Chương 17: The Dark Mire

At dawn, the warrior gorgon woke him by shaking him. Malachi started, heart pounding and gave the gorgon a glare that by all rights should have been lethal. At least she wasn't putting a scimitar to Malachi's throat again. It took him a moment to center himself and clamp down on his emotions. He sought out breakfast because that was a task, and if he was busy working on something, it was easier not to think about all those things he didn't want to think about.

Breakfast was much the same as dinner had been: small, unidentifiable creatures that had been skinned and roasted, garnished with local root vegetables. As soon as he took a bite, a notification flashed: Poison resisted! Malachi lowered his wooden bowl. This had happened at dinner, too. Several of the roots they ate were poisonous to humans. Gorgons apparently were highly resistant to all the poisons of the swamp.

Malachi went through the unenviable task of picking out the weird-looking red roots from his bowl and setting them to the side.

"Ahh. Apologies," Arisone hissed.

"You don't like spice." Malachi had tried to explain last night. Somehow, the System Units were translating 'poison' as 'spice' in the context of gorgon food. It wasn't that he didn't like it, it was that it would kill him. He wasn't going to have that discussion again, so he just gave a grunt. Malachi finished breakfast with no more notifications. Arisone then led him to another room deep in the center of the village.

"Where are we going?" Malachi asked.

"Your price was knowledge, was it not?" Arisone said, opening the door.

"Either way, it is tradition to offer a gift to the hatchery when departing from a village that has hosted you. Behold." Malachi beheld a cramped room with a lantern exuding a warm flame that was probably magical. A real-estate agent would have called the place 'cozy.' Along the wall, there were a few cages full of small rat-like mammals and fat little creatures that looked like salamanders with puffy tails. In the center of the room was a shallow pit dug into the earth full of black and green, glittering sand.

At first glance, it appeared to be empty. Arisone seemed fascinated by the pit. She bent over and let a hand gently drift across the surface of the sand.

"Olivine sand, from the First Home," she said.

"What a bounty." Then she turned and opened one of the cages and snatched a little salamander as it tried to scurry away. Malachi squinted at the pit. There were little white shards in it, sort of like pottery, but too thin. It reminded him of egg shells. Right. Hatchery, he thought. But where are the…? His question was answered as soon as the salamander dropped into the pit. His eye caught the movement immediately.

The sand parted, and at first, it looked like more sand, but then he realized he was looking at scales. A dozen snakes emerged all at once, hissing and biting at the poor little amphibian. The scales on the snakes were shifting, too, in the same way an octopus's did when it was trying to camouflage itself. Malachi recoiled involuntarily. Arisone and all the snakes that made up her hair were watching lovingly as the salamander was punctured multiple times by bites.

Then, one of the larger snakes managed to seize it in its coils. It hissed in triumph, then plunged its head onto the creature and began to swallow it whole. Malachi shivered.

"So, uh, why do you keep a pit of snakes?" he asked. Arisone reached down and picked up one of the snakes that hadn't gotten the meal. She began to stroke its scales gently. Immediately, the snake became enraptured with her, slithering around her arm and making soft hissing noises.

"These are the gorgon males," she said. Malachi blinked.

"Oh," he said. He had so many questions. Questions like, what the fuck? and how does that even work? He wanted answers to none of them. He cleared his throat.

"Uh, cool," and took a step back. Arisone made a cooing sound at the male gorgon, then gently put it back in the pit. The snake immediately wiggled about, burrowing into the sand. The other snakes in the pit made mournful little "mwwa!" noises. Arisone's hair made a hissing noise in return, and then they all turned away, slithering back to their corners and wiggling until they too vanished from sight. The whole thing had given Malachi the heebie-jeebies. What the fuck, he thought again.

The gorgon made a wistful sigh, then said, "The gift has been given. Let us depart." As they left the village, several of the other gorgons came out to watch. They didn't say anything, but their scales shimmered like a cuttlefish. Oh. They can all camouflage, Malachi realized. That explained why he hadn't seen that one gorgon with the sword until she was right up in his face.

As they walked, he kept his eyes peeled for any rats, snakes, or that giant lumbering ghost-tangle monster he'd seen on the way to the village. SERA-Phasia still hadn't said anything. He was beginning to wonder if he hadn't just hallucinated the whole thing, except he could still see icons in the corners of his vision. If he thought really hard about the two enchanted items he was wearing, information about them popped into his mind.

The gorgons had given him a traveling pack full of food, water, and some basic survival supplies. Arisone had also given him a small hunting knife to wear at his belt. They had extra spears, but they were prized possessions with valuable enchantments on them, and they hadn't been willing to give them up to a complete stranger. It seemed their generosity only stretched so far, and most of the gorgons didn't seem to find him nearly as interesting as the mage he'd found himself traveling with.

