237, 1/2

Erick watched from beyond Clarice’s property line as the fae dragon woman stepped out of her house, wearing what seemed to be her normal set of gear; the same set that she had threatened to kill him with before. Shining silver fullplate with a wrap-around slit in the helmet for her to see though (but which was probably a Fae trick of some sort) and a cascading cape of silver metal. In her right hand she held a simple rod of solid silver; her main weapon, as far as Erick knew. It was inactive right now. When active, Erick suspected it would rip through whatever she targeted using Spatial displacement properties, or perhaps just Fae magic; hard to say. Erick saw something that looked pastel inside that rod, and pastel colors were usually Fae-aligned colors. Also, Spatial Magics didn’t work too well inside the Dark, so it was probably Fae Magic.

The All-Seeing Eye showed Erick a bit more than that. Clarice had bracelets and anklets and a choker, each holding other magics— Oh! Erick recognized that one.

Erick smiled, and said, “You got one of my Bracelets of [Hidden Whirlwind]!”

Clarice paused a moment in her walk, then she continued toward Erick, saying, “I wasn’t about to buy the normal version, but your upgraded version was worth it. So you managed to make a [True Sight] magic? Or a shift to your core? How are you seeing me right now? I know it’s not the Whirlwind magic yet, though I do like how you made it easier for everyone using one to see anyone else using the same sort of spellwork.”

Erick pulled out his All-Seeing Eye halfway from his robes, then tucked it back down, saying, “Very useful. Might have gone overboard, but I can see through all illusions now.”

“… And you didn’t go insane.” Clarice huffed, as she stopped on her side of the property line. “A good thing you made it outside of yourself, then. Go for a lesser version later, for it’s not good to see through all Illusions.”

Erick shrugged. He still wasn’t sure how far he wanted to go with his All-Seeing Eye Wizardry.

Clarice looked over Inquisitor Wess. “What kinda gear do you have?”

“Enough.”

Erick answered for him, “Wess here has a Breastplate of Absolute Reduction, a [Hidden Whirlwind] anklet like me and you, so we should all be able to ‘feel’ each other when we’re out there and working quietly, and some self-healing. I upgraded my own stuff a little since last we spoke, but it’s mostly the same as before.” He tapped his staff on the ground, saying, “I’m long-range kills. You two are short range.” Erick spoke to the sky, “And we’re all ready for that transport to the Workshop.”

Clarice gasped a little. “We’re going to the Work—”

The air wavered, and a portal of darkness appeared to the left.

“—shop… I guess we are.”

Wess softly spoke, “You’re guests at the Workshop, so behave accordingly.”

And then Wess walked through the portal.

Erick and Clarice followed.

– – – –

The portal dropped Erick off right behind Wess, onto a white courtyard raised a good ten meters above the rest of the land. Clarice popped in behind Erick, and started immediately looking around for the trap. There was no trap as far as Erick could see, though. There was just this small area, and a much larger disconnected series of mountain-buildings up ahead, all surrounded by golden wheat.

All around, wheatfields stretched, a waving yellow sea to complement the gleaming silver mountain range of the Workshop, while a black sky held overhead, devoid of stars or any natural sources of light. And yet, the place looked lit from a noon sun. It reminded Erick of silver icebergs floating in a golden ocean, with each of those icebergs dotted with smaller buildings and a few scattered towers. So maybe more like low islands. The whole place was definitely done in the ‘mountain stronghold’ style of Songli, which meant something, but which Erick did not know right now.

To the left, the golden sea continued, but it dwindled into the dark sky here and there, forming what might have been tunnels into the deeper Dark, or rather, safe passages. That made more sense. Those tunnels had to be safe passages to the other parts of the land. Erick had seen a map of this place in the control rooms, but to see the map and to see it in person were two different things.

Because on the right, far away, lay a black ocean, and the map hadn’t had a black ocean this close to the central stronghold of the Workshop. That edge of the dungeon was maybe only ten kilometers away. Maybe 20-ish. Scale was hard to perfectly judge down here.

Erick asked, “That’s the edge of the dungeon space, isn’t it?”

