The Factory Must Grow - [Book 1: The System Must Live]

Oliver stumbled over another protruding root, this time successfully keeping his balance in the aftermath despite stubbing his toe in the process. His scrambled hopping still led him into a collision with a bush, and even though it didn't hurt him, it still hurt as the twigs and surprisingly sharp leaves were dragged against his exposed torso.

He bit back a curse and favored his other foot while scrambling to catch up again to Henrietta and Alyssa. The two of them were far more nimble than he, especially given how thick the undergrowth seemed to be in all directions, and he didn't want to get left behind and lost in these thick, dark woods. If they left the range of his mana sense, he'd be… well, not in great shape.

Fortunately, Classed people were really easy to sense, so he knew they were just two trees down, and he stumbled to a stop in front of the ladies. A moment later, once he'd collected himself, he wilted underneath their combined gaze.

"How are you this slow?" Alyssa asked.

"The ground is pokey!" Oliver defended himself, "And I've never been great in forests."

"And you thought you'd be able to fight off hordes of demons, had this Jump gone more typically?"

"It's not always demons," he refuted. "And being a battlemage isn't technically a requirement for my role. But if I had a flight platform, then I'd be so much better."

"A flight platform?" Henrietta asked, but Oliver shook his head, anticipating the next question.

"Way, way too advanced for what I have now. Ask me in about thirty levels and four tech ages from now."

"Regardless," Henrietta responded, "What Ride is attempting to say is that you seem to be struggling, and it would be better if you were able to keep up with us better."

"I'm sorry, okay? Mind is my only physical stat. There's not a whole lot I can do with that."

"Stats aren't everything," Alyssa butt in.

"That wasn't even the point. Smith, I do strongly wish to revisit the topic of carrying you."

"No no nonono," he hastily tried to shut down the suggestion. "I can go faster, I'm sure of it! I mean, I really should have made some kind of shoe, but I can handle a bit of pokiness, just please please please don't tie me up a foot from the supplies."

When Alyssa had returned from her scouting mission with news about both how great of a spot she'd found, but also just how long it took to reach it, it had immediately prompted a few concurrent conversations about how to handle it.

That Oliver would need to visit in person was a given. He was the only one who could readily assess whether the location would work for their purposes, for one. He could teach the others, Henrietta in particular had enough of a theoretical grounding in the principles that she could figure it out, but they wouldn't do quite as good of a job as him. And even if they could assess the location, they wouldn't be able to properly design the wizard tower, and he certainly couldn't design it sight unseen.

Not with how many wards he'd need, anyway, and he'd definitely need wards, because their tech was nowhere near advanced for him to include the level of robustness and flexibility for an enchantment to just be deployed wherever.

Despite what a lot of people who took two classes in enchanting and then professed to be experts said while denigrating the entire field, even low-level mana tech was extremely susceptible to local Tapestry influence. It was a lot less than high-tech enchantments, yes, and most basic enchantments only had general restrictions as to where they would work rather than very specific ones. But saying they were completely untethered was just dismissing the work of a lot of very clever enchanters who had figured out intermediary 'buffer' enchantments to make them portable!

Regardless, he needed to see the site of the tower before he started building anything. That much had been known since the very start. But then, Henrietta had pointed out that if it was such a trek from their shelter, it would be best if they also set up their brick-making factory right away, and as such they should bring all of the tools needed for creating a fully automated kiln system.

Fortunately, Henrietta was the one carrying all of that stuff in the grasp of her ink-flail, but that included the copper fire ring that had a previous life in Oliver's furnace.

Being forced to rebuild the smelter had made him reconsider a few things, most prominently among them was just how fragile the prior structure had been. The scalewolf stepping on it – no matter what Jacob said, it had been entirely unneeded – had broken far more than it really should have, even considering it was a lizardy predator the size of a bear. The extra-deep circle around the edge had collapsed in several places, burying portions of his magic circle and extinguishing the flame as a result.

It hadn't made it any cooler, and he'd burned himself more than a few times wrangling it back into place.

But a simpler design was called for, and a conversation with Henrietta had reminded him that building for temporary usage meant he could salvage the materials he was using later. Plus, he was going to be away from Shelter and need a fire enchantment for their brick-making setup... and had been mad at the artifact and wanted to 'spite' it by replacing it.

Combined, it resulted in Oliver half-burying his brazier and utilizing that for the smelter's flames in place of the copper circle. Because the brazier's enchantment was a lot more solid, it simplified a lot of the complexities and would make it easier to perform maintenance on later. And though he'd privately sworn to scrap the copper circle in exchange for burning him, it was a useful piece of tech. It had been quietly smoldering off to the side for most of the last few days, and now… well, it was a source of maintenance-free fire that he wouldn't need to spend much time getting working at the new tower's site.

