"Hey, listen up!" Grunk yelled. He stood on the fountain’s edge in the plaza. The streetlamps illuminated the area, along with the moons in the night sky. Groans and annoyed voices reached his ears, most people already lying down for the night. He didn't blame them. It was nearly eleven o’clock. "We need volunteers!" The orc continued yelling, now getting glares and remarks from everyone dispersed through the plaza.

"Shut up, we're trying to sleep!"

"Why should we?"

"Leave us alone!"

"Ugh, this dude again?!"

Grunk sighed. It was a good thing they had planned for this. "We have food for those willing to help!"

Those words caused many to sit up and turn to the loud Orc.

"You have food?" A female orc asked, popping up from her spot near the fountain and hurrying over. She wasn't alone. A crowd of people quickly formed around Grunk.

"Whoa, everyone. Calm down! We have plenty of food to go around." Grunk waited for those surrounding him to settle down. "This food doesn't come free. If you're looking for a handout, you'll have to wait. For those of you willing to volunteer your time and effort, you will be given some food tonight, and your efforts will provide food for yourself and others."

More people headed over, though confused looks and mumbling broke out from the crowd.

"I'll keep this simple, so you can all know what we're trying to accomplish." Grunk continued, looking down at the crowd filling the area around the fountain. "There is a major food problem, as you all know. My friends and I are organizing and recruiting people to provide meals for the town. This will be a big group effort and includes leaving the town. I know a lot of us don't want to head out, but my new friends have been outside the walls. It's not as bad as you think."

Looks of uncertainty were shared amongst the crowd.

"The bottom line is this; We're still here, and we need to be safe until we can log out. That means eating, so we don't starve. Right now, there is a lot of food waiting to be fished or foraged outside the walls. If enough of us can work together, you can feed yourselves and everyone else." Grunk paused, glancing around. "Plus, we'll give you some food now to help with hunger."

The crowd immediately perked up and got silent.

"We need everyone to get level five and choose a profession. Later on, you can pick whatever combat class you like. So, if you are interested in fishing, head over there to the blue kobold and elf." Grunk pointed to one edge of the plaza.

"If you would rather have the foraging job, head over to the red kobold and woman over there." He then pointed to the opposite side of the plaza. "We need a lot of botanists and fishers, people!" The Orc watched as a decent amount of people broke away.

"We need several volunteers for cooking. Don't be afraid if you aren't great at it. We have a proper chef willing to help teach us the basics so we can get by."Grunk turned, pointing to the plaza edge that had been behind him. "If you want to cook, head over to the purple Draconian and elf." He waited, not many people went to join Lucas.

"Last, we need at least a handful of carpenters to make plates and utensils. Carpenters stay here with me." The Orc watched as more people dispersed until, finally, only six people remained in front of him. One last glance around showed that everyone whose attention he had grabbed had moved to a different group. The plaza had almost been cleared out. Only a handful returned to their spots.

The Orc raised his hand straight up, index finger circling the air to signal the others. He saw them getting to work, the different pairs breaking their groups of people into parties. Grunk turned back to his prospective carpenters. "Alright, which of you can go outside the walls?" The group shared confused looks. "Let me rephrase. Have you done the quest where you fight training dummies in an NPC's basement?"

The majority nodded their heads. A male human and a female cat girl stepped forward to admit that they hadn't done it.

"You two are with me. I'm going to send you a party invite." Grunk pulled out his journal, looking at the two and typing their names into his party page. "The rest of you go to the purple Draconian. You're still going to be a carpenter, but his group is smaller, so he can take you all." He waited for them to join the group of would-be chefs.

The Orc's original party had broken up for now. Each of them would take the groups of people that still needed the paperwork to leave the city. His group hadn't done the quest to go outside the walls, not having even known about it until Art's group told them about it. It only made sense that the three of them would take the people needing the quest, as they, too, needed it. Meanwhile, Art's people would take those who could already go outside the walls and get them to level five.

Once Grunk was partied with his two carpenters, he headed over to Lucas and Raven. "How's it going over here? I have room for two more people."

"I'll be right back!" Raven darted off to Cookie and Izzy, book in hand.

The Draconian watched the elf for a moment, then turned to see the confused look coming from the Orc. "I'm having her count up all the people that volunteered by what jobs they're picking." He looked at his group of ten people. "I think there were only two. Who needed the quest for going outside the city walls?" Lucas watched as two hands shot up. "You two step aside and join Grunk's party. The rest of you break off into two groups of four and party up."

