Legacy of the M'Zee Chapter 4 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Well, so far I'm working ahead much better than I thought I would (though not as fast as I'd hoped). Expect another chapter this Wednesday, and probably the Wednesday afterwards at least. I'm doing my best to try and maintain a pace of 1-1.5k words a day, which gives me two 3k chapters a week. If I can keep that up, y'all will keep getting two chapters a week!

I have codes available for Craesti City's audiobook if y'all want them! Just remember to leave a review!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

We stumbled out of the Dungeon, tired and aching. Caretaker Zana appeared in front of us and sent a wave of Aether across my team. “Good, you are all alive,” he said, relief in his voice.

“Yup, though it was a close one,” I said with a cough. “Bruno decided to challenge us with a level six Mountain Bear as the last round of the second wave.”

“I will note that as a possibility,” Caretaker Zana said. “Come, I will escort you to The Dungeoneer’s Delight.”

I nodded agreeably, following along behind him as we approached the hotel looking building. “What’s in the other building?” I asked.

“A warehouse and workshops,” he answered. “There we store food collected from the surrounding forest and any Dungeon rewards you wish to sell to us. Additionally, there are two smithies, two Alchemy workstations, and one Inscription workstation that you can use before a Dungeon excursion to prepare. The Dungeoneer’s Delight is an inn and tavern dedicated to serving people after they leave the Dungeon or prepare for their trip into it.”

The building had double doors leading inside, with no sound coming out. Caretaker Zana opened it, and suddenly there was a blare of talking and someone playing a lyre as background music. I was stunned by the deluge of sound, and noticed the edges of the door had tiny Inscriptions running along them. There were at least twenty people of various races seated at seven different tables. Standing on a slightly elevated stage a Topraki girl was lightly strumming her stringed instrument, with a cap placed on the stage to collect tips. We hurried inside, and the door closed behind us.

“Caretaker Zana!” An older Volk woman yelled from behind a bar. She’s either the tallest Volk ever, or is standing on a stool, I thought looking over at her. “Who are these folk?”

“Proprietor Klara, this is (hero)s Aiden, Vaya, Bridget, and Jon, along with their Bonds. The Ashkhas (name) will cover their costs today,” Caretaker Zana said, immediately stifling all conversation. The Topraki girl got wide eyes, and she stood on her tiptoes to see over the patrons as they jumped to their feet. The Ashkhas group standing nearest to me bowed low, making a right angle at their waist. Like a reverse wave, everyone else in the inn bowed as well.

Vaya poked my back. I looked at her questioningly, and she gestured with her head at the bowing crowd. “Uh, thank you. Please, go back to your meals,” I said uncomfortably.

“Come, please be seated over here,” Klara said, hopping down next to the bar and leading us to a larger table. She was only a bit over one and a quarter meters tall. There were six chairs, but she grabbed one and hauled it off. I sensed her strength as Foundation Condensation. She had dark brown hair and black eyes and a wide grin on her face. “Here you go, pretty birdies.” She brought back two perches that would let Sia and Zim, both in their smallest forms, sit at the same height as the table. Kami just sat in an empty spot between chairs, and Lampart was able to hop into the fifth chair, taking the spot next to Vaya.

“Uh, can we have water, please?” I asked. “And some food would be awesome.”

“Of course!” Klara said. “We have poached River Bass over a bed of Rainforest Asparagus, Jungle Boar stew, or (Deadly Flame) Anaconda on a bed of various lettuces. The Anaconda is level four, while the others are level two, and so you will get less meat overall.”

“One of each!” Jon said loudly, his stomach gurgling.

Klara looked over the group and nodded, “I will bring out two of each dish along with your drinks. I will also dig up some Soldier Ant and Jungle Boar meat for the Bonds. Be back in a crack.” She turned and bustled out through the door behind the bar.

“Back in a crack?” I asked, looking over at Jon.

“Crack of thunder,” Vaya said when Jon shrugged.

“Neat,” I said, then lay my head on the table. Vaya reached over and massaged my neck. “I love you.” She paused, and I looked over to see her with a beauteous smile and shining eyes on her face.

“I love you too,” she whispered, leaning in close to me. She put her head on the table and pressed her forehead into mine.

