Chapter 116 First Meeting

The sun had already disappeared behind the horizon when everyone was present for the meeting.

Because the number of Survivors rose too quickly, it was necessary to restrict the number of participants in the meeting.

Thus, Dilan picked out a handful of people that he thought should definitely participate in the meeting.

The meeting was held in a large VIP patient ward on one of the higher floors where Dilan, Kathrine, Oliver, Ailee, Bianne, Sarah, Old Jeff, Williams, Xenia, and Sven were present.

Some were astonished to have been asked to come to the first meeting such as Pierre and the remaining members of Williams’ inner ring.

However, everything had its reason, which was why Dilan came up with one of the more important points first.

“Hello everyone, I called the eight of you here so that we can discuss the progression of our small community.

As everyone knows, our group expanded to more than 600 Survivors not too long ago. As such, we have a lot more to pay attention to.

That being said, I would like to start discussing the importance of the next few goals, and how to distribute tasks to the new Survivors!”

Dilan already had quite a few ideas about what they should do. But instead of throwing everything at the others, he wanted to figure out their thoughts about the given situation.

At first, Bianne was not sure why she had been asked to come to the meeting. However, she was able to grasp Dilan’s intention right now.

“The food reserves will be used up quite quickly. We won’t have much of a problem with a constant supply of water thanks to the Rings of Yarad, and meat owing to the Gate to the Krendel’s Underground Valley.

However, it is quite difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle with only meat and water… Of course, it is possible to survive, but I think we should take a look at all the supermarkets in Rian and salvage whatever food items we can before it’s too late!”

Bianne felt a little bit uncomfortable speaking up at first, but her concern about the lack of a wider variety of food bothered her quite a bit.-.

It was not a problem that concerned everyone’s health, but simply something Bianne wanted to point out.

Upon listening to Bianne, Dilan recalled something he had totally forgotten.

‘Fuck, the supermarket…I forgot about the supermarket near the hospital?!’

Dilan shook his head while slapping his forehead once. In the beginning, Dilan’s plan had been to visit the supermarket.

However, somehow he ended up forgetting about the supermarket completely for almost two weeks.

This was quite ridiculous, and Dilan couldn’t help but doubt if there was anything even left in the supermarket near the hospital.

But Bianne’s point was still quite important which was why he noted it down.

“Oliver, Ailee, I heard that the two of you lead the Survivors to receive their first ability crystal. How did that work? I believe some Survivors were quite closer to death than life yesterday when we relocated them. I hope we faced no major hiccups.”

Dilan sounded quite concerned. This had multiple reasons, only for Oliver to smile proudly.

“Everything worked perfectly fine. We told the Survivors that everyone should come with us to hunt, and at least procure their ability crystal, just as you commanded.

However, we didn’t pressure anyone, let alone force them to come with us. Most of them came of their own free will and we were able to get our hands on 250 ability crystals.”

Oliver wanted to keep speaking, but Ailee intervened as she took out a list with several pages of content. Ailee got up from her chair before walking over to Dilan and handing him the list.

“We asked everyone what ability they had received if they want to trade it with a different ability, and in what way they wanted to improve themselves. Through this, we were able to finalize a list of abilities. It’s still rough and some information may have changed by now.

But we did our best to collate as much information as possible in the short time frame we were given!”

___

[List of Abilities]

-Name of Ability- / -Ability rank- / -Bound by-

___

Dilan was quite astonished by the list he received.

It was extremely detailed, considering that Ailee and Oliver were facing a time crunch while creating the list.

Thus, he smiled lightly while reading through the list of abilities.

There were quite a few abilities nobody had bound yet, but that was to be expected.

Most Survivors didn’t know what they wanted to become, which particular trait of themselves to hone, let alone what the future looked like.

Was it feasible to rely on others to be protected, or was it the best to join the ranks of the Ascenders?

“I see that there are some abilities don’t provide an actual increase in combat prowess, but could be used for other occupations. Are all of them trying to barter these abilities with other ability crystals? That will be quite difficult then…”

Ailee understood what Dilan meant. But instead of answering directly, she hesitated for a moment.

“The fact that some abilities are unsuitable for almost everyone to be bound as their first ability is quite sad. But that is not really problematic because they can help out doing chores without the use of an ability instead.

That’s no problem as long as they didn’t plan to join the combat teams beforehand. But another issue is that some abilities cannot be bound by anyone. Some abilities have specific restrictions, which makes it quite difficult to find a compatible Ascender to bind them!”

Everyone had a restricted amount of spots for active and passive abilities. As such, it was only obvious to avoid binding ‘bad’ abilities.

However, some abilities seemed quite useful in Dilan’s eyes, which was why he was curious about a few of them.

‘I should ask them about the holders of some of these ability crystals later…’ Dilan thought before he averted his attention.

“Good job, Ailee, Oliver!” He praised his comrades before proudly smiling at them.

