Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]

Chloe kneels over me, giving me a look of pure compassion as her [Curing Light] sutures my wounds and even repairs the nerves I fried in that electric burst. It feels nice for the most part— just not in that fleeting moment after my sense of pain is reactivated and before my nerves realize that the source of the pain no longer applies.

She gives me The Look, and I know I’m in big trouble. If not for the fact that we’re both drained, I’m sure she would slap me once or twice to pull me back to my senses. She’d give me an indignant lecture about how I’m reckless and hurting myself and not taking her feelings into consideration. I’d retort, saying that this was the best outcome, and the best strategy that took into consideration both the probability of success today as well as the need to keep my weekly use of [Seraphina Overlimit] in reserve for when we go back to rescue Mom.

We’d reach an impasse, she’d tell me to be more careful and to communicate with her. I’d apologize and say that I’ll try, and then we’d later end up in a similar position and I’ll do the whole thing over again because I’ve got a bit of a martyr complex, especially when it comes to the woman I love more than life itself.

But here, with the law of silence still enforced upon us and an inability to communicate via my sketchbook, we carry out the entire conversation with emotions, gestures, and the movement of our eyes and faces. Something we’re getting better at, and will continue to improve upon over the months and years as we grow as partners.

In an act of generous mercy from the System, it has not seen fit to ambush us with yet more monsters eager to turn our bones into their bread. I don’t expect that to hold for too much longer, but I’ll take what we can get.

“What do we do now?” Chloe asks, by tracing letters in the air with a finger tipped with light.

“We have to clear the dungeon, or our [Inventory] and voice will be locked forever. Not to mention that I don’t want to permanently lose our flight.”

“Permanently?”

“You didn’t notice that we were pushed past the threshold where we originally suffered the effects of the dimension locking, but we still can’t use our [Inventory]? My [Dimension Rift] Skill is likewise still sealed.”

“Oh–”

“But I don’t think there will be another fight. That last fight screamed ‘final boss’.”

“By the goddesses, I hope there’s not another fight. I’m getting tired and you, my love, need rest. Girlfriend’s and Healer’s Orders. Both.” Her narrowed eyes leave no room for discussion.

I can only lower my head in resignation. When Chloe’s mind is made up to that extent, acceptance is the only response that doesn’t lead to certain ruin.

“I still want to study this dungeon a bit more. The woman who allegedly kidnapped Mom had ‘antidetection’ and ‘reconnaissance’ Skills, and if I were a betting woman, I’d bet good money that there’s some sort of dimensional shenanigans among them.”

“I’m not quite following, Sera.”

“If I can re-create the dimensional locking effect currently affecting us, we should be able to keep her from using teleportation to try to escape.”

Chloe’s eyes widen at the realization and implications. Then they narrow again. “One hour. Then we need to move on.”

I try to stress the importance of doing this, but to no avail. Chloe is dead-set on her dictum, and I’d be a fool to waste the hour I’ve been given rather than using it to its fullest extent. My mind is still a little fatigued after earlier, but I do have a couple of paths that seem promising. For one, I have a [Lock] and [Unlock] glyph, and I know the basic structure that corresponds to… I’m not sure if it’s [Dimensions] or [Subspace], but it’s definitely related to the concepts at play.

They actually combine together quite nicely, but the effect feels off somehow. It’s similar to the effect currently placed upon us, but not exactly the same. Feels like the sort of effect that could be used to seal a location from teleportation and dimensional effects, rather than one which applies to a target being and prevents them from teleporting away. Useful in its own right, but not the effect I really want right now.

Instead, I cycle through a bunch of different options, [Reconfiguration] helping me process the dizzying array of possibilities as well as their likely effects. Unfortunately, after half an hour, checking through hundreds of potential avenues, including no less than fifty different combinations of [Lock] and [Dimension], I find myself no closer to a solution than I was when I started.

“I want to go further in,” I write on the ground. “Maybe if I’m able to get a good look at the core of the dungeon, I’ll be able to make a breakthrough.”

Chloe doesn’t protest; if anything, she’s eager to get a move on, and I can’t blame her. It’s not the first time that I’ve asked her to wait in some stuffy or dangerous environment just so I can study magic a little more in detail. It certainly won’t be the last. But such is my nature and calling; studying and understanding magic is a core part of my classes just as much as healing and purging the undead are part of hers.

We make our way past the passageway once more, finding no trace of the antoids which came a bit too close to killing us a short while ago. Past the next chamber, where the Guardian Antoid once patrolled, the path branches outward in three different directions. I don’t get an opportunity to ask Chloe which way she wants to go; she marches straight ahead without compromise. And while I agree that it is the most likely path to the core, I’m remiss at the lost opportunity for more treasure right when we most need to increase our combat efficacy.

Alas.

I don my [Artificer’s Glasses] nonetheless, hoping that I’ll stumble upon a trapdoor or secret passage or maybe some switch that opens the door to treasure… And to my shock, I actually find something after less than a minute. The mechanism is discreet, a small button that blends seamlessly into the surrounding stone even when I shine a light upon it. A trap, perhaps, but this doesn’t have the feel of something put there just to punish the perceptive— or more likely, the obsessive.

I push the button, reasoning it’s much more likely to be good than bad. Chloe turns around at the noise, giving me a look of boredom that lasts precisely until a slot opens underneath the side of the passageway and a mass of stone slides down into the abyss. The new hole in the wall reveals a short and somehow even narrower passageway that terminates abruptly with a single maroon treasure chest for our trouble.

