221, 2/2

Rocks shifted under Soltic’s shoes as he walked along the coast, with Vanya at his side. They had left the Blue Temple and Sailor Asmus behind five minutes ago and now they were on a mostly empty stretch of harbor beach, south of Everbless. The beach was rocky and absent of almost all people, though a painter stood further inland, alone upon a hill, painting Everbless to the north.

The air was breezy and laden with moisture, and the sun was somewhere far beyond the stacked clouds overhead. It would have been a dreary setting, except the sun shone upon every horizon, beyond the clouds, except where the clouds touched the inland mountains and rainforests. Up ahead, the edge of the crescent harbor stretched out north, curving all the way around to the other side of Everbless, before the rocky crescent dove under the Letri Ocean.

Erick had almost reached his senses out through Ophiel to check on everything he had heard about from Sailor Asmus, but Soltic refrained. Instead, Soltic allowed himself to get lost in the simple joy of walking along the beach, and using only the senses he personally had to go over everything he had heard back there, in the Blue Temple.

Vanya seemed to be having a lot of thoughts, too, because she wasn’t speaking, either.

Soltic said, “It seems we both decided that walking to the dungeon road was what we’re going to do, but it appears we don’t have to do that right away. We could go back and check out the Storm Priests. We could go to the Regency public offices. Check out the Adventurer’s Guild in town, and find out where the Dungeon Guild offices are.”

Vanya thought as Soltic spoke, and then she said, “I want to go see the lay of the land. I want to see the dungeons first. Where do you want to go first?”

Erick’s eyes turned toward Everbless. “A tour?”

“… Better not.” Quilatalap said, “We’re here for a mission and I would like it if we stick to that mission.”

Erick felt the weight of responsibility press upon him. Sininindi had specifically told him years and years ago that he was not to have any contact with Everbless; that Everbless was not his son, and that Everbless was wholly and fully Sininindi’s joy.

Erick had needed to remind himself of that several times today. He would likely need to remind himself that fact several dozen more times before he was done here, at Storm’s Edge.

“I really want to see him closer, though,” Erick said, “I feel like I should. That I need to.”

“We’ve had this talk before.” Quilatalap asked, “Do you actually need? Or do you want?”

“… I’m not sure.” Erick frowned. “All I really know is that I expected some sort of direct contact back there at the Blue Temple… Some sort of actual word and actual instruction, and not that vaguery.” Erick retreated, and Soltic came out. “Less mystery, more doing.”

Vanya smiled a little. She shrugged. “I think it’s fine. We’ve got lots and lots of time, Soltic. Lots of time.”

Soltic felt his heart skip a beat. “… Yeah. I suppose we do.” He smiled, plucking Sailor Asmus’s words and using them as his own, as he said, “Especially if ‘That Damned Wizard’ keeps up his [Reincarnation]s going for the next 40 years.” He held up an arm, showing off a big bicep and shoulder, playfully asking, “I could go for some more mass, ya think?”

Vanya laughed. “What! You’d have to be an orcol to get bigger.”

“I could do that. Would you be an orcol with me?”

Vanya shook her head. “No way. That sort of pretty is too pretty. I like normal people’s looks, thank-you-very-much.”

“You’d make a beautiful orcol.”

Vanya chuckled, her small, happy sounds carrying away in the wind.

With a dejected air, Soltic sarcastically bemoaned, “I suppose you’re good enough as a human woman. SIGH.”

Vanya laughed louder.

Soltic couldn’t help himself; he grabbed Vanya and lifted her up, spinning her around, smiling as he listened to the beautiful sounds of happy laughter that only increased as she giggled under his grip. He set her back down and kissed her deeply.

Vanya pulled away all too quickly, smiling brightly, a tease in her eyes as she hopped forward, and then took off at a little jog, calling out, “Catch me if you can!”

