[Jean] Chapter 11: Mount Velothia

[Throndir]

"I don't really have a form... So this is the form that I choose?"

She waved her hand again, as a sub screen appeared on the surround-cinema screen. It was a picture of a couple of crystals found in the 'Control Room' of the temple with other priests going about, chanting spells directed at orbs, while some were in meditation.

"See those crystals?" She asked. "Those are the Dungeon Cores. One of them is me. This form I have though, is just as corporeal and 'real' as you would expect it to be. If this form of mine gets destroyed or killed, it would hurt like hell, but given enough DP, I can resummon it. In a way, my consciousness doesn't really live up here." She pointed to her head.

"But at the same time it does. If you dismantle this body apart, it would be just like any other human. I can eat if I want to, but I can sustain myself just fine with MP."

"DP? MP?" Anja asked, her curiosity having her break her silence and concern for her sister.

Marina nodded.

"DP is dungeon points, while MP is-"

"Mana points. Recorded in our Book of Heroes." Dalina responded, though her features were still sullen.

Marina nodded, while Dalina continued trying to shake herself out of her thoughts.

"There were stories of priests in our scriptures that wind priests were able to transform into birds. Similar to Gust, or Viridio even. But those techniques or magic are lost."

"I remember those times. There weren't many of them that could though. Even after all these years I never bothered learning how to use magic though. Being a Dungeon Core gave me enough that I needed to run this place, that I never thought about it." Marina shrugged.

Ren shook her head.

"I'm not... familiar with magic either. And no master... I can't transform out of this. The most I can do..." With that, while still sitting next to you, she began transforming her tentacles to different shapes, then her legs back and forth between a tentacle form and normal human-like legs.

"The legs and everything else with them are for when you're ready master." She said, her features with a bit of flush to them, her smile turning to that familiar predatory one that you hadn't seen for at least a few days.

[pringerbeam]

     "Dungeon Points...  I'm unfamiliar with those.  I don't think I have any.  What can they be used for?"  Inquired Jean.  "I figured it wouldn't be that easy to find such magic.  I guess we'll have to go to other sources for that magic then..."  He looked down at the book in his lap, his eyes drifting over to Ren's shifting legs then back up to the screen as he pondered.  "No magic huh?  Maybe you could learn?  It seems like a good skill to have.  Do you know how to teach someone to use magic Dalina?  I have only a vague understanding of how it works and even then, I think my magic might be a bit different from everyone else's on account of being a hero."

[Throndir]

"Dungeon points are used for all sorts of things!" Marina said. "It's a resource for Dungeon Cores to make use of in order to do things like create walls, dig underground, summon creatures to defend the dungeon, generate loot, along with other things. For me however, I use most of my points to maintain and run the temple. Keeping it afloat in the skies... Purifying the water. Ensuring places are clean and maintained. All sorts of things!"

Dalina nodded.

"I can..." She said quietly. She raised her voice a bit more. "Ren... since we'll be travelling together from now on, I'll teach you what I know."

Ren herself nodded, though she didn't look particularly excited.

"I'll learn and do anything for my master."

The main view screen continued to narrow down towards the destination, and the mountain top was starting to get more and more visible.

[pringerbeam]

    "There, that's the spirit, working together!" Said Jean as he put his arms around the shoulders of Ren and Dalina and pulled them together in front of him.  "Keeping it flying...  Dalina said there were other islands that have been lost and that you knew about what happened to them.  I assume they were also guided by others like you.  How did they fall?  Do you know where they are?  Did they run out of DP?"  Asked Jean as he watched the land grow closer.

[Throndir]

"Many of them had fallen from the skies." Marina said, she glanced carefully at Dalina, then back to you.

"It takes a lot of DP to keep the island flying. Whenever our island merges with other temples, such as what happened twice before, the DP of those other Dungeon Cores are absorbed into one of us, it's just more efficient that way. The other Dungeon Cores are inactive but are still housed with my Core."

"Sometimes, the burden of another temple is too much for a a Dungeon Core to handle, and DP starts to drain quickly. Once that happens, we find a place to gently land. When this happens, the priests of those temples are faced with the fact that they themselves become land-dwellers. Over the years, they integrate slowly with the populace. It wouldn't surprise me if there's descendants of wind priests living among them below, or even other Dungeon Cores who were originally caretakers of temples."

"As for knowing where they are..." She shook her head. "The only way we can communicate with other temples is if they have their own Dungeon Core that was first merged together. One of the Dungeon Cores here was merged with another core of a different temple. We used to keep in contact with them all the time, before they decided to land and help the land-dwellers. That became a disaster... They landed on the outskirts of the Felothian kingdom, now called the Felencorp to the south. They were to aid them as much as they can, but the last message we received from them was that their temple was being overrun by the very people they were trying to save."

"Soon after that, their Dungeon Core crystal was destroyed. And of course, without that, there was no way to facilitate communication."

"We can activate the other Dungeon Cores for a brief period of time if you would like, if you had questions for them." She paused for a moment.

"I was thinking that you take one of them, so you can keep in contact with me up here."

[pringerbeam]

     "Take one with me?  I don't see why not.  The ability to communicate over large distances would be helpful, seeing as you don't have the kinds of communication technologies that my old world had."  He kept holding Dalina and Ren together as he pondered.  "Though...  If the other dungeon cores are gone then that means the other temples will no longer be able to fly doesn't it...  Even if we were able to get to the other temples is there any chance we could salvage them to expand this one?  This island is a haven and strategically powerful.  If it were possible to make it bigger and more capable of sustaining a larger population that would go a long way in the war effort but given the fate of the islands forced to descend I wouldn't want to risk the same thing occurring to the others here."

