Chapter 110: Supply Chain - Interlude

  Emilia floated in the air with her eyes closed, extending her telekinetic range to its maximum. She focused intently and sensed every object within that area in precise detail. At the far edge of her reach, scattered rocks appeared in her awareness. Noticing that some contained small hollow sections, she centered her attention on the rock directly opposite. Within its hollow, she distinctly felt a wooden piece with an engraved number.

  She repeated that number out loud and focused on the next one. Within seconds, observing that number as well. Once again, she said it out loud. And so on she went. There were a total of twenty such rocks. And a total of twenty numbers. She recited all of them and waited for the result.

  “Level completed successfully. All targets found,” a robotic voice said.

  She opened her eyes, grinning ear to ear. Closing her screen, she made an impulsive decision. Immediately, she flew at top speed towards the first rock that she had uncovered. With just a thought, it burst open, and the wooden piece floated upwards. She reached there just in time for it to float at eye level with her. She quickly pocketed it to keep as a memento of this achievement.

  She was of half a mind to hunt all the other rocks and collect all the pieces. But she let it be. She was not a hoarder.

  Emilia floated upwards, taking a good look at her new stomping ground. It was an area designed for warfare training inside Lord Patcher’s sector. The twenty rocks that she had targeted were not the only rocks in the place, of course. There was a lot more all around the place to confuse her. Accuracy was the name of the game. And so was fine Control. She had aced it. And most of all, her range had indeed improved.

  This was a five percent increase from one week ago, when she finished the trial of water. One week of relentless training had yielded excellent results. She loved it.

  She loved being strong. Loved not being sick anymore. Fighting inside the dungeon was not particularly enticing for her. But she didn’t hate it either. This second lease of life that she had gotten was going quite well. She had made new friends. And of course, she had made a lot of enemies. But what was life without adversity?

  Emilia had always been a fighter, and she wasn’t gonna stop fighting now.

  Andrea might make fun of her for making new friends or getting close to Farhana or whatever. Emilia didn’t really care about all that.

  In fact, romance and whatnot were quite far away from her mind at present. But she guessed she deserved the teasing a bit because of all the needling she was doing. She hadn’t left Andrea alone after that first spar with Parth’s team. She couldn’t help it. The way both of them got so riled up. Sure, there was some interference due to their artifacts. But it was funny to watch. It was funny to keep poking the bear like that. So she wouldn’t stop it.

  She didn’t know if there was anything at all going on between Andrea and Parth. It was none of her business. If they wanted to talk to her about it, they could. Her true focus was not on any of that.

  The rush of improvement, the thrill of getting better, of becoming stronger than her past self. That was what enticed her the most. It was a high unlike any other. And she would keep chasing it. One can call it pride or vanity. It didn’t really matter. She wanted to live life to the fullest.

  And in this twisted world, to live was to fight.

  She was not an addict for combat like Parth or Andrea. She hadn’t been an adrenaline junkie when she was back on Earth. But maybe she was turning into one right now. She loved the thrill of just experiencing life. Her power allowed her to feel thrilled and not completely terrified within the dungeon. That was a major blessing. And to keep feeling the thrill, she needed to keep growing stronger.

  One of the reasons why she was so happy about expanding her range was that she learned from her mistakes. If her range had been just a little bit bigger, she would have caught Blackbog before he made that impossible escape of his.

  Well, what was done was done. She couldn’t really fault herself for that. She gave it her all, and it wasn’t enough. And that was fine. It would be a problem if such a loss were to demoralize her. But she was not allowing fatalistic thoughts to creep into her mind ever again. Never ever again. She would keep on growing, and she would keep on fighting.

  Her ring beeped, bringing her out of those thoughts. She looked at the reminder and saw that she was cutting it quite close. She had to catch the transport and return to sector one. She was only here to do this test in a suitable environment. The gymnasiums in their compound had gotten too small for her at this stage. Sure, she could train and get stronger. But to stretch her range without mana interference, she needed such an empty space. And now that she was done, she had to go back. Another week remained. Another week full of training, before she got back into the dungeon.

  Several hours later, she entered her team’s meeting room. She was five minutes early. Andrea and Stefan were already present in the room. They were all waiting for Roul.

  Five minutes passed in relative silence, as everyone was looking at their screens. Right on the dot, Celeste entered the meeting room, dragging Roul with her.

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  They didn’t expect Celeste to be here. She looked tired. Her immaculate presentation was a bit off if one knew where to look. Not to mention the hastily covered bags under her eyes and the tense expression she wore. Of course, it must be nerve-racking having your team inside the dungeon while you, as an advisor, are stuck out here, unable to help them. Especially during a time when they are supposed to be resting and training.

  “I’m sorry to impose like this, but I believe this idiot hasn’t briefed you about why I’m here,” Celeste said.

  “Yep. Didn’t say a thing. Didn’t even mention that you would be here,” Andrea said.

  “And you wonder why people don’t like working with you, cousin,” Celeste sighed. “Anyway, good evening to all of you. I am here just for a few minutes. I have some things to say, and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

  “Please take your time, Celeste. We don’t mind at all,” Emilia said.

  “Alright. As you all know, we got Moira’s footage from Wil, a member of Kade’s team. We do understand the situation that led them to get trapped. Our voyagers did exceptionally well, but just too many snakes in the grass. We are not happy with the patrons who encouraged such behavior. And well, we can’t do anything about the offending Voyagers, either. Because you know, they’re dead. But once everything is said and done, we will be retaliating in some way or another. Not outwardly violently, but in politics, there are many ways to bring ruin to certain people. They will not come out of it unscathed. So know that we have your back.”

