I hung around the former portal room, uselessly. The dwarves were quite rightly prioritising digging out any survivors still buried under rubble over asking difficult questions like 'what the heck just happened'. I'd thought maybe I could help clear debris or something, but a bunch of earth mages seemed to have everything in hand. Instead, most of the delvers were left to wait. A couple of healers were listlessly wandering around, healing whatever wounds were left over from the fighting, but most of the healers who had come with us were outside, tending to the more seriously injured dwarven population.

Multiple tunnels had opened up in residential areas, and the high level monsters that emerged had decimated the unarmed and unprepared civilians. Injuries were in the thousands. Deaths were not much lower, in the high hundreds at least, although an exact count was going to be difficult, because once the core was destroyed, the corpses had all vanished.

Erryn was obviously up to something, but she hadn't spoken or responded to me since, so I had no idea what. I was expecting her to have wiped the memories of the dead, to make everyone forget they ever existed, but that hadn't happened. Given Lee's [Failed Delver], I knew it was possible to restore someone who had been killed by a monster. Was she about to do the same for everyone who had died in this fight? With her no longer talking, there was no way to find out aside from waiting.

To stave off the boredom, I peered once more through my list of class choices.

Available classes:

Rank 2: [Monk] [Soul Mage] [Temporal Mage] [Thaumaturgist] [Teacher] [Trader] [Gatherer] [Bard] [Artisan] [Warrior] [Ranger] [Scout] [Spellsword]

Rank 3: [Analyst] [Body High Mage] [Spatial High Mage] [Eldritch Mage]

Nothing was going to change, no matter how often I looked. My fundamental problem was that the one class that had a feature that I definitely wanted, [Spatial High Mage], was a simple affinity and I had a complex affinity available. Complex affinities were supposed to be better. Should I just take [Eldritch Mage] and be done with it? I really wanted to know its spell list before I did, but short of convincing someone else to take it first, that wasn't going to happen. Would Erryn tell me if I asked nicely? She probably owed me one after today... But again, she'd gone silent right now.

I'd kinda promised to take [Temporal Mage] and find out how it combined with spatial, but Lord Reid had told me to consider my debt repaid already. I was still interested in finding out what would happen, but [Temporal Mage] itself didn't give me any must-have abilities. [Speed] and [Slow] would be amazing in combat, especially after a bit of levelling, but they didn't have the out-of-combat utility that teleportation had.

"Hey, Peter," called Dru'hazzak from the doorway, distracting me from my musing. "We need you for a moment."

Great, something useful I could do instead of just waiting around. I followed him in silence through the winding tunnels until we came out into a grand hall. Carefully sculpted stone made up the floor, walls and ceiling, with lines of pillars providing support. Much to my surprise, torches were burning in here, attached to the pillars and casting a flickering light. They lit up brightly to [Mana Perception], so they were clearly magical in nature, but it was an interesting change from the usual light crystals.

In the middle was Krana, fitting comfortably into the massive hall and looming over a few dwarfs, who in comparison were, well, dwarfed. They looked over as we approached, sombre expressions on their faces, and I realised that one of them was our Dawnhold guild master. Next to him was Tilyana, the elven [Oracle].

"Well then," said one dwarf.

"Aye," agreed the guild master.

The third just sighed.

Hassok Rockdweller, Dwarf, Master Smith (?/?)

Jolik Rockdweller, Dwarf, Lord of the Mountain (?/?)

Okay then... From the class name and surname, those two were the Emerald Caverns' version of Lord Reid and one of his relatives. Who was also rank four. I could forgive Krana's level on account of him being a bloody dragon, but why were there so many rank four dwarfs and elves?

"I fail to see why you people believe Tilyana to be incomprehensible," growled Krana. "What they mean to ask is whether Erryn has provided you with any information as to what has transpired here?"

"Not at all," I answered. "I originally shouted her name to try to attract her attention after our group was attacked by ogres, and though she responded, she sounded only half awake. She didn't even realise anything was wrong until I pointed out that monsters were attacking people."

"Her monsters," interjected Dru'hazzak. "I believe your exact words were 'Wake up. Your monsters are attacking your children.' Were you implying that the earth mother was responsible for those monsters?"

"Hers yet not her," commented Tilyana.

"Exactly," I agreed, Tilyana being as insightful as ever. "Erryn created the dungeons, but she wasn't in control here. After pointing out the monster attack, she screamed for help. That's when the quest appeared to everyone. After that, she reacted to a few things but was still very obviously barely conscious. Once we destroyed the corrupted dungeon core, she blasted everything with light mana to clear out the rest of the corruption. After, umm..." Eep, emergency [Inspection] time...

Kranakellicium, Dragon

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Phew, embarrassment successfully averted. "After Kranakellicium commented that we were victorious, she seemed fully awake again, but all she said was, 'So much destruction. So much death. This is no victory.' After that, I've not heard anything."

"Can you try again, please?" asked Jolik.

Normally I would resist playing messenger, but not today... "Erryn? Are you listening at the moment? We could really use some information here. At least let us know what happened to the dead."

There was no response.

"The bodies die, yet the life remains. Their... Their... I am not allowed to speak the words, or even think them," said Tilyana. "Against all nature, they may live yet."

That was... promising. I had no idea what her class did, or what skills she had, but she obviously had a seriously impressive information source available, and to some extent it was letting her know things that should be hidden by the Law. It sounded like she was implying that despite being dead, the souls were intact and still here. "It may be that Erryn is trying to invoke the same process that [Failed Delver] uses to bring back people who 'die' in dungeons."

