Chapter 65 – Team building
By the time the dark mana had again been drained from the region, it had been a whole two days. Where on earth it had all come from, Adam had already been investigating. He had been given some potential ideas as to its source from his new recruit Mi Quo – who said it was a source that his previous master Pu-Che had been trying to obtain. He warned Adam of a potential Lich King – which of course only proved to make Adam more curious.
They headed into the area where Libby had determined the source was most likely to have originated and sure enough Adam could see a fairly strong mana signature from the area around – only it was all subterranean in source. Looks like it’s time for some digging thought Adam not relishing the memories of the Void Beast episode – where he had totally failed at making a trap.
Finding some trees to use as implements for the task – Adam set about excavating. Blasting the earth away using shadow energy - he then used the trees to sure up the sides of the ever-expanding hole. After about fifty feet he broke through into the top of a tunnel that was running fairly parallel to the surface and eventually had its exit somewhere else altogether. He dropped into the tunnel and made his way down – protected by a mana barrier and newly upgraded array scripts which allowed him to soak up the massive amount of dark energy that poured out from the tunnel. Libby also dropped a few arrays outside the tunnel properly as she did not want the whole area contaminated again.
What they found was disconcerting, to say the least. First, they reached a doorway that had clearly been meant to seal off the section of the tunnel they were currently in – but as Mi Quo explained had been overloaded by the dark energy in the environment and had malfunctioned. This apparently had been Pu-Che’s whole plan with the Wendigos to farm them in order to build up enough dark energy in the area to trigger something he knew was in the vicinity of the forest – but did not know its precise location.
After a few turns in the tunnel, Adam and Mi Quo found their eyes arrested by a now familiar sight – to Adam at least – a majestic scripted tower of grand proportions.” What the hell?!” thought Adam, was this another entrance to the void? However, Libby quashed his initial supposition, stating that what was on the other side was not de-void of mana at all but quite the opposite it was an extreme reservoir of mana – dark mana. They sealed the area, set up perimeter barriers, and determined to investigate further the following day.
Subsequently, Libby deployed a relay of arrays to deplete the excess mana that was somehow escaping through the tower’s script barrier.
***
When they got back to Binyon they gathered all the kids together. And, Adam had allocated the children all with their own personal PDs these also doubled as encoded teleportation devices and mana barriers – Libby had gone all out as Adam had instructed.
The PDs had enough space to be used as training areas and housed any items of reasonable quantities that the children wished to store. The teleportation property could be activated manually, allowing the children to hop to any of the nearest gate stones, which Libby had coded and Adam had placed both through the forest and on the route back to Weihou town – they had also set up a couple of hideouts in these locations for emergencies.
The teleportation would also trigger if the children came under attack by a physical or mana type – this would be sensed by the mana barrier, which could be up 24/7 when they were not safe in their PDs.
Adam was seriously impressed and relieved at finally knowing the kids would be safe and sound if they came under attack. Libby had wanted to transmigrate AI into all the kids, but Adam thought that was something for the future if the kids wanted it – for now, these measures would have to be adequate unless circumstances changed drastically.
A main PD other than Adam’s had now been set up to start the tutoring of the kids – to give them a basic education so they could start schooling in the spring initially and, if all went well, a serious boost to get them ahead of the game.
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Cai and Seria wait patiently, looking up at Libby, sitting under a large screen. Yes, Libby – in the PD, Libby, and the others have decided to become avatars in order to facilitate tutoring sessions. Libby still doesn’t look human, which she thought was appropriate as she isn’t – instead, the face of a half-cyborg met the kids' eyes. Her eyes are kind of piecing, and the little ones are riveted – if only that could be said of the older kids, they are all arguing.
