Aeres Academy - Chapter 30 preview

"Thank you, Healer Pialleni!" We chorused together as the healing warmth washed over us, relieving us of our aches and pains. Marshall had picked things up this morning, releasing not just one but two stones at a time, adding to the sheer volume of injuries that had arisen. 

Fun.

As we broke off to grab lunch, Pialleni waved me down. My friends shot me enquiring glances, but I waved them on as I threaded my way through the crowd to stop by the Healer. She, considerately, waited long enough for the crowd to disperse before she broached the subject.

“What does your skill do?” she asked, bluntly.

Having braced for this question for a few days now, and knowing that she was asking not just as a teacher but the person who was being affected by my skill, I answered her promptly. “It’s labeled Conserve by the core. It allows me to store various things within me. Health, for example.”

“Ah…” She let out a long exhale, looking me up and down. “Not a leech then.”

“No, ma’am,” I replied readily. “Not normally. Your ability heals me, and my skill takes a portion of what is affecting me.”

“Because I’m healing everyone, many who are more injured than you, your skill takes the surplus once you are filled and stores it. Which costs me even more.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“What can you do with the ‘healing’?”

“It’s stored for my use, so I can- ouch!” I touched my face, the sting from the flicking cut that she had laid on me beginning to radiate outwards. Pulling my hand away, I see it’s red with blood. No blood on her fingernails, so fast had she moved. A part of me made note not to stand so close to the healer next time, another part is still staggered at how fast she was. 

Damn delvers.

“Show me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” It takes only a moment to dip into my vault, guide it to the cut on my face and seal it away, healing over the light cut. All through this, her eyes are narrowed, watching everything that I do.

“Wasteful,” is her pronouncement at the end.

“I’m still working on my control.”

“Obviously. But you should work on your understanding of the body too,” she sighed. “See me later. If you intend to heal yourself, you should at least understand what you are doing.”

I raise an eyebrow at her statement but then, eventually, nodded. I had some basic first aid knowledge – three children, seven grandchildren and uncounted students meant you picked up the basics – but I’d never studied the human body. Not like a doctor. 

On the other hand, I had considered how my knowledge of pressure points, joint and locks would work, if it could work with my skill. Or for that matter, if I could store something abstract like pain – or damage. Thus far, with only a single vault, all those questions were rather moot.

Exactly what was a moot, anyway? A smaller cousin of a moat?

“Yes, ma’am.” 

“And stop calling me that.” Pialleni looked me up and down, a small smile twitching her lips upwards. “It somehow does not fit you.”

I bobbed my head as she swept out, leaving me to catch up with the rest of the group and my lunch. The only advantage of running late was that I might be able to skip some inane conversations with the children. At least before we hit our next class.

***

“How many of you studied the history of our dungeons?” Dario, the survival teacher asked. A big, burly fellow, he was the epitome of what I would have imagined a survival oriented teacher was like, with the salt-and-pepper beard, the bushy eyebrows and furs. We were back in the classroom building, staring down at him as he strode up and down.

Of course Kira’s hand shot up, followed not long after by a couple of others. However, rather than call on them, Dario just continued to blithely speak on.

“Well, prepared to be bored. Because I’m going to tell all of you what you need to know. Our existence – the entire existence of the dungeons – are based off the greater and lower turnings. Greater turnings see the rise – or fall – of Mana through the entirety of the world. At the peak of a greater turning, creatures of legend – titans, giants, dragons and the like – walk the earth. Even some of what we call gods might show up, making their presence known.” He cocked his head to the side, holding a hand up and making wave motions as he continued. “We are right now on the subsidence of a greater turning.”

No one reacted to that pronouncement, since where we were was literally part of the greater calendar. As best as we could tell, we were in the eleventh thousand and sixty third year of a greater turning, taken from its peak. A long time, and only really a timing that we understood because of the information provided to us by the dragons and titans who had existed back then.

Most of those, of course, had gone to sleep by now – the ones that still were on the surface, waiting for the next turning – or had traveled deep into the earth chasing the flow of Mana.

“The history of the turnings – greater and lesser – are for historians and scholars to understand. What is important is to understand that with each turning, the intensity of Mana grows or subsides, driving the movement of monsters and other Mana-engorged creatures. As Mana levels rise, the concentration drives those who are unable to exist upwards. As it subsides, it draws them down to the core.”

A hand gestured to the east, to where the dungeon opening sat. “Dungeons are the highways, the routes from which such immigration patterns begin and end. While dungeons come in many forms, levels are developed, expanded and organized by the flow of Mana during each turning and the creatures that made such levels their home during periods of quintessence and balance. As such, it’s always worth remembering that every level, every stage that you travel in a dungeon is, by its very nature – unnatural. And because they are unnatural, there is a logic – twisted, alien and sometimes, foolish – to them.”

