Comiak
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Chapter 202: Dungeon Again
🕑 Added 2022-09-12 23:04:00 +0000 UTC-
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AN: Got some editing suggestions? Suggest it on the Google docs here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-zjAJzSdLzPj9zjqlK2XEPEoz1UJWg6QgmMQw50xbyw/edit?usp=sharing
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After spending time with my family, I returned home to Kayafe.
“Thank you” I bow to Kayafe with gratitude for giving me the push I needed.
“It’s the least I could do for freeing and helping me,” Kayafe gives me a warm smile.
“First, before we get into anything serious, I want you to get an idea of just what you are capable of now.”
I slowly nod, wondering what Kayafe wants me to do.
“First, with your skill, reach out as far as you can. Use your skill to encompass as much area as possible, then seize control of all the mana you can. Pacify it. Make it calm, as if to deny the casting of any spells.”
I do as Kayafe instructed, understanding that she wants me to learn my limits in a relatively safe environment.
I reach out and out and out, further than I ever could have before, with ease. I bring in an extra Mind to help with the task. The further I reach out, the more focus it requires to keep everything in my grasp. My area of control extends out well beyond the edge of the Nexus. In a way, it’s just like expanding my [Sense Magic] perceptive field to its maximum size.
Once I start to strain my mind trying to reach mere millimeters further, I command all mana to bleed it’s intensity. I command it to become calm, making any kind of mana activity impossible. In a way, it’s an anti-spell field. I have always been able to do things like this on a smaller scale; however, due to my fighting style, I’ve always been too far to use it.
“Do you fully understand what this means, Alysara? What would happen if you turn all the mana flowing through the Nexus into spell mana and you were to use it to attack or defend?”
Kayafe motions to the area around her, implicating the entire Nexus.
“Unless they are legendary beings themselves, no enemy will be able to use spells in our presence. We can refuel our mana reserves with all of this mana, effectively giving us infinite mana to use. Then there’s crafting, which has far greater potential. This is what the Mana Arc is capable of and why it’s so valuable. The more you learn of your new abilities, the more you realize the potential of the Mana Arc outside of being a tool to funnel mana into the dungeon.”
A chill went down my spine. No wonder Kayafe said not to let this get to my head. Klaman is already overconfident in his abilities, and he’s legendary tier. With me not even legendary tier – even if I am of equivalent power now, with my title – I need to understand my strength relative to other beings. I can’t just go off tiers alone anymore; my title has thrown the equation off.
“But don’t forget, you still lack the support skills to actually cast powerful spells quickly and efficiently. Against a competent caster, as long as they can resist your anti-spell area, they can overwhelm you with more spells.” Kayafe warns me. “I will also teach you more about how to use your skill in crafting and various different applications. But first, let's give you a taste of what is possible by making a useful tool in case we get injured.”
Kayafe usurps the control of mana in her immediate vicinity and quickly makes a super-solid bottle made of vitality, healing, and life essence before enchanting it. The next thing she does surprises me as magic envelops the bottle.
“Remember that [Manipulate Magic] can only apply pseudo magic effects to only mana, nothing else. This magic will fade in time, but how long that it lasts depends on how high your skill level is. As for this bottle, any water poured into it will become healing water, effectively turning it into a healing potion.”
“Isn’t this the same as controlling magic?” I ask, tilting my head slightly. “I thought you couldn’t do that.”
“In a way, it is… but I’m not sure what’s going on. From how you describe magic frameworks, I would guess that the skill itself is using divinity to… coerce magic in a way, but I am unsure.”
I’m not convinced that is the answer, but I can’t see divinity, so I can’t rule that possibility out. However, it would make sense if it’s magic controlling magic. The skill is at least half magic, so that magic of the skill is under my control, and that in turn can be used to… well… manipulate other magic.
I explain that to Kayafe as I make my own bottle, watching my skill light up as I apply the magical effects.
Ting! Manipulate Magic has met the requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling past level 1120!
55th Breakthrough: You have managed to manipulated magic; this will help you make and cast spells and items of unparalleled quality!
