Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty — The Root of the Matter
Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty — The Root of the Matter “Hold!” Lieutenant Petalwrought called out with one arm raised.Everyone held their positions, though I think most of us looked around for a trap of some sort. Was a second boss going to appear? A bigger, badder boss?I kept searching, but there was nothing suspicious. The boss room was quiet except for a slight wind that rustled the grass and wheat, and the sporadic creaking of the windmill. Finally, Amaryllis broke the silence. “This isn’t normal, I take it?” she asked. “That the boss died this easily?”Had the boss really died? I checked Mister Menu real quick to confirm it.Ding! Congratulations, you have sent ‘Sir Napwashad,’ level 16, to his eternal slumber! For defeating a Dungeon boss, bonus exp is gained! EXP reduced for fighting as a group!Mister Menu had another notification for me after that one.Dungeon Cleared!All adversaries within The Dungeon of the Lullaby Knight Defeated.All Bosses Defeated.Broccoli Bunch, Cinnamon Bun Bun level 13, Wonderlander level 4, is awarded the Nightie Knight class.All class slots filled.Replace current class with Nightie Knight?Replacing one of your current classes will reset your level to 0 in that class.No thank you. Although of all the class-options I had, this one was one of the most interesting. Maybe I’d take it as a third class. Though with the way my levelling had slowed down, that wouldn’t be for months.“It’s really the boss,” Lieutenant Petalwrought confirmed. “Knights, stay here, guard everyone. Erin, Bron, could you follow me? We’ll verify that the exit is still cleared.”Everyone let out a sigh and some of the tension left us. I think we were all hyped up for a big battle, but that wasn’t going to happen. I was... a little annoyed, but I pushed that away. I didn’t need to be worried or annoyed at not having to fight. If anything, it was a good thing.I had to admit that I was a teeny-tiny bit hooked on the thrill of doing crazy dungeon stuff though. It was a ton of fun.I moved closer to my friends while folding Weedbane back up. “That was unexpected,” I said.“It was,” Amaryllis said. She looked a bit distracted though.“Is everything alright?” Awen asked.Amaryllis nodded. “Oh ,yes, it’s fine. I levelled up my Thundere class. Level thirteen.”“Oh, same as me!” I said.She nodded. “I suspect Awen won’t be far behind. There’s a tendency for people who work together and who face the same challenges to eventually reach the same level threshold.”“Is thirteen a big number for you?” I asked.“No, nothing special, just another step forward. It’s nice to see some growth though. I might push some of my skills up a rank.”“Oh, I’m thinking of doing that too. I have a Wonderlander skill that I’d like to see become a bit stronger. It might be fun!”“Hmm,” Amaryllis said.Awen shrugged. “I’m pretty happy with our growth so far. It’s a lot more than I think anyone expected from me... except maybe Uncle.”I laughed and pulled her into a hug. “If that’s the case, then I’ll expect you to hit level one hundred and be the strongest person ever!” I said.“Oh no,” Awen said, monotone. “Now I’m going to have to live with your crushing expectations instead.”I laughed some more, then settled down as I saw the lieutenant leaving the windmill “It’s clear,” he said. “More roots, but the door to the main room is accessible.”“Where’s the dungeon core?” I asked.He tensed up for a moment, then relaxed. “It’s back here. In the bedroom that links everything together. Come on everyone. Unless there’s anything anyone here wants to verify?”There wasn’t, though Aria did shuffle her foot through the ashes left by the boss when he faded away. “Any drops?” I asked.“Can’t see them if there are any,” Aria said.“The boss here only drops things on occasion,” one of the knights said. “It’s usually pyjamas. They’re comfortable enough. Help you rest well. Sometimes his lance will stay. It’s really just a piece of lumber though.”“Oh, that’s... well, it’s something,” I said.“I suspect if this dungeon were open to the public, it wouldn’t be all that popular with delvers,” Bron said.“Because the drops are all kind of... uninteresting?” I asked.“That, and it’s real tough. The best dungeons for dungeon delvers are those that are low-risk, easy to work through, and have good rewards. Cloth is... well, it’s not bad. Good clothes take a lot to make, I’m sure. Some of it can be pricey, but it’s hard to justify risking your life to maybe fetch a pair of pants and some yarn, ya know?”I nodded along. “I don’t think I could become a dungeon delver,” I said.