They followed Pete as he ran towards the kitchen area, the first thing they saw as they entered were all the available fighters clustered around the pantry door.

They pushed through the crowd and entered the pantry, it was part of the original building that Louie could not modify, so he had no idea what to expect.

The room was huge, about four by five metres, with shelves lining the walls, stacked full of all the non-perishable foods that they had to scavenge from what remained of the nearby stores and houses.

A section of the back wall of the pantry had swung open and behind it was visible what looked like stairs leading down into the ground

Just inside the pantry door, but to the side stood a stern no-nonsense-looking older gentleman.

He stood on parade rest facing the back of the pantry, but far enough to be ready if something were to attack through the doorway.

Louie saw that the armed bystanders were itching to enter the open doorway, but wasn't willing to face the wrath of the old man.

"Gilmer, what did you find?" Allet addressed the old man.

"Mother." He gave Allet a nod, "one of the kids found what looks like the entrance to the basement, but the door was already open, so I assume that someone found it and opened it from outside and went in, or that it was opened from the inside and something came out."

Louie cleared his throat and as they looked at him, he waved at the back wall.

"May I? I have a couple of Skills that might be able to tell us a bit more."

Allet nodded and Gilmer gave him a stern look before stepping back.

Louie activated his Skills , , and together with his Passive Skill , he also bent down to touch the floor as he used .

"Strange."

He noticed Gilmer tensed as he spoke, but ignored him as he studied the area in front of the hidden door.

A couple of things were immediately highlighted by his skills and jumped out at his senses.

The stacks of cans that were everywhere against the walls, except in front of the hidden door, were neatly packed to one side. The open wrapper of a Twinkie against the wall and the Wonder Woman doll that was carefully placed behind a giant can of canned peaches also looked out of place together with the barely visible smudged handprint that gave Louie a clear picture.

He removed the doll and handed it to Allet.

"The door was opened from this side, probably by a young girl that discovered it while she had sneaked in to nab a Twinkie. all the cans had been moved to the side so the door could easily open and the doll was placed in such a way that it would act as a lookout, how she found the door is a mystery however."

He took a deep breath, "I have a Skill called and the strangest thing is that it tells me that there is no basement under this building, my tells the same story, there are no doors nevermind stairs leading down to a basement, yet here it is."

Allet nodded, "on the other side of that wall is the room that we want to turn into a playroom, and my building layout doesn't show a door or a space for stairs."

Louie looked to Allet, "May I try something else? "

He saw that he might have to explain more than just 'something else'.

"I have another Spell called that lets me create a blueprint of any building that I want. I can create a Blueprint and we would be able to see if the stairs and basement show on the building plans."

She nodded.

He cast the Spell and what looked like a light blue blank transparent acrylic sheet appeared in his hand

He walked up to the side wall of the pantry and touched the wall while mentally pressing the Scan button on the acrylic sheet.

His knees buckled as a pulse of mana shot from his hands throughout the whole building in a ripple-like wave, suddenly a detailed 3D drawing appeared on the still-open Blueprint.

Congratulations: You have created a new kind of Blueprint for a magical building with your skill.

Would you like to name this Blueprint?

Y/N

He mentally pressed Y and Named the Blueprint 'Allet's Bonded Shelter'

He got to his feet, "Damn that used more mana than the other Blueprints I made."

He looked down at the magical Blueprint in his hand.

The print was a detailed image of the whole structure, boundary walls included, using his knowledge of the spell he rotated the image and zoomed in on the section of the building where the pantry was, he used an exploded view and again zoomed in on the back wall of the pantry 'nothing,' he thought for a moment. 'hmm let me try something else.'

Louie sidled up to the open hidden door, he reached out and touched the inside of the door, facing the stairway, while concentrating on his still active spell and the Blueprint in his hand.

"What are you doing?" Allet asked.

"I'm tweaking the Blueprint. Seeing if I can add the door and stairwell."

Nothing happened.

He got the feeling that he didn't have enough mana, reaching into his inventory he grabbed the biggest mana crystal that he had and again directed his slowly replenishing mana into the spell and through the crystal and into the door.

