With an entire hour before the next wave began, we all retreated back around the tower. Selka stood at an open second story window overlooking everyone. I patted George the veloci-labrador as she addressed the masses.

  “You have all done well during these first waves. Many of you have already gained several levels. Given the nature of how we think the waves will continue, we have theorized that by the end, the enemies we will be fighting will be at least level 100.” Frantic muttering spread throughout the crowd, which was quickly silenced as Selka unleashed a loud whistle.

  “Now, or at least within the next hour, we will be using our Wave Coins to purchase our first set of defenses. We will continue in the processes we have in place for getting those of you with lower levels some experience. You are expected to pull your weight. We only have 802 people here to fight against the waves, and we will do everything in our power to make sure as many of us survive as possible.”

  That said, you must understand that not everyone is going to make it. Hell, we started this hellhole with 2000 people, and we’re already down to forty percent. We have a long way to go, but together we will persevere!” The crowd cheered as she finished her speech. She locked eyes with me and motioned for me to enter the tower. I beckoned for one of the troops next to me to keep giving George head pats and stepped into the tower.

  The meeting of the leaders was held in a conference room on the eighth floor overlooking the camp, and the room was full. I recognized only a few people present, but noticed they were the assigned leaders of their squads. Jenny and Tim waved me to a seat they’d saved for me at the opposite end of the table from where General Selka stood.

  She leaned forward and pressed her palms against the table. “We need firepower and a lot of it if we’re going to optimize our chances.”

  “That sounds awesome!” I said. “How much are the heaviest cannons we can get?”

  “We need walls as well,” Bethany said.

  “Reducing the accessibility to the tower by any means is optimal, as repairing the damn thing is 10,000 wave coins per percent,” Jenny chimed in, agreeing with Bethany for the need of both.

  Growing impatient, as I tend to do, and tuning out their increasingly heated discussions, I pulled up the Tutorial Tower System.

  Welcome, All-Devourer, to the Tutorial Tower System. See wave stats below.

  Waves Survived: 5/100.

  Tower Health: 100%.

  Wave Coins: 760,000.

  Survivors within your designated Tower Area: 802/802.

  Tower System Shop

  Please select from the following camp item types: Offense, Defense, Building.

  Only three subtypes made sifting through the options less complicated than I was expecting. I chose Defense first, and the first things listed were the walls. There was shockingly little information.

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  Wall, Wood. Cost: 10,000 WC. Defense: Inferior.

  Wall, Stone. Cost: 50,000 WC. Defense: Common.

  Wall, Iron. Cost: 100,000 WC. Defense: Uncommon.

  Wall, Steel. Cost: 200,000 WC. Defense: Rare.

  Wall, Adamantium. Cost: 400,000 WC. Defense: Epic.

  Wall, Runic Obsidian. Cost: 800,000 WC. Defense: Ancient.

  Wall, Energy. Cost: 1,200,000 WC. Defense: Legendary.

  Wall, Bubble Shield. Cost: 5,000,000 WC. Defense: Mythic.

  We’d had the Mythic wall the whole time before the waves began?! What the fuck?! In fairness, I supposed there was very little that could penetrate it, so that did make sense. After the wall listings, there were several options for things called Arrays, and they were as varied as they were expensive. Some would apply buffs to walls or increase the damage or reduce the cost of using one’s pathways for attacks. Some would simply provide light or improve the healing that took place in a given area.

  After the arrays, the traps were listed, and it was possibly the longest list of them all. Mines, pit traps, trenches, spikes. You name it, it was on the list. And I wasn’t about to mess with any of that setup.

  No, thank you.

  Checking the Offense shop next, my interest only grew. Siege weapons and varying rarities of turrets were the primary flavor of options available. None of the offensive items were automated, which made sense given the System would not know to whom the experience should go. I drilled down to the list of turrets.

  Turret, Mana Bolt. Cost: 20,000 WC. Offense: Inferior.

  Turret, Arcane Thrower. Cost: 100,000 WC. Offense: Common.

  Turret, Stone Roller. Cost: 200,000 WC. Offense: Uncommon.

  Turret, Affinity Seed. Cost: 400,000 WC. Offense: Rare.

  Turret, Spellshatter. Cost: 800,000 WC. Offense: Epic.

  Turret, Solar Repeater. Cost: 1,600,000 WC. Offense: Ancient.

  Turret, Rune Spire. Cost: 2,400,000 WC. Offense: Legendary.

  Turret, Soul Beam. Cost: 10,000,000 WC. Offense: Mythic.

  “That Soul Beam Turret sounds awesome! Should get to ten mil without too much trouble, right?” I said aloud, drawing surprised looks from the other people in the conference room. “Right? Did I miss something?”

  Selka held her hand out this time, and Sarah begrudgingly handed her a tinkling pouch.

  “I knew you’d get lost in the shop and lose track of our conversation.” She said simply when I frowned at her.

  Bethany filled in the gap adjusting several of the feathers around her sleeves, “We suspect that the future waves will be from multiple directions. There aren’t that many of us, so we need to optimize our space.”

  “I agree,” I said, turning to Jenny. “Jenny’s well read on military history. You have an idea on the best course of action?”

  “I’m not so sure that the military history of our world before people could explode each other will prove super useful. But any tactics are better than none, so I suggest we do the adamantium wall, leaving us enough left over for sixteen mana bolt turrets, each equidistant around the wall.” Jenny said while Ernest nodded vigorously beside her.

  “That leaves no wave coins for repairs,” Dennis said, tapping his trunk nervously on the table.

  “As the growth rate we are experiencing has been significant, we’ll be fine, provided the sixth wave isn’t too bad,” Gregory said.

  I slapped him gently on the shoulder. “I don’t know if fate is a thing or not, but saying shit like that is a surefire way to get things to go bad. That said, wanna go shoot a turret?”

  “So, are we just going to go with Jenny’s first idea, then?” Selka said dryly.

  “Hell yeah!” I said, hopping up to my feet. “You want to do the honors?”

  We moved the meeting outside the tower and Selka made the selection of the Adamantium Wall. Two hundred meters out from the tower, the ground split and an octagonal wall made of solid dark metal three meters thick and fifteen meters high rose from beneath. At each of the eight points was a five by five meter parapet. I watched, delighted, as she then selected the mana bolt turrets, two forming on each parapet, aligned with each wall face.

  The weakest of the turrets, the Mana Bolt Turrets had no seat or shielding, just the mounting and the weapon itself, which had a set of ergonomic handles attached to two rotating barrels etched with simple unlit runes.

  I couldn’t wait, and used Void Step to the nearest parapet. As I gripped the handles with my lower arms, the runes on the barrels ignited with power.

  “CAMP BUILDING FUCKING RULES!” I yelled as I squeezed the triggers.