A beautiful, large cat with white fur and black spots, about as large as a pre-Energy tiger and with teeth that were far from normal—canines growing out of its jaw on the top and bottom.
“Jamal, Anne, cover right; Michael with me, left. Block access to the monks and the portal. No need to fight unless it forces us to.”
Two monks were left as the cat got up from its observation position and hissed at them, seemingly getting ready to attack.
From behind Ben, a large black crow flew at the cat—his mother’s [Sprout Companion] made its entrance. The leopard ducked, then leaped into the air, and managed to capture the crow and rip it apart in seconds.
But it had bought them enough time for the last monk to pass through the gate.
“Retreat—Mom first. Go, go, go.”
Within seconds they had all passed through the gate. Ben saw the leopard tear into the crow as he touched the gate and confirmed its closure.
First mission done!
Adam had decided that the fastest – and for now cheapest – way to place the monks was to use the inn, which was being used only by the five holdouts who hadn’t become citizens.
Ben and Adam gave the monks a brief tour of the settlement and asked if they needed anything; aside from vegetarian food, they required nothing.
They ended the tour at the library. Ben was very excited to see what they would find inside.
As he opened the door, he found Rose standing in front of her desk, holding a book in hand. She turned and smiled at him. “Oh, Ben, whatever you have done, you should do more of it! Look…” She stopped herself as she saw the monks filing into the library and smiled, welcoming them warmly. “Now I understand! Please follow me.”
She took a few steps – the library was very small after all – and pointed toward a corner of the building. There, a section of the plain shelves had morphed into the narrow cubbies they’d seen in the monastery—holding scriptures wrapped in identical cloth.
Ben clapped his hands in delight, and the monks smiled too. A piece of civilization retained.
While the monks inspected the scriptures, Rose took Ben and Adam to the side. “When you scanned the books, I got a message as head librarian. Because of the age and cultural significance of the books scanned, we got a book as a reward. And not just any book.
“I learned that system books have a sort of hierarchy and rarity as well. The general crafting book we received is level zero—offering little insight in the grand scheme. The next level would be a book about specific crafts, such as leatherworking; then it goes further down into working with specific materials, etc. But within the crafts there are differences. So getting the leatherworking book is more likely than getting the book on alchemy or enchanting. And we got not just any other enchanting book, but one on spatial enchanting. I don’t think it can get much more valuable on our level and tier.”
Ben and Adam exchanged a glance, then high-fived Rose on either side. She laughed. “Stop messing around. There is a downside, though. Or maybe even two. First, I am not sure how easy it is to process this book without a book on enchanting in general, and second, I think it needs a very specific understanding of ‘space things’ to make use of this.
“You know who understands ‘space things,’ as you put it so eloquently… physicists. Do we know a physicist by chance… I think we do!” Ben said.
“Deepika, a.k.a. Sarah’s mom. I think she joined the Protectors out of a sense of obligation, and I think that is great, but maybe here is something that might be even more suited to her. We can at least ask her,” Adam responded.
“Sure, let’s talk with her tomorrow. By the way, Rose, the scanning process is ridiculously easy and fast. All of those books were scanned in less than a minute.”
Soon after, they closed the library and guided the monks back to the inn.
***
It was early morning and Ben was on his way to the training field to join in the daily fitness routine managed by Tracy.
When he arrived at the training field, he was surprised to see the monks who had arrived just last night not just present, but already deep into a fascinating routine. Facing the sunrise, they went through eight slow standing routines, coupled with rhythmic breathing.
After a few minutes they switched into more familiar calisthenics, such as push-ups and squats, but they accompanied those with whispered mantras.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Ben joined Tracy, watching the monks. “Good morning, quite a sight, eh? I hope that I can do half as much when I am 80 or 90 years old.”
Tracy smiled. “Absolutely. Would you mind if I ask them to host some of our morning sessions? I think it would be great to switch things up from time to time.”
“Not at all—I think that is a great idea!”
***
Ben was having breakfast with Julia. The twins were with Robin.
“How are you, little sister?”
“I am alright, big brother,” she answered, her voice dripping with irony. “You can probably not relate, as you are running around like a madman 24/7, but things are actually relatively quiet for many of us. Sure, we do the watch shifts, and I am dealing, together with the doctor who joined us, with any kind of medical issues, but they are mostly minor, and beyond that there isn’t that much to do; we can’t really leave the settlement, after all.”
