Nathan didn’t play RTS games, but there was one that he’d sunk a decent number of hours into. It didn’t have any combat and focused more on farming. He’d finished the game, 100%.
In the background, Chad was devouring another bell pepper while Mara cheered him on.
“This is the Strategy View,” Gius said, looking at the window along with Nathan. “Using Town Points, you can build structures and make repairs—“
Nathan clicked on a farm at the edge of town. A list of options appeared. Nathan clicked the obvious option: repair.
Two Mushroom People in ragged cloaks ran off toward the structure. Nathan saw them in the Strategy View and in front of him. Tools and a construction hat appeared in their hands with a sparkle.
“The system gives us citizens several benefits, as you can see,” Gius said. “The problem is that without a Ruler, it all falls apart. We’re unable to harvest resources or use our tools. It’s a nightmare.”
“It’s a shame you couldn’t find a Ruler when the last one died,” Nathan said.
Gius paused.
“Yes,” he said. “But that’s neither here nor there. Food production was a good start. If I might make some recommendations, you should create a few workshops to allow for more builders, then continue repairing the farms.”
Nathan clicked through the menu. “Should we be concerned about running out of Town Points?”
“They regenerate over time,” Gius said. “The regeneration rate is based on many factors, and I won’t delve into it. Suffice it to say that the more the town is developed, the more town points you’ll receive.” Gius looked closer at the Strategy View. “You’re at a distinct advantage, though. The last Ruler only had 2500. Before that, our warrior received a scant 1000.”
“The tutorial mentioned something about me getting a bonus because of my tutorial’s difficulty.” Nathan’s eye caught on the text below the Town points. “What’s this authority thing?”
“Unimportant,” Gius said. “Or at least, that’s what my experience has shown. We’ve done some analysis, but nothing seems to make any kind of sense. It doesn’t do anything, it changes randomly—everyone agreed that it’s best to ignore it, Ruler.”
Nathan scratched his cheek.
What a bizarre resource.
He clicked through a few more of the menus, repairing farms, fixing workshops, and rebuilding houses. Mushroom people in construction clothes rushed from place to place to keep up with Nathan’s orders.
Nathan looked at the list of buildings. Walls. Barracks. Laboratory… the names stretched on and on.
“I still have about five thousand points left,” Nathan said. “What should I put them into?”
“You seem to have solved the food problem. We’ll make do with collecting resources.” Gius stroked his beard. “I’d say that the best thing to do would be to invest in a shop.”
“A shop?”
“Yes, Ruler. A shop will give you access to purchasable items and allow you to sell your excess materials, all directly through the System. Normally, you don’t get it till the second circle, but thanks to your exceptionally high number of Town Points, you’ll be able to support it.”
Nathan scrolled through the list of building options and selected the Shop. “Got it. I’ll go ahead and place it at the edge of town—“
“Not there!”
Nathan’s finger stopped right before clicking the confirm button. He looked at Gius. “Why not?”
“Because that’s a part of a residential zone! The city council will throw a fit if you put it there!”
I’m sorry, what?
“Okay, um.” Nathan dragged the building to a separate area. “What about here?”
Gius sucked in a breath through his teeth. “I’m afraid that won’t work. The shop exceeds the vertical building size we assigned for that zone.”
Nathan’s left eye twitched.
“Okay, what about this spot?” Nathan put it smack in the center of town.
Gius opened his mouth to speak, then shut it. He muttered to himself, then nodded.
“There’s one or two HOA regulations, but I should be able to bat them away,” he said.
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“Okay then.”
Nathan clicked the build button. Two mushroom people ran out of one of the workshops in progress to the area he’d assigned. They smashed down the old building plank by plank. Off to the side, Nathan saw a few other mushroom people without hardhats grabbing logs and bringing them over to the work site.
“Very well,” Gius said. “You still have town points, but I would recommend saving those for later.”
Nathan nodded. He looked at the outside of the town. The soil was a muddy black. Dead trees and dead bushes marked the landscape.
He walked out of the town. Gius trailed behind him without a word. After a few minutes of walking, Nathan stopped.
He reached into his inventory and pulled out the Mystery Seed.
Gius froze. “What is that?”
“It’s a weird seed I got in the tutorial. I want to see what it does,” Nathan said.
Gius gulped. “The amount of nature essence I feel coming off it… I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Nathan kneeled, made a hole in the ground, then placed the seed inside. He covered the seed with dirt. The soil shuddered and a green bud poked through.
“Can you assign one of your guys to water this daily?” Nathan said. “And to keep an eye on it?”
Gius nodded. “Of course, Ruler. We will ensure that this precious plant receives all the care it needs.”
There was a nigh-devoted tone to Gius’s speech that was concerning to Nathan, but he didn’t have time to analyze it. There were more important things to deal with.
“I think it’s about time we left and headed back to the first circle,” Nathan said. “Will you be okay?”
“Now that we have a Ruler, all the old functions have been unlocked again.” Gius smiled. “We’ll be fine. Especially with all the farms back up.”
