I Hate Dungeon School

"Experiments?" I asked, the word shaking off any remaining sleepiness I felt.

I didn't like the sound of it, and Danica's sharp-toothed smile wasn't helping the matter in the slightest.

"Oh yes! We have to poke and prod and find out what exactly is going on here. This is all very interesting, but we need to find out some more details!" Danica exclaimed. Her uninterested demeanor from when I had entered was a complete change.

I don't know how I was supposed to feel about that.

"Danica, please. Ms. Marchesi, we're going to have to run other tests and monitor the results." Andritch explained, reaching up to put her hand on my shoulder. In any other situation, it would have been comical, the height difference between her and me being rather stark. But then I was an elf and she was a dwarf, so that wasn't unexpected.

"This will sound like a silly question, but this isn't going to hurt, is it?" I asked with a sigh.

"Hopefully not, but no promises, I'm afraid." Another shoulder pat. I appreciated the attempted reassurance from Andritch. When I first took classes from her, I had just assumed she was, to use a colloquialism, a hard ass. But she had a soft side to her, and really did care for us. Tough love, I suppose, one could accurately call it.

Despite all her assurances, as minor as it was, I was beginning to want to back out of this. There was a sense of curiosity in my mind that wanted to know more,e though. It was like exploring a dungeon that you had no maps for, I supposed. The constant tugging urge to find out what was around the corner, to see if it was treasure or death that awaited you.

"Alright. I guess we should get this over with." I put on a show of reticence. Didn't want to give of the impression of being excited about this.

"Excellent! Let's go!" Calderon gave me a gentle push towards the strange door I had noticed earlier. We were leaving this room, I guessed. Another hidden place in the supposedly empty hallway of the bottom floor.

Danica opened the door, and what I saw was definitely not more hallway. It led to a rather large chamber, full of the kind of scientific mechanisms I had hoped to see earlier. The space made no sense. The layout I had mentally drawn in my head was dashed to pieces.

I could feel my mouth hang agape, like a country bumpkin their first time in a real city.

"Neat, huh? It's a side effect of what we call an Anomaly Dungeon. It warps space in seemingly impossible ways, but if you can harness it correctly, you can do some amazing stuff." Calderon explained as we passed by a veritable jungle of wiring, sparking instruments, and more.

I had never seen such things in my life. They seemed to be the stuff of fiction, but it was solid and as real as I was. As we progressed, I saw a sight that startled me so much, I let out an audible gasp.

Before me, in a giant open space, surrounded by luminescent pillars, was a dungeon core. The largest core I had ever seen.

All the cores I had encountered before, I even read about, were usually a few feet across at most, but this thing was far beyond that.

"What am I seeing?" I asked.

"The Dungeon at the center of Dungeon School. The Anomaly Dungeon we have named The Vault of Nightmares." Andritch explained, her tone hushed, as if she were afraid of the thing before us. I didn't blame her in the slightest.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, it is the most stable Anomaly Dungeon ever found, its spatial warping ability is so consistent, its patterns of monster generation predictable, and its mana output so negligible as to not even register on any equipment designed to track it. It makes no sense in the grand scheme of what we know about dungeons, but it makes no sense in a way that makes sense. If that makes any sense at all." Danica rattled off to me, her grin wide and excited.

"It doesn't, but I'll trust you. I'm going to assume this is the sort of thing I need to be keeping secret, yes?" I asked, turning towards the three of them.

"I thought that was just understood. Like it or not, Ms. Marchesi, you are part of some of the secrets of Dungeon School, whether you like it or not. At this point, you're considered an asset, for all the good or ill that entails." Andritch explained. "I am sorry, but your connection to whatever is going on with that tiny core is possibly vital to dungeon research, and Dungeon School needs to be on top of that at all costs."

I pondered for a moment. It was true. Even I had to admit that. It was like being a chosen one of sorts. Less glamorous, though.

"I guess that makes sense. I'm ok with it, really. I just wanted to know what exactly to keep my mouth shut about."

I really was fine with it. After I had been driven away from my family's lands, and really, Burgotova in general, I found myself somewhat adrift. I had signed up for Dungeon School as both a way to make money off my skills as a Sword-Witch but also as a sort of snub to those who denied me my original dream of going to Mage school. I would make my mark somehow, either through becoming rich in the dungeons. Revolutionizing dungeon research would certainly fit that dream.

"The secret is safe with me. I just want credit where credit is due, when you all make some kind of momentous discovery. Deal?" I said firmly.

"Yes I do believe that was the agreement we made. Have you been experiencing memory lapses?" Calderon asked, pulling his notebook back out.

I sighed, a deep, annoyed sound.

"I was trying to be dramatic, sir. Let's just get on with this, shall we? I'd like to get all this done before I start chewing off my arm for lunch." I snarked at him and turned to look back at the core.

Its shine was soft, and it almost felt like it had a mind, an alien one much like the tiny core resting against my heart. I could swear I felt it reach out and touch my mind, and that of the little one. It wasn't threatening, or even really a curious touch. It was hard to explain. It was so familiar and alien at the very same time.

Danica snapped her fingers in front of my face, tearing my eyes away from the giant core.

"You good, girl? We've been talking to you for a bit, and you've just been spaced out." She frowned at me, a look of actual concern on her face.

"I'm sorry, I was just staring at the core and just drifted off. It's like I could feel it doing something. It was like it was talking to me and my core, but also not at the same time." I explained, my voice sounding dreamier than I intended.

