Chapter 166: Sea biscuits and Sea Hags
If audio player doesn't work, press Stop then Play button again
Chapter 166: Sea biscuits and Sea Hags
"Excuse me, Miss Yattina?" came a voice, and Yattina hit her head off the bottom of her desk in surprise. She muffled a curse as she put her hidden supply of travel mints back in their hole. She always did her best thinking curled up under her desk while eating ill-begotten sweets.
She looked over her desk, taking a moment to point her magic eye the right way, as it had fallen asleep when she didn't use it. It was the wonky-nose boy from the other day at the meeting.
"Gissipe!" she guessed with a confident smile.
"My name is Lim," he said awkwardly.
Yattina confidently tried to shrink back under the desk.
"Wait! I'm wondering if you could teach me more about Dungeons!" Lim said quickly, and Yattina shot back up.
"Would. If I 'would' teach you more. It implies that you think I can't otherwise," she insisted, and Lim looked puzzled. Yattina frowned at him in return.
"Why do you wish to know? I understand tactics and useful information, but that's covered by the Scout's training, is it not?" she inquired. Lim shuffled for a moment on the spot as if he was torn between staying or running away.
Yattina was intimately familiar with the urge.
"You made it sound good. I learned things. It was like a real school," Lim answered finally. Real school?
He made it sound like he hadn't had a formal education at all!
"Where did you learn? What school or area?" she asked kindly as she gestured for him to sit in the chair across from her. Her 'office' was nothing more than a prefabricated earth magic stone block, but she had decorated it with enough books to block out any hint of the gray color, which was a nice way of saying Yattina could barricade her door with paperbacks alone if she needed to.
Lim looked angry at first, then saw her face.
"You don't know?" he asked, something clicking for him.
"Know?" she echoed, feeling like she was missing something.
"I'm from the Diseased Hand," he said, and there was a pause. Yattina stared, blinked, and then she made a sharp intake of breath.
"I... am so sorry. Forgive my lack of tact," she said quietly, and Lim shrugged it off.
"Schools weren't as important as saving farmlands and fighting off the sickness," he said, and Yattina couldn't imagine it. She had read about it, but there was a disconnect between symbols on a page and a real-life extinction event barely averted.
The Diseased Hand was a tragic event, part of the 'Corrupt Wa r.' Three Dungeons had gone corrupt in the span of a week, each one expanded grotesquely underground until they merged into one. One Dungeon of air, a Dungeon of poison, and a Dungeon of adapting defenses.
It spread across the Right Grip, turning the lands black, and life was all but destroyed. A Saint of a Water God and two others purged the land and caused a massive tidal wave to sink part of it, cutting the hand off from the mainland.
Yattina had even heard that new Dungeons kept trying to form on that man-made island, but they didn't last long against the madness entrenched there for years. Not all of the inhabitants could escape immediately, and those left behind tried to make a life out of the broken land.
People like Lim's family.
That explained his questions... and why he was in Fairplay.
Still, better than what happened to the Left Fist. People didn't even get a chance to escape from that catastrophe.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.
"Well, what would you like to know?" Yattina asked as she shifted books around until she found a basic map and the basic standard guide on Dungeons. A very solid book written by 'Terri Bilis Frater.' The first of its kind, the unknown hero described both basic traps and the 'methods' of Dungeons on the first few floors.
"This Dungeon in the area is weird, right? I've not been in another Dungeon yet, but I heard they're easier by a long shot?" Lim asked as he idly rubbed his wonky nose. Yattina watched the motion like a cat, fighting the urge to reach over and re-break the nose for the boy's sake.
"Yes... and no," Yattina began and tapped the book written by Frater.
"Difficulty is selective at early stages. It depends entirely on what the Dungeon first consumes to grow," she explained.
"For example, did you know this Dungeon near Durence didn't consume mushrooms, people, or earth as its first material?" Yattina said as she tapped a wonky compass near her desk.
"What did it eat? Rocks?" Lim asked curiously, and Yattina showed the boy her instrument.
"This is a very expensive tool that 'dissects' mana, for a lack of better terms, refining them to match Mana signatures of other things. One can even match two signatures to a near mirror, this tells us what the mana has in it; the deeper we dissect, the closer we find what it first consumed. Much like the rings of a tree stump," Yattina said proudly.
She slowly turned a dial at the side, showing the orange Mana flashing through several things like suits of armor... bones... slimes... cauldrons, and what looked to be animal skeletons.
She kept turning the dial until it shot past mushrooms, a man with a gun, three hunting types, what looked to be earth clumps and the image distorted badly on the last slide.
"What is that?" Lim asked, voice suddenly quiet as if he was witnessing something important. Yattina slowly adjusted three small dials, and the image slowly came into focus.
A skull stared back at them, hauntingly judging them.
---
Wyin knew this salt was going to be terrible for her hair. Her swept-back branches blooming in flowers were now droopy with salt. Salt floors, salt water, salt animals, salt air, and now Wyin was salty.
This Dungeon was making her mad, but not as mad as the guppies chasing them. Why wouldn't Delta just let her filet the damn things and be done with it?
They splashed through the water, letting the Salt Bats slow the enemies down. The entire group of thirty Seahagans had entered the Dungeon, but their large number worked against them in the tight corridors and sharp turns.
This was why groups stayed under six people, she presumed.
Fewer fish in a barrel moments.
"Get the Sandwalkers! Find the Jewel for the Queen!" one of the large creatures snarled, the green scales around its face bright red as if it had taken a bite of its comrades in the struggle.
"If fishies not in water. They still fishies? They still not Sandwalkers?" Foodie mused, ignoring the drama and threats against his life to question life. Delta couldn't even be mad at his sudden progress. Foodie had made two floors since this chase began. Thirty Seahagans, Delta, her monsters, Vadellen, and who knows what else were pushing a ton of Mana into the usually solitary Dungeon.
