This was a bad idea.
This was a horribly bad idea.
This is by far the stupidest idea that I have ever had.
And that wasn’t going to stop me from suggesting it and following through with it despite everything I was saying it wouldn’t end well. My raw curiosity was by and far more interested in doing this then any amount of survival instincts could suppress. There was something special about Ava and if I didn’t grab this opportunity now I might never be able to follow through. So the only option I have is to follow through with this idea and see where it goes, see if something special will happen. Though my instincts scream it is suicide to even ask this, and if she accepts it is either my death or enslavement. Well no risk no reward, so I look to Terra to communicate my intentions, and he seems even more unwilling them my instincts. That is reasonable I guess but I give him a few pats through our connection to reassure him I have it under control. We both know I am lying of course but the thought does seem to reassure him enough to try and do it. It takes a lot of gesturing from Terra and a lot of guess work from Ava, but eventually after a few tense seconds she nods.
“A core wanting me to touch it” She still seems a bit in shock but is trying to work through it. “I really should refuse, the Guild Master will kill me if he hears of this.” Despite her words I can see her trepidation melting away into excitement at the prospect and she moves quickly towards me. I have to focus hard on keeping my instincts from going heighten during this and I can see it has an effect on everyone in the dungeon. The Kobold visitors visibly shrinking at the pressure, my spiders hissing and raising their heads to the heavens. If I wasn’t going crazy the skeletal ones where doing some kind of ritualistic dance even. The most effected where the reforming skeletons who began to rattle violently, and the two adventurers who up until this point where patiently waiting for their friend to exit. Terra and Elisa definitely seem effected but don’t seem to concerned, and I swear the armor was almost laughing. With that all in mind and covered I watch as she slowly reaches out and lightly taps my core with a finger.
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Nothing happened.
We were all confused.
Then she placed her palm on my core.
And everything went haywire.
ALERT
MAGE ATTEMPTING MANA ABSORPTION
ERROR NO MANA FOUND IN CORE
REATTEMPTING
ERROR NO MANA FOUND IN CORE
REATTEMPTING
REATTEMPTING
REATTEMPTING
ERROR ATTEMPT OVERFLOW
REDEFINING PARAMETERS
ERROR
ERROR
ERROR
REDEFINING COMPLETE
[Aether] ABSORPTION UNDERWAY
ALERT [Aether] LEVELS LOW
ALERT
ALERT
And then it all stopped.
Terra had pulled her off of my core and I could see now, though hazy, that there had been a whirring storm of energy slowly dying out….wait….i was seeing through Ava’s eyes?
This was….wrong
why was I so….tired
Darkness.
My head hurt beyond measure, whatever just happened was something I never could have expected or imagined. Touching the gem, the core, it was something beyond power, beyond mana, something more fundamental. Something that I could feel now settling into the very core of my magic like a small round stone. It is nothing like the academy said it would be like, touching a core. A taboo most grand already even before the Church started cracking down on everything dungeon realated. Even then the examples and explanations involved a surge of warmth and an increase to one’s mana in accordance with the size and age of the dungeon. This though, that light, the chaos, and the power now settled within me was beyond everything I had been told. So very different, so very strange.
“I need to make you leave, and never return, maybe get rid of you” a voice unlike any other found its way into my mind, and I found myself looking around for the source, but there was no one here but me, the dungeon and…..no. “but the maker wouldn’t approve of me getting rid of her, he wouldn’t want that, but he isn’t here.” My eyes where drawn to the elemental, and I could see it thinking, considering, but I could also hear it. It looked at me, and tilted it….no his head, and seemed to regard me for a second, then it stumbled back in surprise. “Y-you hear me?” I felt myself stumbling back in the same surprise. This was something so utterly new and unknown that no amount of training could have prepared me, yet that old sense in the back of my mind whispered that it was always meant to be.
Alert, New user detected
Greetings Ava
System Booting
