A Lifes Journey

As we walked through the dimly lit entrance to the cave; I turned to Jake and asked him about this dungeon and this Normativity thing.

“A lone wolf spares no food, though ’tis all for naught when you hunt to survive, said the gray huntsman to the youngun. Thus the wolf rejects solitude.”

What is this guy on about…? Although that sounded familiar to be honest.

“Hahaha quote from the book ‘Hunt To Survive’.” Ohhh I read that one!

“There was a big wolf that lived here alone before, though as it struggled to find food, it had no choice but to form a pack.” Jake said, looking more passionate than ever.

He shuffled through the pouch on his waist and took out a small notebook before continuing.

“That ’course doesn’t explain why a simple wolf den became a mysterious, medium dungeon aye?” Jake flipped through the pages while going on about how Silka’s governor sent out a scouting group to figure out where all the wolves started popping out of.

The scouts came back with information of a 10+ floor dungeon inside of the Lone Wolf’s den which used to be just as the name suggests, home to a single wolf I guess.

The middle-aged man started writing some stuff in his notebook while Viktor held a torch to it.

He turned to me as his expression hardened and we stopped in our tracks.

“Lifes” not a kid anymore? An upgrade! Maybe… “What I’m about to share with you is something nobody else on the continent knows, be careful who you share this information wi-”

“Wait hold on man, why would you share it with a stranger like me then?” I asked.

“Thought I told you already, have my reasons, doesn’t mean trust you.” he responded.

“Those being?”

His expression softened again, the corners of his lips curled downwards slightly, sadness? Why?

“Can’t quite explain yet, promise I will, in the future; I will.” He finished off while averting his gaze.

“Anyway, listen to me, Seals are more than just special powers people have, words are more important than you’d think.

Already told you that most of our world’s functions are altered by the power of Seals.

That’s not quite all there is to it though.”

The passionate guy presented his notebook to me, pointing to the drawings and phrases in there while going on with the lecture.

“Seals are a power that stems from the ‘Normativity’ of a concept; that which is represented by a word or a phrase.” All of a sudden he’s so eloquent…

“Normativity is an idea that was recently brought to light by the academics at Mil-Ansk’s science and history school but is actually an ancient understanding that I stumbled into during my research.

It’s a more concise way of saying ’the meaning a thing normally has’.

There’s also ‘Normative Loading’ which is a term used to describe the concept of associating human ideas and thoughts with a concept, word or phrase.

For example: Sword=Sharp.

But a sword could also be blunt, does that mean it’s not a sword anymore? No, it just means you either need to sharpen it, or this sword has a different purpose, maybe it’s meant for defense?

That’s because the definition or the normativity of the word and the common opinions of what this word represents or the normative loading are different.

It’s worth mentioning that speakers of different languages might have different sets of normativity ascribed to the same word depending on the context.

For example: In Yirmish - סיפר (siper) could mean both ‘cut his hair’ or ‘told’ as in told a story; in Wistianic, the word told could only mean ‘told something’.

There might also be variation with phrases as these are very much exclusive inside of languages.”

He said and stopped to search for a sign of understanding on my face. “But what does Normativity have to do with dungeons or my s-...” it suddenly clicked in my head.

“People associate darkness with fear and the unknown, is that normative loading?” I asked, to which he simply nodded.

“So that’s why I keep seeing those shadows, that’s why I keep shaking after using my Seal.” I added as we turned to continue our journey.

Kiyoko’s voice calling me a coward echoed loudly in my head.

Jake also said that this rule only applies to ‘fakes’ like me, authentic Seals don’t seem to run into the normative loading issue for some reason.

We started walking again, getting closer and closer to the previously hidden staircase.

“Wait but what do dungeons and Seals have with each other? Don’t Seals only manifest in humans?” This whole thing has me curious now!

“Technically, yes. Seals are a manifestation of Normativity, nobody seems to know how they came to be, but it seems like they only interact with human language.

Probably because humans seem to have a unique relationship with communication, or at least that’s my guess.”

The smell inside the cave grew more musky and rotten as we got to the staircase. A mouse squeaked nearby.

Jake closed his notebook and turned to us, his face all serious. “Kid sorry” downgraded again… “but we’ll continue later, maybe you’ll even get your answer by the end of this journey anyway, for now though.” He pulled out his flail and activated his Seal, making a blaze appear on the chained edge.

“Everyone! Prepare for combat, something is waiting down there.

The unprepared glory hound meets demise sooner.

He who seeks truth must also learn lies!” His little speech really set the mood, even I felt all tensed up and ready to fight now.

Though I still have no clue as to what he’s saying.

With that we started walking down the stairs, some of which were bloodied.

The stench of death was palpable here.

Is this what dungeons are like? how intense.

It didn’t take long for us to meet our first opponent right at the foot of the staircase, a Spike-Fur wolf. It was snacking on what seemed to be human remains before noticing us.

The predator revealed a row of sharp teeth and released a blood curling snarl. It didn’t seem normal.

“A mutant? Think I’m starting to understand what’s happening here, Lifes you said you ran into a colossal water wolf on your way to Silka yeah?” Jake asked.

I responded with a nod.

My focus on the wolf striding ominously to the right.

“This dungeon generates wolf creatures based on folklore and human understanding.

My guess is all non-mutants in this dungeon were chased out of the pack, hence creating an overflow of wolves appearing in the vicinity.

This one’s spiked fur is poisonous, watch yourselves!” Jake concluded before ordering me to take the lead on attacking from a far.

I took a deep breath as the different smells grew vague and the sounds around me quietly intensified for less then a second. I felt extremely calm.

