‘They’re moving again,’ Dawn said, the duck’s head turning to look at the two in meditation. Elijah did the same, noting that an hour or two had already passed. Time flew when he was trapped in his world. ‘Feels weird.’
Elijah… had to agree with that comment, his senses giving off warning signals as he looked at the duo. Jack was relatively normal, the influence of the Dungeon upon the crystallization not far from what he worked with, but Sasha was a different beast. The world had already declared her original Core an anomaly, with the negative capacity and endless hunger for energy, but now it was dialed up even further. What before was a mild wind pulling everything into the center was now a storm, one that only grew larger and larger until the physical air began to move a little as well.
That was an accomplishment, along with her process of waking up Jack who briefly called out in accomplishment before yelping at the realization of what was happening.
“Get over here,” Elijah ordered, the Metamancer happily jumping up from his seat and joining the two men ten meters away. “Looks dangerous.”
“Looks? It is dangerous,” Jack corrected vehemently. “Felt like my skin was going to tear off when I was over there.”
‘Feels wrong,’ Dawn seemed to agree, hopping over Elijah’s legs and hiding behind him. What a brave duck he was raising. ‘Run?’
‘No, there’s not a need for it,’ Elijah replied, sitting around calmly for the next five minutes, while the storm continued. But, as he thought, the winds began to calm, the feeling of oblivion faded, and what was left was a mild glow leaving Sasha’s skin as she opened her eyes.
She didn’t talk at first, first adjusting how she sat before she frowned and looked at her arms. She felt what they saw, along with the lines of Mana her movement left in the air. It was like a constant set of afterimages, bright areas of blue light staying in place wherever she’d been for two seconds before vanishing.
A side-effect of holding onto so much energy perhaps?
“I didn’t enjoy that,” Sasha commented, when the glowing began to fade, and she regained around the same level of Aura she had before. A little more dense, a little more powerful, but nothing like what she’d had minutes ago. “It’s… more reactive now.”
She raised her right hand into the air, slowly balling it into a fist. As she did, the temperature seemed to fall several degrees, the air moving around them as Elijah felt a flash of cold run down his spine. Then she released her hold, a wave of heat pressing against their skin to the point that beads of sweat instantly started to appear.
“Oh, shit, that’s cool,” Jack exclaimed, all the previous looks of fear forgotten as he wiped away the drops of sweat. “I knew going down here would be a great idea.”
Sasha ignored the man’s muttering of ideas as she picked up a rock from the ground. It was smoothened to the point she didn’t immediately cut herself, yet it was still large enough to have a sizable weight to it.
With a slow wind-up, she threw it into the air, her hand in its trajectory as it fell downwards once again.
Yet it stopped before it could reach her palm. Not far away from her skin, but enough distance that Elijah and the others could see the gap between the rock and flesh.
Two seconds passed before Sasha’s left eye twitched. The stone suspended mid-air respected gravity once again, falling into her hand as if nothing had happened before.
“Ignoring gravity for several seconds,” Jack commented. Elijah doubted the man could get rid of that grin on his face, with how much it had stretched. “Do you think you could do that magic trick where you stand on an invisible chair?”
“No.”
“Because you don’t trust yourself or because the rock trick was your peak?”
“Because I can’t be bothered.”
Regardless of how much she was pressed, she rested from that point onwards, sitting by Aleksi while pointedly ignoring Jack’s requests. Elijah watched it silently, not bothering to be involved in those issues.
“Does your Status say anything different now?” he inquired once the man seemed to grow tired of the silent treatment, settling down to work on his own magical enhancements. “The early growth has a higher chance of teaching innate spells, compared to the later stages where everything has to be learned through practice.”
…
“Absorption and Desorption are Tier 2 now,” Sasha commented a few seconds later, when she was able to get it open. That seemed to explain the ease of absorbing the different energies when compared to the struggle it had been in the first Tier. “The old ones are gone.”
“I still have my old one, though I’ve got a Tier 2 on top of it,” Jack countered, a smile back on his face as his eyes glazed over. “Transmute Solid, my beloved. How powerful might you be?”
The others didn’t bother commenting on the loving mutterings that the man sent towards a Spell, a set of Magical Connections that allowed a Mage to manipulate the world in some manner, instead watching as he fished out a few metal balls from his pocket.
