34: Jackpot
“Again…?” Haley muttered. “I don’t want you to keep harming yourself. It was already bad enough to see you bleeding out through your nose and eyes twice.”
“Yeah,” Van nodded. “Trust me, I’m all for your ideas, but not at the expense of your life. I’m even sure that the Key Slinger wouldn’t want you to keep hurting yourself to follow her orders, would she?”
“As far as I know, she only cares about the end results,” Haley said, her voice low and contemplative. “But it’s not like she’s here right now to force you.”
“Guys, guys, easy,” Aidan pulled his hands up, surprised at their response to this. “I’m fine. I’m not gonna do anything crazy… well, maybe. Actually, it involves having Haley help me out.”
“What?” Van instantly said. “No way, whatever it is you’re doing, you’re not bringing my sister into it.”
“I totally get what you mean,” Aidan said, calming the brother with his hands in a gesture of peace. “But at this rate, it might take us days to find the thing the quartz is connected to. It’s already been a few hours since we got in here, but are we really going to spend who knows how much time on finding what we’re looking for?”
Van pursed his lips in thought, taking his words into consideration. Despite his clear dislike of letting his sister go, Haley pushed her hand up to grab their attention.
“I don’t mind trying whatever it is you’re gonna do,” Haley said. “I honestly don’t want to be here any more than I have to. I realized just how dangerous this could be, and we already went through some pretty life-threatening situations. The sooner we get out, the better.”
“Haley,” Van turned to her, his eyes growing with concern.
“So, what is it?” Haley asked, turning to Aidan and putting her brother to the side. “What do you need me to do?”
“I want you to stand still while I try to see if I can use Sense Vibrations through you and with the quartz in hand,” Aidan said, stepping up to Haley with the gem held between his fingers. “I want to see if I can somehow connect your talent with my sense and see if I can expand on it a little. I never tried it before, but the moment it gets dangerous for you, I promise to stop immediately. Would you like to try?”
“Using your sense skill that managed to find so many monsters around us?” Haley asked, leaving Aidan to nod. “Okay… that definitely sounds incredible, but can you really pull that off?”
“Only one way to find out,” Aidan smiled. “But I’ll only do it with your consent. If you feel uncomfortable with this, I’ll try some other method, promise.”
Hearing his words probably got Haley to understand his intent. She turned to her brother, nodding once as though saying there was nothing to worry about. Though Aidan could already feel it in her soul that she was more than ready to agree. Van, while it took a while, accepted it and crossed his arms to see it play out.
First, Aidan wondered what to do to connect with her talent. With Sense Vibrations, he could feel her soul’s rhythm playing at that high-tempo beat, a resemblance to her bubbly attitude and general good nature. He really liked her song, so to speak, and always felt like he didn't have to hide anything to such a pure soul.
So the last thing he wanted to do was harm her soul and end up hurting Haley. With that in mind, he put his hand on top of her head, surprising her a little before she calmed down enough to know that he wouldn’t do anything else other than leaving it hanging there.
“I want to connect to the place where it would most likely expand,” Aidan said, his tone low and assured. “The moment you feel anything wrong, tell me immediately.”
“O-Okay,” Haley nodded, his hand moving up and down in response. “I believe you.”
“Great.”
Closing his eyes, he expanded his Sense Vibrations through his body and into his hand. Using the same method of shaping his intent to make a change, he channeled his willpower to create a form that would easily change how his skill would play out. But instead of using a drill to pierce through Haley’s soul, he instead shaped a small bridge, using mana to ease the process of transfer over to Haley.
“If you feel like something is nagging at you, let it pass,” Aidan said slowly, picking up her attention. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you.”
Aidan was sure of it, even though this was his first time. Through his senses, he could feel Haley’s soul hesitating on taking on that bridge-like shape. A moment later, her soul accepted it, taking the bridge and connecting it to her own sense of self. Now the two were connected via a stream of mana latched onto both of their souls.