“We delve two-to-three dungeons a month,” Amaryllis said.“Yeah, but never the same one twice. I’m in it for the new experiences. I think the sense of wonder might wear away if you visit the same place twice, you know?”We entered the windmill. The interior was all old wood and dust, with what looked like several half-floors above where I could see the mechanism for the mill held in place by big wooden beams. A huge grindstone sat in the centre, am imposing slab of carved rock that forced us to walk along the edges of the room. Roots were using the beams above to hang in place and had definitely clogged things up by jamming themselves in the gears and wheels.“This way,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said. He was next to a door, which opened up onto a familiar bedroom.“That’ll lead us out of the dungeon?” I asked. “And to the core room?”“Both, yes,” he said.We followed him in. The same bedroom since the start of the dungeon, only this one had cracked floorboards with thick roots shoved in through between the wood, making everything uneven. A large root had ploughed through one of the walls, and dirt spilled out from the floor-to-ceiling rent as though we were underground, even though a window right next to it showed a pretty view of some nighttime fields.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.Was this the first bedroom-room with a window?The wretched miasma of rot and mould felt like it was trying to choke me to death. Foetid water ran down the walls and the only reason the floor wasn't a swamp was because it was seeping out through the cracks made by the roots. The bed frame had literally rotted out and collapsed, while the dresser had fallen over, spilling sodden nightclothes through the mud.“There’s an extra door here,” Amaryllis said past a handkerchief over her mouth.I looked around and she was right. The other bedrooms all had two doors. One to enter, one that led onto the next floor. This one had a third. It was blocked though, by a large root that was pressed right up against the door.“That's how to get to the core,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said.I stepped over to the doorway placing a hand on the root.“Maybe stand back a bit?" I requested. "I'm going to clear out this root."“Please describe the method you will use for this attempt?” Aria asked. She had her notebook out already.“Mostly I’m going to blast it with a lot of Cleaning magic. If it’s like the last few roots, then it’ll kind of... disintegrate? Uh, Lieutenant, the Evil Roots will definitely not like that. They might try to fight back.”His eyebrows rose, then he looked around the room, which had a number of roots in it. “Will they try to grab us?”“No, at least, I don’t think so. They might move. Mostly they’ll spawn these terrible plant monsters that'll try to eat us.""Uh." The Lieutenant looked a lot more on guard now."But only if there are any seed pods!" I hastened to add. "And we haven't seen any of those yet."“Everyone, on your guard,” he said. His sword came out, and the knights did likewise. “What’s the plan once the path is cleared?”“Is the core right on the other side of this door?” I asked.“It should be, yes,” he said. “It’s in a rather vulnerable place.”“Alright. Then I’ll clear a path to the core, then wash everything around it. Aria, if you want to take notes, that’ll be the time.”“Lucille, I’ll want your expert opinion,” Aria said. “You know magic better than I do.”Lucille nodded at that, then refocused on me.I took a deep breath, then checked my mana.Mana 87/145Not perfect, but more than I had to work with on other occasions. And once we were in the core room, I wouldn’t lack any mana. “Oh!” I said as I remembered. “In other dungeons, the dungeon itself might react to the roots breaking.”“React how?” the lieutenant asked.“Monsters might respawn suddenly. We don’t have to go back through any of the rooms again, right?”“No, the exit is right there,” he said.“How do monsters react?” Aria asked. “I’ve never heard of a dungeon respawning creatures while people were still in an instance.”“They’ll reappear and attack the roots. I don’t know if it’ll be enough to clear the entire, ah, infection. But they’ll attack the roots instead of not reacting to them at all,” I said.“It’s not too dissimilar to a body’s reaction to an allergen, in a way,” Amaryllis said. “A sort of immune response that the dungeon can only use once the grip of the roots is broken away.”