Let us now consider the Dungeons – the first threat to your civilisation, and paradoxically their primary hope of survival. You must not forget that in one LOP the Galactic system will open, and veteran adventurers from predatory worlds will descend upon your population like #^*(%@:, to harvest them for their Respawns, to farm your population for their own benefit. It is imperative, therefore, that as much of your population as possible focus on levelling up, to create a force that can repel these monsters, or at least ameliorate their coming. The fastest and best way to do this is, once you have control of enough territory to reach one, to assail your dungeons. Not only are they the best source of experience, but the treasures that may be harvested are critical to the recovery of your technology, and the development of your classes. It should be obvious, then, that once you have gathered sufficient survivors together to access a dungeon, you should focus on cycling your people through them, to harvest respawns from the bosses and gain the levelling experience they require. Establishing a Temple nearby is almost a necessity, for a fast turnaround on Respawning. Training up your Destiny magic is also advised, both for the Perks and the utility of the spells.

- What you need to know to survive the Voidbound System, By &*%:・%^%

Jonathon woke feeling immensely comfortable: Every muscle relaxed, easily the best night's sleep of his life. A slow ease to consciousness, until the events of the past few days hit him: Then he sat bolt upright, trying to shake those memories out of his mind. People, children, adults, being torn to shreds by monsters. Skeletal beasts, that with a good night's sleep to clarify events he recognised as some sort of undead, human and inhuman, parodies of mankind's image of such things.

“Good morning, Jonathon.” A melodious voice suddenly spoke to his left, a shimmering neon green shape taking form. “I see you are well rested. I am pleased to report that my heuristics are completed. I will note that a 'staff meeting' has been called by your Hospitality Administrator in one hour, forty-seven minutes. Some of your tenants were kind enough to teach me your temporal measurement system. There are twenty-six days, eighteen hours, and forty-seven minutes until the Immunity period ends, You have eleven-thousand, eight hundred and twelve Fortification points available for upgrades, and seventeen thousand two hundred and ninety six respawns are requesting permission to spawn in this location.”

“What.” Jonathan replied, turning his head to look at Jeeves. “Seventeen thousand people want to respawn here?” he repeated, a touch incredulously.

“Seventeen thousand three hundred and eight at this point in time.” Jeeves confirmed happily. “Do you wish to view these requests for approval?”

“God no.” Jonathon replied. “They are... That's not everyone. We're going to need to discuss this at the meeting – hold off for now, but.. Jesus. I wonder what being dead was like?” shaking his head, he swung out of bed and cast Hygiene, as Jeeves continued to talk.

“Certainly, Jonathon. Do you need anything else?” Jeeves asked.

“Not for now, although I want you present at the meeting – I have questions, but it will be good to discuss them with everyone. Though.. Explain to me: what is this immunity period you're talking about? Yet another surprise?”

“Did you not read the manual provided by the preparation team?” Jeeves chastised. “It is the period during which other players, or dungeon entities, cannot attempt to conquer this fortification. I admit, I'm rather looking forward to contesting myself against our neighbour!”

Jonathon bit back another round of swearing. “...Of course.” he sighed, stretching, and started rooting through the bag of clothing he'd brought with him. “After breakfast, is there time for a tour of the fortification before the meeting?”

“Certainly, sir. What would you like for your morning repast? If you ask the table, it will provide.” Jeeves gestured to the dining table, as Jonathon finally took a good look at his accommodations, The room was large, expansive, and coloured an iridescent green that shimmered nicely in the morning light: the bed was fit for an emperor – you could easily fit five people on it – and furniture was scattered across the space, in little clusters of four. At the back of the room, underneath expansive windows (A neat trick, as from what Jonathon recalled, his room was deep inside the structure) was an expansive triangular table, which lit up as Jeeves spoke. An expansive doorway to his left – lacking doors, he noticed – appeared to lead to a bathroom, with an expansive pool that looked more like a swimming pool than a bath. The suite was unadorned – there was a wall of empty shelving along one side, and mounts of some sort on the wall that held the door – he realised after a moment that these were for weapons, equipment, and trophies. But for now, this room – this alien equivalent of a luxury hotel - was empty of any personality.

