NOVEL NEXT Chapter XXIV: Cyberworks
With everyone back from their trip to Noir, and with eight new sentinels in tow. Richard and Sarah get to work on creating the new designs.
“Let’s see.” Richard takes out his notes. All pertaining the the architecture and clothing styles of Noir as well as some observations he had made of Emily’s attire and the appearance of her mechanical Cells.
“So, Armlet, Bascinet, or Sallet? Sarah says.
“Neither, sister,” Richard says. “I fear that with these designs the head would be better off bared.”
“It does get stuffy wearing helmets all day,” Sarah says.
“How about the weapons?” Richard says as he looks over his notes.
“Emily’s twin sword are the most unique of the bunch, but could be doable. Elizabeth uses staves. Tim uses a Qiang, and Heathcliff uses the sword and board combo.” Sarah is already aware of her preference for the hammer and Richard’s recent affinity for stunner crossbows.
At this point, little Nina approaches the Dwarves. “Hi hi!” she says cheerfully.
“Hello, Nina,” Sarah says.
“Working on the new gear?” the spiderling says with an eager face.
“Nina,” Richard says with a groan, “I know you want to be an adventurer, and I also know you have obtained some arms and armor, but don’t you think you’re a bit too…young right now?”
“Too young?” Nina says. “Didn’t Emily bring in eight kids as Sentinels?”
“There were extenuating circumstances,” Richard says.
“I’ll go talk to Minerva,” Sarah whispers to her brother, “They’ll both need armor anyway.” She then turns to Nina, “Come with me, Nina, I’ll talk with you about the armor.”
“Yay!” Nina says.
Sarah leaves Richard to address Nina’s request. Richard then realizes something. He hadn’t asked the Coloraturas about their fighting styles yet. He puts his notes away and leaves his atelier to find the new magical girls and learn about their combat.
✦✦✦
Meanwhile, Elizabeth is finished affixing the Cryosphere to the empty space next to the Aerosphere. The addition of the cyan crystals leaves only two empty spots in the ring. Two spots adjacent to each other on the right side of the ring. Between the Magenta Electropshere and the cyan Cryosphere.
“You know,” Emily’s voice echoes to Elizabeth. “If my ‘primary resources’ are nanomachines, then why can’t I use them?”
“Use them?” Elizabeth says. “In what way?”
“Shapeshifting perhaps?” Emily asks. “Like turning the arm of my avatara into a whip?”
“Oh, that?” Elizabeth says. “Those are [Mana Skills]. You’ll have to learn those.”
“Mana skills?” Emily says.
“Techniques that use Mana, unique to the Dungeon and adventures, in contrast, he schools of magic like [Bardsong] and the [Stardeck], which can be leaned with all, if the school or the innate element allows it.”
“Huh.” Emily’s interest is piqued. “How do I learn these skills.”
Elizabeth manifests a screen in front of her. The same screen is also conjured up in Emily’s mind and takes up all of her vision as a dungeon. “Let’s see.” She observes a tree-like chart on the screen as well as a reading of “2550”. She shows the number to Emily. “These are your [Skill Points], We can use these to enhance your Avatara’s capacities.” She looks for the option for shapeshifting. “Bear in mind that while they allow you to learn the skills, they cannot allow you to master them. For that, you’ll have to use them yourself.”
“Is there any reason why you waited until now to tell me,” the dungeon core says.
“I forgot, sorry,” the fairy says with her eyes closed in a nervous smile. She uses thirty points to unlock the skill for Emily. The respective node brightens and two more nodes appear adjacent to it. “Your Avatara is now able to assume any form you wish.
Emily gazes at the new nodes. She instinctively learns that the one above grants her a defensive ability, a fifteen percent chance that her body would deform around melee attacks. The one to the left meanwhile tells of an ability to create smaller duplicates of her avatara, by using the nanomachines that comprise her remote body. She spends ninety points for both upgrades.
“You’ve unlocked {Shapeshifting}, {Duplication}, and {Ripple Evade}. Remember, you still have to practice with these abilities,” Elizabeth says.
Five more nodes appear. Elizabeth looks over them. “Let’s see, {Assimilation} costs two hundred, {Coat of Armor} costs fifty, {Lakeside} costs thirty, {Nanobreaker} costs one hundred, and {Calcification} costs fifty.”
Emily looks over the five options. With a total cost of four hundred and thirty, she feels enticed to unlock them. She allocates the points to these nodes. More options open up, but they are all obscured with padlock symbols. “Huh?” Emily says.
“There is a limit of points you can allocate onto a given category,” Elizabeth says. “Removing these locks requires acclimating to your existing skills, and mastering them. There are other skill categories we can look at in the meantime if you wish.”
Emily thinks it over. “Is there any benefit to saving them instead?”
“Not really,” Elizabeth says. “You currently have a cap of three thousand points. Five hundred for each sphere you had obtained. You can raise the cap by getting more Elementalist’s Spheres and being recognized by the [Administrators], but as it stands, by the time you can unlock skills that would warrant saving up for you’re would be stuck at three thousand.”
“Got it,” Emily says. She looks over the trees on the screen. They are labeled “
“What’s this?” Emily says as the Management tree glows.
“
Emily is intrigued, she looks at the Management tree.
“The options available there are {Resurrection Protocol α}, {Skill Legacy}, and {Deactivate Sentenel},” Elizabeth says.
“These seem…pricy.” Emily notices that Skill Legacy and Inactive Storage costs two hundred and fifty each, while the Resurrection Protocols only cost fifty.
“They are,” Elizabeth says. “The Management and Dungeon branches naturally pertain to you as a dungeon instead of your avatara and their combat prowess, as such they need more skill points for most things.”
