LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 58: Crossroads
Giddy use of trespass had left Alicia woozy, though it was not without its gains. For example she found out that the exit of the rift, even if it opens on the inside of an otherwise ‘full’ object she will simply ram the object and bounce back instead of merging with it as it would with true teleportation. The comprehensive testing was cut short after an unsavoury incident where a rift exit opened inside of the digestive tract of a Warhog. But until then she learned much of its important details such as its instant movement maximum range which appeared to be just over 40 meters1Unmodified range of Trespass is precisely 42 meters.. Further than that she had to take more than one step to reach more distant rifts, in regards of time this was instant in a sense due to the nebulous nature of how the void acts. This is inconvenient to her not because of the escalating energy requirements, rather as more than even a single step inside it was - although tamer what anyone else might experience - nonetheless disconcerting. She wasn’t welcome in the void, though it did not outright reject her either, a trespasser indeed. As a side note, the rifts only let the object she wanted to be in to pass through.
‘Strange… people, animals and even spirits can’t see into the void… Eh, just means I can use it to disappear from ridiculous situations. Let’s go see what made out of those cracks in dauntless…’
Still disoriented from repetitive use of trespass she opted to walk. Slowly.
- ‘While I’m at it you want to check up on the girls?’
Alice answered by making Alicia nod to herself…
- ‘That’s a yes? When did you- nevermind, I wonder if this could help us… Hm…’
Again without her intention, her head tilted to the side quizzically by Alice’s intentions. Alicia didn’t even notice it this time lost in her musings…
Dirty redolessence of ardent coals carried by the wind could be recognized afield away. Faintly one could make out the distant rhythmic clanging strikes of hammer against metal. After a few hard bangs on the door Alicia helped herself in. The usual clutter and ill lit interiors greeted her, further into smith’s abode she could see his shadowy form outlined by the orange glow of the forge.
- “I’m here.”
Without turning back he answered, for the iron had to be struck while it was hot.
- “Aah, its ye lass, nö wunðˈer. Here for ya blade are ye? Tis on me bench övˈr yun, gave er good polish.”
The ebon blade on the metal bench was looking as fine as it did the first day of its service, its translucent glassy surface appeared gleaming from certain angles, owing to its structure refracting the dim light of the blazing forge. Most importantly the anomalous fissures she noticed were gone without a trace. An impressive work considering those were on the inside.
- “Thanks, it looks great.”
- “Ðers wee bit of a pröblem ye see. Ðe guarð, is bent outta shape un aye can't knock it back in! Well aye can but blasted θiŋ just gets outta shape again!”
The guard of dauntless were small rods of discrepant materials affixed to the handle and blade and it was a last minute job from the beginning, it wasn’t pretty but for what it's worth it was serviceable. The guards were crooked into various directions like a briar, a change she did not notice before it was pointed out. Still it didn’t bother her much, as the guard however contorted did not hinder her grip and was still somewhat effective protecting her hands.
- “I can work with this.”
After throwing a cooled piece of metal back into the forge to heat it up again;
- “Un take ðis.”
He passed a small bottle while wiping some of the sweat out of his forehead.
- “This is?”
- “Something for polishing, just spread a little bit of it onto ðe blade and wipe it slow and steaðy.”
- “Great. I’ll be sure to use it.”
As soon as she put her hands onto the blade it reacted as if it were alive. Web like cracks spread underneath its structure, glints of cold violet glow escaped between the open gaps barely visible in low light while the guard spikes straightened into shape subtly, it appeared as if it was ‘waking up’. Though both the smith and the wielder were none the wiser…
‘Back to wrapping this in silk I guess… Maybe I should have a proper scabbard and baldric made… That’s enough dilly dallying gotta get back and continue with the project…’
In the midst of repeating the process of drying trees and gathering raw materials for the expansion of the cottage, in her head she was planning out the floor.
‘19 residents, round up and divide into two wings on to the side, 5 rooms each wing, gonna need a proper dining room or something along the lines of a communal cafeteria near the center, kitchen in the back of it. Needs fireproofing, stone floors and walls, fire exit as well… Kitchen needs storage space, a trap door basement will have to do. Current wash closets are fine but they’ll need something bigger for better hygiene. In room showers…? Not feasible without plumbing… Bath, wooden for now, heating will have to come after pipes are in place, then the cottage will need a central heating solution… Thermal power station to power a steam turbine, fixes heating, hot water and electricity. What to do with electricity… need incandescent light bulbs for night time lighting… later.’
‘Might need to accommodate more people, second floor… Once the rooms are done and after the girls move in the main hall will be free that’s where the stairs will have to go. Cantilevering and jettying should get me some more space to work with, just need to be mindful of the load and stress… We’ll cross that bridge when we have to…’
Alicia was deep in thought preoccupied with planning out the future of the project, her eyes dull without anything in its focus yet her actions smooth and fluid like that of a rehearsed play. Gears of her head were turning oh so fast one could even imagine one of them snapping out and shooting off. For someone like Alice who shared the headspace of the engineer lost in her work however didn’t have to do much to imagine such an experience, for she was living in it. She could see the rapidly developing vision on Alicia’s mind; walls, floors, windows, doors and supports each playing their part like puzzle, bound to shortened but detailed mathematics.
