Sabbatical – Chapter 229: Potentially Perilous Progress

GamingWolf

Finally a chapter.

Jacob entered yet another house in the seemingly endless city on the tenth floor. They had walked miles upon miles already without having found a hint as to what they should do. There were no monsters to be found, and when they encountered other human beings they proved to be just as confused as they were. Nobody had even the slightest clue as to what had to be done to advance to the next floor.

"Found anything?" Ryan asked as he entered the house.

Jacob shook his head. "No, just another average home. No hints of anything weird. Besides there being a city with fully furnished homes in the middle of a dungeon, that is."

Ryan poked one of the chairs with the sword he had acquired on one of the lower floors. "Maybe the monsters are mimics?"

"I doubt it," Jacob replied. "That monster tamer dude would have found them, I think. He found where we were hiding from his group simply by tracing our life signatures, after all."

"True. But then, what else could it be? If it was a death match or battle royale, we would have been told by now. Or found bodies."

Jacob looked around the room once more before he shook his head. Perhaps all they had to do was find the right building in order to leave. Maybe the System thought they needed a resting spot in the dungeon, so it had made them a city to call home.

A low rumble and a slight shaking of the ground drew him to the nearest window. What he saw when he looked outside was most definitely not what he had expected.

In the middle of the giant lake located in the centre of the city, there was now a statue depicting a Dragon curling around a pole. No, he corrected himself upon further inspection, it was a smaller version of the tower they were currently in. However, the thing that caught his attention the most were the small lights at the side of the tower, and the doorway he could see at its base.

Ten small dots were illuminated on the side of the statue, each one probably representing a floor they had cleared. A set of symbols he couldn't decipher were engraved above the door and something told him they would translate to 'eleven'.

"I think I figured out where we have to go," Jacob said.

"Oh? Where?"

"The giant tower that popped out of the lake," he replied. "Looks like a progress tracker of some kind."

Before more words could be exchanged, the by-now familiar blue window appeared before his eyes.

The City of the First Trial recognises your efforts and has opened the way to the eleventh floor. Housing may be requested at the Hall of the First Trial.

"The fuck is the First Trial?" Ryan asked. "Does it mean the first ten floors, or did we miss a puzzle in the city?"

"No idea," Jacob replied with a shrug. "But we can continue now, so that's good."

"Can we though? For all we know, this might be a trick."

Jacob waved him off. Sure, it might be a trick, but if they could fake a System message, they could probably kill them right now too. "Let's go and check it out at least. You can make up your mind then."

"Fine," Ryan mumbled in reply, following Jacob after he had walked past. "I still think its a bad idea, though. Everyone will be there and I really don't want to meet that big Elf lady again. Something about her is just… wrong."

"I agree." Of course, Jacob knew what Aperio actually was — or at least claimed to be — but hearing that and being in her presence were two entirely different things.

Standing near the woman filled you with equal parts dread and reverence. A tiny voice at the back of your head demanded that you kneel in front of her while the rest screamed at you to run from the predator that you had gotten too close to. And despite all of that, she behaved like a normal person. A bit arrogant, perhaps, but I guess that comes from her background.

Strikes me as rich. The only thing that came to mind was that she was some sort of modern version of a noble. Just not made for dances and formal events and more, like, throwing you into space. Even thinking about the woman brought back a fraction of the weird feeling, though with a definitive note of existential dread.

It took Jacob nearly the entire way to the centre of the city to shake the feeling, only to have it instantly replaced by a new flavour of it as he looked up at the small statue of the tower they were currently in.

For one reason or another, seeing just how many floors — unexplored and filled with dangers — lay above them filled him with more than his fair share of anxiety. Would they even be Human once they were done? Even without taking their powers into account, they were already far beyond what someone should be able to accomplish naturally.

He needed only to look at the fact that he could go for days without sleep or food to confirm his more-than status. On top of that, he was completing dangerous task after dangerous task at the same time. And a part of him reveled in it.

"Ready?" Ryan asked as he stopped at the edge of the lake. "Looks like nobody is there at the moment."

Jacob swallowed hard. "I am."

Caethya let out a satisfied sigh as Aperio pulled her wings closer. How her love's feathers could be so wonderfully soft and yet still be sturdier than any armour she had ever bought was an utter mystery, but one that didn’t need to be solved. She would simply enjoy the softness. A wing blanket is truly the best.

"Do you know what Eleanor is doing?" she asked, peeking past a few feathers at the mortal. "She's been writing ever since I came back."

"She is writing down what has happened here and a few things I told her that she seems to think are important," Aperio replied. "I am not quite sure why she assumes some of these to be worthy of being recording. It was all rather trivial."

"Not to people that are equivalent to children when it comes to magic. Whatever insight you can offer is probably worth its weight in gold." She paused for a moment. "Gold has value for these people, right?"

"It should," the All-Mother replied. "If you gave Eleanor her weight in gold, she would not have to work for a good long while. If I understand the metal's value correctly, that is."

"Did you have the monsters in the dungeon drop some to see if the people would get excited?" Caethya asked, smiling to herself.

