The morning was a frenzy of activity. The majority of Olympus’ infrastructure was finished overnight, and the residents actively participated in setting up their workshops and moving their families into their houses. The cooks were up and running early, churning out delicious food to fuel the day’s activities. They all expected that today would be an eventful day.

Patrols were active on the walls and Seth’s drones were returning mountains of data regarding the surroundings. Monsters of all types were slowly making their way to Olympus.

“Judging by this information, it looks like there is a structure to the groups approaching us.” Seth said, zooming in on a particularly busy section of the jungle.

“The creatures seem to stay in similar groupings, avoiding each other. Here’s something I thought was interesting though. Look at these raptors here.”

He moved the view over to a group of raptors. There were approximately 12 in the group, like last time, except these were larger.

“This is the same direction the raptors attacked from last night, and these ones appear to be larger and stronger. I had an idea and sent scouts out to follow that path.”

Once again, the view expanded, uncovering more groups of raptors that were farther away. The next group consisted of fewer creatures, but each one was significantly larger in size. The last member of the group on this path was a single, oversized dinosaur, no longer resembling a raptor.

“It’s just a theory, but it does appear that these raptors are organized in waves that increase in strength with each wave, finally ending with ‘the boss’. Knowing what we know about the system, and what Andy detailed last night, I’m guessing this is by design.” Seth explained.

“You are likely correct on that.” Andy confirmed.

Amy looked over the map again, panning across to the other groups they’d scouted. “Could you do the same for these groups? Can we see if they follow the same pattern?” she asked.

“Already on it. I sent them out about an hour ago, so they should be returning soon.” Seth replied.

Lost in contemplation, Calvin absentmindedly ran his fingers through his beard, feeling the coarse texture of the hair. This news was a mix of excitement and unease. They’d have the chance to let the new citizens cut their teeth on some easier fights, but the danger would get progressively worse. This was just the tip of the iceberg, Calvin knew. If they manage to defeat those ginormous monsters, there’s probably something even worse waiting on the other side.

Ian, also deep in thought, finally spoke up. “Ok, this seems manageable. But I do have a concern. We can let these monsters charge us, and defeat them here at the walls. That’s easy enough. But if we need to leave camp, to face challenges out there, how do we guard Olympus? We couldn’t just leave them here to fend for themselves, and we can’t just send them out there to take on the challenges out there. Splitting our group up to handle both seems like a recipe for getting screwed.”

“You’re right.” Calvin said, “Let’s start slow. We know that more waves are headed our way. We’ll use that to beef everyone up. Liam and Sasha are getting pretty strong, let’s nurture that and they can help us get a solid core of defenders ready. After the next two waves of raptors hit, let’s plan on heading out to confront the big one away from town. Seth, any progress on our defenses?”

“I’ll have more sentry drones ready shortly. I have some barrier drones in the hopper, we can leave those with the defenders at the gates to give them some extra protection. Stop by my shop in a bit, I’ve got something to show you.” Seth said.

Calvin nodded and took one last look at the map. “Alright, let’s get ready. I’ll make a sweep around town and check up on people. Marshall, we’ll need you on deck for any injuries, keep your mana topped up.”

With that, the group went about their business. Seth and Ian headed over to Seth’s shop, Marshall, naturally went to inspect the food stalls and Calvin, Amy, and Freya made their rounds around Olympus.

Morale was unexpectedly high. Although their situation was not ideal, the citizens of Olympus were fully committed to their cause. Calvin observed that many fighters had independently gathered with Sasha and Liam in the training yards. They were working on their tactics and coordination. This was great news, Calvin was glad to see them taking initiative on their progress. They made their way over to catch up with Liam and Sasha.

As soon as Liam spotted Calvin coming, he halted the training. Calvin approached them, and in response, Liam and Sasha saluted him with the same gesture as the night before. As Liam made the gesture, the soldiers behind him followed suit, their right hands crossing over their chests and fists resting on their shoulders.

