I managed to get a full night's sleep and was woken by Kelli. “Chief Brownbear, we have some visitors approaching the Village. You may want to greet them.”

I jumped out of bed and notice that Onida is already gone. What was that woman up to? I throw on some of my new clothes. A deep brown pair of leather pants and a flannel shirt with some boots that look suspiciously like my old North Face Tsumoru's even though I know that they are armor. I take the elevator down and jog over towards the entrance.

I can see a large... no, a huge crowd of people walking up the ramp to the Village. “Some visitors Kelli? How many are out there?”

I can hear the playfulness in her voice. It's hard to believe that she is an A.I. “Just shy of five thousand Chief.”

Kelli has set up a large series of cordons on the left side of the building entrance making it look like a huge airport queue. People are filing into them to be met by sentries with boxes full of village bracelets. I walk out and the crowd goes silent looking at me.

I shout out “Welcome to the Village of the People!”

The crowd cheers and I can see lots of relief on faces as people smile and wave at me. A big elderly man carrying a gorgeous shining soapstone carving of a bear approaches me. “War Chief Brownbear, I am Jimmy Chu or Chief Chu as everyone calls me. I was put in charge of this lot. I am looking forward to working with you.”

He hands me the statue. It is the size of a breadbox. “This is for you, carved it myself.” He holds out the statue and his hand at the same time.

I look around and see Jax walking over. I take the bear and turn to Jax “Can you hold this for a moment please?” I turn back to the Chief and shake his hand. “Thank you for the gift Chief, nice to meet you, this is my right-hand man Jax.” He nods at Jax.

I say “Chu huh? That means beaver doesn't it?”

He laughs “Yup, I'm surprised you know that.”

I chuckle back at him “Well, I majored in animals and forestry in college. Tell me, how did all of this come about, how are you here so quickly, and how were you put in charge? I see many different tribes here.”

He nods, “It was all the System. We all got notifications three days ago. It explained all of the options and rules of the Village. We were given room assignments and schedules. There were forms we had to fill out detailing what we wanted to pursue. We were made aware today of the oath and the importance of leveling. Almost everyone I talked to said they were coming. This group is from Anchorage and the surrounding area. I think the group from Fairbanks and North of it are coming later today, and I wasn't even asked to lead this group, I was assigned it. At 8 am on the dot this morning a portal opened up and I stepped through it and here I am.”

I said “Whoa, this is amazing, the System is taking care of something that I had no idea of how I was going to do. You were in Anchorage then?”

He nodded, “Yep, I lived right outside of town, ran the Alaska Native Heritage Center there and I can tell you I am happy to be able to get away from that town. The whole city has been taken over by these Truinnar people. They are getting everyone to work for them, mostly by some form of serfdom. It is gonna get ugly there real fast.”

I said, “Huh, I ran into some of their people here. They did not seem very human friendly... So Chief, what are your plans, what do you want to do?”

He snorted “What I wanted to do was retire and open a soapstone carving shop. What I was assigned to do is sit on the Chief's board and train in a new class to run a city dungeon!”

I said, “Oh, you're going to be the new Dungeon Master? That's great! What is this Chief's board, I haven't had time to read thru any of The Village information yet.”

He said, “Every group that comes in will be assigned a Chief who will be responsible for telling their band of any plans or changes to The Village. Kind of a micro-managing team for you. We were told in no uncertain terms that you are Chief of Chiefs and there can be no changing of that rule.”

I said, “I see, so what can you tell me of your group then?”

He shrugged “I can tell you that they all know the rules and all have jobs and schedules already. We have a lot of hunters and fishing industry people and some crafters. One weird thing is that almost all of these people are either couples or have small families already. There are very few singles here, maybe 5% tops. We also have a bunch of expecting mothers. It seems apparent to me that the System wants the People to populate themselves.”

I sighed and said, “Thanks for the info Chief. I need to go, I wasn't expecting people this soon and I need to go and read up on what is going to happen and what is expected of me.”

