Chapter Ninety-One - Core Values

I sighed and lowered my hand.

Cleaning magic wasn’t cutting it. Amaryllis’ lightning wasn’t doing anything, and ever Awen’s attempt to plant a bolt into the root did nothing more than make us duck as the shot went wild and flew over our heads.

Then the thing I was afraid would happen happened.

Quest Update!

You have found the Evil Root. You are too weak to Destroy the Evil Root. Break the Core and let the Root Starve.

I eyed the prompt, bit my lip, then sighed. “The quest changed,” I said.

Amaryllis looked at me. “For the better?”

I shook my head.

“Let’s get out of this room if we’re going to talk. Too much mana in your system isn’t good for your health.”

“Alright,” I said before the three of us slipped out of the dungeon’s core room. My mana was still really, really high, so I fired off a burst of cleaning magic to lower it a bit. I could feel my new Rank A cleaning magic’s aura-like ability flick on like a sort of switch. It probably took some mana to maintain, but it was so little that it was almost unnoticeable.

I shook my head and refocused. I was tired. The darkened skies visible in the portal leading outside said that we were deep into the night already. Bedtime had passed a bit ago and the post-victory adrenaline rush had passed.

“My quest updated,” I said. “It wants us to starve the root out.”

Amaryllis eyed me. “How?” she asked.

I had the impression she already knew. “Break the core,” I said.

Awen gasped, hands flying to cover her mouth and her head shaking. “Awa, we, we can’t do that.”

Amaryllis’ reply was calmer, but no less negative. “She’s right. Breaking a core is... it’s not something you do, Broccoli.”

I shrugged. “That’s what the quest’s asking,” I said.

Amaryllis shifted, crossed her arms, then uncrossed them. I didn’t like how uncomfortable my usually fiery friend looked. “I know that where you’re from there probably aren’t any quests. And no dungeons, for that matter, so perhaps you’re missing out on the cultural context here. But to destroy a dungeon’s core, that’s sacrilege. Nearly every religion across every country has the destruction of a core as one of the great marks of great cruelty. All of the greatest villains in the stories are core breakers. You can’t just...” she waved her wings around, trying to express something that her words couldn’t.

“Awa, what do you mean about there not being dungeons where Broccoli is from?” Awen asked.

Amaryllis winced.

She was the sort that wanted that kind of knowledge to stay hidden. Fortunately, I didn’t mind if my friends knew more about me. “I’m a riftwalker,” I said to Awen.

Awen’s eyes widened and her breath caught. “Awa, really?”

“Yup! I’ve only been here, on Dirt, for a bit less than a month?” I tried to count back the days. “Two weeks? Not quite.”

“And, and you’re already so strong,” Awen said. “You really are incredible.”

“Ah,” I said before waving the comment off. “Stop that, you’ll make me blush. And I’m not incredible, I’m just Broccoli.”

“I, yes, of course,” Awen said.

Amaryllis started walking back and forth. “I... I don’t know what to think here,” she said.

Scoffing, I waved it off. “That’s easy. If I have to make the choice between my friends and a quest, then I’ll always pick my friends.”

Quest Update!

You have found the Evil Root. You are too weak to Destroy the Evil Root. Break the Core and let the Root Starve.

I brought my head back as Miss Menu showed up right in my face. “Uh,” I said before re-reading the quest. It hadn’t changed at all. “The quest updated without changing.”

“A sort of reminder?” Amaryllis wondered.

I waved off the prompt. “Doesn’t matter. Breaking the core would upset you, so I’m not gonna do it. I think the world can find someone else, right?”

Quest Update!

You have found the Evil Root. It is a source of great and terrible Evil! You are too weak to Destroy the Evil Root. Break the Core and let the Root Starve. Evil and Terrible things will happen in Evil and Terrible ways if the root remains active!

I read the new prompt. “Uh. Now the quest is really insistent that we break the core.”

I didn’t like the conflicting expressions on Amaryllis’ face. She wasn’t exactly a straight-laced kind of birdgirl, but she did seem really excited, in her own way, about the quest. Not completing it must have bugged her.

“Wh-what do you think, Broccoli?” Awen asked.

“I think that the menu giving me the quest really doesn’t get why I can’t break the root.”

Quest Update!

Destroy the Root or all life on Dirt is forfeit.

I squinted at the menu. “I don’t want to say I don’t believe you, Miss Menu, but I have the impression you’re exaggerating a little.”

Quest Update!

Destroy the Root or a statistically significant proportion of all life on Dirt is forfeit.

I crossed my arms. “Well, I guess I could do that, but only if you, uh, offer some concessions. I was a teensy bit miffed last time when I didn’t even get a reward for the quest.”

“Have you finally lost your mind?” Amaryllis asked. “Or was it the over exposure to mana that finally drove you off the edge?”

“I’m talking to the quest box... menu thing.”

Amaryllis and Awen looked at each other. “Okay,” Amaryllis said.

I crossed my arms harder. “It’s not being terribly helpful.”

Quest Update!

Destroy the Root of Evil and obtain one (1x) box of varied loot.

“Nu-huh,” I said. “I’m not into surprise mechanics like that.” The menu shook and shivered in the air. I think it might have been feeling the menu equivalent of frustration. “You know, if my friends had the quest too, I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be a problem to begin with,” I said.

