CHAPTER 40: Unexpected Building
Adam stood in front of a 10-story high rise building. The artificial sunlight shimmered off the green tinted glass windows from every direction. A smooth, mute gray, with some dark brown bark accents made up the structure of the building. In front of the building was a fifteen foot tall statue, made of a dark wood. A five-foot tall pedestal propped the statue up even higher. The statue was an action pose of Adam holding the riot shield when fighting the elves while swinging the sledgehammer. It was right out of a comic book panel, except in 3D. On the pedestal was etched “Sentinel Army” in a fancy, yet still easy to read script.
“Where did the goblin castle go?” asked Brittney, mirroring Adam’s curiosity. The building looked amazing, but last night there had been an ugly, poorly designed goblin castle in their rift base. Now stood a rather majestic building.
It was 10am and they were all supposed to meet today to do some planning and figure out their stats and classes. They had decided on meeting at the warehouse, figuring they could shape a simple table and chairs large enough for everyone using the rift’s control node, not expecting the entire castle to be changed. Right now, Adam was joined by his parents, the triple As, Brittney, the scouts, and Ron.
A good distance to the side was also a mound that was building sized and looked like a thick pile of brambles, though about a quarter of the front was a wooden wall with a door and window. Adam had no idea what it was for.
“Pretty crazy, right?” Lucas asked as the glass door in the building entrance automatically opened for him. “That Jordan Lane is a maniac. He was up all night figuring out what he could create using the control crystal. Elias and Brandon would work with him in shifts since they couldn’t stay awake the whole night. Tom and I alternated watch with Randall and Joseph. Jordan’s insanity aside, the building is amazing.”
Lucas led them into the building. A wide reception desk, like a luxury hotel, was there with enough room for three people to easily sit behind. The desk was made of the same brown wood from the elf dimension, though this was smoothed and polished to a shine. There were doors that led to rooms behind the reception area.
To the side was a hallway that led to what looked like three elevators on the left. On the right side were four meeting rooms, solid wood doors leading inside, with windows to either side of the door, showing the inside. Currently a simple table with six chairs, all made of the elf wood, were in each room. The walls between the meeting rooms were solid, but the wall against the outside of the building was composed of a green tinted glass.
The end of the hallway opened into a huge conference room. A table large enough to fit 30 people was near the doorway, surrounded by chairs, but that only covered a small amount of the room. The walls, far from the door on each side, were solid instead of the green tinted glass. Each seat had a small floating screen displayed a few inches above the table.
Jordan was already seated at the table, with Elias and Brandon on either side, whispering back and forth while tapping on a larger floating screen. Randall, Joseph, and Tom were seated many chairs away from the other three, their heads down on the table or slouched backwards while yawning.
“This is not what I expected,” Adam said as he entered the room, catching the attention of the whispering three. They all looked exhausted, bags under their eyes, though beaming with excitement.
“I never want to leave this place,” said Jordan, breathing heavily.
“Isn’t the building more than we need?” asked Andrea.
“Not at all. If this space is secure enough to be an invader’s base, then it should be more secure than anywhere else we can get. I was looking into doing more with it, figuring we’d need a lot of buildings including places to live.” Several people nodded at the logic of it.
“He is going to talk for a while,” warned Lucas. “Make yourselves comfortable.”
Adam selected a position not far from the trio, but not right next to them either. Abbey sat to his left, and Alissa to his right, with Andrea on the other side of Abbey. The rest of the group spaced out to take their seats. While the chair that he sat on was wood, and solid, it didn’t feel uncomfortable. It was almost like it shaped to him as he shifted around, though he swore it was solid. Once everyone was seated, Jordan went on.
“As we went through the menus for the rift, we noticed that not only could we shape objects that were a part of this dimension, but we had blueprints for building. These buildings seemed to be from both earth and the goblin’s world.”
“The goblin buildings were terrible and useless,” added Elias.
“Yes. We’ve never used the goblin’s plans. Also, the building plans require certain materials to construct, and if we don’t have the materials or an adequate substitute then we won’t be able to build it. That kept us from making most anything from earth.
