Post-Apocalyptic Survivor in Another World: New Beginning

Joseph rubbed at his eyes as he sat back in his recliner, looking over the sheer size of his living room. The space expander had been installed right in the center of the floor, with Joe having forged a steel containment unit specifically for the sphere. It couldn’t be completely sealed, or else the expansion would only work within the space he’d put it in. Using a couple wingnuts, he’d been able to tighten the container so that it would be impossible to dislodge unless those wingnuts were loosened.

It was awesome seeing how much space there was now… but by the Lord what was he going to do with it all!? His front room had really grown to exactly ten times its original size, making it roughly two-thousand square feet. That was bigger than a lot of houses, and now he had to figure out what to put in it.. His walls were so damn far away now, everything that he had bolted in had joined the walls on the other side of the chamber. His recliner was still in the same place though, but now the entertainment center was way too far for him to see anything from his throne..

It was too late to remove it now… but would he really want to? With this much extra room he could put anything in here. Sera danced through the open space wildly, excited to run across the expanded space. It felt strange to be sitting in his recliner in the middle of this liminal space, but what was he going to do? He could remove the bolts and move it back to the entertainment center, but that was gonna be a huge pain in the ass. Maybe he should just start building rooms?

As long as the space expander stayed in the center, it should be alright, Ledwi said so himself. He’d start on the edges, maybe add a second bathroom and some proper bedrooms for him and Sera- he frowned at the thought. What was the point of building a bedroom for her? She was only going to be around for another month, and he probably wouldn’t be able to get around to it for longer than that. He still needed to get the materials together for the walls, not to mention collecting furniture.

Truthfully, the first room he should build will have to be a storeroom for all the things he’d gotten from the dwarves. His workshop was overloaded now with crap, barrels, stacks of ingots, crates, it was basically impossible to even walk through it now. Yeah, that would be the first thing, he’d build it right next to the door that led to his workshop, and he’d have it be a big room too. Maybe around five hundred square feet, he liked to collect things and he could even build some shelves to enhance the holding of the aformentioned things.

The thought excited him, and he stood from the chair, moving over to his workshop. It was a far longer walk than it used to be… Sera, seeing him marching off, quickly bounded after him, arms outstretched as she went.

“What are you going to do?” Sera asked, “Will you move some things in here? It’s gotten cramped in your workshop.”

“I’m gettin’ my tape measurer, I wanna get an idea of how big I want a storage room.” He said, “I ain’t leaving it like this, it's way too open.” He said, pulling open the door, “It freaks me out.”

“I think its fun!” Sera exclaimed, “I’ve been going stir-crazy, getting to run around is fantastic.”

“Well I hate it.” Joe stated, “Besides, I need a store room for all that crap I got. That, and I’m makin’ myself a bedroom, a real one, with a real bed n’ stuff.”

He found the tape measurer after weaving through the workshop, re-emerging and moving to the corner of his expanded front room. Five-hundred square feet of storage space would be more than enough for what was in the workshop and then some. He could keep so many raw materials in there too… Perhaps he should return to Ugals one day to buy a surplus of dwarven steel. From his testing, it was definitely stronger than standard steel, though it was a fair bit heavier.

Sera followed after him the whole time, watching him measure the width and length before she asked, “Will you make me a bedroom too?”

Joe hesitated, “There ain’t no point.” He told her, “I gotta take you back to Gerad next month, remember?”

She frowned, “Ah… yes that is true.”

They both lapsed into an awkward silence then, lasting until Joe said, “Well… I’m not saying I’d be opposed to it.”

She smiled, “I like that, but I know you distrust Gerad. Our contract demands that I accomplish a great feat with him before it ends. There is a time limit, if we run out then it would need to be renewed, but by then you’d probably have moved on from Everfae to a new Shard. After our time together ends, that will likely be the last time we see one another.”

Joe’s lips pulled to a fine line, “What is with this contract yer talking about?’ He asked.

