Within the Black Box, Heathcliff is asking Emily to help with some structures.
“Alright, cher,” Heathcliff says. “Can you make some giant fans?”
Emily concentrates on the image of turbines. The powers granted to her through the Aeropshere allow the dungeon to manifest the whirlwind-generating turbines. A large gust of wind billows from the floor that propels Heathcliff into the air.
“Whoo-hoo!” Heathcliff yells as he ascents through the room. He hangs onto a ledge to prevent his body from hitting the ceiling and climbs into an opening Emily constructs.
“Rather bold move, daredevil,” Emily’s voice echoes through the hall. “So why do we need wind turbines?”
“Same reason I asked you to add petri-beam traps yesterday,” Heathcliff says.
The two were working on creating hazards to protect Emily’s core from the more daring adventurers.
“You’re sure these will work?” Emily says.
“These ought to,” Heathcliff says. “Though there something missing for them lightning and light powers.”
Elizabeth arrives with a smile on her face. “How’s the traps going?”
“So far so good,” Emily says. “Say, how can we use the Photonsphere?”
“Hmm,” Elizabeth says. “The light magics tend to be very effective against those using dark arts, but those are pretty rare around these parts.”
“Is there anything more… general use?” Heathcliff says.
“We could try large beam cannons,” Elizabeth says. “Ooh, how about photon beams?”
Emily tries to create some in another room. Several large laster cannons emerge from the walls. Upon creation, the lasers fire upon the opposite walls.
“Ow!” Emily says, feeling burns from the walls that were hit.
“Oops,” Elizabeth says. “Maybe those were too strong.”
Heathcliff looks at the ditzy fairy. “Your help is very appreciated, cher, but…”
“I know what you’re implying,” Elizabeth says. “I’ll have you know that I was given knowledge straight from the Forgemaster himself! I should know all there is to know about dungeons and magic!”
“Are you certain that any of the Administrators exist?” Heathcliff says.
“Of course, they exist!” Elizabeth says. “What makes you think they wouldn’t?”
Heathcliff considers responding to Elizabeth’s question. On one hand, he prefers not to have theological debates, and there is some evidence that at least some of them existed. On the other hand, he is still uncertain if the myths attributed to them are actually true.
Before Heathcliff could answer, Minerva arrives with Nina. The Arachne mother greets them.
“Hello, Minerva,” Elizabeth says. “What’s up?”
“I want to ask if you can accompany me to the guild hall, Emily,” Minerva asks.
“Of course,” Emily says. “I’ll prepare the avatara right now!”
“Here’s hoping these three would hold down the fort,” Heathcliff thinks.
✦✦✦
Emily, Minerva, and Nina walk down the town streets. For some reason, Emily behaves more timidly than usual as they walk down the sidewalks. “It’s strange walking down here without Elizabeth, Tim, and Heathcliff,” she thinks.
Nina notices Emily’s unusual behavior. “Emmy, is something wrong?”
“Huh,” Emily says. “Oh. It’s nothing.”
Minerva notices that Emily is acting strange as well. Gone is the confidence of the girl that saves her daughter and her from certain doom.
At the Rosenkreuz guildhall. The trio talks with several adventurers. Minerva learns about the so-called heroic therapy breakthrough. “Insulin-induced comas,” she scoffs. “The charlatans do not know the risks that have.”
The term “insulin” causes a faint recollection in Emily, but she cannot explain why. Nina prods her again, certain that Emily is acting strange.
“Are you sure nothing’s wrong Emmy?” Nina asks.
“I’m sure,” Emily says.
“You haven’t spoken a word since we got here,” Minerva says. “You weren’t a gabby gums, but you were at least talkative back at the diner in Websdale.”
“I guess,” Emily says. “I’m not used to strangers.”
“Huh?” Nina says. “We’re not strangers! Are we mommy?”
“No, dear,” Minerva says. “But there are strangers around us,” she says.
“I’m sorry,” Emily says. “I didn’t mean you two, but this place, this world, it feels very alien to me.”
“Ah,” Minerva says with a knowing smile.
“Ah, what?” Nina says. “Tell me! Tell me!”
“We’ll talk about it when we get home dear,” Minerva says before turning to Emily. “I know we’ve only met for a short while, but I can see shyness and uncertainty a mile off. Tell me, is this your first time traveling without your companions?”
