Author’s Corner: What are you doing reading this note? There’s a whole chapter down below!

Seeing that I had no intention to let the two of them go, the girls simply smiled at each other and tried to comfort me. I was sure that it was all but impossible for either of them to imagine what I had been through in the last half hour, but I finally was able to come back after so long. Even though I hadn’t really gone anywhere, just being trapped in an essentially stilled world was already the worst kind of prison.

“Let’s get him back to the ship. I’ll send someone else down to manage this area.” Celeste spoke softly, and the girls nodded. However, getting me up was another matter. I had kept my arms moving every once in awhile so that I could eat, but my legs had been motionless for a hundred years. Even with my healing spells keeping them from atrophying, they were still incredibly stiff. Just getting me to stand up took over half an hour, and I still needed to be supported.

When we got back to the ship, I set my clone body down and logged out to my main one. Unfortunately, the stiffness in my legs transferred over, so the girls had to help me get back to the ship as well. In the meantime, Celeste went off to tell the crew something.

Back in the captain’s quarters, Sharon brought out Jasmine and Chrome from her grove, and had them stay with me for a bit. I was worried that Sharon was going to go away somewhere, but she just smiled and sat down on the bed next to me. “Don’t worry, John. I’m still here.” As if to reassure me, she reached out and grabbed my hand, gently squeezing it.

A few minutes later, Celeste came back in and told Sharon that she was being relieved of dungeon digging duty. Celeste was taking over for Sharon to go and supervise the other druids, since she wasn’t needed at my lab anymore.

“Thanks, Celeste.” She said with a small smile. Though, I was definitely not going to be very useful for a while. Yin came back into the room after having gone to visit Yang for a moment, and the two of them had me explain what had happened. I tried not to get too deep in the memories, because I was afraid I would have a panic attack, but thankfully the two girls were on either side of me, holding my hands.

I told them about the plan, which was to break the formation if anything went wrong, and then how things had gone horribly wrong. However, I ended up staying in that formation to try and work through it, rather than log out and let my body turn to dust. Every small increase in my affinity served as a push to keep me going. And when I saw the two of them, and was already so close, I knew that I had to finish what I started.

They hadn’t known before just how long I had been in the formation, and to be honest, I was unclear as well. It was only when Celeste spoke up that I found out I had been in there for nearly a hundred and seventy years. For Sharon and Yin, neither of which were born as long-lived races, such an amount of time must have seemed unfathomable. Even I wouldn’t have believed it, had I not lived through it personally. But since I did, I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if she told me it was double that number.

Anyways, after finding out how long I had lasted, the looks in their eyes changed a bit. Not upset that I had become so old or anything. More realization at just how long I had been alone. Even my voice wasn’t entirely working, because I had no reason to use it during that entire time. After all, I could communicate with Celeste mentally, but even that only happened once every few years near the end.

But they were patient. In Sharon’s words, “You waited over a hundred years to gain a special ability. We can wait a few minutes for you to talk about it.” At times like this, I was even more thankful for having the two of them.

The rest of the day went by much more quickly, and I was very glad it did. According to Celeste, I would need about a week to get my body back to normal, but I should stay resting for much longer in that to recover from the other side effects. I didn’t truly know what she meant until that night.

I sat in a black room, seemingly trapped in an endless voice. I would open my mouth, but no sound would come out. Spreading my hands out, I found that the endless void was instead small, small enough that I could reach every inch of the walls with my arms. Nothing in this tiny world would change, no matter what I did. I tried to scream out for help, to beat against the black walls of my cage.

Suddenly, I woke up, sitting up in my bed quickly. Sharon and Yin were laying on either side of me, sound asleep. Remembering my dream, and looking around at the still room, I felt a sense of panic rising in my chest. In order to do my best to avoid waking the girls up, I made a pair of portals to hold onto, and pulled myself out of bed.

Moments later, I was laying down in the bathroom, just listening to the faucet running. Closing my eyes, I thought to myself over and over again. Everything’s okay… I had hurried here because I knew, if my fears had relapsed, and time had stopped for me again, the water wouldn’t run. I had used that small amount of sanity I could muster to bring myself to the nearest source of water I could find. And thankfully, listening to the faucet slowly began to ease my mind.

Then, a knock came from the open door. Turning my head, I found Yin looking at me worriedly. “Are you okay..?” Rather than waiting for me to answer, she came and sat down on the floor next to me, putting her hand in my hair and stroking it slowly. After I shakily nodded my head, she smiled slightly to me, but didn’t stop what she was doing. She sat there with me until I was ready to go back to the bed, and then helped me do so.

“I… I’m sorry, for waking you up.” I admitted quietly, but she shook her head and gave me a light kiss on the forehead.

“Don’t worry. It’s all okay.” She had me wrap my arms around her and let me go back to sleep. Thankfully, that dream didn’t come again that night.

I quickly learned that I needed things moving in my surroundings. Not just wanted, but needed it. If the room I was in became still for too long, it brought me back to that formation. I would feel as if my world was crumbling away, as if all of this was just a dream, that I was still locked in that neverending moment of time. Some people say that they wish they could capture a moment and let it last forever. I wish I had never done so.

