Chapter 17: CH17 First Contact Soon?

Several days ago, upstream of the dam. . .

Olk was a human scout for the Stone Basher tribe. He and his kin had spent their lives traveling. The tribe would collect resources and move on. Generations ago the demon queen's army took over every settlement in the former kingdom. The only people who survived learned very quickly to stay on the move. Those that tried to make new towns eventually ended up being invaded and becoming thralls to their succubus leaders.

Olk was a young man. He was a bit taller than the average human. He had a dark complexion. His skin was tanned from years of exposure to the sun. He had short black hair and a beard. He was wearing a brown fur pelt on his shoulders and leather breeches. He had a bow and a quiver of arrows slung across his back. He was walking along a river. The river was not flowing like it should. The water has breached the banks and was flooding low lying areas. Olk thought this was odd. He glanced downstream. "I wonder if something is blocking the river," Olk said into the wind.

Olk ran back to the camp and told the chief what he had seen. The chief ordered the warriors to investigate. Olk showed the warriors what he found and the group went downstream. The group was armed with simple gear made from bone, wood, or stone. It just wasn't possible to build anything better without setting roots down somewhere. The whole tribe knew that was too risky. The tribe was cautious about anything that might lead to an encounter with the Demon Queen's servants. But for everything else they had to be tough. Living a nomadic lifestyle was not for the weak of heart. Eventually, Olk and his group found out why the river was blocked. What was once a ruin of a dam seemed to be repaired and functioning again. He told the warriors to stay back while he activated his stealth skill and looked for traps or ambushes. He found neither.

Olk used his stealth skill to sneak closer to the dam. He saw that the structure was made of stone. The dam was thick enough to double as a bridge to cross the river. The stone basher tribe could use this to cross the river and not risk fording it in a shallower spot. It could save them time if they needed to go that way. He guessed another tribe repaired it. They might be taking a huge risk by investing in an area. The string of ruined towns that lined this very river were a good reminder of that. After he verified it was safe, Olk motioned for the warriors to come. While the group inspected the dam one of the warriors pointed out the pipes that the water flowed through were made of metal. Metal was very valuable in the tribe. Setting up a forge or smelter was extremely risky because of the smoke it would give off. Such things attracted way too much attention. The tribe's craftsmen tended to be stoneworkers, woodworkers, and leatherworkers.

The warrior said that the metal pipes were a little different. They were a lot thicker and didn't have any seams. One of the warriors thought that they might be magical. While the pristine metal would be a valuable find for the tribe, this complicated things. If they were dealing with an earth shaman or a metal mage along with a large group it might be best to just pick up their camp and leave. Oddly, when Olk inspected the tracks he only saw one pair of footprints that looked to be human. There were some animal tracks as well, perhaps a bird and some smaller boot footprints that had a really odd gait. He figured that the last one may just be a false trail.

The warband went back and reported to the chief. This was more bad news on top of other bad news. The tribe had come to log the nearby Aspen groves and some people had gone missing when they went into the woods. The tribe started to pack up and Olk plus several other scouts were ordered to follow the tracks that lead towards the old ruin but stay hidden to see what they were facing.

***

Alex shared the news of clearing the dungeon with the others. For some reason ever since he leveled up he felt a strange tingling feeling running through his body. Pushing it from his mind he introduced the new doll to Merumeru. The slime girl grabbed the doll and jumped up the stairs to the main level. When the slime girl came back from the dungeon with the ability to jump several times her height Alex was surprised. Every time he saw her jump far beyond what she should be capable of it baffled him. Maybe she learned some kind of jumping magic as a reward. While he was pondering this, Fufi figured out what Merumeru wanted. She flew behind the adventurer's guild counter and got into character to play her role as the clerk.

"Hello Merumeru, is this your new party member?" Fufi asked.

Merumeru nodded.

"She looks like she's a magical girl." Fufi said. Alex didn't think she looked like a magical girl. Fufi's favorite subject was magical girls. He suspected while he was in the dungeon Fufi talked to Merumeru about all kinds of magical girl stuff. To Alex, Edelweiss looked more like a knight. He didn't say anything though because the exchange was heartwarming.

