Chapter 14

Daniel turned around to look at the latest addition to their collective group. Ivey thought this man was a threat as well. “Some magpies attacked.” Daniel told him. “I’m upgrading our defences.”

Alex, the middle-aged man, studied what Daniel had been doing. “You’re the one who built all that stuff in the stairwells and links between the floors.”

“He’s the only reason you’re alive,” Ivey interrupted, stepping forward protectively. Daniel felt like grabbing her. He did not need protection. However, Ivey was smarter than that and was sending a signal that everyone was behind him..

Alex’s hands went up in the classic calm down gesture. “I’m not causing trouble. My family is alive because of your intervention and we pay our debts.”

“Good, make sure you…”

“Ivey!”

“What!”

“Alex hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“Yet,” Alex quipped with a grin.

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Not helping.” Though that was a bit of a lie, he saw Ivey relax in response.

“So, where can we help?”

“I assume you’re all fighters?” Daniel asked.

“Yes. I’m a tank and Mary, wife did the same.” Alex chuckled. “Wish we had a chance to communicate before we had to select, but we both had the same idea. The kids were at home and we wanted to protect them. Cindy is a life drain healer,” he waved at Finigan’s prior owner. “She drains health off enemies or allies to keep people alive.”

“Usually myself.” Cindy called out.

“Yes, if she has a choice, she tortures herself, rather than others. Then we have Debbie my middle kid, who is an ice mage. She was critical against octopod and you’ve seen her magic and Michael my son who is a movement based melee fighter.”

“What does that mean?” Daniel asked.

“He has a blink spell and a lot of skills to let him hit things harder.” Alex told him simply.

Daniel nodded at that. “You all sound useful. There are two floors of zombies above us.”

“Ferals,” Luke reminded him.

“Feral mutated humans,” Ivey corrected.

“Mainly Zombie elites,” Daniel continued with a grin, emphasizing the zombie bit.

“Elites?” Alex asked.

“More powerful versions than normal.” Daniel answered him. “We want to clear them out, so you should join the teams. Luke’s in charge.”

“And then?”

“Fight downwards. Claim the tower, save everyone nearby, establish a settlement and hopefully contact the wider world. Providing we are not the last humans in the city that is.”

“I guess I’m willing to get on board helping with all that.”

Daniel gave the unknown man a flat stare. “It’s not optional.”

Alex threw up his hands, then chuckled to himself.

“Why are you laughing?”

“At this.” Then the man trailed into silence.

“What’s this?”

Alex came up to him. He did not feel at all threatened, but he could feel Priscilla tensing. She was a lot more suspicious than he was. The man leant down right to his level. “Paranoia is good, showing it is bad.”

“Is that right?” Daniel said equally quietly back. Everyone in the room was looking at them speculatively.

“I won’t undermine you,” Alex whispered. “If you’re doing something stupid, I’ll approach you privately.” He stepped back and Priscilla relaxed. “So thanks for saving my family,” he said loudly. “I’ll do everything I can to help. I owned and ran a chain of restaurants. I’m good at organising people and logistics. My wife’s an accountant and she can also help with coordination as well, plus we’re all fighters.”

“And his lovely oldest daughter is a civil engineer.” Cindy said from the entrance to the kitchen. Cindy was staring at what he had built across the window space. “Daniel, what are you doing?”

“Protecting us from magpies.”

She came and sat on the ground next to him, touching the barrier that he was creating. “Your magic is fascinating. Nature magic? Animal, plant,” she listed. “Can you heal as well?”

Daniel shook his head.

“No matter, it’s still incredible. What are you trying to achieve?”

“I want an obstacle that will stop birds from attacking anyone in the room, but still let air in when we need it.”

Cindy stood up and traced her finger along the struts of wood that he was growing on what was temporarily a single giant leaf. “How does the leaf help?”

“It lowers the cost of the magic. Later today, I’ll get rid of it.”

“This is the end design?”

“Yep. I figured I’d make it just like a jail cell.”

“A web might work better.”

Daniel looked at her in surprise.

“I’m a civil engineer. There’s a reason spiders use that design. Given what I’ve seen flying around outside, you want it flexible in case something large runs into it. So springy wood to absorb the energy and then throw it back.”

Daniel shut his eyes and focused on painting lines on the leaf with the least amount of energy as possible. Nothing changed structurally, but when he opened his eyes, the darker imprint of the web was perfectly visible.

“Wow.” Cindy squeezed his arm. Then she stood up and started pointing out changes in the design. Moving the angles and then getting him to put thin struts in place at other spots. “And thicken the radial lines.” She ordered, indicating the strings that went out to the corners.

“What wood are you using?”

