Chương 439: AF Chapter 438 – Secrets of Mount Ingot

The Magma Elemental was glad to ooze its way back into the near-molten stone, rather more quickly when I bent my will upon it and it Shaped out of my path like flowing water, shoving the Magma Elemental along with it.

"Nice! Has that thing got all the bells and whistles on it yet?" Kris asked, the hot stone cooling almost to black as we stepped through the narrow hallway, getting down almost to below boiling.

"No. The proper way to make one is the Elemental Command powers first, then the primary Ring magic after it, then the various secondary powers. If you're a paranoid overachiever like someone, you add all the possible Elemental Commands you can now, while they stack and they are cheap. Base Elemental, Para, Quasi. It's a lot to empower and adapt up." Like, literally years worth of daily Karma Infusion to a Ring!

"I see." She did. Layers on layers of Gear improvement were exactly what she was doing, too. The amount of Naming Karma put into Quaver alone was just ungodly at this point, and getting the Protections on her Necklace up to VII had not been cheap at all! Master Harlune asked quietly, "Ryin, I am not familiar with such a Ring. What are you referring to as 'Elemental Command'?" I lifted up Primus for him to glance at on my left forefinger, opposite Zeks.

"This is a Ring of Primal Elemental Command, as opposed to Air Elemental Command, or Fire Elemental Command, or whatever, Master Harlune. It does not have the extra powers of the lesser Rings yet, but it allows me to communicate with and bear power over all kinds of Elementals. This works even against the Faux Elementals of the island here, so it has proven quite useful at times, particularly when I have to fight them."

"I see." Master Harlune's glowing eyes glittered.

"It also means you are wearing THREE active Rings…"

"I can wear four. So will you, when you reach Twelve in Artificer, Master Harlune."

"Indeed?" He was immediately looking forward to it.

"I think we have reached the first of our objects of study…" There was indeed one of the Rune-carved pillars in this room, rising up into the ceiling on the edge of a lava pool that had once been twenty feet below it. We strolled forwards inside our little bubble of only beyond-boiling temperatures and walked up to the side of it. Kris reached up to tap the side of it, instantly replicating its internal structure in Markspace, refining it with every additional tapping.

Master Harlune walked up to it and put his hands on it, sending magical energy through it and paying careful attention to the Rune configurations and how the powers moved. A nice picture of just how everything was moving in it began to take place rapidly. Of course, that didn't mean the rest of Kris' Trembling Domain was ignoring the area. The Icy Greater Shards snapped up next to me like javelins as another amorphous form lurched out of the pool of lava towards us.

It had no Elemental presence, and was nothing of the sort, concealed by the lava until it was extremely close… but I could feel a dozen other Elementals in the walls nearby, watching this and seeing how we responded. Cold would have been ideal, but I decided making an impression was more important.

Fires beyond Fire, Flames taken in three different profound directions condensed down into a Shardray hotter than the meaning of physical heat, and Split into two Rays that drove right into the Lava Ooze about to take a swing at Kris. A creature that soaked in the pools of elemental magma Burned away as star-bright flames ignited inside it and expanded, taking the cracking-lava structure of its massive body with it as they did.

The reaching tentacle burned away to less than ash, and not only was a massive hole left in the lava, it continued down and onward in a pair of tight cylinders for some distance, actually fusing the lava solid! I hadn't even bothered looking at the thing, standing by and letting the two of them do what they needed to do.

The watching presences in the walls and pool, just points of heat amid the cracks and sullen glow of the lava, slowly withdrew at the display of a fire hot enough to Burn them away, body and soul, and leave not a trace of them behind.

"I make no allowance for pests, but we don't have to worry about Elementals testing us," I informed them firmly.

"Because my Flames are even more effective against them than a mindless ooze," I added in Pyric for them to hear. The Elemental presences withdrew even further.

"Quite a clever fellow," Harlune commented as we completed our exam and replication of the sixth column.

"Two parallel series, working to concentrate the flow of energy. Fascinating to see its comprehension increase with each column it put up." The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Agreed. Complexity, purity, harmony increased with each pillar," Kris nodded along as we stood before Scold's final chamber, now completely plugged by a wall of solid magma. Unafraid, she rapped on the stone, reading the impressions.

"Over twenty feet thick. Slow and steady, Ryin." The solidified lava slowly parted before me, feeling like slick grease or mud compared to the solid stone I usually Shaped. Kris was out ahead, pacing it. We got in forty feet before she held up her hand and I stopped.

"Open space beyond, but LOTS of pressure there. More than on our original entry." I plotted out our location relative to the surface, and tapped Crown against the side of the chamber. A minute later there was a roar and rumble from the chamber on the other side. Both of my companions looked at me inquiringly. I flicked up the map and showed them the vent I'd established from the room to the surface, a good meter square and so capable of venting a lot more pressure very quickly from there.

"A lot hotter, too," Kris added matter-of-factly.

