Chapter 15

Not too long after Eris' birthday, I sat on the (flush) toilet contemplating the state of things.With my advances in learning to cast enchantment the same way I did everything else, I could now start enchanting the spells I used every day into magical objects. Sure, I didn't have an unlimited number of magical cores to power things, but I had enough to play around with for a while and Phillip was willing to get me more, especially after the first time he'd ridden a magic powered motorcycle. The man may prefer to show more decorum than his father or daughter, but he was still a man at heart. He nearly broke his neck and I had to repair the bike and hit him with some healing the first time he tried riding, but he'd gotten right back up and started riding again.It was with that in mind that I was trying to figure out where to go from here, on the magic tools front.Ever since the first time I'd powered up a bike with a magic stone, I had wondered if I couldn't just skip the electric motor and go straight to telekinesis driven wheels. It was something I wanted to look into for improving the bike design's efficiency, along with swapping electric lighting for magical. Maybe one day, I'll magic up a hover bike or a plane. Probably both. Each has its uses. Maybe even an airship.After the ball for Eris' birthday, Sauros had come to me with a proposal. The local nobles in Roa were all in love with the flush toilet (and bidet) and the idea of hot water on demand. Sauros proposed building the infrastructure for two common use bath houses, since that would be more practical than individual ones—one for the nobles and one for everyone else. I pointed out that it would require a sewer system and some sort of treatment facility and the man greenlit it immediately. I… was not sure I wanted to get involved. That would be a lot of work. Way more than the roads (which I was doing even more of, now that I could run out on the bike on a weekend for a few hours and lay one down for some quick coin).It would also require a lot of resources, in the form of magic stones and creating spells to treat human waste. I'd have to make a water source to supply everything. Yes, I could let gravity handle a lot of the movement of waste from one area to another, especially if the collection area was downhill. Yes, I could probably come up with a series of spells to treat waste—detoxification, heating, stripping the water out, splitting apart ammonia in urine into nitrogen to keep in the mixture and letting the rest evaporate. You could even take that dried mixture and mix it with earth for instant fertilizer, then turn around and sell it.But I was looking at probably six months to a year worth of work, doing just that. Trying to figure out all the various spells. Doing the actual construction work.It'd tie up too much time at the moment. I can do parts piecemeal. Develop the spells one at a time, over time. Work out the various processes. Then slap it all together at the end and probably get the whole thing done in a week of actual work, tops.Or… I could not. Draw up some designs, let him hire out laborers to build the thing, do the spell development myself, let them complete it over a few years, and slap the completed spells on at the end. Yeah, I like this idea. And it makes me look awesome. I'm helping the local economy instead of taking all that money myself. Giving people jobs and putting food on tables. I decided that I'd pass on the job and instead go the route of delegating labor.On a related note considering where I was right now, I kind of longed for the nostalgia of sitting down to the toilet with a phone. Would it even be possible to recreate a phone, using magic? Well, what makes a cell phone?To start with, I'd need some way to display an image or screen. I know how light works and that could be super useful to have as an offensive spell. Frickin' laser beams—just need sharks to mount them on. Even just as a general use spell, for lighting that works better than using fire, where you're wasting most of your juice generating thermal energy instead of light. And it brings us back to replacing light bulbs for light spells.In addition to recording or displaying images, it had to accept commands. Storing data, executing basic programming. The ability to record or play back sound. And of course, the thing that made a cell phone a phone and not just a pocket computer—the ability to communicate/transmit data over long distances. The last part I could do without all the rest, but then that would really just be a radio.From there, I broke the requirements down into goals. Projects.-Spell creation.-Create light-based spells.-Create a light-based hologram or illusion for the interface.-Create a data-storage spell.-Create sound-based spells.-Create audio playback/recording spells.-Create data transmission spells.-Create spells to transmit data between phones.-Physical construction.-Finding or making a magical core small enough to power each device and its functions.-Creating a durable object I can layer enchantments on and shape around a magical core.-Enchantment-Programming.-Data storage.-Display.-Tactile feedback for hologram? I could use one of the force spells for that.-Audio.-Data transmission.It was… ambitious. My biggest project to date. Or at least the most complex. But broken down into several smaller chunks, it felt much more manageable. After all, once I figured out the spells and got the physical units built, the actual enchanting shouldn't be all that difficult.Not going to be able to sell this. I don't want that genie getting out of the bottle. Instantaneous communication, especially audio and video, would be too big an advantage to just give up. Assuming they don't already have it in some form. So, I'm going to have to find a way to convince Phillip it's in his best interest to help fund it but keep it to ourselves, or I'll have to come up with the funds out of pocket. Well for a test model, I only really need two or three magic stones. I already have those and Phillip was pretty clear that he was fine with them being used however I saw fit. Everything else, I can either make myself from stuff I already have or probably pick up in town, as far as materials go.There were some other functions I might want to add later, but for now that would do. Now, let's see about—"Rudeus!"I winced, glaring at the door before yelling back, "What?!""Hurry up! It's almost time for practice!""Fine. Alright. I was almost done anyway," I grumbled as the girl stomped away. Can't a man get half an hour to himself?The clacking of wooden swords clashing echoed through the courtyard as Eris and I sparred. Ghislaine stood to the side, watching over the proceedings and occasionally offering input."Rudeus, stop holding back!""I'm not," I grunted, parrying a downward strike and shifting to my left, stepping out of the line of Eris's attack. I brought the blade up and caught her under the ribs, but the leather practice armor we both wore blunted most of the force. Eris didn't even slow down as she transitioned into a swing for the fences at my own ribs. I danced back a step, letting