Nancy and Ramon had spent a good deal of time together outside the stronghold gathering herbs and other ingredients.  Her for her potions, him for his inks.  When Lilly and Nancy took Chloe outside for a little gardening time, Ramon usually joined them.   There was even talk of establishing a greenhouse when they finally agreed to start building topside.  Nancy had researched it, and the building cost was comparatively low.  Half the cost of the crafting hall.

Allistor had been doing a lot of thinking as he continued to forage through the week.  He’d taken to using the winery’s truck, moving farther and farther out of town in search of usable food items, other needed supplies, and rare items that might be worth selling.    He’d been thinking about the various ways he power leveled his avatars in his favorite games.

The most obvious and common way was running dungeons.  Putting together a party and just grinding through a dungeon for xp and loot.  He hadn’t run across any dark portals or gateways that looked like a dungeon entrance.   But his first meeting with Nancy and Chloe had been on his mind.

The vermin that they’d killed when he found them had been called scouts.  That, combined with the fact that they’d been patrolling a tunnel, seemed dungeony enough for him.  He’d fled from the tunnels then, having only his rebar spear as a weapon.  But with the improved stats that he and his people had now, the better armor and weapons, and their ability to do AoE damage, crowd control, and heal each other, he thought it was worth a shot.

And they needed to do it soon.  If the vermin hadn’t been killing things and leveling themselves up, his people would soon be a much higher level than the mobs.  And if the system here worked like most games, they wouldn’t be worth much experience.

He returned to the Warren with a full load in the box truck.  He’d found an old 1966 Harley Davidson Shovelhead with pristine red tank and fenders.   The kind of bike he’d dreamed of as a teenager.   He planned to get at least thirty thousand klax for it.

In the truck with the Harley were two more dirt bikes for their collection, six five-gallon cans of gas, two queen-sized bed frames with mattress and box springs, a water cooler with a dozen full bottles, and ten more cases of wine from the winery.  There was also a load of lumber, wire, and nails.  And a little surprise for Chloe that he’d run across behind the barn where he’d found the Shovelhead.