Chapter 33 The Core of a Dungeon (Patreon)

Inside the heavily defended stone orb was a broad magical control room. Half a dozen mages inspected illusory panels like technicians monitoring a nuclear power plant. The displays didn’t make any sense to Nathan, but they seemed to be controlling the wizardry across the Academy.

Oh yeah, this looks like a jackpot.

An artisan mage, a war mage and a strongly built archmage were clustered around one of the control panels, talking in hushed voices as they discussed whatever it showed. The war mage cast an idle look towards the door as it swung open, then did a double-take as Nathan pushed the heavy slab of metal shut.

The lock reengaging with a quiet hiss just before the red-robed woman raised her voice in a shrill yell. “Assassin!”

Everybody spun towards Nathan and dangerous magic kindled in every mages’ hands. But they were trapped with him in an enclosed space, and there were no golems to get in the way.

Nathan went straight for the archmage, sending lashes of aura to break the spells being cast in his direction. A lightning bolt exploded in the war mage’s hands, and she fell in a smoking mess as Nathan’s antimagic tore away the containment portion of the spell and the magic grounded itself through her body.

More spells went awry around the room with pops and explosions. The artisan mage was just trying to cast[Message], but it warbled away in his hand even without Nathan’s interference.

The archmage didn’t try to flee, instead quickly snapping off a pair of self-buffing spells and hurling himself at Nathan. A blade extended from a bracelet, crackling with dark power as a full-body suit of armor tried to expand over his body from a belt.

A concentrated wave of antimagic interfered with the summoning process and the man’s armor stuttered as it slithered up his chest. His blade flickered, drooping flaccidly. The armor seized up, causing the archmage to stumble forward, off-balance.

Nathan met him with a knee to the temple, snapping back the archmage’s head with the crunch of broken bone.

He laid into the rest of the mages before their leader’s body even hit the ground. They didn’t stand a chance. He was faster and stronger than they were, and could break every spell as they cast it. Mages of Giantsrest didn’t usually train in melee fighting, and soon enough he stood over six bodies in a bloodstained control room.

{Spellslayer has leveled to 331! You have killed archmage Seacos dho Fedroz, as well as the mages Nire dho Den, Wifni dha Shiz, Mua dha Nohra, Pal dho Rornaz, and Wiv dho Nhir}

I suppose I’m not in a safe enough area for [Void of Magic] to level. Should have a pile of levels to look forward to later.

He’d managed to keep his antimagic away from the underlying wizardry, but the display panels had mostly dissipated to a mist that was only slowly reforming. Nathan shrugged, sitting down in a vacant chair and closing his eyes as he mapped out the flow of magic around him.

I want to know what this place is, so I know how to break it to cause the most damage to Giantsrest.

The workstations and the desks were filled with complicated magic, all seemingly dedicated to storing and displaying information on displays, which had mostly been casualties of Nathan’s aura. But everything was grafted onto a layer underneath, static additions to the malleable wizardry of the Academy that let the mages of Giantsrest control the Academy as a whole.

Surrounding the room on all sides was the densest, most powerful wizardry Nathan had ever felt. It was stronger than Badud’s [Reverse Time], denser than the magic that made up the very shape of the Academy. This much wizardry could achieve almost anything, and Nathan focused down on a small section right underneath his feet to understand what was going on.

{Wizard’s Detection 3 achieved!}

The wizardry was communicating, firing information back and forth in branching patterns at a rate and density that Nathan couldn’t hope to keep track of. The constant flashing magic reminded Nathan of something, but he couldn’t quite pin it down. He spent a few minutes looking for a pattern, trying to figure out the underlying system to the signals, but was coming up with nothing. Each impulse seemed to go to multiple sources, where it was sometimes picked up and passed on and sometimes just ignored.

Wait a second. With [Mental Fortress] the only reason I wouldn't remember something perfectly is because it was from before I got the skill. That probably means this is reminding me of something from Earth. What was it?

Then he had it. This signaling reminded Nathan of slowed down neuronal action potentials he’d seen from presentations on optogenetics. A neuron would fire and the action potential would travel through the cell, reaching out to other neurons which would sometimes fire and sometimes not.

Am I standing inside of a brain? It seems… slow.

On a hunch, he scanned a portion of the wizardry that was farther away from him, on the opposite side of the control room. The wizardry over there was in constant blurring motion, moving as fast as thought.

I can only see it moving because [Magic Jammer] is slowing down the signals right next to me to a speed I can even detect. That’s probably giving this mind a bit of a headache. Maybe some nausea.

