Chapter 39
Immediately after awakening, I carefully deconstructed my psi nets. Once that was done, I sat up and swung to the edge of the bed. “Good morning, Coa.” I patted the little dragon that was watching me from where she lay on the other pillow with half lidded eyes. It looked like she was still sleepy. I’m sure that will change quickly once she smells food.
“Mistress, I was distracted by you going to bed, but why are you going to look up information about the dungeon? I don’t believe another dungeon expedition was part of your plans.” Lynn inquired.
I almost stumbled upon getting out of bed because of Lynn’s unexpected voice. “Well, you know, it’s there, Lynn.” I replied, as if this simple fact explained everything.
“Yes, I know ‘it’s there’, Mistress. That still doesn’t answer anything! Mistress wouldn’t be intending to waste time in another dungeon right? I mean, that would just be a silly notion wouldn’t it? Therefore it can’t be correct, right?” Lynn asked with an edge present in her voice.
“Yes Lynn, I do want to go to the dungeon, even if it’s a distraction from my goals. That tower is mocking me. Never conquered they say? No one has ever seen the top? To that I say, bring it on! I welcome the challenge it presents. Maybe I won’t be able to do so alone and maybe it will be pointlessly dangerous, but even so, I still want to explore it!” I argued.
“Mistress.” Lynn spoke with a whisper. “I don’t want you to go in there. If it works like that other dungeon, I’ll lose contact with you once you’re inside. That greatly worries me. What if something occurs? I won’t even know about it until it’s too late! I can’t accept you taking those kind of risks! Why can’t we just stick to the mission and focus on that organization. That will already be risky, but at least I’ll be able to monitor and respond with sending aid in case of an emergency.”
“Lynn, it won’t be the first time we’ve been out of contact. We’ve been separated for months in the past without any issue, so I don’t see why you would be so uneasy about possibly a few hours. If it really does seem overly dangerous I’ll immediately abort my exploration and return.” I assured her. “There is even a possibility that I won’t bother entering. It depends on what the guild or other adventurers can tell me about the dungeon.”
“It’s different, Mistress! This world is odd. It’s just too illogical in a number of ways. There is too much that belies understanding which creates an inability for me to calculate the threat value of any target! Before when we were separated, I could run my simulation to see how dangerous the missions should be. Anywhere in the galaxy we had been before, and even ones we hadn’t, I could determine even unlikely factors ahead of time. I can’t do that here! I don’t have all the necessary data! How do I classify ‘magic’!? Should I consider it as dangerous as certain psi techniques? More or less dangerous? Can magic cause effects that tamper permanently with the brain? Based on what you told me about that forest dungeon, the mist in that dungeon could interfere with your senses, and that alone is terrifying enough! What about all the races of this world? Is it only appearance and longevity that sets them apart or is there more? Are their nations in this world even more advanced technologically? Can magical enchantment substitute entirely for technology? It seems to do so, what with the lights and that bathroom back at that fancy inn!” Lynn spouted.
I let out a groan and settled back on the edge of the bed. I guess Lynn had finally reached her boiling point. It had probably been filling up since my breakdown and the knowledge that I planned to go into the dungeon was the tipping point. I scooped up Coa and began petting her as I listened to Lynn’s rant. I’ll let her get this out of her system.
“And another thing! That Rie girl! Why did Mistress let her leave when you should keep an eye on her!? She could create countless issues and become a potential catastrophe for us! Mistress should have kept her by your side at all costs. So what if she had a brother that was her only family, she clearly wanted to be with you. Now she’s with her brother and you said she can tell him about what she learned. The brother is in no way going to keep that secret if he feels like it would keep his sister away from you. As Mistress herself noted, the brother did not trust or like Rie’s attachment to you. Also, what was with that school! It was way too suspicious! It was gathering orphans with ‘blessings’, doesn’t that just set off warning bells!?” Lynn ranted.
I think she’s going a bit far afield now. “Lynn-” I tried to interject.
