Rupegia

Chapter 61: Immediately – Part 1

We wake up and find ourselves inside a pantry. We see a variety of not-food on shelves upon shelves of white wood with a light brown wavy grain. This wood seems to be what almost everything else is composed of: the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and the furniture.

I look at my pocket watch and say, "How odd. We spent about a minute in 'limbo.' I don't know of any kind of teleportation magic that would take so long."

"'Limbo'?" Alissa asks as she cutely tilts her head.

I scratch my head in thought. "A… well, it's an 'in-between' place. Somewhere between here and our previous location where the concept of time and space doesn't exist. Ah! Think of it like being inside an [Item Box]."

"I was going to say that you were talking like a goblin, but [Item Box] makes it really easy to grasp," Hana says.

"But time didn't stop while we were in 'limbo,'" Lina says.

"Not even teleportation is 'normal' in this dungeon. Nothing is," Roxanne says.

I nod in agreement and continue looking around.

Aoi grabs a not-apple and chews on it cautiously. Shortly after she swallows it, the not-apple in her claws turns into dust and she shudders. "That felt weird," she says.

"You shouldn't eat solidified dungeon mana food. It'll upset your stomach," Ciel says.

Aoi quickly makes her way to the smoked meats and grows large enough that she can fit a whole sausage in her mouth. It would've looked suggestive if she didn't immediately start chewing on it.

She swallows almost the entire sausage, only leaving a small stub that turns into dust. Then she shivers and says, "But it tastes good!"

The not-apple reforms and I take a bite. It tastes just like an apricot. Then I swallow and feel my throat get tickled by the not-apple dust scratching against it just before it disappears.

"Yeah, it does," I say.

I approach the string of sausages and pull out a knife. I cut off a slice and notice that it seems to have the consistency of a paste and should be easy to spread on some bread. I eat the slice and enjoy a very strong flavor: pork and perhaps garlic?

"Mettwurst," I say and eat some more.

After a few seconds, the whole string turns to dust, and I feel an unholy tickle deep inside my body that makes me shiver all over.

"Ciel… you should try some," I say with a malicious grin and offer her a fresh string of sausages.

She pushes them away and eyes them with wariness. "No, thank you. You're going to get some 'stomach burns' before long."

"Just cast [Purify Body]," I say.

"Gastric acid isn't a poison, so it wouldn't be removed by that spell."

"But I know there's an abstract concept in it that removes anything that 'could be harmful to the body.'"

She frowns. "Well… the temple advises healers to not use that concept for common cases since the side-effects are unknown."

"I trust that you'll do what's best for your beloved husband," I say with a smirk.

Ciel scoffs and gets a little sassy. "Old man, soon you'll see that even old people like you can learn their lesson."

I try to attack the other girls with puppy dog eyes but even Alissa shrugs.

"HP potions can help with that," Roxanne says, trying to sound casual, and Hana starts laughing at her.

I feel like I'm being treated like a child who just ate toothpaste.

Gify pops into existence and gobbles up a not-apple in one go, making her small body stretch into a ball.

"No fair," I pout and we walk out of the pantry.

We pass through a cute little house, which is filled with small plants and colorful flowers growing out of the white woodwork all around us. Then we exit into a familiar white town, although this version has a low, gray stone ceiling.

Crystals light up the streets and the interiors of the houses, so we get the feeling that it's the start of the evening, but we saw a clock that was stuck at nine inside the house that we just came from, so it might actually be a different time of day.

"This feels like Goloria," Roxanne says with a small smile threatening to appear on her face.

"A little claustrophobic, though," I say, staring at the boring gray ceiling just a meter or so above our heads.

"I feel comfortable," Lina says.

"Figures," I say with a shrug.

Not-Goloria has such a low ceiling and such a messy topography that we can barely see much beyond our street. The buildings don't have a set height, and most of them are so tall that they hit the stone ceiling and block our view.

With Holly's utility being very limited here, I spread spirit elementals around to try to map the area with Lina's assistance. Our attempt is rather unsuccessful because we quickly realize that this is not not-Goloria, this is worse-Goloria, much-worse-Goloria.

A few buildings are so warped and precariously built, that not only Lina, but even I feel unsafe near them. It's an irrational feeling because we know that these buildings don't collapse; they're being held up by magical matter, after all. But still, they look wrong, in an engineering way.

