My plan had been to use [CLING] to the well wall and hope for the best. Having the rope, however, made things substantially easier, though I was hoping someone on the other side would haul me up. When nobody did, I started climbing… on my own… and easily. I went up the rope like a soldier on a drill and, before I knew it, my head was out into open air.
[SYNCHRONISING WITH MAIN CONSCIOUSNESS]
[RESTRICTION LEVEL 2 HAS BEEN LIFTED]
[INTERFACE IS UPDATING]
I got hit by so many notifications all at once that I nearly dropped the rope and grabbed my head. Someone grabbed my arm and easily lifted me out while my head threatened to explode.
“Easy, friend,” a woman’s voice said.
I barely heard the words.
My interface was going berserk. I got assaulted by the whole thing rearranging in my field of view. My map opened, updated, then closed. The MP bar disappeared entirely, then a lot of text filled up my vision from top to bottom, scrolling at impossible-to-read speed.
“Leave him be,” the woman’s voice said. “He has reached a new Insight level. It is disorientating. Give him a bit of time.”
A firm hand sat on my shoulder and kept me from toppling.
I couldn’t see whose hand it was for all the garbage filling up my sight. None of the symbols were familiar, but I could recognise a system update when I saw one.
I felt Eternity’s familiar weight settle on my head.
“Do not panic, Klaus. This is normal,” the dragon said, its voice soothing. “Make sure to read your notifications once everything finishes. That will finish the upgrade process.”
“Could’ve warned me,” I hissed. “This blows.”
“It is normal,” the unknown woman’s voice said again. “Remain calm. It will pass momentarily.”
Another white flash that sent a jolt of pain through my skull, then everything lurched to a halt, the interface completely stable once again.
There were changes.
The first was that the notifications that just showed up were now framed in a translucent box that made reading them much easier than before. My MP bar looked far sleeker, almost azure in colour and—thank FUCK!—it now came with a number counter beneath it. 200/200 was displayed, which meant I’d gotten an upgrade in that area too.
The icons representing my utilities, as I came to think of them, were all looking sleeker, the font much nicer and more sharply defined against the rest of the world.
Overall, the whole UI was sleeker and far more readable than before. It felt like I’d gone from a Windows 98 interface to something approaching modern day. Neat.
[Insight level: 2]
[You have gained access to: Threat assessment - Basic, Skill tree - Second tier, Item analysis - Basic]
[Your candidature has been recorded]
[Support harness efficiency has now been reduced to 50%]
[Dew drop has begun attuning]
[A subclass can now be developed]
[Requirements: Overall level 15 and Insight level 2]
[Eternity’s gaze rests upon you]
Gone was the all caps text that screamed in my field of view. The new system messages were far easier on the eye and better framed. I finally didn’t feel like I was stabbed in the eyeballs every time I got a notification.
“What?” I asked as I stared at the whole shebang. “What does that mean?”
“What exactly?” Eternity asked.
Now wasn’t the time to worry over this. “Nevermind,” I said and shook clear of the hand on me. I’d learned enough in the dungeon not to let myself be distracted while still in danger.
I swept my gaze around, trying to understand what I’d come back to. It took a moment for all details to sink in. And there were a lot of them to parse.
Tusk and Crystal were there, looking up at me with worry on their faces, both of them bedraggled and blood-stained. Crystal, for some ungodly reason, was naked, lank grey hair the only thing protecting her modesty. That will not be a sight easy to ever expunge from memory.
We were surrounded by collapsed furnar. They formed a blanket of bodies on the ground, so many that I could probably count well over two hundred, all arrayed in a perfect circle around us, as if they’d been held back by some invisible barrier.
I drew in a sharp breath, panicked at the sight. Had I killed them with the system core reset after all?!
“They are well,” the new voice spoke besides me.
