Chương 187: Chapter 186 [Portal Prep]

Leo grinned at Phil, pretending to be annoyed about the wolf girl hanging off his arm, though the lack of his usual moaning gave him away. It was the morning after their first D&D session, still early, and they'd been halfway out the door on their way to the civic centre when Sasha knocked, wanting a second date.

Phil told her he was busy and she looked disappointed for about half a second, then perked right back up the way Rika did whenever she heard a no she didn't plan on accepting, and invited herself along instead, latching onto his arm and refusing to let go the whole walk over. Nobody had a problem with it, so along she came. Leo was pulled out of his thoughts as Mike walked into the office where they'd been waiting, Diane and Gary following behind him.

"Right," Mike said, dropping into the chair behind his desk.

"Second portal test today?"

"Yeah. We have an idea on a place we could use for the test that could double as the site for the trade hub if things go to plan," Sam confirmed.

"Where?" Shai stepped forward.

"There's a clearing about fifteen minutes west of here. Some of our people go out that way to pick fruit, but the area we're thinking of is just open ground in the middle of the forest. Nothing grows in the clearing, so it's just empty ground. Nothing else really uses it for territory either, as people pass by and the animals don't tend to like it. There's plenty of space if you want to build something there eventually." Mike nodded slowly.

"Close enough to keep an eye on, far enough that we're not testing something new right on top of the walls." He glanced at Diane.

"That work for you?"

"Should do," Diane said.

"As long as we're not standing on top of anyone's usual pickings."

"We're not," Shai said.

"Most of our people only travel that far once everything closer to the village is sparse. I'm thinking if the new farming magic takes off and trade works out how you plan, then that won't be an issue. Nobody's going to miss it." Mike scratched at his beard, thinking it over before nodding properly.

"That's perfect. Once we get this confirmed," Mike went on, "I can let Koss and the others know properly. They've already agreed it's a good idea if it works out, we're all just waiting on the confirmation." He shrugged.

"No time like the present, I suppose."

"If it works," Diane said, "I'd like you all to take a trip back to Stonehall after. Ask about setting one up closer to the village itself. Link it to the hub here." She looked to Sam.

"Makes it a lot easier for Marcus to come and go, if he's willing to help me with the magitech side of things." Sam nodded.

"Good idea. Shouldn't be a problem." Gary spoke up from behind Mike.

"I'll come along and have a proper look at the area myself. Best to know how much space we're actually working with before we plan anything. If this goes ahead we'll want walls up sooner rather than later, then buildings behind them." He tucked his notepad under his arm.

"We don't want a load of portals just sat out in an open field."

"Right," Mike said, standing back up.

"Let's go test it." The clearing opened up ahead of them, plain and a little underwhelming. No stream, no strange rock formation, nothing that looked remotely magical about it. Just open ground, ringed by trees on every side, wide enough that Leo reckoned they could put up two or three buildings without needing to touch the treeline at all.

"Not much to look at," Mike said, walking out into the middle of it, turning a slow circle the same way he had back in the office when he was working something out in his head.

"That's kind of the point," Torren said with a chuckle.

"Nothing here to get in the way. Good open ground, easy to build on, easy to defend if it ever comes to that. Shouldn't be a problem though. I can't see much in the way of threats coming down from the north after everything recently." Gary paced the width of it in long strides, counting under his breath, then stood at the edge looking back across the whole space.

"Wouldn't need to fell a single tree to get something proper up here. That's the main thing." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Diane looked round at the ground itself, testing the give of it under her boot.

"Ground's solid enough, should hold weight fine, by the look of it." Sam wandered into the centre of the clearing and looked over at Gary.

"Around here okay?"

"Yeah, should be fine." He walked back over to the group and watched as Sam summoned the stone out of his UI storage.

"Okay, I'm going to do what I did back at the other clearing. This should also tell us if the rock had an effect on the mana draw like we suspected. I should have enough mana to get a portal up without it, but it might drain me more than I'd like. Just a heads up in case I feel sick afterwards." Without waiting for a response, he took the stone and started pushing mana into it. Sam kept the flow of mana steady into the stone.

