Chapter Sixty-Six - Growth... of a Sort

Hmm, don't know what art to use for this one, so have this! It's cute!

Also... I'm sorry I failed you all. I wanted to reach chapter 68 before November, but I failed :(

***

Lucky tried to stand tall and proud even as she eyed the bandits. She couldn’t show any weakness, not now.

There were thirteen bandits, all of them with their arms tied behind their backs. They were kneeling on the ground, most with their heads bowed. This was only about a quarter of the bandits that had attacked the train. Unfortunately, most of the rest had fled when the signal went out. They mostly did so with the stuff they’d stolen too. These were the ones caught in the cabin where she was staying with Swordmaster Thorn and the others. The bandits there had wisely chosen to surrender. 

A few had... not. 

Lucky couldn’t help but see the fleeting images she had caught of the man that Rosario had mulched. It made her stomach twist. But... it wasn’t all bad. The man had been a bandit, a villain. If there was ever someone who deserved that kind of treatment, it was a vile person of that sort.

That’s what it meant, to Lucky, to be a Swordmaster. To be someone that had mastered the blade, and its ability to be the weapon to protect the weak. 

One of the bandits moved and she turned to glare at him. “Don’t try anything,” she snapped. She didn’t have a tenth of the intimidation of someone like Rosario, but the man still quieted down. Some of them glared at her, but no one was trying anything.

She was armed, and they weren’t. Even if they were a couple of tiers ahead of her, they didn’t know, necessarily, that they level difference between them was that sharp. She looked like a level 6 [Soldier] but for all they knew it could be her second job, or one she was leveling up from scratch.

And she wasn’t entirely alone. Cricket was sitting on a stump a few paces away, idly tossing a knife up into the air and catching it as it came down only to flip it back up. The bug woman’s attention wasn’t on the bandits, but it could be, and then they’d have to deal with her.

There were a good number of people that had exited the train. Torches and magical lights were strung up along the entire length of the train, illuminating it through the night. Civilians from the rearmost cars were wandering around, though the train’s staff were trying to keep everyone at least a little organized.

Lucky’s attention drifted to the front. 

Rosario was standing next to the engine, alongside Hailey, that Titled from the club car, and the train’s conductor as well as some of the nobles. There was a quiet but still lively discussion going on, with much pointing and gesturing down the length of the train. 

She didn’t know what conclusion they’d reach, but that was fine. For now, she was a [Soldier] and her duty was to watch over these no-good ruffians, so that’s what she’d do.

[Soldier] has leveled up!

[Soldier] level 7

Constitution +1

Huh... well, she supposed she was doing a good job of it, then.

***

This was the opportunity of a lifetime! On top of the other, equally good lifetime opportunities, and Hailey Copperfidget wasn’t going to squander it.

“Yes, I understand,” she said. “However, it may well take several hours past dawn for a repair team to come. Let alone one with a crane. They’ll send an inspection team, then report back, and you know as well as I do that when such issues are reported, they never send back the entirety of what is needed. At that rate, we may well have this train stuck here for days. That’s an unforgivably long time. The entire line will be closed.”

The train’s conductor worked his jaw. He wasn’t well happy about it. 

Then Miss Thorn spoke up. “I’m in too much of a hurry to remain here for so long. If it comes to it, we will simply walk to the next city,” she said. 

“These forests are dangerous.”

That came from the other person in their little impromptu meeting. The Titled. She had [Inspected] him already, of course. 

Brain Middletree

The Blood of Forges

[Flame Weaver] - Level 22

A proper Titled. Whenever she looked at him, her glasses would flick through a quick sequence. Red, red, blue, blue, blue, red, red, blue. So, total level 198. That was incredibly impressive. A lifetime’s worth of levels for most, even an impressively skilled elf would be proud of nearing total level 200. 

He was eyeing Miss Thorn wearily.

“I don’t care,” Rosario said. “I’m only staying thus far because leaving so suddenly would put some people at risk. My companions would come with me, of course, but some of the civilians would remain here, in your care, and I’m not certain that they’d survive that.”

There were almost sparks flying between them, but so far, her provocations hadn’t forced the man’s hand. Or maybe he just knew better. Maybe a Titled had good reflexes when it came to picking fights.

Hailey cleared her throat. “Regardless. I am here now, sir. I am an [Engineer]. We have plenty of people that I’m certain would be happy to volunteer additional help. The least you can do is allow me to look over the system? It’s possible that they breaks aren’t so bad. And I may be able to repair some parts.”

“And the fact that the engine is derailed?” the conductor asked. He gestured at the massive engine, which was very much not sitting on its track. To be fair, it wasn’t far off. Given a sufficiently large lever, and some--

“We’ll put it back on the track,” Rosario said. She glanced at The Blood of Forges and perked an eyebrow at the man, as if asking him, wordlessly, if he’d assist.

He grunted. “That thing is heavy. But... maybe. We can try, at least.”

The conductor worked his jaw, then eyes Hailey. “I didn’t know the Engineering Guild accepted women.”

“I didn’t know that you had options,” Hailey replied.

“Tsk. fine. No harm in letting you look,” he said. 

Hailey grinned. “I even brought some of my tools,” she gloated.

Of course, she soon came to regret it. It took a bit of help to climb up onto the top of the first car, but from there she was able to see the damage, and it wasn’t pretty.

The train used magic to empower a very powerful but very simple and efficient spell. Boil Water. That allowed it to generate steam which in turn allowed it to power its huge engine. It was a very effective bit of engineering.

Unfortunately, even as efficient as it was, the spell needed power. There were two easy sources. The first was burnable magical reagents. Those were calcified magical plant matter, compressed into pellets that could be fed into a machine that cooked them and released a powerful wave of magical energy. 

