“Maaaan,” Toria looked over the list. “Priority on Combat and special priority on Tanks? Why’s that?”
“Almost everyone in the building was given rogue, mage or civilian type class options.” I was sitting next to her on the couch in our new apartment. Nothing in the apartment was owned by me just because I was living there, I discovered after asking the system about it. I was essentially squatting until my door could be fixed. “Almost no one got tank options. Those who were assigned to choose the tank options were already the ones who were going to pick it to begin with. But now that we have enough tanks, it still can't hurt to have more. We wanted to make absolutely sure that we were only telling a very small number of people which class they should choose.”
“Well,” Toria said and then bit her lip before continuing. “At least it says we'll earn Guild coins for doing work for the guild at a pretty good rate if we go out in parties. My Scarlet subclass will be useful for that, right?”
“Your class is not combat-oriented,” I replied. “You are capable of it, but only because of the skills. You would have to go out and kill very many things just to get a handful of skills that would be useful in combat. Not to mention if you go in a party, you'll have to give up a share of all of the points you earn. Which means the bigger the party, the slower it would be to gain those skills.”
“That doesn't mean I couldn't do it,” she said.
I thought perhaps this was one of those times when I just shouldn't mention the downside. No one wants to carry a companion through like two hundred kills. Maybe if she only needed one skill, but she only has one combat skill and needs more. everyone already has at least two or three… even if she contributes to those kills, it's going to seem like everyone else is doing all the work.
“If you want to try, I can't stop you,” I said.
“Why are you always so negative?” she asked.
I had no idea what she was talking about, did I say my thoughts out loud? I was sure I hadn't.
“I said, you can do whatever you want,” I emphasized. “As in, it is not my decision to make, whether or not you do?”
“Yeah, but you obviously think I can't do it,” she said indignantly.
“Toria,” I said as I scrolled through the messages from Grand on my phone. “I'm going to need you to stop putting emotions on me that I am not having, or at least not showing to you. I am doing as you asked and not saying things that could be offensive, the least you could do is not project offensive things upon me.”
Her mouth opened and then snapped shut, then she blinked. “I-” She pulled her lips inside her mouth and looked off to the side, I could see her out of the corner of my eye. She often made ridiculous expressions when she was thinking.
“You didn't really have a tone,” Toria said. “It just felt like you were sayin’ I couldn't, because you weren't sayin’ I could.”
“That, is not my problem,” I said. ”I can refrain from saying true things, I cannot say untrue things or dress up true things to look prettier. The truth is, I cannot determine what you do. You are a grown adult who makes her own decisions. The other truth, is that you would inconvenience others while you are trying to get more skills. And in so doing, would make people look down on you. How should I say that, so that it isn't offensive?”
Her eyes teared up, “you're right, I liked it better when you just said the other thing. I’ll shut up and stop picking at you.”
I always disliked that. People always constantly insisting I must hold a certain opinion simply because I refused to speak on a subject or refused to give my opinion at all. Even when I was doing as they specifically asked me to. Maybe I was snappish today, though I had taken the medication I’d bought from the system and felt relatively fine.
The system recommended not only a hormonal medication but also something for personality disorders. The formulas were a whole bunch of gobbledygook that involved magical creatures and their parts. They were things that could only be made by Alchemists. Herbalists only handled herbs, apparently, so that's where we’ll get most of our herbal supplements and salves and creams.
The hormonal medication was birth control, but it also just equalized your hormones altogether, apparently. I had decided to try it because my usual medication would likely no longer be made. The system had determined that our medicines were limited on some worlds and more advanced on others, so it decided to split the difference and make it advanced but magical.
So I didn't think I was being meaner than usual. "Did Jeremy not reply to your messages?"
She hiccuped in surprise and agitation. "How do you do that but you don't know how to talk to people right!?"
"I'm perfectly capable," I replied. "But I only lie when necessary. I'd prefer not to do it otherwise. No matter how 'polite' it may be."
"Yeah, that thing about never lying doesn't really count when it wouldn't be a lie, you just look down too far on people," Toria retorted.
"I'm not looking down, I'm looking across," I replied in an irritated tone. "And what do you call taking your sad and worried feelings out on me, exactly?" Funny how I'm the only one ever expected to meet these standards, isn't it?
