The rest of the day went by smoothly with only normal beasties attackin’ us here and there as we made slow progress towards the tower. I helped out when needed and left any low-tier loot-chests for others to deal with. That led to a few squabbles, but again I stayed out of it. I regularly received life-gained messages from my A.I. Assistant; turns out she’s a battle junkie. I checked in on her periodically by connectin’ a Facet to the troll clone. I could sense the blood fairy’s joy through our link as she chased her prey, taunting them using the trolls rumbling voice and cackling with mad laughter as she pummeled and sliced her prey into pieces. Occasionally a wolf or other beast would have the common sense to flee, but Reaper Form allowed her to keep up with them more often than not. If she caught them, they didn’t stand a chance. I felt kinda bad for them but I didn’t stop her efforts to depopulate the forest, err, clear the path. She returned to me after two hours, the clone was runnin’ low on lifeforce. I overcharged the troll with half of the two-thousand years of life she’d farmed for me, leaving me with nearly six-thousand in the vault.

I made an effort along the journey to get to know Sally; she was 24, from Arizona. Six years ago her parents died in a car crash. Lacking any close extended family she dropped out of college to become the guardian of her thirteen year-old sister Alice. She worked 16 hours a day, 6 days a week across two jobs to provide for them; one as a waitress at a truckstop, the other an assembly line position in a tupperware factory. Sally talked alot about her sister; gushin’ with praise for her sister’s budding artistic skills. Apparently Alice was aiming to start her own art studio one day. Perhaps she’d find an opportunity for that even here in this savage new world. I shared a bit of my life with her, nearly had an eye leak when I brought up Rufus, so I switched subjects and jawed about diesel mechanicin’ awhile and the Hayabusa powered off road buggy I’d been buildin’ in my garage which would never get finished now.

Our journey continued until several hours lay between us and nightfall when Wallace called for a halt so we could fortify our position and hunker down for the night. This bein’ our first time buildin’ a perimeter wall we weren’t certain how long it would take. We began by cuttin' down all the large shrooms in the vicinity.

Anyone with skills or the physical ability to chop was tasked with cuttin' down the surroundin' mushrooms. I helped usin' my new sword and my clone's powerful Tail-Whip and Talon-Strike abilities which both had 20 second cooldowns. The caps were sturdily attached to the stems and most survived the falls intact. Once felled, I connected the stems to my drake clone usin' a thick chain purchased from the system store for 100 Champion Points, and aided by rows of us doin' the same with rope, we pulled them into place, formin' a large circle with the cap-stems facin' inwards.

It wasn’t perfect, small gaps we plugged with either stems or smaller caps. It would at least keep out larger beasties that couldn’t dig, climb, jump high or fly.

Those of us unsuited to these tasks collected firewood, beddin' materials and various herbs and berries deemed safe to use or eat via class skills. Occasionally the basic system inspect skill revealed enough information to do the same.

This world was savage, but beautiful too; a stunning’ neon ochre and purple sunset spread out on the horizon as Wiesner, Sally, myself and about a dozen others built several bonfires, cookin’ up ample boar meat to share out.

The blood fairy was content continuin’ her slaughter, but she wanted to swap out the troll for the drake. I didn’t mind. I ordered her to periodically circle our perimeter and alert me if she located any mini-bosses or bosses, then overcharged the drake with half the life she’d gathered, leavin’ me with almost seven-thousand years in my Bone Vault. Infusion’ the clone caused my stats to take a hit, but I felt certain I was growin’ faster than the people around me. It wouldn’t take long at this rate before all my base stats broke a hundred and I already felt I could run straight through a tree like a damned superhero, leavin’ it in splinters. I wasn’t eager to try it however as it was bound to hurt after all.

