Chương 95: (B2.31)

31) Village Ellen The mood of the common room was somber. Most of the villagers had cleared out, with the exception of a handful. The adventurers had also emptied the place quickly, once Leona stumbled in. Seeing the woman in the robes of a Grand Mage all splattered with blood, hair mussed and a haunted look in her eyes, had been enough for even the most adventurous to back away. Everyone recognized that shell-shocked expression and the need to give her some space and time to gather her wits.

Ellen set a bowl of broth in front of the woman, while Theodore paced behind her with a scowl on his face. The other mage had been blunt and demanding when Leona had staggered in, but he'd relented when Ellen had told him to keep away while she tended to the woman. He wasn't good with people, but Ellen could tell by the slight twitches and the way his eyes glanced that his forceful attitude hid some real concern for Leona.

"How can you all be so calm?!" Theodore finally said, his voice just below shouting. He held himself back for Leona's sake, but his fists were clenched as he glowered at Ellen.

"We don't even know who died!"

"Adventuring Party would be the only ones in there—think about it," Ellen replied calmly.

"And unlike most of us, they always thought of themselves as being here for one specific purpose. They knew the risks. I only hope they succeeded in what they were trying before they passed on." Camilla sat down next to Leona and carefully started wiping the blood splatter from the woman's face. The gore had mostly sloughed off in her scramble to safety, but some of it stubbornly clung to her skin and clothing.

The robes would have to be replaced completely, unless there was some miracle laundry spell in the spellbooks somewhere.

"That makes it worse!" Theo halted and crossed his arms.

"You've lost the four most knowledgeable about the dungeon, right when there was a tremendous mana surge! This is exactly what causes a dungeon break! We should be gathering those adventurers and preparing for the worst!"

"Just fly up and look for yourself," Ellen snapped back, feeling her face contort into a scowl. She took a deep breath, a notification flashing up and forcing her to use her Control Shift for the first time. Theo might call her calm, but she was fighting the urge to pace and growl and carve fingernails into the table. The mage looked at her incredulously, but it shut him up. Leona finally started to react to the damp cloth cleaning her up.

She waved Camilla away and lifted the bowl of broth, taking a long drink before setting it down with a sigh. Her eyes were still haunted, but color slowly returned to her cheeks.

"All four are gone," she said at last with a quaver in her voice.

"I'm not sure what they were doing. They… sealed off part of the dungeon and I had to repair the tear in space. So much mana… it just spilled out everywhere. I think the entire dungeon is changing. Where did all the mana come from?"

"Apprentice and Healer—two Ellens you never met before they died—found a mana plume. The dungeon was feeding off of that along with the surges," Ellen explained.

"Merchant knows exactly how much it is growing, don't worry. We have other problems we need to worry about." Theo dropped into a chair and cupped his head in his hands.

"How many of you are left? I really thought you and the dungeon were… I don't know. Working together? Or at least it was letting you explore it."

"Theodore, can you clean me off? I'm suffering mana burn," Leona said abruptly.

"I don't think they expected to die, but they seemed to know it was dangerous. I just… the things I saw, I can't explain. I felt something, too. Almost like the dungeon tried to say something to me, if you can imagine it. I glimpsed a tiny part of how the dungeon worked." The woman's request was met with a quiet spell from Theodore, the blood and remaining dirt and gore lifting free of the mage's robes. He scowled even as he completed the spell, looking toward Ellen.

"What were they trying to do?" Ellen merely shook her head.

"The Party didn't tell me all their plans or even what they were doing in there, most of the time. I'm the Ellen who hears things like that last anyway… I don't live with the others, remember." She gestured upstairs toward her room, now permanently hers instead of being stuck with the attic cot.

"Scholar mentioned something about amputating a piece of the dungeon," she continued, adding context that she knew would be requested.

"I think they wanted access to the mana plume, and to cut off the dungeon. I don't know if it worked, or what the effect will be. Will the monsters in that part just die, or will they go rogue?" The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"We aren't dungeon experts," Theodore replied with a heaviness to his words.

"And even if we were, I've never heard of anyone doing that. What do you mean by amputating the dungeon? How would that work? Where would all the mana stored up inside that part go? Would it make another dungeon? Even if you succeed, doing that is incredibly reckless." Ellen leaned against the table and shrugged.

"My other selves were never known for their caution. The adventuring line was always a little strange, and I think we're only going to see bigger problems. When that many die, we're going to get more Ellens eventually… and they'll be seventh generation. A-P was sixth generation and already pretty strange, so we need to be prepared for Ellens that don't act at all reasonable."

"More of you?" Leona looked up in alarm, the expression on her face shifting from haunted to worried. Her eyes widened as she considered the idea.

