by Ryan DeBruyn
Rocky felt his heart stutter, and his lungs clenched tightly. “That won’t be the only explosion of its nature on the planet. We had many such power plants that utilized that same technology; we called it nuclear technology. Unfortunately, we also had many more times that number in weapons as well. However, those would be much more stable and probably didn’t explode. I hope!” He took a deep shuddering breath. “Honestly, as far as the rumors say, the world had enough to destroy every living creature on it several times over.”
He held up a finger for a moment, showing he was going to continue but wanted to collect his thoughts. Then in a voice that was more somber, he emotionlessly intoned, “That isn’t the worst part of these weapons either. These weapons leave behind some sort of radiation.” At Sela’s confused look, he clicked his tongue, searching his mind for a better descriptor, then chose to explain it differently, “It’s like a massive, poisonous cloud that occupies the land around one of these explosions. The problem is you can’t see it without the proper tools, and it lasts for centuries before it begins to dissipate.” He took a deep breath, then spoke the last point, “That cloud was nearly a hundred percent fatal.”
Sela blinked rapidly at this new knowledge. After a time, she looked like she was going to be sick, but her hand raised up to her chin, and she responded quietly, “That does sound like something that people would consider evil.” She shook her head sadly before continuing, “If this isn’t the only disaster site, we need to take care of it fast. We don’t want Apep to get a good foothold on the planet when the inhabitants are so weak, and we definitely don’t want him in control of a Dragon.”
Rocky stood up and raised his hands in surrender; he wanted to be done with this depressing topic. “If it isn’t one thing, it’s another. Let’s set up the Guild Tent, have our meeting, and try to get those Master Knights on our side, at least!” He made a pointed gesture all around him. “This is all on a pretty huge level. We don’t have the strength to save the entire world, Sela!”
Sela stood along with Zippo and they all walked over to the bundled-up tent. There was a tab that made Rocky pause. “Maybe stand clear? This pull tab is a bit ominous.” They all walked back to the edge of the cleared area. Then Rocky summoned his Shadow Clone. When it arrived, it crossed its arms and was clearly not happy with him.
Rocky looked helplessly at Sela and Zippo who were laughing silently. Since they were of no help, he looked at the clone sheepishly. “Will you please go pull that tab over there?” The clone raised its eyebrows and stuck its tongue out before it was forced by his mental intention to walk over and pull the tab. As soon as it pulled the cord, the tent began to unfold, and the clone began to dash away. The clone was nowhere near fast enough as it was overtaken quickly by the expanding fabric, and the tent continued growing at an explosive rate.
Rocky stuck his tongue out as the clone disappeared. Yeah, it was childish, but the clone was really starting to get on his nerves with its antics. The tent kept expanding until, suddenly, it was fully set up, and massive anchors shot out from multiple spots, burying themselves deep into the tilled earth. They all stood there marvelling at the gigantic circus tent that now stood before them. Rocky opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a massive roar from the sky.
He turned his head and saw Azoth dive-bombing the new tent, “Azoth, no!” he mentally screamed. It was too late, and the birdbrain tore a hole through the top of the tent. Rocky ran inside and screamed at the creature to stop its attack.
Come on! This thing was brand new. This is why we won’t be having nice things!
Looking at the hole that Azoth had created, his head dropped, and he groaned. Still staring at his pet’s work, he blinked as the hole began to repair itself slowly. The fabric must have some sort of self-repair added in, and he breathed a sigh of relief before putting a hand on Azoth’s massive chest. “Okay, buddy, this is our newest guild building. Can you please not tear it apart anymore?”
“Azoth sorry. Azoth saw tent eat dark Rocky. Azoth protect Rocky.” Rocky smiled, shaking his head as Sela and Zippo entered the tent behind him. Then he noticed the moving mound of fabric that was probably his clone. He quickly dismissed the skill so it wouldn’t stay trapped or pull an Azoth and cut its way out…
He glanced again at the shrinking tear in the roof and noticed that even though it was repairing, he could easily tell that it was a damaged section of fabric. So much for a flawless, new Guild Tent.
Despite looking through his interface thoroughly and having Sela also look, they still hadn’t discovered how to completely remove the blinking corners. A bright orange blinking was dominating his bottom left corner, so he glanced at it before it gave him a seizure.
Congratulations! Your Territory has erected a Guilt Tent!
Due to this being a non-permanent building, you will only receive 50% of the benefits associated or derived from this building. Create or join a guild to discover more.
Would you like to join an existing guild?
Yes |
The option for the new guild was definitely what he was looking for, but he was curious if there were any guilds available that he could join. So, he clicked ‘Yes’ and was rewarded with a blank screen and a back button. He hadn’t been hoping for an existing guild, but it sure would have been nice if some of the old, powerful guilds from Sela’s lifetime were still around.
He looked over at Zippo and Sela and asked, “Any ideas for names for our new guild?” Zippo smiled broadly, but Sela frowned.
