Dungeon of Knowledge

Chapter 132: The Legendary Pathfinder

Chapter 132: The Legendary PathfinderLirasia “Bye, tree lady!”

“Thank you for playing with us.”

“Bye, Miss Dryad.”

Lira waved goodbye to the kids and retreated into the twisted and warped trunk of the unfamiliar playground eucalyptus tree, melding her body and mind with its heartwood. She offered it her gratitude for its sacrifice of branch and root and applied her mana to unwind and retract the roots and restore the branches to their natural expanse, and in return she received the quiet and calm of the tree, thankful for the return to tranquility and for the destruction of the hated undeath that had invaded its realm.

Finding a more familiar accommodation, she teleported her awareness to an enormous oak tree in Aliandra’s Forest Cavern, eager to return to her new home. The parents of the children she had saved had been grateful, but awestruck by her, and she had always been uncomfortable around that sort of reaction.

The adults had told her the story, a breathless description of heroics out on the southern fields where the Necromancer had met his doom at the hands of Aliandra and her friends. So much had been taken from her, but she still had Aliandra. And Alexander Gray was dead. All she wanted to do now was rest.

She teleported again, this time to the Elder Tree in the library, but the instant she returned to her domain, she sensed the intruder. Her new domain was small, but her trees were strong, and they were all raising the alarm, calling for her. She reached out with her senses through the domain and the trees, finding a restless energy on the prowl. A thing of claws and fangs.

She gathered her will and teleported up into a tree in the cavern Aliandra had loaned her, following the trail of the intruder. As soon as she arrived, she sensed destruction. Plants had been uprooted, mushrooms dug up, and her trees had been clawed, bark and branches ripped to ribbons.

She stepped out of the trunk of the tree, and into the path of the invader. It turned its head toward her, and she held its gaze. A shiver ran through its body as it stood there, sizing her up, but it was a monster. It shook its great head and with an earsplitting roar, it charged at her, mouth open wide, fangs gleaming in the dim light.

he commanded, raising a hand, and releasing the hold on her aura. Her presence – her mana – surged outward, overwhelming the monstrous bear. It stumbled, crashing to the ground, with little whimpers and whines escaping its throat as it cowered trembling.

The Dire Bear was a monster – a high-level monster, at least for these parts. It probably wouldn’t have been able to detect the mana of Ali’s domain, but for the fact that she had created the Elder Tree right in the center of it. The mana density was appropriate for the hundreds of square kilometers of her old domain. But Aliandra was a dungeon, and the mana of a dungeon attracted all manner of dangerous things. With the Elder Tree entwined in her domain, Aliandra was emitting mana of a far greater density than might be commensurate for her level. This Dire Bear was but the first of what Lira feared might come for Aliandra’s domain. Fortunately, this monster was a beast.

“” she said. The Dire Bear raised its head and looked at her with its glowing red eyes for a long moment before it bowed its head and approached slowly.

“She sensed the bear’s emotions, its deep cunning and intelligence while it slowly calmed down under the influence of her powerful magic. It was not long before the monster reached out for her like a child, eager to please. Not every monster would choose her, but she was grateful for the fact that this one respected her. She had to remember she had nothing else now.

She raised her hand and scratched it behind the ears. “Good boy,” she said, feeling the remainder of its terror at her presence fading.

But more importantly, she needed to warn Aliandra about the danger. Monsters would be coming now, drawn to the mana, and Aliandra wasn’t nearly strong enough to deal with what might find her. After another long pause her lips curved into a small, tight smile.

Suddenly she jerked her head up as a presence far more deadly than a Dire Bear brushed past the outer reaches of her domain.

Aliandra 

Ali sat astride her freshly resummoned Forest Guardian as it splashed through the underground river channel into the forest cavern. The rough bark and shifting wood of its back drew her heart into a quiet sense of nostalgia and calm – much needed after the stress of fighting Alexander Gray and the difficult revelations of the day. It smelled of oak and vines and creaked as it moved, just like she remembered from her childhood.

