LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 10 (Patreon)

“I haven’t yet,” Mira replied, although come to think of it, she should have called Penny instead of experimenting with her spellcrafting. Once Penny knew where she was, she’d be able to come and go. She’d probably stay, for the most part, unless the mana was still too thin once they got out of the Dungeon. “Are you sure you want me to try it here?”

Randall nodded. “Yeah, I want to know all the team resources we’ve got available while it’s quiet and we’re under cover. You were asleep when we saw those shadows passing the window. They were big.”

Mira put two fingers between her teeth and loosed a low, mournful-sounding whistle that was as much an expression of her mana as it was a sound that she produced with her mouth. The sound slipped through the barriers of space, time, and reality. After a second, she got a reply.

Penny came spilling into her space, piercing through the veil between worlds in a little black pinprick in the air before Mira. Penny’s long diaphanous body piled up behind her as she shoved her little butterfly face into Mira’s, checking her all over and wrapping her length around Mira’s body. She hated it when Mira died.

“Woah,” Randall whistled in appreciation. “That is a—uh oh, uh, Mira?”

Penny twisted around to focus on Randall and changed into her combat shape, going from a rainbow ribbon to a nightmare eel in a single, uncomfortable change. She snapped all her jaws at Randall, warning him to back up right now. Bryn shoulder-crawled up the wall from his seated position and started to reach for his tower shield.

“There, there, lovely,” Mira cooed and coaxed her familiar into calming down. “It’s safe. They’re friends.”

Penny projected skepticism at her. She’d met these souls many, many times and she wasn’t ready to trust their new selves on the basis of just one life where they hadn’t been enemies. It took some petting and cooing to soothe her back into her pretty shape, but she eventually unspooled again to drape herself around Mira like a magical scarf.

“I think she’s been limited by the System,” Mira reported, once she’d been able to commune with her familiar. “There’s things she knows she can do that she’s being prevented from trying. She should be able to summon more of her kind, but her call is being blocked by an external factor. They can’t hear her, but she can come to me by herself whenever she wants now that she knows where I am.”

Maybe that ‘external factor’ was what was keeping Adra out, too. He was a higher order of creature than Penny, but Penny’s entire collective wasn’t exactly weak.

“Maybe you’ll be able to call more when you level up?” Randall asked. He was circling around Mira and Penny, looking her over. “I was going to say she looked fragile, but I guess the other face is for when she means business. How much mana did that cost you?”

“It wasn’t too bad. It cost more than one of my spells, almost a third of my reservoir, but my mana regeneration is backfilling it already,” Mira agreed and added, “She says she’s very sharp in all her forms, but she’s strongest in her combat shape.”

“Good, then she can help keep the heat off of you and the other spellcasters,” Randall agreed. “Alan and I talked about him sticking close to you while we’re all in combat, but I’d like him to have help too. We’re thinking that Bran, Andrei, and I will form the front line. You and Will will be pumping out damage, Cecelia will keep those of us on the front healthy, and Alan is going to make sure nothing sneaks up on you. Having something that can support him would be really good. The only way this formation breaks down is if something breaks through to hit you guys from behind.”

Mira had been wondering if Randall was a gamer and watching him try to talk around the concepts of Tanking, DPS, and Crowd Control only confirmed it. “Yes,” is what she said aloud. “That makes sense, until we’ve seen what it’s actually like out there.”

It was annoying that she couldn’t call in Penny’s entire collective and just mow down the entire Dungeon by herself so she could just escort the children out and get back to her fucking husband. She could not recall having ever been nerfed like this, but there was a first time for everything. Penny was pissed off too. Her collective was large and old and terrifying. She liked reminding the multiverse of that fact.

Cece made a noise and sat slowly up as she looked around before groping around on the floor for her glasses. She fumbled them on and stretched.

“It’s a little weird that the System corrected Will’s asthma and not Cecelia’s vision,” Mira observed. “I wonder where the cutoff for intervention is? Is it down to severity or for a condition that needs medication instead of an aid?”

“I could honestly debate that all day,” Randall murmured as he passed her. “For now, I’m gonna take her spot on the mat and try and catch some sleep.”

Cece surrendered her spot on the mattress and came over to Mira, stretching. “If we ever have to do this again, I’m going to commit some of my inventory space to camping gear.”

Camping gear, more food, water purification, climbing equipment, cold weather gear, UV protection; Mira could think of an entire catalog of survival gear they would need in order to traverse the Dungeons she’d survived in the past. The only thing she knew for sure is that they would rarely have the same experience from Dungeon to Dungeon. There was no way to predict whether they’d be dropped in an icy tundra or a pastoral farming village until they got there.

