Althos leaped into the pool and was descending through it, surrounded by complete darkness, for a few seconds. As he fell through the air between the entrance to the tomb and the tomb's floor a notification popped into his vision.
Even in the absolute darkness of the strange area between the outside and inside of the tomb Althos could read the notification.
[NEW KNOWLEDGE NOTIFICATION GAINED: DUNGEONS.
DUNGEONS ARE CONTAINED AREAS RULED OVER BY POWERFUL INDIVIDUALS. THESE POWERFUL INDIVIDUALS USE THE EMOTIONAL ENERGY OF VISITORS OR CHALLENGERS TO THEIR RULE OR EVEN THEIR OWN MAGICAL POWER TO DICTATE THE RULES OF A DUNGEON AND TO GENERATE A RANGE OF MONSTERS TO PROTECT THE DUNGEON.
DUNGEONS CAN BE DEFEATED, OR THEY CAN BE CONQUERED. CONQUERING A DUNGEON REQUIRES MORE THAN MERELY REACHING A BOSS CHAMBER AND DEFEATING THE BOSS WITHIN. WHAT EXACTLY IT TAKES TO CONQUER A DUNGEON DEPENDS ON THE DUNGEON IN QUESTION.
DEFEATING A DUNGEON IS MERELY THE ACT OF ENTERING THE DUNGEON, REACHING A BOSS ROOM AND DEFEATING THE BOSS WITHIN. CONQUERING A DUNGEON IS MUCH HARGER BUT THE REWARDS FOR DOING SO INCLUDE CONTROL OVER THE DUNGEON.]
It was shortly after he blinked the notification away that he entered the actual dungeon. His vision went from revealing nothing to him, to suddenly showing him a long hallway and a floor less than five meters below him. As he was examining this, he landed on a hard wooden floor, almost falling over as a result of the sudden landing.
"That fall took a while."
He muttered, to no one but himself. Then the young god moved out of the way, knowing that his companions were likely close behind him. Within a matter of seconds, Tristan landed where he had just been, and a few seconds after that Salifinos descended behind them, his descent controlled due to the fact that he flew down and didn't just jump.
All three of them waited for the entity that had greeted them outside of the dungeon to emerge from above them, but it didn't. After waiting a moment they realized that it wasn't going too and so they all decided to continue alone for now. The soul-orb Althos had used earlier also never reappeared.
Althos took this chance to look behind them and noticed that behind them all there was, was a massive and impenetrable wall. It was made of what looked like several meter thick sand-colored blocks. This meant that there was most likely only one path forward for them.
Althos turned around and looked in the direction they were meant to walk in. What stretched out before them was a long hallway that was lit by ancient torches. The godling quietly pondered the unnecessary nature of the torches, since as far as he knew all devils had the ability to see in the dark like he did.
His companions were both also looking around them, both of them having landed more smoothly than he did. Within a few seconds, the trio acknowledged each other and silently began to walk forward, going into the long hallway.
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The floor beneath them was cool and smooth. It had been expertly crafted and somehow hadn't deteriorated over the course of what was most likely at least several thousand years. Salifinos was content to stay afloat using his wings to fly beside Althos. Tristan was on Althos's other side and the group quietly relied on Althos to sense any nearby threats.
Althos's mental map was working in the tomb and didn't detect anything as they made their way down the hallway that greeted every single challenger of the dungeon.
The tomb smelled of wood, flames, and sand. That trio was an odd mixture and so the smell it produced, even as ancient as the tomb was and as ancient as the flames must have been, the smell wasn't unpleasant.
Althos could hear their breathing and the shallow flickering of the torches that lit the path before them. The trio was silent as they made their way further and further into the tomb. Ahead of them, Althos began to be able to make out the next obstacle they faced.
Ahead of them, another door like the one Althos had opened before loomed but this one wasn't a trapdoor. As they began to get closer to it, it emitted a similar green glow.
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It took them nearly a minute of walking from where they were when they saw the familiar green glow the door began to give off as they approached to arrive in front of the thick metal door. The entity from before manifested itself within seconds of them coming to a stop in front of the door.
