Wrath, page 45
“Not necessarily,” Pierre said. “As a Dungeon Core, your influence gives you limited control over the system of magic within your domain. You can’t change any rules, but you can sometimes override system level errors. But most Dungeon Cores don’t have manacores within them. Meaning if one does not spawn here, it won’t spawn anywhere. And you have to force the change on the system within here. Manually restart things.”
“You have to go to sleep.”
Tira paused.
“It’s not impossible. It’s just...normally not a good idea. While you are asleep, your mobs were be much less effective. You’ll be vulnerable. But given that no one is coming in regardless...I think it’s justified in this instance.”
Tira didn’t hesitate. If this was the reason no new cores had spawned from the adventurers that died…
Myn pursed her lips and shook her head. “No. It doesn’t guarantee anything. But it at least becomes possible.”
“You just need to expel all your mana,” Pierre said. “Once you hit zero, you’ll begin reabsorbing it passively at your normal regeneration rate. Once it is half full, you’ll have finished resetting yourself and will regain wakefulness.”
“Thank you for the heads up. Sorry about the other day. I should have known something that needs to kill humans wouldn’t empathize much with a few deaths. That sounds angrier than I intended, but there’s no good way to put it. A cat seems evil to a mouse, but it’s just being a cat, is what I’m attempting to say. Just...try not to bat us around too much before going in for the kill?”
“If I bat you around,” Tira sent back, glad Myn hadn’t noticed the buzz of the phone, “that gives you a chance to fight back. Something to think on. I won’t be responding for a bit. I need to go dark to have a chance of stopping Refinael. Dungeon difficulty will go back to old levels while I’m out.”
Tira then turned the phone off so Myn wouldn’t notice. The last thing she wanted was Pierre having to explain to his fellow wisp that Tira had told Sara so much.
Pierre shook his head. “You’ll be fine. We will keep you safe.” Myn nodded in agreement.
Then everything went black.
***
It is a DANGEROUS day in the Woven World. Welcome back, Silken Champion. Assistance should be present.
Urgent Notice: A timed quest is about to expire. Time remaining: Ten hours.
Reset complete. Local parameters restored. [ERROR]. Legacy components are present. Unable to integrate. Select upgrade to attempt integration.
Tira felt like she’d just gotten off the rack. Everything hurt. She was getting pain from body parts, and she didn’t even have a body anymore. Tira said, her vision clearing.
Pierre smiled and hugged her core. “Not at all.”
Tira sent him a wave of relief.
Pierre sagged, and Myn caught him under the shoulder before he could fully collapse. “Yes,” he said, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe at his eyes. “It means we have a chance.”
“Be careful you don’t get declared Erratic,” Pierre said softly.
Pierre turned pale and nodded. “Myn, would you be so kind as to remain here with Tira and offer any suggestions as they occur to you?”
“Absolutely,” Myn said. “And I’ll bond with whatever core forms. It’ll cut down the time needed to get it to the point where it can start Containment.”
It wasn’t a slaughter. As much as Tira wanted, the fact remained that the groups in her dungeon were on par with her. They’d learned to adapt to Chot during his time in the dungeon. While the groups were frightened by the changes, they were still prepared and had powers of their own. In addition, it seemed the earlier attacks had cut down the number of people willing to risk entering the dungeon. Every group was full of only Copper Tiers or a mixture of Copper and Bronze. Tin delvers weren’t willing to risk her depths, it seemed.
The last group through her dungeon was three Copper Tier damage dealing classes with a Bronze tank and healer. Tira broke every rule of dungeon management on them, to no complaints from Pierre and Myn. They had defeated Thago before, so used the portal to skip down to the second floor.
Tira sent everything at them at once. Thago and the first floor mobs descended from behind them, and everything on the second floor - up to and including Amarga - charged in. It was terrible, but Tira was more concerned with everyone who would die when Refinael emerged. Including her.
The group threw every spell they could in their last, desperate panic. Of the five, Tira estimated four died while actively casting. It was enough to progress her to Copper Eight, far more rapidly than should have happened, but the two Bronze adventurers provided a lot more experience from being a tier above her. The two of them made it a fight and not just a slaughter, but even they went down under the combined weight of dozens of dinosaurs.
Tira checked the manacores with bated breath. None of them gained new nameplates. She checked entrance to the dungeon. No one was approaching. She checked the quest timer. Two hours remained.
Pierre put a hand on her core. “You did everything you could.”
Tira thought over his words.
The group assembled. Zeke looking ready to fight. Glek looking at Myn, more terrified for what would happen to the wisp than what would happen to himself. Chot, who Tira had barely gotten to know, was somberly looking down at her.
It hurt to admit it, more than she expected.
“And what is thy next maneuver, then?” Chot asked.
A simple question, but it struck home. They all expected her to have an answer. Everyone was looking at her. Everyone was expecting a solution.
“Even Amedia?” Zeke asked, blinking. “They hurt you.”
“Yeah. Even Amedia. They’re awful, and they need to be dealt with, but the people of Amedia aren’t. Or maybe they are, I don’t know. I’m not willing to condemn them to Refinael’s blade for what their leaders did. Right now, I’m worried about everyone surviving long enough so we can settle our grievances afterwards. Myn. I need you to go find other dungeons. Once we get the message to the royals, they can take care of the humans, and Zeke and Glek and Chot will all go find others as well.”
Myn nodded. “You’ll be condemned for this, you know. For letting the humans know dungeons are sentient, let alone sapient!”
“We could still inform the Prince,” Pierre said.
“It would have to be so small, it would be easily overlooked.”