“I think so?” Emily says.
“That explains it,” Minerva says. She is unsure how to approach Emily’s situation. She does have an idea. “Nina, honey, can you check if Pauline’s here?”
“On it!” the young Arachne scurries off to find Pauline.
“Emily,” Minerva says, “Let’s get to know each other better.”
“Okay,” Emily says. “So what do you do, Minerva?”
“I was a socialite of sorts,” Minerva says. “Locals used to call me the Belle of Websdale before I decided to dabble in community organization. How about you? What were you doing before those people came into your life?”
“Being sick,” Emily says.
“Oh dear,” Minerva says.
Nina and Pauline arrive at Emily’s table. “Heard you got a case of the shyness, Emily,” Pauline says.
The four talk about various topics, as well as have Emily talk to various other guild members. To some success. By noon, Emily and the two Arachne leave the guildhall.
✦✦✦
At the same time, Elizabeth helps Heathcliff set up the last trap. Using the Electropshere as the basis.
“Them stunners a fine addition, cher. Thanks,” Heathcliff says.
“No worries,” Elizabeth says. “Now let’s give them a test.”
Tim sets up a dummy in the distance and then moves a safe distance. Heathcliff trips a pressure plate on the ground. A small core is launched from the walls and attached to the dummy, giving a small amount of voltage to it, enough to render the dummy blackened with burns.
“So these stunners are supposed to deter adventurers, aiming for Emily’s core?” Tim says.
“Oui,” Heathcliff says. “Same as the other additions. The turbines would propel them to the air, the basters would burn and blind them and the petrification traps would keep them in place.”
“Doesn't this seem…excessive?” Tim asks.
“Under normal circumstances yes,” Elizabeth says. “But Emily is the most vulnerable treasure of the dungeon, for she is the dungeon. The safety of her core is paramount here as the Black Box would not be able to function without it and the mana it generates and gathers. Thus we need to keep more daring adventurers away at all costs.”
“Except when it’s another dungeon absorbing them,” Tim recalls seeing Emily finish absorbing the Taralantulapolis core.
“That’s different,” Elizabeth says. “The mana is absorbed, not lost and it would eventually find its way towards the area where the previous dungeon once stood. Pillaged cores however are more prone to being tampered with and rendered damaged enough to hinder the natural flow”
Sarah arrives in the room. “Has anyone seen the training dummy? I want to practice with my hammer!” she accidentally steps onto a pressure plate.
“Sarah!” Heathcliff cries out, but it’s too late. A taser wire is launched from the walls and narrowly misses her head. The force propels it to the opposite wall and it embeds itself there, unleashing a large amount of voltage on the wall.
Sarah realizes what has just happened and angrily glares at Heathcliff, “You could’ve told me you booby-trapped the palace!”
Meanwhile, on the way home. Emily experiences a small shock on her thigh. “Yow!” she cries out.
“What’s wrong, Emmy?” Nina says.
“I don’t know,” Emily says. “Prolly something happened back home.”
Returning to the Black Box, Sarah talks with the others about the traps. “So you used the Elementalist’s Spheres to power special traps so people won’t nab Emily?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth says.
Sarah looks at the stunner traps. She observes various attributes that seem haphazardly matched. “Where did you get the reticulums? They seem clouded and unfocused.” Seemingly unaware that the defect is why she isn’t spasming on the ground right now.
“That is a good question,” Tim says.
“I gots them at the local hardware store.” Heathcliff says “They real cheap.”
“And that is the problem!” Sarah says. “The glass of the reticulums messes with the targeting magic! You are risking inaccuracy by using this glass! I’m gonna go talk to Richard about getting some better material.”
Sarah leaves the room to talk to her brother.
✦✦✦
Emily returns to the Black Box with Minerva and Nina. As she enters her dungeon body, she finds the two dwarf siblings are working on something.
“The glass is so clouded,” Richard says. “Of course, they would miss.”
Elizabeth arrives to greet the dungeon’s avatara and the two Arachne with a great big smile.
“What are they working on?” Nina says, curious about the dwarves’ activities.
“It turns out Heathcliff used some faulty parts for the stunner traps we installed,” Elizabeth says.
“Stunners?” Nina says.