Grunk reopened his journal, adding the two that came to join him. "That's perfect. There's not as many people needing to do it as we had thought."

"Yeah, I worried most would need it. We'd get slowed down with everyone trying to do it at the same time." Lucas turned away as he saw his three groups parting up, the carpenters in their own party. "You're going for the south exit, right?"

Grunk nodded. "I'll go to the south exit. Scope has west, Izzy east, and Raven is north if we need her to take a group." He raised an eyebrow. "And you're sure we'll all be given different quest locations and not all end up in the same place?"

"I'm positive. When Tony and I did the quest, we didn't have a long wait. I figured people had stopped doing quests. After mentioning it today, Raven said when she and Cookie did the quest, they had a female guard. The only thing that makes sense is that each gate sends players to a different NPC." Lucas said with a shrug.

"Huh. That way, everyone isn't getting sent to the same location. Makes sense from a developer standpoint, but they didn't do the same for the other beginner quests." Grunk shook his head, his attention shifting to the elf that ran back over. "Back so soon?"

"Everyone had already done the counting for me, so I only had to write it down." Raven replied, slightly out of breath.

"What are we looking at?" Lucas asked.

Raven opened her book. "10 chefs, 6 carpenters, 56 botanists, and 87 fishers. Five of the botanists, and twenty-three of the fishers, already had their job."

"The ones that had the job were fed, right?" Lucas asked, to which Raven nodded. "Good, and are there a lot of people that need to do the gate quest?"

"Um..." Raven traced a finger on the page. "For the botanists, fourteen, and the fishers had twenty-five." She looked up from her book. "Scope and Izzy said they'll be fine with their groups."

"Wow, better numbers than I thought." Grunk looked over at Cookie and Izzy. "Hey!" He called, grabbing their attention. "Go ahead and roll out whenever you're ready!" Izzy gave him a thumbs up, turning her attention back to her groups. The Orc turned to Tony and Scope, giving them the go ahead as well. "Did you tell them the food requirement?"

Lucas glanced over to his groups, their attention being grabbed. "I haven't had the chance yet." He cleared his throat. "The food will be handed out once we're outside the walls. We don't want anyone dining and dashing, and if anyone does that anyway, you'll be given the lowest priority when we're giving meals out."

"That's right. We're working together to help everyone, and those that help us now and in the days ahead will be a higher priority over others. Well, except for anyone starving." Grunk cleared his throat. "Anyway, leave now if you don't want to be a part of this." He looked around, watching the others share a few glances between themselves, not going anywhere.

"Great! With that out of the way, let's get this show on the road. The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can go to bed." The Orc patted Lucas’s shoulder. "If you run into any issues, message me."

Grunk turned to Raven. "Since you don’t need to lead any groups, can you go check our base and make sure everything is fine there?" The children had been moved into the attic and told to sleep for the night, but he was still worried about them. He also felt bad. The only bedding he could provide them with were burlap sacks stuffed with small cuts of fabric, and large pieces of fabric as blankets that were in the attic. His group had tried to sell them. They hoped to buy pillows and proper blankets, but they couldn't be moved into a backpack or taken from the attic.

"Sure, I can do that. I'll let you know if anything is wrong." Raven turned to Lucas. "Do you want me to join up with you afterwards?"

The Draconian shook his head. "No, I should be fine. I have a small group. I would say go join up with Cookie, she'll probably need the most help."

"You're probably right. I should hurry. Good luck everyone!" Raven gave a wave before turning and jogging off, disappearing down a street.

"Why Cookie and not Tony?" Grunk turned his head to watch Scope and Tony walking off with their groups, the kobold easily having the biggest group.

"Tony is more experienced with RPGs than me and Cookie. He should be fine." Lucas said. "I'm going to head to the north gate now. Good luck!" The Draconian gave the Orc a quick wave, then led his group out of the plaza.

Grunk looked around the plaza. The groups they had assembled were gone or on their way out. "I feel kind of guilty having the smallest group." He looked at his four party members, two to become carpenters and the other two chefs. "Let's roll out, follow me." The orc gave them a friendly smile before turning and heading to the south gate.

The journey to the southern gate took a good twenty-minute walk. A quick teleport with the Lodestone Network would have been faster, but he couldn't assume his party had done that quest. None of the groups they assembled were going to use the LSN. The only requirements for a job and class were level five, not doing all the quests. Given the fact the quest that granted the usage of the LSN was tedious, it was a safe assumption that a good deal of people didn't bother with it.

