Where there had once been politicians, there were now classers fighting tooth and nail. Some leaders turned out to be magnanimous, others tyrannical.

Wilfrid Pember - Historian - The Start of the Apocalypse

____

It had been three days since the horde attack and a lot had happened in this time. Firstly, Silas’s work on his runes had finally paid off as not only had he increased their duration to a full day, he had also learnt how to reliably engrave the muscular chest rune with smooth lines as opposed to shaky ones. The System must have considered this a considerable accomplishment, as it had raised the individual constitution bonus for each rune to +3, giving him +9 overall.

Silas Wycliffe

Level 32

Level 4 Duellist

Mana: 53/174 (recovery rate: 0.70 per minute)

Strength: 27

Agility: 39

Constitution: 23 (+9)

Arcana: 14

Perception: 52

Abilities: Weakness Vision

While he had gone up 3 levels from the horde and ratkin attacks - adding the points into strength, agility, and arcana - his Duellist level had only gone up once as both battles had been chaotic frays with no opportunities to duel enemies.

Class: Duellist - Level 4

Quests: Duel the Armoured Bear (F-2), Duel the Swamp Troll (F-2), Duel Kore Brightmind (F-2)

Activities: Solo kill E-5s, Solo kill F-1s, Solo kill F-2s

Abilities: Weakness Vision (next ability available at level 5)

Eager to gain his second ability, he had asked around the village if anyone had come upon the targets for his quests. The quest for the Giant Falcon had changed into one for Kore Brightmind, who he hoped would be easier to find because of their human-sounding name, even if it was an unusual one, but he hadn’t had any luck yet.

One matter he did get an answer to was the portal’s transformation. Its abrupt switch from blue and purple to red and green had stayed on his mind well after the horde attack, and eventually he had mentioned it offhandedly to Iris while having tea with her. She was far busier these days with more people to heal, but she still made some time for practice with him, her skill visibly improving. Anyway, she had suggested to him that perhaps the portal remained after the horde’s completion to act as waste disposal.

The horde monsters certainly decayed - they had learnt that from the mastiff corpses - so it wasn’t too much of a stretch to assume the System also offered them a way to get rid of the corpses afterwards, he supposed. After all, as far as he could tell, the System was far fonder of killing them directly through claws and teeth than indirectly through disease and famine.

One of the biggest changes in the last few days had been the destruction of Big Mike’s Den, the village closest to them. Apparently, the ratkin had attacked them in force directly after their horde. Knowing they would face a crushing defeat if they stayed, they had fled instead and allowed their hub crystal to be destroyed. While some of them had been killed and others captured by the ratkin, a considerable number had made it to Riverside, rocketing its population.

1. Silas Wycliffe - level 32 - Duellist

2. Michael Eze - level 29 - Gladiator

3. Sabine Gantzmann - level 29 - Pugilist

4. Iris Azer - level 28 - Healer

5. Natalie Svoboda - level 28 - Cryomancer

6. Dominic Wood - level 28 - Squire

7. Alice Reid - level 27 - Pyromancer

8. Raven Cox - level 26 - Voidcaller

9. Faris Jabbar - level 25 - Mounted Archer

10. Josh Thompson - level 25 - Antimage Brawler

11. Elise LeBeau - level 24 - Executioner

12. Ernst Kiefer - level 24 - Spearman

13. Peng Qi - level 24 - Brawler

14. Meera Campbell - level 23 - Huntress

15. Lina Radhakrishnan - level 23 - Swordsman

16. Gerald Wyne - level 22 - Ice Mage

17. Wendy Rowse - level 22 - Archer

18. Yuri Dmitriev - level 21 - Cleric

19. Renard Lavigne - level 21 - Archer

20. Sazama Shoji - level 20 - Swordsman

21. Conrad Vogt - level 20 - Spearman

22. Lee Bradley - level 20 - Brawler

…

431. Robyn Lewison - level 1

The notable additions from Big Mike’s Den were Big Mike himself, Alice (a Pyromancer), Gerald (an Ice Mage), and Ernst and Peng (sergeants of Big Mike’s thugs).

There were also several unrelated additions, notably Natalie (a Cryomancer), Raven (a Voidcaller), Meera (a Huntress), and Yuri (a Cleric).

It had been interesting to see so many classers, and Silas had discussed the matter with Josh, Iris, and Rolf over a cup of tea. It appeared the majority of people getting classes now only had access to common rarities such as Spearman, Swordsman, Brawler, and Archer, each offering only 10 free attribute points. They had come to the conclusion that this was most likely because these people had reached level 20 with slower progress and less impressive accomplishments, causing the System to undercut them.

