That afternoon, they held a ceremony for Serge, where those who had known him spoke about him. Ben closed the session with a few words in which he thanked Serge for protecting the settlement, their community, and everyone in it. It was one of the hardest things he ever had to do. At the end, he walked towards the north side of the plaza. With a mental command he confirmed a purchase in the Settlement Interface for which he had ahead of time converted credits into SCs, and a marble slab, about 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters tall rose from the ground. In golden letters it said Wall of Heroes and with another command, Ben added Serge’s name to the wall. “Thank you, Serge, and let’s hope we will never have to add another name to the wall."

  After he had spent a bit of time talking with his friends, he asked his mother, Adam, and Barry to meet him after breakfast the next day, then went to bed after being awake for 1.5 physically and emotionally exhausting days. Despite being dead tired, he struggled to fall asleep, but eventually managed and did not wake for 12 hours.

  He woke up early, and before going for breakfast, he used the System Store to sell the cores they had collected, as well as most of the beast trophies they had brought back from the dungeon—only keeping the scorpion stinger, as it seemed easiest to convert into something usable with their crafters' current skillset.

  In total, he generated more than 3,000 credits. He had agreed with the team that he would keep them for now, as he wanted to assess what would bring the greatest benefit to the Protectorate overall before returning any funds to the team.

  He spent the time before and during breakfast to consolidate the many thoughts he had had over the last week and afterwards he met the others in the office.

  “The last few days—and of course, especially Serge’s death—have made it very clear to me that we have no time to lose if we want to survive out here with the Protectorate. I’ve thought about my priorities, and I’d like to share them with you, because I need your help to make them happen. I need to become much more structured in growing my personal strength. I want to increase the Protectorate’s strength. And finally, I want to grow the number of our citizens. None of this can happen overnight, but I think we can take concrete action—or at least make plans—now.”

  He looked each of the other three in the eye and was reassured that they understood and supported him.

  “I apologize in advance, but I have a few thoughts to share, so sorry if this is a bit long-winded. First, regarding my own strength—this is, of course, important to keep us all safe. But remember, I also need to stay in the top 1% of Earth’s population for the Protectorate to persist. My [Knight Protector] perk provides an update at all times. Based on being four-fifths of the way to Tier 2, plus the quality of my perks—one being unique, one being rare—plus a high ‘impact score,’ which seems to incorporate a number of factors including leadership and settlement strength, I am currently in the top 0.05% of the most powerful individuals on Earth. But let’s not forget, it’s only been a week, and there are billions of people out there who will do everything they can to thrive in this new environment.

  "The last few days have also made it very clear that I have no real clue about fighting. I think only if I fix that can I continue to expose myself to situations that allow me to acquire perks and grow.”

  He took a sip of water before continuing.

  “Before talking about how to address that, to the second point. We are thirty people now, but if we succeed, we will need to grow quickly. That can only work if we—if I—am much clearer on responsibilities. While I want to engage much more than I have in how we run things, I need everybody in here and out there to know who runs what.

  “Mom, I’d like you to be responsible for our defense—what I suggest calling the Protector Guild. That includes the wall, running dungeons, and any other fighting-oriented activities. Once we grow, we might want to carve out something like a police force, but for now we don’t have to worry about that.

  “Barry, as discussed, we need you to teach us. For now, that might be mostly martial arts, etc., but for the Protectorate to thrive, we need education for all situations. Therefore, I’d like you to run the Protectorate Academy.”

  Ben could see a sparkle in Barry’s eyes as he thought about the potential of this new role and smiled.

  “Adam, no real change from what we discussed, but to clarify—your remit includes our city development, finances, food, and everything else that comes up. For now, also crafting, but I could imagine that eventually we’ll need someone dedicated to that topic. This is the Protectorate Administration.”

  Ben paused and looked at the others. “What do you think?”

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  His mother laughed. “That sounds like fun. You know I’m happy to do whatever helps, and should you find somebody better suited at some point, just say the word.”

  Barry nodded. “It is a return to my true purpose. Thank you for trusting me with this.”

  “You know I’m in. I’m just a bit peeved that the others have super cool names and I run the administration…” Adam said with a fake frown.

  “Yeah, I realize the names might be a bit pretentious for a few people living in a forest,” Ben replied with a laugh, “but if things go well, we’ll grow fast, and it will help people understand what we’re trying to do. I thought about your area and came up with names like ‘Operations,’ ‘Citizens’ Affairs,’ etc., but in the end, I thought it would make sense to call a spade a spade…”

  Adam waved him off, signaling his acceptance.