  “Of course, we know that you’ll do right by us, even if our own advisor doesn’t,” Emilia joked.

  “Ouch, that hurts,” Roul said. But from his expression and from the tone of his voice, it was obvious that he was also playing into the joke. Roul was like that. And by now, all of them had gotten used to that kind of back and forth with him. All of them except for Stefan, obviously. Stefan just didn’t play into the bit. More often than not, he wouldn’t even respond to Roul when he was making his japes.

  “Moving on. I mentioned Moira’s footage because I used it to help figure out what my Voyagers need. I’ve planned a baggage distribution that should be efficient enough. Hopefully.

  “I’ll send it to you all right after I leave. You can check your mail then. Read it and let me know if you have any questions. I’ve made sure that it’s not just you three. We will be splitting the baggage with the triplets as well. That way, none of you will be carrying too much extra luggage and will have ample space for your own stuff as well.”

  “Of course. Happy to help,” Stefan said.

  “Yep,” Andrea seconded.

  “Gladly,” Emilia agreed.

  “And that’s my five minutes. I have to drop in and check with the kids as well. I’ve already spoken to Lady Tetsuyumi. So we’re good to go. Thank you so much,” Celeste said in parting and made her way to the door.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Emilia said. Celeste smiled at all of them. A brittle smile, but it was a rare smile in these trying times nonetheless. She waved them off and left the room, the doors automatically closing behind her.

  “Okay. Now that’s done. Let’s get started with our weekly report. It has been one week since you finished the previous trial. We have one more week. Let’s see where we are right now. I’ve been monitoring your progress, and you’re all coming along well.” Roul momentarily paused, fiddled with his screen, and continued. “As you can see in your schedules, we have a joint training session tomorrow. So ahead of that, please tell each other what you have been working on so that we’ll properly synergize. You first, team leader.”

  “I’ve been working on my telekinesis as usual. But I’ve been focusing on the range. I’ve made palpable improvements over the last week. The coming week, I think I’ll be working on the load-bearing capacity. But I suppose that’s it,” Emilia said with a smidgen of pride in her voice.

  “Yeah, I saw the test result. Pretty impressive. Keep going through it like this, and the other patrons will hold on to their hatred of your artifact very, very strongly. Oh, and by the way, you have a request for a spar from our ally.”

  “Just her? Why?” Andrea interrupted, miffed at being looked over for a fight. Typical.

  “Which one?” Emilia asked, ignoring that.

  “It’s the Honored Choker, Xylo Galatas-S,” Roul said.

  “Ah, never mind. That explains why,” Andrea said.

  And indeed it was self-explanatory. The two artifacts were kind of like the Pygilist and the Crylleret. The artifacts had history, they had a reputation, and the honored choker probably had a chip on his shoulder.

  Emilia did realize that her thoughts were leaning towards the meaner side of late. But, well, that tended to happen when everyone was gunning for you. Even if it was friendly competition, at times. It was just a defensive response. Couldn’t be helped.

  “When’s the fight?” she asked.

  “It’s up to you. You tell me, I’ll schedule it. He doesn’t have any conditions. Just that it’s one on one.”

  “Set it up for the day after tomorrow, first thing in the morning. Apart from the obvious, is there a specific reason why he wants to spar me in particular?”

  “Nah, he’s just headstrong. And has something to prove. The artifact’s the defending champion after all. People call yours the strongest. So he needs to prove to himself that he’s better. Or so I believe. Whatever the case, just remember that it’s a friendly spar. He is aware of it also. But do be careful. This is a guy who literally flew headfirst into the tsunami and punched out of it.”

  “Come on now, don’t exaggerate like that, Roul,” Andrea said.

  “For once, I’m not. You’ll see the compilation. This one is wild. This guy is something else, I swear. Definitely not right in the head. Even with all the power in the world, I’d never attempt anything like that.”

  There was a pregnant pause because nobody knew what to say. Even Stefan looked shocked. Of course, he would be. With his artifact, he analyzed exactly how deadly the tsunami was. Emilia could feel it with her artifact, too. In fact, all three of them had faced it headfirst. They knew how it was. Sure. Xylo must not have gone into it at the very crest. But even then, a tsunami was a tsunami.

  “Okay, next one please,” Roul said, as if he hadn’t dropped a bombshell.

  “Uh, jeez. Dude, give us a minute to process that,” Andrea said. She then sighed and continued, “Well, I’ve been working on my agility. I mean, the biggest drawback of my ice armor is still the problem with mobility. I’m still working on it. I’m also focusing on structural integrity and temperature control. It helped us a lot during the tsunami. I want to keep that going as much as possible.”

  Indeed. Andrea’s constructs were a lifesaver from the start of this accursed challenge. And Emilia would always welcome better temperature control. Sitting atop blocks of ice was not exactly comfortable after all, despite her telekinetic shield.

  “And, last but not least, Stefan,” Roul said.

  “Same as usual. Accuracy, reflexes, complex analysis, and flexibility. Information is useless if I can’t act on it. So, I’m improving my body to better respond to it,” Stefan succinctly summarized.

  “Perfect. You know, it’s sad that we didn’t get an entitlement. If we had, I would have put you up for the redistribution fight, to give you better offensive options,” Roul said.

  “It’s fine. I am happy with what I have. Wouldn’t say no to better knives though,” Stefan smirked.

  “In a way, that’s fine as well. Let’s not worry about the redistribution round. Let those who already have an entitlement fight for it and die for it. We’ll just worry about survival. And yes, I’ll see what I can do about the knives.”