Patterns

Chapter 66

My primary focus for several weeks was getting my dungeon ready for possible visitors. The party Elim had described had at least four members he'd seen who were lower than fifth level. So the skeletons would most likely be enough to handle them, even if they made it past everything else.

Despite that, I decided to act as if I was expecting a higher-level party. Overkill was definitely preferable to underkill when it came to protecting my core. Especially since they had at least one weird magic item on them. If they had more, it would skew their overall power levels.

The bone brigade ran the levels just after refresh every day. It gave me time to incorporate their notes into the day's building work. Aesthetic development took a backseat to practical concerns, but not completely. Since I had a framework in place already for most layers, they were still cohesive.

To help facilitate the testing, I made a point of showing up in the Necropolis daily. I'd chat with the skeletons before the test and after. Even so, I couldn't say I was any better acquainted with them than I had been before the meetings started. They'd started out getting a little more chatty with me, but that had quickly tapered off under the monotony.

At the end of the third week, I was starting to feel all work and no play would make 42 a dull girl. I felt dull. My body was not nearly so freakishly pliant as usual. Even my orbs felt oddly gritty despite being made of fire, or something that looked like it.

Looking at the skeletons waiting for the debrief before the test, I felt like they were experiencing something similar. With a possible raid expected, the league had been put on hold. Even gambling had reached an all-time low in the tense atmosphere.

"Okay. No test phase today. I think we all need to… do other things for a bit," I said finally. I hadn't made any significant changes, so waiting another day or two wouldn't hurt anything.

"You sure, boss?" Jeffry asked, sounding hopeful rather than surprised.

"Yeah… We've worn down the rough spots. It should be fine to leave off until I change anything major," I replied, my resolution to take a day off growing. The skeletons exchanged looks, and silent discussion, then looked back at me.

"Go on then. I'll text when I'm ready for another. Maybe we can get in a league match tomorrow instead," I said, and that caused a murmur of excitement. The bone brigade departed with more of a spring in their step than I'd seen in a week. I really had been negligent with morale.

Free, I took the opportunity to go to my chamber of machinations and do absolutely nothing productive for a couple hours. I started with some yoga to get my body back to its normal, horrifyingly elastic state.

Once I was satisfied I could move like a boneless abomination, I curled up on my couch with a can of chaos beverage. I wasn't really a passive lounger and opened my art interface instead. I didn't work on my layouts or aesthetics, though; I started drawing for fun.

It had been a while since I'd made anything that didn't have an express purpose in mind when I started. It took a couple tries to shake the rust off and start just enjoying the process instead of worrying about the result. After that, it felt pretty nice to just dick around, though pure creational delight didn't last long.

I couldn't help but dig into my low priority cue and drag out a project I'd neglected. Namely, creating team mascot drawings for the raid league. Still, I kept it to rough thumbnails, enjoying the process rather than worrying about what the skeletons would think of my designs. I'd do things properly and work with them later, but I enjoyed just playing around for now.

When I ran out of ideas and any desire to keep drawing, I checked my clock. I'd been messing around for about four hours. Then, after another round of stretches, I found I felt almost halfway normal. Still a bit sluggish and unmotivated, but nothing even half so severe as what I had felt just after refresh.

Ideally, I would have rested a bit more. I didn't have a biological need for sleep, but I benefited from breaks and variety in my activities. Recent events had clearly illustrated that much.

The couch and aimless art projects were tempting, but I couldn't help a certain amount of anxiety. I couldn't pinpoint precisely when, but I'd been feeling a kind of nagging sense of wrongness. Like something was just a little to the left of where it was supposed to be. A feeling that, like remembering that you forgot something, was irritatingly useless.

[System Notice: Patch Available]

A prompt appeared without so much as a chime. I looked at it curiously but didn't move to do anything. It didn't have anything like a request for permission, but I felt uneasy about how unexpectedly it had appeared.

[System Notice: Mandatory Patch Available]

[Activate Patch: Yes]

Without warning, the notice changed to include a button. I wasn't even slightly tempted to accept it. I'd never seen a mandatory anything from the system before, and everything else had both accept and reject options.

