The two more than made up for the missed summer vacation. But staying in a Dungeon, isolated from the world, took its toll. That's why, after one month inside the Dungeon, they packed up and went back to Team Actus' gym. Only 4 seconds had passed since Robert took Amanda from the infirmary bed.
They made their way back to the attached classroom. Upon entering, Robert took a good look at Noah's mask. He saw bands of runes shooting out of the mask and wrapping around his head and chest, glowing ominously. A black aura that had a cutting property to it shrouded the teacher and the eye painted on the mask seemed to be floating a few inches in front of it, its pupils swiveling everywhere in a maddening pattern.
Robert flinched. "Goodness, professor!"
Noah laughed ruefully. "Did you finally take a glimpse at my curse? I told you it was a nasty one."
He sat at the back, while Amanda sat next to Camille.
*
*
Camille glanced at Amanda with her brows creased, studying the young woman. (You seem different. Did ** something ** happen in the infirmary?)
Amanda fluttered her eyelashes dreamily, taking a deep breath. (Not in the infirmary but something ** did ** happen!)
Camille opened her mouth, then clamped it shut and bit her lower lip, leaning her ear closer. (Girl! You gotta tell me ** everything **!!)
Amanda stole a brief glance at Robert, then gave Camille a smug look with half-closed eyes, then licked her upper lip. (See that ** hunk ** in the back? It's mine. And I got all over him!)
Camille made a faint squeal, tapped her feet, then nodded. (Squee! About time! I'm ** so happy ** for you! You slay, Queen!)
*
*
With the men oblivious to the secret non-verbal conversation, the lecture went on. For several minutes, Robert couldn't look at the mask. When he got used to seeing the curse, Noah handed him a sheaf of papers. "Homework for the missed month," the masked professor said.
Robert winked out of existence for 80 milliseconds, then returned in the same position, making a faint pop sound. "Good to go, teacherman! All done! I really liked the problem about scaling aptitude at higher star rankings." He handed the sheaf back. "About the unique shell theorem, I have a question that popped up during my vacation, I seem to be earning aura at a slower rate than back during the expedition. And my unique skill, it uses a shit-ton of essence but doesn't have any drawbacks? And my primordial Ether generation doesn't seem to be 33% less than what Amanda displayed. I did some calculations based on the data she gave me, and it seems I was earning Aura between 23 and 27% less than her. Given my number of affinities and relative power, I was expecting at least forty percent. I did the math on the back of the last page."
Robert saw the eye blink rapidly. It was unnerving because he got used to the eye being just a painting. Noah examined Robert's math. "It seems you are correct. Your unique spell takes only essence? No special ritual, no drawbacks? Not even a migraine?"
"That's correct." Robert nodded.
"And you need to say the spell name out loud."
"Yes... wait. No way." Robert got a gist of where Noah was going, and he didn't like it.
Noah nodded in agreement. "You don't have a unique spell. You have a stage 4 spell. Cerebelon didn't give you a unique spirit, it gave you a small eidolon."
Robert froze in shock. He had no idea which alternative was worse. That Cerebelon could create unique spirits, or that the so-proclaimed God of Transformation and Pink Brain Stems could coerce Eidola into submitting to mortals and create a ran 4 shell from scratch. Not only that, but also granted an affinity on its own.
The rest of the lecture was about what they should read and prepare for next week.
*
*
In the afternoon, they decided to explore one of the seventy passages in the Gurglock realm. Now that travel time was measured in seconds of real-world time, Noah decided to add more field trips to his lectures.
The students all agreed it would be beneficial for them. Amanda got one free survey. Caroline could find new pok… creatures. And Robert was fine either way.
Robert dropped them on the island, conjuring a wide wall of force to block the rain. The realm on the other side was sunny and barren. Not a single blade of grass or a cactus to break the monotony.
On the other side, the weather went from moist to dry. Some moisture made its way across the passage but was quickly diluted as it mixed with the dry air.
Caroline summoned her Minotaur. As a fire/steel type… erm, dual Fire and Metal affinity, it was at home in this realm.
"Robert, scout the surroundings. Amanda, secure a defensive perimeter. Camille, have your Minotaur ready to charge and engage. This is an unknown realm. Be careful."
Robert stored his uniform as he transformed into a falcon and flew away. Amanda grew a wall of thorny succulent plants adapted to arid climates.
He flew in a spiral search pattern around the passage. After finding nothing more than a mile away from the entrance passage, he got a bad feeling and flew back. Robert shifted back thirty feet in the air and landed next to Noah.
"Burrowers," he said out loud. He exchanged a glance with Amanda.
"On it", the young woman answered.
Robert saw her inject Earth essence into the ground. As it spread fast and gave her a sense of what it encountered, she made a surprised face.
"I've confirmed the approach of burrowers," Amanda said.
