I wasn’t about to have any type of conversation with the Dungeon Master’s secretary out in the open, so Sophia took us to the Mage’s Guild tower and got us a private conference room. The building’s oppressive magic weighed me down, but it was still better than being outside in public.
I took my seat beside Ferrisdae as Himia sat across from us. Although she had the shape of a Human woman, that wasn’t what she was. When we had met, she had called herself an artificial intelligence, an Information Elemental. Just like back then, she had long, deep blue hair and wore a bright yellow sundress. Her smile looked slightly out of place, like she needed to practice, and it was a little unnerving.
“I would like to thank you for not blowing up at me, Dungeon Inspector Badger,” she started politely. “You seem angry, and that is a conclusion that I have come to without the use of magic.”
“Is it, now,” I said flatly.
Himia nodded. “Yes, I was able to deduce it given several more mundane observations. I am still not proficient at understanding most social cues, but anger is one of the ones that I am becoming well versed at detecting. It is a process that I am struggling with, but I believe the challenge is worthwhile.”
Frowning, I shared a glance with Ferrisdae. She cleared her throat. “What are you doing here, Himia?”
“The Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeons-”
“Again with this?” I asked, putting my face in my hand. “Just call him the Dungeon Master, we don’t need his full title.”
“I apologize, but it is necessary, Dungeon Inspector Badger,” she replied, not perturbed at all by my interruption. “The Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeons has decided to allow me to help with your investigation so long as it, in his words, ‘keeps my sister as far away from me as possible.’ I have picked up many magical signals throughout the continent now that the Thousand Year Blizzard is no longer disrupting the natural flow of mana, and there have been some of note.”
“Like whatever Abara’s done to Athir and whatever the wizard Liddy’s been chasing down has been doing?” I asked.
“That is correct,” she confirmed. “Just last night, 11 hours and 14 minutes ago, the magical profile of Athir spiked dramatically before hitting an all time high and staying there.”
“Wait, how could you possibly know that?” Ferrisdae asked, leaning forward on the table. “Haven’t you and your master been hiding away in a secret location? Why do you know when Athir became a dungeon?”
“It is like I said, I have picked up many magical signals throughout the continent now that the Thousand Year Blizzard is no longer disrupting the natural flow of mana,” she repeated.
“So you just know about big magical events, then?”
“So long as they spend at least a few seconds beyond a tier four power level, I will notice it,” Himia said with confidence. “The creation of Abara’s country-wide dungeon is tier five and holding. Still, I was able to figure out what he was doing in such a short time. Thus, I offered myself up to help, with the Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeon’s blessing, of course. I am coming with you.”
“I just don’t think I can trust your help,” I stated harshly. “Because I’ve figured out what these random pinches on the back of my neck mean, and I don’t like it when thoughts that don’t belong to me start popping up in my head. If you want to know why I’m angry, that’s a pretty big reason for it.”
Himia nodded, but her facial expressions didn’t change. “That is the Dungeon Inspector ability we call Knowledge Check,” she said. “Sometimes, when there is something you do not know, the information you need will appear to you. It does not always work, but it is helpful when it does.”
“And can you think of why that upsets me?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.
“I cannot,” she admitted, lowering her head.
My hand clenched into a fist. I wanted to slam it down on the table, but settled for a quick rap instead. “Because you’re putting information in my head, Himia!” I said angrily. “I was pissed off when you told me you were reading my surface thoughts and doing a deep dive into my aura, what makes you think I would be okay with you shoving information into my head?”
She blinked, slow and deliberate, and I realized that might have been the first time I had seen her do so. “But that is not what is happening, Dungeon Inspector. That was the original plan, but seeing you becoming so upset with me had the Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeons change it at the last minute.”
“That’s bullshit,” I accused, pointing my finger at her. Ferrisdae put a hand on my shoulder, and I took a breath. Himia still looked nonplussed at this whole conversation, like my anger wasn’t a factor at all. That only made me angrier. “I certainly didn’t know what a Blackwood Queen was before I met her, and I’ve been slowly learning these runes from the Southern Continent just by looking at them.”
“You have, yes,” she confirmed. “But it is not because we have been shoving information into your brain, or whatever you think is happening.”
“Then what other explanation is there?” I asked through grit teeth.
“You are getting it from the dungeons,” she answered as if it were the most simple thing in the world.
I opened my mouth to argue because not every instance had happened when I was in a dungeon, but then closed it. That familiar tingle cooled the back of my neck, and I knew. The ability had activated when I was out in the world, not a DTER in mind, but the information I was looking for had always tied into a dungeon.
CC had already started turning the DoD building into a dungeon and, since Carimella Rose was in it, I knew that her body had been turned into one as well.
Before meeting the Blackwood Queen, I had been in the Red Thicket. She was the one who corrupted Grandfather Red, leaving traces of her in the dungeon.
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Even the runes could be traced back to several of the dungeons I had been in lately. The Dungeon Master would certainly know the alphabet of the Southern Continent, and I had been inside several areas that had been tainted by the cult.
It wasn’t the Dungeon Master who had been giving me knowledge, but the dungeons themselves; he had just helped me access it.
“You look calmer now,” Himia stated, leaning forward as she copied Ferrisdae’s pose. “Have you come to an epiphany?”
I swallowed, realizing that my anger had been assuaged by the revelation. “Explain it to me anyway,” I told her.
The secretary nodded. “As we discussed, your magical affinity is for dungeon magic. I had told you that this was odd, but not unheard of,” she said. “Every time you cross over a DTER, your aura interacts and mingles with this magic. Under normal circumstances, you would not be able to do anything with this interaction unless you become very, very powerful.”