She ducked to avoid a low part of the rocky tunnel roof before remembering she could simply bend the rock out of the way with her Domain Mastery skill. She had begged off meeting with the council when Vivian Ross had joined them on the battlefield, asking her friends to cover for her instead. They wanted to discuss the Torian forces still deployed to the north, but she was in no mood to deal with their selfish schemes and political plotting, especially after what they had just pulled. Her friends – Malika especially – had only relented once she had promised to resummon some minions for her protection.

She trudged past the ethereal blue glow of her lake – or rather her Forest Guardian did – deep in thought. Her minions began to disperse, the Lux Drifters and Sparkling Oozes spreading out through the cavern, leaving her with just her Forest Guardian and her small pack of Kobolds.

When she had walked out onto the battlefield all alone, she had not had any expectation of living through the fight. Her only goal was to save her friends and bloody the necromancer’s nose. But the tenacious loyalty of her friends had turned the tables and left her with a deep upwelling of gratitude toward them. Malika, in particular, had been a devastating foil to the necromancer, enduring the potent aura of death magic with only her healing and Mato’s Sanctuary, while she systematically obliterated his mana.

But it was the sight of Malika sprinting down the outer walls of the battlements to join her on the field that had left an indelible mark on her heart. Things between them had been awkward and strained ever since the council trial, but Malika had not hesitated to come when Ali put herself in danger. Even just remembering it caused her eyes to well up with tears.

She sniffed and wiped her eyes on the back of her sleeve and turned her focus to something practical. Idly she scrolled past the hundreds of notifications of undead kills before she found the final one.

Alexander Gray had come, bringing a pestilence and an army of undead – and he had had her name on his lips. Never in her worst nightmares had she imagined that the evil lich would be hunting for her personally. Yet here was a powerful necromancer who had wanted the town to deliver her so that he could offer her to his master – for what terrible purpose, she could only imagine. She shuddered recalling the Blind Lich’s words to her mother, and his sudden interest in her after discovering she had inherited her mother’s mana.

She frowned, pressing her lips into a line.

She quickly dismissed the undead imprints even though she had an open chapter, knowing they were worthless for anything other than creating literal dead weight. Her mana could not animate them, and she was not particularly interested in studying them either. She spent fifteen points each on wisdom and intelligence, dropping the remaining ten into perception and then examined the next set of notifications.

She studied her skill level increases carefully, but the growth was quite welcome. Especially welcome were the two levels in her Barrier skill, now that it was pulling double duty as her primary attack and defense skill. Every point she earned made the barriers a little stronger and a little sharper. Even the single skill point in Arcane Recall would dramatically improve her control over her arcane magic.

Suddenly, her eyes widened.

Empowered Summoner – level 23

Mana: Your minions gain added nature and arcane damage on hit. Choose up to two Minions. You gain 88.95%  of their highest base attribute. Range: 25.35 meters. Reserve: 10%

0: Replace a minion target for your attribute enhancement. Recharge: 1 hour.

Nature, Arcane, Minion, Buff, Intelligence

Ali studied the unexpected advancement carefully. She had gone all in on her minions for the battle against Alexander Gray. The six Forest Guardians had been particularly expensive – and she had brought her swarm of Lux Drifters too. That had been a gamble, but the glowing acid rain they secreted as they flew above the battlefield had proved remarkably effective against the sea of skeletons and zombies.

Her minions already gained some additional nature damage with every hit. From her testing with Calen, they had determined that the formula was remarkably complex, but in general, it seemed to add damage proportional to the base hit, but many factors influenced it. This advancement would add arcane damage, which would presumably work similarly. The additional magic damage type would in theory be useful if she ever encountered enemies that were immune or highly resistant to some of her magic – like the skeletons that ignored her wyvern’s poison. With the range of her potent skill reaching twenty-four meters now, she had found it was getting far easier to keep all her minions enhanced.

But it was the second attribute boost that caught her attention. Till now, she had had little reason to choose anything besides intelligence – all her skills scaled with intelligence – but this would allow her to enhance a second attribute. Wisdom seemed to be the most obvious choice, boosting her mana – and therefore her number of minions – but she could easily see a use for perception or vitality depending on the encounter or situation.