"Stranger than those four? Are you sure?" Shaking her head, Ellen shrugged again.

"I don't know. Probably? But Merchant and Bookkeeper are sixth generation, too. They seem pretty normal, so I'm not sure it's just the generation." Theodore folded his hands together in front of himself, staring at Ellen for a long moment before speaking.

"I'm less worried about more versions of you than I am about what the mana is doing. Slicing off a piece of the dungeon… that mana should have spilled out everywhere. The entire region should be flooded, and it is higher than before… but not nearly as much as I'd expect." Ellen felt her nose tickle and her spine crawl. She had known that, somewhere deep inside. She'd known that the mana level had jumped, somehow. Before she could search out where that knowledge came from, Theodore continued.

"Instead, the boundaries of this place, and the earth itself, soaked up a lot of it… I think," the mage grumbled.

"Some of it just vanished, and that worries me. We should be dealing with mana fog and manifestations right now, and that would be worrying enough. Instead we saw a jump and then a sudden dip."

"What's a mana fog?" Camilla asked, worried. The girl had been listening the entire time, and Ellen flinched at that. She should have ushered the teenager out as soon as things became complicated. Not that Camilla would go quietly. Fortunately, Theodore's now infamous lack of social graces didn't extend to a complete lack of empathy. His expression softened the moment he realized he was talking to someone totally unprepared for the seriousness of the situation.

"A warning sign," Theodore answered.

"Nothing to worry about for now… it's bad if it lingers, but I haven't seen one here yet. That's strange and it worries me because it's strange, but it's probably a good thing for your village, don't worry. Even if things get very bad, this inn is guarded by your friend here. If things get dangerous, come here. A pity it can't cover more than the inn."

"Next Level I'll get a free upgrade," Ellen pointed out.

"I think it should expand the Ability range, if I spend it on that. Unless I see something that's even more important to spend it on, I'll do that." Theo raised an eyebrow, but before he could comment, Leona was speaking again.

"Yes… something strange was happening with the mana," Leona whispered.

"It was thick enough it almost pushed me out of the dungeon. I don't remember much of where I ran, but all the remaining monsters were just… gone."

"A sudden change in mana destabilizes most dungeon monsters," Theodore pointed out.

"You should remember this from your studies… though I suppose you have other things on your mind right now. The important thing for us is to be prepared for whatever result this has. I think at this point, a dungeon break is almost inevitable. I'm surprised we haven't gotten word of it happening already." Leona blinked and rubbed at her temples.

"I don't know that it will. The entrance sealed behind me. I was too shocked to mention it before… it was all I could do to keep moving." Ellen glanced at the door. The adventurers who had found Leona had sacrificed their own dungeon run to bring the shaken woman back, and she wasn't sure where they'd gone. Bookkeeper would likely reward them for that, but they hadn't mentioned the dungeon closing itself off.

"If the dungeon sealed itself off, then the adventurers are going to be restless. That could be problematic for the village, and certainly unpleasant for us," Theodore grumbled.

"Perhaps we should go back to the Academy." Ellen shook her head, "Only if it's to get an instructor for the branch opening here. If the dungeon is closed, we'll probably want to start lessons early here. Tomorrow, maybe." Theodore turned to stare at her incredulously.

"You want to start studying now? Do you even have anyone in the village who can spare the time?" Lauren entered from the back right as Theo finished asking that, her lips turning into a frown. The woman sighed at Theodore and moved over to Leona's table.

"Anything else you need? It must have been terrible for you." Leona looked around as if noticing the people about her for the first time. Theodore, Ellen, Camilla, and Lauren were there, with Tobias lingering in the back listening but keeping quiet. It was a tiny collection of everyone she'd met, and it let her relax somewhat. She still flinched when she looked at Ellen though.

"You get used to it," Ellen assured her… not that she had seen a lot of her other selves die. She just didn't know what else to say. Maybe that was the wrong thing.

"Are you ignoring me?" Theodore grumbled, but the scathing look from Lauren cowed even the irate mage. He flinched and took a breath.

"My apologies, you are right that we should deal with my colleague before discussing the Academy situation… but perhaps we should consider sending Leona back to the city?"

"No," the other mage countered immediately.

"No… I'll be fine. Really. I wasn't ready for that but the things I felt and saw… I don't want to go and leave that behind. I think the dungeon is going to do something. I think we might be about to see something important. We should stay." Theodore scowled, but it was softer than the last one. It was the scowl of a man who had given up, realizing there was nothing he could say that would recover the hole he'd dug himself into.

He sighed, "Fine, but I still haven't seen the students that are supposed to show up at this branch. They had better be worth the time." Ellen patted Leona on the shoulder and smiled at Theodore.

"Oh… I'm pretty sure some will pop up soon enough."