The hole seemed endless.
“What do you think?” I asked Darya.
She and Amelia peeked down the hole with apprehension. Initially, they were baffled when I showed them the Nexus. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. The more I explained what I could do, the more excited they became. Then I plopped down the barracks out of thin air right in front of their eyes, and they stared in amazement. It was amazing. I felt like a god before mere mortals. We walked through and explored the building together, ending at the bathroom.
“Better not drop anything down the hole, or it’s gone,” I added.
In the morning, after looking through the menus and reading the help files, I’d ended up purchasing a single permanent portal for 20 points. I had placed it in my room in the chapel. This way I had more control of who came and went, and it was sufficiently out of sight that any visitors wouldn’t notice it. Later, I planned to put down another couple of portals -- just in case one of them got destroyed.
After that, I purchased a barracks for 80 points. Out of all the buildings it was the most efficient use of points for how many people could sleep inside. Sure, they’d be cramped, but I didn’t mean for them to live in them all the time.
I set the barracks down in the middle of the island, far away from the precarious edge. Thankfully, with the Edit menu I could later relocate the buildings all around the Nexus as I pleased. Eventually, I planned to build a wall around the place so nobody would fall off the edge by accident.
The barracks was a large, two-story building made of stone. On one side of the first floor was a kitchen with three wood-fired stoves, and rows of dining tables. The place was well lit with many windows.
A set of stairs was in the middle, and upstairs was completely dedicated to sleeping quarters, with four rows of bunk beds. Combined with more beds downstairs, the barracks could house 240 -- enough for the village.
“How’d you find this?” Darya asked. “What sort of a dungeon is this?”
“It’s not a void dungeon,” I replied. “The Nexus is permanent. You could live here, everyone in the village could. When the next Dark Night comes around, everyone should hide here until the danger passes.”
“What else could you build?” Amelia asked eagerly.
I explained what building and portal access options I had, and also the costs involved. I also told them that water would need to be brought in from the outside, and that growing food here would be tricky. They immediately saw the potential of the place, and also the risks involved.
Darya blinked. “Oh wow.”
“You’d need guards and troops stationed here,” Amelia said. “You should build some walls and other defenses too.”
“Planning on it, but it’s expensive.”
“Imagine if there was a portal here to the capital, and several others to Hiran, Dalhurst, or Merton?” Darya said.
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“If the lords were to find out, they’d fight to take control,” Amelia said.
Darya scoffed. “The king would send an army.”
“Don’t tell others about this yet,” I warned the two. “I don’t want the word spreading before this place is ready.”
“What are you going to do?” Amelia asked.
“Build it up like a fortress.”
“I’d be happy to help,” she said.
“Do you have any gold?”
She winced. “I-I .. I meant more in the planning of things.”
“I’d love that,” I told her. “All this town building and managing people isn’t for me.”
I was exhausted, and sleep was finally catching up with me. After returning back to my room, I wrote down all the buildings, their costs, and editing options for Amelia.
“I’m sorry about your father,” I told her.
She sighed, looking away. “The funeral will be tonight.”
After the two left, I laid down on my bed to get some sleep -- it had been a very busy night. As soon as I did, Gregor’s head peeked through the wall, frowning. His nose looked rubbed to an angry red color. He looked miserable, shivering, as if he had a cold.
“Got my son-in-law kill-” He recoiled in disgust as soon as his eyes met mine -- all three of them. “Ugh.”
I groaned. “It’s not-”
“Spare me the explanation.” He paused to blow his nose. “I already heard. It just looks much worse up close.”
“I can’t wait to get rid of it.”
“As I was saying. It appears you have gotten my son-in-law killed.”
“I wasn’t the one who did it,” I said.
“Maybe. I saw the whole thing.” He shook his head in disappointment. “I’d love to say that I can’t blame you, but …” He floated forward into the room. “You should know better than to agitate those who are more powerful than you, the nobles and the royalty.”
“They weren’t all that powerful, were they? And they’re dead now.”
“This won’t end well.”
“Or maybe it will, unless you know something about the future?”
“I could only dream that I did, but I’m no oracle.” He moved to the Nexus portal standing in my room, examining it closely. “This is new.”
For a brief moment, his form seemed to have shifted, to grow opaque. Without saying a word, he floated right through the portal and seemed to have vanished, as if he had entered it. This left me confused as I had thought ghosts were bound to a place, and couldn’t interact with anything. Then again, I never met a ghost before, so who knows what they could and couldn’t do?
***
Luther didn’t like dealing with Steven, but it couldn’t be helped. He needed that which would embolden his soldiers to fight, to persevere in the face of untold horrors they’d face in the catacombs below. Hard, sweet candy.
Steven ruffled through the stacks of paper currency with disinterest, picking out the most vibrant of the selection from the box. He preferred the reds and the orange over other colors.
“I don’t know how you came across this wealth,” Steven said. “But you’re wasting your time.”
“I’ll decide that for myself, but thank you for your concern.”
“Word is, trouble is coming, so you’d be wise to keep this all to yourself.”
“It’s not just me who’s interested,” Luther said.
“They’re fools. Just like you. Just like they were.”
“You can’t continue to blame them, it’ll eat your heart.”
Steven tossed the few wraps back in the box, snapping the lid close with a loud bang. “I don’t have a heart, and I’m not going to help you. Let them rot where they are!”
Luther crossed his arms. “If you won’t help me. I know someone who will.”
Steven chuckled. “You wouldn’t. You don’t have the guts.”
“You don’t know me.”
For a minute, the two stared at each other with stern gazes. Then Steven huffed, turned his attention to the box and he flicked the lid up again.
“How many?”