World Sphere - 80 - Gareth Manipulated Again

Chapter 80: Gareth Manipulated Again

Gareth wore his new white boots and was practically prancing around as we gathered to walk through the portal to the second level. With Gareth’s feet being so large, and the boots sizing to him since he opened the chest, it was going to be practically impossible to sell the boots.

I had received a variety of items from the hobgoblin, guards, and shaman to store in my space. It was everything Ullmark said could sell for a silver coin or more.

The bee wing cloak on the shaman was intact but stained with blood. I just needed to pick it up, cast my cleanliness spell, and then add it to my storage. It looked like shimmering, translucent veined silk. It was hard to believe it only sold for a few gold, but Ullmark said it became extremely fragile once it left the dungeon. 

Gimble reminded us our time was coming to a close, and we needed to enter the gate to the second level. Ullmark took the lead, “Once you enter the gate, you need to turn around and exit. This will bring you back to the entrance outside the dungeon. Do not tarry. There are about a dozen gates within the maze….”

Gareth interrupted, eager to share his knowledge. “There are 13, and the gate to the third floor, so I guess that is 14.”

Ullmark nodded. “Thirteen gates to get out of the dungeon. Since there are two other teams in the maze currently, I doubt they are covering all the gates. We enter as a group and exit as a group.” Everyone nodded. I entered first with my lightning reflexes spells in overdrive, everyone else a step behind.

I emerged into a long corridor with rust-brown walls and a high ceiling. Everyone else came through and looked quickly before exiting back through the gate. I lingered and listened. I could hear a pig squeal and the faint ringing of weapons. Gimble was at my shoulder; everyone else had left. I looked at him, “No ambush.”

He nodded. “Still, it is odd someone is buying the time slot right before ours. Maybe they just like this time every seventh day,” He shrugged. “We should get going before the others worry.”

I nodded and looked around one last time. A soft light seemed to emanate from the red stone. I turned and entered the gate alongside Gimble. We had only been a minute behind the group, but they still looked relieved to see us. 

I spoke cheerfully, “Good work, everyone. You all earned your bonus for the week. Get back to the Shiny Platinum, and then you can all party in Gareth’s room.” Gareth looked at me sharply, and I smiled. Gareth was a bit of a slob, and since he didn’t have access to my cleanliness spell, I was guessing his room had deteriorated in the few days he had resided in it.

I followed behind the lively group as Ullmark fell back and started talking with me. “Storme, you have a pretty good team. I will find out what I can about the other dungeon team during the week and let you know before our next delve.”

“Ullmark, that would be good. I don’t think I have too many enemies that could facilitate running a dungeon team. But I think maybe Loriel might be drawing some to me. If that dungeon team was targeting us, I almost want to confront them and eliminate them,” I said, speaking my mind. 

Ullmark grimaced, “One of the reasons I like dungeons is you always know what you are getting. There are rarely any surprises,” he chuckled darkly. “I say that, and today we got one.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Do you want to go to the delver’s guild hall and report the new shaman variation with me?”

I was actually mildly sore and recovering from using overdrive with my lightning reflexes spell. Even with healing, I felt the fatigue. I thought for a long minute before agreeing. “Yes. It will be good to see how the process works.” 

We discussed the team as we walked, in particular Gareth, and Ullmark didn’t seem worried if Gareth seduced every woman on the team. “It is typical on delve teams, and almost unavoidable that team members grow closer fighting.” I looked at him questionably. He waved his hands, “I am an old man and I have long since outgrown urges. If they do pop up, there is a good brothel on the north side of the merchant district.”

The Adventurer’s Hall was a blue-gray stone building. It had a large taproom with tables set for cards, dice, and other pastimes. Nine men and three women played and drank when we entered. They just glanced at us before returning to their games. Ullmark leaned into me, “All familiar faces, so no one here is from the team entering before us.”

I followed Ullmark to a side room, where a very bored middle-aged man read a book. Ullmark addressed him respectfully. “Guildmaster Sawyer. I have come to see if a dungeon evolution has been noted.”

The man put down his book and quickly focused on us. “Ullmark, what do you have for me?”

