Chapter 133
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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea
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With the Beastborn, Scaleborn, and Mer settling in well, I decided it was time to start work on that training area the Guild petitioned me for. Though more than half of the island was being used for farming by now, It was simple enough to pick the right spot.
There was a small valley on the back side of the cliff where my dungeon’s entrance was, the one topped by the lighthouse and freshwater spring. While most of the island was relatively flat, apart from the volcano, it wasn’t like there weren’t hills. The human settlers had long decided to expand westward toward the flatter part of the island while writing off eastward expansion as more trouble than it was worth.
All the better for my purposes.
First, I cleared most of the excess foliage. If this was going to be a training area, I wouldn’t make them push through it like it was the third, except for a small section where they’d have to do precisely that. Next, I cleared paths. This section would have three main areas: the Forest, The Clearing, and the Cliffs.
The Clearing was self-titled; it was an open clearing with one large tree in the dead center. I added bunnies and other barely-enhanced animals for ‘babies’ first run.’ For example, the bunnies had horns, but they were just horns with no special magic. I did add one special kind of monster, though. Something I hadn’t tried before, but now I had a better idea of how they’d work.
I decided to try my hand at slimes.
The main problem is categorization. What is slime? Is it an enormous amoeba? A colony of bacteria or other cells? Instead of trying to build a new creature wholesale, I took something already halfway there: the humble Jellyfish. Semi-transparent and brainless, it was practically perfect. I quickly chose one floating around the eleventh floor and gave it a core.
First, I stretched its membrane to encase it fully; it didn’t need trailing tendrils. Next, I filled the newly empty space in its sack-like body with a less dense, acidic version of the same. The slime’s main point is that its only organ is the core; since it absorbs and dissolves its victims, it doesn’t need a stomach or intestines. Of course, since it had no physical means of locomotion, it needed to use mana to move.
There were two options: water magic, to ‘throw’ around its own body, or gravity magic to do the same. For now, I went with water magic. Giving it gravity magic might be too much for this training zone. I could try that in a future variant. Some basic instincts later, along with a quick demonstration of how to move around, rolling through the grass on an ordinary island, eating and dissolving all the grass it rolled over. The grass it ‘ate’ visibly bubbled and sizzled in its acid and slowly disappeared. After about an hour, it’d reached the size of an average car tire. The slime then moved into the shade of a tree and pressed itself against a hollow in the roots.
I’d thought long and hard about how the slime would reproduce. First, I thought it could split in two, each having half the mass of the original. That wasn’t feasible since I couldn’t figure out how to divide its crystalline core in two without shattering the thing. But here’s where my choice of base animal came in clutch: Jellyfish have a larval form called a polyps, which anchors itself on the ground and grows, then releases dozens of juvenile Jellyfish.
It was simple to make Slimes asexual since I wasn’t planning on any genetic variation anyway. So, I had the slime produce its own egg and sperm, combine them, and deposit the resulting egg in the dirt. It then moved away, returning to its grazing.
I focused on the egg and fed it mana to accelerate its growth. The larval form grew into a dark blue spherical coral-like structure covered in small depressions. Each depression had a small light-blue orb at its center, which slowly grew larger. After another hour of accelerated growth, which would normally take days to complete, a dozen juvenile Slimes detached and ate their egg. The fist-sized slimes dispersed after that, exploring the island.
Satisfied, I asked some Children to collect and transport the juveniles to the surface. A slime would only reproduce once independently, so I was okay with leaving the adult one down on the Eleventh to experiment with later. While they were doing that, I focused on the next area: the Forest.
The Forest was precisely that: an area entirely covered by trees, with plenty of bushes for monsters to hide in and thinned enough to navigate but not enough for easy traversal. As for monsters, I spread some giant spiders (lone spiders, not a colony; I’m not a savage), a giant wasp nest (of Wasps about the size of the average fist), as well as plenty of snakes (None with venom, only constrictors.) This would be the transition from easy monster-killing to a point where you need to watch your surroundings, defend yourself from ambush, and work on team coordination.
The Cliffs took advantage of the natural cliff formation, hugging the rocks and leading out around the back side of the promontory my dungeon entrance sat within. The monsters found here would mainly be smaller versions of my Crabs, only the size of a basketball at the smallest and a tire at the largest. The Seagulls who nested in the cliffs above would also contribute, giving the trainees a flying enemy to fight, and the final boss of the training area would be a giant seagull I decided to name Scuttle, Son of Gull. He was one of Gull’s many offspring and at a strength level that I judged perfect for a final test.
There were still some adjustments to make, but with all the areas done, it was time to invite the Guild to perform their test run. I was confident they’d ask the summoned heroes to do the first run as the least powerful members of the Guild on the island, with Haythem and Bertram acting as their minders in case they got in over their heads.
I couldn’t wait.
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Surface Training Area, Atlantis, Kalenic Sea
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“This looks… interesting,” Tamesou Akio commented, eyeing the so-called ‘training area’s’ entrance. “So, the dungeon… accepted your idea and made somewhere people weaker than Gold rank can train in? Why? As a dungeon, Isn’t that a little counter-intuitive of it? To train people who’ll dive the dungeon later?”
“The Guildmistress has her ideas as to why The Voice accepted our proposal,” Haythem replied, his eyes likewise narrowed. Akio didn’t blame him. It wasn’t often you saw two trees intertwine themselves into an archway. Especially because those two trees certainly hadn’t been entwined the day before. “Personally, I think the dungeon wants more Guilders on the island, specifically Golds, who’re inclined to view it favorably. The dungeon has proven itself remarkably benevolent, though there are moments… The Voice said those refugees went into the dungeon of their own accord, but they disappeared overnight, so we can’t exactly confirm that.”
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Akio actually did believe they went in on their own accord. The people they’d spoken to at Blackwater Bay and here on Atlantis seemed to believe in ‘The Creator’ as a god and a dungeon, which seemed like a dichotomy, but people could think whatever they wanted.
“Sad we couldn’t bring Elize,” Sophie commented, unsheathing her twin shortswords. She’d upgraded after it was made fully clear her daggers just didn’t measure up. “But I suppose this is
the first time it’s being explored. What did the Voice say about it?” She directed her question to Bruce, who’d been reading the piece of parchment in his hands with a furrowed brow.
“Three ‘areas’ to explore of increasing difficulty,” he summarized. ” ‘The Clearing,’ for noobs, ‘The Forest’ once they’ve got some idea of what they’re doing, and ‘The Cliffs’ for a final challenge. Soooo we do each in order?” Everyone nodded, and together, they passed through the archway.
As they did, Akio felt a chill run down his back. This… “This feels like being in the dungeon, but not?”