“That makes a lot more sense,” Kayafe admits with a shrug as the message rings in my mind. “It’s [Manipulate Magic], not [Manipulate Divinity]. Plus, it explains why it only works with mana, as the base form of the skill is [Manipulate Mana].”
“I got the breakthrough for manipulating magic!" I celebrate. "But it's either that or it requires a breakthrough to apply it to mundane matter; we’ll find out eventually,” I say and Keyefe congratulates me as we fly to the Temple. She promises to teach me more about the breakthrough later once I am stronger. We walk inside to begin our journey together in the Dungeon.
Appearing on the other side of the portal, the Dungeon village comes into view, having expanded since the last time I was here. Most notably, there is a parking lot for five land-based airships for transporting monster slayers to their locations.
“This place sure has changed,” Kayafe comments. “But I didn’t think you’d build a town inside the Dungeon.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“Anything harvested from the dungeon is poisonous. I’m not sure if that’s intentional, but that is the case for every Dungeon I visited. In order to support a Dungeon village, they require a lot of imported food.”
“We have a racial skill that makes it so we can supplement our food needs with Mana. We can go several days without eating,” I say. Plus, we produce our own food, but I don’t mention that.
“Well, I suppose that will make a Dungeon town viable” Kayafe shrugs and swishes her tail.
If we are going to explore, especially in the more dangerous areas that I can now contend with, then I should probably pick up a Dungeon Waystone Key.
“I have someone I need to see before we go anywhere,” I say as I locate Esofy, who is the de-facto elder for the monster-slaying business. In order to get a waystone key, one needs permission as they are very rare, although I can see that they managed to get two more.
Each key, when found, also comes with its own waystone, but I don’t see any of those around, so I wonder where they put them.
We walk to Esofy’s office, where she is sorting through some papers, and knock on the door.
“Alysara! Come in!” Esofy cheerfully says, seeing me with her perception skill.
I open the door and walk in with Kayafe, who introduces herself.
“I’m honored to meet you.” Esofy bows and introduces herself too.
“We’ll be exploring some of the more dangerous areas,” I say after the two greet each other. “So we’ll want a waystone key to attune to any waystones we find.”
“Of course” Esofy takes out a normal key and unlocks a drawer revealing several small stones, each with a numbered ribbon around them. “To prevent people from going into areas they are not ready for, some keys are not attuned to all of the waystones. Unfortunately, we only implemented this after a group decided to go into a high-level den and all died. This has also made it hard to get enough waystones for higher leveled dens, and we had to prioritize distance more.”
“In every society, rules are often only made because some people have a lapse in judgment. This won’t be the first time, nor is it exclusive to Runalymo,” Kayafe says, probably in an effort to reassure Esofy that she did nothing wrong. “The best advice I can give is to make it easy to do things safe and right, and hard to do things wrong and dangerous. Think of how one might use something to harm others or themselves and try to prevent those foreseeable situations.”
“I hate to just assume others are dumb, but if that’s what it takes to keep people safe, then it’s for the best. Thank you for your advice, Kayafe” Esofy bows her head. “Oh! And before you leave, Alysara, we’d like you to overview the blueprints of a new type of airship and make the necessary components for them.”
“What kind of Airship?” I ask.
“One that doesn’t transport people but instead materials.” Esofy takes out several blueprints and shows them to me.
The planned ship has a superstructure in the middle for the pilots and cargo holds on the front and back. I can understand the idea is to balance out the weight, but it’s not actually a great design.
“You can move the superstructure to the back,” I give my advice. “The weight balance is only in relation to the center of lift. Doing it this way, you will have to pay a lot more attention to what goes where, whereas with my way, you only need to counterbalance the superstructure and put the heaviest things in the middle.”
With the lift sails stretched horizontally above the airship, the airships have more in common with blimps than planes, except it doesn’t need a giant balloon ten times the size or more of the ship.
But does the airship even need the lift sail anymore? Can I make an airship sailless with [Manipulate Magic]? I want to try, but a ship like that can’t be widespread because I’ll have to reapply the magic every so often. I’ll make a test model with my other clone real quick before I move too far away to reach the Nexus with my Skill.
