Healing Dungeon

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"And damn, did you get fat!" Avan exclaimed aloud as he pushed his dungeon creature away from him and gave it a closer look through narrowed eyes. "Or even bigger. It's in the eye of the beholder. In any case, much heavier, so fatter!" He laughed in the white rabbit's face, and couldn't help himself when the rabbit seemed to tilt its head, almost giving the impression that it was giving Avan a dirty look.

"And have you gotten any smarter yet?"

Both hands placed on the sides of Horny's temples, just below his ears, Avan stared him straight in the eye. "I could swear you haven't just grown on the outside, huh?" He finished muttering his observation, then shrugged his shoulders with a grin.

Before Avan wanted to do anything else, he sat down comfortably on the short garden lawn and told with gestures and facial expressions what had happened to him. Even though he didn't know for sure whether his fluffy companion had actually gotten a whole lot smarter, it was good for Avan to have someone to talk to, someone he could tell everything to.

"...And then I witnessed everything as if by myself, can you believe it, Horny?" Avan just finished his last story with the history of the origin of the Order of Akkalon. When he turned his wandering gaze, which had just been hanging on the glittering ceiling, to his dungeon companion, he first had to grin and then laugh and snort out loud.

Horny had been feasting on the grass at his feet during the whole time of the story, and was chewing with his head tilted sideways, an elongated blade of grass hanging out of the side of his mouth, and just stopped in his chewing motion again when Avan pointed at him and continued laughing. Like a cowboy!

And in contrast to before, when with his thirty centimeters he was already considered a rather large hare in Avan's head, now one could even recognize almost mischievous facial expressions on the nearly one meter tall hare, which with its size would have made even German shepherds jealous.

"I swear..." Laughed Avan, grabbing his forehead with his left hand, "You just look hilarious. Like Lucky Luke riding off into the sunset with his cool blade of grass munching. Only as a bunny. Ahahaha!"

His laugh at his companion's expense earned him another giggle as the rabbit actually squinted his eyes slightly and continued to stare at him stopped in mid chewing motion with his jaw.

"Just hilarious." Avan finished his fit of laughter and patted his right knee with the palm of his right hand while conciliatory tickling Horny behind his ears with his left hand. The latter, probably satisfied with his caress, continued to chew on his grass and demonstratively turned his head to the left. Following his gaze, Avan grinned and saw what Horny was getting at. "Aha!" he groaned and stood up a bit awkwardly, his hand still behind Horny's ears and facing the object. "And there's my missing backpack, too."

Avan strolled over to his backpack and untied it at the top so he could take a look inside. Everything still seems to be there. A change of clothes, underwear, another drinking tube, tent, and sleeping mat. Check.

After finishing his investigation of the contents, he tied up the backpack again and threw it over his shoulder onto his back. He glanced back at his white fluffy friend, who was watching him from the side and continued to chew, with not a trace of the portal to be seen, as on the previous levels.

I had been asking myself that the whole time anyway... How should one actually get out of here again, if one may not take the same way back again? I didn't see an exit on any of the levels. Except for the level that led to the village of the order, if you could call that one. I wonder if these levels were something like a test for more advanced students. Avan speculated at the thought of the portal and the dungeon, while he stroked Horny's head and back with both hands, half-kneeling, which was much easier for Avan thanks to the one-meter tall unicorn rabbit and his size.

"Well, let's get going, shall we?" He asked his dungeon companion and tilted his head slightly to the left. Horny stared at Avan, and his head suddenly jerked up and down once. Did he really just... nodded? He asked himself with a grin but just took it. He seems to be going through a development anyway, so I'm not surprised if I actually saw that correctly.

He shook himself briefly once, why he did not know himself, and marched across the garden-like meadow which seemed to stretch green and truncated in front of and around the whole temple complex, and only ended at the cave walls a few kilometers away. Horny in tow, as Avan noticed through his dungeon sense, who just gulped down the last of his grassy meal.

