ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 75: An Unlikely Teacher (1)

Chapter 75

Dragon Trials II

An Unlikely Teacher (1)

Friday

Time Until Integration: 1 Month, 29 Days, 7 Hours, 17 Minutes…

Alexa emerged from the doorway to find that she had not in fact started her sixth stage of he Trials of Ascension. Instead, she now found herself staring at a somewhat familiar, but ultimately unique wall of text.

WARNING: There is a 1 in 1 chance of summoning a dungeon with dragon as the sole boss.

Note: As candidate is now in the Trials of Ascension, leaving the dungeon is not possible. You must either submit to the dragon, or else one of you will die.

Alexa didn’t quite know why she was now forced to take the trials in consecutive order like everyone else claimed. Though if she had to guess, it likely had something to do with her having fixed the errors related to her own candidacy profile. While the overall system is robust, it was not meant to constantly be overwritten and manipulated the way it was currently being manipulated.

She could all but feel the way the code was being corrupted by the very nature of dragons. Oddly enough she was now familiar enough with the system to state for a fact that dragons were yet a third group trying to manipulate the base system created by the Precursors.

Looking on ahead, she saw the vast open arena area where the dragon was perched sleeping on a giant mountain. This was a giant green dragon that oddly enough blended in quite well with the grassy green landscape of the hill.

Large Nature Dragon: Level 53, Status: Healthy, Disposition: Asleep, Weaknesses: Death, Necromancy

Seeing the dragon’s level and characteristics like this a few things became apparent. First this was not a summoned aspect like the other creatures she had faced thus far. Second, this was by far the largest dragon she had faced thus far, both in terms of size and level. The dragons she faced on, well last night, okay two nights ago, were limited to level 25 for whatever reason. Alexa vaguely recalled something about being limited to the size of the dungeon being used, but that was hard to verify.

Seeing the dragon, Alexa realized that this dragon had likely made its home within the dungeon. That was the only thing that made sense in this arrangement. That would be the only way the dungeon would not need to summon a dragon to begin a trial, as the dragons had somehow learned to take root inside these dungeons, like overgrown rats finding a place to shelter for winter. With that revelation in her mind, she wondered if the semi-sentient dungeons actually liked the fact that these dragons took up roosts within their innards. Alexa knew for a fact that she wouldn’t like parasites taking root within her own body, which was why she decided to try something.

“Hello dungeon.” Alexa spoke in the Precursor language, the language of the original system creators.

With her words, the lighting in the entry room became a little brighter.

“Dungeon, can you flash brightly if there are alerting mechanisms in place to awaken the dragon once I enter the room?”

It was a long shot, but Alexa felt there was no harm in trying to ask. At the very least, she knew she might need to rephrase her question so it was something the dungeon could understand. But to her surprise the dungeon seemingly did understand.

Flash.

“Good. Thank you dungeon.” Alexa said as she nodded to herself. Then she asked her next question, “flash again if there is a way you can disable the warning mechanism.”

Nothing.

After a few seconds, Alexa realized there would not be a response from the dungeon. This meant that whatever the dragon had installed were created by it.

“Thank you, dungeon.” Alexa said as she paused, she was close, so close. She could almost feel a way forward brewing in her mind, but it wasn’t going to be easy, or was it?

“Dungeon, is the wards set up on just this entry way?” Alexa thought she would have to clarify and make sure she asked about the doorway being distinct from the walls, but the dungeon seemed to understand anyways.

Flash.

“Thank you, dungeon.” Alexa again made sure to thank the dungeon for answering her questions. Then another thought came to her.

“Dungeon, can you create a new entry way to the main room for me?”

Flash.

At that Alexa felt a brief jolt of satisfaction. She knew there was a way to solve this problem before her. Now all she needed to do was wait.

And wait.

Finally after a minute, Alexa realized the problem with her question. It was the same way her dad always got her with dad jokes. “Dungeon, will you create a new entry way for me?”

Nothing.

Nodding to herself, she realized that yes, she had just been dad joked by a dungeon. Still, years of dealing with her dad had taught her the resolve to work around this type of issue. Logically speaking, this dungeon wasn’t programmed to be annoying, so it was likely answering truthfully when it answered that it could build the door. Then when it didn’t answer the question of will it create a new door, she figured there had to be some underlying problem she was missing.

Thinking to herself, she wondered about what it would take for a dungeon to create a new doorway. First there would not only have to be a new doorway that was far enough away from the warning alarms in place that it would not set off the alarms. Then there would need to be additional tunnels-built form this entry way room that led to the new doorway. When she thought about the entire process from this overarching perspective, she realized that the issue might not be wanting to help, but ability to help her. To confirm this course of thought, she decided to ask.

“Dungeon, is it a matter of Energy? As in you do not have enough energy, in order to create the new doorway and means to access the new doorway?”

Flash.

“Thank you, dungeon.” Alexa responded.

Then pondering this new development, she wondered. “Is there anything that I can Create to help you?”

Alexa then held out her hand in a completely unnecessary gesture, and began using Creation magic to make iron, silver, gold, and platinum in quick succession to demonstrate what she meant.

Flash.

At that Alexa felt she was getting somewhere. “Good, what can I create to help you?”

There was a quick flash of light on the wall in front of Alexa. Then as Alexa turned her gaze to the wall, she saw a diagram that looked like a complex building design. Alexa looked at the design and thought at first it was some type of house, but that was just ridiculous, so she continued to look at the design. There were odd characters over the different locations. At first she thought they were notes on what each room was, but slowly over time she realize they were elemental shorthand. The only problem was the shorthand was in Precursor. While she might know the language, the nuances of their periodic tables were beyond her. But still she began to see a few standard forms. If carbon is the building block of all things, then I can assume that these parts here are carbon. But then, what are these others? Also how many elements does it think I can create?