"The force platforms are coming up," Robert shouted. He conjured horizontal walls of force, forming a big staircase with steps four feet tall by ten deep and thirty wide.
Everyone jumped up to climb the walls of Force as fast as they could.
The monsters, long, faceless centipedes with only a huge circular mouth three feet wide, crawling legs, and forty-foot-long bodies burst from the ground right in front of the passage.
Robert looked at them. Two stars with Fire and Earth affinities. They burrowed by softening the rock with their heat and then eating it.
"I'll keep you safe, so you can attack at will," Robert said.
Amanda stared at him with a grin and pretended to swoon. Then she flicked her hand. Her thorny succulent plants stretched and started to slap the monsters.
The image was so funny Robert broke down laughing.
Caroline and the deviant Minotaur both sent jets of flame down at the monsters. They aimed at the monsters further away to avoid burning Amanda's plants.
Amanda didn't stay idle. She hurled lightning bolts like a vengeful thunder god, of which every pantheon had one.
A few tried to grab and climb the wall of Force but Robert dropped the lowermost spell. He and Noah just watched as the girls went ballistic on the monsters.
"Robert," Noah approached. "I was thinking about that Clockwork Dungeon. I don't think the time in there is free. It makes no sense. The interval between ingress and egress is said to be random, right? Didn't some delvers experience time distortion when leaving?"
"Yes. Some delvers spent a month inside and got out within only a few minutes. The most extreme case was when a lot of people entered seeking a big bounty on a Conductor's Core. They only left a decade later but reported spending only a few days."
"Do you mean that nobody entered for a decade?"
"No. Oh, shit. Some delvers were hired to search for the missing… shit! They also left a decade later."
"My hypothesis is that the time inside that Dungeon is flexible but it snapshots and synchronizes with the real world from time to time. We can imagine it as a rubber band that stretches when people spend a lot of time inside and then pulls the Dungeon forward in time when someone crosses the portal to leave."
"I see. That means my use of the dungeon without leaving through the portal has left some tension on the rubber band."
"Or to keep up with the clockwork metaphor, you cranked the temporal wind-up key and stored temporal potential. The next person to use the portal to leave may release this energy and get catapulted into the future. Their future, because time will move normally for us."
"Do you think it might trigger spontaneously? Right now I have the portal under lock and key."
"Did you take into account human curiosity and stupidity?" Noah asked with a cheeky tone.
Robert saw two blue lines above the floating eye wiggle like eyebrows.
"Your mask became a hundred times more expressive now that I can see the real eye," Robert remarked with a chuckle.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
"Sure…" Noah drawled. "We need to talk about that talent evolution of yours. But back to the topic, did you consider that people will want to know why that security setup is necessary and send disposable mooks to investigate?"
Robert shook his head. "No, not really but now that you mentioned it… Damn."
"My advice is this. Create an intentional but covert breach of security. A guard shift change that leaves the portal exposed for a minute or two. See what happens."
Meanwhile, the fight raged on.
For every three monsters that died that died, two more came from the depths. They seemed to like to cannibalize their dead brethren and a couple grabbed a dead corpse and retreated to the battlefield with their prize. Some broke ground underneath Amanda's plants. She tossed sweet potato cuttings down, green Nature essence swirling around them. When they hit the ground, they instantly burrowed down. Stems with leaves grew as the plants developed at ludicrous speeds.
The monsters were attracted to the potatoes instantly. they feasted and even fought among themselves.
Robert was still surprised by how powerful these plants were and how fast they grew. Most Nature archs would be envious of Amanda. It was all due to her talent, which made everything about her plants harder, faster, stronger, and better.
"I don't want to ruin the surprise but we should take shelter!" Amanda said.
Robert wrapped every member of their group with a resilient sphere. One minute later, the monsters started to bloat. They inflated like balloons and then blew up in a shower of dust, rocks, and hot gore. From the gore, more sweet potato plants started to grow at a slower pace.
"Any monsters that come this way will eat the potatoes," Amanda said. "Let's explore this place!"
*
*
And by "explore the place", Amanda meant sending Robert ahead to scout for any places of interest. He found one and came back to teleport them.
"Whoah!" Amanda exclaimed with stars in her eyes. "A real castle!?!"
A full medieval castle, blocky, square, worn, and moldy. The edges and corners of the stone blocks were cracked and eroded. It had a deep moat at some time but it dried. Twenty feet below, a fetid, brackish mud was all that was left. Debris and some bones poked out of the mid every now and then.
The portcullis was down and entirely rusted. The drawbridge had long rotten away and fell into the mud below.
Robert bridged the moat with a wall of Force. The wrought iron portcullis was crap so he placed a spatial distortion prism behind it to deflect the beam upward and blasted a hole with his void lance.
Caroline left her Minotaur to guard the gate in case something snuck in from the outside.
