Aiden and his people explored the now gigantic castle that the new world had bestowed upon them for a long time. It was not in ruins; rather, it was quite majestic. The features, both outside and inside, exuded a sense of luxury and prestige. The size and looks of the castle had never been so imposing, but now it truly left everyone in awe.
After most of the castle's places were discovered, Aiden and his ''council member'', as he liked to call them, started working on assigning jobs and ranks to people. The castle already provided them with a lot of furniture, so they were able to set up multiple tables and chairs for every follower to attend an ''interview''. Aiden had almost 2700 people to take care of, and it was going to be a hard task to assign proper jobs to everyone.
First of all, to deduce plenty of people from the list, Aiden asked for the men and women who were interested in doing manual work, like building houses, more rampart, forging weapons and armor, etc.] to raise their hands. He also wanted them to apply for the specific rank that would represent their future job and status in his faction.
Aiden created new ranks, 'Jobs':
Carpenter, Scavenger, landscaper, Mason, Stone Mason, Paver, Blacksmith, Painter, Roofer
More would be added in the near future, obviously; he mostly implemented the most important ones for now.
Aiden knew that the castle and its houses wouldn't be enough to accommodate more than 3000 people, and since he had been informed by the god that more people from another region would be going to join them, he had to prepare to create more habitations. Over 1478 surprisingly volunteered. Aiden was struck by surprise by the number of people who were willing to do those jobs. He had feared that many would find excuses to not do anything, but it seemed like he underestimated their maturity and mental.
With more than half of the people having already been registered as official members of his faction, it would take much less time to assign jobs and other ranks to others. Talking about the faction, Aiden also needed to choose a name for it. After looking at how all of the people were given ranks in the ''Unnamed Faction,'' he thought that it was a very important thing that must be done rather quickly.
He, with the 3 other sub-leaders, pondered heavily on the matter. They all came up with various names, all linked to hope, like :
Hopesworn
Dawnwardens
Aegis of Hope
Hopebringers
Among the 4, Aegis of Hope had the most upvotes among the people, but Aiden wasn't satisfied; he wanted something more domineering, something more celestial. That's when he thought back to the situation they were in; people needed hope because they feared their situation would be their doom. Aiden, on his side, feared chaos and disorder but brought hope and planned on bringing stability and progress. And then something came up—a word.
Pandemonium.
This word refers to wild and immense disorder or chaos. It conveys a sense of tumult and confusion, which is often associated with a lack of control. The current world's situation would be in a huge state of ''Pandemonium'' if Aiden and all the other leaders of other regions couldn't control the situation and adapt to the changes of this world.
So Aiden would bring hope, progress, stability, and protection to his new empire's population. He would form a heavenly order to soothe the chaos and take control of it. And to achieve greatness and become the most powerful man in the world, he would do anything.
Thus Aiden would become the god of the newly named faction: [Heavenly Pandemonium].
Aiden's reign would be akin to that of a god wielding control over the world's chaos, exerting dominion over mortals like a celestial divinity. He should at least do this much and become such a figure if he wanted to fight for the right to Ascension.
Aiden had now a clear goal in mind: to become the strongest and achieve Ascension, to fulfill his life's desires, and to correct his mistakes.
But that was far, far away from now. Hence he stopped his needless thought and went back to granting ranks to those who still hadn't been granted ones.
He asked for the people to raise their hands again, for those who wanted to work as:
Alchemist (Researchers mostly working on discovering this new world's herbs, materials, medicines, and overall functions and principles to create new things related to the former doctors and researchers' works.) Alchemists were special since it was a job that had sub-jobs; it was too important of a role to disregard it. Aiden knew that one person couldn't do everything that was mentioned before; hence, he created sub-branches for the alchemist profession.
Engineers (They are those who would do research about new technology and about the few technological things that still work. God told them that some things related to technology still worked and existed, such as lighting and air conditioning. Those engineers would be in charge of building everything that's related to technology and electricity.
