The task: Make the tentacle portal small enough to be carried around and used for communication.

A very important job. So important, that Korwen had given us permission to rope in Ria and the other magicians to help us.

After Karen and I left the tent where we had our meeting just now, we made our way to Ria’s wagon. Well, technically it wasn’t her wagon, but the wagon where the giant crystal was at. She had more or less made it her home now, though.

“Ria? Ria, are you there?”

I knocked on the door of the wagon a few times, yet received no response.

“Nn… Weird, I would have thought she’d be here.”
“She doesn’t spend all her time here, Yumi.”
“But a lot of it.”

More than enough that this is the first place I’d look for her.

“Nn… We should have asked the captain where she is.”
“Do you want to go back and ask him now?”
“No.”

He was busy as well, and… even if he kept complaining that she was getting in the way, I was fairly sure he enjoyed Alma’s presence. No need to get in the way. We could still ask if we failed to find her.

“But still… where could Ria be.”

I knocked again for good measure, but nothing changed. There was no reaction from inside the wagon.

“Maybe she’s eating something? Or she went to take a break.”
“Ugh… If she’s out, finding her will be annoying. Maybe we should just wait here until she comes back.”

The camp was large, after all. While Ria was rather conspicuous and well-known among the mercenaries—after all, she was one of only a handful of magicians and a frequent perpetrator of explosive accidents—the camp was still considerably large and it’d take a while to find her… Unless, of course, we were lucky enough and someone could immediately send us in the right direction. Usually, we had that luck, so maybe I shouldn’t complain…

“Ah.”
“Nn?”

A small gasp escaped Karen, so I looked to my side, only to find her with one hand on the door. Or rather, just slightly before touching the door… since it had opened a small gap.

“... It’s open?”
“Seems like it…”
“...”
If you’re away, lock the damn door, Ria!

It was just us this time, but not everyone was so nice…

“Should we go in?”
”Nn… Well…”

Should we go in, without permission? Oh, but… technically speaking, this was just a storage wagon for the crystal. It’s not like this was Ria’s real room.

“... I guess it’s fine if we take a quick look inside?”

Barely had the words left my mouth and Karen pushed the door open and peeked into the wagon.

“Ah.”

Her second gasp.

“I found her.”

I peeked past Karen into the wagon, following the direction she pointed towards. There she was, sitting on a chair, leaning against the faintly glowing crystal and snoring.

“...”
“...”
“Well, I guess we found her.”

And now we know the reason why she hadn’t been at the meeting. She was fast asleep.

“But this is a problem…”

I entered the wagon properly and looked around. There were a few magic tools scattered around and a few stacks of books piling up in the corner. Judging by the titles, they were about history and magic theory…

I remember that Ria told us that the crystal was based on an older method of magic tool creation…

That would explain why there were history books between the books about magic theory.

“Yumi, what should we do? Let her sleep?”
“To be honest, if it were just going after me, I would like to just let her sleep…”

If she was still sleeping at this time of the day, she had probably worked throughout the night…

“... but the captain told us to hurry up.”

Ria knew a lot about magic. Far more than me or Karen, which was probably obvious, considering we were amateurs at best. That’s why I really wanted her help, if possible.

“... Yumi, I’ll wake her up.”
“Eh?”

While I was conflicted about whether to wake her up, Karen walked up to Ria and gently shook her shoulder.

“Miss Ria, Miss Ria, please wake up.”
“Mmm…”

Karen called out to her a few more times until Ria’s eyes slowly opened.

“Mmm… Karen…? It’s Karen… Mmm…”
“Yes, it’s me. Miss Ria, it’s already in the afternoon.”
“Mmm… Give me… a moment…”

Ria closed her eyes again, making me worry whether she was just going to fall asleep again. Contrary to my expectations, however, she suddenly curled up and then stretched her body, yawning all the way.

“Mm… Good Morning… Karen… and Yumi… too”

She looked around, spotting me next standing next to her.

“Nn, Morning, Ria.”
“It’s a little late for that but good morning.”

Fortunately, I didn’t get the impression that Ria was too tired or anything. It seemed like she had been asleep for a good while and get the rest she needed. That was good.

“How late… is it?”
“It’s well into the afternoon, Miss Ria.”
“Is that… so… Mm… That was… a good… and long… nap…”
“... Nap?”

