Dimensions Collide: Destiny Bond Chapter 39: Dungeon Dive

Chapter 39: Dungeon Dive

Fate was walking through the forest, looking for the pair of siblings. He was aware that they were ant to be training, but what he didn’t expect was for them to be resting under the shade of a tree. John had so kind of book in his hand, while Prota was taking a nap while using his legs as a pillow.

“...what are you guys doing?”

“Training,” John said. “Wanna join us?”

“This is the training you were talking about?”

“Yeah. It’s hard work, man.”

Fate just stared at John.

“I ca to deliver a ssage,” he said, forcing himself to ignore the situation at hand.

“A ssage?” John frowned.

“There’s a cover for our dungeon dive that we all need to know about.”

“Why do we need a cover for sothing like that?”

Fate sighed. The man could be so intelligent and yet so stupid at the sa ti.

“You just hit B-rank, John. Do you understand how strange your circumstances seem? It’s barely been any ti at all since you were an F-rank and… well, I’m sure you get the point, right? There has to be so semblance of reason here. Your actions are, well…”

“Reckless? Yeah, makes sense,” John shrugged. “I get it. So what’s the story we’ve made up?”

“The guild is sending us in to secure so artifacts.”

“...yeah, uh huh. I know what those are.”

Fate just sighed, hurriedly explaining before he turned to leave. Despite seeming to be in a hurry, he stopped one more ti, his voice taking on an audible tone of concern.

“Hey. I know you’ve proven yourself on more than one occasion, but dungeons are sothing else. Are you sure you’ll-”

John just waved the boy away. “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.”

Fate nodded and left, leaving John alone. He sat and watched the clouds blow by as a brisk wind blew through the trees, letting his mind go blank.

He wanted to just let loose, to not worry about things like [Plot], his mories, and all that other crap. To live a life as a normal guy, to et up with friends, have a al, share so laughs, work a job, and live day by day without all this psychological warfare.

Was that too much to ask for?

Well, it obviously was. Even he’d turned it down. He’d been given the option to live as a [Character] and nothing more, and he’d turned it down. Power was intoxicating, after all, but more than that, he had a strange attachnt to his identity.

He didn’t want to be anyone other than “John.”

“John. John.”

He snapped out of his trance and saw Prota staring up at him. The sun was noticeably lower in the distance. Just how long had he blanked out for?

“Oh, Prota. What’s up? You good?”

She nodded.

“What’s up?” he said, sitting up.

“John’s system. What is it?”

“...why are you asking that now?”

His system should just be a quality-of-life thing. Why did it keep coming up? He thought she would just ask sothing generic about it, maybe sothing about how to use it, but her next question made him freeze.

“Does John’s system talk?”

“...talk?”

“The system. Talks to ,” Prota explained. “It’s like it’s a person. Usually, the system is like ‘level up!’ but sotis… it talks to .”

John felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek. Prota’s system was talking to her? He racked his brain. There was one ti his system had talked to him, but that had been Zero speaking through it.

So who the hell was this?

“It’s not ,” Zero said preemptively. “I’m not doing anything.”

John frowned. “...Prota, what do these ssages look like?”

“Like a person is talking,” Prota said.

It was the exact sa explanation as before. It didn’t look like she was going to elaborate. She probably couldn’t.

John racked his brain. What? Who could be talking to her? The [Author]? No, that didn’t make sense. The [Author] wasn’t stupid enough to pull sothing like that, and besides, that’d only ever happened once, in a very roundabout way.

“I don’t know,” John finally said. “I don’t know Prota. I wish I did.”

He put his hand on Prota’s head and patted it slowly, staring up into the sky again.

“Does it matter?”

He felt her shake her head.