If it took 80 Mana to get to floor 8, then so far, Foodie must have gotten about 180 Mana since Delta arrived. Mana Bursting was horrible, and she didn't blame Foodie for dumping the excess Mana into things. It also annoyed her because she noticed something else.
Foodie didn't have DP.
He just had Mana.
She asked the system as she followed her monsters into the first major room.
A human soul generates a constant flow of sentient ideas and awareness. To prevent your mind from exploding, anytime you would 'think' to make a serious change permanent, you'd get locked down until you had enough DP to do it on your own time. Dungeons do not get Dungeon Poi-... Delta Points until floor 25 or 30. They simply don't design or desire complex things requiring self control. DP is possibility of the soul. You had a soul from the start -Sister.
Wait... if Foodie was made up entirely of Mana with no sparks of DP, then those weapons... those tools of Fairplay formed from their souls and seeds, they wouldn't just 'damage' Foodie.
They would utterly distort or scar him.
---
"Now, when a Dungeon's theme is known, it doesn't give people an automatic advantage," Yattina explained as she poured Lim and herself some brisk hot water with a dash of fruit. She hadn't a clue what fruit was in the fruit tea. She just drank it because her options were coffee, blood of some poor scribe, or protein shakes.
Yattina had issues with all of those things. For one, no one used a disinfectant wipe on the scribe after they were done. It was so unhygienic.
"But if you know it uses fire, you can focus on water, right?" Lim suggested. Yattina eyed her Mana-Dissector with a frown, putting it away for now so she could ponder the results alone later.
Some things were best done alone.
"Fire... what is fire?" she asked Lim, and the boy blinked once. She was curious about what he knew, and this was a good question to lead him off.
"Hot air but really hot," he said after a moment.
"Not quite, but the idea is this: Has the Dungeon figured out fireballs? Heatwaves? Molten stone? Elemental sprites? Sunlight? A theme is so much more than a single approach. The first ten floors, you can be excused for thinking a monofocus can be normal, but Dungeons are always learning. Knowing a Dungeon's theme is only step one of a long, long procedure," she said softly.
"Scouts say as much, but how do you figure out what it's done with its theme?" Lim said, and Yattina took a long sip of her fruit(?) tea.
"The hard way, sadly."
---
As the first Seahagan entered the room, Jeb hurled a Salt Crab at its face, letting the thing go to town with its claws. When the next one entered, Delta watched as Foodie's first new trap was set off. He had made it shortly before Vadellen arrived.
A long salt stalactite cracked and fell down sharply.
"Salt. Spike." Foodie said smugly as the Seahagan toppled over.
Delta winced and didn't stare at the result; she kept urging her team forward.
"Mad at me?" Foodie asked, sounding worried, and Delta shook her head.
"I just don't like violence or blood," she explained.
"Violence?"
"Hurting others," she whispered as they ran along a winding path of the room. It was a narrow road with deep sea pools on all sides filled with spiky stalagmites just below the surface. Most of them were blunt, but it was a good use of the environment.
"How can anyone take these Dungeons on?" Lim said, shaking his head at some of the creatures.
"We just used more effective killers," Yattina said bluntly as she sorted through her paperwork to sign off on the promotion.
"Those with cores have massive potential. The closer we advance to a goal or mission, the more we grow. The more important the mission is, the truer it is to who we are, the faster we develop. Not only that, there are those that engage in unspeakable acts," she said, her voice turning frosty.
"Breaking the core or draining it of its Mana through vile magic can take its potential, its power to make fantasy into reality... and make it your own. Lands wither, water runs dry, monsters rise in fury, and disaster comes when an established Dungeon is destroyed. One person can doom thousands for power," she explained, remembering the many cores she had studied in pieces.
"Such practise is banned, but it wasn't always. Many wars have been fought over the ripest of Dungeon Cores. Terrible wars in which a horrible silence always seems to follow in the pages of history," she sighed.
"Some cores deserve to be broken. Not for power, but for what they've done," Lim said, putting his pen down.
"The one that killed your brother?" she inquired gently. Yattina was surprised when he shook his head.
"Those are just... Dungeons. I don't mind them. It's the ones that took my home, turned the water, land, and sky black. I hate them," he whispered.
"You'll be happy then. Corrupt Dungeons are basically reverse Dungeons. They suck in all life and Mana, draining the land until it crumbles away into the void below. They are to be destroyed at all costs. The Diseased Hand is... tricky because of the three combined forces. We've hit one or two, but the last always brings them back," she explained, feeling oddly guilty that she hadn't done more to help... that Fairplay hadn't.
But the Maidens began to vanish only months before the corrupt wars erupted.
"So, I just need to make my core strong, and I can beat them?" Lim asked, almost childishly at this point.
"Strong cores have risks, Lim. A desire for more power, the nightmares, the Edge sickness, and more. You have to temper both soul and Core," Yattina said, and Lim leaned in.
"Can you teach me?" he asked eagerly. The researcher closed her eyes and then smiled.
"Sorry, I don't have a core," she said, getting the awkward statement out before it could build. He stared at her in shock.
"How?" he asked. It seemed even Lim knew everyone had a core... should have a core.
She pulled down the top of her sweater slightly to show a massive burn scar that started at the collar bone and spread across her shoulders.
It covered most of the front of her body, focused around her chest.
"The last time I saw my sister was when she did this. I can't do magic, and I don't grow like others, but I've got my mind and my books," she said tightly, forcing a smile.
"...You're still worth more than the idiots flinging fireballs about or showing off some magic axe they'll never use," Lim insisted and looked down at his feet.
"My brother didn't have a strong core, and he was amazing," he said stubbornly.
