ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 90 The Purpose of Bottomless Gorge

Chapter 90

The Purpose of Bottomless Gorge

Friday

Time Until Integration: 1 Month, 22 Days, 4 Hours…

“Hello Dungeon.” Alexa said, as she spoke, she repeated her greeting in Precursor. This time the dungeon seemed to become awake and aware of her presence almost immediately.

There was a moment when the dungeon was blurrily waking up. Then upon recognition of Alexa, immediately came to life. The energy in the safe room became so thick and palpable that even the other members of the pack could feel the sudden change in atmosphere.

“What just happened?” Luke asked.

“I believe we woke the dungeon up.” Alexa said, then continued to speak to the dungeon. This time solely shifting to the Precursor language. “I have to ask, are you bound in any way?”

Gleam.

With that, she held up a hand that had what was now becoming an easy construct for her to make, a pentagonal shape that could be used to unlock the chains of any imprisoned dungeon.

Upon holding up the glowing item, its power could not be denied. But the dungeon itself seemed to be confused as to what the true purpose of such an item would be. This was mainly expressed by the slightly dimming of the lights and ambient energy of the area, as the dungeon seemed to be trying to examine the structure that Alexa had just created out of thin air.

“Very well, perhaps it is for the best that you are unaware of why this is so important. That said, I will give this to you as a gift. Keep it, and should you ever find yourself being forcefully subdued, use this as a method to free yourself.” Alexa said, then placed the item on the dungeon floor.

There was a brief pause, as the dungeon sent up a string of energy to probe the unknown item. Then after a second, the dungeon seemed to deem the item as safe and consumed it. By consuming the item, the dungeon effectively let the unique pentagonal key shaped pattern sink into its floor that seemed to become liquid just at the portion that held the key. Only once the key was fully submerged into the floor, did the vibrating surface of the floor smoothed out and resolidify into a smooth flat piece of ground.

“What?”

Everyone but Alexa looked on at the spot with surprise, Alexa for her part just continued with her plan for being here. Since this dungeon was not bound like the others, it this seemed to loosely confirm her idea that the newer dungeons that seemed to have spawned here were not automatically bound by dragons. This was good, as it meant that dragons likely had to have physical access to dungeons in order to imprison them, at least that was Alexa’s current working hypothesis.

The other fact that she felt she needed to test was whether dungeons that seemed to be spawned from other dungeons were corrupted by the new coding, meaning that they had their base purpose hidden by a layer of obfuscated code. Or were they born with the ability to show others what they were designed to teach. Given that her last few times here, she never saw the true purpose of this particular dungeon, she felt it was the latter, but still had to test.

“Dungeon, I will ask you some questions. Flash once for yes and not at all for no. Do you understand?”

Flash.

“Huh? What?” Luke asked, seeing the flashing lights of the dungeon, but not quite understanding what Alexa was doing with the dungeon.

Alexa held up her hand to stop her brother. “Relax, we are finding a way to quickly communicate with each other. They will answer my questions, one flash for yes and nothing for a no.”

With her brief explanation out of the way, she continued her communication with the dungeon. “Do you know your purpose?”

Nothing.

Alexa paused, as she considered why the dungeon would not answer or at the very least seem to answer a no. Thinking about it, she realized the comment might have been too vague for a child dungeon that might not be too aware of what the other dungeons were doing. With that revelation in mind, she focused her thoughts, then proceeded to continue.

“Do you know what makes you special? How you are unique from the other dungeons?” She amended.

Flash.

At that Alexa nodded. This was good, this meant that at some base level the dungeon realized it was special in some way.

“Can you tell me?”

Nothing.

At that Alexa nodded, it was likely too much to have a dungeon flash a system message that detailed their core purpose. “Can you show me in this room?”

Flash.

Then random items began glowing in the room. There were of course the obvious hidden components of the room, but then there were scales in different shades of blue. Alexa cocked her head to the side as she saw all the different variants that were being displayed before her. Then she realized, “you are a puzzle dungeon?”

Flash.

That much was obvious, but it wasn’t that this dungeon was a puzzle dungeon. No, there was something else, something deeper to what was happening. Not only did Alexa have to solve the puzzles before her, but there was another level to the puzzles. Coming to a conclusion in her mind, she asked for clarification. “I need to not only solve the puzzles, but do them in order from first priority to least?” Alexa said, pointing to the darker blue items then to the light blue items last.

Flash.

At that Alexa nodded. She knew all about the different tests of the dungeon, but she didn’t realize there was an order that they were to be completed in. Having this new piece of information made sense in a way, this was the reason why she was still here, why she was still allowed to come back. She had solved all of the puzzles throughout the dungeon, but she had never done so in order. With this new key piece of evidence, she then came to a conclusion.

“Question dungeon. If I solve you, if I finish these tests in order, will I be allowed to come back?”

Nothing.

At that, Alexa felt something deep within her let out a pang of sadness. Feeling the emotion, she instinctively reached up and held her hand over her heart.

