Current Quests

Justice For Courbefy: Find justice for the victims of the corrupt mayor of Courbefy. Use…

Chosen Of Knowledge: Escort Hugh on his journey to becoming a fully awakened iron…

Healer’s Materials: Gain Healer’s favour by donating alchemy ingredients to the church…

Wine tour: Vineyard wants you to try the different wines in the Megève area.

Acquire Follower: Dominion wants you to gain another follower.

Chosen Of Hero: Travel north to Lake Auvernier, find the chosen of Hero and recruit…

The adventuring team parted with the drovers after their regular morning routine; workout, combat training and meditation. Or, their personal variations of those things. A fun bit of cross training improvised in the moment involved Hugh kicking large rocks or sticks into the air and Dave attempting to shoot them with his wands. The drovers joined in, laughing and throwing their own rocks causing Sam to laugh as Dave, brain overwhelmed with targets, would often fire exactly between two at the same time like some part of his mind was selecting both as possible targets and taking an average.

Next, Dave gave Sam and Hugh their first wrestling lesson. Sam took to it well but constantly reverted to standing too upright, which worked well for her tough, striking-based techniques that she favoured, but left her vulnerable to leg takedowns. Dave focused on teaching her to pop her hips back and sprawl. Hugh committed himself well to the basic wrestling that Dave instructed, likely because Dave went at a low intensity and it wasn’t an immediately violent activity. Hugh managed to understand some basic hand positions; the fifty-fifty; one hand on the neck, one hand on the arm, the two-on-one; two hands on one arm, a Russian-tie; a two-on-one with your ear pressed into their shoulder, double-underhooks; both arms hooking under your opponent’s arms, and double overhooks; both arms hooking over your opponent’s arms. Together, Dave and Hugh played a simple game of trying to hold those positions while off-balancing each other.

“It’s just like being a child again!” chortled Hugh as Dave allowed himself to be overbalanced as part of the game.

Dave grinned up at the big man.

“Ever noticed how people say that kids learn so fast but nobody thinks to learn as children do?” said Dave with a smirk.

“Wherever do you think of such things? Good Goddess, really?” said Hugh.

“Social science articles,” said Dave, grinning. “Learning through play is one of the best ways to learn, especially, if I recall correctly, intentional learning. Where you’re playing but also intentionally focusing on a new skill. Something like that. It’s been a few years since I read it.”

Hugh was stupified.

“Do you mean to say that people research children where you’re from?”

Dave turned to Hugh, also looking stupefied.

“Err… Yes? Shouldn’t we? They’re important, no?”

“But… they’re children! That’s perverse! What’s there to even learn?”

“...methods for making a good adult?”

“But that’s just… in the parentage…” Hugh faltered at Dave’s slightly shaking head. Sam laughed loudly and they both turned to her.

“Sorry, ka!” gabbled Sam quickly, “Just didn’t think Dave was better with children than you,” she said to Hugh. “Is backwards, ka? You so friendly and Dave so strict but Dave is better with children! Just make me laugh when world is backwards, sorry ka!”

She was blushing and waving her hands now as though trying to wash herself of the outburst. Both men smiled and chuckled quietly.

“You are forgiven, Sam,” said Dave and turned to Hugh. “But seriously, Hugh, the people of my world have invented things you can’t imagine. We have devices in our pockets that can do mathematics at speeds normal humans are incapable of. That same device can access and display almost every text of human information and may also be used to instantly communicate with people anywhere on the planet who also have a similar device. We’ve travelled to the moon without magic - oh yeah, and we did that before we invented that first device - and international travel in flying, metal vehicles is so routine that some people find it boring. Suffice to say that on my plane, the study of knowledge isn’t restricted to the so-called high arts of the astral, the alchemical and the gods. Where I’m from, if you can think of the topic, someone has almost certainly written a twenty-thousand-word thesis on it.”

Hugh’s mouth fell open as he ran the ideas through his head, shaped into the beginning of a laugh as though he thought Dave might be playing a joke on him, suddenly got the look of communication with his goddess and then looked frightened.

“What she say?” said Sam, concerned about Hugh and giving Dave doubtful looks after his little speech.

“She said that he’s being honest and if anything he’s understating it. The knowledge his reality has,” Hugh looked at Dave and swallowed the lump in his throat, “makes us look like children.”

Sam looked at Dave with wide eyes and then beamed at him.