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/e8cb5e90-72ff-487d-a0a4-fb7cd7f81c26/dfxx84z-fc80293c-a98f-4118-885a-75072fc72410.jpg/v1/fill/w_1280,h_1280,q_75,strp/libby_avatar_by_nebzulus_dfxx84z-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTI4MCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2U4Y2I1ZTkwLTcyZmYtNDg3ZC1hMGE0LWZiN2NkN2Y4MWMyNlwvZGZ4eDg0ei1mYzgwMjkzYy1hOThmLTQxMTgtODg1YS03NTA3MmZjNzI0MTAuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEyODAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.QDL_Vfn2TQF2UdyVdP1uydZrH959mqbx9FTerEBqM6A]
Finally, Shuga and Ash take a united stand and manage to quieten things down.
“We know the idea of long hours of school is not what you want to hear right now. But I think that’s because you have the wrong idea about things. One, we are guests here – Adam could chuck us out at any time. Two, this is an amazing opportunity that very few children will get – the chance to become an expert in their chosen profession at such a young age.” Said Shuga, managing to get most of the kids to at least stop and listen.
“I agree with Shuga; we have enjoyed Adam’s hospitality for too long – now we need to pull our weight. And the only way we can do that is by contributing more.” Said Ash.
At this, most of the kids hung their heads resignedly.
“And the beauty of it is that you will still get to do all the things you like. Such as helping around the village and even playing. These Pocket dimensions will give us more time for everything.” Added Ash.
This time the kids looked at each other with more genuine hope.
“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place!” said Toki. “Instead of lecturing us about all the stuff we were going to need to study, is all.”
“Ok, I say enough yapping. Let’s listen to Libby now.” Said Frey. Ash gave a sigh of relief as Frey rarely spoke unless angered, and sure enough, a silence fell over the group.
Libby began her introduction. “Ok, Children, I have decided that you will be tutored in small groups, as follows.” After which, there was a perplexed look on many faces.
“So are we being tutored at different times of the day?” said Clay, scrunching up her nose – as she always did when thinking hard.
“No. I will be splitting myself between the different groups for most academic sessions. Hubba will be teaching combat skills, Trey – alchemy basics and practical skills, Meca will be teaching armor and weapon maintenance, and finally, Echo will be teaching mana manipulation. We just thought it would be better to keep the teaching groups smaller as we can split into as many teachers as required.” Said Libby, temporarily dumbfounding all present.
“So, basically – you can be more than one person at once.” Said Theia – who always was quick off the mark.
“Yes, that’s right, Higan. Maybe I should give myself new names…Libby1,2,3 and 4. Yes, that will be it.” Said Libby – original.
Then, there appeared Libby 1 to 4 on the screen saying hello – and it all just got weird, but the children were mesmerized, and that one little act seemed to get them sold on the whole idea of tuition.
[https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/e8cb5e90-72ff-487d-a0a4-fb7cd7f81c26/dfxxalu-45512e8f-795b-4f79-b1ff-d5ccd672c1dd.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2U4Y2I1ZTkwLTcyZmYtNDg3ZC1hMGE0LWZiN2NkN2Y4MWMyNlwvZGZ4eGFsdS00NTUxMmU4Zi03OTViLTRmNzktYjFmZi1kNWNjZDY3MmMxZGQuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.FcitDDiGYcVvERpPCZnxMKkSDp0Z3sGKK-1AB68MkSo]
***
Libby had worked out how to do a lot of useful stuff with scripting, but she still wanted to take things one step further. She needed to negate somehow their greatest threat of interference and quite possibly annihilation – Elios. She had no idea whether the Elios system could read minds – she presumed it was possible, but the probability of scanning every mind within the system was highly unlikely – if Elios had, they would have been dead long ago. It was, therefore, more lightly that he scanned, if at all, for keywords or checked in when a suspicious occurrence arose. Or possibly he was watching remotely and didn’t do any scanning. However, they had to try and plan for all eventualities – which meant masking thoughts from the system.
For this, she needed a guinea pig or two, so she could mess with their minds or at least mess inside their spirit seas. They had two potential test subjects already Bai Bo-Xue and Mi Quo but Adam would not let her touch either of them – she wished he hadn’t killed the local faction members and requested he find a replacement or two, as soon as possible.