Zack was surprised that they had three more groups come through the dungeon that day, but none of them held his interest the way his first two had. Of the three groups, most were of adults ranging between levels 2 and 5. They all handled the fodder mobs well enough, but none of them dared to fight Thumper.
Around seven in the evening, Alex and Chandra started to close up shop for the night. Greg packed his things and headed out, offering Chandra a ride back into the city that she refused. Instead, she assumed a far more bestial form and ran on all fours into the setting afternoon sun. That left Alex and Zack alone together for the first time in a few days.
“Did we get a good haul?” Zack asked, his green wisp hovering over Alex’s shoulder.
Alex shot him a smirk. “Yeah, actually. I haven’t run the numbers yet, but since we don’t really have upkeep costs for this place it’s a lot easier for us to figure out payment. Splitting it four ways will obviously cut into things but—”
“Four ways? Don’t you mean three?”
Alex gave Zack’s wisp a curious look. “You don’t want a cut?”
Zack stared at his friend for a long moment, before realizing the question was out of genuine confusion. This entire time, Zack had been operating under the assumption that he wouldn’t get any money. He was the venue, not a worker. But as he gave it some thought, he realized how silly it was. He was doing just as much work as the others—arguably more, not that he’d ever say that to their faces. Why shouldn’t he get paid?
At the same time, though, he didn’t need the money. What was he going to spend it on?
“I guess it couldn’t hurt to get some fancy rock polish,” Zack said, only half joking. It got a sensible laugh from Alex, which made the dungeon smile internally. He wished he had a face he could shape, but decided it wouldn’t be the best idea to twist his wisp. The image of Thumper with his cheeks stretched out was still too fresh in Zack’s mind.
Alex kept a backpack tucked under the desk, and pulled it out now that the dungeon was empty. To Zack’s surprise, there were two tall cans of beer in it. “I know you can’t really drink anymore, but would you begrudge me the chance to share a drink with my best friend?”
“I mean, I can drink just fine, it’s just not… Intoxicating?” Zack offered.
“Oh, right. I forgot you eat stuff—”
“Absorb stuff,” Zack corrected quickly. “It’s a bit too weird if you say I eat stuff. Makes me sound like a were-house more than a warehouse.”
Alex frowned at the terrible pun.
“Oh come on, if Chandra was here she’d find that hilarious.”
“If Chandra were here, she’d tell you it’s offensive to the werebeast community,” Alex said, setting one can down on the desk beside Zack’s core. He popped the tab on it, then on the second in his hand. “To us!”
“To us,” Zack said back.
Alex threw back his head and chugged. Carefully, Zack started absorbing the beer inch by inch. There was no associated flavour, but it felt wrong to devour the drink in one go. Unsurprisingly, he received a new recipe. More surprisingly, it came with something totally new.
[Recipe modifiers unlocked]
[Carbonation]
[You can now make carbonated versions of existing recipes, for an additional mana cost.]
[Alcoholic]
[You can now make alcoholic versions of existing recipes, for an additional mana cost.]
“Huh, would you look at that,” Zack mumbled to himself. He hadn’t received such modifiers when absorbing the healing potions, and wondered if that had more to do with how fast he consumed them, or whether he had access to them at all. Maybe it had more to do with the beer? He knew that non-alcoholic beer was a thing, and carbonation could fade over time.
“Something the matter?” Alex asked.
The question drew Zack’s attention away from the internal messages and back toward his friend. “Just unlocked some new modifiers for concoctions. I still don’t fully understand how all this stuff works. Sometimes I absorb stuff and learn things from them, other times I don’t.”
Alex shrugged and tipped his can back again. “I still think it’s cool that you can do this at all. Conjuration, at least the kind I’ve heard about, can’t make real stuff.”
“Technically nothing I make is real, either. It’s all mana constructs given shape and—”
“No, I mean solid,” Alex corrected. “It’s like… How do I put this. You can make potions, right? Well, somebody else with the power to conjure potions can’t make permanent stuff. The potions they conjure will fade over time, usually about an hour.”
“Oh, I can explain that,” Zack said, as the information popped easily into his head. “That’s one of the major differences between aether and mana. Mana is stable, so once applied it doesn’t easily change again. Aether, on the hand, is unstable. It doesn’t like to hold in one shape for long.”
Alex frowned and slurped on his beer for a few seconds, pondering Zack’s explanation. “I always thought that mana and Aether were just interchangeable words for the same thing. You’re telling me they’re different?”
“Oh no, not even close. Mana and aether are both magic, just magic in different states. It’s the difference between ice and steam. Ice is solid and conforms to the shape of its container, but once frozen it doesn't easily change again until you melt it down. On the other hand, steam is amorphous and will try to escape anything you stick it in. It won't even pretend to hold its shape.”
Alex’s frown deepened. “Mana is ice, aether is steam, but magic is water,” he finally said.
“Exactly! When people use magic, they’re converting their internal mana into aether in order to project it. They give aether a pattern, allowing it to become a spell. As a dungeon core, I take that aether and convert it back into mana. It's like the oxygen cycle.”
