A Trial of His Own

Kantan finally let out the breath that he hadn't even realized was caught in his chest once the two halves of the imp fell to the ground. He could tell that the fight had been close for Lyra, which made him grateful that he had only encountered a few Erthi in the beginning of his first experience in the dungeon. Now that Lyra had cleared her room, she would be safe for a while. Dungeons universally followed a set of rules that he had been taught in preparation for his first dungeon crawl. Things like every room had a way out, whether it was combat or puzzle. Another rule was that a room that was cleared was generally safe for a certain period of time before the dungeon would send more monsters to motivate the party to continue or perish.

Thinking about it now led Kantan to reopen the connection to Veri, only to cover his ears at the sudden voluminous rant waiting for him. "CAN'T JUST IGNORE ME FOREVER! I HAVE LIVED FOR SO LONG WITHOUT SOMEONE TO TALK- oh welcome back. Looks like your girlfriend awoke her core. I wonder what aspect she will end up using." Her voice shifted from a loud yell to a soft curiosity, leaving him with mental tinnitus.

"You know that you think really loud sometimes right?" Kantan mock rubbed at one of his ears before shaking his head. It was definitely going to be interesting having someone else in his head from here on out. "Her awakening her core is basically a given, I haven't met another person with so much talent. Just about anything she sets her mind to she accomplishes with flying colors." It had always been something he was slightly jealous of, especially when you factored in the fact that she had such a dedicated mindset paired with it. She never seemed to squander her potential with frivolous things aside from exploring, though he would attribute her desire to explore a large part of her determination.

Almost immediately after he finished talking he could feel innuendo flood into him from Veri, "I wonder if she is talented at that too. Eh? Eh?" As if he were being nudged by a zealous wing man, he could only rub his eyes and shake his head in response. "Oh come on, you try spending over a thousand years with nothing but stories muttered by adventurers and you'll be curious too."

Kantan sent a mental spike at the fiendish core for making him blush again before redirecting his gaze on Lyra. "Since she awoke her core that means that as long as she gets out of the dungeon without using her talisman, she will pass the trial." An idea flitted through his mind, and he quickly shot his thoughts over to Veri with an excited, yet expectant, light in his eyes. "You think I can meet up with her before she leaves? If I can get her to understand what happened, maybe she can get a hold of my grandfather. He should be able to help me figure out what to do from there right?"

Veri seemed to be in thought for a moment before she responded, "In theory that could work, though it may not be as directly easy as you think. In order to fuse with you I had to give up significant control over the dungeon. I can interface with the creatures to a degree, but its not as direct as before. I can change the parameters for new creatures being generated, change the floor layout, and things like that, but I can't change existing creatures anymore. Once a creature exists in the dungeon it would need to be slain and reabsorbed before the new setting would take effect. If we were stronger, maybe around sapphire rank we could control them directly."

The information was all new to him, especially since he didn't really have much to begin with when it came to dungeon operation. "So what does that mean? Would we be able to go to her part of the dungeon or not?" He knew that even the fastest trial takers would still take many hours to make their way through the first floor of the dungeon. Without their cores, most people would simply die without proper training and knowledge. Once you awakened your core, there were other challenges.

Demonic chi was attracted to other sources of chi, it was one of the foundational properties of the aspect. It infected things and changed them, one of the only aspects to behave in this way. Now that she was a source of chi, she would need to actively rest and recover her own internal reserves to combat the infectious essence in the dungeon. Unawoken humans were actually effected less than basic rank warriors, now that Kantan knew that all people had cores it made sense why they weren't affected. Their cores were dormant, so the demonic essence wasn't attracted to it.

Veri responded with her usual bubbly enthusiasm, "It means that we most definitely can go to her part of the dungeon, since I can control the doors and teleport formations. That said, some of the core functionality of the dungeon can't be changed at our level. So while I can open any door in the dungeon, we have to fulfill the requirements for the door just like any other group would." She spoke in a very matter of fact manner, but the meaning was not lost on Kantan.

"So I have to clear the dungeon just like they would, including fighting the various room guardians, right?" Kantan felt a bit of anxiety spike as well as a the soreness in his chest. "Is that something you think we can do, especially since we are still recovering?" He had some concerns that while he felt significantly better, that he hadn't really deeply inspected his body since his transition into whatever he was now.

"I mean you have access to an emerald tier core with enhanced chi channels thanks to yours truly. If normal humans can manage to survive on the first floor with just their starting amount of chi, than you SHOULD be more than capable." He could feel a hint of sarcasm in her voice, and the last phrase struck his nerves.

Kantan raised his voice slightly to retort, "Hey now, just because I'm being cautious doesn't mean I'm afraid! You might be an all powerful core, but you've never had a flesh and blood body before." He stomped his foot to punctuate his point, but the power in him seemed to enhance the movement accidentally. This sent him flying diagonally across the room before colliding against the wall. There was only a small amount of pain in the shoulder that connected with the wall contrary to the pain he had anticipated.

Veri's laughter in his head hurt his pride more than the impact hurt his shoulder, leading him to shrug it off. "You know it would probably help you get used to using our chi if you got some live practice. Wouldn't want you jumping into walls randomly while trying to walk around." She snickered at the last sentence, making Kantan's grey skin flush slightly.

"Fine. Lets just get this over with." Kantan looked around quickly before sending a questioning thought to his resident bully. "Where do we need to go to work towards where Lyra is?" He couldn't see any doors out of the room, but he knew that there had to be some along the wall that blended in. The pressure in his head flared slightly, and a small amount of his chi seemed to vanish before a soft rumbling sound came from the other side of the control room.

"There should be a teleportation gate in that room that will take you to the first floor." Kantan moved to inspect the new area connected to the control room, and found the gate she was referring to. It was made out of the same stone, but was inlaid with a complex series of runes and gemstones. Each gemstone lit up and cast a brilliant rainbow onto the rest of the room. He could see that each gemstone seemed to have certain properties based on the type of gemstone. The size of each gem corresponded to the different ranks, growing larger as you increased in rank. Starting with sapphire as the smallest and ending in emerald as the largest for this structure.

"Wow, I can't even imagine how much this thing is worth. I don't even think the kingdoms would have access to teleportation gates." He couldn't help but feel awe in front of the gate, not only because of the sheer amount of chi moving through it but also because of the fine craftsmanship. The frame felt like it would be on display before one would walk into the throne room of a powerful king. The raw chi moving through the frame made the runes shine from within the stone, and the hair on the back of Kantan's neck stood up on end as a dark purple swirl of chi began to collect and form in the center of the teleportation gate.

Veri spoke in a sharp tone, quickly snapping Kantan out of his reverie. "Go quickly, teleportation uses a lot of energy." Right as she spoke the gate seemed to hum and lock into place, the swirl transitioning into a pure black wall with absolutely nothing visible on the other side. Kantan hesitated, unsure if something had gone wrong with the gate. "GO!" Veri's yell surged across their connection, spurring him to quickly jump through the gate horizontally.