[Jean] Chapter 16: The Ramparts

Throndir · July 10, 2019, 11:24:29 AM

You saw Telamon stand up and rush towards you the moment you were swallowed up by the orb. Instead of the guest room at the dwarven palace, you found yourself in a dark room with a clean and polished floor. The room itself didn't seem to have any walls though, it only looked like complete darkness in every direction.

Instead there was a girl with green hair. She didn't have the same kind of robes at all as the rest of the wind priests, instead she wore something that looked more modern, in terms of your old world, to your eyes. "Nice to meet you hero Jean!" The girl said cheerily.

"Dungeon Core 17 told me to treat you like a dungeon master, even though you're not. I'm Dungeon Core 31."

The girl quickly snapped her fingers, then a screen appeared beside her, with a video stream of Marina back in what you recognized as Marina's control room.

"When you didn't check back in last night, I thought something must have happened!" Marina said from the screen. She sighed a moment later. "Well I'm glad you look alright though, how's everything? How's Dalina?" Marina asked, a tinge of concern in her voice.

pringerbeam · July 10, 2019, 11:36:58 AM

Jean looked around him into the darkness as he patted himself down. "Hi uh... Dungeon Core 31? Where..." Before he could finish asking his question the screen with Marina on it came up behind him. Spinning around he reoriented himself to face her. "Marina! Hi, no, Dalina's fine. I think she's still asleep. Uh where are we?" He looked to the other dungeon core. "And I don't mean to be rude but where did you come from?"

Throndir · July 10, 2019, 04:43:26 PM

Marina stayed silent as Dungeon Core 31 began to answer. "This is what's called the master room of a dungeon. It's pretty bare since I've given most of my DP to Marina to keep the temple afloat, and after that, I went inactive for awhile, sooooooo..." She gestured towards the darkness with one of her hands in a wide sweeping motion. "This is the result!"

"Anyways we're in the orb, which is in the room, so technically, we're still back there."

pringerbeam · July 10, 2019, 05:10:14 PM

"Okay, I think I get it. So you're able to talk to each other from here I guess. Pretty nifty." Said Jean as he looked into the darkness behind the screen. "Are you able to leave the crystal or manifest outside in some way? Actually, on a related topic. Are you gynoids? I've run into someone that knows a bit about the temples back when they were first built." Asked Jean with a raised eyebrow. "Something about extremists? Never mind the Thamylon Legend for now."

Throndir · July 11, 2019, 01:50:11 PM

Both Marina and Dungeon Core 31 looked towards you strangely.

"We are Dungeon Cores..." Marina responded, being the defacto leader between the two. "Using DP, we're able to create things, and manage our dungeon... But when the temples were first built? That would be pretty snazzy." Marina said though she frowned. "That would have been a couple thousand years ago... Apart from other temple cores and elves, I'm not sure anything else can live that long. Even I wasn't around the creation of the temple. When I first awoke, I was already here. I've never heard of that word before 'gynoid'. So I don't think we are whatever that is. We're all keepers of our respective temples."

Dungeon Core 31 nodded. "I'm not able to leave the crystal or manifest like how Marina can. I need a lot more DP for that, and I've given all of mine to-"

At that moment Dungeon Core 31's eyes clouded up.

"Marina! Hero! Something is trying to..." Her face scrunched up in alarm confusion. At that moment, the dark room start to glow red rhythmically, kinda like some sort of warning. "That other girl is attacking the core!" Dungeon Core 31 said in alarm as she brought up a screen out of thin air, it was a live feed of Telamon holding the orb, though Telamon's finger's had transformed into cables that looked like they were jacked straight into the orb. Telamon's eyes were glazed over as well. Ren looked like she was up as well, though Dalina was no where in sight.

pringerbeam · July 11, 2019, 02:01:38 PM

"Oh whoops, better call them off. How uh... Do I go outside?" Asked Jean, watching the feed of Telamon.

