epic 217 (Patreon)

Yattina had found this little distraction from the boring part of her new position most welcome. The ever growing prison of paperwork had no power of Yattina’s life ambitions. The idea of being in an adventuring group was less repulsive when the people in the group were just so amusing. It didn’t hurt that the Dungeon in question was Delta.

To most researchers, Delta would be bad news. A rebel of data that threw out all projections and current theories on the purpose of Dungeons and why they existed. Yattina’s curious soul yearned for another five Dungeons like Delta.

The research, as far as Yattina has discovered, only ever improved with new data, and never suffered in its presence. Only people suffered.

At Yattina’s side were several samples she had collected from the different rooms, having Deo use his mana to stabilize the Dungeon materials into physical ones since her control over her newly formed mana core was embarrassing to say the least. Yattina had studied mana all her life, mostly Dungeon sorts, but the practice of moving the energy was a challenge, one she’d welcome any day. She had mushrooms, rocks, water samples, moss, and even a jar with one of those odd little blue creatures that looked to be fast asleep now it was away from the grove.

Still, the next room only had one interesting living sample and that was the impossibly handsome goblin standing between them and the way deeper to the tavern beyond. The smell of delicious foods wafted out the tunnel ahead, making Yattina really want a greasy bacon sandwich and a big mug of coffee to down it. The only other features of the room was the imposing fort atop the hill and a strangely sinister well in the corner of the room. Its imposing and dark aura made Yattina want to stick a test tube inside it, for science.

“Greetings,” the goblin called and Serma let out a strange noise as if something in her reacted to the goblin involuntary. It wasn’t disgust or alarm but something more that was almost like a giggle which couldn’t be the noise Serma made.

Yattina has only known the princess for a day and she already knew Serma didn’t ‘giggle’. Serma slowly raised her hand to her helmet in horror.

“Numb!” Deo called and Grim, his teen face paling, reacted oddly, staring past them with a dramatic point of his finger at the other goblins behind Numb, hiding in the wooden fort structures. A set of squat goblins, one that looked to be covered in soot and another that looked like it escaped from the abyss.

“Billy!” Grim exclaimed as if seeing an arch nemesis. In response, a goblin so inverted to Numb that it almost came off evil looking waggled long claws with a cackle.

“A friend of yours?” Yattina asked and Grim gave a look which made her smile in her suit before she corrected herself.

“Someone standing in your way of local domination?” she rephrased and Grim huffed.

“He was in my way when I first tried this Dungeon. He needed two others to back him up naturally,” Grim said and Billy shifted slightly and a dark arrow buried itself in the ground between Grim’s legs. Grim looked down at it and his face soured.

“He needed them for moral support,” Grim reluctantly corrected himself, pocketing the arrow without any hint of shame.

“It makes me happy to see you all,” Numb said, smiling in a way that wasn’t bad looking for a goblin. Yattina often found goblins to have a sort of feral disposition to enlarged fangs and ears to grant them the ability to be more intimidating than they usually were.

A lot like rabbits.

Goblins tended only to be a threat in large numbers or when they discover striking rocks together made fire. The latter usually prevented the former from happening too often; again a lot like rabbits.

“Sir Numb,” Serma almost whispered, causing her friend and protector Mas to give her an odd look as if he too had never heard such a tone from the usually focused girl.

“How do we get past?” Deo called, his face excited at the prospect of a game or some fun challenge.

“Fisticuffs!” Numb declared boldly, his white teeth gleaming.

“Fist them to death!” a goblin wielding a staff that looked seconds from bursting into flames cried over the barricade. Two other goblins had erected a quickly made banner that had an ugly green splatter with white paint in the middle that might have been Numb’s face, waving the flag in support of their champion.

“One on one?” Grim called out and Numb nodded as if this was the normal thing to do in a dungeon. Yattina dearly loved this Dungeon, it was so illogical to the norm but it acted in such a logical manner.

Challenges to invite people, the restraint of violence to encourage even the most timid of people to try their hand, and so many things to sample and study. Yattina could grow old here. Well, maybe not old. The prolonged mana exposure would either kill her, mutate her, or make her go a little crazy which was a lot like death for Yattina as she valued her mental clarity more than most.

