Louie stood at the top of the Tree in the observation post that the spiders created during the night.

He had talked to Celia and she had assured him that they will start for Worcester tomorrow or the day after at the latest, this gives him the time he needed to go look at the library, and hopefully, he can salvage a couple of books for his library in the tower.

After their conversation, he had decided not to use the portal to his tower but to test out the road's fast travel option instead.

He meant to stop at Riverhold, the crossing at the bottom of the canyon, and Mountainholm to install a capstone in each of his towers there if you can call a structure built inside a mountain a tower.

They have been in communication with Frans to tell him that the caravan was coming soon, and Celia hopped to offload a bunch of stuff that she wished to buy from Allet, stuff that she heard Louie describe he saw in the basement and that she thought might be useful.

There were a couple of people that were going to be travelling with them to Riverhold or whatever they will end up calling it, they were mostly people that had loved fishing before the Pulse turned the land upside down and nearly every animal into a monster.

They hoped to start a fishing industry by trading with Paarl and with the miners and Mountainholm.

He is also going to take a couple of extra capstones, the teams have been clearing the nearby nests and were eager to sell the Stones to him for a Gold Round each, he never knew when he might need one and not have it near.

'Wonder what it would look like to use a capstone on a mine if it is even possible.' Louie mused.

He turned away from the sight of a growing Paarl that he could see through the branches

Being up so high he had to use one of the telescopes that he had salvaged when he had cleared ruins for a mini fort.

He looked out towards CapeTown or where Cape Town should be visible from the top of the Tree.

He could see really far and he should be able to see the mountain clearly, he knew for a fact that on a clear day, you should be able to see the mountain from the top of Paarl Rock, and Table mountain should be clearly visible from the top of the Tree, which it wasn't.

Channelling his mana through his eyes he turned the telescope in the direction of CapeTown and the mountain. The hazy line that his normal vision showed leaped into clearer focus and what he saw was very depressing.

There was a smoky haze that covered the whole of CapeTown and nearly nothing was visible, but that was not the most disturbing things visible.

First was the distance, Table mountain seems to be much farther than it should be, more than double, closer than triple the distance, than what it should be from the Tree to the mountain.

'Shit I guess Gaea did more reshuffling than we were led to believe.'

The next disturbing part was Table mountain itself, it looks like the mountain has grown, not so much in height but in length, it now stretches into Table Bay all the way past Robben Island.

'looks like Robben Island is now part of the mountain'

The mountain looked like it stretched from its original footprint to Melkbostrand and beyond, turning Tablebay into what looks like an inland saltwater lake.

He turned around and looked to his left.

"Wonder what False Bay looks like now" he mused aloud

"What's that?" Asked the Guard on lookout duty.

"Sorry, just thinking out loud."

He turned the telescope back towards the town at the foot of the Tree.

'One step at a time Louie, one step at a time.'

He waved the guard over and after finding the Shelter and the Safezone at the Recycling yard, he showed him both places through the telescope and instructed him to notify the Centurion if he sees any suspicious activity at the last and anything of concern at the first.

He left the lookout and returned along the road-like branch to the Druid headquarters, or DruidGuild, as they started to call the house in the Tree.

The Spiders had been busy and there were a lot of spilk bridges spanning the branches. More and more dwellings made from SpiderSilk were also visible between the leaves of the Tree, it was slowly turning into a fantasy elven tree community.

Surprisingly there was a list of people that has applied for living space in the Tree but Sher and the other has-been treehuggers, as Rowena and the others called themselves, will carefully veto the list and only people with a nature affinity or a love for nature will be allowed to live up here.

He smiled as he thought of him tricking them into climbing the stairs when he used the runes in the magical escalator/lift, the first time.

He had studied the maps of old Paarl and had more or less an idea of where the Library used to be as he set out to explore the ruins of the shantytown. As he walked through the Marketplace he noticed the young woman sitting at a table next to the gate, flanked by one of the new guards.

Realising that she was probably one of the ladies that used to be a secretary before the Pulse, he decided to stop and talk to her.

Her name was Wilma and after she took over the job of taking down everybody's information as they went through the gate of the marketplace, she unlocked an unusual class known as Census Scribe.

