074, 2/2

An hour later, after putting up lightward after lightward, Erick took a break, because Calzin had gone to town and brought back hot sandwiches for everyone on the job site. The sandwiches were full of fish and spices. Poi loved them, but Kiri just eyed them.

Erick whispered to her, “We’ll get some good beef tonight. That haraah beef, maybe? If you want to head out for a while to pick some up at the market, you can. There’s a few grandrads left in the Manor. Buy whatever you want.”

Kiri smiled, saying, “That sounds wonderful.”

After lunch, Kiri went to the market. An hour later, she came back. Erick was still putting up lightwards on the first floor. It would take him another 7 hours to finish, and that was only if there weren’t any other interruptions. But there were. When the afternoon rolled around, and it was time to rain in Spur, Erick already had more than enough Ophiel to send them blipping across the ocean, so he sent them on their way, and continued to cast lightwards in the ceiling of the dungeon, while he also rained platinum on the farms. He had to slow down his creation of kaleidoscopic lightwards, but he kept it up. Kiri went back home to start making dinner.

Erick took another break to go back to Windy Manor and eat. It was delicious, like always, but Kiri had pulled out all the stops. She made potatoes and steaks and fire grilled vegetables. It was great.

And then Erick went back to the dungeon. He and Ophiel finished the first floor’s lights, 20 hours after Erick had first arrived on the scene. The time was somewhere after midnight, Kiri had already gone to the Manor, and Erick was exhausted. Poi wasn’t too happy either. The man never complained, but Erick could see it in the man’s shoulders. Erick wouldn’t work this hard tomorrow, but he needed to get one floor done.

Ophiel had no problem continuing. Eight Ophiel kept working throughout the night, following the pattern Erick had set down. They’d each individually drop 13 ultraviolet or infrared lightwards in the ceiling, exactly in the grid where they needed to go, before flying over to a [Prismatic Ward] Erick had cast into the second floor, to Rest. And then they’d do it all again, and again, and again.

With the casting of this new [Prismatic Ward] in the dungeon, the one over the Mage Trio’s house in Spur had dissipated. But that was okay. Erick had checked in with them, and they were a lot better now that they had gotten some good rest. Spur had even managed to oust Messalina’s worms from the town. Things were looking better in the Crystal Forest.

– – – –

When Erick showed up at the dungeon the next morning, which was actually closer to 10 am by the time he managed to drag himself out of bed, there was an issue. He had warned them yesterday, but that apparently didn’t matter. They hadn’t taken his warning seriously. Or maybe the message hadn’t gotten around. Or?

Oh. Or Erick didn’t prepare well enough. Honestly, this was his fault.

At least ten people sat around outside the dungeon, under stone awnings on the flat grey stone steps of the mountain, while doctors attended to them. They blinked long and hard, trying to see, but they could not, until a doctor came over to them and applied [Greater Treat Wounds]. Erick didn’t know them, but he guessed these people were the workers they had brought in to move the white stone into the dungeon.

Blocks and bags of white stone and rubble were layered like a minor avalanche waiting to happen, all down the steps of the dungeon’s exterior. The shipment had come in, alright.

Calzin stood beside Apell, a little bit away, watching Ophiel hovering nearby. Eight Ophiel had worked all through the night, putting up infrared and ultraviolet lights. They hadn’t made it past the second floor, but they had gotten through most of it. Which meant—

Erick, Poi, and Kiri, blipped onto the grey stone near Apell and Calzin, near the Ophiel Erick had taken off of lighting duty. The others kept right on with their assigned tasks.

Apell shouted, “What the fuck, Erick.”

Erick instantly began, “If people are going blind, then they weren’t using the glasses I provided, and I told everyone this yesterday. I know I did.” He added, “But I also know I didn’t provide enough for all these extra workers. I’ll fix that, now.”

Apell glared.

Calzin frowned, muttering, “Is that what you meant?”

