“Of course” I tell her in a whisper, but I squeeze her in my arms a little tighter. When she wipes her tears we separate and everyone says their goodbyes to Pora so that she can close up shop. At dinner I catch up on some reading I have been meaning to do while the girls all show off their new jewelry. I’ve been reading some of the books that I got from the scribe back in Efftin and attempting to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge of Herst. We call it an early night after dinner since we’re going to try and find the dungeon I got a quest for tomorrow morning.
Chapter 5
I’m suspended over a planet, like I’m looking down from a space shuttle. The planet isn’t Earth though. I have seen images taken from space and all the land masses were shaped differently. In that odd dream logic that exists in such a state I didn’t really think this was odd. As I observed this odd planet awash in a bright blue glow a change began to take place. The glowing blue, somehow I just knew it represented the mana of this world, started to fade.
Eventually the blue light emitted from the world leaves completely. The colors all seem washed out and then the green begins to fade from the world. The entire tableau happens in complete silence until now. Feeling my consciousness slipping into the dark a faint sound is finally heard. Mournful wails and the tortured screams of thousands, maybe millions, come through the darkness as my vision recedes from the world as it stops reflecting light and disappears into the abyss of space.
I slowly begin to regain consciousness, slipping free from the grip of my dream, but something is off. The disturbing memory of my dream fades into the background as I realize I’m warm and comfortable in bed, but I can’t really move. There is also a pressure on my chest that is making it difficult to breath, though not overly so. Before I open my eyes I try to remember going to bed last night to see if it explains why I’m restrained. I was very tired from all the fighting, enchanting and other mana usage so it isn’t surprising that I was so tired that I passed out right after lying down.
As I open my eyes I’m a little confused. All I can see is a yellow gold color. As I wake up a little more I can feel something tickle my face a little. The mystery is solved a moment later when I feel the weight on top of me shift a little and I hear a soft murmur of contentment. Someone is on top of me! At first I think it’s Azzaria since, you know, we sleep together. I find out I am wrong though when I shake my head a little to clear the hair from my face and look to my left. Azzaria is the clamp of death that is restraining my left arm. She is snuggled up to me and hugging my left arm tight to her chest. Turning my head to the right shows me the same thing is happening but with my blue eyed companion Timbre. Through the process of elimination I determine that it must be Thia using me as her favorite full body pillow.
I try to dislodge myself from my captors but the movement only causes each of them to hold on tighter. “OK, that’s enough. Someone tell me what is going on here.” I say it at a normal volume because I’m not mad at them or anything, just confused. Being pinned down is getting old quick, no matter how hot my restraints might be. I hear a giggle to my left and look over to Azzaria who is shaking slightly with mirth. “You’re awake!” I take a moment to sigh then continue. “What is going on here?”
Azzaria finally looks up at me with a big smile and releases my arm. “Let’s wake the others first. You will want to hear what they have to say too.” Using my free hand I gently shake the other two until they are awake. Now that they have released me I can sit up. All three stand at the foot of the bed looking to me. I have a good idea about at least one thing they were getting when Azzaria kicked me out of the tailor’s shop. The three of them are all wearing matching outfits. Each has a pair of tight short shorts; I think they called them boy shorts back on Earth, and a loose camisole. Thia’s outfit is a sunny yellow, while Azzaria is wearing a forest green color and Timbre wears sky blue. They are stunningly beautiful as always, and it takes me a moment to collect myself.
“Alright Az, everyone is up. Now tell me, what is with all this?” My words aren’t angry with them, mostly just curious.
“Well, it really is quite simple. We all love you.” She gives me a grin as menacing as I would have expected, but there is a bit of mischief in her eyes. The other two just nod to this.
My jaw must have hit the floor. I start to say something a few times but nothing comes out. Eventually I stammer out “How…w-why...what?” Eloquent words from yours truly, right?
It’s Thia that starts talking this time. “Vol, love….Our souls are bound together by magic. This isn’t something that was forced on me. Feeling your soul reach out I could feel what you are. On top of that our bond is deep, and you even chose to deepen it more so that we could communicate as equals. This makes it easy to love you. Like loving myself, or loving a part of me that is you.”
Timbre is next. “I knew the first night I woke up to you shivering in a cave at night. At first I didn’t understand what I felt. Just that I was grateful for how you helped me. But then you treated me as an equal. You fed me, took care of my wounds, and even trusted me to stay with you in that cave. On top of all that, you took me as pack, even avenging my old pack for me.”
I turn to Azzaria and ask, disbelief heavy in my tone “And you’re okay with this?”
This is all making me very nervous, like I got caught cheating or something, even though I didn’t do anything. She lets me squirm there for a moment, clearly enjoying my discomfort. Before she speaks, her face gets serious. “This is not what I had in mind before I met you. I knew what I was getting into, though you certainly didn’t. People with familiars and beast companions form a connection that even the gods take notice of. That is why you get the messages about them. Often times this results in a close relationship, though not always romantic. I have seen how you treat them. Can you honestly say that you don’t love them too?”
