TravelingDreamer
patreon
B6—Chapter 17: Brain Day at the Dungeon Gym
🕑 Added 2025-04-07 12:29:00 +0000 UTCOn the way to the Gate, the wind led us to a few dungeons. I’d been feeling restless lately, like my bones were vibrating with excess energy, so I joined the gang for the runs.
The portal of doom turned out to be a jagged crack in the hillside, barely wide enough for Rue to squeeze through. He grumbled under his breath, or rather, in my head. “Bad place. Tight. Rue not like.”
“So stop growing so big,” I said, ducking low and slipping into the darkness. “You should divert that mana into your power orbs instead of size.”
He huffed, growled, and shoved in after me, his wet nose nudging my backside like I was holding up traffic.
The tunnel was textbook dungeon design—narrow, winding, and stinky. The air reeked of wet fur and ammonia. Ugh. I caught the scent of the monsters before I heard anything; they stank that bad. Then came the screeching. It sounded like someone tortured a metal gate with a chainsaw.
The first rodent lunged out of the dark. A blur of greasy brown fur and flashing yellow teeth. Al twisted, blade flashing, and sliced clean through its neck. It slammed into the wall, twitched once, and lay still.
A second one charged up right behind it, big as a Saint Bernard and just as slobbery. Mahya shot it with the air rifle, and it collapsed… but sprang right back up. She had to shoot it three more times before it finally stayed down.
Two more came from behind, claws scraping the stone.
Al met one with a brutal shield bash that sent it flying into the wall. I stepped in on the second and cut it down with a clean stroke across the ribs. I refrained from using spells on this run and instead used my swords. My body felt like it needed to move.
Rue tried to join the fun but could barely move in the cramped tunnel. His head swung left, then right, and that was about it.
“Rue stuck. Can only bite left and right.”
“You should’ve stopped funneling mana into that shaggy butt months ago,” Mahya made her opinion known.
I pointed at her. "Listen to the mini-boss."
He whined-growled and gave me a side-eyed, stink-eye look. The side-eyed effect might have just been because he couldn’t move any further. I didn’t mind. Honestly, I was grateful for those dungeon conditions. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, tight tunnels were worth at least a million.
The good news was that my new upgraded spell still cost only 50 mana per cast.
We pressed on, fighting some more smelly rodents on the way, until the tunnel opened into a jagged, hollowed-out cave. Shadows danced along the uneven walls, and a lovely group of monsters waited for us. Six. No, seven rats peering down from the ledges above.
One jumped. I ducked under it, pivoted, and slashed up into its belly as it sailed overhead. Another dropped from the side. Rue snapped it mid-air and flung it against the cave wall with a victorious growl.
Mahya took aim and dropped a third, but the shot echoed like a thunderclap in a tin can. The cave amplified the noise so much that my ears rang instantly. I flinched and nearly caught a set of teeth to the calf. Al stepped in with perfect timing and cracked the thing’s skull with his shield.
All three of us turned to glare at her.
She blinked innocently, stored the rifle, pulled out her sword, and started whistling as she stared pointedly at the ceiling, hands behind her back.
I shook my head and chuckled.
They came in waves after that. I hadn’t even considered switching to spells. It felt good to move. I moved like I used to during my training with Lis. Parry, stab, twist, slice. The repetition felt good. Familiar. My blades whistled through the air, and I grinned by the tenth kill, panting a little by the fifteenth.
After a few more tunnels and caves, we reached the boss room.
It was the same type of rodents, just three times bigger and five times as smelly. The stench hit like a punch to the sinuses. I gagged and staggered back out of the cave.
“Nope. Nope, nope,” I said, pinching my nose shut with two fingers.
Rue followed right on my heels, tail tucked and eyes watering.
Al and Mahya didn’t even flinch. They stepped inside and took care of it in less than a minute.
“You know,” I said while we waited, pacing a little outside the cave mouth, “Malith was right. Maybe it’s time to stop feeding all your mana into that massive body and start building up your cores.”