She had also received a strange book from the System as a class item, which was strange in itself since he did not know that the System can and will give out magical artefacts as class items.

Wilma smiled. "Everybody's information is recorded in the book as well as their class and class skills together with the levels in those skills.

She explained that If she placed her finger on the person's name and then imbues the name with mana, the book will show a page where she can find the person's information.

There is also a section where she can fill in what jobs that person has done, and if she then does the same with his class then she will receive a BB with a list of projects that the person last worked on and the rating that the project or job received from the System for the finished project, she can then share that BB with a person looking for a certain crafter to do a job for them.

"Damn, that is impressive."

Wilma agreed, "the system will rate your work and you won't be able to bullshit people. At the moment we haven't got many crafters which have finished good projects so we are just taking down the names and classes of everybody that enters, if they have a class that is."

Louie made a note to get the ladies doing all the paperwork a Calligraphy Skill cube when he goes to the Dungeon shop, he remembers some people have terrible writing skills, him included.

He entered the north gate to the shantytown enclosure and started looking.

He didn't encounter any monster spawn, but this didn't mean that there were none. The walls stop the surrounding spawn from entering the enclosures but since the separate enclosures haven't been turned into outposts and linked to the marketplace, there is nothing to stop the nests or spawn points inside the enclosed space from spawning more monsters.

A lot of people were already relocated to the mini forts but it will take time and there will always be people that don't want to move for fear of losing the last material possessions they had even if it were buried under a heap of rubble.

The guards walking the walls were told to be on the lookout for monsters but they can't be everywhere.

Once everybody was moved they planned to level the whole enclosure and for Sher to enrich the ground, ready for farming, but that was still a couple of weeks away.

It didn't take him long to find the collapsed multi-storied building that used to be the public library.

He used and discovered that some people were living in the ruins of the building and he could clearly hear some kind of altercation.

Somebody was even threatening to burn books, which he would not allow.

Books were useful, especially now with what looks like the collapse of modern civilization. He meant to try and save every book that he could, hopefully, more people would help as knowledge was power, a light in the darkness, the destroyer of ignorance and fear.

The library was nearly totally destroyed and the time since the Pulse had not been kind to its contents, but Louie had a few ideas that he wanted to try.

The first thing that he heard as he entered the ruins was somebody shouting, it sounded like a young girl.

"Leave my books alone you numbskull, if your mom …"

From behind a half-destroyed counter came some evil chuckling. "My mom is dead, and we need toilet paper, so I'm going to use all these books if you don't come with me."

There was some pretty vicious name-calling coming from inside a shack built from pieces of bookshelf and old tarpaulin.

Louie saw a big guy, that was mostly doing the threatening while hiding behind a counter, suddenly jump up shouting, "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me…" just before a big book streaked through the air like a frisbee and connected to his throat with a bone-crunching thud.

"Yea? It all depends on how many words are in the book, asshole." A small girl, obviously the book thrower, called out as she peeked from behind a bookshelf.

Louie the girl

Name: Sammy Durant

Race: Halfling Level 6

Class: Librarian (Apprentice)

'Halfling? So, not a small girl but a small person. Must be one of the people who changed during the pulse.'

He raised his hands in the air as she suddenly turned in his direction.

"I come in peace, I wasn't with him." He was quick to try and reassure her after he saw her narrowing her eyes.

She picked up another big book, "What do you want?"

It took him a while to convince her that he wasn't there to kidnap her or that he meant no damage to her books but the exact opposite.

She had quite early figured out how her inventory worked and gathered as many books as she could and neatly packed them in bin bags that she scavenged before placing them in her inventory, unfortunately, she could only get two bin bags to stack in her inventory the rest had taken their own four sq each.

She meant to start a library in her new place wherever she ended up. She believes that knowledge is power, and the books she meant to save, although it may not be many, will be a huge boon to the children that come after.

Louie assured her that he was there to help her salvage as many books as possible. He and Sammy climbed to the top of the heap of rubble and slowly he started to liquefy all the rubble into blocks that he stored in his inventory, he did the same with any metal reinforcing he came across.

