Chapter 19

The purples and the red orange colors peeked out over the distant mountains as the sun was starting to show face. She was still asleep on her side in the bare form seemingly without even the slightest worry on her face. I had not slept. I meditated after my “debt” was paid and the account balanced…multiple times. I should have slept some, but I have lived too long to not be just a little paranoid and cautious. We were in the open and could have been attacked by a number of different creatures. I was able to replenish completely so the meditation worked just as well as sleep would have. I was not at the point that I could substitute it for sleep completely, but I could most certainly go several days without sleep while sneaking in some meditation every now and then.

I quietly made my way out of the meager lean-to and got dressed. I was sitting there staring out at the ever-changing sky when I felt her awaken. She walked out in front of me and stretched out her arms as if she could lean out and touch the heavens.

She turned around still as bare as being born and let out her breath.

“I love the first morning air out in the open, the wilderness, under this perfect sky. Breathing it in is just life fulfilled,” she said to me.

I didn’t reply. I may have been staring without realizing that I was. In any case, she didn’t object.

She was maybe half a foot shorter than me and had an athletic physique. Her hair was longer than expected as she had up tied up in something most of the time. Now I could see it fall down her shoulders.

She looked back at me and smiled while pushing a lock of her hair out of the side of her face, “Don’t you go falling in love with me, Gatsby Lark. I’m trouble with a capital T.”

I begrudgingly looked away, “I know when not to argue with a woman. Besides, that path has been travelled before and is no longer the one I would want to travel again.”

She broke out into laughter, “We shall see, Gatsby Lark. We shall see,” as she finished getting dressed.

“We need to get moving. I’m not sure what to look for on or around the tree but perhaps you can help me.”

“Absolutely,” she said, “And we can take care of the invites when we get back to the city.”

“Invites?”

“Yes. I know you are new here so you may not know many people. I only know a few myself since I spend most of my time alone in the forest but I’m sure my mother would want to invite at least some people that she may consider friends.”

“Your mother, invite? To what?” I asked again, even more perplexed.

She turned her head towards me, and stared, “the wedding of course.”

My eyes went wide, “The Wedding?”

“Well, yes, I mean after last night. I figured that would be the next appropriate step. I am the daughter of a lady. You were not just using me, were you?”

“Ahh I…” before I could finish my thought, I saw the corner of her mouth turn up into a half smile. And then she broke out into boisterous laughter.

“You are too naïve Gatsby Lark! How have you managed to survive 200 years?”

“By avoiding rangers and vixens apparently.”

“With me you get two for one.”

“Yeah, so it seems. So about last night…”

“Don’t you get your mind tussled about that. It was a fun night, and we can leave it at that. No remorse, no obligations.”

I nodded.

“So, what would you like me to do to help with your massive tree?” she asked playfully.

“I’m going to look around the tree to see if I can find anything. I know you are a good climber so perhaps you can climb up and see if you can find a clue or something from that perspective? It may also help us spot any monsters or goblin scout teams nearby.”

“I’m at your command,” she said with a slight curtsy.

I grabbed my gear and as I turned to look in Daniella’s direction, she was already climbing up the tree. The tree was only about 55-60 feet high, and I imagined that she would have little difficulty climbing up it. I took a quick walk around the tree first to see if I could spot anything obvious.

“She looked pretty shagedelic in that sunrise all stretching out, didn’t she?” Jimmy spoke up in my mind. I had almost forgotten we shared the same body given how long it had been since he had talked. I wondered if that was intentional. I knew he had mentioned that he was being pulled towards The System in a way and it was an active effort for him to come forth like this.

“I guess you were awake during that time. How long have you been around for and sitting there all quietly, Jimmy?”

“No, worries broski, I did not see anything that happened last night, all those times that it happened.”

“Uh huh!”

“Ok maybe I might have peeked here and there but honestly it has been a struggle to come forth for last few days. Not sure why that is. Anyways, nice choice, she’s definitely a keeper.”

“Last night was just a…” I felt a little lost for words for a moment, “transient thing.”

“Hey, I got no fights with how many times your thing was ‘transienting’ on her. Her momma may push you into a shotgun wedding tho.”

“That’s not going to happen. Can we move on from this topic?”

“Sure, so I hear we are looking for a dungeon entrance and the dungeon is made by a god, right?”

“Yes, his name is Paheli. Though, he goes by different names at times.”

“I saw a movie one time where the two detectives talk out the murder and when they do that, they figure out who the killer is. Maybe you can talk about this god, and it might help us figure out what to do next?”

