“For now, I think everyone is trustworthy enough to be able to open the outer gates.  It might be necessary for their survival if something is chasing them out there.  That may not be the case with later recruits.  Use your best judgment.  And have a plan in place in case there’s some kind of mutiny or Trojan horse situation.”

“Got it.” Andrea gave him a thumbs-up.”

“You’ll each be in charge of a discretionary fund of klax or system points.  We get a specific amount just for creating the bases.  I intend to keep selling things through the market to make our communities rich.   I’ll ask that your foraging teams keep an eye out for rare or valuable items we can sell.  This early, Earth items are going to sell for a lot of klax.  I’ve already sold some cool vehicles for hundreds of thousands of klax.  Those can be converted into system points that you can use to add onto your structures, or purchase spells and training scrolls for your people.  I’ll do some of that while I’m here, but I expect you’ll continue on while I’m gone.”

He looked each one of them in the eye for a moment, his countenance deadly serious.  “Getting stronger is the number one priority.  And that means everything.  Our individual levels and attributes, our crafting and fighting skills, our weapons and armor, and our defenses.  We need everyone mentally and physically tough.  If one of our people encounters an ass like Twitch or Durham out there, I don’t want it to be a fair fight.  Our people should be able to crush them.  Everybody clear on this?”

“Yes, sir!” Both Dean and Andrea spoke at once, their backs straightening as they unconsciously stood at attention.  Helen just nodded her head.

“Good.  One last thing… I expect the two of you to be the strongest.  People find it easier to look up to strength and wisdom.  That means you going out there to forage and fight.  Killing whatever monsters you can, both for leveling up and building your combat skills, and to help keep the surrounding area safe.  Especially the corridor between the Silo and the Mall.  We need that patrolled regularly, if not daily.  Clear the roads, secure the buildings along the route.  You get the idea.  But beyond levels and fighting ability, I want you two to spend a little extra on training scrolls for skills, spell scrolls, etc.  I want you to read all you can about the System, and share what you learn with each other and myself.  I’ll pass it along to the other leaders, and do the same for you.   Ramon has been creating duplicate scrolls for the healing spell, among others.  I’ll have copies sent to you.”