Ullmark took a seat across from the man, and I joined him. Ullmark started, “The Frost Vault. First floor. The shaman supporting the dungeon boss used a new spell. It was a large ball of ice,” He used his hands to demonstrate the basketball size. “It had good speed, and the shaman cast two within three seconds. It knocked two of my team down. One with a strike at the back of his head.”

Sawyer reclined in his chair. He started rocking in his chair and thinking. “Ice ball spell? That is interesting.” The guild master was thinking, and Ullmark tapped his desk to get his attention. “Yes, it is a new development. Twenty gold once it is confirmed. I am just thinking that the new team from the capital had a member who cast that same spell in our tap room not two days ago.” 

Ullmark inhaled sharply. “Do you think he is seeding? That type of quick turnaround for a seed isn’t unheard of.” I looked confused, so Ullmark explained to me, “You can help a dungeon evolve by leaving items created in other dungeons. Once the dungeon resets, the dungeon absorbs the items left behind and can incorporate them. It is not typically done and considered illegal in Skyholme because evolutions can be unpredictable.” The guild master was nodding in agreement.

I asked, “What about items not created in a dungeon? Can the dungeon use those?”

The guild master responded to my question after examining me. “No, but they can use them as chest rewards. It has to do with dungeon theory. Items made entirely from raw aether can be broken down and understood by a dungeon. Items not made with aether can just be stored and used later by the dungeon. I could lecture you for hours on dungeon theory, but that’s something you should have learned at the Dungeon Academy.” I stayed quiet, as he didn’t need to know I was still a first-year at the Academy in Hen’s Hollow.

We left the guild hall, and I realized that I might be able to seed a dungeon with metal I created from my metal creation ability since it was entirely formed from aether. Maybe even weapons I artificed. It sounded like some interesting experiments for the future. Maybe I could get the dungeon to offer up mithril coins?

I told Ullmark he could use the reward money to buy my delve tokens. He nodded, and we headed back to the Shiny Platinum. Gareth’s room was next to mine, and it was clear there was a party going on inside as servers brought out drinks, burgers, and fries. I thought about joining them but noticed Bylura when the doors opened. That probably meant Loriel was inside too. I paused and peeked as the server left. Loriel, Cilia, and Leda were inside with the whole delve team. 

I planned to return after emptying my storage space. I went to the brewery on the second floor to drop off the honey first and found Mera, Fera, and Lachlan. At first glance, it seemed Lachlan was trying to impress the twins with something he had brewed. As I got closer, he was touting his alertness potion. 

“Mera, how is the brewing coming?”  I asked, disrupting the exchange. 

Mera put on a big smile and handed me a glass that was about half full. I sniffed it and tasted it. It was a mild brew with no sour taste. “How is it?” she asked hopeful and beaming. 

“It is good. You are getting better. I should have the special yeast soon so you can brew the Frost Mead,” I said, handing her back the glass. “You should really head to the party. No matter how you feel about Gareth, the room is packed with your friends.”

Fera sighed. “Why does his sense leave him every time he sees another woman?”

I didn’t like being put on the spot to defend Gareth’s promiscuous behavior. He was my best friend, and I gave it a half-hearted attempt anyway. “He will grow out of it. He is just learning how to deal with his new fame.”

Mera pushed forward, elbowing Lachlan away who had rested his hand on her shoulder. “Why are you not like Gareth?” The twins were focused on me, and I was not going to escape answering.

“I feel like I am too young for such pursuits. I have so many things I want to learn, and I feel like I don’t have enough time. I am running the Shiny Platinum for Callem and Wynna and….,” I waved my hand at the brewery, “I keep adding more to my plate.” I was going to say more, but Mera interrupted.

“You should have more fun, Storme. You work harder than anyone I know. Whenever we walk through the city, we constantly overhear people talking about the restaurant and the paintings,” Fera said excitedly.

Mera said, “Callem and Wynna made a wise choice trusting you with their fortunes.” She smiled uncertainly, adding, “Any woman would be lucky to catch your eye, Storme.” Lachlan appeared upset, but I had no interest in Mera.

