Day 100 - Blue
It was an incredible relief to know her parents were still fine. Very little dampened Shaymas spirit but her worry over them definitely had, the last ti we discussed it. It was good to know that, at last sighting, they were perfectly okay and still traveling and adventuring together. Plus it gave Shayma sothing to talk about with her new party mbers.
I was particularly proud of that bit of thinking. The reaction to the primal Source gem had been a lot more dramatic than I was expecting, and I could hardly let them have it for free, but it wasnt like they were exactly rich. Most importantly, from what Id seen, the two of them were good people.
But I was only half-listening to their conversation, because I was hearing another one, and not one from the refugees living in their habitats. It actually took a little bit to figure out what was going on, because it was the first ti the perk had activated. Soone who wasnt already inside [Genius Loci] was using my na.
It was Thul Monat, [Grandmaster of the Fist].
He was sitting on the porch of his cabin, reclining in his hand-carved chair and facing a small gathering of other people who all looked quite impressive. The perspective I had was like a tiny mote of [Genius Loci], hanging in the middle of all of them, but it didnt co with the attendant overlay bonuses of being able to appraise people. I still got nas and classes, which was good, because itd be pretty useless to know so random person sowhere was saying sothing, but no stats and no view outside of the speck of presence.
And according to the Queen, this dungeon is a Power that goes by Blue. Which is disturbing in a number of ways, but according to her its fulfilled all the agreents theyve made without issue.
If its not a Great Dungeon, its one of the mage-king pet cores, said Yamal Gen, a grey-bearded man with a huge sword slung over his back. He bore the impressive-sounding Class of [Sovereign of the Thousand-Blessed Blade]. That ans that soones controlling it. If not Queen Iniri, who?
If its actually a Power it may not be constrained by those rules, the [Theurge Of Purifying Fla] cautioned. He had a robe that seed to be actually on fire, tiny flas licking along it and threatening a neatly-trimd goatee, and the overlay told his na was, improbably, Liril Lirilson.
Yeah but I doubt it is. Yamal scowled. We should find out.
It is a significant claim, I agree, Monat said. But the girl that claid to be its Emissary was neither monster nor demihuman. She was sothing else, which makes think we ought to be careful.
Yamal still looked pretty set on finding out and since they were all fourth-tiers, that ant he was north of level seventy. Not that the numbers alone described the power of a fourth-tier class. It was the third class evolution, and people at the fourth tier had earned the Skills and stats to refine their lifeti of experience into incredible power. I had heard one of the Classers in the inn say that Monat had leveled a mountain with his bare fists. And he wasnt joking.
I was glad Id already started improving my defenses after that incident with the idiot adventures trying to get ahold of my core. They had been relatively low-level, second-tier types, and Id still had to fiddle with things to get rid of them. A group of high level people? I probably wouldnt stand a chance without sothing more robust.
Which is why while Shayma chatted and the fourth-tiers debated, I was expanding and improving the tunnels that led through and around my interior. I didnt have many, since they were mostly there for the inhabitants, Shayma, and Ansae, but even now I didnt have enough resource generation to turn them all into stonesteel right away, especially since a number of them were being graced with Spatial Control fields. Earth mages still worried , given how the [Earth Invoker] had managed to shortcut through my walls.
That had been pretty uncomfortable, though not actually painful, and it seed to take more effort to breach the walls than the stone between. Judging by his mana he couldnt have done it too many tis, but a fourth tier could probably just dig straight to my Core if they wanted.
So I was taking steps there, too. Since I could just teleport Shayma to my core room, I created a shell around it. I had to run threads of my own dungeon-stone through it, since I couldnt disconnect myself from the rest of the dungeon, but that was fine. I could make hundreds, thousands of thin stonesteel strands and it was a better use of the material than hallways, because I filled the shell with layers of magma and ice to keep the elentalists out.
I wished I could run myself through strands of tal, but I still hadnt managed to unlock the use of tals for my own structure. The stuff was just sitting in my inventory in raw form, interesting but useless. I could spit it out like stone or biomass, into loose stuff lying on the floor, but it wasnt part of and I couldnt manipulate it. I couldnt even manage to finagle it with mana flows the way I had with the flower bouquet. Clearly I was missing sothing, but I had no idea what. Maybe Id have to see if I could use [Assimilation] on so sort of tallic structure.
