I snorted a laugh and pulled Rose up to meet me for a kiss. “I won’t tell a soul. But the recording I made-” I said, letting the threat hang.
Rose narrowed her eyes, “Don’t make me hurt you.”
I chuckled and kissed her again.
Chapter 22 – Micaela
Despite still being upset about Homer and Margie, Micaela had a job to do.
“We really need to get a desk or two and some chairs,” Olaf complained, leaning against a cold stone wall, and looking around the barren office that Micaela termed the Command Center.
“Yeah,” Micaela agreed, then added, “We need to get a lot of furniture in general.”
Moving on from the lack of furniture, Olaf sighed and said, “I’ll see what I can do about that. In the meantime, I do not have any Order Management features. I’m guessing you either need to promote me or update my permissions.”
Micaela frowned. “Let me check.” She quickly went through a few system messages, including a quest prompt she didn’t get earlier for some reason.
Order Quest: In Need of a Leader . . . or Mayor
Hurligville is currently without leadership. Appoint or elect a new mayor within 48 hours or risk the town, and the Order of Epic Grinders, being disbanded.
Reward: Experience, Save Hurligville, Save the Order of Epic Grinders
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes
No
“Well, that’s something,” Micaela said, accepting the quest. Even if she could have declined, she wouldn’t have.
“What?” Olaf asked.
“I got a quest related to the vacancy in the Mayor’s office. We have 48-hours to fill it or the town and the Order will be disbanded,” Micaela answered.
“What!” Olaf shouted.
“I know,” Micaela said calmly. She appreciated her husband’s reactions at times, partly because they were so predictable. “Alright, let me pull up the Order Management information.” With a thought of ‘Order Management’ a new semi-transparent screen appeared in the air in front of her. It was an image of the coat of arms and written just below the shield were the words ‘Order of Epic Grinders’. At the very bottom were five tabs to choose from, ‘Coat of Arms, Membership, Order Quests, Order House, and City Management’. With a mental click, she selected the ‘Membership’ tab.
Order Commander
Micaela Crushhammer
Order Vice Commander
(Vacant)
Order Membership (Unranked)
Olaf Crushhammer
Arch Angel
Rose Thorns
Heath Rickards
Pwn Star69
Icyhot Jelloshot
Jay Fabulouso
Rock Dudson
Dawn Rises
Duncan Donut
Dixie Eastwood
Bye-Bye Jacko
Marie Tuesday
Sooty Wednesday
Loral Wednesday
Add Member
Remove Member
Rank Management
It wasn’t exactly what she expected. Micaela and Olaf formed the Order together. Shouldn’t they both have been listed as Order Commander. With another thought she mentally clicked on ‘Rank Management’ causing the screen to quickly be replaced with another.
Rank Management
1
Order Commander
Micaela Crushhammer
2
Order Vice Commander
(Vacant)
3
Unranked
Olaf Crushhammer
Arch Angel
Rose Thorns
Heath Rickards
Pwn Star69
Icyhot Jelloshot
Jay Fabulouso
Rock Dudson
Dawn Rises
Duncan Donut
Dixie Eastwood
Bye-Bye Jacko
Marie Tuesday
Sooty Wednesday
Loral Wednesday
First things first, she needed to promote Olaf. She mentally clicked on him, getting a drop-down menu with two options, ‘Promote’ or ‘Demote’. She selected the ‘Promote’ option.
Promote: Olaf Crushhammer – Select Rank
Order Vice Commander
Order Commander
Cancel
Another mental click on ‘Order Commander’ and she received another prompt.
Do you wish to surrender your position of Order Commander to Olaf Crushhammer?
Yes
No
That wasn’t what she wanted and quickly hit ‘No’.
Do you wish to add Olaf Crushhammer as a second Order Commander?
Yes
No
And that was what she was looking for, this time selecting ‘Yes’ only to get another warning.
By adding a second Order Commander you are granting another person access to all Order Management features, are you sure you wish to proceed? Please note, once you accept a second Order Commander, you cannot remove the Order Commander.
