It was rather telling of the hopelessness of the situation that I was looking at such a long chain of ifs and maybes and thinking it was my best option. If I could get to the bottom of the great dungeon, maybe I'd find the source of the Law, and maybe it would have some sort of human-operable controls, and maybe my [Unbound Soul] trait would let me make changes despite Erryn's absence, and maybe not-Blobby wouldn't murder me for even thinking about touching it. That last point seemed especially unlikely.
We had an estimated deadline of two-years. I was not going to get strong enough to clear the great dungeon in two years. My only hope would be asking Krana to cheat for me. It wouldn't be much effort for him; I could give him a finger, he could jump to the hundredth floor, take out the boss, signal me and I'd teleport in.
Unless the final boss was a significant challenge even for him, of course.
The next day, I returned to the institute to discuss my findings. Starting with Kari, because that was less effort.
"You lost spells when you changed class?" she asked, despite the fact I'd just explicitly told her that.
"Yes. I lost my rank one time spells, my rank two space spells all mutated and my other spells that involved spatial mana now have a bit of temporal mana mixed in too."
"Wow. I've never heard of anything like that, but I've never known anyone with conflicting affinities before. You have [Eye of Judgement], right? What rank three classes did you unlock?"
Good question; I hadn't checked. I did so, only to find that [Spatial High Mage] had joined my rank one time spells in making its escape. I hadn't gained [Temporal High Mage] either.
"No rank three space or time classes. I do have the rank three [Fabric Mage], though."
"Ooo, sounds interesting."
"If only I trusted the System not to glitch out if I took it."
"The glitches just add to the excitement, though."
I gave Kari one last glare as I left, this time to have the tougher conversation with Harry.
"So, you want us to focus on wormhole defences, and entrust you to deal with the Law?" he asked incredulously. "You don't even see it as a problem."
"That's not true. I believe it should be left alone for this world, but I'm against it taking you and Earth."
"It affecting one person is already too many," he snapped. "I'm not going to abandon them to save myself."
"Why do you have to? If we both succeed, the two-year time limit will be gone. If you want to spend the rest of your life searching for a cure, feel free."
"And if you want this world to be left enslaved, why would you let me do that once I've served my purpose and invented defences?"
"Because I don't believe you'll succeed."
He frowned at me as he considered it. "I have absolutely no way to enforce that sort of deal," he said eventually. "There're no courts here to enforce a contract. You could dispose of me once your defences were done, and no-one would even be allowed to know that you'd done it. Or you could just leave me to be infected by the Law, and there's nothing I could do about it. If your parents are anything to go by, I wouldn't even notice what was happening."
"My former parents," I corrected. "And yes, you'd have to trust me. If only there was some world spanning magical construct that forced me to be trustworthy."
"Drop the sarcasm. A proper justice system would work just as well."
"No, it wouldn't. Nothing on Earth would stop me from murdering you, or abandoning you to the Law. It would just punish me if I did. Besides, how would they prove I didn't try my best to save you, but it turned out not to be possible?"
"Fine. That's all true, but it isn't worth the cost."
"Yes, that's the part I agree with," I said with a shrug. "But this world has already paid it, so they may as well get their money's worth."
However widely our opinions differed, I could at least see where he was coming from.
"No, I'm not getting into this argument again. If you want me to completely drop my efforts to save myself from having my mind taken over, you're going to have to give some better justification."
"You said yourself our base of understanding of magic is too sparse to be useful. You aren't going to be able to save yourself, so trusting me is the best option. If you succeed and I fail, at least the replacement wearing your skin will have a safe life."
"And if you succeed and I fail?"
"Then I'll infect all of Earth with the Law before I see this world fall."
"So, blackmail now?" he snapped, but that wasn't how I'd intended it at all. It was just a statement of what I would do. "Fine. We'll follow your suggestion, but if I come across any interesting leads, I'll go after them myself."
"I won't argue with that. Grover knows where I live, so leave a message there if you need me. There's no post-box, but door-locks aren't a thing here, so it doesn't matter."
