Chapter 325 - The Society

Chris

Present Day (5 years after the Change)

The memory came unbidden, as I thought back on the last time I felt my intuition warning me. The part that came next wasn't exactly pleasant, and I didn't care for reliving it.

Once was enough.

Still, it put me on edge. I knew something was building in the background, I just wasn't sure of what. Would it be another attack on me? Would it be an attack on someone else, like Marcus?

Would the Wars in the South stir something?

I wasn't sure and that bugged me the most. The only thing I could do was prepare, and that was something we were already doing. Putting pressure on everyone to kick things up a notch wouldn't help.

I wasn't sure when things would kick off, and rushing for the sake of rushing usually accomplished the opposite. I tried to put it out of my mind, but it was difficult.

The rest of Annabeth's party went off without a hitch. She was fourteen, and now a Classed Warrior. It felt so... odd, to think of my niece like that. To know that she would soon be off fighting monsters like the rest of us.

Abigail complained often that she wished to sequester her away so that she wouldn't have to go through what we did, but I saw the futility in that. There would come a day when we were gone, and she needed to be able to stand tall when that day came.

As we'd seen often enough, death came for everyone eventually. I didn't believe a lick that we would become 'immortal' if we reached godhood. Nothing was truly immortal.

The days following Anna's party were more of the same. The only difference being that there were more of us to fill the Castle. It had felt hollow with everyone gone.

Austin was back, for a limited time of course, but he was here. Rachel planned to stay for a while and Jonathan put off his Trading trips for a few weeks.

While I spent time with those who were back, the work didn't stop, and there were times when someone came to meet me or I had to go out and deal with something. I was lucky that Abigail dealt with most of the day-to-day, but that didn't mean I was without work.

It was around a week later that a reoccurring issue cropped up, one I'd hoped would go away without my involvement.

"Your first meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. after you get back from the Dungeons. Following that, there you have another with Phillip at 3, to go over the construction plans, and another at 5 to discuss Jayla's letter."

The last meeting was the easiest to deal with. Jayla was once again informing me of her worker's 'availability' to build the road I had promised. I knew it was going to be a long endeavor, but we would get to it when we could. Her 'letters' were unhelpful.

Phillip would be an easier one, as most of his plans first went through Abigail, him coming to me was usually enchantment-related. Consulting on where the Wards and Formations for buildings would be laid and going over them with our Head Builder made everything easier.

It was the first one that puzzled me, as Sophia didn't say who it was with. She usually only did that when she knew I wouldn't want to go.

"Who's the first meeting with?" I asked as I dressed for my daily Dungeon run. I didn't need full armor, but my normal clothes also wouldn't do.

"Brent Schaffer." She said.

Brent. Brent. That sounds familiar.

"Who is that?"

"This is the third time he's tried to get a meeting with you. He's from the Historian's Society." She commented.

"Ah, the Historian's Society!" I said out loud, realizing where I had heard the name before. "Wait, I thought I told you not to set a meeting with him?"

Sophia grumbled, "You did, but he's being... insistent."

I gave her a look, "Like insistent I need to take care of it, or insistent that you caved and set up the meeting anyway."

She waved her hands, "No, no. Nothing bad. Just that he very passionately wants to meet you and introduce you to the work his group does."

Passionate, she says. "What even is this 'Historian's Society? Are they a Faction I haven't heard of?" The only time I'd heard the name was the last time he'd sought a meeting with me.

"Not exactly," Sophia said, "At least I don't think they are. Brent claims they are a group of like-minded individuals dedicated to recording and preserving History."

... what did that even mean?

"Alright, I'll meet with him, but only for thirty minutes." I grumbled, "I don't want to waste an hour on it."

My hand nearly flinched as I reached for my weapon. It wasn't the hammer I was so fond of. No, for today's Dungeon runs, I picked up the sword I had made for myself.

It wasn't that swords were bad, just that I didn't much care for them. There was always a better weapon for the job than a sword. I don't understand why these are so popular.

Anna better be happy I'm learning her stupid style. It took a lot of work to stay ahead of her so that I could teach her, but I did it. If only just.

___

Michael Halstead

Thousands of miles South of Frostheim

Headquarters of the Historian's Society

The usual sounds of scribes scribbling down information or shuffling parchment were absent as he sat in the library. The sounds had been absent many days as of late. Most of the Society had been sent out and they weren't so large that they had enough people remaining to keep the library staffed.

Not that the work didn't go on, Michael made sure of that. His newest evolution made him able to do the work of dozens, and even Cassandra could chip in if he got behind.

His lovely wife would help if it was needed, as they both knew the work was that important.

Back before the world became a video game, Michael was an archaeologist. His wife too, but in a different specialization. That was how they first met, even though that felt like a lifetime ago.

After being forcefully yanked away from his office in the Smithsonian, he came back to disaster. The hidden histories of so many civilizations were destroyed. Things they were working to unearth or things they hadn't even found yet, gone.

