“The orcs seem to be having fun,” Emilia said, with a tight look on her face.

Maya looked up from her tablet to see the young Mage enter what she was calling the command center. The woman was dirty, tired, and in tattered clothing like the rest of them, but she did her job very well. If Maya had gifts and medals, the woman would definitely be getting those.

All Maya could offer was a cup of coffee and some chocolates. Emilia eagerly accepted those and sat down before her.

“They don’t want to be food, but they’re willing to make others into food,” Emilia continued. “Seems kinda hypocritical. At least they’re not making jokes about roasting humans over fires and how succulent our marrow is.”

“Species humor,” Maya said. “They all respect you for what you did for them. They might not show it or say it, but they know you’re the one that kept them alive in all the battles.”

“Well, a little thank you would have been nice,” Emilia said, chewing on her chocolate. “They did offer me a Tarvana leg, seasoned and roasted with some spices they had. I suppose that was a thank you?”

“There you go. It makes it easier for us that the orcs and crows can eat the Tarvana without any processing. Puts less strain on the food processors. Eventually we’ll run out of… resources and need to stockpile as much ration bars as possible.”

“Yeah,” Emilia said, looking down at the piece of chocolate. “I just never thought that eating another sentient species would be something I would do.”

“It gets some getting used to,” Maya said. “But desperation will override any and all morality you have in that regard.”

“Yay,” Emilia said softly.

“Chu says you’re smart,” Maya said. “Though I should have figured that out when you’ve managed to become a mage. Mental Stats are a big thing in magecraft and I suppose that also translates to thinking ability.”

“Well, I should thank him for thinking of me as smart,” Emilia said. “He’s not as dumb as he looks too.”

“Tell me your levels and skills,” Maya said.

Emilia fidgeted a bit. “Isn’t that a bit, y’know, invasive questioning? Are they laws against this type of questioning?” she asked.

“Seriously?” Maya sighed. “I was being nice by asking, but since you’re a part of the Infantry, I can just get the information.”

Emilia Morales

Race: Human (Tier 1)

Level 26

Titles: Stranger in a Strange Land, Dimensional Traveller

Achievements: Against the Hailstorm

Bulwark Mage Level 22

Mana Siphon Level 15

“This is bullshit,” Emilia said, furious. “That is private information. It’s like against System HIPPA, right? Is there such a thing?”

Maya scanned through the titles and stopped at Dimensional Traveller.

Unlike her own Unstable Survivor, the people she had brought into the RSH all obtained the Dimensional Traveller. Which gave them a small boost in luck and the Dimensional Inventory.

Dimensional Traveller

Traveling about is a dangerous business in the Integrated Multiverse. Luck and planning is needed, also a good suitcase.

+5 Luck

Dimensional Inventory

“It’s the Mana Siphon that’s important here,” Maya said, dismissing Emila’s outrage. She had signed the Terms of Service and it was a basic and common TOS that all militaries employed. “Due to you attachment to the tesseract and the heavy usage of power that you’ve been using in the last few days, your mana channels have changed. Not only can you pull in more mana than usual, you can expend it just as fast.”

“What does that mean?” Emilia asked.

“Think of the normal mage as sucking mana through a straw. You’re sucking mana through a culvert pipe and choking it down without any problems.”

“Gross analogy,” Emilia said. “Is this a good or bad thing?”

“A bit of both,” Maya said. “You’ll always need a heavy concentration of mana to use your abilities, but it also means you can hit hard with your abilities. It’s a bit more costly and in terms of mana conservation, its not very good.”

“We’re in a low mana dimensional plane,” Emilia said. “So you’re saying I’m screwed?”

“Nope, that’s what the tesseract is for. You’re gonna have to be joined at the hip with it from now on. Not just for your skills and abilities, but because if you’re not in a high mana area, your mana channels are going to wither up.”

“Is this a disability?” Emilia asked. “I’m stuck with this for my entire life? All… two hundred odd years of it?”

“Eventually it’ll clear up,” Maya said. “Mana channels are a weird thing, they change according to the person and eventually they sort themselves out. You’ll probably have to keep drawing in mana for about six months to a year before they heal up to the point where you can go without the tesseract.”

“This blows,” Emilia said. “That pack is ungainly as all hell.”

