《Fractured World》 Store UR Hoard ¡°So this is it,¡± Dal Park said, offering a clipboard to the woman before him. The woman barely glanced at him, taking the clipboard and scanning it. Dal noted she gripped the clipboard tightly, her light eyes scanning the pages of the standard contract and then finishing it off with a harsh scribble of a name at the bottom of the last page. ¡°Payment is the first Wednesday of each month, after two months of continuous non-payment the items stored within will be considered abandoned and sold off,¡± Dal finished. ¡°Since this is a larger exterior storage unit, it is not eligible for the twenty four hour access as the interior storage units are. This back area closes at seven PM and opens again at seven AM.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± the woman said, turning away from him. Dal shrugged watching as she stalked toward the twenty-six foot long truck she had backed into the storage units. He looked about and noted that there was no one else helping her out. Such large trucks were popular with moving out of a decent size apartment or house. Normally they would be packed to the gills and that would be a lot of work for a solo person. The company¡¯s insurance didn¡¯t cover him volunteering to help a customer unload their things. Not that he would have volunteered for such back breaking work. Also, someone had to manage the front desk as the general manager had been called away to a meeting and the Handyman, Luis, had called in sick. Dal tucked the clipboard and paperwork away in a satchel and then began whistling as he made his way back toward the main office. The roar of the truck engine and the warning alarms of the truck backing up drowned out his whistles. Store Ur Hoard was a standard storage unit rental business on a three acre lot at the edge of the city. It was divided into three areas, the first being the modern style glass enclosed three story front warehouse that held storage units in a ¡®climate controlled¡¯ setting, which just meant air conditioning. The largest of the sections were the outdoor self storage units, going from eight by eight units to larger sixteen footers, with the last being the big units that were like small barns. Dal glanced at the larger units taking up the back end of the storage lot. They were five of them, nearly forty eight feet long and twenty deep. Enough to store vehicles, boats, and whatever the renters desired. Those massive units weren¡¯t in high demand, as they were too big and the cost to rent one monthly was as much as renting an apartment. The only appeal was that it had water, electricity, and heat or AC on request. Only two of those massive units were being rented at the moment. One by the owner of Store Ur Hoard and one of his friends who was keeping his ¡®toys¡¯ safe as he was going through a messy divorce. According to the paperwork, the owner John, was renting both units and his friend¡¯s name was on none of the paperwork. Dal didn¡¯t work in divorce law, but hiding away possessions and the like was probably a tad on the illegal side. He was just a paper pusher and occasional manager, so he wasn¡¯t being paid enough to involve himself in the monetary squabbles of the more wealthy. He pushed open the heavy metal security door and passed through the employee section of the warehouse. There was a single bathroom, a fairly large lunch/meeting room with a vending machine and large refrigerator. At one time there had been at least a dozen employees in the building, maintenance staff, more paper pushers, and some drivers to move about the tiny fleet of three moving vans they had out in the parking lot. Dal could see the writing on the wall, there had been a few hiccups in payroll and the free coffee and donuts and occasional pizza party were things of the past. The three moving vans hadn¡¯t been rented out in months and maintenance on them had fallen to the wayside. Even the small shop that sold cardboxes, tape, and padlocks was on the chopping block in the next few weeks. The dread of finding a new job weighted on Dal¡¯s mind. A twenty two year old college dropout and with only two jobs on his resume; his prospects didn¡¯t look all too good. The front office of the warehouse was dead silent as he plopped down in front of a computer and began entering data into the system. He glanced up at the clock and saw that it was nine in the morning. He had six hours to go. He busied himself; cleaning, doing inventory, and cleaning out the public restroom and making another pot of coffee. He checked the security cameras in the small security room and watched as the woman unloaded her belongings from the back of the truck. Her face was a grim line of determination, but occasionally he could see her kick at a box or throw something violently into the storage unit. There were plenty of reasons a person would be unloading their belongings, but one that Dal had seen more often was divorce and separation. The woman was in her mid to late thirties, her dark curly hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail and the furniture were more high end than the Ikea junk Dal owned. Combined with her terse attitude and complete lack of questions; Dal guessed she was in the midst of some kind of breakup. At least she wasn¡¯t trying to hide her stuff under a false name. Dal leaned back in his chair, glancing at the clock once more. It was nearly noon and the general manager hadn¡¯t return yet. He checked his phone and saw no missed calls. The office phone was functioning as well. He sighed, it was like Marie for her ¡®meetings¡¯ to extend into working lunches and more meetings. What could a failing self storage business require so many meetings for anyway? The answer was obvious; no one was checking in on them. The entire business was on a slow slide to bankruptcy and no one cared. Dal sighed again. He really had to begin looking for a new job. The front door of the office was flung open and the woman entered. She eyed him, her eyes narrowing as he pulled his feet off the desk. ¡°Can I help you?¡± Dal asked. ¡°Got anything to drink in this place?¡± ¡°There¡¯s a soda vending machine in the supply shop. There is also bottled water sold there.¡± The woman nodded and moved toward the small shop. ¡°Everything going okay?¡± Dal asked, just to be polite. The woman gave him another look as she perused the selection of soda. She scowled as she didn¡¯t have any cash and the old vending machine didn¡¯t take cards or electronic payments. ¡°You take cards?¡± she asked, pulling out two bottles of water from a small refrigerator and heading to his desk. ¡®Yes, ma¡¯am,¡± Dal said. The woman stopped, he could see her mouth move, but she didn¡¯t speak. ¡°Ma¡¯am¡± was the word she mouthed. She shook her head and smacked the two bottles on the desktop. Dal quickly tallied up the cost and pushed the card reader toward her. She scanned her card and grabbed the bottles. ¡°Uh¡­ Have a nice day,¡± Dal said. The woman stopped again, her dark eyes burrowing holes into Dal as he stood there paralyzed. ¡°Yeah,¡± was all she said before heading to the glass doors. Dal tried to smile, but that died as he saw the world outside began to warp. He stared through the floor to ceiling tinted tempered glass windows as the businesses across the four lane highway seem to warp and shift. The woman also stopped, her hand on the door handle and the two bottles of water clattering to the floor. ¡°What the shit,¡± she whispered, her low tone seeming to echo across the dead silent room. There was a rumble and before Dal could move; the world plunged into darkness. *** Laughter woke Dal up. He lay on his back, in a dark void. The laughter continued, not one voice but many, maybe a dozen or so. He blinked his eyes as he could see and although he seemed to be in a void, he could feel the floor under his back. The laughter continued, increasing as Dal slowly got to his feet. A moment later he staggered back and fell on his ass as he looked up to see twelve figures looking down at him. They weren¡¯t human, or were human, but their faces were all angles and stretched out. Their mouths wide and filled with sharp teeth, there eyes hollow pits, and their skin bone white. The only difference between them were the crowns they wore, some were gold, red, black, silver, and other colors. They were all laughing. ¡°Why does it see us?¡± a rose crowned figure asked. They were still laughing, but Dal could hear their words boom through his mind. ¡°It matters not,¡± an ebony crowned figure announced. Massive hands appeared over Dal, but instead of grabbing for him, the hands morphed into a bone white set of scissors. Great massive cutting instruments that were three times his height. He tried to scream, but he couldn¡¯t say anything. The words just couldn¡¯t form, no matter how hard he tried. Were they going to stab him with giant bone scissors? Instead of impaling him, the scissors plunged into the floor and began slicing it up. Dal looked down to see that the floor he stood on had become a map, a monochrome view of coastlines, roads, mountains, and lakes spread underneath him. The great scissors sliced away and Sal tried to dodge them, as the map beneath his were cut to smaller and smaller pieces. A dozen great hands reached to the floor and Dal watched as the creatures stirred it up, all the while laughing. The small flecks of the maps were tossed around, floating into the air and raining back down into a chaotic mess. A crimson crowned figure towered over Dal and grabbed him. Dal stared at the massive figure, with its laughing gaping face, and felt a terrible coldness infuse him. ¡°Enjoy,¡± the creature said and tossed Dal down. Dal fell and fell, the floor didn¡¯t seem to move further away, instead he felt as if he were falling into one of the tattered maps. He made out a mountain, what looked like a great river, and then there was darkness once more. Dal gasped and slammed his head against the office chair. He let out a curse and scrabbled to his feet, hitting the chair again and ramming into the desk. He cursed once more, finally realizing he couldn¡¯t see a damn thing. Was he blind? No. Dal noted soft moonlight entering the windows. He dug into his trousers and pulled out his cell phone. He activated the cellphone flashlight and moved it around. There appeared to be no damage or strangeness, only that it was dark. He pointed the flashlight to the clock on the wall and frowned as he saw that it was only 1225 PM. Either he¡¯d been out for an entire day or only twenty-five minutes had passed. Dal heard a groan and startled as he jerked his flashlight toward the sound. The woman from before was sitting upon the tiled floor. She rubbed her head and cursed loudly. ¡°What the fuck happened?¡± she demanded and then cursed once more. ¡°Shine that light elsewhere.¡± Dal did so dutifully, turning the light back to himself and the desk. He got out from behind it and made his way to the floor to ceiling windows. ¡°Oh, shit,¡± he muttered as he looked out the windows. It was a clear and brilliant night, the kinds of nights that were impossible this close to the city. Sharp bright stars filled the sky and Dal stared at them. What caught his attention was the two moons that hung in the air, both full and bone white in the sky. ¡°Oh, shit,¡± the woman said. ***This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°This is some isekai shit,¡± Dal said. The woman frowned. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Isekai, where you get tossed into another world,¡± Dal said, he peered up at the two moons. They seemed to be about the same size, a hand¡¯s width apart in the sky. The woman didn¡¯t say anything, instead staring out the window. They had turned off their flashlights and stood in the darkness, coming to terms with their situation. ¡°This can¡¯t happen,¡± the woman said. ¡°It¡¯s impossible.¡± ¡°I think I saw it happening,¡± Dal said. He cleared his throat and told her of the vision he had. ¡°That¡¯s a hallucination,¡± the woman said. ¡°I didn¡¯t see anything. One moment the world went weird and I woke up on the floor. Was I drugged?¡± She looked down at a smart watch on her wrist and swiped through some icons. ¡°BP is up, but that just means I¡¯m stressed. We need to see a doctor.¡± ¡°Why? I feel fine.¡± ¡°People don¡¯t just go unconscious,¡± the woman said. ¡°If you pass out, there¡¯s something seriously wrong.¡± Dal chewed on that information and looked back at the two moons. ¡°Yeah, I think I¡¯ll go with some alien gods swirling around multiple worlds and tossing us here.¡± The woman snorted. She put her hand on the door and Dal cried out. ¡°What?¡± she asked. ¡°Don¡¯t go out there. We don¡¯t know what¡¯s out there. This is isekai, there might be monsters and the like.¡± The woman rolled her eyes again and reached for the door handle. She paused and looked up toward the two moons. ¡°Shit,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re right. We don¡¯t know what happened and where we are. This definitely isn¡¯t Broadway Street.¡± Dal nodded, looking out at what appeared to be a forest before them. In the bright moon light he could see the front area of the Store Ur Hoard, which was a parking lot. The three battered vans sat huddled together on one end of the lot, but the twenty odd spaces were empty. Beyond that would have been some drainage swales and a wide sidewalk, then the four lane Broadway Street. The parking lot remained, but everything beyond that was gone. In the place of Broadway were massive trees that rose forty feet in the air, creating a pitch black wall that could hide trolls, ogres, or goblins. ¡°Is there a secure place here?¡± the woman asked. ¡°Huh?¡± Dal asked. ¡°There¡¯s a freight elevator that way,¡± Dal pointed to his right, ¡±also some stairs, there are security doors on each flight of stairs, so that might stop something. Back here is the employees area, all brick and secured with security doors. Water cooler, bathroom, vending machine and the general manager¡¯s office.¡± As Dal finished, there was a sudden beep and then the emergency lighting flickered on. He jerked in surprise as the bright LED lights filled the darkened room. ¡°That¡¯s not good,¡± the woman said. ¡°What? Why?¡± ¡°We¡¯re now lit up,¡± the woman said. ¡°We can see out the glass and whatever¡¯s out there can see in.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Dal looked out and saw the high mounted LEDs flood the parking lot with light. He searched his memory and tried to figure out how long the power was supposed to last in those flood lights. ¡°Normally emergency lighting should last ninety minutes,¡± the woman said. She glanced around, ¡°Looks like you all cheaped out on the lighting. So maybe an hour?¡± ¡°Are you an electrician?¡± Dal asked. ¡°Nurse,¡± the woman replied. ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°We need to turn the interior lights off,¡± she continued. ¡°If there are creatures out there, then they should be a bit afraid of the lights. But if they can see us through the windows, then they might be a bit more inclined to see how we taste. If we are on another world.¡± Dal nodded. ¡°How do we turn off the lights. Aren¡¯t they emergency lights, therefore can¡¯t be shut off?¡± ¡°Find a ladder and I¡¯ll show you,¡± the woman said. Dal paused. ¡°What¡¯s your name again?¡± he asked. The woman grimaced. ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m Samira Garnier.¡± She extended her hand and Dal shook it. ¡°Dal Park,¡± he said. ¡°Good to meet you,¡± Samira said. Dal nodded and headed to the utility closet to find a small ladder. Samira quickly set it up and turned off the office emergency light. She didn¡¯t say anything and quickly went about shutting off lights. ¡°Just a button behind them,¡± Samira said. ¡°Easy peasy.¡± Dal nodded. ¡°Cool.¡± Dal handed the nurse a headlamp he had found in the utility room. She gladly accepted it and moved about the first floor, then into the first floor warehouse, shutting off lights. ¡°You seem pretty chill,¡± Dal said. ¡°Chill? Me?¡± Samira paused for a moment. ¡°Well, if this isekai theory of yours is right, everything we¡¯ve known is gone. But right now we have to secure this place and see what daylight brings.¡± Dal nodded as he set up the ladder. ¡°You seem pretty chill yourself,¡± Samira said. Dal shrugged. ¡°I like to procrastinate,¡± he said. ¡°Maybe tomorrow or the next day I¡¯ll have a freak out.¡± Samira chuckled at that. ¡°Same,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s natural to have a delayed response to traumatic events. Right now we don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on, so I guess we¡¯re not rightly freaking out at an appropriate level.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll endeavor to do more screaming,¡± Dal said, folding the ladder and following Samira. *** There was a single battered sofa in the break room. Samira sat in it, yawning. ¡°Not much here,¡± Dal said. ¡°You have coffee though,¡± she replied. ¡°Luke warm, just like mom used to make it,¡± Dal joked. ¡°Climbing up ladders and trying to unload a truck has me wiped out,¡± Samira yawned. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like dawn is anytime soon,¡± she added. It had taken them an hour to turn off most of the emergency lights. As Samira had guessed, most lights lost power before an hour was over. That made their job easier. They had also taken the time to see if they could see anything on the third floor of the warehouse. It was too dark and the trees too thick. ¡°There are some packing blankets in storage around here. They were never much of a seller,¡± Dal said. He rose to his feet and rummaged in a storage room, bringing out a half dozen packing blankets. ¡°It is a bit chilly,¡± Samira said. ¡°Does that mean this world might be in early spring or heading to winter?¡± Dal asked. ¡°How should I know?¡± Samira responded. In the dim light of a single candle that had been lit, Dal could see the hard expression she had in the morning was gone. Sometime in the last hour she had softened. ¡°How do these isekai stories go?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Guy get sucked into a game like world, gains powers, gets a harem, and becomes over powered.¡± ¡°So nerd power fantasies?¡± ¡°Basically.¡± ¡°Who knows, outside might be a futuristic world where no one wants for anything. A utopia.¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°Maybe,¡± he said, a little disappointed at that thought. Samira settled down on the sofa, looking up at the ceiling. ¡°I thought life sucked after finding my husband fucking my sister,¡± she said, ¡°but it looks like God¡¯s going all-in in making my life suck.¡± Dal sat there, unable to say anything. ¡°Well, at least you¡¯re not alone,¡± he said finally. ¡°Yeah,¡± Samira responded. *** Dawn arrived and Dal was both elated and terrified. They had found the roof access to the warehouse and stood in the chilly morning air. It seemed the front of the warehouse faced an easterly direction, as the sun rose up from behind pristine forests. ¡°Damn,¡± Samira whispered. ¡°That¡¯s beautiful. I didn¡¯t expect that.¡± Dal shivered at the sight. ¡°Looks like a lot of woods,¡± he said. ¡°Not an outdoorsy type?¡± Samira asked, grinning at him. ¡°I have a computer if I want to play in the outdoors,¡± he responded. Samira shook her head and laughed. ¡°Although, I think we should be freaking pretty hard right now.¡± Dal agreed. The storage warehouse faced east, toward a massive forest, but to the west were white capped mountains. They weren¡¯t massive, but they appeared to be a solid row of black blue rocks stretching north to south for miles upon miles. From the north, Dal could see a wide river cutting through the woods. Samira said it was probably five or seven miles from them and possibly a half mile wide. ¡°We¡¯re trapped between mountains and a river,¡± Samira said. ¡°I don¡¯t see any signs of civilization,¡± she added. ¡°What would that be?¡± Dal asked. ¡°Smoke, mostly,¡± she replied. ¡°Campfires, cooking fires, just a normal house burning down would be noticed from here.¡± Dal agreed once more. They were on a sort of plateau that Samira said extended a mile around them. The trees might be thick, but a mile out they dropped to half their height and spread out toward the river. She also spotted a wide creek north of the storage units. ¡°At least we¡¯ll have water,¡± Samira said. ¡°We¡¯ll have to begin cracking open these units to see if we can find anything of use. Food, weapons, and gear.¡± Dal nodded, still stunned by the view before him. ¡°There are snacks in the vending machine, but that¡¯s all the food we might have.¡± ¡°Although my ex-husband is a cheating piece of shit; we both loved the outdoors. I can hunt, fish, and track, if need be.¡± ¡°Uh¡­¡± Dal thought for a moment. ¡°I can cook up a mean package of ramen,¡± he finally said. ¡°At your age, I don¡¯t think I even knew how to do that,¡± Samira said. ¡°In time, we all learn and we all grow our skills.¡± ¡°How old do you think I am?¡± ¡°Eighteen?¡± ¡°I¡¯m twenty-two.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Dal grimaced. ¡°Okay. There are some bolt cutters in the storage room. We¡¯ll need to cut all the locks to see what¡¯s in them. Truthfully, business has not been all that good, only half of the total units were being rented out.¡± ¡°We have shelter, some food, and plenty of water. We¡¯ll be okay for a week or two,¡± Samira said. There was a glint in her eye as she looked out across the vast untouched forest. A look of eagerness and challenge. Dal glanced at the endless trees and sighed. *** They began with the indoor units. The first floor was given over to large twelve by sixteen foot units. There was a large rolling garage door that allowed access to the units. On the first floor there were twenty units, with only two thirds being currently rented out. Dal had a list of which units were currently being rented and brought out a pair of bolt cutters. Samira took the honors of snapping the first lock as Dal tried and failed at it. ¡°All in the grip,¡± Samira said, showing Dal. He nodded, his face still a dull red from his first few attempts. They rolled up the garage style doors. ¡°Does it tell you what these people store here?¡¯ Samira asked. ¡°No, just who they were. Although a former co-worker kept a list of what people stored, but that was just so he could steal them.¡± Dal laughed and shook his head. Rupert was a real asshole and he was now serving three years for armed robbery. ¡°Got anyone living in these places?¡± Samira asked. ¡°I hear storage units are a great place for cheapskates to rent out an live out of.¡± Dal frowned. ¡°We had a few, but they¡¯ve all been chased out long ago.¡± Samira nodded. ¡°Well, this is a bust in the food and weapons department.¡± The storage unit was filled with a scattered remains of torn cardboard boxes and trash. It seemed like whomever had rented the place wasn¡¯t keeping much in it. ¡°Next,¡± Samira grinned. They moved through the first floor. There were twenty units but only twelve were being rented out. Of the twelve, three held nothing but trash, four held furniture and clothing, three held building supplies, lumber and some tools, one held car parts and tools, but the last one was the real winner. ¡°A prepper!¡± Samira cried out in joy. She moved forward and pulled the lid off a five gallon bucket. Inside were the white pellets of rice. Dal scanned the room, on metal shelves there were scores of buckets filled with grains, rice, beans, and boxes of MREs and other non perishable foods. ¡°Just food though,¡± Samira said after a few minutes of searching the place. ¡°A real prepper would have weapons, tools, and gear in with the food. Although this was an environmentally stable place, I guess it makes some sense to just keep food in here.¡± Dal checked the list. ¡°This is Grady Garrow¡¯s,¡± Dal said. ¡°He¡¯s got another unit under his name outside.¡± ¡°Wanna bet it¡¯s filled with more stuff?¡± Samira grinned. Dal frowned. ¡°We¡¯ll have to go outside for that,¡± he said. Samira¡¯s grin fade as she looked at the large red rolling garage doors. Besides going to the roof of the warehouse, they hadn¡¯t been outside since. In fact, Samira¡¯s moving truck was still parked outside, it¡¯s rear doors opened and the unit she had been loading was still ajar. ¡°We¡¯ll have to do it eventually,¡± Samira said. There was a tinge of fear in her voice, but she picked up a crowbar they had taken from a unit and looked at the door. ¡°We¡¯ll need to figure out where we are and if there¡¯s anyone else out there. We can¡¯t be the only ones in this place, or this world.¡± ¡°We¡¯re like Adam and Eve,¡± Dal muttered. Samira flinched and looked at him. Dal stepped back at the expression on her face, it spanned both sorrow and rage. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Dal said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t mean anything by it.¡± Samira clenched her eyes shut and took a shuddering breath. ¡°No. I¡¯m sorry,¡± she said. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to¡­¡± she shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. Let¡¯s just go outside and see what it¡¯s like.¡± Dal nodded and they headed to the personelle door to the side of the garage doors. It couldn¡¯t be opened from the outside and would automatically lock once it closed. Dal had the keys with him, so they¡¯d be able to get back in. The air was slightly chilly, but in an early morning sort of way. ¡°Damn,¡± Samira said, taking a long deep breath. ¡°Have you never smelled such sweet air?¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°Smells normal.¡± ¡°No exhaust, no cooking smells, no dogshit, and no wonky sewers releasing gas.¡± Samira took another long breath. ¡°Well, I think I need a shower soon.¡± Dal sniffed his white button up shirt. Cleanliness was one thing his mother had always hammered into him. That brought up another thought. ¡°We need to build an outhouse or something.¡± Samira let out a grunt of laughter. ¡°What?¡± ¡°There¡¯s no water or plumbing. Everything outside of the storage is gone, therefore no sewage or water.¡± Samira sighed. ¡°Ugh, do you know how filthy those things are?¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re the camper lady.¡± ¡°Am I?¡± Samira chuckled. ¡°But you¡¯re right, we need a spot to poop and pee. If there are wild animals out there, spreading out the love is only going to piss them off.¡± ¡°How? Won¡¯t we be marking ¡®our territory¡¯?¡± ¡°No one gives up things without a fight,¡± Samira said. ¡°If this is some animals territory, now we¡¯re the squatters trying to take over.¡± Dal found logic in that statement. They passed Samira¡¯s truck and she sighed. Dal saw what she was looking at. The driver¡¯s door was open and the key was still in the ignition. There was no chiming indicating the door was ajar and that meant only one thing. ¡°Battery¡¯s dead,¡± Samira said. ¡°Those three vans outside work?¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°I mean, they did three months ago. I don¡¯t know now. Luis was supposed to be doing maintenance on them until the owner sold them off. No one¡¯s been really doing their jobs lately,¡± Dal said. ¡°A big place for only one person to run,¡± Samira said. ¡°Preach it,¡± Dal said as they passed her unit. There were furniture scattered about and a lot of trash, along with a few broken items. Samira gave a grimace. ¡°I was blowing off a little steam,¡± she said. Dal nodded, having seen her throw things about on the cameras. It was her stuff to break and it wasn¡¯t as if the owner of the units was going to come and demand that she pay for any damages. For all Dal knew, the owner was in a different world. ¡°Yeah,¡± he said. They continued onward. Grady¡¯s storage unit was toward the back, on the last row next to the big units. Dal found it and brought out the bolt cutters. Samira raised an eyebrow. ¡°All in the grip,¡± Dal said, adjusting the tool upon the lock. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Samira asked. Dal looked up. The back end of the self storage only held the five big units, but there was a lot of space for vehicles to turn around in or be parked. There was a two vehicle road that lead from the back to the front gates designed for large loads, so it took a moment for Dal to see what Samira was gesturing at. A creature staggered from one of the units, the steel door had been peeled back to allow it access into the unit. Dal immediately recognized it as the Store Ur Hoard owner¡¯s storage unit. The creature was pale blue and sickly looking, its head too big and its body too small, yet it carried a crooked spear and limped toward them, its small black eyes full of menace. ¡°I think it¡¯s a goblin,¡± Dal said. ¡°A what? How can such a creature even survive. It looks like it¡¯s having a hard time even walking. Aren¡¯t goblins also supposed to be green?¡± ¡°Where there¡¯s one, there¡¯s usually more,¡± Dal said. ¡°Usually in games they¡¯re like pack animals, safety and dangerous in numbers.¡± Samira backed up, putting her back against the storage units and peering down the alleyway and toward her truck. ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Dal said. He watched as two more of the sickly looking goblins pulled themselves out from the hole in the storage unit door. Their beady black eyes latched on them and they surged forward, claws and spears raised. Knowledge Seeker ¡°They¡¯re attacking,¡± Samira cried out as the lead goblin staggered toward them.Dal stared at the creature and then back at Samira, who was already stepping forward with the crowbar at the ready. Dal followed suit; hefting the bolt cutters and scampering to her side. The lead goblin let out a warbling cry and charged, the spear dipped slightly, but the head was weaving in all directions, not steady on the target.Samira stood stock still as the creature charged, her eyes wide and the crowbar shaking in her hand. The goblin didn¡¯t seem much of a creature, but the point of its spear was black gleaming obsidian and it was dangerous and Samira wasn¡¯t moving to protect herself. Panic and fear drove Dal forward.He pulled back the bolt cutters and smacked the spear downward. The pointed edge of the spear stabbed into the asphalt and the goblin¡¯s momentum pushed it forward. The thin branch of the haft snapped and the goblin face planted into the asphalt.There was a sickening crunch, followed by a low whimper of pain. With his blood still pumping, Dal slammed the bolt cutters into the back of the goblin¡¯s head.A dull thump filled the air along with the crack of bone.Dal staggered back, nearly dropping the bolt cutters as the goblin let out a death rattle, along with a putrid smell and a growing pool of blood.