“Any other questions?” I asked.At the lack of response I nodded, then turned to the root. “Whelp, here goes,” I said. I pressed my hand against the root, then focused on my magic. My improved Way of the Mystic Bun let me feel the mana running through the root, but it was... surprisingly weak? I could move someone’s mana in their body, but it felt like every last bit of mana in the root was zipping away, or maybe it was being used up as quickly as it came?I supposed that made a sort of sense.Cleaning magic erupted out of me in a condensed storm. It coursed across the room, stripping mould off the walls, wiping the windows clean, removing every stain from the blankets and what was left of the mattress in the corner. The room’s smell, of dust and staleness and rot, was wiped away by a fresh breeze that left the place smelling like spring and freshly cut wood. Except for my closest friends, some of the others even took a step back, shifting uneasily as my magic wicked away sweat-stains and grime. The knights wouldn’t need to polish their armour today!Then I concentrated the magic back into the root. I grunted as the magic didn’t quite want to take hold, but I was a stubborn bun, and no root was going to dirty this place up under my watch.The smaller spouts sticking out of the root disintegrated; the floor creaked as some of the roots poking through the boards blackened and fell apart. And then the big root before me twitched under my hand and seemed to try to pull back.“No way, buster,” I cursed.My mana dropped like a stone, but I didn’t care. I drove my magic into the root like railroad spikes hit with a sledgehammer, one after another. The root creaked, parts of it turning to powder along fault lines, letting great chunks of plant flesh slough off.And then the root couldn’t support its own weight and it snapped apart down the middle, both halves thumping to the floor.I let out a long sigh, then wiped my already-clean brow.Mana 09/145Close one! But I still had a tiny bit in the tank. “That’s one root down,” I said. “Or enough to let us through, at least,” I said.“... That was impressive,” Lucille said. “I have only had a few chances to see master-rank magic at work, and it’s rarely in so specific and narrow a focus for a magical skill.”“Ah, well, thanks! It happened entirely by accident!” I said.With that, I tugged the door to the core room open, then winced at what I saw.A wall of roots. Hundreds of tiny ones all braided together to form a barrier that I could hardly see past. Bigger ones filled in the space around those, and through that web, only faintly visible past a canopy of leaves sprouting from the roots, was the dungeon’s core sitting atop what looked like a pile of blankets in a baby cradle made of stone.“This is going to take some work.”
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Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-One — Uprooted
Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-One — Uprooted The moment I was able to sneak my hand closer to the core in the centre of the core room, everything became a lot easier.There was enough ambient mana in there that my mana reserves started to tick up, a point every ten seconds or so instead of once a minute. That just meant I had more mana to pour into Cleaning magic.I pressed my free hand up against one of the little roots blocking the entrance. It started to fall apart as my Cleaning magic got to work. The root snapped, and I moved on to the next one below it.“Is there anything we can do to help?” Lieutenant Petalwrought asked.“I don’t think so,” I said. “Sorry! I’d love to have some help, and if there was something I could ask for help with I would, but... yeah, this is just going to take a little bit.”Another root snapped, and I noticed the entire body of the Evil Roots shifting very slightly. Did it know that I was harming it? I asked myself, not for the first time, if the Evil Roots could think. If they could, did they know that they were hurting the dungeons they were grabbing onto?My mana bounced up and down as I waited for it to refill a bit, then used it all up on cutting apart the roots blocking the entrance. Eventually, I had a space that was big enough to crawl through. “I think I’m going to climb through,” I said.“A dungeon’s core is high in mana,” Lucille warned. “Unless you’re spending all of it, constantly, then there’s a very real chance that you can hurt yourself.”