Not to mention the font was wrong. I didn't know what I was looking at, but it felt like some kind of scam.

"What the actual fuck?" I muttered to myself.

[Hey Agony,

I'm getting a weird prompt about a system patch. It says it's mandatory and only has an accept option. Am I paranoid?

-42]

I hit send, and an error tone sounded. That was not a good sign. Panicking a little, I threw the notice to the side, hoping it would close like a force-stopped browser window. It obediently disappeared to reveal a string of runes floating in the air where it had been.

"42?" Henry called from the antechamber. I looked over, surprised but not alarmed.

"Hey, come in," I said easily, happy to see him. He'd been around, but I'd been busier than usual, so we hadn't been talking too much. A stray glance at my system clock told me I'd been messing around for nearly six hours.

I didn't have the keenest sense of the passage of time, but that was a little much. Put off by the discrepancy, I checked my event log. I felt like something major had to have happened.

Instead of an explanation, I found a single new entry in what looked like runes. My anxiety instantly ratcheted up a couple of notches. I couldn't say what they looked like exactly, only that they felt oddly familiar. The more I tried to get the shimmering images to clarify, the more they seemed to skitter away from my orbs.

"42?" Henry inquired again. He was standing next to me now. My orbs flickered in surprise. Unless he had used a class ability, he shouldn't have been able to get so close so quickly.

"Sorry, guess I'm just kind of spacy today," I said, trying to shake off my unease. I felt like I'd forgotten something, but I couldn't explain what.

"Y-You have s-s-seemed… distracted l-lately," Henry agreed, looking me over in concern. As if he'd be able to uncover whatever was wrong just by looking.

"I probably need a nap," I muttered, recalling the sensation from my core. I wasn't sure, but spending some time with it again might help. Despite that, I couldn't justify doing so just yet. Not with adventurers potentially approaching as we spoke.

"O-Oh? I had h-heard t-the wicked re-require no-no rest," Henry offered with a chuckle. I couldn't help laughing at that.

"Perhaps I'm not so evil after all," I countered, scrubbing my face with my hands. A shuffling sound caught my attention, and I looked up to find Henry shift uncomfortably in place.

An unusual thing for him to do, particularly since his initial case of nerves when he was summoned had subsided. He was also holding his hands behind his back, which was suspicious.

"Henry?" I inquired, looking pointedly to his arms then back up to his jewels. He looked away from my orbs.

"S-S-Since you've fe-felt out of sssss-" Henry's words seemed to suddenly catch. It had been a while since he'd stuttered too badly, and this was a new level. It was like the words were threatening to choke him.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"I I…Uhm, w-well. These these… Here!" Henry exclaimed. He tried to press a bouquet of roses to me. He'd misjudged the distance, however, and ended up lobbing them into my arms instead. My orbs flickered as we just stared at each other for several heartbeats, both of us surprised.

"Henry-" I had no idea what I was going to say. Henry saved me from having to figure it out. He used his class's enhanced movement speed to sprint out of the room in a blaze of blue that matched his jewels.

Bewildered, I looked down and found the roses were made of leather with carved stems. The flowers were blue-green on the outside with green hearts that resembled the color of my orbs. They were lovely.

I spent a few moments studying them. They were the first gift I'd received since arriving. I wanted to display them and quickly carved a wall niche and simple vase for them. A message chime sounded just as I finished.

[Mistress 42,

I had noticed you seemed out of sorts and wished to cheer you up. I hope that my antics have if the flowers did not.

Apologetically,

Henry]

"Awww," I couldn't help the exclamation or the laughter that followed. It was a sweet gesture, and if Henry had stayed, I'd certainly have given him a hug in thanks. I wanted to reply immediately, but ended up scrapping three drafts before finally settling on something reasonable.

[Henry,

Your thoughtfulness would have been enough, but the roses are beautiful. I appreciate both.

-42]

I'd have been grinning if I had a mouth. As it was, I was doing a swoopy little dance, my prior troubles forgotten for the moment.