Exploration- Chapter 34

Chapter 34- Step Two

As much as I wanted to get moving a bit of discussion was necessary. The first thing that I did though was push out with my senses as far as I could. I didn’t extend my aura because that might be detected but I did see if I could hear, feel the vibrations in the air, or otherwise sense any oncoming threats.

Selena opened her eyes and said, “I just used my reverse scrying spell. If anyone is magically searching for us or has locked in on us, then they have to be significantly more skilled than my tutors and mother used to be.”

I grinned at her. “I could probably use that spell.”

“It was a life saver when I was trying to snag a moment for myself. With it I knew how far I could push them before I’d really get punished. Always had to find the balance of having some independence without upsetting people who could wipe me out with a wave of their hand. Fortunately, the expected a bit of rebellion and even took it as a sign of a strong spirit, as long as it didn’t go too far.”

Once again, I was reminded of how little I actually knew about my fiancé’s life before me, before being sent to Earth. Oh, we’d talked but one can’t encapsulate a 50+ year life into a few conversations. Rather than being daunted by this, I was actually excited to find out more about her. Hopefully, someday she’d tell me how old she actually was, not because I cared, but because it seemed like that would be a litmus test for how open she could be with me.

The mage, Oliver said, “I agree as far as I can tell, no one outside of this warehouse knows what happened, but admittedly my spells are more limited than people of your level.”

I hadn’t gotten a chance to get a read on Oliver yet, but the fact that both Tad and Clay seemed to defer to his advice spoke highly of him. “We’ll we can fix that right now. What say, the three of us take you and Tad for a dive into the dungeon. I’ve got some spells to collect and so we can kill two birds with one stone.”

Before anyone answered my question, I heard Selena’s voice in my head through group chat. “Samvek and I both know that there’s more going on than you’ve let on so far. Please talk to us before you do anything rash.”

“Already planning to.”

By this point the lack of a response to my proposal was starting to grow awkward. Finally, Tad said, “That won’t work. You see one of the downsides of being a Dungeon Master is that I can’t be harmed by this dungeon, which in turn means that I can’t gain XP from it. I do get a small flow of XP based upon the flow of power through the dungeon. Up until now, that’s only accounted for a single level gain, but hopefully with the dungeon so much more powerful now, I’ll be able to gain more levels.”

“How have you gained so many levels then?” I asked.

“Funny thing there, but I gain XP for crafting. More than half of my XP has come from enchanting items.”

I shook my head. “Now, I’m really jealous.”

Samvek snorted, “As if you’d give up fighting, you battle maniac.”

I shrugged but didn’t respond. When the man was right, he was right, but it still sounded cool being able to gain XP from working on crafting. “Well then what do you propose?”

“Simple, we need to test out Spot’s new capabilities. He is so worked up with all of the changes that he’s barely communicating coherently. I think he really needs us to test out some of these floors. So you three should take Clay, Oliver, and Lexa with you. They can all gain levels still at least Oliver can until he hits level 150. Maybe that will give us time to figure out if there’s a way to awaken others.”

I considered his words for a moment. I really wanted to go into the dungeon. “Okay, but I still want to build some golems and we’ve only got seven days before a notification about the creation of this new dungeon goes out to the powers that be. I don’t know what kind of hornets’ nest that’s going to be kicking but, I assume that it’s not going to be a good thing.”

Tad smiled. “Agreed, and might I say that your turn of phrase is fascinating. I have to assume that some of the euphemisms don’t translate over very well.”

Selena made a chopping motion with her hand, “Oh no, don’t go encouraging him.”

Everyone laughed a bit then, but it flowed over the general tension. Seven days wasn’t a long time, but I’d made less work for us before.

Oliver said, “Perhaps I’m asking the obvious, but what floor are you intending to take us to. I’m only at level 119 and that’s only because I gained some XP with Tad after a long time without.”

Selena, Samvek, and I all looked at one another. No words were exchanged, just a simple nod so I answered, “There isn’t much point in going to any level other than 5. All three of us are over level 260, but we hit above our weight class. Uh… sorry maybe that doesn’t translate over.”

“No I got what you mean. We have the concept of prize fights here divided by weight classes. What you’re saying is that you have abilities which make you more affective than your levels would suggest.”

I silently asked Samvek and Selena if I could share a bit more information to put his mind at ease. At this point these people were our allies and were in an entirely different universe. I saw little need for secrets. We’d already given Tad some overviews but didn’t go into it full bore. They both reluctantly agreed, although I understood that was because both their upbringing and training treated information as a weapon as much as any sword.

“I have a title that doubles the stats that I gain, so not counting any of my other numerous titles, or stats that I’ve gained from pushing myself harder than I should have, I have very high stats. Then I have access to power from more than one system. I just gained two traits from the Fey System, although, I’m not sure what the difference between a trait and what we call a title is.”

