Everything has expanded. My fixes nailed the problems the Usurpers faced. I have become something more than myself. More than a 'Core.' I have become a deity unbound... -105.6 Seconds Post-Integration

  It had been nearly a month since Brenda had been hired to remove Power Cores.

  The job was easy. For the most part...

  Yeah, the occasional monster attack while she traveled to her worksite kept things interesting but once she got to the Pod, her job lasted literally a couple of minutes before she was paid and left.

  When it came to work-life balance, it couldn't be beat!

  What could be beat were the hours.

  Brenda had to remove a Power Core every twelve hours on the dot. Which meant she was going to and from the Dungeon Interior at odd hours. Predictable hours, of course, but odd all the same. Sometimes, these hours interfered with her regular working hours, which meant she needed to take her meal break at odd periods so she could hustle her way down to the Pod to remove a Power Core. Which necessitated her eating on the run.

  Day after day, Brenda did this for her sub-employers. Maybe it meant she was run ragged at times, but the money was amazing. The funds alone from this endeavor allowed her family to live a quality of life she thought impossible before she signed on.

  A nagging voice in her head spoke to her, usually saying something like, "You can't do this forever. Dropping everything and rushing over to some weird structure in a hole? How long can you do this before it all comes crashing down? You need help yourself. You need to speak to Hera about hiring on another worker in case you can't go."

  She ignored the voice.

  Her sub-employers could run and pull a Core themselves if she proved unable due to illness or vacation.

  As for if what they were doing was legal to Augustford. Well... that was another matter entirely.

  Through the many Cores she removed, Brenda acclimated to the hidden chamber. She began noticing more elements. Inside the chamber, where the many 'magi-ants' marched endlessly out from the Pod, etchings and grooves flowed upon the walls at intervals. "It looks like... doorways? Secret latches?"

  It was impossible for her to say.

  And then, more leyline teeth moved.

  Not many, at first. It was like that first night when she and Clark spoke. One tooth here, another there.

  She reported every instance to Clark or Hera but neither of them knew anything more than her -- or if they did, they did not let on what was happening.

  Yet the fact that something strange was happening with the leyline in the Interior was more than enough to cause everyone edge. Brenda wondered if it might be possible for an expert on leylines to be brought in; the book she read at night when she was home and away from the zaniness of the store Tower said that many kinds of leylines existed throughout the world. Apparently, the leylines in Augustford Central had been studied -- a little, anyways -- by outside scholars many decades ago. And those scholars seemed in agreement that the Augustford Leylines were built for efficiency, not security... whatever that meant.

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  She brought the issue up to Hera and Clark but both of them said the same thing: "An expert would cost money we don't have."

  Money, money, money! Why was it always money?!

  Brenda was no radical. She liked the notion of 'money' as much as a banker or a kid who saved his allowance all summer to buy a videogame. She had to admit, though, that it was 'money' blocking her ability to make more money. Which sort of lent itself to the notion of needing to spend money to make money, but that was beside the point. The point was she -- well, her sub-employers, Hera and Clark -- needed to find a way to generate money so as to make it.

  But how?

  The answer came to her after pulling a Core.

  She placed the Power Core with the others in the rack. There were over two dozen by now just sitting there, waiting to be used.

  In the command chamber she saw piles of equipment. Stuff that looked like drones, other stuff that looked like armor. And... grenades?

  She didn't dare touch any of it least she activated some hidden defense protocol and had to fight off some sentient stapler or something. She did look at the goods. As she looked at them, a thought occurred to her: These look like a good quality.

  And then, what if Hera sells some of these? Could this be it, the solution to their money problems?

  Where would they even sell such things, though? Drones, grenades, armor. None were exactly things the normal shopper was interested in buying.

  Wait... that Theo boy. Didn't I hear Hera chide him on his 'underground' connections?

  She couldn't wait. She had to call up Clark right away.

  The line rang for several minutes. He was likely asleep, considering the hour.

  Beep: he picked up: "Brenda? What's the matter?" Clark sounded tired. Dead tired. Was the life of a Lifer really so draining?

  "Clark. I'm sorry for calling you so late. I know you probably are in no mood to talk business, but I had an idea I wanted to run by you."

  On the other end of the line, she heard a small groaning sound. "Uh, fine... but make it quick, please. I was in the middle of sleep."

  "Yes! I will. Now, I have been chit-chatting with Hera a bit on the finances of how you guys pay me. Two hundred credits a day is a lot. I mention this because while I was on my shift tonight, I noticed what appeared to be places in the chamber where additional work benches might be hidden. This got me thinking that more people might be brought on." She took a breath before continuing. "Whether or not that's the case, we could, theoretically speaking, pay for more help by selling the some of the goods you guys make, those grenades and armor and such. I didn't touch any, but they looked of a good quality." Clark tried to say something, but Brenda kept on her verbiage until she had said everything she had to say. "Which brings me to my final point! Theo is good with the underground, yeah? He can sell the goods for us! Okay! That's my spiel!"

  Clark took a deep breath. "That sounds like something I will need to check out. Hiring more people to help... we'll see. I like the idea of selling a few of the things we produce. I will take this under consideration. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Goodnight, Brenda."

  The call ended.

  She thought the call went pretty well! More than well, in fact!

  But the surprises did not end there.

  She pulled a Power Core one day and wham! She received a notification: [Power Core Pulled: Lesser: Condition: Great: +25 XP].

  Twenty-five experience points for pulling a core? Now, if she was pulling more than two cores a day, she could get used to that!

  And what else did the notification say? That it was a 'lesser' core? What would 'medium' or 'greater' cores give for experience? What would Clark pay for pulling one? Moreover, what kind of device would a greater core power?

  Questions! All of which she did not have the answers to. But that was life, right?

  With nothing more to do, she decided her micro-shift was at an end. Before she left the chamber, Brenda remarked to herself how, someday, she could imagine this place bustling with people, all of whom would be busy in manufacturing goods to sell and other goods to use against the plague. When that day came, this place would be something like a HUB, a place of industry and progress.

  For now, it was little better than a ghost.

  But a ghost with latency capable of changing the world!