LSRO: Chapter 43 - Errands Galore (Patreon)

Hey everyone

Little bit sick today so here is today's chapter

Hope you enjoy Quinn coming into her own

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Chapter 43

Errands Galore

As Quinn ascended the stairs once more, her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. In her hand she held the small, smooth precious rock that the Library had given her.

She knew she had to focus on the immediate tasks at hand. Primarily, they needed to create more golems. To do so, they had to gather the necessary supplies for the golems and anything else the Library required. She also had to evaluate the loyalty and capabilities of her assistants, ensuring they were completely trustworthy. Although, she was still unsure of how to accomplish this. She had a hunch that if she directed her thoughts towards the Library, it would guide her.

Stay out of my head, She warned it

Lock your thoughts away, it countered.

Quinn came to the conclusion that Lynx was definitely just another side of the Library.

In addition to all this, she had to clean the filters as soon as the filtration system was ready, a task she didn't understand in the slightest. She didn't even know how she would find the filters, but the Library assured her that she would be informed when the time was right. The need for filter components made it seem like a less magical process, although she supposed that to someone unfamiliar with plumbing back on Earth, it would seem extremely magical. She couldn't afford to be judgmental.

Once everything else was sorted, they had to open the Library, which at this point, was likely to be without Lynx. She stepped into the main part of the Library again, greeted by Milaro, flanked by two elves who were practically polar opposites of each other and him.

The tallest one stood about seven feet tall, as dark as Milaro was pale. He had bright white hair and fangs that just peeked over his lower lip. His ears were so spiky she was sure they would draw blood if touched. Not that she wanted to touch his ears, but it was an observation she couldn't help but make. His eyes were completely white.

"This is Harish," Milaro introduced with a slight flourish. "He is one of my closest advisors and has been since I came to power several hundred years ago. This is his wife, Siliqua."

The petite elf stepped forward, giving her own flourishing bow to Quinn. She was slightly taller than Quinn, maybe five foot five, with a deep tan and long, delicate ears adorned with many piercings and chains linked together in an intricate filigree that ran the length of her ears. She wore a green tunic and leggings that seemed to wink in and out of Quinn's vision, blending her with the background. Occasionally, it looked like she didn't have legs at all, very chameleon like. Her long brown hair was tightly braided behind her, reaching past her butt. Quinn thought she resembled closest what a wood elf might look like in Earth's fantasy fiction.

"Greetings," Siliqua said formally. "We are here to assist. How might we help investigate the cause of the current..." She glanced at the other two elves. "Malfunction?"

Quinn chuckled. "Well, that's not exactly how I'd describe it," she said.

Suddenly, a myriad of words popped up in front of her, finally slowing down to read:

Assistant access granted. Minimal visual-only access. Only for these specific elves. No one else. Due to previous history and confirmation of identity.

Both of the elves raised an eyebrow, apparently having received a similar notification.

"Great," Quinn said. "So, you tell me what you need, and I'll let you get to it because I have about 85,000 things I need to do. It was fantastic to meet you. Thank you so much for coming and helping. This is great."

She felt like she was repeating herself and that she was very nervous. A wave of anxiety washed over her. She took a deep breath, and all the knowledge from the books came flooding back. Her mind went calm, and she smiled again.

"Thank you. Milaro, I need your help with the recruits for the assistant positions. Once they've completed training and orientation, we'll be able to open the Library."

She nodded to Siliqua and Harish and made her way over to the group of recruits. There were only six left, which was odd. She frowned.

Milaro noticed. "Ah, yes. I apologize. After going through several of the more basic necessities that we require from our library assistants, two of them were not going to be a good fit," he explained.

Quinn pursed her lips, glad that they still had more than the required number to open. "Okay, I get that."

She was relieved to see that Eric, Geneva, and Finn, were still there. It made her feel good that the ones she'd felt a slight connection with were going to be part of the Library's entourage.

Quinn surveyed the group in front of her. "This will qualify as enough assistants to open the Library, correct?" She directed her thought at the Library.

Yes, all six of these will qualify, giving us currently eight qualified assistants including Malakai and Dottie. Milaro is an honorary assistant.

Quinn paused. This was more like the usual library and not the more personable one that she had been speaking to while downstairs. Then it dawned on Quinn. She'd been speaking to the more human library while she had her hand against the trunk of the tree. Now, however, the Library was more distant from her, more computer-like than human. She wasn't entirely sure how that worked, but she did notice a distinction when in different locations.

