Search and Recovery I

1st, November

(Recommended Song: LiquidCinema – Embrace)

There was a sound of breathing. It was slow, once every ten seconds, with a heartbeat in the background. The breathing slowly sped up a little as feeling came back to the arms, the legs, finally to her face and being able to hear. Selene's eyes slowly opened her eyes and closed them again, her vision being half blinded by the open drapes in the bedroom, her bedroom. Her head slowly rolled to the side as she tried to survey the room, finding Jeeves preparing some fresh flowers in a vase. "Je…" she tried to say his name, but her throat was like paper. "Jeeves…" her voice came out as a rasp of dust, just enough for him to hear her. Her mind wasn't really working quite just yet, so coms weren't in use.

Jeeves stopped and snapped his head quick as lightning in her direction, noticing she was awake. To others it might have been a little disturbing, but she knew how fast automatons could react. "By all that is holy… you're awake… finally…" he said as he jogged over to her bed and checked on her. "Where…" she tried to ask. "You're back home, safe and sound your majesty. Bronze Team brought you here, along with three guests." She looked at her arm and noticed the catheter, along with a few other tubes connected just under the sheets. She had another catheter down below, and what felt like a bed pan. She had made a slew of medical equipment in the past to help in the event there were refugees that were older and couldn't get out of bed or were in dire straits who couldn't be gotten to by an auto doc or magic to keep them alive, but she never expected she'd need to use any of it. "Water…" Jeeves poured her a small glass and helped tip it for her to drink, with maids coming in immediately as he summoned them. "Better your majesty?" he asked. She nodded and sat up with help from the maids, adding new pillows to support her back.

"You've been out for some time. One week to be exact." She looked up at him weakly. "I have? I don't remember much beyond… the fight…" she replied as she brought her hand up to her eyes and covered them. "Yes, once you were out of the temple, they were able to heal you… but…" Jeeves trailed off. "But?" she asked. "It was touch and go for a little bit, they had to resuscitate you… twice… it very nearly didn't work from what I was told."

So, I was clinically dead… I wonder for how long. Brain damage? I can remember everything, nothing feels out of place.

"I should have left the Lazarus System here" she said, looking into his optics as she realized it was still in her inventory. "You somehow pulled through with the healing provided by Turnie, but you entered a coma. It's a miracle it was so short though." So, there was no brain damage, she wasn't dead long enough; it wasn't as if the healing wouldn't fix the brain as well though. Her body felt a little weak, even though the battle was a week long gone, she had been lying in bed this entire time unconscious. "Jorge are you there?" she asked as she activated Communication is Key. "By all the gears and cogs, you fucking live your majesty!" Deacon chimed in. The others spoke up as well, thankful she was awake. "I'm here ma'am. We're very glad your back amongst the living." The dev breathed in deep and couldn't feel any phantom pain from any of the wounds she received. Turnie must have done good work, along with time teaching her nerves there was nothing there.

She opened her character sheet to use the "avatar" picture to see her face. It wasn't beat up anymore, with no scars or cuts. Aside from the coma, she was fine. She sighed in relief. The empress wouldn't be stuck in some wheelchair waiting to recuperate now that she was alive and well. Bronze Team opened the doors to her bedroom and walked in. She slowly moved her legs out from under the sheets and dropped them to the ground but didn't stand up. Turnie rolled over to her to check her pulse and temperature, before being given a hug by the woman. She returned it with all six arms. "We're glad you're ok ma'am, I did my best." Selene just kept hugging. "Your best is the best Turnie, no one else is as good as you." As they pulled apart and she locked eyes to optics with Jorge, he came forward. "Ma'am how are you feeling?" he asked. "I'm alive. That's usually a good sign." The group chuckled. "Can you fill me in on what happened after… well… I don't remember much…" she trailed off.

"Yes ma'am. Unknown forces dropped from above and proceeded to kill seven of the ten Valkyrja in the arena. We managed to save three of them, including Hrist, however the enemy force got away with the corpses with unknown teleportation capability. Our primary concern at the time was to-" Jorge was interrupted. "I'm not asking for an official report Jorge, I just want to know what happened. I really don't remember." A sigh sound came out as he kneeled. "We air lifted you out of the temple. As soon as we got out, your health regeneration kicked in along with assistance from Turnie, but it was close. We nearly lost you, twice. Turnie had to resuscitate you with a crash cart. Once we healed your body, we couldn't get you out of the coma you entered. Hrist we provided medical aide to as well, but she healed without having any further issues."