"Mayhaps."

"How are they doing, anyway? Have they made it to one of the interesting floors yet?"

"They have finally figured out how to trigger the stairway to the eleventh floor," her love replied, her voice a little disappointed and just a tad more ethereal than usual. "They truly thought of everything else before considering that it is supposed to be a place of rest and that you only need to ask its guardian in order to move on."

"What is the guardian?" Caethya asked. She could think of quite a few things Aperio might have used, and none of them would appear approachable to the average mortal.

"It is a statue of a Dragonkin that I placed in the city hall. Whenever you enter its home, it will speak to you and invite you to ask for whatever you might need." The All-Mother gave an annoyed huff. "The first things they asked for were weapons or blessings to make themselves stronger. Not a way upwards, a home to call their own, or even just a place to rest for a little while."

"That's probably because they are not used to any of this," the Demigoddess said. "And you did simply give them power before, so they might have assumed that more can still be acquired without work. You know quite well that power is enticing and if you can accumulate more without effort, why wouldn't you?" She let out a small sigh. "In a way, I didn't work for the power I now have, and neither did you. Though your situation is a little different. There's not much of a choice for you."

"No there is not," her love replied, her voice still perfectly audible despite the words barely being a whisper. "And I would argue that you gained most of your strength on your own. The blessing I inadvertently gave you only provided you with potential; not outright power."

Caethya only gave a small nod. While she was quite certain her affinity for magic was largely thanks to the blessing, she would not argue the point. Aperio either knew that it was not the case, or wanted to believe that she achieved it on her own. It didn't matter really matter now and her love seemingly did not want to argue the point.

"In a way, what I did for them is not that different," Aperio continued, shifting slightly underneath Caethya. "I am giving them the potential to grow stronger; become a God of their own, even. It is simply much more controlled and not as extensive. I am not physically touching their Souls, after all."

"Would I feel that now?" Caethya asked. "If you touched my Soul, I mean."

"I… do not know," her love replied. She remained quiet for a moment, her wings twitching ever so slightly and her grip briefly growing stiff. "I could if you really wish to know, but I would prefer if I did not."

Caethya ran her fingers over the inside of her love's wing. "It was just idle curiosity," she said, tilting her head back as best she could to look at Aperio's face. "There is no need to actually test it."

She could feel Aperio let out a breath that had undoubtedly materialised in her lungs just moments before. "Thank you."

"Uh," the voice of Eleanor sounded out from beyond the veil of the All-Mother's wings. "Can I ask something or am I interrupting?"

Caethya could not help but let out a small giggle at the pulse of annoyance that raced through her love's aura. She tapped at one of the wings, causing Aperio to move it just enough for the Demigoddess to see the mortal mage with her eyes.

"A little, perhaps," she said, smiling at Eleanor. "What do you need?"

"I, uh, I just wanted to know if I should be worried about these, uh… wisps?" She gestured towards a tiny light that floated downwards, melting into Aperio's skin as soon as it touched it. "They feel quite dangerous."

"They are harmless," the All-Mother replied. "Simply some mana that could not be absorbed into my body fast enough."

"It happens when she allows herself to relax," Caethya said, holding out her hand so one of the wisps landed on it. A small tingle ran through her as it did, but not because she had taken in the mana. It seemed more like it was upset that she was not Aperio. "You can't use them, and I am pretty sure they wouldn't harm you either." Even though this tiny thing has as much mana as I do…

It was probably not quite right, but what she felt from the tiny silver-blue light was at least comparable to her own well of mana. Just that it was a bit bigger than a marble and was quite silver.

One day I will reach that level, she mused to herself, fully aware that if she did, her love would have ascended to even greater heights. Aperio was always growing stronger and that was without her actively pursuing more strength. However that would look like. Considering that — technically — the All-Mother was already all-powerful, the fact that she was growing stronger seemed a little weird. In the end, what Caethya felt was probably only the bits of power her love had actually managed to cram inside the body she had made for herself. No matter how she looked at it, there was no way Aperio could actually pull all of herself into a vessel like that.

"Something wrong?" Aperio asked, taking Caethya from her thoughts. Her love was looking down at her, the concern visible on her face as her eyes flicked from side to side as she tried to figure out what was going on. "You usually do not feel this… unsure." She tilted her head to the side. Her silver hair shimmered with a slight blue light as it flowed over her ear, a few strands getting caught. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No." Caethya smiled and reached up, placing her hand on her love's cheek. "I was just thinking about how you work and that is never a good idea. Your existence is a little hard to understand and I am certainly not ready to ponder that quite yet." It just doesn't make sense.

"I see," Aperio said, casting her gaze further downwards at something only see could see. "You need but ask me and I will tell you what you wish to know."

"I'm pretty sure the answers I would get would be just as confusing. If you can even explain them with words."

"Probably," the All-Mother relented. "And it is only going to get worse once my plans move along."

"What plans?" Eleanor asked, looking more than a little confused.

Caethya gave a small laugh at the question. She could only think of one way to answer this question "Multiverse."

"Multiverse?"

"Multiverse."

GamingWolf

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