Authors Note: A slow chapter, but has a lot of meaning in it. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 59 Rebuilding

“We made contact with the Drow” Cortex said as she came running into the Cafeteria towards us. Bre'Tirgan, Rick, Alexander, Julie, Ki'Diera and I were sitting at a table going over the Kingdom information and it's future. A day has passed since we started to gather metals, and quickly set up patrols, removing some from the Walls as we had the added Ny'Har'en now with the bracelets to watch as well.

I made a few more rings, but those things just took too much out of me and the process was slow. I could not spend my time just on them, there were other priorities that needed to be tended to as well. So in my free time, I would work on them. I was able to make 22 more rings total and 6 more skill levels before going to bed last night. My beautiful big bed. I could get spoiled like this. My thoughts were interrupted by Cortez's entry.

“Report Cortez!” I say to her.

“We spotted a group of 8 Drow NE at around the 4 Km mark from here.”, She begins then sees the map in front of us and then goes to it quickly, looks it over, then points,” about here. We saw them holding up in this place. They saw us and went invisible, but with the bracelets we tracked their movements. They retreated back some then tried to circle around us. We engaged them and killed all but 2, they escaped.”

“Was anyone hurt or injured?” Rick asks.

“No they never were able to get close enough to us to cause harm. They tried magic, but we resisted it.” Cortez reports.

Her team was a group of 10, a mix of Ny'Har'en warriors and Elite, sent out to seek and destroy the Drow in the N by NE area while a second team was sent to scout NE by E, overlapping the NE as that was their most likely approach coming from Colorado Springs. We had a group of 50 plus people mostly all civilians with professions, with Marines and Ny'Har'en warriors out scavenging metal. They used their inventory's to transport anything deemed of value. Unfortunately the Ny'Har'en only had their little pouches so they were still limited.

We already had all the cars and trucks that were on the road in front of the school piled up in the courtyard. Their gas tanks had been removed and emptied by Terry Williams, who was now our full time mechanic. After which the Army guys played "flatten a car with a tank" game to crush them, and then stacked them on top of one another. It was not the best method, but it got the job done.

All in all, 88 vehicles stood stacked in neat piles waiting for transformation. You would think the vehicles would be the obvious choices, but most had very little metal in them anymore, besides the engine itself and various parts, but it got them out of the way and the area began to take on a clean look, once we get rid of the junk pile.

It seems this task raised morale, as everyone had something to do and was occupied, and the beautification began to erase the signs the monsters had left behind. Life was starting to take on a normal look again, with the exception of seeing cat people everywhere, glowing walls, and a School converted to a Keep, but it was looking normal again.

We still have not ventured outside the 5 km zone as of yet, and I was getting curious what else is out there. I also wanted to test the bullets I had made, but never got a chance. With Cindy still out cold, I was reluctant to leave in case she had another episode. There was still no change in her condition, and she was not responding to my mind. I could feel her getting better, but she remained sleeping.

“Alright tomorrow I will take a team of 20, we will scout the areas beyond the 5 km zone. And we might as well hit the Do it Yourself warehouse and Kart Mart while we are at it, since they are in that area.” I say to the group. “We will leave at 0'800”.

Everyone's levels was rising with the rotation at the Portal site, we only needed 2 Super Soldiers now and kept 4 people with them to make a full group to maximize xp. We even scheduled a Doctor on each rotation to increase their levels. We set priority to who was critical to our day to day operations, like the Doctors. We found that by doing a 12 hour shifts at the site we could get 4 people to level 57, after that it dropped off fast. This also meant that a Super Soldier only spent 12 hours every 5 days out there.

The Super Soldiers Rifles cut thru the mass of were-beats like scissors in seconds on continuous fire, it also drained their mana fast as well, but it could be easily recouped with rest. We had a shift sheet set up now, with planned personnel to go to the site for xp runs. Julie was busy writing down names and times on it with Ki'Diera adding Ny'Har'en as well to the list. The mixing of humans and Ny'Har'en was bringing the two community's closer together, and a few more couples were springing up here and there.

