I can’t really say this situation was ideal, far from it in fact. But since magic didn’t work, it also meant that at least for now the dungeon was safe from intruding adventurers. So, this total mess was almost a blessing in disguise. However, this was worrying me. If magic disappeared now, what about skills, special abilities, my entire existence? I was a soul sealed in a small orb and was using unknown means to create a physical body. How long until that ability failed? Or the dungeon creatures’ ability to reform after death. Sure, once the fighting arenas finished getting up and running, I would have a decent and constant trickle of points coming. But if their death became permanent, then obviously such a thing had to stop.
I pushed those dark thoughts out of my head as I had more immediate concerns right now. Erem and Mordred were indeed trying their hands at fishing. And by the looks of things, they were having a good time of it as several fish were lying on the ground next to them. “Didn’t know you two enjoyed fishing.” I couldn’t help but comment as I landed next to them. Mordred looked up from the water, where he had been busy eyeing the bob for any movement. Erem didn’t even offer me a glance. He was too busy currently struggling with the fish on his line, to have time for such. Mordred retracted his line and rose from where he had been sitting. “It’s as good a pastime as any. Besides, the fish will be a pleasant change from the meat and mushroom dishes we have been having lately. No offense to the food in the mushroom forest, but it can get a bit samey.” I couldn’t disagree that too much of the same would get boring. Luckily, I had Lienru to make sure I never had the same thing too often. “Understandable, say Erem, want some help with that?”
I noticed Erem was slowly sliding towards the water’s edge even as he stubbornly tugged on the line. Erem grunted from the strain. “I would… not say… no to… that.” I nodded and easily detected the mind of the fish that Erem was struggling with. Stop struggling. The fish went limp pretty much instantly, allowing Erem to drag it in without issue. Mordred looked at me with a confused expression. “How did you do that, I mean, since magic is on the fritz?” He asked as Erem easily hauled the fish that was almost as big as he was onto land.
I looked at the two of them as I voiced my thoughts on the matter. “Either my psionic powers are not magical and it’s just something I can do because I am a Sphinx. Or, if I were to take a guess, the whole Magic issue only affect granted magical skills. So, those with innate magical or spell-like abilities are unaffected. Hence, why I can still dissolve and reform, use my powers, and also why the Portal still works.” Mordred and Erem looked at each other before I continued. “Some magic are still functioning despite the mess, so we can’t let our guard down completely. However, that’s not why I disturbed your fishing right now. I wanted your viewpoint on what has been going on in the city these past few days.”
I explained what I had learned to the two of them. The effect was immediate, Erem looked worried while Mordred was pacing back and forth while he mumbled to himself. The first to say anything was Erem. “I honestly can’t say what she might do, though I am certain she has not forgotten about us. Our party was the only Raid ready party in all of Caelyn. There is no way she will just let us disappear like this. I am certain she would have been here already if not for the whole magic crisis.”
Mordred stopped his pacing. “I have to agree on that one, Lady Arana does not do things by halves, ever. Although, I don’t think she would come with obvious hostile intent, given our exit was clearly one of escape. Cautious, sure, but not hostile. I am not sure how she would react to your current state, though. As I am certain that she would like you returned to the guild.” I could not entirely disagree with that assessment, because of all the freed cores Caelyn had not been prepared to handle this crisis at all. Getting even one Core and access to the resources of a dungeon would be a great boon in this time of need.
They had a good point. Considering the situation, she would likely not be too happy to learn I had a literal immunity to taming, thanks to my bond with Indella. Then again, that might help me at the negotiating table if she came calling. “I will however point out that I will not force you to stay here should you wish to return now that it is safe. Well, safer than it was. I am not sure what the loss of most types of magic might mean. But I am certain that it sure as hell can’t be good.” Mordred and Erem looked at one another before Mordred shrugged. “Can’t say going back holds that much appeal. Sure, I miss my bed, but I don’t have friends or family outside of the party. So I for one, will stay.” Erem looked much more hesitant. “I am torn and will need some time to decide. On one hand, I have my friends here, on the other, I left my only living relative back in the city. While she was sick, no less. Sure, the High Priest said he would look out for her in my place, but...” I understood what he was getting at. “You don’t know how that is going since the old man fell into his coma.” Erem nodded, from his expression this was eating him up emotionally.
