IMPORTANT! Chapter 1 has been updated with the correct version


Pardon my grammar.

EDIT: I swore I removed CHA stat...


Chapter 2: Understanding the Limitations

'What do you mean the materials are incompatible?'

[IA System: Materials obtained from the previous world are incompatible with this world's apparatus. Materials obtained from this world are compatible to be used for repair]

I stand there glaring at the air for a few seconds, ignoring the odd looks behind me. In front of me is a busted turret that's completely charred and wrecked with the barrel and shielding flatten.

It's a good thing I didn't say 'I can fix this' and said I can try and see what I can do. From the looks of it, the materials I've gathered from Remnant: Online cannot be used for repairs for this turret. I'll need to harvest materials from this world for me to do that, which is going to be a huge pain since I don't know where to find whatever is needed.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have any steel around?" I ask Lloyd Williams, the town's aging engineer who teaches and maintains all of the machines. He's designated as Chief of Technology by the system after I claimed the settlement and island. "My stuff isn't compatible for some reason."

Name: Lloyd Williams
Level: 82
Age: 91
Affiliation: Hasiera {Chief of Technology}
AP: 2486/2486
HP: 100/100
Perks
Stats
Details
Equipment

A wrinkled man with gray hair and bushy beard nods and motions me to follow him. "Our steel reserves are starting to run low. Make good use of it, please."

He shows me their reserves, a large underground warehouse containing refined steel bars, pipes, etc. There are skid marks on the outer areas of the reserves showing that there used to be more refined steels around. Now, there's only a sizeable amount left in the warehouse, making it look sparse.

"Don't worry. I'll get what I need."

I glance over several bulky bars, hovering my hand over six of them, storing them into my inventory.

[You obtained 6 Steel Long Bar]

Lloyd stroke his beard, "That's a nice semblance you got. Must be very handy."

"It's… Not a semblance." I correct him, "Hard to explain, but it's more like advanced technology. I don't know how it works really; I just know how to use it."

The System is just an advanced software in-game, but here… I don't know what it is. It's very helpful nonetheless and I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere without it.

"Really? Has technology really progress that far?" The old engineer asks wistfully. "It's been a while since I left the islands."

"I'm not sure about elsewhere since I'm from a really far off place. Sorry."

We return back to the repair shop housing the wrecked turret. It's gotten noisier with the technicians and workers milling about with heavy tools and machinery.

[Impediment Adaptation System: Analyzing Construct Diagram]

[Do you wish to repair Hasiera's Light Turret?]

[Material Required for the construct to be completely functional: 78 Steel Piece]

[Yes / No]

[Converting materials: {6 Steel Long Bar} to {Steel Piece}]

[Repairing…]

Digital blue particles begin to cover the damaged parts of the turret, beginning the repair process.

[Repair Time Hasiera's Light Turret: 00:45:07]

[Ō̸̧̢̧͍̝̱̞̼̈̃̉̄̎̿̽̀v̶̤̘̩̯̗͌͐͛̀͋̐̕͘ͅe̴̢̠͓͚̻̟̼̟̖͂̂̒̓̒̚r̸̛̘̗̝̤̓́ͅl̸̨̡̹͕͎̗̰̔̍͠o̴̙̞͙͂́̈͋̆͛̉̕ͅa̸̻̰̞͌̾d̸̢̨̧̛̬̭̼̱̹̣̍͊̎̔̍͆]

'Whoa, what was that?' I've used the repair tool many times to fix things before and never did I see it glitch out like that. Then again, the system has been very glitch recently.

[IA System: Repair Cooldown Instated]

[Repair Cooldown: 01:00:00]

[Primary objective completed: You gained 515,995 EXP]

'A repair cooldown? Seriously?!'

"Oh, interesting!" Lloyd appears beside me, nearly making me jump out of my skin. "It looks like glowing blue mosses growing all over!" He leans closer to the turret, narrowing his eyes to get a better look at the process. "The metal barrel looks like it's slowly growing back! Amazing! Hmm… I believe I shouldn't be touching this, yes?"

