The Newt and Demon - Book 7 Chapters 25,26,27 (Patreon)

Chapter 25

Death Magic

If Theo could be taught the spell array for a standard spell, he could reverse-engineer it to construct a simple ward. Whatever skills he lacked in the spellcrafting department could be made up with his Shadow’s Spirit Core. And with something like Death magic, he wasn’t planning to mess around. Zarali taught him the simple form of a spell called Death Ward and he learned that the concept of ‘death’ in the magical schools wasn’t as clear as the word.

Instead of just killing a person, the spell might take years off their life. It might wither a limb, remove a sense, steal attributes… It was nasty magic. Theo prepared to weave his spell, extending his aura around the group and turning off his defensive ward. First, he inspected the spell he had constructed.

[Deflect Death Magic]

[Advanced Ward] [Linked Ward]

Creates a reactive barrier that impedes all foreign Death magical energy from entering the bubble.

Trigger:

Detect Adverse Magic

Duration:

50 days.

He assumed he would need to maintain this barrier for their entire time on Frank, so he infused it with his most powerful ability. Spirit Weaving. He invoked it, weaving his potent soul into the spell. The field he had produced expanded around them, engulfing a massive area in the sky with his power. With the spell now active on him—and with almost no need to maintain it—he inspected the effect.

[Nullify Death Magic]

[Advanced Ward] [Linked Ward]

Creates a suppressive field that resists most hostile magic within the bubble. All death-aligned magic cast within the bubble will fizzle.

Spiritwoven Bonus:

The power of this ward is linked directly to the caster’s willpower. Effectiveness of this ward is increased depending on the caster’s willpower.

Trigger:

Detect Adverse Magic

Duration:

50 days.

The ward was already interesting. Theo had a ward that technically nullified all magic within a bubble. But Xol’sa kept talking about how nasty Death magic was, and how they needed something to target that type rather than using a blanket spell. The alchemist looked above as a wave of darkness rolled off from Frank. He had completed the spell not a moment too soon. High in the air, that wave of black crashed against his spell. Flecks of purple-blue energy rained down on the group.

“Ah. That was a powerful Death spell,” Xol’sa said, shaking his head. “Without your cheat barrier, we might’ve all just died.”

“Cool, cool, cool. Can I stab it?” Tresk asked, her daggers at the reader.

“No stabbing,” Aarok commanded. “Get ready for the beast to dive. Then we’re jumping aboard.”

Just jump on the giant horror from another world, Theo thought. After fighting stealth dragons… Another day in Broken Tusk, I guess.

Theo had little exposure to this world. It was his first time going into a dungeon with any intent other than to look around. He was part of the team that would clear the dungeon. It hadn’t occurred to him how strange that was until now. He watched as Frank swooped through the air. If it could even be called ‘swooping’. The way the monster moved was in a lumbering fashion, banking over the course of miles. It was even stranger how little wake it created from each maneuver. As the group waited to jump onto the monster, he kept his eye out for more attacks.

“The scale of that thing,” Theo muttered, watching as Frank finished his banking move and passed below the islands.

“Yeah, really boggles the mind doesn’t it?” Tresk asked. “Get ready to jump, stinky.”

Aarok headed the effort, standing near the ledge of the island and crouching. Enhanced by attributes, he made the jump over to the soaring monster with little effort. Theo watched as some fouled their jumps, tumbling to the depths below. He made sure to be near them, giving them a boost as they jumped to prevent their deaths. Future sight was overpowered, and there was no reason not to use it. Once most of the others were across—and the ones he saw through his Wisdom-enhanced sight weren’t sailing to the ground below—he made the jump himself. It was a bit too easy, thanks to his enhanced attributes.

The adventuring party from Broken Tusk was then on the back of some unknowable creature. And the only thing the alchemist could think to do was withdraw his knife and cut away at the flesh of the beast. The top of Frank’s body was a mostly flat plain of rubbery skin, covered in layers of vegetation and moss. Small hills poked up here and there, and he had to assume the size of the beast was greater than the area occupied by Broken Tusk.