With the angry earthling pacified for now, it was time for my next outing. [Mana Sight] showed the lump of flesh I'd leant Serlv was in a large cavern. Mana densities were normal, so not a dungeon, but beyond that, I couldn't see anything. Given my limited perception range around detached parts, that didn't mean much. I found a quiet space to teleport myself, hoping I wasn't going to find myself surrounded by dragons.
I wasn't. There was only one—Serlv herself—fast asleep on a... chair? Did dragon furniture need extra words? It was just a stone platform with a shaped cushion on top, narrowing towards the front so that she had somewhere to rest her head without getting in the way of her forelegs. Serlv was on top, all four legs still on the floor.
I watched on in fascination as a tennis-ball sized droplet of drool fell from her snout and splattered on the floor. The fact that dragons could turn themselves into scaly plushies had already damaged their majestic reputation in my mind, but the sight (and sound) of Serlv sleeping destroyed it completely.
Should I wake her up or come back later?
The place was actually quite scenic. Serlv's bed slash chair was facing a massive rectangular window, looking out over a range of mountains, with the sea visible off in the far distance and a few clouds drifting past below.
Quite far down, too, I realised as I noticed myself feeling a little breathless. A quick check of [Clock] revealed that I was even higher up than the harpies' nest at the Sapphire Peaks. The Emerald Caverns were close by, if I fancied flying through rock.
Krana's entrance three years ago suddenly made a lot more sense; he'd just dived straight down.
... And he was currently diving straight up.
He popped into the range of my [Mana Sight], blazing like fifteen metres of rank five, mana-stuffed dragon. Which was appropriate, because that's what he was. I hadn't had [Mana Sight] three years ago, and the sight of him flying straight through solid rock was quite interesting to watch. It looked very much like those theoretical diagrams of warp bubbles, with space all bunched up in front of him, flowing around and then lengthening in a tail behind him.
The floor opened up and he burst through, hovering in the air as it flowed shut behind him.
"Ghhhruuukkkkkkkkk!" snored Serlv, as even Krana's arrival failed to wake her.
ding
Skill [Basic Etiquette] advanced to level 8
"Kranakellicium," I greeted, letting [Basic Etiquette] do whatever the heck it wanted. Given that I was here to ask a favour, it wouldn't hurt to turn the politeness up to the max.
"For what reason have you come to our home?" he replied, ignoring me.
"To seek your help. I have reason to visit the bottom of the great dungeon, and you are the only one with any hope of getting me there."
"That is not a trivial thing you ask, even for me. The place of Erryn's birth is both deep and deadly."
"You can start on the bottom floor, right? If you take a bit of me with you, I can teleport straight there."
He gave me a slow blink. "An interesting application of your skills. But the final floor is the toughest of them all. I cannot defeat the final guardian unharmed, and I find it unlikely that I could protect you for the duration."
"Again, I can teleport straight there. There's no need to defend me. Just call me after you beat it."
Krana gave another, even slower, blink. "This is not the way in which dungeons are intended to work. What is your purpose?"
"I have reason to believe Erryn left something behind for me in her core room that will be helpful with the current Earth situation."
"I have visited Erryn's domain since her demise. It was deserted."
"It could have been hidden, just like the Emerald Caverns core room."
"That was not hidden in any way I couldn't have discovered on my own, given time."
Right. It had been an actual wall, rather than a door hidden by a perception filter.
"Nevertheless, I would like to check."
He fell silent for a moment before answering. "If Erryn had left something for you, why would she have placed it somewhere you could not access?"
"It is not movable, nor would she have expected me to have need of it so soon."
Wait, have need? Krana's speech patterns were infectious...
"Not movable? What exactly is it that you seek?"
"I'm... not certain. It would probably look like one of the crystals the dungeon uses for teleportation."
"Uncertain? How would you rate your chances of finding something? You are not asking for a trivial favour."
"Ghhhruuukkkkkkkkk!"
"It doesn't need to be a favour," I replied, ignoring Serlv's input. "If you have anything you want from me, ask away."
And yet another silence from Krana as he pondered, broken only by another snore from Serlv.
"Then there is something I would ask. Follow."
