After the End: Serenity

The morning was filled with helping people move. A lot of people were like Serenity and his group, able to fit their stuff in their backpacks, but almost none of the crafters had it that easy. It turned out that there was a single wagon left at the edge of the old camp, and it had to be pulled by people since there wasn’t any livestock.

Everything had to move. It hadn’t seemed like that much when it was all set up, but it seemed like a lot more when it had to be moved. Everything from anvils to tables to grain went on the wagon. Some things couldn’t be moved and would have to be replaced, like the ovens.

There were a lot of people, and even though not everyone pitched in, enough did that everything was moved by evening. Echo and Rissa directed people on where to put the heavy stuff, and despite some complaining most of the people who were willing to help seemed willing to follow instructions that far. Serenity expected issues to start as soon as people felt safe again. He felt lucky that this was a group taken from a hospital; there were people handling anyone who was hurt quickly. He suspected that Healing affinity was unusually common in this group.

That afternoon, the new camp was a mess. The biggest problem wasn’t walls, it was latrines: no one had built any. There were a handful of small camping pits, where people had dug a hole to use. That would work for a day, maybe two, but it wasn’t a good long-term solution. The only reason that had worked as well as it had for the day was that people (other than Serenity) were eating less in the mana-rich environment of the Tutorial.

Serenity headed towards the Dungeon entrance. Nightwitch was bent over a crude wooden table, using a charred stick to mark up an incompletely cured hide. She seemed to be ignoring an older man who kept trying to get her attention, but didn’t seem to be willing to do more than talk. Serenity thought he looked vaguely familiar, but couldn’t place him. Someone who had introduced himself with a title, maybe a hospital administrator?

The older man turned to look as Serenity approached. “Serenity! Maybe you can get this woman to pay attention! We need houses first. We’ll be sleeping soon, but she’s saving all the wood for hobby projects! Surely you can see how important this is and overrule her.”

Serenity blinked and looked at the mass of humanity that surrounded them. Small groups were clustered together, but there was significant space between groups and it looked like a lot of people had already put their bedrolls on the ground. He was sure he was going to regret asking, but he couldn’t resist. “What do we need houses for?”

The man beamed as though Serenity had asked an insightful question. “Privacy! It’s vital, especially since this is a mixed group! We can’t have men watching women sleep!”

Serenity stared at the man. If that was his biggest concern, he was focusing on all the wrong things right now. “I have to ask, which would you rather have first, houses or doors on the restrooms?” Sanitary facilities were the first thing that sprang to mind as a real, immediate need.

The man looked at Serenity with pity. “Houses, of course! Houses HAVE restrooms, we don’t have to choose!”

I didn’t know anyone was actually that sheltered. I’m pretty sure he thinks we can just build a house by putting raw materials near where we want it and hitting a button, and it will have all the amenities of a house even without other infrastructure.

Serenity wasn’t even sure how to respond to the blatant ignorance. Fortunately, Nightwitch had an answer. “These won’t. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to manage communal latrines that can be flushed. It will take diverting the river a bit, but we need to do that anyway for drinking water. It’s on the plan for tomorrow. For tonight we’re going to have to go with slit trench latrines, outside where our walls will eventually be, downhill from the camp. Jade is piecing together some hides to use as a screen and Rissa is trying to find all the Earth mages she can so that no one has to do the digging, plus that way we can get pipes instead of just a hole in the dirt. We’ll need them for wall construction later as well.”

The man opened his mouth, then closed it again. It made him look like a fish out of water. He repeated the motion, then yelled “You’ll hear about this when we’re back on Earth!” as he stormed away from the two of them.

When he got close, Serenity could tell Nightwitch was examining a diagram of the camp. More accurately, it was a diagram of a proposed camp. The drawing was circular, with wedges separated by pathways radiating from the center, joined by circular pathways. After each circular pathway, new spokes would radiate out from different locations. The wedges were labeled things like ‘food storage’, ‘water storage’, ‘housing’, ‘construction/manufacturing’, ‘latrines’, ‘hospital’, ‘bathing’, ‘general storage’, ‘food prep’, and ‘practice/training’. The very center was labeled ‘C&C’. Each circular ring had a thickened area that Serenity assumed was a wall.

“That looks ambitious.” Serenity didn’t see any way they could possibly get that done in the few days they had, even with magic.

