Nope. Nothing was ever going to be normal.
Niera stared blankly at the three n who were bound and tied up with thick, twisting roots. Their eyes were wide with terror and resignation, their faces marred by dirt and fresh wounds.
One of the n, a short fellow with tangled hair and a deep cut along his cheek, whimpered, "Please… let us go," his voice trembling with fear.
Maybe if it was the Niera of the past, she would have believed the words of the man naively, but now she knew better. "I am sorry." She firmly replied before focusing back on the system interface and going through various tasks for the settlent managent.
Things like taking inventory of all the at they had and storing them in the settlent’s storage space gave her experience points, and she was inching towards another level up. Then there was water. Also, there was the part where she had to input the details of the citizens.
She had already entered her details. She needed to record these three citizens in front of her. "Tell about yourself. What class did you choose?"
"Huh? I chose a warrior class." The short man spat out in anger.
Niera shook her head. "I hope for your sake you’re telling the truth," she said sharply, her fingers flying over the system interface as she recorded the data. "Kaden should be returning soon. Make sure your details are accurate."
The short man scowled, his eyes darting nervously as he replied, "Warrior class. I’m a fighter—what else would I be?" His tone dripped with defiance but also fear.
Niera sighed, tapping a few more commands into the system. "You’d better be if you want to survive out here. We’re not exactly living in a fairytale anymore." The soft hum of the settlent core filled the background as she moved to the next entry.
A second captive, a lanky fellow with bruises along his arms, mumbled sothing unintelligible about being a "mage." Niera raised an eyebrow and pressed the prompt for clarification. "Mage? Are you sure?" she asked.
The man hesitated before finally admitting, "Yeah, mage. I—I chose that."
She logged his details and moved on to the third captive. A burly man with a scar running down his cheek grunted, "I’m a hunter. That’s all there is to it." Niera recorded his information, her eyes eting his for a brief mont before he looked away.
Once the entries were complete, the system confird, "Citizen Data Recorded. Settlent Population: 3." Niera leaned back with a sigh. This was not how she imagined the first three citizens would join.
In fact, when Kaden suggested he had a shortcut to check what sort of n these were, she was very confused. But she now understood the reason he had used her as bait. In just a few seconds, everything they needed to know about them was out in the open.
Niera gave the trio another glance before she continued fiddling with the interface. There were all sorts of things the settlent core could do. For instance, fortify the barrier in case of an ergency.
They can do things like unlock achievents to erect new buildings and so on. She quickly took a look at those achievents to see if she could help in any, only to smile wryly the next mont.
Yup, this was above her paycheck. She swiped it away and focused on things that she was able to handle.
Just then, the sound of footsteps echoed in the clearing. Niera looked up, her heart skipping a beat. Kaden was returning, his silhouette erging from the darkening forest as he strode confidently toward the safe zone.
"Did these three give you any trouble?"
"No. Nothing." Niera weakly smiled.
"Good then." Kaden only gave a casual glance, but the three trembled and shook.
"Ummm… Mister Kaden, five more survivors are coming our way." A sudden notification popped up, and Niera almost jumped up in excitent. She could only hope that things would take a better turn this ti around.
Kaden shared her sentint, and the two of them enacted the sa plan as before, sending Niera first as bait. Thankfully, this ti they ca across a family of three. A man, a woman, and a small child.
They beca overjoyed on seeing Niera and asked her, no begged her, if there was any survivor camp nearby. Niera then called over Kaden, who invited the three to stay with them. A wolf wandered into this eting, making everything very simple.
After a quick demonstration of Kaden’s strength, the family had no qualms about staying in the safe zone. The rest of the day continued in this fashion, and by the ti the night set in, they had a total of twenty-four voluntary recruits and six kidnapped recruits.
"This should be enough." Kaden licked his lips. "Everyone be prepared. We are going to upgrade the settlent to a rank 2 settlent."
The gathered people had no idea what was happening. Most of them were sitting still and silent, not knowing if they had made a good decision or not. Kaden looked trustworthy enough, but then again, in this mad world, who could really be trusted?
Everyone looked around wondering what this upgrade was going to entail when suddenly a pillar of light shot up before disappearing. The settlent core that was lying on the floor now floated in the air without any other support.
Nothing except that really changed, which was very confusing.
"You guys should co to the core one by one and touch it. There are a lot of things you can do. You can choose a secondary profession apart from your main class. You can change your class itself. For example, from a combat to a non-combat class."
"Stand in a line, take turns, and rewrite your future." Kaden waited, but no one really ca up. It seed like everyone was hesitating. Finally, a middle-aged man mumbled sothing and stepped forward. "Do you think I can be an architect? I was one before the world ended, and I would like to be one in the new world."
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