With the ants finally back on track digging the main tunnel, albeit with a moderate detore, to the heart of the mountain and an idea for when they do finally make it to the kobold cave above the waterline, I turn my attention back to my sanctum. I know the kobolds probably won't cause trouble but something is unnerving about having an open doorway within spitting distance of my core.
I begin to form a door similar to the one at my entrance, however, I stop short after creating the frame as the ever present library of knowledge decides to impart something new on me. Generating a medallion and suspending it on small iron rods bisecting the frame vertically to center it in the doorway, I fill in the two halves of the door with a mesh of fine copper wires. Then encompass the medallion in a layer of iron before removing the coin entirely, cutting the form fitted medallion casing in half along its edge creating a form fitted mold of both sides. Turning them around to face back to back I fuse them and seat the inverted medallion in the metal rods. The door vibrates slightly after this and seats itself flush into the stone without me making it do so. Curious, I used Discern on the door to find out what exactly I had just done.
Medallion gate:
A magic barrier used to allow passage to those who have made contracts with a dungeon but restrict access to those without a singing medallion. A charged medallion must be placed in the receptacle with the proper orientation to match the molding inside the lock to unlock the barrier. Once placed a medallion gate cannot be removed or opened by a dungeon without the help of a willing medallion keeper. Medallion gates do not restrict the flow of mana regardless of location as long as the gate is within two rooms of the sanctum. Medallion gates can be brute forced to open with a strong enough magical blast or physical strike. Medallion gates will not open for dungeon bound creatures regardless of possession of a medallion for any reason as they are only intended for contracted individuals.
Well, I suppose that all makes sense, even if most of what I learned was inconvenient. Hopefully, Vesh can figure out how the door works if she comes by before I can explain it to her. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders though so I'm not particularly worried. Checking my mana I'm down to less than a quarter of my total capacity so I decide to take a break from making anything else for a while, and instead look inward to check my status
Level 16 Unnamed Rare Dungeon Core — Aspects: Terra II, Ignis II, Vitas III, Mors II, Aqua I, — Mana Volume: 19 of 100 Mana Density: 118 of 150 — Attribute Aether: 2 Attributes: Avatar Form III, Mana II, Metalworking II, Metallurgy I, Gem Crafting I, Alchemy I.— Mastery: Ignis, Vitas, Mors.— Bonded Creatures: 97, Named Creatures 3. Contracts1
“Finally!” I yell out in excitement to nobody in particular as I read my aspects, one of the kobold hatchlings must have had the water aspect, it may be biased but I'm tempted to go through and discern every single one of them to figure out which one and give it a name, the bane of my abilities to create has been, well maybe not conquered, but definitely diminished. I've also made level 16 which means I should have more options available for my avatar.
“Attributes.” I say, once again to nobody and my mind is shunted into the bluish gray sea of nothing, looking around as I orient myself as I view the gold and gray orbs around me. I only have two points to spend so I ignore everything else and head towards the choices for my avatar. The four new ones did become available at level 15, so I start my perusal. The first orbs image in the foggy mist was the IFAK on my hip. Pretty self explanatory, but I don't think it's something I'll need immediately. I continue on to the second orb, first the mist takes the shape of a human, then it morphs into what I assume is a kobold, and last it shifts into an ant, curiosity takes hold of me but I don't want to waste the point unnecessarily so I continue to the third orb.
The mist is clouded and unstable for a moment before it shows my trenching kit, an unwieldy roll of tools that clips onto the back of my webbing like a backpack complete with the massive pneumatic bolt cutters, a folding hand saw, a collapsible entrenching tool, bailing wire, and a very thick set of gloves for handling concertina wire, along with an assortment of pliers, hand drivers, and double sided wrenches. Everything a field engineer needs to build a fortified position with provided materials… and completely redundant in my current circumstances. Praying for something I might find useful I look to the fourth orb, the mist coalesces into the form of my ammo rig with one magazine topped off by a purple polymer shell and the spare shell loops have three of my custom brass shells in them.
