Chapter 90
Blighted Disorientation
I awoke to a slew of messages. First and foremost, I apparently had been knocked out for a day, as my experience tracker shot up dramatically, thanks to the efforts of my Simulacrum. Well, I also added a bit to my increase thanks to simultaneously coming up with a new spell and resurrecting the only trainer for a rare class.
Quest Complete: Resurrecting Forgotten Knowledge: You managed to resurrect the sole practitioner and trainer for the rare class Magical Duelist. Rewards: Experience, New Spell (already learned), Badge.
Experience gained: 500/500
Congratulations, your level in Void Healer has risen from 103 to 108. (Additional Experience Gains Summarized)
Congratulations, your level in Simulacrum Master has risen from 100 to 105. (Additional Experience Gains Summarized)
New Spell: Ultimate Resurrection [Tier X] (C): This spell created by Sabrina Spiritlight can restore any spirit to full health, regardless of spiritual condition, with a living breathing body, truly the pinnacle for any healer.
New Feat Recorded: Resurrecting Forgotten Knowledge (100): You managed to resurrect a dead class and restore it back to its original prominence.
That was a lot, clearly only one day had gone past since I apparently passed out from exhaustion. I awoke to the aroma of a cooking pot of stew.
Sniff.
“Mmm, something smells good.” I said as I got up. I opened my eyes, but I could already tell we were somewhere far away from people and out in the middle of nowhere, apparently under a threadbare tree for some form of shade.
“Oh, you finally rise from the dead.” Mallory said, a warmth filling her words. “You hungry?”
“No, thank you though.” I say, shaking my head. Generally, I try to avoid eating or drinking, as it just causes excess in my body that eventually needs to be eliminated. Apparently, surviving off spirit energy is not only fulfilling, but it also means not having to eat, and most importantly not having to visit a restroom.
Mallory just looks at me, then nods in understanding. I think we have had this conversation before, but it is nice that she would at least consider feeding me if I was hungry.
After a few more seconds of taking in my surroundings, I can tell that we are not on the same floor anymore. First the world around us radiated with an abundance of energy that was not present on floor 53, the last floor I remember being on. If anything, this power felt subtly more powerful, but I couldn’t quite place a finger on just how much more.
“Something wrong?” Mallory asked.
Only after she asked did I realize that I likely looked really weird. I had my head tilted to the side, as I was trying to interpret the change in power levels.
“You had us increase our floors?” I ask.
At that Mallory just smiled brightly, as a fierce intensity seemed to take over her features. “How can you tell?”
I pause, trying to formulate what exactly was off about all of this, until finally I just try to say what comes naturally to me. “The power level around us has increased. It is as if the spiritual energy of the air, the ground around us has increased.”
At that Mallory was now fully interested in my ability to perceive the differences in the world around us. “If you had to guess, how much more pressure would you say is around us?”
I pause at that, and mentally try to recall the feeling of the previous saturations of spiritual energy I felt from the environment before I passed out, compared to how I felt now. The difference between the two was substantial, but how much more was hard to determine, at least at first. Finally, I just began speaking my thoughts out loud, “more than a quarter, but not quite a half.” I state, then falter as I can’t quite explain why or how that is.
Excited clapping.
At that Mallory just claps her hands excitedly, as she looks like she is a ball of pure energy at this point. “That is so amazing. I have never met a delver who could help determine our location by measuring the ambient energy around us, though that is something to consider in the future. Maybe we could create a barometer of sorts that helps to measure the density of magical currents.” Mallory notes.
“We already have those.” I counter.
At that Mallory just waves her hands, “we do, but they have never been calibrated to tell us what floor of a tower or dungeon we are on. But what you are saying implies that we could establish a baseline reading and then measure the incremental increases in power as a way to determine our depth into the dungeon or tower. This could be huge.”
I pause, having just woken up, and trying to keep up with an energetic Mallory is something I was not quite expecting. This is partly why I feel I have missed something vitally important to this whole conversation. “Sorry, so first, where are we?” I ask.
At that Mallory pauses, then shakes herself awake. “Oh right, you missed it. The last few floors have been minor skirmishes between elves and orcs. Apparently, we were supposed to choose a side.”
I pause, not wanting to hear about the wanton destruction that was left in our wake as we left. “You didn’t?”
“Choose a side, no. I just jumped over the battles and let everyone fight their way through whatever hangups they had. Ghosts fighting ghosts is not really a winning proposition. I did get a few levels for escorting the slain to a sanctuary where they could be recycled. So that was cool.”
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“You leveled?” I ask.
“Yeah, twice. This place is amazing for a Valkyrie. So much death and final death for spirits, that we can’t help but gain experience.” Mallory stated.
