I followed the pair of former councilors to the double-sized, blocky castle in the northwest part of town I'd noticed earlier. As we drew near, I grinned.

"Is this thing made out of Legos?" I hadn't seen evidence of the person with the block-building spells in a while, but it definitely looked like their handiwork.

Burns actually smiled. "Compliments of Vanda Lee, a rising star among my hunter scouts. Got a really unique class called Jenga Blade Dancer. She's a brilliant fighter with some surprising abilities through her fast-building blocks."

"I saw a little of her work that night Alpha first attacked Midmount Vale, but haven't gotten a chance to meet her."

"I'm sure you will," Burns said.

Tony added, "She built this castle and we bought some upgrades to use it as the town militia headquarters."

He led the way inside and explained that he'd convinced Elizabeth to appoint him the general in charge of town defenses. Burns served unofficially with him as the leader of the hunter scout excursion teams tasked with exploring Ruin.

Like my castle, the inside of the Jenga castle was far larger than the outside. Fifteen doors ringed a large central commons area with half a dozen couches, a bunch of overstuffed chairs, and a large stone fireplace. Doors led to a kitchen, a full bath, a barracks room full of bunks that could sleep 20, several offices and, randomly, a sauna.

They led me through the center door that opened into a wood-paneled conference room about half the size of the one in the big town castle. Paul and Crystal sat at the long wooden table waiting for us, with a couple boxes of donuts open in front of them. The two waved when I entered.

"This place is impressive," I commented after greeting the other two and snagging a cream-filled bear's claw.

"And we avoid the drama of the central castle," Crystal said. "I use one of the offices for the town store." She wore a set of leather armor over a maroon base layer instead of her usual civilian clothes.

We all took seats and Paul immediately asked, "What news from Elizabeth and her lackeys?"

"Still playing at being leaders," Burns said, not hiding his disgust.

"It's not all bad," Tony interjected.

"Mostly, it's just bad," Burns argued.

"I did get her to give you back your seat earlier this morning," Tony added to Crystal.

The strawberry-blond woman looked shocked. "How?"

"Not a voting member, but still with some benefits. You run the store, and not even Elizabeth is foolish enough to try taking that away."

"That makes 2 of you with at least some access," Paul said. "Did she agree to spend more resources on defense? If not for you and your team intervening Lucas, we would have been overrun."

"Glad we got here in time."

"We can't risk another fiasco like that," Crystal said. Dropping her voice, she added, "We really must consider taking back the mayor's seat."

"I'm not convinced it's worth all the strife and chaos," Tony said.

"How can we not consider it?" Paul demanded, his frustration at the situation boiling over. "Too many people are distracted by viewers, followers, and the promise of VIP points."

"And you went and gave them a name for the stupidity," Burns muttered to me.

"What did you do?" Crystal asked.

I shrugged. "They're acting stupid. I called them out for it, but instead of changing course, they're embracing the insanity. Do you have any good news?"

As bad as Elizabeth was turning out to be as a leader, I didn't want to waste a ton of time embroiled in a coup. We had hunting to do, and Queen Marisara and her agents were already circling.

Burns said, "Not really, but we're working on it. My scout teams have explored about a third of Ruin and even found 3 more entrances to Echo City. They've explored a little, but not yet found any good loot. The cursed time limit keeps everyone close to the stairwells."

"We have to push deeper and hit the palace and the castle. I plan to take a look as soon as I can with my team."

"Maybe a joint venture," Burns suggested.

"Sure."

"The exploration of everything else is moving apace. Still haven't found the bosses' lairs, but after today, hopefully their strength is diminished. We've made a lot of progress, but the disappearances continue."

"Disappearances?"

Paul grimaced. "Ever since people moved into town, a few people each day have disappeared. Not just scouts, either. We've lost 4 crafters who never leave town."

"How? Are monsters getting in?"

"No one knows yet," Crystal said, tone frustrated. "Even with the walls up, we lost 2 more overnight."

"Might be the Briggs or other agents from Marisara."

"Maybe," Tony agreed. "We've added patrols around town, but we don't know what we're looking for."

"We don't know all the monsters on this stage yet," Burns added. "The clockwork insects and flying fish are the apex predators, but not the only ones. So far we've run into Drowned Stalkers and Strangleweed Golems."

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"What are those?" Usually I was the one finding all the unique monsters. Somehow it felt wrong for others to discover them first.

"Drownded Stalkers are gross," Tony said. "Like corpses, with waterlogged flesh and barnacle-covered limbs. They rise up from the slower-moving canals or flooded ruins and attack with eel-like tongues that drain warmth and stamina. If too many latch on, or keep a hold for too long, people end up going into hypothermia and can't fight back."

"Luckily, they're not super fast," Burns added. "The Strangleweed Golems are more of a pain. They're walking tangles of parasitic vines that animate rubble. The vines will directly attack like constrictor snakes that crush or drag you under piles of shifting rubble, or they'll just push a wall over on you."

"Thanks for the warning."

Crystal said, "Problem is, we haven't spotted anything like that in town, so the disappearances aren't being caused by them."

I wanted to discuss that further, but Tony moved on. "We're working the problem. Best we can do for now."

"Besides killing the bosses," Burns said.

"Sure," Tony agreed.

"And dealing with the biggest problem we're all ignoring," Burns growled, slamming one hand onto the table, his previous almost good mood gone. "At least half our people barely scraped up enough experience to hit level 25, and that was only due to the bonuses for working with the zombies. Now they've got to double those levels in half the time, and instead of crafting night and day or joining the hunt teams, Elizabeth has them partying. They're not going to make it."

"The VIP points do offer a unique alternative path to leveling," Crystal said, but her tone made it clear she agreed with his assessment.

