Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Drew pulled back from his mental connection with Scolder, and soon found himself back in his own, non-coyote body, much to his relief. Being an undead canine was cool and all, but he was happy to be back in his own body. Spock and Robert had gone back to sparring when Drew sent his consciousness flowing to his minion, so, when he opened his eyes back at the property, he found his allies practicing again. He walked over to them to give them the good news that everyone was okay.

"Sorry about that, I pushed myself into Scolder's body, and was able to communicate with the group. They're all alive and doing alright, but there was some trouble along the way." Drew said.

"What kind of trouble?" Robert asked.

"The horde of goblins had split up before coming here. They had sent out small raiding parties to the surrounding areas. A lot of our rural neighbors were killed. Homes were burned down; it wasn't good at all. Amber's group found and destroyed all the raiding parties, and managed to find and help some survivors... which brings us to our current issue..."

"They're seeking shelter, and we have limited supplies." Robert stated. Apparently, he was quick on the uptake.

"Exactly. It has me torn up and stressing out. I want to help them, and I agreed to let them stay, but only on the condition that they helped out. The issue is, how do I enforce that policy. I can kick out any slackers or leeches, but that would be sentencing them to die."

"I think you know where I stand on the matter. It's our duty as both humans, and Christians to offer our neighbors a hand."

"Yeah, I'm not exactly Christian per se, but I agree with that tenant. The issue is food, supplies, and making sure they actually contribute. I can't allow a drain on our limited resources, without any kind of meaningful output. Morals or not, I have to provide for the people who are actually here. Ultimately, my family and friends come first."

"May I interrupt, Drew Wright?" Spock asked.

"Sure buddy, what's on your mind?"

"I believe you're overthinking, and it's causing you to miss the simple solutions."

"Man, if you have some simple solutions, I'd love to hear them right now."

"Division of labor, and delegation. If you don't have the time to worry about them, then delegate the task to someone else. Then, you only need to become involved if you need to enforce your policies. Assign someone to teach them about The System, and have that person give each of those people approtiate roles that suit their desires and strengths."

"So, you're saying I need a manager to deal with all this shit, so I don't have to?"

"Indeed."

"That's... a pretty damn good idea. Alright. Spock and Robert, ya'll are now in charge of handling those people. Spock can teach them about The System, and all its bullshit, and Robert can help coach people into their areas of strength. I need ya'll to act as managers for the property, while I focus on gaining strength to help protect everyone."

"Alright, I have some experience in managing people. What do we need to accomplish right now?" Robert asked.

"Ugh... that's the issue, we have a lot of pressing matters. Robert, I want you to focus on getting to level five as quickly as possible, work with Spock and the rest of us to hunt down some beasts, monsters, or animals. I need you to have the strength to deal with any...issues that arise with people, and to be able to defend yourself. For the newcomers, we need food production started ASAP. We need farmable soil tilled and seeded; we also need a couple of hunting parties thrown together to offset the food drain in the short term. Additionally, they will need to learn about The System, and how to interact with it. They will need housing at some point, but in the short-term getting the farms up and running is our immediate concern."

"Understood." Robert replied.

"Drew Wright, I don't believe food will be an issue for long."

"Why's that, Spock?"

"With mana now flooding the planet, the growth rate and production of plants will be boosted immensely. I believe you'll find that most food production crops will grow in about a fourth of the time that they previously required. Additionally, as people level, and evolve, their need for food will diminish. Although, that won't help in the short-term as leveling to that point will take time. I do believe food will not be a concern if these new people are willing to work."

"No shit? We can have wheat ready to harvest only four weeks after it's been planted, and strawberries in only three weeks?!"

"I'm not familiar with their growth times prior to The Descent, but if that is roughly a quarter of the length they'd normally require, then yes."

"Shit, well that saves me a ton of stress. That's great news. In that case, Robert, focus on your leveling. Don't worry about hunting parties right now. Spock, besides teaching them about The System, I also want you to work on your levels, and maybe spar with anyone who seems to be interested in combat. At the very least, everyone should learn how to use a spear and a bow on a basic level."

"Indeed, I will accomplish these tasks."

