The occupants of the manor's breakfast table were quite lively as they shared a glorious feast of food rations. The items that came in the food crates were simple, but when combined they proved quite tasty.

"Powdered eggs aren't really my thing, but this is great to me!" exclaimed Cia before slapping some of her eggs onto a homemade biscuit. Several people grinned at her before enjoying their own meal. The strange sense of normalcy currently existent in the room, was countered only by the rising excitement. Things were happening, big things.

The jubilant atmosphere began to die down the moment that Frank saw Scott and called out his name. All eyes turned to the new arrival, and noted the seriousness of his express and the fact that Rachel, Harley, and Rosa were with him. Rosa and Harley were normal companions for him, but Rachel was different. Moreover, she and Harley were on tower duty at the moment.

"You're glowing..." said Gretchen slowly, her eyes widening a little.

"Yeah, I do that now," admitted Scott candidly. "Sorry to disturb your breakfast, but I figured everyone needed to know that a few things have changed since yesterday."

He gestured to Harley and Rachel. "Brought them in for this too, so we need to keep it brief."

"What's going on?" asked Frank as he rose from his seat at the table. "Something coming?"

"Yeah, something good," said Scott before offering a warm smile. "Though, it might be hard to believe."

"Good?" asked Harold. He leaned forward and asked, "How so?"

Scott rubbed the bridge of his nose briefly then said, "Supposedly, we will be able to resurrect the dead in a limited way sooner than I thought."

A brief silence shrouded the room, before a flurry of questions pierced the air and assaulted Scott from all sides. He answered those questions as best he could, and soon what he knew about the situation was known to all.

"I can't believe it," said Harold, his eyes watering slightly at the possibility. "It's not a lie?"

"I needed to secure Rosa's blessing to use a building. It's upgrading out back right now," said Scott.

"Can we go see?" asked Cia excitedly. Several more voices joined excitedly with hers.

He looked to each of the others slowly then nodded. "It'll take about an hour for the upgrade, so you won't see much."

All thoughts about breakfast evaporated from their minds as they followed Scott through the house and out the back door. Soon they reached the site of the soon-to-be recruitment center. There was not much to see, as he'd claimed, but the sounds of people working inside the covered area were obvious.

"Hey, who's in there?" asked Hana.

"No idea. That just started happening the moment I paid for the upgrade," said Scott. "Pretty expensive, but it should be worth it."

Frank walked toward the tarp with the intention of walking inside, but he came upon the invisible barrier. He patted the unseen barrier then nodded. "How much did it cost?" he asked.

"Twenty thousand," said Scott without hesitation. Those funds were faction finances as far as he was concerned.

Cia made a choking noise, "That's insane!" She immediately noticed all eyes were on her, so she held up her hands. "It's great, don't get me wrong. But that amount of money is insane."

"Upgrades are going to pretty expensive. Compared to the cathedral this is pocket change," said Scott before looking over to Rosa. "The tradeoff for this one also came with a request, though."

"Request?" asked Frank.

"Yeah. We need to test this system out, and since a lot of changes will need to be made to the manor Rosa and I worked out a deal," said Scott. He looked around at the others then nodded. "Everyone probably has someone they want back, but Rosa requested that we try to bring her father back first."

"How much is it going to cost?" asked Rosa. "If it's too much..."

"No idea. I'll spend the cost to bring your father back if possible, but we'll probably need to figure out something for everyone else," replied Scott.

"What do you mean, 'figure something out'?" asked Cia. "This is a chance to get our families back, right?"

"If it's real," said Hana softly.

"We'll know soon enough if is," said Scott, before he turned and pointed at the soon-to-be recruitment center. "The problem is that there are a lot of people that we'd probably like to bring back, and I doubt it will be cheap. There's also the logistics of feeding and equipping everyone."

"Logistics, huh?" asked Frank with a slight smile.

Scott nodded to him, "We need to build up food and supplies before we do too much expanding, not to mention acquire more housing for everyone. A hundred people can't stay here. As we are now, even twenty would seriously push things."

