Chapter 153:

  Maveith’s question hung in the air. “Who?” It was not a simple question for me to answer.

  I was going to have to reveal to him that it was not void magic that helped me kill the monsters. I probably should have prepared him better for this and taken the decisive step of trusting the goliath earlier. “You know how you thought I had powerful void magic? Well, I do not have any void magic. I remove part of a creature by pg it in my dimensional space.”

  Maveith’s face was an unreadable mask as the rge iron pot bubbled in front of him, giving the air a fruity st remi of dy. “Maveith?” I tried to get the attention of the goliath, who was still processing my words.

  Minutes passed before he began to stir the syrupy hot jam. “I do not know much about magic,” he finally said, “but your statement seems too fantastical.” Okay, I was never going to tell Maveith I was an Other Worlder. He seemed a bit broken, struggling to fathom the extent and power of my spell form.

  I opened my dimensional spad rearra slightly to make the elven tablet reader appear o him. It was seve away from me. Maveith jumped a little but eyed me slowly, putting the pieces together. A a prolonged silence followed as he stirred the pot. Every on a while, he would look at me or the table. He finally said, “So if you pull a part of a monster into your dimensional space, you pull aire monster—or person—into it?”

  I nodded and firmed, “Yes.”

  I let Maveith think for a moment before he asked, “Could you put me in your dimensional space?”

  “Probably. If you were sitting down,” I said, crag a grin. I partly wanted him to think the space was smaller than it actually was, and it was also just a jab at his immense size.

  “So, who is in there now?” Maveith finally asked, moving the cauldron off the thermal stone.

  I winced slightly, having to tell this story. “Ba Macha, when the Bartiradians attacked, their griffon riders crashed into the city. I was sent with some of the pany to make sure they were dead.”

  “She has been ihe eime!” Maveith excimed.

  I winced. “Well, no. I put her in there when she was casting a fireball at me. I released her and the fireball at an enemy a few days ter. I thought the explosion had killed her,” I expined.

  Maveith shook his head, interruptihat is not how magic works. You ot steal another’s magid store it.”

  “Really?” I asked, fused. “That was how it happened.”

  Maveith seemed uain. “I do not know. I just have never heard of anyone doing that. So, she is in there now, burned and suffering.”

  “Time does not pass in my dimensional space,” I reminded him, and he nodded. “Actually, I left her in Macha, and she was healed by her people. Then fate brought her into my path again. She was with the summoner’s student when we caught up to them. Sebastian’s drake crushed her in his jaws and smmed her into a rock. I put her in my space to save her for ter.” That sounded just as bad ing out of my mouth as Maveith’s face sched in disgust.

  I tried to expin quickly. “I inteo use the collector on her. Konstantin aian were close, so I could not reveal the collector. I learhat if I store dead bodies, I get the esseer.”

  Maveith seemed somecated, and I wondered just what he thought of me. He asked, “How do you know she is alive?”

  “My aether bottomed out. She resisted being pced in the dimensional space. That means her aether core is still active. At least, that is my guess,” I told him truthfully.

  Maveith nodded, aarted to eat. We dipped everything i jam before it jelled. As we finished off the loose rations, Maveith asked another question, “How is the mostly dead elf going to help us? Do you have another healing potion?”

  I dipped some jerky in the fruit saud savored it while chewing. “No, I do not. I was hoping to find another healing potion. But you see why I am hesitant t her out. She is not going to be very happy with me.”

  “I would not be very happy with you either,” Maveith said, chewing on some hard cheese. “Is she a good fighter?”

  I thought back to our enters. She was good with her bdes and had magic—magic that could easily be turned against me. I suddenly recalled being fireballed in the bad residered this idea. “Yes, she fight and cast fireballs.”

  Maveith seemed to sider. “Perhaps it is best if I try to reason with her when you release her from your impriso.” It appeared Maveith had already decided it was a good idea.

  I sipped some wine from the bottle. “Maveith, that is a pretty harsh way to describe it.”

  “You pced her there against her will and held her without a ce of freedom. That describes it aptly,” his deep voice carried strong disapproval. Then I remembered the orc svers had killed his sister, and I was sort of ensving the elf.

  “I could have let her die,” I tered his disapproval.

  He seemed to pohis for a long time. “Sorry for being upset. You were enemies. You did nothing wrong. And now you pn to save her to make amends.” The tension in the room lessened greatly.

  Soon, we were making our way to sleep. I held the amulet in my hand, needing to referehe books Castile had created in the dreamscape. “Maveith, the amulet is in this hand. If you o wake me, just take it.”

  Maveith’s eyes studied the amulet. “ I?”

  “ime we sleep,” I firmed. I ehe dreamscape.

  Searg through Castile’s books proved extremely useful, as one of the books was on are scripts from dungeons. The other potion I received from the red bear was aher restorative potion. I khese potions were extremely rare and valuable since alchemists had trouble brewing stable versions of them. Even the simplest aether restorative required a tier-three alchemist.

  It took time to find a refereable for essehe book tained a whole se on the history of the collectors. The first collector was found in a duhousands of years ago, and they were extremely rare. The First Legion saw the immense value in them and focused on recreating the devices with their artificers. They produced hundreds of them, but the master artificers capable of crafting them were assassinated in subsequent wars. Thus, the number of collectors became limited and rarely found in dungeons.

