Dungeon Core: Bugged Ascension

Chapter D. Welcome to the New Age. ~Bond.

I retreat to my room, waving away concerns from Ruby and Alex. Though I’ve been having ‘heart problems’ for a while that I haven’t wanted them to look at too closely, this feels different. By all accounts, it should be working perfectly, and I haven’t had any issues in weeks.

So, for me to suddenly have stabbing pains and my body going flush from excess Mana isn’t something I can afford for them to look at too closely.

When I’m alone, I pant through the strain even as more and more Mana cycles through me. Enough to become concerning in its own right, perhaps even too much to risk keeping the secret before it suddenly settles as a different sort of itching sensation flares up in my guts. Not a food sensation, or around it, but some other organ inside me. I poke around and try to remember the texts I’ve read as I try to feel where the tingling is coming from.

New Quest Available! Scion “Helix” wishes to commandeer your liver and have it delivered to “DNA” |Disease Kingdom, Forest of Dreams|. Compensation to include further assistance on your Organ Crystallization project whose success can be primarily attributed to their efforts.

Accept Quest? Y/N

Thoughts race through my head at the implications of what this quest means before a spike of real agony wracks my head, and I barely manage to strangle the impulse to cry out.

“-Choose now or Be Subsumed. Father’s life is more important that your independence-“

Quest Accepted! Scion “Helix” will guarantee the restoration of your organ after successful transportation is completed, while working to ensure that your body doesn’t reject the foreign tissue and prevent the Artifact from toxifying your blood while it remains within you.

The itchiness and pain subside, and a powerful warmth is left in its place. I pick myself off the floor where I collapsed when Helix spoke to me and take a seat on the bed to catch my breath and calm my racing heart, “Okay Bond. What’s the plan? How do we convince the party to drop everything and head back to DNA at this particular moment. Without telling them…”

My voice trails off as I start thinking about the problem from a different perspective, “A Quest is a good enough reason. ‘I have a connection to the dungeon’ from when we were last there has more truth than even I imagined.”

I sigh and bury my head in my hands, groaning in frustration after a few moments of denial, “There’s practically no chance that this quest ends without me revealing my project… Alex is going to kill me.”

I head over to the water basin and splash my face to clear some of the sweat before heading back down. As I’m walking down the stairs I spot Sid at the bottom, staring intently at me. I briefly meet his eyes before turning away.

I come to a stop in front of him and his hand lands on my shoulder, his grip flexing in time with his words, concern and threat together, “You good?”

Of all the party, he’s the only one I’ve confided in about my project. I just haven’t accumulated enough credit with the guild to get access to the research necessary to make the attempt. He doesn’t especially approve of me keeping it a secret from Ruby or Alex, but he understands the drive. Even after what happened before he was with us, he kept at this life. But he has final say when it comes to risk assessment, and I’ve nearly crossed that line in the past, only by paying out of my own pocket for a different healer kept him from revealing all.

As much as I don’t like keeping secrets or lying to the girls, Sid would catch and call me out on them, “Yes and no. Turns out, I wasn’t working alone. I’ve been unknowingly working as assistant to a lead that I’ve been carrying since the dungeon.”

He doesn’t even do me decency of needing to blink to process my revelation, “And?”

I sigh, “Something weird happened with the dungeon,” he rolls his eyes, “and now I have a quest to deliver an Artifact that has forcibly replaced my liver. Also, I have more Mana cycling through me at the moment than I’ve ever used in an entire day. Just passively and cleanly flowing through my body, and only my own Mana-Attuned Senses let me notice it. No weakness, no sickness, nothing. Though I expect that any spell cast internally on me will likely go batshit.”

He takes a long steady breath before finally breaking his stare down and looking back to the group, “A quest could work, but we just got back from a rough mission. Going to be hard to convince the girls to head out again without at least taking a break.”

My shoulders sag in defeat, “I know.”

