Augmented Aspects: Chapter 268 Technical Oversight (Patreon)

Chapter 268

Technical Oversight

“I literally just saw you bathe in the blood of your enemies,” Penelope chides.

“They weren’t my enemies, they were just little snacklets for the Kujos, that I then processed and bathed in.” I reply somewhat defensively.

“That is the same thing,” Penelope demanded.

“The same thing as eating a ballpark frank or something similar maybe,” I respond.

“Those are just as disgusting and greasy. Also, I know you wouldn’t bathe in those.” Penelope replied.

“No, but I do know someone that swore they would spend the rest of their lives drinking the healthy juices of hot dog water for life if offered enough money.” I respond, remembering how my husband well my should-be-ex made the same ridiculous argument to me when we were still together.

“How much was that?”

“Not nearly enough to make it worth them staying around me while they did the challenge.” I replied.

“There is no way this is a real thing,” Penelope demanded.

“Of course it isn’t a real thing. No one would be sadistic enough to torture the family of anyone stupid enough to continually drink hot dog water for the rest of their lives.” I admit.

“No, I mean that this was even a topic of discussion. There is no way anyone would argue for drinking hotdog water.” Penelope chided.

Before I could even rebut that, Falkynion, one of the Legendary Bloodline Awakening students, responded.

“Unfortunately, she is not incorrect, that was a thing,” Falkynion stated.

Penelope looked at Falkynion as if she was trying to see if he was telling her a joke.

“Surely that is a joke?” Penelope asked.

“I mean it was meant to be, but then doctors came out with how It increased brain function and vitality, weight loss, and could lead to a younger physique. It was also touted as gluten-free, and being Keto diet-compatible,” Randidler, another one of my mid-term taking students added.

“Ah, talking about the hotdog water lifestyle,” Mallory added, having finally made her presence known in our now open-air classroom.

“A lifestyle?” Penelope parroted.

“Yep, it turned out a few people didn’t need to be paid money to join the fad.” Mallory said, a grimace filling her face as she clearly meant someone dear to her.

“Wait, so you really weren’t making this up, to distract me from,” Penelope began and then paused, trying desperately to remember what we had been talking about at the beginning of this whole conversation.

“Oh no, I didn’t make it up, but it was meant to distract you from what you were thinking of.” I respond, then seeing Mallory I remember the reason why. As even now, I could feel the trickle of power related to a World First notification trickling through me. Almost the same way you feel when you eat something that clearly has food poisoning on it, and you feel your body fighting against the hostile invader the entire time as it slowly works its way through your body. At least you think it is slowly, while you know for a fact that it is moving ten times faster than normal.

Yeah, this is likely not the best metaphor of days.

“Oh? Dr. Spiritlight trying to distract you from something, I didn’t think that such an event was possible.” Mallory said her words all but biting with sarcasm.

“Hey, I’m not distracting,” I respond.

“No, you are the distraction,” Mallory responded, then turning back to Penelope she asked. “Okay, so what tidbit of information did you get about our good doctor here that she would resort to the hotdog water conversation to keep you from focusing?”

Penelope for her part looked lost, as she tried to think back. Then you could all but see the moment she remembered as her face went from its normal happy self to a slightly disturbed look.

“Oh, it was the fact she bathed in the blood of her enemies.” Penelope stated.

Hearing her, I was about to respond, which she saw and then holding up a hand she cut me off as she clarified.

“Sorry, I mean she bathed in the blood of Kujo’s enemies.”

At that, Mallory just paused and seemed to read the truly serious look on Penelope’s face to figure out that she was not in fact wrong about this.

“Okay,” Mallory said to Penelope before spinning about and facing me directly. “What did you do? And is there something you want to tell me about now?”

Twitch.

With so much attention on me, I felt my control over the thread of information I was desperately clinging onto loosen for a moment. Seeing as this was sort of an out, I decided to take it.

“I recycled energy.”

“Recycled?”

“Yeah, you know, energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only altered. Well, while trying to come up with a way to keep the Kujo Caverns cleaned from their messy eating. I thought up a way to not only clean up the fallen chunks and splatters of monster kills, but have them cleaned refined and processed into a form that could be absorbed through osmosis.” I respond, trying to hit the high points without getting too technical on the exact runes used for this master level enchanting process.

Click.

The moment I state the words Kujo Caverns, I feel something click in my mind as I realize I’ve just given my first home here a name. And worst of all, I named it after the dang pets that basically confiscated my home.

Local Area Chime.

New Location Found: Kujo Caverns: A hidden underground dwelling filled with mysteries, exotic rune structures, wild beasts, and a mythical level power stealing sacrificial altar.

Seeing the message pop up in my mind, I pause. Then looking around, I realized that everyone in my immediate area got the message.

“A mythical level power stealing sacrificial altar?” Mallory exhaled in a moan that denoted this being yet another thing she didn’t want to have to deal with or cover.