“I didn’t think Lugh allowed you to have so many of those,” Aleksi said, as Jack picked out the smallest ball before putting the others back into his pocket. “How did you convince him?”
“By… making him focus on the forge instead of what I was doing?” Jack answered, the giant not looking amused at the answer. “He said I could use the sheet metal for whatever I wanted, and this comes from some of it being melted down, so I didn’t do anything outright wrong.”
Aleksi’s cold gaze told the others just how much the giant agreed with the young man’s weak argument. The deed was already done, though, so the only thing they could do was watch as Jack proceeded with his testing.
“This is copper, so whatever it's turned into shouldn’t be too much heavier. Might be better to go lower, honestly…” Jack commented to himself, needing a moment to study the small ball before seeming locked in. “Brass? No, bronze is easier. Maybe. Let’s see how this goes.”
Though it was slow at first, the dark gray coloring of the ball in the man’s hand began to change. First to a lighter gray before becoming a smooth brown, one that shined as if recently polished. Only a fraction of the surface had it, of course, more minutes needed to go by before the small ball could show off its new appearance.
“Not a noticeable weight difference but who cares?” Jack said, raising it into the air to better inspect the small ball. “Hey, how long are we expecting to be down here? I’d love to spend a few hours on this.”
“You do realize that this ability won’t fade once you leave the Dungeon?” Elijah questioned, not a fan of staying down here too long. It’d already been a bit late when they entered the depths, and he’d been hoping to return to the house before two.
“The speed will, though,” Jack countered. “I had to spend my entire capacity three times over to make this happen, you know? If I had to do this ball up there, it would be… twenty minutes of work instead of three? If I want to get this beauty here with a few upgrades, I’d rather do it down here and spend a few hours on it instead of spending two days on it up there."
”You have one hour.”
“Could we make it two?”
“One.”
“Agh. Fine.”
With the quiet, Elijah rested his eyes while the hour ran by. Sasha did join Jack midway in using it to improve, flashes of heat and cold coming through the air at steady rates. Some were hotter or colder at times, as the woman tried to hone the speed of absorption and the release, something she apparently had much difficulty with. While the fine control of kinetic energy had increased to incredible amounts, the amount able to be absorbed in an instant likewise doubling, the secrets of temperature were still a mystery to her. Elijah personally thought it was a problem attached to the visualization, but he had no way to offer more advice than that. It was too specific to the Affinity for him to have a proper frame of reference.
Jack, on the other hand, suffered from no such difficulties with his work. However, that was perhaps because he was more focused on using the new Spell for a project rather than trying to improve his control over the magic directly. He still was becoming more proficient with it, of course, the hour of channeling the Spell allowing some minor inconsistencies to begin clearing up, but it was mostly repetitive work after the first hour. All the focus was on transmuting the metal his ‘pistol’ was made of into a slightly different alloy, and nothing else.
Elijah personally didn’t see the reason for the focus, as the man had already explained the tool as being a prototype and not the final one that he wanted to use in the future. This one had several shortcuts that were apparently ‘unacceptable.’ It was single-shot like a crossbow, needing to be refilled manually instead of being self-loading as the young man wanted the next model to be. How such a mechanism would work, Elijah couldn’t say, but his understanding of the current version did start to broaden as Jack verbally went through each part while working on them.
While it mainly seemed like four or so parts, there were four or so more hiding inside to make it work properly. A spring to contain energy, a hammer with a firing pin to hit a primer that ignited the propellant, a trigger to control when it would happen, and finally a weirdly shaped hinge so that the gun could be opened up and filled up in the right places.
“This would be much easier if I had a proper cartridge to go with these balls, but improvisation is needed until I can figure out how to shape things more accurately,” Jack commented, eyes widening at the realization. “Wait… can’t I just make the shape in a more moldable material and then turn it into the right metal afterward?”
“I suppose,” Elijah replied. “Wouldn’t such a process take many hours for each cartridge, however? I find it hard to believe that getting the right shape will be easy without proper tools.”
“Molds exist for a reason.”
“And you have one of those at the ready?”
…
“I’ll make one tomorrow.”
“Does this mean we’re leaving?” Sasha asked, which Jack immediately rejected before Elijah confirmed as much. “Finally.”