The second, more efficient and less costly method, was to pull magic from the air. There was plenty to go around, and once used, it returned to nature. So, no harm done there. 

But in order to collect that ambient mana, they needed specially engineered devices. These were only thirty or forty years old and improving quickly.

The train’s sails were a good example. They rose up above every car, angled so as to not catch the wind too hard, and their large surface area allowed them to catch mana as the train moved. 

From what she knew, a solid sixty percent of the mana required to move the train came from those. The initial movement and momentum came from the burners, but to get to the next city... she imagined that the train wouldn’t have nearly enough fuel.

They needed the sails, and the first nine she looked at were... rather messed up.

“Can you fix it?”

Hailey squeaked and almost went off the side. She hadn’t heard Rosario approaching, or climbing up onto the top of the train. “You scared me,” she said.

“Forgive me,” Rosario replied. “Still... is it repairable?”

“Ah... yes. Well... no, not with what I have. But I think I can bypass it? Look, the way each sail is connected, its in series. If I scrap some of the wiring, I can at least bridge over the broken sails and connect the engine to those in the rear that are unharmed and functional. It’ll be significantly less efficient, but there will be some amount of magical flow. We’ll move slower. But we will move.” Hailey knew that her plan would work, probably. There were bypasses built into the cars already, in case a sail failed. She supposed it wasn’t too uncommon that one of them caught something or broke. They probably didn’t expect nearly half of them to break all at once. 

And for all that she knew her plan would work, that wasn’t saying anything about how easy it would be to make it work... which was to say, that it wasn’t going to be.

“Hm. Well, let me know if you need any help,” Rosario said. “I have no knowledge of these sorts of things, but I’m relatively strong, and I know a spell or two.”

“I’m sure you do,” Hailey said.

She could still vividly remember Rosario disappearing from her seat, and the next thing Hailey knew a man was turned into meat paste. As far as intimidating displays went, it was... a lot. All that over a maid, of all things? 

“I think I’m good for now. Though, if you could get my tools? It’ll save me a trip down.” She’d never admit it out loud, but going down ladders scared her a little. Not enough that she wouldn’t do it, but it was hard. They were all made for human-sized people, not gnomes... one only had to miss a rung once and flip over backwards in front of others one time to learn to be wary of ladders.

“I can do that,” Rosario said. And then she did, bringing Hailey all of her things and depositing them on the roof of the car a few minutes later.

Hailey cast a few light spells, basic things that hovered around and siphoned her magic, then she got to work.

Some of the cars had surviving bypasses. Those were a quick--relatively--fix. Some... didn’t, and for those, she had to jury-rig things. There was also the removal of the broken parts, which fortunately was usually easy.

It was still long, complicated work, and by the time she was nearly done, the sun was rising and her poor back hurt.

It was entirely worth it, however.

[Engineer] has leveled up!

[Engineer] level 5

Intelligence +1

Wisdom +1

Hailey grinned, then rubbed sweat off of her forehead. Brilliant! One step closer to sticking it up to those bastards at the guild!

***

Cricket was soon relieved from her job guarding the bandits. The passengers included a couple of smaller adventurer teams, and that meant that there were at least some people who knew how to handle a weapon, and they were very unimpressed with the bandits.

Lucky remained, because she had been given a job and she was steadfast like that. The silly girl.

One day, Lucky would learn how the world truly worked, and it would either break her, or make her a lot harder. Cricket... wasn’t sure if she wanted either result. Least of all because Rosario seemed to really like the little horse.

After being relieved, she wandered off to try and sleep, but she couldn’t. She was a little wired up. Though, on the way, she did discover the two maids that Rosario had been staring at all day. “Why hello there,” she said before sketching a quick bow to both. “Ladies... how doth thee fare?”

One of them, the one Rosario hadn’t saved directly, spoke up. “Well enough, lady [Jester],” she said politely. “Are you... a companion of Miss Thorn.”

“I’m her lady’s jester,” Cricket said with a proud smile. “I do my utmost to keep her happy.”

“I see. Your lady is very impressive,” the maid said. “We must thank her. Our master was... unimpressed with her words tonight, and her disregard for his safety. And for dirtying him and his family with the remains of her foe. But we are thankful anyway. If there’s anything we can do?”

Cricket grinned. “There might be a thing or two. My dearest thorny Lady Thorn is actually quite fond of maids. If you merely speak with her, perhaps share some of your hard-earned knowledge, she’d be quite pleased. As much or more than a pickle.”

“I... see.” The maids glanced at each other. “Thank you, we’ll see what we can do, then.”

“I thank you in turn. Seeing her happy makes me happy,” Cricket said honestly. The sappiness of it was disgusting, like a sticky oil clinging to her words, but it was still true. Cricket grinned through it all. “Say, do you girls like limricks?”

“Limricks?”

“Oh yes, I’ve been working on one!” Cricket said. “Want to hear it?”

“I suppose?” the quieter of the two maids--the one who had been so rudely assaulted, said. 

Cricket’s grin hurt. She delivered her newest weapon through the pain. 

“There once was a maiden whose milk,

From jugs that were covered in silk

Was the talk of the committees.

Who discussed her massive titties

Amongst themselves and their ilk!”

The women gasped, utterly shocked, but beneath their hands, they were hiding surprised smiles. 

Success! 

[Jester] has leveled up!

[Jester] level 31

Dexterity +1

Charisma +1

Oh yes, Cricket was on a path of success... of some sort or another, at least.

“Say, speaking of massive jugs, you girls wouldn’t happen to know where a lonely young bug could find a pretty dress like that, would you?”

***