Jumping into the portal was the first mistake we made. Well, of course, making the decision to even go into the Dungeon was kinda dumb, in hindsight. Of course, as one does, we still did it, which is why I’m reflecting over this, running away from every damn professor I have and more. How about I explain :
~~~
When we entered the Dungeon, I let my cloak reveal my horns, which immediately brought me back on-balance.
I stretched as Systie flew around the room, stopping at random walls before bobbing in defeat and moving elsewhere.
I looked around at the walls of the Dungeon, I frowned. “How did I open a portal directly into the Dungeon?”
Systie looked at me. This isn’t a dimensional Dungeon like mine was. I was around far longer, therefore I was able to move into the Void. This is a physical Dungeon, even though she’s older than me. Since she’s constantly used, she can’t gather the power to move into the Void like me. She's happy though.
I blinked. “Please never say that the Dungeon is ‘used’ again. Just say she’s been run.”
Systie went silent, pondering. Then, a bit embarrassed, she responded, Oh. Okay.
“Does that really sound any better?” Treia asked, poking at my horn.
“One, yes, and two, please stop poking my horn. I’ve been off balance without them for ages and only just started to adjust.”
Treia pouted. “Does your cloak make you not feel the weight of your horns?”
“Yes. I don’t know how, probably some System fuckery, but I immensely don’t like it.”
Systie rammed into the side of my head. Hey! It’s not my fault! I don't have the final say in things!
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. Which way?”
Systie seemed a bit confused. Er… I can’t tell. Maybe try asking nicely?
I looked at the eyeball, baffled. “The great and all powerful System doesn’t have an internal GPS? What a shame.”
Systie snapped back, Well, I could but you don’t ever give me enough Mana!
“Oh shut your non-existent trap. I give you far too much Mana for a chatterbox like you.”
She glared at me with one eye before ramming into me again. Mia, who watched with amusement, lunged at Systie, who barely dodged her. Mia’s tail flicked, launching her off me and against Systie, who disappeared in a puff of black smoke and reappeared above me.
Haha, you can’t teleport, you overgrown sna- OW! Systie shrieked as Mia launched herself off the ground fast enough to break the sound barrier and ram into Systie.
Your Skill : All Seeing Eye of the Abyss, has been put on cooldown.
Time remaining : 1:00:00
I snorted. “You killed her, Mia.”
The now dormant eyeball fell from the crack in the ceiling and hit the ground with a thump. I bent down, picked up Systie, and shook my head as Triea looked at the eye, astonished.
“She can die?” she asked, sidling up next to me. “Weird.”
I shrugged. “The more you know, I guess. I’m assuming she’s not gonna be so happy. Anyways, let’s take her advice and ask nicely.” I cleared my throat. “Oh great Dungeon of this Academy, won’t thee show us the way to thee’s abode. Take this sacrifice of… a very moody eyeball.”
Treia and Mia stared at me like I was crazy. I shrugged.
“It was worth a try,” I said.
Then, the entire Dungeon rumbled and a familiar-ish voice rang in my ear, with the sound of previously giggles.
I won’t take your sacrifice, but by all means, come.
I stared at the wall as it broke down, showing a passageway right behind it. Treia and Mia gaped, though Mia looked as if she was still confused that Systie had died.
I nodded, quickly regaining control. “After you, ladies.”
Mia didn’t miss a beat, shifting back into her Humanoid form and running down the hall as her clothes reappeared. Treia simply shook her head.
“I’m following you. If the Dungeon Boss decides to show up, it’s probably just going to run away from you.”
“Good point.”
~~~
After coming up into a familiar looking room, almost like the one that Systie’s Core had been in, I eyed the enormous core in the center of the room.
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered, too shocked to use “by the gods” at the moment. “How the hell does a Core get that big?”
There was a giggle in my head. Thank you. I’m proud of it.
