Problem Solving?

Chp 50

With the first successful teleport completed, another elder was selected for the second test. When it went smoothly, an idea occurred to me. Instead of requesting another person to come to the valley, I called Dawn and had her find Ban. He’d been informed that the hermit would attempt to help the other refugees, but not how.

Once he went to the chamber with the teleporter, he was overjoyed to see Gretchen. The first elder to come through, and Amara, the second. They explained to him how they’d come to be in the valley along with the purpose of the strange symbols on the ground. It took no convincing to get him to try it himself. He was eager to see the rest of his clan.

“You’ll have to stay the night there, Ban. Are you alright with that?” Dawn asked Ban on my behalf. The plan had occurred to me suddenly, along with that particular drawback.

“I want to stay with them until the last of them can come through,” Ban replied without hesitation. I nodded as I watched through a view screen. He took his role as leader seriously, and I felt my estimation of him tick up a couple points. Not an easy thing since I already found him likable.

Once Ban was through, I watched as the rest of his clan relaxed visibly. Until that point, for all they knew, the elders who’d gone had simply been erased from existence. Ban proved it worked both ways and was able to help relieve their fears. He was someone they trusted who had actually been to the valley.

On my side of things, I had Gretchen, and Amara led out and brought to join the other Lepusan. Along with Dawn, they explained how they’d been brought over using a holy relic.

The rest who’d been left behind would come the same way. The reaction to the news was ecstatic but mixed, some crying or in disbelief while others fainted.

“You could have gone and told them yourself,” Henry said, startling me. I’d been watching the proceedings while he sat next to me and become engrossed.

“How?” I asked, confused for a moment.

“As Deux,” Henry reminded me. I was startled, having forgotten about that option altogether.

“That’s… something I’ll have to think about,” I said lamely. It would have been easier than going through Dawn as a proxy for everything. Despite that, I felt a deep reluctance. Henry looked at me searchingly but didn’t say anything. I buried myself in work to get my mind off it.

It took four days to get any real idea of what was going on for teleport costs. Distance was a factor, the cost shrinking a bit with every mile closer the group traveled. Yet, that didn’t account for everything. There was still a lot of variance between how much individuals cost.

Looking at the math, it was still clear that I’d be better off waiting until they were close to do more teleports. I could have had them continue on foot. Waiting until they encountered an obstacle would have lessened the teleport expense.

I’d been prioritizing the vulnerable members of the group. They left their non-personal belongings behind. Those who remained were healthy and well supplied now.

Despite the apparent logic, I didn’t suggest it. It wasn’t that long ago that Ban and his group had been relentlessly hunted by a group they called seekers. Seekers that they had been leading away from their main encampment. If another such force appeared, there might not be time to get the remaining people through.

There was no medicine for regret, and I knew I’d feel terrible if anything happened to the refugees on my watch. The teleports went ahead at a steady pace. I stuck to my preset limit. I also restricted myself from using the remaining mana in case of an emergency.

The number I could bring through increased every day. My stress declined proportionately. Keeping detailed notes, I looked at the record of who had gone through. The most significant cost factor was distance, but weight also played a role.

It was just a bit difficult to work out the math for it. Two children might be far apart in weight yet still cost the same. Then another might be more expensive despite only being a bit off from that pair. It suggested a bracket was involved, but I didn’t have enough raw data to figure it out.

“Everything still going well?” Henry called from the entrance of the chamber. I bounced up a bit, able to hover for short periods or when I was surprised. He’d been working in his shop in town and on a personal project, so I hadn’t seen him for two days.

“Thankfully,” I replied. Henry wasn’t in one of his usual dressy outfits. Instead, he was wearing a black cap sleeve tunic with trousers and a blue sash tied at an angle across his hips. His rose crest was embroidered on the left side of his tunic in a metallic blue thread. I smiled at the casual renaissance vibe it gave off.

“New book?” I asked rather than checking the title myself. Using the system for every little thing was a bad habit.

“The philosopher Atlos,” Henry answered, heading for the couch. Previous to the incident with my core, he’d have sent a formal request before visiting. We’d also have talked mostly about the dungeon. Now, something had shifted. He would drop in to spend his free time with me if he wasn’t working on a project.

I smiled, happy with the development. Henry had comforted me during the crisis with my core, and I appreciated it. Even so, it wasn’t something that should be treated the same way as more mundane intimacies.