Seeing the design, Alexa shook her head and answered truthfully. “I am sorry Dungeon, I am only at Tier II of Creation. What you are asking is too complex for me right now.”

Flash.

Alexa was about to ask what it meant by the flash, when the image on the wall changed, and was done with a simplistic model. Rather than the dozens of different elements identified, she now saw two elements. Better still, there was a legend with the Precursor name and the atomic number next to them. Seeing that, made the whole process so much easier. So, the big one was carbon, Alexa mused to herself.

Then looking at the second element, was confused for a moment as she didn’t immediately recognize its atomic number. It wasn’t until she took a moment to recall her elemental chart that she realized it was Iron. Shaking her head at her own blunder she realized that the structure she was being asked to create was steel. At least, that was what she figured the form was.

Shrugging to herself, she began creating first one set of assembled molecules that represented the structure shown. Alexa looked up as if to ask if she got it correct. Before she could even ask her question, the dungeon flashed brightly. “Okay,” Alexa said to herself as she began creating more and more of the structure.

Red - Flash.

By the time she got to a fist sized chunk of steel in her hand the room flashed red. Pausing, Alexa looked on in confusion at the dragon, only to see that it was still fast asleep.

Green – Flash.

Seeing that she had stopped, the dungeon once again changed the elements and the structure. This time she created bronze. Once again she got to the part where she could create the substance easily.

Red – Flash.

Alexa paused, then saw that the dungeon wanted her to go back to making steel, though this time the structure was slightly different. Seeing the minor differences, Alexa started.

So it went, for hours. She was taught to make no less than fifteen different combined substances, not all were metals. Then finally after a time, she got a message that she had not expected. Though in the grand scheme of things, she figured she probably should have.

Your Control of School: Creation Magic has increased to Tier III.

Seeing the message, she thought about saying something, but before she even could, the dungeon flickered excitedly. Then changed immediately to a four-elemental design.

Seeing that the design had changed, Alexa figured this would be a long process.

“Dungeon, you are teaching me to improve my control over Creation magic?” Alexa asked.

Flash.

With that admission, Alexa paused for a moment, not quite knowing what to think at first. Then she said the only thing that could come to her.

“Thank you, dungeon.”

Flash.

Seeing the response from the dungeon, Alexa decided that this was the dungeons way of accepting her thanks. With this, she decided to sit down, as she figured this would be a while.

After her fifth new four elemental design, Alexa held up a hand.

Her head was feeling weak, and she realized she had been working for hours. Pulling out her protein bar, she ate the last of her bars. Idly she saw a crumb fall to the floor, but before she could pick it up, she saw that it got absorbed completely. What? Was all Alexa could think, before she saw the readout on the wall change. Instead of the four elemental creation she had been working asked to switch back to, now she saw a complex matrix design of no less than fifteen elements being woven together. Then she saw a rating denoting that this was a Tier V Creation.

Seeing the message on the wall, Alexa paused as she tried to understand what the dungeon was telling her.

“Wait, dungeon, are you saying I can create chocolate at Tier V?”

Flash.

The image on the wall changed to an overhead view of Alexa from a moment ago, when she had the protein bar in hand. From there she saw how multiple lines went in explaining the chemical composition to the nuts, the salt which she could already create, some of the simple sugars, then most importantly the chocolate. Next to each of the components was a breakdown of what elements were detected and what Tier in Creation magic she would need to create said chocolate.

Looking at the display, breaking down the composition that almost looked so simple particularly with some of the more complex variations she had already been creating, her heart began to pound loudly. She knew this should logically be possible. You see the mental image of your class being able to create a planet, that logically you could create something like chocolate. But to see it, to have it be so close, that was beyond her at the moment. Or at least, that concept had been beyond her. Now she realized that this was likely the best form of magic ever.

“Dungeon, please save this design so we can build it first thing when I reach Tier V.”

Flash.

At that, Alexa let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. She could create chocolate, or at least she would be able to create chocolate here shortly. That was, well it was amazing to be honest. World hunger solved in the blink of a candy bar. Obviously she would have to learn to create healthier foods as well, but chocolate could be her one secret indulgence, at least for now. Besides, it was not like she wasn’t burning away calories performing magic. This was tough work, but oddly she knew that the energy required to create food would be less than the energy she would gain eating said food. When she realized this concept, her mind opened up to the understanding that this was a perpetual never ending source of energy. All she needed to do now was to focus, and work on her own understanding.

Taking a quick sip of water, one that she then refilled with her own created water, she felt ready to continue her lessons. Putting away her trash and her now refilled water bottle, she focused at the wall and visualized her future goal. After two deep breaths, she felt centered as her mind that had been getting fuzzy now seemed back to normal.

“I am ready dungeon, please continue to teach me.” Alexa said.

Flash.

With that the image of the Tier V formulas disappeared, as a more simplistic four elemental construct appeared. This was another metal alloy, but Alexa didn’t even take the time to learn the name for this particular alloy. She had bigger goals in mind.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the still slumbering dragon and realized that there were bigger concerns to be worried about. Also, she wondered if dungeons were meant as trainers to help teach all forms of magic. But again, just like the slumbering dragon, her curiosity about dungeons being able to teach her about her other magical affinities were all secondary. This would likely be important, as she was now officially out of food. So it was either learn to create energy bars from elemental structures, or try to gain a meal from one of the different forces she was now diametrically opposed to. Of the two, only making her own meal seemed to be the main course of action. From this point on, she knew she would also need to learn to create different foods, as a well balanced meal was important. Still, she had one thing motivating her to continue forward at her current pace.

For now, she had one goal, learning to make chocolate.