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《Apotheosis - The Grand Dungeon of Kess》Chapter Nineteen: Recovery

“Myles?”

Ugh.

It was the voice again, prodding at the edges of his mind as he worked through the comforting world of darkness. It was warm there. It had a feeling of peace and safety, so Myles defied the growing light as his sleep-addled mind wrestled with the waking world.

The waking world hurt.

“You need to wake up, Myles.”

To the mists with that voice was what he wanted to say, but it was insistent that he wake up. He hated waking up sometimes. The warm sheets, the comfortable bed under him, and the sounds of silence were nice.

Eventually, Myles toned out the voice and began to groan as the waking world reasserted itself against him. It was slow at first as Myles wrestled with the world beyond him, then the weight of his own body, then the feelings of that body. That was the hardest part. To him, the world felt wrong. It felt as though the world around him as if he were surrounded by broken glass and tapioca pudding.

That is to say wholly unpleasant and painful.

Voices crashed like thundering drums as he wrestled with his senses and recall what had happened. The icy water of reality washed over him a second later as his hands found themselves resting on the pair of slimes, nuzzling against him in concern.

Then, he opened his eyes and met with something unexpected.

“Ashra?” he asked, more of a question than a statement as he looked up into the body of the Monsterkin. The pillow had been her crossed legs, he realized a moment later and sat up slowly, only to be pushed back down by her hand.

“You must recover while you’re still safe,” she said simply, but there was a tone of happiness to the order as she continued. “You fought like a true warrior, Myles Chase.”

Coming to terms with that, he looked around carefully, not wanting to move faster than necessary. Mitchel was talking with the announcer from before, catching the name Barnabus in the wind. Kendra and the rest of his team were nearby on the stage of rock, keeping a wary eye on the admittedly fewer Monsterkin that graced the Proving Grounds until they saw him stir and approached.

“Mists, Chase, can you fight like that all the time?” Kendra asked.

Myles shook his head and instantly regretted the action. “Maybe with practice, but I nearly killed myself.”

“I couldn’t tell.”

Lyna gave him a nod of respect as Tail moved closer, extending a hand with a few thinly sliced pieces of brownish-white something. “Willow bark, it’ll help with the pain since your body is healed.”

He took it without another word and chewed, nearly retching at the taste as it mixed with his saliva. It was disgusting and bitter, but he didn’t doubt the Korgan knew their stuff when it came to pain management and kept chewing.

“That was some display,” Will pointed out, sitting next to Myles with a slight grunt of effort. “You really put our lessons to work.”

Myles attempted to sit up again, and Ashra didn’t stop him this time. He continued to chew and nodded to Will. “This is foul,” he cursed, getting a chuckle from the older man before he remembered something. “I unlocked the Trait we were working on.”

Will gave him a nod. “We’ll talk about that later.”

He felt the pride from his team as his mind cleared. He knew he’d done them proud, but there was a noticeable absence of Silpha as she seemed to stare at the sky, disconnected from him. That brought him to the second absence, and he knew then that he had to address the issue they’d come to deal with.

Feeling more himself, Myles turned to look at Ashra. It was the first time he’d been able to stop and just observe her new form. He could see himself in her if he focused hard enough. Looking across her fur and flesh was like looking into a carnival mirror and distorted him this way and that, but as his eyes met hers, those were still the same.

He felt his heart rise into his throat, then forced it back like it was a week-old crust from the mousetrap. “Are you okay?”

Ashra chuckled, a strange imitation of what she’d once done that rang rather than warmed. “No, Myles. I am not okay.”

Foot, meet mouth.

He sighed and started again. “What are you going to do now?”

She never blinked as she stared at him, into him, through him, and then released a tension she didn’t know she was holding. “I am going to meet with my family and see if there is a way to become me once more.”

Myles felt the words more than heard them but accepted them the best he could. “Will you come back?”

There wasn’t even a hesitation as she answered.