the blow whiff in front of me, before stepping into a thrust aimed at her heart. The redhead got her sword around in time to parry the strike, but I followed up with a kick at her crotch that connected.The girl winced and stumbled back a step, eyes narrowing into a glare as she recovered. I took the breather to address Ghislaine. "Believe me, if I were holding back, she'd be pounding me flat—"Eris launched herself at me silently, sword coming in from overhead again in a two-handed swing. Knowing she had a vindictive streak a mile wide, I brought both hands up to catch her blade on my sword, but kept her legs in view. Her foot came up in an attempt to return the favor and pulp my family jewels, but I had more unarmed combat experience than her and had long since learned how to deal with attacks coming from below the belt. I turned my knee inward and took the blow on the outside of my leg, before stepping in and forcing her off balance. A shove against our locked blades put her on the ground. Eris rolled out before I had a chance to capitalize on the opening."Did you heal yourself?""Mm!" she nodded as she stood up, beaming a happy smile. Smug, almost.Seeing the look, I added, "Silently?""Mhm!" Eris' head bobbed.Her entire attitude screamed 'Praise me!' Well, I wasn't shy about handing out praise when she actually did something praiseworthy. "Good job, Eris!" I watched her face, waiting for the opportune moment to strike… "But you know magic isn't allowed in these spars.""Urk."The girl did an abrupt 180, going from pleased as punch to annoyed. Then, she glared at me as though it were my fault, before launching into an all out blitzkrieg in a flurry of half-wild swings and timing that made no sense. It took every ounce of skill and strength I had to avoid or parry her blows. Blocking when she was like this was just asking to get smacked, because she had the strength to overpower me—especially since Ghislaine had banned me from using mana to keep up recently. She said it was a crutch and I was only hurting myself by using it as I was."Good! Keep up the pressure, Eris!" Ghislaine shouted encouragement to the redhead, who nodded and somehow went faster, her strikes hitting even harder. Every blow I turned aside felt like it threatened to wrench the practice sword from my hands. Worse, blows started slipping through my defense.A parried swing abruptly spun around into a return strike, crashing into my left arm above the elbow and making the whole thing numb. I dodged a strike, only for Eris to launch herself forward and flow into a new combo, two of which I managed to block while the third strike went where I wasn't expecting as she turned the blade at the last moment and caught me in the stomach. She got too close and took the opportunity to step on my leading foot, pinning it in place just long enough to get in a solid thrust into my solar plexus that had me wheezing even through the armor before I managed to disengage.This isn't working. And Ghislaine isn't calling it.It was frustrating and painful. Yes, it was training, but Eris didn't hold back at all. I would be healing myself after this, but that didn't exactly help me now. And it seemed like every time she scored a hit, she just got angrier and that anger made her hit all the harder.It was the exact opposite of my own teaching style, when it was time for magic sparring. Most of my attacks were water or wind based, enough mass to feel them but not enough to crush or break bones. No fire, because that was asking for trouble. No earth, because those had the mass behind them to be far more lethal even at the lower levels. I held back, because if I didn't, she would diewithout fail.And I think that was what bugged me most. I treated our fights as spars. Eris, I was beginning to think, was treating our spars like fights.I was tired of getting my shit kicked in by the little violent tsundere. I was sick and fucking tired of feeling like I would never catch up, now that I was behind. It was really starting to—"Rudeus, stop thinking about it and just hit her back!"—piss me off.I swung. With everything I had and then some.Something flickered from the corner of my eyes and I was no longer looking at Eris' glaring red eyes but at a tight, tan abdomen.There was a crack! and my hands went numb as something exploded between myself and Ghislaine, forcing me to flinch back.The fight ended immediately as I tried to figure out what the fuck just happened. Ghislaine winced as she began brushing pieces of wood off of herself, stopping only intermittently to pick out the occasional splinter. Her practice sword was nowhere to be seen. Looking down at mine, I found that I was holding just the hilt and pommel. Everything above that was gone, the practice weapon ending in a splintered mess of ruined wood. "What just happened?"Ghislaine chuckled quietly as Eris stepped around her large form, looking around with wide eyes. It was then that I noticed that the ground at Ghislaine's feet was pitted and in several places, I could make out little pieces of wood sticking out. "Eris, you'll be sparring against me from now until Rudeus learns to control his touki.""My…" What. I knew our lessons had been getting more intense, especially with the ban on using mana reinforcement. Was this what it was for? "I could have killed her—""I was watching the entire time, and you didn't. I think that's part of what has been holding you back lately."Frowning, I asked, "So you think it was what, all in my head? Because I was afraid of hurting Eris?""Mm," the big beast-kin woman nodded. "You gave me the idea when you kept saying that was my own problem with casting anything other than fire or wind. You were right, by the way." With a few muttered words, Ghislaine conjured up a Water Ball. "Sorry for lying to you about it, but I didn't want to risk you figuring out my plan. You're smarter than me. I knew if I said something, you'd figure it out, then it might not work.""And Eris?" I asked, shooting an annoyed look at the redhead. "You tell her to stop holding back?"Ghislaine looked a little repentant, but nodded. "I may have said something to the effect that you were holding back because you were afraid to hurt her.""I'm not some fragile, spoiled noble brat who's never worked a day in her life, Rudeus," Eris protested, crossing her arms over her chest as she met my glare with her own. "Just because you're better with magic doesn't mean I'm weak. You holding back because you think I'm weak makes you weak, and it pisses me off because I know you're better than that!""You really though this through, huh?" It was probably closer to the truth to say that I had been holding back because she was a child, and because I had been trained in martial arts to never go full force in a spar otherwise you wind up hurting someone. I suppose I didn't really have much call to be pissed at her though, considering she was right about the end result either way and she was worried about me in her own way. Sorry for thinking of you as a violent tsundere, Eris. I suppose you're outgrowing that phase.Sighing, I dropped the ruined practice sword and sat down on