As you will learn, a Fortification is akin to a dungeon – we have been informed this was the basis for yet another type of game, unlike any other I've ever heard of, whose goal is the conquest of Territory. As your Fortification has periodic attacks from Dungeons and Galactic adventurers, you will see how it defends itself much as the Dungeons do. Unlike a Dungeon, however, it does not typically serve as a spawn point.

Every monster you encounter once the *^%$* System is in place was created within the Dungeon. This is why regularly raiding them is so important: If you can focus the Dungeons on populating themselves, it reduces the rate at which new monsters flow out over your world.

The Drawback, of course, is that the Dungeons are the highest risk zones on your world, and will learn from each encounter. This again underlines the need to get a powerful, varied force trained as soon as possible – giving you hope of preventing the conquest of your world by the Galactic scum – and happily, gives you a method of doing so: for danger and experience run Eye to Eye, and the XP that can be earned within is second to none.

・ What you need to know to survive the Voidbound System, By &*%:・%^%

Shawn arrived perhaps five minutes later, nodding to Jonathon with a slight look of surprise as he placed a box of doughnuts on the table. “Morning.” his boss – former boss? - looked rather like a cat that had snagged a canary, who had been caught in the act: A mix of satisfaction, and worry for the future. “I think we might need these. Gorgeous rooms, aren't they?”

Jonathon nodded. “A bit over the top, in some ways.” he replied, a little ruefully. “Did you remember to set your respawn point?”

“I did, yeah. Caught it when I was looking at my xp. I'm three off levelling.” he shook his head. “All that time playing wow, and we're all newbs again.”

“I'm at level two now.” Jonathon admitted. “Experience to get to level 3 is the same, which makes me hopeful we can get a class pretty quickly – I gather it opens up a whole bunch of things.” At that point. Michelle walked into the room, looking exhausted, and immediately snagged one of the doughnuts.

“Morning.” she greeted them all with a yawn. “I did not want to get out of bed this morning, you monster.” her tone light-hearted, it was unclear at which of them this was directed, her eyes moving between the two as she took her seat, biting into the doughnut with a look of satisfaction. If anything, she seemed to draw the eye even more than yesterday – which gave Jonathan an idea.

“Level up?” he asked, with a smile, grinning back at her nod, causing Shawn to give a mock scowl.

“Points to Charisma, Stamina, and Intelligence.” she replied, her voice... melodious, captivating. “I'm at Charisma nine now, but I can't quite tell what the effect is.”

“I can.” Jonathon replied, giving a firm nod. “It's...” he glanced to Shawn. “How would you put it?”

“Like you're born to play the lead in a movie, Miss Pintek.” Shawn replied, making her blush just a touch. “I'm at a lowly five by comparison.” false modesty evident in his tone, as they both looked to Jonathon.

This latter worthy gave a sigh. “Five as well.” he replied. “From what the guide said, you get attribute points on level up based on what you've been doing. You were doing a lot to entertain the kids and keep up morale, Michelle, which is probably why. Given what you're doing, boss..” he looked back to Shawn, “I'd expect you to get a similar boost.”

The next few minutes were spent discussing system design and build strategies, as the others filtered in. David wandered in chatting with Francine about breakfast choices, and Larry, Dr Richardson, and Frank entered last, taking their places and yawning, as Jeeves shimmered into existence.

The image of Him against the far wall seemed to project itself into space, surging over the table in a wave of colour then taking form as a slightly more imposing form of the Jeeves that he had seen in other parts of the facility: This one seemed to almost crackle with power.

A wave of surprise washed over the group, but Shawn shook it off, clearing his throat, and rising. “We were in a huge rush to set this place up and get to safety. What I want to discuss now is where do we go from here? What do we know about this place, what's going to happen next, what other problems are on the horizon? How are we going to organise our new home?”

Jeeves smiled. “The organisation is whatever Jonathon desires. What do you wish them to know, Jonathon?” turning his neon gaze upon him.

Jonathon rubbed at his temples. “Since I'm the one who planted the spike, I'm apparently in charge.” the last word leaving with a deep sigh. “What I know so far: We have a huge number of people wanting to respawn here. And in a little under a month, the Dungeon is going to try and capture this fortification.”

“In twenty-six days, seventeen hours, and fifty eight minutes, to be precise.” Jeeves chimed in. “It should be great fun. And at this time, there are Twenty thousand, seven hundred and thirty-eight applicants to reset their respawn points to this location.”

