Victor of Tucson-Chapter 26Book 10: : A Light at the End of the Tunnel

26 – A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Victor spent the next couple of days having meetings with Kynna and her various governors; it seemed running an empire spanning more than a dozen former nations was a tedious and complicated process. She’d asked for Victor’s attendance mostly to answer questions and provide assurance that he was ready, willing, and capable of fighting as many duels as necessary to consolidate Kynna’s grip on the western continent.

It was mostly for show; once Kynna’s representatives saw him with their own eyes and heard his confident words, they would use his past victories to leverage the lesser nations of the western continent to bend to Kynna’s rule. Her nation’s proximity, at the center of the continent, made her a more immediate threat than the Khaliday Empire and the other great houses. Any of the eastern nations that wanted to curb her influence would have to go through her—something she and Victor invited.

Meanwhile, Bryn continued to pressure the craftsfolk working on Victor’s cultivation chamber. He was eager to see it finished because his Breath Core had reached the last rank of the advanced stage, and he hoped that a breakthrough into epic would provide insights and power that he could use to fuel his battle with the void curse. The curse continued to march inexorably toward Victor’s destruction—slowly, but very surely growing as it devoured his flesh.

Arona came to his room one morning and announced that it had been ninety-six hours since they’d left Du’s dungeon. Victor told Bryn he’d be gone for a couple of days, and then he and Arona returned to Fanwath, teleporting directly into the cavern containing Du’s portal. To his surprise, stone walls had been constructed, closing off the lava tubes that gave access to the chamber. One of those walls contained an enormous iron door, and Victor found two of his house guards watching it—one on either side.

It seemed that Gorro ap’Dommic, his governor, had made steady and fast progress with his construction crew. They weren’t yet building the keep in the caldera, but, according to the guards Victor questioned, the restoration of the citadels guarding the road was well underway. Pleased to see such progress, Victor and Arona entered the Crucible of Fire again, and challenged themselves to complete it more quickly than before.

Du didn’t make it easy for them. Victor wasn’t sure how the Dungeon Core gained levels and power. He berated himself for not getting those details from the Core before setting it free in the mountain, but he had to assume that the Core gained something from having people challenge his creations. Even if Victor and Arona won, completing the dungeon and killing the “boss,” it seemed that Du gained power. At least that was Arona’s guess when they found themselves facing challenges that were noticeably more difficult than during their previous run.

They faced wave after wave of powerful enemies on the first gate. Like the hordes from Victor’s solo run, the numbers mounted into the tens of thousands, but they were stronger creatures with heavier armor and more powerful attacks. It took nearly half a day of constant battle for he and Arona to clear them.

The second, third, and fourth gates went more quickly. He and Arona fought gigantic, powerful creatures, from house-sized beetles to titanic skeletons with blackened bones that smoldered with inner heat. They were more powerful foes, but with only a few to face them, Victor and Arona cleared them in minutes.

The fifth gate was another army of undead, though this time the hordes were sprinkled with elite foes that threw spells or were clad in dense magmatic armor. Victor lost himself in his rage, rampaging madly through the horde, and if it hadn’t been for Arona, he would have had no idea how many he destroyed. She estimated that, all told, they vanquished nearly a hundred and fifty thousand undead. And still they hadn’t gained a single level.

After the sixth gate, they faced a trio of freakish giants. One had two heads, another four arms, and the third moved around like a lumbering, four-legged animal reminiscent of a bear. They were mighty foes, each nearly the size of Victor while under the influence of Glacial Wrath, but they weren’t titans. Maybe they were considered behemoths like the gargantuopod Victor killed in the challenge dungeon in Sojourn, but they died well enough when Lifedrinker did her work and Arona blasted them with fiery solar-attuned Energy. Whatever their nature, Victor claimed their hearts.

For the first time, they didn’t face a lava king in the “boss” room of the dungeon. The room was much the same as before—a lake of lava in a vast cavern, but there was only one stone island in the lake, right at its center. When Arona teleported to the platform, and Victor launched himself into the sky, they came face to face with a new sort of “Lord of the Crucible.”

