The Dao of Magic

11 - Tunnels

The tower is even more imposing in the pitch black of night. A pillar rising up into the dark void, just a shade lighter than the surrounding blackness. It must be cloudy tonight as no stars are visible and no moon is in sight. The streets are also empty. No night watch and especially no lanterns grace the dark streets. Works for me though, I don't enjoy being in public unless I planned it.

Part of my core is still puzzling out the language, methodically plodding through the data to form a dictionary and another part of my qi slowly seeps qi into the atmosphere to form a passive radar. Mana is still automatically turned into qi with every breath, but any progress will take years with the speed I'm currently gathering the stuff. My core is still extremely small and the tempering of my bones took quite a bit of liquid qi. Solid cores don't grow unless the rest of the core is filled with liquid qi and pressure can start building up. I smile to myself, this basically allows me to go wild and use all of it. Making a mana tornado in the middle of town seems like a very, very bad idea so why not use it all?

As I walk towards the stairs I stop. My qi net has reached the tower and finds nothing. My eyes open wide, this is not normal. I can see the tower right in front of me, but to my qi senses, there is nothing there. I focus on the area and realize that there is nothing there. Every physical place that the tower occupies registers as a hard vacuum to my spiritual sight. My eyes open even further in shock. This seems like one of the few high-level body cultivator training grounds I've been to before. Scanning with qi was useless there, so you needed to rely on your own physical senses in order to progress.

Sending out a thick wave of qi I sensed the exact same thing, nothing. Was there a spell of some sorts in place around the tower? I can't wait to find out! Now filled with enthusiasm I walk the stairs. I nearly stumbled on the steps because of the odd dimensions. It felt like the steps should be a little bigger? I shorten my stair going stride and nearly fall on my face. Now my steps are too small? This seems like a subtle barrier to entry.

I reach the top and look inside to opening. The doorway is square, about five by five meters with a swirling darkness inside. Keeping my senses peeled I take a step forward and plunge into the darkness.

⁂

Tess was currently in a right pickle. Those were her exact thoughts. Why she was thinking about fermented cucumbers why she was running for her life was anyone's guess. Cursing Noll in her heart for setting this up she pumps her feet like her life depended on it. Which it totally did.

Dungeon sneaks usually crawl around levels that they have no business being. Why would a monsters' fighting power matter if the entire plan is to avoid them entirely. If you have the fighting power of an angry kitten the difference between a level one goblin and an ancient dragon is not that important. If you are seen by either you need to run or you are dead.

'This time...'

Tess thinks.

'I might be in truly deep shit'

A small smirk still on her face she keeps pumping her legs, desperately looking around the roughly hewn cave for a hiding place. She glances backwards and immediately regrets that decision.

"AAAAARCH, WHY DO I KEEP MAKING MISTAKES TODAY"

She roars loudly. Stealth was out of the window the moment that guy Nik threw a potion on her. The pungent stench caused her face to pale immediately. She had been guiding the fucker through the first few levels to get to a shortcut. Their initial goal was medicine, and she knew a path that could get them to the precious resource in a few hours. A simple sneak through level one till five, hop through the level gap and climb down through six and seven followed by a wall climb and a drop down into the tenth level. Level ten has various monster- and plant habitats that have medicinal properties.