"No. I wouldn't test my luck." There's no telling what would happen if they touch the glowing blue particles and I do not want to be held accountable for any accidents.

"Hm-hmm. I'll have a sign put up immediately. Stan! Get me a caution sign here!"

"On it!"

[You gained 9,000 Reputation with Lloyd]

"Do you know how long the repair will process take? Can you do the same thing to let's say buildings?"

"It'll take around 44 minutes to get the turret functional, and I can't use the repair anything for an hour for some reason." The repair button is blocked over by the cooldown notification, which means I'll have to be mindful of what I repair next time. I let out a frustrated sigh, "Nothing is working normally for me, today.

Curiously, does construction and deconstruction have a cooldown now? It didn't pop up earlier when I built the outpost, but I'll have to find out myself later.

Lloyd pats me on the shoulder, "A golden rule of engineering. Expect something to go wrong. Don't beat yourself up about this. We were planning on scrapping the barrel and shielding anyway should things don't work out."

"Here's the sign, Mr. Williams."

"Put it here." He points at the spot for the technician to put the sign, and turns to me, "I'll keep watch over this and give an update when you or Farran drops by. Maybe I'll get someone to notify you." He glances outside, noticing the orange skies. "It'll be night soon. You should stay in Hasiera where it's safe."

"I'll be sticking around for a while. Thank you for your concern."

/-/

I found Farran standing watch on the wall's battlements, keeping watch over the town below him. At the same time, Loran was giving his report to the old huntsman.

"Farran, sir. No sighting of Grimm so far. Most of the wall defenses are operational, but we're still in the process of restocking the munition for some of the turrets. Harvey said it'll take about fifteen minutes."

"Good. Once they're done, start sending people back to their homes."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, and Loran. Make sure everyone gets two rations from the food pantry before we send them back to their homes. I want at least five guards escorting them back for each main residential street."

Loran nods, "I'll begin setting things up."

Loran passes by me and gives me a nod of acknowledgment before going off to carry out his duties.

"Ah, Enzo. How did it go?"

"There's were some complications, mostly with the materials I had on hand and some limitations, but I manage to get one of the turrets under repair. You should hear something from Lloyd in about half an hour or more if you drop by."

[Repair Time Hasiera's Light Turret: 00:34:57]

"Is that so? What was the problem?"

"I'm not sure. My… Abilities don't seem to be working properly here." I pause, wondering what else I should tell him. "Let's just say I have a cooldown each time I fix something. Regardless, the turret Lloyd was planning on scrapping might be operational soon."

"That's good."

"And, how are you and the town?" I ask back, trying to be courteous and social. "Is everything going well?"

A long-drawn-out silence stretch between us and I was starting to think I shouldn't have asked.

"We have some casualties and a handful with minor injuries. A total of eleven people is in critical condition." Farran summarized from a report he had read, feeling saddened by the loss of life along with those who were hurt. "We were lucky this time around."

"My condolences," I said, unsure if there's anything I say to not make things worse. "It seems that the practices you put in place lowered the number of causalities this time around."

Farran is a natural leader, organizing groups of militias to secure their town borders and getting those in need of medical attention to the refurbished hospitals. It seems that all these contingency plans were designed by Farran himself and there were a lot of them going up at once. I knew because I'd tagged along, learning all the procedures and contingency plans being put into action.

In all honestly, the guy can't seem to catch a break.

"It did. I can't save everybody, just all I could. It could have been worse. Bah! I shouldn't be mopping around like this. Negativity will attract the Grimm."

We stand in silence watching over Hasiera.

