Ch 30

“And though you were on the brink of sustaining permanent damage from over exertion while fighting the Aim Hero Renegade,” Melchsee said, “I can say I was able to extract a silver lining from the whole scenario.”

“Yes,” Casimer said, clearly still weakened “the scenario in which I expended all my resources to kill the Hyper Ape, which was a net negative, because he was apparently one of my own monsters, and he respawns automatically. I don't know how he's managed it, but he's died and been reborn three times already.”

“Oh my, we'll get back to that,” Melchsee said “but anyways, I've engineered a very well formed thought, and I'd like for you to try it out.”

Casimer, in response, loosened his mental defenses and allowed Melchsee access to his mind. Ever since merging with her to fight against the Aim Hero Renegade and even further back, when they had been enmeshed in the dungeon of dungeons, his reluctance over such an action had vanished all-together.

He had, emphasis on past tense, suspected and even feared that such a thing would lead to a loss of his own still forming sense of identity, or even a death of his awareness all together, of becoming someone else. Instead, the merge expanded the sense of his own self, like the memory of a dream suddenly becoming clear. Melchsee appeared in his mind's eye, holding a large contraption of glass and brass in both arms.

“You won't be aware of this, but this device is a little on the nose,” she said, indicating her burden “but I like it, and I don't think you really care about aesthetics that much.”

Casimer indicated, via sent emotion, that he agreed.

“That's what I thought. During our fight, I was able to get a really solid look at your limits. Using that information, along with a little bit of creative thinking, I've made this,” she said, then gently tossed her device forward with both hands hands, where it hovered, then rose and affixed itself in the upper left corner of his awareness, whatever that meant. The two glass tubes attached to the bronze central mechanism extended out, the bottom growing at least three times as long as the top. The shorter top tube turned bright red, and the bottom tube turned bright blue. If Casimer looked closely, he would see that the tubes were filled with thin, airy liquid.

“Now,” she continued, eyeing the device as though she were hoping it wouldn't explode “it's just a readout, and just an estimate, of your vital and mental energy. The red vial represents how physically close to death you are, and the blue vial represents how close to mental exhaustion you are. The utility of such a thing might be lost on you,” she said, preparing to explain.

“No, it's not lost on me,” Casimer said, feeling how the device vanished when he stopped 'looking' at it, and re-appeared when his attention moved in a certain direction. “What did you call this, a thought?”

“Well, technically it's consciousness technology, and even more technically, it's an engineered habit. We'll call it an HP/MP bar for casual conversation. How's it working? It's not too obtrusive is it, if so I can adjust it.”

“No, it's very subtle,” Casimer said. Experimentally, and at the excited request of Melchsee, he created a large mass of coal dust and picked it up, then, compressed it as hard as he could. As he did so, he watched as the blue bar began to steadily fall, lagging behind his actual exhaustion by several seconds. Casimer exerted more effort, and the sphere of coal started glowing and giving off waves of heat, until he was finally exhausted and gave it up. The coal fell on the ground and shattered to shimmering, smokeless pieces. As he rested, the blue bar began to fill back up.

“Well,” Casimer said “That's exciting. It's a little slow, but otherwise nice job.”

“It'll improve over time,” Melchsee said “The speed. It's gaining experience with every use, which will make it more accurate.”

“Well done. I'm sure it will come in handy.”

“Thank you, my lord. Let me change the subject a little here, the Aim Hero Renegade,” she said, referring to his proper name “has respawned three times?”

“It's like clockwork,” Casimer said, sounding annoyed “every three days or so. Every time he comes back. . . it's not a massive drain, but I feel it.”

“Oh,” Melchsee said, sounding relieved “he's probably dying of thirst out there. Since it's pointless to try and kill him, and because the respawns aren't free, we ought to give him whatever he needs to survive to minimize the loss.

“It's not a total loss,” Casimer said “I can feel it whenever he gets in a fight, and everything he's killing is directly feeding me, so I guess he really is one of my monsters, even if I can't control him.”

“ All the more reason to give him some tools. When was the last time he respawned?”

“Two days,” Casimer said.

“So it should be any time now. Here's what we'll do,”

–

The Aim Hero Renegade appeared in the center of camp, naked and in a flash of light. Before he could run off, however, his attention was arrested by a large stone jug stoppered with a gem that flashed in rainbow, liquid light. His eyes grew greedy, and he rushed over to it. When he grabbed it, it broke apart, flowing slowly like warm honey over his fingers. First, he sniffed it. Then, hesitantly, he licked it, and the taste of pure sugar caused him to smile broadly and hoop. He licked his fingers clean, then began licking the jug, accidentally spilling the water within on his face. He licked it, then began drinking like a man dying of thirst. In his enthusiasm, he accidentally shattered the jug, prompting a primitive cry of sadness as he fell to his knees to lick the ground.

But, right as his tongue was about to touch, he saw another jug, this one with a stone stopper and attached to a belt. He hesitated, licking his lips, eyes darting around as he stared at each new addition, then slowly he reached out and grabbed the belt, picking it up. The moment he did, there was a minor spark from the belt, and a window appeared with picture instructions on how to put the belt on.

