Jer Patch
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Chapter 39: Crystals, Dungeons and Experimentation
🕑 Added 2025-03-10 14:00:32 +0000 UTCMy brain hurt, but it was worth it. On the workbench in front of me sat a lantern made from a fire crystal, a healing crystal from a water crystal, and a protective crystal from a forest crystal. Without the sun, every day was the same in the caverns. Sleep called out to me and my eyes felt heavy, but every time a new quest task popped up, I wanted to complete it.
I enjoyed the rush of checking things off a list, and this list just didn’t seem to end. The levels were icing on the cake. I’d leveled Crystal Singing five times so far, and while I couldn’t be sure, I didn’t think it’d been much more than a day.
[Quest Complete: You have created a protective crystal to add to armor.]
[You leveled your profession, Crystal Singing.]
[Quest Unlocked: Create a weapon that burns with a touch.]
Make that six levels. Now, the next quest would be easy if I could just convince myself to head back to the mines and get another fire crystal.
I blinked, or tried to, but raising my eyelids back up felt like so much work. My head hit my arms on the workbench, which somehow felt comfortable.
My stomach growled on cue and I groaned, lifting my head. Food first, then sleep, then I could tackle the next quest.
The fire needed more wood, and I tossed a log on it, spreading more light across the room. Somehow the wood replenished itself every time I left the room, but I just chalked it up to weird dungeon magic.
My stolen wooden pot sat next to the fireplace, and I sat in front of the fire. The wave of warmth didn’t help with the wanting to sleep thing, but it felt so much better than the slightly chilly atmosphere in the rest of the underground dungeon.
“Let’s make some warm food,” I said to myself.
I didn’t like that I’d gotten into the bad habit of talking to myself. This place was just too quiet, even with the tricking sound of water from the fountain, or near the pool in the crystal mine. Not to mention, the whisper of wind near the air crystal was just spooky sometimes. Other than that, I had crackles from the fire and my voice, and silence.
Music. I missed music so much. Even the old rock my dad listened to.
Shaking my head, I focused on the task in front of me. Earlier, I’d poured some water into the pot from my canteen, then sliced up some meat from the turtle creature. The sweet scent had filled the stone room, and now I took the pot off the fire, setting it on the floor in front of me. I cracked one egg into the soup and started mixing it quickly, letting the hot liquid cook the egg. I did the same for a second egg, and then a third egg.
My mouth watered at the smell.
I hoped Lenna didn’t mind that I’d kept all the cooking equipment, including the bowls that we’d taken to the jungle. I’d given her turtle meat in return, but now I wished I’d kept more of it. While I had plenty of meat, I was eating it faster than I’d expected and I didn’t know how long this dungeon would take.
I filled one bowl and set the pot near the fire to keep it warm. Then I blew across the top of the soup. Anticipation filled me as I took the first sip. It was way too hot, but worth it as I gulped more of it down. Eventually, the bowl was empty.
I waited for several moments.
Nothing.
No notification.
I grumbled to myself and swirled water around the bowl before drinking it. Then, I set it to dry next to the fire. Climbing to my feet I headed to the bed to get some rest, but once I lay down, I stared into the darkness, sleep eluding me. I opened my stat sheet to see how high my Free stats had gotten. Way too freaking high.
After the round of growth shock, I needed to be careful about how to allocate free stats. Just a bit at a time, I reminded myself. I tossed 10 points into a whole mess of places: Quickness, Flexibility, Intelligence, Fortitude and Willpower. Hopefully, the last three would help with this dungeon. It’d been so long since I’d pulled up my full sheet it still showed the differences from all the capped levels.
Name: Alex
Level: 38
Race: Human
Traits: Survivability, Adaptation, Hangry
Class: Devourer, level 38
Profession: Crystal Singer, level 14
Stats:
STR: 90(125)
DEX:
>QUICK - I: 107(156)
>FLEX: 100(145)
CON/TOUGH: 90(126)
INT: 74(128)
WIS:
>FORT: 74(128)
>WILL: 74(128)
CHA: 69(104)
FREE: 55
Monstrosity: 5%
Titles & Achievements:
Jack-of-all-Trades
Lucky Stars
Badass
Skill: 10/10
Adaptive Body - I
Crystal Singing and Attunement - I
Insight - I
Augmented Senses
Stealthy Camouflage
Blades and Polearms
Free Spirit
Venomous Chomp - II
Tensile Claw Strike
Field Dressing
Skills Categories: Condensed
So much progress. Yet, I didn’t know if it’d be enough to please Noseen. While I thought I was doing pretty damn well, especially with my levels in Crystal Singing, who knew what the Great Devourer would think? For once I’d like to surprise him. My Dad too.
I closed my stat sheet and focused on resting my mind. Sleep slowly took over.
***
[Quest Complete: Create a weapon that burns with a touch.]
[Quest Unlocked: Create a knowledge crystal.]
I stared at the quest, my lips cracked in confusion as I held up the knowledge crystal that sat on the worktable, doing nothing. I set aside the extra spear tip since I needed to figure out a way to hang it from my belt. Then I changed my mind and replaced my current crystal tip with it. The new one was whole and didn’t have that awkward chip in it from so many days ago.