Alex nodded again. “That makes sense. I never really thought about it that way.”
Zack was about to jump back into his explanation, when he paused. To him, this stuff was all really basic knowledge. It was a fundamental aspect of how magic worked. Without it, he couldn’t exist. It struck him as odd that Alex hadn’t thought about it that way before.
“How did you think magic worked?” Zack asked.
Alex shrugged and made a face. “I guess I kind of assumed it was just magic, you know? Words were just words, and at the end of the day, magic was just abilities we have. I still don’t think I fully believe you about how leveling up really works, but I’m willing to give it a bit more thought.”
Zack bobbed his wisp in place. It was more consideration than Alex previously gave the concepts, and he figured it was all he could reasonably ask of his friend. Alex polished off his beer and set the empty can down on the desk, which was promptly absorbed. Zack finished his own drink and devoured the can.
He had questions of his own he wanted to ask. Sure, he could just ask the Akashic System, but it wasn’t much for conversation. Besides, this was something he felt that Alex would have a better chance to explain.
“Can you tell me about elements?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Alex’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why do you want to know about those?” He asked.
“One of those kids that came in today, he was empowered. Only level 1 but he had an elemental affinity. I want to understand what those are and how it works.”
Alex leaned back in the chair and considered the question for a moment. “I’m not really sure element is even the right for it, but I guess I could try to walk you through it.”
“Oh, trust me, it’s the right word.”
Alex ignored the interruption. “There are nine elements that I know of. You’ve got the usual four, the primary elements: fire, water, wind, and earth. Then you have the secondary elements, sometimes called the high elements: light, sound, crystal, and magic. The ninth element is the one most people don’t even bother to acknowledge: spacetime.”
“Space and time?”
“No, just spacetime. The fabric of space and time itself. I don't really get it, either.”
“I'm a little surprised that’s an element?” Zack asked, incredulous.
“You can manipulate the size of space inside your dungeon, why is spacetime being an element hard to believe?”
“Huh. Good point. The primary elements seem pretty straight forward and basic, but what about those secondary elements? What’s the deal with those?”
Alex tapped his fingers against the desk for a moment and shook his head. “I’m really not the best person to tell you,” he admitted. “I have a surface level understanding of how the high elements work at best.”
“Hey, that’s better than nothing.”
Alex sighed in defeat and nodded. “I can tell you about light and sound, but not crystal and magic. Light and sound are almost as straight forward as the primary elements. They’re part of the world, you know? What makes them high elements is that they exist in a fundamentally different way than the others. Say you have a fire. Take fire away, what does that leave you with?” Alex asked.
“No fire?”
“Right. No fire. Same applies with the other primary elements. Start with something, take it away, now you’re left with nothing. The high elements are different. You take light away, what are you left with?”
Zack gave the question some thought. He could feel the Akashic System poking at his mind, willing to offer him the answer. He wanted to consider the problem for himself. After a minute of silent contemplation, he finally answered. “You have darkness.”
Alex nodded. “From what I understand, the difference between the high elements and the primary elements is that removing a high element still leaves you with something, where as the primary elements don’t. Remove sound and you have silence. Remove light and you have darkness.”
Zack buzzed about the air as he finally allowed the Akashic System to fill in the gaps in Alex’s explanation. Almost immediately, he understood why something like sound was considered a high element. Having the power to manipulate an element like fire gave the ability to conjure it or manipulate an existing source. With high elements, though, one could skew it towards one end of the spectrum or another.
It wasn’t just that sound and silence were two sides of the same elemental coin, but that having the power to control sound also allowed the user to control silence—control the absence of sound.
The same applied to the crystal and magic elements. Crystal was on a paradigm with dust, while magic allowed for the direct control of mana and aether. As fascinating as that was, though, they didn’t get Zack any closer to the answer he was truly looking for.
How could a kid, barely fifteen years old, already have an element?
“How do you get an element?” Zack asked, deciding it was probably better just to come out and say the question than try to be subtle.
Alex’s face fell again as he thought it over. Finally, he flicked his finger. The tip lit up like a lighter, a tiny flicker of candle flame dancing atop his skin. “I think it differs from person to person. For me, it was baptism.”
Before Zack had a chance to ask what that meant, he flashed back to the day he turned into a dungeon core. Five years earlier, when the Aetheric Boom hit, he was swallowed in the magical fires.
Alex wasn’t so lucky. He had the misfortune of being surrounded on all sides by burning trees and buildings, clutching at the smouldering rock that had moments before been his friend.
When Zack snapped back to the present, Alex was giving him a sad look. “Oh,” he said, quietly.
Alex shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I couldn’t tell you how others get their elements.”
The answer still left Zack unsatisfied, but he figured it might be best not to pry any further. He wanted to know more, but it was clear that Alex was at the end of his knowledge and patience for the subject. So, Zack decided it was time to change the subject.
“I’ve been doing some thinking about the dungeon,” he started, hoping to distract his friend away from his sullen mood. To his delight, Alex practically leapt upright in his chair, eager to hear what Zack had to say. “First, I need to level up some more. The higher I grow in level, the more rooms and bosses I’ll be able to add to the dungeon. Right now we have the meadow and Thumper, which clearly aren’t going to cut it for a certain crowd.”
