2020-11-17 17:00:06
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The Least Common Denominator In the Eyes of Management I
"What?"Deep within the confines of the Imperial Palace, in the very heart of the Empire, a middle-aged, imperial man withheld his thoughts about the reports that he had just witnessed."T-the entirety of t-the Division Furnace... has rebelled... your Majesty..."Wearing a crown passed on from generation to generation, one Charlie the First, from the House of Babbage, sat upon the Numbered Throne; his seething eyes flitting from one messenger to the next as he pondered on the highly upsetting news that had blown into the throne room."What do you mean 'a whole Furnace rebelled?"It should've been impossible for even a single Denominator, much less a whole population of a Furnace to even entertain the notion of a rebellion. Granted, the Furnace in question was the one where his mistake of a d
The Least Common Denominator XIV.I Dose Calculation
Like the many times that I have said this in my mind: I have no idea what I'm doing."So, what is this 'bacteria' thingy supposed to be again?"It's been some few odd weeks since we somehow managed to get out of our specially-made hell on earth. After a few more days of travel and copious amounts of questioning on whether or not we were still in Empire territory, I finally told everyone to stop and set up shop in the middle of what looked to be nowhere, just beside the top of a steep waterfall."Bacteria are very tiny... animals, you could say, that causes infections and sickness."I paused as I saw a Den from the back of my class raised her hand, "But we can't see them?"It might not be the best location for a fledgling town to start building, but the most important part of any civilization
The Least Common Denominator XIV.II Dose Calculation
"So? What're you gonna teach me?"I stared out into the distant forest below us as I heard Lace energetically bounce around behind me. It was kind of a surprise to see someone that I was pretty sure was already in her mid-twenties be this... full of energy, I guess."I don't know, you tell me."Turning back to my newly-minted disciple, I patiently waited for a reply with my hands folded in front of my chest. It was my own unspoken rule to only teach someone what they wanted to know. Don't get me wrong, I'll force someone to learn the basics whether they wanted to or not, but extra knowledge for specialization was something that I'll never want to force down someone's brain if they didn't want me to.It's a horrible experience that I won't ever wish upon anyone."Uhmm.. you said yesterday that there were other things that caused diseases other than this 'bacteria' thingy."Joy... At least it was a fairly simple, if not
The Least Common Denominator XIV.III Dose Calculation
"An auto-what?""An autoclave," I said out loud as if it was the most basic appliance in the world. "It's gonna be a device that would kill anything that might cause diseases on anything. Metal, containers, glass, you name it."Staring at the design, the main factor of the whole thing was the craftsmanship of the one that would build it. Not that I'm tooting my own horn, but I think I can make an airtight seal without rubber trees through some clever Runecrafting."And I'm gonna help with it, why?""Cause I don't wanna do it by myself."Well, maybe we should actually try to find some rubber trees soon. It would give us a huge advantage in forwarding our tech more."Say that I'm going to help," Lace posited, standing up and approaching me in front of the board. "A
The Least Common Denominator XV.I Origin Point
I never really questioned how or why everyone even believed me whenever I had an idea and told something to be true. Everyone took me at face value far too quickly when compared to the pop media isekai stories that would grill or laugh at someone that told them about modern skills and techniques. Maybe I was just too cynical. In a sense, I was too busy during the initial rebellion to even notice how they would all look at me with a degree of trust that I don't even think I could reciprocate. It made things far too easy to get people to rally behind me.That was until I actually had to lead based on actual leadership."Sit down!""No way! Crimson hadn't even started-""That's because you're annoying her, dumbass!"I massaged my throbbing temples as the clusterfuck in front of me continued on in full-swing. Politicking was never
The Least Common Denominator XV.II Origin Point
A short series of murmurs echoed across the table as I waited patiently for the people in front of me to give me something to work with. I worked best as an all-arounder stopgap measure, improving upon work, and shoring up weaknesses that might go by the idea maker's head.What can I say, I was good at criticizing other people's work but shit with making up my own ones."We can do some farming?" Bart offered out on a half-conviction. "We just plant some of the fruits we foraged and wait it out."I nodded my head. Pretty valid, all things considered. It'll be a main proponent for self-sustainability. If we even manage to get some generic farm animals, maybe some of the wild boar and chickens out in the forest and breed them, we'd be set for the foreseeable future. Problem is..."Care to elaborate?" I gestured towards the large man. "How do we go about this?"Saying that we're gonna farm was very different from actually doing it.
