Thinking of his parents being held captive made Rick feel trapped. If he wasn’t stuck in this stupid Core, he’d already be busting them out of there. It would have likely resulted in him getting killed, but at least he'd have had the option to act. Now, he was forced to plan and rely on other people.

The only person he trusted was Jimmy, and even then, Jimmy had let him down in the past. Nothing egregious, but enough to make him worry once in a while. Throwing himself into a project always seemed to clear Rick’s mind and growing stronger was a necessity in this new world.

There was still a full week before the System and Dungeon shops opened. What that entailed, he wasn’t sure, but he knew it was big if the System was giving them ten full days to prepare.

A minor sense of relief washed over Rick as he simultaneously used Spatial Expansion and Resource Burn, holding the stressful thoughts at bay. Rick alternated between the two skills as if he were in a trance. The ten cubic feet that Spatial Expansion awarded was roughly the size of a storage freezer you might see in a gas station stuffed with ice cream bars.

At first, the growth in the room was imperceptible, but each piece of trash fed him Energy, and the pace quickened. Soon, he had added almost an entire football field-sized space. Both the walls and ceiling grew further away from Billy and the wolves who began to take notice. The wolves watched with tilted heads while Billy looked around in wonder.

The wolves had made quite a bit of progress digging out their den, but Rick would not be outdone. He doubled down on his pace, improving the process with each passing second. As the process became easier, he began adding grass to fill in the growing floor.

Rick found that his mind easily adapted to the multiple tasks, working more like a machine than actual thought. The only connection he kept with the outside world was with Penny and making sure her bowl was full of food. Challengers had entered the dungeon but he didn’t pay any attention to them. They were merely an itch that his minions scratched away. Occasionally, he could feel another name added to the leaderboard.

Alerts nagged at his mind from time to time, but Rick didn’t stop his growth process. There was a voice screaming his name, but he ignored it.

Finally, the fuel for his Energy ran out, forcing him to stop. He was angry. He didn’t want to stop. Why wasn’t there more fuel?

“Snap out of it!” Jimmy shouted, clapping his hands.

The abrupt work stoppage rattled Rick’s mind. Finally, he took in the dungeon floor after his manic construction. The floor was now four cubic miles, dispelling any sense of claustrophobia he may have felt if he were still human.

Grassy hills rolled throughout the floor, some reaching dozens of feet high. He remembered building these with the brief consideration of giving Billy, Finn, and Stella ways to hide or improve their vantage points.

The glass tunnel that had originally been on the perimeter of the old floor grew as well. It now snaked throughout the floor in a large maze, either going on top of the grass or burrowing through one of the hills.

Jimmy yelled at him again, “Rick, are you still in there? I’m worried about you man.”

Rick focused on Jimmy’s voice and was greeted with another surprise. His friend had visibly shed some weight and even looked a few years younger than before. Sometimes weight loss did that to a person, but maybe Jimmy hadn’t been eating well either.

“Jimmy, you look different. When was the last time you ate?”

“A few hours ago,” he said waving a hand dismissively. “You, on the other hand, have been unresponsive for three days. I had to tell everyone to stop bringing you trash,” he said exasperatedly.

“Three days? It only felt like a few moments.”

“Yes, three days, man. Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I feel great. Better than great actually. I needed to do that. I felt like I was about to explode with everything going on.”

Jimmy’s face went from one of concern to impatience, “Good, because a lot has been happening. First, I owe a lot of people payment for bringing all that shit. They’re ready to unleash whatever deadly skills they have up my ass.”

“Oh, of course. But, I’m out of Energy so-”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Jimmy cut him off, “If you slip into another - whatever the fuck that was - I’m dead. I’m only bringing in one bag.”

A wave of embarrassment washed over Rick. He had let his friend deal with everything while he avoided any responsibility. This also made him realize how much he needed Jimmy. Without fuel, it would take too long to grow. Eventually, anyone could waltz in and destroy him.

“Of course, I’m sorry about that. Lost myself for a little bit there,” Rick said.

“It’s ok man, I was just worried about you,” Jimmy said before opening the door and grabbing more fuel.

Rick didn’t say anything more and began the process of converting it all into gold, gems, and weapons.