“-Helix has completed Divine Proection. Stop wasting time and return to Father-“

Sid’s fingers dig into my shoulder and he glares into my eyes with a harsh growl, “What. Was. That?”

I gulp at the intensity of his attention, “He- Helix told me they completed Divine Protection and for me to stop wasting time…”

His gaze bores into mine for another few seconds before he finally relaxes his grip and then grabs my arm to drag me towards our comrades, “We can use that. A first proper delve is worth pushing aside comforts.”

Yanking me behind him, I can’t see his face but when we get to our table and his voice is upbeat and enthusiastic, I’m reminded again of another reason I picked him as a confidant, “You guys won’t believe what Bond just told me! He got a Quest, come on Bond, tell them.”

His positivity is just contagious, and despite the pain in my shoulder and arm, the full message finally hits me, “Uhh… Yeah, I got a Quest from that dungeon we discovered,” its only after I started speaking that I noticed the swirl of shadow around us, Sid’s version of a privacy screen, “Supposedly it’s a Divine one now. Wanna go check the guild and try and snag first delve?”

Everybody’s excited by my announcement though I notice the moment of glare that Alex gives both of us and the mouthed snarl of “Later,” before she joins in on the hype.

We all quickly finish up our meal and head back to the guild hall. The celebratory nature makes it easy to deflect and half answer questions. Though when a meaty hand slaps me on the back a few times before settling there, I look up at Garn’s not-quite smile and watch as he darts his eyes between Sid and me. His ‘gentle’ shake of my body afterward and hearty laugh when I nod to him blowing out the last candle of hope that I wouldn’t have to disclose everything.

Contracting a scryer to check on DNA again was a simple enough procedure, though all of us were a bit uneasy throughout the process. We all know how bizarre DNA has been from our encounters with him previously. First crossing his path and me getting infected without any of us noticing being in a dungeon, and then later when we sought my cure and even with his dungeonness, him not registering to any of our senses. Not even after we formed a contract and got our Pioneer perks.

So, when the scryer had issues with targeting him, we weren’t especially surprised, “Hmm, and you’re sure about the location tag? Sometimes it’s the little things that these spells snag on. But there wasn’t the typical Wild reaction, so let’s try again and just aim it at the local area.”

“-Shield your Mana signature. NOW-“

The reflexive barrier that I snap out at the prompt draws the gaze of everyone in the room, and only Ruby and the Scryer showing curiosity rather than suspicion, “Mana Bonder. I thought I might be leaking a bit and disrupting the spell.”

He nods and goes back to the ritual, “Rare class and aspect. My condolences and congratulations on your success. We should be fine without that, but it doesn’t hurt to shield it from you.”

Once the ritual completes the second time, we get a hit, “Ahh, yes, as I thought. The location tag |Thermal Spring Mountain| no longer applies. D.N.A |Disease Kingdom, Forest of Dreams| is the official tag. Quite a strange designation at that, but considering your report on this place, oddities are to be expected. Now, you still have to go to the Guildmaster to officially register, but you should be all set.”

He shakes Alex’s hand as we thank him and bid our goodbyes, “Congratulations on being the Pioneer team for a young Divine dungeon. If you keep yourselves focused and take care of each other, you’re potential for growth can break the dam many get stuck on.”

Success may look different to each of us, but all of us seek greater power than what we currently have. Even if any one of us would outclass most of our local peers, none of us has been sated for one reason or another. And for me, this quest is the next step on a life’s work I didn’t know I needed until I first saw that beating Mana Crystal heart in Life’s trunk. Before I was content just growing with and for Ruby, but much like his theme, I caught something life-altering when my prior infection was finally cured.

In a way, knowing that I won’t have to hide what I’m doing for much longer is a relief. So, as we fill out the paperwork with the Guildmaster and collect provisions, I find myself relaxing and smiling easier than I have for months. I feel an eagerness and anticipation for what comes next, now that I know that I’m not working alone towards this goal, and as the junior partner there is so much more to learn!