  I matched up the essences with the chart to see what I had in my ste:

  Minor Essence—azure, blue with white swirls – air affinityApex Essence—azure, blue with white swirls – air affinity13 x Minor Essences—dark green – quiess attribute2 x Apex Essences—rainbow swirling colors – illusion affinity2 x Major Essences—rainbow swirling colors – illusion affinityApex Essence—bck with swirling red and e – fire affinityApex Essence—pale yellow – insight attributeBased on the information found in the book, I could e one physical, oal, and one magical esseogether without fear of harming myself. However, if I wao e more in the same day, they would o be the same types. If once again, if I ed a strength essehe first time, I would o stick with strength in the physical stats until I let a day pass to ge the type. I was still a bit skeptical and would o do my owing. Maybe being an Other Worlder made me different somehow.

  I had piled quite a colle of essences in the dungeon in a short time. I was eyeing the minor air affinity essence. When I took the apex earth essence, I had zero affinity, and it ainful to add the new affinity to my aether core. Maybe the minor air essence would not be as horrific.

  Castile left a lot of books, but I focused my time in the dreamscape on learning the runic script. It was a headache si was essentially memorizing over seven hundred symbols and their rough meanings, whily became clear when you ed them together. The patterns were intricate as well. Fortunately, most potions required only a sequence of three symbols to identify the tents. Within the symbols, I could also see maric patterns in the spell forms I had imprinted on my core. Dungeon script was the nguage of magic.

  I was not going to be able to draw the symbols, but I could at least study them them. I created fshcards and worked for almost eight hours. I ed up the dreamscape, moving everything to the scorpion room and sealing it away. Maveith was going to use the deviext, and my level of trust with him was reag a point where I would let him use it without my presence.

  I left the dreamscape to find Maveith already awake. He seemed in a cheerful mood. “I used the reader. you read it to me?” he asked.

  I moved the reader and tried to teach Maveith the elven numerical symbols as I read them off. Fortunately, they were in base ten as well. As expected, his magical affinities had not ged, and his potentials remaihe same.

  Physical

  Mental

  Magical

  Strength (+3/+0)

  80/107

  Intellect (+0/+0)

  20/38

  Aether Pool (+0/+0)

  9/10

  Power (+4/+0)

  64/90

  Reasoning (+0/+0)

  34/46

  eling (+0/+0)

  19/30

  Quiess (+2/+0)

  40/55

  Perception (+0/+0)

  29/40

  Aether Shaping (+0/+0)

  15/16

  Dexterity (+0/+0)

  23/40

  Insight (+0/+0)

  15/30

  Aether Tolerance (+0/+0)

  22/25

  Endurance (+3/+0)

  47/90

  Resilience (+0/+0)

  19/34

  Aether Resistance (+0/+0)

  9/21

  stitution (+1/+0)

  40/101

  Empathy (+0/+0)

  48/67

  Prime Aether Affinity

  Earth

  Coordination (+0/+0)

  23/33

  Fortitude (+0/+0)

  30/50

  Minor Aether Affinity

  “This is great! It looks like your body is rec after being starved for so long.” It had only been just over a day and a few meals, but Maveith’s physical stats were rising rapidly. I figured mine would be doing the same. He paid close attention to the numerical symbols, and I thought he would be able to read it on his owime.

  I stood and started to help with the up. I was not going to use the reader as he might want to know what mine were, and my magic affinities o remai for now.

  We had almost five gallons of jam! I just moved the entire cauldron to my dimensional space to store the apple-berry jam. I pced almost everything in my space, leaving us both with small packs of items we needed for quick access..

  I felt the most well-rested and satiated I had been in weeks. It felt strange because I was trapped deep in aremely dangerous dungeon. We walked to the chamber with the shapeshifters, and I felt great relief wash over me as they were nowhere in sight.

  “How long has it been since we killed them?” I asked Maveith.

  Maveith was still sing the room. “Just over half a day. They are shapeshifters, though. They may be hiding as something else.”

  “They do that?” I also searched my memory, trying to identify anything that seemed out of pce.

  “I do not know. But anything seems possible after what you told me yesterday,” his voice echoed in the room.

  We studied the area for fifteen minutes before stepping in, and nothing happehe bodies of the shapeshifters had not vanished and were just over the rise in the moss, already desiccated. The bushes were full of tiny berries, repg what we had harvested. We quickly refilled the water barrel and moved into the corridor toward the fire bear.

  Oddly, I was disappointed not to have the ce to talk with the shapeshifters again. They had given us valuable information, and I hoped to tease out more knowledge, even if the dungeon did not want them to cooperate. We would see them again if we had to return to the safe room.

  The fire bear was eating apples off the tree when roached. Maveith was already excited. “Such a majestic creature. The fur would make a spectacur cloak. And that was some of the best bear meat I have ever eaten.”

  The fire bear was eyeing us but not overly ed. I studied it for a long time. “It looks smaller. Actually, I am sure. The st one was rger. Maybe it is not the same ohat would be different from when the dungeon revives the shapeshifters.”

  “Do not damage the pelt. I want it in one piece,” Maveith’s eagerness was more focused on harvesting the bear than my suppositions about how the dungeon worked.

  “Wait here.” I stepped into the room, immediately drawing the shimmering red bear’s attention. It cocked its head, its eyes being a deeper red as it charged. I removed most of its brain from fiftee away and sidestepped as the body slid forward on the soft earth.

  Maveith stepped into the room, his jaw open. He walked to the bear that illing blood steadily onto the ground. Seeing he could not speak, I told him, “You start harvesting the bear. I will check the reward chest.” I poio the stone chest atop the mound. A moment ter, I was shattering the thin stone g and was relieved to see the two familiar potions among the silver s: the aether restorative and the greater healing potion.

  Maveith found his voice after being stu my dispy. “Eryk, e over here, and I will show you the proper way to harvest a bear.”I sighed, gathering up the s and potions to join Maveith. I would send them to my dimensional space when my aether suffitly recovered. With the healing potion, releasing the griffin rider was a viable option now.

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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