“Dave, Goddess says you are smart boy!” she sang and pinched his arm affectionately. “Please teach us!”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Dave dryly. “Once I get settled in this world and don’t need to run away from well bred maniacs with magical powers.”

Sam grinned guiltily.

“And the cultists,” said Hugh. “Don’t forget the cultists.”

“And the cultists,” agreed Dave.

“Sorry about that, by the way, I’m sure there’s a good reason Knowledge isn’t blessing you with better facilities,” said Hugh, half stammering.

“No, no, no,” said Dave. “It seems a trying time for everyone. Sounds like there was an attempt at a divine coup or something?” Hugh nodded and he continued. “I figure she’s doing her best. No apology needed. On that note, shall we get going?”

“Yes, it is about time,” said Hugh, who began pottering about to try and pack things up. Sam, who had already packed everything up, smiled at him and waited for him to notice and stop pottering.

“Ah, well, it looks like Sam has - yes, you have hadn’t you? Anyway, yes, I - I was thinking today we could take a look at the old tin mine astral space near here? I remembered on the way over that it’s there. Nobody goes in it anymore. It doesn’t spawn any flying monsters and the exit point is over a lake so, it’s hard to get out of, and there’s no contracts for the inside, of course, since the monsters in there are no threat to anybody.”

Dave looked at Sam and gave a shrug. Sam smiled and nodded.

“Lead on,” said Dave. “Tin mine astral space?”

As they rode, Hugh told Dave and Sam about the astral space. It’d been discovered about a hundred years ago and mostly been ignored by everyone except the occasional astral researcher who’d stop by to record something about it and rare adventurers looking for training experience. Apparently, it was a particularly stable astral space. Then, someone with a metal detection ability noticed a seam of tin. The tin was tested and found to be true iron-rank tin and so, a mining operation was put in place which lasted about fifty years until it wasn’t profitable to hire iron-rank guards anymore. The place had been abandoned then, about thirty years ago.

“Hang on, hasn’t this place already been studied?” asked Dave. “Why do you want to go in?”

“Well, not necessarily in, you see but I have that new ability now? Dimensional portals? My racial? Lets me manipulate dimensional forces and because I’ve been there before with my dimensional sensing ability, I have a good idea of what to expect and can understand my racial better,” said Hugh, smiling hopefully at his friends through his beard.

“Nah, that seems legit,” said Dave thoughtfully. “I’m kind of curious about that too. I’ve been wondering if you’re just going to randomly open holes in space-time for a bit now. The ability seems to need a pre-existing astral space, though. Right?”

“Yes, indeed.” Confirmed Hugh.

“So they’re not common enough that you could just make one open on a casual basis?”

“Not at all.”

Dave nodded along.

“And they’re filled with monsters?”

“Sometimes.”

“Dave, you have planning look on again!” said Sam, laughing.

Hugh and Sam grinned at him. Dave smiled and rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I was thinking that we have our own, personal monster killing grounds. People won’t go into the unstable ones, right? The unstable spaces?”

“Not usually, no - oh! Yes. Indeed!” exclaimed Hugh, catching up. He turned to Sam who still looked a little confused. “Goddess on high! Yes, the portal is unstable but the inside is often stable, pseudo-reality and able to spawn monsters.”

“Ahh! So we go to astral space and use Dave for free money!” said Sam happily.

“That’s right,” said Dave, grinning back at Sam. “Hugh provides the hunting ground, I provide the money printer and Sam, you have the most important job of keeping us alive to do it again and again and again.”

“Alright! I will!” announced Sam, laughing.

“Hugh, there are maps of these astral spaces, right?” asked Dave.

“Oh, certainly. There’s even some data on theoretical protoastral spaces in the area.”

“Sounds like they’re bumping up against this reality but haven't broken in yet?”

Hugh nodded, whiskers pulling into a pleased look.

“Yeah, put in a request for those maps, mate,” said Dave with a look like a cat who’s found a bowl full of cream. “We’re going to farm some gold.”

As the group travelled to the astral space, Dave had to explain what gold farming was. That had made him explain what a video game was – a game played with moving pictures. Then, when Dave said that gold used to be used as money Sam asked why they used to use gold for money and what they used for money now that gold wasn’t used for money.

Dave gave a lengthy explanation as best he could about non-magical currency. He was just explaining that without magic, duplicating objects, like banknotes, depended on technology when the party arrived at the Old Mine Astral Space, which, Hugh assured Dave, was its official name on the map and not a bug in Dave’s… software? Thaumware? – not a bug in his UI.