Jonathon let that sink in as he continued. “I took a tour of the facilities, and apparently, if we can set up a group of fortifications, We can link them to defend the area within them. The casting chamber lets us use our spells like artillery, the training rooms boost the rate at which we develop our skills. And we can all feel the effect of the mana well.”

Frank nodded. “Maskeline was telling me about it. He also noted that helping the respawners would probably go some ways to fulfilling the quest, if we organise them – and that we should look at forming a gang.”

“A Gang?” Shawn asked, echoed by Francine and Garcia, a hint of confusion in their words.

“A Gang is the best translation the System has.” Jeeves replied. “A group of young individuals that work together to claim territory, protect their domain, and engage in conflict with those outside their domain. It would grant you the ability to link the Fortifications, as has been mentioned, under the leadership of the Gang instead of a Jonathon: it would give Gang bonuses, and I'm told could open up new classes.”

“Oh, A Guild!” Jonathon replied, with a laugh, nods moving around the table.

“A group devoted to controlling information about their craft?” Jeeves asked, after a moment. “That sounds silly. But would you want to give me to a Gang, Jonathon?” if anything, he sounded a little worried. “Would it not be far better to take control of them all yourself? Gangs are for those who do not feel they can fight alone, who need the co-operation of others simply to survive!”

This little diatribe got some stunned looks from the table – Dr Richardson was the first person to speak into the silence it produced. “What. The FUCK are you smoking?” she pronounced. “You want to take us back to the dark ages as well?” she glared Daggers at Jonathon as she finished, clearly assigning him some of the blame.

Jonathon, in turn, held up his hands, defensively. “No! This was not my Idea. A Gang sounds good - How do we found one?” his gaze swivelled to Frank, who was noticeably grinning.

“I was curious about that myself. You need to get at least four people who state – in unison – that they are forming a gang together.” Glances were exchanged, then Shawn held up his hand: Counting down with his fingers from three, In unison the table stated "We wish to form a Gang together.”

Really, they should have expected what happened next.

A font of Iridescent green formed before them, forming into a screen that they could all see before them.

Congratulations on Forming Gang Earth Three!

For Being in the Top four, Your Gang receives a Universal Trait !

For being in the top twelve, Your Gang Account is opened with 248,832 SMU !

Enjoy Your Game!

“Gang Earth Three?” Michelle noted with a snort. “Great.” Larry looked far more intent.

“A universal Trait? Does that mean what I think it does? A trait for every member of the Gang? Can we get Indomitable?” he said, his tone urgent. “That's the trait that the guide said was the only way he survived.” Even as he said that, the Traits list opened up – there were thousands of them. Some didn't even seem to be in English, as if there had been a best fit to concepts even more so than usual: They could see Hanzi, Cyrillic, and Kanji – and those were just the scripts Jonathon recognised. It scrolled down in tune with Larry's words, until – indeed – Indomitable was highlighted as a trait. Around it? Traits with names like 'Immune ', and 'Intrigue' could be seen – and universally, none of them said what they did.

“The dictionary definition of Indomitable is one who is impossible to subdue or defeat.” noted Garcia, primly. “so if that's what it does, Great, but it seem a little excessive for what I've seen of this damn system so far, so It probably doesn't mean that.”

Jonathon looked at his sheet: He'd gotten a trait, Hadn't he? And there it was.

Governor (San-fran Recovery point) - +3 Charisma, +12% recovery rates when inside San-fran Recovery point.

“They tell you what they do when you have them.” he noted. “Apparently, the one I got for making this place gives me a boost to Charisma and recovery rates when I'm here. So I'm Charisma eight right now.” he looked over to Larry. “Does the guide give any clue as to what it does?”

Larry shook his head: Frank looked distracted for a moment, and then went white. “Maskeline told me. It makes it so others can't alter our sheets without our implicit consent – he was quite firm about the wording. This matters as apparently there are ways to reset your respawn point, mess with your resistances, or give you Slavery traits – and this stops it happening unless you've agreed to it.”

Jeeves cleared his holographic throat. “not exactly. Implicit consent is important wording. For example, you are assumed you have given implicit consent for anyone else in your gang to use their abilities on you, unless you explicitly revoke that consent. Similarly, in a fight, you're implicitly accepting that your health and mana can be altered, or temporarily have your resistances reduced.”

Shawn's brow furrowed in the brief silence. “I take it the others have similarly opaque results.” he said wryly. “In the lack of any other suggestions, I'm good with that?”