I tilted my head a little. You wouldn’t call it a nap if you went to bed for the night… In that case…

“... Did you go back to sleep after waking up?” I asked her.
“Mmm… It was… so early… when I… woke up…”
“...”

Now that she mentioned it, everyone woke up quite early today because of the commotion with the Phantom Ship. And after that, Karen and I waited for a long time on the fort. While I fought the temptation of taking a nap at the time, Ria just did that and napped away… Now I was jealous. A nap would have been nice. Maybe I should take one now?

Nah, it’s too late to take a nap now… The captain would kill me if I tried…

Well, I’d make up for it tonight by cuddling Karen a lot. I absolutely would.

“Miss Ria, when exactly did you get back to sleep?”
“Mm… I wonder… some time… after… your match…?”
“...I see.”

The competition with Alma, huh… That wasn’t too long ago. Around two hours ago or so, at most. This world’s hour, of course. That really was just a nap, then.

“Mmm… What do you… have there?”
“Nn?”

Ria peered at the bag I was carrying.

“This? Ah, these are… Well, how do I explain them…”

I held out the bag to Ria, allowing her to peer in.

“Are those… your tentacles…?”
“Nn, they are.”
“So small…”

She took one of the spheres and scrutinised and squished it.

“Curious… they don’t… feel like… raw meat… They’re like… balls of wool… or hemp…”
“Huh?”

I took one of the spheres in my hand and squished it as well. She was right that it wasn’t all that uncomfortable or unpleasant. Nor was it damp or anything. Nothing like raw meat.

“... This is a little addicting,” I commented.

Squishing them actually felt pretty nice. I could understand why Ria likened it to wool or hemp balls.

“Yumi… can I… have one…?”
“Nn? I don’t mind.”

Was she going to keep one for squishing? It might be good for calming down and relaxing, maybe. Either way, I got more than enough of them. And if I needed more, I could just make more. No loss on my end, at least.

“Yumi, we should probably talk about why we’re here.”
“Oh, right?”
“Mmm?”

This was no time for distractions. The captain told us to hurry up.

“Ria, we need your help. You probably slept through it but some stuff happened. The captain wants us to make the portals portable. If possible with these spheres.”
“Portable… portals…? Stuff happened…?”
“Nn. Some things are happening in Aldreigh and the captain wants to send out some people to gather information. Since we’re lacking time, he wants us to make those portals small enough that they can be carried around. They only need to be big enough that sound can go through them, too.”
“Aldreigh…”

Ria frowned when I mentioned that. She didn’t even seem to really care about anything else I had said.

“I’ll help… So… tell me… What… happened in… Aldreigh…?”
“... Well, we’re not really sure of the details either…”

I relayed the contents of the meeting she had missed, as well as what we learnt on our trip to Melfin about the exile laws.

“The temple… is losing… influence… Are you… sure… about that…?”
“We only heard about it from Mr Greyward’s acquaintance. That’s why Mr Captain wants to send people into Aldreigh to gather information,” explained Karen.
“...”

Ria’s frown only got deeper, as if she was worried about something.

“Is something wrong, Ria?”
“Mm… I know… some people… in Aldreigh… and in… the temple… I hope… they’ll be… fine…”
“Ah… Nn, hopefully.”

So she was worried about her friends and acquaintances.

“... Maybe I should… try and… send a letter… as well…”
“That’s probably not a bad idea, at least.”

That way, she could confirm they were safe and sound. Or if, in the worst case, they needed help. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that but you could never know for sure.

“Mm… But first… I will help… you out… You said… you need… a portal… small enough… to be… carried around…?”
“Nn. Preferably with the spheres.”
“Mm… Did you… try some things… already…?”
“No, we came here immediately after the meeting.”

We could have done a few attempts first. I might have succeeded on the first try, after all. Who knows? Though, so far, there had been a few minor… mishaps here and there. Since we were dealing with the portals again, I would like Ria to take a look at things. Even if everything turned out simple and easy, it would be good to give her a general outlook. Knowledgable as she was, she surely could give me some pointers.

“Mm… Then… let me gather… a few things… first… Then… we go… to your… wagon… Is that… fine…?”
“Nn, I don’t mind. Sis?”
“That’s fine with me, too.”
“Great…”

Ria nodded once and then got up from her seat. She pushed away the stacks of books in the corner, collecting a few complex-looking magic tools.

