That said, we called the council meeting, and I turned to the paper pad and wrote down the last minutes from the meeting. Cull the dungeon, & gets new from outside the zone.

"There we go," I whispered to myself. "Now with that finished, I can finally try and explore this... Ruler System."

The new system was entirely mysterious to me. As such, I did not know what to expect, but I knew it would be worth a try anyway. So, as everybody left the room, I noticed that Rachel stayed, waiting for me. "Can you wait outside the door for me Rachel, I'm gonna take a minute to go over whatever this new system is..." I asked.

She nodded, "don't take too long though," she smiled slightly at me. It was funny really, I could tell from the look in her eyes that she thought it was... Well, cute. That is, referring to my curiosity about discovering something new like this.

"Well, It's now or never," I said as Rachel left the room. I then subsequently thought, Ruler Menu.

The Community of Genesis

Community Representative: Thomas Parker [Tier 1]

Government: [Tier 1] High-Human Communal Council

+5 Happiness, +5 Stability

Communal Leadership

Community Representative x1

Community Councilmembers x8

Variables:

Income: Unavailable

Population: 25

Population Capacity: 28

Stability: 55

Communal Happiness: 56

Modifiers:

+1 Happiness - Available Capacity

+5.5% Resource Production Efficiency

Buildings:

Vinyl Siding Homes x3

[Tier 1] Rudimentary Forge x1

Under Construction:

[Tier 1] Palisade x1 [0%] [ 0 / 5,382 Timber Used] (Currently Procuring Resources)

Resources

Food: 534 ( -25 / Day )

Timber: 1,238 ( ~ / Day )

Military Submenu

Unavailable at Tier 1

Prestige Point Submenu

Prestige Points: 0

The entire menu was a deluge of information. Being lambasted by things I had never seen before, nor expected was certainly offputting. However, I could instantly see that the menu itself would make the job of being a leader much, much easier.

The first thing I noticed was the fact that our Government was denoted as a High-Human Council, perhaps a result of both the High-Human specialization as well as my decision to include the council as an official governing body within the eyes of the system. The Communal Leadership section surely validated that, as all eight of the members of the council were included. I'd have to ask them what exactly they're able to see then later.

One of the more interesting aspects were the variable sections. I wasn't sure what exactly denoted somebody being qualified as a member of the population. Perhaps having a desire to stay for a longer period of time? Regardless the population capacity itself was fairly interesting, specifically because along with the capacity came a modifier. It appeared that the larger the population the greater the happiness score, which was interesting in of itself.

How does the system know whether people are happy or not? I guess even in America the nation would usually have an idea of what public opinion was regarding different legislations or the government in general. So it wasn't too much of a stretch that perhaps the system just had a general idea of the feelings of the community.

It was at this point I also realized that I could focus in on each of the variables for a better description. The population was self-explanatory, so I ignored that, population capacity, stability, and communal happiness I was a bit more curious about though. Even if I could likely deduce what they meant, I still decided that guessing would be a poor start to managing a community. So, focusing on them one by one, I received my answers.

Population Capacity: The general value of the projected capacity of the community's population. Higher housing results in a larger population capacity. This can also be affected by the general land availability within the boundaries of what constitutes the community. Available population capacity results in a limited increase in the community's happiness value.

NOTE: Land availability has been maxed out by pre-existing structures.

Stability: The general value of the stability of the community. Communal stability is a reflection on the perceived happiness of the community, as well as the ability to defend itself from outside threats, and reflections of internal political and social climates. Stability can be negatively impacted by strife, calamities, as well as internal turmoil. At the current tier, stability reflects in a proportional impact on production efficiency, income generation, and construction speed. Values range from 1-99, with 50 being the natural and neutral value. Warning: Should stability drop to unacceptable levels, the community may have dissolution.

NOTE: Income is unavailable at the Tier 1 Community level.

Happiness: The general value reflecting the population's mental state. Happiness is the perceived contentment of the community and is impacted by amenities, perceived safety, and quality of life. At the current tier, happiness results in a proportional impact on production efficiency, stability, as well as military morale at higher levels. Values range from 1-99, with 50 being the natural and neutral value.

NOTE: Leaders and Hero's can generate a higher happiness score on a community, however failures may also result in a negative impact.

They were interesting, to say the least. It looked like population capacity was a pretty flexible variable, and I was sure that as we cleared out more of the surrounding homes and populated them, then the capacity would go up. I didn't know how much the happiness benefits would cap out, but I was definitely interested in seeing what sort of positive modifiers I could gain from a higher population capacity. It could be beneficial to push towards clearing out the homes rather soon, even if we don't actually put anyone in them. Of course, we should finish the barricade first. It wouldn't serve us well if we expanded only to overextend ourselves and be overwhelmed by monsters or undead. Plus, we didn't know when the demons would be back either... Which was terrifying though in and of itself.

Coping with the world's slowly increasing difficulty was likely something we could keep up with. The demon's on the other hand? Well, that was a different story. They came here already in higher tiers. It would be best to ignore them as long as possible until we could handle them at the very least.

The stability score was also interesting. I couldn't help but be concerned at the implications of strife, calamities, and even internal turmoil. I wasn't positive what it meant when it said that, but I imagined that internal turmoil referenced rebellions and the like. Which was something I didn't believe the community would have to worry about anytime in the near future. At least I hoped. I couldn't help but think of Liam when I thought of internal turmoil. Geez, I really hope that guy doesn't cause issues for us...

The modifiers scores seemed relatively self-explanatory, but I was curious about the meanings behind production efficiency.