Tremendous black bones rose from the lava, sizzling and smoking, lifting into the sky as more and more of the monstrous skeletal master of the dungeon came into view. Victor recognized the creature's shape in only a few seconds; it reminded him too much of Hector’s skeletal flying mount that had terrorized his army during their assault on Mount Ember. This creature was more enormous, though, and its blackened bones looked like petrified stone, far denser than those of Hector’s undead dragon.

The battle with the skeletal dragon was harrowing but not because Victor feared he would lose. The creature was huge and powerful, but so was he and he could take the punishment it doled out. No, the stress came from Arona. Her magic seemed largely ineffective against the monster’s dense, blackened bones, and she had little room to maneuver when it came to avoiding the enormous monster’s great claws and snapping jaws. With only one island for her to stand upon, she had to use her teleport and “solar shield” to great effect.

Even with those defensive measures, Victor was forced to save her several times with his Guardian’s Rescue spell, shielding her with his Energy and swapping positions with her. It turned out to be a very effective tactic. Twice when he performed the maneuver, he delivered Lifedrinker’s deadly edge to the undead dragon’s snout when it thought it was about to snap up the much smaller sorceress—Victor had learned that her current Class was Solar Sorceress.

In the end, they were victorious, and when the Energy infusion faded and he came back to his senses, he had System messages waiting for him:

***Congratulations! You have achieved level 87 Warlord and gained 24 intelligence and 17 vitality.***

***Congratulations! You have earned a Class spell: Mental Fortress – Basic.***

***Mental Fortress – Basic: Guard your mind from the influence of hostile magics and the pressure of unwanted emotion. This spell will enhance your will attribute with the Energy in your Core. It is costly to maintain, but in times of crisis or when clarity of thought is paramount, there is no greater boon to a general on the battlefield. Energy Cost: Minimum 5000, variable based on duration. Cooldown: Short.***

***Congratulations! You have defeated the Unliving Magma Dragon! Search its lair to find your reward!***

When Victor read the notification, he fell to his back on the hot stone and sighed, a sudden wash of relief leaving his muscles limp. He chuckled softly to himself, closing his eyes as he read the notification again and again. After a while, he heard soft steps beside him and Arona’s raspy voice asked, “Did the System tell you a joke?”

“Not exactly, but I think I’m starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, where this curse is concerned.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. A new Warlord ability called Mental Fortress. It bolsters my will at the expense of Energy.”

“Your will? That’s wonderful! How large is the boost?”

Victor sat up and looked at her. She stood before him in ornate, ruby-studded red robes, clutching her crystal scepter. She’d commissioned those robes for Du’s Crucible; they granted her a significant resistance to fire. “Good question.” He concentrated briefly and cast the new spell. It pulled a thick torrent of Energy from his Core, and he could feel the steady drain as it maintained itself.

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Thanks to his ever-increasing intelligence attribute, he had more than sixty thousand Energy. Still, when he looked at his status sheet to monitor the drain, he saw that he was losing several hundred every second. Thanks to his already high natural will attribute, his passive regeneration put up a good fight, but he still didn’t think he could keep the spell going for more than an hour or so.

When he shifted his attention to he attribute in question, he laughed, but it wasn’t a gleeful sound, more of a chagrined, bitter one. “It’s giving me ten will points.”

“So few?” Arona folded her arms, idly thumping her scepter against her hip.

“It’s only basic. Maybe it gets more efficient with higher ranks.”

She nodded. “The System tends to do that; offer a poor version of a spell to encourage the caster to improve it through practice.”

“Well, I have other ways to improve, it, too. Now that I know it’s possible, I can experiment with this pattern as a template.” novelbuddy.cσ๓

Arona’s eyes widened as she slowly nodded. “Yes, I’ve dabbled with spell patterns myself, but I’ve always found it difficult to improve on the System’s designs.”