Yes
No
Micaela glared at the screen and mentally hammered the ‘Yes’ button. Of course, she was sure. When she checked the ‘Membership’ tab again, it updated to reflect both Olaf and her as Order Commander and the Vice Commander was still vacant, a position she would need to address later.
Order Commander
Micaela Crushhammer
Olaf Crushhammer
Order Vice Commander
(Vacant)
For now, Micaela needed to get all the other ranks set up and assign people to them. Back in ‘Rank Management’, she needed to figure out what each Rank could do. Another mental click on the Order Commander rank and she got yet another screen.
Order Commander Permissions
X
City Management
X
Personnel
X
Construction
X
Defense
X
Trade
X
Order House
X
Entry Rights - Self
X
Give Entry Rights - Others
X
Remove Entry Rights - Others
X
Construction
X
Treasury
X
Order Quests
X
Accept Quest
X
Decline Quest
X
Cancel Quest
X
Issue Quest
X
Assign Quest
X
Membership
X
Add Member
X
Remove Member
X
Promote Member
X
Demote Member
X
Rank Management
X
Coat of Arms
As expected, Order Commander had permissions for everything, and based on the greyed-out Boxes it was all locked in, which also was not unexpected. An Order Commander should have access to everything.
“Okay, I added you as a second Order Commander,” Micaela said, looking up from her permission screen. “How do we want to split up responsibilities?”
Olaf eyes unfocused on Micaela as he opened his own Order Management screen. “There’s a lot here.”
“Start with ‘Membership’ and ‘Rank Management’. If you focus on the Order Commander Rank it will show you the permissions,” Micaela said. “I think if we can divvy some of those up, we’ll be in good shape.”
Olaf nodded, “Yeah, makes sense. Alright, anything Construction is all yours. I think that would be for the best.”
“Yeah, I’ve been doing that anyway. I can keep at it,” Micaela agreed. “Why don’t you take Personnel and Defense for City Management?”
“I can do that, but you’ll probably want to do some of the ‘Personnel’ stuff for hiring construction workers,” Olaf said.
Micaela hummed in thought as she went to the ‘City Management’ tab.
City Management
Citizens
Personnel
Population Statistics:
172
Working Adults
141
Unemployed Adults
15
Non-Working Children
16
Construction
Government
-
- Mayor (47:44:34.12)
-
- Secretary
-
- Treasurer
-
- Order Liaison
-
Defense
Crafters
33
- Craft Trainers
22
Merchants & Vendors
26
Guards
31
- Combat Trainers
1
Trade
Skilled Laborers
38
Unskilled Laborers
28
- Unemployed Laborers
18
Adventurers
37
The Crafters and Unskilled Laborers were going to be her primary source of personnel for any construction. Then there was the flashing red timer counting down on the Mayor position that needed to be filled. Out of curiosity she selected it.
Hurligville Mayor’s Office
Appoint Mayor
Elect Mayor
Micaela looked over to Olaf who appeared to be lost in his own little world. She knew he was most likely going through the ‘Order Management’ information. She interrupted him, asking, “Any idea what we should do about the Mayor? We only have two days . . . well, less than two days now.”
Olaf looked up and then looked back at the screen Micaela couldn’t see, though she was sure he was now looking at the same thing she was. “Okay, I just selected the ‘Appoint Mayor’ option and it’s telling me that an appointed Mayor will do whatever we ask of him or her but they won’t have the support of the citizens which could cause a lot of them to move away if they don’t like how we run things,” he explained, pausing for a moment. He continued a moment later, “Now, if we choose the ‘Elect Mayor’ option, the citizens are likely to support them, but whoever is elected won’t necessarily do what we ask them to,” Olaf said before looking up to meet Micaela’s eyes. “I don’t think we can afford to lose any of our citizens right now. I think we need to hold an election.”
Micaela smiled and nodded only to get a new prompt.
Olaf Crushhammer has opted to hold an Election for the position of Hurligville Mayor. For this action to be completed, both Order Commanders must agree.
Agree
Disagree
Micaela selected ‘Agree’, glad that Olaf was not able to unilaterally make decisions. It was good for big decisions like this one. Hopefully, it would not require their consensus for everything they did.
