Chapter Thirty-Two - Planning Ahead

A week was a long time, and part of that week felt like it dragged on. And yet, by the next Saturday, after a full week where I didn't put on a single pair of pants, only showered once, and where the most exercise I did was... uh... anyway. The week passed quickly in some ways.

Before I Reloaded back to the previous Friday I had a list to memorize.

While I muttered through it, part of me went over the week itself.

I'd... wasted a lot of time. Sure, I almost overdosed on Magical replenishing juice, and had gotten a fair amount of practice with not one, but two new cantrips. Otherwise... the time had been kind of wasted.

Some days I spent time on guitar practice, and I got a few hours of French in but, honestly, I got more practice on the average workday when I set a Save on arriving home and dedicated a few uninterrupted hours to practicing.

In a longer-form loop, I had the tendency to get distracted, to put things off for a few hours which turned into a day. I had, over eight days, gotten as much practice as I might have gotten over two evenings with judicious use of looping.

Oh well. I think I needed a break. It was nice to sit back and just... chill for a while. I caught up to some shows, listened to some full albums, plinked away at my guitar until the strings started to wear out.

Right, had to remember to order new strings.

I re-read my list for the seventh time...

Saturday the 13th:

A caravan of supplies arrives in the early morning missing three trucks. They were lost on-route from Fortress East. There's a valid claim that it was a minor breach on the way.

Minor breach opens seven KM south of the city, sealed by The Seraphs.

Francisca Ojou was kidnapped while exiting her apartment in City Centre.

Sunday the 14th:

Man found dead behind Orchic Lux HQ. Beaten to death. Third weird death with that corp in a month.

Brightbarrow softworks' servers crashed. Caused a bunch of issues for a bunch of companies.

Monday

A-ranker Bloody Violet arrived in Fortress ENE. He just quit his job at his last guild, open to recruitment.

CEO of FortCo passed away.

Tuesday

The Punk Pop Lady Killers showed up!

Wednesday

Fuck-all happened.

Thursday:

The Storm Chasers found an E-rank portal on the outskirts of town.

Blackouts near home (sucks big time, power only comes back at 3AM.)

Friday:

Francisca Ojou freed herself. Turned into a D-ranker during the kidnapping. Was held in a D-rank portal just outside of the city in the industrial parks.

Saturday:

Mayor slept with his secretary. Owns up to it with jokes and shit. Doesn't seem to care that it got out. He's single, so... whatever.

Sunday:

Nothin'.

And that was it... kinda. I had picked up a lot of random tidbits on the news, but most of it felt deeply unimportant. I knew that whomever was responsible for the breach probably had a hundred little things going, but I was mostly looking for big picture events. The problem was that seeing those was easier after the fact.

I had a plan for what I'd do as soon as I Reloaded. And soon after.

A week was a long time to do research, and a long time to spend a heap of cash with no real regrets.

I'd discovered that some companies out there catered to mages specifically, and if you paid them enough they'd sell you a file with all you needed to know to cast a spell.

For the better documented spells, that was everything. The path's shape, magical consistency and speed, emotional wavelengths, and there were videos of the spell at work.

I ended up paying a pretty penny for a discussion over the phone with a 'spell expert' a couple of days ago who was more than happy to guide me towards a purchase. He bought my bullshit line about being an outer elemental Void mage looking for some new, usable, cantrips to practice with and had suggested a little spell called See Darkness.

See Darkness was kind of lame, but that was expected from a cantrip. The spell, once cast, allowed the user to see in the dark... a little. It was about half as good as a cat's natural dark vision. Mostly, what it did, was make it so that when you looked around in the dark it was as if you'd stood there with your eyes closed for twenty minutes, without needing to wait so long for natural darkvision to kick in.

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I liked it.

I then shopped around for the cheapest place to buy the cantrip from online and had that on my list of things to remember.

That, and Sooth Minor Pain were going to be my focus this week. I already had the basics of See Darkness down, but I needed more practice with it before I felt comfortable enough to call myself 'proficient' with the cantrip.

The guide I'd called up had let me see some D-rank spells too. Void magic was awesome, and I wanted so bad to get my grubby hands on it, but it was still beyond me for the moment. Also, expensive.

Anyway, there was no putting it off.

I re-read the list one last time, then closed my eyes.

I Reloaded.

There was a sudden jerk, and I found myself back in my apartment. I blinked around, then touched my stomach... had I really gained weight from one week of doing nothing but eating snack food and laying around?

Probably.

Damn, my power was awesome.

I checked the time to be sure, but it was indeed Friday evening, just a few hours after Squad B and I had hit that E-rank portal.

Rushing to my desk, I found pen and paper and copied over my list from memory. Soon, I had a somewhat detailed list of events to pay more attention to.

And a plan.

The first thing that I wanted to tackle was something that happened... that would happen, tomorrow.

Francisca Ojou was kidnapped from her apartment tomorrow, at around nine in the evening. Then she was brought to a location outside of the city and kept there for a few days until she freed herself.

When I first saw her name it had surprised me a little. I recognized it.

Francisca Ojou held a record for one of the fastest transitions from D-rank to C, having completed the ascension in just under eight months. It had been on the news.

The fact that she was the darling princess of some wealthy company president probably helped. But she had freed herself from captivity. That was damned impressive.

I wouldn't mind someone like that owing me a favour or two. Plus, the reason it had taken so long for people to find her and for her to free herself, was that she was captured and detained within a portal. A nice little D-rank portal outside of town, one that no one knew about until she came out of it bloody and victorious and covered in icy armour.

A portal that I now knew about, because the news filmed plenty of B-roll of its location.

It took a solid hour on street-view, but I found the spot just south of town, and got an address nearby that I could use an auto-taxi to reach.

I wasn't going to head out tomorrow, the day she was kidnapped. Instead I was going to pop over the next day, on Sunday. A day where I had no work and plenty of time to clear out the dungeon and save the damsel.

It was a nice plan, I figured.

Well, the shady beginnings of a plan. I wasn't sure if I could take on a D-ranked portal solo. Maybe? I had confidence in myself, and a day and a night of real-time to prepare, which might as well be forever for me.

Still, I'd need to make sure that my Save for that one was well before the portal run. If I couldn't do it, plan B was to call in the cavalry. There had been a miniature manhunt for Miss Ojou and the bounty on information alone was worth it.

It seemed like a quick and safe...ish way to make some good cash, and improve Deadline's reputation.

If I was going to go around as a masked vigilante, I wanted a record that showed me saving people and being heroic about it.

Also, the idea of being a masked hero appealed to me in a big way. Masked heroines got all the... admiration.

I cleared my throat and started to research. First, re-buying See Darkness. Then, looking up as much as I could about the area around this new portal and anything I could find on the kidnappers whose names I had added to my notes.

Then I'd need to plot another visit to Jane, because this rescue mission was going to need a few extra pieces of gear.

***