PenguinKills
patreon
Chapter 352 - Leadership Cemented
🕑 Added 2025-08-12 23:04:12 +0000 UTCJayla
Mountainside
Four Years. Four long years of digging. The time only seemed to drag on as she was left wondering. Her sister's fate wasn't something she could find out, and it ate at Jayla not to know.
Taylor could be dead for all she knew, and all this time spent digging could be a waste. Worse, she could be missing. Not everyone made it back from the tutorial; most presumed they had died in it.
Those possibilities were what kept her up at night. It was also why she pushed the excavation efforts so hard.
There were times when Jayla thought they would never reach the other side. That they would remain forever cut off from the West, but that was set to be proven false today.
Reaching D-rank was what finally did it. She, along with a decent portion of Mountainside, had made the jump after the test. It felt like so long ago now, when it had only been two years since.
Her Class and Profession both pushed the work forward, and even the deep Earth had to give way to her power.
~~
Name: Jayla Somerfield
Race: (D) Human
Class: (D) Citadel of the Mountain(Legendary) – Level 106
Profession: (D) Journeyman Mason(Rare) – Level 102
Affinity: Bedrock
Faction: Mountainside (Leader)
Title: Baroness
Strength - 1265
Agility - 754
Perception - 638
Fortitude - 1787
Endurance - 1447
Vitality - 814
Intelligence - 196
Wisdom - 474
Acumen - 321
Free Points: 0
Laws: Lesser Law of Stone, Least Law of Gravity
Body Stage: Body of Stone(Chiseled Stone Body)
Mana Heart: Full Ignition (Mountain Heart)
Spirit Stage: None
Coins: 3 Gold, 42 Silver, 31 Copper
~~
An impressive evolution if she said so herself. Her Class doubled the speed of the tunneling, and that only increased as she used her Skills and power more comfortably. Her speed at compressing or shifting Earth was leagues different now than it had been at the start.
It took four years, but they finally punched through the other side. The Mountain had tried to hinder them. Beasts slowed the work whenever they were encountered, and not long ago, worms, burrowing creatures, and worst of all, subterranean caverns.
Those were always a slog to get through. The nasties that inhabited them never vacated easily.
Still, even with the dangers in their path, they pushed on. Through miles of dirt and stone, they broke through the other side.
It had been weeks since she'd seen it last, and the searing brightness was felt by everyone behind her. Choosing to sleep in the tunnel was a decision Walter fought her on, but she could feel that they were close.
Her senses had been telling her the end was near, and she couldn't help but push ever harder to make it so.
Jayla was the first through, as it was her mace that busted the wall down. The explosion of rock out into open air was as much a surprise as suddenly getting blinded by sunlight.
After her eyes adjusted and she could finally see the other side they'd spent so long trying to reach, a massive forest met her gaze. Trees taller than any she'd ever seen, even after the Change.
The opening in the mountain put her at an elevation to see for miles around. Her Perception stat may be low, but it was still better than a base human's. Green. Lush green leaves on towering trees were all she could see.
In all directions other than the Mountain itself, it was a forest so dense it boggled the mind.
There was nothing like them in the East. There were no trees that scraped the clouds themselves over there. Jayla had seen Redwoods Before, but the sight was nothing like what the trees used to be like.
"We did it!"
"We finished!"
Cheers tore her away from the trees as the workers realized that their work was done. That the tunnel was finished. The blinding Sun finally beamed down on them once more.
A smile blossomed on her face.
"Harold, bring the Scouts through! I want to know everything on this side of the Mountain!" She called the foreman. It would be a while before they made it through the tunnel, but her smile stayed. She was finished. Finally and blessedly finished.
She could literally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and now all she had to do was find Taylor.
She wasn't sure of the landscape from here to Vancouver, but her Scouts would figure it out. The Factions were also a mystery, but Jayla would not be denied.
Not when it was so important.
As soon as her Scouts came back, days later, they were sent before her.
"Report!" She all but demanded.
The Leader weathered her gaze the best and was the first to voice what they had found, "The Forest is dangerous. We lost many to the Beasts in the area, but we found what we were looking for. We located two Cities in the trees and made contact with one of them.
"The Sequoia Forest Faction owns most of the land West of the Mountain, including what used to be Vancouver." The Scout explained.
"It still stands?" Jayla pointedly asked, letting her hopes finally rise.
"It does," The Scout confirmed.
Walter was quick to stop her from jumping from her chair. "Miss, now isn't the best time for your absence."
Jayla knew that, but she didn't care. With hope finally rekindled, there would be nothing stopping her from finding her Sister.
Not the Assembly. Not the letters Tavis had sent from Yellowstone. Nothing.
___
Abigail
Frostheim
It was a relief when the Cold was finally cut through by Spring. The thaws were annoying the first time they had come, but they weren't the same muddy mess they had been in the past.
All that snow had to melt at some point, and the water it yielded created a sopping, mucky, mu-
It was a mess the first year when the snows finally melted. After that, she had made sure the same mistake wouldn't happen again. Water Mages walked the city and sent the moisture deep into the earth towards the reservoir. The channels caught it and made sure the integrity of the soil wasn't compromised.
A time-consuming effort, sure, but it both eliminated the mud and made sure the water reservoirs were filled. Not that they ran out of water with all the lakes around, but it helped nonetheless.
Annabeth's party went swimmingly, too. The girl was getting increasingly anxious as her 14th birthday came near, but for Abigail's sanity, it was still a year yet before she started leveling.