“Wow, that is not the feedback I would have expected. Boredom, in the middle of the apocalypse… Maybe that’s the problem with all these incredible features that the Protectorate offers, not enough incentives to grow.” Ben’s good mood from the night before had evaporated. He was wondering where he had gone wrong.
Julia punched him on the shoulder. “Stop that!”
“What? What was that for?”
“You were thinking existential things when all I was saying was that I had a couple of quiet days. Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Eighty percent of the people in your little Protectorate have been here for just four days. Everybody I know is committed to making something of themselves. It’s just that not everybody wants to dive into a dungeon. OK?”
Ben heard the quiet bustling in the inn’s kitchen and nodded slowly. “I think I understand. We are still lacking a couple of things. If we had more books, more people could study. If we had more workshops, more people could practice a craft. If we had more money, we could buy some entertainment and community buildings. I am working on it, OK?”
Julia punched him on the shoulder. “Stop that!”
“What the heck! I thought you didn’t like all the violence; now you can’t stop punching me.”
“Well, punching my big brother does not fall under violence. It is common sense. Especially if my brother makes a mistake.”
“And what was my mistake, oh wise sister?”
“You were thinking about how to fix everything yourself and make it perfect. As you said, this is the apocalypse; things don’t need to be perfect. Just having enough food and safety is more than anybody can ask for right now. If you ask me, getting more people to what we have is a lot more important than getting us entertainment buildings.”
Ben took a deep breath. He thought he understood where Julia was coming from, particularly the point about trying to make things perfect. If it would take a few more days, weeks, or even months to get all the books into the library, so be it. They had food and a place to stay; if they used that as a basis for steady growth, that was already great.
“Oh, and one more thing that I might have to punch you for… The twins now want to do martial arts… That’s not the path I want for them, you know!”
“Well, I think you can practice martial arts your whole life and never throw a punch in earnest. Also, at that age, aren’t these things forgotten in a couple of days?”
“Maybe, but given that the whole settlement is training every morning, I am not sure they will forget about it… But anyway. I will deal with it.”
***
Ben had a bit of time before his next meeting with Barry, so he decided to visit their pair of local biologists, or Biomancers as the system had called some of their perks, and the greenhouse he had built.
The first thing he noticed was that a handful of monks was working on the field that had been planted even before they had the greenhouse. They were patiently pulling weeds and raking the earth. These monks don’t seem to rest much. What a pleasant group of people.
He then entered the greenhouse but stopped short at the entrance. The greenhouse had been built four days ago, but vegetables were already sprouting. The structure was organized with narrow walkways in between the flower beds. Two levels were stacked above each other and thin metallic cylinders framed each bed and were glowing golden.
Zack and Liz were conferring while standing over a specific flower bed.
“Hi there, how are things?” Ben greeted them.
“Ah, hi Ben. You have no idea how excited we are about this greenhouse. Thanks for building this greenhouse!” Zack said excitedly.
Ben chuckled, “You are welcome. Feeding the Protectorate was the real incentive, but sure, let’s pretend I just built it for you.”
The couple laughed as well and Liz rubbed her boyfriend’s back to soothe the good-natured jab Ben had just delivered.
“Adam told me that you have made great progress, but I couldn’t imagine how far you have come. Some of these look like they’ll be ready for harvest very soon.” Ben said.
“Indeed, progress is magical. We don’t know whether the golden radiation is pure Energy or something else, but we think that between our perks and this environment, we can grow things at three times the normal rate,” Liz said.
“Right now, we plan to grow 40 % potatoes, 30 % tomatoes, 20 % lettuce, and 10 % carrots; optimized based on calories, vitamins, and preferences of our residents. Should yields meet our current expectations we believe that we can grow more than 6,000 kilograms of produce per month. Even if we were to switch to an all-vegetable diet, we could feed more than a hundred people with this greenhouse alone. If we assume a more realistic scenario with some other calorie sources, we should be good for more than 200 people.” Zack seemed very excited.
“We believe that the current set-up makes sense, but at some point we would probably want to add grains, like wheat, to the mix. Whether we do this in this one or in an additional greenhouse depends on the growth of the Protectorate and of course your decision in the end,” Liz added.
“That all sounds amazing. What about the field outdoors?” Ben asked.
“Well, yes, that also depends on how much space we have in the settlement and how much of that is allocated to us. The field is of course cheaper, but from a space-efficiency perspective we are about three times more efficient in a greenhouse. For now we are happy to have the field and will continue to optimize it.”
Ben left soon after, very happy about the investment into the greenhouse and relieved that they could soon reduce the amount of food they needed to procure from the System Store, which was comparably expensive.
