With the vestibule area complete, I took an hour just to clear out the space within. My 'friends' quickly scattered back to their tasks when the prospect of more physical labor was brought up.

There had been an inordinate amount of stone spikes broken and set to the side from all the times I'd locked us in. Moving those out the western door and a ways from the more trafficked area took a fair bit of muscle. I hummed to myself as I planned the first project for the space, daydreaming of it while lugging the stone. I wasn't sure what use we could have for them, but at the very least I'd be able to use them as reinforcements to buildings if push came to shove.

Once those were out of the way, I used a flat head shovel to clear up the last remaining bits of grass inside the vestibule. What was left was an unnaturally smooth floor ripe with possibilities.

"Step one: Punch a hole in the wall," I said to myself. It was a funny thought that it was the first thing I planned to do with building, but it served a purpose.

I hefted my pickaxe and used the pointed end to mark off the eastern third or so of the vestibule. Then I picked a spot roughly at hip level and dug a wrist wide hole into the outside. With the hole in place, and smoothed out with the help of a smaller shovel and gentle taps of my pick, I raised the ground right in front of the hole.

The draw of my mana barely bothered me as I cast four times over a few minutes. The first two raised the floor to make a rough table that I smoothed out using the chisel head on the back of my pick. When I'd regenerated enough mana to cast the Skill again without discomfort, I consolidated the table. It wasn't at the degree of hardness that the walls or the floor had, but it was sturdier than the plastic counters inside the lobby room.

Once the shell of my workstation was complete, I carved out a deep cylindrical bowl with the top leveled just above hole I'd made. With that complete, I repeated the process on the opposite side of the wall. Instead of carving just a deep cylindrical bowl, however, I hollowed out the entire section. A half dozen trips with a bucket to the pond, and very confused looks from Ben, Sam and the cows, I had a trough of water filled. With the last two buckets, the water crested the hole and filled the basin inside.

It wasn't revolutionary, but it would make it easier to fill and have access to water within the vestibule for whatever I needed to work on. And the first thing I was going to work on would almost certainly require quenching.

I brought out a few chitin plates and laid them out on my work space. Unlike when I had first picked them up, the creature drop now gained a golden outline in my eyes.

It didn't surprise me that the hand sized pieces I'd selected all showed as Quotient 0. The bulk of what we had had come from the rat-sized insects. I'd been tempted to experiment with the larger pieces we'd gotten from the stronger ants, but getting the hang of infusing was more important than a piece that might be immediately helpful.

I pulled a handful of fire blobs from my pocket. The moment I set them on the workspace they nearly rolled into my basin. Grumbling all the while, I dug five divots into the stone. With the Infusions safely stored I focused on the chitin plate.

The material was perfectly smooth everywhere but the edges, which were ridged. It had a fair bit of give to it. I opted for a worthwhile experiment, so I sent a message out to my friends not to be alarmed.

I took the piece of any chitin outside and set it against the stone wall. Taking several steps back, I fired a shot from my pistol into the center of the plate. To my utter amazement, the piece of ant carapace stopped the bullet. There were several spidering cracks all along the body of it, but it still held up together when I bent it between my fingers.

Since I was already shooting for testing purposes, I put three bullets into the side of my magic-constructed vestibule. The stone took the blows fantastically well and only chipped a little bit.

After informing my friends through the comm that I was done wasting bullets, I patched up the wall and set the cracked chitin plate aside. No one said I couldn't start a new collection of stuff on the surface and technically the Infusion area would be sort of my office. With positive thoughts of building an actual office for myself at some point, I cast and flicked the unspools thread into a fresh chitin plate.

The plate thankfully didn't melt, but I used another gardening tool to push it into the basin. There was a hiss as it plopped into the water, but nothing quite as explosive or violent as the shovel's experimental infusion. With the rake I'd used to push it into the basin, I fished out the plate and scanned it over. Other than a seemingly random pattern of darker red veins along the outer surface, it was unchanged. The information on the plate also hadn't changed other than the name, which left me scratching my chin. It hadn't turned into an 'item' like the shovel had, but it also wasn't prompting for more Infusions.

"Curious..." I sent my friends another message while I took the Infused piece outside.

"Ronan, I just want you to be aware that the Bunker has a limited amount of ammunition. I'm aware I told you all not to be so restrictive with using the weapons at our disposal, but I didn't exactly mean this," Ben said.

"What are you even doing?" Danny asked. I heard her grunt, coinciding with the explosive sound of her Flame Burst Skill somewhere to the north.

