Chapter 2: Tower Defense, Kind Of

The trek to the Mana Nucleus was one that would take a few hours of walking — not that they had much of a choice, given there were no caravans available for hire that were headed in that direction. They walked in the standard formation they'd adopted after being ambushed one too many times. Derivan and Vex were side by side at the back, behind Sev; Misa led the way in front, setting a steady pace for their travels.

As was standard practice for them, they were each training their skills, trying to better understand the abilities the system had afforded them. Misa swung her mace in front of her, the dull-black glow of [Guard Stance] surrounding her body. Sev was lit up with the light-blue magic of [Channel Divinity], muttering quietly to himself as he examined his status window.

Derivan was mostly just talking to Vex.

"We don't exactly know how a Nucleus is formed," Vex explained to Derivan. A small flame lit Vex's hand as he spoke, looking for all intents and purposes like a channeled [Fireball], for all that that should have been impossible. "There are a lot of theories about the fluctuation of mana beneath the earth, but since no one can dig that far down, no one's been able to verify it. All we know is that a Nucleus will occasionally erupt into place, and if we cultivate it properly, a dungeon will form from it."

"But we do not know the true nature of a dungeon," Derivan noted. It was phrased as a statement, but he was curious. How much did people know of dungeons? Perhaps they would be able to explain the anomaly of his existence; why he... was.

"Basically," Vex agreed, shrugging. "It seems pretty random what kind of dungeon forms from any given Nucleus. It's got something to do with mana, but the prevailing type of ambient mana doesn't seem to matter. Mana type variation seems to affect how random a dungeon's effects are, and high mana concentrations seem to be good for dungeon quality."

He hesitated. "They do also seem to base themselves at least partially off the Nucleus' local environment and the people present at the time they form... The big cities and the capitals of the Prime Kingdoms all have really weird dungeons. But they can harvest all the mana crystals they need from them, so they don't really care."

"This I have noticed," Derivan said a little drily, though internally he frowned. He'd never been to a larger city — too many high-level adventurers meant it was more likely for him to be noticed.

But in their time as adventurers they'd all been to many of the smaller villages that were starving for crystals.

None of them were particularly pretty sights. One in particular came to mind — they'd used all their crystals to cure a disease raging through their village, and it had cost them; the combat-harvesters that would normally mine crystals for them were still recovering, and they were left without a way to get new crystals for weeks. Half the villagers had veins glowing the bitter blue of system-sickness.

"...Yeah," Vex said after a moment, his voice softer; he seemed to be remembering something too, though he offered Derivan a small smile when the armor looked at him. "Dungeons can form naturally without being cultivated, too, but the result tends to be a lot more chaotic. They're much safer when we guide the mana flows manually, and stack the environment in our favor. These days it usually involves a lot of safety signs."

Derivan couldn't help but smirk slightly at the thought of a dungeon that had to base part of its existence on safety signs.

"...Thank you for the explanation," Derivan opted to say after a moment, and Vex gave him a bright grin.

"Anytime."

"We're almost there! Stay sharp!" Misa called out only moments later, and both Derivan and Vex immediately fell into focus.

The Nucleus was coming into sight. It took the form of a massive crater in the ground, with the walls ridged to look almost like the seats of a coliseum; there were mana crystals poking out of the dirt in odd, disorienting arrays. The air shimmered with ambient power, threads of aspected mana tearing strange ripples in the air as they moved. It was a strange sight — they'd been to Nuclei before, and none of them had looked so... charged, for lack of a better term.

"It looks almost like it's about to form a dungeon," Vex murmured to himself, his eyes flicking across the patterns quickly. Derivan glanced curiously at his friend.

"This is what dungeon formation looks like?" he asked.

"In theory," Vex said with a nod. "I've never seen it myself, so I'm only guessing."

"I have," Sev called back from his position in front of them — his tone was strangely grim, his grip on his staff a little tighter than before. The glow of his [Channel Divinity] faded as he allowed his mana to regenerate. "You're right. This place is about to form a dungeon. It's about... two, three days away?"

Vex gave Sev a strange, 'how the hell are you calculating that from the concentration of wiggles in the air' sort of look, which Derivan felt was quite fair. Or perhaps he was projecting.

"And the Guild didn't tell us?" Misa's tone was a mixture of worry and anger. Lack of information was dangerous.

Sev shook his head. "Dungeon formations can be pretty spontaneous. It's possible the scout didn't know. At this early stage, it should still be relatively safe..."

"But the mana concentration will attract more monsters," Derivan said, speaking with more calmness than he felt. He could feel the way the mana was pulling at him, a faint tug in his soul, drawing him towards the crater.

He'd been feeling it for a while, now that he paid attention to the sensation.

