Dungeon Myst Part 7 (Patreon)

Myst added another tainted mana stone he'd mined from the cave in the well to the upgrade box for his mana pool, bringing the mana up to nine hundred and eighteen from eight hundred and ninety one. "Close enough," he muttered as he selected the option to pay the rest from his mana pool. 'At least the mana crystals count as gems and mana,' he mused as he tossed in a couple of crystal skulls to push the required units of gems past a thousand. He stared at the options that appeared on the screen. 'A king's ransom in gems for ten mana or a point of regeneration.'

He pulled one of the crystal skulls out of the upgrade box then put it back in, curious if it would change anything and if he could pull things out of the box. 'Let's see,' he mused as he grabbed one of the blue crystal gems that could give people magic and tossed it into the upgrade box. 'Fifty mana or five regeneration and it comes with a small chance to upgrade affinities?'

He dropped the other magic bestowing gem in the box, slightly annoyed that the numbers and description of the chance for an upgrade hadn't changed. 'It was worth a shot,' he mused as he pulled the extra gem back out and stuck it in his storage. 'Is it worth wasting the gem to kickstart my regeneration? Probably, I can always make more.'

He selected the extra regeneration then hit the button, causing his regeneration to jump to six/twelve points a minute and giving him the Earth affinity and a tainted debuff. "Huh," he muttered when he noticed a lurid green icon on his HUD that had a counter on it. 'Six hours?'

Myst quickly pulled up the description of the tainted affliction. 'Using tainted mana to fuel your growth has resulted in a temporary affliction. Your mana pool decreases by fifty percent and your regeneration is doubled for the duration. Using your tainted mana will corrupt every unit or structure you create or spell you cast and spawn a corrupted slime beast that will devour everything it touches if it's not killed, creating tainted crystals that will spread corruption. If your mana reaches maximum capacity, you'll create waves of corruption.'

"Lovely," Myst grumbled as he pulled open his minion tab and ordered all of the crafters back to town. He double checked his mana bar and winced. 'Okay, I've got eighteen mana out of fifty one and twelve points of regeneration, that gives me three minutes before I'm screwed and start corrupting everything in the area.'

'Take a breath, you don't need a good plan, you just need a plan,' he told himself, trying to avoid freezing up. 'Grab a casting minion, head to the Blight and start casting spells after you're a couple of hundred feet from the portal.' He selected the gremlin with the lightning affinity and ordered it to leave the workshop, hoping that possessing it wouldn't generate a slime beast as it didn't use mana. 'Better than risking the other gremlin.'

Myst possessed the gremlin as soon as it stepped outside of the workshop then glanced around, wanting to make sure his theory was correct. 'So far so good,' he mused as he used his magical flight ability, guessing that his flight ability wouldn't create a slime beast since his possession ability hadn't. He glanced around to make sure he hadn't spawned a slime beast then flew towards the portal, hoping he wasn't making a mistake and dooming a world or handing the Dark One a new monster that he could use against humanity.

Myst flew through the portal and headed towards the mining pit, hoping the description of the slime beasts being able to eat everything was just flavorful language. He pulled up his list of spells as he closed the distance, trying to reach the pit before he had to cast his first spell. He glanced at his mana pool, noticing that his mana had jumped up to forty two points at some point, meaning he had less than a minute to cast his spell.

He waited until he was over the house sized pit then quickly cast his spell to conjure a battle rabbit, causing a white basketball sized rabbit to appear in the mining pit a second before a dog sized green slug like monster appeared five feet in front of him. His relief at seeing the slime splatter when it hit the bottom of the pit was short-lived as it pulled itself back together less than a second later and jumped at the rabbit, moving far faster than something the consistency of watery jello should be able to.

'So much for being able to kill the damned things by dropping them,' he complained as he cast his spell to conjure food, creating another slime beast and twenty plates filled with steak and potatoes scattered around the bottom of the pit. The slime beasts quickly turned their attention to the food on the ground rather than the quickly moving rabbit.