Apart from some nods, no one else commented, and they followed the path further. A minute later, they reached a crossroads. Three paths split off, each with its own living wooden archways and signs. The sign for the leftmost path had a single tree, the middle had multiple trees, and the right had what looked like a stylized cliff. Akio motioned to the left path, and they moved down it.
After another minute, Akio had to squint as they left the shaded forest and emerged into a sloped clearing. At the center was a single tree larger than all the ones they’d already passed. From their elevated position at the top of the hill, Akio could spot a dozen places where the long grass shifted and moved unnaturally against the prevailing winds. The path narrowed and looped around the tree, returning to their position.
“Interesting…” Akio said, shifting his shield. “Shall we?”
They followed the path and reached the first bit of rustling grass within a few minutes. Though it was less than ten yards from the path, and they hadn’t been quiet, whatever was in there hadn’t moved toward them.
“Maybe it’s pokémon rules?” Sophie ventured unsurely. “We’re safe on the path and will only be attacked if we step into the grass?”
Akio shrugged and took a steadying breath. He knew it was supposedly a safe area for people just learning how to fight, but the nagging voice in his head said it could all be a trick or a trap. He raised his shield and sword, then stepped in the grass. Nothing happened. Each step brought him closer to the rustling grass, and he quickly saw just what it was.
It was… a Sime.
It was a real, genuine, sky-blue Slime. It had a spherical core floating around inside it as it slowly rolled through the grass. It wasn’t larger than a basketball, but whatever he’d expected, it wasn’t this. This one seemed like an actual Slime instead of the ooze-like slime they’d encountered before.
“It’s a Slime!” He called out, excited. “Come look at this!”
The party surrounded the little guy, Bruce, and Sophie, sharing his excitement, while Bertram and Haythem looked intrigued but unalarmed. They probably thought it was like the one from the other dungeon but wondered how it got here.
“It’s a Slime, so what?” Bertram asked, glancing at the teens. “I can just bash it with my mace.”
“It’s not like the slimes from that ‘slime dungeon’ near the Holy City,” Sophie explained carefully. “After finding out about those, we didn’t think there were any like the ones we remembered here. They should be easy enough to kill. Ones this small, at least. Akio?”
Akio took his cue and slashed down with his sword, slicing the blue blob in two. It sagged, its inside spilling out with a honey-like consistency. The core was easy enough to grab from the sticky liquid. The liquid hissed audibly on his glove, and he quickly wiped it on the grass. Right. Acidic.
“And how are these dangerous?” Haythem asked, sounding unamused.
“At this size, it seems easy, right?” Bruce commented, still watching the guts spill out. “Those other slimes were pretty easy to kill, too. But imagine one ten times this size that slowly rolls over everything in its way and absorbs it. Once inside, you slowly dissolve in its acid until the only things left are bones. Its membrane is too thick to cut like this one, and crushing weapons do nothing. Magic might affect them weirdly. They’re not dangerous for the aware, but they like to cling to the ceilings of caves and drop on you, deadly to the unexpecting.”
Bertram and Haythem looked at the dead slime with a little more respect in their eyes. “Different to the ones we know, certainly. But at this size, they’re not dangerous?” Haythem continued.
All three teens shook their heads. “That’s Good enough for me. Alright, let’s continue. There are meant to be a few monsters in each area, and we must find them all.
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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea
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I’m disappointed some other dungeon beat me to Slimes, but the Heroes reacted appropriately to my abomination of nature. Goooood, goood. They’re right to be worried, of course. I’d have a dozen variations whipped up and shipped around the dungeon within a week. The rest of their trip through the training area went as expected, and though they had some trouble with Scuttle, Son of Gull, they still killed him reasonably easily. All as expected.
This area was far too weak for them, after all.
It would only be after they finished that its intended users would arrive.
Guildmistress Losat quickly released the news after the training area proved appropriate; Silvers were again allowed on the island but must complete a training course before they could delve into the dungeon. They were initially banned due to the influx of Gold and Platinum guilders, which would have caused an overpopulation problem and high casualty rates.
Now, with the port more developed than ever, more berths, inns, taverns, farms, and crop yields… Atlantis was exporting a decent amount of food and other finished goods made from stuff they’d harvested from the dungeon. I know for a fact someone commissioned a full set of armor made of crab shells. No one on the island bought it, so it was shipped to the mainland. I’m sure someone will want it.
But either way, things settled into a comfortable routine over the next two weeks.
The Teen Heroes reached the third before Haythem and Bertram rejoined Isid and Paetor’s parties for deep delves. The healer-princess, who might not be a princess but could be, started in the training area with a party of barely adults fresh to the island. A half-dozen such parties had reached the island and explored the training area (I needed a better name for that place). None had finished it yet, but it was inevitable someone would.
I’d continued to refine and expand Olympus, adding a few odd islands on the ocean and sky. I was reaching the limit of what I could do without adding monsters, though I still didn’t know what to add. I wanted to keep the haunting silence of a dead city, but wasn’t sure what kind of monster would add to the vibe. I couldn’t even contemplate a boss until I’d chosen the monsters.
So, I was left with a choice. Go even higher into the sky and add a third part to the Eleventh, or finally make a start on the Twelfth Floor. It was just a hollowed-out cavern from all the rock I’d been excavating to use on the Eleventh, but with expansion enchantments… I could go big. I could go really big. If the Eleventh was about the size of Poland… It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to make something the size of Europe as a whole, right? Something that’d take weeks to months to cross, with multiple biomes to cross: mountains, deserts, plains, forests, tundra… combining every survival trick the guilders had learned so far into the ultimate test.
There would be little to no water except for an inland sea/lake not much larger than the Eleventh.
Yes. It’s all coming together…
But before I started with all that tough, the reunited CHI raid group had again reached the Ninth. With all their party members awake and ready to roll, it was time to see how they fared in the desert.
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Chapter 134
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The Ninth Floor, The Dungeon, Atlantis
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Haythem raised a hand to shield his eyes and look ahead as the midday sun beat down upon the group trudging across the dune sea. According to Isid, the entire floor was surrounded by the same enchantment as the Eighth, making it seem like they were on the surface.
But that didn’t change what it looked like. A harsh sun, the exact shade as the one he was familiar with, slid through a clear blue sky. Not a cloud was in sight, and the dunes continued endlessly in every direction. They’d emerged from a rock formation, which had long disappeared behind them. In the distance, Haythem could see a lone mountain that split into two peaks near the tip, with a point of light between them. Isid insisted no such mountain existed and that it was an illusion.