Emily looks around and sees that there are no other options, she allocates the five hundred and fifty points to unlock the skills. Now with less than one thousand and five hundred points, he takes a look at the Twin Blades tree and sees that several nodes are already lit.
Sensing Emily’s confusion, Elizabeth explains. “You have come across these skills naturally as a result of your use of the weapons. Thus there is no means to use skill points for those.”
“That makes sense,” Emily says.
Emily looks over the unlocked skills. They are labeled “{Bladedance}” “{Parry Twirl}”, “{Charkram Formation}”, “{Arcane Blade}”, “{Spinning Parry}” and “{Twister Waltz}”. Emily doesn’t recall using some of these moves before. She then looks at the unlit nodes adjacent to them. To the right of Twister Waltz is one labeled “{Fire Fans}”. She notices that it is tied to the Pyrosphere and decides to ignore the node for now. She finds one called “{Cocytus’ Flurry}” and uses forty points to allocate it. She then finds one labeled “{Thunderclap}” and uses fifty points to unlock that skill. She then sees two labeled “{Photon Ring}” and “{Anesidora’s Boon}” at both thrifty five points each. She allocates the seventy to unlock both.
She then looks over to the magic trees and sees several sub-trees. “Um, Lizzie, a little help here?”
Elizabeth looks at the tree labeled “
“Maybe it is best if we save those for later.” Emily thinks. She then heads towards the final tree, the Dungeon tree.
“I’ll walk you through the myriad magical systems you have at your disposal later,” Elizabeth says. “As for the Dungeon Tree, that is something we’ll have to bring up with Heathcliff. As the [Dungeon Master] his advice and council are needed for how best to approach the three.”
Emily and Elizabeth dispel the screen, and Emily’s vision returns to normal.
“With one thousand, three hundred and forty points left,” Elizabeth says. “You still have a bevy of options available to you. How you choose to use these skills points is up to you.”
“Thank you, Lizzie,” Emily says with a giggle. Elizabeth leaves the core room to check up on the others.
✦✦✦
Richard meets Rose Rhapsodia in a room designed to resemble a diner, at the child’s request. The pink-haired lamia slithers near the tanned dwarf as he beckons to her.
“What’s up, Richard?” Rose says.
“I wanted to talk to you about your and your friend’s armaments,” Richard says. “Sarah and I are working on something special for the Sentinels.”
“Armaments?” Rose asks with a confused look.
“Weapons,” Richard says.
“Oh.” Rose thinks back on a few things. “Whisper had taught us to channel magic through wands that appear when we magiclaize. Though Streltizia also uses an axe.”
Richard takes notes. “And?”
Stretlitiza enters the room and sees Rose and Richard talking. “Heard from your sister that you’re working on new gear?”
“Indeed,” Richard says. “You use an axe I heard?”
The minotaur nods. Her orange have flipped as she showed Richard her labrys. “Pretty neat, but that is now why I came here.”
Rose bears a look of concern as she knows what Streltizia is about to say. “The wands are cool and all, but I feel like they are not quite enough in a fight. I want to ask if you can get something to help us better in close-range combat.”
Richard is taken aback by the suggestion. “Are you sure?”
“She’s sure,” Rose says with a sigh.
Strelitzia boasts a confident smile. “I simply feel like we should have options in case we have to get up close and personal with them. Plus Azalea also recently got a knife from that gallery Strega”
Richard ponders the suggestions. He is uncertain about letting the eight girls have access to dangerous objects. “I’ll talk to Sarah about it,” he says. “But I’ll need to talk to each of you about your preferences.”
“A sword does seem nice,” Rose says. “An elegant weapon for the heroic age.”
“Axe, spear, dagger, got it,” Richard says.
“There is one last thing,” Rose says as she presents her potted rainbow rose. “Anemone says that these flowers can make excellent decorations for staves and wands.” Strelitzia also shows Richard her Apus Astra plant.
“Noted,” Richard says. “Bring the plants to me or Sarah and we and Emily will see what we can do.”
“I’ll take you to the others,” Rose says. She and Strelitzia leas Richard away from the diner room.
✦✦✦
Richard, Rose, and Strelitzia encounter Anemone and Hydrangea reading some books. The plants they obtained at Noir, the Lunar Drop, and the Celestial Hortensia, are respectably at their side.
Hydrangea notices their friends and the dwarven craftsman. “Hello,” she says.
“Hey,” Rose says. What are you reading?”
“Applications of Runic Magic,” Anemone says. “Hydra’s reading some novel about a girl in love with a vampire.”
The cyan-haired girl closes her vampire romance novel and looks at the dwarven weaver. “I already heard you’re trying to create new gear for us?”
“You’re an astute one,” Richard says.
“Thank you,” Hydrangea says.
“I’d want to as—” Richard’s question is interrupted by Anemone’s response.
“Is this about melee weapons?” the purple-haired girl says.
“Yes…” Richard says.
Anemone looks at Streltizia boasting a confident smirk and sighs. “Stre…”
“What?” the orange-haired minotaur says. “You know our magic is dangerous in close range.”
Anemone looks at Rose.
“She was pretty insistent,” the pink-haired lamia says.
Hydrangea looks at Richard. “I’m not interested in melee weapons, but perhaps you and your sister can create a grimoire for me?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Richard says. “Heathcliff already alerted me that Emily can create metal-infused ink as a result of absorbing the Strega’s mana.”
Anemonie looks at Richard. “How about a bow?”
“A bow?” Streltizia says.
“You want to fight with your hair?” the lamia says.
“It’s not that kind of bow, Rose,” Anemonie says. “I think it can help with my shadow spells.”
“That makes sense.” Strelizia is aware that Anemonie’s shadow and gravity-focused spells are suited more toward support than offense.