I half-ass recalled something about relationships built on swinging bridges. Not well enough to think of more than the gist. It amounted to feelings during hardship might not hold up during peaceful times.

Henry started reading, and I forced myself not to keep glancing at him and get back to work. That didn’t stop me from heading over to the couch once I was done taking notes. Time passed for a few days, but it wasn’t destined to last.

As the last few people were transported, a problem presented itself. I already had a video call open with Elim as his mother and daughter teleported. The Lepusan had already finished up the previous day. I wasn’t above playing favorites, but Elim had insisted they didn’t need to jump the line. It was a sweet aspect of his character I appreciated, even as it annoyed me.

“Elim, what the fuck!?” I demanded. As soon as his mother and daughter were through, he put the pad into his inventory, mine by extension.

“The Lepusan noticed a math problem. Someone has to take care of the pad unless you have an alternative,” Elim said with a thin smile. I was pissed enough that I not only hovered but rose several feet into the air. I still slithered, but rage seemed to have a tonic effect.

“You can-” I stopped. My first impulse was to tell Elim to smash it, but that wouldn’t work. It would still leave him stranded. As I tried to think of an alternative, my thoughts ground to a halt. Everything I could think of was a Lupin the 3rd mechanism. Complicated and not feasible to build on-site.

The transport pad couldn’t transport itself. It was such an obvious problem I wished I could blame not thinking of it on something. Unfortunately, I knew deep in my pseudo flesh that this fuck up was all me.

“I mean… could you set up something to fall on it after you leave?” I asked, picturing him holding a rope with a rock tied to one end and hanging over a tree branch. A plan I already realized was garbage.

I’d made the pad out of a two-inch slab of stone. It was too god damned sturdy, not to mention heavy. Even if Elim found something that could break it, he would transport anything he was touching.

“Scratch that,” I said unhappily. Elim gave me a gentle smile.

“This is why the Lepusan trusted you so much, isn’t it?” I asked instead of trying to come up with another scheme. The men in the valley had seen that its inhabitants and, by extension, the hermit had good intentions. The women and children of the camp hadn’t had such a luxury.

They’d been presented with an impossible feat of magic by someone who amounted to a stranger. A human stranger. It had been remarkable that they agreed to try. The way they became more willing after Ban came over to their side was one thing, but he hadn’t been there initially. It had been Elim who talked them into the first test. Now I knew how he’d done it.

“It’s about time I got to work anyway. I’m at your command, Mistress,” Elim said, giving me a formal bow. I was taken aback for a moment but then nodded.

“Your mom is aware of what’s happening, right? She’s not going to be storming the dungeon to box my ears when she finds out?” I asked. Elim’s eyes went round in surprise before he burst out laughing. It went on for an insultingly long moment, tears forming in his eyes and leaving him heaving for breath.

“Lords of goodness, no! She suggested it. We both want to help you how we can,” Elim said finally. I looked away, still annoyed but touched.

“I’ll figure out how to add a self-destruct to the pad. Then you can still use it in an emergency,” I said, unhappy but mollified.

“For now, though, you can use it both ways. You should help your mother and Bess get settled in,” I added.

“Your consideration is appreciated, as always,” Elim said, then bowed. Seeing that, I felt like I was being outmaneuvered. He wasn’t the least bit surprised by the idea but also wasn’t moving to use the pad.

“I discussed that with my mother too. Since there’s a house prepared already, she encouraged me to get to work,” Elim said with a wry smile.

“Oh...” I replied as my brain tangled up. I was trying to think of something to refute him with but had nothing. He’d left the majority of his possessions in items storage or at the silver leaf estate. There wasn’t much to do in the way of unpacking.

“At least drop in and take a look,” I said dejectedly. I wasn’t going to mention it, but I’d been renovating the farmhouse in anticipation of his family’s arrival. I’d even placed a few utility skeleton ‘workers’ already so they wouldn’t have to do a lot to keep it up.

“Later then, for now, I have a few things to do,” Elim conceded the bare minimum. I nodded, giving up. I still felt like he should be at the farm on the first day, though. He bowed again before cutting the connection.

“Have you reset him yet?” Henry asked from where he was sitting on the couch with his book.

“No, I kept getting sidetracked,” I said, feeling like an idiot for forgetting. It wasn’t a dungeon related thing, and Elim had been out of constant danger for a while. With the live test done for non-dungeon denizen resets, it should have already been done.