“Yeah,” I said. “But that’s what I plan on doing. Flood the entire room with enough Cleaning magic that the Evil Roots don’t have a choice but to fall back. It’s easier to do if I can use the core’s own magic for it. Besides, look, it’s regrowing.”I tugged on one of the smaller roots and showed it to the others. The tip of it was still a little raw where my magic had cut through it, but it was turning a paler shade of green and it looked as though the root was starting to grow back.“Interesting,” Aria said. “Its growth rate must be spectacular. That’s... perhaps two or three milimetres a minute, at a guess. I’d need a ruler and some way of marking its progress over time to be certain.”“The roots cover a large portion of the entire dungeon,” Amaryllis said. “They would need to grow quickly to do that. I imagine various parts of the root network grow at different paces.”“I’m going to write so many papers from this,” Aria said with obvious glee. “Lady Albatross, Lady Bristlecone, you’ve experienced other dungeons plagued by these roots, correct? Ah, good. Could you tell me about them? Maybe how those ... infections ... differed from this one?”I listened with half an ear as my friends related their stories for some of the other dungeons we’d explored together. Aria took notes, of course.Once I had an opening that was wide enough, I climbed up into it after tossing my pack aside and handing Weedbane to one of the knights. I had to slip my head and shoulders in first, then I hoped that the sylph behind me were all gentlemen as I squeezed my hips through the passage.I landed in a roll on the other side and found the ground covered in those big flat leaves that the roots seemed to only grow around a core. Were they like leaves facing sunlight, but instead of sunlight they were fixed on the core?Did that mean that the core was radiating mana directly? It did glow a bit.That was worrisome. I didn’t know that much about radiation, but I recalled it being pretty scary, and usually if it was radioactive enough to glow, then seeing it wasn’t good for you.Well, an issue for later.I pushed out a wash of Cleaning magic around me, breaking up a circle of the leaves, then as more and more mana gathered in me from being closer to the core, I started to fill the room with Cleaning magic.It was like I was a filter, sucking in the ambient mana and then pushing it out in a form that was able to harm the roots.The leaves all across the room started to wither. Simply flooding the room with cleaning magic wouldn’t be enough to clear the bigger, thicker roots, but I suspected it was a start.I could either destroy the roots on the edges of the room and work my way in, or I could clear those grabbing onto the core directly. It only took a moment’s thought to come to a choice. The core was basically an important part of the dungeon, so removing the roots there would make the dungeon feel a bunch better.I had to work carefully. I didn’t want to strike the core itself in case it broke, but it was surrounded by roots. So, I carefully cut through the roots leading up to the core. Judging by how the roots on the walls flinched, they didn’t like that one bit.Once they were detached, it was pretty easy to peel some of the roots off the core just by tugging on them. A few were wrapped around tight enough that I had to let some ambient Cleaning magic brush up against them until they loosened and I could tear them off. After a few minute’s work, the entire core was clear.“There you go,” I muttered to the dungeon. “Nice and freed up.” For some reason I couldn’t help but think of the dungeon as a cute animal caught in a fence.The... taste of the mana in the air changed a bit. I paused as I felt at it to be sure it wasn’t a bad change.Then... then nothing happened, so I started blasting.Big gouts of Cleaning magic splashed against the walls and ceiling and floor, burning away the root’s infection until big clumps of root fell down with heavy thumps all around the room.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.Some of the roots tried to squirm away, others seemed to try and reach out to grab me, or maybe the core behind me, but they were slow-moving and when they met even more Cleaning magic, their efforts turned to nothing.Soon enough, I walked along the edge of the room, splashing magic onto errant bits of root on the floor.The room was much nicer without big vines clinging to the walls. It was a sort of nursery, with pastel walls and clean wooden floors. Unfortunately, there were holes in the walls and the floors were warped, but I had the impression that that wouldn’t last for very long. The dungeon, or at least the core, was free of the roots, so it had an opportunity to heal.Quest Completed!Trim the Cruel!The Core is saved!