Zack hadn't even finished pulling his awareness out of Alex's private quarters when he felt a presence up against the sides of his influence. It took him a moment to place it, because it felt unlike anything he had experienced before. It wasn't the raw power of an archmage like Snow, nor was the sheer gravity that came with higher levels. It was wild and untamed, fierce and hungry.
It was monsters.
"Places, everyone! We've got company!"
Wherever someone was idly working in the dungeon, Zack conjured a wisp and spoke to them. They would need all hands on deck if they wanted any chance at dealing with the coming horde. Greg, Chandra, and Alex leapt when he spoke to them, quickly donning their gear and getting ready to help coralle the monsters. Archie was already preparing, and guided the lobby mobs—Ember included—outside to help with the horde.
"Archie, make sure the adventurers are aiming for the arena." Zack sent the telepathic message off as he focused on preparing the sandy space. He needed to shut the barrier so that the monsters couldn't run amok.
Zack felt it the moment the beasts broke through his influence and started barreling towards his dungeon. Unlike when a being a mana broke in, this felt more chaotic. He got his first good look at the creature and understood immediately why he got that sensation. He had expected the monsters to have some kind of logical sense to them, like his mobs. Instead, the creatures he saw blended together as they ran. Occasionally an animal might slip out of the formless horde—usually a deer or a wolf—but more often than not they seemlessly blended together in a tidal wave of limbs and fur.
Harrying them along on mounts or mobility powers were a half dozen adventurers, chief among them Salazar and Isolde. This was the first time that Zack could remember ever seeing Salazar really cut loose, as normally the elf was reserved with this spells within the dungeon. Instead of his usual daggers, he had a glowing green sword in one hand. When he swung the blade, it exploded into dozens of razor sharp shards that flew into the mass of chaos before returning to form the blade—Sal's crystal element hard at work and showing why it was so valuable. He didn't stop there, though, as he hurled tools and items into the mass, only for them to explode with green light. He wasn't bothering turning the ground beneath the monsters into quicksand, seeing as the goal was to kite them and not trap them.
Isolde, on the other hand, was showing off the value of her dual water and earth affinities. Zack expected to see mud slicks or clay form around her, but instead he was surprised to discover that she focused her magic into personal defense. She had a ring of water flowing around her, as well as a dozen geodes orbitting beyond that. She wielded a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, and she rode upon a horse made of crashing tides. Whenever she charged the chaotic horde, her mount deformed enough for her to get close and strike, only to reform again as she was ready to pull away. When one of the beasts lashed out at her, it was block either by her shield, the ring of water, or the geodes.
Depending on which defensive spell it struck, Zack got to see a variety of defensive effects. The water caught the strike and held the attacker in place, giving Isolde a clean and easy target. The geodes, on the other hand, exploded in a shower of glittering gemstones that dug into the attacker's flesh, only to explode again after a few seconds.
When Archie and the others joined in the fray, the monsters quickly shifted again. Archie specialized in single target damage, with the ability to stealth himself and strike with envenomed daggers. His abilities were poorly suited to fighting such a large force, but what he lacked in burst damage he more than made up for in strategic placement. His agility and stealth powers allowed him to land numerous critical strikes eye-covered tendrils as they shot out to attack one of the adventurers, saving them in the process.
Ember took on a support role of her own. She wielded a shield and forge hammer, but rather than strike the monsters she ran up to the adventurers and hit them. Zack was momentarily worried she was attacking the wrong foes, but every adventurer she hit was suddenly wreathed in bright orange light. As the magic faded, he spotted a brand on their armour wherever she had hit them.
[Brand of the Forge]
[Spell, Crafting, Fire, Enchantment]
[Mark a piece of armour or a weapon with the Brand of the Forge. Brands enhance the primary function of the enchanted object, making them more effective. A brand applied during the crafting process is permanent. A brand applied in haste will last five minutes.]