[Throndir]

"Well, just one of the Dungeon Core crystal was destroyed; the one used for communicating. There's a chance the Dungeon Core who actually ran the temple, like me, is still around... Maybe you can look for her if you're around there? Dungeon Core 23 is her name. She never mingled with her own priests on her island though, so she never chose a name for herself. The people in my temple refuse to land anywhere else but Mt. Velothia, but... I suppose things will need to change."

"If we can figure out a way to supply DP, then it's possible to sustain more islands. Hopefully there are other grounded Dungeon Cores out there that can be merged in with ours, or even help manage parts of the island."

"There's multiple ways of earning DP. We get a small amount per hour for each individual in my dungeon territory. Next, we get a lot each time someone dies while on the territory. We get more by absorbing the body, but I usually don't do that, as that arouses suspicion. Lastly, we can convert magical items, or even gold and wealth straight into DP."

[pringerbeam]

     "Hmmm... Wealth and magical items..." Mused Jean, tapping his index fingers absentmindedly on Ren and Dalina's shoulders.  "Both things that seem to be in short supply on this island.  People dying here is of course not an ideal source of DP....  I guess we'll have to see what we come across in our travels.  Either that or the villagers will need to learn some more economically viable trades."

[Throndir]

"The priests trading sense isn't very good, and the merchants that come up to meet us on Mt. Velothia, I suspect, trade us items that aren't really worth as much as we trade them. We usually trade away various cloths made from the telma, the herbs that grow out of them, and the fruits. Apart from that however, we do get a lot from the Velothian Dragons."

She glanced at the view screen.

"Which... we're almost there actually." She pointed towards the screen, then it zoomed in further. On the view screen it showcased four individuals. One was a tall woman in a dress. The next one looked to be someone wearing red. The third one looked to be a young girl. But it was the last one that gave you paused. That one looked like she had a bass guitar strapped to her back, with clothing that didn't quite match anyone else that you've met since both times you had been summoned. In fact, it looked like she wore clothes from back on Earth.

In front of them was a pile of swords, though, you noted that each one seemed to glow with a light blue color.

[pringerbeam]

     Jean pulled Ren and Dalina apart just wide enough to fit his head in between their faces as he leaned forward to get a good look at the screen.  "A guitar...  A bass guitar...  That must be their hero...  Hey Dalina..."  He turned his head to her face.  "Do you know if the heroes all come from the same place?"

[Throndir]

The moment you faced her, a slight blush crept along her features, though she seemed to refuse to entertain the idea.

"Jean..." She said trying to avoid your eyes, but with your face so close, wasn't really able to accomplish much. Eventually she sighed and shook her head.

"No... They can come from anywhere. Though, many times, their own world differs greatly to ours."

[pringerbeam]

     "I see...  Then she might not be from my world after all..."  Jean turned his head back to the screen.  "I wonder if those swords are for us.  You said they bring you supplies?  What do they usually trade?"

[Throndir]

"They don't normally give us weapons... But here, look." Marina said as she changed the view of the screen. It then showcased a couple more dragons that looked like they were hauling and carrying large craters dangling from ropes they held on to with their claws. More and more dragons began to climb up the mountain as the temple continued its descent.

More and more other people started to make their appearance too. There were many little girls, people you assumed to be merchants, along with men who seemed to be wearing matching armor and uniforms.

"They do know that you were potentially be summoned the next time we landed here, so those weapons could indeed be for you." Marina commented. "Generally though, they give us food stuffs, usually dried goods and spices. Tools for farming, gathering, and maintenance of our own things. Likewise, a couple of our priests go down with requests from the people to trade with the merchants."

"It shouldn't be too long until we arrive." Marina said as she turned towards the group. "Ready to meet them?"

[pringerbeam]

     "I guess so."  Said Jean as he stood up from the couch.  "Everyone else ready?  I'm guessing we have to go back out of here."  He said, leading the way to the exit.  Upon emerging from the control room he pulled Dalina aside.  "You guys go ahead, I need a second to compose myself.  I'll need Dalina's help."

Assuming everyone else goes on ahead.

     Jean turned back to Dalina and motioned for her to folllow him around the corner to a more quiet outcropping that was even more private than the entrance to the control room.  "Dalina...  What's wrong?"

[Throndir]

"Did you see that place? I'm not sure why Anja wasn't affected." The priestess began. "Marina, our Keeper of the Temple, was supposed to be one of those who were blessed by the goddess more so than the rest of us. It's why she looks so young. Then... Then to find out our temple, raised by the goddess herself, is simply a dungeon?"

"Rather than being a holy place, it's a dungeon. Not to mention that the goddess had no hand in guiding our temple. We always thought that it was due to the goddesses' intervention that we never ran into any bad storms up here. But you know what? It was probably Marina all along deciding the course of the temple as it floated above the skies with all of her fancy tools up here to see the danger before it came to us."

She shook her head.

"Her name's not even Marina. It's Dungeon Core 17?" She asked no one in particular.

"It's like a bad joke." She paused a moment before continuing.

"I'm sorry Jean, this probably seems stupid to you."