Before descending, they’d been told by the Guildmistress that there was supposedly a canyon somewhere. Isid led the line of guilders, attempting to navigate by following the diverging manastreams as they wound overhead. She claimed there were two points where the streams reached the ground. Which of the two was the canyon was a coin flip. Haythem raised his waterskin and took a long gulp. The cooling liquid was a relief; the heat-resistant cloaks they’d gotten for the Sixth helped, but this was a different kind of heat. It was oppressive and all-pervasive and did nothing to prevent the heat from seeping into their boots and feet.
“How much farther?” Haythem asked, calling up the line. His voice echoed slightly into the faint wind.
The group was walking single-file along the ridge of a dune. The left side face was steep, while the right had a much shallower slope. With each step, sand cascaded down the shallow side. The sound it made, an almost drumming sound, was a constant drone in their ears. This had to be the fortieth such dune they’d traveled along in this manner. They’d yet to encounter any monsters or manabeings, and it was making Haythem a little paranoid.
“Not too long now,” Isid replied from the head of the procession. “Two more dunes at most. That manastream is powering an enchantment, one trying to hide whatever’s under it.”
Two dunes and passing through the concealment enchantment later… they found a tiny structure, gleaming copper in the sunlight. From base to tip, it was only waist height.
“I don’t understand,” Isid said, kneeling in the sand to peer at the pyramidal structure. “The manastream comes right down through the point and just… disappears. The concealment enchantment is inscribed on the faces… but not all of it. About half.”
“So the rest is buried in the sand?” Lilliette reasoned, kneeling next to the albino woman. She reached out with her mithril hand, running her fingers along the faintly glowing symbols. Haythem frowned at the implication.
“So, how deep does it go, then?” Bertram seemed just as worried as Haythem was starting to feel. “If this is just the tip, how big is it?”
“We have no way of knowing,” Isid answered. “I cannot see past the sand. There must be some enchantment or trial we need to pass to reveal this structure, like that cavern on the eighth.” Haythem shuddered just thinking about it but felt the group’s leader wasn’t wrong.
“So, we go to the other manastream,” Haythem stated, his eyes moving to scan the horizon. “There’s nothing more we can do here… Though I do think we’re about to have company.” A dark shape was forming through the heat haze, though it was still too far away to identify.
The group formed, moving away from the waist-high pyramid and towards the shape Isid said was coming from the other manastream. Minutes passed as the shapes grew until they suddenly became much more discernable.
It was birds. A large flock of huge birds. Along with the flight of suspiciously shiny birds, a dust cloud hung beneath them. It didn’t take them much longer to reach the Guilders. As the birds flapped their wings, Haythem realized it was worse. They weren’t just close; they were in range.
The dozen or so birds shot very shiny feathers at them, which cut through the air with piercing shrieks. There was a pulse of magic; Lilliette was already raising a half-dome shield just in time for the feathers to impact, bouncing off, though not without leaving dramatic-looking cracks spiderwebbing across the curved face. Haythem glanced at the mage and could barely see the wince as she pushed another pulse of magic through her staff and metal arm, healing the cracks and thickening the shield.
“Let the archers deal with the birds; we’ve got incoming on the ground,” Jerrard called, and Haythem’s eyes snapped back to the dust cloud. It looked like… a half-dozen tiny tornadoes. The probably-manabeings rushed in and circled around, approaching the open back end of the shield. Haythem rushed to the gap, along with the other purely melee fighters.
He twirled his new sword, still getting used to the weight, and swung it right through the twister, aiming for the glimmer he saw within, potentially the manabeing’s core. His sword pulsed with light as he did, its enchantment activating. It was a rather rare one called Mage-bane. The sword absorbed the mana of any being it cut, storing it in the monster core in the hilt. Over time, it would slowly dissipate since it wasn’t a dungeon core, but in the short term…
His first swing missed the monster’s core, but given the bright glow in the gem, his sword had absorbed a decent amount from that one strike. He activated the second enchantment as the twister recoiled, likely in shock. His second swing unleashed an arc of white mana, which did
hit the manabeing’s core. The twister dissipated almost instantly, and he barely glimpsed the ball of light that was the true manabeing before it fled beneath the sand.
Haythem smirked to himself, giving his sword a satisfied nod. He’d seen the kid, Akio, use a spell like this and had commissioned the island’s Enchanter to make a similar spell. It was certainly effective, and even after hundreds of uses in the last three days of this delve, it was holding stable.
He cut down another twister and, seeing that was the last of them, turned to face the birds, only to see those that remained fleeing, eight corpses decorating the sands in front of the shield.
The shield fell, and Haythem realized it was getting pretty dark out. The sun was low on the horizon, and the dunes were practically glowing orange.
“Right, we have no shelter, and we don’t know what kind of monsters might come out at night here,” Isid called out. “We’re going back. We’ll try the other manastream next delve.” Haythem turned and admired the sunset for a moment longer as the distinct flashes of the teleportation crystals went off, one after another.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“-aythem!”
He blinked. Isid was standing next to him, a hand on his shoulder. “Everyone else has gone already. Just you and me left. You… alright?”
Haythem sighed. He watched the sun dip past the horizon and plunge the floor into darkness. On the other side of the floor, he saw the single moon rise, and the stars blink into life. “Why does the dungeon think the sky looks like this, Isid?” Haythem asked, waving at the band of light running across the sky. “Where’s the Ring of Heaven? Why does one of the moons look like that, and why is it so large?”
“Who knows. I don’t think it’d tell us if we asked,” Isid replied quietly. Haythem realized what he’d said a moment later.
“Sorry, forgot you can’t see it. It just… It looks so real. It’s so detailed that your first thought is that it’s the actual sky, but all the stars are in the wrong places. It’d be hard to believe it was an illusion if it wasn’t for that.”
“Apology accepted, Haythem. I have a theory or two, but we can discuss them later. For now, we need to leave. The dungeon might be marshaling forces that’ll attack us if we wait a moment longer.”
Haythem nodded and activated his teleport crystal.
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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea
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After the CHI group left, I refocused on the future Twelfth Floor. There was work to do, after all.
I spent the next day or two carefully enchanting the cavern with space-expansion charms. These were much-refined from the Eleventh’s. I added a limiter to prevent it from growing too fast or surpassing a pre-set expansion multiplier. In essence, while the Eleventh grew quadratically in speed once everything started running, the Twelfth would grow linearly, letting air flow into it at a reasonable pace.
Are you sure you can restrict the portal to only allow air through? I don’t want uncontracted manabeings coming through. I said to the Air Fairy. The 15-foot feminine cloud giggled and nodded atop Zephyr Peak, the Air Elemental Island.
“Yup, yup! It’s like what you got the water sprites to do when you made this floor but as a portal to the Air Plane instead of the surface oceans. One-way, mostly. Manabeings canonlycross into the Material Plane when explicitly invited, which is what a summoning spell is, and they won’t be able to pass through the portal
.”
