I think I lost something in that room, an indefinable quality of myself. After having to face my own death in the most visceral way I could imagine, and losing the only remnant of my old life I had found in the course of five minutes I just felt cold. Cold and sad. I hadn’t realized I was still holding on to the vestiges of my old life in my heart like that, but seeing my parents again had given me hope in a way. They were dead, certainly, but I had thought that upon coming to this world I would never even see a picture of them again. I hadn’t considered it when making my choice before, but now it was all I could think about. I would never see those two smiles, or the way the photo reminded me of the love a family could provide.
The knot was back. And the hot tears in my eyes. I just wanted to sit down and cry, to take a break. To stop for just a moment. But if I did, would I ever get back up again? I had died. My family had died. Was this even me anymore? Was I a clone of myself with all the same memories? If I had a soul, was it the same soul that body had once had, or was this new? I mean hell, was there a me in my old world, still living my life while I was here, living this one?
Even as I asked these questions, my feet moved, carrying me on my way over to the door. I couldn’t quit, I couldn’t take a break. Stopping now would mean never truly moving forward. I would sit on this cold, dank cave floor and cry and pity myself for my own choices. And I would never break out of that, not truly. The only choice was to keep moving, to go forward and get out of this dungeon. Even if I had their photo, or a photo of my brother, or of my friends, it wouldn’t change the fact that I would never see them again. So don’t think about it, not now. I’d wait until I had the time to grieve for a life lost, and until then focus on living the one I’d been given. The one I’d made a choice to take.
I gripped Providence tighter in my hand. “The lance capable of piercing fate huh? Maybe it was fate that I died here, but it was choices that brought me here twice.” I gave the spear a grim smile. I had a weapon. I had barriers that had proven to work on attacks, and I had upgraded vision. It wasn’t all bad. And, if she had survived, I had an ally to fight alongside. Perhaps even a friend.
The door opened with a gentle push, and I stepped out into an inky void. The light from the room behind me didn’t penetrate through the doorway, and there wasn’t a single source of light in front of me either. I stopped and turned, looking for the door I had just gone through, but it was gone. “Well fuck me with a rusty spoon.” Now what? Nothing was happening. It was dark. The kind of dark that doesn’t exist naturally. I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face, and nothing I did shone any kind of light. I could still see the heads-up display from the glasses made of my device, but other than that, nothing. There wasn’t a sound or smell that didn’t originate from my own body, though my beating heart was plenty loud and the smell of viscera and zombie coming off of me was plenty nasty. But nothing else.
So I waited.
And waited.
And you know what I did then? I bet you can’t guess! I waited some more. Eventually I touched my side, feeling for the wound that the zombie’s spear had made. The bleeding had stopped soon after the fighting, and I didn’t have anything clean to bandage it with anyways. It had just been a crease after all. But I really needed to get it washed out, or I would die of an infection this time.
“Okay dungeon, enough games!” I shouted, growing impatient. I mean for goodness sakes, I had JUST had a whole thing about making progress and waiting to deal with my grief until I had the time. And now I was just going to wait? I started walking, finally willing to chance that the ground nearby was solid and not just going to drop away. My feet made no sound, no matter how hard I stepped. I cannot tell you how unnerving that was. It might have been the single most unnerving thing that had happened. It was certainly the first thing that had happened that was completely outside of any expectation I had. Sure, magic and dying and fighting and fucking magic, but this was one of those ‘go to another world’ scenarios. That was expected. But this? This broke the laws of physics entirely. I was stomping my feet on a solid surface. There should be a sound from that. It was impossible that it wasn’t creating vibrations in the air I was clearly breathing.
I’m not proud of this, but I panicked. I started to run, screaming at the top of my head, searching for anything in an inky black void. But there was nothing, not a wall in any direction or any puzzle to solve. I didn’t have a torch to light my way, or a person to talk to. “Seriously, what the hell? Dungeon, can you hear me?!” And now I was talking to a cave. A fucking cave. “Fate? Please, somebody? Do not tell me I’m just going to wander a black void until I die of dehydration. Please…”
And then there was a voice. A monotone, robotic voice, like something out of a 70’s sci-fi movie about AI. “Be still human.”
I didn’t wait for more. “Who is it, who is there?!” I shouted again, turning around in place, looking for anything.
“I am trying to understand. You did not enter this Trial Ground through the entrance, and you already have a focus core. But you were admitted. But you did not enter through the entrance.”
Oh. Oh fuck me. It really was the dungeon. The dungeon was alive. Was it going to eat me? Was this a punishment? Truth or lie, what would get me out alive. I was not above lying to save my bacon, not at all. But, I didn’t know what kind of answer the voice wanted to hear, so…
“I did come through the entrance. Then I died. Then I came back to life, but in a new body and still inside the dungeon. As for why I have a focus core? Fate appeared to me through one of your doors, and then the next door I went through led me to the core.” Truth. Better that way. I could lie later, but this seemed smarter.
The dungeon didn’t respond, and eventually I yelled out. “Hello?”
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“You are Niles Thatcher?” The dungeon asked, no inflection to let me have any idea what it was saying.
“I am Niles Thatcher.”
“You have completed this Trial Ground successfully. I have confirmed the interference of the goddess Fate, and adjusted the rewards accordingly. As you already have obtained a focus core, you shall instead be rewarded differently. Please claim your reward and exit back to the armory.”
