Ar'Kendrithyst

After a few hours at the dungeon in the morning, Erick and Poi blipped onto the designated spot Kiri had picked out a month ago. She had been preparing for this for a while, though Erick had never seen her cast [Conjure Force Elemental] even once. That was probably on purpose. Kiri didn’t like to show improperly made magic.

The designated spot was a small peninsula barely two blips north of Windy Manor, but still on Oceanside Island, where the land met the sea in tightly packed landscape of hexagonal columns. The particular spot that Kiri had chosen was a high rising columnar plateau above the waters, where a natural meandering staircase led from the top, to the ocean down below, where thick ropes of bright green kelp had washed up from the ocean to tangle amid the columns at the waterline. Or maybe the kelp had been exposed by a lower tide.

But up on the plateau where Erick and Poi stood, it was bright, and dry, and smelled deeply of salt and sealife. The only addition to this place were ten [Metalshape]d mirrors set up in a large circle, and more than a few sparkling diamonds Kiri had asked for days ago. Erick had wondered what those diamonds were for, but he didn’t pry. He just gave them to her.

Each pair of mirror and diamond stood at the same height, but because of the uneven columnar land, they were each on differently sized metal columns of their own, and each of those metal columns had been carved into what might have been important events in Kiri’s life. Yes. Now that Erick looked closer, that was exactly what they were. There was the woman lighting the wyrm on fire with a [Death Spiral Fire]. There was her time rescuing people from Yetta’s assault on Ar’Kendrithyst. There was the creation of Ophiel. Erick had absolutely no idea what the other ones were, but they seemed deeply personal.

Kiri watched silently as Erick walked around the space, looking at everything. She wore a brilliant green dress for the occasion, with lace and frills, but airy, and thin. It fluttered in the gentle breeze coming off of the ocean, clinging to the fine green scales of skin. It might have actually been a conjured armor, but Erick would have bet against that; she had likely spent a lot of time finding the right shade of green dress to match her magic.

Erick mainly looked at the metal poles, though. There was Kiri with a staff in hand and a defeated foe underfoot, while a dark shadow loomed in the background, watching. There was a young girl, reading books. There was… Maybe a Matriculation into the Script, and her first blue box?

There was—

“Eh hmm.” Kiri said, “We’ve got ten minutes.”

Erick turned. Kiri pointed up. The mirrors and diamonds were all focusing light into a space that was almost bright enough to see, even in the full sunlight all around. But the focusing was incomplete. Some of the beams were ever so slightly out of sync with the rest.

Kiri said, “I’m going to start when the sun reaches Noon and begins this convergence. I will end before the convergence is over.”

“What do you want me to do?” Erick said, “Anything at all.”

Kiri smiled small, as she rapidly said, “I need a [Call Lightning] to block out the sunlight all around, but not here. We’re north of the mana stream and westerlies, so the spell shouldn’t move much, but if it does, I want you to keep this whole peninsula clear of any weather effects. In addition, I’d love for Ophiel to sing the parts of [Telepathy], [Scry], [Conjure Force Elemental], and [Lightshape], to the north, south, west, and east, respectively. I’ve already marked their positions outside of the circle, along with their runes for which ones will sing where—”

Erick summoned three more Ophiel.

“—But beyond that, I would like you to just stand outside of the peninsula, and… watch.” Kiri seemed almost embarrassed to say, “Please.”

Erick smiled wide, saying, “It’s gonna be great, Kiri. Have you picked out a name?”

“No.” Kiri said, “I’m going to let her do that, herself.”

Erick kept smiling, as he said, “Good.”

Kiri flicked her hand toward Erick and Poi, saying, “Places, please. There’s a line across the tops of the columns over there. Stand beyond that line.”

Erick quickly found the appropriate circles for Ophiel to hover above—

“I need them on the ground, like petitioners, please,” Kiri said.

Erick smirked, as each Ophiel descended onto their respective rune. Their eyes were open wide the whole time, taking in the lights and the sounds, as they folded the wings of their bodies into perfect symmetry. Quickly, and looking like child-sized birds made of wings, Ophiel settled into his four designated positions. Each of them began humming their proper tune. The salt scented air filled with the sounds of connection, of sight, of creation, and light, as Erick conjured another Ophiel, and sent that one blipping far around the ritual.

Storms rolled in from every horizon, dark with rain and heavy with mana, turning the bright blue day into a menacing tempest, but the sky above the ritual remained clear, and bright. The sun beat down from almost directly above.