Without hesitation I place my hand on the orb, channeling mana into it and watching as the orb slowly fills with golden light. One down, one to go. Looking back at the other three I walk past the trenching kit, and stop at the IFAK, but before I place my hand on it I take another look at the second orb, then back at the IFAK. Stepping away from the IFAK I plant a hand on the second orb, my curiosity having gotten the best of me.
As the orb begins to shift to gold, the other two unused options darken to a graphite gray-black, along with every orb connected beneath them, the black trails cascading to the bottom of the pyramid until a quarter of the total options are blacked out. Now turning to the IFAK orb once again I can't make out any shapes within, not even the swirling mana that used to be ever present and a sinking feeling hits me. It's like a closed end skill tree from a video game and I can't “mix” skills. If that's the case, then I likely just missed out on every other option connected to the trenching kit, such as industrial tools and construction materials, if I were to hazard a guess. And the IFAK, likely the rest of my old deployment kit… like my armor and miscellaneous supplies.
The ammo was a must so there's no regrets there, but I hope my curiosity didn't just bite me in the ass with whatever this is. I turn back to the orb and focus, this time on the label instead of the image. In hindsight, I probably should have read all the labels before making my decision.
"Polymorph." I mumble to myself out loud. I know I've heard that word before but for the life of me, I can't remember where from or what it means. I glance down at the rest of the pyramid, the zigzagging black orbs and their connected webs fill me with a small pang of worry, but I can't change it now so I focus on returning back to the real world. As the orbs start to fade out I expect the blue gray horizon to fade with them however it stays and soon I'm left in a field of nothing as a sense of deja vu strikes and a familiar voice sounds out from behind me.
“Hey-O boy-O, long time no see.” Anxiety grips my throat and I resist the urge to pinch the bridge of my nose and groan before turning around to see the unremarkable face of the mystery man, who for all intents and purposes, is likely one of the gods that presides over my new home.
“We’ve gotta stop meeting like this.” I say as I forcefully place as much humorous sarcasm into my voice as I can muster to hide the anxiety.
“I see you lost the knife and found a sense of humor, I knew I liked you.'' As he speaks his polite smile widens into an almost inhuman grin and I can't help but notice his teeth are not only perfectly white and aligned but every other tooth is pointed, a detail I somehow missed the first time we met. Suddenly we’re back in his cozy parlor with the swirling wood and crackling fire, and I am unable to move from the chair I was planted in.
“So, dazzle me with the names you came up with, I want to hear something extravagant, no, EXPLOSIVE, it needs to have a pop to it.” I just stared at him somewhat dumbfounded, as I had entirely forgotten to think up some names for the volatile crystal I had inadvertently created. As I stare at him he pulls a small notebook out of his vest pocket, along with a quill and inkwell, and after setting up his writing utensils on the small end table next to his chair he pulls a small pair of reading spectacles from the same pocket and places them at the end of his nose before flipping the notebook to its middle pages and looking up at me over his glasses.
“Well? I'm waiting.” In a panic, I blurb the first fantasy sounding material I can think of that comes to mind.
“Mythril.” He looks back down to his notebook and hundreds of pages flip by while the book still appears to be opened perfectly in the center pages.
“Taken.”
“Adamantium.” The process repeats.
“In use.”
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“Quicksilver”
“Due to be discovered in around a hundred years at current rates.”
“Cinnabar.”
“same as the last one.” I can feel my eye twitch and jaw tighten at that however the being sitting to my left seems undeterred, pinning me in a considerate gaze over his reading glasses. Losing hope of ever leaving this parlor, I begin sticking parts from random words together that sound remotely like a name that can be used for a crystal or metal.
“Eskium.”
“Try again.”
“Voglium.”
“It's not taken but I don't like it, next.”
“Why not?”
“It just sounds ugly, ‘Voglium’ ugh, no thanks.”
“Dreorium.”
“It's a gas”
“Mesinite.”
“Nope.”
“Adrium.”
“Discovered last millennia by cavemen on a different planet. Next”
“What?”
“Next.”
“Hegrite.”
“Already taken. You aren't very good at this are you?”
“Upleysium.”
“Like the plant?”
“What plant?” I ask exasperated and starting to run out of coherent things to say.
“Next name.”
“Plaonium?” I say in a pleading tone.