“Wait a second… Did you not believe me?”

Calzin winced, though Erick couldn’t really tell with only the lower half of Calzin’s face not covered by a mask.

Erick said, “Yes! That is what I meant. If you take your glasses off and you view blacklights directly, then you will go blind. Being as floor 2 is full of blacklights and heat lights, and I haven’t gotten the chance to make it actually blinding, means that everyone is taking off their sunglasses once they get past the first floor, aren’t they?”

This was Erick’s fault for not making enough sunglasses, or maybe he hadn’t explained the danger properly yesterday. Whatever the case, he wasn’t expecting a hundred extra people on the jobsite on day 3. So that was all on him.

Apell sighed out, “Yes. No one can work on floor 2 right now.” She added, “We need a lot more of those glasses. We tried putting up dark lightwards to counteract the blinding effect, but it just got worse. Dilating pupils, and such.”

Erick said, “We can solve this problem a few ways. I could just have Ophiel automate the whole dungeon light system with the spell I showed you, and I could lock dozens of them at a time behind maskingwards while people worked. This would have the added benefit of having the job done in…” He had worked out the math earlier, at home, with Kiri. He tried to remember all of it now.

2500 alcoves per floor, at 500 mana per alcove, meant both 1,250,000 mana per floor and 10 casts per Ophiel. They would have to retreat to a [Prismatic Ward] Erick would put in the center of the room every five minutes, and it would take 15 for them to fully regain their mana pools, which meant 1 rotation would take 20 minutes, meaning 3 rotations per hour.

That meant 30 flowers per Ophiel, per hour. At 8 Ophiel working full time, that meant 240 flowers per hour, meaning roughly 11 hours per floor. This meant that the remaining 9 floors could be done in under 5 days, instead of the current need for at least 135 more hours of Erick putting up kaleidoscopic lightwards himself; he was the bottleneck, here. 135 hours would take him 17 days, if he put in 8 hour days. He’d likely put in 12 hour days though, just to get it over with faster. That was still 12 days of work, though.

Erick said, “I could have this place fully lightwarded in five days, instead of the 12 to 18 days it would otherwise take.”

“Nope.” Apell said, “Absolutely not. No further experimenting in this location. Just stop Ophiel’s automation until you catch up with the ornate wardlights.”

“Fine.” Erick said, “Then I’ll make more sunglasses for the hundred people here, first. That’s gonna eat up more time.”

“That’s okay.” Apell said, “That’s what the Headmaster wants.”

Erick added, “Actually. I should just make some full-body sunlight wards, too. Something you could wear in your pocket and project a blocking lightmask out two meters in every direction.”

“None of that. I don’t know if you could do it, but I don’t want to test out your ability to make shadow slimes. Not here. Not ever.”

“Then put the [Ward]ed stones away from the light when you’re done. These blacklights cause cancer, too, so wearing a full body mask is good for the longevity of whoever is going to work here after we’re finished.”

“… Fair.” Apell said, “Then make some of those, too.”

Erick said, “I’ll get right on that.” He turned to Kiri. “Can you start working on the diamonds and setting aside the dust for them to work into the white stone? Do you need me to conjure you the masks I showed you?”

Kiri said, “I can do the masks. But…” She pointed north, toward the pond Erick had made yesterday, where the diamonds had been growing. “Uh.”

Erick turned to look with her. The pond he had made yesterday, and all the diamonds, were gone. In their place were piles and piles of white stone. He turned back toward Apell. He drawled out, “Soooo? Where’d they all goooo?”

Apell frowned.

Calzin said, “Someone stole them.”

Suddenly exasperated, Erick said, “Oh holy fuck. Really? There were thousands of them!” More miffed than angry, Erick spat, “Shit. Fine. I can make more.”

Apell rapidly said, “The Headmaster sent an Elite after the thieves. Some headhunter. I don’t know who. But the Headmaster won’t allow something like this to go unchallenged. We might not get back the stones, but we’ll get whoever did this.”

