Chapter 378: Quality Time |
We moved slowly at first, letting Nuralie and Shog melt into the shadows and range ahead of us. Without Earworm doing his thing, Grotto coordinated our normal psychic network for communication. While not all of us were capable of staying supernaturally quiet, our group was still a whisper as we made our way down, further and further.
I kept my eyes open for any out of place souls, but left the real threat detection to those with more expertise. Instead, I focused on the abundant mana weaves. They were set into the walls at regular intervals, arranged in the traditional circular array of glyphs. There was nothing particularly complicated going on with them, so a few minutes of study were enough to ferret out their ultimate purpose. Each was counteracting one of the natural forces at play when going this deep underground.
Pressure was the most common weave and the most obvious potential hazard, given that the deeper you went, the more shit was on top of you. A stairwell like the one we were traversing would have been impossible on Earth at our current depth, miles below the surface, and the mana weaves reflected that. The corridor would have long ago been crushed by the forces at play.
Almost as common was heat, and I was surprised by how serious a problem it seemed to be. I’d vaguely understood that things started to get hotter at a certain depth, but I hadn’t realized how quickly the temperature rose. The potency of the weaves were going up at the rate of about 75 degrees fahrenheit for each mile we descended. I knew from experience that managing that kind of temperature in a limited space was magically insignificant, but the size and length of this corridor meant we’d passed hundreds of these weaves. Each one had its own mana draw, and that really started to add up with so many of them.
Not that the mana supply was an issue. They were all integrated into a much larger weave that was mostly for mana distribution with some minor scrying aspects, likely so the weaves could be monitored remotely. It circled the corridor, with hand-sized glyphs playing out in a pattern that covered hundreds of feet before repeating. The mana was coming up from below us and there was plenty of it. In fact, after a quick back and forth between me, Etja, and Grotto, we decided the weave had a little too much mana running through it. Not the kind of thing I wanted to see when it was responsible for keeping us from being crushed by a billion tons of rock and dirt, but it was about as safe as any other System facility I’d been inside of so I was comfortable ignoring it for now.
There were many more types of less common weaves as well, each one aimed at creating a livable environment in a hostile location. One shielded against radiation, another managed ambient mana concentration, there were several variations on air purification, and some very precise controls on humidity. We had a number of similar weaves keeping the Closet habitable, although the natural environment in there was tame by comparison.
Finally, we got a System message announcing our arrival in the Chasm proper, although I wasn’t sure why this particular stretch of stairwell was any more meaningful than the rest.
You are now entering the Chasm Labyrinth
You are currently in the section known as “the Stairs.”
Max Capacity: 8 parties
There are currently 3 parties within this Labyrinth.
Escalation: Strongly Recommended
Primary objective: Ensure the Chasm remains under System control. Perform repairs as needed. To advance this objective, provide aid to the nearby native System technicians.
Secondary objective: This facility is not intended for use in Delver advancement. Exigent circumstances have allowed its temporary conversion to a Labyrinth. Activate multiple obelisks to receive escalating rewards.
Due to the current conditions within this Labyrinth it is currently functioning on a modified ruleset, as follows: This Labyrinth has multiple obelisks and no time limit. Due to the high mana accumulation in this facility, obelisk level rewards will be issued to any number of Delvers, rather than being limited to 5. Delvers are still restricted to receiving 1 level per obelisk.
No exit portals will be provided.
WARNING: This Labyrinth is the result of a successful Override Code 001: Preservation of Delve System. Certain functions may be inoperable.
There is currently one emergency objective within this Labyrinth.
All rewards have been enhanced.
Emergency Objective: Eliminate the United.
The notification told us some things we already knew while hinting at some things we didn’t. The absence of a level range was odd but explained by the fact this place had never been meant for Delvers. It seemed that while the forest Megadungeon had been a proper Labyrinth, the Chasm wasn’t. The objective that guided us here must have been modified from the Megadungeon’s original, something done in response to the invading United.