“Liam nice to see you. Is that some sort of salute? If so, it’s certainly not necessary.” Calvin said.

“You as well. It is, and while it may not be necessary, it’s earned.” Liam leaned in closer and spoke just above a whisper, “You’ve earned our respect, deeply. It’s good for them to show it. I know you don’t feel it’s necessary, but it’s happening all the same. We want to put together a disciplined fighting force. Like you said, this doesn’t end with the tutorial and we’re going to go back to Earth to an even more hellish environment. We don’t have long to train everyone up and discipline will be critical.”

Calvin hated the idea of these people saluting him. He wasn’t a damn general. He was just a guy. Yes, his group had saved their asses, but that was just the right thing to do. He reflected on Liam’s words though, and reluctantly accepted that he was probably right. A rag-tag group of uncoordinated and undisciplined fighters would only get them so far. They all had a part to play, and Calvin begrudgingly agreed to play the part as well. He stepped forward toward the training ground and offered a salute in return.

He turned to Liam and Sasha. “You organized this on your own?”

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“Nah, they did. A few of them came out here to start practicing earlier, and we just encouraged others to come along and join. We did help get them organized though, and are running them through a few drills.” Liam said.

Calvin looked over at Amy who was giving Liam and Sasha a proud look of respect.

“What do you think of all this? Of me, Olympus, your situation?” Calvin asked.

Sasha spoke up now. “Sir, you and your friends gave us a chance we didn’t deserve. You saved my sister and our people while any other person would have been concerned only with themselves. You lost your damn hand for two people who tried to kill you and several more you’d never met. You don’t even have to ask for our loyalty. You have it. You’ve earned it, and every one of these people recognizes that where they are right now, with you and with Olympus, is their best chance at not only survival but a future.”

Calvin felt that Sasha was giving them a little more praise than they deserved, but he understood her perspective.

Thinking for a moment, Calvin looked at them both and asked, “Would you be open to taking leadership roles with our combatants?”

“Like a general? I’m not sure we’re qualified for something like that.” Liam said.

“Are any of us? If you’re open to it, you would take on the role of squad captains. Work on drilling, training, organizing them and maintaining discipline. We’ll be there to offer assistance as well.”

Calvin looked over the group of soldiers, “We’re going to need someone they trust to help organize town defenses, watch schedules, equipment distribution, and all of that. It would be a paid position, for whatever that’s worth. It might be a little while before we understand exactly how to make that arrangement work, but everything we have will be at your disposal for now.”

Amy was nodding in agreement with Calvin’s plan.

Sasha and Liam looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Calvin.

“We’ll do it. We’ll settle the pay thing later, right now, getting everyone ready is all we care about.” Liam gave another salute and turned to begin his new role.

“One more thing.” Calvin said.

He summoned Andy, “Can you remove the binding agreement we had with them?”

“It is done.”

A moment later, the runic bands on their wrists dissolved back into nanites and flowed into the base rune.

Liam nodded in respect toward Calvin, “We won’t forget this. I truly thank you for putting your trust in us.”

Calvin threw a salute to Liam, putting on a show for the soldiers, and took his leave with Amy and Freya. Well, not before Freya got a few well-earned scritches from Sasha before she departed.

Next stop, Seth’s wacky laboratory. Calvin and Amy were very interested in seeing what their resident mad scientist was cooking up for them.

“Cal! Perfect timing. Try this on.” Seth said without any introduction.

He handed Calvin a metal gauntlet etched in complex runic script. It was a highly polished metal with sharp angular sections jutting out from the knuckles. It looked imposing for sure. The defining feature of this gauntlet was a dark purple stone embedded in the wrist.

Calvin inspected it for a moment, quickly understanding it was meant to go on his stump. He slid it onto his arm expecting something to happen, but… it just slid onto his arm, then slid off again. He looked at Seth in confusion.

“Don’t worry, I just wanted to make sure it fit. I’m working on something. I’ve modified some of the runic pathways I use to help transfer nanite energy like with those mines. That stone there is actually a primal essence that we found early on. I wasn’t really sure what to do with them until I got my Apprentice Gadgeteer skill.”