Thank you for the explanation, Sidhe; now, would you make your way to the Twelfth Floor with as many sprites as you can bring? I’m just about ready to start its growth.
“Of course. Will you be there with that fancy body of yours?”
I didn’t intend to since it’s currently spending time with Cadmus. Wave and Taura are… busy… and can’t watch them for me.
“Bring the kid, too! I’m sure they’ll have fun!”
About half an hour later, I stood on the cavernous Twelfth Floor with Cadmus, Sidhe, and her sprites. When everyone was ready, I started the enchantment and prompted the Air Sprites to open the portal.
The walls and ceiling rushed away from us, though at different rates. When the walls finished expanding, I ensured the cavern’s ceiling would be the exact height I wanted. Just on the edge of space, as the Eleventh was.
Beside us, the portal to the Air Plane practically exploded, wind gusting through at gale-force speeds. As the floor grew, five other groups of sprites formed up and opened portals of their own, releasing enough air to keep up with the room’s expansion.
Another hour passed slowly while I monitored the expansion, making sure it was growing at the correct speed.
Then it was done.
The once large cavern was now a continent-sized space, roughly the same height as the eleventh, which allowed for much more complex weather systems.
Hundreds of ideas fought for dominance as I contemplated what I would fill a Europe-sized floor with. Sticking to just one biome like I’d been doing with the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth was right out. It was just too large, which meant I could fit multiple biomes with transitional areas where monsters from both could be encountered. Really, there was a list of biomes I just had to include; at least one mountain range and its foothills, a desert, a country-sized forest, rolling plains…
Along with a few non-standard biomes slipped in among them.
One of the first I decided on was the Giant’s Forest, which would be located at the center of that country-spanning forest. Everything was at least twice as large—animals, plants, and monsters. All their dimensions would be doubled, making any normal human walking through it feel like a hobbit in comparison.
And I decided not to limit areas to only one or two monster types. Every area would be saturated with every monster species that could logically live there.
Alright, enough talk. It’s time to actually make stuff. Gods, it feels like it’s been years since I started making a new Floor.
Time to work!
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Obsidian Beach, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea
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Bruce sat quietly on the sand, looking out at the sea as the sky slowly darkened, the sun setting on the island’s far side. Stars slowly flickered to life as bright blue gave way to navy, then pure black. The few clouds faded into darkness, undetectable against the sky but for when they obscured the flickering lights behind them.
He let the chatter of his friends flow over him, and he meditated.
He’d decided to start doing it recently, taking inspiration from stories he’d read. Who knew if any of them were applicable, but here, where mana responded to intent more than a regimented system of spell slots, skills, or math of some kind… He felt it was worth a shot.
And so, he meditated.
Bruce let the noise of the town’s nightlife, his friends’ chatter, and the wind pushing the sand around fade away, but for the crash of the waves. Push… and pull. Push… and pull. In… and out. In… and out. He closed his eyes and focused.
Bruce felt the mana inside him, cool and flowing as it rested within his core. What felt like years ago now, but he knew it was only maybe a month or two… probably… His mind returned to when he’d talked to Akio and Sophie about mana when they’d first had it unlocked.
Akio thought about spells like computer programs, but it wasn’t like that at all for Bruce.
While he could slosh and direct his mana out of his core and through his body freely, acting on the water outside his body with it was like using another limb. The more he tried to do, the more resistance he felt and the more mana it took. While his mana reserves had been growing… He felt like he was falling behind.
Akio was… Akio. The guy was great fun and a bro, but he didn’t realize just how absurd his growth was. The guy could lift a fucking boulder, for fuck’s sake! Bruce could vaguely tell he had more mana than the Japanese teen, but with how he used it in combat… Akio was definitely more effective. Hell, even Sophie was better at using her mana than he was.
And it.. rankled slightly.
So, he needed to figure out something else. A different way. Get a different perspective.
Bruce breathed. In… and out. Push… and pull.
As he did, he moved his mana through his body. He let it move like his blood, rushing out from his core through the spiritual veins that ran along his actual arteries and veins. With each inhale, he pushed his mana out. With each exhale, he pulled it back in. Slowly, with each repetition, he felt… something happening.
He felt like he could almost grasp what was happening. He nearly had the words!
“Hey, Bruce, are you okay there?” And he lost it. All at once, the world crashed back into him: the chatter, the waves, the wind, the town. He blinked rapidly and turned to look at Akio.
“Dude, I was this close to spiritual enlightenment,” Bruce complained, falling back to lie on the sand. “Do I need to go into closed-door meditation or something?!”
“Closed-door medi- wait. WAIT,” Akio looked down at him with wide eyes, and Bruce could see the cogs turning in his eyes. “That’s possible!?”
“Hell, if I know,” Bruce answered. “Gonna give it a shot, though.”
“What are you talking about?” Sophie asked. Bruce turned to look at the girls, who looked confused.
“Do you know what Xianxia is?” Bruce asked. Sophie’s eyes also went wide, and Elize looked confused.
“Immortal Heroes?” The princess said. “That… what you said sounded nothing like those words. That wasn’t English or Japanese, was it?”
“No. It’s Chinese,” Sophie answered. “The name doesn’t describe it well. It’s a genre of fiction where people cultivate energy and attempt to ascend to higher planes of existence.”
“People… farm energy? What has farming got to do with energy?”
Bruce let his eyes close as Akio and Sophie tried to explain further. He didn’t know if it was possible. He’d need to find his Meridians and Dantian, though that should be in his Diaphragm. Would his manacore work as his Golden Core?
He didn’t know if it could possibly work.
But it’d be fun to figure it out.
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Chapter 135
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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea
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The Twelfth was vast. It was, far and away, the largest space I’d worked with so far. A cavern the size of Europe, it was a blank canvas, begging an artist to paint it. Exquisite in its raw potential. And I had so many ideas. First, though, I needed to establish the mood. The vibes must be immaculate.
Where the Eleventh was akin to the Odyssey writ small, the Twelfth would mimic the Journey to the West. Guilders would take months to cross it from end to end, and they must do so multiple times in their quest. Each quote-unquote ‘corner’ of this floor would house a temple, a barrow, a tomb. Huge complexes would take weeks to explore, exhaust, and complete. Not just tunnels and rooms but hidden chambers activated by puzzles concealed in plain sight. Each would culminate in a miniboss battle, where the death of the miniboss would release part of the seal on the final complex.
The final complex would rest in the center of the inland sea, which was filling with water and life.
