Amazon Apocalypse 2: Chapter 29 (Patreon)

I got quite a bit more work done on my Mana Bombs before I finally heard from Myrina. It wasn’t until late the next morning when the token I still wore around my neck began glowing.

Your Patron wishes to contact you.

Do you want to allow communication?

"Gobgob, you have things from here," I said to the goblin. I jogged out of the goblins’ workshop, putting my little Mana Bomb factory behind me and ran into the house.

Bridget was cooking and Sakura was out front working on her hides. I waved to Bridget as I passed and mouthed Myrina's name as I ran to our bedroom and activated the token. I ruffled a few pages on my desk to make it look like I'd been in the middle of writing something. Then, I sat down and accepted the prompt.

Myrina appeared in a burst of light, and I stood as soon as she appeared.

"Myrina! I was wondering when you'd call me," I said.

Myrina glanced behind her. She waved to someone I couldn't see before turning back to me. I didn't like the expression on her face. Her usual smile was gone. In its place was something cold and serious. Her expression was like a naked blade, ready to lash out at a moment's notice.

"Sorry for the delay, Carter. I was in the field. We needed all hands-on-deck, including Cyra. I'm going back to Valkyrie’s Watch, but this was the first chance I had to meet up with Cyra, and I needed funds from her to pay for the teleport."

"I understand. If you don't have time for me, I won't butt in. There's plenty to take care of here on Earth, after all." I waved to the room behind me.

Myrina shook her head. "No. I only have so many opportunities to train you up during this early stage of the integration. I'd be failing in my duties as your patron if I didn't take advantage of them. Our training is just going to be a bit… unconventional. I hope you like hunting bandits, because that's what I'm scheduled to do for the next few days."

I shrugged. "That would probably be better for me than another dungeon run or more arena sparring. Don't get me wrong, the extra proficiency levels are nice. But I like having real levels too."

Myrina cracked a smile for the first time since she'd appeared to me. "Right, your... little problem."

I crossed my arms. "Please don't say it like that. And it's not little. It's a big problem."

Myrina giggled. "I'm sure that’s what you say to all the girls. Where are those two you had with you before? I think I need to get their opinions on this."

"You don't need their help."

Myrina giggled harder. "Alright, alright. I'll just be patient and judge the size of your problemwhen the time comes."

I rolled my eyes.

Not thirty seconds in and Myrina had the two of us acting like the little kids we used to be. "I set up that teleportation platform Cyra gave me. Let me just gather my things. I promised her some treats from my homeworld."

Myrina's eyes lit up. "Those will be welcome. The current conflict has cut off a lot of our food supplies. There's enough in storage to go around for the troops, but rations aren't exactly tasty, you know? Will you be ready in fifteen minutes? I'll be off getting things arranged. Don't miss your teleport! I only got enough funds from Cyra to do this once."

"I won't miss it. Talk to you in person soon." I spent the next few minutes gathering up everything I'd planned to bring with me.

Mostly, that meant packing my bag of holding to the brim. The trouble was, I'd made so many Mana Bombs over the last few days that I could have filled my entire Bag of Holding with them and still not had enough space to store everything. I couldn't have the Mana Bombs out in the open just sitting on the array, either, since then they'd be all around me when I arrived.

I drummed my fingers against my leg in thought. Eventually, I rushed to find Bridget. "Bridget, hang on to these for me. I'll need them. Try to bring them with you when I contact you to bring you over," I said.

Bridget frowned at the massive pile of Mana Bombs pouring out of my Bag of Holding and filling the floor of the kitchen.

"You really think Myrina will let us come? If it were me, I'd want the time with you to myself..."

I shook my head. "It probably won't be Myrina bringing you over. It'll be me. I've got a few plans for Myrina's world, and I can't do them all myself. These Mana Bombs are quite valuable there and I think that if I can sell a few of them off, I’ll be able to afford the teleportation fee on my own.”

Bridget’s eyebrows crawled towards her hairline.

“When that time comes,” I continued, “I'll teleport you and Sakura over to bring more. With your help and an awful lot of gold, doors will open for us that otherwise would not."

Bridget planted a kiss on my forehead. "Go see your friend, Carter. If you can bring us along to join you, I'll be happy to support you in person. I know Sakura will be, too."