Seth fiddled with some components on his workbench. “Essences are actually pretty handy. They are essentially sources of pure attunement, typically of the same attunement of the creature that contained them. In this case, Primal essence is a neutral attunement. It doesn’t have any elemental properties and simply enhances the physical nature of things. Skills that boost strength or speed, for example, use primal attunement to achieve that.”

Calvin pretended to understand everything Seth had said, and just nodded along with him. Seth was on a roll now and clearly needed to explain his process.

“You’re not sacrificing time with other projects for this are you?” Calvin asked with concern.

“No, not really. In fact, this is helping me understand some things about attunement. In a sense, you’re the guinea pig.” Seth smiled up at him and gave Amy a little wink.

Seth finished etching a rune on the end of a tube-shaped cloth, one that looked much like an old sock. Calvin sure hoped it wasn’t an old sock.

“Alright, I’m going to slide this into your stump. It’s possible this is going to be uncomfortable.”

Calvin’s face twisted in concern at that statement as he presented his arm to Seth with not a small amount of apprehension.

Seth slid the cloth onto Calvin’s arm, etched a few more runes along the cuff and held his hands over the runes, infusing them with a silver energy.

‘Uncomfortable’ was a God damned lie. Calvin dropped to his knees as a searing pain erupted through his arm, completely whiting out his vision. He just barely had the presence of mind to not scream out and alert everyone in town.

“Almost there.” Seth said.

Tears welled up in Calvin’s eyes as he bit down hard to stay silent. The agony was worse than having his hand smashed off. What the hell was Seth doing to him?

“Done.”

Calvin’s other senses returned as the pain quickly receded to background noise. He looked down at his arm and saw the cloth had essentially fused to his skin. His eyes went wide with concern.

“Don’t worry, we can reverse the process. I used Fabricate to bind the nanoweave to you. It’s an incredible material.”

Seth slid the gauntlet back onto Calvin’s wrist and channeled energy into it as well. The runes lit up in a brilliant blue glow as the essence stone thrummed to life, pulsing energy into the runic pathways.

Calvin looked down in wonder at what Seth had created.

“Ok, so, the gauntlet is bound to the nanoweave, which is bound to your arm. It’s not going anywhere. The rune on the end of the nanoweave is a nanite transfer rune and that passes energy into the essence stone. I used the drone box to fit this thing with all sorts of machinery, giving it a range of motion. That’s where my knowledge on this ends. As far as I’ve come to figure out with Andy’s help, you should be able to control it by infusing energy into it. How that process works, I don’t know, and it’s likely different for everyone. Play around with it and let me know how you come along. If it gets in the way, or you can’t get it to work, I’ll remove it.”

Bewilderment filled Calvin. On one hand, Seth had just practically assaulted him and welded this thing to his body without so much as a tiny bit of consent. On the other hand… well… it was a new hand.

“Uh, thanks Seth. Next time, maybe warn someone before you fuse things into their body though.”

Seth just waved it off like it was no big deal.

Calvin experimented for a few moments trying to get the damn thing to work, but he wasn’t sure how just yet. It was going to take some practice. At the very least, he could still use his spear with his other hand and now he had a shiny metal fist to bludgeon things with if necessary.

He turned back to Seth to cover the other areas of his work. The base defenses were coming along nicely. Seth had been pumping out Sentry drones essentially on an assembly line and would have them ready on the walls soon. They wouldn’t use the drones in every fight though, they wanted to let the soldiers hone their skills while the monster waves were still relatively weak.

“Thanks for your hard work Seth. You’re crushing it. Oh, and thanks for the new hand. I’ll let you know if I figure out how to work this thing.”

Amy and Calvin headed out for a walk around the town. Things were really coming together in short order and they could feel the sense of community that was establishing itself here already. Honestly, the tutorial could suck it. They were going to kick its ass, get back to Earth and take back their planet.