There was an awkward silence, and I finally said, “We should all go to the party. I just have to empty my storage.” I watched as Lachlan and the twins left. I then removed the honey-filled wax cells, descended the stairs to the general warehouse, and emptied all the items Ullmark told us to take. I kept the bee wing cape, thinking it might be a nice birthday gift for Freya.

I retired to the third floor and found the party in full swing. Even Ennet was here with Freya. Ennet had a glass of wine and was talking with Ullmark. Lalchan was tied to Mera’s hip, following her around the room like a puppy dog. Gareth was in the center of a sofa with Sammie on one side and Loriel on the other. He was clearly intoxicated.

Gareth noticed me. “Stormy!” Gareth smiled and stood. “We were talking about your heroics today! I was unconscious, but Talia said you were incredible.”

Talia had a sneaky smile as she detailed the fight. “When the shaman came out late, I tried to distract him with an ice lance, but he was shielded. Gareth was about to kill the guard he was fighting, and the mage slammed a ball of ice into the back of his head, knocking him out.” Gareth blushed in embarrassment. “Then the mage attacked Storme. Storme was thrown back with a second ice ball, and I thought we were in trouble.”

Talia then described how desperate things had been before I got up with a very angry look on my face and proceeded to cut through the goblins. I killed the shaman by chopping off his legs, then I sank my sword into the back of the hobgoblin’s neck. At the end of the retelling, everyone cheered and clapped.

A server from the restaurant entered and brought more drinks. Another server arrived with buckets of fries and an array of sauces. The party went on, and I moved to the kitchen counter to sit. The kitchen and sitting room were essentially one large room, so I could see everyone from my resting spot.

Loriel and Gareth were whispering intensely to each other, and I groaned inwardly. If Loriel couldn’t reach me directly, she was going for Gareth. The interaction was not helping Fera’s mood, and she left with her sister shortly after. I just groaned because I knew I would be the one dealing with the fallout. Cilia came over and leaned on the counter next to me.

“Hey, Storme. Your restaurant is good. Are you planning to add anything to the menu?” Cilia asked softly.

“Maybe. I don't want it to get too complicated, since one of the benefits is being able to process orders quickly,” I replied coolly.

Cilia said, “Well, if you are taking requests, you know Leda and I have some ideas,” she advised. They had been at the farm with us for months, had plenty of time to sample my cooking, and had favorites. When I didn’t respond, Cilia continued, “You should come for a ride on the skyship. Loriel named it Starry Sprinter. You would like it. You can bring Freya.”

Celia looked good—healthy and happy. She was speaking with enthusiasm and vitality. Her constant scowl had faded and was almost unnoticeable. I looked at her and said, “I am glad you are happy, Cilia. But I think I will keep my distance from Loriel.”

After some silence, Cilia confided, “Gareth has agreed to escort Loriel to the Triumvirate Sowing Festival.”

My eyes widened. I had only one word: “Idiot.” I could clearly see it now—the drunken smile on Gareth’s face and Loriel’s closeness. She had manipulated him. I thought I had warned him, but Gareth wouldn’t listen to warnings if a woman was involved. His common sense evaporated instantly.

I need to talk with Gareth privately about this as I didn’t want to yell at him in public. It shouldn’t be too hard to convince him to cancel with Loriel. I talked with Leda, Lana, and Gimble for a while before taking Freya to my room so she could sleep before we boarded the skyship to Hen’s Hollow tomorrow.

Freya was exhausted, and I showed her to the spare room in my apartment. “Storme, your furniture is so much nicer than the other apartments,” Freya said sleepily.

“You can thank Isla for that. Now get some sleep," I said as I tucked in Freya, who quickly drifted off in the cozy bed.

I went down to the restaurant, planning to make myself something. The restaurant was still open for service. Only about a quarter of the tables were occupied because it was extremely late—or early, depending on your point of view. I asked a server why they were still open. She told me we stayed open as long as there were customers. Usually, the restaurant closed when the bakery opened in the morning.

I talked with some cooks and servers, and they had enough staff to stay open, and no one seemed upset about the additional hours. Working half a day was normal, so the long hours didn't bother them, especially with the pay they were getting. I made a burger myself instead of having the cooks do it for me.