Erick and Poi stood far enough away to be out of the ritual, but close enough to see and hear; Erick made sure they were beyond the line Kiri had set across the ground.

- - - -

Kiri watched the sky. She listened to the songs of Ophiel, scattered to the four corners of her ritual. She saw the light converge, and knew, in a way she had never known until Erick had showed her, that the light she saw was only a tiny portion of something much, much larger. Kiri Flamecrash, who had taken her second name as a part of her induction into arcanaeum, was forever grateful to the fire that had dominated much of her life, but fire was a very small part of it all, wasn’t it? Her experiences were priceless, and she would never change her name, but what she had known was so much smaller than the whole; so much smaller than what life truly was.

Ten beams of sunlight split through diamonds and reflected off of mirrors to rejoin in a meter wide space above the ritual, above the columnar stones of this long transformed lava flow, above the wide, and life-filled ocean. Kiri stepped onto one of two hexagonal stone columns near the center of the ritual that were barely higher than the rest. This spot stood offset from the center. The other raised column stone stood directly below the convergence of light, hanging above. Kiri opened her arms to the bright, sunlit sky, and began,

“Intent please guide the mana flow in knots of twists and echos fragmental

“of thoughts that hold in time to show deep traits to help and ever variant

“to see the world, my life, and know uncounted truths made fundamental

“with light that bounces to and fro, that shows us paths lit ever Radiant.

“Like mana, guide and help me grow! Light takes a shape, my [Elemental]!”

Sunlight beamed down between the clouds, turning solid, crashing into mirrors, and into itself, combining in a flickering mass of something stretching out in all directions at once, but also just existing peacefully between the mirrors; a crash of light waiting to become.

The ritual snapped, as the summoned creature broke from the mirrors and the sun. The crash of light and fire flickered to green life, as it— as she, tumbled from the convergence above, down onto the other raised stone column.

Shafts of green became white and yellow tendrils, became hands and skin and scales, and not at all, as the [Familiar] decided what she wanted to be. Maybe she would never decide; not completely. But for now, she was a perfectly stable…

Dragon.

A dragon.

She was a serpentine green dragon made of light, maybe a meter long, that lazily hovered in the sun, like she weighed nothing at all; she probably didn’t.

Kiri panicked, muttering to herself, “You’re not a couatl,” as a notification appeared.

Summon Sunny, instant medium range, 1622 mana + Variable

Summon a Sunny to do your bidding. Maximum 10 Sunny permitted.

Sunny persist until killed or dismissed.

All Sunny are the same; to know one is to know them all.

All Sunny naturally have and regenerate mana based on your own mana and mana regeneration, which they may use to cast the spells that you imbue them with, at your own command or at their own discretion. Comes summoned and proficient with [Lightshape], [Telepathy], and [Scry].

All Sunny are able to change their shape, as they are wont.

Imbue your Sunny with new spells, wherever they are. Variable

See through the eyes of your Sunny. Variable

Communicate telepathically with your Sunny. Variable

Sunny flowed through the air almost like a snake, but very much not at all. ‘Sinusoidal’, Erick would have called her; perfect movement, exactly like all those ‘waveforms’ Erick tried to show her. Sunny moved on a track of her own making through the air, until she stopped, and looked around.

- - - -

Erick watched as the green snake fluttered through the ritual site in front of Kiri. He whispered to Poi, “Is that a dragon, or a snake?”

“Feet and legs. Looks like a dragon to me.”

“It’s…”

“It’s kinda strange. Yes.”

Kiri called out, “I can hear you! I was going for a couatl!” She watched her [Familiar], saying, “It’s okay, though. Right?” Kiri quickly added, “You’re beautiful. This is good.”

The floating [Familiar] shifted. Tiny legs and arms vanished as the entire creature turned slick and smooth, except for a pair of feathered wings that popped out of its back.

Kiri laughed loud, saying, “Oh! Beautiful!”

Erick stepped forward as his Ophiel still standing around the ritual site fluttered apart into the manaspshere, all of them dismissed except for the one on his shoulders. That one fluttered forward, toward Kiri and her new [Familiar].

The green couatl animated toward Ophiel like she was a controlled lightwave; all sinusoidal and stable.

“That’s just the graphically displayed expression of what light is, Kiri.” Erick smiled, saying, “It’s not actually wavey like that. It’s a difference of charge in the background field of Reality.”