“I and Gerad signed a contract to accompany one another until he accomplishes that great feat I just mentioned. It was a halfling contract… ah, you wouldn’t know what that means.” She said after seeing his confused expression, “Halflings never adventure with the other races unless a contract is signed between the two parties. They have a strong influence on luck, you see, and for some reason it is bound to the signing of contracts. If one were to break a contract with a halfling, their luck would take a nosedive… often fatally so.”

“Why even sign one then? You couldn’t find someone else to work with?” Joe asked, “Seems like a big risk to yourself, I wouldn’t have done it.”

“Its risk and reward, Joseph.” Sera told him, “If you fulfill a contract with a halfling, one’s luck increases.”

Was she saying that luck was an actually tangible thing on Faenor and not just a concept?

“But when we first met you were willing to just stay with me for a year or two, that’s what you said. What woulda happened if yer contract ran out?” He asked, “You’d get super unlucky right?”

“No,” She said with a shrug, “My luck would stay stable if time ran out, from there we could choose to renew it or officially end it.”

“Alrighty, but again, why’d ya sign?” He asked.

“The luckier I am, the more likely I am to stumble across Tomes.” She explained, “That, and I would be more likely to survive unfortunate circumstances, find treasures- everything associated with good luck.”

Joe rubbed his chin, “I think I get it. Is it just a marginal increase in luck or is it a big one?”

“Depends on the contract signed.” Sera said, “I signed one with Gerad to accomplish a great feat, something that could be storied… if we had slain that dragon, for example, our contract would have been satisfied.”

“Sorry bout that.” Joe said, “Well, not really actually. I was gonna get cooked if I just stood there.”

“I’m not upset about it Joe!” She exclaimed, “I’m just using that as an example. There are other things that can be done.”

“Like capturing an Outworlder, right?” He asked, keeping his tone neutral, “Maybe that was another reason Gerad was trying to push you to catch me.”

Sera hesitated before nodding, “That too would have fulfilled the contract between me and him, I think.”

“All the more reason I can’t drop you off right at Shian, he could have an ambush set up for me by now.” Joe said, standing up.

“That’s fine, but I don’t think Gerad would do that…” She said, “He seems cold but he really is a good boy, I think.”

“How long have ya known him?” He asked.

Sera paused before saying with an embarrassed grin, “Before meeting you? I would say a few months.”

Joe stared.

“Thick as thieves.” Joe said sarcastically, “No way that guy ain’t planning something.”

“If he is, I will berate him for you. Just drop me off on the outskirts of Shian and I will make my way there myself… and Joseph… I was wondering about something.” She said, tone becoming nervous.

“Shoot.” He replied, “Why ya so shaky?”

“When I finish my contract with Gerad, I won’t exactly have any goals set after that point. My plan was to simply wander until I came across more Tomes. So I was wondering if…” She trailed off.

Joe put a hand on her shoulder, “Yeah, you can.” He told her, “You ain’t bad company. I’ll probably put your room somewhere over there,” He continued, pointing vaguely toward the entertainment center, “Whaddya think?”

Sera then squealed, rushing into him and wrapping her arms around his midsection. For such a little lady, she sure could squeeze. He let out a groan of pain as air rushed out of his lungs.

“Its a deal!” She yelled happily, “Oh I can’t wait! Frankly this place needs a woman’s touch.”

“Yeah yeah.” Joe said breathlessly, “Alright lemme go, yer killing me.”

“It’s not a deal unless you hug back.” She said in a mischievous tone.

“That’s not what happened last time-” He coughed, “You just hugged me and let go.”

She didn’t relent, in fact she only squeezed harder as he struggled to pry her off of him. Sera was going to kill him unless he hugged her back, at least that’s what it felt like. Damn, he’d been trapped beneath rubble before and that seemed easier to remove than this gorilla of a woman! Hesitantly, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and squeezed her back.

