My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1713-1715

Chapter 1713

I was relieved to find that while I may get seasick, I didn’t have any issues with flying. The only one who seemed to have too many issues being high up was the one who was the most grounded, Terra. The other girls took it in stride, but once she entered the ship and was shown her room, she immediately hid there. The rest of us returned to the main deck and watched as the lines were undone and the ship started to rise into the sky.

The ship seemed to only be able to move in one direction at a time, so it rose straight up into the air until it reached some predetermined height, and then the ship adjusted whatever constituted for magical engines, and it began to move in a straight line, heading north of Lord Duran’s territory. I supposed I was being too optimistic when I thought it would fly like an airplane. It could move faster than walking, but that was only the level of a boat, maybe a bit faster.

To cross Dioshin and visit the capital of Jespain, the entire journey would take a bit over a day. At first, the girls excitedly pointed or made comments as we flew among the clouds, but the novelty only lasted a few hours. The ground below was mostly trees and forest. The ship wasn’t so high in the air that I could see the border of Aberis or over mountains or anything like that. It was only about the height of a tall building. It was enough to clear the trees, but the higher someone got, the colder and windier, so they stayed only twice to three times the height of the tallest trees.

Celeste still would have been able to fly this high on her own, and even I could have made it to the ship from the ground floor using my steps and barriers to push off of. Perhaps the only remarkable thing about the ship was that it moved consistently at a pace that exceeded all methods by land. The ship could sail day or night, meaning there was no need to take breaks. I don’t think I could have hopped or portaled my way to Jespain any faster than this ship allowed.

Thus, I decided to do what I came to do, and pulled out a lounge chair and relaxed on the deck, getting some sun as I relaxed and took my vacation. This was something I couldn’t do on the boat where I got seasick, but in the air, it felt almost like I imagined a ship cruise back home would feel. As for where I found the lounge chair, it was one of the many items I had snatched on Earth because I thought it might come in handy one day. I also had air mattresses and various other means of comfort.

As the girls noticed me laying in the sun with my shirt off, they naturally became curious. The one time we had gone to the beach, things had been so frantic I had never had a chance to sunbathe. In my old world, I had never had the body nor the confidence to do such a thing, but the feel of the radiant heat was pretty soothing, especially for someone who spent so much time in dank and dark dungeons. Such a concept didn’t exist in this world, where even things like vacations didn’t exist for any but the rich and noble.

I ended up having to bring out many more lawn chairs, and soon the entire deck of the ship had become a line of beautiful women lying without their shirts on. Of course, I used a barrier so the sailors running the ship could only see the silhouette of the girls. That alone was enough to distract many of them. One guy even fell over when he wasn’t paying attention. This ship really should have safety rails. Well, I moved quickly and caught him, bringing him back to the ship. He was embarrassed and apologetic. In the end, the sight of being held princess-style by a tanned, half-naked muscular man who towered over them in height was enough of a deterrent that the other men focused much more on their jobs to prevent another mishap.

A lazy afternoon passed by. This was more like it.

“Master!” Lydia had sat up, her bare chest which was just starting to show signs of darkening on full display. “Look at that!”

I looked into the distance to see colorful lights rising from the ground. It resembled an aurora borealis in some respects, although the colors were more directional and gave off mana feeling to them.

“It looks like we’ve reached the Abyss.”

Chapter 1714

Although we could see the lights in the distance, it still took another hour before we had finally drawn close enough that I could see the Abyss itself. Lying on the northern edge of Dioshin and Jespain, and cutting off Shei Gescar from the southern part of the world, the Abyss appeared to be exactly as Lord Duran described it. It was a massive crack in the earth. It was about a mile wide, and it was filled with blackness.

You couldn’t truly see down into the canyon, as the blackness absorbed all light, giving it the feeling of a crack leading down for eternity with no end.  I tried to send out my mana sense to see if the black stuff was miasma, but as soon as the mana touched the crack, it disappeared. I felt a sucking sensation which reminded me of the Absorb skill. I immediately cut off my mana sense. This thing had devoured it.

“According to Lord Duran, nothing that falls into the Abyss comes back out,” I repeated. “Light, mana, people… no wonder it’s called the Abyss.”

After seeing it and looking down into that chasm, I instantly understood why they had chosen that name. It was extremely apt. It was nothing but an abyss. He had also said that nothing could pass over it. The forest had suddenly died away, and even grass didn’t grow around the edges of the Abyss. The airship stopped somewhere around the edge of the forest, then turned horizontal to the Abyss, and started moving again. The airship would sail alongside the Abyss, but the closer it got to it, the more likely it would be sucked in.