Malakai looked up from where he was directing a couple of them through certain interface options and flashed a smile at Quinn.

"I have several things to do. Are you okay here?" Quinn asked.

Malakai nodded and cocked his head to one side. "Are you okay?"

She half grimaced. "Yea, I just have a lot of information I need to absorb and go through. It's a lot."

That was when Carty rolled into view. He had several books on the bed of his cart and he called out, "I do believe the Library sent me to bring you the exact books that you need." And that wonderful little accent that Quinn could not place, probably because it came from some world else.

Quinn wondered idly if she had her own office or somewhere she could. And the information flashed up on her screen in front of her face, including a map that showed her the way. She glanced over toward where she thought it would be. And there was literally an arrow basically overhead.

That seemed entirely too on the nose and very game like.

"Since when can you do that?" She asked.

A sensation almost like a ripple, or a shrug passed over her. Like the Library wasy saying, I can do what I want.

"I'll be in my room apparently," Quinn said, as she realized that the Library could adjust and open any room it wanted to. Considering it had the ability to create doors anywhere, she wasn't sure why this felt like a surprise, but it did.

And that's when she noticed that Dottie was trotting alongside Carty, who was bringing the books to Quinn's office. She didn't mind the bench's company at all. But she still wasn't sure about the office. The door that suddenly appeared not five minutes ago went up about eight feet in height. It was made of what looked like heavy mahogany or some sort of dark wood. Next to it was a massive window that looked into the office but it was too dark inside to see much.

The room had definitely not been there before she thought about having an office.

Quinn took a deep breath, calmed her thoughts, and pushed into the room, the cart rolling in with her. Lights slowly undimmed until the room was lit by a soft golden glow. There were bookcases lining every single wall and they went up all the way about 20 feet. The room was probably about 20 by 30 feet. It was a really decent size for a massive office. She looked around it, loving the old wooden paneling with carvings all around her.

The window looked out and into the Library. It was beautiful to see the columns and levels, the people gathered together, and to feel the life seeping back in into the Library's very being. While the people didn't make a huge difference, it was enough that Quinn could feel it.

She went over the books Carty had for her. There was Mental Fortitude and Time Dilation, How to Think Faster, Communication through Mental Telepathy, Mental Defense is More Than You Think, Cognizant Recognition of Complex Tasks, Familiars and Their Reasons for Seeing You, Ice Ages Never Apply to Ice Mages, Advanced Ice and Snow, and finally, Hovering as a Defense Mechanism. What a huge list.

The cart somehow moved them all to the desk. In the blink of an eye. Perhaps Carty also had access to dimensional pockets or something.

She sat down in the well-cushioned office chair behind the massive desk and glanced around the room.

She cleared her head and picked up the first book on the pile in front of her. "Okay, I'm going to need to absorb all of these, check the storeroom status." And as soon as she thought that, she decided to call Misha in to talk to her because there was a lot they needed to talk about.

And then she turned to Dottie. While she was waiting for Misha, who took longer than an immediate summons usually did, and asked the bench a favor. "Dottie, could you please ask Cook to make me instant energy replenishment food. I need it as soon as possible."

Dottie smiled in the way that happened inside Quinn's head. "I will do. That will be one of my first assistant tasks." And she trotted off.

Misha appeared suddenly. "Sorry for the delay. I'm very busy. These assistants are not going to train themselves."

Quinn immediately felt bad for having called Misha in when the golem obviously had a lot to do, and it was mostly thanks to Quinn. Although, she guessed it was probably better in the golem's mind to be busy than to not exist at all.

"This should be fast. I need to understand about the storerooms and where all of the items that we allocate to construction and creation are kept. So that we can allocate a golem for that and then make sure we have somebody capable of gathering all the relevant materials that we need."

"You could have just asked me to create a gatherer golem." Misha commented.

"But could I really have, Misha?" Quinn asked, suddenly a little irritated. "Look, I get it. I don't know everything I need to know yet. The initial transfer failed, and this chip has a lot less information that I find useful.  I assumed, and wrongly, that reopening the Library would be an easy thing. It's taking a lot longer than I thought considering you've all got magic and you can just wave your hands and make things happen."

Misha actually chuckled, and there was a slight metallic ring to the sound. "Apologies, librarian. Magic isn't hand-wavy, magic is knowledge and as you know, it takes time and energy to absorb that knowledge. I apologize for making you feel less than just because I am very harried right now."

Quinn paused, and let that calm slip back over her mind. Hopefully the more she used it, it'd just become a reflex. "So, what can I do to help you not be harried?"