“W-Whoa…” Haley muttered. “This feels… weird.”
“Are you in pain?” Aidan asked.
“N-No, it’s just… weird, that’s all.”
“Okay, then I’ll keep going.”
Haley’s soul quivered in response, ready to take on the next task. Aidan then willed his Sense Vibrations to pass along the bridge to Haley’s soul, and in response, he felt something tug at the bridge connecting them.
He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but he knew that it was something different from some spell or skill. She wasn’t activating anything, but he definitely felt something tingle at the deepest corners of his mind. He searched into it, flowing through the stream of consciousness connecting the two as he finally delved into another space that was different from his own.
He didn’t wish to do anything else but to follow the tingle that echoed within his consciousness, knowing full well that it was Haley’s talent. His skill wrapped around the talent in a warm embrace, then sent out a pulse that flowed out from the two into the wider world around them.
In an instant, he could feel it all. Every single different ‘ping’ that echoed and bounced off of each other in different locations around the dungeon. They extended high into the sky above, and further down into the ground. They reached all the way over the horizon, an array of lights that shimmered in response to the talent.
“A-Are these all the treasures in the dungeon…?” Haley said in awe, her voice caught up. “I can see everything…!”
He was glad that just like him, Haley could also use the Sense Vibrations through their connection and now she could see what he could see, but seeing more treasures around them wasn’t the target. What really mattered was the quartz in his hand.
Now came the real hurdle. He could technically alter anything with the use of his Craft spell, but it was another thing to connect his Sense Vibrations into another item. Still, if he focused hard enough, he could achieve some results.
He held the gem tight in his hand, willing his mana to seep through its shimmering facets and straight into it. But he also made sure to not try and directly pierce deep into it either. The description where it would explode in a 3-mile radius bothered him extremely, so he needed to be careful.
As expected, it was a lot harder than it looked. Rather than trying to intervene with something, he was trying to connect it to his own senses, then transfer that access over to Haley’s talent, but the process was getting stifled right at the very beginning. However, he didn’t budge and continued his relentless assault.
He was on a wave of breakthroughs as he used the familiar feeling of breaking through an item’s spiritual construct with his will, probably an added feature of his talent working behind the scenes. With a slight give, the gem was infused with his mana, but kept itself apart by sticking to the surface rather than deeply into the gem itself.
That way, he could still use the gem’s signature instead of directly activating from within. It felt like a clamp had been used on his head, keeping a solid lock on his mind and refusing to budge. With it in mind, he let the Sense Vibrations flow out, Haley’s talent acting as a guideline that let the vibrations flow out and through the dungeon.
He paid closer attention to his surroundings, shutting off all of his physical senses and focusing only on the inner self. When a slight ting touched his mind, he immediately cornered it, like a predator pouncing straight at its prey.
It let off faint but intense vibrations that reacted similarly to the quartz held in his hand. It was calling out to him, as though begging to be found.
Once he recognized the location, he shut off the senses, pulling himself and Haley out of their respective consciousness. Aidan took a step back, letting go of Haley in the physical world as he wobbled in place.
His eyes were blurry and his head spun in circles. He tried to hold his head in place, but his eyes kept spinning around. It was an absolute sensory overload that made him eventually buckle down to the ground.
“A-Aidan!” Haley shouted, reaching to his level. “You alright? I told you not to do anything crazy!”
“I-I’m fine,” Aidan said, his eyes still slightly out of the loop. He let his ears handle the rest. “More importantly, how are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, weirdly enough,” Haley admitted. “I could see everything… Then I felt something tingle super hard just a few miles from here. Then everything was gone. It was… incredible. Is that what you see all the time?”
“Yeah, but I kinda pushed it by trying to use three different kinds of senses all at once,” Aidan said, letting out a big breath. He noticed Van sitting beside them, quiet but keeping a steady lookout for their surroundings. “I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
“Did you find what we’re looking for?” Van asked.
