Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 233, 1/2

Chapter 233, 1/2

Under a brilliant blue sky, Erick gazed down upon the City Restored.

Erick could kinda see the resemblance to the [Witness] memory that he had seen back on floor one. The place looked a lot nicer without all the flooding.

There was a playhouse over there, while in the other direction lay Ramblewood Arcanaeum and University. In the distance sat the massive castle of the king or whoever, while the noble houses grew on hills over there like mushrooms separate from the rest of the city. Between all of that lay a whole lot of rather normal-looking cityscapes. To the right, maybe two streets away, sat the guard tower and guardhouse where Erick had first [Witness]ed Ashes’s life…

Ashes’s memories still lurked in Erick’s mind, and from those memories Erick saw tens of touchpoints here and there across the land, and his heart thumped with some unknown feeling; a nostalgia for something that he had never known.

He also saw where the city was different from the memory—

Kinder said, “I’d love for you to have as many moments like this as you need, but that’s been about 3 minutes of city-gazing so far, and it looks to be a lot more. Shall we move on, and then you come back to this later? I wish to ensure you are acquainted with the city before I move on.”

Erick blinked a little as he broke away from his sightseeing. “… Right. Right.” His heart thumped. And then he looked to the tower that they had come out of. It was a white spire with no interior, and with a staircase spiraling down around the outside; a 200 meter length of stone extending up from the city below and not much more. There was a divot in the stone top of the tower where Erick and Kinder had walked through, roughly in the size and shape of a portal, but there was no portal there anymore. Erick looked to the side, where that staircase started. “Not even an elevator?”

Kinder grinned. “I am sure you are used to flying, but we do things simple here.” He started down the stairs, saying, “It’s a nice walk to the check-in zone, but it is a walk.”

Erick followed at Kinder’s side. The staircase was 3 meters wide, and easily allowed for Erick to walk beside the dungeon master. “Is that building below us not a check-in area?”

“Nope. That’s just a guardhouse, though we don’t have much use for those in Utopia. No real crime, you understand. Every delver who makes it this deep has to go through certain trials to make it down here, to prove their character, and those who already live here aren’t prone to that sort of thing. But if you desire it...” Kinder asked, “Do you wish to be a guard?”

“Ah? No. I’m… Not looking to move down here.”

Kinder nodded. “Not everyone does. Emergency exits are always available, but most people come and go from the towers. Before you leave, let us get you through some paperwork, and get you your house and storage. And then you can leave. To come back to this floor all you have to do is enter the dungeon up top, and come inside like you normally do. When you get to the portals in the hills, you’ll automatically come down to this floor, and then you can continue on, whatever you want.”

“I won’t be shunted to the second floor? Or the third floor?”

“Not anymore.” Kinder said, “Now if you come in with someone else, you’ll have to escort them through the other floors before you’re allowed to return here with them. We try not to let any of the general public circumvent the floors… For various reasons.”

“To make sure they align politically with Utopia?”

Kinder rolled his eyes. “Random shits from Greensoil always bring their problems in with them, and we dislike that. If you want to say that it’s ‘political’ to desire a nice homeland, then sure. It’s political.”

Erick smirked. They had yet to get more than halfway to the floor below. “How did you even get orcols and incani and dragonkin here? Did they come in from Greensoil? From Greendale? That can’t have been easy for them.”

“Ahhh… Well that’s something of an open secret, but… I suppose you’ll find out soon enough.” Kinder said, “It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes when a delver from another dungeon needs an emergency exit, and they give a prayer to Atunir, they sometimes end up here. Every individual’s story is different. Some turn corners in a dead city and end up stepping out onto the streets of Utopia. Sometimes they come in from the fields. What’s actually problematic with them is that they want to leave and they want to bring others here, and that’s often troublesome, since we only have the one exit up top, by Greendale. We still help them leave and sometimes we even help them get back, of course, but it’s… That’s hard to do with Greendale watching.”

Erick put 1 and 1 and then a bunch of other numbers together, and offered, “I can ask Erick if you want access to the Gate Network for the transportation of delvers to and from the Glittering Depths.”

Kinder flinched hard. He rapidly tried to recollect himself, and he was mostly successful. “Uh… Perhaps… We don’t want to…” His voice trailed off.

Erick gave him several seconds to collect his thoughts, but when he had no more thoughts to give, Erick offered him an out, “You don’t want to involve the Wizard, but you do want to ask for help, and you’re not sure how.”

Kinder lied, “Correct.”

“… So I was wrong, and that was a lie, but that’s too deep for me to understand right now. I won’t involve him with this at all, and you can wait and tell me what sort of help you want from a Benevolence dragon, when you’re ready.”

“… Sure.”

Kinder fell silent, and Erick respected that silence, as the two of them continued down the staircase.

They stepped off of the tower, directly onto a road made of white crystal. A guardhouse stood beside the tower, where three different guards, all human, had been preparing for Kinder and Erick’s arrival by stepping lively to the road, with their hands on the hilts of their rods, and their faces set sternly. They looked ready to throw down, or to turtle up if the situation required, which seemed like an odd response from guards from a place called ‘Utopia’. All of them gave Erick’s own rod a glance. Except for the knotwork metal inscriptions, Erick’s rod looked exactly the same as their own, and they didn’t like that.

But Kinder waved them off, and all of the guards relaxed. And they truly did relax, with the lead man smiling a little as he backed away, and one woman resuming her talk with the other woman about some party that was going to be happening later tonight. The guards easily returned to their non-duties, as Erick and Kinder walked down the white crystal road.

