CHAPTER 126

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The Dungeon, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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I'd probably added more ruins to the Eleventh than I'd intended... but whatever. Every island had some kind of ruins, with hints and scrawled messages in Runic carved into the walls and columns. Some were just random sentences like "Kilroy was here," but others were legitimate hints and locations of other ruins. Only a few of these ruins had those doors I made to be openable with the Lightning relic, and behind those doors were treasure chests filled with coins and a few magic items. I did bury one chest of treasure on a beach somewhere, pointed to by a map-like carving.

It was only fitting there was at least one in this archipelago.

To introduce any guilders to the idea there were ruins to be found, I had a small town's worth of ruins not far from the path between the floor's entrance. This one was 'picked clean' of loot by the Children but still had some carved messages to start the chain.

In the skies above the Elemental Isles, Olympus was looking much prettier.

The ruins up here were much more intact, with whole sections of town practically pristine. Overgrown gardens, hedges and trees, cracked and weathered courtyards, Market squares, houses, manors... even Parthenon-like temples filled with statues of both men and women in toga-like garb, as close to the statues of the Greek gods as I could remember. With one prominent feature... The statues had no faces. OoOOoOOoOO.

And they weren't just smooth surfaces, either! They were rough like they'd been chiselled off. For the creep factor, mostly. I didn't have to make up lore... But I wanted to. I decided to tie it into why there were floating islands, and their civilization was in ruins. They discovered Gravity Cores, and the floating islands were their attempt to reach the heavens. Though the gods couldn't physically stop them, they were cursed with infertility. The whole civilization. Over the course of three generations, the entire civilization died.

That's why there are messages and locations, why books and journals remained behind, and why Olympus is much more intact than the rest. It's above the weather, newer -for a given value of newer- and wasn't inhabited for long. About a decade after raising the islands, with a grand total of Zero births throughout their island empire, they abandoned Olympus in an attempt to appease the gods. It didn't work. They'd sealed their fate.

Spooky, huh? I thought so. Bits and pieces of this lore were scattered throughout Olympus. Scraps of paper, books, tablets, and such.

And while that was all well and good, what had I done to my Core Island?

The answer? Plenty, within reason.

I'd decided against planting any gardens up here for one critical reason; my Accretion Disk. Core Island was the highest, altitude-wise, of all the Olympian islands. This was to ensure my Accretion disk didn't intersect any of the other islands. I didn't want the enormous amount of mana building up to rapidly and uncontrollably warp the plant life. Instead, I'd gone all-out with the stone-carving.

The previously rough staircase leading from the 'shore' which Wave had ascended during my convalescence was cleaned up, with plenty of columns. My core was now surrounded by a totally circular amphitheater. Massive columns held circular roof sections over the 'stands,' with the center uncovered. The twelve columns were carved with representations of all the monsters I'd created and the environments they inhabited, with each floor getting its own column. Bosses stood above the other carvings at the tops of the columns and 'held up' the roof sections with hands and/or their other appendages.

Directly around the giant hands cradling my core was a circular pool, the water flowing toward the disk without my input. Instinct's core was off to the side, In its own rotunda.

In the end, to accomplish what Instincts wanted out of its body, I needed to go with the biological and death-magic options. To do this as humanely as possible, I took a lizard/salamander of the same species that became the Kobolds and Drake-kin and brought it to the Core island. This would be Instinct's body. I'd make it larger and as stupid as possible, So I didn't feel so bad when I then humanely executed it. Huea would be on hand to bind Instincts to the body. She seemed to be getting closer to true resurrection with her research, and she thought she had a testable spell that would work.

Only time will tell.

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Obsidian Beach, Atlantis, The Kalenic Sea

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Haythem took a deep breath of the salty sea breeze as the sun rose over the horizon. They weren't going into the Dungeon today, and Haythem had decided to relax on the beach. He was sitting on a bench installed on the grassy verge at the edge of the beach, under the leaves of a towering palm. On the beach before them, a dozen parties lined up to access the Dungeon. Apart from them, though, the beach was decently busy. ŖΆꞐǒ𐌱Êṣ

He released the breath with a sigh and leaned back against the chair.