There was a violent red ripple that expanded from under his hand and rushed down the stairwell. The crystal in his hand turned to dust and dissipated into the air.

'Aah … that wasn't supposed to happen was it?'

He looked down and saw a red-outlined doorway appear on the blueprint.

'Yes, well it worked'

He quickly backed away from the door and moved towards Allet and Gilmer.

"So, did it work?" He could understand her impatience.

"I hope so, let's see." He looked around and grabbed two crates, placing them on top of each other, he placed the blueprint on the improvised table.

Taking hold of the edges of the Blueprint he fed it a bit of mana with the intent to make it a little bit bigger and it complied, the slight neon blue sheet of magical acrylic expanded to one square metre.

The exploded image clearly showed a door in the wall but marked in an alarming red colour.

"Why is it red and looks like it's pulsing?" Sher wanted to know.

Louie shrugged and reached out with his finger and tapped on the pulsing door. The image shifted like on TV as the enterprise engaged warp speed, suddenly clearing, showing stairs entering a closed-off room

"That's it?" Allet asked, clearly confused, "the reward notification said that it's an 'upgraded basement,' whatever that meant. That doesn't look like an upgraded basement." Disappointment was clearly visible on everybody's faces.

"I was hoping for something magical," Bertha said.

"Beeeware what you wiiish for." A squeaky voice remarked and Louie saw Meera, 'no 'Meeera', he reminds himself, ducking back behind Bertha

Gilmer shrugged as he looked at the image on the Blueprint, "well, times a ticking, it's getting dark and we got to go down and see why the girl hasn't returned yet, so get a team together Bertha."

She nodded and stepped up to the fighters.

Louie heard Trok clear his throat and looked up as he gave him a pleading look.

"Ah, I and my team will also go, if that is okay with you Mother?" Louie asked Allet as he saw Gilmer getting ready to object.

"Of course, you guys are welkom." She was still studying the blueprint and didn't see Gilmer's disapproving look.

They readied their teams and Gilmer took the front as they entered the doorway and took the stairs down to the basement.

Louie noticed that they took longer than they should have and that they were definitely deeper than where the bedrock under the Shelter should be. He reached out with his and but both were unable to penetrate or affect the walls of the stairwell.

They entered a dark and dusty room, and suddenly Louie's went crazy. It didn't penetrate the floor but spread out through the room, it also didn't encounter any side walls.

Sher cast a Spell that she got when her Class reached Level 4, called

Sunlight

A 20 metres-radius sphere of sunlight spreads out from a point you choose within range. The sphere is a bright light that dims for another 5 metres after that.

The caster may choose to stick the spell to a point on an object they are holding or one that isn’t being worn or carried, the light shines from the object and moves with it. Completely covering the affected object with an opaque object, such as a bowl or a helm, blocks the light.

If any of this spell’s area overlaps with an area of darkness created by a spell of 3rd level or lower, the spell that created the darkness is dispelled.

Mana Cost: 50MP

Range: 20 metres

Duration: 1 hour

They all stared as the light revealed a massive space filled with all sorts of junk covered in a thick layer of dust and soot, what the light didn't reveal was any walls except the one behind them.

"This place is huuuge" Sher nervously remarked.

"What is all this? I thought your Blueprint showed a small room" Gilmer asked in confusion, "and where did all this crap come from?"

Louie looked at a stack of plastic chairs, the cheap type that you bought from Shoprite if you need seating for a quick braai, some had more than one broken leg.

'Jip definitely unwanted crap.'

Louie activated his Skill again and for signs left by the girl.

His Skill was barely needed since a set of small footprints were clearly visible in the thick layer of dust that covered the floor as well as everything else, the most concerning thing thow was the strange marks left by something that looked like it was stalking the girl, something that dragged on the ground with a lot of legs.

"This basement was given to you as a reward? should there be any creatures in here?" Gilmer asked Allet who shrugged, as they studied the strange markings.

Louie looked at his minimap, "this basement has the feeling of an extradimensional space, of which workings we know nothing, there might be creatures with abilities to enter without us knowing."

"True, but this is my reward and it's connected to my bonded, I'm sure that I would know if some dangerous creature were inside and about to attack us."