Erick was about to ask what they were scared about—

Kinder said, “The tower we came down is the tower to the second floor, and no one normally comes down that way, except for in emergencies, which usually involve one floor invading another. That’s why it’s a walk to the check-in zone; there is no proper check-in site here.”

“… That wasn’t quite going to be my question, but that does answer some questions about the nature of the towers around here…” Floors could invade other floors? He knew that such a thing was possible, but he didn’t think such a thing could happen in a Grand Dungeon. That seemed… Not ideal. Erick moved on. “There’s more than 5, though?” Erick counted the skyline, and recalled what he had seen as they spiraled the tower to floor 2, on their way down here to the city. “There’s like 9 of them? But there’s only 5 floors and the endless delve, right?”

“We’ve got five towers for the five floors, three for various other places, and one for the entrance floor. Only three towers see constant use; the administrative tower near the castle, the floor 5 exit/entrance, and the tower that leads to the endless delve. You’ll be coming and going from the fifth floor tower next time.”

Erick nodded, then asked, “Why did those guards look at my rod like that? Like they hated it.”

“You are following the guard questline, so there is some professional judgment there. If you wish to move here and become a guard you’re welcome to it. Aside from that, both your staff and rod are rather damned bright to anyone with a proper mana sense, and the guards have great mana senses.” Kinder said, “The development of a mana sense is necessary to truly make it past floor 3 and beyond, and most of the guards here have voluntarily chosen to go through the dungeon.”

Erick was a bit surprised by that. “The residents go through the dungeon, too?”

“Yes. Most opt to go through a special course to teach them how to use magic on Veird, though; not through the 5 levels you went through, to learn how to use Atunir’s Second Script.”

“… I think I would like to see your Veird-acclimation course. How does such a thing even work here, since you have a Second Script?”

“A lot of things taught here translate well to Veird; aura control, mana altering in various ways, mana sense. As soon as you understand those three, you can do almost anything.”

This part of Utopia was a rather nice sort of town. Not rich. Not poor; Erick doubted that any part of Utopia was ‘poor’ at all. Just… Nice. Trees to the sides of the road. People walking this way and that. Mothers guiding children to wherever. Men drinking at a local bar. Houses with closets filled with clothes and pantries stocked to bursting. Extra rooms. People cooked in their own homes on nice stoves, or worked on hobbies or crafts or other work. A lot of little shops were here and there, with people selling stuff, or gathering into friend groups for whatever sorts of activities... Big bedrooms.

… Lotta pregnant women and kids.

… Lotta people fucking in the buildings all around.

Great pastime; that.

Atunir was the Goddess of Field and Fertility, after all. Made sense that there were a lot of children and pregnant women.

Nice to see schools for the children, too. There was a kindergarten over there that was packed with kids. Looked like a class at the nearby schoolhouse was teaching a class of 20 teenagers about Veird and the Script, too. The people here had plans to move on to the real world, it seemed...

Erick asked, “How often do the people here move onto Veird?”

“Quite often. The whole story of the Sundering is absolutely terrifying, and to find out we’re all remnants of a dead cosmology spurs quite a few people into trying to find out what is real.” Kinder said, “Most people come back to Utopia, though. Veird is a land of terror.”

Erick barked a laugh at that.

Kinder frowned a little.

Erick chided the man. “Oh come on! Veird is a thousand times better than it used to be!”

Kinder’s face relaxed, and then he nodded a little. “From what I have heard, it makes sense that you would say that.” He looked to Erick, adding, “But your world is still terrifying, Ashes.”

“… It’s a lot better than it used to be. Almost all the unnatural death is contained to the dungeons and all real disasters are reverted by the Wizard, or solved as best he can.”

Kinder didn’t seem to want to talk about that too much because he changed subjects, saying, “We use the gold standard here, and the markets are like any normal market you would find anywhere on Veird. We have no taxes, because dungeon magic does a lot. Delver housing is free, and so is healthcare and practically every essential you can think of, except food. You gotta pay for food. Services of all kinds are a normal expense, from eating at a restaurant to sending letters to the world outside, but schools are free, and also mandatory for all children…”

Kinder rambled off a bunch of normal information, all of which was rather progressive, in Erick’s opinion, as the two of them walked down the white crystal road. Occasionally, someone would greet Kinder and Kinder would nod back, and speak a bit in passing about normal things, like the estimated timeframe for new classrooms, or when was this or that happening. Erick got the distinct impression that Kinder was like a mayor, which was probably close to the truth. Erick also got the impression that Kinder was used to giving tours, like he was doing for Erick, for he tended to go back and forth between topics, depending on the sights around them as they walked the streets.

Maybe he had done this before, though. Not too often, for Erick heard him repeating a few things. Maybe he didn’t expect Erick to fully understand him? Highly likely.

Eventually they reached a gold street, which seemed to be made of some metal other than gold? Erick wasn’t sure about that. It was certainly harder than gold, for when Erick tapped the road with his staff the road did not deform.

Kinder gestured ahead. “And this is the main road through Utopia. Up ahead is the delver’s courtyard, or square, depending on who you’re talking to. There’s a bunch of various shops of all types in that place, and looking up, you can see the fifth floor tower, if you couldn’t already tell by all the people headed up and down at the moment. Most entering and exiting by delvers is done through there, unless you have an emergency, in which case a portal to the surface can be provided by the dungeon.” Kinder rambled off, “Abuse of the emergency exit function does lead to denial of this function, but as long as you don’t use it more than once a week you’ll be fine.”

Erick glanced upward, and yes, he saw the people stepping up and down the spiraling staircase of the tower. At the top of the tower lay a black portal, open to elsewhere at the dungeon. At the bottom lay a fully-open town square, and though Erick couldn’t see much of that town square from this location, he did see a few guard towers poking up from the sides of that space.