Arisone had her own pack that she wore over her breastplate. Malachi had tried "examining" it with the interface, but nothing had happened. He was pretty sure the breastplate was magical, though he couldn't see any glyphs on it. Arisone's wand was definitely magical. She kept it in hand as they traveled, though she was far more at ease in the swamp than he was.

"So… uh… what the hell is a dungeon?" Malachi asked as they walked. Well, he walked, she slithered. Anyways, he was desperate for conversation, both because he had so many questions, and he didn't want his mind to wander.

"It is still unfathomable your world lacks this thing," Arisone said.

"Civilization is based on magic. A path without it…" She seemed to get lost in thought momentarily. Then she continued.

"But Unala teaches us eggs are laid in clutches. Where there is one world without magic, there must be more."

"The universe is full of other planets. Trillions of them. We just haven't visited them because they're, uh, very far away. I don't suppose you know what a 'light-year' is?"

"That word did not translate," she said. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"I really don't know how to explain it then. Basically, there might be other planets with life on them, but there's no way for us to get to them. We'd have to build some sort of high tech spaceship and travel for, like, hundreds of years to visit another star. A beam of light could get to the closer stars in a few years. Light traveling from really distant stars takes billions of years to reach us." He was pretty sure that was true.

"And where do the realms fit in all of this?"

"No clue. Until portals started opening up on Earth, we didn't know you guys existed." Except, our mythology has versions of you. Arisone considered this. Malachi was just about to repeat his question, when she finally began to answer.

"Dungeons are gifts from Mareakal. They are trials to prove worth, but they are also the source of most magical power. The more punishing the trial, the greater the reward. Long ago, it was said the dungeons were left unclaimed. Sometimes avoided, for their danger. However, they are the source of Magical Cores, of omen crystals, of runic talismans, of essences, and of aetherite. They are also the source of the Portal Cores you seek."

"Huh. So Magical Cores and Portal Cores are… different?"

"Yes." Is that why Chavez's experiment failed? Even just talking with a gorgon was giving him information that intelligence agencies on Earth would kill to know.

"So… what does a dungeon look like? Is it, you know, a big underground room with giant pillars? Does the sky rain acid?"

"No," Arisone said, looking puzzled.

"All dungeons are different. They have a… theme. The dungeon we're going to is an Initiate's Dungeon. You can expect only to find Common Magic Cores there. They support only a single Mana Conduit." She hesitated, seeming to realize something.

"How is it you have a Core, but have never seen a dungeon?"

"I, uh, found it," he said.

"Then I touched it, and then it started speaking to me. Then I got an error message and it's been pretty quiet ever since."

"Speaking to you?"

"Yeah, a voice in my head that started explaining about how this place works and uh… is that not… normal?" Arisone was giving him a look, and her hair was staring at him again.

"That is not normal, no. System Units translate and provide information, but they do not 'speak.' Perhaps the translation is faulty. You mean it was describing magical beasts and spells?" Malachi decided to play along, mostly because he didn't want her to think he was unhinged.

"Oh yeah, that. We don't have that on Earth. Well, we do, but only in video games—ah, I'll tell you about those later. They're… not really relevant. So… to get a Core, you just… touch it and absorb it?" He was pretty sure that's what had happened. Only there'd been that giant eldritch angel-thing pinned up against the pillar with spears. Malachi was beginning to suspect his personal experience was not how things normally went.

"If you have enough magical potential." Seeing Malachi's confusion, she added, "You have to kill magical beasts or others who have Magical Cores to accumulate magical potential. Otherwise, the Core has no basis to establish its conduits. Stronger cores require more potential to activate. A Common Core might only take a dozen beasts. An Uncommon Core, two or three dozen, or perhaps a Dungeon Overseer of sufficient strength. A Rare Core might take a hundred foes.

However, slaying a hundred foes is not a task one can generally do without magical aid, so initiates generally work their way up to the stronger Cores. Assuming they can access such a dungeon. They are a valuable resource, and guarded as such. That is why the Maatugivi seek to steal them from us." Malachi was starting to put the puzzle pieces together in his head. The one I got is a Celestial Core. How rare is that? Arisone wasn't an idiot, though. He'd just shown her he didn't know shit about dungeons and cores.

If he suddenly knew the name of one, he was either a liar or revealing that he had one. And she'd just said that killing people with Magical Cores gave magical potential. Would she kill me if she knew I had a Celestial Core? It suddenly seemed important to keep that a secret. He'd seen how cutthroat MMO players were for high tier loot, and that was for a video game. This was real. These gorgons had critical information, access to portal spells, and might be valuable allies to have, but that didn't mean blind trust.