Victor wanted to say that he would use elder magic and not the System’s standard glyphs and weaves. He wanted to, but he knew better. The System was watching him, and for all he knew Fox and Three were right around the corner, just waiting for him to start teaching elder magic to someone. Maybe someday he could stand up to them and teach who he wanted, what he wanted, but for now, he had to use caution; he wasn’t as strong as Tes. With that in mind, he nodded and said, “It’ll take some work, but I think I can come up with some improvements.” He didn’t mean to do so, but he changed the topic. “Did you gain a level?”

“I did, though barely! I’m sure you’re closer to your next than I am to mine.” She nodded to the chest at the center of the stone platform. “Shall we see what treasure awaits?”

Victor nodded, cancelling his Mental Fortress spell and climbing to his feet. They’d amassed more wealth and several minor magical items that neither of them would probably use. Victor planned to give them to Bryn, not because she needed them, but to use as incentives for the guards under her command. He nodded to the chest. “You go ahead.”

“I will not.” Arona proved her intentions by sitting down beside the chest, lithely folding her legs beneath her.

“I opened it the last time—”

“You have more need of the treasures at the moment. If you find something you don’t want and think I can use it, we’ll talk.”

“Heh. Stubborn.” Victor smiled at her to let her know he appreciated the sentiment, then he opened the chest. As he waved away the glittering golden steam, he saw immediately that the bottom of the chest was filled with thousands of glittering gemstones. It was enough to make anyone wealthy in most worlds, but to Victor and Arona, it was just the latest installment of their ever-expanding fortune. As he passed his hand through the treasure, sending more than half into his storage container, he looked at her and asked, “How uncommon are tier-nine dungeons?”

“I know of two on Sojourn and you’ve been in both.”

“The challenge dungeon and the Iron Prison?” When she nodded, he asked, “And the challenge dungeon is only open a few times a year?”

“I see what you’re thinking, and you’d be right; the opportunity Du affords us is exceedingly uncommon. On most worlds that could allow a dungeon to grow to this rank, it would be heavily controlled by the powers that be.”

Victor nodded as he watched the fiery portal burst into life, expanding from a pinpoint into a large door-sized hole in the universe. “Kind of like Rellia and I intend to do with this one.”

Arona nodded. “As is your right.”

“Both of those dungeons on Sojourn are static. I wonder how uncommon a progressive dungeon like Du is, especially at this tier.”

“Exceedingly, I’d wager.” Arona tapped her chin, still sitting cross-legged on the ground. “You know, I begin to understand the ancient King of Iron Mountain—his desire to hide this dungeon. That enormous wall of amber ore makes more and more sense.”

“Yeah—” Victor held out a hand for her, hoisting her to her feet. “I had the same thought. Anyway, speaking of amber ore, let’s get back to Iron Mountain.” With that, he stepped through the portal.

The cavern was empty, save for Du’s portal and, distantly, the single guard watching the far side of the iron door. When Arona stepped out and began setting up the portal array, Victor walked over to the guard. “Anything happen while we were inside?”

“No milord, just a couple of shift changes.” The guards had a small camp up in the caldera. “Well, actually, something’s happening up top. Some engineers and an Earth Elementalist arrived. They’re preparing the site for the keep, though they said construction won’t begin in earnest for another week or two.”

“Good.” Victor nodded, turning back to Arona. The crystals were in place and were blinking with Energy as they powered up. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes, milord.” The guard saluted, and Victor gave him a good look. He let his vision unfocus and accessed his inner eye the way Tes had been teaching him during her visit, and was surprised to see the guard’s Core swirling with green, vibrant Energy. Of course, when Tes showed him the technique, he tried to practice it on her, but never had much luck. With the guard, though, he could see the Core plain as day, swirling in a looping, figure-eight pattern right at the center of his torso.

“Do you have a nature affinity?”

The guard’s eyes widened. “I do, milord! I work magic through plant life.” Victor stared at the Core for a moment longer, trying to remember its intensity for future comparisons. “Tier three?” he guessed, having no idea, but figuring one of his household guards would be at least level thirty.

“Aye, milord.”

Victor nodded. “Good, good. Keep up the good work, soldier.”

The man visibly straightened, despite already being at attention. “Yes, sir!”