“Does everyone still have their limbs?” Aarok shouted, gaining the attention of the adventurers. It was strange, but there was no wind whipping over them. Perhaps Frank had control of the air, determining when he wanted to generate down force. “Good. Let’s take a minute, then we’re going to look for the dungeon core. Keep that death barrier up, and the stealth one. Eyes open for monsters.”

Theo took a seat. Maintaining his Death nullification ward would be effortless. Instead, he turned his attention to the chunk of blubbery meat in his hands. There was a thick layer of rubbery hide on top with a layer of dense fat underneath. He hadn’t even cut deep enough to access the meat of the monster. Judging by the sheer size of Frank, he had to wonder if that layer was several feet below where they stood.

“Monster meat?” Sarisa asked, rubbing her hands together. “Hold on, I’ve got an artifice stove…”

“This is a reagent,” Theo said, holding it up for her to inspect. He then allowed it to crumble to dust as he absorbed the properties. “It’ll tell me if we’re dealing with something worse than we had expected.”

Sarisa nodded along, waiting for the verdict. Theo inspected the item.

[Shonfer Blubber]

[Alchemy Ingredient] [Ascendant Shonfer Ingredient]

Legendary

The blubber of an ascendant shonfer. Known for its passive nature, the shonfer still bring destruction wherever it goes. Its blubber contains excellent defensive properties.

Properties:

[Blubber] [Defense] [Barricade] [Hurricane]

“I’m not sure how useful the Blubber property is going to be, but the others sound useful,” Theo said, nodding along as he re-read the other information on the item. It presented a confusing idea. Loremasters were the ones who set item descriptions. So this shonfer creature existed in Iaredin, or the system had brought the description over from another world. As confusing as that was, the alchemist didn’t mind more properties.

“I still think we could eat it,” Sarisa grumbled, withdrawing her own knife to cut a section of the beast away.

“Let’s not go butchering the monster as we stand on it,” Aarok said, casting a glare at Sarisa. “I’d rather not get thrown off.”

After a few minutes of rest, Aarok and Luras organized scouting parties. Tresk would lead the main one, of course, but there were many concerns over the viability of scouting with the idea of death magic lingering in the air. For now, they would stick within Theo’s ward and move around as needed. Fortunately, his barrier covered a fair amount of the creature’s surface.

Conversation spread out amongst the adventurers as the alchemist kept watch.

The consensus was that the negative dungeons had to be dealt with immediately. Theo wasn’t sure what he thought about that at first, but as they spoke he came around to their side. The issue with the way dungeons worked was how they generated and released monsters. The floors of a dungeon normally needed to be cleared constantly, or monsters would leak out. That’s why when Theo first arrived in Broken Tusk, the swamp was lousy with wolves and goblins. Only when they started running it regularly did that problem vanish.

With a dungeon like this one, any monster could break free if people weren’t clearing it. And if any monster could get out, that meant Frank could be unleashed on the world. As the description of the item stated, it wasn’t as though the monster was inherently evil. Nothing about it seemed to drip with intent. Instead, it would bring destruction where it went passively. A combination of a massive body that was unlikely to die, and the presence of Death magic, it would be unstoppable.

That conversation led to another. Why was it the dungeon’s core was within the monster itself? While the adventurers here couldn’t say—they were all inexperienced when it came to dungeons—that didn’t stop them from theorizing. When one took into account the entirely random nature of a negative dungeon, they guessed the dungeon could be anywhere. In a giant Level 100 sky whale? Sure, why not. Underground in a pit of lava? Sure, go nuts. When literally anything was possible, the worst scenario was likely to make itself known.

“Looks like we have another rub,” Aarok announced, grunting and shaking his head. Tresk had just returned from her scouting mission. Theo resisted the urge to look at her memories. It seemed more dramatic to get the information from Aarok. “We got a dungeon in a dungeon.”

Xol’sa poked his finger into the air. “Excuse me?”

“Tresk found a dungeon entrance in the creature’s flesh. Just over that way.” Aarok pointed into the distance.

“That’s simply not possible,” Xol’sa countered. “Dimensional spaces cannot overlay each-other. They must occupy distinct spaces.”

