In a tale of military intervention, the gnomish biomancer's reckless charge into a dungeon led to its transformation into a noxious pit of miasma. Days after emerging from the dungeon, the true trial began. The contest between infection and immune response took on an unexpected form, deviating significantly from the intended purpose of a dungeon trial.

  They talked a bit and came up with a tentative pn that seeding the swamp with mosquito rva and letting the pigs loose in there would be a good start. Professor Copperpot didn’t think that he was happy with how optimized the strain was for blood transfusion. But what engineer was ever finished with their project? As the saying goes, a good engineer never finishes anything, they always look back and can see something that can be improved.

  Alex invited Professor Copperpot to check out his workshop when he got a chance. Some things in there might be useful to his research.

  The gnome paled at the mention of going outside again but stammered that he would consider it after he got himself settled. He’d not been living out of this wooden and canvas tent for long.

  If they ever finished the castle then there should be a tower that the professor could work out of. However, the gnome denied this as well. He’d spent a bunch of time ignoring the world in a mage tower in the capitol and then ended up being enchanted by demons who had quietly taken over the upper echelons of society.

  Alex bid him a good day and joined back up with the group some ways away from the tent. Of note, Aqua, Funi, and Ariel were absent upon her return.

  Fufi, the only fmingo present greeded the magical girl upon her return. “Hello Alex, welcome back. How did things go with Professor Copperpot?”

  “Alright I suppose.” Alex considered the answer. “He’s working on ways to spread disease amongst demons and there are some insects that he’s fascinated with that look like they could cause an epidemic. Don’t worry, he is sure that the strain he’s cultivating doesn’t affect humans. Though he wasn’t 100% sure non-humans would be safe.”

  “Isn’t that kind of experimenting really dangerous?” Seriphina looks horrified.

  “Maybe?” Alex cocked her head, considering. “I don’t know the professor’s full resume but has anyone other than humans been infected with bird flu?”

  “I don’t know.” Cassius looked confused. “In school they didn’t talk much about bird flu. But the main take away was that it wasn’t the fault of the demons.”

  Alex groaned. “Technically, demons didn’t make that, a gnome made that but if the demonic overlords were controlling the gnome who really is to bme?”

  Cassius considered this and nodded solemnly. “I see the point. The education we received apparently contained heavy biases.”

  “Anyway, hopefully Aqua can get Ariel sorted.” Alex looked around. “Where did they go?”

  “Those two went into the water.” Cassius pointed to the crater with water in it.

  “Meru!” Merumeru agreed.

  “You didn’t want to go and show them around?” The bck-haired magical girl asked the slime girl.

  Merumeru shook her head. “Ru ru me meeeeruuu.” She waved off the need to hold their hands, choosing to stay.

  “I guess you are taking your role of being the prison guard for the nobles seriously.” Alex chuckled a little.

  Merumeru nodded repeatedly.

  The three nobles looked a bit awkward at the reminder of their position.

  “I want to go and try to get a look around at the stuff that got dumped around the property.” Alex faced back toward the cabin that looked more like a construction ydown site now. “And maybe try to muck around to see the viability of building Ariel a ship.”

  In the company of the magical girl Alex, the three nobles, a slime girl, and a fmingo embarked on a leisurely stroll. Upon closer examination, it was discovered that in addition to ample supplies of steel and concrete sufficient for constructing a castle, approximately a dozen shipping containers were scattered about the area. The majority of these containers held non-perishable food items, such as powdered milk, an assortment of canned goods, gss jars filled with pickles, and various spices. One container, in particur, contained a remarkable quantity of chocote twinkies, enough to fully stock a convenience store shelf.

  Alex inspected the semi truck that had a hose hooked up to it, connecting it to the generator. “I don’t know how to tell how much is left.” The brown-eyed girl compined.

  “It has been running for at least a month and shows no sign of stopping.” Cassius also eyed the very rge and odd vehicle.

  Alex sighed. “That is a standby generator. I got a high end model but it isn’t a power pnt. It is not meant to run for that long. I’d have to check for sure but I think it uses several gallons of diesel per day.”