“That shouldn't concern you, dear,” her mother says. “Now off you go, it’s almost dinner time.”
“Okay,” Nina says.
The Arachne family leaves Emily and Elizabeth. Elizabeth then leads Emily’s avatara to its pod. Along the way, Emily’s avatara becomes more lethargic and limp with each passing step. A few moments later, the puppet’s body collapses and Emily’s consciousness returns to her original dungeon body.
She feels parts of herself were altered by the installation of the stunner traps, and realizes that was the cause of her jolt from earlier.
She senses Heathcliff instructing some Arachne to line some pits with adhesive silk.
“Hello, Heathcliff,” Emily’s voice echoes to him.
“Welcome home, cher,” Heathcliff says. “How was your trip, Emily?”
“It went well,” Emily says.
“Glad to hear it!” Heathcliff says.
She then uses her vision to search for Tim across the dungeon. She sees him practicing his techniques. Specifiably his knee strikes and kicks. She then checks back on the dwarves, finding they had finished with several types of glass.
“We’ll need to test them on the stunners later,” Sarah says.
Richard wonders if he can test them on his crossbow.
“Hello,” Emily says.
“Ah, Emily! You’re back already?” Richard says. He then checks the time and sees that night has fallen.
“Been up to anything new lately?” Emily says.
“Besides trying to fix the reticulums?” Sarah says. “Not much.”
“Actually,” Richard says. “I’ve been considering an aesthetic upgrade for us. But Heathcliff is opposed to the idea.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s the type that prefers function over form,” Sarah says. “If we could get better materials in…”
“Have you guys found out what to do with the rainbow fibers?” Emily says, referring to the new refocuses she now produces.
“I’ve noticed the iridescence is rather unusual,” Richard says. “Rather than changing just based on the angle, the color also seems to change over time. I decided to call it dreamcloth after a Messenger’s tale of a prophet.”
“Dreamcloth’s seems like something you’d wear to bed,” Sarah says.
“It’s better than the name you suggested!” Richard says. “Saying ‘this garment is made of rainbow fibers,’ should go without saying!”
“Fine, fine,” Sarah says. “Shame we couldn’t get any bismuth here. I’d love to make a set of armor that fits with it.”
“Anyway,” Richard says. “We should stop for the day. It’s already late.”
“Alright,” Sarah says. “You want anything to eat Emily?”
Emily begins to answer but realizes something. “Can I really eat anything as a building?”
Sarah realizes her blunder and places her hand on the back of her head. “Oops!”
“I think Elizabeth is rubbing off on her,” Richard says. “Good night, Emily” The two dwarves head to the kitchen in their new atelier inside Emily.
“Night, “Emily says.
✦✦✦
A centaur priest and his young acolytes arrive at the Black Box, interested in the dreamcloth. As they wander the sleek black and blue halls. He turns to his younger wards.
“Now children,” the priest says. “Let us review, do you know how Dungeons are created?”
A young elfin archer raises her hand. “I know, they’re forged by Obsidian, right?”
“Correct,” the centaur says. His squint tells of a more laid-back nature.
“He’s the brother of Anesidora and Halcyon, yes?” A mage says.
The centaur nods. “The land and sea, and the fire they cover. These are the whole of Titania and among the many children of Astra.”
Emily couldn’t help but listen in on their conversation. She has a curiosity about the Administrators.
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The priest and his party make their way to the first of two sentinels. The construct tarantula.
A young brawler is dismayed at the size of the construct. “Did they have to make a spider that big?” The construct is but half the size of the Dungeon core it was modeled on, but it is still tall enough for the child to lament not being able to punch it.
A child with a boomerang notices several obvious weak points on the joints and decides to fire its boomerang. The centaur chants an incantation.
“O Stella, sleeping sunlight, grant the innocent souls your benediction!”
The boomerang glows with a radiant light before carving through one of the Tarantula’s legs and returning to its wielder.
Elizabeth watches the fight from afar.
“Is this kind of party, normal?” Emily says noting the young age of most of the members.
“Looks like,” Elizabeth says. “The guild has mentioned that some of the more clerical members like to teach students both scripture and adventuring at once. Especially used that want to use the clerical arts.”
The centaur and his students felled the construct. Emily’s immediacy creates a chest and a path for the pious pilgrims. Within lies several arms of more blunted quality, created by Sarah for such occasions, as well as staff for the centaur and several Dreamcloth robes.
