SS - Chapter 26 - Surge

Computer is alive again! Still installing all my programs, and the dozens upon dozens of windows updates, but I did manage to get on Gdocs and finish the SS chappy I started earlier. I definately don't have time for TBoB today, but maybe I'll work on it tomorrow, before my scheduled shinnanigans.

Again, sorry for the delay guys, but these things happen... apparently.

Progress on the temporary settlement continued at a blistering pace. With the help of the maids we not only managed to get the basic storage structures and connecting roads built, but also managed to gather enough wood to assemble half a dozen large communal halls. Although they wouldn’t be enough to house everyone that was coming, they would be able to provide some crucial shelter if the weather turned bad.

Things were going so well, that when a problem did occur, I was caught completely off guard. I was in the middle of doing paperwork when my system appeared, unprompted, directly in front of my face.

Dungeon surge detected 

If the Irythan dungeon is not suppressed in the next three days it will overpower the limiters and begin releasing a wave of monsters into the surrounding area. This will disrupt the flow of magic within a 20 kilometer radius of the dungeon, causing the following operations to be suspended until the surge subsides:

• Create Gateway

• Construct Replication

If the dungeon is conquered, and the dungeon core destroyed during the surge the extra magic can be harnessed, providing a permanent bonus of +20 magic. 

The surge can be overpowered, and suppressed, by assigning 50 magic to the dungeon until the surge subsides.

Time Until Surge Occurs: 3 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes

Time Until Surge Subsides: 19 days, 23 hours, 6 minutes

Suppress Dungeon [Yes/No]

“What?” I asked blankly as I read through the information.

“What what?” Camille parotted. The girl had been sitting a couple feet away, with her feet up on the table, napping. The instant I flinched, due to the window appearing in my face, she’d jumped up instantly awake. 

“We have a problem,” I grumbled, gesturing towards the window in front of me. Camille frowned. 

“You updated your system settings so only you could see it, remember? I told you it was a bad idea, considering how often you show everyone your system window, but you still followed Sieg’s advice and did it anyway,” she huffed.

“Yes, but anytime I want to share with other people all I have to do is hit the toggle,” I explained, poking a control in the corner of the window. “See?”

Camille gave me a long, unimpressed look before leaning forward to read the message. As soon as she did, her eyes went wide.

“A dungeon surge? I’ve only ever heard stories of that happening. I thought they were a myth,” she exclaimed.

“Apparently not. According to this, if we don’t handle the surge, it’ll cause the gate construction to be suspended for two weeks,” I hissed, pushing away from the table and shooting to my feet.

“Can we handle a two week delay?” Camille asked curiously as I paced back and forth.

“Of course not. The gate only has five days of construction left, and my family only has a week left before they lose the option to change their allegiance,” I growled. “The schedule was tight, but I didn’t have any concerns until now. I had no idea something like this could happen!”

“You didn’t? Haven’t you spent the last couple weeks going through the reference information at night?” Camille asked.

“There are thousands of pages to go through in there, maybe hundreds of thousands, and I only have a couple hours in the evening, I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s in there,” I grumbled.

“So… whatchu want to do about this?” Camille asked.

“I don’t think we have much choice here,” I replied, dejectedly. “I’d have to suspend the gate project to suppress the dungeon surge, which I can’t afford to do, and if we let the surge happen it’s going to disrupt the project anyways. The only real option we have is conquering the dungeon and destroying the core before the surge hits.”

Camille cocked her head to the side. “I’m not sure why you’re disappointed, it sounds like a good thing. Not only do we get rid of a potential threat, but you get an additional 20 magic to use, why the hesitation?”

“Because one of the things I did learn was that Sovereign stones cannot produce magic stones, that’s entirely done by dungeons. If we want to gather stones in the future, we need those dungeons,” I grumbled.

“Well, we don’t need all of them,” Camille countered, “and we really don’t need one that’s randomly spitting out monsters.”

She paused, and looked at me, eyes wide. “Did you figure out why the stone chose you in the first place, how to locate another one? One stone is good, two would be better! Queen Camille has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

I reached across the table and smacked her in the back of the head. 

“Joking! Mostly!” she giggled, before looking at me seriously. “Seriously though, you still don’t know?”

“It’s vague… and considering how well everything else is documented, I suspect it’s intentionally obfuscated. I did find mentions of having to be a leader, and residing in the area around the stone, so the fact that we settled here may have been a factor,” I explained. “Other than that, no idea.”

I switched over to the map, and scrolled around looking for the dungeon symbols. Thankfully one of them was marked in red, and pulsing. Based upon my estimates it was only a couple minutes away from the camp.

“Wonderful,” I muttered to myself before closing the window. I turned to Camille, who was bouncing in her seat. “I have no idea if the dungeon is going to be active, or on standby when we get there. We can’t risk sending a big group that might trip the dungeon’s self preservation protocols and kick this surge off early, which means a max of five people. Suggestions?”

“Hmmmmm….” Camille stroked her chin. “Millie would be super useful, but since she came out here to retire I doubt we can convince her. Deirdre in case we need healing. Gabriel, because we might need a meat shield, and maybe Selena.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “I thought you didn’t like Selena.”

“I’m warming up to her,” Camille said defensively. “Even though she’s not my favorite person in the world, I’m fully capable of separating my personal feelings from an evaluation of her skills. She’s got a decent amount of skill with that polearm of hers, but more importantly I saw how useful that ability of hers was against the creatures we faced in the Citadel trials.”

“We don’t know if her prismatic eye works on monsters the same way as it did on those constructs,” I said.

“Even if it doesn’t, she’s still a decent combatant,” Camille explained. “And if it does, being able to slow something exceptionally strong would give us a serious advantage.”

“You don’t have to convince me, I’m already aware of what she’s capable of,” I replied. I ran over the options in my head, before nodding. “Can you run out and gather everyone? We may have three days to take this thing down, but I don’t want to take any chances with an unknown dungeon. We should start exploring as soon as possible.”

“On it!” Camille chirped, popping out of her chair. She made it half way to the door before turning back, “Bring them here?”

“Might as well. If they’re willing to follow us they’ll want stones for their gear,” I said, grimacing. “I think we’ve got enough to supply a full group…”

“Are you really worrying about that now? We’re going into a dungeon! Everything we kill is going to dissolve into a stone after we kill it. With a little luck we’ll completely replenish our supply of stones!” Camille declared.

“But we have no idea if the dungeon will be operating using the regular rules. What if, by being suppressed, it creates monsters without stones? Or constructs? Or something else we haven’t prepared for?”

“Stop worrying, even if that’s the case, it’s only a dungeon. We can handle anything that it cooks up,” Camille exclaimed. 

I knew she was right, all the dungeons we’d entered before were in the heart of the Iskel kingdom, so why would this one be any different? Still, something didn’t feel right. 

As she stepped out the door, heading to gather everyone I couldn’t help but mumble under my breath. “I hope you’re right.”