Chapter 107 (Patreon)

Unedited, but it's here!

I said this on DIscord, but for those of you not on there, I'll repeat it. From next week onwards, chapters will be uploaded on Tuesdays, not Wednesdays. This is due to my new job, where I work all day Wednesday.

So, yeah. Chapters will now be uploaded 24 hours earlier than before.

See you next week!

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The Creator, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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The new island was coming along nicely. It'd taken a week to raise and shape the island how I wanted, but it was so worth it. It was larger than all the elemental isle's combined, and it showed. There were peaceful beaches, treacherous cliffs, a wide plain biome bordered by a forest, leading into a mountain peak. The mountain was a volcano, though a fake one like Isla Fuego. I still didn't feel comfortable breaching the magma chamber of the actual volcano I built my dungeon around.

But either way, the island itself was only the stage, now it was time to dress it.

At the shore, I manipulated the rock to look like a dock. a modern dock. The skeletons of a single cargo crane, a rusting metal monolith that rose from the shore, and the hill of cargo containers behind it held a maze. The maze was really simple, since I was going to go back to it and set it up properly later.

Thankfully my reserves of iron had been replenished after a few weeks of mining. The Metal island had drained them, and this project would need about the same amount.

A road emerged from the docks, leading through the middle of the town beyond it. Taking inspiration from a certain robot-filled post-apocalypse, the town was made up of the rusting, broken skeletons of skyscrapers. The basements were more intact that the surface, and I would be using that fact to great effect in the future. I took my time here, really making the place how I wanted it too look. The I flooded the place with vegetation and let nature reclaim the ruin on it's own.

Trees grew, and roots cracked foundations. Grasses and mosses covered everything they could reach. It didn't take long for me to be satisfied with it. Next was insects and animals. I made sure there was a healthy population of every insect i had. They were normal size, not intended to be the threat of the floor.

I did make the mosquitos louder and more agile though.

Animal-wise, I once again took inspiration from the same source. Bunnies, birds, and boars after an animal merchant recently arrived on Atlantis sold some pigs to Goldscale's assistant, Bapeep. The severe capriccio certainly took no nonsense from the merchant, fairly experienced with cajoling merchants and guilders by now.

With small animals done, I was left to wonder about what kind of monsters I wanted for this place.

In the ruins of a civilization, what's left behind, after nature has returned to stake it's claim? I didn't have the tech or knowledge of how to make non-court-possessed golems, nor clockwork or mechanical robots. I need something... primal.

I had an idea.

And I had a flock of chickens purchased from the same merchant, milling about with the pigs and sheep on the Tenth.

I could do great, but terrible things with chickens.

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The Scorpan Village, The Ninth, The Dungeon

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Kata waved to her friend as they entered the tunnel that would lead back to the pyramid. She watched intently as Hallmark followed Huea, and the passage closed behind them.

She turned, and began the journey to the Eleventh.

It wasn't a long one. She was already most of the way there. And her wings only made the journey faster.

Within the hour, she was flying over the seemingly endless waters, and the shining beacon of the creator's core grew closer.

"Creator, Medea, Whatever you want to call yourself. We need to talk, and I expect answers." Kata called. She felt his attention snap to her immediately. She could feel his reluctance to leave his current project, and then the moment he realized where she was, and the split second of panic.

Wait. Not the core island. You won't be able to handle the mana there, and I mean that literally. You see the new island on the horizon, to your left? Go there. It'll make my explanation easier.

Kata's eyes flickered left. There was, indeed, an island where none had existed before. She changed course, and could feel his relief when she passed by the core island.

Thank you. The last person on my island was Wave. You met him before, didn't you? I didn't turn him into a wyvern by choice. He was so twisted and changed by the sheer amount of mana in his body, I couldn't turn him back. I could only shape him into something new. It was the only time I'd been forced to change someone without their consent, and I don't feel like repeating the experience.

Kata said nothing, though that was an answer in itself, given how she felt him flinch in her mind.

As she approached, she immediately noticed the structures. Huge metal rods, both exposed and coated in rock. The buildings stood taller than any she had seen before, and she found herself wondering what they would have looked like intact.

Unbidden, an image came to her. A horizon covered in these tall buildings, their walls reflecting the setting sun like glass. Hundreds of them, reaching for the stars.

"What was that?" Kata demanded. The creator flinched.

A memory. Please, meet me at the tallest building.

"Meet you?"

Yes. I felt like an speaking to an avatar would be better than a voice in your head. This one's been around for a while, but I haven't used it for much.

Kata soared, her ethereal wings flapping unnecessarily as she slowed, then landed. On the broken edge of the stone floor, a figure stood. It was large, hooded. It wore a dark cloak, that concealed all else about it. It turned and Kata felt her breath catch in her throat for a moment.

It was a skeleton. The skull was of a drake-kin, but the eyes... they were unlike the undead Kata had seen earlier. They were the same Teal all of the creator's magic was. She remembered this one! How could she ever have forgotten? Maybe she'd just pushed the terrifying memory down. She stood, frozen as it began to speak.

