162 Downtime 2

Remian stretched, feeling oddly good as he ate. He yawned. "Goodness, that was a good night's sleep."

"More like three days, but yeah, I'm sure it was."

"Three days?" Remian blinked. "George too?"

"George came in yesterday. He got even busier when we brought you in here on a stretcher, and…" Mindy shook her head. "Speaking of George, he got you something pretty nifty. He used it to keep running around long after he was exhausted on the last day."

Remian stared. "What did he use? Some kind of stimulant drink? Coffee?"

"Not quite." Mindy pointed to some weird metal heap at the side. "He used a ME-Frame and got you one too."

"What's a ME-Frame?"

"A Motion-Enhancement Frame. It's the grandson of your prosthetic." Mindy barked a laugh. "It's a full-body exoskeleton. There's an armor version for combat, and a frame version for adventurers. This is the frame version. It helps with everything, walking, mining, hunting, foraging… all sorts of things. Our Adventurers love the versatility. I hear it's particularly popular at Three Pines Peak."

"Really?"

"Haven't you heard? They're holding tree-climbing races there, with prizes, and equipment is allowed." Mindy said wistfully. "There's official betting and everything."

"Tree-climbing races? Just how many people are staying at Three Pines, these days?"

"Two hundred? Three? I don't know. The school Sky Fortresses are always there, except when they come by to pick up supplies and students, and the families here keep sending their children to school, so…"

"School Sky Fortresses… you mean, mom and dad are running Three Pines Peak?"

"No, I think they just run the schools. Ruth and Xia run things at Three Pines Peak. It's a little tree-town full of Adventurers climbing from tree platform to airships, to the ruins, and back."

"Aren't they staying in the ruins themselves?"

"Not since someone died in bed, no."

"Someone DIED?!"

"More than one. Others died exploring or trying to activate some 'simple' Black Ruins devices. Apparently, the ruins aren't all that safe to stay at."

"People are dying out there?!"

"People are dying everywhere, even out at the cattle ranch. This is the Frontier. We're all used to it."

"But…"

"Calm down. There are people in charge of all these things. Let them handle it."

"You mean, people like George?" Remian glanced at the guy who had been laid flat out from exhaustion, even with a ME-Frame. "We need to get that boy a proper admin staff."

"That, we do." Mindy nodded. "And you, too."

"Me? Now that Aren, Izhan and Izak have the industrial district well in hand, I seem to out of a job." Remian half-joked.

"Good. Then it's time you took a vacation." Mindy said.

"Great! Where are we going?"

"Right now? You're not going anywhere until Phoebe checks you out thoroughly." Mindy said flat out.

***

Phoebe took four hours of tests before she was satisfied. "Well, you're dying, but you're not about to die just yet."

"Great. Thanks so much for the encouragement." Remian said dryly.

"The herbs seem to help quite a bit." Phoebe remarked. "But I think bedrest did most of the work. From now on, you have to reduce physical exertion."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Use a ME-Frame." Phoebe shrugged.

Putting on a ME-Frame was tricky. Remian needed help from Mindy and Talia both to put it on properly.

"And you say everybody's using these things now?" Remian asked.

"Not everybody, but it's selling well. Arnold sells them for 20,000 lir, or 54,000 Guild Points." Talia told him. "It should have been priced at 60,000, but George had the Guild give it a 10% discount both to make it more easily available to the harder working youngsters and to increase the desirability of Guild Points."

Remian tested it out. "Wow. It's strong. I think using this, I'd be stronger than an average Legion Trainee."

"George said it provides roughly 150% the strength of an average man. I saw him bench-press 80 kg with his ME-Frame just for fun once." Mindy mused. "For specific tasks like mining or quarrying or transportation, there are better, more efficient machines, but for a combination of all of them, it's hard to beat this sort of versatility."

"Anyone tried climbing out of the Pit with one of these?" Remian asked.

"Probably not. The Pit walls aren't totally sheer, but they're still pretty steep, with precious few footholds and handholds. I mean, I can see someone in a ME-Frame leaping over six foot gaps, or jumping up six feet to ledges, but without handholds and footholds, well…"

Remian wiggled his fingers, testing out their movements while wearing the rings, support-structure, and half-glove of the ME-Frame. "It feels a bit clumsy for intricate movements."

"It's not supposed to help your handwriting, but it should be enough to get even you from one end of Kara-Goth to the other without breaking a sweat." Mindy checked on George one last time and said, "Ready to go?"

"Let's go." Remian nodded, and the three of them headed out into town.

***

George's vision of a mall-like structure did not quite pan out as expected.

For one thing, the malls as Ashdale used a lot of white stone. Kara-Goth was generally grays and browns. Also, rather than add different colored stone to an already stony interior, the High Rock clan opted to put in wood panels. The floors, the pillars, even some beams over the ceiling were all smooth, polished wood. This gave the whole area a more cave-mansion feel than Ashdale's steel-and-tile structures.

But it did indeed have that large central area stretching all the way up five floors to the open sky, a view ringed by platforms and railings. The rooftop seemed to be an airship dock; there were three 'Foresight' gunships moored up there. Remian could see them from all the way down on the fourth floor.

This central area was circular. That means, this was Kara. As far as Remian remembered, Goth's central open area was an oval.

Down below was a park. Maybe it was supposed to be a garden, but someone had put in swings, see-saws and before you knew it, the place had become kids' zone central. Also, someone had planted three pines to one side.

"Why the three pines?" Remian asked. "Does it have something to do with Three Pines Peak?"

"I think so." Mindy squinted. "By the way? If that park below were a compass, those three pines are due north."

Well, that was one way to offer directions in a circular compound.

"Come on. Let's take a look around." Remian suggested.