“Two thousand pounds of concrete make one iron bird,” Dal said. He flopped down onto the couch, his t-shirt slicked with sweat and his arms scratched and covered with concrete dust.

“You moved a ton of concrete by yourself?” Samira asked.

Dal nodded slowly. “It’s not really all that much, when you think about it. A cubic feet of concrete is roughly a hundred and fifty pounds. I can hold at least three hundred in the wheel barrow, just took a few trips back and forth. Plus I didn’t go completely into the dungeon, just tipped it over in the first room like we did with the iron birds. I think as long as I keep a hold of the wheelbarrow, it won’t let try to absorb it. Of course, I had to make sure that fifty pound would create an iron bird, that did not happen. So I tried a hundred, and then a hundred pound increments after that. So technically its between one thousand nine hundred pounds and two thousand pounds.”

“Good to know,” Samira said. “You stink.”

“Thanks I needed to hear that. Really boosts my self esteem.”

“I wonder how much mana that little charm has?” Samira wondered. “Something magical surely has more mana than a mandane pile of steel or concrete.”

“Hey, that thing is worth more than its weight in gold pressed latinum.” Dal said. “It’s the first thing to save if there’s a fire and the last thing to protect if we get attacked.”

“Drama much?”

“Communication is the key to understanding and harmony.”

“Oh, I should tell you something,” Samira said.

***

“Oh, wow, they are just kids, aren’t they?” Dal said as Samira recounted her talk with Garran. “I guess you can’t really tell since they’re not human, but they’re just baby faced kiddos trying to find their way home.”

“Just lost like we are, but in a terrible climate.”

“We can build them a wood burning stove or something. I don’t think I’m totally capable to weld a Franklin stove for them, but there are some thick pieces of sheet metal in the metalshop.”

“I’m thinking something like this,” Samira said. She tapped a button on one of Grady’s laptops and a schematic appeared. It was from one of the many books Grady had stored on external hard drives, detailing all the ways to restart civilization after the apocalypse.

“What’s that?” Dal asked.

“A mass heater stove,” she responded. “Build a fire in one end, allow it to swirl in this big steel drum here, then the heat permeates this chunk of clay or whatever. Trapping the heat inside and allowing it to be slowly released over hours. It’s pretty good in the fuel efficiency department.”

“It’ll have to be on the south side of the warehouse, that sixteen by sixteen unit that we’re storing some building supplies in,” Dal said, peering at the image. We can punch a hole in the cinderblock wall here and allow about a third of the unit to be used for the mass heater.”

“Think we can do it?” Samira asked.

“Ask not what we can do, but what we shouldn’t do,” Dal misquoted.

“Well, in that case your little pet dungeon,” Samira smirked.

“Forget everything I’ve ever said,” Dal replied.

***

“We shall begin this morning,” Garran said, behind him Lokkan and F’darr looked miserable. They were huddled up in their blankets and sweaters, while Garran only wore a simple black hoodie under his armor. “High Mother Samira wishes to know if there are any of peoples out there. We shall go to the river and then we shall head north. We shall return with what game or treasures we find.”

Garran’s and the others had arrived from the south. The mountains lay to the west and they were trapped by the river to the east. Boats and ships did no exist in their desert world; so they had been forced to keep moving, hoping to find a way to cross.

It had been the evening of the second day when they had seen the sun glint off the glass of the storage warehouse. Once morning came, they had decided to see what it was.

Garran had thought it was a small village, an odd one, but not to different from the colony villages in his world.

“I cannot wear this blanket and shoot my bow at the same time,” F’darr said.

“Oh, we can maybe adjust it for you,” Samira said. She had a seamstress’ measuring tape in and was measuring the young warrior. The K’thari, as Garran said they were called, where a thin and long limbed reptilian people. Their scales went from a dark green along their legs and stomachs to a light green across they chests and face.

Dal figured they were an early bronze age people, as their knives were obsidian and the only metal they had were the arrowhead and crossbow bolts. They were thrilled about the metal items they had been given, especially the hunting knife.

