After confirming that the toll bridge would not leave even after three hours of not putting any coins into it, we decided to rest for the night in the library and resu the search of the higher floors in the morning and the outside. The outside group didn’t find much, but there was an entrance to an underground section. This made little sense, considering we were on top of a floating piece of stone; there wasn’t exactly any room for a basent, let alone an entire underground area.
We split up into two groups, and each took a corner against the back wall where we could still keep watch over the entrance to the room. So far, we hadn’t noticed any looming threats, but the unnerving feeling the mansion gave off was ever-present. It felt like sothing would jump out from the walls at any mont, but there were no indications of anything happening every ti I used Soulsight.
The entire mansion was bizarre, and it was more like we had stumbled across an ancient ruin instead of being inside a dangerous dungeon. But so far, it was clear we were on the right path. For all its oddities, twisting paths, and dangers, a dungeon always had a way to the end. What the mansion had to do with it remained to be found.
I was part of the last group of the night watch, and I rested at the front of the camp and scanned the lit room. I half expected the lights to go out, but the glowing torches hadn’t lost their light since they ca on. I heard soone restlessly move in their sleeping bag and looked over my shoulder.
Cerila’s ears twitched, and her body shuddered slightly before she shot awake with a gasp. Our eyes t, and I smiled softly.
I asked.
Cerila nodded ekly. Cerila had ntioned the sa recurring dream she was having. It wasn’t affecting her every night, but it happened every few days and would wake her up from a dead sleep. It also wasn’t as intense as the regular nightmares that plagued every ti I slept when I was younger.
I signed.
She gave a thumbs-up and rolled back into her sleeping bag. But soone else shifted awake in theirs.
“Kal? Are you awake?” Mom asked.
“I am. It’s my turn for guard duty,” I told her.
Mom slid the covers off and sat down next to . Mom’s face scrunched up with worry as she looked over to Cerila.
“She hasn’t been sleeping very well…not since Doctor Jacobs died,” Mom said.
“Yes…I’m confident that is only making things worse. But her dream happened after her fight with Sylvia,” I pointed out.
Mom humd to herself. “Do you think sothing happened behind that barrier? Sothing that is giving her that dream of a place she’s never been to?”
“There’s no question about it. Dad, you, or I couldn’t even scratch it. Even Sylvia couldn’t explain how she put up such a large and strong barrier without so preparation. But neither of them rembers a single thing,” I said with a shrug.
Mom’s head dipped slightly as she sighed. “I’m worried about her, Kal. It doesn’t seem to have affected Sylvia as much as her,” she said.
“They are both strong. I’m sure things will get better with ti. They did for ,” I said.
Mom smiled softly at , and I chuckled. She raised an eyebrow and asked, “What?”
“It’s nothing. I just thought you truly see Cerila as a daughter,” I said.
She nodded at that, and her smile grew. “Yes, I always wanted sons, but I never imagined that having a daughter would be so…nice. And even though I can never be a replacent for Helreth, I still wanted to try. Cerila deserves that much.”
Helreth? That must be Cerila’s mother’s na. I don’t think I ever asked her what her parents’ nas were.
“I think you’ve done a great job. You are a great mother to her. To all of us,” I said honestly.
Mom suddenly jumped forward, and before I knew it, my head was resting in her lap as she gently ran a hand through my hair. She gently rubbed the back of my ear as well.
It was nice.
“W—what are you doing?” I asked, a little embarrassed.
Mom giggled as she continued. “It’s not every day I get to treat the Dragonslayer as my little boy.”
“I…I see…” I said.
I felt a warm liquid fall on the side of my cheek, but I didn’t look up at her. “You used to be so tiny I could hold you in my hands. Now, I can’t even fit you in my lap. My son has grown so big…” she said with a sniffle.
At least I won’t be mindlessly staring at a door for the rest of the night.
—
“So, this is the door to the private rooms of the noble? Did you ever bother to check it?” Professor Garrison asked.
Bowen shook his head. “There’s a chance it was trapped, and if there was sothing dangerous up here, I thought it would be best if we tackled it together,” he answered.
Lord Vasquez put his hand on the nob and gave everyone a firm nod. We spread out in case of a sudden trap or attack, but when he tried to turn the nob, it wouldn’t budge. Vasquez grunted as he tried to turn the knob forcefully, but the more he struggled, the more the door remained adamant.
