“Dungeons cores and dungeon shards come in many shapes and a motley of configurations. Its coin toss as to what shape or form you may encounter one. Until now, none have yet to peel away the secrets of these ancient constructions that are rumored to be the hearts of a dungeon. However, we do know a couple of things about them, chief being that dungeon shards are simply nascent cores. When conditions are favorable, such as the availability of a dense concentration of mana or perhaps, a mana leyline, a dungeon shard will awaken, metamorphosing over time, to become a core. It is a long process that might take years or centuries even. Nonetheless, it is through this knowledge that we do know how far back the civilization that created them ceased to exist. That dungeons can be found almost everywhere on Eryth is testament to the reach of this ancient civilization”.-Excerpt from, The Legacy of Antecessors, Adventurers Guild Archives, Kingsfell.

A strange gift; perhaps. the equivalent of a magical time capsule. It was the manifestation of the toils of someone high level to do enchanting the likes of which he’d never seen. Arthur could have been wrong about that, but one thing he was sure about was that it came close to Volemhir’s level of enchanting. The old elf had been around a while after all.

Since it had been bequeathed to him with no form of ulterior motive as far as he could tell, he was only so eager to see what the artifact could do. With the eagerness of a techie unboxing a new gadget , Arthur moved to touch the spheroid’s intricate markings the color of reddish copper.

However, before he could do so, he jerked back with a yelp as it sparked, sending a short static charge through his index finger. As he looked on whilst soothing the affected digit, the markings shimmered and the construct activated.

The tellusphere levitated under some unseen force, almost lazily, off its containment. Its smooth surface split into equally sized polygonal protrusions. The end result gave the tellusphere the appearance of a sea urchin with spikes made of liquid metal.

Unprompted, the protuberant polygonal structures started to undulate in a choreographed pattern; rising outwards then falling inwards like pistons firing in a bizarre engine. However, the only noise therein, did not come from the construct but from the gasp of the sole observer witnessing an impossibility. For him, it was disconcerting; and he’d already seen his share of stranger things.

To his horror Arthur realized the phenomenon was leeching mana from the surroundings. The youth felt it, even through his skin as a prickly feeling pervaded his whole body. He was in the centre of, and mana gushed from elsewhere funneling around him like a gushing stream before it disappeared into the active tellusphere. The amount was staggering.

Arthur had tried to cast a [Wind Shield] on reflex to isolate himself, but the spell matrix failed, dispelled by the happenstance. He was almost afraid it would backlash against him but contrary to his expectations, no sooner had the spell manifested than the tellusphere ripped it away from him, just as it had done to the mana around him.

“Okay, what the hell?!” Arthur let slip a curse.

He thought to get some distance between him and the thing as far away as possible, but where would he go? He was supposed to see this to the end wasn’t he? Foolhardy as it was he bit his cheek and stood his ground. He felt [Eye of the Storm] give him the equivalent of a numbing injection for his fear.

Arthur remained steady and unblinking in its view; still holding on to the assurance that it was not another mana engine waiting to blow up in his face.

Even as he observed, the process picked up speed, moving faster until it became a motive blur to his eyes—suddenly, it came to an abrupt halt and the process reversed. The mana siphoning cut off, and the flow of power inverted.

Mana started being expelled in tides that increased in ferocity until they were flinging stuff off work tables. Barrels containing depleted crystals rattled while the Stormbreaker’s airframe rocked on its hoists as though battered by tempestuous gales. The whole room quaked and groaned and the Lux crystals flickered. Arthur was almost floored by the onslaught but managed to catch himself just in time.

At first, the cascading mana waves felt like taking a dunk in a cool river after a hot summer day. However, as mana density increased exponentially, the air shrieked and the sensation quickly turned to a glacial chill in his bones that he felt creep up his extremities like an invisible frostbite. His own mana sense strained against the onslaught, body forced to soak in the ambient energy topping up his mana reserves that he felt like bursting.

Arthur doubled over, groaning as he felt the strain on his mana well; whichever magical field protected his body started failing on him as the mana differential between his body and outside of it became imbalanced.

Skin and bones, Arthur was forced to soak up the ambient runaway power, his mana well felt close to bursting; Arthur could swear he was about to become a human incendiary. It was also in that moment, he shuddered thinking what would’ve happened if his [Mana Sight] was the one activated as he tried in vain to shield his eyes from the pulsing light of the tellusphere.

