Mathew

Apparently, he wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep that night. Harper and Amber put their heads together and went to work on finding out the vulnerabilities of the glass slimes. They presented what they found at breakfast around Amber's workbench.

Pulled out of the corner, it held glass shards and some stoneware. These were the bowls with lids that Mathew had made for Harper's research.

Everyone but Mathew was chewing away at their stockpile of dried meat. Having had an excellent meal of mountain rock, Mathew didn't feel the need to take away from the others.

Keeping an eye on Grant, Mathew tried to spy on his mind again with mental attack. The buff had worn away quite a bit but it was now fading at a slower rate. What remained of the buff was enough that Mathew didn't have the confidence he could spy without being found out.

"Alright, we are all here now." Harper pointed at Grant and spoke sweetly. "You can't hide anything from me. If you ever threaten me or anyone else in my Hub you will fall asleep and never wake up. Regarding my tablet and charger, I may be willing to leave them in your hands for safekeeping until we prove that Alphas are not stronger than our fortifications. At which point you will return my property to me."

Mathew's enhanced cognition paid dividends at that moment. Harper took a breath and resettled her shoulders. Veins in Grant's neck pulsed as his heart rate accelerated. Wincing, Ben lowered his head. Taking this all in, Mathew started funneling Mental Support to Harper.

"Now that we have a more unified front, let's focus on what is important, shall we? Amber and I have discovered some weaknesses in the slimes. I'll demonstrate."

Setting a plate-like shard in front of herself, Harper struck it with a wood mallet. Predictably the monster quality material held up just fine.

Pulling the lid off two pots, Harper took one pinch of each. Holding her hands over the plate like a praying mantis, she sprinkled them both over the whole panel.

Blue sparks and shimmering fractals spread out like a snowflake. Clinging to the surface of the plate, the shimmer moved the granules around enough to mix them, causing even more of a reaction.

Striking the plate again, it shattered like a cheap window pane.

"Cold embrittles the slime within the glass enough that the whole thing can be easily shattered. So far, I've only synthesized what we have here in the two jars but Ben says the ingredients aren't difficult to acquire. Amber and I are looking at delivery options with her arrows, next." Harper delivered her presentation.

Before Harper put the jars away, Mathew scanned them.

[Minor Chill Powder

Undergoes slow endothermic reaction to generate an aura of frost. A slow consumption of power and affordable cost make this powder ideal for refrigeration

Increase skill to learn more]

[Minor Catalyst of Growth

Used for farming rare stable ingredients. This catalyst is not cost-effective for most crops and causes too much instability in most crops it would be cost-effective for. Universal catalyst 43%.

Increase skill to learn more]

"Finally, we have this," Harper poured a vial of clear liquid over a new sample of glass. "At about thirty seconds or so it's not as immediate as the Chill Powder. Also, it doesn't embrittle the glass. Even with those drawbacks, it may be one of our better options."

Picking up a glass knife of hers, she sliced the plate in two.

"Plain water. Makes the slimes less viscous, to the point that even I can cut them." Clearing samples away another time, Harper moved one last jar front and center.

Removing the lid presented a mirror finish. As the lid clunked against the side of the jar, it rippled like a liquid. "This mirror liquid may or may not block their attacks. It's still better than nothing and probably won't have any side effects. This jar is also all we have. The necessary components I had to use were the result of days of research. Finally, it is water soluble. Any questions?"

"How long will it take to make a delivery method for the chill agent and what specifically is required?" Grant asked.

"We are prototyping methods now but I've got no idea how long it'll take. Weapon prototyping wasn't the job of anyone in this room. That being said, I did consider your deadline. If it comes to it, Amber could mix each shot before firing. It would be slow but it would work." Harper gestured at some ingredients on the table.

Scanning a fuzzy red branch, Mathew seeing it growing under the willow tree closet to where he came to Leternum.

[Torispine

A parasite infested branch that crystalizes regicite to protect itself.

