Chapter 578: Mmm…Bacon

I talked to Konstantin as we went to find Alhur. Alhur had teased out of the dungeon that only the first floor had been changed. While the rooms had not been moved, the corridors had been altered. This explained why all the corridors had been so long. I assumed moving corridors was easier for the dungeon than moving entire rooms. I was sure that Master Archivist Dorrel Elalee, back in Godok, would be fascinated by the dungeon’s changes. Even more so if he knew they were because of me. This dungeon was so large that he could probably spend the rest of his life chronicling it. I might send him a letter telling him about the dungeon. Maybe the Telhian Empire would let the dark elf visit.

We reached the end of the corridor, and the grassy hills stretched before us in the next room. Alhur crouched and watched a dire boar churring the sod for fat grubs. No one had delved this deeply in years, and the dire boars looked healthy and fit. All I could think was we were going to be harvesting a lot of aether-infused bacon. Even if I didn’t have enough salt to cure everything, I could just hold onto it until I did.

“Dire boars this size…dangerous creatures,” Alhur said, respectfully without looking back.

“They yield constitution essences and bacon,” I replied casually.

“Well, as long as they yield bacon, we should definitely kill them,” Konstantin muttered from behind me.

“I want the alpha over there to myself,” Alhur said in challenge.

“This is not a game. We will come up with a plan and…” I started to say.

“I will take the small one drinking over there,” Castile interrupted.

“I will take the one rolling in the mud over there,” Konstantin said. “That leaves you with the one rolling in shit over there, Eryk, Konstantin clapped my shoulder.

“The weakest part of the dire boar is their rear ankle tendons. Cut both of them and the boar is effectively incapacitated,” Alhur said before stepping into the room. Konstantin followed and Castile brought a cloak of shadow chains around herself and entered as well.

“Lepidus, watch Lexi here,” I groaned.

“But if I don’t help, how will I get an essence?” Lexi asked tiredly. It dawned on me why the others were so eager—they wanted the constitution essences. If they defeated their dire boar solo, then they assumed the essence was theirs. The thunder of charging dire boars brought me back to the task at hand, stepping into the room.

My shit-covered boar was coming at Castile’s flank. I switched my magebane for Rhuuk’s broadsword as I tied off anchor points for a teleport. Precious seconds ticked by as the action unfolded. Alhur had dodged his opponent and stabbed a thin dagger into the trailing leg. The blade was between the tendon and bone, and the boar’s own movement helped saw the tendon with the dagger, crippling the leg.

Konstantin was more direct, taking his boar’s charge head-on. I got concerned for the old man, but as the boar reached him, he stepped forward and pushed off the air, launching himself over the confused boar. Both his blades created cuts on the back, but it was the paralysis of Shockwave that had the greatest effect. The boar crashed face-first into the soft earth as Konstantin landed behind it. He was targeting the rear legs as Alhur advised before the brief paralysis wore off. That double jump was not his telekinetic ability but something else. It must be his new spell form that he was hiding from me.

I started swinging the broadsword just before I teleported. Rhuuk’s blade infused my muscles with a little extra strength to help accelerate the blade. When I appeared, the blade struck my boar in the foreleg—and continued through it. The severed limb pinwheeled away, and the thousand-pound beast tilted hard and rolled over on itself, never approaching Castile.

Castile was having more trouble with her young boar than we had in crippling ours. The beast was covered in her shadow chains, but the cuts with her blade were barely making the beast bleed. The boar started to go into a frenzy as the poison took hold, and it made it harder for Castile to restrain it. I took four steps closer to get in range and removed the heart. Castile’s shadow chains held it up briefly before she released them, and the boar collapsed.

I didn’t mind bottoming out my aether, but Castile looked unhappy that I had stolen her kill. I turned my three-legged boar and circled him. He wasn’t completely helpless, but my aether restored quickly enough in the dungeon that it was only seconds before I could use air shields to hinder him. When my opportunity arose, I lunged, and the tip of Rhuuk’s broadsword slid stubbornly between its ribs and into his heart.

It surged from the ground in one last gasp of life before falling away. I checked on the others; Alhur’s boar was bleeding out and barely moving. Konstantin’s boar still had life, but he kept stunning it to keep it subdued, while opening new wounds. I had the collector out and kept an eye on the last two fights. I could understand why they all wanted the constitution essences. The constitution attribute helped a person resist disease and could extend their life expectancy as well. The fight had been less difficult than I had assumed, and the others held their own.

