Blue Core Week Twenty-Eight (Patreon)

Day 121 - Blue

A man made out of shadows leaned back in a crudely-carved chair, surrounded by rock walls and torches. There were figures in the flickering shadows, things of scale and bone, nowhere near human in shape. One rested its scythes on the ground, leaning on them like an old man might on his cane, another squatted on six stout limbs, close to the ground. Still others were more bipedal, but still monstrous in size and form. In the light of the torches, the figures looked like they belonged in chiaroscuro art rather than a living scene.

“I’ll do you one better,” Shadow said. “Forget Tor Kot. You probably wouldn’t much like what he would do to you even if he agreed to take you in. There’s this other one called Blue that’s a far better prospect.”

Strangely, the monsters didn’t say anything at all. There was soft clicking and hissing, the coarse scrape of bone against bone, but nothing that could be called words. Shadow answered anyway, casually waving away whatever question had been asked. “Because he killed Vok Nal and mounted his head on a fucking pike, is why. No, I didn’t tell Tor Kot that. Yeah, he has no idea how dangerous Blue is, because he still thinks it’s one of his opponents hijacking his experiments.”

A scythe came up, pointing at Shadow for a moment, and the monster held up his hands. “Look, Blue lets that Queen girl run around and manage her own damn cities so that makes him a lot more amenable than any of the mage-kings I know. Plus whatever his monsters are, they’re damn shy so he could probably use ones like you to actually have some kind of presence.”

Still there were no words, only intense staring from the things watching him. Shadow didn’t wilt under the weight of their regard, instead his pitch-black lips peeled away from tarry teeth in a rictus grin. “No, I’m pretty sure Blue doesn’t want to hear from me. I’m one of the mage-king’s creatures, aren’t I? Unless you think this is good enough.”

Shadow swiveled to look at an overly-tall, emaciated-looking lizard-thing that was covered in spines. “He’s dug into the mountain, just a little north of...yes, right there. No, I have no idea about the Blight. You’re on your own with that one.”

The monsters of scale and bone eyed each other, then the one with the scythes moved forward. It didn’t lumber, as something of that size and bulk ought to, but moved with the sinuous grace of a striking snake. Dozens of small, bone-armored legs supported a serpentine body, tapping with surprising delicacy against the floor as it laid the scythes on Shadow’s shoulders.

Magic built, come from somewhere deep inside the scythe-limbed monster, and while its posture suggested that Shadow was imminently in charge of losing his head, the other monster’s posture was entire relaxed. What passed for its eyes were closed even, the magic rising up and then sharpening, coming to an infinitely fine edge. There was a flicker, of something ephemeral being severed, and Shadow shuddered head to toe.

Then he started laughing. Bubbling tar had never sounded so delighted.

“Good luck with Blue,” he told the assembled monsters, “and don’t tell him I sent you. I doubt he likes me.” He rose out of the chair as the scythes dropped away, and bowed, courtier-like. “Thank you.” Then he flickered, vanishing into the darkness between the torches.

While the ability to see wherever my name was mentioned certainly was interesting, I wasn’t sure how to take what it showed me. Not that I was stupid; it was clear enough that some other group of monsters was being aimed at me, but I didn’t know who or why. It sounded like they wanted something from me, rather than trying to just invade, but I couldn’t imagine what.

Whatever was going on, though, it seemed like even the monsters weren’t entirely happy with the mage-kings. I hadn’t even considered that was a possibility, but the Shadow guy, assuming it was the same one as ever, had always seemed weird for a monster. A lot smarter, for one, and more cautious. Closer to an actual person.

Unfortunately I couldn’t do anything about it other than pass things along to Shayma to inform Inri and Ansae, assuming I could figure out a good way to do so without tipping my hand. I really didn’t want to let anyone know about this particular ability, not even my Companions and friendly neighborhood dragon.

I decided to let that stew for a while, and distracted myself by considering what I’d gotten out of watching mana- and Source-imbued crafting. While helpful, observing them was not quite as useful as I thought it’d be.

[Fabrication: Loom] discovered.

[Fabrication: Mixing Bath] discovered.

[Fabrication: Hydraulic Press] discovered.