I was eating in the dining room when I was surprised that Remy came downstairs to collect coins. I waved him over and said, “Remy, how has it been going?”

Remy looked tired but happy, “I just logged your dungeon harvest. What do you want me to do with the black steel weapons, leathers, aether crystals, and rough furniture?”

“I think everything will be sold. I kept the aether crystals I wanted. You can hire someone to come in and haul it away for sale,” I said, waving off the problem. Remy looked relieved. He had been extremely busy. I was about to ruin his day as I produced the book on building the Wind Splitter.

“This book,” I said, placing it on the table and tapping it, “is a manual for building a skyship. I need someone to help with its construction. Please review it and let me know if you're interested by the next 7th day.”

Remy took the book and opened it. He was soon engrossed in the images. I ate my burger and left while Remy didn’t even notice me leaving, so I assumed it would be easier than expected to get him to help. I returned to my room and checked on Freya before going into my own room and setting up my alarms, arcane locks, and a privacy screen.

I created some mithril and then performed my daily aether core exercises. Getting my aether to spin in a vortex required a lot of focus. You needed to keep the aether moving at a constant speed. It was frustrating, and I started trying different things. Most times, I got negative feedback. Then, I stumbled upon something unique. My aether core was a perfect sphere. I had been trying to spin the aether on a bisecting two-dimensional plane.

There were accepted ways to do it in three dimensions. The easiest way was to circulate the aether on the outer edge of the sphere, but the flow patterns got convoluted quickly, and the aether movement halted. I added a funnel at the top of my aether aore and a matching funnel at the bottom, meeting in the center. Then, I moved the aether in a continuous flow. It didn’t work well until I “defined” an aetheric gravity plane in the center of my aether core that pulled and pushed the aether. My gravity plane was not thick; one side attracted aether, and the other repelled aether. So as the aether circulated, the gravity plane did the work for me without me having to constantly focus.

The shape looked like a balloon that was being pressed in on the top and bottom to meet in the center. It was just a construct, but it was working to circulate my aether. It took a lot of adjustments to get the flow of the aether stable: adjusting the strength of gravity, defining lines of flow for the aether around the sphere, and finally, thinning out the aether.

That was what had been causing me the most problems. As my core replenished its aether, the density was no longer uniform and caused problems with my flow.

My “sphere-hourglass” design naturally thinned the aether to make the density homogeneous. Once the density was uniform, everything just flowed smoothly and didn’t need me to pay attention. I kept tweaking the flow patterns and the gravity plane strength until it looked perfect.

I centered my dimensional closet spell construct in the center of my gravity plane. It was extremely stable, and I spent time confirming the spell was not going to move.

I even came up with an idea to add more spell constructs by placing them in synchronous orbit. I should be able to anchor more aether core-anchored spells. There was enough space to easily add one above and one below my center of gravity plane, which held the dimensional closet construct.

I would need to wait a few days to ensure everything was stable and discuss with Selina whether what I planned was feasible. My core was still expanding, and the gravity constructs remained an experiment.

My alarm went off, and it was Freya moving around. It was morning, and she had left her room and knocked on my door. I turned off my privacy screen and went to meet her. I was exhausted but extremely excited. I took Freya down to the bakery, which was already filling the air with the smells of freshly baked bread and treats.

Freya ate an entire tray of our honey cinnamon buns. I didn’t know where my little sister managed to put it all, but she did have a sweet tooth. I let her take a package of buns for our parents, but I doubted they would ever get a chance to try them.

The buns were extremely popular, and my bakers said they were selling 400 batches every day. Many small restaurants used them as desserts. I didn’t realize we had contracts to deliver so many buns each day. Since as long as we weren’t offering any bulk discounts, I was fine with the sales.

It wasn’t long before Mera and Fera came down. They were soon followed by everyone else who needed to return to Hen’s Hollow. After we all boarded the skyship, I pulled Gareth away for a private conversation.

© Copyrighted 2024, 2025 by AlwaysRollsAOne

No permission is granted to translate, copy, or repost this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site other than my Patreon, it has been stolen without my permission and violates the DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removing or altering this notification acknowledges that you are aware that you are violating the DMCA. No permission is granted for my original work to be used to train AI.