Tom and Chester sat beside Major Adams as he woke up.
"My head," Adams groaned. "What happened?"
"You died," Tom said.
"What?" Adamas asked, startled. "How?"
"You bleed into your brain. I think. Now, what the hell happened out there." Tom asked, pushing Adams for more information. He needed this information.
Chester looked a little sheepish but didn't argue.
"We were ambushed," Adams admitted. The moment we arrived, they tried to cut off our escape. The trolls let them get too close, and they had artillery. I think it was that blood mage you warned us about," Adams said.
"It may be worse than that," Tom said.
The major looked up at him in concern.
"Just after you guys left, I got to talking with Luke and Duncan. Duncan was at Want University when the system was initiated. According to him, an albino drow was originally the boss of the Want in settlement. We believe this drow had something called a Way Stone, an item that gave his horde his spatial quartets, allowing his tribe to create a portal here and start moving their forces ."
"What the hell do they want?" the Major asked.
"Dominance," Tom stated. "In the game, goblins and humans fought for territory. If one side took the area, they either pushed out or wiped out the other population. According to the flavor text, we're competing for the same ecological niche, so this is very much a 'there can only be one' situation." Tom said
"You can't be serious," Major Adams said. "We have to kill them all?"
Tom shook his head.
"Goblins are hostile to everyone. These ones have already committed mass murders, rape, and human sacrifices. The only humanoids that can join the goblin faction are orcs. And I'll tell you right now that unless these goblins are completely different from the game, it will come down to them or us. I don't think I need to tell you which side we're taking." Tom said.
"I take it you have a plan?" Chester asked hopefully.
"The beginnings of one, regardless. Right now, I need your help, Major. We have first responders, larpers, and civilians, and I need someone to wrangle them all together into something resembling an army," Tom stated.
"You're not going to try yourself?" Adams asked.
"Would the RCMP listen to my instructions? How many civilians would I be able to get to volunteer? I could get the larpers to help, but there's a mob, not an army. And I have things to do, people to resurrect, deals to make, and admin things to do, so I won't have time to help."
"You're also not a soldier." Adams pointed out.
"It doesn't matter," Tom said arrogantly. I'm probably not qualified to be an overlord either, and yet here I am."
"Start grabbing low-level groups of people and have them run through the nearby lairs. I know we hit up most of the close ones, but we have enough vehicles to go to other places. I want this part made clear. Anyone using a gun is going to focus on the goblins. The larpers and volunteers are going to focus on the trolls."
"Alright then." Adams groaned as he got back up.
"Chester, I want you to go around to everyone and ask them about what injured them. I want to know if there are any actors I need to be concerned about," Tom said as he got up to leave.
Chester said. "What about the other dead?"
"We can do them after Lunch," Tom said flippantly. I'm going to need a lot of help to bring back this many people, so we might as well do it after lunch, which is less disruptive."
Tom pulled up his system and knocked out a quick system quest, informing everyone that they were doing a mass resurrection after lunch and that they needed to show up to donate mana.
"You could stand to work on your bedside manner, you know," Chester said.
"Oh yes, sir, let me take some time out of my ever-shrinking schedule to be nice to you as I magically fix what ails you. You're living in a video game now, Chester. The video game rules say to heal them and move on. If you don't like it, then you won't get healed."
Chester winced.
"I've got stuff that needs doing today, then I've got meetings tomorrow. Trust me, you guys have the easier jobs. Head to the media center on the other side of the cafeteria. You can make an announcement there."
Tom jogged away as his mental checklist grew ever larger. He pulled out a notepad and tried to write out his to-do list with mana alone. He was partially successful.
Toms To Do's
* Take Chloe to (not school)
* Set up Scroll Factory
* Do admin stuff with Alex
* Combine Scribe and Pro-gamer Classes into Exorcist
* Train Larpers
* Use bloodline to give everyone upgrades
* Pay off Starkiller to help with Goblins
* Convince Player killers to help with Goblins
He ran to his room, finding Chloe putting on a fresh pair of oversized clothes as Lucy sat beside her.