There were still some rules and limitations listed that seemed arbitrary if this was really such an emergency, but the System was bounded by directives, some of which we knew and some of which were certainly hidden. It probably had minimum requirements for what counted as a ‘Labyrinth’ before Delvers could access the place.
Another notable tidbit was that there was a third party in here with us. Right now, the only people I knew of were Team Pio and Fortune’s Folly. Two of Crowns was still up by the portal, meaning they hadn’t yet entered the Labyrinth. So, there was at least one mystery party of Delvers in here.
Aside from that, everyone could get a level at every obelisk, eliminating the Delver on Delver competition. That was likely so the System could point us more directly at the invaders. I was also interested in the part about “native System technicians.” My party were all marked as technicians by the System, a role we’d had since Level 1. We were even the highest category of technician that a Delver could be in this phase. However, I’d never heard of a “native” technician. It definitely wasn’t us, and I figured it was referring to some kind of System entity like a construct or mana monster that had been designed to work down here. Whatever it was would probably be obvious, deadly, and weird.
The System’s notification was shortly followed by a psychic message from our forward scouts letting us know we had a decision to make coming up. A few more minutes moving down the stairs brought us to a landing large enough that we all could have fit on it, albeit without much elbow room. On either side to our left and right was another staircase leading down, each half as wide as the one we’d just finished with.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Thoughts?” I asked.
Sergeant Baltae walked from one stairwell to another. “I can find no signs that anyone else has been through here,” he said. The sentiment was echoed by other members of the group before he continued. “It is possible the United are all using unusual movement abilities, but I find it unlikely they could hide their tracks so well if Charl brought in as many creatures as we believe he did. In the alternative, the place they entered through was different from our own.”
“Their entire army is known to appear and disappear on a whim,” said Tavio.
“We’re pretty sure an avatar is responsible for that,” I added. “And if they could use it to move in and out of this place, then why bother with the forest Labyrinth?”
“Regardless,” said Baltae, “the System’s emergency objective is still active–‘Eliminate the United.’ We have good reason to believe they are in the Chasm, and as far as we are aware this is the only entrance available to us. Unfortunately, we have no good idea as to which direction to head in.”
“Two paths, two parties,” said Xim. “Seems straight forward to me.”
“It is probably designed to split us up,” said Varrin, “so we are easier to eliminate.”
“It could just be the architecture,” I countered. “Or it’s just a typical path that leads to two different places. It doesn’t have to be insidious, you know.” All that got me was a few incredulous stares. “Yeah, okay, it’s probably terrible and everything’s gonna suck. Does anyone have a reason for us to keep standing around?”
Nobody did, so Team Pio went down the right stairwell, while Fortune’s Folly went down the left. We moved through the much narrower tunnel in silence for a time with nothing but the glowing mana weaves to break up the monotony. I studied each weave in passing as they rotated through the same pattern over and over again, and it went on for so long I started to enter a kind of trance as.
Eventually Xim broke the quiet. “I gotta say, it feels good to be back.”
I took a deep breath, shaking off my semi-hypnotic state. “Back?” I asked.
“You know,” she said, placing her hands behind her head and peering about, “all of us together, walking down a creepy descending stairwell in search of unknown horrors. When’s the last time that happened?”
“All of us, with Shog along for the ride? Deijin’s Descent, I guess.”
“Exactly!” said the cleric. “All the Delves after that one just haven’t been the same.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“Well, we went to the Throne of Zng, but that was just the System sending us to bully a Delve Core it didn’t like. After that we did those cleanup jobs.” She moved her lips from side to side in thought. “You know, those were also just the System sending us to bully Delve Cores it didn’t like.”
“Only if you ignore all the catastrophes we were preventing.”
“And the people we saved,” added Nuralie, appearing from nowhere.
“Sure, sure,” said Xim, “but it always came down to a Delve Core doing something it shouldn’t. When’s the last time we were inside a Delve that was doing something it should be doing?”
“Technically–” I began before being silenced by a finger on my lips.