It turned out that anything that required a manual touch to do the work was effectively impossible for me to get a dungeon version of, at least the way I was doing things. The loom was really just an extension of the assembler, which is how I unlocked it. The hydraulic press was my own idea, after finding out I couldn’t actually get forging, and the mixing bath came out of seeing the way they treated wood and cloth.

Leatherworking was a complete bust. The amount of work required to skin the creatures, tan their hides, and then turn the result into useful things was beyond me. Woodworking was much the same, though I didn’t feel much of a lack there because I could use [Customization] on a tree and put it together with the [Assembler]. The main thing I found out was that putting Sources in things was a lot less useful than I thought, because they just improved Skill use, and a lot of people didn’t have armor-related Skills, for example. No, real magical items were made by enchanters or runesmiths or just manifested of their own accord from mana-infused materials.

I had a lot of ideas for experiments but before I did any of that I wanted to deal with my infestation. The ice had been doing a good job of stalling the [Armored Tunnel Crawlers] but they were starting to accumulate, spreading out over the bottom surface of my territory. I didn’t know if it was because my mana generation had ticked upward again or just because of time passing, but I had a grand total of sixty of the things, between levels thirty and forty, hanging out and chewing on stone.

So I flushed them. I didn’t know where the tunnels went, but they went down, and if it worked on a flame knight I could probably get rid of a number of the crawlers just with that. Over the past few days I’d been filling a massive reservoir with excess water, a special reservoir I’d built just to try out an idea I’d had. It was polished as smooth as I could manage, which turned out to be pretty damn smooth with [Customization]. Not quite atomically smooth, but it’d likely take advanced instrumentation to spot any texture.

All of which was in aid of supercooling. I really didn’t know how well it would work; I knew the theory but I wasn’t by any means an expert. If I could get it to work though, any bugs that weren’t killed by being smashed against walls would freeze solid as crystallization spread. I might just get a massive ice dam in front of the reservoir but it wasn’t like I could lose much from trying it.

The results were more dramatic than I had anticipated. A great deluge of water washed the beetles out and down the tunnels, crystallizing into ice as it went. I wasn’t sure if there was some magic influence or that was just how things normally worked, but the ice started forming on the beetles first, doing little more than riming the tunnel walls while it completely encased the beetles.

I ended up with twenty or so frozen bug statues that I could see, and the rest of them washed or driven down the tunnels, all of which were coated in a half-meter of ice. Oddly, I didn’t get any messages about kills. Even encased in ice, the crawlers were still alive. Maybe it was asking too much for simple ice to take out a level thirty-something monster.

“Shayma? What would your group think about stabbing some thirty-something monsters in the face? I’ve got them locked down pretty well. [Armored Tunnel Crawlers], frozen but not dead.”

“Oh, maybe! I’ll go ask.” Shayma took a break from the smithing area I’d made her next to the cottage. Even if I couldn’t make dungeon versions of most crafting, some of the tools I could imitate pretty well. Things I couldn’t grow directly I could build with the Assembler, provided it was all wood, stone, and iron. A forge and anvil was simple, and I had plenty of alchemical coal, so it was easy enough to making something for her.

None of them had their new gear yet, but they would probably be okay since they only needed to finish off something helpless.

“Oh and everything’s frozen over down there so make sure you have boots and gloves.” Actually I’d start warming it up once they actually started offing the pests, but I suspected it’d be cold work unless I tried to melt everything before they got there. While going through all the preparations, I realized I was asking adventurers to get rid of pests in my basement.

“Oh my god I’m a cliche.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure I could explain it. Is there such a thing as adventurer’s guilds by chance?”

“I don’t think so? There are some places that cater to registered groups of Classers, like Wildwood, but nothing like a guild. Maybe some larger nations have something like that, like Ir, but nobody around here does.”

“Huh.” I supposed that made sense. Most governments wouldn’t be terribly pleased with an organization that could effectively muster elite soldiers, which Classers were, if they didn’t control it. Not to mention that even with divination it was probably pretty difficult to organize across a bunch of nations that weren’t really on the best of terms.

