Chapter 10

Jessica swallowed as she stared at the choke point ahead of them. Ten monsters, and not the little ones that Sevin could take care of by himself, were waiting in the doorway. Beyond the door she could see the light of the false sun, but they would have to get past the monsters to confront the rogue Controller once more. There were six of the giant Rock-Spider things, and even Antoine tsked when he saw the numbers.

“I hate rock beasts,” the man said. “But at least these ones have obvious weaknesses.”

He walked forward, sword unsheathed, and set to work. The Burrower Enforcer guards were easily dealt with, but the man’s sword would bounce helplessly off the shells of the Rock Spider Queens. Only their eyes were vulnerable, a single orb in the center of their face. Antoine proved that he knew what he was doing, slaying the beasts one after the other. He wasn’t able to avoid the gore this time, however, and he emerged from the melee covered in ichor.

He cursed. In french, she thought. But they had successfully fought their way back to the depths of the dungeon. Well, Antoine had fought enough for all of them; the others had mostly left the violence to him. Sevin had stood in front of her protectively at each of the choke points they had crossed so far, but nothing had gotten past Antoine to threaten either of them.

Nervously, they walked past the twitching spiders and followed the swordsman into the room with the false sky.

“You don’t belong here,” Tom said, standing at the far end of the large, open room. Standing between him and them was a line of monsters, including the colored Burrowers that Tom had initially Claimed. Klein clung to the boy’s shoulders, whining faintly.

“Discard the core before the madness fries your brain, boy,” Antoine said.

“You’re not welcome here! Attack!”

The monsters swarmed forward, but with plenty of room to maneuver, Antoine easily slid between them, ending their lives with swift strokes of his sword. While he was busy dismantling them, however, Tom raised his hands and Spawned something else.

Born the size of a man, the creature stood on two legs, with knees that bent the wrong way. Its face was vaguely catlike, while the rest of its body was more amphibian to Jessica’s senses. Its arms – all four of them – ended in scythe blades rather than paws or hands. No sooner had the thing Spawned than Tom put a hand on it, pressing more mana into it to force it to Evolve.

The light cocooning the animal abruptly failed before any changes took place, and Jessica struggled to breathe. Something was wrong with the air; it was frozen in place.

No, that wasn’t right, she realized. Something was frozen in place, but though she labored to breathe, she wasn’t lacking oxygen. It was something else that was frozen. Something as vital to her as air.

“What are you doing?” Tom demanded. “Stop it! Let go!”

“Your skills won’t work, boy. Not while I have the area locked down,” Antoine informed him. “Make it easy on all of us and surrender now. Believe it or not I don’t especially want to hurt you.”

“You don’t belong here! Get him! Kill him!” Tom shouted, and the cat-amphibian-nightmare thing dashed forward, swinging its scythe blades dangerously.

Antoine blocked the first two strikes, dodging the third and forth, and before the thing could recover from its initial attack, the man beheaded it. It continued to swipe around itself blindly with its scythes for a moment, then collapsed. Antoine stepped forward, approaching the boy inexorably.

“Give me the Core Stone, Tom,” Antoine said reasonably. “It’s too late to undo the damage you’ve caused, but it’s not your fault. You can fix the imbalances you caused when you’ve leveled up some. But the world can’t have a rogue Controller running around.”

Tom opened his mouth to say anything, but before the words came out, Antoine blurred forward again. Jessica didn’t see what happened, but in a flash Tom was on the ground, and Antoine was holding the Core Stone.

“Stop, give it back,” Tom protested, trying to stand. Antoine pushed him back down, stepping on the boy’s chest to pin him to the ground.

“You’ll thank me for this someday,” Antoine told him. “But I think not today.”

Holding the Core out before him, he spoke a single word, and Jessica’s mind screamed Danger.

“Vanquish.”

Even just standing nearby, Jessica felt like a thousand blades had sliced through her flesh. She screamed in agony, but the sensation lasted for less than a second. Far closer to the epicenter of the attack, Tom screamed and screamed and passed out. Jessica fell to the floor, feeling light-headed.

Sevin was torn for a second between his best friend and the girl he’d just met, but he quickly rushed to her side. “Are you alright? What happened?”

“I shattered the local mana field,” Antoine answered. The Core Stone in his hand had turned to dust, and he poured it out onto the floor of the dungeon. “It seems that Jessica is sensitive to such things. My apologies, young lady, if I’d known how that would affect you, I would have had the two of you wait further back.”

The false-sky began to dim. Antoine lifted Tom into a fireman’s carry and walked back towards them.

“Come on. We have about twenty minutes before the dungeon will begin to collapse. We have to get out of here before then,” Antoine warned.

“Collapse?” Sevin asked. “What do you mean?”

“I destroyed the core. It’s like stopping a beating heart. Dungeons take a little longer than men to die, but the process has begun. In a few hours, it will be like this place was never even here. We need to get moving.”

“You killed the dungeon?” Sevin asked, astounded. “How? Why?”