We rested like that for a minute, when Klara returned bearing two large trays. A shining band of Earth Aether held them level with her hands, and she quickly set both down on the table. Each tray held two platters of food and a large bowl of soup. We each received a smaller plate and bowl along with a knife and a spoon to eat with. She bustled off, disappearing quickly, and then returning with four glasses of water. She expertly set them down in front of us. She then left to grab four shallow bowls, also full of water, for each of the Bonds.

I tucked in, grabbing a small piece of Anaconda meat and a large helping of the Glacier Lettuce, (Water) Cress, and (Forest) Kale. There was a light glaze of a tangy sauce on it that made the meat melt into my mouth. The leafy greens Aether tempered the burning of the Fire that filled the Anaconda meat. I ate slowly, enjoying the food and the camaraderie, letting the Aether from the meal slowly fill my Aether pool.

An hour later, we’d demolished every bit of food. Klara had come back twice, once with the meals for the Bonds and once to bring a third of every dish. After two glasses of water, we’d switched to a refreshing fruit tea that Klara claimed was a specialty of her homeland. I was sitting and sipping while Bridget and Vaya debated the best way to wear their hair in a fight. I wonder if we’ll find any Dungeons like Bruno’s in Craesti? It’d be great if one popped up fairly close to Azyl, but I doubt we’re that lucky. Maybe they can move, or spawn another if they grow enough? I wonder what their purpose is now, since it seems like Light broke the connection they had to Chaos.

I yawned, extremely tired considering it was only midday. “Proprietor Klara,” I waved my hand at her. “Is there a place where we can put down a Beast Core Aether Formation and gather for an hour or two?”

“Of course. My inn has three gathering rooms with Formations already carved,” she said. “Two of them are open now.”

“I will take the other Bonds to find a place to rest,” Sia said. “And I wish to see if Ezekiel is around.”

“Have fun. If you manage to speak to him, tell him thanks from all of us,” I said to Sia. He smacked my head with his wing, then flew towards the door. Zim, Lampart, and Kami followed after him, though only after getting a head pat or scritch from their partners.

“See, that’s how you’re supposed to treat me!” I laughed at Sia.

“Only when you earn it,” He cawed with laughter, and the other patrons of the inn laughed along with him.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, fireball,” I grumbled, then followed Klara into a hallway, grabbing my bag as I went. On one side were three doors, with a fourth straight ahead, and on the right were the stairs to the next level.

“The second or third room is available,” she gestured at them. “The third has a better Aether Gathering Formation, but not quite as good of a Beast Core Aether Formation. The second had a better Core Formation and an Isolation Formation, but does not have an Aether Gathering Formation, so it only has the Aether from whatever Core you use.” She paused for a second. “I have heard that the other teams love to use the second room with the Cores from the Dungeon, since they have no Affinity. Is that true?”

I pulled my backpack off and pulled out one of the level six Cores we’d received. “Check it out for yourself,” I said, then handed it to her.

She stared at it for a few seconds. “This is amazing!” she exclaimed, then handed it back. “Maybe someday I will brave the Jungle Arena Dungeon.”

“With some preparation, the first five rounds are not too difficult,” Bridget said. “I would be happy to talk you through what we did to prepare after we gather.”

“I would like that,” Klara said. A bell ringing was heard from behind us. “Please, enjoy the room, and if you need help come find me. I must be going.”

“Thank you for your help,” I said.

“You are most welcome, (hero) Aiden,” she said with a grin. She bowed to all of us, then turned and left the hallway.

“Alright, uh, which room?” I asked, turning towards the others.

“Second,” Vaya said. “We should use that Core you are holding to refill our centers and work on advancing. The Isolation Formation will make sure we use it fully.”

With a sharp nod, Jon led us to the second door on the left. The room was about four meters on each side. A pedestal stood in the center of the room covered in Inscriptions. The top was indented inward as a place to put Beast Cores. Six benches filled the rest of the room, three along the walls and three halfway between the walls and the pedestal. They were a dark brown wood, with runes carved into them. The walls were bare wood and yet more Inscriptions dotted them.  “Nice,” I said, examining the runes.

“The Saunas back at the inn have similar Inscriptions,” Bridget said, walking past me to get to the pedestal. “They are just covered by a decorative layer of wood to hide them.”