One spirit elemental goes up, past the gray stone ceiling, and instantly dissipates. It reached the "end" of the dungeon, and some funky shit can happen beyond that boundary.

Another one goes down below the floor and quickly reaches the "end," too.

I guess that we can't just tunnel our way up or down…

Before long, my stomach starts to ache as the sausage that I ate tricked my body into thinking that more food was coming. I drink an HP potion and feel it ease the burning almost immediately, then we stop for lunch.

I pull out our leftovers, and it feels like a party due to the wide variety of food laid out.

After filling our bellies, we don't waste any more time and quickly resume our exploration. Meeting with Confiel takes priority and we still have the energy to spare, so rest days will be kept for later.

As we walk, we notice how the atmosphere of the town feels "neat" and "tidy." Different from the Roulette of the Morning Dew dungeon, with levels of either abandoned ruins or towns that were instantly turned to stone, this area feels like everyone left things all prepared and ready for visitors, but there isn't a single soul around.

The food stalls are all open and ready for cooking; the oil pots are on the stoves and only need a little mana to heat them up; the shops are open and all their best products are on display without a single speck of dust to blemish them; the plants and hedges on the streets are all trimmed, with some of them looking freshly watered; the alchemists' workshops have ingredients organized on the tables, ready to brew potions; and the kitchens have meat and veggies cleaned and seasoned on the counters, ready to be cooked at any time.

The eeriest part of all of this is that in the houses of the commoners, we see full sets of formal clothes, underwear included, neatly arranged on the beds. It's as if everyone was getting ready for a formal occasion, but then they simply vanished without a trace.

Inside a poor commoner's house, Aoi finds a very small elven coin embedded in the wood below the bed. This is most likely an emergency fortune, the fantasy equivalent of storing money under the floorboards.

Even after scratching it, the coin doesn't turn to dust, so we know that it's legitimate gold and not a mana solidification.

"Kweh! Treasure!" Aoi happily exclaims as she rubs the coin against her scales, making clinking sounds.

"Can I see it for a second?" Lina asks and extends a hand to Aoi.

My greedy dragon feels like saying no for a moment, but remembers that she has to share with her fellow wives, so she hands it to Lina without complaining.

My cute little dwarf applies a bit of [Manipulate Metal] to repair the scratch that we made in the coin. "Don't bite or scratch this coin. It's truly ancient and an important piece of history. You can have it, as long as you promise to preserve it," she says.

"Okay," Aoi immediately accepts, and Lina returns the coin to her. She delicately turns it over repeatedly with her sharp claws, then she stares at it intently, keen on unraveling its mysteries.

"That coin was minted during the reign of Ristova, the Wealthy. That's about eight hundred years before the fall of the last high elven king," Lina continues.

"So, this dungeon is somehow related to Ristova?" I ask.

"No. That king set up a better coin maintenance system so that old coins could be restored and it reduced the number of new ones that had to be minted. That's why he got that Title, which is a bit mean, to be honest." She chuckles softly.

"This doesn't help much in narrowing down the time period in which this dungeon was made, so I think it's unlikely to be a clue," Roxanne says and we agree.

Aoi stores the coin in her [Item Box] and we move on, only to soon find the first clue. At a crossroads, there's a placard written in Ingua floating two meters or so above the road.

"It is our hope that the oceans calm into peace, so why do the winds raise up the waves in anger?"

"That sounds familiar," I say.

"Odd to hear an elf talking about the oceans…" Alissa comments.

"The Elven Bay wasn't named that just because the elves lived near it. Before Heretic's Rest, their wooden boats were the fastest around, and they dominated their region of the sea," Lina says.

Lina's Trivia: North of the High Forest, there's a rather short strip of land called Glorampina. That region wasn't so small in the past. A few hundred years ago, the remnants of the elven royal family tried to make a comeback and start a secession movement in the High Forest.

They failed and retreated to Glorampina, where they managed to regain their support. As punishment for their heresy, the God of the Sun turned most of the bountiful grassland into a desert and shattered the revolt without the Empire having to send a single soldier to fight. The royal family went back into hiding after that.

"So, we follow the wind again?" Hana asks.

"Exactly, it should take us to the palace. Or at least close to it," Lina says.

Just to reinforce the clue, we feel a breeze; this is the first time that we've felt it on this level.

I feel a slight itch inside my head.

The "winds of anger" guide us to the palace? That sounds… bad.