Throndir · July 11, 2019, 02:05:50 PM

Dungeon Core 31 waved her hand, and what looked to be a door-sized view screen appeared next to you. "Just walk through it!"

pringerbeam · July 11, 2019, 02:09:49 PM

Jean dashed through the doorway yelling as he made it through. "Woah woah woah, slow down there Telamon, I'm fine!" He tackled Telamon and tried to seize the crystal from her grasp. "Don't damage the crystal! It's a communication device... kinda."

Throndir · July 11, 2019, 02:44:02 PM

The moment you tackled Telamon, her connection with the orb was forcibly revoked. She had a faint blush on her cheeks as well, and it was a wonder whether or not that was a programmed response.

"There you are... Making us worry like that." Telamon finally said as she bonked you on the head. "Unlike Ren who apparently spent many many months with you, I've only had you for a day! I'm not losing my master that easily. Besides, I plan to beat Ren in that too. I'm confident doctor Alcina has made me close to ageless anyways." She said grinning at you.

You felt tentacles wrap around you. "Master...!" Ren said tightening her hold around you.

"So...? What happened in there?" Telamon asked as she moved her hands and arms around you as well. With both Ren and Telamon holding on to you, it was actually a bit more challenging trying to freely move. Telamon was face up on the floor, you atop of her, with Ren finally sitting behind you, using her tentacles to wrap themselves around your body.

"I was already planning to inject it with nanites to figure out it's link until you stopped me. It's actually pretty advance tech... The doc would love to see it, if she were still alive that is."

pringerbeam · July 11, 2019, 04:40:42 PM

"Well I wasn't finished so I'm not totally sure." Said Jean as he looked the crystal over to check for damage, still laying on top of Telamon. "But it's called a master room and there is a dungeon core living inside it. They are able to communicate with the other dungeon core that lives on the wind temple island from inside. Other than that I don't know because we were rather rudely interrupted." Finished inspecting the crystal, he relaxed and let out a sigh of relief. "Where's Dalina?" He asked craning his neck from his position sandwiched between Ren and Telamon.

Throndir · July 12, 2019, 11:59:06 AM

On the crystal itself were 10 finger-tip sized holes. Inside the crystal seemed to be some sort of swirling mass with glowing lights. To you, the damage looked minor, but you couldn't begin to understand this kind of technology or magic with what you currently knew.

"Better safe than sorry! If this was something from that particular extremist in my age, it wouldn't have surprised me if the orb's purpose was more to simply disassemble a person and leave it like that." Telamon retorted. "But a dungeon core? For such an archaic word to describe something this advanced. Anyways Ren, can you ease up a bit?" Telamon asked as Ren slowly began to loosen her tentacles. "As for Dalina, she went off to find Lili, or at least one of the guards to let them know. That wasn't that long ago. We could probably still catch up to her."

pringerbeam · July 12, 2019, 12:06:02 PM

"That's what they refer to themselves as. They seem to have been created after the temples were already in the skies and don't really know what the original extremests were. Anyways, we should go find Dalina. Don't want to cause more of a fuss" Said Jean as he untangled himself from Telamon and Ren and making his way to the door and looking outside. "Which way did she go?"

Throndir · July 12, 2019, 06:05:33 PM

"She started her way back down, to one of the guards I believe." Telamon explained.

QuoteIf you're heading out the room, state what you plan to pick up, and what you leave behind, along with where you are going.

pringerbeam · July 12, 2019, 06:11:10 PM

"Got it, let's go." Said jean as he headed off in the direction Telamon indicated.

Jean will put the crystal and the Ramparts manual into his inventory as he leaves the room. I don't think there is anything else other than his clothes that he had with him.

Throndir · July 13, 2019, 01:58:36 PM

The three of you began to gather your things, which really wasn't much at all. The slimeling was propped up on Ren's shoulder, while Viridio was perched on yours. Before the group left the room, Ren grabbed Dalina's things. On the way back down, that was when you encountered both Dalina and Lili, running back up to see you.

"Jean...! You're okay... Telamon said something had happened."