He opened his eyes and took in the control room again. At the corners and front of the room he saw more of the white material intruding through the smooth stone. It was fluted and ridged, more organic than it had looked from the outside.

This is a skull. I’m standing inside of a giant skull. The wizardry around me is what’s left of its brain, converted to pure magic and running the Academy.

Congratulations, you have developed the [Wizard Intuition] utility skill into [Wizard’s Understanding].

Utility skill: [Wizard’s Understanding]

With this skill, you understand magic and wizardry around you. This extends to all applications of magic and wizardry, including spells, enchantments and other effects.}

Nathan blew a heavy breath out of his cheeks, trying to figure out how this changed things. It felt like learning that the intellect of a dead giant was being used to run the Academy at the heart of Giantsrest should matter in some deeply important way. But it just meant the Academy was intelligent, and enslaved.

Should I just put it out of its misery? Kill the intelligence of the Academy, let it be at peace?

He frowned. That’s what he’d originally intended to do, but it didn’t seem right. This dungeon had originally been called the Grave of all Giants. Then a team of Questors had conquered it and converted it into the Ascendent Academy.

Well, what did they do to conquer it? It probably involved building this control room, to enslave the intelligence that controlled the dungeon. Could I free it from slavery? It’s kind of my thing.

Nathan looked around the room with new fervor, focusing on the various enchantments that had been grafted onto the wizardry of the control room. The control panels connected to each other in a separate network of magic that overlaid the organic layer of wizardry. He traced that magic and saw where it sank tendrils of influence into the sorcerous mind beneath.

It’s a mind-control spell on a grand scale. If a normal mind control spell is a police station, this thing is the goddamn pentagon.

{Wizard’s Understanding 2 achieved!}

He took a deep breath and centered himself, mapping out the scope of the spell entwined with the cognition beneath. There appeared to be a single failsafe on the spell, in the form of an unassuming box tucked in the corner. If it detected that the control spell was failing, it would cast an immensely powerful disintegration spell that would vaporize everything inside the skull over the course of a few seconds.

But the destructive enchantment hadn’t been meant to counter somebody malicious in the control room. It was a safeguard in case the mind that ran the Academy ever started to throw off the shackles placed upon it. Nathan found it simple to cut the box off from the rest of the spell.

At the very least, that’s a great argument for breaking the mind magic. I don’t know what it will do, but I know that the Founders would prefer this mind be dead instead of free. It was definitely them that cast this control magic, the spellwork is beyond anything that even an archmage of Giantsrest could cast.

Once he’d mapped out the full extent of the mind control magic, Nathan started tearing it apart. He didn’t understand half of the components he was destroying, but he didn’t need to. They probably included the mechanism that let the Academy whitelist people, and configure the settings of the enormous building.

He ripped it all out, trying his best to preserve the cognitive magic underneath. It was difficult, since the mind-control spell was much more robust than the delicate wizardry they connected to, like metal probes stuck into a brain. The mental magic seemed built to limit the kinds of thought allowed even when disconnected from the whole, so he verged on the side of causing damage to burn out all traces of the control spell.

I’d love to convince the dungeon to switch sides, to fight for Gemore. Could I move the antimage school here?

The room quaked as Nathan continued, shuddering in a kind of anticipatory spasm. He rushed to finish, not wanting to leave the job half-done. Nathan spent Focus to split his attention, directing dozens of tendrils of antimagic to finish dismantling the spell as quickly as possible.

{Congratulations, you have developed the [Mid-tier Aura Manipulation] utility skill into [High-tier Aura Manipulation].

{Pending utility skill: High-tier Aura Manipulation}

You will find it easier to manipulate your aura, including precisely controlling the shape and density across many targets. Will not increase the size of your aura at all.}

The shaking only grew worse, and the stone and material around Nathan started falling apart, annihilated by destructive wizardry that pulsed out of the very thoughts surrounding him. The door clattered to the floor as its frame distorted, and Nathan zipped through the opening to get out of the collapsing room. He dodged pieces of the falling stairwell and exited the skull. He paused in midair, watching as stone flaked away to expose the skull beneath.

I wonder if it will be able to communicate.

A voice sounded from above, furious beyond what mere words could convey. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!”

Badud had appeared next to what was left of the stairwell near the top of the chamber, glaring down at Nathan. The older man was almost foaming at the mouth, and he kept shouting. “I set you a challenge of wits and you murder like a mindless brute, then destroy a work of generations…”

Nathan was already sprinting upwards as fast as he could go. He’d activated his Rage for the extra speed and extended his antimagic in an attempt to catch the Questor while he was monologuing.