The only crystal type I hadn’t touched were the silver air crystals. Mostly because, like the forest crystals, there were only a couple in the cavern mine. The protective crystal had taken no time at all since it worked much like the mix of fire and forest I’d used for Hammy’s armor.
Now the air crystal, that’d be new.
Off to the cavern I went, now well used to walking the path and humming under my breath. The pool on the far end, while cold, let me get clean regularly. This time I stopped before the end and again laid down on the cold stone.
When I stuck my head out over the ledge, I also held my knife, though I tied a cloth to the end of it and then to my belt. I didn’t want to accidentally lose it over the edge. Replacing the blade was easy, replacing the shaft, not so much.
I cut into the stone near the base of one of the air crystals, keeping a hold of it with my other hand. As soon as it was free, I set it on the stone cliff as far away from the edge as I could reach.
Once I stood back on the path, I felt better about the whole thing. The cliff edge leading into darkness freaked me out a little. My dark vision couldn’t see the bottom, or the top, only an endless shaft of blowing air.
Back in the workspace, I set the air crystal in the center of the table, and then lifted the knowledge crystal. I reached out with my senses, touching the energy that ran through it. Somehow it felt springy, and it moved in a figure eight within the stone.
Yet, when I touched the natural air crystal, wildness took over. There was no pattern at all.
Step one was to match the energy flow, and then focus on my intention. That’s how all the others had worked.
Harnessing the wild energy took more than one try as it slipped through the barest flicker of my concentration. Each time I lost focus, even slightly, I needed to start again, corralling the chaotic energy, but slowly the ability to get it to move in the direction I wanted increased.
Then a notification caught me off guard and it slipped by me yet again.
[You leveled your profession, Crystal Singing.]
I took a deep breath as I dismissed the words and dove back in. Again and again, it slipped by. Finally, I pulled back and stood up from the bench. Sweat dripped down my back and I wiped my forehead. At some point, the fire had died down, and the smell of soup caught my attention again.
After tossing another log on the coals, I filled my soup bowl and sat back on the bench. This time, I forced myself to eat slowly as I examined the knowledge stone.
“What am I missing? What’s the secret to creating knowledge stones?” I growled my questions at the stone, and it flared to life.
The elderly man appeared again. “Everyone struggles with one of the crystal types. Remember to keep in mind the natural energy of the crystal, and what you are trying to accomplish. Ask, don’t force.”
The image flickered out, and I wanted to throw it across the room. I resisted, taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, before repeating the action.
“Okay, this air crystal wants to be wild, not all proper…” I rolled my eyes and got back to work. This time I focused on asking the lump of silvery crystal to become a knowledge crystal. To record things, take part in more than being a crystal.
The energy hesitated.
It almost snapped me out of the zone. Instead, I tried to push my intentions at it being clearer on what a Knowledge crystal was. Stories, they recorded stories and moments in time.
[You have created a Knowledge Crystal.]
[Quest Complete: Create a Knowledge Crystal.]
[You have completed Phase One of the Hidden Crystal Dungeon.]
The knowledge crystal flickered on the table, pulsing. I couldn’t help but pick it up, and the old man appeared again.
“Congratulations on reaching the first part of your goal. At this point in your journey, you should be at least a level Ten Crystal Singer. If not, I encourage you to practice the basics and level up before attempting the Second phase of the Dungeon. Whenever you get stuck, always remember the basics. Also, take note of how many crystals are in the mine. Remember to leave enough for the person following in your footsteps.”
Then he was gone again, only giving me enough information to keep me focused. These holograms were worse than Noseen. At least I could ask him questions and talk to him, even if he didn’t answer my questions half the time.
[Quest Unlocked: Using the knowledge gathered so far to create four different crystal artifacts.
My now much cooler soup drew my attention, and I quickly finished the bowl. Excitement raced through me, thinking of the different possible items I might create. Fire and water crystals were plentiful and gave me lots of options, without using up the rarer forest and air crystals. With a smile, I headed to the mines to harvest some materials to work with.
It took a few different trips back and forth, but eventually I set everything in front of me on the table. I’d taken a few fire crystals, water crystals, and then one more Forest crystal. Plus a smaller Air crystal that I just couldn’t walk away from.
With what I’d already created, I didn’t need a healing crystal. The one I had I hoped to give to John or Benny, but I also knew how to make them now. I already knew what I wanted to do with the protective crystal, and that was to cannibalize it to see if I could add the protective nature to a growing focus. Then Benny could plant it in a field to repel herbivores and increase yields.
Diving into the protective crystal, I thought about what I’d learned from the air crystal and I sent it images of growing lush produce, along with protecting the plants. The energy in the crystal was harder to read, and I focused on my intentions for what I wanted. Doing that while humming took more concentration than I’d expected.
Everything else around me dropped away, and time passed. How much, I couldn’t tell, as my mind and focus were lost in the task.
Finally, I felt the notification pop up and slowly removed my connection to the crystal energy.
[You leveled your profession, Crystal Singing.]
[You leveled your profession, Crystal Singing.]
[You leveled your profession, Crystal Singing.]
[You have created a Bloomstone Crystal.]
[Quest Updated: 1/4 artifacts created.]
Weakness slammed into me, and my body shook. In panic, I yanked meat out of my inventory, but even that simple task made the edges of my vision go black. I fell backward from the bench to the floor.