“I’m worried about Mistress more than ever! What would I do if something happened to you!? And now you want to go to another stupid dungeon with completely unknown dangers!? Mistress is always like this! You take dumb risks whenever you find something interesting! You let down your guard too easily around people!” Lynn started crying. “You had a breakdown just two weeks ago and you tried to kill yourself! I would have lost you if not for my backup programming! I’ve been keeping silent about this, but no longer! Please Mistress, don’t give me more causes to be afraid for your safety.” Lynn pleaded.
“I apologize Lynn for not taking your feelings into account. I can’t promise you that I won’t take stupid actions and I understand that insisting on visiting the dungeon is idiotic. I know you care about me and want me to stay safe, but I don’t want that kind of sheltered and coddled life. I might be stuck on this world for now, but I’m still an explorer and mercenary first and foremost. I realize that I could lose my life and that horribly frightens me. It scares me more than anything else because I absolutely do not want to die on this planet. I want to find a way to return home to the other people I care about. At the same time though, I’m going to try to be as true to myself as possible. Whether it’s influence from ‘Seri’ or ‘Aaron’, I want to climb that tower. I want to be the first person at the top. I want to be able to say I beat it!” I laughed. “Well, I’d probably only brag about it to you like most of my other accomplishments. That’s the normal routine after all. So brighten up and just trust me like always Lynn. I’ve never failed to return home before and I’m not going to now. Plus, you have to be ready to have the party for when I return to the ship as usual right? We always have a party when I return to Lullaby after a long absence off on a mission.”
Lynn joined me in laughing. Her dark mood had lessened slightly. “That’s true, Mistress. I’ll accept that for now. I still have severe reservations about this choice of action that I’d like you to keep in mind. Really, I want nothing more than to drag you back to the ship and make sure you’re actually fully recovered.” Lynn sighed. “It’s wrong of me to still be so overprotective of you, but I can’t help it. I’d even admit that that part of my personality borders on being a bit too intense, and maybe even go as far as saying it’s creepy. It’s not very easy for me to change though.”
“I wouldn’t change any part of your personality ever, Lynn. I love you just the way you are.” I told her.
“That’s always nice to hear. I do believe Mistress should add investigating that school to your list of actions to take. That place just bothers me somehow.” Lynn said.
“I can’t say I’m not worried at all about Rie and her brother going there, not to mention the rest of the kids, but I think that a school like that would be under watch at least a bit. They take in orphans every few years, so wouldn’t it be noticed if the orphans they brought in disappeared? If they take in thirty kids and only ten of them make it to graduation, I can’t see them having the sterling reputation they seem to possess. Also, the teachers, or whatever they were that came to meet the kids, were genuinely concerned and glad the kids were safe. I don’t know if people that would turn around and hurt the kids themselves would have that kind of feeling.” I reasoned.
“There are ways they could be ‘genuinely concerned and glad’ without actually caring about the kids themselves.” Lynn cautioned.
“Noted. I still think Rie should be safe enough there for the month I’m in the capital. Much safer than she would be by my side during that time anyway. If I’m wrong on that, I can always tear apart the place from top to bottom.” I replied.
“I guess I’ll back off for now. If Mistress does visit the dungeon, I hope she does so in moderation. If I lose contact with you for more than a day or two, I might feel forced to take inadvisable actions.” Lynn warned.
“I definitely do not want you to do that! I still remember when you used some of my antimatter explosives to blow up that syndicate space station just because they were hiding information that you were after.” I said.
“I only did that because the station’s AI was being very rude!” Lynn stated angrily. “So what if our starship’s frame is slightly wide! That doesn’t mean I’m fat or anything!”
“Yes, yes, Lynn. You’re definitely not fat or anything. Lullaby is a very sleek frigate class. That station AI’s sensors were clearly malfunctioning.” I reassured her. Lynn merely hmphed in response. “Now, if you’re done scolding and warning me to behave, I think I’ll just go about finishing up getting out of bed and seeing about some breakfast.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Lynn let out a sigh. “Understood, Mistress. Good luck on your search today.” Lynn said cheerfully. Or as close to cheerful as she could sound right now.