He focused and grew a small strip of wood that was the thickness of a cooking skewer, before handing it to her

She bent it one way, then the next.

Crack.

It broke. Cindy was smiling. “That’s perfect.” She jumped up. “You can halve the thickness here.” She pointed to another spot. “And here.”

Daniel concentrated, and the web reorganised itself. Cindy stepped back and examined it all. She stuck her tongue out in concentration. “Perfect,” she declared.

“Great,” Daniel stood up. With her new design, she had cut the amount of mana he needed by almost thirty percent. “I’m done.” He had the last bite of his breakfast. “What?” he asked because everyone was looking at him.

“Is that it?” Cindy inquired. “It doesn’t look finished.”

“Umm. Yeah, it sort of is. From this point onwards, it’ll construct itself. Five to six hours of sun and it’ll be complete.” He shrugged. “Someone needs to keep the water topped up.” He looked meaningfully at Cirano one of the middle-aged cooks.

Cirano nodded confirmation. “We’ll keep it watered. But,” the man licked his lips. “Would it hurt to let in some light?”

Daniel spun back and touched his construction and along the roof three long rectangles appeared that were free of the dense green material. Light streamed into the room.

Cirano stood there with his hands on his hips the bar of sunlight sprayed across his face. “Not quite as nice as before.”

“But better than being attacked by magpies.” Tamara said. There was laughter around the room.

Daniel looked at the mage who waved at him and smiled almost shyly. He could see that she wanted to talk to him and suspected it would be about the orphanage kids. “I need to get going.” he said, standing ready to address one crisis at a time. While he did not regret stealing an hour with Ivey in the morning, it certainly meant that he had less time to finish what needed to be done right now. “Anyone need to speak to me?”

It felt like everyone in the room stood up at the same time and started talking. Daniel froze, looking from one person to another. “You all want me?”

There were nods. He assessed the crowd. Half a dozen of them were fighters. Ivey, he knew what she wanted, the same with Tamara. “Luke’s in charge of clearing the floors above. Priscilla will help. I’m not available for the fight.” The fighters immediately started filing out of the room. Tamara looked torn. “Go help with the fighting. It’ll be useful having some extra veterans involved. We’ll catch up after lunch,” he assured her. “In the meantime, can you look after Priscilla.” Tamara nodded and hurried after the other fighters. “Now” he turned around and pointed.

Cirano gulped. “I don’t want to waste your time, but a few of us thought we should go upstairs. Consolidate food.”

“Good idea,” Daniel interrupted. “Coordinate with Luke. He’ll let you through and lend some fighters to protect you through. There shouldn’t be any threats up there.” The next person who caught his eye was one of Beau’s sidekicks. “What?” he couldn’t help himself his voice went icy.

“I’ve set up a room for smithing, but I’m going to need help.”

“With what?”

“Well, I don’t have any fuel.”

In the old days, coal and similar fuel were used to increase the heat of forges, but they weren’t getting any of that. However, there were other options in this new world. “Can fire magic be used?”

The smith nodded. “If they’re strong enough.”

He remembered the fire mage and the inferno he had unleashed versus the termites. “Would a level fifteen fire mage have sufficient oomph?”

“Yes.”

“Well, we have at least two dedicated fire mages after lunch. They should be free. Have a chat and see if they can help.” His eyes fell on the second of Beau’s side kicks. The plant mage. Daniel smiled. “You ready to work?”

The man nodded. “Now that we’re going to survive.”

“Get everything prepared. I should have a couple of hours in the afternoon.” The man deflated. “You need to go with the cooks. Grab some help. Probably set up something in the apartments. Pots, water, organise it all.” the man gulped.

“Will do.”

“Food’s important. Plus, Cirano and Judy are going to want to have input in what we grow.” Judy was their second chef, a lovely older lady.

Daniel turned to the last person waiting, which was Cindy. “And?”

She grinned confidently. “I was hoping to discuss your traps. I’ve heard a lot about them and I might have some ideas about improvements.”

“Later today. I’ve got an errand to run first.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

He looked around, but no one else seemed to be waiting to speak to him. “Ivey lets go.”

They hurried out. It was finally time to work out what was in the chest. Of course, Daniel already had seen some of it, but without an identification skill he could not see if what was in the case was junk or something important. They got to the stairwell before everyone else and with Ivey’s white light illuminating the space they started climbing.

At floor thirty, they left the stairwell and went up the vine stairwell he had built to the next level.

“Cindy likes you.”

Daniel stumbled as he misjudged a step-in response. He turned to face Ivey.

She had a teasing look on her face. Then she curled her finger through her hair. “I was hoping to discuss traps with you…” she said, doing a more than a passable parody of Cindy’s voice. “You should definitely see if there is anything more than surface attraction.”