The renegade grunted a low, suspicious grunt as he watched the screen, brow furrowed and mouth occasionally twitching with unformed and unknown impulses, sticking his tongue out and moving it in a weird way. Very, very slowly, he equipped the belt, frequently glancing back at the screen for guidance, cinching it tight, and then took a drink of water from his jug. There was a sound in the distance, a large rock dislodged by Casimer rolling down a cliff, and it broke him out of his trance, causing him to bolt away, jug gripped in his hand, spilling water as he ran.

“I'm so goddamn hungry,” Casimer said, his voice the equivalent of curling into a ball and clutching his stomach “Oh, oh it hurts to even look at anything.”

“There isn't the possibility of more take-out,” Casimer asked “is there?”

“Not anything we could afford,” Melchsee said “It took all of four hours to get to hope and back, and I don't want to hit that town again. Humans start to notice if too many of their herd start dying, trust me.”

“Are the humans really so dangerous?”

“Casimer, we could put up a very good fight against them, and we might win for a while. . . but even you aren't strong enough to fight the entire world. And believe me, when they find out what you are, and what you are capable of, the whole world will be your enemy.”

“If you say so,” Casimer said, then groaned again. “I'm not going to starve to death anytime soon, but it hurts Melchsee. I hate this feeling.” Melchsee frowned, and for a long moment she was silent. Then, at it's height, she spoke

“My lord, spare me another two cores.”

“Why two more?”

“Because I won't be able to carry more than three. I must leave if I'm to find a permanent solution to our problem. I've got to find our. . . our ally.”

Casimer produced the cores immediately, ripping them from an enormous Lead Beetle and an Assault Bear, both of which promptly died.

“Go forth, my servant. Go and solve this problem.”

–

Some time passed, with each hour lending itself to a sort of hibernation state in which he conserved energy. In this state, Casimer's internal awareness was heightened, he could feel, all at once, every grain of sand as it shifted and every wild whorl of air as it moved. Then, from far away, he felt a tingling sensation coming from. . . somewhere else. The more he tried to focus on it, the more certain he became that the disturbance was beyond this world. With a sensation like pushing through his own psyche, his awareness pushed through the boundary of the material universe and coalesced in the dungeon of dungeons.

The air was stagnant, thick with latent magical energy, and surrounding him was the seemingly endless plain of red, barren dirt. The only thing he saw, the only warning he had to his impending disaster, was the sight of a group descending the stairway he'd created to escape.

Atop the mountain, a portal to another dimension opened. From it came a group of five. A man dressed in shining plate-mail with a great-sword across his back; A man dressed in white holding a shepherds crook with a floating crystal in the center; A woman dressed in leathers with daggers at her belt; A woman dressed in blue robes holding a forearm length wand with a crystal top; A man dressed in green with a beautiful golden wood bow across his back, and long pointed ears. The portal closed behind them.

“Listen up everyone, we don't know what we're dealing with here. The outpost was destroyed, and according to that old monster Labrynthee, this is where the attacker went” A blue screen appeared in front of him, and he laughed “What the hell is this?”

The rest of the group looked back at the closing portal nervously.

“The guardian,” the woman in leathers said, itching her face under the eye “sorry. The guard was ranting about strange magic,” she stared at the window “This looks like the magic used by the ancient dungeons but. . . it's strange?”

The woman in blue was itching her arms, looking very uncomfortable.

“We're obviously in a dungeon. Let's smash the cores and get out of here, I'm starting to get a massive case of mana itch-” she said, then her face bleached of all color, her body starting to tremble.

“Man,” the man in green said, oblivious “I didn't think there was anything in the lowest level, let alone something even further down.”

The woman in blue, followed shortly after by the man in white, both began screaming. “Oh. Oh! Oh ancestors no!” her body was glowing a bright, neon blue, the veins in her skin lighting up and causing smoke to rise.

“Quickly, we've got to get out of here, activate the portal!” the man in shining armor said, pulling out a brass octahedron which immediately began to glow with bright blue-white fire along it's eight sides, symbols in an unknown language, the two pyramid bases separating and revealing a bright light that began to pulse as though charging up for something.

The man in white was next, screaming as the man in green began frantically looking for something in his possessions. He found it, a leather pack that fell from his hands as he fell into convulsing spasms.

The man in plate-mail fell to his knees around the same time as the woman in blue burst into blue fire, her body shrinking down to a mummified corpse in nice clothing. The strange device fell from the knights hand, pulsing reaching a feverish pitch, maintaining it's tempo, then bursting into cerulean fire.

Within ten minutes of entering the material universe, they had all died.

Casimer watched the scene unfold from a safe distance, extreme fear and survival instincts having prompted him to embed himself in a rock wall with a good vantage point. Finally, after some time had passed, Casimer made a vulgar noise that indicated intense satisfaction.

“That was the funniest thing I've ever seen,” he said, laughing as he devoured the massive quantity of energy that had been left behind and watched his mana bar refill completely, then slowly extend.

“Oh yeah,” he said, an almost erotic satisfaction in his voice as his hunger was replaced with total satiation “I hope that happens again.”