“I was weakening it,” Castile said bitterly, drawing my attention. I looked at her as the essence formed. “One of my spell forms drains the enemy’s stamina. I could have won without your aide.”

“The essence is still yours,” I said, but that was clearly not her point as she pursed her lips.

“I know you could have defeated it on your own. I just wanted to free you up in case Konstantin needed your help,” I deflected. Castile’s visage softened, and then we both gave a chuckle. I understood Castile not only wanted the essence, but also wanted to be part of the dick measuring contest. I rolled the apex constitution essence off the collector into my hand and tossed it to her.

With my gains to the convergence affinity, I was certain all four boars would yield apex constitution essences. Ten minutes later, I was proved correct as Konstantin and Alhur got theirs. While Alhur and Konstantin harvested the dire boars, I moved to the stone reward chest in the center of the room. Castile and Lexi joined me but were deep in conversation. Castile was describing her fight in minute detail and how she had used her spells and the contingencies she had prepared. Given how loudly she was talking, I think this was partly for my benefit, to prove that Castile was competent. I never thought otherwise, as she had led a mage company successfully for two decades.

Without hesitation, I shattered the chest, hoping for another runic skinning knife. Maveith carried the last one we got in this dungeon reward chest. The bed of silver coins held a spellbook, and I sighed. Castile was hovering nearby, and I handed it to her to examine. She could figure it out more quickly than I.

She only needed to flip through a few pages before she announced: “An earth spell. Mid-tier. Earth-glide or earth-walk, I think. Earth glide allows for faster movement, while earth-walk provides endless stamina. I need to study the spell forms in a little more depth to be certain.”

“I will hold it then,” I said, holding out my hand. I could page through it and figure out the spell in the dreamscape just as quickly. Although I had the spell forms for printing a spell on an aether core, the actual spells were different. The spell forms were similar, but there were variables in true spells that allowed the casting mage to change the output, making casting a more flexible medium.” The book disappeared.

I collected the belly fat and a few roast cuts, but I didn’t want to stuff my dimensional space because I knew what was coming. “There should be a stone bear in the next room with some rabbits,” I said, and a short time later there was a dead bear and three dead rabbits in front of us. The stone bear gave an apex strength essence, while the rabbits gave two lesser quickness essences and a lesser perception essence. I had killed the bear and taken a lesser quickness essence. The others divided the remaining essences, leaving Alhur and Lepidus out.

The reward chest rewarded silver coins, a healing potion, and a stamina potion. While I stored the silver coins, Alhur was given custody of both potions. We walked as a group and came to a fork in the road. “Which way?” Lexi asked when we paused.

“I never explored the room at the end of the corridor. It was a rocky landscape, if I recall correctly. This other corridor leads to a safe room. Beyond that, there is a room with eight gnolls, a phase spider room, and then the blizzard lizard room,” I said.

“What is a blizzard lizard?” Lexi asked.

“You will have to see it to believe it.” I winked at her.

I took one long look at the corridor that led to the unexplored room before we all headed to the safe room. I knew where the dungeon told Alhur the mithril was located. We were going to the room with magical darkness just beyond the two greater doppelgangers. It was a location I assumed had the ore we sought, so I didn’t suspect any traps.

The safe room was as I remembered, and Castile took the opportunity to have Lexi practice her elvish. The elvish language had been stable for thousands of years, but the calligraphy had changed over the millennia. The Caelorian elves had the habit of putting little tails on every letter, which made it a little harder to decipher. I pulled out food for everyone, and we took a much-needed rest. My focus kept drifting back to the corridor that led to the room I had never explored while I was with Maveith and Raelia.

After the others ate, Castile and Lexi lay down for a nap, while Lepidus kept himself busy reading a book he carried with him. “I am going to check on the gnolls,” Alhur said softly to not wake the sleepers.

Konstantin immediately hopped to his feet to join the dark elf. I probably should have joined the pair, because I was almost certain they planned to tackle the room together, but I let them leave. Both had dungeon healing potions, and there were only eight feral gnolls. They only rushed you in pairs of threes and had no ranged weapons. They might be a little upset the collector was not here when they returned.

Once I was certain they were gone, I got Lepidus’s attention and gestured that I was heading back to explore the passed-over room. I think he thought I was going to alleviate myself, and acknowledged me with an indifferent wave. I headed back and took the path not taken…

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