Now paying more attention to the massive building, Avan immediately noticed the resemblance to this temple's much smaller cousin from outside. The temple he had found at the beginning of his journey on Eos was not even a tenth the size of this beautiful monstrosity of a structure. White marble columns interspersed with golden veins rose to the ceiling a hundred meters to the left and right, easily twenty carriages apart, and the central passageway leading to the temple entrance was adorned with white marble slabs interspersed with black veins. Between the paved path and the columns on the left and right, a shallow ditch led from the elevated temple to the grass, which gently carried clean and clear water.

The area leading up to the entrance of the temple was gigantic and the path with its gently ascending steps to the entrance was also over fifty meters long. The temple itself, as Avan stepped onto the first white marble slabs interspersed with black veins, was such a considerable building with its one hundred meters in height that Avan had to bend his head back to take a closer look at the upper end. The entire temple complex reminded Avan extremely of the Greek temples, as they were always depicted for Olympus and the gods. In the middle of the roof, which was slightly slanted from the left and right, a perfectly round gold and silver sphere was enthroned directly above the top. Coincidence? He asked himself but shook his head when he realized which deity he was thinking about. If so, I shouldn't be surprised. Akkalon, if he indeed is the creator, could easily have had his hands in several worlds or dimensions.

After Avan approached the temple's main entrance in amazement, he also noticed the absence of gates, and a soft golden-yellow but warm glow greeted him from within.

The last steps of him and his hobbling companion brought him directly under the gigantic and fifty meter high archway, which, in contrast to the columns, was crisscrossed with silver veins. Still marveling and staring all around, Avan stepped over the gate into the innermost part.

Where in Olympus Zeus would sit on a gigantic throne, his thunderbolt in his hand and ready to throw it, there stood a lifelike fifty meter tall figure, with a staff ending in a ball in his right hand. The figure had no visible face, because the hood with silver and gold ornaments was pulled deep into the face, and the only striking and meaningful the five meters tall and hovering over the white gnarled staff. The hood of the figure merged seamlessly into an equally white and gold robe, which was attached with thousands of squiggles and runes in all the lines.

Frozen, Avan had already paused after a few steps into the interior of the temple and looked admiringly at the craftsmanship and lifelike representation with his head in the neck, and let his gaze wander over all the subtleties and waves in the clothing, up to all the lines and circles, which littered the entire robe with connected runes in a perfect and not too overpowering dance.

"Holy shit..." he muttered to himself, while Horny came to sit next to him, reaching over his waist and looking at him again with a slightly tilted head at his reaction.

A few minutes went by for Avan, and when he had had enough, he gently shook his head and tried to get out of his observation and trance. He had lost himself in all the intricacies, and even after a few minutes of staring, there was always something new he could see.

"Welcome, Avan." A vaguely familiar deep voice suddenly announced, followed by a brief glow from which Avan had to shield his eyes with his hands. Not even half a second later, the light had died down again and he blinked out from between his fingers, then lowered his hand completely and looked forward between the statue's legs with raised eyebrows.

A perfect human-sized copy of the image now stood at the foot of the giant statue. More like the original, not a copy. Avan corrected himself when he spotted the robed man holding the staff.

Grinning awkwardly, Avan raised his right palm and waved a little comically, not quite sure which reaction was appropriate and which was not. "Ahm, hello as well?" He called back uncertainly and took a few cautious steps towards the man.

"I sincerely apologize, my child, and actually I would not interfere in the affairs of the worlds, but you have actually managed to attract my attention."

With seemingly few steps, at least that's how it seemed to Avan during his observation, the man strode through the distance of more than fifty meters to him, and suddenly stood in front of him with a distance of less than four steps. Akkalon... Avan thought about it, and he was annoyed about realizing it so late, although it was so obvious to him now.

