at a bandit camp. They had stolen the crate, see? When we got there, it let me intimidate them with my combat skill. I think we might’ve had to fight if they had been high enough to resist the intimidate. So either way, it was going to be a combat skill check. We definitely want to be careful about matching those skills up with quests. They could be life and death in some situations.” Theo was still grinning. “I want to go check out the board and see if there's harder ones.”

“Harder ones?” Nia interjected. “Didn't you just say it was life and death?

“This was a good haul.” Rick said, smiling. He stuck out his hand to Theo. “Good work. An excellent proof of concept. We really have to focus now, though, on getting our people fully geared up. Let’s call everyone together. We need to get questing for the time machine parts but I want to talk to everyone first.”“I am going to go hit the mission board and be right back. Theo can you round up the others here and I will be right back.”

Gambit followed Rick to the mission board in the wagon with War-Room. In one corner of the board there as a written list of who in the group was allowed to access the mission board. Sam and Rick were already listed so Rick added Gambit’s name.

“Should we add the others?” Gambit asked. “We might not want to many people starting things and wasting time if we have other priorities.”

Rick considered a moment and then agreed. “Also some of these might be dangerous. Please ask me before start any that look risky, and don’t start any without a good skill match.

By the time they got back to the dining wagon the combat party members had assembled, and all of the caravan NCPs arrived as well. Elliot brought out more plates of food, and Martel was up helping with pots of Martian tea. With six NCPs, Slate, and five players, they didn't even fill up all 16 seats of the dining car, but it still felt packed. Sam stood by the door to the outside, leaning against the wall with her arms folded.

Rick was worried she was holding herself aloof from the group, but when he stood and said, "All right, let's get started," she motioned for him to come stand where she was at the head of the room, then she took a seat at the table nearby.

“Thanks for coming. There've been a lot of changes, and I thought it was high time we got together like this.” Rick scanned the assembled faces. Daniel looked bleary, having stayed up all night in the crafting car again. The NCPs’ expressions ranging from tired and confused to interested and eager. Everyone looked to be in good spirits, though Nia looked stressed and kept glancing at Theo. When Sam sat, Theo moved over to her table and started chatting amicably while Nia slid closer, frowning.

“There's a lot we need to do,” Rick started. “and I thought it best that we discuss our priorities before we get started.”

“So you called a staff meeting?” Theo was grinning. “To discuss our mission statement? I thought you were a gamer, not a manager.”

Dr. Schneider stood but stayed in the back of the room. “I think it's a grand idea, but might I suggest we start by picking a name for our little band?”

“Oh, good idea,” Theo said. “Build unit cohesion. After that we need a patch and a motto.”

Others were nodding, but Rick held up a hand. “First, I would like to explain a little of what we're doing and why.” He shrugged, “and maybe that'll help us pick a name anyway.”

Gambit laughed and raised his cup of tea in a mock-toast. “See the famous gamer, leveling up his middle-manager skill tree!”

Sam turned and glared at him, and he shut up.

“As you all know, we've been absorbed into this world, and we're making the most of it. With Slate's help,” he gestured at the Martian. “We've found some pretty significant ways to improve the quality of our life in this place.” This got a cheer all around. Someone even held up a plate of food, and Elliot doffed his chef hat and took a little bow. Where had he gotten a chef hat?

That elicited a round of applause, and it was a minute before everything quieted down for Rick to continue. “We've learned a lot, but we still have a lot to learn. We know we're stuck here for now.” A few smiles faltered or fell, but mostly they took it in stride. “But we also know it's possible to get back to earth.”

Some, like Gambit, already knew this and didn’t react. Most of the NCPs looked surprised and interested. Sam perked up but didn’t look shocked. He wasn’t sure how much she had learned from Pratt or from her two months in the Martian dungeons.

“Based on our information, you need a mobile base to relocate from one world to another.” He paused. “Perhaps I should explain first that the Earth we would be going back to will be like this, transformed by the system. We don't know how much of Earth's population are taken into it or what it'll be like. But it'll be closer to home than here.”