Clarice snickered. “I had heard the Workshop was on the coast of the Dark but holy shit, Wess. That’s just fucking stupid.”

Wess sighed, and said, “That edge is a Representative Edge, and not the True Edge. We’re in the center of the dungeon space, somewhere around the middle north of Greendale itself.”

Erick hummed. Well that’s unexpected. But everything inside a dungeon space was a truth of a variable nature, anyway, so of course there was space for alternative truths and representative truths.

“… Oh.” Clarice looked at the edge again. “So that’s a gauge of how large the dungeon is right now.”

“… Correct,” Wess said, not wanting to bother with a true explanation.

“Probably more like a gauge of dungeon size change…” Erick thought for a second, then added, “Or maybe, if they notice any size adjustment of that edge then they know that another dungeon has spawned somewhere near the outer banks of the Glittering Depths. That’s my actual guess.”

Clarice hmm’d as she thought.

Wess said, “Correct,” and then he started walking forward, toward the stairway down into the golden sea.

Erick and Clarice followed Wess into the golden wheatfields.

“I don’t see any sorts of ambushes yet,” Clarice said to Erick, purposefully loud enough to try and get a rise out of Wess, as she brushed through the wheat, leaving a trail of disturbed gold in her wake. “Do you?”

Wess did not react.

Erick said, “I see a welcoming party up ahead in the field. But they’re near the staircases leading up the silver islands.” He pointed. “There.”

“I don’t count them yet.” Clarice watched with Erick as the welcoming party dropped their cloaking magic, now that they had been found out. “They have the decency to stop hiding when pointed at, too, so they can’t be all that bad.”

A short walk through wheatfields that were surely killing fields, if they had to be, and Wess led the way toward the silver staircase leading up the first of four Workshop islands. The welcoming party stepped away from the stairs, to the side, except for an elderly woman, who remained in the path. That woman wore a purple robe that hung off of her small frame like drapes, while her wrinkled hands clutched a silver cane, to hold herself upright.

It took Erick, Clarice, and Wess a good minute to get to the first silver mountain.

When they reached her, the old woman proclaimed, “I’m Imara Downfield, one of the Workshop engineers capable of Wizarding meta-artifacts into actual artifacts. You two both have spellwork I desire. Give me this magic, and I will grant you unfettered access to my laboratories.”

Wess frowned. “You aren’t authorized to do—”

“Then I walk!” Imara said, “I leave this land, and head to Candlepoint and request a [Reincarnation] from the Wizard in exchange for all of my knowledge of mana crystals and otherwise.”

Erick rapidly said, “The Wizard grants this request. Do you wish to leave now?”

Imara smiled at Erick, and then positively grinned at Wess. “Looks like Candlepoint might give me what I actually want in this world, Inquisitor.”

Wess said, “Cease your foolishness with this misunderstanding, Imara.” He said to Erick, “What she wants is to eradicate all demons from this world, and your boss has made his opinion on the Quiet War quite plain.”

Erick paused. He looked to Imara again, and felt a subtle loss of possibility.

And Imara chuckled. “I’m a noncombatant, but I do strive to help those out there overcome the demonic threat in all ways.” She asked Erick, “Would your Wizard [Reincarnation] me into my best, youngest self, in order to kill as many incani as I could?”

“… He would not allow that.”

Imara shrugged, uncaring. “Then I understand you wish for a tour and whatever-the-fuck. If you two give me the simple spellwork that I desire, then you can come back here anytime and use these facilities to your utmost.”

Wess spoke up, “No they cannot.”

“I’m the archmage here, Inquisitor Wess.” Imara turned and started walking up the staircase, saying, “You may bluster all you wish, but I’m in charge in this Workshop.”

Wess frowned, but said nothing.

And Imara laughed, before she continued up the stairs.

The soldiers standing to the side of the path elected to stay there.

And Erick followed Wess. Clarice stepped forward a moment later, her eyes lingering on the soldiers. She wasn’t feeling too comfortable about this whole situation. Erick was pretty sure they were fine, though.

