Jay woke up in a strange place in a bed he was pretty sure wasn't his own. He really had to stop doing that. Especially because he was pretty sure he wasn't in one when he fell asleep.
The countdown timer seemed to be acting as a regular clock now that the beginning of the apocalypse had occurred, so at least he could tell what time it was. It was still early—at least early to Jay. It was only 8:00 am, but he could hear plenty of people moving around the house and outside the house.
He decided it was time to get ready to work, so Jay went ahead and got ready to go. He chose to don his regular fur armor and go check everything out. The moment he left his room, he almost ran straight into Andrew.
"Hey, man! Glad to see you're up! We're a little busy right now, so we could really use your help. Sarah's in the kitchen, Kyle's still raising walls and Pete is doing Pete things. See you later!" The big guy seemed to be a jovial mood, which surprised Jay. The world practically ended yesterday, but Andrew was acting like it was a nice Saturday morning.
Jay descended the stairs, even more eager to figure out what was going on. By the time he reached the kitchen, he'd had to duck another 3 people running around the house. Most were carrying boxes or plates of food, but he wasn't entirely sure why they were doing so.
"Morning, Sarah. Is there a plate for me?" Jay asked, hopeful for a positive response.
"There is. One sec." Within moments, Jay held a plate filled with Sausage, eggs and—most importantly—pancakes!
"How did you make these? How are they so good? Can I have seconds?" Jay talked as he ate and finished his entire plate in under a minute.
"Sorry Jay, seconds are for people who get up on time. Better luck tomorrow." Sarah was teasing him; he was sure of it. Even so, Jay traded his plate to the person in the line that was rapidly forming.
"Kyle said he had an idea that you might be able to help with. Oh, we've also picked up a few lucky survives from New York. Suburbs, mostly, but they all need a class. I was thinking you could give them some of the new cores."
"Sounds good. See you later for a dungeon run?" Jay wanted to get some time to talk, but he'd take what he could get. With how few people they had, there was a lot of work to get done.
It didn't take long for Jay to find Kyle. He just followed the ever-lengthening wall, which Kyle had somehow managed to make stone instead of dirt.
"Kyle, Sarah sent me. How can I help? Need more workers on the wall?"
"Not quite. Most importantly, we realized you can modify spells and thought you should know. We're using a modified Earth Wall to make the walls stronger. No, I was hoping you could pass out some of the cores you guys got from your dungeon run the other day. We really could use more workers."
"I'll see what I can do. They're not earth cores though. If anything, we'll be getting a few water mages. Can you call over everyone that's classless?" Kyle took a break from his wall-building to bring over the people that needed a class.
Looking at his bag, Jay realized he hadn't really counted how many cores they got the other day. He had 9 of the Juvenile Water Cercopes cores, and an additional 2 Adult Healing Cercopes core. If not for the first-clear bonus, those numbers would have been greatly reduced.
As it was, they had more people than cores. Jay started by asking for volunteers for the healing cores. Not everybody was cut out for it, and, ideally, they needed one to go dungeon delving and the other to stay on the surface. Of the group of 15 classless, 5 offered to heal on the surface, but only 1 was willing to heal in a dungeon.
Both individuals were given their respective cores and told to stand to the side. Jay would have loved to pass them off to someone else, but nobody else had even cast healing magic before.
Jay was a bit surprised to learn that a couple of the classless didn't want the water cores. It made some sense for the ones that were holding out for melee classes, but there were some eager mages that simply wanted to wait for different elements. Despite the frustrations, Jay was able to get 4 of them to become dedicated beginner water mages.
Jay let the rest of them go, but he asked the new mages to stay. Once everyone was gone, he handed them his remaining cores. One unfortunate water mage missed out, but that's life.
He urged them to use them to increase their mana pools, and they seemed to have a good deal of success. Where Jay had only gotten 5 mana for using a core, the healers got an increase of 10 and the mages got an increase of 20. They suspected it was because of the core's relationship to their class, but it was hard to tell with such a small group of subjects. Just another thing Jay would have to figure out, he guessed.
Since Jay had gained an additional 800 gems that run, he went to the store and bought endless water canteens for all the new mages. They weren't cheap, but he still had 200 gems at the end of it.
He also handed out the water mage robes, making sure that the guy that missed out on a core got a robe so that he wouldn't feel left out. Jay spent a couple minutes to make sure they knew the basics of spellcasting, including Kyle's tip about spell modification. It wouldn't change much for the healers, but the water mages might be able to do something cool with it.
Finally, Jay was free of duties and headed back to the house. There was one final item in his inventory that he was dying to try out. Once he found himself back in his new room, Jay brought out his new egg. These seemed pretty rare and he was jealous of Andrew, who had 2 pets. It was time he got one of his own.
[Would you like to awaken Distortion Beast egg? Yes / No?]
Jay selected "yes" and waited in anticipation. And waited. Didn't Andrew's eggs hatch straight away, why was this taking so long? Then he heard a crack. And that was it.
Jay ended up waiting nearly 2 full hours for the distortion beast to leave its egg, but he was thrilled when it came out.
[Distortion Beast egg has hatched 'Rare Distortion Beast Pet'. Congratulations on your first pet. Don't forget to feed it!]
Well, that wouldn't be a problem. Jay's party had picked up an incredible amount of meat on their way through the first floor. This thing could have a bottomless stomach and he'd still be able to feed it without an issue.
But looking down at the adorable double-tailed kitten in front of him, Jay thought it was unlikely he would eat too much. It did, however, need a name.
"I think I'll name you Silvertongue, because a guy as cute as you could talk his way out of anything. You can be silver, for short."
And with that, Silver became Jay's newest friend. They spent several hours playing in the bedroom, and it was time for dinner before Jay knew it. He may not have gotten into the dungeon, but he'd still say this was a day well spent.
Of course, he had to feed Silver before he went down for dinner. What kind of person makes their pet watch them eat before being fed?
Jay pulled out 2 lbs. of bird meat. It was already rather cooked from the fire, so he wouldn't have to worry about preparing it. Despite being practically the same size, little Silver finished off the meat almost as soon as Jay offered it to him. So, Jay pulled out another 2 lbs. of bird meat.
This went on until the cute little cat had eaten 10 lbs. of meat. He expressed a clear preference for bird meat, so Jay would have to collect some more in his next dungeon run. With Silver looking cute and bloated, he went downstairs with the little guy in his arms.
He gratefully accepted a plate of cooked…better not to ask. Whatever it was, Sarah and her assistant cooks had done a great job. He just wished he could have had the chance to talk to her today. Then again, it was partially his fault for spending several hours with Silver.
As he sat with a cat on his lap and friends by his sides, Jay thought this was something he could get used to.