High Goblin Core Guard: Killed 100 mana (First kill bonus) 1 redstone (First kill bonus)
It was a fucking isekai. Dal turned to see the goblin¡¯s two other companions were still approaching.This time warily as they eyed their dead compatriot on the ground.Dal rushed to Samira¡¯s side. The woman was still shaking and holding the crowbar, but this time her eyes were locked on the dead goblin. ¡°I¡­¡± she stammered. ¡°You killed it.¡± ¡°It was going to kill you.¡± ¡°It carried weapons, it was sentient,¡± she said, her voice low. Dal glanced down at the dead goblin and back at the other two, who had stopped and were grunting to one another. ¡°We can¡¯t kill them,¡± Samira said. ¡°They¡¯re sentient beings.They can talk, make tools.¡± ¡°Well, I think they want to kill us,¡± Dal said. He gently put a hand on Samira¡¯s arm and pulled her back, away from the two goblins and toward the truck.If it came to it, they could probably outrun the two, with their ridiculously short legs and all. ¡°This might be their home,¡± Samira replied. ¡°It¡¯s an isekai,¡± Dal said. ¡°Like I thought. After I killed that goblin, it gave me stuff.¡± Samira stared at him as if he were sputtering nonsense. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not lying,¡± Dal said, still eyeing the two goblins.They stopped by their dead friend and in unison stabbed it with their puny spears.One took a stone blade from its ragged belt and began sawing at an exposed leg. ¡°Oh, Christ,¡± Samira gagged watching as the two began butchering their friend. ¡°If we kill them, we gain mana and something called a redstone,¡± Dal said. He looked around and saw that they were being ignored by the two. ¡°Status,¡± he whispered.
Dal Park Health: 1 Regeneration: 1 Toughness: 1 Heart: 1 Perception: 2 Knowledge: 2 Insight: 2 Wisdom: 1 Perks: Organization I Knowledge Seeker I Inventory: 100 Mana 1 Redstone
Dal frowned at the list of his stats.He was used to the usual S.P.E.C.I.A.L style of stats, but this one was different. What kind of perk was Organization?Before he could continue perusing the lists and try to delve into the information, Samira jerked his shoulder. He looked up to see that the two goblins had turned their attention back to them.Their dead friend was half butchered, but they seemed to have suddenly gained an interest on the two.Dal and Samira had backed up to her truck and if it came to it, they could easily run and outpace them. ¡°I think we should kill them,¡± Dal said. ¡°What?¡± Samira let out a horrified squawk. ¡°This isekai isn¡¯t like what I¡¯m used to, but its kinda the same too.We have stats and we can upgrade them it seems.Either that or I¡¯m forever stuck at Health 1.¡± ¡°What the hell are you talking about,¡± Samira growled. ¡°We can¡¯t kill them. They¡¯re a type of people. Sentient intelligent creatures, aliens in fact.We¡¯re in a first contact situation and one of them is already dead.¡± A moment later the body of the dead goblin flickered and distorted. It was as if a digital glitch occurred, the creature¡¯s colors inverted and then shattered intoflurry of sparks and smoke.Nothing of the goblin was left behind, besides the broken spear and the chunks of flesh the other two goblins had carved off. ¡°I don¡¯t think they¡¯re real,¡± Dal said. ¡°Are we in some kind of simulation?¡± Samira said, looking around. ¡°Was that some kind of glitch in the Matrix?Did you just see that body disappear?¡± ¡°Yeah. Its title was a High Goblin Core Guard,¡± Dal said. ¡°What¡¯s a goblin core?¡± Samira asked, ¡°and why was it high?¡± ¡°I think High Goblin is the what it was and Core Guard is what it did.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Samira said.¡°What¡¯s a core that needs guarding?¡± Dal peered at the bent up flap of the distant storage unit and saw another sickly goblin drag itself into the open.This one looked even worse that the previous three.Its body was twisted and gnarled, but the small beady eyes still held malice and menace. ¡°I think its a dungeon core,¡± Dal said.
Knowledge Seeker: 1 bluestone
Dal jerked at the appearance of the alert. ¡°I just used my perk and was rewarded with figuring something out,¡± Dal said excitedly. ¡°It is a dungeon then.We¡¯ve got a dungeon in our storage units.¡± His grin faded after a moment as the realization of what that meant dawned on him. ¡°I¡¯m guessing this dungeon is not a torture place under a castle?¡± Samira asked, gripping her crowbar tighter. ¡°In games and stories a dungeon is a sentient crystal being that lures in people to fight creatures it creates from magic.¡± ¡°Why the hell would anyone do that?¡± ¡°They¡¯re lured in for wealth and to gain experience to level up their skills.You kill the creatures and they drop loot.Then you defeat the bosses in each level, like in a game but I guess in real life¡­¡± Dal shook his head. ¡°That¡¯s stupid,¡± Samira said. ¡°It would have to be a lot of money and loot to risk myself in something like that.¡± ¡°Well, most of these stories happen in medieval like worlds, where social mobility is non-existent.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have time to delve into the the socio economics of fictional worlds,¡± Samira said.The deformed goblin join its companions and there was a small fight among them as they tussled over the meat left behind. ¡°We need to defeat them, then maybe destroy the dungeon core,¡± Dal said.¡°These things are the core guards, that means they¡¯re protecting the exposed dungeon core.Like us, it was probably caught up in this strange world swap we¡¯re in.¡± ¡°So they¡¯re like automatons created by this core to protect it?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Is the core sentient?¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°Most dungeon core stories are from the POV of the dungeon core,¡± he said.¡°I don¡¯t know about non-fictional dungeon cores.¡± Samira shook her head again looking at the goblins.They had come to a truce and were eating the remains, albeit slowly as the meat appeared to be very tough.¡°Okay, you say they¡¯re not really alive.I¡¯ll¡­ I¡¯ll believe you.¡± She made up her mind and stepped forward, crowbar leading the way.Dal quickly followed, holding the bolt cutters like a bat. One of the goblins squawked and the three jumped to their feet, scrambling for their weapons. The sickly third goblin fell over and lay there, exhausted and breathing heavily.Dal felt a pang of worry for the creature. Was it really sick? Why would the dungeon core make a sickly defender? His questions were forgotten as Samira and he engaged the two goblins.They were slow, weak, and unsteady, but Samira and he were overly cautious.They kited the goblins for a bit, until the two creatures were breathing heavily and nearly retching with each breath. ¡°Maybe they¡¯ll die of a heart attack,¡± Samira said. One of the goblins collapsed to the asphalt, its spear clattering and a sickly spray of vomit erupting out of its mouth.The remaining goblin turned to laugh at its companion and Samira took that moment to strike. The steel crowbar slammed into the back of the head of the goblin, immediately the skull caved in.Blood, bone, and brains exploded outward, as if Samira had tossed a grenade into the creature. ¡°Ugh, fuck!¡± Samira gagged. Dal took the opportunity to strike at the gasping goblin.Its black beady eyes were now dulled and it barely moved.Dal stabbed the bolt cutters into the creature¡¯s throat.Its leathery skin parted like paper and the metal tips of the cutter hit the asphalt.Dal jerked back in surprise, slamming the cutter close.The hardened steel blade easily chopping through the goblin¡¯s neck. There was a slight pop and the goblin¡¯s head rolled away. ¡°Ugh, fuck!¡± Samira gagged again at the sight.
High Goblin Core Guard: Killed 25 mana Obsidian Dagger
Dal looked down to see that there was a sheathed knife at the goblin¡¯s belt.He yanked on the sheath and pulled out the blade.It was sized for the goblin and barely qualified as a pocket knife.Dal let out a bark of laughter. ¡°What?¡± ¡°My loot,¡± he said, holding up the dagger with a deadly three inches of blade on a bone handle. ¡°Trust me,¡± Samira said. ¡°Size isn¡¯t everything, even a little blade like that can do some damage.¡± Dal stifled another laugh. ¡°You¡¯re a child,¡± Samira smirked.¡°I got 100 mana and 1 redstone, whatever that is.¡± ¡°I got the same, first kill bonus?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°For this one, I got only 25 mana and the knife. Although I don¡¯t think it really counts as the dungeon giving me loot as it was literally a part of the goblin.¡± ¡°The other one left behind their spear,¡± Samira said. ¡°Maybe we can rob them of equipment before they dissolve.¡± Dal jerked back as the two goblins colors began to invert and a electric feeling filled the air. A moment later they vanished in sparks and smoke. ¡°There¡¯s the last one,¡± Samira said. ¡°All yours.¡± Samira grimaced and took a breath.They headed toward the last goblin that was still lying on the asphalt, a pathetic look on its face as they neared it. ¡°I feel sorry for it,¡± Samira said. ¡°But in the mangled dog on the side of the road kind of way.No way to save it and the only thing you can do it kill it.¡± Dal flinched as she slammed down the crowbar.It only took one hit. ¡°50 mana and¡­¡± Samira leaned over and dug into a pocket sewn into the ragged tunic of the goblin. ¡°One Garva copper.¡± Samira showed him the quarter sized copper coin. Dal took it and peered at it. One side of the coin held a rough engraved dragon and the other had the gaunt face of man with ram horns and a bushy beard. ¡°Guess these Garva aren¡¯t humans,¡± Dal said. Samira peered at the coin again.¡°They could be the dragons,¡± she said. ¡°Dragons are all about gold.The Garva are sheep people.¡± ¡°Fauns, like Pan.¡± Dal shrugged.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Also you¡¯re making a lot of assumptions.That may just be some kind of crown he¡¯s wearing.The craftsmanship on this coin has a lot to be desired.It¡¯s no US minted penny.¡± They shared a smile and then a frown. Together they turned to face the storage unit the goblins had emerged from. ¡°What¡¯s in there?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Well, most likely the dungeon,¡± Dal said. ¡°Before that it was John¡¯s friend¡¯s storage unit.He was hiding his stuff in there as he was going through a divorce or something.¡± ¡°John?¡± Samira asked. ¡°The owner of this place¡­ former owner?¡± ¡°John¡­ John¡­ John¡­¡± Samira mused.¡°Wait, John Vans?¡± ¡°Yup.You know him.¡± ¡°Who was his friend that used this storage unit?¡± Dal shrugged and thought back.¡°Farid Garnier¡­¡± ¡°John fucking Vans, my husband¡¯s friend.¡± Samira growled. ¡°I got home three days back and everything in our house was emptied out.Not the furniture, not the dishes, not the friggin¡¯ washing machine, but everything else.Electronics, tools, our gun safe, and his two classic cars.¡±Samira clenched her fists and stalked toward the storage unit. ¡°That asshole was hiding all his stuff and my damn lawyer said we shouldn¡¯t try and pursue it.He took my mother¡¯s jewelry!¡± ¡°Small world,¡± Dal said.¡°Well small former world.¡± Samira caught herself at his worlds.She looked northward, across the wide lot leading to the large units and toward the tall primordial trees and distant peaks of the mountains. ¡°Yeah,¡± she said deflated. ¡°Yeah.¡± She looked back at Dal and tried to force a smile. ¡°Let¡¯s destroy this core and secure this place. We still have to look in Grady¡¯s unit.¡± Dal nodded and carried his now filthy bolt cutters to the massive garage doors.There were security additions to the storage unit, but from the paperwork he had seen at the time, none of that had been added on.Instead a cheap padlock had been purchased and attached.Dal had to shake his head. The lock snapped easily.Samira and Dal both pulled the doors up, the bent edge that was the goblin¡¯s exit screeched as they forced the doors upward. ¡°Your former husband wasn¡¯t a hoarder, was he?¡± Dal asked as he looked at the piles and piles of junk that filled the unit.They were stacked from floor to ceiling, creating a pathway of sorts.Dal reached forward and pulled out a picture frame from the pile.It showed a dark skinned man in a speedo holding up a large fish. ¡°This is his stuff,¡± Samira said.She pulled out a silk tie from another pile.She reached toward another pile and pulled a second silk tie from it, a copy of the previous. ¡°I bought this for him.He only has one tie like this.¡± ¡°I think the dungeon is copying what was in the storage unit to¡­ create its dungeon.¡± ¡°How can this dungeon create matter from nothing?¡± ¡°Mana magic.In the books, the dungeon absorbs the original item and stores copies of it, when it has the mana, it can create it. ¡± Samira snorted. ¡°Matter energy replicators like in Star Trek.¡± Samira nodded. ¡°Oh, I get that. So this thing will just keep producing the same junk until its killed?¡± ¡°Well, monsters and the like, maybe.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s destroy it,¡± Samira said. ¡°Hold up,¡± Dal said. They stood in the entrance for a moment and soon another sickly goblin staggered toward them.This one was even worse than the last one.One arm was a stub and its head was a giant ballon with flesh so thin it was nearly transparent when sunlight hit it. ¡°This dungeon isn¡¯t well.¡± Samira snorted once more. ¡°How you do know? Are you a Dungeon Whisperer?¡± ¡°No.Look at that thing,¡± Dal said.¡°It¡¯s utterly fucked up, at least the first one we met was fully formed if kinda ugly. This one¡­ this one is just sad. Also, look at this.¡± Dal pulled an object from out of the wall.It was the same picture frame from before, but in this case the wood was brittle and the image was a smeared mess of colors; although the crotch of the man was clearly visible in his speedos. ¡°It just gets worse the more you look in,¡± Dal said. He gestured pass the laboring goblin and toward what looked like melted trash embedded in the walls. ¡°There might be a limit to the mana it can take it, but this dungeon just doesn¡¯t feel healthy at all.Can¡¯t you feel it?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± Samira replied. ¡°It makes monsters.What do you want to do?¡± ¡°We find the core and figure out what¡¯s wrong,¡± Dal said. Samira shrugged.¡°This that¡¯s what it can make, then I¡¯m fine with that.¡± She pointed at the goblin, who at that moment slipped and fell.Its massive head hit the concrete floor and exploded like a watermelon.¡°Christ.¡± Dal vomited at the sight. *** ¡°It¡¯s bigger on the inside,¡± Samira said as they turned another corner.There were no internal lights, but they could see easily enough.A bit dim, but still easy to see in. ¡°I think we¡¯re in the hills behind the storage unit,¡± Dal said.¡°We¡¯ve been traveling slightly downward with each room we pass.¡± ¡°Have we?¡± Samira asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t notice.All these rooms are the same.¡± Dal nodded as they entered the last room.Dal gagged again. Melted goblins lay scattered around a large circular room.They weren¡¯t killed, instead they seemed to be deformed creations. As if the dungeon had forgotten how to complete them. Within the center of the room was what they had come for.It was the dungeon core.Dal was expecting a brilliant gem floating in the center of the room, instead there was a melted lump of what looked like glass covering a stone pillar.Dal stared at it, the glass glowed faintly and he could almost feel it trying interact with him.Was it trying to kill him or communicate? ¡°Look at that,¡± Samira said, nudging something on the floor.Dal peered at what she was poking with her crowbar. ¡°Holy shit,¡± he said, crouching down.A figure about the size of his hand lay twisted and burned on the stone floor.Half of its body seemed to be covered in melted glass and the other was twisted bones and limbs. ¡°Its a dungeon fairy.¡± ¡°Now you¡¯re just making shit up,¡± Samira said. ¡°No, dungeons are supposed to have little helpers that guide them to becoming fully formed and operational dungeons.They¡¯re fairy like creatures that normal people can¡¯t see.¡±Dal leaned forward and touched the fairy with his finger. ¡°What the hell are-¡° Samira began. Dal jerked back and screamed. Pain, pain, pain, and fear.Pain, pain, confusion. Pain, pain, G¡¯vina? Pain, pain, defend self.Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain. An endless scream. Mana. Mana. Broken. Mana. Dal stared at his finger, there was a scorched mark where he had touched the little being.The burn throbbed with pain and he felt a wave of sickness envelop him.¡°It¡¯s in so much pain,¡± Dal said. Samira looked at the melted glass. ¡°We should kill it,¡± she said. ¡°No,¡± Dal said. ¡°We can¡¯t just leave it in pain. That¡¯s just cruel.¡± ¡°I think it needs mana to rebuild itself,¡± Dal said. ¡°Your hand okay? That¡¯a pretty gruesome burn,¡± Samira stated. ¡°It hurts, yeah, but I¡¯ll be fine.What we need is to figure out how to give the core mana,¡± Dal sad. ¡°We barely even know what mana is,¡± Samira said, crouching down beside Dal.She poked the dead body of the fairy with the tip of her crowbar.The steel gave a little sizzle.¡°This thing is burning hot, how? Maybe it¡¯s full of mana, should be give it over to the core?¡± ¡°Lets try something else first,¡± Dal said.He opened his hand and closed his eyes. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Summoning,¡± Dal said. ¡°Okay¡­¡± ¡°One hundred mana, make it physical,¡± Dal said. Samira jerked back as light began to swirl around Day¡¯s hand.It warped and burned with heatless light, slowly it solidified, turning into a shard of glowing crystal. ¡°Holy crap,¡± Samira muttered. ¡°It¡¯s the one hundred and twenty-five mana I was awarded,¡± Dal said excitedly. ¡°How did you know how to do that?¡± Samira asked. Dal shrugged. ¡°I guessed it could be done? I don¡¯t know. I was thinking since we were given different amounts of mana for each kill, that it could maybe mana could be traded or used as currency or something. Therefore, if you needed me to spot you ten mana, then I could.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a convoluted thought process,¡± Samira said. ¡°But it worked.¡±
Knowledge Seeker: 1 bluestone
¡°I got another bluestone,¡± Dal said. ¡°That makes two bluestones and one redstone.¡± ¡°Another question being what are they used for,¡± Samira said. She closed her eyes and soon it too began to suffuse with light.A moment later a similar crystal shard appeared on her palm. As she was doing that, Dal summoned a redstone. It was a soft half inch disc that looked like a colorful river rock. In the middle of the stone was a closed fist.Dal summoned a bluestone and it formed on his palm.It was similar to the redstone, except it was a dark blue and had the engraving of a human head on it. ¡°Heads and fists,¡± Samira said, peeking at the stones.They took a moment to summon all of their stones. Two reds and two blues. ¡°Why are you rich in stones?¡± Samira asked. ¡°I have the Knowledge Seeker Perk, its been giving me a bluestone when I stumble upon some kind of knowledge.¡± Samira had a far away look for a moment and let out a grunt. ¡°Can you see this?¡±
Samira Garnier Health: 2 Regeneration: 2 Toughness: 2 Heart: 2 Perception: 1 Knowledge: 2 Insight: 1 Wisdom: 2 Perks: Nurse I Hunter I Teacher I Endurance I Inventory: 1 Redstone
¡°Well, as I¡¯m nearly twice your age, I think my higher stats are a given.But just only by one stat point?I spent nearly ten years in college and I¡¯m barely at the same level of a twenty-two year old kid?¡± Samira said. ¡° Teacher? I don¡¯t think I ever taught anyone besides new nurses. I¡¯ve done hunting with my father and husband, but not in the last two years.¡± ¡°Maybe it reflects what you hold deeply?¡± Dal asked. ¡°Did you like teaching newbies?¡± ¡°Yeah, it was great to see those new little shits craps themselves when they had to hold down a bleeding, screaming methhead who thought it was a good idea to jump through a glass door.¡± Samira chuckled a bit. ¡°But it was sometimes the only good thing about the job.Making sure someone would be ready for the shit they were going to go through.Hunting was also something I really loved doing with my dad.I think those were the only times I had with him alone, without my asshole sister and baby brother.¡± Samira shook her head.¡°I also like to run marathons and was training for an ultra-marathon in six months.¡± Dal nodded, not really knowing what to do with all the information she gave him. ¡°I guess its what we really loved doing in the old world that became our starting perks.¡± ¡°Organizing?¡± Samira asked. Dal chuckled.¡°My dad called me OCD. I just like sorting things and organizing paperwork.It¡¯s worked out for me so far.¡± Dal took a moment to look at their two status pages. ¡°It looks like perks aren¡¯t just some abstract thing like Organizing, but also physical changes to you. You have an Endurace Perk, do you feel tired?¡± ¡°I felt pretty tired last night,¡± Samira admitted. ¡°But this morning it felt like I had the greatest sleep in the world. I haven¡¯t even had coffee yet.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s not like the games I¡¯ve played before.No strength, chrisma, or luck stats,¡± Dal muttered. ¡°Health, Regeneration, and Toughness are obvious.¡± ¡°Are they? Regneration of what?¡± Samira asked. ¡°If we¡¯re injured will we heal faster? Or is one¡¯s entire body regeneration?¡±She was lost in thought for a moment. ¡°I need to run a mile and see how I feel,¡± she added. Dal chuckled.¡°We haven¡¯t even left the storage units.¡± ¡°It¡¯s brain power and physical power,¡± Samira said. ¡°The reds are your body and the blues are your brain.¡± She suddenly jerked and grinned.¡°I got a bluestone for figuring that out.Delving into the System, one bluestone.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s not just Perks that give you bluestones,¡± Dal said.¡°You get redstones from physical acts and bluestones from mental acts.¡± ¡°With the Perks being something added extra?¡± Samira said. ¡°Are the Perks random? Can you ¡®purchase¡¯ them? Are they upgradeable, as of now, they¡¯re all at level one. They also don¡¯t fall into the whole physical and mental stuff.¡± Dal leaned back and stared at the melted dungeon core. So many things were going on and his head was aching a bit.If only there were a Help wiki or book to teach them what was going on. ¡°They¡¯re upgrading tokens,¡± Dal said. ¡°The reds boost your physical attributes and the blues your mental.¡± Dal summoned his redstone and closed his eyes. He thought on what he wanted to do with it.This was a dangerous world and even one point in Health could mean he would be able to survive an attack.¡°One point to Health.¡±
You need 4 redstones to reach Health 2
Dal handed Samira the redstones he had.¡°Try to upgrade your Health,¡± he said. ¡°Your sure?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°Says I can¡¯t. I need nine redstones to do that.¡± ¡°Its the square of the level you¡¯re trying to reach,¡± Dal said.¡°Health 1 seems to be the starting point. Health 2 is four redstones. Health 3 is nine redstones.¡± ¡°Gets pretty pricey the higher you want to level,¡± Samira said. ¡°Then what¡¯s the mana for?¡± Dal asked. He looked down at the mana between them.Two hundred and fifty total. ¡°Mind if I?¡± ¡°Go for it, you¡¯re the knowledge seeker.¡± Dal grinned. ¡°What can I do with you?¡± he asked the crystals. Nothing. Dal closed his eyes and tried to use the mana crystals to summon a purchase screen.It had to be some kind of currency, right? Nothing happened. Dal stared down at the crystals again, racking his brain. ¡°Maybe they¡¯re used in some kind of magic stuff?¡± he asked no one. ¡°Show me magic stuff.¡± Samira let out a stifled chuckle. ¡°Gimmie some bluestones,¡± Dal said. Immediately the mana crystals burst into bright light and in his palm was one bluestone and left one mana crystals.Dal and Samira shared a looked.Dal put the crystals into his inventory.
50 Mana added 50 mana total
¡°Looks like it took two hundred mana to make this bluestone.¡± Dal said. ¡°So the mana can make stones. Do they cost the same amount?¡± ¡°Well, we don¡¯t have enough to make more,¡± Dal said. ¡°Hold on.¡± Dal stared at the bluestone, directing a thought toward it. ¡°Give me back my mana.¡± The light swirled again, but this time less so.Dal took up the mana.