[Cost: 10 mana]
There were only so many brands that Ember could apply, so she was quick to choose who would best benefit from them and then moved on. The adventurers seemed to hesitant to let her close, but something she said seemed to set them at ease. Zack listened closely as she ran up to an adventurer he didn't know and raised her hammer.
"Armour buff," she said, speaking quickly.
There was less than a second of hesitation between the adventurer hoisting a shield and adjusting to present his shoulder instead. Ember tapped her hammer against the pauldron and went on her way, leaving a smouldering hammer-and-anvil brand on the adventurer's shoulder.
With the six adventurers buffed, she turned her attention to helping Archie and the other mobs, joining the rank and file to kite the monster towards the arena. Greg and Chandra finally showed up, with Alex riding the werewolf's back as she charged on all fours into the fray. The kobold leapt off her as they drew close and hurled a fireball at the writhing mass of eyes and mouths. The flames splashed against his target, singing fur and boiling a few eyes. Zack watched as three heads took shape in the mass, bellowing in pain—one a bear, one a dear, and one an animal he didn't recognize.
"This is a lot more than I expected!" Alex called, as he dodged away from the surging chimera's claws. He backed up a few steps, until he was safely beside Salazar and able to launch ranged spells without worrying about drawing the beast's ire.
"Thats what I said," Salazar laughed. "This is what happens when we can't properly disperse monsters. There's too much aether, and it's all we can do to keep it heading in the right direction."
Zack could feel what Salazar was explaining as the elf talked Alex through it. With this many adventurers hurling spells around, aether was building up fast. The monsters were nothing more than magic given form and function, which is something aether wasn't very good at. That explained why they were melding together in a formless mass. The chaotic and disjointed nature of aether, especially in this quantity, prevented it from coming together into a single solitary creature.
That was probably for the best, though. If Zack had to guess, there was enough aether in this monster to rival an adventurer many times above Salazar's level. If it was able to pull itself together, there was no way they'd stand a chance. Still, not wanting to give it an edge over his side, Zack did what he could to help things along. He couldn't directly intervene in the fight, having no physical body of his own, but they were inside his area of influence. There was nothing stopping him from absorbing loose aether in the air, nor from spawning more mobs to help.
The benefit of Zack's nameless mobs was immediately apparent, too. He conjured dire rabbits the size of hound dogs to join the fray, since they were cost effective in the heat of battle and their appearance was familiar to both his dungeon mobs and the adventurers. They couldn't do a whole lot harm the writhing mass, but they more than made up for this lack of power by replenishing mana.
The difference between a dungeon mob and a wild monster was immediately obvious. Zack's homemade creatures were composed entirely of mana, which was refunded to the nearest adventurer whenever they died. Since he couldn't directly harm the mass without conjuring a boss-level monster, this was the next best thing. Adventurers who previously looked like they were on the ropes suddenly grinned excitedly, their mana replenished in the death throes of a bunny.
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They redoubled their efforts, combining spells together to shove the writhing mass harder than before. The arena was drawing near now, and Zack prepared to activate the barrier that would trap the monsters in place. Seeing their destination so close, Isolde unleashed a torrent of earth to shove their target further along. It looked like a tidal wave of dirt as it rolled across the ground, before flipping the underside of the beasts into the air.
The writhing monster simply turned what had previously been its underside into its top and kept moving, though it picked up the pace in an effort to escape Isolde's wrath. Alex and another caster blasted it from the sides—fire on one side and ice on the other—to keep it on track. The only escape was forward.
A moose appeared in the tangled mass and, sensing a proper exit, surged forward. The moment it set a hoof on the dirt mound, Zack snapped the trap shut. A shimmering wall of blue-green energy erupted from the crystals strategically placed around the area, before coming togeher at their apex to create a solid dome of mana. The monsters let out a mixed cry of fury and fear, and started ramming limbs and bodies against the wall in an attempt to break free.
