Ryne’s voice came into Zaria’s mind.

Zaria perked up. The little Aelif had dove into the water about a few hours ago, and had been silent since then. She’d just been wondering if the woman had drowned, but Ryne had sworn that her suit could handle the lack of air and increased pressure. How that worked she’d been unclear on, but she was certain it would work.

Ryne asked.

Zaria walked out of the water carefully.

Ryne sounded amused.

The name Lowerlands sounded familiar to Zaria - she’d seen it in the Dungeon Instructions. While Ryne busied herself with the explosives, Zaria pulled up the relevant passage.

A dungeon that absorbs too much mana too quickly risks fracturing. A fractured dungeon core is unable to hold on to mana any longer, but will still feature the dungeon’s normal need to absorb mana from their environment. Over time, this will turn into a feeling best described as mana-starvation, at which point instinctively a dungeon will absorb as much mana as possible, creating vast underground tunnels as they eat away at the crust of the world called the Lowerlands. A starving dungeon is unable to cast spells, summon mobs, or build anything - just endlessly absorb mana. Mobs in line with the dungeon’s theme may organically spawn along the path they’ve dug, but without control, they will immediately become free willed monsters that may reach the surface.

This is mentioned to ensure you take warnings against overdrawing mana. Should you find yourself in this situation, there is no fix. It would be best to, before you completely lose your senses to hunger, reach out to nearby dungeons and request termination to avoid an eternity of starvation.

Zaria shuddered, glad she didn’t need to worry about that. She absorbed mana from the air directly. That normally wouldn’t work for a dungeon - the air was too diffuse to sustain mana for an entire dungeon longer than a week or two - but since she was mobile, she’d move on before depleting an area. But there was a limit to that, too - she couldn’t increase her mana absorption rate that much. Which meant she would almost never have to worry about damage to her core from that source.

The words in her head pulled Zaria’s attention to the sky. Rav and Vysala, flying towards her and giving the distinct impression of some kind of… well, given Rav was a suit of armor with wings, they gave the impression of being some kind of Iron Angel.

The confusion there could easily be something Zaria played with in the future. Zaria asked, genuinely shocked.

Rav answered.

Rav said, starting to descend.

A moment later Rav responded.

Zaria said, then quickly gave them the information Ryne had provided.

Vysala said.

Zaria said.

Before she could finish that sentence, she felt a deep rumbling in the ground beneath her. The water remaining in the dungeon started to bubble a moment later as the air pocket that had been unleashed underground reached the surface - and then the water started to rush away towards the hole Ryne had made.

The Aelif came out of the water, floating up into the air before touching down on the damp stones. “Done!” she said brightly. “Once the water clears, I’ll throw down some basic defenses in case we pissed anything off with that, but I’m not too worried. Lowerlands beasts tend to be animal-level intellects, so I doubt they’ll put together that there’s a correlation between loud bang, flood, and hole.”

Zaria signaled for Vysala and Rav to descend. “Ryne, meet Vysala and Rav. My Striga and my Servitor.”

Ryne’s helmet peeled back, and she offered a hand. “Pleasure to meet you both”

Rav opened up his helmet to reveal Vysala’s face, and they shook Ryne’s hand. “Zaria was just filling us in on who you are. Otherworldly Aelif from Keldora and all that.”

“Hits the highlights there,” Ryne said. “Now, I can’t claim the portal to activate it. But with the water out of the way, you should be able to, Zaria. The next floor of the dungeon was built for large creatures - very large. Enough that even you should have room to walk around. Floor beneath that one is even bigger. I think this dungeon may have had Giants or Dinosaurs or something for a theme.” She held up her hand, showing some device that looked like a black rectangle with a red switch. “I took the liberty of dropping some extra charges to open us a path one level down.”

“Works for me,” Zaria said. “Go ahead and all of you get in, so we can talk?” Once everyone was in the turret, Ryne pressed the switch. There was another round of explosions, and when the dust cleared, there was an easy path for Zaria to take to the next level of the dungeon.

“We need your weapons,” Vysala said eagerly. “If they can destroy dungeon stone like that? Think of what we can do to mortal structures.”

Ryne pursed her lips. “First of all, this dungeon stone barely had any mana left in it. Second of all, a lot of my tech relies on divine energy, which a dungeon can’t replicate. Apparently there are some limits between god powers and dungeon powers. Third of all, I don’t hand out my tech on worlds where it hasn’t already proliferated. If I start giving out high ordinance on every world I go to… that’s a lot of worlds I could destabilize long term. Especially if some clever Alchemist, Smith, or Artificer replicates it.” She paused. “I also have a selfish reason for not wanting my tech out there on this world in particular, but the first three reasons are good enough.”

Vysala frowned. “What are the odds of them replicating it, though?”

“Higher than you might think. It takes a genius to invent these things. It just takes some clever bastard to duplicate them.” Ryne chewed on her lip for a moment. “I try to stay out of local politics as much as possible when I’m on another world in general. I’m… painfully familiar from the chain of events an unknowing but well meaning off-worlder can trigger.”

