FWOOMP

"Shit, we gotta send someone after the dog." Jake said, as Teresa and Mijo returned from the tournament. Multiple people saw Teresa suddenly teleport a few feet, and many of them gasped in surprise. Sitting next to Teresa was Mijo, who had chosen to appear beside the City Monolith with Teresa.

"The dog's fine, I checked his status screen." Teresa said, making Jake jump as he heard her voice come from a different direction. "Turns out Maxwell is Mijo, he's royalty. <Identify> has problems with royalty, remember?"

"The dog beat the Tutorial?" Preston asked incredulously. "Dude, that's kinda fucking awesome I'm not gonna lie. Sucks that I got shown up by a dog though."

"Did the tournament just happen?" Sarah asked, catching on quickly.

"Yeah, I got to make some changes to a few things but I've got it all taken care of now." Teresa replied, opening a few screens she kept visible to only herself. Becoming the Ruler had given her access to multiple configuration menus that allowed her to change the permissions of each position, including her own. Getting Mijo to surrender had been incredibly easy. She had simply told him to do it, and he did. Then she gave him some belly rubs and they called it even. Truly Teresa was a master negotiator.

Around them, people began to form two lines where the angry and panicked crowd had once been. Surprisingly enough, Nikolas and his party were barely paying them any attention. He began issuing orders to a few parties telling them to surround the camp and prevent anyone from leaving, and to do so as quickly as possible.

"What's the plan here?" She overheard Madeline whispering to Nikolas.

"A spy obviously isn't going to get in line, this was just to keep a riot from breaking out. Impose a sense of structure to keep people calm and prevent the panic from spreading while we do the actual work behind the scenes. Get anyone with a high Perception around the camp, but honestly I don't think we're going to catch anyone. I'd imagine if one assassin could turn invisible, then a spy probably could as well." Nikolas whispered back, following up with instructions to watch for any sudden footprints appearing while getting Madeline to be in charge of securing the perimeter. Teresa's party was included in this, and after just a few moments they were all standing along the edge of the settlement with their eyes peeled.

Teresa couldn't divert her attention back to what she was doing until after everything calmed down, which took several hours. Saylee and her team had to go through everybody one at a time ensuring their status screens said "Earth" next to their race, and throughout this period not a single spy was caught. On the bright side, they were now very confident they didn't have anyone masquerading as a citizen, but having someone to interrogate would have been nice.

Once everything was dealt with, Teresa went right back to looking through multiple menus. Several members of the council came by to ask her for details, but she told them she would give an update once everything was sorted out. The menus for the different positions were very customizable, including for her own position. Unfortunately, going through them was like reading through a textbook or actually reading the terms and conditions.

There were a lot of nuanced rules. For example, should the settlement ever get conquered all of the configurations of the previous Ruler would be reset to factory settings, but if the Ruler voluntarily resigned outside of war then the configurations would remain. Importantly, there was also information on the Portal Network. It would cost money to teleport to another city depending on the distance, the level of the traveler, weight, intradimensional storage spaces, items, taxes, level of the city, and so much more. It was all pretty complicated, the calculation for teleportation cost was literally a high order differential equation accounting for the rate of change of multiple factors which all scaled differently.

Fortunately, a lot of the permissions for the Ruler were pretty straightforward and super customizable. There was only one issue. She couldn't completely keep a Ruler from changing permissions. In other words, if Teresa heavily restricted what the Ruler could do, the next Ruler could just undo all of that because they would still be able to change the permissions on their own position. If Teresa made it so that the General for example was not under a strict obligation to follow what the Ruler commanded should there be disagreement, then the Ruler could just reverse that making it kind of pointless. It was likely a way to keep the Ruler from soft locking themselves out of actually being able to do stuff.

Thankfully, there was one thing she could do to interfere with changing permissions. She could set a password on the permissions menu for the Ruler, one that would stay between voluntary Ruler successions. The menus were extremely customizable, so she was able to split the Ruler menu into two. There were the general permissions that didn't scream DICTATOR at max volume, then there were the password protected permissions that involved making others obligated to follow their commands or resign. She wasn't entirely sure she did a perfect job, honestly she could think of a loophole or two herself, but it was good enough for now. If the council came up with a better method, she would temporarily become Ruler again and customize it to their liking.

The whole process took a few hours, making the rest of the council members feel on edge. She had to be thorough after all. Teresa was designing the template for a governmental structure that the council could add onto as time passed. She made the password extraordinarily long to prevent brute forcing it, locked the permissions for the password in the restricted menus, then also created a failsafe method for other positions to cast a vote allowing the Ruler to access these menus should Teresa be unavailable. She got some input from the others here and there, and Madeline was the one who suggested having a vote override to the protected menus. Nikolas suggested having a vote that would allow them to impeach the current Ruler, which Teresa added in.

