The Governor's Mansion was already sitting on a hill and from the wall around it, we already had a pretty good view. I called Tor over and said, “Look at your map and tell me where a good spot would be.”

Tor glanced off into space and whistled. “Damn, The Sky People didn't go cheap on you that's for sure.” He nodded. “Okay, this thing is gonna be big, so I recommend that we set it back as far as possible from the water and use this Mount Juneau as a backdrop for defense. I will trigger the placement program and you will see a grid appear, ready?”

I nodded at him. A grid popped up.

Would you like to place your city center?

(Y/N)

“Yes!” I called out. A gridded map was placed in front of me with a large shadow of what space the building would take up.

I said, “Holy crap, this thing is as big as a pro football field!”

Tor called out, “Bigger, much bigger!”

I finagled the thing around and managed to jam it directly back behind the Mansion. We were going to lose an entire park and lots of houses and part of a mountain, but it fit like a glove back there. I focused on the place button and the Earth started moving.

Congratulations!

You have placed your first city center

You have gained the title: Chief of all Chiefs

For earning this title you receive a bonus of 25,000XP

For earning this title you receive a bonus of 25,000 credits

You have earned access to the social skill set of the class: War Chief

I guess the Village didn't quite fit like a glove-like I thought it did. The thing was bigger both in length and width than I thought. I looked back and stared as it started coming into being. People rushed out of the keep and stormed up onto the walls to watch the building rise. You could see the mountain moving back on itself losing material to allow the building to sit where it wanted to.

It rose to about ten stories high. It was kind of shaped like an ice cream cone. a twisted, round, tent-like teepee building with a material on the outside that reminded me of the roof that was on the Denver airport. It looked to be a fabric that was treated with Teflon. The color was a deep brown leather with lighter brown and greens running through it, almost a patina, and there appeared to be skylights ringing around the top level. The building was stunning.

I looked over at Jax and Onida. Both were staring at me, jaws about to hit the floor.

Jax just said, “How?” and Onida said, “I want the whole story tonight, I know you cannot have any idea what that thing costs, but I do. We are going to have enemies for sure.”

I said, “Later, let's all head over that way, I want to get Sammy in a hospital ASAP.”

We loaded Samantha onto Onida's old stretcher and Yepa hopped up next to her and snuggled in. Onida took a seat behind me. Jax went to fetch a bicycle and told us he would meet us there. The building was only a few blocks away from the Mansion / Fort.

The view coming up to The Village was amazing. There was a huge sloped concourse like you would see at an airport half-covered with a glass arching roof. The entire building was ringed by a series of one-story glass houses with downward slanting roofs. They looked like greenhouses, and they went all the way around the outside except for occasional breaks where opened entrances were.

There was a smaller building outside about a half-block away that looked like a one-story mini replica of the Village. I pointed at it and Onida said, “That's probably the general public building for our System store.”

I winced with a tinge of jealousy when she said “ours”, but like it or not I was going to have to get used to it. As we came upon the entrance Tor spoke up. “See that pedestal over there to the right of the main entrance, put my totem on it.”

I stopped the sled and we piled off of it and walked to the pedestal. I grabbed the totem from my inventory and placed it on the center of the base.

The totem started growing fast, shooting up to twenty feet. It wasn't a traditional totem. The base had feet sticking out which were connected to an old man holding a pipe in his hand. He had a big dopey grin on it’s face. It looked suspiciously like a high village elder.

All around him in a candy cane stripe were animals and flowers shooting up to the top in a blaze of color. The very top formed what I knew to be a star cluster. It was the Pleiades or the Seven sisters.

From behind us, I heard Tor exclaim, “Yes! Good job Blackbear, now I have shop access, I was dying to try this Girl Scout Cookie strain I keep reading so much about!”

I turned around and looked at him to see him hastily packing his pipe. “Hey!” I yelled, “Who is paying for your habit?”

He looked at me as if I were stupid and said, “We are of course! Your credits are my credits, no way you can stop me.”

I looked at Onida and asked, “Is that true?”

She nodded “Pretty much. Even if you know your way around his permissions which I am sure he has made impossible for you to find, If you changed them, he would find a way around it. Better just to have him happy and on your team.”

I glared over at Tor. “Fine, but don't get too high right now, I am going to need you to help me get this place set up.” Tor took a lungful and nodded and then blew ghost smoke at me.

If I thought the outside was special, the inside blew me away...

I stopped at the threshold and just stared inside. It seemed impossible what I was looking at. I was so stunned that I hadn't heard Jax making his way to join us or notice that Onida had left and was pulling away on the hover snowmobile.