He also saw his first other delver; a woman in a cloak of silver chain with a black metamond clasp holding the cloak together. Silver weaponry and accessories held at her sides and on her hands. Those silver items marked her as a delver of some sort—

The woman gave Erick and Kinder a quick glance, recognized Kinder, and then decided she didn’t care about either of them in almost the same motion. She kept walking. Erick only really noticed her because, without using his eyes, she would have gone completely unnoticed.

There was no mana sensing the woman, or her immediate surroundings.

Now that Erick was drawing closer to the large open space ahead, he realized he couldn’t sense a lot of the people walking around, though he could still see them. Almost everyone here had some sort of anti-sensory magic, like Erick’s own.

Kinder led the way forward, into a vast open space with the tower rising in the center, a golden floor all around, and shops of all kinds lining the town square. It reminded Erick of the adventurer’s district of Spur, or any other major city; crowded, with all races, and with everyone wearing a bunch of mismatching gear. For a moment, Erick felt self-conscious with his staff in one hand and all the rest of him looking like one of the normal guards of Utopia.

The noise of hundreds of small conversations filled the air, spilling out of taverns or out from groups laughing as they made their way to the tower, or angry shouts from groups coming away from the tower, obviously angry about what had happened in their delve. A lot of people coming down from the tower carried big bags with them. Some of those large bags were protected from mana sense by an extension of the carrier’s anti-sensory field, but some of those bags were exposed to the world and so Erick saw metamonds and spell tomes and various items made of metiron.

Some shops to the sides of the city square had big signs in front of them, showing off that they were vendors and buyers for metiron, metamonds, and everything else that people could find in the dungeons.

A casual glance at their pricing structure, and at the pricing structure of all the other shops, from taverns to general stores, let Erick know that the economy in here was roughly comparable to the economy out on Veird. Sure, some things were grossly different in pricing structure, with Bolt wands being dirt cheap and Health metamonds being worth 1,500 gold for each metamond, but such was to be expected when the way magic worked was different…

… Erick realized he had no money at all right now.

Well that shouldn’t be too hard to fix. All Erick needed to do was sell some Wands of [Rejuvenation]. Those looked like they were going for...

“What the fuck,” Erick whispered, as he slowed down to make sure that what he was seeing was what he was seeing.

Kinder paused his talk and raised an eyebrow at Erick. “Problem?”

“Are Wands of [Rejuvenation] really 250,000 gold? That’s as much as a Rod of [Greater Treat Wounds] out on Veird!”

Kinder chuckled. “Ah? They actually have one on sale over there?” He looked toward the shop Erick was mana sensing. “I’m surprised it’s not gone already.”

… Erick looked closer. “Oh. Well. I guess I assumed that the ‘ask to purchase one’ and the statue meant they actually had one.”

Kinder nodded. “They probably don’t; you have to get on a waiting list.” Kinder added, “Flood the market with those if you desire; it’ll make the delvers able to push further and further into the depths, and anyone working on a floor beyond 80 is pulling in 20k gold per day, unless they suffer catastrophic loss of items, which does happen sometimes. Money is not usually the problem when it comes to getting certain items.” He added, “I would ask you not to proliferate your bolter if you could, but if other people see you using it and try to make their own, then that will probably be good for overall learning.”

The weaker version of this staff would be easy enough for Erick to replicate, but whatever caused his Staff of Absolution to turn into a Staff of Divine Absolution was not easily repeatable. Erick didn’t really want to proliferate weaponry, anyway, so even before the impossibility of Kinder’s ask, Erick was already onboard with the general sentiment.

Kinder led Erick toward the delver center, and more and more people actually started looking Erick’s way, giving him more than a passing once-over. Eyes lingered on Erick’s cerulean-gemmed bracelet, and were drawn to the massive metamond glowing white and iridescent near the top of his staff.

The delver center was a rather normal guildhouse-like place, with tables everywhere for people to drink beer and eat and play card games, while massive leaderboards hung to the side of the room, and bank-teller-like stations serviced lines of delvers. It was a busy location, made all the more busy by heated discussions between people at this or that table, but primarily by a party happening in one large section of the bar, celebrating the downfall of the ‘Ice Queen’ and to the rise of ‘whoever the fuck Ashes is!’—

And then some guys saw Kinder and cheered louder. Kinder nodded, and his step changed as a surety overtook him.

Ah.

Erick saw where this was going.

He decided to let whatever happened, happen. He did not, however, expect for Kinder to kick things off exactly as he did.

Kinder stepped right into the center of the room and smiled wide as he clapped his hands, filling the entire hall with a magically-empowered thundercrack, and then with silence. All eyes turned their way, and Kinder put a hand on Erick’s shoulder, allowing sound to return to the guildhall as he announced, “Greetings, everyone! This is Ashes Woodfield, fresh off the second floor, because he was going to start demolishing the other floors and I couldn’t allow that. I’m getting him set up with housing and tomorrow you may approach him for company recruitment, or whatever.” He glared at absolutely everyone in the guildhall, repeating himself, “Tomorrow.”

Erick put on a smile and nodded at everyone in the guildhall.

Events proceeded rapidly from there.

Quite a few cheers; loud and boisterous, mostly from those who had sigaldry of iron upon them, and who Erick rapidly understood as the Iron Bandits. A few shouts from angry people, who were angry at the Iron Bandits, yelling that they would not poach this one from them. Many people gazed upon Erick’s various bits and bobs of silver, and at his staff, trying to discern which one of his tools was the strongest; almost everyone bet on the staff, though a few people looked at his rod and his breastplate, and gauged them a fair toss up. Some spoke of how the breastplate looked plain on the outside, but might have some really nice metamonds on the inside.

