What Comes Next

After spending a bit more time with Ally, Richard, and Robin, Grant finally worked up the courage to go out to the main area of the dungeon and check on everything.

Thankfully, it appeared as if everyone was too concerned with the fact that the dungeon was seemingly changing beneath their feat to even take a moment to ruin the hygiene of the area.

Knowing that he couldn't let the changes go without an explanation, Grant decided to hold an impromptu meeting with Jerrod, Scott, and the rest of the leaders to explain what was happening so that they could make sure that no one was too scared by the changes.

Since the only place that had any semblance of privacy was the area where Ally and the kids were staying, Grant invited the leaders back to the room and sat them down at the table that Skit had originally installed in the area.

Grant proceeded to explain in detail how the dungeon worked and what the changes meant.

Everyone was extremely surprised by the fact that Grant could seemingly control the entire environment of the dungeon as long as he had the mana to enable the changes.

After explaining how the dungeon worked, Grant went on to explain how the animals and plants would eventually be able to live within the dungeon itself and that he would need people who could handle the day to day care that they would need.

Surprisingly, Toby was an agriculture major when he was at University, so he volunteered to take charge of all the food related jobs and recruit people to join his new "department".

That was when everyone realized one glaring issue; they didn't have enough people.

That was a both a good and bad problem to have. Good because it meant that they could save more people and bring them to the dungeon. Bad because it meant that they had that many more mouths to feed.

Until they were able to grow their own food and breed their own animals, they would have to find solutions.

Grant explained that monster meat, for the most part, was edible but that still meant that they would have to go out and hunt monsters.

Which lead to the other glaring problem that they had. The overall strength of the survivors was depressingly weak.

They decided that they would need to implement a reward structure of sorts to incentivize people to join the groups that went out and trained.

Whether that meant more food for them and their families, better housing conditions once the houses were built, or some other incentive, they would decide at a later date.

For now, Grant told the leaders that they would have to make due with the group of volunteers and that as they found more survivors and food, they would increase the size of the fighting group to better compensate for their lack of strength.

After much deliberation, they decided to purchase a large quantity of different seeds once the dungeon floor was done changing, so that Toby could begin growing them immediately.

Animals would have to wait until they had the ability to feed and care for them as they required. An area for raising them could easily be remedied by remodeling a part of the existing dungeon or creating a whole new area so they didn't have to concern themselves with that.

The other issue that they moved to the top of the list was, building materials. In less than 24 hours they would have a comfortable living condition as far as soil went but they still lacked the stuff they needed to actually build a new living space.

Which once again, led them back to the lack of manpower.

Realizing that everything seemed to boil down to a lack of people, as much as Grant wanted to avoid it, he decided that priorities 1, 2, and 3 needed to be to go out and search for survivors. While he was searching, he would leave behind Richard and Robin to train the new recruits close to the dungeon entrance.

The two of them would also bring with them a group of people who were there to solely scavenge for building materials and anything else useful.

Scott, Carly and Toby would accompany Richard and Robin on their excursion since their strength would not be needed in the dungeon due to its relative safety as well as the fact that they could protect the normal people from danger while also gaining a few levels of experience for themselves.

Jerrod would remain behind in the dungeon and begin to draft a plan for the layout and design of the building. Since Jerrod was a professor for civil engineer degree's he was the perfect person to handle those responsibilities.

Grant had high hopes for the days to come. As long as everything came together smoothly, then they would make great progress in creating the first real community in the apocalypse.

With all of the finer details hashed out, everyone went about executing their responsibilities.

Before Richard and Robin left to meet the people they would be training, Grant pulled them to the side to ask them a few questions first.

"Do you two remember seeing or hearing any news about other survivor camps around this area? Since Phoenix is so densely populated and covers north of 500 square miles, I find it extremely hard to believe that Tempe was the only temporary settlement in the area."

Richard and Robin both paused to think on the question before ultimately Richard was the one to respond.

"I can't say for sure they have a settlement or not, but we met some people north of here in Chandler who said that they had heard of people going to Chandler Regional Medical Center for shelter. We ended up guiding them back to the Tempe settlement so we never had a chance to investigate since we ran into you once we got back and of course, you know what happened after that."

"I see... I know where it is. I worked there when they were building the new tower... I find it hard to believe it would survive the storm but it's the best lead I have so guess I got no choice.

Thank you for the information.

Oh, and for your safety, I will ask Skit to go with you. Their are things going on in this city and I don't want you two to get caught up in it just yet.

By the way, how close are you two to being level 25?"

"I'm 24!"

Robin immediately shouted after hearing Grant's question, looking completely smug as she did.

"I am 24 as well."

Grant just patted both of them on the shoulder, "Good. You two need to get to 25 and step onto your Paths as soon as possible. We don't have any time to delay.

I know you two remember what I told you about your Path and the best to choose, but ultimately it is up to you. So make a good choice and don't let me down!

One more thing before I let you go. Please take your Mom with you when you leave today. For her safety she needs to start leveling. I will give you my old armor and weapon before I leave, so that you can pass it to her. She should be safe if she uses them, but watch her nonetheless."

Both Richard and Robin looked like they wanted to object, but since Grant was going to give her his old track suit and Wet Noodle, she should be relatively safe as long as they didn't run into anything too serious, so they could only relent in the end and agree to take her with them.

"I am counting on you two to make her go with you. Remember what it was like for you two at the beginning? You didn't want to do it either. And now you two are the ones I rely on the most. If your mother becomes strong, that is one more person we can trust."

Grant could have been the one to talk to Ally personally, but since things had been slightly awkward with them lately, he left it to her kids instead and he.. ran away!

As he passed through the camp, Grant made sure to tell Jerrod that his number one priority, build a bathroom that wouldn't destroy the cleanliness of his brand new dungeon.

He had to keep that new dungeon smell as long as he could.

After telling Skit to keep the kids and the weaker people safe, he immediately grabbed his rucksack and headed for the dungeon entrance to look for more survivors.

He really wanted to bring Skit along with him so that he could make use of his portal skill, but if they managed to attract attention like last time, they may not escape unnoticed again so he reluctantly left him behind.

When he stepped out into the open air of the park, Grant was immediately greeted by the sight of a giant ass tree looming over him. The worst part was, the tree seemed to be smiling at him.

"Mmmm... found you... too weak though... how did you... cast such... a strong skill?"

"Well fuck..."