The next few hours reminded Vin of all the group assignments he’d always hated back in high school. The ones with dozens of people running around in a panic after waiting until the last minute before trying to accomplish far more work than they actually had time for.

  After finding and filling Lieutenant Myers in on the situation, the woman had once again shown exactly why Spur held her in such high regard by taking control of the camp in an instant and snapping out orders for people to follow like their lives depended on it.

  Because they did.

  After a streamlined announcement of what was to come that skipped over practically all the details, a half dozen teams were quickly constructed, each led by two crafters to ensure the teams could both give orders and still utilize their own skills at the same time. Even after all this time, Vin didn’t actually know much of anything about how the crafter classes worked, so he was rather grateful when Myers took the time to explain the basics.

  “The crafter classes seem to function differently than support and combat classes,” she explained in between answering logistical questions from all the people constantly running up to her. “Whereas most people chose one of many classes and were then stuck with it, crafters only technically have the one class option and seem to build their class how they want as they level. They do start off with a specific specialization, but most of their starter skills are rather general skills that, luckily for us, are useful for just about any form of crafting. So even a crafter that chose something obscure to specialize in like glassblowing can still construct wooden barricades far faster than a normal person.”

  Myers fixed a particular crafter running by with a hard look as she said this last bit, getting a sheepish look in return from the man carrying an armful of planks.

  With that knowledge, Vin spent a few minutes watching the crafter-led teams get started on digging pits and sharpening wood into spikes before running off to take care of his own tasks. Thanks to his high endurance, skills in Tracking, and his Mental Map passive, he’d been given the job of hunting down all the people currently out on missions within their fragment. Despite the fact that it was already late evening, they were still missing a handful of people, and the Lieutenant wanted every single head accounted for before nightfall.

  At first he’d almost refused, planning instead to head over to the stone villagers and warn them about the incoming danger before rushing back. But when he told Myers his plan, she’d requested he put their own people first, pointing out that his unique set of abilities would make hunting down missing people much faster for him, whereas anyone could run in a straight line out to the stone village and back to deliver a warning.

  Vin had wanted to check up on them and make sure they were okay, but he had to admit Myers had a good point, and he begrudgingly agreed to her plan. After writing down a quick note in the stone villagers' language warning them of what was coming, he handed it off to one of their faster combat classes and turned his focus toward finding the people still away from camp.

  Luckily, Vin had already fully mapped their fragment, which made tracking down the missing people all the easier. Using a combination of his Tracking skill and the occasional Sense Life pulse courtesy of Runic Recalibration, he managed to find all of the missing people in only a few hours, even earning himself his first new level in Tracking in quite some time.

  By the time he made it back to camp with the last person in tow, a lower leveled Archer by the look of the bow strung across their back and their desperate gasping for air, the sun had fully set and darkness had overtaken their camp. From the few minutes he’d spent watching the crafter-led teams working before he’d left, he hadn’t expected much.

  Which made the sudden appearance of a brand-new fortress all the more surprising.

  Vin stared at the palisades and scattered pits filled with sharpened wooden stakes surrounding their camp on all sides. Carefully making his way inside, he spotted rough piles of arrows stacked along the inner walls, and even crude barrels filled with hastily sharpened javelins being delivered all across camp. Anyone who wasn’t barking orders or building up their defenses was busy sharpening stakes and making sure they were readily accessible for those that would be manning the walls.

  “Forget Spur, that woman should be the one in charge,” Alka whistled, watching a random runner deliver yet another armful of simple javelins before taking off back the way they came, no doubt going for the next batch. The fact that barely anyone was paying attention to the ghostly warrior drifting along beside him just went to show how focused everyone was on increasing their odds of survival. “Prioritizing ranged weaponry was a smart call when a good quarter of your fighting force aren’t combat classes. A javelin to the face will hurt just about any monster, regardless of the thrower’s class.”

  “That’s the idea,” a familiar voice called out from behind him. Turning, Vin grinned at the dirt covered girl standing behind him with a loose pile of wooden stakes tucked under one arm.

  “Alice! Glad to see you’re still in one piece! You helping with the defenses?”

  “Helping? Try leading them,” the Trapper snorted, her toothy grin all the more prominent in contrast to the thick layer of dirt on her face. “You see all those pits out front? I practically dug half of them myself.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Seriously?” Vin glanced over her shoulder, peering once more at the dozens of pits scattered all around the camp perimeter that people were hurriedly trying to cover up with branches and leaves. Each one was deep enough that a normal human would have a tough time getting out, without factoring in the rows of stakes he’d seen jutting up from the bottoms of the pits. “How on Earth did you manage that?”

  “Capstone skill,” Alice grinned, holding up a hand and wiggling her fingers. “I got Fast Trap Setting when I hit level 10. The quality suffers a bit when I use it, but I can work nearly three times as fast with it active. Perfect for when the trap is something as simple as a spike filled hole!”

  “Useful indeed,” Vin nodded. “Congrats on hitting level 10 by the way.”