[Hasiera]

[Health: 75%]

Status: Recovering
Citizens: 435
Housing: 460

Policy:

[Elaborated Contingency Plans]
Increase the recovery rate for all parameters by 33% after a mid to high-level disaster has occurred

[Martial Tradition] {Attenuating}
Increases the training rate of militia by 25% and huntsmen/huntresses by 13%

Food Growth: +662
Food Consumption: -904
Food Surplus: 2451

Production: +327
Production Reserves: 1179
Maintenance Expenditure: -716

Buildings
Activity Notifications V
[Food Growth has increased (+90)]
[Food Consumption has been reduced (+282)]
[Food Surplus has decreased (-870)]
[Production has increased (+45)]
[Production Reserves has increased (+36)]
[Maintenance Expenditure has been reduced (+129)]

Defenses
Details
Resources

"It looks like everything is going smoothly."

That aside, I noted that there are glaring numbers like Food Growth being smaller than Food Consumption and a hefty looking Maintenance Expenditure. I've yet to fully understand those, but it can't be good. On the bright side, food and production have increase thanks to the policy Hasiera has enacted.

At least, I think it's the policy that's helping.

"Going smoothly. For now." Farran quietly said, "We're a bit in a tight spot."

"I'm guessing it has something to do with food and production?"

"Resources too." He adds, "Hasiera is a bit isolated from the rest of the world and we're confined to this fortified town for a while now."

"I see… You said that Hasiera is built on an island. Are you guys lacking resources on this island or you don't have the means to gather resources here?"

"You're spot on lad. Though there's a wee bit of a few issues we're having. To begin with, we don't know where to locate some of the stuff we need or have enough people to fight off the Grimm while we're hauling it back." He points out towards a paved road stretching eastward. "That there leads to our old quarry and Dust mines from the Great War era. If ya go slightly north, there's a bunch of trees to chop and take back for processing. We've been doing it for nearly a century. Ya can guess how that's going to go if ya look farther down the timeline."

He's right. It doesn't take a genius to know that they're running out of resources within the established areas.

"And you also can't call for help."

"Haven't been in contact with the outside world since the end of the Faunus Rights Revolution. At least, I believe it's been long over." Farran scratches his chin, "Wouldn't take it for them to be that dumb to continue."

I picked up two important events so far: The Great War and the Faunus Rights Revolution. I must learn what those two events are, but it doesn't look like now is a good time to ask. Instead, I need more information pertaining to their resource problems.

"What resources are Hasiera starting to lack?"

"Probably a list of 'em, but the most important we're about to run low are Dust and metals like iron and copper." He gestures at the turrets near our position. "These turrets of ours need Dust and metal to maintain. If ya don't count the stuff we use to stop them from rusting. Grimm grows stronger, gives us trouble mining the stuff. We keep using our mines, they start getting depleted."

"I see…"

The future looks dire for the people of Hasiera. They're running into a resource crisis and the Creatures of Grimm are becoming more powerful. I have a good amount of Dust crystals in my personal alliance storage. Maybe I can spare them some…

[IA System: Materials obtained from the previous world are incompatible with this world's apparatus. Materials obtained from this world are compatible to be used for repair and integration]

'Well, that throws my charity out the window.'

Perhaps there's another way like building a turret for them to operate. The big problem though, I'll have to see the material requirements… If it's the portable ones, not a problem. The big ones like the ones on Hasiera's wall are a completely different story.

"You're still going to find a solution, are ya?"

"It's the main takeaway of my proposal." I stare up into the darkening skies. Already stars are shining faintly from afar. "I always hold true to my word."

Farran shakes his head, "Too much of a burden for one person."

"I should say the same to you."

"Hah! Fair enough! But don't burn yourself out on it!"

We talk a bit more about some of the complications Hasiera is running into for a lengthy amount of time.

By then, Loran did what he was told once they've ensured that everything was safe. He had the town militia distribute rations from their cache to the people and methodically send them back to their homes, escorted by armed guards in case the Grimm return.

We continue to remain on the top of a section of the town walls, watching the people being escorted back to their residences. The sun was quickly setting, prompting the town folks to begin lighting the remaining street lights with torches.