Increase skill to learn more]

More ingredients came forth and while Mathew diligently scanned them, he didn't recognize what territory they came from. Other than his two trips into the territory of the Field Cats, he hadn't really explored. When he gained enough power or some stealth, that would change.

"We still need some type of water delivery method." Grant pointed to the sapphire orb near the ceiling. "How far can you run that piping?"

"Not outside the Hub." Harper answered.

"There's a buttload of water against the territory now," Amber said. "All up and down both sides we can see. That's why I thought we should check something that didn't scan as anything special."

"It wasn't like that for our last expedition." Grant stroked his beard. "And the Night Stalker wouldn't have to bother changing the terrain to best them. Fascinating."

"We still need a delivery method that we can unleash from a distance." Mathew pointed out. "What I would give for a 99 cent package of water balloons."

"Guts," Ben spoke up for the first time. "Intestines. Filled with water just like a water balloon."

Grant turned to Mathew. "Does all this satisfy your "doing it right" requirements?"

"Yeah, it does." Mathew nodded. "Let's get to it then. I can help with prototyping an arrow delivery method for the Chill Powder. Ben, I'm going to have to ask for you to hunt for guts. Grant, can you gather the ingredients here for Chill Powder?"

"Indeed," Grant rose to his full height and turned to leave.

"One moment Grant." Harper spoke quietly.

Grant turned quizzically. "Yes."

"I know you heard me but I need you to know that I meant it literally. If you violate my will in this Hub you will fall asleep and never wake again." Harper snapped her fingers, and Grant dropped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.

The moment drew out and Harper's badass veneer broke. "Oh my god, oh my god. I just did that." She took a deep breath. After visibly calming, Harper waved her hand.

Grant picked himself up off the floor and left without another word. Mathew hoped that'd be the end of it but he knew that Grant was obsessively determined.

"Whatcha want me to do, General?" Amber asked like that hadn't just happened.

"General, I wish I had those skills," Mathew shook his head. "Uh. You'll be the lead on prototyping. Given it's your bow and you'll be shooting it, the design will have to make you happy... any chance you can whip together another bow?"

Amber shrugged.

They broke off and got to work. Amber gave Harper a fist bump and side hug before Harper went to process the remainder of her ingredients.

Moving the workbench back to its corner Mathew and Amber started sketching out ideas. The problem was pretty simple. They needed the two powders to mix on some trigger and then disperse on an target impact, while still being an arrow that could actually be shot accurately.

Amber had already tried one leather pouch within another, several versions, none of which worked acceptably.

Mathew's magic brought more options to the table. He started by making a stack of disks the last one was perforated like a shower head and the following two were made with weak spots. So that when it hit an object, it'd compress the two powders together like a syringe and spray them over the target.

After looking at it funny and having Mathew explain it Amber laughed. "I think your overthinking it. Why don't you just make it two cylinders like a glowstick? Both get to shatter all over the target at the same time. Keep it simple, like me."

"You said it," Mathew replied with mirth.

They made prototypes using pulverized grey stone and the red dirt from Harper's transition to have two colors of powders in their testing. Too sturdy and the cylinder wouldn't break, or only one of the two would. Too weak and it would break under the force of the shot. While that may sound easy, Amber showed him how the angle of impact would change how pressure is applied. Testing on targets with different angles a lot of the shots wouldn't break. Eventually Mathew weakened them so much it broke on Amber's release of the string.

To make it break apart reliably when it impacts a target, Mathew put in stress lines. The first one worked beautifully... except half the powder got caught in the cylinder that didn't just shatter.

Many, many iterations later, they settled on break spirals. No matter how she shot, it would break on the target and mix the powders.

Having a solution, Mathew moved on to mass production. It was tedious and required most of his focus. Only taking a little Digestion magic after he roughed it in, his only limit was the time spent to make them. So he did. In the past, he'd get tired of this, and in fact, he did only a few days ago. Instead of practicing his ability, he started carving. Improving his mental stats changed who he was.