“I know, I know.” Kiri leapt up, smiling wide, saying, “But it’s just so pretty and perfect!” She stepped off of her raised column as the snake and Ophiel met in the air. Ophiel fluttered around, sounding like a harp and a violin, while the snake gave chase. Kiri said, “Her name is Sunny.” She handed Erick a blue box, saying, “She’s perfect. I love her already.”

Erick read the box, saying, “Wow! Good job! That was a nice poem you sang, too.”

“Thank you.” Kiri said, “I worked on it for a while.”

“I see that, now.”

Erick watched as Ophiel played in the air above, and Sunny tried to keep up. Erick briefly turned his attention to the darkened skies around the peninsula. With a concentrated thought, he dismissed the [Call Lightning]s still lingering in the area. Sunlight broke through the cloudcover in deep columns of illumination that spread wide, revealing the blue sky and lighting the ocean.

Erick turned to Kiri. “You’ve been reading those training books, right?”

“I have.” Kiri looked up to Sunny. The not-couatl zipped down to her, then floated, waiting. “I hope I can raise her well.”

“Want to bring her to the dungeon, and see how she likes the lights?”

“Yes!”

Poi asked, “Did you manage to get the independent mana pool?”

Kiri squealed as she said, “Yes! Oh my gods, yes! It’s fantastic, Poi!”

Poi said, “When you’re ready, if you want to start being a part of the people we call for monster extermination, I can put you on the list.”

Kiri smiled, patting Sunny, who did nothing but float there and take it. Kiri said, “In a month, after I’m sure she is learning and doing okay.” She added, “That wiped me out, too. I’m on low mana after a single summon.”

Erick said, “Seven months till Particle Mage and Class Abilities, I think? Something like that. Oh. Six months till [Call Lightning]. But ‘Particle Mage Only’ means seven months for that spell.” He paused in thought. He felt a slight chill as he said, “[Wintry Sea] is only eight months away.”

“That one is going to get restricted.” Poi said, “Probably.”

“Probably...” Erick frowned. He didn’t want to ask Rozeta to change that spell, but maybe he should.

- - - -

A light slime spawned on the second floor of the dungeon while Erick was still filling in the lights on the seventh floor. Kiri found it playing in the water while she was guiding Sunny through the dungeon, and telling her about everything.

Actually, it was more accurate to say that Sunny found the slime. She had apparently been floating around Kiri, but when the two of them were walking through the prismatic dungeon space, Sunny made a quick slither through the air, to the light slime; spotting the little ball of light from 20 meters away. Kiri almost pulled Sunny back, but she also wanted to see whatever it was that had her [Familiar] all riled up.

When Erick and Poi journeyed up to the second floor to see the slime for themselves, they joined Kiri and Merith and Apell, to watch from a distance as Sunny tumbled in and out of a shallow pool, around a tiny light slime and a collection of diamonds glittering at the bottom of the water.

Apell said, “If this dungeon were finished then I’d say it was very late for slimes to start spawning. I’d shout down the students who were obviously messing up the intake or the outflow, or the biodiversity. But it’s not even done yet. This floor is about half as ornate as the original dungeon. It’ll take us a year to get this place fully up and running. And we’re already getting slimes.”

Erick said, “It’s going to be a very busy dungeon, isn’t it?”

“Very busy,” Apell said.

Merith asked, “This is the first one, right? Should we reorganize the layout to include more pools like that one? It’s a bit messed up, now that I’m looking. The flow in that water is too low.” She added, “If this was a normal dungeon, I’d want to adjust that.”

Erick said, “Leave it be. It’s a baby light slime. They need a few protected spaces like that.”

Apell smirked as she turned toward Erick, saying, “If this were a normal dungeon, I would say your ideas about slimes were cute, at best.”

“That reminds me.” Erick asked, “How do you harvest them?”

“The usual way?” Apell asked, “Not sure what you mean.”

“I just don’t think it’s right if you plan on killing slimes in view of other slimes.”

“Oh?” Apell said, “No need to worry about that. We use [Watershape] to sweep them up for harvesting in a side room where none of them see what the others see. Ah. Well. Twenty at a time is normal.” She paused. She said, “Actually… You’re on floor five right now, aren’t you? If light slimes are already spawning… We might want to hold off on fully lighting the dungeon. The partial lights you’ve put up might be enough.”

Merith said, “We can reroute the water. That should be enough to limit spawning.”

Apell paused. She said, “That’s a much better idea. Yes. Let’s do that. Continue with the full lighting, Erick.”