It began to speak right as they stopped in front of it.
"HAIL, CHALLENGERS. IT IS NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN. I HAVE COME BEARING A GIFT! SOUL ORBS OF YOUR VERY OWN. WHAT LIES BEYOND HERE IS THE FIRST TEST ALL CHALLENGERS MUST FACE. IT REVOLVES AROUND USING YOUR SOUL ORBS CLEVERLY. FOR NOW I SHALL GIVE YOU TWO ORBS, AND UNLIKE LAST TIME THESE TWO ARE PERSISTENT AND WILL STICK WITH YOU IF YOU'LL LET THEM. USE THEM AND UNCOVER A PATH FORWARD."
Then the entity once again opened its mouth and two soul orbs floated out of the creature's ghostly maw. The two creatures began to lazily float in the general direction of the group.
Althos stepped forward and established a mental connection with the two creatures. He did this by activating one of the spells on his list of "hotkeys" and then mentally selecting the two creatures who floated idly in front of him. He also made sure that the link would link them to each other as well.
This was practice for something that he may do a lot more often in the future and so he really experimented with it. It was to sate his curiosity and see how it worked.
[SPELL TYPE: MIND
SPELL NAME: MENTAL LINK
EFFECT: ESTABLISHES A MENTAL LINK BETWEEN TARGET(S) AND CASTER. USED FOR INITIATING TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION.
BASE COST: 100 MAGICAL ENERGY PER TARGET.]
Althos wasn't sure if the spell had worked, since he had never established a connection through filtered magic before. He decided to test it.
[Hello? Can you two hear me?]
Althos heard... something in response, but it wasn't really a communicable thought. He heard something softly resembling static, but he knew how to improve upon this.
But first, the god needed to check on something. He turned to look beyond the two orbs and at the floating skull, who was now lazily floating in front of them. Its mouth was closed and it was waiting for them to do something.
"Hey! Weird floating skull thing, you said these orbs stick with us right?"
The skull turned to more concretely face Althos and then spoke to the young god.
"YES, SIR TRUE-DEVIL. THE SOUL ORBS ARE YOUR COMPANIONS IF YOU LET THEM BE."
Althos nodded at that response and decided to do something no one had ever done before. He decided to awaken the soul orbs.
Althos's thought process here was sound. He recognized that the orbs were now basically a part of his party. He recognized that they were living creatures and that they were most likely non-sapient.
He also knew that they played an important role in successfully completing the dungeon. And that soul orbs were part of the forces he could and would command in order to defeat Paimon.
He figured that awakening them would increase their power and their usefulness, while also making it easier for the party to speed through this dungeon. So after thinking about how to proceed and exploring his divine powers, he felt ready to move this experiment into motion.
Althos selected one of his divine powers, targetted the orbs, and then activated the power.
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[NEW POWER EXPLANATION: DIVINE ENERGY DOUSE.
THE D.E.D. IS AN ABILITY THAT WAS CUSTOM CREATED FOR YOU, ALTHOS. IT'S A POWER THAT SOAKS WHATEVER IS TARGETED IN DIVINE ENERGY. THIS PRODUCES A RANGE OF EFFECTS, RANGING FROM COMPLETELY RESTORING THE STAMINA OF THE TARGET, TO EMPOWERING IT, TO FILLING ITS SOUL WITH POWERFUL ENERGY THAT CAN BE USED WHEN IT IS AWOKEN. AND THAT'S ONLY WHEN DEALING WITH LIVING TARGETS. IT CAN AFFECT NON-LIVING TARGETS IN A VARIETY OF WAYS AS WELL.
THIS ABILITY WAS CREATED IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE STRANGE AWAKENING SILANDER UNDERWENT, AND THE IMPRESSIVE RESULTS FUSING ENERGY AND MAGIC HAD ON HER. NO TWO CREATURES WHO UNDERGO THIS ABILITY WILL REACT IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, BUT IT'S HANDY FOR CREATING UNIQUE AND POWERFUL CREATURES.
CURRENT MAXIMUM TARGETING CAPABILITIES: TWO TARGETS AT ONCE.