If they were staying with them long term, Dal thought about what he could do for their armor. As it was, only Garran wore any kind of armor, a cuirass that reached down to his waist and seemed to be from some kind of chitinous shell. He had thought it was some laminate armor, but upon closer inspection is was the shell of some kind of insect.

Dal shuddered at the thought of something so big scurrying around.

Although he had hoped to delve more into their history and world; it seemed they had decided Samira was boss and were quick to do her bidding. From what Dal had heard, they came from a matriarchal society, the High Mothers leading and the Low Mothers making babies. Then there were the Priests and Warriors, the former celibate in their daily lives and the latter out to make names for themselves and father the next generation.

Dal watched as they prepared for their scouting. He wanted to go with them, to see the world, but as Samira had said; they’re professionals and they would determine how dangerous the world is outside. It felt as if Samira was holding him back, babying him. He was a grown ass man and could do what he wanted.

Then again, the tales of creatures the small party had seen, escaped from, or killed was enough to calm Dal’s wanderlust. It wasn’t as if in the old world he was hell bent on going out to see the world. It had been work, his apartment, and his games. Occasionally he would visit a friend, but as the years since his leaving college, that group had shrunk down to two others who had also dropped out of college.

There was a lot to do in the warehouse. Supplies still needed to be organized and the dungeon core still needed to be fed and experimented with. Concrete seemed to be the best option, in terms of waste product. Although a ton of concrete for twenty five mana didn’t seem worth it. He had to figure out a way to understand the core, perhaps even communicate with it.

He had six redstones and twelve bluestones, along with a hundred mana. If he cashed in bluestones, he could have enough to to make two purples, which would give him two additional Perks. Although there was a myriad of options, Dal was looking toward half dozen different Perks that dealt with magic and mana.

Magic Sense 1

Mana Crafting 1

Core Crafting 1

Mana Infusion 1

Arcane Knowledge 1

Mana Basics 1

The description on all six were a bit vague, but Dal was betting that they would help in his attempt to heal the core. Dal was about to cash in three bluestone when he stopped and nearly smacked his head against the desk.

“Oh, hey, before you leave. Anyone want to trade for some bluestones?” he asked. “I have four I can trade.”

Lokka immediately jumped forward, nudging F’darr out of the way. “I do,” he said, slapping down his four redstones. Dal jerked back a bit at the aggressive moment.

“Okay, cool,” Dal said. He set his four down and obtained Lokkar’s four. Garran was watching Lokkar, his eyes narrowed. Samira also seemed upset by Lokkar’s action. Was he missing something? Dal wondered. He took the redstone and with them formed two purple stones.

He did manage to save at least two hundred mana with the trade. With that done, Dal hesitated before making his big purchase.

Magic Sense 1

Four purples were deducted and Dal pulled out the translator charm. He set it on the desk and stared at it, waiting for something to happen. As the trio left and Samira said she would look into figuring out the trio’s clothing options, Dal continued to try and see what was up with the Magic Sense.

It was a different sense, Dal realized after a long while.

Knowledge Seeker: 2 bluestones

Dal grinned. It wasn’t visual or physical, but Sal could ‘see’ the glow coming off the magical charm. He sat at the desk and concentrated on the charm. It took several efforts, but Dal figured that he had to focus but not really focused, see, but not see. It was convoluted and strange, but he could feel the magic coming off the charm. It was a soft glow that seemed to rise and fall as if it were breathing.

“That’s cool,” he said. As he spoke the charm glowed just a tad brighter. “Okay, so it seems the charm just works all the time, regardless if there is anyone around for it to translate.” As he spoke the charm’s glow seemed to hum with his voice.

Dal brought out his smart phone. He set the speaker and began playing some K-pop to the charm. What he heard was English. Dal sat back and laughed. He moved the music onto some Spanish ballads, an anime he had downloaded, and a subtitled German TV show. All of it were translated to English.

“How?” Dal wondered. He raised the volume of the phone and it ten feet away from the charm. He could still hear the translation activating, as the music from the phone came out in English. He set the phone twenty feet away and it still worked, as long as he could hear the music; it was translating.

Samira wandered back into the office and shook her head as reggaeton blasted from Dal’s phone.

“Hold right there,” Dal shouted. “Are you hearing Spanish or English?” Dal asked.

