Everybody was back in the hall and arranged around the table, on one half was the leaders and the other side was Louie, Sher and the crafters, with Leon in the chair.

It had not gone unnoticed that he had tried to give his chair to Louie who had waved it away.

Arnold stood up and addressed the table while looking at Louie. "Who are you, sir?"

"He is my boss, the biggest shareholder of Starter Town Trading Company, and currently the biggest landowner around," Leon interjected.

Everybody looked from Leon towards Louie.

"So you are the Boss, why don't you sit there?" He indicated the chair.

"I'm not good at business, somebody once said that you must know your limitations, and how to overcome them, so I got somebody to run my business. In any case, I will be leaving after a while."

The leaders were all looking at each other.

"So, here and now, what is your function?"

Louie looked him straight in the eye before indicating his people around the table.

"They are the carrots, I'm the stick."

"Meaning?" Samuel sneered as he asked.

Louie gave him a cold look.

"Meaning, if you wrong my people, then you will be next on the wall."

The 'Mayor' dropped his sneer and gulped as he was reminded that Louie and his team had just executed seven people without batting an eye.

Gerard nodded and eagerly leaned forward onto the table.

"These spiders and creatures that you people control, where did you get them?"

Louie smiled on the inside as he saw the Tinker's curiosity.

"We don't control them, they are bonded to us, they are our companions and pets."

"You mean like in the RPG games? That kind of pets?"

Louie was relieved that there was at least one person that knew about RPG games and the fact that he was one of the leaders gave him hope for his group.

"Yes," Louie answered Mike's question and continued to tell them about dungeons and the pets they got from them.

"So where can I get one of these golems?"

For a moment Louie imagined Gerard trying to take one of the spiders apart to see how it works, getting killed by it in the process.

"You won't be able to take it apart, it's bonded to you like a pet and if you harm your pet it will break the bond, here let me show you what I mean."

Congratulations

You are the 9th person in this Gaea system to bond a System generated pet, you may now name it.

Be aware that if you mistreat your pet it may sever the bond and only a leg or arm if you are lucky.

"That's the System warning I got when I bonded my pet, but I might have something better, let's talk later."

Gerard wanted to object but leaned back to give the floor to Arnold.

"Sir, What do you want from us?"

"Louie, please. I'm not a sir and if we are going to work together to make this a better place for all, then just call me Louie."

"Okay, Louie, what do you want from us?"

He saw that everybody was anxiously waiting to hear his explanation.

"Okay, fair, what do I want?.... I want to see us not just survive but to live, at the moment we as humanity, are barely surviving. We have been knocked back to nearly the bottom of the food chain, everything out there will kill us if we give them half a chance."

He saw that he had their attention.

"We as humanity cant take another thousand years to try and get back to the top of the pyramid, even if I think that we don't deserve to be up there anymore, not after the way that we treated our world. I think that Gaea would agree with me. But that's another matter for later."

He saw the so-called mayor sit up straight, and just knew that the asshole was going to say something about human superiority and our destiny to rule, so he talked right over him.

"As you all know, we all got a notice that we received from Gaea, when this all started, let me refresh your memories."

9. After seven rotations of this earth around this sun, gateways between other systems will be opened for travel.

"How the bloody hell are you sharing these boxes with us?" Kirt, the builder asked.

Sher was the one to answer him. "Just go to the box or BB and think of sharing it with someone near you, or the person that you are talking to," Sher told him.

"That easy?"

"Yes, you are a builder right?" As he nodded she turned to Louie, "Do you have a copy of one of the blueprints from ST? And can you send him one?"

Louie nodded and started looking through his journal.

"Blueprint?" Kirt looked at Sher with a raised eyebrow.

"Yea, just wait a minute," She said with a smile.

Louie pushed a thin sheet across the table to Kirt. It looked like a flexible light blue sheet of acrylic, 30 x 45 centimeters big, with a blueprint of a single room thatched building drawn on it, all the dimensions were marked and there was a short description of the materials to be used and quantities needed. It looked like a typical building blueprint but was drawn on a see-through sheet.