“However, once you took control of the elf dimension, a lot more options were made available. We then got all the blueprints for the elf buildings, which are also useless unless someone just wants the novelty of an uncomfortable treehouse. We also got all the materials from the other rift. It seems like the two rifts are now joined.”
“Maybe when we took them over they became disconnected from their home planets. The dimensional rifts are clearly modeled after the home worlds of the invading race. Then our rifts are connected to each other, since both are now on our home planet,” postulated Elias.
“Right. That’s what we thought. Transporting the materials between the rifts has a cost but it isn’t very much,” continued Jordan.
“Cost?” asked Ron.
Brandon picked up from there. “There are two types of energy needed to use the rift. The first is just organic material. Manipulating things inside, such as building or changing the shape of objects requires organic material to be broken down.”
“Is that what happened to the goblin bodies?” asked Adam.
“Exactly,” answered Jordan. “There were so many corpses and blood everywhere that we fed them to the rift and we have a bit of cushioning for the moment in that type of energy. Oh, but we froze the human corpses that you found and returned them to the police to identify.”
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“In the future, we will be able to use human waste as well as plants as the fuel,” Elias said matter-of-factly.
“The other type of energy?” Adam asked.
“That energy uses the coins we found on the goblin chief. The elves also had a bunch of them, most of which came to us as part of the loot. Though there was a war chest in the elf rift,” answered Brandon.
“Yes. The coins are a form of condensed energy that the system directly uses to transport items across large distances. The rift interface has a shopping menu. I didn’t understand most of the items in it and they cost a lot of coins. I would guess the coins provide the energy to build and transport those items here.”
“Hm…” considered Adam. “So if we get a lot of those coins we can buy better weapons, armor, and defenses?”
“We believe so,” said Elias. “However, we are talking about needing a LOT of the coins. Not the piddly squat we got from the goblins or elves.”
“That must be one reason the invaders have an advantage,” said Brandon. “They have economies based on the coins, so they can already buy better stuff than we make on earth. We have no advantages here.”
“We have one advantage,” Tom said while staring at Adam. Adam coughed politely for Jordan to continue.
“For now, we focus on the organic energy and getting more materials into the rifts, so we can build more. We can’t build without the materials being here. Yesterday I got the guys at the dump to deliver truckloads of broken refrigerators and electronics. That allowed us to build some of the more useful items. The windows of this building came from the sap of the elf trees from their dimension. The rift menu was able to alter the sap into a solid panel, which is why it looks like tinted green glass. Most of the walls and floors are made of altered version of the elf wood or goblin stone. This building is MUCH sturdier made with stone and wood than any earth building that used what we would consider more advanced materials.”
“Why don’t we just make weapons and stuff in here then?” asked Randall.
“Altered materials can’t be taken outside. If you bring in wood, shape it into a spear using the rift menu, then take it outside it disintegrates. If we were to make bullets or arrows in here then as soon as they were shot out of the rift they stop existing,” Jordan explained.
“That means we need two sets of materials. We need things to build up our dimensional base using the rift menu, items that won’t even move out of this location, and we need items that can be used outside as well as in the rift,” Elias added.
“That’s good to keep in mind while we prepare over the next week. Jordan, can you tell us about what you built already?” Adam asked.
“Of course!” Jordan’s energy level rose even higher. “This building is meant to be both an operations center and a living space. We combined and customized more than one blueprint to build it. It was so much fun not just playing a building game but seeing the results for myself. I can’t get enough of this!
“We can make alterations to any floor or room as long as we have the materials and energy available. If you don’t like something, then we can change it. Just like a building game but way more satisfying,” Jordan practically squealed.
Tapping on his larger screen, the smaller screens in front of everyone floated up and grew larger. Everyone watched as Jordan used the rift’s ability to look anywhere in the dimension, and then projected it to the screens in front of them.
“The first three floors are meant to be for the Sentinel Army’s business. We have meeting rooms, storage rooms, and an office for security with a few prison cells on the first floor. On the second floor there are two lounges, a cafeteria in case we need to feed a large number, a locker room for people to store personal affects, and finally a room for cots in case people need to sleep. The third floor is meant for operations, including a control room, a communications room, and a few smaller meeting rooms and offices for personnel.” He spoke slowly, showing each room as he mentioned them, from different angles.
