Watching Aerith go around to each of the soldiers, wishing them luck and bidding them bye while on the verge of tears, I realised how much she’s gotten to know them. It wasn’t only her though, even Sheep went around, shaking their hands one by one, sometimes doing that handshake hug that guys did. I had said farewell personally to Cass and Geralt, but I didn’t know the rest of the soldiers personally like Sheep and Aerith did.
“Right then you lot, get packed and into the cars already. We’ll be back here at some point, it ain’t goodbye forever you idiots.” Cass shouts from the back as the soldiers react to her orders. Aerith bounces over next to me while Sheep casually walks over.
“Once again, thank you for your hospitality. And for the weapons, ammo, food and water. You guys have given us hope of being able to continue on.” Cass reaches out her hand. “I look forward to working with you.”
Taking her hand, I nod and shake it. “I do as well, you guys are always welcome here. Consider it a home.”
“Oh we will. Maybe next time we come around you guys have internet and I can just laze around, haha!” Giving us a grin, Cass leaves as I shake Geralt’s hand.
“She said everything, but thanks. We’ll do what we can to bring supplies.”
“No hurry, we have our own problems to attend to so we’ll be busy.”
“Is that so? Well, good luck with the base, we’ll be back at some point.” Geralt gives me a nod before leaving. We all watch as they load up the cars, get in and start driving off. Waving until they disappeared into the horizon, I turned around and started to walk back with everyone parting ways. Aerith looked downcast but smiled and said she’d be okay, wandering off to her house.
“Jupiter, Sheep, I want to speak with you two.”
“Sure.”
“Okay.”
Leading the two to the campfire, which had basically turned into a meeting place of sorts, we sat down while I thought over what I wanted to say.
“I want to discuss our future plans from here on out as well as some logistical stuff while we can. First of all, leadership.”
“You take full leadership, Midnight.” Jupiter leans back and shrugs. “I’m not capable like you or Sheep, in fact I feel like I’ve been lacking recently.”
“Now don’t say that, Midnight has a plan for leadership by the sounds of things otherwise she wouldn’t have invited me along.”
“Sheep’s right. After seeing Geralt and how he ran things, I think a proper structured leadership is in order, along with structure for the rest of the group. If and when we do get more people, having an actual structure will allow us to have more control if it is required.”
“What are you thinking? As long as it’s not ridiculous I’m fine with it, Mid.” Nodding to Sheep, I turn to Jupiter who also nods.
“At the very top will be the ‘leader’, sort of like the clan master if you will. Next will be the vice-leaders who will be responsible for certain roles, such as combat. Branching from them will be those who lead certain departments.”
“Sort of like a company then? Well, you have my vote as the leader, Midnight.”
“I agree, leadership goes to you, Mid.”
“Ah? Wait, shoul-”
“No, not really. We don’t need to discuss it further, you’ve been leading everyone through this the entire time and everyone listens to what you say.” Looking at Sheep while he spoke, I pursed my lips and sighed.
“In that case, I accept, but if it comes to those wanting another to lead then we’ll discuss this further. Jupiter, I’ve been playing around with the Clan system and found that we can reorganise members, provide new ranks and control who spends Prime Coins. We didn’t explore it much before and kind of just kept it as is. Another feature I found is the merge function. You can merge with another group, combining Prime Coins and automatically shifting all members to the receiving Clan.”
“Is that so? Alright, we’ll join you guys.”
“Ah, wait a moment. I’d rather you discuss it with your guys first before making a decision. I want everyone on board with this before we go ahead with anything and any concerns dealt with first.”
“Okay, I’ll talk with everyone and let you know.”
“Thanks. Now, about the vice-leader positions, you two are my go to.”
Jupiter looked a bit confused. “I don’t think I’m cut out for leadership on this scale…”
“I know how you feel, especially if we get bigger. It’s up to you at the end of the day, but I think you have potential as a leader. If you don’t want the position then I’ll respect it.”
“Mid, what will we be responsible for? How do you want this to work?”
“Before I get into that, I have one nomination for a third vice-leader.”