“Those are?”
“Measurement… tools…”
“Measurement? For magic?”
“Mana… concentration… Attribute… distribution… A number… of things…”
“Huh…”

Those sounded really convenient. However, looking at the complex tools in her hands, they couldn’t be cheap…

“Mm… Karen…”
“Yes?”
“Could you… carry that… bag… over there…?”
“Err, this one?”
“Yes… That’s all… Let’s go…”

Before I could even ask what was inside that bag, Ria stepped out of the wagon, threatening to leave us behind. Karen and I immediately rushed after her.

“Ugh… it’s bright…”

Outside I found a grimacing Ria as she shaded her eyes from the sun. Barely a moment later, my vision went white as well.

“Woah?!”

Since it was late in the afternoon, the sun was already pretty low and beaming straight into our faces as we exited. Talk about unpleasant. It was definitely worse for Ria though, who wasn’t used to the brightness after staying in that wagon for a while.

“Sheesh… Damn sun… Let’s go…”
“Nn…”

We followed Ria through the camp towards our wagon. Since it wasn’t far, we arrived in no time.

Wait, did we clean up inside? Err… I hope we did.

Alas, my worry came far too late as Karen was already stepping through the door.

“Miss Ria, please come in.”
“Mm…”
Oh well… Too late now… We probably didn’t leave anything embarrassing around anyway…

I followed them into the wagon and immediately took a quick look around. Yeah, everything was fine. Not exactly what I would call tidy, but presentable.

“Yumi?”
“Nn? Ah, sorry, it’s nothing.”
“Haa…”

Karen tilted her head, confused about my behaviour.

“Mm… The tentacles… were in here…?”
“Nn? Ah, yes.”

Ria had opened the door to the small tentacle room and looked around inside. She seemed to have found something as she waded through the tentacles and disappeared from my view.

“Ria?”

I looked into the room and found Ria staring at the spot in the wall with the small tentacle portal.

“Mmm…”
“Ah, that is the one we made to test on our way to Melfin.”
“Oh…? So it… worked… while you… were on… the move…?”
“Only when we stopped. When the wagon moved, it closed up.”
“Mm…”

Probably because the mana consumption was just too much to keep it open while moving.

“Is this… the smallest… it can… get…?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest.”

At least, I hadn’t tried to make it smaller yet.

“Can you… make one… as small… as possible…? I would… like to… watch…”
“Nn, sure.”

I walked up next to Ria and put my hands on the wall. Or rather, on the tentacles. I established the usual connection of the mana crystal and the spot I was growing the tentacles on and poured the mana in to make a portal, while I tried to keep it as small as possible.

“Ugh… this is a little difficult.”

Unexpectedly, trying to keep it small used up more mana than I expected. Not because it actually consumed more but because when I tried to pour mana into the tentacles, it felt like most of it just dissipated away. After a while of pouring in mana, I finally managed to make a small portal. It was smaller than the previous one but still large enough that you could squeeze a tentacle sphere through it, albeit with some difficulty.

“Now I have to do another one on the other side for it to work…”

If it was going to be similarly difficult…

“Wait… Yumi…”
“Huh?”

Before I could make my way to the other wall, Ria stopped me, staring at me rather than at the portal.

“Yumi… It seemed… like there… was some… difficulty…”
“Nn… It felt like I could barely get mana into the tentacles when I tried to keep it small.”
“Mmm…”

Ria closed her eyes for a little, thinking about something.

“Did you have… similar problems… before…?”
“No… I didn’t…”
“... Okay.”

Ria nodded once, before looking at the as-of-yet-empty wall.

“I’ll watch again… but first…”

She left the tentacle room and fetched one of her expensive-looking magic tools.

“I would… like to… take some… measurements… Is that… okay… with you…?”
“Nn, of course.”

I wasn’t sure what she was trying to measure, but she surely had some idea there.

“Then…Please. And… do it… the same way… as before…”
“... Okay.

After I got the go-ahead, I put my hands on the other wall and repeated  Honestly, I was thinking of trying to regulate the amount I pour in or something like that to see if it changed anything but since Ria said to do it just like before, I refrained.

“Nn…”

Just like before, only a small amount of mana actually got into the tentacles. It annoyed me a little. Never before did I have such difficulty while pouring mana.

“Ugh… Done.”

After struggling for a while, I finally finished the small portal.

“So, Ria, did you figure something out?”
“...”

I turned to Ria but she was too busy working on the magic tool to answer my question. She was pushing buttons and turning things seemingly at random and honestly, I had no idea what she was doing. For all I knew, she could be trying to solve a puzzle game.