Silence enveloped the room for about twenty seconds as she thought. "I'm guessing those were Artinian forces. They killed seven Valkyries? By themselves? How?" Ethan stepped up. "Ma'am, they were using some sort of unidentified glowing daggers, but the real issue was two as yet unknown charges dropped behind them that caused them to drop their defenses and walk towards it, almost like a Siren's Call. The daggers penetrated their armor like it was nothing, but each dagger disintegrated after use. We recovered a few of the bodies as well, hoping to get some information as to who they were from their equipment." Selene looked at her hand as it trembled ever so slightly, then stopped. She had won. She had battled a Valkyrie and won. "So, the Valkyrja… the three that are here…"

"Hrist, Skuld and Brynhildr, also apparently known as Bryn or Bry" Orlo told her. That at least gave names to some of the others in that arena. "And they're alive?" she asked. "Yes ma'am, they're downstairs. The… "Siren's Call" effects were neutralized once we pulled them a certain distance away, but as a countermeasure it knocked them unconscious, probably to allow follow up attacks if any friendlies were in the area to assist them. I'm sorry ma'am, we… weren't able to stop what was happening until it was too late. They seemed to be on suicide runs just to take down the Valkyrja." The dev took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Orlo, can't you detect hostiles nearby?" she asked. Her spell Detect Hostiles would have told her she was surrounded given the Valkyrja were right next to her or behind. "The pulse only goes to fifty meters ma'am, they dropped in from above, beyond my range with no listening posts nearby. We had enough time to figure out what was happening when the two bombs dropped, but by that time they were down and stabbing the battle maidens. There were two hundred of them, it was a little difficult to protect the Valkyrja as they walked to their deaths. A travesty it was."

"I see. I'm not blaming any of you, I'm alive and I appreciate everything you've all done. I'd like to ask you to not tell the three still here that I'm awake yet, hopefully I can get some peace and quiet for a little while." Turnie looked between everyone. "Why do you say that ma'am?" The empress let out a half chuckle. "Because if I'm considered mortal, they might think I can do something about all of that, thinking I'm connected to those people, and I'd rather not-" the doors opened with Hrist, Skuld and Brynhildr walking in. "Ok, never mind…" Hrist walked up to her bed. "Mortal, your people attacked my sisters, murdered them in cold blood. How could you go against the rite?!" she asked, angry. Selene glanced at Turnie in a "see?" motion. "First of all, those weren't my people. Didn't you notice Bronze Team was fighting them?" she asked. Hrist looked at the metal men and women surrounding her.

"If they were not yours, who were they?" "I haven't the foggiest, and right now I just don't care right now. Orlo, did you get some of the fragments from the bombs and daggers?" Orlo floated near the foot of the bed. "Yes ma'am, at least of the bombs. The daggers… they were powder. You may be able to run some research projects to-" he was cut off. "We must go after them to gain justice for my sisters!" Hrist snapped at her. "No, you want to go traipsing off to go find them, with no knowledge of what the hell happened. Good luck." The black-haired Valkyrie glared at her. "You aren't willing to help?" she asked shocked. "I won. I'm done. You need to leave my people alone. End of discussion." Hrist loomed over her, but Bronze Team got ready for a fight. Ten Valkyrja was hard to take on, but three versus five was going to be unbalanced in the opposite direction, especially since her Steampunk Mechanical Engineering had increased their levels quite a bit. "Help us now." Selene sighed. "I don't have to do shit to help you last time I checked. I got what I needed, I survived, you need to honor the deal, or is your honor also stolen as well?" she asked.

The Valkyrie was pissed at that, raising her fist in the air, ready to strike her. The attack would snap her neck easily or launch her head from her shoulders, but Selene just looked at her in a nonchalant manner. "Go on, do it. You still won't get any help. The only thing you'll do is take out the one person who doesn't want to kill you it seems." Hrist clenched her fist, mulling the thought over in her head, then dropped her arm to her side. She stormed off out of the room with the other two in tow. "They're going to leave" Jeeves stated. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. Good riddance, they've been high and mighty the entire time they were here. Only reason we let them stay was our majesty might want to have a few words with them. Now she has" Deacon replied.

