Chapter 894 (1/2)

Knock, knock, knock.

Sam blearily opened his eyes. With a grunt, he sat up and rubbed his forehead. After almost three days of constant experimentation regarding the limits of his workbench, Sam was extremely satisfied.

And exhausted. No matter how much the System empowered the body, there was a limit to how long a human could remain totally focused. That time had increased with the System, but even Sam still needed breaks. It gave him a headache to think about Randidly’s ridiculously fiddly Engraving sessions.

Alas, that was not Sam’s Path. Not today.

Knock Knock.

“I’m coming,” Sam grumbled. Regina had already left, so he couldn’t even send her to try and shoo away whoever the fuck was bothering him, at almost the exact second he had finally fallen asleep. But then again, since they hadn’t barged into his house, it wasn’t Donny, Ed, or Alana. And those three were the most difficult for Sam to deal with, although for extremely diverse reasons.

Hopefully, this could be kept short, then.

In addition, it meant that perhaps this individual could be bribed to say that they hadn’t found Sam at his house. Sam had some spare items that he wouldn’t mind parting with, and as long as this individual wasn’t too high on Donnyton’s totem pole-

Sam opened the door. Mrs. Hamilton smiled sweetly at him.

Groaning inwardly, Sam nodded gravely. “Ah, Mrs. Hamilton. What a pleasure so early in the morning.”

“Early in the morning? You must be joking. The Dawn Smith, sleeping in? It must already be 7 A.M.. Do you take days off?” Mrs. Hamilton asked playfully. Sam’s tired attempt at respect crumbled and he simply scowled at her.

Chuckling, Mrs. Hamilton continued with a more serious expression. “We can’t delay them any longer; the representative of Zone Seven will be getting their teleporter. Which means that our political dance needs to happen now. Were you able to use the materials sent down by the East End?”

For the first time in almost twenty years, Sam felt like an absolute fool. He blinked. When was the last time he got so excited about something that he had completely forgotten about his responsibilities? The foolish night that was the last nail in his relationship with his ex-wife? The summer before training camp where he did nothing to ready his ass to earn his keep on a rugby scholarship?

Mrs. Hamilton’s expression immediately turned sharp.

Sam cleared his throat. “It wasn’t…”

“What did you do?” She asked, her voice frigid.

That caused Sam’s hackles to go up. Although he had perhaps been… hasty in his use of the materials, he surely wasn’t empty-handed. And he wasn’t some child for her to chide. He glared at Mrs. Hamilton. “The Level won’t be what I wanted… but I guarantee it will send a certain message.”

Mrs. Hamilton nodded slowly. “Hopefully, it will be enough.”

Nodding shortly, Sam followed after Mrs. Hamilton while covertly rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Hopefully, Zone Seven wouldn’t mind receiving furniture as a counter-gift for their extremely valuable weapons.

*****

Randidly considered the sight in front of him. It was obviously a deep lagoon, but from their vantage on top of a nearby mountain, it was clear that Frogpeople were coming and going freely into the water. Many were carrying waterproof sacks that appeared to function exactly as briefcases. People were clearly commuting to work within the lagoon. The area surrounding the water was lined with those sturdy and squat longhouses in which most of the population seemed to live.

They were overlooking the suburbs, with the city center hidden from view.

“This is a city?” Randidly asked skeptically.

Shual bobbed his head as he sat on a rock and checked himself, stretching his limbs after being confined to the small basket for so long. “A Deep City. Only those Frog Lords allied with Frog Lord Tisha understand the trick to making them; others have tried for generations and only achieved failure. But in this area, they are pretty common. Having the city underwater means that transportation within the city is easy. And the buildings are quite beautiful, I hear-”

Transportation is only important if you don’t have access to interspatial rings, Randidly thought idly. Truly, the Aether that he sensed on this world sparse. Already the connection to Earth was reviving the world in some ways, but they clearly didn’t have access to the advantages that the System offered. Plus, the Frogpeople’s skin likely made movement underwater quite simple. And let them breathe oxygen easily.

Not that the breathing was anything but a mental problem, with the advent of the System.