Erick smiled, saying, “Of course.”

For a little while, as Apell and Merith walked on, discussing the river running through the dungeon, Erick watched Sunny curl through the pool around the light slime. Ophiel twittered on his shoulder. Erick mentally asked him if he wanted to play too, but Ophiel's response was a non-committal cello hum. Erick nodded. They were both a lot younger than Ophiel, so it was understandable that Ophiel didn’t want to get involved. Both the light slime, which was barely moving through the water, but clearly trying to follow the green snake, and the green snake herself were both barely a day old. Ophiel, who puffed himself up like a bird banishing the cold with fluffy feather, proving that he was bigger than the babies playing in the water, was much more mature than them.

Erick stifled his smile, as he took in all of these emotions coming off of Ophiel.

But after a minute, Ophiel trilled in tiny violins, then hopped off of Erick’s shoulder. He fluttered over to the pool of water, just to be closer to the snake and the slime. He didn’t directly play, but he did start to sing in harps and violins, quickly drawing the attention of the other two. Erick chuckled.

After a moment of watching the kids play, he went back downstairs to keep working on the dungeon.

The initial lighting, flooring, and layout would be done in nine more days.

- - -

Erick had had enough of this stupid dungeon! Sure, the benefits would show themselves soon enough, but heck! He had things to do!

Even if Spur was doing fine with all the Headmaster’s people, and the de-worming was complete, and the Farmer’s Council was working overtime to make up for mistakes…

They didn’t really need him in residence. Not right now.

But still! Erick felt like he should have been on the scene, providing… some sort of help? He wasn’t sure on that matter. But what he was sure of, was that he could, possibly, make this dungeon-crafting go faster, if he had some better enchanted rings— No! Not rings. Rings definitely couldn’t hold plus-20 All-Stats apiece; he wasn’t able to stick two gems on a ring without it exploding. And he didn’t want to wear bracers. Bracelets, though… He could wear a pair a bracelets, probably.

Erick had looked for a solution to his Stat item problems for a while now, and found nothing. But the answer was probably a great deal simpler than he was making it. Hopefully, the answer to this problem was the answer that worked for almost every other problem, ever:

Throw money at it!

He didn’t want to believe that gold and silver actually did produce better enchantments, mainly because none of the normal enchanting books said so, but enough of the nuanced and non-standard Stat enchantment books mentioned the use of gold and silver in higher end enchantments, and even the Headmaster said that some people had found those metals could hold a better Stat enchantment, that Erick went ahead and bought some of those precious metals down at the market.

(In the course of his search for workable gold, Erick found out many things about the currency he used every day. ‘Gold coins’, the standard for pricing objects, contained very, very little gold, if at all. Some weaselly people even struck coinage out of brass and copper, and treated them to alchemical baths that made them look and feel and act like normal gold coins, until a month or more had passed. Some unlucky people, when they traded for some of these look-alikes that pop up across the world from time to time, were surprised to find at the next transaction that their fakes were fake.

To combat this, many of the smaller city nations of the world didn’t use coinage at all. They preferred rads, since rads could always be used to power some device or another.

Long story short: Erick could not use any of the coins he had to create his new jewelry. So he went down and bought the raw materials.)

Now, he was back in his enchanting room in Windy Manor, with a few assorted, new-to-him metals, and 7 grand-rads worth of silver and gold. It was a lot less precious metal than he expected. Maybe 5 ounces of gold, and the same of silver, in two little bars, each the size of two of his fingers.

Kiri watched from the side. Sunny curled around Kiri’s neck. She lifted her snake-like green head up to watch Erick; her green eyes glittering at the sight of the gold, but not so much at the sight of the silver. Erick held the gold aloft, watching as Sunny’s head swiveled to stare at the bright, yellow metal.

Erick said, “So dragons really do like gold.”

Kiri admonished him, saying, “She’s a couatl, Erick. Not a dragon. You never saw her in a dragon form.”

As though Reality was destined to prove Kiri wrong, and as Erick held the gold aloft, Sunny shifted from couatl to dragon. Feathered wings transformed into little arms and hands, and little legs and clawed feet.

Erick laughed.

Kiri frowned at Sunny, wrapped loose around her neck, saying, “Sunny. Couatl. Please.”

