His mother and Jamal talked about the time before Arrival Day. He talked about how it came to be, then Howard talked eloquently about how the Protectorate was developing from his perspective. Finally, the abbot said a few words in which he compared the values of the Protectorate to their religious values, and then, as Ben thought they were done, the woman who had run the fish stand in the Alaskan village spoke about how they had appeared from nowhere and saved them from the bikers’ tyranny.

  Ben saw the uplifting effect of the ceremony in people's faces and postures. He saw smiles and a general openness to one another—something he did not take for granted. He did not doubt that conflicts would come, but if they could instill shared values and experiences, they would be well prepared.

  That thought brought him on a short detour on whether he could have reached the same level of reflection and analysis when his Mind attribute was 12 rather than 15 it was now, but that was not productive right now.

  “Thank you, all, for sharing your thoughts and experiences. We will continue to have Retellings to help us come together and understand what we are trying to achieve, together.

  “Now, I think, is the right moment for our latest arrivals to become citizens.”

  With that he motioned for the villagers to approach the Protectorate Pillar and confirm their status.

  After a few minutes he continued, “a few more things to celebrate. First, most of you will have seen our latest dungeon,” he pointed to the portal on the east side of the plaza. “This is a special grant by the systems, and it helps address our long-term food security in combination with our greenhouses and other farming. Thanks to our new citizens from Patagonia, we already have claimed two instances of this dungeon, which will allow us to add eggs and chicken, as well as dairy and beef to our menu. The operations are obviously just starting up, but it is easy to see a path to a food production level in excess of what we can consume in the short- to medium-term.”

  That got a big applause from everyone. Food security in general was obviously fantastic, but the prospect of cheese, cakes, and all the good things that could be had was very enticing to the majority of people, who were not vegetarians or vegans.

  “The next point is about…” Ben was interrupted by flashing lights close to the peak of the nearest mountain. It was impossible to see what specifically was happening but it looked like fire or lightning going off in a very contained area.

  The event was many kilometers away from them, so there was no imminent danger, but it made him wary of what they had to expect in the future. It confirmed his belief that they needed to gain more control over their surroundings… which was a great segue to the point he wanted to announce.

  “Well, whatever is happening there, it underlines how important the point is I wanted to make, we have another class of Protectors that have gone through the foundational training. I want to thank every single one of them for being willing to take on this important role for the Protectorate. I know there are many more of you who want to do the same, and I can only encourage you to go for it. Let me be very clear, every role in the Protectorate is equally important. We currently just have a shortage of Protectors, and I am sure my mother and Barry will be grateful for your application to join as well.”

  He could see some pride in the latest Protectors as their shoulders were clasped, and hands were shaken.

  “Finally, you might have seen our first attempts at laws for the Protectorate. Some have asked what had happened to make us come up with those and thankfully the answer is, nothing. This was an initiative led by Adam to be proactive, which I wholeheartedly supported. Please remember, our values remain the basis for our community and just being kind to each other will help us thrive. I wanted to thank Arthur, our new judge, and Steve, the Guard Captain, for taking on those roles on top of their other activities.”

  Applause concluded the meeting.

  It was time to plan the trip to the city.

  ***

  “Professor Gunther, how are you?”

  “I would be better if you called me Randal, you are on a first name basis with everyone else!”

  Ben laughed, “of course, Randal, very happy to. I wondered if you could give me a tip regarding the university libraries. I am sure you are aware that we have the mission to collect our civilization's heritage in books and if I recall correctly there are more than one sites for the library, right?”

  “That is correct. In Simonston you have the main university library, that is actually mostly focused on the humanities, the arts if you will, these days. Then there is the city library, which is very broad, but not as deep. Finally, you have the university library branch in the suburb of Keiling, which is mostly focused on engineering and natural sciences.

  “Finally, most professors have probably a small collection in their homes and offices, but I am not sure you have the time to go hunting for all of that.”

  “Wow, thanks. That is helpful. I have to think about how to go about the smaller sites, like offices. Maybe something for a later date.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “You have no idea how tempted I am to come along. But I guess I would be more of a liability on the way…”

  ***

  “I have spent the last few weeks trying to understand the Tome of Spatial Enchanting. It was genuinely one of the harder things I have ever done, but thanks to help from Carter regarding leatherworking, and Adam providing me with cores, I have been able to produce this…”

  Deepika placed a leather bag on the office table. It was about as large as a medium-sized purse and resembled a messenger bag.

  Bag of Holding. Energy-infused item. Tier 1. Rare – Beginner. Expands storage to 1 cubic meter.

  “This is the coolest thing since sliced bread! You made this?! Adam never told me that you had already progressed so far!”

  Deepika blushed, “Yes, well, you see… It is only beginner level. From what I have learned, spatial items start at rare and then go up to epic, legendary, etc. Then there is the tier, which is largely determined by the materials used. So, there are three dimensions in which it could get better in the future. If I had tier 2 metals and cores, I could make storage rings, if I then get better, they would be much larger than this, too.”