Grim huddled their group in with a serious expression.

“I don’t think any one of us can take him in a fight head on,” he declared and Mas raised his hand.

“I volunteer,” he said and Grim thought about it then shook his head.

“No, none of us are direct combatants. Serma is acrobatic but can’t take a hit, you are quick but can’t dish out much damage, Yattina refuses to fight, I don’t have enough time to prepare a counter-trap for Numb, and Kemy would faint before Numb got close,” he listed and the priestess looked a little put-out that she wasn’t being considered a valid candidate to bareknuckle fight a goblin.

“You left someone out,” Yattina remarked and everyone turned to Deo who was humming, distracted by the well nearby as it echoed his tones.

“Deo?” Grim said simply and the boy blinked at him.

“Will you fight Numb?” Grim continued to ask in that same tone as if he was merely suggesting it, unlike when he spoke to others and almost ordered them to do things. He seemed to not enjoy ordering the other boy but rather to nag and urge him to try things.

Deo blinked.

“Like, hurt Numb?” he said slowly and Numb coughed.

“To spar! To engage in jolly sparring!” the goblin corrected and Deo’s face went from unsure to excited.

“Like weapons training in Mr Jones’ class after math!” he said and Yattina blinked her one good eye, trying to once again remember the town of Durence was abnormal. The Gray that settled over the area from lack of mana should have prevented the biological ability to reproduce and have kids, mana along with other genetic material was key in a child being formed in the womb.

Without a functional mana core being formed, one would get sick, grow up frail or even simply be lifeless. Yattina knew that feeling well since she had suffered from having her own core burned at a young age by her sister.

It made her feel like she was always two hours behind on a good night’s sleep, never quite full after a meal, and never quite comfortable in her skin. The fact Grim, Deo, and the other children around existed was actually rather strange now Yattina thought about it.

“Yeah, like that,” Grim said, eyes going distant as he recalled something haunting, “just with less sentient desks and Mr Jones summoning imps to chase us,” Grim said finally and looked at the open field, sloping upwards to the goblin fort.

“Not the best angle, but maybe Numb isn’t good here either?” he mused. Yattina shifted in her suit, watching how Numb balanced on the incline with the balls of his feet, almost bouncing unperceptive to an onlooker. She had a feeling Numb was no more hindered in this room than he was hindered on some official sparring mat.

The goblin lived here after all, was born here, molded by the hill, and defined it.

Deo stood confidently at the bottom of the incline and noticeably began to slide back towards the group with a confident smile on his face.

“Deo seems like a good person but are we sure we should leave him to do this alone? He seems a little too nice to be our only option at passing that... handsome...oddly...regal...goblin,” Serma said, eyes going a little wonky and Mas had to snap his fingers a few times to make her blink out of it.

“What is going on?” she asked herself in slight panic and took steps back as if distance could save her from the effects..

“Numb has certain mana wavelengths that are reacting to yours. It’s not a yet developed field of study but in some cases with Dungeons, certain people, archetypes and examples of personalities begin to call out to one another,” Yattina explained, feeling excited to talk about one of her interests.

“Numb may be exhibiting certain wavelengths of a warrior or a rebel or a-” Yattina continued before Numb raised his fist and posed towards Deo who jumped and nearly slid down the hill on his rear.

“For justice and good sportsmanship!” he cried and the world felt a little more hopeful, like glory, peace and love were all just around the corner.

“-or a hero that rescues a princess feeling trapped in circumstances beyond her control at times,” Yattina finished with a smile.

“But why?” Serma asked, more alarmed than enlightened, which was understandable but made Yattina a little put out that her excitement wasn’t infectious.

“The world, where mana is thickest, has powerful echoes of ideas. The closer you are to a certain... wavelength, the more it influences you,” Yattina tried to sum up simply without going into detail of brain development, personality quirks and therapy, behaviors and how they seemed to exist in every culture in the world.