The castle didn't have any life signs. The group split up to cover more ground and entered the keep. Everything that could deteriorate with the passing of time did. Only rusted and tarnished metallic pieces remained, all furniture and decorations gone.
This was an early Middle Ages castle and had only a few rooms. Robert tried to use retrovoyance on some metal bookbindinds but the place was too old and beyond the temporal range of his spell. Whatever knowledge they once encased was lost to time.
The only thing of value was underground. Past the tiny cells with piles of bones below rusted shackles, they found a treasure room. The chests were gone but the piles of gold, silver, and platinum coins survived.
Destroyed suits of armor and weapons held faint traces of magic. Even with their enhanced senses, neither Noah nor Robert noticed the enchantments at first glance.
But when Noah caught these traces of Ether in the metal, his interest was immediately piqued. These items were enchanted using obscure techniques.
"These items are an archeological discovery," he declared. "Amanda, would you donate them for research?"
"Will I get a tax rebate for them?" She asked straight away. "Once you put a lavish price tag on these unique treasures and stash them away in some museum?"
Noah chuckled. "You can rest assured. They might even name a museum wing after you!"
"Gosh, Professor! That might even warrant a research grant!" Amanda pretended to swoon.
Robert and Caroline watched in shock and awe as Noah and Amanda laughed like two villains ready to hit the antique market with the oldest trick in the book. Markup hot garbage with a new varnish and a truckload of hype, disguise it as charity and reap the tax benefits.
*
*
Robert sat in a meeting room with a Nubian police officer.
"They are bringing the prisoner soon, sir," the officer said.
Less than a minute later, the door opened. A guy in an orange jumpsuit, followed by a woman in formal wear and two guards entered.
"Mr Amir, thanks for coming," Robert said in Arabic. "Ms Talia."
"Mr. Blaze," Talia replied.
They took their seats.
"Ms. Talia, I would like to offer your client to pay off his debts with society and give him a Prime Vestige of his choice among the ones I have here if he can perform a service for me. Oh, and he will also get a delicious cake."
Amir was doing time for murdering a family of five. Not only the sentence was for life but he also had judgments against him in the equivalent of two hundred thousand dollars in fines and damages. Robert's offer not only would make him a free man but also an Archhuman. Talia was his court-assigned solicitor.
"And what is the service?" Amir jumped at the opportunity.
"Calm down, Mr. Amir," Talia said. "Let me do the talking, please. If you have any questions, direct them to me."
Both stared at Robert. He cleared his throat.
"The service is simple. Mr. Amir has to enter a Dungeon, use the Prime Vestige in there, and leave. This Dungeon never places monsters near the entrance and he will stay in there only for a couple of minutes."
"Where is this Dungeon?"
"I cannot disclose it but transportation to and from the Dungeon will be provided."
"What are the risks?"
"For Mr. Amir, close to no risk of bodily harm. He will even be allowed to borrow a Samson Minotaur™ armor while he goes inside. He has to return it immediately after leaving the Dungeon."
Talia leaned forward. "What's the catch?"
"The Dungeon has a high concentration of Time essence. Mr. Amir's egress from the Dungeon might happen faster or slower than expected from an outsider's perspective."
"Do you mean he can spend days, months, or even years inside?"
"No. He will spend only the time he needs to absorb the Prime Vestige and leave unless he decides to stay inside and wander away from the portal. If that happens, he is on his own. It is his time of egress that might change. We might see him leaving a second after entering or a long while after he was supposed to come out. This is all."
"What about insu–"
Robert raised a hand to stop Talia. "Ms. Talia, this is all the information we are willing to offer on the matter. You have two minutes to deliberate with your client before we will see if the next prisoner is more amenable to our offer."
"One last question," Talia said. "Why Mr. Amir?"
"Because of all the people I looked into, he has nobody who will grieve him if he vanishes. I could offer it to any random beggar in the streets out there and they would jump at the opportunity. Heck, even the guards here are thinking it's a waste. But I like to sleep with a clean consciousness."
He felt like a hypocrite. The truth was, the moment Amir was released, Talia would forget about him. Robert admired her work ethic.
"Forget those two minutes," Amir cackled. "I'll take it. And Talia, you're fired."
Talia stared at Robert, shook her head as she made a disgusted face, and left without a word.
*
*
Wearing the equivalent of a fancy cardboard prop, Amir entered the portal to the Time Clockwork Dungeon holding a Prime Vestige in one hand and the cake in the other. Robert counted five minutes and re-engaged the barrier.
Robert sent the Samson guards away.
"Noah was right," Robert muttered. Amir could stay in there for another five minutes or, more likely, two years and two months since that was the amount of time Robert stole from the Dungeon times the number of people.