As the Spring ushered in a relief from the cold, Abigail was a flurry of work and preparation. The upgrade to the pylon only made her work that much more important.
The Baron positions couldn't be wasted.
What would the Title do for me? It was a thought hard to ignore. Everyone among the leadership probably had similar thoughts, but even so, they couldn't be ignored. If she had the title before she evolved, how much would it have changed?
Give it to someone close to evolving. They need it more.
It wasn't hard to arrive at that idea. A cheat, as Gabriel put it. Appoint someone a Baron right before they evolve and then take it away after to give to the next person.
Chris was hesitant to go through with it, and so was a majority of the others. Evolutions weren't so fickle that they could be influenced in such ways. A title with no action behind it was nothing more than hot air.
Plus, no one knew what revoking such a title would do.
Abigail knew it was possible to revoke such a title, but not what it would do. Titles earned, on the other hand, couldn't be revoked. No one could take the Viscount Title away from Chris other than by killing him.
The discussion around the two Baron Titles was long, arduous, and went in many circles.
The choice was made easier with a few people opting out. Hal didn't want the title, claiming he already had the Guard Captain position to influence his choices, and the Baron title would only take it in a direction he didn't care for.
Elliot said the same, even though he had already evolved. Gabriel didn't want it either, already adjusting to the position he had been convinced to finally take.
In the end, the decision was left up to Chris. Abigail had ideas and thoughts on who she would give it to, but she had voiced them already. She'd give it to Vincent in the hopes he could maybe evolve into a Baron Crafter variant that could boost all the crafters in the city.
Chris had thought differently.
He gave it to Rachel.
Lakeshore was closer to Flame Falls and had a fire-related dungeon. She was one of the few who didn't deny it, and, the kicker being, she could take Brayden with her.
Uncle Brayden was a Builder most days, but he wasn't the Head Builder. He had taken the time after the tutorial differently from the rest of them. He'd needed... rest, after what happened.
He still participated by manning a trebuchet, but he otherwise was content to decompress. After Grandma died, Braden's mother, he saw that continuing that road was not the way.
The only problem was that the position of Head Builder was already filled.
But Lakeshore's Head Builder position wasn't. Neither was its Seneschal position. They'd learned one person could hold two different positions as well.
Gabriel was excited to see how his Skills worked out. Abigail had skills to track, plan, and administer Frostheim, but with someone going into the position already with Building skills, what would be offered to them?
Sending both Rachel and Brayden off to Lakeshore would have already been hard, but they weren't the only ones to go. Hal was going too, completing the family unit to make the trip.
Hal wasn't making the trip permanently, but he wanted to be close to the lake to scout it and find routes safely through it. He claimed he would be back, but Abigail could just as easily see that turning into something permanent.
Time had a way of doing that.
The other Baron position Chris ended up giving to her, against her arguments otherwise. The three nobles of Frostheim were now Chris, Rachel, and Abigail.
When she voiced her opinions against his decision, Chris claimed that the position required a certain amount of strength that other people just didn't have. He wasn't against giving it to any of the other Leaders, but he felt she'd be able to do the most with it.
And once he'd made up his mind, it was set.
She now had a new line on her status sheet.
~~
Title: Baroness
~~
She wasn't the only person to get roped into a position they didn't necessarily want. Jon had been worn down over enough time that when Chris offered the Guard Commander, he accepted.
Not only was he a lead Merchant, but he was also the head of the Guard.
The last new position they had to appoint was one Chris handled personally. In his words, "This isn't something I will change my mind on." He claimed it was part of the culture he wanted to set.
Chris was going to ask Anders to be Chief Justiciar. A Warden to mete out Justice, to sentence those who broke his Laws, and to run down any who thought they were above them.
Anders was... fanatic was probably too strong a word, but Abigail knew why Chris picked him of all people.
Anders was the closest to Chris in terms of ideology when it came to that kind of thing. He was also the one who would follow whatever path Chris set before him.
With that, the new positions would be set.
City Owner: Christopher Zalenski
City Administrator: Abigail Stevenson
Guard Commander: Jonathan Stevenson
Guard Captain: Elliot McGown
Guard Captain: Hal Zalenski
Guard Captain: Gabriel Zalenski
Chief Justiciar: Anders Johansen
Head of Construction: Phillip Fortin
Head of Trade: Jonathan Stevenson
Head of Crafts: Vincent Zalenski
Dungeon Curator: Lucille Starkweather
~~AN~~
I don't know if anyone checks the RR chapters or not, but I made an announcement over there about cutting back to four chapters a week. We will continue five a week here, on Patreon, to help build the backlog back up.
I've tried to find time on the weekends and the like to get extra writing in, but life just didn't have it. I'll be honest, I got the idea from a comment left on one of the chapters and I thought it would be a good idea.
Comments
MrDragondude5
that depends on whether the other non noble positions are pylon/city based or just any noble gets them.
Craig
I agree and even think it would be a mistake not too. The last “test” humanity faced, despite passing was a disaster with mass casualties. The following tests will likely only get worse. These tests are like a drawn out version of the tutorial where Chris correctly realized that they were getting outscaled and he had to do something drastic or perish. Pushing for a mythic class would give them the edge they need to survive the tests to come. Rare vs Epic profession just isn’t earthshaking enough to completely change things. Also, they have plenty of strong D-ranks to hold the fort down in the meantime
Arcanum
Still hope Chris manages to get a mythic class
ManguKing
Abigail as a Baron should also have her own set of appointees below her
