Azaria chapter 16 (Patreon)

Chapter 16: You’re a what?!

Azaria

“Then no. I don’t particularly want to die any time soon,” Lance said shaking his head at me.

I wanted to give him a good deal, something along the lines of at least protecting his life, but I physically couldn’t utter the words. I found it more frustrating than anything I’d dealt with so far. Plus, I was losing out on making Starburst leave me alone by having Lance lure only evil or nasty people down in the dungeon. 

I could probably influence the outcome without it being part of the deal. Much like I did with the last party that entered the dungeon. Stella was able to tell that I didn’t want them all to die thus called off her attack. Once Lance and one other person were the only ones left, I should be able to influence the monsters to stop.

“How about something else?” I asked turning upside down almost unconsciously.

“The biggest problem is I would only be able to do it two or three times before I get found out. There is a system that shows who enters and exits the dungeon after all.”

“Do you have a card or something?” I asked. Lance reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a very battered wallet. It was being held together by duct tape. He reached in and pulled out a card that looked like it was made from steel. 

“They have to be durable. Card’s more durable than my wallet. Supposedly could stop a bullet.”

I held my hand out. “Can I see it?”

Lance stared at my extended hand for several long moments before he just sighed and handed it over. Even with my ghost like form I was somehow able to take hold of the card. I absorbed it quickly, he did technically offer it to me. 

“Hey!”

“Don’t worry!” I said with a smile as I floated to the ceiling. I pulled up my creation skill and found the card at the top of the list of absorbed items. I created a copy easily enough. The process did cost a little more Aether than I got for absorbing the card. I tossed it back to him. “See. Good as new.”

He glared at me then looked the card over before putting it back in the wallet. I couldn’t help but laugh at his expression. “Its not a laughing matter.”

I shrugged then did a spin in the air. “Is… This your card!?” I asked creating four cards with altered features on each one. I held them out with a grin. Thankfully, there wasn’t a barcode or anything on them like a credit card. It made this doable.

“Nifty, but still doesn’t change the fact that there will be live guards around the entrance that will recognize me after a few dives.”

I pouted then curled into a ball as I thought it through. I was sure I could manually alter his features, but that would cost me Aether and time. Not to mention it would hurt him. I stopped mid-spin as I wondered how I knew that. Chalking it up to dungeon instinct, I returned to spinning in the air.

“Be right back!”

I shot through the wall without waiting for an answer. I vaguely noticed that my form became completely ethereal after passing through the wall. I found Starburst sulking in his room on the second floor of the mansion. It was a bleak room that had the bare minimum in decorations. I had wanted to decorate it more, but Starburst wouldn’t let me.

“Starburst!”

“Gah! What is it now?” he shouted at my sudden appearance.

“I want to do something dungeony. I want to make an item,” I replied trying not to laugh at how surprised he’d sounded. 

“Go ahead. Shouldn’t be too hard for you,” Starburst said without pausing. “You do have a crap ton of Aether that is basically rotting away.”

“Can Aether do that?” I asked worried that I should be using my energy. I didn’t like to waste things when I was a human. 

“No. I was just being sarcastic,” Starburst seemed to take a deep breath, which was weird given he was a stuffed animal. “What kind of item do you want to make?”

“Something to alter a person’s features,” I said using my hands to change my face trying to make a funny face. It was lost of Starburst as he just stared at me. I pouted as I lowered my hands.

“Pull up your creation skill. Imagine how you want it to look, and what you want it to do. Please limit the amount of Aether you insert. You could cause it to change the person permanently if you create it with too much.”

“Aye, Sir!” I said with a salute. 

I pulled up my creation skill then paused as I considered what I wanted to do. Lance would need it to change his face at the minimum. I could just make it a mask, but if something happened and it fell off while they were in the dungeon the trick would be blown. 

Plus, judging from how cut up his clothes were, he wasn’t too careful during a fight. It would need to be small, that way it wouldn’t be a large target. A ring, perhaps? Or an earring. Nodding at that idea, I got to work. 

The magic took my idea and ran with it. Soon three or four dozen different earrings were presented on the screen in front of me. I went with a black one that had a blood red gem in it. I felt it suited his style and was also something a guy would wear. Not that I really knew what a guy would wear. 