The nacreous threads glimmer in a myriad of hues. The priest notices that one of them can fit right over his current robes and so dons them. The students are amazed at their new colorful weaves.
“I’ll go easy on them,” Emily thinks. “Heathcliff won’t mind, right?”
“Father Chiron,” the Archer says. “These remind me of Melodia.”
“The Composer?” Chiron says. “I see you’ve been paying attention.”
“Teacher’s pet,” the boomerang branding lad says.
“Who is Melodia?” A dwarven cleric in training says.
Chiron beckons the students to follow him as he explains the story of Melodia. “The Composer is a special Administrator. She hatched from her egg after the emergence of mortal kind.” As he speaks, several cells begin attacking the students, but the priest repels them with wind magic. “She is said to be the source of Bardsong, with some claiming she is nearly equal to Astra herself.”
Chiron leads them past some webs. “From an early age, she had been said to be an original elementalist, manipulating the elements with the sounds she makes. As an infant, her first cries caused the earth to tremble, her first words turned a mountain pass into a glacier, and the winds and tides had been calmed by her cooing. She was said to be cared for by Anesidora, Halcyon, and Obsidian all at once.” His students come across an impassable gap.
“Dead end,” a young girl says.
Chiron continues his tale, while also using his keen ears to hear the emotions of the Black Box. “As Melodia grew older, she had been shaped by the sounds that intrigued and influenced her and also honed her voice to match them.” The priest senses Emily’s emotions and her curiosity at his tale and begins to speak in a more poetic tone. He takes out a lyre and strums it as he continues.
“O Melodia, as she grew the sounds had shaped her. Her voice grew to shape them in turn. O Melodia, as she aged, the Mana had arisen. Her sound heralded the arrival of Administrators newly born. Oh Melodia, as she lived, she honed her craft. Sent by Astra herself to wander the world on the winds’ draft.”
Emily feels a strange feeling, a sudden urge to conjure a bridge by the Priest’s resonating Bardsong. As Chiron takes his students across the bridge, show slow strumming slightly shifts in tempo, becoming a little faster. “With all that she had learned, the fire inside burns. As she wandered the land and sea, at light and dark’s heed. Though the snowmelt at glacier’s peak, the Composer begins to speak.”
“Using all she learned, the world begins to turn,” Chiron and his acolytes reach the end of the bridge. “From frost to flame, the elements tamed. With a hymn to those who nurtured her, for this, she was thus named. Melodia.” He finishes his song with a chord progression that shows as a door opens.
“Wow,” the students stood in awe at their teacher’s performance. “What was that?”
“My specialties lie in the Resonator’s school of Bardsong. Through this power of resonance I can tell the dungeon itself was as curious about Melodia as you are.”
The pilgrimage soon enters a room designed for a final sentinel enough, by this time they only have twenty minutes remaining before Emily kicks them out of her, and the priest’s Resonating abilities can do little to stop that once it has passed.
Tim stands inside the room, awaiting the priest. “Leave the children out of this,” he coldly says, “they are too young to face me.”
The priest can tell Tim would rather avoid fighting the students and is merely looking for an excuse. “A duel? Very well. My students, please keep your distance.”
The kids agree and find a place away from the battle to ensue and Tim fights Chiron. Chiron sees Tim’s expression, as similar to his yet with some differences. Instead of being the eyes of a more easygoing man like Chiron, those are instead the eyes of a man tinged with arrogance, or perhaps it is insecurity.
Tim makes the first move charging forward and stopping just before the centaur to push him back with his palms. Chiron is unable to dodge and is forced back.
“Oh Melodia, she who sang to the heavens” Chiron utters. Tim tries to close the gap but is too slow. “Grant me the aegis of wind.”
Tim’s attack became slowed by the winds, and his attempted stomp was easily dodged. The priest counters by using his wind shield to catapult Tim into the air. But Tim regains his composure and lands safely on the ground.
He soon tries to use a shoulder strike, leaning into the Centaur’s equine body, but the wind shield prevents that, and Chiron counters with some notes from his lyre. As he strums his instrument the soundwaves transform into arcs of light that fly into the air and attack Tim from on high.