Myst glanced up at the moon, wishing it was daylight so he could see the condition of the stone the slime beasts were oozing over. 'Screw it, they're not sinking through the stone like quicksand so the stone will probably contain them for a couple of minutes.'

He counted to twenty in his head as he watched the slime beasts devour the rest of the food, causing the conjured plates to vanish. He watched the battle rabbit as it darted around the pit, doing its best to avoid the pair of slimes that were trying to kill it. 'Yeah, I'm not sure I want to unleash these on the Blight, I don't think they'd stop. I wonder if salt would stop them,' he mused as he conjured another twenty plates filled with food for the slime monsters, creating another slime beast and dropping his mana by another ten.

Myst glanced at the gremlin's zap spell, wondering if it was even worth casting since it would just create another slime beast. He watched as the slime beasts devoured the food, curious if they'd turn on each other, ooze up the walls or start eating their way through the stone to escape once the food ran out. 'This would be a lot easier with a decent bestiary.' He turned his attention towards one of the slug shaped slime beasts as it stopped eating and shit out a glowing green crystal that promptly started spewing out a green mist. He was a touch disappointed but not particularly surprised that the mist didn't seem to bother the slime beasts as they devoured the meal.

'I might need to get the mage and torch everything,' Myst mused as one of the other slime beasts created another corrupted mana gem that started spewing out mist. 'Poison or mutation?' he mused as he watched the rabbit frantically dash away from the mist. 'Probably just as well that I didn't name you,' he admitted, feeling slightly guilty about using the rabbit as a lab rat.

The rabbit darted away from one of the slime beasts when it ran out of easily available meals and charged the rabbit, causing the rabbit to hit the edge of the mist.

Myst shivered as the rabbit started mutating, quickly doubling in size and sprouting thirteen blade covered tentacles from its back. He lurched back and up a couple of feet when the rabbit wailed like a banshee and launched itself at the nearest slime beast. He stared in disbelief as three of the tentacles ripped through the slime without getting dissolved. "Great," he complained when the slime beast started to pull itself back together. "So much for an army being able to kill a slime beast."

"Do you need something burned?" the skeleton mage asked as he walked towards the pit with twenty trolloc skeletons in front of him.

Myst turned and looked at the skeleton mage. "Give it a minute, I'm curious if the slime beasts will start fighting and I don't want you getting near the corrupted mist until we figure out if it can mutate skeletons."

The mage stopped walking closer to the potential death trap and gestured, sending one of the trolloc skeletons towards the pit. "That's what we have minions for."

Myst pulled up the rabbit's stats as it started trying to dice the rest of the slime beasts. "Huh, the mutated rabbit is stronger than the trolloc skeletons, at least five times as durable and about twice as agile as it used to be."

"That sounds useful, what's the problem?" the mage asked.

"It has the unstable and bloodlust traits, I can only control it about half the time and it basically attacks everything near it," Myst admitted.

"You could always use it as some type of trap," the mage suggested. "Should I have the skeleton drop into the pit?"

Myst pulled up the skeleton's stats. "I'm not seeing any sort of debuff from the mist or from the corrupted gems and the slime beasts don't seem interested in the skeleton so go ahead." He scowled when the skeleton picked up the bloodlust trait but didn't otherwise change. "It…" he trailed off as the skeleton charged at the mutated rabbit and got ripped to pieces almost instantly by the rabbit's tentacles. "The skeleton picked up the bloodlust trait which means you're going to need to avoid the mist."

"Do you want to see if we can burn the monsters?" the mage asked hopefully.

"Rabbit, incoming fireball!" Myst told his minion as he flew backwards, wanting to make sure he wasn't in the blast radius. He wasn't sure how to feel as the mutated rabbit used its tentacles to quickly scale the wall of the pit. "Light it up!"

The mage conjured a ball of flames in his hand then tossed it into the pit, creating a large blast and laughing when he got a decent chunk of experience for his fireball. "Are they dead?"

"Probably," Myst replied as he floated back towards the pit to get a better look, trying to spot anything moving in the sickly green mist that was covering the bottom of the pit. "I think you got them, I don't see anything moving."

"What happened?" the mage asked, curious what he'd been experimenting with.