Sunny shifted back to a winged snake. She promptly ignored Erick holding the gold bar and turned thin, and small. She curled around Kiri’s neck like a loose, green, feathered necklace. Kiri stroked her back, in the direction the scales and feathers grew. Sunny’s tail curled out from her hidden position, flexing outward as Kiri petted. Sunny’s tiny head peeked over Kiri’s shoulder, her bright green eyes drinking in the sights of Erick’s enchanting room, from the six glittering diamond spheres sitting on a holder in the sun, waiting to be used, to the pools of platinum water that lay beside the window.

Erick cast a Cyan-Ultramarine-Cinnabar-Crimson lightmask across the platinum pool. The combined masks formed a purple air that took hold across the bowl, as Erick picked up the six diamond spheres and put them into the pool. He flashed a [Cleanse] into the waters, dispersing any possible oils that had adhered to the diamonds’ surfaces. Erick took off his rings and canceled his [Personal Ward]. He briefly considered canceling the [Prismatic Ward] around the house, but that was bad for a hundred different reasons, and strangely enough, that particular piece of magic did not seem to interfere with item creation in any meaningful way. It must have been because of the ‘operate without restriction’ part of that spell, or maybe there was some other reason. Even his [Personal Ward] didn’t really interfere, but he was trying to be as baseline as he could be for these experiments.

Erick touched all of the gems at once, under the platinum water. He channeled mana through all of his Stats. Purple glows, brighter than the purple maskward, radiated into the spheres and out of the water, like submarine lights under the ocean’s surface. Erick soaked the gems with his power, up until the point where he felt equilibrium take hold in the gems. He flashed out [Cleanse Aura] and [Diamond Aura] into the bowl, sealing the diamonds in a layer of metals and bubbling the water; the unknown byproducts of Erick’s item creation methods fell to the floor of his enchanting room as thick air.

He canceled the spells and brought out six new plus-12 All-Stat gems. They would be plus-10 by the time they stabilized.

Erick said, “And now to do that five more times.”

“I could work on the bracelets, if you want?”

Erick smiled, saying, “You should play with Sunny.”

Sunny perked up, hearing her name. She flickered five shades of green.

Erick and Kiri both noticed.

Kiri said, “I think she likes that idea.”

“Have you seen her shift any other colors?”

“I haven’t seen her shift any colors, at all. Except for right at the beginning.” Kiri said, “That was new.” She added, “I’m going to go train her a bit.”

“See you later.”

Kiri walked off, while Erick went back to making gems. Ophiel twittered on his perch, beside the workbench. He wanted to go play with Sunny, too.

“Maybe later, Ophiel.” Erick said, “Kiri has to form a bond with Sunny before there’s too much playtime.”

Ophiel hummed in soft flute sounds.

“I know, I know. Sorry, buddy.”

Erick quickly made a lot more All-Stat gems. After waiting for his mana to recover a little, he got to work on the gold and silver bracelet. But since gold was so soft, he looked first to the bars of Rustless Steel he had also gotten down at the market. He would have called it ‘stainless steel’ if he was sure that that was what it was. All he really knew about the metal was that it was alchemicaly treated and would not rust for twenty years, but other than that, it was a plain, grey-silver metal, and it was rather hard. Harder than iron, for sure. This metal came recommended by some of his enchanting books, if someone wanted to use something besides plain, normal, wrought-quality iron.

Privately, Erick wondered how long it would take the rest of Veird’s enchanters to figure out how to make better, longer lasting items, once his methods became public knowledge, and artifact-level Stat items that never degraded (or at least took a really long time to degrade) became the norm.

When someone else figured out the true nature of light, that is. Maybe Ryul would let some of the secret slip. He was there for that aborted lecture with the Headmaster, after all. That would be nice. Erick couldn’t be blamed for it if it happened like that.

Erick whipped up a test bracelet across his wrist, [Metalshape]ing the rustless steel into a solid torc. The gems would go into two slots on the underside, interior of the bracelet. When he had a good fit, he physically removed the bracelet.

He moved his creative process to a blast box, located on the other side of the room. The box was pretty much just five walls of thick wood, a few wardlights inside to provide adequate lighting, and one wall made of thick glass that was actually a door. Erick placed two gems into the blast box, alongside the torc and a clip of the gold bar, and shut the door. He put his hand to a hole in the side of the box, cut there to provide an unimpeded line-of-intent to whatever was in there. He had injured his hand doing this before, but such was the price to pay for progress!

Over the next ten minutes, with [Telekinesis], [Metalshape], and [Ultrasight] to properly see his work, Erick crafted a torc inlaid with two gems, and a circuit of twisting gold that ran along the outside of the solid metal bracelet.

