The next morning, Barns has a visitor.
"Yunie!" he exclaims. Standing before him is the girl who claims to be a Moderator, who he left in charge of the beach village.
"Master Barnacles, it is good to see you. Things go well at our small village," Yunie smiles. "I came here on other business. Do you remember what I said about Daily Quests?"
Barns scratches his head. "Maybe?"
Yunie chuckles and opens up her system menu. She clicks around a few times, and then turns the screen toward Barns.
"Daily Quest…resurrect 50 humans?"
Yunie blinks slowly. "I think you can see what the issue there is. What's more - I have dozens of quests."
She flips through a menu. Gather 50 Oranges. Light the beach bonfire. All sorts of tasks.
"Before the apocalypse, I was under the impression that I must complete all of my quests, or society would begin to fall apart."
Barns looks up. "But this is too much for you to do alone."
"Exactly. Which is why I'm here. Barns, I'd like to start an 'Adventurer's Guild'. A place I can post these quests, and recruit people to complete them on my behalf. I could share the quest rewards with whoever completes them."
"Rewards?" Barns has a sparkle in his eye - he always did like treasure.
"Rare armor, weapons, and items," Yunie confirms. "Every quest is offering something we lack."
"This is great," Barns says excitedly. "Because it aligns with something else I need to do…we should discuss this with the mayor."
Barns leads Yunie into the town square, where they quickly locate the mayor as he's overseeing reconstruction efforts in the town.
"Quinn, just the guy I need to see," Barns says, straightening his belt and standing confidently. "I'm in need of some mercenary action, and Yunie here has something that might make it all work."
Barns and Yunie begin detailing their vision - A job board where they post Daily Quests for adventurers to compete, and a place for Barns to recruit those with a bit of experience to fight for him.
Quinn is more of a symbolic leader than an actual one, so he's quick to agree with Barns. Then, they officially announce and open the 'Adventurers Guild'. They manage to get all of their quests picked up by eager citizens ready to contribute. All but the one Barns is taking.
"Resurrect fifty humans. I can do it, no problem. We need to boost our numbers, anyway. The enemy has 3,000 monsters at his disposal."
Yunie bows graciously. "I would like to provide you with a map. It pre-dates the apocalypse, but it shows where all of the existing settlements were in Dimartino. Those are likely to be monster camps."
Barns gratefully accepts the map. Now he'll have an idea of how to navigate Dimartino.
"How many people can this town handle right now, Quinn?" Barns wonders. He'd resurrect all he could, but he didn't want to overwhelm the town. Worst case scenario, he can help people form smaller communities like the beachside village.
Quinn beams. "As many as possible! Truly, we could grow to four thousand and still have room, especially if we expand outward!"
Yunie makes a suggestion. "We should prioritize settling the land between here and the beachside village. A consistent line of property will make it so monsters cannot separate us or attack those who are traveling."
Barns taps his fist to his palm. "That's a great idea, Yunie!"
The trio wraps up their conversation, each one splitting off to their respective jobs. Quinn will continue overseeing reconstruction, and will provide orientation for any new souls that Barns revives. Yunie will take over the running of the Adventurer's Guild from an abandoned corporate building near town square.
"We'll need to form some sort of economy as well," Yunie realizes. "We can't just give out gold and rare items without any sort of trade system established. Thankfully I have the perfect idea…"
Yunie points out a location on the map. It's not too far from here - a village of artisans and merchants. Yunie assumes that many of the monsters camping out in the village ruins will be those very same artisans once they're resurrected.
Barns finds Clancy after the conversation. The crab is loitering behind the hotel, looking dejected.
"NO TRUST. NO LOVE."
Barns pats Clancy on the shell. The two didn't need a lot of context or words to communicate. Barns knew what was bothering Clancy just by the look in his beady eyes - he was sad that prostitutes tried to boil him alive the day before. Now, he couldn't trust any prostitutes at all.
"I know what will cheer you up, King. Let's go on an adventure and save some more of the world!"
Clancy clacks his claws together and does a sideways dance, shaking his crab hips to an unheard beat.
The two set out toward the artisan village - it takes them only a couple hours to arrive. Clancy is quick on his feet and Barns has great stamina from all his training growing up with a crab.
Barns readies his Shock Hammer as they approach the village. A two-handed hammer wasn't his preferred weapon, but this one was too good to give up.
The village of artisans seems to be occupied by one specific type of monster - scaly, diminutive lizard people with long dextrous hands. They have long snouts like a tyrannosaurus and walk with a hunch.
"KOBOLD MONSTER. MOST TASTY I'VE TRIED."
Barns furrows his brow. "We're not here to eat them, King."
"MAYBE JUST ONE?"
Barns thinks through his plan of attack. Just like in Dimartino's main town, the monsters are wholly unprepared for his arrival. Seems news of the 'legendary hero' hasn't reached everywhere.
The kobolds are only about half as tall as Barns, but there were a lot of them. The Shock Hammer would come in handy here for sure.
Barns signals to Clancy. They'll do a pincer attack on the main horde simultaneously. Barns will go in first with the hammer, shocking and demolishing any who get close. The other kobolds will likely run - right into Clancy, hiding in wait with a copious amount of foam.
"I LOVE PINCER ATTACK."
The two temporarily split, getting into position. Barns clutches his hammer and takes a deep breath.
As soon as he starts to charge, he realizes that the kobolds are more clever than he gave them credit for.