Chapter 11

Tom awoke in his bed once more, uncertain how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered … the last thing he remembered was excruciating pain. Before that, things were jumbled around. He’d been angry at Sevin for something, but he couldn’t remember exactly what. And he’d been afraid, and indignant, and angry, but now that he examined those feelings he realized that they were not his own. Now he felt ... he felt numb.

He slid out from under the covers. One of his parents must have undressed him for bed. After using the chamberpot in his room, he promptly dressed in a blue tunic with green leggings, then went downstairs to the source of the bacon scent which was wafting into his room.

“Oh thank heavens you’re awake,” Sue said when she heard his feet on the stairs. She met him at the bottom and engulfed him in a hug. He returned it weakly.

“My memory is fuzzy. What happened?” he asked.

“Breakfast first. You haven’t eaten in two days,” she scolded. She dragged him into the kitchen and forced him to sit while she served him. Norman joined them a few minutes later, his countenance serious. Tom was hungry enough that he didn’t question the situation until after he’d cleaned his plate.

“What happened? How did I get home?” he asked once he was letting the meal settle.

“Sevin carried you home from the dungeon,” Norman answered. “What exactly were you thinking, going there alone?”

“I wasn’t alone. I was with Sevin,” he protested. “Sevin is really strong now. And my Class, it’s linked to dungeons. I know that now. I’ve got to go back, to finish figuring out how things work.”

“You can’t go back, Tom. Your savior destroyed the dungeon. It’s gone.” Norman broke the news bluntly, and Tom took the news like a blow to the stomach.

“He what? Why?” Tom asked.

“Because apparently if he did not, instead of spawning level four Burrowers, the dungeon would have instead spawned level fifty monsters, which as you can imagine our Militia would have had significant trouble purging,” his father informed him. The man sighed. “I understand it’s not entirely your fault. Sir Antoine spent some time explaining what he understands about your class’s mechanics. Apparently when a Controller interacts with a wild Core, there’s some mixture between the Core’s instincts and the Controller. Sir Antoine says that when you Leveled the Core, its ability to influence you increased twenty-fold. It is apparently a common trap that members of your Class fall into, and we’re fortunate that King Fenard sent Sir Antoine ahead to stop you before you caused serious trouble for the land.”

Tom felt ill as he began thinking of the implications of his father’s words. He remembered the way he’d felt while he was connected to the Core Stone. Powerful, dominant, territorial. He hadn’t been thinking about the consequences of his actions. He had Evolved so many high level monsters. If they had left the dungeon, they could have wrecked havoc on the valley.

“I thought there weren’t any bad classes,” he complained. “Why would the gods give me a cursed class like this?”

“According to Sir Antoine, once you’ve gained some levels in it, you’ll be able to resist the urges of wild dungeons. Until then, they plan on leveling you on Cores that the previous generations of Controllers have tamed,” Norman explained. “After you finish breakfast, I suggest you go back upstairs and pack. You’ll be leaving with Sir Antoine for the capital.”

“Wait, what? Who decided that?” Tom asked.

“Everyone,” Sue answered. She sighed and reached out to hold his hand. “I’m sorry you weren’t awake for the discussion, Tom, but Sir Antoine was very clear. Either you enter the king’s service as a Royal Knight, or the king declares you an outlaw. There’s really no other choice in the matter.”

“We’re not entirely happy with the situation either,” Norman said, reading his son’s displeased expression. “We plan on following you, once we manage to sell the shop and liquidate our inventory. It will just take us a little while to get things in order and we’ll be together again.”

Tom glanced at his mother. “What about my grandparents?”

“Don’t worry about them. Yes, we came to Tilluth to get away from their influence, but we’ll be under the protection of the king himself. Besides, it’s been almost twenty years since your father and I eloped. If they haven’t settled down by now, they never will,” his mother said. “I imagine that having a grandson in the Royal Knights will somewhat offset their disappointment in my choice in husbands anyway.”

Klein chose this moment to jump onto Tom’s lap, distracting him. He felt a profound relief that the animal had survived the trouble he’d caused, and a little guilty for not inquiring about his familiar before it reminded itself to him. Scratching the Tree-cat’s head, he looked between his parents. “I’m not sure that I want to go.”

“I’m not sure that we want you to,” Norman agreed. “But it’s that or life as outlaws. Surely it won’t be so bad, being a Royal Knight.”

“I’m not much of a fighter. Why do I have to be a knight?” Tom asked.

“Knights do more than chase off dragons, Tom,” His mother pointed out.

