Chapter 72 Alric Returns

            Alric, the third-tier mage, was once again working on his familiar, a four-foot-long snake-like dragon, when a portal opened next to him and an immortal said, “When you get the chance, check out the Great Black Tree Labyrinth, we lost another group of tier-two mages.”

            Alric didn’t bother to look toward the portal; instead, he focused on the mana channels he was drawing inside his familiar, while he told the immortal, “They probably panicked like the last batch that died there.”

            “Even so, the dungeon of that labyrinth has given us mind talking humans, and the air-walking metal. Perhaps it has given us a new gift.”

            “Perhaps. It will take me a few weeks to finish putting in the healing mana channels into my familiar, when I am done I will go.”

            “Will it finally have all your spells etched into its body?”

            “No, I haven't gotten started on the oracle spells yet, but within a year, I should have all the healing ones finished. I finished putting my force and folding space spells in it nearly twenty years ago.”

            “Take your time, it is not like the dungeon is going anywhere, and none of the tier two mages will enter the labyrinth until you give your report.”

The immortal considered Alric’s work with his familiar to be more important than checking on the labyrinth, because the work Alric was doing was teaching him things about folding space and biology that were incredibly important for tier-three mages who wanted to become immortals. When tier-three mages made their familiars, they were required to make them bigger on the inside and continue expanding them until they were gigantic beasts, although on the outside, they looked only as big as a child. Once their insides were gigantic, each mage had the joy of putting every mana core they had in the familiar and etching every spell they knew inside the familiar, which was a real challenge considering the non-Euclidean geometry they created inside their familiar. Once the familiar had tier three spells in them, they would be stronger than the mage that made them until their mage became an immortal as mages who became immortals did to themselves what they did to their familiars.

Alric’s timeline was off by nearly six months as it took him nearly a year and a half to etch all the healing spells into his familiar, but when they were finished, Alric folded space and both he and his familiar moved from one moon to another in one step, as they were not on the same moon as the Great Black Tree Labyrinth. Once they were on the moon he once again folded space, and they stepped several thousand miles and stood just outside of the labyrinth. Once outside Alric weaved a spell with his oracle core and once he saw where the deaths took place took a third step, with his familiar, and stood in the place where they died.

As soon as they were in the room Alric began weaving the oracle spell so that he could see how the tier-two mages died. The familiar insta cast a water spell that sucked the water out of everything, except Alric, within three hundred yards. The spell took water directly from the air, the ground, ponds, springs, and most distressingly, every living thing. Everything inside the biome that had water in it instantly withered, and dust formed from the lack of moisture, and began to blow throughout the room. The small dragon familiar used the water to form a bubble around itself and its master.

The spell the dragon used was called dehumidify by the mages. Only familiars and giants in water dungeons could use it because to draw or etch it took at least thirty yards. It’s why all third tier mages began working on their familiars as soon as they had access to folding space spells, their familiars could instantly cast spells that were far too large for mages to draw with their wants or staffs.

A moment after casting dehumidify the snake-like dragon cast hast times twenty on itself and its master. Then it began casting defensive spells as his master tried to figure out what killed the tier-two mages.

As Alric attempted to look into the past several groups of sage squirrels, void dolphins, and an assortment of other creatures were on their way to deal with the tier three mage. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem for the mage, as if he faced any problem, he could fold space and in one step be hundreds of miles away. Unfortunately for the mage the dungeon had build thousands of magnetic bottles throughout the dungeon. Magnetic bottles that anyone with electric immunity could step through, but it had yet to be seen if folding space could breach it.

Neither Alric or his familiar noticed the buzz in the air as electricity became force in thousands of places throughout the labyrinth. Alric stayed focused on his work which were a few moments in real time but were minutes to him in his haste times twenty time. Alric couldn’t see everything in the past for instance when he looked into the past and heard one of the mages say that the squirrels had stretched and stitched together souls, he couldn’t use his ability to look at the souls of the sage squirrels in the past. That said he was very impressed with how the sage squirrels turned lightning into force and crushed the tier-two mages.

While he looked at the past the labyrinth creatures came closer and closer, and before long his familiar said, “Master, strange souls are approaching. What do you want me to do?”