Finally, it was time to call the council together for one very, very important meeting. This was a part of Teresa's plan that she already knew wasn't going to be received well, but thankfully she had already implemented the means to overrule it if they were really that opposed to the idea. It didn't take long for the council to gather in their usual spot within the woods, as everyone had been in a hurry. Teresa ensured there was one important addition to this meeting, which was actually going to be the heated topic of debate. Once everyone was ready, she began.

She explained her current setup, how the rules worked, and also assigned a few positions temporarily. Nikolas was the General, Saylee was the Ambassador, and Theo was the Lead Developer. Only Nikolas actually belonged in his position, but this was just so that votes could actually start taking place. Saylee and Theo were both expected to find a replacement sooner rather than later, and should a problem arise Teresa could always come back and fix it with just a little bit of force.

"This is all pretty amateur, but it will work as a foundation." Saylee said, going through multiple screens of her own now. "A Ruler could probably get past the restrictions by resigning to someone weaker, declaring war, then immediately making the temporary Ruler surrender, but we can figure out some safeguards against that over time."

"Yeah, it's definitely not perfect but I figured I could leave most of it up to people who actually have a better understanding of what to do here." Teresa replied.

"I mean, it's pretty solid for something you came up with in a few hours." Madeline said. "There's the ability to assign new positions by vote, to impeach anybody by vote with a replacement in mind, and to change how the government is structured via voting. This all hinges on the hope that the Ruler doesn't find a way around it though."

"That brings me to my next proposal." Teresa said, bracing herself to get a whole lot of pushback. "I think we should make Mijo the temporary Ruler."

Everybody looked at her like she was insane, but after a moment Preston burst out laughing.

"Holy shit, I love it. Dog for president, I'm all for it." He said, and it was clear he was being genuine.

"Do I even need to say anything?" Jonathan asked, looking incredibly disappointed. "This is stu-"

"I think Mijo should have the position until a suitable replacement is found." Teresa said, cutting him off. "He's the least corruptible person here, and I strongly doubt he'll use any of the obvious loopholes to seize more power."

"What level is he?" Saylee asked. "If he has a high Intelligence, then he might be smart enough to figure it out."

"That's not how the stat works." Teresa answered. "Your mental stats help you think faster and improve your memory, but at the end of the day you're still the same person behind the wheel. Your ability to think creatively or make decisions will remain exactly the same. Mijo is still a dog. He has a ridiculous Intelligence and Wisdom that dwarfs my own, but he's still a dog. He just thinks really, really fast for a dog is all. He can probably figure out languages given enough time, but becoming fluent in anything will be incredibly slow. He communicates with a few words that he knows, but mostly he talks with ideas. For example, he'll project the concept of a door he wants you to open rather than actually asking you to open the door. There is practically zero risk of Mijo exploiting a loophole, and also he's a dog. I trust a dog with absolute power more than a person."

"That's stupid, that is so- you know what? Why do I even bother, I'm not going to convince you to not do this." Jonathan said, shaking his head.

"Wasn't there a town in Alaska that had a cat as mayor?" Sarah asked. "I'm pretty sure it was just an honorary position, but I don't see how that's any different here."

"It does feel kind of dumb, but I think it works." Theo said.

"I want to say I'm opposed to this, but I actually think that would work. At least in the short term." Saylee said. "Mijo likely would not do anything major with his position, which is exactly what we want. We can vote to replace him later if we feel the need to, and there's nothing a Ruler can do that we can't do with a vote now. We'll need to keep a protection detail on him at all times to prevent assassination, but I don't think anyone else here is as strong as Mijo anyways besides Teresa."

"Perfect, I'm going to leave the rest to you guys." Teresa said.

"Hang on, I want to vote on something." Saylee said. "I think Teresa should have my position as Ambassador."

"Wait what, why?" Teresa asked.

"The Ambassador is responsible for going to other cities and connecting the Portal Network, and currently you're the only person in the settlement that is actually going somewhere long distance. All I ask is that you visit the Scilians on the way out, connect their City Monolith to our own, and then carry on as normal. I don't think you're the greatest at diplomacy, no offense, but you fit the job description. I also think we will eventually get multiple people who can fill this position. There are counters next to each position in one of the menus, and most nations have multiple Ambassadors." Saylee explained. "If you can connect us with other cities, it will help a lot with the search for loved ones."

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"I agree, that has my vote." Theo said.

"Same here." Nikolas said. "So how does that work, are you the Ruler and the Ambassador now?"

"I don't know." Teresa asked, but after checking her status screen she saw she now had two additional titles.

<Ruler Of [UNNAMED]>

You possess the authority and privileges granted to the Ruler of [UNNAMED].

No stat bonuses at current city level.