Rue didn’t answer right away. His eyes stayed fixed on the cave entrance, ears twitching. “Maybe…” he said after a moment, then trailed off without finishing.
The loot was shit. Just gold—five coins each. Mahya, of course, was thrilled with the dungeon core. My core happily slurped up the dungeon interior, leaving only hazy edges.
All in all, it was a standard and boring dungeon run. The only memorable part was the absolutely awful stench.
The next dungeon was an improvement. It was a vast, open meadow filled with tall grass and scattered flowers, home to two types of monsters. The ground forces were ants the size of cocker spaniels, with long, serrated mandibles they tried to bite with—tried being the operative word. The air force was a cross between wasps and dragonflies, cat-sized and fast, with a mild lightning attack.
They took care of the ground forces. Rue especially enjoyed slapping them into mush. I took care of the squadron. Their lightning passed through me with a light tingle, and my swords took their heads off at the speed of an industrial chopper.
The boss was an ant with wings, nearly the size of Rue. Its lightning was stronger too, crackling in jagged arcs that split and branched across the air like angry veins.
The moment we stepped into its lair, it fired. Lightning tore through the air in a blinding flash and hit all four of us. The jolt was more static than painful. Rue barely flinched beside me.
Al and Mahya weren’t so lucky. They stiffened mid-step. Mahya let out a sharp breath, her muscles twitching like a puppet yanked on the wrong strings. Al grunted, jaw clenched tight as he forced himself upright.
I threw a Ranged Heal on each of them. “Go. I’ll handle it.”
I narrowed my eyes at the boss. This time, I did resort to spells—mainly to give it a taste of its own medicine. Red lightning burst from my hand, lancing across the chamber with a sharp crack. It slammed into the boss’s thorax and lit it up like fireworks. The thing exploded. Bits of ant rained down in wet chunks. A few gallons of steaming yuck splattered over Rue and me.
He gave me another side-eyed stink eye.
The loot was a piece of concave black and yellow chitin more than a meter across. I turned it over and over, puzzled.
“It’s good for armor or shields,” Mahya said.
I shrugged and stored it.
Rue dropped his at my feet. “Rue trade beer barrel for this, and forgive John nasty bath.”
“Deal,” I said.
This time, we had to wait a bit longer to collapse the dungeon. Al was collecting and analyzing the flowers from the meadow, probably already planning potions in his head. When he was done, Mahya got another core, and my core soaked up some more processed mana. All in all, a much more enjoyable dungeon run.
The third dungeon was a different story altogether, and a first for both Al and me.
The portal of doom dumped us into a circular room with smooth marble floors and polished walls. Across from the entrance stood a heavy door studded with mana crystals that pulsed and flashed at random intervals.
Mahya let out a groan, crossing her arms. “I hate those.”
Al stepped forward, eyes narrowing as he examined the crystals. “I have no idea what this is.”
“Puzzle dungeon,” she muttered, sounding annoyed.
I tilted my head, watching the lights blink in rhythm. “That actually sounds cool. If we crack the puzzle, of course.”
We stood and looked at the door for over five minutes.
“I cannot discern a pattern,” Al said, frowning.
“Yeah, me neither,” I said, eyes tracking the random flashes.
Mahya stepped closer, hands on her hips. “So it’s not a pattern. It’s something else.” She glanced at us. “Ideas?”
Al reached out and touched one of the flashing crystals. A sharp crack sounded, and he yanked his hand back with a grimace. “It discharges electricity.”
“Electricity?” I asked, eyeing the crystals.
Al shook out his hand. “It felt like electricity. Or maybe lightning. I am unsure.”
We stood there watching the crystals blink and pulse. A few flashed in quick bursts, others in slow, lazy rhythms. I tried to spot a pattern, but the longer I stared, the more random it seemed.
After ten minutes, nothing had changed. Well, except Rue. He let out a loud yawn, flopped onto the floor like a rug, and stretched out with a huff for a nap.