“This isn’t a normal door…” Vasquez growled.
Lord Vasquez grabbed his axe in both hands, and the black blade erupted in red flas. With an overhead chop, he was poised to blow the door away, but the stunned silence that followed was the only thing that happened.
Did a wooden door stop an attack from a War God like it was nothing? What the hell is that thing made of?
There wasn’t even a burn mark from the flas or a scratch from the blade. Lord Vasquez slowly clenched and unclenched his hand and scowled.
“It appears we have to et so requirents to enter this door. But I wonder…” Bowen mumbled.
A chunk of rock ford in thin air and flew through another door to our right, completely crushing it. “So, it’s just this door then. Would you try the walls?”
Lord Vasquez shook his head. “If I can’t break down the door, the walls must be equally strong. We should investigate the underground next. Perhaps our answer lies there.”
We agreed, and Vasquez led us outside and behind the mansion. A long building was outback, and with its stone structure and chimney, I imagined it to be a small forge with storage. An entranceway attached to the outside wall led down to another door.
Thankfully, we opened that door without complications. As Lord Vasquez ntioned, it was a path down.
“This must be a separate place. A deep underground shouldn’t be possible here,” Bowen mumbled.
“All the more reason to investigate. Let’s go,” Vasquez said with his axe ready.
We climbed down a set of stairs into the darkness until we reached a landing. I took out lit torches from my Spatial Ring and passed them around. The torches illuminated the dark stone walls, and a high ceiling supported by columns.
Definitely not possible. This underground space shouldn’t be able to exist. Did we get moved to an entirely new destination just by walking through the door?
“This place is noticeably more decrepit than the mansion. Cracks and damage in the stone, a musty, dank sll mixed in with sothing else. And the system that lights the house doesn’t seem to be working here,” Bowen pointed out as he inspected the closest wall.
Sylvia clicked her tongue as she spun around. “Dark, disgusting, and in a dungeon…” she huffed.
“Let’s continue to move. Kaladin, tell if you see anything unusual,” Lord Vasquez said.
I scanned the darkness with Soulsight and just nodded. There wasn’t anything…yet.
We reached a room just a few steps away from the landing, and Vasquez kicked the rotted door down. Torch light engulfed the space, and it was empty save for a few shelves collecting dust. We moved on and found more of the sa until we reached a fork in the path.
“Separating now is a mistake. We should stick together and search for things as a group. We’ll go down the left path first,” Vasquez ordered.
With no complaints to be had, we went down the left path, but that didn’t last long. The ceiling and walls had collapsed, blocking off the tunnel.
“We could dig through it…” Ms. Taurus suggested.
“No need. We’ll go the other way,” Vasquez said with a small sigh.
We marched back and across to the other path. We passed more rooms, so for storage or other purposes, but they were all empty and showed no signs of usage. It wasn’t until we walked for a few more minutes that the darkness opened up to a more expansive area.
“What in the world is this?” Varnir asked in shock as he brought his torch above his head.
I took a good look at the alien machinery. Although this was the first ti I had seen one quite like that, it was apparent what sothing like that may have been once upon a ti.
An engine, or perhaps a generator.
“This is not so simple construction…no, it must have been important to sothing,” Bowen murmured.
Unlike most of what we had seen, the entire machine was made of rusted iron and oxidized copper. Its tal fra filled the whole space, and the central housing undoubtedly held many secrets. But the exterior had cylindrical copper rods that were reminiscent of pistons. Bowen wiped the dust off a large panel, revealing broken glass, gauges, and other readings, all in a foreign language.
“This is all in the sa language the books are in—sothing utterly different from Dwarfish yet similar enough to maybe have a connection. This all but confirms things. Those bones belonged to a long-forgotten race who utilized fascinating machinery, advanced piping techniques, and even runes years beyond what Krunbar has. This isn’t the kind of technology that Krunbar can keep secret for centuries,” Bowen said in wonder.
“What is it? And how does it work?” Vasquez asked, sounding just as surprised.
“Who knows? Sothing this large… could be anything, really. Maybe so central machinery, like one of those gearboxes we can find in Ostela’s ancient lifts. But on an entirely different level. But with such a large contraption, maybe its purpose is even beyond that. With this board of…symbols, knobs, and levers…it must give so readable information. A power source of so kind, perhaps? Sothing to be monitored frequently so as not to cause problems and ensure safe function,” Bowen guessed.