I pause, and then wonder about the wording.

“I mean, it is a bit theatrical with its description there, but I guess it could be considered one. Though mythical level?” I question, wondering if it was truly that hard. I mean my Simulacrum made it, meaning it couldn’t be mythical level right?

Of course, I did help streamline the designs and layered functionality, but to have my first recognized mythical level room be called a power stealing sacrificial altar seems a bit much.

Hearing my somewhat lame attempt to deflect away from the wording, Mallory turns to me and asks.

“So, what would you call the system in place?”

Hearing that, I pause and try to come up with nicer more flowery words.

“An environmentally friendly power conversion, cleaning, and retention platform?” I pose, trying to detail the intent behind the design, versus the doomsday response that the world seems to be going for.

“An environmentally friendly power conservation what now?”

“An environmentally friendly power conversion, cleaning, and retention platform.” I state a bit more emphatically now that I’ve had more time to think about the exact wording I want on this.

“Uh-huh. And on this retention platform, you could kill monsters, let them bleed out and convert their energy into a form that could be taken?” Mallory poses.

“Well yeah, that was part of it, I mean the main thing is the cleaning. Both the floor area itself, that way the Kujo’s don’t leave a bloody mess everywhere, and I don’t have to worry about vacuuming up dire phase wolf hair all the time.” I respond.

“Uh-huh. So, this platform can convert both recently killed and dead skin cells and convert it into energy?” Mallory presses.

“Yeah, again you can’t create or destroy energy, just convert it.” I reiterate my point from earlier, I mean who am I to refute Einstein after all.

With that Mallory pauses, and then stares at me. I can even see her clearly working with how she wishes to word her next question.

“But you do see how other people, those who are less scrupulous than you could use that same functionality to say kill off enemies and then try to absorb their power?” Mallory asks.

Hearing her words, I try to refute, but then realize she might have a point.

“I mean, yeah. People can always misuse items.” I reply.

Mallory looks like she wants to comment, but then just shakes her head.

“You know, had anyone else created this, I would swear they had alternate intention in place. Whereas, when you speak, I really do assume you meant to create the worlds first silent Roomba that charges you instead.”

“See, it’s not all my fault.”

“No, this is one hundred percent your fault, but since it is your fault. You can keep it so long as no one else takes it from you. Also, I am entrusting you that if should anyone ever try to take over the area you would destroy it before letting it fall into enemy hands.” Mallory stated.

“I am the least of the worries. Very soon here there will be at least fifteen dire phase wolves using that lair as their own personal living area.” I reply.

“Wait, you mean there will be fifteen sacrifices happening daily in there, feeding your pool of energy and you think this will be less of a tempting target?” Mallory asks.

“I mean, when you point out all the flaws, then yeah anything looks like a bad idea.”

Hug.

There was a blur, and before I realized what happened, Mallory had her large arms around me holding me tightly against her chest.

I of course tried to flap my wings, only for their ephemeral state to easily whip right through Mallory’s arms. To my surprise all my practice flying in increased gravity was paying off, as I was easily able to lift myself and Mallory despite the conception that my wings wouldn’t be able to flap freely. They could and I easily gained lift, though again it was hard to work my way free of her grip.

“Never change,” Mallory said, after inhaling deeply and apparently breathing in some of my possibly spell missed dried magic blood particles from my hair; that or maybe she smelled pixie dust from my wings, as she instantly relaxed a bit and then held me out at arm’s length stared into my eyes.

Well, she stared, while I could still see everything around me thanks to my Angel’s Sight.

“I don’t think you mean that, unless all these pep-talks after I do things are a giant red herring for your true intentions. One of those, encourage me to do things by telling me to do the opposite?” I begin, and then realize that would be a devilish plan.

“Wait, is that your ultimate plan for me?” I pose, playing it up, even though this could easily be the truth if I but delved a bit further into the whole thought process here. “You tell me not to do things, knowing that I will in fact do them. Only to then tell me not to change, knowing that my changing now would mean not doing what I have been doing.”

At that, I pause as everyone around me is also quiet.

“That is diabolical.” I state.

“No, wait, this time I mean it, I truly mean it. It is okay, you don’t have to change. Not that you could, but I can’t imagine a world without you doing you type things while here.” Mallory said.

“Ahh.” I reply, and I hope she means it too, for right now I am this close to letting go of my mental hold over the World Announcement that is burning its way through my mind.

“Yes, I mean it, this world would be a lot more boring without your constant rays of randomness that you add everywhere.” Mallory stated.

“Oh, phew,” I state as I let out a breath and mentally relax my hold on the remainder of the items from the energy absorption quest I completed. Definitely not related to the use of mythical level grade sacrificial altars.

Experience Gained:

250,000 / 125,000 / 125,000

Ding.

Level Up.