The man seemed to come to his senses and lifted his hands, channeling a familiar magic between them for a moment before releasing it.

[Reverse Time]

Nathan halted in his tracks, throwing out his aura to block the surging wave of wizardry that washed out from the Questor. The spell was tuned differently than the last time it had last been used. It would cover a smaller area but rewind time farther back, potentially undoing the last few minutes.

He really doesn’t want the Academy to be unshackled. Or maybe he’s trying to bring back the archmage I killed. Regardless, I need to stop the spell.

Antimagic clashed against wizardry. The last time Nathan had faced this spell, he’d barely managed to hold onto his memories. But he’d come a long way since then. The Questor’s magic battered against Nathan’s aura like a tidal wave trying to tear down a wall. He staggered backwards, gritting his teeth and spending Focus to maintain the antimagic through the strain. The magic lapped around the edges of his aura, skirting the edges of the awakening skull but not managing to punch through to the control room.

{Arcane Nullfield 4 achieved!}

Winds blew crazily in the protected space as half of the chamber went back in time while the other half obeyed Einstein. The guardrail where Nathan had killed the war mage flickered back into place, and the body jerked upright. The suddenly ressurected man looked around in a panic, trying to figure out what had just happened.

Nathan staggered in midair, feeling like he’d just lifted a castle with his aura. The Talent felt strained in a new way, and he coughed in an entirely psychosomatic response. There wasn’t anything physical that had been hurt the entire experience had left him feeling profoundly unwell.

[Force Pull]

Nathan looked up, gasping. He saw the war mage zipping up the chamber towards Badud, pulled by the spell. The Questor caught the man in a single hand and shouted into his ear. Nathan strained to hear what he was saying.

“Evacuate the Academy. [Message] everybody to flee.” The Questor hurled the mage through the hole in the ceiling with another spell, then turned back to Nathan with a snarl.

His voice rumbled forth, amplified to echo furiously around the huge chamber. “Boy, you have doomed this continent to a prophecy of death. I don’t  even have to kill you.” Badud’s expression twisted a snarl. “But I swear by Edes upon my magic, that I will see you dead for the legacy and potential you have destroyed.” The Questor held his hands together and began forming yet another grand spell.

Nathan felt a second source of wizardry building behind and below him, and he darted a glance downwards to what had been the control room for the Ascendent Academy. The stone had mostly fallen away to reveal a giant skull beneath. It was a bit more spherical than a normal human skull would be, and of course significantly larger.

The giant skull rotated freely, exposing eye sockets that burned with bright blue light. There was a third eye in the center of the forehead, smaller than the others. A spell grew there, bright as a mercury bulb. It felt to Nathan like a tiny dot of magic with enough power to wipe out a mountain.

I think this is one piece of magic I would do well to get out of the way of. Then it’ll hit Badud!

Nathan dashed to the side, doing his best to vacate the line of fire between the Questor and the dungeon core. He ended up in the zone of vacuum and started falling without any air to walk on.

Right, forgot about that.

[Oblivion]

Badud released his spell first, and a loose gray cloud swept downwards. It didn’t even disintegrate what remained of the stairs. The stone just didn’t exist anymore, and the air in the protected column was sucked towards the spell like it emptied into space.

Then the Giant skull released the incandescent orb of power, which rushed into the cloud. It slowed down and then expanded, light spilling out as the spells fought for dominance. For a moment it seemed like they would cancel each other out entirely, but then the light was smothered as Badud’s cloud continued onwards to strip away layers of bone on the giant’s face. It roared in response, but Nathan couldn’t hear the sound through the vacuum.

I think I should be helping the giant skull thing.

Nathan sent strands of antimagic out to rip through the supporting framework of the magic holding the air back. He wasn’t worried about setting off alarms anymore, and quickly swept a huge area clear of the security magics that made the chamber so hostile. The onrushing air blew him back upwards and towards the battlefield between the Questor and the liberated dungeon core.

{High-tier Aura Manipulation 2 achieved!}

[Oblivion]

Nathan rode the air and pushed harder, accelerating even faster to catch Badud’s recast of the same spell. He concentrated his aura down as he punched into the grayish cloud. The wizardry tried to eat away everything, to destroy things on a conceptual level. Nathan’s senses started to degrade as the magic wore away at his perception even as his antimagic shuddered like a tree in an earthquake.