“There it is,” said Hugh, gesturing at a hole in the world.

Dave was fascinated. The magic coming off of it was… unworldly. Well, yes, obviously unworldly but in a worldly way.

“How does it…” Dave waved his hand in a circle indicating the portal.

“Oh, yes! The Adrastus projections would be visible to you. Yes, they’re thought to be a line where the astral magic stops and acclimates to the world. What do you think?”

“Does the astral magic travel at the speed of light?” asked Dave, leaning in.

Hugh raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, light has a speed. It’s made of particles.”

“We’re going to talk about this later,” said Hugh seriously while Sam smiled and nodded seriously in agreement. “Right now, astral magic help?”

“Of course,” said Dave, manifesting Tome into his hands and helping Hugh make some recordings.

Dave acted as both magical detection instrument, with his Eldrich Eyes, and recording device with his pens while Hugh picked different distances and angles from which to take readings. While they worked, Sam, always happy to help, held sand-timers or held some magical device of Hugh’s as he used Dave’s eyes to measure the details of his own racial ability.

“Oh, yes. Indeed. That’s…. Whew! That’s potent,” said Hugh, wiping his brow as Dave penned in the last of the results in a table. “Oh, Goddess! What’s all that you’re writing now?”

“Hmm?” Dave looked up from his work with the far away look of someone lost deep in maths. “Statistical analysis?”

Hugh looked at him blankly and Sam gave her usual beam of happiness in anticipation that Dave was about to be smart at someone.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“Well, I’m starting with the standard deviation and the variance on each kind of manipulation you just did. You see? Pulses per second. Now, we’ll have to find a way to check what the significance of those filters we used to slow the pulses down to a countable number means but at the right setting we got some reasonable data. See? There, the blank set?”

“Blank set?” said Hugh.

“I… can’t tell you why because of the Disguise deal. But, I can tell you that I used the blank set here as a comparison for the filtered sets. Anyway, I’ll go over this later and calculate a p value. After that, I’ll use Library Of The Mind to look up how much mana you used and we’ll be able to know the maximum amount of dimensional force you can exert in each of the measured ways per mana point spent.”

Dave looked at Hugh, pleased with the data. Hugh looked at Dave, pleased that he’d got such a good outworlder. Sam looked at them both and was happy to have friends.

“We’re… also adding this to things we’re going to talk about later,” said Hugh carefully. “I was thinking we’d just pop in and see if my abilities apply only at the portal on the other side or throughout.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure,” said Dave sheepishly and used his telekinetic pens to float over a piece of paper that had written on it, ‘1) particle nature of photons’ and ‘2) statistical analysis’. Hugh pocketed it.

“Isn’t it unsafe on the other side? In the air?” asked Sam.

“Yes, but I can walk on air. You two don’t need to come with me,” said Hugh.

“Umm…”

“Hugh!”

“Oh, yes. Danger,” said Hugh in reminiscence. “The last time we were here we made this contraption with, sort of, two long, floating logs with a sort of pole sticking out that you could paddle into position for the way back. Could you -?”

“No, paper doesn’t have that kind of flexing strength,” said Dave. “I could make a small pontoon and we could jump from it? Yeah, hard landing though.”

Dave and Hugh both got the serious look of two men trying to solve a new problem.

“Actually, yeah!” said Dave brightening up. “The hole is right there. It’s not a portal is it? This one’s just totally open.”

“Yes, said Hugh.

“Why don’t I send a scouting eye through and we can take a look around?” suggested Dave. “If it’s dangerous then we aren’t going through and don’t need to invent a way to come back. If it’s not dangerous, I can get a good look at the things in the area we can use to get back.”

“Smart!” said Sam and tapped the side of her head.

“Yes, that is a good idea,” said Hugh. “It was a slightly wooded area when I was last in there so maybe we could use some trees to make a boat or a raft?”

“I was thinking of a paper boat and have an origami golem in the boat to steer, sort of, throw us back through the portal?” said Dave and cast the spell. “Arise, an eye of transvection for my clairvoyance.”

Dave’s perspective instantly left his body and transferred into an invisible, floating sensory node that could be detected by its presence. It gave out Dave’s aura imprint but in a discorporated way that raised the hairs on the back of the neck of anybody who didn’t know about the spell. Sam and Hugh, of course, immediately locked eyes where the sensory node manifested and felt it leave their sight as Dave piloted the node across a small lake.