“Strelitizia,” Anemone says. “Why are you adamant about having us use weapons?”
The young minotaur answers the wolf-eared girl’s question. “I just think we need to protect ourselves. We can’t always be fighting from a distance all the time, and using our spells at this range always risks backfiring mid-cast.”
Anemone understands Streltizia’s reasoning, but she is still a little confused.
“That aside,” Richard says. “I also want to incorporate these plants you’ve gotten into your new staves.”
Anemone’s lupine ears perk upon hearing that .”That’s a brilliant idea! They are a good focus for channeling magic.” She and Hydrangea allow Richard to take the plants.
“So, ax, sword, bow, and grimoire,” Richard says. “That is four out of eight right?”
Azalea swims toward the group of five. “Five actually, you’ll find my pick to be sharper than my wit.” The clionid mermaid says while displaying her palette knife. “Oh and here’s my Azalea Aquarius as well.”
“Okay, that’s five,” Richard says, “By the how, how did you know about that Azalea?”
“I knew Stre would wear everyone down eventually,” the mermaid says. “Stubborn as a bull that one.”
“I’m over here!” Streltizia says.
“Hi, Streltizia!” Azalea says with a cheerful smile.
The minotaur sighs. “Let’s just go find the others.”
Everyone leaves to find Clover, Lily and Raine.
✦✦✦
Clover meets with Charlotte, who introduces her to Euryale and Stheno.
“Hi there!” Euryale says, acclimating better to her recent circumstances.
“Pleasure to meet you,” Stheno says in a polite tone.
“You too,” the green-haired fawn says. Before she blurts out her train of thought the four are approached by a young child.
“Hello,” the child says. Clover and Charlotte look at the young girl. Her features include the rounded mouse ears and tails that were found on the children of Hamlin, but neither Charlotte, Euryale, nor Stheno recognize her from the village. And as far as they know, The Piper Pruflas hadn’t attacked other villages before that faithful attack on the Black Box. The mysterious child carries a paintbrush in her hand and wears a black dress with white lines. Her brown hair is tied into small pigtails.
“Hello there,” Charlotte asks. “And you’re name is?”
The little girl looks at her in confusion. “My name? What’s a name?”
“You don’t have a name?” Clover says before she rambles on about anecdotes about strange names she had encountered.
“Clover was it?” Stheno says. “Can you get to the point?”
“Oh, sorry.” The winged fawn turns to the nameless girl. “Anyway a name is. It is…huh actually I don’t quite understand it myself, but I do know that everyone needs it.”
The child with the paintbrush racks her head. Scatted memories about a fabricated world and a monster resembling a bed appear in her mind. Then memories of people, including those with a resemblance to Clover and Charlotte. Then the image of a picture frame with a painting of herself and a plaque labeled “The Heritor”. “Is my name ‘the Heritor’?” she says.
“Who would name their kid that?” Euryale says. The first of many questions about her.
Richard and the Colorturas with him approach Clover. Strelitzia rushes towards her lifelong friend. “Hey, Clover! I’ve been meaning to ask, have you decided on a weapon yet?”
The flighty fawn thinks about it. She airs her opinions on various types of weapons like the greatsword, the spear, the one-bladed axe, and even a pistol. The latter of which caused Ricard to express his disapproval of them using firearms vehemently.
“Oh, I know!” Clover says. “Give me a nice big fan!”
“A…fan?” Streltizia says. Richard is just as confused by the bizarre suggestion.
“I heard there were legends of someone that did use a fan as a weapon,” Anemone says. “A cultivator that was once wed to a minotaur in Jiang-Hu.”
“I…see,” Richard says. “I’ll have to look into it.”
Rose looks at the child with the paintbrush. “Whose that?” the lamia says.
“Beat’s me,” Clover says. “She doesn’t even have a name! Like who on Titania is born without a name?”
Rose and Anemone notice a strong resemblance to someone they met while in Noir, and some they met in the Strega’s lair specifically. “Wait, is that Kaitlyn?” Rose says.
“Kaitlyn?” the child says. “What a pretty name!” She decides to take it for herself.
“But how is that possible?” Strelitzia says.
“It’s more likely than you think,” Azalea says.
“What nonsense are you spouting now, Azalea?” Streltizia says.
“No, she might be right,” Hydrangea says. Aware of both what Azalea told her at the lair and also about how Dungeons create constructs. “Excuse me, but do you remember anything, Kaitlyn?”
Kaitlyn realizes that several of the girls around her are very familiar to her, even though she cannot figure out why. “I remember a dark scary place, and some kind of monster wandering it.”
“Uh-huh, and?” Strelitzia says.
“I remember…is there a purple-haired girl around here?”
Anemone points to herself in confusion. While Kaitlyn vaguely remembers her, she had someone else in mind.
“No I think she was taller,” Kaitlyn says.
“Might you be referring to Emily by any chance?” Richard says
The utterance of the name causes Kaitlyn to recall her more clearly. “Yes! That’s the one, can you tell me where she is.”
“All around us?” Clover says.
“It’s…complicated,” Rose says.
Charlotte turns to Kaitlyn. “Do you know what a dungeon is?”
“A place you hold criminals in right?” Kaitlyn says.
“Close,” Richard says, “but not quite.”
“We can take her to Lydia,” Euryale says. “Lily is already there by the way.”
“You guys already met Lily?” Rose says. “I thought she was shy around strangers!”
“Lotte and Nina already introduced her to Lydia, and she handled the rest,” Stheno says.
The group follows the Arion sisters to the recently established daycare and school.
✦✦✦
Lily plays with several of the other children under Lydia’s care. The young spiderlings and Cells play with the centaur with smiles on their faces.