“Winter?” Turning to Jupiter, I shake my head.
“Winter isn’t leader material. She’s great at spotting logical problems but doesn’t like leading at all. No, I want to nominate Aerith.”
“Aerith? Isn’t she too young?” Jupiter remarks quietly while Sheep had a thoughtful look on his face before looking at me.
“I agree that she’s too young, but I can’t deny her ability. Her efforts led to a group of strangers working together extremely well with her and Lemon. I think she’ll be a good leader, but I can’t help but worry about the pressure she’ll have on her shoulders.”
“I can’t disagree with that. While she’s young, she has proven herself time and time again. Plus I don’t want her responsible for too much, but more to guide her along the path. We can help her as well, it’s not like we’ll throw her into leadership and say ‘good luck’.”
“True. What responsibilities will we all have?”
Staying silent at Sheep’s question, I looked at both of them before looking directly at Sheep. “You’ll be responsible for all things combat related. Under you will be Melody and Winter, meaning you’ll be giving those two orders to produce weaponry or alchemy depending on what we need.”
“That’s easy, I can do that.”
Turning to Jupiter, I continued. “You’ll be responsible for field-based operations, such as heading out to do various tasks like looting, gathering materials and so on. Under you will be Silver for the time being. But you’ll be able to form a combat oriented team if required.”
Jupiter thinks it over before mumbling a reply. “That…I can do it. Sure.”
“For Aerith, she’ll be responsible for facility based production. Under her will be Dawn, Ghost and Lemon since they all are responsible for base-oriented jobs.”
“I like it, she’s planned a lot to do with the base so she’s the best candidate if those are her responsibilities.” Both Sheep and Jupiter agreed as I turned to Sheep.
“During combat, you’ll take over leadership from me, as we always have done. Basically everyone listens to you, myself included, and the rankings are used more so for outside combat.”
“So business as usual during combat? Gotcha.”
“What about those under us, you mentioned they will lead others?”
“Yes, for example if we get more weaponsmiths or more chefs, they will fall under whoever has that job in our rankings. If they don’t have a corresponding rank, they’ll fall under whoever best matches it. If nothing matches it, we’ll handle it at that time. More vice-leaders isn’t out of the question.”
With us discussing the idea more and ironing out any potential problems, we parted with Jupiter radioing for his guys to meet up. Sheep and I requested for our guys to meet up as well, the plan being to discuss it with our own teams first before discussing it with both teams at once.
“We really need an office or meeting room.” I sigh as we walk.
“Oh, good idea actually. Let’s ask Aerith about one.”
Seeing the others gather around, including Diana, I told them exactly what we had discussed about the rankings and everyone had no problem, except for…
“M-m-me?! I can’t b-be a leader!” Aerith, looking absolutely shocked to her core, stuttering a bit while waving her hands. I glance at Winter who nods and looks at Aerith.
“Don’t say that, Kate. Because of your efforts, we now have eight fully powered and watered houses and future plans for our base. Along with that, you successfully led a team of military men and some of our guys. You’re a bit young, sure, but Ruby wouldn’t just give you a spot as a leader if she didn’t believe in your ability.”
Aerith goes quiet for a moment before Ghost walks over and slaps her back. “Go for it, I reckon you’ll be a good leader.” Lemon too encouraged her before Aerith looked at me.
“O-okay, only if I can ask for help!”
“We wouldn’t just throw you into the fire. I take it everyone else is okay with this arrangement?”
“It’s different from how we’ve handled things before, but it’s certainly going to make things smoother if we get more people. I’m down.” Ghost pats Aerith on the shoulder as everyone else agrees.
After meeting up with Jupiter and finding his team had no problems at all, we decided to make the arrangements right then and there. With Jupiter using the System to request to merge with us, I accepted.
Merge complete! Would you like to enter a new name?
“We can enter a new name.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“How about Unity of the Lost?” Looking at Lemon with a brow raised, he looked a bit taken aback for a moment. “A-ah, it’s not good, is it?”