“Talk to the giant flying whale, wizard,” Aarok said. “Let’s head over to the next dungeon and we’ll make an assessment there.”

The group got ready and marched across the monster’s surface. They had to stop a few times along the way when Frank angled his body. Several adventurers almost tipped over. But they eventually came to a cave-like structure with the undeniable shimmer of another portal. Xol’sa insisted on studying it before anyone went in, so the group went back into camp mode. Theo found no reason to object. An abundance of caution was necessary when it came to weird stuff like this.

“This is a normal dungeon entrance,” Xol’sa said, finally coming back to report to the group. “I can find nothing abnormal about it. Which is abnormal.”

“Right, because why would there be a dungeon in a dungeon?” Zarali asked. “Is there yet another dungeon inside that one?”

“And one after that!” Tresk shouted. “Dungeons all the way down, baby!”

“Perhaps,” Aarok said. “What do your senses say about the dungeon core, Xol’sa?”

“It says the core is inside the other dungeon. I normally cannot sense the contents of a dungeon, but this one seems to be the exception.”

“Any other useful information you can glean from the entrance?”

“None.”

Aarok jerked his head, pulling a few people into a private meeting. He dragged Luras, Zarali, Tresk, and Theo into a private meeting. His face looked troubled, but the alchemist couldn’t help but smile. He remembered a story he had been told about the half-ogre. He and Luras had wanted to join an armed force called the Qavelli Irregulars. It was meant to be a standing army maintained by the kingdom and sent to fight in wars. They didn’t fit into the normal rank-and-file, so they were given the title ‘irregular’. How far the man had come from being rejected to leading a dungeon no one had ever seen before.

“We’re riding on a giant whale,” Aarok said, pursing his lips. “If that wasn’t weird enough, we’re talking about jumping into another dungeon. What kind of risks are we talking about, Xol’sa?”

“Literally anything you can imagine,” Xol’sa said. “Although Theo might be more the expert on this topic.”

“Don’t look at me. This is my first dungeon.”

“You understand extra-spatial places, though. You have a world of your own, can travel to a floating island in the void, and have visited the domain of the gods.” Xol’sa nodded to himself, as though he understood the error of addressing his pupil. “When you push between realms, is there a common factor between them? What behaves differently?”

“Time, mostly,” Theo said with a shrug. “Whether we’re talking about time moving at a different pace, or time as the driving factor for wearing someone’s mind away, it is always time.”

“So if you put a dungeon in a dungeon, there may be time dilation effects,” Xol’sa said with a shrug. “And the expression of that time might be different. When dungeons experience a lot of time they…”

Xol’sa let the words hang in the air.

“Oh!” Tresk said, her hand shooting up. “They release monsters!”

“Unless they cannot release monsters because they’re a dungeon in a dungeon,” Xol’sa said.

“I’m waiting for the part where I understand this,” Aarok said.

Theo was, too. Xol’sa made it sound like the alchemist was the expert, then pulled this professor 180 on him.

“I suspect the nested dungeon is wall-to-wall monsters,” Xol’sa said. “Based on the energy readings I performed and the information I have.”

“There’s a simple way to tell,” Tresk said, shrugging. “Let me go in there.”

“That’s too risky,” Aarok said, shaking his head.

“Nah, I’m gonna jump in for a microsecond and jump out. Theo can watch through my eyes in his future sight and let us know what’s up!”

Everyone shared a look.

“That’s not a horrible idea,” Luras said.

“I actually agree,” Theo admitted.

“Fine,” Aarok grumbled. “Let’s get this over with.”

Tresk rolled her shoulders as she approached the entrance. All she had to do was have the intent of going in, and that fate would play out. Theo shifted his sight to hers, watching the world from a much shorter vantage point. He gave her a quick nod and she approached the entrance.

“Stop,” Theo said, holding his hand up and shaking his head. “Yeah, that’s not good.”

Chapter 26

Dungeon in a Dungeon

Theo watched through Tresk’s eyes as she entered the dungeon. He had never seen an open, grassy field packed with so many monsters. By the time she turned to escape, they were upon her. That’s when he shouted for her not to enter.