Lazy dog.
“Give up?” Mahya asked.
“No way,” I said.
Al just shook his head.
I extended my mana sense to feel what lay behind the door, but couldn’t detect anything.
Wait!
Nothing from behind the door, but something from the crystals.
Every time a crystal flashed, it carried a flavor, an aspect. The strange part was that I didn’t see the colors of the mana. Ever since my Perception reached the 100 mark, the eddies of mana in the air had been a constant presence. They were always there, always moving. Only now did I realize there were none. The mana wasn’t drifting through the room. It stayed locked inside the crystals without discharging. But when they flashed and my mana sense touched them, I could "taste" the aspect.
“I found something,” I said.
“What?” they asked in unison, both turning to look at me.
“The mana in the crystals has aspects,” I said, pointing at the nearest one as it flickered. “I’m sure it’s part of the solution.”
I stepped closer to the crystals, narrowing my eyes at the one that had just flashed. This time, I focused harder on the flavor that came through my mana sense. The one beside it flashed. Sharp, short, and hot. A spark, maybe?
Before I could fully focus, another crystal off to the right blinked. Cold, still, and damp. Water, maybe. Then, one to the far left pulsed. Less hot than the first one and longer in duration. Small flame? I nodded to myself. That was definitely next.
Up high, another blinked with the dry, gritty feel of sand. Earth aspect. Not helpful right now. Then, two down, one flared with heat that rolled off it like a furnace. Raging fire. Definitely fire, but way too far along the line. One more to the left and down showed darkness, but not total darkness. Another one flashed and gave off barely any warmth, like dying coals. Embers. I filed that one for later.
Static prickled along my skin as a different crystal to my left gave a quick pulse. Lightning. Up ahead, one flared again. Stronger than a small flame, but not quite a blaze yet. Steady fire, I decided. A pulse to my far right pulled my attention. Back to water, this time with the feel of a steady current. Definitely not part of the fire set.
I turned slowly, tracking each flash and mentally mapping them out. “They’re out of order,” I muttered. “Completely scattered. One second it’s a spark, next it’s a wave, then a full blaze.”
Al folded his arms. “So it’s a logic test. Identify an elemental progression.”
“Exactly. And fire’s just one of them.”
More crystals flashed around us, all mixed. I assigned names to them as they came: Spark — small flame — steady fire — growing blaze — raging fire — flame guttering — embers — ash — heatless cinder.
They weren’t in any kind of rhythm, either. Some repeated. Others vanished for minutes before pulsing again. Total mess.
Al reached out and pressed his fingers to the Spark crystal. A sharp jolt snapped through the air, and he hissed, jerking his hand back. “I am uncertain whether this is the correct sequence. The door has retaliated.”
I stepped up beside him, eyeing the crystals. “I think it is the right sequence,” I said, glancing at the first crystal. “But instead of touching them, try channeling mana in.”
I focused and pushed a trickle of mana into it. The crystal lit up and stayed lit. Carefully, I channeled mana along the door to the next, small flame. It lit up. Then, steady fire. Then growing blaze. Each one stayed lit after I reached it in sequence.
When I reached the last one, the entire sequence lit up brightly, flashed three times, and went out.
We waited.
It stayed out.
“Done,” I said, stepping back.
We moved to the next cluster. These had a cooler feel—moist, heavy. Water magic. I focused again. The flavors told the story: Droplets — trickle — shallow rivulet — flowing stream — strong current — crashing wave — whirlpool — still pool.
This time, Mahya stepped forward. “Wait,” she said, holding up a hand. “Let me try something.”
She almost touched the first crystal and channeled a small amount of mana into it. Then moved to the next, and the next. Each lit up in turn without needing to be connected with a line of mana like I had done before.
She turned to me. “We don’t need to guide the mana through the crystals. Just into each one in the correct order.”