– – – –

Beyond a door and past some emplaced magics, Erick followed the archmage and the Inquisitor, into the depths of the silver mountain. There were a great many circumstances of this travel that would have scared anyone without an All-Seeing Eye, and Clarice didn’t have that, so she was rightfully scared, as they walked through narrow hallways, into the center of the fortress. For it was a fortress, just as much as it was a research station.

Erick asked, “Got a concern, Clarice?”

“… I am concerned about walking in the stronghold of an unknown power. The dungeon masters and workers don’t mix with Utopia more than strictly necessary, so I only ever heard rumors of this place.”

That sounded like an unintentional lie, to Erick. Clarice was a hermit, who cut herself off from everyone, which was why she didn’t know too much about this place. But she was still a dragon, and more of a possible-ally than Wess. That’s why Erick had wanted her here, on this trip, among other, more personal reasons; not because of her insider knowledge—

Imara grinned up ahead. “We’re almost there now, my cute little dragons.”

Clarice bristled, the air around her right hand turning fractured—

Erick said, “We’re almost past the fortress part. We have been taken the long way and scanned about a hundred different ways, and people have looked at those scans a thousand different ways, but so far they haven’t been able to penetrate much of my defenses, or yours, Clarice. Not any more than expected, anyway.”

Imara chuckled, and kept walking.

Clarice asked Erick softly, “Where? How far?”

Erick pointed up and to the left. “There’s the main research room. We could have taken a turn back there and gotten there two minutes ago, but we’re not going there.” He pointed again. “There’s the map room, which is probably where we’re actually going.” He pointed again, and then again. “And that’s the main security room, and the backup. That’s where they’re reading out all the scans conducted by the magic scanners we’ve passed through, and currently looking very worried about being found out so easily.” Erick pointed again to the ceiling, to rather inconspicuous light orb holders, which were completely normal to have in any place like this. “And those are multi-spell casters which can be triggered to release any number of spells, from this entire meta-iron mountain. I bet these walls contain billions of mana.”

Only a little bit of that surprised Clarice; the part about ‘worried about being found out’ mostly, because that revealed that Erick could read emotions from this far, and through whatever obscuring magics were layered upon this place. She also looked at him a bit oddly when he said the walls contained billions of mana, which was more of a judgmental look, for some reason—

Imara laughed at Erick’s proclamation. “What a delightful thing to hear!”

Then she knocked on the wall with her cane, and Erick experienced a discordance. What he heard was the sound of metal knocking on stone; a distinctive pap, instead of a clink. Imara smiled as she turned a corner, and she tapped the ground with her cane again, sending another pap into the air; another stone-ish sound.

Erick blinked a little, and then he turned his All-Seeing Eye all the way off—

They were in a stone hallway. Not a metal hallway at all.

Erick turned his Eye back on, and said, “People don’t normally know this entire building is one big meta-artifact.”

Clarice raised a small eyebrow at Erick, probably judging that his [True Sight] spellwork was working more than it should.

“We keep that well hidden, but not from you, it seems!” Imara said, “But enough about our heavy fortress that can murder anyone and anything that gets near or inside, and can monitor everything within, even if we can’t always discern what we’re noticing.” She went through an archway, saying, “We’ve reached the map room.”

Erick said, “Well now you’re being hyperbolic. There is no way that you can murder everything that gets through here; if you could, then no one would be able to walk through here at all.”

“Well now we’re into the philosophical discussion of security, which I will have to bow out of, because we’re here!” Imara said, as she stood beside a 5 meter wide silver pillar that looked more like a solid, low table, than a pillar. An equally-shaped pillar held on the ceiling, leaving a ten meter gap between the two. Between those two plinths hovered an ant’s nest of a map in 3-d, holographic form. “Behold; the Glittering Depths.”

Erick had already seen this in the control room.

The Glittering Depths, when taken as a whole, looked like a cake of a thousand layers, overlapping and connected by odd roads, with some layers larger than others, and some completely disconnected from the main stretch in the center. It was an ant’s nest; a thunderhead cloud; a disassembled cake. Erick could have called it any of those, and he would have been somewhat correct. And it wasn’t just one color, either; it was 6.