"I appreciate the kind words, but I know my own worth quite well, even if others don't. Still, we can't deny that under the right conditions, someone's core can grow beyond their peers. A sort of refined seed that comes from long lines of warriors, talented magicians, or those that push themselves to the limit. A child of that line has such a Core that even if it was starved all their life...the husk alone could crush normal men," Yattina said firmly.
"What do we call them?" Lim asked, holding a book in his lap.
"Most Cores have the clinical term of 'Normalized Person Core.' I was one, you may be one, the baker in the city is one, a lot of guards and warriors could be one. For those with extreme growth? The correct term is 'Refined Core Users,' but a less flattering term is used by the public. Those with such power are said to be owners of 'Monster Cores.' Primal power that no normal man can possess," Yattina whispered, in case someone was listening.
"Do Dungeons have an official 'term'?" Lim asked, leaning in as if he was ready for a secret.
Yattina thought about it.
---
Delta watched as the hulking ten-foot Seahagan moved into the room, bringing a torrential rain cloud with it. Its core was... scary big.
Not as big as Mharia's, nowhere near as big, but noticeably.
"Turn back," she warned it, and it could hear her.
It turned black eyes with endless depth to them at Delta.
---
"If strong people are Monster Cores, then Dungeons have equally worrying names in the public. Dungeon Cores, Dens of Evil, Murder Holes," Yattina listed.
---
"I will rend you aside... and take my prizes," the massive Seahagan rasped, holding a thick staff made of bone and black seaweed.
"The Jewel, and the human child for supper," it said, drool leaking down its chin between bloody red teeth.
Delta narrowed her eyes, her aura flickering dangerously.
"Do not threaten them," she said in a simple tone with no emotion.
---
Yattina chewed her pen and looked out a nearby window.
"Dungeons have different names in different parts. None are flattering. Some are known as 'Bloody Butchers'; those who take fresh kills and reuse them for their gain. Some are 'People Killers,' and others are just called 'Demon Machines,'" she explained, and Lim eyed her for a moment.
"What would you call them?" he asked, and Yattina blinked.
She had never thought about it before.
"I suppose..." she trailed off.
---
"I will not retreat," the Seahagan hissed.
Delta raised a hand, eyes glowing orange and slightly blue.
"Then you will not proceed either," she promised. Her hand dropped, and her monsters moved like blurs.
---
"I suppose I'd call them 'World Builders.' They just help us and the world so much... they're not parasites, they hold the world together by building new Mana veins," Yattina said with a wistful look to her.
"Eh, it's a bit technical," Lim said, grinning to show he meant no offense.
"Oh, and what would you call them? Still-currently-a-cadet Blackfield," she said with a raised brow.
"Their names, if they have one," he said and stood up to start putting books away.
Yattina watched him go. What a sassy child. Still, his logic was solid. A name told you everything when it came to Dungeons.
"What does yours mean, 'Delta'?" she whispered.
---
"This is not how Jewel Dens work," the creature snarled, as it had one long cut across its arm.
Delta crossed her arms, blazing with Mana.
"I'm changing the rules. I've had enough of these rules where it's the bad ending or the worst ending. My name is Delta, and I won't back down," she announced as Jeb picked the Seahagan up and began to slam him across the walls, ignoring the balls of pressurized water cutting into his skin.
"You are chaos, damnation in the Mana!" the creature howled in pain.
Delta looked over at the hiding Vadellen and shook her head.
"I'm just a failed Dungeon Core," she said, and Wyin began to bind him with roots, which he cracked trying to escape.
"A jewel... den? Then where is your treasure? Where is your gold?" the Seahagan hissed in mockery.
"Where is your legendary lut?" it gargled, the word sounding like a personal slang.
"Please, I'm far too so-fish-ticated to be needing gold," she scoffed, and the creature, Wyin, and Jack all cringed.
"Come down to my Dungeon soon, you monster. Heck, stay here once I teach Foodie the ways of the Delta. There's no epic loot here, only puns!" she grinned, and the storm above them broke.
"You do give out spider panties," Wyin commented.
Delta pursed her lips.
"On'tday entionmay ethay iderspay antiespay," she said, making slicing motions across her neck.
Some people simply didn't need to know about the Queen Victoria Secret's she was running in the Spider Room.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Chapter 166: Sea biscuits and Sea Hags
"Excuse me, Miss Yattina?" came a voice, and Yattina hit her head off the bottom of her desk in surprise. She muffled a curse as she put her hidden supply of travel mints back in their hole. She always did her best thinking curled up under her desk while eating ill-begotten sweets.
She looked over her desk, taking a moment to point her magic eye the right way, as it had fallen asleep when she didn't use it. It was the wonky-nose boy from the other day at the meeting.
"Gissipe!" she guessed with a confident smile.
"My name is Lim," he said awkwardly.
Yattina confidently tried to shrink back under the desk.
"Wait! I'm wondering if you could teach me more about Dungeons!" Lim said quickly, and Yattina shot back up.
"Would. If I 'would' teach you more. It implies that you think I can't otherwise," she insisted, and Lim looked puzzled. Yattina frowned at him in return.
"Why do you wish to know? I understand tactics and useful information, but that's covered by the Scout's training, is it not?" she inquired. Lim shuffled for a moment on the spot as if he was torn between staying or running away.
Yattina was intimately familiar with the urge.
"You made it sound good. I learned things. It was like a real school," Lim answered finally. Real school?
He made it sound like he hadn't had a formal education at all!
"Where did you learn? What school or area?" she asked kindly as she gestured for him to sit in the chair across from her. Her 'office' was nothing more than a prefabricated earth magic stone block, but she had decorated it with enough books to block out any hint of the gray color, which was a nice way of saying Yattina could barricade her door with paperbacks alone if she needed to.
Lim looked angry at first, then saw her face.
"You don't know?" he asked, something clicking for him.
"Know?" she echoed, feeling like she was missing something.