Most others had uncommon classes offering 20 free attribute points, and only 4 out of the 20 combat-focused classers in Riverside had rare classes: Silas (Duellist), Natalie (Cryomancer), Alice (Pyromancer), and Raven (Voidcaller). It was interesting to see how, other than him, the others all had magic-related classes that had likely been unlocked through innate talent rather than through accomplishments.

Reading the list again, Silas had then noticed how women dominated the magic-related classes. Perhaps they simply had a natural tendency for the arcane like Mia, or maybe it was something else. Iris couldn’t help him with this as she revealed she had had no idea of her arcane talent while on Earth.

Other than the 20 combat classers, there were nearly 200 non-combat classers such as Blacksmiths, Healers, and Chefs (but still nothing that could help locate his siblings) as everyone over level 10 but under 20 picked them, either for the attribute bonuses or simply because they no longer wanted to risk their lives on the daily.

To accommodate for them, Silas had spent all of Riverside’s money with Lazzaro’s hunting tax bringing in far more cash than the horde’s rewards. He had bought a small forge, tannery, bowyer’s hut, and an apothecary for the Alchemists and Healers. Bandana Dom had then suggested they set up a marketplace as a fixed place for trade, so Silas had also done that, setting a 20% tax on all goods traded in the village. To improve quality of life, he had also bought two hundred more houses, a larger water pump and filter system (as Lazzaro had wanted), and the materials to develop Riverside’s sewage system.

Although Silas had bought all these buildings, he hadn’t taken into account the civil engineering expertise required for planning the sewers, the considerations that needed to be reviewed while looking at the industrial buildings’ placement and regulation, and the titanic amount of organisation required to direct the labourers into putting everything together.

As he severely lacked in these regions, he was searching for someone to offload the work onto when Bandana Dom saved the day with another golden idea. He suggested that Silas speak with Elise, the Executioner, who had apparently been a French Secretary of State - Silas hadn’t spoken with her much, but he recalled that she had been here for as long as him and was also a part of the Riverside Constabulary.

Meeting up with her, he saw that she looked far more presentable than her class’s title suggested. Wearing tracksuit bottoms and a fleece with battered but clean armour over them, she had thick-rimmed glasses, a dignified face with faint signs of age, and she wore her brown hair in a bun. “Hello, Silas,” she said, respectfully tipping her head.

“Hey,” Silas replied. In his past life, his only run-ins with government workers had been when officers told him to bugger off from areas reserved for the clean and wealthy, and occasionally when more charitable council workers gave him a hot meal or told him of a homeless shelter open for the night. Alas to say, it felt strange knowing it was a former Secretary of State paying respect to him, someone who had only gotten off the streets a month before.

“Dom has filled me in as best he could. Am I right in understanding you want to push the tedious administration onto me while you kick back and lie in the sun?” she asked, her expression unreadable.

“Ah, yes,” he replied lamely, scratching his head. “I mean, not exactly that but…” He didn’t know why the pencil-moustached Squire had told it to her so plainly.

She chuckled. “How old are you?”

“Eighteen.” Although he had expected this to be a casual conversation, he felt under her thumb as she questioned him like a schoolteacher poring over his plans for life after school.

“I have a son your age,” she said, her cheer dimming slightly. “I think you’re past the age of simply lounging in beach chairs and sipping lemonade; you should be taking on some responsibility to develop into a proper functioning man of society.” She paused and looked past him into the sky, then smiled again as she turned to him. “But I’d be happy to help you out. Too much work makes people miserable anyway.”

____

Michael Eze, the Gladiator, was originally an MMA champion from the United States of America. Passing the hard tutorial, he arrived on Idroa and immediately set up Big Mike’s Den. The village was firmly under his rule, with potential opposition targeted and quickly thrown out by his faction. However, two weeks after its formation, the Ratkin attacked Big Mike’s Den in force and razed it to the ground, enslaving those who remained.

Fortunately, Michael had fled beforehand to the neighbouring village, Riverside, which had just come under Silas Wycliffe’s rule. Many people have stated how Michael had no interest in playing second fiddle to the Duellist, instead aiming to take from the start. But, he put off this plan not long after his arrival for reasons unknown to us.

This temporary hiccup did not lessen his interest in mayorship, however, as he would strike ------- ------ later as an opportunity arose when…

Stefan Sommer - the Chronicler - Heroes and Villains of the First Age