Their next destination was an abandoned cave. Even if the presence of a weak ley line hadn’t told Serenity where they were, the fact that there was a path leading to nothing would have. They were at the site of the broken dungeon.
Serenity couldn’t even tell there had once been a dungeon there. The ley line wasn’t strong enough to justify a dungeon, even on a Tier Zero world like Earth; on a world like Zon, there was no way there should be one here. From the diagram in the journal, Serenity knew this was supposed to be a nexus, but if it was it was the weakest nexus he’d ever felt.
In many ways, it reminded him of a weaker version of the issue he’d dealt with at the former Corn Maze, back on Earth. He’d fixed a few similar problems like that later. The big difference was that this time he didn’t have Gaia’s guidance on how things were supposed to be. Zon had never spoken to him.
All he had to go on was the information in the journal. He’d have to use what it held carefully; he was a lot stronger than back then and the ley line was much weaker. Instead of being overpowered, there was a chance that he might damage something if he wasn’t careful.
Serenity shook his head then looked at Elder Verit. “May I see the journal? I think I saw something useful.”
The elder chuckled then handed him the book. “You’re the one with the dungeon-related Paths. All I can do is meditate and hope that I can follow my heart to another hidden dungeon on the mountain. If you have more than that, I will do what I can.”
Serenity tried not to react to Verit’s assumption of multiple dungeon-related Paths. It was better if she thought that. Saying nothing was definitely the best policy; he was terrible at deception. Instead, he flipped through the journal, looking for the section he remembered. He had it all electronically, but sometimes there was something about paper that made him concentrate more.
The section was there. It described how the ley lines were initially moved and anchored in place before the “dungeon seeds” were “planted” at each created nexus. The anchors weren’t quite the same as the one Serenity knew how to make, but the full details weren’t included.
Someone who didn’t know spells as well as Serenity might have missed the missing parts, but they definitely weren’t there; there was nothing linking the dance and the chant. Even if he had all of the pieces, Serenity wouldn’t want to perform the spell as it was written; it would require a great deal of practice and probably several attempts. He was simply going to have to use the spell he knew and try to make it gentler.
One thing that wasn’t missing was the exact location of the previous anchor. Serenity was very glad that the location was there; replicating the previous setup would hopefully reduce the risks.
The other thing that would hopefully reduce the risks was a dungeon seed of his own. Serenity didn’t have one; what they even were wasn’t recorded in the journal. What he did have was a dead dungeon core that he’d filled with Potential. It would have to do. Serenity opened his Rift and pulled the dungeon core out of it.
“Where did you get that?” Verit stared at the dungeon core. She sounded shocked.
Serenity glanced down at it; all he saw was what he expected. “It’s the dungeon core Entherys took from the dungeon that should be here and used up to affect the other dungeon. I don’t have anything else to use as the dungeon seed the journal mentioned, but I think this will work.” Or maybe hoped was the better word. Either way, it was the best he had so it was what he was going to go with.
“I’ve never seen anything that pushed on my mind so much,” Verit stated. “It wants something, but it doesn’t know what it is. I think it’s asking?”
That probably wasn’t a good thing, even if Serenity didn’t know what was going on. It certainly wasn’t having that effect on him. On the other hand, it was his magic; maybe it made sense it wasn’t causing him issues. “Maybe you should move farther away?”
Verit frowned and nodded before she moved away. Serenity noticed that even though she was well away from him, her vision stayed on the damaged crystalline sphere in his hand rather than what he was doing.
He’d better get a move on. The faster he got this done, the better. He did still have to be careful, though; his earlier concerns about using too much power at once definitely still applied.
Before he started, he had to make sure he wasn’t eating any of the mana from the ley line. That would distort the flow of the line and make it harder to detect; with a strong ley line, it didn’t matter. With one this weak, Serenity wasn’t sure he’d be able to sense anything at all if he allowed himself to eat.
It took hours to properly build the spellform and center it over the exact location of the previous anchor. Serenity probably didn’t need to reference the journal as many times as he actually did, but it made him feel better than that was significant while building a complex spell. It was even more important when building a complex spell that he’d never built before.
Sure, he’d built all of the pieces before, but making sure the emergency power shunts wouldn’t send power out into the ley line and make things worse was painstaking work. That was exactly what they were originally designed for, after all, to take the power from an imploding spell and redirect it harmlessly outside. Only it might not be harmless if he ran that uncontrolled power into this weak ley line.