The girls took turns watching me, never really leaving me alone for the next few days. It wasn’t until just over a week later, when the last dungeon had been completed, that they both left me alone at once. But even then, Sharon made sure to leave Chrome and Jasmine in my room. Between the two of them, I could ward off my panic attacks easily enough. The real problem was the nightmares. They hadn’t gone away, and each night I would suddenly wake up. Sometimes, I would wake up screaming, others the girls had to wake me up themselves. Only a couple of times did I manage to wake quietly and pull my way to the bathroom to listen to the faucet running again. But for both of those times, one of the girls would show up soon after to sit with me.

In a way, them both leaving me alone to help train the crew was a sort of test, to measure how well I was recovering. Since I could walk slowly on my own, I didn’t have any special physical needs. It was just whether or not my mind had recovered. They both made sure to promise me, that if I needed them, they would log out immediately and come help. That made me feel better, at least.

While they were gone, I had Chrome in my lap, and was petting him while some of Sharon’s music played in the background. I might not have cared much for the music, but it was a good way to calm me down, and remind me that everything was normal. To my pleasant surprise, I was able to avoid a panic attack the entire time that they were gone. I even called my parents and talked with them. I didn’t tell them about what happened… but I really needed to hear their voices again.

The next day, I decided to read through preliminary reports on the dungeons. Only the first few had monsters in them, but that was already enough for the crew to go diving. And, maybe by Celeste’s order, each team had at least one person that submitted a report of the dungeon.

Crew Member: Aschwalt Saren

Position: Senior Security Officer

Incident Injuries: Minimal

This report is being filed in regards to Dungeon 2, led by Officer Bradbury. As this is our first expedition to this dungeon, we were currently unaware of what creatures it may hold. However, we were confident in our skills to clear out whatever appeared. According to the Vice-Captain, powerful monsters would not appear for quite some time, and typically then only in the deepest parts of the dungeon, further boosting the team’s morale.

The squad led by Officer Bradbury consists of myself, and Officers Lorenz, Hasen, Kremver, Jarn, Florence, Malack, Naver, and Trom. With this configuration, we teleported to the dungeon’s entrance. Trom stayed at the back of the group with a handheld device of the Vice-Captain’s designs. Per orders, we are to use this device on any monsters we see spawning, to get readings on their mana levels.

Inside the dungeon, what we found were small, green men. Bradbury referred to them as goblins. They did not seem very powerful, but they traveled in great numbers. The first group we faced had over a dozen of the creatures, armed with only their claws and teeth. They lunged at us, but were easily dispatched by the vanguard.

The next group had even more, twenty of the little cretins. This time, they managed to break past the vanguard, and I had to fire my plasma pistol into melee in order to help clear them out. Thankfully, the Vice-Captain had converted one of the Ariadne’s rooms to a firing range so that we could practice with these new weapons.

I expected over fifty goblins to be in our third encounter, but instead found something else. Five goblins were walking around with a tall creature, well over two meters, with green skin and long tusks coming from its mouth. Its arms were thin and elongated, and its red hair was unkempt. From Officer Bradbury’s information, this creature was designated as a troll.

Although the goblins in this party were easily dispatched, the troll presented a bit of issue for us. Its strength far exceeded what its frame would indicate, and it was capable of throwing Kremver back with one hand. Once again, we had to rely on the ranged units to eliminate this creature. However, we had not yet suffered any real casualties, and Hasen made sure to heal us after each encounter.

From then on, almost every group possessed at least one troll, but the amount of goblins began increasing. What seemed stranger, was that the intelligence of the trolls also seemed to increase. They began utilizing different attack patterns, no longer simply charging out headfirst into our blades. If these creatures had weapons to fight with, we may have fallen already.

Our journey into this dungeon continued, and we reached the end of the first floor. From previously gathered information, a ‘boss monster’ would likely appear in this room. However, calling it a boss is inaccurate. In truth, it is simply a monster from the lower floor that left--

My reading was interrupted by an overly excited, two headed dog jumping into my lap and yipping at me for attention. I couldn’t help but smile slightly at it, and resume my petting. Now, where was I?

In truth, it is simply a monster from the lower floor that left to rule over the floor above.

In this case, the boss monster looked similar to the trolls, but had far more muscle on its body. Likewise, it had two heads on top of its head, each of which growled out guttural tones at our approach. The most unsettling thing was that it actually had weapons. Each of its hands held a giant stone club, each club being over a meter long, and as thick as a man’s body at the end.

This creature was called an ettin, and this was the first time that Officer Bradbury had to interfere in the fights. We charged forward, hoping to end this quickly. The ranged fighters stayed in the back, and Hasen was just behind us to provide healing to whoever needed it. However, the swords of our vanguard barely left a scratch on the ettin’s thick skin. Our plasma pistols were much more effective, but we were running low on charges after our last few battles.

With one swing of its clubs, the ettin crushed Jarn and Malack. Their bodies practically exploded from the impact, bone and blood flying around to paint the walls. With its next attack, two more of our group fell. At this point, a bolt of lightning struck out from the back of our group, striking the ettin dead center in its chest. The lightning materialized to form a brightly glowing wolf, which savagely tore apart the ettin, ripping the thing’s arms off with its jaws and then biting off the two heads.

Per Officer Bradbury’s orders, we stopped our excursion here this time. In the future, we would continue to travel only the first floor of the dungeon until we could defeat the boss without any losses. I expect similar results to be found in the other dungeons.