Since I now had six facets from Diamond Mind I figured I should try to maximise my gains. So I sent the troll clone out on patrol as well, controllin’ it with a facet, hopin’ to run across a beast or monster worth turnin’ into another clone as I had twice as many facets as clones. Thinkin’ of that reminded me of the Trojanus clone, injured but summonable. I walked away from the others to the shroom-cap wall and summoned the clone along the edge. Tail-to-bloody stump it was just over thirty-feet long. I guess the other contenders were too tired from walkin’ all day to care, or had become accustomed to my clone antics as no one made a fuss. I activated the clone’s Mana-to-Flesh ability, payin’ attention to my energy and biomass reserves. I felt no drain even as I walked to the clone’s bloody stump and witnessed the wurm very slowly regenerate, flesh wrigglin’ like it had worms under its skin. I sensed earth essence being drawn in from our surroundings, disappearin’ into the Wurm like it had a void within it. The healin’ was so slow that it might take several nights to complete. Still, Mana-to-Flesh was incredible, makin’ this an excellent meat-shield clone. If my drake were to lose a wing or a large portion of its body it would require significant biomass and possibly life reserves to restore it.

I left the clone to slowly heal, returnin’ to the cookfires, a question circlin’ in my brain. Was the Wurm edible? Tasty even? I might have a source of endless meat on my hands. Perhaps I could set up a BBQ joint in the new town… but we’d have to get there first and ensure a successful build, so it was a problem for another day.

The sun set, leavin’ us with next to no visibility until the crescent of a pale green quarter-moon arose, castin’ a dim light. A variety of howls, chirps, hoots and screeches occasionally rang out, startlin’ folk and causin’ them to huddle around the many campfires spread out within our fortified encampment. Wallace had set up a nightwatch rotation earlier, changin’ every four hours. I wasn’t feelin’ tired so I signed on for an allnighter.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Brett eventually brought three people by for the promised loot. Two men, one woman. I ended up handin’ the remainder of the single stat gear off to Brett for him to distribute.

Around midnight Sally wanted to retire so I activated my P.D.S. and opened the door for her and anyone else that could fit to sleep inside. With my current stats the space was 35 meters wide by 35 meters tall. The floor, walls and ceilin’ were all a dark, glowin’ and shiftin’ purple. Through some quick trial and error I found I could change the interdimensional space in various ways. I flattened the square into a rectangle 105 meters long, 35 meters wide and nearly 12 meters tall. I imagined the interior ceilin’ sparkin’ with stars like Earth’s night sky and my P.D.S. obeyed my wishes, providing enough visibility to see by. I softened the floor until it felt like a yoga or camping foam-mat. Temperature wise, the space felt like a root cellar, 55 degrees fahrenheit or so. I bumped that up until the chill was knocked off. I felt like I was lucid dreamin’ or the God of this small space. Perhaps I was. When I was done there was enough room to allow everyone to sleep inside if they didn’t mind sleepin’ within arms reach of each other.

Sally entered reluctantly at first, eyes dartin’ about like she was enterin’ the belly of a beast or somethin’ but soon she was oohin’ and ahhin’ at the starry ceilin’ and soft, smooth floors.

“Beats sleeping outside on that root-infested dirt,” she said cheerily. “Can you keep the door open? How does that work? Does it consume mana or? Just wondering in case I need to pee or anything.”

Sensin’ the drain, I estimated that leavin’ the P.D.S. activated and open cost somewhere in the neighborhood of several months life force per night but one monster kill would restore months of constant P.D.S. usage. “It’s a light drain on my reserves, nothin’ to worry about,” I replied.

“Damn, I don’t know what your class or level is but I’m primarily a space-focused wizard. When do I get one of these bad boys?” Sally said, pouting momentarily before a grin split her face. “I’m just glad one of us has it. But what happens if we are inside and you get gobbled up out there?”

Guffawin’ at her remark, I reassured her I wouldn’t be easy to kill and I’d give notice to those inside if significant danger presented itself.

Her playful gaze turned serious. I thought she might say something else, but she just gave me the cutest wink before saunterin’ off.

