Chapter 408: I am the Map!
Tomes and scrolls fell from the sky, landing in Aki’s waiting hand. The mental Librarian took a cursory glance at the documents, before throwing them to the side and letting them soar through the air to their new home within Belladonna’s mind.
A new shelf even rose from the floor, a criss-cross honey comb-like shelf specifically made to store the rolled up scrolls.
Aki did not just store the contents, but drew from them. Each of the documents flowing into her library was a map. Some of them were freely available books, such as world Atlases or maps drawn by sea-fairers, whilst others were ones that Belladonna had to buy from the tower.
Those maps were special, either containing details of trade routes or city layouts, which were mainly for merchants and not really used by the common-folk who learned city layouts by simply living there, whilst others marked up to date sources of magical interference.
That interference was also known, as Dungeons.
However the most important document that Belladonna bought, was one that contained the locations of the various Towers of Mystica, and more importantly their teleportation circle locations.
With each addition of information, Aki pulled all of the relevant geography from the books and scrolls and threw them into the air, weaving them together into one giant tapestry. She even wove in the information that Belladonna had received through experience, as well as what the other players had been sharing on the forums.
Until finally, hanging level with the Libraries second floor balcony, was a tapestry of the entire continent.
It was more detailed in places, depending on the information they had on hand. But it was more than just a simple map, it was living and breathing. Constantly updating with everything she knew, and reacting to her movements.
It was a true game world map, and down to the fact that it even had the ’fast travel’ points on it and that she could use it for marking quest locations. It was perfect. It was genius!
Belladonna managed to have at least five whole seconds basking in her genius, before it all came crashing down on her head with a single message that arrived with a daunting, yet jovial, ping.
[Figg: Hey Bell, I was just finishing up the first of the trading compounds.... You know you forgot to give us the other half of the navigational tool, right?
You made the beacon, but we still don’t have the thing to find the beacon, and you’re currently the only one who can move stuff between worlds. I’m sure you already thought of that and were planning something, but I just thought that I would check up, in case I need to do anything as part of that plan. Also because people were asking about it and I ran out of excuses to give them when they were pressing me for answers.]
Belladonna froze as she read the message, the proud and smug smile still plastered across her idiotic face, before it began to twitch.
Inside of her mind, Aki sighed and caught the CD that fell from the sky. She didn’t even have to look at the contents of it, as she personally carried it over to its new home and slotted it onto a shelf that was nearly full of similar CD’s. Humiliating Memories to revisit at Night.
It was the largest section of the library, and only grew by the day.
[Belladonna: Of course I knew that! You think I would just leave and forget such an important thing? As if!]
[Figg: Uh huh... So, you have everything handled then? I don’t need to get involved on that end too?]
[Belladonna: Well... It’s probably best if we meet up, so I can pass it off to you on this side and not need to keep holding your hand for the future ones.
𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
But rest assured, I already have it made. I’ll send you a meeting point in a few, we can catch up there and head to the beacon together, just to be sure everything works.]
She frantically typed out the message and hit send, before going back to her hasty carving. Her pen blurred, moving with as much speed as she could manage without being careless, as she covered a Y-shaped bone in dozens of runes.
The last rune was completed just as Belladonna stepped out of the Tower of Mystica, and when she poured her mana into it, those runes flared to life and glowed brightly against the bleach white bone.
Information immediately flowed into her mind, as she slowly turned on the spot. Keeping the bone pointed forwards like a dousing rod, as Aki translated the rapid torrent of information into a digestible format upon the great continental tapestry.
Upon the tapestry, Belladonna could see herself represented by one dot, close to the western edge of the map, whilst a line swept across it in time with Belladonna’s movement until finally, that line stopped as if it hit something.
It rapidly shrunk, being sucked into a singular point. A point that, by the best estimates, would take two months to get to by carriage.
Belladonna sighed, her eyes scanning the map as she planned the best possible route in her head, before she turned and walked right back into the Tower of Mystica.
A few minutes later, a new scroll was falling through the skies of her mind and into the eager hands of Aki, who looked over it with sparkling eyes.
***
The Air panicked, rushing out of the way and desperately making space just a moment before Figg manifested in that space, his entire body seemingly squeezing out of a minuscule dot in the fabric of reality and retaking its natural form all in an instant.
The Druid swayed as he stood on the gazebo, his face going through a multitude of colours, before his cheeks bulged and he lurched forwards, unloading his lunch into a bucket that was rather conveniently placed into his hands at the right moment.
"Tch, Amateur." He heard Belladonna say, and managed to stop puking long enough to look up at her with a withering glare.
She laughed, smirking at him cockily as she leaned on the gazebo’s entrance with her arms crossed.
"Didn’t you listen when the lady told you to hold your breath? Only a total idiot would make that mistake before teleporting."