Morgan Mackenzie was very angry. And frustrated. And fatigued, to the point of exhaustion. Her [Flame Affinity] and [Heat Affinity] were getting a serious workout -- which was good -- but the effort of continuously flash-frying the sinister pollen out of the air was a pain in her bare backside. It used up her Mana when she knew she was heading for a fight against a foe of unknown power, which was bad. Keeping the flames going wasn’t that intensive on its own, but her initial outburst of fire had definitely gotten the dungeon’s attention.

The dungeon itself had given up on trying to wrap her up in simple vines and roots. Three times had the tendrils of thorny green shot out from the walls and floor to wrap around her limbs and torso. The first time it happened, Morgan was about to panic before her auto-rejection kicked in. It seemed that if she wasn’t the one trying to put something on her body, the reaction affected the offending thing and not her body. The third time, the vines stayed on her body barely long enough for her to start to laugh before an incandescent flash hurled them away.

Then the monsters came. Crawling [Barbed Creepers] met a fiery end. A [Verdant Slime] proved resistant to her Frost spells, and Morgan had been terrified for her friend for a moment when Lulu had charged the blorping blob. The effectiveness of the loofah’s exfoliation abilities proved more than a match, however, as the puffball scrubbed its way into the slime and caused it to explode in a disgusting flood of bubbles and green goop.

“Good scrubby…” she murmured as the loofah returned to her shoulder. She didn’t even spare a thought for the pool of nasty ick that the scrubby had just been exposed to.

The living walls of the dungeon randomly sprouted various buds, and while most released pollen or dripped acid, some of them spat bolts of greenish-black magic at her. The first one had struck her arm and left it paralyzed for over an hour while the smell of rot and decay hung in the air after the hit. Lulu’s cleansing abilities had no effect on the magical contamination, but Morgan’s inherent healing had let her power through until the effect wore off.

[Spell Parry] was useless against the worst of the attacks she had been forced to deal with, however. She had come across massive rooted balls of vines and greenery that shot thorn-like projectiles at her as fast as arrows. These new foes appeared less often than the others, which was for the better -- they were at once dense enough to survive her flame, and devoid of magic to the point where [Spell Parry] couldn’t deflect them. After a half-dozen thorns pierced her left side and thigh while jumping back from the initial volley, she quickly learned to reflexively use [Wind Barrier] as a counter and eventually managed to gain [Air Affinity] from it. The plants that shot them burned easily enough, but the spikes were a constant annoyance until the vine-creatures actually died.

She is distracted. We come closer to waking from the dreams. The messages from the creepy psychic not-spider still felt alien and uncomfortable in Morgan’s mind.

You and your children? she responded. Or you and all the other critters this Solana has trapped?

Yes.

The not-spider was only adding to Morgan’s frustration by this point, and her irritation was beginning to affect her magic. Not in a bad way, though; not exactly. Her Fire was becoming more volatile, quicker to ignite -- snappier, if she had to put a single word to it. She didn’t bother trying to control it past a vague direction, simply throwing destruction at this or that thing with indiscriminate fury. Her [Hailstones] were no longer smooth spheres of unblemished ice. Rather, they were rough, jagged chunks in glaciated shades of blue and green, sharp-edged and hungry as she launched them at anything that moved. [Frost Bolt] was likewise wild and uncontrolled, as was her [Lightning Bolt], each crackling and snapping with use.

So it’s both… thought Morgan to herself as she blasted a horrid creature that looked like brambled vines had attached to the limbs of a small deer to manipulate it like a puppet. She was angry at being attacked, and she was even angrier at the horror of the mere existence of such a macabre plant puppeteer. She found herself only slightly mollified to learn that her latest kill had granted her another level.

You have reached Level 12! Health and Status partially restored!

Rewarded points doubled by Class Traits!

10 distributable Stat points awarded.

Class Template: [Skyclad Sorceress] auto-assigns 3 points(+1 VIT, +2 INT), Distributable points reduced to 7.

10 Skill points awarded.

You grow stronger through battle! the not-spider spoke into her mind. Solana fears the flames, but my children perish as well.

Morgan chose not to respond, humming to herself as she flash-burned the pollen out of the air once again. It took only a few moments for her to put all her new stat points towards Intellect. A quick glance at the Skills menu showed nothing new or interesting so she decided to save the skill points. The increase to her Mana reserves was extremely welcome, and she spent some of it to raise two walls of icy spears to block off a space in the corridor to allow her to take a short break.

Temporarily protected by the walls of ice, and giggling about gaining the skill [Frost Wall], Morgan took a few minutes to eat another leaf-wrapped package of broiled shellipede and let her Stamina and Mana recover naturally. Using her skills to get Mana back was definitely useful, but far less efficient than the slower regeneration. She was getting much better at judging how much she could push herself at burning calories, but she much preferred having food on hand to recover.

