2020-12-15 17:00:15
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The Least Common Denominator XIX.IV Spreadsheet
Trying to fix people left right and center had me completely drained by the time I reached the town hall. It was far from ideal for a healer to be thoroughly exhausted before she even started, but that was the life of a health worker during fringe emergencies such as these. I couldn't afford to get some rest, there were still lives that I had to try and save.Staring at the grim sight in front of me, I can already feel the rising tension forming in my gut as I limped my way towards the center of this whole mess. The town hall was packed to the brim full of injured patients; some more injured than others as the groans of agony filtered through the air like a miasma of death and decay. I squinted as I spotted most of the people playing field medic standing over some of the more agonizing patients, their faces one of concern and panic as they flitted across the makeshift cots like headless chickens.
The Least Common Denominator XIX.V Spreadsheet
While my hands worked on the patient in front of me, my mind was abuzz with the prospect of the most stupid idea I had ever concocted in this world so far.Runes were bullshit. There was no doubting that. Being capable of doing things that would normally take modern science a ton of resources to replicate, Runecraft was the ultimate cheat code in manipulating the properties of the things we made. I was sure that if given enough time, I'd be able to replicate most of my modern tools and appliances through experimentation and sheer brute force."Hold her leg high, Lace.""W-What would it-""It'll prevent more blood from flowing into the wound. Now hold still..."Without the means of proper sterilization, performing surgery would do more harm than good due to the high risk of infection. A surge
The Least Common Denominator Interlude VII: Lace II
She didn't know what to think of what just happened."That's impossible..."Lace had seen a lot of things in her life. Having lived in the capital for the vast majority of her life before being sent into the Furnace by her bastard of a father, the young woman had witnessed things and events that she was sure that will never happen in the fringes of the Empire. From fantastical feats of strength to technological innovations that seemed to defy the common laws of the world, it would take a whole lot of things for someone like her to declare that something was impossible. But the feat that she just saw was just that something.Crimson, a bonafide Denominator, somehow managed to channel heat through the Firebrand.Through the sword, an orange glow radiated from the young girl's hand all the way to its edge as it rested alon
The Least Common Denominator XX.I Body Mass Index
It was cold.I don't recall how or why I was here, but I was currently in my old hospital, holding my trusty clipboard filled with charts and lab results for my numerous patients as I seemed to be doing my usual rounds. The atmosphere was sterile and depressing. It didn't even take much for me to recognize that I was on autopilot as I entered a ward filled with patients that I didn't even recognize."Your treatment is going well, Miss XXXXXXX..."A blur... a straight static echoed in the place of my patient's last name as I jotted down a prescription. I barely recognized my own handwriting as I held out a pale hand towards the nameless patient's relative."Take this for your daughter's potassium levels. It's available in the pharmacy down on the first floor."Strange... I feel like I haven't
The Least Common Denominator XX.II Body Mass Index
"Whu!"I woke up to a start, my heart pounding and stress somehow leaving my body. At the back of my mind, I knew for a fact that I was dreaming of something just now. Something about falling from a height... I certainly remember doing that. But that's not all... There were tinges of guilt inside my chest that seemed to linger from my dream. I didn't know how, or why, but if it's there, maybe I dreamt of something bad again?Who knows.Blearily blinking my eyes open, I noticed that I was somewhere that's far from what I expected to wake up in. Was I in an emergency room or something? The amount of- OH FUCK!My heart hammered in my chest as soon as I realized that I had been lying around in the middle of doing my damned job! What happened?! Did I blackout?! Why was I laying down in the middle of the town hall?! I s
The Least Common Denominator XX.III Body Mass Index
"You've certainly improved."After finding Lace in the middle of making what seemed to look like a crude imitation of a lock-stitch suture, I had to hand it to the older woman to how fast she managed to pick up on the technique. Not that it wasn't anything fancy, but using what looked to be a wooden splinter as a makeshift needle was both an amazing, and cringe-worthy achievement. Then again, any kind of suture would've been okay so long as they held together and closed the wound in a satisfactory manner.But still, the part where she used a small splinter as a needle instead of something harder like a chipped-off piece of metal like I did earlier was pretty suspect, to say the least. Suffice to say, I was both amazed and horrified by what she was doing."L-Leader!" the older woman yelped just as she was finishing up her stitching job. It would see
The Least Common Denominator XX.IV Body Mass Index
I never thought in my whole second life that I'd ever willingly enjoy making a diagnosis, but this one patient was really trying his best to crack me up..For all of the wrong reasons."So you vomited earlier according to the woman that took you here," I began, suppressing the urge to tap on my nonexistent clipboard as I let my mind meander a bit at the potential possibilities. "Do you recall seeing what you vomited out?""No?!" my patient almost screamed at me as he groaned about the pain again. "Why would I remember what the hell I vomited out?!"I resisted the urge to sigh again as I simply stared at my patient with absolutely no clue on how to proceed. If only I had a lab to throw this guy into, I'd probably already have some results to base a diagnosis on. It's dumb that I can't even figure something like this out without modern science. I'd probably kill myself out of shame if it turned out to be something as simple as drinking bad w
The Least Common Denominator XX.V Body Mass Index
Doing surgery without the necessary tools, without the necessary sterilization procedures, without the technology that made the whole thing possible in the first place. Hoo boy... We're going full-on medieval style. How appropriate for the time and technological advances available."A blocked intestine?"I turned to Lace as she asked her innocent question. Intestines were already common knowledge in this era, right? She should already know about that part of the body. So instead..."The patient said that he ate some fruit off of a tree yesterday and nothing else ever since. Seeing as the guy was probably hungry, he possibly wolfed it down, seeds included."I suppressed the cringe bubbling up from my spine as I professionally relayed my diagnosis. There was no denying that the whole situation was borne from the stupidity and impatience of one man, but that wasn't a reason to crucify or make fun of him for it. I'd worse examples of stupidity
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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