Merumeru nodded.

"Do you want to register her with the guild?" Fufi asked.

Merumeru nodded.

"What's her name?" Fufi asked.

Merumeru looked at Alex expectantly.

"Edelweiss is her name." Alex chimed in.

Merumeru smiled.

"I'm glad to meet you, Edelweiss. My name is Fufi. I will be your magical girl guide. I hope we can get along. Now let's see if we can get you registered with the guild. I take it you are going to join Merumeru in her party Lilypad?"

Merumeru beamed excitedly.

"Allright, the adventuring party lilypad consists of Merumeru, Rose, Lily and Edelweiss," Fufi explained while pretending to write something down.

Alex chuckled.

Alex decided to join in the fun and approached the counter. "Guild master Fufi, I just completed the dungeon and got some loot. Could you identify it for me?" He placed the spell scroll on the counter.

Fufi looked over the scroll and said, "It looks like an Animate Doll. This is your first spell scroll Alex?"

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"As far as I know. The scroll title said ‘Animate Doll’ when I got it as a reward for finishing the last wave." Alex answered.

Fufi pointed a wing at the scroll, gesturing for Alex to take it. "That answers my second question. If you can read it then you can learn it. A spell scroll just looks like strange runes to someone that can't learn the spell."

Alex took the scroll and said, "Thank you for the help. I just have to read it top to bottom I suppose."

Fufi waved a wing and said, "No problem. Give it a try. I'm excited for you to get your first spell."

Alex looked at the scroll and said, "Okay, here goes nothing."

Alex began reading the scroll. The words were written in a language he did not recognize yet was able to understand.

Spell Name: Animate Doll

Duration: Channeled

Cost: One doll per intelligence point

Components: Somatic

Effect: The caster animates dolls equal to their intellect points.

The spell duration lasts as long as the caster maintains the dance. (There were some sketches of the dance) The dance went something like triple step, back step, twirl, hop, strike a pose. The dolls must be touching the caster at the start of the dance. The dance doesn't need to be followed perfectly. The caster is encouraged to add their own creative flair to the dance. The caster can command the doll to do anything that the caster or the doll can do.

When Alex finished reading the scroll it crumbled into dust. "I guess that's it. I don't feel any different. Well, I have this strange tingling feeling but that started after I left the dungeon so I figured it would pass." Alex shrugged.

Fufi hummed and asked, "Alex, can you check your status screen on your phone."

Alex took his phone out and shared his status screen. There was another tab listed 'spells' with the only one being Animate Doll. It also showed the same description that he read on the scroll. Fufi and Merumeru were reading it along with him.

"I guess I did learn the spell." Alex said.

Fufi nodded and said, "It looks like your cuteness went up too. Cuteness is an important stat for a magical girl."

"As you can see, I have to dance to cast the spell. Oh, Merumeru, do you want to see some of the bathroom stuff I brought back? They both work by hooking up water pipes to them." Alex made sure to quickly change the subject. He was sure Fufi would go on and on about dancing and cuteness if he let her.

"Meru!" the slime girl said excitedly while hopping repeatedly.

Flipping the toilet upside down Alex pointed to the pipes. "Water goes in this pipe here and fills up the toilet bowl. When you pull the chain it opens this flap in the bowl. Then the water goes down and through the big pipe on the bottom that should be connected to the sewer. Also, there is what is called a float valve that shuts the water off when the bowl gets filled. If it didn't have that then the water would just keep coming and spill out everywhere until someone turned the water off. "

"Ruuu," the slime girl replied while hanging on Alex's every word.

"Next is the sink. People use this to wash their hands. It has two pipes feeding it." He spun the valves a bit to show her how it worked. "Then there is this drain here in the bottom. Notice how the pipe has this bend? They call that a p-trap. It keeps water in the lower point to seal it away from the sewer gas. Water can go down but gas can't come up because that part of the pipe stays filled with water. Isn't that neat?"

Merumeru nodded repeatedly. Alex tried to explain things in more detail as best he could. She would point to parts and he'd reply. Considering the language barrier he wasn't quite sure if he got everything across but he tried his best. Eventually, things wound down and they went to bed for the night.

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