“Right now?” Drean asked. “You wish to venture to the entrance imdiately?”
“Humans have shorter lifespans,” Vivi said. “We need to get ho. The sooner we’re all free, the better.”
The slingshot launcher on her shoulder took the spirits’ attention. Everyone eyed it suspiciously, as if she’d arrived with so foreign curse. Vivi didn’t bla them. They’d spent five thousand years in a cave, after all.
“And that tube is what you intend to use to break levelstone?” Drean asked.
“Yes,” Vivi said. She bowed to show she was serious. “If you know where the exit is, I would appreciate your guidance. Otherwise, we will search for it ourselves. Is it a long trip?”
Drean looked contemplative. The remaining nine spirits ranged from hesitant to uncomfortable. The braided woman said curtly, “I don’t believe we should listen to a thing this girl says. Levelstone cannot be broken.”
“Correct,” Drean said. “Although, I am interested to see this contraption in use. Our weapons are ready.”
“It has been decades since we last visited the caves,” the woman said.
“I won’t need help with monsters,” Vivi said. “I just need directions.”
The spirits looked at each other. Nobody except Drean or the woman said anything. Their expressions changed, though, as if they were talking. Are they talking in their thoughts? Vivi asked.
“Most likely,” Lucius said. “They’re all sub-spirits of the sa spirit. They can probably use telepathy.”
Whatever they were talking about, it seed they reached so sort of agreent. Drean and two more spirits tied Helegar back down, and the trip began. Alda, Cael, and Lortel all departed with her.
The first ten minutes were a calm trot through the forest with the spirits shooting any reanimated monsters before Vivi could even think of fighting them. “There is a lot I wish to ask you about advancents in technology,” Drean said. “Though, it will take ti before our heads are in the space to learn. It is an intense process to escape routine, especially after routine has existed for hundreds of years.”
“Uh-huh,” Vivi said.
Drean didn’t speak much after that. They reached the mountain-like wall at the edge of the forest. A dark tunnel led the way into the caverns. There, Drean said, “Let us focus. It has been a while since we last did this.”
Vivi nodded, just hoping that Drean still rembered the way. They entered. The spirits went into formation, surrounding Vivi and her friends in a circle. The spirits stayed perfectly in formation with crossbows and spears protecting all directions.
Drean walked swiftly at the lead with no hesitation on picking directions. He didn’t even need to look around to already pick a direction and start walking to the next tunnel up.
The dark wisps rose soon enough, clouding the air. Vivi reached into her void core and prepared to open it. Except, the spirits did sothing before she could.
All of their auras extruded outward. They pushed hard, fighting against the ambient ether. Just like with channeling ether, the ambient ether worked with pressure. The spirits created much thicker auras, which pushed away the dark wisps by pressure.
An insect dropped from a tunnel above not five rooms later. Crossbows flicked in its direction as five enhanced arrows pierced it. The insect fell limp on the ground, and Drean shot one final arrow into its brain, killing it. The spirits collected its ether.
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“The first gauntlet, the caves, are not difficult,” Drean said. “The lava is where the monsters get dangerous. Many of us have died there, never to be recovered, including Sannelia herself.”
“How deep do the levels go?” Vivi asked.
“Francesco claims to have made it to the fifth gauntlet,” Drean said. “He claims it’s not the last, and that the fifth is already impossible. It’s said the gauntlets extend all the way to the core of the world.”
“And that’s where the gods reside?”
Drean’s lips ford a line. “If they are, they are long asleep. We have not heard one sign of Noxbryn. We do know that our Queen, Sannelia, is stuck within, tornted alone for centuries upon centuries. She fell during her and Francesco’s very first attempt to hunt this dungeon, in the third gauntlet. Her physical body has not been found.”
“So she was a half-spirit?” Lucius asked from Vivi’s core.
“Indeed,” Drean said. “It is a tragic story, the King’s and the Queen’s honeymoon, in this dungeon, and their fall to eternal rot. Now, follow . We are almost there.”
“Already?” Vivi asked.
“A short trip,” Drean said. “With an impenetrable wall at the end. You will see.”
Vivi raised an eyebrow, but they continued.
And continued.
And continued.
For over two hours, they continued, killing dozens of insects and clearing hundreds of caverns. Vivi was starting to seriously doubt the claim of “short trip” when Drean finally stopped.
He faced a thick stone wall at the end of the path. “This is it. The seal has locked us in. Levelstone.”
The wall had no coating of ether around it. It looked exactly like the sa levelstone that Shivenar’s mine consisted of. Grey and boring, but concentrated with ether with a smooth surface. Generally considered impenetrable.
“How did you get in the dungeon if levelstone blocked it off?” Vivi asked.
“It didn’t use to be this way,” Drean said. “The gods repaired the levels at the end of the Age Of Typhoons. An unlucky repair locked us in.”
“Hm, I see.”
All of the spirits observed Vivi while she faced the wall. “Do you think you can break it?” Drean asked.
“Let’s find out,” Vivi said. She summoned an inside-carved missile from spatial storage, one with strength and crush runes. She pushed ether through it.
Then she summoned her hamr and knelt down, placing the missile on the ground. “This will look a bit odd without an anvil,” she said, and began hamring the missile against the ground.
Simultaneously, she pushed more and more ether through the runes. The pressure of her hamr concentrated the ether inside the missile, allowing more to be fit in. And the more ether that the missile included, the tougher it would be.
She then slotted the missile into the barrel of the slingshot launcher, angling the missile so that its outer rune connected with the enhancent string. With the upgraded slingshot launchers, the enhancent string was built into the design to allow safer and more convenient reloads.
“I recomnd covering your ears,” Vivi said. “This gets loud.”
“Should we ask what this is?” Alda asked.
“This is the sa technology that destroyed Cael’s wyvern,” Vivi said. “Cover your ears.”
Vivi strengthened her footing and her hands with ether. She pointed the barrel at the layer of levelstone, and fired.
The stretch ropes blew with an ear piercing snap, followed imdiately by a crash and a dust cloud as the missile exploded against the levelstone. Everyone flinched back, staring at the damage behind Vivi.
The dust cloud settled, revealing the wall still intact. The missile fell and clinked against the ground. A crack had been left behind.
A very small one, only a few inches to each side, with only a tiny indent in the wall, but a crack had ford.
Drean’s mouth was wide open. He snorted. Then chuckled. A short mad cackle followed. “What? The levelstone… it has a crack!”
Every spirit stared at it. They were silent for a mont.
Then the wild noises of cheers rung, eerie sounds that sounded more like whimpers than cheers, but ones that were clearly celebrations. “It damaged levelstone!” Drean called, his tone now entirely different.
Vivi moved to examine the crack, scratching it with her finger. The tip of the missile had pushed roughly half an inch into the levelstone before stopping and falling off. The missile had also dented itself, becoming unusable.
Creating one of these missiles took multiple days. And if this was the progress she moved at…
Vivi’s lips drew a pout. “This will take a while. That’s barely any damage.”
“But it is damage!” Drean said. “We can escape!”
“We need a more powerful launcher,” Vivi said. “Drean, you said you have ether roots and tals here, right?”
“We do!” he said eagerly.
Vivi nodded. “Take
there. We need to get to work.”
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