Zack sensed the disturbance approaching before it even entered his influence. The gravity of their magic was such that even his own mana skewed toward them. He was in the midst of watching Seth's team count out their tokens and divy them up, when suddenly a shudder ripped through him.
A physical shudder through his physical body. His dungeon.
It was such an alien sensation that it shocked him into inaction for a long second. Up until now, every bodily reaction he had was something he personally simulated in an effort to appear more human. The ony exception was when his crystal core was shaking. But that ripple hadn't been through his core, it had been through his dungeon—the physical body he had built for himself out physical matter and concentrated magic.
Something was coming.
Zack abandoned his wisp continue playing the victory music and shot his awareness into the burrow beneath the meadow room. Archie was still hard at work carving out the environment, but he was already staring with wide, horrified eyes when Zack arrived.
"What was that?" Both of them asked the other at the same time.
"I hoped you knew," Archie said quickly. "You are, after all, more connected to the system than I am."
Zack made a swallowing noise and tried asking the Akashic system for information. When no answer was forthcoming, Archie's fear doubled. "Get to the lobby," Zack said, already moving his awareness up a level.
Alex, Chandra, and Greg were still working, blissfully unaware of any change to the dungeon. Zack doubted they even felt the ripple through the structure, but they sure as hell were about to feel it. He quickly conjured a wisp over Alex's shoulder, and whispered quietly into his friend's ear.
"Something big is coming," he warned.
Alex was in the middle of explaining the prize counter to a pair of patrons, and stumbled over his words as Zack spoke to him. He chewed his tongue, but Zack's wisp was already shooting off to alert Chandra and Greg. Both of the others handled the news better than Alex, and kept working despite the evident fear. Chandra's neck fur was standing up on end, while Greg's jaw was set tight, and his sword kept close by.
Evidently, something powerful enough to scare a dungeon was more than enough to scare them too.
Zack felt it when the thing entered his influence, its magic so potent, so heavy that nearly drove him into the earth. He could feel that well of power dragging him in and threatening to devour him, like a vaccuum of magic sucking on his every drop of mana. It took concentration to hold on to his looser threads, even as a few of his wisps started to unravel.
Then he saw it, the source of this strange, alien power.
An old man with a crystal-topped cane in one hand stepped into the dungeon, an unamused expression lining his wizened face. Grey eyebrows knit together as he took in the dungeon patrons and kobolds, his lips pressed into a thin line. A person Zack recognized was lagging behind this older man. Despite his own impressive power, Salazar had been completely masked beneath this imposing person's massive presence.
"Excuse me," Chandra called out, rising from her seat behind the front desk. "Do you have an appointment?"
The wizened man turned a single-eyed gaze upon Chandra, his thin lips quirking in the slightest hint of a smile. "I do not, but I expect your spirit will make time for me."
Chandra blinked and frowned, looking around. The wisp Zack kept within the lobby for communication had already unraveled, and he was too stunned to spin up a new one. He was staring at this man's status page, his horror mounting faster by the second.
[Cornelius Snow]
[Human]
[Level: 51]
[Health: 200/215]
[Mana: 100/100]
[Stamina: 100/120]
That level was so far beyond what Zack expected to see, it actually made his awareness drop out of the air in shock. He had never seen someone of a level that high before, let alone one that commanded such magnitude. He tried to access this Cornelius Snow's statistical breakdown, but to his further shock he received a new message instead.
[Your attempt to view a complex statistical breakdown has been blocked by: Psychic Shield.]
"Fascinating," Snow said, quirking an eyebrow curiously. "Spirit, I know you just attempted to read my magic. Show yourself. I believe you and I have much to discuss."
If Zack still had veins, ice would have shot through them in horror. Every instinct in him screamed that this man was a predator, a monster that would chew him up and spit him out again. Despite looking for all the world like a wealthy businessman, it was clear that he was anything but.
Just as Snow moved to take another step deeper into the dungeon lobby, Greg finally worked up the courage to extract himself from behind the forge setup. He moved with an air of confidence over to Snow, putting a hand out to stop the old man from advancing any further.
"You need to leave," Greg said, his voice even and calm.
Snow looked down at the meaty fingers on his chest, then up at the orc towering over him. "Boy, you woud do well to remove your hand from my person before you lose it."
The threat was made without malice, less that Snow would attack him and more that simply touching him might be enough to hurt Greg. From the way magic twisted and bent around him, Zack was willing to believe it.
"Greg, do as he says," Zack said quickly, finally working up the courage to spin up a new wisp. "Don't hurt him. He's just trying to protect me."
As the wisp appeared, a genuine excited smile tugged at Snow's lips. "Ah, there you are. Spirit of the dungeon. I am Cornelius Snow, though I suspect you already gleaned as much by peering into my magic."
Zack flinched. "How did you know?"
"A sensible mage never reveals the true depths of his power. Perhaps an exchange of information might lead to the answers you seek, but right now I owe you nothing."