“How so?” Zaria said.

Ryne shook her head. “Long story for later. The point is I go for minimal impact - I only get involved when there’s another off world group in play.”

Zaria nodded. “So if Drake Enterprises is helping-”

She didn’t get to finish the sentence. Ryne immediately launched into a string of curses. “I’ve been to eight worlds so far, counting this one,” Ryne said once she got the swears under control. “Drake’s had his fingers in four of them. Fuck this, fuck that, and fuck that fucker in particular.”

Vysala grinned. “I like her.”

Ryne didn’t notice the aside. Instead, she sighed and shook her head. “Is Drake hanging out devices on this world? Arcwands or gonnes or guns or rifles or anything named along those lines?”

“He’s explicitly not so far,” Zaria said. “He’s worried about demons getting ahold of the weapons.”

Ryne made a sour face. “You ever have someone where if you agree with them, you immediately question if that means you were wrong?”

“Not personally,” Zaria said at the same time as Vysala said, “Oh, absolutely.”

A moment later Rav chimed in. “I know four people. But I think I ate someone who I’d feel that way about?”

Ryne stared at him and then giggled. “I love that for you. But for me, knowing Drake and I feel the same way… don’t actually change it. Neither of us want guns getting out into this world - and I’m guessing it's for the same reason. Remember the selfish reason I mentioned earlier? That’s where this comes into play.”

Vysala cocked her head. “What else is it?”

“On the list of things I’m trying to study while I’m here - can the demons appear on other worlds? Because I really don’t like the idea of demons invading Keldora, but we can handle them. If, however, they’re armed with the best tech Dirt or the Factory can produce? I really don’t like that. And what if they invade a world that doesn’t have this tech? They go to Selwyn or Drakan with guns? They’ll overrun the planet in weeks.”

Vysala said something in response, but Zaria missed it. She was staring in wonder.

The third floor of the Legacy Dungeon… Ryne had undersold the size. The path down to the floor was a winding staircase built for giants - a staircase that took Zaria into what could only be described as a small city. The roof was so high it vanished into darkness even with the light Zaria was providing, and the floor was covered with buildings that spread out radially from a central pyramid. The roofs of the buildings were color-coded into five districts around the pyramid.

Already she could see what this dungeon had been building, some instinct deep within her core responding to another dungeon’s design. Each color-coded area would correspond to a different mob type or element or something along those lines. Adventurers would fight their way through all five districts to find something that activates the central pyramid - and triggered the boss fight in the process.

And the portal was inside the pyramid. That Zaria was certain of from her time scrying.

“-help you with my tech, but not arm you. That’s different. Once I’m gone, my tech leaves with me. But in exchange for help with my studies? I’ll absolutely back you up in fights.”

“I can live with that,” Vysala said. “Zaria?”

“Hmm?” Zaria snapped back to the conversation. “Sorry, was just…looking.”

“Into the darkness?” Vysala said. “It can’t be that interesting.”

Zaria chuckled. “Right, of course. You two can’t see.”

“I can get a picture of it,” Ryne said. Her throat twitched. It had been doing that a lot since they entered the darkness, Zaria realized. “Echolocation is fun. But…I imagine it looks even better to a dungeon’s senses.”

“It does,” Zaria said.

“Let me show you,” Rav said, wrapping the helmet back around Vysala’s head.

A moment later, the Striga gasped. “Oh. Oh yes, that does explain it.”

“So,” Zaria said. Now that she was no longer distracted, memories of what she’d missed in the conversation flooded in. “Right. We appreciate your help, and I’m happy to help you in return - especially because it feels like we need the answers you’re looking for too.”

The pyramid was still dripping with water when they approached. The openings of this were large enough for Zaria to walk in with plenty of clearance.

And there it sat in the center of the pyramid. A vast, open area that had likely once been a boss room - and at the far end, a portal large enough for Zaria to walk through. “So,” Zaria said to Ryne. “How do I activate this?”

“Just let your influence saturate it,” Ryne said.

Zaria squatted down on the ground and extended her patio to wrap around the bottom rungs of the portal.

Portal detected: Would you like to integrate the legacy structure? SPECIAL MOBILE DUNGEON NOTE: Integration will need to be reestablished if you relocate without taking the structure with you. Proceed? Y/N?

Zaria didn’t hesitate to select yes. Moments later, the portal flared to life, and a list of worlds appeared to Zaria. There was an option, at the bottom, to request access to Wisphame. Zaria selected it.

Wisphame selected! Due to current limitations on dungeon travel, please enter the name of the Wisp you are attempting to contact.

Zaria thought Penara’s name at it, and the message responded immediately.

Your request is important to us and will be handled quickly. Please hold.

And then ethereal musical notes fluttered from the empty portal.

“So,” Ryne said, stretching. “Vysala and Rav. Want to spar? I’d love to get a feel for what you can do.”

Vysala nodded eagerly. “As would I,” she said quietly, hefting her spork.