Alric looked up, and saw the souls of the sage squirrel and whistled. After a moment of contemplation he said, “Let them come. I need to witness the power of the lightning force shield. Once they are in the room I want you to attempt to break it. Don’t turn off your lightning immunity, see if your force spears can do the job.”

“Yes master.”

And so the two waited for the squirrels to come into the biome. Alric stood patiently with his arms behind his back. His familiar had his back arched like a snake ready to strike.

When the blue glow of the electric shield entered the biome Alric said, “Wait.” And his familiar dutifully obeyed.

Alric patiently waited and watched as the squirrels bounded forth protected by their shield. He thought it was odd that besides the blue glow the shield was transparent, and that the squirrels in the shield moved with exact coordination. In turn their coordination made the electromagnetic field look like a worm with the squirrels acting as circular rib cages. With that said Alric could see far more than the tier two mages, for instance he saw that the sage squirrels were drawing magic channels instead of naturally casting the magic etched in their bodies. Although that was rare it wasn’t unheard of. The thing that truly surprised him was that the squirrels were sharing essence. If the tier-two mages had the ability to see that they would have ran since that’s not something mages could do. If he was able to somehow copy this ability he would transform magic among the moons, and his journey to immortality would be much easier.

Alric continued studying the squirrels and their field of protection until three rows came out of the tunnel into the biome, then he told his familiar, “Attack.”

For a moment the familiar cut off gravity in his immediate surroundings, then used an explosion spell to launch him forward, as he created a vacuum between himself and the shield, once he was moving he significantly amplified gravity so that his forty ton weight now weighed half a million tons. Finally right before he hit his target he created a force spear. All of this was amplified by his haste spell which made him move twenty times faster than normal.

When his force spear hit the electromagnetic force field it did nothing to the force field. As for the familiar he suffered severe backlash as all the force he applied to the shield had an equal and opposite reaction when that shield stopped him cold. Most of his bones broke, several of his organs burst, and some of his muscles ruptured. But that didn’t matter because he had a healing core which fixed him up almost immediately. He was healed so fast that a normal human would not have been able to tell he was hurt in the first place.

Alric watched all of this with scientific discipline. What he was looking for was to see how much energy that attack would cost the squirrels. If his failure had used that attack against a shield of force, assuming the shield didn’t break, so much energy would have been taken to maintain the shield it would take all the mana from the force core of five mages. The problem was that these squirrels had linked their essence together, so assuming it took the same amount of energy to create a lightning force shield as a normal force shield, his familiar would have to do that attack two hundred more times before the squirrels ran out of power.

Far from being frightened by those numbers, Alric grew excited. With a bit of experimentation and study he should be able to give this ability to his familiar or perhaps mages. With that in mind Alric took out his specimen bottle, a bottle that was far far larger on the inside with several cubic miles of space stuffed inside. Then he used his folding space core to reach out to the sage squirrels, and he attempted to grab them, but he was shocked when their electromagnetic shield resisted space folding.

Alric was confused for a second, but he had never heard of anything able to fully resist folding space so he continued trying. He was so focused on trying to capture the squirrels he hadn’t noticed that some of the squirrels changed their patterns and began casting a new spell, and soon after the electromagnetic fields shape changed, and wrapped around the space Alric was folding, and then fully engulfed it. Alric was shocked. The squirrels were somehow able to take away the space he had just folded.

It took him a moment to catch his bearings and when he did he yelled to his familiar, “We need to leave this place. Go back to the mage tower nearby.” Both mage and familiar folded space, but the labyrinth was filled with magnetic bottles, and sage squirrels encased in their electromagnetic shields, heading toward Alric, and so the duo found out that their ability could not take them out of the labyrinth.

With that realization Alric took a deep breath and told his familiar, “Come near me, we will have to fight out way out of this labyrinth.” Then he yelled out, “Dungeon, I haven’t had to fight my way out of a labyrinth since I was in the third-tier labyrinth of warped space. You are just a tier-two. I will overcome your trick, and crush you beneath my feet.”

To Alric’s astonishment the dungeon answered with speakers, “We will see.”