Which meant no quests for low-level adventurers, I supposed. It seemed the real money that Classers made was from mana-rich materials that they carried out of dangerous areas, or just noble backers. So far I hadn’t seen a properly working city so I didn’t know how that translated into real life, whether all that stuff ended up in the noble houses or had more mundane uses. Maybe most cities were more like Wildwood when they were intact, if a couple steps down. Sure, I didn’t see any remnant runework in Meil but I’d already seen it had been rebuilt in a low-magic way so I couldn’t expect it.

By now the only patients left of Keri’s were the ones who had been most severely mangled and were still regrowing limbs. They needed regular but not constant attention, which meant that both the women had caught up on sleep and spent a lot of time wandering around the forest I’d put in the back of their house. I was pretty sure Annit was going a little stir-crazy, actually, given the lack of things to hunt.

Shayma found them holding hands and strolling between the trees, which was so intimate a moment I almost wanted to have Shayma leave them alone a little longer. Keri waved cheerfully with her free hand, but Annit looked more suspicious than anything.

“Hi Shayma! What brings you by?”

“Blue has some stuff for us to kill!” Shayma’s tone was as cheerful as Keri’s, and even Annit’s eyes lit up a little upon hearing that.

“What stuff and where?” Annit asked, reaching down to touch the blowgun she always kept on her.

“Armored tunnel crawlers. He says he has them frozen down in the tunnels below us.” She waved at the floor. “So we’ll want to pack warm.”

“What else is down there though?” Annit’s eyes were already far away, considering things from the adventurer point of view.

“You know, I have no idea since I haven’t taken them over yet. Ansae might know, though, so you should probably stop by before you go down there.”

“All of us? I wouldn’t want to spring Keri and Annit on her.”

“Oh, uh, you know they should probably meet anyway. Might as well ask Ansae if she’s willing to say hi.”

“I hope she says yes.” Shayma grinned and turned to the curious Keri and Annit. “You two get ready, I’ll see about getting an audience with our resident expert.”

“Blue isn’t an expert?” Annit asked, skeptical.

“There are tunnels down there that aren’t his.” Shayma shrugged. “If it’s too high level we won’t go very deep.”

“Sounds interesting anyway!” Keri’s eyes shone. “It’d be like being in a real dungeon! Um, no offense to Blue.”

“None taken.” I actually preferred people thinking of me as something other than a ‘real’ dungeon. After all it wasn’t like I had much in common with any of the other types of dungeons people knew.

“Who’s the expert, anyway?” Keri continued.

“A recluse.” Shayma grinned. “I don’t want to spoil the surprise.”

“Oh, but you’ll spoil us surprising her?”

“She’s scarier than you are.”

“That is not reassuring,” Annit muttered.

“It’ll be fine! I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Another teleport brought Shayma into Ansae’s lair, where the dragon was, well, licking the chunk of core gem she’d gotten from me. That was a little weird, since I’d seen her testing it with tools that were a lot more complicated than a tongue, but then, she did say she ate mana. Maybe the core gem had a bunch of mana and it was like some kind of rock candy.

Shayma, wisely, didn’t comment, and Ansae didn’t either, setting the gem aside. She was in her normal form this time, wings mantled on her back as she lounged at the center of the lair I’d made for her. “Yes, Shayma? What does Blue need?”

“There are some Armored Tunnel Crawlers coming up from the tunnels below,” I said, and Shayma repeated. “I froze a bunch and I’m going to have Shayma and Keri and Annit kill them off, but I wanted to know if you had any idea what else was down there and how much they need to worry about.”

“Hmm. I’m surprised those came up already, but now that I’m not eating all the mana, I suppose it was inevitable. Those tunnels go all the way down, though. Keep going far enough and you’ll find all sorts of nasty things, but they mostly prefer heat. They won’t come up here unless you convert the whole area to something volcanic.”

“Well, that’s a relief.” Shayma said. “Um, would you mind if I bring Keri and Annit by to hear what’s down there? Annit is more experienced as an adventurer than I am and probably knows what you’re talking about if you name any beasts.”

“More people?” Ansae’s lips peeled back to reveal a toothy dragon grin. “So long as they behave themselves. They’re not you, or Blue. Everyone else needs to work their way into my good graces. Because they’re friends of yours they may skip the audience chamber this time.”

