Natalia Talios POV

  It was nice to be in a dungeon again, despite all the circumstances surrounding it. There was a certain feeling that came with being immersed in Aether. The Sylcyne forest was dense with it, of course, being a place with rich deposits. Dungeons had a current to them, though, the draw of the core at the deepest section. It was like a set of lungs breathing in, but constant. In older dungeons, you could almost feel yourself being drawn in deeper.

  Natalia and her party were surprised, therefore, by the differences once they had found a safe area to stay. For one thing, their “safe area” was occupied by a giant pillar covered in runes. Natalia wasn’t a savant in their usage, but she could get by decently well. It was Boris, though, who had immediately known its purpose. It drew in surrounding Aether, stealing it from the core’s Aether stream, and funneled it to itself, where it eventually condensed and seeped down the pillar to create a pool.

  Boris had spent quite some time raving about the possible reasons why a dungeon would need to use such a crude tool, but the rest of the party had eventually tuned him out. Even now, as they got ready to leave, Boris remained at the edge of the pool of liquid Aether. His droning had become soft mutterings as he scribbled notes in the journal he always kept for such things. Natalia sighed good-naturedly before calling out to him.

  “Boris! Wrap it up, it’s time to delve!”

  Like a man waking from a dream, Boris’ book snapped shut, his magical quill disappearing into some fold of his robe, and he whipped around, a broad smile on his face.

  “Excellent!” He called back, even as he headed in their direction. “Which way are we heading?”

  “We’ll probably just follow the flow,” Natalia answered him lightly as he got closer. “Although that might be difficult with these pylons disrupting it. That is, if there are more of them.”

  “There are,” Boris said confidently. “I triangulated the main flow of the dungeon, and it seems to be entering mainly through the top of the house. If that’s the case, my hypothesis is that these pylons are what are letting it maintain this area as a floor.”

  Natalia frowned a little, but shrugged. It was interesting, but there were other things on her mind at the moment. Things like a proper delve and finding a proper fight. “Come on,” she said, motioning for him to fall in with the rest of them. He did so, and they began to move off, slipping into proper formation with a discipline formed from long practice. Korim took point, slipping in and out of the grass ahead of them like a ghost.

  Gisham was next, his solid bulk somehow more prevalent after being shrunk. Aliria followed him, eyes up and bow at the ready. Boris walked side by side with her, bringing up the rear. As a battle-mage, Boris wasn’t as squishy as others, and with her next to him, there was little chance of him taking a wound she wouldn’t be able to heal almost immediately. The formation was effective, and being in the back gave her mind an excuse to wander slightly. Her instincts would snap her back to full alertness if they encountered anything truly dangerous.

  Given that this was the first floor, she doubted they would find anything. It was a strange sensation being shrunk. All of them were feeling it, which was another reason they had spent so much time resting. They were Silver-Cores, and now all that power and Aether had been condensed via divine mandate. It wasn’t hard necessarily to use their full strength, but it was a little disconcerting to see yourself move so quickly in relation to things around you, even if you were carried just as far as you would have been usually.

  As a Silver-Core, Natalia would have been able to cross the entire deck of her grandfather’s woodland mansion in mere moments. That capability had not changed with being shrunk. Luckily, her natural instincts and training kept her from exerting the force needed to actually do that. It had been that way from the beginning, her mind seamlessly recognizing what to do to make sure she moved smoothly and efficiently.

  It was a heady feeling, having all that power condensed and contained. She ached to have a proper fight, but when she expanded her senses, she found Aether signatures running away from her group. She tsked to herself in consternation. Even dungeon beasts had a sense of preservation. After all, if they died, they wouldn’t be able to Ascend and grant their dungeons a new way to defend themselves. The situation would have been different if she and her team were antagonistic toward the dungeon. There would have been no shortage of fights then.

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  Natalia sighed, then straightened as Korim burst through the grass and skidded to a halt in front of them. He threw out his hands to balance himself, frowning in concentration as he obviously attempted to control his speed. Once he stopped, his frown became a boyish grin, and she had to fight a rising blush at how handsome it made him look.

  Bad Natalia. Focus.