But he didn't have a way of explaining to anyone what he knew and how he knew it, so it was a fact that he tucked away into the back of his mind. If nothing else, the compulsion was easy for him to resist, "We must stay on guard, even still."

Vex nodded seriously, though there was a flicker of a sort of nervousness in his eyes. He was a practiced adventurer in that he didn't let that affect him, though; he grabbed his dagger, holding it at the ready. [Dagger Proficiency] kept his grip steady and his stance strong. The runes that focused his magic were engraved into the hilt in a design that he'd painstakingly built and carved himself, but they were well-hidden, barely visible except to the trained eye.

Misa gripped her mace firmly, and Derivan drew his sword. Both of them radiated with the magic of [Guard Stance].

It was more precaution than anything — the Nucleus seemed empty of the monsters that would usually be milling about. The knowledge of the upcoming dungeon formation had them all on edge, though, and they descended into the crater practicing as much caution as they could.

Mana Crystal Collection — Processing...

Ambient mana concentration detected at 79%.

Ambient mana deviation within 1.4 standard deviations.

Crystal purification proceeding... Estimated time: 17 hours, 15 minutes to Grade 2 crystal.

And there was the other reason adventurers avoided mana crystal duty.

It was boring.

Mana crystals littered the ground — but the ones in the ground were raw and unprocessed, and the uses for them were limited. Instead, adventurers had to stand guard in the Nucleus while the system worked to process and bank the mana crystals.

All while the Nucleus kept calling more monsters in to defend it, obviously. Because sitting in a place for days wasn't enough.

"Can we not collect the crystals ourselves and process them outside of the Nucleus?" Derivan asked, his voice low. He'd always wondered, but this was the first time he felt a pressing desire to leave.

"It's been tried. No one's been able to get it to work well so far," Sev answered, shaking his head. "We can process raw mana crystals, but it takes a lot of effort and high-level skills, and it takes much longer than just letting the system do it. So... here we are."

"Here we are," Derivan echoed. The pull he felt was getting stronger. Nothing he couldn't resist, but he was reasonably sure they would be attacked soon; his eyes scanned the edges of the crater, watching for any movement.

What he didn't expect was for a monster to burrow up from beneath.

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Thankfully, that was the benefit of [Guard Stance]. A flicker, and Derivan was watching the ground instead of the edges of the crater, his body already poised to react; the monster erupted from the ground with claws poised to strike at Vex, and the metal of Derivan's blade turned away the strike with ease.

A level 20 [Crystal Mimic]. A spidery little thing that looked like it was made of the very same raw mana crystals that littered the ground, except strung together in a way that made it look like a lopsided monster. But the level... It was stronger than any monster had a right to be in a wild Nucleus.

An effect of the upcoming dungeon formation, then? That meant this would be dangerous. If nothing else, hordes at this level were still manageable, although he'd have to be especially careful to protect Vex. "Level 20 here!"

"I've got a level 15!" Misa called back, easily beating off the mimic hounding her; a smash of her mace sent it flying ten feet back, crystalline legs fracturing as they scrambled for purchase in the dirt. "Good level range for us!"

"As long as an Elite doesn't show up," Sev muttered, glancing around with no small amount of trepidation. Small bolts of light blasted out of his staff, pelting into the 'eyes' of both mimics with remarkable accuracy. Beady little things, barely visible in the refractory shine of their bodies; it was a wonder that Sev could spot them at all. The cleric wore an expression of focused concentration as his eyes darted between his two targets, and the mimics whined as they flinched away from the light.

"Don't jinx us," Vex hissed. The wizard spun his dagger in his hands, runes glinting into existence around his dagger as he did so. A [Fireball] sprang into the air in front of him, and Derivan leapt out of the way just in time for it to crash into the mimic he was fighting and send it sprawling back. Derivan wasted no time in chasing after it, a black crackle of electricity racing along the length of his blade to discharge into the twitching mimic.

At almost the same time, Misa roared, her mace crashing with frightening force into her opponent. That mimic shattered into fragments.

Your party has killed a Level 20 Crystal Mimic!

Your party has killed a Level 15 Crystal Mimic!

Calculating XP rewards...

XP rewards distributed.

Mana concentration increased.

Ambient mana deviation decreased.

Mana Crystal Collection progress boosted.

Almost as soon as the battle began, it was over. A level 20 and level 15 mimic wasn't a true threat to their party, but it paid to stay cautious. A critical strike would still rip through health like paper without any proper defensive skills, and only Derivan and Misa had those.

"Is it... normal to get boosts for mana crystal collection like this?" Derivan asked, glancing at the text. He didn't remember that showing up for any of their previous collection quests.

