“This is total bullshit, Jax! What am I going to tell Sammy?”

I had read through everything on this order of water breathing knights, and it all seemed legit. They did rescue the children, not kill them. They did train them up to become self-sufficient on dungeon planets. They did treat them well, to the point of many children joining their ranks rather than leave.

That didn't help me with my wife though. She would be up and motivated in a couple of days and I had nothing hopeful to tell her. From what I was able to glean, to be able to stay in these “Mermen cities” everybody had to have gills. And while it was safe to be reverted back to human lungs in mature bodies, It was 99% fatal in children under 15. From everything I could find out, I was going to lose my son for at least 5 years. He would be a different person when we got him back. Mercy or not, It was driving me crazy thinking about it.

Onida had gone up to my office to use the communications suite there and try to get a hold of some people who knew some people who knew some people that might be able to get us in touch with the Order of Mercy. It was coming up on 7 o'clock and I had to talk to the Natives and Juneauians about keeping our city a secret and taking the oath.

As we approached the main entrance to The Village I spotted a towering figure standing there with a huge shit-eating grin on his face. He had to have been seven-feet tall.

I looked at Jax. “Is that...?”

He grinned. “Yup, that's Smitty alright.”

“I wanted to keep it a secret and see that look you have on your face right now haha.”

I said, “What is he?”

Jax laughed, “Really? You can't figure it out? Shame on you!”

I gave him a confused look. We walked over to the big man and he held out his huge hand.

“Brother Blackbear, it is truly good to see that you made it my friend.”

I shook his hand. “Yeah you too Smitty, now do you want to explain to me what happened to you, and what you are now?”

He laughed “What do I love more than anything else in the world? What is seven to eight feet tall and hairy?”

I put my hand to my head, not believing it. “Oh my God, you're a Sasquatch!”

He bent over laughing. “Yup an honest to God Sasquatch, do you know that they are a real space-faring race, no shit.”

Benjamin “Smitty” Smith was an old friend of mine and had spent more time in the woods with me than anyone else in my life. He didn't have a great love for the wilderness like me... he was a rabid Bigfoot hunter.

The man was obsessed. He had seen something as a boy that he swore was a Bigfoot and it was all over. A lifetime obsession followed, and every free moment he had was spent searching for another.

He had sworn that he had spotted them a few times after but said that they could get out of sight and then just fade off into nothingness.

I said, “I saw the class offered, but thought that if there was a chance of being turned into one permanently, I couldn't risk it.”

He said, “Well you can see what it did to me, but I don't go full Squatch until my juices start flowing and I get aggressive.”

I just stared at the giant my friend had become and said, “Apropos”

I looked around and saw hundreds of people standing around the plaza. Chairs had been set up in a huge semicircle by our totem. I yelled up, “Kelli can you please send a notification out in town that the meeting will start in ten minutes?”

A droid walked over and said in Kelli’s voice, “Yes Chief, it is done. We have 95% of all people here and the rest are headed this way.” I said, “Good. Smitty, stick around, I want to tell you what my plans are after this meeting.”

I walked over to the totem and shouted, “PEOPLE! Start taking your seats, please. We are not waiting for the stragglers.” I stood upon the pedestal of the totem and said, “Before we get started let me introduce myself. I am Blackbear. That is the name I want you to all call me from now on. I do not want to be called Chief, or War Chief, or Sir, or Lord, or whatever other honorifics you can think of. I just want to be called Blackbear. I am not royalty, I am one of you.”

I took a second and waited for the crowd to calm. “A lot of you here know me, I grew up here and have been here for most of my life. This building is here because it was a gift from a distant race of people in the stars. It is for the Indigenous people of this planet. I'm in charge of it because I managed to win it for getting the first kill on Earth, which was just me running away from a bear and it falling over a cliff.”

That drew a lot of laughs from the crowd. I looked around “Is Mayor Beth still with us?” I saw a bunch of people shaking their heads. “Damn. We are going to need to hold an election or something then. We are going to need someone to take care of the city outside of The Village. I want some ideas on what we should do with the city.”

I pointed back at the Village. “This place came with only one rule and I didn't make it. Only Indigenous people can go inside. But don't worry about that, I own the entire city limits, and it is still your city. I will provide accommodations and protection for everybody, but I am not going to run it or become a Warlord.”

“Any ideas you can come up with, within reason, I will agree to. I am still a Juneauian. I have built those hotels for you for now, and there is enough room for you all to stay there. You all can have a hot shower and a warm bed to sleep in. They can be changed very quickly if you want. Now comes what I want.”

