[Inaugural]
— Ancalagon —
They were twitching. Madison, Taylor, Uber, and Leet were left twitching after my tutorial simulation. Adorable.
“Now, do-” One syllable from my unmistakable voice, and the whole party viscerally flinched.
“-N’t be afraid to call out for guidance if you find yourselves stalled,” I continued as if I hadn’t just triggered their fresh trauma. “I won’t hold your hands through the Dungeon, but I am willing to offer hints and advice for your first dive. The Corps’s future adventure advisors will do the same, so since they are not yet available, I shall act in their place.”
Otherwise, they were as ready as they were going to get. It was time. The Dungeon practically ached for its first challengers, the sensation coming as feedback of Authority in the back of my mind.
It was ready, so very ready. Eager, so very eager. It craved challengers to fulfill its purpose. Now, all there was to do was see the inaugural adventuring party off.
“Be brave,” I said. “Be bold. Be adventurous and awesome, for today, you four herald a new era for this Age. How will you take the Dungeon? Will you conquer it? Will you fail and try again until grit and determination win the day? Will you sneak through its depths unseen, or will you rampage as berserkers, or will you treat the rare, intelligent denizens below with diplomacy?
“All you will find in your delve is based on past adventures of mine. But here, that past has been given new life in the Dungeon. Treat it as real, for it is. Consider every action and decision. Let yourself gather the weight of experience unto yourselves, so that when you emerge, you will do so as more than who you entered as.”
“N-Nothing to it…” Taylor said, telling herself that just as much as she was telling everyone else.
“Even if there is,” Madison replied. “We’ll take it on together, Taylor. And the boys, too, I guess.”
Uber laughed, “Yeah, we’ve got this, even if we’ve just met.”
“We’ve got trauma in common now, at least,” Leet said, glaring at me.
I chuckled, “You are as prepared as I can make you on such short notice. Take heart, nothing in the Dungeon will be quite as overwhelming as my tutorial. That is the point of it. If you can survive a Dragon’s training program, you can best your first dive into the Dungeon.”
“Survive. Sure,” Leet deadpanned. “That’s one way to put it. I seem to remember ‘dying’ quite a few times before I hit the perfect run.”
“For growth as inherently Natural as what I offer you, it is best to learn by doing,” I shrugged.
“Could’ve learned by doing against something a bit less utterly terrifying than a Dragon…” Taylor grumbled.
“Eh, it was effective,” Madison shrugged. “And it wasn’t like it actually hurt much. It was just… jarring.”
When she said that, the whole party shuddered as one, undoubtedly remembering the ‘jarring’ restarts my tutorial simulation copy had forced them into.
It was a rather brutal and demanding tutorial. I wasn’t going to change it, though. It was a trial by Dragonfire; the barest taste of the heights their coming challenges could reach was best experienced at the very start of their adventuring journeys.
It’d been a gauntlet for them, with a programmed copy of myself as the teacher. The tutorial adapted itself to the one experiencing it, from someone unpowered like Madison to someone of Uber’s power-boosted prowess. Its goal was not just to accustom the ‘victim’ to their newly gained growth of Nature, but also to raise the weakest and lower the strongest to a level starting field of both competence and confidence.
The strongest would find themselves beaten hard until they finally, desperately, succeeded in ‘landing a hit’ on my programmed copy. The weakest would face the same, finding themselves with a tough challenge, but not an insurmountable one, as the tutorial adapted itself to build them up to their best starting point.
I didn’t want my future adventurers throwing themselves immediately to their deaths again and again like lemmings. That kind of insanity would defeat the point of the Dungeon’s offered growth, for adventure couldn’t begin if you kept falling off the first step.
“We will be watching your first adventure closely,” I told them. “As will many of this Age, outside the Dungeon. I expect a good turnout for the stream. The first peek this Age gets into my Dungeon will be taken through you four.”
“People will be watching us…?” Taylor asked warily. “I mean… I should’ve expected that, considering we’re going in with Uber and Leet, but…”
I consoled her, “The Age will look to you with interest, certainly, but do not let that certainty overwhelm you. Focus on the adventures in front of you, and the comrades beside you; I have faith that you will thrive.”
Madison huddled up close to Taylor, nudging the taller girl with her shoulder, “We’ve got this, Taylor. We’ve got this.”
Determination set Taylor’s shoulders with the support and reassurances, “… Yeah. Yeah, we’ve got this.”
“Then, there is no more time to waste,” Calamitas scoffed. “Hurry now, mortal adventurers; I wish to start the show.”
“… Good luck,” Glory said, her voice soft but earnest.
Dharla smiled, blessing their adventure, “May the Moon guide your path, even through the depths.”
“As beta testers,” Jenevelle stared at the party, imperious and expectant. “I ask that you take notes on any ‘bugs’ you may experience. When you return, there will be an after-action report requested of you, as well.”
“I am proud of you already, my darling student. As — I’m sure — are your sister students of mine,” Belladonna told Madison. “Make me and your sisters even more so. Work towards your fullest, freakiest potential.”
“Always, Sensei,” Madison nodded, the new witchy hat on her head bobbing with the motion as if saluting Belladonna’s.
“Here we go, I suppose,” Uber said with a playful sigh; he was unable to keep the excited grin off his face.
Taylor, for all her nerves and withdrawnness, was showing a bit of excitement, too. Madison embraced the excitement fully, Freakishly.
“Enter the Dungeon?” Leet asked.