A room wasn’t built from the outside, it was created after a bed, windows, doors, closet, side room for the bathing, desk, chair and drawers, were in their place with how they would be laid out planned, each with meticulous numbers of their proposed dimensions. They were built for their simple function and then the form followed after, a side-effect from the technical and material limitations. Geometrics, on the spot calculations, constraints to designing, even without knowing not even a shadow of what exactly she was crafting in her mind Alice noticed something. Despite the chaotic mindscape and countless numbers of ill-defined meanings, there was a method to her approach. Within the anarchy of numbers, there was a semblance of ingenuity and she trod through the labyrinthine havoc with grace. Every hypothetical calculation and action had a purpose behind it linking to one another, like threads tied to each other to create a whole greater than the sum of the parts.
It was here Alice thought maybe they are not all too dissimilar. Some spiders create a tangled mess of a web only they can understand and traverse. What Alicia was doing right now, this… this was her web. In spite of her distant and nihilistic outwards attitude, all of this was for the people she doesn't even know fully, taking in every possible consideration of their needs, a display of her sentiment… that she cares about them to the point neglecting her own needs.
- ‘our… room?’
- ‘Eh? Well… I could make a bedroom on the second floor I guess. Ah, I suppose the girls will need a much more civilized environment. Alright I’ll plan out our own place on the second storey, twins might need their own room too… What would I want to get… It’ll be more of a study than a bedroom huh…’
Without raising suspicion to her Alice had managed to derail Alicia’s line of thought enough to let her fervent visualizations to slow down so she herself could take a rest from the computations…
Much of the daylight spent on the extension work. With the hall framework in place and the very first of the rooms shaping into a more usable state. Introducing the girls to the possible everyday work needed was mostly done by Llynbel and Dryssia, as regrettably only Alicia could lead the construction work. As it was their first ‘formal’ day they were mostly only made acquainted with the surroundings and important locations such as the web network perimeter. The araneae maintaining the webs had to help them out of entanglement a number of times. In light of the recent advancements to the hostel style rooms an issue became apparent.
‘I need crew, one that’s reliable and disciplined… I mean who doesn’t, some would kill to get a crew that follows instructions to a tee but… the point still stands. Ridiculous how even in a fantasy world an educated workforce is an issue or maybe its the other way around. I can’t keep an eternal watch over these people. They need to grow independent so they won’t crash and burn without me, growth naturally entails more population, more population that needs housing, food and amenities in the simplest of terms.
Anyway, I can keep chugging at this project alone for now, rather I think I made some stellar progress in just two or so days. But as the scope expands and with the ever growing number of needs to meet in mind, it’ll be getting out of my hand in a hurry. What options do I have… I wonder if some of the elves might move in… But that’s only some. Trolls… unlikely, but worth a try anyway. Another possibility is going out and pulling in people huh… Sounds like a lot of trouble, still it’s doable. Anything else…’
>Proposal.
- ‘Hit me.’
>Final promotions of the educements in the skill tree of ｢ Kindred ｣ will allow current and future units to achieve genotypic similarity to Administrator.
- ‘What exactly do you mean?’
>Units will attain capabilities comparable to the current Administrator ability.
- ‘So… they’ll be more like me…? With half a torso and they’ll properly talk with mouths too I’m assuming?’
>Affirmative.
- ‘Splendid! Then why not let’s go then.’
>Insufficient development points.
- ‘Ah… right. I see what you mean… Having dependable subordinates will be useful not just for construction.’
‘Hmm… Choices and choices… not a single definitive answer… Ah! I just remembered that kid wanted to meet me. Probably about how I should escort her back to his father for rewards, riches and fame or something like that… I’ll wrap things around here go then. Hope she didn’t give them too much trouble…
Well if I’m heading to that town to return the girl I might find some people who might be willing to move in along the way. The local lord should help with my little errand if I return his daughter to him. Alright that’s another solid plan. I’ll make my mind up on the way there…’
So I had to plan out the Cottage floor blueprint which I had to do by my hands with pencil and paper. It's not the prettiest and I'm terrible at planning. Decided to do with an online floor planner it's difficult to find one that's free. So I decided to do my floor planning through the medium of Minecraft(I wish I was joking but its the best thing I have in my mind).
Here's a little disturbing Trivia; Alma's preferred method of genetic data extraction for analysis is the acquisition of either Reproductive fluids or Stem cells. Which would require me to depict - very explicitly - the would be protagonist either sucking on a ding dong or the Bone marrows (or equivalent thereof) of slain foes. Both of which have me hit with a big R21-G with the following tags included (Anthro, Bestiality, Smut, Mature, Adult, Cannibalism, Necrophilia and other fun tags that you would be best off not knowing.)
Since you've read yourself all the way down here might as well give you something, there's a poll below that you should vote in. Simple choice between two options Alicia had in mind, 1 the 'get humans' or 2 the 'make humanoid spiders' kinda choice. The outcome doesn't affect things too much, in the larger scheme of things. It'll just change how I'll sequence the story progression.
In other news this is my type of writing right here;