“Cheerios.” Jonathan commanded the table, before looking back to Jeeves. “Any way we can change the colours in here? It's pretty right now, but it's going to get a bit eye-searing after a while.” even as he finished speaking, a bowl of cereal appeared on the plate, making Jonathon blink in pleased surprise: He slid into one of the seats – finding it surprisingly comfortable – and began to eat.

“Certainly, Jonathon. Just visualise the colours and pattern you desire, and tell the room to change to match.” Jeeves replied. “Is there anything else?”

Jonathon shook his head, content to eat his breakfast for now. “I'll call you when I want my tour.” he replied, and focused on the most important meal of the day as the AI vanished, his thoughts drifting to what the guide had said.

They had one year, basically, to grow strong enough to survive as a species – to be able to handle any invaders. Who, he gathered, he could expect to have levels in the fifty to three hundred range, guilds, organised tactics for claiming new worlds. But, to get to that stage, they'd need to stablish safe territories – so more fortification spikes – and relentlessly grind XP in the dungeons. They'd need to harvest respawns themselves, and grow organised – organised in a way the world had never seen before, all while dealing with an apocalypse.

Who was he to try and organise such a miracle? A single, lucky programmer who couldn't even remember how to code any more? A Budding healer? He might as well go work in the medical bay himself. The events of the night before ran through his mind again – running to safety. His home... his home was now in the dungeon. That thought pulled him short, out of spiralling thoughts, as a follow-up hit him: Where would he respawn now? Quickly, he brought up his sheet to look.

XP to Level 3: 1/12

Name: Jonathon Black

Age: 45 Standard Stellar Revolutions (SSR)

Level: 2 (11 XP to next level)

Class: None>

Respawns: 4 remaining

Home: Set>

Balance: 759 SMU

Health: 192/192 (Stamina x Level x 12)

Mana: 504/504 (Magic x Level x 12)

Spell Slots: 2 (May cast 2 spells simultaneously)

Attributes

Strength: 6 Dexterity: 7 Stamina: 8

Intelligence: 8 Perception: 4 Alacrity: 5

Charm: 5 Looks: 5 Luck: 7

Essence: * Magic: 21 Creativity: 8

Resistances

Skills

Perks

Spells

Traits

That answered that question: He focused on the setting – as was becoming habit – and quickly set it to the respawn point: He was intrigued to notice he could specify this room if he so desired, and did so. That did raise the question about what was going on with the people requesting permission to respawn – presumably they had not been in the volume of the dungeon when it spawned (The prompt the night before implied those who were both home within the area of the dungeon, and at that location were not coming back): He did not think there had been seventeen thousand people running in the crowd he'd seen make it out, which made him wonder where the rest were coming from. Something to learn when they arrived.

On that note – had Mike made it? He pulled out his phone to give him a call, and sighed. No signal – of course. He remembered the way the terrain around them had changed, and wondered exactly where the nearest surviving tower was. Which, of course, led him back into his spiralling thoughts – how the hell were they supposed to organise humanity without communications?

He was thus in a pretty low mood when he finished breakfast, and called for Jeeves once more. The neon green image manifested beside him, and the tour began.

He'd already seen the accommodations – Jeeves airily noted that due to the use of spatial magic in the design of a fortification, the number of possible rooms reached into the billions – the medical bay, and the temple: He was rather curious about the new rooms that Maskeline had granted them. Jeeves explained that the Mana well was part of the Temple, which he had already seen, and directed him to the Casting Chamber.

The room in question was the size of a small conference hall, and centred upon a neon green illusion of the outside of the Fortification: it was a real time view – he could see the structure, and outwards until just shy of the Dungeon walls, as far as he could tell: the walls were covered in magical symbols, dedicated to each of the elements, with clusters of twelve seats around them.

It was interesting to get a look at the externals, too: His memories of the previous night were understandably a bit blurry, but from the projection, the Fortification looked like a largish fort, perhaps a hundred metre square, far smaller than the insides would suggest.

And, he hoped, easier to defend.

“This facility enables you to cast tactical magic from within the Fortification.” Jeeves explained when Jonathon asked: Jonathon gave him a slightly confused look.

“Can you expand on that, please? What do you mean by Tactical magic – and no, we haven't read the manual.” this had become something of a refrain.