“I’m not interested.”

“Bah.”

“And you’re really going to be stepping in as my wingman?”

“Girl,” she corrected absently. “I’m not invested either way, but if you want to, she can be yours… you just need too… you know… talk traps with her.” Ivey laughed uproariously.

“Does this mean I need to return the favour and try to set you up with someone?”

“No.” Her head shook vigorously. “That would be weird.”

“Weird, hey.”

“Yep.” He looked at her and she kept walking up the steps completely oblivious to the double standards.

With a shrug, he took a couple of quick steps to get ahead of her. While there was supposed to be nothing threatening, it was his job to meet it if there was. Plus, he wanted to know what was actually in the chest.

Chapter 15

It was a long trip up to floor forty-three where the chest was.

“So who is prettier, Cindy or Tamara?” Ivey teased

“She has a boyfriend.”

“Tamara then.”

“Let it go.”

“Why would I do that?” She laughed. “Plus, you’re not the type to bury your feelings. Ask her.”

“Ask her? How am I supposed to do that?” Daniel said in exasperation. “Tamara, do you want to go to the movies? Oh, that’s out. Dancing? None of that either. How about a restaurant? No, there aren’t any of them left.”

“The last one works. Judy will make you something special and I’m sure I can get volunteers to act as a server. There will be some fine wine or champagne that we can scavenge from an apartment. Pick a clean room and get Chua to give it a one over. Make sure it has a view of the CBD, you can make a fancy table and chairs. A girl would swoon.”

“Boyfriend.”

“Jayden,” Ivey wrinkled her nose. “I used to like the guy, but even then I didn’t think that those two were a long-term prospects.”

“They travelled here together.”

Ivey stopped suddenly and pulled him to a halt. “People break up. We’re in an apocalypse. A relationship that worked in the old world won’t necessarily work now.”

“I just…”

“Stop being a pussy.”

“You can’t say that.” Daniel objected.

“Tamara’s interested. Stop being noble… or get with Cindy a bit of jealously might make Tamara take matters into her own hand. Yeah, given your sensibility, that’s probably the best way forward.”

“I’m not doing that.”

Ivey laughed. “I know. I’ve been in your head. You’re not that type or I would never have suggested it.”

They walked in silence. He could not tell what Ivey was thinking, but his own thoughts turned to Jayden. With that mind control ability he had, there was no way Tamara was taking matters into her own hands.

Daniel remembered Beau.

The swinging legs. It had been the right decision then and for Jayden? If he put aside the whole Tamara complication. What he was doing was worse, wasn’t it?

They arrived on the last floor. Daniel’s glanced askance at the pile of human bodies. They weren’t looking at him anymore. He did not know why he had reacted the way he had the previous night. Ivey went straight past them into the room with the chest and threw it open.

Her eyes gazed over the contents.

“Well?” he asked, unable to help himself.

Ivey’s eyes went unfocused, and he noticed she started touching the items and moving them around. She put her hand down and pulled. What he had thought was just part of the box and providing support to display the stones opened up and revealed a variety of tools. “It’s good.” Her voice was quiet and focused. “More than I expected. I think the system has adjusted for our circumstances.”

“And?” he asked expectantly.

She pointed at the rocks that had perplexed him earlier. “These are memory stones. They give a mixture of spells and profession skills. All basic, but everything helps.”

“Like what?” While he loved his lightning, throwing fireballs seems pretty awesome.

“Five professions,” Ivey told him. “Two stones for each.”

“Which?”

She looked annoyed at the interruption. “Leatherworker,” she pointed, “Tailor, blacksmith, chef and,” she smiled, while pointing toward the last one. “Enchanting.”

“Like proper, I learn it and I can make a sword give two plus strength.”

“Yep, primarily enchanters use cores to create magic.”

“That’s amazing, I want,” he went to grab one, but Ivey slapped his hand.

“What?”

“You can’t use them.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course,” her voice went waspish.

Daniel grabbed the enchanting stone, then looked questioningly at her.

“They are not delicate,” she admitted.

“How do I use it?”

“I’ve already told you they rely on functional interfaces to work. You don’t have the required part.”

“Really?”

Ivey’s eyes were going over the various stones in front of her. She was frowning slightly.

“What are those?” There were ten of them as well, and then a third pile of ten.

“Combat spells and fighting techniques.”

“Can we use them to convert non-combat classes?”

“Yes.” Ivey’s hands settled on one of the spell stones. “Unfortunately, they’re all basic.” She raised the stone to her head, and it glowed and Daniel watched it dissolve away in her hand.

Curiously, he mimicked her behaviour, raising the enchanter stone to his forehead. Nothing happened, just like Ivey had said. “What spell?”