“Three meals left, Lulu,” she told the scrubby after finishing her lunch. She gave the loofah an affectionate pat, her mood now much improved after eating. “I need to finish this up before I run out of food.”

So, she thought at the not-spider. The dungeon keeps shifting, keeping me away from the center.

I grow stronger as well, replied the inhuman being. There are others in reach whom I devour for strength. By the time you reach Solana, we may wrest the Eye from her grasp if we cooperate.

What exactly is this Eye?

Fragment. Shard. Sliver. Essence of something greater, something old. The one of might and crystal devoured an enemy and scattered the remains. Images accompanied the words, vague impressions of a massive beast the size of a dump truck locked in battle with an abomination of twisted limbs and shelled carapace, even larger than the titan. Some fragments retained the power.

So how does Solana use the Eye?

Many creatures who sense the power are tempted. I was no exception. Solana weaves the traps and walls, tainting the air with dust that brings the dream. More images and emotions followed, the thrill of the hunt, the desire to get stronger, seeking the scent of power and the smug satisfaction followed by the despair of being trapped. The Eye feeds on the sleepers, and Solana feeds on the Eye.

Morgan had not stood idle while she conversed mentally with the psychic being. She had shattered her own ice walls and continued through the dungeon halls. The increase in her magical efficacy from the extra Intellect attribute may have been slight, but it compounded over time. She was also very much ready to no longer be in the dungeon.

So we just need to separate her from the thing itself? I hope you aren’t talking about a literal eyeball here…

That which it once was, it is no longer. A jewel too large to carry, it rests below Solana’s waters.

Morgan held her thoughts close at the last bit of information. If the object powering the dungeon was a crystal gem, then that opened up definite possibilities for her since she could manipulate or control its structure with [Gem Sculpt]. Or, at least, she presumed she could, were she close enough to the thing. She had no intentions whatsoever to attempt to keep or use the Eye for herself; things like that ended badly in every movie she had ever watched and every story she’d ever read. Breaking things, however, was always much easier than making or using a given thing.

The way the dungeon keeps changing to keep me from the center is getting tedious. I need a more direct route, she thought at the not-spider. How many walls between where I am now and Solana?

An image came in response instead of words, and feelings of hunger laced with anticipation. She was actually no more than fifty paces from the center, although the current path through the maze led through twists and turns for at least a quarter-mile. Only six walls stood between Morgan and her foe, the innermost section being easily twice as thick as the rest.

“I think I can deal with this,” she said both out loud and to the not-spider in her mind.

She had kept up leaving a trail of breadcrumbs via inscribed runes as she wandered the dungeon, and the practice had paid dividends by increasing her understanding of structured Mana. While she could only scrape the surface of the ground to a depth of about a half an inch with [Terrakinesis], it was still enough for her to work with. She gathered six clumps of earth about the size of her fist, and flattened them down into smooth disks. A bit of heat and fire softened them, allowing her to compress the density even further and improve the strength.

What are you doing?

“Making a new enchantment rune,” murmured Morgan absentmindedly as she held one of the disks between her hands, leaving the other five floating lazily above her head. Lulu amused herself by hopping from one floating disk to the other with happy purbles while the scrubby’s mistress worked on the last.

Creating her first [Candleflame Rune] had been as simple as forming the structure of the spell with barely a wisp of Mana, not giving it enough power to actually activate the spell. Her skills had vastly improved since that day in the forest, especially since learning her enchantments for spatial storage. Her increased Intellect helped her hold far more detail in her mind as well, and she set about inscribing a new rune into the disk. Going as much on instinct as she was planning ahead, she laid the underlying pattern of her [Plasma Glaive] spell into the disk. The thin bands of Fire Mana did not want to form at first, but then she separated the stone itself into twin interlocking spirals: fire flowed one way, Lightning the other.

Powering the rune herself was not something she could sustain in any useful capacity, but she didn’t need to. A simple tracing of her fingers across her left hip-bone, and the shard of crystal from the dead shellipede sprang into existence to float a few inches away from her hand.

Shock and surprise came from the not-spider. You bring a reservoir of power! And it is attuned to you through victorious combat!

“Not too sure what that means, but I could probably guess,” she replied, using a surge of willpower and relying on her [Crystal Affinity] to separate a finger-width section of the shard. “And yeah, it’s full of my own Mana, if that’s what you mean by attuned.” Another gesture had the larger crystal disappearing back into her storage rune, leaving her with a needle of Mana-charged crystal as long as her forearm.

As simple as thinking it and a gentle flick with her [Terrakinesis], the prototype rune she had formed snapped from a nearly flat disk into a wide cone of interlocking spirals. Splitting the sliver of Mana Crystal into six fragments took much more effort, but was still well within her capacity. Carefully, she levitated one of the crystal pieces into the center of the rune, activating [Mana Link] to magically connect the two pieces even as she pulled with her Earth magic and tightened the spirals together to physically lock them around the shard.