“That bad, huh?” Tresk asked.

“I couldn’t even count the number of monsters inside,” Theo said, shaking his head. “It was an endless field of them. A few thousand, maybe?”

“As I suspected,” Xol’sa said, “a dungeon within a dungeon is not a good thing. We were lucky it was only a ton of monsters and not something worse.”

“Oh, come on,” Sarisa said. “We can take a few thousand monsters. Shouldn’t be that hard.”

“We need some ideas,” Aarok countered.

“Let’s nuke it,” Tresk said.

“Items cannot be thrown through a dungeon entrance,” Luras said.

Xol’sa placed his finger on his chin and tapped it. “That’s not entirely true,” he said. “Normally, you can’t put an item through a dungeon entrance. But I am a wizard and a Dungeon Engineer. If I wrap it with a good amount of spatial energy, I can trick the entrance into thinking it’s a person, or at least something that’s allowed to enter.”

If Theo used an ability to enhance the power of his improvised bomb, he was fairly certain he could nuke all the monsters at once. But he had some questions about that.

“Will the blast affect us out here?” Theo asked. “I can make a bomb powerful enough to level a city.”

“We should be perfectly fine thanks to the dimensional magic of the dungeon,” Xol’sa said, “But did you get a sense of the timescale inside? That might affect our approach.”

“About fifty-to-one maybe?” Theo said, just guessing. When he watched Tresk enter the dungeon, he felt his mind being pulled and stretched. That number was what his intuition told him.

“Excellent. How about you withdraw that bomb, and we make this work?”

Like any good paranoid person, Theo always had a nuke in his inventory. Perhaps that says something about his mental state, but things have been rather weird during his time in this world, so he felt justified. Although he hadn’t told anyone, he had since updated the design of this weapon. It relied on the fact that when two opposite essences interacted, they created a powerful explosion. The one he now held in his hand took advantage of interactions between fire- and water-based essences.

“I had constructed this one in case the undead got out of hand,” Theo said, holding it at arm’s length. “The trigger is particularly sensitive, and the reaction is fairly devastating.”

“What did you call it?” Tresk asked. “A fuel-air bomb?”

“Something like that,” Theo said, invoking his Shadow Wrap skill. His willpower was infused into the bomb, making the weapon’s devastating effects unimaginable. He watched in his foresight as Xol’sa approached and tried to take it from him. “Don’t touch it,” he said. “If anybody, aside from me, touches it, it will blow up.”

“Ah, of course,” Zulsas said, bowing his head. Instead, he came over and held his hand over the bomb. An orb of glittering magic appeared around it. “Now you only need to toss the bomb into the portal, and it should pass through like normal. How long will the effects linger?”

“Give it about a minute for the fire cloud to fully form, and then another minute for the heat to settle. It’s mainly a bomb based on force,” Theo said. “So two or three minutes.”

“Which means we’re here for about four hours,” Aarok said, jerking his head to the side. “Let’s make camp and settle in.”

As the party broke up, Theo approached the portal and held the bomb in his hand. He looked to Xol’sa for confirmation. The wizard nodded, so Theo gave it a light toss. It impacted the shimmering portal, and for a moment he thought it would explode there. But then it just kept going, entering the dungeon. If anything was happening on the other side, he couldn’t know. The plan was to use Tresk to test if it was safe inside after five hours had passed.

Camping atop the giant monster seemed weird, but the adventuring party was fine with it. Everyone was surprised by the lack of monsters on the surface of Frank, but they weren’t complaining. Instead, they broke into their little groups and began chatting and snacking. It was up to Theo and Zarail to maintain barriers to keep everyone safe. They sensed no more Death magic coming from the monster, but one couldn’t be too careful when it came to dangerous magic.

As the party waited for something to happen with the dungeon portal, Theo thought about how useful it would be to get a spell or alchemy ingredient with the void property. But even Xol’sa didn’t know of any spells that existed with that element. Even his spatial-based magic was considered rare, and he often wondered if it was all that useful. It had many limitations.