Yes, things were definitely coming around as a full month has passed since the start of it all. The Kingdom treasury had deducted the upkeep cost from the 14K gold we still had in it and we still had gold left for the next upkeep depending on the keep upkeep itself when the upgrade finished. But I wanted to max out the Walls, Watch Towers, and the Keep itself as soon as possible. Then see if we can add a second set of walls further out to expand the inner safe zone. But that meant more people were needed and that meant we need to find more survivors, and I can not do that here.

“So I want to take, 7 Ny'Har'en warriors, 5 Elite and 5 Super Soldiers, Ki'Diera and Julie with me tomorrow.” I say while looking a the map, tracing the outer 5 Km zone we were going to, with my index finger.

“I am going too,”, says Rick quickly

“No Rick, I need you here in case of an emergency with Bre'Tirgan, you two can coordinate the remaining Super Soldiers, Elite and Ny'Har'en for defense.” I say to him shaking my head.

“Then you stay and I go” Rick argues.

“We need to rid ourselves of the Drow problem close by first, then at some point we will have to deal with them directly, meaning going back to Colorado Springs” I say to him. “I am the best choice to lead the teams in an assault, my rifle can take out a building if needed.”

“Alright, but no heroics from you. got it? We need you back here” Ricks says reluctantly.

“No worries Sheriff, Ki'Diera and I will be right there keeping him on a leash.” Julie chimes in raising her head from her stacks of papers she was writing on, setting up schedules.

“I will leave it to you then Julie and Ki'Diera”, Rick says with a smile,” but you two need to stay safe as well. You know with the babies and all.......”, He mutters.

“We will be fine sheriff!” Julie says reassuringly.

We talk some more about who we would take on the team, Bre'Tirgan makes some suggestions on the warriors, while Ricks suggest some of the Elites, I decide to take Sgt 1st Class Montgomery, SSgt Halloway, Pvt 1st Class James, Cpl Stinson, and LCpl Hicks.

With the 20, I split it into 3 teams, Montgomery would lead one, Halloway a second and I a third. We would remain together till we made contact then split up. Two of the Ny'Har'en were scouts that we could send ahead. Leaving us with 3, 6 man teams. The two scouts were also the ones who found the Drow in Cortez's team.

After our meeting we split up, each taking care of other things to prepare for tomorrows excursion into the 5 km zone. I went to check up on Cindy and found there was still no change. Doc Snow was getting a little worried now. The ring still glowed on her finger and I could feel her still in my mind. I sit down in a chair and begin to make more rings. I would hand these out to those going with us tomorrow.

Each of the Super Soldiers were now level 83. Their effectiveness has gone way up with their Rifles, as was evident when taking out the masses of Were-beasts. The roles were now reversed, in the beginning the creatures who were higher levels, were able to wipe out most of humanity it seemed almost over night, now we had the edge at least here. We still did not know what lay outside of our area.

Expanding and securing outward was our best option, go slow and steady, secure what we have, to survive, it was our only option. The survival of humanity is at stake here, if we are the last survivors, I will make damn sure we live on. If there are more survivors, we can bring them back here and build a safe community for us all.

By giving out the rings, the chances of survival goes up even more. I sit down and begin on the rings, it is slow and wears me out fast, the skill ups slowed way down. Even at skill level 35 it still took over 12 minute to make one ring, so 3 an hour with breaks in between to regain mana and willpower, steady as she goes, nice and slow, do not over do it.

I spend the better part of the day making the rings for the group tomorrow. I also had the 22 rings from yesterday as well, but wanted them for our defense teams, in case we got hit while our team was out. After 8 hours, I had 24 rings made, but gained no skill ups. However my understanding of the ring improved, it was quite complex. It not only healed the body, but basically everything on several levels. It was a multi tiered healing ring.

The ring regenerated lost limbs if lost, remembering the structure of the original body, it regenerated mana and stamina as well. It restored stats that were affected returning them to their original state, but also recognized growth. The complexity of the ring was beyond me at first, but as I made more or them, I began to understand it better. I still had more to learn about the ring and kept making them.

As Dinner time approached Julie came into the infirmary,” Scott you need to stop for the day, you are over doing it again.”

I look and I had made 7 more rings, before Julie came. I glance at my watch and it is after 6:30 pm.