And that was the end of their conversation.

~~~

John and Prota had been given two weeks to train, but there was no way John was going to let Prota do any more work after what she’d just been through. So, as compensation, he let her run wild with whatever she wanted to eat.

Thankfully, this seed to be doing wonders for her mood. She looked even more energetic than before, although you wouldn’t have been able to tell by looking at her. She’d nod three tis instead of one, and she was bolder when asking for things. Her voice had a little more intonation to it, and his eyes were a little more open. She still looked half asleep, just… a little less so. It was enough, though—more than enough.

They could only play along for so long, though. The fateful day was coming up. John and Prota were tucking into bed early, ensuring a fresh start to their unknown adventure. This was highly unusual for John, who was more of a nocturnal animal than anything else. Still, he understood that, as a manaless human, his body would break down far faster than anybody else.

“I’ve read up a little bit. Dungeons are known to have mana beasts, so maybe you’ll get to learn the magic of a mana beast?” John said as he sat on his bed.

He’d never considered that. Prota’s [Soul Copy] was apparently at level two, whatever that ant, but he still knew relatively little about her power. It didn’t help that, of the two, he was the expert on the topic.

“Maybe we should ask Fate if he’d give you so of his mana…” John mused.

“...John,” Prota said quietly. “Why are you doing all this for ?”

John froze and sighed. He thought he wouldn’t have to talk about this again, but it seed her doubts weren’t so easily resolved.

“Prota. We went over this, like, a year ago. Seriously. You need to stop getting so hung up over these things.”

“But… can’t John do it faster alone? Why… why is John helping ?”

“...I don’t know,” John sighed. “I swear I told you this already. Does it really matter all that much? People don’t always have to be logical, you know? Are you worried? Is that it?”

Prota got quiet at that.

“Why do you keep thinking I’m gonna leave you or sothing? It’s fine, ok?”

But what happens when you have to choose again? What happens when it’s her or your goals?

The girl nodded and went to bed, but John was no longer tired.

She’d gone through a whole character developnt arc, literally. Shouldn’t she be working on sothing else right now? Why was she still afraid of losing him? He didn’t know. He hated it. He was supposed to know everything, be able to predict most things. That was his thing. That was how he survived. Prota was a [Character], after all. He was supposed to be able to [Read] a [Character]. That was his thing.

So what happened when his strongest trait was taken from him? How was he supposed to survive?

But you don’t need to just survive anymore. You have Prota. She can protect you.

Protect. What did it an in this scenario? Why had he asked her to do that? It’d created a hyperfixation that was either good or extrely bad for Prota. He didn’t need to be protected. He had [Plot Armour]- no, his [Resets]. Then what had he been thinking when he’d asked that?

“...maybe I am going insane after all.”

Zero popped in for a singular remark. “You were insane from the start.”

“Shut it.”

~~~

“Do you rember what a dungeon is, at least?”

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John had a bored look on his face as he listened to Fate’s explanation, but Prota was all ears. Finally, a dungeon. She’d only ever heard about them as a little child, but to think she was now strong enough to enter one…

“Dungeons are simply caves that contain a rare ore known as a dungeon or mana core. Simply put, they’re minerals that absorb and amplify the mana in the surrounding area. This leads to all sorts of mutations, like animals becoming mana beasts and ores turning into rare materials. Additionally, one can find artifacts, tools powered by incredible amounts of mana.”

“So we’re here to get artifacts?” John frowned.

“Yes. That, and the dungeon core.”

John’s ears perked up at this. Sothing felt off.

“The dungeon core? Wouldn’t that destroy the dungeon? How about the artifacts?”

Fate shook his head and sighed.

“The artifacts are not related to the dungeon. They were placed there long ago, and no one knows how they got there. They’re also not guaranteed to be in a dungeon. Which is why we’ll be leaving barehanded,” Fate said, emphasizing the last part.

“Piss,” John muttered.

“About the core, it needs to be removed every so often. If one remains in a dungeon for too long, the mana starts getting too strong, and the mutations beco a little extre. Look, do you really need a full explanation for all this?”

John frowned. “Are you just saying that because nobody knows how it works?”