Myst turned and looked at the skeleton mage. "Using the corrupted crystals to boost my mana regeneration resulted in a temporary affliction that basically creates slime beasts every time I cast a spell or create a structure for the next six hours. Feeding the slime beasts enough food causes them to create a corrupted mana crystal that creates a mist that mutates and twists everything it touches other than the slime beasts."

"Is there a reason you can't just avoid casting spells?" the mage asked.

Myst glanced back at the pit and froze as he realized the faintly glowing green mist was getting higher on the wall.  'So much for the mist only spreading a couple of yards.' He pulled his attention back to the mage. "If I reach my cap, I'll start generating waves of corruption which sounds like something to avoid considering the results of the mist on a rabbit. The affliction also doubles my mana regeneration and halves my maximum mana for the duration which means I need to burn twelve mana a minute just to stay even."

"How long do you think it would take to create a couple of hundred gems?" the mage asked thoughtfully. "You're going to need them to increase your mana."

"Did you miss the part about the affliction?" Myst asked with annoyance.

"It has a duration and no permanent side effects, it's also a quick path to the power you're going to need to stay alive," the mage argued as he sent one of the trolloc skeletons to jump on the corrupted gem and toss it in Mist's inventory.

"Don't worry, we've got cookies," Myst replied sarcastically, thinking about the old joke about the dark side of the force and cookies. "It could be a function of time or it could be a function of how much they eat but the slimes didn't start making crystals until halfway through the second feast." He glanced back at the pit. "Yeah, it's already risen a couple of inches, we're going to need to figure out a way to deal with the mist."

"I can try to absorb the mana in the area, that might slow it down without driving me insane or we can look for a better place to dump the crystals," the mage suggested.

"I'd rather see if I can store them," Myst replied as he ordered one of the trolloc skeletons to jump in the pit and stick one of the stones in his inventory. He scowled when the skeleton touched the mist and caught fire. He watched the burning skeleton dance around for a couple of seconds like an idiotic teenager at a rave then turn to ash. "So much for consistent results…" he trailed off when he realized that he'd been able to see the skeleton turn to ash because the mist around the skeleton had gotten thinner. "I think I have a couple of ideas on how to deal with the mist."

"What are you thinking?" the mage asked.

"I think the mist got thinner when it caused the skeleton to burst into flames, if we can drain the fog, we can probably stash the crystals," Myst explained as he started chain casting his spell to conjure battle rabbits, creating a small army of slime beasts in the process. He winced as the heavily mutated rabbits shrieked and howled as they started tearing each other apart in a frenzy of rage. 'At least the rabbits seem to be absorbing the mist.'

0o0o0

Harry couldn't help the silly grin on his face when he reappeared in the black void, ecstatic that he'd finally gotten a perfect score and that he'd gotten a kiss from Hermione after the dance. "What's next?"

"Paperwork and legal contracts, we'll start off with fake marriage contracts to get you started then we'll move to goblin contracts," the voice suggested.

"Marriage contracts?" Harry asked warily.

"It's important to make sure you don't sign any magically binding contract," the voice warned him.

"How do goblins fit into that?" Harry asked, not sure why anyone would want to marry a goblin.

"They run the bank in the wizarding world," the voice explained.

"Why would anyone sane trust goblins with their money?" Harry asked, wondering what he was missing because the only goblins that jumped to mind were the goblins from Labyrinth.

"If you figure that out, please let me know," the voice replied then sent Harry on his way.

Harry blinked as he found himself sitting in a muggle waiting room as a gorgeous pale skinned woman with long blonde hair sashayed into the room wearing a short skirt that barely peeked out from under her overly tight business jacket and carrying a folder. "Hello?" he asked, not quite sure what to say as he didn't see any conversation prompts and he wasn't sure what was going on.

"Hello Mr Potter, I'm Vanessa Slickspeak," Vanessa replied as she set the file on the table and started taking off her jacket, revealing a white silk shirt that was practically see through, letting him know that she didn't believe in wearing a bra and that her cup size was probably just listed as generous and perky.

