NOVEL NEXT 57 – You’re walking in the woods There’s no one around And your phone is dead Out of the corner of –
Another advantage of having my Dungeon Seeds connected by the Dungeon network was mana accumulation. The tunnels covered a lot of ground, which meant more area to gather mana. Thus, even though the Dungeons individually had much less mana than I did, together they could somewhat rival how much mana there was on my moon.
Which meant I could do some proper complex enchantments. Like, for example, incorporating System Essence into one.
Since raw mana is apparently deadly to organisms unused to it, and even if it wasn’t I don’t really want magical but non-System Sipalians messing with my Dungeons, I’ll have to make sure only System Users can access my Dungeons. Or at least the deeper parts of my Dungeons.
So, I need to check if they have the System. And how does one check for the System? By using the System.
But since the System is mostly a meta Aspect that can’t easily affect the world, I can’t just tell it to block the way for anyone I don’t want to. Which means there has to be some other force to act as the barrier.
Enter, enchantments. Or my stupid rule breaking auto enchantments, to be exact.
The idea is simple. I give a tiny bit of System Essence and ask the mana to make the enchantment. How it’ll work is it’ll create a barrier, and the key to pass through is System Essence. It’ll scan anyone who wants to enter and if they have a trace of the Essence inside them, as any User should, they’ll be able to pass through easily.
For everyone else, the barrier might as well be an impassable wall.
Easy stuff, right? At least in theory.
The problem comes when I actually start working on it. I begin with on of the three Dungeon Seeds that were in the ‘second generation’. The one at point nemo island, or ‘first generation’, is inaccessible enough that I don’t need to worry about it and the three newest ones, or ‘third generation’, are not yet connected to the network.
I gather mana. I gather some more mana. And some more still. I keep gathering mana but the enchantment still doesn’t activate.
I begin to think that something must be really wrong. Maybe it only works inside my own Dungeon moon, for whatever reason? But just then, when I’ve gathered enough mana to significantly drop the concentration in the whole rest of the Dungeon network, it begins.
The mana coalesces and starts working on the Dungeon Seed’s entrance. Channels and pathways getting carved into the stone.
Once it’s all done, a translucent barrier shimmers into place over the hole that was the entrance. A success.
Now if only I knew why it took so much damn mana. If that’s how it’ll always be, it’ll take weeks, maybe months, for it to replenish and me to do this to every entrance. Weeks and months of objective time, of course, but it’s still a lot even for me.
I get back to working on my surprise for our soon-to-be-intruding deity while spectating my three favourite adventurers.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I ask Faellen while watching Prshky stumble through the obstacles course the others are practically flying through. Well, Ditti is gracefully flying through. Ram is more reminiscent of a raging bull charging through walls. But hey, if it works it works.
“They are learning a bit faster than last time. How about you, any sign of Zemis?” the fairy asks back.
“No, nothing yet. I did finish the Dungeon network, the first stage of it, but it’s already depleted of mana. I have to wait until it gathers more.”
I receive a pointed look, “Can’t you just, you know, Ignore That? The lack of mana, I mean.”
“Sigh, unfortunately not. Apparently the fact I can’t use my own Create database is not a limitation of the Create Ability, but of the Seed Dungeon Ability. So none of my Abilities work through them.”
We watch silently for a bit as the three adventurers try to solve a puzzle. A certain member keeps advocating for simply blasting through the door, while the others are trying to solve it.
“And I almost forgot,” I start again, “any idea of how to resurrect someone who’s been petrified? Assuming that petrification is somehow not really a death. I don’t think resurrecting people from proper death is within my power yet.”
And there it is, the patented Faellen sigh of disappointment, along with a classic, “What did you do?”
I briefly explain the situation with the Sipalian explorers. How they found my Dungeons and decided to explore them. How I decided to scare them off and how it backfired.
“No, you won’t be able to save them.” A brief pause. “But you know what this means, right?”
“No?” I answer, confused.
“Just because they’re a sapient species doesn’t mean they’re special. And since they don’t have any deity yet, and with Zemis not yet here, nothing is protecting them.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“What I’m trying to say is… that you can gain the Sipalian pattern for your database and be able to Create them.”
That- that makes me feel weird. Queasy. Something about that doesn’t feel right, but the feeling isn’t coming from my Dungeon side. My Dungeon instincts are happily agreeing.
I’ll… have to think about this. The petrified Sipalians won’t go anywhere.
In the meantime, I need something to take my mind off of this. Something simple. Something like that dot of light I see moving across the sky. A dot that’s suspiciously small and fast, as if it was much closer than expected. And also a dot that suspiciously stops right when it reaches this solar system.
Zemis, I’ve found you. It’s time for you to pay, it’s time for retribution.