He shrugged. "My isn't picking up anything either, although I just unlocked it a couple of hours ago."

"Of course, he has another skill." He heard the mutter

They slowly started moving down the only open aisle.

Everywhere they looked there was broken and damaged or discarded furniture, mostly chairs, tables, and various cabinets, haphazardly stacked,

A while later they came across what looked like hundreds, maybe thousands of leather-bound books of different shapes and sizes stacked in tottering piles, in bookcases or scattered all over the place.

They passed a section that looked like a workshop of a mad alchemist filled with tables and stacked with Chipped bottles of what looked like congealed potions together with Corked bottles whose contents shimmered and gave off an evil vibe, on one of the tables was a cleared space with a book 'Advanced Potion-Making', which Louie was sure Sher could use and marked to ask Allet if he could buy or borrow it.

There was a heap of what looked like broken eggshells that were way bigger than ostrich eggs, they looked like eggs that might be laid by something the size of an elephant.

To the other side of the aisle were racking with what looked like rusting swords and bloodstained axes.

Gilmer perked up when he saw the Suits of mediaeval armour, some were in pieces that were scattered everywhere.

Next to the rusted weapons was what looked like a dead forge with an anvil and an enormous troll wielding a hammer, which scared the living shit out of them, till they realised that it was dead and stuffed.

More than once they thought they had found the missing closet but it turned out to be just another broken or empty wardrobe.

Everywhere they looked were heaps of hats, cloaks, and even open trunks filled with what looked like cheap costume jewellery.

One section even had cages in various sizes, one had what looked like a humanoid skeleton with way too many legs in it.

"Jees for a place with so many brooms you would think they would have cleaned up a bit." One of the other ladies, armed with a bow, remarked

After she mentioned it they all noticed the heavy broomsticks laying everywhere, heavy broomsticks the kind that witches are rumoured to use for transportation. The ladies wearily looked at each other and moved a step closer together.

Trok backed away from a basket filled with umbrellas and broomsticks and bumped into a stringless banjo that fell over against an old record turntable that started playing a creepy tune, the same line over and over as it skipped. He shakily reached out with the tip of his sword and flipped the needle from the drum.

"Gods that was creepy." He wiped the sweat from his brow as a couple of "yeas" agreed with him.

For some reason, a set of dominoes next to the turntable caught Louie's eye and he had the urge to sneak them into his pocket but he ignored the impulse and walked on by.

There was various metalware, including Cauldrons, that looked like something the witches in Starter Town might be interested in.

There was also a bookshelf with a lot of various trophies, one with a fat guy reading. "First place in Crab Magro for the over 120 kg category" 'Crab Magro? Wonder if that's not an alternative name for Krav Maga, if it is then I don't want to meet that fat guy in a dark alley.'

Next to the trophies was a mask, like the kind you get in theatres, half black the other half white hanging from a hook on the shelf next to a rack of portraits and laying on the floor were stacks and stacks of empty frames.

They passed a couple of tables stacked with dusty plates, stacks and stacks of them, and cutlery, trays of different cutlery, no two seemed the same.

After what felt like hours of walking, Louie looked down at the blueprint that he took out of his inventory and then at the minimap displayed on his HUD.

"Shit." Everybody stopped as they heard his curse.

"What's wrong?" Gilmer asked, tightening the grip on his sword.

Louie scratched behind his head, "well, the basement size on the Blueprint hasn't changed at all, but my minimap still shows a huge open space and that we have barely moved from the spot where we entered down the stairs.

"We got to find that kid, it's been hours already, this can take us weeks."

Louie looked at the dusty floor where the footprints of the girl were clearly visible even to those without the tracking Skill.

They followed the tracks, and what felt like an hour later, led them to a heap of couches where they could see a person laying, it looked like she was asleep.

Trok took a step closer to the person on the couch when there was a streak through the air and something impacted and grabbed ahold of his shield.

He gave a load unmanly like shriek as a monster's face with antenna and snapping mandibles leered at him over the top of his shield. Before anyone could react it used the shield as a launchpad and launched itself back towards the person laying on the couch.

