The more he thought about it, he realized what he really wanted was to have the power to protect his team. He wanted to stay with them, adventuring, as long as he could. He would keep them safe and serve the Goddess of Justice at the same time, regardless of his affinity. Even if the church wouldn’t allow him to become a paladin, he would make the Goddess, and his father, proud through his actions.
“I want to keep those I care about safe,” he said, his words measured. “I want to keep adventuring with my team, while living in a way that will serve the Goddess. I want to grow strong enough in my own way, and still make my father proud.”
Alice’s eyes softened, and a small smile crept onto her face.
“That is the answer I wanted to hear,” she said.
The blue snake disappeared as the red snake struck, sinking fiery fangs into Blake’s neck. Fire roared through his veins, and Blake’s vision wavered as the fire threatened to overwhelm him.
He called upon his celestial energy and felt the gold glow rushing through his body. The mana could heal him; he had learned that during his month of training, and now the golden glow encompassing his body tried to do just that. But the fire was stronger, and he could tell his celestial mana wouldn’t be able to keep him conscious for long.
“You want to be strong enough to protect those you love?” Alice demanded. “Then you must be willing to use all the power at your disposal.”
The way Alice smiled as she spoke, Blake was certain she was enjoying this. He also had the sinking suspicion that she had been informed of his refusal to use his dark mana through his entire set of training.
Blake pulled at his celestial mana, channeling it through his body, but no matter how much he pulled, the fire within kept burning his light away. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he closed his eyes, seeking out the darkness that he held trapped within.
With a growl, he called it forth, and the mana answered. While his celestial mana was warm and soothing, the darkness mana was heavy and cold. He grasped the energy with his mind and pushed it through his veins.
The dark mana oozed throughout his body, and to Blake’s surprise, the darkness smothered the fire burning through him. With his two mana types, he was able to extinguish the flames Alice’s fire serpent had injected into his body.
He opened his eyes, noting how his body seemed clad in a dark armor, with flashes of light cracking through. His glanced at Alice, and the Guildmaster flashed him a large smile, her eyes dancing with excitement.
“You have taken the first step to greatness, Blake,” Alice said. “Now, allow me to enlighten you as to what your future holds.”
She walked back to her desk, and Blake let go of his mana. Exhaustion rushed through him, and for a second, he was afraid he was going to faint. As quickly as he felt it, though, his exhaustion was gone. Blake marveled as he felt mana rushing into him. What was going on?
“I’m sure, by the expression on your face, that you are currently experiencing a rush of mana?” Alice sat in her chair, holding a small, ancient-looking book in her hand.
Blake nodded in response, afraid to speak.
“That is normal, and is the result of you drawing upon both of your affinities to their maximum.” She opened the small book and began sifting through it. “As you know, Blake, adventurers have a set capacity for mana, dependent on their level.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“So, in theory, as a Silver Nine adventurer, you should have two hundred mana points available to you.”
That was correct. Blake had confirmed his mana points the moment he finished awakening to Silver. Because eighty percent of his mana went to strengthening his body, he had been left with forty mana points for skills.
“Please, Blake, open your level triangle again for me.”
He walked shakily to Alice’s desk and presented his left hand to her. The rush of power filling him had subsided, and Blake gasped as he summoned his level triangle. He was Silver Nine, but his mana points, which earlier had been forty, now showed 240.
“How?” he breathed. That couldn’t be right. His maximum had been 200, with 160 points allocated to his physical attributes, and forty points for skills. How could he have 240 points of spare mana now?
Alice smiled.
“When you awakened to Silver, your body drew in the normal 200 points of mana, because that is how the medium you used to ascend is calibrated.” She let go of his palm and turned back to the small book she was leafing through. “With dual affinities, you are able to pull in 200 points of each mana type. However, in order to awaken fully to your affinities, and gain that extra mana, you must draw upon both types of mana at the same time till you are empty.”
She stopped flipping through the book, marking a page with her finger as she looked up at him.
“Hence I forced you to not only heal yourself with your celestial mana, but also use your darkness mana to block my attack.”
“How come I’ve never heard of anyone with two affinities before?” Blake asked as he willed his triangle away, mentally assigning his open mana to his body.
He had entered the Guildmaster’s room with 160 points of mana strengthening his body, with forty points free for skills. Now, as he reassigned his mana to fit the eighty to twenty ratio, he had 320 points assigned to his body, and eighty points free for skills.
“That is because it is extremely rare. . Until you came along, I was the youngest living adventurer with dual affinities, and I’m a few hundred years old.”
“So how many are there?” he asked. His head was spinning with the knowledge. What did it all mean? Why him?
“Currently, I know of three others living with dual affinities,” Alice replied. “Our records show only a few dozen have ever existed, and our records are over a thousand years old.”
What?
“What does this all mean?” he asked.
“For you, right now? Not much, really. You will gain power at a faster rate, because every time you level, the mana you gain will be doubled.” She turned the book towards him. “As for your future… you are the first person to ever have an affinity for celestial and darkness. The old scholars who developed this book, who truly understood the secrets of mana, gave your type of affinity the name ‘ethereal.’ However, it is up to you to learn how to wield these powers together.”