The other sequences were easier once we caught the pattern and eliminated some crystals. Earth started with a grain of sand and ended with a mountain. Air moved from still air to gust, to storm, to silent calm. Lightning went from static to shock to arc to bolt. Light moved from dawn, through full light, to glare, and then to a soft glow. Shadow reversed that—light fading to gloom, then to shade, then to pitch.
We took care of them one by one. I called out the aspects as they flashed, and the others channeled mana into the correct crystals. We developed an excellent collaboration. I focused on each flash, named the aspect, and they jotted it down. Once we had the complete sequence, we channeled mana into them in order.
When the final sequence lit up, the mana crystals across the door pulsed in unison. The floor trembled beneath our feet, and the door slowly slid open with a low grinding sound.
We exchanged glances.
“That was less horrible than I expected," Mahya said.
Rue lifted his head and yawned again. “Puzzle boring.”
I grinned. “Let’s see if the next room is more your style.”
The next room was not his style. It was similar, except the crystals were embedded in the floor, which meant Rue couldn’t nap. The sequences were longer this time, with more intermediary steps that threw me off a few times—the progression was too subtle to catch right away. The crystals also shot out lightning if you got it wrong, not just zapped you by touch. But aside from those minor inconveniences, it was pretty much the same.
The third room had the same general setup. More progression steps this time, which gave my mana sense the best workout it had ever gotten. Some differences were harder to spot, subtle enough that I had to stand still with my eyes closed to catch the tiny nuances in the aspects. The lightning arcs were also bigger, and they branched out across the room when we made a mistake. Less of a warning zap, more of a “duck or get fried” situation.
But aside from that, it was the same deal.
We moved through the rooms one by one, and none were to Rue's taste. Every time a new puzzle appeared, he sighed louder and louder.
Room number four was all about balance. A pair of floating stone scales dominated the center, and each pedestal held crystals pulsing with different mana weights. I couldn’t see the numbers, but I could feel them. Some felt light and airy, others heavy like lead. Mahya and Al worked out the likely totals based on the flavor, once I confirmed the weight through my mana sense, they channeled mana into the right crystals to balance the scale. The door clicked open with a deep, satisfied hum.
Room five hummed before we even stepped inside. Each crystal vibrated with a different mana frequency, but only I could hear the pitch—some high and sharp, others deep and slow. It felt like standing in a chorus of elemental tuning forks. Al guessed it was about harmony, and Mahya figured out the spacing. Once they channeled mana into the matching frequencies, the room pulsed in rhythm and unlocked.
The other rooms were an assortment of mana puzzles.
One was the Mana Echo Puzzle. I channeled mana into a crystal, and across the room, another one pulsed in response—if you caught it fast enough. Al figured out the pattern before I did and guided Mahya through the sequence while I confirmed each echo.
The Mana Lock Combination room was a trap disguised as a pattern. Six locks lined a massive door, each one requiring a different elemental aspect. However, the order mattered, and if you got it wrong, the whole thing would reset and consume a significant portion of our mana pool. It literally sucked the mana right out ot us. Mahya cracked the sequence after watching how the locks responded to my sensing.
Then came the Mana Mirror Puzzle—by far the craziest. The room was full of floating mirror shards, and we had to reflect a single stream of mana across them to hit a target crystal. I found the mirror that would respond to each aspect, and Al angled the shards with maddening precision until the beam finally landed where it needed to.
There were also a few more.
In one, we had to match mana intensity and channel just the right amount without overflowing or starving the crystals. Another required triggering the aspects at exact timing to sync with a pulsing central crystal—basically, a mana whack-a-mole.
One room had runes that changed color depending on the mana type, and we had to match them with what they should have been, not what they were currently showing. That one made Mahya swear a lot, primarily because the runes weren’t actual runes and were useless for anything else.
One of my personal favorites, if only for the absurdity, was the memory puzzle. The crystals flashed once in a very specific sequence. My job was to track the aspects and remember the order; Al and Mahya had to channel them perfectly the first time, or the whole thing would reset.
By the end, we were tired, low on mana despite regenerating between rooms, and still unsure if this dungeon had a final boss or just wanted to fry our brains.
