Looking at Grace now, Elijah could only say that Alin had understated her progress. Her Core had grown by leaps and bounds, with spirals that grew from the crystal and wrapped around itself in hypnotizing shapes. It was… incredible.
And the benefits were nothing to scoff at either, the alterations to her Core easily doubling her capacity. Elijah didn’t even need to be told as much, already knowing that for a fact from a street away.
“Give me another year, and this will look like nothing,” Grace promised him as she stood proudly beside Alin and a laughing giant. “You should’ve seen me lifting Aleksi, honestly! It was easy.”
“Oh?” Alin questioned. “So the thirty minutes' worth of attempts were for show?”
“Ah, well…”
Elijah joined in with the chuckling, as the Wind Mage grew a shade redder. Even with the air starting to cool, a product of the sky above them darkening, the spirits were still at an all-time high.
For most, at least. It wasn’t hard to notice the shuffling of Jack’s feet and the stiff movements from Sasha, as they stood before the Dungeon’s second entrance.
It wasn’t an impressive sight, with the half-dome covering everything inside, and the guards standing in front of the entrance looking more bored than anything. And, yet, the memories of this place still seemed to haunt the two young adults. It was here that they had been brought out from the Dungeon originally, after all. Even if both of them had confessed to not remembering much of that night, glimpses and sensations just barely peeking through into the conscious mind, that was still more than enough for instincts to kick in.
“Remember when you wanted to kidnap somebody from here?” Jack asked in a low voice. “Not sure we would’ve been able to do it, with how much I’m shaking just standing here.”
“Your help wouldn’t have been needed,” Sasha easily countered, as she continued to study the half-dome. “When are we going in?”
This time, their voices were heard, and the chit-chat between Alin and his apprentice ceased.
“Oh, we were just waiting for the three of you to arrive,” the Earth Mage replied, before putting on a small bag that had been sitting by his feet. “I presume you’ve brought all the supplies I requested, Elijah?”
“Burn salves, healing pastes, emergency patches, the usual antidotes, and enough sedatives to bring down a dragon,” Elijah answered in quick succession. He’d also brought the more utility-based concoctions, of course. With the previous successes, there was no reason not to be equipped with some liquid fire, a few vials of radiant solution, and half a dozen doses of toxic gas ready to be thrown at any creature stupid enough to charge at him. “I don’t expect to use much of it all with this group of ours, however.”
“Hopefully not, my friend, but it’s always good to be prepared,” Alin said, which Elijah agreed with wholeheartedly as Aleksi clapped him on the shoulder. The giant was equipped with fine leather armor and his favorite ax, though he likely wouldn’t be using it for anything other than emergencies. Even with so many weeks of rest, they knew the strain that would come from a battle.
Nevertheless, Aleksi had refused the notion of staying behind while the others delved into the Dungeon. It had been decades since he’d gotten the chance to go beyond the first few floors, after all, and only once had the giant ventured beyond the upper half of the Dungeon.
“So… you can lift people with wind now,” Jack commented, as the group walked down the spiral stairs into the depths. It luckily wasn’t as dark as the last time, blue moss having steadily covered the roof. “Even if they’re big.”
Elijah noted the side-eye that the giant gave the young man when hearing those words. It wasn’t every day that he was indirectly called fat, after all.
“I can do more than just lift them off the ground, I’ll have you know,” Grace proudly corrected Jack, that energy from before returning in full force. “I can swing them around, let them fly into the sky, and stuff like that without too much effort.”
“So you can make yourself fly now?”
“Well… that’s where it gets a little tricky,” she confessed. “Having a frame of reference for how to push somebody is easy when I have my feet on the ground, but the moment I have to be the one flying around, it becomes so much harder. Very disorienting, as well.”
“Because you’re spinning around constantly?”
“That and the fact I’ve attained this passive understanding of wind currents that hit my skin. I can focus on it and widen the range I see, but even just the weakest version gives me a three-dimensional visualization of everything around me. When all of that constantly rotates, my head starts to hurt.”
Now that was a curious thing. It seemed the connection that Elijah had been able to get with the plant life around him wasn’t a unique concept. That something similar could happen with wind of all Affinities was rather strange, however.
“You’ll learn to mentally filter your mind’s eye with time, Grace,” Alin promised. “Just keep training and you’ll have the skill mastered within a few months.”
“I wouldn’t mind not feeling like I have to vomit during windy days now but fine,” Grace gave in. “Training just seems to be your solution to everything, honestly.”