Coa had gone back to sleep in my arms, so I laid her back down and then got dressed. After finishing my preparations, I took a moment to examine Coa. As I petted her earlier I had noticed cracks in her hide again. She was definitely still growing at a good pace. Possibly close to fifty centimeters now? Maybe closer to forty-five? She was rapidly reaching the length where she might have trouble wrapping around my neck. Once she reaches her parent’s length of over a meter, I wonder what she will do? If she still wants to hang around my neck, I’ll at least accommodate her as much as possible. For now, let’s get these cracks administered. I removed the salve from my pack and rubbed it into her hide carefully. Coa groggily woke up and chirped at me and then started purring in relief.
Once I was finished, together we went downstairs to the dining room for breakfast. Unlike the obvious guests and people from out of town last night, it looked like it was serving time for locals. From the snippets of conversation, it seems like most of them were either eating before going to where they work or they just came from work and were eating before going back. I collected some food for myself and Coa and relaxed off to the side of the room while listening for any new and interesting information. Sadly there wasn’t anything along those lines, but I did catch one of the guys grumbling about needing to head to the adventurer’s guild for some business. I didn’t care about his issues, but he would serve me very well indeed. Tour guide to the guild located! That saves me the trouble of asking people for directions.
I finished my meal while keeping a surreptitious watch on the man to see when he left. Of course I had no need to do that with my eyes, I was doing it with my psi instead. As soon as he mentioned visiting the guild, I had tossed a link on him. Ultimately that meant there was no need for me to do something as silly as following him closely enough to keep him in sight. I could follow him at a leisurely pace and from fifty meters away whether I could see him or not. If I wanted to strengthen the link in a very particular way I could even tap into his hearing or vision temporarily to know exactly what business he had at the guild entailed. It was a difficult and potentially time consuming process to set up, but it had served me very well at times in the past. I didn’t believe it would take much time with the people on this world though, with their nonexistent resistance to psi. Maybe a minute or two of unbroken concentration would be all that was necessary if I felt inclined to do it, in addition to having the Empath Class set.
I had no intention of doing such a thing. There was no reason to start intruding on some random person’s privacy. If I had a legitimate cause then sure, but that was not the case here. The odds that a random link would provide me with an important lead were extremely slim. The only thing this guy was thinking about was his distaste for having to visit the guild this early when it was supposed to be his one day off. This was hardly something worth noting. I’d be feeling exactly the same way in his shoes after all. I absolutely despised when something happened at the game store that required its ‘assistant manager’ to come to work on a day off. Worst mistake I ever made was accepting that promotion! I was just too happy about what the extra pay would do for my savings to think about all the consequences. Like how many more hours I’d be expected to work and how often I’d be expected to step in at a moment’s notice. Or how much extra work my boss would end up dumping on me. Well, he was overall a fair boss. Not many would have let me use the store VR pods for gaming during breaks like he had.
My link pinged me that the man was finally finished eating and was now heading toward the inn’s exit. I gave him a decent head start before I started following. I also picked up an extra meat roll for Coa to snack on as I made my way out. I fed her small bite size pieces as I walked along, following the man. It took about thirty minutes to get to the destination, which I assumed was the adventurer’s guild. It had been a good distance from the inn I was staying at, but still nowhere near the other side of the city, given the size of the city in question. The inn was close to the upper district while the guild was nearer to the wall leaving the city.
The guild, or what I’m pretty sure was the guild based on the guy’s heartfelt resignation as he went inside, was much, much different than the previous guild buildings I had seen. It was a large, dome roofed structure with some smaller connected side structures with their own domed roofs. I was quite surprised since I hadn’t seen domes used much in architecture outside of the cathedral I had glimpsed the previous day. The large set of doors were open and had some mural painted on it that looked like monsters and adventurers fighting. I walked inside and was immediately impressed by the place. It wasn’t a messy bar like place like the other guild. The ceiling went all the way up to the dome above, and had a number of banners that hung down from it. The entry area was wide and open and there was a number of tables and chairs off to the side. The man I had followed was over there with some people having what appeared to be an argument. To my left there was a staircase that was going both up and down. Some kind of basement I guess? The upper floor walkway went around the circular room and there was a number of open hallways up there that I could see from this ground floor. There was a reception area in the back that had a circular desk that went around a pillar.
