Magical Engineering [Progression Fantasy, LitRPG] (Book 3 Complete)

"You're sure, that's what's happening with our universe?" Elicec asked.

Pryte had just explained to the brothers what he had earlier told me. I hadn't bothered going back to dinner. This news was far too big for that. We needed to plan, and we needed to do it now. With a soul chat message, I sent cores and people gathering everyone we needed for the meeting.

"Yes. I've got the early release information. Since we're an official faction, we are entitled to compete in any of the events that will allow worlds of our size," Pryte replied.

"Does that include Erkinmushave?" Cecile asked. His voice cracked slightly as he said the name of his world, the worry in his eyes obvious.

"It does, we are allowed to enter the competition for it. Assuming we can put up the entrance fee. Which, at the moment, we can't," Pryte answered, shuffling through papers in front of him as he did.

"How much is it? Our people are willing to contribute anything they can," Glunderlin said, sounding sincere.

I would not let him do that unless it was a last-ditch measure. The Reltleons had sacrificed too much as it was. And while I deeply appreciated it, I also didn't want them to feel like they had to continue to do that.

"Let's not tap into the Reltleon funds, unless we have no other choice. Your kids need their futures too. Pryte, are we talking an insurmountable amount?" I asked. I had no idea how this worked yet. At the time, it seemed more important to have this discussion with everyone than to pelt the Gnome with questions he'd just have to answer again.

"As a faction, our current holdings amount to a little over four thousand universal credits, which puts us basically at the bottom. The only factions below us are the ones in active collapse, or about to be. The minimum buy-in is two hundred thousand, and if we go that route, we will have to compete in every single event," he answered.

"How soon do we need the funds? Our first dungeon delve isn't for another month," I asked. I wasn't even sure how much they were paying us for that matter. I had been far more concerned with the resources we could find.

"We will need them fully deposited in a month and a half, and there is no way that that dungeon alone will pay for our entry fee. Can I assume we've already decided this is the course of action we want to take?" Pryte asked, looking around the room at each of us as he did. There were no disagreements. He sighed and continued. "Our best option then is likely to take out a loan."

"Okay, putting aside the fact that I have no idea how banking works within the Spiral. What are the downsides of taking out the loan?" I asked. I suspected the answer had to do with the exact terms. It wasn't like we had much in the way of collateral to put up, assuming that was how it worked.

"In the grand scheme of things, the amount of money we need here isn't really that much. So the loan itself is almost certainly securable, but that does mean we have to maintain an income stream in order to pay it back," he answered.

I rested my head in my hand as I let out my own sigh. The idea of going into debt on a universal scale like this was more than a little frightening. "Okay, what happens if we default, and what would the terms look like, assuming you have any idea?" I asked as I looked back up at several sets of eyes.

"Hopefully, I can find someone willing to loan us the money without expecting a planet as collateral. With our showing in the Arena so far, we should have some people willing to undersign us. But yes, we will almost certain have to pay back double or more by the time the life of the loan is done." Pryte shrugged as he spoke. I couldn't tell if he thought this was a good idea or not.

"Alright, yeah, let's do it. But we are going to need to change a few things up. I think we need to push ahead further with dungeon delving. We need a positive resource flow. Otherwise, this is going to bite us in the ass. Grant, Glunderlin, I want you to identify enough people so we can make three different teams for this, not including my own. Once we have the people, we can figure out more details, but unless anyone has any better ideas for making money, I think we have to do it." These were thoughts that I had been having already, and while I was worried about the safety of said teams, this was just something that was going to have to happen eventually in one form or another.

"I was already thinking that, though more for the Arena. Assuming I understand how the thing works, we are going to want to get some more teams there, too. Possibly we can kill two birds with one stone this way," Grant replied, seemingly pleased with the idea.

"Okay, so we've covered the money part, but how does this competition work exactly? You said we will be stuck doing every event, but what are the events? Are we going to be forced to try and beat some of the giant factions? Because I don't think that's possible." Elicec's questions were accompanied by a look of deep worry from his brother.

"We won't be allowed to see the list of events until we register. And no, we won't be up against the biggest factions exactly. The real purpose of this is to give some of the nobles and princelings a chance to get their own holdings without a war, and probably kill a ton of them off in the process. If the committee plays it right, this can buy them a few more years to avoid a large-scale faction war," Pryte answered, shaking his head as he spoke.