I stretched my wings and looked at him. “Well, I am in no hurry to make you decide, take your time. I for one are going to look at the fighting pit and see how it is coming along.” I paused for a moment, I felt like I was overlooking or forgetting something important, but I just couldn’t place it. “Say, would you two mind spreading the word to the others about what has occurred?” I paused for a moment before I continued. “Oh, and if anyone desires to return to Caelyn, I would ask that they bring a message from me to Arana for me.” Erem, who had dressed and prepped his earlier catch, looked up at me. “Sure I’ll take care of it, this catch will be enough for the entire group anyhow, so it will probably be a small party tonight, anyway.” I nodded “Thanks, have fun, you two.” I took off, leaving the two behind. I still couldn’t shake this nagging feeling that I was overlooking something, though.
As I arrived at the fighting pit, it was receiving the finishing touches from Indella and the Duergar. It was a pretty elegant structure overall. They had lined the outside of the pit with a stone relief that showed various monsters competing. Outside the structure a line was forming up, a line of Fox spirits, to be exact. However, these were not the small variant that Xi was. First, not a single one of them had less than 4 tails. Second, they stood nearly twice as tall as Xi was, putting them about a head taller than an average human. Finally, they were all carrying weapons that would make most adventurers green with envy.
It made sense that the little ones were not the only spirit in Yrsha’s dungeon, but I had seen none of these earlier. It was even more unnerving that I could not sense their presence at all. As I was considering reforming a bunch of Duergar came walking up, carrying newly forged Starsilver arms and armor, from the looks of it. One of the Duergar walked up to a rather feminine looking five-tailed spirit and grinned. Was the spirit female? Considering their shape-shifting abilities, it was difficult to say sometimes. “So, are ye ready fer another spanking, little vixen?” The one who spoke was Granite. The spirit in question took a step back and grabbed a hold of her sword.
From the way her tail bristled, Granite’s words agitated her, and from the blush on her face she was also incredibly embarrassed. Just what had that Duergar done? The spirit’s companions shot daggers at the Granite. “We won’t fall as easily this time, now that we know your tricks, you cheater!” The five-tailed spirit retorted, clearly fighting to keep its emotions under control. Granite just burst out laughing. “Well, good luck then.” He waved them all off and entered the arena through a side door, skipping the line entirely. “JUST YOU WAIT I WILL GET YOU!” the five tailed screamed after him. Was she…. Crying? Dammit, just what did you do, Granite? These are our allies, we can’t afford to go making enemies here.
Well, she seemed eager to fight, so that was something at least. Though I could not shake the feeling that this might become an issue down the line, I should probably have a talk with Granite and Yrsha later on. As I contemplated this, I could hear cheering and the clanging of weapons from inside the arena. The fighting had finally begun. It was about a minute later that the first gain popped up. 20EP, 5TP, 10M and 6 Forest Affinity… wait, what? Just as I thought I had the system figured out, it throws another curveball at me. I knew what Affinities were, after all I had several affinities since my main biome was Maze. Which meant I could make those biomes without incurring a cost penalty. But the Forest biome was an opposite to the Plains Biome, one of my affinities, meaning I was currently receiving a 100% cost penalty to everything related to it. And yet I had just gained Affinity for the Forest Biome. There could only be one explanation. Since a forest affiliated monster that was not part of my Dungeon had died here, I had gained affinity for the Forest Biome. So what would happen if I gained an affinity for both Forest and Plains?
I shook my head. I had enough on my plate already. I could worry about that later. Considering this sudden development, I figured it was best to check what the current Affinities was. I opened up my Status… Nothing… OK then, apparently Affinities were somewhere else? Gah, this is where having Archives would have been useful.