Madison and Uber grinned and answered in sync, “Fuck yeah.”
At the back of the Corps Tower’s ground floor, grand doors would lead the party downward. Down into the Dungeon’s depths. What they would find within, only I knew. They would be left to find out firsthand.
My Hoard and I stayed put, settling in to start the stream in the Corps’s grand hall.
It began with fanfare, an instant jump up to some 10,000 viewers. The viewer count quickly climbed even further beyond. Calamitas had advertised the event of the day. All who were interested in the Dungeon would be tuning in to its First Dive.
As the party reached the Dungeon’s doors, bravely venturing forth, my voice rang with Authority through every inch of the tower. They heard it as if I were still right behind them.
“The Dungeon will tailor this First Dive to your party, adventurers. It wishes to show off all it can offer. This is your adventure, your showcase; you have the First Dive.”
I continued, now speaking to the stream, “Once open to the public, the Dungeon’s experience will be tailored by the day. There will always be something new to see, or something old yet unconquered. Our brave beta testers today may pave the way as adventuring pioneers, but they won’t be the last. The Dungeon eagerly awaits all who would come to challenge it.”
The stream’s chat rushed past with excitement at the information I shared. Interest all around, coming in questions and comments from thousands of curious minds.
I saw names I recognized. New Wave’s younger generation, who’d only just missed out on the chance to take the First Dive for themselves. Victoria lamented school hours, and Crystal swore at the classes she had scheduled for the day.
I saw Vista and the other Wards lurking here and there in the chat. All of them should’ve been in school as well. The stream started just around lunch time, with the First Dive already set in motion. I imagined that most schools in the Bay would find their students rather inattentive this afternoon.
I spied PRT representation — the Agent Known As Reave —, and more may have been lurking. I couldn’t imagine Piggot would wish to miss this. She seemed like the type to keep up to date with happenings in her defended domain, even if I doubted she was usually the type to tune into streams and such.
I noticed other capes from throughout the Bay in the chat.
The Undersiders, with Tattletale and Regent about as active in the chat as anyone else. The new capes of the Dojo and MOX, standing from the ABB’s ashes. Both groups had seemed eager for battle and growth when I’d met and awakened them. And more than a few lurking accounts with dogwhistle-esque names. Not even Nazis could resist the pull of Dungeon curiosity, it seemed.
There were capes from beyond the Bay, too. Dragon, my dear peer, was present in the chat. I immediately promoted her to moderator as a subtle and amused nod to her secret role on PHO. She brought Narwhal with her, who seemed mostly happy about the chance at a break from paperwork.
Mouse Protector was there in all her cheesy, punny goodness. As was Myrddin — a false mage, but not in the same way Lung was a false dragon. He wore his farce in good faith, not hypocrisy. I was curious about meeting both of them, Mouse for the amusement factor and Myrddin for the chance to know someone who stuck so steadfastly to the illusion of magic.
GstringGirl, Feychick, Winged_One, and Hat_Lady had seemingly dropped everything they were doing to cheer for their sister in Belladonna’s tutelage. There was more to all of them than they showed, but I still hadn’t gone digging into their Hidden Things, leaving those to be revealed at the odd sisterhood’s discretion.
‘I feel like we’re witnessing history,’ Some in the chat said.
‘Dungeon time! Dungeon time! Dungeon time!’ Others struck up a cheering chat.
‘Ancalagon, who’re the lucky adventurers that get the first shot at the Dungeon?’ More asked. ‘And how do we know they’re ready? Will they put on a good show?’
I answered the last, along with more questions here and there, “Our beta testing party for today, recruited and properly prepared, consists of four brave and bold souls. Uber and Leet, as you might expect, were eager for the chance at fantastical adventure. So eager that they almost asked to pay us for it.
“The other two of the party are friends of the Hoard. Madison is one of Belladonna’s students, and she brought Taylor along for the ride. I’ll ask that you do not harass them, even if you might think they’ve ‘outed’ themselves. They’ve come in good faith, with a commendable yearning for adventure in their hearts. And they are not capes; they are part of the Corps, now. Adventurers under my protection.”
I let the last line linger, a promise of consequences for anyone who would dare overstep. The concept of ‘outing’ as this Age knew it didn’t quite apply to my adventurers, but I doubted that would stop the aggressive and stupid.
“The party is as ready as they will ever be without experiencing the Dungeon for themselves. The Corps has equipped, initiated, and trained them. They have growth written on their adventurer cards now, and into their very Natures — an Artificer, a Rogue, a Fighter, and a Witch — along with partnered totem spirits to match — Daedalus, the Monkey, the Spider, and the Muse.
“I’m confident they’ll put on a good show.”
“Hmph,” Calamitas scoffed; she was the stream’s secondary host beside me. “Ye of little faith, chat. They have survived the Dragon’s tutorial gauntlet. Trust that this First Dive shall be an interesting one.”
Most of the stream’s view followed the party, with only a corner of the screen focused on us hosts. The party reached the Dungeon’s doors and looked at each other, finding their courage.
“Together?” Uber asked, nodding to the doors leading downward.
With a deep, fortifying breath, Madison nodded, “… We’ve got this.”
Side by side by side by side, the four of them approached the looming double doors. Madison and Taylor took the left one; Uber and Leet took the right one. They pushed, and the doors slowly opened.
Behind the doors, an impossible, straight stairway was revealed. The stream’s viewers got a look straight down it.
