Tom entered the library. The destroyed sections had been swept into a corner, while bean bags and chairs had been placed in a large circle in the center of the room. The first thing he noticed, however, was Duncan.

Duncan sat holding Eve firmly as he kissed the top of her head. Eve, who looked like she had been crying, was clinging to him so tightly that Tom was surprised Duncan wasn't taking damage. Tom raised an eyebrow quietly at his friend.

"Do you two know each other?" Tom asked.

Duncan winced. "Tom, this is Eve, my girlfriend. We got separated when the goblins attacked. I'm just glad you're alive."

"ME?! You're the one who ran off to fight those things!!" Eve shot back, punching him.

"Ow," Duncan said. "I said I'm sorry!!"

"Jerk," Eve said as she punched him again. "The next time you do something that stupid, I'm putting laxatives in your tea for a week!!!"

Tom decided not to intervene as Eve started in on Duncan.

Tom sat down on one of the bean bags next to Travis as he looked around the circle of people around him. He had some of Alex's administrators, mostly Hanze, along with Eve, who was apparently the closest thing they had to a doctor, Duncan as the lead craftsman. Penny by popular vote. Luke, Sam, and Gareth were in here for some reason. A couple of random people, a few members of the Larpers, Alex, Skippy, and Abbadon. He reflected that Major Adams and his group were the only people missing from this meeting.

Alex spoke to him silently. "I managed to reach the Newton Precinct and warned them about the bloodstone, Seraphel, and the Trolls. But I couldn't reach the Major."

"Well, shit. Guess we're starting without them." Tom sighed.

Tom got everyone's attention by banging his coffee mug on the table like a gavel.

“All right, let’s bring this council meeting to order. This is our first, admittedly informal meeting of the Council of Hopkins.”

People just looked at him blankly.

"Let's start with the Intros. We're going to go around this circle, and everyone is going to identify themselves, what they do, and why they are here. Then, we have several issues to discuss. I'll start. I'm Thomas Bruner, the Guild Leader of Awoken Myths, a healer and a Beta-tester."

Tom looked to his left.

"I'm Alex, I'm a beta-tester, I'm a [wizard] and one of the original founders of Awoken Myths, and I'm currently doing the Admin for Hopkins. It sucks," Alex said, not even getting up.

That earned a nod from the beta testers, who saw her mentioning her class as a good move.

"Hello, my name is Eve. I'm in charge of the … medical team. I've completed pre-med at Kwantlen, and according to Duncan, I also have the perfect affinities for a life mage and am already a [Biomancer]." She said this as she settled back down next to Duncan.

"My name is Samatha North, but my friends just call me Sam. My friend here is Luke, and we're apparently in charge of the scavenging crew. I also have the [Treasure Hunter] class," Sam said.

That surprised Tom a little; it was not that Sam would be useful but that she had volunteered to be in charge.

"Will Thawyne, I'm currently the head cook for the kitchens. Yes, I've heard the joke a hundred times. I'm also in charge of our food supplies," Will said.

Tom recognized the guy as one of the people he had resurrected the previous day.

"Joey Mack, I've been asked to oversee the kids who want to hunt. My qualifications are all informal. I've been a backwoodsman all my life. Before this, I actually owned a restaurant where I hunted and cooked wild game for my customers."

The next person was Alex's assistant, Hanze, a lawyer both in class and persystem.

Abbadon, Traivs, Skippy, and Duncan all introduced themselves as founders of Awoken Myths. Travis and Duncan both represented the interests of the Larpers on the council. Tom would have thought there would have been a conflict of interest, but apparently, the larpers were comfortable with them in charge. However, they admitted that most, if not all, of the Larpers would be joining the guild based on Duncan's suggestion and Tom's promise of resurrection of their fallen.

Luke, Sam, Gareth, and Penny had no real reason to be here, but they were respected enough for their actions that no one tried to kick them out. After that, things got more interesting.

Tom turned his head towards Alex. "Nobody for the Foundry or the Cauldron?" he asked, confused.

Alex shook her head. "We have like one person in the foundry who might be able to run it. Unfortunately, he's one of only three people who have used that room so far, so I thought it would be better to hold off until we had a larger selection of candidates. As for alchemists, no one actually knows how to make potions yet."

Tom shrugged. He was annoyed they didn't have someone to represent the crafters, but he couldn't really argue with her point. He would need to spend some time setting those up, especially if he was going to add more special rooms.