It did have some nice metamonds on the inside, actually, but Erick’s [Blessing of the Unseen] hid all that from view.

Almost everyone wondered what the fuck Erick had done to get a ‘pass’ for floors 3, 4, and 5.

But no one actually approached Erick, as Kinder took Erick to one of the desks and rapidly got him through a quick questioning from the teller. Kinder added a few words of his own when the topic of housing came up, and soon, Erick had gained a special metamond key with a prismatic gem embedded in the handle.

The teller bowed, saying, “Welcome to Utopia, Ashes Woodfield.” She rose, adding, “We hope you enjoy your stay.”

Kinder said, “Now let’s get you to your house, your storage, and then you can go about your business.”

Erick smiled a little. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Kinder led the way out of the delver guildhouse and Erick followed. Once they were beyond the doors, that’s when the crowds inside really started appearing and arguing with each other. Erick didn’t catch much of what they were saying, and he didn’t care to, for a lot of it seemed like mercenary company politics. He did get the distinct sense that they were figuring out some sort of order to approach Erick with offers to join their companies.

Erick would probably choose whichever one gave him the largest head start here in Utopia, which didn’t require him to do too much for them in return.

Kinder guided Erick to the end of the tower square, on the opposite end of where they had come in, and said quietly to Erick, “Offensive spellwork is heavily frowned upon inside the city, but defensive and utility spellwork is allowed. So we’re being tracked right now. If these circumstances were different, I would not be doing any of this how I am doing this, nor would I be offering this next offer: do you want to portal to your house? Or do you want to walk there, and likely track tens of curious people to your door?”

A few ‘empty’ spaces had cropped up in the manasphere within sight of Erick, but not anywhere too close, after Kinder’s announcement. Erick couldn’t see any people in those spaces, either, so Erick didn’t need Kinder to tell him that there were invisible people watching him, but it was still a nice gesture from the dungeon master.

Erick’s answer was easy. “I’ll take the portal.”

“Excellent!” Kinder waved a hand and a black [Gate] opened. He walked right on through.

Erick followed.

The [Gate] shut behind them, taking all the loud talking and the sound of crashing furniture with it.

The sounds of the world were a gentle thing once again, filled mostly with small songbirds and the rustling of wheat. For kilometers in every direction, all Erick could see was golden fields, while his new house lay directly in front of him.

It was a simple thing, and a bit run down.

A shingle roof, though a few were broken. Solid stone walls. A broken window out front and dusty furniture inside. All of this sat upon a hundred square meter plot of weedy land. The whole property was separated from the golden ocean beyond by a low, rock wall that was more made of rocks than proper brick or stone. It had a well, and some indoor plumbing, and a kitchen; though none of it was fancy, it was all there. The actual amenities were actually rather high-tech compared to the rest of the house.

“It even has a mage tower,” Erick said, smiling.

The tower was a squat thing at only two stories tall, but it was wide, and it had a library space at the top. The bottom looked large enough to house everything he’d need to make a functioning workshop.

“Not much of a tower, I’m afraid.” Kinder said, “You can change all that once you move in and designate it as yours. Once it is yours, then it will become truly yours, and you won’t be able to shift locations, because all your storage will end up here. No one will be able to steal from your house, either, so you don’t have to worry about that.” Kinder said, “As a suggestion, if you want to make friends, then you can hire out the reconstruction through payments of metirons or metamonds. Or you can be a hermit and do it all yourself.”

“Can I adjust the mana level here? What about mana chambers?”

“There are a whole host of privacy options once you actually stick that key in the door and claim it as yours. The mana saturation level is one of them. But if you want a mana chamber... And probably a furnace, too?”

Erick nodded.

“Either work with a mercenary or delver company on that stuff; all the reputable ones have all those crafting areas already. Or, you can hire one of the Marii’s to get that stuff set up here. Or, if you still want your own space with furnaces and a mana chamber, then you must figure that out yourself; probably through a company.” Kinder added, “No one but dungeon masters like me will be able to access your land without your approval, but once you give your approval, then you don’t need to give it again. You must physically say ‘I rescind your approval to be on my land so-and-so’ if you want the dungeon to bar someone who they have unbarred from your land; everyone starts off barred from everyone else’s lands.”

Erick walked toward the door, saying, “This is so much different than on Veird.”

Kinder nodded. “Yes. Veird is horrifying.”

“Ohhhh. It’s not that bad.” Erick smiled as he placed the key in the door. “Every assassin is just another person waiting to be shown the error of their ways.” He turned the key.

The key broke, turning to ash in his hands, as a flash of light raced across his hand, and across every surface of the nearby world.

A chime echoed.

Welcome to your new home, Ashes Woodfield!

Preliminary security established. Anti-sense active.

House found in disrepair.

Beginning repairs.

The yard cleaned up; weeds vanishing in a flash. The broken windows repaired, as though they were never broken. The cracks in the walls sealed over as an apple tree grew in the front yard, and a gate popped into being in the rock wall, as the rock wall turned into something more respectable. The golden wheat ocean parted at the gate, revealing a road that led off into the distance; the way back to town.

A thousand little problems fixed themselves, and the front door swung open on its own accord.

Dust swept away, and lights flickered on inside, giving a warm glow to the polished wood floor and walls.

Repairs finished.

Activating basic furniture and storage.

A nice, large bed appeared in the main bedroom, while tables and chairs placed themselves in the kitchen, dining room, and elsewhere. It was all rather rustic furniture, made of thick wood, but it looked like it would last forever.

“Ah,” Erick said, as he stepped inside, and watched a series of large chests appear in what looked almost like a trophy room. “You guys really do want people to stay here, don’t you?”

