Chapter 18: CH18 Suprises

Olk and his team followed the tracks back towards the ruined village.  That is where he ran into the first problem.  The tracks stopped when the roads of town started.  The entire road was unnaturally clean.  There wasn't anything for his tracking skill to pick up on.  Even if the footprints were gone his skill usually highlighted other things like strands of hair, broken twigs, threads of clothing.  Nothing was present. The road was unnaturally clean.  He didn't like it.  He felt like he was being led into an ambush.

Olk signaled for the others to stop and look around. He wanted to be sure no one was sneaking up behind them. The others came to a halt and Olk looked back and forth. He was looking for anything out of place. After a few minutes of searching he was satisfied that it was safe to continue.  They avoided the unnaturally clean roads directly but Olk discovered that the cleaned stretch itself was a track to follow of sorts.  Eventually they came across the ruined town square.  Many piles of rubble that used to be buildings surrounded the open area with a single surprising feature in the center of it all.  The fountain was working.  It had been over a year since the tribe scouted this place and the fountain was not working then.  The tribe back then had spent several days looting the place but there was little to be found except debris and rusted metal.  The tribe would have passed this ruin completely if not for the tracks leading here.

Olk looked at the fountain and said, "I remember that fountain from the last time we were here. It wasn't working."

"What happened?" asked one of the scouts.

"I don't know. I thought we were dealing with one caster and an exploratory group.  But we haven't seen any signs of the main group.  Why would someone fix a dam and a fountain?" Olk asked the other scouts as he eyed the cleaned area.

"Maybe we are missing something," said one of the scouts.

"Let's move on," said Olk. "We need to find where this cleaned path leads."

Olk and his team moved on. They eventually reached the end of the cleared path.  At the end of the path there was a partly reconstructed adventurer's guild.  He and the other scouts staked the place out, watching from different angles while staying hidden in the shadows of adjacent ruined buildings.

Olk watched the guild closely. He saw a large pink bird fly out of the inside and perch on top of one of the walls.  He ducked down blocking any line of sight.  He thought about the bird and tried to put a name to it.  Was it a flamingo?  He thought he'd seen them before but much further to the south where the climate was wetter and warmer.

He waited for the bird to leave. The bird stayed for a long time. Finally, the bird flew off and returned to the guild.

Olk and the rest of the scouts continued their watch.  Hours passed and the next thing they saw was a toddler-sized blue slime.  The odd thing about this slime was that it was wearing clothing and kept a humanoid shape.  The red shirt, blue overalls, and red cap were nicer than anything that could be found in this area.  Olk wondered where it came from.  The only truly free bastions of civilization left on the continent were extremely isolated or compromised. Some nobles made deals with the demon queen's empire in exchange to be spared.  These deals tended to require tribute.  The tribute tended to be the human kind.  The humans offered to the succubi would become thralls as they lost themselves to charm.  This made trade with those nobles extremely risky because if they had to offer tribute then offering outsiders was always a better option then their own people. He watched quietly for hours as the slime climbed around the walls of the building.  She would dissolve the debris littered around the area into her body and use it to repair and rebuild the damaged building.  Eventually the bird from earlier came out again and started talking to the slime in the common tongue. This surprised Olk.  The only animals that could communicate in such ways were sacred beasts.  Being extra careful not to be noticed he risked another peek at the Flamingo.  The bird had a gem on her forehead.  It was frustrating to listen to the conversation between the talking bird and the slime.  While the bird could speak the common tongue the slime's speech consisted entirely of two syllables: "Me" and "Ru". He had no idea what the slime was saying and could only grasp half of the conversation between the two.

Olk motioned one of the other members of his team to approach his position after the two went back in the building.  "Go back and tell the chief that we have spotted the other group here. This building might be a nest for a new type of slime. Ask our shaman if he thinks the bird might be a sacred beast. If so, then we have to be very cautious."

Olk waited for the other scout to return. One time the Flamingo flew up from the roofless building and towards the river. Luckily, everyone predicted that they might be spotted from above and had secured appropriate hiding places.  The bird came back some time later carrying a few fish and a couple claws of berries.  When the sun was setting Olk heard a third voice from the other side of the wall of the building.  The voice was male and was chatting with the bird. Much of the conversation was either muffled or unimportant stuff however Olk heard the words 'Rift' and 'Dungeon' several times.

Olk searched his memory of the last time these ruins were explored and his eyes went wide.  Some things remained unclear but the purpose they were camped out in this building was because the dorment rift dungeon before was now active again.  Maintaining these dungeons was something court mages used before the local kingdom fell. Finding an active one was an incredible boon. Finding an inactive one was just a painful reminder of how humanity had fallen.

Olk looked at the sky and realized that it was getting late. The team set up some shifts to only have a couple people staking out the place through the night. As night fell, the tribesmen were surprised that the group kept no night watch. This could be something they could take advantage of later. Most of the other scouts went back to camp and Olk planned to keep watch until midnight before he swapped out with someone who hadn't been up all day. They were not sure yet if it was just the one slime or many slimes. He suspected that the male of the group was a monster tamer.  If he only had a bird and a slime as his tamed beasts then he likely wasn't very strong.  Monster tamer was a class several of his tribemates had. From talking with them he recalled that slimes were one of the easiest monsters to tame..

Olk was still worried about the unknown nature of the slime. When his shift was up he went back and prepared a report for the chief. The chief was asleep so he'd have to talk with him in the morning. He guessed he would order a team to secure the rift dungeon and the tribe would stay here as long as they could protect it.