“No actually, it’s perfect.” Jupiter mutters while everyone else agrees. I couldn’t help but love the name ourselves, only being surprised at how quickly Lemon had suggested it. It’s a perfect mix of both our clan names and it really signified our situation fairly well.
Clan Name Updated: Unity of the Lost.
After discussing ideas with everyone, we decided on the names of the ranks within the Clan page. It wasn’t important, but allowed us to have a bit of fun with the ideas.
[Clan: Unity of the Lost Member List.
Midnight: Chief Executive Leader
Sheep: Tactical Combat Operations Leader
Winter: Weapons Operations Manager
Melody: Medical and Potions Operations Manager
Jupiter: Field Operations Leader
Silver: Mining Operations Manager
Aerith: Base Operations Leader
Ghost: Food Production Manager
Lemon: Tradesmithing Manager
Dawn: Food Preparations Manager
Clan Points: 0
Prime Coins: 82,500]
Looking at the Clan page, I couldn’t help but love the organised feel it had. I could expand each of the leaders or hide the names under them. Looking at Clan Points, I frowned as I recalled we had yet to see anything come from it, but dismissing it for now I looked up once again.
“It’s time to discuss our next plans. Aerith, I want to see about having an office built for us.”
“Already on it, just need to get the foundation done.”
“Jupiter, there is a mine site about a day away from here according to the maps we received from Cass and Geralt. We’ll arrange a team to scout it out, can you tell us what tools you need to smelt ores? If we can start getting raw metals, we can expand our base even more.”
“Sure, I’ll pass a list to you later today.”
Pausing for a moment, I looked around at everyone before speaking my thoughts. “We’re out of materials, we have a decent amount of food from our world but there is a sizable dent because we helped those soldiers and our water is going strongly. Thanks to the maps we’ve been provided we have places to explore, like potential encampments or military locations. Over the next week we’ll organise for all of us as a team to explore those places.
“Our biggest issue right now is fuel. Because we’ve basically lost the town we woke up in, we’ll first check the damage out there and collect what we can. Thanks to Jupiter and Sheep we know over half the town is lost, but we want to grab what we can, especially fuel. Cass and Geralt said they will try and return here every month, but it could be longer so we can’t rely on them to just provide materials to us. For the next week, I want you guys to work with Aerith and Ghost to get both more buildings planned and the farm going.” Seeing everyone nod, they got up and started to move while I walked towards our house.
Sitting down in the dining room, I opened my Job menu and saw all of my Job Points and finally deciding to use them, I first took the Computing nodes. Three blueprints appeared in front of me, but my interest lay with the new node that the three were linked to that had opened up. Clicking on it, I raised an eyebrow at what I found.
Machinist’s Gift, Lvl 1
As you become more familiar with machinery, your expertise may bring life to your machines, giving them Grades that will provide bonuses dependent on the Grade.
White: Common
Green: Uncommon
Blue: Rare
Purple: Very Rare
Orange: Extremely Rare
Orange + Named: Machinery that is named and Orange will be bound to the one you give it to.
“Is this the same thing as what Rebecca achieved? But she didn’t unlock such a talent…” Mumbling to myself, I saw the cost of one hundred and fifty points and used it. Three more nodes then unlocked, costing two hundred points each, but instead of being for blueprints, these were new.
Combat Machinery Expert.
Warning: You can only select one of these talents! Choose wisely!
Become an expert in creating machinery for combat, increasing the chances by 50% for combat-oriented machines to be Graded. You will receive +5 combat-based machine blueprints upon selecting this talent.
Base Machinery Expert.
Warning: You can only select one of these talents! Choose wisely!
As an expert in building machinery for use in a base, the chances of your machines to be Graded increases by 50%. Additionally, your base durability for parts made through the System will increase by +10%.
Utility Machinery Expert.
Warning: You can only select one of these talents! Choose wisely!
Utility is your game, from drones to large earth drills, you will receive a chance to increase all utility machinery durability by +50% and the chances for them to be Graded is increased by 50%.
“So it’s like a sub-specialisation?” Muttering to myself as I reread each node, I cross my arms while thinking about each one. I could eliminate Base Machinery. There isn’t a need for it, I can fix the machines if anything happens to them and compared to the other two it's too weak.