"I'm from the Diseased Hand," he said, and there was a pause. Yattina stared, blinked, and then she made a sharp intake of breath.
"I... am so sorry. Forgive my lack of tact," she said quietly, and Lim shrugged it off.
"Schools weren't as important as saving farmlands and fighting off the sickness," he said, and Yattina couldn't imagine it. She had read about it, but there was a disconnect between symbols on a page and a real-life extinction event barely averted.
The Diseased Hand was a tragic event, part of the 'Corrupt Wa r.' Three Dungeons had gone corrupt in the span of a week, each one expanded grotesquely underground until they merged into one. One Dungeon of air, a Dungeon of poison, and a Dungeon of adapting defenses.
It spread across the Right Grip, turning the lands black, and life was all but destroyed. A Saint of a Water God and two others purged the land and caused a massive tidal wave to sink part of it, cutting the hand off from the mainland.
Yattina had even heard that new Dungeons kept trying to form on that man-made island, but they didn't last long against the madness entrenched there for years. Not all of the inhabitants could escape immediately, and those left behind tried to make a life out of the broken land.
People like Lim's family.
That explained his questions... and why he was in Fairplay.
Still, better than what happened to the Left Fist. People didn't even get a chance to escape from that catastrophe.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.
"Well, what would you like to know?" Yattina asked as she shifted books around until she found a basic map and the basic standard guide on Dungeons. A very solid book written by 'Terri Bilis Frater.' The first of its kind, the unknown hero described both basic traps and the 'methods' of Dungeons on the first few floors.
"This Dungeon in the area is weird, right? I've not been in another Dungeon yet, but I heard they're easier by a long shot?" Lim asked as he idly rubbed his wonky nose. Yattina watched the motion like a cat, fighting the urge to reach over and re-break the nose for the boy's sake.
"Yes... and no," Yattina began and tapped the book written by Frater.
"Difficulty is selective at early stages. It depends entirely on what the Dungeon first consumes to grow," she explained.
"For example, did you know this Dungeon near Durence didn't consume mushrooms, people, or earth as its first material?" Yattina said as she tapped a wonky compass near her desk.
"What did it eat? Rocks?" Lim asked curiously, and Yattina showed the boy her instrument.
"This is a very expensive tool that 'dissects' mana, for a lack of better terms, refining them to match Mana signatures of other things. One can even match two signatures to a near mirror, this tells us what the mana has in it; the deeper we dissect, the closer we find what it first consumed. Much like the rings of a tree stump," Yattina said proudly.
She slowly turned a dial at the side, showing the orange Mana flashing through several things like suits of armor... bones... slimes... cauldrons, and what looked to be animal skeletons.
She kept turning the dial until it shot past mushrooms, a man with a gun, three hunting types, what looked to be earth clumps and the image distorted badly on the last slide.
"What is that?" Lim asked, voice suddenly quiet as if he was witnessing something important. Yattina slowly adjusted three small dials, and the image slowly came into focus.
A skull stared back at them, hauntingly judging them.
---
Wyin knew this salt was going to be terrible for her hair. Her swept-back branches blooming in flowers were now droopy with salt. Salt floors, salt water, salt animals, salt air, and now Wyin was salty.
This Dungeon was making her mad, but not as mad as the guppies chasing them. Why wouldn't Delta just let her filet the damn things and be done with it?
They splashed through the water, letting the Salt Bats slow the enemies down. The entire group of thirty Seahagans had entered the Dungeon, but their large number worked against them in the tight corridors and sharp turns.
This was why groups stayed under six people, she presumed.
Fewer fish in a barrel moments.
"Get the Sandwalkers! Find the Jewel for the Queen!" one of the large creatures snarled, the green scales around its face bright red as if it had taken a bite of its comrades in the struggle.
"If fishies not in water. They still fishies? They still not Sandwalkers?" Foodie mused, ignoring the drama and threats against his life to question life. Delta couldn't even be mad at his sudden progress. Foodie had made two floors since this chase began. Thirty Seahagans, Delta, her monsters, Vadellen, and who knows what else were pushing a ton of Mana into the usually solitary Dungeon.
If it took 80 Mana to get to floor 8, then so far, Foodie must have gotten about 180 Mana since Delta arrived. Mana Bursting was horrible, and she didn't blame Foodie for dumping the excess Mana into things. It also annoyed her because she noticed something else.
Foodie didn't have DP.
He just had Mana.
She asked the system as she followed her monsters into the first major room.
A human soul generates a constant flow of sentient ideas and awareness. To prevent your mind from exploding, anytime you would 'think' to make a serious change permanent, you'd get locked down until you had enough DP to do it on your own time. Dungeons do not get Dungeon Poi-... Delta Points until floor 25 or 30. They simply don't design or desire complex things requiring self control. DP is possibility of the soul. You had a soul from the start -Sister.
Wait... if Foodie was made up entirely of Mana with no sparks of DP, then those weapons... those tools of Fairplay formed from their souls and seeds, they wouldn't just 'damage' Foodie.
They would utterly distort or scar him.
---
"Now, when a Dungeon's theme is known, it doesn't give people an automatic advantage," Yattina explained as she poured Lim and herself some brisk hot water with a dash of fruit. She hadn't a clue what fruit was in the fruit tea. She just drank it because her options were coffee, blood of some poor scribe, or protein shakes.
Yattina had issues with all of those things. For one, no one used a disinfectant wipe on the scribe after they were done. It was so unhygienic.
"But if you know it uses fire, you can focus on water, right?" Lim suggested. Yattina eyed her Mana-Dissector with a frown, putting it away for now so she could ponder the results alone later.
Some things were best done alone.
"Fire... what is fire?" she asked Lim, and the boy blinked once. She was curious about what he knew, and this was a good question to lead him off.
"Hot air but really hot," he said after a moment.