150 Mana added 200 Mana total
¡°Damn,¡± Dal siad. ¡°You can turn mana into bluestones for two hundred, but it only gives you back one-fifty when you turn it back into mana.¡± ¡°Call the Better Business Bureau.We¡¯re being scammed here.¡±
Knowledge Seeker: 2 bluestones
¡°Well, I got two bluestones for figuring this out.¡± Dal said. ¡°That Knowledge Seeker business is a paying out too well,¡± Samira said. ¡°I haven¡¯t gotten anything from Nurse or Endurance.¡± ¡°Two redstones, four bluestones, and two hundred mana,¡± Dal muttered. ¡°We sharing all our loot now?¡± Samira asked, an eyebrow raised. ¡°We have to pool resources in times of emergency,¡± Dal grinned. ¡°Plus we need to know what these things do and how we¡¯re supposed to level up, if we¡¯re not given actual levels.Also how do we get Perks and how can we give this little damaged dungeon more mana?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Samira said.She looked around the sad and droopy dungeon. ¡°You think this stuff over. I¡¯ll see what Grady¡¯s unit has.¡± ¡°You sure?¡± ¡°All this sitting is good, but I¡¯m not cut out for it.Give me a stab wound patient or juicy doctor gossip, but sitting around pondering this? Nah. Be safe and scream if you need my help.¡± Dal nodded, offering her the bolt cutters.She gave him her crowbar and left him behind. Dal looked at the melted core and sighed. *** ¡°If you want walkie talkies, we got them. You want cellphones and hard drives filled with porn, we got them.You want cheap radios and old ass computers? We got them,¡± Samira said a few hours later.¡°Grady was going to open up an old army surplus electronics store.¡± Dal peered into the storage unit to see shelves stacked with metal tubs; they were larger galvanized steel drums wrapped in what looked like metal tape.He looked at Samira. ¡°Faraday Cages,¡± she said.¡°Guess he was expecting and EMP or something.¡± Dal pulled up a plastic lawn chair and sat down. ¡°How¡¯s the knowledge gaining?¡± she asked. ¡°Put simply, red is body, blue is mind, purple is Perks, two reds and two blues make a purple, with a purple you can open up the perks catalogs, but its limited to your current levels in body and mind stats.¡± ¡°You worked this all out?¡± Samira asked, impressed. Dal set a yellow legal pad before her. It was filled with his scribbles and notes. ¡°Upgrading a Perk is also a square cost. Four, nine, sixteen¡­ put differently we¡¯ll need about eight reds, eight blues, or thirty-two hundred mana to increase each of our Perks to level two.¡± ¡°And the new ones?¡± ¡°Almost anything you want,¡± Dal said. He produced a purple disc and handed to her.¡°Just ask to see the List. Making one purple stone is two reds and two blues mixed, so its pretty cheap to get a level one perk.¡± Samira¡¯s eyes rose.¡°There is a lot, most of them kind of useless.Dishwashing Perk?Keeps water hotter longer and kills more bacteria?¡± Samira laughed. ¡°I¡¯m thinking that all these crappy level one Perks, if you get the right combo can open up more powerful Perks,¡± Dal said. ¡°I got three blues for coming to that realization.¡± ¡°How many have you gained now?¡± ¡°Since you left, about forty,¡± Dal said. ¡°Holy shit, did you upgrade anything?¡± Dal shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m tempted, but I think this should be a group discussion.¡± ¡°Group? There¡¯s only two of us,¡± ¡°True, but we¡¯re going to need mana for the dungeon,¡± Dal said. ¡°You figured out what¡¯s wrong with it?¡± Samira asked. ¡°I think when we were sucked into this world, this dungeon was also sucked in from another world, but it¡¯s trip was more rough. It¡¯s fractured, I think.Damaged in the crossing, its fairy died trying to save it, and now its a broken mess in constant pain. I got two bluestones figuring that out.¡± Samira took a seat across from him, sitting in another cheap plastic chair. ¡°Okay,¡± she said. ¡°You want to keep this dungeon alive?¡± ¡°Yeah. Long term, if it can be healed.The stories say its a great place for weapons, gold, and other riches.¡± ¡°If you¡¯re willing to risk your life every time,¡± Samira said. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°You¡¯re also saying it¡¯s broken, do you know how to fix it? Is it like a car, a person?¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°How much mana do you need?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Maybe three thousand mana to stabilize it.That¡¯s twenty blues turned into mana. That¡¯ll leave us with twenty one blues and one red.¡± ¡°I suppose we can afford it,¡± Samira said. ¡°I also want you to upgrade to Nurse 2 and gain the Perk Medical Check,¡± Dal said. ¡°You want me to?¡± Samira asked, eyebrow raised. ¡°I also want you to get the Perk Powershot.¡± ¡°What?¡± Samira demanded. She did the math in her head. ¡°That¡¯s all the blues, reds, and mana, along with this purple.¡± ¡°I know. From a survival aspect, you¡¯re the one with the most skills.You can hunt and you can fix injuries, you can also teach. That latter one is pretty important, because I think you can teach me Perks.¡± Samira stopped. ¡°Again: what?¡± ¡°I was looking at the list of Perks I could get, but Teacher wasn¡¯t on it. It should have been, but I didn¡¯t see it.I think there are some Perks that are solely for us, like my Knowledge Seeker, also your Teacher. I¡¯m completely guessing at this point, but it¡¯ll only cost two purples if I¡¯m wrong.¡± Samira frowned but nodded. ¡°You¡¯re making me do all the heavy lifting. I was practically a doctor, you know.But you want me to be a hunter and a fighter? What are you going to do?¡± ¡°Dungeon Lord,¡± Dal said. Iron Birds ¡°It¡¯s illegal to store weapons and flammables in self storage units,¡± Dal stated. ¡°But it gets done?¡± ¡°More than you think.We don¡¯t ask what you¡¯re storing, if you do store weapons, we can¡¯t really do anything unless we actively see you doing it.If we do catch you, then it¡¯s time to call the police and such,¡± Dal continued. ¡°I guess we can¡¯t do that here.¡± ¡°Plus we¡¯re technically stealing these,¡± Samira said. ¡°True.¡± Samira laid the weapons out on the plastic table she retrieved from a storage room filled with party equipment.There was a shotgun; pump action, a .22 rifle, one .357 revolver, and two 9mm pistols.There were also three bows, one recurve and two compound.According to Samira, the two compound bows had plenty of spare parts and could be used for a long time. There were also various hunting knives, machetes, axes, hatchets, bats, and billhooks that came from one storage unit. ¡°We have tools, weapons, food, and a water source,¡± Samira said. ¡°Survival is looking good.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll need to move everything into the main warehouse,¡± Dal said. ¡°This is a lot of space that two of us can¡¯t protect.If there are some monsters out there, then we¡¯re going to be in trouble.¡± ¡°Your boss, John, was big into fishing and outdoorsy stuff, that¡¯s how we met him and his ever revolving cast of blonde girlfriends,¡± Samira said. ¡°He¡¯s got a bass fishing boat with a motor, a row boat, a dismantled Jeep, and an All Terrain Vehicle, like a golf cart, but beefed up with a gasoline engine.Plus a bunch of tools and about fifty gallons of gasoline.¡± ¡°He should know better,¡± Dal sighed. ¡°I¡¯d see him sometimes working on stuff in there. Can¡¯t say much when he owns the place.¡± ¡°You could. The law¡¯s the law.¡± ¡°I like eating ramen everyday,¡± Dal said and Samira grinned. ¡°We can triage this stuff,¡± Samira said. ¡°We don¡¯t need all of it in the warehouse nor do we need all the stuff in the warehouse in the warehouse.Food, weapons, tools, and fuel we can place inside, but the other junk, old furniture, the old clothes, and things we don¡¯t need can be placed out here.We can jump the truck with a battery jumper I found, then move it and the vans in front of the front glass windows, maybe move some junk in front of the chainlink gates.¡± Dal nodded.She was right on all counts. ¡°The ATV will give us a good start on exploring and seeing what lies about here,¡± Samira said. ¡°We have about two hundred shells for the shotgun, a thousand for the .22, fifty for the .357, and two hundred for the 9 millimeters.There are also about a hundred arrows total, with some fletching, arrowheads, and shafts to make another one hundred.¡± ¡°The only weapons I ever held were those bolt cutters,¡± Dal said. ¡°Although I was pretty high ranked in COD.¡± ¡°I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s a video game reference,¡± Samira said. ¡°I mostly handled a .308 Ruger Bolt Action, but a .22 is a decent small game hunting weapon. You¡¯d be surprise how fast you go through ammo. That thousand might last only a few months.¡± ¡°We can get the Dungeon to make more,¡± Dal said. ¡°Can we?¡± Dal shrugged in honesty. ¡°I dunno, actually.In the books they can make things out of mana. But right now we need mana just to keep it on life-support.¡± Samira put her fists on her hips, looking down at the weapons. ¡°You can have one round from each weapon, including the arrows, maybe it¡¯ll be able to recreate them one day.¡± Dal grinned. ¡°Yeah. We can give it copies of stuff too, the things we don¡¯t need.Otherwise it¡¯ll just rot or degrade out here.¡± ¡°Easy now, we¡¯ll need to separate this stuff first,¡± Samira said. ¡°But yeah, we can¡¯t make use of all this stuff, so eventually we¡¯re going to have to figure out what to do with them.For now, food ,water, shelter, and safety are the most important things.¡± ¡°Keeping the dungeon alive too,¡± Dal said. ¡°Which brings me to the question of what you meant by Dungeon Lord?¡± Samira asked. ¡°It was a joke, but not really,¡± Dal said. He pondered for a moment. ¡°Okay, so I was looking at the Perk lists and thinking about how some Perk combos can unlock more advanced Perks.So, there are several Perks like Magic Sense, Mana Crafting, and Core Crafting.¡± ¡°Core crafting?¡± Samira asked. ¡°It¡¯s a Perk that allows you to create Mana Cores that can boost magical items, I think.Since this dungeon core is all mana and magic, core crafting might be a path for me to figure out where to begin healing this core.¡± ¡°That¡¯ll be a lot of purples,¡± Samira said. ¡°Which is why I think you should be the warrior in our little group.¡± ¡°Me? The nurse? Me, who froze when confronted with a malformed goblin?¡± ¡°Actually I think the first three goblins we faced were how they¡¯re supposed to look.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not making it any better,¡± Samira said. ¡°We can go out hunting for redstones, slaying beasts and cleansing the area to keep us safe.We can do a lot of thinking and pondering and make some bluestones.¡± ¡°Sounds insane,¡± Samira said. ¡°We could just lay down a lot of poisons and let the critters kill themselves.We have plenty of chemicals, anti-freeze does the trick.¡± ¡°That¡¯s terrible,¡± Dal said, shocked. Samira grimaced. ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t know why I said that.Anti-freeze poisoning is a terrible way to go.¡± ¡°Eventually we¡¯ll have to go redstone hunting,¡± Dal said. ¡°That is if we want to level up stuff.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve met a lot of people who would love this, the kind of people who always want to see their numbers go up.In their bank accounts, in the amount of steps they¡¯ve walked in a day, basically a numerical sign that they¡¯re doing ¡®good¡¯,¡± Samira said. ¡°It leads to some injuries, a lot of stress, and eventually burn out.¡± ¡°So no power leveling?¡± Dal asked. ¡°Do you even know where these supposed monsters with XP are?¡± Samira asked. ¡°If they¡¯re wild animals, then they aren¡¯t just going to attack you, most animals are afraid of humans.¡± ¡°In our world, but this is an isekai world.Who knows, the animals might also want to level too, therefore killing an XP rich human is on the menu.¡± ¡°Christ, that¡¯d be terrifying. That¡¯d make us prey, rather than the top of the food chain.Three hundred thousand years of evolution swept away in one day.¡± Samira sighed, glancing back toward the distant dungeon storage unit. ¡°Take care of that dungeon first, feed it the mana, then we¡¯ll begin loading all this stuff into the warehouse.¡± ¡°Why does that sound like the time my mom said I could have the stray cat I found only if I did all the cleaning for it and paid the vet bills.¡± ¡°Because that¡¯s the sound of a cosmic truth being laid down,¡± Samira said. ¡°You¡¯re taking on the responsibility of that Dungeon, if it kills us both, then that¡¯s your fault.If it dies, that¡¯s your fault. If it becomes too much of a hassle, you¡¯re going to have to deal with it, which includes having to kill it.¡± Dal looked toward the dungeon and gulped slowly. ¡°It¡¯s a lot of responsibility,¡± Samira said. ¡°That thing is not a toy, not a pet, it¡¯s something that¡¯s living, but not in a biological sense. If what you say dungeons are supposed to be, then it¡¯s also dangerous as hell.There¡¯s a story about a guy who raised a hippo from the time it was a baby, he bonded with it and thought they were besties, but that little shit grew up and gave less than two fucks about the bond the dude made with it.Because it was a wild ass animal and wild ass animals do what they do.¡± ¡°I get it,¡± Dal said. ¡°Do you really?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Because I barely even understand what¡¯s going on.But I¡¯ve seen plenty of people make stupid decisions and they came to my hospital bleeding, sobbing, and begging for forgiveness.I barely have a first aid kit here and there are no hospitals.¡± Dal was silent for a long moment. ¡°We¡¯re going to have a difficult time surviving as it is,¡± Samira continued. ¡°It might look like we have a lot of stuff and food, but that goes very fast.Things break, things spoil, and we don¡¯t have the combined knowledge on how to fix most of this stuff. Do you know how to fix a car? A walkie talkie? Or even how to clean a gun?¡± Dal shook his head. ¡°We need to be smart about this. We need to be careful. This might be some fantasy world you¡¯ve read about in books, but do you have a protagonist¡¯s plot armor? Maybe we¡¯re those sad people who die of starvation and exposure when we¡¯re only a few miles from safety and other people.¡± ¡°Be smart, be cautious,¡± Dal said. ¡°Be vigilant,¡± Samira added. She sighed again. ¡°Go feed your dungeon.Then help me load up this stuff. There are some pallet carts in the warehouse.¡± Dal nodded and rose to his feet. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re here,¡± he said. Samira nodded and smiled. ¡°We¡¯ll make it, whatever that is.We¡¯re the protagonists of this story, Dal.¡± *** Dal stood over the melted core, the body of the fairy had faded away, leaving behind a pile of cracked crystals.Dal used a trowel to move the shards to the pillar with the melted core.The aluminum trowel began to sizzle as the crystals touched it.He quickly dumped them on the core. He was expecting an immediate reaction, but nothing happened.The crystals bubbled and slowly melted back into the core mass. Dal summoned ten bluestones, holding them in both hands.He closed his eyes and turned them back into mana shards.A singular large shard lay in his hands, a total of one thousand five hundred man. ¡°Here goes nothing,¡± he muttered.He placed the shard onto the core.He jerked back as lighting erupted from the crystals; a small ball of electricity burned around the melted core and the mana crystals were absorbed.He didn¡¯t notice any changes to the core.He summoned the other ten bluestones and turned them into mana.Again there was a ball of electricity and the shards vanished. The room ¡®relaxed¡¯ as if a great weight was lifted.Dal could feel it in the air, in the way the dungeon¡¯s trash walls seemed to relax just a bit, and the raw painful energy coming off the core dimmed slightly. Was this the right course of action? He wondered.Samira¡¯s words still rang in his ears, but something inside of him told him that this was a good thing.Perhaps it was hubris and he¡¯d bring death to all of them and the world with this stupid act of trying to rescue a core. He had taken in the cat, but it had become a hassle.Eventually his mother had re-homed the cat to people who loved him and treated him well.He never was allowed a pet after that, not even a goldfish.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Your fairy died to protect you,¡± Dal said to the core.That was one thing he could see in the series of images that had burned through his mind when he touched the dead being.¡°They died to try to keep you whole as those laughing assholes tore apart our worlds.They cut you in half, didn¡¯t they? When they were slicing up all the worlds, they broke you apart and your fairy tried their best to keep you whole. I¡¯ll do my best too, in their honor.¡± Dal closed his eyes, hoping for some kind of response.Was the core sentient? Did it know what was happening to it? Did it know that Dal was trying to help it? A hiss filled the room and Dal looked up to see a giant spider hanging above him.It dropped down upon him, it¡¯s massive frame pinning him down. *** Samira heard the scream coming from the dungeon.She automatically snatched up the shotgun and raced to the storage unit. The garage doors were open and she raced inward, running through empty room upon empty room, as Dal had said; the core room was located slightly downward and dug into the hills behind the self storage business. Dal¡¯s scream had turned into yelling now.He stood against the far wall, smashing what looked to be a dog sized spider against the wall.The spider was screeching back too, its remaining three legs trying to claw and stab him. ¡°Drop it and fall back!¡± Samira screamed. Dal didn¡¯t look back or hesitate.He shoved the spider against the wall once more and threw himself back, scrabbling along the floor to safety. Samira fired a single round into the spider as it tried to get up.The buckshot tore the creature in half, spreading ichor against the trash walls.
Titan Spider Core Guard: Killed 100 mana 1 Titan Talon 10 yards of spider silk
¡°¡¯Are you okay!¡± Samira shouted, the shotgun still pointed at the dead spider. ¡°Aw, fuck,¡± Dal said.¡°That spider scratched me up pretty good.¡± ¡°Was it poisonous? Did it bite you?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Get out of the way,¡± Samira said as she leveled the shotgun onto the melted core. ¡°This little fucker is going bye-bye.¡± ¡°Wait,¡± Dal said. ¡°Wait? Fuck that. This little shit was out of mana when we killed those goblins, but the moment you feed it some mana it tries to kill you?Just think of this as a three thousand mana teaching moment.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just running on instincts,¡± Dal said. ¡°Which is to kill anyone in the core room,¡± Samira stated. ¡°Yeah, but-¡° ¡°But nothing. We kill it and we can laugh about it later on.Remember how we tried to tame a broken dungeon core and you nearly got shredded by a giant ass spider? Ha. Ha. Ha.¡± The robotic laugh made Dal flinch. ¡°It was only able to make one guard,¡± Dal said. ¡°The rest went into healing itself.It was scared and trying to protect itself.¡± ¡°Well, that guard was far stronger than all of those goblins we faced this morning,¡± Samira said. ¡°Obviously it used a lot of the mana you gave it to make a stronger killing machine.¡± ¡°It was still deformed,¡± Dal said.He gestured to the titan spider that hadn¡¯t yet vanished. Samira could see that it had only three arms, the others were small crooked appendages.The eight eyes were all milky white and it just looked sad and wrong upon further inspection. A pitiful killing machine. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. You don¡¯t bite the hand feeding you,¡± Samira said. ¡°It¡¯s hurt, scared, and not all here,¡± Dal said. ¡°In time, maybe it¡¯ll realize what we¡¯re trying to do for it.¡± ¡°You can go and save the next stray dungeon,¡± Samira said. ¡°This one bites, that means it has to be put down.¡± ¡°No,¡± Dal said firmly.He rose to his feet and limped toward the pedestal.Samira immediately lowered the shotgun. ¡°Are you crazy? Look at you, you¡¯re bleeding and who knows what cooties that deformed spider had on it. Or what¡¯s in this room that was just this morning filled with melted goblins?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t kill it,¡± Dal said. Samira gave a loud sigh, flicking on the safety of the shotgun. ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here, you¡¯re bleeding and look like shit.¡± She grabbed his arm and led him out, casting a glare at the melted core. *** ¡°Nothing a little time and bandages can¡¯t fix,¡± Samira said. Dal sat shirtless in the open garage door of the warehouse.Samira had a decent first aide kit in her belongings, along with what they found in other units, and the mostly expired stuff in the breakroom. The deformed spider had left a lot of long shallow cuts along his back, rendering his nice button down shirt into nothing but shreds.He sighed as Samira handed him a bright yellow t-shirt with the words World¡¯s Best Dad written on it. ¡°Got anything else?¡± he asked. ¡°Of course, but this one is both mocking and suited for you,¡± Samira said. Dal grimaced and pulled the shirt on, wincing at the twinge of pain from his cuts. ¡°You¡¯re still adamant about keeping that thing alive?¡± Samira asked.She reloaded the shotgun. ¡°Yeah,¡± Dal said. ¡°Pistol or melee weapon?¡± Samira asked. Dal gave her a questioning look. ¡°That little shit is dangerous, so you¡¯re never going into that place unarmed.We¡¯ll figure a way to block the door too, so that it doesn¡¯t let any stray goblins out to stab us in our sleep.¡± Dal sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± ¡°Of course, with age comes experience, kiddo.¡± *** ¡°We can set up the solar panels up in the morning,¡± Samira said as she stirred a pot of ramen over a grill.They had found a propane grill and four twenty pound tanks.There had also been five regular charcoal grills too, with only fifty pounds of charcoal between them. Dal opened a can of peas and another can of spinach.He grimaced at the two vegetables, but Samira was adamant they not just eat the vending machine foods.Dal had figured out how to jimmy open the vending machines and they had access to lukewarm soda and old chips and candy bars. ¡°We should save some of this stuff for the dungeon,¡± Dal said. ¡°I¡¯m not cooking for the dungeon,¡± Samira stated. ¡°I meant the can food and other foodstuff.We saw it can make copies of stuff,that¡¯s what the trash walls all were made of.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not liking the idea of reducing our food supplies. It may look like a lot, but everything goes by faster than you think.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± Dal said. Samira sighed. ¡°You remind me of my brother too much,¡± she said.¡°He was always eager to do things and ran around chasing thoughts and ideas, even stupid ones.¡± ¡°Where is he now?¡± ¡°Dead,¡± Samira said. She winced. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°No, I am,¡± Samira said. ¡°He passed a long time ago.A stupid accident.¡± ¡°Still, I¡¯m sorry for your loss.¡± ¡°The point I was trying to make was that, he just let people trample over him.You showed some backbone in the dungeon,¡± Samira said. ¡°I was all set to kill that thing, but you stood up for it.My brother never managed to get that far before he passed.He was always the victim, always the guy who got used, left behind, like a puppy that just tried to be your friend, but instead got kicked.¡± ¡°So I¡¯m just a victim?¡± Dal asked. ¡°You¡¯re focusing on the wrong thing,¡± Samira said, pulling the pot of ramen off the grill and adding the spinach and peas. ¡°You¡¯re not a bad guy, but you¡¯ve got to work on your backbone.Stick to your principals.You think that dungeon will work out? I¡¯m not entirely sure, but you want to do it, so do it.You lack a malicious bone in your body.¡± ¡°You barely know me,¡± Dal said. ¡°Age and experience,¡± Samira said. ¡°You really get to know people when you deal with them at their weakest and most raw moments.When they¡¯re sick, hurt, or dying, you really see people for who they are and you can spot those traits when they¡¯re healthy and hale.¡± Dal didn¡¯t say anything, instead separating the ramen into two bowls. ¡°We got lucky on finding those solar panels,¡± Dal said after a while. Samira gave him a sad smile. ¡°We sure did,¡± she said. ¡°At least we can keep the rechargeable stuff working, if we take the batteries out of those emergency lights and from the vans, we could keep some things running.It¡¯s only two one hundred and fifty watt panels, but it¡¯ll help things.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a lot of building material and battery power tools,¡± Dal said.¡°We can secure some of the windows and maybe reinforce some of the doors.¡± ¡°You can do wood working?¡± Samira asked. ¡°My dad loved doing it,¡± Dal said. ¡°He used to come home from work and immediately try to make something in his garage.¡± Dal grinned and frowned. ¡°I guess that was the only time I got to spend with him.¡± ¡°We can do with more lights,¡± Samira said, setting the hot pot of vegetables onto a silicon mat.She dished out the vegetables into their bowls and set it aside. ¡°You¡¯d be surprised by how a little bit of light can ease your worries.¡± Dal looked out the garage doors.The west was brightening with brilliant colors as the sun began to set.They would have to close up soon as the first official day ended. But things were looking slightly better, weren¡¯t they? They ate in companionable silence as the darkness grew around them. The LED camping lantern holding it at bay. *** ¡°Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit,¡± Dal chanted as he fumbled for the machete he had been given. The feathered creature was like a chicken from hell.It stood three feet tall and had metallic feathers covering its body. Its beak was massive and the talons on its feet were equally impressive. ¡°What the hell is that?¡± Samira cried as she shoved aside the dishes she had been washing. ¡°Some kind of insane chicken!¡± Dal cried, waving the blade before him. Samira grabbed the shotgun and leveled it. A moment later another screech filled the air, then another, and another. ¡°Oh, shit,¡± Samira said. ¡°Get the door!¡± She fired the shotgun, racked another round and fired again as a second hellish chicken came into view. Dal rushed to the dangling chain that would roll the garage door back down and began yanking on it.Samira was cursing and fired a third shot, Dal wincing as he heard buckshot zipping past. ¡°Sorry!¡± she cried, her eyes bulging in horror at the near miss. Dal kept yanking the chain, wondering what idiot had figured it would be nice to have the night air waft into the warehouse and that with the doors raised up high, they could see the sunset better?Oh, yeah, that was him. The garage door slowly descended, taking its sweet ass time. Two more birds came into view, their giant yellow eyes reflecting the LED lantern and the secondary lights Dal had set up.They stared at the lights, seemingly mesmerized and then shrieked as they charged toward Samira. She fired twice in quick succession, but missed the second bird.Buckshot scattered across the asphalt and Dal cursed in terror.The bird made it into the warehouse. In its haste to get to Samira, it hadn¡¯t noticed Dal.He released the chain and charged the bird with his machete.It was more blunt force than sharp blade that caused the creature to stagger.Its talons slipped on the concrete floor and it stumbled.Dal kicked it and then swung down, the blade cleaving into its neck and parted the head from the body.
