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"What is the problem?" I asked as Grand opened his door.

"Come on," he gestured me in and paced away from the door, running his fingers through his hair in agitation.

I closed the door behind me as I came in and tilted my head at him. It just feels appropriate to do so. He's behaving like he's on his last tether. "Have you slept?"

"Four hours or so," he waved it off and turned to face me. His stubble is a bit less perfect than it was yesterday. Yesterday the edges were razor-straight and it wasn't dark, but it wasn't patchy... "So, Paramedical is still deliberating. As are floor groups two, seven and nine."

"Floor groups?" I echoed. "That's not what we're calling them, is it? Why not just 'the nine'?"

"Well, you weren't there," he said and smiled in a terse way. "So we're calling them the floor groups until somebody has an issue with it. Anyway, two wants more order and structure, seven wants more freedom and nine wants to not even have to make these decisions at all. Mostly. They can't come to a consensus between them because two or three of them in each group thinks the exact opposite."

"This is why they shouldn't be in those groups," I replied. "They really couldn't be convinced to just go up or down a floor? There's plenty of empty rooms for shuffling people around."

"Not everybody is as adaptable as you, grabbin' their shit and going off to another room isn't as attractive to people that are... well, emotional. Some of 'em have been living here for years. Some just got here, but everything else is changing so much they don't want to change anything else..."

"The rooms are essentially all designed so similarly that you wouldn't notice, as long as you got a room in a similar position as yours on the adjacent floor," I retorted. "Otherwise, they could just stay where they are and join the group that has the opinion they agree with. Why the hell do people do this?" I was beginning to become agitated and that was never good.

It meant I'd hit my limit for everything. Agitation is usually followed by snappishness, the severe urge to grind my teeth, set my jaw and hit things. Then I'll be so sullen and depressed that I won't be able to do things for days.

"Well, people want everything," he replied. "They wanna be happy and comfortable. So they try to make everything fit how they want it to be."

"Then all we need to do is make it fit," I said, clasping my hands before me and suppressing the irritation. I should've seen this coming and sequestered myself. But Sophia needs me, Grand can't do his job without me, apparently... and I have to learn and get stronger to protect Sophia. That should be the solution then.

"Give me your phone," I held out my hand.

He smacked it into my palm and immediately went for the bedroom. "Let me know when you're done and I'll be ready to go!"

I began typing up the message to the Paramedical Faction first. Wondering how I was going to manage messaging Grand the entire meeting through as fast as I needed to. The thought-to-text option was great, but it took several seconds to write an entire paragraph and a few more to send and receive.

I wish I could just message him in real-time.

There was a ping and Phobos leapt into my lap as I sat on the sofa. I decided to check because I was already irritated and I just wanted it out of the way. It wasn't a Codex entry or a Letter. It was a shop advertisement on the front page of the 'Skill' area.

I didn't have the skill point to spend on it, but if I could get it... yes, it would be very useful... and it meant I could do a part of my plan before I had to see them later. "Grand!"

"What, already?" he swung out the doorway, his shirt rumpled and his hair even messier than before.

"I've decided we're setting this meeting for in three hours," I said. "Before then, we need to talk to the combat specialists who already chose their classes. I'll send them a message to meet in the lobby if they're not on guard rotation."

"That's like six people," he said. "And there's at least two on rotation in the lobby at all times."

"Four people is enough," I replied.

As a matter of fact, it might be better. It all depended upon how the 'party' system worked, or if there even was-PING!

Create a Party!

Parties have party chats and collective Points.

Collective Points are divided equally amongst combat members and those members who may not have any combat skills but are nonetheless useful, such as healers and mages that spent the battle creating barriers and pulling the wounded out of the line of fire.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

All points earned while in a party are added up together and then divided equally amongst everyone. Party Leaders can kick or add people to the party. Party members can leave at any time, but forfeit all the Points they've earned till then.

"There's a party system," I said. "The Codex has provided. Though the answer is better than I'd expected, it's still worse in some ways."

"How so?" Grand walked over to stand near me, wringing the bottom of his sweater in his hands.

"If you leave the party early, before it's disbanded, you forfeit all your skill and experience points," I replied. "And if I'm reading the implication correctly, your Party leader decides when you disband."

"Oh that's going to create a hell of a situation," Grand muttered. "All you'd have to do is make a party and then refuse to let anybody out until they all got fed up and opted out."

And most 'smart' people would wait to reveal their scheme until the party had already done a few missions together. In which case, they themselves would be the only ones to see the benefits... or they and a particularly stubborn person, but splitting between two would still be better than five or more.

"It seems as though the System has thought things through in some directions, but not others," I said with a sigh. "Let's get to the lobby."