Zack felt them hit his mana, but the damage to the wall's integrity was negligible at best. This was difference between aether and mana, after all: one was stable and the other most definitely wasn't.
With the monster successfully trapped, all that was left to do was kill it. Zack opened small gaps in the sides of the arena so that casters could lob spells in at the monsters, but no adventurer volunteered to challenge it one on one. As they damaged it, Zack was starting to see why.
Despite their forms melding together, it really was more than one monster in the tangled mass. They were struggling to pull apart from each other, but as more and more of their aether broke away and was subsequently absorbed by Zack, their individual forms grew more apparent.
[Runebear]
[Level 8, Bear, Monster]
[Warning: This monster was formed from pure aether and its shape is unstable. Absorb this aether to learn its pattern.]
[Majestic Moose]
[Level 13, Ungulate, Monster]
[Warning: This monster was formed from pure aether and its shape is unstable. Absorb this aether to learn its pattern.]
[Flesh Elemental]
[Level 7, Elemental, Monster]
[An elemental that forms from aether-infused flesh. Absorb this aether to learn its pattern.]
Zack cringed at that last one. He couldn't see exactly where it was in the mass, but if he had to guess, it was probably the bubbling mass of eyes and tentacles that held the rest of the monsters together. One such monster, a peculiar lupine creature, finally managed to break free from the flesh elemental's hold and charged towards a wall. A quick lance of ice from the adventurer closest to it finished it off. Zack absorbed it and was delighted to see a name he slightly recognized as he learned its pattern.
[Witchwolf]
[Level 15, Wolf, Monster]
[A wolf capable of casting spells. Currently equipped spells: Moonbeam, Night Eyes, Silver Fangs.]
Zack quickly spun up a Witchwolf in one of his many labs and let it wander around. He suspected he was going to have a lot of fun playing with them once the rest of the monsters were dealt with, and wanted to make sure they were ready for him. As a runebear died, he spawned one too, followed by the moose.
There was something a little off-putting about most of the monsters in the mass being variant animals, like Zack's own dire rabbits. Part of him wondered why that was, but he wasn't about to interrupt the adventurers providing him with new patterns to ask. Notably, though, the monsters killed were all aetheric constructs rather than beasts corrupted by too much aether, which again struck Zack as rather odd. To his understanding, it was far more common for monsters to form when an animal became too overwhelmed with aether rather than magic to simply coalesce into a solid form.
As the animals holding it together died off, the flesh elemental underneath weakened. With each beast in the mass purged, it lost a level and let out horrible squeals of agony. When there were only two animals left in the mass, Salazar and Isolde stepped into the arena to finish it off. They worked remarkably well as a team, with Isolde conjuring earthen spikes at a whim and Salazar breaking them apart with his crystal magic.
Together, they made short work of the two remaining monsters, until all that was left was the flesh elemental. Without its mass of bodies to draw upon, it looked like a pathetically weak thing. It reminded Zack of an octopus, if that octopus was flesh-toned and covered in eyes and mouths.
Maybe shoggoth is a better comparison, Zack thought, as Salazar marched up to the elemental and drove his sword into its largest centre eye.
The flesh elemental's many mouths screamed in pain, before it collapsed and died. When Salazar pulled the blade away, Zack promptly absorbed the creature and added it to his list of patterns he could draw upon. To his surprise, there was no concrete shape for the creature, unlike the animals Zack had absorbed. While each of the beasts had a predefined shape, the elemental didn't even have a body associated with its pattern. He had to file that information away for later, though, as the adventurers were all congratulating each other on a job well done.
Zack conjured a wisp in the middle of their little celebration and made a loud throat clearing sound. "Nobody thank me or anything," he joked.
The adventurers Zack didn't know shared a confused look with one another. Isolde stepped forward and bowed her head politely to him. "Dungeon, you have held up your end of our bargain better than expected. I'll admit, we were skeptical of your proposal when Salazar presented it to us. This is why we only led this small group to your doors. Now that we know you can perform the acts you claim, the guild will be more open at doing so again in the future."
