"What are you going to do with your share of parts from the Gorgonaga?" Claire asked Alex as he caught up with her. She kept her gaze firmly fixed on the town ahead of them and continued at her sharp pace.
Is she really just going to pretend she didn't say anything a few seconds ago?
"I'll probably give it to Mite so he can put it toward making something useful like a building," Alex replied. He tried to speed up to get a better look at Claire's features, but she matched the increase of his speed.
"I'll likely do the same. I really don't need armor. Anything made from the Gorgonaga feels like it would be heavy, but we should probably see what Mite suggests," Claire said.
They were both fast walking now. It wasn't long before Alex broke into a jog — Claire did the same.
"Good idea," Alex said as he sped up. "Let's go do that."
Claire matched him perfectly. Her reaction speed was just ridiculous. It was starting to look like he'd have to drop into a full sprint if he wanted to get a glimpse of her face. Well, it was that or grab her by the shoulder and ask her to stop.
The sprint seemed easier.
"Ah!" Claire said, skidding to a halt. Alex nearly tripped over his own feet as he stopped a foot past the Dhampir and turned back to look at her. She pointed at the cabin beside her, where Mite stood with a surprised expression on his face. "Here he is."
Alex finally caught a glimpse of Claire's face, but she just looked like she'd gone for a run. It was impossible to read any more from them at this point.
Damn it. Was she just screwing with me? Or was she serious?
"What happened?" Mite asked. "Are we under attack? And if we are, please consider coming back and asking for help later. I am in deep contemplation."
"We're here to discuss plans for the parts from the Gorgonaga," Claire said, her voice perfectly composed. "And what you can do with the excess materials that people decided to leave with you."
"My contemplation has completed," Mite said. He leaned forward, a spark in his eyes. "I don't know what you did, but nearly half the town said I could keep their stuff. You guys are the best scammers I've ever seen. I want to take lessons."
"It wasn't scamming. They're just invested into the town's future. Just like you should be if you want to keep getting funding and materials for your projects," Alex said. He sent a sidelong glance at Claire, but her attention seemed to be completely on Mite. Alex pulled his eyes back to the short bioengineer and suppressed a sigh.
This is just cruel. What is she, a sadist? You can't drop a line like that and then pretend like you didn't say anything.
"Right. Yeah. Sure," Mite said, nodding knowingly. "Invested. Anyway, you going to let me go to town — figuratively and literally speaking — or what?"
"Depends what it is you're thinking about making," Alex said. He pulled his thoughts fully to the conversation at hand. "Have you spoken with Rhyss? We've got some Boons available, and the town has a few pressing matters that absolutely have to be dealt with."
"The biggest being the fact we're still on a ticking clock," Claire said. "Mirrorwane isn't permanently stabilized. We need something to make sure everything we've fought for doesn't just come crashing down on itself."
The air beside Alex split as Rhyss materialized as if he'd always been there. His lone eye took them all in within an instant.
"Claire is correct," Rhyss said. "Though a close second is defenses. We have a few scant days before Mirrorwane is no longer Enshrined. It must have protection, both from attack and from scrying. The best defense is not being found, but the second best one is the ability to stand up against assault."
Alex nodded in agreement. The Advisor was definitely right. The best way to protect the town was to make sure nobody even found it. Now that Valley Ford had been destroyed, it wasn't like anyone could teleport right over to the surrounding area.
That far from meant they were safe. Alex didn't know how far the nearest town was, nor did he know just how easily other people would be able to find Mirrorwane. He wasn't about to bet the town's safety on people just looking over it by accident.
"Could you look into seeing if there are any buildings I could buy with the Boons that would help with that?" Alex asked. "With a preference of something that will help us avoid detection."
"I already have," Rhyss said. "We are currently in possession of 1 Mythic Boon and 5 Legendary Boons. There is a Scrywall Array for the cost of 5 Legendary Boons that will provide some defense against scrying, but it will not aid in stopping anyone from visually locating the town."
Alex frowned. That wasn't the worst. They could probably find something that cost a Mythic Boon that would obscure Mirrorwane's physical appearance… but that felt pretty pricy and did nothing in solving their stabilization issue.
"Do you have any ideas about fixing the Dual Reality Obelisk?" Alex asked Mite. "I'd prefer to save the Mythic Boon for that if the need calls for it."
Mite scratched at the back of his head. "I have some ideas, but I'm just not strong enough to pull any of them off yet. My Class isn't that different from anyone else's. Making really difficult buildings is a lot harder, and some are just completely impossible at my Stage. Making something that screws with the Mirrorlands is beyond me right now, but I'm thinking as hard as I can. I think the issue is that the town basically exists in two different places at once. Instead of being reflected over into the Mirrorlands, it's literally there."
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"Right," Alex said. "But how do we fix that? Do we just push one of the towns over a few feet?"
Mite snorted. Then he paused. "That's… not a bad idea, actually, but I don't think it would fix the core problem. The thing I've learned from my class is that every single material has latent energy within it. Kind of like atoms, but magic. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah," Alex said. "I'm following, but I don't see where you're taking this."
"The latent energy should be inversed in the Mirrorlands. At least, that's my best guess from what I've been able to tell by studying the Warped Embassy," Mite said. He glanced at Rhyss. "Is that right?"
"That is beyond the scope of my role as an Advisor. It does not directly pertain to advice relating the town, so I cannot answer."
"Right. We'll just assume I'm right, because I usually am," Mite said. He scratched at his chin. "And that means we've got the wrong kind of energy in the town existing in the Mirrorlands. We need to basically flip it."
Mite twisted his hands to punctuate his point.