Iron Bird: Killed 50 mana 10 iron feathers
Dal turned to Samira to find her hastily loading the shotgun again.The cries the birds were gone, replaced by the smell of cordite and dead animals. ¡°I guess the creatures come to us,¡± Dal said, shakily.He staggered toward the garage doors and managed to shut it. ¡°I got four,¡± Samira said.¡°Two hundred mana, thirty feathers, and two restones.I guess I triggered the Hunter Perk.¡± She sat down in a plastic chair and looked at the carnage before them. The bloodied creatures lay on the concrete, their twisted faces staring at them.Dal took out a flashlight and shone it upon them, he touched a feather. ¡°Its feathers are like iron,¡± he said.¡°Guess the name wasn¡¯t lying.¡± ¡°Then the goblins really must have been high,¡± Samira laughed. Dal joined her and poked the bird with his machete.The blade slid off the feathers.He pushed again and found purchase under the feathers with the point of the machete. ¡°That machete would have done nothing to them,¡± Samira said. ¡°It¡¯s more a slashing and chopping weapon, this is more piercing weapon work.But the neck and head are bald as my uncle.¡± ¡°A carrion eater,¡± Dal said. Samira grunted. ¡°Yeah, like vultures. Don¡¯t wanna get dead juices in their feathers, so they¡¯re bald. Guess its not breakfast.¡± Dal stared down at it.¡°I¡¯ve got an idea.¡± ¡°Dungeon,¡± Samira groaned. ¡°Yeah, maybe it can, y¡¯know, eat them.¡± ¡°Then the next time you feed it mana, it¡¯ll send some iron birds at you.¡± ¡°We can collect the feathers off a few.¡± Samira nodded. ¡°We got loot from them, but nothing says we can¡¯t take the feathers and talons, might be useful later on.¡± ¡°Sounds like we have tomorrow¡¯s plans.¡± ¡°Tomorrow?¡± Samira asked. ¡°I¡¯m not letting some carrion creatures fester inside this warehouse.We harvest them, we dump them into the dungeon, and then we clean up the blood.¡± Samir arose to her feet, slinging the loaded shotgun over her back. ¡°Have you ever plucked a chicken?¡± ¡°I have,¡± Dal said. ¡°Oh?¡± Samira asked surprised. ¡°My grandpa kept chickens and he thought it would toughen me up to process them.¡± ¡°Only gave you nightmares instead?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Dal said with a chuckle. ¡°My mom was pissed, but my grandfather insisted it made me a man.¡± ¡°Gotta love toxic masculinity,¡± Samira said as she pulled a plastic chair next to a bloodied creature.She still had her dishwashing gloves on and gingerly pulled on a feather.It came loose after a stronger tug.¡°Let me find some pliers.¡± *** Samira stood guard as Dal opened the dungeon storage unit.He pulled the pallet cart loaded with the five, now mostly featherless, birds into the room.In the enclosed room, the reek of blood and death was strong. ¡°How far into it?¡± Samira asked, she faced away from the dungeon, her headlamp and the flashlight duct taped to the shotgun, sweeping the eerily dark storage units. ¡°In this room will probably be fine,¡± Dal said.¡°Its all apart of the dungeon.¡± ¡°Well, get on with it. We need to clean up the cart and get the stink of death out of the warehouse.I¡¯m sure these bird¡¯s buddies aren¡¯t shy about eating their own.¡± ¡°Vultures don¡¯t even eat their own kind,¡± Dal said as he used a shovel to push off an iron bird corpse. ¡°But I suppose they¡¯d be drawn by the smell of death.¡± ¡°Isekai world,¡± Samira said. ¡°Stop using old world logic on creatures.Cannibalism might be the way every creature here swings.¡± Dal couldn¡¯t disagree with that, so he dumped the remaining corpses onto the floor. There was a crackle and hiss as the birds¡¯ colors began to invert.As with the dead goblins and spider, the birds vanished in a crackle of sparks. ¡°What the!¡± Dal staggered back as the pallet cart began to crackle with energy. ¡°Oh, hell. Its stealing our damn pallet cart!¡± Samira cursed. They watched as the cart vanished. ¡°Well now we know it can consume inorganic things,¡± Dal said after a moment. ¡°I wonder if it can remake it.¡± ¡°Let¡¯s leave that pondering for another day, Dungeon Lord,¡± Samira said.Dal nodded and quickly shut the storage unit. Smoke on the Horizon ¡°Holy crap,¡± Samira stared with amazement. ¡°You¡¯ve healed already.¡± Dal tried to crane his head to look at the scratches he had received from the Titan Spider, instead there was just slightly redden skin and dried blood. The pair sat out in the cool morning air as they moved the priority equipment from the storage units into the warehouse.Breakfast had been granola bars, chips, and coffee. ¡°Gotta love magic worlds,¡± Dal said. ¡°That¡¯s just insane,¡± Samira muttered. ¡°I wonder what would happen to more severe injuries.¡± ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t go jinx us now,¡± Dal said, tugging his shirt back on.He had traded his World¡¯s Best Dad for a simple black t-shirt.Samira and he had noted that people didn¡¯t really pack away nice clothing into storage units. There were plenty of ugly christmas sweaters, cheap shirts with company logos, and gag gifts that no one would wear in public, unless ironically. ¡°Aw, damn it,¡± Samira muttered. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Your little dungeon is being an asshole again,¡± she said, moving to the shotgun she had left on a table. Dal looked toward the storage unit and saw an iron bird head trying to push its way out of the hole the previous core guards had made.It wasn¡¯t a renewed attack by the iron birds, for such a sad and malformed creature couldn¡¯t be created by nature. ¡°I¡¯m killing that thing,¡± Samira said.She had picked up the .22 and sighted down the long line of storage units. ¡°This is an interesting development,¡± Dal said, pulling out the legal pad he had been writing his notes on. ¡°The core was drained of mana when it tried to kill me the other day.Three thousand made a spider, and provided the loot you gained when you killed it.¡± Dal scribbled for a bit and Samira raised the rifle.¡°Did it recoup its loss after you killed the spider or did it gain more mana when we dumped the corpses and cart into the dungeon?¡± There was a crack from the rifle and the iron bird¡¯s head exploded as if shot by a slug. ¡°What the hell?¡± Dal asked. ¡°Powershot,¡± Samira grinned. ¡°I got the Perks you said suited me. ¡° She looked down at the .22 and checked it over. ¡°You said bows and arrows, but why not guns?¡± Samira paused a moment as she had a far-away look in her eyes. ¡°Weird, it says I used six mana for that.¡± ¡°Six mana?¡± Dal asked, interested. ¡°It¡¯s an active ability and it costs you mana?¡±Dal wrote in his notes.¡°It didn¡¯t sound like you shot a bigger bullet or whatever, but it did do an extensive amount of damage to the iron bird.¡± Samira sighed. ¡°Okay, when I tried using Powershot, I got a notice saying that I needed to concentrate and ¡®hold¡¯ the weapon until I was ready to shoot. I held for maybe three seconds.Then shot. Dal scribbled. ¡°So about 2 mana a second.We¡¯ll need to experiment on this.How much mana can you shove into it?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not wasting all my mana on this,¡± Samira said. ¡°I only have a couple of hundred and I would like to boost my Perception or Insight.¡± ¡°We can trade stones,¡± Dal said. ¡°You¡¯ve been collecting more redstones than I have.¡± ¡°You calling me a beefy brute with no thinking abilities?¡± Samira asked. ¡°I¡¯m not going to stoke your insecurities,¡± Dal said. Samira laughed. There was a sizzle and crackle from the dungeon the body of the iron bird dissipated. A moment later another malformed head had taken its place.This iron bird squawked and tried to bite away at the metal of the garage door. ¡°How many did it create?¡± Samira asked. ¡°This is also a good thing,¡± Dal said. ¡°If it can create the iron birds and make them core guards, then that means it can recreate the things it absorbs.Which means, we might be able to get the pallet cart back.¡± ¡°Great,¡± Samira said and fired once more.The rifle gave a slight crack andDal watched the iron bird¡¯s beak shattered.The malformed creature gave a piteous wail.Samira fired again and this time ending its sad life. ¡°No Powershot there,¡± Samira said. ¡°I suppose it¡¯ll save bullets if I do use Powershot for this little guy.¡± ¡°It might not be prudent,¡± Dal said and Samira gave him a look. ¡°We don¡¯t know how easy it is to get mana, the only way seems to be killing creatures and dungeon monsters.So if it takes six or more mana per shot and you¡¯re gaining only about twenty to fifty mana per kill.Then we would have to average in how many shots it takes to kill one of these creatures¡­ even with your skills, one shot one kill is pretty impossible to maintain.¡± Samira frowned and nodded. ¡°Okay, rain on my parade.We have almost a thousand rounds of the .22 and I¡¯ve already used nearly ten of the shotgun.¡± ¡°Well, we also need to figure out if the dungeon can make bullets and shells for us.¡± Dal said.¡°Oh, this also clarifies the question: does the dungeon absorb mana from the dead things we toss in?What about materials and non living things?,¡± Dal said. ¡°How so?¡± ¡°The core was empty of mana, but now it¡¯s created two core guards.So that means it gained mana from the corpses and the cart.¡± Dal flipped through his notes. ¡°It was crying out for mana when I touched the dead dungeon fairy.I don¡¯t think it can absorb ambient mana, just what gets into it.¡± ¡°I hear what you¡¯re saying, but none of it makes sense,¡± Samira said, reloading the rifle.¡°It¡¯s all gibberish to me. I¡¯m gonna go check if there¡¯s any more surprises in that unit.¡± ¡°Just don¡¯t kill the core,¡± Dal muttered as he scribbled on the pad. *** ¡°Oh, that was an office complex,¡± Dal said, using a pair of binoculars to spy upon where the neighboring business had been.¡°It seems it didn¡¯t come along for the ride, but some of its parking lot did.I count seven vehicles, three sedans, a beat-up pick-up truck, and three SUVs.Well, five useable vehicles and two partial. An SUV and sedan looked to have been chopped in half when we were brought here.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± Samira said, lugging a solar panel into place.She eyed the mid morning sun and began setting it up. ¡°Maybe they¡¯ll have extra gasoline and such.Oil, anti-freeze, batteries we can use to store the solar power.A car is a lot of resources.¡± Dal nodded and peered to the south of the self storage warehouse.¡°Oh, it looks like the shop next door partially came along too,¡± he said. ¡°What was that business?¡± Samira asked, pulling out an instruction manual and reading it. ¡°It was a some kind of metal shop,¡± Dal said. ¡°They made gates and custom stuff.¡± ¡°Oh, we¡¯ll definitely need to rob that place.Those chainlink gates are way too flimsy.¡± ¡°Loot,¡± Dal said. ¡°What?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Its loot, not rob.¡± ¡°Rob, loot, its all semantics.¡± ¡°But it sounds cooler when we say loot,¡± Dal replied. ¡°Yeah, yeah. What made it over?¡± Samira asked, splicing together some wire they¡¯d found in Grady¡¯s unit.¡°The whole shop or just bits of it.¡± ¡°Appears to be half of it or more,¡± Dal said. ¡°I can see some machinery and vehicles, but no people.¡± Samira jerked up at that.¡°It was about noon when this change hit, maybe they weren¡¯t in the shop at the time. Lunch and all.¡± Dal nodded.¡°It was family owned, I think.They made a big deal about eating lunch together, from what I remember of them.¡± ¡°Know them well?¡± Samira asked. ¡°No, not really. They rented a couple of units here and I¡¯d give the friendly wave of acknowledgement when I biked in for work.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve go a bike?¡± ¡°Bicycle, not motor,¡± Dal said. ¡°Oh,¡± Samira replied and returned to work. ¡°The public transportation out here is crap,¡± Dal said. ¡°Hey, no need to defend yourself,¡± Samira stated. ¡°I haven¡¯t even begun laughing about your basket or tassels.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t have tassels,¡± Dal said. ¡°Wait, so you had a basket on your bike?¡± ¡°It was a convenient place to store things,¡± Dal said. Samira snickered as she unspool wires.Dal frowned and picked the binoculars up again, scanning the treetops.The roof of the warehouse gave them a good view of the local area.Two days since they had arrived to this world and they hadn¡¯t stepped out into it. The iron birds only proved that the landscape outside wasn¡¯t a friendly environment.Now that Dal scanned the trees, he saw that they were old and big, probably hundreds of years old. They didn¡¯t look like trees from back home, which was mostly pines and other conifers. The leaves were palm sized and a deep green, but they also gave off a silver sheen.The bark of the tree was smooth, smudged with blue and purples.They were pretty, Dal thought. Dal scanned the binoculars to the north and paused. ¡°Hey, Samira,¡± he said, urgently. She walked up to him, concerned.¡°What¡¯s up?¡± ¡°I see smoke.¡± Samira peered north and gave a small nod. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything,¡± she said. Dal offered her the binoculars.They were on a small plateau and they were nearly fifty feet above that.That gave them a expansive view of the lands that rolled downward toward the big lazy river to the east. ¡°I saw a telescope in a box on the second floor,¡± Dal said. ¡°Better get it.¡± *** ¡°It¡¯s not natural,¡± Samira said. ¡°Gotta be something big on fire, a building, barn or something.¡±She had her right eye attached to the telescope and adjusted some dials.¡°Its pretty far, I¡¯m surprised you spotted it.¡± ¡°I have high perception,¡± Dal said. Samira snorted. ¡°We¡¯re aboutthree hundred feet above that river which is a good five miles away.We got a fair bit of sightline,¡± Samira mused. ¡°What we¡¯re looking at is a far. I¡¯m thinking maybe twenty or more miles north of here. As the iron bird flies, walking¡¯s a whole different ball of worms.¡± ¡°People means knowledge,¡± Dal said. ¡°Perhaps we can learn more about this world or what the hell is happening.¡± ¡°People means danger,¡± Samira stated. ¡°If we¡¯re all stripped from different worlds, then they might not be from our world or even human.They might think human flesh is tasty or find you easy prey.¡± ¡°I say we try to head there one of these days,¡± Dal said. Samira glanced at the sun overhead. ¡°It¡¯s been only two days and you¡¯re already sick of my company?¡± she asked. ¡°But that trek would also be over some completely unknown country, Dal.The iron birds seemed to be more scavengers, what if there are actual predators out there, things we can¡¯t fight.There¡¯s only two of us.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why we need to see if there are more people,¡± Dal said. ¡°Eventually,¡± Samira said. ¡°We gotta sort ourselves out first.There are stuff you¡¯ll need to learn if we leave this place.How to shoot, how to camp, how to secure your camp, and how to navigate if you get lost.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a knowledge seeker,¡± Dal said, grinning. ¡°Well, first thing¡¯s first, knowledge seeker. Let¡¯s get these solar panels hooked up and some tools recharged.We still have a lot of work to do here.¡± *** ¡°We don¡¯t have to weld them shut,¡± Dal said.¡°We can just reinforce gates, slap some metal sheeting to stop looky-loos, and chain them shut so we can open them again if need be.We have the chains and the padlocks.¡± ¡°I¡¯m surprise you know how to weld,¡± Samira said. ¡°Auto shop, metal shop, or wood shop,¡± Dal said. ¡°Had no interests in cars and by that point in my teenage years, my angst against my father and his hobbies had grown to the point where I was actively avoiding doing anything that would cause us to share something in common. I had to pick one of the three, or else.¡± ¡°What was the ¡®or else¡¯?¡± ¡°A cut in my allowance and hiding of my computer.¡± ¡°Oh, no.All your hentai and 2D waifus.¡± ¡°Gross,¡± Dal muttered. ¡°I¡¯ve got cousins with teenage kids,¡± Samira said. ¡°You¡¯d be shocked to know what they¡¯re into at their tender ages.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Trust me, I wouldn¡¯t be,¡± Dal chuckled as they moved a length of steel pipe. The metal shop next door, Garcia¡¯s Iron and Steel Works, was a well stocked and tidy place.There had been a large truck with a gasoline powered welding machine sitting in the back lot, the keys had been in the office and the tank topped off and ready to go.The welding machine could double as a generator, if needed.The noise would be an issue, but that was Future Dal¡¯s problem. They had found several small generators in the storage units, but they were all without fuel.The math didn¡¯t really work out for using them.They had a limited supply of gasoline and that would be used for emergencies. The work took them several hours.Samira deemed it safe and managed to move her moving truck in front of one of the gates, blocking it.The three moving vans turned out to be full of fuel and functional.They were parked as close to the glass front of the building, although Dal was sad to see the hedges crushed under the wheels of the vans. Once the gates were secured, Dal and Samira managed to move over enough remaining metal and metal sheets to weld a cage over the front windows.It wouldn¡¯t stop a charging elephant, but it would hold against a pack of predatory birds, after they had to dodge around the vans. ¡°We can smash open one of the upper windows and create firing slits,¡± Samira grinned. ¡°We can also pour oil on them from up there too,¡± Dal said. ¡°That¡¯s a great idea!¡± ¡°That was sarcasm,¡± Dal said. ¡°Also, this place is gonna start looking like something out of Mad Max.¡± ¡°The landscaping is going to go to crap,¡± Samira said. ¡°A tree fell over on the office parking lot side.I think we should chop it up and store it.The days do seem to be getting colder.¡± ¡°There were a lot of seeds stuffed away in the units.Packets people forgot or bought too much of,¡± Dal added. ¡°We¡¯ll be set in spring, if this really is fall weather.¡± Samira scoffed. ¡°Do you know how much land we¡¯ll need for crops?With no pesticides, herbicides, no fertilizer, no machines to help till the land, and no idea what diseases and pests abound here.Organic farming sounds great, but people have been organic farming for thousands of years and ninety percent of the population had to be farmers.¡± ¡°Well, things got better in the industrial revolution.¡± ¡°Things got better when tractors were invented,¡± Samira said. ¡°When strong strains of wheat and rice were introduced.¡± ¡°We have a few trucks we can use to pull a plow.¡± Samira laughed.¡°How funny would that be?¡± she said. ¡°My grandpa was a farmer back in Morocco, before he gave it up and managed to move to Chicago.He said farming without technology was the worst.¡±She frowned.¡°He¡¯s also how I met my husband.It seems grandpa¡¯s pal from Morocco had moved to France some years later and his daughter had a son who immigrated to the US, blah, blah, blah.¡± A silence descended and Samira snorted, loading up tools and extra metal into the truck.Dal followed suit.They left the southern gate open and parked the truck on the interior of the gate, using it as additional security if something decided to break though. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking,¡± Dal said as they piled tools onto a pallet cart. ¡°That¡¯s new,¡± Samira said with some sarcasm. ¡°If the dungeon-¡° ¡°Ugh,¡± Samira muttered. ¡°If the dungeon is able to recreate the things it absorbs, how much mana do you figure it takes from the items tossed into it. Is it by material, mass, composition?¡± Dal pondered. ¡°Two iron birds to the five we tossed in,¡± Samira said. ¡°Plus the pallet cart it stole.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah.¡± ¡°Plus it has to spend something on the loot you got right?Iron feathers, a talon, and a hundred mana.That has to come out of pocket, not freebies,¡± Dal siad. ¡°If that¡¯s the case, then its using a lot of the mana its been getting to create its defenders.¡± ¡°Probably scared,¡± Samira said, opening the garage doors to the rear of the warehouse. ¡°You stike a terrifying pose.¡± ¡°That I know,¡± Dal smirked. ¡°But also, it¡¯s probably dumping most of its mana into creating defenders.¡± ¡°Those poor critters,¡± Samira said. ¡°I think they¡¯re supposed to be fully functional, but the core is so damaged its making damaged things,¡± Dal said. ¡°Seems like a logical thing to assume,¡± Samira replied as she opened a storage unit where they were keeping tools. ¡°Although, when it absorbs something, is that copy going to be corrupted too or is it just when it makes stuff? Those iron birds were pretty ugly and malformed, but is that because the core is shit or was it because its ¡®scan¡¯ of the iron bird was also shit?¡± ¡°That, I hadn¡¯t thought of,¡± Dal admitted, stopping and pulling out his notes. ¡°Probably both,¡± Samira said. ¡°Although I do want to experiment on what the threshold of mana that the core needs to begin making defenders,¡± Dal said. ¡°How¡¯s that going to work?¡± Samira asked. ¡°It might be composition of material or mass or something else.Living things could hold more mana or metal or manufactured goods.¡± ¡°Or everything could be equal in the eyes of dungeon hunger,¡± Samira replied. ¡°That¡¯s also true.Everything might have an equal amount of mana in them, but I¡¯m bias toward there being a difference when it comes to material.¡± ¡°Not very scientific of you,¡± Samira said. ¡°Don¡¯t massage the data to your conclusion, but see where the data goes.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not in a laboratory,¡± Dal said, gesturing down to his oil stained clothing.The metal from the shop had been covered in oil to prevent rusting;cutting and welding weren¡¯t clean jobs. ¡°You¡¯re a Knowledge Seeker,¡± Samira said. ¡°Try to be as sciencey as you can be, maybe it¡¯ll rain bluestones if you follow the Scientific Method here.¡± Dal frowned and looked down at his messy notes. ¡°Yeah,¡± he said. ¡°Come on,¡± Samira slapped him on the shoulder as she hefted a chainsaw. ¡°We need a tree to cut up and we don¡¯t have much daylight.¡± Dal closed his notebook and grabbed the safety gear and an extra canister of gasoline. *** ¡°What are you doing out here?¡± Samira asked groggily.She was in her night clothes and a thick expensive robe.As she had been moving out of her house, she still had all of her belongings.Dal had to make do with what he could find in the storage units, most being clothing that were considered less than desirable for everyday usage. So he sat in an ugly christmas sweater and sweatpants that were too big for him. Dal looked up from the tablet he had before him. He had moved out into the front office, they had put curtains up so as not to attract any critters wandering about. ¡°Just collating data,¡± Dal said.He lifted the tablet and showed her the spreadsheet. ¡°Can¡¯t sleep?¡± Samira asked. ¡°The bed no good?¡± While Samira had claimed the former general manager¡¯s office, which barely held her massive king size bed, Dal had taken the small storage room.They had found a twin sized bed in one of the units and it fit and it was comfortable enough.That allowed the break room to be used as a common area. ¡°I¡¯m not tired either,¡± Samira said, pulling up an office chair. ¡°Where¡¯d you get the tablet?¡± ¡°Grady¡¯s,¡± Dal said.¡°He had several EMP proof boxes that held some higher end electronics than the mid-eighties tech he was storing.¡± ¡°The porn boxes?¡± Samira asked, grinning. ¡°There¡¯s a pair of laptops in there, along with a desktop setup, several cheap smartphones, some music devices, more storage drives with what appears to be books on them, and of course the tablet.All of its decent stuff.¡± ¡°Our savior Grady,¡± Samira mused.¡°I wonder who he was?¡± ¡°He was a jerk,¡± Dal said. ¡°I remember him yelling at the general manager a year or so back.Kept saying he needed access to his units at any hour of the day in case the Muslims launched an EMP.¡± ¡°Well, his bigoted fears is what¡¯s saving our lives,¡± Samira said.¡°I¡¯m Mulsim and I¡¯m not looking to launch EMPs.¡± ¡°But he always paid on time and had those units for nearly a decade now.¡± ¡°From the electronics, I can tell,¡± Samira said. ¡°But why keep them in a storage unit?¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°Seems pretty logical.In an apocalypse who is going to go loot a self storage when there are plenty of stores everywhere.Before this, I hadn¡¯t even thought about these self storage holding anything of value besides old keepsakes and the junk people didn¡¯t want in their homes but were too much of a hoarder to get rid of.¡± ¡°Ugh, my sister was one of those people claimed minimalism was her way off life.I guess she say it on some Netflix show? Anyway, turns out she owned three giant self storage units packed to the brim with junk she bought but due to her new outlook on life, couldn¡¯t justify keeping in her apartment.¡± Samira was silent for a moment. ¡°Fuck her and her trash taste in furniture and men.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking.I might have a solution to one of the problems we are facing,¡± Dal said, changing the subject. ¡°We can use the dungeon as waste disposal. Trash, chemicals, and bodily waste.¡± ¡°What now?¡± ¡°You saw how the dungeon ¡®ate¡¯ those iron birds.Two of them were pretty shredded, their innards leaking out everywhere. But it left no trace behind.In fact, I think the dungeon storage unit is the cleanest its ever been.There is no stray anything in there, not even dust.Therefore if it can eat the iron birds, it can eat anything.¡± ¡°But would it?¡± Samira asked. Dal shrugged. ¡°We can test it out.¡± ¡°A big hairy no. I¡¯m not letting that thing try to kill me while I¡¯m popping a squat.¡± ¡°We can create chamber pots, there are some buckets and plastic bags.That one unit was nearly filled with nothing but plastic grocery bags.¡± ¡°I know, how weird was that?Anyway, no. I¡¯m not lugging around a poop bucket either.That¡¯s disgustingly unhygienic.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been pooping in a hole behind a car and covering it with dirt, like some kind of primate cats,¡± Dal said. ¡°That¡¯s different. Nature¡¯s resolving that, not some melted glass being from another world.¡± ¡°Maybe we can make an outhouse where the final product gets dumped into the dungeon,¡± Dal said. ¡°That way we don¡¯t have to actually lug anything around¡­ wait, wait, wait.¡± Dal closed out the spreadsheet and opened a drawing app. He began sketching with a stylus while Samira watched him. ¡°When I was a kid, we had a waterline break.Took three days for them to fix it, but during that time we could still use the toilet even if there was no water, we just had to dump in a lot of water, which we got from our pool.We have about three toilets in this building, the employees and the two public ones.We can take one crapper out, raise it on a platform, get some piping so that wastes gets ejected into the dungeon.All we¡¯ll needed is a lot of water, since it¡¯ll take about a gallon to manually flush every time and some more water to top off the bowl.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still reeling from that fact you grew up with a pool,¡± Samira said. ¡°I¡¯m an excellent swimmer,¡± Dal grinned. ¡°Well, since we¡¯re both up.Might as well get started,¡± Samira said. ¡°What? Now? I¡¯m collating data,¡± Dal said. ¡°You sold me on the idea and it¡¯ll be cathartic for that damn core to eat my shit.¡± **** This might mess up my data,¡± Dal said as he watched water and a bit of rocks invert their colors and were consumed by the dungeon.The test of their waste disposal system was a success. ¡°Well, be happy that it works,¡± Samira said.¡°It¡¯s an upgrade in our little civilization.Waste management is the bane of any society, from the Romans to modern day cities.¡± ¡°Just imagine what this could have done for a city like New York, ¡° Dal said. ¡°All those countless tons of trash being shipped off to landfills, it could have all gone here instead.¡± ¡°Dawn¡¯s almost here,¡± Samira said looking at the horizon that was beginning to lighten.¡°This is weird, I¡¯m not even all that tired.We had a pretty strenuous day yesterday too.¡± ¡°Yeah, maybe we¡¯re fully integrated into this world now.We fell asleep too quickly on the first night and now we¡¯re barely needing any sleep.¡± ¡°But I love the sweet oblivion of sleep,¡± Samira stated. ¡°There¡¯s nothing better than sleep after a sixteen hour shift.¡± ¡°Or after sixteen hours of gaming,¡± Dal agreed. The new bathroom facilitates was a toilet taken from the employees bathroom, settled upon several thick pieces of plywood and raised sixteen inches off the ground.A PVC pipe was fitted to the toilet and a hole had been drilled through the cinderblock walls of the dungeon storage unit and the adjacent storage unit. Why the dungeon had only taken up the storage unit of Samira¡¯s ex, was a mystery.It seemed to have had the power to expand, but instead it had expanded into the hills behind the business.John¡¯s unit and the empty unit beside it hadn¡¯t been bothered. ¡°Some of the doctors I work with are pretty wealthy,¡± Samirs said, ¡°but even they didn¡¯t have an entire garage as a bathroom.¡± ¡°Gonna be cold in here,¡± Dal said. ¡°We¡¯ll need to wall in this toilet sooner or later.I think I saw some empty water barrels and a trash pump in one of the units, we can toss the hose over the wall and fill them up.¡± ¡°Why waste the gasoline?We can do it by hand,¡± Samira said. ¡°Work smarter, not harder,¡± Dal said. ¡°Smarter would be conserving non-renewable sources of energy until its needed or for emergencies.We can load up some buckets and use the pallet carts and hand carts to bring the water in. Don¡¯t be lazy.¡± Dal groaned. ¡°Fine.