Trok's scream petered out like an airhorn running out of air.

As the dust cloud settled in front of the couch Louie saw that the creature, some kind of giant centipede, had placed itself between them and the girl on the couch. It lifted its front half into the air and spread its legs wide, hissing at them.

Louie kept his focus on the monster standing in front of the stirring girl on the couch.

"Really?" One of the women asked as she looked at Trok.

"Nice set of pipes on you man"

There were a couple of sniggers from the women

"Hate fucking insects," Trok muttered as he readied himself for the fight.

"You should have heard him during the Beast wave."

The centipede reared up more of its body and hissed at him as he pointed his sword at the creature. "Look at the size of that fucking thing, it's at least two meters long and thicker than my bloody arm." His sword wasn't too steady and there was a slight quiver to his voice.

Gilmer took a couple of steps past Trok while shaking his head.

"That you Ginny lass?" He asked the girl on the couch.

"Uncle Gilmer? I was getting very tired," the centipede hissed again and zoned in on Gilmer as he took another step.

The girl, Ginny, reached out and touched the centipede on the back of its head, "it's ok Skritshy, it's my friends and family," she scratched its head plate and it started making a soft screeching sound.

"Fuck." A shudder passed through Trok.

Giant Centipede (Skritshy) (Bonded)

Centipedes are elongated segmented (metameric) creatures with one pair of legs per body segment. All centipedes are venomous and can inflict painful bites, the brighter the colours the more poisonous, injecting their venom through pincer-like appendages known as forcipules. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs, ranging from 30 to 382.

Centipedes are active hunters. They roam around looking for small animals to bite and eat. They eat insects, spiders, and other invertebrates. If the centipede is large enough it will even attack humans that it feels are threatening it.

Armour Class: 29

Health Points: 370

Mana Points: 25

Stamina: 270

Perception: 90

Luck: 5

Speed: Very Fast

Damage Vulnerabilities: Elemental

Damage Immunities: Poison, Blunt and Slashing damage

Racial Senses:

Sight: 06/20, Tremor sense: 20/20, Touch: 20/20, Smell 20/20, Taste: 20/20

Darkvision: 18/20 (35 metres)

Venomous: Bite

Languages. N/A but can understand simple commands from its friend/companion.

Louie placed his hand on Trok's shoulder, "it's a bonded pet" the creature hissed at Louie, "ahh I think it's with the girl."

The creature turned around and scaled up the girl's left arm over her shoulders and down her other arm where it settled with its legs wrapped around her arms, covering her arms and upper back like a living set of armoured vambraces.

"Gods," Trok shuddered again and turned away and walked in the opposite direction from the girl and her insect pet.

Everybody cautiously approached the girl and her pet except Trok and Bertha.

"Jip, it would be just like that girl to get a giant creepy worm for a pet, always walking around with grasshoppers and stuff in her pockets." Louie heard her mutter as she walked past him.

They were all standing around and listening as Ginny told them how she found the basement and her new friend when they heard a shout from Bertha.

"Hey, guys! I think we found the Closet!"

They all rushed down a side aisle into a cleared space where they found the wardrobe situated right in the middle.

'Yea nothing suspicious about that at all, all it needs now is a light shining down highlighting the wardrobe.'

Trok and the woman, Bertha, stood in front of an old Vintage Design English wardrobe that looked like it was from the beginning of the twentieth century and made from walnut. There was an intricately carved vase with a plant on each door.

"Damn it looks like that wardrobe that the kids entered to go to Narnia," Claudia said, Bertha stopped as she reached out to the handle on the door.

"Don't open it yet, let's first get ready, you never know what might jump out of it," Gilmer warned.

They arranged themself in front of the doors ready for battle while Gilmer, standing to the side of the closet, reached out and jerked the door open.

There was a moment of silence before Bertha spoke.

"What the fuck? What's with the stuff in this basement? Is everything bigger on the inside than it should be?"

Gilmer looked around the door to the inside of the closet. "Well, the reward did state that it was a walking closet."

Bertha was first through the doors like a girl rushing into a Macy's clothing store on black Friday.

"Damn, I bet the Kardashians would kill for a closet space like this." She shouted as she started rummaging through the drawers.