The sunrise was beautiful, as many were here on Atlantis.

Brilliant colors illuminated the wispy clouds on the horizon, and bright oranges and reds slowly faded as the dark blue of the early morning sky gave way to the light blue of day. The chair he was on was positioned so that the sun rose behind the obsidian invasion monument, casting its shadow on him.

Haythem was jolted from his introspection when a mug was shoved in his face. He glanced up at his friend Bertram with a raised eyebrow, then chucked and took the mug. "Morning. I thought you were going to sleep in today?"

"Tried," Bertram answered with a wry grin. "The house was too quiet. Figured you'd be down here and decided to join you."

Haythem nodded and sipped at the mug. Warm beer. Lovely this early in the morning. He agreed, though. The house was quiet. They only had three staff; the maid, a cook, and a groundskeeper. It was only a small house on a small hill outside of town, and they didn't need more than that to maintain it. The house had started construction right before the invasion. Flasa had been so excited...

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Are you alright, Haythem?" Bertram asked, concerned. Haythem blinked a few times and turned away from the monument toward his friend.

"Yeah, I'm good. It doesn't hurt as much anymore, you know?" He said, waving a hand at the monument. Bertram nodded.

"I get it," Bertram replied

"Hey, you think we should get a new party member or two?" Haythem said, surprising himself as much as Bertram.

"Uh, I don't know," Bertram answered on reflex before thinking the idea through a bit. "Not many guilders at our level on the island at the moment, and the trickle we were getting before has kind of dried up. We could put a notice that we're looking for new members on the Guild's notice board. There are still a few deaths every now and again, and parties break up eventually. We might get a few applicants."

"... We can do that."

They sat there in silence for a while as the sun rose. They moved only after the sun peaked over the monument directly into Haythem's eyes. He down the last of his now-lukewarm beer and stood. Holding his hand for Bertram to grab, he hauled his friend to his feet, and together, they walked off into town. The cook had given them a shopping list, and they might as well deal with it now.

He did hear a bit of a commotion back at the Dungeon but steadfastly ignored it. It wasn't his problem; he had too many of his own to deal with right now.

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Guildmistress Losat's Office, The Guild, Atlantis

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Akio Tamesou stood with his friends, head bowed, at the desk of the intimidating woman beyond it. She wore a dark brown -almost black- dress that only highlighted her white skin. Such a color could only be found in Albinos and Vampires. He hadn't heard anything about vampires existing in this world yet, so Akio decided she was an albino. At least until more evidence came to light. Her upper face was obscured by a thick black blindfold, likely made of silk from its sheen. Though it hid her eyes, it did nothing to soften the harsh and disappointed frown on her pale red lips. More evidence of vampirism? Perhaps.

At another, smaller desk, a man was working his way through what looked like a significant pile of paperwork. The man was much larger than the woman behind the desk, but for some reason, Akio believed the albino woman was far more dangerous. She was reading through a folder of documents, and Akio could only speculate how she could be reading them. The blindfold was thick, and Akio was sure she shouldn't be able to read anything through them. Was she blind? Could she somehow see despite the blindfold through some spell?

"Let's start with what we know, hmm?" The woman started, jolting Akio from his thoughts, and the corner of her lips turned down harshly. "You arrived at Atlantis sometime two days ago with the merchant ship, the Good Tidings. Captain Hart is a man of good standing with Atlantis' port authority and certainly would have reported your presence if he was aware of it. Thus, you stowed away. In the early hours of yesterday morning, you were spotted sneaking off the Good Tidings and making your way into the city. The guard who spotted you attempted to follow but lost you after you entered an alley with no other exits."

Akio maintained his stoic visage but sighed inside. So that guard had

spotted them. They were hoping he'd just seen something out of the corner of his eye and was investigating. They'd used Sophie's Shadow-Hiding spell rather than Akio's Illusion spell since they thought it was dark enough that the less mana-intensive spell was more appropriate. Akio hoped Ossydus had managed to sneak out after them all right. Maybe they'd drawn the guard's attention enough they'd stopped watching the ship?