“Alright, now what?” Micaela asked only to be interrupted by a prompt.
Order Quest: In Need of a Leader . . . or Mayor – Completed!
Hurligville is currently without leadership. Appoint or elect a new mayor within 48 hours or risk the town, and the Order of Epic Grinders, being disbanded.
Reward: +10,000-Experience, Hurligville will not disband, The Order of Epic Grinders will not disband
Micaela smiled. She was glad that the quest had been so simple.
Order Quest: Electing a Mayor
Hurligville needs to elect a new Mayor. Notify the citizens of the emergency election. Must have no less than 60% voter turnout.
Reward: Experience, Bonus Experience dependent on voter turnout
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes
No
“Ah, good game,” Olaf said sarcastically.
Micaela accepted the mandatory quest and looked to her husband. “Did you also get the quest completion?”
“Yeah,” Olaf answered. “And the follow up quest. I can’t believe we need to manage an election. The point in even holding the election was to avoid this politics stuff.” With a groan of irritation, he added, “Should have just appointed someone. Would have been so much easier.”
“Maybe,” Micaela said then smiled. “Whelp, seeing as you agreed to take care of ‘Personnel’ for the city management. I’m going to be leaving this with you for now. I need to get the rest of ‘Rank Management’ sorted, then I can finally get started on ‘Construction’. Hurligville needs walls and the sooner we get them, the better.”
Olaf gave Micaela a flat stare then snorted and shook his head in bemusement, “Ha, yeah alright. Fine, I’ll get started, but you’d better join me just as soon as you’ve got the Ranks sorted.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t dream of abandoning you to go knock on doors without me,” Micaela said facetiously and barely holding back a laugh at her husband’s expense.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get to work then,” Olaf said, starting toward the door, only to pause. “Oh, and babe. I’m not sure what’s really going on with Bye-bye, but let’s not antagonize him. If you’re going to make a rank for him, don’t call him the ‘Cool Stuff Finder’, yeah?”
Micaela pouted, “Aw, but ‘Cool Stuff Finder’ is so much more interesting.”
“I know, but there is also an image of professionalism we need to present. Calling one of our most important assets the ‘Cool Stuff Finder’ could come back to haunt us,” Olaf replied.
Micaela sighed in disappointment. She conceded the point, “Yeah, alright. I suppose that is one more thing we should discuss before you go. What permissions are we giving our friends?”
“Add members but no rank management, promoting, demoting, or removing members. Everyone should be able to enter the Order House and give entry to others but not remove. Nothing for Treasury or Construction until we have a better handle on how that works. Nothing for City Management either, at least not until we better understand it,” Olaf started. “As for Bye-bye, give him everything for Order Quests in addition to what I just said . . . that is, if you agree with me?” When he finished, he realized he may have sounded a little bossy.
“Yeah, that sounds reasonable. I can’t really think of anything else,” Micaela said, already jumping into the menus and grinning. She immediately began pouring over the Rank Management menu, adding new ranks, moving the memberships around between the ranks and assigning them where she felt they would fit best. She was also able to manipulate the displayed data to reflect her members level and classes. When it was done, almost an hour later, Micaela was pleased with her final layout, even though she knew she would probably need to add more ranks later.
Rank Management
Rank
Name
Level
Class
1
Order Commander
Micaela Crushhammer
24
Shaman
Olaf Crushhammer
36
Minotaur Artilary
2
Order Vice Commander
(Vacant)
3
Lore Hound
Bye-Bye Jacko
28
Holy Dragoon
4
Tank Commander
Rose Thorns
26
Vampiric Knight of Lilith
5
Prime Healer
(Vacant)
6
Damage Overlord
(Vacant)
7
Tank Grinders
Rock Dudson
32
Paladin of Geb (Egyptian God of Earth)
8
Healing Grinders
Arch Angel
25
Priestess of Eir
Duncan Donut
34
Combat Medit
9
Damage Grinders
Pwn Star69
25
Void Mage
Ja
y Fabulouso
30
Enhancer
World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive Page 37
