Serenity didn’t have any good ideas on how to help Rube, so he turned towards Aki’s core rather than packing everything back up in his bag. “I don’t have anything. You said you had more ideas?”

Aki sounded pleased to be consulted. :A few, though the next one is similar. How close are you to your next Path? Raz is quite a ways away, but you have mentioned the advantage of being able to return to the Tutorial. Can you choose a new Path that might let you heal him, even though you cannot take him with you?:

Serenity started shaking his head as soon as he realized what she was asking. “I’m no healer. Not at all. The odds of me getting a healing Path are so low it’s just not going to happen.”

:You aren’t a standard healer, true. You are a destructive healer. Death-based, I’d guess, given Rissa’s Path. Are you not?: Aki was clearly not going to let him get away with his normal rejection.

“How did you know?” Serenity was fairly confident he hadn’t done anything to give that skill away. Had he?

Aki’s laughter rang out in his head. :I listen, Serenity. I hear everything in my dungeon, even if I don’t pay attention. I heard enough about Jeremiah to have a good idea about your healing.:

Serenity shook his head. He really was terrible at keeping secrets, wasn’t he? Not that that had been a secret, really; it was simply that he’d forgotten the dungeon could hear everything and considered himself to be in private in his home. It was a good thing he trusted Aki. “It still won’t help Rube. I can’t just destroy his arms and a good chunk of his side, someone has to also fix him. And we don’t have a healer who can do that.”

:You are a destructive healer. That means you understand the body. You are also a shapeshifter, you can heal yourself, and you can share abilities. What are the odds that you can find something related to one of those abilities that will either let you heal the itchy man or let him heal himself?: Aki sounded impatient, as though what she said was obvious.

It probably would have been if Serenity hadn’t gotten hung up on thinking of it as something that had to be solved specifically by healing. “You have a point. I don’t know how likely it is, but it’s possible. It won’t be healing, but maybe there’s some way.”

Serenity pulled up his Status to check his Path progress.

Name: Serenity

Species: Chimera

Subspecies: Sovereign of Potential (Kernel), Essence Dragon (Hatchling)

Core: Unique

Progression: 100%

Tier: 2

Features: 5/11

True

Crystal

Link

Death

Origin

Path: Magic Dhampir of the Origin

Level: 91 (160/1840)

Tier: 2, 0/91 Spent

Path History:

1: Unbound, Steadfast, Evoker

0: Death-Eater, Battle Adept

Condition: Incipient Core Sickness

Healing Available: Full

Mana: 3000/5000

Essence: 3000/5000

Stamina: 2600/2600

What was “Incipient Core Sickness”? It didn’t sound like a good thing.

Fortunately, there was someone he could ask. “Aki? Do you know what Core Sickness is?”

:Core sickness? It happens when a dungeon is processing too much Affinity-tained mana. There are a number of things that can cause it, but usually it means too many people are entering the dungeon or something happened that seriously tainted a lot of mana, more than the dungeon can hold.:

Serenity knew the djinn’s death had finished his Core Progression, but he hadn’t been kicked into Evolution because his first Tier Two Path was incomplete. If he was understanding Aki correctly, “Core Sickness” for him probably meant that he really needed to Evolve, which meant he needed to finish his Path as quickly as possible.

It was a reason other than Rube to push forward, but it didn’t really change things since he’d already decided to Tier up. He wasn’t exactly happy about it, since it would make being on Earth even less comfortable, but sometimes there wasn’t a good choice. This seemed like the best one he had available.

When Serenity didn’t stop her, Aki kept talking. :I’ve been running close to my limit for a while; that’s why I was upset about your explosion. It knocked me straight into low Core Sickness. That’s why I’m building two new levels; they’ll both be small at this point, but each of them will help. The tower level promises to be especially interesting, I’m adding extra filtration there, while the underground level will provide additional stability and a better connection to the ley line so I can dump the filtered mana. I also need it as a place with more dangerous monsters so I can dump the excess Essence from that whatever-it-was somewhere.:

Aki’s temper made more sense now. “I’m sorry, I had no idea it was that bad for you to kill the djinn in the dungeon.”

:It’s not all bad; it’s just making me rush. If I’d known ahead of time, I could have planned for it. That would have helped. For now, we have enough done that I’m in no danger; the Core Sickness is almost gone. I’ll be clear as a sunrise in a few hours.: Aki’s voice lightened towards the end.

Serenity could only assume that “clear as a sunrise” was an idiom of the Sunrise Clan; it was clearly a positive one. He made sure to visibly nod. “That’s good to hear, thanks. I’ll try to warn you next time.”

He was certain there would be a next time.

Serenity started to initiate a Tutorial but stopped himself. While the Tutorial was a good place to level a Path, the only place he was getting much XP now was the Solo dungeon. He might well also get some if he went to the mage area and sat in on some of the classes to see if he could pick up anything new, since his Path was heavily magic-based.

