Maria looked at me, her concern clear, so I forced a smile on my face. "Success," I said, trying not to show my exhaustion too much.
"Are you feeling alright?" she said. "It's still not too late. We can find a way to—" she started.
I cut her off. "No need, everything is perfect," I said. "We have done this for a reason. Now, why don't you go and talk with Eleanor before they start panicking about the disappearance of the gate," I said.
"And, where did it go?" she asked. "Closed?"
"Unfortunately, no," I said. "I just shifted it to the fifth floor, so if they try to enter, they will end up in the middle of the swamp. Hopefully, the mist and the corrosion aura would slow them down and give us a chance to attack." She opened her mouth, her curiosity obvious. But, she managed to hold herself back when I raised my hand. "Talk with Eleanor first while I catch my breath…"
"Are you alright," she asked again.
"Good, just exhausted," I muttered even as I took a step toward the nearest rock, which turned into a stumble. The exhaustion must be worse than I realized. Maria still looked worried. "Don't worry. I have felt the same when I pushed myself using Meditation," I said to her.
Her expression showed that it was not the best explanation. "You almost killed yourself while playing with Meditation. Was that supposed to make me feel better?"
"Not that time," I said. "I tried to reverse the flow when I almost killed myself. Exhaustion was from when I experimented on ways to push it further."
She looked even more worried.
I paused for a moment, realizing that I wasn't making a particularly compelling case by listing all the different ways I hurt myself while experimenting with Meditation. "Please," I added. "I just need a minute to rest. I can always signal to you if I need you to return urgently."
It didn't prevent her from putting her hand on my temples and sending another wave of mana through my body. In any other situation, it would have been rude, but I could see that she did it from a place of care, so I held my tongue. She pulled back, her frustrated silence showing that she wasn't able to find anything. "I'll be back in a minute. Do nothing," she warned.
I chuckled even as I waved at her, and watched her fly away faster than I had ever seen her.
Despite everything, it was good to have friends that worried about me.
I closed my eyes for a moment as I sat on the rock. Not to meditate, as the last thing I wanted was to activate a skill as the exhaustion washed over me. No, I just wanted to catch my breath … though even that was a bit of a misnomer.
The type of exhaustion I felt had no physical implications. I felt like I could run for hours, and work on the forge even longer. But, the prospect of using Meditation to refresh my mana felt like an impossible chore.
I wanted to call it mental exhaustion, but it wasn't exactly that either. I was familiar with that, often when I locked myself in an office to deal with a particularly complicated problem. It left me feeling depleted and exhausted, but what I was feeling seemed to be something more fundamental.
I wondered whether it was more about the bond itself, or if changing the gate took more from me. Though, my curiosity wasn't enough to make me repeat the attempt, not before I started to feel better.
If I started to feel better.
I took deep breaths, wishing that the situation allowed me to sleep. Unfortunately, that was not exactly an option under the circumstances. We would still be attacked soon, and even with all the advantages afforded by the fifth floor, what awaited us was not an easy battle.
I wished that I could just remove the gate and turn the dungeon into some kind of a secret demesne, but the brief impression I got when I switched the door told me that it was impossible.
As I pondered on that, Maria returned, accompanied by Eleanor. "Are you alright? You look terrible?" Eleanor greeted.
I chuckled. "You don't look so good yourself. Did someone pay you to swipe a chimney?"
Eleanor turned to Maria. "He must be in a really bad state to make such a horrible joke," she said.
"What a burn," I chuckled, looking at the state of her armor as I did that. It was easy to make those jokes with her state being that strong.
"How are you feeling?" Maria asked.
"Better now that I was able to catch my breath. The exhaustion is here, but it's not getting worse. I feel like it's about changing the location of the dungeon gate rather than our meddling with the connection itself. Feels like it impacts the body exactly the way Meditation does."
"Directly in the soul?" Maria said, looking alarmed.
I paused. "Soul?" I asked.
"Well, it's common knowledge, right?" Maria said. "Meditation has nothing to do with the body. Ergo, it's done by the soul."
"In a way, yes," I agreed, swallowing about a hundred arguments I was ready to deliver about the existence of the soul, especially when it came to such a simplistic conclusion regarding it, but I held back. It was a fun discussion to have when we had hours to kill, not when we were trying to come up with emergency plans to defend ourselves against a potentially overwhelming enemy. "We better decide on what to do. Unless, of course, we think that the fifth floor will be enough to dissuade them from attacking."
Their matching frowns answered my rhetorical question. "If it was a raid for profit, it would have," Eleanor started.
"But, you don't deploy ascended warriors to make a profit," Maria completed. "Not to a location ."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"It takes a fortune to make someone ascend, and sending them to battle leaves them vulnerable to enemy assassinations. Also…"
"We don't know why, but some ascended are reluctant to act while others are happy to fight every day," Eleanor added. "There's a difference between ascension methods, but we don't know much. They keep that information secret."
"I thought your family had ascended people," I asked.
"We do," Maria admitted. "But, my situation is a bit complicated. They are not exactly lining up to reveal secrets," she admitted, then made a general gesture. I nodded, understanding her point. If it wasn't for her 'complicated' situation, she wouldn't have been on the outskirts, trying to operate a low-grade dungeon in the first place after reaching her level limit.
"So, the ascended warriors are here for revenge, meaning I have screwed up royally when I killed that mage," I said.
"No," Maria said. "The fact that they deployed someone like that alone means that eventually, they would have deployed similar forces. At least, this way, we're not caught surprised."
I appreciated her statement, even though it was not an honest assessment of the situation. "Well, let's look at the positive," I said.
"There's one?" Eleanor asked, chuckling.
"Of course. Intentional or not, we crossed the Rubicon. At this point, we are committed to defending ourselves, which means there's no point hiding every little secret."
"I don't get it," Eleanor said.
I paused. "First, a question. What's the force any of the city lords could send to such a distant location without risking a potential attack from their opponents," I said.
Maria paused. "Tough call," she said. "I'm sure, if they are determined, they can easily mobilize a dozen ascended mages and warriors, something like a couple thousand elites without risking themselves. Maybe more. I'm not exactly familiar with the highest echelons of power."
I frowned. "Well, that's a bit more than I had expected, but still. Do you think they would commit to it if there was a risk of losing that force?"
"No," she replied quickly. "Especially not to a mana-dead location where most of the advantages of their ascended mages would be blunted. No matter what, it's not a small commitment."
"That's our silver lining," I said, unable to hold back a smile. "If we can defeat a force that has already committed multiple ascended warriors, it'll be enough to signal to them that tangling with us is not a safe idea. Especially since they have to travel a long distance and leave themselves exposed to attacks from the other forces."
Maria looked excited at my description, quick to realize the advantages of the situation, as we had discussed several ways to leverage the excess metal production into a mini-industrial revolution.
Eleanor didn't seem to be as quick. "Would no longer hiding everything really matter that much," she asked, dubious.
Maria answered faster than me. "Oh, believe me. It'll be a game changer."
"It's fine to get excited, but first, we need to go to the fifth floor," I reminded them as I prepared to jump, but even the attempt to mobilize my Health to use the Fleeting Step sent a stab of pain through my whole being. A gasp escaped my mouth.
"It looks like someone has to carry me," I admitted, unable to prevent my blush.
Asking for a piggyback ride was a rather undignified request, but the situation was too urgent to allow pride to rule me.
As much as I wanted to blame Eleanor and Maria for their chuckles, I could not.