Ember of Invention

The group of adventurers and Lindle stood in silence for a few seconds looking at each other. Rosato slowly lowered his sword, a look of confusion on his face as he glanced at Lindle, then at Nothing. “You disappear into a wall for several minutes saying nothing, then reappear with a black slime in your hand and you say hey?” The knight didn’t seem amused.

Lindle grimaced. “I’m sorry. I don’t really know what happened. When I saw the door earlier it was like I couldn’t control myself. Before I knew what was happening I just sort of… was on the other side.” Lindle looked at the sword in Rosato’s hand. “Were you about to attack the door?”

“It’s a door?” Rosato responded. “When you disappeared, we tried to get you back. None of Chip’s or Dorothea's spells did anything, I was going to break it down.”

Lindle was glad he managed to leave in the nick of time then. He had no idea if he would be able to leave if the door was destroyed. He could have been trapped back there… forever… Lindle shuddered.

Rosato sighed. “What exactly happened? And who’s your…” Rosato gave a wary glance at Nothing and Lindle could see him tighten his grip on his sword. “Little friend?”

Seem Distressed.

Lindle looked down at Nothing as they seemed to shrink down into Lindles hand, lowering its pseudopod. Nobody else seemed to react as Nothing spoke. Was it because he was the only one touching them? Lindle hadn’t been touching Nothing the first time he heard them speak though.

“I got control of myself when I was on the other side. There’s some kind of big hidden workshop back there. I found Nothing,” Lindle pointed at them in his hand to hopefully avoid the confusion, “and they helped me get back out, they’re… I don’t really know what they are, but they’re nice. I even got a new feat because of them!” Lindle gave them all an excited smile.

They all exchanged looks with each other. “That’s great, Lindle,” Rosato said. “Real quick though, do you mind if Chip makes sure you’re unharmed?”

Lindle frowned in confusion. They all didn’t seem as happy for him as he thought they would be. “Um, sure? My HP is fine though. I didn’t get hurt at all going through the door.”

Chip stepped forward and smiled at Lindle reassuringly. “Just to be sure.”

Lindle was still a bit confused, but he let Chip raise a palm to him and cast a spell. After a few seconds, Lindle didn’t feel anything, but Chip turned to the others. “All clear.”

Everyone sighed in relief and Rosato sheathed his sword. Lindle blinked. “What was that about?”

Chip gave him a much more genuine smile. “Sorry Lindle, just mentalism protocol.”

“Mentalism what?” Lindle hadn’t heard of anything like that before.

Dorothea answered for him. “In some dungeons, there’ll be monsters that like to use psychic magic to mind control delvers.”

Rosato shrugged. “You say you lose control of yourself and you come back with a slime of some kind in your hand. We need to check to see if it isn’t puppeting you around.”

Theodore patted Lindle on the shoulder and Lindle flinched. He hadn’t even noticed the rogue standing next to him. If he really had been under the effect of mind magic would Theodore have…?

Chip saw the look on his face and hurried to add. “I have spells to cleanse corruption like mentalism. The boys would have just restrained you while I tried to cure you.”

Lindle sighed and collapsed into the nearest chair, taking the big one behind the desk. Lindle supposed he wasn’t enough of a threat to them in a scenario like that, still, that certainly had put a damper on his excitement.

What happen? Safe?

Lindle looked at Nothing. “You didn’t hear them?”

Not understand them.

“You don’t understand Helvetician? I’m speaking it though.”

Nothing gave the equivalent of a shrug in response.

“What’s happening? Are you talking to it?” Dorothea leaned down next to Lindle and stared at Nothing.

“Yeah, we’re talking. I don’t know why none of you can hear them though, and Nothing says they can’t understand any of you either.”

“Fascinating.” Dorothea brought her leatherbound notebook out and started writing something down. “Sounds like some kind of psychic link. Some mentalism spells allow people to communicate across language barriers. Ask them if that’s what they’re doing.”

Lindle relayed the question, and Nothing shrugged again. “Nothing doesn’t really know. They told me they’re unfinished, so they don’t know much.”

“What does that mean? They’re some kind of slime golem that wasn’t completed?” Dorothea asked.

“Maybe? But they aren’t a slime, I think, they’re made of Ethos.”

Dorothea looked at him blankly. Lindle looked at the others, who also didn’t seem to have any signs of recognition on their face.

“Ethos? What’s that?” Dorothea questioned.

“I was hoping you all knew. Nothing told me about it, and now I have a feat that lets me sense it. It’s this weird kind of energy in everything, it’s like Mana and Aura, but it’s different and kind of hard to describe.

The pencil dropped from her hand as she stared at him in shock. “A third energy type…” the mage said breathlessly. She started muttering to herself. “This is incredible… If the guild wasn’t going to come here before, they certainly will now.” She looked up and looked victoriously at her cousin. “Another bust huh?“

Rosato rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Yes, yes. I just had to open my big mouth right before we landed on a goldmine.” He looked at Lindle and smiled. “Sorry for not congratulating you before. A lot of this is going over my head, but this feat has to be a good one, between the forest and now I’m assuming you’ve gotten what you wanted?”

