When Fire opened his eyes he wasn't lying on his back anymore, he was sitting. He sat on the familiar white park bench in the infinite black room. He was alone.

After sitting and waiting for a few minutes Fire was convinced that the Lady wouldn't appear. This happened sometimes. The frequency of this circumstance had gone up steadily over the years, this was not because the Lady visited less often but because Fire's dreams often wandered to their place of meeting. It was much better than some of the possible alternatives, that was certain.

Fire always took this time to think and reflect, having nothing else to do and nobody to talk to. Breaking out of the room frequently resulted in nightmares, something Fire understandably wanted to avoid.

The topic Fire decided to think about first was his plan for the shelter. The next morning he'd mount a first expedition into the cave system with the rest of the group. Lucy would have to stay outside, she wouldn't be of much use, untrained as she was. Maybe once Rose taught her a few things she'd be able to come along.

They'd have to clear the caves out and light them up, ideally map them at the same time. If they ran into a spawner they'd have to destroy it if it was too close to the core region of the cave system. If it was a bit further out it could be exploited for various resources, most grinder designs should translate adequately.

Declaring the previous topic done, Fire thought back on a short conversation he had had with Shadow, she had told him that Lucy looked remarkably like a certain former classmate of his. Irene to be specific, the girl Fire, or rather Peter back then, had confessed his love to after their celebratory class trip. The girl that had died along with all of his other friends in the bus crash that had followed not more than a few minutes after. The girl that had for a long time stood in the center of Fire's trauma. The trauma that had gradually become Claw. The trauma that sent him on his way to eventually meet the scientists that were able to help Shadow escape the prison of her own mind.

Fire sighed. No, it was only a very intriguing coincidence. He hadn't even looked when he had sent the flaming ring into the crowd that had ended up above Lucy. It was as he had told Destiny, he had worked through his trauma, his success in life and Shadow's cure had contributed a large amount to this, therapists and the scientists' software had done the rest. Now the only thing that remained of that past was the monster he had made for himself, Claw. And a monster he was. Fire would have to find a way to rid himself of Claw someday. That day would be the day after he was done with this whole interdimensional mess, one way or another.

Fire wondered if the next morning had arrived yet, the passage of time in dreams was rather unpredictable. He decided to use the remaining time in the dream for more planning.

Fire was the first of the group to wake up. As he slowly got out of his bed, Voidblade woke up as well, Fire quietly greeted him. After a quick look outside the barricade Fire confirmed that it was indeed morning. It was time to wake the others up.

Fire walked over to Urist's bed first. Just when he went to wake the dwarf, Urist suddenly sat straight up in his bed and started shouting at the top of his lungs and with a stronger accent than usual.

"PULL THA LEV'R! PULL THA GODS DAMNED LEV'R!"

After realizing where he was he looked down in embarrassment. "Sorry. Ghosts o' me past."

It sufficed to say that everyone was now properly awake.

After having breakfast in the form of magically preserved food that Fire had brought with him, the group was ready to mount their first foray.

Fire said: "Let's talk strategy. The caves probably aren't very wide so we can't all go at the same time. I suggest that Voidblade and I form the vanguard with Urist, Destiny and Rose following behind. Most hallway battles probably won't concern you but feel free to offer ranged support. In larger rooms or bigger sections of cave we can spread out."

Destiny asked: "What about lighting up the caves?"

Fire nodded. "I was about to cover that. Urist, can you see in the dark?"

"Aye." The dwarf said.

Fire continued: "Alright then, Rose and Destiny will be the ones carrying the torches since you need them to see anyways. I have a few magical flares for fighting in larger rooms."

Rose said: "I can also conjure up more torches as we go, can't be too different from knives."

Lucy asked: "I'll stay here, right?"

Fire replied: "Yes. I'll leave most of my baggage outside so if you want you can start sorting through the contents so we can access the supplies more easily later."

Lucy enthusiastically nodded.

Everything was decided. After a few more minutes of preparation they were ready to go. As Fire entered the cave, the colors in his vision got more muted but didn't disappear entirely. His night vision was not entirely physical; there was a small part of magic in it too, enabling him to see without any ambient light.

The first few sections of the cave were lit up without incident. It seemed that no monsters were present. This was a good sign; a highly active area would be much harder to secure and colonize.

After a bit more walking the cave suddenly expanded to a huge cavern, so huge that they wouldn't be able to cleanly sweep it if they stayed in formation. There were several groups of monsters in the cavern, mostly zombies and skeletons with a few spiders and creepers in between.

"Spread out. Take on whatever you can and call for help if you need it."

Fire reached to his side where a bag was affixed to his armor. Inside was a magical flare, little more than a one-use light spell bound to a fragile crystal with a small detonator attached. He threw the flare up to the ceiling and a few seconds later the cavern was bathed in a bright, red light. It would stay up for long enough for them to clear the cavern out.