The steps were illuminated. Either side, though, fell off into utter darkness. Stairs bordered by a void, the bottom seemed to extend to the center of the earth.
‘Oh, fuck no.’
‘Hmm, big dark, big void, BIIIIIIG Dungeon.’
‘I knew it. Hell is under Brockton Bay.’
‘I mean, what else did you expect from a Dungeon?’
‘Not OSHA violations, that’s for sure. Probably should’ve, though…’
Staring down, down, down into the void, the party clearly found breath escaping them. It wasn’t empty, just blank, and only for now. A canvas to be painted with stories and adventures of all kinds.
That initial view, down into unknowable depths, was the Heart of the Dungeon, worn on its entrance to ensure it was the first thing challengers saw. It whispered of exploration and adventure. It promised glories and trials and change, always. It stood defiant, unconquered and unconquerable, but temptingly so.
The Dungeon beckoned.
“Fuck,” Madison said breathlessly. “That’s just a little bit terrifying.”
The rest of the party nodded in agreement.
“… And kinda thrilling,” Taylor added. “Does that make me weird?”
“No, I feel it, too,” Uber confirmed.
“No way to go but down,” Leet said.
“Down we go, then,” Madison muttered.
The first step was a visible and invisible relief. An exhale from the Dungeon that rushed back along my connection to its burgeoning spirit, giddy to finally be fulfilling its purpose. The next steps seemed to come easier and easier, as if they were being drawn deeper by some magnetic, adventuring pull.
They could’ve refused the pull, the call, I knew. The Dungeon was not a siren dragging the unwilling into its depths. Willing adventure was what it truly craved.
The party didn’t refuse, however. They followed the call into the Dungeon’s beckoning depths, continuing downward in almost reverent silence.
The stream captured how dark it was on the stairs, surrounded by the Dungeon’s void.
The darkness was alive and anticipating, like the darkness of a theater before the curtains opened on a play’s first scene. It was building to something, and that build-up was almost infectious. The party traversed the steps, and the steam watched with bated breath — thousands of viewers, but a nigh-frozen chat.
Then, the scene began to change. It started with a light at the end of the descending stairway. Without a word passing between the party, they all picked up the pace. The light grew and grew until pure white overtook the walls of voided-out black.
They passed into the white light. It wasn’t blinding, just eager; a child about to pull a cool toy from behind their back. Behind the childlike, semi-coherent spirit of the Dungeon, a Draconic parent loomed with amusement, encouraging it to show and tell.
The light washed away, revealing… more darkness, but not more void. Beneath them, a monumental landscape extended in all directions. Thick, towering walls formed a great maze, a-…
“Labyrinth…” Leet quietly exclaimed; something about the word seemed to sing to him, or to his totem spirit, Daedalus, more accurately.
“Aww, man,” Madison whined. “I get lost trying to go to the bathroom at night! Why’d it have to be a big maze?”
“Don’t worry, I actually have a pretty good sense of direction,” Taylor told her.
Madison perked right back up, “Great! I’ll just stick right to your back, then! Real close, ya know? Like, right on there~…”
Taylor nodded, too dense to notice the innuendo, “Yeah, stick close. The last thing we want to do in a labyrinth is split up.”
Hosting the stream beside me, Jenevelle chuckled, “Ah, I remember this adventure, Sire.”
I smirked, “Don’t go spoiling things. Our new adventurers should explore and experience it for themselves, and the witnesses should do the same through them. Let them discover what we once did, my dear cleric.”
Pyrite pouted, “Aww, Dragon… I don’t know this one.”
“It was before your time, Little Moon,” Dharla giggled.
“A labyrinth is… kinda advanced for a first dive, though, isn’t it?” Glory asked.
“Advanced, yes,” I nodded. “But classic for a reason. Worry not, the Dungeon has not overestimated them. It yearns to make a good first impression.”
‘The ‘Age’-hopping Dragon knows Greek Mythology?’ Someone in the chat asked.
‘It’s… probably not Greek, right? I mean, the concept of a big, fuck-off maze isn’t exactly exclusive.’
‘Could be a straight-up Demon Labyrinth, for all we know.’
‘It’s a perfect first showcase, by my estimation,’ Dragon said. ‘The Ancient Greek myth of the Labyrinth is probably the closest thing history has to Ancalagon’s kind of dungeon.’
‘Indeed, fair Dragon!’ Myrddin replied to her. ‘But I can’t help but wonder if it’s close to the traditional definition as well — the prison-type of dungeon, meant to keep… something… contained.’
‘First Dive seems a bit early to be throwing them at boss monsters, my mage-man,’ Mouse Protector replied to him in turn.
‘Ganbatte, Madison. Do the sisterhood proud,’ Hat_Lady — Fortuna — cheered.
‘Fuuuuuuuccckk, that thing’s bigger than the Bay. It can’t just be… sitting down there. I’d be questioning ‘HOW??!!’, but… well, magic,’ Tattletale sent.
Vista replied to her, ‘Girl, you don’t even know. Well, you might. I don’t know what your Thinker-schtick is. But my power’s going wild just looking at it. Getting… ideas… And does anyone else see how the labyrinth is moving?’
‘Oh, it’s THAT kind of labyrinth…’
‘How long is this First Dive supposed to be, anyway?’
‘No idea, but I’m tuning in for every second of it. Work can wait.’
‘Good luck, adventurers!’
I chuckled at the chat’s discourse, “Good luck, indeed…”
IIIII
— Madison —
“Magic Missile!”