"Infusing," I responded cryptically, opting to fire into the Infused Chitin Plate. My focus zeroed in on the piece of ant carapace as it flexed then the bullet pinged to the ground. Just for good measure I fired two more shots back to back into the material, but it just wobbled with the force. My enhanced Perception pointed something surprising out. There was a slight haze around the plate, somewhat similar but less intense than the one the Haze Wolf had generated when it attacked.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I heard Danny and Ben asking more questions. Instead of paying any mind to Ben's 'lecturing voice' and Danny's 'you are ignoring me again rock brain' speech, I picked up the chitin only to drop it again. It was scalding hot. I was no firearms expert, but I was fairly sure things that got shot didn't suddenly get hot like that. At the very least, not with a low caliber weapon. On a hunch, I went back inside the lobby and found the biggest hammer I could find. As it happens, it was a sledgehammer.

Like a proper scientist playing around with magic, I quenched the plate in my outside basin. After double checking that it was cool to the touch again, I laid it on the ground and wacked it as hard as I could. A gust of hot air blew past me as the sledge's head impacted the plate. When I touched it, the chitin was warm. I repeated the quenching-hit process a few times until I was fairly sure of my assessment.

"It's turning some of the force of the blow into heat..." I said to myself. Obviously there were a number of specifics I could test. What portion of the force would turn to heat, what the max threshold for force transference as well as how much abuse it could take overall. The sheer number of possibilities made my head spin. However, I needed to be realistic. The researchers downstairs got lost for weeks every time they encountered something while working on the Implants. That was not a luxury I had. Yet.

With the main effect of the Infused material at the very least identified, I decided to try one more thing. I left the plate on the ground and retrieved the pickaxe. Sam and Danny had teased me over the previous week about how I carried it everywhere, but I didn't mind. It was an odd thing to use as a weapon, that's for sure, but with my enhanced Strength and Perception I liked the flexibility it offered. One such offensive benefit made itself known when I hit the Infused Chitin Plate.

Instead of flexing like it had managed with the bullet and the sledgehammer, the pick side of my tool punched clear through the chitin. Oops.

My breath caught in my throat for a second when the heat released by the plate spiked, flash drying my mouth. The veins that had appeared on the chitin dulled before my very eyes and the heat blew away with the gentle breeze outside. I coughed and licked my lips in an attempt to get some moisture flowing. When that failed, I dunked my head into the outside trough of water.

"Note to self: Keep mouth closed when testing Infusions, material or item alike," I croaked. I'd only taken a little swig of the water in the trough, but it had done wonders for my throat. I tried not to think about the sheer amount of dirt and nastiness that was in the stagnant pond water.

I put the second broken plate next to my first and proceeded to infuse several more of them. The process was exhausting, as it drew my mana each time, but with each Infusion I could feel the strain lessen. I'd also felt something similar while using and . The only thing that seemed to remain somewhat equally exhausting was summoning the passive form of either of my Skills. Yet another thing to ask the Entity. If they know.

I was so lost in my thoughts, Sam's arrival went mostly unnoticed. When I dropped one of the plates in the basin and it hissed, he exclaimed in surprise and my focus finally landed on him. There was now a full stack of twelve plates on the right side of my workspace, plus the one cooling in the water.

"What the hell, Ron!" He asked, as he himself looked at the stack of enhanced chitin plates. "Are these all Infused?"

It would have been easy to point out how quickly my friend distracted himself from his outrage, but I was excited to share the results of my afternoon of crafting and experimenting. When I explained that for some reason the plate hadn't turned into an 'item' like the shovel had, but had instead remained a component, he'd been disappointed. At the mention that it somehow converted kinetic energy into heat to lessen blows, his excitement matched my own.

"We need to get more Infusions!" he said, motioning to my entire set up. "If there is even more magic effects like this, we've got to find them all. You think it will be consistent based on what you infuse?"

"Not sure. The heat the plate puts out is similar to the shovel, but I haven't tried to channel mana into it. I've only been hitting the plates and making more."

"Let me try. Shouldn't take long to check..." Sam drifted off as he grabbed hold of a chitin plate and summoned his Direct Skill magic circle. The veins on the plate brightened in response to the magic, but it didn't suck up the formation like the shovel had on activation.

We discussed possible causes for this. The simplest would be that the plate didn't respond to magic and only force, but we agreed that it was likely because it hadn't formed an item. There was no linked Attribute. Of course, we couldn't be sure why it hadn't turned into an item, or if items could present themselves in some other way, but we felt it was a reasonable assumption.

It was during this debate that Daniela practically manifested into the room. If my Perception hadn't increased, I wouldn't have noticed her approach at all before she ran into us. As it was, I barely had enough time to pull Sam out of the way. Danny stumbled into a roll and laid face up panting. Sam and I were immediately on alert. I grabbed my pickaxe and he pulled out the Infused Shovel from his pants.