“It is. If we were prepared, this would be doable before the first attack, but we’re not. I doubt we’ll finish more than the outer wall before then. Hopefully that will be enough. We’ll send scouts out in the morning to find them, but for now we just have to trust there isn’t anything out there.” Nightwitch stood up straight and stretched. “I’m glad you came by. I take it all the big stuff has been moved?”

Serenity nodded.

“Then we’re on to the next piece. Do you have any suggestions on how we can build a water tower? I’d really like to have some water pressure, it would make things a lot easier, but we don’t have any pumps and lifting it up by bucket doesn’t seem efficient-”

[Time Remaining in Stage Two: 04:16.00]

[Time before next Beast spawn: 00:06.00]

[Note: Killing all spawned Beast Lords will cause an early spawn of the next Beast group]

[Time before first Beast attack: 01:01.00]

Beast Lords defeated: 5/15

Beast Lords spawned: 8/15

Hunting the Beast Lords instead of letting them attack the camp had worked out well so far, but they’d found out about the Note the hard way when the counter suddenly went to one hour instead of four after they killed the first Beast Lord even though the rest of the beasts that had spawned with it were still alive. Since then, they’d made sure not to kill the last Beast Lord unless its group was already dead.

Two Beast groups were hiding somewhere; Doyle had found the third an hour earlier, and a group was already on its way to eliminate it. Serenity had waited nearby for the first four groups, but he hadn’t been needed. The fifth and sixth groups had been sent out without him.

The camp was also coming along well. The river now ran through large pipes into the camp, allowing fairly free use of water. The outer wall was roughed in - it was just a dirt berm with wooden stakes sticking out of it and a trench in front, but that should deter beasts acceptably well.

Lancaster had found out that his uniform shirt no longer fit (he’d gained too much muscle in the shoulders and arms), but his badge still got attention. Now that the instructors weren’t there to keep order, he’d been needed several times to resolve disputes and break up fights. His Path turned out to be particularly good at that; there was nothing quite like being knocked several feet away by a sword that didn’t touch you to get the attention of someone who wouldn’t stop.

The people here could handle things without him. Serenity was both proud of that and a little sad to not be needed anymore.

He was needed in the Tutorials. Somewhat for the Tutorials themselves but mostly for the attention he’d gather. It would help him to gain attention once he got back to Earth. They needed the exposure as quickly as possible, so they’d decided as a group that Serenity would do as many Tutorials as he could during the second Phase of the Trial. He’d enter and leave the Tutorial from a small shelter set up near the Dungeon entrance, checking in with whoever was there to be sure he wasn’t needed.

He might well be needed; they’d decided that anything Lancaster or Nightwitch couldn’t resolve would be referred to Serenity. A “higher authority” could be useful.

They’d play the attacks by ear, but the plan was that Serenity would be there for all of them if the Beast Lords actually reached the walls. So far, the timer hadn’t changed even though several groups had been defeated.

If all went well, he might be able to get in as many as 40 Tutorials a day, but Serenity expected the actual number to be lower than that. He could sleep in the Tutorials, so he could run them all night without needing to sleep.

Serenity’s entire group - Rissa, Echo, Lancaster, Nightwitch, Doyle, Moira, and even Liuyedao - were there to see Serenity off for the first Tutorial within a Tutorial.

[Tutorials Completed as Instructor: 1/180]

[Note: Population reduction of less than the predicted amount may increase the number of required Tutorials]

[Real Time Remaining for Tutorials (estimated): 6 months]

[Note: Single recursion is permitted with limitations]

[Limitations:]

[Tutorial instruction will consume approximately 30 minutes of Student Tutorial time]

[Rewards are not available from Trials completed while concurrently enrolled in a later-Stage Tutorial]

[Tutorials will not progress past the instructional period while concurrently enrolled in a later Stage]

[Enter Tutorial as Instructor?]

Yes

[Link found]

[Bring Moira to recursive Tutorial?]

Serenity hadn’t expected that. He didn’t see any real need for Moira to wait through the additional month of another Tutorial, but it was possible she’d want to. “Moira? It says I can take you. Do you want to come to another Tutorial?”

Moira huffed. “Not really. Maybe later when I have more real experience, but now? Not much use.”

Serenity nodded and answered the question.

No

[Tutorial entry in 00:00.05]

“It’s giving me a five-minute countdown.” That probably wouldn’t matter, but it was still worth telling the others how it all worked.

The world seemed to smear around him as Serenity entered the new Tutorial. He could feel it tug on his Time affinity, but it was far more advanced than he could understand.