I spun on it, sword in hand, shield up. The last unexpected voice I’d heard had tried to gut me.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
I stared at very blue shoulders. I needed to crane my neck and look up so I could finally meet the gaze of two phenomenally golden eyes. They belonged to the elf woman I’d seen from the dungeon. She smiled and waved at me.
“If you’ve never seen a drake-born before, I can assure you we’re not so terrible that you’d need your shield just to talk with one.” Her voice was a bit shrill, sounding younger than her face suggested.
“…what?” I answered stupidly.
“Your weapon an—”
Before she said more, I got tackled to the ground by Crystal and Tusk, the two of them ramming into my knees and hips, very literally scything my feet out from under me. I fell hard, right over Tusk, and the molerat was ecstatic to nuzzle and lick me. Eternity floated above, just watching.
“Human survived,” Crystal crooned as she dragged me off Tusk, the grabbed my neck in a tight hug. She jumped up and down. “Human alive. I no get human killed!”
“Errr… yeah, I’m—I’m fine,” I said, confused as all heck, barely able to breathe.
Tusk was leaping for joy, shaking me like a doll, trying to get his head between Crystal and my neck. When the gnark let go, I got directly assaulted by the big blighter, enough that I had to fight him to stop his licking my face. His breath stank of rotten eggs.
The day could not get weirder. Tusk finally stopped and laid down over my legs. He let out the longest, most heartfelt sigh of relief I’ve ever heard from an animal. Crystal hopped around me, whooping in joy.
“What happened out here?” I asked. “Why are you naked?”
A shadow lay across my face and I looked up to see the new woman towering over us. She wore black leather boots with black leather britches, a loose green linen shirt, and had a backpack of her own slung over one shoulder. Definitely didn’t look like one of the locals. Also didn’t look human. Her skin was spectacularly blue.
“And who are you?” I asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
She didn’t answer but, instead, offered her hand to help me get up. It took some effort to pry Tusk off me and finally get back on my feet.
We all looked like we’d gone through a shredder. Tusk was bloodied from muzzle to tail. Crystal… well, I had no idea what was new or not, but she looked like someone had tried to spit her on a pike. I caught sight of round scars on her sallow skin, looking just freshly healed.
My own shirt hung in ribbons on me, was caked in my blood, and stank of sweat and other, more vile liquids. In the crisp air of the outer world, I got punched in the nose by my own aroma. Even my jeans barely still showed any trace of blue under rust red, the blood both my own and Melenith’s. They were reduced to shreds that would probably have been fashionable back home in the early 2000s.
“Why don’t you have any armour?” the woman asked as I tried to dust myself off. She looked from me to the well, amber eyes going wide. “Did you really delve the node with no protection? The gnark wasn’t lying?”
I raised my poor, battered shield and waved it at her. “I have a shield.”
“And a death wish,” she added. Then she seemed to realise something. Her ears perked up—knife-like ears I might add, just like an elf’s. “Oh, dear, my manners. I am Methol, of Halin Endre.”
“Klaus. And who are you exactly? Your name doesn’t really tell me much.”
At that, she smiled and winked at me. “Well, if I tried to tell you, Eternity would just mute me and deny your answers. I see you’ve only just achieved your second insight level. Congratulations. It’s no small feat at your low level.”
I stared at her. Crystal and Tusk came to stand by me, both staring up at her.
“Blue saved Crystal,” the gnark crooned. “Blue put up barrier and heal Tusk. Blue good. She like you.”
“Oh. Thank you,” I said. “Are the furnars okay? Why are they all like that?”
“They are well but they will sleep for a time. An area purge is no small shock. We should move them to safety until they wake.”
Methol strode by me and stopped next to the well. She raised a hand and I could see the dungeon interface popping up, reacting to her presence.
“Ah, the access lock is lifted,” she said, still smiling. “Do you mind if I looked over your work?”
“Wait.” My brain finally caught up to what she was saying, light finally dawning on me about Crystal’s words. “You’re like me.”
“Yes, I think that’s what your friend there said.”
“You can tell me what the hell’s going on!”