"Let me guess, the Spire Committee for a more Harmonious Spiral just happens to have several members from extremely influential factions." I was going to be shocked if my guess was wrong.

"Of course. If there are two things the Spiral and by extension the Spire run on, it's corruption and nepotism," Pryte said, some of the joking tone finally back in his speech.

"I guess the big question then is, can we win this? We aren't about to take out a loan when there's no tangible chance of success, are we?" I asked, trying not to look at the brothers as I did. I felt guilty even suggesting that it was possibly a bad idea.

"I saw a tournament like this once. As with everything, my memory is hazy on the details, but it wasn't that different from the Arena, with the exception of a lot more one-on-one events. That would mean the biggest obstacle we will face will depend entirely on who decides to enter. But I believe we can win. I've seen enough miracles since we first met, Dave, that I believe at this point anything is possible," Sanquar said.

"I mostly agree with Sanquar. It's been a long time since one of these was hosted, and I do believe the last one still ended in a faction war. The problem, of course, is that we are going to enter blind. The good news is that the events will take place over the course of a year, so we should have time to train," Pryte said, nodding at Sanquar.

"Alright, so we do this. I've noticed you keep saying planet and not universe. So, how do we take possession of a planet?" It was a big universe, and assuming they had the means, we could find a place for it here. Hell, with the right math and magic, it could likely be placed directly in the Solar system.

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"They will drop it off where we tell them to, which means that's a whole other problem we will have to be prepared for. Ivan, I want you to start working on that immediately," Pryte said.

"Good thing I was already planning a deep dive into this universe's astronomical knowledge. Well, boys, I think you two need to give us all a deep dive into your homeworld. Give me every detail you can, it's gonna be important," Karlinovo said, sounding excited at the idea. He had produced a notepad as he turned his demand to the brothers.

"Uh, that's kind of a lot. What do you need to know exactly?" Elicec asked, holding Karlinovo's gaze.

"Give me the system details at least. How many stars do you orbit? Any moons? What's your average day length?" Karlinovo rattled off the questions while scribbling away without looking down at the paper he was writing on.

"There are two moons. Just the one star. I don't know how far away from it we are exactly," Elicec started, before Cecile cut him off.

"It's alright, I think I've got a better handle on this one. You learn a lot of this for proper planting seasons. So our day is about half as long as what I've seen here, but we are also further away from the star than Earth is, I think. A lot of our heat comes from underground up through vents, and that's what we use for the fungus farms. Do you know if the moons come with the planet? Otherwise, we will have to work out a solution for the tides."

"It says planet, not planetary system, so I'm assuming they don't. But I'll look into whether or not we can somehow get them as well," Pryte answered, making his own notes.

"Okay, so far I think we can find a spot in the local system for the planet. How long is your year? Is that something you track?" Karlinovo actually looked down at his notepad this time as he spoke. I was pretty sure he was now scribbling some quick math.

"Uh, that's complicated. It's not constant," Cecile replied.

"What do you mean it's not constant? It has to be constant!" Karlinovo sounded flustered at that answer.

Did it have to be constant, though? We had planets in odd orbits around the sun, but I wasn't sure that changed their year length. You'd need to change orbital distance for that, wouldn't you? Okay, maybe Karlinovo was right. That didn't make sense.

"Cecile's correct, our year varies, sometimes we have three seasons, other times all seven occur," Elicec added.

"Okay, we're going to need to get some astrophysicists in on this one. I have no idea what the calculus is to explain how a planet has a changing orbit around the sun. It's gotta have something to do with the moons, maybe," I said, trying to force my brain back to the only astronomy classes I had ever taken.

Those were over thirty years ago, though. A lot had changed in our understanding of the universe since then. This was far outside my range of expertise.

"It's possible there are other large bodies in the star system, though the size relative to it needed to change the orbit that greatly so often is incredibly odd. But much like Dave, this isn't exactly my specialty. We will need more of the Earth experts on this to truly work out a plan," Karlinovo said, backing up my thoughts entirely.

"Oh yeah, there are a lot of other planets in our star system. Actually, our planet is pretty small. It rotates around one of the bigger ones, while the moons rotate around us," Elicec said.

"Oh. Your planet is a moon, not a planet. This might complicate things. Dave, is there anything big enough in the local system to even do that?" Karlinovo scratched his beard strongly as he spoke. I now knew he only did that when his brain was working overtime.

