“That sucked!” Savantha declared as she and Pear passed through the portal and left the Fire floor of the dungeon. “Another rehash of tree cutting with angry, burning golem guys and pissy elementals? That sucked!”
“I promise you Savantha,” Pear said patiently, his own anger at the floor’s layout and quest matching his Party member’s, “I heard you the first time.”
“Well, I’m gonna say it again,” the young woman growled. “That sucked! What’s this floor’s quest?”
“I dunno,” Pear said with a shrug as the notification flashed before them.
You’ve stumbled onto a Dungeon Quest!
Escape the Life Maze: You are in a maze that has been flooded with Life mana. Typically, this maze is home to Life Elementals, but there is a powerful source of Death mana at the end of this maze. This source of Death mana has lowered the amount of life mana to the point that the Life Elementals cannot spawn. Escape the maze and remove the source of Death mana to return this floor to its natural balance.
Rewards: Passage to the next floor. Life Perk. Key of Life. Vertebrae of a Grand Lich.
You have been afflicted with Tiny Hazardous Growths(Lesser). You will take tiny amounts of damage every minute until you remove yourself from the source of the Growths. This effect will stack up to ten times. It can be removed with any amount of channeled Death mana.
“It’s a redo of the Death floor,” Savantha groused. “Complete with its own debuff! Why the hell do we have a debuff from Life mana anyway? Death I get, but Life is supposed to be helpful.”
“If you think about it, cancer’s just an excess of growth in the body,” Pear said. “If you try to explain that with magic and mana, that would mean that too much Life mana will cause cancer.”
“So this floor just gave us cancer?” Savantha demanded unhappily. “That’s just great.”
“Yeah,” Pear said as he shot a random burst of Death mana at her, clearing the debuff for a moment. “Come on, you’re leading again. All I see is swirling white. Kinda looks like a blizzard from a movie.”
“Then I’ve seriously got the better view,” Savantha said with a grin that Pear could hear. “The walls are covered with vines and stuff, and some of the vines have fruit growing on them! I’m gonna grab something to eat!”
“Don’t suppose I can have some?” Pear asked hopefully as he felt his stomach growl demandingly.
“Sure, catch,” Savantha said, throwing a fruit toward him. With a squelch, the juicy fruit burst open on his chest and fell to the ground as Pear stood there, arm outstretched in the wrong direction.
“I’m still pretty much blind,” he reminded her as he felt the sticky juices soak into his shirt. “You’re gonna have to hand it to me.”
“Right, I forgot,” Savantha said sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Pear assured her. “I’ll just be sure to return the favor somehow.”
“Bring it on Periwinkle,” Savantha said with a laugh as she passed him another fruit.
“Here we go!” Savantha said as she led Pear through the exit of the maze. “We’re free! Just grab that bit of spine there and we’re good to go!”
“What spine? Where?” Pear asked as he cleared their debuffs again.
“Right, that whole thing,” Savantha sighed. “Bag?”
“Bag,” Pear said, passing said item to her. “Is it really a spine for this floor?”
“Yep,” Savantha said as she pushed the bag back toward him, now slightly heavier. “Don’t know why you sound surprised. The Light and Dark floors were stuff that kept that Devil and Angel here and the Death floor was a bunch of teeth. Why not use a spine for this floor?”
“I guess you’re right,” Pear agreed as the notification flashed before them and they received another round of Tiny Hazardous Growths debuff.
You’ve completed a Quest!
Escape the Life Maze: You’ve reached the end of the Life Maze and taken the source of Death mana.
Rewards: Passage to next floor.
Perk: Life Skin: You have been bathed in massive amounts of Life mana. You will benefit from faster MP regeneration in areas thick with Life mana. You will have a natural resistance to Life spells. Your HP will regenerate slightly faster.
Key of Life
Grand Lich’s Vertebrae: Pieces of a Grand Lich’s spine that contain massive amounts of Death mana within them. Casting necromantic spells upon the vertebrae will cause them to possess the caster with a fragment of the Lich’s spirit. Using the vertebrae as a focus for Death magic will enhance any spells greatly.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Cool,” Savantha said with a grin as she read the notification. “One more floor and we’re home-free. Let’s go!”
“I’m not gonna stop you,” Pear said with a grin of his own as he tucked the Key of Life into his bag, following his Party member through the swirling portal that had appeared.
“Excellent job, my Apprentice!” Ripspell’s voice rang out loudly as Pear’s vision cleared from passage through the portal. “Very well done!”
“Ripspell?” Pear asked, looking around in confusion as mana of all types swirled through the air in harmony.
“You know this guy, Pear?” Savantha asked.
“I should hope so, dear girl,” Ripspell said. “I am his Master. He entered this Dungeon at my order. Who might you be?”
“His friend,” Savantha said frostily as she remembered how Pear had described the man before them. “How did you get down here so fast?”
“Well, that is a simple matter to explain,” Ripspell said easily. “I merely stepped through space and arrived here.”
“That’s some bullshit,” Savantha snorted. “Why’d you make Pear go through this whole thing anyway?”
“He is my Apprentice,” Ripspell said as though that explained everything. “He must have some idea.”
“Well?” Savantha demanded and Pear could tell that she was looking at him now. “Why?”
