The Search for Knowledge: New Beginnings

Chapter 36

On the other side of the portal was the largest room in the dungeon thus far. The other end of the room was so far away from where the portal put them that even Kara's eyes could not make out the lines of the dungeon cobblestone on the walls, it simply seemed like smooth stone. The room was entirely empty with the exception of three things in the very center, surrounded by rope-thin intricate channels of running water: An ornate chest, a white column display pedestal with a gold-laced white pillow that had five purple ingots on it, and a silver mirror.

It took them several minutes of walking to reach the center of the room, allowing them to get a better look at what was in the middle. On the display were five ingots of Elementia, the legendary metal of the primordial gods. The metal shined like lacquer and was a deep purple color, if one were to look at it for a while, it would almost seem as if the center were constantly swirling. Few were the blacksmiths who could work this metal, but those that could would be able to create the finest equipment in the world with just a single one of the ingots. With the connections of the Aqua family, it would be possible to discreetly find a blacksmith to use them.

"Incredible. I've never seen it in its most pure form before." Sheeron said, gazing at the metal longingly. A veteran like himself would usually only be able to dream of seeing an alloy that included it, let alone seeing the god-given material itself. "I should have known we'd see it if we completed this god-forsaken dungeon, considering that it's the only place you can find it. I suppose I forgot, what with one of the mediator gods trying to kill us, and all."

"Rox died and we failed to save the dragonoid chief's son. I hope that these five slabs of metal, whatever is in this chest and this dumb mirror is enough to make up for those facts." Kara said, the tension of having to clear the dungeon finally starting to leave her. It was finally starting to truly hit her that she had lost one of her party members, possibly the most important key to her search, too.

"You can't think like that, Kara. Clearing a world dungeon is huge, remember what Aevum said? He told us that we'd advance civilization with what was in this dungeon, doesn't that excite you?" Feera said in her usual cheery tone, doing her best to both cheer Kara up and hide her own sorrow at the same time.

"Yeah, I mean, look at this cool stuff!" Toley said, having opened the chest while no one was looking and was pulling out item after item.

"Toley be careful, we don't know what those do yet!" Sheeron said, smacking him across the head as usual.

"Ouch! Sorry, Teacher." He said, ashamed as Sheeron walked away with the other two towards the mirror. However, as he was about to put down what appeared to be a golden medallion, it suddenly turned into a liquid. The golden liquid metal quickly spread out and surrounded Toley, covering his entire body before anyone could try to stop it. In an instant Toley was gilded from head-to-toe and he began clawing at his mouth, as if trying to make a hole so he could breathe. As the metal on him started to look as if it were taking some sort of shape, the others were finally able to start responding. Kara began preparing healing magic for the after-effect while Sheeron and Feera desperately ran towards him to get the metal off. Before they could, though, the strange liquid metal found Toley's mouth and started forcing itself into the hole and down his throat. The metal disappeared from around his body with the same speed that it had encroached it.

Then, nothing. Toley was on his hands and knees on the floor, panting as tears streamed down his face. He looked at Sheeron and Feera, who were now in front of him, and Feera gasped at what she saw. Toley's eyes now looked entirely different, unnatural. His eyes were entirely golden, the same as the metal that had surrounded him moments ago had been.

"What? What's wrong?" Toley said, seeing the look of surprise on their faces. Before they could answer, though, he blinked and looked around. "Whoa. Are you guys seeing all of this too?" He paused once more as his eyes landed on Kara and went wide, "What's going on with her? Kara, are you okay?"

Feera and Sheeron looked at each other, then around the room and at Kara. They did not see anything out of the ordinary. Kara, confused, lost concentration and was unable to continue holding onto the mana for the healing magic she had prepared in case something had happened to Toley. Which, for some reason, caused Toley to react again.

"Now it's gone! It was gathering around you just a second ago, but it's gone now. It's all just floating around the room like the rest of it." Toley said, once again confusing everyone except for Kara, who was staring at him dumbfounded.

"My god. Can you see the mana in the room?" She asked, incredulous.

"What do you mean? Mana is invisible." Toley responded.

She looked annoyed for a moment, then started gathering mana in her palm. Not for any particular spell, she was simply gathering mana to see if he would comment on it.

"There it is again, that weird stuff is gathering in your hand now! How are you doing that?" Toley asked her, answering her own question without realizing it.

"You're seeing Mana, Toley. Whatever that weird liquid metal was must have changed you somehow so that now you can see the flow of mana around you." Kara explained while trying to keep her composure. Her inner-scholar was screaming in joy, wanting to study what had happened to Toley right there and now. However, she knew it was not the time. They still had to divvy up the rest of the rewards and figure out what the odd mirror was, then hopefully leave alive, if fate would allow it.

"That's awesome! I can't-- What the heck?" He cut his own excitement off as he finally saw his own eyes in the silver mirror. "What the heck is going on? Is that the weird metal? Are my eyes going to look like this forever now?" He was touching his face in confusion as if that would somehow answer all of his many questions. It did not take long for him to give up and accept it, though.

In the chest were four more items. A pitch-black, glass-like dirk that Toley claimed had mana converging heavily around and inside of it in a way unlike the other magical items they had in the party. None of them had ever seen a weapon like it, so they decided to give it to Feera and have it appraised later. The next item inside was a mythril ring that seemed to change size to fit the wearer, not uncommon among magic items, however it granted the wearer the ability to fly as fast as the person could run. So, they decided to give it to Kara. It required no mana to be gathered to use it, so they all figured it would give her the ability to move around the battlefield while gathering mana for spells, keeping her out of harm's way.

The next two items were much more straight-forward. One was an axe made entirely out of elementia that seemed to grow or shrink according to the user's wishes. It could also increase and reduce its weight to the user's will. Sheeron accepted this gift with tears in his eyes, which Kara made fun of him for, immediately putting him back into his straight-faced self. The last treasure was a hand-and-a-half sword, the same style that Rox used. It seemed to be enchanted with a void ability that allowed it to drain mana from the surrounding area at the user's will to prevent anyone from being able to gather mana for magic. A very Rox-like ability that made the group silent for a bit, before giving it to Kara because it reminded her of him. It might also be useful in a pinch against another mage since it did not prevent the flight ring from working.

After they put the five elementia ingots into Feera's pack, they turned to face the mirror, only to see that the face of it was now glowing a brilliant yellow. Along the face, shining letters began to form, spelling out a message to whomever had cleared the dungeon.

"Congratulations on clearing the 'Dungeon of the forgotten'. After you leave this dungeon, the world will benefit from the clear reward, but the entrance and dungeon itself will disappear. This includes anything left inside the dungeon, so please do not leave anything in this room when you leave.

For clearing the dungeon, your world will now begin to spawn fountains of "navitas", which can be used in a variety of ways. We, the primordial gods, will leave it up to you mortals to discover how to use it and what to use it for. May you never hold regrets for your choices."

After the message was delivered to them, the mirror turned black and shattered. Each piece of the silvery mirror turning into dust and fading away into nothingness until it was as if the mirror had never been there in the first place. Moments later, a portal appeared where the mirror had once stood, presumably to lead them all out of the dungeon.