<Ambassador Of [UNNAMED]>

You possess the authority and privileges granted to the Ambassador of [UNNAMED].

No stat bonuses at current city level.

"Yeah, it looks like it." Teresa said. "Well, I guess that means there will only be two people able to vote here with Mijo as the deciding vote. I'm not sure how well that will play out, but hopefully we should have more positions to fill out a council soon. Are we all good if I transfer my Ruler title to Mijo?"

Everyone agreed, some with more hesitation than others. Jonathan vehemently objected, but was ultimately outvoted. Teresa smiled as she quickly changed the name of Ruler to President in one of the customization screens, then resigned from her position with Mijo as the replacement.

"You actually made him President?" Preston asked, a grin on his face as multiple people got a notification of the leadership title name changing.

"Dog for President." Teresa replied, holding back a laugh. It was dumb, but it worked. They could fix any issues that might pop up without overly drastic consequences, so really what was wrong with making a dog President? With how grim everything had been lately, she didn't mind a little bit of whimsy like this. It was important to enjoy the stupid things in life. Besides, Ruler didn't exactly roll off the tongue very well, so of course she had to change the title to President.

Before Teresa left, she felt the need to share one more thing.

"Oh yeah, by the way <Familial Duty> can very likely be used to find someone else's family. At the very least it can confirm someone is alive, but that's all I know." Teresa said.

"And how exactly do you know this?" Madeline asked.

"I can't tell you. All I can say is level up your <Familial Duty>, and you'll be able to help a lot of people out." Teresa replied. She could have told them Mijo had the skill, but she didn't want a bunch of people exploiting a dog for their own benefit. It was clear using the skill on someone else took a toll, and she didn't want the poor dog to be taken advantage of. It might be a bit irresponsible and a misplacement of her priorities, but a human fully aware of the risks should be the one to take that burden.

"You're keeping secrets from us now?" Jonathan asked.

"Just a small one. I just gave you some incredibly useful information, so don't complain. My party and I are planning on training a man after we help him find his son, which ironically will actually level up his skill and help us out in turn." Teresa said. "We've discussed already when the best time to leave would be, and ultimately came to the conclusion that the sooner the better. We will likely head out as soon as our guy is ready, which might be as early as this evening."

"Teresa…" Jonathan said, looking exasperated. He took a deep breath before continuing. "Good luck. I hope you all find what you're looking for, I really do."

Teresa paused, caught more off guard by the heartfelt expression from Jonathan than discovering aliens.

"Thank you Jonathan, I appreciate it." She replied. With that, they decided to end it on a good note. Teresa and her party went back to the still unnamed settlement in search of Thomas and Mathew. It didn't take long to find them, as two party members now had ridiculous Perception stats.

"Thomas, we want to accept your offer." Teresa said as soon as she got the man's attention. "Firstly, we really think you and your son should both train up a bit before we go. All it would take is one stray shot or one bad ambush, being low leveled is a death sentence. Secondly we are ready whenever you are."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Thomas replied. "You realize you are asking me to deliberately put my son in danger because you're worried about him maybe being in danger. That doesn't make sense to me, can't you guys protect us?"

"The difference is this would be in a controlled environment. We can assure you and your son's safety during training, but if we go out with you two completely underleveled the danger would be significantly more prevalent." Teresa told him. "Really, this would be best for you and your son."

"Can I think about it?" Thomas asked. Teresa nodded, and the man began to grab a few things from his tent. "In that case, we're ready whenever you are."

"Already?"

"It's not like we have a lot of belongings. If you guys have food and water covered, we should be good." Thomas said. "Every second we wait is a second my son is out there somewhere. Cities don't have their protection anymore. I've heard about the Portal Network, but I don't know how expensive it will be. We probably won't be able to afford it, we don't have any money and don't know how to get more, so I think it's still best if we bring Mathew with us. I don't want to leave him alone in a town unsupervised."

Teresa didn't exactly agree with his logic, but they needed this deal to work out. They could find someone else with <Familial Duty> who would be willing to help given enough time, but they had already been striking out in that regard. Even if they did get someone like Madeline to power level the skill, she wouldn't be able to leave the camp with her toddler. It was the same situation with Mijo and Charlie, unfortunately Thomas was their only real option at the moment.

At least he agreed to think about leveling.

"Alright, how about you guys head over to the southwest border and we'll go say our goodbyes to everyone. We gotta make a quick stop at the Scilians and then the Albino Gorillas, but after that we'll be heading straight to your son." Teresa said. Thomas nodded, then began to make his way over to the perimeter of the camp with Mathew. "So I'm thinking we say bye to Madeline, William, and Theo's party, then we head out of here."

"Sounds good to me." Sarah said, the rest of the party agreeing. "Sooner we leave, the better."