Zack bopped his wisp up and down in place. "Just doing my part to help the cause. That was a lot of aether in what you claim to be a small group, though. Am I to assume there's going to be more soon?"
"Not as such. Ordinarily we don't confront monsters in groups like that—it's too dangerous and difficult to fight them without risking more monsters spawning. Now that we know you can safely disperse aether without risking further monster spawns, you can expect to see lots of individual beasts pushed towards your dungeon," Isolde explained. "We also have methods for trapping monster aether, so you can expect us to use you as a dumping ground for unstable magic."
Despite his objection towards her description, Zack was eager to see what they meant. If they just casually used him to dispose of aether, that meant he was getting a free supply of spare power at no extra cost to himself, on top of the patterns he was going to learn.
"I think we owe the dungeon one such demonstration, don't you?" Salazar asked, stepping up beside Isolde. When she didn't protest, Salazar reached into his bag and extracted a crystal.
For a moment, Zack felt fear as he peered at what he thought might be a core. Upon further inspection, he was relieved to see it was just an ordinary chunk of quartz filled to the brim with aether. It had no mind of its own. It swirled with a mixture of multicoloured lights, but otherwise did nothing.
[Aethergem]
[A crystal containing 100 points of aether. Formed by using a crystal affinity to draw magic through this stone.]
Somewhere in the dungeon, Jean-Claude's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "That's why you're so valuable?" Zack asked Salazar, keeping his voice quiet.
Salazar nodded. "The crystal affinity, while mostly about controlling the solid state of matter, is not without its benefits. I'm one of the few in our guild who can create an aetheric vacuum with crystals. Isolde can do the same with stones, although they can hold far less aether than my gems."
In proof, Isolde reached into her own pack and extracted a bright purple rock.
[Aetherock]
[A stone containing 10 points of aether. Formed by using an earth affinity to draw magic through this stone.]
"Oh wow, I see what you mean. That's way less efficient," Zack noted. Without another word, he reached out with a tendril of mana and absorbed both stones, converting their stored aether back into mana. He could feel his core swollen to bursting, and promptly set the overdrawn mana to work spawning monsters for him to experiment with in his labs. The extra he couldn't use for himself he fed towards Iris and Glitch. They didn't need the excess, more than happy to syphon off Zack's influence for their needs, but he was sure they'd be grateful for the boost.
"If you do not mind, now that the threat is dealt with, I would like to run the dungeon for myself," Isolde said, as the medibolds started coming around to make sure nobody was hurt. "That was part of our agreement, no? We could participate in this dungeon?"
"Technically you still have to pay for it," Zack noted. "But yeah, I would like for adventurers to come through and train in my walls. It means I can go all out, and it gives you the chance to train in realistic scenarios."
Isolde nodded, then turned to face the others. "I shall serve as formation guardian. Salazar, will you serve as our scout?"
Salazar nodded eagerly. At mention of a dungeon run, both Alex and the ice mage from earlier stepped forward to volunteer their services as formation caster. Isolde asked Alex to sit this one out, since he was familiar with the dungeon on a more intimate level than Salazar and that would give them an unfair edge.
"Lastly, we need a healer," Isolde said. "Theo, are you busy?"
At mention of his name, a stout man with a long braided beard shuffled forward. He was squat and thick, with limbs that looked like they were better suited to an orc than a human. A quick glance at his status revealed that he was a dwarf, and posessed the light affinity.
"You know I'm not exactly built for healing duties," Theo reminded her, hoisting a pair of twin hammers in demonstration. "I'm more of a guardian than you are."
"Yes, but we presently lack a proper healer and you're the only one with healing magic. Do you want to run the dungeon or not?"
Theo shrugged. "Eh, screw it. I'm in."
Isolde nodded in approval. "If you would so kindly prepare the dungeon, we would like to run it now."
Zack couldn't argue with that.