"Cool. That's a load off my mind. Oh, speaking of minds, I have a question about one of my stats. What's the deal with willpower, what can it do for me?" Drew asked.

"Willpower helps with many aspects, Drew Wright. It helps you to resist mental attacks, but it also allows you to have a much greater control over your mana. In your case, you have a mana manipulation skill from your race's parentage, additionally, you picked up the mana sense skill. In conjunction, and with practice, willpower will allow for far greater control with your spells. You'll be able to modify them, you can design new effects with them as well if you're talented. You may be able to unlock mana related skills on your own, without using a class ability slot, by creating the effects of the spell yourself. Lastly, willpower will make controlling more minions easier."

"Oh. So I should start practicing with my mana skills then. Alright, well that gives me something productive to do today. Thanks for the explanation, Spock!"

With the guys updated on the newcomers and Amber's party, and with Drew having delegated tasks so he could focus on other things, he left the area and went into the backyard. He grabbed a soda from the now warm fridge, and found a comfy spot to plop down onto the porch couch. He pulled up the blinking notification icon, and found that he'd learned a new skill, [Minion Possession]. That must be what Spock was talking about. If he figured out a way to do something himself, The System would reward him the actual skill to help automate the process. If he could apply that same concept to other things, then he could save himself some headaches down the road, and maybe get some free skills out of it.

He closed his eyes to relax his mind. He wanted to get some practice in with his ability to manipulate mana, as he figured it was going to take a long time to become competent enough to actually modify or create anything new. He activated both of his mana related skills. With his eyes closed, and him focusing on his body, he could feel, and see the core that held his mana very clearly. Previously, when he'd cast spells, he could feel the mana flowing from the area he believed housed something similar to a core, but with his skills activated he could now see it. Within the endless black of his mental landscape, he saw a bright blue sphere in the distance. By focusing on his intention of moving closer to the sphere, he watched as the endless void shifted and he found himself staring at his core.

The core itself seemed to be made from a transparent crystal, but maybe that was just his mind's way of creating a representation of his mana pool, he couldn't be sure. The mana itself was a bit different than he figured it would be from his past experience with games. While the color was, in fact blue, it was very light in color to the point it was almost saturated in white light. The extremely bright blue also had a glowing or shimmering quality to it, as if it were both physical, and ethereal in quality. He reached out to touch the globe, and found that, much like his mental connections with his minions, he could either push or pull at the connection that formed between his hand and the core.

Pulling with his willpower, he led the mana down the channels that laid within his body, and brought the thread he'd gather to the palm of his hand. That was far easier than he thought it'd be, but now he needed his internal mana, to become external. He tried pushing the mana through his palm to force it out into the world, but found that it simply smashed itself around on an invisible barrier and wouldn't progress any farther. He tried another method, pulling the mana through his palm from the outside, rather than pushing from the inside. Bingo! It worked. Now to seek some greater control over the mana itself. Drew wanted to try to open his soda using the thread of mana.

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Drew felt a pull on his consciousness and on one of the mental threads, a minion was demanding his attention. It had spotted something. He had finally gotten his soda open after several hours of playing around with the mana thread, but it had been a real pain in the ass. It took him a long time to figure out how to get his ethereal mana to interact with the physical world, and even longer to actually work up the strength of the thread to physically grip the soda can tab. After that, he had to physically lift the tab, which ended up being far more difficult than he'd expect it would be. It turned out that using mana to do something so mundane was far more taxing and challenging than simply using his fingers like a normal person. But in the end, he was met with success. But he never got to enjoy that first sip of soda as his minion was now alerting him to movement of some kind.

He activated his new minion possession skill to take over the human skeleton on the watchtower. This time, thankfully he was in a human-like body so it was far easier to take control of and move around. His eyes picked up the same movement that his minion had, and he focused in on it. Oh, it was just the group getting back. Wait... didn't they say it'd take an hour or two to make it back? Had he really been practicing with mana for that long? Oh well, it wasn't a big deal, he needed the practice. What was this? Why were there even more people following Amber's group now? Only a few hours ago there had been about thirty, but now it looked like it was close to double that. That was a lot more than expected, he had better head over there and repeat the same talk he had with Raymond to the new, and much larger group.