Snarling, Nathan spent Focus to recenter himself and his grip on the world around him. This spell was even stronger than the first. He struggled to keep his aura concentrated as he punched a ragged hole in the center of the cloud of disintegrating magic.

Badud’s got to have some kind of skill or something to make his spells more robust, harder to disrupt. He’s a Questor, I bet he’d got a dozen skills reinforcing his spells in some way.

Nathan had been intending to swipe out a tendril of antimagic and knock out Badud’s flight spells, but taking out the wizardry absorbed all of his attention. The Questor was being careful to stay on the edge of the chamber, and he juked away to keep out of range of Nathan’s aura.

But with Nathan taking the brunt of the Questor’s spell, the dungeon core was free to cast its own magic unimpeded. It roared again, the sound surprisingly high-pitched and tinny. Three arrows of magic shot from its mouth, each one trailing explosions as they caused the air in their wake to detonate. They moved as fast as missiles seeking out their targets.

To Nathan’s surprise two of the attacks flew at him, and he was caught off guard by the destructive magic. He managed to twist aside from the first one, but the second one detonated against his aura just a few feet from his skin. The wave of concussive magic wasn’t as hard to resist as Badud’s spells had been, but the reality-bending effects still sent him flying backwards.

{Effortless Dodge 5 achieved!}

The missile he’d dodged detonated against the edge of the vast chamber beyond Nathan, shattering the shiny metal and blasting a hole in the wall just in time for him to fly into it and become caught in the falling rubble. Dust and wreckage buried him for a moment until Nathan flared his aura to clear the obstructions and leapt to his feet.

Thirty feet away was the war mage that Badud had brought back to life by reversing time. He was standing in a half-destroyed hallway, gawking at the destruction and Nathan standing in the center of it. The mage turned to flee, jetting down the hallway with a fly spell.

A golem lunged out of a side hallway, hands closing roughly around the red-robed man. The giant statue bashed the war mage against the floor and walls viciously. The first four blows cracked the stone, but then the [Mage Armor] broke and the fifth blow splatted the mage across the ceiling. The golem turned to Nathan and lunged forwards.

I hoped it would be on my side, but a Dungeon is a dungeon. It can’t be reasoned with, it just wants to kill everybody.

Nathan leapt backwards, buying space while he slashed out with four blades of antimagic. Each of the blows targeted one of the golem’s limbs, and it staggered as most of the magical links controlling its limbs snapped. Nathan dodged around the golem, kicking off of its body to send him flying back into the giant chamber as his antimagic struck again, dropping the crippled golem.

{Parkour 5 achieved!}

He flew back into the huge chamber, just in time to see Badud’s next spell.

[Ruination of Wizardry]

A directional shockwave tore through space, blasting through the giant skull hovering in the center of the enormous chamber and out the other side. Shards of bone flaked off of the dungeon core, and the glowing eyes dimmed for a moment. The core of the dungeon seemed to rally against its own destruction but then it fell into fragments. Dozens of giant chunks of bone fell hundreds of feet to punch holes in the bottom of the chamber.

Then the Questor turned towards Nathan, his expression furious. “Now I will kill you.”

Here’s an example of the kind if neural activation I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yy994HpFudc

Skill comparison:

{Utility skill: [Wizard’s Intuition]

This skill helps you understand magic and wizardry and make intuitive leaps towards correct conclusions. It will extend to all applications of magic and wizardry, including spells, enchantments and other effects, but not natural phenomena.}

{Utility skill: [Wizard’s Understanding]

With this skill, you understand magic and wizardry around you. This extends to all applications of magic and wizardry, including spells, enchantments and other effects.}

{Utility skill: Mid-tier Aura Manipulation}

You have trained for fine control of your aura. This skill will make it easier to manipulate your aura, including precisely controlling the shape and density. Will not increase the size of your aura at all.}

{Utility skill: High-tier Aura Manipulation}

You will find it easier to manipulate your aura, including precisely controlling the shape and density across many targets. Will not increase the size of your aura at all.}

{Overall Status:

{Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 4

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 2

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 6

Class: Void of Magic level 338

Deepened Stamina: 9272/10440

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Spellslayer level 331

Regenerative Focus: 1682/3410

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Wizard’s Meditation 5

Inspiration 3

Acceleration 5

Wizard’s Detection 3

Alertness 8

Wizard’s Understanding 2

Effortless Dodge 5

Mental Fortress 10

Tutoring 3

Parkour 5

High-tier Noticeability 9

High-tier Disguise 1

Mid-tier Battle Cry 7

High-tier Aura Manipulation 2}