Tira grumbled. That tracked. She turned her attention to the Amedian caravan. Maybe the Princess was consulting with her people?
No. She wasn’t. She was sitting in the caravan as men unloaded the chests of precious metals from the back. One set of runes on the cold iron had the noun “Weight” attached to the verb “Reduced,” which at least explained how they were carrying the things and loading them onto a cart.
“Quiet,” Princess Caliri hissed when one of the men put the chest down too hard. It was an odd task to be preforming without torches or any kind of light. “Are you trying to alert them?”
“Sorry, Your Highness,” the man murmured.
The Princess sniffed and turned her attention towards the group. The same group that had been in Tira’s dungeon before, now all Bronze nine save for the Runecrafter. “Take these into the dungeon.”
Raem frowned. “Can’t we use the Rupture spell on it first?” The Princess narrowed her eyes, and he hastily added. “Your Highness. I just - I beg your pardon, but the idea hadn’t occurred to me until just now.”
Princess Caliri sniffed and looked at the Runecrafter, Asher, who shook his head. “That rune work can only impact a core in the Tin Tiers. I am looking for a variant...but that’s a future concern.” The man knew how to talk quietly without whispering, each sound actually quiet instead of hissing in the silent air.
“There you have it then,” she said. “Now. Go. The men up here will take care of the rest.”
Tira followed their motions. Sure enough, the men with the Princess were taking half the chests into an open field near the pens. What were they doing?
“What do you think they’re doing?” Pierre asked.
Tira pulled up her stat screen one more time before they entered.
Name: Tira, Silken Champion
Theme: Dinosaurs
Contained Entities: Acekorah, [UNKNOWN]
Tier: Copper
Rank: Eight
Mana: 5 / 270
Regeneration: 20 / Hour
Regen Bonus for Upkeep: 6 / 41
Command: 399 / 440
Contracts: 0 / [ERROR]
Area of Influence: [View]
Dungeon Map: [View]
Rooms | Mobs | Upgrades
Pierre swallowed hard. “About a ton.”
Pierre nodded, his eyes widening.
“Oh. Oh no.” Pierre turned pale.
On the plus side, if she was right about their plan and couldn’t stop them from pulling it off, she was about to get the show of a lifetime.
Chapter 62
Raem’s group had not been in Tira’s dungeon since she’d turned Copper. They shouldn’t have had access to one of the portal stones. Tira was certain of that. Yet when they walked into the antechamber, Quinda - if Tira remembered right, everyone called her Quin - pulled one out of her pouch and inserted it into the portal. The gateway flared to life, giving them immediate access to Gatekeeper’s room.
“Are you going to swarm them?” Pierre asked.
Tira sent him a grimace.
The Carnotaurus roared at the sudden disturbance and charged for the group. Asher, the Silver Runecrafter, pulled a sheet of paper from his robe and tossed it in the dinosaur’s direction. Tira could see the script on the paper - “Hold and Stop and Freeze Mob.” It seemed a bit repetitive, but it served its purpose. Whether because of the number of runes on the paper or the relative level, Gatekeeper froze midstep, impossibly balanced on one foot.
“No one break crowd control,” the Runescribe growled. “Cover the doors. This won’t take long.”
Tira turned her attention to the phone and shot a quick message to Sara. “I know I’m not your favorite entity at the moment, but there are people in here. Raem and his friends, plus a Runecrafter, and I think they’re going to summon a dragon. There are also people working on the surface for the same reason. I could use some help. And since I haven’t given you any reason to help me, if a Dragon turns me into a Lair, you’ll have a dragon with dinosaurs on your hands, and we can both agree that’s bad for everyone.”
Tira didn’t wait for a response. She didn’t have a lot of time, and although what she had told Pierre was true, that didn’t mean she couldn’t start the process of gathering her mobs. No need to play fair.
“The dungeon’s doing something,” Quin said. “Give us the other seals, quickly.”
Asher reached into his robes and pulled out several pieces of paper. Quin attached one to the far door while Raem put another on the passage leading to the first floor. They flared to life. Tira was about to divert her mobs to the portal, but Nymi, the Druid, pointed in that direction before Tira could activate it. Another seal was placed on the portal, shutting it down.
“How long will those last?” Zurlok asked. He was a Saint, a Mastery for Clerics that did far more melee damage while still healing.
“Long enough,” Asher said. “I’m going to set these runes to go off. We’ll have enough time to get back through the portal.”
“What does that accomplish?”
Tira pulled up the countdown to Refinael breaking free. An hour and half.
The group had put down the chests and arranged them into two groups of four. The Runecrafter was working on each chest, adding new runes. Tira watched in fascination, and read it out loud to Pierre.
Pierre frowned. “I...don’t understand the purpose of that. They could just trigger the iron to dissolve if they wanted to. The natural mana emissions would still trigger a dragon summoning. Why the need for a rapid collapse? And if only the inner walls are dissolved...it’s going to crush the contents together. But I don’t know why.”
Myn shook her head. Tira was about to turn her attention away from the wisp when Myn found her voice. “No...not that.”
“It’s been theorized that the exact properties of a dragon are not just a function of the exact metals and gems used to summon it, but also by the density of mana emissions. That density is limited by how close metal can get to other metal. But…he’s using so many of those ‘Excessive’ runes. With that many, he could trigger a critical collapse.”
“A theoretical type of dragon caused by unnatural densities of mana charged precious metals. Hypermagic dragons. Supercharged by the forces involved, far more powerful than a dragon of its tier.”
Myn’s eyes were wide. “If you could disrupt the casting somehow before they activate it…”