The building was huge, but the interior was even bigger. At the very center stood a tree that rose all the way to the top of the roof. Its branches bent and followed the contour of the building back down like a weeping willow except that it looked like some kind of Japanese Maple with leaves of all colors.

The interior was set up as a huge park that reminded me of Central Park in New York. There were trees and lakes... It looked to be a mile or even two miles long.

I looked to my immediate right along the ring and could see shops lining the inner wall. They went on as far as I could see. Restaurants, crafting areas, stables, fighting pits, a forge, a med center... I looked at Onida and pointed. She spotted it and we headed that way.

As we all went to step inside an android stepped up to us. He had a bow across his back and armor on. I looked at Onida and she said, “Standard Internal Sentry.”

The android spoke and said, “Welcome War Chief Blackbear. As you might not be aware of yet, only native Indigenous are allowed in the village, and everyone but the War Chief and his family must wear a Village Brace.”

He walked to Jax and held out his hand. He had an ornate copper bracelet with Turquoise and Topaz inlaid on it. It was a work of art.

“What's the deal with this?” Jax asked.

The android replied “It allows entry to The Village through the force field. It contains an I.D. chip and a locator beacon. It allows you access to your private quarters. It monitors health and brain waves. It monitors drug and alcohol...”

“OK, OK, I get it.” He snagged the bracelet off of the droid and placed it on his wrist. It shrunk down to size and fit itself perfectly to him.

He looked at me and I shrugged, “I just got here like you man, don't ask me.”

With a mental sigh, I noticed the android didn't look twice at Onida. I guess she was considered family by the System.

Onida asked the droid, “Are we speaking to the Village A.I.?”

The droid nodded “Yes, I currently am awaiting a designation.”

Onida looked at me and said “You want a male or female A.I.?

I shrugged again “Female? I guess?”

Onida said to the droid “What is the name of that huge tree?”

The droid replied, “It is a Kelona tree.”

Onida said, “Okay, switch your voice to moderately sexy female, and your new designation is Kelli. Like the tree.”

A voice purred back that sounded like a sexy Scarlet Johansen “New designation Kelli accepted, thank you.”

My city was accepting commands from Onida...

Onida said, “No problem Kelli, is that med station to our right functioning?

Kelli replied “All med stations are currently online and 100% functional. I would be remiss if I didn't inform you that the family's private quarters have a fully functioning med center of their own for convenience. Would you like me to guide you there?”

Onida said, “Why not, lead the way.”

As we started walking in the direction of the tree with Onida following on the snowmobile. Yepa stayed tight against Sammy, not leaving her side.

The android turned to me and said, “War Chief, we have potential citizens and some non-native people approaching the Village. Shall I assign bracelets to the citizens and explain the rules to the non Natives?

I looked back at Onida and she vigorously nodded her head up and down. I answered, “Oh yes please Kelli, take that headache away from me. Also please explain that I did not make the rules about who has access to The Village and inform the non-natives that the shop will be opened outside and also that I plan on cleaning up the city and raising a building or two. Umm, also inform them that I am setting the city boundaries right now and that no more monsters will spawn within city limits, thank you.”

The droid replied, “As you wish War Chief.”

I called back, “Please call me Blackbear Kelli, I think I'm going to get tired real fast being called War Chief.

The droid said back “As you wish Chief of all Chiefs!” I swear I heard the droid giggle.

We came right up to the tree and I looked up. I hadn't noticed it from afar, but the tree had a slight bulge to it about three stories up. A panel slid open and a large elevator appeared. Onida grabbed Sammy from the sled and Yepa hopped off and trotted over and we all stepped in. The elevator opened again one second after we entered it.

I looked over at Jax and he whispered “Fast!”

I said to him, “Why are you whispering?”

He looked back and whispered, “I don't know.”

We were looking at a lobby I supposed. There was a space for a receptionist, but obviously, no one was there yet.

Kelli said over an intercom “To the left ¼ of the space is for guest quarters and meetings. To the right, the remaining ¾ is the family's living area. Would you like to grant access to Micheal Jackson?”

I looked over with a grin on my face and saw Jax with a huge frown on his.

He said, “Chief or no Chief if you start to sing “Smooth Criminal” I will punch you in the face.”

I held up my hands to ward him off and said, “Yes Kelli, please grant Micheal Jackson permanent access, and from now on please only call him Jax, he gets grumpy about his given name!”

I smiled at Jax and he grumbled, “You would too if you were named after a guy with that reputation.”

