Enter System, page 29
part #1 of Natural Laws Apocalypse Series
“Just put it up on the wall?” she asked.
He nodded.
“That was the plan. It might slow down your lines a bit though,” he said.
She smiled again, still holding the eye contact. It was starting to make Marc slightly uncomfortable, so he shifted his gaze.
“That won't be a problem. I got some help now too, so we'll be able to move at least as fast as we used to even if people slow things a little with the sign.”
“Thanks, I just wanted to warn you so if the line snarls a little you'll know why,” Marc said.
“Thanks for the warning then,” she said with another smile, trying to catch his eyes again.
Alright, I may be obtuse, but I'm sure she's flirting with me. Need to not encourage that, not in the slightest since maybe Felicia and I might be able to actually get together finally. That won't happen if I'm not careful about things like this.
“You're welcome. I'll just get this set up and let you get back to work,” he said.
Once he had that set, he pulled up his notes interface.
Oh yeah, we need the tilapia, and I need to make sure the seeds are all given to Allan so he can get them to the people that have volunteered for the greenhouses, he thought.
His morning was filled with small things like that, but he managed to clear his list before lunch, leaving him time to start investigating the buildings he was sure they were going to need right after he'd eaten lunch.
* * *
Marc's plan was slowly coming together. He had purchased the tilapia and they were delivered directly to the tanks in the aquaponic greenhouse, materializing the way he imagine a spawn would. There were food pellets for them that should last for a while and they'd need fewer of those once the plants were growing well.
The rest of his plan for the morning had involved finding his own source of paper and starting to write. Using the Creative Writing skill, he'd written out instructions for everyone that was already performing a function for the Safe Zone. He'd also written out orders for those who were manning the greenhouses to go to Allan to request the seeds, then take the seeds and plant them according to the instructions on the pads in the respective greenhouses.
He felt a little stupid doing everything this way and he had to purchase a large cork notice board for the cafeteria to post all the orders on, but this way he'd increased his Creative Writing skill by a point in the creation of the orders and everyone who followed them would gain a better interpretation of the orders and the five percent bonus, ten percent for the orders he'd written after the skill increase, towards them being completed successfully. Something which didn't sound like much, but even the original five percent to successful completion would add up, at ten percent it actually started to sound decent and he was eager to continue leveling that skill for the higher percentage bonuses it would offer.
After lunch his first stop was at the shop kiosk. A few minutes spent searching, and eight silver, provided him with a common quality short sword that he could use as a backup melee weapon to his pilum. Eight silver as a lot, but it looked to be in much better condition than any they'd found on the spawns so far so he was willing to part with it.
A few more minutes of searching, plus an entire gold coin this time, netted him a better pack. He'd been using the one he had since before the System, but the help he'd downloaded to his brain had mentioned that there were packs that interfaced with his inventory. He'd just bought one with an additional twenty slots. When wearing it he could simply access its contents the same way he did his inventory. There were much larger ones, but the prices rose dramatically for anything larger than what he'd just purchased.
Finally he was stuck with making a decision. He could afford another recycler with the coins he had. The gold coins from the troll had certainly eased his financial situation and the ongoing income from the help pads would cover any day to day costs he had.
I have to assume, he thought, that some of these people that just came in, the hard workers as Ron called them, are going to have skills that we can't immediately make use of. Another recycler would give them something to do in the meanwhile. Plus, if we need additional materials for the buildings I want to make, I could dedicate one recycler team to going and acquiring those while still having one working to expand the Safe Zone. It's a lot of money, for now at least, but I think that I need to do it.
He winced as he purchased the second recycler, clearing out all but two of the gold coins he'd had. This time he'd paid attention to the upgrades available on it and ended up paying six gold for one that moved faster and had the capability to process some variant materials that he thought he'd need. It was essentially the same machine as the first, the difference being somewhere in its programming, so if he wanted he could probably upgrade the first one to the same level as the new one.
He did have several hundred silver and even more copper remaining in addition to the two gold, but somehow the sight of all that gold in his inventory had given him a warm, fuzzy feeling. Like he had a nest egg tucked away, or something like that.
Needs must when the devil drives, he thought. If it weren't for the damned spawns, the System itself would probably be the closest thing to a devil that I'd ever encounter.
The second recycler was delivered a moment later and he took hold of it and began to drag it outside. It's quicker movement when underway meant it took him about thirty seconds instead of a good two minutes to get it across the gym and out the door. The shorter time it took to get it to the small shelter near the material piles that had been built to shelter the first recycler told him that the speed upgrade, at least, had been a good investment.
Okay, now that I've got a way to retrieve alternate materials, it's time to see what we can build currently and what alternate materials they might need. So far it's been sand, fertilizer, nutrient solution, and I suppose the core to build the Safe Zone initially might count, not that I can get some of those from a recycler. I assume an alchemist lab for Felicia will require a lot of glass, which means more sand I'm guessing.
