Looking at the roof of my office bedroom while sinking my head into the pillow further, I felt a slight discomfort. Unable to sleep at all felt very strange, especially since we had spent three days walking around the ruins of a city, killing monsters. Yet my body didn’t feel an ounce of fatigue, even after a few rounds of the nightly routine most couples do.
“Rubes?” Turning my head, I smile gently at the sight of Rebecca’s eyes, lovingly looking at me, a look she doesn’t show outside of the bedroom.
“Mm?”
“Think we’ll ever get a full night's sleep again?”
“I hope so, I love sleeping. It’s making me feel uncomfortable not being able to sleep when I should be.” Sitting up, I brush my hair back with a hand before looking at Rebecca. “I’m going to get dressed and do some work, what about you?”
“As much as I want to laze around, since we can’t sleep I guess it’s best to do some gunsmithing.” The two of us got dressed lightly and with Rebecca leaving, I sat at my office desk and pulled my laptop towards me, opening it.
Documenting everything that we had experienced in the Dimension, including the theories, I closed the laptop after a few hours before grabbing a few sheets of paper. Tapping the desk with my pencil while letting the thoughts in my mind run free, I started writing plans for a physical training facility.
A lot of logistical problems came up and fast. Firstly, without knowing the limits to our strength, how could we design an area for us to physically train. Not only that, but we wanted people to avoid killing each other if they were to spar. An obstacle course would be very difficult to plan, considering the limited size and the fact none of us were really ones to physically train ourselves in our world.
Writing down plans, I put it all aside and with a sigh looked out from my office. The base had people coming and going, everyone with work to do. Whether it’s to work on the wall around the base or helping to make basic parts with the System, there wasn’t a soul resting. There is a feeling in the base, a sense of hurry to complete their work before the Nexus event that is in less than a month.
Seeing the spirits roam around happily, resting in the trees, flowers or grass, I smiled slightly before pulling away from the window. There is a lot we still didn’t understand about this world, especially with everything we’ve just recently learnt. It seems that with each Lvl there is something new to learn about, another way of gaining power.
“Enough with the overthinking, Ruby. Get yourself back together. You’re trying to think of too much.” Feeling a headache come on while muttering to myself, I breathed out while leaning forward. I kept doing this, stressing out about shit I have no control over, trying to plan around it.
“Change of course, Ruby. Let’s focus on something else.” Closing my laptop and putting the papers in my draw, I turned my attention to the rewards for completing the Dimension from last night.
Dimension: Ruined City of Delict completed. Rewards Available:
Inheritance of the City of Delict - Martial Arts that were kept secret from the rest of its world, unique to Delict. (Already claimed)
+2,000 Prime Coins
1x Clothing Kit (Delict Martial Art Design)
“Huh, that’s it? Nothing for clearing a Dimension first? Oh, maybe we weren’t first…” Seeing a box appear, I set it to the side. I wasn’t interested in clothing and while it might be a nice outfit, I simply had other things on my mind.
Activating my storage ring, I emptied the contents next to me, a very large pile of books, monster cores and a cane fell out. Giggling softly, I set the cane to the side before plopping my butt down in front of the pile of books.
All of these are sets of Martial Arts techniques. They varied between channelling mana for a minute to launch a devastating punch or movement techniques. There were also full styles of arts in here. I began sorting them out between Physical, Magical, Swordplay and Other. I gave each book a quick thumb through before setting it aside, each of them using mana as a basis, thankfully none of them mentioned ‘qi’ or ‘chi’.
One thing of interest is that some techniques used different elements. A book detailed elemental punches using fire, water, electricity, earth, steel and so on. It said that if one can learn and master all elemental punches then they could use a higher form by combining them all, though the book only mentioned it was a myth and that it had never been done.
I set two books aside, ones I thought would fit Ghost and Silver well. One is a movement technique that utilised the shadows called ‘Seven Steps of the Deepening Shadow’ and the other a blade technique called ‘Mirage Blade’ that created a second blade from mana, both an illusion and an actual attack. I didn’t understand it but set it aside either way.
Picking up another two that I had set aside, I felt a bit excited. One is a Vision-based technique called ‘Door to the Inner Eye’, which has multiple different types of techniques for vision. The beginning technique enhances your vision, allowing you to see things others can’t. At first, I had been confused on what separated techniques like this to spells, but I quickly realised that spells involved outputting mana, whilst techniques kept the mana within. Some techniques were exempt from this, like Mirage Blade, but they only stayed attached to yourself or an object.
The second one gave me an alternative way to fight or escape. Named ‘Diamond Snow Skin’, it uses the Ice element to form ice on the outer layer of one’s skin. One of the few that projected the mana outwards, it had two forms, one for defence and one for attack. By condensing Ice magic, you could create an armour that is literally as hard as diamond.