“Spanish. Why?”

“Step forward at one foot increments,” Dal said.

“What are you doing?” Samira asked as she took a step. Then another and another. She stopped. “I’m hearing English now.”

Dal took out a tape measure and strung it out to her. “Fifteen feet,” he said. “This Charm has a radius of fifteen feet so anyone within that area will be translated. As long as you’re within that area and can hear, then it’ll be turned to the language you use most common.”

“So I guess we’re both English speakers, then?” Samira asked.

“My Korean’s pretty bad,” Dal admitted. “Third generation here.”

“So you’re testing out the charm?” Samira asked, turning off the phone.

“Yeah,” Dal said. “I purchased the Magic Sense Perk and I can see the charm ‘glowing’ as I speak.” Dal paused. “You have your phone on you?”

“Yes,” Samira said warily.

“Hold on,” Dal ducked into the Employees Only area and came out with a the tablet and two music players. “Grady’s music playlist is a lot of Gaelic, German, and oddly Mongollian folk music. What foreign languages do you have on your phone?”

“Uh, I’ve got some Arabic music,” Samira said.

“Cool, blast that. I’ll blast Grady’s music and then you also shout something to me in French. My phone’s got Spanish covered.”

“What’s this supposed to test?” Samira asked.

“How much it can translate, of course. You’ll need to also tel me if you can hear the translations when I shout at you in Korean,” Dal said. He set up the music players and laptop.

“Now!” Dal shouted over the music.

“How much for a baguette?” Samira shouted. “Where is the bathroom? Why do you need to see my passport?”

“How is university!” Dal shouted back. “You need to work harder if you want to succeed.”

Meanwhile the other devices played songs about green meadows, the might of warriors, sweeping across the steepes, and… Spanish and Arabic.

Dal raised up a hand and grinned. “Five languages at one,” he said. Suddenly he could hear the Arabic as Samira stopped speaking. A call to prayer, of peace. He stopped speaking and could also hear the Spanish, a song about clubs, fast cars, and women.

“Oh, its five always,” Dal added. “When one language stops, another starts.” Dal turned off the devices and peered at the charm of metal, bone, and beads. “This. All that from this.” He shook his head.

“Even modern day computers and translators can’t keep up,” Samira said. “You also hear that its translating slang?”

“Slang?”

“Yeah, that reggaeton is mostly in slang. I’m pretty fluent in Spanish and half of it was beyond me. Guess I’m not hip anymore,” Samira sighed.

“How?” Dal demanded looking at the charm. “This is crazy.”

He sat down stumped.

“Well, this was fun. Let’s do something even more fun.”

“Huh?”

“We need clay and a lot of it. You promised to make the mass heater for our guests.”

“But the charm.”

“Can wait. It’s not going anywhere. Come on, we’re burning daylight here.”

***

“Stop, stop,” Dal said, scrambling into the hole Samira had dug. His sneakers splashed into the cold creek. The only exposed source of clay they had found was in the creek north of the warehouse.

Digging out clay was difficult work, therefore they alternated time digging. Dal had been sitting on a mound of dirt, machete in hand when he ‘felt’ something. Samira and been digging and that had dislodged something. Something with magic.

“What’s going on?” Samira asked, reaching for her shotgun.

“No danger,” Dal said, digging his hands into the cold mud. Samira stepped back and kept and eye out for danger regardless. She had resigned herself not to wonder out loud what he was up to, his brain was running around after answers to questions Samira wasn’t all that incline to ask.

“Here!” Dal pulled out a small speck of something. He hissed and tossed it aside, the speck of material landed on the mound Dal had been sitting on. Samira leaned over and looked at it.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but its magic,” Dal said, peering at his hands. “It shocked me when I was holding it.”

“Stranger danger,” Samira said. “No one likes dirty young men putting their hands all over them.”

Dal scoffed and clamored out of the hole. He peered at the speck, it was the size of a fingernail and translucent. Yet it seemed to glow in his magic sense. He took a multitool from his pack and gingerly picked up the shard.

“I think its like a mana crystal,” Dal said.

“Like what we get?” Samira asked.