I frowned. “Are you only going to talk to me? I’m sure-”
I’m deciding whether or not to talk to the Serpent and Voidling. Also, can you show me the “eyeball”?
A bit taken aback from her directness, I pulled out Systie and watched as a bit of what looked like Mana pushed into her. Half a second later, Systie shook violently as her timer immediately ended and shot straight up into the air.
BY THE HELLS, YOU DAMNED CORE. THAT WAS UNCOMFORTABLE! She yelled, running directly into the Core. It’s like getting CPR and being injected with caffeine at the same time!
Treia looked horrified. “What’s CPR and caffeine?” she whispered.
I shrugged. “One restarts your heart and the other can make it go into overdrive.”
“I… don’t know what to think of that,” she muttered, grabbing my hand, clearly nervous to be around the large Dungeon Core. “Is it saying anything?”
“A bit, yes.”
There was a few moments of silence as Systie seemingly stopped mentally berating Mia, who looked very smug with herself at the moment, for killing her.
I then spoke up. “Uh, so this wasn’t my idea but we have a few questions.”
After you ask your questions, can you stay a bit longer? I’m very lonely. None of the instructors have ever come to have a conversation with me. They just tell me their lesson plan and expect me to do what they need me to do. I can have much more powerful Beasts here, but noooo. “They’re too weak, they won’t be able to handle Level 50 Beasts.” “No, Dungeon! You can’t have Level 70s!” They’re all so boring here. The Voidling comes pretty often though. Is she your friend? Well, she’s with you, so I’d assume so.
I coughed as the Dungeon Core began to ramble. She stopped talking and seemed to think.
Right. Questions. Sorry. Please, by all means, ask away.
I looked up at Systie. “She’s much nicer than you, Sys. I might just want to replace you.”
Systie immediately rammed into my head. No you don’t. I’m obviously the better one.
The Core seemed to pout. Does she have a nickname?! That’s not fair! I want a nickname! I don’t like being called “Dungeon 4421” all the time!
I frowned. “Er, we can talk about that later. So, do you know where this scroll came from?” I pulled out the scroll that Treia had given me, lifting it up in front of the Core. “Apparently, it’s from the Elven Kingdom.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The entire Core moved over slightly just barely touching the paper. Huh. Where did that come from? I don’t remember that passageway being opened…
“Passageway?” I asked, interested. “You have a passage directly to the Elven Kingdom?”
The Dungeon seemed to push some sort of faint confusion into my head. No… more like… a portal? I’m having some trouble remembering.
Systie seemed confused. Lemme see…
Systie pressed herself to the Core, who I shall now call… Rebecca. Yeah, very creative, I know.
Jason.
“Uh huh?”
She has traces of {Corruption}.
“Yep. What exactly do you want me to do?”
Kill it.
“You’re amazing at telling me what to do, aren’t you?”
She turned around and glared. Just do the same thing you did to me to her. Simple.
“Why are you so annoyed?”
She didn’t respond, letting out a mental huff. I shrugged before reaching out my hands. “May I touch you for a moment, oh great Dungeon?”
There was a giggle in my head again. Go ahead, little Abyssal.
I placed my hands on the orb and slowly began channeling Abyss Mana through the orb. Since Rebecca was far bigger than Systie, it was more difficult to move my Mana through her. However, I eventually found what I was looking for. {Corruption}. I frowned.
“This little {Corruption} is causing you to have trouble with your memory? Weird.”
Wrapping the {Corruption} with a sphere of Abyss, I pulled it out of the Core. Immediately, the Dungeon Core dropped to the ground, dormant. I blinked at the loud thump. I then looked over to Treia, who’s spines waved up and down.
“Uh… is this normal?” she asked Systie, who flew around the Core.
She’s just restarting. Her memory is probably being reintegrated into her.
“What happens to the Dungeon while she does this exactly? If it’s anything like a computer restart…” I trailed off as there was a rumble from the Dungeon.
I actually don’t know. My main self never really paid attention to that.
