by Dakota Krout
Dale wasn’t sure how much to tell this man. Then again, he had saved his life and brought him into his home to recover. “The… dungeon and I have a special relationship. I did something for it recently, and it repaid me with a technique that I desperately needed.”
“I… see.” Artorian nodded, eyes half closed. “Well, I trust that you are well enough to head off? I do have some other things to take care of.” Dale nodded and said his farewells, while Artorian thought long and hard about his next actions.
“I see no other real choice here. Excuse me, dungeon? I… would like to make a deal,” Artorian spoke, and a small fluctuation in the ambient Essence assured him that the dungeon was listening.
Chapter Twenty-eight
“Great Spirit, I have news!” Bob Prime was shouting into the third floor, his Mana-enhanced voice rattling Goblins and adventurers alike. A few started running to the exit, making me sigh as they avoided walking into traps or going for ‘raspberries’ from my sneaky monsters.
“Cartographer Bob has spotted Minya and two others flying toward us with all haste. There seems to be some form of… atmospheric disturbance behind them.” Bob finished the last sentence hesitantly.
“I have, but I do not understand exactly what that means,” Bob confessed apologetically, even as he opened a secret panel and left the floor.
“So anything not in your Core… would start to leak into the surroundings?” Bob paled, and he swallowed as he looked around at the purple cursed earth.
These ley lines were fun toys, and extending the range from which I could absorb energies was very beneficial. I looked at the map and frowned as I found blank spots in areas around the world. One of the downsides of using basic Essence to power them was that a higher concentration of Essence or Mana could block the ley lines from expanding. Over time, I could slowly make them stretch into the area, but that wasn’t good enough right now. I needed to make a statement here, to flex my power and take control.
Minya touched down on Mountaindale and ran toward the entrance to my dungeon. She started speaking on the first floor, her speed increasing as she flashed past bosses. “Cal, I’m holding a dungeon Core that is very unhappy to be held. It keeps trying to eat me, and if I put it in anything or let Essence touch it, it takes it all in, and I lose control.”
Ah. That explained why she hadn’t just taken the portal down to me. “Can you please take over this thing or give me access to something that’ll get me closer to you!”
“A drop…?” She had gone past the wall and found that the ground simply ended. This was the most direct route down to me without a portal, a simple shaft that I used for air, Essence, and now Minya. “Ahhh!”
“Ah. I thought you were expecting a little drama.” Minya patiently waited until the ground began to approach, then slowed and landed gently. She walked toward the Silverwood tree, cocking her head as she saw the liquid Essence sloshing around. “Is that…?”
“Yes, also, it erupted just after we took the Core. The entire region is going to be having a hard few years.” Minya looked so grim that I had to tune her out.
The previously almost inert Core launched a huge ball of liquid stone at me, more precisely, at the tree above me.
With a small puff of smoke, the attack was fully absorbed, converted into base Essence and Mana that I easily swallowed. The great thing about my Mana was if I was stronger than the attack coming directly at me, I could absorb it every time. Especially if I didn’t need to deal with a being’s aura weakening my own.
I was speaking aloud intentionally to cow the Core into submission. My Mana expanded away from me, wrapping the Core in a suffocating cloud of dense power. When I say ‘suffocating’, I mean it. If the Core didn’t give up soon, I was going to shatter it either by accident or design. That was when another new voice interrupted me.
“Please! Leave her alone!” A green Wisp came flying down the airshaft Minya had taken, and with a thought, I closed the wall. Whoops. That could have been bad. “She is just in pain, and terrified!”
I eased the pressure on the opposing Core, noting that a few imperfections flaked off of… her.
“Normally, yes, but I think she is in shock. She was just ripped out of her body; she isn’t thinking rationally!” The Wisp seemed agitated. Heh. “My name is Xan; I’m her bonded Dungeon Wisp.”
“I am. She is smart and had made over one hundred levels through an active volcano. That’s… I mean, it’s gone now, but she did it.” Xan’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Huh?” She seemed to wake up. “Oh. Yeah. It was hard to get down, even harder to get back up through all the rising lava.”
the line and sent it to empower and enhance the lines.
I watched on the map as the line I had just touched blazed. A pure white line was traced over the golden strings, and in moments, it had reached the blank spot of the chart. A sheet of white covered the empty spot, then slowly resolved into a series of individual lines. From there, white traced along a few connecting paths, but it all slowly returned to a bright gold, perhaps slightly more pale than the remaining lines.
Mana and Essence were being sucked through the line, coming toward me.
Chapter Twenty-nine
I installed Dregs as the controller of floors one through four. I still had everything in place; it was just her job to keep the traps and Mobs running smoothly so that I didn’t need to bother with them. In return, she was able to draw in the pure Essence on these floors. Obviously, she didn’t get it all and it was quite the demotion for her, but the other option for her was to become an intelligent weapon that I gave out as a special reward to someone. It would have been a whip that assisted the user, boosted control over fire and earth Essence, and… ah well. Maybe she would be terrible at her new job.
Then again, if she failed at such a simple thing, it would look bad for me. It would seem like I had failed. Maybe I should just… no, no. I needed to trust myself. The pursuit of perfection could not be a lonely road. I looked wistfully at the room Dani and Grace were in. I missed them. From the explosions, laughter, and bursts of energy, I could tell they were having fun. Le sigh.