As he moved the rubble away and exposed the books he would wrap each in a thin layer of stone and move them to a neat pile to one side.

Since he had limited knowledge of how books were made his restoration spells were practically useless, so he kept a lookout for one book that he could sacrifice in his quest for advancement in his Restoration Spell.

It took them nearly the whole day to clear out the library and move all the books, which he had stacked and sealed in square stone bins, to his inventory.

He found out that Sammy hasn't applied to move to a mini fort yet since she has been trying to save as many books as possible.

While doing so she had inadvertently drawn the attention of Charl, who then tried to kidnap her for some reason, she had been dodging him for two days before he cornered her in her shack where she stored the bags of books she couldn't inventory. The sad fact was that she was friends with his mother before the pulse.

Louie meant to take the books to his library in Starter Town but then he remembered something he read in a BB and since there already was a growing community here and the books were originally from Paarl also the fact that there's already a librarian here, although a junior one at that, gave him an idea.

"How do you feel about trees?"

*****

Louie led Sammy through the giant doors and into the Temple of Gaea, having no idea where to go to find what they were looking for, but clearly remembered that the description said that there would be one, they started looking through the alcoves trying to find the entrance to the Temple library.

It took them a while to find the door, it looked just like the walls of the Temple, just the fact that a bunch of glow bugs was hanging around the vines made Louie suspicious that there might be something there, just like clues in a game showing the way to treasures.

As he moved the vines he saw an inscription above the faint outline of a door, 'Library'.

There was no doorknob so he gave the door a push.

The door opened and they entered a dark room. Suddenly a light flickered on, like someone lifting the shutter from a lantern, the light revealed the room and they were slightly dismayed at what they found.

"It's not very big, is it?" Sammy declared.

"Yea, sorry I thought it would be bigger."

The 'Library' was about 4 x 6 metres long with a 3 metres high ceiling from which a lantern hung, there was also a desk next to the door and the rest of the bare-walled space was filled with shelves, rickety empty shelves.

"When the description said that there would be a Temple library, I had hoped for more, like magic books about Gaea and maybe the other deities, not a small room with empty shelves."

Sammy shrugged, "it's better than nothing, don't worry, I will make a plan."

She started to remove the bin bags from her inventory and as the fourth bag touched the ground there was a slight shimmer through the room and the space changed.

Gone were the bare earth-coloured walls and scrappy wooden shelves, the walls were now covered with wood, in fact, it looked as if the room were carved from the inside of the Tree and then polished till it shined, vines with softly glowing flowers were creeping all over the shelves and roof filling the room with soft light and sandalwood scent.

"Nice, this is much better." Louie nodded in approval.

Sammy agreed as she picked up her jaw from the floor, "Wow!"

"Jip, Magic, and some System shenanigans."

"Yea." She placed more books in heaps on the floor.

Louie stood to one side and removed the stone cubes from his inventory, liquefying the stone he dropped all the books into stacks on the floor, suddenly the room shook as ripple after ripple flowed through the room as it changed again.

The room still looked like the inside of a tree but now it is bigger, much bigger and there were also alcoves lined with bookshelves along the walls.

There were reading benches, tables, and chairs everywhere where people could sit and study or just spend some time reading a book.

"Damn, now this is more like a fantasy library."

They looked around at the changes and stared at the two prominent features in the room, on one end was a massive root that stretched from the floor up into the ceiling nearly 6 metres above and there was a giant mobile featuring the planets at the other end.

The massive root had offshoots that crossed the ceiling and drooping down from them were glowing globes that hung like fruit from a tree, it looked like a living art sculpture.

When Sammy reached out to touch a globe it brightened and dropped into her hand, catching her by surprise she dropped the globe.

She looked on in horror as it fell to the moss-like carpet and rolled up to a nearby table.

Louie smiled and tried to reassure her as he picked up the globe.

"I don't think that stuff from the System is so easy to break or there would be a warning or something."

He started to walk towards the root when he stopped and looked back at the table.

He noticed that each table had what looked like a rootlike claw rising from the middle of the table. He walked up to the table and placed the globe in the claw and it steadily increased its brightness till the table and surrounding area were brightly lit.