Okay… I called out a few more times while I waited, but the voice never responded again. Odd. Were dungeons people? Or maybe this was a trial ground specific feature? I just didn’t know, and had no way to get an answer to any of my questions. A very common theme as of late. So I waited. After a few minutes, or maybe hours because honestly in the dark like that the only way I had to count time was by the beat of my heart and who knows how accurate that was, the room began to change. First, the walls formed, rising up from the floor. Stone walls of uneven blocks formed a smallish room. The ceiling appeared to be packed dirt held in place by roots that hung down at irregular intervals, crossing the open air to slip back into the dirt floor. The center of the room held a small chest, and the wall behind me held, you guessed it, another door. What kind of dungeon was this anyways? No traps, no mazes, no branching paths. Just room after room.
I almost opened the chest, just to get it over with. “Wait, what if it's a mimic? Are mimics going to be things here? Please don’t let mimics be things…” I used appraisal on the chest, and waited.
Wooden Chest - Chest - A chest made of wood and iron, without a lock.
Unsure if that was truly a good test or not, I picked up a rock from the ground, and tossed it at the chest. Nothing happened. “Probably not a mimic then. I hope. Please don’t eat me?” I still had the spear in my hand. Seemed like as long as I held onto it, it wouldn’t disappear. Which was nice, it meant I didn’t have to summon it repeatedly during fights or anything silly like that. I opened up the chest, which was not a mimic, thank god, and took a good look inside.
“Oh hell yeah!” I grinned, pulling out the clothes the dungeon had provided. It was a four piece set of classic wizard robes! There was even a pair of clean, modern style boxer briefs! “Best quest reward ever!” I stripped so fast and efficiently that it could have been a show in vegas, and quickly appraised and donned the gear. Underwear, cloth pants, cloth robe that used buttons to ensure it wouldn’t open as well as a belt, and a conical hat with a ridiculously large brim. The hat was both the best and the worst part. “Just call me Big Hat Logan I suppose!”
Regalia of the Barrier Magus - Gear Set - Light Armor - A set of magical clothes consisting of pants, robes, and hat. When all three items are worn together, the clothes reduce the cost of barrier type spells by 10%. All items are enchanted with self-repair and self-cleaning functions. Minimal protection. Cannot be worn with other armor.
Modern Man’s Best Friend - Underwear - An enchanted set of underwear given as an unorthodox reward by a dungeon. Reduces groin damage by 10%. Enchanted with self-repair and self-cleaning.
I was so damn excited to have clean clothes not made of burlap sacks that I could have cried. And underwear, modern underwear! I actually did a happy little jump when I put them on. My family jewels were safely protected by high quality magic and cotton, no more just free hanging down the leg of crappy pants! And the enchantments on the robes were excellent too! I had clothes that would stay clean and whole even if I got in fights with them or had to travel long distances. The fabric was heavy too, feeling durable and insulating. Wearing them, it felt like they would keep out rain, dust, and wind without letting me get too hot or cold. The kind of thing you could wear in the desert to keep the sun off your skin. I just hoped they wouldn’t get too stuffy. Maybe enchanted clothes all had some kind of temperature regulating feature? If they didn’t, they really should. Hey, maybe I could make some money with that idea! Wonder what they use for money here… Gold? Or had they advanced to bank notes? Perhaps it was some kind of magic crystal that everyone just carried around.
My mood was vastly improved by the new gear. Just having decent clothes was such a wonderful thing, something I hadn’t realized had been affecting my mood so much! I checked the chest one last time, and found a small book! Roughly the size of my hand, and about an inch thick. I pulled it out and opened it, but found I couldn’t read it. It was filled with diagrams and text that not even my PSD identified. But the appraisal skill worked all the same.
Force Bolt Grimoire - Magic Tome - Requirements: Magus Focus - A tome inscribed with the spell [Force Bolt]. The spell can be used by running Mana through the tome. Uses Remaining: Unlimited
[Force Bolt]
* Evocation
* Force
* Casting Time: Very Low
* Cooldown: None
* Mana Cost: Very Low
* Fire a small bolt of force in a specific direction. Ineffective against magical defenses.
Okay. That was awesome. I could cast a spell now! I tried using it a few times, and it took a bit to get it. In order to use the spell, I had to hold the tome in one hand, and point with the other. It barely used any mana to cast, though the effects weren’t much either. It could blast small chunks out of the rocks and dirt, but when it hit the chest, it only rocked it back a foot or so. Still, I had a ranged ability! I found that I could even use the spear in my hand to channel the spell by pointing the spear at my target. This was great! “Thank you dungeon!”
I left quickly after that, finding my way to the door and out. I stepped into the armory dressed in my new robes and hat, grimoire in one hand, spear in the other, and saw familiar crimson red hair in front of me. “Ophelia?” I asked, really hoping this wasn’t Fate again.
“Niles!” She turned to face me, smiling wide. She charged at me, wrapping her arms around me in a big hug. “You survived! And got new clothes?” I hugged her back. I could feel the tension in both of us just emptied out and down like letting the pressure out of a balloon.
“I had an interesting time. It's… well, it's not a long story per-se, but I don’t want to get into it right now. We still have a lot to do.” I took a step away as her arms loosened. We were both blushing just a bit. Frankly, we were being overly familiar with each other, and while we both craved the comfort of touch, we didn’t really know each other well.
“You got a focus core though, right?” She sounded unsure, as if seeing me in the new clothes made her think I got a different reward instead of what was expected. Which was sort of true.
“Yeah, I got one. Magical type, called a Barrier Stone? I can create barriers that take a single attack.” I gave her a brief rundown on what I could do, and she gave me the same back.
We both pondered the situation a moment, and she looked at the stairs leading up and out of the armory, back to the entrance of the trial ground. “Niles, I think that, with our abilities together, we might actually have a chance to get out of this alive. Now, listen up…”