Storage implemented.

Banking implemented.

Your house is your own!

Welcome to the Glittering Depths, Ashes Woodfield!

Kinder stayed outside, saying, “Of course we do.”

Erick looked back at the man, and how he had remained outside the house. “Come on in, then.”

Kinder grinned, then stepped inside the house. “I know your house is likely not what a dragon is used to but you can make that happen on your own. If you want a castle, or a compound, or whatever, you have plenty of room and lots of opportunity to make that happen. You’re ten minutes away from town by [Hidden Wind]stepping, but there’s still twenty kilometers between here and Utopia, so you’ve got lots of space. In fifty years, that might not be true anymore.” He added, “Or at least that’s what we hope.”

Erick nodded. “There’s a lot there, in that little statement. A lot of hope, Kinder. Would you like to talk about any problems you might need solving? Or save that for later?”

“I’ve heard that Benevolence dragons go around solving problems in the best way they can for everyone, just like their king. Is that what I have to expect from you?”

“If I see a problem I will solve it as peacefully as I can, but I will solve it.”

Kinder nodded. “Perhaps you should look into joining the guard, and having some legality behind your vigilantism.” He stepped backward, saying, “But for now! Welcome to your home in the Glittering Depths. Good day, Ashes Woodfield.”

“Good day, Kinder.”

Kinder gave a little bow, and then stepped backward, into darkness, and out of sight.

Erick took a good five minutes to walk around the house, to visually see everything he wanted to see and not just mana sense everything. But mostly, he was preparing himself to try out ‘storage’. Kinder had spoken of it a few times so Erick knew what to expect, but he was kinda wary of the whole thing.

Because, if what Kinder was saying was true, then Erick was kinda jealous.

Erick had long ago spoken to Jane and other people about some sort of ‘storage’ option, using his Gate Network, where people could put items into a personalized [Gate] that would drop those items off at a physical location in some bank somewhere. Retrieving those options would then be as easy as sticking one’s hand through a hole in the world, and pulling out those items.

Erick had done a bit of experimentation to see if the idea of a ‘personal mobile vault’ was even possible. He had rapidly concluded that to do such a thing would be way, way beyond his desired scope of influence. It would be one thing to make an object that allowed people to access their own storage area; that would be fine. But all Erick could really do was make a [Gate] node and then attach some various runic webs and powers to that node, which would do so much more than just be portable storage. It would allow the user basic access to their own private gate network. And that just wasn’t going to happen; not through Erick, anyway.

But according to Kinder, the Glittering Depths had worked out a private storage system.

Tentatively, Erick held out his Wand of [Drinking Food], and said, “Storage, Wand of [Drinking Food].”

The wand vanished from his hand in a flicker of blackness, and then reappeared in the first storage chest, a few meters away from Erick. It just… Blipped right from his hand, into the chest. Just like that! It was obviously dungeon magic, and… It had worked.

Erick tried to retrieve the item with the same command, “Storage, Wand of [Drinking Food].”

Nothing happened.

“Retrieve from storage, Wand of [Drinking Food].”

A small countdown appeared in the air, counting down from 100 seconds.

“Cancel Wand of [Drinking Food] retrieval.”

The countdown vanished.

Erick manually retrieved his wand from the chest, held it out as he stood above the open chest, and said, “Storage, Wand of [Drinking Food].”

The wand vanished in a flicker of darkness again, to reappear right where the dungeon had placed it the last time.

“Storage, all gear.”

All of Erick’s gear and clothes vanished, leaving him completely nude in the middle of his house. His pants and shirt were folded and laid on top of each other in the second chest, with his socks tucked into one another, while his boots sat outside the chest. All his metamond stuff appeared in the first chest, but his staff and rod were too big to fit, so they ended up propped against the closest wall.

And Erick laughed.

“Retrieve all gear!”

A countdown began, 1000 seconds.

… Why the increased timer? Erick guessed it was due to the number of items retrieved. He didn’t care to wait that long, though, so he went to the storage and manually put his stuff back on, while also telling the system to stop the retrieval. The countdown vanished.

“Storage, all metirons.”

This time, only his metirons vanished and instantly reappeared in the first chest, as they had the first time Erick had stored all his items.

“Holy shit,” Erick said, mumbling to himself. “You figured out the personal mobile vault.”

With surprise on his face and elation in his heart, Erick put all his stuff back on, and smiled as he stepped outside of the house.

The Glittering Depths had some nice magic to it. This was a nice little location.

He’d be back later.

It was time to go talk to an expert on dungeon craft.

Erick shut the door behind him, and went to the gate, and then onto the road leading away from the house. With a flick of intent at his bracelet of [Hidden Wind], Erick started windstepping back to town. Within minutes, he had passed from his little road to a main road, which split in two directions, and which had a sign by the road pointing toward his house, reading ‘Ashes Woodfield’ in well-written Ecks. It was easy to see which way was toward town; all the buildings were over in that direction.

Erick would have gone racing down that way, but the main road was different from his side road. It had four lanes, each four meters across, with two of the lanes with arrows headed inward, and two with arrows headed outward. The outer tracks only had singular arrows, while the two inner tracks had double arrows.

It was an odd sort of system, not much in use in Greensoil, where most people were very low level, but some places did have road systems like this; where there were tracks for some people who were very fast, and others who were slow.

The Gate District at Candlepoint had a system almost like this one, but with moving wardlight images instead of static arrows on the ground, and with a whole lot more regulation.

Erick got onto the fast track headed inward and began moving fast, smiling a bit as he watched others zip past the other way, and dodging fast when he overtook people moving slower than him.