He let that last sentence linger for a time, before he continued.

“Now, can anyone tell me what I missed?”

For once, it was not Kira who answered him, but Rayzan who drawled and spoke. “Minor turnings.”

“Good. Some of you are paying attention. I spoke of greater turnings, but just like there is a flow of tides that are greater or lesser, there are smaller turnings – waves that are greater or lesser – within the tides of Mana. Just over three hundred years ago, we had a minor high tide, seeing the push of ever larger and more powerful monsters from dungeons and the development of much of our core technologies.” 

He paused. “But now, we’re seeing it subside. With that, comes the danger of a decrease in Mana. Can anyone tell me what that is?”

“Changing levels and monsters ecosystems,” Sophia answered this time, without prompting.

“Wrong. Or, not new.” Dario shrugged. “Levels are always changing. Though some levels are infamously stable, the truth is that they are the exception, not the rule. Levels constantly evolve, and during times of greater change, the dungeon as a whole is constantly experiencing upheaval.”

“It’s not more powerful monsters rising in a surge,” Brand beside me muttered, audibly working out the problem, not expecting the professor to hear him.

Too bad he was wrong. Staring at Brand, Dario continued. “During a rising turn, monster surges can be expected; but we are falling. It is not that creatures are rising, but that the wave is moving downwards. Monsters are searching for the Mana density, the environment they require below.”

“Then, are monsters rushing into the dungeon causing the increase in danger?” Brand offered.

“Incorrect – that is a concern early on in the descent, as those creatures who normally follow the turnings approach a city and attempt to enter the dungeon. The fall of Kalos four decades ago is the most recent major example, though smaller dungeon cities like Ion and Mneme can be included in those numbers. However, that is no longer a major concern – certainly not for Haeros.”

More answers are thrown out, some inane, some with a degree of reasoning. I listen to them all, watching the Professor answer them in detail – never overly bruising on his commentary, but always pointing out what was wrong with their assumptions. Why they were not a danger. 

In many cases, some of these answers were mildly correct – like the increase of monster swarms from low-leveled monsters taking advantage of weakened creatures – or the addition of new monster types that mutated, but none were the answer he wanted.

In the end, realizing one thing that everyone had missed; knowing that perhaps they had not the background to grasp it, I found myself answering.

“It’s the economy.” There’s surprise that registered on his face before he waved me to continue. “The economy, the industry and civilization of this – Haeros – the country, it’s all dependent on monster cores and shards. We use them for everything. From city cores to household cores and even the academy core. It boosts individuals and the Mana engines, cares for the heat, warmth, our buildings. All of it.” 

“Exactly!” Dario said. “Like Adventurer Lin has pointed out, the entire economy of our nation has grown dependent upon cores and shards. Demand continues to increase, insatiably. At the same time, the very resource we require descends, deeper and deeper.”

“But doesn’t that mean the danger decreases too?” Kira said, mulishly.

“Only on an individual level basis. Each level deeper that we descend, the even if the monsters are weaker than before still sees an increase in the danger that is faced. Leftover traps, more dangerous plants, Mana sinks and tides increase the overall danger.” Dario raised a finger. “You also forget the simple logistics of acquisition and transport. More levels means more time required to bring cores and shards up, increasing overall cost.”

“So what?” Yorrick scoffed. “Who cares if a few houses don’t have a core?”

“Who cares, indeed?” Dario said. “Houses without cores matter little. But how about guilds that are not able to provide the bonuses to their guild members? How about the city core that shelters us? The blimps that float across the sky? The Mana wagons and the mills. What happens when those fall?” 

“Cores don’t fail that easy or often,” Kira said, mulishly.

“No, they do not. However, they are not easy to acquire either.” He raised a finger. “How old is the city core in Haeros?”

No answer from anyone else, so Dario stared at Rayzan who shrugged. “Why would I know?”

“Because, boy, I’m sure your parent would have told you.” A loud sigh as Rayzan continued to stay silent. “Two hundred and eight years old. Do any of you know what the normal lifespan for a city core of the size and ranking of Haeros’? That’s right, two hundred and fifty years. Which means that our city core could fail at any time.”

“You just said-” Yorrick began, only to be cut-off.

“That was the average. Cores that size begin to fail anywhere from two hundred to three hundred years after use. Smaller cores, those used in guilds, fail even faster. A hundred years is what many can expect.” He shook his head. “You all know how often the cores many of you host in your residences must be replaced – at best, you might get a decade. More often, six to seven years.”

Another finger rose. “Another problem with the descending turning. Cores made during this period are more fragile because of the lower amount of Mana in the air. They fail faster, burn out easier. So, the increase pressure to acquire more grows.

“What does that have to do with survival? Everything. Because if you don’t survive, you can’t get cores. If we can’t acquire cores, our city, our entire kingdom will fail.”