*Ha ha ha* Louie laughed as he looked around, "portable lights for the tables." he said while looking into the alcove.

He also noticed that each alcove had one section of the wall where there were no shelves and in fact, there was a faint outline of a door, but they didn't budge as he tried to push at the carving. 'hm, might be just a carving.'

Sammy blushed beet red as she saw him place the 'light' in the stand on the table, she bent down and started removing more books from the bags and placing them on the table getting them ready to sort into their categories.

Louie didn't see her embarrassment as he walked up to the mobile, he noticed that all the planets were just solid coloured globes, and looking for a bit too long at the third globe it detached itself from the mobile and slowly drifted down onto a claw-like pedestal that rose from the floor.

The globe, if it was meant to represent the new Earth, was big, bigger than it should be, in fact as he looked up he got the feeling that all the planets were different than they should have been.

He looked back at the globe in front of him as it slowly turned.

He saw that it was covered in a fog of war and there was only a small spot that was a different colour, as he concentrated on the spot the globe expanded like a 3D image and filled his vision, he noticed that the spot has grown and now showed where he and his people had travelled.

Those were the same places that were also visible on his minimap and the settlements and outposts were clearly named as well as the road linking them.

He stepped back and saw that according to the distance that they have travelled, the Earth is now three times bigger than it should be, which brings up all kinds of questions, like how can the gravity of a bigger planet still be the same and how can the hours in the day still be the 24?

He shook his head, 'more System fuckery.'

He looked up to the other planets and then back at Earth.

'Hmm, I wonder if this globe will update if somebody else that has travelled far come into contact with it. Got to tell Leon about this.'

He took a step back and the globe rose back to its place in the mobile.

Louie shook his head and walked to the piles of books, he picked up one of the damaged books and tried on it but it failed. He got the same feeling that he had gotten when he first tried the Spell on the clothing in Starter Town.

After he explained to Sammy what he was looking for and why.

She searched for a book to sacrifice but eventually shook her head and handed him the book that she had used like a frisbee to kill the would-be kidnapper.

The book was a big A3 sized labelled 'South African Tax Code' with over 2000 pages.

He grinned, it pained his heart but sacrifices had to be made, he was sure that Sammy would agree with him, that nobody would be interested in the tax law.

He just hopes that the decision doesn't come back to bite him in the ass in a couple of years.

He used a kit that he bought in the Dungeon and slowly started to dismantle the book.

X-Acto Crafters knife kit (uncommon)

X-Acto Knives are an essential tool for crafters, artists, designers, and hobbyists alike for making carefully crafted cuts with confidence. The X-Acto Basic Knife Set of uncommon quality includes three indispensable knives and an array of carefully selected blades in a premium, soft-body case — great for organisation, travel, and storage.

The set includes 3 knives and 24 different blades.

+100% to steady hands.

+75% to precision cutting

He had once seen a program on TV about how books were made by hand so he had a vague idea of what goes into bookbinding and handmade paper creation.

He concentrated really hard and took his time to dismantle the book, and slowly the book started to give up the secrets of its construction.

Sadly the book could not be saved, but he had learned much.

Luckily Sammy also found another book that was in good condition that gave step-by-step instructions on bookbinding and even how to create your own inks.

He grabbed the closest book and started restoring them.

He quickly found that books that were badly water damaged, but were still intact, could be restored to perfect condition while books that were partially destroyed due to fire or were missing pages could be restored to perfect condition but the lost writing could not be recreated, leaving them with a perfectly restored book but with blank pages.

He was sure that there was a lesson in there somewhere, he was sure of it, but he didn't have the time to sit and think about that right now.

The restoration spell, as far as Louie could figure out, converts mana into whatever material the object is missing and then sort of rewinds or repair it to its original state. Which he thought would be closer to the school of Abjuration or Transmutation as far as he understood schools of magic from what Koert has been trying to teach him.

The teaching was going very slowly, he was never somebody who thought too deeply about something. It's all very confusing, schools and subschools and different affinities. Who cares as long as it works, If it works then it works, why ponder on why it works?

He opened the BB that Koert had sent him and looked through it before shaking his head and swiping it away.

