“And so, everyone at the end of the day will be asked to donate spare Power to the Power Cube. This will allow us to put considerably more resources towards developing the territory and building up the resources we need to not only survive, but thrive,” Ray said, finish his speech as excited murmuring broke out in the assembled crowd.

Ray was standing on a makeshift raised podium in the main foyer of the Arcology. He had Derrick speak with the other council leaders and assemble as many people as they could for his announcement. He had covered the dungeon, the expansion plans, the threats in the surrounding hexes, and finally the Power Cube that he had made. People seemed both worried and excited at these developments.

One lady in the front raised her hand and he called on her, “Yeah, you with the question. Go ahead.”

“What will be the first set of projects that you work towards?” she asked, curious. “I think I speak for a lot of us that we don’t want our Power being spent on something that we disagree with or want moved up or back in your timeline.”

Ray nodded, “A valid concern. You can check the central area post boards, when we get them up, for that information. It will outline each project, its cost, and the remaining donations required. For now, however, we are focusing on getting the territory wall in place and building what Derrick called ‘terrarium farms’,” he explained.

“What’s a … what kind of farm?” someone called out, confused.

“A terrarium farm. It’s a large, indoor farm that is kept temperate year-round. With enough of those we can grow enough food for all of us and then some,” Ray answered. “With the abilities of several of the people and Orkin here, we should be able to grow one-acre plots from seed to harvest in a matter of weeks, multiple times a year. That will free up a ton of NEX for other purchases and improvements. If you want further details please ask Derrick after this meeting.” He waited to see if anyone else had any questions, and after several minutes of muted conversations, he declared a close to the public forum.

Stepping away from the podium, he got off the side of the platform where Derrick was waiting. “Talla had questions for you. A few interesting things happened, she wanted to know more about that cube of yours, and Argyle sent her some interesting information.”

That piqued Ray's curiosity. The pair headed up to the second floor where the shop was located. It was, as usual, fairly busy. During this visit, he had more time to actually examine the setup. There were five screens that had five lines of people behind them. Each screen was being used to navigate through the store options and purchase various items. Anything bought would appear either in a lower drawer that the buyer would open and take the item out of, or on a pad next to the shop itself for much larger things.

Walking around the line Ray stood behind an older woman who was speaking with Talla. He eyed the shop front while they spoke, noticing that it was large, cleaner, and far more situated than before. It must have upgraded at some point to either level two or three, just as Argyle had promised.

As the older woman left, Talla turned a dazzling smile on him. “Greetings Mr. Finnegan. Welcome back to the shop. I understand you have questions? I too have inquiries but let’s answer yours first as mine may take some discussion to resolve.”

“Right. Thanks? Yeah, thanks,” he muttered, squinting at the attractive Lamia. “I guess the only two questions I really have are why the shop stopped working and what the changes made are.”

Talla nodded, becoming serious. “Of course, Mr. Finnegan. My apologies, I had forgotten that this world was as new as it was and did not prepare you for anything. Mr. Argyle certainly knew, but I believe your Power storage cube caused him a rare lapse of thought.” She cleared her throat, “You see, Mr. Finnegan, when a shop upgrades it goes out of commission for a certain amount of time. Normally this amount of time is listed in your developments, but Mr. Argyle overwrote that with great expense to get the time expedited. Currently this is a level two shop, with a third upgrade primed for you to initiate at your leisure. The details are listed in your territory System menu.”

“Oh. That makes sense I guess. Can you tell me the difference between the shop levels?” Ray asked, paying rapt attention.

The Lamia nodded, “Of course. The level one shop has base items, food, and supplies. This includes basic melee weapons and armor. The level two shop significantly expands the items, including everything from the first level. The third through fifth levels are less a matter of items and more a matter of distance and scope. Level three allows you to trade and purchase directly from corporations in this reality. Level four from neighboring realities. Level five provide you a list of any open realities and allows you to specify private coordinates to any realities that you gain access to through exploration or other means.”

