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[Dungeon Spawner]

Mental static ripped through Vex first. He'd forgotten that this was a product of the system, and it didn't tap into the same library of knowledge that glyphs were contained in; this was something he should have known. The lizardkin nearly collapsed as sudden pain ripped through his skull, and he only barely heard the alarmed sound that Derivan made as metal arms wrapped around him and caught him just before he would have fallen.

"Shit," Vex said, his own words sounding distant and airy to him; the mana in him was still reaching, tapping into a different library of knowledge. Somehow Vex knew exactly what it was doing — it was trying to tap into the system itself. Wherever the system stored its knowledge, what it was doing — the mana was stretching itself across the wavelengths of reality, trying to tap into it. He could almost feel the reality shard he kept in his tailbag dissolving as something was drawn out of it.

"Vex." Derivan's voice was worried. "Tell me what is happening."

"Just... tried something I shouldn't have." Vex grimaced — his voice still sounded strange, the ringing in his head distorting it with a painful warble. His mana was being drained faster than he'd ever experienced, and that added an unpleasant sense of nausea to this whole experience. "But it's working. It's just — taking a second."

"There are people coming." Derivan looked around, still holding Vex steady in his arms. Vex wasn't surprised; the distortions in the mana would have drawn the researchers regardless. He'd been hoping they'd have enough time for all of them to go in one by one.

"Give me... a moment." Speaking was still a little more difficult than it should have been, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Vex felt like he was dragging his mind through water or mud, struggling to stay afloat. "I need this spell to complete. Then just... carry us in."

"I do not know if there is time." Vex felt himself being lifted as Derivan got to his feet, staying just a step away from the dungeon entrance; his boyfriend kept glancing around, presumably using mana sense to find the researchers. Vex himself couldn't use his mana sense in this state, and his vision was blurry. He didn't see anyone nearby. He did see the entrance room flash with light, which was good. Sev had made it through. That technically meant it was his turn. "But I will give you as much time as I can."

"Good... good." Vex blinked a few times, trying to clear up his vision — not that it helped. His gaze flickered a bit as mana poured through him and into his sign, going dark in brief increments; he was almost worried he was going to pass out, and clung to consciousness as closely as he could.

The spell would complete, as long as he stayed conscious. One of his hands found Derivan's, and he gripped it for comfort, trying to focus and steady his mind—

Something clicked. Like the mana had found the key to an old, forgotten lock.

[Dungeon Spawner]

Not all memories are desired, and not everything that is forgotten loses its mark on the world.

When something is erased, an echo is created. [Dungeon Spawner]s reach into those echoes, pulling into existence wholecloth something that has been forgotten. These echoes are never quite complete, and are largely a mere mockery of the creatures they once were.

[Dungeon Spawner]s are one type of spawner of many. Different spawners reach into different sorts of echoes; the creatures they bring into being are always a reflection of something that was, but not always hostile, and not always angry. Dungeon-spawned remain connected to their host dungeon, and act as outlets for the waste products created by a dungeon during its run.

Vex's only thought was "what does a dungeon do, then?" as the last of his mana drained out of him. He felt himself slipping out of consciousness — and he felt Derivan tighten his grip on his body and move. There was a sharp jostle, like they'd been attacked, or maybe Derivan had simply leapt into the dungeon entrance.

Then the strange sensation of entering a dungeon hit him, and though the effect was mild, it was the last thing his mind could take; he felt himself slipping into blessed unconsciousness.

Derivan was relatively certain that the way Vex explained it, he should have appeared in the entrance room with Vex. What was supposed to happen was that they would appear in the maze and make their way through it together; once they got through the maze, they would each appear in one of the designated starting points in the dungeon.

This was not what had happened.

Derivan was also relatively certain that what had happened was not part of the normal function of the dungeon — he could feel, through Shift and Patch both, the way the dungeon reacted as he entered. Vex had entered the dungeon a split second before him, and the moment his tail made contact with the dungeon barrier, the dungeon had reacted; the system descended on Vex, and something Shifted him away, in a way that was different from how Sev or Misa had been Shifted.

His reflex had been to hammer at the descending system with Patch. He'd even tried. But whatever this mechanism was, it was far larger than he was; his grip slipped off of it like a glancing blow, and Vex was snatched away.

The rest of his momentum carried him into the dungeon before he could hesitate and step back, which was probably for the best. The teams that were rushing towards them seemed larger than standard research teams; an optimistic guess would be that it was just a research team and a delve team, and the less optimistic guess would be that they had found Helix, or Helix had betrayed them.

And then Derivan found himself in the maze Vex had mentioned. Towering walls of crystal stood before him, each glittering internally with light; the design of it all reminded him of the extravagance of the dungeon design itself.

"I wonder if it has always been like this," Derivan muttered to himself. Then he shook his head — that was not his primary concern. His primary concern was Vex.

And, secondary to that, was what he had noticed as he'd stepped through the dungeon entrance and Shifted.

