“Rance, watch for more rocks! The rest, on me!” Christina screamed into the din as calamity struck all around them. House-sized boulders shattered trees and rolled through and around their formation. Only the combined effort of the higher-tier fighters allowed the Guards to divert and dodge the falling rocks.
The monsters of the dungeon took full advantage of the chaos. They sprung to life and unleashed hell on the disorganized guards. Wooden tree branches crashed down on unsuspecting backs as cries of pain were drowned out by the noise.
Christina kicked her squad into position. A push here and a yank there had her men into a rough line behind the captain just moments before another man-sized boulder crashed down on top of them. Arcturus roared and unleashed a salvo of skills at the boulder which deflected it just enough to miss the formation. Christina ignored that, trusting in her captain, and focused on directing her squad against the attacking Treants.
“Something is wrong!” Miranda said from the back.
Christina shot a glance back and saw the old matron wasn’t helping the defense, instead opting to feel out the air around her with trembling fingers. Christina scoffed and turned back to the front. With a sweeping gesture, she coordinated her squad to unleash a series of focused [Wind Slashes] that outright killed two Treants and stopped three more in their tracks.
“That’s how it’s done!” She crowed, drawing a cheer from the company. Arcturus signaled, and their company stepped forward as one. Blades lashed out and within scant seconds the last of the Treants fell and a tense silence descended on the company.
“Something is very wrong,” Miranda repeated, both her hands trembling in the air. Her eyes flickered behind their closed lids as she saw things Christina couldn’t hope to fathom.
“Ain’t nothing wrong!” She called back. “The dungeon’s trying to kill us just as Deia foretold all dungeons would! But we destroyed its monsters without a single casualty!”
Cheers erupted, as Arcturus organized the aftermath. Scouts peeled off to identify further threats as the rank and file settled into loose defensive formations as per the captain’s orders. Despite that, it was clear that the Guard’s attention was focused on the discussion occurring internally.
Christina stalked up to the group and started to speak, but snapped her mouth closed at a pointed glance from the Captain.
“Mage, report,” he said with a poised intensity rarely seen in the captain.
“The dungeon flows are weak and...twisted. I...” Miranda trailed off, opening her eyes and looking around with furrowed brows. Then, she closed them and turned inwards as if searching for something. “It’s as if...but no, it can’t be.”
“Miranda,” Arcturus placed a gentle hand on the matron’s shoulder and turned her to face him. “I need information. What is the danger of keeping the company here right now.”
“Low...I think,” Miranda opened her eyes and wet her dry lips. The captain’s eyes narrowed at that, but he let her finish. “The dungeon has calmed, and we are far enough from the other pillars that another collapse wouldn’t land on us.”
“I see. What,” Arcturus gestured to the devastation surrounding them, “by your estimation, is happening?”
“It’s trying to kill us,” Christina murmured, only to receive another sharp glance from the captain.
“It...feels like a Dungeon Break, but, not. Not at all. It’s almost as if the dungeon is tearing itself apart at our presence, but that doesn’t make sense either because...It isn’t looking at us.”
“Explain.”
“Well,” Miranda straightened and clasped her hands, appearing more present than she had a moment ago. “As you well know, dungeon reading is a complex and nuanced art that requires expert analysis and deep rumination to understand. It is focused heavily on the Dungeon Gaze, more commonly known as the Dungeon Presence. A heavyweight—”
Miranda paused as Arcturus once again touched her shoulder with his armored gauntlet.
“What has your analysis of the Dungeon Gaze gleaned, Mage Mier?”
“Do not rush me, Theo. I was just getting to that,” Miranda chided the large man. Arcturus nodded, but a small vein pulsed underneath his left eye. “We of the guild interpret the Dungeon’s Gaze and use that to determine what — if anything — has caught its interest. In times like this, Dungeons stare unerringly at the target of their anger and little else.”
“The dungeon is not staring at us,” Arcturus stated. He settled into a parade rest as if he was expecting this to take a significant amount of time.
“Precisely! We would all have felt pressure from such direct attention. No, the dungeon isn’t angry or focused on us, so we have little to fear that it is attempting to destroy us for trespassing upon its domain.”
“What is the dungeon looking at, Mage Mier?”
“Ahh! What indeed. It is looking...” Miranda closed her eyes and felt at the air for a second before pointing directly at Christina’s chest. “In that direction.”
Arcturus raised an eyebrow, then gestured for Christina to move to the side. To each of their surprise, Miranda’s finger followed Christina as she moved.