, she thought. With an hour recharge on switching, it would probably take a while to figure out her best choice for her second minion. She just knew that would be the first thing Calen asked. She glanced speculatively at the Forest Guardian. It was plausible that the guardian’s highest attribute could be wisdom, so she decided to try it out. She selected the huge elemental for her skill’s target, and her strength attribute leapt from six to two hundred and thirty-four.

She frowned. Her Guardians were monstrously powerful and in hindsight, it made sense that they would be strength-based creatures. She hopped off the Guardian, floating down to the ground near the remains of her flower garden, and immediately stopped, studying the strange sensation in her body and the dramatic change in her movement.

She bent over and picked up a rock about the size of her head, her grip causing it to crack. On a whim, she tossed it, and even with her racial penalty to strength, it soared through the air, further than she would have thought possible before it fell somewhere among her distant trees.

She would need to try a different minion in an hour when the recharge expired, but for now, strength seemed fun. She ran around for a while, picking up things: a boulder, a rotting tree trunk, and her Forest Guardian – although that was so heavy she merely pushed herself into the ground.

After exhausting her imagination, Ali’s eyes finally settled on the ruined garden. Basil hadn’t returned to the garden since the burning, with the sole exception being the busy day they had spent growing potatoes and wheat. She still had orchards of apple trees and fields of wheat and rice – presumably, they would still be useful until the Torian armies were driven off and the blight was dealt with. Ali found that she missed the quiet, studious boy whose face always lit up when she asked him about obscure flowers or mushrooms. She just hoped he wasn’t avoiding her because he feared her – she didn’t think so, but she knew he needed her domain to level his class.

She had not had any particular purpose in mind when she returned to the cavern, simply seeking a little alone time after the chaos of the day, and now, with nothing better to do, she decided to clean up the garden. Ash and burnt wood succumbed to her Domain Mastery as she broke it up and returned it to the ground. Even with just a single skill level increase, she could feel the increased control she gained from her powerful mastery skill, Arcane Recall. The little flower garden had been the source of much joy, so she decided to expand it substantially. With a wave of her hand, she manifested her Grimoire and turned the glowing pages till she settled on the wildflower imprint.

Her Forest Guardian rumbled at precisely the same time as an enormous surge of mana suddenly erupted from behind her. Ali spun around, skin prickling, to find the Night Elf Pathfinder, Lyeneru Silverleaf, glaring harshly at her along the shaft of a fiery arrow nocked to the bowstring of her great bow. Lightning tendrils arced from the bow and her hands, playing out along the ground by her feet.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t slay you right here, right now,” the Legendary Pathfinder snapped. The Night Elf’s voice was cold and hard, and there was not even the slightest tremor in her bow.

“What… Why?” Ali reeled from the sudden and unexpected threat.In the instant she summoned a domain-powered barrier between them, her Forest Guardian appeared beside her. Fire sprang from Kobold talons and a preemptive pulse of holy healing magic settled on her. But Ali stayed their attacks. Heat that dwarfed Thuli’s forges rolled off the Night Elf in waves, and from the immense power of the mana she was holding condensed within her bow, Ali knew that the best of her defenses would amount to a spiderweb trying to block her Forest Guardian’s charge. That bow had driven off a Death Knight – the aura of lightning and fire was so intense she could feel her hair beginning to rise from almost twenty meters away.

“You are a dungeon,” Lyeneru said, speaking with unyielding cold certainty in her voice and the steadiness of her bow.

With the specter of Nevyn Eld looming large over her, and the emotional impact of taking the field to meet Alexander Gray by herself, Ali was emotionally wrung out. The town council members, Necromancers in the service of Nevyn Eld, noble ice mages, and now, even a legendary Pathfinder.

Even the rage that had burned white-hot within her when she faced Alexander Gray had mostly faded, but the remnants of the embers of rage still smoldered somewhere deep inside.

