Deadly Light

Gil was woken up once in the middle of the night, perfunctorily infused with golden light, and allowed to sleep again. His aches and pains still weren't completely gone, but compared to before he felt great. More like a slightly overboard workout than multiple lacerations. He checked his tablet for updates, and was thrilled to find that Candress and Keilnei had managed to fully charge a healing crystal.

Keilnei had been hunting regardless, just for the sake of filling the larder. She'd only been a private among the Rangari, but she could still track animals magically and create bullets for her gun with magic. Her specific skillset meant that almost nothing else she could do would be half as useful to the community as gathering fresh meat, and if the elf girl wanted to come along and gather her prey's last breath? All the better. Waste not, want not.

He wasn't sure if he could manage the last mission of the day. It seemed a bit big, and sweeping.

Halt the Ecological damage caused by the crash to Ammen Vale

Reward: 5 credits, The Dungeon (binding), Unlock Localization in shop

The Dungeon: requires a sympathetic link. Creates a dungeon based on the target's soul, which will be manned by guardians of their tier, which will often be clones of them. If the tester can reach the throne room and sit in the throne unopposed for 5 minutes, he will gain ownership of them. The dungeon will contain one floor of increasing difficulty and danger level for each tier of the target, each of which will contain a treasure equivalent to the sell price of a no name character of the corresponding tier.

The Dungeon seemed to work in a manner exactly opposite to most bindings, in that it would be dramatically harder to actually subdue someone using The Dungeon than with main force. He could see why it hadn't made it to mass production; it seemed niche as hell. On the other hand, it sounded like a 100% completion run would be very profitable. He put a pin in the thought; he certainly wanted to look at it more closely.

Gil had grudgingly let Draenei pick through the supplies stolen from the Blood Elf camp. Keilnei was a tier 4, and quite fetching from what he'd seen of her. He was willing to let the refugees take what they needed if that meant following through on the deal Snow made. The elves' armor, as well as any valuables with no immediate practical use, were left untouched. The Draenei were well over a foot taller than the elves, so their clothes were useful only as bandages. Their weapons, mostly knives, were taken by those Draenei who lacked blades of their own but otherwise left alone. All told, Gil was still making back his investment quite nicely on this trip.

The biggest concern was still food, of course. They'd all eaten their fill from the spiced bread, but his retinue was still growing and he had come out of this trip with less food than he arrived with. His culinary worries only slightly shrank when he came across Candress, sleeping next to a crate where a few Draenei were eating a strange yellow cake. The refugees ate mechanically, grimacing as they did.

"You are her friend, yes?" One of them said, apparently having picked up the tongue over the course of the last day, "please, thank her for us when she wakes? She conjured food before she went to sleep."

"Conjured food?" Gil asked under his breath, walking over.

He hadn't had breakfast himself, so he picked up some of the yellow bread. It was stiff, like it was stale. He looked at it skeptically.

"It's nourishing," the Draenei whispered to him, "but I've never met a mage who can really make this stuff taste good. This is honestly better than most I've had. Edirah can make hers taste almost like real sourdough, but she's basically an archmage."

Gil took a bite, and frowned. Unseasoned, uncooked instant noodles were the first thing to spring to mind. Some kind of seasoning or spread would make it somewhat better… he hoped. Unfortunately, it also had a tingling, faintly bitter aftertaste. It didn't quite reach the status of revolting, but this was food to subsist upon. Not something to live on.

Gil adjusted his worst case scenario up from "starvation" to "having to eat this shit multiple times a day." It was a huge step up, enough to justify Candress all on its own. Even better, it was apparently a somewhat common ability in this world. He liked having irreplaceable retinue members, but vital assets were best when they were highly replaceable.

He shook Candress lightly, waking her up with a quick kiss on the nose. She screwed up her face and turned away at that, which was honestly quite cute.

"Come on, Candress." He said. "We are headed back to the portal soon. We don't want to be caught out."

