“Such fire was not by water to be drowned,

Nor he his nature changed by changing ground.”

-Ludovico Ariosto, from Canto XXVIII, stanza 89 (tr. W. S. Rose)

==Tarrae==

After being let back into the dungeon, we had slogged through the Meadow. The power of the illusion covering both it, and the Grotto, was impressive. A combination of extreme subtly mixed with overwhelming power.

Walking in the sun and breezes had been easy enough, and the normal monsters were never difficult enough for concern, but the sudden storms were a different story.

Slick grass and mud were churned up under our feet with every step, each of us careful not to slip in the precarious conditions. Low points among the hills had become temporary streams that gathered into raging rivers.

Enduring it once would not have been so bad, except we had done it far more than that.

Part of the day had already come and gone when we made our first trip through the Meadow, if you could call it day here. The contrast between a starry sky and a single sunlit day was stark when both were seen no more than a matter of moments apart.

We finished the Meadow, defeated the dancing mirage bird boss, and collected a rather impressive piece of loot. Norana had been treating the beautiful shimmering shield like a speck of dirt might harm it irreparably.

I had lost count of how many times I had seen her polishing it. And this was despite never getting the chance to use it in the field. There was no way we were trusting a shield without having a specialist examine it first.

Admittedly, Norana was unusually serious about maintaining all her armor. Her usual cheerfulness fell away as she scrubbed and polished the metal pieces at the end of every day. Her arms moved in circles across the metal in slow smooth motions, dragging a brush across the metallic surface. Her arms bulged and flexed as her face settled into a stoic peace, her steady breaths acting in counterpoint to the rasping chorus of the brush. Her movements were so sure and steady, you could have timed the beat of a slow dance to the rhythm.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a meditation skill focused on armor maintenance. The rasp of a brush and the smooth whisper of a polishing cloth had become a comforting sound at the end of each day.

The end of each day, where each day seemed to be more and more useless, because we dared not go farther into the dungeon. Well, not entirely useless. I knew that the training was good for us as a team, the combat continuing to polish out the rough patches in our combined style. Plus, both Norana and Soara had gained levels, which could only help them.

After defeating the Meadow the first time, we came home, unconcerned that Zidaun and the others had yet to return. It was unusual to be able to return to a central location in a dungeon. If they were in a longer section, then camping over the course of a night was hardly surprising.

In the morning, Anaath had checked in with the other Adar. They assured us that Zidaun was alive and well, and they would be able to tell if that changed.

I didn’t know how they knew, but it was unsurprising that Anaath refused to offer any details. All the Adar planning to stay had changed into a new form, however. Knowing Zidaun’s status was probably connected to that in some fashion. With Zidaun acting as their new leader, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a leadership skill connected to at least one of them. Eh, or one of them could have a skill telling them about him.

The sheer breadth of skills possible made it impossible to know, and that was just with humans. Who knew what different skills the Adar might have?

Regardless, with no sign of the other party, we decided to run through the Meadow again. There were seven routes we hadn’t taken yet. The boss of the Meadow had proven easy enough for us, but that was with the skills of both me and Soara.

Soara could pinpoint the boss through sound, despite its visual obfuscations. And I could fight against its light directly with my own skills. Without those, it could have been a very difficult battle. It had left dents and shallow cuts in Norana’s armor and shield, even when she was able to see it and position properly. With attacks coming at unknown angles, it might have caused serious injury. And for any normal party, the defeat of the Bulwark could lead into a complete loss.

We didn’t know what Zidaun’s party had run into farther in. Their levels and skills were above our own, even if we couldn’t tell exactly how much.

So we waited, taking the prudent route, even if I wanted to rush headlong into the next section. And then we waited some more.

It had now been more than a week, and we had gone through every single section of the Meadow. We had even gone back and mapped out every section of the Sewers and the Refuge. We had seen the Adar everywhere. They were constantly delving, the dungeon completely full at every hour of the day.

The Adar had made a few discoveries of their own, due to that. Areas of the dungeon only allowed eight parties at a time. Trying to enter an area that was already full resulted in the formation of a queue; the teleportation only happened once an area was cleared.

Anyone sitting in an area too long, however, was automatically teleported back to the Starlight Grotto, and then refused entrance until a full day had passed. The same party trying it again, after that, lead to the party being teleported all the way to the cold entrance to the north, outside the dungeon entirely. It had been three days before they were allowed back into even the tunnel that climbed back into the dungeon. Each time they had tried to reenter, they had found themselves dumped back outside and covered with a sheet of water.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Apparently, the dungeon was not tolerant of anyone that wanted to waste its time and the Adar team had not tried it again.

I doubted the Adar would have even mentioned it to me, or been so persistent in testing the dungeon’s limits, but apparently Zidaun had ordered the Adar to properly map the dungeon, and to share that information with us. He hadn’t bothered to tell us that, but it was a nice thought, nonetheless. Though we had had enough time to map everything up to the end of the Meadow by ourselves now.

Some of the higher leveled Adar had gone past the Meadow as well. None had returned so far.