“I can upgrade this last part if I just have ten more minutes,” the man pleaded, but it was no use. The others had already risen from their spots, Elijah personally stretching his shoulders as he prepared himself for the trek up to the surface again. His feet had been sleeping for the last half hour.
“Up with you,” Aleksi encouraged, making Jack pack together the filled bottles and donning his robe once again, as they left the cave behind. Elijah was ready to reach his bed in a short time at that point, the thought of a soft mattress sounding very enticing, but barely a minute passed before the giant stopped in his trek. The rest of the group followed suit. “There’s more noise.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Elijah could hear nothing. Neither could the two others, yet the giant didn’t move an inch.
“Fresh blood as well,” Aleksi added seconds later.
“Monster or human?” Elijah asked.
“Monster. Worms. There’s no trace of people other than us here,” the giant answered. He frowned at the words, pulling out his dagger while Dawn began to worry from inside. “Something else is here.”
“Fox?”
“No, it’s different. Can’t be far from it, though. Has fur.”
So it was from deeper inside the Dungeon yet not much further than those sickly foxes. Elijah needed to search his memories before reaching several ideas on what it could be. From the fact it had fur, he was able to narrow it down, however, finding one possible fit.
“Neogi,” Elijah muttered in distaste. “Must’ve been a hatchling this morning, hiding in some corner until the Royal Guards had passed through.”
He could see the muscles on Aleksi’s back tense at his words. Neogi wasn’t what any of them wanted to deal with, even if it was the weaker variant that they could find within the next few floors.
The real Neogi were a type of giant spider, with eight legs, and a furry abdomen, but distinguished themselves from the usual monsters with their eel-like necks and head, which gave them a meter or so of extra range. With a body that was two meters long already, it was a horrible sight.
Already, that was a challenge, but they could at least relish in the fact that the ones who lived so far up in the Dungeon didn’t have the abilities to influence the mind that the ones further down possessed. The Neogi that they had the chance to meet could distract an opponent by forcing images into their heads, giving a splitting headache with enough time. The ones further below? They took over, a person not properly prepared becoming like a puppet to whatever whims the monsters wished. It usually meant standing still so you could be killed, but in larger groups, it meant going against one’s former allies as well. A terrible fate, which Elijah was happy to avoid.
“Think you can take it?” he asked the giant.
“Maybe, if I knew where it was,” Aleksi replied, which made Elijah stiffen. The worms could be heard a hundred meters away while they were lazing around, but the giant spider actively going around and killing the local population couldn’t be detected from anything other than a scent trail? “We’re leaving. Stay close. Might be able to get away without a fight.”
Elijah doubted it, and Aleksi agreed. The giant tried to be subtle about opening his mouth a little, adjusting the shell on top so it could be opened in an instant. Something that had gone untouched for so long was being brought out.
And good that it did. The rustling began minutes after they reached the main path. Dead worms with their insides emptied could be found there, the green blood splashing on the rocks. It messed with the giant’s senses further, the freshness making it hard to tell what else there was to see.
It was close. They could hear something, yet none of them could see where it was. Elijah had handed one of the extra daggers to Sasha, his own still ready. Jack had his own tool in hand as well, and Aleksi had never stopped clutching the old axe.
There had to be—
‘Above!’ Dawn screamed at him, their senses one for a moment as the sight of what sat on the ceiling meshed with his own that watched the trees. It was a horrible sight.
“Above!” he shouted, but the Neogi had already acted by then. His flinch had revealed his knowledge, and it hissed while leaping down towards them.
It went for the middle of the group, the head going straight for him. Sasha reacted faster than him to the falling body, throwing him and herself to the side to not get crushed under the beast. His back hit the rocky ground hard, the pain instantly flowing through his body, but it meant nothing as he heard the monster reach the ground as well.
That shrill scream, unnatural and impossibly loud in his head. He stopped himself from clutching his head at the noise, instead watching as the veins on Aleksi’s arm began to protrude out, a green glow leaving them as he charged forward. In an instant, years had been wiped from his movement, the body as fast as it had been during the war, and just as deadly.
But he was unused to it still, not able to resist the arrogance as his strong swing reached deep into the Neogi. The front-right leg was removed entirely, the blade going another hand-width in before locking in place from something hard. A moment was needed to remove the weapon, to retreat a bit away, but by then the beast had already moved. A sharp step forward had it barrel into the giant, the superior weight and its speed pushing him into the air as he fell back several meters.