The Chief looked at me and then slowly looked back at the crowd. Jax gave me a nudge and said, “Maybe we can take a few and go meet some people, shake some hands?”

I stopped and looked at him, he winked at me. I said, “Yeah, I guess I should do that huh? I'm going to need to get used to this.”

I spent a couple of hours shaking hands and welcoming people to their new home. The hardest part was getting hugs from the children that had made it this far. They were oblivious to what was happening with my own child, but the relief was practically pouring off of the parents.

I finally pulled back from the crowd and got to the elevator. I said, Kelli, can we have an android sentry take on facial features?

She replied “Yes Blackbear, why do you ask this?”

I said, “We are going to need a receptionist for the entrance to my home pronto. I want a softer look for my personal greeter. Can you have one made and station her there until we find someone with a skill for it, please?

She said, “At once Chief. Do you have any preference what she should look like?”

I looked at Jax and winked. “Yes Kelli. Look up Priyanka Chopra, she seems friendly enough.”

Jax coughed and tried not to laugh. I said, “Thank you, and even after we get a skilled receptionist leave her there to serve as a vanguard for the doors.”

She said, “As you wish Blackbear.”

When we got to our floor Jax placed the Bear carving on the reception desk and the doors opened. Onida stepped out to greet us. I heard Jax quietly gasp and then grunt as he took in her new look.

She said, “Samantha was up for about an hour. She even made some tea on her own. I was explaining everything to her when we noticed people entering The Village. She saw some children running in the park and she froze and went right back to bed. I expect her to be up and about in two days.”

I sighed. “Well that is good I guess. Did you know that the System is assigning all of these people jobs and schedules to follow? We have a dungeon master... Oh speaking of, I was told last night that a beached cruise ship south of our border is a dungeon, or turning into one. We are going to need to check that out today. I also made some infrastructure changes to the city last night.”

Onida said, “Yes, I noticed that. You spent nearly three million credits!”

My jaw dropped. “Three million!? The system didn't notify me of how much it cost?”

Onida laughed and said, “No, and it won't. The system wants you to spend every penny you have. You are supposed to look up the price of things before you order them. You are lucky we are flush on credits right now. It took a chunk of your personal credits.”

I said, “How much was that bag worth anyway?”

Onida said, “If you want my advice, I wouldn't even look at it. You will only be tempted to spend it on things you don't need. Remember that you need to start thinking long term from now on. I also saw that you created an inn with a pub and restaurant? You will need to set up what percentage you are going to pay the people that run it. Same with the meat processing plant and crafting buildings. You can't just build businesses and expect them to run themselves you know. You need to get some office managers in here as quickly as you can.”

I sat back thinking about what she said and yelled “Kelli...!”

I said, “Guys, I am going to need at least two hours of undisturbed time in my office to start reading all of the info on this Village. Can you please get together with Chief Chu and find us at least a couple of people who can get the ball rolling on the businesses, please? At noon I want to get our party together and check out that cruise ship, so get a hold of Smitty and Jane.” They nodded and set off and I went back to my office for a good old fashion cramming session.

Not five minutes later I heard the doors opening. I said, “Jeez guys already? I asked for a few hours, it's been five minutes!” I looked up and saw Samantha standing there.

I jumped up and rushed over to her. I took her in my arms and hugged her. “Oh baby, how do you feel? I am so sorry I wasn't here for you, Onida is working her contacts to get some information on...”

She gently pushed me back. “Onida has filled me in on what she is doing. She also explained how your bond happened.” She wouldn't look me in the eyes.

I said, “I haven't touched her Sammy, we can treat her like she is a sister.”

She shook her head. “I am not worried about that Bowen. She told me we might not see our son for another five years or so. Kind of like he is away at boarding school. At least he is alive. I received two notices today. I got my class right after Onida told me about Billy.”

I said, “Oh yeah, that's good, what is it?” She said, “It’s a rare, unique class called The Broken Heart of The Village...”

I said, “What!? What kind of class is that?”

