Ch. 36 – Sirinê (III) (Patreon)

Felix went to the door and opened it, entering a long, dark corridor that ended at another closed door. This led to a chamber with a series of red gemstones embedded in the walls – casting a dull light. There was a set of stairs going up and a few people in red robes who looked up at them. “Who are you?” One of them asked.

Felix used Fallen Flight and just waved, smiling, “A Versewalker. I’m here to solve your Dungeon problem. Mind pointing me to someone in charge?”

The various robed individuals looked at each other. One of them – the one who spoke – waved for Felix to follow him. “A real Versewalker? The one who stopped Invictus from collapsing?” he asked as they as they followed him up the stairs.

“That’s right. I heard you lot had some trouble with a Dungeon.”

The young mage nodded, “We couldn’t beat it. It is far tougher than in previous years. Even some of the graduate students couldn’t beat it.”

“What stopped them?” Tinuriel asked, her interest rising.

“It’s the third chamber. There’s something odd about it. No one who enters remembers anything about it – they just go in, and then come back out.” He shook his head as they entered a large main hall – a near mirror of the other College’s main entrance. He led them to the front desk, “Hey! This here is the Versewalker. Just showed up in the basement.”

Felix gave the man a firm handshake, “Thanks.” The man returned it and then went back the way he came. Felix turned his attention to the man behind the desk who looked taken aback. “Oh, right. The wings.” He canceled the Skill.

The man shook his head in disbelief for a moment before picking up a small book, “Umm…who do you want to see?”

“Whoever we can talk to about this Dungeon problem you’re having.”

“Ah, well, you’ll need to head there.” The man pulled out a map of the Tier and pointed to the same place that the Dean had at the other College. “You can take the road around the base of the Tier over to our base camp. Both Colleges have campgrounds there. Find the tall, bald woman named Josaphine. She’s the head Professor.”

Felix thanked him and the two left the building, following the road back towards the center of the Tier, and then over to the lifts to Ethdellin. They were similar in design to the ones leading down to Mercantus, but much more ornate and covered in gold.

“A bit over the top,” Tinuriel muttered as they went on the road going past and hugging the cliff leading up to the next Tier. Less people were traveling in this direction, and the two were able to leisurely walk and take in the architecture of the College of Chaos.

Compared to its Heavenly counterpart, this one was much more wicked-looking. It reminded Felix of the towers from a movie with two of them, all pointed and spiky. But not sinister. Just imposing. More towers rose from the center one, but there were no lofty passageways between them. There was an enormous, red pyre that flared from the top of the edifice. Felix’s (P) Dungeon Delver popped into the top of his vision, and an arrow pointed to the direction they were already traveling.

As night fell, they arrived at a campsite filled with crimson and black tents. A few robed individuals gave them glances, but none accosted the two as they headed toward the biggest and most ornate tent. To Felix, it was just common sense that the most important person would be in the best accommodation. And he wasn’t wrong, as he saw a large fire pit in front of the tent, and sitting around it were several robed figures eating something bubbling from a cauldron. A bald woman sat on a chair, staring into the flames.

“Excuse me?” Felix said, and the various robed people sat upright. “Hi, I’m a Versewalker. Are you Professor Josaphine?”

The bald woman stood up, set her food down on her chair, and walked in front of Felix and Tinuriel. She was mature, with piercing, orange eyes. “That I am. I’ve heard of one of you on the Tiers.” She nodded to Tinuriel, “And your friend.”

Tinuriel nodded, “What’s stopping you from clearing the Dungeon?”

Josephine shook her head, “Two issues. The first is the College of Heaven is preventing us from going in. We have a standoff of sorts. But what stopped us in our attempts was the third chamber. The first two were easy enough to deal with: a pair of wyverns in a large cavern, and then a chest that turned out to be a mimic. But that third room…as soon as we entered, we found ourselves back at the entrance.”

“Since my Escort and I are neutral in this whole thing, we can go in and clear the Dungeon.”

Josephine smiled, “I’d appreciate that. Let me ask, though. Would you give us the reward at the end?”