For a brief moment, Erick marveled at his life. Two days ago he had been swamped with last-day work, turning a single day into over a week of final preparations. And now he was here, in a body of his own making that was not his original Form, on a beach with Quilatalap while he wore a body that was not his original, too. It was a working vacation, but all they had to solve was one problem. Sure, it had all turned into a mess of intrigue well before they actually got to the dungeons, and Sininindi wasn’t speaking to them, but then again, Erick hadn’t called out to the Goddess of Storm and Sea yet, and it was still just one problem.

Last week, Erick had solved a thousand problems in a single day. Of course, he barely remembered all those problems (a lie told to himself; he remembered them all) so being on the ground, here at the area that needed help, with Quilatalap at his side and all his worries delayed by months…

It was nice.

Soltic smiled as he gave a halfhearted chase, easily catching up to Vanya and taking her hand into his. They walked together till it was hard to walk on the rocky beach side by side, and then Vanya led the way, over boulder-strewn hills, and onto cliffside paths.

Soltic asked, “Do you think the goddess will give us actual instruction?”

“Only if we’re fucking up,” Vanya easily added, “Or maybe in our dreams. Probably your dreams; not mine.”

– – – –

The ‘monster highway’ had signage posted kilometers before they could actually see the highway. All Soltic could really see was more cliffside paths ahead of them, the ocean to the north, and dense rainforest to the south, where the trees fully covered the mountains. Mana sensing was a different story, though.

All along the paths, Soltic had been sensing the flow of the unseen world. The world was twisted near Everbless, in some sort of funneling that made the mana near Storm’s Edge rather calm and boring, but swirling and denser near Yggdrasil’s little brother. Here, closer to the monster road, that flow had become a true current.

The manasphere flowed eastward, unnaturally, tainted by Elemental Rain, and Storm, and even a bit of Lightning. Elemental Cloud was the only one truly visible to the naked eye, though, for the clouds flowed from Everbless, to here, and then further on.

Eventually Soltic and Vanya reached a final warning sign, set to the edge of the disused cliffside path.

– –

ATTENTION: MONSTERS AHEAD

You have been warned

– –

Beyond that sign lay another cliff.

All this way, Soltic and Vanya had been steadily climbing, neither of them wanting to speed up the process with spellwork, for both of them were likely going to be [Witness]ed eventually. And so, they had been going along as mundanely as possible, leaving behind the ocean and the sounds of surf far below, both of them sweating a little as they crested the path.

The mountain dropped away in a hard slope, a few hundred meters down and away and secured in stonework to ensure the cliff remained strong in the face of disaster. A few kilometers away, further east, the cliffside came back up, almost all the way to the level which Soltic and Vanya stood upon.

Between those two worked-stone cliffs lay a long stretch of beach, far below, that stretched out to the north by another kilometer and a half. That beach continued inland by several kilometers, the two cliffs forming walls, with nothing but sands between them.

Sands, and monsters.

It was a highway of death.

Currently, that death was four flying whales, strewn out across the lands, looking like they had been fleeing, or fighting, but they had lost, for a whole school of longscale toothers had taken down the whales. Those long, barracuda-like fish feasted on the corpses, flying through the air and through the blubbery bodies to get at the organs inside.

There were lots of flying fish on Veird, but the monstrous ones flew most of all.

Vanya said, “Looks like we missed the action by a few minutes.”

“They can’t have been dead long,” Soltic agreed. “Lotta skeletons in those sands, too.”

Vanya took a moment to look at the path leading down into the monster highway, and then across to the other side of the place. “I’m [Scry]ing the other side. There’s a watchtower on the other side. Looks like a lot of people.” She turned back to Soltic. “I’m pretty sure the Dungeon Guild is down the monster road, near the dungeons, but that place over there looks happening.”

“Let’s go to the dungeons; we don’t need to talk to the people at the watchtower.” Soltic looked south, to where the monster road led deep into a canyon that had been carved between the mountains, while the mountains themselves had been altered in what had to have been some truly massive landshaping. And then he looked up and around, at the mana in the air, and how it flowed in the sky, and then down the monster road. It turned thick down there. Almost as thick as from a [Cleanse]. Soltic gave himself a little [Cleanse]. A bit of sweat and dirt turned into thick air and rapidly flowed down into the artificial valley. “That is some well controlled mana flow.”