"That's- hmmm. Calderon?" She shouted at the other researcher.

"Yeah, I heard. We need to get some probes on her before we unshackle the test subjects." He said. I didn't like the sound of that, but decided not to press them on it.

"Ms. Marchesi, we're going to have to put some measuring devices on you for the next phase of this. I'm sorry to ask, but we're going to need you to disrobe." Andritch sounded incredibly apologetic when she said this.

"I'm going to give you all the benefit of the doubt that you're all not just doing this as an overly roundabout way to see me naked, so tell me what, exactly, you need me to do." I glared slightly at the three of them. I hadn't expected all this.

"Of course. We're going to put monitoring devices on specific parts of your body so we can monitor mana fluctuations, to see if certain things we do change them. We will also have a device monitoring your core, which we will need you to hold in your hands while we do this." She explained, a hand on my back, leading me over to a modesty screen.

"And the disrobing?" I pressed.

"Well, we don't need you to completely disrobe; we have a sort of outfit for you to wear, so you don't have to fear for your modesty and all that." Andritch handed me the outfit. "I'll leave you to change while we get ready."

I took a look at the outfit. It wasn't much different than some of my workout clothes, except it showed off a lot more midriff than I was used to.

I quickly changed, folded up my warmer clothes, and put on the testing outfit. It was snug in a few places that I didn't appreciate, and it was a bit of a challenge pulling the fabric out of unfortunate crevices, but eventually I succeeded.

I pulled my core out of its holding pouch and caressed it softly while it rested in the palm of my hand. I had no idea if it was likewise nervous, but I decided to assume it was. Nothing lost by being comforting, after all. I took a deep breath and walked out from behind the screen.

I was grateful it was so warm in here, though it was also slightly humid, which I didn't care for. In the thin clothing, despite the fact I was covered, I felt oddly naked. How many times had I been unclothed before my roommates, before strangers, even in the baths and showers? I had no sense of shame there, was even proud of my physique, and though it's vain to say so, I was attractive. But now? I felt naked and uncomfortable about it, despite still being covered.

The feeling didn't come from the researchers as they were still busy with their equipment. I realized that it felt like the core was staring at me. It wasn't paying attention to my core anymore. No, the giant glowing sphere was focused on me.

It was a feeling I couldn't quite put into words, but the feeling persisted anyway. Was it judging? Curious? I had no idea. The emotions that brushed my mind were still alien and strange to me, and I didn't have any frame of reference to compare it to.

My mind snapped back into focus as I felt something cold touch me. Apparently, Andritch and Danica had been placing something on me this entire time, my mind had been pulled away. Those must be the probes. They looked like weird crystals on metal discs. They were so cold and felt greasy at the same time.

"Hey. I just think you should all know, your Anomaly core there keeps, I have no idea how to explain it, but it keeps looking at me. I can feel it touching my mind somehow." I said.

"Touching your mind? Can you explain?" Calderon called from his station.

"Not really? Its the weirdest sensation. I can feel it looking at me, like it's curious or something. It's like feeling someone watching you, but it feels so different from a person or animal, I find myself at a loss for words." I continued.

"Interesting. Let us know if the sensation changes, please." He said, writing something down.

"We're going to have you sit down. You see the circle in the center of all those pillars?" Andritch pointed. I nodded in response.

"Good. We need you to sit, just like you're meditating for mana control practice. Just focus on the core in your hands, and gently push mana into it. You got that?" She asked, her voice even and clear, making sure I understood every single syllable.

I nodded again and walked forward. I sat, my legs crossed, grimacing at how uncomfortable my rear end felt on the floor. I did as they said. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Breath in, mana out. I gently fed my tiny core my mana, and it lapped it up like a kitten drinking milk.

"Ok, we're going to start up the probes. In three, two, one and-" Calderon's voice vanished. All sound vanished. The world had dropped away. I wanted to panic, but the emotion wouldn't emerge. It felt as if my mind and my soul were submerged in cold water, but not in a painful way.

I felt my eyes open, and before me was the core, and only the core. Floating in a void. I wanted to swear and scream, but I couldn't move or act in any way.

My fear and panic washed away with a pulse of light from the core. I was surrounded by a group of smaller lights. They almost looked like other cores. They felt almost like the one that rested in my hand.

One after another, the lights went out, and the light of the sphere in my hands got brighter and larger. I could feel a pull of mana from my body, it being replaced by the strange mana of a dungeon, but as it grew, the usual discomfort I felt was replaced by a sense of satisfaction. Of victory. The larger core before us pulsed softly, that feeling of curiosity returning, but this time with a sense of something else. Pride? Trepidation? Both?

The feeling was torn from me in a flash, like being splashed with ice water in the middle of winter. It was a feeling that I felt down to my bones, and I screamed, a real scream from my flesh and blood throat.

It was Danica, she was shaking me violently. "Wake up, damn you!" She then struck my face with her palm, pulling me directly into wakefulness.

"What? What's going on?" I mumbled.

"You started screaming, and then things got really weird! C'mon, get up! We've got to get you to a healer!" She wrapped my arm around her and helped me to my feet. I felt weak. So weak.

Why was I so weak? Why was my face wet?

I rubbed my nose with my other hand. Blood. A lot of it.

Less than ideal, I thought as I was quickly beginning to lose consciousness again.

Another slap across the face prevented that.

I groaned as my sense of pain caught up with me. Yes, a healer would be lovely, I thought.