Without comment, he bowed as deeply as he could to the being in front of him, not daring to utter a single sentence, as beads of sweat slowly broke out on his forehead and, after bowing, he tried to look directly at the hood of the being standing opposite him. A god. Or maybe even THE god! Fuck, fuck, fuck... How am I supposed to react to that? I thought I still had a whole level before me before I had to face such a situation maybe! He carried out an inner monologue and debate with himself, while the god in front of him took his hood off his head with his left hand and smirked at him knowingly.

"No, Avan. This is defacto the tenth level of the dungeon. You skipped the ninth level by visiting the village of the Order of Healers." The god in front of him explained, unabashed about having actually read Avan's thoughts, but with an understanding smile on his lips.

Avan's jaw dropped and he couldn't immediately make out what to think or how to react. With an audible click, he closed his jaw again, slightly ashamed, and scratched the back of his head nervously with his right hand out of habit.

Before he could even begin to answer, the creature beat him to it. "Hmmm..." Akkalon scratched his silvery chin beard, while his eyes gleamed mischievously and amusedly. "I think, to anticipate your question, yes. I am the one you know as Akkalon. Although this is only one of... let's say, innumerable names." Avan was about to launch into another question, which had been burning his interest for all these weeks, but the god before him already knew that one, too, and answered.

"No, Avan. That you landed here was not fate, and neither predetermined nor planned. "Akkalon explained to him with an apologetic and slightly dull look. "The truth may be somewhat unspectacular, and especially people from Earth like to imagine that they are special, but the truth is that there was a situation in the... tissue between the worlds... and a chain of events led to this perhaps unfortunate or fortunate coincidence."

With a simple and inconspicuous wave of his right hand along with the staff, Akkalon pointed to the floor to the right of the two and a table with two comfortable-looking chairs and armrests plopped into existence.

A swing of the staff upward and a short clack on the floor conjured two steaming glass teacups on either side of the table, each directly on the table in front of the chairs.

Without further ado, and with a quick glance around at Horny, the god pulled back his chair and sat down on his side, not a second later already holding the teacup to his lips and letting out a sigh of relief.

"Sit down, sit down, my child. I don't bite, as you would say on Earth." He chuckled lightly, still holding his steaming teacup in both hands, his staff leaning against the nondescript brown wooden table beside him.

With no other choice and incredibly curious about this opportunity, Avan also sat down at the table across from the god and grabbed the tea, which exuded a breathtaking aroma. Avan was immediately reminded of a white tea, with floral and soft notes, some very light scents of cinnamon, ginger and a fruit unknown to him. He started to drink under the smirking god, and when the first drop of the warm tea landed in his mouth, not at all as hot as he had expected, he almost groaned and stopped himself at the last moment. Akkalon nevertheless watched him knowingly, and sipped his tea as well.

 

*Chime*

You have tasted ??? - You feel not only mentally stabilized, but 100% immune to any mental attacks. There is power in rest, as they say on Earth, isn't it?

Effective time: 24 hours

 

At the clear reference to Akkalon's interference in the message, Avan also had to smile, and he felt the effect of the tea immediately and instantaneously. His heartbeat calmed down, which had been beating faster than normal, his mind relaxed, and his thoughts seemed much more orderly.

"I'm glad you not only like my tea, but that it corresponds with you." Akkalon laughed at him as Avan finished analyzing the effect. "And I do think it's so much easier to clear up a few questions. Without you stumbling over words here or forgetting to ask burning questions."

Actually more reassured than he had been a few seconds before, Avan sipped his tea again and placed the plain teacup on the table in front of him, clasping it with both hands. "Then I assume that all my questions are already known, right?" He asked the first question, and received a nod from Akkalon. If he had never dared to talk so normally and casually with the Creator God before, the effect of the tea here actually helped enormously to calm his mind and to think less senseless thoughts.

With his arms resting on the table and the teacup between his hands, Akkalon nodded slowly to him several times. "Yes, Avan. I know what you want to ask, but I can't explain everything to you at the present moment because it would exceed your human understanding by dimensions. Your existence would not survive more detailed explanations."