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It had hardly been one hour since I had listened to the hints given by Archives. I had called Yrsha, the Adventurers and all the leaders of the different dungeon creatures together for an emergency meeting. They had not received the news I had given them all too well at all. Yrsha was the first to speak up. “You are sure about this?” I closed my eyes for a moment and nodded. “As much as I hate to say it, yes. Once I mentioned that possibility, Archives went dead silent. The only reason that would happen was if I hit it spot on. It also fits with the effects of that creature both we and Mordred and Indella ran into.” Yrsha suddenly seemed extremely distressed for a few moments before she calmed herself. What was that about? Another thing to worry about, no doubt.
Rael looked me dead in the eyes. “So, let me get this straight, just so be sure I have not misunderstood something. Archives went silent when you mentioned the possibility of an invasion from outside reality.” I nodded. “I meant it as a joke more than anything, as it is a rather popular trope in some stories from back home. You know, how there are entities that exist outside normal reality and long to enter it. It also reminded me of a certain incident a few years back in the game I used to play. I somehow don’t think that’s a coincidence that the event and this scenario have some eerie similarities.”
That seemed to get everyone’s attention. Indella looked over at me. *What similarities?* I looked at her. “A few years back the game had hit a financial crisis, players were dropping and whatnot. So, the developers thought they should give the game world a proper end by hosting the Armageddon Event. They had after all invested a great deal of time and effort into creating and maintaining the game. Then, two weeks before the Main Event went live, the moderators of the game went silent. It was impossible to get a hold of them in-game, as part of the event. A moderator would be the people in charge of keeping the game running and fixing day-to-day problems with it, akin to this world’s gods. Likewise, all divine types of magic went on the fritz. Then, after those two weeks, the developers unleashed a monster into the game itself. They called it the Lord of the Void-” Before I could continue there was the sound of shattering porcelain as Yrsha had dropped her teacup. Likewise, both Indella and I flinched as Archives screamed
I looked at Yrsha. “You are familiar with that name.” It wasn’t a question. Her reaction had been too obvious to everyone involved. Yrsha nodded. “Long ago, before even I was born, that was a well-known name in this world. A name loathed and feared for good reason. The Lord and the Gods have been at war since creation itself. I do not know what caused the conflict or what has perpetuated it. But the long and short of it is that the forces of the Void and the Gods fought a bitter war over this reality and the Gods won. Well, temporarily anyhow.” She looked at me. “If things happening now are as in that event, then it might mean that this event might be the precursor to the return of this Lord of the Void. Can you tell us more about this game monster of yours?” I nodded before I continued. “The Lord of the Void was insane by all standards, they had not designed it to be a beatable monster. Its stats were far above the cap, its skills were entirely unbalanced, and if your character died to it, that was it, the character faced deletion. Which meant it would be as if that character never existed at all.”
They all looked more than a bit worried as I explained the Lord of the Void to them. Until Mint piped in. “But the game world continued right, so they had to beat it. How did they do it?” I chuckled. “They beat it using an unintended side effect of the design process. A side effect I don’t know if we can replicate here. Several of the strongest players in the world banded together to defeat the damn thing, but they couldn’t even hurt it. Then one player who had died earlier in the battle used a secondary character to just try everything he could to defeat it. That’s when the miracle happened.” I paused for dramatic effect before continuing. They were all enraptured by my tale at this point.
“While the Lord had taken no damage, he could still suffer from the Stagger affliction if he took enough hits in a short amount of time. And as he staggered, his immunity to buffs and debuffs disappeared. It was just a split second. But it just so happened this stagger coincided with the completion of a spell from this character. This spell was a joke ability gifted to all players during that year’s April Fools event named Booboos-B-gone. It would increase the target’s current and maximum health by 1 for one hour. Now this next part is tough to explain since it requires knowledge of how programming works, but I will try to word it in a way you understand. Because this monster had maximum everything, including health. The buff forcibly raised his max HP by 1. To 1 above the max limit. This caused the game’s rules to break, and it flipped its HP into the maximum negative value instead. And since no creature can be alive with negative HP, it instantly died.”