¡± **** Dal sat in front of the opened dungeon storage unit, his back and arms were aching from carrying untold numbers of five gallon buckets of water to fill the two blue water barrels.The metal shop to the south had a lot of waste laying around, small chunks of metal and other left over pieces.Dal had taken a wheelbarrow and collected as much as he could. Did the amount of mana the dungeon siphoned off of items correlate to the mass or the type of material?Dal was attempting to do his best to test it.It involved a bathroom scale, a child¡¯s backpack, and nearly two hundred pounds of waste iron and steel. He tried to separate the metal by weight as best as he could.When he got to twenty pounds, the max the backpack could hold, he headed into the core room.There was no change to the layout of the dungeon, the trash walls were still formed of the malformed junk from Samira¡¯s Ex¡¯s stuff. The melted core looked slightly better, Dal took out his phone and snapped a picture, comparing it to the one he had taken the first time they had come into the core room.He could see it was less melted looking and more crystalline in shape.The soft gooey edges had taken on more angular shapes, with the light refracting off its surface. ¡°How do you like steel?¡± Dal asked the core.¡°It¡¯s an alloy of carbon and iron, with iron making up about thirty five percent fo the Earth¡­ well, this isn¡¯t Earth so I guess that doesn¡¯t matter.Anyway iron is abundant and since this is processed iron, maybe it¡¯ll have an effect on how much mana it has contained within it.Hopefully.¡± Dal tossed the metal down in five pound increments, pausing a couple of minutes after to see if anything happened.He had his hand on his machete and his walkie talkie was active in case he needed Samira¡¯s help. Five pounds, nothing. Ten, nothing. Fifteen, nothing. Twenty, nothing. Dal sighed and left the core room.He returned with another twenty pounds and began again. Nothing. At fifty pounds of steel, there was movement.Dal quickly stepped back, heading to the exit of the core room. The floor bubbled in one area and light crackled as magic happened.It took two minutes, but an iron bird was formed and it slowly shook out its feathers.Then promptly fell down as its head was far too big and its legs were practically sticks. Dal took a picture and pulled out his machete. Iron Bird Core Guard: Killed 25 mana 10 iron feathers Dal took the loot and noted it down.He peered at the creature, noting all the deformities.He then checked on the core again, seeing only minor changes from his last pictures.The addition of matter ot its diet was helping to heal it, but it seemed the monsters it was creating weren¡¯t getting any better.They in-fact seemed a bit more worse than usual. Dal began his experiment again, bringing in more steel. The second iron bird formed at forty eight pounds of steel.It gave another 25 mana and 1 talon. ¡°You¡¯re going to farm this dungeon with steel?¡± Samira asked when he exited for more material. Dal showed her his notes and what he had gained. ¡°Seems like a bad exchange,¡± Samira said. ¡®We can¡¯t make that steel you gave away.¡± ¡°It was changed into magic,¡± Dal said. ¡°Fifty mana, ten iron feathers, and a talon.Another hundred pounds of steel and I can make a redstone and upgrade someting.Plus we have plenty of metal.¡± ¡°Like I said, we can¡¯t make those metals.High quality steel was always sought out before the Industrial Revolution,¡± Samira said. ¡°Right now, we don¡¯t know what the world is like.¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll think of something else.How about the wood from the tree?¡± ¡°No.We need that wood for heating eventually.¡± Dal sighed.¡°Concrete?We have a lot of it lying around from the parking lot and the back end of the metal shop.We can¡¯t really use that for much besides filler or a gravel walk path if we crush it up.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Samira said, thinking. ¡°We¡¯ll need to clean out the metal shop of everything in it, even the junk, sooner or later. I guess sooner is now.¡± Dal sighed and rolled his shoulders.¡°We just moved a lot of water and I want to upgrade my Health.¡± ¡°You killed two iron birds, you should have about a hundred mana. I can spot you some if you need it.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear me? I said I got fifty for both,¡± Dal said. ¡°I got fifty for each one I killed the other day,¡± Samira said. Dal frowned and looked at her.¡°We need to determine if that¡¯s true,¡± he said. *** Iron Bird Core Guard: Killed 50 mana 1 Farin Silver ¡°That¡¯s just not fair,¡± Dal said. Samira grinned. ¡°It has to be my Hunting Perk or maybe Wisdom?¡± Dal shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I think the first time we kill a new creature, we get double the amount of mana from it. I remember getting fifty when I killed the ironbird for the first time.¡± Samira picked up the silver coin and flipped it.She dug into the toolbelt she was wearing and took out a pair of tin snips.She cut the coin in half and scoffed. ¡°Its copper or bronze coated in thin silver,¡± she announced. ¡°Someone¡¯s debasing their currency.¡± She tossed the two halves of the coin onto the floor. It vanished along with the iron bird body. ¡°I suppose being a Knowledge Seeker allows me to gain a lot more bluestone than red, but that means I get less mana from combat too?¡± ¡°Fighting is the way to go.Although I do have to use mana to power my Powershot ability.I guess it evens out eventually,¡± Samira said.¡°The bigger question is how is core managing to still give out solid loot, but can¡¯t make a critter for the life of it?Those coins I got were well made copies, the iron feathers are exactly the same as the original iron bird¡¯s feathers, but these sad freaks are all over the place.This last iron bird had soft downy feathers, hardly qualifying it as an iron bird.¡± Dal grunted. ¡°I hadn¡¯t even thought about that,¡± he said.¡°I was focusing on the creation of the creatures, but not the loot it was making.The loot seems fine, but the creatures not. Perhaps its the complexity of the critter?Iron birds seemed stronger and faster than the goblins that weren¡¯t malformed.So more complex, more mana, and that all makes it screwy?¡± Dal flipped through his notes.¡°Well, If I¡¯m going to do more experiments, you¡¯ll need to be here to collect the mana and deal with the guards.¡± ¡°Damn it, Dal, I¡¯m a nurse, not some dungeon crawler.¡± ¡°I was a customer service representative,¡± Dal said. ¡°We all have to accept the changes in our lives as best as we can.Gotta be Zen about this.¡± Samira laughed and shook her head. The Trio ¡°There it is,¡± Samira whispered. The pair sat in on the third floor, looking eastward toward the vast landscape that spread before them.Or would have spread before them, if it had been daylight.Sunset had been three hours before and they sat in a pair of camping chairs, sipping hot tea. Dal peered through his binoculars at the strange event Samira had seen. ¡°I saw it yesterday too,¡± Samira said.¡°I just came up to look out before heading to sleep and pop, a beam of light from the heavens.¡± It was as Samira said, a beam of light that seem to come straight down from the darken sky. ¡°Beam me up, Scotty,¡± Dal said. ¡°Maybe its how we got here.¡± ¡°You think?¡± ¡°Just guessing, but I suppose to prove it; we could head to where that beam landed.¡± Dal continued watching the light for a few seconds as it slowly dissipated.Whatever it was, it wasn¡¯t close, yet the width of the beam was wide enough to be seen clearly and easily from their position. It lasted at least a minute or more and must have been a huge area it covered. ¡°How far away was the one you saw yesterday?¡± ¡°It was more to the southeast, a far, far away. The beam was like a thin thread of light.I didn¡¯t really know what to think of it, so I didn¡¯t bring it up.Last thing I want to have is you thinking I¡¯ve lost my mind.¡± ¡°Has it been happening in the day too?¡± Dal asked. ¡°No idea, buddy.¡± ¡°What time did that occur, the last time you saw it?¡± Samira looked at her smartwatch.¡°Roughly at this same time.10PM.¡± ¡°Maybe whatever brought us here is still happening across this world,¡± Dal said. ¡°Think we can get to a spot and it¡¯ll send us back?¡± ¡°No,¡± Dal said. ¡°The weird dream I had when we got here.I think all those worlds were scrambled up and now we¡¯re apart of this world.¡± Samira was silent. ¡°I guess we can spend some time up here every night to see if this happens again,¡± Dal said. ¡°Maybe we won¡¯t have to look for people, they¡¯ll find us instead.¡± ¡°That¡¯s an even worst thought,¡± Samira said. ¡°I¡¯m the most introverted person in the world,¡± Dal said. ¡°But even I know we¡¯re gonna have to find people eventually.¡± ¡°Yeah, I know.But you¡¯ve seen all the end of the world movies, how does that usually go?¡± ¡°Well, supposedly according to some sociologists and whatnot, if the end of the world or a great traumatic event occurred, then people would usually band together.No one would be fighting for the last iPhone or bottle of water.People aren¡¯t completely monstrous¡­ not until they form their own little tribes.Then its no hold bars.¡± ¡°What?¡± Samira demanded. ¡°No hold bars? What¡¯s that? It¡¯s No Holds Barred.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t watch hockey,¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re just saying that to piss me off,¡± Samira growled. ¡°What you¡¯re a hockey fan?¡± ¡°There is about a thousand VHS tapes in that one storage unit, half of them are pro wrestling recordings from the eighties. Come on, we can watch them.¡± ¡°No!¡± Dal cried out.¡°Never! I shall not be subjected to inhumane tortured.¡± ¡°Torture? Why you little sh-¡° WHOOSH! The two fell over their chairs and sprawled on the floor, half blinded and deafened by the sudden light and noise. ¡°I don¡¯t know if its pee or tea,¡± Dal said, patting his wet pants front. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± Samira groaned. She got to her feet, grabbing her shotgun and double checking the pistol on her hip.It was agreed after the iron bird incident they would never go anywhere in the warehouse or outside of it unarmed. Dal looked around for his machete and found it leaning agains the glass window.He snatched it up and joined Samira in peering eastward. There was a beam of light coming down to the east.It was massive and it was close. ¡°Must be near the river,¡± Dal said, his mouth agape. ¡°No, it¡¯s further out. Maybe ten miles,¡± Samira said. ¡°You can see the river right there.¡± Dal picked up his binoculars again and saw she was right.He could see the wide lazy river and the trees beyond it.The light was further out, therefore it must be a massive area that was being covered. ¡°Let¡¯s get upstairs,¡± Samira said. ¡°The telescope will give us a good idea of what¡¯s happening.¡± They quickly clamored up the roof access ladder and got to the telescope. ¡°It¡¯s fading,¡± Samira said.She looked into the telescope, while Dal peered with his binoculars.The afterglow of the beam faded into the night. ¡°It didn¡¯t seem to do any damage,¡± Dal said. ¡°The trees are okay, the vans, but I swear I could feel the pressure and the wind of it.Was it some kind of magic backlash caused by the arrival of the beam?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t see anything in the dark now,¡± Samira said. ¡°Should we check it out tomorrow?¡± ¡°No,¡± Samira said.¡°Too dangerous to cross that river.¡± ¡°We have the motorboat and the row boat,¡± Dal said. ¡°We could cross it with the motorboat.The literature on it says it can hold six comfortably.¡± ¡°Come morning, we¡¯ll see what we can see,¡± Samira said, her tone firm.¡°Safety first.¡± Dal sighed and nodded. ¡°Yeah, I guess.¡± **** ¡°What¡¯s this?You starting up a store?¡± Samira asked. They had decided to turn in after the night¡¯s beam display.Yet Dal hadn¡¯t been able to sleep again as the thought of what those lights meant.To ease his mind he began organizing items they had decided to keep close on hand and some stuff that were somewhat useable. There was a lot of junk in all the units, but there were also plenty of useful items about.Pots, pans, knives, cutting boards, folding chairs, various kinds of bags and rolling suitcases, some food items, and the like. In their attempt to fortify the front windows, they had taken the two vending machines and shoved them against the windows, but besides the two machines and some boxes, the front office was entirely empty.Dal had spent the last two years in that space, he felt more comfortable in it than he had in the break room or elsewhere. The office chair was surprisingly comfortable as he had long since engraved his own ass groove into it. He couldn¡¯t help but feel that it was his space, where he could relax and now decorate as he wished. Dal had found shelving units in a larger exterior storage unit.It seemed to have come from a store of some kind.There were signage and display cases and chest high shelves.Dal set them all up in the front office. There had been a time when Dal first began working at Store UR Hoard, where the owner had tried to make the place classy.There had been some leather couches, coffee tables, fake plants, and a small coffee and tea bar for customers.It didn¡¯t take John long to realize that people weren¡¯t going to sit inside of a self storage front office to relax, not when they were there just to sign papers or drop off payments. Eventually the entire space had devolved into an attempt to sell moving supplies and cork boards with notices of events going on in town and stacks of free local newspapers and magazines. ¡°Organization Perk,¡± Dal said.¡°Actually no, this is more of that OCD my dad claimed I had.¡± ¡°Setting up half-off signage and teacups for sale?¡± Samira asked, looking at the wares on display. ¡°My mom used to work at a local convenience store.Dad was old fashioned and figured he was supposed to be the sole bread winner, but when your company job goes under and you¡¯re too stubborn to take a filler job¡­¡± Dal shrugged. ¡°Anyway, we were too poor and didn¡¯t have close enough family to drop me off to be babysat.So, I would go with my mom to work.The owners didn¡¯t care and even helped me out later when I was a teenager to find a job there.Mom had moved up in the company and now was managing five of their stores. She was organized as hell and didn¡¯t take shit from anyone.¡± Dal chuckled, as he hooked a package of ginger cookies onto a pegboard hook.¡°I spent maybe three years there when I was a kid.There were so many child labor laws being broken there; as I would stock shelves.Everyone thought it was cute to see a five year old trying to replenish the beer fridges.Plus I was a total tattletale, so I would narc on anyone trying to steal.¡± ¡°You miss them?¡± ¡°Fuck yeah I miss them,¡± Dal said.¡°Today would have been Sunday and even though my mom and dad thought I was a loser, they¡¯d always have me over for dinner.I¡¯d eat my fill and they¡¯d send me home with enough food to last three days.¡± Dal adjusted a package of potato chips and stepped back to admire his handiwork. ¡°I was their only kid, even though I didn¡¯t become what they wanted or hoped, they still loved me.Even dad in his own shitty way.¡± Dal wiped away a tear and opened a package of water, slowly stacking them on a stand.¡°Mom was already pestering me for grandkids,¡± Dal laughed.¡°My birth was a bad one for my mom, she had to get a hysterectomy afterwards.So there were never any siblings or other kids Mom could have raised.She came from a big family too, three brothers and four sisters.The same with my dad.Huge families and here I was the only one for my dad, who was the eldest of his siblings.A skinny, small kid who didn¡¯t have any focus in their life.¡± ¡°They¡¯re pretty tough people,¡± Samira said. ¡°Yeah, they are,¡± Dal agreed. ¡°They¡¯ll be okay.¡± ¡°It was noon, right? Lunchtime.My dad would always meet up with mom to have lunch somewhere.If they were together when they were caught up in this mess; they could be fine.They¡¯re not old, dad¡¯s forty-six and mom¡¯s forty-five.They could survive whatever comes.¡±Dal¡¯s trembling hand dropped a water battle and it clattered to the tile floor. ¡°They¡¯ll be okay, Dal,¡± Samira said pulling him into a hug.Dal could only shudder and ponder what his parents were going though. *** Dal jerked awake when he heard a knocking.He had fallen asleep in the office chair in the front office.He looked about blearily as the knocking continued again.He snatched up his machete and grabbed the walkie talkie Samira insisted they carry around. Light was streaming in from the gaps in the sheet metal.Thee was no movement outside, nothing showing that the iron birds were back or something else. The knocking sounded again and Dal jerked.It was a straight up knock, like someone would give at a door.Was it another person?Dal eased toward the door.It couldn¡¯t be an animal, could it?The knock sounded again and this time Dal was sure it came from the main door into the office.He pulled the small cardboard flap aside that was a peephole. Bright morning light beamed into his eyes, but it was suddenly cut out by a figure peering down at him through the opening. ¡°Good day, being.What is this place?¡± the figure asked. Dal stared and felt his mouth go dry and his legs turn to jelly. A seven foot tall figure stood outside the front door.They were lean and broad in the shoulder, long limber arms reached down below their waist, covered in what looked like chainmail.They wore a battered cuirass of some kind of laminate and there were several weapons tucked at their waist and across their back.In their long arms they carried a crossbow. Dal gulped.¡°Uh.¡± ¡°This sign says you are ¡®open¡¯. Does that mean you are an establishment of some kind?¡± the figure asked. ¡°My creechmates and I are lost and looking for directions.It seems we are not in our clanlands anymore.¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The face of the figure was wide and slightly reptilian, their eyes a bright yellow against their green scales.If Dal could put a human expression to the face, he would say it was open and honest.But they weren¡¯t human and they were carrying a lot of weapons. ¡°Uh, we¡¯re not open yet, please give me a moment,¡± Dal squawked. ¡°Of course.My creechmates and I shall await your true opening.¡±The figure stepped back and began to admire the vans parked in front of the windows. ¡°SAMIRA!¡± Dal shouted into the walkie talkie while throwing open the employees only door. *** Dal had quickly washed his face and put on a button down shirt that Samira had left over from her husband¡¯s clothing.He stood behind the desk as Samira causally had her hand upon the .357. The first being entered the front office, ducking under the door and peering around in the now lit up small store. ¡°Ah, it is a shop or sorts,¡± the figure said.It was the leader it seemed.Two additional figures of followed suit.They were smaller, but not by much.Maybe six and a half feet versus the first one¡¯s seven. Dal cleared his throat, after picking his jaw up off the desk. ¡°Welcome,¡± he said. ¡°My name is Dal and this is Samira.¡± ¡°Your guard, trader?¡± the first asked. ¡°Uh, yes,¡± Dal said, smiling although he felt like running to their new bathroom. ¡°I have been to the city of T¡¯loz¡¯kak¡¯van,¡± the being said.¡°I am aware of shops and traders.We of the Towering Spires have long been employed by the Copper Tribe¡¯s caravans.¡± ¡°We are warriors,¡± one of the smaller beings said. ¡°Uh, right,¡± Dal cleared his throat, casting a glance at Samirs.She shot him a slight glare, her warnings that this was a bad, bad idea thundering in his head again. ¡°Mercenaries,¡± the larger figure corrected.¡°We sell our fighting prowress to protect the Copper Tribe¡¯s traders.In turn we get to hone our skills and grow in status.¡± ¡°Did you also have access to the upgrading system?¡± Dal asked. The larger figure paused as they were looking at a framed Marvel movie poster.It showed the main Avengers in dynamic poses, fighting aliens. ¡°Since we have arrived, we have been haunted by strange messages,¡± the first said.¡°We do not know what they are and what they mean.¡± ¡°We are cursed,¡± the third figure announced and the first two hissed at them.The third stood with their back defiantly straight and glaring. Dal glanced at Samira and then back at the there figures.They seemed more lost than threatening and Dal made a decisions. ¡°Would you like to join us for breakfast?¡± Dal asked. ¡°Aw, shit,¡± Samira muttered. *** ¡°This is a grand place,¡± the first said.His name was Garran, his true name was near impossible for Dal to pronoun. The second being was F¡¯darr and the third was Lokkan.Garran and Lokkan were males and F¡¯darr was female.Although to Dal, they all looked the same. Garran looked up and around the warehouse as Dal and Samira prepared breakfast.It was the good stuff, powdered eggs, canned meat, and canned beans. ¡°They¡¯re carnivores,¡± Samira hissed when they stepped away from the trio.¡°We¡¯re soft, small, and weak flesh bags.¡± ¡°It reminds me of the caverns back home,¡± Garran said.¡°The low ceilings and narrow corridors ease my mind.¡± ¡°When did the world change for you?¡± Dal asked. Garran was their leader.He took a slow sip of the tea he had been offered, refusing sugar or creamer.¡°It has been two days since we have been separated from the caravan.We were scouting ahead, when darkness overtook us.One moment we stood on a rocky outcrop, but the next we were in the middle of a strange forest.Our land is rock and dust, not trees and water.¡± The other two shivered.¡°It is too cold here,¡± F¡¯darr muttered. ¡°This is the frozen hell,¡± Lokkan announced. ¡°We have died and now live in the frozen lands.¡± Garran hissed again and barred his teeth.¡°Do you hunger in the shadelands, do you need to piss or shit, does your scales itch?¡± ¡°The minor torments only grow,¡± Lokkan said defiantly. As they served them food, Dal decided to tell them what they knew.The trio were fascinate and horrified at the tale.That they were now trapped on a different world, far from their clans people and creechmates. They were on their own now. ¡°Impossible,¡¯ Lokkan said weakly.¡°Impossible.¡± ¡°We have no reason to distrust Trader Dal,¡± Garran said. ¡°He has shown us hospitality and shared meat with us.¡± F¡¯darr nodded. ¡°But if what he says is true, then our people may be scattered out there somewhere.¡± ¡°Many will not thrive in these cold lands,¡± F¡¯darr said. ¡°Too much wetness in the air and too many waters to cross.¡± ¡°I got a question,¡± Samira said, stirring her beans and eggs. She did not like canned meats. ¡°Why do you all speak English?¡± Dal jerked and stared at her, mouth open. ¡°Ah, as I said, we are mercenary guards for the Copper Tribe.We have crossed the Wailing Sands many times and visited many cities upon the Salted Sea.Mages sell such things,¡± Garran pulled out a strange trinket of polished beads, metal, and rock.¡°It allows all to communicate with one another.The White Sun goddess made our people, but the Red Sun decided to break them apart with different languages.With the power of the White Mages we can once cross the language boundaries.¡± ¡°So you have magic in your world, but not the system?¡± Dal asked. ¡°The cursed words? No, we do not have that,¡± Garran responded. ¡°Are you willing to sell that translator?¡± Dal asked. Garran looked at the other two.¡°We may have an extra one,¡± he said finally. *** ¡°Such wealth in cloth!¡± F¡¯darr exclaimed. ¡°The Ts¡¯obai plant gives off fibers that the weavers can make into cloth, but only the High Mother can wear such material.¡±F¡¯darr rubbed the wool blanket in her long hands.She nuzzled her face against is, letting out a strangely pleasant coo. Lokkan shook out a heavy wool sweater that had reindeer and Christmas trees across its front.He looked pleased for the moment at the thickness of the fabric and the warmth. ¡°You are rich, trader,¡± Garran said, sipping more hot tea.¡°But this is not enough for such a magical item as this.It is old magic, passed down from elder to youngster for hundreds of cycles.¡± Samira rolled an eye at the obvious lie, but stayed silent.Dal only nodded. ¡°I know it holds great wealth for you, Garran. But as you say, the Red Sun broke apart all people by giving them different languages.The same has happened here.No one will know what each other is saying and from that rises conflict.As a trader,¡± Samira nearly choked, ¡°I am aware of the limitations of languages and the difficulties in trying to help other peoples.I do not want to underpay you for what you are giving up.That is a grand piece of magic and it is for that reason I present you this.¡± Samira sighed and slid over a cardboard box lined with packing paper.Among the paper lay a hunting knife and sheath, twenty feet of parador, and a dozen steel arrowheads.While Garran had a crossbow, Dal had seen F¡¯darr¡¯s own self bow at her side. Garran¡¯s crossbow was a simple affair, a smaller bow strapped across a frame. Dal could almost hear Garran¡¯s jaw hit the floor when he pulled the steel knife from its sheath.He carried a knife on his belt, but Dal had seen that it was obsidian. Similar to what the goblin had been carrying.The black volcanic glass was definitely sharp, but the steel knife was far stronger. ¡°Who am I?¡± Garran wondered softly. ¡°I am no High Mother to carry such a weapon.¡± Both F¡¯darr and Lokkan had stopped what they were doing and skittered over to see the blade.They stared at it with awe.Dal glanced to Samira and she shrugged.They had obviously seen all the metal doors and grating outside. So a steel blade shouldn¡¯t have been so mesmerizing to them. ¡°You have a deal, Trader Dal,¡± Garran said. ¡°For this and the cloth, we shall give you the translator.¡± Dal grinned at Samira. *** ¡°-and then I shall break every bone in your lower extremities!¡± Samira said. ¡°Okay, we know it works. Stop cursing at me,¡± Dal said as Samira had been determined to know if it could translate all five additional languages she knew.Dal had been subjected to Spanish, French, Arabic, Moroccan Berber, and German. ¡°Just have to be sure,¡± Samira said. ¡°Although it seems you were more interested in cursing your mate,¡± Garran said, sipping on more tea.He had allowed Dal and Samira to test the magical device. ¡°We¡¯re not mates,¡± Dal said. ¡°Gross, no. He¡¯s like a baby,¡± Samira said. ¡°They say the High Mothers choose the younger and stronger males to mate with,¡± Lokkan said, wrapped in a quilt. F¡¯darr let out a low hiss. ¡°You are nearing your thirteenth cycle, brother,¡± she said, ¡°and even the Low Mothers won¡¯t bed you.¡± ¡°How old are all of you?¡± Samira asked. Garran looked at the others. ¡°Thirteen cycles,¡± he said. ¡°How long is a cycle on your world?¡± Samira asked. ¡°The days here are shorter, but almost the same,¡± Garran said after a while.¡°Five hundred and nine days is a cycle.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re about eighteen human years old,¡± Dal said. ¡°How long have you been a caravan guard?¡± Samira asked, pouring the three more tea.They seemed to like black tea, or they were far colder than they had been admitting. ¡°I have been a guard since I was five cycles old,¡± Garran said proudly.¡°I was deemed Strongest and allowed to follow the Elders across the Sand Seas. My creechmates, F¡¯darr and Lokkan have been guards for only two cycles.They are my apprentices and will form the strength of my own K¡¯staziko in a few cycles.¡± ¡°K¡¯staziko is what we call an armed group, my own mercenary company,¡± Garran grinned proudly.¡°I will be youngest to command and to bring honor to our clan.¡± He frowned and sighed. ¡°Or was.Now we do not know what we shall do.This land is too cold for us and if you are right, then it will get even colder.¡± All three shivered. ¡°The rains will turn to ice and even the Salt Sea will freeze over,¡± Lokkan said.¡°Then the Ice Wyrm shall rise from the frozen sands and kill all those that stand against the Red God.¡± ¡°Lokkan is a failed Priest,¡± F¡¯dar said quickly, letting out a laughing hiss. ¡°F¡¯darr is ugly,¡± Lokkan snapped. ¡°No warrior would bed her and her eggs are hollow.¡± F¡¯darr hissed, tossing aside her blanket and extending her claws.Lokkan did the same. ¡°Enough!¡± Garran snarled. ¡°You seek to commit violence in the presence of our hosts? Who give us meat, drink, and warmth? Shame!¡± The two ducked their heads and dropped to their knees instantly. ¡°We beg forgiveness, brother,¡± they said in unison. Garran hissed. ¡°They do not know discipline. My apologizes,¡± Garran said. ¡°The softness of the colony has addled their mind.It is a place of politics and positioning, Low Mothers, High Mothers, Priests, and Old Warriors all hiss for power.Perhaps this is our punishment for our lax ways.The gods have decided to break us up once more and force us to realize our true path as warriors.¡± Dal and Samira shared a glance. ¡°It is fine,¡± Dal said.¡°I can give you the run down on what we know of the system.It¡¯s not much, for our world didn¡¯t have magic or the system.¡± ¡°Any information would help us.¡± Dal and Samira began discussing all they knew about the system and what it could do.They refrained from telling the trio about the dungeon they had.It seemed they had a run in with plenty of monsters in their two days of travel.Iron birds, shadow hawks, log gnawer, and a thunder bear.The latter they had to flee from, for it was bigger than they were tall and nearly as fast as they were. Dal scribbled that information down in his notes, as they discussed what the bluestones and redstone were used for. ¡°I have twenty two redstones and two thousand mana,¡± Garran said, peering at his status screen.He hadn¡¯t used it since he had first gained it.¡°It says my Perks are: Steadfast and Double Step.