Factory managers, simple employees, and helpers—those with those jobs have almost the same purpose as what they would have had to do in their former world. Different factories and enterprises will be created in the future to ensure the good management of the faction's resources. That's the main job of factory managers and employees. For helpers, their job resides in taking utmost care of new people joining the faction, their rank allowance, giving them a place to live in, helping them cope with the faction's rules and what to do and how, and explaining to them basically everything.
For those 5 jobs, over 423 people raised their hands, once again making Aiden glad that all the people who followed him were good. Although more would have been better knowing how important some of those works were.
Now after that, there were jobs such as:
Diplomats: (Those people will take care of the relationships and well-being of the people of Aiden's faction, as well as manage the relations with other factions and leaders.
Councilors (similar job to diplomats but only the most qualified members of the faction can become council members, those who are very mature, quickwitted, clever, and have great strategical skills. (They discuss in secret very important subjects and matters.)
Cleaners (those who clean houses and the streets and take care of the general cleanliness of the whole kingdom.)
Guards (those who will be assigned posts to guard, like the main entrance, 'the portcullis and pont levis' for example, but also the towers, rampart, and all the other side entrances, and main points and buildings of the castle.
Martial artists (those who all have a battle power of over 40) will be tasked with training almost every day, or every day, to prepare for the well of ascension ceremonies. Their importance lies in forming the core strength of Aiden's faction; having soldiers was obviously extremely important during the medieval age, and even more now.
Strong Martial Artists had some privilege and could climb up the ranks. Martial Artist is the only rank that is mandatory in a way that you can have other jobs and climb the ranks in order to have a better position in the hierarchy of the faction.
For example, take this guy:
Eugene Brend, who has over 43 points in battle power, asked to become a martial artist so he could be useful to the leader and fight against enemies and defend the population, but he is also ambitious and plans on becoming stronger and stronger so he can become a captain, 'A higher rank martial artist' to train others.
But a martial artist can also become a diplomat or even a council member. It's important to note that to become a guard, you must also become a martial artist before.
Over 700 people raised their hands in excitement; these 700 men and women had apparently been waiting for this moment as if they all already knew what they wanted.
Now there will be a lot of less important jobs that would need to be created later, even though some jobs were forgotten. But Aiden and his peers were all teens and very young adults; all of them had already done a great job despite their terrible disadvantage.
There were fewer than one hundred people without jobs or a proper rank, aside from the 'Member'' rank. Amongst them were either lazy bums or those who didn't know what to do, as well as those who were afraid and couldn't make a decision yet. All of them would be taken care of by those who had the appropriate professions.
After all of this, Aiden and the other 10 High-Ranking members went to the main hall of the castle, while the other people outside were managing things on their own. Aiden declared the need to create more ranks, specifically for the martial artists, in order to have a good hierarchy, even among them, which everyone agreed to.
Aiden also told them about his thoughts on what the god meant by ''The former requirement to be considered as a strong or peak-tier human may be raised to higher standards.''
He told them that since bathing in the Well of Ascension would result in everyone having his strength greatly increased, even the weaker people, who had trained a little with a strength of 25 points, would probably reach over 40 after bathing in the Well of Ascension. So if a Mid-Tier Human with a Battle Power of 38 bathed in it, he would surely rise to the next Tier, as the god said, and would probably reach over 60 in Battle Power. But since people were supposed to be training, they would become stronger before bathing in the well. That's where Aiden explained things thoroughly.
''Now hear me out clearly if a man today has a strength score of, like, 35. During the three months, he trains in boxing, spars with his friends to gain battle experience and grow muscles, and reaches a score of 46 after those three months. Wouldn't he be able to get over 70 or more after bathing in the Well of Ascension?''
''We should analyze God's word carefully. He said something about people having drastic changes in their strength before each Well of Ascension ceremony, that they would get greater gains. Hence If I were to have a battle score of 10 today and train like a madman to finally reach over 40 three months later, wouldn't my battle score after bathing in the Well of Ascension almost triple too? or at least reach above 80 or 90?''