Zack tightened his wisp in frustration. Where did this man come off behaving this way? Before he could demand otherwise, Alex finally came jogging around the corner, sliding to a stop upon noticing Snow and Salazar.
"I'm sorry by how sudden this is," Salazar said, nodding in greeting to Alex. "This place is different from anything I have ever encountered. I needed to bring in an expert for the sake of a thorough investigation."
Alex frowned and turned to Zack's wisp. "Are you okay?"
"Fine. Terrified for my life, but fine."
Snow's eyebrow quirked, but he said nothing. He stepped aside and allowed Salazar to take control of the conversation.
"As you know, you three were recently let off with warnings for public endangerment through illegal adventuring activity," Salazar explained. "However, this operation falls outside the scope of what is normally considered an illegal adventurer guild. For the sake of transparency, such an enterprise involves the illegal capture, trafficking, and eventual killing of monsters by unlicensed individuals."
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"We're not doing that," Alex reminded him. "None of our monsters are naturally born. They're all crafted in house."
"Exactly why I had to bring in an expert," Salazar nodded his understanding. "Is there perhaps somewhere we can talk privately? An office perhaps?"
Zack racked his brain but could only thing of the many rooms within the manor to serve as a sensible place to convene. He quickly cleared one of the locked sitting rooms of monsters and tidied it up. "Follow me," he said, bobbing his wisp in the air to draw attention.
The last thing he wanted to do was entertain this terrifying man, but there was no way he could reasonably banish them himself. Snow's level was so terrifyingly high, the power he wielded of such a magnitude that Zack didn't think there was anything he could do to fight him even if he wanted to.
They passed Seth's team as they were exiting the manor, and all three of them stared at Snow with wide eyes. Seth even bowed at the hip, his arms pressed firmly to his side. Snow ignored the show of reverence, stepping into the manor wing without so much as a glance at the sycophantic display.
Zack led them around the corridor toward the sitting room, where already the number of chairs had been doubled from two to four. One each for Salazar, Snow, Alex, and Archie. Already the hare was alerted to their location, and was simply waiting for an opportunity to slip out of the meadow without alarming the current delvers.
Salazar plopped down into a seat, while Snow took a moment to check it for dust. Satisfied that it was clean enough, he lowered himself into the chair and sat with the head of his cane gripped in both hands. The tip of the long wooden rod was planted firmly in the carpet, and Zack could practically feel it digging into the ground.
"Are we waiting for someone?" Snow asked, pointing with his chin at the final vacant seat.
"Archie will be with us when he can," Zack explained, lowering his wisp to eye level just above the chair. "Whatever you need to say, he'll be caught up on by the time he gets here."
Snow raised an eyebrow. "Very well. Then I believe it is time I formally introduced myself. I am archmage Cornelius Snow, doctor and dean of Waterloo University's aetherology department."
"How did you manage to secure a doctorate in a field that has only existed for five years?" Alex demanded, before realizing what he asked.
"I didn't. My doctorate is in physics," Snow smirked at the comment. "It is due to my position as Archmage that I no longer go by that title in public spheres. What use is there in being a doctor of physics when you teach magic?"
Zack mentally frowned. There was obviously a reason Snow was revealing this information, but he couldn't tell exactly what. Was he just trying to throw them off balance? Or maybe remind them that they were dealing with a person so far beyond the scope of their power?
"As for my reason for being here, that is twofold," Snow continued, ignoring Zack's silence to keep talking. "As Salazar mentioned, he required an expert to help him investigate this dungeon and its abilities. As his former teacher, I was more than happy to help accomodate him in this enterprise. However, I am also here to sate my own curiosity. Aetherology is still a very new field of study, with discoveries being made almost daily about the nature of magic."
"And, what, you think there is one such discovery to be made here?" Alex asked.
"Quite. In fact, I'm willing to bet there are several." Snow tapped his cane against the ground, a casual motion that sent a ripple of foreign aether surging through Zack's floor. It was such a sudden burst of power that Zack didn't even have a chance to brace for it, let alone absorb it. The magic rolled through his entire dungeon, stopping when it hit his core.
"We're not doing anything illegal," Alex said quickly.
"I never said you were. In fact, I don't much care if you are. That is Salazar's business. My purpose here is to bring to light the range of the dungeon's power, and to learn as much about it as I can."
Just then, Archie came running into the room, panting and wheezing. Zack had quickly gotten him up to speed on matters as he ran, and he quickly lowered himself into the last empty chair in the room. All three sets of eyes followed the rabbit as he adjusted his shirt and sat cross-legged in the seat.
"Please excuse my delay. It's not easy navigating the dungeon as a mob," Archie said, nodding in greeting.
"A… Mob?" Salazar asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"It's an acronym, and stands of Magically Originated Being or Magically Originated Beast, depending on what kind of creature you speak of," Archie quickly explained. Zack had never heard of such a phrase before, but said a silent thanks to his favorite bunny for his quick thinking. "That is what we creatures who are born of the dungeon are called."
"And why would it be difficult for a mob to navigate the dungeon?" Snow asked.
