While I would likely continue to think about everything that had happened in the dungeon for quite a while, I was ready to be done pouring over the things I’d gained from it. Reading that I’d gained some stats or learned a new skill, after all, was not nearly as exciting as testing those stats out or putting a skill into practice, and I couldn’t do that if my face was stuck behind a notification screen.

To that end, I was happy to almost be done with it all. Only one last item remained, or rather, in a more literal sense, two items: the crystals I’d received from Hex. I fished the first of the two out of my inventory, an innocuous, translucent purple gem.

“So? What did Hex think I needed?” The goddess had seemed excited to pick out a gift for me, though I really couldn’t even guess at what she’d chosen. A quick scan with God’s Eye, and that was taken care of.

Spell Shard of Sense Minds

Teaches the user the Novice mental magic spell, Sense Minds.

I nearly stopped reading the description there, feeling an urge to throw the crystal to the ground. A mental magic spell? Really? What part of anything I’d experienced would make Hex think this was a good gift?

So far, almost all the mental magic spells I’d seen so far had been used to make me falsely trust someone I shouldn’t have or to do something I wouldn’t want to do otherwise. Even when it wasn’t being used to influence me, it had been used to invade my mind and read my thoughts.

Now, if Hex had given me one of those training crystals to level up my mental resistance, I would have taken it gladly. Just because I didn’t want to have my mind messed with again, however, didn’t mean I wanted to have the power to mess with other people’s minds.

Still. It wasn’t like I was going to just throw the crystals away where anyone could find them. And they were a gift from a god. I’d at least finish reading their descriptions.

Note: This item’s description has had a message appended to it.

Hey Tess. Real talk: I get where you’re coming from. I do. You’d probably be surprised to learn how many mental mages go into the field after suffering something kind of traumatic. Practically a right of passage.

I recommend this, though. Mental resistance… It’s kind of like building a big wall around your mind. It’s good, but it’s passive. Mental magic, on the other hand, is like training a little army to protect that wall. Even if you never use it on other people, it’s a more active defense.

The feeling that someone could mind control you without you even knowing — to put it lightly, it’s not a pleasant one. It can eat away at you, make you paranoid until it’s controlling you just as much as actual mind magic would. In any case, this spell’s completely innocuous — practically no different from a ‘detect life’ spell. If you decide to level up mental magic, you don’t have to learn any spells you don’t want to, you know? Just think it over.

Your favorite god of darkness,

Hexaura’erevaila’valaiora <3

Having read the message over, I sighed.

She had some points. I knew she did. The feeling of willingly walking onto that ritual circle… Well, there was a reason Trauma Suppression had leveled up so quickly afterwards. If it hadn’t, I shuddered to think about how I’d be feeling right now.

Still, I hesitated.

Maybe Sense Minds would be good enough to level my mental magic up through the Novice rank, but what happened when I needed something stronger? Would there always be something that I didn’t feel gross about using?

And what would happen if I tried using it with my class skills? What if I enhanced my armor with mental mana and suddenly discovered it made people more likely to trust me? I like to think I’d just never use it, but could I trust myself not to? I still hadn’t fully internalized it yet, but I was coming around to the idea that — if I didn’t get myself killed first — my lifespan was probably much higher than it would have been back on Earth. Could I handle having that kind of temptation pulling at me for 50 years? 100? Longer?

That was to say nothing of the fact that mental magic seemed to be highly regulated, and in some cases, illegal. I vaguely recalled a few mental practitioners who’d fought in the Drawgin arena once, but after experiencing some of Ephesis’s memories, I had a bit more context. Mages like that were almost certainly attached to some noble or kingdom — most nations frowned heavily on rogue mental mages.

“Well. It’s not like there’s a time limit on it.” No one was forcing me to decide right this instant. I knew that, in a world like this, maybe some people would consider me foolish for not immediately jumping at the power offered to me. Who would even consider turning down a gift from a god?

I didn’t care.

Yes, I wanted to be strong enough to protect myself. I didn’t want to be afraid of just moving through life. I still had morals, though. I had to wake up each day, being okay with the kind of person I’d become. And it was possible that mental magic might cross that line.

With another sigh, I put it back in the bag.

Might as well see what the other one is. This time, I took out the other crystal.

Whereas the purple skill shard had struck me as pleasant to look upon, its twin was anything but. A deep black with wisps of smoke billowing off of it, its only color was the specks of violet which hung within.