She ran her tongue along her teeth before entreating, “Did you–”
Rocky, knowing she had been hoping that her Cathodiem guild would be an option, cut her off with a sharp nod of his head, and she dropped her gaze once again before turning her back on the two of them. Zippo, not knowing what was wrong, looked at Rocky and gave a few suggestions, “Maple Leafs? The Nice Guys? Algonquin? Humanity?”
Trying to take his mind off Sela’s pain for the moment, Rocky smiled at Zippo, responding, “I was thinking something that could be a beacon for anyone who was going to join. Maybe call it Hope?”
Zippo tilted his head and immediately tried to make it cooler as children often do, “Last Hope? Humanity’s Hope? One Hope?” Sela started laughing at Zippo’s exuberance, and Rocky, who had also begun smiling at Zippo’s antics, felt a weight lift from his chest when he heard the musical sound of her laughter.
I’m very glad she’s so strong.
“Meliora was part of a common saying from my era. It was Ad Meliora and meant ‘toward better things.’ I think it would be appropriate now.” Sela chimed in after she was done laughing, and her mood began to sober again.
The way she enunciated the words sounded foreign but also beautiful and uplifting in a way Rocky didn’t know how to associate. He chose to go with it and typed it into the box requesting a guild name. A moment later, a new notification window popped up.
Congratulations! You have founded a new guild! Meliora is officially founded.
Would you like to add all members of the Territory to the ranks of Meliora?
Would you like to deem any knowledge proprietary to the guild?
Would you like to change guild settings?
Would you like to write a guild welcome message?
Confirm and Save all Settings |
Some of the options were easy, like inviting everyone to the guild, and Rocky, along with Sela’s input, made them quickly. When he pushed the button, it lit up green on the blue background, saving his choice for when he confirmed all decisions. However, when he pushed yes on the guild settings, a different window popped out overlaying the first, and he realized that the input of more people would probably be needed for those decisions. Zippo was sent to gather up the A-Team, who were acting as a de-facto council
of sorts, at least currently, while Sela and Rocky examined options that the setting windows provided.
Chapter Eighteen
To everyone’s surprise, the meetings continued through the night, with a brief, one-hour break for everyone to take an Elixir of Shortened Sleep, but they then continued. It probably shouldn’t have been much of a surprise considering that this would be the first step for an entire community, and everyone wanted to ensure it was in the proper direction. They had vacated the guild tent and taken the meeting outside pretty quickly. Almost as soon as the massive tent sprung up, people had been milling around inside and outside of it. Near what seemed to be bedtime, the members of the council left the interior to allow the civilians who wished a roof over their heads to utilize the Guild Tent and to gain a bit more privacy.
From the very start of the meeting, Derik had been irate with Rocky about a couple of things. He was not happy that Rocky had spent a vast majority of funds on the Guild Tent instead of buying something more appropriate. When Sela questioned Derik on what might be more appropriate, he had indignantly sputtered, “What about defenses for the Grotto or tents for the people who will be forced to sleep outside?” like it was an obvious choice.
Rocky responded a little hotly, “Almost everyone is going to be focusing on building houses until we get roofs for everyone. As for defenses, while those tanks that are parked near the entrance look intimidating, they are truly pitiful in the face of the creatures that are outside of Algonquin Valley!”
Perhaps he should have tried to be more political in his answers because Derik had become a greater nuisance all night, contradicting almost anything that was discussed. The only way to deal with the man had been to switch out his Elixir of Shortened Sleep with an Elixir of Dreamless Sleep that Smith had offered Rocky circumspectly. Rocky knew that Derik and Smith were actually very close friends and had hesitated to switch the potions at first, mostly because it would only exacerbate the problem in the long term. However, Smith had taken the initiative anyway and explained to the A-Team, Rocky, Zippo, and Sela after the short hour break that it was his choice.
Even after Derik was absent from the meeting, it had hiccups. It wasn’t nearly as bad, but it had taken the group right up until morning training to fully agree on the initial course of action which included how they would allocate Guild Etherience for quests, how they would allocate salaries, how they would choose others from the Grotto to join the ‘council’, and who present wasn’t interested in further politics and planning. There were so many other things that they decided on that seemed less important but might turn out to be extremely important down the road, like that hunters kept the crystals they earned and all loot, but the butchered food was the Territory’s.
Sela told the group that it was extremely common to place Territorial lands under an Atlantian Contractual state known as ‘The King’s Forest’. These areas were illegal to hunt in without express permission of the governing body or the ruler of them. If you were hunting them illegally, then the system would notify the leaders of the Territory. Sometimes, the strongest Territories had the kills locked, so the killers couldn’t loot or gain Etherience. In those cases, only the meat and hide were available to the perpetrator, but it was only the truly desperate that hunted King’s Forests without permission.
I still wonder if that is where the tradition had come from in our medieval histories.
After that realization, some members of the group had started back up the argument, wanting to take the Crystals from the hunters’ loot and use it to pay wages evenly amongst all citizens, creating something like a communist society. Sela had again stepped in, “Those were tried with some success in my time. In the long term, they were proved ineffective though, due to the lack of motivation for people to improve or grow. Yet this study was provided by a democratic ruling body so it could be biased, but I truly think that we should be attempting to force people to grow at all costs.” She had pointed at the Guild Tent. “We do not have the luxury of ensured safety that was afforded people in my day. So, making hunters more appealing will perhaps give us stronger defenders and fighters.”