"Yeah, that's a good point," agreed the former officer. "This place is pretty spacious, but even now it can feel crowded at times."

There's also another issue to consider," said Scott.

He looked to Frank and then to the others. "Remember that anyone you bring back will become part of this faction. I don't think they would be able to leave it on their own as that would no doubt be considered a betrayal."

Harold spoke up, "And they'll die if they betray the faction..."

"Seems that way. It's useful for bringing people back, but it does cause problems when it comes to personal freedom," said Scott.

Before anyone could ask him further questions he went ahead and clarified his words, "Your loved ones won't be able to run off. You would have to abandon them if you decided that this group is garbage and wanted to leave, so be certain that you want to be dedicated to this faction and everyone here before you start trying to help scrape up the daemons to resurrect anyone."

Harold laughed a little at his dire warning, "Where else would we go, and to what group? We're already doing a lot better than I'd hoped for and we haven't even done much, yet!"

Several of the others nodded in agreement, or openly spoke similar words. There was little chance to make a go of things out in the world beyond the manor's gate. Inside that gate, however, was hope for a brighter future.

Rachel moved to stand with her father. She took his hand and smiled a little. Her sister, Gretchen, moved to join them as well.

Seeing that sign of solidarity, Scott became pensive. It was difficult to know what the future held for any of them. There were several moderately intact families remaining in the world, as far as he knew. However, almost none of them could be considered whole.

Scott looked to Rosa, and then to Frank. Both of them lost important members of their family. Neither knew if their loved ones were dead or alive, but they were gone all the same.

Thoughts of Frank, reminded Scott that he needed to determine how he could share his professional experience with the man. As an unlocked faction member close to reaching level ten, he would need enough experience to grow toward at least an elite class.

He mumbled under his breath, "How do I share professional experience?" There was bound to be a simple method to accomplish it.

Questions flew back and forth between those gathered near the slowly upgrading building. Scott could not answer all of them, but there were many that seemed designed to placate the concerns of the questioner since they were just different versions of the same question. The situation was even more fantastic than the apocalypse itself. Bring the dead back to life? It was impossible! Yet, in less than an hour it might actually happen.

"How are we looking Harley? Anything nearby?" asked Scott.

The robo-loli looked up at him curiously for a moment, and then shook her head. "No dangerous life forms within a one mile radius."

Scott reached out and lightly patted her on the head. "Thanks for looking out for us."

Harley's cheeks turned bright red and she looked away from him. "So embarrassing..."

A few giggles from the other girls in the faction caused Harley's cheeks to puff out a little. She turned away from Scott completely and made a huffing noise.

Amused by her antics, the girlish giggles grew louder. Scott smiled softly at the scene. Harley was quite robotic in her child form, not only when she actually looked like a robot but also when she interacted with others. Growing to her current form granted her a much wider array of emotional responses, and most of them were adorable.

Hand still atop her head, Scott thought once more about transferring professional experience. More specifically, he wondered if Harley needed it at all. Just like many happy accidents in his new life, he was surprised by what occurred. A message screen appeared above her head.

[Message]

Would you like to view the status of your sub-ordinate?

[Yes|No]

[--]

'Hell, yes!' thought Scott excitedly. He did not need to speak the words aloud, his acceptance was enough. Harley's brief biographical information arose before him.

[Status Check]

Harley

Doki-Doki Automaton [MK. II]

Level: 1

Classification: Elite

Species: Machine Soul

Faction: Team Badass

Professional Experience: 14.0368%

[--]

Upon viewing her basic information Scott received another message detailing information about professional experience transference. He read through it while the other team members began to look at him strangely.

"Why is he staring off into space like that?" asked Cia.

"Maybe he's thinking about something?" asked Hana.

Scott grinned from ear to ear after a moment. "So, that's how it works!"

"How what works?" asked Rachel.

Scott looked to Rachel and nodded his head. "I just figured out how to transfer my professional experience, and learned how to guarantee elite status."

