“They grow up so fast.” Denur smiled, an excited look on her face. “Deia has told me so much about you! This is so exciting; we have sooo much to talk about!” Denur sounded and looked like an excited big sister instead of a centuries-old legendary creature.
Dave felt growing anxiousness, looking from Denur, Deia and Fire’s hungry looks to Mal’s sorrowful one. Why do I feel more nervous here with my in-laws than in that court? Dave gave Mal a pleading look.
Mal started to study something on the wall.
No! How could you? I’m never getting you Dwarven whiskey ever again!
“So, when’s the wedding and how many children are you two thinking of pumping out? Are you going to build a house in the volcano or keep the place in Cliff-Hill?” Denur started.
“What kind of wedding are you thinking? Temple, public? Something a little smaller?” Fire added in.
Dave was dragged to the couch as Mal excused himself to make refreshments.
Dwarf down! I say again, Dwarf down! Don’t trust the Elves!
Chapter 6: Study and Progress
“Come on, you lazy bastards! Git those damn shields up!” Esa yelled out, her words putting enough fear into the mixed POE/Player group as the skeletons rushed them, peppering them with arrows.
Off to the side, Gurren, Lox, and Steve talked about where they wanted to check out on their next scouting adventure.
Esa rolled her eyes as the wall of shields held against the attacks. The new Stone Raiders yelled their defiance as the mages and archers supported and fired over them, killing the oncoming skeletons. After a few minutes, the skeletons were down and the new Stone Raiders were celebrating.
“Stow it! That wasn’t even hard; they were only level 120! Where was the communication? Communication is the most important thing. If you don’t have your shit together in these small groups, what’s going to happen when you’re with the rest of the guild?” Esa demanded.
Lox, Steve, and Gurren waded in from where they’d been relaxing.
“Do you know how to use a shield or your blade? I swear, half of you pissed yourselves, cowering behind the damned things, too scared to react. It’s about movement; always advance, always have them at a disadvantage. You stop on the battlefield, you lose momentum. You will die faster than the Demon Horde if you are forced backward! ALWAYS move forward!” Lox yelled out, his voice filling the cave system.
“Mages, where was your communication? Archers, don’t group up together to try to get a hit. Sure, you might get the kill for experience, but what does it matter if all of your guildmates get killed?” Gurren demanded.
“You’ve fought across Emerilia and your trainers said you were ready for this! Don’t make them liars! Have confidence in your training—work together and you’ll make it through! Now, back out! We’re going to do this three more times today until you’re comfortable with fighting creatures above your level and can work as a team!” Esa said, her words meant to be reassuring.
They moved out of the cave system. The four veterans stuck together.
“Not too bad,” Gurren said so that they couldn’t hear.
“Give them a few weeks and they’ll be Stone Raider material, though they need to come out of their shells. They’re like damned scared rats!” Steve complained.
Esa shook her head at them. She changed out of her armor and stretched as they exited the dungeon. A Magical Circuit lay over the entrance. It would let Unity know whether anything left the dungeon that wasn’t supposed to. It would also let people know whether there was anyone in the dungeon. There was nothing worse than getting to a dungeon only to know that someone had gone in an hour before and cleared it out.
“I remember when there was just a few hundred in the Stone Raiders. Now, we’ve got eight hundred veterans and four hundred recruits,” Esa said.
“Misery loves company, especially when everyone knows that we’re the best prepared for the coming events.” Lox clapped her on the back. She was too tall for him to reach her shoulder.
“It should be fun! I heard that there are some parties that are going to open up some portals we know about,” Esa said.
“That could be fun.” Steve looked to the others.
“If you go, don’t forget about me and Jules. This training stuff is fun, but I’ll get bored of it in a few weeks,” Esa said.
“Can do!” Gurren smiled.
They looked out from the cliff that the dungeon was carved into. Most of Devil’s Crater was still a wild forest, but roads connected to all of the main keeps. A wall circled the entire crater. Forests had been cleared in the farming sector.
The greenhouses shone in the distance, plots around them waiting for spring when the orchards could be planted.
Small villages had sprouted up as families had moved to be closer to the land they owned. Unity sprouted out of the ground, its moat now filled with water. The wall was still being worked on and with Esa’s sight, she was able to see the signs of building within the city. Representing Unity and Devil’s Crater, the government’s towers twisted up into the sky; two separate towers circled each other, combining to become one.
Demons, Beast Kin, and people being pulled in magical levitation devices flew around.
Esa looked at it all. A smile appeared on her face, proud of what she had done and excited to see how Devil’s Crater would grow.
“Heal, meditate and eat up; we’ve got an hour until the mobs respawn. If you’ve got questions, now’s the time to ask us,” Esa said.
***
Dave and Deia waved good-bye to Mal and Fire as they walked through the teleport pad into Terra.
“Come and see.” Dave pulled Deia along through the housing complexes.
Deia laughed at his clear excitement to show off what he had been up to.
Well, it’s only fair, the way he was clapping in excitement when I pushed the magma up. I nearly reached the plug at the top! Deia smiled, exhilarated by the enthusiasm and clear pride he’d shown at seeing the work she’d done.