Resource Production Efficiency: Resource Production Efficiency is a modifier impacted by different variables. This results in a boost in resource acquisition and production efforts by community members, largely reflective of the stability and happiness of the community.

There we have it, just as I imagined. It seemed like we'd have to pay attention to whether or not it becomes slightly easier to cut down trees and work tomorrow. I wondered whether we would actually feel a noticeable... strength? Or whatever the modifier did.

The other interesting section were the buildings. Somehow the system seemed to be able to interpret the houses we stayed in as homes, as well as that forge Jackson had made. The palisade on the other hand was classified as being under construction. While we've pretty much been getting all of the wood for it, we don't have the nails yet. Jackson promised to get started hammering some out quickly tomorrow, but it looked as though the system was able to recognize our efforts as well as the status of projects. Which was quite amazing. It certainly saved the time of asking people how things were doing.

Under resources, the only real thing that caught my attention was our food supplies, as well as what appeared to be our daily consumption. So, about one unit of food per day, per person then? Seemed simple enough, and it looked like we would last about three weeks with our current stores of food. Luckily Alex had fairly large food storage, and we've scrounged up a fair bit from the surrounding homes. The one positive about the cold weather of the mana zone though was that despite electricity, food was able to keep in the refrigerator-esque temperatures. It was one convenient note out of the whole mess.

The unavailable military submenu aside, it was actually the prestige submenu that was entirely unknown to me. So, I focused on it.

Prestige Points: Prestige Points are gained through communal actions. Completing specific government building types. Overcoming invasions and challenges, discovering new resource deposits (Require Claiming). As well as requisite for advancing the Kingdom within the System, and acquiring classes specific to the ruler menu.

Classes Available for Acquisition:

Unavailable at Tier 1

Prestige Points Requires for Tier Advancement:

0 / 100

Now that was interesting. Prestige Points almost looked like they functioned similarly to experience points, but... I knew that wasn't quite right. It seemed a bit different, but I wouldn't know until I advanced to Tier it looked like. I figured that it was the Prestige Points menu that allowed for specialized classes such as the [Falmuth Warrior] that was present in Holy Arc Online. Of more immediate concern was going to be the required Prestige Points for tier advancement, I wasn't sure what other requisites there were to advance the community to Tier 2, but it looked like, at the very least, that Prestige Points would be a must to acquire.

It looked like that the points were simply gained by developing the community though. I was sure we'd be finding out the extent of this new addition over the coming days.

That pretty much summed up the entire Ruler Menu though. Granted there was one bit of information that I gleaned from my examination. That is; this wasn't the extent of the Ruler System. No, it seemed as though advancing through tiers also expanded the potential of the system and menu access.

It was daunting, but it was also exciting. Up to this point pretty much anything that wasn't included in Holy Arc Online and I wasn't familiar with ended up being bad news. This one thing, however? This was good, and I knew would likely be crucial to our future survival.

Dismissing the menu, I had a newfound appreciation for the system. Even though the advent of the system coincided with the demonic invasion of our world, I knew that without it, humanity would likely be unable to have a fighting chance in the long run. Despite all of our technological prowess, the demons had simply caught humanity off-guard. Had we been prepared I was sure things could have gone differently. Unfortunately, we weren't.

I didn't discount humanity though, it was human nature to persevere. I was confident that even if the world governments were in an extreme amount of disarray, that they would eventually come together for their counterattack. At least, I hoped.

Shrugging, I left what we've come to call our council chamber, or in reality, Alex's office, and saw Rachel waiting outside.

"You finished having your fun?" She chuckled a bit.

I smiled, "of course."

So, we both headed upstairs, and as promised earlier in the day, Rachel and I laid in my bed together. We didn’t do anything, of course, neither of us were in that sort of mood. Laying together though? That’s something we could both stand by.

As we lay there she turned towards me, and she laid her head on my shoulder as I laid back. Her hand was slowly caressing the hairs on my chest.

“Thomas..” Rachel suddenly, and hesitantly announced.

“Ya?” I responded.

“Look... I’ve been thinking... there’s really nothing I can do to keep you from going out and getting hurt, is there?”

I slowly shook my head, “Rachel.. you know-“

She stopped me. “Thomas, this isn’t me trying to talk you out of it. I just...”

She hesitated. I decided to place my hand on her arm encouragingly. I had grown to understand that sometimes she had difficulty when it came to sharing her feelings. Laying here and listening to her was the best thing I could do to help her feel comfortable though.

“Thomas," she began, "if I can’t keep you from getting yourself hurt, then maybe I can help in preventing it... I want to start taking magic seriously. I know you said that it has the greatest potential out of all the abilities I could possibly choose... And if I can get good at it... maybe I can keep what might normally hurt you, from hurting you in the first place, right?”

I was actually quite stunned. Rachel hated conflict. And I mean hated it. This change in philosophy was pretty huge, and I was sure to recognize it.

“Rachel.. are you sure? That’s... you know, a lot.” I asked.

She nodded. “I know. I’ve thought it through. There’s no getting around it though, is there? I just... Can't shake the feeling that things will get a whole lot worse before they get better... and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you got hurt while I was in a position where I could have stopped it... So, I want to help.” She said with finality.

I nodded, “we can get that taken care of for sure... After we get things settled tomorrow, I can help you practice. While I might not have a ton of experience with it yet, the knowledge from the game is usually a pretty solid guideline. So, don't worry about it, we'll get things figured out.” I said.

And with that, she snuggled up closer to me, and we laid there. After laying a while in silence, we both fell asleep in each other’s arms.