Dark magic, maybe? Or another mental spell?

As it turned out, it was actually both. Probably. Unfortunately, it was kind of hard to tell.

???

Requirements:

Level 10 in Mental Magic

Level 10 in Dark Magic

I frowned, God’s Eye apparently not sufficient to identify the item. Either I’d have to level it up some more, or maybe if I ever met the requirements, the description would update.

Fat chance there, though. Still not sure if I want to learn mental magic, and I don’t even have any dark magic to train up.

Still, in a way, that made it all the easier. No moral dilemma this time around. I chucked the crystal back into the bag, and that was the end of it.

Well, damn. I sat there for a moment, feeling kind of heavy. I’d kind of expected getting a divine gift would have left me in a good mood, but in this case, all I was left with was a mixture of emotions I couldn’t fully sort out.

Feels like… Maybe time for a walk?

I nodded. Hopefully getting outside would help me to take my mind off of everything.

Splash.

The ball of water hit the ground, soaking the earth beneath it. Had anyone been tracking me, they’d have had an easy job of it: identical water marks trailed behind me at even distances.

Sure, I’d decided not to rush into mental magic, but belatedly, I recalled that there were already a host of new things for me to be having fun with! Looking over all the changes I’d just undergone, one line had stuck out to me.

All utility cantrips (novice tier spells) with a mana cost of 5 or under can now be cast for free.

It was part of the bonus for hitting 25 in Wisdom, and essentially, it meant unlimited water!

I could also use it on my other two low-mana cantrips, Flameploof and Illumination, but rotating through all three took more focus than mindlessly activating the same one over and over again. Plus, it felt more fun this way. I was watering all the trees.

I traced a watery path through the woods, working my way towards the main housing area. After everything that had happened today, plus a good few hours of cantrip training, it was around dinnertime (something I could tell now that the sky wasn’t always dark), and I figured I’d grab some food. While I usually ate with the shadows, dinner was the one meal I’d occasionally enjoy around everyone else. This, of course, had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Nadja would be busy behind the bar by now.

In no time at all, I left the forest and made it to the houses. Several large pots had been set up in a cleared-out space, each filled with rich stews that practically sang to my nose. Surrounding the pots were a host of darkwood logs that had been cut in half, acting as makeshift benches.

Builders and fighters and even a few shadows were clustered about the food and on the benches, eating and chatting amongst themselves.

After venturing into the throng and grabbing a bowl for myself, I scanned the crowd, searching for familiar faces. Finding none, I took a seat at random, enjoying just soaking up the noise.

It came as somewhat of a surprise, then, when someone approached me: a bald man wearing a set of purple robes.

“Hello there! If you’d prefer not to chat while eating, I can find you some other time, but do you happen to have a second to spare?”

I recognized the man, I realized. Back on Earth, names and faces had often been somewhat of a struggle for me, but with God’s Mind aiding my memory, things had gotten much simpler. Even without pulling up his information, his name came to mind: Carpin. He was the Logistician I’d briefly met the day the fighters arrived, and he’d been overseeing all of their stays.

Having no reason to deny the man, I nodded. “Sure. What’s up?” I signaled for him to join me, and he took a seat.

“Thank you. Nothing too big — It’s just, I know that yesterday was the day we were scheduled to get enough energy for the dungeon, and it’s the main reason that everyone from Drawgin came here — well, not me, of course, but generally speaking. Is it ready to delve? Or do you have any information on that front?”

Right. I couldn’t say that I’d actually forgotten about opening the dungeon: I’d put it on my to-do list, after all. With everything that had happened today, however, it hadn’t really crossed my mind since then, though.

“I think? Probably? One second.” At least, to the best of my knowledge, it was back to being a normal dungeon now that Ephesis and the gods were gone.

I pulled up my settlement interface, moving to the dungeon tab. A wide array of information was available that I struggled to instantly make sense of. Thankfully, more information was displayed whenever I focused on sections I wasn’t clear on.

Dungeon type: Natural

Unlike many artificially constructed settlement dungeons, this dungeon existed prior to the settlement in question. This may yield unexpected features.

Instance type: Non-instanced

A non-instanced dungeon can only be entered by one party at a time. If multiple parties enter at once, they will both be physically present in the same dungeon as opposed to each getting separate copies of the dungeon to delve at the same time.