“I guess,” Fate shrugged. “It’s not like science is a big thing in this world. The closest thing they have are magic towers, and they’re more focused on circles and spells than physical items.”

“Alchemists? Magical engineers?”

“Well, yeah, but… they’d rather improve what we have than dive into new territory.”

John let out an audible sigh. He’d been hoping to get a weapon more suited for this world than his guns, but it looked like that was now a dead plan.

“However, dungeons are still extrely dangerous. If left alone for too long, it’s possible for a dungeon to break, causing all of its mutated beasts to get out, and that’s a really bad thing. Scouts are paid handsoly to judge the dungeon's difficulty, and all they do is go in and out,” Fate explained. “So we better keep our guards up. Especially considering that there could be sothing worse than a monster inside.”

Prota nodded and gripped her staff. John yawned.

“Let’s go in already,” he muttered. “I wanna go back to sleep.”

“For a guy who doesn’t have a mana core, you sure are confident,” Fate muttered.

He took his papers out of his cloak and presented them to the guard, who scanned them before passing them back to Fate.

“...all good. You guys can head on in. Will your mana beast be going in with you?” he said, visibly bored.

Fate nodded.

“Good luck,” the guard said, giving a lazy salute.

Fate returned the salute in full and went further into the caves.

“What were you, so kind of soldier?” John said quietly as he caught up.

“Focus.”

The dungeon had torches lining the walls at the start, but as they went further and deeper in, the only light was from a few glowing crystals and Fate’s fireball. Still, no monsters appeared. No mutated beasts, or even regular beasts, for that matter.

“... nothing’s happening. Hey, isn’t that tiring?” John said, pointing to Fate’s fireball.

“It’s nothing.”

“Put that away,” John sighed as he pulled out a flashlight. “Save your mana for sothing unexpected.”

“What the- where did you get that from? Hey, you can’t just pull sothing like that out of nowhere!”

“Shh,” John shushed, flicking the switch on. “Just accept it.”

Fate turned to Prota, who just shrugged. At this point, there was no point in trying to rationalize what John did. It was simply too much work.

“What are you doing here anyway? Isn’t it safer for you to just wait?” Fate said, extinguishing his spell. “Are you sure you should be coming along?”

“I’m, mm…” John mused, putting his finger on his chin. “I’ll be moral support or sothing.”

“Moral support?”

“Like a mascot. I’ll cheer you guys on or sothing. Big help, right?”

“...no, but really. Isn’t it worse for Prota if you’re here?”

Fate expected John to answer, but surprisingly, it was Prota who shook her head.

“John stays,” she said quietly.

That was that. For a little while, they kept walking, but nothing happened. There was nothing. No traps, no forks, no monsters, just a single path lit by John’s flashlight.

“Are… are dungeons supposed to be this easy?” John worried as they went deeper. “I thought you were emphasizing how hard this was supposed to be.”

Nothing was happening.

“...I don’t know,” Fate said, a bead of sweat dripping down his face. “I’ve never been in one of these.”

“I thought you knew everything.”

“Huh? John, these things are common knowledge! You’re learning these things because you’re the weird one here!”

“...so the dungeon being this empty could be normal?”

“I guess?”

John just sighed. “So what do we-”

He didn’t get to finish as Prota pushed him out of the way with a gust of wind, summoning a fireball and blasting a wolf that’d leapt out of the shadows. John gulped as he stared at the dead beast on the ground. That’d been closer than he liked.

“Heads up,” Fate muttered as growling could be heard from every direction. He slowly unsheathed his sword. “Shadow wolves. These guys can be tricky.”

Prota’s eyes lit up as she took her staff off her back, imdiately summoning a volley of icicles. Fate similarly closed his eyes and did a quick chant as a ring of fireballs appeared in the air.

“...you have to chant to cast spells?” John frowned.

Everyone had always been chanting, but he’d never paid any attention to it. He wasn’t sure why this was the one ti he’d noticed, but it did seem a little strange.