He gave Louie an inquiring look, who just looked at him and said.

"Read it."

He took the sheet and looked it over, and then exclaimed in shock as the blueprint turned into dust and disappeared, the only person not shocked but still looking wild-eyed was Mike, the warrior.

"Fuck me, was that instant knowledge transfer? Did you just instantly learn what was on that blueprint?" He asked Kirt.

A dazed Kirt nodded, "I just learned how to build a System recognized level one Town Hall, all I need is the relevant material and a cornerstone."

Chaos broke out as everybody tried to talk over each other and Louie had to slam his hand down on the table to get their attention.

"We have drifted off the subject we were talking about. Things like the blueprints and more, we are willing to share with you, if you join us, but that's for later. What we were discussing was the message from Gaea and what I … we want from you."

He waited till everybody was seated again.

"In seven years, the portals to other galaxies, and other places where there are Systems will open and through them will come, adventurers, opportunists, and every scoundrel or thief that will look for an opportunity to ... how did Gaea say it? They will look for the opportunity to steal our world by trading beads for our treasures. The only way that we can avoid being taken advantage of by these aliens is to meet them on equal footing, and that means that we will have to grow stronger as a species. Humanity, all of humanity, even those of us that were changed, need to stand together and grow strong."

Samuel smirked and sneered at Louie. "And you mean to lead us into this utopia?"

Louie looked him in the eye and waited till he lowered his head and gulped.

'I'm getting tired of this asshole'

"As I said, I'm not good at leading or running stuff, I'm sure that there are people who are willing to work hard and that are more qualified than me to lead, but I will get us there to meet these swindlers, even if I have to drag you lot there kicking and screaming, or die trying.

"If you don't want to join us, then you are free to go, but if you don't walk beside us, and mean to impede our progress then know that I will find a way to destroy you. I'm sure there are other groups out there that will be more than willing to join."

He kept on looking at Samuel.

Arnold tried to break the tension around the table, but their eyes went big as they received a BB.

Compulsory System Quest!

Lead the horse to water and make it drink.

Be instrumental in leveling the Gaeans till they are strong enough to meet the other system citizens on equal footing.

Time: 6y:11m

Reward:

Will reflect the level of difficulty at the time of quest completion.

Failure:

Possibility of becoming a Slave race.

'What the. . ? Damn, Okay ... I was aiming for that anyway. Gaeans? Well, I guess there is more than one planet with life on it in this System now. Well, there they now have a compelling reason to succeed.'

Louie saw everybody sitting still with that far-off look on their face.

*Cough* "You all got a BB?"

It was like watching people wake from a deep sleep.

"W...what's this? Is this one of your tricks?" Samuel stuttered.

Sher sent Louie a copy of the BB that she received, and it was the same as his.

Louie dismissed the BB and stared Samuel down.

"That is a Quest given by Gaea to us. Now you all have a reason to see yourselves, and those relying on your leadership, to grow. If not, then some ignorant idiot in a leadership role will probably sell us all into slavery for a couple of trinkets." He glared at Samuel.

The leaders looked thoughtful for a moment before Arnold stood up and came to attention.

"If you mean what you say Sir, then my people and our families will join you and yours."

Louie nodded at the Centurion. "Thank you, having somebody who knows how to train troops would be very welcome. If everything goes as planned then there will be a lot of people that need to learn how to handle weapons and fight in teams."

He turned to the other leaders.

"Most of your skills will come in handy, from builders," he nodded at Kirt. "To people who know how to work with farm animals." Acknowledging Jak De Beer.

"In fact, we found some monsters that can be domesticated, and your knowledge of animals will be much appreciated."

Jak looked intrigued. "You found monsters … that you can farm?"

Louie nodded and searched through his notifications before sending the one to Jak.

Husse (uncommon)

This normally placid creature is easily recognizable due to its long, floppy ears, that can drag on the ground, and convex "Dwaren nose" muzzle with sharp shark-like teeth. Because of their acute hearing and innate curiosity, this creature mistakenly comes across as an ambush predator, but its biggest weakness is its insatiable curiosity. They have been known to hunt in packs of up to twenty during the breeding season, but can be found in trees where they will sit unmoving for up to two hours if something interesting catches their attention. This creature is sought after for both meat and dairy if they can be captured and domesticated. Although they don't produce as much milk as other domesticated creatures, Husse milk is very high in fat content.

