Dungeon at the End of the Universe

Outside the walls of the inner city, in an out of sight alley, Faellen and Ram stopped for a minute. The fairy was certainly proficient in its magic, but its power reserves left much to be desired.

“What’s the plan?” asked Ram.

“A few things,” Faellen replied. “Mostly to continue your training, you wouldn’t want to stagnate or get rusty, and to figure our what your blessing does.”

“You know of our blessings?”

“Of course I do. Who do you take me for?” It looked around the alley they were in. “Now, I’m low on mana for a bit, so you’ll need to carry me the rest of the way.”

“The rest of the way where?”

“Out of the city. Can’t really train with all these people around, can you?”

Ram grabbed the little fae and hid it as best she could. Which wasn’t exactly easy since, as mentioned previously, Sipalians usually only wore the one piece of clothing. The Tramoot.

So, Faellen had to hide under that. Holding onto the big Sipalian as best as it could, they slowly made their way out of the city.

Luckily, nobody bothered to stop them.

Once outside, Faellen floated out from beneath Ram’s Tramoot and in front of her face. Surrounding the city were mostly plains and fields, but nobody was near enough that they’d spot the strange flying creature.

“Alright, we should head in…” the fairy concentrated, then pointed, “that direction!”

“Hold on a sec, we can’t just randomly go wherever. What about supplies and stuff? And besides,” she paused for dramatic effect, “we already know what the blessing does.”

“No you don’t.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes,” Faellen replied deadpan, “but why don’t you tell me what you think it does.”

“Simple, it expands System functions. Prshky and Ditti know where I am since we’re in the same party. We were even able to send simple messages to each other when near enough. There were also some descriptions for the status entries that weren’t there before.”

“Sure, sure. Say, would you mind pulling up the blessing screen for me?”

“As you can see, my dear Ram, the blessing is a complex one. You and your friends will have to discover what else it does.”

For a second, Ram stood there, a bit stunned. How had she missed that line? How had any of their party missed it? Or did they simply forget about it?

“Fine,” at last, she grumbled out.

“Perfect. Now, let’s go! That way!” Faellen again pointed towards one of the Dungeon Seeds and sat down on top of Ram’s head.

“Do you have to sit there?”

“Absolutely!”

While the two were walking away from the city, the rest of Ram’s party was still deep inside it.

Prshky, ever the over-thinker, was still stuck in his head. He was replaying the scene in his mind, wondering how he could’ve reacted differently and what the result would’ve been.

At least in Ditti there was some change.

Enough time had passed that fate was starting to recover from the unexpected situation and once more whispering in their ear. They had expected to wait there for a few weeks more, only to be released when a worrying announcement about Dungeon appeared. But for some reason, the fairy that was their Tutorial guide came by out of nowhere.

Now that Ditti was no longer dazed by association, they realised they should’ve gone with Ram. In fact, their Ability was telling them that they still could catch up. But that was easier said then done.

They looked up at their one remaining party member. The wizard Prshky. He had almost no skill in stealth.

“Can you become invisible?”

“Huh?” Prshky was thrown out of his contemplation. “What? Uh? I don’t know? Probably not. I only have the Ability for mana bolt. The other is passive like your stealth and Ram’s strength.”

An otherworldly whisper told Ditti what to do next.

“Can you sense this?” they asked as they did they best to flare and actively use their passive stealth enhancing Ability.

For his part, Prhsky began to concentrate instead of once more making confused noises.

“I- I think so, yes. It’s somewhat like a strange cloud of mana around you.”

“Latch onto it.”

“What?”

“It’s the stealth passive. Should be able to cover you.”

Prshky did his best to follow the rather sparse instructions. Fortunately, he had as much time as he wanted. Nobody was really monitoring them in their room.

After some few dozen minutes, he accomplished it.

“Haha! I did it!”

“Good,” was Ditti simple reply. “Stay quiet and follow.”

“Wait, so we’re not waiting like your Ability said?”

“Ability changed.”

After that Dittillapp refused to elaborate more. They led the both of them through the building they’d been in for weeks now, silently leading the two of the around any patrols.

The whole operation was much simpler that either of the was expecting and soon they found themselves out of the building and even outside the walls of the inner city.

The only downside to using their stealth skill in this way was the mana usage. While normally it used none, or very little in intense situations, when hiding another person the mana usage skyrocketed.

Coincidentally, they stopped to recover in exactly the same alley as Ram and Faellen had done earlier.

“I’m assuming you can feel Ram’s position too?” Prshky asked.

Ditti only gave a simple nod.

Soon after, they were off. The walk through the rest of the city was as simple as it was for Ram. They didn’t even have to hide a fairy on them. In almost no time they were out of the city and looking out at the fields surrounding it.

Now they only had to catch up.