Oh, right. I’d nearly forgotten that Ansae was an insanely powerful and old dragon who was a Power in her own right and everyone who wasn’t an immortal Power was basically a buzzing mayfly.

“Yes, of course.” Shayma bowed suddenly, more formal than usual. “You have my thanks, Ansae.”

She flipped a negligent claw at Shayma, returning her regard to the core crystals. Not mine, this time, but the red ones. They were all inside some sort of fantastically complex magical array, and even as I watched one of the fragments began turning to powder. I bet if she was the one who was controlling the dungeon I’d be twenty levels higher already.

“So what was that about?”

“Hmm?” Shayma’s ears flicked as she stepped back through the Link, hopping between Ansae’s lair and Refuge, between Refuge and the hospital.

“That weird exchange at the end between you and Ansae.”

“Oh, I think she was just reminding me to be formal when they’re here. Most people don’t talk to a Queen like we do, let alone a Power.”

“Right.” I had to wonder if losing my fear of Ansae was a mistake. Though she seemed perfectly happy to be chummy with Shayma, that could be an attempt to keep me on her side. Of course, both could be true at once. That said, I didn’t think Ansae was the type to act. Rather the reverse; she seemed the type to be brutally honest and grin when people didn’t like it.

Keri and Annit were finishing up with packing their equipment. I thought maybe Annit was being a little over-conservative, considering that I could supply them with things through inventory and they weren’t even going very far, but she seemed like a very by-the-book adventurer. Considering that she had mostly been a guide for greener Classers, I couldn’t blame her. For all I knew she really would need all that stuff; it wasn’t like I did any adventuring. I just watched Shayma.

“Now, Ansae agreed to talk to you about what’s down there.” Shayma told them, looking from one to the other. “What I didn’t mention because she likes her privacy is that Ansae is a dragon. She’s also a Power, so be polite.”

“What.”

“Um, are you sure it’s a good idea for us to go?” Keri, for once, looked less than happy to plunge into things.

“Ansae is working with Blue, and you’re working for Blue. I don’t know what the future holds but it’s better than you know each other in case there’s some emergency or another.” Shayma’s reasoning was a lot better than mine. Mostly because mine was something along the lines of might as well. “For all you know you might be working together!”

“I doubt that.” Annit sighed. “But very well. We will be on our best behavior.”

“Brush!” Keri said suddenly, darting into the bedroom and returning with the named implement to put Annit’s hair into some sort of order. Only then were they satisfied to see Ansae. Another trip through the teleports, making me think I really needed to reorganize my rooms and maybe use spatial compression instead, and both women stopped dead upon seeing the massive dragon stretched out in front of them.

Shayma nudged them, and Annit went down to one knee, dragging Keri along with her. “Greetings, Lady Ziir,” Shayma said, curtseying. “These are my adventuring partners, Annit and Keri.”

“You may rise,” Ansae told them imperially. They did so, and the massive dragon surveyed them. “I do hope you are taking care of Shayma.”

“W-we are, Lady Ziir,” Annit said, with an unaccustomed tremor in her voice. I was starting to feel a little bad for having Shayma introduce them. Apparently Ansae had a hell of a presence, one I lacked given that even when they were bowing and scraping people didn’t look utterly terrified.

Then again, I didn’t have sharp pointy teeth.

“Blue has remarked that you will be entering the tunnels below. The uppermost set were dug by my thralls, and there may be some still there. I expect they have been mostly driven out by the inhabitants of a natural cavern full of earth and fire Affinity mana that I nibbled on occasionally, a half-mile deeper. Crawlers, as Blue has said, but there may also be Cavern Anglers, Stonefish and the assorted outriders their hives have, Heat Kites, from the deeper levels, though I don’t imagine they’ll come up here unless Blue puts down a lava trail.”

Which I almost had. Turned out that lava didn’t actually kill everything.

“Yes, Lady Ziir. I don’t anticipate going very far down but if I do I shall be exceedingly careful.”

“Oh, and the cavern does have lowways into the greater subterranean civilizations. I never did check which ones were nearby but I haven’t yet seen anyone come upward so they’re probably irrelevant.”

