After my usual breakfast, I spent the morning reading up on a few different things that had piqued my interest the most after the previous day’s events. All of my research for the day was tied to dungeons, as I didn’t want to go into any future ones quite so blind. I stopped by Elody’s desk, looking for directions. “Hey, Elody, I did my first dungeon yesterday, and I was hoping you could point me to some books about them; as always, I have more and more gaps to fill in my knowledge.” As per usual, only one set of her eyes focused on me as I spoke.
“Ah yeah, dungeons are covered on this floor. Just head over to the third wing. You’ll find the information there. I take it since you’re here, alive and well, the dungeon was a success?” she asked with a smile on her face.
“As well as can be expected. The brothers and I had some issues with the monsters, but we all made it through intact and with a lot of levels gained, plus a dungeon core. So, no real complaints, well, other than the fact that we did it flying by the seat of our pants. And I really don’t want to repeat the experience in the future,” I answered honestly.
“Well, in that case, after you feel you’ve studied enough for another dungeon, why don’t you bring your friends to see me? There’s something I’ve been wanting to look into in the sub-basements, and I need a team I can trust to join me,” she said, her smile unwavering.
“I’ll have to talk it over with them, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be glad to tag along. I’m planning to see them after lunch, so I’ll see what they think then. For now, though, gotta get some reading done. Thanks for the information,” I said. Why had she grown to trust us so quickly? And just what was it in the sub-basement she was worried about?
“Good luck. Stop by once you have their answer, and I’ll give you all the details I have,” she said, waving at me as I walked away in search of dungeon tomes.
There were an obscene amount of books on dungeons, with an entire wing of the archives dedicated solely to the study of them and their inner workings. I barely had time to even scratch the surface of my reading today. Still, as far as I could tell, the basic facts that most people agreed upon were that if a natural mana orb with the right affinity was left alone long enough, it could begin to draw in enough mana from the environment that it created a rupture to a universe more aligned with its specific affinity. This would allow more ambient mana than the local environment could handle to flood in and start mutating the creatures nearby.
The natural mana orb would then begin to grow in strength until it developed into its own being. At this point, it would become a fully-fledged dungeon core. Finally, after reaching this point, it would start using what powers it had to attract the creatures around it, with the goal of parasitically attaching itself to their soul in the space a core would normally occupy. This would give the dungeon core more freedom to further grow its realm, and if left unchecked long enough, the small tear into the other universe would grow to the point that otherworldly monsters would begin to pour in, attracted to new hunting grounds.
Usually, these universes were entirely unincorporated for various and often extremely dangerous reasons, so the System strongly promoted dungeon raiding. Which was what my unknown skill was tied to, just like the two known ones were. Malacology was the study of mollusks, and killing the dungeon boss, a rock snail, had unlocked that particular skill tree for me and likely the brothers as well. Eventually, I would also be able to get access to an entire bestiary to track other aspects of monsters. There were uses for all kinds of monster parts beyond just the mana shards, assuming you had the way to collect those parts, which neither I nor the brothers currently had.
By the time I had to head back to adventurer’s hall, I had already read six books on dungeons in their entirety, as well as thumbing through several others for references. The points I had thrown into mental use were certainly paying off. Now, if I could break the cap and unlock my skills, I could really start to make a dent in this archive.
“Ah, Dave, glad to see you’re entirely whole after yesterday,” Mel greeted me as I entered
“Hey, Mel. Yeah, there were some pain points, but we made it. I'm not sure I would have without your warning either, so I really appreciate it, man,” I said, watching the cloud man bob up and down near his counter, one of his arms stretched out to a shelf beside it, organizing some items despite his eyes being focused on me. I was entirely serious, too. Had Mel not given me the speech, I’m not sure if I would have understood what was happening with the dungeon core, and things could have gone much worse then.
“No problem at all. I like those goofballs, and you seem like a decent guy, too, wouldn’t want to see any of you get hurt. There’s enough of that in The Spiral. Far too many good kids are lost every year… But that’s not a topic for celebrating achievements. What brings you back today?” Mel’s voice had slipped as he mentioned the Spiral. There was something personal there that had affected him. I wondered who he had lost, but I didn’t know him well enough to press the topic, especially when he had already changed it.
“I take it I beat the brothers here then? They wanted to go over the shards we found in the dungeon and see what they were worth. Oh, and I don’t know if it matters, but the System called it Slimy Slithering Depths in my quests,” I said. I figured he’d want to update his records if they weren’t automatically done so.
“Thanks; I was hoping one of you would have the official System name. And no, they ain’t here yet,” Mel’s voice was interrupted loudly by the sound of someone entertaining behind me.
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“Sure we are, hey Dave, Mel! Sorry, we’re a bit late; someone just had to find a book on spellcraft,” Cecile's booming voice said, marking the brother's arrival.
“There would have been plenty of time had you not spent forever eating,” Elicec said, audibly annoyed.
“Yeah, yeah, I told you that imbuing the hoe takes a ton of energy out of me. Then I have to spend even more just to use it, so I’ve gotta pack in the calories if I want my core to keep up,” Cecile replied, immediately following his words with a loud belch.