“... Ria?”
“One moment…”
“Okay.”

While waiting for Ria to finish, I looked over to Karen, who was patiently waiting at the door and watching us. At her feet was the bag with the tentacle spheres, ready for when we needed them.

“Got it…”
“Nn? Did you figure something out, Ria?”
“Yumi… What… are you… trying… to do… when making… the portal…? Or imagining…”
“Huh? Err, well… Like, a small hole that I want to connect with another one…”
“Mmm… Then, can you… make another one… and reduce… the amount… of mana… by around… half…?”
“Half? That should be doable… What about these, though? Should I keep the portals?”
“If they are… not a bother… keep them…”

Well, they weren’t interfering with my work, if that’s what she meant. And the wall was large enough to fit a few dozen of the portals. Even if we ran out of space, I could just remove the ones we didn’t need.

“Then, here I go.”

I went to work on another tentacle portal, pouring only half as much mana as before. I was glad she didn’t say something like reducing it by a tenth or so. I wasn’t confident enough that I could measure that without any help. But half was easy enough to do without. Roughly half.

“Oh, this is easier.”

There was still mana that couldn’t enter the tentacles but it was significantly less this time. In fact, the loss was so little this time, I might not have noticed immediately.

“And done.”

I turned around to Ria. Just like before, she was working her magic tool in mysterious ways. After a while, she nodded to herself and relayed her findings.

“I think… the tentacles… can only… absorb a… certain amount… of mana… at once… That’s why… everything… you pour in… that is… above this… limit… gets lost…”
“I see. That does make sense but… I never had any issues with it before. Why now?”
“Mmm… I can… only guess… for the reason… It might be… because the… small portal… is more difficult… and the… tentacles need… more time…”
“That could be it.”

Well, there was an easy way of finding that out, at least.

“Okay, tentacles, you know what I’ll do. Paw!”

I held out my hands and ordered them like a dog… Unsurprisingly, they stiffened up as if they were confused. Still, my outstretched hand was a simple enough gesture to understand so after a short delay, one of the tentacles was in my hand.

“You know how it goes. Wriggle for yes, do nothing for no. Is what ria said correct? That you need more time and that’s the reason you can’t take in as much mana?”

They wriggled.

“Nn. They said yes, Ria.”
“... How curious.”
“Nn?”

Oh, speaking of which… had I never shown this to Ria?

“To think… they could… communicate… even if… it is… limited…”
“Nn… It’s only simple yes or no questions, but it works. If you want to ask them something, you can do so.”

Ria knew more about magic than I did, so she might have some questions I wouldn’t think of.

“Then… Mr Tentacle… can we… make the… portals… fit on… the spheres… Yumi has…?”
“...”

They wriggled. I felt dumb.

“... They said yes.”
“Mm… Communication… really is… amazing.”
“... It is, isn’t it?”

Yeah, I surely would have thought of asking them that as well, after a while, okay? I definitely would have… Probably.

“We still… need to… figure out… how to… do it… but… knowing that… it is… possible… is worth… a lot…”
“I guess so.”

Yeah, they couldn’t exactly relay the method with only yes-or-no-answers. We could probably force our way by asking a ton of questions to figure it out but that… didn’t sound very feasible.

“Either way, I would need to make the portal small enough to fit on the spheres… But this is the smallest I can manage right now.”

And no matter how you looked at it, it was too large for the spheres. You could still push a sphere through it, after all. With some force, mind you.

“Mm… Can you… reduce the… input… more…?”
“Well, of course, I can.”
“Then… try to… go at… Mmm… half the… pace from… just now… and keep it… as small… as you… can…”
”Okay, will do.”

I followed Ria’s instructions and made another portal. By reducing it by another half, no mana was lost anymore in the process. But by using so little… it took far longer. Yet, the size remained unchanged. No, maybe it was a little smaller but the difference was far too little.

“Sorry, I don’t think I can get it smaller…”
“Mmm…”

Frankly, this was a bit of a surprise to me as well. I always wondered if the tentacles could do this or that. And they always could. Even when I thought it was impossible, they managed. So, seeing for the first time that something didn’t work out… was a little shocking. Unbeknownst to me, I might have built up a form of trust that they could manage no matter what I asked of them…

“Mmm… This is…”

Ria looked at the portal, still holding the tool. I didn’t even know what it was doing but she was still measuring something with it. At least, that’s the impression I got.