The volcano that had been inhabited by Dregs had turned out to be a natural Essence accumulation point, a shaft from deeper in the earth where fire and earth Essences constantly spewed forth. My ley lines were now acting to regulate the energy, but it made me wonder if naturally formed dungeons served a purpose for the world. Did they fix what would otherwise be an imbalance in the Essence of the planet? At this point, so close to finishing the first layer of ley lines… did I care? Nope!
On another side note, I was advancing. I knew I was; although, for some reason, this advancement was oddly slow. Typically, there was a significant moment and boom! I advance! This one, though… it felt like my soul was stretching. Not in the ‘oh, I just woke up and feel good’ way. More like ‘put him in the rack and start pulling’! My cultivation settled into a plateau, and if I had lungs, I would have been gasping in pain.
Concern replaced her current haughty mood, and she floated out and toward my Core. “What’s going on, Cal?”
I filled her in on what had been happening in the dungeon, the new Core and Wisp, and the pain of my recent advancement. She listened intently, not interrupting, which I was thankful for. When I was finished, she flew in circles around the glistening Silverwood tree for a bit, thinking. Grace splashed around in the liquid Essence, obviously enjoying the increased power and seeing what happened to things that the Essence landed on. She giggled as a flower mutated wildly out of control and burst into flames without consuming the plant. That’s my girl!
Dani came to a stop, hovering above me. “So… the only thing I can think of is the next stage of Mana cultivation, which is applying your law within your soul. What this does is create a space, an actual physical location in your soul that is accessible. For most people, this is basically only enough room to store a single item, but… I’m not sure what you would be making. I could also be wrong, since this isn’t normally started until the A-ranks.”
I considered that.
“That’s what I was thinking.” She nodded along at my words, hesitating before speaking again, “Whatever you start making… you need to finish eventually. It needs to encompass your law, and if you make something too weak, you will severely limit your future growth. Weak Mages make something the size of a large box, strong ones make an entire palace, but the larger the creation, the more power will be needed to complete it.”
“Hah! Not even close. Only the concept has to be made all at once.” Dani chuckled as my dreams collapsed. “I think we are onto something here. Try thinking about what you will be making in your soul space, and when you are ready, try adding to the space that already exists. If something happens, you were ready for this. Otherwise, we will need to find some other way to help you.”
Her instructions were helpful, but I was faced with the same issues I had when trying to cultivate perfection. What embodied perfection? What could I make that would be a sufficient stand-in for Acme? I pondered this question, but reflecting on perfection was as useful as staring into the void. There were no ready answers, and they wouldn’t grant their secrets easily. I had real work to do now.
“What can I help with today?”
“Great Spirit, it might be years before stage one is complete. The blank spots on the map-”
“Is this… is this wise, Cal?” Oh? He called me by name?
My mind looked upward, leaving Bob behind to follow my orders.
I watched as Barry ordered some Guild members around. “No, I’m glad the regional Guildlord was delayed. This camp is in shambles, and I only have a few days to fix a few weeks’ worth of issues. We need our lower members to get going through the dungeon; it’s a good training ground and gives out Inscribed weapons like a drug dealer gives out free samples.”
I can’t say that I cared for the comparison, but his point was valid. He continued speaking softly, though the people around him were stiff and silent, so his words were clear and audible, “The dead have been moving toward us; obviously, they plan to move to defeat our armies before continuing on to attack the High Elves in Citime-o Ka, the city of light. The Elves will be joining us, and our Dwarven and Northman allies will flank the army of the dead. This will be our only real chance to crush this foe. If we fall… if we fail… there will be no one left that can resist them.”
“What was the purpose for bringing the dungeon here, Paragon?” an A-ranked High Mageous dared to ask. Paragon? Was that the title for an S-ranker then? Or just his title?
“We are going to use the dungeon to swoop around the dead and deposit our elite troops at the rear of the army, where the leadership will most likely be cowering and commanding their troops. If everything goes well, we will be able to cripple their chain of command in one. Fell. Swoop.” Barry squeezed the table, which exploded into sawdust.
“When will we move out, Paragon?” another A-ranker spoke from the middle of the group.
“One week,” Barry growled throatily. “In on
e week, this dungeon will take off, carrying the hope of the entire world with it.”
Well, no pressure on me then, thank goodness. I snorted and moved away. I now had a deadline, and I needed to get to work on my pet projects. I moved over to where a few Bobs were working on an opal and asked them to step back while I inspected it. I went through the massive gem, whistling at the end. This thing had enough carats to feed a floor full of Bashers for a decade. There was a slight flaw, a crack near one end. I filled the microscopic crack, then congratulated the Bobs on their hard work. This is precisely what I had needed.
I washed my influence over the massive opal, dissolving it into my being. Using the new pattern, I exerted myself, and twelve identical opals appeared next to the nonplussed Bobs.
They nodded sleepily, which made me wonder if the crack I had found had been due to a sleep-related accident.
I didn’t envy their need for sleep. I looked over at the Runescript that Bob was layering on the original and went to offer my assistance. I was ready to taste the fruits of my labor, and the harvest was coming soon.
Chapter Thirty
Dale’s thoughts were whirling as he strained his cultivation technique to the maximum he possibly could. He was having an issue similar to when he had first advanced to the D-ranks, where his chi threads were slightly fractured. All he needed to do was gather enough Essence to fill the gaps, but the issue was that he could only repair one section at a time. Once he got going, the usable portion would expand, rushing the remaining Essence toward healing. A snowball effect, if you will. His thoughts stuttered, and he shook off the memories of snowballs. If he never saw a snowman again…
