~Wildfire (Ruby).

After we made our edited report with the Guild, we were placed on furlough for dungeon delves for two whole months.

Apparently, despite Alex’s expectations about people’s hesitance in seeking out a disease dungeon, the report from our inaugural delve was more optimistic than we realized. With our general experience and going off how it behaved before it adopted its Divine status, it’s being probationally classified as a training dungeon.

When we actually sat down, wrote out our reports, and collated them together, all carefully edited to avoid mention of the rewards or other specifics about Thing and Helix. I didn’t recognize that there was apparently a smooth gradient in Challenge progression, and most especially in the disease-based encounters.

While in our Pioneer delve back when DNA was Wild, the infections were common and quasi-random. But as I sat and reviewed our documentation during our forced abstinence, I can see why the guild felt there was a lot of great potential. The encounters seemed to step up in stages, starting with weaker and more sporadic sets of carriers, while the diseases themselves started with rashes and escalating steadily through pain sensitivity and cap-stoning with physical and mental impairments.

Those combined with the Silver Streams and Easy Evac means that despite our Pioneer privileges, we have to sit out and wait for other reports, and there are a lot of takers for a Divine training ground. Kids or otherwise without the capital or experience to travel to other cities like we have. Locals that had moved away from the hustle or pressures in the heartlands that see the writing on the wall, wanting to secure their piece of the pie, give in to a cat’s curiosity, or even just scrap together enough strength to be able to keep their small town, small.

The trip there and back isn’t particularly long, for deep Epics like my team. But back when Bond and I were merely Awoken, the hike to Lord Aurora Hephaestus’s Mountain would take days. Now, even with the variety of routes we’ve mastered, we can sprint most of it and manage to arrive in hours. The increased density of cored creatures gravitating towards the dungeon made the final leg of the trip more dangerous, but still manageable at our top speed.

There haven’t been any completions yet, but also no deaths. Though there have been some cases of the Blessing being triggered by those that pushed too far or had a bad encounter. Being reborn drenched in a rotten noxious fluid has been a terrific incentive for people to respect their limits and accept steady progression. Proving at least some of Alex’s predictions true, as Bond and I were familiar with the groups of dumb brutes bashing themselves to death, over and over, back at our old dungeon city.

Plans were being drawn up for a dungeon outpost being established closer to |Thermal Spring Mountain| with the permission of Lord Aurora Hephaestus, but a recent Leyline adjustment has put that project on hold until the borders solidify once more. Because despite how accommodating and diplomatic he’s been, it’s established Dungeoneer Guild policy to not build outposts on unaffiliated Lairs.

Today, we’re finally being allowed to go back early, though under a decree of official business. There have been inconsistencies with various scouting reports as to the size of the great tree in the center, as seen from outside over these last couple weeks. So, we’re being tasked with reaching the center, Life, and reporting the changes we find.

There is a triple knock on my door as I’m checking over my gear and {Inventory} again, and I beckon Alex to enter. Her grinning face practically bursting with excitement, “You’ll never guess who I just ran into outside.”

I smile along with the game, “Was it my Bond? He said he’d be right back and help me organize our mess, but as you can see…”

She just laughs, “Nope! Though if he’s delayed for longer I wouldn’t be surprised. Ruth’Moor is back in town! She brought the rest of our reward, as well as a bonus and an explanation for why she up and vanished months ago. She’s also got a bunch of other Mu’Reign with her, the variations they have are fascinating!”

My eyes widen when she mentions our erstwhile associate that bought information from us about DNA back before he was Divine and still ablative to Scry attempts, “Did she tell you why she left without so much as a note?”

Alex shakes her head, “She mentioned she was planning on making a pilgrimage with her group to DNA. So, I told that we’d been tasked to do a more in depth scout and review, and that she could explain the whole story to us on the way. Right now, Garn is waiting with the other Mu’Reign while Sid is taking her to the guild to see about combining our tasks as she’s brought some of her people’s researchers along.”

I take a last glance at our supplies before bundling them up and storing them, “Alright. I guess I should go and find my man, make sure he isn’t lost in some book somewhere.”

Alex’s gaze shifts a little softer as her tone leaks a slightest edge, “He wouldn’t be…”

I wave my arm in negative, “No. He does all his research with me present. The pain sensitivity you get from just the wrong amount of heat coming into contact with fingers isn’t something he’s willing to risk.”

“Alex!?” is hollered from outside with just the slimmest edge of urgency.

I glance outside, “That was Garn, right?” I suddenly blanch as a thought occurs to me, “You said Ruth’Moor brought researchers? Do you think they know? Oh shit! What about Bond and I? Ruth’Moor was part of the team to slay the bear from last year, are we-“

Alex grabs my face, and some soothing light sinks into me, “Calm down. We’re all going to be fine. We’ve done nothing wrong. If our secret gets out early, I still have enough pull to get at least us examined by an Elder. Just breathe and follow me. Let’s not leave Garn stuck by himself out there.”

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I take a quick breath in and out as Alex calls out that we’re on our way. One last glance around the room shows nothing out of place and I head out after Alex’s retreating form.

“Everything’s going to be fine. You survived Ruby. You’re even better than that now,” I whisper to myself as I lock up the room. The wonderous calm and peace that a healthy mind and strong body make all the struggles of the last few years an acceptable trade. Hand over my heart, I breathe in and complete the citizen’s spiral with my open hand finishing at my leg, too young to have earned the right to close the soldier’s fist when I was first taught it.

Feeling refreshed, I rejoined my party outside. Garn’s call turned out to be a notice that Bond had arrived and was engaged in a sort of verbal joust with some of the Mu’Reign. A quick peek at the exchanges leaves me relieved that the interrogation seems mostly Mana and spell form aligned, rather than anything… sensitive.

