Why were we doing this? Why did we take the time to take this dangerous side-quest when we’re supposed to haul ass towards the main-story? Why did nobody, including me, put up more than a token resistance to the idea? Why wasn’t [Luck] speaking up and saying that she was indeed the one to put us en route towards the ominous hole, instead of having me keep thinking that this is merely a thinly veiled trap in the back of my mind? Why were the not-pirates ok with this?
All perfectly reasonable questions, some of which I even gave voice to before getting to this point, and yet here we were, with my doubts and worries inevitably climbing beyond the manageable level.
What a fun way to discover that my enhanced brain could still conjure anxiety all on its own.
Fun, fun, fun!
“What’s making you fidget now?”
“Oh, nothing, just a slew of bad feelings about this”, I reply with false nonchalance to my amazon.
“So, nothing new?” Was her immediate reply, delivered so swiftly and with such certainty, that it left me reeling, opening and closing my mouth like a fish.
“…I hate that you’re right, but still--!”
“Still your mind and nothing else: Such an unstable [Dungeon] will require our full focus to take care of”, Undine took it in her hands to cut our bickering short.
That was fair, but anxiety didn’t work that way: If it were as easy to cure as telling someone to stop being anxious, then I would have had a much easier time back on Earth.
…Who knows, maybe there’s some kind of magical bullshittery that works exactly that way.
There is not.
“Damn.”
Although unrelated, that does give me an idea.
“Give me a sec: with all this rushing about I forgot that I wanted to do something”, I say, while already bringing out the [Matrix] for [Discus Launcher].
“Here? Now!? What are you even doing, staring off into the distance?” The Nymph balked at my action.
“Modifying a [Matrix] of a [Spell]”, I replied, without stopping, picking the [Spell] apart.
“And you thought this was the right time to do it!?” Undine sounded legitimately angry, so I looked over and stared her right in the eyes.
“Well, it’s not like I’ve had the time to do it up until now, but, if I had to be honest, it’s just that I’ve only thought about it right now. Also, I’m already done.”
True to my word, the [Matrix] snapped back into place and the [Spell] was successfully modified.
“Oh? Why didn’t you say it was something so minor?”
“What did you even do?”
True to their personas, Undine, with a more magical-inclined background, understood that [Spells] could be easily tweaked, while Sheeno, who was much more focused on [Skills] and the physical, had a hard time figuring out if I had done anything at all.
“I just removed a purposeful limitation on my [Turret]: I made the [Spell] when I had a lot less Mana to work with, and lacked the mental capacity to have a more hands-on approach on how they worked.
Long story short, they can now crawl around with their ‘stabby’ legs, and are now slightly more powerful without being overcharged: This does mean that they cost more to summon now, but, honestly, it had been negligible for a long time now, with me summoning them like twenty at a time, and the problem had been redundantly resolved by me having allegedly ‘infinite mana’, just with the added cost of mental strain… and probably spiritual too, not that I have noticed any yet though.”
To say that my build was busted was an understatement, since, if it wasn’t for the arbitrary restrictions that seemed to surround me, I could probably go toe-to-toe with the likes of Rubicon Riverfist, who was technically tied as third strongest within this [Nexus] with a bunch of other people, which technically put me tied for either fourth or fifth spot with even more peeps.
I don’t know how things like [Lvls] and talent mattered in the power scale, but it was safe to say I was an abnormality in the normal power creep to which even innate prodigies, like Sheeno, were still beholden to.
I mean, I wasn’t that much stronger than my beloved, if at all, but… yeah, I had my limitations, and being forced to fight and defend mostly by proxy definitely didn’t help.
“Ok, that isn’t a minor modification at all”, Undine’s annoyed tone brought me back to really, and I couldn’t help but frown at her.
“Yeah, that sounds like you just maintained the general mold of the [Spell], while essentially remaking it from the ground up”, Sheeno quipped, sounding like pointing out so obviously beneath her, but for the sake of my stupidity, she still had to say it.
