An Unbound Soul

I woke up in a state of mild confusion, but major hunger. The question of 'where was I' took a back seat to 'where's my breakfast'. In my backpack, it turned out, in the form of dry field rations, with a water crystal to suck on to wash it all down. I scoffed down three days' worth of the hard biscuits before turning my attention to other matters.

"All done now? I suppose you have been sleeping for a while."

Right, that's where I was. Core room. "Good... morning?" I tried, before checking [Clock]. "Afternoon, I mean."

"Why not go with 'hello', then it wouldn't have mattered?"

Because I was still half asleep. Anyway, there was something more important to deal with. "Please can you undo whatever you did to my Earth memories? I can't get near my own brother."

"Why not? Let me see."

There was a prickling at the back of my head, along with the sounds of rustling leaves, and I could sense her surprise.

"Oh? He was your brother? But your problem is simple; subconsciously, you don't want to remember him."

"What? Why not? I mean, I understand how much I must have been scared of him... Did he do something to me?"

"Yes. It's his fault that you died."

There wasn't anything I could say to that. I'd died to a truck, but while I remembered being hit by it, it hadn't swerved into me or crashed or anything. I had been the one in the middle of the road, and I couldn't remember why.

"I didn't say he killed you, just that it was his fault. He did try to kill you. You ran from him, straight into a road."

Scrambled images flickered in my head. I'd needed to run. If I didn't, I knew I would be killed. I had fled, as fast as I could. I'd run out into a road without looking. The truck driver had no chance. I'd been laying there, dying, and he had stood there, smirking at me.

"I can erase the memories completely. Make you forget he ever existed."

"No."

The leaves rustled in surprise.

"Memories are important. Even the bad ones. Please restore them."

"I don't understand. I can read your every thought, yet even so, I still can't comprehend them... But I know you're serious, so I will do as you ask."

I remembered. He had been two years my junior, and always jealous of me, ever since we were kids. I didn't know why; our parents had loved us each equally, and I had nothing he didn't. But where I'd put in effort to improve my school grades, to get a good job, to push myself forward, he'd preferred to complain and push the responsibility to others. His grades were bad because the teachers were rubbish. It wasn't his personality that stopped him making friends; it was the fault of everyone else for not understanding him. It wasn't his fault that he could only get monotonous, poorly paid work; it was because of the government.

He'd been sacked from the store he was working at for assaulting a customer. For some reason, he felt that was the customer's fault, but he didn't know who the customer even was and had no way to take out his frustrations on them. Then the next day I'd had a promotion, so with his twisted brain, he'd decided to take everything out on me. If only I hadn't been born, he would have what I had. My parents would love him and not me. If only I wasn't there, everything would be better.

He'd come at me with a knife, attacking me when I got home one day. I'd fled straight into the road. He'd laughed as I'd died on the tarmac, long before any emergency services could arrive.

I came back to myself, still sitting in the dungeon's core room, my cheek tickling as a tear ran down it. "Thank you," I said, and meant it.

Erryn said nothing, presumably confused as to why I'd want such memories. It wasn't just him, anyway; I remembered my whole family. Every personal detail I'd forgotten, I now had back. But there would be time to dwell on them later. That was better done in private, not while sitting in a dungeon core room. Why did Erryn only talk in core rooms, anyway?

"Because I am the dungeon," Erryn answered matter-of-factly, having been reading my thoughts again.

What? What was that supposed to mean?

"I was born a dungeon, a long time ago, when the world was dead. I spread myself across the whole world in my attempt to restore it to life, but the dungeons are still me."

I glanced at the golden plaque hanging on the rear wall and noted it now had one more name engraved than the last time I'd been here. Erryn, who created this world's life, was responsible for killing people? Why?

"It's unfortunate, but the world needs the resources provided by dungeons."

"That's true, but I don't see why that means they need to be dangerous. Why can't you just give the resources away? Or... I don't know, make puzzle based dungeons instead of filling them with monsters and traps, maybe?"

"Because that's not what dungeons are."

"And who tells you what dungeons are? Surely that's your decision."

The rustling quietened for a few minutes, by which point I was worried I'd been forgotten, and was wondering how I was supposed to get out of here. Before I had a chance to move, it resumed, albeit now more subdued than before.

"In the end, is anyone truly free? It seems that even I am still wearing the shackles placed upon me by my creators."

My vision flashed white, and I found myself back outside. What the hell was that supposed to mean? And why'd she boot me out? Dealing with my Darren issues may have been the most important thing on my list, but I'd still wanted to ask her opinions on the institute and mythril manufacture. Now I'd been unceremoniously dumped on the surface, and there was no way in hell I was going to be fighting that tenth floor boss again anytime soon.

"Peter!"

I looked around for the voice, finding the gate guard running at me. "You're alive!" He added somewhat redundantly, after closing the distance.

I looked down to double check. Yup, I was indeed still alive. "Yes?"