  “Thanks,” Alice smiled. “Not too many people have yet, so it feels pretty good. Like I’m making the most of this new life, you know?” She paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought before shaking her head. Raising an eyebrow, she nodded toward Alka. “So, uh… you wanna introduce me to your floating friend here?”

  “Sorry! Alice, this is Alka; a warrior I found in one of the adjacent fragments. She’s sorta…”

  “Dead,” Alka said, rolling her eyes. “The word you’re looking for is dead.”

  “Well, other than the whole transparent thing, you look pretty good for a dead girl,” Alice remarked, looking the Slayer up and down. “You planning on helping us defend the camp?”

  “You know it,” Alka grinned, fire already burning in her eyes as she somehow cracked her ghostly knuckles. “The only good thing about being stuck here like this is being able to keep killing monsters. I gotta find that dryad a nice present for fixing up my sword for me. Things were way more boring when I was stuck just floating along inside you.”

  “You guys met a dryad?” Alice asked, looking between the two of them in disbelief. “Like, a talking tree kind of dryad?”

  “It’s been a long week,” Vin sighed. As much as he wanted to finally sit back and regale one of his few friends with stories from his travels, they still had plenty of work to get done. “Tell you what, assuming we both survive the next couple of hours, I’ll tell you all about it.” A sudden thought struck him, and he tried to keep the concern off his face as he looked carefully at Alice. “By the way, you haven’t been spending much time around Patty, have you?”

  “Are you serious?” Alice spat, the mere mention of Patty’s name causing her face to scrunch up in anger. “After you helped me snap out of whatever spell she had me under, I’ve made a point of not taking crap from people. The last time one of her lackeys refused to take no for an answer when I told him I didn’t want to be a part of her little cult, I shoved him into a snare trap I’d just finished and left him dangling upside down for a few hours. They got the message after that.”

  Relief flooded through him, and Vin couldn’t help but grin at Alice’s proudly displayed new backbone. At the very least, it didn’t look like he’d have to worry about anything bad happening to her when he was out exploring.

  “Glad to hear it. I’m probably not supposed to go around talking about it, but it turns out she has some strange ability to sway people’s thoughts with her voice, and even force you to follow simple orders. She might not be a problem for much longer, but until then, if she ever tries talking to you one on one, I’d stab first and ask questions later.”

  “Seriously?” Alice scowled, clearly remembering all the times she’d gone along with Patty’s seemingly innocent requests without thinking. “Thanks for the warning. If Spur doesn’t get rid of her after all this is over, I might just do it myself.”

  The three of them chatted for a few more minutes before Alice decided she’d recovered enough to try and squeeze in a few more pits before the monsters showed up. Watching the Trapper head back out, a fresh bundle of stakes under each arm, Alka grinned.

  “I like her. She’d make a good Slayer if she decides to go that route.”

  “She’s definitely changed since I first met her,” Vin said, briefly remembering the uncertain girl in the fast food outfit he’d met back when the System had yanked them all from their ordinary lives. In less than two weeks, she’d gone from a quiet worker that kept her head down to someone capable of not only surviving, but thriving in this strange new world riddled with dangers. “Come on, let’s go see how Shia and Scule are doing. Hopefully the two of them haven’t caused too much trouble while we were gone.”

  Vin had been hesitant when his companions offered to stay behind and help with preparations as he hunted for missing people, but after taking a look at what they’d accomplished, he had to say they’d had the right idea.

  Shia had clearly spent her time growing rows and rows of thorny vines all throughout the open space between where the archers and non-combat classes would be hurling javelins from and the edge of camp. If any monsters managed to get past the stake filled pits, the wooden palisades, and the combat classes that specialized in melee fighting, they would have to shred themselves apart on Shia’s plants before they could feast on the more fragile crafter and support classes.

  Shaking his head in disbelief at the fact that Shia had a goddamned barbed wire spell all this time without telling him, he spent the next few minutes trying to find Scule, before finally resorting to his Sense Life spell and being surprised at what he found. Walking back out of camp, he had to wait another few minutes before a familiar face finally poked itself free from the dirt.

  Reginald stared up at him in silence for a moment, the rat seemingly unsurprised to find him standing there waiting for them. After Vin received a squeak of greeting that sounded a little too much like an actual word, Reginald finished digging himself out of the ground, revealing a small tunnel and a tiny man right behind him.

  “Oh, hey there,” Scule said, nodding up at him as he exited the tunnel right behind his animal companion. Doing his best to lean casually against one of the dirt walls, the petian stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around, as if making sure nobody else was watching them. “What, uh… Whatcha doing?”

  “Oh, you know, just wandering around. Checking on everyone and seeing if anyone needs any help. Like my new Rogue buddy I made recently,” Vin said, staring down at the petian. “Just one quick question, Scule.”

  “...What the hell are you doing?”

  50% of the vote, is the society that functioned as a single hive mind before the Great Reset! As the winner of the poll, the fragment will be one of the next ones I write into the story, so stay tuned for that! I will reiterate however that I'm writing quite a ways ahead of where we are on Royal Road at the moment, which means that while the fragment will absolutely be written into the story, it won't show up for a little bit here.

  at some point as well! It might just not be for quite a while.