NOVEL FROG 54 –
“Greeting, divine champions! Your coming was long prophetised. We greet you now with jubilant faces, for it is out job to be your guides for this part of your travels!” so opened his introductions the ‘mayor’ of the Sipaloon village.
In front of him stood the three Sipalians that were first selected for System access. Prshky, Rampampadam, and Dittillapp. The trio was somewhat confused at first, the mayor’s speech pattern and word choice unusual for them, but soon they got used to it.
They continued to listen to him ramble on for a few more minutes. However, once it became clear he wasn’t truly saying anything important, Ram, of the knightly spirit, interrupted him.
“That’s all fine and well,” she said, “but how do we actually get this System access thing? And what is it, exactly?”
“It is the greatest gift from the gods themselves! A divine path to salvation! An opportunity for greater things! It’s a…” Perhaps the man would have continued for a few minutes more. But in the corner of his eye, just out of sight of the trio, spotted a hint of a translucent wing. Immediately, he stopped and answered the question.
“Ah, to be grant access to such a great work is no easy feat. Throughout our humble village there are door, challenges, trials, that lead to different path of power. But beware, for the path is not easy and may even prove deadly!”
Finally, they were able to leave. As they did so, Ram muttered to her companions, “What an eccentric individual*.”
(*this is a reference to the hit movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where the heroes must enlist the help of a powerful enchanter named… Tim)
The three of them wandered the Sipaloon village for a while, searching for the trial chambers. Ram leading, Prshky being somewhat scared but still curiously looking around, and Ditti still feeling too unbalanced to do anything other than look around.
Eventually, they found all three doors, each at a different end of the village.
One had the image of a large figure clad in full metal armour on it. Sword in one hand and a shield in the other, this was the knight.
A second had the image of a hooded figure, crouched in a deep shadow. With sharp daggers in both hands, this was the rogue.
The third had the image of a wrinkly elder in robed and a pointy hat. With a staff in one hand and a crystal orb in the other, this was the wizard.
What out trio found most peculiar however were not what the figures were supposed to represent. At this point, they’d all more or less come to terms with the fact magic must exist. No, what was strange was the number of limbs each figure had.
“Why do you think they only have two arms?” asked Prshky, ever the scientist. “Is it supposed to represent something?”
“Who knows, maybe we’ll lose two arms after getting this System access,” Ram said with a grin.
“Hey, this is no joking matter,” Prshky admonished, “we’ve been kidnapped from our lives through magical means! Who knows what is possible.”
The two’s bickering continued for a little while more. Which, coincidentally, allowed Ditti just enough time to, at last, recover from the daze they’d been in until then.
As an Aspect of Fate, they knew that whatever just happened was out of the ordinary. They also knew they had to find out why things changed, why their prediction suddenly didn’t make sense. And it all began with this moon.
Under the guidance of their Aspect once more, Ditti interrupted the other two.
“We should choose our trials. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go back,” a brief pause, then, “I’ll enter the trial of the rogue.”
And just like that, they were off. That only left a somewhat bewildered Ram and Prshky behind.
Prshky refused to even entertain the idea of entering the trial of the knight. He wasn’t even close to anything anyone would consider muscular. Not to mention combat really wasn’t his strong suit and in fact something he had never engaged in previously.
So, he went into the trial of the wizard, leaving the trial of the knight to Ram.
Each one had their own challenges to overcome.
Ram focused mostly on raw strength. Moving large boulders around, moving around under increased gravity, that sort of thing. There was one sections where there was nothing but a shield in the room and a training dummy, as well as another room within nothing but a shield and a training dummy with a sword.
Ditti learnt the rogue arts. It was a bit strange, with no one to hide from, but they still did their best. There were many sections where they had to move silently from shadow to shadow, as well as many for disarming traps or lock-picking treasure chests. Similarly to Ram, there was one chamber with a training dummy and a pair of daggers.
Prshky’s trial was somewhat strange in comparison. Behind his door was a large library. There was also a training dummy in an adjacent room, but no weapons to attack it with. So, he got to reading, hoping that that would be enough to pass the trial.
While this was happening, strange things happened on the planet bellow. Of course, there was the usual panic at the light and the disappearances. People also began chasing the meteors that fell from their new moon.
But all that we already know how will end, so let’s instead focus on the ‘meteors’ themselves. The Dungeon Seeds.
Since this time the Dungeon moon’s Dungeon Core had launched them as soon as the moon achieved stable orbit, they have had much more time to dig. And dig they did. In fact, thanks to some monsters that were Created to assist about halfway through the project, the great Dungeon network was finished now.
All four Dungeon Seeds had a tunnel highway straight to the others. For the first time, every landmass in the world was connected… connected underneath the oceans.
But there was also one unintended consequence. With the beginnings of the weave of tunnels established, and with those tunnels being Dungeon tunnels, it all acted as a sort of mana weave.
Yes, the original purpose would still work. Mana would find it hard, almost impossible, to spread beyond the border of the three surrounding Dungeons. But within the area they encompassed? That area was about to receive a mana injection, whether the Dungeon wanted it or not.