It took long enough to organize all the items that came from Ray’s inventory that dusk had fallen. If it's one thing everyone there had learned, it was that you do not go outside at night. That was asking to be jumped by all manner of undead, creatures, and any other monstrosities that decided to show up. As going outside wasn’t an option, Ray used several torches from the goods to explore the ground and second floors.

The ground floor was a large concrete box. There were a few meeting rooms, a reception area, and other administrative rooms. No loot to speak of, but plenty of stuff that Derrick was happy to turn into basic building materials and store away for later.

The second floor was a drastic departure from the first. Near floor-to-ceiling reinforced glass windows ringed the level, letting in as much natural sunlight as possible. It also allowed Ray to see outside and watch the myriad of creatures a single floor below them. The glass must have had some level of mirroring because not a single one looked up and saw him.

Or maybe they just weren’t that smart.

Either way, the second floor made for a good lookout location. Ray had several Goblins posted on that floor, watching for threats that may come their way. Having lookouts in a good spot where they weren’t observable was too good of an idea to pass up.

Ray continued to explore the floor but was disappointed to find that it was mostly decaying cubicle spaces, offices, and a bathroom with a janitorial closet. Nothing really usable outside of materials for Derrick to break down.

He had planned on exploring further up, but the staircase had been destroyed. Through what means Ray wasn’t sure, but it had been done deliberately as there was no damage to the rest of the stairwell. Concerning, but there was hardly anything that he could do about it now. He had one more Goblin posted in the stairwell, just in case, before he headed back down to see what the others were up to.

When he got back to the ground level, he paused and took in the changes. Derrick had been hard at work. Where there had once been decaying furniture, rubble, and debris, there were now beds and storage shelving lining the walls. While the beds were bunk bed style, each area had a small partition of thin wooden walls surrounding them turning the area into a small bedroom. They didn’t have doors, but privacy in this environment was an illusion anyway.

“Wow, you’ve gotten a lot done,” Ray said appreciatively, walking over to Derrick.

The engineer was focusing on a small pile of wood scraps in front of him. He didn’t reply to the statement as Ray watched what he was doing. The pile of scraps glowed faintly, before turning into a puddle and rapidly reforming into five wooden shields with a single strip of metal going across the middle.

Derrick let out a tired sigh and turned to Ray, “Yeah. Lots done. But I’ve learned a lot too. Using your abilities doesn’t just decrease your power as you use it, it also makes you tired. I am positive now that there is a physical cost to your actions. Some kind of percentage of the effort you would have to use to do a task manually is imparted into your body when you use the ability. A cost for the speed a precision of using that skill to get to the end result,” he explained. “Now I am fucking tired. But I also learned another thing. My skills adapt to my intent. I can make one shield at a time, certainly, but I can also make five shields at the same time, saving myself the time and effort. It costs more materials, but less power.”

Ray nodded. That made sense, and he said as much. Then he paused and thought about where they were. “I wonder if I can claim just the building?” he said aloud, getting Derrick's attention. “If I… focus Claim Hex, perhaps I can claim just this one building. Turn it into our headquarters or something.”

“You may as well try. It doesn’t seem like there are any negatives to you trying other than being told no,” Derrick reasoned. “Kinda nice actually. If I use my skills and fail it hurts. The bigger the fail, the bigger the hurt.”

Ray nodded and focused on his Claim Hex skill. He turned his thoughts from claiming the entire Hex to just the single building. His concentration was so intense that he began to sweat. Then his head began to pound. Finally, after several minutes of near-excruciating mental anguish a message formed in his vision;

{SKILL CREATED}

CLAIM

CLAIM A SINGLE OBJECT REGARDLESS OF SIZE

“Holy shit,” he muttered.

“What? What happened?” Derrick asked, both curious and concerned. “By the way, you’re bleeding.”

Ray touched his face, finding a thin trickle of blood coming from his nose. “I created a skill. A new skill,” he explained, wiping away the blood and feeling the inside of his nose. Convinced he wasn’t bleeding out, he turned to his friend.

