Talk with Taint
The room on the other side was a large cave made up of red rock with coral-like growths hanging from the ceiling lighting the cave up. In the center was a large stone brick frame, the frame was badly damaged, missing most of the right side and top half of the frame.
Inside the frame was a strange sight, a dark glassy stone made up a smaller frame inside the larger one, chunks of both frames littered the surrounding area with large chunks of gold embedded in the stonework.
As Stella entered the room she noticed that the temperature rose sharply, she had never seen something like this but she had read old fables and stories of the glossy black stone.
Obsidian, was a material that was said to have the ability to puncture the fabric of space, leading to another world. The portal was supposed to lead to a place called the nether, a place full of fire and magma where the souls of the dead lie.
Stella didn't know how many of these stories were true but she was willing to find out. The portal currently was incomplete and was missing more than half of the portal, but there was obsidian lying around that she could use.
Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to gather the obsidian here currently, it was in too big of chunks to be moved, and two she would need to study the portal to figure out how to put it together.
Stella went around and gathered some samples of the materials present. The red rock which she named netherrack was a red brittle stone that was surprisingly light The glowstone as it was aptly named had strength equal to glass and glowed in both its solid form and as dust.
Upon closer inspection of the portal frame, Stella saw that the obsidian was etched with various runes similar to the ones on her ring, luckily she had deciphered the rings runes and could read the runes on the portal. The portal had runes carved on the inside of the frame, and they were related to the process of opening a portal.
She also found a chest hidden underneath the rubble and inside were two golden apples, one of which glowed a soft purple, some golden nuggets, and some flint. After finding the chest there wasn't anything else that was interesting so she went back so that she could continue heading down.
The 16th floor was not much different compared to the past 15 floors, most of the monsters died without much of a fight although Stella made sure to kill the monsters herself, leaving her golems to standby in case something happened.
Using the golems to clear enemies was easy but she doubted it gave excelia so she went solo again to farm excelia. After reaching the 18th floor Stella got a room at an inn inside of Rivira and slept after a day in the dungeon.
Stella found herself standing in very shallow water with a person sitting down in the water not far from where she was.
"Hello? Do you know where we are, I was sure I was in Rivira."Stella asked
The sitting figure turned its head and stood up, facing Stella the figure looked almost exactly like her, except this version had taint covering most of the body.
"Do you dislike being bound to the eye of vis?"The figure spoke
"What do you mean bound, it helps me see far more than I should be able to."Stella responded
"Sure but at what cost? If it ends up damaged then you will almost certainly die."It responded
"Yea, but without it, I would have died, plus I can't really remove it anyways."Stella was suspicious of the tainted version of herself.
"You can't but I can. I could have provided anything you pleased, more than that eye, the gods, the eldritch, even &$*# himself. Without that eye you would struggle to see vis, without the gods you wouldn't be able to see your status, I can provide more knowledge than the eldrich can, I can provide more magic than *$#)$ could ever dream of. You just have to accept me."
"Accept you, you mean the taint don't you? You should already know my answer if that's the case."Stella said resolutely
"Why do you resist? I can provide anything you please but you still refuse me?!" It yelled
"You want to know why? I can overcome my eye's abilities with tools. Knowing all there is no fun, I want to learn how to do things there is no satisfaction in instant gratification. Whoever you were talking about, saved my life he gave me another chance at life, where YOU were the one who took it from me. For the gods? Nobody said I couldn't figure a way to do it myself did they?" Stella explained
"The taint is nothing but chaotic magic, all you do is corrupt and kill everything you touch! There is no person alive who would accept that offer if they knew who you were!" Stella yelled
"YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE RAT! YOU USED MY POWER WILLINGLY, AND AFTER I SPREAD YOU FOUND THAT HORRID MIXTURE YOU CALL A CURE! YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO SLOW MY PROGRESS BUT YOU CAN'T GET RID OF ME NO ONE CAN! AFTER I CONSUME YOU I WILL CONSUME THIS WORLD JUST LIKE I DID THE LAST, AND THE ONE BEFORE IT!"It screamed
The taint had devolved from looking like Stella to looking vaguely humanoid its body a mass of purple squirming tentacles. The taint lunged at Stella but just before it reached her she woke up sweating profusely.
The taint on her arm had grown significantly reaching her shoulder instead of her forearm. Stella quickly took a few doses of the potion reducing the taint to only her hand. After her encounter with the taint, Stella spent the next few weeks in the dungeon moving between the 15th and 24th floors killing monsters.
Stella had finished her time in the dungeon, she had run out of supplies and had to return to get her status updated on her way back up she saw a few of her familia members around an unconscious white-haired kid.
"Stella where have you been, we planned an expedition but nobody could find you!"Tione asked
"I was in the dungeon? Who is the kid?"Stella responded
"You have been missing for almost a full month."Riviera said
"I've been in the dungeon the whole time."Stella stated
"You have been in the dungeon this entire time?"Riviera asked
"Yeah, I'm heading back up because I ran out of supplies, when is the expedition?"Stella asked
"We are currently on it."Ais said
"Oh. Well, I need to update my status and restock my supplies before I head back down."Stella said
"That's fine, we will need to head up now that we found you, we can get more supplies now that you are here with us, plus we need to get Bell out of here." Finn stated
Upon reaching the surface the familia headed over to the Manor to re-prepare for the expedition. After getting the supplies ready Stella got her status updated to see her progress.
Strength: 899 A
Endurance: 899 A
Dexterity: 899 A
Agility: 899 A
Magic: 1000 SS
Magic: N/A
Skills:
Natural Thaumaturge: You are a natural-born thaumaturge! Understanding and learning thaumaturgy is much easier for you.
Discernment: You have a keen eye! You can more easily find out the properties of an object.
Tainted -> Curse of Taint: You are despised by the taint! Your stats are capped at certain amounts because of the taint using the taint will release this limit and multiply your stats. You will have insights into magic more commonly, and all magic is extremely chaotic. (Chaotic magic causes the user to use more vis while casting but increases the output drastically.)
Curse of Primordia: Cursed by magic! You are incapable of using mana this includes being used to fuel spells, your spells have increased output by a large amount.
Taint-Ward: The taint inside you doesn't like outside elements invading your body! Outside forces have a harder time affecting your body, charm, poison, or disease resistance can be built up. Charm: S Poison: I Disease: D
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Word Count: 1393
I changed the name of Taint Suppression to Taint Ward because I like that suggestion's name better. I also sped up the process of getting to level 2 by doing that jump cut, I personally don't like skipping all that grinding but at the same time, it probably wouldn't be interesting to read or write with Stella easily being able to clear the lower floors. Suggestions and power stones are always welcomed!