LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 21
“Primordial technology? Ahh you mean the tech from before the coming of mana! While it is interesting, it only serves as inspiration for new things now. The old tech becomes a bit wonky with mana around and you have to safeguard it with runes, but then why not use runes from the beginning?”
The engineer shakes his head and focuses on his work again.
—
Argul was fully aware that opening the door without knowing what was going on outside of the house was a bad idea. She still opened it and did so as fast as possible, only to look in the surprised face of one of the corrupted.
After a split second Argul kicked it as hard as possible with her bare foot, because of course she had forgotten to look for some boots. The corrupted made a squelching sound and was thrown a few meters before it noisily impacted the ground.
She immediately shot a magic missile through its head and looked at her group. “We are off to a great start!”
Then she took off in a sprint, closely followed by Alyra and the rest. They needed to go further in the direction Arthur called west and already were on the western side of the village.
Sadly the village was full of the not squirrel things and their surprise moment was about to wear out. The corrupted were sitting on the roofs and in trees in the gardens. Only a few were standing on the ground, but all of them were staring at the group.
They ran past maybe 20 corrupted before the first of them reacted and screeched. It was like a sign and all the other corrupted pounded after them or in their direction.
The group had to run past 2 more houses before they could flee into the forest and then it would become a test of endurance.
One of them jumped off a roof and landed maybe 4 meters in front of Argul.
She shot it into the face and jumped, making it just barely over the falling corpse. Her feet impacted the ground heavily and she continued running.
She started to shoot magic missiles at everything in front of them and Arthur followed suit. Mia had buried herself as deep as possible in Alyra’s fur and there was a manic grin on Alyra’s face.
Argul had to admit that she was strangely enjoying this a bit herself. The adrenalin cursing through her veins and the dangerous excitement really gave her a feeling of being alive. She still wouldn’t search for situations such as this, because it was a short lived emotion and in her opinion had nothing on the way tinkering with mana made her feel.
She shot another 3 magic missiles, running past the last house and to the forest. One of the missiles missed, but the other two found their target.
Arthur shot the last corrupted that was in front of them and freed the way forward. His magic missiles had a lot less punch then Argul’s, but were still enough to injure the things.
Argul reached the forest and breathed out a sigh. Now came the endurance part of their flight, so she slowed down a bit. She focused completely on what was in front of her. Argul didn’t want to run in some tree just because she was looking behind her.
She still wanted to know how far ahead they were of the corrupted and luckily she wasn’t alone. “How much ahead?”
She jumped over a root that was in the way before she could hear Arthur’s voice through the pounding of her heart. “Maybe 30 meters or so.”
Argul grimased, that was not a lot. “Have a fun target practice.”
Arthur snorted and Argul stopped talking. She focused completely on running and breathing evenly. The last thing she needed right now was for her sides to start aching.
The group continued on without speaking, hounded by the howling and screeching of the corrupted. Occasionally you could hear the pained screams of those that had come too close and were shot by Arthur.
Argul had no idea how long they had been running when the sun started setting and painted everything in red. She could swear she was running for hours already, but knowing herself it was more likely to be somewhere around half an hour.
She was slowly feeling exhausted, but ran on. Argul would have to endure for now and tried to narrow her focus down completely on running and breathing. That tactic had always worked in P.E in her last life, though her friend always said that it was weird.
Argul had no idea if it really was. She had not liked P.E besides the games and had definitely not been a sports person.
As the group continued running darkness started to settle in and with time the howls got less and more distant. They still continued through the endless and boring birch forest that was thoroughly grating on Argul’s nerves after some time. “Please tell me there is an end to this birch forest.”
Arthur hummed while he made sure the still scared Mia wouldn’t fall off of Alyra. “The forest should open up in a bit, making place for a grassland. The next village is near a hill we should see once we are out of the birches.”
That relieved Argul a lot. Screw forests with only one kind of tree!
A few hours later they already hadn’t heard the corrupted for some time and Argul couldn’t see any of them anymore. They took a break next to a small stream and she was beaten. Her feet were hurting and her lungs felt like they were on fire. Argul was extremely exhausted and there was now way she could continue running after this break.