It did not explode!

Erick laughed. He left the torc there for a minute, while he went to the kitchen to get a drink of water.

While he was filling up his cup, a pop echoed from upstairs, from his enchanting room. He sighed. Ophiel commiserated on Erick’s shoulder with a soft flute hum. Erick drank his water, then went back upstairs. The blast box had contained the explosion; doing exactly what it was meant to do. He salvaged as much of the gold as he could, but most of it was mixed with the rustless steel.

Over the course of four hours, Erick exploded twenty more designs. Multiple All-Stat gems went into slots on the bracelets, and then the bracelets exploded. From thin-stringed woven gold, to thick banded silver links, to variations on torcs, and solid bracelets that had to be formed directly over Erick’s skin if he wanted that idea to work. He didn’t actually wear the solid bracelet to test it out; it exploded after forty minutes of sitting in a separate blast box, though.

Erick recorded every single variation. When Kiri came back to check on him, Erick handed her the experiment log. She read them over.

She said, “It seems that the thicker bracelets last longer.”

“Yeah,” Erick said, wrapping the last remnants of silver into some imagined circuit-board sort of design. He added, “The problem is obviously the integrity of the item, but maybe that is a false conclusion. No one puts a lot of effort into Stat-item creation because they always decay, but now that decay is a problem of the past, I don’t know what roadmap to take. I’m guessing that the explosions might be a resonance problem? Or maybe its a flow problem.”

“You could try items besides metals. Wood or glass, for example?”

“… I don’t have [Woodshape].” He added, “But I could make it with [Watershape]… [Watershape] and [Grow], right?”

“Yes.” Kiri said, “I actually have [Woodshape].”

“Good! Make me some bracelets. I’m going to try glass.”

An hour later, wood exploded and glass shattered, as the power of Erick’s All-Stat gems proved to be too much.

“So what’s the problem?” Erick asked.

“Destructive resonance.” Kiri offered, “Make a diamond bracelet. A completely diamond bracelet. Or let’s make something out of the metals that you’ve [Distill]ed out of your growing rain.”

“I can’t put a bracelet on my wrist if the bracelet can’t move at all.” Erick amended, “Well. I could. But I don’t want to. Ugh. Okay. Let’s try that.”

“A crown, too. And a solid diamond ring.” Kiri said, “People don’t make Stat items this way because the gems just aren’t strong enough; there’s always an inclusion, or something that weakens and interrupts the interior. But your diamonds have no such problems.” She added, “How about a diamond ring with a diamond inset, too? Connect them with the barest bits of metal.”

“All good points. Let’s try all of that.”

Erick tried the fully-diamond ring, first. Kiri carved a few of them in different diameters, while Erick carved a few sized for his own fingers.

He enchanted the solid diamond rings, and covered them in a layer of platinum. They did not explode! He attached All-Stat gems to half of them. Those held, too, while Kiri and Erick went on to carving larger, completely-diamond bracelets, and even a crown. The crown broke rather instantly, as soon as Erick tried imbuing it with purple light. It wasn’t a large explosion, but it was enough to cut that experiment short. The diamond bracelet met the same fate.

On a whim, Erick carved a fist-sized diamond into a perfect sphere, then soaked it in purple light for a full minute, waiting for it to break. It should have broken; it was much too big for any sort of normal enchanted gear. It did not break. Erick sealed it with platinum, then set it aside in a thick blast box.

Two hours later, when it was time to rain on the farms, and all of their resources except for platinum water, useless-wood, and the diamonds, were used up, the plain diamond rings remained whole. The ones that had a secondary gem on them had all exploded.

Erick picked up one of the plain rings. It looked like a silver band, without adornment. If he hadn’t made it himself, he never would have guessed that it was diamond underneath that thin platinum veneer. He put the ring on.

“Oh holy fuck,” Erick said, feeling a rush of calm flow through his body. He checked his Status. His eyes went wide, as he said, “It’s 29 All-Stats.”

Kiri eyed the silver band on Erick’s finger. She frowned, asking, “It’s stable?”

“… Maybe.” Erick joked, “Get ready for a trip to the hospital!” He put on another not-silver ring, on his other hand. As a rush of power settled into his body, he exclaimed, “Holy wow. Okay!” He said, “Nice.” He checked his Status. “Ah. They’re degrading… Oh. It stopped? It might have stopped. Oh. There goes another point. Plus 27 and 28.” He said, “Stable for now. I’ll wear them for a while.” He gestured to the rest of the experiments. “Go ahead. Pick some for yourself, if you want.”

