Luke Everhart
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Chapter 216 - Experimentation
🕑 Added 2025-03-12 11:30:02 +0000 UTCThe cave was not far from the Goblin Camp, and stood, half-buried, within a small clearing in the forest. With a trickle of Mul’s aura, the aura heater filled up the small cave with a comforting red glow, and it made for a surprising more than passable accommodation for the night.
Gad stood by the opening, almost blocking the narrow entrance with her muscular frame, and scanned the impenetrable darkness with a piercing stare, Nar sitting by her side.
Outside, it had begun raining again, dispelling the fog for the moment. In its place, a deep, impenetrable inky darkness had swallowed the dungeon whole, and when peering outside, one felt as though they were floating in a darkness of nothing but heavy, ceaseless rain.
As for the rest of the party, they had eaten, meditated, and now lay wherever they found comfortable, and tried to sleep.
Sleep however, remained elusive.
Kur sat with his back to a smooth section of the cave’s wall. His brow was furrowed, and his face was illuminated from below by the glow of his light-blue screen as his finger scrolled up and down furiously, as their party leader read, re-read, checked and rechecked their dungeon guide.
At his side, Jul was nodding off, her head slowly leaning forward, only to bob upwards as her chin touched her chest. Nar half-smiled at the sight, but in truth, he wasn’t sure of what to make of Jul’s revelation that she could now not only sense fear, but actually see fear aether, and, he must assume, fear aura as well. And more than that, she could derive meaning from it.
And they all died afraid… she had said.
Her path is changing so fast, Nar thought, tracking the downwards movement of her head as she fell asleep again. But how is she picking up on fear aether as well? Is that supposed to happen? Fear aether and fear aura?
Now there was an interesting question. Probably something he would best ask Jul, though he doubted she knew much herself yet. Just as his master was keeping him in the dark, for his own benefit, he had no doubts that the Master of Shadows was doing the same to Jul… Still, it was hard not to ponder about it.
Even back in the Climb, even from the very beginning, Jul had always seemed to possess the uncanny ability to know his heart and mind… But Jul’s sudden head bop caused him to smile, and relax, letting go of his thoughts.
I want the best of Creation for her, Nar thought. For all of them.
And he moved his eyes off of Jul, resolved to let that mystery lie for now, and found Viy, Rel and Tuk sleeping beside each other.
No. He’s awake, Nar realized.
Viy lay curled on her side, facing Tuk, while Rel slept belly up, her mouth slightly ajar, on Tuk’s other side. As for the ring tosser, he too faced up, towards the red shadows that danced across the rocky, uneven ceiling, formed by the red light of the fire emanating from their open heater.
That stuff hit him hard, Nar thought, catching the gleam of red in Tuk’s open eyes.
To be honest, the dead, adult goblins hadn’t bothered him much, if at all. If anything, they were a loss of XP and gains, as callous as that sounded. They were monsters, their sworn enemy, and had the party fallen at their hands, Nar was sure they wouldn’t have met a pleasant end, as goblins ate most anything… The kid-goblins though? That had shocked him.
What was the point for a dungeon in creating them? Unlike the dungeon itself, the nature, fauna and flora, the beasts and monsters were created based on the dungeon guardian’s vision and wants.
So why make them at all? Nar wondered. And smart enough to worship a piece of wood too… I thought monsters weren’t supposed to believe in anything?
Nar folded his arms.
Sapients… Non-Sapients… He shook his head. I don’t think I know enough of this yet, to either decide anything or worry about it.
And that left the siblings. Mul sat with his back to the wall, his arms folded and his chin resting on his chest, and it was impossible to tell whether the brawler was asleep or not. As for Cen, the caster sat in front of a curtain of rain.
Somewhere from above their heads, there must be a crack, or several, in the cave’s ceiling, and rainwater filtered through the soil and the rock, and formed the indoor, glistening curtain of rain before Cen.
