Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 25 (Patreon)

I had promised to heal up a little before seeing Bridget, but I wanted to check in on her. Caleb and Marcus’ backup shelter was unimpressive, to say the least. It was little more than a pile of scraps tucked in the corner of a brick building a little down the street. Their supplies were a window curtain Bridget was using as a blanket, the first aid kit Marcus had, and a half-eaten box of oreo cookies.

Still, now that the office had burned down, it was more than I had to offer. So I tucked Bridget in beneath the window curtain, promising I’d grab a real blanket and a pillow for her as soon as I could. But for now, I had a quest notification to see to.

Congratulations, you have successfully completed your establishment quest and created a settlement!

After slaying the Rat Matriarch, the quest was officially completed. When the office building finished burning down, a black pillar emerged from the earth, twice as tall as I was and shining with some unspoken power.

The crumpled ruins of Miyamoto Offices lay around it, piles of bricks and rubble jutting into the air. Much of it was still burning, and we had to wait sometime before the fires died down enough to reach the obelisk.

Others looked like they wanted to reach for the obelisk, but I felt I wanted to be the first to lay my hands on it. Luckily, I had both the highest level and the highest Heat Resistance proficiency, so I could venture into the smoldering wreck long before anyone else could do so.

New Title!

First Lord

You are the first on your shard to claim a settlement. Will you ply your advantage to claim other settlements and expand your influence? Or will you let other lords rise up in friendship? Either way, you will emerge as a leader of your people.

+10 Charisma. +10% Charisma Bonus so long as you have control of a settlement.

“Neat,” I said as I got the new title. It boosted my charisma quite a bit. Thanks to my Death Defier title, I already had a Charisma bonus, but this pushed it so high that my effective total was about on par with my Intelligence stat, though after title bonuses, my Intelligence stat was still higher.

I did note that it only said I was the first on this shard to establish a settlement, not the first in the world. Earth was a big place with many people, so presumably, there was a faction somewhere that started the Settlement Establishment Quest the moment the integration began. Lyra had used the word shard before, but I still wasn’t sure what it meant. From the context, I guessed it meant Crownhill and some of the surrounding wilderness.

That still meant I was the first in this area, and now I ruled over a burned-out husk of a building, for what that was worth.

Welcome, settlement owner Carter Smith!

Would you like to name your settlement?

I typed in the town's name, Crownhill. The old office was close enough to the center of town, and if this obelisk really gave bonuses to everyone within its range, I wanted it to be available to anyone. Like killing Craig, that would go to my second promise toward Ben and all the others.

That was when I remembered the real reason Ben wanted to finish this settlement quest.

Welcome to Crownhill! (Shelter)

As the only surviving member of your proposed government, you have been given the title: Acting Regent.

You currently hold a 100% share of all political power and may enact a vote to change Crownhill’s government structure.

I browsed through the options. The System seemed fond of absolute monarchies, as most of the options were some variation of it, albeit with primitive-sounding names. But that was to be expected, considering the poor state of the settlement. It looked like a series of quests would allow me to level up the shelter to something better, but I wasn’t interested in those.

In the end, I selected the form of government that I thought would be most appealing to the people of Crownhill.

You have chosen the government form: Supervised Council.

• As Council Supervisor, you will have the final say in all decisions, but the day-to-day affairs of the shelter will be managed by a vote of the most prominent members of the settlement. You may select these council seats or select a regent to pick them up on your behalf.

From the wording of the prompt, I could probably just pretend I don’t exist and tell everyone to elect their councilors, effectively making a democracy workaround. The people didn’t even have to know I had the power to step in and override everything. However, I liked the idea of hanging on to that ability just in case. The last thing I wanted was someone like Craig strong-arming everyone into giving him all the councilor seats and taking over.

Once I made that selection, my System screen changed to what I assumed was the town menu. A few labels popped up describing everything, and that was a lot more tutorial than what the rest of the System gave. I spent the next few minutes reading through the options available to me, but right now, there was enough blacked out that it was easy enough to get the hang of what I needed.

Market

• List items for sale for purchase by other individuals in your settlement. Items will be held in storage until they are sold. Since you do not have a settlement vault, items will be stored by the System directly, with a fee charged against the item’s value each day it sits in storage.
• There are no available markets to trade with.

Settlement Shop

• Exchange Settlement Points for improvements to your settlement or pay to integrate existing structures.

