The first thing Jay did was take a look at his stats.
[ Status sheet
Name: Jay Michaelson Race: Human Class: Elemental Archmage Level: 6 (0/16,000)
Strength: 9
Agility: 11
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 18 (+10)
Will: 17 (+10)
Luck: 5
Unspent status points: 6
]
Not too bad, but that 9 in strength and 5 in luck were making him feel like he could do better. It was time he did something about those.
[ Status sheet
Name: Jay Michaelson Race: Human Class: Elemental Archmage Level: 6 (0/16,000)
Strength: 10
Agility: 11
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 18 (+10)
Will: 17 (+10)
Luck: 10
Unspent status points: 0
]
Satisfied that nothing was below 10 now, Jay closed his status sheet and got ready to work. He had a funeral to plan, baby mages to train, and a cat that needed an endless supply of food. Not to mention leading teams into the dungeon, helping Kyle experiment with magic, and yelling at the kids that got too close to the edge of the safe zone.
But before all that, Jay needed breakfast. In fact, he was pleasantly surprised with breakfast. Sarah was back in full force with waffles (though he had no idea how she got the iron to work), monster sausage—which he chose not to think about—and the heavenly taste of good coffee. It seemed that someone had found several pounds of coffee beans and boy was Jay glad for that.
His day essentially consisted of babysitting all the survivors and it was exhausting. Also, he needed to figure out a way to organize them. Most games had a clan system or something like it, and they usually give good bonuses. At the very least, it'll give them a sense of identity and purpose—both of which Jay could use a little of.
With his coffee downed, his breakfast devoured, and Silver stuffed to the brim, he was ready to go about his day. First order of business—planning the funeral.
This was probably one of the bleakest jobs he'd found himself with, but Jay couldn't bring himself to just ignore those that died. They needed one for everyone they could remember that didn't make it, plus the healer he failed to save.
To do that, he had to make a lot of personal calls. He went from group to group, asking if they knew any of those who had died. In most cases, the closest he got was a neighbor, but the saddest one was the one he saved for last.
The kid's parents had never shown up at their camp, and Jay felt a little responsible. He'd carried their kid to safety, but he didn't even know their names. And now, Jay was here to ask the kid about them.
"Hey there, Chloe. Can I ask you a few questions?" Jay spent a while with Chloe, trying to be as delicate as possible. She didn't seem to know her parents first names, but she knew her own last name and had lots of stories about them. The way Jay had it planned, everyone would remember them as heroes. They deserved it.
Funeral preparations done for the day, he went looking for the water and earth mages. With the walls done, they weren't too busy, so he had some time to train them.
Jay started by having everyone practice their meditation skill. They might be full of mana now, but regen rates matter in the heat of battle. Afterwards, he led them through several different applications of their magic. Interestingly, users of both elements were able to create similar magical manifestations. Walls, spears, spikes, and more were conjured and manipulated at Jay's command.
They took several breaks to practice meditation throughout the training and it was nearly lunch by the time they had finished. All of their mages were getting substantially faster at manipulating their mana type. It wasn't as cost-effective as creating spells, but it was far more versatile. Jay, himself, had been practicing alongside them and found that some elements were harder to control than others.
Water was the most fluid to control. Fire listened, but still moved and jumped if he wasn't careful. Earth was a bit stubborn, but stayed in its shape well, and lightning was all over the place. The best he could achieve with lightning was a ball or a line. His dreams of lightning armor would have to wait.
Jay excitedly explained all of this to his friends over lunch—a salad with bird monster meat and a side of bread.
"I wish you guys could use it too. It's so cool. Imagine Sarah firing literal fire arrows, or Pete covering his bat in lightning. Or Kyle…well maybe Kyle could learn a new element. I wish there was multi-classing."
"Well, how do you know there's not? Nobody has tried to multiclass yet. Give Kyle a core and see if he can learn water magic." Sarah's suggestion made sense. And if anyone could learn new magic, it'd be Kyle.
Kyle was, by far, the best of their earth mages. His manipulations were well beyond the others, letting him form all manners of weapons and even some basic armor. He was curious and creative, which just made him that much more adept at his magic. If anyone could learn a second type of magic, it'd be him.
"Give it here. I'm down to try some water magic. If people could learn several types, we'd probably have more healers too." Kyle had a good point and their enthusiasm about multiclassing had them all excited to see what would happen.
Jay pulled out one of the water cores, curious what would happen. If Kyle could make this work, then everyone could use magic.
Kyle spent roughly half a minute with the core pressed against his head, as if he were projecting his thoughts into it. To be fair, it was entirely possible that that was exactly what he was doing.
Eventually, the core dissolved into his head and hands. With an exhausted smile, Kyle opened his eyes and faced his friends.
"It was crazy difficult, but it worked. Looks like we're going to be needing more of those magic flasks all the water mages have been carrying."
The group burst into cheers, which elicited some strange looks from nearby tables. Seeing that it was Jay's group making the noise, most of them shrugged and went back to their meals. Did everyone think they were weird? Now that he thought about it, probably. Oh well.
As Kyle went to buy an endless canteen and practice his skills, the rest of the group went to their own tasks. Sarah went back to the kitchen to help prep for dinner, Pete went to practice hitting things (not that he really needed much practice), Andrew was busy training his pets to follow his commands telepathically, and Jay went to pour over in-game functions.
It had been a while since he took a serious look at the game screen, but eventually he found what he was looking for.
[Players level 5 and up may create their own guild. A guild can include up to 300 people, and will provide buffs to dungeon parties formed from the same guild. Guilds may declare a base. Bases are locked safe locations, save in the event of a guild war. Would you like to create a guild? Create a guild: 1000 gems.]
It was a hefty price, but that was too good to pass up. It may not say what the buffs were, but any help in the dungeon would be a big deal. Moreover, it meant they could lock down this tiny town as a safe space and begin expanding it. No more worrying about when it would get up and move away on them.
Without an ounce of regret, Jay chose to create his guild.
[Please enter guild name. *Note: May not choose a name that has already been selected.]
Fortunately, Jay had already thought about this. His pet, Silver, had become something of an icon for the group. The kids loved him and the adults couldn't wait for him to be combat-ready. In a sense, Silver embodied their hope for a better future.
And, because they now knew people could multiclass, Jay was determined to make everyone know at least one kind of magic. Thus, the Silvertail Mages were born. May silver line your path to power. Okay, maybe that was a bit much, but he still liked the name.
[Silvertail Mages created. Please set up recruitment tent to mark guild territory and invite new guild members. Congratulations, Guild leader.]