Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-One - Uprooted

The moment I was able to sneak my hand closer to the core in the centre of the core room, everything became a lot easier.

There was enough ambient mana in there that my mana reserves started to tick up, a point every ten seconds or so instead of once a minute. That just meant I had more mana to pour into Cleaning magic.

I pressed my free hand up against one of the little roots blocking the entrance. It started to fall apart as my Cleaning magic got to work. The root snapped, and I moved on to the next one below it.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Lieutenant Petalwrought asked.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Sorry! I’d love to have some help, and if there was something I could ask for help with I would, but... yeah, this is just going to take a little bit.”

Another root snapped, and I noticed the entire body of the Evil Roots shifting very slightly. Did it know that I was harming it? I asked myself, not for the first time, if the Evil Roots could think. If they could, did they know that they were hurting the dungeons they were grabbing onto?

My mana bounced up and down as I waited for it to refill a bit, then used it all up on cutting apart the roots blocking the entrance. Eventually, I had a space that was big enough to crawl through. “I think I’m going to climb through,” I said.

“A dungeon’s core is high in mana,” Lucille warned. “Unless you’re spending all of it, constantly, then there’s a very real chance that you can hurt yourself.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But that’s what I plan on doing. Flood the entire room with enough Cleaning magic that the Evil Roots don’t have a choice but to fall back. It’s easier to do if I can use the core’s own magic for it. Besides, look, it’s regrowing.”

I tugged on one of the smaller roots and showed it to the others. The tip of it was still a little raw where my magic had cut through it, but it was turning a paler shade of green and it looked as though the root was starting to grow back.

“Interesting,” Aria said. “Its growth rate must be spectacular. That’s... perhaps two or three milimetres a minute, at a guess. I’d need a ruler and some way of marking its progress over time to be certain.”

“The roots cover a large portion of the entire dungeon,” Amaryllis said. “They would need to grow quickly to do that. I imagine various parts of the root network grow at different paces.”

“I’m going to write so many papers from this,” Aria said with obvious glee. “Lady Albatross, Lady Bristlecone, you’ve experienced other dungeons plagued by these roots, correct? Ah, good. Could you tell me about them? Maybe how those ... infections ... differed from this one?”

I listened with half an ear as my friends related their stories for some of the other dungeons we’d explored together. Aria took notes, of course.

Once I had an opening that was wide enough, I climbed up into it after tossing my pack aside and handing Weedbane to one of the knights. I had to slip my head and shoulders in first, then I hoped that the sylph behind me were all gentlemen as I squeezed my hips through the passage.

I landed in a roll on the other side and found the ground covered in those big flat leaves that the roots seemed to only grow around a core. Were they like leaves facing sunlight, but instead of sunlight they were fixed on the core?

Did that mean that the core was radiating mana directly? It did glow a bit.

That was worrisome. I didn’t know that much about radiation, but I recalled it being pretty scary, and usually if it was radioactive enough to glow, then seeing it wasn’t good for you.

Well, an issue for later.

I pushed out a wash of Cleaning magic around me, breaking up a circle of the leaves, then as more and more mana gathered in me from being closer to the core, I started to fill the room with Cleaning magic.

It was like I was a filter, sucking in the ambient mana and then pushing it out in a form that was able to harm the roots.

The leaves all across the room started to wither. Simply flooding the room with cleaning magic wouldn’t be enough to clear the bigger, thicker roots, but I suspected it was a start.

I could either destroy the roots on the edges of the room and work my way in, or I could clear those grabbing onto the core directly. It only took a moment’s thought to come to a choice. The core was basically an important part of the dungeon, so removing the roots there would make the dungeon feel a bunch better.

I had to work carefully. I didn’t want to strike the core itself in case it broke, but it was surrounded by roots. So, I carefully cut through the roots leading up to the core. Judging by how the roots on the walls flinched, they didn’t like that one bit.

Once they were detached, it was pretty easy to peel some of the roots off the core just by tugging on them. A few were wrapped around tight enough that I had to let some ambient Cleaning magic brush up against them until they loosened and I could tear them off. After a few minute’s work, the entire core was clear.

“There you go,” I muttered to the dungeon. “Nice and freed up.” For some reason I couldn’t help but think of the dungeon as a cute animal caught in a fence.

The... taste of the mana in the air changed a bit. I paused as I felt at it to be sure it wasn’t a bad change.

Then... then nothing happened, so I started blasting.

Big gouts of Cleaning magic splashed against the walls and ceiling and floor, burning away the root’s infection until big clumps of root fell down with heavy thumps all around the room.