Krana turned away and flew off into the back of the cave. It was nice that he was using an actual passageway and hadn't just dropped straight into the mountain, but he was still flying fast. I needed [Timeless World] to keep up.
I sped down the dragon-sized passages, deeper into the mountain, until up in front of us [Mana Sight] lit up again. A mass of fire and ice affinity, this time, rather than anything living.
Conflicting affinities again. I examined it with interest, so far as I could spare the attention; most of it was required for not accidentally running into a wall. I needn't have bothered; our target seemed to be that exact mass of mana. We came out in another cavern, but this one contained a giant pool of lava. The pool was fed by a waterfall of lava. In the middle of it all was an enormous ice lotus, but the ice wasn't melting and the lava wasn't solidifying.
The mana made it obvious why.
"Woah," I said, on general principles.
Krana's mouth twitched in a way that I was fairly sure indicated smugness, but it lasted only a split second before he continued flying towards the giant flower of ice.
"Hey!" I called after him. "I have no wings!"
"You have several body parts you were not born with. I suggest you add wings to your collection should you wish to explore every corner of this world. And perhaps gills. But for now, jump."
I peered at the amount of lava between me and the ice. I could probably make it, by weight of stats and my high jump ring, but it was lava. 'Probably' didn't cut it! Besides, ice wasn't exactly a great material for a landing.
"I can't jump that safely," I pointed out.
Krana treated me to a glance before turning back, grabbing me in a claw and flying the distance, dropping me onto the ice on the other side.
Despite my expectations, it wasn't at all slippery. It was cold, though.
Not that I was paying much attention to the way my feet were freezing. I was too distracted by the eggs.
"This clutch was laid a mere sixty years ago," said Krana, and I had to replay that sentence in my head four times before I could accept he really had said 'years'. "They will not hatch for another several decades yet. Nevertheless, the children within are developed to a sufficient extent now. I wish for you to expose them to mana, in the hopes they might be freed from the reins of the System and gain the ability to use magic in its natural form."
"You want to give your children [Natural Mage]?"
"I do."
A quick count revealed eight eggs and one... I blinked, not quite believing what I was seeing.
Inactive Subsidiary Dungeon Core (Rank 4)
Fine. If he wanted to store it somewhere safe, in the middle of a lake of actual lava seemed as good a choice as any. He obviously considered it good enough for his eggs, after all.
"I don't mind, but presumably you want me to keep it up until they hatch? That's... a long time, for a human."
"For now, simply watching their reaction is sufficient."
I looked inside the eggs with [Mana Sight], each one containing a miniature, curled up dragon. They showed no signs of movement, which I suppose made sense if the contents of the egg needed to sustain them for the best part of a century.
No; that was me being stupid. Each one had a faint trickle of mana feeding in from the surroundings. Some favouring ice affinity, others fire. They were subsisting off mana.
I manipulated the currents of mana with my [Expert Mana Control], wrapping the streams around the nascent dragons. That finally triggered a reaction, as each of them stirred. Most settled back down, but a couple continued to fidget.
[Soul Perception] showed that all had souls, and each soul both was already wrapped in the chains of Law and had an embedded System shard.
"Interesting," observed Krana. "Keep that up while I carry your flesh to the depths of Erryn's birthplace. I shall call you when I reach it."
He turned and left once more, leaving me stranded on the ice island. The eggs were raised on a cushion, but there wasn't really space for me to climb aboard, so I spread out some clothing from my [Inventory] instead.
Bah, the time dilation was going to mean they stayed frozen for ages after I put them back.
Oh well. That was a problem for future me. Current me merely had to sit here and tickle some unborn dragons while Krana murdered monsters for me. And then I'd see what, if anything, Erryn left behind.
Announcement I haven't done my patreon advert this month, have I? I should probably say something about patreon... Umm... It's just had its first ever NSFW chapter? That probably counts as news, even if it was a bit... uh... something. I'm not sure what adjective it deserves, but it definately deserves an adjective of some sort. Also, a new short fiction, A Serious Incident, set in Glimmerhome after the events of A Friendly Voidling. And, of course, the ending of An Unbound Soul.