Richard and his group see Lily playing with the other children. Charlotte, Euryale, and Stheno look at the Cells among them with looks of confusion and dread. Anemone picks up on this.
“Those mice-kids did seem quite off,” Rose says.
“It’s a long story,” Euryale says.
“Hey, Lily! We want to talk to you!” Strelitzia shouts.
Lily hears the minotaur’s voice and cheerfully shouts back. “Coming!”. She then turns to her playmates. “I have to go, see you guys later.” Before joyfully cantering towards Stretitzia and her group.
“Hello!” Lily says with a smile. “What did you want to talk about?”
Richard clears his throat. “I’d want to discuss the items Sarah and I are crafting for you and your friends. Specifiably the weapons.”
“Oh,” the centaur says. She looks to Strelitzia and understands what’s going on. “Hmm, did everyone else already choose one?”
“We haven’t asked Raine yet,” Rose says.
“Oh,” Lily says. “How about a spear then?”
“A spear,” Richard says. “At least it is something simple,” he thinks.
“Oh, how about a trident?” Lily says. “If Azalea is using knives that is.”
“That is…possible,” Richard says.
“That just leaves Raine,” Rose says. “I know where she is.”
“You guys go without me,” Charlotte says. “I still have to bring Kaitlyn to Lydia.” She leaves with Euryale and Stheno. Anemone looks at the Alraune child’s eyes and notices signs that she has been through a harrowing ordeal in them. With the departure of Charlotte, the Arion twins, and Kaitlyn, the group follows Rose to find Raine.
✦✦✦
Richard’s group finds Raine talking with Heathcliff about their job as Sentinels.
“So, do you have an idea of what we are guarding?” Raine says.
“Give it time, cher,” the red-headed knight says. “You just got here. Take the time to relax.”
Elizabeth approaches Heathcliff with a message. She whispers something in his ear.
“I gots to go,” Heathcliff says to the phoenixian girl before leaving with Elizabeth.
Raine sighs before she turns her head and sees her friends and Richard are here. “Huh?”
“Trying to help figure out the schedule?” Rose says.
“Yeah,” Raine says. She then turns to Richard. “Is my apprenticeship starting?”
“Not quite,” the blond dwarf says. “I’m here to talk about your arms.”
“My arms?” Raine gestures with her arms.
“Your staff and other weapons,” Richard clarifies.
“Oh,” the red-headed girl says. “Wait other weapons?”
The other Coloraturas point to Strelitzia.
“Of course,” Raine says.
“If it’s help,” Richard says. “Some of your friends expressed a preference for ranged weapons. That said, I draw the line at firearms.”
Raine recalls seeing Emily use chakrams instead of two swords. “Can you make me a pair of large rings?” Raine says.
“With pleasure,” Richard says. He at least understands how Chakrams are constructed. “One last thing. I also want to incorporate your plants into the staves.”
Raine thinks on it. She sees that the other girls had their potted plaints in hand, implicitly displaying their allowing the craftsmen to incorporate theirs into their own. “Alright then,” Raien says after a few moments of careful consideration. She picks up her Dianthis elpis from a nearby table. “We can prolly grow some more with those seeds anyway.”
With the consent of the Coloraturas, Richard takes the eight potted plants. The potted Apus astra, Rosa iris, Dinathus elpis, Azalia aquarius, Jasminus arcanus, Anemone luna, Helianthus stellae, and Hydrangea celestia, are now in his hands. “Thank you, girls,” he says. “I’ll get to work on the designs posthaste.” He carries the plants with him back to his atelier.
✦✦✦
Heathcliff and Elizabeth head to the core room. There Elizabeth explains to him the skill tree system and that she had forgotten to tell them earlier.
“Skill Trees?” Heathcliff says with some bemusement.
“All Divine Dungeons and some advanced Natural Dungeons have them,” Elizabeth says.
“There is a tree for the dungeon itself,” Emily’s voice echoes to Heathcliff. Elizabeth brings up the screen with the tree in question, aptly labeled “
“Ah, so this is part of my job as a dungeon master?” Heathcliff says.
“Correct,” Elizabeth says. “Be careful, you have a limit of five hundred and fifty points to spend, right now”
The knight looks over the tree and sees several complex starting points. He eyes one of the already lit nodes, labeled “{{Layout Randomization α}}” The adjacent nodes are labeled “{{Layout Randomization β}}” and “{{Material Learning α}}”, the latter also being lit and had one labeled {{Material Learning β}} to its right. The two unlit nodes are respectably one hundred points, and one hundred and fifty points. Heathcliff allocates the amount of points to these two nodes.
He then sees another lit node nearby. Labeled “{{Recette Analysis}}”. The nearby nodes all cost two hundred at minimum.
“That doesn’t seem worth it,” Heathcliff thinks. “What do you think, cher?”
Emily looks at the nodes. All specialized towards refining the gear generated by her dungeon. She recalls how powerful her initially created weapons were, yet she thinks that it might be useful to enchant them sooner rather than later. She eyes the nodes labeled “{{Enhanced Manaflow α}}”. “That one,” Emily says.
“Alright then,” Heathcliff allocates the points. “I’ll leave the last hundred to you, cher,” Heathcliff says.
Emily looks over the tree herself. Soon finding a node adjacent to one of the lit ones. Labeled “{{Telepathy}}”, its price is exactly one hundred points. “Elizabeth, can you explain this?”
“{{Telepathy}}? It’s a common skill for Dungeons, as it allows those under the core’s aegis to share their thoughts and emotions more easily. Allowing for better coordination while inside the dungeon. However it is also easily misused, leading to cases where the minds of those linked in that way become irreversibly entwined and merge with each other. Especially when more advanced skills are involved. It is something you will need to be careful with if you wish to pursue this path.”
