Elsewhere

*** You have tapped into the power of your Seed and caused it to sprout. The sheer force of your willpower has demanded action. Your Ability REPAIR has forcibly been evolved to affect not just objects but living beings as well. This evolution is well beyond the capabilities of the original Ability and has resulted in raising it to the rank of Master. It shall be known henceforth as RESTORE. The energy to do this far exceeded your own stores of energy. You have drawn upon the energy of the cosmos, and it has been channeled through you to accomplish this feat. There will be consequences for this action. The positive is that you have opened your Mana channels in a way that few have ever survived. Mana now flows freely into and throughout your body. You regain Mana at an increased rate and use it more efficiently. There will be a price to be paid for the Mana you have stolen from the cosmos. There will be a price to be paid for the changes to your body. ***

Elanie saw the look of worry cross Duke face and the sudden tension of his body elevate. She paused in her fervent embrace of her husband. “What is it, Duke. What did you do?”

“I called on cosmic power to heal Grat. I don’t really know how I did so, but there will be a bill to pay for this.”

“I will pay it.” Elaine responded.

“Don’t say that!” Duke snapped back. “This is for me to handle. I will pay the price when the bill comes due.”

She opened her mouth to argue but the absolute deadly look in Duke’s eyes stopped her cold. She felt as if all the murderous intent in the world was focused within his eyes. It terrified her. Duke continued speaking, his eyes softening as he saw her back down. “We’ll rest here for a bit and then finish this level. It’s probably just the boss fight at this point.”

Grat walked over to Duke and sat down next to him. “This has been a completely impossible month. I have seen things I never thought possible but today, today, you have truly done the inconceivable. I was dead. I could feel my soul leaving my body. And yet you pulled me back and healed me. And not like any healing I have ever heard of before. I feel younger, my muscles feel more limber and my joints have nothing resembling an ache. I’m still covered in blood, but I am willing to bet I look younger too.”

Duke activated CLEANSE over all three of them as his Mana continued to quickly rise. The Ability fired off faster than ever before and he could get a good look at Grat again. Before he could even say anything, Elaine had wrapped her husband up in another embrace. “You look like you did when we met, my love. So young and full of life.”

“I don’t know what to say but this is amazing – well beyond anything I have ever heard of happening. Thank you, Duke. Thank you.” Grat spoke over his wife’s shoulder.

“You are welcome. I’m not entirely sure how I did it, but I am glad whatever it was worked.” Duke responded uncertainly. I wonder if I could duplicate the youth-restoring effect. Elaine is now at least a decade, probably even more, older than Grat. I don’t want that even to have the possibility of becoming a problem down the road. Maybe I can try once we get out of the dungeon. Enough messing with powers I don’t understand for now, right?

Eventually, the embrace ended, and the pair gave Duke an embarrassed look as he sat on the opposite side of the hallway waiting. He waved off their apology. “Let’s finish this level. There’s one direction that nothing came at us from so I bet that is where the boss is hiding.”

The pair smiled. “Yes, let’s finish this level off.” Elaine added.

“One thing, though.” Duke added. “I’m going to blast the whole room to pieces when the door is opened. This level has caused too much emotional strain and damage for all of us. I’m not going to chance anything else happening in the last room. So, both of you take cover behind the door when it’s opened and let me handle it. OK?”

Grat nodded in agreement while Elaine hesitated briefly before agreeing. The three of them calmly set out down the last hall to the door. Duke had an eye out for traps but didn’t find any. Why was there only one trap on this entire level? Fucking weird.

When they reached the door, Duke noted that it was even bigger than he had thought, reaching the full height of the hallway’s eight meters. He nodded at the pair, and they pulled the door open, thankful that it was engineered to open easily despite its considerable bulk and mass.

Duke pushed through the opening once it was just wide enough for him to step through and blasted the first thing he saw with a massively OVERCHANNELED FORCE BOLT, striking what turned out to be a thirty-meter-tall automaton square in the crotch. The extra 2,500 Mana channeled into the Ability was enough to simply erase the lower torso. The top half of the thing crashed to the floor, splitting the legs apart to fall in separate directions. It ceased all motion.

Duke scanned the rest of the room, seeing nothing else of concern, he relaxed slightly as the hoped-for system message appeared.

*** Congratulations! You have completed the second level of the Lake Front Dungeon. You have one hour to collect whatever loot you may find before you must decide whether to continue or to leave the dungeon. When this hour is up, you will be transported to a safe room where you may recover for up to one week before proceeding to the next level or departing the dungeon. Rewards will be distributed upon your decision. Dungeon restrictions have been temporarily lifted. ***

Elaine and Grat came back from around the door as a lone gear came rolling by them and back down the hall. Duke smiled at them and gestured at the immense mechanical giant. “Big metal man fall down and go boom!”

