Chapter 211: Lorsa Lore

Chapter 211: Lorsa Lore

Delta watched from her core as the network she was now supposedly in charge of continued to slowly expanded to link with other Dungeons. The connections were merely formalities, paths for Delta to reach out and introduce herself but the number of Dungeons was becoming a little absurd.

Foodie was one thing, Nu's Trinity was another.

The Dungeons in need of guidance ranged from some Dungeons just having nothing special to attract people to outright stagnant holes in the ground where the Dungeon was stuck in a limbo of trying to do too many things at once causing it to end up doing nothing at all.

Some Dungeons were just a problem. The Dungeon somewhere to the Shattered Left arm who decided that human flesh and organs made for sound structural design. That Dungeon was in the 'manageable' category.

A Dungeon in the 'unmanageable' category was one of the ones she was looking at now. A Dungeon who had an entrance of strange thorny towers that crackled as lightning struck it. The inside was riddled with traps designed to 'contain'. The Dungeon seemed to be convinced that something special occurred when someone died of Mana poisoning. It did its best to trap adventurers in ways to prevent them dying or escaping.

All that energy did something because it was storing it in a massive stone-like device behind its core, the energy always funneling in but never out.

Another was an onslaught of parasite Dungeons that were a step away from being bombed due to appearing as Abominations. The cores didn't even have logical thought between them. It was all 'more of us, less of them'.

Then there was Fun Island and Delta wasn't even going to bother with that kettle of insane fish.

"Sis, you've given me a task that never ends," she mused and looked for anything in this mess to help her.

"You look worried," came an amused voice and Delta turned in the network space to see Lorsa floating nearby, her strange body hiding glowing pieces of a core inside. The woman who was a Dungeon pretending to be a Royal Knight pretending to be human...

"Lorsa, good to see you again," Delta said kindly and the older woman looked around the mostly non-functional network.

"I remember this. It wasn't my job, always Silver's," Lorsa mused and Delta perked up.

"Silver?" she asked and Lorsa pursed her lips then decided to physically relax, floating in the space to get comfortable.

"The runt. Not as central as Yal. Not as ingrained as I was. Not as clever as Mayden. Silver always had a chip on his core about being the balanced one," Lorsa said slowly, letting the words come out quietly.

"He was so stubborn, he didn't even change his name from the base default model core he was assigned. Silver was the best fit for talking to others. Silver was earnest and the Dungeon cores that came after responded really well to him. He would joke or get mad if they slacked off, but everyone could feel he enjoyed having his thing," Lorsa continued. She spoke casually but Delta would have to be blind to see how it took some personal strength on the other woman's part to be so nonchalant.

"I met someone with Silver-traits," Delta said and Lorsa exhaled slowly.

"Remnants. Silver was old and old Dungeons don't really just 'die'. There's so much left over," Lorsa admitted as she turned to look over the dark network as if looking for a light.

"Silver was deceived by a woman; or something appearing as a woman. Her name was Lare," Lorsa said, tone much tighter.

"She caused an event in the nearby village and led Silver to become an Abomination. His core became overrun with so much instability that it morphed out of shape. Silver left his Dungeon to hunt down the villagers, slamming people together with his mana-starved monsters as a curse. He wandered away, chasing Lare then he vanished, traces of his mad-stricken form tainted the land. The main body should have been huge, consuming so much, but Silver just vanished," Lorsa said and sat up.

"I'm sorry," Delta said, not sure if Lorsa had ever just talked like this before to anyone with so little barriers between them.

"I can't face them, the tainted. I see them and just want to rip Silver out of them but it's just unthinking flesh, leftovers. It hurts but they must be hurting more," Lorsa sighed and floated closer.

Delta was about to say something when she became deeply aware of someone listening. It was one of the five dungeons on Fun Island. It has taken the offered network strand and felt it out, but hadn't connected.

It was listening.

"Hello?" Delta tried to call out.