I ducked back into the teleportation array with just the bare essentials, cheating a bit by bringing my spare gym bag again for some extra regular storage space beyond what my Bag of Holding allowed. I'd forgotten the original in Myrina's room, along with the clothes I'd brought during my first visit.

Between the two bags, I had Bridget's sweets and about two hundred Mana Bombs—along with about half of the Mega Mana Bombs I’d made. If I gauged things right, I should have more than enough to bring either Bridget or Sakura over with another load of Mana Bombs. That would, in turn, allow me to bring over whoever we'd left behind with the next batch of products.

It turned out Myrina had been faster than I'd estimated and the teleportation began moments after I stepped onto the teleportation array. It was also a lot faster, thanks to the pad I was standing on. I saw why this thing made the process much more efficient.

Instead of scooping out a chunk of my lawn around me, the magic of the teleportation interacted directly with the symbols in the pad. All in all, the pad I was standing on was nothing more than a marker that drew a small box around me and channeled the energy appropriately on my end.

That meant the person doing the teleport didn't need to do the heavy lifting.

I suspected a blind teleport like the one I'd experienced was like performing surgery with your eyes closed. The person making it happen had to work with their magic far beyond their sight or senses—making the process much more difficult than it needed to be without the aid of a device like the one I was standing. With such a device to automate my side of the process, the magic required wasn’t nearly as much.

The pad wasn't all that complicated, and I was pretty sure that with a bit of effort and maybe a few more levels in my Artificer job, I'd be able to build something better than the pad Cyra had gifted me. That would be a project for a later date. Maybe when I was selling enough Mana Bombs that I'd need to teleport over to Myrina's world for more than just training and hanging out.

I was greeted by the same stern orc woman who'd teleported me over the first time just as a system notification appeared.

Since this is not the first time your patron has brought you to Themyscira, your permissible stay is extended to seven days.

A few extra days here should come in handy.

"Doing much better than last time, apparently. It seems you've been civilizing your newly integrated world. Well done," the orc woman said.

She turned to Myrina. "That'll only cost you a third of what it did before."

"Here!" Myrina handed over a pouch full of gold. This was just an ordinary pouch instead of the bag of holding she'd handed over before.

It looked no bigger than my head, but I could tell Myrina was straining to lift it, which meant whatever was in there was a lot heavier than gold. The orc woman took the bag, her shoulders straining until she got it into the bag of holding at her waist—the same one she'd gotten as a bribe for her silence from Myrina before.

Wiping the sweat from her brow, the orc woman flipped her inventory menu up and whistled. "The Samhain Clan is generous once again. I hope the war is going well for you."

"We'll see." Myrina gave her a tight-lipped smile, wrapped her arm around me, and then waved goodbye. "Come on, Carter.”

She nodded to the orc woman. “Back to Valkyrie’s Watch! And remember, keep quiet about Carter here!"

"You have my word," the orc woman agreed.

I watched her carefully. Sooner or later, I'd need a teleporter who could keep her word, too.

We arrived to find Valkyrie’s Watch a lot emptier than it had been the first time I was here.

"Where are all the people?" I asked Myrina curiously.

"They're... around..." Myrina shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. "Okay, maybe not around. A lot of people left to stay with family in the countryside or went off to other cities. After you left, the Shadefall Clan started sending monsters to harass us and, try as we might, we can't track down whoever made those Mana Bombs. Without them, we lost a potent weapon for dealing with those things."

I grimaced. "Is that so?"

By all rights, I should have been happy that the Samhain Clan was desperate for my Mana Bombs. A man of lower morals would have seen it as an opportunity to fleece them for everything they had. It would have been easy simply to deliver all my Mana Bombs to the auction house and make a tidy profit. Myrina would never know of it.

But while I intended to build my own powerbase here that would let me stand on my own, I wasn't about to screw Myrina's family over. I would have to make sure I had enough Mana Bombs to sell to bring Bridget and Sakura over. And if that went well, I could discretely gift the rest to Myrina's family.

With luck, I could do it in such a way that it would encourage them to stop looking into me.

I wasn't foolish enough to suspect my cheap attempt at bribery would secure Misa’s and the town wizard's silence forever—not if the Samhain Clan really wanted to know. And I figured if I sold these Mega Mana Bombs on the open market, they might just decide they really wanted to know.

My decision was made by the time we returned to the castle.

I couldn't help but notice there was only one guard at the gates this time, instead of two. I didn't recognize her, and she looked to be on the shorter end of the Amazonian scale. I was pretty sure I'd be a head taller than her, if she wasn't standing on the walls.