“When this is sorted, I will return, Myles,” she answered as if there had never been a question of it. “I would be wrong to abandon such a worthy ally. I…” she trailed off as if a memory had taken hold before shaking her head. “I must try to fix myself.”

“Is there anything…”

“It is something I must do alone. I know you did not mean for this to happen, neither did I. But because of our lack of knowledge, we have lost friends. I must know all I can before I return. As myself, or as I am now, I must try.”

Again, Myles nodded. He understood. It hurt, but he understood. For just a moment, he felt as if he understood Maximus Chase all the better.

Then, something unexpected happened.

Due to the resolution of your monster’s emotional state and her promise to return, your Soul Link to Ashra Snowpelt has been restored to its previous state.

You have cleared one stack of Temporary Soul Shivered.

Status - Ashra Snowpelt has been reestablished.

Due to repairing a high-level Soul Link with a sapient monster, both parties have unlocked the Skill - Sense Partner

Sense Partner (Ashra Snowpelt)

Skill Type: Active/Passive - Monster Tamer

Cost: 5 SE

Distance: Unlimited

Success Determination: Focus

Passive Effect: Due to the closeness of your soul to another, both parties have gained the ability to sense the general location of the other.

Active Effect: By spending 5SE, sense the detailed emotional and physical state of any monster linked to you with the Sense Partner Skill.

Your base stats have been improved.

For a moment, the two just stared at one another, seemingly dumbstruck as the other’s emotional weight reconnected and restored the hole that had been created in the other’s absence. At the same moment, Myles’s body was like bottled lightning with the return of the power he’d physically and mentally lost. The strange feeling left him at a loss and feeling slightly guilty until everything became truly clear.

Myles felt the weight of Ashra’s emotional burden. To his surprise, the sharpness of it was gone, but it still lingered like a weight against her form, pulling her down into despair as she kept fighting against it. That wasn’t all of it as her memories made their way across the connection, willed by Ashra or whatever force connected them through his Class. He could feel everything she’d worked through by fighting the last ninety-nine opponents before him, and how she’d learned to control her new body, the body she knew wasn’t her own. That weight may have truly broken him if their roles had been reversed, but there was something almost stronger than the loss of self.

The sorrow at the loss of Squishy was almost heavier than her loss of self, as she tried, again and again, to connect with it as she had with Myles and failed. Her guilt at stealing his form for her own, unwilling or not, was what sent her over the edge. At least, that’s what it felt like to Myles, but there were parts still hazy, muted compared to the others, but it ended with a feeling of pride, self-fulfillment, and a strange level of contentedness Myles couldn’t place.

Looking at Ashra, he didn’t see any emotions cross her eyes or face, but he had the feeling that she was experiencing his side: the guilt, the anger, the sickness at what he’d unwillingly done, and maybe worst of all, his desperation to help fix the problem and bring her home.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Ashra spoke to him without words.

“Thank you for not giving up on me, on us.”

Myles smiled, ignoring the tear working its way down his face.

It’s what family does.

“Even so, you should not have made that deal, even for me.”

Myles nodded. I know, but you know why I did.

“Your soul is not worth mine, Myles.”

I’d do the same for any of them.

For just a moment, he swore Ashra smirked and felt a familiar... nudging across their connection. I am surprised Silpha joined you for this.

He blinked. “How did you recognize her?”

I have known for a while what her avatar was. We have talked often about things you and I cannot. Now, our team is waiting. You may tell them everything without fear of offending me when you leave. I will return when I am ready.

More tears came unbidden and he resisted the urge to hug her. Myles stood, nodding again before going back to his friends…

To see them exchanging coins.

“What’s going on?”

Kendra made a small chest’s worth vanish into her inventory. “They lost a bet and were paying up.”

Myles eyed them one by one and sighed. “Really?”

She nodded and Lyna groaned. “She bet you’d lose.”

“You bet I’d lose?” Myles asked in indignation.