When the rain had started, the caster had silently moved towards the forming rain curtain, and sat herself in front of it. And, to their surprise, she had pulled on her aura, forming it into a shapeless blob with her very hands.
Even now, nearly an hour later, her fingers still moved in a gentle tirelessness, shaping and re-shaping the shining aura into something that only Cen understood.
Whatever her affinity is, maybe the rain is closer to it, than light is to mine, Nar wondered. From where he stood, he couldn’t see Cen’s face, but he imagined it was still the same blank expression of awe she had displayed in the rain, at the beginning of the dungeon. The same she had when she laid eyes on the little display of indoor rain as it formed, glistening and filling the cave with its soft pitter-patter.
“You should sleep,” Gad told him.
Nar shook his head. “I’m too awake. How about I take this watch, instead?”
Gad considered the rain outside for a few moments, then nodded.
“Thank you, let’s do that then,” she said.
Nar stood up to take her spot, while the tank headed towards Kur, and the two of them quickly fell into a hushed conversation.
It’s tough being the party leader, Nar thought. And the second in command too…
He turned his back on the cave and the party, and stared outside. He had come to realize he didn’t particularly enjoy the rain, which to him, felt almost ungrateful of a thought, considering where he came from, and that this was the first time he was even experiencing rain.
On the other hand, however, he found that he quite liked the sound of the rain outside, while he himself stayed warm and dry, and out of its reach. It was like a lullaby, gently caressing his senses and stilling his troubled heart.
In some ways, its repetitive nature reminded him of the Pressure, though the two couldn’t be further apart, and that lead his thoughts back home, to the black and white darkness of the cubeplant.
Wonder what he’s doing now.
Would his dad be sleeping? Eating? Working? Laughing or crying?
The cubeplant felt more and more distant the further they flew into the Labyrinth, and not just in terms of physical distance, but more so in terms of his memories and heart. Of course, the fact that he didn’t want to be moping around every day and being a downer to his party and himself, by bringing up his dad at every occasion, ended up playing a part in it, but if he were to be honest, so much had happened, he had seen and done so much already, experiencing and living so incredibly much since leaving his cubeplant, that sometimes it felt like his whole life before was just a half-remembered nightmare. And someone else’s at that…
He closed his eyes, and pulled on his enhanced [Hearing].
The little that was left of the dungeon disappeared, and for a moment, Nar submerged into an endless expanse of rain drops.
They echoed differently, as they hit the short grass outside, or the naked, bare branches of the dead tree he had spotted to the left of the cave. They splashed harshly against the hard stone that lined the cave’s entrance, and softly against the hundred thousand leaves and bushes all around them.
That first rain. The forest. The prairie, sky, mountains and that spanning view at his feet…
He could still see it all now. He could still feel the wind blowing up from below, ruffling his hair as he stared wide eyed and open mouthed at that horizon of green and blue that stretched before him.
Was that what the master meant? He asked himself, not for the first time. And is it for this that delvers risk their lives? For this feeling of being truly alive…
He sighed and opened his eyes.
Part of him understood, and that part of him relished in the re-discovery of his curiosity and desire to delve into the Endless Labyrinth. But there was a part of him that knew that he wouldn't know the answer until he had been to the O-Nex. Properly been to the O-Nex.
Without seeing it, without knowing and understanding it, he wouldn't be able to understand the Labyrinth side of things either, or what it truly meant to be a delver.
The City Without End, Nar thought. One day I’ll go back there…
*********
A series of deafening bangs shattered his sleep, and Nar was on his feet with his sword drawn before his eyes were even fully working.
Dust filled the cave, and weak coughs echoed in the sudden, ringing silence.
“What’s happening?” Kur shouted.
“It was Cen!” Mul shouted from somewhere in the dust. “She did something… Blew up the whole side of the cave!”
“Is she alright?” Gad asked.
“She got blown back, but I think she’s okay. I’ve got her!” the brawler said from the thick dust cloud.
A low crackle sounded from above them, and Nar stared up in alarm.