Tom gulped when he saw the hellhound again. If Lucy hadn't been Chloe's tamed pet before she evolved, he would have had to kill her. Well, he would have gotten Abaddon and Skippy to kill her while he and Alex buffed the shit out of their friends. The only thing even more dangerous than a hellhound was that frost wyvern they had seen on their first day in the system.
On the plus side, he was no longer concerned for his sister's safety; now, he was just concerned for everyone else's safety. Progress.
"Come on, Chloe, it's time to head out," Tom said.
"Where are we going?" Chloe asked
"You're going to the gym so that you can hang out with the other kids there. They've got snacks, games, and pads. And the theater is going to be playing movies all day, so you guys can just sneak down there to watch a movie," Tom said.
"Can Lucy come?" Chloe asked.
"Of course, she can," Tom said. He was pretty sure he couldn't stop Lucy from doing anything. The bloody dog was immune to all magic and could dig through concrete.
Tom led Lucy down to the Gymnasium while Chloe sat on her canine mount. Lucy's abyss-black fur, ruby eyes, and glow-in-the-dark teeth and nails drew some eyes, but most people were placated by the fact that a little girl was riding him like a horse. The only people who weren't placed were the ones who scanned the dog. Those people looked like they were about to have a heart attack as they realized just what his sister was riding.
"Tom, What if I want to hang out with you?" Chloe asked.
"Ah, well, as much as I would love to, I'm going to be spending a lot of the day talking to people. You're going to have a lot more fun with your friends. It's going to be just like school," Tom said.
"I don't like school," Chloe said.
"No one likes school, Chloe. It's school. Besides, this isn't school, and you're still going."
When they arrived at the gymnasium, Tom was slightly stunned. Over a thousand children, from preteens to kids as young as five, were running around the gym, and they very clearly didn't have enough adults.
Tom let out a sign as Chloe and Lucy ran off into the crowd.
"Good evening, Mr.Bruner," Ms.Lewis said as she wandered over to him.
"How bad is it?" Tom asked as he looked at the sea of children.
"It's not great, but it's not impossible. We have about one adult for every forty-five children. It's not ideal, but I'm grateful not to have to deal with those monsters," Ms.Lewis said.
"Thanks. Look, we can set up a proper system later. Right now, just try and get them as many skills as possible. You should have a list of some basic exercises they can do. Alex will need to set up a meeting later to discuss creating a lesson plan, but I trust you for now,” Tom said as he wandered off to find Alex.
He took a little extra time to grab her some coffee from the cafeteria before he moved towards her new office in what was originally the old school counselors' room.
The original school office had been turned into Eve’s Triage Center. It wasn’t ideal, but they needed to reroute the PA system and the TV screens to one of the computer labs that had run the morning announcements.
When Tom arrived, Alex was sitting at her borrowed desk.
"Morning," Tom said.
"Only if you have coffee for me?" Alex asked
Tom offered her a cup, and she snatched it out of his hands like a golem before sipping, savoring the caffeine as it hit her veins.
"That's the stuff." Alex moaned as she slumped into her chair.
"Don't worry about it. We're in this admin war together," Tom said as she nursed her life-giving coffee.
Alex shook her head.
"You saved people's lives. I've just been doing admin—mind-numbing admin. I want to fight raid bosses again," she moped.
"Maybe one day. Did you find the scribes like I asked?"
"Most of them," she said. "Hanze got the [Job-Board] skill, and it's been more useful than I thought it would be. I managed to find twenty-seven people who have or are willing to take the [Scribe] class. I might have been able to get more people, but the job had no listed pay. I have them waiting in one of the rooms in the crafting sections on the third floor."
Tom groaned as he realized the error. They really needed the cores or a bank. It was fine for now, though, as he still had enough for his plan.