“Closet Delves don’t count,” said Xim before dropping her hand. I rubbed my mouth and decided not to engage any further.
“When I started this whole thing,” Xim continued, “all I wanted to do was figure out the mystery of the Delves. It was going to be my life’s work, and I finished it in about three years.”
“There are many questions still unanswered,” said Varrin, valiantly taking up my conversational sword. “How do the Delves breach the celestial realm? Why is the process so flawed? How can it be rectified?”
“Those are just mechanical things.” She let out a frustrated breath. “I’m talking about bigger mysteries; questions about ultimate purpose and identity.” She frowned in thought as we kept walking.
“It sounds like this has been bugging you,” said Etja.
“Yeah, I’ve been struggling with it lately. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to go Delving for answers, and now that it’s all demystified it’s left me feeling kind of empty.”
“Our mission is extraordinarily important,” said Varrin. “You know this.”
“It’s not about doing something ‘important.’ It’s about doing something fulfilling. Or, that’s part of it at least. I mean, I was obsessed with Delves when I was younger. I was constantly interrogating my parents about them, thinking they were the coolest things. Then I find out the entire System is one big catastrophic murder machine, and not in a good way, either.”
“What would be the ‘good’ way?” asked Nuralie.
“The normal ‘challenge people to make them stronger’ thing,” she answered, waving a hand dismissively. “I mean, we’re all fine with that. It never really bothered me that Delvers died sometimes, but the repeating apocalypse part is something else completely. It’s all hit me with this sense of disillusionment, you know? I’m having to reconcile my love of Delves with the horror of what they’re doing. It’s confusing.”
I considered Xim’s point, and figured it was kind of like somebody being obsessed with the Third Reich for mundane reasons–like they really enjoyed trench coats, for example–but having no idea about all the genocide. Then they found out about the Holocaust as an adult and realized their enjoyment of swastikas and goose stepping was extremely problematic. Or it could have been like somebody who was really into the style and culture of the Antebellum South, but during some in depth historical research they personally discovered that the whole thing was built on the back of chattel slavery. They’d probably have some uncomfortable feelings about all the Southern Belle day dresses they’d been wearing over the last few years.
“Varrin, you’re driven by a sense of justice,” Xim said, pulling me back to the present. “Etja is after freedom, Nuralie’s devoted to protecting Eschendur, and Arlo’s on a quest for big hero moments.”
“Saving people is its own reward,” I muttered.
“Then what’s your thing, Xim?” asked Etja, floating closer. “Sounds like it’s mysteries, but you want them to be big, messy mysteries.”
“Cosmic mysteries?” I suggested.
“Maybe,” said Xim. “I’m not really sure. I was just thinking about how nice it is for all of us to be back together, out on our own, doing some old-fashioned Delving stuff. It got me thinking, so I started talking. I don’t know what I actually want from all of this.”
“It sounds like it’d be no fun if you did know,” I said, earning a grin from the woman. “Personally, I think there’s still some weirdness we haven’t uncovered. The way the System is set up doesn’t make complete sense to me based on everything we know, and the stuff that’s turned up in the memory flashes I’ve gotten from Grotto makes me think a lot of dark shit was happening with the Old Ones. They built the System from the ground up, so how could it have gone so badly right there at the end?
“I mean, an automated series of world-ending apocalypses is about as bad of an outcome as there can be,” I continued. “If that was something they even thought was a possibility then they should have shut that shit down. So why didn’t they? And if they didn’t realize what was going to happen, then why not? It’s all very suspicious.”
“You think it’s more than just history’s biggest fuckup?”
“If I were being cynical, then I’d say it doesn’t seem like a fuckup at all. Fuckups are when things break, not when they self-perpetuate for a billion years. If anything, the fact that the System is still around can be seen as history’s greatest success.”
Nuralie nodded before disappearing again. “Then the real question is who or what wanted this outcome,” her voice echoed from the dark. “And why.”
Xim pondered that for a time. “That’s more of a conspiracy theory than a proper mystery, but I’ll take it.”