  “Sure, we are just at the beginning, but this is amazing. Have you checked what this would fetch if you were to sell it in the System Store?”

  “Adam did. He said it would sell for 2500 credits.”

  “Wow, this could be incredible for our economy – and you of course.” Ben said with a wink.

  “Maybe in the future, but this is pretty hard, so I consumed a number of cores I don't even want to think about it, and it takes a lot of time, and expensive leather as well. Once I am better at this it might turn a profit, but for now it doesn't.

  “I am embarrassed to admit that it took me a while to understand that I didn’t have to do the leatherworking myself – once I understood that and asked Carter to help me, it went a lot faster.

  “Anyway, this is why I came by. Let me know what you think when you are back from Simonston.”

  “Oh, is this for me?”

  “Yes, of course,” she laughed. “How could the first not be for you, you can use it the most and you deserve it!”

  ***

  A few more kilometers and they would reach their target.

  They had managed to get there in a little less than two days. The group had a relatively high Body attribute average. And it was a fairly large group.

  Ben had wanted to make sure that in case that they were bringing people back from the city, they had sufficient protection with them, especially given that Dire Wolves seemed to slowly replace the more normal variant and therefore increase the threat level significantly.

  So, beyond Anne, Jamal, and Michael, there were three more Protectors, all from the newly trained group, two of them were ranged fighters, one with a bow, the other with spells, and one more fighter. All three were from Jane's family and hungry to prove themselves.

  His mother had decided to stay in the settlement to make sure they had sufficient experienced people for its protection – not that six weeks of survival were a lot of experience, but the dozens of dungeon runs she had done set her apart from most others in the Protectorate. Outside of Ben's core team, there was only a team around Barry and Damien, that came even close.

  Ben was in love. The bag of holding that Deepika had created was incredibly convenient. He had singlehandedly transported most of their supplies for the trek in the bag, and even if the weight reduction wasn’t as extreme as Deepika wanted, his strength made it no issue at all.

  They had left the forest almost an hour ago and were now walking down a road without sidewalks that connected Keiling to Simonston. The suburb had been built ten, fifteen years ago, pretty much greenfield. It was a bit higher on the mountain than the main city and its primary attraction had been the brand-new university campus that had been built for engineering and natural sciences, after the main campus had become too small.

  Of course, there were no cars on the streets, but there were no other people in sight, and even wildlife was scarce and silent.

  As they entered the city proper the eeriness increased as the silence built.

  The first couple of houses looked fine, but then doors stood open, their frames cracked, windows were broken, and no people anywhere.

  Ben and Michael entered one of the homes, a beige two-story family home with a front yard that looked as if it had been well cared for at some point but now started to show signs of being overgrown.

  Ben pushed the door open, looking at the broken glass on the floor in the living room on the left. There was no sound to be heard, no movement to be seen.

  They moved deeper into the building that had been somebody's home not long ago. Family pictures on the walls. Mementos on shelves besides lots of books – crime stories and romance novels primarily.

  After clearing the ground floor, they made their way up the stairs. A teenager's room on the left was empty, but as Ben left the room, he saw the signs on the floor ahead.

  Blood.

  Bloody prints, not shoeprints but claw marks. Large claw marks.

  Ben gripped his axe tighter and swallowed. He wasn't expecting a fight, but he needed to steel his nerves for what came next.

  He nodded to Michael who stepped forward and slowly opened the last door in the hallway.

  Ben took two steps forward – and immediately turned around, quickly leaving the building. Michael followed close behind.

  He took a deep breath as he stepped into the fresh air.

  Now that he was outside, he realized that he should have noticed the smell sooner.

  He shook himself to clear his mind from what he had seen.

  “What did you find?” Anne asked quietly, not sure whether she wanted to hear the answer.

  Ben grimaced, “we should expect large predators.”

  “Bears,” Michael added.

  It made sense to Ben; the claw marks had been much broader than what he had seen from wolves.

  “Let's stay alert, even though this must have been a couple of days ago,” he encouraged his team.

  Fortunately, the new university campus wasn't far, but rather on the outskirts of the suburb. It covered an area of four blocks, was an open park-like area with a bunch of hyper-modern glass buildings, with color coded roofs, placed seemingly randomly across the space. Most of the houses were just two or three floors high, as they had built deep underground as lecture halls and labs apparently didn't need natural light.

  The library was located centrally, with three floors and a green roof.

  The first building they passed on the way was the campus cafeteria with large dining areas inside and out. It was as deserted as the other parts of Keiling they had seen so far. As they passed by, Ben saw that the back entrance doors were lying on the ground, torn apart. He motioned to Michael and again, the two of them moved to explore the devastation.

  They stepped in and again found claw marks on the ground—this time not blood, but dirt the bears had tracked in.

  Just a few meters in, they heard loud shouting, not from within the building but from their teammates.

  ‘Under attack' came Anne’s terse message via their Band of Coordination.