Harvest Dungeon 26 Chapter 26 - The Goals Of The Trial

The wolf was really small. At least the dog that the female wolves had killed, was in the size range of a large dog, while seeming to be young and capable of growing even larger. This wolf looked fully grown while being smaller than most real dogs. I didn't count the little ones like chihuahuas as dogs any more than I counted gerbils and rabbits.

Despite her size she emanated a sense of strength that didn't allow me to underestimate her.

"Elisia, we have offered this human the challenge of a.s.sisting you in your challenges." the ancient dire wolf informed the new wolf.

"His qualifications?" Elisia asked looking towards me measuring me up.

"He is a contestant in a tier seven dungeon trial, young, brave, and a Mana Lord." the second female spoke up.

I heard Seth hiss, but ignored it for the moment.

Elisia was silent for a moment as our gazes met. After a few moments she turned away to face the ancient dire wolf. "I accept." she informed the larger wolf.

The ancient dire wolf nodded. "Good, take care of yourself and work hard." he told her.

"Yes sire." she replied lowering her head in front of the ancient dire wolf.

The ancient dire wolf coughed then a small glowing object flew straight at my face. I reached up and caught it in my hand more by reflex than anything else. Looking into my hand I found a one inch tall, quarter inch wide silver crystal.

"Poke your finger with a sharp end so you bleed on the crystal." Zephirah instructed me.

I looked up at the wolves curiously only to find that Elisia was the only one that remained. The other three had disappeared without a sound.

With nothing else to do, I gritted my teeth and pieced my thumb with the crystal's pointed end. A few drops of blood flowed over the crystal which was promptly absorbed into the crystal making it glow for a moment. The wound on my thumb disappeared as the glow from the crystal disappeared.

"Might I know your name my mate?" Elisia asked as she calmly walked through the barrier. I sighed then glared at the sprite who was grinning excitedly beside me.

"Don't look at me like that. This is a very good thing for us, besides what man doesn't want to add another powerful female to his harem." she told me defensively.

"What harem?" Lilian asked. "All I see is a sprite who is barely a few inches taller than he should be long, a seductive flirt who can't put out, and now a beast. No offense to you miss wolf, but those kinds of actions between a human and a beast are frowned on, on most worlds. On those few it isn't, well its would be best if we never visited those places." Lilian spoke up while criticizing Zephirah. "I would say that you guys could be in the running for worst harem ever."

I rolled my eyes, while I agreed with the fairy a bit, I had never been interested in having a harem. "Jason Nellis." I introduced.

"Elisia of the Silverfur pack." Elisia replied.

"Be quiet!" Zephirah yelled at the fairy. "The best kind of women are those you have to put time and effort into. What would my husband need those s.l.u.tty girls who immediately spread their legs the moment they arrived!"

"Welcome, you can ignore them, they don't really get along." I told Elisia, then turned to the portal. "Let's go in. I had a lot of work to do before all this happened, and now it seems I need to get a more detailed explanation on what this challenge entails and the kind of a.s.sistance you want from me."

"You don't know?" Elisia asked. She didn't seem angry just curious.

"I also noticed you didn't include yourself, yet you wish to stay here even after you finish your task. Do you think my dungeon is a boarding house?" Zephirah continued to berate Lilian while ignoring the rest of us.

"There are a lot of things he doesn't know." Vanessa offered as she moved up to my side.

"It is surprising how little he knows." Lilian chimed in obviously attempting to extract herself from Zephirah's tirade.

I gave the pair a scathing look which they both ignored.

Zephirah obviously wanted to continue her tirade but stopped when she realized the topic we had moved onto.

"Worm." Elisia greeted Seth coldly.

"Runt." Seth replied back equally coldly.

"Do you two know each other?" I asked surprised.

"No, but the serpent clans and dire wolf packs are not on friendly terms." Seth replied.

"Don't worry, we can put them on separate floors." Zephirah rea.s.sured me joining the conversation. "It isn't uncommon for races that oppose each other to be found in the same dungeon."

It sounded like unnecessary trouble to me, but for the older larger dungeons it might be a benefit. The compet.i.tion between the races could make them both stronger. Unfortunately, we were not a large dungeon. In fact, I could only consider us a small dungeon. A very small dungeon.

"So how is this going to work? Does she need a champion slot like Seth and Vanessa?" I asked.

