BACK AT THE BUNKER, Zan and Company were getting up for another morning of bunker busting. Their exploits from the previous day though high in their heads, were but a drop of the action they needed if they wanted to clear out the overgrown Fatal Graze which had colonized an entire hallway.

  With the black tea flavored with orange and cinnamon fresh in his belly, Zan addressed the group. "So, the villagers won't be around until tomorrow for the fieldwork. We will have the whole day, then, for bunker investigation, right?"

  Jiehong answered, "I think so? You were the one who talked with them that night. But Whiskey was the one who talked with them more recently."

  "Yeah. Tomorrow. At the earliest, though. I think we will have another day, at least, before they show up. I imagine the labor we are going to pay them to do is at the bottom of their agenda. Their community service and training is going to come first, of course."

  "Good. I was curious and couldn't remember. I only asked to confirm we would have time. I really want to get this bunker cleared out. Honestly, I thought we would be on the move to the next bunker by now, not still clearing out this one..."

  Although his teammates grumbled in agreement with him, Jie was the voice of reason: "It's mighty frustrating. But mighty frustrating stuff like this is just how we are going to have to work for a while. We take the blows as they come. Nothing more, nothing less. We're doing what we can where we think it will have the most impact. We shouldn't lose sight of that. Which reminds me! Another thing we shouldn't lose sight of is that huge Fatal Graze. Any strategies for how we are going to overcome that?"

  Thinking aloud, he said, "Fire? That's what it's weak to, right?"

  "Sure, bud, but I mean how are we going to use fire to clear out a whole hallway of fungal fae nonsense? Especially with your own magic still depleted. Mine and Whiskey's might be there still, a tiny bit, anyway. We can only do so much..."

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  "Grenades should work well, then, yeah?" Whiskey said, joining the conversation.

  "We're not going to have enough grenades to clear out a hallway as long as that one was. And even then, our grenades aren't fire based. Sucks for you, Whiskey. You've been a Ranger-Knight for how long? A week? And you haven't gotten to use your grenades once! I pity you," Jiehong said.

  "But what if this?" he said and then pinged Screen Master MAC. "MAC, buddy old pal, is it possible to set fire to the grenades and turn them into a wicked fireball grenade, where all the shrapnel is on fire and stuff?"

  "Magical flame will only soak into minor aspects of the weapon. The answer to your question, however, is 'yes.' It is possible for a magically induced flame to spread along each piece of the weapon after detonation. Naturally occurring flames, however, will have no point of penetration into the weapon as the devices were designed with heat resistance in mind. Unfortunately, the flames along each piece would be so mild as to hardly cause additional damage," MAC explained.

  Thinking over what he heard, he was let down. "Lame," he said. "I thought it would have been easy to get an explosive thing to spread fire. Guess not... is it possible to design grenades in mind with fire spreading in mind?"

  Simulacrum answered this question, "Yes," he said. "In fact, such grenades have already been designed. Unfortunately, the resources to begin manufacture are beyond us at the moment. Considering your current objectives, and the state of base and now bunker repairs, it is likely a better use of our time to focus on re-activating the bunker complex than scouring the war-torn land for hard-to-acquire resources. When the situation changes, however, research and development will need to take priority to catch up with our extreme focus on base maintenance."

  Already feeling his eyelids grow heavy again from tracking the Screen Master's multi-topic explanations, he drank deeply again from his cup of tea. "Thank you, Screen Masters. That will be all," he said.

  "That would have been a cool idea. I want those fire grenades..." Jiehong said, getting up, preparing to head into the bunker.

  Let down by supposition but otherwise unharmed, they returned down into the second floor. Step, step, step...

  The door opened and once more they saw the massive Fatal Graze dominate the hallway, its fungal roots coating parts of the hall like spider-webs.

  "Okay, we got to about the second of these large tile panels," he said to his team. "Then we discovered the fae, though, in hindsight, I have no idea how we didn't notice it before... point is, now or never. Let's get to this!"