 "This was one of my earliest experiments. No actual death magic involved, though observing it gave me ways to improve it," The skeleton said, it's jaw moving and actual words emerging from it's mouth. "Took a while to figure out the enchantment to make the voice. It's not quite right, but it'll do." The voice was androgynous, for all that every Child she'd talked to had called him male, and that he sounded like a man in her head. Perhaps that was her own perception coloring it?

"I remember you. You brought me food once, back when... when I was in the cells," Kata found herself saying. The skeleton... kicked out with a booted foot, kicking a stone off the ledge.

"Well, Yeah. I'm sorry about the mandarin, by the way," the skeleton said. "I hadn't made it that way intentionally. I was young. Am still young. I'm still learning, and though I know so much more now, I didn't then."

Kata shuddered at the memory. Another thing she'd pushed into the dark recesses of her mind. Then she shook her head. Get it together, Kataren!

"So. I have questions," Kata began, approaching the skeleton. He nodded, and sat on the edge of the rock, patting the spot next to him. 

"Of course. I have answers, but not all of them."

"Who are you? What are you, Really." A moment of silence, then a sigh.

"I... I don't remember my name. I was human, once, like you." The skeleton answered, and Kata blinked. He was what?! "I was born in a world of technology. There was no magic, and we had to adapt. We bent and broke the world. Nature gave way to concrete and steel." the creator swung the skeletal arm, gesturing to the broken towers around them.

"Eventually, we covered the planet. Every square foot of land was owned by someone, and your worth was measured in how much you could pay to live your life. I don't know how i ended up here. One day I went to sleep, and the next I was here. I assume the gods were involved, Though I don't recall meeting any. I just woke up as a tiny gemstone, and washed up on the beach far above us.

"I had some idea about my circumstances. They resembled stories I'd read back on my old world. It wasn't the same, but there was enough that was. I carved my first floor, and made the crabs. They were the first, and they were once so precious. I buried the first one to die, and from then on the crabs buried their dead on their own. I ordered them to give their lives in my defense, and they did and continue to do so. It's out of my control now. They've been doing it so long, I know that if I tried to tell them to stop, they wouldn't. They worship me. Devoted, zealous. They worshiped me from the very beginning, though it took time for me to see it properly.

Kata was still processing that the creator wasn't just a dungeon core. Wasn't some ancient, unknowable thing. He was a person, just like her. One given unimaginable power. He kept talking, more rambling than anything else.

"The first group of guilders to find me included the guildmistress, Layla. Called her Neo for a while, before I learned how your language worked. Whatever they saw from that delve, they took home, and my island was settled. Eventually I did learn the language, and i learnt what they actually thought of me. Some ancient dungeon, long dormant, and only just waking up. It made me more dangerous, in their eyes. They were more cautious.

"I ran with the idea. I made up a fake language, and scrawled nonsense messages everywhere. I made ruins, 'hints' at my age."

The skeleton stopped, rearing back slightly.

"Ah... I'm sorry for ranting like that. It... It feels good to actually talk to someone about all this. You have more questions?"

Kata nodded slowly.

"I do, but what you've already said explains a lot. Why you don't know the basics of mana and the concepts attached to them, especially. I've not forgiven you for having my best friend use fucking death mana, you turned her into a nercromancer!" Kata took a deep breath. "But I understand."

"So, first things first," Kata continued. "I'm going to explain the elements and gods to you. Hopefully that'll stop you from doing something else so utterly braindead as getting the Ferryman's attention!"

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Outside a Baby Dungeon, Near The Holy City, Theona

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Tamesou Akio walked with his fellow teenage heroes into the dark cave as Sophie's mentor, Jinasa, lectured them.

"This is a baby dungeon. We call it that, because this dungeon only recently breached the surface. It's manastream is thin, and it doesn't contain any true monsters. We'll likely find normal animals, mutated by mana exposure, who were drawn by the cave and the promise of shelter. It hasn't had the time to develop thought and strategy beyond it's base instincts."

"Did you say mutated? What do you mean by that?" Sophie asked, head tilted in curiosity. She was garbed in leathers, as her mentor was. The dual daggers at her hips radiated a sense of menace.

"Mana is directed by the subconscious wants and needs of the body, especially by beings without a core." Jinasa responded. "A Core filters and purifies those intents. For example, an animal exposed to large amounts of mana in a short period of time, who instinctually wants to be larger and more dangerous might grow three times it's size, while developing extra limbs. This is a mana mutant. Seemingly random additions, with no coherence between them. Monsters were exposed over a much longer time, and the mana slowly coalesced into a core."

Jinasa suddenly stopped, listened to the quiet for a moment, then raised a hand with three fingers splayed.

Akio, Sophie and Bruce nodded, readying themselves.