Burns snorted. "Sleeping your way to level 50 isn't going to work for most. They're not that interesting. Elizabeth has set them up to die. All those lives are going to be wasted."

That was an odd turn of phrase, but I didn't disagree. "I'm worried too, but I don't have a good solution. Do you?"

"Work harder, make whatever sacrifices are needed to win. Our entire home world is relying on us," Burns said.

Tony added, "I agree, and I suspect within a couple days most people will realize it's not working. We need to have the stage explored and a plan ready to take on the bosses that we can fold as many people into as possible."

"A couple days might be too late," Burns growled.

"Maybe, but I don't see a better way," Tony said, spreading his hands helplessly.

"We'll work on ideas," Paul promised.

"And I'll review the builds of everyone below level 30 with that card catalog," Crystal offered. "I'll try to stock the store with spells and equipment to help folks leverage what they can do to help fight."

"Let me know if you need more funding. I can probably come up with something," I offered. At least we were looking at solutions.

"Thanks," she said with a grateful smile.

I turned back to Burns. "Are your teams looking for more artifacts?"

He nodded. "I shared the quest info and ordered everyone to touch the Heartstone to see its vision, but we haven't found any more."

"Do you think finishing this quest will be necessary to complete this stage?" Crystal asked.

"Most likely."

Tony said, "Then we'll find them."

Optimism in the face of a total lack of information was better than nothing. "I hope we'll find at least 1 more down in Echo City. Others might be in boss lairs or other important locations."

"Hopefully," Burns said.

Paul took a deep breath, blew it out, and said, "With that settled, let's move on. Despite so much focus on non-essential activities, the town is fairly well established. We need those stronger defenses, though."

Tony said, "I've requested another energy barrier and siege weapons powerful enough to smash those clockwork constructs."

"And if Elizabeth does not approve the expenditure of funds, but wastes it on something foolish?" Paul asked.

Tony shrugged, and I interjected, "Find out how much it'll cost. Worst case, I'll try coming up with some funds to help. I might be able to get Elizabeth to share more experience if I do."

"Fat chance," Burns barked a humorless laugh. "She's turned into a real Scrooge with experience. Most of her council don't even get a full share, and they agree to everything she suggests."

"On a much better note, have you explored the Training Guild?" Crystal asked.

"What Training Guild?"

"I wondered if you missed the announcement," she said. "Another system resource like the system store. It gives us a safe place to train spells and abilities. Each 1 hour session promises to help us make major strides with gaining levels in one of them."

I sat forward, all ears. "That's awesome. It's hard to level some of them."

Paul nodded. "The Training Guild appeared next to the store just before the attack. First session is free for everyone. Each subsequent session costs more mana crystals, starting at a tier-3 crystal and incrementing one tier per session."

"That's wonderful."

Tony said, "We plan to push as many fighters through as possible, but most people are short on mana crystals. It'll be hard to get many to spend the crystals for more than a couple sessions."

That wasn't nearly good enough. "Leveling spells and abilities unlocks so many benefits. We can't ignore this opportunity."

They had no idea about tier-1 evolutions, but one of the most difficult things about preparing for that enormously-important step was getting enough spells and abilities leveled up enough to also evolve. If one could make a perfect evolution, with at least 6 spells and abilities also evolving, they could unlock their full efficiencies immediately. I hadn't understood how anyone could do that, but a Training Guild could change everything.

"People can't spend money they don't have," Burns said.

Cyrus had made it clear I couldn't say too much about tiers and evolutions, even with my team, but he'd let me explain a few things. Hopefully he'd let me share a bit here too. We didn't have time to waste with ignorance.

"Listen. I learned a few tricks about squeezing more power out of our existing skills and abilities. If we can level them up high enough, they can become a lot stronger."

"How do you know?" Crystal asked.

"I've done a lot more fighting against powerful monsters and bosses than anyone. I've picked up some hints."

Burns was studying me closely. He nodded and said, "Sometimes one can see glimpses behind the curtain, so to speak. We'd be foolish to ignore those insights, even if sometimes we can't know exactly where they came from."

"Exactly." Had he figured out about my tier-1 evolution? The man was smart, and he knew how strong I was. Hopefully he'd put some of the clues together.

"That may be true, and I totally support the idea, but we still face the lack of funds," Paul said.

"Fine. How about this? If anyone proves they're dedicated to training by paying for a second training session, I'll cover their 3rd and 4th sessions. No strings attached."

"That would be fantastic," Paul said, and another box of donuts appeared on the table in front of him, followed by a tray full of huge muffins that reminded me of the Costco muffins I loved so much. I snagged a Boston Cream, my all-time favorite, then a couple double-chocolate muffins.

"Very generous," Tony added, grabbing a blueberry muffin. Was he talking to me, or to Paul?

Crystal said, "I'll spread the word to everyone through the store, which has become a vital hub for gear and class progressions."

"You got the documentation from Jeeves?"

"Yes, thank you. The class manuals have proven invaluable. My assistant, Sanjin, has become an expert on class evolutions. Even gained a Speedreader ability from working so hard at it."

"That's fantastic. More and more people are hitting level 50."

"And we cannot afford more broken classes," Tony agreed.

Crystal added, "Some folks are already providing new goods as payments in kind for the loans we gave them. The level of craft has grown amazingly in just a few days, which we can then turn around and sell back to others at low costs to help them improve their gear. All the supplies you donated have made an enormous difference in boosting our crafters."

"Glad it's working out so well." We needed people stronger, and that stuff had just been cluttering my inventory.

"Speaking of debts," Crystal added with a wide smile. "The first of the items crafted for you have started arriving."

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