You have learned the enchantment [Plasma Lance Rune]! Imbue your [Plasma Glaive] spell into a rune for use at a time and place of your choosing!

“Gotcha!” exclaimed Morgan as she gave a quick fist pump, startling the loofah perched on her shoulder. The notification was followed by another, even more welcome burst of information:

You have increased your understanding of [Runic Enchantment]! Your [Soul Anchor] has gained a level! Living Runes that have been linked to the [Soul Anchor] may now grow to a maximum level of three! You may now link a total of three Living Runes to the [Soul Anchor]!

“Nice!” she said, checking to see if any new runes had appeared in her menu; unfortunately, there were none. Given her current situation, Morgan was unwilling to stop and try to devise another new rune on her own; not with danger potentially lurking around every corner. She decided to worry about those things later, and quickly copied the new enchantment onto the remaining disks while using the pieces of Mana Crystal as a socketed power source.

Placing one of the enchanted disks was simple enough. She merely pulled barbed hooks out from the sides of each disk with [Terrakinesis] and drove them into the wall. Stepping back, she reached out with [Mana Link] and activated the rune, both [Spell Parry] and [Wind Barrier] at the ready.

With a thunderous flaming roar, a round section of the wall flared with a purple light and simply ceased to be. Past the falling rain of cinders, the corridor beyond could now be seen through an opening that was over five feet wide. Where it had once crouched, hidden and waiting, the barely-recognizable remains of one of the thorn-throwing shrubs twitched, smoldering. The loofah gave an almost impressed sounding wurble from its perch on her shoulder as she stepped through to place the next rune.

That was certainly effective…

The not-spider’s tone had definitely changed to something much more wary and nervous. It didn’t sound afraid, but it definitely respected her more. Morgan also thought she could detect a bit of eagerness to the flavor of the thing’s thoughts, although she could already tell that psychic magics would never be one of her specializations, so she could not be entirely sure about that last bit.

“Daddy always said, nothing solves a problem like fire. If fire doesn’t fix it, use more fire.”

My kind do not use fire, but the logic fits for a certain subset of problem types.

The next wall had no enemies on the other side, but the enraged screams emanating from the very leaves and plants on the walls and the canopied ceiling gave proof that Solana was definitely not pleased with her current activities. She could also hear a lot more movement in the distance, and feel rumblings in the ground beneath her feet. Slicing through the cacophony came another sound, then, deep as the ocean and terrible in its leonine fury: the roar of a great cat, like the ripping yowl of a housecat, but with the bass turned up to an organ-rattling thrum.

“Sounds like I’m not the only one tired of being in this dungeon,” she said to Lulu as she placed the next [Plasma Lance Rune] on the wall ahead. This time the breach was filled almost instantly with creatures, but instead of attacking her they all seemed more concerned with getting out than with trying to make a meal of her.

She weakens! We awaken! the voice exulted. The [Nightstride Panther] holds her at bay while the others flee! Hurry!

Two of the remaining three walls were demolished in rapid succession, and the sounds of terrible battle grew louder. The last wall was thicker than the others, and the blast merely burned a crater over a meter deep into the vine-woven structure. Morgan simply raised one hand and fired a brief burst with [Plasma Glaive], and she was through. The room beyond was the size of an auditorium, although the ceiling wasn’t very high. Several of the actual passageways in and out of the center area were open, natural arches of woven branches, plants and stone and earth melded together. Through these doorways fled a plethora of creatures: Tyrannorabbits, Murdersquirrels, many different kinds of deer or elk for which she had no name. Weakened as they were, their only options were to escape or die trying. Three creatures, however, showed no signs of fleeing: one, the enormous panther-like being she had seen before, and another, looking like nothing so much as a cross between a carpenter spider and a scorpion the size of a Saint Bernard.

So that’s the not-spider, thought Morgan to herself as she entered the room.

Definitely not a spider! came the frantic response, as it gave a hiss almost too high-pitched to hear while dodging a flailing clump of vines and stone that slammed into the ground where it had previously been- scuttling? She tried to keep the thought to herself, but failed and was rewarded with consternation and thoughts of reproach from the creature.

Use your fire! But remember: the panther and I are not immune to it!

The third and final creature, Solana herself, was over eight feet tall; a massively overdone caricature of a woman in the likeness of the old tribal fertility goddess figurines Morgan had read about and seen pictures of in a few different classes in school. Dirt and roots formed slender legs that widened into ridiculously exaggerated hips and a tiny waist that spread back out to an enormous bosom. A comparatively tiny head formed of ivy leaves with a thorny mouth and no eyes that Morgan could see continuously screamed like the sound of a windstorm over dead leaves magnified to thunderous volume.