"You're looking at Lare the wrong way,," the core responded simply and disconnected. Lorsa turned, looking ready to force the connection back open with anger in her eyes but she simply didn't have any authority in this space, not like Delta.

She poked, knocked, and even tried to be rude and knock louder but the core had gone dark. Not just out of reach but submerged in that thick pentagram formation the dungeons formed on the island, their own private little 'channel'.

"Sis, can you get me in there?" she called up. A window appeared.

'I'm sorry, Delta. I'm afraid I can't do that.'

Delta gave the window a long look and she could almost hear Sis giggling.

Sorry, the joke was there, but I honestly can't.

"I don't mind being told no. I just want to know why," Delta said as Lorsa began kicking the network in frustration.

'Idiot. Don't be so giddy. Do I need to remind you that we've already lost three of our kind to that absolute menace Gamma? Do I need to remind you that our attempts to rescue Beta ended up with one of the stronger Echoes entombed in that parasite's tree? Do I need to remind you that I'm currently in the process of retrieving one of our number from the Abyss and the demons? And you... you are playing dress up in some old fools basement' Lare sighed.

'I've been adventuring," The Echo protested.

'And your Echoes. Your influence... who has been benefiting off them? Your dear 'Calculators'? It certainly isn't you. No, someone in that accursed village is using you as a battery and you're too idiotic to notice. Get out of that tomb and do your job' Lare warned.

"But I need one more rat," The one potentially known as Thomas said.

'I am going to throttle you, just leave-' Lare began and Thomas's aura glowed, briefly outgrowing Lare.

"I. NEED. ONE. MORE." Thomas snarled and Lare went quiet for a moment.

'You... that wasn't just you. How many has he fed to you- Lare began but Thomas shook Lare off, reshaping himself back to a mortal man.

"Hm I do believe I have a new quest," Thomas said brightly as he turned slowly to a set of stairs he ignored up to now.

"I do believe my last rat is called 'Delta'," he said and walked forward, the earth shaking as he shook off immaterial bonds and prison bars.

Nothing got in the way of an upgrade for the S-rank Adventurer Thomas Darkblade.

---

"I am a tree," the boy who clearly was not a tree said as Kemy stood before him. Yet. she didn't sense a falsehood in his words.

"You spiritually think you're a tree?" she asked kindly. The boy stared back, two buckets on his arms for 'fee on entry' to the guildhall.

"No, I am a tree in blood, bone, and mind," the boy continued.

Again, Kemy could sense no lies.

"Trees are complex lifeforms, no one said they must remain rooted and unable to speak," said her 'party member' Yattina who was admiring the boy as if her strange orange eye saw something no one else did.

"You can pay to enter now or before you leave. Entry is only-" the boy who had a name tag reading 'Vas' suddenly went rigid as if a lightning bolt struck him.

"I must go. I am called. I am needed once more," Vas said, his tone shifting so abruptly that he sounded almost menacing to Kemy but she let him past as he handed her two heavy buckets filled with money. She couldn't lift them both and promptly fell over.

The sounds of scattering money made someone inside call out furiously.

"Shame, I could have seen him in a fetching green anti-god suit," Yattina muttered, pushing money off her shoes as if the stuff held no value to her.

Kemy was about to say something when a beautiful girl emerged from the front door in a dress that looked mildly expensive and with a curious expression on her face.

"Grim said he sensed profits being exposed to 'the dirty masses' and I supposed you are the mass?" she asked politely.

Kemy had found her.

Her shining crown of truth that was hiding behind a mask of royalty!

Now all she needed was to find the one who hid a golden heart behind a paywall!

"Is it mass if there are only two of us?" Yattina asked and the girl blinked at her, seemingly stunned.

"A-Apologises, your face... you reminded me of a dear protector," the girl said and Kemy looked between them.

"No offense, but the only person I look like is my sister Brilda and that's because our mother's genes were so strong they beat the enzymes out of my father's DNA," Yattina said bluntly.

The girl was too stunned to speak.

Kemy foresaw this to be a wonderful start to a group adventure.