“Yes, fine, well we’re here now,” Elicec sighed before continuing. “Mel, we have six mana shards we were hoping you could take a look at, maybe grade them if you think it's worth it?”
“Sure can, boys, hand 'em over. How about the core? You wanna sell that?” Mel asked as six arms popped out of his cloudy mass, each with an open palm awaiting the shards.
“Not really. I’m thinking of seeing if I can find any use for it, but if there’s an examination you could do it, that would be great,” I said as I fished it out of my pocket. I had placed it in a smaller container the night before, hoping to find a way to identify more about it without risking any direct contact unless necessary again. So, if Mel could do that for me, it would save me some time and trouble.
“Yeah, no problem at all,” Mel answered, adding a seventh arm to the already waiting hands.
The brothers and I put all the shards and the dungeon core box into each of the hands, and as each object was set into one of the open palms, the cloud-like fingers immediately closed around it until all the objects were sealed in Mel’s grasp. His color then began to shift from the usual green shade to a bright blue and back again. Once he was done, he placed each object gently onto the countertop below him.
“Well these five are nothing special, grade F elemental shards, bottom of the barrel. If you’ve got any crafting builds you’re looking into, they could be useful. Otherwise, I’ll give you two UCs a piece for ‘em. The last one, though, it’s a grade C elemental with a lightning affinity. I’m pretty surprised it was down there, and there’s no way I would have let you boys go alone with that level of monster roaming around if I’d known. Finally, this dungeon core is even more impressive; it’s also a grade C. That place would have rapidly expanded had you not taken it down. Be careful with this thing, Dave. It’s got a fully developed personality. So, all that being said, you all did an amazing job on this dungeon. You three hit well above your weight class down there; you should be proud of yourselves.” Mel gave each of us what looked like a nod of respect, which isn’t the easiest thing to interpret from a floating cloud, but the face kind of moved downward and back up, similar to how a human head would do it.
“Dave, do you do any crafting?” Cecile asked as all three faces turned towards me.
“Actually, probably. I don’t know how much I’ll need the shards, but I don’t have everything mapped out yet. Mel, any chance I could run something by you in private in a couple of weeks, once I’ve had some more time to plot it out,” I asked. Mel just felt like someone I could trust, and right now, I needed a couple of people who were much informed of the Spiral to tell me how insane my plan was forming up to be, and my own real choices for that were Mel and Elody.
“Yeah, of course, I love hearing about what crazy new build newbies come up with. Hell, sometimes they manage to find something no one had considered before. Just let me know when you’re ready, and we can talk,” Mel said enthusiastically.
“Great, oh, I just thought of something. I should have unlocked my System storage at level ten, shouldn’t I? Can I just put those things in it? How do I do that?” I asked, remembering the conversation with Elody.
“Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know that. Sorry, Dave, forgot about how new you were again. Put your hand on the shard and think about putting it inside an empty room. Once you get it in there that should unlock something new in your interface. It will be much easier after the first success,” Cecile said.
Not wasting any time, I placed my hand over the first shard and pictured placing it into an empty room on a shelf along the wall. It took a few seconds, but I felt the shard under my hand vanish, and the room seemed to become more real in my brain. I could also see a stack of objects sitting on the shelf next to the shard. They were labeled as refined mana soul plates. I remember the quest reward that I hadn’t been able to receive until this moment and was glad to see that it was still there. I then made the shard appear back on the counter to verify I could do it, and as Cecile had said, it was much easier than it had been placing it there. I placed it back into my System storage and did the same to the other shards, hesitating at the core. I looked up and saw Mel nodding again, so I placed it there as well.
“That was an interesting experience. Is there a limit to what it can hold?” I said, still able to easily visualize the room and its contents in my brain.
“Yes, but it can be upgraded. You should have a menu in your System interface now. I wouldn’t bother with it much until we actually have a source of items to keep in them. Seems like a waste of resources with how empty they all are.” Elicec said, and I saw his point. Assuming the shelf space remotely lined up with the current limits, it would be a while before I had any storage issues.
“Well, guys, before I head back to never-ending studies, Elody wanted to know if you would be willing to accompany us for a task in the sub-basements. She apparently needs all three of us, but I’m not really sure what it is she needs us to do,” I explained to the brothers, wanting to let her know once I was back in the archive.
“If Elody wants your help, you should give it. She’s a smart cookie; no idea why she’s still hanging around here. That woman has a bright future ahead of her,” Mel said before either of the brothers had a chance to answer.
“If Mel vouches for her, who am I to argue? I’m in,” said Cecile, his brother nodding along with him.
“Great, well, I’ll let her know when I see her and catch you guys up the next time I see you at dinner, and thanks again for all your help, Mel,” I said. I heard the brothers start discussing future dungeon raids and possible spell builds with Mel as I was leaving. It was almost tempting enough to make me stay, but my studies called, and I really wanted to know just what it was Elody needed help with. Was it possible for a dungeon to form within the archives itself?