Magical Engineering

“Really, you two had to spend all of yesterday separate, and I somehow didn't see any of it,” I said as I sat down at a lunch table with the Twinoges currently telling a story. They had been my next target for figuring out who was going to do what during these events. But they had managed to distract me with their previous day of again being two different people.

“Yep, and the weirdest part was the vision I had when I was visiting the new tree with Alpha and the Hoary Marmot,” Cecile replied. “Still not sure what to make out of it. It was incredibly strange.”

“When you get a chance, make sure you let Elody know about it. I'm not sure I'll be any help there.” Visions from a world tree just weren't something I had the slightest idea about, and while I wasn't sure Elody could answer the questions, she was a much better resource than I would be here.

“Yeah, that's already on my list of things to discuss with both of the former librarians. Sadly, they knew next to nothing about what's happening to Cecile and me,” Elicec added.

“What did the process of re-merging feel like, anyway?” Pryte asked after setting down his own food. He had an assortment of several different items from the kitchens, all experiments that Rabyn was trying to perfect in the last few days he had before the cook-off.

“Don't know. We went to sleep separately and woke up in a single Twinoge body again. I just wish we had any idea what was going on,” Cecile answered.

“I mean, we know it's got something to do with your class, right?” I asked, taking a bite of my own odd crustacean-based dish. It almost tasted like a lobster pasta, but I knew there was no way he'd used lobster for this, so what was I eating? Rabyn had called it a shellfish surprise.

“Probably, though know is a bit too strong a word, but getting back to the important topic, what did you want to see us for anyway?” Elicec asked.

“Yeah, this is kind of a weird grouping you got here,” Glord added, as he and his sister grabbed two seats, Lorgela nodding as she sat next to him.

“That's because we're running out of people to sort into our events properly,” Pryte replied after quickly choking down another bite. “Originally, I had been planning to have your older brother here for this as well, but his new project has firmly placed him into a different camp of useful.”

“The mana beast sanctuary?” Lorgela asked, a note of pride in her question.

“Yep, that's the one. We finally got the full list of events for the competition, and befriending a mana beast is one of them,” I said.

“Told you it was a good idea, Glord,” Lorgela said with a smirk.

“Yeah, yeah, I should have known Glorp was right, he usually is,” Glord replied with a sigh.

“Wait, so what event do you need us for?” Lorgela asked.

“Well, thanks to the dungeon delving squad, you all recently decided to put together, that puts the two of you perfectly suited to join the group that's going to be handling a dungeon,” I explained.

“Wait, is it just the four of us?” Glord asked, looking around the table in shock.

“Five. I'll be on the squad as well. Corey, Beta, and Gamma may also be with us, depending on how I place them,” I answered.

“Wait, what about Orglina and Gorpila?” Lorgela asked.

“Gorpila is going to be working with Rabyn for a cooking event. Your youngest sister, I'm going to need for an entertaining event, I think. Her new mana orb is probably too useful for that to put her anywhere else. But that could…” My answer was cut off mid-final sentence as a searing pain shot through my body.

It was accompanied by a new System message, which I only just managed to read as my head crashed down into my food.