You have been awarded 3000 experience for defeating Hound of Tendata- Level 20

You have leveled up! You have reached level 16! Hard work, dedication, and luck have guided your steps. Blood, sweat, and tears have forged your path. Grow and strive forward into the horizon. Through the completion of your trials and labors, you have taken another step into the future. Your hard work has earned you the following rewards.

Category

Per level Unspent Points Attribute Points Because your Aetheric nature your per-level rewards have been modified. You have been awarded 7 Attribute Points to distribute however you like. 7 Skill Progression +25% Progress to any skill of your choice. 25%

Your familiar Sanaa has leveled up! Your familiar has reached level 14

Your familiar Tenebris has leveled up! Your familiar has reached level 14

Once again the dangerous battle was completely worth it. I had no idea what "Tendata" was but its hound was the level 20. It was the most powerful creature I had fought so far which was not good. If I hadn't been able to summon the Aurelion we might have died. Especially with that debuff. I couldn't help but grin as I thought about the dungeon so far. It was hard but it was also simple. This whole world was simple. All I had to do was keep leveling up. Assuming I didn't die in the process I would have power. I could get authority and power just by leveling. Hell if I wanted to look better I could just boost my Charisma, if I wanted to be physically fit just put the points into one of the physical attributes. I haven't spent a lot of time in other kingdoms but I could assume that higher level people were in charge of most things. I stopped my wandering mind and turned back to where I should put my points. I had to assume that my leveling speed would decrease soon. Assuming I couldn't just immediately jump into the next dungeon I wouldn't have access to high level creatures. Even if I did my citizens would also need to gain power. I couldn't go around and kill everything for them.

I decided to keep with the original plan. I wasn't sure how bad having a base 10 agility would be but I have had to dodge more and more attacks. Especially since the only barrier spell I have is for Pyro magic. If I come across a fire based creature or a pyromancer I would be screwed. I put three points into Perception bringing it up to twenty and the last four went into agility. Next I put my skill progression into Lumos Magic and got a new notification.

Your skill Lumos Magic has leveled. Lumos Magic has reached level 17.You can now learn new spells.

I really needed to find more magic items. I needed a combat set of robes if not many sets plus more rings and, well, everything else. It was still a bit too early for me to start patting myself on the back. I turned my attention to Sanaa and Tenebris. Their progress was less interesting than mine. They had gained one ability point each, which wasn’t enough to buy anything. Their attributes had increased, which was always good, though their HPs were still too low. I wondered if they could get magic items, but there was nothing to be done about that right now. I waved the screens away and continued forward. I summoned a sphere of light and sent it down into the darkness. The sphere’s golden yellow light disappeared around fourteen feet down.

“Just put one foot in front of the other.” I muttered to myself as I focused my gaze on the opposite end of the bridge. There was another of the medusa doors, only this one was half as big as the one that started all of this. I made it halfway across when something happened. My blood ran cold as black tentacles reached up from the darkness and lunged for us. I wobbled on my feet, dodging the first pair of tentacles before the third hooked my leg. I grabbed hold of the stone bridge as the tentacle pulled me down.

“Master!” Tenebris and Sanaa shouted into my mind in unison before unleashing their breath weapons. I caught sight of a horrific creature. It looked like the amalgamation of corpses with cracked skin and way too many mouths. The creature undulated and let loose a ball of black ichor. The ichor hit me in the back and my skin burned. I screamed in pain as my hp dropped by 25 points. The pain blinded me and the monster nearly ripped me out of the platform. I slammed the staff on top of the bridge.

“Blind it!” I screamed and tried to pull myself back onto the platform. A flash of light behind me told me Sanaa had activated her second ability. The creature’s tendril relaxed slightly. I ripped my ankle free and for a long moment, I was dangling in open air. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. I pulled myself up moments later. Adrenaline shot through my veins as I both wanted to lay down and run a marathon. I picked up my staff and surveyed the battle. Part of me wanted to continue the fight, but why? I looked at the other side of the bridge and found the door was still there. As far as I could tell, there was nothing stopping me. I looked at my familiars before turning and sprinting for the door.