“In the mean time, we’re going to need your Siphon skills soon. As you know we’re gathering up mana stones, we’ll need you to suck them dry and store that mana in the tesseract packs. I’m also going to need you to level up a skill you currently don’t have.”

“What’s that?”

“Harvesting and Mana Harvesting.”

“What are those?”

“Harvesting is simple. You harvest things. It is a prerequisite skill. Once you reach level five in Harvesting, it opens up the skill, Mana Harvesting. Which will allow you to pull mana out of objects, machines, and eventually people.”

“You want me to drain people of mana?”

“I want you to drain mana stones of mana,” Maya said. “Right now, the stones have to be individually touched to the tesseract pack before they begin draining. With Mana Harvesting, you’d be in control of how much and how fast the mana is removed from the stones moved into the tesseracts. It’ll greatly increase our Mana collection, as we’re only relying on the low ambient mana to do that. Currently, it’s going to take about a month to fully charge a tesseract pack and the two we have are damn near empty.”

“I suppose,” Emilia said.

“I’m being generous here,” Maya said. “You’re legally obligated to me, not human law, but System Law. You’ve signed your Term of Service, you’ve agreed to the contract, and I could force you to allocate you points, skills, and even what awards you are given by the System. It’s all standard System Law mumbo-jumbo. I could, but I won’t and will never do that. If you want to allocate all your points to Mental Strength, go for it. We currently need your skills and we also need you to pick up some extra ones that will benefit not only you, but everyone here.”

“That’s not really asking me,” Emilia said. “You’re emotionally blackmailing me to choose the choice you want me to take. If I don’t, what happens? We all die? The poor orcs, crows, humans, and Sinz all buy it in this god awful place?”

“Basically.”

“See, not much of a choice.”

“Such is life in the Integrated Multiverse.”

“I hate that saying,” Emilia said. “Fine. I’ll gain some skills and lug this heavy ass pack around so I don’t lose my mana channels.”

“I’ve been speaking to some of the … Sinz? Anyway, they’re saying that they’ve got a couple of people that never fully qualified as mages due to their constricted mana channels, there are also some crow and other humans who weren’t quiet mage level, but desperate times calls for desperate measures.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Emilia asked.

“You’re being promoted to Lieutenant in the Infantry, currently the second highest rank. Chu is now a Captain, so he’s your superior. You’ll gather up those that show some mage potential and get them to expand their mana channels as you have done.”

“You want us all sucking culverts?” Emilia asked. “Won’t that just drain all the tesseracts…” she paused for a moment. “That’ll mean we’re gonna have to be all hanging around this tesseract for potentially a year?”

“Hmm… hadn’t thought about it like that, but okay, yeah. You’ll all become best of buds and the closest Mages in the Multiverse.”

Emilia groaned. “But I don’t like people.”

“You’ll all grow close bonds and familiarity,” Maya said.

“Familiarity breeds contempt,” Emilia responded. She sighed and finally nodded. “Sure, why not? It’s not like I’ve got any better choices. It’s do it your way or what? Try to live in a hellscape in cannibal country?”

“That’s the spirit,” Maya said, grinning. “You’ll be reporting to Bone Tusk for Harvesting learning.”

“Bone Tusk, you mean that mean ass barrow that’s in charge of processing the Tarvana?” Emilia gagged and stared at Maya. “Harvesting means harvesting the Tarvana? Like their meat and whatnot?”

“Well, there’s no plants to harvest around here,” Maya said.

***

“The Tesseract packs can make mages?” the Sow asked. She sipped on her cup of coffee, surprised at her enjoyment of it.

“Sort of. The sucking in of a lot of universal mana seems to lead to one’s mana channels expanding to accommodate it,” Maya replied. “We learn something new every day. Normally a mage’s power is determined on how much mana they can absorb and expend. And all that is determined by the mana channels one manages to create. Normally, low to mid grades can’t change their mana channels, but once you hit high grade, things open up a bit. There has been no real way to expand those channels effectively or safely at lower level, therefore its a bottleneck in Mage creation. We’ve been using tesseracts for a while, but this is the first time we’ve been having SIL use them. Mostly it was to keep the Cage running or various machines.

”Tesseracts aren’t very common in the Multiverse at Large. From what I’ve learned, they’re made in laboratories and require heavy industrial and scientific investments to create. Not many powers have them and those that do, well, they’re pushing the limits of system tech and crafting.”

