Eli: That's really clever.

The fire down below kept growing, each of them now easily three times as big as the initial detonation.

Zack: I'm getting so much experience from this. I'm level 12 already.

Amy: Me too.

Eli: How large are those fires going to get?

Zack: I don't know. The info just says it spreads.

Eli hurried back to the stairs, feeling a little safer now with so many cannons gone, and the building hadn't been struck in quite a while. He resumed climbing the stairs. When Eli finally made it up the stairs to the 22nd floor, the damn door to the roof was locked.

Banging on it to draw Mr. Thomas's attention didn't work. Desperate, he pressed himself tight against the door before casting Warp and marking his location. He stepped back a few steps and then cast Warp, selecting the spot he just marked. A bright flash later, he stood with his face pressed against the cold metal of the door. Frustrated, he banged on the door again. He'd hoped the spell would allow him to glitch through the wall. Apparently, this wasn't that sort of game-like world.

After another minute of banging, Eli gave up and walked down a few steps. Dejectedly, he headed into the office on the top floor and sat down in an office chair, swiveling around. Once his breathing had settled down somewhat, he sent a message down to his party.

Eli: I can't get through the door to reach The Dragon.

Amy: That's not good.

Zack: Level 13. These liquid fire potions are amazing. Why don't we throw them down the elevator shaft?

Eli: I'm pretty sure that would burn the whole building down.

He stood and walked over to the window, where he saw the fire spreading even more throughout the grass. Goblins were running back and forth everywhere, desperate to get it under control.

What Zack said did make some sense. Not using potions, but perhaps something else would work just as well, if not better. He smashed the glass encasement for the fire extinguisher, then removed it and put it aside. It was the other item in that little cabinet that he was after. The crowbar.

The elevator doors protested, but once he finally got the crowbar deeper between the doors, they opened, groaning. Light in the Dark produced an orb of light, and he willed it to descend. Faster and faster it went. In the meantime, he cast Sigil of Light at the bottom. The goblins still on the bottom died.

This orb of light collided with something and went out. Eli gained some experience and realized he must have killed a climbing goblin. They were in the elevator shaft, and at this incredible height, he didn't need weapons to kill them.

Going back into the office, he grabbed the office chair he had been sitting in and rolled it over. It made a terrible noise going down, bouncing against the walls over and over again. He didn't wait for it to reach the bottom before finding a heavy table to toss in.

Goblins screamed in terror as they hurtled to the floor. If one of them survived, the Sigil of Light would finish them off.

Eli moved over to the second set of elevators and pried the doors open, repeating the procedure.

Ding! You have reached level 16.

Wondering what sort of skills and talents his new class awarded him, Eli wanted some peace and quiet to research. Going over to the window, he saw the fire spreading out of control.

Eli: Zack?

Zack: Was that you with the elevators? The sound made the Mage-ladies jump and scream. It was fun.

Eli: It was me. The fire?

Amy: Is it bad?

Eli: Let's just hope the wind doesn't start blowing in this direction, or we'll be in real trouble.

Zack: At least the goblins are gone.

Eli: I'm coming back down.

He warped to the 13th floor, and continued down the stairs. People were starting to gather in the stairwell now, which probably meant the imminent threat was gone. Eli told those who asked he didn't know what was happening. When he made it to the second floor, Barbara and others were gone.

"Where did they go?" he asked.

Zack shrugged. "I don't know. But look," he pointed out the window. "The fires are dying away. We should be safe."

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"Guys..." Amy breathed.

They both turned to her. "What?"

"Just found a new skill," Amy said, her voice soft. "It's called 'See Through Their Eyes'"

She pointed down at Rufus by her side. She looked pale, despite a smile spreading across her face. "I can see."

"You can see?" Eli asked.

Tears ran down her cheeks. "I can see through Rufus's eyes."

"You're really pale," Zack said.

She gestured to a waste basket underneath a desk, her aim off by quite a bit. "Can you please get me that bin over there?"

Eli rushed over to grab the wastebasket and handed it to her. She promptly vomited into it. A moment later, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve. Sweat was pouring down her face, and she looked terrible, but that smile was still there.

"What's wrong?" Eli asked.

"It's the change of perspective," she breathed. "It's messing with my brain."

Eli got down to his knees in front of Rufus. "Is this better?"

She laughed, a sound full of joy. "You've got to—"

Then she vomited again.

"That's cool," Zack said.

"It is cool," she agreed. "Very cool."

She paled again. "I'm going to go sit down."

Amy wandered off and Eli turned to Zack. "What happened to the goblins?"

"The fire spooked them, I think," Zack said.

"Did you see where they were going?"

"Nope."

"Great," Eli sighed. The goblins would return unless they did something to stop them. Eli was sure of it.

James wandered in and looked around. "So that's it? We won?"

"For now," Eli said. "Did you see where they went?"

"Nuh-uh."