"Alright, I'll go talk to the scribes. I need them to get to work," Tom said, rising from his chair to leave.
"I'll come with you, anything to get away from this," Alex gestured to her desk disgustedly.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
"Alright then," Tom said.
They walked up to the crafting section in an awkward silence. Neither one of them spoke. Tom wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to a friend without it being weird. Alex seemed equally awkward as they roamed the halls, each of them shuffling through their notes. The silence was broken as they came to one of the new rooms they had built with the interphase yesterday. Almost thirty people sat at the desks chatting.
"Hello, everyone. I suppose you're wondering why I've hired you here?" Tom said.
That got a few chuckles from people who got the reference.
"Alright, here's the deal. I need a large supply of magic scrolls like the ones I've been handing out to people. Unfortunately, I don't have time to make enough of these scrolls. So, I'm hiring you guys to do it for me. We don't have money at the moment, but we'll pay you back as the cash comes in. On top of that, you are free to learn any spell I give you, and you can make your own scrolls on your own time. If you don't already have them, you will want to grab the [Copy] and the [Magic scroll] skills. Otherwise, this isn't going to work. You'll also need to sign a [contact] that will cover non-disclosure as well as the terms we have already discussed. Any questions?"
"We're going to be making and learning magic?" one person asked.
"Glyphs are a subset of magic. If you want to learn magic spells, you will need to use the scrolls I give you as payment, which is part of our deal. So yes, you will be learning plenty of magic. But I will expect you to work eight hours a day creating magic scrolls for me," Tom reminded them.
They talked for a few more minutes amongst themselves before they turned to look at him again.
“We’ll take the job,” one of the scribes said.
“Excellent, I’ve got your scrolls for you guys to copy. Most of them are fireballs. Along with quite a few shield, buff, and healing spells.” Tom said as he unloaded the literal mountain of papers he had in his inventory onto the desks.
"Alright, do we have anything else to do? Tom asked.
"I need to check in with Will to see our food supplies. Please come with me. It's so boring, and I just need a friend," Alex said, grabbing his arm.
"Alright, I’ll be back in eight hours to grab your work. Don’t betray me,” Tom said to the new scribes, then turned and left with Alex.
They made their way down the kitchens quickly enough, though Tom noticed an abundance of pets roaming the halls. Cats congregated on desks like senators, and dogs snuggled up to any nearby humans.
"Did we always have so many pets around?" Tom asked.
Alex shook her head. "No, that's something new. While it's been good for morale, the amount of cleaning needed to deal with them is starting to become a problem. Fortunately, Duncan's insistence on putting drains in every room has been helpful, but now we need janitors."
Tom shrugged.
"It shouldn't be too hard. A few people with the right classes, like [Maid], [Janitor], and [Groundskeeper], will be able to keep the entire school clean on their own. On top of that, everyone who gets the [Aura of Cleanliness] will help tidy this place up." Tom said as they arrived at the kitchen.
Will was baking bread, a woman in a cowboy hat was handling the grill, and what Tom thought might be a Japanese man was making soup. There were dozens of others preparing and cooking food, but those three were the only ones at level 10.
"Good evening, Will," Tom said as they approached the man.
"Ah, Tom, I was just thinking we needed to see you," Will said.
"We?" Tom asked.
"Mavis, Takashi!!" Will called out.
The other two level 10 cooks looked up and handed off their projects to others before they came over to him and Alex.
"We all just hit level 10 in Cook, and we can't progress any further. So we were wondering about what we should do next." Will stated more than asked.
"We were hoping to keep improving our abilities in the Kitchen," Takashi said with a thick Japanese accent.
"Ah ok, I guess I didn't cover this part. You need to go into your class selection. You should see a bunch of class options with the word Cook upgrade in front of them. Your options should be something like [Butcher], [Baker], etc. Just pick whichever one you like, except [high cook]. If you pick any class with the word High in it, I'll kick you out of Hopkins myself." Tom warned.