  “Great. A few thoughts on next steps. We should probably confirm with people where they’d like to fit in. For example, I’m sure Tracy would love to work with you, Barry, in the academy.”

  Barry nodded. “Yes, we’ve already outlined our first thoughts on a training plan.”

  “Good. In general, it would be great if you could come up with your plans and suggestions so we can discuss what it takes. But I have a few inputs upfront.

  “Mom, on defense—while we’re as small as we are, every grown-up needs to chip in to some degree. However, I’d suggest we separate people into two groups: those whose main focus will be dungeons and defense, and those who will have other main occupations. Two more points: I think we need to incorporate more ranged fighting for settlement defense, and I think we need a forward defense or alarm system—patrols outside of the walls. Not sure all of that is possible right away, but just as thoughts.”

  His mother nodded. “Makes sense. Nils has an archery perk that might be helpful. I’ll think about all this and come back to you.”

  “Thank you. Barry, in line with that—for now we need everyone in the Protectorate to have a basic fitness level and basic proficiency to help defend the settlement. For those like me, who’ll be on the frontlines continuously, we need an even higher degree of fitness, intense fight training, and at least some basic tactics.”

  “Sure, that makes sense,” said the middle-aged man. “I’ll discuss it with Allison. My suggestion would be to focus on bows and pikes or spears for those not in the Protector Guild. We’ll work it out.”

  “Let’s discuss later and then we can work through with Adam how we want to spend our money to make things happen.

  “Lastly, the only source to grow our settlement right now is Simonston. When we meet Rose and Jane in less than two weeks in town, we need to be more proactive—either get them to move here or ask them to tell us who might be interested. So realistically, if it takes them about two weeks to mobilize people, we could have another influx in a month. The only way I’d see to accelerate that is if I went there now, but I feel like we need to make some progress on defense first. Does that make sense?”

  Everybody nodded, and with that, they ended the meeting after agreeing to align later in the day—before updating the rest of the Protectorate at dinner, when Ben would also add the latest dungeon to their infrastructure.

  Ben spent the next few hours talking with people in the settlement, spending some time with the twins, and standing by while the current watch dealt with two wolves that attacked the palisades.

  Sarah was keen to learn every detail about the mine dungeon and its key challenges, and Ben learned a bit more about her parents. Apparently, her father was one of the heirs to quite a bit of wealth, but he and his wife had never been too interested in that lifestyle. Sarah being in private school had been the only luxury they had indulged in. The upside was that they weren’t heartbroken about their wealth being gone—it had existed mostly as numbers on computer systems that were now probably defunct.

  After lunch and two hours on watch with Damien, Ben was back in the office with the others.

  Allison went first. “The suggestion is simple. We’ll have a militia, which for now is everyone who isn’t primarily part of the Protector Guild. They’ll be trained primarily as spear fighters, which lets them stay behind or on the wall, limiting their risk.

  “The Protectors will have freedom of choice for weapons, but we’ll try to make sure we have a couple of ranged fighters across the board who’ll be trained with bows.”

  “Not that we had many people with firearms here in the past, but why not those over bows?” Ben asked.

  “Very simple—they don’t exist in the System Store. I have to assume they’re incompatible with the physics of the new world. Otherwise, we could reconsider and bring some back from Simonston next time.”

  Ben nodded. “Ok, that makes sense. Do you have a sense for how many people will become Protectors vs. militia?”

  “We’ll only finalize that after announcing everything tonight, but my best guess is that we currently have roughly 10 Protectors and 15 in the militia—children excluded. But some of the militia folks are willing to run dungeons from time to time or take watch shifts. At this point we don’t have the manpower for continuous patrols outside our walls, but we can launch a small expedition in a few days to get a better sense for our surroundings.”

  “One thing we need to clarify is how to deal with proceeds from these activities—meaning, what do we do with cores from beasts slain on the walls, or natural treasures found in dungeons?” Adam asked.

  “I think for now, it would be best to pool money for necessities—food or weapons. For example, I suggest we buy two bows, five spears and five leather armor, which is 2,500 credits in total. Once we have the basics under control, my suggestion is that everything generated on the wall goes to the Protector Guild, which will help fund this on behalf of the settlement, while people keep what they get from dungeons and can choose to sell it to the System or to crafters. That, of course, assumes we’ll pay people eventually,” Allison said.

  Ben looked to the other two. “Does that work for you?”

  They both nodded, and they moved on to Barry.