Vanya began heading south, alongside the cliff of the monster road, saying, “Everbless does a good job of controlling the flow. I wonder if that’s a new development, or was he doing that ten years ago? Back when he was still a baby tree?”

Soltic followed Vanya, saying. “No idea.”

– – – –

An hour later, and several kilometers further inland, Erick finally felt safe enough to speak, in code, of what they had seen back there, and more importantly, what they had not seen. Quilatalap had mentioned that Everbless must be the one controlling the flow, but was that the full story? Probably not. He had surely seen what Erick had seen.

For floating above the artificial canyon, back there at the coast, had been something untoward.

Something made of a thousand tendrils and even more eyes. Ophiel had almost come out of his hiding when he saw that, for the thing sitting high in the air, above where water met land, had almost touched Erick and Quilatalap. Its tendrils had been kilometers long, and it certainly could have touched them, if it wanted to. But it had not. It had certainly looked at them, and gotten near them, its tendrils floating around both Erick and Quilatalap as though it was checking them out, testing and tasting without doing either of those actions at all. It was just there, hanging out, thinking itself invisible and intangible, and yet to the Wizard and the Archlich, it had been none of that at all.

“So the mana flows back there were pretty well done,” Erick started. “But the mana flows here seem more wild.” And that was true. Here, deeper in the valley, the mana flows were almost natural, but thick air still flowed across the sandy ground in the canyon down below, collecting on boulders or inside craters. “The thick air isn’t actually going into the ground like it should, though.”

Quilatalap nodded, saying, “I think Everbless’s roots are much larger than his upper body. He probably has magic hidden everywhere around here.”

“… I guess that could explain it?”

Quilatalap shrugged.

Erick saw that Quilatalap wasn’t really worried…

So Soltic wasn’t worried, either.

– – – –

It was an empty, desert-like canyon, tens of kilometers across, with low stonework divisions and canals that acted as funneling systems for the mana, and for the monsters. Within seven nodes of the canyon— six all around and one in the center— lay the open, black-ringed portals that were the dungeons.

The dungeons were far away from every inhabited part of the island.

Beyond the canyon, two more monster roads led in from the south, and the east, though the northern route they had just come in on and the southern route were both angled closer to northwest, and south-southwest, than straight cardinal directions. The northern route had wound back and forth in the mountains, too, to account for varied geography.

All of the construction was purposefully made to avoid the majority of civilization on the western edge of the island.

It was, perhaps…

“It’s just the oddest damned way to do this, isn’t it?” Vanya asked, rhetorically. “This monster funneling.”

She knew a lot more about this dungeon stuff than Soltic, but only because she had been making these things work all across the world for the last 11 years, and hands-on experience was worth a lot more than ‘read it in a book’ or ‘watched it happened’ experience. Vanya was up to 27 dungeons at the moment.

Soltic and Vanya stood upon the crest of a hill, overlooking ‘dungeon valley’, according to the sign posted at the edge of the walking road they had taken to get here. They were technically outside of the monster-traveling zones, but Soltic imagined that that would change, soon enough.

Vanya stood beside him, surveying the land ahead just like he was, adding, “It’s what they do over at Dungeon Island.” It was not a satisfied sort of statement, or really an explanation. It was more of an ‘It’s not wrong, but not what I would do.’ “We should be seeing people walk toward those dungeons.” Vanya frowned. “I see monsters down there… But no people entering or leaving the dungeons?”

“There’s a few people further away.” Soltic offered, “Maybe they have set schedules? No people lining up outside, waiting to be let in? They might line up elsewhere, too.”

“… I suppose they could also have people just entering and exiting as they are wont, but the number of people going in and out might simply be low…” Vanya’s frown remained strong. “Something weird is happening here. This is not what I expected to find at all.”