“So what are those waystones you guys kept talking about?” Kayafe asks as we leave.
“The waystones are places that we can teleport to with a waystone key, but we must attune a key to the waystone first to form a link.”
“Wait! Do you mean to say the Key and stone aren't made with a link?! How is that possible?!” Kayafe says with surprise.
“I haven’t been able to figure out the exact mechanisms, but it’s something about sharing its unique mana with the stone to form a link,” I answer. “I had been trying to replicate the teleportation mechanisms at one point a while ago, but I haven’t made much progress; the project kinda left my mind after the cursed being incident.”
“I see. Those waystones sound really useful; can I see it?” Kayafe asks. I give her the key to [Analyze]. “They are also magic items, which explains a lot, so you can’t just copy them. The Dungeon Core is a magical being which means they can use magic however they like without any of the difficulties we have with it, so they can make things like this very easily.”
“What’s the Dungeon Core like?” I ask.
“Hmm,” Kayafe puts a hand on her chin. “It might be better to meet it yourself, but I don’t think you are powerful enough right now.”
Is it that indescribable? Or maybe it’s unbelievable?
“So, where should we go?” I ask, changing the subject. “The one area I haven’t really explored, aside from the really far areas, is the mountains over there since they often have really powerful monsters with levels in the thousands. I don’t think I am ready to fight those, but in most cases, they can’t hurt me either because of my clones. So, maybe it’s worth a try?”
“As long as they can’t fight back, your win is guaranteed. Let's go there,” Kayafe says.
If anything, killing those will be well worth it for the evolution of my Classes. Speaking of, my first class is almost ready for one. As it stands right now, though, I think it is more worth it to hold off for a while since it pales in comparison to [Manipulate Magic]. Getting better achievements will be far better in the long run.
With Kayafe’s endorsement, I teleport us to the closest waystone and conjure wings for us, flying in the direction of the Dungeon Mountains.
Comments
Conor McGroarty
I wonder if realms are actually just really big dungeons? Also do dungeon cores have names? Do they name themselves or spawn with one? Would be funny to see a dungeon core named Tim, Doug or some other innocuous name.
Conor McGroarty
There is a dungeon in the Healer country on the Lunaley lands. I wonder what would happen if the physical space of a dungeon entrance was eaten by a big monster (like the so far only mentioned island eaters which must be big enough to eat an island piece by piece)? Would the entrance collapse and the dungeon core has to make a new entrance elsewhere? Would the entrance stay stationary and end up being ripped out of the hypothetical creature’s body with its own movement (thus it would still be hanging around in its space)? Regardless, this Dungeon is likely among the most “well fed” and “expansive” Dungeons Kayafe has ever been in as it has been chilling and taking in copious amounts of mana from the mana arc for millennia. So it has the time and power to fiddle around with all kind of hobbies like those waystones and keys (she was here 10,000 years ago when she was “coming to bargain” but remarks about the waystones and keys now like it is a surprise to her and so should have happened after the Mana Arc went online). Its latest hobby is watching and learning from Alysara and designing (but not making yet as it still has much to learn) what will be its greatest creation to date. Plus a dungeon core is a magic being so Alysara can examine it (when meeting it) to level up that sense magic breakthrough of examining magic beings.
