Chapter 32: Mega Dungeon
"This is a divine artifact, and I want you to have it."
I looked at my grandfather confused and horrified, "And do what with it?! If somebody found out I had this thing they would kill me, old man!"
You said it yourself, that you needed to hide it away from other people. I'm not stupid, divine artifacts release a special type of energy and if you're actively looking for it, it's not hard to find it.
"Where did you even get this thing?"
"Amelia stole it from some elves, and they stole it from some dwarves. So it's fine."
This is not fine, I can't take this, "Wait, don't tell me."
The king looked at me and sighed, "Yes the elves you plan to meet are the ones who stole it."
I didn't know what to say to this, he was basically asking me to go into enemy territory with the very thing these guys want.
I was going to tell him no but he stopped me before I could get a word in, "How about this? This here is actually a soul binding artifact. In other words, the artifact gets to choose you. If it likes you, you can keep it. If it doesn't then I'll hold on to it. How about that?"
I still did not trust this but having a divine artifact was tempting.
"Fine, what do I do?"
I went closer until the old man asked for my hand. I showed him my palm and he cut my hand with a spatial cut. He is way too good at space magic.
"Now put your hand on the orb."
I did exactly what he said and almost immediately I felt a wild energy enter me. This feeling was nauseating. It almost felt like I had a fever. I leaned on the railing while the king held on to my shoulder. I stayed that way until I heard someone step outside.
"Jess, are you ok?"
It was Alora.
"He's fine. Just sea sickness, go back inside and enjoy the party."
I looked at Alora for a second then looked away. I didn't have much to say to her so I just brushed it off like it didn't matter. I watched her walk back inside while she stopped a few times to look at me.
"So did it work? You weren't cursed were you?"
I looked at him slightly annoyed. I hadn't even considered that as a possibility.
"No, I was not cursed. Let me check my notifications."
[SOUL BOUND: EMBER CORE
INCREASED STATS: 60 TO STRENGTH\ 45 TO AGILITY\ 20 STAMINA\ 400 MANA\ -20 LIFESPAN]
"Great, it took away 20 years of my life."
"Yeah divine artifacts do that."
I wanted to smack him on the back of the head more than anything right now.
"You knew and you didn't think you should tell me?"
The king just looked at me confused, "Jess, your B rank at level 93. You've also been given the best elixirs money can buy. 20 years out of the estimated 260 is still 240, and you're still growing. I estimate by the time you're 80 you'll be A++ like me."
Oh, that's right. I'll probably be alive for a long time. Anyone at A++ can live up to at least 800 years normally.
"What kind of stats did it give you?"
"They're all pretty standard but crazy high, with mana being 400 and strength at 60." I don't know much about stats.
Unlike video games people don't get to see our own stats, we can only see our skills and a few other things like status ailments.
"So it's a magic based artifact, that's not surprising. My sword has 800 strength and -200 lifespan. Then again it doesn't seem like it's all that useful for casting spells… What skills did it give you?"
I was still reeling in shock from what he just said about his sword, but I look at my status screen and I see [MERGE] written under [EMBER ORB]
"It says merge. What does that mean?"
The king contemplated for a second, until he had an idea. He opened three portals, bringing out a table and two orbs. One of them being purple and covered in writing and welded together with metal.
While the other was pure white with a pinkish glow to it, this one felt more… Alive. Like it was breathing. They looked like polar opposites, it reminded me of Frankenstein and an angel were sitting next to each other. One of them was holier than the other.
"What is this?"
I thought the king would be busy getting all kissy faced with his wife, instead he's playing with two basketball sized rocks?
"These are dungeon cores, one of them is alive and the other is more like a zombie and a slave. I captured the living one not long ago, and the other one I forgot I even had until just now. I want you to merge them."
I looked at him like he was crazy, is this what he thinks it can do? I was about to try it but soon the doors behind us opened up and out came Amelia and Queen Elizah.
"What are you two idiots doing? Dad, you have a beautiful woman all alone on her wedding night. Don't make me throw you two overboard."
I gave a wry smile. Somehow I knew I would be blamed for this, "Sorry Aunt Amelia. We got distracted."
The two women both looked at us and at the table noticing the two orbs. They walked up to the table not understanding what they were looking at until the queen spoke up, "Isn't this from your vision?"
Vision? Don't tell me…
"You already knew this would happen didn't you?"