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s pretty cool,¡± Dal said, writing it down. F¡¯darr¡¯s Perk was: Blinding shot; an active Perk that cost ten mana to use and could blind individuals in an area for up to ten seconds.She tested it out before they could stop her and the warehouse was filled with cursing and Garran snarling. Lokkan¡¯s Perk was: Goddess¡¯ Wall; an active Perk that created a magical barrier about ten feet in diameter.It only cost him five mana and would last up to five minutes, but it was only usable every fifteen minutes. Garran tested its effectiveness by firing crossbow bolts and F¡¯darr¡¯s arrows into the shield.It held up against the assault. ¡°We could have used that when the Chalk Wretches attacked us,¡± Garran grinned. ¡°Three hundred of those wretched screaming down the dunes, flinging everything from arrows, rocks, and their own eggshells at us.¡± The three spent the rest of the afternoon in discussion with Dal on what they could do to increase their stats and gain more perks.Samira watched with some amusement and fear.She didn¡¯t know these people and it seemed they were more used to violence than she or Dal ever would be. Samira made sure to keep the .357 in its holster and the shotgun strapped across her back.She didn¡¯t know if she would need it, but better safe than sorry. *** ¡°Prayer,¡± Samira said when Garran asked where Dal had gone to.It was nearing evening and although their guests were interesting, Dal had still wanted to run some experiments on the dungeon.They had collected the broken concrete, but hadn¡¯t tested to see if the dungeon could suck out mana from them. ¡°You are protective of the trader,¡± Garran said, settling down on his haunches across from her.She sat on a folding chair with the shotgun across her knees.¡°You are much older than he.You are like the High Mothers back in the Colony, yes?Steering males that they believe will rise high.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± Samira replied.¡°He¡¯s too trusting.¡± ¡°You are not?¡± ¡°Age and experience, Garran.¡± ¡°Understood, High Mother.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a mother,¡± Samira said bitterly. ¡°Ah,¡± Garran looked over his shoulder at where F¡¯darr was snapping at Lokkan as they played with a child¡¯s puzzle. Putting brightly colored shapes into their correct spots and pushing buttons to play random music. ¡°Lokkan and F¡¯darr are not the warriors they wish to be.Many cycles I have tried, but they are not cut out for it.Lokkan is too weak and F¡¯darr holds the bitterness of leaving the Colony in her heart.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Lokkan spoke truth when he insulted her.Her eggs are hollow and she cannot aide the tribe in the way mothers should.¡± Samira gripped the shotgun. ¡°It may not be the same among your people, High Mother, but among mine.It is the Mothers who shape our colony, who shape who we are, and determine its future.How many children you can bring into the world determines how much power you have. As with warriors, how many enemies you can kill, then you raise in power too.¡± ¡°Yet you have been supporting them for the last two cycles?¡± Samira asked, her voice tight. ¡°I have done what I can, High Mother.But I fear it is not enough.I can only lead them so far, but they will need to make those steps themselves.¡± Garran looked lost for a moment. ¡°We do not know where we are nor do we know where our people are.I do not know if I can keep them alive.They are my brother and sister, my creechmates, but I do not know if I have the strength.¡± They were all just kids, Samira realized.They were just kids lost in a world they didn¡¯t know and now the realization was hitting them that they could be lost forever.Samira had put the thought of her own family out of her mind.The sister she would never speak to again and her parents whom she might never see again. She took a deep breath and looked Garran in his yellow eyes.He might be seven feet tall and somekind of warrior, but he was still a kid trying to keep his siblings alive. ¡°The world has changed a lot,¡± Samira said.¡°It is actually still changing as we speak.The beams of lights that come from the heavens, you have seen them?¡± ¡°I have, High Mother.¡± ¡°We think they are what brings others from different worlds here,¡± Samira explained. ¡°We had a vision when we first came here, of great beings laughing as they cut up and mixed different worlds together.We believe that these strange beings are playing with us and hope to see what happens when so many different people meet and have to interact.¡± ¡°The Red Sun,¡± Garran hissed. ¡°The chaos bringer.¡± ¡°There were twelve of them, so maybe they¡¯re one of the dozen.¡± Samira said.¡°Whatever their plan is, we cannot fall for it.There may be different peoples from different worlds, but we cannot see them as enemies, but as potential friends and allies.¡± ¡°I suppose,¡± Garran said slowly. ¡°The world will have to be rebuilt and if we all work together we can do that. You and your siblings have a role in that too, Garran.Maybe you did not come here by accident, but were brought to where you were needed.¡± ¡°How so, High Mother?¡± Garran asked.There was an odd timbre to his voice, as if he were seeking a life line.Samira sighed internally and tossed him a floaty. ¡°You were scouts, yes?¡± ¡°We scouted ahead of the caravan,¡± Garran replied. ¡°We have need of scouts. You have need of a place of warmth and supplies, of tools and equipment,¡± Samira said. ¡°We believe that winter is coming, the days are growing shorter and the air is growing colder.¡± ¡°We have known cold from the deserts of our world,¡± Garran said. ¡°But this is different, it is too wet and too cold. Our scales may rot and we may sicken from it.¡± ¡°Stay with us for a while, Garran.Help us see what lies about this place we find ourselves in.Scout out the land for us, see if there are any other peoples around here.Then come back, rest here, repair your gear and we shall share our meat and tea with you, we shall offer you a bed to sleep in and what warmth we can give you.¡± Garran ducked his head. ¡°Thank you, High Mother,¡± he gasped. Samira sighed.¡°Speaking of meat, let¡¯s make dinner.¡± Samira glanced to the dungeon storage unit.Dal had the walkie and he had his machete.As long as the trio didn¡¯t wander into the dungeon storage unit, then things should be okay.Samira beckoned and the tough and scared warrior followed her back to the warehouse. A Dig in the Creek ¡°Two thousand pounds of concrete make one iron bird,¡± Dal said.He flopped down onto the couch, his t-shirt slicked with sweat and his arms scratched and covered with concrete dust. ¡°You moved a ton of concrete by yourself?¡± Samira asked. Dal nodded slowly.¡°It¡¯s not really all that much, when you think about it. A cubic feet of concrete is roughly a hundred and fifty pounds.I can hold at least three hundred in the wheel barrow, just took a few trips back and forth.Plus I didn¡¯t go completely into the dungeon, just tipped it over in the first room like we did with the iron birds.I think as long as I keep a hold of the wheelbarrow, it won¡¯t let try to absorb it.Of course, I had to make sure that fifty pound would create an iron bird, that did not happen.So I tried a hundred, and then a hundred pound increments after that.So technically its between one thousand nine hundred pounds and two thousand pounds.¡± ¡°Good to know,¡± Samira said.¡°You stink.¡± ¡°Thanks I needed to hear that.Really boosts my self esteem.¡± ¡°I wonder how much mana that little charm has?¡± Samira wondered.¡°Something magical surely has more mana than a mandane pile of steel or concrete.¡± ¡°Hey, that thing is worth more than its weight in gold pressed latinum.¡± Dal said. ¡°It¡¯s the first thing to save if there¡¯s a fire and the last thing to protect if we get attacked.¡± ¡°Drama much?¡± ¡°Communication is the key to understanding and harmony.¡± ¡°Oh, I should tell you something,¡± Samira said. *** ¡°Oh, wow, they are just kids, aren¡¯t they?¡± Dal said as Samira recounted her talk with Garran.¡°I guess you can¡¯t really tell since they¡¯re not human, but they¡¯re just baby faced kiddos trying to find their way home.¡± ¡°Just lost like we are, but in a terrible climate.¡± ¡°We can build them a wood burning stove or something. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m totally capable to weld a Franklin stove for them, but there are some thick pieces of sheet metal in the metalshop.¡± ¡°I¡¯m thinking something like this,¡± Samira said.She tapped a button on one of Grady¡¯s laptops and a schematic appeared.It was from one of the many books Grady had stored on external hard drives, detailing all the ways to restart civilization after the apocalypse. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Dal asked. ¡°A mass heater stove,¡± she responded. ¡°Build a fire in one end, allow it to swirl in this big steel drum here, then the heat permeates this chunk of clay or whatever. Trapping the heat inside and allowing it to be slowly released over hours.It¡¯s pretty good in the fuel efficiency department.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll have to be on the south side of the warehouse, that sixteen by sixteen unit that we¡¯re storing some building supplies in,¡± Dal said, peering at the image.We can punch a hole in the cinderblock wall here and allow about a third of the unit to be used for the mass heater.¡± ¡°Think we can do it?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Ask not what we can do, but what we shouldn¡¯t do,¡± Dal misquoted. ¡°Well, in that case your little pet dungeon,¡± Samira smirked. ¡°Forget everything I¡¯ve ever said,¡± Dal replied. *** ¡°We shall begin this morning,¡± Garran said, behind him Lokkan and F¡¯darr looked miserable. They were huddled up in their blankets and sweaters, while Garran only wore a simple black hoodie under his armor.¡°High Mother Samira wishes to know if there are any of peoples out there. We shall go to the river and then we shall head north.We shall return with what game or treasures we find.¡± Garran¡¯s and the others had arrived from the south.The mountains lay to the west and they were trapped by the river to the east.Boats and ships did no exist in their desert world; so they had been forced to keep moving, hoping to find a way to cross. It had been the evening of the second day when they had seen the sun glint off the glass of the storage warehouse.Once morning came, they had decided to see what it was. Garran had thought it was a small village, an odd one, but not to different from the colony villages in his world. ¡°I cannot wear this blanket and shoot my bow at the same time,¡± F¡¯darr said. ¡°Oh, we can maybe adjust it for you,¡± Samira said.She had a seamstress¡¯ measuring tape in and was measuring the young warrior.The K¡¯thari, as Garran said they were called, where a thin and long limbed reptilian people.Their scales went from a dark green along their legs and stomachs to a light green across they chests and face. Dal figured they were an early bronze age people, as their knives were obsidian and the only metal they had were the arrowhead and crossbow bolts.They were thrilled about the metal items they had been given, especially the hunting knife. If they were staying with them long term, Dal thought about what he could do for their armor. As it was, only Garran wore any kind of armor, a cuirass that reached down to his waist and seemed to be from some kind of chitinous shell.He had thought it was some laminate armor, but upon closer inspection is was the shell of some kind of insect. Dal shuddered at the thought of something so big scurrying around. Although he had hoped to delve more into their history and world; it seemed they had decided Samira was boss and were quick to do her bidding.From what Dal had heard, they came from a matriarchal society, the High Mothers leading and the Low Mothers making babies.Then there were the Priests and Warriors, the former celibate in their daily lives and the latter out to make names for themselves and father the next generation. Dal watched as they prepared for their scouting.He wanted to go with them, to see the world, but as Samira had said; they¡¯re professionals and they would determine how dangerous the world is outside.It felt as if Samira was holding him back, babying him.He was a grown ass man and could do what he wanted. Then again, the tales of creatures the small party had seen, escaped from, or killed was enough to calm Dal¡¯s wanderlust.It wasn¡¯t as if in the old world he was hell bent on going out to see the world.It had been work, his apartment, and his games.Occasionally he would visit a friend, but as the years since his leaving college, that group had shrunk down to two others who had also dropped out of college. There was a lot to do in the warehouse.Supplies still needed to be organized and the dungeon core still needed to be fed and experimented with. Concrete seemed to be the best option, in terms of waste product.Although a ton of concrete for twenty five mana didn¡¯t seem worth it. He had to figure out a way to understand the core, perhaps even communicate with it. He had six redstones and twelve bluestones, along with a hundred mana.If he cashed in bluestones, he could have enough to to make two purples, which would give him two additional Perks. Although there was a myriad of options, Dal was looking toward half dozen different Perks that dealt with magic and mana. Magic Sense 1 Mana Crafting 1 Core Crafting 1 Mana Infusion 1 Arcane Knowledge 1 Mana Basics 1 The description on all six were a bit vague, but Dal was betting that they would help in his attempt to heal the core.Dal was about to cash in three bluestone when he stopped and nearly smacked his head against the desk. ¡°Oh, hey, before you leave.Anyone want to trade for some bluestones?¡± he asked. ¡°I have four I can trade.¡± Lokka immediately jumped forward, nudging F¡¯darr out of the way. ¡°I do,¡± he said, slapping down his four redstones.Dal jerked back a bit at the aggressive moment. ¡°Okay, cool,¡± Dal said. He set his four down and obtained Lokkar¡¯s four.Garran was watching Lokkar, his eyes narrowed. Samira also seemed upset by Lokkar¡¯s action.Was he missing something?Dal wondered.He took the redstone and with them formed two purple stones. He did manage to save at least two hundred mana with the trade.With that done, Dal hesitated before making his big purchase. Magic Sense 1 Four purples were deducted and Dal pulled out the translator charm.He set it on the desk and stared at it, waiting for something to happen.As the trio left and Samira said she would look into figuring out the trio¡¯s clothing options, Dal continued to try and see what was up with the Magic Sense. It was a different sense, Dal realized after a long while. Knowledge Seeker: 2 bluestones Dal grinned.It wasn¡¯t visual or physical, but Sal could ¡®see¡¯ the glow coming off the magical charm. He sat at the desk and concentrated on the charm. It took several efforts, but Dal figured that he had to focus but not really focused, see, but not see. It was convoluted and strange, but he could feel the magic coming off the charm.It was a soft glow that seemed to rise and fall as if it were breathing. ¡°That¡¯s cool,¡± he said.As he spoke the charm glowed just a tad brighter. ¡°Okay, so it seems the charm just works all the time, regardless if there is anyone around for it to translate.¡±As he spoke the charm¡¯s glow seemed to hum with his voice. Dal brought out his smart phone.He set the speaker and began playing some K-pop to the charm.What he heard was English.Dal sat back and laughed.He moved the music onto some Spanish ballads, an anime he had downloaded, and a subtitled German TV show.All of it were translated to English.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°How?¡± Dal wondered. He raised the volume of the phone and it ten feet away from the charm.He could still hear the translation activating, as the music from the phone came out in English. He set the phone twenty feet away and it still worked, as long as he could hear the music; it was translating. Samira wandered back into the office and shook her head as reggaeton blasted from Dal¡¯s phone. ¡°Hold right there,¡± Dal shouted. ¡°Are you hearing Spanish or English?¡± Dal asked. ¡°Spanish. Why?¡± ¡°Step forward at one foot increments,¡± Dal said. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Samira asked as she took a step.Then another and another. She stopped. ¡°I¡¯m hearing English now.¡± Dal took out a tape measure and strung it out to her.¡°Fifteen feet,¡± he said.¡°This Charm has a radius of fifteen feet so anyone within that area will be translated.As long as you¡¯re within that area and can hear, then it¡¯ll be turned to the language you use most common.¡± ¡°So I guess we¡¯re both English speakers, then?¡± Samira asked. ¡°My Korean¡¯s pretty bad,¡± Dal admitted. ¡°Third generation here.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re testing out the charm?¡± Samira asked, turning off the phone. ¡°Yeah,¡± Dal said.¡°I purchased the Magic Sense Perk and I can see the charm ¡®glowing¡¯ as I speak.¡± Dal paused.¡°You have your phone on you?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Samira said warily. ¡°Hold on,¡± Dal ducked into the Employees Only area and came out with a the tablet and two music players.¡°Grady¡¯s music playlist is a lot of Gaelic, German, and oddly Mongollian folk music.What foreign languages do you have on your phone?¡± ¡°Uh, I¡¯ve got some Arabic music,¡± Samira said. ¡°Cool, blast that. I¡¯ll blast Grady¡¯s music and then you also shout something to me in French.My phone¡¯s got Spanish covered.¡± ¡°What¡¯s this supposed to test?¡± Samira asked. ¡°How much it can translate, of course.You¡¯ll need to also tel me if you can hear the translations when I shout at you in Korean,¡± Dal said.He set up the music players and laptop. ¡°Now!¡± Dal shouted over the music. ¡°How much for a baguette?¡± Samira shouted. ¡°Where is the bathroom? Why do you need to see my passport?¡± ¡°How is university!¡± Dal shouted back. ¡°You need to work harder if you want to succeed.¡± Meanwhile the other devices played songs about green meadows, the might of warriors, sweeping across the steepes, and¡­ Spanish and Arabic. Dal raised up a hand and grinned. ¡°Five languages at one,¡± he said. Suddenly he could hear the Arabic as Samira stopped speaking.A call to prayer, of peace.He stopped speaking and could also hear the Spanish, a song about clubs, fast cars, and women. ¡°Oh, its five always,¡± Dal added. ¡°When one language stops, another starts.¡± Dal turned off the devices and peered at the charm of metal, bone, and beads. ¡°This.All that from this.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Even modern day computers and translators can¡¯t keep up,¡± Samira said. ¡°You also hear that its translating slang?¡± ¡°Slang?¡± ¡°Yeah, that reggaeton is mostly in slang.I¡¯m pretty fluent in Spanish and half of it was beyond me.Guess I¡¯m not hip anymore,¡± Samira sighed. ¡°How?¡± Dal demanded looking at the charm. ¡°This is crazy.¡± He sat down stumped. ¡°Well, this was fun.Let¡¯s do something even more fun.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°We need clay and a lot of it.You promised to make the mass heater for our guests.¡± ¡°But the charm.¡± ¡°Can wait. It¡¯s not going anywhere. Come on, we¡¯re burning daylight here.¡± *** ¡°Stop, stop,¡± Dal said, scrambling into the hole Samira had dug.His sneakers splashed into the cold creek. The only exposed source of clay they had found was in the creek north of the warehouse. Digging out clay was difficult work, therefore they alternated time digging.Dal had been sitting on a mound of dirt, machete in hand when he ¡®felt¡¯ something.Samira and been digging and that had dislodged something. Something with magic. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Samira asked, reaching for her shotgun. ¡°No danger,¡± Dal said, digging his hands into the cold mud.Samira stepped back and kept and eye out for danger regardless.She had resigned herself not to wonder out loud what he was up to, his brain was running around after answers to questions Samira wasn¡¯t all that incline to ask. ¡°Here!¡± Dal pulled out a small speck of something.He hissed and tossed it aside, the speck of material landed on the mound Dal had been sitting on.Samira leaned over and looked at it. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± she asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but its magic,¡± Dal said, peering at his hands. ¡°It shocked me when I was holding it.¡± ¡°Stranger danger,¡± Samira said. ¡°No one likes dirty young men putting their hands all over them.¡± Dal scoffed and clamored out of the hole.He peered at the speck, it was the size of a fingernail and translucent.Yet it seemed to glow in his magic sense.He took a multitool from his pack and gingerly picked up the shard. ¡°I think its like a mana crystal,¡± Dal said. ¡°Like what we get?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Maybe a more raw form,¡± Day said.He summoned his mana crystals and lay them side by side.Form his pack he also took out a magnifying glass. ¡°We were digging up clay, why did you bring that stuff?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Never know when you¡¯ll need it.¡± Dal studied the two crystal and shrugged. ¡°Its like looking at smoky quartz and glass.But they¡¯re both giving off that mana magic glow.¡± Dal pointed to the small speck.¡°This is actually brighter, like maybe twice as much.Do you have any mana?¡± he asked. Samira sighed and handed him the three hundred mana she had.Dal absorbed it and then added his own to the new crystal. He tilted his head, squinted his eyes, and used the magnifying glass on it again, reabsorbing and foreign another crystal. ¡°Three hundred and twenty five mana,¡± he said. ¡°If we¡¯re going by crystal brightness.¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± Samira asked. Dal shrugged. ¡°Who knows, but it seems there is mana crystals in them hills,¡± he said in an atrocious accent. ¡°White gold, New World Tea.¡± ¡°Alright, easy there Jed Clampett,¡± Samira said. ¡°We have clay to get first.¡± ¡°But magic.¡± ¡°We have magic at home!¡± Samira said loudly. Dal chuckled. ¡°Also, give me back my three hundred mana.¡± Dal sighed. **** ¡°There is some sand over there,¡± Samira said. ¡°And we have several backs of cement ready to be used.I mean we can take the water straight out of the creek, but we¡¯d have to boil it and filter it.If we can make a filter that¡¯ll keep some of the worst stuff out, bacterial that is. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of survival info in those books Grady left behind,¡± Samira continued. ¡°We should make it a priority to read up on them.¡± Samira sighed. ¡°Are you listening to me, Dal?¡± Dal looked up from where he was sifting the creek bed contents.The water was cold, Samira knew that, but Dal was nearly soaked through as he was panning the water for more mana crystals. ¡°This is a really great thing,¡± Dal said. ¡°If there are mana crystals in the water, that could mean there is a sort of mana crystal vein, right? Like gold or other metals.¡± ¡°Old world logic,¡± Samira said. ¡°For all we know, it falls from the sky.Like those lights we saw.¡± Dal paused at that. ¡°That was a lot of magic, a lot of mana,¡± he muttered. ¡°Perhaps this is what¡¯s left over from those beam lights.¡± He paused again. ¡°But then how were they in the ground?Clustered at the base of the creek rocks?¡± ¡°We felt that blast of light and air when that beam hit far out from us,¡± Sabina said. ¡°That magic didn¡¯t seem to care about windows and walls, plus it didn¡¯t damage any of it.Maybe those mana crystals are just residue left behind, like some kind of coffee stain ring.¡± ¡°It would have a distinct shape to it,¡± Dal said. ¡°In fact if would probably be at the edges of the jagged circle that was brought here.But these mana flakes seem to be up and down the creek.¡±Dal sat down on the muddy bank.He had brought gloves and now held a small fleck of mana crystal, peering at it as if it would answer his questions. ¡°How much do you think you have now?¡± Samira asked. ¡°If we go by the brightness test, about two thousand mana,¡± Dal said. ¡°Not bad for four hour¡¯s work.¡± Samira said. ¡°Most of it was digging up clay anyway.¡± ¡°¡®As long as it doesn¡¯t interfere with the work we¡¯re doing¡¯,¡± Dal muttered, quoting Samira¡¯s ultimatum about mana crystal panning. ¡°I swear you¡¯d run off into the woods chasing the next wild idea you have,¡± Samira said. ¡°Come on, we still have plenty of work to do.You can play with the mana and the dungeon after dinner.¡± ¡°I see why Garran is calling you High Mother,¡± Dal said. It was followed a moment later by a shriek as Samira threw cold mud into his face with her shovel. *** ¡°How this cold, miserable, too green place harbors such an abundance of game, I do not know,¡± Garran said as the trio returned before sunset.They all looked weary and cold, but in high spirits. The trio had arrived as they finished piling a decent mound of wet clay by the garage doors.Lokkar and F¡¯darr had a carrying pole stretched between them and on it was a creature that looks like a hairy crocodile, with horns.It was short legged, long tailed, and covered in thick fur. Garran had half a dozen rabbits across his back. Meanwhile, Samira and Dal had taken one of the steel drums from the metal shop, cut the top off and made a makeshift chimney for it.They built up a fire by the back door and brought out the grills, with Samira taking up the tongs to grill up a feast. The hairy croc¡¯s meat was a bit gamey, but Dal thought it was delicious as he hadn¡¯t had real meat in a while. He had taken the opportunity make to some simple flatbread from the flour they had. The trio hadn¡¯t liked beans, but they took to bread easily enough.Dal wondered if they would accidentally poison one another one of these days.It was already odd enough they could eat human food, seeing as they were technically aliens who grew up on a world with a completely different biology.Unless those Dirty Dozen had only made it so that similar worlds were brought together. Since the bread was a hit, Dal was already planning on make biscuits, french bread, and yeast rolls. All the carbs anyone could want.Maybe he should devote his life to baking, not knowledge seeking. ¡°We traveled eight thousand strides to the river,¡± Garran reported. ¡°Then we turned upstream for another twenty thousand.Upon return, we cut through the woods for about another twenty thousand strides.¡± Dal chewed on his BBQ and did the math. ¡°That¡¯s nearly twenty seven miles,¡± he said.¡°Along the way you had time to hunt?¡± ¡°The land is rough, but it is passable,¡± Garran said. ¡°There are plenty of game and creatures that mean harm, but they cannot stand against our new powers.Those that we cannot fight, we fled.¡± ¡°Is it pretty bad out there?¡¯ Samira asked. ¡°Without the High Mother¡¯s shelter and the tools given to us, we would probably be dead by now,¡± F¡¯darr answered. ¡°Decisions are easier to make when you know you have a place to rest for the night and it is not desperation that drives you.¡± ¡°Well said, sister,¡± Garran preened. ¡°My brother and sister are to thank for this meal.Without Lokkar¡¯s wall this creature would have escaped. Without F¡¯darr¡¯s skill, it would have been far harder to kill.¡± Lokkar had a proud look on his face while F¡¯darr only grinned.¡°We are finding cohesion better than we did before,¡± Garran continued. ¡°I hit, F¡¯darr shoots, Lokkar protects.¡± ¡°All you need is a healer,¡± Dal said. ¡°The White Goddess has only blessed me with two siblings,¡± Garren said, chewing contently upon a rib. ¡°Samira¡¯s a Nurse,¡± Dal said.¡°Hasn¡¯t had much use for it lately.Plus she¡¯s a Hunter.¡± The trio turned to her as one. Samira stopped as she set down a pot of Mac and Cheese. ¡°What?¡± she asked. *** ¡°I¡¯m a home body,¡± Dal said. It was becoming a ritual for the pair to sit on the third floor before they turned in. Although they had not seen a light as bright as two nights previous, they could occasionally see some distant flicker, like lightning. They settled in on their chairs and had their binoculars at the ready. On this occasion they also had some warm beer and pretzels to enjoy.¡°Plus I want to figure out that charm and see about collecting more mana crystals.Carefully, of course.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think I should do this,¡± Samira said.She twisted a napkin in her hand, then slowly began to tear it to pieces. ¡°They think of you as the leader here,¡± Dal said, leaning back in his chair.¡°High Mother and all that.I think its something that¡¯s culturally engrained in them. You¡¯re the eldest here and female, so you¡¯re the leader.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Samira said blandly. ¡°Truthfully, I want to go with them. I want to see what lies beyond our little plateau.¡± ¡°Hopefully people or others who know about magic and how to use it,¡± Dal said.He had the translator charm and could still see the slight glow to it. ¡°More people, more mouths,¡± Samira said. ¡°If the trio can hunt like they¡¯ve just did, then we might be able to survive for a long while.¡± ¡°There¡¯s still a lot of work to do,¡± Samira said. ¡°The mass heater, for one.More organizing, we¡¯ll need to begin cutting down trees to make a wood stockpile soon.We¡¯re already out of charcoal and it takes a lot of wood to just boil water.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Dal said. ¡°But we also need information more.¡± ¡°So you want us to scout up the creek?¡± Samira asked, a grin on her face. ¡°That obvious?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve got a one track mind.We¡¯ll see if it¡¯s safe and then you can join us on the next outing.Maybe find this mana vein.¡± ¡°Like clockwork,¡± Dal said, gesturing. To the east they could see a beam of light coming down from the heavens.It was narrower than the last beam and further out.The backlash barely ruffled them and there was only a distant boom of what sounded like thunder. ¡°It¡¯s still happening,¡± Samira said. ¡°How long do you think it¡¯ll keep going on?