As Theo relaxed by the dungeon porthole, a system message he’d never seen before appeared. He laughed as he read it, then gawked as the message reproduced, first hundreds, then thousands of times.

Unable to gain experience for a kill while you’re outside of the dimensional space.

“Well that answers that question,” Theo said with a shrug. He explained the situation to the others, who laughed at his misfortune.

“I can’t expect to get experience if you’re not there, right?” Tresk asked. “Just be happy we have a safe way to clear it. Wait, will this work on the other dungeons?”

“It depends if the dungeon is structured the same way as this one,” Xol’sa said. “The only reason this is working is because the interior of the dungeon we are attacking is a single room.”

Dungeons were normally segmented into floors a person had to clear. Both the dungeon they were currently in and the dungeon he had tossed the bomb into were only one room. This got the alchemist thinking: would this kind of attack work on the dungeon he was standing in? He thought about it for a bit but questioned whether the blast’s effects would reach Frank. Even if they did, they might have to clear the secondary dungeon, but it might be an approach for the future.

“I ran a few dungeons in my day, you know,” Zarali said.

Theo, Zarali, Xol’sa, and Tresk were lounging around near the portal. There had been no monsters since they had arrived at the portal, and they all doubted some would come. The points when Frank banked to one side were uncomfortable, but they were getting strangely used to the motion.

“You never talk about where you were born or what you did after Belgar went,” Theo said.

Zarali shrugged. “Not much to say about it, really. Dronon have always carried with them a stigma. Most broods aren’t hunted, but most demon hunters don’t care if you’re from Zagmon or Drogramath.”

“I met a dronon once,” Tresk said. She shook her head at Theo. “A dronon that isn’t Theo.”

“We met a few when Fenian turned the Zagmon dronon to paste,” Theo said.

“No, there was this green one that passed through town once. The locals didn’t really care, but it caused a stir elsewhere,” Tresk said. “I wonder what happened to that guy.”

“Sounds like a Bakor dronon,” Zarali said with a shiver. “You’re lucky the dead didn’t rise from their graves.”

“I dunno he was kinda hot,” Tresk said.

“Yes, you’ll feel quite hot as he wrenches your soul from your body,” Xolsa said with a shake of his head. “Have some standards, woman.”

“I suppose I’m more interested in this creature,” Theo said, patting his hand on the ground. “Can’t imagine a creature like this in the real world.”

“Right? Just makes ya wanna stab something,” Tresk said. “Well, guess we’ll see a real one of these outside if we mess this mission up.”

The conversation shifted to a technical analysis of the way two dungeons interacted and the implications of all that. Unless someone could give me the short version, Theo didn’t understand exactly how it worked, and he wouldn’t try. The moment time got involved with the interaction of energies, stuff got weird. That wasn’t even considering how strange dungeons were to begin with. No, he was happy to blow it all up and keep his people safe from monsters. Xol’sa could contend with the difficult topics.

Theo was drifting in and out of the conversation when something caught his eye. Sarisa held a large stick above her head. A moment later, she brought it down in a wide arc. He winced when it slammed into Rowan’s head. To everyone’s surprise, the man didn’t react. She then handed the stick to her brother, and the same thing occurred.

“What the hell are you two doing?” Theo asked.

“We’re playing smack-wince,” Sarisa explained.

Theo blinked a few times, allowing the information to settle. Yeah, of course Broken Tuskers would come up with this game. He watched as it developed. It wasn’t just that they were hitting each-other with the stick. There was another step.

“Good god,” Theo said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“You never played smack-wince?” Tresk asked. “Watch the next part.”

Sarisa removed something from her inventory, placing it on the end of the stick. She smacked Rowan again, and this time he winced. A small purple scorpion was on the end of the stick. With this smack, it stung him in the face. Theo’s mouth fell open, the urge to yell at the village idiots bubbling to the surface. But he settled back on his butt, watching in awe. Rowan took his hit, and Sarisa didn’t make a move.

“I can’t cure venom!” Theo shouted to the pair.

