"Oiii!" I banged on the lair's entrance, "Open up! My nipples are frozen solid!"

"No one needed to know that." Olya sneezed as he grabbed a snowball off the ground, "They're at the bottom most floors, anyways, so why are you even asking them to open the doors?"

"Oh right." I shivered, "I forgot we can just open it up ourselves."

With a sigh, Olya made sure to pat the snowball in his hands a couple times just to ensure it's dense enough to actually trigger the pressure plate. With a funny looking pitcher's posture, he tossed it up onto the vertical pressure plate centered above the lair's tall entrance, thus opening the doors for us without even having to call anyone down there up.

"Phew, you can immediately tell the difference in temperature here as opposed to outside!" He took off his wet gloves and scarf as he noted, "Guess all this time spent heating up the place really did pay off."

"That was your idea, right?" I recalled, "One of the first things we asked the Book to do for us was to add central heating for all the rooms and hallways in the lair."

"Yeah, but I'd still rather we don't have to trek back here from now on..." Olya then got all pumped, "Which is exactly why I thought of a way to always make sure we can teleport back here no matter what!"

Oh? He looks stoked. Seeing this tub of lard moving about so energetically as he's talking a mile a minute looks kind of goofy, but I can also appreciate how wholesome he is when he gets like this. This trek back home was difficult even for someone as bear-like as me, so I can only imagine how much he doesn't want a repeat occurrence. That being said, we really should be careful from now on. Yes, it was funny to have to walk all the way from the Cognisphere to the lair, but from here on the World Wonders are only gonna get farther and farther away the more we go. If there's any way for us to secure fast travel back to the lair that's 100% foolproof, then I'm all ears.

"Go on, then." I smirked, "Me personally, I'm thinkin' lanyards or zippers would help immensely."

"What, for the recall device?" He tilted his head, "I mean, that might work... But I've got an even better idea - Portable Teleport Waypoints!"

Ehh...? The only "Porta" I know is a portapotty, and I don't think that's what he means. Seriously, that name's so long that I can't even recite it even mere moments after he said it! This guy's been reading too many of those light novels of his...

"I don't follow." I patiently heard him out.

"It's actually something from a light novel I read recently." He admitted.

"Oh!" I raised my eyebrows, astonished and delighted that I got it right.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"No, it's nothing." I shook my head, "Carry on."

"Right, ahem!" He went on to explain, "The story is about these two siblings traveling from World to World, when suddenly they get stranded on one of the Worlds they were visiting. They get separated, and the protagonist has to find his sibling before they can continue their travels together again. It's interesting to note that you as the reader don't actually know if the protagonist of the story is the brother or sister, as they're just commonly referred to by the other characters as "Traveler"... The first country the protagonist goes to is called..."

"I don't care about the story, man!" I snapped him out of his nerd talk, "Just tell me what this has to do with that portapotty thing."

"Portapotty? You mean the portable teleport waypoints?"

"Y-Yeah, that!" I hurried him up, "How does that play into this story of yours?"

"Right, well... Basically in the story the Traveler uses these teleport waypoints to go from place to place instantaneously. This might be a bit of a spoiler, so I hope you don't mind, but they later learn of a way to craft said teleport waypoints and carry them in their inventory to deploy wherever they want. They even disappear on their own after 7 days, so we don't have to worry about anyone else finding them and stumbling upon the lair."

"Whoa! Where was this story all this time?" I patted him on the back, "Good goin', man! If we have such a convenient tool at our disposal, then we're golden!"

"Yeah! Then let's go down stairs and write it in, shall we?" He smiled before walking down the steps to the floor below.

"Oh, welcome back." One of the succubus girls was the first to give us a friendly greeting, "Did you have fun on your trip?"

"Not really, no..." We slumped forward before hiding the pain away, "What're you doing up here, though?"

"Oh, the doctor told me to come up and greet you." She explained, "He's currently busy with Emerald and Ruby, so he sent me up here instead."

"That damned useless doctor...!" Both Olya and I could feel our veins popping when we heard that, "He should be lookin' after Shaid, or at least have the decency to come get us, the rat bastard...!"

"Oh, regarding that guy in a coma..." The girl kind of beat around the bush before anxiously revealing, "H-He... died again."

"Hrm..." Neither of us were happy to hear this, "Doc has a lot of nerve, if that's the case...! Letting Shaid die and just waltzing on over to the ladies' room...!"

"Please, I only ask that you forgive him!" The girl immediately shut down our rage, "This may sound a bit rude coming from me, but the doctor has been doing his best with the tools he was given."

"What's that supposed to mean?" We grit our teeth, "He's the best doctor in the World, and is being given the best tools in the World. He has no excuses!"

"Yet he's dealing with an unknown illness." She took a deep breath before saying flat out, "You may not know this, since he tries to hide it from you, but he's very honest in the pleasure room. He spends as much time as he can tending to Shaid, and doing so amasses a lot of stress. Even now, when he ran into the room a sobbing mess, he didn't ask for sex. He just wanted someone to embrace, for comfort."

"O-Oh..." We gulped.

"He may not say this openly, but he does see you two as his friends, and I'm certain he treats Shaid with the utmost respect." She then begged us from the bottom of her heart, "Please, I understand he couldn't keep your friend alive yet again, but with that Book, you both know it's nothing irreversible. When you meet him down there, please don't attack him."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"O-Okay." We nodded earnestly, "Thanks for telling us. We'll do just that."