the stone of the courtyard. "Alright. So, how do I train this so I don't accidentally split someone in half when I don't mean to?""You just do. Train until you get it."I kind of expected something like that, to be honest. "So I guess the first step is figuring out how I did that—""You're going backwards," Ghislaine sighed, stepping over and flicking my forehead with her finger. "Stop thinking about it and just do it."So just turn off my brain and hit it with the power of a shonen protagonist? I wondered, shaking my head in amusement. A thought occurred and I had to resist the urge to groan. Oh my god, was Paul right this entire time? Showing me, in his own special way, that you didn't need to think about it and just smack it harder because you wanted to or something?No.Couldn't be. I refuse to believe it.My view on reality was shaken, cast in doubt.Deciding to take my mind off of it, I moved away while Eris and Ghislaine began to spar and raised a stone pillar and sword from the ground. Then, I set about trying to replicate what I had done against Eris. Is this how Roxy felt, trying to chase down some elusive feeling that someone else made look easy? I… really should apologize to her.I sat in my lab, staring up at the glowing image displayed over my table—a blue sphere slowly rotating in place. Reaching into the spell, I dismissed the image of Earth and instead supplied it a more recent memory to display. A blue-haired mage flickered into being above my table and I smiled. "Well, that works. Now only something like, what, twelve more steps to go?"Deciding this called for a break from my current project, I turned my focus to an older project instead. Telekinesis moved my bike, standing up in the corner, over to the table and I began disassembling it.Inspecting the tires, I sighed as I found the rubber was starting to crack and show signs of wear. I had been afraid of this. My experiments had been successful enough to make rubber, sure. Even get something close to the actual rubber used for tires. I just didn't have the exact process down and that could take years, even if I brute forced it with magic, simply because I couldn't accurately simulate wear and tear, along with environmental factors such as heat and humidity using magic to test how long it would last.While it was good enough, at least for now, it just wasn't going to work in the long term. If I wanted to use the bikes for any sort of long-term trip or adventuring, I was going to need to fix the tire issue—otherwise, we'd be stranded in the middle of nowhere with no replacements.The way I see it, I've got three options.Option one: spend the time improving the rubber formula. I should do this eventually, but it's too much of a time sink to get that involved in. I wish I could just have someone else do it for me.Option two: remove rubber, use a substitute. Treads and tracked vehicles have been around forever. Wasn't NASA working on some nickel-titanium alloy mesh thing for use on Mars rovers? Of course, there are the little problems of traction, friction, heat, corrosion, vibration… Ugh. It's a fucking nightmare. Suppose I magic up a lightweight lattice that retains its shape and conforms well enough to whatever surface I'm driving on to not transmit every little bump to the rider. It's metal, so corrosion wouldn't be an issue with me doing magical maintenance. Still have the issues of lack of traction and friction heating throwing sparks and potentially setting a fire. I am not reinventing the wheel here.Option three: eliminate tires entirely. For that, I'd need to essentially go full hoverbike. So… is it doable? In theory, yes. What sorts of problems would I be looking at? How do you balance it, keep it upright, keep it from tipping one direction or the other? No wheels on the ground means no traction, so stopping or turning is going to be a pain in the ass unless I get very creative with magic. Increased mana consumption, anyone who isn't me or Sylphie wouldn't be able to ride one for more than a few hours a day. It's going to go a lot faster, which means more potential to hurt yourself if you lose control or hit something.Pulling out the wiring and electric motor, I set about converting my bike to purely telekinesis-driven, enchanting the spell to spin the wheel at a speed regulated by the throttle as I thought over the problem of the tires. Once I was finished removing the electrical system, I removed the glass bulb headlights and enchanted a new light spell into the reflector the bulb had previously used, then set about enchanting the physical switch it had previously been connected to so that I could set it between off, low, and bright.What about a fourth option? Can't fix the formula because it'll take too much time. A substitute, either purely physical or magical is impractical at the moment. So, why not make more tires and just summon them as needed? I've already got a standardized size for front and rear tires. My biggest concern is storage, because there's no point to making them if they're just going to rot waiting for use. Why not vacuum seal them into a container with magic? Pack two into a container and remove all the air and moisture from inside, then summon them as needed.In fact, why not take that method and apply it elsewhere? You can't summon a specific object if you can't visualize it. But if I were to summon a specific marked container and its contents I could move the entire thing without needing to know every detail about what's inside of it. And it could be a way to get things to Sylphie and Roxy without waiting on mail carriers. Send them a box with a sample marker via mail, tell them to summon a specific box—or send things to a specific box. Could work. Could use it for other things, too. MREs? Sure, carry a few in my bag, but if I run out I could just have a labeled box with more that I can summon. Money? Box full of it. Resources? Make bars for metal, pack them into a box, label it, summon it later. When the boxes are empty, use magic to turn them into something else.But what if I want to send something back? Say I don't need all of something in a box and I don't want to hold onto the box indefinitely. The lab is already getting cluttered as it is, so I can't just keep them here. Too bad I don't have an Inventory or Pocket Dimension spell—something to work on later. Space magic! For now, why not build a warehouse or something? No, don't want people breaking in. It'd have to be something only I could access, either because only I know about it, or because it'd be difficult to find or get to.I reassembled the bike before deciding on a course of action. Heading outside, I wandered towards the back of the property, using a floating Elementary-level Light Orb to guide me as opposed to a ball of flame. Much better on the mana cost, I noted, seeing as I was using only a fraction of the power of a typical Fireball used for lightning and producing easily ten times the output. Finding a good open spot, I focused on the ground beneath my feet and cast. A circle a yard around me sank into the ground like an elevator. I went down, and down, and down some more—until