Feeling very tired all of a sudden, Eli readied himself to warp back up the stairs. "James, how about joining our party?"

"The Ravenous Barbarians?" he chuckled. "Thanks, but no. I'm with Dana. And I wanted to ask you about Sam."

"What about Samantha?" Eli asked.

"She hasn't said anything, but I think she wants to join our party. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, of course not," Eli said. "It's not up to me to decide for her. It's her decision. And besides, there are only two healers that I know of. It wouldn't make sense to keep them both in the same party."

"Great," James said. He nodded to Zack before walking back to the stairwell. As he left, he spoke over his shoulder. "By the way, we are heading to the graveyard tomorrow. I thought you should know."

"Bring as many people as you can. Everyone needs to level up."

James waved without looking back, and then he was gone.

"So what now?" Zack asked. "It's just going to be me, you, and Amy?"

"We have Charlotte."

"Do we?"

Eli shook his head. "I don't know. Amy was going to talk to her. We'll head to the graveyard too once it gets light out. Let's just try to get some rest for now."

Zack nodded over to Amy, who was just sitting there, tears streaming down her face.

"I don't think she's going to get much rest tonight."

"No, I think you're right," Eli said.

After saying their goodnights, Eli went and sat by Amy. "Are you okay?"

She turned to him, her eyes still full of tears and still just as unseeing, but they glittered with joy.

"I'm great, Eli. Thanks for asking. I'm going to sit here for a while before I head up. You go on ahead."

"Okay, I will talk to you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

Eli headed down to the first to check on the damage. Four wooden planks with names burned into the wood waited for him at the bottom of the stairs, poking out through the floor. Eight more flanked the main entrance to the building, making the total death count thirteen. Now that the fire was dying down, people were milling around outside looting the hundreds of dead goblins.

Daniel and Marsh were back at their posts. Both of them were level 6 now. Eli healed them, topping up their health bars. They nodded to him in thanks.

"Do you know if anyone followed the goblins to see where they went?"

"No," Daniel said.

"Figured," Eli said. "Do you at least have someone to relieve you?"

"No," Marsh said.

Eli sighed again. Management was not managing very much at all. He'd have to talk to Mr. Thomas. Perhaps he was back down from the roof now.

"I'll see what I can do," Eli said, heading back inside before using Warp to end up on the 13th floor.

"Elijah," Mr. Thomas said. "I didn't see you come in."

He was standing by the windows, looking out across the field.

"Mr. Thomas," Eli said. "You reached level 8."

"I have indeed, Elijah. Goblins made for excellent target practice, and the range of my spells from up here is impressive."

Eli got up to stand beside him, looking out the window.

"I have heard from management that there was some discussion of how to best repel this cowardly attack."

"Discussions are the only thing we're having," Eli said, unable to keep the frustration out of his voice. "No one is leading, and we need leadership." He gave the dragon a meaningful look, but Mr. Thomas shook his head.

"I have come to enjoy the freedom of not making decisions for others, Elijah."

"The rest of management are just following Barbara around. Where is Mr. Harn?"

"I don't know. But Barbara has excellent leadership skills. I'm sure she'll do a fine job. It would go a long way if you helped, rather than put yourself in opposition at all times, Elijah."

"Did you know she and the rest of HR, along with a bunch of the managers, Mr. Deere included, were using employees for target practice?"

His face darkened. "I did not know that. That is a crime most foul, to use employees in such a manner against their will."

"It wasn't against their will, not exactly."

Mr. Thomas raised a questioning eyebrow.

"No. They were apparently willing. Barbara promised them promotions when we return home to Earth, our dimension, whatever."

"I'm not so sure a return is in our future, Elijah. But two consenting adults are allowed to do whatever they wish to each other as far as I know."

Eli shuddered from the cold air streaming in through the glassless windows. "If Barbara wants to lead, let her lead. I don't care. I just want everyone here to be safe, and for them to get stronger. The goblins that attacked us were low level. Solomon was level 22. The difference makes me uneasy."

"While I am longer a part of the circle of leadership, Elijah. I will do my best to provide sage advice to those in power here. Rest easy. We will come together in the end."

They said their goodnight, and Eli returned to his couch and put his head down. Opening the Character status window, he saw all the attributes he hadn't distributed. He needed to get better about adding points whenever he leveled up, or he'd always be weaker than necessary.

Pursing his lips, Eli began perusing the many options for his attributes and skill points. The attributes were easy enough.

Adding points 10 to constitution barely increased his maximum health. At 829, it was a lot higher now after the class specialization, but adding more in the stat barely added more health. It would be useless to increase it any further.

Instead, he distributed everything between his intelligence and his wisdom, hugely increasing his already big mana pool and mana regeneration. He had two talent points remaining. Not wanting to scroll through the entire list again, he added them both to Experienced for a total of 30% added experience from that talent alone.

Skills were another matter. This would take a while.