Charlie’s next shipment brought in no less than four tons of cheese as per Tim’s earlier visionary request. With such resources made available, Tim suddenly became the most powerful figure in Frontier Town.
In a matter of hours, twenty squads of Lynxmice were dispatched from Miik’s Clan and three other friendly clans, loaded on board Charlie’s airship bound for Fal’Herim. No less than forty squads were dispatched to help the miners at Kara-Goth. They were better diggers than the workers of High Rock and Desert Moon clans; pretty soon Remian had his workers shift over to clearing the rubble of Frontier Town. Tim set twenty more squads of Lynxmice to help the workers with the rubble.
Remian had never seen so many Lynxmice in his life. They were everywhere, digging, salvaging, sorting, chomping up whatever they found that could (in their estimation) be eaten (even stuff everyone else honesty thought were inedible). Everywhere he went, whether
“What to do, what to do?” In a high tower, a man paced to and fro in front of a large crystal, muttering to himself.“Master?” a voice came from the crystal, uncertain.“Just… do the usual.” The man waved his hand. “I don’t want to bother the king about this little… hiccup. We’ll simply have to find new agents at the target point.”“What sort of creatures should I target this time?” the voice at the other side of the crystal asked.“Just… pick the strongest creatures you can get your sights on.” The man waved dismissively.“The strongest creature? Are you sure?”There was a short silence.***When Mindy and the twenty scroll-students helping her finished the first Sky Barge, the final results did not look like the drawing she showed Remian weeks ago.“We still get Guild Points for it, though, don&rsq
The High Rock clan boarded the Sky Barge. The Desert Moon clan, however, refused. They wouldn’t leave the farm. “This is our home now. At worst, we'll just scatter and come back later.” Maybe it was just as well. The High Rock clan seemed to have an astounding amount of stuff to evacuate. At this rate, they alone would fill up the entire Sky Barge to the brim. “Are you sure? There’s still time. We can make room for you on the Sky Barge.” Aren offered Taj. “I am sure. This is it. Here is where we make our stand. Live or die, tonight is when it all changes.” Taj drew a deep breath. “And should we survive this ordeal, should we be tempered by this darkness and emerge intact to greet a new day… it would be a new clan who greets the sunrise tomorrow.” “Charlie is almost here.” Mindy reported. “What about the Sky Barge?” Remian asked. “The evacuation is almost done!” Zania replied. “You’ve been saying that for the past half h
“We need more speed!” Remian called to Charlie across the deck of the Roving Albatross. “Spike’s headed straight for us!” “This is as much power as I’ve got!” Charlie panted. “The magic drive is going on full, and I’ve already exhausted most of my mana fusing that Tier 4 spell! I can’t boost it by much more! Don’t you realize how much weight we’re towing?!” “How can I help?” Remian asked. “Don’t! Your powers are too unstable! A sudden super-boost like yours could totally wreck my engine!!” Charlie gasped. “Don’t try it!” Remian growled. He glanced at the cannons. “NO!” Charlie barked at once. “You might very well blow us all up!” “There has to be SOMETHING I can do!” Remian grouched. “Use your Light Barriers.” Charlie suggested. “They could protect the ship if Spike starts roaring at us.” Remian clambered to the deck as Spike neared. The Tier 5 lizard was completely ignoring the town under reconstruction and seemed to b
At that point, Mindy scored a direct hit on Spike’s tail-root. [YEOW!] Spike spun, roaring at her airship, but of course, Mindy’s Foresight was much higher, and much farther from Spike than Charlie’s Roving Albatross. “Cease fire!” Remian shouted at her, waving. “Cease fire! Stop shooting!” [Mindy, STOP!] [R-Remian…?!] Mindy’s confusion floated back to Remian in an inkling of a thought before disappearing entirely. [Spike, calm down…] Remian tried. [It bit me in the tail!] Spike spluttered. [My poor tail!!] [You attacked us first. Smack the hive and you have to expect hornets to sting.] [Hornets? Hive? What are you talking about?] Spike groaned, shaking his head groggily. [Ugh. What happened?] [You got baited by a magic crystal and came rampaging again.] Remian summarized. [Again?! Where’s that blasted crystal, I’m gonna… I’m gonna…] Spike hesitated. [What’s the worst thing you could do to a magic crystal?]
Meanwhile, Mandy was doing what Remian really should be doing. She was studying magic. While her body recovered slowly, and Charlie's household took care of the children, Mandy somehow found she had time and ended up studying Charlie's old books. Some of them weren't there any more; Charlie had taken most of the basic wind magic books to Mindy and sold quite a few others, but plenty of others, especially those related to water and ice magic, were still there, sitting on bookshelves in a general study area that rather resembled a library. This very moment, she was reading 'A treatise on mana flow adjustment for basic water magic'. Charlie, it should be noted, would never have given away, sold, or shown this particular book to anyone. There were just too many hand-written notes in its pages that had nothing to do with water magic alongside various little drawings, and the name 'Cynthia' that kept popping up in nice handwriting… Across from her, Madam Porrin tau
At the Guild Hall the next morning, George took one look at Mindy’s pale face and red eyes and shook his head. “Late night?”“No, actually I think I slept soon after sunset.” Mindy remembered.At the next table, Remian was meeting with Joshu. “Your mission is to find Craggy Falls and map the way to it. It is a top priority and you can choose your own companions from anyone who is willing.”“Anyone? Anyone at all?” Joshu asked. “Even Charlie?”“You can ask if he’s willing.” Remian nodded. “But you have to tell him that it’s roughly five days away.”“Why not?” Charlie called over from the next table after. “Arnold’s going to take a week to repair my equipment anyway. I’m stuck until then.”“What about the priests? The ones with healing powers? And the Legion?”“Like I said. You can a
Frankly speaking, today was the worst day anyone could have picked to threaten Remian.Not only had he lost the western settlement (which had been built at his expense), he’d gotten a big new debt to Charlie, plus the mystery bugging him all along had led to a sleepless night and a scarce few hours of sleep this morning. Remian was feeling very grumpy. Despite having two cups of coffee and some well-cooked (overcooked?) bacon and sausages (made from grounded Blood Rabbit meat), he still wanted to bite somebody.Instead, he led an army of wolfcats and lynxmice and let them do the biting.The ‘Deep Desert Den’ was an hour north into the desert on Mindy’s airship. The Foresight flew low, barely ten feet off the ground, Miik and his clan scurrying alongside while Carrie and the wolfcats ran on ahead. The wolfcats went ahead and started early. By the time they arrived at the Deep Desert Den, Carrie’s three packs already had a pile of kil
“I thought there weren’t any other Tier 5’s in Shadowflash Fief!” Remian protested.[Back then, there weren’t. But now it is widely known that Spike has invaded twice and Shadowflash has not shown himself. Therefore, there are now challengers.] Carrie shifted uncomfortably. [We can no longer avoid a showdown. Unless you can subdue them yourself, one of the new challengers will be the new lord. That could be very bad for you and the other humans in this fief, very bad indeed…]“And how exactly do I challenge them? Single combat?” Remian guessed, grimacing.[No lord ever stands alone. It will be your pack against theirs.]“So I get to bring everyone?” Remian gaped. “I can bring a whole army?”[Anyone willing to fight at your side.] Carrie nodded. [Also be aware that there is no limit to future challengers. To be the Lord, you must not only win, you must defend your rule foreverm