“I can,” Zarali said, raising her hand.

“Seriously? Don’t encourage them,” Theo said, jabbing her in the ribs with his elbow. “I have enough trouble keeping them under control. Next thing you know, they’re going to start playing stab-stab. That’s a game where they stab each other and see which one bleeds out first.”

Zarali sprung to her feet, jogging over. Theo sighed. Rowan had stopped breathing and was laying on the ground, his face all puffed up. It was amazing that anyone in Broken Tusk had survived this long. But he suspected that it wasn’t a town-wide game that had been played, but something the more rambunctious folks engaged in. Healing magic swirled over the man’s body and he gasped for air.

Aarok was quick to yell at the pair. They could play all the games they wanted once they were home, but if they were in a dungeon they had to behave. It was even worse when Theo realized Sarisa hadn’t pulled the scorpion from her inventory, but her pocket. As far as he knew, living things couldn’t be drawn into a person’s inventory. Not even if they were bugs.

At least things calmed down after that. Someone withdrew an artifice fire from nowhere and began cooking sausages. Others broke off into small groups to play card games. But most importantly, Sarisa and Rowan stopped bashing each other in the head with large sticks. Now the waiting began. Theo and Tresk checked the entrance every now-and-then with their future sight. At first the interior of the dungeon was wreathed in flames. Then it was too hot to enter. When the dust finally cleared—six hours later—the area had been completely destroyed, but it was walkable.

Aarok gathered everyone up and prepared his troops to enter. “We’re going in together,” he announced. “Same deal as last time. Stay inside the stealth bubble, and keep an eye out for anything. We’re heading straight for the dungeon core, and there shouldn’t be enemies.”

“We’ll finally see if my technique to destroy the core works,” Xol’sa said, chuckling to himself.

Chapter 27

Nuked Nested Dungeon

The bomb had really done a number on the inside of the nested dungeon. Theo maintained his barrier against death magic as the party entered, although he didn't know if it was necessary. As far as I could see, it was flat land. It was surprising that the bomb hadn't left a crater in the ground. But that was likely because of some dungeon shenanigans.

The group set off in a direction led by Xol’sa. He claimed to have a decent line on the dungeon core and headed the expedition. Not that there was much to worry about; Theo's bomb had obliterated any monsters in the area, and with the time dilation effects, they didn't expect any new ones to appear soon. Walking across the wasteland was disorienting, and conversation was the only thing that made it bearable.

The sky of the nested dungeon was a smear of pale colors, providing minimal illumination. Some adventurers pulled lanterns from their inventories, lighting the way and pointing out anything remotely interesting in the geography. Theo stayed in his own head, watching the future of the group one minute at a time. But his concern was for what would happen when they needed to escape. He assumed destroying the dungeon core would cause the nested dungeon to collapse, but he also suspected it might destroy the other dungeon. If that were the case, a hasty retreat would be necessary.

The walk to find the dungeon core took far longer than he would have liked, but as time seemed to drift in this place, it was simultaneously over before he knew it. They arrived at a raised platform that hadn't been touched by the bomb. It was clearly immune to the damaging effects.

"This might take me a while," Xol’sa said, approaching the dungeon core.

Of course, it was the first time Theo had actually seen a dungeon core. It was a floating orb of metal and stone, roughly the size of a man. It put off a faint light that splashed against the ground, fighting against the pale light from the sky. As he drew closer to the object, he heard a faint humming as it spun. Deep within that dungeon core, a weird and invisible power was barely perceptible to him.

"If things go wrong," Zarali said, coming up beside him. "Both Xol’sa and I have committed a Featherfall spell to memory. We'll be able to leap from the back of the monster and find the exit."

Well, that sounded like a flimsy plan. Casting a spell on fifty different people wouldn't be easy. And in the panic of the moment, they might miss someone or miscast the spell, dooming everyone. He wasn't sure what to think about it, but as they were literally in the belly of the beast, he didn't know what else they could do. Theo considered himself more of a ride-along than a core member of the group, and he wasn't sure he had enough potions for the entire party.