She flushed and stood up, stomped to the door and then out of it, though thankfully she didn't slam it like an idiot. Just because we can finally make noise, didn't mean we should push it.
BlissfulDreams: Send your vote for the name of the Guild to me and we'll count them up. The options as it stands are:
Ironvault
Grandview
Bloodreign
Magi Meadow
Fully Tanked
I can't believe I let you people talk me into making all those options. I added Grandview because one of our elderly folks suggested it and it didn't sound insane. Please for the love of god don't vote for Bloodreign. I don't care about the rest.
Interesting. Last I'd checked, people were still sending in suggestions. If those were the ones that came out on top, it was likely the rest were worse. It was difficult to think of something worse than 'Magi Meadow' or 'Fully Tanked' but... maybe they'd thrown in some profanities or something and Grand thought it was utterly rude. I have no idea. He keeps see-sawing back and forth between down-to-earth and pearl-clutching-grandma.
Ironvault, Grandview, Bloodreign. Those would be the actual contenders. But most people won't want to work for a place like 'The Bloodreign Guild'. That was likely one of the older kids. There were about three teens in the building. Still, people were children at heart at times and might think that it would be intimidating enough to keep others from trying to fuck with us.
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Ironvault did that job also, though. Making the Guild sound intimidating.
A message came through again.
BlissfulDreams: Shit, everyone pay attention to this text. The System says Bloodreign and Ironvault were just taken. That means we have to register a UNIQUE name. Vote now! Vote NOW! Here are the names that aren't taken yet:
Grandview
Fully Tanked
Magi Meadow
ClottedCream
Epicentral
Spiracle
CrimsonCloak
Loot Lurkers
Ah, so that's how much worse it could've gotten. Though strangely, CrimsonCloak and Epicentral didn't look nearly as bad as Fully Tanked or Magi Meadow. It was likely because Crimson was associated with blood and Epicentral looked too juvenile.
I'd already cast my vote earlier and that option was still there. Though I did send another message stating that if it was taken, I would cast a secondary vote for Epicentral, Spiracle or CrimsonCloak.
BlissfulDreams: What the hell am I supposed to do here? LilaCooper: I don't know what you mean. Once there's a clear majority vote, just choose the name and have everyone confirm. That's it. BlissfulDreams: Some people are saying if we don't pick their choice, they aren't going to confirm. LilaCooper: It likely won't be enough to do anything. You only need 30 people, remember? There's over 200 people in this building.
He went quiet for a while after that, so I hoped he'd ceased panicking over nothing. It's not as though there'd be no names left at the end. We'd just have to get more creative, which would likely create better names from the whole debacle.
The Guild that would be established was going to exist for the express purpose of having the system handle the votes from now on. Grand was buried in work just keeping track of the votes. He brought the final counts to me and I made the final decisions, usually, but... it's not like I asked him to do that. I would happily count the votes. He disagreed and said if we were ever found out, it had to look like he was actually doing all the work, so that nobody would believe it.
I countered with 'an assistant should be doing that work' but he refuted that point by stating a 'boss' should do the important work while the assistant does the 'nothing' work to free the boss up for said important work. I didn't think he was living in reality with that one, but he refused to budge.
So, there we were.
Toria was likely to refuse to watch Sophia for the next few days, as she tended to like to be petty when she was angry with me. So I messaged Felicity about the daycare service everyone was setting up.
I'd already sent her an apology for the slap just this morning. Once I'd come out of my mental fugue, it was obvious that situation could have been handled in a less violent manner. She actually took it better than I'd thought she would, considering her reaction to my apathetic manner. With a curt 'You were trying to keep from attracting more in the building, we were all scared. You're not off the hook, but I'm letting it go for now' sort of response.
FelicitySmith: The System says we can charge five coin an hour, so that's the going rate. LilaCooper: That's fine. If I ever end up overshooting because of a situation like before, you can drop her off at Mrs. Katz. She already agreed to help out. FelicitySmith: I'll make you an account and note that down.
There was a chime and the menu forcibly opened.
New Guild Created!
Do you agree to join the Guild 'Grandview'?
YES
NO
I hit 'yes' immediately. It was my first choice of names, after all. Mrs. Katz had suggested it.
It was named for Grand. He didn't know that, as Mrs. Katz had messaged me to send him the suggestion. He only knew an elderly resident had asked for it to be put up. He'd have immediately shot it down if he thought it had anything to do with himself. He laughed very uneasily when people praised him for being the leader.