“I want two things from you all. Number one, You MUST level yourself up to survive in this world. Whatever your class is, it must be leveled up as if it were your job. I was told this MUST happen, and happen quickly.”

“From what I was told this planet will get worse with monsters and then alien races are going to come down and move in here once everything gets stabilized. We have a year to level ourselves up, there can be no more loafing around. We have the shop here for you to sell your goods and buy weapons and supplies. There will be a flat tax of ten percent in the shop that goes to the city for improvements. I cannot touch that money, it is the city's. That’s number one, Number two is going to require an explanation.”

“I am sure most of you are aware by now that the Truinnar came here and bought this city before me yes?” Everybody started nodding.”

I said, “I don't need to tell you that it pissed them off that I stole it back and now we have enemies. Well, they as much as said that we are a marked city now.”

“We have an A.I. assistant here and we determined that the best course of action is going to be to have guard stations set up at the borders into town and only people that take a binding oath be allowed in.”

I looked at the crowd and saw everybody nodding in agreement. “We want people that make it here be able to come and even stay in our city. We will need trade and relations, but what we don't want is the entire world to know what a true safe haven this will become.”

“I don't want the politics of the galaxy coming in here and telling us what to do.” Some people started to clap. I had the crowd on my side.

“I'm not against the alien races, I know for a fact they have good people. I would just prefer that this city stay controlled by humans.”

“That being said, I want everybody to stand, and place their hands on their hearts, and take a very simple binding oath to our city.”

Every person got to their feet and placed their hands on their chests. I started reading from the script in front of me. “I... War Chief Brownbear...Say your name please... Take this system binding oath...To never reveal any details... About the city of Juneau or The Village... Even under compulsion or a skill...On the penalty of death....”

There was a hesitation at my last words and then the majority of the people repeated the words. You could see a kind of glow settle over the crowd.

I said into the air. “Kelli, did everybody take the oath?

The android said, “22 people did not finish the last sentence Chief Brownbear.

I looked into the crowd and spotted a local bar owner who knew everybody in town. He was a good guy and not scared of a crowd. I said, “Johnny get up here.” I waved him up to me.

“I want you to take over the meeting. For all of you people not living in the Village here, I want you to discuss with Johnny any ideas you have. We will need about 40 guys to start as guards for the borders. It will be a system credit paying job.”

I waved about the crowd. “Anyone who didn't finish the oath, I want you to come to meet me over next to the shop so I can talk to you. Don't try to sneak away, the sentries here already know who you are, and I'm not gonna kill you or anything. I just need to talk to you all.” I hopped down from the pedestal and made my way over to the shop.

All 22 of the people sheepishly walked over to me and I looked at them.

“Look,” I said, “I get that the penalty of death thing is a bit scary, but we cannot risk having the world find out about us yet. You can still tell people that your from Juneau and it's a good little city, you just won't be able to tell anyone any specific details about what is happening here. Hell, how many of you even plan on leaving anyways, it's scary as all hell out there, trust me.”

A guy in front I didn't know said, “What happens if I refuse to take it, I plan on going back home to Anchorage.”

I said, “Nothing will happen to you, not by my hand at least, but I will be forced to banish you from the city limits after a minor mind wipe from the shop. Today… right now after this meeting...”

I took some more questions and reassured them. None of them except for two even planned on leaving. They were just scared. I eventually had to banish the two men. I took them in the shop, enthralled them, and wiped any memories from the last couple days. I got them some gear. I wished them well and spoke the words, and they left the city forever.

I found Jax and Smitty talking with Jane and Onida. I jogged over to them and said, “Guys, come to the stables with me, if what I think is there your gonna want to see it.”

I found a sentry and said, “Kelli can you lead me to the stables where something was left for me?

It said, “Sure Chief, follow me.”

We entered The Village and I had to slow down and look around again, It was so huge inside an enclosed space that you were forced to pay attention to it. It had to be the largest open spaced building in the world I thought. I looked up and noticed that the walls had tiered levels going up more than halfway up the building. It reminded me of the Luxor hotel I stayed at when I went to Las Vegas.

We headed to the left and started a long walk to the other side of the building. I asked the sentry “How long is the space inside here anyway?”

It said, “Approximately 2 miles Brownbear.” I let out a long whistle. “Whew, it's huge! How many people is it designed to hold?”

It replied, “A normal full capacity Village can hold 2.5 million people, we will be lucky to receive over 100,000.”

I stopped in my tracks and just looked at it. “2.5 million? How is that possible? Where does everyone live?”

It said, “The living quarters, shops, dungeons, and even this main concourse are all instanced.”

I looked at Onida, “What does instanced mean?”