Erick whiplashed from unfocused anger to feeling cold, even in the sun. He said, “He’s going to execute the thieves, isn’t he?”

“Yes.” Apell scrunched her face, disbelieving Erick’s tone, or something. Erick wasn’t quite sure. She said, “That is what usually happens in a situation like this. Whoever it was must have been desperate or very, very well connected.”

Erick suddenly found himself on the side of the thieves, saying, “You know the spell I used to make the diamonds is going to be in the Script in something like 9 months? It’s not a big deal if they get stolen. They’re literally the easiest thing to make in the world.” Erick said, “I’m only upset because Spur is under attack, and I can’t go back unless this job is done.”

Apell frowned. “… I’ll tell the Headmaster. He might not retract his sentence. Or he might do something else.” She relented, “I don’t know. It’s out of my hands, Erick. When people steal from dragons, they die. Everyone knows that. Doesn’t matter if it’s books or dirt, gold or rads.” She added, “This has absolutely nothing to do with you.”

“… I didn’t know that.” Erick turned toward Poi and Kiri, including them in the conversation as he asked, “Is that really true?”

Everyone just looked at Erick like he was an idiot, except Poi.

Erick spat out, “None of you know how to make these lights. I don’t know a lot of your cultures. Take it easy with these condemnations of idiocy. It’s getting really fucking tiring.”

Apell said, “Sorry. Did not mean to offend.”

Erick immediately said, “It’s not you.” Erick felt drained. He said, “Sorry, Apell. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He looked to the dungeon entrance, and to the people under stone overhangs, waiting for the doctor to walk around and heal them. He said, “I’ve got [Ward]s to make. Did you get that shipment of metal in, too?”

Calzin spoke up, saying, “Yes! It’s four steps down.” He gestured toward the mountainside. “Down there. Can’t miss it.”

“I’ll have sunglasses made soon enough.” Erick added, “And more diamonds.”

Apell said, “Thanks, Erick.”

– – – –

A new pond full of new water soon had new diamonds growing in them, with eight Ophiel doing their thing, casting exactly how Erick wanted them to cast. They sang as they worked under the power of a [Prismatic Ward]; a chorus of violins and harps sounding out of dense air.

It was a nice sound. It made Erick feel a bit better about his situation.

Nearby, Erick pulled metal into sunglass frames. His previous design for the masklights to go on them worked well enough to fully cover the front of the eyes and even set into the skin a bit, to provide full coverage, so he kept the design the same. Making these was much simpler than the kaleidoscope lightwards, but it still took him an hour to make 150 of them. His regeneration was the bottleneck, again. The sunglasses were handed out as they were made.

Work resumed.

Kiri shaped new diamonds into glittering dust, firstly. Kilograms and kilograms of diamond dust journeyed into the dungeon alongside massive, hovering crates of white stone. Four workers worked together to lift the white stone and the diamond dust into the air. They mixed the white stone and the diamonds into a huge, floating orb, then they took the stone apart, each taking a quarter of the tonnage to then paint the dungeon white and glittery; a thin, solid layer of white that they locked into the grey and tan stone underneath. It was not just a breakable veneer of stone, but more like a weld.

Kiri continued to shape diamonds into dust, but when there was enough diamond dust for the first five floors, and not enough people putting down white, she started cutting the diamond octahedrons in half. With a novice’s touch that was quickly improving, Kiri shaped each of those halves into basic brilliant-cut diamonds, with a flat top and a reflective bottom. Light shone in from the top then reflected back out when she did it right. They were perfect for setting into the walls and into the floor; the slimes loved shiny things, after all.

Down on floor 2, Erick cast kaleidoscopic lights into the arched ceiling.