I cursed and crushed the {Corruption} that was trying to escape, killing it off completely. “We probably want to run,” I said.
Mia, as lazy as she was, turned back into a snake and slithered onto my shoulders as Systie jolted ahead, disappearing in a puff of smoke and reappearing as several more Eyeballs.
There’s already Instructors at the entrance, investigating the disturbance. They haven’t noticed me.
I cursed, focusing on opening a portal to the most familiar place I could think of. Me and Mia’s apartment in Mayflower appeared on the other side of the portal. I gasped as nearly a quarter of my Mana drained away from the sheer distance.
“In!” I hissed as Treia’s hair began to shift back to its normal color. “I’m almost out of Man-” as Treia, Mia, and Systie went through, I ran out of Mana. “-a. Shit.”
Hearing footsteps rapidly approaching, I activated my [Partial Draconic Form] and jumped up, clinging to the ceiling with my talons while trying to blend into the dark area. I kept my segmented jaw from clicking nervously as the person ran below me and stopped. They put their hands in the air in front of them, and I noticed they were female through the darkness that I was quickly adjusting to.
What was worse, however, I recognized her. My Runes Professor. She pulled out some sort of talisman and watched as it pulsed.
“There was a portal here,” she muttered. “How and why? All of the students who attend the Void classroom are watched with the highest security. Plus, I made the Scripts to prevent anyone from teleporting.”
I begged the world that she wouldn’t put together the very obvious pieces of the puzzle. She seemed to ponder for a few seconds, which meant that she was having trouble coming up with an answer.
She then snapped her fingers. “The Core!”
She nearly disappeared from my field of vision as she rushed down towards Rebecca’s room. I kept myself on the roof, faintly noticing Mia’s panic in my head along with Systie. I tuned them out, focusing on not moving. After a few moments, I heard Rebecca speak in my head.
Ouch… What happened? Last log… Oh. What’re you doing here Professor?
I could faintly hear my Professor speaking. “Why did the entire Dungeon nearly collapse? What in the hells happened?”
I could feel that Rebecca knew I was still in the Dungeon and she could probably tell that I was completely out of Mana.
Please don’t tell her, please don’t tell her-
There was an Abyssal here.
FUCK!
“WHAT?! What’d they do!?”
They helped me. I really don’t understand why you Humans are so paranoid of them. They are superior to you in every way. But, naturally, you Humans have a superiority complex.
“Where did they go?!”
Rebecca let out what could be best approximated as a mental shrug. From what I can tell, he made a portal and ran away. I was pretty much dormant when he ripped out the {Corruption} that was infecting me. I wanted to talk to him more, but then I went dormant to readjust to my memories and you all decided to barge in here. Rude people, you are.
I could hear the grinding of my teacher’s teeth as she hissed, “How did he even get to the Overworlds?”
The Core seemed confused. There’s always been Abyssals in the Overworlds. No matter how much you drove them out, they always found a way out of the Abyss. There’s thousands just in this planetary system.
I didn’t need to see my teacher to know that her face went pale. “And you kept this crucial information from us!?”
You never asked until now. Now I just hope he'll come back so he can keep his promise…
With frustrated yell, my teacher flew down the hall, almost faster than I could see.
“Aha. There you are.”
Oh shit.
Taking Systie’s advice, I grabbed onto the latent Void Mana that resided around everything and pulled it into me in a panic as I looked down at the smug face of my Runes Professor. Taking in my Draconic form, she blanched for a moment, and I couldn’t blame her. Between my segmented jaw, the scales over my body, and the grown out horns, I probably looked barbaric to her. I took this moment to rip open a portal with the little Mana I had and fall through as my teacher cursed. As I fell, I felt something take control of my portal and I attempted to fight it. However, with the little Mana I had, I was only able to slightly alter my trajectory so as to not fall into the very scary looking cage that was awaiting me on the other side. I immediately kicked off the ground and, even though I had next to no Mana left, channel [Abyss Touch] to dodge my Void Professor’s attack and sprint away, just barely going faster than him.