However adamant he was about remaining in close proximity, it was taking a toll on him; the surplus of mana buffeting his body started to become poison. Arthur broke a cold sweat even as his stomach roiled with nausea. His eyes started tearing like he’d been staring at a screen for too long. Then his feet slipped, knocking him onto his knees.

‘Well, shit in a creek!’ he chuckled morbidly thinking his luck had run out. When he least expected it again, the tellusphere’s magical tantrums withdrew to itself. Arthur was left on the floor heaving and breathing noisily like a feverish invalid.

“Arthur!” Nora materialized from the shadows ramming into and bowling him over. “What did you do?!”

Shakily, he pointed behind her at the humming and still active spherule. Nora gawked startled by the not so inert tellusphere, “Vesper’s Pits! We’re getting out of here, the house be damned.”

She grabbed his shirt and tried to activate her ability but her shadows fuzzed and died. “What’s happening?” Nora asked in trepidation

“Nora, you should get away…,” He wheezed heavily, “Use the lift if you can, the manual levers should still work.”

“What? Why would I do that, you sandblasted fool?” Nora chastened, thumping his chest, indignantly.

“Just go, trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

“No...”

“Ugh Nora…” Arthur slumped back to the floor giving up on chasing away the dhampir who clung to his clothes like a parasitic leech. The maelstrom of the tellusphere had quietened down and all that was left was a rhythmic thrum that felt like a big pulsating heartbeat.

Slowly, the duo scanned their surroundings to apprise themselves of damage done. But what they saw stole their breaths away. Time had stopped. For a moment, Arthur thought a snotty elf would emerge from the ether and rebuke him for meddling with an unappraised artifact. But it was not to be; only silence reigned with the occasional sounds of heavy breathing.

A pen blown away and sheaves of parchment were still careening mid-motion as if someone had paused the laws of motion. Nonetheless, there was no loss of movement from the two observers existing outside of time. But try as they might, skills and spells refused to activate. They feared that any sudden motion would agitate the tellusphere. Fear of the unknown exacerbated their indecision.

Still, in the next heartbeat, with no prelude or pattern to it, everything with kinetic energy dropped as if its strings were cut. Unbidden, the spheroid’s fractals seemed to have settled on a pattern; they suspended their oscillations and sank inside themselves while growing brighter until the workshop was bleached white. Shadows elongated becoming so solidly contrasted they looked a snip away from taking flight.

Arthur had to use his wrist to once again shield his eyes from being seared by a brightness that was tantamount to gazing at the sun. He shielded the dhampir, protecting her with his body from the bleaching light fearing that perhaps she would be sunburnt or mana-burnt from the glare. With the transience of a nova being swallowed by a blackhole, the light winked out and darkness veiled the lab.

Stars were left swimming in the corners of their eyes as they tried to adjust to sudden darkness. The Lux crystals looked like they had their mana conduits shorted from an overload and had finally given up the ghost.

‘I really need to make a circuit breaker for these things’ Arthur thought as he groaned feverishly.

On the other hand, the cause of Arthur’s trouble was steadily putting out a halo of every discernible color known to the visible spectrum. A prism paled in contrast to the scintillating hues that periodically flashed like neurons firing on a Sci-Fi android brain. As the mana in the workshop normalized the two picked themselves off the floor.

“I think I need our secretary here as soon as possible,” her companion suggested as he assessed the damage done to the workshop. Nothing seemed out of place at first glance but a few things went through noticeable change.

“Uh, Arthur. Weren’t these crystals supposed to be brick-dead?” Nora called out, picking up a crystal from the barrel. It was shining when previously it had been as inert as a dull gemstone.

“Ah, I see what happened.” Arthur remarked. She watched him knead the bridge between his brow as if soothing a headache. “I think this thingamajig is some type of self-sustaining mana generator and it just recharged those crystals. I didn't want to believe it but here it is. Did you feel the mana from where you were?”

“Yes,” Nora recalled. “I was with Elena when our mana senses went off, coming from this direction too.”

“That means half the town felt it,” he inferred, putting his palms against the workstation where some of his projects sat. “I expect the guild master to be notified; in fact, I think he might have sensed it. The Guard might also come as a matter of public security. Also, I think, some of Mister Lalilab’s projects might have been affected since he’s in close proximity,” he winced.