“Ethereal?”
Blake had to admit he liked the way it sounded. But he really had no idea how he would use the two mana types together. Also, and more importantly, Blake wanted to know what it meant for his specialization.
“Can I become a paladin with an ethereal affinity?” he asked.
Alice smiled at him, a mischievous smile, as she closed the book.
“Normally, I would say no. As you know, the church will not allow darkness users into their ranks.”
Blake felt his heart sink, and opened his mouth to speak. Alice raised a finger, stopping him.
“However, if my theory is true, there is a way for you to become a paladin still.”
“How?” Blake forgot himself in his excitement, and leaned forward excitedly on Alice’s desk, bringing him uncomfortably close to the Guildmaster.
She simply smirked at him and leaned back, reaching into her shirt. The movement made Blake realize just how close he was to her, and he jerked back away from her, his face growing red. She pulled out her celestial feather and winked at him.
“As you know, a paladin is an elemental knight who has a celestial affinity,” she said. “To become a paladin, a knight with a celestial affinity is taken by the church to the God-tier celestial dungeon, where the knight pledges allegiance to the Goddess. If she deems him worthy, she gives the knight her praise, and a bond is created between the dungeon and the knight. Through that bond, the celestial elemental knight is able to access the skills and talents of a paladin.”
Blake nodded. He had heard all of this from his father. Elemental knights had to bind themselves to a dungeon that held their affinity, and in
doing so they unlocked the skills and talents related to their affinity. But Blake knew the church controlled all access to the celestial dungeon, and he would never be allowed near it with a darkness affinity.
“Well, in your case,” Alice went on, “you would have to find a dungeon that not only had a link to the celestial affinity, but also to the darkness affinity.”
“No such dungeon exists,” Blake said.
The Adventurers’ Guild kept a list of all the dungeons in existence. Only one celestial dungeon existed, and Blake knew of just two darkness dungeons. One was the God-tiered darkness dungeon that served as the home to the God of Death. The other was the dungeon he and his team explored.
“That is where you are wrong.” Alice’s eyes sparkled as she put her celestial feather away. “The dungeon you currently dive in – if it is still around when you reach Gold tier – will serve as your path to becoming an ethereal paladin.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
Alice wasn’t making sense. First, how could a dungeon have two affinities? And second, what did she mean ‘if it was still around when he reached Gold tier’?
Alice waved a hand dismissively.
“I’ve said too much. I swore I wouldn’t affect the world too much after I got these eyes. Just know there is a threat in the shadows that wants to destroy the darkness dungeon. If you want to become a paladin, you must do all you can to grow as strong as you can, as fast as you can, and do your best to protect the dungeon and its town.”
“I promise.” Blake stood tall, pride flowing through him. He didn’t know what she was talking about, but if the dungeon was the key to his dreams, he would do what Alice said.
“Good.” She smiled and nodded towards the door. “Now, I believe your team is supposed to be gathering back at the dungeon town soon, to resume your dives. I wish you the best of luck.”
Blake turned, heading towards the door.
“And one more thing.” Alice’s voice caused him to pause, one foot out of the room already.
“Ma’am?”
“Tell Karan I miss her.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
“What type of odds are they giving this group?” Ryan asked Erin. It had been a week since he reopened his dungeon, and still no one had made it to Buttercup.
The furthest a group had gone was to the room before Buttercup’s. That had been one of the original groups, who had all become Silver during the time Ryan was improving himself.
They had cleared his first floor with practiced ease, but after struggling against his final mob room, had made the decision to head out without challenging Buttercup. It was the right choice, as Ryan had been certain his new boss would have taken them down.
The adventurers had begun placing bets outside of Ryan’s entrance on which team would be the first to clear his second floor. A one hundred-gold bounty had been placed on his unknown boss.
“Sounds like the bet is eight-to-one odds; nobody thinks this group can even make it to the second level,” Erin said in a bored voice.
That bounty was in part due to A-a-ron’s group. It seemed word had spread about Alex’s death, and Ryan had overheard the other groups of nobles mentioning they would not venture down to the second floor until the boss was defeated and information made available to their guards.
“I wonder when Blake’s group is going to show back up,” Ryan mused.
Ryan had been scanning the crowds of adventurers for any sign of his favorite team. He was confident Blake’s group could make their way to Buttercup’s room and give his boss a challenge.
“It must take them some time to level up to Silver, judging by the absence of many of the other groups as well,” Erin said. “A few have started to reappear as Silver though, so hopefully he will be here soon.”
She let out a sigh and laid down on Ryan’s core.
“I’m so bored,” she groaned, kicking her feet.
“Me too, hun.”
Well, technically, Ryan wasn’t too bored. He was watching multiple skeletal fight club matches at that exact moment. A week of adventuring, Alex’s death, and the death of a handful of Silver adventures meant Ryan was now Silver Seven.
Since no one had been able to clear Ryan’s second floor yet, Erin had agreed that he should hold off on adding more mobs to it. That meant Ryan could use all 100 points he had gained from Silver Nine to Silver Seven for… other tasks. In other words, skeletal fight club had gotten an upgrade.