A lot of consideration had gone into what quests people may or may not have done. It was safe to assume the backpack quest was something everyone would have since it gave food. Grunk had to help a few of the kids with that quest, so they would have something to eat, but word quickly spread between all the players for the few that didn't have it.

The only other essential quest was the one that gave a wooden sword and shield. Having people in their groups get to level five without that equipment would be difficult. If they ran into that problem, people without equipment would be put into a group that had equipment. This way, they would receive shared experience on the sidelines while the rest of the party fought.

Grunk stopped thinking about their plans once the southern gate came into view. The area was quiet. The streets were devoid of players. None heading in or out of the town gate. The orc went to the female human that guarded the way out, his map already in hand as she spoke. His map was updated by the guard, just like he had been told would happen. "Let's see." He stepped away from the gate and studied his map. "Alright. We should all have the quest now, and we don't have too far to go."

The Orc's group made the short walk to the quest location. Inside, they found no one waiting. "Looks like he was right, no one else is here." Grunk proceeded through the only open door and found a muscular woman in the same armor as the guard from the gate. He mentioned their need for paperwork, and the guard took them downstairs to the basement. She activated five dummies for the group, and everyone pulled out their wooden swords and shields. All but one, anyway. One of the prospective chefs hadn't done the quest for combat gear.

Grunk feared they would have to all leave and do the quest, setting them behind for time. Thankfully, the guard woman went to her wall of weapons to grab a wooden sword and shield, giving them to the unarmed man. The NPC hinted that someone in town might part with similar gear if helped, but that they could borrow the sword and shield for her test. She strongly recommended they have beginner gear before heading outside the walls.

That was a potential disaster diverted. Scope and Izzy would come across this issue as well. They had to rearrange their groups, so only one or two people per group were unarmed. Three people out of five would be enough to kill a giant rat, overkill actually, as they would soon find out.

When each team arrived outside the walls, the group leader would retrieve fish fillets from their bag. The food was still oddly warm, and each portion given out was only a fourth of a fish. It was all they could afford to do, given their limited supplies. Roughly fifty fish had to be broken down to feed what they had hoped to be over two hundred people. It was enough to keep the volunteers happy and invested.

Grunk's team had gone into the grass fields outside the southern gate, practically having the area completely to themselves. Izzy's group went out the east side, joining up with Cookie and Raven. Cookie's group was nearly finished, only having a few more parties fighting rats for level five. Outside the western gate, Scope's people met up with Tony, who was finishing up. The blue kobold had coached the different parties he was in charge of, teaching them to block, dodge, and strike the basic rat monsters.

Lucas and his group were the first to return to town. He took his people to the Culinary Hall, after dropping two off at the Carpenter Hall with instructions to join him once finished. His chefs would need more time and help to finish their tutorial meal. It had been a simple task for him, but he quickly realized that the new chefs were having issues even with slicing and chopping up vegetables. He instructed them on how to wield a knife correctly and safe ways to use it.

The Draconian had never taught others how to cook before, besides some tips and tricks he offered to friends or family. Only one chef in his group was managing well on their own, meaning he had seven people to instruct, and a few were really struggling. Thankfully, three of the chefs, Grunk included, weren't here yet. That made things easier. It took over half an hour to get everyone finished with the tutorial meal. Several heavy sighs of disappointment were heard. The big pot of vegetable soup they had prepared was taken by the head chef NPC and replaced with an empty pot.

"What the hell! We don't even get to eat what we just made?!" a bunny-man exclaimed.

Lucas shrugged. "That's how it is. I didn't think much of it, but it does suck."

"What sucks?" Grunk asked, heading into the room with two people in tow.

"You can't keep the food you make here!" The bunny-man said.

"Only the tutorial dish you have to make to become a chef." Lucas said when the Orc gave him a confused look. He turned back to his students, who now all had the chef profession. "If you're all done, you can return to the plaza and get some sleep. We'll be back in the morning to pick everyone up, so be prepared."

Grunk stepped aside, allowing the new chefs to leave the back room where all the cooking stations were. "By the way, I came from the Carpenter hall. I saw the two from your group were already there and about to leave. So, I told them to work on plates with the supplies they were given. The ones I left were told to do the same. I'm not sure how many they'll be able to make, but it'll give us something to work with until tomorrow, where they can go out and collect more wood."

"I should have realized they would get some starting supplies." Lucas looked off in thought. "Though, for a chef, you only get some basic cookware and tools." He turned his attention back to the Orc and the two people behind him. "Anyway, are you three ready to become chefs?"

Grunk smiled. "Of course we are! The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can sleep, and the faster we sleep, the faster we can work tomorrow and get food."