My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1710-1712

Chapter 1710

“Lord Duran, you won’t be joining us?” I asked, feeling a bit disappointed.

I had very few male friends. That had been the case in that world and this one. I didn’t get along with most guys. Nowadays, my rapidly growing status made it difficult for me to call most people a friend. There was Prince Edward, but he was extremely busy, and there would never be a time we could just hang out. As for Pait, while we were on good terms, I’d be hard-pressed to call him a friend. He was somewhat moody most of the time and was more focused on doing his job as a diplomat than having friendly conversations.

I found myself missing Otto for a bit. When I had first come to this world, I had seen him as a cruel noble. However, both he and I had changed greatly in the last 9 months or so. Had it been so long? I didn’t know the exact time, as the days and months in this world didn’t follow my world exactly, but it was closing on a year.

Of course, at this point, I could return to Earth any time I wanted, but then I would be leaving far too much behind. There was very little for me on Earth. Perhaps, when things were calmer, and the threats of the fae, the imperial cloud meadow, Twilight, and the demon king were all dealt with, I’d bring the girls to my world and have them meet my mother. I wondered how she’d react to seeing them. Shao had met my mother. When she had gone to our world to track down her past, she had also visited them. She had been vague about how mom was doing though. She could only say that mom was doing well.

That told me all I needed to know though. I had disappeared less than a year ago. Had my mother truly missed me, would she be doing so well after such a short time? Since she was doing so well, Shao’s words only reinforced what I had already seen for myself, that my family had moved on and that my true place was here. I wasn’t angry with her, and while it did make me a little sad sometimes, she was my mother. I had been a continuing burden for her for twenty years, and I was glad that with me gone, she could finally move on. Someday, I would make it up to her.

Perhaps, I would use some of the products from this world, make a fortune in that world, and become extremely wealthy by exchanging goods between the two worlds. I could then share that wealth with my mother, and allow her to live the rest of her life whatever way she wanted. That felt like a completely different direction to take my story though, so it’d wait for another time and place.

“I regret that I cannot.” Duran gave the predictable answer that I had already guessed at. “The tribe is still in disarray. I need to stay in Dioshin and help keep things from falling into chaos here. However, I do have a task that I would like you to do for me.”

“Hmm? What’s that?” I asked.

“I would like you to speak to the soothsayer. I’d like her to divine the future of Dioshin!”

Chapter 1711

“You want your fortune’s told?” I asked, mildly curious.

When it came to the idea of a fortune teller, I had very little opinion. I had heard of the soothsayer nearly as sparingly. I only understood after processing Roth’s dungeon that the soothsayer was seemingly a single person of some renown in Dioshin.

“Due to tribal disputes, the airship still doesn’t have clearance to go through the birdkin lands. As a result, to get to Dioshin, you will head north and then travel along the Abyss anyway.” Duran explained.

“The Abyss, you say?” I had heard about the Abyss even less than the soothsayer. “What is the abyss?”

“It exists along the northern border of Dioshin and Jespain, cutting off Shie Gescar from the southern countries. It’s why there is no safe path to Shie Gescar anymore.” Lord Duran explained. “The easiest way to explain it is that the Abyss is a massive canyon, except that it is so deep the bottom can’t be seen, and if you try to cross it, even with an Airship, you will be dragged down into the dark depths. It’s an anomaly that has existed nearly as long as the tribes of Dioshin.”

“The airships get sucked down?” I asked.

“Yes… no magic can pass across the abyss. It seems to absorb all of the mana. Although, even a bird wouldn’t make it across. Everything gets dragged down into it. That’s where the name comes from. No one who has ever been pulled into the Abyss has ever left it.”

“Okay, what does that have to do with the soothsayer?”

The way he had worded things, I had the impression the two were connected, so I asked immediately.

“While no one who falls into the Abyss emerges, that doesn’t mean that no one has ever left it. There is one person who has left the Abyss. That is the soothsayer. Once roughly every six months, the Abyss gives off strange energy. Above the Abyss, it becomes quite breathtaking to look at, and shortly after, the soothsayer emerges. She travels around Dioshin for a week, offering to glimpse into anyone’s future. Then, she returns to the abyss for another six months.”