They broke for lunch. Calzin got sandwiches for everyone, again. They continued working till it was time for Erick to break to rain on Spur. Erick, Poi, Kiri, Teressa, and Rats, all had an early dinner in Jane’s room. She was still sleeping, but Alibeth, the Mind Mage doctor, brought her out of her [Sleep] for her daily checkup while Erick was there.

She began vomiting immediately. She asked to be put back under, though she did say hello to everyone. Erick watched Jane fall back asleep, feeling horrible about everything, as thick air cleaned up the mess she had made.

[Sleep] enforced a Rest state on its recipient, and Jane was being fed while she was asleep, so she was okay, and she was healing. But it was still rough for Erick to see his daughter like this.

Then he went back to the dungeon. He stayed there well past nightfall and then a few more hours in, but he would not spend another late night like before. He went home in the dark, while people were still putting down glittering white stone over the greys and tans of the natural dungeon walls.

Erick had briefly checked on his original dungeon every day with Ophiel, if for nothing else than to just renew the [Gravity Ward] that fed the river of the dungeon floor. He did so again, today. Through Ophiel’s eyes, the [Gravity Ward] was working just fine; Erick renewed the spell, anyway. But when he checked on the actual dungeon floor, there were easily four dozen light slimes or more, bumbling this way and that, but generally moving in a large circle around the dungeon floor.

Like some huge skating rink, light slimes glittered in rainbow light, as they circled the center.

And in the center, floating above the waters of the main pool, was a woman made of white light, wearing rainbows for clothes, like billowing clouds. She could have been of any people; human, incani, orcol or dragonkin. Maybe even wrought, but Erick somehow doubted that. Maybe she was a harpy, or a shifter. Whatever the case, she was an intruder of some sort, and her eyes were open, and staring at Erick, through his connection to Ophiel.

In a blink, Erick stood in the dungeon, and it wasn’t blinding without his sunglasses.

“Ah.” Erick checked his Status. It did not come up. He asked, “Dream Wormed?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Yes.” The woman said, “I’m Messalina, the Life Binder. I think it is past time I talked with you, directly.”

He was likely already being tended to by Poi, and he was close enough to the hospital that, even if they couldn’t [Teleport] him there without his conscious consent, they could certainly get other people to him. So Erick rolled with this confrontation. He said, “Your worms have killed people. Your plots are murderous. You appear before me in a dazzling, probably fake way. You’re obviously a very fake person. Why should I listen to whatever lies you feel like spinning?”

“Because if you do not, then I will have no choice but to go to Melemizargo for help.”

“Lie.”

Undeterred, Messalina said, “He’s growing much more cognizant as new magic is being invented everywhere.” She added, “He’s not insane anymore. Most of his Shades aren’t, either. They purged those using Yetta as an excuse.”

“Half-truth. Likely just enough true to try and get me to believe you, but I won’t. I’m going to have to be stubborn about this, all the way to everyone’s deaths, if I have to.”

Messalina, all bright white and floating rainbows, frowned. It was like the world turned two shades darker. She stepped down from the air, to stand upon the water in front of Erick. She said, “Let me prove it to you, then. Set for me a task.”

“Nope.” Erick said, “One task completed does not make you worthy of redemption. You dream wormed the people in town. Turock and Veel, people who were staying with my daughter and looking after my house, [Defend]ed themselves to death because of your influence.”

Messalina laughed, saying, “Now that is untrue.”

Erick frowned at her. He did not ask for a clarification.

Messalina said, “Fine. I can have this conversation without you, but it seems I must add certain words that you can go ahead and verify on your own.” She said, “The Lower Trademaster of Portal and I worked together for a period of one month, maybe 35 days, to try and find the people who killed my people. I gave him dream worms as a part of this agreement. He has spread them far and wide, in order to increase his own influence—”

“And that doesn’t bother you!” Suddenly incensed, Erick said, “Taking that at face value —and holy shit is that a hard thing to take— you allowed your magic to go wherever others wanted it to go? You allowed your mind controlling worms—”