"Because mobs are the creatures hunted within the dungeon," Archie said. "Could you imagine the uproar it would cause if a mob of my calibre were to race through a low level room?"
Salazar frowned, pulling out his phone to quickly take notes. Then, he realized what he was doing, and stopped. "A monster just talked to us," he said, his eyes widening in alarm.
"Mob, my boy. Do try to keep up," Snow corrected, a smirk tugging at his lips.
"What he calls himself shouldn't matter. Monsters are monsters, and monsters don't talk," Salazar said, the words coming frantically.
"Boy, that is a narrow-minded worldview if ever I saw one," Snow shook his head. "Magic has existed in this world for five years, and though there has been a mad rush to learn everything there is to know, we are barely scratching the surface. You said yourself that we are dealing with something new. Keep an open mind."
Salazar chewed his lip but relaxed into his chair, waving with the back of his hand for the others to continue.
"Is there a difference between what constitutes a monster and a mob?" Snow asked. "And I don't mean strictly within the boundaries of origin. Monsters are spontaneously born from raw magic with some regularity. I mean within the scope of behaviour."
Archie flicked an ear as he pondered the question, then glanced up at Zack's wisp. The unspoken question hung in the air for a moment before Zack deigned to speak.
"The main difference between mobs and monsters is that of control," Zack explained. "Monsters act purely on instinct, whereas mobs have three layers of behaviour they can fall back on. The first is that of instinct, same as monsters. If I create a mob from a monster's pattern, it will come pre-loaded with all of that monster's instincts. The second layer is that of programming. I am able to program my mobs with specific triggers and behaviours that occur when conditions are met.
"For example, the mobs in this wing of my dungeon have a curse of undeath, but are programmed to consent to curse removal if someone tries to purge it from them."
"That seems rather counter-productive, like it would make the encounters too easy," Salazar noted.
"Very few people actually have that kind of power. My goal isn't to punish people for their abilities, but to challenge them and make them think about their powers in new ways," Zack explained.
"The third and final layer is that of command," Archie said, picking up the explanation. "This is the layer on which I sit. Zack is able to command his mobs to do anything he requests, even if those demands would override both the instinct or programming layer. I am the exception. As an intelligent mob with free will, all my choices are automatically on the command layer, allowing me to override even Zack's commands when it comes to my personal behaviour."
"It's important to note that each layer overrides the one below it," Zack finished. "Instinct is the base, which can be overridden by programming, which can in turn be overridden by commands."
Snow stroked his perfectly manicured beard in thought, but said nothing as Salazar quickly typed out notes about Zack's explanation.
"What happens if somebody is harmed in your dungeon?" Salazar asked. It seemed as though he had a list of questions on his phone that he was scrolling through.
"We have healer mobs on site to aid in that situation," Alex explained quickly. "They have weak spells able to help stabilize an injured person until they can get to a proper healing station. We also provide free healing potions to delvers, and sell extras for a small fee."
"Who is your alchemy supplier?" Snow asked.
Alex blinked at the question. "Pardon?"
"Alchemy supplier. Who is the organization supplying you with the potions you give adventurers?"
Alex's mouth hung open as he considered how best to answer, but it was Zack who swept in to save him. "I am. In addition to mobs, I'm able to conjure items of a certain level of complexity."
In demonstration, Zack spawned a small vial of bright red liquid and dropped it into Salazar's lap. The adventurer plucked it up and examined its contents curiously, before passing it to Snow. The older man stared at the vial, his multicoloured eye swirling as he peered into its depths, before nodding in confirmation.
"This is a very weak strain of healing potion, hardly enough to stabilize a wounded adventurer, but it is stable nonetheless," he said, uncorking the vial. He poured a few drops onto his bare, ungloved right wrist, and watched as it evoprated. "It heals a few points of health and not much else."
"I'm limited in what I can create, okay?" Zack grumped.
"I can see that," Snow muttered, recorking the potion and slipping it into his pocket.
"Who owns the building?" Salazar asked, moving on to his next question.
That was enough to make Alex jump. "Technically this was an abandoned property. It was abandoned in the wake of the Boom, when it became a breeding ground for hostile monsters."
"Monsters you have since cleared out?" Snow asked.
"Within reason," Archie said quickly, before any of the others could talk.
"Within reason?" Snow asked.
Archie carefully considered his next words, tapping his paw as he quietly thought. "Within the boundaries of the active dungeon, there are no monsters that might pose a threat to human life."
It was such a perfect way of wording things that Zack could have kissed the rabbit. Technically, Zack's influence had spread to fill almost half of Northville mall and the surrounding land, but he wasn't yet using all of it. Part of that was he just didn't have enough flags to reasonably set up boss rooms for that many wings, but another part was that the mana upkeep would exceed his aetheric intake if he tried.
By wording it that way, Archie had localized the problem of the spider wing outside the bounds of the active dungeon. Since nobody was allowed in there, it was technically within scope of the question.
Snow clearly saw through the ruse, though, because his smirk only deepened. "Interesting," he said.