"The major ley line confluence is in there, and there were four pillars in there and two pedestals, as I recall…"

"Tch. You forgot to mention that this is basically a ruined Dungeon and that's the final room." Harlune blinked and looked at me inquiringly.

"Not much of a Delver, Master Harlune?" I asked with a smile.

"I've seen my fair share of battle and political intrigue, sickening as it all is, but rote plunging into Dungeons was never really my thing," he replied without apology.

"The Mite Maze?" I had to ask.

"You don't think I actually had to wander through the place to get to my chambers?" he sniffed disdainfully.

"Clearing my original path there was not difficult. The Wasps are very easy to hear ahead of time, and I wasn't looking for hidden treasures or anything!"

"Well enough. The main rule of a Dungeon delve is that the last major room will have the Boss. That goes double if it has the main loot of the place." The tall Yalain considered that as we waited for the pressure to fall in the room beyond.

"That… seems very tale-appropriate?" he ventured cautiously.

"That is exactly the right logic to use, appropriate to a tale. Dungeons are usually designed to generate good stories, and so you very rarely have the boss and the loot up close near the entry, saving everyone time.

No, no, much better to have the enterprising group of hardy delvers and intrepid heroes not motivated by anything as crass as greed crawling through the entire Dungeon, meeting all your carefully-placed monsters, springing all your traps, overcoming all your tricks, and finally meeting the boss for a nice big finale."

"You speak as if the Dungeons are alive…" Harlune ventured, frowning at the imagery.

"The Mite Maze had two bosses in it, yourself and the Mite Princess. You both satisfied the trope perfectly. She had the remains of Branith's Staff there at one time, as I recall."

"Yes, he perished there, running out of his fire magic after pushing too far, too confidently. I left it there as a suitable salute to the Princess and her guards…" He trailed off after a moment.

"And how many hundreds of people, if not thousands, recovered Brandith's belongings from the Mite Maze?" Kris asked rhetorically. Master Harlune looked like he wanted to say something, and instead contemplated the facts.

"This is the… mind-fuckery, as Lord Mick so eloquently puts it?" he asked at last.

"Yep. You were part of it right up until the Fall, Master Harlune. Do you remember the designs for Celestial Hand Armor?" Kris asked him. Again, he started to reply, then stopped himself, thinking about the question.

"That is… my word." He looked off into nowhere.

"I have the plans of Armor I have often considered making, something that equaled the best of Empyrean Armor…" He gestured up his own Holo proudly, minor magic that was so useful.

"It looked something like this." The image of gold and orange armor was quite eye-catching and unique. Kris and I both nodded.

"That is the Celestial Hand Armor design, yes. But you don't actually remember disseminating it, and you know why?" He tilted his head at Kris.

"Because it was randomly generated by treasure chests, not actually forged by anyone. There was no control, no customization, just the vagaries of a magical System that dumped random combinations of spells and qualities beyond the base Armor itself."

"And the Armor for the Eldrytch Web and Radiant Blood look quite different, but did exactly the same thing as your designs," I added, flicking up the designs for both of them. His expression was aghast as he considered the truth of that statement, staring at the Holos of the Armors of the rival Societies.

"I… never knew that. I worked with the Celestial Hand and Master Ben Ten for years…"

"Doing research on a great many things that nobody can recall the details of whatsoever right now, the other mages of the Celestial Hand have related to us," Kris finished for him, deepening his dismay as he found himself agreeing with her!

"Yes. They feel like years of their life just vanished. Happily, they don't seem any older for the years they were doing that, but it's still very unnerving. Everyone we've brought out of NPC status says much the same thing." Master Harlune considered all of the implications of that, glowing Empyrean eyes flashing as he digested that.

"I gather Nuhmudira designed their armor, and she and her fools would be subject to much of the same thing…" he reasoned out.

"It's reasonable to assume she didn't make any breakthroughs before the Fall that weren't part of the System's plans for her. Since then, however… well, she got out of her prison, that is saying something right there."

"Indeed it is. I have been working on my own personal defenses with some of what you've taught me, Lady Ryin, and I hope to improve them yet more in the future, to prevent a repeat of what happened to me there."

"Wise." I looked at Kris, who tapped the wall behind her and nodded.

"Alright, the pressure is down, we're going in. If it's too hot, we'll pull back out."

"Understood!" Master Harlune agreed immediately, and I Shaped the last of the plug to Scold's laboratory out of the way.

"We should be expecting a fight of one manner or another, I believe you mentioned…"

"That is correct. You can War as you like, but stay behind Kris." This time, I was not ashamed to bring up some bitterly cold Greater Shards in readiness, their chill so profound they even drove away much of the residual heat around us, swirling with layers of Kicker energies. If the Magma Elementals were wary of me tossing Profound Flame, the presence of uttercold at this extent made very, very sure they weren't coming in!

The plug rolled out of the way, and Kris, Quaver a bar of fire-chilling frost swirling with icy star-motes, led the way in to the chamber beyond.