'Who?'

The inside of the closet was at least twenty metres deep and ten metres wide and it looked like some high-end designer clothing store, with shelves filled with plastic-wrapped blankets and clothing and drawers filled with shoes.

One half of the middle of the room was filled with racks and racks of green clothing with red and gold tassels and bells while the other was older but still in good quality

All the clothing and shoes in the closet were for women of all shapes and sizes.

Allet looked around, "Well this will all come in quite handy with all the women in the Shelter."

Gilmer nodded.

"Okay, enough, let's go, let's get out of this basement."

"Bertha?" Louie heard Claudia call as he walked past Bertha, he saw her guilty slamming a drawer closed, like a fat boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but not before he saw a couple of green Christmas-coloured fluffy handcuffs and what looked like a Santa shaped…

'Well I guess even Mrs Clause got lonely with him working all the time, he was considered the Toymaker,'

A slightly red Bertha walked past Claudia and addressed Allet, "Don't let the kids poke through the drawers."

A puzzled Allet looked to Claudia who replied in a soft voice, "Toys, Adult Toys," before she snickered and followed Bertha.

As they closed the doors Allet pushed against the closet to see if she could move it before she turned to Bertha, "you told me this morning that you got space in your inventory, can you try and put this in there?"

She nodded, reached out to the closet and it disappeared.

"Done."

"Good, thanks. Let us go home everybody," she ruffled Ginny's hair.

Louie noticed that Trok kept away from the girl as far as possible.

It took them about two hours to retrace the way they came but Louie stopped when he reached the section with the books.

"I would like to buy as many of these books from you as possible. I have a library that is sorely lacking books."

"It's yours, as long as you are willing to share what you learn from the books, you can have it all."

"You sure? That is a lot of books?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

He nodded, "then you got yourself a deal, it might take some time thow, I must get them back to my library and then see what's in them."

"No problem."

It took Louie a half hour to store all the available books in his inventory, while the others poked through the dust-covered items lying around, the boys, Gilmer included, were rummaging through the weapons and armour pieces and Allet had to call twice before they abandoned the section.

Gilmer was clutching an old dirty battleaxe when he joined them.

"You know, I have a spell that might repair and restore that weapon and it might even clean up all those weapons back there."

Gilmer looked thoughtful for a moment, "that would be much appreciated."

They stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked back into the depth of the basement

"This looks like it might have been the basement of some Theatre company before the System gave it to you as a reward," Gilmer told Allet.

"Graveyard" somebody muttered

"What, was that?"

"Sorry Mother, I was just thinking, I didn't realise I said it aloud," the woman mumbled.

Gimer looked around. "I think it's a good analogy."

"Yea," Louie agreed, "the place where old and unwanted things go to die and be forgotten."

"Damn that's creepy as hell." Bertha shuddered as what felt like a cold wind crawled down her spine.

Louie shrugged as he looked around at all the 'Trash' in the basement. "You guys do realise that every piece of 'Trash" He made finger quotes when he said Trash, "has mana in it. Every piece here that I can see is infused with mana, either the System made this or it's from someplace where they have had magic for a long time."

"You sure?"

"Jip, even this piece of crap has mana in it." Louie replaced the chipped old bust of an ugly warlock, which looked like it was cast from gypsum, back on its pedestal.

They looked at the heaps and heaps of Trash with new eyes.

"Can we trade some of this stuff in at the Trade Kiosk?"

Louie patted Allet on the back, "now you are thinking out of the box. If you can't trade this stuff then I know of a group of traders that has a who would be more than happy to buy some of this from you."

They started up the stairs to the pantry.

As they exited the pantry they noticed that it was dark outside with what looked like the sun just coming up.

"How long were we in there?

"Ginny!

"Mommy! The girl squealed as she rushed into her mother's arms, who shrieked and let go as Skritshy lifted his head to meet the new people.

Everybody settled down as Ginny explained that Skritshy is her new friend and Gilmer ensured that they are safe.

Allet looked at the basement door, "I have a feeling that there are many more useful things to discover down there than we know off. Not all stuff that people throw away is useless or broken."