I checked all of the spell scripts on the floor, walls, and even the columns that supported the floor. To say this was the most complex magic I had performed yet would be completely accurate. While not to the level of inscriptions I had been unravelling under the Hold, which I expanded into a week after Yana had left. It was more complex than both the natural formations I made when creating my dungeon rules and the story elements of the third through fifth floors.
The bronze heart was held by spikes of high chromium steel and looked like it was floating between beams of moonlight. I had to take a day to think about the odd, fragmented memories I had shortly after completing the general structures and layout of this floor. Every time I passed my senses over the heart I had a strange disconnect in my head about it. A sphere would be far easier to connect the core sequences into, but the heart just seemed so fitting.
I distracted myself with the humans in the Hold above as usual when the mood hit me. It was a way to process without losing out on learning more things, and it was a way to experience the world. Even if it was far removed from what I still wanted to do. The little forms scrambled around like ghosts to my perceptions, but their patterns were pretty much the same as always. I would often send a few ants to rest under the ground. So that I could listen into what was being said as a background noise. Then, I could just review it when I pleased.
This was the result of another experiment that Yana and I tried before he left. A risky attempt to remove System mana from my core completely and give me full autonomy. A risk that was well worth it as it succeeded. No more restrictions or "Instincts" pushing me to do things, and I was even able to push my influence in any direction at will. Though I found that going through solid objects was easier my a huge margin, and it even cost mana now.
Looking back, I had a feeling, and a wall of notes, that suggested that it had always cost mana. That the System was doing it for me, but limiting how much and when. My influence was a bit like the System in a way too I had thought. I could now see that my Will lingered around all the mana in the areas I controlled. It didn't directly affect the mana itself, but basically was me until it was absorbed by another creature that wasn't made by me. It was a strange thing to observe, which the humans in the Hold were perfect.
Besides listening into their conversations I got to watch the mana interact with everything they did and themselves. My Will would part and their bodies would absorb the mana. Though, I found that when I was "present" the mana wouldn't, and that affected the regeneration of mana in everything. While not something everyone would know, I had a feeling that it was a way to tell I was around still. The really interesting thing came when I found I could partly enter a person if I focused very hard. Though this caused my perception of self to crack and I had to back away quickly.
Re-focusing on the people watching I was doing. I heard a few mentions of how the "Lady" was being weak by not allowing people to enter the dungeon. They didn't consider it as dangerous as they were told and seemed worried about a "dungeon break". Which I remembered was a situation where a dungeon would create too many creatures and they would flood out of the depths. Though, without my careful work on my creations they would likely have limited lifespans. It wasn't easy to make a room that wouldn't fall apart without my Will keeping it together, but I made sure every part of my body was so.
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Life, by contrast, was so much more complex that I would find it hard to imagine that the dumb dungeons I had heard about being able to do the same. The books I was given by Yana seemed to agree with me since they said that the monsters would be highly aggressive, but fall apart within weeks to months after leaving the dungeon. Which was still enough time to ruin a region.
I didn't understand that last part until a combination of reading and listening to the humans made it click. They didn't grow food around the Hold, but had it brought in from places that only made food. So they would starve if suddenly those places were gone, and it seemed like they were rarely well defended. Something my Queens and I had talked at length about. Who wouldn't protect their weakest members with deadly force? Seemed a poor idea to leave such a critical weakness like that undefended. It would be like me just having my Core sitting in a field up top.
I wouldn't push my family out because the Queens didn't have so many children that it was impossible to house or feed them all. Unlike the humans and beastkin we could all just survive on the mana flowing from the world and the Well. Which made us all a bit smug when we discussed future enemies entering the dungeon. It would be easy enough to just wear them down with traps and tricks, and limit the fighting to destroying bags and packs. I returned to my sixth floor in a mental blink ready to deal with the final steps of the working.
Pulling my focus from the rest of myself I began to impose my Will upon the mana and creation. Thin streams of mana began to spin and form the complex patterns of the script as I bent the smallest amount of power into the lines. I wanted to compact as much of the energy as I could into the structures that would make up this engine. An engine that would allow me to reach deeper into the Well, deeper into that strange fundamental force that became mana itself.
I could just barely sense it when I pushed my self to the limits downward, and it always seemed just out of reach as I pushed my domain. Like it was matching the speed I descended, when I descended. But, it was a siren's call that pulled on my very core. I felt like I was from that place, where all that stuff was, or it was part of me and longing to return home.
Such thoughts were distractions that I accepted as I wove the mana within the metal of the heart. They would become the physical channels for this power and would make the engine beat like a real heart. Each beat would gather mana and refine it again and again until I felt like there was enough and then I would use it to break through to the place the Well drew it's power. As a side effect I would be able to use the refined power to experiment on those energy patterns I had trapped in the holding cells, but that was only a fringe benefit of this place.
No, this would be my greatest tool. It would do something great I could just feel it. Maybe even the chains on myself and mind would break, and I could be free to wander.
No, this would be my greatest weapon. A force that would shatter my enemies. Break those that dared to invade my halls.
No, this would be my greatest power. Something that would elevate my children and myself to avoid others and just be strong.
A smile in an ever-darkening dungeon, a smile like white slashing through perfect black.
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tick tick click
Lady Mirabella looked down at the necklace and flipped it open. The numbers within read "52" and had began to glow yellow. She frowned, getting up from her desk to look out the large windows of her study.
"I need to send a package to the capital with all haste." Her voice sending the hidden servants scrambling to her words. She gripped the strange watch. It wasn't something she could handle. She knew enough about magic to fix this mess that Reginald had left her, and understand that the things in the ruins below were out of her league. Soon the Academy would arrive, but there was only one person she thought could handle this watch and the secrets it held.
tick tick click
51