“Huh, learn something new,” I said. “Well, we’ve got another four hours until we teleport out, so let’s make use of the time.” I put the Core into the slot. The pillar lit up, the runes blazing with Aether as they pulled it out of the Core and dispersed it into the room. I hopped backwards over the bench behind me, then sat on the rearmost seat leaning against the wall. The others spread out, and I scooted sideways until we were all sitting in the corners of the room. We were as far from each other as we could be, to reduce the effect we would have on each other’s gathering. It normally didn’t matter much, but I wanted to squeak every bit of benefit out of the unaspected Core as I could.

After sitting, I looked over at my friends while turning on my Aether Sight. Jon, Vaya, and Bridget had already dropped into their meditation, and I could see tiny vestiges of their technique floating around them. Looking through Aether this dense is always trippy, I thought, it looks like thick, light gray fog is covering everything, but I can see every detail on Vaya’s beautiful face without distortion. It’s almost like the Aether is being processed and filtered out by my brain, but still allowing me to sense it. So weird, but awesome. Okay, time to gather.

I swallowed a Large Gathering Pill, the strongest one I had on me, and felt the energy it dissolved into absorb into me, massively increasing my Aether gathering rate. I then dove into my center, shutting everything outside it out of my mind, and looked around. I perceived the center of my gathering as a spherical organic cave sitting just below my solar plexus. At the bottom was my pool, slowly filling with Aether from being mostly dry. At the midpoint my Seed Core, gained from the first Dungeon out of the normal order of advancement, floated on air. Forming a ring on the outer perimeter of the middle of my center were the openings for all forty-two meridians, the maximum any single person could have. Above them my center curved, forming the crown, which had something to do with either the Threshold of Complete stages of the Condensation tier. I didn’t know. Directly above my Core, halfway to the top, four stylized runes in the shape of a Zarorzel formed the Bond Mark that connected me to Sia.

“Okay,” I said to myself, “let’s fill up first. Spirals, then runes.” I pulled a tiny amount of the Aether from my pool and formed it into spirals reaching out of my center to my skin. Each spiral was connected to a meridian, and looped to my Core. I had been working on this technique for months and was easily able to form them while keeping them from touching. The last ten percent of each spiral was laid close enough, though, that the gaseous Aether that flowed down each was compressed until it condensed.

At the outer edge of the spirals, I created the second part of the technique I’d earned from King Craesti, enhancing the pull of Aether into my technique. A sphere of points surrounded my Core, and inside it I drew dozens of runes to form the third part. Once done, my gathering rate spiked again, the pressure surrounding me from the Beast Core shoveling Aether into me as fast as I could take it. Twenty minutes passed before the Aether in my pool reached the base of my meridians. The pure Aether of the Beast Core split into a perfect balance of Elements for me, one of the many reasons these Cores were immensely valuable. “Light, strong pill, one of the best gathering techniques, and a ridiculous Aether density, and it still takes me twenty minutes to fill my pool,” I complained, then laughed. “Of course, it is better to have a massive capacity than a tiny one. Now, to fill my meridians.”

It took another ten minutes. While my meridians weren’t anywhere close to fully advanced, having so many made them hold roughly half what my pool could. “I wonder what Threshold gives? Eh, find out soon. Now, there’s still plenty of Aether in the air. (Name of technique) time, make my meridians larger and stronger.” Slowly I started to push the spirals out, dismissing the inner runes to make space for a different set, while starting my Aether flowing quickly throughout my meridian system. Five minutes later, I had them ready, and pulsed the flow to twice as much, squeezing my pool to shove Aether into my meridians. Part of my will was clamped over my Seed Core, keeping the Essence inside. “Yeah, not dealing with that again.”

The pure Aether from outside kept flowing into me, refilling the Aether I was using up to enhance and strengthen my meridians. “Huh, I wonder if I can keep it from splitting,” I said to myself. I kept the cycle moving, then reached out mentally and tried to grab a chunk of pure Aether from around me. It slipped through my mental fingers a few times, but I was able to get it quickly. I pulled it in, crushing it together to turn from gas into liquid, and then fed it into my life meridian. It wanted to split, but I wouldn’t let it.