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been almost a week,¡± Dal said. ¡°Maybe it takes a while to bring in chunks of other worlds.¡± ¡°Bits and pieces of some other world are just being dumped on this one,¡± Samira said. ¡°If there are civilizations out there, then this will probably be causing them a massive mess too.¡± ¡°The Dirty Dozen,¡± Dal said. ¡°Screwing up whole worlds for the LOLs.¡± 07 - Lead Sandwich Dal rolled his shoulders and began stretching.It was still early, perhaps half an hour before sunrise, but he felt completely rested and awake.That was the wonders of upgrading to Regeneration 2.Is this how Samira felt every morning, clear eyed and ready to go? He exited his tiny room and saw that Samira had already beaten him to the coffee machine.It was their biggest electrical expenditure in the morning.The solar panels were barely enough to charge their phones, walkie talkies, and other equipment, even though they had plenty of batteries to store power. ¡°Good day, young man.Here on the farm, we rise before the sun even thinks of getting up.¡± Samira said in the voice of an old woman. ¡°High Mother,¡± Dal replied in greeting. ¡°Fuck off then.No coffee for you.¡± ¡°Oh, come on.There¡¯s mean and then there¡¯s inhumane.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be a good day,¡± Samira said, pouring his coffee into a travel mug.Dal accepted it and followed her out into the front office. The small store set up was still the same, they picked out a bag of cookies each and then headed toward the freight elevator and two smaller elevators.Around a slight bend where some double doors that lead into the rear storage area of the warehouse.They had set up a sort of kitchen by the garage door, with the trio having settled into one storage unit. The K¡¯thari were an odd bunch.Very communal was the word that would describe them.They all preferred to sleep together and even though they disagreed with one another, they never went anywhere alone.Garran was different, he seemed more independent minded and didn¡¯t fear doing things by himself.F¡¯darr and Lokkan didn¡¯t like one another, but even they stayed close together when Garran wasn¡¯t around. Garran was sitting on a stool, the human made chairs didn¡¯t fit his form very well.Especially with the small stub tail that the K¡¯thari had. ¡°Good morning, Garran,¡± Samira said cheerfully. ¡°Good¡­ morning, High Mother,¡± Garran said with some hesitation.¡°Good morning, trader Dal.¡± ¡°¡®Sup, buddy,¡± Dal said with a smile. Samira rolled her eyes at him. ¡°I¡¯ll be joining you on your outing,¡± Samira said. Garran brightened up at that.Like a little puppy hearing a treat bag opening.¡°That is excellent news, High Mother.¡± ¡°I need to stretch my legs and see this world with my own eyes.¡± ¡°And you Trader Dal?¡± ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll stay here. I need to run more mana tests and get the metal work done for the mass heater.Perhaps y¡¯all could call the day a bit early and help get all the clay built up.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± Samira said, sipping her coffee.Garran eagerly helped her set up the grill for breakfast.It was going to be another meat heavy morning and Dal groaned.He wanted a nice salad or some tangy citrus.At least the restroom was working and even the trio could use that. *** ¡°Keep the pistol¡¯s safety on, keep your machete near you, and no parties.I left some leftover wooly gator in the ice chest.¡± Samira said as she zipped up her camo hunting jacket and slung the shotgun over her back. ¡°Sure thing, mom.Wooly gator? I thought we agreed on hairy croc?¡± ¡°Gross, hairy anything reminds me of this one patient I had.Big guy, hair everywhere and I mean everywhere.I can¡¯t burn that image out of my mind.¡± Samira chuckled and strapped a hunting knife to her leg, along with the .357 and the .22, she was loaded for bear. ¡°Sucks that you have all this fancy fitted gear, while I have to make do with crappy clothes in the should have been dumped at Goodwill bin.¡± ¡°I might have a nice sun dress that you could fit into,¡± Samira said. ¡°Once we get the surviving the winter thing settled, we can begin fitting the left over clothing for you and the others.I¡¯m good with a needle and there was a time where I couldn¡¯t even pay for a tailor to hem my clothes, so I learned how to instead.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just grousing,¡± Dal said.¡°You all be safe and come back with something other than meat.Maybe fish?¡± ¡°Oh, I could go for some sushi right now.¡± ¡°Shut up and leave,¡± Dal said as Samira laughed. An odd silence fell upon the warehouse as Dal realized he was truly alone now.Sure they were only a few hundred feet away and easily reached by walkie talkie, but for all intents and purposes he was truly alone.Dal signed and headed into the back area.There was always something to do. One thing he learned from his college days was to do the thing you did not want to do first.That way it was done and you could move onto more interesting things.Dal opened up the storage unit the trio had been using.It was empty and only a few blankets reverently folded were the in the corner. The book on Rocket Stove Mass Heaters was a long one and there were several designs that could be implemented.Dal checked it against his inventory and it looked like they had most of what was needed. ¡°Keep it simple, stupid,¡± Dal said to himself as he looked at the schematic he was going to use.It was the simplest he could find.Just a burn box made of quarter inch steel, a thirty gallon drum and a chimney made of twelve foot long pipe.He would have to but in a hole for cleaning and make an ash trap, but it didn¡¯t seem too hard. Dal drained his coffee cup and went to bring in the welding truck. *** There were some fire bricks spread across five storage units, there was cement, there was plenty of steel pipe and material from the metal shop, and Dal was lost in the world of welding.It was an odd experience for him, he had taken the metal working class in high school nearly five years previous, but it was all coming back to him as if he had just learned it. He could hear Mr. Wilson lectures about beads and keeping the weld clean.About how safety was the biggest concern and that iron working was an honest job.At the time Dal didn¡¯t really care.His grandfather and his own father¡¯s attempts to ¡®make a man¡¯ of him had only aroused anger and angst in him. Yet that class he had hated and barely passed, it was helping him immensely.It was one of those things he thought he would never need to think about, but in actuality it was what he needed. He supposed every bit of knowledge he ever gained wasn¡¯t useless, at sometime in his life it would be needed. Knowledge Seeker: 1 bluestone Dal smiled and cleaned up his welds.It had taken several hours, but he admired his handiwork.A real professional would have done far better, but currently he was the best welder in the group.It was as simple as he could make it and still function, or he hoped. The true test would be seen when he lit it up.He did so and watched as the fire burned. He set the small lid on top of the burn box and opened the small vent to allow air into it.He could feel the heat coming off the box, but it would take hours still for it to full spread.Dal stretched and found the fire extinguisher and set it beside the door. The hardest job of the day was over. Now he sat in the sun and drank a soda. The fun part was about to begin. He used his last purple stone to purchase Mana Crafting.As before, the world didn¡¯t change and nothing spectacular happened.It wasn¡¯t until he began looking at the translator charm he began to see some differences.For one, the glow he had seen with Magic Sense was still there, but it had changed.Now tiny sparks seemed to flow in and out of the charm like it was breathing. Dal used his magnifying glass and watched as the charm breathed, noting that when he spoke out loud or played music in any language, the sparks seemed to go wild. Every part of him wanted to take apart the charm and see how it worked.Like he did as a child, when he took apart the electronic toys his parents had bought for him.He had no idea how to put them back together, but that didn¡¯t matter.He wanted to see what was inside of it that made it work. Dal resigned himself to observation.He used his phone and the magnifying glass to take pictures of every bit of the charm, noting all the engraving and etchings on the bone, beads, and metal.Dal begin noting a repetition in the patterns.Within an hour he had taken pictures all thirty different runes that were etched into the pieces.He saw that copper was used to link each part together.There was also silver and iron.The bone was bone and the beads appeared to be glass. Dal scribbled on his notes and drew out the different runes he had seen on the charm.He didn¡¯t know what any of it meant, but if this was what the K¡¯thari¡¯s magic was, then it seemed like a puzzle he could work out.It was an enchantment of some sort, the runes were the key, the metals and bones bound it together in some fashion. Under continued magnification, Dal had a his phone play a podcast about cryptocurrency and the future of finances.He didn¡¯t pay attention to the podcast, instead watched as small sparks of mana moved along and around the charm as they reacted to the speaking voice.The charm was pulling mana from the area around it, soaking it in and running it through the various beads like electricity in a circuit. He noted that a bone and a glass bead seemed to act like capacitors as they glowed slightly brighter and more mana flowed to them on the copper and silver wires. He leaned back and rubbed his eyes, only to see Samira and the trio staring at him. ¡°When-¡° ¡°You¡¯ve been lost in your little world for about ten minutes now,¡± Samira said. ¡°Find anything good about that charm?¡± ¡°What is blockchain?¡± Lokka asked. ¡°Why is it the future?¡± ¡°How was the exploration?¡± Dal asked. Samira and the others chuckled. *** Samira stopped and glanced back at the storage warehouse.She hesitated as the trio continued marching toward the creek.Was leaving Dal alone a good thing?He was a nice kid, but his mind was all over the place.There was the danger of the dungeon, the danger he could hurt himself while building the mass heater, and there was always the concern about monsters skittering about in the woods. Garran stopped and watched her silently.Samira sighed and followed them.They had to all grow up someday.This world didn¡¯t seem to be coddling anyone and if Dal couldn¡¯t Adult, then¡­ she shuddered, cutting off that line of thought. Instead Samira focused on the bright sunny morning.The weather, she noted, had been great since they arrived. She didn¡¯t know if the lack of rain in the last week was a good or bad thing.The creek north of the warehouse was running fairly high and there didn¡¯t seem to be any signs of drought or distress on the undergrowth or trees. It was a truly beautiful forest.She and her Ex would hike whenever they could get their schedule lined up right.Even with the park service doing their best, there was always trash and signs of people everywhere. Yet, this was truly a wild and untouched forest. There were no human made paths only animals, there were no signs showing you where to go, how many miles the path would be, or tired and cranky kids following after annoyed parents. Garran and the others were long legged and were able to glide over obstacles.Samira, even though she had trekked through plenty of rough bush in her days, felt like a drunken elephant smashing into everything and breaking every twig.Yet she kept up with them, thankfully she had an Endurance Perk. The creek flowed at their side, a bubbling sound that was comforting and soothing.She had been cooped up in the warehouse with Dal for a week now and although she knew that securing the storage units was paramount, she had been heading toward cabin fever.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Strange birds flickered in the trees, eyes of violet, blue, and even silver peered at her.Some where like parrots, multicolored and lovely, while others had leathery skin and furry bodies like bats.They all chittered, sang, and watched them warily. ¡°What are we looking for, High Mother?¡± F¡¯darr asked. ¡°We see where the creek comes from, we see if we can find the source of these mana crystals, and maybe find game or edible fruits.¡± ¡°Fruits?¡± Lokkar asked. ¡°A delicacy for a High Mother.¡± Samira frowned, the way he said it felt like an insult or mockery.Garran noticed it too, as a yellow eye glared at him.She didn¡¯t feel offended by it, it was a title she didn¡¯t fully understand herself. From what she could glean, a High Mother was a leader of the colony, she made the decisions, she decided to was to a be a warrior, a priest, and jockeyed for power among the other High Mothers.Perhaps it was a species mindset for the K¡¯thari.They seemed very caste based and even though Garran could have killed Dal and her, he instead submitted to her will and treated her like a High Mother. Alien sociology wasn¡¯t something they taught in medical school.For now she would go with the flow, Dal agreed too.They need the trio and the trio needed them.For now they could all pretend to be one happy colony, and she could ignore the snide remarks from Lokkar.She had twenty years of hospital experience to fall back on.There were plenty of asshole doctors who were assholes just because they could be, but because they needed to be.She had thick skin and if it came to it, a talking to in a backroom where no one could hear. They ate up the mileage as they moved along the creek.Samira had seen plenty of signs of animals and scat, she had seen a massive paw that looked like an elephants, and there appeared to be rut marks on some of the purple blue trees. ¡°Big predator,¡± Garran said, gesturing to the scratches on the tree. ¡°Tall as I am standing and probably five times my weight,¡±he used his short spear to circle a paw print.Samira clearly saw the claw marks, but the odd thing was that there appeared to be too many paw prints. ¡°Did many of them came through?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Only one.Probably has eight legs,¡± the reptile leader stated. ¡°Eight legs,¡± Samira mused.¡°I¡¯d like to see that.¡± ¡°I wonder how it tastes,¡± F¡¯darr added. Samira took a plastic bag out and began collecting various plants she didn¡¯t recognize.She wondered if the rule of three applied here.Alien plants, who knew what they could do to humans who weren¡¯t evolved to deal with them.So far everything seemed oddly Earth normal.Trees were trees, albeit different color bark.Wooly gators tasted like gamey chicken, but wasn¡¯t poisonous. And even the blood of the iron birds was red. Convergent evolution of a sorts.Perhaps as Dal assumed, all these worlds that were being dumped here were all somehow similar.Allowing for the new comers to live and thereby cause each other trouble. ¡°Why plants?¡± F¡¯darr asked. ¡°Dal¡¯s got magic sense,¡± Samira said. ¡°He can tell if these things are magical.He¡¯s got some idea of learning alchemy along with all the other stuff he¡¯s trying to figure out.¡± F¡¯darr bobbed her head.¡°I do not understand.¡± ¡°You know medicine can be made from plants?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Yes, mushroom gardens in the Underground, make medicine,¡± F¡¯darr said. ¡°I was tender and Low Mother¡­¡± she paused and didn¡¯t continue further. Samira didn¡¯t react to her words.What Garran had told her about F¡¯darr was a secret shared in confidence.If F¡¯darr wanted to tell her ,then she would do so on her own. ¡°Some plants might be magical, like the rock we¡¯re looking for,¡± Samira said. ¡°Or so says Dal.I¡¯m not sure.But if I can find anything that looks like it came from Earth, then maybe I can make some ointments or meds that will help us survive a bit better.¡± F¡¯darr smiled. ¡°Healer High Mother, best High Mother,¡± she said. ¡°I guess,¡± Samira shrugged and collected plant samples in small plastic bags.She gathered up a dozen samples and they moved on once more. A high pitched screech sounded and the quartet stopped in their tracks.They scanned their surroundings, searching for the source of the noise.Lokkar shouted as a creature seemed to flicker into being on the north edge of the creek.It was a slight bend, the creek making a forty five degree turn to north and far bank was shrouded in thick blue trees. ¡°Camo,¡± Samira said as the creature turned to a yellowish gray and nearly seemed to run across the creek¡¯s surface. ¡°Fast too,¡± She snapped up her shotgun and fired a shot, the creature was moving in a straight line and at a steady pace, albeit fast pace.The area before the running creature exploded with blood and gore, as another yellow gray creature dropped their invisibility and bobbed to the surface of the creek.The first creature was riddled with arrows before slamming into a mana wall and stunning itself.Garran shot forward and stabbed it with his short spear. ¡°They¡¯re hiding,¡± Garran shouted.¡°Eyes out, form defensive!¡± Creek Floater: Killed 50 mana 2 serrated fangs Thewater of the creek bubbled as more creatures turned visible.They clamored leaped from the creek and raced toward them, in unison they screeched.Samira flinched from the noise and she could see that it too bothered the trio. Lokkan¡¯s wall was still up and they hissed and snarled as they collided into it.Samira clenched down hard on her fear and terror as she slowly aimed and pulled the trigger on the shotgun.Within less than a minute they were standing with seven dead floaters around them. Samira stepped forward and inspected the creatures.A fleshy wreath wrapped around their necks under their head, which she assumed was the floatation device.Their body was thin and wiry, all claws and tails, not much meat.Samira guess they floated with their heads on the surface, using their odd invisibility to hide them.Their tails were stiff and spring like, allowing them to launch themselves out of the water. Samira looted an additional one hundred mana and one tail, four fangs, and cured leather.The latter was a surprise as Samira held it out.It was the entire skin of the floater she had just killed, but it was supple and tanned. Of all the things she had seen so far, that was the weirdest.How could a completely tanned animal skin be created out of nothing?She could understand the dungeon, but this wasn¡¯t the dungeon.It was supposed to be the outside world and these were just simple creatures living in it. ¡°That is nice,¡± F¡¯darr said, rubbing the leather.¡°We can skin these and make more leather, for clothing or armor. ¡° She glanced at the four Samira had killed with the shotgun.Three had gaping holes in their chest and the fourth was missing its head and most of its neck. ¡°Enough for one hatchling K¡¯thari, then.¡± She chuckled. Samira had to smile as the joke.There was no meat on the creatures, so they skinned them fast and Samira loaded them into a plastic trash bag and Lokkar carried the load. ¡°I want pants,¡± Lokkar said. ¡°Dal says they keep the legs warm.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you can pull off leather pants,¡± Samira joked. ¡°I can pull on and pull off,¡± Lokkar snapped. ¡°Garran and High Mother decide,¡± F¡¯darr snapped back. Lokkar growled, but didn¡¯t say anything. A few more miles up creek, they stopped for an early lunch.It was wooly gator jerky.One of the things Garran was knowledgeable in was smoking meat.He might have been a mercenary, but a lot of those duties were hunting and keeping their own food on travels.He created a small meat smoking set up in the back of the warehouse and spent most of the night smoking the meat they had caught.A bit of salt and pepper and it was delicious. Samira watched as a hairy beaver looking animal ambled up to the creek.It drank deeply, ballooning up in size before ambling back into the woods. ¡°Should we hunt?¡± F¡¯darr asked. ¡°We have enough food for now,¡± Garran said. ¡°Take only what you need,¡± Lokkar intoned.¡°The White goddess does not abide waste.¡± F¡¯darr made a noise and kept chewing on her jerky. *** Samira stood on a large bolder as they entered a clearing.The blue trees fell back, revealing the sun and the trio hissed in pleasure at its warmth.F¡¯darr scurried up on a large rock and lay upon it spread-eagle, hissing in pleasure.Lokkar looked like he wanted to join but stood beside Garran. The leader of the trio scanned the meadow, looking for threats or anything.The creek ran along the edge of the clearing, shaded by tall trees that were a mix of blue, purple, and normal looking conifers. Samira raised her binoculars and scanned the clearing.A bit of metal caught her eye near the north edge along the creek. ¡°Something¡¯s over there,¡± she said, pointing. Garran tensed and switched his spear out for his crossbow.F¡¯darr hopped to her feet, her bow in her hands as she moved in front of Samira. Samira stepped to the side and focused on the object.¡°Oh,¡± she said after a moment. ¡°It¡¯s part of a wing of a plane.¡± ¡°Wing?¡± F¡¯darr asked. Samira jumped off the boulder and headed for the wing.The white paint stood out in the green grass.The wing was about fifteen feet long, sheered off at one end and the rest a crumpled mess.She didn¡¯t smell any aviation fuel, so it must had been empty when it was ripped away.That didn¡¯t mean there had been an aviation accident; the wing could have been snipped off from a parked plane. ¡°Metal,¡± Garran said, touching the wing. ¡°From what?¡± ¡°Where Dal and I come from, there are great metal birds that fly across the sky.People can sit in them and travel¡­ uh¡­ tens of thousands of strides in minutes.¡± Garran and the others laughed. ¡°Fine joke, Mother.¡± Samira shrugged, not able to and not really willing to argue about science to the bronze aged people. There were no additional markings on the wing, so they continued onward.The terrain was getting rough, with steep rock walls rising to the west and great scree covered hills poking out of the forests to the west. The western mountains were huge as they neared them.She could see the white tips of the blue mountains. She wondered if anyone had climbed it.It wasn¡¯t an outdoor interest she had, but she could see someone attempting it. Garran made a signal and Samira was abruptly pulled the the ground by F¡¯darr. The thin woman looked concerned and Samira didn¡¯t say anything.Garran and Lokkan slowly moved along the forest edge as Samira and F¡¯darr lay motionless. A moment later Lokkar scurried back. ¡°People,¡± he said. *** Samira removed the scope off the .22 and with a boost from F¡¯darr and Lokkar, she climbed her way through the branches of a blue tree.Her camo gear blended in with the green and silver leaves, far better than the creamy green and yellow of the K¡¯thari.The binoculars might have worked, but they were cheap civillian brands, the scope on the .22 was high end and non reflective. A bare side of rock was exposed before Samira.It was a rust colored sandstone, stretching for more than a mile and rising nearly a hundred feet high.Carved intoits surface was something out of a movie Samira once watched. Petra, from that Han Solo actor. It was Petra or Petra like, but in miniature.Even from her distance, Samira could tell that the doorways were barely two feet high and there were ladders on the exterior to reach higher floors. It was a village of tiny people.Samira had to grin as she watched the first figure exit one of the buildings.They were small, about two and a half feet tall and looked like a cross between a Rhesus monkey and an owl. The body was primate, two arms, two legs, and a long curled tail, but the face was thet of an owl, short beak, big eyes, and constantly moving on a swivel.It didn¡¯t have fur, but tiny down feathers that covered its body, in dun colors of light browns and darker browns. Samira watched as it wandered off to the creek and began digging up rocks and sand, pulling out what looked to be worms and some kind of shellfish. The monkey bird worked diligently as they filled up a wicker basket. No one seemed to be outside besides the gatherer, but as the minutes passed by Samira heard a squawk and chitter.The gathered looked up from where they were and hurriedly carried their laden basket back to the carved rock wall.They ducked inside and Samira thought that was the end of it.Maybe the cry was an alert that danger was coming. She was wrong as scores of feathered monkeybirds exited the mini petra.She was shocked at how many they were, all different colors, sizes, and ages, small chittering hatchlings raced about, tossing aside rocks to dig for bugs, while older and mostly bald of feathers elders limped along with the aides of canes. ¡°A whole village of bird people.¡± The group squawked and cried out as dozens more monkey bird people emerged from the north.They carried long poles on their shoulders, with dripping bags swaying between them.Hunters; they were a hunting party.They all seemed young, strong, and steady as theothers gathered around to help with the load. Fish, Samira saw.Catfish, bass, tilapia.She hadn¡¯t seen any fish in the creek, besides what looked like minnows and small crabs. An old bald monkey bird raised their hands, the chittering spotted. ¡°Bounty!¡± the monkey bird cried out clear enough for Samira to hear.¡°We might be lost, but we will not starve,¡± he continued, his voice carrying. He was clearly used to it.¡°This strange land is terrible, but being near the lake means we will not starve.¡± The gathered monkey birds began chittering and cheering. One of the fisher-people took the elder¡¯s place, gingerly helping them down.They raised their feathered arms up and spoke slowly and deeply. ¡°We have seen many tracks of the eight legged,¡± they said. ¡°Please, stay within the Halls, the ancient temple is our sanctuary for now.Until we know more about what this world is and the cursed messages we gain.¡± There was a worried murmur of the gathered people, but soon they were organizing themselves to take the gathered fish back into the Hall.Soon the area was deserted and Samira could hear no sound coming from the elaborately carved Hall. She eased herself down off the tree and the quartet huddled. ¡°First contact,¡± Samira said and then paused. ¡°Okay, second contact.These little monkey people seem to be plagued by that eight legged predator Garran pointed out.¡± ¡°There could be more than one,¡± Garran said. ¡°There is a lake to the north, it seems,¡± Samira said. ¡°Thats where they¡¯re getting the fish from.¡± Her stomach growled at the thought of grilled tilapia or fried catfish.¡°We need to get back to the warehouse and figure-¡° A roar filled the air.Samira and the others grabbed weapons and prepared for a fight. Instead of something coming at them, it was going for the monkey birds home.Samira snapped up her scope and saw what was plaguing the monkey birds.A bear like creature, six feet at the haunches, eight legs, and a mean attitude.It thundered out of the trees and roared at the carved building. Its pig like nose was wiggling as it sniffed the air, probably following the smell of the fish. The creature began attacking the Hall, Samira finally noticing that there were deep scratch marks along the sandstone artwork.Small openings appeared and spears, arrows, and projectiles began pelting the creature.They might as well have not tried for all the damage they were doing. ¡°You got my back?¡± Samira said. ¡°Of course, High Mother,¡± Garran said. There was no hesitation in his response. Samira paused for a moment and took out her phone.She aimed it at the beast and took a picture. ¡°For Dal,¡± she said. Garran nodded as if that explained everything.He had seen the phones they used, but hadn¡¯t really asked questions about them. They were, to him, magical devices and that was that. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡¯ Samira said. Garran snapped up his crossbow and followed as she unslung her shotgun. ¡°Hey, asshole!¡± Samira shouted. The massive creature stopped its clawing and wild redden eyes latched upon her and her companions.A giant mouth filled with crooked teeth opened and the creature roared again, dropping to all eight clawed feet. ¡°You hungry? How about a lead sandwich!¡± *** ¡°Lead sandwich?¡± Dal laughed, leaning back in his chair. ¡°How old are you? Five?¡± ¡°Shut up,¡± Samira said. ¡°It was in the heat of the moment.¡± ¡°High Mother is very brave,¡± F¡¯darr said. ¡°Did you kill it?¡± ¡°A party kill,¡± Samira said. ¡°It actually said it was a party kill, so all four of us got loot.¡± Dal stared at her expectantly. Samira sighed. ¡°One track mind.¡±She took out her phone and showed him the images.¡°Before you ask and make this awkward.Five hundred mana, twenty claws, two fangs, and three redstones.¡± ¡°Wow, that-¡° ¡°Each.¡± Samira said. ¡°Well, I also got an uncured pelt.¡± Dal gulped. ¡°Holy crap,¡± he muttered. ¡°Hello,¡± a voice said. Dal peered over the desk to see a figure nearly hidden by the tall K¡¯thari. ¡°We also brought back an ambassador of sorts,¡± Samira said with a wince. ¡°He¡¯s a curious little bugger like you.¡± ¡°Oh, you have bugs?¡± the monkey bird asked. ¡°May I indulge?¡± 08 - Loaded for Bear There was a hideous squelch as Dal slammed the machete down into the creature forming from the floor of the core room.He could almost see the melted core angrily gleam at him as he killed yet another one of its defenders.What the core must be feeling, Dal wondered. Core rooms were a sacred place to dungeons, or that¡¯s what he had read in the fictional books of his youth.It was their sanctuary, the safe space, the place they could kick back with a beer and put their feet up on the coffee table.Except that day in and day out Dal came to invade their home.He brought mana, but he also killed all the core¡¯s defenders. It must suck, Dal concluded.