Some of the roots tried to squirm away, others seemed to try and reach out to grab me, or maybe the core behind me, but they were slow-moving and when they met even more Cleaning magic, their efforts turned to nothing.

Soon enough, I walked along the edge of the room, splashing magic onto errant bits of root on the floor.

The room was much nicer without big vines clinging to the walls. It was a sort of nursery, with pastel walls and clean wooden floors. Unfortunately, there were holes in the walls and the floors were warped, but I had the impression that that wouldn’t last for very long. The dungeon, or at least the core, was free of the roots, so it had an opportunity to heal.

Quest Completed!
Trim the Cruel!
The Core is saved!

“I think that’s it,” I said as I left the dungeon’s core room. My mana was topped up to max and then some, but I was leaking an aura of Cleaning magic that would chew away at the excess.

Lieutenant Petalwrought carefully stepped into the room and walked around it once. I had the impression that he was trying not to wince at the clinks and clangs of his armour as he moved with careful reverence. “It seems clear,” he said as he exited the room. “Will the roots perish now?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I think they might. The last dungeons started to fight back against the roots. I don’t know if that means that they’ll all win against them.”

“But if the dungeon’s fighting back, then it has a chance,” Erin said. “We’ve delivered it a dose of medicine. I imagine the rest is up to the dungeon itself.”

I nodded. “That’s how I think it works. I got a quest update. It said the dungeon’s saved. I don’t know if that means just for now, or if it’s a permanent thing.”

A few of the others were giving me a look at that. I think it might have been the mention of the quest. If they treated the World as something very important, then getting a message from it was pretty important too.

“We’ll have to trust you, then,” the lieutenant said.

“I mean, you should verify anyway. Maybe send someone down tomorrow to see if there are any more roots poking into the room,” I said.

He nodded. “I’ll inform the Knight-Captain and the other knights.”

“I might want to see that,” Aria said. “If the roots are still here tomorrow, then there’s a chance they’ll be falling apart, or degrading. Even if they’re completely gone or remain as they are, I’ll want to see. It’ll be important to know moving on... and for my papers too.”

“Speaking of higher-ups,” Amaryllis said. “We should head out. I’m somewhat tired of being in a dungeon, and I think we’re due a payment soon for services rendered. Though I imagine we’ll only see that once we’re back at the capital.”

Everyone seemed to agree with that. I think we were all a bit tired. What time had it been when we entered the dungeon? Early afternoon? I couldn’t even begin to tell what time it was now. Some of the floors had felt like they went on forever. Had we been here for a couple of hours, or nearly a whole day? I couldn’t even guess by feeling how sleepy I was.

“The exit is right through here,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said. He walked over to the last unopened door in the bedroom. “Before we go,” he said with a hand on the handle. “I want to say that it was an honour working with you all. Though most of you come from varied backgrounds and occupations, you all comported yourselves with dignity.”

I knew that pride wasn’t a very nice emotion most of the time, but I still puffed out my chest at his words. “Thank you. I’m glad we all got to become friends.”

There were a few chuckles, and Awen bumped her shoulder against mine.

Then the door was opened and we filed through it. A tunnel awaited us on the other side. Just a few metres in, and I recognized it as the same one we used to enter the dungeon. And then we were out.

A lone knight, in only half the armour as the others and with a spear by his side snapped to attention as he saw us entering the room. “Sir Petalwrought, sir!” he said at volumes that might have been a bit much for indoors.

“Hello, squire,” the knight said. “Can you inform the Knight-Captain of our success?”

“Yes, sir!” the squire shouted back. “Right away, sir. The Knight-Captain is in the upper debriefing room, sir.”

That was a lot of sirs. This boy took himself very sir-iously. I giggled, then worked hard not to laugh when Amaryllis shot me a look. “Nevermind. It’ll just make you angry if I explain.”

She just rolled her eyes

“I believe everyone but our knights should come,” the lieutenant said. “Unless you gentlemen have anything important to add?” he directed the last to the knights.

They shook their heads, and I imagined they were all eager to get out of that armour and into a bath. One of them handed me back Weedbane, and I thanked him with a cheery smile before tucking the scythe on my shoulder.

“Very well then, please follow me once more, everyone,” the lieutenant said.

We moved through the castle, and past a small courtyard at the back. The sky was that dark blue that only came about when the sun was about to set, which answered one of my questions, at least.

Too tired to chat, we tromped up the stairs to the next floor where a bunch of generals and important riff-raff were waiting for us.

***