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The Least Common Denominator XXXI.III Indeterminate
A whole month has passed now, and I was kind of acclimatizing pretty well, all things considered. My silent act had essentially made sure that the twins hadn't realized that I wasn't their vaunted 'Leader' yet, but I'm pretty sure it was only a matter of time before they realized something was up. Just from the way they talked to each other with me being present suggested that they fully expected me to understand what the hell they were talking about despite my silence. And while I could understand some of it through context clues and the like, I still wasn't fully getting the scope of just what the hell happened to Crimson and her friends for them to resort to living in a shoddy cave in the middle of the forest.Yes. I had actually recovered enough to start moving on my own again. Granted, I still had an improvised cane to support my movement, but it was a miraculous recovery all things considered what w
The Least Common Denominator XXXI.IV Indeterminate
"N-No?"Despite the chilling cold, I was proverbially sweating bullets as Love's stone-cold expression gazed at me like a fucking hawk. I already knew that she was smart; that they were both smart, as a matter of fact. But to think that they were already suspicious of me from the get-go?In hindsight, I should've known better than to try it with strangers that knew the person that I once was."For all of your wisdom, you're an incompetent liar, Lady Crimson."The two-braided twin's dubious gaze threatened to smother me in its presence as I visibly shrank in on myself. Her sheer aura crashed over me like an unstoppable flood, her violet eyes boring straight into my soul as if judging me with her undaunting superiority."The Lady Crimson I knew wouldn't have been cowed into submission this eas
The Least Common Denominator Interlude XIV: Lace IV
Life was hard. There was no doubting that."Oww..."Lace had been at this whole... merchant thing for a good while now. And while it wasn't a total waste of energy and time in that she was actually making some money back from the metal she used, it wasn't exactly that lucrative either. She wished she could've just practiced medicine as a job, but without the means to falsify an Imperial certification as a healer, there was no way she'd risk doing so. Too bad as well since it was infinitely better than constantly lugging around chunks of metal in hopes that they'd sell. And that was on top of trying to not be a good enough blacksmith that she'd garner suspicion of being a Denominator from her potential customers."I hope Love's already home," she found herself sighing as she trekked the road less traveled towards the cave that was functioning as the
The Least Common Denominator XXXII.I Solve for Y
The human mind is such a terrible thing to waste. With its capacity for thinking, innovation, and essentially sentient thought, it enables humanity to reach new heights never before seen in a scope and history that was arbitrarily set by humans themselves. Granted, not everyone was destined for such greatness, given the fact that not everyone was blessed with a large forehead and a working set of common sense. Add the fact that I was talking out of my ass again with a quote that I literally stole from an RTS I used to play years ago, then one could clearly see that I was far from the smartest tool in the fucking shed.Which was probably why I was stuck in this situation in the first place."I'm not Crimson, alright?" I stressed out once more at the wonder twins sitting across from me on the other side of the fire. "Just... don't call me that..."I
The Least Common Denominator XXXII.II Solve for Y
"If you insist."I steeled myself for any sort of weird shit these two could possibly throw at me. I knew it couldn't possibly get any weirder than being reincarnated in what amounted to a backwater ditch in a world where magic existed, but it was better to be prepared than to shit bricks with every brain-shattering revelation that they might dish out.I listened with rapt attention as the two looked at each other, seemingly trying to ascertain as to who should go first."I guess I'll go first, then," Lace sighed as she took a deep breath. "I've only known you- I mean, Crimson... for a few months at best, and the best way that I could describe her is that she's... frighteningly competent."I raised an eyebrow at the term she so aptly used, "Frighteningly competent?"I would never use such a
The Least Common Denominator XXXII.III Solve for Y
"I suppose I shall continue."Love's tone never wavered despite everything that's happened in front of her for the past, I don't know, hour or so since this whole open forum thing started? Then again, I never really saw her show any other sign of emotion except for the rare smirk or the small spark in her eyes whenever she felt excitement or some other thing that I couldn't quantify.I crossed my arms under my chest as Love began her version of what I was like back then."As I've said earlier, you are an unparalleled genius in regards to your fields of specialty. Your philosophies in battle strategy and ingenious ways of using the environment to your advantage could only be attributed to your uncanny ability to, as you say, think outside the box."The sheer amount of platitudes the two-braided woman was showering me wit
The Least Common Denominator XXXIII.I Permutation
Learning a new skill was always a pain in the ass.Okay, maybe not as much if it came to a life and death situation, but adding a brand new skill set to an already existing set of skills took far too much time and effort from a person that sometimes, it was honestly not worth it in terms of the potential gains one would acquire from learning the given skill in the first place. It was also highly dependent on the person's competence since skills didn't just magically materialize in the person's head after a few tries in getting it right. No, it took years to build instinct and muscle memory to the point where you could use the potential skill to its fullest potential. There was a reason the best kids in playing piano started when they were, well, kids."This sucks...""You did ask for this, Leader," Lace chuckled at my misery. "You wanted to learn w
The Least Common Denominator XXXIII.II Permutation
Another day, another slow trek across the snow for us to get through.Don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty fun experience to traverse through the snow every once in a while. But the moment you start doing something every day was the moment the novel turned into the routine, and that routine would turn into a chore.And right now, the routine was starting to annoy me enough that I was starting to consider it as a chore.The vast expanse of white and green never seemed to end as my feet dragged across the snow-filled forest; my right hand using a long stick of wood as a guide to make sure that I won't step into a deep pocket of snow by accident. Temperatures were at least getting warmer with my estimates being at probably twelve degrees Centigrade, and the mid-morning sun was doing wonders at illuminating the path with just how bright the snow loo
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- The Least Common Denominator
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
- The Least Common Denominator
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
- The Least Common Denominator
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
- The Least Common Denominator
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.
- The Least Common Denominator
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
- The Least Common Denominator
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
- The Least Common Denominator
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
- The Least Common Denominator
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
- The Least Common Denominator
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