I had made two circles around the tree now and nothing popped out. Daniella was all the way to the top now and looking around. The tree itself had very few branches and no leaves at all. It was bare as it could be aside from the two thick branches that came out of the sides at an angle giving it an arrowhead shape.

“Ok Jimmy let’s try it your way. So, I suspect that there is a hidden entrance here to a dungeon. The dungeon I suspect is made by a god names Paheli. This is god of puzzles and games and he’s a little bit of an odd one compared to a lot of gods. Though I guess you can say many gods are odd in their own way. His worshippers like to create and solve puzzles themselves. Some have even gone and created some elaborate dungeons and labyrinths.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“So does he have a motive for doing what he does which is make games and stuff?”

“None that I’m aware of outside of just the enjoyment of creating and solving puzzles. Most gods don’t have a specific motive as they just do what they like and some just fall into certain roles. Most of these ‘gods’ were actually mortal at one point and after gaining enough power, they had ascended repeatedly until they gained the form that they have now.”

“So, he likes to create and solve puzzles. He’s not just a god of creating puzzles. That must mean that he makes his puzzles solvable. Even if you have to be like a super-duper genius to solve them.”

“That’s pretty much on the spot, Jimmie. He likes to create puzzles, but he never makes them to the point they can’t be solved.”

“So that means that if he created this dungeon, then there must be an entrance that can be seen in some way or another. I mean he would have made it difficult but not so much that the person couldn’t even find their way in. Right?”

“Right! He wouldn’t have made the entrance right in the front of the tree. That would have been too obvious a thing for him to do.”

I looked up at Daniella and I could see her looking out to see if she could spot anything and I screamed up at her, “See anything yet? Anyone approaching?”

She was surprisingly able to hear me. Likely from enhanced senses from her perception and replied, “No one. Is there something I should be looking for or should I come down?”

I thought for a moment. What I said moment before made sense. He wouldn’t have made this so obvious. I had done his dungeons before, and they were more obvious but this one not so clear but perhaps I was looking at it the wrong way.

“Do me a favor and look down from where you are. Specifically, where the tree is pointing into the ground,” I yelled at Daniella.

She took a moment to look down. Her face was concentrating on something, and she was squinting her eyes as if to try and see some shape. Then she screamed back, “I see something. There is another shadow created off the tree that makes another arrow and it points to that rock,” she pointed to a rock formation just barely coming up from the ground about 50 feet away.

I went to the rock formation and looked down and grinned. There was in the middle a symbol barely the size of a coin. I traced the symbol and as I touched it, the rune glowed and let out a dazzling light. A message popped up in front of me.

Welcome to Dungeon 621

Dungeon type: Single use/Transient/Puzzle

Level permitted: 10-100

Max one Individual at a time.

Would you like to enter: Yes/No?

I mentally selected the option no and the message closed. I called Daniella down and showed her where the Rune was for the entrance. She out of curiosity pressed the rune and the same message came up.

“What does all this mean? It’s my first time seeing one of these,” she asked.

“I am wondering the same thing. I don’t remember them having these in the games that I played back home. There you just enter,” Jimmie said to me.

“There are a dozen different types of dungeons and some of this is explained with the entrance message. Single use means that a person can enter it only once whether they complete the dungeon or not.”

“What does the other stuff mean?” asked Jimmie in my mind interrupting me.

“I was about to explain that before you interrupted me.”

“I didn’t interrupt you,” Daniella said.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that towards you Daniella.”

“Talking to a make-believe friend? I can respect that. I have a couple of those when I’m in the forest alone,” she said amusingly.

I ignored the comment. Maybe I should tell her about Jimmy but then so much has happened since I first met him. Would that diminish the trust she already has for me. Or would it make it stronger. Then there was also the night we spent together. It may have just been a casual thing but how would she react knowing that he was in the background like a little peeping tom. The thought made me chuckle.

“I suppose your make-believe friend is now telling you a joke. Let me guess what the punchline is? The punchline is that it doesn’t exist?” she said raising one of her eyebrows.

“Yeah, it’s best to just not talk about us. That’s the first rule, right? Like we don’t talk about fight club,” Jimmy said.

“As I was saying, Transient just means that the dungeon will cease to exist after being beaten a certain amount of time. That can be once or ten times or whatever. Puzzle means that the dungeon is primarily focused on solving puzzles. It’s not unheard of though to have monsters in a puzzle dungeon but the focus in getting through them is solving puzzles. There are also combat dungeons or quest dungeons. Combat dungeons pretty much means that you must defeat the main guardian of each level; sometimes all the monsters. Quest dungeons as the name suggests requires completion of a quest. There are other types of dungeons besides these as well.”