"Not quite, but the idea is this: Has the Dungeon figured out fireballs? Heatwaves? Molten stone? Elemental sprites? Sunlight? A theme is so much more than a single approach. The first ten floors, you can be excused for thinking a monofocus can be normal, but Dungeons are always learning. Knowing a Dungeon's theme is only step one of a long, long procedure," she said softly.
"Scouts say as much, but how do you figure out what it's done with its theme?" Lim said, and Yattina took a long sip of her fruit(?) tea.
"The hard way, sadly."
---
As the first Seahagan entered the room, Jeb hurled a Salt Crab at its face, letting the thing go to town with its claws. When the next one entered, Delta watched as Foodie's first new trap was set off. He had made it shortly before Vadellen arrived.
A long salt stalactite cracked and fell down sharply.
"Salt. Spike." Foodie said smugly as the Seahagan toppled over.
Delta winced and didn't stare at the result; she kept urging her team forward.
"Mad at me?" Foodie asked, sounding worried, and Delta shook her head.
"I just don't like violence or blood," she explained.
"Violence?"
"Hurting others," she whispered as they ran along a winding path of the room. It was a narrow road with deep sea pools on all sides filled with spiky stalagmites just below the surface. Most of them were blunt, but it was a good use of the environment.
"How can anyone take these Dungeons on?" Lim said, shaking his head at some of the creatures.
"We just used more effective killers," Yattina said bluntly as she sorted through her paperwork to sign off on the promotion.
"Those with cores have massive potential. The closer we advance to a goal or mission, the more we grow. The more important the mission is, the truer it is to who we are, the faster we develop. Not only that, there are those that engage in unspeakable acts," she said, her voice turning frosty.
"Breaking the core or draining it of its Mana through vile magic can take its potential, its power to make fantasy into reality... and make it your own. Lands wither, water runs dry, monsters rise in fury, and disaster comes when an established Dungeon is destroyed. One person can doom thousands for power," she explained, remembering the many cores she had studied in pieces.
"Such practise is banned, but it wasn't always. Many wars have been fought over the ripest of Dungeon Cores. Terrible wars in which a horrible silence always seems to follow in the pages of history," she sighed.
"Some cores deserve to be broken. Not for power, but for what they've done," Lim said, putting his pen down.
"The one that killed your brother?" she inquired gently. Yattina was surprised when he shook his head.
"Those are just... Dungeons. I don't mind them. It's the ones that took my home, turned the water, land, and sky black. I hate them," he whispered.
"You'll be happy then. Corrupt Dungeons are basically reverse Dungeons. They suck in all life and Mana, draining the land until it crumbles away into the void below. They are to be destroyed at all costs. The Diseased Hand is... tricky because of the three combined forces. We've hit one or two, but the last always brings them back," she explained, feeling oddly guilty that she hadn't done more to help... that Fairplay hadn't.
But the Maidens began to vanish only months before the corrupt wars erupted.
"So, I just need to make my core strong, and I can beat them?" Lim asked, almost childishly at this point.
"Strong cores have risks, Lim. A desire for more power, the nightmares, the Edge sickness, and more. You have to temper both soul and Core," Yattina said, and Lim leaned in.
"Can you teach me?" he asked eagerly. The researcher closed her eyes and then smiled.
"Sorry, I don't have a core," she said, getting the awkward statement out before it could build. He stared at her in shock.
"How?" he asked. It seemed even Lim knew everyone had a core... should have a core.
She pulled down the top of her sweater slightly to show a massive burn scar that started at the collar bone and spread across her shoulders.
It covered most of the front of her body, focused around her chest.
"The last time I saw my sister was when she did this. I can't do magic, and I don't grow like others, but I've got my mind and my books," she said tightly, forcing a smile.
"...You're still worth more than the idiots flinging fireballs about or showing off some magic axe they'll never use," Lim insisted and looked down at his feet.
"My brother didn't have a strong core, and he was amazing," he said stubbornly.
"I appreciate the kind words, but I know my own worth quite well, even if others don't. Still, we can't deny that under the right conditions, someone's core can grow beyond their peers. A sort of refined seed that comes from long lines of warriors, talented magicians, or those that push themselves to the limit. A child of that line has such a Core that even if it was starved all their life...the husk alone could crush normal men," Yattina said firmly.
"What do we call them?" Lim asked, holding a book in his lap.
"Most Cores have the clinical term of 'Normalized Person Core.' I was one, you may be one, the baker in the city is one, a lot of guards and warriors could be one. For those with extreme growth? The correct term is 'Refined Core Users,' but a less flattering term is used by the public. Those with such power are said to be owners of 'Monster Cores.' Primal power that no normal man can possess," Yattina whispered, in case someone was listening.
"Do Dungeons have an official 'term'?" Lim asked, leaning in as if he was ready for a secret.
Yattina thought about it.
---
Delta watched as the hulking ten-foot Seahagan moved into the room, bringing a torrential rain cloud with it. Its core was... scary big.
Not as big as Mharia's, nowhere near as big, but noticeably.
"Turn back," she warned it, and it could hear her.
It turned black eyes with endless depth to them at Delta.
---
"If strong people are Monster Cores, then Dungeons have equally worrying names in the public. Dungeon Cores, Dens of Evil, Murder Holes," Yattina listed.
---
"I will rend you aside... and take my prizes," the massive Seahagan rasped, holding a thick staff made of bone and black seaweed.
"The Jewel, and the human child for supper," it said, drool leaking down its chin between bloody red teeth.
Delta narrowed her eyes, her aura flickering dangerously.
"Do not threaten them," she said in a simple tone with no emotion.
---
Yattina chewed her pen and looked out a nearby window.
"Dungeons have different names in different parts. None are flattering. Some are known as 'Bloody Butchers'; those who take fresh kills and reuse them for their gain. Some are 'People Killers,' and others are just called 'Demon Machines,'" she explained, and Lim eyed her for a moment.