“Was that a question or an answer?” Ignoring him I move on to the next name I can think of.
“Etheirium.”
“Hmm…” He muses to himself as the notebook flips frantically back and forth through hundreds upon hundreds of pages. “Not taken, and it has a nice ring to it. Etheirium… Etheirium… That works.” He says with a shrug, snatching up his quill and writing something into the notebook before dipping the quill once more and adding in some illustrative strokes that I imagine are his signature before snapping the notebook shut and dropping it back into the bottomless chasm of his vest pocket.
“No takebacksies.” I say in an exhausted tone, eliciting a deep chuckle from the being now standing across from me.
“I'm a god, I can 'takebacksies' whatever I want whenever I want, but no I think I've tormented you enough. For now at least.” Steeling my nerves and attempting not to upset him, I reply.
“Well even if you are a god I still haven't heard of you, or learned your name.” I say hoping to bait even the smallest bit of information out of him. To this, the god scoffs.
“Figures, nobody talks about the old gods anymore. I am Alzzar, God of misfortune, mischief, and trickery, and the forbearer of monsters and dungeons.” I ponder that for a moment before responding.
“Misfortune, mischief, and trickery I can see together, and maybe monsters but dungeons seems like a bit of a wild card in the deck, seeing how they are supposed to be um... helpful”
“Even the most carefree and aloof of us have to perform some notable duties to stay relevant. Otherwise, we fall into obscurity. But I think we've chatted enough for now. One last thing, as the patron saint of dungeons, I think I've got a nice little boon for you since you've played along with my games without any complaints, or at least not many, and you've managed to entertain me so far.”
“Oh?” I say while raising an eyebrow, not particularly excited for whatever may happen next.
“I name you Lance, Avatar of the Etheirium dungeon.” After his proclamation he struts up to me and places a familiar blue crystal in my hand which is so cold it burns slightly before it evaporates. Looking back up at the god standing over me he grins, his pointed teeth shining in the gentle light from the fireplace. He winks before suddenly, and violently, I am once again falling back to the planet from an obscene height.
After my mind-numbingly long fall, I hit my barrier and am transported into my sanctum where I heave and retch in my omnipotent form. Instead of vomit, however, a stream of orange mana leaves the approximation of where my mouth is and rolls over the ground like the mist from a fog machine before dissipating into nothing. “At least the cleanup is easy.” I muse to myself once I finish.
Still slightly queasy I manifest into my avatar but something was off. I was shorter, the air seemed thinner, not that it was harder to breathe, but sounds were louder and it felt like they bounced off the walls more than they had before, the gentle lights in my sanctum were also brighter, not painfully so but the lumen crystals lining the ceiling were more like powerful LEDs as opposed to well used fluorescent bulbs. Looking down at my figure I was in my familiar uniform except where my arms left my sleeves, the skin was gray and scaly and ended with clawed hands.
My pant legs were still bloused and boots were there however instead of my size 12’s I was looking at what I'd guess was a size 6, maybe 7 if I was being generous; I'm a kobold? I'M A KOBOLD? Immediately I revert to my ethereal form and then back to my avatar, which feels more like myself. And indeed, looking down I see tanned skin and arm hair. To ensure it wasn't just a hallucination due to stress I once again turn back into a ghostly apparition before summoning my avatar.
However, to my abstract confusion, and a small amount of horror, my frame is condensed even shorter than it had been the first time. My field of view was insanely large, so much so that trying to look at all of it at the same time was giving me a headache. I tried closing my eyes but I did not appear to have eyelids. Reaching a hand up to my face to give it a feel was greeted not by a hand, but a very familiar looking two clawed grasping appendage with small bristle-like hairs covering what could be considered my palm, or wrist maybe.
Realizing that this was indeed my “hand” I physically recoiled. Stepping backwards I felt not two, but five distinct footfalls. Dropping my “hand” I instinctively looked down to look at my feet but instead, I bashed a solid bone-like protrusion jutting out of my face into the stone floor, causing me to recoil again. Further backing myself against the wall, instead of simply bumping it some sort of natural reflex of this body braced my legs, err, my rear legs against the stone surface to begin pulling myself up and before I was able to orient myself properly I had backed up onto the wall, standing with my face now perpendicular to the floor.