Tom watched as Will became a [Baker], Mavis became a [Butcher], and Takashi became a [Potager], basically a soup cook.
"If I might make some suggestions." Tom began. "Mavis has a perfect affinity for fire magic and could pick up [Fire Mage] and [Pyromancer] classes. Takashi has a perfect affinity for water magic and could pick up [Water Mage] and [Aquamancer] classes."
"Really?" Mavis asked in a southern accent. She seemed interested.
"Thanks, but I don't want to fight Monsters," Takashi said.
"That's fine. I'm not suggesting you need to fight monsters, but it's possible to use magic in your cooking, and even if it doesn't, being able to throw around magic will help ensure your safety," Tom explained.
"Well, I'm going to learn some magic regardless. It could be fun." Mavis said.
Tom gave her a thumbs up.
"Will, how are we doing for our food stocks?" Alex asked. Changing the subject.
"Oh yes, come this way," Will said, leading them to what had once been the freezer. The freezer was a staircase leading all the way down to the basement. They found six people unloading the meat, organs, and bones from their inventories and placing them in the freezer. The hides were being set aside before they were taken up to Duncan's workshop.
"Your plan for moving the meat through the shared inventory has been greatly helpful. Our hunters have been gathering plenty of meat. Unfortunately, our fresh produce is quickly running out. We already took everything from the closest supermarkets, and our supply is nearly out. The other settlements are also scavenging the supermarkets, so we’re competing with them. We were trying to scale back our use of pasta, cheese, milk, and bread to stretch it out. But if I'm being honest, I will be out of fresh produce by Monday. We might be able to stretch the rest of our supplies out until the end of December. But only if our rate of consumption remains consistent."
"I don't see that happening," Tom said. We seem to be getting new people every day… actually, we have been getting more people every day."
Alex coughed to get their attention.
"Actually, we've had almost two thousand people leave Hopkins for the other settlements. Most of them were our middle-aged residents. Though we've also had many people immigrate inside of Hopkins, these people are mostly younger and are interested in joining for the promise of magic and adventure. So our current population is around thirty-four hundred. Though that number is steadily rising." Alex said. "We have a lot of unskilled laborers, mostly people who were incapable of gaining employment due to lack of job opportunities, and even more people who are creating pure combat builds."
Will looked at her in stunned silence.
Tom snickered, "You are rather good at it for someone who claims to hate their job, aren't you?"
"It would be more fun if I could just delegate the boring stuff and focus on the interesting bits. Maybe I should get a sexy secretary to do it for me," Alex admitted.
"Yeah, um … what were we talking about again?" Tom asked Will.
Will said, "We're going to run out of fresh produce by the end of the week."
"Right … I've got nothing," Tom admitted.
"Seriously?" Will asked.
"Look, I'm sorry, but there are only four ways to get fresh produce in the winter, and we can't use any of those right now," Tom admitted.
"What are the options? Just for the record." Will asked.
"The first option is to take fresh produce from nearby dungeons. Dungeons are climate-controlled, so they won't be affected by the weather unless they want to. Unfortunately, the dungeon is closed, so we can't use that option. The second option is to import food as we normally would. That's not an option at the moment because the monsters are screwing up supply lines. Duh. Which means our only real option is to build greenhouses if we want fresh produce." Alex said
"I thought you said four options?" Will asked.
"She's forgetting the [Gardners] capstone skills, which is called [Soul Garden]. It's basically an internal greenhouse inside their soul."
"[Soul Gardens] are meant for growing powerful and rare plants to augment your build. You don't plant potatoes in a soul," Alex said scandalized. "They are not walking farms. Actually, now that I say it, I think [Farmers] have a skill called [Winter Crops] that allows their farms to operate in winter ---"
Long story short, the fourth option is to have the proper skill set," Tom explained.