Utility itself would be a huge boon, but it came with the downside of that it just increased durability. It didn’t provide any blueprints like Combat did. Combat itself is strange as well, since combat based machinery would usually be Weaponsmithing. While I could make certain weapons for base defence, they weren’t built for direct combat. Along with getting five blueprints, it possibly meant that future machinery talents would pivot towards a combat oriented style.
“Ah, choices choices…” I couldn’t help but stare at the combat one. In my mind, I imagined a battlefield, Husks surrounding us with me entrenched surrounded by powerful turrets, robots and combat drones, all protecting me. Ridding my mind of those delusions, I looked at the talents carefully and found even the two starting trees I hadn’t started all would eventually lead to these three choices.
“I’ll decide later.” Swiping the System away, I looked at the three blueprints and picked up one.
Computer Network Device, basically a switch but for computers. Using it, I wait for the knowledge to flood my mind, store it and move to the next one. Picking it up, I nearly dropped it in sheer surprise, unable to comprehend how this is a blueprint for machinery.
Programming Language: Oracle
Learn the programming language ‘Oracle’, a very versatile programming language, allowing you to build various types of programs.
“H-huh?” Using it, the knowledge flooded my mind strongly. Concepts, code, all of it flooded my mind as I understood a crucial detail. This is just the foundation of a new programming language, not the full scope of it. I would still have to build from the ground out, test, debug and compile it all. After digesting all of the knowledge, I picked up the blueprint and found myself stunned.
Oracle Written Operating System
An Operating System used for Computing. This will give you knowledge on how to build a basic operating system on any computer-based machine.
Using it, I found it to be like the programming language in that it’s the very basic foundation. I had only received the basic knowledge required to make an operating system, but it would be more than enough. Getting up quickly, I raced downstairs to the basement, headed to my section and upon closing the door, I pulled several boxes out before reaching the laptops and desktops that I had previously put back together with Sheep.
“Shit…no wait, Jupiter brought his laptop back, right?” Shoving the laptops back, I noticed a crucial mistake; the keyboards were in the native language for this world, I had no idea how to read it! Racing out of my house, I quickly found Melissa and ran up to her, pulling her aside, surprising her slightly.
“Ara? If you want me that badly, we can always go to m-”
“No, I’m not here to flirt, Mel. Jupiter’s laptop, where is it?”
“Ah? In our home.”
“Did he bring an extra keyboard or mouse?”
Melissa tilts her head and nods slowly. “I think so…”
“Great, can you go and grab it for me?”
“Ara? Are you sure you don’t want to come with me, we can slow thin-”
“Later. This is important.”
“A-ah, okay. I’ll go fetch them, just remember your promise.” Giving me a wink, she slowly walked off and sighing at her lack of urgency I waited until she came back holding a keyboard. Handing it to me, she gave me a sly smile before leaving.
Rushing to Sheep, I knocked on his door and after telling him everything, he came with me to our house and my workshop. Dismantling Jupiter’s keyboard and reassembling it I found that I could now produce keyboards for the laptops in our own language.
“So what you’re saying is that you can now make computers? Actual, usable computers?”
“Yes, but not for games.” With the adrenaline wearing off, I pulled out the laptops and computers. “If anything, having a computer for Aerith and Ghost will assist them a lot if I can make programs for them.”
Sheep starts dismantling the laptops and desktops. “I see, so now it’s a case of turning these into scrap and reassembling them from the ground up to make laptops?”
“Basically, yes. One will be a development laptop, purely for writing and creating an operating system. Once I have something stable, I can then deploy it to the other laptops and distribute them once I have a network operational. I’ll need to ask Lemon, but he should be able to make CAT5 cabling and using the piping we can easily lay a network for computers down. As for where a potential server room will go…Eh, I’ll add it to Aerith’s list.”
“Ha, poor girl is going to have a long list at this rate. Let’s get started then.” Working with Sheep, we started to progress ourselves into our little base having the one thing that united us in our world; computers!