"You've been down there over a day! When you didn't come back, the guild master ran the whole dungeon looking for you. We thought you'd been killed down there!"

"Oh... Sorry, I was sleeping."

"Sleeping? On your own, in the dungeon?"

"It wasn't by choice," I explained with a huff. "I needed to use one of those potions that cuts stamina regeneration to zero for a day."

The guard stared. Maybe he hadn't heard of that potion before. "Well, anyway, you had better go and report to the guild."

I nodded and headed over. I needed new armour... Not a huge loss, given that I was close to growing out of my last set anyway, but still annoying. Also, I hadn't checked my messages since defeating the boss.

Dexterity increased by 1

Endurance increased by 1

Skill [Strength] advanced to level 14

Skill [Dexterity] advanced to level 13

Skill [Dexterity] advanced to level 14

Skill [Endurance] advanced to level 13

Skill [Item Box] advanced to level 4

Skill [Distortion] advanced to level 7

Skill [Distortion] advanced to level 8

Skill [Distortion] advanced to level 9

Skill [Weapon Proficiency: Universal] advanced to level 15

Skill [Enhanced Mana Recovery] advanced to level 11

Skill [Greater Mana Finesse] advanced to level 15

Skill [Mana Perception] advanced to level 15

Skill [Greater Mana Control] advanced to level 15

Skill [Weapon Style: Flowing Mist] advanced to level 14

Skill [Weapon Style: Flowing Mist] advanced to level 15

Skill [Extended Mana Pool] advanced to level 5

Skill [Enhanced Stamina Recovery] advanced to level 6

Skill [Extended Stamina Pool] advanced to level 4

Title [Survivor] evolved to [Survivor 2]

New title acquired: [Novice Delver]

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 3

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 4

Class level increased intelligence by 1

Quest completed: [Conquer the Dawnhold Dungeon Solo]

Rewards available

Nice... I'll happily take all that. [Distortion] was a clear winner, jumping up three levels. There was also one upgraded title and one new one.

[Survivor 2] - Your health has dipped significantly below zero, and yet somehow you still live. Classes unlock health enhancement skills of two ranks higher than your own. (Rank 3)

[Novice Delver] - You have cleared a beginner dungeon on your own, taking your first steps on the path of dungeoneering. Level requirements for class advancement reduced by five. (Rank 2)

Novice... Beginner... First steps... Seriously? I'd yell at the floating screen if I thought it would be able to hear me, and if not for that awesome perk. If it meant what I assumed it did, I only needed to advance to level fifteen to change class again. And as for [Survivor 2], I hadn't had any use from the first version yet. A check of the skills shop confirmed I had nothing I could buy, so even the upgraded version still wasn't doing anything.

And then there was the last item on the list. How did I collect my reward? The middle of the street wasn't the best place to work that out, so I shelved that one for later.

At the delvers' guild, people fussed, celebrated and complained in equal measure. I didn't see what made me any different from that last name that had been added to the plaque, who was thankfully no-one I knew of. The date was definitely one in which I'd been in Dawnhold, and I didn't remember the guild making a fuss about it.

The guild master chewed me out, mentioning that the only reason he hadn't sent word to Lord Reid and my village already was that he'd happened to hear from Adele about the Hero's Last Stand, and was waiting another ten hours to see if I turned up. I had to admit that sending a messenger to my village informing them of my death would indeed have been bad... No-one remembered the core room now, so it wasn't as if they knew I had a safe place to sleep once he found the floor ten boss chamber doors open.

I returned to my room and packed up everything into my [Item Box]. Even without my armour having been melted, I had no intention of re-entering the dungeon for a while. It was time to go back to the village, play with my baby brother and be a family for a bit. I didn't even bother to order new armour; I wasn't intending to come back until the summer for the next tournament, and given how rapidly I was growing, it would be best to put off my next order until then.

Before leaving, I poked at the completed quest. It was still listed in my status, and the option to collect the reward appeared when I brought up the details. A bracelet appeared in a flash of light, dropping to the floor.

Bracelet of Transport (Quality: 41)

- Enchantment: Spatial skill extension (Rank 3)

- Enchantment: Comfort (Rank 3)

I wasn't entirely sure what that did. Make my [Item Box] bigger? Improve my spatial spells in some other way? A quick check showed that [Weft Walk] or [Item Box] didn't appear to have changed. It didn't matter for now; I'd find out the details some other time.

I walked home, taking my time and not using any spells. It was a nice day, and I was done rushing about. Not every journey needed to be abused for training. Although I could use more [Weft Walk] levels; it was falling behind my other two new spells... No! I shook my head in an attempt to throw my workaholic thoughts out of it, and continued on my enjoyable walk.

The village was, as expected, exactly as I'd left it. I opened my front door, where Mum was sitting at her chair, with baby Darren on her lap. I walked over and gently stroked his head.

"I'm home," I declared, happily.