"Our biggest planet is Jupiter, but we're going to need an expert on this one. And I think we are going to need far more information on their planet than they are able to truly give us, on a cosmic scale at least," I answered. How the hell would we even get that information?

"Wait, Elicec, don't you have that book? It covers a lot of stuff!" Cecile exclaimed, his voice turning from worry to excitement.

"You knew about that? I do have it, but I don't know," Elicec replied with an apprehension in his words.

"What book? What's going on?" I asked, not sure what was occurring here between the brothers.

"When we escaped the planet, Mom gave me the book of our people. I don't think she really expected us to ever be able to return and help them. The book is all about creating a record that we existed, and this was their chance to get it off the world. Cecile is right, though, it probably covers planetary movements in ways you would all understand better than I do. But I can't let anything happen to it," Elicec replied, keeping his gaze down at the table as he spoke.

"We can probably get one of those non-destructive book scanners set up, couldn't we?" Alex asked as little William giggled.

"Not in the heart of the city. We still fry nine out of every ten laptops before we get them anywhere near working, can't risk that with something so precious. We can have Grant take them to the cell tower station outpost and bring the tech there. We will have to see about getting someone who specializes in using them, though," I said.

We had moved the cell tower hook up to two hundred and fifty miles away now, and were working off a series of shielded fiber optic lines. In the whole city, we had about two dozen working laptops, fewer cell phones, none with a working cellular signal. So far, we had had the best luck going back to giant shielded servers with VDI and rudimentary hardened laptops. The problem was that we were still stuck hardwiring everything, but we were getting closer to full Internet access again. As soon as we got past the primary focus of just keeping all our instruments running correctly, we could move on to more expanded uses.

"Yeah, we can do that. Shouldn't be a problem, well, unless the idiots at the GPA have an issue with it. I can't even get them to give me a few jeeps," Grant slammed his fist on the table in annoyance. That had become a pretty standard routine for him whenever the Global Protection Alliance was brought up.

"They will do it if I tell them to. They are still listening to my demands at least," I said, shaking my head slightly.

I understood Grant's frustration. While it was true they were listening to me, there was always some pushback, an attempt to make me give some ground, no matter how small. So far, I had steadfastly refused to give them anything, as I didn't want to set the precedent, but I knew it was only a matter of time before that shifted. I didn't know what I was going to do then either.

"How much longer is that even gonna last? All they want out of me is information these days, and give me nothing in return," Grant asked, this time controlling his anger, but I could see it still simmering in his eyes. He had liked serving in the military, and this wasn't at all what he had signed on for.

"From what I've seen, not much longer, and that is something we need to have a very serious discussion on as well in the next couple of weeks. We likely need to make the GPA very aware who is in control here," Pryte said, as Grant nodded along.

"As much as I like the fantasy of making some idiotic bureaucrats bow to our will, that's something we will need to plan out a lot better than we have before. At least in this case, we can probably count on Laura and Roberts to give us some inside information," I added.

"Alright, well, the good news is I believe we have several books in the archives that we can remove pertaining to events like this. I strongly suspect it will behoove us to go over them. Would you like to join me for that, Dave?" Elody asked, all four of her eyes looking at me as she gave me a gentle smile.

"I would, and after that, I think I need to really buckle down in the simulator. We may also want to speed run a few of the Arena floors, really anything we can do to prepare for this," I said, returning Elody's smile.

"Well then, everyone has what they need to do. Barring any big changes, let's set our next full meeting for a week from now. We will cover anything we've learned and just what to do about the GPA," Pryte said, standing up and stretching.

People immediately began filtering out of the room. I did the same. I figured I'd take a nice nap before heading back for a few rounds of the simulator and then catch up with Elody.

I write this account of the world of Erkinmushave as I don't believe our culture, world, or people will survive the future. Therefore, it is important that this book exists as a memory. I do not wish our people to be entirely forgotten. They deserve better than that. I hope that one day we will find our freedom, but as years press on, it seems more unlikely than ever.

By what I shall refer to as good fortune, lest I drive myself mad otherwise, I have been appointed to a position that allows me to travel to the villages that remain. I believe I have also found a way to secure my writing from prying eyes. So as I collect the data, our slavers so require I will also pen the history of our people. As long as I am able, I will scribe our story. Sadly, not all who yearn for freedom are destined to taste it.

The Book of the Twinoges by Twinoge Scribe #1 (Mila)