“Training is effective at solving most issues,” Elijah countered on her mentor’s behalf. “But, still, have your new senses hampered you much otherwise? Any problems with performing at your peak while your feet are planted on the ground?”
“Nothing of the sort, as you’ll see in a bit,” she assured him with a grin. Alin matched it, causing him to question the words, but they both refused to elaborate. He would have to wait and see.
Which didn’t take long, luckily, as they soon reached the end of the stairs and entered the narrow tunnel that led out into the main Dungeon.
“Oh, that’s a lot of sudden pressure,” Jack said, needing a hand on the wall to keep himself on two feet. Elijah could only blink at the display, barely noticing the difference in the air. “How… how are all of you fine with this?”
“Repeated exposure helps, as well as long-term practice with channeling larger amounts of Mana,” Alin recited, making Jack mutter something likely intended to be a complaint. The knees gave out on the man, which would’ve made him collapse if not for Sasha pulling him up in time. “I… can’t explain how you aren’t feeling it to the same degree, however.”
“It’s easy,” Sasha supplied in a monotone voice. “Just don’t be weak.”
That elicited several more complaints from Jack, though they were tuned out while Elijah analyzed the effects on Sasha’s Core. As expected, the void inside her was working overtime with the sheer density of Mana present in the air, but it didn’t result in any negative side effects. If anything, she was lighter on her feet than ever before, holding up Jack like he weighed nothing at all.
‘Fractures don’t adhere to our rules,’ the Dungeon suddenly supplied from inside Elijah’s mind, making him take in a small gasp of air. While he’d grown resistant to the regular tension that came from the magical pressure in the middle floor, the sudden addition of the Entity was too much to easily handle. ‘Sorry. I forget. You are still weak. Stronger but still weak.’
‘Just remember next time, please,’ Elijah said, straightening his back once again and assuring Aleksi that nothing was the matter. That pressure on his shoulders wasn’t too much of an issue when he could actively prepare for the words of the Dungeon. ‘And what do you mean by fracture?’
‘They are a fracture,’ the Dungeon unhelpfully repeated. ‘Breaker of rules. Accident. Warned about.’
Elijah noted how Sasha looked up at the ceiling, where the pressure of the Dungeon’s words originated. Could… could she feel the Entity?
‘Who warned you about them?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Just like you don’t know who told you the so-called rules?’
‘Yes.’
Great.
‘Go down. End of the next floor is enough,’ the Dungeon continued, while Elijah did his best to follow the pace of the others. ‘I can explain there.’
‘What are you— Oh. Right. You're giving me details on how you upgrade my Core,’ Elijah said, needing a second to remember the agreement from the early afternoon. ‘Any chance of you simply letting us move through without the monsters attacking us?’
With the removal of the Royal Mages’ work area on the middle floor, it had been reverted to the usual cave structure that the Dungeon preferred. This included the roars and grunts of distant reptilian monsters that Elijah knew could rip most warriors in half with claws if they so wished.
Not a creature to face unless required.
‘No,’ the Dungeon replied bluntly, much to Elijah's misfortune. ‘Humans can’t be ignored. Rules must be followed.’
Of course.
Nothing could be easy in this world, after all.
“What is that noise again?” Jack asked as they ventured out of the cavern and into the even larger area. It imitated the upper floors with its tree-like structures, yet they were made of black-and-white stone instead of anything alive.
Yet the creatures on this floor most certainly were. That growling mixed with deep popping noises was undeniable, and it only kept increasing in loudness.
The sound came from all around them, making it impossible to discern if there was one or a hundred. From the relaxed pose of the giant, Elijah guessed that it was the former, but he couldn’t figure out the direction of the coming attack.
“I trust that you can handle this, Grace?” Alin asked, the Earth Mage stretching his fingers as the growling began to make the loose rocks on the ground shake.
“Maybe,” Grace replied. Elijah could feel the air around them changing, as the Wind Mage began to channel her powers. Like the night where she’d claimed her title, the ends of her hair were starting to float. “The stone trees are going to make it hard, though.”
“Well, you’ll have to learn how to handle unfair environments eventually, but… no reason to give your first opponent such a handicap,” Alin supposed.
The Earth Mage’s cane disappeared as his arms reached into the air. They stayed there for a moment until the hands came together.
There was a moment of silence, about a second, before the entire area around them shifted. Without the slightest tremor in the air, without the ground shaking under their feet, and without any hint of grinding rocks, the trees made of stone vanished into the rocks below.
Elijah would’ve allowed himself to be shocked by the display of raw power and perfect technique if not for the reptilian figure just thirty meters in front of them.
