[Gibberling Defeated] Boss Threat Level - High (x100xp) 13,200XP rewarded
Level Up! You are now level [46] HP + 0 MP + 55 MIND + 1
Quest ‘Second Delve’ Complete! Reward - 6,000xp
Level Up! You are now level [47] HP + 5 MP + 50 MIND + 1
Power surged through Lieze’s body as she regained her footing. The Gibberling’s final affront against the dungeon’s meticulous foundation had proven to be ever-so-slightly too much for the labyrinth to handle. The quaking beneath her feet never truly stopped, only ebbed between troublesome and fearsome as great cracks were sewn into the polished floor.
Drayya shook Lieze by the shoulders, “What are we going to do!?”
“Calm yourself.” She replied, “Now that the Gibberling is dead, we can use the teleportation circle in the sanctum to escape before this place becomes our tomb.”
“Then let’s not waste any time!” Drayya shoved the girl in the direction of the sanctum, “Do you think we’ll have enough time to grab the treasure on the way out!?”
“Probably.” Lieze said, “There’s no need to panic. The dungeon is sturdier than it looks.”
Some cruel deity answered her statement by dropping a boulder of quartz onto the space she had been running past not a few seconds prior. Neither she nor Drayya commented on the coincidence, and instead sprinted wordlessly in the direction of the stairwell.
“That’s a shame… I wanted to raise the Gibberling.” Lieze couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment as they evacuated from the crumbling corridor.
The two of them - thralls following closely behind - descended through clouds of choking dust and emerged into the enormous sinkhole that was the sanctum. The teleportation circle had already shimmered into existence, alongside a tempting treasure chest offering the dungeon’s most coveted spoils.
Lieze placed her foot against the side of the chest and kicked it into the circle’s perimeter, where it vanished with a burst of cerulean particles. Swathes of rubble collapsed into the cylindrical chamber from above as if to warn the dungeon’s inhabitants that its life was coming to an end. Lieze entered the circle herself, and the stale air was replaced by a welcoming freshness as her surroundings turned from drab grey to vibrant green. One by one, Drayya and the thralls popped into existence beside her.
“Oh!” Drayya ran both hands down her robe, “I’m still alive…”
Lieze wandered over to the treasure chest and leaned down to push, “Help me move this out of the way.”
“Huh?” She tilted her head, “What for?”
A nearby tree was suddenly swallowed into the ground, triggering a cascade of collapsing soil which exposed the enormity of the sinkhole hidden beneath the ground. Drayya realised that the ground she was standing on wasn’t the safest around.
She nodded, “Okay. I get it now.”
They moved the chest to a more stable location as the serenity of nature was literally dismantled around them. Entire groves of woodland were consumed by the sinkhole, exposing the grainy shelves of chipped stone making up the corpse of the dungeon. Lieze observed the destruction from a crest in the landscape once she was clear of the danger zone.
“I wasn’t expecting a simple dungeon delve to be so eventful.” She mused.
“Don’t you think it would have been a tad more rational if we’d just proceeded through the layers in the traditional fashion?” Drayya frowned, “Sometimes it’s more enjoyable - and safer - to avoid taking shortcuts, Lieze.”
“I will admit that it was slightly more dangerous than I would have liked.” She replied, “But the results were extraordinary. That dungeon would have taken the guild months to clear, but the two of us managed to do it in a matter of hours.”
Her attention turned to the treasure chest. An ornate lock had been placed on the lid, but that was hardly an obstacle. The Void Beast was all too eager to tear the measly obstacle off with its superbly powerful jaws, exposing the telltale shimmer of golden coins hidden within. Lieze threw open the chest and sank her entire arm into the small fortune to search for any magical items.
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“It’s incredible how unexciting the twinkle of coinage has become.” Drayya said, “I recall a time when money could buy me a feast and a room somewhere dry and comforting. Now I’m expected to cook my own meals and find my own bed every night.”
“You make it sound as if you aren’t sleeping in the city’s most comfortable bedchamber or having your dinners prepared by a subordinate.” Lieze replied, “All for free, if I might add.”
“I don’t know…” She muttered, “It’s not quite as cosy when you’re surrounded by walking corpses every hour of the day.”
Lieze’s fingers found purchase around a cube-shaped object. Golden coins were scattered in every direction as she yanked it out, revealing a reflective, copper surface indented with grooves splitting the cube into eight distinct segments.
Portable Home Artefact (Very Rare) Description - This item is attuned to an interdimensional space with a width and breadth of 20 feet and a height of 10 feet. The wielder of this item may spend [1] minute concentrating on the item in order to enter this space, and may bring along with them any free-standing object capable of fitting within the space that they are touching. This item remains in its original position when the user travels to the interdimensional space. The user can choose to leave the space at any time, and may appear anywhere within 5ft of this item’s current location when they do so. If this item is destroyed, the interdimensional space (and anything within it) is destroyed as well.