“Maybe a more raw form,” Day said. He summoned his mana crystals and lay them side by side. Form his pack he also took out a magnifying glass.

“We were digging up clay, why did you bring that stuff?” Samira asked.

“Never know when you’ll need it.” Dal studied the two crystal and shrugged. “Its like looking at smoky quartz and glass. But they’re both giving off that mana magic glow.” Dal pointed to the small speck. “This is actually brighter, like maybe twice as much. Do you have any mana?” he asked.

Samira sighed and handed him the three hundred mana she had. Dal absorbed it and then added his own to the new crystal. He tilted his head, squinted his eyes, and used the magnifying glass on it again, reabsorbing and foreign another crystal.

“Three hundred and twenty five mana,” he said. “If we’re going by crystal brightness.”

“What does that mean?” Samira asked.

Dal shrugged. “Who knows, but it seems there is mana crystals in them hills,” he said in an atrocious accent. “White gold, New World Tea.”

“Alright, easy there Jed Clampett,” Samira said. “We have clay to get first.”

“But magic.”

“We have magic at home!” Samira said loudly.

Dal chuckled.

“Also, give me back my three hundred mana.”

Dal sighed.

****

“There is some sand over there,” Samira said. “And we have several backs of cement ready to be used. I mean we can take the water straight out of the creek, but we’d have to boil it and filter it. If we can make a filter that’ll keep some of the worst stuff out, bacterial that is.

“There’s a lot of survival info in those books Grady left behind,” Samira continued. “We should make it a priority to read up on them.” Samira sighed. “Are you listening to me, Dal?”

Dal looked up from where he was sifting the creek bed contents. The water was cold, Samira knew that, but Dal was nearly soaked through as he was panning the water for more mana crystals.

“This is a really great thing,” Dal said. “If there are mana crystals in the water, that could mean there is a sort of mana crystal vein, right? Like gold or other metals.”

“Old world logic,” Samira said. “For all we know, it falls from the sky. Like those lights we saw.”

Dal paused at that. “That was a lot of magic, a lot of mana,” he muttered. “Perhaps this is what’s left over from those beam lights.” He paused again. “But then how were they in the ground? Clustered at the base of the creek rocks?”

“We felt that blast of light and air when that beam hit far out from us,” Sabina said. “That magic didn’t seem to care about windows and walls, plus it didn’t damage any of it. Maybe those mana crystals are just residue left behind, like some kind of coffee stain ring.”

“It would have a distinct shape to it,” Dal said. “In fact if would probably be at the edges of the jagged circle that was brought here. But these mana flakes seem to be up and down the creek.” Dal sat down on the muddy bank. He had brought gloves and now held a small fleck of mana crystal, peering at it as if it would answer his questions.

“How much do you think you have now?” Samira asked.

“If we go by the brightness test, about two thousand mana,” Dal said.

“Not bad for four hour’s work.” Samira said. “Most of it was digging up clay anyway.”

“‘As long as it doesn’t interfere with the work we’re doing’,” Dal muttered, quoting Samira’s ultimatum about mana crystal panning.

“I swear you’d run off into the woods chasing the next wild idea you have,” Samira said. “Come on, we still have plenty of work to do. You can play with the mana and the dungeon after dinner.”

“I see why Garran is calling you High Mother,” Dal said. It was followed a moment later by a shriek as Samira threw cold mud into his face with her shovel.

***

“How this cold, miserable, too green place harbors such an abundance of game, I do not know,” Garran said as the trio returned before sunset. They all looked weary and cold, but in high spirits.

The trio had arrived as they finished piling a decent mound of wet clay by the garage doors. Lokkar and F’darr had a carrying pole stretched between them and on it was a creature that looks like a hairy crocodile, with horns. It was short legged, long tailed, and covered in thick fur. Garran had half a dozen rabbits across his back.

Meanwhile, Samira and Dal had taken one of the steel drums from the metal shop, cut the top off and made a makeshift chimney for it. They built up a fire by the back door and brought out the grills, with Samira taking up the tongs to grill up a feast.