Tim was told to go easy on him, but he felt his pride get wounded by the priest’s actions. He fights the priest for fifteen minutes, and he finds himself on the back foot. In the last three minutes, he summons his Qiang and tries to detect more weaponized notes.
Chiron senses he has struck a nerve with Tim, but also that it was one so easily agitated. He also knows that after a few minutes, he and his acolytes would be spirited away unharmed.
Tim tries to go for a thrust, aiming to skewer the priest, but the wind shield allows him to dodge it. “I must thank you for your time, o divine dungeon.” He claps as he turns to his students. “Tis time to go.”
As if on cue, Emily ejects Chiron and his students from herself. Chiron protects his charges with a barrier created by a chord from his lyre as they are propelled outside the Black Box.
Tim has technically emerged victorious, yet it didn’t feel like it.
“Seems like the priest gave you a hard time,” Emily says.
“Shut up,” Tim says as he opens his eyes. He sighs at his failure to defeat the centaur priest.
“You know you weren’t supposed to kill him, right?” Emily says.
“I know,” Tim says. Yet still he felt like there was something he needed to avenge on him. His frustration had gotten the better of him again. He takes a deep breath to calm down. “Why did you decide to give him a shortcut?” He says.
“I-I was curious about the Administrators,” Emily says.
“Uh-huh,” Tim says
“She’s not wrong,” Elizabeth arrives to greet them. “Kinda interesting that he used the trip to discuss Harmonia.”
“Whatever,” Tim says, leaving the arena.
Heathcliff returns with a newspaper and some groceries. He sees Tim walk past him with a mix of frustration and sadness. “Tim got his derriere whooped?” he says.
“Yeah,” Emily says. “Does he always take his losses poorly?”
“Sometimes,” Heathcliff says. “I’ll give him a talk later.” He leaves for the local kitchen.
✦✦✦
After dropping the groceries off, Heathcliff finds Tim sitting down on a ledge. He approaches his page.
“Heard you tied with someone back there,” the knight says.
Tim sighs. “What do you want?”
“Look, cher,” Heathcliff says. “You got to learn that you can’t win them all.”
“I know,” the page says.
“Want to talk about that fight?” Heathcliff says.
“Not in the mood,” Tim says.
“Fine, fine.” Heathcliff is sued for this. In his travels with martial artists, he had noticed a streak of arrogance that popped up from time to time, as well as sore loser tendencies. “You ever recall when we went to the Maze of Thorns?”
“Yeah,” Tim says. “You had a lot of trouble with the brambles there.”
“I did?” Heathcliff said. “Coulda swore my sword cut right through them!”
Tim chuckles. “No, you didn’t you were complaining about being hit by needles and stingers every five minutes.”
“Fine, fine,” Heathcliff says. “What about the Hessonite palace? Pretty sure I was magnifique there, cher.”
“To be fair, that opinicus did have its wings clipped by that chandelier,” Tim says.
The two men laughed about that as they reminisced about their past adventures.
After awhile, Tim recalls something. “My old mentor, back in Jiang-Wu. He said something when he…”
Heathcliff was aware that Tim had trained under a master of martial arts in the Far East, and that the mentor had perished before completing his training.
“He left me this Qiang, and told me that it is up to me to master it,” Tim says. “He says unlocking its secrets would complete my training.”
“I remember,” Heathcliff says.
Tim looks at the old weapon. “He said it wasn’t an ordinary spear, that it was special, and that as long as he had it, he would eventually meet him again.”
“Sounds rather sentimental, cher,” Heathcliff says. After a pause, he asks if he has mastered it.
“I thought I did,” Tim says.
“You certainly were a dab hand with it,” Heathcliff says. “Always skewering things with it and using it to channel your wind magic.”
“But is it enough?” Tim knows that Chiron had used wind magics, and had used it more effectively than him. “Maybe there is still more to it than I realized.”
“You’ll get there one day, little Timmy,” Heathcliff says teasingly.
“I told you not to call me that!” Tim says. “Besides, you know as well as I do that ‘Timothy Howard’ is an alias.”
“Aye,” Heathcliff says. “The youngest prince of Fairborough, a small duchy back in Erebus, but still important enough for malignant folk to try to get their hands on. Small wonder you took to hiding your name.”
“What’s it, not a real name?” Emily suddenly pipes up, being aware of the conversation.