Since I was stuck with them, for the mont at least, I just kept the stone threads thin and Spatially Controlled the shell from a respectable ten-ter gap to a massive hundred ters. Then for the heck of it used that sa control to compress the angular direction, which actually resulted in a confusing distortion that I was pretty sure ant the core room was effectively smaller from the outside, but it wasnt quite clear. But if I was hazy on how it worked, so would everyone else, and under that logic I kept it.
Then I started filling up the shell. Layer of magma, twenty ters thick. Inner shell of stone, coated with glass. Ten ter air gap, filled with the [Darkness] field. Another shell, this one of ice, encased by stone and glass and likewise filled with [Darkness]. Then more magma, air, ice, [Darkness]. The resulting layer-cake took its own tithe of my mana inco, but it would, I hoped, be a difficult and painstaking process to penetrate.
New defense created! Calculating rewards
16,000 experience granted.
After a mont of reflection, I saturated the whole thing with [Warding]. I didnt generally keep the Skill active over my whole volu, because that took far too much mana and anyway I seed to have a slight natural defense against divination. Mostly I kept it to a thin layer on the surface, so my guests could hunt in peace. But divination definitely could work under so conditions, given that twice people had used scrying crystals to track things down.
It seed that no matter how much mana inco I managed to create, it got eaten up again pretty rapidly.
Ansae made a few comnts as I constructed my shield layers, ntioning poison and acid and making wonder why I didn't have either of those things. I had kind of assud that the boring tendrils used acid, but a closer look revealed that they used brute force and a touch of mana to break down and intake stone.
I had magma, and I knew volcanoes were usually a source of all kinds of nasty chemicals, but mine just seed to generate heat. But then, it was just heating up my stone...which as far as I could tell was the blandest, most inoffensive feldspar to exist so I didnt have any nifty impurities like sulfur or chlorine that would offgas from it. No luck with the surrounding stone, either, since it seed to be mostly granite which made finding iron ore in it maybe a little weird but nevermind.
Id have to find so other source of rock or mineral to lt before I could kill people that way, it seed.
I wasnt just working on defending my core. I couldnt really obfuscate the tunnel between the habitat and the surface, but I could and did layer in my various trap ideas. Not the useless sticky and spear traps, but things with lava and steam and water under trendous hydraulic pressure. Even if that one guy had blunted it with his swords, the however many billion pascal water stream was one of the few ho-grown traps that didnt rely on heat.
Honestly, I had way too many weaknesses when I thought about it. Or rather, I didnt have enough approaches. I seed to be mostly stuck in earth-magma-water, and given that I had access to mana and a pretty reasonable knowledge of technology I really ought to be doing better.
Speaking of mana, I was running into an impasse there, too. I understood how the shower worked, but it needed sothing I didnt yet know how to do. Which was twist mana into actual Affinities. The dynamo only sort-of had Affinities - now that I was actually trying to work with it I could tell it was subtly different than the mana people used, like it wasnt quite fully realized. So trying to turn the flow from the ice flowers into an air conditioner...didnt work.
I was hoping that once I talked with Ansae directly I could figure it out. It had to be a simple thing. Given that Ansae seed to actually be able to see my weird mana, surely she had so idea of how to apply it. Actually, I was frustratingly limited despite being terribly busy.
The discussion between fourth-tiers wrapped up without anyone actually agreeing they should try and get rid of , which was nice, but Yamal did say hed go join Iniri, which was less nice. Well, good for her, but I didnt want the guy around.
My awareness of the eting faded when they dropped as a topic of conversation, moving onto matters of Wildwood administration that I was just as happy to not have to listen to. It was a pretty spectacular ability though, to just hear and see whatever, and made feel like a bit of a bogeyman. Speak of my na and I shall appear! Virtually appear, anyway.
It was sothing to keep secret, though. From everyone but Shayma, at least. Even Iniri couldnt really be trusted with the knowledge. She had her own loyalties and a whole kingdom to worry about. When she took it back, anyway.
Looks like Monat is going to track you down in a little bit here, I warned Shayma. Hes going to start sending people over.
Great! She said, confusing Keri for a mont. Those two seed to get along pretty well. Keri was pretty adorable, actually, being so ridiculously cheerful, and the fact that for so reason she had a mouth full of shark teeth made her either more or less adorable, depending on the circumstances. Annit was sowhat more reserved, which I understood, since in her position I wouldnt have trusted either.