It caught the light along the runes across its surface the same as it had back at the first clearing, faint gold spreading out from the centre until the whole thing lifted an inch clear of his palms, spinning slow. The oval started forming above it, drawing itself out of nothing.

"Here we go," Rika murmured. Leo watched Sam's face rather than the shimmer taking shape. That was the bit that told him more, usually. Sam's jaw was tight, a proper strain behind his eyes this time, closer to how he'd looked back at the flat than at the clearing.

"How's it feeling?" Torren asked.

"Pulling harder than last time," Sam said, not looking away from the stone.

"Nowhere near what it was doing at the flat, though. That one forced me to stop halfway through. I think it's more me having more mana this time round though." He exhaled slow through his nose.

"Lucky I did stop, looking back. Imagine this works and we have portals going everywhere, then one that randomly goes to our front room." The oval kept widening, slower than it had the first time, like it was working harder for the same result. It settled eventually into the same shape as before, tall and wide, the shimmer at its centre steady and featureless. Sam let out a breath once it held and set the stone down carefully in the grass. The oval didn't waver.

"There we go," he said, sitting back on his heels. He looked over at Torren.

"That rock you found. I think this confirms it was helping with the drain somehow." Torren's brow lifted.

"The magic ore?"

"Yeah. Be worth taking a proper look at it when we're back. If it's doing something to the ambient mana around it, that'd explain why the first one came together so much easier than this." Mike watched the portal form, mouth slightly open. He hadn't been there for the first two tests, and no amount of magic he'd already seen in this world had quite prepared him for watching a doorway build itself out of thin air.

"So now what?" Phil asked.

"Same as last time, right? We don't know if it's actually connected to anything until—""My UI just dinged," Sam finished. He was already focused on his system, eyes distant.

"Give me a second."

"Okay, new tab," he said eventually.

"It's labelled Portal Network."

"And?" Rika pressed, already leaning in.

"Give me a minute, there's a message." Sam's eyes flicked side to side, reading something none of the rest of them could see.

"Right. Says I can generate keys for others to use. Hand them out to whoever needs access, so it's not just me having to open every door for everyone. There's some kind of control panel as well, shows every portal that's live, lets me link them together, turn them on or off." He paused, working through it.

"This one and the first clearing. I could actually connect those on purpose now, instead of just hoping."

"So the tab needed both to exist first," Torren said slowly.

"That's why nothing happened the first time round. One portal on its own wasn't enough."

"Must be," Sam said.

"Makes sense, looking back. Nothing to link, nothing to manage. Needed the network itself to exist before any of this unlocked." Mike let out a breath.

"So that's it, then. This actually works, properly. Not just theory."

"Looks like it," Sam said.

"Means we're not stuck walking everywhere anymore. Not for trade, or for getting people back and forth. It's going to make all our plans so much easier."

"Can you make one of these key things now?" Phil asked.

"Or is that a whole other thing to figure out?" Sam held his hand out, palm up, and concentrated. A moment later something solid dropped into it, small and dark, roughly the shape and size of a house key though nothing about the material looked like metal.

"Doesn't come with instructions," he said, turning it over.

"Here." He walked over and passed the key to Mike.

"Figured you having one makes most sense." Mike took the key and stopped, eyes going distant, the same way Sam's had a moment earlier.

"I've just got the same tab. At least I think it's the same. Has all the same sort of controls for turning them on and off. No way to make them myself though. I guess the key is actually a way to give people access more than a way for them to open a portal like an actual door."

"Yeah, that makes more sense given our situation. I guess my disk is the only way to actually make them then."

"I guess you lot are in for a load of trips round the villages, to start. If this takes off like I think it will, then you might end up having to travel to set them up. That sound like something you'd be interested in?" Mike asked.

"You mean, are we interested in travelling to different places in an actual fantasy world? Silly question, Mike," laughed Parmo. Sam nodded.

"That sounds awesome."