"No." Zephirah replied. "She is an exception like the beast gems. That shard you have in your hand is like a wolf gem, except it is keyed to her specifically. We won't have to do anything for her. As she grows so will the gem."

"So a unique unit." I commented.

"Your sudden need to cla.s.sify everything into game terms is disturbing." Zephirah told me.

"It makes it easier to understand. Especially when someone decides to leave big holes in my knowledge." I replied. "Like moderators, what are they?" I asked.

"You don't know?" Elisia asked.

"Nope." I replied without shame then I pa.s.sed through the portal to the lower level.

The others followed me a moment later. The lower floor was still too cold for my liking, like standing just inside a walk in freezer with the door left open.

"Oh, this is nice." Elisia commented as she took a few steps onto the floor. "As for mediators. They are powerful beings who are employed to keep the trial fair." she replied.

I frowned. "I thought the trials weren't meant to be fair." I commented.

"They aren't, but at the same time, the overseer doesn't want the powerful families of the various worlds to dominate all the trials. The mediators create a level of risk that keep those families from going overboard." Elisia explained.

"How?" I asked.

"They patrol the trial grounds and eliminate any beings that do not belong here." Elisia replied then gave me the same wolf smile as her sire. "What would be worse for those great families than to send an army to support their candidate only to have the whole group eliminated by a mediator?"

That made sense to me, it didn't stop the cheating, but it kept it at a compet.i.tive level.

"If a family sends a being capable of eliminating the mediators, the overseer will step in as that level of cheating destroys the point of the trial." Elisia told me.

I nodded. "And the point of the trial is?" I asked looking over at Zephirah, it was a topic she had steered around, and I was very curious about.

Elisia stopped then looked at Zephirah.

Zephirah sighed, "Tell him, I never meant to hide it forever. Our situation is a bit abnormal, and I needed him to concentrate on our short term goals before looking to the long term."

"Very well, The overall winner gains sole access to a new world to use as they wish, however the security of the new world will be their responsibility. Many of those great families desire access to these new worlds so they can strip them of their wealth then use them however they can afterwards. The higher the trial the better the world they are given access to." Elisia explained. "The other winners.."

"What other winners?" I asked confused. "Wasn't there only one?"

Elisia looked to Zephirah who just gestured for her to continue.

"Let's try another approach. For all the candidates who partic.i.p.ate there are four outcomes. Those who are defeated and die, these honestly are the most numerous. Then there are those who are able to survive the trial period, for a level seven trial that should be one month. Having proven their abilities they are allowed to leave with a reward from the overseer. In exchange they lose their bonds to their dungeon. Then there are those who are able to strengthen their dungeon shard until they become a true core. They can retreat with a boon from the overseer and their dungeon core. The last man standing is usually the one who wins access to the new world." Elisia told me.

That just added to the questions I had. "What kinds of reward? Is it like the boon from your sire?" I asked curiously. If this was true, I could go home once I had lasted here for a month.

"No. I mean no disrespect to my sire, but the boon of a mediator can not compare to even the most basic reward from the overseer. Let alone a reward given to those who had cleared a few testing grounds before withdrawing. Those rewards could be the cornerstone to establis.h.i.+ng a new great family." Elisia replied vaguely.
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"Testing grounds?" I asked curiously.

"Tests the overseer has placed in the trial grounds. They are one of the the normal ways for the dungeons and their masters to gain racial gems and similar artifacts." Elisia replied.

So there was another way to get more of those gems Zephirah was after. If I had three and a half weeks left here, I should probably try and visit a couple.

"How do we make you become a true core? Do we just have to level you up?" I asked curiously. It had only been a little while but I was already rather attached to the little sprite. If I could find a way to leave this place while bringing her along, that would be the best option.

"No, just leveling our shard up will not work. There are a few ways to make my core become a true core. The most straight forward is by defeating and absorbing rival cores. " Zephirah spoke up. "Completing the testing grounds can also gift us with dormant shards to absorb, and consuming other mana races works too." she added glancing towards Lilian who quickly disappeared behind Vanessa. "Unfortunately consuming other mana races doesn't give much of a boost towards becoming a true core. If I were to rely solely on that I would have to hunt down another forty or fifty wisps, fairies, or pixies."

"Though to be honest those who are able to gain a full core usually try to become the true winner. The difficulty of the task usually means that only a small number of the compet.i.tors are able to do it. Being so close to the ultimate prize, many are only willing to admit defeat and retreat when one of their opponent's strength stands out too much making them fear for their lives. If not it usually ends in a b.l.o.o.d.y war where no one retreats and only one survives." Elisia added.

