After the End: Serenity

“Dungeons adapt to how people use them and what rewards they value. You can see that here on Earth with the way dungeons shifted away from item rewards and towards base materials and Etherium as more people on Earth became able to turn those materials into exactly what was useful, making the dungeons’ efforts less important.” Ita looked around the room at the rows of students. Most of them were paying attention and the few that weren’t were quiet.That was enough as far as Ita was concerned.

Ita still wasn’t sure how she ended up here. She was, however, certain it was Blaze’s fault. He was the one who decided his apprentice needed a better understanding of the human body and decided that classes at a community college would do for a start.

Ita didn’t know enough to be astonished that the community college also taught basic delving classes, even if it didn’t offer any sort of a degree program, and was willing to accept a nonhuman offworlder as a teacher. She did, however, know that she’d gotten the position partly because of Blaze; they wanted him to teach enough that they were willing to accept her as well.

That lasted all of one semester before they found out just how popular a delving class taught by a Sterath fluent in English was. After that, they wanted Ita in her own right.

“The question I usually get here is whether or not dungeons are AIs like the Voice. The answer is that no one knows; we don’t know if dungeons are natural or created somehow. Most people assume that they are natural, but the fact that they appear when the Voice does makes it an interesting, if pointless, argument. The important thing to remember is that dungeons are smart.” Ita looked around the room and decided it was time for a question. “How many of you have ever heard of Dungeon Managers, Dungeon Lords, or Dungeon Binders?”

One hand went up immediately. Three more were tentatively raised after a moment looking around the room. Ita’s mouth opened for a moment in a Sterath-style grin, not that any of them would recognize it. “Not many of you, and some of you probably think it’s only a story. Well, it isn’t; they’re all real. I know of four Dungeon Managers on Earth, who work with dungeons to learn what the local population wants and provide it while also meeting the dungeon’s needs.”

Ita looked around the room. This was clearly news to most of the room, so she was definitely going to want to cover the Dungeon Deity’s desires and the prohibitions on unnecessary dungeon binding later. She had to keep the class within the bounds of things useful for dungeon delving, but it really wasn’t that hard to work her faith into it, since her faith was intricately woven into dungeons themselves. “Even if there isn’t a Dungeon Manager available, however, you can influence the dungeon you’re in. An offering to the Dungeon Deity inside a dungeon along with a spoken request will sometimes gain a response, though usually it takes multiple requests…”

“Returning to our headline coverage, immediately after the Global Announcement that Earth’s protection had lapsed, a portal opened in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The people who emerged claimed to be from the Human Empire and requested conferences with the various nations represented…”

Serenity grinned as he flicked the television stream out of his awareness. The newscaster was clearly trying not to panic about the portal. He wondered how they’d react to the second portal, when Althyr decided it was time for the draconic emissary to arrive. That probably wouldn’t be for a few days, though, since they wanted to wait for the mana shocks to die down.

The fact that the Empire’s delegation was to the United Nations rather than to the United States or any other individual country was interesting; Serenity wondered if they planned to approach any countries that weren’t members. He rather doubted it. Convenience was one reason, but Serenity was certain there was another: the UN headquarters were in New York City, the same city Serenity lived in. The Empire probably assumed that he worked with the UN more than he did.

“Is it time?” Aki’s voice filled the air in Serenity’s workroom.

Serenity set the book he was studying, A Comprehensive Overview of the History of Basic Enchantments, aside. The book wasn’t as comprehensive as its title implied, but it was still interesting. Maybe he’d actually learn enough about enchanting to be comfortable with it one of these days. He had a long way to go. “I think so. Is everyone ready for it?”

“Your children are with their nurses in the playroom; Raz and Rissa are on the surface watching the concert. There aren‘t any delvers in the dangerous areas, they’ve all gone home for the night, though the crafting rooms are still in heavy use. There’s very little more that I can do to prepare.” Aki sounded a little annoyed and Serenity knew exactly why that was, because there was someone Aki hadn’t mentioned: Nadia Owens, Raz’s protegee.

Aki liked her well enough, but she didn’t like the way she still took time for Raz to deal with, even though he’d been training her for more than five years. More importantly, Nadia was the one who convinced Raz to spend time outside the dungeon on a day when Aki wanted him with her and was unwilling to say it to Raz. Serenity thought it was a little silly, but no matter how often he told Aki that she also had the right to ask Raz to pay attention to her, she wasn’t willing to take that step.

It was almost as bad as a teenage romance and not only were they not teenagers, none of them were involved in a romance!

Serenity wasn’t certain if he should be annoyed or amused, but he’d settled on amused. He was certain he’d be less amused when his three children reached that age, but that was still a while off. Even though Jenna was nine years old, he had a few more years before teenage romance kicked in. At least, he hoped he did.

