Interesting, I rubbed my chin in wonder. I bought a couple books on theory to support the shop and left. The rest of the day was spent experimenting with various spells, as I’d often do whenever I had free time. When night fell, however, my mind was on the mission.
After taking note of how the lock on the door looked, I snuck around the shop with some stealth spells. What am I doing? I chastised myself for walking lightly with Conceal on, and also burglary. One cast of Telekinesis later, and I was once again standing in front of the humungous book that the storekeeper showed me.
It was indeed sealed away from use by a master wizard, which I found odd. If the man was right about the strength of the enchantment, then perhaps he was also correct in that it was the work of a wizard who existed eons ago. But, was it a human, or demon? If the master wizard was human, then that meant, for some reason, society’s magical capability degraded by a disgraceful margin.
Well, whatever. Aether Breach, a master spell that removed magical seals, did exactly that. I opened the grimoire in question, and my own grimoire flew upwards and hovered over the one in my hands. It opened up and faced its pages towards the other book, and a light resembling aurora floated upwards into it. My book then faced me and showed me the message, ‘Data Acquired.’
Hmm, that’s interesting. I skimmed through the book, hoping to find an author. ‘Niran the Primeval’, it read. I immediately searched my grimoire for information surrounding this Niran person. But there was nothing apart from ‘The First’ in the grimoire. Either there was no information to be had on him, or my grimoire had yet to acquire it. What did pique my interest though, was the picture used.
A lich.
I closed my eyes and exhaled. A bit of noise came from the alleys next to the shop, so I decided it was time to hightail it out of there. Aether Seal, which did the opposite of Aether Breach, put everything back the way I found it.
That night, I had a look through the newly added data in my own grimoire. Apart from all the mumbo-jumbo about life and death, higher beings, and immortality, there were a couple things that caught my attention. The information spoke of travelling through worlds, so I immediately got excited about the prospect of going back home. According to the explanation, one needed to either have a magical connection established in the world one wished to transfer to or have a being from said world summon you there.
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The other interesting part – though vague – was the claim that a conquered dungeon would grant the conqueror a wish. It sounded more like myth and rumor than fact, but I doubted this Niran person was dumb enough to mix his research on undeath with some fantasy of a wish-granting dungeon.
However, it couldn’t hurt for Lich God Deidre to give it a try. I dearly missed Isaac, and would give up everything to see him one last time. Guess I’m doing this. I teleported to Nemus to inform Lilith Darkviper of my decision then went to Queen Ayana in the morning to get the location of the dungeon.
“Huh?! Alone?!” Ayana yelled at me.
I sighed. Even though we were within Soundless Space, it still irked me when she spoke like if she wanted the entire world to hear. “Have you forgotten who I am?” I said, all villainous. Sometimes it was smart to roleplay as a lich.
Her body jerked. “N-n-n-no. Please, forgive my rudeness.” After Ayana noticed that Lilith treated me with even more respect than she did Demon King Fyren, she did the math and realized I wasn’t an existence to take lightly. But my human appearance was misleading, so she’d sometimes speak casually.
After that, I decided to face the awkward situations and visit the ADAS branch in Perseverance. The gang was there, and since I would be venturing into Reuland’s dungeon alone, I made Adam the party leader through the grimoire. Dan stopped me. “Our armies have tried to brave that place before. It isn’t normal, even by your standards, Deidre. Please, take extra care and be safe.”
Tina was irritated by my presence, but she mostly hid it. Solina was worrying herself to death and tried not to get mushy because Tina was there, but she melted in the end and hugged me. “Let’s quest again soon, okay?”
“Sure, thing, Lina.” I hugged her back. “And, please don’t try to kill yourself; listen to Adam.” We chatted a while, but it was soon time for me to go. “Tina, because we fought doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I’m not going to try to force anything.” I brought out four amulets. “I’m just taking precaution. These will protect you if things get messy. You can use it to summon an undead warhorse as well, should you need it.” I handed it to all of them, and since Tina didn’t accept hers, I gave Adam an extra one, just in case she changed her mind.
With some peace of mind, I focused on the dungeon. Dreadhoof flew me deep west to the mountains, where the dungeon was located. The entrance was hidden, and if it weren’t for Queen Ayana’s advice, I’d have never found it. The shrubbery shrouded a cave, which looked naturally formed at first, but as I went farther, I noticed the smoothening of walls and a ginormous gate.
I took a deep breath, then opened the heavy gate with Telekinesis. I walked for a few, and was met with another gate. This happened ten times before I finally made it towards what seemed to be a swirling magical entrance. Finally! Geez! They really didn’t want anyone to find this! I stepped into Reuland’s dungeon deep in the cave, and suddenly, I was falling?