"Lady Myrina! And... guest?" the guard asked. Her voice was on the younger side, too. Probably over eighteen, but not much over eighteen.

"Yep!" Myrina said.

I rolled up my sleeve and fiddled with my menus until my Lesser Mark of the Samhain Clan appeared on my shoulder. As soon as she saw it, the guard opened the gates, with no further questions needed.

"The guest quarters are open to you," the guard explained. "Just check in with whoever's on duty there."

Myrina waved the guard off. "That's alright. Carter's staying with me!"

We returned to Myrina's room. It was messier than it had been on my first visit, but the walls Myrina had the servant's build to divide off a chunk of her room for me were still up. My old gym bag wasn't where I'd left it, though.

The bag in question lay open in the middle of the floor, and my clothes were on Myrina's bed. She'd stuffed my jeans and my t-shirt over a large, human-shaped pillow, which was lying on its side in the middle of her bed.

Myrina's eyes widened when she caught me looking and she quickly stepped between me and her bed. "That's... uh... that’s nothing! If it looks like the clothes you left behind, you're wrong! The servants accidentally threw those out." Myrina waved her hands in front of me.

I laughed. "They weren't that expensive, Myrina. It's fine. Heck, those wizard robes you helped me loot in the dungeon were way more valuable."

"Good! Uh... I mean, that's what I would say if those were yours… which they aren't!"

I eyed the section of the room that had been walled off to give me some privacy. "Mind if I put my things down?"

Myrina nodded vigorously, staying between me and her bed.

I found a safe place to tuck away the Mana Bombs. By the time I returned, the pillow, my old clothes, and my old gym bag had all disappeared. Myrina stood with her arms behind her back, balancing on her toes as she looked up at the ceiling as innocently as possible.

"I've got a bag of holding filled to the brim with food from my homeworld that I promised to Cyra. Where should I put them?" I asked Myrina.

"She isn't due back home for a few days, but I'm sure she'd prefer to have the treats she paid an exorbitant amount of money for out in the field. Let's go drop them off for the next supply run. They'll go straight from your bag of holding to the couriers, so they stay nice and fresh—though I'm sure Big Sis won't mind us snagging one or two before they’re sent off.

"I made sure to bring a little extra, since I figured you'd say something like that." I chuckled.

"Gimme! It's been years since I had any Earth food!" Myrina pawed at my bag of holding.

I snatched it out of reach, since I didn't want her reaching her hand in and coming out with it half full of Mana Bombs.

"Alright… just one, though." I poked through my inventory before finding something Myrina would like. I settled on something simple.

"This is a croissant," I said, withdrawing a neatly wrapped bundle of fluffy, buttered bread.

I shook my head, glancing at my inventory. Bridget must have been a bit of a masochist when it came to working in the kitchen. The croissant I held was one of the least complex dishes she'd made.

I’d picked it mostly because it was one of the few things I could name. To think she'd churned out hundreds of each of these over the last few days... There had been even more she had made that I hadn't been able to fit into my bag of holding.

"Gimme!" Myrina snatched it and bit into the fluffy roll like it was a hunk of meat.

Her eyes lit up. "Mhm! Ohhhh! That’s sooooo good!" She wolfed down the entire thing in the blink of an eye, then stared at me with empty crumb-filled hands and puppy-dog eyes.

"Fine. One more," I muttered as I pulled out a plate of macaroons and moon cakes.

She wolfed them down nearly as fast as she had the croissant. Bridget had estimated the Amazonian appetite more accurately than I'd realized.

When she stared at me with wide eyes and frosting-covered cheeks, I pulled my bag away from her. "Didn't you say your sister was on the front lines, eager to enjoy the food she massively overpaid for?" I asked.

Myrina pouted. "That was before I realized they'd taste so good! If I'd known, I would have just told you I'd hang onto them for her..."

I chuckled. "Myrina, I'll make sure you get all the sweets and snacks you can eat when you're finally able to join me on Earth."

"Really?" Myrina asked.

"Really," I promised.

She hugged me. "Thank you, Carter!" I felt her face press against my shirt and she took a big whiff. "I know it's only been a week, but I really missed you."

I returned her hug with a warm embrace of my own. "I missed you too, Myrina..."

Inwardly, a little voice kept trying to remind me that we were just friends. I ignored it.