“I was our leader to start, and I know our team,” she defended. “Ashra could kick your tail from here to the Frozen Peaks and back without breaking a sweat.”

Mitchel laughed again before offering Myles a hand. The [Monster Tamer] took it, clasping him at the forearm with a smile. “I don’t know how your team does it, but I can see why Sindra first took an interest in you for us. I really don’t think you’d be doing this well with us, so maybe it’s for the best you didn’t get it.”

“Thanks?” He didn’t quite know how to take that, but he assumed it was a compliment before Lyna butted in.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“You know ‘well, what?’ Myles. Is Ashra coming back or what. From that goofy smile, I’m pretty sure I know, but you can never be sure until you hear it from the rock eater’s mouth.”

Myles was pretty sure that wasn’t how the expression went but understood the meaning well enough. “I’ll explain everything on our way home.”

That brought his team to a near fever as Ashra took that as her cue to leave towards the assembled group of Ambush Rabbitkin, saying nothing to the group as she spoke to Myles.

“I will be back as soon as I can be.”

The sooner the better.

***

On their way back to the surface, Myles relayed the story of what had happened between himself and Ashra. No one seemed particularly bothered or surprised by what he had to say, and outside of the snide remark from Kendra, the group was at peace with his decision.

At least, they were until two someones brought up an issue at the same time.

“What about the Broken King?”

“What about Shardking?” Lyna asked.

Responding to both, Myles sighed. “What about it? We’re on the backline for support dealing with the possibility of monsters and keeping an escape route to Runner’s Plaza open.”

“You know it won’t be that simple.”

Maybe, but I’m going to keep us all alive all the same.

“That’s no fun,” Lyna complained. “We need to be in there.”

“I hate that I’m agreeing with her,” Kendra explained, “but we need to have all hands on deck for this. Shardking is no joke.”

“Neither was Gregor,” Will chimed in before turning to Mitchel. “Can you fill in the blanks in her plan?”

“Wish I could,” Mitchel said wistfully with a shrug of his shoulders, “but she plays it close to the chest.”

“That’s not that close to her,” Kendra scoffed. There was a pause as the group looked to their [Berserker]. She shifted slightly at the eyes looking confused. “What? We were all thinking it.”

Her face was stoic for just a moment before a smirk cracked the facade, and the group lost it at the poor joke.

As the laughed stopped echoing through the halls of the dungeon, Mitchel wiped his eyes, let out one last chuckle, and smiled. “Be that as the case may be, Kendra, she’s a bit paranoid when it comes to keeping her plans in check. Myles can attest to that.”

He looked surprised, then picked up the sack dropped at his feet. “She is steps ahead of everyone else. She knew where I was and cut me off without me realizing it until I talked to Mitchel later in the day.”

Mitchel nodded. “If she’s telling you to be somewhere, there’s a reason for it. It may not be the reason she says, but she’s planned it out in advance. Just trust her to know what she’s doing.”

After what they’d seen, no one had the heart to argue that point. Sindra had been right on nearly every decision she’d made to this point. The plaza was productive, the people were happy, the dungeon had avoided spawning another region guardian since Gregor, and the fatality rate was surprisingly low even from that first fight.

***

They continued in a calm silence for a bit longer before breaching the surface, a pair of snow-white Ambush Rabbitkin stood on either side to the exposed entrance, pushing snow here and there and what, to Myles, seemed to be rebuilding the hidden entrance to their home.

They weren’t harassed, but the Monsterkin did stop their work to eye them in the time it took for them to emerge.

The group continued through the barren landscape, stopping only when a fight made it impossible to move forward. In their travels, a pack of rib-worn, gnarled arctic foxes, four ambush rabbits, and a thoroughly pissed-off snow golem in the shape of a tiger tried to make sport of them only to fall to the group’s coordinated efforts. The forest was quieter, near-silent except for the occasional bug’s song or bird call and the rest of the trip was uneventful until they reached Myles’s homestead once more.