"Well, you just asked me to make a golem that will help me make more golems, so really, you've just done it. I appreciate that. I'm sorry if I offended you or hurt your feelings. And I do apologize for not bringing that to your attention sooner."

"It's okay, Misha. I'm still trying to find my own feet here. And you're like two days old, so let's give each other grace." Quinn offered an olive branch.

Misha smiled, in that strange where where their mouth line lifted ever so slightly. "Deal, although I'm technically both ancient and only two days old."

Quinn ignored the last part of Misha's statement. "We must do whatever is needed to get the storeroom and the storeroom golem up and running. Do we have enough parts to construct another golem?"

"Yes, we have enough parts to construct approximately 12 different types of golems but a total of only six more golems. The Library, when even operating at half capacity, will require approximately 27 golems total, so we are very low on personnel." Misha nodded at the end of that information as if to punctuate it.

"Okay, let's make that a priority now that the Library has been mostly cleaned up, right?"

"Yes, the Library is cleaned up. Would you like Tim and Tom to begin on the storeroom?" Misha asked, their pearl-like eyes shining.

"Yes, that makes sense, right? I assume they're already done with their Library tidying tasks?" Quinn said.

"Yes." Misha answered, and then glanced toward the door and back again. "May I take my leave then?"

Quinn nodded, and Dottie trotted back in as the supervisory golem left, in perfect timing with several what looked like little balls of food jostling around in a bowl on herb ack. On closer inspection, they were definitely not meatballs but a variety of different grains pressed together.

"Oh," Quinn said out loud as she lifted the bowl up to her, "these are like those little energy snacks that you could get in the health food stores. I guess this is gonna work. Thanks, Dottie."

Dottie was already gone. Quinn assumed she had gone to help the rest of the applicants, mainly because they were all going to have to get used to the Library. Dottie had a lot more experience with it than either Malakai, Milaro, Harish, or Siliqua.

With Misha and Dottie both helping with this library assistants, Quinn pulled the first book into her lap. The most important thing, she thought, was going to be getting her mind strengthened against any potential Serpensiril attacks and personally being able to manage the thoughts that she leaked through to the Library. It would be far more beneficial for all of them if she learned to speak directly to the Library.

She picked up Mental Fortitude and Time Dilation. That was an interesting title. She placed the book on the desk and absorbed it. All of this knowledge rushed into her head about how to fortify her mind, how to build walls around her thoughts, how to restrict access from other people. This book was a lot more advanced than the others and it cost 298 energy. The time dilation component addressed how she could think within her mind on complex topics, yet it would only take a few seconds in the outside world.

Oh was she ever going to be practicing this.

"Communication through Mental Telepathy" was next, but first, she popped one of the energy balls into her mouth and watched as her now 641 energy was almost refilled. This little ball popped 200 energy back into her system. However, she did get a library note that popped up in front of her.

Granular Energetic Mind Balls

Energy recuperation: 200 immediate

Warning: Do not consume more than ten per day.

She raised an eyebrow at the name of the balls, but let it pass. She'd just have to make each one count.

The next book about mental telepathy was quite easy to absorb at 150 points and it simply helped explain directional telepathy and how to make sure that your thoughts didn't reach the wrong person or get intercepted by the wrong person. Mental Defenses: More Than You Think taught her for 187 points just how much more she could strengthen those walls than the first book had already shown her. All of these books built upon one another with wider complexity. Quinn was super excited about the end result.

Cognizant Recognition of Complex Tasks was just another fortifier at 162 energy. Familiars and Their Real Reasons for Seeing You helped her understand why and how Aradie had been originally attracted to her as a person and just what she could ask her familiar to do. It cost a lowly 124 energy. Quinn thought it was worth so much more than that.

Hovering as a Defense Mechanism was another one she absorbed for 175 energy and basically taught the caster how to hover over the ground for up to ten seconds to escape myriad of ground charging attacks. It was a very obscure book and she wasn't entirely certain why the Library had given her it, but she'd take it.

Finally, popping her sixth energy ball she looked at her energy levels.

Energy 629/681

She had 4 balls left and two more books. She eyed them both.

The Ice Ages Never Applied to the Ice Mages and Advanced Ice and Snow.

Quinn sighed, but she couldn't help the tingle of excitement that passed through her. She was going to have to eat at least one more of those energy balls, but that didn't matter.

Her ice books each cost 295 points and taught her far more about ice magic than she ever thought she'd know.

It taught her how to be dangerous.

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Let me know what you think!

Much love

KT