“This is the path that they want to allow us to travel across Dioshin?” Pait asked, a slightly annoyed expression on his face.

The Esmere had come out onto the deck after feeling the ship changing course to investigate the situation, and Pait was the first to comment.

“It makes sense.” The smooth-talking dignitary responded. “Where else would every tribe allow people to pass than a no man’s land like this? They fulfill their promise, while not giving us anything.”

“The trade path is being given to me and Chalm.” I corrected him, dropping down the barrier that had been protecting my girls. “I don’t recall the esmere being involved.”

By that point, they had all dressed again and we were all excitedly looking at the lights. These lights supposedly came every six months, and they were shown over the abyss like some colorful light show. Yet, I couldn’t even get a read on what they were. Was it Gaia? Mana? Miasma? Any attempt to probe it with mana immediately fell into the Abyss. If everything fell into the Abyss, why was this light being released from it? There were more questions than answers.

“Hmph.” The dignitary only responded with a grunt, but Pait shot me an appreciative look.

Even though my words weren’t in esmere interest, it seemed like our mutual dislike of the smooth-talking esmere outweighed any issues we had.

“Master… there is something strange about this Abyss.” Miki declared.

“Yeah, that’s pretty obvious,” I responded, staring into the dark pit one more time with a shudder.

“No.” She shook her head. “You misunderstand. I mean, that rainbow being released, I feel like…”

“It’s familiar, but not.” Shao finished.

The door thudded open, and the massive golem Terra came out from her hiding. She stared out at the lights as well.

“Terra?”

“It’s… like Gaia.” She responded.

Miki nodded. “I was going to say so too. It feels like spirit fire.”

“And my miasma.” Shao nodded.

“Fairy dust,” Celeste added.

“What are you guys saying?”

“Master… we’re saying that whatever that is… is another mana source.” Miki declared.

Chapter 1715

Mana sources were a mysterious thing, and one I still didn’t understand. In some ways, it was just mana that had been converted to another state. Or perhaps, it was the state that preempted mana. Mana sources could be used as a spell reagent. It could amplify the strength of a spell beyond your level and mana strength. Also, if you used a spell reagent with a skill for the first time, that skill would create a new, more powerful skill.

I didn’t quite know how skill synthesis fits in with dungeons. Since everything else in this world was the accumulation of preexisting lore, then I wondered if these new skills we created were the equivalent of new lore. We used the mana of the world and pre-existing knowledge to create new lore that previously didn’t exist, a skill that didn’t belong to any job class but was uniquely my own. We called these combination skills.

No book in this world had ever mentioned such a thing. Since it involved the creation of new lore, I imagined it was something only the most powerful understanding. Combination skills had limitations. I could only learn one combination skill per mana source. Thankfully, I could also combine mana sources to create new combination skills.

To date, I had only discovered the existence of four mana sources. Miki could create the mana source spiritual fire, which I came to understand was created by burning a soul. This was something I had only sort of come to understand since Miki had become Lady Death and started eating souls. A soul could be set on fire, much like kindling. This is why it was so damaging to ghosts. Without realizing it, Miki would pull spiritual energy to herself using her spirit tails, and then ignite it to create spirit fire.

Miasma was the most well-established and well-known mana source. It was corrupted mana, a sort of twisted mana that ran counter to the lifestream of this world. There were many types of miasma, coming from different dungeons and different worlds, but when it came to reagents, there was no distinction. Fairy dust was created by fairies, and it seemed to be a result of their mana gathering. Fairies gathered and condensed mana, and the result of that condensation was fairy dust. Finally, there was Gaia, which was the energy directly from the lifestream. It was richer and fuller than standard mana, having come straight from the source of this world.

With these four mana sources, I had created a half dozen skills on my own, and a couple more for the girls. These skills that seemed to exist outside of the job cycle were extremely powerful, but also extremely odd. Create Water of Life had been the one that had truly changed everything for us. It was the reason my girls had survived so much, and the reason my dungeon had grown as powerful as it did. Knowing that it was a skill I had created that previously didn’t exist in this world reassured me a little bit, but could someone else with Fairy Dust and the Absorb skill also make this skill again? It was something that worried me.

“What could this fifth reagent be?” I asked out loud.

“It feels… ancient,” Alysia spoke up, something she rarely did unless something particularly caught her interest.

“Alysia?”

“Since I’m a sword, I see things from a slightly different perspective than everyone else.” Alysia continued. “I can’t tell you why, but I feel… like there is something wrong here. Something wrong… with time!”