How frighteningly accurate…a single gaze, and he almost figured it out ultimately. Sotis, I am reminded that Bowen is a genuine once-in-a-generation genius.
I felt a few gazes at my back, and Cerila and Sylvia were just staring at . I sighed a little to myself and walked beside Bowen. I didn’t need to tell him I knew what it was. But I could guide him on the right path.
“What’s this panel?” I asked, pointing to the smaller one at its side.
Bowen rubbed his chin and looked back and forth between the readings and what I assud to be the ignition. “I’m not sure…if it was small and still in the open like this…perhaps an ergency shut off?”
Close. Or…maybe he was right? It’s not like I can read the lettering.
There was one problem that I still needed to address. The engine, if that is what it was, didn’t have an apparent way to power it. If it were gas or liquid, pipes would supply the engine, but only a crankshaft on either side showed how the engine should move. If it were combustion through flas, there was no place to put solid fuel. It could have been sothing more advanced, but I doubted these Dwarfs were using sothing that could be found in post-industrial revolution tis.
So, if it wasn’t any of those, one more power source ca to mind. A power source unique to this world. And there was only one way to test it on that conveniently hand-sized panel.
I placed my hand onto it and forced mana into my hand. I felt my mana being sucked into the panel, similar to Cerila’s tablet, as glowing blue runes sprang to life along the panel’s surface. The machine sputtered to life only to fail miserably as the runes lost their hue.
“What did you just do?” Bowen asked in shock.
“I just put a little mana into my hand. Should I do it again?” I asked.
Bowen looked to Vasquez for approval, and with a gruff nod from the War God, I sent more mana into my hand and maintained a steady flow. The runes glowed with power as the machine desperately tried to start itself. There was a chance the damage of ti was too much, but a little bit of mana was a worthy price to pay to advance further in the dungeon.
The machine worked with concerning noises as ancient machinery struggled to beat the passage of ti. The pistons creaked and ground against the rust that held them, as did the gears. With nothing to lose, I continued to feed mana into the system until, finally, the engine cleared so of its blockage.
The pistons began to move, albeit not very smoothly, as they ground against their housing with an ear-wrenching noise. The lights flickered to life, only to illuminate so corners of the space with dim and gloomy sources.
“Amazing…” Bowen muttered.
“I’m not sure what I am looking at or how this is going to help, but—”
Lord Vasquez couldn’t finish his sentence as I turned around and scanned the hallway we ca in from with Soulsight. “We have company. And a lot of them,” I said abruptly.
I started to put mana into a spell core as the sound echoed off the walls. It was a horrifying thing to see as much as it was to hear. A sea of tiny, bone-white creatures skittered along the floor and walls, piling on top of each other, moving as a single wave.
“Rats?! Why are they all dead?!” Varnir shouted.
I released an Earth Lance into the mass and must have crushed a hundred of the skeletal creatures. Tsarra used water magic to sweep them away, and bolts of blood broke the bodies apart, but the horde had no end. And that was the only entrance or exit. We had to hold the line.
Without collapsing the tunnel.
Our combined magic assault held the undead rats at bay. They were frail and weak creatures, and it took very little to decimate them entirely. Even so, so had made it through the blockade, and they skittered around the room. So did co toward us, but with a single step, they were crushed to dust and bony fragnts. However, not all of them ca directly at us.
“Where are those going?! Are they trying to interfere with the machine!?” Bowen hissed as he crushed a small group that made it past us.
Upon his question, the underground tunnel shook. Heavy steps thudded down the hallway, and I fed mana to my eye. I shook my head and said, “No, they are running from sothing. And that thing has found us. And whatever it is, it has a strong source of mana.”
We continued to mow down the rats until the last wave piled out. In the dim light of the hallway, a lumbering tallic monster rcilessly strode forward, crushing everything under its armored feet. It walked on four legs and was made out of a pitch-black tal. In one hand, a giant shield protected it while a spear skewered the bone rats.
Its torso was in the shape of a Humanoid, but it had a bulbous head that looked like glass. A faint orange glow seeped out from it as it stomped toward us.
“Is that a Golem?” Bowen said.
More like an armored ch. How fun.
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