"Could a building do that? Maybe something that gathers Mirrorlands energy within the town that exists on the Mirrorlands side of things?" Claire suggested.
Mite nodded. "Maybe. Trust me. I'm working on it. But the other problem — that one, I think I have solved."
Alex blinked. "You've got an idea as to how we can avoid getting noticed after the Enshrined status wears off the town?"
"Yeah." Mite grinned. "I want to build a wall."
All three of them stared at him.
"A wall will not make anything less noticeable," Claire said. "If anything, it'll make us easier to find."
"Not if the wall isn't visible." Mite's grin turned smug. He flourished his fingers and a black scale appeared between them. "This is the Gorgonaga's scale. You remember how it reflected magic? Well… I think I could make a building that takes that property and warps everything."
"Literally everything?" Alex's eyes widened. "Like a perfect defense?"
"Fuck no," Mite replied through a snort of laughter. "There's no such thing as a perfect defense. But if I'm right, then I think the town would basically become invisible. Scrying magic trying to look at this area would slide past it and get nudged out of the way. That would take a shit-ton of energy, though."
"So if you had a great power source, you could do it?" Alex asked.
Mite's eyes sparked. "Nope. I don't need a power source. I — in my genius — came up with a different way to get power and solve a second issue at the same time. I want the wall to transmit all the light that touches it perfectly, just letting it slide through with zero refraction while absorbing the heat from the light. That means the light simply won't reflect off the wall at all. Thus, nobody will be able to see us. Pair that with anti-magic and the town will be pretty much impossible to find unless you literally stumble right into it."
"The theory seems viable," Rhyss said.
Alex let out a delighted laugh. "You're a genius, Mite. Can you make that?"
Mite's grin faded. "Kind of. I've got the scales to do it, but I'll need a hell of a lot of other materials. This is a huge undertaking. I'd need some sort of storage to keep the gathered energy in, but there's a bigger problem. I don't think I can finish this in the time we have left before the Enshrined status of the town ends."
"That's less than ideal. People might come looking for us almost immediately," Claire said. "This wall sounds great, but we should probably look for something to keep us covered up until you have the wall working."
"It is possible to spend a Legendary Boon on a temporary Cloaking Array," Rhyss offered. "The array won't be powerful enough to stop any truly strong magic, but nobody should know the location of the town yet. Only a fool or a very rich man would waste resources flinging high level scrying spells randomly without a target."
"That could work," Alex said. "How long would it last? I don't love spending Boons on temporary things, but it seems like it might be worth it."
"A week," Rhyss replied. "But if someone does try to scry on Mirrorwane, the Array will erode faster. That said, if someone is actively trying to scry on us—"
"Then they already know we're here," Claire finished with a nod. "It seems prudent to buy that. Mite, how long would it take you to make the wall? Could you do it in a week?"
Mite chewed his lower lip for a second. That, more than anything, eased Alex. Mite was actually thinking about the question. He wasn't just going to blurt out an answer without thinking. There were few things more dangerous than a confident idiot. Alex knew that firsthand. He had a lot of experience being one.
"I think so," Mite said. "It's a huge building. It would have to do more than just encircle the town. It would have to encircle the area we want to constrain the town to for quite some time. I'd eventually be able to modify and expand the wall, but that would take a while. So if you're planning on huge expansions…"
"How big could you get it in a week?" Alex asked. "Assuming you have all the materials you need to make it."
"About twice the size of the current town," Mite said after thinking for a little longer. "If you let everyone have their own house and include the current buildings, that probably means we could reasonably add five more without crowding things too much."
"His assessment is roughly accurate," Rhyss said.
"That seems fine to me," Alex said. He wasn't planning on recruiting large numbers of new people to the town anytime soon, and space for 5 buildings was quite a bit. That would be more than enough until they got strong enough to expand the town again. "Let's do that. And, in the meantime, let's keep looking to see what we can do about the whole Obelisk situation. I think I know where to start. Considering its origin, something tells me our answer is going to be waiting for us in the Mirrorlands."
"I'll look deeper into the wall and figure out exactly what I'm going to need," Mite said. "Can you give me around four days to begin preparations? Then come back. I'm probably going to need some extra materials. Ones that aren't going to be easy to get."
"How do you know?" Claire asked. "That they're going to be hard to get, that is."
Mite leveled a flat look at her. "Because it's the System, and this wall is the hardest thing I'll have ever tried making. It's definitely going to be annoying as shit. Probably going to require the still-beating heart of our enemies or something. Just trust me."
"Fair enough logic," Alex said with a chuckle. "We can be back in four days. That gives some time to investigate the Mirrorlands side of the town and do some hunting to see if we can find a solution to the Obelisk situation."
"That almost sounds like you've got an idea," Claire said.
Alex smiled. "I do. You remember that dungeon we found in the Mirrorlands a while back? The one with the old guy that promised to answer some questions for us in it? Something tells me he might know some stuff we don't. And I've got a Partial Soul Manifestation now. Two days gives us enough time for you to grind up to my level. If you've got one as well… I think we might have a shot at challenging him."
The last time we were there, that old guy, Zeke, nearly killed us just by activating his Soul Manifestation. It hasn't even been all that long, but it feels like ages have passed. Things are different now. Four more days should buy us time to close the gap even farther… and Claire can't run away from answering my questions when we're in the Mirrorlands.
"You want to challenge the Cracked Steps again?" Claire asked. Her eyes widened. Then she grinned. "I like it. We've made it this far by pushing the limits. Why stop now?"
They were heading back to the Mirrorlands to challenge the Cracked Steps once again.