“The who what now?”

“Blue isn’t familiar with subterranean civilizations,” Shayma said. “Neither am I! I didn’t know any existed!”

“Oh, plenty,” Ansae said dismissively. “But most don’t care about the surface. Some don’t even know it exists. Still, if you’re going down there you’ll have to understand that there may well be civilized individuals that are very far from human or dragon. I don’t imagine you’d want to accidentally declare war.”

“Or on purpose declare war either, but I take her point. Also, if I’m going to be digging deeper I’m going to have another Queen Iniri to deal with it sounds like.”

“For today I don’t think we’re going much deeper than where Blue has the Crawlers frozen,” Shayma said. “Would it be alright to consult you if we do run into anyone down there?”

“Certainly,” Ansae replied. “Though don’t bring them to me directly unless they look delicious.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Shayma said, clearly swallowing laughter. I wasn’t sure Ansae was joking. There was always an edge to those statements, and Ansae didn’t get to be monstrously powerful by good cheer and charm. Someday someone was going to make her mad and then we’d all see exactly how she treated those who annoyed her.

The thought process made me think that perhaps one of the reasons for her seclusion was to avoid just that. Given enough people, one of them would surely be an idiot and I’d have to clean up the inevitable aftermath. Not that Ansae would care herself, but she might want to avoid it out of consideration for me.

“Off you go.” Ansae waved an immense paw at them and Shayma bowed again, ushering Annit and Keri back to the Link.

“What in the Abyss were you thinking!?” Annit demanded the moment they landed on the other side. “That’s not just a dragon, that’s an ancient dragon. I was there when the Taras Beast attacked Wildwood and even it didn’t have that pressure.”

“Huh, I didn’t notice any...pressure.”

“Well you represent a Power too! That’s probably why.” Keri had already recovered, and was fairly vibrating from excitement. “I wonder which legend she is! The Kingslayer? The Calamity of Tenebron? The Silver Woe?”

“She’s probably just from one of the other continents.” Annit disagreed. “I’m pretty sure all those others died centuries ago.”

Day 121 - Keri

Dungeons were one thing, but dragons were another! Being in front of that Ansae Ziir was like being underwater. Under a lot of water. Blue had a little bit of that effect, but it wasn’t so concentrated.

On the other hand, she got to meet a dragon and it wasn’t trying to kill her or anything! No one would ever believe that. Though she had a feeling Ansae was a bit more willing to act dragon-y than Blue was to act dungeon-y.

Blue was currently being not-dungeon-y by presenting them with an icefield full of monsters they could just...kill. Keri stared in awe at the crystalline tunnels, the light from overhead softened by a thick coating of rime, her breath fogging the air. The [Armored Tunnel Crawlers] were perfectly preserved lumps, helpless against the three of them even if they were somehow still alive.

Annie began using her blowgun, which more or less exploded the monsters inside their icy prisons, but she didn’t seem particularly happy doing so. That made some sense; she preferred an actual fight to this sort of busywork, though gods help anyone who accused her of being battle-happy. She just wanted to be effective.

Shayma shifted her arm into a long pick, some sort of red-colored steel, punching through the ice to efficiently spear directly into the eyes of the immobilized tunnel crawlers. Keri thought it was quite disgusting, but those solidified illusions of hers were still limited to something like a dagger, which didn’t have anywhere near the force or reach. She kept glancing down the tunnels, as if afraid something might come up from them, where Blue’s light didn’t reach. Which was a reasonable worry!

For her own part, Keri was just applying her [Combat Healing] to everything in sight that wasn’t her friends. It was strange, keeping multiple mana lines open like that, since she was still not used to multitarget spells. Those were mostly relegated to the [Mage] evolutions, and while [Combat Healing] was a damage dealing spell she didn’t think it was anything like a fireball.

“Blue wants to know if you want any of the corpses or if he should dispose of them,” Shayma said, the comment coming out of nowhere as Blue’s messages often did. She knew, intellectually, that Blue could see them whenever he wanted to, but it was hard to really accept that was true when there was nobody else around. Especially since he could only talk through Shayma! It still bothered Annit though, which was a problem she hadn’t figured out how to solve yet.

