Magical Engineering Chapter 48: Smithtown

“Thanks, Timon,” l said.

“No problem at all, man, just rember the deal. No one ntions where I am to my ex-wife, bitch is crazy,” the giant mantis said. I blinked several tis, trying to shake the odd sensation I had. Had she tried to eat his head? Did mantises really do that, or was it a thing we just heard they did? I wasn’t an entomologist, so I had no concrete idea there. The situation was sohow too surreal for , despite everything else.

“Dave, you doing alright? You look a little strange,” Cecile asked.

“Sorry, I’m fine, just a random weird thought, don’t worry about it. Hey Timon, how long until Smithtown anyway?” I asked; I was suddenly very eager to get off the bus.

“Another hour or so,” Timon answered. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“l, what happens when I get to level two-fifty, anyway?” I asked, needing a distraction.

“Core strengthening, but it’s best we leave that until ya get there. It’s a bit odd, and I'd rather walk ya through it once ya can do it. There’s a lot that won’t make any sense until it’s staring ya in the face, but what I’ll say for now is we have to improve your core at that point if ya wanna go any further,” l explained. I had been wondering about that. I knew improving your core took a ton of work, but the specifics weren’t exactly covered. I’m guessing because I hadn’t been looking in the correct place.

“Oh, fair enough,” I said. From there, the conversation turned into Cecile and Elicec talking about their own animals back ho. Apparently, they had a creature that was sothing like Chip but had four arms and four legs, and a lot of ti was spent keeping them out of mushroom patches. I zoned out for a lot of it, but that much made it through. The bus coming to a stop brought back to reality, and I caught the tail end of Cecile saying sothing about eels.

“Alright, we’re here. I’m gonna go find a place to park the bus. You all want to stay on or go do so information gathering?” Timon asked.

“We’re gonna go find soplace to stay, sothing a bit more comfortable than the bus. I’ll leave a ssenger fer once yer parked to let us know where yer at,” l said. I wasted no ti getting off the bus for so fresh air. For whatever insane reason, Timon just pushed past a sense of reality. I knew I’d have to get used to him, but I think I was allowed to take it slowly with how much I had already accepted. I watched a mini-l break off before he and the brothers joined near a pathway into the village.

“So where to?” I asked, guessing we just followed the path for now.

“There should be a place sowhere in the village center where we can get a room fer a few days while we figure out just what this dungeon is; then, you boys can go handle it while I dig a bit more into those items ya recovered,” l said.

“So is a town like this in any trouble with the archive closing? I assu it only exists because people cared about the knowledge aspect of this world, not the resources,” I asked, looking around at the inhabitants we passed. They were shorter than most humans and a bit mole-like, and they seed to keep to themselves. I saw a few heads turn our way, but for the most part, they minded their own business, working on the various projects they were engaged in. Several buildings were being constructed, and that seed to be their primary focus.

“Depends on the town, looks like this place was started by a group of Reltleons, so they’re probably fine. I doubt they were expecting any trade in the first place and are likely only here because no one else wanted the space. Their ho world has been gone fer a long ti, and that’s never a great place ta be fer a people,” l explained. We reached a building with a sign outside that said rooms for rent, which was apparently what l was looking for as he turned and entered the door.

“Welco travelers to Smithtown,” said a voice from behind a large counter the mont we entered the building.

“Hey, we heard about the dungeon problem y’all have been having. I know there hasn’t even been any official scouting done yet, but I figured we’d take care of that as well. Rent so rooms fer a few nights and get it all taken care of nice and neat. Any chance yer the guy that can help us with this?” l said, getting right down to business. I had the feeling he didn’t want to be here any longer than needed. I wasn’t sure I bought his claim about how little danger we were actually in, considering the vibe.

“I can get you set up with rooms, absolutely, but I’ll have to get the mayor to stop by later. He has all the information that’s been collected about the dungeon so far,” the man said.

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“Good enough, put the rooms on my account,” l said, showing the man sothing on the back of his hand. Was that the equivalent of a debit card? Just show soone your details, and they can pull up your banking info. It wasn’t that far off where things were headed back on Earth anyway; hell, take into account biotrics, and we were already there. Were there any worlds that had knowingly rejected magic and entered into what was essentially an arms race using technology?

“Second-floor room seventeen, it connects to four bedrooms, sorry we don’t have anything with just three beds,” he said after looking at l’s hand for a few seconds.