"Back to your most important and burning question; No, I and no one else had anything to do with your journey to Aorus. Such events happen, very rarely, but they do happen. Of your planet, you are the only one to date who has ever fallen into a dimension hole. This tear in the tissue was mended by itself less than half a second later, but you had already disappeared into it. And landed here." He said with a sweeping gesture of his left arm. "And your second question, which had been bothering you; no, your passive skill with the name potential is nothing special. At least not on Earth. When the people on Earth had attained the first consciousness, the small seedling also arose and germinated in each individual separately. Most people on Earth have the potential to do great things or to be someone important. Only some seize the opportunity. And unlike some other dimensions and worlds, your planet was a mana empty space, which is why you first got to know the system here. And therefore also your potential for the first time... The potential, which you always had on Earth and you suspected, but you never used it out of laziness." He continued the explanation, and Avan's cheeks got slightly red, because he knew exactly how right Akkalon was with his explanation about his laziness and inertia on Earth.

He drank another sip and listened to the further explanation of the god, who had hit it so far with the nail on the head.

"And that you woke up there, where you landed on Aorus, was also more of a coincidence. The crack that brought you here in your sleep could have taken you to one of the other infinite worlds. And that you stumbled directly upon a protected temple was due to your potential. Otherwise, you too would have wandered along the edge of the dome, not a bit smarter about what was right in front of you."

"The breath of a dungeon shard, which was trapped in the sphere in front of the temple's entrance, had reacted with you, and if you hadn't had the potential, you would have actually just become a new dungeon core. On the spot. Without the possibility of any movement. And most likely it would have cost your mental integrity as well, because you wouldn't have been able to handle the flood of information that a dungeon core normally has. Remember your headache when you could suddenly feel and sense everything within a ten meter radius. Imagine that, however, in hundreds of meters around, with a gigantic depth and without the superficial information you received. And on top of that, all the information that I predetermined that dungeon cores need to work properly."

"All of which, fortunately, you skipped. And by your potential, which was activated at the touch and cannot be activated again for anything else, you became something unforeseen; A human dungeon. A dungeon heart." With this explanation, Akkalon looked at him with eyes shining gold, burning like two suns, and Avan felt the moment and the meaning, and slowly expelled his held breath. Damn, I was lucky...

Akkalon nodded again, aware of Avan's inner conversation.

"Dungeons are, at least on some worlds, instances in which evolutions and developments are supposed to take place. I'll even tell you a secret." Akkalon winked playfully at him. "ALL creatures, even the most arrogant humans, have evolved out of my dungeons. Even gods. Even the one who interfered on the way to me."

Avan blinked distractedly, and despite the soothing tea, countless ideas and thoughts fizzled and whirred through his head, all of which were given a common thread by this explanation.

He rested his arms on the table and grabbed his temples. "Holy shit... That explains a lot. I had wondered how beastmen could come to be. As if a human could create a child with an animal! But that even humans fall under it? Ouch..."

A slightly amused Akkalon watched him and smirked at all the questions of existence that suddenly resolved and answered themselves for Avan.

"Yes, Avan.I have also created races and animals myself in some worlds, but after a while... I gave my knowledge to the dungeon cores and the evolution and development of all animals and races took place without my intervention. The fact that you are not an ordinary dungeon now is characterized by the fact that you have not yet received a single level in it, because you simply do not have access to the conventional dungeon properties and abilities. Because of your special case, your specialization has been completely skipped, which only gives you the opportunity to level up as a dungeon."

With those last words, Akkalon grabbed his staff and briefly pointed it at Avan before leaning it back against the table and continuing to sip his tea as if nothing special had ever happened.

Avan, on the other hand, before he could ask himself what the god sitting in front of him was trying to do, suddenly found an unprecedented window floating in front of him. In contrast to the simple messages he usually got to see, this one was majestic and etched with runes, in each of the four corners white spheres that shimmered blue.

 

*Chime*

[Dungeon Specialization Unlocked]

Congratulations! You are now a dungeon.