‘There is also no telling if the dwarves will be alerted to it. After this, I have to move fast.’

“We need to do some serious damage control,” Nora pursed her lips. “I’ll be back, wait for me and do nothing stupid.”

“ Haha, as if. With the way I feel like I went binge drinking with a fever I don’t think—” Her supposed master smiled weakly as his eyes cast around the shelves of reagents wearily, “—I don’t think I’ll be doing anything anytime soon. Go, we need all hands on deck.”

Without another word, Nora ported to Elena’s room through the veil of shadows.

“Nora!” Her acquaintance exclaimed when the shadows peeled away. “Was that a skill? What happened?”

“Yea, hehe, It’s a long story, we might need to leave right away, I’ll explain everything later,” she replied, going around the other side of the bed and lacing up her boots. Turning back to Elena, she added, “Get your things ready, I’m going to get my raincoat.”

Nora exited the room, jogged down the stairs and found the inn in an uproar as tenants and patrons flocked to the windows and the door, speculating what had happened. Some of the patrons could be heard saying an [Arch Mage] had suddenly made an appearance while others gave other less plausible scenarios. Even the mundanes had to have felt that magical onslaught despite their being magically insensate.

Outside, the dhampir saw golems and members of the Guard trudging through the torrential downpour in their own rain gear, headed by a woman at the head of the column.

‘Sand pits, this is worse than it looks,’ she made a face as she entered the kitchen. She ran into the innkeeper at the counter.

“Nora, what’s the matter? You look harried…”

“It’s nothing Mister Halen, I just have to go home and check on my master if he’s okay…”

“In this weather?” Halen frowned. “Whatever it is that has got the Guard mobilized must be serious; perhaps you should stay here.”

“I’m sorry; but my master needs me.”

“Alright then, I won’t hold you back, here’s your raincoat,” the [Innkeeper] said, retrieving her rain leathers from beneath the counter and flinging them to her. Nora grabbed them off the air.

“Let me say goodbye to Elena,” she lied. ‘Damn, I’ll explain later.’

“Right, you take care…”

On the double, Nora ran up the stairs. Elena was already standing by her clothes trunk, draped in a raincoat too. Underneath was a formal outfit Nora had gotten for her.

“Well, do I look overdressed?”

“No Lena, I think you might just be ready for work.” She shook her head, smiling. “Let’s go…”

Arthur looked at the reagents in the lab. Most of them were in secure containers so they might have survived the ‘fallout’. Except for the crystals, his own body which felt battered and ached like a compactor had trodden on him and one other thing on the floor which glowed.

Arthur bent, grunting from the chills he felt washing over him in waves as he picked up the alchemist’s silver inside a vial. He moved on to the dungeon shard; it looked fine, undisturbed even. Of all the things, he might have thought that it’d react; an issue to look into later. He went to the barrel, picked up one of the recharged mana crystals and headed upstairs, laboriously plodding like a drunk.

Outside his door, the master of the Sturmdrache mansion had guests. The first person to have reached the estate despite the downpour was the [Alchemist] whose face was wrought in concern. He’d dragged along his daughter as well as her maid who stood behind her mistress with her ever stoic countenance.

‘Nothing fazes her…Is [Emotional Detachment] a skill for real?’ Arthur left unsaid.

“Arthur son, what happened to you?” Edel frowned with knitted brows. “You look pale,”

“Let’s talk inside Mister Edel. Miss Hanna, Miss Nydia as well, please make yourself comfortable,” he beckoned them into the mansion as he closed the doors.

The impromptu guests took off their coats, and left them with their maid to hang in the cloakroom while they followed their host to the drawing room.

As soon as they’d sat down, Arthur delved into the heart of the matter. Albeit with difficulty as his teeth were suddenly, all the more sensitive to temperature changes.

“My apologies Mister Edel, I think I might have gotten mana poisoning…”

“I thought so my boy, that’s why I came prepared. Catch—” he tossed him a vial of an alchemical concoction. “Drink all of it. Doctor’s order”

Arthur eyed the gray viscous liquid that had the consistency of an anti-acid formula skeptically. Nonetheless, he steeled himself and quaffed it in one gulp. It glugged down his throat into his stomach and the effects were not long in coming.