He went back to the building pedestal in the gym and started looking at options. Sure enough, the alchemy lab required a lot of stone, a little wood, one unit of fertilizer, and twenty units of sand. A smithy would require stone, metal, and a heat source, although the description noted that the smithy could be tied to a powered Safe Zone's power at the cost of one expansion's worth of power. A leather worker would require tannin sources, which translated to an absurd amount of unprocessed wood.
The list went on and on so Marc decided that a meeting of his group, plus maybe a few other people, would be required in order to determine just what he was going to build next.
He put the word out for his group to meet him in the auditorium. There weren't any more classes scheduled for today, so they ought to have the place to themselves. Then he gave it a little more thought and also put the word out for Jayden, Ron, and Conner to meet there as well.
* * *
Ron was a little later than the rest of them showing up and Marc wondered if that was intentional, until he showed up and told them that he and his group had found a few more survivors and escorted them to the Safe Zone. He gave Marc their names so they could be added to the resident list, then they settled in for the meeting once that had been done.
After sharing all the options they currently had for extra buildings to make, except the alchemy lab which he was planning as a surprise for Felicia, they started in on discussing it. Unsurprisingly, most of them thought the smithy should take priority, even if it would cost extra power. One of Ron's people had picked up the bowyer/fletcher skill while making arrows for his group to use and Marc was sure he'd find them on the list. More weapons sounded good to him especially ones that could be used from the wall with minimal danger to the users, so that also went to the top of the list.
There were a lot of things they couldn't use yet. Evidently they could raise their own herds of animals for meat and material since a slaughterhouse was on the list as well as a tannery and glue maker.
Although the tannery and glue maker could also just be used with game, but they certainly wouldn't be in use consistently from just that.
A barracks was available, and was what Marc had based the one he'd built off of. Part of the reason Ron had selected it for his crew was because residing in it added bonuses to some physical combat skills. For now they wouldn't need a new one, but Marc had a suspicion that if they kept expanding the way he wanted, they'd eventually need to build another one near the gates so response time was better in case they were attacked.
Jeff wanted a brewery at the top of the list, and Ron supported him on that. The only problem was that it wasn't something that was showing up on the list yet.
“I mean, it costs as much for a single bottle of beer as it does for a meal if you get them both from the shop,” Jeff said. “That's outrageous.”
“Well Jeff, I'm sure we'll do a brewery eventually,” Marc replied, “but we don't have grains at all to use right now and I don't think buckwheat, the only one we're currently planting, makes for any sort of decent beer. Besides, I don't have the option on it yet.”
“True, I've never seen an all buckwheat beer,” Jeff said. “But that just means we need more fields.”
“Which we'll put in once Allan has some more people with the Farmer class. He's the only one who has it so far. We're trying to figure out what we need to be able to make things safer, easier, or quicker for everyone right now. That's all,” Marc said.
In the end they decided on the smithy and a shop for the bowyer/fletcher for right now. They'd see how quickly the structures formed and what materials were needed for them before making any more decisions.
Plus the alchemy lab for Felicia, of course, Marc thought. But there's no need to bring that up with anyone else right now.
Marc went back to the building pedestal and pulled up the structures they wanted to build. They had sufficient materials for all three, once he had some more sand and another unit of fertilizer. So he started the build on the smithy and the bowyer/fletcher, locating the smithy well away from the sleeping areas and the bowyer/fletcher behind one of the growing fields. Before he hit accept on it, he drafted a couple of people who were just hanging around to go warn anyone on the grounds that building would start soon and materials would be floating around all over the place.
Then he went in search of Al to retrieve the list he'd made during his class. He also copied the list in the cafeteria, leaving it up since it didn't look like all the earlier residents had signed onto it yet.
Then he started looking. Sure enough, there were quite a few people who were willing to do manual labor. Primarily from the group that came in with Ron, but there were still a couple from the earlier group who were willing to do that. He picked a mix from the two groups that were willing to both do manual labor and go outside the Safe Zone, then went looking for them.
After he had the four of them, he brought them out and showed them the recycler. Explaining that they needed materials to expand the Safe Zone and to build other things inside of it, he offered the four of them the position as a second recycling team. He promised them a guard any time they were going outside of the Safe Zone also. The four of them accepted and he wrote out their first assignment, blushing as he did so.
Written orders, it just seems embarrassing to do it this way, he thought. It's worth it in the end though.
Then he stopped for a moment and thought about how Ron had found more survivors this morning. After promising them a guard in the morning he took off, looking for Jeff.
“Hey Jeff, do you want to work on your Stealth some more? Might be dangerous though,” he said.
“What is it, this time?” Jeff said.
“I was just thinking. Ron didn't find so many survivors this time. Maybe we should look elsewhere. I thought you could do a scouting run, in Stealth, and see if you spot any more survivors that we could get first thing tomorrow.”