“Hmm,” the man said after a moment. “That’s amazing. Either you have the capability to create new skills based on certain criteria, or we all have that ability and just haven’t fully explored it yet. Either way, that’s amazing!”

Ray grinned, “Yeah. It is. Now, I’m going to try and claim this place. Hopefully, it lets me.”

Derrick nodded and Ray activated the skill;

{CLAIM ACTIVATED}

TARGET – OCCUPIED BUILDING

POWER REQUIRED – 5

CLAIM FAILED

BUILDING IS CURRENTLY CONTESTED

HOSTILE CREATURES REMAINING – 4

“You called it,” Ray said after replaying the contents of the message summary to Derrick. “There’s something in this place that is hostile and, more than likely, wants to eat our faces.”

“Grand,” the engineer said cheerfully. He walked over to a tall container with doors he had created earlier. Opening it, Ray saw the contents and whistled. “I found these in one of those crates you offloaded. Some weapons would do us wonders.”

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Inside the container were several weapons. A couple of swords, two maces, a few spears, and a large two-handed axe. The Goblins and Orkin had wandered over to see what was going on and saw the weapons. They lined up in excitement as Ray gestured them over and began issuing weapons. He claimed a blade for himself, strapping it to his waist. The Goblins got the spears while he gave the Orkin the battleaxes and a sword. Derrick didn’t take anything, showing off a machete he had looted from somewhere outside.

Ray double-checked his blade binding and turned back to the group. “It's night right now, and even though we have light I don’t want to push our luck. Let’s bunker down here until dawn then focus on clearing the building,” Ray said. “Derrick, can you put something together to get up those stairs? The idea of trying to find a rope and go up the elevator shaft or something terrifies me.”

“Yeah. Building some basic plank stairs should be more than doable,” the man said. “I have so many ideas rattling around in my head for this place. It's not the biggest building here, but it seems to be one of the safer ones. Only three skulls.”

Ray blinked in surprise. He hadn’t mentioned the skulls next to each building when they spoke before. The fact Derrick could see them told him that there were aspects of the System that were universal… and others that seemed to be unique to him. At least so far. Figuring out where those limits were was going to be important and would only reveal themselves in time.

“Sounds good. Let’s get some rest then. Or as much rest as we can. If your barricades held off that horde earlier, I’m not too worried about anything breaking in at ground level,” Ray observed. The barricades were crude but solid.

”I am more worried about something coming down on us from up above,” he continued, “But with only four creatures and such a low danger rating… we should be ok for one night. Just make sure the lookouts on the second floor know that if they see anything they should make as much noise as they can and run. We can hammer whatever it is as a group.”

The engineer nodded and sent one of the Orkin upstairs. Curious, Ray asked him why. “Orkin are better leaders than the Goblins. The little green dudes adapt quickly, but they aren’t very smart. Having an Orkin with them gives them more of a punch and more tactical options. Not to mention a Goblin may forget to notify the rest of us if they are under duress.”

“That’s… fair. Yeah. That makes perfect sense actually,” Ray replied thoughtfully. “Let’s grab what shuteye we can then get started on those upper floors.”

The group split up after that, claiming various bunks. Ray and Derrick ended up in the same small sleeping cube. Derrick swore that if either of them tried sleeping on a bunk with a Goblin or Orkin neither would sleep at all. Apparently, it was like having a chainsaw next to you all night. Not something that Ray was eager to experience.

His fears never manifested that night. While they all heard plenty of noise from outside, and even a few heavy thumps from higher in the building, there was no nighttime raid or attack. At one point the alarm did go out as a moderate-sized horde wandered by, but there was nothing to draw them to the building and they passed by without incident.

They also often heard slamming in front of the windows on the second floor. The Goblins came down several times to inform them that something had flown into the windows, but they never actually saw what was in the pitch dark of the night. Ray was a bit concerned about that, but if there was no damage to the window there was nothing they could do about it right now.

The night was long, made longer by the constant interruptions to everyone’s sleep. Everyone was on edge, and even the less intelligent Goblins seemed a bit nervous. However, there was no incursion, and dawn broke apart the seemingly eternal darkness. Just the fact that the sun still seemed to rise brought hope and an increase to moral.