“Your sister is the crazy one,” Fate said, still looking at the wolves. “Normally, it takes a two second chant to cast just one fireball.”

“What? Why?”

“You want a lesson, or you want us to clear this first?” Fate yelled. “Are you gonna help?”

John nodded as he took his bag off his back, then pulled out his rifle. Fate stared with wide eyes.

“You’ve had that this whole ti?”

“Ready when you are. I’ve seen creatures dodge magic. I’ve yet to see a creature dodge a bullet.”

Fate’s eyes widened. He was curious. How much damage would modern weaponry from Earth do?

Unfortunately for him, John got up and sat against a wall, propping up his gun beside him.

“Well. Good luck.”

“Good luck?!” Fate exclaid. “You can fight! What are you doing?”

“Fight?” John shrugged. “What are you talking about?”

“You were just talking about-” Fate started, but was unable to finish as the wolves began to attack.

They weren’t particularly fierce, but there were a lot of them. Fate was still frustrated, chanting as he let out an imnse wave of fire that obliterated the wolves before him. While he took longer to cast, his spells were also of much higher quality than Prota’s. It was enough firepower that Prota could focus on standing back and protecting John, catching any stray wolves that sensed that John was the weakest prey of the group.

John hadn’t been planning on fighting, but unfortunately, there were others who disagreed with his ideals.

Kit leapt over to him in fox form and began batting at his face with her paw.

“Wh- what the-“

The fox kept hitting him.

“Really? You want to fight?”

Kit leapt down and looked John in the eyes. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but the general ssage was pretty obvious.

“Seriously… fine.”

He picked up his rifle, checked the magazine, then pressed the stock firmly against his shoulder.

“So much for keeping the genre correct. Should I have used a sword…? Nah, too much work.”

There was a click as the safety went off.

“Prota!” he called out. “Cover your ears!”

She looked back, saw the gun, and imdiately understood. He’d shown it to her once, and the sound wasn’t exactly pleasant. It was like hearing a cannon go off. Well, not really, but to soone who had no idea what a gun was, it was close enough.

“Here we go.”

Thirty bullets. That was way more than enough, considering Fate had already taken care of seven of the wolves, with Prota having killed three more.

“One.”

There was a loud crack, and then silence. The wolves shrank back, growing, but it seed they were wary now.

“Huff… huff… why didn’t you do that earlier?” Fate growled. “Was it difficult to do or sothing?”

“No,” John shrugged. “How many are left?”

Fate shook his head. “That’s the problem with these guys. From what I’ve read, they co in packs of thirty or more.”

“Thirty?!”

“It’s ridiculous, yeah, but it’s easy for them. They’re called shadow wolves for a reason. Their bodies can blend into the shadows, making movent and space a non-issue. It also makes it so that we have no clue how many there are. There could be none. There could also be more.”

“Damn. That sucks, huh? Well-”

John was about to say sothing when he felt a tug.

“Prota?”

“Twenty one.”

“Twenty- what?”

“Twenty one,” Prota repeated, as if that were supposed to make sense.

Thankfully, to John, it did make sense.

“What are you- right, they’re mana beasts!”

How had he not thought of this? Well, in his defence, how was he supposed to know these things were mana beasts? That didn’t matter right now. What mattered was that this was a huge advantage.

“Prota. Right now, can you absorb their mana?”

Prota thought for a few seconds before nodding.

“Good. We’ll cover you. Fate?”

“Sounds like a plan,” the boy nodded.

Prota closed her eyes. She had to focus. There were a lot of targets here, but she could do it. She felt the mana around her and extended her tendrils. This ti, they felt like they were more. She plunged a tendril into each core, ignoring the yelps and cries coming from the battle that was still raging on.

“It’s working!” she heard Fate yell. “Keep doing it!”

She could feel the mana flowing into her core, a dark and shifting feeling filling her body. With one last push, she pulled out, taking as much as she could with her.