Will nodded, but Tom wasn't sure if he had followed along.
"I think Travis might be able to get us some greenhouses once he gets a few more levels in [Ritual Architect], but yeah, most of these options won't work until we get back to spring," Tom said.
"I can look into getting some people to try and grow some smaller plants," Alex said. "We might be able to get some cherry tomatoes, lettuce, even strawberries if we're lucky."
"The problem is we need [Farmers] or [Gardners] to do this, and we don't have any."
"Which brings us back to the issue of a lack of skilled labor." Alex pointed out.
"Yeah, anyway, thanks for your help, Will. I'll send a quest out to Travis about the greenhouses. But he's already into his twenties, so his leveling speed has slowed right down. Will you please try and preserve as much seed stock as you can? We're going to need it if we want to start growing our own stuff," Tom said as he walked out of the area, Alex following right behind him.
The duo walked out of the storage and headed back up to the cafeteria. This time, they went through the school's bowls rather than taking the shortcut through the kitchen.
"Well, what's next?" Tom asked.
"Well, lunch is in a bit, so I was thinking of taking some time to get a general feel for the mood of Hopkins, see how people are handling the changes, and ---"
"TOM!!!" Luke's voice cut Alex off as the guy ran up to him and skidded to a halt.
"Inside voice." Tom groaned as he waited to hear what fresh Hell Luke was bringing him.
You may skip to the next chapter.
Name: Alex Ling
Race: Solalfar
Type: Humanoid / Unlife
LVL: 21
SubRace: Sun Elf
Age 18
Health: 840
Stamina: 1470
Mana: 2760
Health Regen: 12.6 per hour
Stamina Regen: 20.6 per min
Mana Regen: 29.1 per min
Titles: Beta-Tester, First, Awoken Myths
Immune
None
Resistances
Mind
Weakness
Vitality
Bane
Manslayer, Corpseslayer
Classes: Wizard 20, Witch 1
Total
STR: 42
AGIL: 42
DEX: 42
CON: 42
END: 84
PER: 42
INT: 138
WILL: 207
SPIRIT: 84
EGO: 105
CHA: 126
LCK: 42
Base
STR: 42
AGIL: 42
DEX: 42
CON: 42
END: 84
PER: 42
INT: 126 +10%
WILL: 189 +10%
SPIRIT: 84
EGO: 105
CHA: 126
LCK: 42
Personal: +4 INT +4 WILL +3 EGO +3 CHA
Racial: +3 WILL +2 END +2 SPIRIT +1 CHA
Level Bonus: +2 to all Stats
Bloodline:
[Bloodline of the Spector] - Epic: This bloodline endows its bearer with an ethereal connection to the spirit world, blending the boundary between life and death. Those who possess this bloodline gain ghostly abilities, allowing them to move unseen and untouched through the physical realm.
* [Haunting Presence] - Level 21
* [Ethereal Form] - Level 11
* [Invisibility] - Level 19
* [Steal Life] - Level 1
* [Undying Focus] - Level 25
Skill Slots: 15/60: Skill Points: 1
Personal Skills
* [Solar Metabolism] - Level 28 >> Level 30
* [Stable Chanting] - Level 23
* [Storage] - Level 17
* [Mapping] - Level 15
* [Mana Supersession (System)] - Level 20
Wizard 11/11
* [Arcane Awakening] - Level 30
* [Arcane Shell] - Level 26
* [Charged Attack Ⅰ] - Level 15
* [Multi-Cast Ⅰ] - Level 15
* [Synchronized Chanting] - Level 24
* Capstone: [Grimoire] - Level 39
* [Mana Sight] - Level 24
* [Mana Manipulation] - Level 19
* [Arcane Insight] - Level 4
* [Persistent Casting] - Level 3
* Capstone: [Meta-Magic] - Level 1
Witch 01/6
* [Flying Broomstick] - Level 1