Tim realizes that she has been listening for a long time and is about to go ballistic before stopping and calming himself down. “Forget it, I’ve enough of a fowl mood for today.”
“Sorry,” Emily said. “I—“
“It’s alight,” Tim says with a serene tone. “I know dungeons could hear everything that goes on inside them.”
“Look on the bright side, chers,” Heathcliff says. “You’re getting to know each other better now. Can you feel your bonds deepen?”
Tim blushes a little bit and nearly breaks his calm demeanor again “This conversation is over,” he says in a huff. “Now who is making dinner tonight?”
“The dwarves volunteered this time,” Heathcliff says. “Groceries I made should be useful to them…Oh, that reminds me. Emily, since we got some more mouths to feed, I’ve asked the guild to supply us with some more grub, is that okay, cher?”
“Of course,” Emily says. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“Great,” Heathcliff says. “First shipment’s arriving at the morn!”
Tim and Heathcliff leave the room.
✦✦✦
A while later, Emily is asked by Lydia to help her babysit some of the children in her avatara form. Emily meets several of the spiderlines.
“Hello, My name’s Emily!” the dungeon says to them.
“She helped save me from those scary men!” Nina says.
Most of the children are in awe of Emily. She plays around with them, as Lydia tends to other brood mother tasks. The Arachne kids each ask Emily several questions about herself which the girl eagerly answers. As they play around the Arachne kids bond more with Emily.
Elsewhere, Heathcliff, Elizabeth, and Minerva observe the children and Emily.
“Heard this is your idea, cher?” Heathcliff says.
“Of course,” Minerva says. “I wanted to help Emily get used to us a bit more, and to talking with less familiar people besides.”
“Oh yeah, You mentioned that Emily was acting withdrawn the other day,” Elizabeth says.
Heathcliff sees Emily play with the Arachne kids. “She seems to be quite good with the young’uns.”
Emily plays a game of hide and seek with the Arachne children, then tells them some stories. A while later, it is also time for the children to sleep.
“Alright, kids,” Lydia says. “It’s bedtime.”
“Aw,” several of the kids say. They were having so much fun that the day flew by quickly. Lydia and several of her assistants turn and place the spiders in special cocoons, that encompass all but their heads of warm comfortable silk. A few children, Nina included, feel restless as they want to play more with Emily.
Lydia approaches Nina’s cocoon. “Now dear,” she says as she gazes intently into the young girl’s eyes. “You need your rest, and so does Emily.”
Nina is unable to avert her gaze as her eyelids grow heavy. She struggles to complete her sentence and stops. Unconscious and with a half-lidded expression, she drools a little as the hypnotic trance takes hold and sends her off to slumber.
“Good night, Nina,” Lydia says as she closes her eyes for her “You’ll wake up in ten hours.” Finishing the trance. Nina and the other unruly children are now enchanted into a deep sleep, unable to wake until the allotted time elapses.
Emily looks at the Arachne brood mother with confusion. “Is this…normal?”
“Of course, dear,” Lydia says with a smile. “One of the many uses of our eyes is to lull our young to sleep. It is a well-noted broodmother tradition.” The other adult Arachne voices their agreement to the dungeon.
A few minutes later, Emily talks with Elizabeth about the use of bardsong in that manner and Elizabeth confirms that is the case.
“The kids seem to enjoy your company, “Elizabeth says. As Emily’s doll body collapses.
“Yeah,” Emily says. “I haven’t thought I would get used to kids.”
“How come?” Elizabeth says.
“I’m not sure,” Emily says. She struggled to recall her past life, anything beyond the dream of her being pounded by hammers, yet she still draws a blank. “Elizabeth, is it normal to forget who you were?”
“Before you became a dungeon?” Elizabeth says. “Of course! Divine Dungeons always forget their past lives. Same as everyone else, really.”
“Are you sure?” Emily says, still harboring doubts. After all she could recall her name from the dream.
“Positive!” Elizabeth says. “Now it’s getting late. Good night Emily.” She then flutters towards her bed, laid out on a raised platform near the core.
“Good night, Elizabeth,” Emily says. Before long she could hear the snores of the fairy.
✦✦✦
The next day, Sarah, Emily, Elizabeth, and Tim head out to a Dungeon on a tip from the guild that has Bismuth ore. The Dungeon, the Nacreous Cliffs, is home to several rainbow-colored beasts and monsters.