The wolf dodged my first arrow and charged at us, it was quick, but we were ready. George stopped the animal with his shield and my next arrow hit its right leg. I still struggle using Zoing’e’s curving shot but that was still bad.

Luckily Jake’s flail followed up and hit its head from the left.

A loud whimper was heard and just like that, our first encounter was over.

“Are we going to harvest materials from this guy?” I asked the party leader.

“It will take too long, we’ll keep moving, we can take our time with stuff here once we’ve achieved our goal here.”

“Which is?” I asked.

“You didn’t tell the boya, Jakeoo?” Viktor added.

“He never asked… but whatever, our goal is, s‘said before, to research Seals.” Vague much? And why did he become a snake?

He turned towards George and asked for some water.

Our group started progressing towards the 2nd floor now that we dealt with the mutant.

“You see, dungeons are a type of Seal that went out of control, or at least, that’s my understanding at the moment.”

“What do you mean by ‘went out of control’? Also how can a Seal exist outside of a person or an artifact?” though I guess he did say ‘went out’ hehe.

“Artifacts are the basis of my theory here.

Artifacts are made when a Seal is extracted from a person and imbued into an object, the rule with artifacts is that the Seal grows weaker the more you replicate the artifact, after 5 replications, the Seal will stay forever at a basic function of level 1 ‘א’ (Aleph).” Jake pointed at a drawing of 6 objects in his notebook again. I’m familiar with everything he said so far.

“Wasn’t going to explain everything right now, as we need to focus on the expedition, but guess there’s no harm ’til we reach the 3rd floor at least.” So he says but his childish smile begs to differ.

Are dungeons usually this quiet? The occasional squeaking of a roaming rodent, a distant growl of a wolf or the quiet howling of the wind, was all I could hear.

“Dungeons are akin to artifacts in a sense that; those are words or phrases that have become imbued into the very core of the world we ’xist in.

Sometimes they connect to a building, much like this dungeon.

Sometimes the words just become a part of nature, the winter regions are ’xample of that.

In more ’xtreme cases, the normative loading can become the driving force behind certain phenomena, that’s how we got the big 4 dungeons.” Why did his manner of speech evolve again, what is wrong with this crazy old man…

“All of this information, I’ve never heard any of it, how come?”

Jake looked at me proudly and announced that nobody in the world can compete with his knowledge and understanding of Seals and how our word functions around and in regards to language.

“You see, when was younger, before my child was born, was sent on a suicide mission.

The mission was simple.

‘Go into The Frozen Tomb dungeon and clear as many floors as you can’.

It was supposed to be the end for all of us but here am.” He ’xplained. It’s infectious.

“Wait, you went into one of the big 4 and came out alive? Why did you even have to do that at all? How did you survive?” What an incredible feat!

Jake’s ’xpression - ok not funny anymore - turned somewhat somber as he pulled out another notebook; this one a lot more tattered and old looking.

“Said it was a suicide mission aye? You see, used to live in the Hadohian lands before. Told you that even had a wife and child there.

That was our downfall though, the current ruler of this continent, the king of Rintiya, piece of garbage that he is, has deep hatred towards Hadohians. Wistianic people, in general, hate Hadohians.

The king would sometimes forcefully conscript men from the Hadohian lands to go on suicide missions, just to enforce the Wistian superiority. They call it ‘scouting missions’.

It was me and all of the men from a nearby town called Rika.

We were sent to die in The Frozen Tomb, by the time we reached the 4th floor, just the 2 of us remained.

A corrupted snow worm the size of a house was about to get us both but Menachem pushed me to the side and I passed out as was falling into a hidden pit nearby…” Jake’s trembling voice trailed off as he took a second for a deep breath. He felt extremely calm.

“...”

Pfft. I held it back, this is a serious topic, Lifes.

We were now walking in a hallway on the 2nd floor that looked like a torture basement.

There was some natural light coming in from somewhere but I couldn’t figure out where.

There was an eerie feeling here, it smelled like rotten flesh and human shit. The ground was surprisingly easy to walk on as everything felt so refined and smooth, contrary to the overall design of this place. I heard more mice squeaking around us. Something felt off.

“This place makes me shiver in anticipation oooowa!” George let out a battlecry while throwing his hands in the air.

I looked at Jake, hoping he’s ready to finish the story. Not wanting to make the others nervous over a hunch, I took it upon myself to keep note of our surroundings.

“Sure kid let’s keep going.

By the time woke up, was in an unfamiliar space, at least 50 meters fall that somehow didn’t kill me, didn’t even hurt me. To this day don’t know how.

Either way, found this notebook over there, this notebook details the research and journey of an adventurer who died a long time ago.

Some of the info in here makes me believe it was at least 6000 years in the past.” He looked at me for some reason. Expecting a reactio- wait…

6000? isn’t this world only supposed to be 3000 years old?

“See you caught on aye? Yes, at this point, can tell you with utmost certainty, this world’s history is entirely fabricated.

’Gardless though, this notebook had detailed mappings of the mountain that is now The Frozen Tomb.

That’s how I got out.” Another speech upgrade?

“All of this is too much, you guys made it all the way to the 4th floor? and that was 20 years ago? The kingdom didn’t even make it beyond the 6th floor yet, what’s more, you’re telling me all of the history of our existence as we know it has been fabricated? by who? why? HOW?”

Jake just shrugged and shook his head.

He told me that this information is yet to be discovered and that it is partially why they explore dungeons and research Seals.

“Jakeoo, this entire conversation you cuties had, we had no encounters throughout, don’t you find it strange?” Viktor asked him. It’s funny how Vik gave such a normal impression considering how insane his twin lover is.

I looked at our party leader to gauge his reaction. Jake seemed shook.

He might’ve caught on to what I noticed earlier.