“No problem, it won’t be an issue,” l said, imdiately heading for the stairs and straight to the rooms. The second he had the door closed behind us, several more of his mini-ls broke off while he glared at Cecile, who had just opened his mouth. We waited ten minutes in silence before they all joined back into his main body, and he spoke again. “Sothing’s wrong; the drone should have been back by now.”

“Wrong as in Timon and the mini you is kidnapped, or wrong as in its been destroyed?” I asked, not sure just how much information he got back from his drones.

“What did ya call my ssenger drone? No, wait, we can deal with that nonsense later. Gone as in kidnapped, it’s still functional. I’ll know when it's destroyed, but there’s no reason it should be missing, either. Fer one thing, Timon can handle himself reasonably well, so whatever got them both is a big new problem,” l said, shifting back to what I was pretty sure were colors that signaled his anxiety.

“Alright, clearly, we need to go find Timon. Cecile, Elicec, you two stay here with l. l give…” I started to say before my words were cut off by a loud, frantic knocking at the door. Cecile, who was still near the door, opened it, revealing another one of the Reltleons.

“Who the hell are ya?” l asked, fury bubbling into his voice.

“Damn, am I too late? Did sothing already happen?” The newcor asked.

“It sure as hell did; get yer ass in here and tell who the hell ya are now!” l said. His color had shifted to dark red.

“I’m Glunderlin, the mayor of Smithtown,” he said, walking in and shutting the door himself before continuing. “What happened? From what the clerk said, it doesn’t look like anyone is missing yet…”

“Well, yer damn wrong, soone is missing, and all we know is there’s so unscouted dungeon that you idiots reported. Sothing’s telling yer about to say it’s a lot worse than we know, and then I’m going to get even angrier about an inaccurate report!” l interrupted furiously.

“I’m sorry; if I had known anyone was coming, I’d have sent a warning. It’s just I assud with the change in planetary affiliation, we weren’t going to see any help any ti soon,” Glunderlin explained, the words leaving his mouth at lightning speed.

“Fine, ya got a point there. Just tell us what ya know,” l said, sighing loudly and starting to shift back towards his usual green.

“What we initially thought was going on was that we had built the city on an existing undiscovered dungeon. We even found a series of caves that seed to back up this theory. That was when we sent word of the possibility of a dungeon. We weren’t overly worried at the ti, as we had the entrance barred and guarded at all tis. Then, more people started to go missing. We went into action, and so of our best fighters at the settlent went deep into the caves, trying to find if there was another way out we couldn’t find from the surface. That was a week ago, and they still aren’t back, but while they were gone, so of the initial victims reappeared, seemingly mostly okay, they just couldn’t rember what had happened. They were checked out by our healer, and he thought everything was fine, too. It wasn’t. I don’t know how they were changed by whatever had taken them, but three days ago, they made their move and captured Traveler Thirty-Two. If they managed to corrupt him and establish a tunnel, all our settlents are in danger, and while I’m deeply sorry you’ve already lost soone, we desperately need any help you could give,” Glunderlin said.

“Well, shit. I don’t think ya had a dungeon here at all, well, at least not initially; ya might if sothing happens to that core of yours, and a multi-universal dungeon at that. That’ll be a real big problem if it happens,” l said, his anxiety colors coming back.

“Wait, I think I’m missing sothing here, what is going on exactly?” I was lost on what Traveler Thirty-Two was or even what l thought was going on.

“It’s one of the damn seedlings; they take root and slowly start to replace people until they can gain the real access they want: A way off the planet. The Reltleons just happen to have their own little network used to attach their cities together. Dammit, Glunderlin, how could ya let a seedling anywhere near one of yer dungeon cores, especially after the core was attached ta yer network. We have two, maybe three days at this stage to stop the seedling infestation before soone a lot more powerful than us does it the easy way,” l said. I didn’t remotely like the way he had phrased that.

“What’s the easy way exactly, l?” I asked, having a feeling I knew the answer.

“Bye-bye planet and everything already attached to their corrupted Traveler when it happens,” l answered, glaring at the Reltleon mayor.

The Reltleons are one of the few people to have had so amount of growth following the loss of their ho world. Their developnt of unique pathways through chaotic space alongside dungeon cores turned allies are a rare example of sothing truly new in the Spiral. Luckily for them, their paths represent sothing all the factions desire and they sit safely, for now, in the middle of the cold war.

Factions, Dynasties, Royalty, and the Holdings by Trig Plunderscan