“I think that’s it,” I said as I left the dungeon’s core room. My mana was topped up to max and then some, but I was leaking an aura of Cleaning magic that would chew away at the excess.Lieutenant Petalwrought carefully stepped into the room and walked around it once. I had the impression that he was trying not to wince at the clinks and clangs of his armour as he moved with careful reverence. “It seems clear,” he said as he exited the room. “Will the roots perish now?”“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I think they might. The last dungeons started to fight back against the roots. I don’t know if that means that they’ll all win against them.”“But if the dungeon’s fighting back, then it has a chance,” Erin said. “We’ve delivered it a dose of medicine. I imagine the rest is up to the dungeon itself.”I nodded. “That’s how I think it works. I got a quest update. It said the dungeon’s saved. I don’t know if that means just for now, or if it’s a permanent thing.”A few of the others were giving me a look at that. I think it might have been the mention of the quest. If they treated the World as something very important, then getting a message from it was pretty important too.“We’ll have to trust you, then,” the lieutenant said.“I mean, you should verify anyway. Maybe send someone down tomorrow to see if there are any more roots poking into the room,” I said.He nodded. “I’ll inform the Knight-Captain and the other knights.”“I might want to see that,” Aria said. “If the roots are still here tomorrow, then there’s a chance they’ll be falling apart, or degrading. Even if they’re completely gone or remain as they are, I’ll want to see. It’ll be important to know moving on... and for my papers too.”“Speaking of higher-ups,” Amaryllis said. “We should head out. I’m somewhat tired of being in a dungeon, and I think we’re due a payment soon for services rendered. Though I imagine we’ll only see that once we’re back at the capital.”Everyone seemed to agree with that. I think we were all a bit tired. What time had it been when we entered the dungeon? Early afternoon? I couldn’t even begin to tell what time it was now. Some of the floors had felt like they went on forever. Had we been here for a couple of hours, or nearly a whole day? I couldn’t even guess by feeling how sleepy I was.“The exit is right through here,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said. He walked over to the last unopened door in the bedroom. “Before we go,” he said with a hand on the handle. “I want to say that it was an honour working with you all. Though most of you come from varied backgrounds and occupations, you all comported yourselves with dignity.”I knew that pride wasn’t a very nice emotion most of the time, but I still puffed out my chest at his words. “Thank you. I’m glad we all got to become friends.”There were a few chuckles, and Awen bumped her shoulder against mine.Then the door was opened and we filed through it. A tunnel awaited us on the other side. Just a few metres in, and I recognized it as the same one we used to enter the dungeon. And then we were out.A lone knight, in only half the armour as the others and with a spear by his side snapped to attention as he saw us entering the room. “Sir Petalwrought, sir!” he said at volumes that might have been a bit much for indoors.“Hello, squire,” the knight said. “Can you inform the Knight-Captain of our success?”“Yes, sir!” the squire shouted back. “Right away, sir. The Knight-Captain is in the upper debriefing room, sir.”That was a lot of sirs. This boy took himself very sir-iously. I giggled, then worked hard not to laugh when Amaryllis shot me a look. “Nevermind. It’ll just make you angry if I explain.”She just rolled her eyes“I believe everyone but our knights should come,” the lieutenant said. “Unless you gentlemen have anything important to add?” he directed the last to the knights.They shook their heads, and I imagined they were all eager to get out of that armour and into a bath. One of them handed me back Weedbane, and I thanked him with a cheery smile before tucking the scythe on my shoulder.“Very well then, please follow me once more, everyone,” the lieutenant said.We moved through the castle, and past a small courtyard at the back. The sky was that dark blue that only came about when the sun was about to set, which answered one of my questions, at least.Too tired to chat, we tromped up the stairs to the next floor where a bunch of generals and important riff-raff were waiting for us.
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