"Of course you can, I'm not that big of an asshole" I said with a laugh.

  Mike spoke up from behind me. "I'm not so sure about that. I've worked with Cap'n Dean for years he's a real slave driver."

  Then Greg chimed in with a grin. "Yea you should have seen how he treated those goblins. I'm telling you, this guy's heartless."

  "I didn't really have much of a choice with the goblins" I defended.

  Akira walked up with a light chuckle. "Sounds like the excuse of an evil dictator if you ask me."

  I put my hand on my heart in mock agony "I can't believe you would think so little of me. It's a good thing I have some fancy new buildings to check out or I might have started crying."

  Seeing our jovial spirits the passengers on the outside noticably relaxed and made their way in.

  "Go ahead and lock the gate back once your all in." I said over my shoulder as I walked over to one of the longhouses taking in the new building.

  It was a long rectangular building with a door at either end and maybe 80 feet long and 25 feet wide. The roof was about 10 feet up and looked like it was thatch or some kind of brown leaves woven together. Mounted in several places along the outside wall were what looked like torches. Basically a thick wooden stick hanging off the wall pointing upwards at a slight angle. Except instead of cloth or any other kind of wicking, the wood simply bulged into a knot at the top with the grains of the wood having an almost celtic patern to them. Walking in I saw that the building consisted of one room. In the center was a ceramic bellied stove it's pipe stretching straight up through the roof. Lining the walls were several wooden cots 10 on each side of the room with plenty of space between beds. There was also another torch hanging next to each one of the beds like a night light. On the far wall next to the door there was some fire wood neatly stacked in the corner. I looked behind me and there was a pile next to the door I had entered from as well.

  Well at least we have a day or so of ready to use fire wood already. That'll come in handy although it hasn't turned fall yet... Or... at least it wasn't yesterday. I suppose I don't really know if it'll get cold at night or not. Either way it's good to have, and 15-20!?. This thing is huge. You could easily fit 40 or more in here. Is this system thing afraid we'll spread the cudies or what?...

  One of the the flight attendants walked in, getting my attention and pulling me from my thoughts. "Excuse me, sir."

  She was in her early 20s and had long brunette hair tied back in a ponytail. Her frail light complexion broke by her flushed pink cheeks. On her uniform was a name badge above her left breast that read 'Kayla'

  "The passengers are talking about trying to get their luggage from the plane." She continued "they're asking us how to get to it. But the other attendants and I have no idea. Not even the lead attendant is sure. Could you help us out?"

  I turned to face her "Yeah no problem, it'll probably be pretty difficult without a ground crew and all their equipment. But let's go take a look"

  We made our way back out towards the southern gate where people had been congregating. When we got there another attendant approached me.

  She was in her mid to late 50s with a spray on tan and heavy makeup. Dark roots turned to Blond curls that bounced down not quite reaching her sholders. Her name badge read 'Cheryl' and she was a bit of a southern charm. She was my lead attendant for the flight. I'd talked to her a bit before we'd left. But we'd flown the same route together dozens of times and she was more of an independent leader and didn't need much from me. So we'd only talked a handful of times the whole flight.

  "Hey Dean, I sent Kayla to get ya. The passengers have been pushin pretty hard about gettin their bags back. Im not sure how we can get'em. Even you tall fellas can barely reach up there."

  The baggage door on the plane was about 6 feet off the ground and the inside of the baggage compartment was only about 4 and half feet tall. Unloading all these bags was going to be a nightmare.

  I stood there looking at the plane, just forming the beginnings of an idea. Surely that wouldn't work... Right? What the hell I figure there's no harm in trying.

  I walked over to the plane and reached up to touch the fuselage. "I swear if this works... That would be so cool."

  When my hand touched, I envisioned the whole thing being put in my inventory, bags and all. Then one moment a plane weighing over 100 tons sat in front of me and the next it was empty space. For a moment there was complete silence, then dozens of exclamations came all at once.

  "What the hell!?"

  "No way!"

  "How on earth?!"

  I stood there with the biggest shit eating grin on my face. I honestly hadn't expected that to work. But here I was touching empty space.

  I pulled up my inventory and could hardly believe my eyes. Taking up 10 slots was the plane. It was positioned as 2 rows of 5 and the box was labeled '787 plane'. Next to it was another slot with the picture of a suitcase on it That said baggage x 253. There were also several others that had populated as well consisting of tablets, phones, backpacks, and various other things.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Huh, I guess those must have been left either in the over head storage compartments or in the seats.

