Daniel woke naturally.

Immediately using Animal Sense to scan their two floors. Nothing had changed and there were no new threats.

Then he did a stock take of his magic. His conduits had kept working. With a smile, he noted he had finally reached the men downstairs and had expanded the debris they had piled up to protect their two rooms, adding in extra spikes.

They had merged and had lost two people while doing it. That was a bummer, but as he examined the room with tree sense, he was comfortable that they could hold for a couple of days now. They had water courtesy of ice magic and had eight on guard duty while the other six slept. They would survive, but just in case, he built some alarms. If zombies started throwing themselves into those stake walls, then he would know.

Still remembering the open window, he also shifted some plants out the windows. It was not much of a change, but it ringed the weak external glass with razor vines, denying entry to everything apart from a monster with the ability of one of the twins.

While he worked, Daniel thought about how could he activate the new abilities the earth and force magic. His consciousness dipped into his centre, and he examined the change to his core, searching till he found the nubs aligned to identify additional skills. They were smaller than expected, pathetically so in fact, but then again, that should not have been too much of a surprise. Significantly, more than two zombies had contributed to the strength and speed growths.

Now that he had located them, he started feeling out the skillset. Last time he was in this position, this method had at least given him an impression regarding what could be achieved. It was superior to what his broken interface, even with Ivey’s help, could manage, though not perfect.

Below him, unknown to human survivors, his defence continued to grow. Once there was a metre strip of the razor thorns protecting their windows, he pulled his attention back to the wider situation.

Animal Sense blazed out.

Daniel probed the details of the floors below him. There was a continuous need to do so. An extrinsic dread that could only be lifted by continually checking on every monster.

The power rushed over the beasts, cataloguing them. Apart from the humans in the corner, they were all identified as zombies. He was not sure why he thought that might change. For clarity, he overlaid the wire frame to better understand where they were.

His breath caught.

A zombie was in the stairwell.

Lying in bed, he managed not to flinch and wake Ivey.

They were safe. It was transitioning lower, rather than attempting to climb higher, in which case it would be threatening them. The barrier that he had put in place to stop the zombies from coming up was still intact, as there had been no alarms. Remembering the decay monster, he checked anyway, running his consciousness into the wood that separated them from the lower floors. Letting his mind flow over each of the spikes that pointed downwards, and whose only purpose was to pierce anything trying to get up to them. The points were as sharp as ever and the pressure plates untouched.

They were safe.

At least for now, but the zombies were moving between the floors below him.

His mind reached out and then pulled back to think.

The three floors of zombies below had combined, with most of them having migrated down to the level of the humans. Logically, they were probably drawn by whatever instinct that had them salivating to kill any true human they saw. There were forty zombies, which seemed an awful lot, but it wasn’t. The last floor they had cleared had contained sixteen, so roughly speaking, he should have expected fifty of them across the collective levels. He should have been happy with the lower numbers, but they were all in the one spot, and based on his impression of strength, potentially half of them were elites. He would need Priscilla to confirm and tease out actual skills, but first impressions of what they were facing were bad. Consolidation was not a good outcome.

Quietly, he set up algorithms to further reinforce the doorways of the trapped humans. There might be lots of zombies, but those fourteen survivors had held them off so far, so with his additional support, the extra flood of elites should not overwhelm them.

Another Animal Sense.

They were milling aimlessly. Priscilla, he thought. Can you go check? Make sure they don’t mass and warn me if they do.

For a moment, she prepared to negotiate.

No. His thoughts were harsher than intended, but he still remembered what she had done to Ivey. She owed him for that, and he would not give her extra chips. He wrestled with how to communicate that without upsetting her further.

A slight feeling of apology came back, and with no outlandish demands for salt-and-vinegar goodness, he felt her heading down the stairwell. Her mind linked to him, promising to watch for any coordinated attack, signs of the humans faltering, and in between that, she would work out their powers because she did not want her big silly pet dying on her watch because he did not know what he was facing.

Thank you, he thought back.

The response that she would try not to annoy Ivey came immediately. There was a hint of regret on the thought like an oily residue.

Really? She was sorry. He was not sure that he believed it.

He sent back a feeling of “it is okay and I am not mad.”

A rush of joy hit him.

Maybe she cared.

With the humans taken care of, his focus switched to the new abilities that he had got. Earth armour from what he could divine was not a flop, but nor was it a raging success. The form of it was strange. When the twins had used it, the protection had swept over their entire bodies. He was convinced from touching the nub that what he had extracted would not do that. Unlike the speed and strength sections of his core, there was no link to his body shape. Instead, he was pretty sure he could focus on a single point of his skin and it would expand out from that spot. Would it keep spreading? His impression from the core was no; it lacked the power and calculation depth. It might spread over a dinner-plate-sized piece of his skin.

Yet it was how the twins had done it. The speed one had started the process at the feet and then the armour had swept up from that location. If he could do the same.

Then he frowned. The information was wrong. The twin had moved like its armour was part of its skin, but what he had felt less flexible. He could use it on his chest, or forearm, but not on his fingers.

More tests.

Maybe it would be like the passive strength and something that he could practice over time and address these weaknesses. Or maybe he was misreading the nub. What he needed to do was to squeeze out from under Ivey and confirm this for himself.

Even if he was right, the ability was worthwhile. It would let him armour part of his body well enough to deflect zombie claws. Would it help against a Hulk? Probably not. The force of those blows would do internal damage even if the claws were prevented from cutting, but against the sharp claws of the lesser ones it was good.

Ivey was cuddled against him. It was nice. Testing could wait till morning.

His plant alarms went off. One of his barriers was under assault.

Where?

He already knew.

The zombies must be attacking, but he did not understand why Priscilla had not warned him.

Through the conduit, his attention dropped to the men below. He had been hoping that nothing was going to wrong that night?

But this new world consistently said “stuff you” to hope.