B5 C38: Tempting Fate

In one sense, the new region was entirely unalike from the mental region in which we’d found the last collection site. Unfortunately, it was

In one sense, the new region was entirely unalike from the mental region in which we’d found the last collection site. Unfortunately, it was

In one sense, the new region was entirely unalike from the mental region in which we’d found the last collection site. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly as small. Even after pushing forward for an hour, we’d yet to find any sign of our quarry, and we hadn’t run into the edge of the dungeon yet.

In another, it was eerily similar. Namely, there weren’t any enemies in sight. Fearing another strange, incorporeal mana type, I swapped through my vision variants without any luck.

While not as nondescript as either the mental or illusion region, the surrounding environment didn’t give us much of a clue either. The ground was slate gray and cracked, with mounds and divots that felt surprisingly natural given the dungeon’s occasionally flat or obviously terraformed aesthetics. The air felt slightly off, a bit thin and with a strange scent that was neither pleasant nor unpleasant, but the change wasn’t large enough for this to be an air-based region.

“Is it weird to say I like this place?” Idly tossing a dagger from hand to hand, Cal slowly panned her head as if we were on a scenic tour.

“Sorry, but I’m going to have to say ‘yes.’” In fact, I was half wondering if I’d suddenly get another level in Illusion Resistance or even Mental Resistance. Not that the surroundings were openly hostile, but there wasn’t much in its favor unless there were some magical shenanigans at play.

Maybe it was the idea that a higher-tier mana type was at play that ultimately set me off, but moving forward, I began to feel a spark of unease. It was different from the foreboding I’d felt in Sylum’s dungeon, and I didn’t think it was from Danger Sense. More likely, it was just nerves and an overactive imagination. I still told the others, but there wasn’t much to do about it unless we wanted to turn back.

“I still think I should be the one to hit the second collection crystal. It wasn’t as fun last time when Tess did it. And I’d probably survive the big explosion afterwards. Plus, it’s not like Verin can damage it, so are we really going to let Tess take all four?” Either trying to get a rise out of us or lighten the mood, Cal needled both of us in turn.

Somehow, it didn’t help much, though. That same sense of unease was steadily building up until it was almost physical. A light bout of nausea settled into my stomach, which was something I’d thought far behind me. Between my stats and the few levels I’d snagged in Digestion, such issues were decidedly uncommon these days.

It got so bad that I opened up my notifications to double check that I hadn’t missed being dosed with some sort of poison.

And while my actual notifications were empty, my full status sheet had changed. Pulling up short, I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

“Lady Tess. Is all okay?” Bedecked in her mobile glacier courtesy of The Glacier Walks, Verin made for an odd conversational partner with only a thin hole by her mouth allowing her to speak at all.

“I think… no? Everyone check your statuses. My health and mana are both going down really slowly.” I was pretty sure that I had the most Constitution and Wisdom out of any of us, so if I was suffering, the others were doubtless doing even worse.

It came as a shock, then, when both of the others reported that they were entirely fine. No nausea. No sense of discomfort. Both of their healths and manas were topped off.

It was just me.

“Okay! Tess, you play around for a second. See if you can heal the damage away. Try to figure out where the discomfort is concentrated. Maybe take a mana potion if you’ve brewed any. Verin and I will brainstorm. Can you think of anything that fits, Verin?”

As the others started to toss around ideas, I followed Cal’s advice, first casting a quick healing spell followed by Cure. The latter found nothing to target, and the prior failed to heal me all the way to full health, though it didn’t give me any reason why.

“Let us make some postulations. What separates Tess from the two of us? Perhaps something emotion-based? It would fit if this were some manner of fear region. As soon as you grow uneasy, it saps your strength? Then again, perhaps we should only be focusing on what differs between me and Tess. Calilah, you are likely immune from most effects while using Apex Shroud, yes?”