Myles opened the door, ready to start cooking with their hard-won rewards, when Mitchel stopped at the doorstep and rubbed the back of his head.

“This is where I have to cut and run,” he said, pulling a hand through his hair reluctantly.

“You sure?” Myles asked as he moved to the side to let Kendra and Lyna pass.

“I’m all for mooching,” Mitchel sighed, “but I have orders to report in when this is all over.”

“You were a real help,” Myles offered, raising a hand that Mitchel clasped readily.

“We wouldn’t have gotten out so easily without you,” Tail whispered.

“You’re a good man,” Will added, offering his hand after Mitchel had taken Myles.

“Just doing my job.” The [Armored Wall] shook his next and seemed reluctant to go. The four stood around looking to one another before Mitchel finally broke rank and turned, holding up a hand in parting as the shield settled back into place on his back. “If I ever need a team, I’ll come a’calling.”

Myles smiled. “We’d be happy to have you.”

“And I’d be happy to have a home-cooked meal. Magically created food just doesn’t have the same taste.”

Myles stared at the man. “You have a food summoner? I thought those were still being developed by the Royal Academy.”

Mitchel grinned. “I’d assume that the dungeon does know a thing or two more about creation magic than the royals.” His dumbfounded expression must have given away more than he intended as Mitchel seemed to take pity on him. “Trust me, created water might taste the same, but those things will never replace a real [Baker] or [Chief]. The texture just never comes out right.”

At least that was a problem Myles didn’t have to worry about. His father always worried about the day when the [Magitech Engineers] cracked the secret to storing power spells of that caliber long term. It did make sense that a Grand Dungeon would know how or be able to just set some sort of spell to do the same.

“Thanks for that,” Myles said.

“Oh, no problem. Like I said, they’ll never replace the real deal, but I really need to get going.”

Myles nodded and turned to allow Mitchel to leave, only for the voice to call out again.

“Myles?”

He turned. “Yeah?”

Mitchel seemed conflicted for a moment before seeming to come to a conclusion. “I trust Sindra. She knows what she’s doing.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. If she asks you for something, there’s a reason for it.”

Myles considered the words, feeling more to it before replying. “I figured as much.”

“Just don’t leave us holding the hot plate,” Mitchel joked.

He smiled at that. “We won’t.”

With a wave and a goodbye, Mitchel left, leaving Myles to return to his team and his cooking.

Silpha excused herself before the food was served and returned to her barn, leaving a lingering feeling of worry that was quickly drowned out by the more powerful, positive emotions. That night’s diner was full of a warmth and happiness that had been missing over the past day as the small team ate and talked about nothing in particular. The wine produced by Kendra completed the atmosphere as she held up a glass.

“I know we’ve all been through a lot the past two weeks,” Kendra began. “More than some of us have for the past decade…”

“Speak for yourself,” Will interjected to the laughter of most.

“The elderly excluded…”

“I’m young enough to show you a thing or two.”

“Will excluded,” she corrected again. “We all know who we’re here because of. Now, I’m not too proud to admit that I’m not a real planner or leader. Don’t try to make me feel better about…”

“We weren’t,” Lyna assured.

A rude gesture later, Kendra continued. “Myles, you’re about as green as they come, but you’ve grown into the leader we need you to be. You wouldn’t even leave your monster behind, let alone one of us. You’ve got the heart of a Runner, Myles. I don’t know if I could have done the same in your place, so stay alive, yeah?”

“You would have.”

Kendra glared. “Just take the compliment, okay?”

Myles smiled and raised his glass in return. “You know I will.”

She smiled and clicked her glass to his. “To Myles.”

“To Myles!” came the chorus and the drinking.

Myles Taste Test attempted to trigger before he suppressed it. He didn’t need to know how the wine was made or what went into it. He just wanted to enjoy the sweet red wine as it lingered on his tongue, leaving a slight dryness to the flavor. Besides, his codex would tell him if he ever wanted to know now. One cup led to another for him as the others egged him on, and he just couldn’t say not to them.