He sat down on a chair and patted Freddy's head. The Taulusian's talent trumped over Robert's fairy eyes and his spatial senses. The only way to find Freddy was through touch. The talent prevented the sensation of touch but didn't make the alien refugee intangible.
Robert only knew he was touching Freddy because his hand experienced some resistance moving into the space occupied by Freddy.
He could have fooled Amir with his Mental spells but Robert knew he would have a hard time not making the murderer suffer. He also had no interest in seeing the inside of that head. Freddy's illusions worked perfectly.
Another five minutes passed and Robert gave up on waiting. He set the shield's automated defenses to kill anything that came out of the Dungeon and recalled the guards. When and if Amir came out, he would be notified.
But the free time shenanigans were over.
*
*
A week later, Noah took his students to the new room he added to their private gym. It was a modern Ethercraft crafting workshop.
In the middle, it had four workstations full of tools and gadgets. The walls were taken by several specialized machinery. From a blast furnace and anvil to a CNC machine, carpentry, sewing, and an isolated glass box with two funny gloves and a fume hood to mix dangerous and volatile reagents.
It even had a base crystal press next to the blast furnace, to compact and purify Ether-rich crystals (like the slime cores) into base crystal for engraving. The best part was that it didn't require dropping a metal ball twenty-five miles on it to work.
All the crafting stations present worked on the essence donated by the students at the gathering facility.
Noah let the three explore the place for a while, then gave his speech.
"This facility is for you. Except for the introductory course on the use and safety of the workstations here, the workshops we will undertake here are optional but will be worth extra credits. Robert and Amanda, since you have some experience with crafting, I expect you two to help Caroline."
Amanda elbowed Robert and gave him a stern glare. She mouthed, "Leave it to me" for some reason.
Enchanting was hard because most people couldn't sense magic. Most of the failures Robert and Amanda suffered during the expedition were because they couldn't see how the runes interacted with the base crystal. By the time they sensed something went wrong, it was way past the point where they could correct any mistakes.
Robert's fairy eyes opened the opportunity to become a professional enchanter. His ability to procure rare resources and reagents quickly, combined with the vast amount of time he had to train and study made him the equivalent of an army of apprentices and hunters.
"Caroline," Noah called. "I know you are busy training your creatures and developing your vast repertoire of spells, but I'd like to tell you that you have an unparalleled advantage should you try your hand at crafting. You can have any affinity under the heavens with the right monsters.
"Enchanting more often than not requires cooperation and a huge amount of donated essence. This help is often expensive. You can make any enchantment on your own. Or even borrow some essence from your creatures. Better yet. You can place a commission to get a bonded monster with a talent to see Ether."
Robert's eyes went wide and his mind went into overdrive. Caroline's talent was ridiculously good, practically perfect for enchanting. So long she could forge her symbiotic bond with a monster, she would share her powers with it.
Amanda elbowed him again. "Don't even think of getting her one for free," she whispered.
Robert opened a telepathic link. "Why not?" He asked.
"Did you forget she is part of an enemy faction? One that makes children Archhumans at ages as low as three? Do you know why there`s a law against letting people under sixteen become Archhumans?"
He knew from the books he read but that was a topic so taboo that it was as well-described as the reproductive system in ninth-grade books. "Enlighten me."
"It's the same reason you don't give children torches or swords! Because they will damage something or get someone killed. And those children Archs are indoctrinated to hell and back. I bet that if you take a peek inside Caroline`s head, you`ll be shocked."
"I bet that if I took a look at your head I would be also surprised," Robert said.
"I want to see you try," Amanda said, with a challenging smirk.
"I'm not scared of your grandma," Robert retorted.
"it's not her you should fear."
Robert wondered if the girl`s mind was booby-trapped. It was all rhetorical, he would never have the guts to mess with her mind.
Meanwhile, Caroline seemed like a kid on Christmas. The prospect of earning a living without having to fight was very enticing to her. Especially because she wouldn't have to risk her creatures. What Robert did you leave during the tournament still haunted her mind. Open quote do you know of any creatures that have the talent to see Magic? Close quote she asked Noah.
open quote we could research that in the library, close quote Noah said. Paragraph mark Robert`s imprint search the books right after Noah said it. The improvements to his mind Palace during his time with Titania in the Clockwork dungeon increase the time dilation there. It was now six times faster than in reality. The imprint weekly found what they were looking for. A hard-to-catch monster in a depth four passage Realm accessible only through a hub in Moscow. He was eager to tell them that but Amanda's warning still rang in his mind.
Noah sent a glance his way. Roberts saw the mask`s eyebrows wiggle. He couldn't help but laugh. Amanda gave him a weird look but said nothing.
Without further ado, Noah started his security lecture. He went through all the stations explaining what each did and the safest way to operate each one of them. Their time was over a few minutes after he finished going through all the stations. The students each picked a workbench. Amanda had Caroline take the workbench behind Robert for some reason.