Post Ammen Vale: Day 1

"Don't worry, Ireena." Gil said, "I'll be back in a few weeks, I promise. You're in good hands. Take care of them and they should hopefully take care of you."

Ireena was wrapped in blankets, glowing faintly with warm golden light. She looked fine, but Gil could remember enough about radiation to know that didn't mean much. Radiation was strange, like magic, but had scientific trappings so it frequently worked slowly. Sometimes it could rapidly mutate entire colonies of animals into sentient humanoids. Sometimes it turned people into raging beasts. Sometimes it gave women penises. Sometimes it just gave people cancer, leading to a slow and lingering death over the course of months or years.

"I'll do my best." She said in a forlorn voice, her breath labored, "I feel so sick."

"Unfortunately I don't have any real marching orders for you, since that stunt wasn't enough to finish the mission on its own yet." Gil said with a sad smile. "Just do what comes naturally and stay alive. I'll be very irritated if I need to expend resources resurrecting you."

The Draenei seemed confident about their treatment plan, which as far as he could tell consisted of pumping Ireena full of healing magic until their Geiger Counter said she was ok. He'd have preferred Radex, it seemed quicker and more effective, but Gil couldn't even properly remember what world that medicine was from.

In any event, he didn't have time for more than a short farewell. He needed to move, and unfortunately his hosts didn't have any way to speed him along. He summoned his tablet, hoping against hope that the elves had enough time to get home. It was a long, hard jog back to the skyblock, even more so for Snow.

••••••••••

Day 1

Gil, Snow, and Keilnei reached the skyblock with half an hour to spare. Gil, being Gil, looked around the immediate vicinity of the portal for anything even remotely useful. He got a few sticks that he thought might count as weapons, and hopped through the portal at the five minute mark. He found Snow happily playing the role of hostess for the new girls.

"This is the cooking fire where we usually prepare our meals." The cheerful princess explained. "We don't really have enough wood to keep it going all the time, but it's more than enough to eat."

"Over here are the sparring grounds where master Gilbert, Ireena, and Lady Durst practice. Lady Durst is an odd person, but seems quite pleasant in her way. She's away at the moment, staying in a place called Brock Town Bay."

Gil didn't choose to interrupt, not when the new girls all seemed happy enough to let the princess speak. He'd had an eventful day, and had a full week to get through everything he had in mind. He considered the girls, and chuckled. Ireena was nice enough, but she was a bit of a prude. He suspected that he'd have some fun this week, with only Zena likely to object to any extracurricular activities he might want to engage in. First, he took a damn nap.

••••••••••

When he woke up, Snow was whistling quietly while sorting through the large sacks full of elven accoutrements. Blackpaw laid nearby, lazing in the light. He'd need to go back into his sphere; they just didn't have enough meat to justify keeping a dog around full time. Of course, Snow liked having him around. She could have the wolf's company for a few hours.

"Where are the rest of the girls?" Gil asked, yawning.

"Oh, they all went to the new building." Snow said, pointing at a large dome which had appeared just past the money changer.

The arcane sanctum was a rather pretty building, really, taking the form of a bronze dome that glittered in the light. The dome was nearly as wide as the block it was sat upon, leaving only a tiny strip of ground around it. He'd need to forbid his girls from walking on that; it just wasn't worth the risk. Then again, he wasn't sure if that would be a problem for any of his current girls. They didn't seem to be big risk takers.

Inside, he found Zena and Candress breathing in the air deeply, while Keilnei meditated in the corner. The elves had a blissful, dazed expression, the green glow of their eyes so intense that it was visible through their eyelids. A large horizontal bar on the wall read "12%" in glowing blue letters.

"Ah shit. I left them alone with access to the sanctum." Gil grumbled, walking in and grabbing the two of them roughly by the arms. "Alright you two, come on."

Candress stood easily, giving him a languid smile and stepping in close. She nestled her head onto his shoulder, humming happily, and Gil noted that her skin was feverishly hot. Zena reacted much less favorably, avoiding his gaze as he tugged on her arm. He had to drag her out.

"Keilnei!" He called, "what did that number say when they came in here?"

"One hundred percent." She answered, looking up forlornly. "They drained all of it, but it's been slowly recovering since, while they've been like this. This island is cold and remote, but I can almost feel the Naaru when I am here."

"That is what this room is for." Gil said gently. "There are many forms of magic throughout the universe. This place is a nexus of sorts, connected to tens of thousands of worlds, all with their own magic."

"A portal network between planets?" Keilnei asked, her blue eyes widening. "How did you come to own such a place?"

"It's owned by my employers." Gil half explained. "And no, not planets. Your world is a particularly large and populous one, if it has multiple planets that have distinct populations. Some worlds have total populations in only the thousands."

"It's a strange journey you have brought me upon, then." She said, "I will have stories when I return home, I suppose. I didn't expect to feel so alone, especially not so quickly."