He’s alright.
Elijah told himself that, wanting to believe it. He couldn’t dwell on it either, as a loud bang rang out, a flash of light coming from Jack's direction before the scream leaving the Neogi deepened in honest pain. A hole had appeared on its neck.
“It worked!” Jack exclaimed, first excited before the giant spider’s head looked over at him, the eight eel-like eyes staring at him with pure hatred. “Shit!”
Sasha moved, trying to reach the distracted monster, but the predator was faster. It leaped forward, reaching the young man before he could flee. The gun was empty, the dagger was still in its sheath, and the long teeth bit the man’s arms and lower body without hesitation.
Oh no.
A scream of pain left the man before Sasha finally reached the Neogi. A dagger embedded itself in its abdomen, but it cared little as its teeth continued to dig into Jack.
Then the Void of Energy showed off the upgrade in desorption, all the kinetic energy absorbed leaving her instantly. As if a meteor had traveled through the monster, a clean hole through its stomach instantly appeared. Only the diameter of a palm, but it was a meter-deep wound regardless.
The Neogi instantly forgot Jack, the long neck twisting to bite at Sasha. She dodged, using her position to avoid the needle-teeth reaching for her. And, most importantly of all, she was just delaying it.
Aleksi was back on his feet, axe in hand as he lunged for the wounded spider. It could do nothing but briefly hiss as the bloodied blade struck through its throat. There was nothing held back, the axe going through cleanly without stopping for the crunching of semi-bone structure inside the monster.
It was dead instantly, the body flopping to the ground while the three stood over it. The legs twitched and curled together, as the mind no longer controlled them, but Elijah didn’t care for the reasons behind such a reaction. He instead hurried to the side of Jack, the young man rapid-firing curses as he clutched his stomach.
“Shit, this hurts,” he said through tears and gritted teeth, fighting Elijah as he tried to get a look at the injury. It was bleeding, blood coating the kid’s hands already. “Can— Fuck. Can you do something?”
“If you stop being a pain in the ass, maybe,” Elijah replied, Sasha reaching down to pull the man’s hands away while he looked. Punctures were seen, fitting the countless teeth of the monster. It was good that it hadn’t been able to get in from the back of the man as well, as that would’ve allowed it to get a hit much closer to the spine. “You’ll live, if this works as I hope.”
“You hope?!”
“Sasha, hold him down,” Elijah requested calmly while pulling out the spirit to clear the wound of anything foreign. He didn’t have the proper supplies along to clean the wounds of whatever nasty things the Neogi’s fangs had on them, but this would have to do. And it was effective, going by the cursing and thrashing that Jack did as he poured it on.“Tighter, please.”
“Just fix it,” she countered without regard for his request. Elijah spent a moment looking at her, seeing that look of mild worry on her face. Even with the mildly friendly relationship that had started between the two, this was more than he’d expected from her. “Stop thinking and act.”
“Just waiting on the Mana to be ready,” Elijah replied smoothly, as he inserted the first layer of ointment. Not a direct healing concoction, since anything would have a hard time with how much blood was still pouring out, but this would slow it down. And be painful as everything was forced to close and redirect, going from the moans of pain leaving Jack. “Bite into this, if you want to keep your tongue.”
He stuffed some cloth into the man’s mouth before they could protest. Making sure the blood flow had slowed somewhat, the healing paste came next. Not as high-quality as he would’ve preferred, but it would have to be enough.
It was smeared on, his Mana was channeled through it, and the healing properties were accelerated to a stupid degree as flesh was knitted together before their eyes. Wounds that would’ve taken months to fully recover from, if ever, came together at once, nerves exposed in the empty air before being covered by the proper muscle and skin.
Jack screamed through the cloth, but that was to be expected at this point, the bleeding was stopping but the injury wasn’t fading as Elijah was hoping it would.
And when he stopped channeling his Mana into the body, the redness below the regrown skin began to push through. It was still happening internally. The new blood vessels were not able to take the pressure.
“That isn’t good,” Elijah muttered, wondering how to do this. Slow the flow further? It would kill Jack before it had a chance to help. Going unconscious would likewise drop the blood pressure to dangerous levels, and then the issue would only increase. Making him relax… not a chance.