We opened the doors to the suite and I had to stop and try to take it all in. The apartment was mind-blowing. It followed along with the curve of the tree and it had ceiling to floor windows all the way around giving full views to the grounds below. I felt like I was entering a spaceship from the curved glass.

The room was plush with all muted browns and creams, but a curving planter was set all along the base of the window with vibrant plants and flowers growing in it. Yepa trotted over and started gnawing at a plant until it reared back and smacked her on the nose. She backed up and growled and sneezed.

Kelli said over the intercom “Yepa you would be allergic to that plant... If you move to the next room 40 meters to your right there is a large planter of Alfalfa for you to gnaw on.” Yepa nodded and trotted off.

I looked at Jax and just shrugged. “This is all going to take some getting used to.

Onida had already walked away with Sammy and we followed. We passed through the kitchen where I smelled a familiar scent of coffee.

I said, “Kelli is that...”

She answered before I could finish “Yes Blackbear that is a pot of Kona coffee. Sugar is in the cabinet next to the refrigerator and cream is inside.”

I hustled over and snagged a cup that was hanging with a set next to the coffee machine and poured myself a cup. I sighed and looked up and said, “This might make it all worth it.”

Jax was right on my tail and grabbed a cuppa as well. We moved to the next section and peeked inside, it was a bedroom. The master suite had a California king size and a huge bathroom. The next set over had the medical suite.

Samantha was lying on a big bed with a set of blood pressure looking devices strapped to her arms and a halo circlet on her head. Onida was sitting on one side of her and Yepa trotted in and pressed against her on the other side facing me.

I sat down next to the cat and started petting her. “Good girl Yepa, please watch over Sammy for me.” The cat nodded at me and started loudly purring.

Onida was looking at a monitor and I asked, “What's it look like Doctor?”

She looked over and frowned “Druid actually, but her chem panel is all over the place, and her brain waves are way out of the norm. I am giving her a complete mana flush to her system. The Nanos will have her back up in a couple of days.”

Jax said, “Did you say Nanos? As in nanobots?”

Onida looked up and said, Yes, nanobots are what make the system go round. Everyone calls them mana, but they are really nanobots.” I got a system notice:

The System Quest Update

The journey to understanding the origins of the System and Mana has many beginnings, but all roads lead to the understanding of mana. You have taken your first step in understanding the System.

Requirement: Learn Mana Manipulation

Reward: 500XP

Jax and I looked at each other at the same time and Onida started laughing

“You should see your two faces. I bet you both just got The System Quest updates, am I right?” I nodded. She said, “Don't even bother with that one boys. Maybe 80 years from now if your both bored. No one in the galaxy has come close to solving it and no one ever will. It will just drive you nuts and take 300 years to get close to it.”

I said, “Okay, but what is this Mana Manipulation requirement?”

She said “It's a basic skill that you get from the shop, speaking of which, let's get you over there and grab you your first thing. A human genome treatment.”

I said “What the heck is that?

She stood up. “Come on, I'll tell you on the way.”

I looked down at Yepa “You gonna keep an eye on her until I get back girl? Yepa looked at me and just set her head back down. In the back of my mind, I heard a tiny “I guard.”

I bent over and scratched her head. “I heard that.” Yepa looked up and chuffed at me.

As I headed out of the suite Kelli came over the intercom, “Blackbear, excuse me, but you should set the city limits before you leave, you want to stop all of the monsters spawning in the city yes?”

I slapped myself in the head. “Yes, Kelli thank you. That would be smart wouldn't it.”

Kelli replied, “It would be Chief. If you go further down the hall to your right you will find your office.”

All three of us started heading that way when I noticed some movement in the park. I walked over and waved Jax and Onida to me. We could see some people walking about, heads in the sky and mouths wide open.

I chuckled, “We are going to see a lot of those faces in the next few months.

Onida looked at me and said, “I know what this place is ya know. It is kind of a legend and not many people have seen them.”

I said, “Oh yeah, tell me what this place is.”

She looked at me funny and said, “You really don't know? This is a Village from the legendary race called “The People.” No one is allowed on their home planet anymore, but these buildings have been imaged from way back when.”

I looked over at Onida, “Let's keep that between us and not mention it again all right?”

She looked slightly stunned when she realized that I knew what it was and shook her head. “Fine, but you and I need to have a deep conversation tonight.”

I said to the ceiling, “Kelli, just curious, can anyone see in these windows? Feels kind of open and dangerous.”