  “Diesel?” Cassius looked from the tanker to Alex.

  Alex knocked on the metal trailer. “Yeah, that is the stuff in this tank. My guess is several thousand gallons of it. That means we should turn it off and let it cool. Then it’ll need to have the oil changed. I hope that there is some oil in the workshop that’ll work for it. I don’t have any filters to swap. We’ll just have to reuse the one there. Normally for something like that you just buy a new one when needed but that is a little difficult now.”

  “Understandable, where does one acquire this Diesel?” Cassius looked like it was some kind of new exotic mixture.

  “From the gas station.” Alex answered, then recalled there were no gas stations here. “I guess it can be made in a refinery.” But then thought twice about that too.

  “A refinery?” Cassius caught something in the word. “That sounds like a skill an alchemist can get. Do alchemists make this in your world?”

  “It isn’t alchemy, rather chemistry.” Alex considered the difference. “I’m guessing alchemists use magic to make stuff? I haven’t ever met one.”

  Cassius nodded.

  “Well, a chemist does that but uses no magic, just the physical properties of stuff.” After shutting the generator off to let it cool Alex led the group headed to the shop.

  The shop was a several thousand square foot square building with a steel frame and sheet metal keeping it enclosed. Luckily everything that should be there was in there. A rge yellow-painted solvent cabinet had Alex’s supply of oil and other fmmables. Several power tools that were battery powered hung on hooks on the wall. A chop-saw, drill press, the and grinding wheel were plugged in by their built-in tables next to their respective outlet.

  Out of instinct, Alex switched the light switch up but it stayed dark. “Just turned off the power dummy.” She told herself and opened the barn-style doors all the way to let more light in.

  Alex pulled out a 4-wheeled cart and loaded wrenches and other tools on it. “What kind of oil does that generator take.” Alex rustled through a stack of manuals on a shelf and found the right one. After thumbing through a few pages she found the information. “It takes 15W-40.” She picked out several pstic bottles of the kind needed and set them on the cart, along with an oil pan.

  Alex pushed the cart out of the open doors but the casters caught in the dirt. “Darn it. A little help here?”

  Cassius wondered why Alex was staring at him. “What you don’t expect me to…”

  He trailed off when Yvne shot her son with a gre that shut him right up.

  “I’m not strong enough anymore to push it across the rough terrain.” Alex mented her unimpressive strength stat.

  Cassius eyed the dirty cart with disdain. “Allright.” He rolled up his fancy sleeves and pushed the cart to the pedestal the generator sat on next to the house.

  “Thanks.” Alex held a hand close to the generator and frowned. “It is still hot. Lets give it an hour to cool off and come back.”

  Everyone went back to the much-darker cabin and Serapina went to put a pot of water on the stove but it wouldn’t start. “Hmm, it isn’t working.”

  “No power remember?” Alex opened a cupboard and pulled out a lighter. She lit the burner for the stove. “Luckily the grill and oven are gas.”

  “But you just said no power. I’m confused. Does it need power or not?”

  “It needs power to light the burner.” Alex tapped the controls for the oven. “There is a big propane tank that goes to the oven, furnace and water heater.” Alex pointed to a quarter-turn valve above the unit. “The gas is fmmable so be careful. Anyway, the normal way it works is that a spark of electricity lights the burner. But with no power there isn’t a spark. So it would just let the propane out into the kitchen and spread all over the pce.”

  Merumeru perked up at the expnation of gas pipes and valves. “Meru?” She sounded interested.

  “Yeah, it is not just liquid that pipes are used for.” Alex chuckled, and patted the slime girl on her head. “The propane tank out back is pressurized so much that it is a liquid. But when it comes out it is a gas. Isn’t that neat?”

  “Meru meru!” The slime girl jumped up and down in excitement.

  Alex sat down after pulling the model of the flying cloud from the shelf and collecting a pen, notebook and some measuring tools. “Lets see here, maybe I could draw up some pns.”

  Yvne, seeing Alex inspecting the model ship, handed the magazine to Alex that had the specs for the clipper in it. “Will this help?”