I open my mouth to say no, but that is just because I think I should say no. My jaw snaps shut and I really think about it. I definitely have feelings for them but until recently I never really considered that a romantic relationship was possible. On top of that I love Azzaria, that I know and I wasn’t really looking elsewhere. Going with honesty being the best policy I say as much. “I do love you two, but the possibility of a romantic relationship was not something I ever really considered.” Giving a slightly tired sigh I continue. “Let’s just see if this can work for now. OK?”
With an understanding and gentle tone “I know this is a lot to take in” Azzaria tells me. “It’s different than what you told me of your society back on Earth, but let me assure you, this is not abnormal here. It’s a dangerous world and often, female populations stay higher than male ones because so many men die. This means they often have multiple partners, especially nobility.”
“I don’t want any of you to think I don’t love you completely though. That’s just not me” I tell them.
They all smile brightly before kissing me on the cheek one at a time. “That’s not how love works dear. There isn’t a finite amount of it for you to give” Azzaria tells me with a little bit of a mocking smile. “Just trust me. This will work out fine. Plus, I might like them more than I like you.” The last part is accompanied by another grin that lets me know she is teasing again.
Deciding to just go with it and take the plunge, I stand and approach Azzaria. I slip my arms around her waist and pull her against me. Looking into her eyes I lean forward and kiss her. It isn’t long, but it’s deep and passionate. I will her through that kiss to understand the strength of what I feel for her. When I pull away I look into her eyes again as she opens them, a little out of breath. “I love you” I whisper loud enough for her to hear. I repeat this for the other two as well. When I’m done they are all red with a blush and I can feel the heat in my own cheeks as well.
“Enough of this for now” I say, breaking the moment. “We have things to do, a dungeon to find and conquer as well as people to save. You all ready?” They get serious again and nod to my
question. “Lets get some breakfast and then I want to see what I can do to improve your robes Thia.” We all took a moment to clean up and headed downstairs. Back in the main hall I’m reading again while we eat. The book currently in front of me explains the differences about armor types and then goes into theories about the effects of enchanting for each type. In general, the heavier the armor the more effective physical based enchantments. Lighter materials are better for mental type enchantment boosting spell and speed due to them being more organic in nature. There are exceptions and nuances to it but that is the gist of it.
It turns out there are different things that can be considered light, medium, or heavy armor. The deciding factor seems to be weight. Cloth is considered as clothes, which provide little in the way of protection and are not able to hold an enchantment, or light armor. This and sometimes light leather is often used by mages because it doesn’t have penalties to casting, or any penalties really. Also, mages won’t have the strength to fight in heavier armor since their stats would be focused in places other than STR. How well any armor can hold an enchantment is based on the material so there are some specialty made cloth robes and whatnot that are coveted by mages.
Medium Armor is the heavier leather sets, often including chain mail or other heavy metals to improve protection. It also has penalties to speed for each piece of medium armor a person wears. Medium and Heavy armors have penalties per piece for magic power when casting spells because they are usually not made of magically conductive metal. This can be mitigated some with blessed armor and expensive metals. Heavy armor is usually anything from full chain mail suits to full plate armor. The penalty to speed is twice that of medium, on average, as well as the stat requirements to wear it.
The book goes on to explain how the different materials react to enchanting. Most metals are harder to enchant than organic ones like leather or cloth. It’s theorized this is due to the higher density. The density is also attributed to the theory that metals can hold stronger enchantments than other materials. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Magical metals like orichalcum and magical creatures like dragons are examples. By the way, Dragons! Herst has dragons, and not just myths or ancient tales. They have their own society on what the book says is the other side of the planet. They are extremely powerful on average and they don’t interact much with other species, but they are here.
I come out of my reverie about meeting dragons when I notice the lack of voices. Looking up from the book I can see the girls and Dolan are staring at me. “What did I miss?”
“I be askin what y’all have planned for today?”
“We are planning to try and find the dungeon I mentioned before. But first we are going to talk to Lortan to see what he can tell us about dungeons” I tell Dolan.
“Leave yer armor with me. I be repairing it for ya before you head into the dungeon.”
“Thanks Dolan.” We all take our armor off and hand it over. A few minutes later we all walk out of the keep and head to the scribe’s shop down the street. When we get there Lortan greets us all by name, even Thia. I guess word has already got around about my familiars new appearance. Not surprising the way that rumors seem to travel around here. “Hey Lortan, I was wondering what you can tell us about dungeons” I tell him after the initial small talk.
“Well, since I don’t think you are asking me about prisons, there are two types. Unofficial dungeons are places that monsters and beasts have made a lair. These operate normally and once completely cleared they are empty. Official dungeons are something much different. First of all, they don’t exist on the same plane of existence that we do. When you enter through the entrance portal of one you enter a pocket in space time. This is sometimes called a pocket dimension, and the whole dungeon is in it. Real dungeons are not sentient but they are alive. They create treasure to lure people into them to feed.”