The message I sent was quick and simple, 'meet in the lobby for a mission' and that was all.

"What are we doing?" Grand asked as we left his apartment.

"Leveling up, in a sense," I replied. "We can't just hole up in here forever. Those monsters are only D rank. Imagine if we're besieged by so much as a single C rank monster?"

"Ahhhh," he bit his lip, I could see it in my periphery. "Why right now, though?"

"There is a skill I need, before the meeting in three hours," I said.

"Did you send them a message?" he asked and checked his phone. "Hey, that's awfully light on details."

"It says to meet in three hours to discuss the vote," I replied. "Without knowing their issue, we can't really know what's holding them back."

"Bring both sides? That's a lot of people," he said.

"Of course they'll know I meant a representative of both sides. And if they don't, we can simply send the excess back and apologize for the inconvenience," I replied.

People are always hinting and beating around the bush, but strangely whenever I try to mimic them, they always say I wasn't specific enough. I didn't 'come out and say it'. This was the truth for basically everything.

I could never figure out that intrinsic 'something' that made something a joke versus an actual insult or stupid remark. Or the difference between 'too vague' and 'just subtle enough'.

So I just stopped making jokes or trying to be subtle. Period. And now people call me boring or a robot. Well. That's fine. I like robots.

The lobby wasn't a long walk from the 8th floor, even without using the elevator, which almost everyone refused to do -(aside from the elders who HAD to use it)- because... what if it failed? Walking down eight flights of stairs appeared to be a bit much for Grand who was huffing and puffing by the time we made it to the lobby.

"You will start with a walk," I said. "Up and down the stairs every day in the morning. Then Once at Noon and once at Night."

"What?" he gasped and bent in half to cough. "I'm fine! I don't need to exercise that much."

"You DO intend to eventually get a class, do you not?" I asked as we loitered outside the door to the lobby. "You need it."

"Yeah well, I'll exercise WHEN I get my class, how about that?" he coughed again and cleared his throat, seeming to have regained some energy and breath. "Now... what do I say to them?"

"We need them to rise in rank for the benefit of themselves and everyone in the building. Wargs are worth forty-five skill points if you're rank F. The F tier skills are one-hundred-fifty points each. To get another skill for five people, we would only need seven-hundred-fifty skill points to be divided up when we disband. Which is seventeen Wargs."

"Se- Seventeen!?" He asked, incredulous. "Look, I know you're Brenda Badass and you killed a Warg on your own without getting injured, apparently-"

"I had mild injuries," I cut him off. "And it was only that difficult for me because I had no support and am not a combat class. And yet... I still did it, did I not?"

"God, you talk funny," he sighed. "Yeah... okay, maybe. Maybe it'd be easier... but what are you gonna do in the party?"

"Spellcards," I replied. "I thought that obvious. I will give them spellcards and then provide support in the battle. Though, I will need to use their mana to create barriers for them. I can only make six cards a day... and I still need to keep one in reserve to feed Phobos-"

Phobos mewed loudly and I looked down.

I opened the menu and immediately bought a pouch of marbles. It appeared in my hand. I took one out of the pouch and I felt it greedily suck the energy from my body.

"Wha-what are you doin'?" Grand had backed away as the marbles appeared. "Fuck, what the hell was that? I only ever seen people take shit out of their inventory. They usually reach in their bags for it."

"The shop puts things in your hand if you don't have space," I muttered absent-mindedly as the spell energy left my body and I had to blink through a tiny wave of tiredness. Then, I dropped the marble. It was now swirling with red energy that looked like smoke.

Phobos lifted onto his back legs to open his maw for it and swallowed it down. He began to glow a slightly brighter shade of red. His tail swished and he gave a mew that sounded wholly satisfied and happy.

"Ohhhh I didn't even really look at that thing too close before," Grand said and apparently realized he was trying to push his back through a wall and ceased. "Ahem! Well... let's go and tell the group that I'm uh... giving them a job. Do I offer to pay 'em?"

Ping!

"This is getting ridiculous," I grit my teeth and then breathed to calm myself. "System. I would prefer you give me every codex entry now and allow me to go through them at my leisure as I please. Having them pop up like this is annoying."

Nothing.

"I see, so you are supposed to be annoying, then," I huffed and gestured at the door. "The Codex says you can create a 'Job' and have a party take it and offer up a reward that isn't monetary. Such as awards, trophies or even types of currency only to be used in certain locations. Like Guild currency."

"We're not a guild yet, so..." he sighed. "I'll just tell them it's a job for status? Like uh, be the leaders of tomorrow or some crap like that?"

"Don't call it crap, but otherwise, yes," I replied.

He rolled his eyes and opened the door, stomping out and then holding it for me.