The spell came Naturally to her, all feeling and instinct and practice imprinted into her soul.
It was a slight twist diagonally, a pull just below her lungs, and *BOOM!*
Magic. Amazing. It left her breathless from more than just the noticeable drain of essence. She did that. She was casting freakin’ spells!
Three darts of glowing magic rushed forth from the tip of her staff. They tore through the air, leaving trails of light. With sparking, fizzling *CRACKS*, all three struck true.
Her target was a creature that could’ve only been crafted, not born. A miniature automaton, a golem of brass and bronze. It was a small thing, only about four feet tall, with intricate steampunk gearwork that kept it moving as if alive. The head was a dome of glass, full of some glowing green liquid, and a small, squat, but not child-sized skull floated within.
Madison’s Magic Missiles blasted gears from their place on the automaton. The impact sent the whole thing stumbling backward, and one lucky shot hit the glass dome, leaving a spiderweb of cracks.
“Spiderweb!” She exclaimed, the realization striking her. “Taylor?!”
Taylor pushed back the automaton she was fighting, giving herself room to breathe and look toward Madison’s voice. Madison pointed toward the web-like cracks in the glass. Taylor didn’t seem to understand the implication, but her spirit did.
They’d quickly realized that Taylor was the most in tune with the Spirit side of magic. She and the Spider (and maybe Taylor’s power, too) were in almost perfect sync.
Before her automaton could surge back into range, ghostly webs spread like wings from Taylor’s back. She trusted her partnered spirit, summoning and giving the Spider leave to act.
The cracks Madison had left spread. They wove themselves deeper into the glass in real time. Madison took the advantage, mustering more magic.
“Firebolt!”
… She did feel slightly cringe calling out her spell names. But cringe was dead; she was still breathing, and casting freakin’ spells.
The burst of flames shot right into the spreading, weakening spiderweb cracks. Glass shattered with the force. Green liquid spilled like blood, and the skull floating within fell inanimate to the ground. Whatever was puppeteering the rest of the automaton failed with that wound.
Madison didn’t let herself linger on victory. Immediately, she turned to return Taylor’s help. Another Firebolt shot forth, almost free to cast. It struck gears, melted bronze, and Taylor’s automaton stuttered.
That opening was all Taylor needed. She turned her sword around, gripping the blade with leather gloves, and used the guard as a pick. One strike, with Fighter strength and skill, and another glass dome shattered. Another automaton fell inanimate.
The other two automatons were dealt with by Uber and Leet.
Leet had tinkered (or was it artificed, now?) together a bronze hammer to go with his shield from the remains of previously defeated automatons, giggling maniacally all the while.
He hunkered down behind his shield, holding off two automatons at a time. Every so often, his bronze hammer would swing out, magically infused with extra bludgeoning damage. Each hit sent the metal golems stumbling with more force than Leet’s skinny frame should’ve been able to inflict.
Mostly, though, he focused on defense and let his partner in crime sneak behind the automatons and slip short swords into their geared-up internals.
Uber didn’t quite disappear from view when he was ‘Sneaking’, but Madison did find her mind subtly insisting that ‘Nothing is there’, and the automatons seemed to be having more trouble with that than her. They never had time to turn before Uber stopped turning gears in their tracks with a blade between their teeth.
Four of the automatons, their largest encounter so far, were handled without a scratch on the party. They were guards, as far as Madison could tell, or possibly something less intent, remnants that roamed the labyrinth.
They were still nothing compared to… the tutorial…
Madison twitched at just the thought before suppressing it again as best she could.
They were an hour deep in the Dungeon now, this labyrinthine instance of it. Their surroundings still made her stop and stare, though. Towering walls as tall as a skyscraper and as thick as a bus was long. High, high above, beyond the tops of the labyrinth’s walls, a cave ceiling sparkled like the unpolluted night’s sky.
Using Uber’s tinker binoculars, she’d seen what those sparkles were. It was a whole other world up there, just as alien as space.
Stalactites with shining drops hanging forever from their tips. The silken cocoons of glowworms — some that must’ve been truly massive to be seen so clearly, even with tinker binoculars. Practical rivers of bioluminescent moss, so much of it that they didn’t even need light down in the labyrinth. Several colonies of blue-flickering bats, each living in moving mats that must’ve been as big as a stadium.
It was magical, just as magical as the actual magic Madison now had at her fingertips. She never would’ve seen anything like this without the Dungeon.
And the labyrinth itself… Its massive walls weren’t plain. They were carved and painted in places, lined with gold and silver veins in others, and rich with resurgent cave life all up their faces.
The Dungeon had created a whole world for them to explore.
The walls around them now were of the carved and painted variety. The stories of an entire civilization, the Muse told her, of which only technological ghosts, the automated and ancient dead, still roamed the labyrinthine halls their people had once claimed.
Yet their stories remain, the Muse declared! Carved eternal and painted forevermore upon enduring stone. Recreated in this Age, recorded in a Dragon’s memory, these people and their tales would never be forgotten.
It was… simply awe-inspiring — awesome — and humbling.
On one wall, Madison spied the family tapestry of a long line of upstanding priestesses, their depictions squat but beautiful in a hardy way.
The Muse called her over to the carvings as the others began to loot. Of the automatons, their crafted bodies would persist, but the skulls, the remains that animated steamwork, would dissolve into glowing motes of gold.