She deliberately didn’t sit down as she wouldn’t be able to stand up again if she did. Running was one thing, but now she had even more weight to carry then before. Even Alyra’s breath came a bit heavier.
Argul drank some water and sighed. “Let’s take a longer break once we are out of the forest to catch some sleep.”
She got sounds of agreement from Arthur and Alyra. Mia had fallen asleep at some point, so the only thing Argul could hear from her was a soft snoring.
After the short break they continued at a walking pace. It took another 2 hours until the trees started to thin. Once they could see the grassland Argul decided this was enough, she didn’t want to continue anymore. She flopped down next to a tree and her body immediately fell asleep.
She took some time looking through her floors, but nothing too interesting had happened. She wanted to create some plankton and crabs and then sleep a bit for real.
Though Argul immediately had a problem as she had no idea what plankton really was. She took a bit of time to think it over, but the only thing she could remember was that it was a category for small animals and plants in the ocean.
Her algae should actually count as plankton, so there was no need to create more for now. She should definitely open a portal to an ocean of Erod or it would take decades for her to fill the sixth floor and what she had planned for the seventh with organisms.
Having realized that she already had plankton she wanted to create some crabs. Now the problem was that she needed something for them to eat. After thinking about it Argul created a small kind of seashell. They ate the plankton that was already in the water and their shells were black.
Argul would wait a day and give them time before she introduced the crabs. Her birds would likely also eat them, so her fish population would be a bit safer.
After that Argul used her avatar to get some real sleep.
Arthur woke her up at dawn. He had taken the first watch and Argul had the second. She could only grumble at that. Alyra could have taken it too, she needed to sleep as much as Argul!
Her mood rose a lot when Mia woke up and decided to make Argul’s hair. Argul in her boyish wisdom had not taken a comb with her, though luckily Mia had, so they shared it for now.
After that Mia taught Argul how to comb hair right and not like someone who didn’t care. Argul thought Mia acted a lot more mature than a 7 year old, so she decided to ask. “Mia, how old are you?”
Mia sat down between Argul’s legs and leaned back. “I’m 10.”
She leaned her head back until she could look into Argul’s face. “How old are you?”
Argul scratched herself behind her ears and throwned a bit. She couldn’t tell her her new age, but the old one should be okay no? “I think 19? I’m not sure.”
Mia looked as if she wanted to ask something, but then turned around. It was silent for a bit of time until she finally managed to ask her question. “How old is Alyra?”
Argul blushed. What should she tell Mia? She frantically searched for a solution until she remembered her older sister, which gave her an idea. “She is seventeen. I adopted her when I became 18.”
Mia turned around again. “Why and how does that work?”
Argul’s relieved smile slipped for a second before it became forced. She had been caught right away and tried to awkwardly get out of the situation. “Ohh… Uhmm… For reasons! Anyway, do you want to scratch my ears? If you do it right I might purr.”
Argul could see in Mia’s face that the girl had not been fooled. Mia still didn’t press the matter any further and started to scratch and caress Argul’s ears. Aina took the chance to take the now empty space in front of Argul. Argul took Aina and petted her.
After some time Mia found a place to scratch that felt really good for Argul, who started to purr. They didn’t speak a lot and just enjoyed the moment.
At noon Mia couldn’t hide her hunger anymore. They woke up Arthur and started to make themselves something to eat. The meal consisted mostly of cereal, dried fruits and vegetables and water. Argul could have made them tea, but they wanted to continue their journey or they would be too late again.
Once they finished they packed up their stuff and Arthur and Mia climbed back on the back of Alyra, who would only be too happy if they would move by themselves. Then they took off at a slow jog.
They were technically safe right now, so Argul made sure to hold her promise. She moved next to Alyra and looked up at her passengers. “You wanted to learn about magic, right Mia?”
Mia immediately focused on Argul, her tail moving up and down excitedly. “Yes!!”
Argul smiled. She was only too happy to be able to talk about magic and mana to someone. “So, magic is a tool to help all those who are unable to do something themselves, especially me! “
Once she had started there would be no way she stopped talking about magic and mana out of her own free will. “If you want to cast magic you firstly have to be able to sense the mana around you, and secondly…”
It would be a long day for Arthur, who couldn’t understand half of Argul’s blabbering.