“Yep,” Aidan nodded, which only made it worse for his tiny headache. “Ugh, it’s like Haley said.”
“Van, it was awesome!” Haley exclaimed. “You gotta try it out too. It’s like I could see everything around me!”
“I’m sure it sounds cool, but I have no reason to look that far into it. Kinda gives me the willies, not gonna lie. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m more than fine! In fact, I don’t mind trying it out again for good measure.”
“Well, I mind it,” Aidan complained. “It sucks. I feel like I’m gonna hurl any second now.”
The siblings let Aidan recover a bit from the sensory-overload. Once his mind cooled and his eyes were no longer giving him a headache, he stood up, checked his gear, and nodded to the two before going down the pathway where it might lead to the location in question.
Along the way came the usual. They faced monsters that would come up to them, probably because there wasn't anything else to hunt that was as easy to get as the three. It didn’t take long for Aidan’s advanced Craft spell to utterly decimate the monsters around them, taking them down one at a time with the aid of Van keeping them off of him by kiting around their enemies.
This time Haley used the mana enchantment of the bow rather than using up the arrows, which was done by pulling the string of the bow and then forming the arrow right in the middle of her fingers before getting launched straight at them, delivering a straight and narrow glowing arrow that pierced right into a monster’s hide.
The monsters were a variety of insect-like creatures, with some being a different variant of Dwellers called Cave Dweller Diggers that dug into the earth and tried to attack them from below. Thanks to Sense Vibrations, however, Aidan could easily take them out right beneath the earth and just dug up their bodies when their lives were snuffed out.
As they kept fighting, a level naturally came their way.
Level Up! From Level 10, you became Level 11!
You have gained:
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
“Guys, we’re close,” Aidan said, noticing the pattern of the walls and hallways reminiscent of the Sense Vibrations’ instructions.
It was after bypassing a few cave entrances and eventually blowing past an entire field’s worth of monsters, but soon they reached straight to where they suspected the item in question to be at. Aidan just didn’t expect it to be so grandiose.
What stood before them were large double doors made entirely of metal, engraved with small insignias that made up several lines across its surface. They had a sort of depth to it that even their souls were creating a tone that piqued his interest. The doors were large enough that a whole truck could drive through with ease, creating a daunting atmosphere that could not be denied.
“Is this… a boss room?” Van uttered, taking a step back. “I’ve never seen it before.”
“You mean you guys never faced a boss?” Aidan asked, considering that Van was the one who had experience being in a dungeon party.
“We were never coordinated enough to tackle a boss, and normally that’s something that you gather plenty of other people of high level to work with.”
“But that tingling pointed it right here,” Haley said, pointing at it, then at Aidan. “Right? That’s what the quartz is leading to.”
“She’s right,” Aidan said, pulling up the gem from the spatial bag. “Whatever it is that Nina wants, it’s inside there. I say we–”
Before Aidan could say anything more to boost their morale, the quartz in his hand suddenly started to glow, catching their attention. Aidan immediately sensed if there was any danger at hand, but realized that the quartz was just reacting to the doors in front of them.
The markings on the door started to glow the same faint crimson color as the quartz, then the entirety of the doors glowed before they began to rumble and shake. The earth crumbled around them as the doors slowly opened outwards, the twin doors sliding open that caused a piercing echo that hurt their ears before they opened up just enough to let through a small group.
Aidan looked ahead through the open doors, seeing a stone pillar right at the center. There was nothing else inside the room as far as he could see, but he didn’t immediately set out into it. He looked at his party, seeing their hesitant faces forming just like his.
“That’s freaky,” Haley muttered. “Is it a good idea to go in?”
“Well, that depends on Aidan,” Van stated. “What do you say?”
“Seeing the quartz react to that, makes sense that we go in. But just in case, I’ll let my swords go through first. Once we know it’s safe, we’ll let Van through, then we go after. Sounds like a plan?”
“Good to me,” Van unsheathed his sword, ready to take action. “Let’s go.”