Conjuration

One of the eight schools of magic according to some sources.

Conjuration spells involve the transportation of objects and creatures from one location to another. Some spells summon creatures or objects to the caster’s side, whereas others allow the caster to teleport to another location. Some conjurations create objects or effects out of nothing.

Subschool:

Creation:

These spells manipulate matter itself to create an object or creature. A small percentage of these spells require more magic to hold the creation together after it has been made and when the magic of the spell wears off, the creation simply disappears and the matter returns to its original form, whatever that may have been, but those are rarely used. Those that don't rely on magic to hold it together last indefinitely.

Transmutation

One of the eight schools of magic according to some sources.

Transmutation is the magical art of turning one thing into something else. Such as a human into a frog. A master of transmutation should not be mocked unless you believe donkey ears will improve your looks.

There were a lot of books lying around. Some open books had a slight glow from the pages, like those glow-in-the-dark stickers you used to get.

He picked one up and the glow disappeared when he closed the book.

"Yea, I saw that too. Most of the books have that effect on them to some degree." Sammy remarked as she saw him handling the book.

He used on the book.

A book of fiction that is fabricated and based on the author's imagination.

Louie placed his right hand on the book and channelled a bit of his Mana into the cover and received a BB.

Ow great! I Discovered How to Cultivate a Farmer in 52 Easy Steps.

By Benjamin Kerei:

Do you wish to 'read' this book?

Y/N

'Hmm, why not? Being able to know how to farm might give me more insight on what the people need to improve the agriculture.'

He selected Y, and the words streamed into his mind. The book didn't disappear or turn to dust like in the games or when he was using his Seeker Skill, the contents were just in his mind as if he had spent hours reading the book, it was more of a way to read a book than to use a book to study.

"What the fuck, this isn't a book about farming."

Sammy took the book from him and after checking the cover she started to laugh, "it's a fiction book, the DIY books will be somewhere over there, I haven't got to them yet." pointing to a section at the back of the library.

"Ow, ok I didn't realy read the first BB, so it is not a skill book, just a way to read a book without spending hours or days reading each page."

"Yea."

"But why are there only some books like this and not all? The other day I spent nearly the whole day going through books and this is the first one that I 'read' like this here."

She shrugged. "I think that it might be because this is a public library and you might have noticed that some books 'glow' brighter than others, I think that's an indication of how popular the books are or were."

"Aaah that's why there was no glow in the Tax book," they smiled at each other.

"Yea, not many people would have been interested in that one."

There was no way to know which books would be changed or why some books were, but he was sure that the fact that they had some kind of magic would make them valuable to even the vendors.

He of course had no intention of selling these treasures to the vendors since they were a reusable resource to his people.

Congratulations: for creating the Temple library the System has unlocked certain Class upgrades and Skills.

Nature spells and Skills will now cost 25% less SP or MP to use.

There was a flash of green light and one of the alcoves was filled with books, but closed of by a green shield.

World Wide Announcement

Attention: the Temple of Gaea will now grant worthy petitioners the Druid Class evolution of Gaea's Paladin.

Requirements: Nature affinity, Druid Class

'Shit got to go talk to Sher.'

Before leaving he showed Sammy how to use the top rune on the pillar next to the stairs and told her that he would orginise sleeping quarters in the house or even the use of one of the dwellings made by the spiders if she wanted to.

They found Sher leaving the Tavern just as they stepped out of the stair alcove next to the Temple.

"Louie! What the hell did you do now? Do you know what I just unlocked?"

There was a big smile on his face, "no, but I guess it's a good one."

"I just unlock the Spell, it will alow me to regrow limbs, I can now fix Joe's arm." They followed an ecstatic Sher back into the Tavern as she talked about all the possibilities that the spell opened up for them.

After introducing Sammy to Sher she promised to arrange living quarters for her, he also gave Sammy a gold Round and told her to spend it on food and stuff she needs for herself till they had figured out a salary system for STC members.

Sammy then left to go back to her library, saying that she has a lot of books to sort out. The rest of the evening was spent saying goodbye to his friends and the leaders who have been using the Tavern as place for an informal get-together every evening.