A second cup and some goading led to Myles showing off his new control for Will. He may not have known what all those different mana alignments were, but it didn’t seem to be a bad thing.

With the newfound focus and reduced costs of his Skills, he could now not only make a sphere at a moment’s notice, but he could shape the dough into more complex shapes more easily and hold them longer. This, of course, led to the assembled slightly tipsy masses calling out shapes for him to make as Kendra got a second cup herself and tried to get him to lose focus.

“Blue!”

“I can’t change the color.”

“Invert it,” Will ordered. Myles complied, making the cone shape fold in on itself until it went the other direction.

“Twist it.” Tail challenged, and Myles rose to the challenge as the cone became the shape of a [Carpenter]’s drill.

“Bop it!”

The last one nearly had him as he looked to the offending voice of Kendra. “Bop it?”

She reached up and poked it with her hand to demonstrate. “Bopped.”

The dough exploded at her disruption of the surface tension.

“Mists!” Kendra cursed as the dough splattered across her entire body like a localized bomb going off, which it was.

Myles laughed more than he should have, more than earning him the dough launched into his face as she stormed off to the bathroom to the sounds of swearing to the gods and goddess and cursing Myles, intent on using as much of his hot water as humanly possible to remove the offending sludge.

Tail and Lyna took that as a good time to leave and gave Myles their best before showing themselves out followed by Will once Kendra emerged from the bathroom in a fresh set of clothes, accented by a thick billowing bank of steam.

Topoff, Medic, and Doughnut complained in their own way about the steam when the two left, but overall, it was a good night. Whether it was the healed emotional connection to his oldest monster or the way his friends rallied around him, it was one of the best Myles could remember.

***

After her Avatar popped back into mana and energy, Silpha returned to her core, less than content with the day’s work. Ashra was with them again but only in spirit at the moment, and her conversation with Sabin had left a lot to be desired once he deemed her worthy of a word.

Though she had no need to breathe, the once-nymph sighed as she tried to figure out the best way to break the news of when the Broken King, when Shardking, would rise.

It’s going to be a busy day few days when I tell Myles what’s coming.

At least that would probably bring Ashra back. Then, she’d have someone to talk to openly again.

Probably.

***

The outside world was abuzz with activity as the seven day mark approached. At noon on the seventh day, the real fun began. Already, traders were jockeying for positions and day passes, publications were practically begging for the more popular Runners to answer questions via their proxies, drop boxes were being registered and processed, and in the center of it all was Darwin and his team of [Scribes] manning the golem network protocols. By setting and constantly updating the parameters of the golem’s acceptance filters, the entirety of the first contact was hinged on their review of the submission rules and adherence to the restricted lists the handlers posted. Then, items by the hundreds were sorted, requests to representatives were filed, issues were dealt with and redistribution, and in four cases, the proper authorities were contacted to deal with insurgent threats.

Sitting at her desk with her own stack of requests, one overworked dragon Korgan sipped on another cup of coffee from her thermos as she sorted through her requisitions on the crystal pane she’d been provided. She only had one of her original Runners left, but she’d snatched up Myles’s team as quickly and ruthlessly as she could a day ago and had nearly cleared out her own savings in the progress. Now with five popular Runners under her belt and Paperwork be damned, she was going to ride this wave to the sky and back.

As she fiddled with the menus, Trosana Leea couldn’t deny how useful magitech was. The sky blue, enchanted crystal pane worked a lot like her own Skill screen she used for typing, but it had the added benefit of being solid and fueled by ambient mana which meant it didn’t rely on her Skills and Traits to drain her Soul Energy and Mana to access the information of the Golem Master Transmission Matrix.

Runner Query: Myles Chase

Class(es): [Monster Tamer] [Succulent Magician]

Waiting Drop Box: