We waited two days after our dinner to start our adventure, mostly to give the brothers some extra healing time before heading into the sub-basements. We took the elevator as far down as we could, which turned out not to be as far as Elody had expected. It seemed the dysfunction had increased since she had last looked into it. We moved onto the stairs to continue our descent. The brothers spent most of the time telling stories of their home. It helped to distract from the creepiness that seemed to grow with every floor we passed.
Most of the stories revolved around a pet they had that would often disappear into the mushroom valleys above their home. As far as I could tell from the stories, it was something like a cat crossed with an anteater and loved a certain type of mushroom deep in the valleys. It was hard to follow all of their tales, as I had no full frame of reference for many of the things they referred to. The concept of the valleys being above their village alone was something I wasn’t sure of and now wasn’t the best time to ask for in-depth explanations, so I just listened without question, trying my best to ignore any of the distant, strange noises.
As we passed yet another floor, I felt it again. It was the same feeling that had hit me as we entered the dungeon last time. We were here, and it was a dungeon. I looked to Elody, about to open my mouth, but she beat me to it. “Sorry guys, it does look like we are walking into the worst-case scenario. So this has changed from more of a ‘watch my back’ mission to a ‘stay close by me’ mission. Don’t engage with anything unless I tell you to. Dave, you are not to leave my area of influence under any circumstance. The dungeon core down here is going to be a lot more dangerous than what you faced before.”
I felt a refreshing sensation pass over me after her words. The air around Elody had started to glow lightly, illuminating the stairwell around us. Now that I could see all the things looking back at me from the darkness, I almost wished it hadn’t. I knew, though, that without this bubble of light, the creature that formed the dungeon would be coming straight for me, and I took Elody’s warning to heart. I would stick by her until we were back on the main floor.
Cecile swept his hoe out into the darkness, causing something to growl until a thud came from the hoe, ending the life of whatever it had been and also prompting a response from Elody. “Cecile, what did I just say? In unknown dungeon situations, like we’ve found ourselves, it’s important that we do not engage with the creatures until we ascertain just what we are facing. So please don’t attack anything else unless I either tell you to or I am not capable of doing so.”
“Sorry, swung before I thought,” Cecile replied meekly.
“It’s alright, I’m not upset. I led you into a situation you’re not remotely prepared for, but I promise I’ll get us all out of here. Now follow me, and stay close,” Elody said as she opened the door in front of us into a new room of complete darkness. Not wanting to lose the light or her protection, I stuck close. If this place had her worried, then I knew it was a problem. She had patched me up immediately following my attack like it was nothing, and now even she couldn’t hide all the fear in her voice.
“How big do you think the dungeon is?” I asked, hoping we wouldn’t need to stumble around down here for too long.
“Hopefully, just this floor, but I don’t know exactly how long the dungeon core has been active or what it is in. Cecile, you should get your hoe back out. I want you and Elicec to stop anything coming in from behind.” While Elody was speaking one of her hands was gathering up some of the glowing light, forming it into a ball. A book appeared in her other hand, from what I assume was her System storage. She raised the energy ball she had collected above her head and squeezed. It fragmented into thousands of smaller light shards that shot across the room, igniting the entire area in what felt like a bright sunny day. Somehow, despite my eyes having adjusted to the darkness, there was no sign of pain or irritation at the new light either.
I looked back to Elody as she opened the book and began reading aloud. “As the light ignited the room, and the shadows fled, the book that Elody had begun to read was transformed into a silver sword to better vanquish that which still lurked!” Reality followed the words she had just spoken, and the book in her hands had become a gleaming silver sword. Was that always the form it took? Did she have different books for different occasions?
The questions quickly fled my mind as her sword sliced a shadowy creature that had darted inside her aura into pieces. Several more shadows appeared before us, these ones careful not to cross into our space. “Lots of shadow things back here,” Cecile yelled, letting us know the same was true around our entire space.
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“Attack, now!” Elody ordered the brothers. I watched in awe as the light shards around the room began to dance across the air, cutting holes through every shadow in their path. Elody sliced two more of the nearby shadows in half, then stepped forward, leaving the protection of her circle. At first, the shadows attempted to descend on her in a crazed frenzy, but as her sword moved like lightning through their forms, the ones that survived quickly backed away. Once her path was clear she asked one question into the room. “Where is your master?” Her voice echoed across the room, the authority in it plain for all that could hear.
“Hello, librarian, what brings you all the way down here?” A human-looking figure walked into view from behind a row of books. It was dressed in exactly the same way my attacker had been. Was this why the dungeon had grown so fast in recent days? The dungeon core had taken a host? Or was it already in the figure when it attacked me?
“That’s who attacked me in the sub-basements!” I yelled to Elody, not sure if the proclamation really mattered.
“Did I? Ah, perhaps my host did so. Is that what caused him to enter into my domain? Was he running from your wrath? If that’s the case, then I must thank you. I’m much more free to explore and push the boundaries in this form. I’d be willing to repay you for all your help; just leave that circle and join me.” The figure’s voice had gained a musical quality as it made the offer. I had a feeling that without the circle’s protections, I’d have found the offer much harder to ignore. At least it had been nice enough to answer my unsaid questions.
“Nah, I think I’ll let Elody handle you. She seems far more capable than me.” I smiled back at the figure, not willing to let it see any fear.
“Thank you, Dave. I appreciate your vote of confidence. Now then, creature, which book did you spawn from?” Elody asked as her eyes focused back on it.
“What are you talking about?” it spat back.
“Do not play games with me. Someone placed an untracked book down here, and eventually, the knowledge grew into a mana orb that we were not able to harvest before you became this abomination. Understand that there are only two ways this end. In both of them, I find the book, but in the first, if you guide me to it I will remove you from that host, still functional, and perhaps in time, you will be allowed a place within the archives again. The second choice is not nearly so pretty,” bright laser-like lines of light emitted from all four of her eyes painting a target onto the creature.
“You underestimate how much I’ve grown!” The shadows reemerged from where they had fled, ten times the numbers they had before, stampeding over each other to claw at Elody. She didn’t even move as their mass engulfed her. The light in the room briefly started to recede before, moments later, the shadows were utterly destroyed by a blindingly intense light that originated inside of their pile. The light erupted across the room, followed by the form of Elody, her sword raised above her head. She slashed once across the figure's neck and then stabbed the sword deeply through its chest.
“No, I do not.” The circle we were standing in vanished, I looked back to see the several corpses of shadows at the brother's feed now fading away. The feeling the dungeon had brought with it was gone. A notification box popped into my view. We had completed the dungeon and I had gained one hundred experience despite doing nothing at all. It didn’t matter, though, as I had hit twentieth level. There was no putting off core creation anymore.
“That was fun; we should take you on all our dungeon raids,” Cecile said.
“As much as I wish I could accompany you, I have many duties to perform in the archive, but before we return, help me find the book that caused all of this,” Elody said, starting to look around.
“Do they ever surrender?” I asked, joining in the search. It seemed preferable to being destroyed, but that assumed they had enough intelligence to truly understand how outclassed they may be.
“Sometimes. This isn’t our first rogue knowledge orb, and it won’t be the last. Three of them currently work for the archives and have come to enjoy their lives,” she answered as she lifted up scattered books in search of a specific one.
“I believe we’ve found what you are looking for!” Elicec’s voice came from the other side of the room. I followed Elody as she tracked it. He was holding a large, very clean book titled “Minds of Magic, Thinking Arisen.”
“Yes, that would be it. Now, how did such a dangerous book get down here without our knowledge? Something to investigate when I have the time, but for now, let’s get you all back upstairs. I imagine you’ve all gained quite a bit of experience,” she said, leading us back the way we came. She was right, of course, but did she have any idea what my next steps were? She knew most of the books I had been reading. Had she figured out my quest? I wondered if that was the real reason she had chosen us for this excursion.