"For what it's worth, I imagine it's a temporary state." Gil said, squeezing Keilnei's shoulder. "The Holy Light is a part of you, right? It just needs to adjust."

Gil put the giddy elves to work schlepping the weapons and armor to the Armory. The Elven Scout Armor was a lightweight kind of equipment, but still more heavy duty than the Hunter Clothes and with a consequently higher sell price of 40. The combat knives were similarly designed with slightly more intention of being used as a weapon than the survival knife from Rim Elm, and could thus sell for 25. Gil didn't see much reason to keep them all around in an intact state, so he picked a few of the knives for later and liquidated anything else he didn't have an immediate use for.

By the end of the process, he had a lovely pile of 600 marks. The 20,000 mark price tag on another Bikini Armor didn't seem so out of reach. Prohibitively expensive, yes, but far from unattainable as long as he kept gathering weapons. Keilnei donated a single arrow, which didn't sell for a single mark on its own. That seemed like bullshit to Gil, as he was pretty sure it would be a reasonable sidegrade when compared to a sock full of rocks, but when he saw that he could buy a set of 20 arrows for 4 credits it made sense. Ammo had separate rules, and if he could sell one arrow at a time for more than he could buy them for, he'd have Zena doing exactly that loop all week, until such a time as he could deck his whole team out in bikini armor. Infinite money glitches were hilarious, but bad for balance.

He bit the bullet and disassembled Keilnei's "light hunting shortbow" for 25, only to immediately repurchase it for 50. Ranged weapons were just too damn useful, and he really didn't want Keilnei to end up disarmed on some other planet without picking up the blueprint first. Her backup weapon was a hatchet, which Gil could definitely get behind, but he was less worried about replacing one of those.

By the time he was done with that, he was pleased to see that the elves weren't high anymore, and the Sanctum was at nearly half charge.

"Alright ladies." He announced. "Gather round."

He explained the basic schedule to the three newbies, wishing he had some paper he could write out a pamphlet on. One day in another world, six days on the skyblock, tasks to complete, accumulate power and resources, stay on good terms with the locals where possible, leave with no certain timetable of return.

None of the new girls seemed overly blown away by the concepts, which he was thankful for. If a world with goddamn space faring wizards didn't equip people for this lifestyle, he didn't know what would.

"I think our next day out will be in a place none of you have been to before, but I have." Gil said, "We are out of that tea I was passing out to the Draenei, and it's from a small town called Rim Elm. I suspect we will be dragged into local politics if we go there, but magical healing herbs are useful wherever you go. Speaking of magic and going places, you may have noticed that you don't have access to your magic outside of the Sanctum."

"Yeah, is it some property of this island?" Zena asked, "it's awful, honestly."

"The opposite." Gil explained. "Your magic is attached to your world. It works differently in different places. I don't know exactly how transferable everything is, but there will be some worlds with no mana whatsoever. Will you two be able to survive in those kinds of conditions?"

Zena recoiled, her nose screwed up as if she smelled something foul. Candress merely scowled.

"We should be able to survive for weeks or months at a time without mana," she answered. "In terms of subsistence, the wellspring there is likely more than enough. I worry, however, that I won't be of much use to you. I have some knowledge of map making and administration, as well as a basic idea of how to use my staff as a bludgeon, but I worry that will be quite insufficient."

"Don't you worry about that." Gil assured her. "You're loyal, and I can always use someone loyal. You may need to practice a little bit, but I'm not so impressive myself. A trustworthy companion who can keep a cool head in a dangerous situation will be useful, even if you truly had no skills outside of spellcasting."

As he spoke, Gil stroked Candress's hair with his fingertips, pushing a lock behind her ear. He looked her in her glowing green eyes from an intimate distance, and her heart beat faster.

"Not to mention, I'm a sucker for a pretty face." Gil added with a wink. "Before this last week, Ireena was probably about as good with a blade as Zena, if that. I made her stronger because I believed her to be loyal and trustworthy. I will have more opportunities to do so in the future, and if you need work, then we can make you better."

Gil cupped Candress's chin, and leaned in for a kiss. She responded with pleasure, but not excessively so. When Gil pulled away, she looked more reassured than turned on. Keilnei was blushing purple at the brazen display of affection, while Snow smiled happily.

Zena looked mildly ill, seeing her hardass direct superior in this state. Elves sleeping with humans wasn't as bad as sleeping with animals, but it sure as well wasn't considered normal. Gil was all too happy to demonstrate exactly how normal it would be on the Skyblock, taking Candress to his tent, where they had a small set of new elf-made cushions to break in.

The mage was an interesting contrast with Snow, partly due to their similarities. Both were utterly compliant, but while Snow was eager and bubbly, Candress seemed to approach pleasing Gil as a duty. She was compliant, and lubricated when the time came, but calm and clinical as she worked.

Maybe elves weren't very sexual? They'd sure as hell have a population surplus if they fucked as much as humans and had any kind of reasonable fertility rate. He made a note to ask Zena about it.