She replied. “No Blackbear, no one even knows that there are windows there, they are hidden and blended into the tree, and they are heavily shielded. There are a total of five floors in this tree, The first floor is office space, second and fourth security, and fifth is for V.I.P.'s and social engagements or private formal ceremonies.”

“By the way, the elevator can deposit you on pads located all over The Village. When you step inside just tell it where you want to go. There is a manual in your office explaining all of the functions of The Village in detail.”

We made our way into the office, there was more luxury and toys than I had ever seen or wanted to. It was all a bit too much, I preferred to be outside most of the time and this place was a trap to keep you in. At least Samantha would love it.

There was a small round table that seated four and Onida led us to it and pointed. “That's the city control system and that is the latest model. Whoever set this up spent a LOT of credits. Lay your palm on it”

We sat down and I placed my hands on the tabletop and a holographic image of the county sprang into view. I said to Onida, “It was recommended to me that I don't take too much territory and to save the lower leveled areas by the city to level up our population.”

She eyed me and said, “Oh yeah? Who exactly recommended that to you?

I sighed and said, “Kelli, do we have NDA's we can force our citizens to take or system binding oaths or something?”

Kelli replied, “Yes, we have both Chief, what would you like them to say?”

I asked, “How binding can we make oaths taken in the Village be?”

She said, “The system is a cruel mistress, and we can make sure that everybody knows how binding it is by including a death clause.”

I smiled. “That's good, let's make an oath that everyone has to take before they can come into the city that binds them upon penalty of death if they reveal any aspect of the city or The Village to outsiders.”

Kelli replied, “I can do that. I suggest we have a Village-wide gathering of all current citizens tonight to explain this to them?”

I said, “Sounds good, make it for 7 pm at the main entrance.

I turned back to Onida. “I will explain every single stitch of truth to you tonight if you take the oath.”

Onida looked away and thought for a minute. “I guess this is my home for the next century or so, so why not!”

I nodded at her and got back to the map.

Onida said, “What is that area across the bridge?”

I said “West Juneau, it's all residential.”

She said “Oh good, that is fantastic. We can take both sides of the river and no monsters can spawn in there. We can set up some kind of defensive measures underwater on our borders to prevent any large creatures or armies from attacking us from underwater.”

We decided to make our city border three miles in each direction on both sides of the river, giving us a nice big square block of area.

Onida was scrolling through the menus when she started swearing in Truinnar. “Good Gods Blackbear! We have a tier 1 Shield above the Village. Do you know how much that shit costs? We have a city-wide image diffuser that no satellite or ship could spy though. We have enough defense to hold off an attack from space, and I am not exaggerating. We could take out a battleship with our plasma cannons, or even a dragon! The amount of gear we have here... I have only seen setups like this in capital cities... THEY GAVE US A DUNGEON!”

I said, “Oh ya, its at the old airport. I cleared it out this morning.”

She raised an eyebrow at me. “Another thing to talk about, but no dummy, I mean we have a dungeon right here. A city dungeon below the Village! This is amazing. Our people will be able to train every day.”

I looked up “A dungeon right here in the village? Is that safe?”

She waved me off. “Perfectly safe, it's a city dungeon. We will have a Dungeon Master for it, no monsters will ever come out of it. It's like opening a door and walking into your very own XP store!”

We needed to clean up the city a bit and prepare it for when we got around to remaking the entire thing, but first I wanted to make some shelter for the survivors. I asked Kelli, “How much will it cost us to put up a couple of residential complexes for the survivors in the city right now?”

She sent back “Two complexes for 250 beings a piece will cost very little Chief, A couple hundred thousand credits.”

My eyes widened and I said, “that’s very little?”

I focused on the town’s map and made the system clean up all destroyed and unsafe buildings and got an updated map of a city that was almost blank. I thought for a minute about what I wanted the city to look like. I was tempted to make a fantasy version of an Eleven village made out of a tree houses when I remembered something from my childhood I had read about that I always thought was cool.

This man back in the '60s had built an igloo hotel by the Denali National Park. I asked Kelli if she could look up information about it and she said yes and got the info.

I spotted locations to the Southeast and Northwest of the Village and had her place one of each in the spots I picked. The structure rose about three stories above ground, but because of the Igloo shape, they looked much smaller than they were.

I swiveled the view around and got a look at them from all angles. I was very pleased, they looked cool, and being white, they almost blended into the background of the mountain making them camouflaged from the view from the sea.

I made sure they had all of the amenities and I said, “Kelli send out a general notice about the new housing for non-native city residents.”

I looked at Onida, “All right, we can come back and fool around with this later, now let's hit this store I have been hearing about and you can tell me all about this treatment...”