"What would you call them?" he asked, and Yattina blinked.
She had never thought about it before.
"I suppose..." she trailed off.
---
"I will not retreat," the Seahagan hissed.
Delta raised a hand, eyes glowing orange and slightly blue.
"Then you will not proceed either," she promised. Her hand dropped, and her monsters moved like blurs.
---
"I suppose I'd call them 'World Builders.' They just help us and the world so much... they're not parasites, they hold the world together by building new Mana veins," Yattina said with a wistful look to her.
"Eh, it's a bit technical," Lim said, grinning to show he meant no offense.
"Oh, and what would you call them? Still-currently-a-cadet Blackfield," she said with a raised brow.
"Their names, if they have one," he said and stood up to start putting books away.
Yattina watched him go. What a sassy child. Still, his logic was solid. A name told you everything when it came to Dungeons.
"What does yours mean, 'Delta'?" she whispered.
---
"This is not how Jewel Dens work," the creature snarled, as it had one long cut across its arm.
Delta crossed her arms, blazing with Mana.
"I'm changing the rules. I've had enough of these rules where it's the bad ending or the worst ending. My name is Delta, and I won't back down," she announced as Jeb picked the Seahagan up and began to slam him across the walls, ignoring the balls of pressurized water cutting into his skin.
"You are chaos, damnation in the Mana!" the creature howled in pain.
Delta looked over at the hiding Vadellen and shook her head.
"I'm just a failed Dungeon Core," she said, and Wyin began to bind him with roots, which he cracked trying to escape.
"A jewel... den? Then where is your treasure? Where is your gold?" the Seahagan hissed in mockery.
"Where is your legendary lut?" it gargled, the word sounding like a personal slang.
"Please, I'm far too so-fish-ticated to be needing gold," she scoffed, and the creature, Wyin, and Jack all cringed.
"Come down to my Dungeon soon, you monster. Heck, stay here once I teach Foodie the ways of the Delta. There's no epic loot here, only puns!" she grinned, and the storm above them broke.
"You do give out spider panties," Wyin commented.
Delta pursed her lips.
"On'tday entionmay ethay iderspay antiespay," she said, making slicing motions across her neck.
Some people simply didn't need to know about the Queen Victoria Secret's she was running in the Spider Room.
Chapter 166: Sea biscuits and Sea Hags"Excuse me, Miss Yattina?" came a voice, and Yattina hit her head off the bottom of her desk in surprise. She muffled a curse as she put her hidden supply of travel mints back in their hole. She always did her best thinking curled up under her desk while eating ill-begotten sweets.She looked over her desk, taking a moment to point her magic eye the right way, as it had fallen asleep when she didn't use it. It was the wonky-nose boy from the other day at the meeting."Gissipe!" she guessed with a confident smile."My name is Lim," he said awkwardly.Yattina confidently tried to shrink back under the desk."Wait! I'm wondering if you could teach me more about Dungeons!" Lim said quickly, and Yattina shot back up."Would. If I 'would' teach you more. It implies that you think I can't otherwise," she insisted, and Lim looked puzzled. Yattina frowned at him in return."Why do you wish to know? I understand tactics and useful information, but that's covered by the Scout's training, is it not?" she inquired. Lim shuffled for a moment on the spot as if he was torn between staying or running away.Yattina was intimately familiar with the urge."You made it sound good. I learned things. It was like a real school," Lim answered finally. Real school?He made it sound like he hadn't had a formal education at all!"Where did you learn? What school or area?" she asked kindly as she gestured for him to sit in the chair across from her. Her 'office' was nothing more than a prefabricated earth magic stone block, but she had decorated it with enough books to block out any hint of the gray color, which was a nice way of saying Yattina could barricade her door with paperbacks alone if she needed to.Lim looked angry at first, then saw her face."You don't know?" he asked, something clicking for him."Know?" she echoed, feeling like she was missing something."I'm from the Diseased Hand," he said, and there was a pause. Yattina stared, blinked, and then she made a sharp intake of breath."I... am so sorry. Forgive my lack of tact," she said quietly, and Lim shrugged it off."Schools weren't as important as saving farmlands and fighting off the sickness," he said, and Yattina couldn't imagine it. She had read about it, but there was a disconnect between symbols on a page and a real-life extinction event barely averted.The Diseased Hand was a tragic event, part of the 'Corrupt Wa r.' Three Dungeons had gone corrupt in the span of a week, each one expanded grotesquely underground until they merged into one. One Dungeon of air, a Dungeon of poison, and a Dungeon of adapting defenses.It spread across the Right Grip, turning the lands black, and life was all but destroyed. A Saint of a Water God and two others purged the land and caused a massive tidal wave to sink part of it, cutting the hand off from the mainland.Yattina had even heard that new Dungeons kept trying to form on that man-made island, but they didn't last long against the madness entrenched there for years. Not all of the inhabitants could escape immediately, and those left behind tried to make a life out of the broken land.People like Lim's family.That explained his questions... and why he was in Fairplay.Still, better than what happened to the Left Fist. People didn't even get a chance to escape from that catastrophe.