Chapter 360 (1/2)

Donny swirled the wine in his cup, staring out the window into the darkness, looking extremely thoughtful. He was in his full armor, a carefully shaped bone creation, with golden accents, giving him the look of a powerful and honorable knight. His helmet and shield were on the table, but still, with the armor, he felt that he looked profoundly capable.

Daniel snorted, slamming his papers down on the desk in front of him. “You look like a constipated idiot, you know that right?”

“I look refined and thoughtful, like the leader of the free world.” Donny said, never even flinching at Daniel’s tirade or the noise. Instead, his gaze focused studiously on the darkness outside of his window. His Stats were just high enough to pierce the veil of darkness that would have prevented most people from seeing, and he could watch the small movements of people who worked through the night.

One big plus of the System was the increased productivity. This varied, based upon Endurance and Vitality, but for the strongest of them, sleep was only a rarely indulged treat. Still, Mrs. Hamilton had wondered on the long term psychological effect of this, so a lot of people continued to sleep, if only for the reset factor. It still did wonders with shifting your mood, if you were stuck somewhere you didn’t want to be.

“He might not come tonight.” Daniel said, sighing and returning to his paperwork.

Donny nodded slowly. “...Yea, he probably won’t.”

“Then why are you doing this? We should just do some real work, not this… theatrical farce.” Daniel said sourly.

Shrugging, Donny turned back to the desk and looked at the papers there. Although they hadn’t quite worked up the nerve to get a computer back online and working, with access to printers, they had gathered the parts, and were discussing the scope they wanted to adopt. For now, most reports were handwritten by some of Mrs. Hamilton’s NCCs. Thank god for the Handwriting Proficiency Skill, that had through repetition turned scrawls into elaborate calligraphy. Looking at one particularly flourish filled example, Donny grimaced.

If anything, they were getting too good at their job… And the best of them had even earned the Class Elegant Calligrapher. She retired from menial work and now was hired for party invitations, signs, and the like. The way the System moved was… certainly interesting, and they had yet to see the end of it.

That was most of what was laying on Donny’s desk. Questions, which had long ago been posed as theoreticals by Mrs. Hamilton and Regina Northwind, were now arriving as practicals, demanding his attention. The most pressing, of course, was whether the Village of Donnyton should adopt a currency, whether it be the coins gotten from the System shops, or a merit system, for access to their resources.

Originally, Donnyton was small enough and food and labor were so freely given that this hadn’t been a problem. But as people specialized, they wanted to be able to extract more for their services, and needed a way to be rewarded. At the same time, those with better clout in the town wanted more of the finer things. Certain areas of town were swiftly becoming split by power, or Level, and it would only accelerate, now that they had achieved some measure of peace.

Annie was the first, and her daughter had already been born, but the wake of the System had apparently been an aphrodisiac for people, for there were 20 more women already who reported being 3 months or more along in their pregnancy. Regina said this was the lizard brain kicking in, pushing people faced with adversity towards procreation, so the species could continue.

Donny’s hand gripped tightly. Even his own girlfriend was late on her period. He… he might end up being a father, before the year was out. Which was exhilarating, and also scary.

Which is all to say that society was snapping back, and Mrs. Hamilton was adamant they have systems in place before that happens. Which brought Donny’s focus back to the currency issue.

Using System money was an easy solution, but they didn’t control access to the supply, so there could be inflation spikes. It could also be used as a weapon, however, against Villages less advanced than them, but no one wanted to think of that as a benefit.

The merit point system came from Clarissa, and was also a possibility, but there was a much larger issue of setting up an administration for that to run. Mrs. Hamilton seemed to think she was capable of handling it, but Donny wasn’t so sure. Besides, now that they had found the mine, they might have access to materials that would allow them to mint their own currency, which was the ideal solution.

Mrs. Hamilton had been carefully cultivating “Buds” as they were called, and hoped these would help with making Donnyton’s currency. These Buds were individuals who stayed as NCCs, but received evenly general training, ready for a specific need to arise in Donnyton. Then, they would be sent somewhere and specialize, eventually returning to Donnyton and obtaining a Class that was in their new area of expertise.

Already, three Buds had been committed to learning Cartography, Geology, and Mining in preparation for the excavation that would happen of their new treasure trove.