A technomancer’s journey in an apocalyptic world - Chapter 116

Marcel glared at Ileana, who in turn sent a defiant glare at him as she spoke, “I refuse, and why are you not scolding Catherine she had also tried to join the militia.”

“I will speak with her later because unlike you she has failed, what possessed you to join the militia.”

“Why should I not? There is a dire need of fresh young blood like my own for the betterment of our society, after all it is by our hands that new world would be reforged.”

Marcel groaned as he covered his face with his hand as he spoke, “Oh you stupid child of mine, you bought into that propaganda, do you even know what you did?”, with a mournful sigh Marcel continued, “Did you not think of the possibility that you would die, in case of a conflict the militia would be at the forefront fighting and die.”

Ileana’s jaw hardens as she spoke, “I know and I understand, but you have to understand that we no longer live in a proper safe society, we live in a world filled with danger and even if I could do a little to help others it is more than enough.”

As Marcel sighed again Ileana continued with her onslaught, “Did you not see how Ryan fought today?”

“Yes, yes I saw him returning covered in blood.”

“Ryan is working hard for us all I just want to help him.”

Marcel sighed as he shook his head before he replied to his daughter, “Ileana, the current you will be a hindrance to him, do you honestly belief you could have taken out the pack like he did, and let alone him just tell me could deal with the smaller group like that Zhan lady did?”

Ileana sighed as she replied with a shake of her head, “Of course I cannot I am nowhere near that strong but one day I will be after all they also had to begin somewhere.”

Marcel could only groan in exasperation while Ileana decided to change the topic of their argument, “Dad where is mom and granny?”

Marcel hearing the question Marcel could not help but let out a groan as he spoke with a sigh, “Your grandmother has made it her personal mission to cause problem for everyone with a few likeminded individuals who are claiming to protect the religion and your mother is trying to keep her at bay.”

Catherine looked towards the ground as she spoke with sadness in her voice, “Father I think we should slowly distance ourselves from her, even after so many times we have warned her she is trying to cause problem and do you remember your elder sister’s last warning.”

A shiver ran down Marcel’s spine as he remembered the glare he had received from Ciara, not to mention the warning they had received, ‘do not hurt Ryan or else’, he let out a soft sigh as he spoke, “Perhaps you are right daughter it is high time we moved away from her, I will speak with your mother about this as soon as she returns, after all what she is trying to do is epitome of not only foolishness but madness as well.”

Ileana sighed as she spoke, “Well dad then I would like to take my leave, my training would begin soon and I would not want to be late.”

Marcel simply drew him to a hug as he spoke in a soft tone, “Take care and please remember do not try to do something that is beyond you.”

Meanwhile, a certain apostle had just placed a block on top of the wall before he stood up with a bright smile on his face.

‘The wall is nearly finished it took me two days of working even forgoing sleep with the aid of foul tasting concoctions I managed to erect the wall the only part left is the gateway, but before that I need to bring power, I hope by tomorrow it would all be over and I would be able to sleep.’

“Ah, Ryan just the person I wanted to speak with.”

Ryan turned towards the speaker as he spoke with a tired smile, “Sister Ylerias, how have you been? Was your hunt fruitful?”

“I have been fine and of course my hunt was fruitful because of My Lady’s blessings, but I am here on a serious matter.”

As Ryan gave her a nod Ylerias continued, “Upon returning I learned about the wolf attack and then I heard that you might have spotted something in the forest, is that true?”

“Yes, though I am not sure if what I have seen is true or not, it might just be my hallucinations but I did not wish to take any chances.”

Ylerias gave a nod of approval as she spoke, “A very wise decision, there is nothing wrong to be prepared and though can you point me towards where you saw the creature.”

As Ryan pointed towards the direction of the forest Ylerias gave a nod before she spoke, “I will search the area may be I will find something that others have missed.”

With that she left leaving behind a tired Ryan who simply sat on top of the wall for a moment looking at the training drills of the militia that had begun shortly he could see his mother running them to the ground, it brought some fond memory to him, as he watched his eyelids felt heavy and a few seconds later he closed his eyes.

“Ryan!!!!!”

A shout brought jolted him awake as he soon found himself being held firmly by Jessica, who glared at him as she spoke, “What are you doing? You are sleeping while sitting beside the edge of the wall, you could have fallen.”

Ryan gave her a sheepish smile as he spoke, “Sorry I was a bit tired and I kind of dozed off.”

“That is why you need to sleep, you have not rested for three days now, and as such you need proper rest.”

“But…”

“No buts now move.”

A protesting Ryan was being frog-marched back towards the base only to be stopped by Ciara.

“What is going on here Jessica? Why and where are you frog marching Ryan?”

“See, she literally frog marching me to….”

“Shut up.”, Jessica glowered at Ryan for a moment before she began to speak while looking towards Ciara, “Major, Ryan is very tired and as such he dozed off while he was sitting near the edge of the wall and if I had not been there he would have fallen.”

“What?!”, as the anger-filled scream of Ciara escaped her lips Ryan suddenly found the ground very interesting.

“Carry on then Jessica and make sure he gets ample rest even if you have to knock him out.”

As Ryan was being forced to move he could hear a few of the otherworlders murmuring out loud about how much he cares for them that even after being tired he was working his bones for them.

A few hours later a bleary-eyed Ryan looked around as a pleasant smell came to his nose.

“Wake up Ryan it is time for you to eat.”

Ryan rubbed his eyes as he was greeted by the smiling face of Michalina with a hot steaming bowl in her hand.

“Welcome to the land of the living brother, here I brought you your dinner.”

