The Path of Ascension 3: A LitRPG Adventure

59

Matt grinned at her around his face full of egg.

“It went really well, actually. Well, kinda. Kelley and I mostly worked on the light rune I gave him, and we managed to solve the problem of the rune being too inefficient. But it only works for single runes, and not for strip lighting. We’ll work on that later, after we both have time to think on it. After that, we mostly worked on enchanting various bits and bobs he had lying around.”

Liz looked vaguely concerned at that. “He isn’t taking advantage of your mana, is he?”

Matt waved his fork, “He isn’t. Or if he is, he’s either really bad at it, or working an extremely long con. He didn’t ask, and when I half offered, he waved me off.”

They ate in silence for a while, until they both finished their plates. Eventually, Matt asked, “How did the prep stuff go?”

Liz grinned at him. “Gooood. But I need you to stand the first watch for me.”

“Watch? What watch? And where? And when?” He c****d an eyebrow and said, “I’m willing, but confused.”

If Liz needed someone to do something fast, it was much easier for him to step in and take over for a while, than to scramble to find someone else. The only question was what exactly it was that she needed him to do.

“We need someone to staff the situation room and basically see if they’re trying to send Pathers on suicide missions because of terrain or anything.” Seeing the expression on Matt’s face, she hurried to add, “It’s not meant to be hard. We’re still working out the exact details, but we don’t expect it to be more than that. Or at least not much more. We’re thinking about rerouting all Pather communications through the offices we are setting up, but that seems like a little too much for a single person to handle.”

“Wait, back up a bit. Who is we?”

Liz looked confused but finally understood. “Sorry. Yesterday I was talking to Juni, and afterwards, Talous. He’s the one of the top Pather team leads on the queendom side, and we’re making sure we get everything we can from the two royal heirs. Anyway, he and a few others on both sides who are interested planned out a lot of things yesterday. Some of us are dead, and some aren’t.”

“The idea is, we’ll always have a top fifty Pather in charge, and on the council that the prince is making. If no one in the top fifty is dead, the top ten need to send a representative. It’s not ideal, as it will screw up some missions, but it’s the best we can work out for now. None of us want to do it permanently.”

Matt wiped his plate with his toast and asked, “And that means someone needs to be in the situation room?”

“Yup! That’s where most of the big decisions are carried out. I think you’ll at least not mind it, even if it isn’t your cup of tea. The map shows everything that’s going on, and the various upgrades that can be bought from the points that the kingdom is earning. We’ll get someone else to do it soon, but we all need to start today.”

He looked at their room with longing, but blasted [Endurance] at 80 MPS for a few seconds to banish any fatigue he was feeling. They left the food out for the others, and they quickly moved downstairs, where they separated.

Matt found himself in a brightly lit room with row after row of massive screens, and people tapping at them while interfacing with their AIs. He was surprised by how quiet the room was with that many people talking, and by their gestures, some discussions were getting rather heated.

A quick inspection of the room with his spiritual sense showed him a series of enchantments surrounding each workstation. It was overlaid with an obscuring rune, making it murky and twisty to his senses, but the application was obvious.

A petite young woman with bright pink hair came over to him and introduced herself. “Jessica, watch commander for the first shift. I assume you’re the Pather assigned here.”

“That’s me. Though I admit, I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to be doing, or how any of this works. Any help would be greatly appreciated.” He grinned at her, trying to show that he wasn’t going to step on her toes or try to take over somehow.

If that was Liz’s plan, he had no idea how he would even begin to go about that, so he just kept things honest.

Jessica looked at him questioningly, then motioned around after finding what she wanted. “This is the relay section and where we communicate with the various teams who are out in the field. From those that are defending the lowest level forts to those defending the cities.”

“Not an AI? I know we didn’t deal with one, but I’m surprised by that, with how many teams are out there now.”

The Tier 7 woman shook her head. “The hundred people we have are generally enough to handle the volume we get. It’s usually a lot of small calls that only take a minute, but we don’t let an AI handle the communications simply because the teams don’t like that.” She shrugged and continued with, “Apparently, it’s been tried and doesn’t go over well. Even though most of the operators are relaying information that an AI is giving them. Don’t ask me about the psychology. I can’t explain it.”

Matt raised his hands slightly and took a half step back. “Oh, I understand. I’m sure someone figured out the most optimal way a million years ago. I was just surprised.”

Jessica laughed lightly at that. “Fair enough. Sorry, that’s something that some of the other nobles were upset about. They thought it was wasteful that we requested their people for such dull work.” She made air quotes with her fingers and sarcastically chimed, “Menial labor that an AI could do. And they always seem to complain during my shift.”

She guided him forward to a glowing, projected globe ringed by panels, with levers and knobs inlaid.

“That’s the big boy. That isn’t our work; the Empire put this together for us. It lets the prince spend kingdom level points to upgrade various forts or cities throughout the world.” She pointed to a counter on a side wall and said, “That’s the overall points total, and where we’re earning our points. Everything can be interfaced with your AI if you’re in this room. Feel free to poke around. You won’t break anything, since none of us have permission to do much more than view the files and processes. Only the prince has the ability to spend these points. And while he can delegate things, only like three people have been given the right. But I’m pretty sure that all three are really just Juni.”

Matt laughed at her attempt at a joke and said, “Yeah, the prince seems to trust Juni, and he’s always busy with various things. Though, I’ve only worked with him for a little bit, so I’m sure you know him better.”

Jessica grinned and responded, “The running conspiracy is that Juni’s Talent makes it so he doesn’t need to sleep, since no one’s ever actually seen the man sleeping. It would explain how he gets so much done.”

Matt paused to think about that; he hadn’t seen the man sleep either. Juni always was up and about, constantly doing something during the golem attacks, and afterwards. He doubted that it was actually the man’s Talent, but it could be.

She looked at the map and said, “You aren’t a part of the kingdom, but Juni has a reputation. He gets things done. People have tried to pin assassinations and sabotage on him to the prince a million times. If he does things like that, he’s never been caught, or at least left substantial proof. He’s also insanely loyal to the prince, though that one makes sense if you know their history.”

“Oh?” Matt was officially interested and tried to pry some more information out of the shift commander.

“Yeah. The prince ran away when he was around five, I believe. How he got away from his minders, no one knows, and more than a few heads rolled for that lapse. But he found Juni’s house and was taken in by the family. He pretty much lived there for a few days before anyone found him.”