Francine nodded, then added, “Though I really want to know how we get some of those other Traits. Immune looks rather nice, if it's anything like what the name suggests.”

“You gain traits based on significant actions, and of course as part of your character class.” Jeeves noted, as if this was obvious.

“Are we all in agreement?” Shawn asked, and then there was a round of nods.

Congratulations!

As a member of Gang Earth Three, you have gained the trait Indomitable!

The Hologram before them changed, as well. Flashing once, to display their new organisation.

Gang Earth-Three

Level: 1

Members: 8

Membership Benefits:

Members gain the benefits of the Identity Perk towards each other.

Members gain the Trait Indomitable.

And as it did, Jonathon suddenly had an awareness of the full names of everyone he looked at. Not in the sense of having them pop to mind, but in the same way he knew Shawn's shirt was white, he knew his name as Shawn Charles Lawrence.

“So how to we organise it?” Shawn asked, with a slight frown. “Set up the gang leader, sub-officers and the like?” Jeeves gave a holographic shrug.

“That's really up to you. Isn't it?” he replied, in a tone layered with ideals such as 'I told you so' and ''can we move on'. A series of frowns appeared.

“So everyone has equal authority?” Frank asked: Jeeves nodded impatiently.

“Just so.” Eyes naturally gravitated towards Shawn, who was rubbing at his temples. “Of course. So it's perks, and, presumably communal ownership?” he looked to Jonathon. “The Gang would like to buy this fortification. How much?” a pause. “And is there any way we can restrict access to the Gang accounts?”

“Anything purchased using the gang accounts belongs to the Gang. It's a different store.” Jeeves replied, sounding even more impatient. “And if you want to buy me, It's Twenty-thousand, Seven hundred and Thirty-six SMU.”

Jonathon nodded to the AI's words, looking apologetic. “It's set by the system.”

Larry held up a finger. “If the Fortification is owned by the gang, wouldn't that give every member of the gang the ability to alter and change it at a whim?”

“Indeed.” remarked Jeeves, sardonically.

“And I presume we want to expand the Gang, to give everyone the Trait we can. So that might not be the best of plans. These linked fortifications you mentioned.” he looked to Jonathon, then to Jeeves. “Do they need to be owned by the same person or group?”

Jonathon shrugged – he didn't know – and Jeeves gave a long suffering sigh. “So long as Jonathon is a member of the gang, he is assumed to be allied with any other Fortifications owned by the gang. Any such link with other fortifications would need to be negotiated. Can we spend the upgrade points now?” as he said this, the Fortification sheet popped into view: Meanwhile, the group exchanged glances: going by experssions, the idea of anyone being able to alter the place at a whim seemed to be a bad idea: They cancelled the transaction while looking over the data.

Fortification Name: SanFran Recovery Point

Level: 2

Dungeon Proximity: Close

Immunity Period: 26 Days

You have 11,812 Fortification points Available!

Options

・ Defensive Wall ・ Superior

・ Defensive Turrets - 9 Intermediate

・ Traps - None

・ Accommodations - Immaculate

・ Rooms -

◦ Temple

◦ Medical Bay

◦ Forge

◦ Training Facilities

◦ Casting Chamber

◦ Mana Well

Fortification Boss: Basic Digital (Jeeves)

Shawn sighed. “I suppose so. What, Exactly, can we spend the points on?” he looked between Jonathon and Jeeves. “Given that you set all this up, can you run us through it?”

Jonathon nodded, bringing up the costs on his own display. “Four hundred and thirty-two to go from improved to intermediate, One thousand, seven hundred and twenty-eight to go from Intermediate to Superior, Six thousand nine hundred and fifteen to go from Superior to immaculate.” As for the room list? It's.. grown. Armoury and minion foundry. Alchemy, Chemistry, Physics, thaumaturgical, Biology and Genetic Labs. Launch, subsurface, docking and teleportation ports, A communication centre, A Sensor array, a Dungeon, a map room, Gallery, Treasury, Fighter, mech and tank bays, and instruction facilities – how do those differ from Training facilities?” he asked, looking up at Jeeves.

“Training facilities are for you to develop your own skills. Instruction facilities are to teach others your skills, or learn new ones.” Jeeves said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And don't forget you need to Select my third function. I'm getting bored.” a pause. “And you could upgrade me to Improved for only a hundred and forty-four!”

“Question.” Dave asked. “What the fuck do you actually do, what do we get out of upgrading you?”

