Chapter 29. Hierarchy "Everyone had a traumatizing experience in the forest. Rarely was there a group that had seen zero death, some even had just one or two people surviving. There were also children in the group, some alone and some with their parents. No one wanted to see their loved one die, so the encouragement to choose the path of peace was unusually high. No one knew who was taking which path but that got pretty obvious in the future." Arthur said, adding a little bit of his own opinion but I did think that was true. "There were nearly equal amounts for the medicine, crafting, and conqueror but peace and war were heaven and Earth apart. After the choices were made, everyone was teleported to a forest once again. But everyone was given a different quest. The crafters were asked to build a city under one of the conquerors while the conquerors had to do something of their own. The quest given to them is not known to many, especially us 'civilians'. No one from the path of war was teleported with us while the people from peace and medicine were given no quests. For now. That too changed. Whenever there was an accident or a serious injury, the medics were given a quest and the quests were so important for early growth." He squeezed his hand tight. "And the civilians? For the entirety of the duration we stayed in that forest, not a single quest was issued." "Did that really make such a big difference?" I asked because for me I had to mostly kill monsters except for the time I was continuously climbing floors and even then I felt that the experience given was not enough. "Yeah, it was. At first, the quests were simple like train or build a wall, etc and even these gave a good amount of experience. But slowly the tasks got harder. Even if we did the same thing, the one doing the quest got the bonus reward." "It was just over a month when the basic structure of the town was built and a few days after that people were teleported to the town gates. They were the people who died in the path of war." "The path of war?" "When asked, everyone said that they had been given an extra chance for choosing war. This was how we got commanders. We had the kings, commanders, medics, crafters. What was left were the soldiers. So there was conscription. The kings were making an army and we got to know why soon after. A month after the commanders came a beast tide attacked the city. The people fighting the war were us civilians but somehow the first to go past fifteen was a king. That was when the importance of quests really hit us. Even though they sat back in their safe quarters while we died, they were the ones leveling up." There was hate in Arthur's voice. This was sad, but that was how the world worked. Unless you were at the top, there will always be someone else that is benefiting from your actions. And if not, you are thrown away, shunned, because you are not useful anymore. "Slowly the beast tides started to be less of a threat and more of a training program. We thought that the end was near but that was just the true start of hell. The forest opened up. Different 'Kingdoms', 'Empires' came up. And then there was war. Each king wanted more people under him, wanted more land to be under his rule. More people were conscripted, sent to war unwillingly for a selfish reason. The kingdoms changed hands, the population got bigger, the cities enlarged and the wars got bigger. Everything continued for a couple of years and by the end of it, everyone affiliated with one organization or the other." "And what were they?" I asked. "The Council. A council of kings that decided to cooperate instead of fighting. The Guild. Mostly made of civilians who wanted to change their destiny. Their leader is someone who was actually successful in doing so. The Union. As the name suggests is where the crafters decided to stand united. They accept commissions in return for protection. The Church. Almost everyone from the Medicine path went there and one wants to anger them because they are the ones capable of saving their lives even from the worst diseases. The Home. Lead by a married couple and has the smallest population but is a place where you can find people from every path. And last, The Syndicate. Where the criminals reign free. No laws, no rules. Six Giants. That is what everyone calls them if they want to collectively talk about them." "Which are you affiliated with? The guild?" I asked, he wanted to become strong even though he chose peace. Guild did seem the optimal choice. "I wish," Arthur said. "I wanted to but even they have strict restrictions to get into, and I can't leave my parents alone," a smile on his face. "Are they with you now, here in the camp?" "No. But I found them under the rule of the Council. From then I've stayed with them taking care of them. There were plans for gathering everyone from the council and the higher-ups were given an area to supervise by the kings." "After the communication network was is back online, the Big Six will negotiate to distribute land and the area they are going to rule. That was what the general public was told." "How will you identify who is affiliated with which group? I don't think there's an easy way to differentiate." I asked because infiltrating organizations becomes super easy. "Actually," he said as he pulled a small pouch. The same one that almost everyone was using. Opened it, almost put half of his hand through it, and pulled out an insignia. "These insignias are linked to our mana. Apparently, everyone has a personal signature to their mana, like DNA but this is more reliable." He turns around to look at my bewildered face. "How did you do that? Using that Spatial storage." "Uh, I don't know? Everyone has been able to use it from the instance they got it on. The crafters said that this is similar to the insignia and it uses the person's mana as a password to use it. You can use it as long as you have mana." "Seriously? Why have I never......" I was so confused right now. But it was time for my own little training session now that the training session was completed. "It is getting late, you should get back to the camp. I'll stay around but not in the camp. Tomorrow the same time as today."