Defiantly, she locked gazes with the Night Elf, choosing the formal speech of the High Elven courts. “Has the vaunted culture of the Elves fallen so low in the past three thousand years that an Elf would break into someone’s home and demand a reason not to slaughter them?”

Lyeneru’s face twitched, but her bow remained trained on Ali. “Are you not the dungeon? The council informed me that it was you.”

“I am Aliandra Amariel, and I am the dungeon…”

She activated Arcane Recall, pausing the flow of time. Ali struggled with it momentarily, but she was emotionally drained; she had nothing left to give. The Elf’s arrow would shatter her barrier in an instant, and throwing rocks at her with her borrowed strength would probably be as effective as trying to attack the very mountain itself. she glanced once more at her ruined flower garden. Channeling all her remaining mana into her Grimoire, she filled the entire area with Mystic Bluebells.

A futile act, no doubt, but to her surprise she found she didn’t care. It was all that was left to her. This person had come into her home and threatened her for no reason, and she was tired of it all.

Her spell completed, and the world returned to normal, with herself and Lyeneru standing in a field of beautiful blue flowers.

“… and you’re standing in my flower garden,” she finished aloud.

Surprise disturbed Lyeneru’s cold façade and her smoldering eyes glanced down at the bluebells at her feet.

Ali said, “Now, I’ve had an awful day facing the underlings of the Lich that killed my parents and destroyed my home, so I’d appreciate it if you put your bow down.”

The Elf just stared at her, but Ali refused to back down, an improbable staring match between a bug and the boot that would squash it.

Dense emerald-green mana pulsed within the trunk of the nearest Lirasian Oak, and the wood and bark warped as Lira emerged to stand elegantly on the moss. “Aliandra dear, I’ve made a pot of tea,” Lira said. “Why don’t you and your new friend join me in the library?”

The change in the Night Elf’s demeanor was instant. Lyeneru gasped. The intense mana powering her bow vanished and the bow lowered as she bowed fluidly and deeply. “Great Mother of the Deep Woods…”

Gratitude, coupled with shame, washed through her weary body.

“Thank you, Aunt Lira, we’ll join you in a minute,” Ali answered, ignoring the Elf for now. As usual, Lira’s timing and perception were impeccable.

“Don’t be too long,” she replied. “Ryn found a particularly aromatic Elvish green tea, it would be a shame to let it grow cold.” And nodding toward Lyeneru, she vanished back into the oak, leaving only an awkward silence in her wake.

“So…” Ali said. “Would you like to get some tea with Lira and have a conversation like civilized people do? Or would you prefer to slay me?”

“You… you shame me.” Lyeneru’s bow vanished and her magic guttered and went out. “You answer my bow with flowers and offer me hospitality and reminders of a more civilized era. You have my sincere apologies. Let’s talk, it seems we have much to discuss.”

***

“… and this is the Grand Library Arcana,” Ali explained. Lyeneru, for all her initial violent intent, had flipped her demeanor entirely, becoming a paragon of politeness and civility. Her bow had not made a reappearance, and she instead peppered Ali with questions, betraying a powerful curiosity and a hunger for knowledge.

Even though Lyeneru had not mentioned Lira even once since that first encounter, it was abundantly clear that she held the ancient Dryad in a kind of reverential awe. But on reflection, Ali was becoming more and more certain it was Lira’s comfortable familial attitude towards her that had given Lyeneru pause. Knowing how sharp and perceptive Lira could be, Ali knew every word, even the cadence of each syllable, had been chosen with clear purpose.

Ali had taken the scenic route to the library via the ventilation shaft, and Lyeneru’s awe and excitement for the discovery of the ruins of the great city had echoed Calen’s when they had first discovered it.

Now, entering the Grand Library Arcana, Lyeneru’s eyes began to shine with the white light of lightning mana as she studied the walls, the atrium, and the ruined bookcases. Bending down, she picked up a shattered shard of a bone spear and glanced at Ali.

“A Skeletal Wyvern had made its lair here. It was a raid boss with bone-affinity mana – that spear was part of its breath weapon,” Ali explained, leading the Elf to the couches Ryn had purchased. Lira smiled at them as she arranged the porcelain cups and invited them to sit while she began to pour tea.