I assumed the next area was simply time consuming in some fashion, but without confirmation we were not going to go any further. No matter how maddening the wait might become. As team leader, I was the one holding us back, and I wasn’t sure whether that made my impatience better or worse.

Two days ago more Adar had shown up, all of them looking like relatives to Anaath. Assuming he had thousands of relatives, anyway. Maybe he did, who knows? Not like anyone knew how the Adar’s society and reproduction actually worked.

Anaath had taken the time to visit with some of them, though he didn’t bother to tell us who he talked with, let alone what he talked about.

Anaath’s attitude was proving as spiky as his thorny hair.

It was obvious he was bitter and upset about something, but none of us had known him long enough to know what it was, or get him to open up to us. And, after visiting the other Adar, he seemed even more dour than usual. Or maybe it was just the contrast in mood between when he was away versus present.

As leader of the team I had tried talking to him a few times, but he first ignored me and claimed ignorance, and then told me it was none of my business.

It didn’t seem to hamper his ability to function while we were delving, so I was forced to leave it alone.

Other adventurers had started to trickle in over the course of the last day.

Mostly, it was new adventurers. New teams that either looked far too bright and excited or were composed of the desperate.

They needed to go through the dungeon’s trials before entering, and the wan faces of the weary had contrasted against the impatience of the eager youth.

I was fairly certain it was one of the desperate who discovered each person could get up to three points worth of little crystal tokens from the sacrifice room.

Blood. Drop in roughly a thimble’s worth of your own blood and it would give back a single point. You couldn’t get more than three points this way, though the altar would clean up any excess fluids left in it.

We weren’t sure what to feel about that.

It… was a very literal interpretation of sacrifice, and losing a small amount of blood was harmless enough on its own. However, there were some very dangerous magics and rituals that could be done with blood… but a dungeon wasn’t exactly a harmless environment.

If a dungeon wanted your blood, it would probably get some at some point. Injuries were an inevitable part of dungeon delving.

No one reported any kind of status effects or issues as a result, however, with the one exception of someone who was overly enthusiastic in their donation. The mild anemia status was hardly a surprise, considering.

And then, today, we had gone into the dungeon again. It was all the same, even if the exact timing of the storms was sporadic. Over the past week one of our Meadow runs had managed to skip the storms entirely; while on another we had dealt with two.

Today we dealt with the normal singular storm, and then proceeded to beat the boss again. And, for the first time in a long while, I gained a level.

Your level has increased by one.

Status

Name: Tarrae

Race: Human

Subtype: Male

Health: 99% - Incredibly Healthy

Status Effects: Mild Tiredness, Insignificant Injuries

Mana: 783/1260

Primary Level: 21

Class: Flare Shaper

Former Classes: Child, Mercantile Apprentice, Mage Student, Light Mage

Ability Points: 3450

Class Skills:

Mana V

Spell Craft II

Mana Manipulation III

Light Sovereign II

Heat Sovereign III

Titles:

Beloved Child

Defiant II

Avid Student II

Mana Specialist IV

Mana Domain I

Back From the Brink II

Dungeon Delver II

Despite the previous tedium, I smiled wildly.

“I gained a level!” I said enthusiastically.

The others gathered around to offer congratulations, even Anaath. Whatever funk seemed to be holding him back, he was at least able to engage in the time honored tradition of congratulations and celebration.

Seeing Anaath act happy is starting to feel unnatural.

I shook my head at the thought. Hopefully he would get over it soon enough. If not… well I had dealt with worse quirks in my teammates than grumpiness.

Finally past level twenty.

As we proceeded into the tree and to the exit, I couldn’t help but smile widely.

Getting past twenty was one of the big ones. Really, making it past any multiple of ten was considered a big deal. Make it past level ten and you were considered more than a rookie. Past level twenty you were a real adventurer. Make it past thirty, and you were a veteran. Forty, fifty, and the rest…

Well, those were hopes for the future. Make it past fifty and you started to become a legend.

Not than anyone intelligent actually said what their levels were.

Still, with skills and experience, people could make good approximations.

As happy as I was with the level, I was hoping my skills would increase soon as well.

My abilities to manipulate light had been improving as I had fought to negate the Mirage Dancer’s own abilities.

My teammates didn’t know I had any domain skills, of course. Exceptional control of light and heat, of course, and some impressive spells featuring both, had been widely displayed. If we ended up becoming a more permanent team I would tell them, but that kind of advantage should not be casually revealed.

I hadn’t managed to combine and consolidate my sensing and shaping skills together until after I had become a Flare Shaper. If I managed to get my sovereign skills up high enough, I might trigger another change to a new class. And a class focusing on domain skills could be powerful indeed.

As impatient as I was, I could hardly deny that a dungeon filled with illusions and with a prominent boss using a form of light manipulation, was exceptional training.

We returned for the day, my heart more content than usual.

The last hours of the day slipped away under an endless night; the soft sounds of a wire brush and steel repeated softly in a subtle melody. We spend time together, reflecting on the day, and soon enough we slept.