At some point during the process, Verit sat down and closed her eyes. Serenity couldn’t tell if she was meditating or sleeping, though meditation seemed more likely. She hadn’t fallen over.
When the spell was finally ready, Serenity didn’t wait for Verit to wake up before he started running mana and essence into it. She was well outside the ley line, as far back as he’d have asked her to move before starting to cast even if she had been alert.
For once, the spell worked as planned. The anchor latched onto the dead dungeon core and snapped the ley line back to its previous location directly over the core. Serenity could tell when the spell was no longer necessary; the ley line was in the correct location and it was reinforcing the extraordinarily weak nexus.
Serenity stood, but before he could get out of the ley line, the dungeon core vanished.
[Dungeon initialization complete. Assume dungeon ownership?]
That was easy. He didn’t need a dungeon.
No.
[Dungeon setup commencing. Estimated time to dungeon availability: Ten days]
That was interesting. Serenity didn’t remember ever seeing a dungeon that was in a “setup” mode before. Aki’s dungeon had been available immediately after she anchored her core; sure, she’d had to make some choices but they didn’t take long. Of course, it was a surface dungeon in a much more powerful ley line while this seemed to be an instanced dungeon.
Serenity made his way out of the ley line. It felt funny anyway; he wasn’t used to not eating mana when he was in a ley line.
Verit waited and watched. At some point during the spellcasting, she’d come out of her trance and stood up. Serenity had vaguely known that, but hadn’t considered it important. Verit kept moving her fingers, repeatedly stretching them at her side; they were the only thing that revealed that she was nervous. “Did it work?”
Serenity nodded. Anything more than that was beyond him right now; he was tired. It wasn’t stamina exhaustion; his body was fine, not even stiff. It was ordinary mental exhaustion. “Ten days, more or less, and you’ll have a new dungeon. I don’t know what it’ll be like, so you’ll need to be careful exploring it.”
Verit relaxed and let her breath out. It wasn’t until then that Serenity realized how tightly she’d been holding herself. “Good.”
She turned to look towards the exit, then stopped and turned back to Serenity. “Iron Mountain is well known as the strongest of the sects. We are left alone because we do not interfere with other sects, but you do not belong to a sect. Would you like to join Iron Mountain?”
Serenity blinked at Verit. What? Had he misheard?
Verit’s hand started to flex again. “We’d have to test you, but from what I’ve seen I expect you’d be able to join as an Elder without any difficulty-”
“I’m not joining a Sect.” Serenity spoke over Verit. “Or a Court or whatever you call yourselves. I have my own responsibilities at home already.” Surely there was something else he could say to discourage her? Talking about why something didn’t work for him never worked against determined people; they’d always try to talk it up.
Oh. Of course. Serenity smiled; this should work. “One more question before you keep trying to convince me how helpful joining the sect will be. What Tier is your Sect Master?”
Verit blinked. That clearly wasn’t the question she’d expected. “He’s higher than anyone else I’ve ever met. I think he’s Tier Six.”
Huh. Serenity must have underestimated him. “What Tier do you think I am?”
Verit frowned. “A little higher than I am, so … the top of Tier Five, maybe low Tier Six. Not as high as the Sect Master.”
Serenity shook his head with a slight smile. This was definitely going to work. He released his aura and didn’t try to control it other than keeping it from spreading much farther than where Verit stood. He normally restricted its power as well as its area, both to avoid scaring people and to be underestimated. Being underestimated wouldn’t help here. “Try again.”
Verit paled and backed up. “I have no idea. Who, no, how? How did Duke Lowpeak get someone like you to work for him?”
Serenity shrugged. “He asked. Being a higher Tier doesn’t mean that you can’t work for someone of lower Tier. It does mean that I’m likely to value membership in your organization less than someone in a different situation.” Serenity pulled his aura back against his skin. As useful as it was, he didn’t feel up to doing anything complex to control it right now; this wasn’t a dangerous enough area that he needed a weak aura out to alert him of surprises.
Verit led Serenity out of the sect’s area without asking him again. He wasn’t sure if he’d scared her or not, but at least she wasn’t bugging him. He didn’t think he’d offended her, either. Scared her, perhaps; he doubted she’d expected him to be as strong as he was, even if it wasn’t entirely true. He had the Attributes but not the Skills to back them up.
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