That got a few tentative smiles. Rick felt uncomfortable with the crowd staring at him. This wasn't the sort of thing he was used to doing. At least not in front of a crowd, in person instead of just over a gaming headset. His hands were sweaty, and he resisted rubbing them on his pants.

"Slate has explained to us that we need to earn a transport token from an advanced tier dungeon," he said. "That won’t be easy. We're going to need a lot more levels and a lot more gear. We also need to upgrade what we have here." He circled his finger to indicate the wagon and the whole camp. "There's at least three tiers of encampment advancement--"

Slate produced a rumbling sound that was his way of interrupting, the way a human might with a polite cough. "Actually, there's at least four tiers that I know of, but we only need to get to tier three to get off this planet."

Rick nodded. Slate had implied as much in his earlier explanation.

“The first tier was the encampment we had back in Stone Spire. Most of you didn't see that because we upgraded it to a caravan before you joined.”

He gestured towards the largest group of NCPs in the room, and they nodded in response.

"Which we appreciate," Dr. Snyder called out.

"Thank you," Rick said, and continued. "This party isn't just a group of adventurers killing things like in a video game. Through the encampment system, we're becoming more. When we hit level three, the encampment can be transformed into a mobile flying base. That's what we need to get off this planet, and that's what we're pushing for in this next dungeon. It's what we need before a transport token is of any use to us. There'll be a lot of other perks as well. More NCP job slots and even better crafting facilities. Eventually, this party will transform into a guild. Everything we've learned about this new world we're in tells me this," he swept an arm around, indicating the party, the group, the encampment, everything. "Is our new home and our best shot at a future. If anyone wants to leave, you're welcome to," Rick said. "But I beg you first give us a shot at making something out of what we're building here, out of this party, out of this soon-to-be guild. I don't know what all we can get out of this system, but we aren’t going just to curl up and take what it gives."

He tried to make eye contact with as many as he could, sweeping around the room in a slow half circle from where he stood by the door. They were nodding, slowly, looking pensive. Nia looked as though she wanted to say something, but held her tongue. Even Sam was nodding.

"We were all once people that pushed the bounds of what humanity could do," he said. "I'm saying let's do that again. Let's push as far as we can go and then find a way to push even farther. If Slate's right, and everything I've seen so far says he is, then we're going to turn this little caravan of wagons into a spaceship."

Gambit, who had already heard all this, just smiled. Others were taken by surprise, like Dr. Martel whose mouth dropped open in shock.

Rick smiled and nodded to the room. "That's right," he said. "Not all of you have heard about this, but there's a way to do it, and that's what we're going for. But first, there's things we need. We need gear. We need skills. And who knows what else. We need to get the most out of this new mission system and get our team ready."

"And for that, we need everyone's support," Sam called.

Rick nodded. "Exactly. Gambit has put together a list of skills we think we need to assign everyone to the most effective role. The mission board told us your mission skills, but we need to know about crafting skills and anything else you have that's useful. That's what we need from all the NCPs."

"From the players, we're going to make a prioritized list of what gear upgrades you need most," Rick continued. "Then we can set crafters working while we go and finish the attunement chain. I think everyone has empty armor slots or very weak ones that need to be replaced.”

“I need a weapon, Nia called out.

Rick looked at her in surprise. "A weapon?”

“Yeah, this blowgun thing's stupid. I need something better."

Rick shrugged, but was inwardly glad she seemed to be bought in to their scheme. "And a weapon. If we can make or find you one. Okay."

Rick turned to where Sam was watching him with an unreadable expression. “Sam, am I correct to say you don't have any slots we could realistically upgrade?"

She shook her head. "Not from any dungeon that this party could run yet.”

Rick nodded. “Then it is time to go back to the mission board and launch some good ones.. The quicker we get that done the quicker we get back to questing and build that time machine.”