Jeff looked thoughtful for a moment.
“Sure, I can do that. Now?”
“Give me two minutes first,” Marc said.
He sat down and immediately started writing out orders for Jeff to search through some of the areas they hadn't been to yet, looking for other survivors to rescue. He left it up to Jeff whether he wanted to contact them now, or with the group in the morning. Finishing up the orders, he handed them over.
Jeff took them daintily between thumb and forefinger, staring at the sheet of paper.
“Ugh, hard copy!” Jeff said.
“There's a reason for that. I've got this skill that will increase the chances of you being successful if you're working off my written orders,” Marc said.
Jeff looked at him curiously.
“We'll talk about this later. There's no chance a class called Arcane Bulwark would get a skill like that, none.”
“Fine, we can talk about it later on, but for now, go look for people that we can maybe keep alive through this?” Marc said.
Jeff gave him a sloppy, two-fingered salute. He concentrated for a moment and his outfit changed to include the leather jacket with his gladius belted at his waist.
“Yes, sir. I'll be on my way, sir,” he said, sarcasm dripping from the words.
He turned and shimmered, dropping into Stealth.
* * *
Marc felt guilty for sending Jeff out like that, but he knew that Jeff would have the best chance of anyone to do that without getting in trouble.
Although Jeff doing anything without getting into trouble is difficult to imagine, he thought.
Even so, with his Stealth, Jeff would have the best chance of finding anyone else alive out in the town. Marc just hoped that he'd be okay. He knew Jeff had a healing staff in his inventory though, they may have loaned one out to Olivia after she'd depleted the first one, but she'd returned it shortly thereafter. So even if he got wounded, he could heal himself and if he did get into trouble he just had to break contact and go back into Stealth.
Marc tried to push away the worry that sending Jeff out was causing in him since it was too late now, but he did resolve to not do that again.
Marc moved on to his next task. He knew who he'd like guarding the other recycling party, but he didn't know if she'd be ready to work yet. She'd seemed pretty broken up the last time he'd heard her, and he didn't even know where she was.
Instead, he found Felicia in her room. Knocking at the door, he waited for her to answer it. When she did, she just looked at him, waiting.
“Hi,” he said, cursing himself for the inane greeting.
“Hi yourself. Did you need something?”
“Yeah, I did. Do you know where Natalie is?” he asked.
Felicia's brow furrowed and she gave him a dark look.
“Why?” she asked, coldly and abruptly.
Marc held up his hands.
“Whoa, I just wanted to ask her if she was willing to guard the second recycling team I formed today. I've already given them an assignment for tomorrow and I need to get them a guard. I know you talked with her a lot yesterday, so I thought you might know where she was.”
Felicia relaxed.
“Oh, sorry, yeah. Come with me.”
She closed her door and started walking down the hall.
“So, I thought we might do something later on? If you're interested,” Marc said.
Felicia stopped and turned to him.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I was going to ask last night, but it sounded like Natalie needed your time more than I did then.”
Her face fell again.
“Yeah, she's taking it pretty hard. Evidently her dad got a class too, but he disappeared when he was out trying to forage for them. She's convinced herself that he's dead and I'm not sure she's wrong. I mean, where could he disappear to?”
“Well, if there's another lair type of thing around, he might've been captured or something,” Marc said.
“I didn't want to tell her that though, I didn't want her to go charging out on her own trying to search through every building in the town looking for him or any lairs.”
“Oh, well, that's probably good. If there is another lair, we might find it soon. But it's probably better that she assume he's gone since that's the most likely probability.”
Felicia nodded her head.
“Yeah, I didn't say it in so many words, but that is what I told her. I don't know if she'll be ready to pull guard duty yet, but it would be good for her if she did. She needs something to take her mind off of things.”
When they found Natalie, she was in the apartment she was sharing with the other members of her family. Surprisingly, she seemed eager when Marc offered her the job.
“It'll be good to get out of here every day,” she said. “I love my mom like crazy, but these last few days she's just been a bit much. Maybe having other people around will help, if she'll leave the apartment at all anyhow.”
Marc told her where to be after breakfast in the morning and then he and Felicia went back to his room.
“So, I picked up this pad for myself. It's kind of like the ones for System help, but more powerful. I can get books on it and...”
He tapped the pad a few times, opening it up to the listings for movies that he'd found. It looked like, much like books, the System had just about every movie that had ever been made.
“So, you want to watch a movie? You can pick,” Marc said.
“Mmm, we should see if there's a way to get a larger screen,” Felicia said. “Set it up in the auditorium maybe, with a library of movies for it? But for now, let's watch this.”
Her finger went down and tapped the selection she'd searched for and Marc leaned back, slipping an arm around her as he did so. Instead of stiffening or pulling away as he'd feared, she leaned into him as the two settled in for their movie.
