DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

“What’s got you in a mood today?” Lindsay finally asked in between one of their classes.

Beside her, Angie nodded. ‘Seriously, you’ve been weird all morning.”

“It’s nothing,” He pressed against the back of his neck, massaging the overly tight muscles there. “I just didn’t sleep well last night, I guess. I had some seriously weird dreams, is all. They weren’t nightmares or anything, just weird, and disturbing in a different way.”

It was as good of an explanation as any he supposed for what he had seen that morning. Maybe if he wished hard enough, the utter destruction of the dungeon would turn out to be nothing more than a bad dream.

No cultivator would be stupid enough to go into somebody’s place and utterly trash it like that. Especially not when they still thought the creator was some super strong fellow, right?

Except that is exactly what had happened. Whatever treasure the chest had given those idiots had tempted them beyond all measure. Which was odd, the settings for the chests were set to a low value at the moment. It should have only given them a couple of hundred dollars max or a regular dagger.

Nothing special.

Yet, the evidence showed the contrary; they had lost their minds over their desire for more. Was it possible powerful cultivators were simply that poor? He doubted it, but if they were continually spending their money on resources to grow stronger, then he supposed it was possible.

Regardless of all that, here he was hours later, still obsessing about why they had done it. When what he needed to be doing was planning out how to fix the dungeon. Instead of letting the actions of a bunch of people affect him so much.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t who he was. He tended to obsess about these sorts of things. He wanted to know what he could do better, especially when it came to something so important.

He still didn’t know what would happen if he lost the one core he did have, and he wasn’t particularly eager to find out.

Angie leaned close to him and slowly shook her head. “Hmm, we really need to get that medication for you soon if even a simple lack of sleep can do this to you.”

“Without a core, your body can’t hold on to enough energy to properly keep you healthy,” Lindsay said while pushing them both toward their next class.

“It’d be nice, but all I can do is wait until then. George has made some good progress on healing me, but he is still a long way off from fully healing me using his abilities.” Nate told them just before they entered the crowded classroom.

“I’ll talk to my parents when I get home later and see how long it’ll take before we can expect the shipment.” Angie offered as she took her seat.

Nate nodded appreciatively, not getting a chance to say anything, as Jace entered the room and sat behind them. The other boy had made it a point to get into nearly all of the same classes as Angelica, with only a few exceptions. He hadn’t been able to get into all of them as a couple of the classes had been full.

Unfortunately, this was one of the classes he had managed to wriggle his way into.

Angie and Lindsay ignored the boy with a muffled groan, not particularly caring if he heard. He was the one who was causing this problem for them. Not to mention he still refused to let the idea of marrying her go.

After class, Nate pulled both girls to the side and away from where Jace could overhear their conversation. Then into a side room, locking a door behind them.

“I have a question for you.”

“Alright?” She said, a little confused.

“You said before that you had never met Jace, right?” She nodded. “So, why is he suddenly so interested in marrying and being near you? If it was just because of the agreement, then surely, he could have gone about all of this in a different manner. I mean, his family has money and power. They could have just kidnapped you or kept a guard on you, or something. Instead, he is here in person and practically stalking you. Why, what changed?”

The girls furrowed their brows and look at each other. It was something they hadn’t even stopped to consider.

“You’re right. Why is he suddenly putting in all this effort? It makes no sense with how he had been acting before.” Lindsay cast a side-eye look at the wastrel standing beside the door they had locked. She turned to her friend. “Do you know anything? Is something going on with his family?”

Angie crossed her arms and began tapping her fingers as she thought. “Not that I had heard, but I suppose it’s possible. How did we not think about looking into this before now?” She muttered, glaring at the door.

“Wouldn’t you have heard if something had happened with his family? I thought they were supposed to be some kind of big deal around here. I mean, I hadn’t heard of them before I met you two, but I sort of ran in different circles in case you forgot.”

“It depends,” Lindsay muttered, still glaring at the door. “On how much effort their family is putting into hiding whatever might be wrong. Large families like the three of ours are extremely adept at hiding things.”

“So, what they could be nearly bankrupt or something?”

Angie snorted and shook her head. “Families like ours don’t go bankrupt. We’re too old and with too many diverse income streams. No, if anything, it would be more along the lines of an elder in his family is sick, or dead, possibly in need of medicine my family could get for them. That or the relationship between him and I would solidify his own position in his family as a result of the elder’s death or other form of upheaval.” She shrugged. “That’s a fairly common scenario, at least.”

Nate shook his head. “What kind of world do the two of you even live in? It all sounds so… foreign and old school.”