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Nvl--B1n."Well, what would you like to know?" Yattina asked as she shifted books around until she found a basic map and the basic standard guide on Dungeons. A very solid book written by 'Terri Bilis Frater.' The first of its kind, the unknown hero described both basic traps and the 'methods' of Dungeons on the first few floors."This Dungeon in the area is weird, right? I've not been in another Dungeon yet, but I heard they're easier by a long shot?" Lim asked as he idly rubbed his wonky nose. Yattina watched the motion like a cat, fighting the urge to reach over and re-break the nose for the boy's sake."Yes... and no," Yattina began and tapped the book written by Frater."Difficulty is selective at early stages. It depends entirely on what the Dungeon first consumes to grow," she explained."For example, did you know this Dungeon near Durence didn't consume mushrooms, people, or earth as its first material?" Yattina said as she tapped a wonky compass near her desk."What did it eat? Rocks?" Lim asked curiously, and Yattina showed the boy her instrument."This is a very expensive tool that 'dissects' mana, for a lack of better terms, refining them to match Mana signatures of other things. One can even match two signatures to a near mirror, this tells us what the mana has in it; the deeper we dissect, the closer we find what it first consumed. Much like the rings of a tree stump," Yattina said proudly.She slowly turned a dial at the side, showing the orange Mana flashing through several things like suits of armor... bones... slimes... cauldrons, and what looked to be animal skeletons.She kept turning the dial until it shot past mushrooms, a man with a gun, three hunting types, what looked to be earth clumps and the image distorted badly on the last slide."What is that?" Lim asked, voice suddenly quiet as if he was witnessing something important. Yattina slowly adjusted three small dials, and the image slowly came into focus.A skull stared back at them, hauntingly judging them.---Wyin knew this salt was going to be terrible for her hair. Her swept-back branches blooming in flowers were now droopy with salt. Salt floors, salt water, salt animals, salt air, and now Wyin was salty.This Dungeon was making her mad, but not as mad as the guppies chasing them. Why wouldn't Delta just let her filet the damn things and be done with it?They splashed through the water, letting the Salt Bats slow the enemies down. The entire group of thirty Seahagans had entered the Dungeon, but their large number worked against them in the tight corridors and sharp turns.This was why groups stayed under six people, she presumed.Fewer fish in a barrel moments."Get the Sandwalkers! Find the Jewel for the Queen!" one of the large creatures snarled, the green scales around its face bright red as if it had taken a bite of its comrades in the struggle."If fishies not in water. They still fishies? They still not Sandwalkers?" Foodie mused, ignoring the drama and threats against his life to question life. Delta couldn't even be mad at his sudden progress. Foodie had made two floors since this chase began. Thirty Seahagans, Delta, her monsters, Vadellen, and who knows what else were pushing a ton of Mana into the usually solitary Dungeon.If it took 80 Mana to get to floor 8, then so far, Foodie must have gotten about 180 Mana since Delta arrived. Mana Bursting was horrible, and she didn't blame Foodie for dumping the excess Mana into things. It also annoyed her because she noticed something else.Foodie didn't have DP.He just had Mana.She asked the system as she followed her monsters into the first major room.A human soul generates a constant flow of sentient ideas and awareness. To prevent your mind from exploding, anytime you would 'think' to make a serious change permanent, you'd get locked down until you had enough DP to do it on your own time. Dungeons do not get Dungeon Poi-... Delta Points until floor 25 or 30. They simply don't design or desire complex things requiring self control. DP is possibility of the soul. You had a soul from the start -Sister.Wait... if Foodie was made up entirely of Mana with no sparks of DP, then those weapons... those tools of Fairplay formed from their souls and seeds, they wouldn't just 'damage' Foodie.They would utterly distort or scar him.---"Now, when a Dungeon's theme is known, it doesn't give people an automatic advantage," Yattina explained as she poured Lim and herself some brisk hot water with a dash of fruit. She hadn't a clue what fruit was in the fruit tea. She just drank it because her options were coffee, blood of some poor scribe, or protein shakes.Yattina had issues with all of those things. For one, no one used a disinfectant wipe on the scribe after they were done. It was so unhygienic."But if you know it uses fire, you can focus on water, right?" Lim suggested. Yattina eyed her Mana-Dissector with a frown, putting it away for now so she could ponder the results alone later.Some things were best done alone."Fire... what is fire?" she asked Lim, and the boy blinked once. She was curious about what he knew, and this was a good question to lead him off."Hot air but really hot," he said after a moment."Not quite, but the idea is this: Has the Dungeon figured out fireballs? Heatwaves? Molten stone? Elemental sprites? Sunlight? A theme is so much more than a single approach. The first ten floors, you can be excused for thinking a monofocus can be normal, but Dungeons are always learning. Knowing a Dungeon's theme is only step one of a long, long procedure," she said softly."Scouts say as much, but how do you figure out what it's done with its theme?" Lim said, and Yattina took a long sip of her fruit? tea."The hard way, sadly."---As the first Seahagan entered the room, Jeb hurled a Salt Crab at its face, letting the thing go to town with its claws. When the next one entered, Delta watched as Foodie's first new trap was set off. He had made it shortly before Vadellen arrived.A long salt stalactite cracked and fell down sharply."Salt. Spike." Foodie said smugly as the Seahagan toppled over.Delta winced and didn't stare at the result; she kept urging her team forward."Mad at me?" Foodie asked, sounding worried, and Delta shook her head."I just don't like violence or blood," she explained."Violence?""Hurting others," she whispered as they ran along a winding path of the room. It was a narrow road with deep sea pools on all sides filled with spiky stalagmites just below the surface. Most of them were blunt, but it was a good use of the environment."How can anyone take these Dungeons on?" Lim said, shaking his head at some of the creatures."We just used more effective killers," Yattina said bluntly as she sorted through her paperwork to sign off on the promotion."Those with cores have massive potential. The closer we advance to a goal or mission, the more we grow. The more important the mission is, the truer it is to who we are, the faster we develop. Not only that, there are those that engage in unspeakable acts," she said, her voice turning frosty."Breaking the core or draining it of its Mana through vile magic can take its potential, its power to make fantasy into reality... and make it your own. Lands wither, water runs dry, monsters rise in fury, and disaster comes when an established Dungeon is destroyed. One person can doom thousands for power," she explained, remembering the many cores she had studied in pieces."Such practise is banned, but it wasn't always. Many wars have been fought over the ripest of Dungeon Cores. Terrible wars in which a horrible silence always seems to follow in the