A tear slipped from her eye. “It seems that I am an Ambassador of some kind for The Village that manipulates sympathy from my charisma. It is heavy with a bunch of skills relating to children. I am meant to be felt sorry for...”

I looked up at the ceiling wanting to scream. The system was a cold bitch with no feelings. It would use anyone as it deemed necessary. I put my hands on her shoulders and kissed her on her forehead. “It will be alright Sammy, we will get through this. What was your other notice?”

She said, “I was just staring at the monitor next to my bed trying to figure out what it all meant. I kept seeing the words abnormal amounts of estrogen and progesterone. It was bothering me because I had seen the same words before somewhere. In this daze, I couldn't put it all together. I thought that I might have some kind of disease, so I asked Kelli.”

My hands started slowly shaking. “Even if you are sick Sammy it doesn't matter anymore. We are going to take you down to the store right now and get you the Genome treatment.”

She shook her head. “I am not sick Bowen, I am pregnant...”

I didn't know what to do... I was thrilled that we were going to have another child, but with Samantha in this state of mind so soon after losing Billy, it was beyond bittersweet.

I said, “Honey, I can't begin to imagine how this is affecting you right now. I am very happy that we are pregnant, but I am concerned about you first and foremost. If you think it might be a bad time for this to happen I understand? Is this the right thing for me to say? I am sorry Sam, I have never seen you like this before.”

She said, “I don't know how to feel right now Bowen, I am having trouble feeling anything. I am going to go take a nap, I am still so tired.”

I dropped my arms to my sides as I watched her turn her back and shuffle away from me without another word.

My hands hurt and I looked down to see tightly clenched fists. I needed some monsters to kill... Instead I went back to my administrative work.

I had to struggle to understand what I was reading as I couldn't concentrate. I picked up on the advantages of assigning people from different tribes important jobs of responsibility, and how to motivate the tribe about the importance of leveling. I had been given 5 skills from the War Chief social side of its skills tree and I took a look at them.

Class Skill Acquired

Inspiration

The War Chief can motivate his people with his very words to achieve the unachievable.

1-hour buff. Enables unique condition: Inspired Motivation. +25 to Willpower, Strength, and Intelligence. It can be activated on any member of the People who can hear the War Chief's words.

Cost 250 mana.

Class Skill Acquired

Neighborly Advice

The War Chief can demand immediate settlement of any dispute by his right as leader of the People.

Enables unique condition: Calm Mind. +100 Charisma to all involved in dispute.

Cost 250 mana.

Class Skill Acquired

War Cry

A War Chief must be able to inflame passion in his people before the battle.

1 hour buff. Enables unique condition: Controlled Frenzy +25% to attack speed and base damage. It can be enabled on any member of the People who can hear the War Chief's words.

Bonus: Inspiration additional +25% to defensive skills if activated during a Haka

Cost 250 mana.

Class Skill Acquired

War Warble

An unresistable fear is landed on opponents of the People

Enables unique condition: Mass Panic. Variable time duration effects against willpower checks of individual opponents.

Conditional Skill Activation Component: Must be cast during a war chant or Haka performed by the People.

Cost 250 mana.

Class Skill Acquired

Earth's Embrace

The People are one with their Earth, and they temporarily use their shared bond to distribute all defensive skills and damage taken over a 10 minute period. +25% to defense and a 5-second immunity effect upon cast.

Cost 1000 mana. Usable once per 24 hours.

Three battle skills and two utilities, not bad. I had a bad feeling that I would be needing the battle buffs in the near future.

My brain was unfocused. I was doing myself no favors in this condition barely taking in the information I needed to have a real grip on. I stepped out of the office and went to get some coffee. Samantha was waiting for me on the couch in the living area. She had showered and done her hair and was wearing her traditional clothing that had been gifted to her over the years.

She had on dark brown leather pants with the soft native American fur high boots that I had gotten her for Christmas. She had a soft yellow shirt on with a light fur coat and a fur lined hood. I had bought that as well, it had a hand-stitched, embossed Brown Bear on the back of it that cost a quarter of the price of the coat itself. She looked beautiful as always if not a little over dressed.