Some fallen buildings aside and torn up sectors, this town looks rather comfy and sturdy. The residential buildings remind me of the ones in Bucharest, Romania when I traveled aboard for a field trip and the walkways were wide; paved with smooth stones, giving off it a soft and local appearance. Soon, night time has fallen along with the town of Hasiera and its residents sleeping in for the long day ahead of them.

"This is a nice town."

"It is, lad. It really is."

/-/

"System. Is there a cooldown for building and deconstructing structures?"

I'd never really realized just how dark the world can be without street lights and my outpost does not have any lightings. The only decent source of light out here is the broken-up moon in the sky, forcing me to craft some light sources from my personal storage.

[IA System: Troubleshooting modules…]

While the system is doing its things, I have to find a decent spot and table to set down this Dust crystal powered lantern.

'Let there be light.' The room lit up, illuminating the handful of minimum furniture I placed earlier. 'I should do more room deco to kill time someday.'

[IA System: Construction using materials gathered from the previous world does not cause the module to overload. Construction with materials gathered from the current world can cause an overload to the module, incurring a cooldown]

"So, I can't build an empire in a few days? Sad."

I have a lot of materials in my storage and inventory, but it's not enough to, oh I don't know… Build another ancient Roman city with giant turrets and artilleries much less a small castle. Yes, this outpost looks like a dumpy castle, but anything large enough charging straight at this place will crumble it very quickly.

'I'll start doing some exploration out around this place and see if there are any resources I can find. Maybe craft a few drones and androids with what limited materials I have to help me if I don't already have some in my inventory. I hope all of our blueprints and their preprograms are still there.'

And if worse comes to worst, I can resort to raiding…

'No, no. Don't start thinking like Luka. The people here are real, not NPCs or other players.'

There's still a lot of things I haven't looked at yet within the Domain Overview interface and options. Ever since I've claimed the island and Hasiera, the system granted me access to what appears the ability to manipulate some aspects of the town's policies, buildings, and defenses. Oh, and I can edit something with the prefix.

[Choose a prefix (Note: Your choice is purely cosmetic and will not affect existing functions)]
{Republic}
{Kingdom}
{Federation}
{Confederation}
{League}
{Alliance}
{Sovereignty}

And the list goes on.

'Kingdom of Hasiera sounds better.'

[You have chosen the prefix Kingdom]

[Hasiera has been updated to the Kingdom of Hasiera]

[Kingdom of Hasiera]

[Health: 76%]

Status: Recovering
Citizens: 435
Housing: 460

Policy:
[Elaborated Contingency Plans]
Increase the recovery rate for all parameters by 33% after a mid to high-level disaster has occurred

[Martial Tradition] {Attenuating}
Increases the training rate of militia by 25% and huntsmen/huntresses by 13%

Food Growth: +665
Food Consumption: -904
Food Surplus: 2451

Production: +345
Production Reserves: 1181
Maintenance Expenditure: -714

Buildings
Activity Notifications
Defenses
Details
Resources

Most of the information displayed is self-explanatory. The current status just gives a general outlook of how the kingdom is doing, the number of citizens that live here, and the housing they can live in. This town isn't all that sparse with the houses destroyed, but their population has also been reduced equalizing any housing issues.

Policies are bonuses I can add and remove. I believe I can discover more policies and policy slots later down the line, whatever the conditions are.

Food Growth is the amount of food grown at a certain period. It doesn't say when though. The other two, Food Consumption and Food Surplus are obvious.

Production appears to be the manpower of the kingdom, things like construction workers, technicians, etc. I honestly don't know what Production Reserves are, but if I were to take an educated guess, it has something to do with the machines, tools, and supplies. Maintenance Expenditure I'm guessing is the rate at which the structure, roads, defenses, etc. will need repairing.

Now we get to the part where I get a headache.

Buildings are structures that provide certain bonuses like hospitals, schools, barracks, etc. The numbers to the side are the quantity of those buildings. All of them can be upgraded to a certain extent, I believe. Some of the options are greyed out due to insufficient requirements and materials.