It was as good a guess as any, and I tried to tamp down on my emotions, but to no avail. Worse yet, my health started to trickle downwards slightly faster.

What changed? The only thing I could think of was the spells I’d just cast. Did it have to do with mana use?

I focused on my mana core, going through a few manipulation exercises and pulling the threads all throughout my body. It was slight, but something did definitely feel… off. It wasn’t quite to the level of pain, but there was a twinge of discomfort. Almost as bad, my mana was feeling sluggish relative to what I was used to.

The hell? “Is my core damaged?”

Finally seeming to perk up now that I’d identified the issue, the system belatedly offered me a notification.

You are taking in an incompatible mana type! Continued exposure will damage your body and mana core.

I groaned, not having any skill that could easily fix the issue. Although, Verin seems to be fine, right? Now that I thought about it, of course she would be. Her new ring made sure she only took in pure frost mana.

Removing some of the leftover frost treasures I hadn’t used to make her ring, I held them in one hand letting them convert whatever strange mana type that surrounded us into frost. Even though I wasn’t mana shifted like Verin, my core had little issue converting the frost mana to neutral, and the drain on my health started to taper off. For whatever reason, it didn’t seem to fully work, but the drain was so minimal as to not matter for now.

I related my findings to the others, and Verin immediately shifted her conjectures. “What type of mana is inherently harmful to absorb? Some manner of corrosion mana or sapping mana? Regardless, if you are able to offset the effects with the treasures, should we turn back or continue?”

Unlike Verin, Cal had gone rigid upon hearing my words. Her response was far terser as well.

“Tal’Ket. Now. Summon him now. We’re going back.”

Not used to seeing the princess quite so rattled, I acquiesced without argument. Moments later, the familiar green form of Tal’Ket formed before us, and we hurriedly hopped on.

Only as our steed began to fly away did Verin risk a question. What that question was, I never ended up learning, as the very moment she opened her mouth, Cal responded.

“Quiet!” She spat the word out with such intensity that Verin flinched back, and neither of us dared to try our luck again.

It wasn’t until we crossed the border and entered the fire region that a fraction of Cal’s tension fled her, her shoulders slumping in relief. Sensing the change, Verin finally found her tongue once more.

“Lady Calilah. You seem to have some idea of what mana type we encountered?”

Cal remained quiet for a minute, to the point that I wasn’t sure she would respond at all. Only when the silence had grown thick and heavy did she finally break it, uttering only a single word: “Demonic.”

Verin shuddered at the word, but it was here that my Earthen education reared its head again.

“Sorry. That’s a mana type? Is it advanced, or what’s it made of? And why would it be such a big deal? Sett is kind of scary because his level is so high, but otherwise, I thought demons were just another race. What am I missing?” It wasn’t like there was “human mana” or “elf mana,” after all. At least I didn’t think there was.

With a heaving sigh, Cal did her best to fill me in. “It’s… complicated. It’s actually not advanced or composite. Believe it or not, it’s just a massively intent-altered version of neutral mana. Whereas your core naturally takes in standard neutral mana, demons all take in demonic mana. The low-leveled ones get sick like you just did if they try to absorb the regular stuff.”

Weird, but I still wasn’t understanding what the big deal was. “Is the damage permanent, or something? That still doesn’t feel like a good reason for us to hightail it out of there.” For a second, I thought that demons were just incredibly powerful, and that Cal didn’t want to fight one, but that couldn’t be it.

Back when I’d met Hex and Aarris -- right after I’d fought Ephesis -- the two of them had shown me the high priest’s memories. The man had spent a few years hopping between demonic cults and summoning demons, to the point where my Watch and Learn ability had accidentally granted me a Demonic Summoning skill. Most of the time, those demons didn’t seem like anything special, and I was confident we could beat them up if they had similar levels to us.

“Also complicated. You don’t mix demons and dungeons,” Cal responded. “You know how dungeon monsters aren’t technically real? Outside of very special cases, they’re all summoned by the dungeon without souls.”