At my wince to the term “feed” he clarifies. “Yes that does mean that some of them try their hardest to kill any who enter. These are actually called parasitic dungeons. Most every adventurer will destroy these completely if encountered or, if not strong enough to do so, report it to the guild so that it can send someone who can. Killing and absorbing people is only one way that they can feed though. The other is through symbiosis. Everything that creates energy is absorbed by the dungeon. Spells and skills use energy to activate and this energy is absorbed after the spell runs its course. It uses the monsters and things it creates within itself to force people to expend this energy so that it can absorb it. A symbiotic dungeon will rarely kill people because it wants them to come back and feed it more energy. It’s theorized that even body heat and kinetic energy is absorbed by the dungeon.”
This sounded like it won’t be too bad. “So what you’re saying is that a healthy, symbiotic dungeon isn’t really dangerous?’ That just seems off to me.
Lortan shakes his head at this question. “No. They are still very dangerous, but they are manageable by those at the appropriate level. A parasitic dungeon will often concentrate large groups of creatures and still include powerful special monsters with it. Sometimes the number of these is in the hundreds. A symbiotic dungeon will make the groups smaller and still manageable for a small party to take on, but still challenging enough to make them use energy the dungeon can absorb. The treasure is created by it with the energy it gains to lure people to try their luck.”
“Wouldn’t killing all of its creatures and taking the items cause an energy deficiency though?” Lortan nods with respect to my question.
“That would be the case normally, but true dungeons are extremely efficient. Any creatures killed will be absorbed back into the dungeon. These creatures often reproduce on their own too, so it takes less energy for the dungeon to create them. All of this means that you will expend more energy overall than it takes to create the treasure that the dungeon provides. That is the basics, but I do have one warning for you. Even symbiotic dungeons will be difficult to deal with when their core is threatened. The core is like the brain of the dungeon, and destroying it destroys the dungeon itself permanently.”
“Thank you Lorton. That is very helpful. Does the core of the dungeon usually take on the appearance of a large crystal?” He nods a yes to the question. Figures, at least my quest didn’t say that I need to destroy it. It does say that I need to bring it under control though. Hopefully I won’t end up on a completely different world…again. “One more question, if you don’t mind. What causes a dungeon to release creatures from it into our plane?”
“Ah, that is a widely debated question. Most believe that it’s an influx of power that is faster than the dungeon can grow and expand. As the theory goes, in order to purge the excess energy that it can’t use it creates more creatures than it can hold and releases them into this plane. There are some arguments though about new dungeons not having as much control or even just the disposition of the dungeon. They may not have higher thought but emotion may be possible. So an angry dungeon may lash out, or a neglected one may just be trying to gain attention to its self. These are just theories though and not proven unequivocally.”
“That’s a lot of good information.” I set a couple gold on the table for the lesson. “See you later Lorton.” Before he can protest at the payment I wave and we all walk out of the scribe’s shop again. Turning to the girls, my girls, I ask “Is there anything else any of you think we will need before we go dungeon diving?” No one says anything so I lead everyone toward the keep again. We wave and return the greetings of some of the people moving around the town as we go. It’s good to see that everyone seems to be adjusting well to their new home. Walking through the entrance to the keep we wave at the guards and go to visit Dolan in the forge. He has a repair skill that greatly speeds up repair times so he should be done by now.
Walking through the door to the smithy we all can hear Dolan yelling at his apprentice. He waves Taynor off when he sees us and points to the pile of gear in front of him. “I just be fi
nished with ya gear. Dungeons be dangerous places. If’n ya need help, there be plenty that would come with ya.”
“Thanks Dolan. We’ll be careful” I assure him. We all grab our gear and head down to the crystal room where the door that is our destination is located.
When we get there we walk over to the table and set our stuff down. Turning to Thia I say “Take your clothes off.” Just as I was hoping all three girls freeze and look at me in shock for a moment. I get a good laugh at that. “All three of you have dirty minds. I just need her to take off the robes and her slippers so that I can enchant them.” After saying this I put on the best innocent smile I can. I don’t think they believe it though and they are all glaring at me now. To get everything moving I wave my hand in a circular motion that indicates impatience.
A moment later Thia is in just her traveling clothes and I’m working on enchanting her robes and slippers. I can’t do a lot to it, but I do as much WIS as I can on the robe. As I’m enchanting, I push the enchantment more and more until I can feel a good amount a resistance from it. Any more and I think the enchantment would fail and the magical energy would burn up the item. The results actually surprise me a little since I didn’t think it would be this good. It added twenty WIS to the robe’s seven armor. The slippers have four armor and I add the haste enchantment giving it +15% to speed. With everything finished I see that I gained a level in enchanting, bringing it to fifteen, and a level in Identify, making it eight.
A Mage Rising: (The Chronicles of Herst 2: A LitRPG Saga) Page 11