Leet was getting the most loot out of the automatons they’d encountered. Each looting sparked new, frantic, giddy giggles and grins — a starved man finding food for the first time in years and not quite believing his eyes.
His hands would begin to blur and work at a dizzying speed, tinkering up something new after each encounter.
So far, he had his hammer, a steampunk pen, and a rice cooker of all things. He claimed his power was just so excited to throw things at the wall and see what would stick that it wasn’t being picky about what it helped him make.
For the rest of them, the loot mostly consisted of the golden mote ‘experience points’, and little crystals that Ancalagon had told them the Corps would pay well for.
Honestly, getting to pick up some shiny crystals after each victory did make each of them sweeter. It was a nice touch, Madison thought. But right now, some story in the nearby carvings was calling to her more than the shiny victory crystals.
Madison laid a hand upon the wall, tracing the carvings she could reach. The life story of one priestess in the line flowed into the next. She traced one of the priestesses’ faces, a face that’d likely been long, long forgotten until that very moment.
From what she could gather, the priestesses were charged with defending something. A place, holy and hidden in the labyrinth. The carvings showed towering mushroom stalks, a flowing river, and an alien ecosystem, unique to this impossibly vast underground. All of it was painted with glowing blue paint that hadn’t lost its light, even through what must’ve been centuries.
Madison sighed to herself and to the priestesses carved into the wall, “I wish I could see it… I wish I could carry on your stories…”
The Muse chortled, the sound like a burbling brook. It called for her to follow the carved tapestry to its final subject, the last priestess of a long and noble line. Madison couldn’t help but comply.
“Madison?” Taylor asked, coming over to her while they waited for Leet to finish his tinkering.
“… Yeah?” Madison replied after an enthralled moment.
“You good?”
“There’s… There’s something here.”
“Secrets in a labyrinth? Color me surprised,” Uber joked, joining them.
“I don’t know what… Or where…” Madison muttered.
“You’ll find it,” Taylor said. “You’re our Witch, after all.”
Madison blushed, but Taylor’s faith in her abilities did help. She reached the end of the carved tapestry. There, one last priestess was depicted kneeling in desperate prayer. The story of the scene called to her.
The end was nigh. Her people were diminished, more and more choosing to entomb themselves within the automaton shells for the illusion of immortality. They’d forgotten the nature that’d brought them to this place, the thriving life that her line had come to protect from their own kin.
Not just forgotten; they rejected it.
Once, the Garden had sustained them. Now, their people would’ve been more likely to ruin it all if they knew it still existed. So her line hid it and protected it as their lives’ work. They would be the last to know the living magic that remained in this underground, secreted away within their people’s greatest work.
Yet… she would be the last of the last. She’d spent the final years of her life carving her line’s story into the labyrinth’s walls. Even as her joints began to ache and her fingers began to shake, she refused to finish her work from within one of the damned bronze shells.
Perhaps one day, someone willing to appreciate the Garden’s glory would find the stories she carved and treasure them rather than destroy them in the pursuit of endless greed…
“I will,” Madison whispered. “I’ll treasure it and leave it whole. Will you let me experience what you and your ancestors gave your lives protecting?”
The Muse communicated her request, the story of an exploring spirit to the lingering story of a protective one. The lingering story accepted that she’d come in good faith, only wishing to witness, not harm, and to remember, not forget.
The wall rumbled and split, the final magicks of a priestess’s life at work. It opened to reveal a Garden, hidden within a great labyrinth. An ecosystem that still lived, thanks to the priestess’s final, protecting magicks long, long after her people had ceased being a threat to it.
Beside her, Taylor and Uber watched on in surprise and stolen breath. The almost silent labyrinth suddenly came alive with a cacophony of pure life. It was just as the tapestry had shown: hidden nature — beautiful, bountiful, and painstakingly protected.
Madison stood, bowed her head to the final priestess, and stepped into the Hidden Garden Within the Labyrinth.
IIIII
— Ancalagon —
“Well, that’s something of a surprise. I don’t think we found anything like that when we explored the labyrinth,” I mused.
“We did not, Sire,” Jenevelle confirmed.
‘If you didn’t find that, how is it HERE?!’ Tattletale demanded in the stream’s chat.
‘That is a good question, if asked a little rudely,’ Dragon agreed. ‘Ancalagon, I thought you said the Dungeon’s experiences were, essentially, pulled from your memories.’
I shook my head for the stream to see, “The Dungeon pulls inspiration from my past adventures, not merely my memories of them. This labyrinth is a holistic recreation of the labyrinth I once walked, including the secrets I did not discover.”
‘I’d ask how that even works, but… well, magic.’
‘For real, for real. Magic with all its mysterious bullshit.’
‘Not even the Dragon fully understands it.’
‘And we’re just… okay with that…??’
‘Do we have any other choice but to embrace it wholeheartedly?’ Winged_One asked.
“Life without mystery is a life hardly worth living,” I said. “There is nothing wrong with ignorance, so long as it is wonderful and inspiring and accepted rather than malicious or otherwise harmful. Without it, how can we learn new things? How can we expand our horizons and grow? How can we appreciate the mysteries of Creation and their magicks if everything is spelled out for us?”
‘You know, some people LIKE knowing things, Ancalagon,’ Amy said in the chat.
“And they still can, my darling student,” Belladonna replied to her. “Layer by layer of ignorance can be peeled away through trial and error, an open mind, and a willingness to delve ever deeper. But the core of Mystery is special. It is what pushes us to peel away that ignorance in the first place, forever just beyond our grasp, our ken.”
