'Sell room!', the dungeon decreed as soon as the Core relocation finished, causing the blacksmith's house to collapse on one side. This was what he was waiting for! The familiar resource wind began to blow again, depositing things into the water, onto the mud, and onto other things that had gotten there first.
Looking at the hill, there was what looked to be a pile of stones, maybe? It was like there was a rockslide from up the hill, like a river of boulders leading upwards. Though he wanted to go up and away, the small amount of mana he got from selling the now collapsed smith house room wasn't enough to get another.
So he did what he had to. Some of the things he had found he had multiple copies of still. 'I don't want to do this, but there's no choice anymore, is there?', he asked no one rhetorically.
Reaching out a hand, he touched one of the broken pews he had gotten so early, and some of the clumps of dead grass. 'Convert to mana.' He still felt like he was close to wheezing. Touching another piece of broken pew, and a couple tufts of green grass with what looked like healthy roots, he said it again. 'Convert to mana.'
Feeling like he could actually breathe, he saw what looked like a bulge forming in his wall from the book guy already.
'Please just let me buy a room', he said, looking at the hill, facing the boulders. He saw a blue energy wave spread forward before disappearing.
He dragged his feet, though not intentionally, to his Core and lifted a ghostly copy of it out of the mud pit. He hobbled to the pile of large stones on the hill, and put it under the rocks where hopefully it wouldn't be seen, though it didn't seem to matter either way.
-----------------------------
Leldro was parched. Maybe taking a break again was a good idea. But he was so close! Just a little more, and the Holy One would win. But overexerting oneself didn't get good results. He no longer felt the need to go all the way back down the road to the rock he had found earlier, and instead sat down on the roof of the building that had just collapsed. The fact that the roof was now barely above the height of his waist aided this greatly.
-----------------------------
Snyl, Melisande, and Mael rode to the peak of the valley between the hills separating the bog and plains. The hills weren't high at all, and the valley wasn't deep. It was too late at night now to see any sort of distance in the moonlight, but the party couldn't rely on Leldro getting exhausted before they did if they planned on saving the dungeon.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
They pressed on, but slowed significantly. It was a good thing that the goanies were pack animals, Melisande thought. If she had to keep the one goanie on its tether, and the two goanies ridden by Snyl and Mael moving despite them sleeping, this wouldn't be easy. It would almost be pointless to have taken them. But, the herd didn't like straying from itself, so she really only had to focus on riding her own to get the lot of them to move.
-----------------------------
Just a few minutes to drink half of his second waterskin was enough. Leldro still had half of one waterskin, and he didn't feel like he needed more; he could drink the rest of it on the way back to the Ministry since the dungeon should be destroyed by then. He wasn't going to make the mistake he made before and fall asleep.
He stood up. Shouting loudly while out at night in the wilds wasn't the best idea, except when it was. But he wasn't a ranger, scout, bard, merchant, or mercenary. How was he supposed to know what lived out here? He'd continue praying out loud, but he didn't have to scream so much. The Holy One could hear his convictions either way!
He opened his book again, and though there wasn't enough light to read by, he had memorized it by now.
-----------------------------
Making sure he didn't touch any of the rocks hiding his Core, he took a short look at the other rocks. They were sure big! Maybe a couple would be fine, but man was he tired. 'Store, store', he said. The two rocks looked pretty different due to their shapes, but he didn't have the effort to care about that right now. Some of the other rocks, smaller ones, he could turn to mana. He needed something!
'Convert these things to mana. Just wait 'till I say go. Those selections. Just those.' He poked a large boulder at the upper edge of the room, since he wasn't an idiot. What, did he want rocks to fall on his stuff while he got rid of the stuff holding stuff?
He did feel significantly better. 'Maybe letting that jerk destroy my first bog room would be fine while I get another room since I do have a little headway? What's around here anyway?' But he didn't have the time to check in between his thoughts, since there was the pain again.
-----------------------------
"Leldro!", Melisande yelled at the man, waking up the two Exterminators, which wasn't incidental.
He continued praying, but he wasn't walking back and forth along the territory wall since he didn't want to stumble and couldn't see well enough. Though, he did shift his feet as needed when he could feel his boots starting to sink into the mud.
"Leldro!", Melisande yelled again, as she got off her borrowed goanie. She looked at the clearly defined dungeon territory. It was just in front of the man, in an obvious square shape. Though, its transparent blue glowing walls looked horrible- shimmering like a puddle of water after rain reflecting on a proper wall, fluctuating in density. As the wall fluctuated, it seemed to stretch, pulling blue from one place to another. Where there wasn't any, it looked like splintered wood, spiderwebbing its fractures and leaving a black mark in midair. It didn't look like the blue was able to move back into the black spaces.
Leldro stopped, and turned to his side. "Ah, Melisande. A pleasure. What can I do for you?"