Grat smiled while Elaine groaned. Duke ignored their reactions as he was already pulling parts of the thing into his INVENTORY. He had no idea if Baslin could use them, but the Archmage had said that he wanted everything. Besides, the man seemed to go nuts every time Duke brought him something new to play with.

The trio spent the next hour looting everything they could find. Once again, the loot wasn’t all that spectacular and certainly nothing like what Duke had gotten the first time through the level. Duke was about to say something about the level being easier, but he caught himself. The level had quite nearly cost Grat his life and the trauma from that was shared by all three of them. There was nothing easy about that.

When the three of them were back together, Duke asked the big, burning question as they collectively waited for transit to the “between” rooms. “So, this level was a bit awful. I’m not even going to go into the awfulness I experienced the first time though. But that said, are you two going to be up for the third level? It will be immensely harder than this level was.”

“Let’s see what rewards we receive from this level first. These constructs were considerably harder than the ferrets, especially the giants, so I expect we will receive a more substantial experience reward and possibly enough to level us up.” Elaine responded after trading a worried look with Grat. He had responded with an affirmative nod.

When they transitioned to the area “between”, Sam greeted them. “I am glad to see that you all made it out of there OK. I was really worried when the giant stomped you.”

“Yes, that was…unpleasant.” Grat responded. Elaine winced.

“Here are your rewards for completing the level.” Sam continued.

They each pulled up their messages and read them.

*** Congratulations. You have completed the second level of the Lake Front Dungeon and have received experience rewards:

For defeating 30 Clockwork Automatons, 3 Giant Automatons, and one Titanic Automaton, you receive 43,500 experience each. This experience has been split evenly as you all significantly participated in the combat. For completing the level, you receive an additional 10,000 experience. ***

Comparing notes, they discovered that Duke had gone up two levels and the couple had each gone up three. The growth had lightened the mood of the group a bit and they all sat down to distribute their new Characteristic points. Elaine and Grat had each gained 6 from their three levels. Duke had gained 12 from his two levels.

Duke finally understood the disparity that Jablach and Ergo had tried to explain to him. It felt like it was so long ago, but was no more than weeks, if even that. Long enough for an army to march out to the tower, if nothing else. But was it really long enough to muster an army and march it out there? Could they have been on their way before I even set out for the city? I have to get this timeline straight. Not my top priority but have to put it on my list. My ever-growing list.

Duke decided to put three points into each of his lowest stats and the rest into Psyche. With his magic being enhanced, he figured that was probably worth continuing to bump up. Seeing his Mana pass 10,000, he felt like it was a good decision. Time would tell.

The loot chest contained a significant number of coins, a cold iron-shod staff that Grat took as a replacement for his shattered one, a set of metallic fangs that Elaine chuckled upon taking, and a small crystal sphere that Duke took. Duke IDENTIFIED the crystal sphere.

***You have found a floating lamp crystal. By infusing 10 Mana into this object, you will cause it to float over your head and provide light for the area around you in a 10-meter radius. Additional Mana can be infused for a greater effect, but that will reduce the lifespan of the item. ***

Duke nodded in appreciation. “Pretty basic light source, but it means I won’t have to channel my LIGHT all the time. I guess it’ll do.”

“It will do nicely.” Elaine agreed. “You say this next level is going to be difficult, right?”

Duke shook his head. “No, not difficult. Extremely difficult and deadly. The two levels we just finished were on their “normal” settings. I don’t know if you noticed, but the levels of the constructs last level were in the 30-50 range. When I first went through there, they were topping 100+ in levels. I expect the next level to all be over level 100. I need to continue on to the next level for many reasons, but I don’t know if you two should. You are both adults, so I’m not going to even try to make that decision for you.”

Grat smiled wryly, “Can Duke complete the third level and then pick us up outside the dungeon for us to pick up where we left off, or would we have to run the first two levels again?”

Duke stared stunned at Grat. “If that works, that would be brilliant! What do you say, Sam?”

Sam seemed to take time to consider the question before responding, “If you leave the dungeon, you must restart at the first level.” Its voice seemed smug.

Grat responded, “Perfect. That will give us a chance to level up even more before taking on the third level.”

“Damn…that’s evilly clever.” Duke remarked.

“I don’t just keep him around for his youth and good looks.” Elaine replied. “We’ll wait for you outside the dungeon. We have some things we should discuss in private anyway.”

“Guess I’ll see you both in a bit. Remember, time flows differently within the dungeon. I’ll probably come pick you up outside in a few minutes so get your ‘secret conversation’ done quickly if you don’t want me walking in on it.”

“Right. Time to go. Sam, show us an exit please. Grat and I wish to leave the dungeon.” Elaine responded.

An exit portal formed in the usual spot and the pair left Duke alone with the voice of the dungeon.

Duke nodded in the direction he thought Sam was. “Time for the third level for me. Let’s do this!”

The portal opened and Duke stepped through.