The empress slowly stood up as the maids brought their hands near her in the event she fell. "Somehow I get the feeling this won't be the last time we see of them. They're going off to do something stupid, I don't want to really be a part of it. Gold Pine is safe, the mining can continue. I guess… I should probably show up at some point, shouldn't I?" she chuckled halfheartedly. "The security has been asked if you were alright, we reported you're safe and sound, just busy" Orlo explained. "Good to know, but I should at least let the miners know they won't be attacked again." Jeeves and the maids made some food as fast as they could, bringing her lunch it seemed given the time. She ate carefully in her bedroom, with Turnie near her at all times to make sure there were no complications. "I'm fine Turnie, or at least I am now. Can't you give me a clean bill of health?" The healer rolled up and touched her forehead.

"You don't have any brain damage, no temperature, pulse is fine, no wounds noted. Physically, you're healthy. Do you have issues mentally though?" Selene closed her eyes. "I thought no brain damage meant I was mentally fine too." Turnie shook her head. "I meant PTSD. You just went through a harrowing experience, you should talk about it to clear your head." The dev sighed and held out her hand, with it being steady. "See? Not trembling, not like before. I was afraid, as I should have been, but now, I'm not ever going to walk into something so stupid again unless I can get a second opinion or get far more information. That was just dumb of me on all fronts. I'm fine. If I'm not, I'll let you and Orlo know, I promise."

The healer nodded. "Alright, let me know if you need anything ok, Selene?" she asked. She had called her by her name. Not ma'am, not empress, not majesty, her first name. She was worried about her. "I will, I swear. Right now, I'd like to get some research done on those fragments Orlo found. I'm worried those could have worked on me. Maybe I can figure out a defense against both. If those daggers can penetrate Valkyrja armor in one strike, that's very overpowered, and dangerous. I can't have that used on you guys. We're going to play the defensive for a little until I can get some upgrades made to counter that, ok?" Turnie nodded in agreement.

3rd, November

Hrist stormed through the gates back into the palace, pushing open multiple doors to search for Selene and bypassing the security who while fast and strong, she wasn't trying to fight them, simply avoid them. The dev was sitting reading a book she was able to procure in Gold Pine. It seems if she shoved the thing in her inventory then pulled it out, it translated to English. It also seemed to work the opposite way if she was handing something written to anyone she met. She was sitting in her library which finally had some nice chairs and a fireplace to sit near, with the wolves surrounding her. Luna had gotten quite a bit bigger in the past week since she had woken up from her coma, being almost the size of Blue now and still growing. The dev hadn't used any potions or the orb the past two days to make sure she had fully recovered from the coma, with Jeeves and the maids feeding her and looking after her the entire time. While she hadn't lost much weight given the catheter and magic, she did need to exercise to work out the kinks and stiff muscles from lying in bed for a week. Turnie had turned her every few hours to keep bed sores from happening.

"I have information that states you do not need to perform your studies into those weapons." Selene just looked up from her book and glanced around the room, with the wolves looking at the Valkyrie. "Ok, that's great, but I'm still researching it. Already got a defense against the daggers so no one hit kills for anything, just working on refining the process for the orbs of mind control shit they were flinging." Hrist sighed in annoyance. "I'm telling you, they don't have anymore of them. It seems they were special artifacts no one knows how to make now." The dev put a bookmark in the book and closed it, then stood up. "Again, I'm playing it defensively right now, plus, I don't see how this has any effect on me beyond they don't know how to make things. Where did you find this out anyways?" she asked.

"We asked questions, from many sources, some of them from your… town, Gold Pine. There were a few cases where we had to be forceful in gaining the information." Selene stared at her. "Do not tell me you just roughed up some of my citizens for your information." Hrist stood there and rolled her eyes. "No, we did not harm anyone from that… place. We left to other locations. Now, if can you send out your metal men to find these people, we can go in and-" The empress groaned loudly. "I am not your servant! I am not an Einherjar! I'm not your lackey, I'm not your bitch, I'm not your friend right now! I fought you and won! I seriously don't understand how you think we are buddy buddy right now. I have an empire to run, a town to rebuild for Glass Dale, I'm in a war with the Artinian kingdom, and you want me to find your seven dead sisters, which could be fucking anywhere, after making me fight to the death?! Fuck. That. Noise."