Hugh’s description was immediately confirmed. Dave floated across the top of a lake of shallow, clear water that had sand and river rocks on the bottom. He didn’t get the sense that there were any water-based monsters below which Hugh’s words had also indicated but it paid to be cautious. Hugh had additionally suggested ‘the old mining watchtower’ for Dave’s first destination. It was constructed in an area with a good view of the mine and the surrounding area so Hugh figured that even though Dave’s eye could float, it’d be a good place to view monsters from.

Dave got some height and began floating towards the distant watchtower when Tzu, subsumed into his eyes, highlighted two humanoid figures on his HUD, hidden in a blind halfway up a rise. Dave immediately selected them and swore back in his body.

“Shit! Builder cult!”

Dave and Sam responded.

“I can’t listen in two places at once so I didn’t hear that. Don’t worry, I saw them from a good distance off. I’ll float up and check out the old mine. I bet they’re encamped there. I’ll cancel the spell if I think I’m in trouble at all.”

Dave didn’t think he’d be in any trouble, though. The sensory node was invisible, only gave off magical radiation, mostly aura-based, and was the size of a golf ball. So long as Dave kept his feelings restrained and thus, his aura retracted he was pretty sure he wouldn’t be detected in the skies. Except by a small list of flying monsters but that didn’t seem likely.

It wasn’t long before Dave confirmed the situation. The mining buildings were populated by the Builder cult. Dave used Stop And Think at a likely-looking moment to get a headcount of fifteen while slowly circling the compound for over half-an-hour before cancelling the spell.

“Well, we can’t go through that,” said Dave, snapping his senses back into his body. He looked around. Sam had three magic circles drawn on the ground and was in full armour, which she didn’t like to wear while travelling. Hugh just looked nervous.

“We can’t fight them, there’s too many,” Dave continued on. “I counted fifteen at one point and that’s just those in the open. I think it’s best if they continue to believe they’re unnoticed and we just notify the authorities in Megève and Oullins. They’ll call up a - what’d you call them?”

“War contract,” said Hugh.

“Yeah, war contract. One of them to wipe the cultists out,” Dave was already manifesting bits of paper and using his telekinetic pens to write identical letters to the Adventure Society in Megève and Oullins until a thought struck him and he looked up sharply. “Actually, we should get away from here as fast as possible in case they have anybody coming to join them inside.

“No tracks,” said Sam but she was already swinging herself into her saddle and leading the party back the way they’d come to minimise their own tracks.

“We should do it just in case,” said Hugh, completing the thought they were all having.

There was no disguising their own tracks completely but Sam went back with a long stick used as a kind of broom to disturb their trail as best she could for a hundred metres while Dave finished composing his letters and sent them both before the party galloped north as quickly as they could.

With only a single spell left for making a comfortable camp and the importance of not spooking the Builder cult out of hiding, Hugh recommended they give up their fear-of-Geller-based stealth and strike straight for Marnaz, the closest town. From there, Hugh could ride into town, give the Church of Knowledge there an anonymous letter to pass on and they could leave again, this time riding hard to the west. Dave liked the plan. It got them away from the dimensional space and the land around it while alerting authorities and simultaneously, put them on a road that anybody looking for them wouldn’t think to search.

Sam was the odd one out, wanting to circle around the area that the astral space was in, hunting for Builder cultists.

“Really, Sam?” said Hugh when Sam had shyly voiced this opinion.

“Yes! They are mean. And, trying to kill everyone!”

Hugh’s mouth opened but no sound came out.

“Good point,” said Dave, taking up the conversation, “but even if we hunt successfully, they’ll notice their fellow cultists going missing and give the game away. Best if we let the war contract deal with it.”

“I know, but I still want to hunt them. They killed Hugh’s friends!”

“Sam,” said Dave proudly. “Sometimes you are very savage and I think I speak for us both when I say thank you for being on our side. You are a good person.”

“Indeed, thank you,” Hugh rushed to add.

Sam smiled happily at them.

Since leaving Megève they’d travelled largely north. Taking this road west would put them on a parallel path to the one that Lady Geller would, presumably, be using to travel east from Oulins to Megève. It should keep them separate. Unfortunately, that meant a hard day of riding on a galloping heidel to Amancy then on to the lakeside city of Champel which Dave recognised was on the very south of what he recognised as Lake Geneva or close to it. Despite the differences between his native reality and this reality, the broad strokes of the geography remained the same. In this case, the three great lakes of Switzerland seemed preserved. Fewer Swiss people though. More elves.