First, he opened his system interface and crafted a message to send off to the party. [Vex attempted to use his glyph just before we went into the dungeon,] he typed and sent. He tried to keep his worry out of his words. [He collapsed, and I grabbed him and brought him in. The dungeon took him away as he entered. I do not know where he is.]

[Shit,] Misa sent back almost immediately. [I'm not with Sev either. You've got 50/50 odds on joining one of us. Vex isn't with me.]

[Or with me,] Sev sent. [What are the odds he landed at a normal starting point?]

[None,] Derivan answered; he could sense the mechanism that 'chose' a starting location for them, and while it was just as large and immutable as the one that targeted Vex had been, it was a very different mechanism that hadn't so much as moved. [I believe Vex is most likely at the Ashion point of the dungeon, where he suspected his bonus room would be.]

[That makes as much sense as anything,] Sev commented. [Okay, if Vex is missing, we need to hurry. And Vex, if you see this, please let us know if you're okay as soon as you can.]

[Please,] Derivan added. It was an unnecessary addition, but something in him compelled him to add it.

Vex was... fine. The party interface showed them his health, and Vex was fine; he wasn't conscious yet, probably, or he would have sent them a reply. But he hadn't been drained of health or forcibly kicked from the party, and so they knew he was alive.

But they were in a dungeon. Even if he was fine for now, there was every chance they wouldn't stay that way.

Derivan began to race through the maze.

Fortunately for him, he'd spent a good chunk of the time waiting for Sev and Misa examining the maze through Shift; the stat wasn't exactly the same as having actual sight, but he could sense the presence of the maze as a whole, and he could vaguely sense what the other two had been doing in the maze. Each time, the maze as a whole had changed slightly, to make it harder for the next person — but since versions of Misa had left markers on all the nearby wavelengths of reality, no matter what the dungeon changed, Sev still had markers left to follow.

Derivan wasn't so lucky — with Sev through, the dungeon was able to clear out the majority of the markers. But he could see the maze in his head, still; he knew all the nearby variations, and if he was right...

...the end of the maze was right in front of him.

He ran for it, as quickly as he could; this was the first time in a while he'd truly regretted the loss of his Agility stat. As he ran, his mind turned to what he'd noticed as he stepped into the dungeon and been brought over into this wavelength of reality.

The amount of 'distance' — for lack of a better word — that he could sense through Shift had been slowly increasing, but for the most part, examining something with that sense was difficult. The further things got from him, the more everything dissolved into ambient noise. It was hard for him to distinguish one wavelength from another, stepped too far away from him.

When Misa stepped into the dungeon, though — and when Sev had stepped in — he'd been able to sense the ripples they sent through the dungeon's particular wavelength of reality.

And that had struck him in particular, because if his spatial sense was correct, the Shifted plane the dungeon existed on spread across all of the main kingdom of Elyra. Not all of its territories — it didn't include Fendal, or the patch of land that Emily lived on, or anything like that — but the city they'd just been in? It matched the borders almost exactly.

It matched the strange chill he'd felt when crossing into the city, too. It was the same chill he'd felt when they crossed territories towards Fendal, and there had been one more when heading towards Emily...

The false dungeon created by Misa's bonus room had a reality anchor marked by a letter-number combination. The error message in Fendal had listed a letter-number combination, too, except that letter-number combination had clearly been referring to Fendal and the area surrounding it. So those letter-number combinations referenced... zones?

And every zone had a dungeon.

Derivan felt like he was starting to get an idea of what dungeons were — what reality anchors were. If every dungeon had a reality anchor, and one dungeon was present in every zone... if running a dungeon helped to stabilize reality anchors, and reality anchors stabilized existence — which was certainly part of what they did, evidenced by the return of Misa's village and family...

Derivan had a thought.

The assumption for a long time had been that the expansion of the wild dungeons on the edges of their continent had stopped, largely held in check by the remaining population of the three Kingdoms. Vex had explained to him that every skill that measured the size of those wild zones returned a result that said they were roughly the same size. But if the outer edges were also being lost entirely, dissolving into the abyss?

Then the continent as a whole might still be shrinking, all available space still being slowly lost as towns and cities were lost to dungeon breaks — because those dungeon breaks were still happening. Rarely, but they did happen.

Derivan reached that thought right as he reached the end of the maze, and he plunged through the light there. He felt the dungeon's mechanisms reaching for him and grabbing him, spinning an invisible wheel to choose where he would go.

He reacted more on instinct than anything else. The wheel was about to stop, landing him in a third position, away from both Misa and Sev and not at all close to Vex; he reached out with Patch, and nudged the needle so that he would appear with Sev. The light picked him up and took him away —

— And he appeared just in time to stop a sword from stabbing Sev through the back. The clang of that sword against his armor echoed through the room.

"Holy shit," Sev said, turning around and doing a double-take; the suit of armor that had been sitting quietly in the corner of the room had moved, and only Derivan's sudden presence had stopped that sword from skewering him. "The moment I turn my back... Um. Good timing, Deri."

"You are welcome," Derivan said. He glanced at the door, and then sent a message through the system.

[I am through,] he said. [We must find Vex. Let us proceed.]

[Way ahead of you, buddy,] Misa sent back.