The pain was terrible. Kiresula barely was able to keep herself up. From the screaming of the others, she realised that she must have looked the part. She still strangled the mage but she felt things run down her lower parts of her face. Licking her lips, she felt the irony taste of blood. Mayana reached out to her. Kiresula still wasn't able to see, but the touch made it clear that it was her. "Let go of him. I'll kill him myself and you need healing! Kju might be able to do some system magic."

Kiresula let go of the mage and moved back. She felt miserable. She felt that her eyelids no longer were locked in place, but any attempt to move them led to a lance of pain that made the endeavour almost impossible.

As she moved away from the mage, she heard the laboured breaths of him and then a muffled noise, then silence.

She realised that they had won, but at this very moment, that felt pointless to her. She just wanted the pain to end. Tears streamed down her face and that led to even more pain.

It was actually Tsene who first asked "So, what kind of magic do you use?" Tsene asked.

"What do you mean?" Kiresula asked.

"I mean, like, the magic I grew up with is alterational, the weird, glitched magic of the blue system is called multivalent, but you say that there is a new one, yes? What is it?"

"It is synthic. If that means something to you. At least this is what our system calls it." Kiresula explained.

Kju talked to her about the intricacies of the system and about magic, which she listened to intently. Mayana helped explain how to change spells to work on people of synthic magic instead. She explained how she taught someone in the holding facility of the Holy Order how to adjust a healing spell, even though she could not cast it herself. Kiresula helped, despite the absolute state she was in. She had often enough, in her time as a teacher, worked through feeling absolutely miserable. She had gone into fights with monsters or in dungeons and returned to work stitched up with healing magic but not to the point of full health, just the point that she could recover herself as the healing magic was expensive in terms of magic point cost.

Eventually, Tsene seemed to understand: "Oh, wow, something completely different, but I think I understand what is required. I am using an alterational spell, which I try to rework akin to what you told me. Please don't try to wiggle out of it!"

A moment later, Kiresula felt like her entire body was heating up. She felt locked in place. Movement seemed not to be possible. She tried not to worry, but it was hard. Eventually, she realised that the pain and the blood subsided and that she started to feel better at an amazingly rapid rate. A few grains of time later, she opened her eyes and saw. She checked her status and noticed that her health had risen to a shocking 602/720. "Wow, that one is possible‽ I wasn't aware of healing spells that work as fast!"

Tsene smiled: "It is indeed! Let me help the rest of you!" A few spells later and the entire group was back at good health again.

All of them asked, bothered and implored Tsene for more info, however the woman remained silent to these questions as if she didn't even hear them, even when the group shouted at her. Eventually, Kiresula suggested asking the core instead to a slight smile of Tsene.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The group eventually agreed and opened the hatch of the trapdoor. They saw a narrow, rickety set of steps and carefully climbed down. As there was no guardrail, the group walked down carefully.

Kiresula said goodbye to Tsene and wished her all the best with the legacy before she left and clambered down. Tsene smiled sadly and sad: "Alterational magic is on the way out and so is this legacy. All I can hope for is that an entity, like a dungeon, preserves it for posterity when alterational magic returns."

"Don't worry! I feel that this will happen!" Kiresula explained.

In the small hallway, a sign said: "This might have never happened, but the hope of a better world keeps us alive! Keep striving and keep fighting for what is right!" This sign was attached to the door and there was a small hole. Kju reached into it and received a skill parchment, Mayana received a dagger that looked fierce and Kiresula received a helmet that looked like that of a beekeeper. She laughed awkwardly as she saw it but it made sense after getting hit by the strange glue-like material that the spell inflicted onto her.

The group then opened the door and returned to the rest area. Kiresula immediately noticed that the plants that she saw were not the poisons that had been growing in the garden before. Many of them were vegetables and crops.

"The garden has changed!" Kiresula shouted full of excitement, "It's vegetables now!"

Kju nodded: "That makes sense. Tsene isn't such an absolute rat as her father!"

Mayana responded in a much more sombre way: "Magic stopped existing in its previous form meaning that literally everyone glitched. Of course she wanted to stock up. Can you imagine how ruined the country would be if suddenly all farmers revert to level 1, if they even gain levels at all?"

Kiresula gasped: "Are you saying that the famines that preceded the invasion of the Empire… were a massive glitch?"

Mayana made a vague gesture: "We don't know… but it did weaken the country beforehand."

Kiresula murmured to herself: "As in the real world, Kalakh actually became king and Hajjha his successor, it doesn't need to be the failure of the system that caused these… These people were plenty good at ruining the country on its own. But it could have been. There is still not a lot of information about the writing of the pre-Imperial people. The Ancient Imperials destroyed a lot of writing of the past. We know preciously little about how the writing looked back then and as a result: how the system looked back then. And what we know about the writing falls under the definition of an outhouse-fire: Some runes referred to concepts, some to syllables, some to sounds. We can write things like some names of the first pashas of the ancient empire, but we don't know a lot else."

"There is the alphabet of Rii, commonly accepted as the alphabet of the place," Mayana remarked, "It is even used for maths still."

"Yes, it is, and it is not even certain if the syllabic constructs that existed were actually understood as such or just written in a combined manner. It could even be that there was a development over time. We simply don't know and the dungeons that knew were put under spells by the Imperials not to reveal a thing. It's frustrating," Kiresula complained.

"Talking about the dungeons from that time, how do you feel about making a trip to the core?" Kju asked.

"Sure. I would prefer to go before I eat something though. For obvious reasons." Kiresula shuddered thinking about what she needed to do.

"Please do. I am intrigued by the idea of the yellow system ever since I have seen it," Kju admitted, "The fact that Tsene used a healing spell that seems utterly unfeasible to me doesn't help at all."

Kiresula nodded: "I know, I know! Give me a moment to relax because I am still feeling spent after the entire ordeal."

Mayana clambered out of the window: "And I am going to use the outhouse for what it actually is meant for."

The group chatted a bit, rested a lot and hugged much. They napped on the ground and the bed and then, after she felt less tired, Kiresula went for the outhouse.