Chapter 140

Stage IX (Part I)

Monday

The first thing Alexa noted about the new world she was in was the smell, and the overwhelming power of the water around her. The second thing she noticed was gravity, as her first act within the new dungeon was to fall two feet.

Splash.

At which point Alexa found her body sinking deep into the brackish water. Moving quickly Alexa found that her tall frame was actually useful in this situation, as the starting area of the map she was in was only four and a half feet deep, meaning her tall frame made it so she was easily able to stand up with her head out of the water.

The next thing she noted was just how wrong the entire place was. Not the dungeon itself, but rather what was happening to the dungeon. Now that she was here, she could almost feel a deeper connection to the dungeon. This connection made it so she could feel the outright torture that the dungeon now felt. She could feel on some deeper connection, just how this poor dungeon had been cut open, and then pinned down and dissected, all so this world could exist in this perverse state. Worse, she knew that the dungeon was still alive and conscious throughout all of this, as the dungeon wouldn’t be able to still be accessed if the dungeon itself died. This meant that the dungeon had to endure all this pain and humiliation, while being forced to witness itself in this altered state.

Bleh!

Feeling the intense connection of pain to the dungeon, Alexa felt her own stomach convulse in its own sympathetic pain.

Fortunately the water caught most of the mess, and tiny fish came to help take care of the sudden meal that had presented itself and now floated on the surface of the water.

Seeing the light blue glow of the fish, she realized what this dungeon was for, at least she felt her Intuition going off, giving her a pretty good idea of what this dungeon was supposed to teach. Something about balance, about biomes. Likely there would have been some giant animals that were out of balance with the environment and it would be her job to ensure the cycle of life was maintained. Just connecting to this dungeon, she could feel first how old it was, and second how vast it was. The world around her was deep, like the ocean.

Taking a step back from her bile, she tried to take in the scope of the world around her, or at least the portions of the dungeon that were visible. Off in the distance were giant ships that battled with one another, there were large vertical cliffs that stretched up from the depths of the ocean and allowed birds and other creatures a natural place to roost and rest away from the waves of the water.

In her mind she knew that this was a safe spawning point, that is a spot within the dungeon that is an alternate to the main entry point. These were generally secret alcoves that only the dungeon or others who frequented a dungeon a lot would recognize. These were the spots in a dungeon that you could go to rest. In her mind, she realized that the initial entry point was likely down at the far end, over where the ships were battling one another. No doubt this zone had been turned into some form of nautical combat zone by the elves and orcs, but that only begged the question, how did such an event happen? Where were these sailing vessels even coming from?

So many questions raced in her mind, only after a second did she start to see the magic of this world begin to unfold before her eyes. The magic was subtle, first she noticed how perfectly cut planks of wood would be Created out of nothing and gently pressed in her direction. Then she noticed how the seaweed in this area was particularly thin and versatile.

“A build it yourself boat?” Alexa said, as she noticed how all the components were coming together. Was this meant to be some form of nature survival zone? She wondered to herself as she tried to take in everything that the old dungeon had to offer.

Seeing the wood and resources being Created, she first decided to take on the resources, but then enhance them with her own magic. The First thing she did was conjoin the two pieces of wood into a larger broader piece of lumber. To do this, she used elements of Nature magic, along with Creation magic and fused the different elements she was being taught by the elements provided. First she fused the two planks of wood together, forcing them to grow as one single entity. Then she coated them all in the thick seaweed, that she had grow and fuse into the planks of wood. The seaweed here seemed like it had a lot of different properties, the least of which were related to keeping water from entering the boat. Not that this was too much of a problem currently, especially as Alexa was using one continuous piece of wood for the frame, but she somehow felt that the wood would eventually erode away unless treated by the seaweed, which was why she made sure to have the seaweed grow around the hull of her ship she was creating. In the end, she began treating the entire entity as one living creature, the new skin of her vessel was the seaweed, while the bones and inner structure were the wooden planks. Slowly over time the vessel began to grow larger and larger. After a certain point, the dungeon seemed to stop giving her supplies, until she had created a vessel that was seemingly large enough and sturdy enough to bear her own weight.

At this, the dungeon seemed to be pleased with her.

Flash.

With that, a glowing light blue fish came to her, then as soon as Alexa looked to see the fish, and see it was part of her quest here, she noticed how the fish led off into the distance.

However, Alexa felt that there was something here, the use of old Creation magic so easily. The way the water seemed to be particularly infused with mana, the whole unbridled power of the zone. Just being here, Alexa could feel ancient wisdom waiting to be unleashed. That was why she held out her hand to the fish and spoke.