“What happened?” Gina asked, the first to notice the change in Alexa’s emotional state. Which is to say she went from not showing any signs of emotion to suddenly showing signs of pain.

“I don’t…I don’t know.” Alexa said, still feeling at her chest and trying to wonder if she was all right. “I just realized how to solve the dungeon. Then I asked that if I solve this dungeon would I be allowed to come back, when the dungeon didn’t answer.”

“Wait, so effectively the dungeon said you wouldn’t be able to come back?” Julie asked, piecing the different pieces of the conversation together.

Alexa nodded.

“So you realized you wouldn’t be able to come back after solving this dungeon, then what?” Gina asked.

“Then I felt an emptiness right here.” Alexa said, as she patted her chest.

“You felt something?” Luke asked.

Alexa nodded.

Silence.

There was a moment of silence, as everyone understood the gravity of that statement. Alexa was able to feel things. Gina had seen signs herself, moments when she seemed to come alive, or moments when she appeared to show different emotions. But this was the first time when she showed so clearly the sensation of loss.

“So what do you want to do?” Gina asked.

Alexa shook her head, not quite knowing how to answer that. Logically she should just solve the dungeon and be done with this. This was either an analytics dungeon as she had expected, or something even bigger. Having that as a skill would be invaluable in the coming months, but it would come at a cost. A cost that she was not quite certain she was willing to pay at the moment.

“We can still do the green and yellow level difficulties of the dungeon right?” Julie asked.

At that Alexa turned to look at Julie, who seemed to be peace maker.

“That’s right, it would only be if we completed this dungeon at Red difficulty that we would be banned from here, right?” Luke added.

At that, Alexa nodded in agreement.

“Well then, let’s do that and see what we gain as a reward for beating this dungeon correctly from each level.” Gina posed, placing her hand on Alexa’s arm that was still in a protective position over her chest.

Hearing that Alexa nodded.

From there, the team went about solving different puzzles from the different rooms. Oddly enough, the dungeon was confusing. Now that Alexa knew the purpose of the dungeon, she went about trying to gather all of the glowing pieces.  Of course, it didn’t help that none of the pieces seemed to match one another.

“Why don’t we just go on ahead? Maybe we can come back.” Luke said, in a tone that said he sort of knew what he was talking about, while also not knowing at all.

With no better options available, the team went forward to the second of five floors and found that Luke was surprisingly accurate with his prediction. On the second floor, they found their first matching pair of clues, two playing cards that were from the same deck of cards. Sadly they were slightly lighter in color, meaning that they would have to be solved far later. But this seemed to prove that the floors were all linked together.

In all the team found ten different sets of items that all needed to be paired together from the five different floors. From there it was just a process of walking the items to their perspective rooms. None of the paired items went to either of the two rooms their pieces were found in.

In the end, there was almost no way to have properly guessed the arrangement of the dungeon rooms without Alexa and her Eyes of the Architect. That and her Intuition made it so the team was able to puzzle their way through the first floor of the dungeon at all.

Then once the last item was placed, the entire team was rewarded with purple psychic crystals.

“What?” Gina asked, picking up the crystal and then looked around to see that everyone else also got a psychic crystal for completing the dungeon correctly on green difficulty. Seeing the reward, it all but made their few hours of constantly going from room to room worth the sacrifice.

“I got Analytical Eye (I).” Luke said.

“Same.” Julie admitted, holding up the same crystal.

“Same.” Gina called out, holding up her crystal.

Everyone turned to Alexa who was just holding her crystal with a form of scrutiny.

“What did you get?” Gina asked.

“Hmm? Oh, the same.” Alexa said.

“I think we are meant to use this so we can be that much better at the next floor.” Julie said.

With that the others also agreed.

“Well should we take a quick break. Apply these, then see what the golden level difficulty provides?” Julie asked.

“Okay.” Luke said reluctantly. It was clear from his tone that he was not looking forward to the idea of applying a third psychic power to his personage. But this would likely be invaluable in helping to make it so he was seen as a different power level than the other older classmen.

“Hey Alexa, can you ask the dungeon to give us your floor?” Julie asked.

At that, Alexa paused. Holding up her crystal, but then nodded.

“Hello dungeon. Could you let us rest on my floor?” Alexa asked, feeling oddly nostalgic about the idea of her having her own floor inside this dungeon.

Flash.

“It agreed?” Julie asked.

Alexa paused for a second, having forgotten that she said the last part in English, but then nodded in agreement. With that Julie got a smile and grabbed Luke and began pulling him towards the exit. “Dibs on the bed.”

“There’s a bed?” Luke asked, having apparently missed the extra room with the mimic bed.

“Not for you. You can use the couch.” Julie shot back as she pulled Luke through the exit, leaving Alexa and Gina behind.

Gina was about to follow, but then noticed that Alexa still seemed to be off.

“What is wrong?”