“So anyone could eventually become a mage? Even barrows or boars?” Whitestripe asked.

“Maybe. I’m not entirely sure yet. But we can try, if you want,” Maya said. “No harm in allowing a boar or barrow or sow to give it a go.”

“No need,” the Sow said. “We have our mages.”

Maya thought back on the gilts that the Sow was talking about. They were an insane offshoot of the orcs, young females that were exposed to too much mana. It drove them mad, but also made them extremely powerful. It had been the task fo the Sullivan Survival Society to try and figure out a cure for their madness. Such young orcs should live a full life, not one that caused madness and early death.

Thoughts about Nanaseto bubbled and Maya shoved it right back down. No need to think of things she had no control of. Nan would survive, she survived thousands of years on a ship with rogue AIs, she would survive this backstab.

“Your people have been working well with Tender and the drones,” Maya said. “I’d like to see if any of them would like to begin training as mechanics, technicians, or engineers in system technology.”

“The Combined Tribe is still one tribe,” Ironbeak said. “We make this decision as one.”

“Not much of a decision,” Whitestripe said. “We need to know these things. We need to know how to build and what it can do.”

“We rely too much on you,” the Sow said. “What if you die or abandon us? We need knowledge and skills.”

“Agreed,” Maya said. “Your people have fought well and if it wasn’t for them, we’d be long dead. I deeply appreciate your continued alliance with the 3S.”

The Sow grunted. “We know we will die without your assistance,” she said. “No need to pretend that we are here because we’re honorable or upholding agreements. We all need one another to survive and survive we shall, as you said.”

Maya nodded and smiled. “Good.”

“Need more spices,” Ironbeak said. “Tarvana meat is bland, too little fat. But rich in mana.”

Maya kept her smile. “I’ll look into that.”

“No matter where we are, there is always things trying to eat us,” Whitestripe said. “Not much different from the old world. There monsters and humans try to eat us. Here it is Tarvana. If on some other world, there would be monsters trying to eat us, no?”

“Yeah, the entire Integrated Multiverse is one of fighting, killing, and surviving,” Maya said. “There is no place of peace out there.”

The four sat in silence for a long moment.

“We shall send those that want to learn system tech,” the Sow said. “As many skills and abilities as we can learn, we wish to learn them.”

“I’ll see to it,” Maya said. “I would also like to discuss overall command of the fighting forces at our disposal.”

***

“We didn’t even have to torture them,” Sostanio said as she sipped her coffee. “They just gave up everything they knew as soon as we began questioning.”

“Torture much?” Chu asked.

“It is a viable source of information gathering,” the junior lieutenant stated. “Many oaths and Contracts can be broken via pain, when the subject thinks they are about to die. It causes fractures, which a good torturer can exploit and force them to break their oaths without the usual consequences.”

“The shit you learn,” Chu said, grimacing. “So the Mental Mage was just a lucky happenstance?”

“Yes,” Sostanio replied. “They caught the passage of the horde from a settlement we passed and decided to see what was occurring. Once they saw that we were not Tarvana and who you were, they decided to attack us en mass.”

“My fame spreads,” Maya muttered.

“That means there is information passing about the fight in the Cage,” Chu said. “If they know you, if they know what that represents, it will mean they know we’re here. It won’t be long before they send more than a Mental Mage against us.”

“Our time here is running short,” Whitestripe said. “Yet our people are not yet fully healed. This is a concern.”

“Nor do we have enough material to put up a serious fight,” Chu said. “We’re in need of resupply.”

“That’s the good part,” Maya said. “Tell them, Sos, what was the Mental Mage doing in a settlement?”

Sostanio frowned at the nickname. “The Mental Mage was an overseer of a mana stone mine and farming settlement. It seems they assign Mental Mages to boost production in their settlements.”

“I’m guessing not via making things more efficient and creating a happy workplace?” Chu asked.

“By dominating their minds and forcing them to work harder,” Sostanio said.

“Sounds like a corporate gig,” Chu replied.

“Then we hit this mine and farm,” Whitestripe said.

“Oh, boo,” Maya said. “You’re ruining the surprise.”

“We’re going raiding?” Chu asked.