As Erick windstepped toward Utopia, he read hundreds of little signs on side roads. Some of those side roads were labeled as ‘Company Roads’, which was easy enough to understand. The Iron Bandits had their own road about 3 minutes from the edge of Utopia. The Crystal Raiders, of Veracity Speed, whom Erick had met on the top floor leading new people into the dungeon, had their road one minute out of town.

A warning sign right before the big buildings asked for people not to race into the city, and so, Erick slowed down, and began walking normally, though still quite fast. Soon Erick was back in the delver square, passing by people who glanced his way as he raced toward the tower, under his own physical power.

He raced up the wide staircase to the dungeon exit, and soon, he was back at the entrance zone of the Glittering Depths, where Ophiel waited by the entrance, fluffy, invisible, and intangible. Erick went right to the little guy, and then rushed outside, all of his gear turning back into ironcrystal and colored gems as he stepped outside the dungeon, recasting his Script-based magics.

He had almost expected the staff to stay real, but nope! That thing transformed back into crystal, too.

Awfully damned glowing crystal, which was different from all the rest of his dull crystal and dull gems. The thing was a ‘greater artifact’…

Erick suspected that it was a true artifact of the Old Cosmology. Or maybe a clear memory of one. An echo, almost. He could probably paradox the staff into full existence if he wanted, and if he actually tried for it, but for now, he was not going to do that.

For now, he said hello to Ophiel, spoke with Yggdrasil some, and with Poi and others, as he went home and started going through his library, looking for every book on the subject of mana crystals that he could find. There wasn’t a whole lot. Most of what he had was based on historical conjecture of things that happened in the Old Cosmology, or magic that was localized to Fairie and Ar’Cosmos. Erick had read it all once before, because there wasn’t a whole lot written on the subject of mana crystals, but in light of the new opportunities afforded by the Glittering Depths Erick wanted to have his ducks in a row before he went around asking others about the subject of Old Cosmology magic, and the myriad uses of mana crystals.

- - - -

Erick’s first option had been to go to Storm’s Edge; directly to Quilatalap, to ask him about everything that had happened in the Glittering Depths, about Old Cosmology mana crystals, and ancient artifacts of the past. But Quilatalap had been busy, and Erick didn’t want to push through into the dungeon when the undead servants outside had politely asked him not to come in yet, explaining that it wasn’t ready.

So Erick went to Oceanside instead, and limited his conversation to mana crystals and artifacts of the Old Cosmology.

And then Kirginatharp went and guessed practically everything that Erick did not tell him.

Erick rolled his eyes as he said, “I didn’t want to directly speak of the Glittering Depths, but I suppose I can.”

Kirginatharp laughed as he poured himself some more wine. The aged Headmaster of Oceanside had invited Erick to a sunset dinner at one of the prestigious restaurants in one of the taller towers at the arcanaeum. The sky had turned to burnished gold and lovely pink outside of the restaurant's wide windows, as servers brought out course after course of appetizer and main dish, gradually filling up the table between Erick and Kirginatharp. It was rather fantastic food, and the conversation would likely prove to be one of those long winded things, so Erick was thankful for Kirginatharp suggesting they take dinner together.

In a few hours, the sky would be filled with sparklers and [Decorative Fireball]s, too, in celebration of the Triumph of Light, so that was always nice to see. Oceanside did the end of year festival rather well.

Kirginatharp smiled as he lifted his cup. “Come now, Erick! I might not have as many claws in as many hoards as you do these days, but I still know most of what happens in this world, and of course I would have heard of Atunir’s Second Script dungeon.” With a smirk, but a little more serious, Kirginatharp said, “Most of what I have heard is from people who have failed to get past the second floor, so I would greatly love to hear the whole story from the top again, with some specifics this time.”

“They seem rather private down there, and I plan to have some magical experiments down there, so I don’t want everyone to know who I am down there.”

“Yes yes, fine fine.” Kirginatharp chuckled. “I won’t tell the world that you’re Ashes Woodfield—”

“I didn’t even tell you my name down there!” Erick laughed. “Bah!”

Kirginatharp laughed again. “I also won’t tell everyone that you’re looking to release Yggdrasil from his seal earlier, either.”

“If I thought you would, then I never would have told you that, either.” Erick gave Kirginatharp a Look. “And we discussed this already. Why bring it up?”

“We haven’t spoken about it in person, and it’s serious, Erick.”

“I plan on Yggdrasil’s release being as minimally disruptive as I can.”

“Why are you even entertaining that idea? Is Yggdrasil truly this irresponsible?”

Erick leveled a disapproving Look at the old dragon, saying, “I know this is an important topic, but to call Yggdrasil ‘irresponsible’ is too much. My son is perhaps the furthest thing from irresponsible. … And the boy has a girlfriend, I think, and he wants to be separate from me. There is no ‘great answer’ besides that one, and it is enough for me. Let it be enough for you, too.”

Kirginatharp seemed vaguely admonished, as he said, “Children must grow.”

Erick nodded, and then he began to speak of the Glittering Depths, from the top.

Half an hour later, Erick finished. He even retrieved the Staff of Divine Absolution from home, to show Kirginatharp. Kirginatharp seemed vaguely interested in it, but not really.

Kirginatharp had eaten his way through several courses and Erick had gone through two, and now, Erick waited a little, for Kirginatharp to digest the words Erick had given him.

Kirginatharp set down his fork and knife, and said, “I haven’t expended much attention towards the phantoms my students have sometimes seen when inside the Dark of the dungeons… But perhaps I should. I will have to get back to you on that.