Number of floors: 1

Dungeon recharge period: 6 hours*

*(Note, this represents the time it takes for dungeon monsters to respawn after a full clear of the dungeon. This time may be smaller if only part of the dungeon is cleared)

Suggested party makeup: Party of 5, each in the range of level 15-18*

*(Note, decreased experience and rewards will be given to parties in excess of these suggestions.)

I related all of this to Carpin, expecting him to be happy that the dungeon seemed to be ready to delve. Instead, he pursed his lips into a thin line, letting out a pensive “hmmm.”

“Not entirely ideal,” he eventually admitted. “Even if every party cleared the dungeon instantly, at that rate, working around the clock, we’d be able to get in 20 people a day. With about 300 fighters, that would mean that it would take a good 15 days for everyone to get a delve in, or put another way, each person would only get to access the dungeon about twice a month.”

Put that way, I could see his point. I wouldn’t really want to live out here just to access a dungeon twice a month. Especially considering they had a dungeon waiting for them back home, that rate seemed a little low.

“I’ll tell you what,” he continued. “If you’d like to set up a time for us to meet for a longer conversation, perhaps we can look through your settlement options and see if there are ways to make this a better experience for everyone. I have a couple of ideas already, actually.”

It was a sensible path forward. Now that the dungeon was already open, I wasn’t really using any of our new settlement energy for anything. There likely were plenty of uses for it that would make the city feel a bit nicer, or at least upgrade the dungeon.

At the same time, without selling myself short, I recognized that I knew next to nothing about them. The entire meeting Carpin was suggesting would mostly just be me reading him all the options, and then probably doing whatever he thought was best. To some degree, it just felt like a waste of time.

“No chance you want to just run the dungeon, is there? Be the dungeon master and all that?” I recalled that there was a slot for just that in the settlement interface — it was how Ephesis had opened the dungeon portal in the first place.

The Logistician blinked. “Pardon?”

“I mean, I’d probably run it by Amak and a few others first, but, sounds like you can probably handle it better than anyone else I know.” He had an entire class dedicated to logistics, he already worked in a city with a dungeon, and he’d been hand-picked by Agath to oversee the fighters’ stay. Couldn’t really argue that he would be a better pick than me for this. “I don’t know if that’s something you’d want to do, and honestly, I don’t know if that’s the kind of thing you’d want some pay-”

“Happily,” the man jumped in. “I would do so happily. It sounds like a lovely leveling opportunity for me, and truth be told, now that things have settled down, I find myself growing fairly fidgety. I’m not like the fighters who can just help with the hunting or spar to pass the time.”

Huh. Well, assuming Amak didn’t point out any glaring flaws with the idea, that worked out kind of well for me. Less work!

I briefly mentioned to the man that I’d gotten a chance to peek inside the dungeon — a slight understatement, but not a lie — and he spent the rest of the conversation grilling me on the specifics. Apparently he planned to send out a preliminary party to scout it out, but knowing the types of monsters and traps they might face would make it much safer for everyone involved.

I happily complied. It was probably just a fact of life for adventurers, but I had no desire for anyone to die in the dungeon if I could help it.

All in all, though, it was fairly exciting news. Soon, the dungeon would see some real adventurers, and this time, there’d be no godly prisons or blood sacrifices involved. Who knew what sorts of things people would find inside?

After wrapping our conversation up, we said our farewells, and I dropped my bowl and utensils off in the designated area by the pots.

Having already been approached by Carpin, I figured I’d reached my quota for unexpected encounters. Right as I was about to head back to my tent, however, a voice called out to me.

“Oi! Tess!”

Turning about, I caught sight of a man in his fifties, scratching at his stubbly beard before bringing his hand up to a head of close-cropped gray hair.

“Foreman Tuk!” In an odd turn of fate, the foreman was a person who I both enjoyed seeing, and also was afraid to see. Weeks of doing construction work under his instruction had made me pretty comfortable with the guy. On the flip side, I now had a small urge to flee whenever I saw him, for fear of getting roped into another building project.

I wasn’t sure if he was just saying hi or if he actually needed something. Before I could ask, however, he made it fairly clear.

“The one and only, or so they tell me. Listen, you got a second?” He looked away from my eyes for a moment while rubbing at his head. “I was hoping we could have a chat.”