It was rather telling of the hopelessness of the situation that I was looking at such a long chain of ifs and maybes and thinking it was my best option. If I could get to the bottom of the great dungeon, maybe I'd find the source of the Law, and maybe it would have some sort of human-operable controls, and maybe my [Unbound Soul] trait would let me make changes despite Erryn's absence, and maybe not-Blobby wouldn't murder me for even thinking about touching it. That last point seemed especially unlikely.
We had an estimated deadline of two-years. I was not going to get strong enough to clear the great dungeon in two years. My only hope would be asking Krana to cheat for me. It wouldn't be much effort for him; I could give him a finger, he could jump to the hundredth floor, take out the boss, signal me and I'd teleport in.
Unless the final boss was a significant challenge even for him, of course.
The next day, I returned to the institute to discuss my findings. Starting with Kari, because that was less effort.
"You lost spells when you changed class?" she asked, despite the fact I'd just explicitly told her that.
"Yes. I lost my rank one time spells, my rank two space spells all mutated and my other spells that involved spatial mana now have a bit of temporal mana mixed in too."
"Wow. I've never heard of anything like that, but I've never known anyone with conflicting affinities before. You have [Eye of Judgement], right? What rank three classes did you unlock?"
Good question; I hadn't checked. I did so, only to find that [Spatial High Mage] had joined my rank one time spells in making its escape. I hadn't gained [Temporal High Mage] either.
"No rank three space or time classes. I do have the rank three [Fabric Mage], though."
"Ooo, sounds interesting."
"If only I trusted the System not to glitch out if I took it."
"The glitches just add to the excitement, though."
I gave Kari one last glare as I left, this time to have the tougher conversation with Harry.
"So, you want us to focus on wormhole defences, and entrust you to deal with the Law?" he asked incredulously. "You don't even see it as a problem."
"That's not true. I believe it should be left alone for this world, but I'm against it taking you and Earth."
"It affecting one person is already too many," he snapped. "I'm not going to abandon them to save myself."
"Why do you have to? If we both succeed, the two-year time limit will be gone. If you want to spend the rest of your life searching for a cure, feel free."
"And if you want this world to be left enslaved, why would you let me do that once I've served my purpose and invented defences?"
"Because I don't believe you'll succeed."
He frowned at me as he considered it. "I have absolutely no way to enforce that sort of deal," he said eventually. "There're no courts here to enforce a contract. You could dispose of me once your defences were done, and no-one would even be allowed to know that you'd done it. Or you could just leave me to be infected by the Law, and there's nothing I could do about it. If your parents are anything to go by, I wouldn't even notice what was happening."
"My former parents," I corrected. "And yes, you'd have to trust me. If only there was some world spanning magical construct that forced me to be trustworthy."
"Drop the sarcasm. A proper justice system would work just as well."
"No, it wouldn't. Nothing on Earth would stop me from murdering you, or abandoning you to the Law. It would just punish me if I did. Besides, how would they prove I didn't try my best to save you, but it turned out not to be possible?"
"Fine. That's all true, but it isn't worth the cost."
"Yes, that's the part I agree with," I said with a shrug. "But this world has already paid it, so they may as well get their money's worth."
However widely our opinions differed, I could at least see where he was coming from.
"No, I'm not getting into this argument again. If you want me to completely drop my efforts to save myself from having my mind taken over, you're going to have to give some better justification."
"You said yourself our base of understanding of magic is too sparse to be useful. You aren't going to be able to save yourself, so trusting me is the best option. If you succeed and I fail, at least the replacement wearing your skin will have a safe life."
"And if you succeed and I fail?"
"Then I'll infect all of Earth with the Law before I see this world fall."
"So, blackmail now?" he snapped, but that wasn't how I'd intended it at all. It was just a statement of what I would do. "Fine. We'll follow your suggestion, but if I come across any interesting leads, I'll go after them myself."
"I won't argue with that. Grover knows where I live, so leave a message there if you need me. There's no post-box, but door-locks aren't a thing here, so it doesn't matter."