“How do you know the Great Mother?” Lyeneru asked, giving voice to her obviously burning curiosity. She bowed again to Lira before taking her seat.

“Aunt Lira has always been part of our family. She’s the one who taught me my first cantrip when I was ten – a spell to grow plants.” Ali answered, remembering her excitement the first time she had seen the plants growing from her own mana, and the notification chime when she had learned the skill.

“You were eight, dear,” Lira answered. “Not even your mother was that precocious.”

Her memories seemed clear enough, but they were more about how happy she had been, and Lira’s gentle praise, than a precise calendar timeline.

“Would you mind telling me more about the dungeon? Was it you that cleared it?” Lyeneru asked, nodding respectfully to Lira as she accepted a cup of tea from the offered tray.

“Alas, I lack any combat skills,” Lira said, “A choice I have had reason to rue of late. No, Aliandra and her friends are responsible for destroying the bone dungeon and liberating this place.”

“Thank you,” Ali said, choosing a cup and smiling gratefully at Lira, happy to have her wisdom defuse the dangerous situation. Lira joined them on the couches, quietly sipping her tea.

“This is really good,” Lyeneru said, tasting the tea. Ryn had mentioned it was an expensive imported Elvish tea, but Ali didn’t even have names for the delicate blend of herbs producing such an enticing aroma from her cup. Other than that, she agreed it was great.

Ali inhaled the aromatic steam and sighed, some of her exhaustion and tension slipping away now that the threat seemed to be over. Then she said, “When I awoke near the shrine, this entire area, including the ruins here, and the level below, was the domain of a bone- and death-affinity dungeon called the ‘Ruins of Dal’mohra’.”

“Death?”

“Yes, it was mostly filled with Kobolds, wolves, undead, and bone elementals,” Ali explained.

“Bosses?” Lyeneru asked, her tone clipped and efficient – like Ali imagined Commander Brand might be when asking for a report.

“There were three normal bosses,” she said, “A Kobold Swordmaster with minions, a skeletal aberration with four arms,” she paused to swallow, saddened again by the death of Armand, “and a Piercer Scorpion bone elemental. The two raid bosses were the Skeletal Wyvern in here, and then on the second level we had to defeat a twin boss – caster and melee Wights.”

“And it was just the four of you that defeated it? Or did you have help?”

“Yes, Vivian Ross gave us excellent advice on strategy, but we defeated them on our own. The raid bosses were extremely challenging, and after the Wights, we had to take time to recover from the life drain.” She had been quite worried about her friends, even though she had not been afflicted by it.

“Did you find a shrine?” Lyeneru pressed.

“Yes, but Nevyn Eld teleported in and recovered it as soon as we defeated the Wights. Fortunately, we were able to hide, and he didn’t see us.” They had been extremely lucky, and Ali could still remember the fear of seeing the Lich for a second time. If he had seen them, she knew for certain he would have killed them all without hesitation and they would have been powerless to stop him.

“Nevyn Eld?” Lyeneru exclaimed, sitting bolt upright in surprise. “Are you certain it was him?”

“I am,” Ali answered. The Lich’s presence was unmistakable – burned into her memories like a searing brand. “It is the second time I’ve met him. The first was when he destroyed Dal’mohra, turned the Council of Kings into his Death Knights, and killed my family.”

“Wait… you were here when Dal’mohra was destroyed?”

“She was. I haven’t seen Aliandra for over three thousand years,” Lira said softly from her seat on the couch.

“He hunted us down, mother and me. He wanted her magic badly enough to destroy the whole city and all its people. He was quite happy killing her and forcing her to serve him as an undead slave. How could someone be so evil?” Ali could still clearly remember the arrogance in his voice, and the contempt for the council and the city who would not be turned to his side except through the horror of being bound as undead Death Knights. And how quickly his reason turned to madness and fury when her mother had defied his will.

Ali fell silent with her memories. No longer was she driven to tears, but the sadness was still just as profound.