The empress got up and started walking out of the room, with the wolves staying behind because of the warm fire. As she walked down the hallway, Hrist ran up and put her hand against the wall, blocking her movement. She started to walk around the Valkyrie, but she moved in front of her. "Seriously? In my own palace? You're really going to be that childish?" she asked. The battle maiden looked down at her as Selene scoffed. Hrist dropped her arms as the dev walked around her. "Please." The mortal woman stopped halfway down the hallway and looked over her shoulder. "Please help us. You said it yourself, they're my sisters, I need to find them… we would be indebted to you." The Valkyrja turned around and looked at the ground, blinking. "Hrist, it's finding a needle in a very large hay stack" The dev whined out as she turned around gesturing in the air, trying to help her see reason. The maiden looked up at her, her eyes soft. "I have to at least try. I would hope they would have done the same if it was me."

"They're dead though Hrist." She could see that stung the woman. There was silence for a minute. "Am I not allowed to at least lay their bodies to rest? Pay my last respects?" she asked. She didn't know if a Valkyrie could cry, but Hrist looked like she was fighting tears back. Even they knew of loss, probably every other emotion; they weren't hardened to life. A few moments past before Selene broke. "Jorge are you nearby" she asked out loud instead of using her coms, her eyes rolling once as she put her hands on her hips. "Downstairs ma'am, do you need help?" he yelled up. "Get some SF ornithopters out and about past the Azaltos Mountains, maybe we can pick up something… I dunno, a path or whatever as to where those assholes went with the bodies." Orlo connected through coms. "Ma'am, I believe I know where they teleported to. Miriam Valley, right in the middle of it. Those crystals I've been doing some of my own research on, I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all, thanks for giving me a second opinion on those. What do you have? Miriam Valley? You have a name for it already?" she asked. "I believe they would only have a few locations they can head to that would allow secrecy and containment of those bodies. It's not every day that someone brings seven Valkyrie bodies through city gates. Also, we've had a few ornithopters fly near the edge of the mountains before, hence the name." Hrist looked at Selene being very quiet as she seemed to be having a discussion in her head. "Thank you for helping us. We Valkyrja never break our word, we will be indebted to you." Jorge came up the stairs behind her. "She's talking to us in private, you just can't hear us." The dev walked down the hallway with both the Valkyrie and Medium following her. "Heading to the war room." As they entered, Hrist noted the room was fairly sparse, with an unfinished map table in the middle, multiple chairs along the walls and some other tables with some crystal decanters of liquor, a fireplace in the middle of the south wall and the start of a globe gyroscope with nothing in the middle. There were some bookshelves with nothing on them. Four chandeliers hung from the ceiling with electric lamps on the walls. Orlo was inside, waiting.

"Show me what you found." The SF Light Helibot beamed a holographic image onto the map table. "There's Silvinholm right there, along with the remains of Glass Dale. Miriam Valley is to the North with Eld Horn Town and Eld Horn Lake. Now, we've already gained limited intelligence before that there is a harbor city to the north near the ridge of Azaltos Mountains." Hrist pointed to that spot. "Some of those pirates told us of those artifacts used were bought from there. No more were created. The place was called Sweet Water Harbor." Selene looked up at her. "You've said that already. I'm looking for hints as to where they might have taken the bodies. You don't just walk into any city with corpses, even the guards won't let that happen due to potential disease, unless getting paid well. The only way they'd be allowed is… is…" Jorge looked up at her. "They're Artinian Special Forces. How many places have garrisons? That's what we need to look for. Do we have an image of anything they were wearing? Symbols, pommels, something?" she asked.

"Does this count?" Orlo replied as he produced a holographic image of the soldiers who attacked the Valkyries, as they still had bodies and clothing they were wearing, their weapons especially. There were sigils on their chests, along with what looked like an emblem on their upper shoulder patch, looked like a pile of dust. "We look for those, we follow their direction, we've got them." Jorge nodded. "Ornithopters already out and performing reconnaissance ma'am. Shouldn't be long." Hrist just looked at each of them, surprised at how quickly she got everything working to find her sisters. "Ok, while this happens, I'm going to finish my book and… do other stuff." Hrist let out a false laugh and looked at her oddly. "That's… it?" she asked. "Yes, that's it until I have more information. The book is good, it's a history book telling me about what was happening on this planet the past few… hundred years or so. Trying to catch up. Jeeves, can you get three rooms for the Valkyrja please." Hrist watched as she walked out. "You're not going to investigate yourself? Maybe you… you are an empress; your people might know something I couldn't gain from them." Selene laughed. "Hrist, my armor was destroyed in the battle, useless now. I need to make another one, I need to figure out what I've missed for the past, oh I dunno, ten fucking days I've had to prepare to fight you and been out like a light. Intel takes time. Sit around, try different foods, practice outside, whatever." The dev was a little grouchy, but also had some self-confidence, a large amount of it now that she had survived.