After he read through the BB he started laughing. "Husse met lang ore." (Husse with long ears.)

Jak had to explain why he was laughing to Gerard, who grew up in the city and had never heard the saying 'Husse met lang ore' being said to a curious child.

"There is a valley in the mountains where there looks to be a couple of breeding pairs, as soon as we can get a farm setup, the caravan can capture more when they go through there."

After much discussion, each of them, except Samuel, was willing to join.

Louie had his misgivings about Samuel, but Arnold stood up for him and promised to get him in line. It turned out that Arnold and Samuel's great-great-grandparents were brother and sister, making them distant cousins.

Leon stood up.

"This is how it will be, everybody will contribute, you will learn how to fight, and I mean everybody."

Louie saw that not everybody, especially the fat so-called 'Mayor' of the shantytown, was happy with this rule.

'How the fuck can he still be so fat when everybody else around is struggling to find food?'

"When the next beastwave hits the walls, the walls will be manned, and everybody here will be armed with a spear, and everybody here will stand shoulder to shoulder with the militia to repel the beasts, or I will have a valid reason why. I could not believe it when I heard that there were still people here that were level one or two, it has been over three weeks since the pulse." Leon looked around at the leaders.

Louie got everybody's attention and made it clear that if Samuel or anybody else were not willing to improve their levels by fighting and contributing, then they would find themselves outside the wall with only a spear and shield during a beast wave.

Arnold coughed again and spoke up.

"I will get started on the training immediately. Many people are just sitting around waiting for somebody to give them a kick in the arse."

"Good. To motivate them, tell them that if they are willing to learn and work, they will receive housing inside the walls."

"I will start sculpting residential areas after we are done here, before I forget, they will each have to give an oath before they will be allowed inside the walls. Nothing weird, like promising your soul to me, or something like that." He was quick to add as he saw the hesitant look on Arnold's face.

"Just a promise to do your best to improve your and your friends and communities lott in life, that kind of thing."

There were a couple of relieved sighs from across the table.

Louie sat down and Leon took over.

"First thing, we will need some people who had clerical skills from before that are willing to help."

Mike said that the building they had reinforced and turned into their base used to be an office block and he knew for a fact, that among his group were a couple of girls that worked there before the pulse, and that he would ask them. "I'm sure they will be willing to help if you were to give them living quarters, the living space at my base is getting cramped."

Leon looked at Louie who gave a nod before turning back to Mike

"Can do. Okay. Now, why do I want secretaries? Or under the System, they should fall under Scribes or something. From tomorrow morning I want a table at each gate, and everybody that enters one of them will have to register by giving their Name, Class, or skills they had before the pulse and any beneficial skills or spells they might have developed since."

Louie spoke up. "We will especially need people who were in construction and are willing to learn to do what I do, like raising the walls."

Kirt nodded his head enthusiastically. "I will definitely be interested in learning how you do that, there are a couple of construction guys that I know of at my compound that would also be interested. How long does it take you to raise the wall?"

Louie looked thoughtful for a moment. "It was slow going in the beginning but as the spell leveled up it got faster. Now it takes me about an hour to sculpt a wall of about one to one and half kilometers. A wall ten meters high, three meters wide with a fifteen meters deep solid foundation, a bit slower than a slow walk."

Kirt stared at him with a shocked look on his face.

Before Louie could say anything more, he was interrupted by Carla.

"What about the King? What are we going to do about him?"

Everybody turned to Louie.

He removed a street map from his inventory and spread it over the table and using he carved a copy of the streets into the tabletop, marking the location of each camp.

"I will come and sculpt a wall around each and everyone's camp and the section of town that you claim. I will start with the shantytown, this will take the pressure of your militia in patrolling the outskirts. Later we will incorporate all the camps into one town. I will do this so that we can keep it out of the hands of, King. He can keep his little kingdom but he will be surrounded and cut off from the rest of town."