They all looked at me in complete silence, before Indella’s telepathic voice resonated in my mind. *A spell that increases the target’s max health, can’t say I have heard about that before. Do you have access to something like that?* I looked at Indella. “Personally? No, I don’t, I used the Event item for that skill on Minos, since he could learn it.” Indella looked rather confused. “They gifted the skill book for that skill to all players, regardless of if they were playing a core or an adventurer. However, core players couldn’t use it since it was a Priest Class skill. And since it was a skill book, you couldn’t discard it. In the end I taught the skill to Minos to get it out of my inventory.” The others seemed to grasp the way I explained it.
Suddenly Pavol stood up from where he had been sitting with such force it sent the newly constructed chair he had been using sliding backwards. “THAT’S IT!” he yelled and looked at us as if he had an epiphany as he looked at all of us with an expectant expression. Rael looked at him and sighed. “Pavol, we have been through this, instead of just expecting all of us to understand your sudden insight, could you please explain it?” Pavol looked at Rael for a moment before he slowly nodded. “Right, so here is the thing. What if Inlas didn’t really care about Pearl at all, but was after Minos?” Everyone at the table just stared at him. “Don’t you see? Inlas is the goddess of prophesy. What if she foresaw the return of the Void and decided she needed Minos on hand?” Everyone went quiet as the potential repercussions of Pavol’s words hit us.
I looked at Rael. “I need you to get in contact with Caelyn Adventurer’s Guild as soon as this meeting is over. If what Pavol just have explained is true they need to know of the potential danger. Sure, the city and I have not exactly a good relationship thanks to the old Guild Master. But even if this is just mere speculation, it’s better to be safe than sorry. The potential disaster would cause too much devastation otherwise. Likewise, I would like a meeting with this new guildmaster to discuss the potential of working together on this one.” Rael nodded. “I will get it done, I will go myself if I have to.” I nodded. “Now, we need to get as many as possible here to get their hands on mental resistance skills. Any idea how to do that?”
Mordred looked thoughtful. “I have a few ideas and I can guess the reason you mention that. I will see what we can do to get those and I will have Pavol help me with it.” I nodded. “Yrsha we need to increase the rate at which we gain points, I have a bad feeling we will need them before this is all over.” She nodded. “I will inform my dungeon of the crisis and ask for more volunteers.” I nodded and looked over to Flint “I got ye covered Melady. It will lower the number of guards for da miners, it’s not like we will be any good against those Void bastards if we go bonkers anyho. Besides, I don’t see outside assault as a threat for now. Ye will have yer kill teams. I will also see if we can find some enchantments that might help.” I nodded.
“Ssatassha, see if your alchemists might brew something that can help, the madness inflicted by the Void entities will make friends fight friends with killing intent. We need to prevent that.” The Kobold was already running out of the room before I finished speaking with a determined look on her little face. It was then I realized that the little Kobold had changed a lot since our first meeting. From the fearful little critter that had begged for its life, to a strong and dependable leader in such a short amount of time. It was encouraging. I turned towards the Strider that had been there as Talka’s representative. “Talka, can I ask that you have your Striders patrol the first, second and first half of the third floor? In case of a void incursion, your Hive is currently the only force here outside of myself and Indella that can safely attack them.” The Strider nodded and marched out of the room. All that remained now was to inform my siblings about the developments and ask them to remain vigilant. If Pavol was right and Minos was the key to this coming mess, I needed to do the impossible and somehow summon him before the allotted 2 weeks ran out. However, it had already been almost one full week. As much as it bothered me, me all I could do for now was to wait for my points to trickle in, so I might prepare for the coming storm I was now certain was coming.