Equalize

by Ryan DeBruyn

  The fight fled the man, and a shrunken Arti was left battered and bleeding in place of a rapidly shrinking, enchanted berserker. Sela stopped Azoth from killing the man right there. She didn’t do this out of kindness. In fact, she wanted to kill them all as a unit once the other four and Arti regained consciousness. She wanted to make a spectacle of the man and his accomplices to remind the others that actions such as these would spell death!

  Which made it all the stranger when midnight rolled around, and all five men were still alive.

  Sela was used to being judge, jury, and executioner, which is why she was entirely confident in her assessment that each and every man who stood against her this day should die. Yet Smith stood between her and them and smiled placatingly. “Let us talk about this… lady.”

  Her icy blue glare stopped him cold, and his smile vanished as he continued, “You cannot just kill people without a trial. This is the way of the country in which you reside.”

  “Country? What country? We reside in Rocky and my Territory, and I will do as I see fit.” As Sela spoke these next words, the remainder of the team stood and gathered around Smith, showing their unequivocal support of the man's words, which made Sela finally pause.

  After the battle, the survivors had slowly gathered back to the campgrounds and even then only because they had coerced them with food. Now thoroughly fed, the groups watched the exchange between Sela and Smith, each one waiting to see what type of ruler they were following.

  Not willing to ostracize the people of this clearing, the trained squad leader in her came to the surface. In a tone of command, Sela simply stated, “You will explain.”

  Smith explained his old position as the Sheriff of the Indigenous Police, and how the justice she was about to perform would unequivocally be termed vigilante justice. Despite everything she knew from her time as a Light Justicar, she had never heard of allowing the accused to plead a case in front of peers. She had never heard of calling for witnesses and holding a hearing in the manner that Smith and the others explained.

  For Sela, a trial meant a pronouncement of the justice that would be doled out in full view of others so they would know that the law had zero room for areas of gray. You either followed the law or you didn’t, and Sela could feel her brain spinning in her skull. This system was undoubtedly flawed, and her blood boiled through her veins as Smith continued in a lecturing tone.

  The only thing that stopped Sela from bypassing the Alpha Team and slaughtering Arti and his group was that she worried that Rockland was from this man’s world and he may think the same. This thought was a tourniquet on a bleeding limb, and she used it to staunch the rise of her indignation. She would have this trial, and in the meantime, she changed the subject to her plans for the future.

  Informing the A-Team of the grotto within the Territory and her plan to move everyone there was met with skepticism of her ability to get the remaining villagers to work as a cohesive unit. According to each member, they had tried to have the survivors work together in the past. However, the fear of encountering monsters stopped each attempt long before it began.

  The druid looked them each in the eye. This place would become a city for more survivors, and her eyes held a promise of it. She blinked once and then spoke in a stage voice, using the conversation as a platform for change.

  “This place is the only hope you all have, and possibly the only refuge in the entire world. You have been given everything you have so far. What have you done to earn your survival?” Sela spoke the last question and waited.

  Angry mutterings started in the survivors, but no one spoke up. The anger morphed to a dawning realization, and Sela’s words drove it home a moment later, “You have survived on the grace of another and have wallowed in your pity of the circumstances that brought you here. Well, I have news for you! This is the world you live in now!

  Arti showed you that when he raped your women! I showed you what you would do without a food supply. Not one of you hunted or foraged after I took your food, and not one of you could stand up to this criminal.

  Do you want to let people like Arti and his cronies become the powers of the world? Do you want them to be able to take anything they want from you and you be powerless to stop them? Do you want to die just because you can’t get food on your own?”

  For the first time in two weeks, people began straightening backs and standing proud, attempting to rise under the weight that the world had put there. Eyes shone with determination as people struggled against their own fears.

  Sela smiled. These people were essential to turn the Territory into a place of actual safety for themselves. They were necessary to make this a refuge for other survivors of the Ether Apocalypse. They needed to come together through their shared experience of surviving where others had not.

  Otherwise, each individual group would live separately and slowly be pruned until they couldn’t support themselves. Once Sela had the majority’s attention, they quieted the few remaining mutters of discontent, and Sela smiled wider. Finally, she explained the plan, and they started to nod along and take more motivation from the vision.

  After Sela spoke, the entire collective went on a short jaunt to the grotto. Azoth carried the prisoners, each of whom was fed a strange concoction by Smith which prolonged their state of unconsciousness.

  Once in the grotto, Selaphelia laid out positions that needed to be filled and held group meetings with anyone interested in each post. Some individuals were forced to pick other assignments as there were far too many cooks, for example, and not enough hunters.

  The group for cooks was, in fact, the group she interviewed with first and found out the history of each of its volunteers. Choosing the ones with past experience was an easy decision, and she was left with a group of five individuals to discuss class selections with.