I open it up to find a glistening copper-colored breastplate, though the way it sparkles suggests that I’ve found something altogether different. And my ever-trusty glasses confirm it.

[[Auracite Cuirass]: A sturdy breastplate made of solid auracite. In addition to providing superior defense, it passively distorts the wearer’s appearance and creates minor after-images, which may cause attackers who rely on vision to miss. [Defense] + 115, [Agility] +25, [Magic Defense] + 45. [Light] Resistance: 50%. The wearer may also trigger the innate effect of the armor to cast [Blinding Flash] once per day. (No [Ether] cost.)]

I begin to cast aside my breastplate, only to be stopped by Chloe. She’s already fully disrobed, leaving only some light loungewear as she walks up past me and grabs the new haul out of her. I open my mouth in a vain attempt to ask what she’s doing, but only silence comes out as I watch her slide into the metal suit. Fortunately, there’s a built-in set of faulds to give her legs a little bit of additional protection and modesty.

A bit too little metal for my taste, though, as she finishes suiting up with a fashionable twirl. I do hope she’ll put some sort of skirt over the armor she’s claimed as her own; I don’t exactly like the idea of Chloe flashing the entire world, especially while in midair.

Again she doesn’t make a noise as she passes past me; I’m not sure if she’s upset with me, determined, or… Yeah, tired. Frustrated. It’s been a long day, we both need a lot of rest. Clara has yet to prove her trustworthiness, and I’m not sold on the fact that she really plans to help us. Worse still, she might also try to arrest us the second we finish rescuing Alicia. Probably on trumped-up charges and with planted evidence. But I don’t think she was wrong about the need for the two of us to get some proper rest.

I yawn. Yeah, I need to sleep real soon myself.

There aren’t any more surprises before we get to the core room, and thank the goddess there isn’t yet another boss fight, because I think I would’ve thrown caution to the wind, gone into [Overlimit], and just murdered everything. Doubling down on my earlier statement. We both need sleep. And a lot of it

There is, however, one treasure chest waiting for us. Normally I’d go through the usual mimic-protection song and dance, but can’t be arsed right about now. It thankfully isn’t anything dangerous, just a regular treasure chest containing a Skill book. I have a couple qualms about taking it for myself, but Chloe doesn’t seem to mind, even . She did get the very stylish suit of armor, and it is only fair and–

Oh, my… goddess. As soon as the glyphs start forming in my mind, I realize that I just wasted close to an hour of our time, for, in an act of cosmic irony, the System has just seen fit to give me the very Skill I had been trying and failing to intuit through the patterns of Ether swirling about. I’m not sure whether Chloe is going to be happy or absolutely livid when she finds out about this.

[You have gained the General Skill [Dimensional Seal (Rank I)]]

[[Dimensional Seal]: Choose one target— an object, including a living being— within [Rank x 10] feet. The selected target becomes dimensionally fixed, unable to teleport or otherwise able to leave the principal layer of space for the duration of the spell. When cast upon an unliving target or one without System parameters, the spell will function without fail, and last for 24 hours or until dismissed (dismissable at the caster’s will). When cast upon another being, the chance of success and the duration are based on the caster’s Level and [Magic Attack] compared against the target’s Level and [Magic Defense].]

Perfect. My demeanor, stoic though I try to make it, fails to occlude my glee at getting this Skill in the slightest. Ideally, I would like to be able to cast [Dimensional Seal] via my [Glyphcasting], or at least an inelegant variant thereof. However, with three distinct Skills all tied up in this sort of magic, and my own extradimensional origins to boot? I think the chances of getting a dimensional-related Class at Level 96 just went up by a significant amount. Absolutely critical if I’m ever going to get off this hunk of rock and explore the vastness of other worlds.

“Are we done here?” Chloe asks through finger signing. “I think I’m at my limit.”

“We are,” I say. “And I got the Skill I was hoping for.”

“As I expected. But you were never going to be satisfied unless you worked toward it yourself, first. Or am I wrong? Please don’t lie to me, Sera. I know you.”

I shrug, not bothering to dispute the obvious

The two of us touch the core, a glowing blue orb floating in the center of an unnaturally futuristic, cylindrical room. While it is possible to instead shatter the core and gain additional Experience for doing so, it’s generally considered an asshole move. Leaving the dungeon through the intended exit causes the same dungeon to re-form itself in the same configuration, after a brief time to recharge itself and regenerate the monsters within.

Destroying the dungeon’s core doesn’t prevent a new dungeon from respawning— something to do with leylines and how Ether flows through the Earth— but it will be an altogether different dungeon after doing so. Different gimmicks, different recommended levels, different monsters, and so forth. With combat by far the easiest way to gain more levels, Skills, and personal power, documenting the location and parameters of such dungeons is a fairly well-paid field. Not our personal cup of tea, but adventuring pays good money for the brave and foolhardy alike.

A moment later, we’ve passed through the rift and emerged back on the outside. All of the curses are gone. I can speak and fly and I can dig into my [Inventory] and pull out a couple of granola bars and bottles of water, because I just realized that I’m nearly as hungry as I am tired.

“So, how do I look?” Chloe asks, again twirling like a girl who just got her first skirt.

“Beautiful, stunning, radiant. Gorgeous, as always. And about as tired as I feel.”

Chloe kisses me as her old robes disappear back into her [Inventory]. “Good answer, love. Now then, I think a warm bed and a hot bath are in both our futures.”

“I certainly hope they are.”