  “Found something. You’ve got to see this,”

  Intrigued, the whole group followed him deeper into the grass toward the wall of the mansion. When they arrived, they all stood still, trying to understand what they were seeing. Inside a large hollow in the wall, a field of white fluff spread in all directions, even climbing up the wall in places. Natalia watched as her Aether senses went crazy. The entire field practically blazed with it, great volumes of Aether being drawn deep into the field where another of the stone pylons rose. Deeper in, Natalia could see the glimmering depths of liquid Aether, a prize so rich she wasn’t surprised to see beasts attempt to make their way in.

  One was nearby, an elk-like beast that had obviously been shrunk like them. It ignored them and pushed its way in, drawn by the Aether and disregarding the white fluff that was disturbed by its passage. Almost immediately, the tufts it touched burst outward, like fine powder to drift over the area.

  “Ten paces backward! Now!”

  Boris’s voice brooked no disobedience. The whole team moved as one, shifting away from the drifting cloud. They watched as the beast reached the pool and began to drink. Natalia turned to her cousin and raised an eyebrow. He grimaced.

  “I used Analyze on it.”

  Natalia’s eyes climbed higher. Analyze was one of Boris’s more prized abilities, with a decently long time between uses. It was something every party wanted when delving, as it gave details straight from the System, along with its description, where the lesser Identify only offered the name and rank. “And?” She prompted when he paused.

  “And it’s a Rank F mold with a Unique title.”

  “What?!” The cry was unanimous from practically everyone. Natalia turned to take in the field once again. It seemed obvious now, but of course, she was seeing it with shrunken eyes. Another danger to watch out for. Not everything seen from above would look the same now. There was more detail, for one thing. The cloud of – spores she guessed they were – truly looked more like little floating cotton balls. Still tiny, but not something to be alarmed about.

  Boris nodded, once, decisively. “Aether-dew Mold. The System called it a Rank F Guardian, and said it was more like an environmental trap than a true moving monster. Still, that elk thing? It’s already infected. And there, see the way the white patches on the far end gleam. That’s called Aether dew, apparently. The mold generates it to lure creatures closer. Ah, another victim.”

  The elk had already moved off, shaking its fur as it went, dusting the surrounding area with spores. Taking its place was a caterpillar. Contrary to Boris’s prediction, the little green bug was anything but a victim. It rose slowly on its back legs before hovering over the field's edge of white mold. Enhancing her eyesight with Aether, Natalia could see the tiny legs barely stirring the Aether-dew, molding it into bigger droplets that the bug then slurped up before moving to the next concentration.

  “Huh.”

  Natalia chuckled at her cousin’s consternation, but the laugh died in her throat as the caterpillar lit up in golden light. Now, this is a rare sight, she thought to herself. Not many delvers got to witness an Ascension in the moment, and those that did were liable to kill the beast in question. “Free loot,” they would say. She thought it was deplorable. Oh sure, she liked to fight monsters, to pit herself against a foe and come out on top. But dungeon creatures from Divine Dungeons weren’t really monsters. They were creatures bound to another in a mutually symbiotic relationship. They weren’t like Feral Dungeons and their twisted creations. They simply defended the dungeon, and the dungeon provided them with the means to Ascend beyond their base nature.

  Speaking of, Natalia could feel a weight settle over the area, and she could see her friends tense up. The awareness of a dungeon was usually something of a threat, no matter how curious and peaceful the encounter ended up being. It was common knowledge that dungeons weren’t as fully aware as sapient beings, and so they often lashed out at perceived threats. This dungeon, Valterra, glided right over them to settle on the caterpillar. Natalia could feel his power extend and bring her in.

  A fascinating creature, the Sylcyne Caterpillar. Did you know it can become almost anything depending on what it feeds on? This little guy has been feeding on Aether-Dew for some time, right under the nose of a Guardian, in fact. That will affect his Pool of Ascension in some fun ways, I expect. I wonder what the System will give me as options to choose from?

  Natalia could only watch, stunned, as Valterra chatted to her, seemingly unaware of how his casual words struck her like a sack of falling bricks. To think that all this time her grandfather had been right. Dungeons did have access to a System of some kind. It had never been confirmed, and dungeons never spoke to delvers personally. Natalia had known from the get-go that Valterra was special. From their first meeting in the clearing, she had recognized the depths that existed within him, the presence of an awakened mind and spirit. She could only watch, in stunned fascination, as Valterra hemmed and hawed over the possible options he would be given, her mind wrestling with the connotations of such a dungeon's existence.