“Aliandra, the Elven Pathfinders Guild was formed many centuries ago, specifically to oppose his evil. We cannot allow another Breaking. Individually, we are nowhere near powerful enough to stand against him, but we study the movements of his underlings – the so-called Shadow Council – plan for their attacks, and try to divine his next target before it happens.”

“How is it that we were able to evade him?” Ali asked. She had been frozen in terror by the power of his aura at the time, but it was rather incredible that he had simply ignored them and taken the shrine.

“Our intelligence suggests that the Lich is, in fact, literally blind. He may possess a powerful omnidirectional mana sight skill which we believe is granted by the crimson blindfold he wears, but it has a limited range,” Lyeneru said. “As you can imagine, details are sparse – we only know this much due to decades of re

“Thank you for your advice,” Ali said, finally finding a few words. She swallowed, still reeling from the brutal assessment of her incompetence as a dungeon. The fact that she had been complimented on her skill at defeating Alexander Gray paled into insignificance as she realized just how weak she must seem to an experienced dungeon delver like her.

“Now, I must depart before that Death Knight eludes me. Thank you, Aliandra, for the information.” She turned to Lira and bowed. “Great Mother, thank you for the tea and your generous hospitality.” And with that, she turned on her heel and strode off.

As she left, Calen shifted awkwardly, as if he wanted to say something, but lacked the courage to do so.

“Stop thinking and just do it,” Mato said cryptically.

Ali glanced from him to the retreating form of Lyeneru and suddenly she understood. Calen was in the presence of his childhood idol. And he hadn’t been able to say anything. “Go ask her, Calen,” she said. If nothing else, she knew the importance of reaching for your dreams.

Calen leapt to his feet as if he were scared that he would change his mind if he waited for even a second – which might have been literally true – and chased after her. “Lyeneru… uh, Miss Silverleaf…” he began, stumbling over his words.

She stopped and regarded him silently.

“How… can I become a Pathfinder?” he stammered, looking like it had cost him his entire willpower and then some just to get the question out.

“I do not have time for a formal trial. I have a critical report to deliver, and a Death Knight to hunt,” Lyeneru said, beginning to turn away.

Calen’s face fell, disappointment written on it clear as day.

She paused for a moment and asked, “Do you have any tracking abilities?”

Calen’s mana flared quickly in a complex formation before he replied, “The Death Knight is that way, moving east.” He pointed directly south, indicating an easterly direction with a gesture.

Lyeneru raised her eyebrow. “How long can you keep tracking it?”

“As long as I check in on it at least once a day, I think it’s indefinite. It doesn’t take a lot of mana either.”

“Very well, you will join me on this hunt. You will obey my orders exactly without question or hesitation. This is the only way you don’t die. Understand that this Death Knight is an evolved monster that is far beyond your capabilities. We can discuss Pathfinder guild requirements afterward.” She turned to leave again, clearly expecting Calen to follow.

He turned back and waved to them with an enormous grin on his face.

Ali’s gaze connected with Mato and Malika.

As soon as they were gone, Malika began filling Ali in on what the council had said, while Mato began to bustle about preparing dinner – seeming a little quieter than usual.

“Bastian was ready to arrest Vivian and Donella for disobeying the law, but Lyeneru yelled at them for forcing us to face Alexander Gray without assistance,” Malika said, giving a colorful description of some of the altercations that had occurred. “It was Jax Hawkhurst that sent her chasing after the dungeon. Conniving bastard.”

For her part, Ali filled them in on what Lyeneru had told her, and then after dinner, she decided to get a head start on the feedback she had been given. She summoned a Luminous Slime and split her awareness between her own senses and those of the monster. She sat while her mind rebelled against the strange, alien senses, trying to get used to the bizarre sensation of ‘seeing’ the vibrations Mato was making as he moved around. She kept her own vision, trying to correlate what she was seeing with her eyes and what the slime could perceive. After a few minutes, she began to get the hang of it.

She resolved to keep her unusual perception skill active until she truly mastered it. She picked up Calen’s favorite book and began to read, hungry for ideas to become stronger.

***

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