He cancelled the possession, and sent the command to follow and guard him to his other humanoid minions that had been practicing with their bows and arrows. The towers wouldn't be left unguarded, as he left those specific minions there on alert still, but rather collected just the ones that had been practicing. Did he need backup with him? Probably not, but people tended to become...stupid...when they were in large groups. Better to be safe than sorry. He made his way to the gate to greet the new arrivals. The large group of newcomers were just finishing trickling in through the gates as Drew made it to Amber and gave her a big hug.

"Glad you're safe Boo Bear, I see there are more new faces?"

"Yeah...well, some more folks ended up joining us on the way back..."

"What's wrong?"

"Some of them have been...rather bitchy."

"Oh? How so?"

"You know how every group of people somehow has a dickbag or two in it? It seems some of those latched onto our group, and decided to join us without our invitation. The other folks filled them in on where we were heading, so they stuck around. Snarky comments, complaining, and just stirring up drama for no reason. It's worn on my nerves the whole way coming back."

"So... why did you not give them the boot?" Drew asked.

"Well, with monsters around, and a lot of houses being ransacked..."

"You felt bad, got it. These are people Boo, not pets that are unable to care for themselves. If someone is going to be a dickbag, I don't want them here."

"Yeah...but."

"But nothing. People can be real assholes, and with The Descent, and survival being our main concern, I have even less energy to deal with assholes than I did before The System hit us. Have you ever stopped to consider that people could probably gain experience from killing each other now?"

"People wouldn't do that!"

"People would totally do that. If it meant they'd become more powerful? Hell yeah, they would. Earth had plenty of monsters before The System came, they were just all human back then. Tell me about the assholes, how many are there, and what do they look like?" Drew asked.

"Younger folks, maybe late teens or early twenties. Three guys. Two of them have guns. Typical asshole, 'I'm better than everyone' types."

"Wonderful. point them out to me. Discreetly."

Amber gestured in the general direction of the middle and right side of the group. Three kids were walking close to each other, or...not kids really, but young people. Two of them had ARs... ARs shouldn't work anymore though, right? Drew turned away from the group and stood next to his wife as he pulled an AR from his spatial inventory. He racked the slide, and aimed it high and off into the woods to the side.

*CLICK*

Yup, no bang. They didn't work. So, the stupid shits hadn't even gotten into any fights yet or they'd know those guns were worthless, which meant they were incredibly lucky to have no run-ins with anything yet. Well, that was good news for him, because he was going to have a talk with the other folks, and then kick those little shits out. Them not having working weapons would make this easier.

"Hey Mark, Beefcake! Come here really quick."

"What's up man?" Mark asked.

"Amber said that some troublemakers showed up."

"They're fucking assholes, trying to pick fights with people and poke fun at folks who lost their homes while hiding behind their guns."

"Well, that settles it then. I'm kicking them out. Their guns won't work by the way, but get ready to jump in. I doubt that I'll have any issues with level zeros, but just in case, be ready to act."

"Okay."

Drew had Scolder and his packmates prepare to attack just in case, and pulled two of the nearby patrolling hogs to a position behind the group of newcomers. He brought his archers with him as he approached the large group. He stood in front of them, and every whisper and voice were silenced when they saw the walking human skeletons armed with bows following behind him. Several people went pale, and a group of children hid behind their relatives.

"Howdy ya'll. I'm Drew Wright, the owner of the property you're now standing on. I understand many of you have been through hell in the last several hours, and I'm prepared to allow you to stay here on my property. But let me be clear, every single man, woman, and child will be required to contribute to the community here. We will need farms to grow food, people to maintain and create new equipment, builders, and armed forces. If you wish to stay here, you'll work underneath two managers who will teach you about the new world we live in, and assign you tasks that suit your strengths. Not everyone will have to go out and fight, but if we are attacked, I expect everyone to pitch in. Kids included, even if it's just to bring the rest of us ammo, and throwing rocks. If you do not contribute, you will be removed from the community." Drew said in a level and even tone.

"Who the fuck put you in charge?" One of the little shits yelled.