Vex shook his head. "It only happens when a dungeon is forming. It's technically much more lucrative to get mana crystals from a forming dungeon, but it's pretty unpredictable, so the Guild isn't usually prepared for it. They send out calls with better rewards and a much higher priority when they are, though."

"I sent them a message about the dungeon as soon as we saw it forming," Sev added. "But it'll take them time to actually mobilize their scouts and get rewards ready, so we can't expect any help for... probably at least the next day."

"I see," Derivan said with a short nod. The pull he felt on his soul had faded down to almost nothing — a brief reprieve of some sort. He thought about it briefly, then added, "[Monster Sense] is telling me we have some time before the monsters begin to appear again. Should we attempt to set up some defenses?"

Vex perked up at this. "Did you get a new skill?"

"...Sort of," Derivan answered, a little bit defensively, and he saw Vex sagging slightly in disappointment. He coughed once, then used another small lie he'd concocted. "I am... still having some trouble with my interface. But if I am able to retrieve the skill description, I will share it with you."

"Okay!" Just like that, Vex brightened again — the lizardkin was interested in anything and everything related to magic and the system. According to him, all skills were magic, obviously. Just because some of them didn't take mana didn't mean that they weren't magic.

That it was usually considered impolite to share specific skills and status screens proved to be no boundary for the lizard, though he typically took rejection with grace. "If your skill is telling us we have some time, then I'll ritual cast [Earth Ward]. It'll prevent monsters from digging underneath us again and we can set up a proper defensive perimeter."

Vex didn't actually take that long to cast his spell — all he needed to do was to carve out the runes into the air with his dagger, and he was skilled enough that each rune only took him about a minute. The wizard drew his ward large enough to give them all enough room to fight. Then, after a brief discussion, he used another skill to build up dark walls of force, giving them a sort of corridor in which they could fight.

With more uses of the skill, he created a platform for himself, balancing it on the edges of the other force walls to give himself a place to cast from. Sev would stay in the middle, able to direct healing towards any of them and mostly protected from the fight.

"Are we still good?" he called down.

"[Monster Sense]is getting stronger, but I do not believe we are at risk of attack yet," Derivan reported.

"Make sure you're protected up there!" Misa said. "It'll be hard to block any projectiles headed towards you from here."

"Got it," Vex answered, his eyes focused.

"Man," Sev grumbled. "I wish I had a wizard on my team when I was lower-leveled and doing these quests. I didn't know you guys could just instantly build fortifications."

Vex smiled a bit at that. He couldn't deny that part of him was a little scared — he was the lowest-leveled of the group, and a critical strike by monsters at this level might be enough to take him out in one shot. But he'd always known adventuring would be a risk; that was the point. Danger, after all, meant better classes. He'd even built himself with that in mind, spending little to no stat points on health and defense.

If he'd told anyone in his home that thought process, they would likely have called him stupid and dragged him to a Fountain — but his choices (and, admittedly, the absurd size of his mana pool, although Vex didn't like to think of that) were part of what allowed him to hit above his level and had resulted in his acceptance into his current party.

And his current party was really cool. He wouldn't trade them for anything. A few months of facing mortal danger had a way of forging strong bonds, sure, but it was more than that —

"Monsters incoming!" Derivan reported, and Vex brought his dagger to hand. No time to ruminate now.

Everyone else saw him cast [Fireball]. It was, certainly, a ball of fire — but no level 19's [Fireball] would annihilate monsters quite like his did.

The others knew by now that he was likely more than just a wizard, but he'd never told them what his actual class was. At first, he'd simply been too anxious; it was dangerous to talk about having a rare class, since they were coveted by the Prime Kingdoms and there was a bounty on low-leveled rare classers.

But Misa hadn't hesitated to tell him about her rare Class, and while Sev and Derivan hadn't told him their exact classes, they'd both told him they were rare. He'd wanted to return the favor then and there, but the words stuck in his throat; he didn't know them well enough, then. He couldn't. So he'd swallowed, and nodded, and thanked them for sharing.

And then time passed, and he grew to know them, and... truth be told, he'd made the decision to tell them weeks ago, on a night when Derivan had brought him some soup while he sketched away at his notes. He'd glanced back to see Sev and Misa waving at him, and Derivan smiling at him in his own odd way, the eye-lights in his helmet curving upwards. They didn't want to disturb him while he worked, but made sure he was fed anyway.

Vex smiled a bit to himself. He couldn't have found a better team, or a better group of friends. And a team of rare Classers? Practically unheard of! Even in the Prime Kingdoms it almost seemed like the system itself manipulated circumstances to make rare Classers operate independently rather than together on a single team.

Which was maybe a bit concerning, actually. But he couldn't imagine that to be true; it didn't fit with anything the system did.

Nah. It was fine. He was pretty sure nothing could go wrong.

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