“Great Dungeon. I seek your guidance.” Alexa asked in the Precursor tongue. The fish paused for a moment, then Alexa could see the moment the fish changed. Going from a light blue fish, showing that it was part of the quest that Alexa was to follow, and then it changed to a deep ultraviolet color before her very eyes. Instantly Alexa knew that the fish had been inhabited by the dungeon, or at least a part of the dungeon’s overall consciousness, as dwindling as it might be, was now residing within the fish. Seeing that she now had the dungeon’s full attention, she gave a slight nod of her head and continued with her original thought.

“Great Dungeon, can you teach me how to be better at using magic, not just weaving them, but how to improve my Tiers in each school of magic.” Alexa began, but then seeing that the fish seemed to still be waiting, still be listening, Alexa continued.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I have these powers, these different Schools of Magic, I have these Tiers, but I don’t quite know what they mean, nor do I really know how to improve them, or even if I should improve them. We have nothing, we are lied to by the Orcs and Elves alike, forced to accept the status of being a slave, or worse. We are about to be integrated, but I don’t think we know what that truly means. There are so many questions, but I don’t know where we can turn. The Precursors, they are gone, only traces of their legacy remain, but it isn’t enough.” Alexa let it all out, her emotions were riding high, a natural effect of her body’s passive absorption of the ambient energy of the water. Her emotions, mixed with everything she was still trying to process, threatened to burst, unless she had a project, unless she had something that she could devote her full attention to. Also, somehow, she just knew that this dungeon had wisdom of the different magical elements, at least of Creation and likely Water magic as well.

Alexa stared at the fish for a moment who just sat there oddly still, despite the rolling waves that flowed over and around it. Seeing the fish just sitting there, Alexa just shook her head, realizing that this likely went beyond what the dungeon was capable of. She remembered the frustration she felt at trying to interact with the one dungeon that taught her how to create a key that could be used to free it and other dungeons. In all close to twenty dungeons were freed, truly freed from the dragon’s influences, not just ones where she went in and killed the current occupant, leaving room for a new dragon to come in and take its place, as she inadvertently left behind an empty roost when she first began this process.

The fish seemed to be thinking. That or the dungeon was so dismembered that even straying this much, trying to offer this much assistance to a quest taker was almost too much for it. Seeing it, Alexa just shook her head.

“Sorry about that, don’t worry. I’ll find a way on my own.” Alexa said as she got into the ship she had just made. Once inside, she began having the top grow up and over the sides, making it into a sealed canoe, one that fit in perfectly with her uniform, making it so no water got into the craft.

“Also, don’t worry. I’ll be back to free you; I just need to save my friend first. He’s been here for two days and is likely in trouble. Again, thank you for your assistance.” Alexa said, to the fish as she went about Creating a double bladed paddle and began effortlessly pushing her way through the vast ocean world.

For her part Alexa was serious about the thanks. First the wood that was created was extra light and buoyant, second the seaweed was extra durable and able to absorb the magical energy of the world around her, something that was either a natural adaptation to being submerged into the magical waters around them, or something that the dungeon had specifically cultivated on its own. Alexa felt that it was a matter of both, that the water and plants originally began on the planet that this dungeon existed upon, but that the dungeon over time improved upon both to fit its needs. With the nature of the wood and seaweed, Alexa realized that there was yet another function of this that she was likely missing. A fact that she noted when the wood all but glowed with absorbed energy from the seaweed. Effectively making the wood an energy battery that had nothing to use the mana on. Realizing that even she couldn’t absorb the energy as quickly as the seaweed and wood were pulling it in, and that there was still more energy available, Alexa decided to try to use even more of the energy by using her psychic power Rune Channeling to create a series of runes around the boat. The first ones were to make the boat stronger and more resilient, then the next ones made it so she could channel magic through the runes more effectively, this was essential, as she wanted to try to cover as much areas as possible, in order to find Kelvin.

While Alexa felt she knew the general direction that Kelvin was in, she knew that there was a lot of ground to cover. Also, given how many ships were battling constantly, Alexa feared that Kelvin would be on one of those vessels, making this an even tougher operation. The only thing that helped her keep a calm mind during all of this was the assurance she had received moments ago from Luke that Kelvin was still alive. Granted her brother could not tell the condition he was in, but he could tell that Kelvin was alive at the very least. This was part of why she cut her conversation short with the fish. First she didn’t know if the dungeon was even mentally awake enough to respond. She knew that dungeons were sentient beings, and that they could often communicate in different ways, but she also knew that this dungeon was being tortured, that it had been cut open and forcefully altered to meet the whims of whoever changed it to be part of these Trials of Ascension.