Job Board

Purchase jobs for contribution points, and see which jobs command the highest value in this settlement. Purchasing a job will include basic knowledge to perform entry-level work. Tools are sold separately.

The market feature was functional, and there was plenty of stock already, from bows and arrows to rock-carving tools. All of it was available for a price in Contribution Points. But it looked like people using the obelisk weren’t limited to buying from the Market. There was a tab to sell items as well.

Out of interest, I picked up a broken brick off the ground and thought about moving it over to the market menu. Instead, it vanished from my hand as though it was never there, and an image of a rock appeared on my screen.

Rubble

• A piece of a broken brick.
• Estimated market value: None.
• Would you like to sell this item?
• Because the item is low value, you will be charged a 1 Contribution Point listing fee.

I pulled the piece of rubble out of storage and tossed it back on the ground. There was a gun nearby from one man I’d killed. The wooden stock had burned away in the fire and from when the bullets in the clip exploded in the heat. But it still had to be worth something, right? I moved it over to the Market tab.

Broken Gun

• A non-functional gun.
• Estimated market value: 15 Contribution Points.

The shop worked much as I expected. Everyone got an account with a special local currency called Crownhill Contribution Points, which could be gained by doing jobs for the city or trading items for them. Presumably, outsiders could sell some of their items to our government for local contribution points. Still, the way it was structured looked like it would put powerful incentives to keep economies local.

The Crownhill Contribution points belonged to me personally. From the looks of things, I had more than a thousand of them, which put me at the top of a very long list of people ranging from eight hundred points with Sakura, all the way down to just five or six points from people who had done little during the settlement quest. I was glad to see everyone was being rewarded for their efforts, though with nothing to purchase, those points weren’t worth much.

At least, that was what I thought until I started browsing the Job Board.

Purchase a Job!

• Currently, Crownhill is not in desperate need of any job roles.
• Currently, no job roles are in excess in Crownhill.
• Due to the early stage of the integration, all jobs are on sale at 95% off! This sale will be reduced by 5% daily until prices reach normal levels.

Available Jobs:

Mundane Jobs

• Blacksmith - 125 Contribution Points.
• Medic - 125 Contribution Points.
• Carpentry - 125 Contribution Points.
• Mason - 125 Contribution Points.
• Bureaucrat - 125 Contribution Points.
• Secretary - 125 Contribution Points.
• Guard - 125 Contribution Points.
• Cont...

Magical Jobs

• Formation Master - 400 Contribution Points.
• Alchemist - 400 Contribution Points.
• Enchanter - 400 Contribution Points.
• Rune Smith - 600 Contribution Points.
• Golem Crafter - 600 Contribution Points.
• Priest - 600 Contribution Points.
• Oracle - 600 Contribution Points.

I went through the list, which was quite extensive. As I went through it, I sensed a pattern. All the jobs I recognized were on the cheaper side. I’d met masons, carpenters, first responders, and blacksmiths in my life. But I hadn’t met Formation Masters, Alchemists, and Enchanters. All those jobs were new and correspondingly more expensive. They all had something to do with magic from the sound of them.

I remembered Myrina saying something about jobs, and I dug through my pocket to find my notes. Enchanter was one of the ones she’d singled out as valuable, but it wasn’t the most valuable job on the list. Looking at the average point total, 300 points was in the middle-high range for what people had. Given the sale right now and the number of points most people had, Myrina probably didn’t think I could afford anything better than Enchanter.

Still, I picked Enchanter because Myrina had suggested it as something useful everywhere. But since I had more than six hundred points to spare, I looked through the most valuable jobs. I had no interest in being a priest. When I thought of oracles, I thought of skimpily dressed greek girls high on incense, which might not be historically accurate, but that was what my brain brought up.

My eyes lit up on Runesmith. It sounded like an interesting job. So I took a closer look.

Runesmith (Rare)

Carve symbols of power into rare stone, wood, and metals to induce special effects. Smith swords of destruction or arrows of bloodletting. This skill includes basic knowledge of blacksmithing.

Since I figured out how to bring up a description, I also looked at Enchanter.

Enchanter (Uncommon)

Push power into objects, granting them powers beyond the mundane. Craft amulets of lightning or wands of fire. This skill includes perception of all basic aspects of mana.

I debated for a while, then took both of them. I had the Contribution Points to spare, and other than a few things in the Market tab I wanted to buy, I didn’t have any plans for these points. With the sale working the way it was, if I was ever going to buy these jobs, it would be now.