Neither of them had to mention Seth’s group, nor how the katana-wielding man had single-handedly bested Thumper so quickly.
Zack took a quick stock of how deep his influence had grown into the mall. He had several of the former shops within his influence, and could easily twist them to his needs. He still needed more monsters to increase his variety, but he was already planning a way to solve that problem without Alex’s help. He also glanced at his stats, eager to see how he measured now.
[Status]
[Name: Zack]
[Core type: Dungeon]
[Level: 7]
[Integrity: 100%]
[Mana: 23/65]
[Upkeep requirements]
[Influence: 45 mana per hour]
[Monsters: 0 mana per hour]
[Aether intake]
[Influence: 30 aether per hour]
[Ambient: 45 aether per hour (+35 aether per hour from harvesters)]
[Recovery: 8 per hour]
[Warning: Maximum Aether intake exceeds upkeep requirements. Risk of mana overflow increased.]
Zack grinned internally. He’d gained another level when nobody was looking. He wasn’t even sure what had caused it. Maybe it was the delvers running his dungeon, maybe it was the beer Alex had gifted him. Either way, he was thrilled to have another level under his belt. He still wasn’t sure what integrity meant, but he was growing increasingly less concerned with his upkeep requirements. Mentally, he nudged on his influence to start filling in the rooms he had already partially claimed. He would need to set some mobs on the monsters further infesting the mall, but that could be dealt with later.
“What did you have in mind?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I was thinking about how escape rooms handle things. They don’t have just one room that customers have to share, you know?”
Alex’s eyebrows shot up in alarm. “Are you able to have multiple dungeons running at once?” He asked.
“Technically they would all be part of the same dungeon,” Zack corrected. “I’m allowed to have an additional boss every fifth level that I gain. Right now, at level 7, I can have a second boss. So, what I think I can do is create a more challenging microdungeon for people like Seth to run. I think we should keep the meadow and Thumper as a sort of baseline. If they can’t beat Thumper, they can’t advance to the more intermediate rooms.”
Alex leapt from his chair and started pacing excitedly. He tapped his chin in thought. “The idea has a lot of merit, but it does present us with a few other problems.”
“What’s that?”
“For starters, how are we supposed to get these more intermediate players through the meadow if, say, a beginner party is doing their first dive? What’s to stop them from bringing the weaker customers through?”
Zack hadn’t thought of that. He pondered the question some more, even as he allowed feelers of his influence to continue burrowing into one of the empty shops. He could feel a warren of monsters within its bowels, and had to hold back for fear of what they might down without a mob to push them out.
“Well, I have been looking to give Thumper some more loot,” Zack murmured. “Maybe I can work that into it, somehow?”
Alex shrugged. “I still think it’s a good idea. I’m all for allowing more customers to run the dungeon at the same time. Let’s just be sure we’re doing this right, and not trying to shove more people in for profit’s sake. Remember our goal.”
“To train the next generation of heroes in a safe and controlled environment?”
Alex scoffed. “No! To make money without getting sued for public endangerment!”
“And to train the next generation of heroes in a safe and controlled environment,” Zack threw in.
Alex laughed. “I’d drink to that, but I’m all out of beer.”
As if on cue, something thumped against the desk. Alex turned to find two bottles of bright amber liquid sitting on its surface, on either side of Zack’s core. They were in unmarked potion bottles, but from the way the contents frothed and foamed, there was only one thing they could be.
“Did you just make beer!?” Alex asked, snatching a bottle off the table.
“Yeah, I figured this would be a good test of—”
Before Zack could finish, Alex popped the cork and pressed the bottle to his lips. He took a careful sip, before spitting out the foul liquid in a spray. Zack was immediately thankful that his wisp was incorporeal, as it took the brunt of the spray.
“It tastes like piss,” Alex complained, sipping the beer again. “Eugh, what did you do!?”
“I don’t know! I just tried to replicate the same pattern you gave me and—” Zack froze. “It was a recipe, not a pattern. I made only the early start of beer, not a full beer itself.”
He laughed as he banished the beers again, even as Alex went to try and take another swig. “It wasn’t that bad,” he grumbled. “I’ve had worse.”
“Either way, I don’t need you dying of yeast poisoning. Anyway, you should go home and get some sleep, before you’re too drunk to walk.”
Alex scowled. “It takes more than one beer to get me drunk, Zack.”
“I really wouldn’t know. Last time we went drinking together was in college, and I distinctly remember drinking you under the table, you light weight.”
Alex’s cheeks burned with embarassment. “Okay, fine, you win! Good night, Zack!” He said, rushing out the front door.
Zack chuckled to himself as the door slammed shut again. He watched his friend’s dirty old car peel out of the makeshift driveway and down the road. Once he was sure he was alone, Zack locked the doors with an effort of will, and banished his wisp.
He no longer needed it for what he had planned.
“Time to do some mad science stuff.”