[You have not met the necessary requirements to upgrade your Buildings]

[You do not have sufficient materials to upgrade your Buildings]

Buildings V
Hospitals {5} – A medical building that provides treatment of wounded and ill. Healing rate various per individual.
Primary School {4} – A learning institution that teaches reading, writing, basic mathematics, and other necessary subjects.
Trade School {8} – A learning institution that produces specialized professions.
Barracks {3} – A structure that produces combat units. Can be upgraded to produce higher quality units.
Armory {4} – A structure that creates, provides, and maintains combat equipment. Can be updated to produce higher quality equipment.

The list goes on. Too much information.

Activity notification is a given. Defenses is a given, though I don't know what their numbers mean aside from the defense force which gives the number of militia and huntsmen/huntresses.

Defenses V
Town Wall: Fairly Strong
Automated Defense Systems Rating: 4894

[Hasiera Defense Force]
Huntsmen/Huntresses {2}
Militia {226}
...

And there's more factor that adds onto the defenses that I won't get into right now.

The Details tab is a long list of administrative, social, and economic stuff that I can't make sense of as of now.

Resources are the assets and materials Hasiera currently has. Things like those powerful elemental crystals called Dust, metal ores, wood, etc. And holy shit does my eyes hurt looking at the long list of stuff the moment I hit the extend tab and [Comprehensive] button, so much so that I won't bother reading it for now.

I did manage to get catch a glimpse of the basic and crucial resources.

Resources V
[Dust Mine (1)]
10564 {Fire}
5733 {Electricity}
19256 {Water}
1557 {Rock}

[Dust Mine (2)]
16702 {Wind}
9410 {Plant}
756 {Fire}

[Iron Quarry]
10529 {Iron Ore}

[Gravel Quarry]
30510 {Gravel}

[Forest]
48535 Wood
...

And so on. It seems that things like refineries and lumbermills are categorized as buildings and won't be shown here.

On a side note, it seems that more resource spots around the island haven't been discovered yet. Like I said earlier, I'll have to keep an eye out and explore. Too much information to show, too much I don't know what to make sense of. It's giving me a headache.

'This is a curse. I'm not feeling mentally tired after all of that.'

I internally sigh, closing my eyes.

[System recalibration progress… 82%]

[IA System: System recalibration system progress has been delayed due to complications. Please remain patient while the issue is being resolved]

'Oh yeah. I forgot the recalibration thingy wasn't done… What else have I forgotten?'

"Oh, shit. I need to set up the turrets around the outpost!"

Can't have the Grimm breaking into the outpost and killing me. Luckily, I have four portable automated turrets in my inventory to set down.

[Selected: Eigenslayer-6 Auto turret x4]
[Select a suitable location for deployment]

I got up to the battlements and lobbed four blue orbs around near the edges. The system constructs and deploys the automated turrets, ensuring that they were fully operational within seconds of their creation. The battlement is a great spot to set up the portable turrets; a high ground view over the areas. Hopefully, four is enough to fend off any Grimm that decides to wander nearby.

[Eigenslayer-6 Auto turret: Operational]
HP: 350/350
Battery: 100/100
Ammo: 300/300
Target Configuration: Creature of Grimm

Four solid turrets whirled to life, locking their weighted quadpod to the ground, and turns outward, gently rotating in surveillance of its target preference.

Their configurations for their target specifications are set to target only the Creature of Grimm by default, which saves me the time to configure it myself. With the automated defenses in place, I return back to my new room and fiddled with the system's interface, testing what features and settings manage to remain in this new world.

"Well… Welcome to your new life, Enzo."

Name: Enzo
Level: 215
Title: Tempest-At-Arms
Alliance: Avalon-Estria Sovereignty
Semblance: Suppression
AP: 48652/48653
HP: 250/250
STR: 153
DEX: 357
AGI: 391
INT: 195
WIS: 219
RES: 184
Perks
Skills
Equipment
Inventory

"Goddammit. I didn't say open my stats."


Pardon my grammar.


Will we see canon characters like Ruby, Qrow, Ozpin, Sun? Yes. We will.