Rebirth and Second Chances

Chapter 201: Rye - Which Way?

"Now that that's settled," Thutmose said. "Which way do we go?

"Upriver or down?"

"Sieph can you determine which direction the ley-line is flowing or where the magic increases with the most concentration of energy?" I asked.

"I should be able to, but why?" she wondered. "Do you think the denser the magic, the higher the chance of a dungeon forming?"

"Most of the research King Teigh had done, the information he was able to confirm, mostly by how dungeon placement on Talahm aligned, found that the higher-ranked dungeons were formed near the large nexus nodes," I explained. "Our goals are to not only find a Dungeon but to find one that we can survive.

"It does no good to stumble upon a Rank 9 Dungeon that we have no hope of surviving, we need to find a Rank 1. So, if we follow the ley-line away from where the magic grows in density, we should, hopefully, be able to stumble across a Dungeon low enough in level, we can survive delving inside.

"I think we may have the best chances if we searched for one that has formed near a small intersection of ley-lines. An area of magic saturation, but not overwhelmingly so," I reasoned.

"That should work," Thutmose agreed, "but our people have found that the lower leveled Dungeons can't be predicted, they tend to open haphazardly. They might form where ley-lines cross, but they are just as likely to form near some other naturally occurring phenomenon, anything that releases enough magic can power the spark of creativity needed for a dungeon to form.

"Waterfalls, river rapids, lava vents, mountain caves are areas to look for. We have found the power of nature as effective and as good an indicator that a Dungeon might be formed by that phenomenon as well as those created by ley-line influence."

"Queen Wisteria did give me a device that might narrow down our search," Sieph said. The range isn't great, but it can help us to home in on an opening within a mile of where I activate it. It sends out a magical pulse that resonates with the ambient magic and returns a signal that can be read to show me where larger fluctuations have formed."

"It isn't a hundred percent accurate, but it will keep us from investigating and scouting an area completely lacking in background magic. The problem is that it returns false positives so we may explore areas that would never suit. But it is accurate enough that it never returns false negatives, it won't miss an area that might be perfect," she promised.

"I've never heard of a device that can track Dungeons. Are you sure you weren't ripped off by someone taking advantage of the fact this is your first planet? I'm sure there are people would line up to sell the Sidhe wondrous devices. Sleazy salesmen run rampant on Cairo, I'm sure there are those that specialize in fake items guaranteed to help you claim Ijal successfully," Thutmose said his disbelief obvious.

"The Knockers are a species that takes tinkering and invention seriously," I said interjecting myself into the conversation before Sieph, who was noticeable insulted, could respond. "They would never buy equipment to outfit a Knocker adventurer. Every tool or item that Sieph uses was either made by her or a Knocker that she trusts.

"The Sidhe have long known not to believe the false promises of people like Zeus and Odin," Sieph agreed, her anger and indignation deflected for now. "We consider the kind of salesmen you mentioned, one step up, but still, they are not to be trusted."

"You really don't like the Olympian or Asgardian Pantheons, do you?" Thutmose asked.

"I haven't seen anything that looks like a Dungeon in either direction while scouting," Bob informed us, ignoring Thutmose's question. It had been rhetorical, so Thutmose wasn't offended when we glossed over his words.

Bob rarely engaged in conversation with us during the day. His patrols and desire to give us warning of dangers kept him in constant motion. Even the chat features that System had gifted our group were seldom used. He refused to take the time from scouting or narrowing the focus of his perception to interact with the feature.

"I doubted you would," I answered. "If there were a dungeon, this close to where we were teleported in, the Scouts would have had information about it.

"They wouldn't have been able to explore far, or extensively from the portal site, the rules for first contact are strict, they are Oathbound from impacting the way System develops on newly discovered worlds. Their movements are being tightly restricted, for now, King Teigh doesn't trust them, and doesn't want their actions to influence the synergistic melding of Systems between Talahm and Ijal.

"He will probably lift those restrictions once we have made our claim and Ijal has been absorbed as a Tuatha de Danaan world.

"For now, Sieph if you can give us those readings, we'll follow the ley-line away from the larger confluence of energy," I decided.

The device Sieph deployed was part sundial, part rocket launcher. The spellcraft, at that point, required a combination of technology and magic to reproduce a holographic display of the area. Sieph's Technomancer class was well suited to this type of mix of magic and technology.

Once she had the dial placed and operating, two metal projectiles was launched almost a mile into the air. At the highest point of the arc, she cast [Burst] a Knocker spell that caused the metal to shatter, exploding into fine particles that then began 'transmitting' information back to the dial she was monitoring.

We watched as a map formed, exactly to scale and with as much detail as what we could see using our mini-map. With one exception, the map the device was creating included the bisecting lines of blue that represented the ley-line, as well as two energy spikes. The larger energy node downstream, the smaller not far upstream.

The river we had found wasn't large. Without exploring, there was no way for us to know what tributaries might feed into the water or if the river split at some point. At this point the river and the ley-line were small, but that didn't mean the tributary wouldn't become a raging behemoth further downstream.

But exploring in that direction to answer any questions we might have, wasn't our goal. Once we had analyzed the results of Sieph's map formed by magnetic feedback of metal particulates, we knew we would be heading upstream following the river and ley-lines where they overlapped.

Decision made, Sieph cast a [Restore] spell that collected every particle of metal that had been dispersed in the explosion, recreating the two metal balls she had launched, and returned them and the dial to her storage device.

I was surprised at the range of the spell, and I should have been, for the Knocker's it was only logical to maximize potential. They were a thrifty people, too long repressed not to learn the importance of recycling and reusing resources as well as wringing even the smallest operable intelligence that might be collected.

Things had changed for them after grandfather became the King for the Tuatha de Danaan, but old habits die hard, and for the Knockers, they had over a million years to learn how to be thrifty. It was one of the reasons they became so adept at tinkering. They had had too, in order to survive.

"Bob," I said gaining his attention before he had a chance to fly away and begin patrolling along our new course. "Can you implement a search and observation pattern that focuses mostly on what is in front of us? A 180-degree arc, ignoring everything we've passed?"

"I can, but that leaves you exposed from anything sneaking up from behind," he answered, worried and rightfully so, especially after our first ambush when he was so badly out of position.

"I will have Beag guard our rear," I promised. "It means we won't have as much warning for something that you might miss, but it increases our chances of locating a dungeon. And that has to be our priority for now. At least until there is evidence that the wildlife we will encounter is much stronger than what we've encountered so far."

"It should be alright" Thutmose offered, and since he was the voice that berated Bob so harshly for an earlier mistake, it gave the rest of us pause.

"Why?" Sieph asked suspiciously.

"Things are a bit different now than when we first arrived. You've gained levels. We know each other's fighting styles and strengths. And you've mastered the skills and spells you received with your classes," he explained.

"Now that we know what each of you can do, actions that may have been a huge risk before, are only calculated strategic decisions now. We have to continue adapting our plans as you level, or we'll be decades looking for and trying to find a Dungeon."

"By the way, I hope you are documenting how each level gained effects your statistics, what level you gain spells, and if your class is able to evolve at certain milestones," Thutmose explained. "Those milestones will remain firm once assimilation between both System paradigms is complete."