This sea would be wreathed in an eternal storm, discouraging any from sailing and navigating far from the shore. Only after the last seal was released would the storm cease and allow passage to the island it defended. The island would be entirely covered in battlements and keeps, seemingly designed to keep something in as much as it would keep intruders out. The floor’s boss would be behind a final vault door emblazoned with the symbols of each miniboss slain.
Honestly, I was highly tempted to make that final boss a dragon. Not Cadmus, though, since I didn’t really want to chain them to a single room.
The final boss would be a mad dragon. Not capable of speech, nor would it wish to communicate. It would have an animal cunning, sheer strength and size, instinctive magic, and of course…
It was under no obligation to remain in its arena once released.
Every complex would house multiple warnings and hints about the Calamity sealed, and the minibosses would desperately attempt to convince the guilders to abandon their mad quest. If they saw it through, released the seals, and opened the vault, the Calamity would be unleased.
Not in the dungeon.
But on the world.
As a final line of defense, I would descend as my avatar in the final arena and attempt to convince the guilders not to do this. That doing so would doom us all.
Someone who’d made it that far was that determined… they’d be akin to Hallmark in their mad desperation to get at my core and destroy me. Any attempt to warn them that killing me would doom the world would likely fail. But faced with a being, a creature they can face… which then conjures a portal, laughs mockingly, and crawls into the world above?
If they were heroic, they’d desperately follow and return to the surface to fight the being they’d unwittingly unleashed. The Calamity would have instincts to fly away from Atlantis, and once it passed that 5-mile barrier, I would lose the ability to guide it. It would truly be out of control.
Hopefully, it would cause a problem far larger and more immediate than continuing to attempt to shatter me. If not, if these guilders pushed forward to reach my core despite everything being put in their way, the world would be doomed anyway.
If it wasn’t obvious, I didn’t really have plans for a Thirteenth floor. I could work on the twelfth for months, perhaps years. Sculpting, expanding, decorating, hand-crafting the mountains, carving streams and rivers…
At most, the thirteenth chamber would be where my core would rest. If I ever decided that the twelfth was complete… I could make a world. An entire world, not just a continent. And I wouldn’t make it obvious, nor leave any ruins or hints.
I could hide my core within that world, somewhere unobtrusive, in the middle of nowhere, where no one could possibly find it without centuries to millennia of exploration. I was under no obligation to leave my core on the surface. As with my dungeon above, finding the entrance was step one, but what about two through ten?
But that was all in the future.
With the initial planning stage complete, it was time to get to work.
I pulled on some pre-made enchantments and watched as a mountain range rose from the ground. It ran from the northeast corner of the floor, around the northwest side of the inland sea, and trailed off into the foothills as it reached the southwest corner. Its highest peaks sat dead north of the sea, eerily similar to the Eighth floor. Hundreds of streams, fed by snow-capped mountains and ‘springs,’ would run down the slopes, feeding a dozen small rivers. A hidden world of dinosaurs and ancient creatures would guard a vine-covered temple deep in the northwest corner.
To the north, nestled under the absolute ice and stillness of the triple peaks, would rest a fiery hellscape. Multiple layers of lava-filled chambers and caverns, inhabited by creatures both seen and yet to be made.
To the east, I carved a canyon from the rock that would be cut by a stream leading to the sea. It would lie hidden within a desert of dunes, and in the far southeast corner of the floor, I pulled up a single, lonely, twin-peaked mountain. I would craft a ruined city of absent lights and tattered cloth at its base.
At this point, you must understand what I’m going with here.
In the rolling foothills of the mountains, that forest of giant trees and fauna I mentioned earlier would rest. In the far southwest corner, rising from the core of the forest, The World Tree would dominate the landscape. It would bear an entire civilization nestled in its branches. To the south of the sea would be rolling plains, cut through by one or two large rivers, the most peaceful area by far, and one I expect will be extensively inhabited by my Children.
In the northeast, where the mountains met the desert, ruins of a different nature would lie.
A shining city of steel and glass, cut down in its prime, is an entirely different challenge to navigate and explore. At the edge of that city, rising from the sand, would be an oxidized head, shoulders, and an arm with a torch raised high.
To the west… the ‘coastline’ of the Eleventh. The entrance to the floor.
The Eleventh’s final area, where the exit lay, was against the wall opposite the entrance. And it was much the same as that, a rough semicircle of land, with the enchantments upon the walls making it seem as if the coastline extended on forever.
After passing through the exit and a short tunnel into the Twelfth, they would emerge at the peak of a hill, with a view behind that mimicked the Eleventh. Ahead, their right would be dominated by the World Tree. Their left would be dominated by primeval, dinosaur-filled forests and mountains. They would see the rest of the floor only after climbing the mountains or passing through the Giant Forest.
I cracked my metaphorical fingers. More than a week had passed as I carved the landscape, and just as I was about to get into crafting the enchantment for the illusionary sky, I was pinged.
The young Isekai’d heroes had reached the Second’s Boss.
I hadn’t watched any fights with the Second’s boss since they’d evolved into The Perfect Predator. I wondered how this would turn out as I prepped the boss’s music, especially for them.
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The Boss Arena, The Second Floor, The Dungeon
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Trying his best to ignore the familiar dramatic music half-dampened by being underwater. Tamesou Akio raised his shield, putting in extra effort to move quickly. With a slam, the second-floor boss crashed against the shield and pushed him back with a grunt. That was gonna bruise. Amaterasu retaliated as they’d planned, with a concussive flash of light in the monster’s eyes. The fish was only stunned for a second, but it was enough for Akio to slash his sword. An arc of light lashed out, slicing into the monster’s thick scales. Before he could do more, it moved, and he was on the other side of the room in seconds, out of reach of anyone.
This thing was a nightmare.
It’d been hard enough learning to fight underwater, how difficult it was to slash and even move. No, the boss just had to have the unique skills of all three major fish monsters. Jet-like propulsion to rapidly strike and escape, scales that shed and left clouds of glittering, sharp, impassible space. It was also huge, roughly eighteen feet long from tip to tail, as far as he could estimate.
If it’d only been a meter long or so, it wouldn’t have been a problem, even with its abilities. They could corral it and overpower it. But at, and he couldn’t emphasize this enough, eighteen feet long, it was more like a shark than a fish. A dangerous predator that only needed one lucky strike to bite off limbs whole. He’d heard stories of guilders that’d only regained their limbs thanks to the very
experienced healers.
Akio kicked his feet, launching himself up just in time for the boss to get beneath him in an attempt to bite his feet off. He lashed out again as it moved past him, leaving yet another slash mark against its scales. There were more than a dozen now, and they weren’t affecting it much.
Akio breathed through his enchanted mask and signaled the rest of his team.