“I think I’ll pass on these,” Annie said. “Probably Fire affinity, and I don’t think Crawlers have anything unusual anyway. Maybe exoskeleton, but after the freezing it’s probably worthless.”

“You just think it’s icky.” Keri grinned, picking her way over to where Annit was standing. The thick coating of ice on the floor wasn’t smooth, so it wasn’t as slick as it might have been, but it was still far too easy to lose her footing. “I’ve seen you gut giant civets no problem, but squashing bugs?”

“Keri…” Annit groaned as Keri attached herself to the other woman’s warm. “Not in front of Shayma.”

“Aww, but it’s not as fun to tease you then!”

“For what it’s worth,” Shayma called. “I’m on Annit’s side here! These things are awful! According to Blue I’m getting some combat experience but there’s no way to tell how much. Probably very little.”

“I’m curious why Blue didn’t finish these off himself.” Annit said, grimacing at the goo-filled ice pocket in front of her. “I appreciate him thinking of us, I’m just confused.”

“It’d take a lot of mana to control all these tunnels without risking collapsing them,” Shayma said. “He’s using most of his mana for experiments right now. Also he’s unsure how deep it’s a good idea to go right now.”

“I thought Great Dungeons went all the way down,” Keri said. “Wherever all the way down is.”

“I guess Blue’s just a pretty okay dungeon then,” Shayma said with a grin. Her ears flicked and she laughed. “Oh, stop it, you know I love you.”

Keri caught Annie’s attention, receiving a wide-eyed look in return. She still didn’t know how to deal with Shayma teasing Blue, but she’d learn. Keri elbowed her and grinned. “You should take lessons,” she said. “Blue isn’t that scary.”

Annie raised her brows and then looked pointedly around at the icefield and frozen monsters. “Not that scary, you say.”

“Actually Blue wants to know if we’re willing to take a look any deeper. The monsters will be a bit less frozen there.” Shayma carefully made her way over to them, rolling her eyes. “Also he says to tell Annit, in these words, that he’s not all-powerful...yet.”

“That’s...reassuring?”

Keri laughed. “She’ll come around eventually,” she assured Shayma. Which was probably true, but Annie never did much like unbending for anyone else.

“...if all these things are dead, we’ll see what else is down here. Could Blue melt some pathways for when we get back?”

Shayma tilted her head for a moment, then nodded. “He’ll have everything cleaned up by the time we get back.” She flipped her hand, conjuring a light to float down the darkened tunnel. It was still slicked with ice, but less of it. Paradoxically that made it even more slippery, as rivulets and spalling evened out, and Keri found herself hanging onto Annit to keep from taking a tumble.

“So is this like delving into a dungeon?” Keri asked. She’d never been able to get into one aside from Blue, which didn’t count, and hadn’t even been into the higher-level areas on the other side of Wildwood. Until her class evolved, no group would have had a reason to take her along so this was all new to her.

“Yyeees,” Annie allowed, her face twisting slightly. “Though it feels wrong that we’re actually delving out of a dungeon.”

“You’ve been in a Great Dungeon?” Shayma looked back at Annie for a moment before returning her gaze to the front. She was usually the scout, since she had the best stealth and probably the best movement, though Annie could usually tell what was around by listening to the wind. Not that there was much wind down under the dungeon.

“Just to get my first evolution and become a Classer.” Annie shrugged. “Only the first couple floors of Nivir’s Great Dungeon, with a bunch of other low-level folk. It wasn’t exactly fun.”

“Nivir doesn’t have anything like Wildwood Retreat,” Keri put in wistfully. “Otherwise we would have just stayed there.”

“Why not?” Shayma asked. “It’s a Great Dungeon! It’s even bigger than Wildwood is.”

“Nivir’s Great Dungeon tends to Earth and Fire Affinity,” Annit said dryly. “A hundred square miles of bare ash doesn’t make for as rich a city as the Retreat.”