Victor smiled and turned back to Arona. He tried the trick again as he approached, slightly unfocusing his eyes and reaching out with his inner eye. Like with Tes, he couldn’t see a trace of Arona’s Core. “Ready?” he asked as he approached.

“Nearly so, another minute should do it.”

Victor nodded and waited quietly, watching the crystals. Their pulsing was faint, their glow nearly steady, but as he waited it grew even more constant, the tiny waver fading, and then he took out the destination orb and pictured the foyer to his quarters at Iron Mountain. When the portal appeared, smaller, narrower, and decidedly less fiery than Du’s, he stepped through.

Victore was pleased to find his chambers bereft of the many temporary rugs the workers had put down during the construction of his cultivation chamber. He took it as a good sign that maybe Bryn had managed to see to the completion of the project while he and Arona had been in the dungeon. He walked down the short hallway, into the workshop, and then whooped when he saw the intricate, rune-inscribed amber-ore vault door in the far wall.

“It’s finished?” Arona asked from behind him.

“I think so!” Victor hurried forward and pulled the door wide. It was unlocked, but he knew, if the artisan had crafted it correctly, that he could lock it simply by pressing his hand to the smooth, slightly raised panel at the center of the door on either side. As soon as he stepped through the aperture, Victor could feel the weird resonance of the spherical amber ore chamber.

He’d used texts given to him by Ranish Dar to plan the chamber. Sixteen areas of the sphere were reinforced by a spider’s web of thick amber ore bands that ran around the exterior of the smooth surface. More than that, the interior was worked with System runes to focus and amplify Energy. There was a raised platform at the very center of the sphere, large enough for him to sit on in his natural giant form, which would make him the focal point of any Energy-rich treasures he stowed in the many alcoves built into the chamber’s walls.

All in all, it was a lot like the cultivation chamber that he’d used in the Warlord’s citadel in Coloss. He hoped it would be better once he placed his treasures and gave the chamber time to gather and focus the Energy. He could feel the thickness in the air, so he was reasonably sure the chamber was already working, capturing ambient Energy and amplifying it. He looked at Arona, grinning. “Can you feel that?”

“I’ve seen some ornate cultivation chambers in my time—mostly ones built by Vesavo—but this is the first one I’ve seen crafted completely of Amber ore.” She looked small standing in the doorway in her human-sized body. He imagined that was what he and Valla had looked like when they used the warlord’s chamber. Victor’s chamber had a radius of twenty feet, but there were only a few steps leading up to the central platform—plenty for his giant-sized strides.

He summoned the two Energy hearts that were attuned to his Breath Core Energies, holding them in the palms of his hands. “I’m going to work on my Breath Core first; it’s at the peak of the advanced tier. Theoretically, I could cultivate Energy for all of my affinities at once, but the chamber will gather and focus more of the blue ice and magma if these are the only treasures inside.”

“Logical.” Arona nodded, clasping her hands as she watched him place one Energy heart on the left in the center-most alcove and the other on the right.

“I can feel it gathering the Energy already. I’ll let it build up overnight, and in the morning, I’ll do some cultivating.” With that, he returned to the door and followed Arona out. He pushed the vault door shut with a resounding thunk, and then pressed his hand on the central plate until he heard the locks engage.

He and Arona were walking back through his parlor when he heard knocking on his door. He briefly closed his eyes and let his inner eye peer out into the world. To his pleasure, he recognized two Energy signatures outside his door. Smiling, he said, “It’s Bryn and the queen.”

Arona nodded, gesturing toward the sitting area near the balcony. “Shall I give you some space?”

“What? Why?” Victor waved a hand negating the idea. Raising his voice, he called, “Come in.”

Bryn stepped through, wearing her ornate dress uniform and wielding the golden glaive he’d given her. “May I present Her Majesty, Queen Kynna Dar, ruler of—”

“That’s quite enough,” Kynna said, breezing into the foyer. She wore a glittering, deep-blue gown, and her crown sat proudly on her head. Despite her gruff interruption of Bryn, she was smiling, and when her eyes found Victor, the smile deepened. “Victor! We’ve managed to acquire an epic-tier natural treasure. With luck, it will have a profound effect on your bloodline!”