She finally released the bone crushing pressure she’d placed around his rib-cage, but didn’t let go, maintaining the hug. They stood there, holding one another for a long while. Joe had been intending to just let her go after the pressure had been released… but it had been so long since he’d had such physical contact like this with anyone. It felt… it felt good. Who was the last person he had hugged before Sera?

She looked up at him, “The deal has been made, Joseph.” Sera said in a playful voice, “You can let go now, unless you don’t want to?”

Joe grinned, quickly slipping his arms beneath hers and squeezing hard. Sera wheezed as Joe lifted her in the air, slapping at his shoulders before he set her down, “That’s payback for crushing my organs.”

Sera glowered at him, hands on hips as she struggled to regain her breath, “That was rude.”

“Well you reap whatcha sew.” He said with a shrug, “I’ll do unto you what you do unto me and whatnot.”

“I’ll get you back for that!” She said, “I’m small, it couldn’t have hurt you that badly! Look at those ape-arms of yours, you could have killed me!”

“But I didn’t.” He said, “Yer just fine, don’t be a pansy. Anway, thank ya… I haven’t hugged someone in a long time. Felt nice.”

Sera’s glower vanished, being replaced instead with a smile, “I can hug you whenever you’d like.”

“Well anyway,” Joe said, changing the subject, “We should probably get going, we’re only halfway down the mountain. That dragon ain’t gonna harvest itself, and I wanna start gettin’ some materials for the storage room.”

“If you’re planning on sourcing lumber from local towns, we’ll need to be careful. News had probably spread about your assault on that noble… uh, what was his name again?” She asked, putting a hand on her chin, “Lek or something?”

“Probably.” He said, “Naw, I’m not gonna get lumber from towns, I want metal for the walls, I think it’ll be easier to bind metal to metal rather than wood to metal, ya know?”

“You want sheets of steel for walls?” Sera asked, “That’s unrealistic, you do realize just how expensive that would be, right?”

She was right, getting smiths to make metal wall pieces would cost a pretty penny. Thankfully he was planning on making them himself, he’d just need to get the raw materials. He could always use some of the dwarven ingots he’d gotten… but there just wasn’t enough metal to use from that pile. That, and it might be a waste to use them in that way, if anything he should be thinking about replacing the spikes in front of Betty with ones of dwarven steel, maybe even sections of the hull.

“Joseph?” Sera asked, waving a hand in front of his face, “Hello?”

“Just thinking is all. I’ll have to make the walls myself, but I gotta get the materials-” He paused, “I can’t just buy them in town, at least not wearing my normal stuff. Maybe we should go back up the mountain and I can trade more secrets for raw materials. Honestly, I should have done that in the beginning. We’re going back up the mountain.” Joe said with a nod.

“But if you do that, you won’t be able to load in all that metal at once, you’d need to stay at Ugals while you forged all the pieces you would need, that could take a very long time.”

She was right again, damnit. He really wanted to go and harvest the dragon’s bones before someone else got to it. Maybe after that he could come back to Ugals and trade for the materials he’d need, then he’d need to forge those items, but how should he go about making the walls? How thick did he want them, was he going to wire them to have their own outlets, what about insulation? He shook his head, the insulation wouldn’t be necessary, plus it was always an itchy pain in the ass to install. He’d have to get some ventilation for those rooms as well, so he would have to-

“Joe, are you there?” Sera asked, waving a hand in front of his face once more.

“Quit interrupting my time in la-la land.” He told her bitterly, “It helps me figure out big projects like this.”

“Go to la-la land later.” She said, “Let's just enjoy the open space here for now, we’ll go get the dragon bone situation resolved, then after that… Well, by time you get something usable out of those bones, it’ll probably be time for me to go to Shian.” Sera said, “At least you won’t be able to return to the mountains with me in tow before I have to meet with Gerad.”