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***

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"What?" We immediately threw all the sympathy we had for the doctor straight out the window.

"Hm?" He got caught happily indulging in as many women comforting him as humanly possible, "Oh, hey guys! Did Sapphire tell you the news? I'm so sorry, his condition is ever changing, so I can't ever really get him into a stable state. Anyways, revive him while I finish my six-some."

"You deserve the death penalty." Olya looked at him with disgust.

"Yeah, lettin' your patient die is one thing." I added, "But not even havin' the courage to face the people you've failed and instead sendin' a girl to do it for you while you plow five chicks at once is an undeniably new low, objectively speakin'."

"Well, excuse you!" He was just about done as he addressed us, "If you think you can do a better job at taking care of him, then by all means, you do it!"

"Is that backtalk I hear?" I physically removed him from the pile of girls he was under, "Doc, you do realize we can just as easily take you straight back to where you came from, right?"

"U-Uhh..." He immediately shut up once he realized his mistake.

"That means no more buffet..." I went through the list, "No more infinite beverage room... And absolutely no more pleasure room."

"Noooo!!!" He almost started crying from the fear of losing it all, "Anything but that, please! Okay, I'll stop being annoying, just let me stay here!"

"Good, at least you understand." Olya patted me on the back, signaling me to drop him on the floor, "That's enough, Schnell."

"Tch, you got off super easy..." I clicked my tongue at the doctor.

"Heh, you can say that again." He joked as he winked at the ladies with whom he just got off super easily.

"Whatever." Olya tossed him his clothes, "Schnell and I are gonna go revive Shaid and continue to the next World Wonder. Get dressed and please try to look after him more carefully this time."

"Ugh, alright..." He whined internally, but knew better than to have it show on his face, "And hey, you two."

"What is it now?" I glanced back just as we were leaving the room.

"Thanks for forgiving me." He honestly said, "I know I make light of the situation, but it really does feel just as horrible when I lose Shaid as when I would lose anyone else before. Good luck out there."

"...Yeah." We smirked as we finally left the room, "We're sorry for interruptin', as well. Once he wakes up, you can enjoy your free time however you please."

"You can count on me!" He gave us a hearty thumbs up, the moment only ruined by the comedic timing of his pants falling to the floor the moment he let go of his belt buckle.

"Somehow I doubt that." I let out a light chuckle before we closed the door.

"Gah, what an idiot." Olya sighed, "Well, let's not delve too far into it. Come on."

Passing by the yet again deceased Shaid's room, if not purely just to see his face again, we scoffed a little at the doctor's incompetence before rushing down to the safe room with a rejuvenated vigor. Popping open the Book and taking the quill out, we had actually realized that we've now gotten to a point where the entire page was filled with nothing but the same sentence over and over again - Shaid is revived and brought back into a stable comatose state.

"Damn, this trip around the World better show results." I made a difficult face as I looked on at the Book, "If we don't think of something quick, we might actually run out of space in this thing."

"We'll find a way to prolong it if it does come to that." Olya reassured me, "But for now, let's just pray it doesn't come to that."

"Oh, you forgot to create the those telepotty things." I reminded him.

"So now it's shortened to telepotty?" He chuckled as he opened the Book back up again, "Good call, though. Wouldn't wanna have to travel all the way back again, especially now that we're going to Simpleton."

"Simpleton?" I let a bit of my surprise show, "I thought the next closest World Wonder now was the Tria Prisma, though?"

"On the map, it'd appear so, but remember what Tanathos told us." He explained, "World's round, bud, just like that damned ball we scaled a few hours ago. If we take that into account, then the Library of a Thousand Passages is our next stop, no doubt."

"Huh..." I thought about it, "Yeah, he did mention that, didn't he? So what, you reckon the Cognisphere was created by the Gods so we could piece together the World's true shape?"

"I didn't say that." He chuckled before closing the Book again, "But I like the idea, and it sounds charming enough, so sure, why not?"

Putting the Book back in the safe and locking it up tightly, Olya instructed me to follow him to the portal room. Inside it were three distinct things this time - The portal, of course, then the recall device, and the last thing that wasn't there before...

"The PorTeleWayp!" Olya grabbed a handful of the tiny disc looking buggers from the ground.

"Ehh, I like my names better." I chuckled, "So, these things are gonna send us back here without fault?"

"Yeah. But only if we place the other halves here." He slid off each of the disc's halves, turning them into pairs of semicircular looking things, "This one half signifies where this other half will take us. Like a start and destination point, I guess you could say."

"You know so much about how they function." I stood there impressed, "How come you know how they work?"

"I read a lot of sci-fi, so I more or less get the gist of these types of things." He snorted as he got up, "Hyup! That should do it! Alright, remember Schnell - We're aiming for Simpleton!"

"Right!" I nodded as we both stood in front of the portal, though this time not holding hands thankfully, "Simpleton!"

Jumping inside, I was once again greeted to a wide range of colors. Once I came to, I was met with a pretty dusty looking cabin in front of me, and I soon realized how hot it actually is on this continent. Hold on, this isn't exactly the coveted Library of a Thousand Passages I had envisioned...?

"Olya, I think asking for Simpleton was a bit too vague..." I looked around for him, but to no avail, "...Olya?"