Blue says that so people are ready to go join Iniri, she explained, and Keri glanced around as if expecting them to burst through the door.
Is...is he spying on the whole city? She asked, eyes wide.
Not the whole city, Shayma said, a little bit impishly. Anyway, theyll probably need to set up the teleporter in a little bit. When were wrapped up here...Blue, do you think you could make them their own cottage or sothing?
Since youre asking, of course. I could even set up a training room if they tell you what they want in it. I dont have monsters, but I can make a parkour course?
Parkour?
Oh, ah, obstacle course type of thing. I could also make open areas for sparring. That kind of thing.
He says that wont be any problem and he can set up training areas if you have anything in mind. Shayma relayed back to them.
Well, its always best to start with low-level monsters, Annit said with a frown.
Blue doesnt do monsters. Well have to use the borderlands until we teleport back? Then I suppose well have to find sothing near him.
What sort of dungeon doesnt have monsters? Keri asked, fingers playing idly with the primal Source. She hadnt let go of it since it had changed color, her mana flowing through it and back into her body even without using any Skills.
The Blue kind, Shayma grinned. Hes in a nearly mana-dead area but Im sure there will be sowhere closer than Wildwood you can train . Not to ntion Vok Nals lesser forces.
Annit and Keri exchanged glances at that. Weve been out on the borderlands here since before the invasion, Annit said. How bad is it?
Pretty bad, Shayma admitted. Tor Kot has Taere, Invin, Duenn, and Laeer. She listed off four of the five major cities, holding up her fingers. And Vok Nal took over il about six months ago. They arent expanding anymore, just raiding the countryside for slaves and such, but thats bad enough. I passed a number of ruined villages on the way here.
Thats why I wanted to stay out here, Annit sighed. Give monsters any day over wars.
But we can help there too, and adventure! Keri was not at all daunted. I bet we can level up faster there, too. Youve always said you get more experience from being outnumbered or endangered.
That doesnt an that you should be endangered. Youre a [Healer]!
I cant stay inside the city walls forever, Annie. Keris narrowed her eyes at Annit. You promised wed go adventuring when I evolved my Class and we could actually get a party together. You promised. And this is definitely an adventure!
Annit sighed. Youre right. I suppose we cant start out in Wildwood anyway. Well co by the Flowering Branch tomorrow probably? How are you giving out these teleports, anyway?
Blue does it. Hell have to take over so part of the street temporarily, probably.
Im not sure the Grandmaster will like that, Annit said doubtfully.
Its the Queen whos asking, and anyway Im pretty sure nobody else can teleport inside now.
We should still warn him ahead of ti. I know you like being dramatic and all, but that might not go over so well here.
Aw, but thats the best part.
Hey, I thought I was the best part.
Um. Well, yes. But not in public...usually.
Shayma giggled, while Keri and Annit stared. Wait. Keri said after a mont. Are...are you flirting with Blue?
Um. A little bit? This ti it was my turn to laugh as Shayma answered, a touch flustered to be called on it.
Oh my gods. Keri turned to Annit. Why cant we do that?
Annit was speechless.
The pair were going to be really fun when they actually did go adventuring, I could tell. I had no regrets about roping them in to help Shayma. It didnt even matter if they werent as high level as they could be, since it wasnt like Shayma was so powerhouse either. Yet. It didnt matter that apparently Annits [Wind Hunter] was a pretty lackluster Class, either. Once I figured out how to make a wind Source I could give her sothing to buff her up, and probably give her a huge boost for her next Class evolution.
Well, Ill leave you two so you can figure out what youre going to do. Im probably going to have work soon and then...probably going to see if I can track down mom and dad, if theyre still here!
It was good to et you Shayma! Keri waved vigorously, seizing the hand of a still-poleaxed Annit. Well catch up with you later!
Shayma was barely holding back laughter as she escaped the room, erging back into the clean-swept streets of Wildwood Reserve. No sooner had she exited the clinic than the rainbow-ribbon form of Lockert dove from the sky. Oi, he called. Grandmaster wants to speak with you!
Yes, I imagine he does. Lets go. She adopted her more official in, slightly cool and aloof, as Lockert flew a circle around her and lifted her into the sky. Looking out at the city spread below, I had a sudden thought.
Hey, Shayma? If your parents are still in Wildwood...uh, how are you going to introduce to them?
Um.
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