Naomi gave Serenity an odd look. “What are you laughing about?”

Serenity’s laughter trailed off into a chuckle. “Myself. Or maybe the surprise.” Serenity didn’t want to explain his laughter, mostly because he couldn’t. It just struck him funny at the time. “These are Affinity stones. This one’s Death; my guess is that they’re each associated with one of the floors. The brown one is probably mud or earth; that could be from the swamp or the desert. Maybe both. The white one could be Air or Light, one of the last two levels, though it’s also possible for it to be lightning. The green one’s probably Life; that could be any of the levels where we faced living monsters, rather than golems or elementals. I bet it’s a rare reward and even then it probably varies a lot.”

It could be directly triggered by something or it could be completely random. The one thing that might not be random was that there were four of them; some dungeons deliberately gave out rewards that were “easier” to divide, so the fact that there were four Affinity Stones could be because there were four people in the groups. Of course, it could also be totally random.

Serenity paused. There was one other option for why the number of stones matched the number of people. “Unless … do each of you have an Affinity you use the most? These could also be personalized rewards. Some dungeons will do that if you complete a special area. I wasn’t expecting it, not with the throne as well, but it’s possible.”

“Metal,” Naomi answered. “It’s my only good Affinity. No one’s ever been able to teach me any metal spells, but it’s still great for reinforcing my equipment.” She paused, then looked up at Serenity. “You never asked why I’m so heavily armored when something lighter could work just as well with the same enchantments. Thanks for that.”

Serenity shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. “It’s your armor. You know what suits your Path better than I do. Plus, it’s not like I’m wearing light armor myself. I’d have no room to talk.”

Naomi grunted and glared at Daryl. “Doesn’t stop some people.”

Daryl didn’t even turn to look at Naomi. If anything, he seemed to studiously avoid allowing his gaze to travel in her direction.

That was something Serenity did not want to get in the middle of if he could avoid it. He turned his attention back to the rewards; his latest guess was probably not true, but it couldn’t hurt to ask. Serenity hadn’t tried to identify the marbles’ Affinities by anything other than color so far, after all, and while none of them were the silver color he usually thought of as Metal, Affinity color wasn’t exactly set in stone. Naomi would have an easier time sensing the Metal Affinity than Serenity would, anyway; he didn’t have an Affinity that was specific to Metal. “Do any of the Affinity Stones feel like metal to you?”

Naomi looked into the box, then reached out to touch the marbles. She concentrated for a moment, then picked up the white one, the one Serenity had guessed was probably Air or Lightning. “This one. It’s a really light metal, flexible and strong, but somehow also brittle? Only it isn’t always, there’s some way to make it less brittle.”

That wasn’t what Serenity had expected at all. “Gabriel, Daryl, you should pick which you want. I’d like the Death one, obviously.” The better reward might be to take the Life one, if that was what it was, for someone else. Somehow, that just didn’t feel right to Serenity. He didn’t need an Affinity stone for their usual purpose, increasing an Affinity or sometimes Concept, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find a use for it.

If nothing else, he could probably shove a bunch of mana in it, let the stone aspect it to Death-affinity, and keep it there until he needed it. An extra mana pool wasn’t something he needed often, but when he needed it, it was hugely helpful.

The other option that immediately came to mind was to eat it. Serenity meant that more figuratively than literally, in this case; he did have the ability to absorb magical items now, after all. Some monsters had secondary cores, which were usually elementally aligned, and this might be one way to get one. Serenity wasn’t certain he wanted one, however, especially not one aligned with Death.

Serenity was still considering what he knew about monsters with specialized Affinity cores when Daryl finally answered. “If that one really is Earth, it’s mine. That’s not my best Affinity, but I’m better with it than either of the others. Gabe, you want to test the green one?”

“Gabriel.” The healer’s voice sounded strained; he must still be in pain from the fight. Whether or not that was true, Gabriel bent over and scooped up the green and brown marbles. “This is Healing, not Life. Even better. Here’s yours.” Gabriel dropped the brown core into Daryl’s hand.

Daryl concentrated for a moment, then nodded. “This is Wood, not Earth. It feels a lot like some of the trees on the fifth level before the volcano erupts.” He tucked it in his dimensional bag, then looked over at Gabriel. “D’you want to explain the chair while I split the Etherium? Three for the guild, one for Serenity,” Daryl inclined his head towards Serenity as he spoke. “You still good with that? We said a fair split up front, only way I can see to get more fair than an even split would require getting an appraisal on everything and that’s a pain.”

Serenity knew why Daryl was worried he might not accept; the Affinity stones were definitely the most valuable things they’d seen in the entire dungeon; each was probably worth more than the entire pile of Etherium, and Serenity’s was smaller than the other three. On the other hand, Serenity knew that his was also denser than the other three; he could tell that from the way mana moved around them.