“Are we going somewhere?” I asked.

She said, “I want to get the Genome treatment you and Onida told me about, She told me it would balance my hormones, and I need to be seen by the People.”

I nodded feeling good about the idea, anything to get her out of her current condition. I grabbed my coat and said, “I am in no state to study anything, let's go right now.” We headed out to the Lobby. Yepa was hot on our tails.

Sammy took one look at the Priyanka sitting at the receptionist's desk and turned to me raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged my shoulders and said, “What? We needed a receptionist?” She raised her other eyebrow. I looked over at the android disguised as a supermodel and said, “Jax ordered that look.”

She turned without a word and went to the elevator.

We went straight down because I wanted Sammy to get a look at The Village from the ground. She just stopped with no expression and looked around. I had to admit, it was still awe-inspiring to me. I looked at her and noticed that she wasn't looking at this wonder of the world, she was looking at a small group of 5 children that were playing not 20 yards away from us. As one the children seemed to become aware they were being watched and they all looked over at us. They started to run. Samantha seemed to be drawing them in. They were all babbling as one as children do:

“Is that the Heart and the War Chief?”

“She has to be the Heart, look how pretty she is.”

“I am going to get my papa to get me some boots like that.”

“What kind of cat is that?”

“How did the Chief get her to marry him?”

The children got to us and all crowded around Samantha hugging her legs and firing off non-stop questions at her. Sam touched their hair and looked at them and started to tear up.

I frantically looked around for help and spotted some women rushing over to us.

The first woman arrived and peeled her daughter off of Sam. “Oh my God, I am so sorry Heart, I don't know what came over her, she is normally shy!” She looked down at the kids and clapped her hands. “Children, show some respect, I am sure the Heart has more important things to do than be bothered by a bunch of noisy brats!”

The Mother's all snagged children and pried them away and apologized to Sam. It was like I wasn't even there. None of them would even look at me, I was befuddled.

Samantha saw this and said, “It seems as thought everyone has been given word of my broken heart. Don't worry Blackbear, I am sure it will be the exact opposite when all of the men get near us. It has to be my skill.”

One of the women looked at Sam and said, “There was a village wide notification that the Heart of The Village was awakened.”

She simply nodded at the women and took my hand and pulled me away. I heard a little girl say, “She is so sad, but Mama look at those boots, I want them!”

We got into the shop and Sammy sat down to receive her treatment and have a neural link installed. I heard a saleswoman say, “I love your outfit, what a great sense of style, I have a bunch of native inspired clothing we just got in stock, can you please take a look and tell me if they are any good?”

I sighed. This was now going to become a time sink and probably an expensive one as well. I sat and decided to look through the tech, I had a bunch of hard connections left and I wanted to find something for communications. I wanted to be able to get a hold of Kelli in the Village at any time. I asked Mali to send the boss out that I had met before while she took care of Sammy.

The man showed up with a smile on his face. “Chief, looking at communications gear I see, I'm glad you asked for me, that is one of my specialties.”

I bet it was... I was glad though a few minutes later as the dwarf had advised me to get some anti-jamming gear that I wouldn't have thought of. I asked him to order 5 more sets of it all for Sam and my party.

Before he left he said, “War Chief, I was looking through your initial order and I noticed a bare spot in your defense, one that I'm sure you hadn't known of.”

I said, “Oh really, what would that be?” I hated how the System allowed for others to be up in my business.

He started explaining all the ways that the System could screw me if one had enough money to buy the information. When he finished I had spent another large chunk of change to hide myself from prying eyes..

I asked him about physically hiding my body from people that has tracking, etc. and he just smiled. “Oh, you don't have to be worried about that, Your necklace has that well covered.”

I said, “What what do you mean my necklace?” I had forgotten that the four elemental warriors had gifted me four pieces of jewelry and had the man explain them to me.