I frowned. "How many shards do they have to absorb to become a true core?" I asked.

"Four, unless the shard has already absorbed one or two themselves." Elisia replied.

I shook my head. "So at most five shards can become cores if all the other compet.i.tors are killed off?" I asked.

Elisia stared at me for a moment then looked to Zephirah who just shrugged.

"No, twenty five is the number of cores placed at the start of the trial. The testing grounds are open to anyone capable enough to enter them, whether they were initially a contestant or not. The dormant cores are a normal reward for the tests. Which not only allows the compet.i.tors to reach the level of true core without killing any of their compet.i.tion, but also swells the numbers of dungeons in the trial. Moderators will not bother anyone linked to an established dungeon, no matter when it was formed." Elisa replied. "The smallest reward from the overseer is too much of a temptation. Many people will enter the trial in hopes of becoming compet.i.tors in that way, or by eliminating the master of a dungeon and seizing it for themselves. The reward for surviving a month is given to whoever controls the dungeon after it has been established for a month, not for controlling the dungeon for a month."

"Well that is good to know." I replied while sighing. Seemed like I would have a lot more trouble coming my way.

"Sure, but no matter which path you want to take, we have to prepare, or we won't even make it through the first month." Zephirah spoke up.

I nodded. "That is true, but one last question." I said. "What is the difference between the shard and a full core?" I asked.

"A shard can only create a dungeon here where the ambient mana of the world is very high. A full core absorbs mana from the void between worlds so they can create a dungeon on any world, even the dead worlds in the outer circle." Elisia replied.

I nodded then looked towards the blue gra.s.s. My mind was racing with different thoughts, but knowing more about the trial reinforced my need to focus on the expansion and the floors of my dungeon. We needed the defense. As to the rest? I would consider it once I had secured our location to the best of my abilities. Thankfully after the test with the capture stone there were more options available to me now.

"Elisia, I need to expand the dungeon and redesign the layout. Do you mind waiting until afterwards before we discuss your goals?" I asked the wolf.

"It is fine, there is no rush." Elisia replied. Oddly I felt she seemed relieved.

"We will have to wait till tomorrow for that." Zephirah spoke up.

"Why?" I asked.

"I will have to synchronize her personal wolf gem when I am synchronizing the serpent gem. Elisia will be affected by the synchronization so talking will probably be difficult for her. It would be better if she rests." Zephirah explained.

I didn't feel any signs that Zephirah was lying so I just nodded. There didn't seem to be a rush so it should be fine.

"Jason." Vanessa said moving to my side and then wrapping her arms around mine and hugging it close to her.

"Hmmm?" I asked back in reply, her appearance and close proximity robbing me of any words better a.s.sociated with communication.

"I am not trying to be a…." Vanessa said sounding obviously distressed.

Her tone snapped me out of my daze. "Its fine." I replied. "We can think about that after we have found a way to guarantee your family's safety." I told her then sent a glare towards Lilian who just shrugged at me.

I wanted to rebuke the little fairy, but I had no idea what to say. She was right, if this was supposed to be my harem, it sucked, and not in a fun way. Then again I always thought of myself as a one woman kind of man. Though I can't say I didn't fantasize about the idea of a three or moresome. I just never thought it would be feasible in the long term.

So I was a bit glad that things were this way as I wasn't sure how I would handle things if I was able to sleep with all three of them. I wanted to ignore the issue, but I knew that I couldn't. Zephirah would eventually reach a size that would allow us to be more intimate, and if Elisia was calling me her mate, I would guess that she too would eventually be able to take a form that would allow us to be intimate. This meant I would have to deal with the issue eventually, but not now. Right now I had other things to do.

"Zephirah let's get to work." I said trying to push out the distracting thoughts.

"Sure, where did you want to start?" Zephirah asked.

"Let's get the expansion out of the way, then we can turn this floor into an arctic floor." I replied.

"What about the third?" Zephirah asked.

"Leave it normal for now, I still need somewhere to grow the other crops the company wants. At least until we get a hold of some better crops." I replied.

"When would that be?" Elisia asked curiously.

"Not until after we solve Vanessa's issue." I replied.

"Then I hope it will be sooner than later, I am curious to see what my mate is capable of." Elisia responded.