“Lieutenant? Explain yourself,” Arcturus raised his brow.
“What? I didn’t do anything!” Christina raised her hands. “Unless it’s pissed my squad and I set up a fence around its domain or killed the Treants there is no reason for it to target me. I didn’t do anything to it, on your orders!”
Christina pointed at the Captain, who ignored the finger in favor of leaning down to receive a scout's brief report.
“We retreat to camp. Until we know what has angered the dungeon you are not to enter its domain.”
“You’re thinking of continuing to train here?” Christina stepped back in dismay. “You cannot be serious! The thing is unstable at best! It would be a mercy to it and our people to end its suff—”
“Silence,” Miranda said, cutting off Christina with her tone alone. The older woman stepped around Christina and scrutinized her as if examining a prize horse. “Upon closer examination, the Dungeon is not directing its gaze at the young Lieutenant.”
“Oh?” Arcturus said.
“It is focusing on her pack instead. Tell me, Lieutenant Liashen, what is it that you have brought with you into this dungeon’s domain that has angered it so?”
----------------------------------------
The argument within the command structure of the Guards escalated, but I paid only half a mind to it. For now, I was thankful that Chistina was just staying mostly still, and I could gently massage my cilia back into their proper positions. The pain faded into the background, and I started to feel alive again. It was still there, but I could manage it better now that no new cilia were getting abused.
Ouch!
She pulled it out, waving the golden sphere around like she knew it hurt me. The rest of the soldiers went full rapture at that. Must be a pretty cool object for them to react that way. Oh, now Christina was preaching something about a holy mission and how the goddess had blessed her with an artifact? I honestly had trouble following her logic, but the story provided strong enough evidence that Deia existed and could grant boons to those that prayed to her. Hopefully, I didn’t piss her off by not getting her request.
< Congratulations! You have acquired [Starbound Stabilization]! >
Shit.
Whatever. It wasn’t as if I expected to avoid butting heads with deities when I was an avid atheist. I knew I had to solve this myself and a little pain and vision impairment weren’t going to slow me down, let alone stop me.
My options were limited, but they weren’t completely gone. My creatures were all dead with a two hundred minute cooldown until Monstrous Generosity resummoned them. My cilia were likewise useless as the golden sphere countered them. There was one last thing, however, that I hadn’t tried.
Crafting.
I had wielded the power of a soul to empower Gella enough to save me from Martin, so why couldn’t I do that again? I didn’t have a convenient source of soulforce right now, but I was right next to a forest so it couldn’t be all that hard to acquire.
With jerky motions, I maneuvered the Dagger of Geas over one of my trees far from the action and prepared to thrust it inside. I hesitated, the dagger shivering right over the immobile bark as if eager to plunge in.
Bah! It was just a tree.
I stabbed down and activated [Consume Soul]. The dagger gleefully reached for the place where I couldn’t sense and ripped something. The tree visibly withered as I took a part of its soul into myself.
I closed my proverbial eyes and stepped back. Intent mattered far more here than any specific action. I let my instinct guide me as fashioned the indescribable power into weaves and whorls full of my desire. I wanted that golden sphere gone. Nothing more, nothing less. Whether it was an artifact or just a busted item, I didn’t care. I didn’t even care if the humans stayed or went. I doubted they could pierce my cave floor and reach my core even when my minions were at a reduced level. My maze was too large and without a method of navigating the halls I couldn’t believe they had a hope of success without granting me half a dozen levels in the process.
The soulforce wriggled in my grip and I let it dance into the position it preferred. I had learned from all the trees I had enhanced. Soulforce could be forced into a shape, but it reacted best to suggestion. In my mind, I proffered the barest of instinct. An intent I made known, but didn’t force onto the practically sentient force. I let it move as it would and it was better for it.
< You have crafted < Weapon > >
In seconds, the threads of intangible power settled into the shape of a heron. It ruffled its feathers and glanced at me with frightening intelligence gleaming in its eyes. I wasn’t scared. The construct was my creation and I understood it better than I understood myself. In a flash, the bird flapped its wings and landed on a tree overlooking the humans.
Idly, I wondered why no artifact message popped up as a sense of loss settled over me, and I turned to the tree which had sacrificed to make this possible. With half my attention I pulled up water for it and wrote myself a note to summon a Treant for it as soon as the cooldown refreshed. I couldn’t do much more, but I shifted some of the glass lenses in the sky to provide the hurt sapling with just a hair more light.