I watched her leave, enjoyin’ the view.

Several hundred slept in the P.D.S. that first night, includin’ Wiesner and Wallace. The rest eyed it skeptically before walkin’ back to their spots by the fires.The night passed relatively peacefully. Once, a flyin’ creature swooped down and tried haulin’ a woman off but it got mobbed before it could lift off with her. The mob drug the creature to the ground and killed it before I could even get there. The creature’s head and torso appeared alien yet humanoid, with legs like a bird of prey similar to a harpy in movies and stuff but without the human-like tits. I snagged it for use as a blood clone, it’d make a good aerial scout. I had the drake but it was too large for stealth.

Three days passed with no sign of Trojanus. We continued travelin’ durin’ the day and fortifyin’ our position at night. More people slept in my P.D.S. each night as no one had been harmed by it yet. After enterin’ to check on those within it on the third night, I left and accidentally dismissed the dimensional doorway to it when I exited. Panickin’, I reactivated it to make sure I hadn’t instantly killed everyone inside, but they were fine. This accident led me to a realization; I could haul everyone to the new town in one go. It would save a week or so of travel time.

The next day I discussed the idea with Wallace, Wiesner and Sally and they agreed to my plan. Assumin’ the rest of our cluster was up for it. A brief meetin’ was called. Less than one-hundred were opposed to the plan. Wallace did his best to change their minds but most refused, sayin’ they’d make the trek by foot. It was their funeral. I did however leave my troll behind to watch over the knuckleheads that remained, controllin’ it with a facet. The rest of the cluster packed up their meager belongings and headed into my P.D.S., I closed it before hoppin’ on my drake with Wiesner and Sally sittin’ behind me and we took’ off. The blood fairy had finally gotten tired from constantly huntin’ and killin’ and had exited the drake clone. She mumbled something about sleep before driftin’ into my torso like smoke through a screen door and snugglin’ up next to my heart. It felt invasive and parasitic at first, but somehow endearin’ and cute now. I really needed to name her. Snuggle-bug? Snugs for short? Nah, that was lame, but I’d come up with somethin’.

“This is fantastic!” Sally shouted over the noise of the wind rushin' by as we hit 1000 feet in elevation or so.

I turned around to face her, shouting back at her, “It’s a five hour ride. You’ll be bored of it soon enough.”

An hour into the journey she passed out against my back, arms wrapped around me. I had to shift her hands a few times as they had drifted awkwardly close to my groin.

Unsure whether I could set any air quality conditions within my P.D.S., I figured out I could open it on the move, turns out the doorway could be tied to my relative location so I opened it every few hours to allow fresh air in. I could’ve left it open but I worried someone might get curious about the view and fall out.

The three day journey had been condensed to five hours. We landed in a flat grassy area just outside the dead zone that encompassed the Tower. Sally woke up as we landed and quickly distanced herself from me, cheeks blushin’ a bit. We got down from the drake and opened my P.D.S.. Wallace exited first, approachin' me with a wide grin, the others pilin’ out behind him, starin’ up at the seemingly endless tower in disbelief.

One thousand people that had left the safe zone. Less than seven hundred remained.

“Ride smooth?” I asked.

“Very. I bet there’s a market for mass transport like that,” he replied, then looked pensive for a moment. “On second thought, maybe not, the town plan listed a teleportation hall.”

“Yeah. Who knows what that’ll cost though,” I shrugged. “Anyways, I’ve been thinkin’. We might ought to build the town outside of the dead zone surroundin’ the tower. I can’t see a single livin’ plant within a mile of it, just rocks, bones and dead vegetation. Not a good sign for inhabitability.”

We circled the dungeon tower searching for a better buildin’ site. Findin’ none, we stuck with our landin’ point. As it was already midway through the day, we decided to begin the system construction in the mornin’ and we spent the rest of the day fortifyin’ our position.