“What about the level permitted thing? Does that mean the dungeon adjusts itself to the level of the person entering it or does it allow that wide a range levels? To me it doesn’t make sense to have such a wide range. Obviously, a dungeon would be a lot easier to a level 100 than to a level 10 so why would a level 10 even enter. Why would a dungeon make a level cap like that?” she asked further while still staring at the message which I could see as well.

“It means that it only allows someone within those levels to enter. Most people know that the dungeons are created by gods of some sort in using a special type of essence energy of The System,” I started to explain.

“I was one of the people who apparently did not know that,” she said.

“What only some people know is that this energy links the god to the dungeon in some way. Though it is created by using the essence of The System, it is powered by the life Essence energy of sentient beings. So, when a person enters the dungeon to defeat it, it uses up a little bit of the existing energy of the dungeon. If a person beats that dungeon, then, it may use up either a lot of the energy or sometimes even all the energy, depending on the dungeon. However, when the person enters the dungeon and dies, that person’s life energy or essence becomes part of the dungeon. Their magical and non-magical items are used or broken down by the dungeon as it sees fit for its own use.”

“That still doesn’t explain the huge level difference. Why would the god or the creator of the dungeon not make the level cap low and that way more people die in the dungeon rather than defeat it? That way the dungeon just keeps getting stronger from the life energy it gets.”

“That’s the thing, the god or ascended being only helps design and create the dungeon. They don’t do everything. The System is still the backbone of its creation, and The System is what sets those rules in place. It decides the minimum and maximum level of the dungeon. The higher-level cap is set so the dungeon doesn’t get beaten easily. A level 100 individual would still have some difficulty with this dungeon. The lower level is set to the point that the dungeon doesn’t lose energy from random person walking in. At level 10, it would likely be near impossible for a person to complete this dungeon, but the dungeon will still gain a tiny fraction of energy from the person dying inside. If someone lower than level 10 entered and died, the dungeon would lose more net energy than it would gain.”

“So, The System or the god or the dungeon is just a sadistic piece of shit, just trying to collect the life energy of weak individuals?”

I chuckled, “Partially yes but the dungeons also serve another purpose aside from being a sadistic piece of shits.”

She tilted her head curiously urging me to continue.

“They also recycle life energy this way. The System is very complex, and I only know a fraction about it but one of the things it does is recycle life and death energies. If this process is halted, then the world will likely end. Another thing that the dungeons do is reward individuals. They reward and make people stronger; they bring forth the hidden potential in individuals and cull out the weak.”

“Still sounds like a sadist piece of shit but I guess that is the way of the world.”

“It’s not my idea of an ideal world either and yes, it is unfortunately the way of this world.”

“Ok, so when do go down and kick some dungeon ass?”

I looked at her for a moment. I knew she saw the part where it said max one individual at a time.

“I saw it. I just meant you go first then I come right behind you. Or I go down there first and then you follow me and enjoy the view at the same time,” she said with a wink.

“I vote for the view,” Jimmie’s voice rang out in my mind, and I decided to ignore it.

“It doesn’t work like that. Only one person can be in the dungeon at a time. Even if it allowed us to enter one after the other, it wouldn’t mean that we would end up in the same spot. The second person would just end up in a virtual waiting room until the first person was either killed or defeated the dungeon. I’m afraid you are going to have to sit this one out Daniella.”

She let out a sigh, “Good. I hate puzzles anyways. I would much rather be shooting at goblins. Do you still have the worb?”

I took the grape sized orb out and put in my open palm, “I didn’t realize that was what it was called.”

She took out her own, “Same as before, if you get into trouble and need my help down there, crush the orb and say the words, I will get the words on my end with the sister worb.”

I was going to tell her that in the dungeon it would not be possible for me to communicate with the outside world or for her to communicate with me but decided not to. I placed the orb back in my bag. Supposedly it was easy to crush when it needed to be but did not just break routinely very easily. It couldn’t, for example sit in my backpack and break was someone to step on it. The user had to hold the orb in hand and think about the process and then crush it for it to happen. It was a single use item, but I could see how useful it could be in a world without cellphones. I had in the past acquired certain items that could allow a person to communicate with another person but those were highly magical items and not easy to come by. They also had a limit on the distance as opposed to this item. Dungeons unfortunately existed on another dimensional plane altogether and thus were unreachable by this.

I gathered myself and pressed the symbol to bring the entrance message up and selected ‘Yes’ on the prompt.