To make yourself stronger as a dungeon, you need to level up. For this you have one of two specializations to choose from. Choose wisely, because this decision can never be reversed and will last for the rest of your existence as a dungeon!

 

Specialization: Monsters

You can not only subjugate most creatures to your will, but also create new ones and control the development and evolution of creatures under your influence!

To expand your dungeon, you can use existing structures on Arous for your buildings, but you can only use existing materials and your buildings remain structurally on a simple level.

 

Specialization: Architect

You are a builder and master of structures. Not only can you take existing materials and use them, but you can even develop completely new shapes and properties! Laws of nature, outside of living things, are subject to your will. You are the natural order!

As an archiect it is denied to you to subjugate other living beings or even to develop own and to conjure up. Only by mutual agreement can another creature be added to your dungeon as a dungeon creature.

 

When Avan read the message and the two choices, he couldn't even breathe. Wow... That's incredible!

He threw both hands up in the air, cheering, and realized only too late that he was not alone. Slightly ashamed and blushing, he grinned at Akkalon. "I need a moment, if that's all right?"

The god just waved his left hand and smiled in understanding. "Take your time. This is a very important decision, Avan. Don't rush it. Think. Who are you and what do you want to become? Maybe someday there will be a chance for you to travel the worlds. But until then, you are on Aorus, and this decision now will limit or greatly expand your possibilities."

Avan just nodded, and again delved into the two decisions.

A monster dungeon, or an architect? If I want to have my own army, then the monster specialization will be the choice. But if I want to create something for the long term, and perhaps provide a home for others, then the architect would be the better choice. Hmm... Avan mentally juggled the two specializations back and forth.

To be honest, the first one puts me off. There's something about dominance, and slavery. At the same time, as an architect, I can still bind living beings to me, but with mutual understanding. And I can create new materials, I can create my own physical and certainly magical laws. Maybe even my own runes? Definitely decided.

With this final thought, and without quarreling with himself, Avan chose his specialization, while Akkalon smiled knowingly into his teacup and gave him a kind look.

 

*Chime*

Congratulations!

You are now an architect. Materials you know and have once analyzed remain in your dungeon memory and can be created at any time with the necessary amount of mana!

You gain expanded control in your dungeon sphere of influence and the natural laws in your dungeon no longer apply to you and others. Through trial and error, you can create and combine materials, and enact your own physical and magical laws within your sphere of influence!

 

With a tremendous rush of adrenaline and a pressure wave from within, something shot out of Avan, first ten meters, then twenty, and stopped only at fifty meters.

Shocked, Avan stared at the next message that popped up, while Akkalon continued to smirk to himself.

 

*Chime*

You have gained another level in Celestial Sphere!

Celestial Sphere: [Bronze] 9

Passive Skill: Celestial Sphere

You are a Dungeon. You are nurtured by the tremendous amount of ambient mana that encircles you. You can harness and use ambient mana in your sphere of influence at will. Your Sphere of Influence is sphere-shaped, with you as the anchor point and heart of the dungeon.

Your celestial power now radiates from your dungeon and can illuminate you surroundings with light. Only the highest beings can distinguish and sense your Dungeonheart. But always beware of your higher mana density.

[Bronze] Range is multiplied by 5. (50m)

You are now able to store various mundane materials and keep them physically stable inside your sphere of influence. You have unlocked an anchor point.

 

Staring at the message, he was suddenly aware of the hundred meter diameter of his dungeon influence, which had previously stopped at twenty meters.

His dungeon area was severely compromised here in the sanctuary of Akkalon, but he could already see the problems that would come to him on the surface, with all the pressures and things he could now perceive in such a much larger radius.

Before turning his attention back to Akkalon, Avan took another quick look at his character status. And my Celestial Sphere jumped right to bronze nine, like all my other skills...

 

Avan Leaf

Level: 94

Free Stat Points: 0

Element: Celestial

Class: [Bronze] Dungeonarchitect (Human)

Subclass: [Bronze] Healer of Akkalon

 

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