12 Leader’s Request

****(POV)

"Get away and let me do my fucking job!"

"This is a new species I've never seen before and from what the expedition members told me it can use sound-based ranged attack and …."

"Don't care. Get lost. Let me scavenge everything and get out of my way."

"But what if we could find a way to reverse engineer the way it uses that ability through its corpse and…."

"Don't. Fucking. Care. Get the hell out or I'm getting Rhinnase to deal with you.

"Fine…."

Gosh. Is it too much to ask? I'm the one that built the traps too! Why aren't I allowed to see the fruits of my labor!

To be fair Teralith helped a lot with the various pits. Dragonoth and company also lured it all the way here for the leader to finish it. But still! My dark magic helped a lot! Otherwise, the earth spears wouldn't have even damaged it. The restrictions I added also made sure to keep the monster in place.

Ah, this is painful to watch. All this new data just waiting to be collected. And what is happening? The corpse is all getting butchered! I guess we do need food and various monster parts. But what if some of it could be used in order to research some new kind of magic.

I can't even start to fathom the heavy opportunities we might be missing right now. Sadly I'm the only lucid one here. All the others just want plain stuff like safety and food in their stomach. This is sad.

I guess I'll have to convince some people to help me scout this forest. While it is really a shame that I couldn't bring my laboratory with me at least I have gotten this new research subject. Yes, the whole forest.

This new environment is so different from the depths I become ecstatic thinking about all the new discoveries I will make here.

How the creature evolved, the various indigenous flora, the geographical characteristics of such a place, it is all worth researching.

"Travan, I have a task for you!"

Oh? What is the leader doing here?

"Installing more traps would be physically hard as it would occupy all the available…."

"No, that's not it. I need you to work on an alarm system around our base. We need it to cover every single direction and go far enough to warn us of any danger long in advance."

What?!

"There is no way such a thing is easily realizable. An alarm itself is not much of an issue but constructing a whole system out of it is just impossible given our current means. At least not one that works automatically.

The only way I could somehow make it happen is if we added people to man magical nodes that would receive a signal and even then, we would need some monster cores to make it possible. I'm sure the one in the creature we killed earlier should be able to sustain a small network, but It would still require qualified scouts. They would have to be able to hide perfectly in the forest and they would have to carefully control the mana in the devices still.

But even then, that would only let them figure out something is coming. Relaying the information quickly to us would be an issue. I could see wind mages somehow manage it, but we only have the twins that are really proficient in it and it wouldn't be realistic to expect them to keep watch all the time without any rest.

We would need a way to somehow relay that information and…."

"Enough! I get it! So it's almost possible, we are just missing the key piece of information relaying right? Other than that it's all about training to adapt to this new environment. Is that right?"

"Exactly, but doing that might prove to be extremely…"

"Alright. I get it."

"But chief, why are you suddenly talking about such a plan?"

"It's my daughter's plan. She is wiser than you would expect I am sure."

"Hum, if it's not your plan…I should probably have a conversation with her directly. After all, there is no better person than the one that thought of a plan to explain the intricacies of it."

"That…."

"Leader, even if you accepted her as your daughter you can't shelter her from the world. At least not from knowledge. Exchanging views on theories is the noblest activity there is. The feeling of satisfaction when a breakthrough happens after countless hours of effort is divine. It simply is…"

"Alright. You may ask her. But do not pressure her in any way. I want you to swear that you'll…"

"Of course! You can be at ease leader. I understand your concerns. I won't ever try to create a shadow in the hearts of younglings or disparage them. After all, no one is omniscient or perfect. No idea is stupid, sometimes it simply lacks finesse and requires more work."

"Alright. I'll be counting on you then."

I may be saying that, but my purpose is truly to test this new leader of ours.

I prefer to be pragmatic above all. If an option leads to more research opportunities, I'll be all for it.

Knowing if she truly is the leader's daughter or simply peculiar plant matters little to me. Well, I would like to analyze this new creature in any case, but I'll have to be subtle about it. Real sneaky too.

If we are meant to follow the orders of some foolish random lifeform I would rather leave this group. So what if there is a blood oat? I have ways to nullify it somewhat. Well as long as I put an extremely vast distance between us. I won't ever be able to hurt the target, but I'll keep my freedom.

That much is enough for me.

I resolutely enter the small wooden house. Easy to know who it belongs to as there is only one house in the entire base. Everyone else is just making do with temporary shelters with simplistic roofs.

There is who or what I came for. A small Bean still laying on the cushion where it was placed earlier.

"Oh! A visitor! Hello there! I'm Bean!"