"Yes sir." The elf answered with a yawn. "I feel strangely hollow. I think… I think I need to absorb mana?"

Shit. Is that why they were eye-fucking the healing crystal?

Gil checked Candress's sheet, and sure enough she had the addict tag.

"Is mana addictive? Are there any other side effects to its use?" He asked, quietly. Magic could have all sorts of strange side effects, depending on the world. Gil had addiction resistance, but in retrospect he needed to be sure he wasn't opening himself up to possession, or likely to drive himself insane.

"Very. Especially for my people." Candress explained, her technical knowledge completely intact even if her life was largely blank. "We need mana to survive, though not very much to merely persist. I believe arcana can also give one an inflated sense of self and muted sense of empathy over long periods, though I've never noticed such a thing."

"Hopefully the sanctum will have mana you can draw upon." Gil said, worried. If it didn't, he'd likely need to leave Candress and Zena behind unless he wanted to shell out 20 credits on giving them both addiction resistance. "Go find Zena, and check for it. After that, stay on the skyblock until I get back."

Gil went hunting for the rest of his team. He had 5 hours left before he was out of time, and estimated about a one hour trip back to the Skyblock. He could get back with Evac if needed, but he wanted as many of his girls to go back on foot as possible.

He found Snow, Ireena, and Keilnei near the edge of a lake, looking at a glowing pink crystal the size of a large wardrobe. It was embedded in the lakebed, and Gil saw a number of dead fish floating around it.

Ireena was still wrapped in Gil's cloak, though she'd also been given a purple tabard sized for a Draenei man. It was extremely large on her normal frame, trailing to the grass, but might just barely contain her alternate form.

"Gil." Ireena said. "I'm told that these people need that thing moved. I'm going to move it for them. I'm told it will probably harm me badly. If I die, I want you to tell Ismark that I died well. I'm glad that I left with you. You're a strange man, but a better one than I expected."

"You aren't going to die." Gil said with a sigh. "I could, and would, revive you if that happened. Using multiple methods, actually. You'd either come back in a different body, with different abilities, or you'd lose all memories of your time with me and go back to Barovia without your new powers. Don't be so dramatic."

"Oh." Ireena said, awkwardly. "Well, I'm doing it regardless. They say their healers should be able to patch me up, but they aren't certain. I don't think I'll be able to go back to the island with you."

Snow was looking back and forth fretfully between them, worry clear on her face.

"If you need a warrior, I am willing to take her place." Keilnei said gently, stepping in. "This is the only potable water source this close to our encampment. My people need it cleansed."

"Cleansed of what?" Gil asked. "How is that crystal killing the fish?"

"An invisible fire, known as radiation." Keilnei explained gently, as if she didn't expect Gil to understand the concept but figured it was polite to try. "It is a kind of poisonous light that the crystal emits, which can kill those exposed to it. Even setting aside the water, nearly every creature in these woods will likely die if we can not contain the crystal. I'm sure enough of this that I will give myself in exchange for Ireena's aid, while she allows herself to be healed."

Gil looked the busty blue girl up and down. She filled out her leather armor quite well, had a longbow slung over one shoulder, and apparently had enough scientific knowledge to know what radiation was. She seemed like a keeper. Further, his mission was to stop the environmental collapse of this forest and the crystal seemed pretty key to that.

"Alright. Ireena, Snow, go talk to Magelon and try to get everything lined up as quickly as you can." He ordered, "I'd prefer to get us all back with at least an hour to spare, so if Ireena can do this in the next hour or two that would be best."

Gil reached into a yellow pouch he'd looted off of one of the elves, essentially a purse, and pulled out a golden chain. He turned to Keilnei once the others were out of line of sight, and handed her The Whore's Necklace.

"You already told Snow that you would accompany us. For this, I will ask for more. These necklaces are meaningful among my people. You could think of them as a symbol that someone is paying off a debt." He lied, handing it to her. "If you wish to do so, put it on."