Shadowcroft Year 3 - Chapter Fifty-Two

The first part of Tet’s big surprise wasn’t that shocking?

No one had actually expected them to survive, much less beat Lou Shador and the entire Glow Brigade on the first day of the final round. It was unheard of. Usually, it took weeks to lure a prospective dungeon team to the location, and then the battle could go on for days or even weeks more. Honestly, everyone had expected Lou Shador to wipe them all out in hours. And if Logan and the other somehow managed to hold the masked dungeoneer at bay, everyone had expected to see Logan and company wage a long protracted defensive campaign before… you guessed it, dying horribly.

No one—not one person—had expected a total route on day one.

The second half of the surprise was a bit more pointed. Tet kindly informed them that, as a result, no one in the administration had actually prepared for an Intraschool Tournament victory party. Most of the schools were still in the middle of year-end exams, and it would take days if not weeks to prepare the Arena Suprema for any kind of celebration. Plus, there had been significant supply chain problems, given that so many dungeon cores had died during the competition. A record number, in fact. Which was saying something, given the dog-eat-dog nature of the dungeon school system.

Because no one had expected them to survive, much less win, everyone had just sort of written Thanrass off completely. There was no dungeon core lined up to protect the dungeon. They couldn’t just leave the node unprotected. It was a powerful connection to the Tree of Souls, and the Council of Dungeons was now busy looking for the perfect guardian to come and set up shop.

But until then, someone had to man the fort, and who better than Logan and his friends? After all, they had protected the node from an S-Class Crown Cultivator and his team. So the verdict was that Logan and his friends were going to have to wait to be crowned the victors and get their party. And they had no idea how their final exams were going to work, since supposedly, the tournament Finals was basically the ultimate test.

Good thing they won.

After filling them in, Tet wished them luck, and headed back to Shadowcroft, leaving them to mop up the bloody mess from the battle.

Logan and the others spent the next couple of days resetting both dungeons—real and fake—while Logan’s digestion pits continued to… well digest the dungeoneers. It was a slower process than usual since Lou Shador and the Glow Brigade were all powerful cultivators with an unnatural amount of Apothos stored away. It was certainly worth the effort, though, both because they were able to reclaim and cycle all of that Apothos and because Logan gained two—yes two—new abilities, thanks to his Muscle Memory and Arcane Memory features.

From Cruelli DeKill he received a physical ability called Unbreakable Blocker. When hit by a melee attack, the ability redirected twenty-five percent of kinetic force back at the attacker. Marko had taken to calling it the “Stop Hitting Yourself” aura. The best part was, it traveled with Logan—so anybody he inhabited would have the same skill.

From Edna of the Three Rings he received a magic ability called Telekinetic Warfare. With it, he could telekinetically bond with up to three weapons. The weapons would draw power from his core and fight on his behalf, so long as they stayed within line of sight of his guardian form.

It was the very same spell that Edna had used to control her three rings.

The Thanrass node turned out to be extremely powerful, and Logan used all that Apothos to make additional improvements to the dungeon. More traps for Treacle’s Candypunk Roller Rink of Madness.  more circus attractions for Marko’s Circus Disaster. More books for Inga’s Dewey Decimator System. Plus, they added an actual elevator to Chadrigoth’s Hellevator that took them to the ground level—or back up to the surface if they lost their nerve. It was always a good idea to give raiders an escape route once they realized they had zero chance of destroying the dungeon.

Logan also added extra fungi to the main arena, and a few mannequin waddlers and mannequin angels, which turned to be very unnerving. The dummies alone were creepy. Moldy mannequins covered in glistening mushrooms were exponentially more terrifying.

By the time they were finished, the arena truly was a fungal madhouse. It totally matched the kind of dungeons that Logan thought he’d be creating just three short years ago. To think, he’d gone from a weak little fungaloid to being a morel sovereign, with so many mushroom of mass destruction at his disposal. He loved it when he saw hard work paying off.

Not just hard work, though, but other principals as well—gratitude, acceptance, and service. And of course, esprit de corps. There was no way he’d have been successful without his friends.

Tet returned several days later and graciously took the hellevator down from the tailgate chamber to the main floor of the underground arena. She hurried up to the ring, where Logan was relaxing, sitting cross-legged on the mat in front of the repaired card table where the gems circled.

Tet frowned. “I need to speak to Inga. There has been an emergency. Where is she?”

<Inga, you have a visitor,> Logan sent, trying to maintain his focus as he cycled Apothos through his core using the Boundless Wheel Technique.

Inga responded at once. <Just re-shelving certain volumes that I wanted to add to the library on the nature of gladiators, arenas, and yes, your wrestlers. It seems Edna’s three-ring notebook generates information on its own.>

Inga wasn’t going to stop playing around with her new toy any time soon. Logan may have inherited Edna’s Telekinetic Warfare spell, but Inga had inherited her massively powerful notebook. It was kind of made for her. Logan honestly couldn’t think of a better prize.

Logan turned to the cat woman. “Inga will be down in just a sec.”

Chadrigoth teleported in, his new soul-sucking sword in its sheath. “Hey, Tet. What do you need from Inga?”

Tet shook her head, her whiskers turned down in what mimicked a frown. “I find it rather frustrating that I’m the messenger, but the entire school is so otherwise engaged. There is the victory party to plan. And our exams. And the audit.”