Oh? It has awareness. As I came in, it greeted me instantly. It has knowledge about societal constructs.

"Hello, little Bean I'm Tarvan. Your father told me that I come in and chat with you a bit."

"Really? Bean loves chatting. Bean is a social Bean haha."

It has a sense of self. Bean is it? That however differs a lot from a dark elf young lady. For some reason, I get the feeling this bean is not the reincarnation of our young mistress. Not at all. For instance, it is way too cheerful for a dark elf. Greetings between us are most often than not basic nods.

"Tell me Bean, are you the one that came up with the idea to place alert magic all over our surroundings?"

"Yes?"

It doesn't seem sure. What is this all about?

Let me see how it reacts to the specific reason why it wouldn't work.

"Well, you see it wouldn't be possible because while we can get a prototype system to work there is no way to make it ...."

It takes me a while to explain what I told the leader earlier. This time I add way more details. I explain the core principles behind every single one of my potential plans. A few hours later I feel like I have covered the basics of the topic in a somewhat extremely succinct and simple manner. Now with this, the bean should have understood that the idea is not viable all because of a lack of communications caused by a lack of materials.

"The only problem is talking over long distances?"

"Well yeah, that and the fact that…."

"Just use the link with everyone to give information."

"What?! What link?"

"The one that lets Bean feel everyone. After they splashed their blood all over Bean."

Oh my god. This being means to use a blood pledge as the basis for some advanced form of communication.

But that should be impossible. There is no way anything worthwhile can be shared via such a flimsy link. Barely any feeling can be sent over even with lots of training, there wouldn't be any way to exploit such a thing, right?

"We need a way to send complete sentences over there is no way we could ever do that!"

"Why?"

Am I supposed to answer that or is it a rhetorical question? Is it possible that this Bean has no knowledge about blood pledges? That would explain the insane idea to communicate with it. It's either that or it knows perfectly what it is talking about.

For now, I'll answer the question.

"To get precise information on our enemies! Accurate knowledge of our enemies is vital if we are meant to survive a long time in this forest, otherwise, how are we to prepare against our foes?! It is simply impossible to share such complete data using such a method."

"Why can't you get precise information with it?"

Why can't I? Isn't it self-explanatory? A blood pledge can at best share vague feelings. There won't be a way to form it into words at all. Should I just say that? This much is obvious. Or it should be?

"There is no way to express anything as complex as language through such a crude method. We would need to…"

"Then get a new language."

What?! Change the language? How and why? There would still be the same issue.

"No matter the language the issue will remain the lack of tools to form complete sentences. Even if we try to express it in dwarven or orcish or draconic the issue will remain the same we won't be able to …"

"Then create a simpler language."

Create a simpler language? There is no way such a thing is….

Wait …no …. this might be possible. What if? Could I?

If we create a language that only uses some beat to relay a message. We could express a variety of information. Across a long distance too.

A blood pledge has a vast effective range after all. It was meant as a way to find one's king and protect him from harm.

Now we would just need a way to transform the magic itself to link all the participants together. This should be close to impossible…but not impossible in fact.

If I just base my research on the existing model and alter it slightly then I could.

I can see it succeeding!

This is amazing! It would allow for the fastest and close to instantaneous communication between all tribe members.

Minus some time required to decode the information. On the upside, it would also be impossible to intercept and would-be fail-safe. Almost completely fail-safe since I can't even fathom what could potentially disrupt such a method.

I really need to work on that as fast as possible. This is a genius idea! This will revolutionize the entire world HAHAHAHA.

Wait, all along it was the small bean guiding me from my archaic thought process to this now obvious revolutionary solution.

And here I was questioning it in the beginning!

Wondering if it was perhaps oblivious to what I was talking about.

I have been the fool all along.

A neophyte trying to teach an old master.

I was blind and ignorant.

I kowtow in front of this incredible being.

One that is extremely small but unbelievably knowledgeable.

By now I am sure. This is not the leader's daughter. It cannot be. It is an entity way more incredible.

This is for the best. We will prosper with such an amazing leader.

"Thank you, master! Thank you for enlightening me with your wisdom! I will work tirelessly until I achieve our goals. The new language, the blood pledge link modification, and finally a perfect warning system around our home. You can be assured I won't fail you! Do you have any order for me master?!"

"Ah? None. Good luck with that!"

Ah, this is marvelous. The leader decided to leave this task to me so I can learn. I am trusted with the future of our race. I guess master will only step in should I fail my endeavor. I won't.

I'll succeed. No matter the cost.

The next few weeks are going to be worthwhile. I won't stop until it can be proud of me.

Who needs sleep anyway?