Pawzom Lz
Beacon counts towards the title because it affects another skill that uses mana but that skill in question that directly use mana and creating the clones dont count? Its base does not affect mana, it affects the clones. Its only with breakthroughs it affects mana, unlike NI which affects mana on its base, the opposite of what you seem to think it is. If it was enough for a skill to use mana to influence the title then we gotta add all of Aly's bond skills(one of which is her ability to make clones), as they all use mana and all of her active class skills, as they also use mana. And if they have to use mana to count, why does Sense Magic count but not Sense Soul and Sense Space? They work the same, they just target different things and none of them costs mana. The reason Sense Magic counts is because it is based around Mana and Magic. Beacon's Core base is based around clones, not Mana and Magic. The reason it affects the title is because of the breakthroughs that is based around mana. Race Trait 8: Nexus Immunity 140/140 Adapting to the hostile environment of a nexus, even if the vast majority of the ambient mana is being siphoned, has made this race resistant to extreme temperature and immune to mana toxicity. They can further resist mana given off by great beings, recover faster from mana toxicity, resist mana storms, push against highly dense mana, convert mana toxicity into vitality, slightly resist spells, prevent toxicity from specific elements, store vastly more mana in their body, and resists extreme mana densities and liquid mana. Due to their adaptation to extreme environments, this race receives a 25% bonus to their endurance.(How is this not affecting mana? One is even using mana toxicity as a source of healing) Mana Toxicity Tolerance: Being exposed to high amounts of mana density can lead to a build-up of mana, poisoning you. This skill will help you tolerate mana poisoning. Even if we use the base from before it merged into her race and became a new skill, it is then a skill based around tolerating mana. That is not even taking the breakthroughs into account. Still lets it fall under the category of based around mana or magic. It is in the phrasing of the title: ''Empowers your manipulative control and power of mana and magic by 3% per level of each skill based on mana or magic.'' Based on mana or magic, not if they use mana, cause then almost all her skills would have to count. Unless I am seriously misunderstanding something here, which I doubt, then it is pretty straightforward.
Jeanean
Clones use Mana, and Beacon stabilizes the Clones. The Skill doesn't "consume" Mana, but still affects it. Meanwhile, Nexus Immunity has an affects the body, making it more resistant to Mana. (And yes, by that definition Nexus Immunity also affects Mana, but does so only after specific breakthroughs, but not with the base Skill.)
Pawzom Lz
Beacon does not use mana or magic due to being a passive skill that increases clone stability. It just so happens to have some mana based breakthroughs, yet NI has got more of them while at the same time being a defensive Mana skill with active use breakthroughs.
Jeanean
I think her Title only considers Skills that USE Mana or magic. Meanwhile, Nexus Immunity is about not getting damaged by mana.
Nobody
Their cargo ship would probably be better as a Great Lakes Hauler rather than an Ocean Container Ship. GLHs have the super structure at the front so the crew can see to maneuver through river channels easier. They even self-counterbalance with the engine house at the back
Pawzom Lz
A post unrelated to this chapter but possibly important for upcoming ones, and if I'm right the faster it is corrected(or taken into account from this point forward) the less there will be to edit later on. In chap 197 Aly says her title is drawing strength from three skills: Sense Magic, Manipulate Mana and Beacon's Core. Should not Nexus Immunity also count for this? Title says ''based on mana or magic'' while Nexus Immunity mentions: ''extreme temperatures, immune to mana toxicity, can resist mana given off by great beings, recover faster from mana toxicity, resist mana storms, push against highly dense mana, convert mana toxicity into vitality, slightly resist spells, prevent toxicity from specific elements, store vastly more mana in their body, and resist extreme mana densities and liquid mana''. A small part of it is about temperatures but most of it is about mana. Name is Nexus Immunity, which is referring to the mana of the Nexus as the temperature comes from the Mana Arc. While NI is not all about mana, it is mostly about it, which is the reverse of Beacon's Core that is about summons but with breakthroughs affecting mana. If Beacon can affect the title when it affects mana purely through breakthroughs then should not NI also affect it?
Colm Ryan
Thanks for the Chapter I hope that she gains an Apotheosis Seed for getting a thousand levels in an Heirloom skill and maxing it out
AClassroomSpider
thank you for the chapter!. .
Lena Rath
Esofy just gave up reacting to the new tails ^^
Andrew
Thank you!
Kenneth Baxter
I wonder if they will visit the dungeon fairies along the way? Kayafe could easily find a way to replace the mana statue with something more fairy appropriate and re-establish her vision on the 3 pillars of civilization for the Runalymo. That would also mean fighting the mind monster to reclaim the statue in its area
Comiak
fixed
Richard Fromdahl
Grinding time! Wonder how far her level& skills will go before Ms. PLOT shows up.
rvs
The google docs link is for chapter 201. Thanks for the chapter.
Tetrisman87
Thanks for the chapter! Excited to see some dungeon combat once again!