“Uh…” I was slightly dumbfounded by both of their reactions, so I felt the need to further explain myself, “no? I just rewrote the part of the ‘Quasi-Runic Core’ of the [Spell] that dictated how much [MPs] it could take in while breaking off part of the outer ring that limited it being stationary and remaking it into the ability to just anchor itself to the ground with now movable, spiky, appendages”.
Their baffled looks almost made me break out into a laugh twice during my explanation, but I was able to hold it in for long enough for the light of comprehension to shine within the [High Priestess]’s eyes.
“You always said that you ‘see’ the [Matrix], but I never understood that you could… ‘read it’, or even less ‘understand’ it… although, in retrospect, your recent fascination and mastery over [Runes] should have clued me in to the truth”, it was cute and unsettling how she almost went from amazed comprehension to… almost reverence, really.
“…I really should stop being surprised every time you shatter every preconception I hold the [Nexus] to, but I have to say that… going from comprehending [Runes] to understanding the [Divine Script] would have been a wild assumption, even when you were taken into consideration”, Sheeno supplied while owlishly blinking at me.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
“First off, I’m not that bad; second, [Divine Script]? Is that what you call the ‘squiggly runes’?
A bit pretentious, if you asked me, after all, where [Runes] are textbook equivalent of a printed text, all precise and clear, this [Divine Script] is more like a half-assed attempt at an imaginary cursive, for a language that didn’t need it, full of personality and completely devoid of an uninformed alphabet.”
You just made a bunch of people up here upset.
“You either acknowledge my question about whether this [Dungeon Break] in our path was of your design, or I won’t deign any further text from you of a reaction and/or response!”
Maybe I had been too harsh with my chosen words for my opinion of the [Divine Script] and with my words to [Luck], but a lack of follow-up from her pissed me off enough to make me feel vindicated of my tone.
“Of course, you would call it something like that… Yes, it’s a superior form of language that is based on the natural truth of [Runes] and imbued it with [Divine Right], which, on its own, is a superior version of infusing your actions and words with Intent”, after an initial jab Undine kept the explanation short and understandable, and yet she managed to fill it with stuff I either didn’t know about or knew to be factually wrong.
You’re not limited to infusing your voice with Intent, but you can do it with your actions too? That’s new to me!
[Runes] are the truth of nature? Nope, that’s too limiting, and I’m willing to bet this [Divine Script] is the simplified version, that lacks in power compared to the original, but is much more manageable and adheres to rules that the [Gods] decide and set up.
“Ok, if we’re done with this topic, I think we should start discussing an action plan for the [Dungeon] right here”, sensing that our discussion was reaching its end Sheeno sped to process along to make us focus on matters at hand.
“Right… although, there really isn’t much to discuss, is there? This portal is too much of a chaotic mess to determine what kind of [Dungeon] we’ll be getting into, so until first contact, we’ll have to go with the usual ‘[Defender] in font, [Support] in the middle and [Damager] in the back’, and then will be forced to adapt when things go inevitably wrong right from the start.
Like they say: ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it’.”
I didn’t want to sound like a defeatist there but… yeah, I know where it’s coming from.
“You… are technically correct-“, my girlfriend stated.
“The best kind of correct!” I interrupted with an index pointing to the sky but was promptly ignored.
“-but I still think we should plan something: Like, what if the terrain itself turns against us? Hostile terrain would be a first for us, and we don’t really have anything planned against it”, she continued raising what she thought was a valid concern.
“Or… we let my [Totem] take care of it. Unless you didn’t notice, we almost died the last time we encountered an indirect form of attack. You really think I didn’t immediately fix the root of the problems as soon as I had time?” I gave a confused shrug to what I thought was obvious, but in retrospect wasn’t.
“Given you thought to modify another problem only just now? No, I wasn’t sure”, again, Sheeno glared at me while crossing two arms under her armored breasts while the lower ones rested on her ponderous hips.
“Ouch, but fair. No, I’m actually more anal when it entails our security, so the [Totem] was immediately modified to respond to what wasn’t technically an attack, but that we still perceived as harmful”, flinching a little at the accusation, I defended myself.