The guild master's hands clenched, and he didn't look at all happy. That was... surprising. Why would he be unhappy about Erryn literally raising the dead? "Earth mother. Erryn. Whatever your name is. If that's what you're doing, you might want to think twice about it."

My mouth fell open. He didn't want her to resurrect everyone? "Why? Wouldn't that be a good thing?" I'd never heard anyone express religious beliefs; they all knew where they came from, after all, and I couldn't think of any other reason to be against saving everyone who had died in the battle.

"Because I think that's exactly what caused this mess in the first place."

"Explain," said Krana, peering intently at our guild master.

"So... Here's the thing. With the tournament going on, some of us old-timers were thinking of joining in too. The problem is, at our level, the amount we have to hold back to avoid any accidents kinda spoils the fun. So we decided to have an impromptu get-together here instead."

"You sparred in the dungeon, safe in the knowledge that no-one could die?" I asked.

"Yeah. Exactly. We figured we're all coming to the end of our lives anyway. We're all a bit old and stiff to be delving anymore. Getting stuck with the [Failed Delver] title wouldn't be any great detriment, and we could all properly let loose one last time. It worked great too, up until the point that I won."

"Why? What happened?" asked Dru'hazzak.

"I went back outside to meet the losers after they'd been teleported out, at which point one of the mages commented on the mana feeling strange. We thought nothing of it, assuming it to just be a symptom of having his body rebuilt. We relocated to a tavern to enjoy a drink or two, and not half an hour later the dungeon break bell rang out."

"So you have no evidence for this beyond the timing?"

"No, but do you have any better ideas?"

"I don't, but even if you can get the attention of the earth mother, you'd be risking hundreds of lives on this theory. And that's assuming that she's in the process of raising them in the first place. We have no evidence of that either."

I didn't know what to think. A bunch of fourth ranks had 'died' together in a dungeon, and that had somehow resulted in the dungeon going berserk? I couldn't see cause and effect there at all. There had been many confirmed deaths since the dungeon safety net had been added, especially once brash newbies started swarming in, but I'd never heard of a dungeon doing this before. And if it did, I didn't see why Erryn would have let it continue; there were more deaths here today than [Failed Delver] had saved since it was introduced, so if it was causing this sort of problem, she would have just removed the safety net again. But as the guild master said, I had no better theories. The timing was certainly suspicious.

"Acts against nature have a price," commented Tilyana. "One cannot avoid payment, however hard one tries."

Translating that one back into something comprehensible, given that she called out the resurrection process as being against nature, she was implying that its use has a price. Did Erryn avoid paying, and the corruption was the result? What was the price that she should have paid?

"Well, she's certainly doing something," commented Hassok. "Check your quest."

Quest: Destroy the Emerald Caverns' Dungeon Core [Complete]

Completion requirements: Destroy the corrupted dungeon core, and stem the monster invasion.

Time remaining: [Complete]

Reward for completion: Gain three levels in your current class

Penalty for failure: Destruction of the Emerald Caverns

Oh, nice. It had stopped erroring since the last time I checked. I wouldn't cash it in now, though; I could already switch class, so it was best saved for later.

"That's an encouraging sign, but it does nothing to answer the mystery of our dead," opined Dru'hazzak.

"We have not the information to solve this," said Krana. "Frustrating as it is, we can do nought but wait."

"When someone dies in a dungeon, the resurrection process is pretty much instant," commented Jolik. "I know the circumstances are different and the number of people involved is far higher, but if that was what the earth mother was really doing, shouldn't she be done by now?"

"Maybe she is," I answered. "People normally respawn outside dungeons, but there's no dungeon here now. They might all be in Dawnhold."

"That's... a good point, actually," agreed the Dawnhold guild master. "Dawnhold would be the closest dungeon to here. Shame I have no way to get a message back there."

"They are nowhere," said Tilyana, presumably implying that our missing dead were not all happily alive and well back in Dawnhold, or anywhere else.

"As I have stated, we have not the information, and lack the means to acquire more," grumbled the dragon. "Speculation is useless. Our time would be better spent aiding the clean-up."

The dwarfs nodded. "Aye," agreed Jolik. "And we thank you for your aid, Lord Kranakellicium, both in ending the crisis and now in the aftermath. Peter, can you find your way back?"

"You don't want me to do anything? Isn't there anything I could help with?"

"Not for now, but if the earth mother speaks again, let us know immediately."

Darn. Back to boredom again. Although, since I had Tilyana here, and she seemed to know pretty much everything... "Hey, Tilyana, which class do you think I should take next?"

She looked over with a smile. "Do not fear the unknown," she answered as cryptically as ever, before following a rapidly shrinking Krana towards the exit.

That was some rather ambiguous advice, but given the classes I was considering, there was really only one it could refer to. Maybe 'because an enigmatic elf told me to' wasn't the best reason for picking my next class, but I didn't have any other ideas for narrowing it down, so I'd go with it. It was better than a coin toss.

Class changed to [Eldritch Mage]

You are now rank three

And now I was rank three, at a mere twelve years of age, when most people wouldn't even have finished [Commoner]. Oh, poo. We were theoretically still mid tournament, weren't we? I'd just disqualified myself, but after all this, it's sure to be cancelled, right?