Lieze scanned the description carefully. A private, permanently-accessible room would eliminate some of her personal logistical issues, but the fact that the cube would remain in the same place when she travelled prevented it from being used as a defensive tool during combat.
“What is that?” Drayya asked.
“It’s a tool used to access a pocket dimension.” She replied, “It’s not quite what I was hoping for, but it will come in handy when we leave Tonberg.”
“Let me see it.”
Drayya held out her hand, and Lieze gave her the cube without a second of hesitation. She examined the item’s meticulous craftsmanship with a discerning gaze. Lieze counted down the seconds in her head - 12, 11, 10, 9, 8…
When the required amount of time had passed, Drayya vanished. Unlike the circle of teleportation they’d used to escape the dungeon, there wasn’t so much as a flash of cerulean light to signify that she hadn’t simply been erased from existence. The cube dropped into the grass. Lieze observed as esoteric symbols appeared on each ‘face’ of the eight divided segments.
Drayya popped back into their native plane of existence without a sound.
“Oh!” She leaned down, arms dangling by her sides, “For a moment, I thought I couldn’t get back without the cube… you could have said it wasn’t going to come with me.”
Lieze retrieved the cube in question, brushing flecks of dirt from its surface, “How was it?”
“A little bare…” She replied, “But with some furniture, some amenities, maybe a candle or two…”
“We could move the alchemy table and our barrels in.” Lieze said, “We wouldn’t have any consistent methods of stocking up on blood if we were far from Tonberg. This will allow us to have a constant supply of it close to hand at all times.”
“My line of thinking was more to do with comfort, but that works as well.” Drayya replied, “All in all, it wasn’t a bad outing, was it? We’ve acquired some powerful thralls, and you were able to take your mind off the inevitable culling of all life on the continent for a few hours.”
Lieze blinked, “That’s still happening.”
“Oh, I know. Believe me, I do.” She nodded, “But no matter how many diversions you take, there’s always a part of you that clings to duty like some kind of mindless automaton. It’s always ‘life-cursed’ this and ‘temptations of man’ that.”
“What’s wrong with being principled?”
“The problem is that for you, ‘principle’ is dogma.” Drayya continued, “Life and death… the two of them wouldn’t be important if they were separated. Just as there’s more to life than ‘life’, there’s more to death than ‘death’. It’s almost as if you need to do more than simply ‘covet death’ to develop a true appreciation for it.”
Lieze shifted her feet, “What are you trying to say? That I’m inexperienced?”
“If I had the time, I’d find a more pleasant way to put it - but yes.” She nodded, “You’re a stunted, inexperienced, and ridiculous woman. You’ve been hurt or disregarded too many times to rely on the strength of your character, so you temper apathy with suicidal recklessness. The result is… someone who can’t be called entirely human.”
“-And whose fault is it that I was ‘hurt’ too many times?” Lieze snapped.
Drayya’s bravado disintegrated. She was suddenly unable to meet Lieze’s gaze, becoming something very much unlike herself as she lowered her head, “That’s unfair, Lieze.”
“But…” She closed her eyes and sighed, “Don’t I have a right to be upset with you?”
“No… that’s not what I meant.” Drayya replied, “I didn’t mean anything by it. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“But you do understand, don’t you?” Lieze asked, “Drayya - you turned my life into a living nightmare. I couldn’t even study or practise by myself without you barging in with some smart comment. Is it any wonder why I started avoiding you? Why I chose to remain silent instead of speaking up whenever you harassed me? I knew you would leave quickly if I didn’t make a fuss, because all you wanted was a reaction.”
How many years had it lasted? Easily more than a decade, by Lieze’s recollection. She took in every piece of advice and endured every last one of Sokalar’s experiments in the hope of overcoming her inferiority, but even the most fervent hopes were destined to flicker out when confronted by brutal reality.
Drayya didn’t try to defend herself. She weathered Lieze’s tangent knowing perfectly well she deserved to hear every word of it. The more emotional of the pair she may have been, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t prone to a degree of apathy herself every once in a while.
“That’s true.” She admitted, “That’s very true.”
“Why do you sound like you regret it now?” Lieze asked, “Stunted? Inexperienced? Ridiculous? I admit it - I’m all of these things and more. But Sokalar isn’t to blame for all of it. You could have helped, but instead, you chose to make things worse. And now I’m stuck like this - as myself - the ‘me’ that you helped to create.”
“I’m sorry!” Drayya exclaimed, “I know that doesn’t fix anything, but I am! I regret it all!”
“You’re sorry…” She repeated, “I wonder… would you have been ‘sorry’ if I wasn’t chosen as a Scion? If I was still the same talentless fool as before? Or would you still be tormenting me?”
“I…” Drayya clenched her teeth, “I don’t know… but that doesn’t-”
“I appreciate the honesty.” Lieze turned around, “That’s all I wanted to hear. Now let’s stop bothering one-another with these discussions and try to focus on what’s really important from now on.”
“Lieze!” Drayya tried to hide the frustration in her voice, but it was no use, “I’m only trying to figure out what to say! Don’t just storm off!”