The hairy croc’s meat was a bit gamey, but Dal thought it was delicious as he hadn’t had real meat in a while. He had taken the opportunity make to some simple flatbread from the flour they had. The trio hadn’t liked beans, but they took to bread easily enough. Dal wondered if they would accidentally poison one another one of these days. It was already odd enough they could eat human food, seeing as they were technically aliens who grew up on a world with a completely different biology. Unless those Dirty Dozen had only made it so that similar worlds were brought together.

Since the bread was a hit, Dal was already planning on make biscuits, french bread, and yeast rolls. All the carbs anyone could want. Maybe he should devote his life to baking, not knowledge seeking.

“We traveled eight thousand strides to the river,” Garran reported. “Then we turned upstream for another twenty thousand. Upon return, we cut through the woods for about another twenty thousand strides.”

Dal chewed on his BBQ and did the math. “That’s nearly twenty seven miles,” he said. “Along the way you had time to hunt?”

“The land is rough, but it is passable,” Garran said. “There are plenty of game and creatures that mean harm, but they cannot stand against our new powers. Those that we cannot fight, we fled.”

“Is it pretty bad out there?’ Samira asked.

“Without the High Mother’s shelter and the tools given to us, we would probably be dead by now,” F’darr answered. “Decisions are easier to make when you know you have a place to rest for the night and it is not desperation that drives you.”

“Well said, sister,” Garran preened. “My brother and sister are to thank for this meal. Without Lokkar’s wall this creature would have escaped. Without F’darr’s skill, it would have been far harder to kill.” Lokkar had a proud look on his face while F’darr only grinned. “We are finding cohesion better than we did before,” Garran continued. “I hit, F’darr shoots, Lokkar protects.”

“All you need is a healer,” Dal said.

“The White Goddess has only blessed me with two siblings,” Garren said, chewing contently upon a rib.

“Samira’s a Nurse,” Dal said. “Hasn’t had much use for it lately. Plus she’s a Hunter.”

The trio turned to her as one.

Samira stopped as she set down a pot of Mac and Cheese. “What?” she asked.

***

“I’m a home body,” Dal said.

It was becoming a ritual for the pair to sit on the third floor before they turned in. Although they had not seen a light as bright as two nights previous, they could occasionally see some distant flicker, like lightning.

They settled in on their chairs and had their binoculars at the ready. On this occasion they also had some warm beer and pretzels to enjoy. “Plus I want to figure out that charm and see about collecting more mana crystals. Carefully, of course.”

“I don’t think I should do this,” Samira said. She twisted a napkin in her hand, then slowly began to tear it to pieces.

“They think of you as the leader here,” Dal said, leaning back in his chair. “High Mother and all that. I think its something that’s culturally engrained in them. You’re the eldest here and female, so you’re the leader.”

“Thanks,” Samira said blandly. “Truthfully, I want to go with them. I want to see what lies beyond our little plateau.”

“Hopefully people or others who know about magic and how to use it,” Dal said. He had the translator charm and could still see the slight glow to it.

“More people, more mouths,” Samira said.

“If the trio can hunt like they’ve just did, then we might be able to survive for a long while.”

“There’s still a lot of work to do,” Samira said. “The mass heater, for one. More organizing, we’ll need to begin cutting down trees to make a wood stockpile soon. We’re already out of charcoal and it takes a lot of wood to just boil water.”

“Yeah,” Dal said. “But we also need information more.”

“So you want us to scout up the creek?” Samira asked, a grin on her face.

“That obvious?”

“You’ve got a one track mind. We’ll see if it’s safe and then you can join us on the next outing. Maybe find this mana vein.”

“Like clockwork,” Dal said, gesturing.

To the east they could see a beam of light coming down from the heavens. It was narrower than the last beam and further out. The backlash barely ruffled them and there was only a distant boom of what sounded like thunder.

“It’s still happening,” Samira said. “How long do you think it’ll keep going on?”

“It’s been almost a week,” Dal said. “Maybe it takes a while to bring in chunks of other worlds.”

“Bits and pieces of some other world are just being dumped on this one,” Samira said. “If there are civilizations out there, then this will probably be causing them a massive mess too.”

“The Dirty Dozen,” Dal said. “Screwing up whole worlds for the LOLs.”