Alexa was terrible at feelings, at least at being able to understand human emotions, but somehow that lack of understanding helped her be able to relate to the emotional state of dungeons more easily. Even now she could feel the near constant agony that the dungeon was in, this motivated her to do three things.

First: She needed to find Kelvin quickly before he became more of a distraction.

Second: She meant it when she said she would go back to heal this dungeon.

And Third: She would make it so this dungeon was no longer part of the Trials of Ascension anymore.

Alexa didn’t know what the original purpose for the Trials of Ascension was, whether it had been created to actually help create powerful individuals who could fight against the armies of demons better, but it had been corrupted. If that was the original intention of these Trials, then they were far beyond that scope. Most of the fields of battle were now focused away from defeating the demonic blight on the lands, and instead focused on destroying one force of summoned beings over another.

In fact, Alexa made it a note that she would check for a demonic monster, thinking back to what she thought was the original goal of this zone, she could almost wonder if the disturbance to the whole ecosystem was a giant demonic beast. One that should both be fought and disposed of, then hopefully the secondary effect would be trying to find a way to return the zone to an equilibrium afterwards. Thinking about it, this made the most sense to her, as to why such a large zone existed. This was meant to be a way to help people learn first to fight demons and other corrupting agents. Then the next step would be to clean up the damages made, to make it so the planet was still livable after the battle was over, for what good was winning the war, if what you were left with was a corrupting mass of toxins that would eventually destroy the planet if you let it. The last few zones all had these same themes, if Alexa remembered correctly, at least the main areas where she was able to solve the dungeon properly and avoid interacting with the added side plots of the Orcs and elves.

Blinking.

Alexa felt that she finally now understood what it was that she was doing here, in a way, she could almost see the brilliance of such a training regimen. Finding the best dungeons that focused on first combating demons and their forces, then as you get more and more accustomed to fighting against the demons, then they make sure you are aware of how to fix or repair a planet afterwards.

Realizing this was the case, Alexa felt a chill run down her spine. If this was the case, then this meant that the dismembering of dungeons was not done maliciously, but willingly, the dungeons let this happen to them, at least they did at first. Then the orcs and elves had to ruin everything by plotting and scheming against each other, shifting the focus away from what these trials were really meant to show, but making it more about politics and the like.

With these thoughts, Alexa could finally understand the confusion that the dungeon had. At least that is what she interpreted as the pausing look of the dungeon.

Mentally, her mind began trying to piece together the changes, and realized that the dissection of the dungeon, made it so it was no longer bound to the original planet it originated from, and instead made it so it was strung together in a way to help.

“They took your sacrifice and defiled it for their own ambitions.” Alexa said, pausing her paddling only for a moment as she let that dark revelation sink in. Then with a renewed sense of focus, Alexa went about accomplishing the first of her three original goals, though now she felt she might need to alter the second and third goals. She didn’t want to free or even fix the dungeon, rather she wanted to fix the problem, she wanted to make it so the dungeon’s sacrifice, all of their sacrifices were not squandered by petty politics and machinations of rival warlords who long ago forgot who the real enemy was.

This war could have been over, of that Alexa was certain. At one point the forces of the demonic army were likely close to being fully eliminated. That was when the orcs and elves likely began to splinter in their final efforts, shifting away from what was a uniting factor of destroying the demons, but rather they decided to focus on where they would end up once the war was over. The demons who had been pushed back, took this momentary reprieve as a chance to recuperate and let the combined enemies destroy each other from within.

Of course, these were just thoughts, feelings that she got. They all seemed like they were echoes of past lives and memories, but they somehow felt real. For a moment she wondered where the thoughts themselves came from, whether they were memories of the dungeon, or if somehow the people who came to the dungeon left them behind, or maybe Alexa was just adding her own thoughts and values to the different forms of energy she was feeling. Regardless of their original origin, Alexa realized she had slightly more important things to worry about than the past. About broken alliances and the subjugation of new species being integrated by the different dungeons of the universe.

For the moment Alexa had one goal, one purpose, to find her ally, then once that was over, she would begin focusing on her next set of goals. With her newly formed and created runes, along with ones that were designed specifically for enhancing her use of magic, she began casting out waves of Life magic, trying to map out the different sources of life, trying to find one half-elf half-human in an ocean of magical life and alien creatures.