"We assume you booked a night at an Inn in the middle of town, and the next morning, you four arrived at the Dungeon and attempted to enter. Having not made your presence known to the Guild, you were unaware of the strict schedule and knowledge requirements. When the guards at the gate couldn't match your Guild tokens to the schedule, he denied you entry and called for the other guards to take you under arrest and bring you to the Guild Hall. After a short commotion, you were detained and brought here. The guard on duty the night before identified you as the teens he spotted, which leads us to here and now."

She slapped the folder shut forcefully, then laid it on the table more gently.

"I count at least three fairly serious breaches of our Guild's rules. All of that, though, could be forgiven. You are young, and from your actions, you are running from something or someone and didn't wish to leave a paper trail for them to follow. No. Your most dangerous breach of the rules was attempting to bring her into the Dungeon." The albino woman said, pointing directly at Elize and turning to face her. Said girl hunched, and moved behind Akio slightly.

"She is a Copper Rank," the woman explained, still pointing accusingly as she leaned forward over her desk, getting to her feet. "She wouldn't last ten seconds in this Dungeon. We may have restricted silvers from entering because of the high density of Gold Ranked guilders on the island, which could have led to overcrowding, but the restriction remains because of the death toll. And they, at least, had some training. She would be slaughtered, and you would only have yourselves to blame."

There were a few moments of silence as the teens absorbed that; all of them paled to some degree as they imagined what could've happened. A knock on the office door was answered by the man, who accepted a folder from the messenger outside. He quickly crossed the room and handed it over to the guildmistress.

Once again, the blindfolded woman opened a folder and read the documents inside. She had to have some way to see through it. Maybe it was spelled to be see-through, and she had some kind of unhealable scar she was hiding?

"Well, your guild cards check out, at least. Akio, Sophie, and Bruce... no last names given. Issued from... the Holy City," She paused and tilted her head as if glancing at them. "I'm just going to assume you're the children of Templars and are hiding your last names for your own protection. Given your age and how you got to Atlantis, I'll assume you ran away and don't want me to let the Guild at The Holy City know you're here."

Akio felt his heart beat heavily in his chest. "No, Ma'am. We would really appreciate it if you didn't."

"I thought so," she replied, placing the folder on the table. "Firstly, you three are going to be on probation for two months or so. Any delves into the Dungeon will be accompanied by a more experienced party. You'll need to pass a test that proves you've read and understand the Dungeon's upper-floor guidebook. Finally, your fourth there will need to actually join the Guild, then reach Gold Rank before she's allowed to join you."

"My, uh, my name is Elize. Ma'am," Elize stated from behind Akio. He assumed she moved to the side slightly from the sound of her footsteps. Akio left his eyes trained on the albino woman.

"Elize," The woman nodded. "Well, then. That's sorted, then. Go talk to the receptionist and organize rooms. I'll start the paperwork for Elize, and tomorrow, she'll get her Silver Rank guild card. I'll also get a couple of copies of the guidebook sent to your rooms, and in a week, we'll test you on them. After that, I'll have a party ready to take you into the Dungeon. Alright, Get out. Off you go."

The four teens calmly fled the room.

Only once down two sets of stairs did they stop.

"Jesus, that was intense," Bruce exclaimed. Akio could only nod.

"Yeah,' he agreed. "And what was up with her blindfold? She can't really be blind; she was reading from that folder."

"Probably has Manavision," Elize answered, having caught her breath. "It's a powerful ability passed down from parent to child. A lucky few can turn it on and off, but repeated use slowly degrades normal vision until they are functionally blind and can only use manavision to see."

"Interesting," Sophie said, sitting down on the stairs. "Is there any other way to get manavision?"

"Not that I know of," Elize replied after a moment of thought. The teens sat there momentarily, getting their bearings, before descending further into the guild hall.

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