“As for the business of Atunir’s specific memories…” Kirginatharp paused in deep thought, then he said, “I don’t know the specifics, for those are lost to time and the Sundering. But I do know that some person linked to Atunir invented the expanded bolter around 250,000 years ago, though that date and that whole story is apocryphal. That story goes, that some rebels threw off their oppressors with highly-refined bolters, and Atunir’s church even has a prayer: ‘Out of the ashes, comes new life, under the blessings of Atunir’. I don’t believe there is a link, but there might be.” Kirginatharp added, “You know, when we were making the Script, the [Force Bolt] spell saw a great deal of lessening. And mostly due to the expanded bolter. Bolters, unchained, are very dangerous weapons. What we did, exactly, was splitting that power. We took the [Grand Decaying Bloody Bolts]-types of Bolts, like the one you put into that staff and made sure that no one could simply make that spell all on their own. To make such a spell under the Script, one has to first make all the pieces of the puzzle, and then put them together in a coherent way, as you have done.

“In the Old Cosmology, all you’d have to do was mush together all those dangerous Elements along with the Intent to touch the enemy with that Bolt, and it would work. You could even throw in some Elemental Destruction, too, and it all worked fine for a Bolt! Truly terrible magic, that.

“Breaking up the Bolt was one of the better things we did with the Script.”

For a moment, Erick was stunned.

And then he asked, “What else happened to make magic what it is today?”

Kirginatharp said, “A lot.”

Erick glanced to his bolter, and to the ‘mana crystal’ at the top. Then he asked, “How about we just stick to mana crystals, then. They’re not allowed under the Script for some reason?”

Kirginatharp nodded. “They’re probably not working correctly inside the Glittering Depths if the items that come out of there end up looking like that crystal stick of yours.” He added, “Mana crystals don’t work exactly how they should work inside Fairie, either, but that is mostly a function of Fairie being alive itself, and able to decide how it wishes to function, and less an actual natural property of that distant land, or of mana crystal. Nothing in Fairie is ‘natural’ in any way whatsoever.

“But to answer the question:

“In the Old Cosmology, one of the main ways that people used mana crystals was as purifiers of mana, in order to accrete specific mana types into their cores; the mana altering thing you know of.

“The second way people used mana crystals was as reservoirs of spellwork. Much like what the Glittering Depths has done, but different. The ‘iron’ there serves as a core, while the ‘diamonds’ serve as spellwork. Used to be you didn’t need anything except the ‘diamond’. A properly made ‘diamond’, when located in a properly mana rich environment, could eternally create a spell… Which is, again, sort of like what the Glittering Depths is already doing with their magic that automatically recasts itself.” Kirginatharp said, “You can’t really do that under the Script because of the Propagation Ban… You could probably do it with some soul surgery and some bio-magic to twitch a ‘go’ signal to that part of your soul when the biological part of you notices that the magic is fading. Can’t really do that directly without mana crystals, which generally do a bunch of magic on their own, under the right circumstances.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “Oh. Automatically cast spells are normal?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“That’s different.”

“Quite different.”

“Mana crystals can utilize external mana?”

Kirginatharp inhaled a little, unsure how to condense the myriad of ways in which Erick was wrong down to something small. “… Well. Yes, mana crystals can utilize external mana, but only when under certain circumstances. One of those main circumstances is that there needs to be a specific solidness in the mana, or a specific flow of specific varieties, in order for the mana crystal to form and function. Souls usually provide this shift in manasphere.

“Cores and rads are sort of like living mana crystals, for instance…

“But not quite. That difference is mostly academic, and mostly categorized by the presence or absence of a soul.

“Elemental Essences are probably the closest thing Veird has to true mana crystals, for Essence is the physical manifestation of an element without any direction to them. If you add direction to them, then they flow into the soul, or into the rad or core, and grant that sort of base power to the person imbibing them. Think of essences as… Supersaturated liquids, for instance.

“It takes intent, without soul, to make a true mana crystal; to make something that can act autonomously within the mana. And that is what the Script prevents, because that sort of thing can propagate rather fast. Souls still condense down crystals and make rads and become elementals all the time, though; stone elementals, air elementals, etcetera. Slimes, too.” Kirginatharp shrugged. “Anyway. Mana crystals were much too much Wizardry for Veird, so the Script prevents that, for once you have enough power and clarity of intent then you can make a mana crystal which makes reality become Reality all on its own. Propagation spreads, and in this sort of New Cosmology, that sort of propagation would kill us all. Too much Wizardry, really.”

Erick took a moment to think about all that.

“So by calling mana crystals Wizardry… You’re saying they’re not engineerable? Not scientific?”

“… Well. I’d hesitate to say that, exactly. But condensing a spell down into a crystal is much more ephemeral than writing down words on a page, or following a spell formula. It’s more like taking the very act of writing words on a page and putting that down onto a piece of paper. Any hundred people could imagine that same action a hundred different ways, and they’d all be right. Mana crystals are too arcane; they’re not proper, understandable magic.” Kirginatharp paused. “If that’s how the kids are using those words these days. Every few decades the meanings of ‘arcane’ and ‘magic’ switch, I swear.” He chuckled. “The kids in the classrooms are already talking like ‘Particle Magic’ and ‘Scientific’ are one and the same.”

Erick smirked. “Before I came to Veird, I used to think that ‘magic’ meant a lot more ‘arcane and unknowable’ than it means how you use that word. ‘Magic’ almost means ‘scientific’ to you.”

“No no. See. ‘Scientific’ means having to do with the mundane practices; no magic involved at all. I am actually quite cross with the students that conflate ‘science’ with ‘Particle Magic’,” Kirginatharp said, with mirth in his voice.

Erick grinned.