He decided to change the subject.

"Why do the Maatugivi guys—uh, Hadaun—want an initiate's dungeon if it only provides basic stuff? If they're some powerful empire, surely they're looking for the, uh, higher level dungeons or whatever, right?" Arisone paused and bent low to the ground, flicking her tongue out. She looked around, then took a left turn. Over in one of ponds, Malachi saw another venom lamprey moving around.

"They want those too, but everyone needs initiate's dungeons. They don't just provide basic Cores, they provide the first Class Artifacts. They are the first step on the path to power." Malachi frowned. He thought of the MMOs he'd played.

"So it's like a guild guarding access to dungeons to prevent other guilds from progressing. Stops them from getting a prerequisite gear score or something?" He expected that not to translate at all. Instead, Arisone said, "Something like that. You know about enchanted gear ratings, but not dungeons and Cores?"

"We have video games," Malachi said, and started to explain. They had a long walk to the dungeon. Talking would pass the time.

"… and that's how I soloed the final phase of Uriel Sunbreaker," Malachi finished. His voice was getting hoarse from talking. He'd explained computers, then Everquest, and then the more recent MMORPGs before diving into his stories about playing them. It was a strange experience. He had never talked about video games for multiple hours before without getting punched. To be fair, he'd been a horrible little kid, and Malia had, in retrospect, been justified in smacking him around a bit.

Thinking of her, he found his neck muscles tightening. He pushed down that deep anger. Nothing to be done about it right now. Arisone didn't notice.

"Fascinating. These are like illusionary trials, only simulated by mundane machinery.

'Electricity' being the foundation of civilization instead of magic… how strange. So these 'MMO players'… they accomplish great feats and are exalted by society?"

"Uh, well, kinda the opposite." They were resting in a grove. The sky had turned overcast, and then it had started to drizzle again. Arisone had told him the spring bubbling up from the ground had water that was safe to drink, and Malachi was hoping she was right. I better not get a brain-eating amoeba from this shit was all he could think. The water was cool and crisp, and after walking all day, exactly what he needed. His interface wasn't saying he resisted poison, either, which had to be a good sign.

"Then why do it?" Malachi wasn't about to unpack that.

"Everyone needs a hobby, I guess. Because it's fun. Gorgons have 'play,' yeah?"

"Of course. What hunting games do human children play?"

"Tag," Malachi said without missing a beat.

"And hide-and-seek."

"But your soft scales cannot change color," Arisone said, concerned.

"And your males do not burrow in sand."

"No, we, like… hide behind things. Maybe if I make it back to Earth you can watch kids play on a playground." Suddenly, Malachi felt a deep pang of sorrow well up in him. There'd been that playground by the portal. He hoped no one had been playing there when it had opened. He forced the sorrow back down and changed the subject.

"Why haven't we been attacked by anything?" He'd been keeping alert, but the only animals he'd seen were smaller ones.

"Most creatures here aren't stupid enough to attack an adult gorgon," Arisone said.

"There should be little enough to fear until we reach the dungeon." Malachi's video game sense started tingling. Any time a character said something like that, there was a guaranteed fight. He half expected a Darksouls boss to erupt from the swamp right then and there. He glanced around suspiciously. Nothing. He finished eating what he was pretty sure was rat jerky and stood.

"How much farther to the campsite?" he asked. The grove was nice. The trees' branches had all tangled together to form a nice canopy, and that was currently sheltering them from another drizzle coming down. Still, he was eager to keep moving.

"A few more miles." Arisone paused again, tongue flicking in the air. Then her eyes widened.

"Hide," she hissed. Malachi ran over and crouched down, pressing himself up against a tree where there was a bush giving it some cover. Arisone pressed herself up against a different tree on the other side of the clearing. Her scales shifted colors, going from mottled green to speckled brown. Her armor seemed to fade as well. There was a "rawwwwk!" sound that echoed through the woods, like a cockatoo, except way too much of a baritone. Then he heard voices echoing. It sounded like they were… above?

Something tickled Malachi's shoulder. Some sort of ant. The tree was swarming with them, he realized. Ah shit. He was about to move, but then he heard a big thud and then a branch snapping, way closer than he thought it should be.

"RAWWWK!" came the noise again, and then more crunching. Malachi froze. The ants continued to crawl down his shoulder. His torn-up shirt wasn't doing him much good. He could feel their legs tickling as dozens more squirmed out of the bark and onto him. There were several on his chest and back. Something big was walking just on the other side of the tree. Shit, he thought, as the beast closed in.