With the other half of my attention, I watched the heron flap its wings once more and it glided down onto the golden orb. With glowing talons far larger — but somehow still proportional — than they had any right to be, my construct stabbed down into the golden sphere and...
Shattered.
The heron squealed in pain, writhing atop the golden sphere as its essence was sucked down into an abyss where I had no vision. In a flash, my construct was gone and it happened so fast that the humans hadn’t even noticed its presence.
I rippled in surprise. That...wasn’t supposed to happen. I briefly considered attempting it again but dismissed the thought as barbaric. I had poured my emotions into that construct. By the laws I had discovered of this world, that was the strongest possible creation I could muster. If it didn’t work it was because it never would, not because I had made a mistake in the creation process.
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I listened to the humans argue as I thought. It was amusing how little cohesion they displayed at the smallest of hiccups. I didn’t think people back home had been this petty but listening to their words it was as if both sides were deaf. Both had reasons — good reasons even — for their actions, but their utter refusal to listen to the other side meant they devolved into a gridlock that prevented resolution and only led to escalation.
In some way, I was glad I was no longer human. No longer down there to have to listen and shout out words that wouldn’t be heard. Life as a dungeon had more meaning than that. My will was law, which was perhaps unfair to my minions, but it was simpler this way. Purer. If I wanted to, I could force cohesion between my minions. There would be none of the senseless conflicts when friendship was optimal.
I sighed, a faint breeze blowing through my maze as I felt [Summon Nothic] go off cooldown. I gave Betsy some scritches and tried to convey to her that soon she would be back at full strength. The conflict seemed so silly from back here when far more important things could be done. Like playing with the now elated Betsy.
Good girl.
I would need to solve it though because however silly it seemed, that golden sphere was likely capable of killing me. Soulforce had failed, yet it was my most powerful material. The most powerful material anywhere if I had to guess. It was the life force of the universe. If it couldn’t solve something it was because the task couldn’t be solved.
That struck me, as I doubted any mere item or artifact could defy the power of creation. Resist? Maybe. But utterly ignore and destroy? I doubted it.
This was a god’s work.
So what did Deia, in all her wisdom, want? From what I knew about the goddess, she couldn’t be all that forgiving. Her church supported slaves, and even if she was all lovey-dovey to her supplicants, she certainly didn’t like me. The feeling I got of the goddess was that she didn’t support failure. The vengeful type, if I had to guess. That meant there was a good chance that she would retract her protection of the artifact once she realized that the mission was a failure.
So what was the mission? Well, I couldn’t see the object, but the people’s shouted words identified it as a collar. Christina herself kept saying that they needed to ‘leash’ me, which I translated to mean she wanted to use the collar on me. That meant that the collar was a slave collar. Like the silver one, I had in my possession from the Martin incident. So the goddess wanted to subjugate me and was preventing my vision of the artifact so I couldn’t use [Soulbind Artifact] until Christina could place it around my gem.
The slave collar in my possession was a foul thing, but I hadn’t let that stop me from fiddling with it. I hadn’t gleaned much — partially due to my less than enthusiastic investigation — but I did identify the physical mechanism that closed the collar. The base mechanism was a simple single-pin lock, but what made it devilishly difficult to open was that there was no keyhole. The entire mechanism opened and shut through what I could only presume to be skills.
Of course, a magnet could also open the lock, but it would need to be powerful to affect the silver.
Considering who used the slave collars, I wouldn’t be surprised if the original design came from Deia herself. Which meant, the collar in Christina’s possession likely was of a similar design and was intentionally a one-time-use item.
Thing was, a collar fits just as well around a human throat as it does around a dungeon crystal.
Better in fact.
I immediately kicked myself for having such a thought, but nothing else came to mind as I watched the argument escalate. Fine. Whatever. I would explore the option of getting Christina to put on the collar herself until something better came along.
For that, I needed a real method of communication. I hadn’t been exploring the full use of soulforce, but to tell the truth I had been squeamish around the whole matter. The stuff was like using nuclear weapons to purge a house of spiders. Sure it worked, but the consequences didn’t sit right with me. I was positive that I could send a message using soulforce, but I would leave that as plan B.
So how else could I craft a message to the humans? Or...what resource haven’t I explored yet that could serve that purpose? I tried crafting my cilia, and all the physical materials, but a basic sign was off the table. I had trouble believing that Christina would take something like that seriously even if I somehow learned the language.
What else was there?
I hadn’t touched my crystal, but I felt that was a Bad idea with a capital B. Maybe I could fiddle with my summoned creatures somehow, but that just felt like a variant of physical crafting. And...I couldn’t think of anything else.