I hit the water table and was forced to stop and go back up.From there, I used a wind spell to circulate air down the tunnel while I worked, creating a stone room supported by pillars. Shelves made of stone spread from the ground, ceiling, and walls creating racks of storage space. When I was satisfied, I sealed the room and left, filling in the hole behind me. I'd have to go back down later to fine tune the size of the shelves, but it would be fine for now. I'd have to standardize box sizes first, before I did it anyway. Once I had, however, I could just send things straight down to it, 'to an empty shelf fitting this box.'Now I just need to start stocking it.That was something I could do piecemeal, though. Make a few replacement tires, seal them up, and take them down. Make a couple of boxes of food and other supplies here and there. It'd add up over time and I could rotate stock through as I needed it. Too bad there isn't just a general preservation spell. That'd be handy. It'd probably fall under 'time' or something ridiculous. I'm not entirely sure I understand science enough to bullshit magic into giving me what I want there. …Well, maybe I'll try it eventually.For today though, I was done. I went back to the mansion, took a shower, and hit the sack. I spent some time making a few figurines to sell to practice with my mana (since I had already sent off a couple of packages with painted animal figurines for Norn, Aisha, and Sylphie), then went to bed since I had been nearing the ends of my mana pool anyway."Come on, come on, come on, let's gooooo!" Eris fidgeted in place beside her bike. I ignored her antics, making sure my backpack/bugout bag was secure on my back and my bedroll and blanket were strapped down securely to my seat. Ghislaine had already gotten her things strapped on and I finished mine to check hers, then Eris'. Finally, I mounted my bike, signaling the other two that we were ready."Yes!" Eris yelled, pulling her goggles down over her eyes and zipping off."Eris! Get back here!" Ghislaine yelled and the girl slid to a stop, turning an impatient look our way. Ghislaine and I followed at a much more sedate pace before pulling up alongside her. "I lead, you follow, or we don't leave. Understood?"Eris winced. "Yes, Ghislaine," the girl nodded, knowing the beast-kin woman was completely serious.Nodding, Ghislaine moved her much larger black painted bike to the front of the line and rode into the city, Eris following on her heels, while I brought up the rear and gave both enough space that if they fell, I wouldn't be running over them. As had become the norm any time we passed through the city, people moved aside and stared as we passed. I caught sight of more than one mage in the crowd, looking on longingly and visibly trying to work out how they functioned. No one had tried anything yet, but I wouldn't put it past them eventually, if they saw an opportunity. I wasn't sure exactly what the ethics of this world's mages were. Roxy may just be an outlier, and for all I knew I could be dealing with FATE level 'dissect you while you're alive to see how you work' level of crazy ruthless.Not all of the looks were friendly, or even the sort of longing desperation of a mage seeing something he really wants. Occasionally, I spotted one watching me or Eris in particular, but nothing had come of it yet. Remnants from the first kidnapping group, maybe?I made a mental note to let Ghislaine know about it later. We really should track those fuckers down to the last man.Once we passed the walls, Ghislaine peeled off from the road and turned away from the town, heading out across plains and rolling hills. We rode into the Fittoa region until the Citadel disappeared behind us, then kept riding. That afternoon, we stopped at the edge of a forest. We got off our bikes and stretched. We had only taken rest stops occasionally, mostly to go to the bathroom. Neither Eris nor Ghislaine were used to the constant bumpy ride that even bikes with rubber tires and good suspension provided on anything but paved ground, so I didn't blame them for being uncomfortable."Divide tasks and make camp. The forest is populated with monsters, so be mindful of that. I won't help or provide any advice here. The only reason I'll intervene is if you bite off something you can't chew. Treat this as if you were on your own."Nodding at that, Eris and I put our heads together. "Rudy! Make us a shelter!"I rolled my eyes. "Sure. Go gather up some firewood. Remember, it doesn't have to be dry since I can dry it out myself. If you run into any monsters, don't try to take them on alone. Run back here and we'll team up on them. Once we've got that done, we can go hunting.""Right," Eris agreed, before turning on her heel and stalking into the forest."Don't go too deep!" I warned, before shooting Ghislaine an imploring look. The woman nodded and trailed silently after Eris.A bit of earth magic cleared the ground in a wide area. I took what I'd learned from building an expansion to a house, a temporary shelter outside of Buena Village every now and then, and building my vault and put that into constructing something quick but sturdy. Stone flowed up from the ground, forming an igloo-style building with a stone floor. I added a fire pit and chimney big enough to keep us warm if it got cold, then made a few raised sections to put bedrolls on to get us up off the ground. A table and chairs went in the middle of the space to give us somewhere to sit and eat. A stone pipe with a hood over the top provided ventilation since, once we were in, I would be closing up the door.Heading outside, I fortified the exterior with a series of braces and another layer of stone, before covering that in enough sharp spikes to make a porcupine blush. Off to one side, I constructed a stone outhouse. To the other side, I made a much larger fire pit—essentially an outdoor grill to cook on. Finally, I surrounded the small camp with a ten foot tall wall, covered in more spikes."Rudy, let me in!"Rolling my eyes, I used Air Running to get up above wall level then lifted Eris up and into the camp with telekinesis. The girl dropped her armload of wood beside the hut. "Do you think this is enough?""Hell no," I shook my head. "Come on, let's go get some more."We made the trip back over the wall, Ghislaine silently shadowing us as we moved into the forest. As we walked, I looked for and eventually found a deer trail and started following that. Eris was not exactly quiet, so I was unsurprised when I heard something start crashing through the underbrush ahead of us. Turning, I sent her an annoyed look and a sigh. "Heel, toe, heel, toe. Watch where you're stepping and put your weight down slowly. Don't step on dry leaves or twigs. Branches or vines in the way, push them aside gently and if there's any tension or spring to them, ease them back into place when you go past.""'kay," Eris nodded, her voice actually quiet for once.After that, her sneak skill improved. I wouldn't say it was great, but it was good enough, because we eventually came across a doe without startling it. A Water Lance through the head put it down