Kiri’s eyes went to the blast box that held the large diamond. “That’s still stable, too? I’ve been waiting for it to explode.”

Erick looked down at the blast box that should have already exploded. “I guess so?”

Kiri wisely picked up a pair of plain rings. She slipped off her original rings, then slipped a new ring over a talon, saying, “These are gooOOOD. Wow. That’s a rush.”

Erick wiggled his ringed fingers in the air, saying, “If they don’t explode, we’ll call this a success.”

“Are you still channeling mana through Ophiel, to Spur?”

Ophiel trilled on Erick’s shoulder.

Erick said, “Yup. This whole time.”

“So they’re surviving a heavy stress already, but we won’t know for sure until you’ve gone through several mana pools.” Kiri held her hands up, looking at her new rings with a critical eye. “They might work?”

The time for rain came and went, and the rings held; stable. They held through a few hours of lightwork at the dungeon, and dozens of mana pools. They held stable all through the night. The next day, they lost a point, but past that, they continued to be stable, secure rings. They certainly weren’t the plus-200 All-Stats Erick had expected, but they were certainly a boost on all his previous numbers.

Erick Flatt

Human, age 48

Level 65, Class: Particle Mage

Exp: 1,597,236,147,974,331/2,777,789,003,528,800

Class: 6/6

Points: 6

HP

2100/2100

2100 per day

MP

6900/6900

27,600 per day

Strength

20

+50

[70]

Vitality

20

+50

[70]

Willpower

65

+50

[115]

Focus

65

+50

[115]

Favored Spell waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

Favored Ability waiting!

He recast the [Prismatic Ward] around his house for 78,000 points of [Solid Ward]. His [Personal Ward] was now worth 13,500 points of mitigation. He tested out his new Strength with Strength-testing metal rods, exactly like Jane had gotten from the Adventurer’s Guild, all those months ago when they were both first starting out. He had to work at it, but the 60 Strength rod bent easily enough; the Stats were willing, but the body had yet to catch up to its new Reality. Teressa smiled the whole time as she showed him up by bending the 80-Strength rod like it was nothing.

He had not saved any time in his dungeon construction schedule, because creating the rings had taken a good chunk of that time. If he had been unsuccessful, the schedule would have fallen even further behind. But he had succeeded, thankfully. The next few days went fast enough.

- - - -

Before the final floor was done, Erick went back to his original dungeon. Apell had already begun harvesting the slimes there.

Erick watched Apell guide a wave of water across the dungeon floor, sweeping up dozens of slimes at a time. Some tumbled away. Some struggled to get back onto the wave. She buoyed her catch into a side room, carved out from beyond the wall, near the stairs leading to the main floor. Erick followed. Poi followed Erick.

This side room was much darker than the normal dungeon floor, but only because it was lit normally. Apell shut the stone wall behind both of them, making it even darker. Erick took off his sunglasses and set them into a bin in the side of the room. The light slimes glowed like stars surrounded by nebulas, all jumbled around in a hover of water, supported by Apell’s magic. Apell took direct control of her spell. In an instant, she turned that water into a blender.

Twenty slimes died all at once, as their cores were forcibly popped from their glowing bodies. Light dimmed, as suddenly dead slime bodies slipped out of the hovering water, like so much discarded jellyfish.

Erick frowned. The slimes were rather cute. It certainly wasn’t a cruel death; it was fast enough, for sure, but seeing it happen right in front of him was…

It was a complicated feeling.

He didn’t really want to eat one of them, but he was still going to do it; he was probably going to be eating quite a lot of them in the near future, too. He steeled himself with a sigh. He straightened his back, and watched, as Apell took those twenty cores and set them into a stone basket, to the side of the room. She then cast a [Cleanse] into the room, turning slime mush and dirty water back into clean water and thick air that spilled around the room. With a gesture, a hole opened up in the top of the stone barrier between this room and the main dungeon floor. Brilliant light poured in, as Apell fed that water through the hole. She closed the hole, darkening the room back to normal lighting as she turned to Erick.

Apell said, “That’s the process. You look queasy.”

“I’m getting over it.”