After a while of fiddling with the dungeon core, Theo checked on Xol’sa’s progress. "What's this technique you're trying to weave over the dungeon core?" he asked.

“I'm trying to overload it so that it will collapse on itself.” Xol’sa said, "Somebody gave me this tip recently, and after much consideration, I decided it was a valid technique.”

Theo watched the way the wizard injected his mana into the dungeon core. The core drank the energy happily, seeming to swell slightly with each addition.  With nothing else to do, he had the wizard teach him how to do it. Before joining in, he might not have had the biggest mana pool, but he did have a lot of potions.

"Now you're getting the hang of it," Xol’sa said, clapping with amusement as Theo did his best. "We'll be done by the end of the year."

Soon after, anyone with a respectable pool of mana was invited to try their hand at the dungeon core. It seemed more like feeding the monster you were trying to defeat than actually fighting it.  But, as Xol’sa was the group's magical expert, the alchemist had to defer to his knowledge. It was several hours later when something finally happened. Small gaps appeared in the dungeon core, and the energy felt more overwhelming by the moment. Nobody on the strike team had destroyed a dungeon before, and most had only run the local swamp dungeon.  This was all new to them.

"That's a concerningly large gathering of mana," Xol’sa said, inspecting the dungeon core. Thanks to his dungeon engineer's core, he got more information than others concerning dungeons.

When more cracks appeared in the dungeon's core, things became even more concerning.  Enough concern arose within the group that Xol’sa stopped adding mana to the core, yet the cracks still formed.

"Yes, I do believe it's time to go," Xol’sa said, looking around nervously. "We need to go. With haste."

"Ruh-roh Raggy," Tresk said, looking around, "maybe you could cast haste on everybody, Theo?"

"Crap," Theo said, opening his interface and getting to work. What was the point of learning everyday spells if he wasn't going to use them? He had learned the haste effect while experimenting with imbuing his potions. Using that knowledge, he formed it into a ward to be cast with his mage core. Once he was done, he inspected the resulting spell.

[Hasten Allies]

[Advanced Ward] [Linked Ward]

Creates a field that imbues all allies with the Haste effect.

Trigger:

Detect Ally

Duration:

10 days.

This new method of constructing spells was powerful. Theo clapped his hands, gaining the attention of everyone around him. "Okay, folks," he announced, "I'm going to cast a spell that makes everyone much faster. We need to make our way to the exit as quickly as possible."

"And we don't know if this will cascade to the first dungeon, so I believe an expeditious retreat from there is also warranted," Xol’sa said.

"Run like there's a goblin biting your ass!" Tresk shouted, clapping with excitement. "Give me the haste field, demon."

Theo signed and dropped his death magic protection and replaced it with a field of haste. A glittering yellow barrier sprang up around the group, and in an instant, the alchemist felt everything about him sharpen.  From the reaction time of his muscles to his thought speed, everything quickened. The group required no further directions. Each member turned and ran for the exit.  Many footfalls thundered across the landscape, echoing into the distance as they moved at supernatural speeds.

It took less than half the time to return to the entrance than it took to reach the dungeon core. Every group member piled through the exit, and then they were all standing on Frank's back again. As the commanders regrouped, Theo took the opportunity to gather more samples from the strange flying beast.

He couldn't know if it was a response to his stabbing efforts or the instability of the dungeon core, but Frank was thrown hard to the side. Everyone grabbed onto something to avoid falling to the ground below. The angle of the banking motion increased. The beast emitted a low rumbling noise that temporarily deafened Theo. He popped a healing potion, and the rush of wind greeted his ears.

Theo felt strange magic wash over him, realizing a few moments later that someone had cast the Featherfall spell on him. He saw other members of the party disappear. Only after a while did he realize that the Broken Tusk locals were using his Return Potion, which would bring them back to their birthplace. Tresk was screaming with delight the entire time.

Frank's banking motion turned into a dive. Only a few party members remained.  It had apparently been an unforeseen contingency that Theo was unaware of. It was only Theo, Tresk, Xol’sa, Zarali, and a handful of elves left on the creature's back. Even those elves clutched potions in their hands. If they drank them, they would be able to run. But it was better than crashing to the ground. Since Theo didn't know what would happen if he drank one, he wouldn't, and Tresk didn't drink one because she was insane.

