Right on time, as the curtain of daytime rose outside the dungeon and nighttime began within the mural of the dungeon's ceiling, Morrigan silently flew back to the hidden chamber of the dungeon, bypassing the new tile traps effortlessly since she never set foot on any of them. Morrigan then shifted back into her human form, the ring on her right hand's ring finger even brighter than it was the day before, so bright that it almost succeeded in capturing Hebe's attention this time around. Alas, when Morrigan spoke but a moment later, Hebe swiftly put it out of her mind and focused on her words with all of her being. Her mind felt as sharp as the keenest blade as she awaited the next lesson.
"Little sis! I see that you have succeeded, and have managed to add to your dungeon's reportaire no less! Just as expected from one such as you," Morrigan complimented, with a wily grin gracing her beautiful features.
"Big sis, what is the next thing you wanted to show me!" Hebe impatiently asked, skipping any formalities to get straight to the heart of the matter.
"One step at a time, little sis! I love what you have done with yourself and all but those traps are still useless, even against land-bound intruders," Morrigan commented with a click of her tongue.
"Useless!?" Hebe was stunned. The traps that she had worked so hard on and felt such pride for were actually hailed as useless by her elder sister! "Why are they useless? What did I do wrong!?"
"Now, now, its not that you did anything wrong per-say, rather its ineffectiveness is due to your inferior experience," Morrigan responded lightly.
"Please guide me, big sis!" Hebe immediately said, after she heard her elder sister's response and calmed down.
"You probably did not notice before due to it being done effortlessly by your dungeon instincts, but haven't you wondered why you have absolute control over the things within your dungeon? I mean, you created a few statue golem monsters to guard your audience chamber and yet they never once made any aggressive movements toward me. Moreover, your pitfall trap utilizes a vacuum that by all rights should suck out both your ambient magic and any intruder, acting like an open wound or leak, but only the air part of your atmosphere is affected instead, thus safely pulling in intruders whilst leaving you unharmed. These occurrences are, in fact, not natural for any being other than dungeon's and perhaps gods. What you are unconsciously using is the unique dungeon ability that is called the 'dungeon rule'," Morrigan informed Hebe.
Hebe did not bat an eye when Morrigan gave extremely precise commentary on her traps' functions despite having never seen them in action before, since she took it as natural to be able to see through such magical phenomena. That somewhat odd reasoning and acceptance that was observed by Morrigan caused her to silently wonder why the dungeon was so confident that the intruders would not be able to do the same. 'Maybe its her instincts?' Morrigan thoughtfully reasoned.
"You can also use the dungeon rule to have the tiles be hidden from magical senses and to have them constantly shift around, that way intruders would be hard pressed to avoid them even if they had prior warning," Morrigan said to the surprised Hebe.
"Furthermore, you can use your 'dungeon rule' to command the traps of the dungeon to only work on certain magical densities, that you can specifically target every race other than the monster race and prevent your spawned monsters from activating the traps themselves. Just be particularly careful when setting a 'dungeon rule' and traps in an area with your spawned monsters, since monsters' magical densities vary according to their species and may even match that of the intruders' themselves," Morrigan continued, cautioning Hebe as she expounded on the use of her ability.
Hebe wasted no time and reached within her herself naturally as she willed the world within her dungeon body to change its existence based on her whims. The traps were instantly molded to respond only to magical densities other than the level possessed by her statue golems. Heb could feel that her subconscious desire had been keeping her statue golems from assaulting Morrigan thus far and expanded on that desire. With an exertion of her will another 'dungeon rule' was formed, nothing in her dungeon was ever allowed to hurt her big sister! The last 'dungeon rule' was still in line with Morrigan's suggestions as she made it so that the tile traps' were hidden from magical senses and would at unpredictable intervals of time shift their positions randomly, such that the tiles were as spread out and the more powerful traps were placed away from the others.
"Now that you're done with that, little sis, the true lesson can begin. Listen well little sis, for this will be last lesson that I impart onto you," Morrigan said, with an odd amount of solemnity that Hebe did not manage to catch.
"Mnnn!" Hebe responded, satisfied.
"I learned this from a guy that I once dated, of the beastman race," Morrigan said with a blush covering her cheeks, giving her already pretty features an even more seductive allure.
"You see, the beastman race, as I have explained to you before, is a non-magical race. While they can absorb massive amounts of magic with their excellent physiques and use it to temper their bodies, they can't use that magic at all. Its like, the magic simply flows like water through their grabbing hands an dissipates like smoke into their bodies, vanished into oblivion. Yet, in spite of the beastmens' great strength they still have to compete with the various magical senses and abilities of the world's magical races," Morrigan said, to the curious Hebe. 'What would it be like without magic?', she briefly wondered.
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"So in order to combat the magic wielding races of the world they developed a technique that later on became widespread amongst warriors, 'aura'! This technique can be used by any individual with a powerful body, but it works best on the beastmen race. 'Aura' is a manifestation of a body's presence or pressure, yet its also like an extension of the body's 6th sense. 'Aura's' goal is to manipulate or damage senses by targeting the sense receptors and nervous system of the body, particularly sense receptors which are generally weak spots protected by certain body parts such as eyelids, tusks/teeth, flaps, etc. It can however be used to combat magic at higher levels once the body becomes powerful enough and the 'aura' does more than manifest as an ethereal construct, condensing into a tangible physical form," Morrigan said.
