[38]

“Either of you know what Izzy is talking about?” I asked Raxx and Elaine as we walked to combat training. Izzy refused to elaborate, telling me to just wait and see, but I did not have the patience.

Raxx shrugged, confirming he was as equally oblivious as I was.

Elaine, of course, knew exactly what Izzy was talking about. “Yeah, but I didn’t think we would enter one so soon. Dungeons in Ashmere are testing areas the Mage King used to use to assess his acolytes. They transport you to an illusory false reality and put you in dangerous scenarios. You can’t really die from one, but everything you feel while you are in there is real. Each of the Mage Kings did different things with their dungeons, but we believe most used them for psychological torture and interrogations. That is why we still call them ‘dungeons’.”

“So, we are going into one of these things, for what? Testing?” I asked, feeling a trickle of nervousness worm its way into my gut. Her description did not leave me looking forward to the experience.

Elaine shook her head. “No, Ashmere uses them for increasing skills, abilities, and for tournaments. That way we can train and compete using everything we have without risk of injury. That’s all I really know.”

“Huh,” I said.

Raxx gave me a savage grin. I wished I shared his excitement.

As Izzy predicted, there was a new instructor waiting for us at the sandpit. Master Rohan continued instructing the martial academy students as if we were not there.

The new instructor was a skinny man, whose green robes draped over him like a blanket. His skin was exceptionally pale, even for an Ergenteinian, and his hair had long ago lost color to the advances of age. He had an affable smile that carried through his wrinkles.

“Greetings! Greetings! I am Instructor Ivo. Please, step over here with the others, we shall depart once all have arrived.” the aged instructor said.

Raxx, Elaine, and I formed up in a line next to two other students I did not know, and we all quietly settled in to wait. Less than ten minutes later, our usual class was present, except for Reynold and Tedric. Instructor Ivo was not a fan of tardiness, it seems, as after being told that two were absent, he said “too bad for them”, and directed us toward the tower.

The building where the dungeons were located turned out to be about halfway to the tower from the sandpits. I had seen the odd rose-colored dome shaped structure before, but thought it a temple to some deity. Vibrant blue and red stained glass windows with intricate depictions of the Alvar ran around the top circumference of the building, letting sunlight in with an evocative glow. From the interior, the place looked more like a temple than I had originally believed.

An enormous bronze statue of an Alvar with a trimmed beard sat in the centre of the floor level. Between the breath-taking windows were paintings of scenes from the Godswar that looked so marvelous, I made mental plans to come back and study them again sometime.

“This way,” Instructor Ivo said, leading us toward a set of stairs that went downward along the side of the wall. I noticed another set of stairs on the opposite side of us reaching down in the opposing direction; probably for exiting foot traffic.

Arcanolamps lit our descent, bathing the red-carpeted stairs in a ghostly blue light and shadows. My nervousness had not died down, and the further we plummeted into the depths of the building, the greater my fear grew. Increasing invisible pressure from something weighed us down with each passing step. It began as a tingle in my chest, but expanded out to the very air around us. Raxx walked a bit stiffer, implying I was not the only one adversely affected.

A warm hand wrapped itself in mine, startling me out of my internal negative refrain. I looked down to see Elaine next to me, gazing upward and giving me a lifting smile. The physical contact between us had the effect she desired and more, as my attention turned to the softness of her skin. Red darkened my ears as I felt my pulse and heat rise. I considered yanking my hand away lest she cause me to trip over my own feet and tumble down the endless stairwell.

Fortunately, she let go of her own accord, with a gentle pat to show that she had not wanted to spook me, just work toward getting us closer. I admired her forthrightness, but was not sure I was ready for the normalcy of touching. Ingrid had been the only woman that I shared intimacy with, and that only when I was blackout drunk. Of course, admitting this to Elaine would create a whole host of problems for me that would not truly improve the situation.

Instructor Ivo stopped in the archway of a grand hall. Indecipherable runes and wards covered the entire ceiling and the walls of a stone hall that felt like a tomb. Floating in the center of the room, and gently rotating, was a 200 foot pillar covered in a lattice-work of essence crystals. There was probably enough essence there to Rank to level 50!