The party rode on even after sunset. The road they were on was wide and well maintained so there was little danger of galloping along it in the fading light for a couple of hours until they reached the outskirts of Champel where Hugh negotiated a space for Dave to cast the cabin spell on the land of a small farm. The friendly farmer was happy to even provision Hugh with fresh eggs and vegetables in favour of Sam using her all-eating slime to fertilise the soil of his cabbage patch.

“Eh, there’s much good to be said about slime fertilisation. Gives the soil some vigour!” remarked the farmer, Adi, sipping on a beer with Hugh and Dave while they watched Sam direct Slimey who absorbed different sources of fertiliser and deposited it, processed, into the soil by some cabbages. Dave was idly sketching notes in Tome.

“Yes, it’s part of their life cycle. The slime processes the nutritious, organic material within itself into a potent fertiliser that vigorous plants use to grow, fruit and attract animals that the slime digests. Fascinating process,” said Hugh.

“Is that so, hey?” said Adi, nonplussed as farmers tend to be. “Fascinating when you’re not the one being digested, I’d say. What’re you adventurers doing here anyway? Those on roadguard duty follow the caravans all the way into the city.”

“We have a quest further north up by that, uhh, more Northern lake. What’s it called?” said Dave, looking up from his work.

“Auvernier,” said Hugh.”

“Auvernier,” confirmed Adi. “Lake Auvernier, I should say. Auvernier itself is the name of the town that the lake is named after and so the lake is also Auvernier Lake, if you follow?”

“I do. Can you give foreigners like us any advice about the best way to get there?” said Dave.

Adi took a draught of his beer while he thought about the question.

“Well,” said Adi carefully. “An unranked like me would have to wait for an escorted caravan, of course but you? From what I hear, most iron ranked folks take the north road and camp out at Cergue base camp and either follow a bronze through the edges of the bronze zone there or team up in groups of two dozen or more to go through it themselves. But, I think I heard the Friar here say you have a looting power?”

Dave and Hugh nodded.

“Well,” Adi slapped his leg and sighed. “Why don’t you take the barge?”

Both Dave and Hugh gave Adi an open look that reminded him they were both foreign to the area.

“Ah!” said Adi, smiling to himself self-consciously. “Yes, there’s a regular ferry out to the adventuring platform in Leman Lake. Big platform that adventurers stay on while working. It’s a good iron rank water zone to train in before heading into the Crescent Sea. Lots of water-related essence users use it. Or, so I hear, never seen it myself, of course, but it’s talked about.”

Hugh saw Dave’s eyes check out. A sure sign he’d gone into his UI, using his abilities. Hugh politely engaged the farmer’s attention.

“Terribly sorry, Adi, I don’t understand. Going to the floating platform will help us arrive at Lake Leman?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes!” said Adi, halfway through a sip of beer. “The trick is, they say, you get off the ferry at the platform, go across to the other side and get on the other ferry that comes from Sauvabelin -”

“Ahh! Of course!” remarked a delighted Hugh.

“- and by the end of the day, you’re on the other side of the lake,” Adi concluded.

Dave was already flicking through pages in Tome and drew an odd look from Adi.

“His bonded book can turn into other books,” said Hugh with a nod and a wink. “He’s probably looking up the cost of the trip.”

“Very reasonable cost, actually,” said Dave, distractedly, “But I can confirm everything you say is correct, Mister Muller. At least, according to the collected journals of one Lucas Fried, silver rank. Apparently.” Dave suddenly smirked. “Although, I’m hesitant to credit everything this autobiography he has to say. He seems to think he’s the first person to take this route. The way he writes, he also credits himself with the invention of water.”

“Old Fanciful Fried thought the sun shone out of his arse but I do think he might be right about this. Yes, I do,” said the old farmer with a grin.

Hugh chuckled and looked momentarily scandalised with himself at laughing at the profanity.

“I’ll let Sam know,” said Dave, draining his drink. “She’ll have concerns.”

As Dave walked off, Adi shot Hugh a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, she… she prefers not to be around too many people. It makes her frightened.”