“Come on!” I demanded through the bond. I felt their reluctance to flee, and I worried if they would ignore me. In a moment that lasted entirely too long, they acquiesced and flew toward me. I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. I reached the door a few seconds later. I pressed both hands into the door and forced it open. Sanaa and Tenebris flew through a second after. Once I was clear of the door, I grabbed it and slammed it shut. A pair of black tendrils shot for my throat, only to be severed by the stone.

“Holy shit.” I laughed and laughed while looking down at the severed tendrils. The panic at being suspended over a pit who knows how high met with the thrill of being in battle. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and took a deep breath. Once I had calmed down, I turned my attention to the tendrils. They were still squirming a bit like octopi tentacles, only much creepier. I reached out and touched one of them, prepared to blast it if I need to. Instead, I received a prompt that gave me mixed feelings.

Stolen novel; please report.

You have found: Undead Amalgamation Tentacle Herb Class: Unknown

Item Quality: Unknown

Item Rarity: Super Rare

Weight: Unknown

I stared down at the two tentacles and sighed. I knew what I needed to do, but I really didn’t want to. I gathered up the tentacle and left them inside the ring. I would need to speak with Amara when I got back. Assuming we had alchemists, they might give me something that would let me store things like this properly. Either way, it wasn’t something I could deal with right now. I was pulled from my thoughts when my familiars landed on my shoulders. I glanced over their stats and was pleased that they hadn’t taken damage.

“Are you two ready to keep going?” They both let out a roar, which made me chuckle. I turned and surveyed the room. It was a nearly identical room to the last one, only instead of a mural there was a mirror made out of a dull black glass. I made my way over to it while keeping my staff raised, just in case. I reached the massive plane of glass a moment later. When I peered into it, I realized that it wasn’t a mirror. Or rather, it wasn’t reflecting the room I was in. My room was mostly empty. It had some artistic designs on the wall and the statues of the three women, but the image reflected had people in it. There were five of them, and they were in the middle of a fight. Three of them were young women with staves raised. The other two were soldiers dressed a bit like the man from the entrance. The truly weird part was that they would start to attack each other and then stop. The image would reset and they would do it all over again.

“Is it some kind of puzzle? Do I need to choose one of them to win the fight?” I watched the scene play out again and shook my head. “That wouldn’t make sense, though. This was clearly a fortress or safe haven. The men had to have been invaders, so why would I be able to choose to help the enemy?”

My eyes went wide when it came to me. This wasn’t a puzzle. Every Disney fairy tale I had ever heard of went through my mind. These people were trapped inside the mirror. I reached forward and tapped the image, and all five faces turned and looked at me. They moved with unsettling precision and locked eyes with me. I staggered back a step.

No sooner than my wits came back to me, a prompt appeared in my vision.

You have received the Quest: Mirror of the Soul

You have discovered several souls imprisoned for eternity. It is within your power to offer limited assistance. Will you offer your power?

Success Condition: Free the Souls from the Mirror of Internment

Reward: Unknown

Penalty for Refusal or Failure: Unknown

Do you accept?: Yes or No

I accepted the quest and turned my attention to the mirror. As far as I could tell, there was no way for me to do anything. The mirror was inside of the stone so I couldn’t just pick it up and drop it. I also couldn’t be sure that doing that wouldn’t just kill everyone inside. I also felt like the solution had to be magical. Based on the way the figures in the mirror were dressed, it looked it was a fight between witches and knights. The only question is why the witches were trapped as well. Either the knights had some kind of mirror weapon or the witches used it as a deterrent? If I assumed the witches did this to themselves, then they were losing whatever conflict they were in. Either way, I had no way of knowing what was right, nor did knowing really help me. I needed to figure out how to deal with it.

“Any ideas?” I asked while pacing.

“We could use our breath attacks. The mirror might be weak to Lumos magic or Umbra magic.” Sanaa responded while stretching along my arm.

“We could attempt to enter the mirror ourselves. It might only be possible to break it if we are inside it.” Tenebris added. I couldn’t reject the idea. The only problem was, what would I do if I got trapped in the mirror as well? It would be pretty stupid to try to save these people, only to get myself trapped with them. I ran my fingers around the edges of the mirror, looking to find a button, but there was nothing. Even touching the mirror again didn’t do anything. The figures inside the mirror had returned to staring at one another. It was a bit like watching a GIF just with real people, a magic mirror and a dangerous dungeon. With no other ideas, I stepped back and started casting. I had only made it through half the casting when symbols began glowing all along the mirror. They spread inward from the outside like ants before connecting in the middle. Once they met in the middle, a secondary circle formed, spreading across all the newly form quadrants. I dropped my hands as I took in the beauty of it. It was like a complex work of art. I immediately realized I had no fucking clue what I was doing. It was like I was staring at a surgery game where one wrong move would kill the patient.