Iron Bird Core Guard: killed 25 mana 10 iron feathers
The deal had been that Samira would be killing these creatures, but her time was being sucked up by the tiro and their little ambassador.Dal was deeply intrigued about what the little monkey bird had to say, but his desire to test his theories on the dungeon outweighed it all. The trio, Garran, F¡¯darr, and Lokkan, all knew not to go into the back storage units now.Well, they could use the crapper unit, but the little dungeon was off limits. They didn¡¯t seem to care nor were they curious enough to defy Samira yet. ¡°My rough eyeball calculation on how much mana was contained within the mana flakes found in the creek were off,¡± Dal said, looking into the camera of his phone where it recorded.¡°I was basing it off the luminosity of mana crystals that were gained from killing creatures.I assumed that they would be somewhat equal in brightness, but I was dead ass wrong. The brightness of the mana flakes do not correlate to the amount of mana they have within them. ¡°I assumed I had collected about two thousand mana of mana flakes, but it is actually about nine thousand mana.From the current experiments, it takes about two thousand mana to trigger the dungeon core to create a Core Guardian.I believe thecore is creating the strongest form it has on file to defend itself.Currently it appears to be an instinctive response, not a conscious one.¡± Dal peered at the melted core. ¡°This also brings up the question of if the core knows how a creature looked before it was killed or not.During our fighting with the iron birds; there was major body damage to the specimens. Yet what I have been seeing is a somewhat whole creature, albiet malformed and barely functioning. But ¡®alive¡¯ in a sense that their organs are functioning and they will respond to the same trauma one would afflict upon a true living creature.If the core can create dungeon critters that are undistinguishable from real living creatures, would that mean they could be harvested for meat? ¡°Current tests show that it takes two thousand mana to trigger a defense response from the dungeon core; then what happens to the rest of the mana?Does twenty-five mana and a dozen iron feathers represent the entire mana cost of making one Core Guard. What percentage is used to repair itself.¡± Dal paused his recording and peered at the melted core. He swung his pack around and began digging in it, finally finding the translator charm.He carefully held it in his hands as he used his magic sense and mana crafting perks on it. ¡°Although its impossible to see without magic sense or mana crafting, the charm is lighting up pretty good.I would say¡­ nearly three times as much as it did before.¡± Dal neared the core and he didn¡¯t see any difference in the luminosity of the charm.As he stepped back out of the core room he could see that it got dimmer. ¡°There is a difference between the brightness of the charm, using Magic Sense I, within the core room and outside of it.What that brightness difference means is that there may be more ambient mana within the core room.Which may be due to the amount of Core Guards that have been killed within this room itself.¡± ¡°This mana is not dissipating.¡± Dal stomped about the core room, shoving the translator charm into every corner and nook. Every section of the core room gave the same glow, but the moment he stepped into another room; the charm¡¯s glow was reduced. ¡°The ambient mana seems consistent within the core room itself, which means that its somehow being held within the core room.From what I can tell based on out-of-the-dungeon usage of the translator core is that ambient mana appears to be fairly consistent in all areas of the storage unit premises.I have also, with permission, compared the mana glow off the charm with those carried by Garra and his companions.They all emit the same strength of glow.¡± Dal sighed and scratched his head. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m on the wrong track with this thought,¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t even know how environment effects mana or if it even really does.¡± Dal took a seat on the floor before the pillar of the dungeon core. There was so many questions he had and yet he didn¡¯t know where to begin.He needed more knowledge.He needed someone who at least understood what dungeons were and how to harness them. The monkey birds, or Cuthoma, didn¡¯t have magic in their world.It was the first question Dal had asked when the small person hopped on his desk and peered at his phone.The ambassador, Allakor, was curious about everything.Dal been barraged with more questions than he could answer and had barely gained anything in returned. Apparently, the entire journey back had been the same.Also as the monkey bird was small, it had to ride on the backs of the trio and that had caused more annoyances. How many other species were out there? Dal wondered.He knew that one of them would know about dungeons, how they worked, how to communicate with them, and how to fix them.All he was doing was feeding it mana and hoping that it would get better.The melted slag before him, he knew, wasn¡¯t its true shape.It wasn¡¯t just knowledge he gained from fictional stories, it was also a feeling that the core couldn¡¯t do much in its current state. ¡°Like consume ambient mana,¡± Dal said and snorted. He¡¯d been killing Core Guards within the core room and that mana had been building up within the core room.From what he had felt and heard when he touched the core, it couldn¡¯t take in ambient mana. Dal looked around the room and thought back on the stories he had read. Several had been about cultivation and absorbing the ¡®cleansed¡¯ mana of dungeons.He looked at the core and brought out the charm, which had its brighter than usual glow. *** Dal opened his eyes when he felt Samira¡¯s boot nudge him. He looked up and was blinded by her flashlight. ¡°You fall asleep?¡± she asked. Dal blinked. ¡°No, just meditating,¡± he said. ¡°Medi- why?¡± she asked. ¡°Just an idea.One that¡­¡± Dal blinked and slowly smiled. ¡°It worked.¡±
Dungeon Meditation: 400 mana Dungeon Purification I Perk gained Knowledge Seeker: 25 bluestones
¡°Oh, shit, it really worked!¡± Dal laughed ¡°I swear, you¡¯re getting crazier every day, Dal.¡± Dal informed her on what he was testing and the results he had gain. ¡°So you can just sit here and gain mana, for free?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Well, no.You can meditate within it and then you can purify the ambient mana,¡± Dal said. ¡°Purify?You mean the mana in here is dirty?¡± she asked. Dal thought for a long moment, enough that Samira gently nudged him with her foot again. ¡°Oh, yeah.You know the core can¡¯t take in ambient mana, right? We discussed that.Anyway, I think that whenever it produces a guard and that guard dies in the room, excess mana is released, but not in a good way. Think of it like car exhaust.If the core was whole and fully functioning, then maybe it would be able to suck up and clean the ambient mana, but as is, it can¡¯t and that might be an issue.¡± Dal took out his phone and showed her the latest iron bird it had created. ¡°Ugh, Its near bedtime and I don¡¯t want to see that,¡± Samira said. ¡°I¡¯ve been noticing a quality decline in the Core Guards its been creating,¡± Dal said. Scrolling through all the pictures he¡¯d taken of the iron birds he had killed that night. Five in total. ¡°So I think the ambient mana is choking out our little buddy over there.¡±
Knowledge Seeker: 4 bluestones
¡°Okay, the system just proved me right. Knowledge Seeker just gave me four bluestones,¡± Dal grinned. ¡°You¡¯d better upgrade that Perk right now,¡± Samira said. Dal paused and nodded.He had been thinking of purchasing another perk, but if he upgraded Knowledge Seeker, then would that mean he could gain more from the discoveries he made?It would be best to find out. ¡°Trade?¡± he asked.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Samira grinned. ¡°Sure thing, Trader Dal.¡± ***
Dal Park Health: 1 Regeneration: 2 Toughness: 1 Heart: 1 Perception: 2 Knowledge: 2 Insight: 2 Wisdom: 1 Perks: Organization I Knowledge Seeker II Magic Sense I Mana Crafting I Dungeon Purification I
*** Dal winced at the price he had to pay to upgrade his Knowledge Seeker Perk. Four purples, which meant sixteen red and blue stones, and even though he had a windfall of bluestones, he had only one redstone and a few hundred mana. In the end Samira was left with twelve bluestones and was wiped of all her mana.It was a pricey expenditure, but at Samira¡¯s insistence, he did so. ¡°Feel any different?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Nope,¡± Dal responded. ¡°Quick, discover some hidden truth about the dungeon or our world,¡± Samira said. ¡°Doesn¡¯t work like that,¡± he replied. ¡°Can¡¯t preform under pressure?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the judgmental audience,¡± Dal replied. ¡°Perhaps you should upgrade your blue skills too,¡± Samira said. ¡°Blue skills?¡± Dal asked. He thought about it for a moment. ¡°Oh, right.¡± ¡°Maybe investing more into Perception, Knowledge, Insight, or Wisdom will allow you a better grasp of things.¡± Dal shrugged.¡°Maybe,¡± he said.¡°Wanna mediate with me?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to be the meditate type,¡± Samira said, settling down beside him. ¡°Lapse Buddhist,¡± Dal said. ¡°My grandparents and my dad were into it, but never stuck with me.My mother was Christian in a Buddhist family, her choice.But they never really pushed religion on me.I choose Buddhism mostly after realizing it got me more attention and made me more exotic in junior high.¡± Dal laughed. ¡°That didn¡¯t last into high school or university.¡± ¡°So Buddhist master, show me the ways of meditation.They kept trying to force it on us when I was at work, to help deal with the stresses of death, sickness, and grief, but I was always too busy to really get into it.Now, I guess I have some time to spare.No twelve hour shifts six days a week.¡± ¡°Just trying to survive an apocalypse and being tossed onto a strange world filled with reptiles and bird people, not to mention monsters.¡± ¡°Way less stressful,¡± Samira laughed. *** ¡°That¡¯s a big one,¡± Samira said, shielding her eyes. Dal nodded.The magical backlash was intense.He would have been tossed around if not for bracing himself against the shockwave.He marveled at the amount of mana that was suspended in the air, not the ambient mana he couldn¡¯t see, but the small glittering sparks that moved through the charms and around the core room. ¡°Those things are releasing an epic crap ton of mana,¡± Dal said. ¡°Official measurements? Epic crap ton,¡± Samira asked. ¡°What was it?¡± Allakor asked.The monkey bird perched on Dal¡¯s camping chair as he pressed his face against the window.The Cuthoma were a species with males and females, but there were only one male for every ten females, plus the males never left the nests.They were cocks of the walks, peacocks in fact, full of plumage and indulged like little kings. A strange change in chemistry and biology caused some females to temporary forgo their reproductive abilities and instead change into a larger and more muscularly developed gender.The same could happen to males and Allakor was one of those males. Willingly becoming a non-reproductive male had caused him to be an outcast of sorts.He had been hiding out at the temple when the scramble occurred.The temple was a place of healing and offered sanctuary to all those that came there, the Great Nest of the Golden Feathered. The temple had been taken from the heart of their city, apparently a metropolis of nearly sixty thousand. All those that were in the temple, a total of seven hundred and twenty five were brought along.That had been five days prior, just a couple of days after Samira and Dal had arrived. The amount of people boggled Dal¡¯s mind.They were only five of them here and he was already getting a headache on how long their supplies would last.But a temple of over seven hundred?Most of them sick or in need of some kind of spiritual help? The good thing was that the temple had its own internal storages of food and water, but they were burning through that fast.Combined with the fact that there was a pack of eight legged bear pigs that made the region their home.They had managed to successfully kill one, but they had lost ten of their fighters against it. The change into the more muscular and tougher version of their kind required weeks of meditation. So they were stuck with the forty temple guards that had been there at the Scramble. They were not hunters or fisher people, but they were trying their best. ¡°We believe that is what is bringing people to this world,¡± Dal said. ¡°Your people, Garran¡¯s people, and Samira and I.¡± ¡°These Dirty Dozen you say, they are what makes those?¡± Allakor asked.He hopped off the chair and peered at Dal. ¡°They give us the System too?¡± ¡°The Dirty Dozen brought us here, but I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re responsible for the System.¡± ¡°But you do not know,¡± Allakor said. ¡°They could have given us the System?¡± ¡°Yeah, they could have,¡± Dal said. ¡°That¡¯s roughly the same area that it hit a couple of days back,¡± Samira said. ¡°It can¡¯t be coincidence that the Scotty Beams are hitting the same spots or near each other.Random doesn¡¯t work that way.¡± ¡°Someone¡¯s trying to put together a lot of pieces to see what¡¯s gonna happen,¡± Dal said. ¡°The gods have their own designs,¡± Lokkar said. ¡°Should we investigate?¡± Garran asked. ¡°No.¡± Samira said after a long while. ¡°We need to help our little buddies here with an eight legged bear pig problem.How many bears were there, Al?¡± ¡°Seven more out there,¡± Al replied. ¡°We killed one, you killed one, seven more.¡± ¡°Seems too small of a territory for big predators,¡± Samira said. ¡°Usually large animals have large territories, just so they can hunt and survive.¡± ¡°Pack animals?¡± Dal asked. ¡°The bear we killed was on its own,¡± Samira said. ¡°As was the one that the guards killed,¡± Al replied. ¡°They do not fight together, but they may be all here for my people.We have lost about fifty to them, they stalk the woods and strike fast.It is why we do not go outside anymore.¡± ¡°What about the one who was outside picking bug and shellfish?¡± Samira asked. ¡°Hollow Wing, she is always hungry,¡± Al replied.¡°And foolishly brave.¡± ¡°I want to go too,¡± Dal said. Samira pursed her lips. ¡°Don¡¯t you have your homework to do?¡± Dal scoffed and dug into his pack. He placed three plastic wrapped plants onto the small table they had set up.¡°These three had magic in them, it was fading once I got a chance to look at them. If I can get to them while they¡¯re fresh, I might be able to see what they can do.¡± ¡°The wandering mind is a burden,¡± Lokkar said. ¡°Is that scripture or something?¡± Dal asked.Lokkar jerked as if he had been poked. ¡°He thinks he is wise,¡± F¡¯darr said. ¡°He warps what he was taught while becoming a Priest to sound wise.¡± Lokkar hissed at her, but did nothing. ¡°F¡¯darr is right. Best not to acknowledge it,¡± Garran said. ¡°He gets sulky if we tell him to stop or if we make joke of it.¡± Dal looked at Lokkar and shrugged. The reptile seemed more embarrassed than sulky as he leaned against a storage unit door. ¡°Can you hack the travel?¡± Samira asked. ¡°It¡¯s about a dozen miles to Petra and it¡¯s not soft country. I¡¯m a bit sore even with my Regeneration and Endurance.It might be a couple of days kind of thing too, we don¡¯t know where all the bears are at and hunting predators isn¡¯t a one day thing.¡± Dal frowned and nodded.Leaving the storage unit untended for multiple days wasn¡¯t a good thing.He wanted to see Petra and he wanted to collect the plants, he especially wanted to collect more mana crystals. Yet there was the threat from the bears to the Cuthoma, seven predators roaming around their temple and only thirty guards to fight them. The Cuthoma would begin starving soon too, as their supplies were running low. The bears needed to be taken care of and it seemed Samira and her trio were the only ones able to. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll stay,¡± Dal said.¡°Hope they¡¯re paying you well.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not mercenaries,¡± Samira said. Garran let out a weird honk.¡°Sorry,¡± he said as Dal and Samira looked at him. ¡°We, uh, technically are mercenaries.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah. Besides the loot from the bears and the mana, what do you guys want?¡± Samira asked. ¡°The High Mother honors us with allowing us to keep the mana and stones,¡± Garran said.¡°Especially with the mass heater Trader Dal has built for us.But we need more clothing, it is too cold out there.¡± F¡¯darr and Lokkar hissed in agreement. Samira shrugged. ¡°Deal.¡± ¡°The Elders want the flesh of the bears,¡± Al said. ¡°Consuming powerful enemies will only bring strength, especially the heart.¡± ¡°We¡¯re already killing them for you,¡± Samira said. ¡°What are your people offering me and mine?¡± ¡°The prestige and honor of helping the sick and injured, of saving a people who were ripped from their world, to have your names remembered for as long a the Temple survives,¡± Al said. ¡°I¡¯d prefer copper or bronze,¡± F¡¯darr hissed. ¡°How about gold?¡± Al asked. ¡°Gold?¡± ¡°The temple is also a treasury.Much gold and silver and jewels were stored there,¡± Al said. ¡°The Golden Feathered watches over it.¡± ¡°What do you think, Dal?¡± Samira asked. Dal shrugged. ¡°We found some jewelry in the storage units, not a lot, but we¡¯re fairly set on metals. There are some copper tubing, galvanized steel, a ton of aluminum, and various metals. But I would like to experiment with the different metals to see if they effect the charm.¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to copy it?¡± Samira asked. Dal grinned. ¡°Yes. I found a Dremel tool and some engraving tools in one of the units. I think I can copy and maybe replicate the translator charm.¡± ¡°Only the White Priests can do that,¡± Lokkar hissed. ¡°Their acolytes make them,¡± Garran said. ¡°I have been in the White Temple in T¡¯loz¡¯kak¡¯van as I was escorting an official.I saw their acolytes making many magical items, but it is said that only the Priests can bless it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m guessing it was infusing mana into them or your world¡¯s magic.There is a Perk called Infusion, so maybe that¡¯ll be the right track. It was already on my list of things to get.¡± ¡°Gonna Oom-Oom-Oom to get the extra mana?¡± Samira asked, not wanting to disclose the dungeon. Dal barely held back a chuckle. ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°We still don¡¯t know what those Scotty Beams are doing,¡± Samira said, glancing back out the window.¡°You¡¯ll have to be extra careful.¡± Dal looked out the dark window and nodded. *** ¡°You¡¯re loaded for bear,¡± Dal said and Samira glared at him. Samira had decided to pull out all the stops for the Bear Hunt.She had her camping and hunting gear brought out, along with Grady¡¯s stuff, some other items they had collected from various units and loaded up the K¡¯thari. The three were also more heavily clothed, wearing an assortment of coveralls taken from the metal shop and some winter clothing.The bone and bronze weapons had been replaced with steel.F¡¯darr was hugging the compound bow and Garran was swinging a machete and hatchet of his own, while Lokkar was hefting a spear taller than he was. Garran and Lokkar wore a makeshift brigandine that they had created during the night. It was made from a heavy canvas coat and steel platesriveted onto it.Dal didn¡¯t know if it would hold against an attack, but the chitin armor Garran wore didn¡¯t seem enough if one of the eight legged bears attacked.Anything was better than nothing.Samira and F¡¯darr had covered the plates with the leather they had gained in the fights and soon the heavy coat was ready to be used. ¡°Next time, we make better armor,¡± Samira said.Although she had been up for most of the night, her eyes were bright and she was eager to go out and hunt bears. Dal envied her but remained silent.There was a lot of stuff to do in the warehouse. ¡°Warriors will want armor,¡± Al said, watching them.¡°The Golden Feathered¡¯s temple didn¡¯t allow weapons or armor. The only weapons they had were clubs and sticks to keep people in order.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t seem to wear clothing,¡± Dal said. ¡°But you have armor?¡± ¡°We need to bare ourselves in the presence of the Golden Feathered,¡± Al said. ¡°So most are naked, but it bothers us not.Clothes mean status and we are all one under the Golden Feathered¡¯s Talons.¡± ¡°Want a shirt?¡± Samira asked. ¡°I think there are some baby clothes in the back.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take care of it,¡± Dal said. Al wasn¡¯t going with the four. He was an outcast, the other males didn¡¯t want him there and the Elders feared he would be harmed by the less than accepting females.So he had been voted as ambassador and sent on his way to Samira. At least Dal wouldn¡¯t be alone. ¡°Be safe,¡± Samira said. ¡°Bring back souvenirs,¡± Dal said. Samira scoffed and the four left through the front glass door. ¡°What are souvenirs?¡± Al asked.