Lindle’s earlier excitement rekindled. “Yep! A new class just shot to the top of my selection list. Does the name Artificer mean anything to you?”

Like before there wasn’t much recognition on anyone’s face.

“Artificer…” Rosato hummed to himself. “No, I’ve seen a few rare classes but I’ve never heard of one of those before, but the name does sound a lot like Artifacts, maybe it has to do with them?”

“What are Artifacts?” Lindle asked.

“An Artifact class?” Dorothea's face was in her hands. “Well, I suppose we could just add another thing to the pile, though I wouldn't be sure. Artifacts are a special kind of magic item only found in dungeon zones. They’re extremely rare. Finding one can set an adventurer up for life and potentially generations after.” She looked at Lindle. “I seriously doubt your class will be able to do something as insane as creating Artifacts if that’s what you’re hoping for, that isn’t just a rare or new ability, it’s like expecting a primary class to allow you to fight with the strength someone 3 or more tiers above you.”

“What can Artifacts do?” Lindle asked.

“Artifacts are… Well, they don’t have a defined set of rules for what they can do, but they’re all insanely powerful. The headmaster at Silent Owl Academy has one of the only confirmed ones on the continent and his can manipulate time. It makes him likely one of the most powerful people in the world.”

Lindles eyes widened in shock, looking at the others to confirm, and they nodded.

Dorothea continued. “They aren’t items that are enchanted to have magical effects. They are magic itself, somehow pressed into material form. She put a hand to her chin and considered. “Maybe it’s a kind of scouting class? You did unlock it after finding a secret room. Being able to track down hidden locations in dungeons that may hold artifacts would be incredibly valuable.”

Lindle shook his head. “I don’t think so. Nothing said that it was a crafting class for Ethos. I’m going to use it to finish making them. Whatever that means.”

“I don’t know what that means… You’ll be able to make things like them, then?” She looked at Nothing, who stared at her curiously. They had been content to be quiet, as everyone discussed. “I have so many questions.”

"And I think they’ll need to wait for later.” Everyone looked at Theodore as he interrupted. “This honestly all sounds very exciting, but I would like to remind everyone we’re still trapped in a dungeon with a massive monster a tier above us outside, and we’re getting close to the limit of what the dungeon will tolerate us sticking around in one spot. What are we going to do?”

Rosato considered. “Honestly…? I think we should try and leave the dungeon.”

Dorothea started to protest, but Rosato interrupted her. “For now. I think we’ve already discovered enough to realize this dungeon isn’t normal. Aside from what we've discovered, that monster outside isn’t right. An enemy an entire tier above us nowhere close to the boss room? Even if we beat it, that doesn’t bode well for what we run into next. It’s too dangerous to go alone, and especially with Lindle here.”

Now it was Lindles turn to start protesting but he was stopped as well.

“Look, this place may be too dangerous for us to go deeper, and you still don’t have a class. With what we’ve discovered, there’s more than enough motivation for the guild to send a lot more people down here from Soarstrum. We’ll still get credit for the find and we can even lead the expedition. Besides, how were we going to take all these books out of here anyways by ourselves?”

Dorothea’s and Lindle’s protests both died. Despite Rosato's analysis of the risks not being certain, what was certain was that there were hundreds of books right outside, and there were only five of them. How were they going to extract all of them out of the dungeon and across miles of snow and monsters in the Reach?

“Okay, fine,” Dorothea huffed.

“But how do we get past the Librarian?” Lindle asked.

Librarian?

Lindle looked down at Nothing. “You know something about the Librarian?” He asked. Everyone looked at Lindle and Nothing. They hadn't been saying much, getting only one-half of the conversation must have been confusing.

Like Librarian. Is Kind.

Lindle could feel Nothing emanate pleasant nostalgic emotions, but they didn’t convey anything in particular.

“The massive wooden monster?” Lindle furrowed his brow as he tried to imagine how something like that could come across as kind. Maybe it was built alongside Nothing?

Wood? Can see?

Lindle looked to the others. “Is it still outside? Nothing wants to see the Librarian.”

“It’s been prowling outside the door, I’ve tried to sneak outside but it can sense me somehow,” Theodore answered. “It doesn’t try to attack unless we try stepping outside, so I can crack it open a bit.”

Lindle nodded, relaying the plan to Nothing, who seemed confused about why it was necessary but agreed. Theodore silently cracked open the door and held it, ready to shut it at the first sign of danger. Lindle wondered if his ability to walk through the snow silently extended to creaky doors.

As he opened the door Lindle held Nothing so they could both see outside, where the Librarian stood silently, its carved face trained on the door. Nothing stared at the giant monster for a few seconds.

Anton?