Chapter Six
Setting up Shop
“Toot! Where have you been?” Dev felt bad that he hadn’t even remembered that he was supposed to have a companion and that Toot had agreed to accompany him. He had awakened and was so disoriented that it never occurred to him that he was short a man, and then he got caught up absorbing things and learning how he could alter the things he had taken in and gotten general patterns for that Toot never came to mind. Dev could hear a strange sound accompanying Toot’s approach. It was a hushed shooshing sound.
“I have a lot to explain.” He sounded closer than before but was still not in Dev’s range of vision. “There are rules that even I have to follow. Companions have to come to their core, they can’t just materialize with them. Don’t ask me why, that’s just the way it's been for eons.”
“Am I supposed to be disoriented upon arrival, too?” Dev suspected that something had gone wrong in the transition, but wanted to verify it with Toot.
“Yes, but only because I did something I wasn’t supposed to do. I changed our destination’s location. If I hadn’t done that you would have appeared with less confusion and would have known to wait on me while you accrued mana. My alteration of our itinerary wasn’t as bad as I feared, but there were some deleterious effects.” With his last word Toot stepped into view. Dev could see that the strange sound was a result of Toot dragging an animal carcass behind him.
Toot was a shock as well, Dev had not expected him to take the form he currently had. Truly, the former tutorial could have chosen any creature that he wanted to be, and if Dev had to place a wager he would have bet on any life form other than the one that stood in front of him now.
“Toot,” the core said in a shocked tone, “You look…,”
“Human?”
“Yes,” Dev replied. Why would you take the form of a human? Wouldn’t a wisp have been more practical? I think even the cigar-smoking kobold would have made more sense.”
The tutor was dressed in simple clothes. Cloth pants, a button-up cloth shirt with short sleeves, a leather vest, and short boots. He looked old. His hair was grey and long enough to cover his neck and came down to his eyes. He had a bushy eyebrows and mustache and the stubble of a new beard forming on his chin. His eyes were hawkish and were an alert yellow, surrounded by crows feet,
“In more ways than you know,” toot replied shiftily. “I took this form because I wanted to experience life in a myriad of ways. Most creatures have limited world experience. Some lack a sense of smell or taste, others are deaf, some blind; wisps, for example, lack physicality altogether. I agreed to come with you in order to experience everything life has to offer. Humans might be middling in capability, but they experience life and the world more fully than any other race.”
“Fair enough,” Dev replied. “So, what did you do to the location? And maybe even more importantly, why did you do it?”
“There are a multitude of things we need to discuss,” Toot agreed. “Let’s start with why I did what I did.” He licked his lips and then bit his lower lip with an exalted look on his face. He was relishing even the most simple sensations. “The overseers aren’t going to be happy that you finagled a way to get me as a companion. As you surmised it was terribly difficult for them to create me, you might say that I am, or at least was, irreplaceable. Couple that with the fact that you conned me with your choice dungeon type and I will speculate that they will be downright livid.”
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Toot raised his hand to his brow and rubbed his forehead. He looked stressed and tired, but he also looked ecstatic. Not only was he taking the good with the bad physically, but he also explored every emotion that came his way. Dev had to give the man credit, he was living his dream.
“So livid,” he continued, “That they may come to destroy you outright before you get started as a dungeon. Their modus operandi, that’s elvish just so you know, is to cut off their arm if a finger is infected.”
“And you let me do that anyway?” The core was a tad miffed that his companion hadn’t urged him away a bit harder than he had.
“Be honest, would anything I said have dissuaded you from taking that path?”
“Not really,” Dev admitted.
“There you go,” Toot said with a flourish of his hand. “Honestly, I think they may have let that one slide. It was clever, and within reason for the most part, but when you took me their perspective would have changed. You would have suddenly become too costly to keep around. Who knows what you might do to disrupt their schemes next? They certainly don’t and they don’t want to find out. So, my best guess is that they are going to come for you at some point.”
“All right, but why muck about with my arrival location?” Dev was more than a touch curious about that decision.
“The overseers are not gods. They might act like they are; in some ways, they are more than gods and in some ways, they are less than gods. They are powerful, but far from all-knowing. Omniscience is not in their make-up.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “They can look for you, but they have to know where you went to have a chance to find you. They never included a tracking spell in your crystalline framework, but I am certain that future models will have that little upgrade.”
He shook his head and focused. Toot had a lot to say and was struggling to find the right words. One thing was clear to Dev, the man had been looking out for him.
“As it stands we are not on Leips-Muartpla. I chose a different world.”
“Why do that? Is dungeoning easier here than there? Won’t they suspect that you took a different route?” Dev’s consciousness was reeling. He wasn’t sure if it was still transportation sickness or just the thought of what he was learning was making him swoon.
“I did it to make the haystack bigger. So far as they are concerned we will be hiding somewhere on Leips-Muartpla. It is only after they have surveyed every single inch of the surface and then below that they will realize that I redirected us. When they look into that, they will find a false trail, as I went to two other realms before settling here. They will have to hunt for us on both worlds before moving on, and if they take long enough then the trail here may have faded.”
“They won’t notice my using power or doing things out of the ordinary?” Dev asked.
“No, I have shut off your relay signal that feeds them information. So long as that is off they will have no idea of where to look, but there are still things we must do in order to ensure our safety.”
“What sort of things,” Dev asked, feeling like schoolboy getting a lesson from a teacher. It was his tutor speaking, after all.
“More than anything we need to go unnoticed,” Toot said seriously.
“Unnoticed? What do you mean by that?” Toot might relish his new emotions, but Dev was approaching frustrated and not loving it.
“We cannot be an average dungeon. You’ve heard the expression if it looks like duck and quacks like a duck?”
“Yes,” Dev replied with excitement, “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, kill it quickly because it’s probably a changling!”
“Exactly, so we can’t look like or act like a typical dungeon. We need to do everything w can not to appear like a dungeon. They will be looking for dungeon activity, but so long as you don’t provide them the feedback they expect and you don’t look like what they are seeking they may just pass us by.” Toot dropped his hands to his side and looked to the ceiling. “It's not the best option, but it is our only hope.”
Dev sent the old man a feeling of warmth and an I’m so clever I can’t stand it feeling. Toot must have felt the smile he was sending him because he looked at him and asked, “What do you have in mind, my cunning dungeon friend?”
“I think I know exactly how to hide our devious dungeon in plain sight. I know how to be overlooked and go unnoticed.”