In Another World with JUST MONIKA 70 Your Three Options

Charlotte and Alan finally left at just before dinnertime. We managed to finish only thirty pages in four hours, and by then Alan's hand was swelling with ̷a̷n̷ ̷a̷w̷e̷s̷o̷m̷e̷ ̷p̷o̷w̷e̷r̷ tremendous pain. Its ̷burning grip was telling him to defeat me. Fortunately Charlotte showed she was also a pretty good healer, but he didn't thank her at all. It only meant he could continue working, after all.

Monika was still hiding away for some reason.

I tried to ask the Duke just what she was negotiating for as part of our dinner conversation, but he too just grinned and said it was something I'd really like. It was just what I deserved.

Ominous.

The Ducal Family still looked so happy that they could all eat together at the same table. For five years, because of her blindness, Duchess Ellen needed help to just to eat. Being spoon-fed like a baby was somewhat humiliating. Now she could once again easily use spoon, forks, and knives.

"I could be content with this," she whispered. "The only reason I would want to have normal sight again is to see the faces of my family."

"Don't worry, Mother," Sue said with the fullest confidence. "Sir Zah and I will make that happen!"

It was only when we were alone in a guest room that Monika finally decided to emerge. Although she still looked pristine, she touched her brows as if wiping away sweat. /"Whew, that took a lot more mental effort than I expected…"/

I nodded. Even though it took a month to go from not having any magic at all and then suddenly human powered flight, I was also constantly practicing Wind Magic in little things. "Are you okay? Do you feel any pain?"

Unfortunately [Light] magic didn't work on Monika any, as a being made of nonliving material, and we had no idea what counted as painkiller medication for a digital life-form.

/"I'm fine. So!"/ She raised a finger in sassy achievement, /"I figured out THREE possible ways to [Recompile] the [Null] magic. But at this point we can only use one and the process of [Compiling] will consume the deconstructed spell in my memory, so you will have to decide.

/"The first is the [BOOM TUBE]. Yes, it is exactly what you are thinking of. This will create a tunnel linking two places. The benefit is that its size is adjustable, and it will last as long as you want it to remain active. We can open it to anywhere we have visited before or can properly visualize, no limitations on distance. You can march ARMIES through it if you really wanted to, no problem.

/The downside is that Boom Tube is not just a name. It will create a loud flashy boom on activation, and push air away from the center of the opening wormhole. It's bright, it's loud, it is completely unsubtle – there is no way you would be able to use it in stealth or maybe even inside a town, Player. You would be super annoying to your neighbors."/

"You're forgetting another positive, Monika," I mused. "Having our teleport be a [Boom Tube] will allow me to call you a Mother Box (ʰᵗᵗᵖ://ᵈᶜ.ʷᶦᵏᶦᵃ.ᶜᵒᵐ/ʷᶦᵏᶦ/ᴹᵒᵗʰᵉʳ_ᴮᵒˣ). Much earlier before a time that I could make that a literally true statement." Eyebrow waggle.

/"N-not the time, Player! Pay attention!"/ she scolded with a blush. /"N-next one is a refinement of [PORTAL], to exactly how you would see it from the Portal games. Blue and orange, enter and exit portals, that can be laid onto any flat surface. This has massive tactical advantages for mobility and throwing enemy spells back into their faces. You've played Portal, you know there is no end of shenanigans you could do with the Portal Gun."/

"Downsides?"

/"It works only on line of sight. And by this, I mean what your biological eyes can perceive with clarity, though I can assist with optical and digital zoom. You need to be able to define the area you are putting the portal onto, so none of Portal 2's 'I can see the moon… so I can shoot at the Moon and put a portal there!' shenanigans."/

"If I could put [Portals] into open air, it would be a no-brainer. Being able to zot from place to place and redirect enemy weapons fire would be something I could structure my whole battle strategy around. But as it is, while useful I'm not sure it's worth not having long-distance teleportation. Maybe if we chain portals, it could still serve to shorten travel time, but I'm tabling it for now. The last?"

/"Modified [TOWN PORTAL]. Now it would actually look like Diablo's town portal, a vertical oblong shape swirling with a soothing blue and white glow."/

"That sounds… underwhelming. We already know the advantages and disadvantages to this, what makes it compare to the other options?"

/"It's a Town Portal, which means you can use it with Town Portal SCROLLS. It's not a spell. It's something I can scribe onto parchment, and then be activated by you or others."/

I sat up sharply. "That's useful! Is it limited to only one portal…? No, wait, because it comes in scrolls, obviously each scroll would be its own set of Town Portals. So if we had two scrolls…"

/"Exactly. We could indefinitely travel between two places without making the portals collapse."/

"This could revolutionize everything, Monika!"

She giggled and shook her head. /"Unfortunately, no. I'm sorry to dash your hopes, but since the Town Portals are not powered directly by personal magic or tied to any magic ley lines, they will collapse on their own after five minutes or so. Also, unlike a [Boom Tube] it has no built-in protections allowing only your allies to pass through. In addition, each set of Town Portal scrolls can only tie to a specific town, towards a specific magic circle I will have to burn into a stone or metal plate."/

/"This means we can sell MORE Town Portals, whole sets of them, and then charge for Town Portal anchors! Holy crap, Monika! We are Transport Tycoon now!"/

Monika giggled again. /"I had a feeling you would like it. So have you decided?"/

I licked my lips and lay back down on the bed. /"… when may we have the others if I decide on one unique [Teleport] magic now?"/

Monika shrugged. /"I don't know. The next [Teleport] [Null] magic I see will have to be significantly different to how [Portal] operates… which means the new spells gained from [Decompiling] it would also be significantly different. Maybe never?"/

"I'm really going to have to think about this."

Chapter end

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