Even emaciated and starved half to death, the panther emanated a savage power as it faced Solana from the side opposite the not-spider. Everywhere the root-woman struck, the panther suddenly was not. It seemed to phase into shadow and resolidify a pace to the left, or to the right, its roars and snarls fading in those transitory moments as if the massive cat was suddenly much farther away and then came rushing back. Shredded branches littered the room, evidence of the work of its claws and teeth.

Where Solana attacked the not-spider, it was a different sort of battle. The psychic creature seemed to step around the being’s attacks like it could tell where the strikes would hit, and each time it left more sticky web and sizzling acidic venom on that appendage. It took the woman-shaped body of vines and leaves longer and longer each time to withdraw whatever tendrils she used, the masses of webbing holding her limbs to the floor or wall for just an extra second or so each time while the greyish-black venom hissed and spat, burning away layers of plant matter.

As Morgan drew nearer, so far ignored by the root-woman, she could see that the woman-shaped monster was held over a pool of water that glowed with a green light emanating from the depths, and instead of using fire and risking hurting the panther or the not-spider, Morgan froze the pool.

The waters solidified with a snap right as Solana lunged for the panther, and her momentum caused the roots connecting her lower legs with the pool to simply break loose.

The monster’s screams turned harsher then, an echoing assault of sound and fury even as she began to visibly wither. No longer bound to one spot, it rushed at Morgan. Thorny spikes sprouted in one last desperate effort that caused the leafy mane draped down its shoulders to shrivel and dry up, but it proved to be in vain. Morgan simply let the creature close with her, and then once again burst into violet, super-heated flames. Dried out from its own efforts, the room was suddenly silent save for the softly burning corpse that had once ruled over a dungeon, and Morgan gained another level. She had also gained mastery of [Heat Affinity] when she pulled the heat out of the water to freeze it, and having mastered [Fire Affinity] earlier in the dungeon, another notification heralded her acquisition of [Pyrokinesis]. Two affinities seemed to be required for that one, but it was a welcome addition to her abilities with manipulating Earth.

“Well that was easier than I expected,” said Morgan.

The panther yowled, fleeing through the nearest opening, but the not-spider remained near the edge of the icy pool.

Once separated from the waters and the Eye, her power was greatly diminished. Now I shall claim the Eye.

“Yeah, I thought you might want to do that once Solana was gone. Thing is, I can feel how bad that thing is from here. I’m going to destroy it.”

No. The mental word was accompanied by a massive push into her mind that drove Morgan to her knees. Shaking with terror, she grabbed Lulu and hid the loofah in her storage rune out of fear for its life. For but a moment, as the fell creature's power was brought to bear, its mind reaching out to choke out her own in a black, abyssal embrace, Morgan knew abject fear.

The moment passed, and then Morgan knew nothing at all.

Then, as though from the depths of her soul -- a keening cry, a wordless rejection. Two points of glimmering violet blazed, and something old beyond measure and filled with awful power rose to fill the gap: another Morgan, a not-Morgan, her most primal self who had no understanding of words and no need to speak them, for the oldest things needed no words to express.

That wordless rage burst from her lips, drowning out the spider-creature's enraged shrieks at its lost opportunity. Her arm raised itself up level with the beast, jagged lightning skittering towards her palm, throwing her face into sharp relief and highlighting the primal savagery etched into her expression. Gone was the human; here now was survival incarnate, writ large and terrible.

A shaft of pure actinide destruction lanced forth from its outthrust palm, swiftly growing and spreading to encompass the floor before her, the creature ahead, and the wall beyond, the very air screaming as it found itself riven apart by forces older than knowing.

The arm lowered. The figure turned, lacking even the capacity for grim satisfaction at the carnage it wrought. It beheld the Eye, and saw that it was bad. It considered, as much as it could, and arrived at the only course of action it could countenance: destruction, raw and untamed.

It raised its arms, fire sweeping along its body as it began its work. A grasping pulse of raw magical power spread outwards from the figure, rolling through the dungeon like a great wave. As it went, it touched the little castoff pieces of earth and stone that Morgan had littered behind her to mark her way, sitting amongst themselves throughout the dungeon as dry, scant reminders of the path an adventurer once took.

But that was not all they were. Engraved upon each was two small runes: one, to link themselves back to her, and the newly-upgraded [Pyreflame Rune]. Several thousand of these small objects sat, waiting with the patience of stone.

As one, the runic symbols on the rocks began to glow in sympathy with the will of their creator.

As one, they heated.

And as one, they burst into a column of fire, adding themselves to the inferno being crafted in the dungeon's heart.

Thousands of leagues away, a newly-minted Oracle staggered and slumped against a fence in a small town, looking upon the towering monument to destruction being wrought.

Much closer, merely hundreds of miles distant, there stood a Tree.

And deep beneath that Tree, miles down, at the very bottom of the roots, something moved.