It made her want to try even harder, but it wasn’t enough to pull her away from him. She was excited to see what he’d been up to.
They passed the second housing complex, going through large twin doors. Past it, they were greeted with a wall of noise. Miners, both large and small, were hard at work. Repair bots rushed around with materials while dozens of Stone Raiders moved around, helping out. Carts moved in organized lines, carrying materials from the miners off to a side corridor that connected to the refinery.
“Dave, Deia!” Malsour flew in across the nearby corridors that opened up into the city, riding his metal surfboard.
“How was the Ring?” Malsour looked to Deia.
“Fun! I learned a lot, but I realized that I still have a lot more to learn.” Deia smiled.
“Mother is always the best in teaching us how to push ourselves.” Malsour smiled.
“How have things been?” Dave looked out over the city.
“We’re just about to fire up the first run on the power station in the city.” Malsour’s silver disk expanded as he waved for them to join him on it. Deia and Dave did so, as he took to the sky, looking out over the city.
It was truly immense. When Deia had left, it had been little more than holes in a wall, creating main roads. Now there were blocks for apartment buildings, roads were cut out, structural members met along the length of the city with industrial, residential, and all manner of buildings.
It looked like a clay sculpture of a city back on Earth, just without the cars, people, and refined touches to tell you it was inhabited.
“Once we have the power sorted out here, we can start with the city’s massive refinery.” Malsour pointed to a massive building with multiple access points and where the industrial areas were located. Smaller miners crawled all over the area, their lasers cutting out the interior of the buildings there.
“The farmers got back to us and they love the design for the growing houses. I thought that we should go with
towers placed in strategic positions for backup, as well as a few areas open just for people to enjoy a park. Also, it might be an idea to alter the light distribution devices to give off light that Humans are more likely to thrive in. We do better with sunlight around,” Malsour said.
“Wow,” Deia said as they moved past a massive ball of stone. Steel bands were being overlaid on it by floating repair bots.
“The ley line power station is under construction. It will take three weeks to complete with our plans. With more miners and Dark mages, I can shorten that down a few days, maybe a week,” Malsour said as they glided down toward the power station within the city.
“How are we looking for starting to spin this place?” Dave asked.
“A day or two. If we stop at one kilometer, we can leave the miners working to expand. Then when those sections are completed, we can spin them, sync it up with Terra module one and then fuse them together,” Malsour said.
Deia looked over what Dave and Malsour had been up to. It was hard to believe everything he’d been able to do in such a short time.
She squeezed Dave’s hand, proud of her hubby-to-be.
He smiled to her as they descended into the power station.
It was identical to the very first power station Deia had entered in Alephir. Miners and repair bots were everywhere, working to create more lines to burn materials for energy. Carts holding Dave’s vault-classed soul gems waited nearby. These ones, instead of using teleport pads or the main streets, dove underground to move their loads.
“I felt that it might be good to keep all of that out of sight. They can go on the streets as well, but if we’ve got people moving around, then we can move supplies down underneath us and across all of Terra,” Dave said, seeing what she was staring at. “When I’m done, Terra will have multiple back-ups for everything and safety measures galore. The Aleph security measures are nice, but I like something that doesn’t rely on Mana every time and to expect the primary systems to fail,” Dave said.
“This is quite the ambitious project,” Deia said.
“We don’t like to think small here and this is just the interior.” Malsour smiled. He and Dave shared a look before Dave pulled Deia to the front of the power station.
“So, Miss Oson, would you do us the honor and start this power station up?” Dave asked.
Deia smiled and conjured pure blue flame that projected from her forefinger in a solid stream. There wasn’t any break in the flame, as if it were a plasma torch from Earth.
She played the fires over the burnables that were already in the rune-covered shelter that would convert the burning items into Mana.
The power station started to come to life, the runes releasing a slight glow as different screens started to show the line as active.
“That’s my girl.” Dave brought Deia close and pat her backside. “We’re off to the Aleph college. Deia wants to do some studying and I want to pick Ela-Dorn’s brains. Want to come?” Dave asked Malsour.
“Fill me in when you get back. I really want to get working on that power station facility. I have the plans all finalized.” Malsour gave Dave a look that told Deia that they were keeping something secret.
“Awesome!” Dave took Deia on a more personal tour and stopped off at what he’d turned into his development office. There were people all over the place, carving up magical coding. Dave looked at a bunch of it.
“You’re going to have to teach me that magical coding of yours one day,” Deia said as they headed back into the housing complexes.
“Oh, I think I can get you a private lesson,” Dave whispered into her ear as he grabbed her ass, making her jump slightly and look around to see whether anyone had seen it.
She hit him in the shoulder playfully. “Bedroom only, you ass man.” Deia sighed.
“Sorry, couldn’t help myself.” Dave winked.
Oh, you’re so paying for that tonight, Deia thought, firmly and thoroughly head over heels addicted to the man as he was with her.
***
Ela-Dorn was working on a particularly confusing set of runes as there was a knock at her door.
“I said I was to be left alone!” she yelled, not looking up from her work.
