Umbral Feast

<~> Chapter 157

Our group was walking up the stairs to the third floor once again. While we were exploring this floor, Valkin's and Jol'ket's teams were going to explore as much of the second floor as they could and find as many unique samples to take back as possible. If they're lucky, they might even find a chest or a floor boss. There are so few people exploring the dungeon at this point that there isn't much competition to find something like that.

In the meantime, our group has a slightly different task. We're going to try to stay on the third floor through the equivalent of the flooding event to see what happens. We're only planning on staying by the stairs, so assuming nothing blocks the stairs off like it had on the first floor, we should be able to retreat once we can no longer handle the swarm. We haven't seen any evidence of these monsters on the second floor, so we suspect these ones might not be capable of leaving the same way the crabs do on the first floor. The stairs might get blocked off in some way, which makes this task dangerous, but with our mix of skills, we're confident we can escape or deal with the situation if necessary.

I looked over the alien terrain once again, lit by the aurora borealis. The polished stone exterior of the trees and ground looked so strange, like a sculptor's rendition of a landscape. Each tree was like a sculpture with angled planes that looked too perfect and geometric to be natural. There weren't any spots of crumbling, there were no cracks, and there were no obvious flaws with the black stone trees. They were pristine.

("They're quite strange, aren't they?") Luna asked.

I nodded and gingerly put my hand on one. I was tense, ready to escape if monsters poured out of it, but it didn't seem to react. Maybe once we have a better idea of what we're dealing with, we can take one of these trees back with us. For now, I was just examining it while trying not to kick another hornet's nest.

("Have you decided on what form you're going to take once the beetles start swarming?") Luna asked.

"I'm torn between shifting into a frost salamander and the fire zebra," I replied.

Luna tilted her head. ("Zebra?")

I drew my hand back from the marble tree and carefully took a few steps away from it. "The fire horses in the Fallow dungeon look similar to an animal from my previous world, an animal called a Zebra. They were similar to horses, but were a different animal. They were white with black stripes and stood in herds to confuse their predators." I turned toward her and laughed. "Not nearly as dangerous as the fire variety, but they have mean kicks."

Luna smiled and nodded. ("Either of those options seem like a good choice.")

"Do you have a preference?" I asked.

Luna shrugged. ("Well... If you chose a frost salamander, Iris would have the opportunity to use her wind magic to spread both fire and ice. We don't know how easy it would be for her to spread the mucus the frost salamanders spit, but that could be devastating to the beetles. That said, we're more experienced with fire and since the fire... zebras are immune to flames, we would be able to work together to better spread the fire around without worrying about you.")

"That's true, the only thing I worry about is getting surrounded by those beetles. They seemed to die to fire, but I would have to run through them as a fire zebra. At least with the frost salamander, I would be able to fight them off from a distance with everyone else," I said.

I sighed and shook my head. "What are the others going to do? It's not like the others will be able to do much against the beetles with their swords and bows."

("I heard rumors that Celeste was talking with one of the mechanists about an experimental weapon that spits fire,") Luna replied.

I turned to her and squinted. ("Someone's created a flamethrower?")

Luna smiled. ("An interesting name for it. I'll have to tell my mother about that. It's a lot better than the ones I was hearing.")

"That might help... As helpful as fire has been on this floor, I probably should see how the frost salamander does. You're better off sticking with fire since it's your best element," I said.

("I wish I had more opportunities to use lightning magic.") Luna sighed. ("I'm eager to develop it further, but fire seems like a much better choice for this kind of enemy. Unless you know of a way to make lightning work across a larger area.")

Frowning, the first thing that came to mind was a Tesla coil. I'm not really sure how they work, or if the effect could even be replicated without metal. ("I think I have an idea about that... but I'm not really sure how it works, and it might be a difficult thing to test.")

Luna started to grin broadly. ("I knew you would know something. Let's hear it, maybe I can find a way to make it work.")

I sighed and looked at her. "I'll tell you, but you need to promise not to be careless. I know you're experienced with magic, and you obviously aren't stupid, but I worry about your eagerness sometimes. Electricity is incredibly dangerous."

Luna nodded seriously. ("I understand. I know I can look overeager when it comes to magic, but I know how dangerous it can be, too. One of the reasons lightning magic isn't well explored is because of how dangerous it can be to its user. I promise you I won't take any needless risks or act carelessly.")

"I wish you hadn't added needless to that last sentence, but fine." I pulled out an expensive leather-bound journal I had been able to buy from the pseudo market that's formed in the center of camp. I also bought a fancy fountain pen to go with it. After using the paper to create my list of monsters, I realized how helpful it would have been to have something like this early on, especially when I was still trying to communicate without words. "I'll sketch something out to show you what I have in mind. Let's go back to the others first, though."

Luna nodded, and the two of us made our way back to the stairs. It would still be a little while before the flooding event, whatever it turned out to be, would occur. The others were poking around and exploring the area too, but we were being careful not to get into trouble too early this time.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

I crossed my legs and sat down before opening my new journal to a fresh page. I wish I had a pencil instead of a pen, but I would make do. The only alternative to ink they had was charcoal, which would be even messier. I don't know if I would be able to explain what graphite is to anyone, or even identify it when it wasn't already in pencil lead form. The thought made me laugh to myself.

It wasn't like I had ever seen a Tesla coil in person before, but I had seen a few videos of them, and I'd seen them in movies before. I didn't even know how they worked exactly, but I knew the general shape and what they looked like.