I accepted Enchanter first, since that was the safe bet Myrina had told me about.

You have purchased the Enchanter job! Downloading job knowledge may induce some discomfort...

As with the integration, the System severely underestimated the amount of discomfort it would cost. I doubled over in pain, wincing as I leaned against the obelisk for support. But when my head cleared, my mind was filled with diagrams, patterns, and ways to weave mana together I could never have imagined.

Just staring at the ground, I could sense the earth mana. The realization was indescribable. Like a fish going its entire life without realizing it was swimming through the water until the day it broke past the surface and experienced a moment in the open air.

As quickly as it came, the intense feeling of sudden enlightenment faded. But the vision remained. I could see the earth mana beneath me and the fire mana in the smoldering ruins. The air mana in the air and the water mana on my breath were all clear as day.

And better, I knew how to use it all, given time and the right items to enchant.

I wanted to test my new job, but I wasn’t done with the pillar yet.

You have purchased the Runesmith Job!

Because you already have the related job, Enchanter, these jobs will be combined.

A pain far sharper than before tore through my skull, ripping every thought forming in there apart in the process. But it too faded just like the first, and I had yet more knowledge when the splitting headache faded. This time my head was filled with the names of esoteric metals and machines and how they worked. I could visualize a blade made of a dozen parts, one to spit fire and another to spit poison, each working synchrony to drain the life from whatever I struck with it.

I could see a staff meant to draw the power of the earth into my hands and shoot it in small projectiles, each the size of my finger. I pictured a flying blade of sharpened steel that followed my eyes and killed whatever I looked at.

There were a thousand fascinating combinations, all courtesy of my new job.

You have unlocked the job Artificer (Epic)!

You reshape the magical and mundane world around you to fulfill your desires. With the right tools and materials, you can craft powerful magical artifacts imbued with both mana and unique magical effects.

My instincts had given me a boon, for once. I’d sensed that the two skills might work well together, but I hadn’t guessed that the System would also recognize that idea.

I hoped Myrina would be impressed. The job had gone up in rarity, which sounded like a good thing. I would have to try it and see, but I felt like I knew a lot more than I had a moment ago when I only had the Enchanter job unlocked. I was eager to try my new job to see how it felt.

I saved the last of my points to purchase some things from the market tab. My new job required a few tools, some of which were quite expensive. Thankfully, I still had the points to spare. Grimly, I noticed that when I purchased something, the price for the item went up. The Market’s prices relied on supply and demand, and the obelisk only came stocked with so many items. Once we started running low, prices were bound to skyrocket.

I flipped through anything labeled antidote, looking for something to help Bridget. I found a couple of helpful options, all meant to treat afflictions. There was nothing specific for Toxic Bite, but there were a few generic potions for sale meant to bolster the body as it fought off poisons. I bought several of them since we probably wouldn’t be getting more until Crownhill nurtured an alchemist who could make them from scratch.

By the time I was done, the fires were dying down enough that others will brave the hot embers and make their way to the obelisk. I waved them all over to join me and explained what I’d figured out.

Some people gathered were wary of me, and not just because of the news that I’d died and come back to life. Not all the people who’d survived the quest had been part of Ben’s group. Craig had genuinely recruited some of them, though they hadn’t been part of the core group of his supporters that I’d slaughtered for levels. Most of his supporters who remained had already fled, but a few had nowhere to go and were sticking around despite my presence. I wasn’t sure if they knew I killed Craig or not, but I felt enough tingles running up my spine to know plenty of people had hit me with Examine.

Thankfully, everyone was wise enough to check my level before starting any trouble. I was by far the highest leveled person here, so if there was any trouble, I was confident that I could handle it.

But the next hour was relatively peaceful. Monsters came for us after that, but nothing major. Some of them were rats, but none of the giant kind. There were a few waves of cockroaches and some Fire Squirrels next. It seemed like the quest wasn’t the only time we’d have to fend off waves of monsters.

“These guys just keep coming!” Marcus remarked. “Weird. I thought we’d dealt with the last of them after that quest. Heck, the streets look completely clear, and we scouted the area. Where could they be coming from?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, though I had a sneaking suspicion. These constant monster attacks would get tedious, considering how many wounded we had. Plus, it was the middle of the night, and everyone wanted to sleep. We’d moved into one of the nearby copies of our office building, but things weren’t quite the same, and nobody trusted the malformed walls to be particularly sturdy.

