After dark, Lia, Silva and I headed out, intent on visiting Apple Gate Farm. Partially to inform the locals about our presence, we might want to trade with them in the future, partially to warn them about the undead and maybe to offer help in creating a freezer. I wasn’t quite ready to tell them about the dungeon, but I was curious if they had any information about it. If I wanted to study the way a dungeon and its entrance interacted with the world around it, I’d need guinea pigs at some point, people outside of my immediate group to venture in while I watched. I wasn’t sure I wanted to have the dogs venture in, at least not with their current strength, as they most likely would be slaughtered, not a fate I wished upon them. But a full group of the stronger people here might be capable enough to venture in and make it back out. Maybe.

Thinking more about their capabilities and my state of ignorance about whether or not one could actually leave the dungeon without clearing it, I decided to wait with my experiments, at least until the locals actually wanted to venture in on their own. If they reached that point, I could still watch from the outside, maybe speak a word of warning or two, and observe as they marched to their potential death. And people would die in that dungeon at some point, of that I was sure. Human nature, greed and curiosity made it a near certainty. If I cautioned them, the blame wouldn’t necessarily fall on me, while it certainly would if I were to be the one to suggest people enter the dungeon.

On our way to the farm, we came across a few of the escaped pigs and decided to put some more meat on the menu, not only for us but also for the people on the farm. Given that I doubted they’d want to have a carcass that was torn apart by teeth and claws, I cautiously sneaked up on the pigs, climbed on a nearby tree and harvested two of them with a combination of Mind and Death Magic. It was a combination I had begun using on Shattered and learned that it was quite effective in destroying the impulses that governed their behaviour while leaving the body intact. If I understood things correctly, I essentially turned them braindead, leaving their bodies alive, at least for a time.

One more surge of mind magic later, and the only pigs in my vicinity were the two I had taken down, the rest had scattered into the four winds, running in desperate fear, running from the unseen force that had slaughtered their two brethren.

Sitting in my tree, I watched their flight, quite amused that two of them were still lying in the middle of the space they had been resting in, never to get up again. It was quite interesting, how a body could be considered dead but was still breathing. It made me wonder just where the system drew the line, especially when considering my blood magic.

Hopping down from my tree, I called out to Lia and Silva, getting them to come over as I approached the downed pigs.

Filled with curiosity, I drew my old blade and made a small cut on one pig’s neck. Placing my hand over the bleeding wound, I stretched out my Blood Magic, quietly observing the changes within the beast. With my knowledge of Blood and Death Magic, I could faintly observe and feel the processes of life slowly shutting down, while the presence of death started to gain influence. It was rather fascinating, the change was so much cleaner than what happened when I used my Blood Magic to drain the life, Astral Power and vitality contained in the blood of a creature, leaving only a mess of violent miasma behind. The natural change was so much more efficient, leaving far less mess, only the inert, quietly corrosive death. Nothing that could be used by another creature, not even by a Nethersprite.

Fascinated, I tried to draw a bit of Astral Power out of the process, quietly watching how things shifted, how some of the vitality that had previously been linked to that Astral Power started to flip, to turn into Miasma.

The newly formed miasma was simply hanging there for a little bit until I noticed that it was slowly spreading, consuming the vitality in the blood and leaving the Astral Power behind, which started to fade back into the Astral River.

Using a bit of Death Magic, I tried to extinguish the Miasma, in order to make sure it didn’t spread or multiply. I wasn’t sure whether Nethersprites could get to our world, but I didn’t want to accidentally bring some insanely powerful monster here. I still remembered the dread I had felt back on Mundus after I accidentally granted access to an insanely powerful Nethersprite with one of my Blood Magic experiments. It had only been thanks to Sigmir, her mental resilience and fortitude that my Avatar hadn’t been turned into a husk. Though, in hindsight, I began to wonder if it would have been my Avatar or my actual body that would have been affected. There were a few instances that now, with the power of hindsight, made me wonder just how well the insulation between Mundus, the capsule and the body within the capsule had worked, times during which I had exited the game and found myself with a splitting headache, a nosebleed or something similar. Things that had mostly occurred after I had pushed my magic, especially my Blood Magic, to its limits, or rather beyond those limits. Now, knowing that Mundus was most likely a real world, I wasn’t quite certain that there hadn’t been any damage to my… soul? Mind? Body? Any of those three, that I hadn’t sent more of myself across the connection than was intended.

I couldn’t tell, even if a part of me was quite curious. Maybe I could travel back to my apartment at some point and take a closer look at the capsule, there had to be quite the magic within it or some incredibly advanced artificing. The capsules, if I understood things correctly, had been able to forge a connection between a normal, non-magical, being outside of the system and intimately link that being to a divinely created Avatar on Mundus, linking them close enough that the being outside the system was recognised by the system once it registered those. Or at least recognised their access to their avatar’s legacy.

I didn’t know a lot about cross-realm travel, nothing really, but just my explorations of the Astral River on Mundus and my observations of the changes the Astral River brought to our world as it burrowed into reality made it obvious that the Gods had managed an incredible feat. Hell, even just reaching our world before the Astral River reached it was quite impressive as any magic I could imagine was moving through the Astral River, not beyond it. And yet, they had managed to get their influence, technology or magic, however, they had created the capsules, to Earth years before the Astral River managed.

Were the Gods part of the system or were they something separate? It was an interesting question, which was the higher power so to speak. Did the Gods operate within the system, as any interaction I had with them indicated, or were they beyond it? They could influence and partially command it, but at the same time, I was relatively sure that the system also limited and bound them. Otherwise, why bother cursing me with the curse of the sun, if a deity could also simply wipe me out? It didn’t feel efficient.

Unless the blessing I had been given, or maybe the influence of the Nidhögg, had shielded me from their wrath. That seemed like a possible explanation and I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. If Hecate had saved my existence, didn’t that mean I was indebted to her? That I should be grateful, possibly respectful or even subservient? It was a notion I didn’t like, I could see myself respecting the Goddess for her magical prowess, but doing so out of gratitude or due to a debt? That felt wrong.

Shaking off my thoughts, I focused back on my experimentation, pushing around Blood and Death, while making sure that the meat wasn’t actually contaminated by anything. I wanted the people at the farm to have good, healthy meat, not some spoiled, necrotic crap.

Finally, after gaining a point in my Death Magic that brought the skill to six, I finished the pigs off by cutting their throat and using Blood Magic to drain as much blood from their bodies as I could. That left a bit of a mess, but both pigs were quite a bit lighter than they had been before. One of them was placed on Silva’s back, making it look a little amusing, the other was carried between Lia and me. With our harvest secured, we continued on our way to the farm, making haste as I still wanted to visit the dungeon again, later this night.