Those exact individuals were all around the City Monolith, looking at different screens that were now available with an actual government in place. They spotted Teresa and her party, and they seemed to understand immediately that they were already leaving.

"Damn, already? What, you sick of us or something?" Theo asked jokingly.

"Yep, can't stand being around someone who drank alien piss." Teresa replied with a smile.

"Hey, everyone's been drinking it. Besides, it's more like platypus milk right?"

"Nope, just you. As a matter of fact, our entire water reservoir is just one big prank to make you drink alien piss. Can't believe you fell for it." Teresa sarcastically told the poor man. Amelia, their light warrior, smiled as she seemingly caught onto something she could tease Theo about.

"I don't blame you all for being in a rush, I won't keep you too long." Madeline said. She gave everyone a hug, letting their brief goodbyes last just a moment more. "We'll be fine here, and I imagine it won't be too long before we see you again if you can get another city added to the Portal Network. Teleport back and say hi if you've got the time and money, alright?"

"Will do." Teresa confirmed. She wanted to stay longer, spend the night here and leave in the morning after spending one more day with everyone. Unfortunately, they really were on a time crunch. They couldn't afford to waste a second, not if they could help it. "I'm leaving all of my monster loot here, I'm sure there won't be any shortage of Mana Crystals while we're traveling. Consider it a donation."

"If we ever figure out what they're for, that might help a lot. Thank you Teresa, and good luck. Stay safe kiddo." William said, smiling.

A notification appeared in front of everybody in the settlement, making everyone pause what they were doing. Teresa read through it and smiled, seeing that the settlement finally had a name.

"I don't get it." Sarah said, looking at the new name.

"No, me neither. Who came up with that one?" Preston asked. "Did Mijo name it?"

"Yeah, I think so." Teresa said, glad to squeeze one last spark of joy before they left. She had a general idea of why Mijo had named the settlement that, but honestly it probably wouldn't stick forever. The whole ordeal was absurd, they literally had a dog as President now, and Teresa loved it. The stupid things in life were just as important as the serious. A dumb moment might be the most memorable, the funniest part of an experience. Absurdity could do something as mundane as getting a quick laugh, or it could even shock someone out of suicide so they could live for just one more day which might make all the difference. Sometimes, the dumb things made life worth living. The group exchanged one last round of goodbyes before they made their way to the southwest perimeter.

It was time for Teresa and her party to truly leave The Mall.

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Randall walked through another settlement, this one being the third human city he had come across. Buildings made of lime and stone clashed with wooden huts, the entire settlement consisting of a combination of fincas from Ibiza and Maasai manyattas. This settlement had less infrastructure than the last, and it seemed the farther north Randall went the less each settlement had.

He was only stopping here briefly, truly he was just passing through. <Familial Duty> was pointing him north, but it would probably help if he asked some locals about the terrain ahead of him. He had encountered a few too many surprises on the way here that could have been avoided if he just asked around before traveling alone, as he had been doing all week. Randall had chosen to leave the Tutorial without his party, as they did not have the same goals as he did. Between this settlement and the previous, there had been an alien tribe that had tried to hunt him for sport, a tiny change in direction could have prevented him from having to go through multiple near death experiences.

"Excuse me," He said to a man, hoping <Translate> would work. "I'm looking for my daughter, I have a skill that's helping me find her. She's north of here, and I was wondering if there's anything I should watch out for while I'm traveling."

"I'm sorry sir, you should not go north." The man responded. "It's extremely dangerous, the entire area is radioactive. If you do go, make sure you have a high Fortitude and Vitality, or at least bring a healer with you. Unfortunately, I do not think you will find anybody willing to accompany you, so it's best to go around."

"What, why is it radioactive?" Randall asked. The man shrugged in response.

"We don't know, nobody goes that way and monsters don't come from the north. It would be better if you went around sir, it will take a long time but it will be far safer."

Randall sighed, upset that he had yet another roadblock in his way.

"Well, thanks for the heads up." Randall said, wondering what the game plan was.

"Her name?" The man asked.

"What?"

"Your daughter, what is her name? If she's north, it's unlikely we've heard of her but there's still a chance someone might know something."

"Oh, her name is Teresa Weaver, have you heard anything?" Randall asked. The man shook his head.

"Sorry sir, I can ask around but I'm unfamiliar with that name." He replied.

"Thanks anyways, good luck with everything." Randall said, smiling at the friendly man before taking his leave. The man had recommended getting a high Fortitude and Vitality, which meant Randall knew where he would be investing his unallocated points for a while. He would travel along the edge of the radioactive zone, killing any monsters that <Identify> placed in his level range. If he got strong enough, he might be able to cut through the area directly.

It was risky, but every second counted. Who knew what kind of danger Teresa was in? One way or another, Randall was going to find his daughter.

End Of Book 1

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