ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 18 : The Tier II Dungeon (Gold)

Chapter 18

The Tier II Dungeon (Gold)

One hundred floors, or twenty sets of the five variants. Ten sets at Green, or easy. Then these last ten set were at Gold, or medium. Honestly Alexa was glad, well as glad as she could be, that she had kept to her original plan. The learning curve going from being able to take her time, to every hallway being a wall tightening spike trap was a bit much.

The only reason she had even been able to make the transition was because among the stones she got, there were a lot of skill stones.

Skill: Wall Walking

Skill: Parkour

Skill: Gymnastics

Skill: Throwing

Now to put some of these crystals into perspective, they all seemed to have only a base percentage of knowledge that they transferred on. The rest was actually a full recognition of the work Alexa had put into her own training.

Skill: Wall Walking 8%

Skill: Parkour 8%

Skill: Gymnastics 12%

Skill: Throwing 22%

See all the skill stones claimed they gave an eight percent bonus, and from what Alexa had seen, they had. She had already done Gymnastics as a way early on to earn physical augmentation crystals. That method of slow grinding had been eroded away, as she was allowed to transition to more and more male dominated sports. The reason for the transition should be obvious, as it meant more augmentation crystals were available.

From her first few floors, Alexa came to a few key understandings of what Skill crystals truly meant.

First, anyone could have a skill gain measurable values even without use of a Skill Crystal.

Second, the only way one could see these measurable values was with a Skill Crystal.

For this second point Alexa noted that there might be a power of advanced skill like Analyze that could allow one to see the skill levels in others, but she did not want to put in conjecture at the moment.

Third, gaining a skill crystal in a skill you were already proficient in helped to solidify a few key fundamentals. While highlighting areas to improve upon.

This of course led Alexa to her fourth and last major discovery about skill crystals and their use.

Fourth, using a skill crystal on a non-practiced skill will give you the basics of what you should do. But the movements and techniques will still need to be practiced, to perform what you know to be true accurately.

This meant, that just because she unlocked the Parkour and Wall Walking skills and theoretically knew what she should do. She would still slip and look like a complete moron if she just blindly tired running up a wall.

Also, despite the name, there was a gravitational limit on Wall Walking that made the friction, to speed versus gravity ratio null. It was an interesting discovery, and one she intended to fully explore and understand, once she left the dungeon.

So far everything had been going smoothly, almost too smoothly. The reason she noted this smooth transition also had a minor factor to play in her idea that this dungeon was at the least sentient.

What was the reason she thought this? Well, it was simple. Once she had finished up her ninth set of green floors. She got two crystals on her last two floors.

Now one could call this the statistical laws of average. For the drop rates for skill crystals in the green floors was exactly four percent. Meaning the fact that she hadn’t gotten a crystal until the final two floors was the anomaly. But the minute she had; the law of averages was upheld.

However, there was one minor issue to this law of averages.

She only got the first two skills, the Wall Walking and Parkour, when she was muttering to herself about her to-do list before moving onto Gold. Then she got the two skill stones.

Now not only did she get the skill stones, but she also remembered to thank the dungeon each time. When she did, the faint wisps of mana around her seemed to glow ever so brightly for a second, before fading away.

It should also be noted that her first Gold floor was the one where she realized she would need both Wall Walking and Parkour. At least if she wanted to get to the secret caches of crystals.

To Alexa this meant, either, the Dungeon somehow knew Alexa, a vehement completionist, would need the two skill stones to complete everything safely. Or, that it was just coincidence.

Alexa for her part decided to hedge her bets.

She spoke out loud. The deeper she went, the more she spoke to the dungeon like it was a real entity.

Again, this only seemed to make the swirling mana pulse brighter every time she said nice things. Then it also seemed to cower when she had some not nice things to say about the dungeon as well.

There was one case in particular, where she saw extra mana swell into a protruding spike at the last second causing a gash to appear on her leg.

