122 - Book 2: Chapter 59: Separated

122 - Book 2: Chapter 59: Separated

############

[Dungeon Spawner]

Mental static ripped through Vex first. He'd forgotten that this was a product of the system, and it didn't tap into the same library of knowledge that glyphs were contained in; this was something he should have known. The lizardkin nearly collapsed as sudden pain ripped through his skull, and he only barely heard the alarmed sound that Derivan made as metal arms wrapped around him and caught him just before he would have fallen.

"Shit," Vex said, his own words sounding distant and airy to him; the mana in him was still reaching, tapping into a different library of knowledge. Somehow Vex knew exactly what it was doing it was trying to tap into the system itself. Wherever the system stored its knowledge, what it was doing the mana was stretching itself across the wavelengths of reality, trying to tap into it. He could almost feel the reality shard he kept in his tailbag dissolving as something was drawn out of it.

"Vex." Derivan's voice was worried. "Tell me what is happening."

"Just... tried something I shouldn't have." Vex grimaced his voice still sounded strange, the ringing in his head distorting it with a painful warble. His mana was being drained faster than he'd ever experienced, and that added an unpleasant sense of nausea to this whole experience. "But it's working. It's just taking a second."

"There are people coming." Derivan looked around, still holding Vex steady in his arms. Vex wasn't surprised; the distortions in the mana would have drawn the researchers regardless. He'd been hoping they'd have enough time for all of them to go in one by one.

"Give me... a moment." Speaking was still a little more difficult than it should have been, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Vex felt like he was dragging his mind through water or mud, struggling to stay afloat. "I need this spell to complete. Then just... carry us in."

"I do not know if there is time." Vex felt himself being lifted as Derivan got to his feet, staying just a step away from the dungeon entrance; his boyfriend kept glancing around, presumably using mana sense to find the researchers. Vex himself couldn't use his mana sense in this state, and his vision was blurry. He didn't see anyone nearby. He did see the entrance room flash with light, which was good. Sev had made it through. That technically meant it was his turn. "But I will give you as much time as I can."

"Good... good." Vex blinked a few times, trying to clear up his vision not that it helped. His gaze flickered a bit as mana poured through him and into his sign, going dark in brief increments; he was almost worried he was going to pass out, and clung to consciousness as closely as he could.

The spell would complete, as long as he stayed conscious. One of his hands found Derivan's, and he gripped it for comfort, trying to focus and steady his mind

Something clicked. Like the mana had found the key to an old, forgotten lock.

[Dungeon Spawner]

Not all memories are desired, and not everything that is forgotten loses its mark on the world.

When something is erased, an echo is created. [Dungeon Spawner]s reach into those echoes, pulling into existence wholecloth something that has been forgotten. These echoes are never quite complete, and are largely a mere mockery of the creatures they once were.

[Dungeon Spawner]s are one type of spawner of many. Different spawners reach into different sorts of echoes; the creatures they bring into being are always a reflection of something that was, but not always hostile, and not always angry. Dungeon-spawned remain connected to their host dungeon, and act as outlets for the waste products created by a dungeon during its run.

Vex's only thought was "what does a dungeon do, then?" as the last of his mana drained out of him. He felt himself slipping out of consciousness and he felt Derivan tighten his grip on his body and move. There was a sharp jostle, like they'd been attacked, or maybe Derivan had simply leapt into the dungeon entrance.

Then the strange sensation of entering a dungeon hit him, and though the effect was mild, it was the last thing his mind could take; he felt himself slipping into blessed unconsciousness.

...the end of the maze was right in front of him.

He ran for it, as quickly as he could; this was the first time in a while he'd truly regretted the loss of his Agility stat. As he ran, his mind turned to what he'd noticed as he stepped into the dungeon and been brought over into this wavelength of reality.

The amount of 'distance' for lack of a better word that he could sense through Shift had been slowly increasing, but for the most part, examining something with that sense was difficult. The further things got from him, the more everything dissolved into ambient noise. It was hard for him to distinguish one wavelength from another, stepped too far away from him.

When Misa stepped into the dungeon, though and when Sev had stepped in he'd been able to sense the ripples they sent through the dungeon's particular wavelength of reality.

And that had struck him in particular, because if his spatial sense was correct, the Shifted plane the dungeon existed on spread across all of the main kingdom of Elyra. Not all of its territories it didn't include Fendal, or the patch of land that Emily lived on, or anything like that but the city they'd just been in? It matched the borders almost exactly.

It matched the strange chill he'd felt when crossing into the city, too. It was the same chill he'd felt when they crossed territories towards Fendal, and there had been one more when heading towards Emily...

The false dungeon created by Misa's bonus room had a reality anchor marked by a letter-number combination. The error message in Fendal had listed a letter-number combination, too, except that letter-number combination had clearly been referring to Fendal and the area surrounding it. So those letter-number combinations referenced... zones?

And every zone had a dungeon.

Derivan felt like he was starting to get an idea of what dungeons were what reality anchors were. If every dungeon had a reality anchor, and one dungeon was present in every zone... if running a dungeon helped to stabilize reality anchors, and reality anchors stabilized existence which was certainly part of what they did, evidenced by the return of Misa's village and family...

Derivan had a thought.

The assumption for a long time had been that the expansion of the wild dungeons on the edges of their continent had stopped, largely held in check by the remaining population of the three Kingdoms. Vex had explained to him that every skill that measured the size of those wild zones returned a result that said they were roughly the same size. But if the outer edges were also being lost entirely, dissolving into the abyss?

Then the continent as a whole might still be shrinking, all available space still being slowly lost as towns and cities were lost to dungeon breaks because those dungeon breaks were still happening. Rarely, but they did happen.

Derivan reached that thought right as he reached the end of the maze, and he plunged through the light there. He felt the dungeon's mechanisms reaching for him and grabbing him, spinning an invisible wheel to choose where he would go.

He reacted more on instinct than anything else. The wheel was about to stop, landing him in a third position, away from both Misa and Sev and not at all close to Vex; he reached out with Patch, and nudged the needle so that he would appear with Sev. The light picked him up and took him away

And he appeared just in time to stop a sword from stabbing Sev through the back. The clang of that sword against his armor echoed through the room.

"Holy shit," Sev said, turning around and doing a double-take; the suit of armor that had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room had moved, and only Derivan's sudden presence had stopped that sword from skewering him. "The moment I turn my back... Um. Good timing, Deri."

"You are welcome," Derivan said. He glanced at the door, and then sent a message through the system.

[I am through,] he said. [We must find Vex. Let us proceed.]

[Way ahead of you, buddy,] Misa sent back.