Huh. I might just get away- AH SHIT SHIT-
My thoughts were rudely interrupted as my combat coach, who genuinely terrified me more than any of the Valkyrie Harbingers, smashed through a wall, giving me a disdainful look.
“Finally, some sort of challenge,” she grumbled, shooting towards me like a bullet.
I could only do one thing with the 50k Mana I had left : I activated [All Seeing Eye of the Abyss].
The Buffs, along with most of the rest of my kit, was enough so I could keep up with her. I was barely able to block both her huge sword and the Void Magic that was thrown at me. Then, I realized that my Mana was slowly climbing from the combination of the Spells and the fact that I regenerated Mana from Void Magic being used on me.
I watched as my Mana climbed back to 10k… 20k… 30k…
I channeled [Abyss Touch] more as the woman grew faster and grit my teeth.
50k… 60k…
C’mon… just a little more…
70k… 80k… 90k…
I growled at the woman as I activated my Avatar and caught her sword from the air.
“Fuck you,” I hissed.
The Avatar of Destruction has awoken. Run.
The woman’s eyes went wide as I threw her across the room, smashing her into the wall before practically teleporting to the my Void Professor.
“Thanks for the Mana,” I said to him.
I felt Systie materialize next to me and look around. Well finally, some sort of entertainment.
My teacher’s eyes went wide as he recognized Systie. “You’re-”
I sighed. “Oh well, the game’s up. I’m Jason. And this-” I opened another portal. “-is my Dragon.”
Mia, in her full Draconic glory, rushed through the portal with a bolt of lightning as thick as a tree trunk into my combat professor before letting out a hiss that shook the entire Dungeon.
“BOND! You’re okay!” she said, me only able to actually understand Draconic thanks to my Draconic form. She rubbed her head into me as my Runes teacher finally caught up, gaping at the scene.
She looked between me, Systie, and Mia before shaking her head. “I don’t get paid to fight Abyssals. Just get out of here already, Jason, before I blow up the entire Dungeon to kill you.”
Rebecca, who was clearly paying attention, was not happy with that.
Hey! I made this Dungeon lovingly, with blood, sweat, and tears! You do not get to blow it up. I will send every Boss I have at you and even a few Orchestrators if need be to stop you!
“I don’t think she’ll blow it up. Also, I should probably get going before the Queen hears of this. She will kill me. Or potentially ban me from dating her daughter. Don’t know which I prefer.”
As I was about to make another portal outside, I noticed a form on top of Mia’s back and froze before slapping my hand into my face.
“Seriously?”
Treia gave me a smug look from Mia’s back. “Yep. We’re going to the Elven Kingdom.”
My Runes Professor looked positively terrified as she saw Treia on Mia. “Your Majesty! What-?”
“Nu-uh. I am not gonna spend another month sitting around and doing nothing. Now, let’s portal outta here, love.”
I frowned at her. “The hell you mean, ‘love’? I am the magnificent Jason. I cannot be categorized as simply-”
“Yes, you can now go before she gets out of that rubble. She is probably very angry.”
“Point made,” I muttered as the woman in the wall roared in anger. “Also, don’t worry Rebecca, I’ll come back to talk to you.”
The entire Dungeon shook, most likely because Rebecca was overjoyed I gave her a nickname.
Ripping open a portal, we flew through and floated (which I could do with the combination of Systie and my Avatar) above the campus. Immediately, a block of earth flew up at us and I dodged, smashing it to pieces with my hand before shooting off, Mia following me.
~~~
And now we’re here again, where I am running from half a dozen teachers, my Avatar about to end. Landing on top of Mia and deactivating my Avatar, I nearly black out, Treia keeping me upright.
“Listen to Treia…” I muttered. “And full speed ahead.”
Then, we broke the sound barrier a few times over and I finally blacked out.