“But to get back to it: I say that mana crystals are more acts of Wizardry than proper magic, but truthfully all of that mana crystal stuff is so very outdated, and more steeped in myth than any of the magic I usually get up to. Wizards were the only ones that could truly make mana crystals, anyway, and we’ve no use for them here on Veird. They break systems of power just as much as they enhance systems of power.” Kirginatharp shrugged. “Perhaps the Old Wizards knew how mana crystals actually worked, though; all the ins and outs and sideways of them all, and in ways that would be truly repeatable and teachable. Those powerhouses were always rather secretive with their largest of powers. Perhaps there are old caches of Wizard magics lost to time or buried in the Dark, or in the deeper recesses of various churches and old places. I did manage to find some more tomes on the subject since last you attempted Full Wizard. Would you like those books?”

“Absolutely!”

Kirginatharp nodded. “Now, if this were the Old Cosmology, I would also suggest you speak to certain peoples, but we’re here, on Veird, after the Sundering, and certain peoples are still proving themselves as non-insane. So do some small experimenting on your own, before you go asking those who have true knowledge on the subject again.”

“I’ve got time. I might corner the healing market down there in the Glittering Depths while I experiment, though.”

Kirginatharp laughed loudly and happily. “Ahhh! Healing… Now there’s a large topic about yet another thing that is made near obsolete by the Script. Truly one of the great things about Veird, I think… But also, perhaps there’s too much healing?”

“Oh no. I disagree completely.” Erick said, “[Cleanse], [Mend], [Greater Treat Wounds]. They are the most wonderful parts of this world. I can’t imagine a Veird without them, and I wouldn’t want to. I must imagine that the Healing parts of the Script are rather intensive, though.”

“It’d take divine magic to make Healing Magic work as well as it does without the Script; this much is very true. But the lower levels of Healing can be replicated with a Bracelet of [Self Rejuvenation], as you have discovered.”

As Erick and Kirginatharp began the next course, fireworks began to illuminate the night sky outside, like pastel white blossoming rains, vibrant spreading glows, and exploding radiance that split the night into day. This sight was a nightly occurrence here at Oceanside during the Triumph of Light, and Kirginatharp’s amber eyes glinted as he smiled at the sight of it all.

As the first salvos of [Decorative Fireball]s began to fade, Erick asked, “Have you made a Second Script dungeon you’re happy with, yet?”

Kirginatharp’s soft smile remained as he said, “I’m up to 22 false starts… Perhaps I should try again. Remake one of the lesser ones into something stronger.”

Erick waited.

And Kirginatharp eventually began, “This notion of having spells outside of oneself, as in Atunir’s dungeon, is something I do not agree with. Power should not be able to be stolen or destroyed as easily as destroying someone’s wand or staff, or what-have-you. No. I fully agree with the current Script’s stance of imbuing power into the user in the form of spells implanted into the soul… I do like the idea of limiting power, though. It’s ten spells in the Glittering Depths? Well that is certainly an idea.”

“Buffing magic seems to be viable there, too, unlike in the Script.”

Kirginatharp shook his head, saying, “The Script does stats as a generalized boost, to level the field for everyone. There were many mana miners in the Old Cosmology that found great success in disallowing unique buffing magics, and instead giving general buffs to everyone. Veird was already like this, and so we chose to keep it that way.”

“Ah… Well okay then? I did not know that.”

“But 10 spells and some general stats might be nice.” Kirginatharp said, “The amount of mana that the Glittering Depths gives everyone, as a matter of course, is simply too much, though. 100,000 mana per hour? As base? No.”

Erick chuckled. “That is too much, I agree. This whole thing has me wondering what is a good average rate, though, especially when future lands will have a great deal more defense due to Node Networks.”

“Ahh. Yet another nuance. If a Second Script doesn’t present as the current Script presents, then will Node Networks go away? Perhaps.”

“… Oh. Well yes. That is a concern… Especially if only 10 or so spells are allowed at any one time— Well then you just have to have the spells able to be switched out, like in the Glittering Depths.”

“Hmm. Perhaps. I admit that the particular nuance of a ‘Storage’ is quite interesting. We tried to do that once, but it was a complete failure in so many different ways. Many of which you already experienced with your own foray into that arena.”

“It’d be possible for someone to make [Gate] on their own and then use that to service the storage needs of a group of people through specialized implementation of their gate space.” Erick said, “But that’s offering valuables to people who have no idea how valuable those valuables truly are. There’s a saying on Earth; ‘pearls before swine’.”

Kirginatharp chuckled a little. “ ‘Gold to monsters’ is a similar saying… And I wouldn’t want to grant wide scale easy movement to every single person in the world again, like with [Teleport]…”

Kirginatharp and Erick spoke of various things, from possible forms of a Second Script to small political happenings the world over, as they ate a nice large meal, and watched the night sky explode with color and vibrancy.

Afterward, Kirginatharp granted Erick copies of some old books, nicely wrapped in a large crate, as he said, “I might have underplayed it before, but I did manage to find quite a few new books on mana crystals, buried deep in my collection since the last time you asked of crystals. I wish you better luck this next time in becoming a Full Wizard, directlyafter Yggdrasil’s re-sealing.”

Erick chuckled. “Your mother has already made the order of events with this whole resealing very well known.” Erick smiled. “Thank you, Kirginatharp.”

“I’m not worried. It’s probably just some mental hangup that you’ll work through soon enough. I don’t believe that [Onward] story I heard at all.”

Erick’s eyes briefly went wide. And then he laughed.

Kirginatharp smiled. “I was waiting for you to bring it up all night long, Erick.”

“I just hope it’s not true. Thinking about it is disheartening.”

Kirginatharp nodded.