I get up and stretch,” yeah you are right kitten, I will stop for the day, I am getting hungry”.

“Well you should you skipped lunch entirely.” Julie smiles.

I look to Cindy.” I really wish she would wake up” I say in a concerned voice.

Julie walks to me and hugs me “ She will sweetheart, she will, give it time, you just added the Soul Link and the ring to her, it took Ki'Diera 3 days to wake up with them and me 4 days when you added the ring.”

“I understand, but still......I can not help but worry, you know.”, I say, holding Julie.

Julie then leads me out to go get dinner and relax some. Word had spread about our upcoming mission to the outer 5 km zone. Some even came to volunteer, but all the spots were filled. I ate talking with Julie, Ki'Diera and even some of the Super Soldiers had joined us as well. It was a pleasant dinner, talking about nothing really, reminiscing about our past. Joking and laughing as we ate. It felt nostalgic, being able to laugh and joke, while having a cold beer.

After dinner, we had a few ore beers, and someone turned on the music, the selection was best of the 90's. We all enjoyed it and just talked letting everything else slip away for the night. The simple life, if you cna call it that, was starting to make a comeback for sure. People were more relaxed and enjoying themselves again.

As late evening hit, Julie, Ki'Diera and I retired to our room, but checked on Cindy before heading to bed. Ki'Diera's heat issue has since passed, so getting to sleep was not an issue with both snuggled up to me. My sleep went uneventful that night. As morning came, Julie headed for the showers alone, I had morning stiffness, so Ki'Diera decided to take care of it and enjoyed herself, as did I.

After we finished up we headed for the showers as well, then breakfast. At 8 am all were gathered who were going on the mission. I gave Rick 36 rings and handed out the remaining 17 to my teams. With that done we headed out.

We went on foot and headed to the NE section. No encounters on the way, the creatures did not venture much into our safe zone and were quickly eradicated by the patrols when found. Mostly still Worg, Orcs and the occasional Owlbears. No new creatures have shown up yet. I look at my watch and see the date, it is May 20th, 32 days have passed now since it all began. I can not help but feel things are going to get worse really fast somehow soon. I feel we need to prepare and get our levels up as quickly as possible and deal with the Drow soon before it happens. It is a gut feeling that I can not shake.

We make our way to the 5 km mark and scan the area beyond with binoculars, seeing nothing so far. Outside the 5 km zone, the scouts reported an Orc camp. They had converted a neighborhood into their base camp. We moved towards it and saw an estimated 200 of them. They seemed to be milling about, some fighting, while others sat around fires and ate some kind of food. I spotted the Chief Orc, same as the last, carrying a big battle ax on him. So I can assume his is also level 29 like last time. We closed in on the camp silently, and spotted a few of them walking nearby. They were still the low level 18's like before. I used my mana blaster, as I called it now, it was the TA Advanced Marine Mana Enhanced Pistol, a name too, long I decided, and took them out quickly. I then switched to my AR-15 with the new bullets.

We advanced on the Orc camp, just on the outskirts, taking out any Orcs we saw on the way. We split up into our three teams, Holloway went Right, Montgomery went left leaving me the middle. The signal was when my team opened fire.

I waited 5 min for them to get into position. Once the 5 min mark struck, we opened fire into the camp. The other teams joined in soon after. The orcs being low level fell quickly, not able to fight back. It took only moments to take them out. We then moved in quickly and killed any Orc that came charging out of the houses. The AR-15 had performed well, the new bullets did their job flawlessly.

We then did a sweep of the area to ensure we got them all. It took under 30 min when all was said and done. XP wise, nothing much changed. They yielded very little and was almost negligible, even the chief yielded little xp, a far cry from before. It felt good tho, to get rid of them as they were part of the cause for all of what has happened. It was a moral victory for us.

We scoured the area quickly and then began to move onward. Our Scouts went ahead again while we had cleaned out the remaining Orcs. Moving forward we still not encounter much, just the occasional Orc. As before the creatures spawned in zones and seemed to respect one another territories, not venturing into each other's zones. At the 6 Km mark I stop the group, I equip my normal sword from my inventory.

“In the name of the Kopeke Kingdom, I King Scott Smith claim these lands” I proclaim and jab my sword into the ground.