Sarah swings her hammer at several Argent Wolves, her sledgehammer managing to keep the beasts on her as well as Heathcliff’s sword and shield. Emily and Elizabeth provide covering fore for her with their magic spells, pelting them with conjured stones and lightning strikes.
As they travel the cliffs, Emily notices the beautiful nacreous clouds in the blue sky. “Wow, they’re so pretty,” she thinks.
“Okay,” Sarah says. “We need to get five chunks of ore right?”
“Correct,” Elizabeth says. “That should be enough for Emily to learn the molecular makeup and recreate it.”
“I can do that?” Emily says.
“Of course, silly!” Elizabeth says with a big grin. “Dungeons all can create materials and it is necessary to create more powerful arms and armor.”
Emily recalls the time she first made swords and shields, and also how they proved to be too strong for the dungeon to dole out just yet.
“You recalled how you absorbed those weapons I and my brother made the other day?” Sarah says as she scouts around for Sentinels. “It works the same way.”
Emily is a little uncertain. It’s the first time that Sarah went out with them and also the first time she went without Heathcliff. Tim notices the girl’s concerns. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” He says this with his eyes closed. Emily isn’t sure if it is his overconfidence talking or something else.
“Thank you,” Emily says.
They soon made it to the first sentinel, a large machine similar to the one in the Blackbolt Mines, but this time with a frame that was made out of angular, iridescent metal, and armed with a blade made of a silvery ore.
The party fights the machine with some difficulty as the blade creates a wide arc that can cleave the ground beneath them and reveal steam from beneath. Tim uses his lance to vault into the air and onto the top of the machine, he lays down a mighty stomp on one of the joints, causing it to come loose.
The mech tries to slam the ground with its loosened arm, but Emily lifts Sarah with her wings and Emily jumps into the air. The ground trembles as the arm is loosed further. Emily carves a flurry of slashes at the knew of the robot, causing it to come loose.
As the tremour quells. Elizabeth drops Sarah as she prepares an aerial slam with her hammer, breaking the loose arm clean off. The dwarf is then knocked into the air by the elbow of the machine’s other arm. The rainbow mech launches a shining beam of light from its sword aimed at the airborne Sarah. Sarah braces for the impact as she holds her sledgehammer out while spinning vertically in the air.
Despite her best efforts, the bean hits her in the back and creates a small explosion. Sarah cries out in pain as she lands on eh ground. A wound appeared where the beam made contact with her. Elizabeth tries to heal Sarah as the dwarf stands.
Adrenaline keeps Sarah conscious as she moves up, while Elizabeth prepares healing magic with her voice. Sarah looks intently at the machine. “Okay, big boy! Can you handle this?” she shouts.
The small but tough Dwarf charges forward at the mech. The rainbow robot used its arm to try to cleave Sarah in two, but its missing leg prevented it from hitting Sarah and with it distracted, Tim made it to the joint of the sword arm and loosened it with some short but potent punches and palm strikes.
Sarah makes it to the machine and throws her hammer at it. The momentum carries it to the boss and it hits it with tremendous force. With only one leg still attached, the mech is easily toppled. As it falls to the ground, pieces of this Bismuth armor chip off. The mech is defeated.
A chest soon appears, resembling the metal itself. Inside they find four chunks of the metal, as iridescent as the faces of the cliffs and the clouds in the sky. As well as some less colorful but ornate clothing for a bowman.
“That’s it?” Tim says.
Sarah looks at the chest’s contents. “Depends, Elizabeth can we take the chests itself?”
“It’s possible,” Elizabeth says. “But they are usually very de—“The fairy is shocked to see Sarah easily lift it from the ground, contents and all, and carry it on her small shoulder.
“Perfect,” Sarah says. “We can have Emily ape the chest design as well. Let’s go!”
The group makes their trek to the entrance, but Sarah’s stamina is soon betrayed by the long trip to the valley’s ingress. Her stout body could only carry such a large and heavy object for so long before she was forced to drop it.
“I’m pooped,” Sarah says. “Can we take a rest here?”
“So much for little miss muscles,” Tim says.
Sarah doesn’t care for Tim’s remark as she climbs on top of the chest and lies down, sleeping like a log atop of it. Her hammer drops to the ground as its wielder drops to torpor.