“Even so -”

“It’s the void Affinity,” Keri explained. “There’s not much, but it’ll shred any enchantments or runework in days or weeks. It’s why only low-levels bother with it. Nivir’s greatest non-asset, a Great Dungeon nobody wants to delve.” She sighed, mourning for her homeland. The story of the discovery of the Great Dungeon, and the subsequent founding of the country and disappointment, was something every Niverese child knew.

“Oh! My mother’s family came here for the void Affinity, but I didn’t realize it was that much of a problem.”

“What?” Keri’s foot slipped as she stared at Shayma, nearly pulling Annie with her as she stumbled. “Why would you want void Affinity?”

“Oh, mom’s family tends to use it,” Shayma said cheerfully, as if that wasn’t a ticket to an early grave. Then she noticed Keri’s look of horror and laughed. “Oh, no, she’s no caster. It’s a melee Class, so she doesn’t internalize any of it. Goes through weapons at quite a clip though.” Her ears flicked. “Of course,” she said, now talking to Blue. “Void Affinity mana destroys things.”

“Staying in Nivir’s Great Dungeon is like having permanent sunburn,” Annit grumbled. “And your clothing will fall apart in a few weeks. There’s waystations just outside the Dungeon’s terrain solely for changes of clothing. I don’t think anyone’s made it any deeper than the thirteenth floor.”

“Um.” Shayma stopped, her ears twitching. “Blue just asked me if all these fire and earth creatures down here are leaking from Nivir’s Great Dungeon.”

“I...have no idea.” Annie paused, stumped.

“Probably not unless there’s void Affinity here,” Keri put in. “But we don’t know how big the Dungeon gets more than a mile or two down. It spreads out, like a giant pyramid underground.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea.” Shayma said, then added for their benefit, “Blue is going to avoid digging any deeper until we know he’s not going to run into a Great Dungeon.”

“I’m pretty sure that’d turn out badly!” Keri agreed, trying to imagine something like a Great Dungeon fighting the way Blue and the Meil Dungeon had. It’d topple mountains. “I know that Tarnil doesn’t get along with Nivir all that well but I’d prefer my homeland not be wrecked by a Dungeon!”

“Blue doesn’t want to wreck Nivir either,” Shayma said soothingly. “This might all be speculation anyway. How far away is the Great Dungeon?”

“A few hundred miles,” Annie replied absently, paying attention to her footing. “I doubt it’s expanded this far, but I’ll let you know if I spot anything I recognize.”

Deeper they went, with Shayma’s little light-balls providing light far enough ahead to illuminate without blinding, though it took a couple of comments from Annit for Shayma to get just the right distance and color. Some of the advantages of her ring were disadvantages for her party.

They didn’t run into any monsters while there was still ice underfoot, thankfully. The frozen trail stretched several hundred yards down an at times quite steep tunnel. The tunnel walls bore the signs of claws and teeth, quite different form Blue’s pristine and smooth-planed corridors. Keri missed the familiar surroundings already. The ice crunched underfoot where it ended, leaving a long stretch of damp stone where meltwater trickled into the depths.

Annie heard them first, holding up a hand at a fork before Shayma could scout down one of the pathways. “We’ve got incoming. Lots of incoming. Sounds like a horde of small things.” She hefted her blowgun, [Wind Blade] hissing softly as she activated it. Shayma vanished to do whatever she did. Keri, for her part, lifted her hand to the Primal Source at her neck, ready to do an area cast. Technically she was the only one of them with an actual area Skill, though hers took a while to kill.

Annit had been wrong. It wasn’t a horde of small things. What came out of the tunnel was a tangle of stone-thorned vines, colored and textured like dirt but writhing like a knot of furious vipers. It also sprayed frigid water everywhere as it quested toward them at a speed that was very unplantlike. Keri had no idea what it was but started casting at it anyway, letting [Combat Healing] guide her mana.

It went to hundreds and thousands of little specks throughout the vast bulk of the creature, or plant, or whatever it was. The thing went deep into the tunnel, spreading out into the stone beneath their feet. Her mana dropped as the spell went to work, while Annie and Shayma started fighting the thing’s questing thorns. “Level 38 [Earthpipe Burrower],” Shayma reported as she parried a blind thrust by a stone-covered tendril, either using her own talents or Blue’s.