The necklace made me almost impervious from being physically spied on. It was some of the best tech that could be bought. Of course, that didn't mean my party members were likewise protected. I sighed thinking I would eventually have to buy them something similar. My earring had a shield against mental attacks. I had two rings that were so form-fitted to me that I forgot that I was wearing them. One was a mana shield against spell attacks up to 500 damage and the other was a flexible physical shield that protected me against penetrating weapons.

The dwarf also enticed me to buy a very stylish black leather archery bow arm guard that could eventually be filled up with 500 spare mana. I didn't ask for any prices, I was sure that no matter what Onida was gonna be mad at me, MEH!

Samantha had finished up her business and waved me over and we ported out of the store. I asked her, if she felt up to a quick walk, I wanted to take a look at the city from ground level and check out the inn I built.

She nodded, but got distracted looking at three young girls who were sneaking looks at her and started trailing us. I heard her mutter about getting used to her skill and I pulled her away before she realized what I was doing.

I quickly said, “So how was their clothing for real?”

She said, “It was better than anything I have seen made here. They just didn't know how to make outfits match the way we like our style here. I showed them how and they gave me a big discount on a few sets of clothes. I was told that I am going to be the new trendsetting style icon here.” She snorted in disbelief. My Sammy was more of a pair of jeans and flannels kind of woman.

We walked down the hill past the mansion and Sam looked at the new changes I started in the city and said, “Beautiful, very natural as I would expect from you, but it is very empty. More of a park than a city.”

I said, “I will eventually fill it up, I don't want the city folks hiding in their houses right now. I want them all living with each other and bonding.”

We walked the few blocks to the new inn. I was impressed, The mini Village replica architecture looked as good as I had envisioned it. As we approached the front doors opened and Chief Chu walked out talking to Mayor John.

He looked at me in surprise and said, “Just the man I needed, I was coming to find you.”

I said, “What's up?”

He replied, “Had a few men take some injuries, nothing life-threatening, but it got me thinking. If something serious happened to us out here and we needed to reattach some limbs, we have no medical tech, and we can't enter The Village.”

Also, we are going to need a brewery and distillery if we want anything to sell here. We can buy from the store right now, but that makes no financial sense.”

I said, “Yes, I can do that. Have you given any thought about where to put them?”

He nodded. “We lost almost all of our harbors, but there is still some infrastructure up North by the old yacht club that would be a good spot for the med center. And right down by the base of the bridge is that big space where your old fish and game building used to be. We can put a brewery right there and maybe a dock in the future if we ship some out.”

I made a mental note and nodded. “Okay, anything else? How are the guards doing anyways?”

He grimaced. “They are being attacked almost non-stop but sporadically. Thank God we haven't seen anything over level 25 yet. I had an extra man placed on each post. They are leveling up quite nicely I might add. They asked for guard buildings too, but I nixed that right away. We don't need guards sitting inside of buildings, we need them guarding.”

I said, “Great, we got a big influx of people today and I am going to check on them and then get my crew and go look at the cruise ship. Don't be shy to get a hold of Kelli if anything exciting happens. Tell her to notify Chief Chu if you need reinforcements.” I shook his hand and we turned and headed away with Chief Chu falling in beside us.

I introduced him to Sammy and he nodded at her and gave her a gruff “Heart!” and turned to me. “Did you know that The Village has imposed a limit on alcohol consumption?”

I shook my head, “First I've heard of it.”

He nodded, “It's the only thing I have heard people complain about. We can only have three alcoholic drinks per 48 hours. You can keep drinking to your heart's content, but the System removes all of the alcohol from your drink after your third one. We must have had quite a few drinkers from the grumbling I am hearing.”

I said, “Well the system will take care of withdrawal, so we don't need to worry about that!”

He nodded. “Yeah, it's the psychological damage we have to watch out for.”

We went another block and the three girls we saw earlier popped back into our view. Chief Chu said, “Oh those three… I had forgot about them already, something to do with their skill.”

I said, “What's the deal with them? They seem to be following us around.”