While the party waits for Sarah to regain her energy, they soon find something peculiar. An unguarded chest, similar to the one that Sarah is now sleeping on.
“That’s strange,” Tim says.
Elizabeth inspects the chest, finding it as decorated with Bismuth as the other one. “Seems okay to me. Let’s open it!” Elizabeth says.
Emily is uncertain, and Tim is still suspicious of the chest. “Could it be booby-trapped?” Tim says.
“I would know if it is!” Elizabeth says. “I know everything there is to know about Dungeons, remember?”
“Yeah, but—“ Emily says but Elizabeth is already in the process of unlocking the rainbow chest. Right as she does, the box begins to shake. Before they knew it, Elizabeth was swallowed by the chest. For in truth, it is a mimic.
The mimic seals itself shut, locking Elizabeth in its confines. The fairy confusingly asks for help, complaining about her lack of vision. The chest begins to run away, causing Emily and Tim to give chase.
Emily and Tim chase the mimic around the other chest with the still-slumbering Sarah. Tim leaps in front of the Mimic, but it simply turns around and moves to the left. Emily tries to use lightning spells, but the chest evades the bolts of levin. All while Elizabeth cries for help.
The commotion causes the sleeping dwarf to wake up and rubs her eyes. She gets off the chest and sees the mimic toying with Emily and Tim. “Another chest,” the half-awake dwarf thinks.
“Sarah?” Elizabeth says. “Can you hear me? Help!”
Sarah is now alert enough to realize the second chest is the mimic it is and Elizabeth is its unwitting victim. She grabs her hammer.
Tim and Emily draw closer toward the chest as it evades every attempt to catch it. The chest lets out a mischievous noise as it dodges its attacks, only to find that it cannot move. That something is on top of it.
With it rendered Sessile, Tim and Emily use their attacks in tandem to attack the chest. The force of the attacks causes a hole to form in the mimic’s back and Elizabeth quickly flies out from it.
The mimic is defeated and it begins to float, Sarah falls off the levitating remains of the mimic as it transforms into a new pristine chest and drops. The open lid revealed several more ore of Bismuth, a crossbow made of the rainbow metal and three gold coins.
“Score!” Sarah says.
Emily makes sure both chests are empty. With the weight lifted, Sarah stacks them on top of each other, ties them together, and tugs them along the ground.
“Do we really need to bring the chests?” Tim says.
“Of course!” Sarah says. “I need more trunks for my materials!”
Tim sighs of exasperation as the party finally arrives at the entrance to the Iridescent Cliffs. They then make a long trip back to the Black Box.
✦✦✦
After Emily’s party arrives back home, Emily’s consciousness exists her avatara for her true body once more. The group looks over their obtained treasures. Richard eyes the crossbow with interest.
“Alright Emily, “Elizabeth says. “Focus on the metal.” She lays out five chunks of it in the center of the room.
Emily focuses on the Bismuth and the floor swallows the metal chunks whole. The mana inside shows Emily the composition of the metal and allows her the means to create it herself, and to use it as part of other items.
“Now then,” Emily calmly says. “Elizabeth, I thought you said that chest was safe!”
Elizabeth stutters. Sarah explains to her that she was swallowed up by a mimic.
“A mimic?” Heathcliff says. “Elizabeth wound up crammed inside a chest mimic?”
Elizabeth blushes from embarrassment. “It was a particularly well-disguised mimic!”
“Well,” Heathcliff said. “Seems like you escaped in one piece, Elizabeth.”
“You have me to thank for it,” Sarah proudly says.
“Well yes, if you hadn’t decided to try carrying a chest on your shoulder and then take a nap, Elizabeth wouldn’t have been swallowed by the thing,” Tim says bluntly.
Richard sighs. “Sister’s always been prone to wanting to show off her strength, and for overestimating it.”
Sarah simply crosses her shoulders.
“Maybe I should carry the chests next time,” Emily says.
The group then places the Bismuth away.
“Emily,” Elizabeth says. “Keep in mind that it will take a lot more mana for you to make bismuth than it would for the Iridescent Cliffs. We cannot make it as easily as the dreamcloth.”
“Noted,” Emily says.
The party then proceeds with the rest of the day.