I walk over and give him a quick peck on the cheek before leaving him to his discussion, “Remember. No Mana holograms in town.”

Regrouping with Alex it doesn’t take long for Sid and Ruth’Moor to return, though I scarcely recognize her from the hunched over, heavily cloaked figure she was the last time we met. Now striding tall and openly flaunting quite a bit of flesh, she makes for a striking contrast to how the rest of her group stays mostly huddled under blankets.

With all of us gathered together and ready to head out, we make our departure along the now well-worn trail towards the dungeon. Despite some of their number not yet being at least newly Awoken or having only just found their Voice in their vernacular, the Mu’Reign all seem to thrive as we depart from civilization.

In order to tell us why she left so abruptly, Ruth’Moor had to explain how some of her people’s society functions. Despite their humanoid forms that all new Mu’Reigns will shape into, they don’t spawn or birth like humans do. Their children instead are loose collections of a variety of species of mind linking insects. Their nurseries and playgrounds are spaces where enough nutrients and proper stimulation are present to incite these fragments to collect together into distinct hives.

Once enough have grouped together the new hivemind is introduced to collections of other body bugs. Only later, when the new mind has collected a sufficient amount of body mass do they undergo a metamorphosis and the new Quiet Mu’Reign is able to join society.

After securing a minor {Pact} of confidentiality, Ruth’Moor shared with us that her people’s ‘birth’ rate was an order of magnitude lower than what it was prior to the Treaty and Transformation at the end of the War, “%The Wild dungeons that many of us grew up in suddenly had far fewer children coalescing within them. Not so few that we were in danger of dying out, but enough that merely replacing lost lives would have us quickly become a reclusive and isolated rarity of peoples in this new Gestalt Kingdom.%”

Directing a sweeping motion towards her new outfit, “%New research has found that emulating human sexuality and pairings between the male and female presenting among us has demonstrated some potential. There is even a case study underway to see if a human male and Mu’Reign female can sufficiently bond to provide stimulation for the creation of a separate mindhive. Though any results were inconclusive by the time I set off from home.%”

Sid fires an arrow, sniping a shadow aspect hawk that was dive-bombing one of the smaller Voices on the outskirts of their group, “Strange. {Dark Raptors} aren’t native to this area. But, and as interesting as your people’s sex lives are, Alex asked about you skipping town on your way back home.”

A {Talon Hound}, one of those that is a part of Ruth’Moor, quickly pounces on the downed bird and brings it to her, “%Excellent shot, Shadow. This critter has been harrowing us for weeks now. Snatching meals by tearing out hair and fingers. Ah, and it still lives, even better,%” She hands off the impaled avian to one of her people where a recognizable golden hued healing light soon suffuses the bird.

Turning back to Alex, she bows her head, “%Apologies for the long speech. But yes, to now answer your question. Back when I spoke with the dungeon’s Scion, Cutest, she offered me some knowledge as to a possible reason why our birthing grounds suddenly went fallow. So, I had to rush back to the Palace and Pantheon and let my Queen know what I had learned. With the knowledge so disseminated, I was given leave to bring a group of our researchers to see if DNA’s unique situation can offer other direct assistance to our people, in addition to the theory I stumbled upon.%”

Through Bond’s Party Link which has allowed our group to stay connected, even outside of Divine dungeons, I feel his need to ask, but also his hesitance to pull more focus onto himself. So, I stretch out a whirl-stream rope of flame as part of my control training, “And what exactly is DNA’s uniqueness. Our party has had three encounters with him and aside from two weeks ago when his Divine nature solidified, he’s been completely outside of any bounds of our best knowledge, much less personal experience.”

I overhear the conversation Bond is engaged in shift from spell forms into an interrogation by his debate partner about what DNA was like before as Ruth’Moor answers, “%I can’t speak as to his strangeness on prior encounters, but as for when I sought him out after making that {Contract} with you. I was able to recognize that he was undergoing a System assisted species change. The signs were recognizable from the observations I did once I awoke in my new body after the Treaty.%”

Waving her hand to encompass her people here, “%Some of these here are among the Converted and thus remember the Times Past, where our selves were less uniform. When the magic of the Treaty washed over our people, the Queen shifted smoothly, between one step and the next. Those of us as or with Gods were able to transition with relative ease and speed, and thus many of us had plenty of opportunities to watch our Heroes, Voices and then the Quiet take on new forms. Each weaker group taking longer than the last.%”

Able to walk backward to face us, even while navigating through a forest with unsteady footing, “%Which certainly makes DNA’s change strange to me, even if the signs themselves were unmistakable. Considering the quantity of Mana and Mako that flows through him, he should already have been greater than I, so his evolution taking days at minimum and possibly months is bizarre. But much of the information about haunts is strange, even if well catalogued.%”

I laugh a bit at that, shifting between exercises of coiling the rope into balls with enough mass to fall before I catch them and distribute them back into the stream, “So, basically, you know the what behind DNA’s weirdness in one instance, but have no real clue about the how or why. Nor where this will lead to.”

She thinks on that for a moment before smiling and nodding back, “%Yeah, that’s a good summary. Hence the long delay getting back here. Some of our better researchers haven’t yet cultivated their Hero, and it was decided that bringing along some Quiet was also worth the extra costs.%”

Alex calls out from working alongside the healer to safely remove the arrow, “Well, you’re in for a treat then. Having caught you folks before you spent much time in town, I imagine you hadn’t heard much of the latest scoop. DNA is much changed from what he was before and based on a review of the reports over the last week, he’s continued his development.”