Tom sat back in his chair and picked up his tablet to resume his talk. “Alright, we’ve got a list of items to discuss that’s going to take several days to go through. I don't even know how long we'll be able to use electronics, so try to make the batteries last."

Once he got confirmation, he moved on to the meeting properly.

"Alright, I think we need to discuss two main topics for today's meeting. That's what we need for our immediate future: the goblins and spending the settlement points. Also, if you have any questions, concerns, or issues that all of you will want to bring up later, is that alright?" Tom asked as he looked around the table.

"Before that," Sam cut into the conversation. I would like to know what exactly we can expect for the future. With all of the craziness, we haven't really dealt with what having a system actually means."

"I agree. Most of our population is on the younger side. Right now, the shock, and let's face it, the novelty of the situation, is keeping everyone distracted. But I'm expecting a lot of anxiety, anger, fear, and depression over the next little while," Eve said.

"Oh my god," Tom groaned as he tried to re-explain this situation again.

"I'm not looking for the Legend of Noralon speech," Sam cut him off. "At this point, we've all heard that speech, no offense. What I want to know is what having the system, dungeons, Monster, and everything else actually means. Could we go back to the way things were? What is the long-term purpose of this council? What are the chances that the government will step in and solve these problems?" Sam asked.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Oh yeah, I guess I see your point. Here's the thing ---" Tom was cut off as Skippy spoke up.

"We have no idea what's going to happen!" Skippy spat out.

Everyone just stared at him.

"What?! The Legend of Noralon was a fucking fantasy game, and we didn't have any of the shit we do now. I mean guns, nukes, the internet, we have no idea how this is all going to interact with Magic. Between that and the fucking level of dungeon monsters has been steadily increasing. We have a fucking goblin horde in Newton. There are two beta-testers treating this like it's still a game and killing fucking anything that moves, and there is a god damned frost Wyvern in the area that could wipe us all out on its lonesome. So when you say everything is going to be fine, I don't know what shit you're smoking, but I want some." Skippy shot back

Travis did a spit-take.

"Wyvern in the area?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're pretty fucked." Alex admitted.

"Even if none of that wasn't a problem, we also have all of humanity gaining levels and becoming more dangerous." Skippy pointed out.

"Yeah, ok, when you put it like that, it sounds bad, and as levels increase, it's only going to get worse, but we can keep ahead of the problem. You don't need to fight monsters to get stronger; you can get experience for using the class as intended. When we took Hopkins, it was for the express purpose of building a home for ourselves in the new world, and that is what we are doing," Tom said, trying to steer the conversation away from the wyvern.

At their level, They couldn't do anything about that monster. Even making preparations would be a waste of time until they at least hit level 30.

"So … it's an actual apocalypse?" Penny asked.

"Not quite," Duncan began as he took notes of the conversation. The mana levels are anemic at this point, but as it builds up, the problems will start to multiply. The real danger will be proportional to how close we are to a ley line. Unfortunately, we don't know where the ley lines are. Some parts of the world will be better off than us. Some will be worse. We could be lucky and be one of the safest on earth, or we could be on top of a leyline and need to leave the area."

"Wait a second, why would we need to leave?" Joey cut in.

"Have you ever seen those Godzilla movies?" Alex asked. "I want you to imagine being inside a town as Godzilla fights with King Gediora. Buildings are getting knocked over while the entire place is on fire. Now imagine that plus a zombie apocalypse every day forever in a never-ending competition for food and mana. That is what living on top of the ley line is like. You either leave, or you die."

"We aren't on a ley line," Duncan said. "Probably. Going back to the question at hand, yes. It's not as bad as Skippy suggested, ok, so can we all just calm down for two seconds."

No one looked convinced, but they let Duncan talk.

"Look, we already know everything we could do with magic and everything we could do with technology. Is the world going to be the same? No. But it never is. We are all going to be fine. The main problem is that we do, in fact, need to rebuild everything. Without skill levels or enchantments, anything built pre-system can be ripped apart by the first asshole who feels like it." Duncan pointed out.

"You know what, remind me never to let any of you guys do any public speaking. You guys suck at it," Tom cut in. "Look, Hopkins is a full-on frontier settlement run and owned by the Awoken Myths guild. We took it so it could be a safe home base for us to operate out of. That plan hasn't really changed. Now, though, it's looking like we're the seed of a new city instead of something smaller, and that's fine. We can manage that."

Joey smothered. "This has to be a joke. A bunch of teenagers are going to found a city? Yeah, right."

"Better than the old fogies who think you can get through college on minimum wage," Eve shot back.

Tom ignored them both.