"However, it must be understood that when 'aura' manipulates or damages the body's nervous system or sense receptors, it messes with the physical body in a different way than the way 'mental' magic messes with the mind or 'soul' magic messes with the spirit. 'Mental' magic alters and manipulates memories. 'Soul' magic alters and manipulates the spirit, changing potential and possibly leading to the weakening or the withering of the body or the reverse effect of strengthening and revitalizing the body," Morrigan clarified.
"But how do I use it?" Hebe asked.
"You have to feel your body down to its every last particle and rip out your own 6th sense. Though magical aura is a different phenomena all together, you can also use magic to leverage this 6th sense and exert your body's pressure or presence. Thus, having a powerful body and plentiful internal magic, or mana, helps immensely. Using 'aura' takes extremely fine control or talent," Morrigan said as she released a fine 'aura' from her body. To Hebe's amazement, Morrigan actually wasn't as great at using 'aura' as she was at everything else and had to carefully focus on her task.
Morrigan used the ominous and alluring 'aura' to form a barrier around her human form and disappeared completely from Hebe's dungeon senses. No matter how hard Hebe tried, she could not find Morrigan's whereabouts. Nothing within the dungeon could escape Hebe's control or perception, yet Morrigan was nowhere to be found! Even when Hebe attempted to use magic to actively scan over the entire dungeon, wasting a few mana, it was like there was never anything there to begin with.
"Big sis?" Hebe called out, fearfully. Luckily when Hebe tried using her 'marking' magic a moment later, her cloud glyph lit up and revealed that Morrigan was still in the same spot as before.
"See? Your senses were totally fooled. That is about my limit when it comes to using 'aura' though! My old fling was able to do a lot more. He could make chains of 'aura' that bound and slowed down a person's speed and reaction time. Set up waves of 'aura' that would slowly disintegrate the body's nervous system and sensual organs for defense. He could form rains of 'aura' to confuse and beguile his enemies. He was even so skilled in 'aural' manipulation that he could use a vortex of 'aura' to counter magic and aura alike by cutting, draining, and dispersing them. His 'aural' vortex would tear bodies apart in such a pretty way," Morrigan said with a smitten look in her eyes, after she re-materialized when she dropped the barrier of 'aura'.
"Go on, try it," Morrigan said, crossing over to the throne in the audience chamber in one step to sit and wait for Hebe's efforts to bear fruit.
Hebe went into deep mediation as she searched through her entire dungeon body for any trace of her 6th sense. For her, this should be an easier task than others due to her large and powerful body and aided by her enormous store of mana. Minutes turned to hours as Hebe patiently searched for that spark that would help her manifest her aura. Even the impressions that she got from her foreign memories were called into question as she leapfrogged from one experience to another to find the sensation of the 6th sense.
The 6th sense is supposed to be a supernatural extra sensory organ that detects fluctuations in a person's space-time continuum. From mentions of their name a town away, to premonitions about their impending future, the 6th sense is defined in many various ways. In the queen monster's memory, though she did not train her 'aura', she did have a strong 6th sense that would warn her of impending danger long before it arrived and that would highlight her prey's fear, even if they hid it exquisitely well. For Morrigan, her 6th sense helped her to attune herself to a target's potential and helped her to steer their path in a different direction, often one that leads to adventure- the failure of which sometimes led to pain and misery. But what does Hebe's 6th sense do?
'Build. Create. Make more, make bigger. Command, delegate, defend territory.' Hebe's dungeon Instincts were a mile long and presumably also the source of her 6th sense. Hebe took her Dungeon instincts and projected them outwards with a push of her will. An aura of chaotic creation began to emanate from Hebe's dungeon body and her pale-white pearl core. She easily formed barriers, walls, chains, even spears of 'aura' effortlessly. Manipulating her 'aura' was surprisingly supremely simple. Morrigan was stunned, she thought that Hebe would be a good match for the 'aural' technique, but this...! Wasn't Hebe basically a prodigy in using 'aura'!? It took Morrigan months to gain enough mastery to make a simple barrier...
"Alright little sis, let us celebrate your success with a contract," Morrigan said, with a defeated look on her face as she stepped away from her seat on the throne to the pale-white pearl core's side.
"Ok!" Hebe happily responded.
"You should be able to instinctively initiate such a contract with me. A soul contract! One of equals, where both participants give up a part of soul to the other to connect them for a lifetime," Morrigan said, with a shaky smile.
The two, a dungeon and a mysteriously powerful raven bound their souls together for a lifetime, as equals. Hebe at the time was absolutely bursting with happiness and did not notice Morrigan's sad expression.
"Here, take this, as a binding gift, little sis. May we meet soon again in circumstances just as bright!" Morrigan said, throwing the bright ring on her finger onto the pale-white pearl core. The ring sunk into the pale-white pearl and floated within the gaseous haze harmoniously like a newly born star within a nebula.
"Meet again?" Hebe asked, confused.
"Farewell, little sis. I will return when you are strong enough to handle a relationship with me! It was fun, but I don't want my enemies to find and destroy your beautiful heart. Get stronger quickly, ok!" Morrigan said, as she returned to her true form as a iridescent black raven that shone purple under the light.
"No, big sis! Stay!" Hebe yelled with panic, attempting to lock Morrigan in the hidden chamber. She failed. Morrigan swiftly flew away into the distance with a sad caw of sorrow.
Hebe was crushed. The last thing that she expected today was for her elder sister to leave. Apparently when she meant that she would be giving her last lesson, she really meant it as in the last lesson that she would give for some time. Hebe swore to herself then, on the new soul connection that she felt strongly binding her to her elder sister, that her strength would grow. Fast enough to see her big sister again as soon as possible. Grand enough that when she did Morrigan would not be able to so easily escape her grasp again!