  Letting the five cooks know that certain classes didn’t require combat to level and that they could perform daily tasks and occasional quests to slowly level got the group excited. The druid made sure that they understood that they would not be able to grow in strength as quickly as the combat classes and gave them the best options she could.

  She made it abundantly clear it was not required for a person who was a cook to choose chef, saucier, herbalist, alchemist, or any other of the myriad of Non-Power Classes, NPC for short. If they wished, they could pick any class they fancied and still learn the Cook skill.

  For example, Sela had used the class blademancer. Blademancer was a class that could summon multiple different blades to hand depending on level and skills. At higher levels, this class could even control the knives at a specified distance of up to ten feet with their minds. The moment Sela had brought up telekinetic blades, most in the group had perked up considerably. However, when she suggested going out and hunting the monsters to gain levels, most of the eager faces had quickly become serious.

  The group of five left, thinking about the best options for them. Sela had also described that NPCs would be given one assigned stat point per level and one free stat point. In addition, the class skills they would have access to would be less combat oriented and much more utilitarian. In trade for the loss of a second assigned stat point, they were given two non-combat skill points per level, to place as they chose. This essentially allowed for power leveling of gained skills. These classes were given daily tasks that increased in difficulty but also awarded more Etherience as they grew in levels.

  It continued like that well into the darkening night before Sela felt she had assigned people to each group. The leader had been shocked to find so many intellectuals amongst the survivors and each one with a vast knowledge of specialized areas. It did grow to grate as one after the other they would speak of degrees or diplomas and past work experience, but Sela chalked that up to something from the world without Ether.

  She allowed them to prattle as long as it meant that they would have an innate understanding of building, farming, medicine, anatomy or any myriad of other topics she had
been informed were taught at ‘Universities’.

  Once she was done with the volunteers, she was forced to assign individuals to jobs that they didn’t specifically want. These jobs seemed to be anything which was considered to be too labor intensive or dangerous. Sela groaned and took anyone who volunteered for these positions but was still forced to assign others.

  Lumberjack had one volunteer, and Sela was forced to place three more under him and required their class selections to be Planar, Lumberjack, Millman, Carver, or Axemen, which was the combat option that suited the group. Strangely, bringing up combat and going out to gain levels made all of the men seem happy to choose NPCs.

  Selaphelia gave them the assignment of starting to clear all trees within the Grotto the following day and converting them to planks to be used by the builders. However, this brought to light the distinct lack of tools available. Rocky had left one wood ax behind, and the group from Pembroke had brought one more and an old saw, but that was the extent of woodsman’s tools available.

  It was a similar story for all the other groups which were reliant on tools. Selaphelia promised to fix the problem as soon as possible, thinking of the shop in Ottawa and of purchasing what was needed or perhaps just purchasing a smithy that could then begin supplying tools. Regardless, that would be a discussion to have with Rockland once she flew back to meet him.

  The following morning, Smith held his trial, and the group was found to be guilty, but strangely, the four who had accompanied Arti were deemed to be liable to a lesser extent. They had pleaded that they were victims of the man just like everyone else, that the Berserker had threatened to kill them and their families if they didn’t do as he said.

  This lesser sentence was given to Sela to decide, and she had chosen to talk to Smith to better understand why they were allowed to keep their lives. Sela felt that they all still deserved to die.

  “A man cannot be held liable for a decision he was forced to make under duress or coercion. This refers to a situation whereby a person performs an act as a result of violence, threat, or other pressure against them.” Upon Sela’s request for the meaning of duress, Smith further recited, “Duress is pressure exerted upon a person to coerce that individual to undergo an act they ordinarily would not perform.”

  While this speech didn’t change Sela’s mind about the issue, the fact that Smith was clearly reciting a law from the former world allowed her to accept it.

  At a suggestion from Smith, she chose to banish the group from the grotto and allow them to stay in the Territory. They were told that they could hunt and bring back food to one day earn the right to rejoin the others if they worked hard.

  As for Arti, Sela proclaimed his guilt and spoke his crimes to the people before she lopped off his head. The reactions of the people to this simple act surprised her. Many were forced to turn away and throw up, and she wondered just how weak the world had become.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Once Rocky saw the notification, he had felt his heart sink and so he chose to forgo his morning reading session and really delve into the tabs on Territory management. A deep-seated feeling of guilt forced him to try to do what he could to better his Algonquin Valley. Even though he didn’t have full access to screens and couldn’t change anything currently, he delved into the problem with a desperate need to quench his guilt.

  Rocky had played a ton of empire building strategy games and so immediately saw some of the changes that Sela had put in place but also noticed a large number of overlaps in her decision making. For example, the category of Alchemist.

  Territory Job Categories

  You are able to have ten job titles total. Ways to unlock additional job titles is currently hidden. Reach Territory Level two to unlock additional information.

  Job titles increase over time as actions and quests are completed that fall under each category, or you can have the job skill level doubled by having it occupy two available job title slots.