Jeeves acknowledged as she walked out of the war room and headed downstairs quickly, out of sight from Hrist. She headed to the royal vault. She had missed a week's worth of doing anything, although it could have been much worse, as well as couldn't use any consumables during the small time she was recovering. She checked the orb and noticed it was quite a bit higher in storage of experience and actions. "Ok… time to use a bit of you for now." She checked her level right now, which had gone up since her fight with Hrist to level 110. Fourteen levels, but it was one hell of a fight. The inside of that arena was wasted from what she noticed, but then she couldn't enjoy the design much due to being attacked by a blood thirsty Valkyrie. The dev held off on using the points temporarily, if only until she could make use of the orb.

She took out enough for another tech up, getting Atomic Era. She now had access to nuclear bombs, jet fighters as standard… microwaves in the kitchen. She already had access to microwave emitters as weapons and as defensive systems, just didn't really have the standard technology beyond steampunk to cook a frozen tv dinner, it would just explode due to the power; this was only a fraction of what she had gained though. Then she decided to take a chance to get another tech up for Super Steampunk. She felt dizzy but was able to fight through it without much issue now with all of her stats boosted very high. The schematics she received from the newest Steampunk Era was… very interesting. She was giggling to herself as she saw one particular design she could put some resources into.

Oh, I wonder if I should craft one of you… just to scare the crap out of everything within visual range of it… I wonder if it can cause earthquakes while moving… probably should keep it stored away from the castle and Gold Pine though…

While she had felt a little dazed, it cleared up over the next hour as she left the vault without taking anymore levels. Tomorrow she was going to try and move up to what was called "Space Age" which was basically the creation of NASA and the trips to the moon, along with the Cold War. She knew she couldn't show any of the new-found tech to her people for a while, but slowly building them up over time could work, merging science and technology with magic and alchemy. Until then, she was now the de facto super power now. She'd need to use some of that new technology to add in extra features and boost the materials of her automatons. While the tungsten steel alloy held up against a real Valkyrie, albeit with a metric ton of upgrades and defensive systems attached to it, she needed to build on that, get something new into the mix. While technically by itself, it was weaker than Mithril, the fantasy material didn't have the same capability to allow Foucault currents to be pushed through the metal, making Mithril actually worse in strength, though lighter.

Given the exo frame, the weight hardly mattered. Adamantite was incredibly strong, but prone to heat, which the tungsten tended to not care about. All in all, it was still a great alloy she was using, but until she could get graphene made, it was the best she had. The dev remembered prismatic ore was added to Yggdrasil that was stronger than those fantasy materials, but frankly she hated the thought she needed to go mining for those and not use science now, despite removing required materials from schematics with Crafting Cost. She didn't even know if those materials existed in this world beyond what Giles had told her. Her scientific armor material had held up against a fucking Valkyrie after all, the real thing, not some level 100 Yggdrasil cosplayer with the job class. If it was a full raid of level 100 players, Hrist might have still wiped them out as a very strong raid boss. Her movement speed was just insane, she hit like an oil tanker, her resistances made her immune to just about every offensive spell, her armor took shotgun shells and machinegun fire almost point blank sometimes, with specialty ammunition used, until she could wear it down; Hrist was also amazing in melee combat, blocking and weaving to throw her off guard. That battle maiden was something else… and she was asking for her help.