The caravan will consist of three caravans, Celias' which will be the main shop, pulled by Jon, her bird eater tarantula Golem, Naomi, and the other kids will stay in Paarl with Mainey and the others as well as the teens that joined them on their way to Paarl. Next, there will be Micheal with his leather workshop pulled by Rover and Derek whit his mobile Blacksmithy pulled by the eye-catching Ember.

Sheralee and Ansi will be in charge of the people that will be settling at Riverhold.

There will also be five of the new Paarl guards and five of Arnold's original legionnaires that will be supplying protection for the caravan, together with Sean and Whitney two of the original Caravan Guards with their pets Ula and Sweep, and with the buff supplied by the road, they should be more than enough and capable of handling the protection of the caravan and those that will be travelling with them.

Celia had promised to stop at the Shelter on the way out of Paarl and see what they had that might be of interest to potential clients. At this moment anything might be of interest since most of the survivors have lost everything so even the plates and cutlery that were in the basement would be worth some coin.

Shira had shown up later to talk to Leon, who then had issued a scouting quest.

Nighthunters

It's only Peeping if you get caught.

We have some neighbours that have shown some unfriendly tendencies, and we would like to know more.

Gather intelligence on the Nighthunters

Prerequisites:

Rogue class (Lvl 2 »)

Reward:

Depends on information

Louie agreed with Shira, when he gets back, it's time they try and sort out her family.

The rest of the night was spent in last-minute negotiations and preparations.

Louie left the marketplace bright and early through the west gate and approached the fast-travel pedestal.

When it first appeared between the gate and the road the pedestal was exposed to the weather and he had erected a gazebo over it.

He wanted BOB to stay behind and watch over the sisters but he would have nothing of that and Leon assured him that they would be okay in the marketplace.

BOB will be traveling in a Trapball since he didn't know how the Toll would affect him, or if the System would count him as a extra person and charge him double.

He placed his hand on the globe that was situated on top of the stone bollard and imbued it with a bit of mana.

Greetings Traveller

Be warned that the Toll for using Fast Travel is 50% of your current mana pool and 5 Gold Rounds.

Do you still want to Fast Travel?

Y/N

Please choose a Destination

Paarl Market (Starting pedestal)

Crystal Bridge

Riverhold (temporary name)

STC mine

Mountainholm

Starter Town

Fort

'Hmm, I better stop at Riverhold and confirm the name as well as look in on the mine… might just as well Travel from pedestal to pedestal. It's not as if I'm short on gold and the times between using the pedestals should be enough to replenish my mana pool.'

Be advised of the Toll

50% of total mana pool +5G per Fast-Travel, will allow Fast-Travel for a person or party, the duration of Fast-Travel will depend on how many pedestals they pass.

Mana will go towards the magical upkeep of the roads and debuffs.

Non-Toll paying parties who travel these roads will receive a speed and stamina boost of 25% while travelling on this road

Fast-travel

One person can Fast-Travel up to 400 km in one turn on one toll road, travel will feel instant for travellers but in real-time 1 hour will pass per pedestal even if distance covers more than one pedestal

Parties will Fast-Travel at 4 hours per pedestal in real-time.

Persons that travel a Toll road but do not pay the Toll can be attacked by bandits or monsters while on the roads or Rest spots, but Settlement buffs apply to Rest Stops, Toll roads, and up to 2 metres alongside the Toll roads.

Fast-Travel can be temporarily interrupted by any attack on non-paying persons while travelling on that stretch of the Toll road.

Travellers who have paid the Toll can not be attacked on a Toll road while in Fast-Travel mode but can be asked to assist in repelling the attackers, which will then bring them out of Fast Travel, if successful then the Toll will be repaid to them.

Attention

As a founding member of Starter Town Trading Company (STC), you have the choice of substituting the mana requirement for another 2 Gold Rounds or waving the 5 Gold Rounds for a total of 90% of your mana pool.

2 GR/90%

He chose the 2GR since he wasn't sure how this would affect his and the sisters' shared mana pools.

Louie then selected Riverhold and paid the price, the world blurred around him.

"Holly Shit! Who the fuck are you?"