The guilt of lying about who was really making the decisions was likely eating him up inside.
Ping!
There was only a short wait, before the system finally sent a letter with confetti raining in the menu.
Congratulations Grandview Guild!
You have successfully begun your journey into the wonderful world of politics!
That's right, Guilds are large groups of people that all agree to work together, so we're giving each guild ONE vote to determine changes in the system.
Don't get too excited now, we can't revert anything. But we CAN slightly adjust things!
The first vote will occur once we're absolutely certain no more guilds will be made this year! Which means the end of the year, December 30th.
Once that vote is cast, the Guilds that exist now will get priority in votes going forward, meaning newer guilds will get a vote, but that vote won't count as much as the Guilds that have existed longest.
Congratulations to the Bloodreign, Ironvault, Grandview and Thitopia guilds on being the first four to get here. Your votes will count quadruple as long as you continue to exist every year and vote every time. If you don't vote even once, your vote's value goes down by a half.
You're also receiving gifts from the system for being the first four to make guilds!
Bloodreign, as a guild with combat focus, is receiving the first place prize of an entire underground Arena! We will be affixing it to your base with the powers of the system, as it is within our power to grant. It will be a training ground for your warriors to partake in harmless duels to practice their skills.
Warning: Duels in the Arena will not give experience or skill points.
Ironvault as a defensive guild, will receive a series of magical turrets on the bounds of their small territory. These turrets can be powered by mages and Sunstones both.
Warning: These turrets cannot determine for themselves who is friend and foe, you will have to have people on round-the-clock guard duty and if you make a mistake, the person will likely be killed immediately unless they're rank C and up.
Grandview is going to get something a bit different, as they are a Survival First guild and they happen to have a Seedwarden among their number! They will receive a rooftop greenhouse, as well as planter boxes outside every window that will be able to grow any number of seeds. Magical or otherwise!
Warning: Some plants can be dangerous and professionals should always be present when you're trying to grow something new.
Lastly, Thitopia is a crafting Guild and as such will get the very special privilege of the entire grounds outside their base being transformed into a perfect Artisan's Enclave! You will have a designated area for every kind of crafter. You will have to buy all the equipment and materials, but now you'll have a place to put it all!
We hope everyone will still be here when the Vote comes in December.
Zzzzzggggnnngggg
"What-" I jolted up off of the sofa and rushed to the window of our temporary apartment.
When I looked out, it was... uh...
The weird effect that was taking place, appeared to be similar to many video game crafting systems. The shape of the thing is outlined, then it slowly becomes less transparent and more solid. In this case, a purple glittering glass box took shape outside the window and a weird magical effect noise kept playing as it continued to build itself, atom by atom.
Is this the absolute highest limit of magic?
image [https://64.media.tumblr.com/385c05f957d8dfae46afe1ef98e171b0/5b81ebbdb20d2042-61/s2048x3072/aac25b9a5860993e248bb8e19dea6767ddc0b597.pnj]
I watched in something of a daze as it slowly built itself up. Over time, the box became more solid and I could see the planter box was actually coming in full of soil already. The box was simple, the soil was likely to be average and the real prize would likely be the greenhouse... but that didn't mean these wouldn't be useful. Each person likely had something they needed to grow themselves in order to keep up their classes or something. Like how Seedwardens needed to either buy or grow seeds, I'd guess.
But we'd also be able to grow our own herbs for medicine, which meant less money going out and more coming in, if we were the first guild to think of it. But we likely wouldn't be the only ones to go down that path, so even if we did it that way, it wouldn't matter. We'd eventually be outperformed. Still, we could grow the really expensive plants we'd need, like for the heart medicine our elderly residents would need or...
Is there a magical alternative to insulin and other medicines like it? Could we grow magical lichen and mold that could be turned into strong antibiotics?
Grand was messaging me again. He was likely going to cry about the new vote we'd have to set up... but wait...
The System pinged again.
SYSTEM:
This is a notice! There are two people tied for the highest ranking in Grandview. This will mean there will need to be a duel to determine who will become Guildmaster.
LilaCooper and CarloRuiz, you will duel in two days after the manner of duel has been decided. Play fair, everyone!
Ah, fuck.