“I assume neither of you know what these are?” When neither of them offered a response, I had my answer. I pressed a finger against the midpoint on the symbols and received a message.

Would you like to undo unknown seal?

Yes/No?

I selected yes and both of my familiars took off from my shoulders and aimed themselves at the mirror. The image of a complex spell circle fell over the mirror. It took me a second to realize that it was in the shape of a four-pointed star. Each point was in the same color as my Place of Power with the dot in the middle acting as a kind of pointer. Before I could do anything more, there was a sucking sound and a pull that brought my hand flat against the glass. In a burst of panic, I tried to pull away, but it was like the glass had become a vacuum. I pushed my panic down and watched my blue magic bar drain. I was about to have Tenebris and Sanaa help me when I noticed something strange. The symbols were spinning. It was a bit like watching gears move, each one was connected to the one next to it. I pressed the finger of my free hand against the symbol in the middle, hoping to remove it. A burst of searing pain told me that I had made a wrong choice. The drain on my magic points nearly tripled. I pulled my hand back and scanned the image. The symbol in the upper right had changed. It was less solid than I remembered. I pressed my finger into it. Nothing happened. Next I tried to will the point of my star over it. This time, the entire image shifted. The star expanded a bit like the reticle in a shooting game and the dot moved over the symbol.

A second later, the symbol shattered, a wave of triumph passed through me and I was just about to select the next symbol when the wall began to tremble. My eyes widened as I scanned the glass, trying to find what was going on. When I realized what had happened, I mentally cursed myself. The upper right side of the mirror was missing a piece about as big as my fingernail. I couldn’t tell if the glass had broken off or if had sunk back into the stone and it ultimately didn’t matter. I should have assumed that there was more it than just breaking the spell. I couldn’t be sure, but there had to be a way to tell if the symbol I was working on would destabilize the entire thing. I scanned the symbol and found two more that were fading. To be more accurate, they had a kind of pulsing effect to them, as if they were trying to draw my attention. One was located in the same position as the one I was just working on, just on the mirrored side. The other was located further down the same chain I was just working on.

“Any ideas on which of these two I should target?” When neither of them offered a response, I instructed them to fly around the cavern. I couldn’t afford to be distracted inside a dungeon. It would be really stupid if I got eaten by some monster while trying to solver a puzzle. I was about to make my selection when the star disappeared. The entire symbol simply faded away, leaving only the mirror and its seal. At first I thought I had made some kind of mistake, but when I caught sight of my MP bar, I realized the truth. I had completely drained myself. It was a bit weird that I couldn’t tell when my magic points were draining. Stamina felt like being physically tired and Health hurt, but Magic felt like nothing. Thankfully, the sucking effect of the glass faded as well, so I could move away. I was tempted to drink a potion, but a quick calculation told me my magic points should recover soon and I had no way of knowing what threats still awaited me here. Instead, I took a seat and thought about what happened.

There had to be a solution to the puzzle. After all, someone made the seal, which meant that someone had to be able to unmake it. Hell, if I didn’t have to save the people inside, I could just break it, but that would cause me to fail the quest and I had no idea what would happen to the people inside. In the best-case scenario, they would be freed, and in the worst-case scenario, they would be lost forever. Either way, I wasn’t interested in rolling those dice. I replayed the memory in my mind and realized that the symbols were moving in order. They weren’t gears in how one moved the others. It was more accurate to say that they moved in sync with something else. So what if I had chosen the correct one? I just didn’t destroy it at the right time? I checked my MP bar, but I wasn’t even at a hundred and fifty points yet. I decided to take the chance to eat something. I summoned the last of the Sasaki balls and popped one into my mouth. I then tossed a pair into the air for Tenebris and Sanaa. I made another mental note to get a portable camping set stored in the ring as soon as possible. Once my MPs had fully recovered, I stood up and resumed my task.