She finished with a grin, sharing a small slice of her Freakish enthusiasm for knowledge, “And isn’t that just thrilling~?”
‘It’s not that you CAN’T ever fully know anything, then,’ Dragon considered in chat. ‘It’s that there’s always something more to know, to learn, and to experience, even for the most knowledgeable minds.’
“Well put, my Draconic peer,” I chuckled.
“Quite,” Dharla agreed. “Mysteries are a wondrous thing. Even my Divine Lady and my Draconic Lord find themselves inspired by them.”
‘Still kinda wild that you DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS… but there it is, anyway.’
‘Hmm, yes, the Dungeon is a deep and intriguing thing. A mystery, even to its creator,’ Myrddin said. ‘I doubt we’ll ever lack things to discover and explore within.’
In the other half of the stream, the party recollected Leet and ventured forth into the Hidden Garden. It was an awe-inspiring example of life, spirited away in the dark, twisting depths of the labyrinth.
Everything within seemed to glow with some sliver of bluish bioluminescence, as if full darkness wouldn’t dare intrude. Massive mushrooms that sprang from stone to stand tall over the rest of the Garden. Their interlocking and merging canopies cast the space in soft, thrumming light.
Mats of moss spread wide and far along the floors, pulsing with each of the party’s footsteps. More moss climbed the walls, and even more hung itself from mushroom cap canopies, circled craggy stalagmites, and floated like algae upon the river that flowed through the Garden.
Bioluminescent ripples in those mossy mats spread as the party entered and walked deeper. Glowing blue footprints marked their passage and promised a safe path back.
For now, however, the party continued forward. Blue light illuminated expressions of awe. A whole ecosystem, hidden away. They must’ve been the first to see it in centuries.
Yet even hidden away, the Garden had lived on. It had seemingly thrived, away from the ruinous eyes of an unappreciative people. Life sprang from every corner of that isolated grotto.
A flock of fluttering bats chased each other beneath high stone ceilings and mushroom cap canopies. It was a lively dance of the flying hunt. Fireflies of the depths fell stunned to shrill chirps, and the bats would swoop upon them en masse.
“God… It’s beautiful,” Madison said.
“You found this, Madison,” Taylor told her, awe palpable in her voice. “You found this. You revealed it. We’re only seeing any of this thanks to you.”
The praise set Madison blushing and preening. Uber joined in, “Hell of a find. Secrets are always worth it. You think we’ll get extra points for revealing it?”
“I mean…” Madison considered. “It’s all about ‘experience’, right? We’re experiencing something wholly new and unique right now. I’d say that’s worth something in Ancalagon’s system.”
Back with the rest of the stream, I chuckled and commented, “It is. This discovery will factor into their growth from the dive. And that is exactly the Dungeon’s purpose: to adventure, discover, and explore things you would otherwise never see.”
‘It’s, like, really, REALLY pretty,’ Crystal said in chat. ‘Aphrodite hasn’t stopped swooning yet. She LOVES beautiful things. I can’t wait to see it with my own eyes.’
The party followed the river that flowed through the Garden. Beneath its surface, blind fish frolicked, dancing along bio-electrical signals.
A half-submerged rock shifted, revealing itself to be a massive amphibian, an antlered axolotl the size of a boulder. Its skin flashed, changing colors like an octopus, instinctively mimicking its surroundings. Stone-gray became glowing blue as it lumbered out of the river and off between the mushroom stalks.
“A peaceful giant,” Jenevelle admired.
“It’s…” Glory began. “I didn’t know creepy cave crawlers could be so… idyllic.”
‘Someone call Nat Geo! Quick!’
‘NO ONE call any bio-tinkers. They would ruin this. Especially that idiot Blasto.’
“Dear Madison promised to leave this Garden untouched,” Belladonna reminded everyone. “I do hope that any others who find it in the future will maintain that promise.”
“Trusting the good intentions of mortals?” Calamitas scoffed. “Good luck.”
In chat, an argument on that very subject was already growing.
‘-Just think of the resources that could be harnessed!’
‘You’re exactly the kind of person this place was hidden from in the first place. Do you only care about profit?’
‘We can do it sustainably! Are we just supposed to pass up a completely unknown ecosystem full of who knows what that could help technological progress? It needs researching, at least!’
‘Ruining, you mean?’
A moment later, Dragon stepped in to moderate the argument, timing out both sides.
Belladonna just sighed in reply to Calamitas, “Yes, I see your point. Exploitation is always a worry. It’s not unique to this Age, or our last, though the latter was the worst. Still, I imagine the Mage Colleges would do much the same if they discovered such an unspoiled prize.”
“The Dungeon isn’t about to let itself become some mine to be drained dry or some resource to be endlessly harvested,” I reassured. “Where is the adventure in that?”
‘That’s good to hear. Some people can’t help but ruin everything beautiful.’ Crystal already seemed to be taking a role as the Garden’s strongest soldier. ‘Why can’t we just let pretty things be pretty?’
“Sometimes, we just have to work to defend pretty things,” Glory said, shrugging. “The Sixth World learned that lesson well, failing it more often than not. But there were defenders willing to step up. Some Dragons, even. Like Hualpa defending the Amazon. It’s only hopeless if we let it be.”
‘… Wait, wait. Run that back for a second? There was a Dragon dedicated to defending the Amazon in your last world?’