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The quest prompt poofed away.

“Huh. I think I angered Miss Menu,” I said.

“You angered the world,” Amaryllis said. “And here I thought you were more likely to convince it to be your best friend.”

“I was getting to that,” I said. “I’ve never been a planet’s friend before, but I’m willing to try. It’s just, well, Miss Menu was asking a lot without giving anything. That’s not very friendly.”

Quest Update!

Destroy the Root of Evil.

Reward: Continued life on Dirt.

I was considering how to reply to that when both Awen and Amaryllis gasped.

“I, I got a quest,” Amaryllis said. She reached out to gently touch something that I couldn’t see.

“Ah, what’s it say?” I asked.

She swallowed. “It’s asking that I destroy the root of evil. And it rewards me with the right to live on Dirt?”

“Well, that’s just rude all around,” I said. “Honestly, Miss Menu, you should spend some time with Mister Menu. He’s nice.” The Menu shook. “Okay, okay. I was willing to break the root thing anyway, I just didn’t want to do it without my friends, you know?”

The menu reappeared, the same text as before on it.

It menu’d smugly at me.

“Are you okay with us blowing up the dungeon now?” I asked. “I... don’t know what it’ll do to the area, but I guess if the world wants it, it can handle the problems it’ll cause.”

Amaryllis hummed. “A dungeon of this size? It’ll create a ripple in the local mana structures. The ley lines might shift. It’s probably going to slow down the growth of any other dungeon in the area.”

“Ah,” I said. “Maybe that’s why the world wants us to break the core then? It’ll hurt the roots that are spreading around elsewhere.”

“That’s... actually possible,” Amaryllis said.

I shrugged. “Whelp, let’s blow up the dungeon.”

“You’re making me nervous when you say it so casually,” Amaryllis said.

I rubbed at the back of my head where my helmet squished my hair a bit. “Ah, well, been there, done that. We might have to run all the way out of the dungeon while it explodes around us. That is, if we don’t make it back through that portal to the outside in time.”

The harpy pinched the bridge of her nose. “Damnit Broccoli. I’m not in the mood to run through this entire dungeon in reverse.”

“While it’s exploding,” I added.

“Awa, exploding?”

“Um. More like... breaking apart? On a sort of dimensional level, I guess.”

“That's worse, you moron!”

We spent a few minutes making sure we had all of our stuff packed up and ready to go, then I pointed to the portal leading to the outside with one hand while giving Amaryllis my backpack (and Orange). “You guys stand there and jump out as soon as... actually, you could just leave now. There’s nothing stopping you.”

“And leave you in here?” Amaryllis asked.

Awen shook her head. “Awa, I’ll stay with you Broccoli, until the end.”

I wasn’t sure what I felt, but the weird emotion coalesced into a desire to give out hugs, so I did just that, grabbing my two friends and squishing them close. “I love you guys,” I said.

“Awaaaa.”

“I’ll be right back!” I said before skipping back. Awen was busy blushing, the poor thing, and Amaryllis fussed with her wing feathers. They both stood by the portal leading out, waiting for me to return.

I popped into the dungeon’s core room, took a moment to look around at the strange crystalline walls torn apart by encroaching roots, then I waited for my heart to stop beating so hard.

This was it. The end of another little adventure. Or rather, the end of a side quest to our adventure. There was still plenty more to go. It was a little sad that no other groups of friends would get to have fun in this dungeon like we did. It was the end of a tiny wonder.

I raised a hand, aimed down my index as if holding an invisible pistol, then fired off a tiny ball of cleaning magic.

The ball struck the core, splattered against it, and then magic spread across the surface of the core like water running over smooth stone.

The first crack I noticed was hair-thin and only ran for a few centimeters before stopping. Then a second appeared next to it, and a third.

I spun on my heel and ran out. “Hurry!” I said as I used Jump to shoot past my friends. My hands shot out behind me, catching both of them and yanking them through the portal.

Just as with the portal leading to the dungeon’s core, this one was as easy to cross as an opened doorway, but at the speed I was going, and with the weight of the girls behind me, it was easy to trip and stumble as we crossed.

We flopped onto the sand-covered glass of the valley with three echoed squeaks.

I waited for the explosion.

And waited.

And then I waited some more.

“Get up, idiot, you look the fool cowering on the ground like that,” Amaryllis said.

I poked my head up and looked over to the still-intact entrance to the dungeon. “Huh, I was expecting a--”

A burst of mana so strong it lifted me off the ground and threw me a half dozen meters away, shot out of the dungeon.

I crashed into the ground some ways away and rolled a bit before coming to rest on my back. “That. I was expecting that.”

“What what?” Moon Moon asked. “What happened?”

“The dungeon exploded,” I said.

“That makes sense,” Moon Moon said. He got up, brushed off his shorts, then stared at the hole torn into the valley wall where the dungeon had been.

“Uh,” I said as I climbed to my feet. “Okay.” I didn’t have to search for long to find my other friends. Amaryllis was getting up, looking extra grumpy, and Awen was trying to untangle herself from her backpack. “Well, that was something,” I said.

***