''In comparison, someone who was far stronger than me and had a battle score of 40 but trained little and got up to only 43 would merely rise to 60 or a bit more after the ceremony. Do you get my point?'' Finished Aiden.
''Oh, so that's why you wanted to have such high standards for martial artists right away, you truly are a visionary; you see ahead of time and foresee the future.'' Exclaimed Clark.
''Your damn right, I'm genuinely impressed by your foresight, leader Aiden.'' Said one of the councilors just before all the others began clapping, praising Aiden's cleverness.
''Well, don't applaud me so early; as I said, it is but a mere possibility. But I still think your growth before each ceremony has an impact on how much more your strength can improve compared to others who didn't have as good progress and achievement."
''And yet I trust that possibility; there's no need to be humble, Aiden; even if you've made a mistake, it won't have any negative impact on us and our people; we'll just have to reassign the values for the requirement of a martial artist.'' Said the councilor.
''And let me correct myself; it's not I, but we who trust that possibility.'' Continued the 19-year-old councilor.
''Blake is right; what you've said is entirely true, and I don't think our God would say useless stuff; every word must matter.'' Said Kal, harboring a smile as bright as the sun.
''Exactly!'' x2 Cheerfully agreed Jammes and the strongest man in the room simultaneously.
''Well, then I guess we are set on with the values requirement for each rank pertaining to Martial Artist.''
Everyone nodded, so Aiden requested someone to bring paper and ink to write the official requirements and hook it on a board. Kal immediately solicited lumberjacks and builders to gather wood and craft a giant board.
''Let's not use paper; it would be ugly; instead, we should just make a giant board and directly carve the declaration on it.'' Hastily interrupted Kal.
''You're right, that will be better, but how are we going to make the words and sentences visible enough? Because that ''Declaration'' is going to have a lot of sentences. And on a board, I fear that not only will it be hard to read, but also that it will be too tiny to write everything.'' Interjected Aiden.
''Hoho, fear not, Aiden, I'll surprise you!'' Answered Kal.
''Alright... I'll trust you, my friend.'' Said Aiden, half laughing and half worried.
The discussion was not over yet, so they went on with discussing other, less important matters, and after 3 hours, they were done.
''Alright, this was a successful first meeting, I must say,'' said Blake, who cheered everyone up.
''Aiden, you can rest for now. You'll have plenty of time to prepare for the next meeting or speech you plan on giving. Please let us take it here from now on.'' Said Clark.
And when Aiden looked at all the others, he saw that all of them were in agreement with Clark's comment. They all knew that it had been the hardest for Aiden, and he truly needed rest in their eyes. But in their eyes only.
''Thank you, I guess. I'll train in the meantime that I'm not needed and prepare myself for the next time I am.''
''You plan on training?'' seemed to say everyone's eyes.
''Don't push yourself too hard though; it's fine even if you're not the strongest in your faction, that's not what's needed from a leader anyway.'' Said Blake.
''Yeah, you shouldn't fear being made fun of for being weaker than some of your followers; your role is much more important than strength after all. And if anyone even dares to criticize you, I'll beat him up for you!'' Said Xavier, the current strongest man in Aiden's faction. Xavier had a battle power of 61.
''Alright, alright, I won't do anything stupid, such as injuring myself, so you can be reassured; don't worry.'' Assured Aiden while walking away from everyone. He waved his hand to say goodbye and went to the training grounds of the castle.
Aiden's heart was racing; he was so excited about what he was about to do. His current battle score was 27. He didn't think he would be this strong for someone with such a weak physical body. He planned on using the training ground features to improve his strength to the maximum in the span of 3 months. He wanted to at least double his strength. Yes, this was no easy task, but with how the overall strength of an individual was calculated, he knew it was possible with those 'features'.
Aiden reached the training ground, filled with energy. Entering the building, he stared at a weird wooden dummy.
'Yes, that was it. The first supernatural add-on that I can use to my advantage.'
He pressed the red button that was on the dummy's cheek, and a pop-up screen told him that it had entered battle mode, ready for training.
Level-1 'Training dummy' - [Activated]