He looked at each of them.

"Each night I will raise a wall around one of your sections, he will wake up one morning and he will be on an island surrounded by walls. I have somebody working on getting those people that are living behind his walls out of his safezone, after that, then we can see about removing him."

Things quiet down a bit and everybody marked their territory, that they have claimed, on the tabletop, which Louie highlighted with different colors of stone. They started talking and relaying about what they knew of sections of the town with monsters, and what kinds of creatures were sighted there.

He also asked of possible nests that had claimed sections of town, like the section with the police collage that has been overrun with roaming carnivorous plants.

Louie used and made a notation on his map about each sighting and the known location of monsters. He made a note to see if he got a calligraphy skill cube in his inventory or to get a couple from a Vendor, especially for those girls if they were willing to take up the Scribe class.

He could already see them creating something like skill books.

The rest of the meeting was spent making plans on how to integrate the people into one town.

All the camps will stay where they were for now and Louie will sculpt some walls around them till they can be incorporated over the next two weeks. The biggest group are the squatters in the shantytown and they will start to move into the area that STC has claimed the next morning.

The meeting went on for another hour before it was decided to continue the next day, as the meeting finished they all swore the oath and they went to browse the market, especially Celia's stall.

Louie took Gerard to one side and gave him the last mana spindle, and a promise of a copy of engraving for dummies when they get to a Vendor again.

Louie left him muttering about building mana engines and raising civilization back to its feet

He left to go start creating living space inside the walled STC compound.

He had to wait half an hour for Arnold to return with a bunch of militia recruits. He was just about to start making teams when Micheal and Dan showed up with most of the kids that had been setting the traps.

"Hi, Michael, Dan, what's up?" It was Dan that spoke up.

"You know that I'm going to start giving basic survival classes, and I thought that I and the kids could tag along today, and I could teach them the proper way to skin a kill. They can raise their harvesting and skinning skills even though their status is still locked."

"I have no problem with them tagging along. I will be clearing the plots and the team that's going with me will store everything that we salvage in my WTF chest, we can sort it all out later for smelting or the clothes for restoration."

"Ok, we will stay out of their way and a couple of meters behind them."

Micheal turned to all the fresh faces. "Do not loot any creatures till I or Dan say that you can, we will show you a trick that we learned."

While Louie and Arnold watched, Leon quickly formed them into teams of ten to fight and clear the ruins inside the wall. The first team consisted of four trainees from the militia to act as tanks, with four from the new guards, one of the older teens from the group of trap kids, and then the team leader from the caravan guards.

It was decided that they would follow this formula till more people from the shantytown joined them. These teams would go out with Louie and either Sher or Mainey to act as protection detail while he worked on clearing the plots and raising the housing in one of the nearest sections inside the walled area.

It was decided to first raise a two meters tall wall around a residential block, and then clear that section before moving on to the next block. Once they have cleared the block then the team will patrol the low wall till he has finished raising the mini-fort/apartment block inside.

He would start by using liquefaction on the roads and then liquify the remains of the houses before starting on the fort-like structure. The living spaces will follow the same kind of structure as the stalls in the marketplace, not unlike a mini fort with an open space in the middle where people could socialize and the children can spend time playing.

The houses will all be linked to each other facing an inner courtyard, the back wall of the houses will be a solid windowless wall thick enough to shrug off anything but the most determined monsters. And the roof will be flat with battlements and crenels for residents to fight from, that surrounding the residential block.

Each Mini-fort will be two levels high with the top-level being bachelors flats and the bottom apartments will be two-bedroom since there are not many big families left. The forts will be connected either to the outside wall of the compound or to each other with a bridge between them crossing over the streets. Louie meant for the whole compound to be linked and considered one structure for when he got a capstone to place on the tower that he meant to raise in the middle.

The forts will each only have one entrance that can be closed off with a rolling disk of stone, the same as in the Fort in Worcester. The moment that the walls were breached, the gate of the mini-fort could be rolled closed, which he was sure would happen sooner or later, he was hoping it would be later, much later.