Rue sneezed at a floating crystal and grumbled, “Mana dungeon boring. Too much think. Not enough biting.”
The last room, the “boss,” was a nightmare. It was a combination of all the previous rooms, jumbled together like some dungeon designer had a meltdown and wanted to make us suffer. It took us over four hours to figure out that we had to activate multiple sequences in parallel. And another six hours to finally get it right.
Each wall had its own puzzle—weight crystals, aspect progressions, harmonic frequencies—and they all had to be solved simultaneously, in sync. Timing wasn’t just important; it was critical.
I had to split my mind into four and push my mana sense across all four corners of the room, sensing the flavor of every blinking crystal while yelling out instructions like a half-mad conductor. Al adjusted the mirrors and fine-tuned the angles while Mahya channeled mana into runes and crystals that wouldn’t behave. With her speed, she was the only one with half a chance.
The worst part? The lightning arcs didn’t wait for mistakes this time. They fired at regular intervals, like a countdown. Every second wasted added more pressure and more stray bolts.
At some point, Rue crawled under the platform with the scales and refused to come out.
We finally cracked it. The crystals glowed in perfect harmony, the scales were balanced, the mana beams were lined up, and all the mirrors had colorful lines connecting them. Various crystal progressions winked out, and the locks clicked open in the exact order. For a long moment, everything went still.
Then the room sighed. That really was the best word for it—a long, quiet exhale—and the core dropped from an opening in the ceiling. None of us said a word. We just stood there, breathing hard, soaked in sweat, our mana drained to the last drop.
Rue poked his head out and sniffed the air. “Safe?”
“Safe,” I said.
At least the reward was worth the nightmare.
I reached out first and pressed my hand to the core. Nothing happened.
Mahya tried next. Still nothing.
We exchanged a confused glance.
Al, on the other hand, looked completely unfazed. “Ah,” he said. “We have a dungeon like this in Leylos. The reward only triggers when the entire party touches the core simultaneously.”
Mahya blinked. “Seriously?”
He nodded.
Rue gave the core a skeptical sniff but didn’t complain. We stepped in and placed our hands and paw together on the surface, and the moment our fingers met the core, the entire room pulsed with warm light.
A large scroll fell onto the floor, landing with a soft thump that echoed in the silent chamber.
We unrolled it and stared.
It was a blueprint of some kind, but it wasn’t immediately clear what it was for. The blueprint clearly marked the core placement in the center, surrounded by a web of lines branching outward. The blueprint labeled dozens of nodes with mana crystal types, each node with tiny notations and rune clusters. Lines crisscrossed in a way that made my head hurt. There were runes everywhere—compact, layered, some drawn over others. A quick skim showed me at least twenty I didn’t know.
Mahya crouched beside me, fingers gently following one of the etched paths. She was muttering under her breath, half to herself, half to the scroll.
“The sequence is structured. Wait, that’s a dampening loop... stabilizer rune? No, that’s a variant...”
Al pointed at a rune. “I believe that one comes from Alchemy. It introduces adaptations based on flora.”
Mahya didn’t answer. She just kept tracing, eyes flicking faster with every node. Then, suddenly, she sat back on her heels and grinned so hard I thought her face might crack in half.
“It’s a blueprint for... oh, Spirits, it’s a mana relay system!”
“A what now?” I asked, squinting at the chaos on the parchment.
“Mana relay beacons,” she said, tapping the central core. “You plant this one here. Then you build out the rest of the beacons along a line or web, with each one relaying mana signals to the others. This is long-distance, open-field transmission. No dungeon interference, no line-of-sight requirement, and no mana bleed. A complete closed loop.”
“So… like a magical Wi-Fi?” I asked.
She stared at me for a moment, blinked, then gave a slow nod. “Yeah. Pretty much.” She scratched her head, frowning slightly. “But not exactly.”
Comments
Angela Roberts
That's so cool! And the prize, wow.
