The first thing that came out of Mite's mouth after he'd stepped through the portal alongside Alex and Claire and made the trek over to the campsite was, "wow".
And, even though Alex had only just come into possession of his town some time ago, he couldn't help but feel a flicker of pride.
"This place is a shithole," Mite said.
Alex's pride sputtered. The town might not have been much to look at yet. That didn't matter. Before the apocalypse, the idea of having a house, much less an entire town, had been foreign. He'd gone into the apocalypse with absolutely nothing but a willingness to meet whatever it threw at him.
A large part of him had loved that. Complete and utter freedom. Nobody that could control him. It was a world reset, in which anyone could accomplish what they wanted so long as they had the skill and strength to take it.
And Alex still loved that feeling — but now there was more. Visions loomed at the edges of his thoughts. Ben and the others from Towntown. Aubrey, her body ripped to shreds by the System. A massive hand descending toward Valley Ford like the sky itself was falling.
The System was not evil nor cold. It simply was. It didn't care who anyone was or what their desires were. Natural laws existed indifferent to what they wrought. Only those who lived could determine what to make of them.
Honestly, I'm not sure what I think anymore. The apocalypse is everything I thought it would be… and also everything I didn't. Am I responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people that didn't deserve it? It wasn't my intention to kill them. It was objectively the Great Tide's fault for trying to cheat and getting punished.
What am I supposed to feel?
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. He wasn't so sure he had the answer to that question. What he did know was that there were a number of lives that were definitely going to be on his hands if this upcoming fight didn't go well — and even if it did.
He'd never really thought of himself as someone that liked leading teams. Teddy had always taken over managing the group projects they'd been in together. He'd usually been content to just sit back, do the bare minimum, and be done with it.
But there was a certain feeling that came with standing at the head of the ship. From having the weight of lives and expectations placed squarely on his shoulders. Perhaps a better man would have called that feeling responsibility.
Alex called it a bigger challenge.
"The town might not be pretty yet, but you'd be surprised," Alex said. "It's got a lot of potential. These buildings are pretty damn strong — and frankly, the whole scuffed aspect is the reason we brought you here."
"I really hope you aren't expecting me to build a fortress in a few days," Mite said as the group approached. "Because that's not happening. I'm not a miracle worker."
"I don't think we have a few days," Alex replied. "But no, I'm not. I'm expecting you to build a teleporter. Speaking of which — the egg is yours."
Claire held the bundle out.
Mite's puppet took it from her hands as a delighted grin crossed the boy's face. His puppet pulled the blanket covering it back, revealing the glossy silver egg. Faint purple veins pulsed within the metal like they were being pumped by an invisible heart.
"Whoa," Mite breathed, his eyes sparkling. "This is beautiful."
"What else do you need?" Claire asked. "We need that teleporter up and running as soon as possible. We do have another building that has to do with teleporting people, by the way. I'm not sure if that could be useful."
"You do?" Mite lifted his eyes from the egg. "Why do you need two of them?"
"It's called a Warp Relay," Alex said. "It's only short range and duration. For combat scenarios more than proper teleportation. It's really more like a fast deployment and recall system."
"Huh. That sounds… really difficult, actually. Way more complex than a normal teleporter, from what I know of them," Mite said. He scratched the side of his chin. "Why do you have that before the real thing?"
Alex just stared at him.
"Will it help?" Claire pressed.
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Mite thought for a moment. Then he scrunched his nose. "Well, the actual building won't. I can take a look at it, though. Might have some useful things I could use for inspiration. My class is kind of open ended. I don't just have a 'build a yacht' skill."
"Could you modify the building, maybe?" Claire suggested. "Add normal teleportation capabilities in?"
Mite was shaking his head before she'd finished speaking. "You can't combine buildings as far as I know. You can upgrade 'em, but my class isn't at the point where I can do that. Especially not with your buildings."
"What's wrong with them? They're perfectly—"
"Isn't them that's the problem," Mite said with a crooked grin. "It's my class. I'm not exactly a normal Engineer. I did have that option, but it sounded kind of boring. I went with something more interesting."
"Maybe you should share exactly what it is you've got?" Alex's eyes narrowed.
"I'd rather just show you," Mite said, entirely nonplussed. "I'll check the place out and get started once I've got enough information. No point rushing good work along. Measure twice, cut once, you know?"