"Would you girls accept a detour? I want to find an ocean," I say.

"Send a Holly to follow the wind, then," Ciel says, looking interested in my suggestion.

"And set a [Gate] 'coordinate' so that we can come back here," Alissa says.

The breeze blows to the right of the crossroads, so we go the opposite direction. Along the way, we avoid two other adventuring fellowships who are following the wind.

I feel extra anxious about meeting another fellowship on this level since everyone here is most likely searching for riches, like the coin that we found. It isn't a good idea to get involved with grave-robbers, not that we aren't grave-robbers, too.

Thankfully, there are no monsters on this level. I also don't think it would fit with the theme. If you were a proud elven Lord and you recreated one of your towns in your tomb, you certainly wouldn't want it tainted by a monster infestation, which would give the impression that it was overrun due to your weakness.

We also find a few scattered white doors in the middle of the streets. These are exits out of the dungeon.

Alissa's ears suddenly flicker cutely and she turns her head away. "I hear water running," she says.

We wait a little longer to make sure that the source isn't a fellowship using [Conjure Water], or someone urinating, but it doesn't stop, so we decide to go check it out.

A small public fountain is overflowing, sending a trickle of water along the white wooden floor towards the lower levels.

It's only now that we realize how odd it was that there were no public fountains anywhere before we got here. They aren't super common in any town, but they do exist among the commoners' houses. They're generally used by those who don't have the mana to cast [Conjure Water] often enough to satisfy their needs.

The fact that it's overflowing is even stranger. These fountains are public magic tools filled with mana by the Lord's men, so to have one of them wasting water like this would be quite literally a waste of mana, and mana is money.

We follow the trickle of water down to the basement of a house, and after going down a trapdoor, we find ourselves in another building.

Feeling confused, we cross through this simple home and exit onto a white street. It's different from the one we were on previously, but it's still the same much-worse-Goloria. We just went down a level, and this information is in none of the books that we've read.

"Ohohoh! This is interesting!" Roxanne exclaims and Ciel agrees.

"We crossed through a dimensional door or something since the spirit elementals couldn't go so far down before," I say.

Ciel nods and says, "It was probably made this way so that people wouldn't just be able to dig down to reach this level. Also, there's something more to that trickle of water."

We turn to look at the trickle and continue to follow it. It exits the house and flows into a drain on the side of the street. What's even weirder is that the drain doesn't split the trickle into two. Instead, it picks a direction and continues on, like a trail for us to follow.

We go down a few blocks by following the trickle of water, and encounter another overflowing fountain, which merges with the trickle.

The trail of water continues on, and more and more overflowing fountains add to it, quickly turning it into a stream. The drains then become channels, made specifically to guide the water in a certain direction.

Our cautious walk shifts into a curious march that speeds up into an excited jog. We're just dying to know where this stream ends.

Suddenly, the stream enters a very large hole in the middle of the street and we kneel near the edge to see what lies beyond.

There's an endless ocean of dark blue water only a hundred or so meters below us, and in the distance, we see other streams pouring into it as they fall from similar holes to the one we're looking through.

The ceiling of this ocean is filled with light crystals, but the water below is entirely dark and ominous despite them.

Feeling a little dizzy, Lina most of all, we stand up from the edge of the hole and look at each other. An adventurous smile creeps up on our faces as we wonder about the significance of this place.

I summon a water elemental and order it to jump in. The almost-naked Roxanne blows me a kiss and lets herself fall backward into the hole, making me smile.

Strong and turbulent winds blast against her, which makes me feel like using the dinghy here might be risky. Then she hits the water and swims over a dozen meters down before she touches the muddy dirt.

"Dirt, huh? It seems like the underside of Goloria, then," Roxanne comments.

"All that's missing are the trees," Lina says.

"But we could consider these waterfalls as the trees," Alissa says.

"Anyway… the wind is way too strong; we probably shouldn't use the dinghy," Hana says.

"Can't you use water elementals to make an air bubble for us?" Roxanne asks.

"That would take quite a bit of mana… and we don't know how far we'll have to walk," I say.

"Time for another Holly," Alissa says and I agree.

I spread out four Hollys, one in each of the cardinal directions, but I already know which one is right.

"Following the breeze led us to the second level, but now 'the winds raise up the waves in anger,' so maybe there's something at its source," I say.