before it had a chance to notice us."Now what?" Eris asked, looking to Ghislaine. The beast-kin woman simply shrugged."Who are you talking to, Eris? We're here alone, remember?" I reminded her of the fact that Ghislaine wouldn't be participating. "Now, get out your rope. I'm going to teach you how to prepare food in the wild."Eris looked from me, to the deer, and back before scrunching her nose up in disgust. She did fish around in her own small pack and produce a length of rope, however. Using earth magic, I made a spreader bar with a set of hooks and an eye at the top for the rope. "Toss the rope up over that limb," I instructed, pointing up into a nearby tree.Eris quickly walked up and threw it over the branch with Air Running before dropping back down. "Got it! Now what?""Pull it through here," I showed her the eye. "I'll show you what kind of knot you need to use, then you get to tie it. Then, you get to cut holes behind the tendons on the back legs, fit the hooks through there, lift it up, and tie it off to the tree."And so it went as I showed her step by step how to field dress a fresh kill, how deep to bury the entrails and why, before finally I had her haul it out on her shoulders as opposed to using telekinesis—just so she'd know what it was like trying to carry literal dead weight. I gave her the option of when to skin it—either now, when it would be easier, but she would have to carry it back bloody, or when we got it back to camp and it was more difficult to do so. Eris chose to skin it now and wound up getting covered in blood.As we walked back, I pointed out plants I recognized from the encyclopedia Zenith had given me, picking up the occasional wild onion, mustard plant, or other seasoning and/or herb and stuffing them into my pack for later use. As we exited the forest, I found a small tree and felled it, cut several logs off using telekinesis, and hauled it all back to camp.Once we were inside, I created a stone table for Eris, who tossed the deer down with a huff. "Ugh, I've got blood on me.""You've got magic, clean it off it it bothers you."I knew damn well that if I didn't make her do it herself, she would get me to do it and come to rely on me for that instead of practicing the spells herself. With a huff, the girl concentrated and summoned hot water, used it to wash herself off, then dumped it and conjured a warm breeze to dry herself. Once she was done, she shot me a glare for not doing it for her. "Now what?""Now, you learn how to properly section off meat," I told her as I took off my pack and began removing the various vegetables and spices I'd found. I created a pot of stone and began preparing a stew using conjured water while I instructed her. "Now, first, you're going to want to start by cutting it length-wise down the middle, along the spine. You might need your sword for that. Once you've got it sectioned, cut off the legs. What we don't use for stew, I'll roast over the fire."Ghislaine, leaning against the outhouse as we worked, wiped the drool from her mouth. "Rudeus.""Hm? Eris, you say something?" I asked, a teasing tone to my voice."Rudeus," Ghislaine spoke up louder.Meeting my eyes and seeing where I was going, Eris' lips split into an evil grin. "No Rudy, wasn't me. Must have been an animal call or something from the forest."Ghislaine's stomach growled loud enough that we both heard it. "Yeah, definitely some kind of wild beast. Probably attracted by the smell of blood. We'd better be extra careful tonight." I sighed mournfully, "We'll have to destroy what we don't eat, just to dissuade monsters.""No!" Ghislaine whined. "I'll eat it!"We pretended we couldn't hear her as Ghislaine's pleas grew more fervent once I finished mixing up some basic seasoning out of dried mustard seeds and diced garlic and onion, spread it on our dinner, and got a low fire going to roast it over while the stew began to simmer. As night fell, I made us some plates and bowls and we sat down at the table inside the shelter, a small fire going in the fireplace and a light spell above us to see by.Seeing Ghislaine's pathetic face, I finally gave in. "Oh, hey Ghislaine! When did you get here?""I've been here the entire—" Ghislaine stopped and coughed into her fist. "Just now, Rudeus. Is that venison?""It is. You want some?""Well, if you're offering," the woman nodded slowly, easing down into the seat I'd made for her at our table.The next day, we spent doing survival and wilderness training, along with fighting and harvesting a few monsters. That last part was particularly lucrative, since we actually managed to collect a couple of fresh mana crystals. Ghislaine was surprised at the depths of my knowledge, but put it down to Paul having taught me.We left for Roa as the sun rose the next day, Ghislaine and I having come to an agreement to do this again every other weekend or so until we felt Eris had a handle on it and could survive in the wild without either of us.I hate (most) rodents. They're filthy, disease carrying, vermin-infested plague bearers. The only exceptions I was willing to make were squirrels and beavers.And yet, here I was, handling several gray mice. I had built metal pressure traps, put some food in them, and set them out across Roa over the course of a few weeks to collect them. Before they came in the lab, they were thoroughly cleaned of any pests and hit with detoxification magic to ensure they weren't carrying any diseases. I'd brought them back to the lab, made little individual cages to house them, water and food dispensers, and stone floors to the cages that I could easily remove to clean up after them.What was I doing with a dozen mice?Science!Magical science, even.Specifically, biology and how it interacts with healing spells. And development of my own healing spells, because apparently the Millis church had damn near everything above Advanced-level healing on lock and refused to share. My options were to either raid Millis (maybe, if I was ever in the area and felt like I could get away with it) or make my own (more fun for me anyway and potentially more useful since I could make custom spells).Then again, I have fairly fast transport and light magic. Whipping up an invisibility spell should be just a simple matter of bending light. Well, 'simple.'Have to see if that gets me true invisibility or Predator cloak. Either fucking way, I could sneak in, find shit, and sneak out before they knew I was there and they'd never know who did it. Yeah, I'm going to pay them a 'friendly' visit in a few years.Playing with healing spells had been a bit of a back burner project for a while now, something I planned to do eventually but never seemed to find time to get into. I pretty much had to force myself to make time for it.Okay, that's a half truth. I was banging my head against an infuriating wall with spell development for any communication device more complicated than a two-way radio, or a hologram projector. Tying them together and getting a working OS was kicking my ass. I had made such good progress, so it was kind of frustrating hitting a snag in the last quarter of development.In short, I needed something I