COOLDOWN TIME: 1 MINUTE.
THIS POWER CAN BE LEVELED UP AND IMPROVED THROUGH REPEATED SUCCESSFUL USAGES. THE COOLDOWN TIME WILL DECREASE WITH EACH LEVEL UP, AND AT EVERY EVEN NUMBERED LEVEL UP THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF TARGETS WILL INCREASE. AT EVERY 5 LEVELS UNIQUE UPGRADES THAT DIVERSIFY THE USAGES OF THIS ABILITY WILL BE ABLE TO BE SELECTED TO FURTHER CUSTOMIZE IT.]
Althos willed the ability to take effect and felt divine energy leaving his unusual avatar body. He watched as the energy manifested itself as a directed stream of silver energy that connected him and the orbs and poured divine energy into them. The energy vanished as it entered the blue light they emitted.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The first change and the only physical one that was immediately noticeable was that the color of the light they gave off changed.
The two orbs went from emitting a solid blue glow to radiating a thick silver light. In time the trio of dungeon challengers noticed another change as well. The light they gave off warmed up, and became equal in temperature to the nearby torches that lined the walls around them.
Tristan and Salifinos were curious about what was going on, but they immediately realized that what they were witnessing must be some sort of divine magic.
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The divine energy seeped into the soul-orbs, the most wickedly evil bits of dark souls that adhered to the law and order in bringing about wickedness. Their tiny bodies could only handle so much divine energy infusing their very essences with raw divine power, and it didn't take long for the infusion of power to completely alter the two orbs.
Before their infusion, the two orbs could only barely be considered alive. But the infusion not only changed the nature of the light they gave off, it supercharged their tiny brains. The two creatures now had fully functional minds, unintelligent and primitive minds, but minds that had the same sort of potential as the minds of Tristan and Salifinos.
Their first real thoughts were of their surroundings. Their brains didn't have language or the knowledge to articulate thoughts in words, so instead their thoughts were images of their surroundings. Their minds quickly filled with images of the tomb they were in.
They very quickly noticed each other, and thought at each other. Without Althos's establishment of a mental link that connected them to each other this wouldn't have done anything, but because Althos had tied them to each other as well as to him it gave them a way to communicate.
Althos was pleasantly surprised at that unexpected outcome of the complex set of actions he had just spent the last few minutes doing.
Now instead of floating lazily through the air, like some sort of aerial jellyfish, they actively moved about. They darted around the hallway, even going behind Althos and examining his party members. They were intelligent, but not intelligent enough to be afraid of larger creatures. Like toddlers. Infernal, evil toddlers.
The instincts that caused all soul orbs to recognize true-devils as masters were still active in them and were actually actively reinforced by their enhanced minds, so they were a bit more careful around Althos than they were around his lesser companions.
Althos allowed them to sate their curiosity and went through his list of mind spells. He was searching to see if he had an awakening spell. And he found it. The spell was located within the small list of mind spells he had, and he repeated the targeting process that he had undergone when selecting the orbs as targets for his divine energy douse. Then he activated the spell.
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[SPELL TYPE: MIND
SPELL NAME: AWAKEN
EFFECT: IMMEDIATELY AND NOTICEABLY INCREASES THE INTELLIGENCE OF A CREATURE OR MAGICAL OBJECT, GRANTS THE TARGET(S) THE WILLPOWER TO RESIST INSTINCTUAL URGES, GRANTS THEM THE ABILITY TO SPEAK A LANGUAGE (WHICH LANGUAGE DEPENDS ON THE CREATURE OR OBJECT IN QUESTION, AWAKENED EXTRAPLANARS GAIN THE ABILITY TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF THE PLANE THEY ARE FROM), AND INCREASES THE TARGETS DISPOSITION TOWARDS THE CASTER SUBSTANTIALLY. IF THE TARGET WAS MINDLESS THEY ARE NO LONGER MINDLESS.