With ten meters of length from the end of its tail to its snout, the Greater Drake boasted an impressive figure. Though it didn’t possess wings, any regular could’ve mistaken it for a dragon. With those impressive dark-red scales lining its entire body, and the long claws and fangs that could go through human flesh in an instant, they were monsters of incredible strength and power.
“Not an elemental one,” Elijah noted aloud, in those seconds where the beast was confused by the sudden lack of places to hide. It was good that it wasn’t one of the Greater Earth or Fire Drakes, lest they would have to watch out for the hail spit of rocks or flames. “Good luck.”
Grace didn’t have the breath to answer, as the winds around her picked up to the extreme and slices of air began to fly from her hands. She was already in the front, yet the entire group took another dozen steps back when the winds truly began to become dangerous.
Alin’s manipulation of the elements had been quiet. Grace didn’t carry that same quality as the winds howled louder than the beast could growl.
Already, it was an impressive display.
Yet strong winds and howling that could deafen everything else in the world did little to actually hurt the beast.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
And the drake knew that for a fact, as it unleashed an unheard roar and charged towards Grace.
‘Should we help?’ Dawn asked from within when Grace didn’t instantly move to dodge the hulking beast.
‘No,’ Elijah replied, fully intent to do nothing but observe. ‘If Alin feels she can’t handle it, he’ll intervene.’
‘But he’s old and slow.’
‘Perhaps, but his magic isn’t.’
Neither was Grace’s, as could be seen when she put her arms together and swung them to the right. Elijah thought something must’ve gone wrong when half a second passed and the beast remained strong in its charge, yet it wasn’t so. The wind had followed the movement, and a massive clap was heard as the concentrated burst of air came in contact with the side of the drake.
Its clawed feet left the ground as it flew off to the right. Momentum still carried the monster forward, but the extra dimension of movement made it land far from its target.
Not bad.
Though the stone shattered where it had landed, and it seemed a little dazed, barely a few seconds could pass before the reptilian eyes were back on Grace.
The blow had barely been an inconvenience.
Not that it mattered. Elijah could feel the build-up from before continue to increase in strength, as the finishing attack was prepared.
Without the intelligence or senses to tell that something was wrong, the Great Drake charged once again, a forked tongue briefly showing while the beast roared. It was faster this time, each clawed step making rocks shoot up into the air.
Yet Grace didn’t waver, as her right arm rose above her head.
With his regular sight, there was nothing to see but the effects of wind on her hair, but Elijah’s magical senses revealed the truth.
She always was a fan of that man’s ax.
The head was manifested in the fiercest winds, concentrated into a form of impossible sharpness and strength before being deemed acceptable.
In quick succession, Grace lowered her arm, the winds grew fiercer, and the manifestation shot down into the head of the drake. It didn’t penetrate at first, the strength of the blow pushing the head into the rock below, but the inability to go down further forced a contest of strength.
Between the stone floor, the skull of the beast, and the manifested ax, the skull lost.
All movements ceased at once, as the head of the monster caved in on itself. The rock and dust that had been pushed into the air vanished at the strength, and a wave of wind reached Elijah with enough power to push him back a step.
…
“Not bad,” Alin complimented, as the wind died down and Grace’s tired breaths could be heard. That finishing blow seemed to have taken almost everything out of her. Even with the significant increase in her Mana-Capacity, such an attack came with quite the cost. “You wouldn’t be able to repeat this performance in a normal scenario since you used the very empty area around you as a crutch to build up momentum for the wind, but otherwise I can’t complain. The casting time should be able to be cut down to a quarter length but we’ll see.”
“You want a quarter of that?” Grace asked breathlessly, hands on her knees as sweat dripped from her chin. “I can’t even get it going with a quarter.”
“None of that ‘can’t’ business,” Alin playfully chided, tapping the unamused Wind Mage with his cane. “I say you’re able to do it, so you’re going to be doing it.”
It was a ruthless teaching method to employ, but Elijah had to admit that it brought results. The Great Drake they’d met wasn’t close to the only one on that floor, and they encountered a dozen more before they found the way to the next floor.
Each was dealt with by Grace, with some minor assistance from Alin when needed, and with every new encounter, she needed a little less time to deal with the monsters. By the end, she hadn’t even cut the time down to half of the original, but she was getting very close.
Enough that Alin allowed her some time off, promising to take care of the next floor.
