By the time the group of trusted climbers left the Carpenter's Workshop, the last few parties had returned to the village. With the sun beginning to set and all groups accounted for, the evening's meeting began.
The news that the Carpenter's Workshop required at a minimum 100 gold to begin building a shop was met with a wave of disheartened groans, as was the fact that before buying a shop, it would be in their best interest to expand the size of the village.
"We'd be fine for a few more days, right? Can't we build the inn first. I'd fight a dozen goblins with a hand behind my back for a bed." This was met with many nods, or vague noises of agreement, from the climbers already laying on the ground.
"I know we're all tired of sleeping on the floor, but it's important that the village be able to contain everyone, and yesterday over 70 new people arrived from the daily enlistment. With aggression fields increasing whenever someone is outside of the village, forcing groups to stay outside the walls for a prolonged period of time could be a death sentence. Even rotating people in and out would still cause waves of monsters to attack. We can't afford to not have enough room for everyone here."
"There is, potentially, a compromise." One of the other leaders added, a pained look on their face. "The carpenter's workshop allows us to preview and demo furniture, allowing us to use it as long as it stays within the raised platform within the building. We... Debated keeping this information hidden, as only one piece of furniture can be previewed at a time, and there are no separate instances like within the Bathhouse, so it's impossible for everyone to use it... However, we decided we should return the trust you had in us, and that intentionally withholding information could break that trust. Among the furniture that can be previewed are sofas, and even beds, although only the wooden frame and mattress are available."
That got people's attention. James noted, many climbers taking a step closer to where the leaders stood, between them and the building that could hold a bed. One of the leaders waved their arms as if to signal everyone to stop, eyes flicking back from the Carpenter's Workshop to the speakers.
"We'll discuss how to manage the demo feature in a moment, but first, I've been told we have more important information to share." The climber gestured to the crowd, specifically to where the party from the Safe Zone quest stood near the front, and the party moved forward to place themselves in the metaphorical spotlight, even as grumblings spread from the crowd at the change in subject.
Among the party members, James noticed the crossbow rogue and the fool looked especially uncomfortable with the crowd's eyes on them., and even the dagger rogue and warrior seemed on edge. The Mage however, looked almost bored as she began to speak. "Our party recently came across a clearing out there that the system labeled as a “Safe Zone”. A Quest appeared telling us we had to kill a group of monsters that were using it, but now it says the space will remain free of monsters and prevent monsters from noticing us, as well as stopping our Aggression Fields for as long as we remain within it. However, the Safe Zone is much smaller than the village, and we estimate only twenty five people at most could lay down within it."
"We also think," the warrior spoke up then, "that if there are safe zones hours away from one another, the entrance to the next floor could be days of travel away, and we'll need to stop coming back to the village every evening if we're going to find it."
"A-Also, there's a level cap, once you reach level four you only get 10% of the EXP you'd normally get from killing things here, and even if you get enough to reach the next level, you can't level up until you reach the next floor." The fool added, their voice less steady than the other two but still loud enough to be heard over the crowd as they spoke while staring at the crowd's feet.
They took to the news better than I thought they would. James thought, as he listened to sounds of both frustration and worry echo throughout the crowd. Despite the obvious hit to morale the news had caused, James didn't see anyone starting a fight or building themselves up into a panic, the unofficial leaders of the climbers turning the meeting into talks of a plan that lasted over an hour.
The issue is no party has enough for every member to buy a basic travel kit, and while they might be able to go without tents or bedrolls for a time, things like waterskins, firestarters, and compasses are too important if they're trying to leave the village for good. But if they're traveling together, only one firestarter and compass is needed. So they're planning to pool their money together to buy one basic travel kit for each party, as well as enough waterskins and buckets for each person, prioritizing the oldest wave first.
It won't be easy, even with everyone donating 2 or even 10 gold to the cause, there's 40 people from the first wave alone. That's eight parties at the least, and I doubt they've all stayed in perfect five person parties composed of only others from the same wave. There's also still the 100 gold they'll need to spend expanding the walls, although they can wait another day or two before that'll become an issue. Fortunately, the older waves already have buckets from an earlier quest, and with more people arriving every day, there should be more people contributing to the cause before the week is up.
With the idea of pooling resources together to outfit the oldest parties circling around, a climber within the crowd brought up the idea of bidding for access to the Carpenter's Workshop.
"The money from the bid can be used to help fund the scouting parties, and in exchange they get to use the demo feature to sleep on a bed tonight, that way people will be more incentivized to help out."
The idea was immediately met with a variety of opinions, from those complaining the person giving the idea was only suggesting it because they had a lot of money, to people worried it would encourage people to fight over the spoils of monsters when outside the village, or reckless behavior as people tried to fight more than they should, or went without health and mana potions to save money.