‘Bleugh,’ he made a face, ‘It tastes like constipation meds’

“Hahaha,” the older man chortled as his daughter giggled nearby. The maid behind them also unsuccessfully tried to hide her amusement; the first time he’d seen her that way apart from her impassive expression.

‘Okay? That’s some inside joke I’m not getting,’ Arthur sighed self-consciously.

Edel wiped the rain droplets on his spectacles with the lapel of his lab coat, “It’s a new formula, haven’t gotten around to the flavoring yet.” He smirked.

“For such a bland and chalky concoction, It’s surprisingly effective,” Arthur put away the vial.

“Mind telling me why you got mana poisoning and why some of my dead crystals just happened to recharge?”

“Like this?” Arthur retrieved his own crystal and showed it to him. “That might be information worth all the gold in your treasury,” Arthur grinned teasingly, wincing as his teeth knocked against one another. Though the sensation was less excruciating than a few par’quarts ago. The anti-mana poisoning potion was working.

Edel lalilab frowned.

“Not that I’m not open to sharing of course. But I’d rather show rather than explain it.”

“Very well then. Anything else?”

“Something happened to the alchemist’s silver I was working with…”

“ Ho? May I see it?”

Arthur retrieved the test-tube from his pocket and displayed it for all to see. Edel adjusted his glasses in interest.

“Alchemist’s silver, unlike ordinary silver, is a bad conductor of mana.” Arthur stated.

“Agreed, but something did happen to the sample you’re holding…have you tested its behavior yet?

““Not yet. But we can try…”” both men shared a look and sported identical smiles.

“First, what it was really meant for…” Arthur commented as he wreathed his free hand with lightning he brought the test tube from the other end closer. The meniscus rose up as the liquid flared brighter. Arthur canceled the magic and the meniscus reverted.

“By the Primals! Arthur…this might be what they call a happy accident,” the alchemist got off his seat and scooted to take a closer look. “Reckon we can replicate this?” he looked from Arthur to the alchemist’s silver.

“Perhaps, we also need a base index and a unit of measurement to go with it”

“I think I’d recommend an unaspected [Mana Bolt] and [Mana Shield] as the basis. They’re the lowest tier and possess the most basic of spell matrices.”

“Haha, funny that; I didn’t learn any of them…my teacher was rather peculiar,” he crinkled his eyes in amusement.

“We can also use mithril dust to ensure it retains its sensitivity.”

“Eh, we’re going to have to find a way to dissolve it. I think unaspected liquid mana is better.”

“Agreed…”

They said it never rains but pours; what a suitable phrase for such a day. True to his expectations, after a meeting with the Lalilab patriarch, Arthur had to put out fires caused by a mishap in his lab.

Edel’s clout proved invaluable especially when he explained to the captain; the actual [Captain] of the guard Larissa Wolfsbane—rarely seen outside of her office unless the sky was falling or the earth was quaking as it did today.

She was the most severe woman he’d ever met and meeting his gaze made the hair at the back of his neck stand. Edel smoothed things over by saying that they’d been working on a collaborative project with mana crystals.

Technically, that was half-truth but it wasn’t relevant to the issue at hand. But it got them through just fine, a slap on the wrist was all they got. However the [Guard Captain] added that she would be visiting soon. Her grin sent shivers down both men’s spines.

Next was the Guild; of course they also had interests. First came the liaison, Nevine— just the man Arthur wanted to see. He did pull him aside to explain why he’d told him to drop the matter of the library, warning him that things were hairier than they looked and that he should watch himself. And also report anything that he deemed out of the ordinary because his own life might be on the line.

To this, Nevine assented with a dose of paranoia much higher than Arthur’s. Arthur said they would talk sometime if things cooled down and to send a message to the guild master that all was well. The man was no doubt caught up in other things going by his absence in spite of the disturbance.

Finally, the Sturmdraches welcomed a new member to the Estate—Elena Amberkeep. It was a teary reunion for both her and her co-worker Hanna Lalilab whom she’d been avoiding for a while. Plans for a party were made both to congratulate her on a new job and her recovery. Things were just about to get busier...as if they weren’t that bad in the first place.

Well, things were about to get much stranger. There was one more loose end that had been forgotten in the hubbub. And things just had a habit of crawling out of the woodwork, from under the carpets, from the plumbing and from improperly secured magic nullifying containment. One was much, much closer to home.