Jeeves rolled his electronic eyes. “Obviously, other than managing various roles within the Fortification – I can handle more if I get upgraded – my primary role is acting as the guardian of the Fortification. The boss, if you will. You have to defeat me to claim ownership of this Fortification. I have excellent hacking skills, in the event our opponents are digital or have such in their possession it is trivial for me to subvert them: And I have a beginner's understanding of plasma magic, and some lightning spells at my disposal.”

“Then yes, Let's upgrade Jeeves.” Dave replied. “Upgrade the turrets, buy some traps, and maybe the mech bay?” there was a noticeable touch of glee in his voice.

“do you know how to pilot a 'mech'?” Garcia asked. “Do you own one? Can you make one? I suggest something more practical.” her tone was that of a mother remonstrating a teen. “A Communications centre – as good as we can get – to see who can help us. And a Map room – I gather it can show us important things in the area. Then upgrade Jeeves as much as we can.”

Shawn nodded. “We need a good mix between surviving now and planning for later. I agree on the communications, but I think we want more turrets, maybe upgrade the wall further?”

Larry sighed as everyone started to speak at once: In a loud voice, he asked, “Maybe we should ask Jeeves what all the rooms do?”

In response, a display flickered up on the table.

Armoury – A place to store weapons and equipment safely

Minion foundry – allows Jeeves to generate automated defenders.

Labs – allows research in the relevant fields to develop new things, if you have the relevant abilities.

Launch port – a port for spacecraft.

Subsurface port – a port for subterranean vehicles.

Docking port – A port for Watergoing vehicles. (We have no access to water - Jeeves)

Teleportation port – A send/receive system for teleportation. Can only teleport to or from a Teleport Anchor or Teleport Port.

Communication centre – allows communication with other fortifications and allies in the field.

Sensor array – extends sensor range of the Fortification, and provides more information to the map room.

Dungeon – a place to keep and interrogate prisoners.

Map room – An important room for controlling the area. Displays all information other rooms provide on your surroundings. (I want this – Jeeves.)

Gallery – a place to display your trophies, and commemorate important events.

Treasury – a bank interface, where SMU can be exchanged between people.

Fighter/mech and tank bay – vehicle deployment for fortification defence. (Coupled with a Superior+ Minion bay, I can make drones – Jeeves.)

Instruction facilities – Facilities to learn new abilities, and teach others your abilities. Good for newbs. (Like you lot – Jeeves.)

After a brief silence where they all read the list, the discussion resumed: It took a while, but they eventually decided on what Jonathon should buy. This latter point hit him just as he was putting the list together he paused briefly to consider, then shrugged. He didn't object to their choices, exactly.

Before he confirmed, however, Larry spoke up. “Take a look at the Gang store. We can buy fortification spikes, teleport anchors, and custom classes...” that got everyone's attention. Without even bothering to ask, Jonathon added a teleport port to the list, tweaking the values before making the purchases, leaving just forty points remaining: There was a pause as the display blinked with the updated information.

Fortification Name: SanFran Recovery Point

Level: 2

Dungeon Proximity: Close

Immunity Period: 26 Days

You have 40 Fortification points Available!

Options

・ Defensive Wall ・ Superior

・ Defensive Turrets - 9 Intermediate

・ Traps - None

・ Accommodations - Immaculate

・ Rooms -

◦ Temple

◦ Medical Bay

◦ Forge

◦ Training Facilities

◦ Casting Chamber

◦ Mana Well

◦ Map Room

◦ Sensor Array

◦ Instruction Facilities

◦ Communications Centre

◦ Teleport Port

◦ Minion Foundry

Fortification Boss: Superior Digital (Jeeves)

9% increase in Training Facilities

Generates Autodoc in Medical Bay

Cybernetic Facilities in Forge

Automates replacement of Traps

Enhanced Turret Targeting and Damage Selection.

Eliminates chance of Teleportation Failure

Enhanced monitoring (Internal)

Enhanced Monitoring (External)

Communications Hardening

Research Automation

AI Administrator

Networked (Unavailable at this time)

Everyone looked up. Before anyone else could speak, Jonathon asked Jeeves, “Can you run through what your unset features do, before I pick them?” The AI in question did not seem to obviously have changed with the upgrade, but was sporting a wide smile.

“Certainly, Jonathon. I can make the training facilities more effective, so you develop your skills faster. I can gain the authority to create cybernetic implants on command. You still haven't given me any traps to play with, but it should be obvious what that one does. I can improve the teleportation calculations, so there is no chance of a misalignment, and stops some of the nasty kind of teleport blockers turning you inside out. I can focus some threads on closer monitoring of what's going inside our outside, and alert you of anything unusual I see. Encrypt your communications, to make them harder to intercept, do the research for you if you ever get any labs here, take over Shawn's job regarding assigning rooms and so forth, and if you ever get a second Fortification, I could be permitted to network – letting me support my networked bosses with their tasks, including defence.”

There were scattered nods around the table, and Jonathon glanced at the others. “I'm thinking training boost, Internal and external monitoring, and teleportation hardening?”

Shawn frowned. “Why do we need internal monitoring? Would Communication hardening not be better, Jon?”

Garcia nodded. “I agree.” her tone suggested she more than agreed. Jonathon shook his head.

“In fifteen hours or so, We will have something like twenty thousand people respawning here – I assume, rather than leaving them in Limbo. And we're going to need recruits for our gang so we can defend this place in a month's time. But statistically? How much do you want to bed that that twenty thousand or so doesn't include any criminals? Thieves? Rapists?” he shrugged. “Or cases of shock or PTSD, or any one of a thousand other problems we might see when thousand of people are put in a new place after a disaster?”

His words got some shocked looks – Dave frowned, then nodded. “He's got a fucking point, boss.” Michelle nodded, then looked to Jeeves.

“What, exactly, would you be monitoring for, Jeeves?” she asked, before glancing at the others. “Let's find out before we assume?” The others nodded, and Jeeves smiled.

“Whatever Jonathan asked me to watch for, but primarily incidents of violence, coups, or conspiracies to overthrow my rightful owner.”

Michelle considered this, for a moment. “And would you tell anyone what you saw, even if asked, if it was not something you'd been tasked to monitor?” Jeeves shook his electronic head, and her soft brown eyes turned to Jonathon. “And you wouldn't ask about anything perverted. Would you, Jonathon?” her tone stern, but a light smile dancing upon her lips as she asked.

He fought down a blush. “Of course not!” Jonathon declared. “So. Any more comments, before we discuss the thing we've been avoiding?” Shawn frowned at that.

“What thing?” he asked. Jonathon gave a rather dark chuckle.

“The fact we're fucking newbs who need to be combat ready as soon as we possibly can. That's why I bought the Teleportation port – I'm hoping if we buy some of those anchors, we can have teams carry them and use them for quick escapes. That's why the Training facilities – because most of us have bugger all combat skills. I know I need some better combat spells – what about you? As far as Custom classes go – I like it. We can build some to optimize survival, use them as a recruiting tool. We need to grow. We need to build. We need to be ready. And that means we're going to need to fight and get into the damn dungeon that was made out of our home, and level up.” he looked up to Jeeves. “You heard my choices. Set them.”

“Done.” Jeeves said, into the silence Jonathan's words had generated: slowly, Shawn and the others nodded.

“Right.” Larry said. “Me and the guys have our guns. What about the rest of you? If you can't fight – how do you intend to fit into the party? How are we gonna organise it?”

“Classically? We want a Big balled Tank up front to hold the mobs back, some God-damn warriors up front, some Hardcore casters up back and a healer.” Dave replied, enthusiastically.

“Yeah, but this isn't fucking WoW.” Larry replied. “Come on. Guns, Spaceships, Cyberware. I'm getting more of a Shadowdive vibe here.” he thought for a moment. “I'm thinking summons up front until we have a better handle in things, a gun line, and magic users. From what the guide said, to accommodate the huge variety of weapons? Different mobs are resistant to different types of weapons. Magic is the great equaliser, as always.”

Francine nodded. “Not to mention tanks and bikes. I wonder if we have any soldiers respawning tonight?” she shrugged. “It might be an idea to look at getting weapons for my bike? Is that a thing?” she looked to Jeeves, who nodded.

“If you can learn the appropriate skills, you could certainly create such a mount in the forge.” Larry considered this for a moment. “That works for the roaming monsters, probably less so in the Dungeon, if this place is anything to go by.”

Shawn made a thoughtful noise. “We should all consider how we want to develop – what sort of class we want to aim for, building on the skills we already have. I'll start. I've got a mix of creation and solid magic – so I should work, I think, on becoming a support type, a defender, creating barricades and so forth: I've also got enough Destiny magic to improve our odds. I'm going to have a think about that, but I can see some sort of crafter build developing.”

Frank raised his hand. “I already have a class, sort of. I'm shaping up to be a cleric of Maskeline. I can give out magic-related buffs, and he says he's going to teach me some magic. On that note, Jonathon – did you look at the spell book he gave you?”

Jonathan blushed slightly. “I did not. It's sitting next to my bed: I'll look at it after this meeting. I'm thinking I'm going to aim to be a caster, a mix of support and combat spells: I'm going to see about learning more types of magic, and seeing what combos I can put together: Life magic gives me both healing and attack spells, so I can probably fill multiple roles, and I want to double-down on that.”

Dave nodded. “You might want to take advantage of the fact you can create your own damn spells.” he suggested, with just a hint of jealousy in his bemused tone. “Myself, I'm going to become a master of time and space. So I should be able to slide into a good support role, as well as scouting and trap detection. One of my skills also says I can create a swarm of up to... eight more people.”

“A swarm?” Shawn asked, his brow furrowing for a moment before he cleared. “Ah. A team. I'm beginning to get an idea of what the creators of this 'game' were like.” his tone was wry.

“Happily, I have a perk that means I get experience from healing people.” Garcia said, crossing her arms. “So you lot can go out and kill things, and I'll focus on putting you back together. I will be looking at improving my knowledge of Life and Medicine – Jonathon, if you could perhaps teach me some of the spells you know?”

Jonathon gave a nod. “Sure.” he said, his tone easy. “We can talk later? Frankly, what I know to do at my current level is ridiculous, so I can probably design some spells to make your life easier.”

“Nice for some.” Francine noted, with a sigh. “I'm going to have to split my focus – I'll need to find whatever skill is used for the forge, and work on a build for making combat vehicles, maybe even mechs.” she flashed Dave a grin. “Because they sound kinda fun. Right now, though, II will work on building up a squad of all terrain bikes, to help clear out the area around the Fortification.”

Larry gave a nod. “Sounds useful, but you'll need to look at ways of bringing those skills into the Dungeon. Me? I've already got a good base, but I'm going to see about learning how to use some of the other guns the system uses, and improving on my Necromancy, until I can design my own death spells.”

Michelle sighed. “I need more spells. I want to see if I can build a water-witch class, bringing my pictures to life to fight for us, and maybe get some elementals of water? I can see some fun synergies with illusions, too...” she trailed off, looking thoughtful.

A thoughtful silence spread around the table, before Larry spoke. “So that's Six of us looking for dungeon builds, one for Clearing the area, and one for support personnel. It's a decent start, for the newbie area!”

His words brought a horrible thought to Jonathon, and he looked to Jeeves. “Ah.. I've been meaning to ask. The Fortification is marked as being 'Danger close' what, precisely, does that mean in terms of the threats out there?”

Jeeves seemed unruffled. “It sets how often the Fortification needs to be defended, and according to my sensors, the average level of the threats outside is twenty-four.”

“Fuck.” was the first word heard, from Dave: Jonathan placed his head in his hands, and there was a somewhat stunned silence as they took this in. Shawn was the next to speak.

“Well that's a kick in the nuts. We need to recruit. Jeeves? Jonathon? Can we advertise for the gang? Distribute the manual, maybe? Let people know the situation? Because I think it'll take more than six of us to down something twenty times more powerful than we are!” there was a combination of determination and just a touch of terror in his words, but it injected a wave of confidence into the group. Just a little.

“Certainly, if Jonathon so authorises it.” Jeeves replied. “Do you wish this, Jonathon?”

Jonathon nodded, wearily. “Do it. Authorise all the applicants to respawn. Shawn, Michelle, can you put together a recruitment ad for Jeeves, and then we can put it up? And Shawn – can we make you the primary reviewer of applicants? I think.. I think we want to hold off on getting any custom classes until we see what classes are on offer: Shall we do some training, look over the Gang store, and spend the gang money before we approve any applicants? Meeting this evening, once we've had a time to digest?”

Shawn nodded. “Good plan. Francine? Maybe get with your boyfriend, any one else who brought a vehicle, and see if you can't organise a cavalry group? And.. Yeah. Let's break for now, reconvene after dinner.” there was a general sound of agreement, everyone starting to visualise a swarm of level 20+ monsters attacking in less than four weeks, and the likely consequences if they weren't ready. Jonathan headed back to his room, asking Garcia to follow him – He wanted a look at that spellbook, then he'd teach her what he knew and begin the grind.

They had a lot of work to do.