“We need to get out!” he shouted. “Now!”
“This way!” Jul said. “Follow my voice!”
Guided by Jul’s senses, they all stepped out into the darkness outside. The rain had stopped, leaving everything wet and cold, and the fog had returned with a vengeance, blanketing everything around them in darkness.
As Mul exited the cave the last, carrying Cen, a much louder crack snapped in the dead air, and the whole thing came tumbling down behind him.
“Crystal…” Tuk muttered, staring wide eyed at the dusty ruin of rock that had been their shelter.
“What happened?” Kur asked the brawler.
Mul shook his head, cradling his sister to his chest with wide eyes. “I’m not sure. All of a sudden, her aura shone brighter and she said, “Oh! So that’s how it works!” and then her aura kind of just… I don’t even know how to describe it!”
“Did it explode?” Viy asked.
“No… It kind of burst from her hands, like-like a shower head,” he said. “It turned into tiny drops and when it hit the wall… Then they all exploded!”
“Crystal,” Rel whispered. “Is that a new skill?”
“No idea,” Mul said. “She just sat there, watching the rain, and I kind of dozed off…”
“She’s lost a third of her aura,” Kur said, checking the party view. “We’re lucky it wasn’t more…”
And that the whole thing didn’t drop on top of us, Nar thought, looking over to the crumbled mess of rock and roots. And it was a nice spot to sleep in, too… If we can’t get out.
Nar caught a brief flicker of a silent conversation that passed between Kur and Gad, and the party leader sighed and nodded.
Probably going to tell Cen she needs to be more careful, Nar thought. It’s not the first time she’s almost gotten us all killed with her aura.
He considered the sleeping lengos in Mul’s arms, her expression softened and peaceful.
She might just be the strongest of us, he thought. At least as long as she’s kept safe, both from enemies and herself.
And a skill that formed a rain of tiny exploding aura projectiles? Now that sounded proper terrifying.
But we’ll have to wait for our dungeon gains to see if she’s finally learned a new skill, Nar thought, scanning the fog around them. The red light coming off the aura heater, which Kur had managed to save, gave the swirling mist an alive, malevolent look as it shifted around them.
“Do we get started?” Nar asked Kur.
“It’s not even 6AM yet,” Kur muttered, irritation filtering from his red gleaming eyes. “But sure… Why in the Pile not? Mul, do you want to pass Cen to me?”
Mul did so without a word, and Kur cradled the tiny lengos in his arms.
“Alright… It’s that way,” he said, pointing with his chin. “We’re walking straight from here until we find that ravine, and that goes without saying, but be even more careful. We’re entering the proper dense forest from now on, and this is actual fog coyote territory.”
“We haven’t seen any beasts, though?” Tuk said. “They’re probably not there, right?”
“Prepare for the worst, and expect the worst,” Kur said. “That’s the first thing the Master of Leadership taught us.”
“That’s just grim…” Tuk whispered, scanning the dark, red fog swirling around them.
“Do we keep the heater on?” Mul asked.
Kur shook his head with evident regret. “It might just draw attention to us. We all have [Dark Vision], and can more or less see in the dark, so let’s just turn it off.”
“Alright,” Mul said, and turned off the device, plunging them into darkness.
Nar blinked as his [Sight] and passive [Dark Vision] kicked in, revealing the lines of his party members' bodies and faces. Around them however, past the little circle of grass blades that he could see, there was just empty blackness.
“That’s not creepy at all,” Tuk said.
“Not at all,” Rel whispered in agreement.
The blades of grass vanished in a swirling circle of living blackness that devoured and revealed them in slow, swirling motions as the fog shifted around them, enclosing them in a tiny existence of black and white, lines and shapes.
It’s like we’re nowhere, Nar thought, watching the advancing and receding ebb of the fog.
“It’ll be brighter in a few hours,” Kur said, pulling them back to the task at hand. “Let’s just get going. All the faster we’ll get out of this dungeon.”