As Ryan took the bowl he noticed that unlike before it contained a few leafy vegetables along with a large piece of what seemed to be a potato.

Seeing his questioning look Michalina replied with a smile on her face, “We found a lot of herbs and wild vegetables while foraging which has been brought back, also the garden is coming along nicely so soon we will have something to go along with fish and meat.”

Ryan took a sip from the bowl as he spoke with a smile, “It tastes way better now.”

Michalina nodded as she spoke, “Yes it is better enough that it could have been counted as a normal diet before the apocalypse, but more importantly the diet is much more balanced than before.”

Ryan nodded before he poked the potato lookalike as he spoke with a frown, “What is this thing, it kind of looks like a potato but at the same time it does not.”

Michalina shrugged as she spoke, “No idea it is like some kind of taro or yam like thing.”

A look of disgust passed through Ryan’s face as Michalina spoke with a smirk, “Ryan I hope you will not waste any food that has been gathered and made after so much of hard work.”

Ryan’s face darkened as he spoke with a low growl, “I hate yam like things.”

“But, I remembered you enjoyed eating chips even if they are made from yam.”

“I liked extra thin and crispy ones while anything else made out of either taro or yam is trash I do not like them.”

Michalina snorted as she spoke, “I never thought there would come a day when I would see you eating them.”

Ryan growled even louder as he spoke, “Under extreme protest I am eating this, I hate it and after the food problem is solved I am going to ban it.”

Michalina giggled seeing her reaction before she spoke in a curious manner, “Brother, Ruby told me to inform you that it is done and it is overwhelmingly successful.”

A bright smile appeared on Ryan’s face as he raised the bowl to his lips and Michalina looked stunned as Ryan inhaled the contents before wiping his lips as he spoke with a bright smile, “Sis, please get mom we are going to visit Ruby, she has managed to do something incredible.”

The curiosity in Michalina increased several folds as she spoke, “What has she done?”

Ryan simply smiled back mysteriously as he spoke, “Something that is incredible now go and bring mom to her, the faster you do the faster your curiosity would be satiated while I will make my way to her.”

A few minutes later both Ciara and Michalina shuddered as they entered Ruby’s lair aka the infirmary, the reason for their shuddering was the fact that both Ruby and Ryan wore matching grins, grins that would fit a mad scientist which was further enhanced by the frazzled look Ruby sported.

Seeing the look Ciara could not help but whisper out low enough so that only Michalina could hear, “Micha if she turns me into some Frankenstein monster then please kill me.”

“If only you promise to do the same for me mom.”

The next day early morning a rather nervous Catherine had gathered along with fifty other men and women of various ages, while in front of her stood Ruby along with eight other people along with Ryan.

As Ruby cleared her throat out loud she managed to get undivided attention as she began to speak with a drawl, “We are here to teach you various means of saving lives I know some of you had tried to join the Militia but were send here after rejected from the fighting force but that does not mean we are of any less importance, they are out there protecting everyone’s lives from various dangers while we protect everyone’s life from death, upon saying that does anyone wishes to leave.”

She stood silent for a moment but when no one moved she gave a small nod before she continued again, “Good, during the period of time you learn here, I would not tolerate any tomfoolery, I would not tolerate any slacking, if you are unable to understand anything we will answer your questions a thousand times, but if you are callus I will be your worst nightmare, if your incompetence leads to someone’s injury I will kill you myself.”

The venom and anger in Ruby’s tone send shivers down Catherine’s spine making her gulp in fear, while Ruby continued nonchalantly, “Now, here with me are fine instructors who will teach you everything you should need to know about potion making, we need potions a large quantity of them but unfortunately we are low in supply for raw ingredients as such there will be low chances of you to practice as such you will have to do your best, and after you all have finished learning how to make potion we will move to the next part.”

Ruby took a deep breath as she spoke, “You will not only learn to identify, gather and process the raw ingredients, but to create potions and if you show enough aptitude you can even branch out to be a healer, now here we will not only be learning how to create potions but may be some of you would be intelligent enough to may be create something new, now here we are going to mix the knowledge and technical knowhow of both the worlds and create something new, something different and something better.”

She then turned and moved towards a machine which was placed behind her, a machine that everyone except Ryan ad Ruby was curious about she stood by its side as she spoke towards Ryan, “Please the stage is yours.”

Ryan gave a nod as he began to speak, “When we first stumbled upon this problem we all tried to find various means and the most easiest one was adding clean and pure water but it had its own problems, like for every percent increase in volume its potency decreases by five, so that means a twenty percent increase in volume would make the potion useless.”

He then turned towards the machine as he spoke with his right hand extended towards it, “The answer to this problem was this machine, this machine made it possible for us to solve our problem.”

Ryan turned to look towards one of the potioneers present as he spoke, “Potion master Folwin would please give a potion for health.”

Folwin handed Ryan an Erlenmeyer flask containing a ruby red liquid which Ryan took with a nod of gratitude before he began to speak again, “This Erlenmeyer flask contain a hundred ml of health potion that is very vital potion that you soon be making now watch.”

Ryan went and poured the contains of the flask into another container which was attached to the machine as he spoke with a smile, “This machine can work with over a liter of health potion at a time, now watch a see what happens.”

A minute later Folwin stood with his jaw agape as his hands shook, but before he could collapse on his knees Ryan caught him as he spoke with a large smile on his face, “This is what the mixture of knowledge and culture from two different worlds can achieve.”

But, before anyone could say anything a distant horn blowing drew his attention as Ryan quickly turned towards Ruby as he spoke with a serious look on his face, “Ruby please take over and continue something has come up and I will have to leave.”, with that he dashed out of the room as quickly as he could.