"Here we go, baby!" Tresk shouted, her voice barely rising above the rush of the wind. The ground was coming ever closer.

Theo realized he could help. He could see futures where they jumped at the right or wrong times and make predictions based on that. The Featherfall effect would slow their descent, but he wasn't certain it would remove their excess velocity. He watched several futures, determining that the Effect would save them all if they jumped at just the right time—for the first time since using his future-sightability. He saw more than one possible outcome; in a very brief instant, he thought he saw all those threads of fate that Khahar talked about.

"Everyone needs to jump on the count of three," Theo said, gaining the attention of the remaining adventurers. "Jump as hard as you can, straight up. Got it?"

Everyone shouted their agreement, and a few elves even whooped with excitement. They had been spending too much time with the Broken Tuskers, and had lost their refined edge.

"One, two, three!" Theo shouted. 

Everyone jumped.

An unrecognizable sound broke Theo's hearing. Frank had clipped the side of a flying island, crashed through it, and careened to the dungeon floor, slamming hard. The group floated down toward the ground at a reasonable pace. As he had seen in one of many futures, the velocity gained from Frank's crash had been negated. They now sailed peacefully toward the ground, except for the gaggle of monsters that had noticed the commotion.

A series of thin blades radiated from Xol’sa’s body, slicing through any approaching monster as Zarali chanted a blessing. The power of Tero’gal filled the group, enhancing their attributes and combat prowess. Theo watched in amazement as the elves fanned out, getting to work and dropping any pretense of stealth. Tresk teleported between monsters, driving a blade here and there to perform her deadly work.

"Are you going to do something?" Tresk shouted at Theo, who shrugged.

"Behind you," he said, gesturing. Tresk whipped around and stabbed a fox monster, killing it instantly.

The group fought their way toward the dungeon's entrance, but they had traveled far. Theo served his role, maintaining the haste ward and informing his party members when they were about to be attacked. To the group's surprise, they linked up with the main force about halfway there. Aarok led the charge, bowling through a group of monsters and flashing a devious smile.

"How long do we have?" Aarok asked.

"Somewhere between a minute and a year," Xol’sa said. "We shouldn't linger longer than necessary."

“Well, what happens when a dungeon is destroyed?” Theo asked.

“Absolutely no idea,” Xol’sa said with a shrug. “But I’ll say we shouldn’t linger. Even if there’s another core somewhere in this space, I can’t predict what will happen when it collapses.”

“I wonder if we should’ve just zorped the dungeon core to another dimension,” Tresk said, coming alongside the group as they jogged. Under the influence of Theo’s haste aura, they all moved a considerable amount faster. Even at a jog.

Before long, the entire group stood outside the dungeon. The dungeon’s entrance seemed normal enough from there, but Xol’sa’s senses told a different story. Something was happening inside the dungeon, and no one was eager to speculate. Although it could’ve been normal for the collapse of a dungeon, it was impossible to tell. Not with the fact it was a negative dungeon. The water was made murkier with the nested dungeon issue.

Theo worked to erect ward barriers around the dungeon, layering them as many times as his mana would allow him. At least the dungeon wasn’t directly on top of town. Alongside the barrier, Aarok planned to station as many adventurers as he could. While the strike on the dungeon went well enough, something lingered in the air. An acknowledgement that the next dungeon they had to tackle would be at least twice as daunting. No one was eager to delve into the Ocean Dungeon.

That place sucked.

“I guess we’re on watch,” Tresk said, slapping Theo on the back. “Until the dungeon collapses or something interesting happens.”

The only thing Theo was worried was about that ‘interesting’ thing. It might not have been an explosion at all. Instead, perhaps Frank himself would poke his head out of the dungeon to greet the waiting adventurers. It wasn’t something he wanted to see come to fruition.

“Just keep your eyes open and your daggers ready,” Theo said.

“Why? Your intuition itching?”

“Yeah.”