In hindsight, Yattina was almost giddy with the idea that she now too could partake in firsthand experience with this phenomena herself. There was another part that was against losing her previous impartial viewpoint but the world did not always entertain one's wishes and Yattina had long learned to enjoy the sludge with the coffee in life.

“I did not agree to partake in these ‘echoes’,” Serma declared firmly.

“I apologize if I cause offense,” Numb called over, sensing with his heroic tendencies that he might be causing a ‘fair’ maiden distress. Serma looked over, face grave and solid in its noble mask of displeasure.

“Where did you obtain such a ‘mana’ presence?” Serma asked slowly as it took every inch of control to make her cheeks remain pale, her eyes disinterested, and lips pursed in displeasure. Yattina wished she could make a mold of the girl’s face. She has never seen so many muscles waging war on a single face.

“My friend Alpha was beloved but he did not belove back so he passed his destiny to me and I will fight all the dragons of the land and landlords who charge too much!” Numb declared, fist raised in a symbol of confidence.

“Al...pha.” Serma said, finally free of her desire to giggle as a rage filled her face.

“Alpha could make Serma giggle?” Mas said with such surprise he looked like someone punched him in the gut.

“Giggle as I burn down the wizard’s tower and make him unemployed. ‘Archwizard’ my royal-” Serma began to spit like a furious cat and Yattina used a branch from the mushroom grove to comfortingly pat the princess’s shoulder.

Physical contact might risk Yattina losing more body parts.

“He was joking to make you smile. He’s not the archwizard,” Mas said with a soothing tone.

“I heard they pick Archwizards out of a hat, they’re silly people,” Yattina said bluntly as a sledgehammer, her opinion of funny people in robes and hats ripping space apart to see who could kill one another faster was a vastly waste of everyone’s time.

“First religion and now wizards, is there a group of people using energy sources from elsewhere you do like?” Kemy asked, sighing as she sagged over a little.

“I like millers. Waterwheels are relaxing to gaze upon,” Yattina said confidently aloud.

“Millers aren’t wizards or priests,” Serma pointed out.

“I can’t make bread from a bunch of weeds in a field, can you?” Yattina asked the princess, who paused then looked away slightly.

“No...” the girl admitted.

“It’s just as magical and they don’t get a big head about it,” Yattina argued. Fresh bread in the morning was the only divinity Yattina needed.

“Flour dust and sawdust explode,” Kemy said, eyes going distant as she recalled something.

Yattina really wanted to know how many explosions the priestess had been around to be so scarred.

“I’m going to start now,” Deo called, somewhere in the background.

“Yes, so mills are both a boon for the economy and strategic military outposts with built in self-destruction abilities,” Yattina continued to argue for the validity of millers when something like iron striking steel filled the room and Yattina was sent stumbling back as the room shook violently.

She turned in surprise, seeing Numb and Deo straining their bare fists against each other, each friction rub of their knuckles creating a blast of wind that couldn’t be real. The sheer force needed to produce an explosive wave have to be-

Oh... not for a hero.

And not for a boy from nowhere. Those two were powerful in such thick echoes of powerful fighters.

Yattina helped Kemy stand as the two spoke to each other.

“I can’t hear them,” Serma complained as she moved closer.

“Deo said something about ‘equals’ and fun and Numb is talking about duty and his heart,” Mas called as the impact of the two’s fists drowned out the voices.

“Deo! Speak louder or remember what you said!” Grim yelled from near the well where he was gripping it for life, “I can put any cool lines on more t-shirts!” the boy yelled, micro-managing Deo from across the room.

“I WILL WIN OR GRIM WILL CRY!” Deo cheered and Grim’s face fell.

“Maybe a mug... or a magnet for that one,” the boy said and Yattina turned back, her urge to study the two fighters before her rising.

Deo was producing the mana that was a mix of his natural mana and the Dungeon. His seemed to originate from his ears where it resonated with his core. Grim was the same with the source being his tongue.

It was Numb who amazed her.

He wasn’t pure Dungeon mana, having shades other than orange, a mix of blue and green with a dozen shades between. It was not as complex as a person’s natural soul but it wasn’t just... a model. A creation.

Yattina was in scientist heaven.