"It's... all good... guys..." Daniela managed through ragged breaths. I didn't relax immediately since I spotted a red blur moving towards the entrance. When the shape stopped before the door I realized it was Anthony. The ant didn't look winded, but its legs were shaking.

"Daniela, what the hell?" I asked, setting down my pick and turning a glare at my friend.

"I... found something!" She didn't elaborate. Sam's frown turned into a glare. "Okay, okay. Geez, you two are so serious all the time. I found a road. An old asphalt road as far as I can tell."

A thrill of excitement flowed through me. There were traces of humanity left on the surface. Suddenly the urge to explore I'd been suppressing jumped to the surface. I would never want to do that alone like Danny, not with the dangers of the wild, but with my friends?

"Did you find anything else?" I asked. She flinched slightly and I made sure to tone down my intensity a bit.

"I saw some kind of building in the distance, but I didn't go much further out. I've been moving up and down fairly quickly down the game trail in the hopes of avoiding anything outside of the Entity's range. Based on what I saw, the game trail had to have been an old dirt road."

"You think that's what they used to get stuff over here to the Bunker?" Sam asked, taking a step back and helping her to her feet. Daniela absently pet Anthony when he nuzzled his mandibles against her leg. It looked like it should hurt, but she didn’t seem bothered while talking to us.

"It's possible. I haven't seen anything else that could have been a road and even I know it takes a whole bunch of resources to build something like this place." She gestured vaguely behind us and down, where the Bunker entrance was.

"You're not wrong. I saw them working on this place when I was still in school. The speed with which they built it made me a bit hesitant to actually join it, but it was a better option than being annihilated on the surface." The three of us turned to see a downcast Ben leaning on a full sized shovel. The shadow on his face could have been a result of the setting sun, but I doubted it. "I'll tell you all about it some day. I don't know if anyone other than your family, Elias and myself ever spent time at this site."

As if trying to change the topic, he pointed an accusatory finger at Sam. "You forgot to bring water. Just because we can use the pond water on the plants doesn't mean I can drink it!"

"Oh, sorry," he said sheepishly. The blond scratched the back of his head awkwardly and immediately used me to explain his distraction.

"All I did was share my wonderful results of testing magically enhanced materials. How could you not be enthralled?" I gestured with a grandiose sweep of my arm to the pile of chitin plates. In the process, I also turned enough to see a woman in her late forties glaring at us. I really need to install a doorbell or maybe some jingling bells on that Bunker door.

"You four didn't even deem it relevant to welcome me? Have you lot lost track of time or your specifically emphasized request to the mayor, Ronan?" Ava Holmes narrowed her eyes when she spotted her daughter and her pet ant. "I hope you've been feeding that thing properly."

I honestly couldn't be surprised by Ms. Holmes' response. Out of the people living in the Bunker, those I could imagine being the least impacted by returning to the surface included both of Danny's parents. Ava would just brush the whole deal off as another problem to deal with, while Juan would go with the flow to a frustrating degree. I couldn't wait to see the pair help us take the surface.

"Ah, Mama. We... weren't expecting you," Daniela said, straightening up more than Ben's shovel. Anthony swiveled his head left and right as he tried to reconcile the strong family resemblance of the two latinas. It was quite comical, since the poor ant looked thoroughly confused.

"Of course you weren't. And what is all this? I don't remember all this dark and gloomy cave nonsense last time I was above ground." Ava gestured at my stone vestibule. "Would it kill you to have some light in here?"

Straight for the jugular is it? I winced at her words.

"Give the kids a break, Ava. You should be damned pleased with the work they've done here. Now, how about we get you up to speed eh?" Ben said. I was surprised how quickly Teach had jumped in to defend us, but it emboldened me to respond as well. Only slightly though. I was still terrified of Ava.

"We needed more room, and there are dangerous creatures all around on the surface. Putting windows at this time would have compromised that."

She huffed but said nothing else. Instead, she cracked a smile and gave Danny a huge hug, kissing the top of her head. We were all a bit caught off guard, but Daniela responded as any of us would have. She immediately complained and tried to extract herself from her mother's embrace.

I suppose it's not how I would have reacted. No. Shake it off, Ron. No self deprecation now. There are things to prioritize. I proceeded to gesture everyone inside. Our little gathering had taken longer than I realized and the light of day was already fading. Sam, Ben and I sealed the wooden doors while Danny led her mom into the lobby space.

Somehow, there was already a fifth bunk space set up that hadn't been there before. When I looked at Ben, he gave me a cheeky smile. He'd known Ava was coming and didn't tell us.

"Ms. Holmes, are there any updates you can give us about the Bunker?" I finally asked as Danny roasted potatoes and tomatoes in a bowl. Her mother plucked one of the probably scalding vegetables and chomped on it. She didn't give any outward indications that she'd been burned.