That much, I’d learned from the class I’d taken in Sylum. It was actually kind of nice, as it meant I was essentially fighting fancy robots, removing any sort of hard moral questions that would normally come with going around slaughtering things. As such, I nodded.

“Well, demons don’t work that way. They can reproduce the normal way, and they definitely do. But most demons are born asexually. If you throw enough demonic mana somewhere, baby demons just appear out of nothing. Once they get to be a high enough level, they naturally form a soul.”

Bizarre, but also not that big of a deal? If anything, that almost made things better. If there was a rational creature somewhere in the region, maybe we could chat things over instead of having to fight.

Seeing I clearly wasn’t getting it, Cal shook her head. “There are other factors that make demons a bad match for us, too, but think about it. This place has been around for how long? Centuries? If there’s a boss, it’ll be an ensouled, sentient demon that’s multiple hundreds of years old.” That did sound a bit rough, but to drive the point home, Cal continued. “It likely outlevels us, has an actual class, and isn’t fully bound by the rules of the dungeon. Would you want to fight Sett back when he was 500 years old? Just be happy that it didn’t notice us.”

Alas, at that moment, it was clear that Cal wasn’t a Protagonist. If she had been, she would have learned to stop tempting fate by now.

Right as Cal finished speaking, a roar filled the air, nearly powerful enough to throw us from Tal’Ket’s back. 

For a second, I assumed it originated back from the demonic region, with its boss having realized too late that we’d escaped it. A flare of Danger Sense quickly put that notion to rest, and swiveling back, I was shocked to see that something had joined us in the sky.

It was small, at first, but as it rocketed through the air, it became clear that that was more a function of distance than actual size. Much more important than its looks, however, was its location. By now, we were very firmly in the fire region.

And somehow, so was it.

Cal’s words from only moments before came back to me. It wasn’t fully bound by the rules of the dungeon. Did that include not needing to stay put? Was it allowed to roam around as it pleased? And if that was the case, would we be safe, even in the prairie?

Ultimately, all of that worrying proved to be moot.

Because, quite clearly, we wouldn’t be making it back to the prairie.

Somehow outpacing even our copy of Tal’Ket, the fearsome demon hurtled through the sky, giving us only just enough time to prepare ourselves. Cal went invisible. Verin retreated into her glacier. I summoned my armor and bow.

And perhaps that would have helped had the demon targeted any of us.

Unfortunately, for now, we were an afterthought. Before I could fire off a single shot, it swooped down, latching onto Tal’Ket like a massive tick.

A sharp, barbed tail flicked down, piercing the bird’s side.

And just like that, our mount dispersed into motes of air mana.

Suddenly stuck in the air with nothing beneath us, we began to fall.

That wasn’t normally an issue. I had my boots, after all. But right as I was about to fire off a few Jet Steps and either fight or flee, the demon locked its inhuman eyes upon me, breaking into a haunting, sharp-toothed grin.

“You.” Faster than I could react, it shot its hand forward, enclosing me in a tight fist with bone-crushing force. “You’ll do nicely.”

I tried to escape. I pitted my Strength against it, attempting to pry its fingers from me. I filled my armor with equal parts fire and death mana, letting my enhancements passively damage the creature. Neither worked even a little.

It was only when I summoned a sword and began to overload it that the demon reacted, chiding me as if I were an unruly child.

“None of that, now.” Its other hand drifted over, and with one devastating flick, its oversized index finger smashed into my head. 

To my credit, the finger didn’t manage to bypass my armor and the many ranks of Force Dispersal I had. Unfortunately, that just spurred the demon to use a full fist on the followup strike. Augmented with some sort of mana empowerment, the blow finally did the trick.

As my vision began to blacken, the last thing I saw before passing out was Verin’s glacier, rapidly disappearing behind us as it plummeted to the ground.

By the time we left the fire region behind us, I was already out cold.