The king rubbed the back of his head and he looked guilty.
Amelia was starting to grow annoyed and honestly so was I, "Can somebody explain to me what I'm looking at?"
I explained what happened to the two and Amelia didn't seem to understand. Queen Elizah on the other hand seemed to know exactly what this meant.
"With this… you could fulfill your vision. We could win the war."
The three of us looked at her but only the king knew what she meant. Seriously? You just married her and she already knows more about you than us?
""What war? What vision?""
Amelia and I looked at each other at the same time. We both wanted to know, we knew nothing about a war. So we both bombarded the old man for answers.
"Ok ok, I'll tell you. It's Gobo, they've been hiding something for a while. There's a reason why we can't wipe them off the map… The U.D.E. wants us to leave them be, the empire has been providing them with Red Gold. i've been trying to choke them out for a while but it isn't enough."
""Shit.""
Again me and Amelia spoke at the same time, it's not surprising. Red Gold is literally the crystalized form of divine energy. When a god cries they cry Red Gold. It's no wonder U.D.E doesn't want to get rid of that treasure trove.
"But that's not the problem. They've been hiding someone. A super."
I think I knew where this was going, Gobo was training a super weapon, and they were undoubtedly going to strike back against us.
"How strong are they? Do you know?"
"I had a vision a few weeks back. I've never felt anything like it. It was like a vision of the future. No, it WAS a vision of the future. This guy is going to destroy Grove."
Me and Amelia looked at him in shock. How? Gramps should be the strongest person in the world, right?
"I know what you're thinking Jess, but unfortunately I'm by far a long way away from being the strongest. You don't see them often but the true power houses are usually on the borderlands. Playing god to some primitive tribe somewhere.
The U.D.E has a few but they obey the law for the most part, they aren't a threat. The U.D.E doesn't like working with these goblins but greed is a powerful thing. I've been assured by my friends there that if they had a chance they would kill the guy in a heartbeat. But the guy is elusive, even for them."
I didn't know what to say at this point, I'm supposed to go to the edge of the borderlands very soon. So hearing this information was a bit unsettling, but it doesn't change the fact that I still want to go.
"So what do these dungeon cores have to do with your vision?"
Queen Alizah spoke up this time, it seems she knows just as much about it as he does. They must've been talking a lot about this.
"King thinks the only thing that can save us is by binding his soul to a dungeon core, but not some ragtag maze full of ants and weak cryptids. No, he wants to create his own, he wants to make a mega dungeon."
I didn't understand how this was going to fix anything. Did he want to escape into one? Like an underground bunker?
Elizah seemed to understand that I was confused and after looking at Amelia she understood I wasn't the only one.
Elizah sighed and tried to explain it again, "When a dungeon acknowledges you it tries to help you cultivate. It constantly tries to make its master stronger by giving them energy. That's why people are so desperate to get one. The problem is that dungeons are extremely picky… and so is king. He wants to reach S rank before that goblin bastard does. A weak dungeon won't help him."
The old guy chuckles and starts flirting out of nowhere, "I love it when you're teaching idiots. You sound so sexy."
Elizah giggled and blushed a little while grabbing his hand.
""Eww.""
Elizah blushed even more and got back to the point, "King has no interest in contracting with weak dungeons. So he wants to contract with one of his own making. A dungeon full to the brim with power. That's probably where jessup comes in."
Elizah looks at her husband with respect and admiration. I looked between the two and I've gotta admit I'm a little jealous.
"Ok so let's try it out already. Get to it jessup."
I looked back at Aunt Amelia, not appreciating the pushiness, but even I'm eager to see what will happen, so I walk up to the two dungeon cores and cast [MERGE] we all waited for something to happen, after a few minutes of nothing happening I found it hard to believe things could be wrong so I grabbed the two and pressed them together.
Soon they started to merge together, it looks like they're both turning into sand as they combine and solidify. After a few seconds of me trying to force them together they finally became one.
This dungeon core looked odd, it was a dark blue with a reddish hue. It still had markings all over it and a metal ring covering it. Even that had glowing letters that were pulsating.
"It's really ugly…"
"Yeah… these colors are clashing horribly."
It was ugly, but it worked. That's all that matters. I looked at the old man and he was just staring at me with a smile on his face.
"Good job Jess, with this. We're one step closer to winning this war."
I looked back at the orb in my hands and I couldn't help but think of the endless possibilities.