Fire was on the left side of the cavern and there was a group of zombies straight ahead of him. He charged them with his halberd at his side and opened with a wide arcing swing. The diamond blade cleanly separated multiple heads from their respective bodies, the black flames from the blade quickly consumed the newly re-dead corpses. With a quick series of slashes and thrusts Fire defeated the remaining zombies.

As Fire scanned the cavern for his next target, he also took a quick look at the others. Urist and Voidblade had teamed up on a group of skeletons. Urist's plate armor made him impervious to the arrows and he was surprisingly quick on his feet for someone of his stature. First he crushed the skeletons' legs, then once they had fallen, their heads. Voidblade used his teleportation to avoid the arrows. While his spear was mostly ineffective against the skeletons he had enough strength to rip them limb from limb and have Urist crush up the pieces.

Fire's next opponents were two creepers. He decided to be a bit safer with them since he hadn't encountered this world's version yet. Instead of going for instantly lethal attacks he merely punctured their lower bodies from the biggest distance possible and let the black flames do the rest. The creepers did not explode when they died; this was good to keep in mind, for the next ones he could be more direct.

To his right Rose was fighting a mixed group of enemies. Fire hadn't seen many fighting styles like Rose's. She kept a good distance between her and her enemies and bombarded them with sharp knives that she seemed to manifest from thin air. If enemies got too close she'd manifest different blades and brutally eviscerate them. To call it a dance would be wrong, this style lacked the beauty of dancing but more than made up for it with ruthless brutality.

Destiny was hanging back and took out far away enemies with her bow, each and every arrow hit its mark. Fire hadn't seen Destiny fight before but from what he had heard she was also capable of magic, specifically control over heat and cold. Currently she seemed to prefer using her bow though.

Less than a minute later they had completely cleared out the cavern. Afterwards they spent a bit more time lighting it up, once they were done they were faced with a different problem.

Rose asked: "There are multiple exits, where do we go first?"

Fire said: "We either take the leftmost or the rightmost entrance first and continue that pattern until we have the entire system lit up. If we find that a branch goes too far we barricade it off and return."

They decided on going left first. At the entrance of the tunnel Fire scratched an arrow into the rock wall with his claws, facing towards the exit. When it came to unknown cave systems it was better to be safe than sorry.

###

Hours of exploring and fighting later they were starting to get tired. They had fully lit up all caves connected to the first cavern and found a second and third cavern, not far from the first one. This was very promising since those open areas would lend themselves very well to building larger structures. The second cavern specifically had two branches coming off that they had not fully explored due to their length, one going downwards and the other going upwards. The third cavern didn't have any other exits aside from the one connecting it to the rest of the cave system.

"That was good," said Destiny as they approached the barricade that would lead to the outside entrance.

Rose agreed: "Haven't had a fight like that in years. Last time was when I had to clear out the headquarters of a… rival of my employer."

Voidblade said: "I was afraid that I had neglected my spear for too long but it seems it's still sharp as ever."

Urist remarked: "That's the thing with blades, gotta keep 'em sharp. Ye don't have that kinda problem with hammers."

Fire opened the door in the barricade and went into their makeshift barracks first. He carefully leaned his halberd against the wall and took off his helmet, then proceeded towards the second door.

On the outside an unexpected sight came to his eyes. On the plateau where previously nothing but boulders had stood was now an arrangement of wooden dugouts. Each filled to the brim with materials. One housed wood logs, another various kinds of metal bars, a third had tool racks and armor stands.

From behind the log pile an exhausted but very content Lucy emerged, a smile spreading across her entire face. She yelled: "You aren't the only one here who can build quickly!"

Lucy came to a halt in front of Fire, she said: "Look. I took the stuff from the bags and put it out here, that way everyone can access it." After a short pause she asked: "How did the exploration go?"

Fire said: "It went excellently. The others are inside, probably putting away their gear. If all goes well we'll have the large part of this cave system cleared, lit and mapped within a few days. Once that's done we can get started on the interior, get some barracks and indoor farms going." Fire smiled. "And since we just got another builder we are well ahead of schedule. We might be able to send word to the hill in the next few days."

Lucy said: "That's great. However, now I think it would be best if we made something to eat. I bet you are hungry too."

The door behind Fire opened and Rose emerged. She said: "I only heard the tail-end of that but food definitely sounds good right about now."

Lucy pointed to a fully enclosed building. "That's where I put the food by the way."

Fire nodded. "Perfect, in about half an hour I'll have something for everyone."

He walked over to the building, inside he found that Lucy had not only built storage racks for the food but also a functional cooking area. It truly was rare that things went this much better than planned.