could work on and see progress with to give myself some time to sort out the other issue, then come back and look at it with fresh eyes. It was a problem I'd frequently had back on Earth, too. I'd start something, come across some problem or snag, then set that project aside to focus on something else for a while. Not everything got finished and a lot of things were just abandoned to gather dust.It was not fucking A.D.D., I'd had enough suggestions of that in my previous life. I had absolutely no problem focusing or paying attention. It was just how I'd figured out the way in which I worked best.So, the rats. Well, mice. Mice were smaller than rats. Less dangerous. Less likely to spontaneously evolve into a ROUS and eat someone's face off in a mana rich environment. Then there was the obvious problem of experimenting on gray rats when my name was Greyrat.I had divided them up into four groups of three with one control for each. Right now, I was testing out five different possible spells.The first spell was a scanning spell, designed to tell me what the hell was wrong with whatever I hit with it. So far, I was having some progress with it, but there were two major problems—either too much or too little information. If I made a cut on a subject, I wanted to know how deep that cut went, what had been cut, and whether they were bleeding out—I did not need to know that the target was dehydrated, or had worms, a mild skin rash, or any one of a hundred other problems. Likewise, I'd like a little more response than 'it's a cut,' since I could see that with my own eyes, thanks! Ideally, I needed some sort of filter to prioritize things. Sure, I could probably tie it to some sort of holographic overlay and use that as the filter, but those are scifi bullshit and would just loop back into the realm of needing something more complex to handle the overflow of information anyway—i.e., a computer. Putting me back to square one.The next was a regenerative heal, capable of regrowing lost limbs or parts. Normal healing at Elementary- or Intermediate-level couldn't regenerate lost parts, as far as I knew. I didn't know if it was a power limitation or something else. I knew how the processes of regeneration and scarification worked though. Evolution selected for speed of healing over perfect healing. But as far as I knew, if scarification could be disabled and regeneration could be induced there was no downside to regeneration over scarification other than the speed at which each worked and the resources consumed (which, in nature, are major downsides). I didn't care if the spell consumed a target's resources (read: fat and muscle) to fix the problem, so long as it worked—muscle could be regained, but a lost eye or arm could not. There was a major limitation to that though. Two, really. Firstly, needing to see what I was doing and make sure I was doing it right. Secondly, and directly related to the first, cancer. At the moment, I could regrow a missing limb, but what came out was going to be a misshapen lump of all the cancer.Thirdly, I was working on something to go with my training. I had long ago learned that healing didn't restore stamina after exercise. The body burned energy and had to generate more energy to do anything else. I was trying to find a way to speed up that process somehow, either by (temporarily) increasing metabolism or directly aiding the body in synthesizing ATP. This one was at a standstill, because I had no feedback. I couldn't ask my test subjects to describe how they felt. I was pretty much stuck until I got that scanning spell working. One of the downsides of trying to manipulate complicated internal biological processes—can't do it blind.Fourthly, a spell to manipulate biology directly. Grow muscles, increase size or height, increase bone strength, change hair or skin coloration, alter identifying bodily structure, and so on. This one, I had actually had some success with, mostly because while I couldn't necessarily see what I was doing, I could see the effects and trial-and-error my way through.Meet Tiny the MOUS—a mouse of unusual size—tenth of his name. Tiny started out as a standard house mouse captured in Roa. After many successful failures (mice that took whatever change I made to them but died shortly after for one reason or another), I finally had a working Muscle Mouse. Tiny was built like a mousy brick shit house, who looked like he did all the roids and lived in the gym. He was four times the size of his brethren, with muscles upon muscles under a coat of (modified) smooth, thick white fur, and a cock three times its normal size. He was also a devious, intelligent, mean-spirited little shit and liked to try to gnaw through his cage. Tiny was the Chad of mouse-kind.I was also pretty sure he was absolutely fucking full of cancer, due to the lumps under his flesh. Well, there was only one way to tell on that front, but I'd be waiting until I was sure he wasn't playing possum before trying to dissect him. The little bastard had tried it before in a bid to get me to open the cage so he could escape, after observing that I pulled out and disposed of any dead mice. I'd seen that movie though, so with Tiny I made sure to poke him with a stick first to make sure he wasn't faking—by which I mean channeling an Arc spell through a metal rod and zapping him until he squealed.Finally, I was looking into a spell to try to reverse or at least delay aging. Technically, I was working on two spells here, since I was approaching it from both angles. It helped that controls from previous generations or tests wound up in this group to provide fresh recruits. Like with the biology manipulation… meat sculpting? flesh crafting? Eh, I could name it later. Like with the bio-manipulation spell, being able to see at least some kind of result helped. I had been able to change old, graying, feeble looking mice back into younger, healthier looking mice. The problem was, I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing. And again, cancer. If they looked healthy but still died of other symptoms of old age, it wasn't true anti-aging.If those last spells sound familiar, they should. It was essentially what every biology manipulator type character went after. One of the more recently popular ones when I died, at least popular in certain circles, was from a web novel and did it with 'powers' (alien space whale magic). Too bad I don't have a shard to offload the work to.In short, I was pretty much gated behind the one spell I actually needed.Again.Fuck.Maybe I should just go back to trying to make a cell phone?"What are you doing?""Hm?" I asked, looking up from where I was shaping metal into a familiar form. The metal in question was new—an aluminum-titanium alloy I'd been playing with for the past few days, and courtesy of Phillip's resources tracking titanium down by description. This would be the first big test of it. If it worked, I'd be using it to upgrade the bikes.Eris stood over me, arms crossed over her chest as she surveyed my work in the back part of the yard—Ghislaine was there as well, Eris' ever present shadow. It was one of our days