***

The next morning Alex awoke feeling strange. He was used to waking up early and going to bed late. He was used to being a lumberjack. He was used to having a lot of energy. He was used to being a man. Something was not right. Alex threw the blankets off and grabbed the mirror and ran up the stairs, stumbling a few times. He needed some light to get a good look at himself in the mirror.  The previous day his cuteness stat has gone up by two and while he was concerned at the time nothing seemed to happen so he thought he was in the clear.

Alex took a deep breath and held it. He exhaled slowly. He felt like he was suffocating. He couldn't breathe. He was panicking. He was losing control. What looked back at him from the mirror was Alex.  Only it wasn't the current Alex. It was the teenage boy version of Alex from years ago. He gazed at a cute, innocent, and naive young man.

Alex opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. His throat was closed. He was choking on his own fear.

"Alex! Alex!" said Fufi as she rushed up after him.

Fufi hugged him and rubbed her head against his.

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"I'm okay," said Alex, trying to convince himself more than anyone,"I'm fine."

"You're not fine," said Fufi. "You're not acting normal. Set down the mirror and take a deep breath."

Alex did as he was told. He sat down and breathed deeply. He tried to relax. He stared into the mirror. He saw the same face.

"I can see the problem," said Fufi. "This might be a side effect of leveling up your magical girl class. Your cuteness went up, it just took a good night's sleep for the changes to take effect."

"I don't understand," said Alex. "Why would it do that?" His voice cracked a bit while he talked.  Was his voice going to change as well? This worried him.

"It's a class thing," said Fufi. "Some classes change the people that have them.  I heard once that the class of Bun could give rabbit ears after it leveled up enough."

"That is not comforting. Having rabbit ears pop out of my head one day would be even more terrifying than waking up half a decade younger." Alex said slowly so his voice wouldn't crack.

"I know. I feel bad too. I've never seen you this scared before. You were always the brave one. The leader. Now you're afraid of everything. I'll try to help you get over this. Just know that Merumeru and I are here for you." Fufi said with concern in her voice.

"I know. Thank you. I think I can get past this. I have to. I was never the type to give up if something unexpected happened." Alex said as he stood back up.

Fufi nodded.  Seeking something familiar, Alex went about preparing breakfast for everyone like he usually did. He was still a little nervous but he was able to get the food ready without incident.

After breakfast, Fufi asked, "So what were your plans for today before you got that little surprise Alex?"

"I was going to see if Merumeru could use her powers to make a pipe from where we were going to put the restroom to the water line near the fountain.  I also wanted to see if we could modify the carriage.  One of the first things I noticed is that it has no suspension.  Do you know what a suspension is?" Alex asked.

"No. What is it?" Fufi replied.

"It's a part of a vehicle that absorbs shock from bumps and potholes. Without it the ride will be rough. I spent some time working on old cars with my dad when I was younger so I picked up a few things. Anyway, let me explain." Alex pulled out the card and set it for the two others to see. He pointed to where the wheel and the axel met on the cart.  "You see this connection here? The cart is connected directly to the axel.  This means that if the wheel moves then the cart moves."  Alex got one of the papers he had left over from the dungeon and used an ink quill to draw what he wanted to show them. He drew several strips of different sizes that were banded together. "This is a leaf spring. I know it doesn't really look like a spring, rather a curve but that is what they call it. Anyway when the wheel hits a bump because there is this curved bit here it goes up and down on its own a bit rather than the cart going up and down."  He drew some pictures of the curved metal strips a little straighter and a few of them a little more curved to get his point across.

"Okay. That makes sense. So how does that help us?" asked Fufi.

"I was thinking that we could attach them to the axel.  Though first we should test if we modify the cart when it is in cart form if it will stay that way after it goes from card form and then back to cart form."  Alex put his hand on his smooth chin.

"So how are we going to do that?" asked Fufi.

"I was thinking that we could start by putting the stuffed animals and dolls into the cart and see if they stay there when it goes back into a card.  That should be an easy test lets start with just one of the plushies in the basement.  I think there is enough space if we summon it in the middle of the room." Alex stated.  He couldn't help but think it was nice to have something to focus on to get his mind off of recent events.

The three of them made their way downstairs. They stopped in the center of the basement. Alex threw the card down on the floor and struck a pose like a certain edgy anime character. He discretely mouthed the words 'blue eyes white dragon, awaken' as the cart appeared.  He felt a little bit of disappointment and placed one of the cuddle bear plushies on the cart and returned it to the card form.  Alex looked at the card and saw the stuffed bear in the picture.  "Neat!" he said and showed the card to his two friends.  Next, he threw the card down, leaving out his earlier impression of kaiba-kun.  Mentally scolding himself for the childish action, the bear appeared on the cart right in the place where it was before.

"So it works. Merumeru, do you want to get started on the bathroom plumbing and I'll get some stuff over to the stable?  It is too dark in this basement to work on the cart." Alex addressed the slime girl.  She nodded and hopped off towards the room where the toilet and sink were sitting on the floor.  Alex placed the chest full of plushies from the first dungeon on the cart followed by another chest with his three clockwork dolls and the repair kit in it.  There was still some space so he put a couple bolts of fabric in there as well along with a mending kit. Rose,Lily and Edelweiss were his important defenders so he wanted to take good care of them.  Having all the things to repair and maintain them was a high priority.

Alex grabbed some tools and a few metal plates and headed to the stables with Fufi following behind him.  He had time to set some stuff down when a net flew out and entrapped Fufi.  A dozen men dressed as barbarians ran out from hiding places.  They pointed stone axes, bone swords, and crude bows at him.  A large man wielding a stone-tipped spear pointed it at him and yelled, "Don't move!"

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