  Job titles can be reallocated once per quarter, current job reset counter = one. Counters cannot be stored. If they are not used, they will be reset at the end of a quarter. Current time remaining until next quarter. Five days, fifteen hours, two minutes. Dismissing a job will reduce its level back to level one.

  Alchemist 1

  Builder 1

  Lumberjack 1

  Cook 1

  Farmer 1

  Hunter 2

  Forager 1

  Herbalist 1

  Crafter 1

  Alchemist 1

  Maximum number of individuals allowed under this heading is five times job title level. Current rank one, current max five individuals.

  This job will increase the acquisition and leveling of the following non-combat skills.

  Alchemy

  Herbalism

  Chemistry

  Ether Properties

  Herbalist 1

  Maximum number of individuals allowed under this heading is five times job title level. Current rank one, current max five individuals.

  This job will increase the acquisition and leveling of the following non-combat skills.

  Herbalism

  Cultivation

  Chemistry

  Ether Properties

  These two were the largest of overlaps that Rocky could find with three of four skills being contained under both job headings. Others such as farming contained cultivation as well so it would have been much more efficient at current to make sure each and every skill had minimal duplication across jobs.

  This was utterly theoretical on his part, but he began scribbling notes in the tablet so he could bring them up with Sela later. Perhaps he could have her fly back and forth to convey orders and change the structure of the village while he finished up here in Ottawa.

  As for levels of the job titles, it seemed they would level over time, or you could exhaust two job titles to double the current level of a job. However, all a contemplative Rocky could tell that happened upon the second tier of a job skill was an increase in the number of people it could house under its umbrella.

  Hunting 2

  Maximum number of individuals allowed under this heading is five times job title level. Current rank two, current max ten individuals.

  This job will increase the acquisition and leveling of the following combat and non-combat skills.

  Accuracy

  Tracking

  Skinning

  Butchering

  Perhaps it also increased the subsequent skill leveling speed, but the information was not available under his current tab. Making notes of some of the other job titles that would be beneficial, Rocky continued to study options. Under a tab titled administration, the entire back screen with sliders, graphs, and options was grayed out and over them all was written.

  Build a Leaders Hut, Town Hall, Community Center, Castle, or any other leadership platform to unlock this page.

  Another page which was interesting was the building page, which listed resources available, currently none, and what buildings he had access to. The list was short and made him sigh heavily when he read through it.

  Construction Page

  Current Lumber Available: 0

  Current Adhesive Available: 0

  Current Nails Available: 0

  Current Screws Available: 0

  Current Stone Available: 0

  Current Brick Available: 0

  Current Metal Available: 0

  Many other options for building material may exist, but you will have to discover them. These are the building materials your builders are currently aware of.

  Available Buildings

  Leaders Hut – Building materials needed, 100 units, assorted.

  Community Housing – Building materials needed 200 units, assorted. Sleeps 200 with zero privacy but keeps the rain off.

  Longhouse – Building materials needed 250 units, assorted. Sleeps 50 with individual rooms and common area for cooking, cleaning, and mingling.

  Mess Hall and K
itchen – Building materials needed 500 units, assorted. Can accommodate 500 diners at one time.

  To unlock more buildings, discover the tools needed for those buildings or buy blueprints.

  That’s when Rocky realized the tablet may have some useful information. Unfortunately, as he searched for anything relating to classes, jobs, territories, and even some other fruitless searches he had only managed to bookmark a section about skills in his current book.

  As for new books to download Rocky was sadly disappointed. Anything available seemed to be advertising for books you could purchase for large amounts of Crystallized Ether. However, you couldn’t purchase them on the device, no you needed to find a place called El Dorado. The tightness in his chest he felt when told he could buy information in the Lost City of Gold, was pretty excruciating.

  Community Housing

  The Community House is a large open concept room, which houses a maximum of two-hundred individuals sleeping on floor space, which leaves no room for privacy.

  +200 Housing Limit

  -50% Population Growth

  +25% Disease

  -1x Occupants/200= Growth to Territory Mood Meter

  If used for Barracks or Hostel, negative effects are canceled.

  Longhouse

  The Longhouse is a large building with a communal living area but separate rooms with lockable doors. Individuals can furnish their own space as they see fit, and a kitchen can be built in to serve as a makeshift Mess Hall.

  +50 Housing Limit

  Occupants/25= Growth to Territory Mood Meter

  +10% Population Growth

  -10% Disease

  Making more notes for Sela, Rocky tapped his finger to his lip as he decided that it was better to create longhouses over the community houses. He was pretty sure that the bonuses would only affect people staying under the roof of the building that was built but wasn’t sure. It might apply to his entire Territory as soon as it was built. The increased chance of disease was the stat that decided it for Rocky as he had no idea what type of new diseases Ether had brought with it.