“Is that so strange?” Glory blinked at the question. “Dragons are complex creatures who can come to value very different things. They will do as they will.”
‘I’ll say…’ Amy messaged in chat.
Back with the party, they were reaching the center of the Hidden Garden. There, Taylor stopped with a warning that got everyone’s attention.
“… There’s something here. Hold back.”
The commanding role seemed to come naturally to her; even Uber and Leet listened without hesitation. Wariness set in. The stream’s chat speculated what might’ve set Taylor off.
‘Another secret?’
‘Something fucking freaky, I’m calling it now,’ Tattletale put in her two cents.
‘A great beastie?’
‘We haven’t seen any of the guard golems they’ve been fighting or anything else so immediately hostile. Maybe it’s friendly?’
A long, spindly leg crept into view first. Then another, another, another. Four legs doubled to eight. A spider crawled over the edge of the mushroom cap canopy, the size of a small car. It hung there upside down, simply observing the party.
“Oh… Oh, fuck that…!” Leet exclaimed in a whisper, not daring to move and spook their new guest. Or host, more accurately.
The chat had much the same reaction.
‘!!!!!’
‘NOOOOOOOOOPE!’
‘Call me crazy, but it’s… kinda cute?’
‘You’re crazy. Nucking Futs!’
‘Nah, it’s just a big ol’ jumping spider! Those are the good ones!’
‘… Called it,’ Tattletale proudly declared.
Uber, Leet, and even Madison all took a collective step back from the spider now sitting observantly over their heads. Taylor, however, took a step forward. Like a mirror image above, the spider matched her step.
“It’s… beautiful,” Taylor said breathlessly.
I couldn’t help but agree, even if most humans couldn’t easily look past the instinctive fear of creepy crawlies. The spider was covered in fur, and the tips of that fur glowed blue like highlights in hair. It was calm, with visible, if alien, intelligence in its many eyes.
“Taylor…” Madison warned.
“I-… I’ve got this,” Taylor told her, fear not even entering her mind. “Trust me?”
Madison’s response came immediately and instinctively, “Always.”
It seemed to bolster Taylor’s confidence. She stood straighter and approached the spider. It mirrored her, up until the leap. The spider jumped from its high, upside-down perch to land silently in front of Taylor.
In chat, an especially invested viewer made himself known, Danny typing, ‘Oh, God! I chose the worst possible time to join this! Taylor!’
“Trust in your daughter, Danny,” I reassured. “She will come to no harm. You know her totem spirit, and you know her. Can you honestly tell me she isn’t in her element right now, strange and novel as it is?”
Creeping legs closed the final few feet between the spider and Taylor. Spiritual webbing spread behind Taylor. A single strand of it reached like an outstretched hand. The spider raised one of its forelegs to reach back.
With contact, there was a shudder that passed through both parties. The spider chittered and chirped. Taylor shook off the shudder just in time for the spider to rush forth… and swoop her straight onto its back.
“Taylor-!” Uber panicked for his dungeon-diving party member, but there was no reason to do so. “Oh, thank-… Okay, yeah, that’s just cool.”
Taylor guided her new mount back and forth, testing their connection and her control. The spider eagerly obeyed. It seemed excited to have made a friend.
Taylor’s face lit up like a beacon. Laughter, free and surprised, bubbled up from her chest.
“It’s perfect,” Madison told her. “You’re perfect, Taylor.”
She looked like she was falling in love then and there. Taylor, of course, didn’t notice. She just heard the praise and took it at face value, smiling brightly back at Madison.
“Look! Look at us fly!”
With a blurring surge, the spider leaped once more. It bounced around the space, from ground to mushroom stalk to upside-down canopy. Taylor stuck to her mount like glue, like a spiderweb. Perched upside-down, she threw her hands into the air and laughed.
“No hands!”
It was a stunning departure from the serious but withdrawn girl the stream had grown used to watching through the First Dive.
She’d been quiet until now, more focused on supporting Madison than supporting herself. It was easy to see something was holding her back: a fundamental lack of confidence, even as she dismantled bronze automatons.
Now, however, Taylor had come alive on spider-back.
‘… I want one,’ Amy said in chat.
‘Yeah, okay, she’s won me over. Spider-mount IS kinda really cool.’
‘Does she get to keep it? Are we suddenly going to have a teenager riding a car-sized spider in the Bay?’
‘¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We’ve seen stranger. Not much stranger, but still.’
‘Come into the Dungeon; get yourself a big fuck-off spider to ride!’
‘I have no idea if I’m more horrified or more proud right now,’ Danny admitted.
“Be proud, Danny,” I told him. “The only evidence you need to see that is the right course is the expression on your daughter’s face.”
‘… You’re right. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her so… alive,’ He replied.
“That is what adventure will do for those who need it most,” I said, a simple statement of fact. “It is the chance to live, and live to the fullest, at that. Now, you all see what I wish to bring to this Age. I’ll have to thank your daughter, Danny; I doubt I could’ve asked for a better advertisement and endorsement of my Dungeon.”
‘As if you needed that,’ I could practically hear Amy’s scoff through her chat message.
‘Doubters, begone! I think everyone is IN at this point lol!’
‘Can I get myself a cute mousy mount?’ Mouse Protector asked. ‘One that’s kaiju-sized! With wings! And a spiky stegosaurus tail!’
“You ask for a mouse and then proceed to describe something that’s not at all a mouse,” Jenevelle deadpanned in reply.