The attack form enhances your physical strength. You could form claws, wrap your fists in diamond ice or even cover your feet in ice and if used on the right surface could increase your speed.
Storing the books on a shelf, I decided against digitising them for the time being, simply because it would take far too much time and without the images it would be useless. Deciding to practise these new techniques later, I set the two books to the side before sighing lightly and moving to the window once more.
Once again watching everyone move about the base, my mind couldn’t help but think over our situation once again as I wonder about what type of leader I am. In our world, my role had been the captain of the team. I would manage everyone's needs and wants, while Sheep handled tactics for our time playing games.
At first, adding Jupiter’s team wasn’t too bad, we got along with all four of them and with both Sheep and Jupiter as leaders everything ran smoothly. Adding Aerith and Geralt as leaders gave us a good balance, but with adding nearly five hundred people has me questioning what it is I do as a leader.
A lot of work is delegated to the Vice Leaders, the most I do currently is hold meetings and pass on orders to them, but even then most of the orders are things everyone agrees with. Yet for some reason they’re willing to follow my lead. Can I even lead these people? To keep them safe, fed and with a roof over their heads?
“One step at a time, Ruby.” Slapping my cheeks with both hands, I move from the window and plop down on my chair. Pulling out the inheritance from this world, I started looking over what had been decoded so far.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Even though whoever had left this behind gave us a great deal of methods to translate words, transcribing everything is proving to be a near impossible task. While the words provided did help, filling in the blanks isn’t exactly the easiest task. A lot of meaning is lost if guesswork is all we do, but it hasn’t all been fruitless.
There had been a few pages which described Husks in detail. None of the variations were described, only the normal versions we encountered in the first few days. From the details provided, the Husks were like an infection, spreading fast and quickly. The description, not completely accurate due to some guesswork, explained that they couldn’t trace the source, as if there had been either too many sources or Patient Zero couldn't be tracked down because of the speed of the infection. It also described the appearance of the massive totems in the middle of their towns and cities.
From my memories of the first future dream, the totems came from tears in the sky. Assuming that the appearance of these totems when the Husks first appeared happened in a similar manner, it would mean that the Husks came from another world. At least, in theory.
“So tired of theories. Just wish we had solid information…” Setting the files aside and rubbing my temples, I signed before standing. With less than a month till the Nexus event, certain preparations had to be made, meaning I had to get back into the only thing I could do; leadership. Without the need to sleep, it meant I had more time to work with…nearly double in fact.
Thanks to the efforts of those collecting materials from all around us, we had a steady stream of parts and components. We had teams mining, cutting down wood and collecting old machinery of this world and bringing it back.
“That’s right, the buildings we have aren’t fire resistant yet…I’m not sure if anyone knows how to treat wood in the first place, we kinda just cut it into the shapes Aerith says to…”
It’s one of our worries, especially with how frequently we were setting the surroundings, and ourselves, on fire when fighting. Which is also a concern for the upcoming Nexus event. It’s also why Aerith has started using stone from the mine leftovers, mostly granite and a mineral that resembles marble. Using Hawkeye, I looked out towards the wall.
The progress is astonishing. Similar to the well house, the wall is a fortified beast, encompassing our base completely, including the farm. From the office, it’s about five kilometres in each direction, giving us a massive amount of space to expand on. The wall, made out of steel, is three metres thick, with cement making up most of that. Eight towers sat on every cardinal and intercardinal position, all equipped with a radio and two people.
There is a main radio in the office, manned by two people as well, to alert us when a swarm starts getting too close. Because of this set up, spotting threats became a lot easier and with the proposed plan for radio communication, it would assist greatly in the upcoming Nexus event.
“If the Nexus event only has mindless Husks, we can easily conquer it. But if anything out of the ordinary shows up…No, it’s best to plan for the appearance of monsters.” Pulling up a codex we had begun building, I noted how the only known threats were Husks, with our only experience with monsters being the Butterfly or from the Dimension.
The only noteworthy thing so far is that Husks don’t seem to rely on magic, whilst monsters can use it. The only unknown is if the Dragon’s fire breath had been magic or a natural ability. Studying everything once again, I close the documents before sighing and opening another.
“Haven, huh?”
The folder is about potential enemies, and the camp that Trinity told us about is one of those. We had yet to get any information about it, but from the initial impression it held thousands of people and was ruled by seven clans. Tapping my finger, I nodded slightly before deciding to ask Trinity about Haven.
‘Babe, can you ask Trinity to come to my office?’
‘Eh?! Ah, I’m knee deep in bullets. I need a few minutes.’
‘Thanks. Also, make sure to claim the reward from the Dimension, it’s not much but it gives us some Prime Coins.’