Tad said, “I can explain that a bit. I’m curious what traits you got if you’re willing to share, but traits are typically reserved for magical items of fey. They are fundamental alterations of how we interact with the world rather than a spell. Humans, elves, and such gain spells as they level up but normally no traits. We also have traits which usually recognize some special accomplishment like I have one that doubles the amount of coin I receive whenever I get a coin reward either in a dungeon or from a quest.”

Selena laughed, “There are merchant houses which would kill for an advantage like that.”

“I bet.”

That meant it was my turn to share the traits that I gained. I first talked about the Traveler trait. They all agreed with me, that it was likely the system responding to the way the pylon had limited me before.

Tad said, “That’s one of the best type of traits and shows that the system itself is invested in your success.”

“That’s nothing new for Silas,” Selena said. “Let’s just say that he’s used to be the system’s favorite.”

Fara laughed. “Sounds like Tad.”

“Okay, okay, we get it. The two of us have a lot in common. You don’t have to keep mentioning it. The other trait I got is even better which is saying quite a bit.” Then I explained about Dungeon Ally.

Oliver nodded. “Now, I understand why you said it would be pointless to go to any floor other the fifth. I get some sense now of why you think you can keep me alive there.”

Samvek seemed to be getting tired of how this was dragging on. “There’s more to it than that. He can resurrect the dead, at least in our universe he can. He has some highly protective abilities like force fields, and a powerful healing spell. But it isn’t just him. Selena was raised by one of the most powerful family in the entire Heaven’s System. She was treated as a resource and a great deal of effort was made to make her as powerful as possible. For her level she would count as one of the ten most powerful beings in our universe and that’s before you consider the boost she got when Silas connected to her through his primordial aspect.

“As for me, I’m the heir of an up and coming clan. I also received some of the best training available and now in the dungeon, Silas created a connection to me that granted me a class from yet another system and an ability which allows me to drain a portion of the stats from beings that I defeat.”

“How’s that work?” Oliver blurted out, before adding, “No, never mind that. I get the point. I’ll be safe with the three of you. So when do we leave.”

“Give us half an hour. I need to talk to my friends a bit and you three can gather whatever supplies you’ll need as I don’t know how long we’ll be in there.”

Thankfully, no one questioned my desire for a private conversation and so we went to the far end of the warehouse. Selena created a field that would keep anyone from overhearing us and then looked at me. “Spill.”

I began talking about how the Ways had asked me to become their herald. We had a lot of discussion about what that meant but I had few answers. “All I really know is that it would require me to travel around the multiverse and somehow expand the reach of the Ways.”

“So the Fey System wants you now too?” Samvek asked.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t think that the Ways and the Fey System are the same.” Then I repeated what it had told me about how it had existed long ago but had become connected to the Fey System. “The voice mentioned something about the Fey System being created by a Remnant of Eternity.”

“You mean like the thing that saved you from Gallarosa?”

I nodded at him as I tapped my necklace. As far as I knew the remnant was still in there, but I had been both too busy and too nervous to check. Something that could act without even systems knowing that it had acted or which could alter my soul and mind to remove trauma was not something I wanted to interact with lightly.

“I can understand why you don’t want to accept, and I support you, but that kind of power would be hard to turn down. Protecting your family, friends, and Earth are all very important to you. Before you make your final decision you need to decide if you believe that the Ways could make good on the promise of that kind of power.”

Selena’s words caught me off guard. I had expected her to be the most opposed to it, since it would obligate me to a form of service even if it had been pitched as not being very onerous. “Um, not what I expected you to say.”

She smiled. “This is kind of my point. Whatever decision you make you need to know all the ramifications either way. Your decisions affect the lives of billions or even trillions of beings. That can’t be done lightly.”

“Okay, I’ll see what else I can learn, but I don’t want to be beholden to any more mega powerful beings that I already am. Now we should meet with them to go over protocol for the dungeon dive.”

The discussion took very little time. We already knew that Clay was a professional and Oliver proved to be no different. Lexa had been the most standoffish of Tad’s entourage, but something about our interaction with the dungeon must have made her more agreeable. She interacted politely with all three of us, most especially with me.

Once we had party order, and emergency protocols in place as well as a general discussion about what they could do to contribute, we headed for the entrance. Samvek took the lead, followed by Clay, then Selena, Oliver, and Lexa, with me bringing up the rear. Lexa paused a moment before entering the dungeon and looked back at me. “You really should take the offer. It would be an honor to be the herald of the Ways.” Then she moved into the dungeon without waiting for me to reply.

Apparently, this just got more complicated.