A key to the side named those layers. Blue was for the main dungeon floors, from the entrance to floor 5. Green was for Utopia. Yellow was for the backroads, and administrative spaces; Quilatalap called those places ‘administrative’, while others might name them as ‘maintenance’. Red was for monster lands; about half of the map was made of red, and completely disconnected from the blue. Black was for the edge. White was for the control room.

The control room was not labeled; a security concern, no doubt.

The largest layer of the Gem Dungeon was just below the real-world surface, stretching out in every direction for a hundred kilometers, and fading at the edges. This layer was Utopia, and if Erick was correct, then Utopia lay just below the golden sea of wheat outside the Workshop. If Erick were to somehow get through the ground there, he would have fallen through the sky of the main city of the Glittering Depths.

Piles of layers held here and there on that central layer, rising up, or descending; colored blue or red. Yellow roads lay everywhere around every floor, and at the edges of the yellow lands lay black edge; pure death; the Dark Itself. The whole map was surrounded by a faint blackness.

Imara slapped the surface of the silver map pillar, saying, “This is the Glittering Depths! And it’s the size of Greensoil itself! You’re never going to find your quarry, and that’s IF they’re out there in the backroads, which is a big ‘if’. Personally I doubt it, and I don’t care to help you at all, but I will, if you give me what I want!”

Erick already had a few ideas of how to trivialize this search, but one of those ideas was to use [Cascade Imaging] here in the dungeon, which would give his true nature as Erick away. So he decided to humor the woman, “And what do you want?”

Imara demanded, “From Clarice, I want your secret of [Illusion Rend]! From Ashes, I want your secret of [True Sight] in a manaless atmosphere!” She chuckled. “I have had such a difficult time understanding both of Clarice’s powers, but now that I have you both where I want you, I don’t have to choose! So tell me, little dragons! Tell me your secrets!”

Clarice answered, “Wizardry.”

Erick answered, “Wizardry.”

Imara exclaimed, “Dammit!”

Wess said, “Let us move on.”

“Bah!” Imara said, “I tire of this intrigue. Mariia! You’re up.”

Without further words, Imara walked away, her cane tapping against the not-stone ground.

… Well okay then, Erick thought.

And a Marii, from the second floor, walked away from the side of the room to stand near the projection. She looked a lot different from the last time Erick had seen her— or rather, seen one of her kind. This Marii’s right side had been caught in some sort of explosion, and though she had mostly healed from the blast, her red hair only hung down her left side of her head, and faint scars marred all of the right side of her body.

Mariia spoke with a clear voice, “Imara is the oversight of this location, and we tolerate her, but I’m the actual boss, and loyal to both Atunir and Greensoil.” Mariia said, “And you’re never going to find anyone through the backroads. The Inquisitors tried and failed tens of times, with a much larger search party than three people. This map right here is just kept so that we can keep track of where people are testing magics in the backroads so we don’t run into each other. The map here has no [Scan]ing functionality like the map in the control rooms, and even that one doesn’t do much more than this one. That said: We will strive to assist you in any way you desire. How can the Workshop be of assistance?”

When Imara spoke, Erick had thought her a little insane, but Mariia seemed a lot more normal; he was glad for the change.

Erick said, “I’m aware of the [Scan]ing inadequacies of the maps, but that’s not why I’m here. Honestly, if Imara would accept a [Reincarnation] that wasn’t pointed toward her attempting to inflame the Quiet War, then the Wizard would accept her offer of teaching mana crystal magics in exchange for a [Reincarnation]. That goes for everyone here, by the way. Candlepoint is open for immigration, but not for war of any kind—”

Mariia gasped ever so slightly.

“Ashes,” Wess said, as a warning.

Erick ignored Wess, and continued, “I mainly came here to check out what was happening here at the Workshop and to make some new connections, before moving on into the backroads to find whoever might be killing nobles and using all of that yellow space as a base of operations. I’d love a tour of the Workshop and to learn more about mana crystals, and all that.”