Once Cece was close enough to see Penny, she stopped, took off her glasses, cleaned them, and then put them back on. Her eyes widened behind the lenses, going round with wonder. “Miss Samira, what is that?”

Hah. Every time.

“Her name is Penny,” Mira introduced her and was pleased when Penny showed zero hesitation in going over to flirt with Cece for attention. The boys might be on thin ice with the ghost drakes, but never her. “I tried out my Summoning while you were asleep.”

“How pretty!” Cece cooed and let Penny alight on her fingertips. “Aren’t you a stunner?”

“Boy, does she know it,” Mira agreed.

She let Cece play with Penny while she tended to an overdue task; checking out this ‘Shop.’

A System window popped open in response to her will and for a second she saw something that could only be described as ‘Fantasy Amazon.’ There was a sort of storefront website displayed on her window and it looked sort of like what you’d get if someone had described an eCommerce site to a person who’d never even seen a website before. All the component pieces were there, but they were kind of awkward and clunky looking. Still, she could suss out the interface. There was a little product catalog at the top that was divided into categories; weapons, armor, consumables, food, etc. There was even a little window in the corner that read ‘your wallet’ with some numbers underneath, but another pop up blocked her view before she could check her account balance.

[Access Restricted: Per the terms of your Order of Protection, in accordance with regional law, you must have the verbal permission of your Conservator (Virgil Bellamy Jr. III) in order to access the Hunter Network System Shop and the funds held within. If you would like to dispute this decision, all appeals should be directed to your Triumvirate Representative via the Hunter Network.]

Mira clamped both hands down over her mouth before her incensed shriek could escape her body. She dropped down in a squat and wrestled her fury into submission like it was a giant snake. Bit by bit, she clawed back control of her temper until her heart rate finally slowed down and she could pay attention to her surroundings again.

Penny had surrounded Mira in a near cocoon made out of her long body. Cece hovered nearby, looking scared. Bryn was standing in front of her. He didn’t have his shield out, but it was close to hand.

She made herself take a deep shuddered breath. “I’m alright, dear,” she murmured to Penny. “I just got some bad news that I can’t do anything about yet.”

“Miss Samira?” Cece called out to her, ducking around Bryn as Penny unspooled to let Mira go. “Are you alright? What happened?”

“I, uh, looked at the Shop window,” Mira said, quietly, as Cece came over to help her out of her fetal crouch. She pitched her voice so only Cece could hear. The boys didn’t need to know that much about her business, but Cece probably already knew so there was no point in trying to keep it from her. “Dad’s got control of my gold. I need permission from him to even access the Shop and view my balance.”

Cece’s face fell. “No,” she hissed. “You’re joking, right?”

Mira shook her head. “The System said it was ‘according to regional law’ so I guess they’re respecting some of our legislature here on Earth.”

“This is the one time where alien martial law would be a little bit useful and now it’s not,” Cece grumbled. “We’ll figure something out. I promise. You can pay me in raw materials if you need something from the shop.”

That wouldn’t help if she actually got any income from her spells, but that meant she wasn’t totally at Virgil’s mercy so she’d have to take it.

“I’m relying on you to find us some good stuff, okay?” Cece continued. “There’s some medications I want to get in the Apothecary and Pharmacist’s Specialty Shop, but it’s all really expensive compared to the stuff in the General Shop.”

Oh. Mira hadn’t even considered System Potions as a possibility for taking care of the heroine’s ailing mother. In the book, one of the Magnates got Cece’s mother into an experimental treatment that was successful. If they weren’t in a soap opera anymore and none of the Magnates were the real cast members, then there was no reason why Cece should have to wait for rescue when she had another, achievable alternative.

“For your mom?” she asked, too busy thinking about all the other plot twists and problems in the book that they could just take care of without waiting around for a Billionaire to fix it to even begin to examine what was about to come out of her mouth. That was a dumb mistake. Samira had barely known Cece’s name, much less her family circumstances.

Cece blinked at her. “I–I didn’t think you knew about my mom,” she said blankly. She blushed a little bit. “Sorry, yes. Her cancer isn’t aggressive, but it’s still there and we’re struggling to keep up with her bills. There’s an ‘organ rejuvenation’ elixir in there and I’m willing to clutch at any spar right about now. If you help me then I’ll help you; sound good?”

“I didn’t know the specifics,” Mira demurred, but also accepted the handshake that Cece had offered her. “It’s a deal. I would have helped anyway.”

“I know you would,” Cece said, still quiet. She had a complicated look on her face. “Miss Samira, I…”

[Warning: Safe Room will close in 1 hour. All occupants should be ready to exit before the timer expires.]

Cece put her face in her hands and groaned.