They continued talking about matters for a while, but eventually it became clear that it was time for Tom to begin getting ready to leave his childhood home. He went upstairs to pack, Klein perching himself on Tom’s shoulder as he climbed the stairs. The entire time, he still felt like his emotions were being tamped down somehow.

~~~~~~~~

Jessica crossed her eyes, trying to find the ‘help’ section of her new interface. As she had hoped, touching the Core Stone of Tilluth Village had bestowed her with a system of her own. Unfortunately, using it was less intuitive than she had hoped. Unintentionally, she pulled up her status once more.

Name

Jessica Small

Health

110/110

Age

17

Mana

210/210

Race

Human (Outworlder)

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Stamina

110/110

Class

Heroine

Strength

10

Level

2

Dexterity

11

Subclass

Sorceress

Constitution

11

Endurance

11

She blinked, willing the screen to go away and leave her alone. Why had she thought that installing some kind of overlay software in her head was a good idea? Especially one which she barely understood how to use.

At least she could read it. The words weren’t in english, and she suspected that they weren’t in any language that appeared on earth, but she understood them as though she were a native of this world. Curiously, she could still write and speak English. Whatever magic had downloaded this new language into her brain hadn’t replaced her native language, it had simply made her bilingual. If only the system were as easy to use as whatever process had done that for her!

“You look like a toddler,” Sevin informed her.

“Leave me alone. You’ve had this clunky interface in your head for most of your life, I’ve had it for about a day and a half,” she reminded him.

“That’s why you look like a toddler,” Sevin explained, grinning. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”

They were out, walking through the village proper. Sevin was officially giving her something of a tour, but for the most part there wasn’t much to see and they were just wandering aimlessly. Here was the general store. There was the Weaver family warehouse. This was Old Lady Gwenda’s cottage. That was Elder Lukan’s house.

“So, what are you going to do?” Sevin asked her after an awkward pause. “I mean, I don’t know if there’s a way back to your world or not. The way you came in seemed pretty one-way, you know?”

“Antoine has been in this world for over a century, and he hasn’t heard a hint of any way to return to Earth,” she agreed. “Although I think he gave up looking a long time ago, to be honest. He sort of spent a lot of time convincing me that it wasn’t worth the effort. He thinks I should come with him and try out for the Royal Knights. Apparently my Heroine class is unique to Outworlders, and it’s powerful enough that even the king will take notice.”

“Are you going with them, then?” Sevin asked

“I think so. I can’t really see myself churning butter or whatever in a village like this. Exploding monsters with my Napalm spell is more up my alley, I think,” Jessica said. “You’re thinking about coming too, aren’t you?”

Sevin blinked, surprised that she had seen his thoughts. He scratched the back of his head nervously. “I don’t know. I mean, I’m not a Commoner anymore. I won’t get experience for tending the fields or other chores. If I want to level up, I have to fight monsters. And I do want to level up. But I don’t know if they’ll take me as a Knight, you know? What if I go all the way to Profons, only for the knights to laugh at me and send me back?”

“Which would you regret more?” Jessica asked. “Getting rejected, or deciding not to take advantage of a personal recommendation from The Vanquisher?”

Sevin frowned. “Okay, that’s a good point.” He was silent for a moment, and Jessica let him think. “Alright. I’m doing it. I just have to tell my parents, and say goodbye to my family. And pack, obviously.”

“I’ll come with you,” she said.

Sevin lived a bit further out from the village. Unlike Tom, his family worked the fields that kept the village fed. Sevin’s parents were out back; his father was fixing some tools and his mother was washing laundry. Jessica had been expecting that she’d need to back Sevin up, but when he pronounced his decision to his parents they simply took it in stride.

“We figured you wouldn’t be sticking around very long once you got the Warrior Class,” his mother said, smiling sadly. “We weren’t going to say anything to encourage you to leave, but now that you’ve made your decision, we’re not going to try to convince you to stay, either.”

“If anything, I’m a little jealous,” Sevin’s father admitted. “Closest I’ve come to seeing the world is traveling to Tuksan and back. Not much excitement on that road.”

“I feel a little bit guilty leaving right before the harvest,” Sevin admitted. His parents shrugged his concerns away.

“I’m not going to say that we won’t miss your labor, but we’ve got enough hands between your brothers and the other villagers to handle everything that was planted,” His father said. “I’d rather be a pair of hands short than see you miss out on this opportunity to advance your class. Besides, I’m certain you’ll need proper guidance on how to handle your new Skills. Harvold is a good Militiaman, but I don’t think he can handle training a proper Warrior.”

“Besides,” his mother added, “You’d be miserable if Tom went off to become a Royal Knight and you were stuck tending the cabbages for the rest of your life. And we’d all have to live with your regrets.”

Sevin chuckled. She wasn’t wrong. “Alright. I’m going to go start packing.”

~~~~~~~~

Tilluth touched the plants. It touched the Animals. It touched the people. It reached out to the earth. It reached out to its other self, causing a small stone to light up in a map room. It found no new instructions, so it restarted its algorithm from the top. It touched the plants of the valley. It touched the Animals. It experienced an error.

It paused. Something was wrong.

It split its attention in two. One part continued to perform its functions, checking on the plants, animals, people and the earth and nourishing them with mana. The other part investigated the error.

Identifying the source of the error did not take long. Tilluth’s subcore to the north had been destroyed recently. Strange, in that Tilluth had forgotten that it had a second subcore, aside from the one far to the south which once sent the primary core instructions and updates. The part of Tilluth’s demi-mind dedicated to investigating the error searched through the modifications that had been made in the distant past, and gradually it began to understand.

One of its primary functions had been separated out into the subcore. That was the source of the error. The subcore had been specialized and dedicated to the production of monsters. Without the subcore functioning, Tilluth was no longer fulfilling one of its primary purposes.

Tilluth reached out to the distant Control Core. It reached out, and it reached out, and it reached out, but no answer came. Tilluth was not fulfilling part of its purpose. It was a Dungeon Core; it must have monsters within its territory. As long as the monster producing subcore had been in its territory there had been no source of error. Now that there were no monsters being produced, there was an ongoing error with its central processing.

It reached out to the Control Core, seeking a remedy to this situation. Finding none, Tilluth was forced to create its own solution. It had been a very, very long time since it had last modified its core operations, but the lack of monster production required a solution.

Tilluth touched the plants, nurturing and nourishing them with its mana. It touched the animals, taming, nurturing, nourishing. It touched the people. It created a monster, burning through all of its mana at once. It waited for its mana to regenerate before reaching out to nourish the earth of Tilluth Valley.

In the forest to the west, a level forty three Flame Lynx came into existence with a flash of light. It looked up at the sun, basking for a moment, before dashing off to establish a lair.

Satisfied with the modification it had made to its programming, Tilluth closed off the part of its mind dedicated to resolving the error. In the map room to the far south, the light that had been rapidly blinking went dun.