What did dungeons in the stories use? Mana, duh, but my mana behaved differently. Or...did it? I never tested it out, had I?
With a sense of growing excitement, I tried to bring up the sense of fullness I had felt when the golden sphere had prevented my level-up. I reached into my crystal, not with my cilia, but with my mind. My intent spooled inwards, and inside I felt a pool of raw potential. It was nearly empty, only a fraction full but with every passing second, I felt condensed gasses liquifying on the walls of the pool and dripping down into it.
This must be my mana pool.
Despite not having any cilia in this area I had no trouble floating up the liquid in the pool. The material felt familiar. Like a toned-down version of soul force. A diluted version, lacking extreme intensity but retaining many comforting properties. Touching mana was like passing my hand through a warm breeze. It moved easily enough, but caressed me in a way I found most pleasing. Despite its similarity to soulforce, I felt a distinct lack of will. Mana, unlike souls, didn’t have any intrinsic intent. It was just a thing. Non-sentient in every definition of the word.
I pulled a drop out of my core—
< Warning core instability detected: -1 mana >
< Mana: 83/2,374 >
—and flinched as the droplet vaporized into a cloud that instantly vanished. My cilia hummed to life and a good percentage of the mana I had released got sucked back into my cilia and subsequently directed to my core. The mana that didn’t get sucked back to me moved sideways. Into an in-between space that wrapped my mind in knots just thinking about it.
Mana was unstable but otherwise similar enough to soulforce. Given my experimentations with shadow stuff, it was likely that mana would stabilize once I crafted it.
Eager to try, I dove into the craft. I pulled on my well of mana and willed my intent on it. It flopped about like a wet noodle, completely relying on me to weave it into a proper shape. I didn’t mind and set about the task with gusto.
< You have crafted < Consumable > >
I made a thing as a test. It was blob-like and ugly but radiated with purpose. A basic message. No words, just a pulse of greeting. A call to attention. A friendly hello. I pulled it out—
< Warning core instability detected: -34 mana >
< Mana: 50/2,374 >
—and I winced at the steep cost for such a basic construct and shoved it back into my core for the time being. The steep cost limited my options, and the ominous warning message from the system convinced me to not try and overdraw mana under any circumstance. I was quickly gaining mana from the humans but, from the looks of it, I was running out of time. That meant I had a limited number of words and only one chance.
I hesitated with the message half finished. Couldn’t I just ask her to leave? Would she listen? There was no way to know what putting the collar on her would do. It might kill her, or worse. On the other hand, what if it granted her the power of the goddess? I had no way of knowing, and it disturbed me how much of my logic was based on guesswork.
Christina and some of the people standing at her back drew swords and I winced. She wouldn’t listen to reason. None of them would. This was too personal. To...religious. Blech. It reminded me why I hated religion back on earth. It wasn’t that religion didn’t have benefits, it was that the downsides could be nasty.
I completed my message and with a sigh, lobbed it at the zealous girl.
< Warning core instability detected: -84 mana >
< Mana: 0/2,374 >
----------------------------------------
Christina huffed, red-faced and furious at the sheer insanity that had befallen Captain Arcturus. He stood with half the Guard at his back with the express purpose of protecting a deranged dungeon. She had known he didn’t believe in the goddess as much as she did, but to think that he would turn out to be a filthy heathen? Unbelievable!
Christina
She gasped and fell to her knees as a word radiated through her mind. It wasn’t merely her name but a fully-fledged thought that encompassed all that she was. In a second she experienced every aspect of herself. From how her voice grated in anger to how her eyes sparkled when she felt joy. The freckle on her hip, and the sensations she felt when she tucked an errant strand behind her ear.
It was too much. Pure knowledge flooded her with fear and awe as she realized that she was being spoken to by the Goddess herself.
Equip the collar
Christina could barely fathom the meaning of those three words. It wasn’t just a suggestion or a command. It was an extensive list of experiences on what would happen should she do so, and worse, what would happen if she didn’t. She saw herself gain levels far beyond her level cap, pushing past the realm of mortals and into the realm of legends. Jumping tiers and learning forbidden spells that would annihilate dungeons with the barest flick of her wrist. She saw herself standing at the head of an army, leading her people to destroy the last dungeons of the world and finally enacting Deia’s will.
She had been mistaken before. The collar wasn’t to be used on the dungeon. She had sinned. Misinterpreted her Goddess’ will. She had asked for power, and the goddess had granted it. It wasn’t a slave collar despite how it looked, but the tool she would wield to protect her people once and for all.