“That… is a lot to take in,” he said hesitantly. “A lot. So basically at level three, our whole world expands. Significantly.”

Talla made a cute little shrug, “Essentially if that’s how you would like to view it, Mr. Finnegan.”

Derrick was beside himself with excitement. “Ray, do you know what this means? We may be able to purchase vehicles from the shop at level three!”

Ray was about to get excited as well, but Talla interrupted them with a frown and a shake of her head. “My apologies Mr. Vanhalen, but that is not accurate,” she provided, causing the engineer to visibly deflate. “Size of the item matters extensively when purchasing anything through the store. It is not uncommon for level three and above stores to have their own buildings. These buildings can then be outfitted with means of transporting goods such as portals, teleport pads, or dimensional courier services. However, size still remains a significant issue, even for well-established and highly upgraded level-five shops. Bringing through something the size of a wage would cost several times the net worth of this entire planet. It simply isn’t feasible most of the time.”

“Fuck!” growled Derrick, stomping around in a circle and rubbing his head. Then he paused and looked up at Talla, “Can we buy vehicle parts and assemble them?”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The Lamia smiled, “Indeed, Mr. Vanhalen, you can certainly do that. This method is, in fact, often employed. Disassembling a vehicle into its constituent parts and sending them parcel by parcel is significantly cheaper than sending through a much larger assembled product.”

“Hang on there Derrick,” Ray said, holding up his hand to pause the excitedly animated engineer, “Didn’t you say that you had a potential solution to the travel problem?”

Derrick began to nod excitedly, “Yeah. Yeah, I do! And it is way more feasible than I thought. But let's get Talla’s questions answered first then we can head over to my shop and discuss it in detail.”

The Lamia nodded her thanks as Ray turned back to her. “Thank you. My first question is about the dungeon you mentioned. You said that you brokered a deal with it? When I reported this to Mr. Argyle, he was quite curious and wanted to know the details of how exactly you initiated contact.”

“Um, well, I didn’t. Initiate contact that is. The Dungeon Fairy contacted me when we popped into the first room,” he explained. “I didn’t really know that we even had dungeons, much less how to contact them. They were starving to death and I happened to be the first person through who didn’t immediately try and kill them.”

Talla nodded. “Thank you for that information. That actually answers several of my questions, I will pass that along to Mr. Argyle. My only remaining question is in regards to the new Power Cube you designed. What is the Power capacity that it holds currently?”

“One hundred fifty,” he said, causing the Lamia to go pale.

“Oh dear, that’s much higher than even Mr. Argyle’s prediction,” she said faintly while fanning herself with her hand.

Ray grinned, “And that’s not all. I think I can alter the shape, charging density, and other aspects depending on the material that I use to make the cubes. I may even be able to make them the size of an old-world D-cell battery.”

“I… don’t have any knowledge of what that may be, but I am going to assume that it is much smaller and with more storage capacity than what you provided to Mr. Argyle initially?” Talla asked, talking around the odd term to understand it, as much as she was asking a question.

He nodded, “Yeah. I need to experiment more, but I am almost positive that the kind of material used to craft the storage devices will determine the capacity of the Power they can hold.”

“That is fascinating,” she said with a clear smile on her face. “I look forward to seeing what you can do with it! Finding a way to store Power… and in a place my shop is, oh I am so very excited!”

Ray couldn’t help but grin at her exuberance. She wasn’t the only one that was excited. He was more than a bit over the hill about it as well. He would have to come up with a better name than Power Cube, especially if he managed to change the shape of it. Power Battery perhaps?

Shrugging, he set the idea of calling it something else aside for now. “So, how is Argyle? I kind of expected him to be back here with this newest development.”