Mariia nodded, then said, “If you’re going to be exploring out there then you should know that as long as you’re in the wheat, then you’re not in danger of falling off the path, into the Dark.” She touched a part of the silver projector, and some silver dots appeared in the center of the projection. “This is where we’re at, and where the nearest teams of meta-item testers are located in the near backroads.” She slowly swiped her hand across the edge of the table, giving visual clues to what she was really doing, which was using her aura deep in the construct, according to what Erick could See. The map zoomed in and showed the four silver islands, and the nearest 20-ish kilometers of yellow backroads, along with an edge of black to the south that wasn’t really there at all. “This is the Workshop and the Representative Edge, located in the center of the dungeon. That fourth island is the lighthouse, which keeps an eye on the edge, and tells us when nearby dungeons press against the Glittering Depths, and then the Inquisitors go out and kill those dungeons. That island is property of the Viridian Throne, and we don’t use it.

“This island you’re on now is the first of the four islands, and this is the main project zone.

“The second and third islands are residential. They have some permanent connections to Utopia on the third island, but those are well-guarded; only known people get through there. Anyone who asks the dungeon for a direct line goes through that platform you took; it’s far enough away and visible enough that we can safely bombard that location, if bombardment should prove necessary to combat an incursion.” Mariia said, “And that’s the quick tour. Anywhere you want to see in particular?”

“The metamond creation rooms,” Erick added, “If they’re not simple mana chambers. Basically, if you have any special mana crystal creation locations, I want to see them. And also books on the subject; what you have found, etcetera. What’s the difference between interior-infinite mana crystals, like the metamonds you make in a chamber, as opposed to exterior-expanding mana crystals, like how they usually are? And how did you decide to make that shift? How did you think of that option, to go interior instead of exterior, and what sorts of repercussions has this had?”

Mariia paused for a moment, and then she grinned a little. “Mana is possibility and that means that everything external can be made internal with no loss of functionality, because we demand it to be that way. It does take some doing to get it— Well. I should start earlier than that. How it looked to me, when I was in the dungeon, was that I worked for 30 years of my life, trying to make mana crystals easier to use, while using theoretical and proven models created under 110 years of previous works, made by Resistance leaders and skilled artisans like the Summoner. All of that work was kinda trash compared to my understanding of the process now, here on Veird, where people actually share their knowledge of magic widely.

“They say that mana is possibility, but the truth is more nuanced than that, for possibility must be created at least once in order to be created again. When the Wizard made Benevolence; that was a major creation. But now, anyone can use Benevolence to make any matter of Benevolence-based spellwork; mostly [Renew] magics, these days. Node Networks and buffing magics, and all that.” Mariia said, “Anyway: In the past, the Old Cosmology had a certain inertial weight to it that kept it going forward and in mostly the same configuration, so that sort of stuff didn’t really happen. Even making new magics out of old magics was much harder… But that’s a philosophical issue, truly. People didn’t share their shit at all back then, so maybe that’s why we never had much innovation? Either way, it was extremely difficult to make internally-infinite mana crystals in the Old Cosmology. But we could still do it.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“But here in the New Cosmology, under the Dark, and in the Light of Atunir, where She has delivered us unto a new life in a land where that internally-infinite possibility is already known… All it took here was almost the flipping of a switch; of treading a path already well-worn by the weight of history. Now anyone can simply invert a mana crystal to make a metamond, as you have already found out.

“There’s no actual difference between the two types of crystals.

“Internally-infinite and externally expanding mana crystals are exactly the same, but the internal ones don’t take up more and more space as they grow, and they can be insulated from outside-influence and change a lot easier. Those are the main differences between the two, and why we chose to make internal mana crystals in the first place.”

“… Huh.” Erick said, “What you’re saying makes it sound like Dungeon Magic had nothing to do with the metamonds; they just allowed an old magic to shine through the Dark.”

“Exactly!” Mariia smiled as she said, “Dungeon Magic was the starting point for the meta-artifacts, but that start has blossomed into the power of Endless Delvers like Clarice, and then there’re the Iron Bandits, pushing past floor 230. The spells of the people here are so much more than I ever envisioned back there in my previous life. And now we have people making these Dungeon Magic-supported items real, like the staff you’ve made, and like that amulet of yours, too. I’m not sure you understand just how rare of an accomplishment that is, but trust; it’s rare. And now that you’ve made one true meta-artifact on accident and one on purpose, I’m rather sure you can make many more.”