He couldn’t tell exactly how much denser, so he didn’t know if it made up for the smaller size or not, but he had the feeling that it probably more than made up for it. It seemed like the dungeon was showing off for Serenity, which meant the tailored rewards probably favored him rather than the other way around. “I think I’m getting the better end of the deal, with the fulgurite, more than a quarter of the monster cores, and now this. If you want to split the Etherium equally, I’m happy with that.”

“Then we’re all happy,” Daryl said. He seemed a bit relieved that there wasn’t going to be any argument about loot at the end. Serenity could sympathize with that; he’d been through a few after-dungeon fights over loot himself. They were one of the reasons why it was better to build a stable team; not the biggest reason, but still a reason.

Serenity stood up and walked over to the chair. It was the only thing of interest left in the dungeon, after all, and he wanted to see if there was some way to use it to talk to the dungeon core. He’d promised to try to free the core, but he wasn’t sure how to begin. Perhaps he ought to leave with the Silver Blades and come back on his own? He could probably get the dungeon to let him into its core space from the entrance. There were those odd options before he entered, after all.

“None of us understand how the chair works.” Gabriel’s voice pulled Serenity’s attention off his plans and back to the present. “It seems to interact with the Voice somehow, but not through the usual screens and Paths. It can also do some other things, but there isn’t a list or anything. You just have to try it and see if it works. I’m planning to see if I can find Zany; I’m not sure what Naomi and Daryl will do.”

“Depends on whether or not you find him,” Daryl stated, then handed Serenity a pouch. “Here’s your share. It was a pretty good haul this time. Not the best we’ve seen, but well up there. Definitely covers expenses, even the portals, at least. Much better than if we stop at the end of Seven.”

Serenity frowned. They ought to be able to make it through the eighth level without him; it wasn’t like they’d had to do much of any fighting on the floating islands. “Is that where you’ve been stopping?”

Gabriel chuckled. “When I’m exhausted after the blind level, which I usually am? It’s not worth continuing. I have trouble with the jumps between islands, always have, and if I’m tired it’s just not worth trying. I will fall, they will have to pull me up, and eventually either Naomi and Daryl are so tired they slip too or we have to rest on an island. That’s not exactly great, so we just don’t try unless we get through the seventh level mostly uninjured. That’s why I found those charms; we’re getting better with them, but it’s still not sight.”

Serenity considered that for a moment, then nodded. His presence might well have made a difference on the eighth level, since he meant three strong anchor points supporting the one weak climber instead of two. He’d helped keep everyone relatively fresh even before he started just carrying Gabriel. On top of that, even though he wasn’t yet able to effectively use the charm Gabriel provided, his Eyeless Sight and Manasight were extremely useful on the previous level and probably gave them a better starting point for the eighth level. It made sense.

With that question answered, Serenity turned his attention back to the chair. From what Gabriel said, he probably could use it to contact the dungeon core, but did he want to when he already had another plan? Serenity supposed it depended on what the other options were.

The chair might or might not be able to help with freeing the dungeon core, but since it was part of the dungeon, Serenity doubted that it could do more than get him in contact. That meant he was free to take another option if it was useful enough to warrant a return trip to help the core. “When you say it can interact with the Voice, what do you mean?”

Gabriel shrugged. “It varies from person to person. We know it can’t help you move farther on your Path; people have tried. It can help you unlock a new Path, usually a close variant of one you already have. Some people have managed to earn attribute points or even alter or combine Skills. The thing is, it’s very personal; all I can really tell you is that you sit on it, then you concentrate on what you want. For some people, that’s enough; others have to think about how they would go about getting it. It can be anything from a meditation session to a waking dream. Sometimes people fail; when they do, there usually aren’t any consequences. When there are, it generally takes time to heal; magic doesn’t seem to address whatever they’ve strained. The thing is, no one knows what makes people fail. Sometimes it’s the people we expect to succeed the most that have trouble.”

Serenity rolled the information over in his head. Gabriel was giving up something that useful to find his Guildmaster? That seemed extreme, but on the other hand, the Guildmaster was the person who usually escorted them here. Gabriel might assume that he’d be able to use the chair more often if he gave up this one use than if he used it for his own progress. He might be right, too, though Serenity doubted it would be that easy after he freed the dungeon core.

Serenity looked up at Gabriel. “It sounds like you really don’t know a lot about it, just a vague notion of how to use it. Good enough. Do you want to go first?” Serenity was definitely going to want to ask about the chair when he had the chance. It was far too interesting to not ask about.

Lillene

The Layered Dungeon is designed for four or five people. Going in with three makes it quite a bit more difficult; you just don’t have the people to do everything it’s set up for. It’s a soft limit, not a hard limit, but it’s still there.