Mite set off for the town without giving Alex or Claire a chance to say anything else. The two of them exchanged a glance.
"He's… interesting," Claire said.
"As long as he gets us that teleporter quickly, I don't care what he is," Alex said. He let himself fall silent for a moment as he listened to his senses. The Region Boss was still waking up — he could feel its presence growing stronger. It was a bit difficult to tell just how much stronger it would get before it awoke. The monster could be at their door in minutes, or it could have been days. He just had nothing to compare it to. Alex shook his head. "We should definitely meditate and get ourselves and the town ready for the fight. It could be any moment, now."
"At least it didn't wake up while we were gone," Claire said with a small laugh. The two of them started toward the town — a small group of people had already noticed their arrival and were waiting near the edges of a broken cabin in wait of them. Orchid was among them, along with May and Aaron. Claire nodded in the campers' direction. "We should probably get an update on what things are looking like before we shut ourselves away. Good to know what resources we have."
"Can't hurt. Hopefully they've kept up training while we were gone." Alex let his gaze focus on May. She didn't have any equipment to conceal her level, so the System pulled it up within moments.
May - Snapcaster (Novice 4)
She'd gone up from Novice 2 to 4 in the time since Alex had last seen her. For a moment, a frown flickered across his face. That wasn't necessarily bad. The girl was fairly young. Advancing to Novice 4 at her age was probably pretty decent… but she'd had Orchid as a teacher.
That changed things. There was no way May should have been moving that slowly if Orchid was instructing her. A quick glance in Aaron's direction told Alex that his level was only one higher at Novice 5.
There was no way the two of them had just been sitting around. They'd both been motivated and should have been training extensively — which meant they'd been allocating magical energy to their Mind Palaces far more than their level.
Orchid caught Alex's eye. She inclined her head slightly, as if she'd guessed what he'd been thinking. There was a pretty decent chance that she had.
Well, well. That's interesting. Putting that much energy into a Mind Palace means that Aaron and May will have weaker damage and fewer abilities, but they'll be much harder to kill and will recover from more damage. She's trying to keep them alive rather than optimizing for a victory using expendable pawns.
Orchid didn't strike me as the type of person to care that much about mere Nativeworlders… but maybe I was thinking too poorly of her. She's not half bad at all.
"You're back!" May exclaimed as Alex and Claire drew up to their group. "Are you going to kill the Region Boss now? Who's the small guy that came with you? Is he going to help us? Can he build walls for the city? We really need walls, you know. Monsters keep trying to walk in."
"One at a time, May," Aaron said, putting a hand on her head and ruffling her hair. There was a weariness in his eyes that spoke of constant work without any chance to recover. It looked like Orchid had been pushing him pretty hard.
"We're doing everything we can," Alex said. "The person that came with us is Mite. He's an Engineer. We're going to have him build a teleporter so we can get access to an old ally."
"You actually managed to find one?" Orchid raised her eyebrows. "That's… impressive. How'd you manage to get your hands on him? Did you steal him from Valley Ford?"
"That's one way to put it," Claire said.
"And you didn't have trouble?" Orchid raised her eyebrows. "I suppose that's what I should have expected. The Starfallen family is something else. Going up against the Great Tide with just two people and making it out with one of their Engineers…"
"Well, he wasn't officially theirs," Alex said. "He was more of a free agent."
"We don't actually know his full class yet," Claire admitted. "Mite is a bit odd. He seems competent, though. Just odd."
"You don't' know what his class is? But he's an Engineer? Are you sure? I had him struck as more of a mage with that thing he's got shambling along with him."
"Thing? That's a puppet," Claire said.
Orchid turned to look at Mite, who stood a few houses away with his arms crossed in front of his chest, examining the Warp Relay. His puppet stood beside him. Orchid shook her head. "I'm a mage as well, Claire. And that thing is not just a puppet. It's organic. My family specializes in growth-based magic. I would recognize something like that."
"Then what do you think it is?" Claire asked.
"Give me a moment," Orchid said. Her grip on her staff tightened and she squinted at Mite. "He's got some concealing equipment, but I'm not without ways to see…"
"Shit," Orchid breathed. Her features twisted in disgust and she took a step back. "That is vile."
"The puppet?" Alex blinked. "Why?"
"It's still alive. Like some sort of metal-organism hive mind," Orchid said, letting her staff lower as she took a step back. "Mite is no engineer. He's a necromancer."