There was also the fact that, if only one person's bid was taken, they'd never gather enough to outfit the oldest wave of climbers in time. An idea of taking the money of every bid was suggested, but by then the bidding plan had had enough holes poked into it that talks were already beginning about other methods, from a game of rock paper scissors, to a rotating list with the older climbers having priority, as they had gone without a bed the longest.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Any attempts at a challenge, honor system, or randomized method of deciding who should have access to the demo falls apart due to the sheer number of people and the lack of any method of record keeping. The idea keeps floating around that it'd be easier for no one to use it, but then others argue it'd be a waste for no one to have it when everyone wants it... Wait, can I-
"61-3, is it possible to make a quest where I can reward everyone with Gold in exchange for no one using the Carpenter's Workshop's demo feature throughout the night?"
A moment of silence. They're thinking about it, there's a chance!
[Affirmative. Having a climber or group of climbers go without access to something beneficial to them, such as access to a shop, for a prolonged period of time, can serve as a challenging enough quest to be eligible for a reward. Would you like for me to create this quest for you?]
"Yes, please do."
[Affirmative. Quest created, please review the following quest.]
{You have activated Create Quest. -10 Tower Points. 185 Tower Points remaining.}
{You have added “2 Gold” to the Reward(s). -20 Tower Points. 165 Tower Points remaining.}
"Thank you, 61-3."
[You are welcome, James.]
{Restricted Access: Carpenter's Workshop
Quest Type: Mandatory Multi-Participant
Recipient(s): All Climbers on Floor 1
Description: The Store: Carpenter's Workshop, must not be accessed by any Climber for 10 hours for all Climbers to receive a reward.
Time Until Restriction is Lifted: 00:00/10:00 (Quest starts immediately once the Shop is empty. Quest is automatically Failed if anyone enters the Shop before the time is up.)
Reward(s): 2 Gold
Confirm Quest?}
Alright! Confirm Quest. Hopefully with 61-3's plain description, it isn't too obvious that I'm trying to help them.
James watched as the quest appeared in front of the people who still had quest notifications on. Silence slowly spread throughout the crowd as everyone was told to check their quests, and read it for themselves. Already the timer was counting up, with the Carpenter's Workshop already empty, and after a beat of silence, one of the leaders cleared their throat to draw attention.
"It would seem the matter has been settled for us. Surely everyone can agree to go without a bed for one more night, when the reward is more than enough to begin constructing an inn in the morning?"
Sounds of agreement, some more begrudging than others, echoed back.
The leaders returned the discussion to talks of the Safe Zones, and the plan to help outfit the parties that would be searching for them.
With the oldest wave using as much of their own money as possible, and the members of the two earliest waves each giving a few gold themselves, they managed to outfit four parties. They might have been able to prepare a fifth, or even sixth party, but that would have required everyone giving up almost everything, and there's still their own safety to consider. They can't all go out at once, anyway, so all of the first wave climbers will leave to follow the four to the first safe zone, at which point the four parties will continue on while the rest will double back and tell the others how to find it. From there, they plan to have people in the village check on the safe zone every day.
The four parties will scout ahead and go back to the safe zone in the evening, where they can then move to the new safe zone together, or rest up to search again tomorrow. If they move to the new safe zone, they'll send a party to check back on the first safe zone until someone from the village shows up, and then another party will be sent to take over the first safe zone and work on memorizing the way to the second, creating a chain of each safe zone checking in with each other until they can guide everyone from the village to every safe zone between it and the next floor. This'll also allow the first four parties to replace themselves over time with new members if anyone dies, with the parties used to check on the safe zones serving as potential replacements. Ideally, no one dies, but it's important they dedicate as many people to this task as possible.
Meanwhile, the people within the village will work on helping the new wave of climbers that arrive each day, as well as securing funds for either helping move everyone to the next floor, or improving the village, depending on how much each person wants to donate to which cause. The idea is that even if they won't have the time to benefit from all of the village shops themselves, the more shops they have available, the better off future waves will be, and once the way to the next floor and back is secured, people can make their way back to the village to use any of the new stores as they need to for improving or replacing equipment.
Once I level up and get access to a map of the first floor, I can create quests to point them in the direction of the safe zones leading them to the next floor, but I should also work on creating more repeating quests. Even rewards that become redundant after the first time they're completed can still be sold for a bit of extra gold, and if it's something every climber needs, then it'll still be useful with new climbers appearing every day.
With the meeting over, and the four chosen parties equipped as they had agreed to, the climbers scattered to find places to sleep. Some used the inside of the Bathhouse or the Canteen, preferring the hardwood floors to the ground outside, and a few piled up a dozen units of wood in front of the Carpenter's Workshop to help stop anyone from wandering in, accidentally or otherwise. The quest eased some of the tension, but there's still some suspicion that someone will try to sneak in just to have the bed for themselves.
"It's ridiculous that everyone's so worked up about having a bed to lay in. With a few points in Resilience you can sleep on the ground no problem." James heard a warrior say to a mage James assumed they were friends with.
"Well, it's not like everyone has a class that puts points into Resilience for them automatically. I only put a point in when I woke up to my back aching after the first night. I'm only 20! I shouldn't have to worry about back pain!" The warrior snorted in response as they tried to hide a grin, before James mentally pushed the screens showing him the village aside.
It's time to update the Tutorial Broadcast before the new wave gets pulled in.