Chapter 207: Chapter 207

Of course Fabrisse took it; he’d be stupid not to. The Slingshot would take up two spaces in his inventory, and since he only had one remaining, naturally, the Throwmitts went into the abyss.

He wanted nothing more than a good rest so his back could heal, but Severa had already gestured for them to move forward. “There’s no place here that’s truly safe to rest,” she said over her shoulder. “The dungeon’s structure shifts unpredictably, and the residual aether left from the encounter can destabilize the ground or walls at any moment.”

Although she’d said she wanted nothing to do with the other party, Severa still took the trail they’d blazed. Tommaso, as per usual, chatted up to her like they’d been best buddies for years, but she was having none of that.

“So, Infernal Cataclysm is a pretty sick spell to learn, no?” He said breezily. “The spell’s nuts. So much detonation for barely any aether. Only downside is the cooldown, right?”

Severa didn’t look back, keeping her gaze on the twisting corridor. “I managed it without a cooldown,” she said.

Tommaso’s eyebrows shot up. “Damn, really? You gotta show me how you do that sometime. I could probably—”

Severa cut him off with an unimpressed glance. Dıscover more novels at novel✶fire.net

Tommaso laughed. “Okay, okay, fine. But back when I was studying under Instructor Tan, right before he retired, he taught me this neat little trick. Watch this.”

It better not be the fire chicken, Fabrisse thought.

A small burst of orange flame ignited in his palms, swirling and coalescing into a vaguely feathered shape. A tiny fire chicken strutted upright.

Fabrisse winced. Oh no. It’s the fire chicken.

“Cute, right?” Tommaso said proudly, holding it aloft. “It’s harmless—mostly. Except, you know, when it isn’t. Goblins hate poultry.”

Severa didn’t so much as blink, yet Tommaso kept grinning, clearly unbothered by her indifference. “Alright, alright, you don’t have to clap or anything. But check this out.” He swept his hands through the air, murmuring a few syllables that made the residual aether glow with a confident green spark.

Severa glared at him. “Ardefiamme. No emotional bleed, please.”

A spiraling column of green fire erupted in a perfect arc, swirling and twirling like a miniature cyclone. It was entirely performative, as with most other of Tom’s spells when not under pressure. Tommaso made a show of bowing and stepping back, as if he’d just pulled off a grand stage trick. “Of course, don’t worry. No excess aether will destabilize the corridors. I’ve got it perfectly controlled. Look, no sparks touching the stone.”

“No sparks at all, please, thank you,” Severa intoned the words ‘thank you’.

“Alright, alright, curtain call,” he said, twirling his hands, and the cyclone vanished. “This place is weird, though. Admittedly, I don’t know much about dungeons, but I’m sure they’re not supposed to go all cannibalistic on you if you drop a spark of emotion?”

“They might be unstable because they’re spanning across multiple planes of residual aetheric stress. Are the duo we just met come from the Jade Kingdom?” Severa asked.

“Unless our friend Zan here took a surprising and very committed trip back to see Fabrisse, they should come from the Jade Kingdom, yeah.”

Severa placed a hand on her shoulder. After a few seconds of thinking, she said, “What I hypothesize is that these dungeons are supposed to act as a portal that physically links two or more distinct locations. Our emergence points suggest that sections of this structure are anchored in separate geographic or dimensional loci, yet they are connected through mutable corridors.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Tommaso asked, “So . . . the dungeon isn’t a single place? Parts of it exist elsewhere at the same time?”

“It is the only explanation that seems plausible to me right now. This is possibly why the dungeon’s physical instability is compounded by its multiplicity—moving, collapsing, or destabilizing in one place can propagate structural shifts elsewhere. Not even the best archmagi could maintain an Aetherfold to connect places further than ten miles apart, but the Jade Kingdom is supposed to be nearly a thousand miles from Raslan. Do you know what this means?”

Tommaso scratched his head. “Uh . . . we’re basically in the dungeon version of a super-long aethercache train?”

Severa kept speaking as though that last comment from Tommaso didn’t exist, “If these dungeon entrance openings are controllable. An army from, say, the Kingdom of Raza, could cross a dungeon and reach the heart of another country in a matter of hours—perhaps even before any border defenses could react.”

“Or they could smuggle in a lot of booze,” Tommaso added. “Also, you’d make a great conspiracy theorist, Montreal.”

Fabrisse could see the logic behind what Severa had said, but he also had a few questions. He finally voiced his concerns, “Um . . . wouldn’t it be counter-productive? To go anywhere, they’d have to first clear the dungeon. Like you said, we’re stuck here until we kill the boss.”

Severa didn’t slow her pace, but her voice took on a sharper, more deliberate tone. “For a party of three? Yes, it is a struggle. But an invading army has an entirely different scale. And a Voidtouched entity with the capacity to manipulate dungeon openings would render conventional defense almost meaningless.”

Fabrisse was sure somebody else could poke more holes in Severa’s hypothesis, but his back hurt too much to think now.

The next corridor was eerily quiet. Fabrisse’s boots echoed against the stone as he followed Severa and Tommaso, but it wasn’t the silence that struck him first—it was the complete absence of resistance. Every section they entered had already been cleared. Corpses, scorched marks, and shattered shards littered the floors, remnants of Zan’s team’s work.

And it wasn’t just the first section. The next corridor, and the one after that, showed the same pattern: meticulous, thorough clearing. Zan’s team had been efficient, leaving little for anyone else to do.

“Pick up the pace,” Severa said sharply.

“Wait, what changed?” Tommaso asked. “You didn’t want to be anywhere near them before, remember?”

Severa didn’t answer.

Fabrisse’s mind started turning the gears. Knowing her, he thought, she either wanted to reach the boss first, or she didn’t want to appear as if she was letting someone else do the work.

But as they rounded the next bend, a screech echoed from deeper in the corridor. Then he saw flashes of light in the air, and a swarm of Chasm Nymphs materialized before his eyes the next second.

That was the practical reason.

[Status Effect: Minor Back Pain]

[Effect: – 3 DEX until the pain disappears]

“Pest control, again,” Tommaso muttered, rubbing his hands together. “For a dungeon this unstable, you’d think it would have a bit more variety.”

Severa kept walking forward, sending a Fireball at a newly-formed cluster of Nymphs. Tommaso was about to launch his own attack when he noticed the cluster to their right. Only five or six Nymphs, smaller and frailer than the last ones. He raised a brow, grinning. “Hey, Fabrisse. Wanna test your new toy?”

Fabrisse nodded. He had barely had the chance to even feel his slingshot in his hands, but he couldn’t let it look like he wasn’t contributing.

Tommaso nodded back and jogged backward, luring the Nymphs to him.

“Here goes,” he muttered. He’d had some experience with the Slingshot, and the Nymphs were at a close enough distance for him to strike true.

Estimated Launch Velocity: 39 m/s

Accuracy Deviation: ±1.9%

39 m/s. He had definitely never been able to fire something that fast before.

The stone tore through the Nymph before him, leaving a gaping hole in the center. Green ichor dripped from the wound, splattering the stone floor as the creature collapsed. The stone didn’t lose enough velocity after piercing the first Nymph and slammed into the one right behind it. That one spun erratically, smashed its head into the corridor wall before bouncing across the floor.

Fabrisse stared at the dead insects, not quite believing he’d accomplished.

I can now kill two bugs, and it only took a month!

Tommaso whistled. “Double-kill, that. Your rocks are becoming an actual lethal weapon. Now let’s take care of the rest.”