“Thanks, Rick. I’ll hand these out and get you resupplied. By the way, Kara has done a tremendous job recruiting. We now have a couple of informants in the Eagle Empire, though none are high-ranking. Your parents are still doing ok by all accounts.”

“Good. Have we gathered many fighters willing to launch an assault?”

“Some, but not as many as I’d hoped. I can promise them money, but nobody is exactly loyal to us. Most with fighting capabilities would rather just challenge the Dungeon and take their chances with Billy and the pups.”

“Are many of these would-be fighters the same ones getting paid to gather fuel for me?” Rick asked.

Jimmy nodded.

“Then once you’ve paid them for those easy jobs, they’ll likely be more inclined to help us with the Eagle Empire,” Rick explained. “We don’t need loyalty. We just need to be able to follow through on our promises. I almost let you down there, but I won’t let that happen again.”

“That might be true,” Jimmy said scratching his head. “But, gathering garbage and risking your neck are very different things. A lot of the guys in the Eagle Empire have combat experience and training.”

“Do we have anyone with military or combat experience?”

At this, Jimmy smiled, “Not exactly, but I’ve been in contact with a few guys from the Mexican Cartel. They came sniffing around and seem willing to do business with anyone who isn’t involved with the Eagle Empire.”

“Yeah, the cartel has to be just as bad if not worse than the Eagle Empire — if they’re anything like the movies portray them. But, if it’s just a business transaction, we can definitely hire them to help us,” Rick said thoughtfully. “In fact, I’m guessing most of the people we have working for us are just regular people, right?”

“That’s right. The majority of the people don’t want to fight, just like before the System.”

Getting pacifists involved rubbed Rick the wrong way. They might even be detrimental in a fight, or give them away. He also worried about how to protect his parents if he managed to free them.

“Say, Jimmy?” Rick asked. “I’ve been wondering about the Challenger limit.”

“Yeah?”

“How many people can come in here that aren’t Challengers?”

Jimmy scratched his head again, “Technically, the limit applies to each floor. However, from my understanding, you can create auxiliary floors eventually. Those floors have a wide range of uses, but you can allow any amount of people in there as non-challengers.”

“I see. And you don’t count since you’re immune as my Attendant, right?”

“Right.”

“What about Penny?”

“She’s a complete mystery to me. I haven’t been able to find any information about her yet, but I will.”

Rick had multiple theories, but it was pointless thinking about them for now, “Either way, I won’t be able to make an auxiliary room before we get my parents back. We’ll need to find a place for them to hide safely.”

Jimmy nodded along but there was a sadness behind his eyes.

“Any word on your parents, Jimmy?”

His friend shook his head, “Nah.”

The silence was awkward, but Rick didn’t want to press Jimmy. If Jimmy wanted to talk about it, he would when he felt like it, so Rick just gave him a couple of brief words, “We’ll find them, bud. Hang in there.”

“Anyway, I better pay these people before they start bombarding the walls or something,” Jimmy said as he made his way out, shutting down any attempt to talk more about his parents.

Rick sighed internally. There were plenty of other items on his agenda anyway. The welcome sight of a level up greeted him as he began going through his alerts.

—ALERT—

* Level 4 Obtained

* +100 Energy

* +100 Challenge Points

* Spatial Expansion Evolved to Level 2. Spatial Expansion now passively grows a chosen floor by one cubic meter per day.

* +1 Kaiju Egg obtained

“Huh. No new skill is available this time but at least my Spatial Expansion evolved. I was wondering if I would get one at every level,” Rick thought as he chose his shop floor to grow passively. He’d actively grow Billy’s floor. “Let’s find out what a Kaiju egg is,” he murmured before expanding on the Alert.

Through forced evolution of Skill: Spatial Expansion, you have been awarded a rare Kaiju Egg. Continue your path of growth to accommodate the Kaiju. Kaiju hatches in 275 days. Must place the egg with an egg guardian.

Assign Egg Guardian (00:00.00)

Timer Expired. Egg Guardian Assigned:

Penny - Level 3 Good Girl - Kaiju Egg Guardian

“What the hell? Penny?”