Her stolen Regeneration quickly healed the minor laceration, but she could see the way the dungeon moved to quickly absorb her blood from where it fell.

“That wasn’t very nice. If you wanted blood, why not make it part of the traps. You know unlock an extra power crystal if you brew a witch’s brew. That sort of thing.”

Surprisingly at that, the mana contracted to the floor. This was done in the same way a puppy would, when you scolded them and told them, “bad.”

After that one time, Alexa saw the next few runs go smoothly. Almost too smoothly as if the dungeon truly were sorry for what it had done.

Again, there was no way to prove the dungeon was sentient. At least she didn’t think so. Not at first.

Then she remembered her plan.

“Once I complete my tenth set of Gold floors, I should be comfortable enough to go onto the red portion of the dungeon.” Alexa said out loud, as she began her tenth and final set of five dungeon rooms.

These were the rooms where Alexa got her final two skill stones, for Gymnastics and Throwing.

During this run, she also noted how the final order of the five rooms had been reversed. This time ending with the bedroom mimic.

Oh, that was another thing Alexa noted. Keeping the Sleepy Time Tea from floor to floor to use to poison the mimic beds would not work. The reason being the energy wavelengths needed to perfectly counter each mimic could only be found on that floor.

Using ones from other floors proved a slight variance, meaning the mimic bed would either be partially killed, before enraging and trying to kill everyone in the room. Everyone in this case was of course Alexa, and only Alexa.

She also noted that the dungeon seemed to make mimic beds in such cases where she had a sample of sleepy time tea from a previous floor much more difficult. Then when she didn’t keep the tea leaves from floor to floor, there seemed to be one base set used. Apparently, the dungeon didn’t like cheaters either. Or at least that was the value Alexa placed on such extreme measures.

This time on her final run through of the modern house trial. Alexa looked at her watch to see that it was now 2:13 AM on Thursday. She wasn’t tired. Though given her condition she often never felt tired but was well aware that over time her ability to function properly would drop off inexplicably. Only after explaining the phenomenon to her mother, did her mother ask.

“Well, when was the last time you slept?”

Alexa remembered having paused at that, as there was so much to do. She wanted to study to keep ahead in academics, finish her science fair project, another easy crystal. Then train some more for basketball tryouts.

“Three days ago?”

“Right darling. You are so amazing, but you still need your sleep. Even your daddy and I need our sleep and we are fully awakened. So, if we fully awakened need our sleep to be at our best, what should that tell you?”

“That you are weak for fully awakened. That you likely didn’t put enough into Endurance. Or that you are suffering from some type of draining disease and need to find a cure.” Alexa said, as she listed off the most probably causes for why a fully not one, but two fully awakened adults would need to sleep constantly. Or at least as often as her parents seemed to.

With her explanation and reasoning, her mother just shook her head.

“You are too smart for your own good.”

“You mean it, you have a draining disease? I’ve thought so for some time. My thoughts based on the bags under your eyes, your bad posture, aging skin, and your increasingly short patience is either Vertigo Pox, Bi-Rythiotic Necrosis, or Jaundice, not the natural, but the supernatural version.”

At that, her mother took in a breath. Then calmed herself.

“The fact that you can calm yourself, speaks towards Bi-Rythiotic Necrosis, have you battled any Necromancers recently?”

“You know what. I am done. Just go to bed.” Her mother said.

While Alexa had been wrong about her diagnosis of her mother and father’s conditions. She did remember the conversation as a key reason to sleep, and still used it as a reminder to herself, that she could push herself too far sometimes.

With that thought in mind, Alexa got on the bed.

“You know. I have to say, this has been kind of fun so far.” Alexa said out loud.

Then just as she expected, the room that had been relatively free of mana suddenly had a bit of mana seep in through the walls.

While she was here, she decided to once again take in all her crystals. She didn’t know what the next floors contained, but she could expect that they would be a level of magnitude more difficult that these last fifty floors were.