I already know which Holly will be the one to find out where we need to go, so I'm not surprised when it starts to hear a low hum. The humming grows until I identify it as the howling of the wind. Soon after that, we find its source: a ginormous tree glowing green with Wind-attuned crystals.

This magnificent tree looks more like an ornament than an actual tree. It doesn't even have roots digging into the small dirt island it's sitting on. It's been fully "tree-knitted" in the usual elven style, making it look like a sort of tubular netting.

In the center of the island, there's a simple brown wooden door without a handle. That's likely the dimensional door to the next level.

Fuck, we have to meet with Confiel, but this is too exciting!

"Alright, using water elementals to make an air bubble will work, but I want us to run towards the island to save mana," I say.

Roxanne's face stiffens, but she nods in agreement.

I unsummon the spirit elementals and all the Hollys, except for the one searching for the palace, and then summon a wind elemental. "Carry me to the water," I order.

I'm slowly brought down in a safe bubble of air. The wind elemental hemorrhages mana to protect me from the turbulent wind, but succeeds in carrying me down without a problem.

I summon three more water elementals and order them to make a small air bubble for us on the ocean's floor. Then the wind elemental deposits me in the muddy dirt and I open a [Gate] back to the girls.

"Well… I guess I didn't think this through," Roxanne comments as she scrunches her nose at the mud sticking to her fashionable boots. She also has to lift her robes so that they don't get muddied.

Hana rolls her eyes so dramatically that I easily see it behind her helmet, then she pulls Roxanne up into a princess carry.

"Awn. Thank you, my love," Roxanne says and kisses Hana's exposed neck.

"I'm going to need much more than that," Hana says, and Roxanne starts licking her.

"I want some of that, too," I say and pout.

"I'll do it to your dick, don't worry," Roxanne says and returns to playing with Hana's neck.

"Right… Become faster!" I say in [Godly Language] and we start to run.

It takes us a few minutes to reach the tree, and the view of its slowly-growing size makes us feel just a little small. Being the only landmark for Gods-know how far significantly intensifies the overwhelming presence of this tree.

Once we climb up the muddy slope to the dirt island, the howling of the wind becomes so overwhelming that it blocks us from progressing. It feels like a solid wall of wind that pushes us back whenever we try to go further. 

If only I knew how to play the ocarina.

"I can do it!" Aoi exclaims in my mind. The loudness of the howling makes it nearly impossible for us to talk normally.

"What? You can play the ocarina?" I ask back.

"Silly! I mean that I can help us cross the wind barrier."

"Exactly when I'm expecting you to be reading my mind is the only time when you aren't. Anyway, let's get started."

"Order the wind elemental to help me split the wind in two."

I approach the tired-out, almost-naked Alissa and scream the order in her non-physical ear. The elemental grabs my head with her not-air hands, gently tickling my face with them as she makes me look at her, then she nods with an adorable smile.

Aoi grows larger than Hana and spreads her wings wide. With the elemental following her, they use their willpower to create a barrier against the wind. It takes the shape of an aerodynamic cone that gently pushes the air to the sides, creating a corridor for us to walk through.

We slowly make our way up the island and then finally cross into the ginormous tree. Instantly, the howling dies down and becomes a weird muffled sound, allowing us to talk freely again.

Aoi reduces to small-Aoi and flops on the ground, letting her halberd thump beside her. "Kweh! So tiring!" She exclaims, more annoyed than tired.

"Since when are dragons so lazy?" Hana says and frowns.

I snort and say, "Since always? At least in my world, they were said to be greedy hoarders who spent every day sleeping in their lairs."

"That sounds right," Aoi says and scurries over to me. I pick her up and bundle her up in my arms, then I tickle her belly and she licks the exposed part of my wrist, where my scar is.

"Start to get fat and you'll see how hard I can push someone," Hana says and glares at Aoi.

"Uh-oh," Aoi mutters and starts to grow worried. "M-maybe I should start exercising with Wolfy and Lina?" She gives a toothy smile to Hana.

"Hm. Not a bad idea." Hana nods.

Aoi seems a little nervous, so I calm her down with more belly tickles.

Ciel's hand suddenly lands on my shoulder and she quite gently nudges me forward. I look at her and see a slightly stiff smile. "Can we investigate the door, now?" She asks.

"Uh, sure…" I say.