Neither place would be a good place to enter Evolution and he didn’t think he’d have much time after finishing his Path to get to safety or solitude, depending on which he picked. He’d be far better off if he could initiate it somewhere in Aki’s dungeon, especially somewhere private, like his own home. On the other hand, that might not be the best place for him to level.

“Aki? Do you happen to have a secure mage’s workroom?” A workroom would be a safe place to experiment with magic, which was the fastest way to level other than the sped-up time of the Tutorial, and it would be far safer and more secure.

“Katya sketched one in, but it doesn’t have any of the wards or anything.” Ita’s voice surprised Serenity; he’d forgotten she was in the room. “It’s on the far side of the challenge area.”

Serenity absently wondered how much creating the base wards for a workroom would be worth to his current Path. It wasn’t exactly obvious; that was magic, but wards weren’t Essence-based or the fusion of Essence and Mana, which seemed to be what his Path rewarded the most. Or were they? They did last a while unless they were damaged or drained; that seemed to be a characteristic of Essence magic. It was definitely worth looking at warding as a possible way to finish his Path.

“Can you show me where it is?” Serenity picked himself up and headed towards the door before a sneaking suspicion made him turn back. “I’m not going to have to complete the challenge area before I can get to the workroom, am I?”

:Only the first time.: Aki was entirely too smug about her reply.

Ita led Serenity out of the room and around the corner towards the stairs and door in the hillside he’d noticed earlier. When Serenity saw Rissa following, he paused and turned to her. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

Rissa nodded. “I’ve never seen a crafting dungeon. I don’t think you’ve explained them, either. I’m curious.”

Serenity nodded, then turned back to follow Ita. “Probably a good idea to have another person there; I don’t know what the requirements will be but I strongly dislike crafting dungeons. Probably because I don’t do crafting.”

Serenity heard Rissa’s footsteps behind him as she hurried to keep up. “What do you call your rituals, then? They take hours to set up.”

He slowed down to a more comfortable pace for her. “Magic. Can’t really call ‘em crafting, you don’t get something that can be used later after all. Usually, at least.”

“Usually?” Rissa lept on the qualifier.

Serenity stopped and watched Ita slowly hop up the stairs. “Aki? This isn’t a good entrance. Not if Ita’s having this much trouble. It won’t work for wheelchairs, either.”

:I see what you mean. I’ll fix that while you’re inside.:

Serenity wasn’t pleased about the reminder of how long the crafting dungeon would probably take. Still, if he really wanted to he could find somewhere else to work.

He simply didn’t want to; having access to a properly set up workroom relatively close to his home would be useful. Having to go through a crafting dungeon once to have permanent access was a cost he was willing to pay. It was unlikely the crafting dungeon would ever get easier, and he would probably have to set up the wards on the workroom anyway.

Which reminded him that he’d never replied to Rissa. “Yeah, usually. Some crafting dungeons count long-lasting spells as something crafted, especially if the ritual doesn’t have to be recast when you add power to keep them running or repair them. I’ve also used runes to get through; they’re generally accepted by most dungeons that will accept temporary items. There aren’t many dungeons that won’t accept one or the other that also require each person in the group to make something, though there are some that will require one item per person.”

Serenity was halfway up the stairs when Rissa caught what he didn’t say. “Aren’t many means that there are some.”

“Yeah.” Serenity considered not elaborating, but the desire to not talk about those times paled in comparison to his desire to tell Rissa about the part of himself she didn’t know. “The first time I was in one, the requirement was that everyone had to make something and the overall value mattered. I made a really terrible club out of part of a treant. It didn’t bother me too much, really; the requirement wasn’t that bad. The second time …”

Serenity stopped talking and climbed to the top of the stairs. The second time was when he’d decided to never enter a crafting dungeon without knowing the requirements, and here he was about to do that again. Aki wasn’t cruel, however, and this was only a small part of the dungeon; surely her requirements wouldn’t be too bad?

Rissa arrived at the landing behind him and put her hand on his back. “The second time?”

Serenity took a deep breath. “The second time we were in there for months, and most of it was trying to figure out what I could do to get out. Everyone else had a craft, you see, even if it was something minor. They just had to figure out how to make something good enough to be accepted, which usually meant something magical. I didn’t. The closest thing I had to a craft was assembling and repairing electronics, and that wasn’t an option. We tried to leave, but the dungeon wouldn’t let you out unless you completed a challenge or died. We were lucky we had a nature mage to help with the food problem, but by the time we got out we were all skinny anyway.”

Rissa furrowed her eyebrows. “So how did you get out?”

“One of the other people with me brought his horse in; we knew we’d be in there for a while and that it had some grassy areas where the horse could graze, we just didn’t know how strict the dungeon’s requirements were. We killed the horse and ate it after we ran out of food and there wasn’t anything else.” Serenity looked at Rissa’s feet. She was wearing boots with a slight heel. “I dug up the bones and raised the skeletal horse. I’m not really sure anymore if it was because we killed the horse, because I thought it would get us out of there, or just because I was starving and probably going crazy. I just don’t know. We were lucky, though; it recognized the creation of an undead that didn’t require constant maintenance from the necromancer as an item and let us out.”