By comparison, these last fifty floors were the equivalent of having to climb up the mimic chest room that she ran with John. The room that started the whole chain of events that led her here.

Munch.

The crystal melted into her skin in a way that felt like cooling water after being stuck outside in a dry arid field all day.

“I have to say, thank you.” Alexa said, focusing on a patch of mana that was condensed the most. For whatever reason she felt that this would be where the dungeon, or at least the spirit of the dungeon would likely be able to interpret her sayings the most.

Then her crystalline manners kicked in, as she realized how bad her sentence could sound.

“Wait, let me rephrase that. I don’t have to say Thank You, but I want to. You have been an excellent host thus far. Aside from that one spike, I have not had any issues.”

At that, the cloud of mist once again retreated slightly.

Seeing the cowering form of the mist, Alexa held out a hand.

“No, I cheated too. At least I tried to by taking the sleepy time teas from floor to floors.” Alexa admitted.

With that the mana in the room grew slightly, and even was a little more intense at places.

“You really are here aren’t you.” Alexa said as a statement, more than a question.

Glow.

The mana glowed brighter for a second, then went back to normal.

“That glow, can you do that often?”

Glow, glow, glow.

For a few dozen times in a row, the mana glowed. As Alexa watched, she felt a childish glee fill her as she smiled brightly at the display. Seemingly emboldened by this, the mana began to go off in little star bursts. Alexa’s eyes lit up with wonder.

Then at a particularly complex display, her face fell emotionless. Her crystalline induced high was over.

At that, the mana mist seemed to grow dim and sad.

“Wait, that is not your fault.” Alexa said, rummaging through her backpack and pulling out an augmentation crystal.

Munch.

With the crystal once again melting on her hand, she felt the tingling sensation of her mind coming to life.

“Sorry. I suffer from Ale… you know what, it doesn’t matter. Basically, the only way I can feel any form of emotion at all is from absorbing crystals. The only problem is that they don’t last long. Only a minute or so each. That is why I like gathering them all, then using them all at once. Like I am right now.” At this, Alexa just looked up at the ceiling, unaware that the misting mana began to congregate even more in the bedroom.

“In fact, it’s a bitter pill to swallow. The more I take, the more I understand emotions, the better I get at reading other people. The more I realize that I am missing something to my life when I am just normal.” Alexa said, as a tear began to form in her eye.

Feeling the intense emotions, she reached up and felt the tears forming on her cheeks. “Then when I do get a dose, it is like there is so much emotional baggage that I must work through that I am a complete mess. Which only makes these times so frustrating. Because on the one hand I finally feel alive, then on the other I realize that to feel alive, is to be tired, frustrated, and betrayed.”

By this point the mana in the room was thick, as if the entire dungeon’s consciousness was here.

“You probably think I’m a fool, right? I know I do. Logically I should hate this, to feel this weak, but this is really the only time I can feel anything. It comes to a point where even the ability to feel weak is amazing.”

***

“…So yeah, that’s me. Alexa Thyme, either emotionless monster, or complete emotional wreck.” Alexa said, as she felt the final traces of her last crystal dissolve into her system. Then like a switch had been flicked, her face went from a near sobbing wreck. To an emotionless state.

“That is why I must say, thank you. For listening.” An emotionless voice spoke out and echoed in the empty halls of the dungeon. The only sign that anyone heard was that the mana in the air began to glow and sparkle brightly.

Seeing the gesture for what it was, Alexa responded.

“Thank you for the gesture. I recognize it as your way of saying you heard me. I am tired now. When I awaken, I will begin going onto the Red floors.” Alexa said coldly, as she lay down, then turned away from the gathering mana, and closed her eyes.

Her pragmatic brain let her realize there was no danger here, allowing her to sleep soundly for several hours.

When she awoke, she was more than prepared to start her new day as a Tier II Red level difficulty explorer. Just as she expected, she felt no different than when she first entered the dungeon.