"Nothing other than a community meeting today. People voted on whether they would want to come topside or not," she said casually. She also gave Danny an appraising look that I didn't know the meaning of. Her daughter couldn't have seen it as she was focused on using her magic to cook, but I hadn't missed it.

"What was the verdict?" Ben asked leaning forward on his crate-bed. We'd opted to start using the crates as chairs, and simply rolling up our bedding for the day. It was a nice way of having everyone gathering together for meals, and served as an impromptu 'round table' for important discussions.

"We only have five surface volunteers as of right now, myself included."

"People don't want to return to the surface?" Sam asked in confusion. Ben sighed loudly.

"It isn't that they don't want to come back to the surface. If I had to guess, it's more along the lines of them being scared. I pride myself on being fairly flexible," Ava snorted at Ben's comment and he pointedly ignored her. "But you need to remember that everyone in the Bunker is older than forty, other than you three. Life in the Bunker was incredibly boring, but it's incredibly safe. Up here? Not even remotely. The information we've made everyone aware of regarding your first trip up, as well as my own, sent many people running. Figuratively speaking."

My old teacher had a point. It was a point I hated, because it made sense and would inadvertently limit us. There was only so much we could expand, or would need to expand, if there were only a few of us. "It's not as much of a problem now. Mayor Barnes told me he thought they might not be able to make more than six implants at the moment, so getting more people on the surface wouldn't be possible."

Ava visibly winced. That couldn't have been good. "Please tell me there isn't more bad news," I said.

"It's not the worst, but we may have gotten a bit ambitious with our implant making. Elias and I felt confident enough to make one on our own while Alan worked on another. Sufficed to say, we are not nearly as good as Alan. I would expect two more at most."

I sighed. Loudly. The weight of responsibility I'd put on my shoulders grew slightly. We wouldn't have nearly as much help as I hoped for on the surface.

"It's alright, Ronan. We'll figure it out. We waited almost thirty years for this, it doesn't have to happen immediately," Ben said, rising and placing a supporting hand on my shoulder. Sam and Danny smiled at me. Daniela even gave me a thumbs up, like that's what I wanted to see.

"Did I miss something? I thought you would be the one making decisions, Ben?" Ava asked. She looked down right puzzled about the exchange.

"Mama, Ron has always been our leader. Sure he's kind of lazy and stubborn and honestly a little borked considering how he plays with magic," I sent a glare in her direction. "But he's not led us astray. Plus, I'd rather him be at the front when we get attacked. He's the one with stone skin."

"Stone... skin?" Ava seemed to do a double take and glanced intently at me. I have her a smirk and a shrug.

"That's a long story. I never intended to be a leader, but I can't shake these two off my tail." Sam punched me in the arm at that. "I never said I wanted to!"

We all laughed, and Ben added his own two cents. "This is not our world anymore, Ava. It is theirs. Ours is long gone, but we can hopefully help them build."

The mood sobered at that, and I was once again reminded that coming to the surface wasn't only a big change for me and my friends. The other Bunker members were survivors of Landfall. Their entire lives and families were gone. In a bid to change topics back to our original conversation, I asked the next most relevant question.

"Who agreed to come up?"

"That would be me and Juan, but he has to remain because they still need a cook, Dale, Alan and Emilio," Ava counted off on her fingers. "Elias wanted to come, but basically the entire population opposed that. So much for free will."

It didn't surprise me that my fa--uncle was among the volunteers. Not that his job wasn't essential, but with Sam subsidizing the food of the Bunker and Sam's father managing the waste treatment floor he should have been more than free to spend time on the surface. Being closer to me, regardless of what it took, was probably at the top of his list. That was a whole can of emotional worms I didn't want to open, but I knew my uncle would be invaluable on the surface. "Alan? And which Emilio, C or D."

"Cantero. He didn't even say anything, he just raised his hand when we asked who was willing to get the Implants to go topside," Ava shuddered. "He's like a ghost sometimes."

"He really is silent. One time, he came to request two water filters from me and he just stood there for thirty minutes, without calling out. I know, I checked the security cameras," Ben said.

"Right. As for Alan, he thinks being on the surface will let him push his research further. We agreed that he would get the last Implant he could make. So we will probably get two people or just him next time. Just in case there is a complication while making the Implants," Ava explained.

We ate in silence for several minutes. The only sound was the wet crunch of potato wedges and roasted tomatoes. Daniela had really outdone herself, even without any real seasonings. The meal managed to distract me enough from my emotions to formulate a plan moving forward. If people don't think the surface is safe, then all I have to do is make it safe. How hard could that be? I would have laughed out loud at that thought had my mouth not been full of starchy goodness.

The rest of the evening was spent running my plans by all of our growing surface members.