Joe frowned but nodded, “Yeah, that makes sense. I’ll have to move all that crap in here though, we’ll have to stick it in that corner where the storeroom will be. Thankfully I got something that’ll make that easier.”

Sera’s eyes lit up, “Did you get an item that will allow you to lift all of that with your mind?”

Joe shook his head, “Nope, I got a sewing needle that can bind anything to cloth. As you can see, we got a lot of carpet here and a lot of crap to put away, so much that I can’t bolt it all down. With the needle though, I don’t have to do that at all, just gotta sew it through the carpet.”

“But why would you-” Sera started before abruptly shutting her mouth, “Right, It’s going to be a long drive down the mountain, a long bumpy drive.”

“Exactly.” Joe said, “I ain’t gonna be having all that stuff flying around here.”

“What other items did you obtain, if you don’t mind me asking? I know about the space expander of course, the bone cutting knife, and now the needle, but you said you managed to squeeze in a few more in your dealings?”

“Well yeah, technically.” He said, “I let his engineers look at my guns, I took them apart for them to see and all that, so dwarves are gonna get a lot deadlier soon, but I got another five items from doing it.”

“Wow, so many!?” Sera asked, “What are they?”

“Well that’s the thing.” Joe said with a sigh, “I put in a request for certain items instead of taking the ones available. They have to be made first and Varig told me it could take months but they’d have it done.”

“So…” She started, “You basically commissioned them to craft you these items? I’m surprised that you’d essentially give it to them for free.”

“Not for free, they’re gonna be spending a lot of time and resources to make what I asked for.” Joe said, “Besides, I didn’t show them everything, and I made sure that they understood that fully well. They’ll be incentivized to finish what I asked for, at least if they want more.”

“I believe they will, I’m just surprised you’d trust them like that.” She told him.

“From what I can tell, dwarves stick to what they say, and this whole ‘debt culture’ they got going makes me think they’ll get er’ done, they owe me those items for showing em’ my guns after all.”

“True,” She said before poking him in the chest, “So what did you order to have made?”

“I’ll keep it short, I want an armored rucksack that can hold a whole lot without weighing me down, another expansion sphere for either my workshop or my kitchen, a ring that can turn me invisible, a necklace that projects a forcefield around me, and most importantly, a second ring that cancels out spells.”

For some reason, Sera groaned, “Do you think that imbued items would be that potent? They aren’t naturally made, making their powers far less powerful. The expansion sphere may function just as this one does, but the invisibility ring will likely be limited to a set amount of time a day, maybe even just seconds. The forcefield will likely just slow incoming impacts, rather than outright stopping them, and your spell immunity ring? Likely that will only be usable a few times a day, maybe even less than that.” She said, pausing a moment before saying, “The rucksack may function just as you intend though.”

Joe wilted.

“Oh don’t be like that, those are still incredibly useful tools!’ Sera said reassuringly, “I just didn’t want you to be disappointed.”

“Yeah… that makes sense. I asked for other things too, but Varig told me they’d be impossible to make.” Joe replied with a sigh, “I wanted things that would make your head spin, but he said ‘imbuement couldn’t reach those heights’.”

“...Out of curiosity, what was one of the things you asked for?” Sera asked.

“I wanted something that could let Betty fly. Could you imagine if she could?” He asked, his mind's eye imagining Betty with angel wings.

“A magic item like that has never been documented before.” Sera stated, “It’s likely that the dwarves don’t-”

“Don’t know how to make it, yeah that’s what Varig said, it crushed my dreams.” He said sadly, “My God, could you imagine what I could do if I could shoot lasers and fly around at the same time?”

“Some things just aren’t meant to be. How about we focus on getting things out of that workshop now, hmm? I’ll help you move some of it-”

Joe shook his head, “I appreciate it, but those twiggy arms of yours probably can’t even lift an apple.”

She glared, “Didn’t you say that I was killing you earlier with that hug?”

Joe bit his cheek, “Ya got me there.”