With the angry earthling pacified for now, it was time for my next outing. [Mana Sight] showed the lump of flesh I'd leant Serlv was in a large cavern. Mana densities were normal, so not a dungeon, but beyond that, I couldn't see anything. Given my limited perception range around detached parts, that didn't mean much. I found a quiet space to teleport myself, hoping I wasn't going to find myself surrounded by dragons.
I wasn't. There was only one—Serlv herself—fast asleep on a... chair? Did dragon furniture need extra words? It was just a stone platform with a shaped cushion on top, narrowing towards the front so that she had somewhere to rest her head without getting in the way of her forelegs. Serlv was on top, all four legs still on the floor.
I watched on in fascination as a tennis-ball sized droplet of drool fell from her snout and splattered on the floor. The fact that dragons could turn themselves into scaly plushies had already damaged their majestic reputation in my mind, but the sight (and sound) of Serlv sleeping destroyed it completely.
Should I wake her up or come back later?
The place was actually quite scenic. Serlv's bed slash chair was facing a massive rectangular window, looking out over a range of mountains, with the sea visible off in the far distance and a few clouds drifting past below.
Quite far down, too, I realised as I noticed myself feeling a little breathless. A quick check of [Clock] revealed that I was even higher up than the harpies' nest at the Sapphire Peaks. The Emerald Caverns were close by, if I fancied flying through rock.
Krana's entrance three years ago suddenly made a lot more sense; he'd just dived straight down.
... And he was currently diving straight up.
He popped into the range of my [Mana Sight], blazing like fifteen metres of rank five, mana-stuffed dragon. Which was appropriate, because that's what he was. I hadn't had [Mana Sight] three years ago, and the sight of him flying straight through solid rock was quite interesting to watch. It looked very much like those theoretical diagrams of warp bubbles, with space all bunched up in front of him, flowing around and then lengthening in a tail behind him.
The floor opened up and he burst through, hovering in the air as it flowed shut behind him.
"Ghhhruuukkkkkkkkk!" snored Serlv, as even Krana's arrival failed to wake her.
ding
Skill [Basic Etiquette] advanced to level 8
"Kranakellicium," I greeted, letting [Basic Etiquette] do whatever the heck it wanted. Given that I was here to ask a favour, it wouldn't hurt to turn the politeness up to the max.
"For what reason have you come to our home?" he replied, ignoring me.
"To seek your help. I have reason to visit the bottom of the great dungeon, and you are the only one with any hope of getting me there."
"That is not a trivial thing you ask, even for me. The place of Erryn's birth is both deep and deadly."
"You can start on the bottom floor, right? If you take a bit of me with you, I can teleport straight there."
He gave me a slow blink. "An interesting application of your skills. But the final floor is the toughest of them all. I cannot defeat the final guardian unharmed, and I find it unlikely that I could protect you for the duration."
"Again, I can teleport straight there. There's no need to defend me. Just call me after you beat it."
Krana gave another, even slower, blink. "This is not the way in which dungeons are intended to work. What is your purpose?"
"I have reason to believe Erryn left something behind for me in her core room that will be helpful with the current Earth situation."
"I have visited Erryn's domain since her demise. It was deserted."
"It could have been hidden, just like the Emerald Caverns core room."
"That was not hidden in any way I couldn't have discovered on my own, given time."
Right. It had been an actual wall, rather than a door hidden by a perception filter.
"Nevertheless, I would like to check."
He fell silent for a moment before answering. "If Erryn had left something for you, why would she have placed it somewhere you could not access?"
"It is not movable, nor would she have expected me to have need of it so soon."
Wait, have need? Krana's speech patterns were infectious...
"Not movable? What exactly is it that you seek?"
"I'm... not certain. It would probably look like one of the crystals the dungeon uses for teleportation."
"Uncertain? How would you rate your chances of finding something? You are not asking for a trivial favour."
"Ghhhruuukkkkkkkkk!"
"It doesn't need to be a favour," I replied, ignoring Serlv's input. "If you have anything you want from me, ask away."
And yet another silence from Krana as he pondered, broken only by another snore from Serlv.
"Then there is something I would ask. Follow."