“I couldn’t leave the core behind in the state that it was in,” Antoine explained. “The fool boy must have leveled it as high as he could, which is probably why he was so affected by the Core’s instincts. I couldn’t just take Tom out of here. The Core would have continued to spawn high level monsters endlessly until they overran the village. So I Vanquished it. I apologize again, Jessica, for how it hurt you. The more Mana you have in your body, the more that attack hurts. I should have anticipated that you would be affected, but I’ve never used that particular ability around another sumonee before.”

As he spoke, Klein reappeared, making a keening sound as it tried to reach its master. Antoine absently reached down to scratch the creature’s head. “Good boy. Tom will be fine once he’s recovered a bit. He wasn’t the target of the attack, but the feedback would have caused him some distress. He should recover in a few hours.”

The man turned to the teenagers and motioned them to get moving. “Come on, we don’t have time to waste.”

Judging that she was recovered enough to walk, accepting Sevin’s help to get back on her feet. They rushed back the way they had come. Was it just her, or were the lights starting to fade as they walked? Hopefully they’d find the exit before they failed completely.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jessica awoke in a rough bed. Her feet ached from walking in the forest after escaping the dungeon, but one of the village women had lathered her blisters with some ointment that smelled suspiciously like Vics vapor rub, which had dulled the pain. Best of all, she had clothes now! The villagers hadn’t asked too many questions, but Tom’s mother had been quick to donate a simple outfit for the isekai’d teen when they returned to the village.

From there, the rest of the evening was a blur. There had been a meeting in the inn’s common room in which Antoine asserted the crown’s claim to Tom, insisting that the laws of the land required all Controllers to serve in the Royal Knights. The villagers were less than eager to surrender one of their own without any consideration for what the boy wanted, and of course the boy remained unconscious, so they couldn’t ask him how he felt about the situation.

Aside from clothing and feeding her, the villagers hadn’t said much to Jessica. She’d gotten the feeling that they didn’t know how to act around her once the story got out that she was from another world. That Tom had Summoned her to this one. Antoine had been less than pleased when Sevin had let that cat out of the bag. After a few hours of feeling out of place, she had asked the innkeeper for a bath and a bed, and he had obliged.

She took care of her morning ablutions, then dressed herself in the same simple outfit she’d been given the day before. Sue Weaver had tried to give her a dress, but she’d insisted on wearing the same tunic and leggings combo that the males walked around with. She hated dresses. She hadn’t had much selection as far as color went, but had elected on a yellow top with green leggings.

There was a mirror in the room, and she spent a minute examining herself once she was dressed. She was plumper than she’d been when she’d last looked in a mirror. Back on Earth. But then that made sense, since she’d been wasting away at the time. This body was in the pinnacle of health. She still looked like herself, but she looked like she would have if she’d never gotten sick in the first place. Or at least that’s what she thought.

Satisfied with her appearance, she went downstairs, where she found Antoine sitting alone. He motioned for her to sit with him, and so she did.

“We need to talk about your future,” he informed her. “But before that, I’m thinking you need breakfast, and then we need to unlock your system.”

“Oh, right. There’s a system in this world,” she muttered. She’d completely forgotten. “What’s going to happen to me? I mean, you’re from Earth, so it’s not like this is the first time this situation has happened. Do I have to apply for citizenship or something?”

“You’ll be expected to swear not to use your abilities counter to the kingdom of Welsius,” Antoine answered. “Seeing as most people summoned from Earth are significantly stronger than the average system. But you’re mostly free to do whatever you want. The issue is one of finances. Normally Tom would be responsible for ensuring you’re adequately provided for for the first few years, but, well, he’s a fourteen year old boy. He can’t support himself, let alone a sumonee. I talked to his parents, and they’ve agreed to give you about fifty marks.”

“Is that a lot?” she asked.

“You could live comfortably on that sum for two years in a village like this,” Antoine answered. “Or you could provision yourself as an adventurer and begin seeking a true fortune. I’m certain you have other options than those two, but you’d have to suss them out yourself. Given that you’re from such a different world, it might be hard for you to adapt.”

“Was it for you?”

Antoine grimaced. “I’d rather not talk about my past right now.”

“No problem. I’ll just mark that as a ‘yes.’”

The innkeeper came and served them breakfast; eggs poached in milk served over toast. It was quite delicious, as was the purple juice they were served with the meal.

“So, is this just another Tuesday for you, or is the situation as weird as I think it is?” she asked.

“Controllers summoning people from Earth isn’t something that happens every Tuesday,” Antoine answered. “Usually on Tuesdays I’m being asked to destroy some wild dungeon that spawned and is threatening a village. Or some high level monster that escaped containment and is threatening a village. Or a dragon flew over a village somewhere and I’m asked to drive it off before it kills someone. Or to kill it.”

“What level are you?” she asked. “Or, sorry, is that impolite to ask?”

“It is, but I don’t mind,” Antoine answered. “Display status.”

Name

Antoine Durand

Health

1960/1960

Age

124

Mana

Error

Race

Human (Outlander)

Stamina

1720/1720

Class

Hero

Strength

204

Level

106

Dexterity

232

Subclass

Swordmaster

Constitution

196

Titles

Vanquisher

Endurance

172

Dungeonbane

Dragonbane

She blinked at the status menu that appeared in front of the man who had saved her the day before. She took it in, but one detail jumped out more than any other.

“You’re old!” She exclaimed.