  Looking closer I saw that there was a connection between the plane and the other items. Like a small thread connecting all the new items together. I figure that must be because all this stuff was inside of the plane so if I wanted, I could take the plane back out with it all still inside.

  I turned around to face the crowd of on lookers. Then with a smile I asked, "Who'd like their stuff back?"

  I walked back inside the walls and past the long houses. Since they were all gathered close to the southern gate the majority of the walled in area was wide open field giving off a feel of emptiness. After I was clear of the long houses. I picked a spot in the knee high grass and deposited all of the luggage in neat rows. After I had emptied my storage of all the passengers luggage and belongings I turned back around to see a flood of shocked faces looking at me.

  I spoke up so all could hear. "Everyone here can do what I just did. You simply have to think about checking your inventory and it will pop up in front of you. From what I can tell this is a fairly basic aspect of the system. Everyone please come find your bags and put them in your inventory. When your done with that I would like everyone to please pick their class if they haven't already and try to become familiar with whatever spell or abilitys the system gives you."

  Wide eyed shock slowly turned to excitement. People started making their way over looking around until they found their bag. Most were showing looks of shock when their bags disappeared from their hands, especially the elderly. It was like they just couldn't believe that what was happening in front of their eyes was real.

  It'll probably take some time for everyone to adjust. After a while I'm sure it'll be like second nature to them, but for now its the most amazing thing they've ever seen. Some of them just sat there taking their belongings in and out, back and forth mesmerized by the objects vanishing before their eyes.

  By the time everyone had collected their belongings the shadows of the walls stretched far enough to cover almost all of the walled in area. Night was approaching and people were starting to argue over sleeping arrangements. I made the decision that the elderly, women and children would get first pick. Followed by the rest. There was some grumbling and a few protests but in the end everyone conformed when I told them it was only short term and there would be more longhouses soon.

  As soon as it became hard to see the mounted torches came to life. They looked as though they had a flame burning on top. But after looking closer you could tell it was just a ripling light that made no heat. For a while there was a handful of kids that kept poking at them, watching as the light waved and wiggled past their fingers.

  After everyone was settled I went outside and leaned against the wall of one of the longhouses staring out at the slowly pulsing orb of mana atop the pillar. The pillar was almost like a big nightlight softly illuminating the empty field surrounding it. It stood like a solemn lonely soldier in the middle of the night. I couldn't help but marvel at it and try to take a moment to process the days events.

  The weight of it all pressing down on me... the system, the magic, the monsters, but most of all my family. They were all alone out there. I could only imagine how terrified my wife must have been. Alice was all by herself trying to protect our girls. What were Sara and Rachel supposed to do? They were only 3 and 4 respectively. How did the system expect my little ones to survive.

  Thinking about it filled me with a mix of anger, fear, and resentment, turning my stomach and making me feel sick. I was so far away... when they needed me most. I steeled my resolve and vowed to do everything in my power to see them again.

  Looking up at the star filled sky I whispered "I... Will...see you again."

  I sat there for a while lost in my own thoughts, untill the pillar started humming catching my attention. The orb on top grew brighter and started pulsing faster. It grew in intensity until it was so fast you could hardly tell it was pulling anymore. Then all at once the energy that had been building sent a ring of light shooting down the pillar. When it hit the ground it spread out in all directions like a beacon pulse. The wave of light rushed past illuminating me for a moment as it went by. I watched as the wave continued spreading out away from the pillar disappearing past the walls.

  Then, just like that it was silent again. The pillar back to the way it had been just a moment before. I sat there perplexed for several minutes trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Apparently no one else had noticed because I didn't hear anyone shouting or coming out to see what the flash of light was.

  Just when I was about to write it off as some weird magic crap I didn't need to know about yet, I received a system message.

  I looked over the quests. Honestly they were pretty welcome. A little bit of direction during a time like this was what I needed. The progress on the first said one out of fifteen had already been cleared. I thought back to the goblin camp. So the system counted that... Good to know.

  And it looks like I need five more long houses until I meet the system minimums for housing. They were 200 mana a piece, so with the pillers regeneration of 500 per day it'll only take me another 2 days to do that one. Well, at least that quest will pretty much take care of itself with time.

  This other quest though. 14 more beast dens. I'm going to have to see who else if anyone has a combat class. If it's just Akira, Greg, Mike, and I we may have some difficult days ahead of us.

  But I supposed that's a problem for tomorrow. Right now I need to set up a watch to take turns monitoring the four gates. I looked back up at the stars and sighed, sleep wasn't going to be coming easy tonight.