Talla shrugged, “I have no idea. Mr. Argyle is the CEO of a Corporation so massive it boggles the mind. I am honestly surprised he was here in person the first time. He is a very, very busy person who only gives time to things that either need to be addressed immediately or provide amusement to him. When you’ve been alive as long as he has anything fun is probably hard to come by,” she said. Leaning in closely she whispered, “I have even heard that he knows many of the Old Gods.”

“That will be quite enough of that miss Talla,” said Argyle, causing everyone to spin in place and the Lamia to go sheet white pale. The Daemon waved off the shopkeeper. “You are in no trouble, but I do try to keep the gossiping to a minimum. I would like to know where that particular rumor came from, however.”

Ray waved at his, possible, CEO friend. “Hey there, we were just talking about you. Guess what I did?”

Argyle laughed, a thin wheezy burbling sound not unlike air escaping from a slashed throat. “You amuse me to no end, Mr. Finnegan. Talla has kept me up on your shenanigans, particularly your newest developments. Do you truly think that you can create variations of your Power Cube I the way you think?”

“Yeah. I do. I mean, our world had better technology that wasn’t unlike what I made here. With my ability it really is just a matter of experimentation, having the material on hand, and money,” Ray replied slowly, thinking through his answer a bit. “The problem is, I don’t really know what materials to try with. I used steel and copper so far, and that nearly bled me dry. I need a reservoir or to play with different materials to really figure stuff out.”

Argyle nodded along in thought. “Fascinating, and you have a good idea of what is needed to further develop the material and constructs,” he muttered. He looked up at the human in front of him. “Tell me, Mr. Finnegan, what is your end goal? Are you looking to completely retake your home world? Are you seeking to expand into the universe around you like other civilizations? Do you want a life of peace? What is it you want?”

Ray had the distinct feeling that a lot was riding on his answer, so he took an inordinate amount of time to really think it over. Beyond bringing humanity back from the brink, surviving in this new System-run world, and figuring out how to reclaim his world from the terrors that had been inflicted on it, he wasn’t sure what he wanted. He knew what he had enjoyed prior to being resurrected, but he wasn’t entirely certain that would be true going forward.

“I don’t really know yet,” he said slowly and precisely. “I know what I loved to do prior to the Integration. Before I was resurrected that is. Those things don’t really hold up now though, and to be honest I know so little about the world and the System in general that I can’t tell you. I need to learn more, and live more before I can get a good idea of what I want to do. I can tell you my goals right now are to protect my friends and reestablish humankind. Make this place our home world again. Take it back from everything that has been inflicted upon our species.”

Argyle stared intently at Ray, making him fidget a bit. “Very well Mr. Finnegan.” With a simple wave of his hand, and a startled yelp from Talla, both shop and shopkeeper vanished from the floor.

“What the hell? Where did the shop go?” Ray said angrily, stopping cold when Argyle visibly aged in front of him.

“Your shop is now in an unused building across the street Mr. Finnegan. The Level Three upgrade requires considerable space and NEX to build out,” the Daemon said. “This is the fulfillment of my payment to you for the prior cube and patronage. I would buy this current Power Cube from you, but I suspect you may need it for now for future endeavors. Please seek to build one at this capacity of storage for me when you can. I will purchase it from you at the standard one hundred thousand NEX per point of storage. Simply let Talla know when it is ready.”

With that, the odd Daemon simply vanished in his usual style. No flash, smoke, or fanfare. The CEO was simply gone from reality, and back to wherever he came from. Or wherever he was going.

“I… have this odd feeling, Ray, that this relationship isn’t going to be simple or clean for us,” Derrick said, worry clear in his voice. “Argyle is going to be either a curse or a blessing for us, but something is telling me he will most likely be both. At the same time. Equally.”

Ray was sure his friend was right, on all accounts. But one thing was for sure, building more of those Power Cubes and in variations would give them enough NEX to significantly develop their territory. To the point where they probably wouldn’t have to worry about invasions any longer. Having a stable base and capital was worth any amount of money in this new world. He had been putting off developing new technology and himself for too long.

He wouldn’t do so any longer.