Tharn was the first to speak up. "What's this Open season?"

  "I'm glad you asked, tharn. Where I come from open season has to do with hunting animals. More specificly, when restrictions are lifted on hunted. But more importantly I'm sure all of you are wondering why the pillar was acting all crazy. See the two new long houses?"

  I paused for a second to let everyone glance over at them. "Those were the last two needed to complete the pillar quest for housing."

  I pointed behind me at the pillar. "The light show you just saw was the pillar giving me the rewards..."

  Then I went into detail, explaining the pillar map and my new ability to appoint pillar positions. Tharn was aware of pillar positions but they were only granted to honored members of his tribe. He was yet to pass his proving and return as a full tribal member, so he only had periferal common knowledge.

  Theoretically anybody could have any position, but that was far from effective. According to Tharn, pillar positions granted experience for carrying out the duties of that particular position. So, if you had a class that was already giving you experience for doing one or more of the duties of a pillar position, effectively you could double dip, gaining experience from both your class and the position.

  On the flip side of that coin though, if someone like bubba, who gained experience through cooking. Was appointed quarter master, there wouldn't be nearly as much overlap if any. So he would then have to carry out his duties as quartermaster without gaining any experience from his cooking class.

  Supposedly one could level with only the experience gained from their pillar position, but it would take much longer. However, apparently each time you gained a temper your class was also altered in some way of your choosing, and the system usually gave you options to best suit your path.

  So, if you decided that path was diving head first into the duties of you pillar position, then, broadly speaking, the system would accommodate. Theoretically, you could walk a completely difrent path at each temper depending on the options granted to you by the system. According to Tharn though, doing this would make leveling a nightmare, if even a possibility, at higher grades.

  Apparently because there only had to be overlap and the system didn't care how you accomplished your duties, there was much diversity within the same positions. Like guardsman, one of the most common positions, as long as they had some sort of combat oriented class they could usually carry out their duties while gaining combat experience.

  All of that sounded important. Overwhelmingly so, but it also raised a much simpler question in my mind. If these positions mattered this much, if they shaped growth and power in such a fundamental way, then how exactly was I supposed to assign them.

  The menu to access the pillar positions was damn near impossible to find. The system being helpful, as always, gave me exactly no instructions on how to use the ability. Eventually though, through some trial and error, I discovered that while in the construction interface if I zoomed in on someone and mentally selected them as I would one of the buildings, a menu popped up.

  The menu had a lengthy list of possible positions I could appoint to each person, ranging from Mayor to agricultural coordinator. Each position had at least one ability shown and any limits on the position. The very first position listed was pillar leader.

  Since this one was only going to be available to me I went ahead and selected myself and appointed myself as pillar leader. Oddly enough, while still in the construction interface, a system message poped up immediately after.

  I chuckled a little at the way it was worded, like I wasn't the one who had just done it. Like someone else was the leader and gave me the position. Ah well, good old system standardized text I supposed. I selected yes.

  When I did my vision cleared back to the construction interface and... Nothing happened. So I took a moment to back out of the interface and realized that I'd gained yet another tab on my status screen. This one was labeled '(unnamed village) position'. Huh, I keep forgetting we haven't named the village yet. Maybe we should put it to a vote? Eh, I'm sure we'll do it eventually. I went ahead and opened the tab.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Looking at my Edicts, it was apparent that my abilities were centered around helping the guardsmen and villagers. Honestly, I wanted to use one of the abilitys right away just to try it out. But at 500 pillar mana that was an entire days worth of regeneration. Even so, as tempting as it was, I forced myself to focus. Power was meaningless if I didn’t organize the people who would actually use it. So, for now at least, these should really only be used when absolutely necessary.

  Having satisfied my curiosity I went back to the construction interface and selected all the guardsman at once. After some scrolling I found the guardsman section. There were three options listed.

  Looking at the ranking system I already knew who was getting what positions my only problem was I didn't have quite enough people. I only had 21 guards, not including Tharn and he had already told me that he didn't want a position. Something to do with tribal rules. But if I was going to appoint everyone I wanted to senior guards, I would need more guards.

  I started forming an idea. Once again I left the construction interface and asked Mike if he could get Cheryl for me. A couple minutes later she was walking up with Mike, a confused look on her face.

  "Hey Dean, Mike said you needed me?"

  "Yea, you remember the other day when you told me there were a few villagers that wanted to help out, but we didn't have a job for them yet?"

  "Am I to assume you found said job?"

  I nodded. "How soon can you get them gathered up?"

  Ten minutes later I had 14 villagers standing in front of me. I explained to them how the position system worked and then pitched my idea.

  "So all I would need you guys to do is watch the gates and alert one of the few guardsman that stay behind if you see anything. You would have a basic guardsman position and gain a small amount of experience just hanging out looking for any threats."

  Then I walked back over to the pillar, and before placing my hand on it said, "and to sweaten the deal."

  Then going back into the construction interface, I used the mana that I'd just received from the pillar quest to put up the four guard towers I'd been planning to erect anyways. Leaving the interface again I gestured to the guard towers forming.

  There was one attaching itself to the wall at each entrance. The towers stood a good 2 meters above the wall giving an excellent view of the surrounding area. They each had a stairway that zig zaged it's way up the side ending at a wrap around deck with a hand rail. Perched at the top of the tower was basically a small cabin with windows on all sides.

  I looked back towards the group of villagers. "So, can I trust you guys to stand watch?"

  They all jumped at the opertunity.

  "Great, just accept the position when it comes your way."

  Then going back into the construction interface for the umpteenth time that day I selected all of the guards along with the gathered villagers, and sent them all the Guardsman position. When everyone accepted I went back through and promoted Akira, Greg, Sierra, Mark, Jeff, and Reyna to Senior Guardsman. Then finished by making Mike my Captain of the Guard.

  When he didn't accept it right away I left the interface to go talk to him. I saw I had a few notifications waiting but decided to look at them later.

  "There a problem, Mike?"

  He looked at me with a nervous expression. "Dean, I... I don't deserve this. I don't know the first thing about being a captain. Not in this sense anyway. I don't know how to lead people. I'm not you."

  I gave him a soft smile. "You're more capable than you know. These people... They look up to you. I've seen the way you help them, and I've seen the way they respect you. I’ve watched you step in without being asked. I’ve seen people listen when you speak.

  That’s leadership, whether you wanted it or not.They already look to you and I for leadership. Your my right hand, and I know I can trust you when it matters most. Whether you think your ready for it or not, this is the position for you."

  He gave me an usure quizzical expression. "Are you sure?"

  "Absolutely."

  I watched his eyes focus on the air in front of him for a moment before he looked back to me.

  I was caught off guard by the innocuous system message but dismissed it.

  "I guess it's official now." He said. "I finally got the title of Captain yet I'm not even flying an airplane."

  I laughed at the irony in that before putting a hand on his shoulder. "What do you say we start planning which of these red dots to take off the map first, captain? I'm thinking we head out at first light."