“Prota,” John said hesitantly. “Your hair turned… black?”

Prota looked down to see that her hair had indeed turned black. However, just as she did so, it slowly shifted back to white, and within seconds, it was as if nothing had happened at all.

As soon as her hair was back to normal, images and feelings flashed through her head. Spells, how to use them, how they’d been used, pouring into her body as if she’d used them all her life. It was as if she’d grown up with shadow magic. It wasn’t as if she’d learned spells, like fireball or icicle. It was more as if she’d understood the fundantals of shadows. As if the basics of how to manipulate them had been implented into her body.

She focused, and her body began to shimr, as if she were a mirage and not of physical form. That was the most she could do at the mont, but it was enough to distract the wolves, who seed to be a little more cautious now.

“Hey. You’re gonna let her do all the work?” Fate called out, slashing away.

John grumbled, rolling his eyes as he raised his gun, and the cave was filled with a symphony of noises once again.

~~~

“Haah.. thirty one. That’s a ridiculous amount,” John sighed.

The wolves had been significantly weakened after Prota had absorbed their mana. They had been forcibly pulled out of the shadows, and every ti they tried to go back in, they were only able to hide for a little bit before popping back out.

“It was close,” Fate admitted.

“Close, my ass. You could’ve done more.”

“Your sister had it in the bag,” Fate shrugged. “Honestly, she’s incredible. I’ve heard of Soul Steal before from Kit, but to see it in action like that is amazing.”

Prota was pleased by the complints, but she was still busy figuring out this power. It felt strange. Now that her [Soul Copy] was level two, the magic she could learn off the bat was of a much higher level than before. It was strange, though. Unlike Elfin or Draco, she hadn’t acquired “spells.” She had nothing like a fire arrow or basic wind manipulation.

The feeling was very foreign. It was like when she’d made the Blossom of Ice or learned magic for the first ti. It was as if she were taking mana and shaping it to her will, rather than using spells that already existed. Absorbing the mana of the shadow wolves had simply shown her how.

“Hey, and that gun. Where the hell did you get sothing like that? The flashlight, too. Where are you pulling these items out of?!” Fate exclaid.

“Secret :)”

“What is that sound?! How are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” John said innocently.

“It’s like you’re smiling without actually smiling!”

Prota looked up to see John and Fate arguing over sothing and sighed. She ignored them and went back to thinking. These powers of hers. Where did she get them from? Why had they been given to her? And was she ready? She wasn’t expecting an answer, but sohow, one ca anyway.

[Good job. You’ve figured it out on your own, now. I’m gonna be going back to sleep. Don’t wake up unless you really need help, got it?]

“W-wait! Who are you…”

The ssage disappeared before she could finish, but she couldn’t even bring it up to anyone. John didn’t know what it was. Who else would? Co to think of it, had she ever figured out who that voice from the Cave of Trials was?

Did it matter?

“Thank you,” she whispered.

She didn’t know what or who this mysterious thing was, but she wouldn’t have made it this far without it.

“Co on, Prota!” John called out as the group got ready to leave.

Prota stood up and nodded.

She would figure it out. Soday.

~~~

“Doctor. They’ve entered the dungeon, just like you said.”

“And you’re sure the preparations are done?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then they’ll make it out?”

“Unknown, sir. We can’t risk having soone follow them in. All we know is that they entered.”

Doctor spun around in his chair and faced the trembling ssenger.

“You know what I hate more than anything? Idiots. You’re all idiots. You couldn’t even get one man to follow them?”

Tentacles shot out from Doctor’s lab coat, holding the man up by the neck.

“H-hey, hold on, don’t-”

There was a sickening crunch as Doctor snapped the man’s neck. The body fell to the ground, and the outside guard ca in.

“Clean it up,” Doctor grumbled, twirling a pen around.

“So incompetent… you really do have to do everything on your own.”