Theoretically, anyway. It was a fairly crude piece of runework, after all, and it would require either adjustments or external feeder-work to ensure it still functioned once he installed it in its new location. It should still work, though its working lifespan might be cut in half with the location transplant. He hoped it would work, because making a fully-functional autonomous tower-building brick factory would be enough of a mental exercise if he didn't need to reinvent the fire.

Regardless, it had been packed in a bunch of clay and was being carried alongside his staff, lots of food to supplement their foraging, Henrietta's own ongoing efforts to create fabric from reeds, and more stuff he didn't even know what it was for. They didn't have reeds, but that was because Alyssa said they grew close enough to the tower's site that it wasn't needed.

And all of that was being carried by Henrietta's toothtongue ink-flail. Which would also be what he would be carried in, were he to be carted around like so much luggage by the far more mobile women he was traveling with.

And being jostled around with all of that equipment, uncomfortably close to very hot metal with an active and unstable enchantment also being jostled around, when they were traveling directly away from the only source of medical care on this entire world was not appealing.

"I'll definitely keep up, I promise!"

"If this were a matter of enthusiasm, Smith, I would be far more inclined to listen to you." Henrietta replied, and Oliver's heart sank. "Would it be better if you rode piggyback on Alyssa?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Oliver nearly denied it instantly, but at the same time, would it be better?

I can have a bumpy ride with a fiery personality that probably doesn't like me, or I can have a bumpy ride with a fiery enchantment that definitely doesn't like me.

"Hey," Apparently, Oliver had frozen for too long, and now Alyssa was protesting? "I'm not that bad."

"What?" Oliver asked, a bit confused, "Do you want me to ride you or something?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Alyssa replied, while Henrietta looked away. Probably exasperation? "But I'd. But I'd really like to not spend an hour to do something that took me ten minutes on my own. Like we have been doing."

Is she making a joke? She had a lot of the hallmarks of someone who seemed to be trying to make a joke, but if she was then it was referencing something that Oliver had missed. That was annoying, but it probably didn't matter? Was she making fun of him somehow? Had he said something?

Henrietta cut in before he could think about it too much, "Putting all else aside, it would be better for this to not be another week-long excursion, which should be possible if we keep our pace up and Ride manages to cut out a lot of the false leads she initially dealt with. However, Smith, you know that you don't do your best work out in the wilds. Ride does. I respect pushing yourself for the purposes of the Jump, signing up because you want to improve areas you're weak in-"

Yes, that's absolutely why I want to walk, Oliver sarcastically thought.

"But there's a time and place for such things, and while I don't doubt by the end of this you'll be an expert in making devices out of twigs and leaves, right now we all want to get to our levels as fast as possible, so this is less a time for personal mastery and more a time to get things done. Our way back, you can walk if you really want, but the way out, I want us to make good time. Yes, that might be a bit uncomfortable at times, but that's the mission."

Oliver eyed the coils of ink wrapped around the mass of clay, copper, and wood, drifting almost weightlessly through the air in a way that looked almost fake. "Couldn't you just make another tendril?"

"No," Henrietta dashed his hopes, "Not unless we find another toothtongue. Or, I suppose, something with a similarly long and prehensile appendage."

"You can't just make copies," Oliver sighed, "That figures."

"No." Henrietta paused. "Not without ⟨Epizeuxis⟩ or some other skill or subskill, at least."

"Alright," he shrugged. This probably wasn't going to be a fight he could win, and so long as he wasn't too close to the flame circle parts, it would be alright. Probably, anyway. "How do you want me?"

The giant bundle of stuff lowered closer to the ground. "For now, just try to grab on to something. If you don't feel secure enough, I can try to tie you in, but I'd really rather not have to rearrange everything."

Oliver assessed the knick-knacks that had all been packed in as tightly and with as few protruding things as possible, "Could you, I don't know, rearrange enough that I could have a handle to hold onto, at least?"

"Try wedging a stick in there," Alyssa pointed out a spot that would involve jamming Oliver's handle into the soft clay around the fire-copper. "Actually, this one will work."

As casual as anything, Alyssa reached out and grabbed a sturdy branch, then in a blink of an eye, used her axe to hack it off from the tree it was attached to, trimmed off the excess bits of foliage, and tossed it to him. Oliver scrambled slightly, nearly managing to catch it without fumbling it to the ground, and then regarded the curved branch with a bit of hesitation

"I'll just… maybe here?" he poked the cut end into a small gap between a couple of bulkier items.

"No, not there… okay, try this." Henrietta motioned for the stick, which he passed off, and fidgeted with her luggage until it was stuck in roughly at the center.