“Okay, I'm an ant, don't panic, deep breaths.”
Lacking lungs in the sense I was used to, I instead began pulling in a wide array of information, such as pheromones designating what room I was in, who was in the room, the temperatures of said room, and its humidity. Right, ants don't breathe the way I do. I slowly began to step forward, the feeling of having three legs moving when I should only have one was odd but felt weirdly more stable than my previous two legged gait. Repositioning myself on the floor and beginning to become more curious than disturbed by my current state I started to feel out my body.
Opening my mouth opened the second set of inner jaws, using the muscles to smile and frown I could open and close my mandibles, which was something I'd have to adjust to over time. My eyebrow muscles twitched my antenna around, and probably the favorite of my findings so far was my shoulder blades which had a much greater range of motion and were connected to a massive set of wings. My new wings are orange, unsurprisingly, and seem to dimly glow in the same fashion my core does. Just as I was testing out how far I could stretch and twist them there was a frantic chittering from the doorway. Cardinal appeared and stood frozen as if she was unable to process what she was seeing. Immediately I could understand the chittering as “ancestors below”. I didn't say anything and before long Cardinal was trying to contact me through the bond. Instead of opening it, I opted to simply speak aloud, catching both of us off guard when a stream of Dire ant chitters spewed forth, I was immediately bombarded by a multitude of questions that didn't leave room for me to reply regardless of whether she wanted an answer for them. She had also run into the room and began circling me taking in every inch. Finally getting through to her with my own deep insectoid chattering, that sounded much like Onyx's she snaps out of her rapid fire questioning and circling, allowing me to explain my newest trick. And the events that led to her finding me.
“I sensed a very strong fear pheromone from your chambers and thought one of the workers had somehow ended up hurt in the sanctum, but being sufficiently surprised about something can give the same pheromone response.” She says as she explains her abrupt arrival to my quarters. “I certainly wasn't expecting… this.” She holds up a grasper in my direction, gesturing to all of me.
“Well… How do I look?” I say while spinning in place to once again allow her to look me over.
“You're obviously a male the thicker plates around your shoulders, back, and head speak to this along with the shape of your mandibles, but at a glance, your size would indicate that you're a female, I think you're larger than I am. And I was one of the largest out of my brood." As she says this she walks up next to me and I stop my slow spinning, she places herself next to me, shoulder to shoulder, and cants her head to the side to gauge our size difference. "As far as colors go, you're very similar to me, except your wings and eyes are darker, and you have some orange coloring to certain parts of your shell.” I ponder her description of me and wish I had installed a mirror in my sanctum. I'll have to add it to my ever-growing to-do list.
We chat for a moment longer before she decides it would be best to have me greet the colony in this form to get the general excitement and general pandemonium from the worker caste out of the way before anything important happens. and as we walk towards the exit I decide to take a glance at my Status, it should have been updated, and as long as I wasn't daydreaming and delirious, I think I've been named.
The Etheirium Dungeon: Level 16, Rare Dungeon Core — Aspects: Terra II, Ignis II, Vitas III, Mors II, Aqua I, — Mana Volume: 22 of 200 Mana Density: 140 of 200 — Attribute Aether: 0 Attributes: Avatar Form IV: Lance, Polymorph I, Mana II, Metalworking II, Metallurgy I, Gem Crafting I, Alchemy I.— Mastery: Ignis, Vitas, Mors.— Bonded Creatures: 97, Named Creatures 3. Contracts1
Well, it appears I am indeed now named, both the dungeon and my avatar. which I'm assuming is what gave me the absolutely massive boost to my mana reservoir and density. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any free attribute points, but I suppose it can't be too easy for me. Curiously Avatar form only increased by a single point, and Polymorph is its own separate Attribute. I'll have to look into that later, somehow. I return my attention to the inside of the dungeon just in time to see the veritable tidal wave of worker ants rushing towards me as Cardinal skitters out of the way, laughing at my misfortune as I am mobbed my underlings, and my senses are all but fried by the overwhelming excitement pheromones from the workers, which to my dismay brings in more from deeper in the dungeon.