Krana turned away and flew off into the back of the cave. It was nice that he was using an actual passageway and hadn't just dropped straight into the mountain, but he was still flying fast. I needed [Timeless World] to keep up.
I sped down the dragon-sized passages, deeper into the mountain, until up in front of us [Mana Sight] lit up again. A mass of fire and ice affinity, this time, rather than anything living.
Conflicting affinities again. I examined it with interest, so far as I could spare the attention; most of it was required for not accidentally running into a wall. I needn't have bothered; our target seemed to be that exact mass of mana. We came out in another cavern, but this one contained a giant pool of lava. The pool was fed by a waterfall of lava. In the middle of it all was an enormous ice lotus, but the ice wasn't melting and the lava wasn't solidifying.
The mana made it obvious why.
"Woah," I said, on general principles.
Krana's mouth twitched in a way that I was fairly sure indicated smugness, but it lasted only a split second before he continued flying towards the giant flower of ice.
"Hey!" I called after him. "I have no wings!"
"You have several body parts you were not born with. I suggest you add wings to your collection should you wish to explore every corner of this world. And perhaps gills. But for now, jump."
I peered at the amount of lava between me and the ice. I could probably make it, by weight of stats and my high jump ring, but it was lava. 'Probably' didn't cut it! Besides, ice wasn't exactly a great material for a landing.
"I can't jump that safely," I pointed out.
Krana treated me to a glance before turning back, grabbing me in a claw and flying the distance, dropping me onto the ice on the other side.
Despite my expectations, it wasn't at all slippery. It was cold, though.
Not that I was paying much attention to the way my feet were freezing. I was too distracted by the eggs.
"This clutch was laid a mere sixty years ago," said Krana, and I had to replay that sentence in my head four times before I could accept he really had said 'years'. "They will not hatch for another several decades yet. Nevertheless, the children within are developed to a sufficient extent now. I wish for you to expose them to mana, in the hopes they might be freed from the reins of the System and gain the ability to use magic in its natural form."
"You want to give your children [Natural Mage]?"
"I do."
A quick count revealed eight eggs and one... I blinked, not quite believing what I was seeing.
Inactive Subsidiary Dungeon Core (Rank 4)
Fine. If he wanted to store it somewhere safe, in the middle of a lake of actual lava seemed as good a choice as any. He obviously considered it good enough for his eggs, after all.
"I don't mind, but presumably you want me to keep it up until they hatch? That's... a long time, for a human."
"For now, simply watching their reaction is sufficient."
I looked inside the eggs with [Mana Sight], each one containing a miniature, curled up dragon. They showed no signs of movement, which I suppose made sense if the contents of the egg needed to sustain them for the best part of a century.
No; that was me being stupid. Each one had a faint trickle of mana feeding in from the surroundings. Some favouring ice affinity, others fire. They were subsisting off mana.
I manipulated the currents of mana with my [Expert Mana Control], wrapping the streams around the nascent dragons. That finally triggered a reaction, as each of them stirred. Most settled back down, but a couple continued to fidget.
[Soul Perception] showed that all had souls, and each soul both was already wrapped in the chains of Law and had an embedded System shard.
"Interesting," observed Krana. "Keep that up while I carry your flesh to the depths of Erryn's birthplace. I shall call you when I reach it."
He turned and left once more, leaving me stranded on the ice island. The eggs were raised on a cushion, but there wasn't really space for me to climb aboard, so I spread out some clothing from my [Inventory] instead.
Bah, the time dilation was going to mean they stayed frozen for ages after I put them back.
Oh well. That was a problem for future me. Current me merely had to sit here and tickle some unborn dragons while Krana murdered monsters for me. And then I'd see what, if anything, Erryn left behind.
Announcement I haven't done my patreon advert this month, have I? I should probably say something about patreon... Umm... It's just had its first ever NSFW chapter? That probably counts as news, even if it was a bit... uh... something. I'm not sure what adjective it deserves, but it definately deserves an adjective of some sort. Also, a new short fiction, A Serious Incident, set in Glimmerhome after the events of A Friendly Voidling. And, of course, the ending of An Unbound Soul.