“Got it,” Emily says. She thinks about the benefit of the skill and how it could help her understand her friends better. On the other hand, she also considers the potential risks. After a few minutes of careful consideration, she decides to unlock the skill. “Heathcliff, can you please unlock Telepathy?”
“On it, cher,” Heathcliff allocates the skill points and gains the final skill for the session. Leaving Emily with only nine hundred and thirty points left.
“Is there anything else on the agenda?” Heathcliff says.
“I think Clara was asking for you earlier today,” Emily says.
The knight contemplates why the Alraune beast tamer would want to see him as he leaves the core room.
✦✦✦
Later, Lydia had brought someone to the core room, a young girl distinguished by her brown pigtails and her paintbrush. “Excuse me,” the Construct says. “Is Emily here?”
“Yes?” the dungeon’s voice echoes to the child in response.
Elizabeth is confused. “Why did you bring one of the kids here, Lydia? The core room is dangerous!”
The Arachne broodmother turns to Elizabeth. “I figured she’d wanted to meet Emily face to face.”
Elizabeth looks at the young girl. She notices something familiar about her.
Emily also notices the girl is familiar to her. “Is that, Kaitlyn?”
The young girl smiles at Emily immediately learning her name.
Elizabeth understands what Lydia meant when she explains her reasons and sees that Emily has already activated her avatara. The humanoid form materializes in the core room, and an elated Kaitlyn proceeds to hug what she sees as her older sister.
Emily put down the child and turns to Elizabeth.
“I told you there was a chance we’d see her again,” Elizabeth says. “But…” She explains that Kaitlyn had become a Construct, recreated from Emily’s memories and the mana absorbed from the Strega.
Emily is disheartened, as she realizes that she may not be the same girl she met in Spurius Mundis. “Katie…”
The cheerful artist smiles at Emily. Emily asks her several questions, learning that Kaitlyn does vaguely recall her previous life as a Strega, but little else, save for Emily herself.
The reunion is bittersweet, as Emily is unsure if Kaitlyn is the same timid girl she was when she first encountered her.
✦✦✦
Carla is busy tending to her newfound “pets” namely the cordyceps deer. She takes great care to make sure the parasitized ibex does not enter her veins. The room was decorated by various starflowers, chartreuse green, and indigo blue in hue. A souvenir Charlotte brought from Noir.
Heathcliff enters the verdant room. “Hello, Carla.”
“You’re here,” the Alraune says.
“Heard you wanted to talk to me?” Heathcliff says.
“I heard from Charlotte about her experiences in Noir, and from Emily about your risky endeavor there,” Carla says.
“Heh,” Heathcliff says. “I have experience, cher. It’s going to take more than Jay to keep me down.”
“Maybe you can regale me with some of those experiences?” Carla says. She finishes tending to the deer and dismisses it. The deer gazes at Heathcliff before leaving.
“Sure thing, Carla,” Heathcliff says. He sides down on a nearby chair. “What should I bring up first? The raid on Caltrop Fortress? The heist at Museum Memoria?”
Carla and Heathcliff begin to talk about the man’s exploits. Carla asked several questions about the locations traveled to and learned so much about the world beyond her former home in Hamlin and the dungeon of Revotos’ Valley. While Heathcliff tells her about his many adventures with Esteban and Chiron and later with Tim.
“You hail from Charlemagne?”
“I thought that was obvious!” Heathcliff says with a laugh. “My accent was more local to Liberté but my connection to old Charlie is something I wear on my sleeves.”
“So why did you leave for Liberté?” Carla asks the knight.
Heathcliff hesitates. “It’s a long story, cher. One we do not have the time for.”
“I see,” Carla says. “You have your burdens as well.” She sighs.
“Don’t we all?” Heathcliff says.
The two begin to talk about something else. After a nice chat and a discussion about Noir and its Underground, the two parted ways.
“Thank you for the talk, Heathcliff,” Carla says. “I appreciate your company.”
“No problem, cher,” Heathcliff says. “Remember to talk to me if you need something.” He leaves.
Carla then looks back on her earlier talk with Charlotte, how the indigo-haired and petaled girl told her mother about what she saw at Noir. The most disturbing revelation, one that she didn’t bring up with Heathcliff, is the encounter with the man known as Orpheus Arion. She wonders if he should know what befell the children of Hamlin, and the potential consequences of that fate. She wonders if she could be trusted with the knowledge of his sisters’ fate. She intuits that Douglas and Medusa at least told them that Euryale and Stheno are safe, but she also knows that if the parents trusted him, they would've been more forthright.
Clara also muses about the extension of the black Box. With Emily now having a permanent presence in Noir, there is now a chance that adventurers from the city would visit the dungeon herself and try to raid her for her treasures, and the chance that Orpheus would be among these future visitors. She wonders what would be done with the kids in such an event. Whether to ensure they are scurried away while he visits or left to wander and risk being discovered. Clara leves the room, wondering about what risk the future holds.
✦✦✦
Meanwhile, Tim meditates. He focuses on the wind shield and the times he had managed to cast it. Sarah approaches him.
“Still hung up on Chiron, huh?” the dwarf lady says.
“What do you want?” Tim says.
Sarah flashes a cheeky smile. “Brother and I are working on new armaments and vestments for everyone. And I’ve been wondering, do you want a new polearm?”
“Pass,” Tim says.
Sarah shrugs. “Was worth a shot,” she thinks. She looks at the Qiang next to Tim. “Seems like that Qiang was used a lot,” she says. “How long had you used that thing?”
Tim sighs. He stands up and picks his spear from the ground. “This Qiang, it was given to me by my teacher, far in the depths of Jiang-hu, in the depths of Wu-lin. There I learned the art of bajiquan and spearmanship. This weapon is the only physical thing I have left of him.”