Gingerly, Oliver stepped onto the bundle and grabbed hold of his handle with one hand, using the other to directly grasp one of the not-exactly-wet coils of the ink construct itself, which shifted slightly to help him get a better grip on it.

"I think I'm set?"

Henrietta looked at him for a moment before moving out of view, and Oliver hoped he didn't look too awkward in a kilt straddling a bunch of random stuff, floating in the air. He didn't have too long to worry about it though, because just a few moments later, they were moving.

The trip, once Oliver got over a minor spot of mortal terror, wasn't too bad. Both Alyssa and Henrietta clearly were skilled at making the absolute most of their stats, and the [Ranger of Far Lands] and [Master Inkscribe] alike easily ate up ground at double, triple, or even faster compared to the uncomfortable stumbling Oliver had managed.

They were moving so fast, as it was, that trying to look up was actually uncomfortable to Oliver. Assuming he didn't raise his head into a random twig whipping into the trailing luggage float, the air whipping by so quickly that it strained his eyes over extended periods of time.

He could still look to the side, but he didn't need his eyes to get an overall sense of their surroundings, feeling the Tapestry subtly shift as they passed by magical plants, animals, and minerals. But each time they stopped, for any number of reasons, Oliver took advantage of the pause to shift into a slightly more comfortable state – unless he needed to stretch for some reason, of course.

Overall though, Henrietta's control over the ink-flail and accompanying package was excellent, and the same unnerving floaty actions he'd previously noted now worked in his favor, providing automatic smoothing such that he didn't feel every bump Henrietta ran into, and he barely even noticed when she needed to bound over a fallen log or the like.

The only time he truly noticed them surmounting an obstacle was when Alyssa climbed on beside him, getting almost uncomfortably close as Henrietta conjured her wings and flew over the same river Alyssa had described so many struggles with previously. It only took a few minutes at least, and Oliver knew better than to complain about being shoved into the rough surface of the clay pot holding food. It was too minor to actually be an issue, but that didn't make it any more comfortable.

But finally, finally, they arrived at the future site of his tower, and Oliver slumped off his awkward mount with a fair bit of relief, only to feel guilty as both Alyssa and Henrietta fell to the ground in what Oliver presumed was exhaustion.

"Good job?" he tried to be encouraging, "And thanks for the ride?"

"Oh I want to die," Alyssa's voice came out slightly muffled as she buried her head in a patch of moss. "Can you kill me? That feels preferable to this."

"I'd rather not?"

"Well done Ride, you were correct. I do need to rest though."

Oliver checked his own tiredness. He was a little groggy, but he wasn't fall-asleep-standing level tired. His arms and body were sore, but he imagined that would pale in comparison to whatever the others were feeling.

"Thanks for not making me run all that way," he eventually decided to say. That was grateful but sufficiently neutral that it shouldn't cause a negative reaction. Probably. Also, they were really tired, which should likewise lessen possible issues.

"I can take first watch?" he added, but realized he was probably talking on deaf ears. From what he could tell, both of them were already fast asleep.

Some time later, once everyone was properly rested and with some food and water in them, Oliver got his first chance to properly scope out the site. The initial feeling – and some basic divination confirmed – that the overall Tapestry was close enough to the Tapestry around the shelter that most of what he'd learned for dealing with the incredible amounts of Nature present should apply just as well here.

The site that would soon host his tower… First Tower, maybe? First Tower was, as Alyssa had promised, a massive rocky outcropping looming a good twenty to thirty meters over the riverbank, but with a gentle enough slope along one edge that even Oliver could climb up it without fear for his life. There were plenty of handholds and not too many loose rocks, a good number of tenacious plants growing out of the side, but even fewer growing on the top.

The top of First Tower's spire wasn't quite flat, instead rounded from untold years of weathering and with a few patches of smaller loose rocks and a handful of fractures in the stone around him, but that was all fine. Area-wise, it was probably four to five hundred square meters in an irregular but oblong shape oriented in the same direction as the river.

The exact spot he chose for his tower was at the downstream end of the oblong, as it had the steepest cliff and was mostly flat. Standing at it already made Oliver feel powerful, meaning it was an ideal location for a wizardly tower. The water rushing by met the upward draft of the breeze striking the stone and being diverted upwards, on the border between woods and water. The stone was warm from the eternal daylight but not hot thanks to the lack of direct sunlight, and the Nature of the area was… well, he was still below the treeline of most of the forest, so there was spill-over from that, and of course even the stone he was standing on was permeated with that ever-annoying brand of chaos, but all of that could be dealt with. All of that could be obviated.

He just needed to build himself a tower, and then all else would fall into place.