"Really? How?" asked Frank. The big man walked closer to Scott, eager to hear more.

"I'll show you. You're the closest to reaching level ten, and unlocked, so you need to be a priority since you want to be a priest," said Scott. He grinned at Frank, "Don't think I'm weird but I have to put my hand on your head."

"Don't try anything funny," said Frank with a laugh.

The others crowded around while Scott worked his leadership magic. Hand atop Frank's head, Scott immediately checked his status now that he understood the process.

[Status Check]

Frank Harris

Axe Soldier

Level: 7

Classification: Common [Tier 1]

Species: Human [Unlocked]

Faction: Team Badass

Professional Experience: 146.2443%

[--]

"Not bad, a hundred forty-six professional experience," said Scott. "You'll need a two hundred fifty percent for an elite class, and four hundred for a unique one. Though, the latter has extra requirements like a title and other things."

"Really?" asked Frank. "That seems like an odd way to do things."

"Well, seems like you have to get to one hundred percent to be able to go up to the next tier. Beating a boss at tier one is mandatory, and that automatically gives you one hundred percent professional experience. That unlocks you, but after that you have to earn experience normally," said Scott. He took a breath then continued, "That's only a requirement for first tier, though. Bosses still give a lot of professional experience if they're on the same tier, or higher, but it's not one hundred percent."

"So, getting an elite class is easier at first tier?" asked Harold.

"If you participate in a few boss fights, it's practically guaranteed. Otherwise, the experience growth seems to be extremely slow, and based on using skills used specifically by your profession," said Scott.

Frank nodded a little, without causing Scott's hand to be removed from his head. "So, I need nearly two hundred fifty more professional experience?"

"I can get you to two hundred fifty, but I'm not going to be able to give you any more experience after that because unique status is something you have to earn on your own apparently. Even so, you can at least be guaranteed an elite class," said Scott.

Before Frank could question Scott further, the Lord of Team Badass boldly proclaimed, "In the name of Lord Badass, I bestow upon you Frank Harris a portion of my wisdom."

Electricity arced along Scott's arm and then skittered down atop Frank's head. His eyes widened in surprise as powerful pressure was exerted inside his head, but that pressure abated long before it could become dangerous.

"What was that?" asked Cia, her eyes wide. "Did you taze him?"

Scott laughed a little then shook his head. "No, just transferred some professional experience. I don't have much right now since all of the experience that I'd built up was used during my upgrade. I did fight a night battle with a horde of ghouls, but it takes a lot of skill usage to build experience."

As usual, there were a flurry of questions after his most recent display. Scott did his best to answer them, and then went one step further. He laid out a plan of advancement for everyone.

"Frank is as good as I can help him get, and Harley's on the same tier as I am," said Scott. He pointed to Rosa and then to Harold. "You're both unlocked, so we need to increase your experience as much as possible before you break past level ten."

Rosa and Harold looked to each other, and then nodded. There was a lot to do before they broke into the second tier, even with Scott's help.

Scott called out the names of the other girls, "Out of you four, Cia will have to get a boost first since she wants to be a priest. However, you're all still locked. As long as you don't get involved with taking down a boss you have plenty of time to train with your skills to gain experience."

"Right," said Hana. "I'll do my best."

Scott smiled at her, even as the other girls agreed readily as well. "Great! Glad to hear it."

Harold spoke up, "That professional experience stuff, does it only work for those upgrades you keep talking about?"

"Well, no. Apparently, you can also use it to upgrade or combine skills but I wasn't told how," said Scott. "I figure that'll be useful at some point soon, but getting the best classes, stats, and equipment possible is probably better at the moment. We can work on being epic badasses after we get the basics down."

"Really? That sounds great..." said Cia, thoughtfully.

Scott glanced over to the soon-to-be recruitment center. Suddenly, his stomach rumbled angrily. He patted the might beast a little and said, "It's still going to be a while, I guess. Maybe we should all head back to breakfast."