“What happened?” Sarah says.
Tim begins explaining how he obtained the spear. “The dojo where I was training was attacked by the armies of the kingdom of Wu-Kong. They had sacked the school and set it ablaze. I was the only survivor. The day before the attack, my teacher handed me a qiang and told me to run. He also told me to never lose the spear, as it is now my teacher. By the time I headed to the port, I saw the smoke rising from the dojo, the next day the papers tell of the massacre. I had departed back to my home in Fairborough that day.”
Sarah is a little surprised to hear that. “I know the bishops and such love to prattle on about how everything has a spirit and such, but to think that a humble weapon could teach someone is still—”
“Regardless of your opinion,” Tim says. “I know my teacher as a wise and learned man, who had mastered arcane secrets. I believe that his words are true and so I kept the Qiang at my side as my sole companion until I met Heathcliff.”
Sarah grows silent. “Okay, I understand, now did he say anything about the clothing, Brother would be cross to learn that you refuse to change your outfits.”
“This outfit is common traveler’s garb. I have no objections to replacing that is that what you want to ask,” Tim says.
“Thank you,” Sarah says. “I’ll be seeing you, Tim.” The silver haired and tanned dwarf leaves.
✦✦✦
Over the next several days. Richard and Sarah had worked on their project, during which they had occasionally consulted Emily about the design of certain outfits. A week later, they had finished. That morning Sarah approached Elizabeth.
“Hi Lizzie,” Sarah says.
“Hello,” the fairy says. “Did you want to ask me something?”
“We’ve finished Emily’s new armor,” Sarah says. “I want to ask how to put it on her.”
Elizabeth explains to Sarah the process of changing an avatara’s form and then asks Sarah where the armor is.
Over at the atelier, a black and purple suit of armor is displayed. The armor consists of a black fabric undercoat and is painted with metallic purple pieces and accents. Their plates resemble the outer chassis of a machine as much as it did a suit of mail. Sleek, elegant, but mechanical. It looked like something out of a science fiction story.
Elizabeth looks around and sees that one was tailed for her as well, with magenta hues instead of purple. She then sees that there are several suits for eighteen others, including Heathcliff, Tim, Carla, and the Coloraturas. Each of them bears a distinct color.
“Emily?” Elizabeth says.
“Yeah?” Emily’s voice echoes to Elizabeth.
“Sarah and Richard appear to be done with their work.”
The dungeon focuses on the purple suit of armor in front of Elizabeth. She is surprised at how well it matches her previous outfit and the aesthetics of her dungeon body.
Elizabeth conjured a screen and used it to scan the attire and the accompanying twin blades. “Let’s see,” she uses the screen to examine the armor’s structural integrity. The metal pieces, crafted by Flowesium, Arcanite, and Oricalcum provide stability and enhanced flow of mana, the black pieces were made using Dreamcloth for a nacreous sheen and common black leather for texture.
Elizabeth finished her scan. “Emily?”
“It’s already done,” Emily says. “What now?”
“Your avatara will manifest with the armor incorporated going forward.” Elizabeth flutters to the other suits. “Why did you make twenty of them?”
“Well,” Sarah gestures to the ten made for the Sentinels. “After working on Emily’s brother I got started with the Sentinels.” She looks over at Tim’s, bearing an orange hue and elements of a Jiang-Hu warrior. “This one was designed with his spearwork in mind.” She then turns to the chartreuse one, bearing a skirt that resembles petals “I insisted on designing this to protect Carla from the beasts living in Emily.” She then gestures to a suite of nearly identical outfits, black with pastel accents and various pieces accommodating the Coloratura’s biology. “The Magical Girls were a bit more difficult.”
Elizabeth examines the coral pink one and notices it includes armored parts designed to be worn by Rose’s tail. She then sees the light red one made for Raine Carnation Cadenza and notices the slits on top of the skirt. She then passes the peach-colored one designed for Strelitzia and looks at the yellow one designed for Lily. Which had to be mounted on one-and-a-half mannequins for display. “You accounted for Lily’s quadrupedal form?”
“Seemed like an obvious feature,” Sarah says. “I’m aware that some Centaurs prefer not to dress their hind legs, but Richard insisted on protection for the area. Plus we had the formalwear from Jay as a reference.”
Elizabeth does recall the dwarves asking to examine those sets of clothing the night they won them from Gatsby Tower.
Elizabeth looks at the magic mint green armor made for Clover. She notices it bears slits for her wings, similar to the light red armor. She then looks at the baby blue armor created for Hydrangea, similar to Strelitizia’s peach-colored armor in all but color. Elizabeth then sees the periwinkle-colored armor created for Azalea. She notices that the armor lacks something present on all the others except Rose’s.
Sarah notices Elizabeth’s quizzical look. “We decided to forgo wrapping Azalea’s tail after learning that she is a clionid and that her tail would be too gelatinous for anything on it to not fall off while swimming.”
“Ah,” Elizabeth says. She then takes a look at the last armor designed for the Coloraturas, a lavender color armor created for Anemone. She notices that it is also similar to Streltizia’s.
“We did add holes for their tails where appropriate to be clear,” Sarah says.
Sarah fights higher in the atelier to get a better view of these eight outfits. Nearly touching the purple ceiling. From this vantage point, she sees several common designs. A sailor-esque color, skirts with musical patterns, black pants for all except Azalea and Rose, and besides them are staves and a unique weapon.
Azalea then looks to the right and sees that there was an outfit she missed next to Carla’s, tropical indigo-colored and with a similar shirt as seen on her mother’s armor. She then sees a white-colored one designed with Arachne’s body in mind, and a rather young one at that.