Afterward, Dilan’s attention turned to Sven, who had been scribbling on a piece of paper for quite some time.

He was furiously scratching and writing on the piece of paper he had prepared for the meeting, just to look up when he noticed that everybody had suddenly gone quiet.

“Speak your mind. I’m grateful for every help I can get!”

If Dilan were to be honest, he was quite eager to find out more about Sven’s plan and management talent.

Thus, he looked deep into his eyes.

Clearing his throat, Sven returned Dilan’s gaze before he started to elaborate on what he wrote down earlier.

“Because we’re more than 600 Survivors by now, I propose to split up the group into different subunits. I think that is actually what you’re planning as well. At least, that is what I can comprehend from the way you picked out who was allowed to come to the meeting!”

Dilan didn’t think of interrupting Sven. But when Sven stopped midway while looking into his eyes expectantly, he felt as if it was necessary to say something.

“That’s correct. I planned to create multiple groups to manage the entire community a little bit better. But please go on. I want to hear what you have on your mind!”

Hearing that Dilan had the same vision as himself, Sven nodded his head, while trying to hide the faint smile that crept up his rather handsome face.

“In that case, there is no need to explain that the entire group’s efficiency will increase the moment we split up the community into several subunits. Each of them will have different leaders to manage everything which will be great for the community as a whole.

As such, I would propose to create four different units which are related to combat. The first and the most important unit will be the <Elite Combat> unit where the elite Ascenders will be trained.

After that would be the <Hunting> Unit which I think is quite important. The Hunting Unit is supposed to hunt monsters in the mountains for food, their body parts, and Essences to procure more treasures from the Gate.

A <Scouting> Unit will also be required to procure more intel about Rian, the surroundings and to search for more food.

Because we have several groups that require high combat prowess, a <Combat-training> Unit will be necessary as well. Every new Ascender will join this Unit first before they will be moved to the Unit in which they’ll be the most useful.

Of course, we shouldn’t be too focused on combat units. That is why I propose to create one Unit in which all <Chores> will be taken care of, with Bianne being the leader of this group.

Then an <Auxiliary> Unit with Old Jeff and Sarah becoming the temporary leaders consisting of auxiliary occupations such as blacksmithing, potion making, and many more occupations, which are focused on supporting others, and finally a unit that can be labeled as a <Porter> Unit.

That being said, the <Auxiliary> Unit is more leaned toward the future choice of one’s occupation in the Ancient Path of Advancement, while the same cannot be said for the <Porter> Unit.

The <Porter> Unit is supposed to be rather flexible. They should be capable of mining, carrying lots of things, and moving everything around. This unit is more focused on management, and logistics, and will be quite chaotic in the beginning.

After all, the other Occupations such as an electrician, plumber, carpenter, and so on, can be added to the <Porter> Unit.

We will need electricians, mechanics, and so on, but splitting each occupation into its own Unit would be even more chaotic than gathering them in the Porter unit!”

Sven’s suggestion was quite simple to understand if one were to exclude the question of who belonged to the Porter Unit, and who ought to take charge of this Unit.

In Dilan’s opinion, the Porter unit would be more of the ‘Jack of all trades but master of none’. However, he liked the name ‘Porter’ a lot, even if it was the name of an occupation that was often used in fantasy novels about dungeons.

Dilan understood that it was not easy to lead a group of several hundred Survivors. As such, he was trying to digest every piece of information he received, while adding Sven’s suggestions to the things he had already come up with.

‘Instead of focusing on the next goals, Sven wants to decide who takes charge of what Unit… That may as well be better for the distribution of the future tasks!’

While thinking of Sven’s suggested plan, Dilan noticed a bit late that someone next to him voiced out her confusion.

“Why should Old Jeff and I only become the temporary leaders of the <Auxiliary> unit?” Sarah asked all of a sudden. She didn’t want to be a leader, but both Old Jeff and she were the only ones, who were told to be temporary leaders.

This confused her a little bit, just for Dilan to smile lightly as he answered,

“Old Jeff will be too busy forging weapons and other armaments. So he cannot manage his own unit. Meanwhile, you will also be busy creating potions.

In fact, nobody knows whether you would want to switch to one of the combat units once we find someone else to create the potions. You never shared your opinion about how you felt after I gave you the recipe for the mana replenishment potion either.”

Dilan didn’t accuse Sarah in any way. He was simply stating facts.

Sarah understood this as well, which was why she quieted down for a few moments before stating her opinion.

“I want to keep creating potions…well, starting to create potions might be more precise. I think my passive ability [Multitasking] will be quite helpful to become a great Witch, Alchemist, or whatever!”

It was quite easy to perceive that Sarah was not yet sure what she wanted to do in the future.

However, in order to be of use to the whole community, Sarah chose to be the first one to start concocting potions.

This required many ingredients, including Essence crystals and Lumina crystals, which was something they had yet to procure!

“In that case, how about we focus on seeking out the best candidates to lead each unit, and what task they should work on for now?”