‘I’m useful!’ Dawn reminded him, appearing on the hand that touched the reddened area. The duck jumped off him, landing on Jack's stomach with no regard for the shout of pain that came because of it. ‘Watch!’
He did because he couldn’t react before Dawn started it all up. Jack’s scream increased when roots sprouted from her feet, digging into his flesh and the wounded area. The splitting of newly made flesh had to have been painful beyond belief, yet Elijah didn’t stop the duck. Not when he saw the effect it had.
Through all the screaming, through all the pleading from Jack for it to end, the red flesh stopped swelling, stopped spreading to the sides, and steadily returned to its previous form. There was clear pain, something that didn’t cease, but ten seconds in it did begin to reduce in strength as the last parts of the swelling were removed. Ignoring the roots that stuck out of the stomach, he was healthy once more.
‘Useful!’ Dawn shouted at Elijah again, removing the roots with a quick pull that made a final yelp leave Jack before the space they’d occupied also regrew. ‘See? See?’
‘... Didn’t know you could heal directly,’ was everything Elijah could comment, seeing the healthy flesh. Slightly paler, maybe, but the coloring was steadily returning. ‘Though I should’ve guessed you could do something like it since you could produce the healing paste when pressed. I’m guessing you could increase the concentration of it when in liquid form?’
‘Yes! I’m useful.’
‘Truly. We’ll have to test it out more tomorrow..’
“Is… Is it over?” Jack asked when Sasha pulled the cloth out of his mouth. When they confirmed as much, letting him feel at the wound, the air of tiredness began to wash over the man. Adrenaline leaving the body had that effect. “I was not a fan of that. Next time you’re bringing some meds to dull the pain.”
“The ointment I put on at the start did reduce the pain,” Elijah supplied, making the man pale. “Without it, your pants would be covered in more than blood and you wouldn’t be awake to notice it.”
Sasha commented on the state of Jack, but he ignored it in favor of walking over to Aleksi. He was worried about the giant, who stood next to the beheaded corpse of the Neogi with a blank expression. The green veins were still on his arms, on the exposed part of the chest, and the glow was unmistakable when looking into his eyes.
They shined so brightly inside the Dungeon.
“How are you feeling?” Elijah asked, pulling out a bottle of cold tea he’d prepared for the day before. It’d been infused with the concentrated Sundrop Flower extract along with the other ingredients meant to help with heart palpitations.
“A lot,” Aleksi said in a low voice. The giant’s bloody hand felt at his face, uncaring about how it smeared on the skin. “Time goes by faster outside of fighting. My heart is taking it surprisingly well, but I can feel the strain regardless. There are so many small wounds that the elixir is trying to take care of right now. It feels endless. Is it obvious when you look at me?”
“Yeah, I can see it,” he replied, a growl leaving the giant’s throat because of it. The waves of that sickly green energy flowing through Aleksi’s body were obvious. To the naked eye, it could be seen in the pulsating veins, yet his sight went deeper than that. He knew the man’s flesh in and out, and he could see all the small imperfections being forcefully corrected. “It’s trying to put you back to what you were like when you were in your twenties. Not a terrible thing, truthfully.”
“I’d prefer my wrinkles undisturbed, thank you very much.”
A wince left the giant a second later, making him accept the bottle and down the contents in seconds. Elijah had personally hoped it would be consumed slowly through a full day, but he supposed this also had some benefits to it.
‘Can I help?’ Dawn asked, watching the giant from Elijah’s shoulder.
‘Not this time,’ Elijah replied. He didn’t comment as Aleksi hunched forward a little, something in his spine resettling itself. A painful endeavor, and an extreme one at that if the pain-reduction from the elixir didn’t mute it.
“How long do you think it’s going to take to return to normal?” Aleksi asked, blinking to get out the waste that was pushed out from further inside his skull. Best not to consider what it was. “Hiding torn clothes won’t be hard, but these aren’t exactly easy to miss.”
That the green pupils acted as their own miniature lanterns did somewhat put a damper on their progress upwards. At least it allowed them to rest somewhat, letting pulses get down to normal levels while the injuries sustained were gone entirely.
With any hope, they would get back to the house soon.