That did stop him. Was he becoming who he wanted to be? The alacrity of his new mind reminded him of how easily he'd shifted into spying on others with Mental Attack. It had attack right there in the name. On the other hand, he could now carry the weight needed to embrace the suck.

"What's up?" Amber looked up from her spare bow parts.

"What do you think of me?" Mathew asked.

"I like ya. You're a good man and I want to support you. Can't think of anyone else I'd have as General of New Texas." Amber brushed a lock of blond hair behind her ear. "If you was asking about other things. I'm holding out for knowing I'm safe. And uh..." She gestured at Mathew's full-body bone armor. "All that ya know."

He'd wanted to know if he was still a good man, the rest... In Mathew's mind, he knew what the choice of sealing himself in represented, but the feeling of living it out was so much worse than its sterile idea. Being shot down by a pretty girl wasn't new. Heck, he wasn't even making a move this time. All the same, the idea of this being permanent, Mathew ruminated on it.

When he could trust his voice, he spoke again. "General of New Texas huh? I could get used to that."

"Maybe you can get this reversed sometime in the future. Come on, it's a world of magic." Amber saw right through him.

"Yeah, it is." Mathew's heart wasn't in it.

Throwing himself mindlessly into work suddenly got a lot easier. Time passed as the pile of lumber to his right turned into finished shells on his left. At some point, Harper delivered some glue and powders.

Assembling the arrowheads was done in stages. Funnel the catalyst into the outer shell, the chill powder into the inner shell and glue a cap to the end. Slowly the pile on his left slimmed down to completed shells in uniform rows across the back of the workbench.

As Mathew assembled the last few, Harper interrupted. "Hey Mat. I got you something."

Oh great Amber's talking to Harper about my feelings. Cringe washed through him. Thankfully his face was unreadable.

"What is it?" Mathew asked.

Harper handed over a black leaf. Not just standard black but darker than he'd ever seen before, as though it absorbed all the light.

"I was hoping your Alpha Phage perk would give you an edge if you used this. I can't make enough mirror liquid for everyone and you need it less than everyone else. But I can't stand not giving you something better to..." Harper took a steadying breath. "Just don't get all burnt up again."

Oh, this wasn't about me. Mathew thought. "I'm afraid I won't be able to do that. It's always been my lifelong dream to become a pile of charcoal."

"Yeah, yeah. Eat the leaf already." Harper insisted.

Breathing his magic over the dark leaf, Mathew opened his Alpha phage menu.

[Alpha phage

Wraith ~ Gain the ability to digest mind power and thoughts

Shield Boar ~ Gain the ability to digest shields

Rock Tooth Slime ~ Gain the ability to digest stone

Field Grass ~ Gain the ability to digest radiation

Light Fruit Tree ~ Gain the ability to digest radiation]

Running his metaphysical fingers over the information, some things popped out to him when comparing the last two. The meaning behind "radiation" wasn't the same between the two. Light fruit tree digestion of radiation was a lot more all-encompassing. Field grass was limited to primarily red and blue light.

"Thank you, Harper." Mathew slotted light fruit tree.

"You are welcome." Harper smiled. "Oh, how is Ben holding up, with Grant and all that?"

"I've been working all day and haven't had a chance to really find out yet. Speaking of, how did you drop Grant?" Mathew asked.

"A perk, sorry bad wording, a benefit of empowering the Hub with Hibernation. I can force people to hibernate. Between you and me, it drained my magic and the storage of the Hub. You really need to be careful who you boost the stats of." Harper replied.

Grunting, Mathew returned to finishing his shells.

After he completed them, they had a subdued dinner. Ben and Grant still had their tension but on top of that, everyone felt the pressure of tomorrow.

They'd break into a monster's home tomorrow. An Alpha beast of who's lessor version had cooked him alive. The alternative was waiting to die and Mathew was not going to go gently into the night. If something was coming to kill him, he'd do his duty and make it die first. Even more so when it was coming after others.

This is what he sacrificed for. Those sacrifices would not go to waste.