Right then, Logan knew what this visit was all about. The audit.

Tet pointed. “Nice sword. I’m assuming it has a name.”

Chadrigoth shrugged. “Not yet, though I’ve been playing with a few names. I got it when I ascended to A-Class. I’ve been calling it the Midnight Blade, but I don’t know if that fits. I think it needs to be something more… diabolical. The Soul Eater? Mournbringer? The Hell Hacker?”

Marko piped up. <We talking about the sword again? I still think the Meanie Blade is perfect. Or how about, the Spirit of Slash? Or maybe the Big Ouchie.>

Logan didn’t share any of those ideas. Marko was currently cleaning the bathrooms on his level, which were already sparkling.

Inga came flying down from her level, wings kicking up a small puff of dust as she landed “What is it, Tet? Is everything quite alright?”

Tet sighed and shook her head. “Professor Nekhbet sent me.”

The moth woman’s antennae went crazy. “Is Bart okay? Oh, is it his heart? He’s so excitable. He works so hard. Too hard, some might say.”

Tet raised a hand to forestall her. “No, nothing like that. But he had questions about a loophole in the tax code that’s two centuries old. Something about faded receipts.”

Inga’s face completely drained of color and lost all emotion. “I was going to read more about that. I didn’t… I didn’t have time. Bart needs me, doesn’t he?”

“I suppose he does,” Tet agreed, though she sounded very indifferent about the whole ordeal. “Rockheart would’ve come himself, but he’s currently overseeing first year cultivation exams. He said this was critical.”

Inga stood there, looking confused, until the gleam in her eyes hardened into steel. Her antennae pulled in tight. “No. I’m staying here. I’m done with the audit. I don’t care if I fail that class. I don’t care at all.” She marched back and forth across the ring, prowling like an angry lion. “They saddled me with an impossible task, and I killed myself to complete as much of it as I could. I am finished with that. Forever.

“Tell them I have a celestial node to protect with my friends. Next Monday, my schedule is free in the evenings. They can book an appointment with me.” She then thought twice. “No. Scratch that. The deadline is this Sunday at midnight, so I suppose Monday won’t work at all. Well, that’s not my problem,” she declared. “If I flunk out of school? So what. I’ve learned what I needed. I could easily take over my own dungeon.”

Chadrigoth nodded and a thoughtful expression flashed across his handsome, chiseled face. It almost looked like he had just made his mind up about something, though Logan wasn’t sure what.

Tet took one of Inga’s many hands in her and gave a firm squeeze of solidarity. “I understand. I will tell them what you have said.”

Inga blinked as her eyes glowed. “I… I… yes. Tell them. For the first time in my life, I am going to fail a class. I feel so free. More than that…”

Logan felt the shift in Inga’s core. Her gem, still floating above the pedestal, brightened like a sun going supernova as it spun around and around. The glow became blinding as her power doubled, then triple. She was ranking up and at an alarming rate. One rank. Two ranks. Three.

Inga laughed merrily, free of stress for the first time in ages. “Yes, I feel free and powerful! I don’t need to do everything perfectly! I don’t even need to do my best. Showing up and doing the right thing is all I ever really need to do. And rest. These past few days have been so… restful.”

Logan couldn’t agree more. They’d been ready for another dungeon team to come calling, but no one had shown up. It had been fun tweaking things, adding a flourish here, and a trap there. If this was going to be his life for the next millennia—just hanging out and guarding a celestial node with his friends—well, it would be a great life. And, like Inga said… it was very restful.

Tet’s smile brightened. It was kind of odd for the cat woman to show such elation. “I will pass along your message. However, I don’t think I shall be your last visitor. There was talk of moving the victory party to after the graduations. You might be here for another couple of weeks. I hope you don’t mind.”

Marko came ambling out of the elevator, pushing his cleaning cart, which Treacle had tricked out with all sorts of gadgets. Marko had modified his normal janitorial grays so they looked more mimeish—stripes, a red scarf, suspenders. That’s where his nametag was clipped. He was using less makeup these days, though he liked the little triangles under his eyes, done in black. “A couple more weeks here? I’m fine with that. As long as there’s a huge rager afterward. I’ve been drinking something called Faygo with my Markalos. Good guys. Good guys. It’s been fun. Have to say, they are way more fun than Steve.”

Tet bowed before Marko. “I would love to hear about this Faygo, but unfortunately I must return to Shadowcroft and deliver Inga’s message. The instructors were quite insistent on its importance.”

“I’ll escort you out,” Inga offered.

As the two left, and Treacle came down. He set down an orb and it immediately sprang into a chair. He sat down and with a switch of a lever, extended out a footrest. “This is the good life. Don’t need any more haikus. I embrace the peace.”

“You just did another haiku, bro,” Marko pointed out.

Treacle just smiled.

The party was pushed out another week. Logan didn’t care one bit. In nearly three years, this was the first true break they’d ever really been given. He was going to enjoy it.

Saturday morning, though, all of their professors from across the worlds showed up on their doorstep with clipboards in hand, ready to grade them for their final evaluations. The worst, by far, was Professor Suresh the Merciless. That rakshasa came with razor-sharp claws and an ax to grind. That ax had Logan’s name on it.