Erick thought for a second, then said, “Well that’s interesting… So the controlled growth and space concerns are all that make metamonds truly special… But by that same token, metamonds are able to be altered a lot easier, too? Like if a mana crystal is corrupted by an odd shift in Intent-based growth, then you can discard that growth —either through chipping or carving that growth away— and work with what you already have, to try and grow it again. But with a metamond, if a corruption occurs, then the entire thing is changed. Like when you take a basic [Fire Bolt] metamond and add in [Water Bolt], to make [Steam Bolt], you can’t work with the [Fire Bolt] ever again; you have to make a new one of those.” Erick said, “It’s hard to unbake a cake.”

“Correct again!” Mariia said, “On the whole, though, metamonds are easier to use than mana crystals, because a mana crystal can easily outgrow its initial parameters and mutate into something else entirely, but metamonds don’t do that. As long as a metamond isn’t exposed to a high-mana environment, then the diamond-like barrier of the metamond will not interact with any other solid-mana spellwork. It’s like… You can take an ice cube anywhere you want in a blizzard, and the ice will stay the same, but when you move to a hot room you better be careful, or the metamond can deform.” She shrugged. “It’s the same with mana crystals, really, but mana crystals can be trimmed more easily, to prune off bad growth. You generally have to break a metamond if it goes bad.”

Erick began—

Wess interrupted, “Please, Ashes. Let us continue with the investigation.”

Clarice scowled at the inquisitor, for she too had been heavily interested in Mariia’s words.

Erick refrained from scowling at Wess, as he said, “I suppose there’s plenty of time to come back and play with mana crystals in a proper laboratory environment, if you would have me here for a while?”

“Of course!” Mariia said, “We welcome House Benevolence into the auspices of Atunir.”

Erick smiled a little at that, and moved on. He gestured to the map. “Is that map better than the one in the control room?”

“No, it is not,” Wess answered for Mariia. “We can query the control room for an update on our surroundings when we’re out there in the backroads, but we must actually be at those surroundings before they can scan our locations.”

Mariia nodded at Wess’s answer. “We have good coverage of the nearest tens of kilometers, but nothing past that.”

Erick asked Mariia, “Any suggestions for where to look?”

Wess frowned because he was a stick in the mud, as far as Erick could tell.

Mariia raised an eyebrow in surprise, then said, “I don’t think anyone would want to live in the backroads at all. They’re stable locations, but the dark tide does shift now and then, and rather unpredictably, too. So look in the low-mana areas instead; Those lands are the only places where people could actually hide with effective Illusion spellwork. But since you have Clarice and your own [True Sight] magic with you, those areas should prove easier to search.”

Clarice piped up, “Which is why we should go invade the fifth floors! The Ritual.”

“Yes yes,” Erick said, “We’re getting there, Clarice—” Erick paused as he looked to Clarice, and then to Wess. Clarice’s ability to [True Sight] through mana-less zones had been known for a long time. So… “Why didn’t you two work together before? To search those areas?”

Clarice laughed, then said, “Because people die for real in the backroads, and I wasn’t going anywhere with any Inquisitor at all, especially when Riamites were involved.”

Because she was a distrustful hermit, Erick heard and understood.

Wess frowned. “Every time some unauthorized person finds their way back here they die, and the dungeon masters get blamed for it. It led to legal battles among the nobility, and so, years ago, we decided not to allow anyone back here at all, and anyone who does get back here is on their own.”

“Ah.” Erick said, “Distrust, all the way around. Reinforced distrust, too.”

Mariia spoke up, “If you stick next to the edges of the floors, and stay away from the dark tide, then it’s not that dangerous to be down here. But yes; this is a liminal space. It’s not safe at all. If there are people down here then they’re likely ducking into floors when the floors are occupied, and then not sticking around when the floors are closing and being reset.”

Erick smiled a little bit at that. “Thank you, Mariia. That’s very helpful, actually.”