“With the Mental Mage dead, it is likely that the mine and farm are in a state of disarray,” Sostanio said. “Depending on the length of time that they have been subjected to the Mental Mage’s power, it will take hours to days for them to recover from it. The lower your mental resistances, the longer it will take to recover from being controlled.”

“So if he just ditched them, they could just be zombies sitting there for the last few days?” Chu asked.

“Ripe for the plucking,” Maya said. “They also have farms, which is something new. From what we’ve gathered, it’s a type of bacteria they’re growing and consuming to supplement their diet of mana stones.”

“Bacteria?” Whitestripe asked. “That is what makes injuries worse.”

“We’re thinking it’s a kind of cyanobacteria, similar to the algae that we were growing on the Hangy. This is widespread though, literal farms of it where they process it into food and foodstuffs.”

“They were vegetarians all along, that explains everything,” Chu muttered.

“If we can capture one of these farms and a sample of the bacteria, then we can be able to use it to grow our own supply of foodstuffs,” Maya explained. “Also, this settlement is a depot of refined materials of various grades. They mine the trash piles and ship off the higher grade stuff to the Flesh Mother.”

“Alright, so when do we hit this place?” Chu asked, clapping his hands.

“The sooner the better,” Whitestripe said.

“We’re working on some wagons and projectile weapons,” Maya said. “In two days perhaps. We need a fast strike team. We get in there, grab as much stuff as we can, and then leave. We’ll be leaving a small guard force back here for the wounded.”

“Do we know anything about this place besides it being used as a forced labor camp?” Chu asked. “Do we know where the good stuff is stored, will there be any resistance, are there any Flesh Army goons about, or any high leveled Tarvana hanging around there. Surely a place that’s basically a slave camp isn’t going to be wide open and without some kind of security.”

“Surprise will be on our side,” Sostanio said.

“Yeah, a surprise bullet in the brainpan,” Chu replied. “Do we have any scouts? Do we have anyone capable of recon? I do not like the idea of bum rushing this place and then getting shot to shit by guards we didn’t even know were there. We can’t even roll up with guns blazing and overwhelming firepower because we’re low on weapons and ammo. Hell, we can’t even roll up because we’re back to wagon days, man.”

“You bring up a good point, Chu,” Maya said.

“You know it.”

“As the head of our military forces, how are you going to deal with these issues?” Maya asked.

“Me?” Chu sputtered. “When?”

“You’re a Captain in the Infantry. The Combined Tribe has also voted to follow your lead, as you have been leading them since we arrived here. And Sostanio and the mercs are all under your command too.”

“That’s some Tier 3 bullshit,” Chu said. “I’m just a grunt. You’re the boss here, you make the calls.”

“I do make the calls and the call I’m making is that you’re in charge of our fighting force. There’s a lot of work to do here and much of it is building the things we’ll need to survive. Therefore delegation is needed. You, Daniel Chu, are to plan this operation and ensure that it succeeds.”

“Oh, fuck me,” Chu said.

***

It was technically nighttime and Maya sat in her small section of camp. They hadn’t done more after the battle other than clean up the dead and fix some of the roughed up walls. It seemed odd, to see an entire field dead and not be assaulted by the smell.

As it was, all things in the RSH immediately died once they left the body. There were no bacteria to spoil the meat or cause them to ripen. Eventually the weirdness of the RSH would consume the flesh and leave only the bones behind. So there was a time limit to how quickly they needed to harvest the bounty.

Maya looked at her status screen. It had been a long while since she had done so. There were many changes, but what caught her eye were two.

Dimensional Awareness XX

Dimensional Threshold XX

She felt around the world and could feel the small eddies and bubbles of dimensional movements. They were ephemeral instances, small sparks in the darkness that flashed and vanished.

Maya reached out and grabbed hold of one. She forced her will into it. There was a moment of darkness and then she flopped to the ground.

“Ow, shit,” Maya cursed.

“Boss?” Tender’s voice asked.

She looked up to see that she was at the work area where Tender and the drones were dismantling system tech junk. The drones staggered to a stop and all turned to look at her.

“What just happened?”

“You suddenly appeared.”

“Appeared?” Maya blinked.

She looked down at a notification that was blinking.

Dimensional Skip I

Move up to twenty meters instantly.

“Well, that’s interesting.”