pages of history," she sighed."Some cores deserve to be broken. Not for power, but for what they've done," Lim said, putting his pen down."The one that killed your brother?" she inquired gently. Yattina was surprised when he shook his head."Those are just... Dungeons. I don't mind them. It's the ones that took my home, turned the water, land, and sky black. I hate them," he whispered."You'll be happy then. Corrupt Dungeons are basically reverse Dungeons. They suck in all life and Mana, draining the land until it crumbles away into the void below. They are to be destroyed at all costs. The Diseased Hand is... tricky because of the three combined forces. We've hit one or two, but the last always brings them back," she explained, feeling oddly guilty that she hadn't done more to help... that Fairplay hadn't.But the Maidens began to vanish only months before the corrupt wars erupted."So, I just need to make my core strong, and I can beat them?" Lim asked, almost childishly at this point."Strong cores have risks, Lim. A desire for more power, the nightmares, the Edge sickness, and more. You have to temper both soul and Core," Yattina said, and Lim leaned in."Can you teach me?" he asked eagerly. The researcher closed her eyes and then smiled."Sorry, I don't have a core," she said, getting the awkward statement out before it could build. He stared at her in shock."How?" he asked. It seemed even Lim knew everyone had a core... should have a core.She pulled down the top of her sweater slightly to show a massive burn scar that started at the collar bone and spread across her shoulders.It covered most of the front of her body, focused around her chest."The last time I saw my sister was when she did this. I can't do magic, and I don't grow like others, but I've got my mind and my books," she said tightly, forcing a smile."...You're still worth more than the idiots flinging fireballs about or showing off some magic axe they'll never use," Lim insisted and looked down at his feet."My brother didn't have a strong core, and he was amazing," he said stubbornly."I appreciate the kind words, but I know my own worth quite well, even if others don't. Still, we can't deny that under the right conditions, someone's core can grow beyond their peers. A sort of refined seed that comes from long lines of warriors, talented magicians, or those that push themselves to the limit. A child of that line has such a Core that even if it was starved all their life...the husk alone could crush normal men," Yattina said firmly."What do we call them?" Lim asked, holding a book in his lap."Most Cores have the clinical term of 'Normalized Person Core.' I was one, you may be one, the baker in the city is one, a lot of guards and warriors could be one. For those with extreme growth? The correct term is 'Refined Core Users,' but a less flattering term is used by the public. Those with such power are said to be owners of 'Monster Cores.' Primal power that no normal man can possess," Yattina whispered, in case someone was listening."Do Dungeons have an official 'term'?" Lim asked, leaning in as if he was ready for a secret.Yattina thought about it.---Delta watched as the hulking ten-foot Seahagan moved into the room, bringing a torrential rain cloud with it. Its core was... scary big.Not as big as Mharia's, nowhere near as big, but noticeably."Turn back," she warned it, and it could hear her.It turned black eyes with endless depth to them at Delta.---"If strong people are Monster Cores, then Dungeons have equally worrying names in the public. Dungeon Cores, Dens of Evil, Murder Holes," Yattina listed.---"I will rend you aside... and take my prizes," the massive Seahagan rasped, holding a thick staff made of bone and black seaweed."The Jewel, and the human child for supper," it said, drool leaking down its chin between bloody red teeth.Delta narrowed her eyes, her aura flickering dangerously."Do not threaten them," she said in a simple tone with no emotion.---Yattina chewed her pen and looked out a nearby window."Dungeons have different names in different parts. None are flattering. Some are known as 'Bloody Butchers'; those who take fresh kills and reuse them for their gain. Some are 'People Killers,' and others are just called 'Demon Machines,'" she explained, and Lim eyed her for a moment."What would you call them?" he asked, and Yattina blinked.She had never thought about it before."I suppose..." she trailed off.---"I will not retreat," the Seahagan hissed.Delta raised a hand, eyes glowing orange and slightly blue."Then you will not proceed either," she promised. Her hand dropped, and her monsters moved like blurs.---"I suppose I'd call them 'World Builders.' They just help us and the world so much... they're not parasites, they hold the world together by building new Mana veins," Yattina said with a wistful look to her."Eh, it's a bit technical," Lim said, grinning to show he meant no offense."Oh, and what would you call them? Still-currently-a-cadet Blackfield," she said with a raised brow."Their names, if they have one," he said and stood up to start putting books away.Yattina watched him go. What a sassy child. Still, his logic was solid. A name told you everything when it came to Dungeons."What does yours mean, 'Delta'?" she whispered.---"This is not how Jewel Dens work," the creature snarled, as it had one long cut across its arm.Delta crossed her arms, blazing with Mana."I'm changing the rules. I've had enough of these rules where it's the bad ending or the worst ending. My name is Delta, and I won't back down," she announced as Jeb picked the Seahagan up and began to slam him across the walls, ignoring the balls of pressurized water cutting into his skin."You are chaos, damnation in the Mana!" the creature howled in pain.Delta looked over at the hiding Vadellen and shook her head."I'm just a failed Dungeon Core," she said, and Wyin began to bind him with roots, which he cracked trying to escape."A jewel... den? Then where is your treasure? Where is your gold?" the Seahagan hissed in mockery."Where is your legendary lut?" it gargled, the word sounding like a personal slang."Please, I'm far too so-fish-ticated to be needing gold," she scoffed, and the creature, Wyin, and Jack all cringed."Come down to my Dungeon soon, you monster. Heck, stay here once I teach Foodie the ways of the Delta. There's no epic loot here, only puns!" she grinned, and the storm above them broke."You do give out spider panties," Wyin commented.Delta pursed her lips."On'tday entionmay ethay iderspay antiespay," she said, making slicing motions across her neck.Some people simply didn't need to know about the Queen Victoria Secret's she was running in the Spider Room.