“That’s because it is in a lot of ways. Pieces of it are a call back to the way things were done during the dark ages. Treaties and marriages are used to enhance the power of the family instead of looking for love first, as is common now. We have a duty to our families first, and ourselves second or third. At least according to the way some people think. I have heard of people more or less selling themselves because of that duty. I refuse to do that, and so does Lindsay.”

“Thankfully, neither of our parents are trying to force us to do that, either. Well, until recently, that is.” The other girl said somewhat bitterly for her friend.

The bell rang, letting them know they needed to get to their last class of the day.

The group shoved the door open, the heavy metal construction banging into Jace’s side as they hurried past him on their way to class. They ignored the distant cursing behind them as the boy picked himself up off the ground. It was his own fault for coming to stalk them alone.

This was one of the classes Nate had been looking forward to the most. It was the one on cultivation. The class was meant to be done in the style of an open forum where the students could ask questions. Everyone was meant to learn how to cultivate on their own after reading the various basic manuals that had been created.

Doing it in this way left a number of questions in people's minds. However, to cultivate properly, a person needed to figure certain things about the process out on their own.

That was where these new weekly forums came into play. The students could ask all the questions they had been collecting throughout the previous week. At the same time, it would let them start out the new one on a good note.

Classes like this were one of the main things that set his current school apart from his old one. Well, that and the obvious number of resources and just general knowledge contained within its halls. In other words, it helped to set them apart and make the gap wider, but that was really all.

Like everything else, it depended on the students to make the best of what they had available to them.

This would be the first class of the semester, even though it had been on the books for a while. The teachers had wanted to give the students enough time to make enough headway on their paths first. The forum would be useless to everyone if the people involved had no questions to ask, or worse, didn’t even know enough about what to ask.

That kind of class did no one any good.

It might be the first time they had one of these forums. Not that it stopped Nate from preparing a couple of questions of his own. He just hoped that whichever teacher would be in charge of the forum this first time would be able to answer them.

It was a slim hope, considering what a couple of the questions covered.

It was the first one that he cared about the most. If they couldn’t even answer that one, then they wouldn’t even have a chance of answering the others.

He listened to the opening spiel, his leg bouncing impatiently beside Angie, who elbowed him with an annoyed expression. “What is wrong with you?”

“I have a question for him, and he won’t shut up.” He hissed back.

The lead teacher sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Now the focus of this particular forum should be about the creation of your cores. We know that many of you are getting close to that point in your journey. Now, it seems like some of you are impatient for us to get started. So, who would like to start us off?”

Nate’s hand shot up into the air and waved around wildly. He only just stopped himself from calling out like a small child.

“Very well, Nathan Holmes, you had your hand up first. I suppose we can start with you. What is your question? What problem are you having in relation to your cultivation efforts?” The teacher frowned at that, unable to keep the disdain out of his voice.

Nate’s situation was well known throughout the school, everyone knew what had happened to him. With that look alone, Nate knew he wasn’t going to get any help in this forum. The teacher had already mentally dismissed him, no matter what he asked, his question wouldn’t be taken seriously.

With that, he changed the question he had been going to ask to a different, more difficult one.

“What is the best way to accumulate energy inside my remaining meridians while I continue the healing process?”

“You can’t,” The teacher replied without hesitation, not even bothering to look at the other teachers before replying. “Meridians are not designed to hold on to energy long term. It’ll be a struggle for you to get any cultivating done before you are fully healed.”

Well, that was a strangely respectful answer. It still wasn’t great, but it hadn’t been completely disrespectful and dismissive, as he had initially been expecting.

“And once you are healed, you will need to start from the beginning, which will put you far behind your peers. I would suggest you keep your head down until that time and don’t bother the other students.” He finished with a sneer.

Nate mentally palmed his face. Why hadn’t this teacher just shut his mouth when he had the chance? Now he was going to need to reply, and it was going to become a whole thing. Well, at least this was the last class of the day.

“And who exactly taught you how meridians work?” Beside him, Angie raised her brow, hiding a smile behind her hand.

“Careful, Mr. Holmes-“

“Because I don’t think you actually know how meridians work.” He continued, talking over the annoying teacher. “Tell me, do you think you know more than George Trellow? He’s taken a look at the damage done to my body and my meridians, and would you care to take a guess as to what is happening with my still intact meridians?”

The teacher swallowed and finally looked at the other educators on the platform with him. They refused to meet his eye.

“What?”

“After all this time, they still have energy in them, and it is growing stronger each time I cultivate. Meridians can’t hold as much as a core, but they certainly can hold energy long term. How else would you gain enough energy to create your core in the first place?” With that, Nate stood and walked out of the forum.

A few seconds later, Angie and Lindsay followed after him in a show of solidarity.