TAKE ON ME [Survival LITRPG Apocalypse]

The office was cramped with bodies: the Damascus family; the rest of the Robinsons; Richard, who was griping that—once again—he didn't get an important-person chair; a teary-eyed Bridget; Steve the lead [Quarrier]; Carlos the lead [Miner]; Charlie the lead [Blacksmith]; Helen, who was now lead [Tailor]; and Ben the [Carpenter], who was now head of construction. Walter was the new head [Lumberjack], instead of Sam.

It was already thirty minutes in, and Bo stood at the head of the table rubbing his temples and trying to ward off a headache. "Thank God this office is time-dilated," he muttered.

Finally, after several more rounds of circular and sometimes heated debate, they decided the [Blacksmith] should be first priority.

"I don't think we should settle for any [Crappy] buildings anymore," Chloe said. "We need to tech up. It's crucial at this point, with these waves headed our way. We should use some of the upgrade tokens on the [Crappy Blacksmith] blueprints."

Chloe had been quiet through most of the meeting; either she was recovering from her mental battle with Blake, or she was finally fighting her own shyness. However, when she spoke, it was usually worth listening to.

"You're right," Bo said. "We haven't used any of the tokens yet, and to not use them would be a waste. Everyone agree?"

There were nods all around.

Bo set the [Crappy Blacksmith] blueprint on the table. It looked like it had been drawn by a child: it was all crude lines and basic shapes. Then he placed ten Upgrade Coins beside it.

A prompt appeared in Bo's vision, and his frustration bubbled hot.

"Fuck. An [Architect] is required to upgrade the blueprints. Everything is a fucking ordeal."

Bo glanced at Helen, and mumbled a 'pardon my French'.

"No pardon needed," said Helen. "Bureaucracy was always a pain in my ass."

Bo stared at her.

"I'll handle it." Bridget was already moving; she grabbed one of her slate boards and popped out of the office.

The time dilation made her absence last forever. Bo's mind raced through plans and resources while they waited; it was good that he had Ben trapped in the office with him.

When she finally returned, she brought a young East Asian woman with her. She was short and slender, with long dark hair and an eager smile.

"This is Madison," Bridget announced. "She was actually in school to be an architect before all this, and Caretaker Job was happy to give her the profession."

Madison picked up the blueprint and Coins. Her brown eyes took on the distant look Bo recognized from when people were interfacing with the system.

"This will upgrade the blueprint from a [Crappy Blacksmith] to a [Basic Blacksmith]," Madison said, awe mixed in with her words. "This will allow for the creation of [Basic] level weapons and items. You also get to choose a magical boon for the [Blacksmith], which will be ingrained into the blueprint."

She rattled off three options: XS.10 faster production; XS.10 fewer materials required; or XS.01 chance for a higher-tier item to be produced.

The discussion dragged on.

"Guys, we don't have time for this," Bo finally snapped. "We go with faster production. We have a short window to work with, and we need to produce as many weapons and pieces of armor as possible."

The Coins took on a soft blue glow. They floated from Madison's hands, and melted into the blueprint with a small plopping sound. The crude drawing winked out of existence, replaced by a larger and more detailed blueprint that glowed slightly brighter than the previous [Crappy] version.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Madison handed Bo the new blueprint: [Basic Blacksmith of Swift Crafting].

Bo suppressed the urge to dance with glee: until he looked at the requirements. "Jesus Christ, we need to upgrade the [Lumbermill] too. [Basic] quality boards are needed to build it. And half the tools for construction need to be upgraded as well."

It was like watching dominoes fall. Each upgrade required ten other upgrades in other areas. Bronze weapons needed Bronze, which needed an upgraded [Basic Smelters Hut] to work with Copper and Tin, and where would they get Tin? Carlos said his [Mining for Dummies] book indicated that a Mine could be upgraded, giving them a likely chance of finding Tin veins. But—like everything else—upgrading the Mine required more tokens for upgraded picks and shovels.

Bo scribbled both chalk and mental notes of the cascading requirements.

Bridget sent runners in all directions, her twenty new admins suddenly a godsend.

The stockpile of materials they had been accumulating: Iron bars from monster drops, Spider Silk from the Spider Dungeon and surrounding areas; wild Ozark Cotton picked by the [Gatherers]; Boldheart Cedar beams . . . all would be consumed in this massive undertaking.

Bo kept ducking out of the office to unlock areas for new buildings. Each time he returned, the group had reached a sticking point in discussions while they waited for him.

"We need another [City Planner]," Carlos said.

Bo hated the idea. However, he hated to be a bottleneck even more. He reluctantly agreed . . . he could still Micromanage the new Planner.