LIMITATIONS: NORMALLY CANNOT BE CAST ON UNDEAD, NORMAL OBJECTS, OR EXTRAPLANARS. SUFFICIENTLY POWERFUL MAGICIANS, I.E. THOSE WHO CAN AFFORD AN INCREASE IN THE MAGICAL ENERGY EXPENDED CAN OVERCOME THIS LIMITATION.
BASE COST: 700 PER TARGET.]
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The soul orbs were in the middle of flying around when they were suddenly hit by the spell. The spell's mind-altering and consciousness-expanding effects stunned the two orbs.
They were wracked with pain as their minds expanded and their awareness of their surroundings improved. The two orbs became truly self-aware for the first time, gaining an inkling of understanding and realized that they were living creatures.
They were also suddenly filled with fear of many things, most especially that which was bigger than them and also beyond their limited ability to understand. They were afraid of even the imp, who in comparison to them was positively gigantic.
They were also scared of the half-devil who was even larger and more solid than the imp. They fled from those two, retreating behind the one their expanded mind and magically gifted knowledge told them was their master.
The tiny soul orbs were not creatures that had consciousnesses. As a species, these creatures existed in a state of instinctual action and base level reasoning that gave them just enough intelligence to react to stimuli.
But the two critters who were undergoing the awakening process in the tomb of Agowraith were undergoing a process unlike that which any other soul-orbs had ever undergone.
Even before being the targets of empowered awakenings they were already legendary creatures in the context of their species by virtue of them soaking up directed divine energy.
Their emerging consciousnesses were fed some information, basic facts, by the unique processes they were undergoing to gain consciousness.
The first basic fact that was Althos was a true-devil. This meant that he was a creature with power beyond their ability to even imagine, and it meant that they were to obey him.
The second basic fact was that Althos was their awakener. This meant that he performed an act of great kindness and an act that merited them being grateful. This was conveyed to them in the form of basic images and lacked any real complex information.
These two creatures were less intelligent than even Silander had been prior to her awakening. They lacked an understanding of language and of tools, only understanding images and feelings and so the awakening didn't have the same immediate punch on their intelligence as her awakening had on her.
Despite the pain of their minds improving and their minds being filled with stimuli that it couldn't or didn't process before, they were keenly grateful to the creature who awoke them. This was because they were now able to learn, and they were even able to communicate with each other.
They conveyed this to each other using images and feelings rather than words or language, because they recognized each other as members of the same species.
Althos was keenly aware of what passed for their thoughts and could sense the strength of the emotions they felt, as they had no knowledge of how they could shield themselves against his mental intrusion.
Althos sighed and wondered if they'd have the same sort of attitude as Silander. After thinking about his companions his mood soured, and so he got right back to work to not think about the forest his consciousness had been taken from.
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Althos sent a mental message to the two orbs who were hiding behind him. He wasn't sure if it would work, but he wanted to be pragmatic and actually test things out instead of assuming what would work and what wouldn't.
[Can you hear me? My name is Althos. I am your master. I previously established a mental connection with you.]
Althos waited patiently and picked up that the creatures must have heard him because they sent each other and him mental images conveying their equivalent of confusion and shock, but it was clear they didn't understand what he was saying. That was when he received a particularly telling notification.
[ALERT: THE AWAKENING SPELL CAST ON THE SOUL-ORBS WORKED. PARTIALLY. THE CREATURES AWAKENED ARE CONSCIOUS AND AWARE. THEIR INTELLIGENCE HAS RISEN AS WELL. HOWEVER, FOR SOME REASON THE SOUL-ORBS WERE NOT GRANTED AUTOMATIC KNOWLEDGE OF A LANGUAGE. THAT SAID, THESE ARE NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN UNIQUE VARIANTS OF SOUL-ORBS. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THEY COULD BE TAUGHT ACTUAL LANGUAGE, AND BE INSTRUCTED IN HOW TO USE LANGUAGE, EVEN IF IT IS JUST THROUGH MENTAL COMMUNICATION. FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION IS REQUIRED.]
Althos huffed in annoyance at the creatures and the notification he received. This meant he had to change tactics.
Althos reignited the mental connection he had established between the creatures and himself. Instead of sending them a message, he waited to see what they sent each other so that he could learn from what worked.