Serenity tore his mind off the terrifying thought that he’d have to deal with boys trying to date his daughters and back onto the important matter of today. “Then yes, it’s time.”

Serenity reached out to Gaia. She was positively easy to reach these days, especially from within the nexus Aki’s dungeon surrounded.

Moments later, it was clear she’d simply been waiting for him to as everything shifted all at once and didn’t move at the same time. Serenity watched the reinforcement to Gaia’s core as things shifted and didn’t move; it was a combined effort. The Black Tortoises’ knowledge and the Vraks’ experience were vital, but it was the Dragons’ power that truly made it work. Without any of those pieces and regular effort from Serenity, D’Nehr, and Gaia, the planet’s core would not have been able to handle this pressure and speed of growth.

Tier Ten within ten years of the Tutorial was incredible. Taking that last step less than a day after the Imperial representatives arrived on Earth was Serenity’s statement to them that he was watching and that Earth wasn’t as weak as they might assume.

He fully expected them to get the point even before Althyr’s delegation arrived, but that was important as well. The Emperor already knew Althyr was protecting Earth, but that wasn’t the same as actually seeing dragons.

With luck, Serenity would be able to go back to doing what he loved instead of having to meddle in politics.

He was certain it wouldn’t be that simple, but he could hope.

The scene was quiet parkland; Rissa recognized it as the area surrounding the Great Cliff Dungeon. She’d been there a number of times and while she rarely delved anymore, it was still one of the closest dungeons with a nice variety of encounters that was straightforward combat rather than tricky puzzles. It wasn’t nearly as popular as Aki’s dungeon, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t popular.

The sunsets were spectacular. She sometimes went with Serenity simply for that; while he was there, none of the monsters bothered them.

For a moment, it was beautiful, then there was a burst of dust and rubble that covered her field of view. When it cleared enough, Rissa could see that there was a hole in the side of the cliff, a hole that probably included the entire dungeon. There wouldn’t be any more nice sunset dinners there ever again.

A few people stood or knelt in the rubble; some of them seemed injured, but Rissa barely had time to be certain she didn’t know any of them before the scene changed.

The next scene was inside the Adventurer’s Guild hall. She saw herself walk in and talk to the receptionist, then shout up the stairs at the new Guild Master. She couldn’t make out what was said, but she still knew what the argument was about: her younger daughter was in the dungeon when it imploded, but she wasn’t among the survivors who were ejected when the dungeon was destroyed. Sophia hadn’t made it out and neither had the rest of her party, which turned out to be a Tier Zero she was escorting and some offworlders assigned to her group to fill it out, even though she didn’t really need the help for the first level of the Great Cliff Dungeon.

Rissa started upright in bed, then started to swear. She hated that sort of vision. Why couldn’t they happen during the day?

Rissa calmed herself down, then cuddled up next to Serenity and sent herself into a trance; there was a lot more she needed to find out before she did anything.

The scene changed several times before it was clear what had happened, but in the end it was clear: a group of offworlders was destroying dungeons before moving on, gaining the increased rewards while blaming a local they’d been paired up with. This time, Sophia was the clear target, though Rissa was certain they’d have been willing to finger the newbie if they had to.

This was only the second dungeon on Earth to be targeted, but there was a string of them offworld. It seemed that a group of Mercenaries from the Mercenaries’ Guild was helping them escape the blame, which resulted in a witch hunt in the New York City Adventurers’ Guild until the responsible person was found.

The odd thing was that that wasn’t the end of the thread. Instead, the thread ended with Sophia’s return years later, happy and healthy. She’d been flung through the Origin to another world and while it took her years to figure out how to get back, she managed it.

That end to the thread made Rissa reexamine all of her assumptions and start a concentrated search across the Timestream to see what she could do to change how it went down.

The easiest way was to not have Sophia take any escort assignments. In that case, she wasn’t sent away at all. Someone else would be flung across the Origin, more likely several people. They wouldn’t come back. Rissa couldn’t see why that was happening, but she could see that the only way to stop it required someone to survive the trip.

As much as Rissa wanted to choose the safe option, she couldn’t without talking to Serenity and Sophia; it would be taking a chance away from her daughter and that was her daughter’s choice to make. The different visions she saw made it clear that there was danger; she might not make it back.

Sophia wasn’t like her sister Jenna; while Sophia also wanted to do something that mattered, she loved the thrill of combat. She was going to get into danger no matter what Rissa did.

When Rissa opened her eyes again, she had a plan. It started with talking to the current Adventurers’ Guildmaster for the New York City branch, but that was only the first step. They had a chance to decide, prepare, and plan and she intended to take full advantage of it.

The End

….and a new beginning.