“Whoa,” I said, unable to suppress my awe.

“Yeah,” Elaine agreed, still by my side.

“Have a seat, if you will,” Instructor Ivo said, motioning to the line of black-stone chairs that stood before us in rows. There had to be close to at least five hundred of the throne like seats. I had not even noticed them upon entering, taken as I was with the essence crystal pillar.

Our class sat in the first available row, though I noted that scattered throughout the room were other students sitting alone or in groups.

“We do not teach you history until your second year at Ashmere. All the same, I feel l would be remiss in my duties not to explain what you see before you. Above us, is the memorial for the Mage King Ashmere. As you now understand, he was an Alvar; in fact, the only of the Mage Kings that was Alvar. He refused to rebel with the others because of his love for Ainu, and so he aligned with the gods to cast the other twelve down and sent them to the hells. In his last years, Ashmere worked tirelessly to recreate marvels like the dungeon stone you see before you. Weakened and cut off from his power, devastated by the loss of his creator, Ashmere persisted in a world that was suddenly alien to him, because he knew that the war was not over.”

“I say this to you, because it is important that you understand what you fight for. What others have sacrificed to give you the opportunities you have. This training is a miracle for the ascended, and it is unique. You must treat it with diligence and complete seriousness. To do otherwise is to weaken us all, and betray your purpose.”

Instructor Ivo looked around the room, meeting each of us in the eye to ensure that we understood, before he continued.

“Dungeon training will not make you physically stronger—it occurs only within the mind of the person or persons linked to a level. What it does, is give you real world experience, and that in turn, translates to faster skill and ability development. It is by design of the gods that you grow faster when taking greater risk, and a dungeon level takes advantage of that intent, albeit with no physical danger. But make no mistake, danger is still there.”

“You will feel pain, fear, and suffering when you enter a dungeon. Your mind will register everything that happens as if it were real. The training will not protect your mental state the way it does your body. It is rare, but there has been mental scarring so great that a student was never again the same. In every one of those cases, it was because the participant treated the experience like a game. To avoid that fate, you must give nothing less than your best.”

“Now that you understand, I will go over the ground rules. First, you will come here instead of combat training every Fifthday. Which level you have access to will depend on your persistence in your training, as well as your ability. All will start off at the F ranking, level 5 and work your way upward toward a higher ranking. Level 5 may not always be the easiest, and level 1 not necessarily the hardest. Too much depends on what your class is; so do not mistake a lower number for an easier time.”

“All training during the first half of the year at Ashmere is at the individual level. The second half of each year you will form into permanent teams and work on group work. Dungeon running will be no different. You will be expected to complete each of your levels by yourself.”

“You can attend training here on off days, but it will cost you ten contribution points per visit. None of the training you do here is free. During your end of the year excursion, your group will bring back five filled essence crystals to make up for the energy you have spent.” Instructor Ivo pointed to the glowing pillar for emphasis.

“Now, do you have questions?” Instructor Ivo said.

Elaine, sitting to my right, surprised me by raising her hand.

“Yes?” Instructor Ivo asked.

“What can we expect on the first level?” Elaine asked.

“Excellent question,” Instructor Ivo nodded with approval. “The first level is a memory of a village in peril, from less than a decade after the Godswar. It was during a time of new peace, and rebuilding when threats like what you will face in there were unknown. You will face an enemy that to this day, we still don’t readily understand. That is all I can give you. Anything else?”

Another student raised their hand, then asked, “What can we take with us?”

“You will bring whatever you are wearing. Things like food, water, and supplies will be provided for you within later dungeon levels.”

“Do they take that long?” The same student asked.

“While you are inside, time passes quickly. Out here, it will only be a few minutes to an hour, depending on how well you do.” Instructor Ivo said.

I raised my hand.

Instructor Ivo nodded.

“How do we leave the dungeon?” I asked.

“You either complete it, or you die horribly,” said Instructor Ivo, with a grim look on his face.