“Is that anyway to treat the guy who gave you the sample?” Dave stood at the open door, grinning. Deia was on his arm and smiled at Ela-Dorn as she looked up, wearing magnifying glasses on her head.
“Deia! Dave! Good to see you two. Come in, come in!” Ela-Dorn looked around her large lab. Even with all of the space, there wasn’t much room to sit. Every available surface was taken up with some kind of research or parts or copies of different items that came from the portal Dave had traded to them.
“We thought we might drop in and see how things are going. Malsour was finally able to sit me down and explain the basics of the portals and how they function, so I thought that I would come over here to see if I can’t get some more knowledge about it all. And Deia is looking for information on Fire skills,” Dave said.
“Oh!” Ela-Dorn had an excited smile on her face, happy to share what she knew with Dave. Just sitting and researching was great, but having someone to bounce ideas and theories off and watch them understand the concepts was some of the most satisfying conversation a person could have, in Ela-Dorn’s mind.
She looked through piles of paper. “I had one of them around here somewhere,” she muttered before she found what looked like a set of glass frames.
“These should work. College associate’s eyeglasses—this will allow you to access and save texts from the college and any Aleph information center. While you did blow up the grand library”—Ela-Dorn gave Dave a pointed look; Deia smiled, and Dave looked sheepish—“we have records of everything for this exact reason.”
“Thank you, Ela-Dorn.” Deia accepted the frames. “I’ll leave him in your care. And Dave, remember—you’re cooking tonight and we’re going over the house’s renovation plans!”
“I won’t forget, babe.” Dave pulled her close, her arms wrapping around him as he gave her a slow kiss.
The two of them looked into each other’s eyes as he released her, both of them with big smiles on their faces.
Ela-Dorn smiled, feeding off their happiness. Hmm, with all of these new places we’re connected to, might be an idea to get Gal to take me on a date night. Ela-Dorn tapped her lower tooth that jutted out.
“Don’t get into too much trouble,” Dave said.
“Me, get into trouble? Look who’s talking!” Deia moved for the doorway as Dave smacked her ass. Deia turned around, her eyes thinning as her lips pursed.
Dave chuckled as she walked away, ogling her rear.
“Damn, you two are like a new teenage couple,” Ela-Dorn said.
“It was a good weekend and with her around, it’s a great time.” Dave grinned, like the love-struck Dwarf he was.
Ela-Dorn shook her head, but couldn’t stop the smile that appeared on her face or the feeling in her stomach that made her want to fist pump into the air. Deia and Dave were a special kind of couple who made others happy just seeing them together, their love and affection for each other clear to all.
“Okay, now, to portal things! Lay it on me!” Dave moved farther into Ela-Dorn’s lab.
“Okay, so what do you know?” Ela-Dorn asked.
“I know the structure of a teleport pad and I know a ton of runes. I haven’t taken a portal apart yet, because I thought that it might be better to do that when I increased my Intelligence to get me firing on all cylinders. That said, I’ve checked out two different kinds of teleportation spells from different people. I know that a teleport pad works by attuning itself to another one. The teleport pads stop the effects of gravity within their event horizon, then they resonate with each other on the same wavelength. This tricks them into thinking that they are one entity, connecting them across a large space. It’s as if you have a big sheet of paper with two dots on it. When the teleport pads resonate, the paper bends, folding just so th
e dots meet. You pass through one teleport pad—you come out the other. Removing the gravity just reduces the cost of power needed, which is a lot for the two teleport pads to communicate to each other constantly, keeping attuned exactly. Now, over something like a planet, the calculations and changes are big, but nothing significant to mess with everything. I’m going to guess that portals, because of the distances in-between, attune to each other constantly because changing attunement from one portal to another takes time to properly sync up and is a massive power draw to open them up. Holding them open, however, is much easier than having to reopen them constantly.” Dave looked to Ela-Dorn.
“Bravo. In simple terms, yes.” She gave him a smile. “Where have you seen two people using teleport spells? We thought about it, but casting them just takes too much time and calculation. And the incantation is a pain in the ass, so we use teleport pads and their runes to make it easier.”
“Some pretty powerful people were doing it, but I’m hoping that when I destroy a portal that I will be able to figure it out,” Dave said.
Ela-Dorn spluttered, turning slightly apoplectic at Dave’s words. “You want to destroy a portal!”
“Well, it’s how I learned how teleport pads are made. It’s the easiest way for me to learn how a portal works.” Dave shrugged.
Ela-Dorn whimpered slightly, taking a seat on a pile of books and paper.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got a few hundred of them.” Dave grinned.
“Would you be willing to trade us some more of them?” Ela-Dorn perked up.
“Yeah, though they are pretty damned valuable, so it’s going to cost you.”
“We can probably come up with something to trade,” Ela-Dorn said.
“Good. I hoped you were going to say that, because I want to speed up the development of Terra, and Josh doesn’t want to devote much more resources to it. The city and the power station facility are really damn expensive.” Dave sighed.
“That we can definitely help out with.” Ela-Dorn nodded, thinking of a few people who would be interested in working on a new city.
“Sweet! They can help me with my summoning hall as well!” Dave smiled and clapped his hands together.
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