To test my suspicion, I headed down the block on a quick late-night stroll. Sure enough, the monsters attacking the settlement stopped coming for the people in the shelter there. Instead, they headed straight for me.

“Of course...” I muttered. My Death Curse was what was bringing so many of them toward me. If I stayed, everyone near me would be under pretty much constant attack.

It was fine for now since we had just had a few weak monsters to fight, but what about if something stronger came along? What would we do then?

I got a sinking feeling. We survived the Rat Matriarch, but would we survive another monster at that level? What about two? Or three of them?

By staying at the settlement, I was risking everyone’s lives. All for what? So I could sit around and call the shots? I didn’t even like being in charge of the settlement.

What was I to do, then?

I stared over Crownhill, the place I’d called my home. The System’s changes had already warped it beyond repair, and it only barely resembled the town I remembered. And that, too, would end soon.

I was among the first to reach a high enough level to travel freely throughout the city, but I wouldn’t be the last. Before long, small groups of people would grow strong enough to walk without fear, at least during the day. They were bound to be hungry by now, and their first move would be to secure supplies. They would empty the grocery stores before the meat even had time to go bad. Then anything might be used as weapons or survival supplies.

The next to go would be the clothes and tools so people could build something from the wreckage around the city. All would be well enough while there were still resources aplenty, but I foresaw danger coming for this place. When lawlessness took hold, Crownhill would descend into chaos, man pitted against man as we fought for scraps and to forge order out of chaos. How long would it be until these streets were safe for the average person to walk again?

I wasn’t sure I wanted any part in the conflict to come. If I had my way, I’d pack that survival gear and head for the wilderness to fight monsters. I had no interest in battling my fellow man. One night of slaughter was enough for a lifetime.

And yet this stupid Death Curse seemed to push me in just that direction. Did the System want to wage war on other humans? To slaughter as many as possible, just like I’d slaughtered Craig’s followers?

Something irked me in the back of my mind. It took me a moment to put my finger on it, but I realized I hated being a puppet, dancing on strings to another’s tune. Screw the System’s plans for me. I would forge my own path.

But how?

My mind scanned my stat sheet, and my eyes lighted on two abilities.

One, Enlightenment, granted me the power to obtain attribute points if I focused on exploring the universe for long enough.

The other was the legendary title I still hadn’t figured out. It almost seemed more like a skill.

Attribute Redistribution Protocol (Legendary)

You have hacked the System and convinced others to willingly give you their stat points. Under the right circumstances, you may be able to convince them to do the same here in the mortal world.

Grants the ability to steal levels from willing targets whose souls you are able to connect with.

I sensed that this ability was my ticket to freedom. It was the way I could bypass my Death Curse and tell the System’s plans to screw off while I did whatever I wanted. But only if I could figure out how to use it.

The trouble was, I’d tried to use it at every opportunity. I’d held my hand toward monsters and humans and concentrated just like I did when activating Mana Bolt. For all my efforts, nothing happened. The skill just didn’t work.

I could tell what the problem was. I had to connect with someone’s soul just like I had with all the others in Purgatory. Only then was it possible to take stat points. Otherwise, we simply weren’t connected enough to pass them between us. But how could I do that?

I was still mulling over the question when I detected movement nearby. At first, I thought it was a monster headed my way. I’d had to pick off enough of them it wouldn’t be strange to see more coming my way, but the gait and pace were wrong for a monster. I recognized the slow, steady steps as human and tensed for fear that I’d need to deal with them. They carried a heavy baseball bat over their shoulder with their hand, ready to use it.

But I saw the figure’s long dark hair shining in the moonlight, long feminine legs, and a silhouette of a single horn sticking from her forehead. The tension bled out of me as I realized who visited me. She must have tracked me down through the party interface, which was still active.

“Hello, Sakura. Come for the view as well?”

<Note>

Alright, based on your feedback, I’m tweaking the chapter where they started the quest and reorganizing the settlement’s government. I still want Carter to lead a democracy, but this is probably quicker. I’m not really going to spend much time on city building until book two or three, so it’s best to keep things lean for the time being.

Also, this is what that poll a while back was about. I ended up dumping what I had originally planned for Artificer into the Rune Smith Job. I merged it with Enchanter to make the Artificer job. Mostly because Artificer has a cooler name, and the fact that it probably includes a lot of enchantment should make it a higher-tiered job.