When I finished, I handed the notebook to Luna. ("Something like this was called a Tesla Coil. There was a large spool of copper wire up here, and somehow it would release electricity that would zap things nearby. I don't know how it worked, but I figure you could create something similar in principle. A tower that stands in place and hits everything nearby from a central ring of current.")

Luna frowned. ("I was hoping you would be able to give me more to go on than this. Do you know how it would release electricity?")

("Sorry, I don't know how they work. I had a passing interest in stuff like this, but not enough to actually do any research into it.") I tapped my lip and thought about it. ("I do remember one thing. This thing would create a magnetic field, so I think it probably ran electricity through the coil to generate the field, but from there, I'm not sure what would be necessary to create the secondary discharges. I think it worked in two parts,") I tried to explain.

Luna stared at the sketch with a serious look on her face. ("Perhaps I could create a looping structure with the magic to keep a current running, then feed a secondary current to shoot lightning at things nearby. I don't know if it would be more efficient than just shooting lightning at things directly, though.")

I looked around. "It seems like there's no monsters nearby. We could do some basic testing, but we should warn everyone that you're doing something dangerous with magic."

Luna nodded. ("Sure, one moment.") Luna handed the journal back to me and walked off to talk with the others.

I sighed and looked down at my shitty sketch. I was a pretty good student, but there were times when I wished I had paid attention to certain things a bit more. Working with Luna on her "lightning" magic was really pushing me to the limits of what I know about electricity. What I've given her has been helpful so far, but there's only so much I know about the subject. I've even taken apart broken electronics and looked at the pieces before, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what half of them did. It would have been nice if I had been slightly more curious about that sort of thing.

While Luna was gone, I started thinking about the whole moon lotus thing again. I didn't know what to do about it. How concerned should I be about giving someone like Celeste the equivalent of a weapon? Is what I would be giving her even count as a weapon? It would only be improving her own powers. What if Celeste needed something like that to defend Luna? To defend us? I also felt a little uncomfortable treating Celeste this way. Being suspicious of her. It was hard not to though. She's a noble, royalty. All of the movies and TV shows I've watched painted them as snobby corrupt people. Celeste maybe didn't quite have that much power, but I'm worried I would be enabling someone with the capacity to do something terrible with my help.

What if she used it to defend the two of us, though?

This wasn't my old world, the one that I was used to. The one with laws, police officers, and governments mostly controlled by its people. Celeste was a princess, descendant of a dragon in a world where might makes right. Most of the nearby collection of city-states were ultimately territory of the absolutely terrifying dragons. I didn't even know enough about this place to rule out that the entire planet wasn't ruled by dragons. Ultimately, by backing Celeste, someone who has a vested interest in my fiancé's happiness and someone who supports our marriage to each other, might be an act of self-defense in the end.

Maybe I'm overthinking this entire thing. This potion is supposed to be powerful, but maybe I'm overestimating what Celeste would actually be able to do with it. I guess I immediately became cautious when Emi and Celeste jumped to see if she would be able to make the potion, but maybe it's not as dangerous as I'm thinking. I didn't know...

This potion also isn't an unknown to the people of this world. The alchemist that Celeste brought in to talk about it agreed to make it, even if he was worried about the legality. This isn't the same thing as giving the people here the information to make a nuclear bomb. I would only be helping Celeste make something she already knows about. Even if she hadn't ever used one of these potions before, she could already get one of these seeds, and the implication I got was that royalty was allowed to commission them. Otherwise, the wary alchemist would have been agreeing to commit a crime in a room full of random delvers.

We've been attacked by assassins before. Maybe next time they would underestimate us less. They already knew that Celeste was dangerous, but they didn't know about me. From the memories I picked up from the other assassins, I don't think they knew how strong Luna is herself, either. Maybe they suspect she'd be difficult to kill, since she's the daughter of a dragon princess, but we completely tore apart that group of assassins. Somewhat literally.

Luna walked back and frowned when she saw my expression. ("What's wrong, Helena?")

I sighed and looked up at her. ("I think I've talked myself into helping Celeste grow some of those blue moon lotus flowers.")

She quietly nodded and sat beside me. ("I wanted to talk about that, but I didn't know how to bring it up.")

("What do you think about it?") I asked.

Luna sighed. ("I think you should do it. I can understand your hesitation, but I think we need to do this. When Celeste's other family members learn that I'm a dragon princess too, it could cause a succession problem. We need to be prepared for the worst, including the potential fight we may need to have with Celeste's siblings.")

I frowned. ("Do you really think it could get that bad?")

Luna shook her head. ("I don't know. This isn't really the world I grew up in either, but there are lots of stories of lost bastards showing up and causing a sudden succession war. In a few cases, it became large enough to turn into a civil war. I think that her brother Callisto can be trusted, but we don't know enough about the others to be sure it won't be a problem.")

("It sounded to me that Celeste isn't that high up the list of people in line to take the throne. She had other children, why would your sudden appearance be a problem?") I asked.

She shrugged. ("The line of succession isn't just about accomplishments, it's also about strength. I might avoid the mess entirely by... marrying you, but if I'm strong enough, they might want me to be in the line of succession above others regardless...")

("Which could cause a huge problem,") I said.

("Correct,") Luna said sadly.

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. ("I think that there's no real avoiding it then. Next time we leave the dungeon, we'll talk about it with her.")