Divinely Akashic Qi Master has increased by four levels to level 339.

Quintessence Ethereal Simulacrums Master has increased by three levels to level 368.

Quintessence Ethereal Healer has increased by five levels to level 501.

                New Quintessence Ethereal Healer Class Perk Available.

                New Quintessence Ethereal Healer Aura Perk Available.

Dang it, just when I thought I was fine on letting the levels go through, I was hit with the level five hundred double whammy of a new aura and a class perk. Fortunately, I still had time as an immediate response was not required, but I did know that these alterations would need to be applied in a relatively short order. Though for the moment there was something even more pressing as it took me a moment to recognize the fact that I almost missed the World Announcement.

World First Notification: Rejoice, the First Mythical Level Facility has been created and used. The facility, a Sacrificial Altar of Power Transference has been created by Dr. Cassiopeia Spiritlight, you have been warned.

There is a long pause as all of us seem to stare at the notification in silence.

Finally, after a few minutes, I reply honestly “that was not what I expected that announcement to be about.”

“Okay, and what did you think the world announcement would be about exactly?” Mallory asked, in what had to be a master plan of getting me to reveal anything else I might be hiding from her.

“I thought it was going to be about creating a perfected Qi body, which is far more advanced than just the standard Qi core. But this just goes to show, none of us can understand what the world considers priorities in alerting.” I respond.

There is a moment where Mallory opens and moves her lips a few times the same way a fish would when pulled from the water. Only to then close her mouth as she reformulated her question.

“You thought your Qi body was somehow more important than your creation of and use of a mythical level slaughterhouse?”

“I mean, if you dramatize it like that then yeah. But from my perspective it was just a three weeklong project that I had my Simulacrum working on in the background.” I respond.

“In the background, do you have all of your simulacrum working on similar projects?”

“What? No, why would I create energy transference arrays in libraries, and on my ship?” I ask, trying to point out that at least this question was ludicrous.

“But your spending three weeks on a project transformed a random spot of land here? It is here right?” Mallory asked, waving her hand about in the general area as if trying to understand where the new threat vector came from.

“I mean, hypothetically, yeah. I did give you a map of the location of the base when I first got here. Back before the Kujos took over.” I respond.

“On those clear sheets of paper?”

“What no? I wrote in magical disappearing ink, just as you agreed in my charter for communicating critical intel points.” I responded.

“You had a map of your rest house drawn because you thought it was critical?” Mallory asked.

“I mean, at the time I figured you could use it to find me if you needed me urgently.” I responded.

But then, I realized she said something odd with her words.

“Wait, clear sheets of paper? You do know that I write all my messages using the approved magical ink?” I ask.

“I mean, I know that now.” Mallory states.

Hearing her, I pause and realize the operative words in her statement. “How long is now exactly?”

“About four or five hours, roughly.” Mallory notes.

At that, I just nod my head. “So my progress reports on what I was doing up until this point. My outlines for ways forward with each class, and what experiments I was working on at any given time were completely missed by your oversight?” I ask.

This is crucial, as I am fairly certain she is being honest with the five or so hours. Which is good, as it means I have a blanket out here if I phrase this correctly.

While I technically had a section in every letter denoting current experiments, I never filled out that section. That or when I did, they were always experiments that failed, which was part of why I stopped filling out that section to begin with, as I might have thought it was slightly cursed.

Still, Mallory doesn’t know that, and I can use that here.

“Probably, but hey, what’s that?” Mallory asks, pointing at something behind me.

I just stare at her, looking at her like she is foolish.

“You do realize I can see everything around me, at all times, right?” I ask.

“Yeah, I didn’t think this one through that well.” Mallory admitted while putting her finger down, and looking mildly flustered.

“Were you here for any particular reason?” I ask, indicating that I still have my last and final mid-term exam to administer.

“Nope, I just came to see how you were doing with the newly opened schoolhouse building.” Mallory responded, while gesturing to the building I had broken last night.

“All right, you ready to see what type of exam I hand out to these students?” I ask.

“Nope, I trust you.” Mallory said.

Her words hitting me deep, though I don’t know exactly why. However, I can say one thing for certain, her words do resonate with both power and honesty.

“Okay, well thank you.” I say to Mallory, and I honestly mean it. Not quite sure why, but those words do make me fell like a lot of the tension that had been building between us recently was released. Not all of it, but enough to let me know that I still want to be here in the future.

“No, thank you.” Mallory says honestly as she gives me a slight bowing of her head as she begins to leave the building.

As she leaves, I pause give a three count mentally, before I decide to give this midterm test as well. Then reaching into my satchel, I pull out a stack of magically binding parchments.

“All right, who wants to sign a contract with me to help awaken their Legendary Bloodline?” I ask.

Silence.

Apparently, these students had already heard of my actions yesterday, no worries, I was already prepared for this.

“Okay, on to option two for possible mid-term exams…”