- James-

You have met the base conditions for a dungeon companion. Beginning summoning.

James Benedin, newly formed dungeon core watched as the summoning began. The space near his core flexed and then mana began to pour into a small area from nowhere. It built up and then pulsed and seemed to turn solid for just an instant. Then that solid chunk of mana shattered and release a surge of dense mana. Instead of dissipating into his dungeon, a pattern expanded from the center of the dense mana cloud and imprinted itself on the cloud. With another flash of mana light the cloud solidified into a person.

While James was watching the summoning of his new dungeon fairy his mind was racing. He wasn't really a people person, but here was a whole entire person being summoned to be his companion. What would his fairy be like? Would it be overly cheerful and grating? James hoped not. The mana cloud in front of him flashed into a person and James took him in. Lean wiry build wearing a tunic and tights and the shock of green hair. As James took in the slightly cheeky grin his hopes began to rise. While his new fairy had cheerful eyes that grin was all smartass.

While a quick "hello" would have been the smart thing to say, James found himself speechless as his anxiety reared up and grabbed him by the throat. Suddenly obsessed with what to say to avoid looking like a dumbass, James silently stared at his new fairy. As the silence stretched, James rising hopes took a nosedive as the fairy's smile changed to one of confusion and then rapidly to a look of horror. The air around James' new fairy seemed to shatter. The fairies eyes began to water and then it gave a great cough that propelled it backward in the zero gravity. James rampant anxiety was doused with a torrent of cold horror as he realized his terrible mistake. It would not have mattered if he had thought of something to say. No one would have been able to hear him becasue there was no fucking air!

- Jack-

From Jack's perspective, one moment he was staring at Reckherd through the crystal of the loading tube and then with a whoosh and a pop, he was floating in a dark space. Jack was expecting his wings to auto-deploy and was surprised when his shield snapped into place instead. Jack was further disconcerted when he didn't fall to the floor even without his wings deployed. His gaze snapped to his HUD where air warnings were just popping up, followed by the activation message for his air net implant. The invisible net of mana was designed for the rare underwater dungeon and would extend in a wide area and pull oxygen from the water for Jack to breathe. Jack began to worry as the enchantment reached further each passing second and failed to find oxygen. His worry turned to confusion as he realized that despite the air nets deployment he was not underwater, though he was still floating somehow.

New warnings popped up on Jack's HUD about power draw and he toggled his power display. Jack's confusion turned to horror as he saw the readout on his shield belt. For some reason the shield was drawing massively from the power cells and the ambient mana recharge was a bare trickle of power instead of the expected flood of mana from the dungeon. As Jack watched the power cells drew down to empty in seconds and the shield surrounding him shattered.

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At first all Jack felt was a chill as his skin became cool all over. Then his eyes began to water and his skin felt oddly tight. He opened his mouth and felt a curious fizzing sensation on his tongue just as his chest began to hurt. A great wracking cough, as if someone had punched him, forced all of the air out of Jack's lungs and he flew backwards. Despite the violence of the cough, Jack was struck by the complete silence of it as he flew away from the glowing core in the center of the room. Jacks eyes watered and burned, the tears blurring his view of the core. His ears began to hurt and his tongue bubbled strangely and no matter how he strained he could not seem to draw a breath. Jack felt his back impact the wall and he bounced off strangely as his vision started to darken. As his field of view faded to black Jack wondered what the hell was happening and then he felt no more.

- James-

"Oh shit oh shit, fuck, fuck," an unbroken stream of profanity poured through James mind as internally flailed. His fairy needed air. James lurched for his [Create] skill and fumbled with his pattern for basalt for a bit before realizing he had no other patterns to create. He lunged for his [Absorb] skill and began flailing it through his tiny dungeon, desperatly searching for something his fairy could breathe.

[New pattern: Fairy Tears]

James snapped his attention to where his new fairy was just bouncing off the wall. His [Absorb] skill could get close, but could not touch the fairy itself. In the faint light from his core he could see the trail of moisture coming from each eye leading back to him. With a start, James remembered the cough. His fairy had brought air with him and some of it still had to be here. James widened his absorb and his attention flickered to his entrance. A plug of basalt instantly formed in the opening, he had to keep what was left of the air in here. James stretched his [Absorb] skill until it filled every part of his core chamber and searched.

"Come on, come on," he pleaded in his mind as he focused on a finer and finer detail, desperately pushing his skill to find what he needed. Even with his skill spread wide, his will focused down onto smaller and smaller divisions of space. His mind began to ache with the strain as he pushed. Everything else fell away as James forced himself to perceive until finally..

[Absorb] Novice 1 => [Absorb] Novice 5

You have learned subskill [Elemental Patterns]

[New pattern: Nitrogen]

[New pattern: Oxygen]

James immediately dropped [Absorb] and wildly began to pump out nitrogen and oxygen with [Create]. Some past bit of trivia he picked up let him know to put twenty percent oxygen to eighty percent nitrogen for standard air. The system recognized his efforts.

[New pattern: Air]

The [Create] skill became slighty easier to maintain as the patten registered. James began to be able to hear the air as it rushed outwards from the focus of his [Create] skill. He kept pumping mana into the skill, unsure of when to stop but turning his focus back to his floating fairy. The green haired fairy still looked terrible, but not quite as puffy as he did a moment before.

"Please, please be okay," James whispered to himself, the sudden sound jarring after the long silence. He watched with bated breath as his fairy twitched, and then finally gasped in a breath.

"Oh god, he's going to be okay, he's going to be okay," James shouted. If he had eyes he would be crying. James terror began to give way to relief as the battered fairy drew in another longer gasp of air.

"Everything is going to be okay," James smiled tearily.

Then with a loud "crack" the basalt plug in the entrance shattered. There was a rushing roar as the air in the tiny dungeon blew outwards, and under James horrified gaze, launched Jack Greencap out the long entrance tube into space. James clutched instinctively after him with his aura, but could do nothing as the shock of green receded into the black.