‘It’ll be a mouse in spirit!’ Mouse Protector insisted. ‘I’ll spoil him with wheels upon wheels of cheese and love him until the end of our days!’
‘I’m REALLY hoping New Wave gets in on the Second Dive at this point,’ Crystal said in chat.
‘Same, but for the PRT,’ Vista agreed.
I chuckled, “I would be amenable to a second round of testing. We do need to test multiple parties on the same floor instance. New Wave is welcome. As are the Wards, Protectorate, and PRT. Perhaps, for the last, I could even convince the Director to get herself back in fighting shape and lead a squad of troopers like her old days.”
‘Oh, man… I never knew I wanted to see Director Piggot in her prime until this moment. I’ve got a feeling she’ll absolutely wreck shop.’ Vista sent.
‘… I suppose I’ll have to convey your offer to her, then, Ancalagon. It’s not common knowledge, but the Director was a scary, scary Lady at her best. And I might be a bit biased, but I do want to see how far a proper squad of PRT troopers, one led by prime Lady no less, could go in your Dungeon,’ Reave, the de facto PRT representative in chat, said.
‘The bitch is a washed-up paper pusher now. How about you offer the chance to some real warriors, Dragon?’ Hookwolf made himself known in chat, immediately earning himself a warning for his trouble.
Still, I wasn’t terribly inclined to limit the Dungeon’s testing to heroes alone. I shrugged, “If you’re mostly civil, perhaps. PvP is another factor we’ll be looking to test, after all.”
‘Oh, we’ll give you PvP, you can be sure of that,’ Hookwolf sent in reply.
‘You know? I’m honestly fine with that. I’ll happily let the nazis get a shot if it means I get the chance to go ALL OUT against them in the Dungeon,’ Crystal said in chat.
Jenevelle nodded, taking note of all the ideas in the air, “I’ll see about making all the necessary arrangements, Sire.”
“Very good,” I grinned, anticipating the adventuring chaos that was to come. “Until then, however, the First Dive is not yet over. Watch, chat, and we shall see what further challenges and discoveries this labyrinth has in store for our pioneering adventurers.”
Back in the Dungeon, the party left the Hidden Garden as they’d found it, sans one spider-mount. They prepared themselves to delve deeper. As they did, Madison made an unexpected move.
“Taylor…? Can I ride you?”
“Ride me?!” Taylor startled.
Madison just smiled, the perfect picture of cute, not-at-all-freaky innocence, “Ride with you, I mean. Slip of the tongue.”
Taylor took her at her word, looking no further into the ‘slip of tongue’. She smiled brightly and agreed to the seemingly innocent request, “Oh. Yeah, of course! C’mon up, I’ve got room for two.”
Extending a hand, she helped Madison up onto her mount’s back, still happily riding the high of taming it. She missed a brief exchange between Uber and Madison behind her, but the stream caught Uber’s congratulatory finger guns and Madison’s playful, head-knocking ‘Tee-hee~!’ reply.
Madison made herself comfortable, pressing right up against Taylor’s back as if she was just getting a good (very good…) grip.
Oblivious to her seduction in progress, Taylor called for the party to keep moving, “We’ve still got a few more hours of exploration in us, yeah?”
With nods from the rest of the party, Taylor grinned and declared, “Great! C’mon, adventure awaits!”
The declaration sent Madison into a fit of giggles against Taylor’s back. Taylor blushed, “Sorry… I’ve always wanted to say that, ‘is all.”
“It was perfect,” Madison reassured her.
Taylor’s return smile was full of lively new energy and a pure density of charisma. She didn’t even notice how it left Madison red to her ears and clinging even tighter.
‘She doesn’t even know how CAUGHT she already is!’
‘Taylor is in so much danger right now… Good for her,’ Amy sent.
‘LOL! I think they both are!’
‘First Dungeon romance? I ship it.’
‘She remind you of anybody, Danny-boy?’
‘C’mon, Lacey, I wasn’t nearly that bad with Annette,’ Danny replied to someone he seemed to know in chat. ‘… Was I?’
‘You’re right. You were worse, considering Annette had to literally lock you in a room with her to get her interest through your dense skull.’
Danny, it seemed, knew when to admit defeat, ‘Oh… Oh, yeah, Taylor’s screwed, then.’
‘There are worse fates, Danny-boy. I think the cute one will be good for her. Just don’t go spoiling her chase.’
Chat busied itself speculating about potential ‘Dungeon-ships’. Yet the labyrinth still beckoned. Much more waited in its depths — discoveries and trials and worthwhile rewards. Our adventurers had barely scratched the surface.
And so, under the enthralled eyes of thousands — a stream this Age would be hard-pressed to forget —… the party delved ever deeper into the Dungeon’s First Dive…
IIIII
[AN: This chapter was more for an introduction to the exploration side of the Dungeon — cool things to see and appreciate, and all. The First Dive will continue next chapter with much more action and proper looting. Stay tuned!
The rest of this arc will probably have a second beta testing dive, which should be more populated, as I hinted in this chapter (New Wave, Wards/Protectorate, PRT, Hookwolf’s faction, etc.), to test party interactions in the Dungeon. Then, I also have the idea for the Hoard to do an advanced-level dive and Ancalagon to do a ‘Dragon’-level dive by himself. The former might end up cut, but I do think I’ll end the arc with the latter. We haven’t really seen Ancalagon in action yet, after all.]