He spit on the ground. “Sad story... triplets from a big family. The entire family except them got killed on the first night. Scared them so badly that they all got stealth classes and also some mind wiping skill so people leave them alone. They barely speak. They told me earlier that the System told them to find the Heart of the Village.” He looked over at Sammy.

I said, “Okay, this should be interesting.” I waved to them and we started walking forward. “Girls, come on over, I'm sure you know I am the Chief and this is The Heart, tell us what's going on.” The girls looked over their shoulders and all around them and then slunk over to us.

I said, “Hello, I'm Chief Blackbear, this is my wife, The Heart, Samantha, and who may you be?” It was like looking at three clones.

The first girl quietly said, “Hello I'm Carri, Assassin.” The second said, “I'm Cristi, class is Operative” The third, “I'm Calli, Spook”

I looked at the three of them. They were all under 5 feet tall and under a hundred pounds each. They looked maybe 15 years old. They were like mini Christina Ricci's from her Adams Family movie, all dark, and goth, and moody. “A little young for classes aren't you?” Calli said, “We are 16 years old, the System changed us...”

I was a little taken aback and looked at Chu.

He nodded. “Same story they gave me.”

I said, “All right ladies how can we help you?”

They looked at each other and then at Chief Chu and back at me saying nothing. Calli said, “The system said to only talk to you and The Heart.”

Chief Chu looked up at me and said, “It's fine by me, none of my business, but if it's that much of a secret I would advise you to take it indoors.”

I nodded and said, “You piqued my curiosity girls, let's head back to the village.”

As we started walking I heard Sammy say “Christi, Calli, and Carri huh? I bet your Mom was a big Grey's fan eh? Did you have a sister named Meredith by any chance?” Whatever that was supposed to mean... Sammy tried to small talk to the three of them, but they barely spoke a word.

We made our way back to our apartment and sat them on a couch.

I said, “Out with it then, why did the system send you to us?”

Calli said, “We were made to be spies, we are here to become “The Beat of the Heart” that's what the system called it. The system said she would have need of us in her future work and we were to protect her with our very lives if necessary.”

Sammy and I looked at each other in complete surprise. These girls were still in a severe state of PTSD, not fit or old enough to be spies, they were still just children. I once again mentally cursed the System.

I said, “Maybe we can talk about jobs for you near future. Where are you staying, and who with? They looked at each other with tears forming in their eyes and almost started to cry. Calli peeped out, “We have no one...”

I told them to hang on for a minute and started off to my office to talk to Kelli about finding a family for them. We couldn't have three invisible 16 year old girls running about The Village, that was a sure recipe for disaster.

I was just passing the kitchen on my way there when I heard sobbing and looked back. Sammy was on her knees in front of the three girls wrapping them all in a hug. All four of them were crying their eyes out. It stopped me in my tracks.

I went over to the fridge and opened it. I spotted a six pack of my favorite Anchorage Brewing Company beer and I grabbed a bottle and chugged half of it down. Sammy was kissing each girl on the forehead. Yepa got in on the action, forcing her head into the group hug.

Sammy stood up and looked at me. “Bowen, come here please.” I walked over. She said, “I would like to formally introduce you to your three new daughters. Calli, Carri, and Christi Shotridge...”

I debated for all of 3 seconds fighting it, but the look on Sammy's face told me that it would be a mistake.

I walked over and put my arms around all four of them at once. “My new daughters, I am so blessed to have such a beautiful family.” I stepped back and looked at them. “Samantha, I am going to need you to take these three to the shop at once and get them new clothes and body armor. Sorry girls, but you look like three thieves about to rob someone.”

“The Chief of all Chiefs cannot have emo punks for daughters. Make them a tiny bit more respectable please. Have the Genome therapy done on them and get a neural link for each with the communication gear installed. And Sammy, will you please have some different color streaks put in each of their hair so I can tell the difference between them?”

I thought about what was happening in my personal life. I now was attached to Sammy, Onida, Yepa, Calli, Carri, Christi, and even Kelli the A.I. All women.

I needed some testosterone up in this house. I shouted at the ceiling “Kelli, get Jax up here!”