“That you’re able to clear a path at this depth is impressive no matter what,” he assured her, as the Earth Mage tapped the ground with his cane and manifested a wide slab of stone. “And it’s not like I’d be able to avoid doing much exercise myself, since I doubt anybody here brought rope.”
Elijah had nearly forgotten that annoying trait of the Dungeon. The further you descended, the higher the incline became between the floors. On the upper half, it was already steep enough that climbing tools had to be considered, but anything after the halfway mark was just a straight drop.
“Keep yourselves seated, please,” Alin requested, as they got settled on the slab. “It’s a long fall.”
That got a few laughs, though the descent into the darkness made Elijah’s skin crawl. It didn’t help that the air became more thick, the mana dense enough that he could almost taste it on his tongue.
Nevertheless, the blue moss reappeared when they reached the next floor, and the pattern of large caverns with trees of stone repeated. Alin didn’t flatten the caverns this time, however, only moving away enough to make a path through the caverns.
Removing all of the trees had been for Grace’s sake after all. She needed extra room to truly be in her element. Alin, however, had no such qualms.
By the time the roaring of one of the drakes could be heard, a short shriek would follow before the sound would instantly cease.
“A string of metamorphosed stone pulled tightly around their necks is all you need,” Alin explained, when they’d come across the corpses and found their heads a meter away from the rest of the body. “A quick and relatively painless death.”
“An effective one,” Elijah added. If it required so little mass to perform, he couldn’t imagine the costs as being too large. And with the Earth Mage having such a range…
There was a reason Alin's mere presence had helped stop the war. The man was perhaps unable to walk without a cane, but few could match his magical prowess.
‘Plants,’ Dawn commented, bringing Elijah out of his thoughts. Blinking a few times, he noticed the slight hint of gold in the distance. Tired eyes couldn’t explain the coloring away, making him expand his senses until a new strand of foreign Mana was discovered.
Just as she’d said, natural life had reappeared. It was in smaller amounts at first, but it grew in density exponentially until the surroundings were identical to the one that could be found a dozen floors above.
In terms of life, at least. When it came to what species each plant was, there was a significant difference in both appearance and rarity.
“Oh my,” Alin commented, inspecting a group of small silver-colored ferns they came across not long after. “Moonveil Felices so close to the end of summer? The dungeon must be in a good mood.”
Wait, was that truly—
It was.
“Are those rare?” Jack asked curiously. Elijah didn’t doubt why since there were few other moments in his life when he’d brought out his old pair of plant-shears so fast. To harvest Moonveil Felices optimally, it was a requirement to cut the needed outermost leaves within a minute at the absolute maximum, lest the plant would instinctively remove the vital properties found.
“From what I remember, the Dungeon produces… I’d like to say twenty standard bags of leaves from this plant?” Alin explained. Going by publicly available statistics, it was actually fifteen standard bags, five of which never reached the markets and the remaining ten going at a price that Elijah felt sick looking at. “A shame, since the outermost leaves contain the needed properties for a dreamwalker potion.”
“What, like, lucid dreaming?”
“A shared lucid dream for two or three people, depending on how efficiently you can concentrate the liquid from a single group,” Elijah answered on Alin’s behalf, making a knot on the bag before returning it to his jacket. With only his skills in the laboratory, he couldn’t have made anything too high-quality, but his Affinity could carry him very far with this plant. Maybe he could even grow it in the Royal Garden? “It lasts for as long as you’re asleep, and slows your perception of time, making it possible for you to share a dream with other people for what could feel like a full month.”
The slowed perception of time did come with some short-term consequences, amongst them being a headache that no amount of remedies would cure, but it was otherwise a brilliant concoction that was highly sought amongst the richer folk. And, really, it wasn’t hard to figure out why.
‘Do you sense anything of note around us?’ Elijah asked Dawn, sending her a mental list of plants that he knew grew inside the dungeon at around this depth. It’d been years since he truly studied that list of available herbs, but if even one more of them could be found in its natural habitat… it would be a glorious day.
‘I’ll look,’ was everything Dawn sent, after doing his best and finding nothing that fit his criteria. The place was filled to the brim with various herbs, but most of them lacked any worthy utility.
He gave Aleksi the same order, but the giant didn’t have the same ability to spot the distinct features of the needed plants. He’d been around the dozen or so herbs that Elijah worked with usually, but those were all found on the higher floors. Even then, the larger man did his best.
After another dozen minutes worth of walking, they finally reached the point where Elijah could feel the density of Mana increasing one more time. A tell-tale sign of the cliff into the next floor being nearby.