“Depends on what is in it for us. Dean Dromitus asked the same question.”

Her eyes narrowed, “You spoke with the College of Heaven regarding this matter?” Felix nodded, and the woman cursed under her breath. “And have you declared for them?”

“I haven’t declared for anyone.” He looked at Tinuriel, “Come on. Let’s go clear this.” He walked past the shocked woman, and she chased after him.

“Hold on! You haven’t heard my offer!”

Felix kept walking, but talked loud enough that the woman could hear him, “Make it worth my while.”

“Twenty thousand coins!”

He glanced at Tinuriel. She looked back at him and shook her head. “Sorry lady, that’s a no from us.”

The woman made a frustrated sound and went back to her campsite. Tinuriel chuckled and the two continued their path an expanse of shattered and ripped-up ground. There were lines in the sand – literally – as the terrain shifted to dust, debris, and granular substrate as the space between the camp they just left and the one-off in the distance was ripped up. An enormous, gaping cave extending deep into the cliffside was marked with a faint, purple line denoting a Dungeon.

A group of red-robed and blue-robed mages sat across from each other on chunks of rock with small torches set up, staring at their counterparts, as if tempting each other to try and enter the Dungeon. Looking for an excuse to break what appeared to be a tenuous ceasefire. The tension was palpable.

Tinuriel put her hand on Felix’s shoulder, “Let’s just sneak past them.” She pointed to a chunk of rock that would obscure the view. “If we get past the purple line, we enter the Dungeon, and they can’t follow.”

Felix nodded and activated Ghostwalk, following Tinuriel as they crept around the group of red-robed mages, and crossed the threshold of the Dungeon. The world warped and reality shifted as it had the past two times: the sky turned bright purple, and an enormous, purple nebula streaked across it. The cave was no longer some dark, foreboding entrance, but instead turned into a polished stone tunnel that extended down to a set of stone doors, ten feet wide and tall. An image of two wings graced the façade of the door.

“They said the first room is a pair of wyverns,” Tinuriel commented.

“Right. Weak spots for those are under the leg, where it connects with the body.” Felix swapped to his bow, and they approached the doors, which opened as if anticipating their arrival. This opened up to a large, square chamber with another set of double doors on the far side. A square pedestal with a white crystal was in front of them. “I guess we touch this to start the encounter?” Felix asked aloud.

Tinuriel walked up and touched the crystal. It glowed bright white before the pillar sunk into the ground. The two doors behind them shut, and the walls fell away. The ceiling vanished, and the floor changed. They were standing in a recreation of Fortis, the Tier that they first fought the Wyverns on. “That’s inconvenient,” Tinuriel muttered as she scanned the sky.

Felix scanned the sky with her, and he spotted a shadowed shape approaching at speed. “Detect Weakness.”

The golden circles appeared in the same places as before, but Felix just wanted the damage amplification from his (P) Slayer Talent. He pulled back the phantasmal bowstring, and a hardlight arrow manifested before he let loose. The bolt stuck into the weak spot with unerring accuracy, and the wyvern shrieked as it continued to dive.

Tinuriel stood patiently, still scanning the skies for the second one while Felix continued to hammer home shots into the one divebombing him. The eighth shot he finally hit the weak spot – a very tricky shot from his angle – and it went limp.

“Where’s the second one,” Tinuriel muttered. She turned around and then glanced straight up. “Shit!” She jumped to the side as a colossal impact shook the ground. Felix turned to the source of the noise and saw an enormous wyvern – double or even triple the size of the one he had peppered from afar – create a crater where Tinuriel was standing a moment ago. It screeched and lashed out with a tail tipped with a poisonous barb. The tail scraped across Felix’s armor but thankfully didn’t penetrate. The blow knocked him off balance and he was flung a short distance, rolling with the impact.

Tinuriel charged in, swinging her blade at the creature’s stretched-out foreclaw. Its claw caught the blade, and it peered at her before wrenching the sword. Tinuriel’s grip was strong, and she was lifted and whipped around before the creature flung her away.