“That’s a lot higher level than I like, especially for something I don’t know anything about.” Annie frowned, gesturing for a fighting retreat. It was a lot higher level than them, but it wasn’t as fast as it might be, though neither Shayma’s sword-arm nor Annie’s wind blade did much but cut small chunks from it. So long as it didn’t get even more aggressive they could get away from it, at least, though her mana was draining quickly as it fought against the Burrower’s health. Fractions of the buffers she’d put on the other two were shaved off with every hit, making up for the bruising recoil of blows against stony skin.

“I’m doing...something!” She said, since she was! It wasn’t like she could tell how effective it was, only how much effort she’d put into it.

“Blue says its health is dropping! Hang on, he’s got an idea.” For a moment the only sound was the scratching of stone on stone and the crunching of little bits of Burrower being hacked off the dirt-colored vines. “Right, okay, this might get weird.”

A single tone came from just in front of Shayma as she scrambled backward and away from the thorned vines, starting out low-pitched and then dropping deeper. Then deeper still, vibrating into her bones and echoing off the tunnel walls. Suddenly the actual sound vanished, but the pressure remained, settling into her lungs like she had just run miles.

“What in the Abyss—” Annie gasped out, matching Keri’s thoughts exactly. It didn’t help that it came with a sudden deep foreboding, the feeling that something awful was creeping up on her, but if she hated it, the Burrower hated it more.

Suddenly the thing went berserk, thrashing about and bashing against the ceiling and floor. It wasn’t advancing on them anymore, or driving thorned vines at Shayma and Annie, it was just wildly hurling itself about the narrow tunnel. The ground trembled from the force of its convulsions, and the three of them backed up further, scrambling away from the plant.

Despite the ominous premonitions Keri kept the [Combat Healing] going. Shayma had warned them it might get a little strange, and Keri trusted that if there was something she really needed to worry about either Annie or Shayma would say something.

“Back!” Annie called suddenly over the din, waving for the three of them to retreat even further, and they scrambled up the tunnel, up to the edge of the ice.

The spots and patches that Keri had been feeding with her mana reached a critical point, and there was a cracking, creaking groan that had nothing to do with Shayma’s illusion. The Burrower suddenly stilled and the tunnel beyond shuddered and sank six inches, rock and dust falling from the walls and ceiling. Then the weird feeling Shayma was causing vanished.

“I’m going to veto down here for now. That’s way too high a level for just three of us.” Annie said, matter-of-fact. “Also, what in the Abyss was that, Shayma?”

“Infrasound, Blue says. He thought it was probably sensing vibration so really low pitched sounds would blind it. I guess it did a bit more than that.”

“I’ll say! Even I felt it, it’s so weird. It’s just illusion?”

“It’s just sound!” Shayma shook her head. “Though I didn’t think sound could do...that.” Her ears flicked and her eyes narrowed. “According to Blue, sound can do all kinds of things like...shake buildings apart?”

“I’ve heard of sound Affinity but I’ve never actually seen it in action. It’s not very popular.” Annie frowned. Keri knew what she was thinking. Just like sound Affinity was merely a fraction of proper illusion Affinity, her own wind Affinity was strictly inferior to storm Affinity. Unfortunately, evolving Affinities was even more difficult than evolving Classes. It had been a sore point with Annie for a long time, even if Keri didn’t mind, and while the new blowgun had helped, seeing The Hurricane had done the opposite.

Still, they were on good terms with a Power. She’d have a talk with Shayma and find out if something could be done. It wasn’t like Annie would ever ask!

“Anyway, apologies to Blue, but until we get some more levels it’s just too dangerous down here. We should at least wait for our new equipment.”

“That’s fine,” Shayma agreed. “Blue didn’t realize it’d be like this, and he doesn’t want us getting in over our heads anyway.”

“Don’t suppose he has any lower level areas he can send us to?” Annit asked wistfully. “If he did have monsters like a Great Dungeon…”

“Not right now,” Shayma shook her head. “Maybe when he expands, but for the moment we’ll have to stick to sparring.”

Annie grimaced. “At least until we head down to Duenn. I only hope we can deal with any of Tor Kot’s forces we find on the way there.”