“A shield spell. Basic is not powerful but has niche occasions when it will be useful.”

“Like?”

“Small insects, poisonous gas, spider webs.” She giggled.

“That…”

“Oh yeah. Everyone knows you got tangled.”

“What about the weapons?” Daniel inclined his head towards the last items in the box.

“Basic, most of them have small attribute gains.”

“Something for me?”

She shook her head.

“You’re kidding me.”

“You can use the weapons, but you won’t get the attribute gains. I think these are for you and Dave.” She pulled out two daggers. They were long and ended at a sharp point.

“What do they do?”

“They’re sharp.”

“That’s it?” he raised his eyebrows in shock.

“They’re good blades,” Ivey said defensively. “They’re common quality like everything else but instead of an attribute bonus they have a sharpness enchantment.”

Daniel took one of them and they looked sharp. He used it on the floor and it cut through the carpet effortlessly and scored the concrete underneath. It definitely cut easier than any weapon he had ever used. That made him feel a little happier.

“You grabbing anything else personally?” he asked her. “Maybe something to help you fight.”

She hesitated. Then shook her head. “I’m a healer, not a fighter. My mana is better spent on saving someone’s life. Let’s take the memory stones down with us and send someone else to collect everything else.” She nodded at the backpack Daniel carried.

Daniel did as encouraged and started packing them.

“How do you want me to use them?” she asked finally.

Daniel quirked an eyebrow at her.

There was a long pause. She flushed. “I’m not always bossy.” Daniel stayed silent. “I think we should give them to non-combatants to turn them into fighters.”

“Will that make them as good as the specialised classers?”

Ivey laughed. “Not even close. They’re sort of what you would get at level one.”

“Okay.”

“You want to do something different don’t you.”

“Maybe,” he admitted.

“We need more fighters. Anything else is dumb.”

Daniel shrugged.

“Is one of them staff or spear fighting?”

“Sure, take one for your non girlfriend.”

“And for Luke.”

“Nepotism? Favouring the people you’ve known longer.”

“Of course. Everyone else is only alive because of those first guys.”

“Fine, they can get something, but spear fighting won’t help Luke. He’s already got that from his class.”

“We need more…”

“We need everything.” Daniel interrupted, knowing she was going to say fighters. “Not just fighting.”

Ivey hesitated. “I thought your plan was to escape to the country?”

“It is… but.” Daniel trailed off.

“You’re thinking there’s no safety.”

Daniel shrugged. “I’m planning in case we’re stuck here for months.”

“We still require more fighters.” Ivey said mysteriously.

“Maybe,” Daniel agreed without yielding.

Ivey grabbed his arm. “What are you thoughts?”

“I need to think it through,” Daniel answered cautiously. “First any non-combatant classes currently fighting gets a stone, then volunteers who want to fight more and then the rest to the squad leaders.”

Ivey let him go and walked thoughtfully behind him. “Ok. That’s sensible.”

“The tool sets go to the existing experts, the professional stones to non-combat classes whose current skills are not being put to use but have been helping with manual labour around the place.”

“That makes sense.”

“I expected you to argue more.”

Ivey shrugged. “I’m not going to disagree just to get my way.”

“Sorry.”

She flashed him a smile to show she was not offended. “That you should be. What’s your plan for the rest of the day?”

“Get the moth traps functioning. Create more seed weapons. Plan that attack on the zombies. Deal with Jayden and inspire everyone in the community to work harder. Not much really.”

“I’ll take point on the last.”

“That’d be great.”

When they passed floor twenty-six, there were sounds of fighting coming through the open door. Daniel listened briefly, but there were no sounds of panic and then a small cheer.

“Priscilla is saying five more.” Tamara yelled and the exuberance that had bubbled out dropped off.

Ivey pushed him to keep going, and he did as instructed and went down to twenty-five.

“I’m going down to twenty-one if you can send down people with useful skills whose work is portable. That would be great. Only four to man the traps.”

“Is that all?”

“Yep. I’ll be back for lunch.” he called over his shoulder as he collected the failed seed weapons. While in the first attempt he had failed to initiate the process that transformed them, the materials were still there and with his new understanding he was confident that he could take the half-formed weapons and finish them.

He got down to twenty-one and spent a few minutes checking over the traps. Only four of them but it was for a proof of concept. The traps were in full working order and he would discuss with the volunteers on how to use them when they got down. He put in place a thin pin hole to allow them to see through the trap and identify when a moth had flown into it.

“Hello Daniel.” He jumped and turned to see Trudy coming toward him. He was surprised at her being selected. After all, she had a farmer’s class and there were not many farms going around.