I pause, at that.
“How exactly do you level?”
“Simple, I find a dead spirit, gather them in my satchel.” She says, holding up a cosmos bag, one that as soon as she opens it, I can feel a sucking sensation that all but screams for me to have my soul ripped away from my body. Then with my all-seeing Angel’s Sight, I can’t unsee the horror of the power contained within that bag. It is like a tiny cosmos inside the bag, where everything that enters is ripped apart to the most basic components of atoms, before being released in the form of a black hole. Just peering into the bag causes a shiver to run down my spine.
“Whoa.” I say, trying to turn my head away, but it is a futile gesture as I can’t stop seeing the power of the bag. Fortunately, Mallory seems to understand my plight and quickly closes the bag.
“Oh, right. Sorry about that. I didn’t realize how much that might affect someone with your, sensitivities.”
I am about to protest, “hey now…”
“No, I didn’t mean it that way. Just you are clearly one of the most gifted practitioners of Spirit Magic I have ever seen.”
I was about to protest, but then heard what she said, and realized that she wasn’t lying about her statement. “You, you mean that?” I stammer.
“Yeah, you are amazing. I mean, to be able to tell that we went up twenty-two floors without having been told by the system or keeping track is a fairly impressive feat.”
“Twenty-two floors? So, we are on floor seventy-five?” I ask.
“Yes. This is one of those decision floors, so I figured I’d wait here for you to awaken.” Mallory said.
I paused at that; decision floors were important as they would allow the explorer to set the course for the rest of the tower. In this case, it sounded like we could choose to either support the elves, or the orcs. Though I wondered if there was something more that could be done. I really hoped this wouldn’t be a war tower, though that was a general theme for most towers or dungeons. It didn’t help that most people who were first to enter the new floor of any dungeon were generally the most bloodthirsty of killers.
I pause, wondering if this was seriously going to be as boring as choosing a side in the war, and then continuing that pattern all the way to the top.
“Anything I should be aware of?” I ask. We are far away from anything close. Again, there is just the tree, a source of water, and seemingly endless desert around us. My three-kilometer radius around us doesn’t show me anything, but then again, a decision floor like this could be the size of an entire continent if needed. There were no spatial limitations to how big the floor could go, just so long as a decision was made before people were allowed to go higher.
“Well, there are two great armies that are fighting far ahead. They also seem to be battling under that dead and dying world tree.” Mallory states, pointing off to the northeast. Again, if she is pointing to something I cannot see it, meaning that the tree must be fairly massive to be able to be seen from over three kilometers away.
“A world tree?” I ask.
“Yeah, looks like the Yggdrasil tree that is in the real world, that the elves love so much. This one looks to be a spiritual remake of it, but there is something wrong with it.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Other than the fact that it is in the spirit world and clearly a living tree, it is slowly fading away as rot and other mold type things seem to be coating its trunk and its branches.” Mallory states.
“You can see the rot from here?” I asked, realizing that if she can see the rot from over three kilometers away that the rot has likely grown out of hand.
“Yeah, also I have to say that I think I’ve seen that type of rot before.”
“You have?”
“Yeah, that was also partly why I waited for you to awaken.”
“Why?”
“Well, that rot looks a lot like the Blight.”
Hearing that, I could note the slight tremor of fear that filled Mallory’s words, when she mentioned the Blight. I know I healed Mallory, and that she was close to death’s door when I first treated her, but seeing her aversion to just go near a land that might be filled with a spiritual form of the Blight showed just how traumatic the whole experience had been for her.
“Are you okay?” I ask, reaching out and putting a comforting hand on her wrist.
At that Mallory shifts her laser focus away from the tree and back to me. Seeing my concern, she pauses and then lets out a sigh. “That obvious?”
“Sort of.” I say, trying to hold back my true interpretations of the situation.
“To be honest, I didn’t think it would affect me this much. But then I saw the land before us, and I saw the way the spirits up ahead all seem to be dead and dying from the Blight, while suffering in eternal torment, it was just a bit much. Honestly, if you hadn’t come along, I think this floor would have proven that the Blight was caused by spiritual corruption of some sort.” Mallory said, her analytical mind working on explaining the world around her. “Of course, anyone who made this discovery would have had to come up here, see the impact of the Blight, likely been infected with it, then come back, provide their results, then die knowing their next life they would be rewarded.”
Hearing that, I realized something. “That’s why you came to me? To see if I was truly a cure or not?” I asked.
“Partly. Honestly, I don’t know why I went to see you. Sure, I got the message from my granddaughter telling me that you might have a cure, but I honestly didn’t expect much. You were what, a level twenty Spirit Mage. The fact that I would even go to you spoke volumes about how desperate I was, how desperate we all were.”
