Magical Engineering

Book 3: Intelligent Design

Following our victory on the tenth floor, we had spent several days letting some of the stress bleed away. While there were always more threats out there, my biggest goals from the moment the orc invasion had started were complete. Both my family and Earth were as safe as I could make them in the here and now. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t work to ensure the future of Earth, but it did mean that the doom that had hung over my head for so long had finally started to retreat.

Corey had been the one to actually surprise me the most with the change. For the first time since they had shed the persona of our initial meeting, an impatience seemed to be stirring within them. It was nearly time for the arrival of Traveler, and I knew how much Corey respected the other core. It was just unexpected to see their manifested form running around like a kid on Christmas every morning, checking if Santa had shown up yet.

“Interesting, so if we were able to get you these materials, you could build a tank capable of holding the experience?” I asked Trolke. I had cornered the giant over breakfast for a conversation on some ideas I had. The amount of experience we had gained on the last floor was enough that a large chunk of it was wasted. I wanted a way to avoid the waste, and considering I knew Sanquar had managed to refine some experience with basically nothing, it seemed plausible we should be able to.

“Yes, but as I said, I’m not an expert in this. I can make something capable of holding it, but unless you can find someone able to facilitate the transfer, or you can do it yourself, the bleed off is likely to make the whole thing pointless. It will be like making a water barrel out of a sponge,” he replied. I wasn’t overly concerned with the second part. I was far happier that he was sure it was possible.

“Either way, that’s good news. Now that the bunkhouse is more or less finished. What does Pryte have you working on next? I’m going to need to get a workshop going pretty soon. There are several ideas I finally want to try,” I said.

“Yes! How soon?! I want to try things too!” Gamma said, from above the table next to me. They had been a surprising close companion the last couple of days. We had drawn up a pretty detailed blueprint for what I was now calling our future workshop, or at least the first version of it. I was sure more changes would come as our abilities grew. Gamma was incredibly focused on some ideas they had for mana orb growth and wanted to work on trying to awaken one once we could.

“Remember, Gamma, we talked about this. Try to be patient. As much as we may want to do things immediately, few things are instant,” I replied. Some of what I had focused on in this last week were Alpha, Beta, and Gamma’s lives. I wanted to better understand what each of them truly desired out of their new existences, and how I could best work with them toward those goals.

“Sorry, Mr. Trolke. I will try to stay calm,” Gamma said. I wasn’t sure when they had started adding the honorifics exactly, but as long as they managed to maintain their calm, it was now almost a constant. Contrast that with Beta who was basically never respectful, but I had already realized that was mostly a facade. Beta cared a lot for our home and the new empire; some of it they had picked up from books with Alex and the other kids, but mostly they saw it as their duty to ensure our safety.

Beta had convinced Alpha to help with nightly patrols, and now, between the two of them, we were given daily reports on anything suspicious. So far, I hadn’t considered anything notable, but Pryte was happy with the information, and it gave Alpha something tangible to do as well. Alpha was the hardest to get a good feel on, but they seemed to at least enjoy the nightly patrols. I hoped that meant something toward their growth.

“It’s appreciated, Gamma. Pryte does want me to get to work on the main house next. He says it’s important that the entire royal family have personal bedrooms for when future dignitaries visit. Your workshop plans will be part of that. I should start breaking ground tomorrow,” Trolke replied. Before I could ask anything else, a chat window appeared in my head.