“Should we go and check out a dungeon? Flight spells and armor? Or—” Soltic gestured across the land, pointing toward the southern edge of the artificial canyon, where sparse greenery turned into denser greenery, and the mountains turned natural and rainforested again. “I think I see buildings in that mountain forest.”

Vanya huffed, and started walking along the edge of the canyon, headed around toward the southern side. “Let’s go see the guildhouse. We’ll fly once we’re not over the dungeon canyon itself.”

And so they did.

Along the way they spotted two more of those eldritch, invisible, intangible tentacle monsters, flying in the sky, directing the mana. Both monsters were too far away to interact with them at all, and Soltic and Vanya didn’t really look at them too much, lest they draw the monsters’ attentions.

And they were monsters. They were not [Familiar]s. Soltic could tell that much. They had real biology in them, though that biology was rather arcane in nature, it did exist.

Ophiel was a little freaked out the whole time, though, so Erick sent a lot of good thoughts Ophiel’s way; the little guy was being exceedingly good about hiding even though he did not want to hide in the face of oddities.

– – – –

The path leading into the guildhouse was a lot more apparent by the time Soltic and Vanya flew over the separating monster road, and stepped foot at the edge of the forested mountain.

Here and there, stone towers stood at the edge of the land, offering good views over the dungeon canyon down below. People populated those towers; either adventurers or delvers, or simple guards paid by the city to watch over the lands below, and to report if the flow of monsters changed. Probably the latter.

… Separating out what Soltic would gain from a casual overview of a situation, versus what Erick would gain from the same look, was a lot harder than Erick thought it would be. He knew those people were guards, solidly, based on several small factors, but some of them were dressed in civilian clothes, and looked almost like civilians. Or delvers.

Whatever was going on here was a situation that Soltic would handle one way, and Erick would handle very differently.

Which was probably why Sininindi had wanted ‘not-Erick’ and ‘not-Quilatalap’ to do this task.

As they walked into the edge of the sparse forest, Soltic and Vanya finally saw other people who truly weren’t guards. As Soltic and Vanya went deeper, following a stone path, they passed people going the other direction, out toward the dungeon canyon. Those people didn’t speak at all, and Soltic and Vanya didn’t break that silence. Those others looked ready for war, though, with their [Conjure Armor] and other magic clinging to them, fully kitted out with rings and wands at their belts, and with potions in their bags. They did not look excited about their upcoming task, either, which was either because it was rote work, or because… who knew! They were certainly adventurers or delvers, though.

Most of those people had feet in both circles these days, though there was a distinct difference developing between the two organizations. The Dungeon Guild was rather new, and it was an offshoot of the Adventurer’s Guild, so one had to be an adventurer before they allowed you to be a delver in the Dungeon Guild. Most delvers were veterans in the Adventurer’s Guild, so they knew what they were doing, but that wasn’t always the case.

All Soltic had right now were educated guesses. He’d have to see more to make better guesses, which would happen soon enough.

Here, under the cover of trees and all up the mountainside, was a small city of scattered buildings. People went about their lives, hidden in the shadows, so that the various monsters that might fly in or look this way from the bottom of the dungeon canyon could not see them. Soltic and Vanya had had no difficulty with the monsters in the dungeon canyon looking their way and charging up at them, though, so Soltic thought the whole ‘hidden city under the canopy’ was rather more protection than they needed.

And it was also not much protection at all.

There was a wall, but it was a short thing, easily hoppable, and without any guard stations.

The protections must have been magical, though, because passing through the gap in that wall was like stepping into a land of sudden noise, because it was; they had passed a silencing [Ward].

People spoke loudly at a commissary to the right, while blacksmith hammers struck iron and other metals further in, and laughter drifted out from what appeared to be barracks on the left. Soltic easily estimated that, if what he was seeing in the barracks and other nearby buildings was correct, that there were maybe a thousand people in this under-canopy town. As they walked into the city, and got a few odd looks from the other people but were mostly ignored, Soltic guessed that 75% of those present were warriors of some sort, if their builds were anything to go by. 10% were mages, based on their active [Personal Ward]s. The rest were civilians, or paper shapers. No children; this was a land of war. His mana sense didn’t reach the entire land, but Soltic felt his guesses were correct.