Apell nodded, her green wrought skin flexing like it wasn’t solid metal. She said, “You know… if these slimes found you out there, dead, they’d eat you, too. If they found you out there sleeping, they might smother you in your sleep. I’ve seen too many novices get themselves killed by thinking that just because slimes are easy to deal with, that means they’re not real monsters.” She stressed, “They’re still monsters, Erick.”

“I know. Don’t mind me.” Erick walked over to the bin of light slime cores. He picked one up. It was the size of a large jawbreaker, and probably just as hard, but Erick knew his new inflated Strength would make quick work of it, if this was indeed the one he was going to eat. He psyched himself up, saying, “So I just… Eat it.”

Apell said, “Yup. That’s all it takes for slimes. They’re easy.” She quickly added, “But if this is your first form… then maybe you should do this at the hospital.”

Poi said, “It might be prudent to take that advice, sir.”

“I’m not worried.” Erick held the glowing orb in his hands. It was like a round egg. It was still warm, too. “I’ve been reading up a lot on the subject. I know how to do this.” Then he remembered Jane telling him about her experience eating the core of a flame slime. He paused. He said, “But. Yeah. Let’s go to the hospital.” He picked up three more cores, each of them bright with white light.

In a small room, in the cream-colored towers of Oceanside’s hospital, Erick munched on a light slime core, while Rats and a doctor used to this sort of thing, watched. Poi had stepped out for a while, but he would be back soon enough.

The core tasted like fizzing brightness, and crunched like rock candy. It was the size of a burger, and it went down easily enough. Erick sat down in a chair in the room and focused on absorbing whatever it was that [Polymorph] absorbed. Soon enough, a shift appeared in his [Polymorph] box, exactly how the books said it would happen.

Polymorph, instant, 500 MP

Change your physical body.

Familiar Forms: 2/13

~Erick Flatt

~Light Slime

Erick discarded his clothes and his rings, as the doctor nodded, and Rats watched.

The world turned to jelly as Erick cast [Polymorph], or maybe, it was better to say that he turned to jelly. As his body finished changing, his not-eyesight cleared. He saw in every direction at once, clear as he ever saw with his normal eyes, and without a decrease in distance that he thought would happen in slime form.

He was also on the floor, looking up at Rats and the doctor. They were giants, and he was the size of a basketball. He briefly looked at himself through Ophiel’s eyes; he looked completely normal.

Rats said, “Looks good, boss.”

The doctor said, “Agreed. You have successfully taken on a new form. Congratulations, Archmage Erick Flatt.”

Erick burbled out what might have been words, but which were not words at all.

As he contemplated possible indigestion, another box appeared.

Flash, instant, close range, 5 MP

Flicker with light in an attempt to blind a target.

Erick spoke with [Prestidigitation], saying, “First light essence ability, too. Thanks for watching over this, doc.”

The doctor nodded, saying, “If you will excuse me, I have other patients to see.” He turned toward Rats, saying, “Mister Rats.”

Rats said, “Thanks, Doctor Hubert.”

The doctor opened the door and walked out of the room; back to duty. Rats closed the door behind him.

Erick flickered his body back to human-shaped. He shivered as he returned to skin and two eyes, and a body symmetrically divided down the center. He began putting his clothes back on, saying, “Being another being is a weird feeling. At least the eyesight is better than I thought it would be, but they’re light slimes, so that makes some sort of sense.”

A knock came on the door. Poi entered. He asked, “Everything good?”

“Everything is great!” Erick asked Rats, “Are you going to be home for dinner?”

“They got me working overtime. Quest is going well, though. Down to a hundred terribly injured people remaining.”

Erick smiled wide, as he slipped his rings back on, saying, “That’s really good! I’m almost done with the dungeon, too. Light slimes are already spawning, ten a day. But Apell says that they’re going to start spawning much faster as the dungeon matures and as she works out the kinks in the mana flows.” He said, “Soon, we’ll be back in Spur. At least until we can find Messalina.”

Rats nodded, saying, “Good.”

Erick said, “And these new rings are working well, so I’ll make you all some, too.”

Rats said, “Nice. I heard Teressa talking, so I was wondering.”

Poi said, “Jane is apparently responsive now. She might even be able to come back with us.”

Erick’s heart soared. He said, “Really? When did that happen?!”

Poi said, “It’s been gradual, but there was a marked improvement when Alibeth checked on her today. She was able to eat and talk for ten minutes at noon before the convulsing threatened. Teressa and Kiri are in the room with her now.”

A calm descended on Erick. Everything would be okay. He said, “Let’s go see Jane.”