I sent a text to Elim asking him about his wishes on the point. I’d be getting the pop-up, but I wasn’t going to exclude him. We could do it via video chat. Elim gave me blanket permission to edit his build outside of a few requests.

“I sent him a text. He says he’d like to be more agile but that I can do what I want,” I explained as I pulled up Elim’s stats. Henry nodded, looking thoughtful.

“You might want to consult Carver and Talaedra then. They both went with agility,” Henry advised me. I nodded and started sending the pair the relevant information. I invited them over to my chamber, but they declined for the moment. I was interrupting a chess tournament.

Thinking I was in a stalemate for the moment, I went back to my never-ending list of to-do’s. Henry had already gone back to reading his book.

As a skeleton, he didn’t have biological needs to get in the way when he was doing something. Since it was his day off from his shop, he might well keep reading until he lost interest or had to go back to work the next day.

Half an hour later, I was sent a pair of texts. Carver and Talaedra had apparently finished their recent chess matches. They’d also discussed the matter in incredible depth. I sent Elim a text with the relevant details, and he replied that everything looked fine.

A few minutes later, Elim was a fifth level fighter with an agility build. I sent a final text asking him what he thought of it but didn’t get a reply back. I was worried for a moment but then wrote it off. He’d got a significant upgrade in ability. He was probably busy testing it out.

With the Lepusan and Elim’s family sorted for the moment, I went to my desk. It was time to start going through some of the feedback I’d gotten from the bloody mana fever group text.

I’d sent a description of how the disease worked, the tools I was developing, and my lack of a plan. The consensus was that the tools sounded wonderful.

Plenty of suggestions for more flooded in. Unfortunately, no ideas for tackling bloody mana fever came of it.

I wasn’t particularly discouraged, though. I’d included a limited explanation of what I knew about it and how diseases worked in general. That had led to a lot of questions I was still working on answering.

I also needed to work various healing potions into the Lepusan’s diet as discreetly as possible. Not hard to do when every single store owner was on my payroll. Figuratively anyway, what with me not using currency.

The trick was spacing out the non-critical ones, so the effects wouldn’t be as noticeable. I wanted my new population to take root and multiply, not start a cult.

I snorted at that thought. I’d spent days on a grand temple, and I didn’t want them to start a cult?

“Hm?” Henry inquired.

“Laughing at myself,” I explained.

“About what?” Henry asked, looking up from his book.

“It struck me that some of the things I do might seem a little… Hypocritical, I guess,” I started to explain. Henry looked intrigued and placed a velvet ribbon to keep his page as he closed his book and sat up.

“Y-your plans can be-be a little o-opaque,” Henry said with a shrug.

“But h-hypocritical? Only if they th-think in black and white,” He added. I smiled, feeling reassured. Henry was aware of the dungeon’s inner workings in a way a casual observer wouldn’t be.

“Thank you,” I said, still smiling. Henry nodded before returning to his book. It must have been a real pages turner for him to be so eager about it. I worked for a while but seeing that he was still reading, I felt mischievous.

“Henry, would you like a drink?” I asked, curious if he would register the question.

“Thank you,” He muttered, still reading. I placed a can of Chaos beverage near him, but he didn’t look up or make a move to take it.

“What about a hug?” I added, fighting back laughter. He didn’t reply, lost in his reading. I wasn’t bothered by it, given the circumstances. There was something about the intensity of his focus I found soothing.

I went back to work but still found myself drawn to watch him at times. A not entirely unpleasant acidic tingle rolled down my back. It wasn’t long ago that Henry had been as focused on me. I’d been thankful for it at the time, and my appreciation for it had only grown since.

He’d admitted he’d been afraid I’d slip away and go back to my core if left alone. A concern that hadn’t crossed my mind but was valid. If I hadn’t had him, Chris, and the hounds distracting me from my pain and cloying need.

I looked at him fondly. I felt like I was in a good place and could accomplish a lot. That sentiment lasted all of ten minutes before I finally got the text from Agony I’d been waiting for.

[42,

Since you can still receive texts, I know you’re at least okayish. I hope you stay that way. DO NOT spend time with your core. What you described is not even close to normal!

I literally can’t say more about it. Just try to stay safe!]

My orbs flickered as I finished reading the text.

Fuck.