"What?" Harry asked as he pulled his attention away from her breasts and focused on her admittedly attractive face when he realized that she'd continued speaking and he'd missed it.

"I'll be helping you review a number of magical contracts today," she repeated as she pulled five sheets of parchment out of the folder that were covered in cursive and spread them out on the table, her lips curled up in the barest hint of a smile. "We'll start the marriage contract with Daphne Greengrass, then we'll check Ginny Weasley's contract before moving up to Selena Faust's contract, it has a couple of infernal clauses in it that you should watch out for. Once you have a decent idea what you're doing we'll move onto a contract with Sabrina Morningstar that involves a timeshare in Hell."

"And the last contract?" Harry asked warily.

"Maggie Simpson," the lawyer replied with a shudder. "Don't worry, I'll show you the ropes before we're forced to deal with her twisted tricks."

"Thanks," Harry offered, trying to concentrate on the contracts and not on the woman's breasts and wishing the tutorial hadn't stuck him in a teenage body as it was a bit annoying in the current situation which was probably half of the point. "Wait, how do I know you're a lawyer and where did you graduate from?"

"Good question," Vanessa replied as she snapped her fingers and conjured a copy of her diploma. "I graduated from Miskatonic University with a degree in Magical Law with minors in American Law, Teaching, and Tentacle Wrangling."

Harry glanced over the document when she handed it to him, it looked real enough and he vaguely recalled the university that she mentioned but he wasn't particularly familiar with what an actual degree should look like. "I'll have to take your word for it. Do you have a lot of experience?" he asked, wondering how much experience a woman that looked in her early twenties could have.

Vanessa laughed. "Good question. I've been working contract law for the last three years between classes at St Trinians."

"Saint Trinians?" Harry asked, wondering why the name was ringing alarm bells in his head.

"It's a private boarding school for young ladies of distinguished 'character'," Venessa explained with a smile.

"What do you teach?" Harry asked.

"A bit of this, a bit of that," Vanessa replied as she took a step back from the table. "I'm supposed to teach the girls the basics of common law, but it mostly involves teaching them how to avoid legal trouble." She bent down to take her high heels off, giving Harry a nice view of her cute butt as her skirt rose up, showing off the fact that she wasn't wearing underwear. "I also teach Sex Education."

Harry pulled his attention away from her ass as she stood back up with her heels in her hands, hoping she didn't call him out on the fact that his face probably looked like a tomato. "Isn't that a strange mix?"

"Not really, there are a lot of confusing laws about sex," Vannesa replied as she set her heels on the table off to the side. "These things are murder. Okay, let's get to the first contract, if we have time, I'll give you some lessons on the rest. You never know when knowing details about the law will come in handy."

"Sounds good," Harry replied, trying to focus on the contracts and ignoring his overactive imagination.

"Do you want me to give you a hint or do you want to read it first and try to figure out the problem?" Vanessa asked as she pointed to Daphne's contract.

"I'll read it," Harry replied, figuring he'd get more out of struggling to learn than being given the answer to start with. He took a few minutes to read the document, struggling a bit over some of the words and the fact that he could see Vanessa playing with one of the buttons on her shirt out of the corner of her eye, which was a bit distracting. "Done."

"What did you think?" Vanessa asked with a smile.

Harry focused on her face and tried not to stare at her breasts or the fact that the undone button was drawing attention to the fact that her shirt was practically see-through. "I think it's creepy that people need to use a magical contract for a marriage but if we're going to ignore that part, the part about protecting her family sounds suspect."

"Why?" Vanessa asked with a smile.

"It used a bunch of words to say that family was defined by the head of her family, which makes the contract useless since I don't have any family and they can change who it applies to whenever they want. That means I could break it without even realizing it, which would cost an amount set by the head of the family that isn't set by the contract. I'd have to be as stupid as Dudley to sign that."

"Correct," Vanessa agreed with a smile. "Was there anything you didn't understand in the contract?"

Harry briefly considered lying before he remembered that it was just a tutorial and that she wasn't going to make fun of him for not knowing the answers. "Just a couple of things," he said as he pointed to the first word he didn't know.