Book 4: Chapter 9: Reconstitution
Chapter 9
Everyone quickly surrounded Kate as she lay on the dais. Alex wasn’t even the first to reach her; that was Holly.
She lifted Kate’s head, resting it in her lap carefully. The fire mage didn’t even react to being moved, it was if she had been knocked utterly unconscious. Yet, she didn’t look to be in pain either. It wasn’t like the early tribulations, she wasn’t shuddering or throwing up black impurities. Alex could have mistaken her for having fell asleep.
“Her pulse is strong, and she’s breathing,” Holly answered the unspoken questions on everyone’s lips. “But it feels like she’s burning up.”
Sure enough, Alex watched through his [Aether Sight] that the aether energy inside Kate’s body was moving rapidly. It wasn’t random from what he could tell, swirling about in a pattern of finely set lines, loops and curves that was far, far too complex for her to do instinctively while asleep.
He also noticed something happening with the energy that he only ever saw once before, in himself.
Her body was absorbing some of the energy. Her muscles, bones, organs, and even her skin; all of it was taking in small amounts of the fire aether as it moved around.
“I, don’t know for sure, but I think she is gaining a constitution,” Alex said breathlessly.
“For real?” Cole exclaimed.
Alex thought a moment, looking more carefully before finally nodding. “Yeah, I really think so. I don’t know what it is, or what it will do but… its something.”
“Gaining a constitution along your path to power is rare. It is far more typical to be born with one, which is why noble bloodlines are held in such high regard. Items can sometimes grant you one, as you know from your Dragon Pill, but that’s even more rare. You might as well walk around trying to jump into radioactive waste pits, it’ll be far more likely.”Obby spoke in his mind as he watched Kate undergo her changes.
So I was lucky?
“Immensely so. And so is she. Whatever is happening to Kate, she might just receive a boon that could make her rival even you.” The rock continued.
What? That good huh?
“Well, probably not. Even in the realm of constitutions, there are good and bad ones, some even detrimental. And you are a unique case of a different order. An anomaly among anomalies. A flesh-sack like no other. Less fleshy than flesh, more sacky than sack.”
Do you even know what you’re saying?
“Sometimes, no. I kind of just roll with it and see what happens.”
Alex pushed Obby’s presence away with a mental shove, ignoring the rock. He wasn’t entirely helpful when he was fucking about. But what he said did give Alex some ideas of what to expect, which was good.
“You better get a move on with learning your fire attunement, Garret. I think Kate is about to become a truly powerful hot-head after this,” he said.
Garret tsk’d loudly and shook his head. “Not fair! You all get the good stuff.”
The was a moment of silence as Alex looked at him with a raised brow. He gestured to his back, where he had been implanting his almost insane arcane-totally-not-cybernetics, then at the bracer containing the Aether gems he had yet to implant. Garret seemed to understand his meaning and winced visibly.
“Right, sorry, my bad. You know what I mean though,” Garret muttered, earning him a slap on the shoulder from Cole.
“Is Garret being a whiny child again?” Kate voice drifted up from Holly’s lap, stopping all the idle banter.
“Hey girl, you’re okay. How you feeling?” Holly spoke to her as she stroked her hair, still holding close.
“I’m fine, I think.” She sat up, looking about blearily for a moment. Then her eyes gained focus and she appeared to scan the room as if looking for something, or someone. “I saw something. It was so weird.”
“Easy, now. What’d you see?” Alex said as he crouched down to look her in the eyes straight on. His [Aether Sight] was still active, and he could see the last strands of fire aether had stopped moving about her body and were forming a strange and intricate web around her body gate at the base of her nape.
“Uh… it was a beast. It had this huge serpent body, and a long tail,” she said.
Alex’s heart began to suddenly beat faster at her words. That sounded very much like a dragon.
She didn’t stop there, though. “It was a dark burgundy color, and had this long neck… no more than one, it had seven necks, and seven heads.”
“So… a Hydra?” Cole asked.
“Yes! Yes, it was a Hydra. And it said something to me, I think, I can’t remember.”
Obby?
“Hydras are among the Dragon-kin, just like Wyverns, Basilisks, and Drakes. But they aren’t true Dragons. If her constitution is linked to Hydras, it might have some interesting effects.”
Again, information Alex could have simply guessed. But getting confirmation was nice.
“What’s the System say? Did you get a notification?” Holly asked.
Kate’s eyes went glossy a second as she brought up her UI. After a few more moments, she refocused and frowned. “It says I received the Flame-Hydra Constitution, rank F? Something about spreading my flames across the world to consume my enemies. Not very helpful.”
“The System is like that, I’ve found. You’ll need to learn what your constitution can do, and how to rank it up on your own. Don’t neglect it though, it’ll probably damn useful,” Alex said. “How are you feeling? Can you keep going?”
“I feel fine, better than fine, actually. Looks like my constitution gave me a Vitality and Wisdom boost.”
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Garret groaned audibly. “Lucky.”
Kate shot him an eye full of flaming daggers with a glare and he promptly closed his mouth. Then she got to her feet, not all wobbling or shaking in the process, it looked like she really was fine after all.
“Well, if that’s all we got, should we try to figure out where to go from here?” Cole asked. “I don’t exactly see a new tunnel or door leading out of here.”
“I think I got that covered,” Devon shouted from the other side of the dais.
While Alex and the others were looking over Kate and figuring out her changes, Devon had walked away once she had woken up and said she was okay. Looked like he had been studying what was left of the lines and glyphs around the area in the meantime. His hand was poised over a section of the now inactive enchantment, and he sent a small pulse of aether into it.
Alex barely had time to realize what he had done before the dais shifted beneath their feet. The obsidian table split clean down the middle, light flowing upward out of the space like holy shaft of revelation. A deep, mechanical groan also followed, and the the ground around them moved and shifted into a set of stairs leading further downward.
“Found our way down,” Kate muttered..
“Or found the thing that made this dungeon unstable,” Alex said grimly.
Gaining a new constitution for Kate was great, but Alex hadn’t forgotten that the Dungeon they were currently diving into was nearing a breach. That the last team that had been sent inside was seemingly wiped out completely. He damn sure hadn’t forgotten there was something down below that whole place that causing the entire Dungeon to rumble whenever it decided show its displeasure.
Despite all those unknown, and known, risks, they couldn’t just stop there. Downward it was.
“Well… lets get going then,” He said, leading the way.
They stepped through together and they really didn’t have to travel for long. It was simply a steep stair-tunnel that appeared to take them a few hundred yards further into the ground. The descent tunnel opened into a cavern vast enough to swallow a fortress.
You have entered: The Heart Forge Dungeon Floor 2 - Subdomain: The Forge
Objective:Defeat the Forge’s Guardian.
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