Rune Seeker

“Other survivors?” Seena asked.

“Like Nivian and Wule?” Seeyela added.

“Not just them,” Hiral said, tearing his eyes from the screen in front of him to look at the sisters. “Anybody with a PIM.”

It was understandable the two women were focused on the lost friends they were looking for, but the emphasis of his words clued them in on just how big this was. And, by the way their eyes widened, they got it.

“This place we’re in now,” Hiral continued. “Sure, it’s a dungeon. But, it looks to be one built from the ruins of the Builders’ island. That has to mean it actually exists somewhere. The island came down – we watched it happen – but I never really thought about what happened after that. I guess I assumed they’d all died. If they didn’t…”

“This thing could help us find them,” Seeyela said. “And the fourth race too, the Bonders.”

“Exactly!”

“If any of them are still alive,” Seena said cautiously, before shaking her head. “No, if the PIMP brought us here – to this – there have to be survivors out there somewhere.”

“And this will help us find them?” Yanily asked, thumbing towards the screen.

As the words left his mouth, a yellow screen appeared in front of his face.

Dynamic Quest: Update

Find a use for the Solar Core: 1/1

You have found a use for the Solar Core, but more power is still needed to fully activate the RACIAL Scanner.

Additional Minor Solar Cores Obtained: 0/5

Major Solar Cores Obtained: 0/2

Hiral nodded as he finished reading the notification window – it was pretty much exactly as he’d expected it to be, right down to the name of the system. “You all get the quest update?” he asked the others.

“Got it,” Seena said.

“I… have a question,” Yanily said, his hand up. “We’re in a dungeon, right? Even if we get this thing working, will it only point out where survivors are in the dungeon, or outside as well?”

That question made everybody pause. This was the PIMP they were talking about after all. If anything had the power to connect a dungeon to the real world…

Connect.

When Yanily had… died… in the Rise of Fallen Reach, Hiral had seen a line of Connection extending out through a crack in the dungeon. That thread had allowed him to resurrect – miraculously – later. Was there one here?

Diverting some of his solar energy into his Rune of Connection, Hiral peered around the room looking for something similar. Quickly dismissing the threads he expected to see between his party members, as well as those leading to and from systems within the room left him with…

Nothing.

There was no thread stretching outside the room, let alone the dungeon. Everything was contained within the crystal walls. Could he just be missing it?

Hiral shook his head. No, there just wasn’t one.

“I have another theory,” Left said, interrupting Hiral’s thoughts. When nobody immediately interrupted the double, he continued. “While we may be within a dungeon, that doesn’t mean we’re not also in the real world.”

“Like the Palace of Creeping Death or what happened up on Fallen Reach?” Seena asked, tapping her chin as she considered the possibility.

“But we went through a portal,” Seeyela said. “We didn’t do that for either of those dungeons.”

“You’d be the expert on it more than the rest of us,” Hiral said, thinking through Left’s idea. “But, could it have just physically moved us instead of taking us inside a dungeon?”

“I…” Seeyela started. “Sorry, I wasn’t paying close enough attention to be able to answer the question. I wasn’t expecting it as a possibility.”

“The white waiting room we got,” Drahn spoke up from where he’d quietly been standing. “Wouldn’t that suggest we’re inside a dungeon?”

“And,” Yanily added. “If this was the real world, and Nivian and Wule were in the dungeon, wouldn’t we have run into them by now?”

Seena tapped her chin one last time, then shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll figure it out either way just standing here, though both could be a possibility. Whatever happens, we’re here now and we’ve got a quest in front of us. And if it works…”

“Going to trust the PIMP has a plan for us?” Seeyela asked, then looked over at Yanily. “We should remember to be careful about following its plans blindly when we don’t know what the outcome is going to be.” She still hadn’t quite gotten past her anger at the spearman dying in the Rise of Fallen Reach.

“What are our choices here?” Seena asked her sister.

“There are Mid-Bosses to kill,” Yanily said. “You know what my vote is.”

“Yan,” Seeyela said. “This isn’t about experience. We don’t know what the PIMP is going to make us do. What it could cost us if we follow it blindly.”

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“I think I know exactly what it could cost us,” Yanily said evenly. “I am the one who died, remember?”

“Of course I remember!” Seeyela nearly shouted, then took a breath. It wasn’t Yanily she was angry at. “That’s why I don’t know if we should follow what this PIMP wants us to do. Especially in a lost dungeon. It doesn’t have our best interests at heart.”

“And why should it?” Yanily asked right back, which seemed to stop whatever Seeyela was going to say next. “I mean, sure, these dungeons are designed to make us stronger, but that’s just what Dr. Benza wanted. And, even then, it’s just a means to an end. An end the PIMP was left to reach when everybody else died. Us getting stronger – or staying alive – is all to stop the Enemy.

“Dr. Benza didn’t build all this,” Yanily lifted his free hand to gesture around the room, but it was clear he meant something much bigger than that. “Just for us experience junkies to have a good time. The PIMP’s goal is to make us stronger, yes. Strong enough to defeat the Enemy and take back the world. If we’re not strong enough to take what comes in these dungeons, how can we accomplish the bigger goals?”