Nathan nodded. “Good. I’ll check in periodically to make sure you’re doing well.”
Nathan walked back to town and collected his two new-found companions. Chad had been entertaining the mushroom people by slicing fruit in midair. Mara had been watching, firing a pistol at the ones Chad missed.
When Nathan arrived back, Chad sheathed his katana.
“You done?” he said.
Nathan nodded. “All finished. Let’s get out of here already.”
Gius chose that moment to break into the conversation. “To exit is the same method as opening. Simply will the portal into existence.”
Nathan nodded and faced toward an empty spot in the town square. A few seconds later, there was a shimmer and a portal appeared.
Nathan walked through.
----------------------------------------
Nathan stumbled into the clearing they’d come from, blinking the sun out of his eyes. He felt a weight shove him from behind and spun to the ground.
Chad fell and his nose slammed right into Nathan’s elbow. He groaned and stood back up.
“Shit, that hurts,” Nathan said.
“That was a pretty nice three-sixty,” Mara said. “You should do it again, but with a gun in your hand!”
The portal snapped shut behind them. Nathan stood to his feet and the three stared at each other for a bit.
“So, uh, what now?” Nathan said.
“Have you checked the Circle Quest requirements?” Chad said.
Nathan scratched the back of his head. “I mean, I didn’t exactly have a lot of time to check it out.”
“Take a look,” Chad said. “That’ll help us decide what to do.
Nathan nodded and opened his Quests window.
Global Quests
[Find and Use the 100 Pandoras!]
Global Quests actually has something in it.
“Remind me again what global quests are?”
“Anyone can complete them,” Chad said. “In theory, we should be working together to do so.”
“In theory?”
Chad’s lips thinned. “We had a global quest for my tutorial. Some dicks got a hold of one of the required items and wouldn’t use it.,” Chad said. “They wanted everyone else to cough up their dough first.”
Nathan frowned. “That’s gross. What happened?”
“Some of the other guys got mad and there was a big fight. One person died. It was a pretty sucky situation, not gonna lie.”
“They shouldn’t have tried to steal one of the requirements if they didn’t have the firepower to back up their threats,” Mara said.
Kind of a weird thing to take away from that story, but okay.
Nathan clicked on the quest.
[Find and Use the 100 Pandoras!]
100 artifacts have been scattered across the first circle. If used, they immediately grant top-tier ascension to the user, upgrading your race from Copper to Bronze! When all 100 Pandoras have been found, the exit will appear.
Note: Ascension is good. Top-tier ascension is really good. Get the Pandoras.
Rewards:
-Power
-Circle 1 Exit
“You can upgrade your race?” Nathan said.
“Yeah, not sure what it means,” Chad said. “My best guess is that it’s like one of those mobile gacha games. There’s a level cap somewhere, and ‘ascension’ lets you break that cap. I would also bet you get general improvements to your stats.”
“The person who got it would have a huge advantage,” Mara said. “I wonder who should have it?”
“It should be the weakest person, right?” Nathan said. “Wouldn’t that make the most sense?”
Mara blinked and looked at Nathan. “I would’ve thought it should be the strongest. But that’s fine too.
Chad’s lips stretched into a thin line. “I guess.”
These people, man. I can’t believe I’m about to ask this…
“I have a proposal,” Nathan said. “What if we work together to get a Pandora? We could stick together, defend each other, it seems like a better idea than going it alone.”
“Defend each other…” Mara honed in on Nathan’s face. “Sure. For now, why not? I might even teach you how to fire a rifle!”
"With one hand!?"
Chad coughed into his hand. “I think we’re missing something important, dudes.”
Mara tilted her head. “I’m not a dude, I’m a girl.”
“What are we missing, Chad?” Nathan said.
“We don’t have any way to find these Pandoras,” Chad said. “We don’t even know what these Pandoras look like.”
Nathan winced.
“Oh, yeah. That’s a problem. We could just… walk around and hope we run into it?” Nathan asked.
“There’s gotta be someone who knows something about how to find these things,” Chad said. “…I just don’t know where we’d find a person like that.”
I know someone like that.
Finny. If Nathan fished a bunch, maybe he’d run into Finny again? He’d bet that Finny would have some advice on what to do.
Mara sighed and walked off.
“Where are you going?” Nathan said.
“Class Quests,” Mara said. “I want to do something fun, not sit around talking.”
She vanished into the foliage.
“Will she come back?” Nathan said.
“Probably,” Chad said. “But she’s right, I don’t think there’s any reason for us to babble away. She’s got the right idea—it’s almost evening, we should work on our class quests.”
Nathan nodded and cracked his neck.
He opened up his class quests.
[Upgrade ‘Throw Harpoon’ to Bronze]
[Obtain ‘Riptide Grasp’ (Bronze)]
[Obtain ‘Ocean’s Embrace’ (Bronze)]
[Obtain ‘Tidal Shield’ (Bronze)]