“Nina wanted one too,” Sarah says.
“That figures,” Elizabeth says. “Did you make one for Minerva?”
“She refused,” Sarah says with a shrug. “She wanted me to make sure the armor isn’t too dangerous for her daughter.”
Emily chimes in. “Sarah, what about Heathcliff’s?” her voice echoes to Sarah.
Sarah points towards a crimson suit of mail right between Emily’s and Tim’s. The armor’s spauders resemble dog heads and the shield bears the visage of one on it as well. “Brother wanted our dungeon master to be more stylish, and as you recalled we set out on getting certain metals to ensure they are adaptable and become more powerful with the wearer.”
“I remember,” Emily says. She then turns to a pair of short armors next to Tim’s one is golden and seems to be modeled with marksmen in mind, and the other is silver and is designed for protection all around.
“Those are ours!” Sarah says with a grin. “What? You think we’d design gear for everyone but ourselves?”
“She does have a point,” Emily says.
“That leaves three unaccounted for. I’m assuming two are for the Hermandezes?”
“Indeed they are!” Sarah says she directs Elizabeth and Emily’s attention to the azure and indigo-colored ones. “By the way, did you know the shade we used for Charlotte’s is called ‘añil’ in Cynthia?”
“Y-yes!” Elizabeth lies. In truth she didn’t know that fact. She examines the two suits of powered mail and observes from the shape and proportions that the indigo-one is for Julia and the azure one is, firring for Esteban. She then looks to the teal colored armor next to it. “If Minerva didn’t want one…than who is this for?”
“Atsuko,” Sarah says. “She talked to brother before leaving if you’d recall. She wanted one for when she returns here with her instruments.”
Elizabeth notices a second pattern. “Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Indigo, Magenta, White.” She says as she observes that two shades of each were used for the outfits.
“That was my idea.” Sarah says. “I didn’t want everything to be the same colors.”
“Where is Richard anyway?” Emily asks Sarah.
“Off on an errand,” Sarah says. “He wants to be the one to introduce everyone to their new outfits, so please keep it to yourselves until tonight.”
“Will do!” Emily says. “Thank you.”
“You have my thanks as well,” Elizabeth says.
“It was my pleasure,” Sarah says. “I had wanted a good reason to try out some smithing techniques I’ve picked up from Noir as well.”
Elizabeth leaves the atelier.
✦✦✦
That night, Richard gathers Emily’s Sentinels, as well as Heathcliff, Mienrva, Nina, Charlotte, Esteban, Julia, and Kaitlyn, at the Atelier within the Black Box. Elizabeth and Sarah are already at the building. A few others had also arrived out of curiosity, mostly the Archne. A small stage with a curtain was set up an hour ago to build suspense.
“So your little buddy had finished that project he told us about?” Esteban says.
“Yeah,” Heathcliff says, with a look of annoyance. “This armor had better be the bee’s knees!”
Chiron is also here, learning that Esteban has moved to the Black Box.
“It’s always nice to meet an old friend.” The centaur priest says.
“Ah, Chiron,” Esteban says. “Heard you took to teaching some students.”
“Indeed,” Chiron says to the blue-coated man. “I thought it my duty to the Administrators to shepherd the next generation of heroes.”
“Maybe if you are lucky, you might one day mentor a Messenger!” Heathcliff says.
“Heh, wouldn’t that be the day.”
Meanwhile, the Coloraturas whisper amongst themselves about their new outfits and arms. While Tim grumbles at the sight of the centaur priest.
Richard arrives at a podium he had set up in advance. Clad in his formal attire from Gatsby Tower. “Bet you thought this outfit would only be used once,” he says to the crowd with a nervous smile.
Heathcliff places his palm on his head. “This is gonna take a while, isn’t it?”
It did indeed take a while before Richard could mustard the courage to showcase his new works.
“As you know, I’ve used the trip to Noir as an opportunity to learn and to gather some materials with Emily’s assistance. As such I felt it appropriate to begin with the dungeon herself. Emily?”
“With pleasure,” Emily’s voice is heard from beneath the curtain. Her avatara walks to the stages, donning her new violet armor. The crowd notices the subtle differences from her previous outfit. Tim looks at her with curiosity.
“Hello, everyone,” Emily says.
“With that said,” Richard says while snapping his fingers. In a puff of smoke, his outfit changes into his new golden armor. Sarah and Elizabeth also take to the stage in theirs. “I wanted to be certain that certain individuals would bear a distinctive look. One that is unique to the Black Box and the Black Box alone. So I had created a suite of garments and armors designed for us to use.”
“We’d worked rather hard on these designs,” Sarah says. “And accounted for each detail possible. It was a very long week.”
“I bet it was, cher,” Heathcliff says.
“The ones we are wearing now, are but a fraction of the fruits of our labor.” Richard approaches a rope suspended at the top of the stage. “The rest shall be unveiled now!” he jumps and grabs the rope, as he lands, the tug of the rope causes the curtains to recede and reveal the mechanical armors. Each on a mannequin with a plaque with the names of the intended recipients. Fifteen armors in all. As the curtain rises Richard calls out the name of this line of armors; Cyberworks.
“Please come to the stage to receive your armor as we call you name,” Elizabeth says. “The changing rooms are over there.” She points in the direction of the stage’s left. She begins with the Coloraturas. “Rose Rhapsodia.”
“Coming!” Rose slithers onto the stage and takes the coral-pink armor. Her fluffy pigtails bob as she takes the pieces of the armor off the mannequin. Sarah helps the lama girl to the changing room, making sure Rose's pink snake tail doesn't tip the other mannequins over.
“Anemonie Aria.”