Bruce nodded back and started waving his arms about. The dust and particles in the water started spinning around him, defining the whirlpool he now floated, unaffected, in the middle of.
Sophie started taunting the boss, appearing in its shadow, stabbing it, and reappearing in its field of view. The fish was smart, or at least that’s what the guidebook had said. Everything Akio’d seen had proven it right so far. The fish knew Sophie had attacked it, and It knew she was taunting it. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t infuriated by a foe that could attack it with impunity but couldn’t touch.
It lunged at her, but she turned to shadow as it got close.
Instead, it slammed into one of the pillars of the arena, causing a light quaking. The pillar visibly cracked. Random rocks broke off from the ceiling and sank to the ground. Maybe bringing the arena down on them wasn’t the best idea. Akio signed the next time he caught the rogue’s eye, and she nodded. No more of that.
From the corner of his eye, Akio saw Bruce signaling. His part was ready.
That entire side of the arena was now a trap designed to funnel the monster and trap it in conflicting currents. It should be unable to swim, thrown around at the whims of the currents. Sophie’s next taunt had it swim into the fish trap-like entrance to these currents. One could enter but not escape.
Just as planned, the monster was trapped. Bruce held a hand, signaling to wait as Akio moved into position. He watched the currents slam the monster into the floor, the ceiling, the wall, more and more stunned every time. At Bruce’s thumbs-up, Akio cast his improved laser spell. Unlike the previous one, which rendered him almost blind as the beams burst from his eyes, a single beam emitted from his forehead this time. The yellow light was directed by his eyes and impacted exactly where he focused. He glared intently at the point just above and behind its eyes; its brain.
The water bubbled and sizzled as his laser beam heated it, cutting right through and disrupting the currents Bruce had crafted.
As his mana ran low, Akio cut off the spell.
The boss remained still against the floor, eyes staring unseeing and immobile.
It was dead.
Akio swam over to Bruce and gave him a high-five, then gave one to a proudly smiling Sophie. The Second had tested them, even with the guidebook explaining all the known traps, signs of them, and how to avoid them or trigger them safely. They’d been delving without Haythem and Bertram for a week or so now. Though it was initially harder, he’d worried about not having that safety net…
Akio could tell they’d grown faster in the last week than the entire time they’d been on Atlantis and an order of magnitude faster than during the months of training and travel across Theona.
Near them, a door slowly pushed itself open. The way through to the Third. And Loot. They’d gotten the prime slot today, the first delve of the day. The loot chests reset daily, and they were the first to reach this one. They swam through the exit, then up into fresh air. Bruce was kind enough to wring their clothes and armor dry, though he couldn’t do anything for the slightly salty crust left behind.
In the center of the room was a battered-looking chest, one that wouldn’t look out of place in a sunken wreck. Akio opened it, revealing the loot within. He pulled out a pair of fish-scale gloves. Despite being bone-dry, they felt wet. He shrugged and handed them to Bruce. They probably had water magic in them. They could get the enchantment appraised when they got back to the surface.
Other than that, there was a bag of Talons they could exchange on the surface and a weird pair of glasses. Akio looked through them, but they didn’t seem to do anything but make his friends light up in weird colors. He shrugged; maybe someone would pay for them at the guild or the market.
The Third Awaited!
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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea
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I quickly returned to the Twelfth floor, for I had so much work yet to do, and I loved it.
After a while, a day maybe, I noticed Taura, Wave, and Cadmus flying through the mostly barren cavern. Cadmus had apparently told them about seeing the cavern expand, and they wanted to see what it looked like so far. It was definitely still a work in progress. Water was still filling the sea, and clouds had begun forming as the moisture evaporated under the daylight of the biggest manastar I’d made yet.
Unlike other floors featuring one of these false suns, this one was immobile in the center of the ceiling. Another enchantment redirected the light it gave off, bending and projecting it from the appropriate point for the time of day. At night, the light would be filtered through a second enchantment that changed it into moonlight at an appropriate intensity for the phase. Of course, the moon was just an illusion, as was the rest of the sky, but I ensured it would act as a moon was supposed to, appearing during the day when appropriate.
I’ve had a lot of practice with sky illusions over the last four floors, and this one was the best yet if I do say so myself. I might have made some quick modifications to my older ones when this one turned out so well.
At night, the sky was alight with stars. The Milky Way was detailed and vivid, as were the half-dozen visible nebula, lit from within as they were by even brighter stars. I was still working on the sunrises and sunsets. I wanted an element of randomness in the colors and variation so it wasn’t just the same old sunset every day.
With that done and the rough shape of the mountains, valleys, the canyon, and other features ready, I decided it was time to add some soil and greenery.
The ‘Thirteenth Floor’ was already getting quite large as I excavated it for materials. And I hadn’t even started on the desert yet.
Alongside the whole overwhelming plants with mana trick to make soil, as I’d done with the Tenth and Eleventh, I had an additional resource available to me.
Life Manabeings.
Yes, that’s right. I want the ferny, tropical seeds in the northwest, the more temperate tree seeds in the southwest, large grassy plains to the south, and the boreal forest seeds in the mountains. You know the differences, right?
“Of course, Contractor. You can count on us!” The bubbly manabeing answered, her moss-green form almost entirely surrounded by sprites and pixies who also chimed in.
Excellent. Oh, by the way, did you want a name? I know you only reached spirit level relatively recently, and some prefer to remain nameless.
“I don’t have one yet… Names are hard.” The mossy spirit answered. Her humanoid form was remarkably familiar, with mossy skin and long dreadlock-like moss hair that trailed behind her. Darker, ‘looser’ patches of moss gave her the illusion of clothing. It was interesting, particularly because she was the first manabeing with the illusion of modesty without prompting or inspiration from seeing humans or my Children walking around in clothes. “Couldyou give me one?”
I can, indeed. If you have no complaints, I would name you Te Fiti. It was only appropriate, given the Deja Vu her appearance gave me.
“I like it! It’s got a very interesting sound to it. Teeee Feetee. Yup! It’s mine now. Anyway, we’ll get right on it!”
With a mental nod, I ‘stepped back’ and watched the manabeings as they spread out from the floor’s entrance. It’d only cost me a slightly increased upkeep cost, and they’d spread the seeds for me, using life mana to speed along their growth and propagation. Life mana was far, far, far more efficient at growing plants than the mostly even mix I’d been using as ‘neutral’ mana. One burst from a sprite over there had a swathe of trees spring up from the rock, the ground around them visibly turning into soil before grass and other plants sprouted.
Of course, It wouldn’t be a quick process. There were only so many of them, and I was leery of summoning them en mass. After a week, they’d covered maybe a quarter of the southwestern forest. The life manabeings spreading vegetation, and the water manabeings filling the sea definitely sped things up. But that still left a lot for me to work on personally.