Since she hadn't taken any new levels just today, she threw another one hundred Attribute Points into Intelligence… then stopped dead in her tracks as she walked towards her library. New ideas on how to use schematics and miniaturize technology started to spring to mind, almost as if her actual intelligence increased. She was doing the calculations in her head for so many different things, coming up with new plans on what to do and where. The empress couldn't believe it had such an effect, but the cost in stats was still pricey, making her understand why it might not have been a good idea to shove those points in beforehand. Her sense of magic use went up as well, not as a power increase in what each spell could damage with, but in how to use it. She was already getting ideas of mixing magic with psionics to throw a spell in one direction and turn it with telekinesis or any of the other kinesis abilities, effectively controlling whatever was launched as soon as it left the chamber. Fireballs would turn into guided missiles or detonated over cover like a fragmentation grenade, probably even act like cluster munitions. There was also the possibility of having a spell burrow inside something then detonate as she released control over it, or even casting the spell inside of something. She could launch ferromagnetic darts like a railgun if she needed to, provided she could get the material changed with Molecular Reformation.

She focused back on divvying the remainder and put forty points into Molecular Reformation Power, not really for building, but to be able to use it for heavier hitting stalagmite strikes, better materials used in the stalagmite and not use stone, also to make it so it could lift a building with one hit. Given her control now, she could also disintegrate a target by pulling away basic materials from armor, leaving anything completely undefended inside; if she fought anyone, they'd be completely naked, or have walls just disappear they were hiding behind. While it didn't really work on a living creature, she wondered if it would work on something undead, potentially collecting the calcium from the bones into a block she could use later, cleansing the resource just in case. The stalagmites would probably be like a giant iron spike or maybe even titanium blasting from the ground, or rapid fire railgun like she hoped to shoot.

With her two hundred eighty Skill Points, she held off again temporarily until she knew what her next action was going to be in the investigation for Hrist's sisters. If it involved her staying here to organize, then pumping points into Steampunk Mechanical Engineering would boost up her automatons even more. If it required her to be nearby, throwing it into her own personal skills would work even better to stay alive, albeit with Bronze Team being overly protective of her. Granted, this time she wasn't going to be restricted to fighting alone. If they did find the Valkyrie corpses, she'd most likely be having the other three living Valkyrja with her, along with Bronze Team and more than likely the other special forces teams she still had. That was an immense amount of firepower. That wasn't including the Honor Guard which would be coming.

"Your highness, would you like a bath started for you?" Jeeves asked over coms. "Yes please, thank you." As she headed up an elevator to her bathroom, the scent of lavender filling the air, she got a minor report from the security listening posts that unknown aerials, potentially hostiles, were heading over the Azaltos Mountains. She got an aerial view from an SF ornithopter to see what was coming near her empire. There were ten gryphons with what looked like human riders on them. She recognized the emblem of the Artinian kingdom army. "Target and engage with SAM systems."

Twin SAM sites near the listening post were camouflaged in nets and shrubbery and locked on, firing up a salvo of bumblebee missiles straight at them. The gryphons had enough time to barely look in the general direction of the missiles before they connected, wiping out the entire wing and cooking both rider and gryphon at the same time. They weren't getting any intel on what was living in this valley. "Ma'am, I think I've found a way to track teleportation coordinates whenever someone uses it" Orlo spoke over the coms as she soaked. "That's fantastic. Send me the details." He placed a report in her inventory, which she started to read while she sat in the tub. "So, we can track where people go or if someone "dials in" on this continent?" she asked. "We can certainly detect anyone attempting to do so inside the valley, more listening posts will be needed to extend the range. It could be possible to even block it, only allowing authorized access within our borders."

"I'll see about getting the research done on updating the listening posts, maybe we can get a coordinate scrambler built afterwards, or a teleporter block. This is really helpful, I should get you your own lab." Orlo chuckled over the coms. "I'm proud to serve ma'am, happy to help. I figured with us waiting around, we could at least do something. Turnie is working on some way to bypass that enchanting field in the temple, but she doesn't have any samples, at least none that are… not buried…" Selene cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean buried? What happened to the temple?" Orlo whistled for a second. "You happened, and Hrist as well. Your fight made the whole place structurally unsound. We compounded it with the fight against those men."

Ooh, Hrist is not going to like that. Then of course, she helped in its destruction.

"We really did that much damage to the walls and supports? Seriously?" she asked shocked. "It was meant for two mortals fighting, not a Valkyrja and a… Clockwork Empress battling each other. The walls were only made of stone." Selene bit her lip. Hopefully Hrist wouldn't find out about that. "Can she get outside samples and just wing it?" Orlo thought for a moment. "It is possible, but it will take her some time before there are any fruits born from her labor. I'll see if I can be of some assistance." The dev acknowledged as the coms chat ended.