Probably 75% of them were soldiers of the state, though, but you couldn’t tell that just by looking. This was a land fully under control of the Regency of Storm’s Edge.

… Nothing untoward with that, though, because Soltic rapidly realized that this was an army town. They catered to delvers only as much as they needed to.

Vanya led the way to what was a paired Adventurer’s/Dungeon Guildhouse. It was a rather standard 2-story affair that opted to go wide rather than tall, since they had more than enough space for it. The front doors were open, and though they got a few more looks their way, the other people in the grand entranceway went back to playing Wizard’s Towers or other card games.

To the left was a large blackboard with time slots and dungeon appointments.

“I guessed right.” Soltic said, “Looks like they have schedules instead of lines.”

Vanya’s frown deepened. All the way here, everything she saw only made her slightly more miffed. The dungeon scheduling board cemented that frown. With a quiet tone, she almost spat, “That means that the dungeons are set, with expected rates for completion and times. It’s… It’s not right.”

Soltic smiled a little bit, adopting a nicer tone to try and make Vanya happier, “I think we’ve found our goal, then.”

Vanya put her hands on her hips, breathed, then said, “I suppose we need to sign up for a slot.”

And then she walked over to a bored teller.

The guy was a human wearing a black-trimmed, brown uniform, sitting behind a counter and reading a book, his eyes rapidly darting back and forth. He was fully engrossed in… Soltic read the cover. ‘A Tale of Two Wizards, Volume 4’. Soltic maintained his facade.

Erick, though, cringed, and then he couldn’t help himself but read a little bit of the book… And yup. It was about Wizards, and one of them was an Erick-analogue.

Vanya stood there, on the customer side of the counter, waiting for the man to recognize her presence.

He did not.

Vanya said, “Hello. I’d like a slot in the dungeons.”

Without looking up the man picked up a slip of paper and set it on the counter, but he held onto that paper as he continued to read his book— He suddenly smiled wide, and then he set down the book, and looked at Vanya and Soltic. His eyes went wide as he let go of the paper. “Oh! Sorry about that.” He said, “I thought you were a regular and I… sort of got carried away with the book.”

Vanya was already reading over the paper, but she came to the same rapid conclusion that Soltic had, based on the paper, and the sign-up board over there, and a few other facts around the room. With an almost-angry tone, she asked, “No delving past 4 pm?”

It was nearly that already.

Soltic said, “That team we passed coming in must have been the last team of the day.”

The teller put on a professional, attempting-to-disarm smile, saying, “Apologies, but while the dungeons are public, the public hours are set. Since we use natural monsters here, we risk depopulating the dungeons otherwise.”

Soltic asked about a different part of the paperwork, “What’s this I see about ‘80% of resources gained are to be turned over to Storm’s Edge’? The common rate is 10%.”

A few locals were watching Soltic and Vanya, and had been ever since Vanya spoke of wanting a slot in the dungeons. It was obvious that Soltic and Vanya were new, and the onlookers took no small amount of joy in watching as Soltic spoke of common rates, and then—

The teller’s response was obviously something he said a hundred times already, “Due to the nature of the cultivated dungeons of Storm’s Edge, and the fact that a delver will always get something if they delve here, what you harvest was only harvestable because of us, and so we will take what we are owed for our services as dungeon masters.”

Vanya took that personally. “Are they public dungeons, or not?”

“I advise you not to try to circumvent our rules,” the teller said, without any anger or threatening tone, and not directly answering Vanya’s question at all. “People found in violation of curfew will be tried as trespassers and fined a thousand gold. Inability to pay means conscription into guard duty or exile from the dungeons of Storm’s Edge, along with demerits against your Adventurer’s or Dungeon Guild badge number. Much heavier fines are levied against those who try to break any of our dungeons, and those who kill a dungeon in some misguided attempt to harm us and our rules are severely prosecuted. We have agreements with House Benevolence to enforce our rules across the Gate Network, and we will see them enforced.”