While many had grumbled about it, they had all seen Sela’s point in the end and agreed on that at least. Another oddity and the second reason Derik had been irate was that Rocky’s initial founding of the guild had added all current individuals inside the Territory to the guild automatically without any choice on their part. Rocky hadn’t known that it wouldn’t offer people a place in the guild, instead enlisting them automatically and agreed with Derik on that point. However, he had suspicions that Sela had known the system would act that way. The fact that people could leave if they chose didn’t appease the ornery, middle-aged hothead. Rocky clung to that tidbit to help his conscience with what he saw as a massive breach of privacy by the system.
Rocky shook his head to clear it of the night’s reminiscing and stepped up on to the cobbled-together stage to first address his people and then lead them in Meditation. Once he was in the center of the stage and in front of a very rough-looking podium, he cleared his throat. Then using his loudest voice without actually shouting, he projected, “Good morning, everyone! I know it has only been a couple of days, but much has happened, and you should all hear about it. First, we have established a guild, and I welcome you to the ranks of ‘Better Things’ or Meliora.” It had taken Rocky a great deal of coaching by Sela to finally be able to say the Latin word without butchering it.
The vast majority of the crowd erupted with cheers, and Rocky smiled, waiting for silence to return. Once it did, he continued, “Another great addition to our Territory is our first ‘friendly’ Dungeon. I encourage everyone to challenge themselves in its sand pits, as Maximus, the Arena Dungeon core, has guaranteed our safety as long as we follow the rules. The rules are posted inside the Guild Tent and must be read and verbally agreed to before you will be granted access to the Arena Dungeon. It will open on Monday, which is in two days!”
Rocky had raised his voice in excitement at the end and clearly signaled that this was the end of another announcement. A few scattered claps and cheers were all he received however, and he nervously held his smile, realizing that many people had absolutely no clue what a Dungeon was. The ones who had cheered his announcement were likely the gamers of the group and had ‘experience’ with the phrases that this world had made common overnight. The ones who didn’t cheer were likely just lucky that they had found a school early on and that they’d been escorted to Algonquin Valley. He hoped the gamers would help the others in the days to come. In his days of playing online MMORPGs he’d come across gamers who were some of the friendliest and most accommodating people he had the pleasure of meeting. Unfortunately, he’d also come across almost an equal number of elitist pricks who wanted to lord their superiority in the new made up world over him. He hoped that those people weren’t here, but he felt in his gut that they eventually would be as they collected more people to Algonquin Valley.
The silence stretched and forced Rocky to clear his throat again. “I realize that many of you are unaware of what that means, and I hope that the people who do know will take the time to answer the questions of others after our training. Yes, I am looking at the gamers amongst you. The rest of the people need to know what you have learned playing video games… finally!” He smiled and heard a few people chuckle at his lame humor.
He continued quickly, trying not to detract too much from his message, “Finally, today, everyone will be able to pick up a Knowledge Tablet,” Rocky held his up to show everyone, “from the shop. These tablets allow you to download books about the current world. I’m asking for some volunteers to dedicate themselves to reading books and teaching us a bit about what they read every morning before we train, Montessori-style learning where you learn the subject before teaching it to everyone.”
He turned to look at the A-Team beside him and gestured in their direction. “If you are interested, please talk to any member of the council and we w
ill make sure that all volunteers are in contact with each other.”
Some scattered applause and conversation broke out so Rocky paused to let it die. Then he continued, “Finally, we’d like to have people join the council that are chosen by the majority of you. If you’re interested in having a hand in the decisions and governance of the Territory, please make yourself known to a current council member, and we’ll inform you as per the rules and timeline for running your platform.” Many people began looking around at this point at their neighbors and friends, wondering who might choose to run. Rocky smiled when he saw this high school like reaction and finished, “That’s all the announcements for today! Let’s get down to Meditating!”
A few hours later, after Meditation and martial training, Rocky was negotiating another deal with a Dungeon. This deal was much stranger and more humorous because of the entity he was dealing with. “If you make me the East Dungeon, I would be on the side of the water, which isn’t ideal. Maybe I can be the West Dungeon? The Grotto wall has plenty of places for entrances. I need to have my curb appeal if I plan to be the most traversed and popular Dungeon in the world!” LFD finished saying in his rapid-fire exuberance.
“Look, LFD, if all you want is to be the most popular Dungeon in the world, the Territory can help you with that. Taking the east and having one large, glorious entrance on the other side of the river will give you more curb appeal than multiple entrances. Think about it! One beautifully sculpted entrance designed to appeal to adventurers!” Rocky was, at this point, saying anything to have LFD accept the modified terms that Maximus had already accepted. The fact that it was stuck on which cardinal direction it would occupy was bothersome to say the least. Rocky needed the Dungeon in the east to help protect against invasions from the current threat of Chalk River.