"Our safe word needs to be quality. We can scavenge from the Vancouver area in the short term, but we’re going to have to think about building our own industry, our own agriculture, and so on. If you don't want to be a part of it, then you can go join one of the other settlements. While I would like to say they are as safe as Hopkins, they aren't. The simple fact is the strongest people you're likely to find are right here. But more than that, there are ways to bypass the safe zones, and they do nothing against other people. And I need to make this clear: the goblins are considered other people by the system. So if you choose to leave, remember to be careful."

That sparked a round of careful conversation as people considered their options. In the end, no one left, though he wasn't sure if it was because of his speech or if they actually wanted to be here.

"Moving on, we'll need to discuss setting up the essentials. Food, water, shelter, waste disposal, hygiene, entertainment, and electricity, just to mention a few." Alex began

"Hold on, we can't go around acting like this is a free-for-all. I mean, we have elected officials and the military. Why not just wait it out?" Joey asked.

"Try saying that to the goblins," Penny scoffed.

"Well, that, in all likelihood, those people are all dealing with the same problems we're having. Until they get their feet under them, they aren't going to help anyone, so we need to help ourselves now," Travis said.

"No one came to help us with the goblins. We had to deal with it even if we dealt with it poorly." Duncan admitted.

“We also have some immediate concerns.” Will made sure he had the floor, then continued. He motioned to Sam and Luke. “You two will need to bring any bottled water you find, but that’s just a stopgap. We need a well, or maybe just proper filtering and disinfection. I have a list for you.”

“And look for containers of bleach. Anything with sodium hypochlorite listed as the main ingredient, as long as it doesn’t have perfumes or colorants. One jug can disinfect hundreds of gallons of water. You’ll need to make this a priority.” Duncan said.

“Medical supplies will be a major priority,” Eve said. "If what Tom said is right, we'll need to make our own way going forward. If we can get a stockpile of drugs now, we'll be better off when people start getting sick. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how many we're going to recreate ---"

"What about the people?" Luke cut in. "Is it not our duty to save as many people as possible?".

Sam's brows furrowed. "I think we're going to have to focus on scoping out vehicles and fuel supplies first so we aren't stuck with a bottleneck."

"Alright, just stop." Tom cut in. "Let’s not start arguing about priorities. Luke, Sam, any formal plan is just going to get argued to death. Your time is better spent going out there and actually getting supplies and equipment. You’ve heard the discussion here, and everyone will hand over their wishlist later. Right now, focus on gathering as much as you can and using your best judgment.”

“Honestly, I think we're going to need more people,” Sam replied. “We only have my group and a few eager volunteers. We also need somewhere to stash the horses we've acquired. They were extremely useful not just for running around but also because they could go off-road with ease. On top of that, between the goblins and the mobs from the dungeon, we're going to need at least as many people guarding the scavengers as we have people scavenging."

"The Larpers could help, '' Travis offered. "I can't speak for everyone, but I, for one, would enjoy some more standardized adventures. Seriously all this goblin and apocalypse shit is just depressing. I just want to wander around adventuring, getting into trouble and shit."

Tom nodded.

"Um, how about system stuff," Sam asked.

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"I mean, I know the beta-testers are just cruising through all this system stuff. But for the rest of us,… I'm constantly second-guessing this stuff. I have no idea how any of this works, and whatever wiki exists is gone. You guys are our only source of information on this stuff, and most of the time, you only tell us about it when we ask. We have pieces of advice, but we don't really understand it. Like you've told us, Strength is better than Agility. But how many people actually know why? If we have to live with this stuff, then we need to understand it." Sam said vehemently

Tom frowned.

"That's a good point. I've been adding as much stuff as I can to YouTube, but maybe I need to do some Q&A, " Tom admitted.

"I can do some of that," Duncan said. I'm a craftsman, and I'm not heading out to fight monsters, so I should have more free time than you, Tom. I can set up a nightly thing. Maybe we can have a lecture at lunch."

"Just make sure to record it all and put it on the Awoken Myths YouTube channel," Tom added.

"That would help a lot," Sam said, nodding.

"Well, that's another item on the to-do list. Now, before anything else, I want to cross out one of our big ticket items for this session so we can, you know, actually say something. So unless anyone else has any other topics, I really want to move onto this." Tom looked around, and since no one talked about anything

"Great, now, we have just spent the day clearing out settlements and grabbing settlement templates. We can use those and the points we've gathered to acquire specialized rooms or buildings. So it's time to spend those settlement points, shall we?" Tom asked.

You may skip to the next chapter.