They set out for the eastern market gate and made a gate in the opposite wall where the old gymnasium road was. Just to the left on the inside of the entrance were the ruins of the Paarl gymnasium primary school and to the right was what's left of a shopping center that looked like it used to house a modern-day church.

Louie decided to start with the shopping center, there might be more stuff to loo… salvage.

Paarl Leaders

Leon Koen: (STC 2IC) pet (Seera: Black Widow) Gerard van Schalkwyk: Class: Scavenger/Tinker Mike Dekker: Class: Warrior Carla Coetzee: Class: Ranger Kirt Dempers: Class: Builder Jak de Beer: Class: Farmer/Animal husbandry Samuel De Jager: Class: None (Mayor) Arnold Brand: Class: Centurion/Armourer King ???????? ?????? ??????

Status

Name:

Lewis (Louie) Poren

Race:

Human (Male) Lvl 12 "451,150/819,200" = Lvl 13

Class:

Seeker (5) (25%).

Sub-classes:

(exterminator) (3%)

Titles:

Jack Black Brodifacoum, Trailblazer, Liberator. OFS (One Finger Salute) Dungeon pioneer David Selfish ?????

Affinity:

Darkness 0.001%

Affiliation:

N/A

Statistics

Health points (HP):

540

strength + constitution times level

Mana Points (MP):

516

Intelligence + willpower times level

Stamina (SP):

660

agility + constitution + willpower times level

Critical Hit Chance:

4%

Attributes

Strength:

23

Agility:

18

Constitution:

22

Perception:

21

Intelligence:

28

Willpower:

15

Charisma:

7

Luck:

5

Free attribute points:

0

Skills

Skill

Level

Progression

Wu shu:

Passive

5

95/100

Improvised weaponry:

Passive

T1: 2

05/100

Glacial Rage:

P/A

6

50/100

Meditation:

Active

6

75/100

Regeneration:

Passive

T1: 0

25/100

Mana Manipulation:

Active

9

95/100

Survival:

Passive

9

85/100

Cooking:

Passive

0

25/100

Restoration:

Passive

T1: 1

95/100

Social Sharing

Passive

1

55/100

Harvesting:

Passive

9

75/100

Herb Lore:

Passive

2

55/100

Whittling:

Passive

0

00/100

Pain resistance:

Passive

T1: 0

00/100

Poison resistance:

Passive

3

42/100

Cat`s eye:

Active

9

95/100

Senses:

Passive

6

35/100

Armourer:

Passive

5

95/100

System Minimap:

Active

6

00/100

Cartography:

Active

4

25/100

Public speaking:

Active

6

15/100

Spell Transformation: *

Active

3

10/100

Backstab:

Active

0

00/100

Skewer:

Active

0

00/100

Scholer:

Passive

0

00/100

Learning:

Passive

#

#

Quick study:

Passive

#

#

Know-how:

Passive

#

#

This star * indicates a hidden skill

Class Skill Proficiencies

Skill

Level

Progression

Investigation:

Active

6

65/100

Tracking:

Active

4

65/100

Intuition:

Passive

T1: 2

95/100

Analyse:

Active

T1: 8

95/100

Lore:

Passive

2

10/100

Monster Expert:

Passive

4

25/100

?????

0

00/100

Spells

Spell

Level

Progression

Activation

Improvise:

T1: 1

35/100

Touch

Mana Construction:

T3: 6

95/100

Cast

Structural Modification

0

00/100

Touch

Liquefaction:

T1: 7

30/100

Cast

Earth Sense:

T1: 8

55/100

Touch

Weapon Schematics:

T1: 2

80/100

Touch

Vampiric:

0

00/100

Cast

Darkorb

0

10/100

Cast

Transfusion:

0

00/100

Touch

Electrocute:

0

30/100

Cast

Suffocate:

0

15/100

Cast

Waterboard:

1

85/100

Cast

Cauterise:

4

70/100

Touch

Shadow Step:

0

15/100

Cast

Fear:

0

30/100

Cast

Paranoia

0

00/100

Touch

Concussion Blast:

0

00/100

Cast

????

0

00/100