“There isn’t the furniture for those rooms yet. We’ll need to bring them in, or the materials to form it using the rift.
“After the first three floors, we have several floors for the leaders of Sentinel Army to live in if they want them. We also figured their families might want to live here to make sure they’re safe. I know some of you won’t want families here, so living alone should be fine as well. These living areas were made pretty luxurious, if I do say so myself.
“Floors four and five have two-bedroom, one and a half bathroom, condos. We fit six of those on each floor. Floors six and seven have four condos with three bedrooms and two bathrooms each, intended for the larger families. Then floors eight and nine were designed for individual leaders who live alone. They only have one bedroom and bathroom but are still a good size. 10 condos per floor. Those are currently larger than the apartment I live in, and I would be extremely happy to be allowed to move here,” Jordan said pointedly towards Adam. He nodded and Jordan almost jumped out of his seat in joy.
The screens showed the condos, and they were all amazing looking. They were spacious and laid out well. Each had a kitchen and dining room of varying size, from big enough for a real cook in the family units, to just an efficiency with a counter to eat at in the individual units. There were always good-sized closets, sitting space and living rooms.
It was clear the blueprints for the designs came from expensive high-rises, and if there weren’t so many preparations needed, Adam would have enjoyed exploring it all himself. The whole group, including Adam’s parents were near giddy looking at everything. Adam’s family owned a large house, and Adam knew it was better than most people had, but if he could grab himself a condo here, then his parents and Emily would probably be plenty happy living in one of the two-bedroom units. That would also allow a bit more time for him to spend with the girls.
“What is on the tenth floor?” Andrea asked.
Jordan’s smile couldn’t get any bigger at that. “I’m sure you’ll all be pleased with it. The top floor is split into two units. The first is for the boss. It takes up half the floor.”
Adam’s jaw dropped as he saw the view shift through the rooms and the amount of space set aside for him. So much for claiming one of the individual units.
“There is a very large bedroom with a luxury bathroom, including a spacious shower with numerous showerheads, a soaking bath big enough for multiple people that includes air jets. There is a library room with shelves and room for a few comfortable chairs to read or chat with others. There is a large living room, a party room, a sizeable kitchen, and a dining area. A lot of the inside room space was taken away so we could include a large outside balcony with an Olympic sized swimming pool, a jacuzzi, hot tub, outside bar, toilet and shower rooms, and hosting area.
“There is also an undefined space. In the blueprint it was meant as either a gym or bowling alley, but neither seemed useful for someone of Adam’s strength. He can decide how he wants to use the space and we can help built it, either as a single room or additional rooms.”
“Wow,” said Adam, holding down the excitement. “It feels like too much, especially in a time of war.”
Elias chimed in. “It isn’t like you are taking from other people. This whole dimension belongs to you and wouldn’t be possible without you. We’re young, but we might as well live it up while we aren’t fighting for our lives. It can also be redesigned later if you don’t like that much space.”
“Alright. I’ll take it then. Mom, dad, I’m moving out,” he said with a mischievous smile at them.
“Just make sure to be responsible,” his dad chuckled, aware of the cliché. “Otherwise, I’ll have to come up a few floors to give you a good talking to. Even with a penthouse we’ll still be in the same building if you need us.”
“What is the other unit for,” Alissa asked, failing to prevent a smile from showing.
“That is for the General’s Wives,” Jordan announced grandly. Laughter broke out from the teens with the three girls looking quite pleased, though Adam rolled his eyes, and his mom frowned. The other adults squirmed uncomfortably at the reference.
“There is a large kitchen and dining room, a group living room, and a general bathroom. Each wife will get a personal bedroom and bathroom, almost as nice as the boss’s, as well as a general purpose room. There is also a housekeeper mini suite in case they want to hire one. For now, we built in six wife suites,” frowns went to the girls’ face at the number, resulting in them all glaring at Jordan. He quickly stammered, “s-since we don’t know how many he will end up with?”
Tom snickered at the trouble he had started.