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The two creatures were in a state of awe. That much was obvious. Their messages to each other were, as far as Althos could tell, observations about the world around them. To eavesdrop on them was to watch them send pictures to each other, and feel a mental echo of whatever they felt when they themselves saw the things that were pictured. And the most frequent emotion was the emotion of awe.
He learned quickly that they both liked him, they were afraid of Tristan and Salifinos, and felt like the ghostly skull that stood off in the background was... whatever it meant for something to be "home". Althos didn't understand the concept of home, and even if he had it would have been difficult for him to understand what a "home" "felt" like.
In a sense, they reminded the godling of himself just a day and a half ago. He had been similarly astounded by the world he came into existence in. Althos connected with them silently for several moments, watching them learn about the world they were in.
Once he learned how it was that they communicated, in a visual version of a language, he once again tried to communicate with them.
He "spoke" with them by sending them images of themselves, then images of the door that blocked the pathway forward, and then used his imagination to craft a mental picture of them entering the door.
The whole process took nearly a minute, and at the end of it they mirrored the mental pictures of them entering the door with a sensation of confusion.
Althos poured his confidence in them into them and showered them with the emotions of belief and confidence. That made the two of them excited, and they floated towards the door.
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Althos gave another series of mental pushes in the right direction and at last the entities seemed to understand.
Althos couldn't see it through the dense silver light they gave off, but the two creatures nodded and flew into the door that blocked the way forward.
The skull had quietly watched this unfold and looked at Althos. It was silent and was focusing its energy on sending an assessment of the young deity to the master of the tomb, a creature who lurked deep within the dungeon.
Both the skull and the creature who commanded it were greatly interested in what would unfold from here, especially after watching Althos awaken the soul orbs.
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The mechanism that kept the doors in the tomb locked was an infernal seal. All it actually took to open it was for a devilish creature to infuse the lock with the infernal magic that flows through the veins of all devils. So it was incredibly easy for the awakened and intelligent soul-orbs to open the lock.
They entered the door itself using their incorporeal forms and merely breathed on the locking mechanism. It came undone with a hiss and the door began to slowly slide open. The two floated back out the door and returned to their master's side so that all five of the creatures could continue down the dungeon.
The knowledge that allowed them to do this came to them via the door itself. The moment they entered its locking mechanism they were showered in energy that conveyed the ways for them to unlock the door. Their advanced brains were more than capable of picking this skill up quickly, and they mastered it almost reflexively.
Their own systems alerted them to the fact that this odd feat awarded them with experience and that said experience had just leveled them up. Their system, operating under the assumption that their mental capacities were limited like that of other soul orbs fed them a simplified version of this notification, communicating it in a series of pictures and feelings beamed directly into the creature's brain.
They were suddenly aware that they could grow stronger. And because they were awakened creatures and also devils, they had an unusual path forward: they could become someone's familiars. They could even "ask" someone if they could be their familiars, in the odd way they communicated.
This resulted in an unusual phenomenon, that normally only happened with more advanced devils. Both devils sent out a notification to their awakener. As they sent out the notification they escaped the locking mechanism and went back to the side of the creature who gave them their version of awareness.
The door started to open, and Althos received an amusing notification.
[ALERT: SOUL ORB #91023952 IS EXTENDING AN INVITATION TO YOU, TO BECOME ITS MASTER. IF YOU DO SO IT WILL BE YOUR FAMILIAR FROM HERE ON OUT. THIS GRANTS YOU CONTROL OVER THE ORB'S LEVEL-UP POINTS, BEHAVIOR, AND ALLOWS YOU TO SEE ITS STATS. SOUL ORB #91023953 IS ALSO EXTENDING AN INVITATION TO YOU, ASKING THE SAME THING.]
Althos smiled at the door as it began to open. When he received a second notification asking him if he accepted their invitations, he told the system that he did.
At this point the orbs were back beside him, having left the door's locking mechanism seconds ago. When the door was finally open, thick dust provided the creature waiting behind it with partial cover.
That creature didn't wait for Althos and his companions to step through the door. Instead, it lunged at them, hoping to surprise them.