The Least Common Denominator XV.III Origin Point
Huh... That's gonna be interesting..."What do you disagree with, Lace?" I respectfully asked, wholly curious about whatever flaw I had in the plan."Building a wooden wall might be fast, but as Denominators, we can do better," the woman calmly explained. "We might have to start mining soon, but Runecraft will be the deciding factor for everything that we're going to be building in this town of ours."My eyes widened at the logic being displayed in front of me. Holy shit, why didn't I think of this before? "That's... quite smart, actually.""It's only common sense," Lace continued, the usual inquisitiveness and energy she displayed during our sessions strangely missing. "We have to dig deep and lay low if we're to survive whatever the Emperor throws at us."I found myself nodding along as my
The Least Common Denominator XVI.I Geophysics
It's been over a day since that very productive town hall meeting had come to pass. We all had a lot of fun coming up with stuff to improve after everything had been over and done with, and even now, I could see the beginnings of the various sectors of our small town developing into their own subsections on our isolated civilization. A few wooden planks were being erected at the outskirts of the settlement, and a ways away from that, what seemed to be the start of a watchtower was also starting to take shape. It might still all be wooden, but as soon as we got the resources, it'll all be turned into the sturdier and more reliable stone in which we'd also carve in some runes to make it more impenetrable.Which was why I now found myself at the same clearing as last time, in front of my makeshift chalkboard brainstorming with Lace as to how we'd get our materials."Why me again, Leader?" the older woman asked, still skeptical as to why I chose her to help with th
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CV.V Cotangent
I don't even know what's happening anymore..."Huh... That looks far too complex even for you, Crimson," Phillipe snarked at my work. Technically Anne's as well, to be honest. "A square rune with that many parts? I don't think that'll work out in the long run.""You and me both," I rolled my eyes with the sarcasm of an overflowing dam. "Seriously, why are you here?""You're being annoying."I raised an eyebrow at the blunt delivery of his oh-so-important announcement. Giving him the best sarcastic inquisitive eyes I could muster, I let out a scoff as I began whatever this talk was going to end up as.'Right behind you there.'You always are, Ica. "And?"Phillipe smirked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, "You're wasting
CV.IV Cotangent
"Let's go crazy..."With a borderline manic whisper, I let my imagination cut loose as my hand moved on its own. Traps within traps, earthen sigils meant to sprout at a moment's notice, the world was my oyster as the goodies slowly accumulated with each stroke of my charcoal.'Don't get too carried away, Master.'I know. I'm not dumb enough to overload the thing before it even came to fruition.And that was the biggest risk to such a massive array as well. With so many moving parts, any wrong line or overlapping rune will pretty much make the whole thing explode. I couldn't stress it enough, even to myself. Do not make this thing more complicated than it already is.'And yet here you are having fun with it.'Don't test me, Ica. Or maybe I'll just assert me being
CV.III Cotangent
Fiiiineee... You win, my precious Ica.The stuttering that ensued at the back of my head was like a soothing tune as I looked over my work. The communication arrays were gonna stay, as would the Essence storage runes at strategic parts of the palace grounds. Hmmm.... Wouldn't the communication arrays be two-way anyway? So why even bother with surveillance runes like last time?My hand moved to remove the minor additions I added on the dirt parts of the grounds, leaving me with more space to work with in terms of... well... anything, really. What kind of runes would even work on shaky ground? Dirt couldn't hold anything beyond the basic types of runic arrays. Anything more complex than a three-layered circuit would blow up instantly from the strain. I could maybe run- wait... why not just do that?The charcoal streaked across the outskirts of the pa
CV.II Cotangent
*ruummbbllee...*The sound of a sputtering engine echoed from behind me as I drew up yet another set of circles on the board. While I kind of put the general purpose of the massive multi-circuit array at the back of my head, I really should try and solidify that stuff properly before making the main control array, shouldn't I...'Good thing you remembered that, Master.'I grumbled through the dull pain I was feeling at my knees as I focused myself back on the doodle that was supposed to be a defense system for the palace grounds. It was far too small of a circle, now that I thought about it. The size of the drawing did little to help me ascertain the types of circuits that I drew on it in the first place. Squinting even further, it felt as if I was reading my own handwriting from how jumbled and nonsensical it all looked with hindsight.