“It’s hidden over there behind the trees,” Alin supplied, the man’s connection to the stone stopping anything from being hidden. “But no reason to go down there. From that floor onwards, we’ll have to start dealing with the Greater Elemental Drakes. Awful creatures to fight, I assure you.”
“Can’t you just cut their heads off?” Sasha questioned, making the mage chuckle.
“I wish I could, but the elemental variants are too strong in their magical ways. It’s still possible to do it with the Greater Fire Drakes, to be clear, but the Earthen variant would shrug off such an attack like it was nothing. To actually kill them with my abilities, it would be… tiresome.”
A contest of power, one which Alin would win without question, but having to repeat such a feat a hundred times over would slowly push the scales in favor of the monsters. Elijah didn’t blame the Earth Mage for not wanting such a thing to occur.
Not that he needed that favor just yet anyway since this was more than far enough down for him to start on the next layer of his Core.
“Get yourselves seated, and we can start,” he ordered Jack and Sasha. A pillow had been brought this time around to spare his back, but the rock below was still noticeable in his spine. “I hope you both remember the steps needed?”
The two confirmed as much quickly, sitting down some five meters in front of him.
“Going by how it worked the last few times, I’d say this process should last about two hours,” Elijah informed the three who would be watching over them. Aleksi had already done it a few times now, and Alin and Grace had observed his last one, but there was no reason to worry them needlessly. “Depending on how in-depth it becomes this time, it might take three.”
“As long as you’re not rushing the process, I have no complaints,” Alin smoothly assured him. “That goes for the both of you as well. Take your time, don’t try to skip anything, and make sure to review your work before letting it fully form. Malformations can easily be fixed before they’re solid. After that point it gets hard.”
Standard warnings, but they were as true as ever.
Wishing the two others good luck with their upgrades, Elijah delved into his magical center. It barely took a moment of focus before he left behind the sensations of his physical shell and floated before the sphere that was his Core.
The green light it emitted came out beautifully, though the strands of white that encircled the runes on the outer layer left behind some distaste.
‘The changes are not wrong,’ the Dungeon supplied, reading his thoughts as they slipped inside his body to join him. ‘Just different than what you would’ve done.’
‘It’s different than what any human would’ve done,’ Elijah corrected, barely disturbed by the giant eye above at this point. It had felt so oppressing last time, but now it was barely registering. ‘And I see your sentences are a bit longer now.’
‘You understand better when I talk like a human,’ it reasoned, to which he could offer no rebuke. ‘Ineffective in comparison to proper speech, but volatile races are not known for their understanding of the grand truth. We must do our best to work around your shortcomings.’
‘Harsh.’
‘It is the truth. Do you want me to lie?’
‘Best not to go down that route.’
‘No hiding the truth by staying quiet either!’ Dawn added as she emerged from Elijah’s conceptual chest before morphing herself into her usual duck-shaped form.
‘Do you typically demand social regulations to be heeded by others without abiding by them yourself?’
'I don’t know what that means.’
‘Why do you hide the truth?’
‘... I’m not hiding anything.’
‘I have read through the pillar's soul in preparation for this moment, which includes all of your surface thoughts from the past five hours. Lying is not going to work in this instance.’
‘Fine! It’s okay to hide the truth by not saying anything then.’
‘Sorry, what are you two talking about?’ Elijah questioned, not exactly following along with the conversation. Neither could he figure out what Dawn was talking about, since any attempt to glance at the memories being referenced made him be kicked out of her mind.
‘Something that is not important to you, if I do not involve myself,’ the Dungeon explained to him. ‘Now, answer me this, pillar of a pillar. I can extend a boon to you, in exchange for a favor. Do you want this?’
‘... What’s the favor?’ Dawn asked.
‘Not sure.’
‘Is it something hard to do?’
‘Possibly, though it will both be something you could feasibly accomplish, and it will not include any harm towards the pillar.’
‘Deal. Now, give.’
‘It will be done through the modifications to the pillar’s Core, so you will have to wait for a moment,’ the Entity said in a tone that was the closest it could get to being apologetic. With that done, the eye turned towards Elijah once again. ‘Pillar, I am ready to explain what I will be doing to you, as promised. Are you ready to understand? To further increase the capacity of your Core, it will include modifications that will alter your organs to some degree, so I warn that the explanation can be heavy on your soul.’
‘If I won’t die from this sacred knowledge of yours, I’m more than ready to hear it,’ Elijah replied, wanting to frown as the eye above blinked at him. How could it even blink, when there was no head or eyelid attached? ‘But, really, what were you—’
Understand.