Azaria 2 -11

Good Morning folks.

Chapter 11: Overdoing it Again

Azaria

I dismissed my link to Lance’s doll through DJ Rai. She had made contact with twenty-one. She didn’t say anything, but I felt she had reaped the benefits of whatever deal was struck. I had been relying on Lance for stuff from outside the dungeon. With DJ Rai taking care of it now, it might be time for me to reevaluate our partnership.

I didn’t have long to think about that though as the last group that had lined up for the day was making their way into the dungeon. While I had successfully killed every member of the parties entering, this one was the largest and with all their comrades dead, they would be much more cautious the further down they got.

Each party was also learning from the last, as the third party had sealed off the tunnel to prevent any reinforcements from the bears. I had tried to pay attention to everything that happened, but I didn’t see anything that indicated they were sending a message back to their friends on the surface.

“What do you think Starburst?” I asked when I couldn’t find anything after looking for close to ten minutes.

“I’m willing to bet there is someone on the surface that has a telepathic ability. They link with someone in the party and watch the progress,” he replied after considering it for a while.

“That’s not fair,” I said unable to hold back my pout.

“Its not the sort of thing you can easily prevent,” he retorted with a shrug.

“It would be nice to have something that could prevent something like eavesdropping,” I said idly.

“There are plenty of magic abilities and items that we could create, but they would only cover a set area. A boss area for example.” Starburst explained and reminded me of a teacher at my school. I got sidetracked wondering if any of my old friends were still alive, or how they were living now if they were. “In the end, it would be too costly on your Aether to put up fields that prevent that sort of magic over the entire dungeon.”

“Huh? Oh. Okay.” I coughed to cover the fact that I wasn’t listening. “It would be a good idea to put something up around the boss areas though, right?”

“Well… It is good to protect the bosses’ combat capabilities. I’d rather we not have a one and done dungeon.”

“Exactly!” A girl has to have her secrets.

With that settled, I flew over to Tenderheart’s area. After almost two months of this, I was getting a decent idea on the way magic operated. While abilities played a part for mortals, as a dungeon core, I had a bit more free reign on creating magical areas and the such. I already had experience with things like Lance’s earing that made a disguise, and the armor amulets.

The real question was how I wanted to have the magic manifest. It would be pointless if was an item that could eventually be taken from me and then turned against me. DJ’s dolls operated through telepathy after all. I stroked my chin like I imagined a mad scientist would as I thought about the problem. I only had a few more minutes before the party would reach this floor and I wouldn’t be able to play around with it.

Spinning in the area, I decided to just try my luck. That had worked for me so far. I flew up to the ceiling over Tenderheart’s area and concentrated on blocking all telepathy that didn’t originate from the dungeon. Haha. I wasn’t naïve enough to forget to make sure to protect my own.

Placing my hand against the ceiling, I felt a surge of Aether leave me. I let the magic do what it wanted since this was it’s ballgame. Soon enough the Aether ceased flowing from me. I risked opening my eyes. I caught the moment that a magic circle that was larger than the room I was in, I knew this because part of the circle receded into the walls, faded and became part of the dungeon.

“Did that do it?” I mumbled to myself and focused on the party on the upper floor. I belated realized at that moment that I hadn’t been forced into the music room, but I put that aside for the time. The party had come to a stop and seemed to be discussing something. I listened in since the magic should only cover the boss floor.

“Team four. Reporting in. Herald, do you copy?” A man in the center said into the air. I had checked closely. Unless the earphone and receiver were jammed inside of him, he didn’t have a walkie talkie or anything.

“Do you think something happened on outside?” a woman asked nervously. I was glad that my dungeon inspired fear. Which was ironic, I know. The man tried for a few more moments to try and talk to the man outside.

“I don’t know the situation, but we have our mission.”

“You’re really going to say that after the first three teams died. This dungeon is smart, evil and horrifyingly cute. We should turn around and try again tomorrow after they’ve figured out what the hell is wrong with Herald.”

“I agree with Fred. Its’ suicide to go in without a line to the outside. We might not make it back,” another member of the team added. Make it back? What did that mean? I listened even closer hoping that I might catch some more.

“Fine. We’ll turn back,” the leader said with a sigh. This would be the first party to return without any losses. They should take pride in that fact. I wasn’t counting Lance’s sister, Sara, that girl had been more like a ballistic missile than a diver. Plus, she came into the dungeon through the ceiling. Rude much.

They retreated without much trouble and that was it for diving for the day. I stuck my tongue out meaninglessly and turned back to my dungeon. I flew to the roof and then further up. I had never actually seen how high up I could go outside. I managed to get to a decent height and turned around to look around my dungeon.

From here, I could see just about half of the city. My dungeon was on the outskirts of the rural area, but there were some industrial sites as well, though it was hard to say they were part of the same area. Up the road was where the high-income families used to live. Villas and manors that followed a winding road that went up a hillside for a few miles.

In the distance at the top of the high, I spotted the manor that Lance had escaped from. My old house. It was ironic, but now that I stopped to think about it, their house had always been right up the road from me. I idly wondered how long until my mother barraged into my dungeon. She had sounded pretty determined after talking to Lance.

I couldn’t do anything about it, so I turned back to my dungeon and focused on the full structure. I wanted to see how far in extended it I could. A ghostly image of the magic circle appeared in my vision and I realized that I’d likely annoyed a lot of people today. The circle covered every inch of my dungeon which covered a few miles in ever direction. Rubbing the bridge of my nose, I opened my status as I had an inkling of an idea as to what happened.

Azaria Highlock

Age: 14

Level: 4

Race: Dungeon

Type: Doll

Subtype: Goddess’s Chosen

Aether: 7,840

Floors: 4/5

Skills: Creation

Deconstruction

Summon (7/179)

Teleport Matrix (1/2)

Enchanter’s Melody

Uncontrollable Proliferation

Mirrored Perception

Total Domain

Achievements: God Killer – Killed a God, albeit a weak one.

Reigning Power – Permanently enhances abilities by ten percent.

The Surface – When a dungeon reaches the surface, the world opens up to them. Aether hourly gain (+10)

It had been a hot minute since I checked my own status and several items appeared to have changed. That said, I saw that my random ability had changed to Total Domain. I really wished this status screen came with a help menu. I waved it away and sank back down to the roof of my manor.

Sitting down, I watched the sunset. Part of me wondered if it was the experience of the last few weeks that made me feel like that the sky was bleeding. I stared at it for a few more seconds before I realized that the sky was actually bleeding. A large crack suddenly flashed open across the horizon.

“Well that just can’t be good for the sky,” I muttered before I leapt from the ceiling down to where Starburst was. “Starburst… I think we have a problem.”

“What is it girl?”

“The sky is broken,” I replied pointing out the window after I moved us to the manor. He looked outside with a raised eyebrow.

“That… That isn’t good.”

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