CV.I Cotangent
Plans upon plans upon plans. I feel like I'm repeating myself whenever I say that I'm obsessed about things going right, and if not, to have plans to be able to properly react to the failure. Fool-proofing something small was easy. Doing it again for something on the scale of a war, however, was a completely different beast. The number of variables at play, hundreds to even thousands of moving parts to look over and take into account. The time, the weather, morale, even individuals that might have other ideas and could stray from the plans put into place... It was so much to think about that hours or even days of pouring over the relevant information wouldn't be enough to take everything into account into one's plans. And even if you think you somehow managed to achieve this impossibility, there will always be something so monumentally out of left field that could just absolutely destroy any and all plans along with its sub plans and
Interlude XXXIX: Grigori
GRIGORI⬛⬛⬛*RRRRRUUUMMBBLLEEEE!!!! RRRRUUMMBBLEEEE!!!*"What's wrong, Lord Stone?! Finally getting tired in your old age?!"Grigori grumbled in annoyance as he found himself standing his ground in his self-made fortress. Truth be told, the former Prime expected his fight to be over over ten minutes ago. However, he severely underestimated his enemies' hidden tenacity and downright stubbornness."I'm just getting started, kid!" he boisterously replied. "I'm far from being done!"Still, even as he said those words, Grigori was beginning to feel more tired than he initially expected. His reserves were starting to run dry from the constant back and forth that the combined forces of Lords Breeze and Inferno were throwing at him. And that's not to mention the current
CIV.IV Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛"So Lord Iron truly took care of the problem?"Olivia held her breath as she found herself taking in the state that the young Num was just found in. Broken, battered, and bleeding all over, Tesla had clearly taken a beating of a lifetime as her head lolled in her unconscious state, her face marred with cuts and bruises as her white hair was stained brown with dried blood."Damn... I guess the ranking in the Prime Thirteen's not a joke, huh...""Lord Iron's the Sixth, after all. Lady Static's the Thirteenth...""Fuck..." Olivia swore under her breath, her teeth gnashing as she watched the Imperials gawk at her fallen friend. "How the hell do I get her out of there safely..."The warrior Den tuned everything out as she focused on the unenviabl
CIV.III Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*c..crackle....*The faint sound of electricity seemed to crackle from the distance as Olivia stood in the middle of her self-made carnage. The lack of common sense that she was witnessing honestly made her feel more irritated than amused as she slowly walked towards the panicking commander. Olivia had places to be, and possibly someone to save depending on whether or not Tesla could somehow relay to her that she was okay."No matter," she sighed. "You idiots wouldn't understand, I guess.""No!-"*SLASH!*With a quick step, the commander didn't even stand a chance. His sword fell with an unceremonious clang onto the ground as his head rolled off his neck like a piece of meat. Olivia didn't flinch as the idiot's terrified fa
CIV.II Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*CRACKLE! CRACKLE! KRAKATHOOM!*Olivia ran through the streets of Mathema like a woman possessed. Wreaking havoc across every Imperial contingent she came across, lightning followed her path as she relied on Tesla's ever-encompassing presence to deal massive damage on the enemy while despite being outnumbered by at least a hundred to one. She knew that Her Sister would no doubt disapprove of her current tactics, but if it worked, then why bother changing it?"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"*KRAKATHOOM!*"AAHHH!!!!""IT BURNS!"With a smile on her face and blood on her blade, Olivia uttered her Sister's own words out loud as a reminder. Lightning crackled behind her, screams of her fallen enemies saturat