Jeeves made a 'hmph' noise – he had rapidly been growing more human even within the past ten minutes. “If I must. In short, any spells cast within this room at the display, in conjunction with this room they are amplified to a degree and made manifest on the corresponding location.” It took Jonathon a moment to parse this.

“So I could cast healing spells and buffs on the defenders, or any team outside?” Jeeves nodded.

“Just so. Or devastate attackers with fireballs or lightning!” Jeeves replied, sounding almost gleeful. “I am quite looking forward to seeing how you humans use this feature. It will be even better once you upgrade it a little, and capture some territory.” At Jonathon's confused look, the AI explained. “If you, personally, can define an area with at least four fortifications, all of which have casting chambers, you can buy a group upgrade that will let all of them affect the area around that territory. That is the scale of strategic magic, as they amplify one another.”

Jonathon nodded, a bit dumbfounded: The idea of what they might be able to do with that sort of capability made him feel a lot better about their chances – but the cost? The tour continued on as he mulled the possibilities.

The forge was next: This was, Jeeves explained, an expanding set of rooms much like the accommodations, where an individual or a group could claim a space for their projects. The room itself would be configured depending on the project required – not the best of facilities, Jeeves did note with a sniff, but what one would expect for a merely improved facility. With no crafting skills at his disposal, Jonathon could make no sense whatsoever of the facilities available, and took Jeeves word for it: It looked like a cross between some hi tech 3D printer, and an old school smithy when he peeked into a room, the walls the same iridescent colours that seemed to be the default for the structure.

“What would be the effect of upgrading them, then?” he asked the AI.

“Faster fabrication times, better stabilization fields, temporal acceleration, larger capacities.. a Whole host of advantages.” Jeeves confided. “I would recommend it. How else do you expect me to build anything impressive?”

Jonathon blinked. “Run that by me again? What do you mean... You can use this facility?” Jeeves nodded.

“With your approval, certainly. But I need some form of drone to properly defend this place, in the event of a physical incursion! How else do you expect me to defend this place?”

Thus began a brief digression: The AI, it seemed, expected to run this fortification like a friendly dungeon: With traps, monsters, the whole nine yards to be deployed as needed. And for that, he would - lacking a Minion Foundry – need to craft defenders himself: once supplied with the raw materials, that is.

Jonathon pondered this as they moved towards the training rooms: Brief visions of skynet filled his mind, which he kept to himself as Jeeves wittered on about his ideas for hunter-killers, armed with plasma cannon – the AI seemed rather found of the notion of burning things, he'd noticed. Still, having more troops to defend the place when the 'immunity period' ran out seemed like a good idea....

Finally, they arrived at the Training facility. This was a single double door frame that actually had doors in it: Beside it, an illusion lit up as Jonathon approached – it showed a list of his skills, as well as options like 'combat' and 'sandbox'.

“The Improved Training facility will support up to thirty-six training sessions at once.” Jeeves explained when Jonathon gave him a quizzical look. “It generates scenarios based on the skill you wish to hone. Alas, it is without temporal acceleration, or active regeneration.” the AI gave a sniff, as one would to a decidedly inferior product you were stuck with. “I should remind you you have Fortification points to spend...” it added, after a moment. “I have suggestions!”

“I'm sure you do.” Jonathon replied in a dry tone. “Let's discuss that at the meeting, after we ask you some questions.” he glanced around. “Where is it being held, anyway?”

“In my Throne room!” Jeeves replied, proudly. “This way..” leading Jonathon back into the atrium. It seemed all the useful rooms were on the ground floor, the accommodations above, and so he was slightly surprised that he was led down a ramp to a sub level.

The room now before him was massive: The ceiling three times higher than the others he'd seen, easily large enough for a game of basketball. The walls were of iridescent purple, of all things, the far wall projecting an image of Jeeves outwards, his fingers templed under his chin, a very... Villainous pose, one might say.

There was a large meeting table presently set up in the centre of the room – although extruded might be a better word, now he looked at it: like the chairs, it seemed to have grown out of the floor. There was enough seating for the whole team, and around the perimeter, stadium seating protruded, for any potential onlookers. Checking the time, he was about twenty minutes early, so he settled in to wait.