With shaking hands, Christina brushed off the hands trying to help her stand, and reached for the band of starlight. She cranked it open and with a triumphant expression, snapped it shut around her throat.
----------------------------------------
The golden sphere shuddered as the girl enslaved herself. I sensed a hint of resignation from the golden shield. It was in the way the fibers sagged, low and sad, no longer forming a perfect sphere around the artifact. A solid second passed before the golden threads vanished.
I could see.
Christina was revealed to me, as well as the collar around her throat. Before I could identify the item, Christina collapsed into a loose heap of flesh and bone. Her heart stuttered twice before it quit its endless march and the flow of blood in the young woman’s veins shuddered to a halt. Strangest of all, my cilia moved into her body in a way that only occurred with inanimate substances like stone or water.
In a flash, I identified the artifact to see if I had accidentally killed the girl.
Deia's Soulcatcher
Armor Artifact
Level: 1
Life: None
Harbors Soul (Harbored Soul: Christina Liashen)
Grants life equal to harbored soul's level (Soul Level: 14: +80 life)
Abilities: View Status, Induce Vision, Command Vessel
Gross, it was another one of these nasty artifacts centered around controlling people. No matter, I knew what had happened. The artifact had stolen the girl’s soul in a similar sort of way that the Dagger of Geas could. The thing was, Deia’s Soulcatcher had removed all connection to the body, and without a soul to drive it, the body had died. Strangely, it was the perfect artifact to chain a dungeon. With my soul chained, my crystal would sit inanimate forever until someone used [Command Vessel] to alter my dungeon. A crystal had no need for a heartbeat after all.
On a human, however, it was a death sentence. Her fellow Guards panicked, propping her up and calling for a medic. The abrupt collapse had halted the hostilities and the Guards melted out of Miranda’s way as she strode to Christina’s side. I knew it was hopeless. None of the humans were adept at soul magic. If they were, they would have seen me for what I was long ago.
I didn’t think. I just acted.
[Soulbind Artifact] flared and the Soulcatcher was mine. It filled my mind with thought-feelings. How it was young and excited. New to the world and desperate for a chance to prove itself. How it loved to watch, to wait, and to ponder. To learn and learn and learn until it could tweak just the smallest thing. Show a falsehood where in reality it was true. Make the world change in such delicious exciting ways!
I shuddered and tabled the stream of information. It was gross and I already knew the one thing that mattered. The collar couldn’t release Christina’s soul and wouldn’t do it even if it could.
I couldn’t control my cilia due to the humans, but luckily they were already inside the girl and the collar. With an effort of will, I cast [Summon Nothic] centered right in front of the girl’s larynx. As the skill triggered it struggled to displace the flesh already in existence, and I restricted it further with all the strength I had. A tiny eye formed with small spikes growing out of the back that scraped against the inside of the collar and ruptured the girl’s trachea.
Whoops, I’ll fix that later.
For now, one of my creatures was stabbing the collar and the girl which meant I could use the Dagger of Geas on them. I triggered [Suppress Soul] for the first time and watched in rapt fascination as the dagger attacked the collar. It reached into a hidden space and wrenched. The collar released a burst of anger and pushed back the dagger's invisible assault. The battle waged for a second but despite the level disparity, the collar was holding its own.
A thread of soulforce escaped the collar’s iron grip and drained into the dagger’s eager clutches. The collar responded by yanking hard, nearly ripping the thread out of the dagger’s grip and threatening to tear it. Before the dagger could retaliate I bore down on both artifacts. Forcing them to stop pulling lest the soul tear from their clash.
The dagger complied, but the collar did not. It was against its nature to give up a soul it had captured and didn’t know how to stop pulling.
I strained, fighting the human’s aura as I attempted to reinforce that tiny thread of soulforce pulled taut between the two artifacts. This was unsustainable, but I would give the girl back her body. It was hers and I never intended to consign her to eternity sealed within a lump of metal.
With tiny grunts of effort, I gently pulled the thread up along the girl’s spine and into her brain. I blurred my focus, letting the soulforce guide my craft. It wanted to return to its body. It hated the collar and wished that it didn’t exist. I leaned into that feeling, helping guide the soulforce to form a cradle around the girl's brain. It flowed into the crevices and suffused the gray matter, but froze as it ran out of length.
I felt its longing. Its desire to escape, but I couldn’t grant it. Didn’t know how. Instead, I could do this.
I finalized the craft, and Christina choked as her heart slammed into high gear.