They approached silently, and soon the teens could hear the snarling yips of three foxes, and an soft glow grew in the distance of the long tunnel. It wasn't long after that the foxes heard them, and rushed into the light shone by the sprite hovering over Heliat's shoulder.

Jinasa had been right. They looked like mutants from some kind of video game. Warped, twisted. If you'd told him these things had been found living near Chernobyl, or emerged from a nuclear wasteland, Akio would had believed them immediately. 

The one in front had six feet, but only four legs. The front pair of legs each had two shins extending from the same knee joint. It's eyes fixed on the humans immediately, and it's unhinged jaw was filled with hundreds of teeth.

The next glowed. It glowed a blue that evoked a memory Akio had, of watching a video of a nuclear reactor. Yet, while it glowed, it was also transparent. Akio could see it was the core in it's chest that glowed, and the skin and muscle.

The third had two heads, half-merged together. It's single neck wasn't large enough to support both. The heads dragged on the ground, and because of that it lagged behind the other two.

Akio raised his sword and shield, stepping forward. He was the tank, and it was his responsibility to take their attention while his party damaged them. The fastest fox leaped toward him, and Akio shifted quickly, Four sharp-clawed paws slammed against his shield. He moved with the blow, feet planted and knees bent, then pushed back. The agile fox was thrown to the ground.

There was no time to think. The glowing fox was upon him. 

A beam of mana erupted from it's core, passing through it's transparent flesh harmlessly. Akio raised his shield again, but this time pushed a prepared spell down his mana circuits and into the shield. The enchantment accepted the packet of energy, and as the beam of horrifyingly blue light speared toward him, his shield manifested a barrier of glorious yellow light. It required a constant drain, as most of his spells did. The Foxes hissed and flinched as the enchantment activated, the flash was so powerful he wouldn't be surprised if they were actually blinded.

The beam splashed against the shield, and Akio flinched a little at the drain. It was more than he'd expected. Thankfully, he was able to cut off the flow and let the enchantment on his shield fade as Bruce and Sophie joined the fight.

Water whipped out from his right in the shape of three tentacles, their tips shaped and molded to spikes that Akio had seen pierce steel. The agile fox, still half-blinded by the flash of light his shield had caused and stumbling to it's feet from where Akio had thrown it, was unable to move out of the way.

Bruce's water spikes pierced through it's heart, and the agile fox died.

Akio saw Sophie emerge from the shadow behind the two-headed fox, thrown by the light of glowing fox. Despite it's two heads, it was even more vulnerable to the flash of his shield than the others, and it's stumbling made worse by the excess weight on it's neck.

Sophie's daggers found their ways into it's chest and heart. And the two-headed fox died.

Akio himself stood forward, his sword slashing down at the glowing fox. It growled at him, not as affected by the flash as the other two. They went back and forth, him lunging, it dodging. It striking, him shielding himself. After the third time, Akio decided it was time to change things up. He cast another spell, this one passing down his arm and into his sword. This time, when he slashed, his sword released a glowing yellow arc of energy. 

The glowing fox attempted to dodge like the previous strikes, but it hadn't expected the magical attack. The light struck it, and cut it in twain. It's two halves fell to the ground, and the glowing fox died.

"Well done, young heroes!" Heliat congratulated, his gauntlet landing on Akio's shoulder. "Well, fought. You kept their attention well, Young Akio, and your actions provided the openings your party members could take, ending the fight decisively. The speed and strength to end your own fights sooner will come with time."

Akio nodded. He could hear Jinasa and Adriane, the water mage, advising Sophie and Bruce on their parts in the fight, but his eye was drawn by the core on the ground. He stepped toward the bisected, glowing fox. He knelt, and reached out. The fox had been cut down it's middle, and he didn't have to reach far into it's chest to grab the core. He pulled it out, and admired it.

It was the shape and size of a marble. Unfaceted, smooth and clean. It still glowed with that internal blue light, though it had faded slightly from when it was inside the living mana-mutant.

"This one was probably in here the longest," Heliat noted, gesturing to the glowing marble Akio rolled around in the palm of his glove. "Perhaps the first monster to find the core, when it's stream was even weaker. It was exposed slowly, and developed this core before the other two even entered the cave."

"It's pretty," Sophie commented! Akio jumped, not having noticed her approach. She was getting too good at being quiet! "It's so.... tiny."

"It's not useful on it's own," Jinasa said, taking the core from Akio's palm. She glances at it for a second, then her lecturing tone returns. "Cores, monster or dungeon, are used to power enchantments. They are the only material we know of that can hold mana for any decent length of time. They can only be recharged so many times before they degrade and break, so we need to keep collecting them. Dungeon cores last much longer than monster cores, and are preferred, but they are much rarer to actually claim."

She places the core back in Akio's hand, then waves her own down the hallway.

"I'm pretty sure that's all the monsters. This dungeon isn't very old. Even then, don't let your guard down. They like to keep their most powerful creatures close, just in case.

"Shall we?"

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