This book’s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Vanya relented, “Fine. When is the next available slot?”

“For residents of Storm’s Edge, the dungeons are available on a first come first served basis, every morning. For non-residents, you have to check in at noon to see if there are any slots left. Most people wait around here in the guildhouse to see if there are any no-shows, for there are often no slots left by noon.”

Vanya scowled—

Soltic laughed, a deep booming thing that turned into a menacing chuckle soon enough, and then he sighed. “You guys got a fucked up system here.”

In a calm, practiced way, the teller said, “We understand that our system is not for everyone. Please delve elsewhere if you don’t like the guaranteed income of our cultivated dungeons. The Gate Network can take you anywhere you want, for cheap. May I suggest the new dungeons of the Freelands? They’re quite popular.”

Vanya almost said something angry, and Soltic almost spoke about breaking the curfew openly and in direct defiance of the local laws—

But a burly woman spoke up from where she and her skinny male friend were drinking at a table by the guild bar, “Shit-heel Daron’s just giving you trouble! Out-of-towners often get a spot, so sign up for whatever and let me buy you two some drinks.”

She seemed like good people.

Soltic said to Vanya, “Let’s do that.”

Vanya rapidly filled out the paperwork with a precise application of aura control and then shoved it across the desk at the teller, and then she stepped away, toward the drinkers. Soltic happily followed.

“I’m Barda and this is my partner, Nero,” said the strong-looking woman, who had already gotten two more beers out of the barkeep and handed them over, smiling. “Welcome to the Pit, where we delvers do all the work and Storm’s Edge takes all the money.”

A few other bar-goers must have felt the same, for they raised a toast at Barda’s proclamation.

Vanya took her beer and waterfalled it, much to the widening, happy eyes of Barda and Nero, and a few other patrons. She finished with a delightful sigh, then said, “Looks like I’m gonna need a lot more of those.”

Barda laughed loud, then said, “Another round for my new friend here!”

Vanya said, “Vanya,” then she pointed to Soltic. “Soltic. A pleasure to meet you, Barda. Nero.”

Soltic nodded, and sipped his beer, as the barkeep handed another beer over to Vanya.

It was a pretty good evening, all things considered. They didn’t get a chance to actually go into the dungeons, but they did get pretty damned drunk, which was rather great. Soltic couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten drunk in a bar with new friends… Well that was untrue. It was six years ago, and he had needed to [Return] ten minutes earlier halfway through the night, ruining the evening, just so he could have that little bit of extra time to solve a crisis of assassination over in the Freelands.

So far Poi hadn’t called him in any sort of emergency, though, so…

The House was probably fine.

… Erick checked. The House was mostly fine. People were running around and worrying about stuff, and Erick ended up solving a few problems that Kiri wasn’t acting on quite fast enough—

Which earned him a message from Poi, ‘I thought you were on sabbatical.’

‘Okay okay!’ Erick relented, pulling Ophiels back from all over the world. ‘I’m stepping back.’

With mirth in his voice, Poi simply said, ‘Have fun,’ and then he cut their connection.

Meanwhile, Soltic listened to exactly how poorly Storm’s Edge was managing their dungeons.

Barda met Vanya beer for beer, and now they were both halfway taken by the wind, as Barda sloshed her half-full mug, saying, “And another thing! They’re all the same damned dungeon! Every one a copy of the others, and nothing is allowed to change! To grow properly.”

Nero sipped his beer politely, smiling as he said, “You said that already, shield-of-my-life.”

Barda gasped as she looked at her boyfriend. And then she got close to him, saying, “You always talk so good when you’re drunk.”

Nero giggled.

Barda looked off to the windows, where the night was coming on strong and daylight fled from the world. They were inside a deep canyon, so perhaps it wasn’t actually that late at all, but it was getting a little late. Soltic was getting hungry, but Barda was looking at Nero and those two clearly weren’t going to stick around for dinner.