off (one of those where we didn't go camping), so I had taken the opportunity to try out something new that I had been considering for a while now. A simple engineering project, as opposed to spell development. Something I actually had the know-how to do and wouldn't need to design from the ground up. That is, I could just copy designs I'd seen on Earth to make something cool and potentially useful.Yeah, I was still bashing my head on every wall as far as spell development for the things I wanted went. I'd made an invisibility spell, but that was… unsatisfyingcompared to the hurdles of trying to figure out an OS for my magitek phone or medical magic. I wanted something bigger."That. What is it?" she demanded, dropping to sit cross-legged on the ground nearby, heedless of the fact that the angle left her panties exposed.I turned away, ignoring the display. I'd tried to explain to her before about decorum and not leaving herself exposed, but Eris' counter argument was, "If it's just you, what does it matter?"Apparently, she didn't even see me as a man at the moment. Though, to be fair, I was only nine so it wasn't like she was exactly wrong. I figured it was something she would grow out of eventually. If not, I'd introduce her to the wonders of pants."This," I gestured at the triangular construction laying on the ground as I focused on shaping a structural support, "is an attachment for my bike."Eris perked right up at that. To say the girl loved the gift I'd given her on her birthday was an understatement. She had finally found something truly worth studying for, when I'd told her that the sooner she got her lessons done correctly, the longer she would have in a day to ride the gleaming red motorcycle (and because I could summon her key and had more than enough mana to win any fight for control over the key if she tried to summon it back, I could keep it shut down indefinitely). Sure, I had made her lessons interesting, but even then they were still just lessons. Now, she had something to work towards—a reward at the end of a long day of studies. She was actually doing better now."What does it do?"I chuckled at that, reaching down and testing the action on one of the two horizontal flaps. "Hopefully not break my fool neck.""Rudeus," Ghislaine said, her tone warning."It'll be fine," I waved her concern off. If the worst came to pass, I had Air Running. I could ditch the bike and get to safety.Reaching out, Eris ran a hand over the edge of the triangular segment. "You're not going to tell me any more about it, are you?""Nope!" I cheerfully denied. "It's a surprise. I want to see your face when I use it."Eris grunted in annoyance, but didn't press. "And this other part?"I looked over at what she was gesturing towards. It was essentially a barrel with a large, four-bladed fan inside and a set of three large vertical flaps coming off of one side in front of the fan's output. "It's a fan.""A fan? Like," Eris waved her hand in a vague 'fan' gesture and I nodded. "What for?"Resisting the urge to smirk, I answered, "What else do you use a fan for? Moving air.""Rr."Even though she was a bit put out, Eris didn't try anything funny. Instead, she sat and patiently watched as I worked. Finally, I stood up and used telekinesis to lift the delta wing, moving it into place over my motorcycle. I had already added struts with metal wheels to make sure it wouldn't fall over from the weight unbalancing it, so all I had to do here was attach the support bar to the new socket on the frame.A bit of moving things around slotted the pipe in the hole and a couple of thick, steel pins held it in place. Next, I attached the fan to the back, where it connected to both the bike and the new support. Once that was finished, I began running cables from the new pedals I'd installed to the flaps on the wing and fan. Finally, I attached a cable to a set of pulleys, which lead to the struts and when pulled would cause them to fold up and away from the ground.Once the cables were installed and tightened down, I sat down and tested the pedals. Right foot up, I looked up at the wing, flap goes down. Right foot down, flap goes up."Hey Eris, can you check something for me?""Mm!" the girl quickly hopped up from where she was sitting."Tell me which way the flap on the fan back there turns."I pulled the pedal at my left foot up. "Right," Eris announced. Pressing it all the way down, she called out, "Left." Finally, I let off of it entirely and the pedal moved back into place in the middle thanks to a couple of springs. "Middle.""Thank you. Now, you'll want to move away from the back." I had already enchanted the newly installed throttle on the left handlebar and the fan, so I hit the switch to power it on and slowly throttled up. Behind me, the fan spun to life with a roar of air. The bike began to shake and I had to shape the earth beneath it to create stone clamps to hold it in place. After leaving the throttle all the way back for a few minutes, I let off of it and it lost power, spinning on inertia as it slowed.Finally, I released the stone clamps and got off the bike. A bit of telekinesis lifted the whole thing by the delta wing and I gave it a few shakes. When nothing fell apart, I decided that was good enough. "Alright. Eris, you know healing well enough by now, so I need you on standby in case I screw up.""'kay," the girl nodded, moving over to Ghislaine's side, seemingly taking the assignment seriously.With nothing left but to try, I hit the switch for the main throttle. The rear wheel kicked in and the bike surged forward. As it got up to speed, I pulled the handle for the cable attached to the struts, then locked it in place when they folded up properly. The bike left the ground briefly before thumping back down as I pulled up on the right pedal and twisted both throttles wide open. The fan roared behind me and I waited a few seconds for it to get up to speed before pushing down on the right pedal. Then, I was airborne, my stomach in my throat as I left the ground."Oh shit!"I did not scream. It was a… manly yell of surprise.Let me tell you, mechanical flight is an entirely different feeling either from Air Running (which, as the name suggested, felt just like running except when you did anything upside down) or my magical Iron Man impersonation. I think the difference was mostly in direct control—I could feel how the air for my thruster spell was working and manipulate it as needed. Here, I had to rely entirely on bodily feedback with no spell feedback.It was the most fun I'd had in what felt like ages.I hit the switch for the right throttle and shut it off before slowly letting off on the left throttle, dropping the fan speed down from what I had marked as full. Easing the right pedal back into the neutral position, the magical motorcycle turned magical ultralight aircraft leveled off. Easing the left pedal down saw me making a gentle turn to the left, circling back over the mansion's grounds. Looking down, I spotted Ghislaine looking up at me, wide eyed and slack jawed. Eris had fallen on her ass with an identical look, her hand pointing up at me.Pulling it into a tighter