Felix kept his distance and rattled off several Affinity Magic/Power effects and Skills. “Detect Weakness, Hellblade, Execution, Fallen Flight, Netherlight Mantle, Netherlight Cohort, Rebel Against All Odds.”

The golden targeting circles appeared on the creature’s joints below the legs but nowhere else. His bow hummed in his hands as it blazed with crimson-black flames. The white silver Netherlight surrounded him and Tinuriel as both sprouted spectral wings. Felix took to the sky, loosing shots down at the wyvern as it screeched, jumping up after him and flapping its wings, chasing him down. “That’s right! Come for me!” he shouted down at it as he tried to cluster shots at its eyes.

Tinuriel flew up from under it, a shining beacon of bright blue as she caught the creature from below, slicing into one of the weak spots and carving a leg off entirely with a blue flash of light. The creature shrieked and turned around in midair, lashing its tail down at her. She parried the blow with the flat of her sword, and riposted, cutting off the stinger.

Felix used the opportunity to fly off to its side, getting just the right angle to loose shots into the other weak spots. Its flight became erratic, and Tinuriel went in for another leg, carving that one free with another flash of blue light.

The wyvern screeched out before falling limp and beginning to fall out of the sky before vanishing into ash. The room reformed around the two as they found themselves no longer aloft, but back in the chamber. Both sets of doors opened. Tinuriel laughed as she hefted her sword on her shoulder. “Flying is so much fun! Did you see that? I carved its leg off!”

Felix smiled at her joy and gestured down the tunnel, “Let’s keep going.” Tinuriel led the way down the tunnel to another set of stone double doors that opened to another chamber with the stone pedestal and crystal atop it. She instantly slammed her hand on it, and it lit up before descending. The room warped and shifted, turning into some treasure vault. Three treasure chests surrounded them. “What did she say was in here?” Tinuriel asked.

“A mimic. Which, if they’re anything like media, means that one of these three chests is a creature in disguise.” He thought back to when he played Tabletop RPGs with his friends in high school – at the nerd table – and how they used to check every chest they came across in the game for mimics by pelting them with rocks. No need for rocks when I have unlimited ammunition. He pulled back the bowstring and shot the chest on the left – it vanished in a puff of smoke. “Fifty-fifty chance,” he muttered as he aimed at the furthest one. That, too, vanished in a puff of smoke.

Tinuriel grinned and flew behind the chest, raising her sword up high and getting some elevation. The blue energy - that indicated to Felix she was using some type of Skill - limned her sword as she flew down and brought the blade crashing with her. It sliced through the chest, which screamed and gurgled as the lid opened, revealing hundreds of razor-sharp teeth. The room reverted to the prior shape, and the next set of double doors opened. “If we didn’t have the warning, I bet that would’ve gone horribly wrong,” she stated. “I’ve seen one of these before – but it wasn’t a treasure chest. It was a chair.”

Felix shuddered, “That does not sound pleasant.” He faced the hallway and the tunnel, leading to another set of double doors. “This is the point where they all got turned around.”

Tinuriel’s wings faded, and she awkwardly landed. “Damn, it’s already been a minute?”

Felix landed and dismissed his wings. “Yeah, it only lasts for a minute on you.” He stepped into the hallway and leaned against the wall. “Give me twenty minutes to let my bars refill.”

Tinuriel nodded and leaned against the wall next to him as they waited. “What do you think is at the end of this?”

“My bet is some type of mage staff or something completely useless for us,” Felix replied. “A Dungeon Core, also, since I’ve gotten one of those from each other Dungeon so far.”

“Where next?” She asked.

“Do you mean when we’re done with Heficyre?” She nodded. “Well, I think we should spend a little time in the VBV. I wouldn’t mind having a bit of a vacation in between ‘Verses.” He nudged her with his elbow, “Plus, we could make use of the sauna, hot tub, and bedroom.”

She grinned, “Oh, that was always part of my plan.” She chuckled, “But what type of ‘Verse do you want to go to next?”

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