So many things were lost, all because of magic and mana.

He hated it at first. It was illogical, but he couldn't help it. Magic was the cause of losing what he'd loved. It wasn't until Cassandra pulled him out of it that he understood. That he grasped what his future entailed.

He was still bitter and sulking about how everything had changed when she gave him a new path.

'You spent your life digging up the past, Michael, and while I'm sorry about what happened, you are missing the bigger picture.'

He'd said something snarky back he couldn't remember now.

'With levels and Essence, you can become living history. At C-rank, you can live for nearly 2000 years! With a high Vitality, even longer. Imagine living since the Romans! You wouldn't need to go digging around and guessing at what ancient societies were like, you would have lived it!'

It was the kick he needed. To stop mourning the past, he needed to look ahead to the future. When he did, Michael realized the urgency needed for what was to come.

History was already passing him by. Things were already happening in the world he didn't know about. Cities were just beginning to be founded and he didn't even know their name!

It was around that time his excitement came back. The fire that had died when he realized what the terraforming did roared to life once again.

Michael was living through the single largest historical event in the history of mankind! He was going to be damn sure that he did his best to record it.

Every settlement. Every village. Every City. Wars, fights, influential people. All of it.

And he couldn't do it alone.

That was how he birthed the Historian's Society. Cassandra was fully on board, too, as she was the one who had pointed him in the right direction. Their growth was slow at first. Glacially slow compared to a few other groups that formed, but the couple did their best.

At first, they acted like nomads. Traveling around and writing down all they had learned. It certainly helped gain levels, but it wasn't enough. As more people joined the Society, they had to set down roots somewhere. They were too large to go without and it would do more harm than good to try.

They eventually settled into the centrally located city of what used to be St. Louis. If only I'd known what would have happened next. It felt like the fates themselves were helping him when the obelisk spawned. Giving them front-row seats to one of the greatest historical events ever.

After building out their headquarters, the work had never stopped. They sent out scribes far and wide to gather and send back what they could. The Society was still constrained to the Eastern portion of North America, but they would reach out eventually.

A shimmer in the air took Michael away from the past and he waited for the report to finish forming. It was one of the few mandatory skills he made all members take.

It would be too difficult to gather information otherwise.

As the shimmering solidified into a sheet of parchment, Michael began to read what it said. It was from Lea, who was stationed in the Heartlands Alliance.

~~

The War between the Heartlands and the Twins is intensifying. After the Reservation joined in, Marcus called on his alliance with the Northern Faction to aid him.

After meeting in battle, the Reservation pulled back and Frostheim did as well. Details are unclear, but the only dead are those of the Reservation and their tamed beasts. The battlefield was too destroyed to get a good read, but I do know Christopher Zalenski was here. His signature ice was everywhere.

Brent would know more.

I've been able to gain a few more Point totals and can make a solid estimate of how many the Faction as a whole received.

Emory Grant - 11 million

Parker Ingram - 7 million

Johanna Drake - 13 million

Jackson...

~~

The list of names and point totals continued, but Michael jumped to the bottom where the Faction total was written.

~~

The Heartlands Alliance - ~400 million

~~

It was so often that history was distorted by observation bias or purposeful propaganda, but with the System literally evaluating everyone's participation, it made recording it paramount.

The only problem was people did not want to divulge how many points they received. Some did, they even bragged about it far and wide, but most didn't. They didn't want it known how many the got and how valuable their treasures were.

It was slow going, and the work of years, but now that things had settled, coaxing point totals out of people was easier. They weren't as on guard now as they once were.

Michael took the estimation and evaluated it with all he knew. Lea was a good member and was surprisingly insightful, but she didn't know the full picture. Even Michael himself didn't, for all he tried and his new D-rank helping him.

After a quick evaluation, he deemed the number viable. There were still Faction members they hadn't talked to that could skew things, but enough data was gathered the estimate held weight.

That being so, he walked over to where he kept the master list. A list that used to be filled with so many question marks, but was slowly getting filled in.

~~

1. American Faction - est. 900 million

2. French Quarter - est. 700 million

3. The Stormlands - est. 500 million

4. Empire City - est. 490 million

5. The Twins - est. 450 million

6. Frostheim - ???

7. Mountainside - ???

8. Yellowstone - est. 400 million

9. Great Lakes Alliance - ???

10. Eternal Flame Falls - ???

11. Heartlands Alliance- ???

12. Mile High - est. 200 million

13. New Boston - est. 150 million

14. The Reservation - est. 150 million

...

~~

While there were still more question marks than he cared for, it was filling in, and that was all that mattered. Michael hoped he would one day finish it, getting an accurate total for every Faction involved.

The list was still tentative to change, but he felt confident that it wouldn't by much.

Eventually, he would have enough information to confidently pen the first System Assessment's history. If he was lucky, it would be the first of many.