The first thing Ryan did when he hit Silver Eight was resume his skrat and skuirrel fight club. He decided to refer to this as level one of skeletal fight club and created a large arena underneath his first floor. With fifty mob points, Ryan could summon sixteen plated skrats, given that each of the mobs cost him three points each.
He separated the arena into four sections, ordering four of the skrats into each room, and once again started the battles. Ryan’s plan was to later use the next evolution of his skrats and skuirrels as their final evolution. He had spent plenty of time on them, and wanted to start evolving other mobs, after all.
Once they evolved once more, he intended to use those forms to roam his second floor. But first, he wanted one more evolution, and the adventurers needed to grow stronger. There was no reason to make his dungeon more difficult if adventurers couldn’t even clear it as it was now.
When Ryan hit Silver Seven, he gained another fifty points, and seeing his plated skrats were progressing nicely, had decided to start level two of skeletal fight club
This club was established underneath his second floor, which Ryan had conveniently already excavated. He had been using his free time to gain as much influence on the land around him as possible, to allow for a faster transition once he hit Gold.
The arena he created under his second floor – level two of skeletal fight club – was for his human skeletons. Given the mobs cost him five points each, Ryan decided to spend forty points to summon eight of them. He decided level two would focus on training his human skeletons up in different weapons, so he summoned two archer skeletons, and six fighter skeletons.
These fighter skeletons he broke into three pairs, arming one group with a basic sword and shield, one group with axes, and one group with shields and spears. Ryan wanted variety in his future mobs.
Between level one and two of skeletal fight club, Ryan was left with twelve mob points. Not enough to do much, but he had decided to utilize these points for mob evolutions. While skeletal fight club had strict rules that kept him from talking about it, his mob evolution chamber did not. That was something he could share with Erin, to ease their boredom at times such as now.
“Want to try another fusion?” he asked suddenly.
Erin’s emotions jumped at his suggestion, and the fairy quickly sat up, eyes filled with excitement. So far, ever since the creation of the wolf-deer hybrid, they hadn’t had much success on combinations. But even if the combination didn’t take, the suspense, and the usually colorful shower of bones and mana, made the effort good for wasting time.
“As long as you don’t try another zombie fusion,” Erin warned.
Ryan had tried to combine a ratbie with a skuirrel zombie, and that had resulted in a rather repulsive explosion of – well, everything.
“I think I’m going to stick to mostly bone creatures in my dungeon.” He had noticed adventurers were referring to him as the bone dungeon, and he quite liked the name. Ryan figured he would only create zombie mobs if he was trying to get effects such as the infested ratbie’s paralysis. In fact, he was planning just that with a zombie snake, and had already seen the beginning of a combination of the paralysis mushrooms with the snake’s rotting flesh.
It was only a matter of time before he could add the zombie snakes into his dungeon, though he was currently unsure as to where.
“I would prefer if you did stick to bones.” Erin glared at Ryan as she spoke, and he knew what came next. “Skeletons are creepy and all, but zombies are disgusting. Plus, they smell. Do
you know how long it took me to get rid of that smell?”
“A week. I remember, Rin.”
She had been in the fusion chamber when his zombie fusion had failed. As a result, she had been covered in zombie bits, which she informed him had left her smelling like death for a week straight. Ryan assumed that was a bad thing, but he couldn’t smell anything. All in all, he had found the experience rather amusing. A fact that had gotten him yelled at more than once since the incident.
“Hey, Rin.“ A thought had crossed his mind.
“Yes?”
“Can we combine two of the same mob?” Ryan asked. He took a look at his sneks, his mind racing.
“Umm, maybe?” came her reply.
That’s insightful. Not.
“Want to give it a try?” he asked.
He was already summoning two sneks in the fusion room before Erin could answer. What was the worst that could happen?
“It’s not like there’s anything better to do.” Erin glanced at the group making their way to Steve. It was a new group of mostly Bronze adventurers. They weren’t putting on much of an interesting show.
“Welp, here goes nothing, then,” Ryan announced.
Ryan poured his mana into the two sneks, creating the dark mana eggs around them. The eggs drew together, creating a large black egg. So far, so good.
“Moment of truth,” Ryan whispered to Erin, both for his snek evolution, and the group of adventurers who had opened the door into Steve’s room, and were staring inside.
He wondered for a moment which would come first: the team chickening out against Steve, or the egg hatching.
“They teleported out,” Erin observed, just as the dark mana egg started to crack.
Both at the same time. Drat. Oh, well.
The team leaving meant Ryan and Erin could fully watch the fusion. Bright light flashed out of the egg, and Erin looked away. Ryan knew she didn’t enjoy watching the rain of bones that happened after a failure.
“Rin, look.”
Ryan flooded their bond with excitement as he watched a skeletal form begin moving across the floor. Where before two sneks had been, now a single snek remained. The difference, though, was that this snek had two heads splitting off from a thicker body and was nearly twice as large as the individual sneks.
Bone Dungeon (Elemental Dungeon #1) - A Dungeon Core LitRPG Page 25