Alexa paused as she looked at the crystal in her hand, then turned to face Gina. “It’s just that after this, after we are done here, I will not be able to come back.”

Hearing that Gina could only nod in understanding. It was clear that the longer Alexa stayed within dungeons the more she seemed to become aware of her emotions, at least to some extent. Gina figured this was likely due to the way Alexa always seemed to be absorbing the ambient energy around her, but figured she’d bring that up at a later point. Instead, she focused on the moment.

“Isn’t that a good thing. By being able to move on, you are fulfilling this dungeon’s purpose right? That is what this place was literally born to do. To teach you, and let you be able to enter the world more capable and prepared?” Gina asked.

At that, Alexa nodded.

“Also, the dungeon seems to be making it so we are all rewarded. Even if you are the only one who can do this.” Gina said.

“That’s another thing, after us, how will I get the others through?” Alexa said.

“Stop that.” Gina said, gently rubbing Alexa’s arm. “You can only do so much. After that, we are going to need to either succeed or fail on our own.”

There was a slight pause. “That said, I would greatly appreciate you carrying us, or at least me through the rest of this dungeon. I think the classes available from an Analytical crystal would be far better for me than a fighter or a monk class.”

At that, Alexa let out a slight smile. “I think you would look cute in the tight leathers of a warrior.”

Gina blushed for a moment, “well cosplay aside, we can do that later. For now, let’s just absorb these crystals and go on.” There was a slight pause as Gina looked at Alexa, “wait, where is yours?”

“I already consumed it.” Alexa said.

At that, Gina’s eyes went wide. “Wow, they really don’t do anything to you.”

“Other than mess with my emotions.” Alexa said, as she seemed to smile in her special way that sent chills down Gina’s spine.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I will need to sit down when I consume mine.” Gina said, gesturing for Alexa to follow her.

Alexa followed a half step behind Gina. Then when she left, Alexa paused to look at the dungeon around her. Realizing that she was alone for the first time, she made sure to say “thank you dungeon.”

Flash.

With that acknowledgment from the dungeon, she nodded to herself and entered the training floor. A floor that had been her bastion of hope and training before she made her way to Dawning Light academy. At the time the floor had seemed so big, there was so much here that she almost felt lost in all its splendor. Outside the house was still her garden and forest. Looking back, she could see how her magic had been wild and chaotic, how she forced the plants to grow, rather than just giving them energy and letting them grow. Looking at it, she saw so many things that she would innately improve upon. Still, this had been her home for so long. Or at least, the place she considered home. She knew that if things went bad, she could always come here to rest and live her life. Of course, if she got to that level, then she would have never made it this far. She would have missed out on making so many friends.

It was at this time that she realized the unfortunate truth. She had outgrown the dungeon. Through no fault of its own. In fact, if anything the dungeon more than did its job. It was designed to teach, and now she could easily see how she was better off for the dungeon. Also, she realized the unfortunate truth, that in order for her to go, this would have to be her last time here. With that mentality in mind, she joined the others who were all experiencing the pains of applying crystals.

In all their pain seemed to last roughly as long as Alexa’s own emotional high from her own consumption of her crystal.

Luke was busy clawing at his head, “my brain. My brain, it hurts.” Luke said, as he clutched at his head.

“Charlie-horse, I told you to use it more often.” Alexa quipped.

“Oh har-har.” Luke said, as he paused long enough to register the comment. Then immediately began clutching at his head in pain.

“I thought it was pretty funny.” Julie said, she too was experiencing pain, but apparently not on the same level as Luke.

Gina seemed to be taking the entire process in stride. Though it was clear she was in immense amounts of pain, she was still able to move about and react normally.

Seeing the way Alexa was looking at her, she spoke. “What, this level of pain is nothing. Try doing cardio with a failing heart, now that is pain.”

Finally, after a long moment of pain and adjusting to the new sensations. Everyone finally felt their powers manifest.

“So, what now?” Luke asked, his tone somewhat hoping that they call it a day and head home.

“Now we finish what we started.” Alexa said, sounding somehow more resolute than ever.

Hearing her speak, Gina and Julie both nodded in unison. Luke for his part took in a deep breath and then also nodded in agreement, though a bit more begrudgingly than the others.

“Well, let’s go.” Julie said, grabbing Luke by the arm and all but dragging him through the yellow tunnel.

“Fine.” Luke said, as he reluctantly followed Julie.

This of course left just Gina and Alexa behind again. Seeing that Gina wasn’t moving, Alexa gave a slightly raised eyebrow, a physical gesture she knew conveyed a question.

“Thank you for this. I know how much this place means to you.” Gina said.

Alexa nodded then said, “sometimes we need to grow up elsewhere to come back and find out just how constraining our past really was on us.”

With that the two entered the golden difficulty part of the dungeon, a tone of resolution filling Alexa with each purposeful stride forward.

Seeing Alexa stride forward confidently, Gina felt a shiver run down her spine as she realized she would follow her anywhere.