circle, I throttled up a bit and began climbing. Roa spread out below me, along with all of Fittoa as far as the eye could see. I spotted Perugius' castle in the distance and some kind of glowing thing floating in the air much closer, somewhere over the city—I made a note to check it out later. Ominously glowing energy fields bigger than my head tended to be trouble. Circling one of the mansion's towers, I caught a glimpse through a window and met the astonished gazes of Sauros… and the cat-eared maid he was plowing, big ol' titties flopping out of the front of her dress as the old man hammered away absently even in his shock.And that, my friends, was my downfall. A nice set of tits. My foot slipped on the pedal and my hand pulled just a bit to the left. The wheel must have caught the air just wrong because the ultralight tipped violently towards the ground, sending it into a dive that I couldn't recover from.I bailed out, using Air Running to get a safe distance before catching the ultralight with telekinesis just a few yards from the ground. Right. Note to self: don't fly while distracted.Heading back down to the ground, I set the ultralight up so it would stand on its own as Eris and Ghislaine rushed over. Already, I could see a few problems with the design that would need to be addressed. I need a way to lock the front wheel in place. A pin should be good enough. Then I need some way to control the upper flaps individually. Having them both tied together means I can't bank or tilt, so turns are all rudder and it's sluggish compared to what I remember of modern aircraft. Having the throttle tied to the handle bar works okay for riding, but not for flight, because as we saw an 'oops' means that you're accidentally pulling it back when you don't want to be. Also, maybe look into making some sort of harness to keep from being thrown off, but quick release system in case I need to bail."Rudeus!" Eris screamed as she approached, stopping right in front of me. Taking a deep breath, she gathered her hair into twin tails and put on her biggest, most sincere smile. "Please take Eris up with you, nyan~ Eris will give you anything you waaaant, nyaaaan~"Dirty old man brain responded before my brain-to-mouth filter could kick in. "If you're going to offer that, come back in about four years.""RUDEUS MY BOY!" Sauros bellowed from somewhere in the castle.Sighing, I turned to Ghislaine. "Sorry Ghislaine, but I'm making my escape.""Take me with you."I shot an incredulous look between her and the bike. Ghislaine followed my gaze. To her credit, she only blushed slightly before turning away, reminded again that the physics just didn't work out. "Once I've got the kinks worked out, I'll modify one of the larger bikes and we'll go. How about that?""Mm. That's fine.""Ruuuudyyyy~" Eris whined, bouncing in place as she wagged her pigtails. Sadly, she was much too young and not nearly developed enough for that sort of bouncing to do anything to interest me. If Ghislaine had done it however, it'd be game over."Fine, fine. Let's just go before your grandfather gets here." It should be safe enough. If all else failed, I would… probably pick Eris over the ultralight when deciding which to rescue first.Okay, yeah, I'll just hold her against me with telekinesis right from the start. Safer that way.I sat with Phillip, Sauros, and Ghislaine that evening after supper. "So, I have a question.""By all means," Phillip made a 'go on' gesture with his hand. "If it's about funding for the aircraft project, I approve.""No, not that," I shook my head. "And I'm not building more of those yet."Phillip and Sauros exchanged a look before the younger of the two asked, "Why not?""Air superiority. The moment someone figures out I could just scale up and how easy it would be to mount mages as cannon, I'll be chained to a desk turning them out and we'll be going to war inside a year." I'd rather keep that project as a personal recreational vehicle, not as something these idiots would use to start yet another war—and probably against the demons again. "Anyone know what the red orb in the sky is?"Phillip looked uneasy, while Sauros shrugged. It was the old man who answered. "I'd like to think it's a good thing. I pray to it every day.""You… pray to it," I repeated, sending the man a skeptical look. "Has anyone actually investigated it?""It's been there for a few years now," Phillip admitted. "We've had a few mages look at it, but no one can tell us anything beyond that it's part of a spell and it's gathering mana."Frowning, I asked, "How much mana?"It was Ghislaine who supplied the answer this time. "More than you used for your display of King-level casting. It hurts to look at directly."I blinked, feeling my blood run cold. I found my mouth suddenly dry when I went to speak and had to take a drink to clear my throat. "When I look at that, do you know what I see? UEO. Unexploded ordnance. That thing is a disaster waiting to happen."With a sigh, Phillip nodded. "We know, Rudeus. There's nothing that can be done about it. Other mages have tried and failed. They can't even interact with it, let alone move it or safely destroy it. According to every mage who has tried, the thing just eats whatever mana you use on it and grows stronger.""What about an evacuation—""To where?" Sauros demanded. "We don't exactly have a second Roa in the Fittoa region. Even if we could evacuate, there is nowhere for the people to go. And how would we move them quickly?""We could find somewhere. I could raise a city from the ground up inside a year, maybe two, if I worked on it to the exclusion of all else. I could build busses to move lots of people at a time, as fast as the bikes. Don't tell me there's nothing we can do," I countered."It's just not feasible," Phillip shook his head. "I'm sure you could do exactly as you say, but there's more that goes into a city than laying down streets and throwing up buildings. Not everyone would agree to move, and even if we forced it there would still be the matter of abandoning Roa itself and leaving behind an empty city. Not to mention the cost. Rudeus, we couldn't ask you to just erect a city for free and Fittoa doesn't have that sort of money to just throw around—nor would the kingdom bankroll it on a 'maybe.' Realistically, we don't know if that spell or whatever it is will do as we fear or if it will go away on its own. That's the argument they will make if we bring it up. As much as it worries us, we just have to keep an eye on it and hope that since it hasn't done anything yet, it may just continue doing nothing."That's… fucking stupid, I thought, resisting the urge to palm my face. But if the lord of Fittoa and the governor of Roa told me their hands were tied and all options had either been exhausted or weren't practical, then there was little I could do. All I can do is keep an eye on it and try to get out of the way if it ever goes off. Well, that is, unless I can find a way to tap it… That's a lot of mana. Maybe I could make something to drain it safely, without setting it off prematurely?Problem is, playing with unexploded ordnance tends to make it explode.