It certainly made him feel better.

Stretching, he swung his legs off the bunk bed, then fell off and slammed into the floor. “Fuck,” he grunted while Derrick laughed at him.

“Forgot you were in the top bunk? That’s hilarious,” he said, chuckling.

Nyx had looked up from where she was sleeping in the corner of the room. With a roll of her eyes, she laid her head back down. “It’s too early to deal with you idiots,” she muttered.

Ray got to his feet and stretched out his arms and legs. It was a hell of a way to wake up, but they had things to do. Procrastination would only ensure any surviving members of their group suffered or died. The sooner they could find a way to gather everyone together, the better. He opened his stats screen and checked on his Power. Seeing that it had been refilled, he realized Derrick had been right. He must need some kind of long rest to completely restore it. Turning to the still-chuckling engineer he started issuing orders.

“Derrick, go round up the troops and get what you need to build that staircase. We are going to clear and claim the building today,” Ray said with a grin. He got a sarcastic salute from the engineer before he took off to fulfill the order. It only took a few seconds before he began hearing Goblins and Orkin wake up. The grumbling only increased when he realized they were hungry. Feeling his own stomach growl, he made the most important decision of the day.

“Food first, then world domination,” he said aloud to himself.

Nyx got up quickly at that statement. “Well, if you are going to be getting some food I may as well get up,” she said innocently, puppy dog eyes wide and shining.

“You have zero shame. None. Not a drop,” he accused, heading over to the storage racks where they had organized what rations they had. They had enough food and water for their group for the next several days, but then they would be out. Ray was hoping that the buildings around them would hold some they could scavenge. If not, he would have to get the shop open as soon as he could and pray there was food and water available on there. And that he could get it.

He quickly grabbed and portioned out several of the dried ration packs that had been in the large food box. There had also been farming materials and tools inside, but they didn’t have any dirt around them, much less enough space to plant anything. That would have to wait for later.

The Goblins and Orkin lined up and Ray began dishing out food. Each of them thanked him gruffly, if politely. Even Nyx was thankful for the bite to eat. Except for Derrick. Once it was his turn in line he only complained about the cook. Once Ray threatened to eat his breakfast though, the man straightened right out.

The meal went quickly, and the cleanup was even quicker. Once they were done the group gathered all the basic materials that Derrick needed for the new stairs. There were enough boards, crude metal nails, and other materials that it took both Orkin and more than half the Goblins just to carry everything. Once they were all loaded up, the group moved to the stair well. While they moved Ray outlined their strategy.

“Once the stairs are built, I want both of you guys to head up first,” he explained, nodding towards the Orkin. “Followed by the Goblins. Split into two teams and scout out the floor. If you find anything start yelling and fall back towards the stairs. Derrick and I will cover the exit to make sure nothing sneaks up on us.”

Everyone in the group nodded, and one of the Goblins even contributed an acknowledging fart. In the stairwell there was next to no ventilation, and while the others didn’t seem affected Derrick and Ray nearly lost their breakfast.

“No fucking loot for you,” Ray growled, staring down the now Goblin who had gone from laughing to looking like it wanted to cry.

Arriving at the second-floor landing, they staged the materials for Derrick. The engineer stepped forward while rubbing his hands together. “Behold!” he cried, flinging his hands out wide, “My power!” The group observed with bated breath, but after a few minutes, nothing happened.

“Performance issues?” Ray asked with a small grin, getting hoots from the Goblins.

Derrick just shook his hands, “It’s normally not like this though,” he muttered.

“That’s what she said,” chuffed Nyx, causing Ray to turn to her in shock.

“Did you just… make a joke?” he asked, flabbergasted.

The canine never got a chance to respond as a loud scraping noise sounded within the crowded stairwell. Materials began flying together, assembling in front of the group. Each board was perfectly placed and supported. Each nail precisely hammered into the correct location to hold everything together. In a flash, what was once an empty stairwell contained two flights of well-built stairs.

Derrick turned to Ray, a bit pale. “See? Told you I could do it.”

Then he face-planted into the floor.