  “Yes. Though I’m a little worried it might be a project too big.” Alex started disassembling the toy boat, trying to get a feel for the parts.

  “I would think so. Doesn’t that document say the real size of the boat is over 200 feet long?” Yvne put a hand to her cheek.

  “Of course. I don’t think we could build the ship Ariel wants without her finding that shipwright she is considering kidnapping and a crew to build it.” Alex held the masts and booms to the paper and drew an outline of them. “When we made the airboat, the first step was to make a toy model. I may not have skills to build a full sized ship but I definitely have skills to build a toy one.”

  “Do you need anything to build a toy one?” Yvne asked, keeping composure.

  “A good carpenter can make the parts.” Alex furrowed her brow. “I can probably do it using the saws and cmps in the shop but one thing I’ve learned is that the person with the most relevant skill always has an advantage over the one that doesn’t.”

  Cassius decided to be captain obvious. “It says here that the ship has 15 feet of draft. Isn’t that too much to make it down the river without getting stuck?”

  Alex resisted the urge to snap at him. “Again, I’m going to make a toy version first. If we build it a tenth of the size then it’ll only be 1.5 feet of draft.” The magical girl continued to take the parts out and make outlines of them on the notebook.

  After tea was served and people started chatting did Alex look up.

  “What’s the matter Yvne asked at the bewildered looking Alex.

  “The model is missing parts on the inside.” The bck-haired girl grumbled. “I guess I should have expected that. They don’t need to put a bilge pump at the bottom of the hold for something that is just supposed to sit on a stand and look pretty.”

  “Do you need that for the toy version?” Yvne asked.

  Alex shook her head. “No, but the real version would have to have one. I’d like it to be as close to what they are going to build as possible, maybe even get some dolls to crew it.”

  Fufi decided to rain on the parade. “Can you even control an entire crew of dolls Alex?”

  “Yeah, if I dance I can control a bunch of dolls.” Alex answered without thinking.

  “For how long?” Fufi pressed.

  “As long as I keep dancing.” Alex smiled, proudly.

  “Can you dance for an entire voyage?” Fufi sounded annoyed that Alex didn’t get the point.

  Alex shook her head. “No, I’d get tired eventually.” Then a light clicked on in her head. “Yeah, you are right. That skill wouldn’t work for more than just testing out the toy boat in a ke or something. My new skill, [possess doll] might work.”

  “It is just one doll.” Fufi insisted. “Can you crew a ship with just one person?”

  “No.” Alex conceded. “I guess not. Speaking of which, I haven’t actually tested out that new skill. I need to summon the carriage to get cloth to make the sails anyway.”

  Alex headed outside, and used a card to summon the carriage into existence. Inside, the trusty three dolls were in their spots with the cursed hero doll not far away. The plushies were ying up high on top of the cabinets as well.

  Focusing on the skill, Alex activated it while looking at Lily. She felt a sudden disorientation and the world looked suddenly bigger. A sudden sound of someone falling into the dirt startled her to her feet. The motion came with the moving gears, the winding and unwinding of cables and a weird realization that her range of motion was severely limited. A weird terror made her want to cry out but her mouth would not move. The shock caused her to deactivate the skill and with another disorienting wave she found herself ying face first in the dirt outside the carriage.

  Alex got up, dusted herself off and looked inside. Lilly had fallen over on her face, much like Alex just did.

  “Are you okay?” Fufi flew out to check after hearing the thumb of someone falling over.

  “Yeah.” Alex sounded embarrassed. “Note to self: Don’t use that skill while standing up.”

  “Maybe that is enough testing for today.” The fmingo sounded concerned.

  “Yeah, though I want to try one more time.” Alex stepped into the carriage and sat down on the floor, looking the hero doll in the armor in the eyes.

  “Um.” Fufi fpped. “I don’t know if that is a good idea. Remember that doll is cursed.”

  “I just want to know what will happen.” Alex ignored her familiar and started to activate the feat.

  A wave of intense emotions flooded into her: regret, shame, hatred. And above all an all consuming grudge that burned with a fire that could not be quenched until every demon on the pnet was ripped and torn asunder.

  Alex fainted on the spot.