She laughed and pointed at a restaurant and said, “See that bar over there? It might have the capacity to serve 200 people. When it reaches that number and fills up, the next person to walk thru the doors will enter a new bar with no one in it. This will go on and on until you have a couple of hundred versions of that same establishment going at one time.”

I shook my head. “Who thinks up this stuff?”

Smitty said, “We had the same thing in all of our video games, instanced dungeons. It makes you wonder where game developers got the idea from.”

Onida said, “I doubt it came from the galaxy, there are strict hands-off rules for planets not introduced to the system. Under penalty of death.”

I looked at them all. “I want you four to be in my personal war party. I trust you all and will need close friends to keep me grounded. I am going to need to level like crazy and will need a level of commitment from you. It's not going to be non-stop, because I will have duties helping to run this place, but when it's time to level I want to go do it on time and regularly. Like it's a 9 to 5 job. It might seem to be a bit much, but it will be worth it. You will be privy to stuff no one else will be and I can promise you we will be the highest leveled people in this place.”

I looked at Jax and Smitty and Jane. “Are you down for that, will you have my back?”

Smitty clapped my shoulder. “As long as I have time to learn some blacksmithing I'm game.”

Jax looked at Jane and she said, “I am a Valkyrie, what else am I going to do but fight?”

Jax said, “You know I'll always have your back.”

I said “Good, now full disclosure let me tell you what happened to me in the mountains...”

After I finished my tale Onida said, “Now I get it, this Village is a drop in the bucket for an entire multi-system race to afford. They probably have millions of these spread out over their kingdom. Now, what they are going to expect from us is a whole other question.”

I said, “I don't know, but it was implied that we would have a good while to get our people trained up. It sounded to me like they are going to want a reactionary force to scare off anyone playing games with them.”

Jane said, “It sounds like we are going to have only100,000 people living here, that is a little deterrent.”

As we made the final walk to the stables I pointed across a field to the far right back corner of the building. There was an amphitheater that looked just like the one in Red Rock Colorado. “Cool a place for music,” I said.

Jax laughed, “More like a place for the Chief to address his tribe.” I put on a fake scared face. “Oh no, I am going to have to make sure to have my war party on stage with me!”

Jax looked back at me in fake fear. “Oh noes!” Everybody laughed at him.

We finally made it to the stables and I said to the sentry, “Isn't there anything closer to my apartment, it's going to be a pain walking all the way here all the time.”

It said, “You can just ask your elevator to deposit you here.” I gave it a look of annoyance. “So why didn't you just take us that way, Kelli?”

It said, “I figured that you would want to take a tour of The Village. You still have the entire other side to inspect, including the dungeon entrance.” Everyone started at that.

Smitty said, “There is a dungeon here?”

I said, “It's under control man, you need to enter it before you can even see any monsters.”

We entered the stables and five Appaloosa were standing there looking magnificent. I shook my head. “I can't believe Kodiak didn't tell me, he knew how much I loved the way these things looked.” I ran my hands over the side of one, it felt like a real horse. I said, “Let's take them for a spin around the Village at a slow pace, we will have to take you all to the shop and buy the requisite skills to take full advantage of these.”

Jane gave Jax an aggressive, hard, smack on his ass and said, “Mount up cowboy!”

Jax grinned at me and said, “This Valkyrie class is a Godsend, I love it!”

I wanted to check out the dungeon so we mounted up. The horses seemed to adjust themselves to the perfect size for each of us. I felt my skill kick in and whipped my mount out through the door.

I heard Jax laughing as he tried the same and almost fell off of his. He yelled at me, “Freakin show off!”

Riding the mech horse was more akin to riding a sport motorcycle. There was a bit of up and down like a real horse, but they took corners as a motorcycle did. I was testing it out and could cut a corner that hid my entire body from the opposite side. Something to remember.

I wanted to fire the guns mounted on the thing, and I felt the skill kick in but stopped myself from damaging anything in The Village. It only took a minute or two to get to the dungeon and we came upon a series of glass doors like you would find at any movie theater. There was even a lobby inside.

Jax said, “This is a dungeon? It looks like an entrance to a law firm!”

Onida said, “It is a city dungeon, you have to talk to a Dungeon Master and they portal you into whatever level you want to go to, perfectly safe.”

We rode at a trot and checked out most of the park, the indoor forest was fascinating. Birds and small animals scampering about, a true refuge in this new dangerous world. I enjoyed it while I could because I knew I wouldn't be spending much time here.

When we got back to the tree everyone decided that they were going to head to the shop right away for the riding skills and I headed for the tree to check up on Sammy. I told everyone I would see them in the morning and waved goodbye.