Before I confirmed the creation, another idea came to me. I pulled the earing back to the creation screen and added a bit more magic to it. I made it so that it would tingle if someone with malicious thoughts were near Lance. I didn’t know what it considered malicious, but the magic accepted the idea, so I went with it.

I accepted the item creation and fifteen hundred Aether drained from me. I examined the item to see if it worked as intended. While I had planned to create two or three if the first failed after using that much Aether, I was a bit more hopeful that the first one worked out.

Scales of Illusion

- Effect One: Wearer can change their appearance once every forty-eight hours.

- Effect Two: (Passive) If in the presence of people of ill-will or evil thoughts, based on wearer’s ideology, item will tingle as warning.

Well, that was about what I wanted. I was worried about the fact that it was based on the wearer and not mine, the creator’s ideology, but I would have to live with it. Lance seemed like a decent guy for the most part. Though I only met him twice so far. 

I flew back to Lance with the earring and found him taking a shower in the room that hid the entrance to his room. Curiosity got the better of me and I peeked. I was not expecting what I saw. 

“You’re a girl!” I shouted without meaning to. She wasn’t packing much at the top but with her cloths off, it was hard to mistake it. I remembered Starburst hesitating when talking about Lance. I guessed this was why. 

Lance covered him… herself up and glared in my general direction. “Yes. I am. Got a problem with it?”

“Why hide it?”

“Various reasons, one of which I should have died a year ago,” Lance said flipping a nonchalant hand at me. That only made me more interested in the story behind all this. What kind of secret would require her to hide her gender?

“When you are done, I have something for you,” I said deciding to try again later. She nodded then went back to cleaning herself. Quite a lot of filth had managed to seep through her cloths. She was lucky there was soap and bathing tools provided in the room more to complete the picture than for anyone to use.

She was putting a lot of elbow grease into getting the dried-on blood off herself. I decided to stop watching and flew out to see if I could see anything outside. I’d been meaning to try it for a while, but the divers came into the dungeon forcing me back to the second floor of my dungeon.

I came to the edge of my field, putting me a few feet from the entrance to the old subway station. I could almost see the sky if I could push my field just over ten feet. I’d only tried to push it down before so I didn’t know if I could push it up. It would be an interesting test.

Placing my hand on the almost solid wall of my field, I put a bit of force into it. Of course, the wall pushed back and didn’t move an inch. Still, I got the impression more of plastic rather than a brick wall. Putting more force and even some Aether into it, I pushed again. I was not ready for what happened next.

Aether was liberally ripped from my core as my field flooded outside the dungeon. Suddenly I was aware of everything for several hundred feet on the surface. The old derelict station that sat on the surface that used to have a few shops. 

A parking lot, currently packed with cars and tents that appeared to have all sorts of equipment, was the main thing that caught my attention. People were moving around doing various jobs. I saw people wearing white coats and others dressed like the people that had already came into my dungeon twice.

Finally, there were a couple dozen soldiers with really large weapons placed around the lot. They were all trained on the station, likely in case something attempted to come out of the entrance. Lance told me that was standard procedure until more was known about the dungeon. 

I didn’t get to observe long as everything started to rumble. I looked around not sure of the source when I realized it was my own dungeon. The rundown station on the surface suddenly started to collapse like buildings I saw in the movies that had quicksand under them. I felt my Aether go up as everything was quickly absorbed.

The humans around my entrance all fled behind the soldier line as they armed their weapons. The divers also readied themselves for whatever was to come. I followed suit and braced myself as I was just as lost as they were.

When the station finally vanished into the ground, the rumbling only grew worse. I cast my awareness around my dungeon as pain filled my body. It was only a moment later when the first-floor mansion broke through the surface. I could still feel full control over it, but I worried what the humans were going to do.

After a good five minutes everything came to a stop with all of the mansion on the surface. The humans also looked relieved that the shaking had stopped. I felt a ridiculously strong Aether signature appear in the sky and a man dressed all in white landed behind the soldier line.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear anything that was being said. They were over two hundred feet outside my field. The man turned and looked almost directly at me. Not wanting to take any chances, I fled back into the mansion.

“Starburst! I broke something!” I shouted as I came into his room.

“I can see that. It’s out of our hands.”