Bridget sent another runner to find someone for the role. When he arrived, Brads grin stretched across his entire face.

"Hey, now we can hang out at work together!" Brad said, slapping Bo on the back.

Bo quickly checked his groan and shook Brad's hand. Even if he was . . . well, Brad, he was a good guy, and Foundation was lucky to have him. Word on the street was that everyone loved Brad.

Bo would never say it out loud, but Brad had grown on him.

Bridget set down two rough maps. She explained that some settlers had taken professions they hadn't immediately needed, but which were proving valuable now. The [Paper Makers] were one example. The material wasn't really what Bo would call 'paper': more like thinly shaved boards. However, he wasn't complaining.

"We also have a family who all picked various professions related to treasure hunting," Bridget said, "so now we have a [Cartographer]."

The maps were crude, but they showed Foundation, the Town Hall, and the Shacks. The distances and proportions looked correct.

Fucking A.

Tess asked for copies, and the planning continued. They chose more areas for buildings, and worked through priorities and construction schedules. Kate mentioned the farming bottleneck, and Bo said he'd open up more farm land when they figured out the seed problem. They discussed housing for the refugees; they would keep the current [Crappy Shacks] for the incoming refugees, and they would begin building [Basic] upgraded versions for the original Raintree settlers.

Hours passed. Bo's back ached from the uncomfortable chairs, and his head was spinning with blueprints and requirements and construction timelines.

Charlie was given ownership of the land for the first [Blacksmith]. Other profession leaders were brought in and made aware of the plans. Helen would get a [Basic Tailor's Workshop], also of Swift Crafting, and she would focus on both [Basic Combat Robes] and [Basic Traditional Spellcaster Robes]. Bo thought he caught Tess say something about a 'special project' to Helen, but he didn't have time to ask.

Other crafting leaders would also be taking the first steps toward starting their own companies and hiring their own crews. There was a lot to get done and a lot of items to be made; teams of crafters working in time-dilated areas would go a long way to making that happen.

Raintree was racking up a massive loan against Chloe's Copper hoard.

After an almost eight-hour meeting—though thankfully just one real world hour—everyone was mentally drained.

They finally concluded the last of the planning session with the planned construction of [Crappy Wooden Palisade walls].

As the crafters and builders prepared to leave, Chloe spoke up.

"We should build the Stage."

"The Stage requires Travertine stone," Bo said. "That's somewhere on your Dad's land. We'd need a special expedition, tools, and protection. I don't see how we have time, or if the Stage would even be worth the trouble."

"What Stage?" Helen asked

"It's the highest-level item we have," Chloe said. "It's [Standard] level, which is one above even [Basic]. We got it from Caretaker Epic when we killed the Headless Boss. If we compare it to the other items, it should give an XS.50 or more boost to Bardic magic. That's huge, especially if we get more than one [Bard] on the Stage at a time." Chloe looked around the room. "Can't we find people who want an exception to combat, who will go out to gather enough Travertine just for the Stage?"

"I doubt we can even build the damn thing," Bo said. He shuffled through his backpack of blueprints. "All these new [Basic] upgrades are requiring [Basic] components and [Basic] tools to create them. We don't have any other recipes for [Standard] stuff, and no [Standard] upgrade tokens."

Bo pulled out the blueprint for the Stage. He was shocked to see the [Standard Stage] could be built with [Basic] components.

"What the hell? How does that work?" Bo held out the [Standard Stage] blueprint.

Chloe leaned down and pulled a few more blueprints from the bag. "Oh . . . ."

"What?" Bo said.

"This is going to get real complicated. It looks like the recipes we're upgrading with the tokens require higher caliber components versus the [Basic] recipes we loot from the Dungeons." Chloe held up the newly upgraded [Basic Blacksmith of Swift Crafting]. "It must be because our upgraded recipes come with magical modifiers. The [Standard Stage] is still just a Stage. I assume if we had created a [Standard Stage] through upgrade tokens it would be a [Standard Stage of 'Better Singing'] or something like that, and to build it would require all [Standard] components. Since it's just a normal Stage, we can build it with lower-level components."

No one said anything.

"If . . . that makes sense," said Chloe.

It was getting complicated, but within the complexity Bo was connecting dots on the best ways to utilize the upgrade tokens versus using the regular [Basic] recipes they had.

"It would be stupid not to utilize it," Tess added. "I know you don't see the value in the [Bards] Dad, but it's powerful. Your spells have always been great in clutch situations."

Bo's resistance crumbled under the combined weight of Chloe and Tess's logic. Now he would have to plan a special mining expedition to Tom's land. More complexity. More resources. More things that could go wrong.

But they were right. They needed every advantage they could get.

"Fine. We'll get the Travertine."