“Even if we can’t manage the tentacle spheres, Yumi, the portal is small enough like that that you could carry it around, right?” said Karen.
“Nn… I guess, so, yeah.”

If I put it on a small wooden board, you could put it into a bag and carry it around, no problem.

“That might… be dangerous…”
“Huh?”

To my surprise, it was Ria who interjected.

“Why?”
“They are… conspicuous… The flow… of mana… is very… noticeable… Anyone… with mana sight… would see it…”
“...”

I concentrated on the mana to look at what Ria meant. The room was filled with pink mana so it was hard to make out something but the mana did feel a little… weird around the portal. As if it was swirling around. I checked the other portals and all the ones we just made had that problem. The large one, mysteriously enough, didn’t. You would still notice it, because of the mana flowing through the portal. It probably looked like it was just disappearing without seeing the portal.

“But wouldn’t we face the same issue with the spheres?”
“That is… possible…”
“Nn… that’s bad, huh?”

If that’s the case, they wouldn’t be able to bring the portal into a town. As far as I knew, it was customary to check for magic tools in towns and cities.They’d immediately get discovered.

“At least one of them would have to stay outside town then, huh… I guess that is still better than not being able to report back at all.”

It was a bit unfortunate, but still something. They would have to leave town to report, though. That might make them quite conspicuous, I guess. Well, that wasn’t something for me to worry about. My job was it to make them work. This portal was small enough to carry around, so this should solve the minimum requirement… Just… there was one problem.

“We need a bunch of wooden boards just the right size, won’t we?”
“If that’s the case, we might have to get those sooner, rather than later,” added Karen.
“Nn… It’d be the best case if we could make the spheres work but…”

If we couldn’t make the portal small enough, then that would be impossible. But the tentacles confirmed that it was possible. In that case, how should I do that?

Let me think for a moment…  The minimum size is just big enough that you can put your hand in or push one of the spheres through. That’s obviously too large, still… And reducing the mana consumption didn’t help and I was already imagining something as small as I could. Then, what do I do?

I poked the tentacle portal in front of me. It was still closed so it was basically just a smooth membrane. If we could just make this a little smaller…

A sphere and a portal… How could I combine them… Combine?

“Nn?”
“Yumi?”
“... I think I have an idea. Though I really can’t promise it’ll work out.”

The problem was… maybe I didn’t even have to combine them?

“Sis, remember how I made the spheres?”
“Yes… from the pitfa— Ah!”
“Nn. Maybe I can make the portals in the same way.”

Rather than combining them, I would just make a small portal and then condense it, similar to what I did with the pitfalls.

“Yumi… please explain…”
“Ah, right, sorry, Ria. To keep it short, these spheres were originally pitfalls that I made for the competition with Alma. I somehow manage to make them smaller until they turned into those spheres.”
“I understand… And now… you want to… repeat that… but with… the portal…”
“Nn, exactly.”
“Then… first… we should… ask them…”
“... Ah.”

That’s right. Rather than trying it without knowing what I could get into, I could just ask them if that was correct.

I promptly took a tentacle in my hand.

“Can we make a small portal the size of those spheres by shrinking it down?”

It… wriggled!

“Yay!”
“Mm… Then… Yumi… if you would…”
“Nn.”

Elated as I was, I immediately made a portal. It was a little larger this time since I wasn’t attempting to make it as tiny as possible but considering that it wasn’t messing with the mana around it like the small ones, it probably wasn’t all that bad.

Then, I immediately set to shrinking it. First, I took a mana crystal and held it to the portal. Just like with the pitfalls, the tentacles surrounding it withdrew, gathering in one spot, around the mana crystal in my hand. Together with the portal. After a few seconds, I held a small fleshy ball in my hand. It had tiny appendages all around it except for one spot, where it was smooth.

“I think… we did it.”

We made it. A tiny tentacle portal.

“Mm… Now… we need to… test it…”
“Nn.”
“... and then… we need to… know if… others can… use it… the distance… it works… and other things… but… most importantly… how much… mana it… uses… There are… a few things… we need to… test.”
“Nn.”

Right… even if we managed to make the portal small enough now, there were still things that could go wrong. There was no point in this if it guzzled mana crystals like no tomorrow.

“But… we finished… the first… and most… important… step…”
“Nn.”

With this, we were one step closer to finishing the job Korwen gave us.