All in all, it reminded me more of a lobby of some modern corporation than what I would have expected from a medieval guild. Especially with how neat and organized it was. Most of the people in the room were looking at a long bulletin board off in the back by the counter while others were going down into the basement or off into one of the hallways. There was a number of staff working at the counter so I made my way over to one. Even with the multiple workers, though, I still had to wait in line.
Of course, with my luck the cute rabbit girl was still talking with someone else when it was my turn, so I was stuck with what appeared to be a grumpy looking male fairy. The fairy couldn’t have been more than 25 centimeters tall and he was sitting on the counter with a small notepad his own size.
“Wotcher lookin' for, mate? ” The fairy asked as I came close. He definitely wasn’t wasting time on any pleasantries. I was quite amused by his accent. It sounded British, if I’m not mistaken. Do all fairies have an accent like this? He was the first of his race that I’d met after all.
It had always puzzled me how the psi translator kept accents like this though. One would think it would remove them since it was based around a special kind of psychic link technology. Well, none of this was important right now. “I was wondering if there were any records about the dungeon available? Or possibly some information along those lines?” I replied.
“Guild card, eh, mate?” I pulled out my adventurer’s card to show him and he nodded briefly. “Records room. Off dahn the bloody 'allway ter the right.” He gestured to one of the hallways on the ground floor and shooed me away.
It was a clear end to the conversation so I didn’t bother responding. I simply followed the given directions and left the lobby. I walked along the well lighted hallway and glanced into the open doors I passed. They seemed to just be small office rooms like I had seen in other guilds. At the end of the hallway was another set of double doors which I walked through to find myself in a decent sized room with a number of shelves of books and maybe some scrolls and other forms of written material. There were a few tables situated together in the center of the room and a single elderly man was seated facing the door with a small book in his right hand. At first I thought he was a human until I saw the tips of pointed ears barely poking out of his long white hair. An old elf huh?
When he saw me, he snapped the book shut. “How may I assist you, young lady?” He asked.
“I am after information about the dungeon. I was thinking about trying it while I was here for the anniversary.” I answered.
“Oh, a properly cautious young adventurer! That’s good! Too many youngsters rush in there mindlessly. I’m glad to see at least one coming here to prepare ahead of time!” The old elf exclaimed. The man stood up and walked over to one of the shelves and slid out a small volume. He brought it back over to the table and laid it there. “This is a catalog of the floors that have been conquered and their peculiarities. Just a summary really, but includes the important details. If you are more interested in reading personal accounts from other adventurers I can get those instead.”
“No, no. This should be plenty. Thank you.” I replied.
I took a seat at the table and opened the book. I looked over the pages slowly as if I was internalizing the information when really all I was doing was letting Lynn scan the pages for now. She said she was almost done so it shouldn’t be too long of a wait.
It was indeed not that long. From one moment to the next the text on the page I was looking at went from unreadable to readable. “I got it Mistress. Turn back to the previous page if the feed is working properly, if not turn to the next page and I’ll review it and get back to you.”
I turned back to the previous page and then from there back to the start of the book entirely. The information provided by it was pretty in depth and was exactly what I was looking for. It included the monsters and what levels were on each floor, which floors were boss floors and what the bosses were, and also what type of trial one had to complete to get to the next floor. The first floors were simply to find the access point to the next floor, but they started getting more complicated after that.
The stranger detail that is mentioned here in these notes is that that dungeon has environmental themes that it follows. The first 10 floors are a standard stone labyrinth, while the next 10 follow a progression of a beach and then down into the ocean until the 20th floor has the feeling of being at the ocean floor. Apparently the floors are actually entirely filled with water too, but it’s somehow breathable and doesn’t impede normal movement, so one is free to walk around as normal. Of course, apparently since it is water you can swim as well. Lynn’s comment upon seeing this information was that she could send me my swimsuit. Yeah, no. I’ll pass on wearing a swimsuit to a dungeon. Floor 21 and above are floating islands in the sky connected together by wooden bridges.
All of this sounds so bizarre! How does any of that even work? It must be because of magic!
Magic is just plain and simply weird. Very weird!