Alexander woke up and looked forward to starting the day with his new routine. He moved to his bathroom and gargled with some mouth wash, after that he splashed his face with water and shaved clean. He then started breakfast going with an egg and Quinoa bowl. There had been no level ups for a while, he might need to challenge himself. Maybe the Beef Bourguignon planned for dinner tonight would pay off.

  Next he went up the stairs into his loft with the pedestal to have his breakfast with the lovely three-sixty view from above the city. After he finished he did some light exercise, not so much he got too sweaty, but enough to put him out of breath. Twenty-Five squats, push-ups, and sit-ups. Grabbing his monogrammed towel he dampened it and wiped his brow and arms.

  On the way back down he checked on the demi-dragon cocoon. The color had shifted from white to black. He would have been worried this was a sign of it dying, as it was common in a failed clutch of eggs to have them turn a dark shade. Amongst the black coloring however, were yellow marbled streaks over the encasement. Alexander wasn’t sure when it would come out of what appeared to be a metamorphosis, but he was anxious to see the demi-dragon healthy and active again.

  After he adjusted the heat lamp to make sure the cocoon was comfortably warm, he went to his refrigerator and grabbed his packed lunch and left for work. So far his schedule had him in a great rhythm. He grabbed his coffee and heated it up.

  ^

  You have modified a common item.

  Closing the window in record-breaking time he sat down at his desk… and there it was again. Alexander felt a disturbance in the air. Something was… off. He felt as if his routine, his glorious life preserving routine, had been in a rut for the past few days. Despite the past two weeks life at home had not changed much.

  So what was it? He asked himself. Ever since…

  “Hey Alex! How’s it going?” Ridley asked as her head poked into the opening of his cubicle sanctuary.

  Ah-ha, there it is... Ridley.

  She was working the day shift just for training this week. It seems she had a break from school for some personal reason. Maybe some obscure religious holiday? Alexander didn’t feel it was proper to ask.

  “If you would please call me Alexander, as it is my name Crew Member Ridley.” He adjusted his glasses and looked at her sternly, as his father always used to do when making sure he was paying attention. “Things are going fine. I plan to resolve two inefficiencies that have been plaguing this distribution center by end of day… Soon I will have the issue of people's prolonged bathroom breaks solved as well.”

  Alexander was referring to a new quest he had received the previous day. He found it convenient when the quests lined up perfectly with the most important issues plaguing the company. His next idea had to do with time activated spider illusions when someone sits on the toilet too long. This would cut down significantly on people loitering in the bathrooms, secretly checking their social media.

  The company had put a temporary hold on the cell phone ban to release some of the pressure building up to a company wide strike. He just needed to work out the details of the time delayed trigger, and figure out how to get into the women’s restroom without breaking any rules.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  “Ha, you’re weird.” Riley said startling Alexander. He had forgotten she was there already. Company inefficiencies seemed to make him lose himself.

  “So, did you see the new option to make yourself visible to other players?” She asked with a mischievous grin.

  “Players? I have no plausible idea for what you might be referring to.” he said coolly.

  Alexander had of course seen the ‘updated’ ability notification. However, such an ability would only bog him down with more interactions with people like Ridley, who were magnetically drawn to his new-found charisma. Part of him was regretting updating those stats, and was hesitant to do so when the opportunity came up again.

  “Well I flipped mine on this morning and I think I already saw someone in sanitation with abilities from across the warehouse. It’s like glowing words over their head. I would have been able to see them if I was able to get close, but I would have had to cut across the robot section and those things freak me out.”

  “Well the prospect of you stepping into the designated automated sorting system area freaks me out Ms Ridley. It would be exceedingly likely that I would have had to fill out a work incident report today if you had done so.” Alexander said sternly.

  “Yeah, yeah, thank you for your concern. Well, I’m headed to lunch, do you want to join me? We can talk about super power stuff.” She waved her hands and wiggled her fingers at him.

  “I do not like comic books or their related movies Ms. Ridley.” He responded slyly pretending ignorance to her meaning.

  “Sad day. Well, see you later Mr Roboto.” She said as she locked her arms at an angle and swung them mechanically. She made robot noises while walking slowly out of the cubicle.

  Alexander sighed with exasperation. Hiring Ridley was not a mistake per se. She was panning out to be a good worker and everyone from her training group seemed to get along with her. He thought it might be in part due to the shock when the group realized she could lift significantly more than they could, despite her stature. She was quickly becoming something akin to a mascot for the afternoon and evening shift. The tiny red-headed super woman.

  What troubled Alexander was the fact she tried to talk to him so casually about his wizardry studies. Not precisely a problem, it just threw Alexander off of his routine and made him feel… inefficient. As he was currently positioned in human resources, he couldn’t precisely tell her not to talk to him as the point of his job was to fix employees issues. His neighbor Emily had a younger sister close to her age. Maybe he would ask her about how to interact with young women. Emily seemed to be a person who he would be able to go to for consultation…

  Ack! Alexander mentally proclaimed. My productivity is going down again.

  The issue with the disgruntled employees was only growing worse. The number of people that were talking about strikes were growing. The cell phone ban on the horizon was exacerbating the whole situation. Delayed for only another few days. He would need to see if any of his future abilities would be able to resolve the issue.

  Alexander still had a month and a half to recruit more employees to satisfy his quest… that’s not right.

  He was trying to satisfy Susan’s requirements for promotion. They were one and the same but he needed to keep his priorities straight. Alexander cracked his knuckles and dove back into his work. As he opened his emails and clicked on the first one, it revealed a picture of a torn open box with the contents strewn around the floor near it. The contents of the email described the nature of the damage and location it was found. By Alexanders guess on the information, this was not conveyor damage, but intentional damage.

  ^

  New Quest!

  The Unboxing:

  Boxes are being destroyed and their contents disappearing. Find and neutralize the perpetrator!

  Objective: Find the one who is vandalizing boxes

  Quest rewards:

  -550 xp

  -4 silver

  Someone is opening packages!? A chief sin in the shipping industry indeed. Alexander dove into his new quest wholeheartedly. Writing down all of the details on his notepad before he went to investigate.

  But first I will swing by the men's restrooms. He thought as he flipped to a glyph design he had worked on.