“Mmm.” She gave me a slow shake of the head. “’Fraid not. Ever would get in a huff if I disobeyed that particular protocol, and then I’d have to deal with her mood and a whole lot of scolding. May I?” She pointed to the interface.
I looked at the collapsed furnars again, then scurried next to Methol to watch what she was doing. “Sure, sure, by all means, please.” The interface swapped to something different again now that Methol was touching it, but I remembered where stuff was. She checked the containment slice.
“Mmm, the guardian is active. Not corrupted. Godling aspirant. Flame orientation.” She drew in a breath through her teeth. “Bad match for what’s crawling in this area. Could’ve been worse.”
Something popped into existence on her shoulder. It looked, from where I stood, like a cross between an otter and a rabbit, covered in white, fluffy fur. It also had two long, sharp ears, just like a rabbit’s.
The moment it appeared, it spoke in a squeaky, terse voice, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, Methol. I will mute you! We’ve talked about this before.”
Methol raised a hand absentmindedly and scratched the loud thing between its two long ears. “Oh shush, Ever. I’m just checking the status. We don’t want another mishap like in Garrin, right? Tiamat still brings it up whenever he’s annoyed with us.”
Eternity landed on my shoulder and puffed out a plume of smoke. The thing on Methol’s shoulder turned beady black eyes on us, then narrowed them.
“Why does that one get to wear a majestic shape? I could—See, Methol? It doesn’t look silly. At all.” The tone turned slightly whining, which coupled with the look of the thing was just hilarious.
Methol threw me an apologetic look while Ever sneered our way. “You’ll have to excuse her. She’s the most adorable creature in the universe most days. Today is not one of her good ones, seeing she’s been proven wrong thrice since morning.”
“It was only twice,” Ever protested.
“Thrice. I’ve kept count.” Methol tapped the interface with a long, slender finger, not paying attention to her companion. “I see you’ve executed a full purge. It should be sufficient to solve this little kerfuffle here. I don’t see more extensive damage, though we will have to make some seasonal adjustments once the node seals. Else this settlement will have issues with their food stores by the turn of the season.”
“What?”
I shook my head and felt a headache coming on. Part of it was exhaustion. Without fear of life and limb to push me on, the world seemed to crash down on my shoulders, all those aches, pains, fears, terrors, and abuse finally asking each for their pound of flesh.
So many questions swirled in my head, all of them crowding behind my teeth, ready to burst out. I’d gone from no information to too much, all in the span of less than an hour… and I couldn’t pick.
“You’re logged as this node’s caretaker,” Methol went on, not even looking my way. “Would you like to pass it over to me? I can handle the rest while you recover.”
“What?” Again, nothing of that meant anything to me. “Eternity, explain what this means. Say that you can’t, and I will feed you to her rabbit-thing.”
“This node’s corruption had reached a threshold high enough to generate a threat assessment. You have solved the issue, thus the node’s ownership passes to you. You are, in effect, Harriet’s Heap designated protector. More information will be available once the node seals.”
Methol kept poking through the interface, not looking my way. “I’ll just deactivate the guardian for now, until we ca—”
I reacted without thinking and shoved Methol aside the moment she raised her hand to do something.
“Don’t fucking dare,” I growled, red in my sight, sword in my hand. “Leave Melenith alone.”
Methol raised her hands and stared at the point of my sword. I have no idea when I’d drawn it or what I intended to do with it. But I wouldn’t let her do anything to Melenith.
To my surprise, Methol just sighed.
“See, Ever?” she spoke with the tired tone of one that had gone through an argument ten times too often. “This is precisely why your method is terrible.” She casually moved her hand to the flat of my sword and pushed the tip aside, out of her face. “Sorry, it was making me cross-eyed. And, if you wanted to hurt me, Klaus, you would’ve. Can we put this away? I’ll explain some things and then you can decide what to do.” She met my eyes and gave me an encouraging smile. “Does that sound reasonable?”