‘Are we even using those? Alright, I’ve claimed it…wow, it’s really not much, is it? Then that Dimension must’ve been a weaker one.’
After an hour, Trinity arrived along with Geode and for some reason, Diana, who quickly left to organise food and coffee for us. I understood what she’s doing now; it seems she’s acting as a secretary of sorts in the office.
“Trinity, Geode, I wanted to speak with you about a few things.” After a bit of small talk and coffee, I looked at them both while they just nodded back. “What can you tell me about Haven?”
The pair glance at each other before Geode leans back and Trinity leans forward, with her speaking. “Haven is a massive collective of survivors. As I mentioned before, seven clans rules it with many smaller clans beneath them. I estimate it to be about four days of travel from here and last time we were there it’s estimated at least eight to nine thousand people there.”
Hissing, my mind went blank for a moment while trying to picture that many survivors in this world. “How are there so many survivors there? Your group is the first big group we’ve seen.”
Trinity slightly shrugged. “I don’t know. We joined the camp after a month and there were already a few thousand there. Thinking about it however, there were a lot of towns nearby, only a few hours away with the furthest being an eight hour drive. We found Haven after a four hour drive from the town we arrived in.”
Four days of driving, assuming one drove at one hundred kilometres an hour for twelve hours a day, is about four thousand eight hundred kilometres, roughly the distance between New York City to Los Angeles. It’s a very long way from us, but to hear it’s become a large settlement is surprising. We had only just started spreading out now that we have the manpower, but we hadn’t heard of any towns or cities nearby.
“The conditions can’t be good there with so many people.”
“No, it’s awful for all but those who are under the seven clans. The rules there are strict; unless you pledge yourself to one of the seven clans, you can not hunt or kill any Husks. Additionally, you must work for the seven and in return they allow you to live in the town with the offer of protection.”
“The settlement is in a town? Have they dealt with the totem?”
“I have no idea, but a month after you guys destroyed that totem, the Husks stopped just appearing in the town at night, so I assume so. The problem is that there was no water source like you have here, nor any food sources like the farm. That’s when the troubles started, the seven started demanding the canned food and bottled water from those who had completed the survival basic quests. Then they started handing it out in rations.
“Obviously this proved to not be effective. The conditions there declined severely. We left just as things were getting bad, thankfully they didn’t stop us, but it’s certainly a crime to leave Haven if you’ve pledged yourself to one of the seven like we had. We’d heard stories about those who’d left in the past. From being chased down and brought back only to be imprisoned to being outright killed. We left when the System warned us of the World Shift and Nexus Event, so perhaps they were distracted by the news of that.”
After a few more questions to the pair, they left with me deep in thought. From their story, the likelihood of Haven surviving the next Nexus Event is low. So many lives seemed to be in danger and I knew it’s impossible for us to help them.
“It’ll be worth visiting in the future, but right now…” Typing everything in, I sighed lightly before getting up. I wanted to go help them if we could, but with our limited resources it wouldn’t be enough. Plus from what Trinity and Geode told me, the seven weren’t exactly the most friendly. They sought power over the others in their camp, and encountering one like me at Lvl 3 might be seen as a threat to their power.
“Right, next…let’s look at personnel.” Loading up more folders, I saw that so far out of the five hundred people we have, only a hundred have fully completed their survival basic quests and a further one hundred and fifty have finished the first survival basics, meaning we had one hundred Lvl 1s and one hundred and fifty that have chosen a Job at least.
Most have selected Jobs that support the base, mostly gathering or manufacturing. Sheep and Jupiter have been working to mainstream the Jobs, ensuring that we get coverage on some of the more important ones. For example, there are now four others who selected Weaponsmithing to assist in producing weapons. They had the extra bonus of being about to learn blueprints thanks to Winter making a weapon, Sheep dismantling and the newbies reassembling it.
Another group were sorted under the Farm, with two helping Ghost and another fifteen who can raise livestock. According to the reports, when one selected Animal Breeder, they were given two random types of animal to raise, all of them livestock. It’s the first time the System has ever provided living animals, but they were all babies, meaning they had to be raised first. I felt a bit of excitement to read one had been given cows for milk while another received chickens. Along with Ghost’s chickens, it meant we’ll be getting more eggs.
“All in all, the base is growing, but we need a long time…years actually to be able to support thousands of people. Raising livestock isn’t an overnight deal…” Leaning back and closing my eyes, I breathed out while thinking over how long we’d be in this world. It’s been a year already, and if the System is giving us animals that take a year or two to become fully grown, just how long will we be here?
“Well, let’s just go with the flow. Alright, time for a meeting.” Sitting up, I grab my laptop and head downstairs, asking Diana to get the rest of the Vice-Leaders together for our usual meeting.