We cast quick [Clean]s on our muddied boots and walk closer to the door. Now that we're this close to it, I can clearly see that it doesn't have a handle. There's also something carved on it, which makes it clear that this is different from the other doors we've seen.

"The wind came from the storm.

Not from the ocean, not from the shore, not from the forest, and not from the sky.

The wind came from the storm.

A storm made from the hate, pride, greed, ambitions, and fears of elvenkind."

It's in Andraste, how odd.

Below the poetry, there's a carving of a ball with squiggly lines surrounding it, and the lines pointing down are longer than the others; below the longer lines, there are four identical rectangles and another smaller one; below the rectangles, there's a number: 20,162; beside that number, there's a cane.

And below all of that, there's a single phrase: "What did my death accomplish?"

"Oh jolly, poetry!" I exclaim and Ciel chuckles.

"What's 'jolly'?" Lina asks.

"Merry, cheerful," I say.

"Oh hey, that's the same meaning as in Brume," Alissa says.

"How much do you know about that language?" I ask.

"I'm an okay reader, but my speech is awful. All the official documents are in Brume, so I learned enough to fill out the necessary paperwork, but not that many people in Roubaix speak it aloud."

Lina's Trivia: Roubaix is the Misty Low Forest capital.

"Focus. Door, please?" Ciel asks, a little excited and anxious.

"Right…" I say and chuckle, then we all turn to Lina.

She points to the drawing below the poetry and starts talking quickly, "Before the ascension of the God of the Sun, time was kept differently. The high elves used a plant called Sugaragua to keep time because it grew so fast that you could hear it grow. Every two hours or so, a new notch would appear on the plant, so they used these notches, called 'Talhas,' as a measuring unit.

"Then there's the body-cycle. Everyone has a twenty-four-hour cycle where our bodies react in predictable ways. For example, we feel like sleeping at night, then waking in the morning, then working during the day, and then sleeping again. That's a body-cycle. Due to how the days and nights didn't follow the natural body-cycle, they tracked the cycles by counting Talhas instead.

"Also, see this cane-like carving? It's actually a dried flower without petals, their symbol for death. This carving is a date of death. It shows that it was during a Long Day as the sun is showing long rays towards the earth, that the time of death was around nine in the morning as there are four and a half Talhas, and that it was 20,162 body-cycles since the beginning of their king's reign. Which king, I don't know."

"The elves mostly revolved around their king. So, with all this drama about his death 'accomplishing something,' what if this is a king's tomb?" I ask and point to the number. "Is there an elven king who lived this many days?"

With a *poof*, Lina pulls out a thick notepad and starts flicking through the pages. She finishes going through them all, then sighs and says, "We'll… have to check the records. I didn't record that specific detail in my notes."

"We can do it right now, actually. Once our Holly finds the palace, I can open a [Gate] to Goloria, and then open another back to the white town above us."

Alissa's ears flicker. "Someone's here!" She sends the warning through [Bind] and it jolts us into action.

Hana summons her wings and Aoi jumps out of my arms, then grows into big-Aoi. She grabs her halberd from the floor and I guide both of them to fly towards the source of the sound that Alissa heard. At the same time, Alissa fires an arrow and Roxanne prepares an [Ice Lance].

The projectile reaches the target first and seems to stop mid-air, then we hear a grunt. Next, Hana and Aoi swoop down at him with their weapons as I throw a [Lightning Bolt].

"WAI-…!" The unknown man's plea is cut short by my spell at the same time that his [Invisibility] is dispelled by himself and a ninja-like man is revealed with an arrow stuck in his waist.

Hana's long sword and Aoi's halberd are parried by the man's short sword, but he lacks the power to fully defend and is slammed against the ground by their furious chops.

The man hits his back hard against the floor and groans in pain. Lina and Ciel finally have enough time to react and ready themselves. Lina protects me while Ciel protects Roxanne.

Hana and Aoi draw back their weapons, then get ready to deliver another strike.

"I WORK FOR LORD CONFIEL!" The man desperately screams and then coughs and groans.

We tense up as we think of what we should do now.

"Why were you spying on us?" I ask.

The man catches his breath and readjusts himself into a more comfortable position. I see clear blue eyes and a hint of golden hair peek out from behind his balaclava, a golden elf. "I'm spying on anyone that comes here," he says.

"So… do you know that we want to meet with Lord Confiel?" I ask.

"Yes, and he's already coming."