A few around the table nodded their heads.  Sean wasn’t one of them.  “This place is far from that.  At least, so far.   Since we’re underground, how ‘bout something like The Anthill or The Warren?”

“Warren!  Like the cozy houses where fluffy bunnies live!  I like that!” Chloe clapped her hands together.

Everyone looked at each other and sort of shrugged.  Allistor smiled at Chloe.  “The Warren it is, then.”   He mentally filled in the name next to the appropriate prompt.  The interface updated accordingly.

Sean, showing his bent toward Engineering, went next.  “Speaking of underground, I’m thinking that for now at least, we should keep this place underground.  If that titan is still walking around, having the only standing building in town would make us an obvious target.  And we wouldn’t have to spend points on walls.  That way we can maximize what we build down here.  We can always move above ground later.”

Meg agreed. “As long as we can build all we need down here, that’s fine with me.”

Lilly cried “Aha!” then looked embarrassed as everyone stared at her.  Blushing slightly, she said, “I figured out the contributions thing.  It seems that we can contribute by converting our experience points into system points at a rate of two to one.  That’s one system point for every two experience points.  The max experience points we can trade is the amount we’ve earned toward our next level.    And the contributions can be structured as a donation or a loan.”

“Awesome. That explains a lot.  Thank you, Lilly.” Allistor thumped the table with a flat hand.  He was beginning to get into this whole base building thing.  “Okay, so for now, let’s just focus on the points we already have.  I don’t want to ask for contributions yet.  I think we all need to level ourselves as quickly as possible.  And there has to be a way for this place to earn its own points.  We just have to figure out what that is.”

He smiled as he saw Lilly’s eyes go vacant again.

He located the tab Available Plans that listed the possible structures and their cost.  Calling everyone else’s attention to it, he waited while they all reviewed the options.  He sincerely wished they had pencils and papers to make lists of their own.  Then a thought occurred to him.

“Hey guys, I want to test something.  Look near the top left, where the Underground option is listed.  If you would, everybody but Sam and Sean, check that box.  You two, check the Surface Structure box.

He watched his own interface as they all did as he requested.  As each person voted, the number of votes for each would increase.  They were color coded yellow, which according to the key at the bottom of the screen, was for recommendations.

“Can you all see this?” he asked.