“It’s true.” Miki cut in. “I had also heard of the soothsayer. One of the reasons I had been so easily lured to Dioshin was because I wanted to have an audience with her. I had hoped she could confirm whether Master had truly… ahem… it turned out I had missed her by only a few days.”

“So, this soothsayer will be emerging again?”

“Yes, the Abyss lights have already appeared. Where she exits changes every time, but since you’ll be traveling down the entire length, I hope you’ll be able to catch her and ask her to look into Dioshin’s future.

“Hmmm… I would also be very interested in meeting this soothsayer.” Pait spoke up. “If Dioshin has had access to this soothsayer and her talents, it’s no wonder that King Roth kept their existence and that of the Abyss under lock and key. I admit I had always been confused about Shie Gescar. People always considered it inapproachable. I understood that from the southeast, a river and massive mountains made any attempt to reach it difficult, but I never understood why across the borders of Jespain and Dioshin, a route couldn’t be found.”

Duran nodded. “Yes, the Abyss and the soothsayer has always been one of Dioshin’s greatest mysteries.”

While they were looking off distantly in thought, I didn’t feel like it was much of a mystery at all. Perhaps, I had experienced far too much in this world, or perhaps, I was just far removed enough to recognize the narrative flow of this world, but if I had to guess, the identity of the Abyss and the soothsayer were rather easy. The Abyss had to be a dungeon, and that would make the soothsayer the dungeon’s master!

Chapter 1712

I didn’t mention anything to Duran or Pait. There was no point popping their balloon. I was curious if this girl could see the future or not. If this dungeon at as much lore as they suggested, perhaps it was using the past to predict the future. I had no clue. I was also prepared to accept that the dungeon was sentient, and the soothsayer was the dungeon itself.

Either way, I planned to stay away from the dungeon, and as for the master or avatar of the dungeon, I would respectfully speak to them on behalf of Duran, but otherwise keep my distance. If I had to invoke Dirage’s name and the council of the dungeon masters, then I would, even though I didn’t truly know what that entailed, having never gone to such a meeting.

All I knew was that this next week was my vacation, and I wasn’t going to spend it playing around in some place called the Abyss. What? It wasn’t going to happen. If the dungeon somehow became an issue, I would just start dropping meteors on it until it collapsed. It didn’t sound like this place was underground, and if the canyon collapsed and buried the place, it’d probably be better for everyone. Perhaps we could even open up trade with Shie Gescar!

As I was thinking about how this wasn’t going to become a dangerous adventure where I had to put my life on the line, we finished our approach. There was a small platform that could be risen with levies that the ship used to bring us on board. Most of the girls could jump and or fly to the ship, but that would probably be rude. We gave out farewells to Duran who finally turned away and left as we rose into the air painfully slowly.

Terra clung to me fearfully as we started our ascent. During a normal time, this would have been cute and I would have loved for a fearful girl to cling to me for protection, but Terra was a nine-foot-tall golem made of solid metal. Not only was she so heavy that the ropes seriously sounded like they might break, which only made her more afraid and cling to me harder, but she wasn’t soft or cute at all. It was decided. The first thing we’d do when we got to Jespain was to find the technology to build her a body.

After about five minutes of rising, Celeste lost her patience, and turning into her small fairy form, flew up the rest of the way. Seeing Celeste cheat, Lydia grabbed onto the rope and started rapidly climbing. Using her acrobatics, she quickly made it up to the top as well. Shao also abandoned the ship, seemingly slipping into the shadow cast by the airship as it blocked the sun. Miki gave an irritated noise and then held out her arms. The temperature felt cold for a second, and then she rose into the air, flying up to the ship. Was she using spirits to carry her? That felt like an abuse of power!

The girls all leaving caused the platform to become unbalanced for a bit and it shifted with a sudden thud. Terra cried out in a girlish voice as she threw her arms around me. My face was buried into the rock chest of a crying golem, which is where I remained for the rest of my ascent. This vacation was starting well.