“You didn’t die because you weren’t strong enough,” Seeyela hissed. “You died because the PIMP set you up to…”

The butt of Yanily’s spear struck the ground hard enough to boom thunder through the room and send arcs of lightning streaking across the ground. The look on his face matched.

“The PIMP did nothing,” Yanily said. “I chose to save the people I care about. I knew exactly what it would cost to do it. And exactly what it would cost if I didn’t do it. My life for the three of yours, so you could go on and save everybody else important to us on Fallen Reach. A small price to pay.

“And… yet, here I am, with you again. When I made my choice – when I said goodbye to you three – I really thought that was it. Now, I know you had something to do with me coming back,” Yanily looked at Hiral briefly before turning back to Seeyela, “but as overpowered as he is, do you really think I’d be here if the PIMP wasn’t involved?”

“What… what are you saying?” Seeyela asked, clearly thrown off.

“That the PIMP didn’t guide me to my death.” Yanily paused to make sure Seeyela was listening. “It guided me back to life.”

“It made it possible for Heaven’s Punishment to bring Yan back into the spear with it,” Hiral said quietly. “Then it created the connection between the Spear of Clouds in the dungeon, and the real one. I may’ve helped it along, but the PIMP made it possible in the first place.”

“You’re trying to say the PIMP resurrected Yanily?” Seeyela asked, the anger in her voice cracking.

“Not at all,” Yanily said. “Again, it’s not here to coddle us. If Hiral wasn’t strong enough to take advantage of the opportunity, we – I – wouldn’t have gotten another one. Like the dungeons itself, we’re given a chance to get better, to become more than we were. It’s still dangerous, and if we’re not careful, we could die in any dungeon.”

“Like the ones we lost in The Crawling Pits,” Drahn said softly.

“Exactly,” Yanily said. “But that danger brings opportunity. That’s all this was. I don’t think the PIMP was being benevolent in giving me a second chance – it just saw me as one more possible weapon against the Enemy.”

“You’re okay with that?” Seeyela asked, but the anger had completely drained from her voice.

“I’m okay with being alive?” Yanily asked, the hardness on his face fading as he chuckled. “You bet I am! The part about being a weapon? Also yes. Look, I know we’ve all danced around the topic of whether or not we’re going to really get involved in this war, but I made my decision. I made it a long time ago, when we had to… deal with Picoli.

“I don’t ever want to go through that again. Whatever happens, I’m going to get powerful enough to stop the Enemy. Take back our world and make it safe – well, safer – to come down to the surface for everybody. I’d love to have you all by my side while I do that, but I won’t force you. I just… I just thought it was time I told you my plans.”

With that, the spearman seemed to finish his little speech, a second thump of his spear sending out more small bolts of lightning.

Hiral couldn’t help but stare at his friend… in awe. So often, they took Yanily as the joker, but there he was, once again proving how much more there was to him. He’d decided on a point the others wavered on, with a conviction that honestly made Hiral feel… ashamed.

Am I being selfish by not committing?

Actually, even as he asked himself that question… he knew it wasn’t true. Yes, part of him wanted to put off making the decision, but if he was forced into a corner – right now – and asked to decide, he knew what he’d said. He always had.

Just like when Favela had fallen off the Grower island, or when he’d seen Seeyela’s party held by the Shapers – or a dozen other situations after – he couldn’t ignore somebody who needed help. And, right now, the whole world was in need.

“I’ll be right there with you,” Hiral said to Yanily, walking up to the man and giving a fist-bump.

“We will be right there with you,” Right clarified, while he and Left took their customary positions at Hiral’s side. Two more fist-bumps had the spearman grinning at them.

“So, we’re having that chat now, are we?” Seena said, but she was smiling while a single tear ran down her left cheek. “Well, you know I can’t leave you two alone to get in trouble. Bah, who am I kidding, I would’ve made this choice anyway. If we can get strong enough to make a difference, you can damn-well believe I’m going to burn those squids all the way back to wherever they came from.”

“You’re one to talk,” Seeyela said. “They’re obviously a bad influence on you.”

“It’s okay if you choose differently,” Seena told her sister. “You have Favela to think of…”

“And that’s exactly who I’m thinking about,” Seeyela said. “Which is why, like Yanily, I made my choice a long time ago. As long as she’s in danger – any danger – you better believe I’m going to be right there with you all, stabbing until I don’t need to stab anymore.

“Might add a few more for good measure, though. Never know what sort of tricks they have.”

“We’re glad to have you,” Seena said.

Then every head in the room turned to Drahn.

“I… don’t actually know what the hell you’re all talking about,” Drahn said. “I followed up until Yanily said there were Mid-Bosses to kill, and then after that…? I got maybe a quarter of it, and that was just around the part where people died in the other dungeon. The something something about fighting the Enemy?”

“Yeah, something something about fighting the Enemy,” Seeyela chuckled. “And saving the world from them.”

“Ah, kind of big plans for a party of five,” Drahn pointed out, then looked at Hiral and his doubles. “Er, seven…?”

Now it was Hiral’s turn to chuckle, before he turned his attention back to the screen hanging in the room. “All the more reason we should find some help.”