“That happy, little runic? Have to say, I’ve never seen one smile so brightly. Most are just like all the other adventurers.” Adi grinned to himself. “Young folk pumped full of essences trying to impress everyone with how serious they are. If you don’t mind me saying so, my good Friar, having essences yourself.”

“Not at all, not at all,” said Hugh, chuckling. “I only recently acquired my full set with the aid of Dave there. I must apologise on his behalf, Adi, I’m afraid. The way he stops listening halfway through a conversation. He’s new to his abilities himself and, indeed, this part of the world. He gets an idea -”

Adi waved off the apology.

“He seems a good fellow, just distracted by his own thoughts. I have a grand niece like that. Always off in her own head, following a new thought.” Adi smiled to himself with memory, took another sip of beer and added, “Besides, a man who pays for his beer in advance has brought himself a lot of understanding from me, in my books. You said he’s new in this part of the world?”

“Indeed, he claims an Ahitereirian bubble city as his home and arrived in the Byzasian Empire but weeks ago by something like a teleportation accident,” said Hugh, very carefully not lying.

“Oh? Well, that’s high ranked stuff. Beyond the likes of us, eh? We’ll let them…” Adi, trailed off gesturing towards the stars in a way as though to suggest that whatever activities the higher ranked diamond people in the world did would continue to happen with or without his input. And, rightfully so.

“Indeed, yes. My Lady tells me to expect someone to show up any day as a representative of a bubble city and deal with the formalities of Dave’s appearance but tells me not to concern myself overly much with it. As you say, we’ll let them…” Hugh mimicked Adi’s gesture.

Adi and Hugh continued chit-chatting as Dave walked over to Sam who smiled a big hello.

“You okay if we head into town?” said Dave.

Sam smiled at him quizzically.

“There’s a ferry to a platform in the middle of the lake and another ferry from there to the other side of the lake,” said Dave. “It’s not expensive, we gain two days of time and won’t have to fight anything, which we might have if we'd gone by the north road out of Champel.”

Sam nodded along with a worried smile. The small trek that road took into a bronze rank zone had a bad reputation and they’d been worried that Sam might have to use her Death essence abilities if a fight there got too intense. “I think this ferry will be fine. I checked their books, which they really ought to remove from public access. Dozens of people are on the ferry at once. Not just adventurers, too. Lots of workers, some magic item brokers, some ranked fishermen. People like that. Just keep your aura retracted and I think you’ll blend into the background magic.”

“That’s fine!” said Sam with a brave smile under her big eyes. “But we leave if any silver rankers are there, ka?”

“Absolutely,” said Dave. “In the meantime though, think of a way to signal me or Hugh if you feel like someone’s reading you so we can run a distraction and you can hide. Okay?”

“Yes!” laughed Sam nervously. “That is fine!”

“Good. How’s the garden? Adi seems pleased about Slimey’s fertiliser. Is it really that much to talk about?”

Sam nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes! Can be career if you can summon or have familiar slime. Go from farm to farm and they pay for soil treatment. Is not adventurer money but is career.”

Sam beamed at Dave’s thoughtful look.

“What is your plan, Dave?” said Sam and giggled. “You have planning face on!”

“Hm? Oh, nothing much,” said Dave, coming out of a reverie. “Just thinking about how things are similar processes here but with different tools. Your wandering slime merchants are quite similar to a seasonal use of crop dusting or something like that. I was just wondering if there’s a magical crop rotation, too. Actually, you might know. Is there? Certain crops planted after each other to enrich the magic?”

Sam laughed and nodded vigorously but didn’t say anything. She wanted to see how far Dave could get on his own.

“Yeah, so you plant low magic crops and they concentrate something that more magical crops use as nutrients and when that grows it triggers something else, right? Or, can you just keep looping one on top of the other? Where each crop feeds into the next? No, wait! It’d be limited by the background magic concentration, wouldn’t it? Oh, unless you use formations. Oh! Yes! And you could grow the crops themselves in the formations!”

Dave was already opening Tome up into the pages of some horticultural texts. Sam laughing brought Dave out of his thoughts.

“Oh, sorry, Sam. You were saying?”

She beamed up at him with her biggest, most mischievous smile.

“No! I do this on purpose!” said Sam and gestured at Dave while twisting her body awkwardly and covering her mouth. Her eyes danced with suppressed laughter as she did so.

Dave snorted with laughter of his own and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“You sent me chasing after something to study to keep me busy and out of trouble.”

Sam grinned and patted Dave on the head.