With the sky ready, green spreading, and the sea filling, I focused on the desert. It was… going to take a long fucking time to make all the sand I was gonna need. Not only that, but from experience, I knew this would be incredibly boring. But it needed to be done. When I got too bored, I would switch to something else, but until then, I was resolved to make as much sand as I could.
A steady stream of sand flowed from the future Thirteenth floor and deposited itself in the future desert.
Slowly, ever so slowly, dunes rose from the flat expanse.
So, fucking slowly.
Urrrgh! I hate this already!
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Chapter 136
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The Third Floor, The Dungeon, Atlantis
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Sophie Ravenfield slid through the cooling shadows like a ghost. She once again allowed herself a mental squeal of joy at the sensation. So many of her old clique back in Tennessee would’ve killed to have darkness itself at their beck and call. Died for it, even. She supposed she did, with a mental wince. Damn that Geas. Even now, even thinking of her own death was painful. She didn’t even know how she’d died, only that she had.
Refocusing, Sophie stalked the neon red tiger as it, itself, stalked her friends. She’d noticed it slinking through her shadows, and with a whispered warning to Akio and Bruce, Sophie had sunk into her own shadow. From within the shadows of the towering jungle trees, Sophie waited for the perfect moment to strike.
There. It was about to pounce. The red tiger’s shadow turned on it, tentacles pinning its paws and legs to the ground as others rose to tickle its exposed stomach. As it began to struggle, confused, Sophie propelled herself out of a tree’s shadow at speed. The pointy ends of her shortswords buried themselves in the side of its chest, slipping right past its ribs. It fell sideways under her momentum, letting out a choked ‘mew’ and then breathing its last.
She must have nicked its heart.
Sophie pulled her swords out and waved at the boys, who jogged over.
“Nice one, Soph!” Bruce called, smiling, as he knelt beside it, carving knife already out. He quickly examined the tiger’s pelt while Sophie and Akio kept their heads on swivels. “This one is much more intact than the last. It should sell well. Give me a few minutes.”
Bruce had learned how to skin animals during their cross-country trip, doing short hunts with random guilders to help feed the caravans they traveled with. A handy skill to have and valuable in the dungeon. The sooner you skinned a monster, the better. It was the same with butchering, to prevent rot from setting in. They’d do some basic butchery here but leave the rest. Staying still for too long near a fresh corpse would draw the floor’s monsters like flies.
A beam of light erupted from Akio’s forehead, piercing one of the firebirds as it tried to divebomb them. The birds were majestic, resembling a phoenix with their yellow-orange-red coloring and fire magic. Given that they didn’t erupt into fire on their deaths, leaving a chick or egg behind in the ashes, they weren’t actually phoenixes. The bird monster crashed unceremoniously into the ground with a dry thump.
There was movement in the canopy as the firebird’s flock fled. The dungeon guidebook described waves of these things attacking relentlessly. In Sophie’s experience, they were more opportunistic and picked their battles carefully. Akio had proved they were too hard a target with how easily he took that one down, and the rest didn’t like their chances. They were still dungeon monsters, though, and didn’t flee entirely. They just moved higher into the canopy. If any other monsters attacked, potentially distracting them, Sophie knew the birds would take their chance to avenge their flockmate.
Speaking of, Sophie infused her right sword, Raven, with Darkness mana and stabbed it into her shadow. There was a cry of pain, and a Kobold fell from a low-hanging branch. Shit! She’d thought it was a monster!
“Sorry!” Sophie called as the little lizardperson got to their feet. “I didn’t know what you were, and we’re a little tense right now. Are you going to fight us, or are you a non-combatant?”
The scowling kobold bore dark brown scales that blended perfectly into the bark of the trees, while its leaf-green tunic was lined with lime green tiger fur. Sophie had only noticed them through her shadows; otherwise, they’d have blended perfectly.
“Gobble not doing anything!” the kobold insisted, its voice… feminine? Sophie couldn’t tell yet. “Gobble’s just keeping an eye on humans!” Gobble, the kobold, crouched slightly, looking uncertain. “Humans… not attack Gobble?”
“Of course not. The Creator declared His Children off-limits unless they attack first, right?” Sophie answered, kneeling down to the kobold’s level as she got closer. “My name’s Sophie. And you’re Gobble, then?”
“Yes!” Gobble answered, looking… relieved? Lizardpeople’s expressions were so human, but different enough that she couldn’t be entirely sure. “Gobble was looking for food. Gobble ate all the food at the village, and the others didn’t like Gobble taking theirs.”
“Is that why your name is Gobble, then? Do you like food? What kind of food?”
For a few minutes, Sophie talked to the now-enthusiastic kobold about her newly revealed favorite topic. Once Bruce and Akio were done skinning and butchering the tiger, they joined her. She turned to them, a grinning kobold holding her hand.
“We’re adopting her,” Sophie declared. And that was that.
Every proper party needed a mascot, right?
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The Creator, Atlantis, Theona
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Okay, that was enough for now. After a full, uninterrupted week of work and only having barely covered what I would call roughly a hundredth of the desert, I decided to move on to something more interesting before I went insane. Honestly, grinding down stone into fine particles of sand over and over and over…
Something different would definitely save my sanity, so I did a scan of the Twelfth.
The Life manabeings continue to spread trees and grass across the southwestern forest. It was about half-done, I think. They got faster as time went on, actually. I suppose being surrounded by trees and life bolstered their mana and abilities in the same way a water manabeing was more potent in the water. Something interesting that I noticed was that the growing forest was actually contributing mana to the manastream as it swirled through the sky.
Not in a visible stream or anything, but it was like they were slowly leaking mana into the world. In smaller numbers, it wouldn’t be a noticeable amount, but this forest was already the single largest concentration of plant life in my dungeon. Checking my upper floors, I could confirm that the trees, mushrooms, and plants were likewise contributing minute amounts of mana, at least the ones that were entirely made of living matter and not still partially made of mana.
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That was another thing; this forest was actually physical. Growing things with mana always ended up with the mana ‘pretending’ to be physical until the being absorbed or ate enough nutrients or other matter to replace the mana with flesh or plant matter. This forest, grown with what I could assume was pure life mana, circumvented that stage entirely.
Veeery interesting.
But that was a diversion.
Looking throughout the dungeon, I noticed this mana ‘leakage’ in all large concentrations of ‘elemental’ forces. The oceanic current on the Eleventh Floor was mainly fed by the stream coming in from the surface ocean, but there was a noticeable amount of mana joining it and growing it on the Eleventh Floor itself. The Sixth contributed a bit of fire and earth mana, specifically from the lava lakes, which were mostly used in the upkeep of the lava waterfalls, so they were more offsetting the cost than anything else. Hell, even the manastream in the sky of the Eleventh likewise grew slightly rather than shrank as it flowed through to the Twelfth.