“But the Dungeon Inspector class focuses on meta knowledge,” I said, repeating what she had told me over a month ago.
Himia nodded again. “Knowledge Check, as an ability, accesses your aura, which has been storing information from every dungeon you have ever visited. This is meta knowledge,” she explained. “If you wanted to know how long a dungeon had been active for, or how many times the boss had been killed, or anything else, then you need only think about it. Now, Knowledge Check is not an infallible ability. There are limitations on it, and it cannot hand you everything you want at once.”
“Why not?” I asked, leaning forward. Now that I knew where the information was coming from, I was still peeved but not nearly as much.
“Because that would melt your brain,” she answered. “It takes the things you really need to know and lets you know them, but if it happens too much or with too much data, then you might fall comatose or even outright die. There may also be a dramatic component as well.”
I had been paying rapt attention up until that point, and then I gave her a flat look. “A dramatic component? Really?”
“The Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeons thinks that the world is a better place with a more dramatic flair to things,” she answered with a mechanical shrug. “If it is something you really need to know at that moment, you are more likely to know it, but if you’re asking something out of idle curiosity, then it may take longer to come to you.”
“Honestly, that sounds kind of awesome,” Ferrisdae said. I turned to look at her, having almost forgotten that she was sitting next to me, and she put her hands up. “I don’t mean anything by it, Badger, but being able to pull the knowledge from any dungeon you’ve ever been in? And it’s not because Himia is shoving the information directly into your head? I think that’s neat.”
“The information lingering in a person’s aura does wear off after a few months for most,” Himia continued. “However, your magical affinity makes things different. It’s likely because of the dungeon that spawned around you when you were-”
“Not another word!” I roared, standing up so fast that my chair toppled over. This time, I did slam my fist on the table, cracking it. “Really, Himia? What makes you think I’m okay with you saying things about my past in front of my junior, let alone in a place under such heavy magical surveillance?”
I ignored the look I was still getting from Ferrisdae as I stared at the Information Elemental. The Elf’s thoughts were written all over her face, and I didn’t want to entertain any of them. What had just been said was kept secret for a reason.
Dragons had dungeons spring up around them. Magical beasts, if they became powerful enough, could as well. In very rare circumstances, even animals revered as local deities have been known to spawn something small.
Ordinary people did not.
Ferrisdae wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close. I froze, eyes widening as my glare turned into one of confusion. “Ferrisdae…” I said slowly. “What are you doing?”
“You just looked like you needed a hug, Badger,” she answered, patting me on the back before letting me go.
I pulled away, coughing into my hand as I picked up my chair so I could sit back down. In a way, I did feel better, and I wasn’t sure if that was worse or not.
Himia raised her hand, grabbing my attention, before smiling. “I have temporarily disengaged the magical surveillance in this room,” she stated calmly. “Our conversation is private for as long as I want it to be. However, you are right. I was not taking present company into consideration when I chose my words. For this, I apologize most deeply and hope that you can forgive me.”
“That was a pretty big blunder, and I’m not one to forgive so easily,” I told her.
“Then there is simply nothing to be done,” Himia replied. She lifted her arm and swung it in front of her. Her voice took on a folksy accent. “Shucks, better luck next time.”
Ferrisdae and I shared another glance before I shook my head. “Alright, I feel as though we’ve gone way off topic and that’s partially my fault,” I said, placing my hands on the table. “Let’s backtrack and talk about Abara and what he’s doing in Athir, and why you’re our secret weapon.”
“Yes, that is why I am here,” she responded, nodding and putting her hands on the table like I did. “Abara has tapped into a magical crystal from the Southern Continental Dungeon to invoke time magic called the Endless Moment.”
“Brack said that everyone was frozen, even those in the middle of tasks,” Ferrisdae said.
“That is correct. It is magic a few tiers below the Thousand Year Blizzard, but with the power Abara has at his fingertips with the crystal, it’s possible for him to freeze an entire country. Not forever, though,” Himia said, rapping her fingers across the wooden conference table. “Two things need to happen before the magic ends. Either the crystal needs to run out of power, which would take roughly three months if my estimates are correct, or Abara needs to be killed.”
The Elf hesitated before asking her next question. “Are the people suffering inside?”
“They are unaware of the passage of time, so, no. When the magic ends, they will wake up as if nothing happened,” Himia answered. “That is, so long as they are not acted upon by an outside force.”
“They can still get hurt and die,” I translated, glancing at the worried look on Ferrisdae’s face.
“That is correct. Even if they are injured, they will remain in the Endless Moment until it disperses, at which point any who had sustained enough damage could perish.”
“Then what do we even have to discuss?” I asked. “If we step foot in there, we’ll end up like everyone else.”
“That is not correct,” Himia said, shaking her head. “Just like Abara has received the blessings of CC, you and your friends have received the blessings of the Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeons. Both of you are strong enough to fight back against the Endless Moment without being caught up in it. At least, you can resist it for long enough to get the job done.”
“So we can save my family?” Ferrisdae asked hopefully.
“And everyone else,” I added.
“Yes.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Okay, but that sounds like something we can do on our own,” I said, confused. “If you’re our secret weapon, then what do you do in all this?”
Himia smiled wide enough to show her perfectly straight, white teeth. “In the words of the Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeons, I am going to put that dog back on his leash.” She paused, turning her head almost all the way around before she had to shift her body so she could see the wall behind her. “Also, I suggest we leave post haste. I am feeling more massive magical waves from Athir, and I do not believe any of us are going to like it when this new spell is complete.”