“We?”
“Yeah, there was a whole team of us. The top of the line who all contracted the Blight, either by direct or indirect contact. It was terrible. Honestly, I had been using the disease as a way to strengthen my class and my levels. For so long, I would sneak out into Blighted lands just long enough to grab wayward spirits and pull them back, so they could move on to the afterlife. The only problem was, one day I got hit. I was focusing on the souls, and missed the moment a Blighted bird came down and pecked me. I was so stupid, dropping my guard for a moment. Then next thing I know, I am missing a chunk of skin from my neck, and I have an infected wound to heal. I immediately cauterized the area, and ran back for help, but it was too late. I was already infected. Since I caught it early, I was able to take steps to delay the disease, but all that did was result in so much more pain. Then I met you, and I realized I had been given a second chance at life. I swore I would not take that for granted, living life to the fullest. Now, being here and seeing the Blight, or at least what my body, my soul screams at me to be the Blight, I suddenly feel sadly small and weak.”
Hearing that, I pause, never realizing how terrifying this must be. This might be the equivalent of being nearly mauled to death by a bear, and then being asked to later go out and pet a bear. Or be a bear tamer. I honestly didn’t know what to do at the moment. “Do you want to stop?” I ask.
At that Mallory pauses and looks at me, then seems to read something in my posture. “You mean it don’t you? You would stop right here and now for me?”
I pause, but then after a second I nod. I would, I had gotten to floor 75 by basically doing nothing. I had gained close to two hundred levels since I got here, learned so much about magic that even without the title proving my capabilities to the world, I felt confident in my understanding of magic as a whole to provide valuable insights to the world. “Yeah.”
Hearing that Mallory smiled, a sad but genuine smile. It was the smile one would have for your child when they offered you their Christmas gifts, when they realized, you had forgotten to get yourself Christmas gifts. The look of pride, and fulfillment for both having made such a valuable connection to someone, while also realizing that you yourself had been too blinded to see the truth before you.
At my admission, Mallory paused. I could see the way her muscles tensed, but then nodding to herself, she stood up, and with the wave of her hand instantly put away her cooking materials. She was one of those rich people with a spatial bag of holding, or something similar. Honestly just the ability to clean up so quickly made me a bit jealous, but that was neither here nor there. Standing up, I waved my hand and instantly cast Planar Shift. This was the same spell we had used to let the Duelist leave moments ago, well moments for me, but apparently a day or so in real time.
Seeing the portal, Mallory looked at it for a long second, then shook her head and took a step away. “Come on, we have a war to choose the victor of.” Mallory said as she took one hesitant step away from the portal and towards the direction she had indicated earlier.
Seeing her resolve I quickly canceled my spell, and nodding to myself I began following Mallory. Watching her go I could almost imagine just how much personal strength and resolve it took for her to continue pushing herself forward.
We were silent for a few minutes, until finally Mallory spoke.
“I suppose I might seem a little weak to you. Here I am one of the strongest on the server and I am hesitant to go forward to fight enemies that are hundreds of levels below me.”
At that I just scoff and shake my head. “Not at all. I think what you are doing is extremely brave. You battled and fought something that was like cancer, where it slowly ate away at you for years. You were so desperate that you went and sought out a rumor of a random healer existing in the only Spirit Tower in the world. Then you were cured, and have been cured for the past six months, only to then go and charge headfirst into another scenario that would likely expose you to the same level of torment if not far worse. No, I don’t think that is weak at all. I think that is the heart of bravery, and selflessness, especially as you are doing it to help me.”
Silence.
For the next few hundred paces she is quiet, but this is good as I can now see the beginning of people battling up ahead. There are massive lines of warriors battling one another ahead in what appears to be endless waves of clashing enemy forces. Just seeing the scale of the battle going on three kilometers ahead causes me to almost pause and watch in awe. Fortunately, I see Mallory’s constant pace and realize that I feel safe so long as she is near, I know I will be safe. Then at that exact moment, I realized that she too likely feels the same way about feeling safe while going forward, solely because I am here with her. This realization lets me relax a little, as one of my major fears has been relieved.
“Thank you.” I say.
“For what?” Mallory asks.
“For being you,” I pause, then continue, “for not being afraid to show your hesitation. It means a lot to me.”
“Wait, why?”
“Because this is simultaneously the most frightening and exhilarating thing I have ever done. But knowing that you are here with me lets me know that I will make it out just fine.” I say.
At that Mallory just nods, but then says one word that lets any tension I have about the odd power dynamic between us fade. “Same.”
And I could tell she meant it.