“To teach me to make use of the basics of Elemental magic and to learn to use my new perk and skills,” Pear said. “That and to learn how to make my own spells by watching the Elementals.”
“Excellent,” Ripspell said proudly. “Most excellent. Tell me, which spells did you learn from the Elementals?”
“Barrier, Flood, and Slash,” Pear said. “I also learned that I can substitute different types of mana for Missile, Shield, and Bind and that they’ll take on different properties based on the type of mana.”
“Wonderful,” Ripspell said happily. “Your first true lesson as my Apprentice and you’ve gotten full marks. Tell me, did you take any of the Elemental Woods from the floors that featured them?”
“Yeah,” Pear said, reaching into his bag and grabbing the warmer Fire-scorched Beech from the Fire floor and the cooler Water-drowned Cypress from the Water floor.
“Hand it all over,” Ripspell said. “I daresay, you’ll be happy with what I’ll give you in return for it all.”
“Did you really send him down here to learn a bunch of stuff on his own?” Savantha asked. “Cause that makes it look like you sent him here for the wood.”
“I can assure you, young lady, that had I desired elementally attuned woods such as these, I would have been able to acquire them with ease,” Ripspell said as he took the four types of wood from Pear. “Take heed to this lesson, Apprentice. A practitioner of magical arts should always keep interesting or rare materials he finds closeby. You never know when you might use them for something.”
“What do you need the wood for then?” Pear asked.
“In due time,” Ripspell said. “Now, entry and passage were simple and easy for me, but exiting will be far easier if I travel with both of you. Come, let me remove that cloak from you.”
As Ripspell untied the Cloak of the Grandmaster’s Student from Pear’s neck, Pear tried to rein in his excitement at finally being able to see after nearly a month blind to everything but mana and its swirling, sickening motions.
Closing his eyes, Pear breathed deeply and readied himself for what was coming. With a final deep breath, Pear opened his eyes and looked around.
The chamber he stood in was massive, easily reaching over a hundred feet on either side, with the deeper shadows washed in grayscale from his darkvision. A massive door with six gems and three empty slots lay on the far side of the room, barely visible behind the enormous tree that took up the majority of the chamber’s center. Mana, now see-through, glowing slightly, and misty, swirled softly at Pear’s feet and fell gently from the tree’s canopy reaching high toward the ceiling.
“Whoa,” Pear whispered as a grin split his face. “That’s a sight to see when you can see again.”
“Is it better for you cause you can see mana?” Savantha asked, pulling Pear’s eyes toward her at the sound of her voice.
Pear’s Party member and companion for the last few weeks was a beautiful Lion Beastkin woman with tan hair that fell in a wild mane down her back and a tufted lion’s tail flicking behind her as her piercing, green eyes seemed to bore into Pear’s own. Her clothes seemed to be a cross between a martial artist’s and a tribal huntress’ as her midriff was bare and her fringed shorts ended a few inches above her knees with sandals that wound up her shins in a complex series of straps. As Pear looked at the taller woman, seemingly dumbstruck, she gave a grin that exposed pointed, sharp canines before speaking.
“See something you like, Periwinkle?” she asked, teasingly.
“Uh, no, I mean, that’s, yes, umm, uh, I just didn’t know what you’d look like,” Pear said tripping over his words as his cheeks began to burn in embarrassment and he looked away from those piercing, feline eyes that twinkled mischievously.
“Before you continue to admire the scenery,” Ripspell said before Savantha could speak again. “Why don’t we move to the World Tree’s avatar before us and the two of you can gain your extra rewards for righting this dungeon.”
“Extra rewards?” Savantha asked, her voice now very interested.
“Oh yes,” Ripspell said as he stepped forward, leading the two of them closer to the large tree. “When a dungeon is pushed out of balance as this one was, an avatar of the World Tree appears and attempts to right that balance. If the avatar is incapable of that, or another comes along and does so before the avatar can, the avatar will use its power to reward them for their efforts. Every reward from a World Tree avatar is useful and tailored to the person or persons it is given to. Simply reach up to the trunk and lay your hand upon it. It will do the rest.”
Sharing a look, Pear and Savantha reached out and touched the trunk of the tree that Ripspell had stopped in front of and bowed toward.
As his hand lay on the strangely warm trunk of the tree, Pear felt as much as saw a large amount of mana push up the trunk of the tree from its roots and envelope him as a notification appeared before him.
You have found an Avatar of the World Tree. For accomplishing a feat of aid for the World Tree and Astrana, you shall be rewarded.
Your Perks; Arcane Skin, Water Skin, Dark Skin, Air Skin, Light Skin, Earth Skin, Death Skin, Fire Skin, and Life Skin have been lost.
You have gained the Perk: Yggdrasil Skin: You have been bathed in massive amounts of Elemental mana. You will gain faster MP regeneration the more Elemental mana within an area. You will have a natural resistance to Elemental spells. You will gain the extra effects of the Perks; Arcane Skin, Water Skin, Dark Skin, Air Skin, Light Skin, Earth Skin, Death Skin, Fire Skin, and Life Skin. These effects are capable of growth based on amounts of Elemental mana in the area.
Would you like to change your class? Multiple options are available for perusal.
Y/N
“Holy shit,” Pear breathed out in a whisper. “Yes, I want to change my class.”