My conclusion is that mana leaks into this world through whatever conceptual medium is linked to that mana type. Where does it come from? The same place the manabeings come from; essentially infinite elemental planes linked to their conceptual elements. Following that, theoretically, if one concept was erased from the material plane, such as life or fire being wiped out due to the heat death of the universe… It may cut off access to that plane. Of course, that was only a theory. But it would explain why there was a seemingly endless amount of mana pouring into my dungeon from all sources.
Alright, enough heavy thoughts. It’s time for some light-hearted creationism!
The growing forest had spread into the ‘center’ of the area I planned to cover, so I could start my World Tree! I picked out a sturdy-looking Oak tree. I picked the oak tree specifically for its wide, low canopy and snaking branches, which would provide plenty of space to live on for my future tree-bound civilization. I enlisted the aid of a nearby group of sprites and the Life Spirit while the rest continued spreading the forest.
I started with a seed.
First, I used mana to enlarge the seed, making it big enough to work with; then, I tried to condense the mana into a manacore in the center of the seed. It took a surprising amount to ‘germinate,’ but it was successful, producing a perfectly spherical core.
With that done, I dove into the seed’s genetics. I didn’t want another thing I’d have to micromanage, so I wanted to ensure it grew in a particular way. An incredibly thick but relatively ‘stubby’ trunk compared to the branches that would spread from it. Next, I had to address the root system.
This was an entirely closed space, and the few yards of arable soil the sprites had produced so far wouldn’t be close enough to enough, even with the shallow-rooting oak. After that, it was the floor of the Twelfth. I could hook all the trees into one organism, a real ‘the tree is the forest’ situation, but that wouldn’t solve my problem. Cool concept, though. To make it as large as I needed it to be… I needed a second enlarged space.
And I know it wasn’t advisable to make an expanded space, inside an expanded space, but, from the tests I’d performed ages before when first studying the expansion enchantments, they shouldn’t collapse the whole thing.
Either way, first, I had to raise the forest floor, bringing in rock to create a gently sloped ‘hill’ from which the tree would grow. The slope was so shallow that it would be almost impossible to notice. I made a ‘room’ about a mile in length and width, but only a hundred yards deep. I carefully enchanted the walls, maintaining the thousand-yard circle that would be the ‘entrance’ the tree would grow its roots into. Once it was the right size, about doubled in all directions, I began the process of filling it.
…And now I’ve traded one tedious task for another. All well, at least this shouldn’t take as long.
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The Forest, Training Area, Atlantis
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Elize Phenoc could never have expected to end up in this situation.
Her life had been a simple one for a bastard. Her mother was common, a woman the king had lain with during a tour of the kingdom and had tried to raise her humbly. At around age five, the village people- she didn’t remember the name- noticed something that her mother had tried very hard to hide.
She had a noble’s face. Delicate features; a straight nose, defined jawline, almond eyes… her hair was finer and less prone to tangling. Elize’s mother had left with her before they could count the months between the king’s passing through on his way to the west coast and her birth. They traveled to the capital in caravans, even though it took almost a year.
At the age of six, she met her father for the first time. She didn’t remember much of her early life, but a few moments stood out. Her father had her face. Her hair. Even if she’d gained her mother’s eye color. Elize remembered him saying she looked as if he was born a girl. She remembered how he promised a modest living, but they must live in obscurity. He had heirs, a wife, and if it was known he’d fathered a bastard… especially when his pregnant Queen was raising his heir while he toured the kingdom…
And they’d done so. They’d lived in the cheapest area of the noble district, right next to the market bridge. As she grew older, her father provided an amulet to disguise her features. She fingered the place on her neck where it’d once rested. It was long lost, taken by the steward when she’d been taken. She scowled at the thought of that man.
It was inevitable someone would figure something out. Her father had done his best to make his visits discreet and random, but he was the king of the whole continent. He had guards, and his movements were watched closely. At some point, the steward had discovered them. Hours after the castle exploded, palace guards broke down the door, killed her mother in front of her, and kidnapped her.
She next woke in her own personal prison.
“Healer!”
Elize was jolted from her increasingly dark thoughts by the shout and raised her wand towards it. Oh. Right. It was only the leader of her party, a group of guilders, who’d agreed to take her on until she could join her friends in the dungeon. Elize lowered her wand as he approached, rubbing his head. A slow trail of blood ran from his forehead, around his eyebrow, then down the side of his face. “One of those flying rabbits got me. I need some healing.”
Elize sighed and raised her wand again. She called upon the mana in her core, letting it grow through her body and down her arm before directing it through the wand.
Healing was hard. While not the most dangerous element to wield, in Elize’s humble opinion, life mana was the most complicated and unwieldy. If not treated with ironclad control and discipline, the mana was prone to do things other than healing. Some of those things could prove far worse for the patient than their initial injury. Until a senior healer had tested her and judged her spells good enough, she would use this wand. It was enchanted to produce a basic healing spell that would encourage wound regeneration and blood replenishment.
Slightly worse than a potion, but Elize could do this dozens of times before she started running out of mana. She’d only get better as time went on, too. She hovered the wand’s tip over the bloody spot in the young man’s hair and released the spell. Focused on such a small area, it healed quickly, and she cut off the spell. With how careless her party members had been getting and all the minor wounds they’d been accumulating… She felt like she’d need to conserve mana.
“I must once again warn you not to let your guard down,” Elize chastised him. “If that flying hare had-“
“Hey, hey, hey. No need to worry. We’ve got you!” The careless man interrupted her with a smile and a ‘roguish grin.’
Elize once again studied his face.
He was common. Common as the dirt under Elize’s boots. One of the rare commoners lucky enough to be born with a manacore and possessed an overinflated sense of his own strength. Probably loved being the strongest, fastest, and most energetic kid in his village and had yet to realize that didn’t make him special.
Oh, and he also had a crush on her. He wasn’t subtle about it, and Elize wasn’t particularly interested. He was dull, uninteresting, and not worth her time.
His smile wavered and slipped at her impassive gaze. He gave an awkward ‘right’ and moved back to where his party members desperately tried to cut open the knee-height slime slowly rolling towards them.
Elize sighed. Hopefully, it won’t take too long. She idly flicked a dagger at the ground, spearing the single-horned rabbit that’d lunged for her thigh with a squealing warcry. She glanced back at the three young men, celebrating over the blue puddle of slime.
Gods, she hoped it wouldn’t take too long.
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