KINGDOM NOTICE!You have laid claim to all unclaimed lands whithin 1 Km of you.

The lands have now been added to your territoy.

Satified I put my sword away. I read up on how to claim lands, and even could designate others to do so in my name. Montgomery had claimed the Portal zone for us. He found it awkward at first, but yielded and said the words as it secured the area from any spawns that could occur besides the Were-beast who even after kept portal-ling in. I did not want to claim too much too fast right now till we completely cleared out our 5km zone and could secure it safely. For that we needed more people. We also settled on the name of the City we lived in for our kingdom, Kopeke.

But I wanted this zone. The Do it Yourself and Kart Mart were close by, plus several other mega stores were in this main shopping district. Our scouts reported a few more Orc camps spread out in the surrounding area. It seems they were not all concentrated into one mass, but into groups, almost like wolf packs do, taking on areas where each had their own alpha.

Taking the time, we moved to each camp accordingly and wiped them out quickly cleaning the newly added zone of the Orcs. We spent the next 4 hours repeating the attacks. Again XP was negligible even with the amount we killed. We still have not found any signs of Drow in the area either.

I decide that we need to hit Do it Yourself first and gain the building materials there, to help our community grow. Lumber, roofing, doors, windows, everything needed to build houses was there. Plus they had tons of metal there, not all could be used for gold as we needed some for the housing project for the Ny'Har'en.

I had argued with Bre'Tirgan that outside the walls were plenty of houses to choose from, once we cleared and secured the area, but he insisted they remain behind the walls as agreed. I had to give in, thus this plan was hatched.

I know once we secure the zone, we can start to occupy the houses again. For that we needed a second Wall, an outer Wall. For now I will make the Ny'Har'en happy and uphold our agreement and get the materials to make permanent structure for them. Later they may decide to move on their own, especially now that Human and Ny'har'en were starting to mingle as couples. I just hope none of my male folks get themselves in trouble by being too loose, they could wind up with several life mates before they know it not understanding the rules.

My mind is brought back to the present, as it wandered thinking of other things. We were nearing the Do it Yourself mega store. No signs of creatures was seen or heard, probably because there is food here. If anything they would be collecting in Kart Mart or one of the large grocery warehouses near here.

Going by my hunch, we approached the DiY Store, and found it desolate and quiet. We entered quickly and found it untouched. Dust was collecting, but that was it. No one even tried to pillage this place. The doors were wide open. I guess building something during an apocalypse is the last thing on your mind, as food and weapons come first.

We quickly and quietly search the place and find it abandoned, then we take everything. With 13 people and 5 Ny'Har'en we cleaned the place out. It took a little over four hours. I had the scouts continue their search while we cleaned the place out. I had Ki'Diera take all the sheds that were pre-built for display, we could use them to store some of this stuff, like nails, shingles, paint, tar as well as many other things.

Once done, I found we were full of stuff in our inventories and Kart Mart would have to wait. Resigned by that, I called it and told the group we would head back to unload. Even re-boxing and re-stacking, it took everything we had to take it all. PVC piping may not seem important to some, but it was important for irrigation and other things like underground cabling. I am thinking we can use the mana crystal at the Keep to power these structures as well. We also grabed all the Generators and power tools. Heating and cooling units were there as well. Everything you need to build a house from scratch was here.

Looking at my watch, it was now after 5 pm. Getting back and unloading would take us into dusk. It was a good time to head back. We recalled the scouts and headed back quickly. It took almost no time going 7 Km to the Keep, which went by uneventful. We unloaded and began to stack and stuff things in the sheds, many people came to help as well. All cheered when they saw all the building material, as they understood what it meant. We were rebuilding our lives. We were taking back, what was once ours.

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Author's Note: This concludes Book 1 at 322 pages of text, not counting the Tables. Book 2 will start in next chapter. Thank you all for your support and cheering me on. It has helped to keep me motivated to write. In the later Chapters, I allowed myself be influenced by reviews and remarks, but then decided to go back to what I was doing that gained all the support in the first place. Write the story as I wanted to, if you like it great , if not, I am sorry, I also realize not everyone is going to like it. Again thank you all for your support Book 2 starting soon.