It worked! I thought, feeling the burn as my meridians stretched. Wait, there is an immense amount of the unaspected Aether around me. Can I stop it all from splitting? I looked at the spirals flowing into my chest from my first technique, then widened one into a tube. I pulled the pure Aether into me through the tube. The first few motes split and changed, but I reduced the diameter of the tube until they couldn’t. It worked! I made the same change to every other tube.

Of course, the pure Aether still split when it came out of the tubes, but with the spirals all ending near the same spot, I was able to mentally grab every bit and hold them together. After a few seconds, I relaxed my grip on some of it, but they didn’t change. Win! I slowly created a ball of pure Aether, then split off enough to pulse through every meridian. I doubled up the Aether seven times, counting to ten between each pulse, then quadrupled the Aether on the eighth time. Each time using the pure Aether instead of aspected Aether.

The ball of pure Aether continued to grow, more of it coming in than I was using. I wonder, I thought, then when my count was up to pulse again, I instead doubled up and continued to send twice as much longer than just a pulse. I pushed a stream of Aether and kept it going, draining every bit I’d gathered to completely fill several meridians with twice as much Aether as they normally held.

It hurt. It felt like stretching my shoulder during physical therapy after tearing my labrum. It wasn’t beyond what I could take, though, and I could feel that the pure Aether was healing any damage it did. I pulled more in, filling up more meridians, letting the massive tube of pure Aether cycle through according to Librarian Narwan’s technique. Just, you know, twenty times bigger than the prescribed pulse and getting larger. Aether absorbed into my meridians, and I knew they were getting both larger and stronger.

I lost track of time, pulling and pushing, guiding my Aether and keeping the whole wobbly construct from crashing down around me, until there was no more Aether in the air. Slowly, the pure Aether drained away, used up to strengthen me, and I analyzed my gains. “Wow, that was as effective as the last ten gathering sessions combined,” I said, coming out of my trance.

“Really?” Jon asked. “I got maybe three times as much as last time. Still totally worth it, but ten times?”

“Yeah, I tried something new,” I said, then explained what I had done.

“Amazing,” Vaya said with a grin. “You came up with an improvement on a technique created by masters, in an hour.”

“Well, I mean,” I stammered. “To be fair, this is a new environment.”

“You should talk to LIbrarian Narwan when we get back, and we should get a room set up like this one for the other Cores,” Vaya said. “But for now, we only have half an hour until we need to leave, and I desperately need a bath.”

I realized that all of us had a black, gunky, oily film covering parts of our skin and hair. As if it was waiting for me to realize it was there, a disgusting smell smashed into my nose, causing me to gag. “Yeah, eww,” I gasped.

“It is not that,” Jon started, then he gagged too. “Okay, no talking, it gets in your mouth.”

We scrambled out of the room, almost running into Klara. “All done?” she asked, but the towels in her arms let me know that was a rhetorical question. We all nodded. “Good. The room at the end leads to two doors. Men, you are on the left, women are on the right. Inside you will find a couple of bath tubs. They are already full, and there are Inscriptions to heat the water. After finishing, drain them and rinse them, please. Use the dark red soap first, and then the green one.” She held out the towels.

I gingerly grabbed one, keeping it from touching any of the gunk.

“Thank you,” Vaya said emphatically.

Klara just laughed, “That is my job. I will knock on the door five minutes before the scheduled transport.”

“Race you,” Jon said, then sprinted down the hallway.

The bathroom had four tubs, each with a curtain hung around it. I quickly found the soaps, collected one of each color, and picked a tub. I closed the curtain and quickly started to get clean. Wow, this gunk just won’t come off, I thought while scraping away at my skin with the dark red soap. After a few minutes of scraping, the soap started to work, and I was able to clean myself off.

After our bath, we threw on a set of extra clothes we’d brought, just in case our first set got too damaged, and met the girls in the front. “Congratulations again on a successful Dungeon run,” Klara said when we entered.

“Thanks for your help,” I said.

“You are most welcome, but now it is time for you to head back to the Transport Formation. I look forward to seeing you all again,” she said, waving us out of the room. The other patrons clapped and cheered for us while we left.

“Okay Aiden,” Jon said. “Do not throw up on the Hunter’s Hall floor again.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” I enunciated at him.