“I know you just reminded us of the fact, but I keep getting surprised at the notion that you could always just ‘modify’ a [Matrix], even when you didn’t entirely understand the mechanism behind both it and the process involved”, the [Water Nymph] muttered mostly to herself, but by her tone, something else must be clicking inside her head, but she seemed unwilling to share it with the class, so I just let it be.
“And on that note, just to reiterate: Sheeno puts on her ice armor and jumps in, then I follow and drop a [Totem] as soon as I can, and then Undine closes the rear. After all that, and having assessed the situation through our own special ways, we finally make a more proper plan of action”, receiving two nods I answer in kind and we finally square up to the dark pit into the ground.
While not exactly lying, I wasn’t being particularly truthful about the [Affinities] I could detect wafting out of it: It’s just that the overwhelming strength of the [Void] one kind of made everything else almost impossible to parse though. All I could sense for certain was there was [Dark] and [Earth], which, being a dark hole in the ground, wasn’t all that surprising.
Before committing to being stupid, I did the smart thing and informed my [Party] of my discovery. And their reactions told I was about to do something much more idiotic than I thought.
“The fact the [Void]’s seems to have swallowed every other [Affinity], except for those that the terrain would normally provide, makes it much more likely that the [Veil] has already been broken through and that we’ll be facing a [Demon], or possibly even multiple [Demons] in there”, the [High Priestess] informed us, and the bad news kept me from asking how much she knew of how the [Veil] worked.
Because [Luck] and [Buddy] were stingy with [Information] on the matter, and only told what it was, but there was a time and place for everything, and that wasn’t now.
“But we already knew that before going in, right? Isn’t the whole reason behind our intervention the fact that it’s pretty much a given that [Demons] are in there and we don’t want them out here?”
“Well… yes, but I think it’s a point worth repeating, given the significance… and I feel that you’re not taking things seriously enough-”, getting what she was getting at, I felt like I had to stop her right there.
“Last time we met a [Demon] it was a [High Demon], that almost killed us, and now I don’t even have a proper staff to aide me now”, I shake the burnt remains in my hand for emphasis.
I probably should do something about it, or at least put it away somewhere, for safe-keeping, but every time I think about it I’m assaulted with a sense of wrongness that screams at me that it would be a terrible idea, without really making me understand why.
These bouts of insight without understanding, that only now I’ve noticed have been assailing me since I ‘spawned’ in this [Nexus], are even worse than the [Information] that sometimes gets downloaded inside my brain without all the relevant knowledge that would actually make it useful.
Maddening, I tell you, but asking for anything else more and I would get told off for wanting cake and wanting to eat it, or some variation of that with the same sentiment behind it.
I want to rant about how stupid that expression is, because why would you want a cake if then you weren’t allowed to eat it, but, again, now wasn’t the time for idle thoughts.
“Sorry, I just had to be sure that we were on the same page”, this time my inner monologue ends before someone brings me out of it, and I can’t decide if that’s a sign that I’m getting better at focusing on the moment, or if my heightened mental faculties are finally strong enough to make me work like a normal person.
A bit of both, really.
“You don’t have to apologize, I’m the one that’s sorry: It wasn’t my intention to sound so aggressive, I just reacted because I know I’m often not the most reliable or attentive, so I got a bit defensive”, ignoring [Buddy] chiming in, I set things straight with the sister that adopted me, and I can immediately feel the gratitude emanating from, telling me for certain that, for once, I said the right thing.
“We know, and your obvious willingness to get better is one of the reasons we love you”, this time Sheeno chimes in and bends at her waist to punctuate her statement with a kiss on my cheek.
Look at us, about to fight an agent of [Destruction], and here we are, getting all mushy and feely with each other.
“Thanks… but I feel like now we’re just making excuses to not jump in there”, I feel the need to point out with a guilty smile, knowing I was the one that had started this.
“You’re right. Here I go then!” Without warning anyone, my mate just jumped in, leaving us little time to get past our shock and follow after her in the order that we had predetermined.
“Somehow, I keep forgetting that behind the politically-minded woman hides a battle-junkie that’s hotheaded to boot.”