"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"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
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
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.
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
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
In hindsight, I should have seen this coming a mile away."S-So," my teeth clattered sarcastically, partly self-deprecating and mostly trying to keep our spirits up. "What did we learn?"Beside me, Lace shivered with reckless abandon, having foregone the strangely prim and proper demeanor of yore in favor of the usual behavior that I saw in her during the first time that we properly interacted, "D-don't... und-derestimate... n-nature?"The sheer cold of the stale air caught us by surprise the deeper we went into our expedition. It was probably night by now; my own sense of time muddled by the perpetual darkness surrounding me and my clearly panicked partner as we huddled on some corner of the cave system we stumbled upon. We were only supposed to be in here until just before sunset. But since hubris was hubris, and with my own tendencies to see thi
It was probably a few hours later when my... uhmmm... partner... finally woke up from her deep slumber. The fire keeping us warm had been reduced to a small flame even before I got pleasured earlier, but the warmth of daytime clearly permeated through the rock above and provided us some semblance of comfortable warmth deep inside the damp cave."Ughh...""Rise and shine, sleepyhead," I blatantly remarked, my patience kind of wearing thin due to the lack of stretching that was caused by the older woman's hold. "C'mon, Lace. It's probably close to noon at this point."Gently rising from my awkward position, I lifted Lace's head from my chest as I sat up straight towards the small flame. The older woman was grumbling on my lap, but I wasn't going to let her off that easy. We still had to get back to the settlement."C'mon.
"Where were they?"It had been over a day since Big Sister and that one other woman left for what was supposed to be a quick geological survey of their new mine. Olivia knew that her sister had other plans for the mine; the teachings in her mind telling her to exploit any and all manner of resources necessary in the most efficient way possible. She would have gone with the expedition, but Olivia trusted her sister to know what she was doing and had begrudgingly allowed herself to sit out on it in favor of doing more work for her ongoing project.Only now did she regret her foolish decision."I'm sure they're fine, little Olivia," Gramps assured, the older man sitting in front of a desk as she paced with anxious worry. "They're strong. They'll find their way eventually."The assurance did nothing to soothe the brunette's