The purple-haired girl moves to eh stage and takes the parts of the lavender armor. Emily directed her to the changing room.
“Azelia Adagio.”
The clionid mermaid swims to the periwinkle armor. “Wow!” she is dazzled by the design of the suit as she picks up the pieces. “It’s so light, I bet it won’t sink like a stone!” she swims to the changing rooms, seeing where Rose and Anemone went.
“Hydrangea Harmony.”
The skeptical girl walks to the stage and picks up the baby blue armor. Her fingers notice it is cold to the touch, a consequence of its metallic composition. She curtly follows Azelia.
“Clover Capriccio.”
Streltizzia looks to the green-haired fawn and tells her “Got get them.” The flighty girl prances on stage to take the magic mint green suit and then runs to the left, nearly tripping. By that point, Sarah and Emily had returned from leading Rose and Anemone to their changing rooms.
“Lily Borea Legato”
“Coming!” the blond centaur girl gallops towards the stage and takes the pastel yellow armor. Emily offers to help her, but Lily instead places all the pieces in a pile on her equine body and canters to the changing rooms without any of them falling over, to everyone’s surprise.
Elizabeth clears her throat. “Streltizia Sonata.”
The orange-haired minotaur simply walks to the stage,s takes the peach-colored armor, and follows Lily.
“Raine carnation Cadenza.”
The last of the Coloraturas to get their armor was the red-headed phoenixian girl. She simply flies from her spot towards the light red armor. Taking the pieces in hand she carries to to the changing rooms.
I’ll go make sure these outfits are retained while they’re magiclaized,” the fairy says. She follows Raine to the changing rooms and hands Richard a list.
The dark-skinned blond dwarf clears his throat as he prepares to list the rest of the people yet to receive their new armor. “Timothy Howard.”
Tim walks onto the stage and takes the orange armor.
“Heathcliff Ford.”
The red-headed knight sighs before walking to the stage. He takes the crimson armor as Sarah directs him to a changing room.
“Esteban Hernandez.”
The dark-skinned man already wearing an azure suit walks towards the azure armor and takes it, he then walks towards a changing room.
“Julia Hernandez.”
Julia walks to the stage and takes the indigo armor. Her violet-blue locks match the accents.
“Clara Truce.”
The chartreuse skinned alraune gets her chartreuse colored armor.
“Charlotte Truce.”
The indigo-petaled daughter of Clara follows suit and takes the pastel indigo armor.
“Nina Lycosa.”
“Yay!” Nina cheers as she runs on her eight arachnid legs. The white-haired spiderling climbs into the stage and takes the remaining platinum-colored armor. Minerva helps her daughter to the changing rooms to get dressed.
A while later, everyone exists in the changing room, now clad in the dwarven-crafted armors.
“These suits are designed to grow as you grow,” Richard says. “With these, you will never want for a sturdier armor or a sharper blade again.”
Heathcliff does some movements with the armor and finds it rather comfortable. “I guess it’ll do for now, cher,” he says.
Richard is satisfied by Heathcliff’s response. He turns to the remaining audience. “Thank you all for coming.”
“Was all this pomp and circumstance really necessary?” Heathcliff says.
Esteban chuckles. “Got a case of stage fright?”
Heathcliff groans.
Sarah hands everyone the weapons that correspond to the armor. The crowd cheers as they celebrate Richard’s new armor and their models. With only the teal armor left to be claimed by its recipient, everyone but Richard and Sarah leave the atelier.
✦✦✦
Time later sees Emily’s avatara admiring her new outfit. “Doesn't that drain your perception of everything else while active?”
Emily looks at Tim with surprise. “Tim! Hello there.”
Tim sighs.
“How is the fit?” Emily says. Referring to Tim’s armor.
“It’s okay,” he says. In truth, he has an issue with how form-fitting some of the pieces are.
Emily giggles. She looks back on the events in Noir. “A lot of things happened while we visited the city.”
“Yeah,” Tim says. He looks at Emily’s avatara and feels something he could not describe.
Emily looks towards an opening in her dungeon body, a window she had created so that she could look outside while piloting her avatara. The moonlight illuminates the blue and black room.
“We have six spheres and ten new residents, and an eleventh on the way,” Tim says. “It seems like things are gonna be more hectic around here.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Emily says with twee excitement. “And I’ll be counting on you and the others to help me handle it all, Timmy.”
Tim is exacerbated with how chipper Emily is today, and annoyed with her choice of nickname. “Timmy?” he says while blushing. Emily giggles some more at seeing Tim’s flustered face. Tim sighs again.
“So how is your meditation?” Emily says. “Did you manage to learn how to create a wind shield?”
“Kinda,” Tim says. “As you could probably attest.” He is not sure how it only seems to work when he is near Emily. He feels like he is missing something. Tim is lost in thought as he tries to find out what the missing piece is.
Emily grabs Tim’s hand. He feels the warmth flow into his hands and a sudden gust of wind suddenly enters through the window. The gust nearly blows the two off their feet.
“What is the—” Tim wonders how did that happen. The radio mentioned that the night would have nothing but still winds tonight. He feels another gust coming and braces himself. Emily’s avatara holding his hand. He readies his Qiang and prepares to defend them however he can. He makes some movements…and the gust never comes, instead, the wind begins swirling around him and Emily.
It was in this calm that Tim had an epiphany. He called on the wind to protect Emily. He laughs at this sudden realization.
The wind stills and Emily looks at Tim with a look of concern.
“I’m fine,” Tim says. “I just realized something that I should’ve realized long ago. Thank you Emily and good night.” Tim leaves the room, to sleep and then to mediate on why he can only successfully call a wind shield when Emily is in danger. As Emily looks at the boy she wonders what fate has in store for them next.