Luca DR

The infinity dungeon 96

Chapter 96

Upon returning, Michael found himself swamped with work. His sister had rushed to him, telling him that Old Dave had gone into an anomaly and that she was worried about him. When she saw Michael’s puzzled expression, she quickly explained herself.

“Johanne said it could be bad,” she explained, “but you know her… she doesn’t care about most things. She said it’s his business what happens to him.”

“And you care because…?” Michael inquired, his ...

The infinity dungeon 95

Chapter 95

“David Chestermill wishes to notify you that he is about to enter an anomalous building at Redbud Ridge,” a robotic voice said. It had features that made it somewhat human, but something in its way of speech felt off just enough to place it deep in the uncanny valley.

“I see,” a woman replied, deep in her work. “Thank you, Icarus. However, I do not care. You should not notify me of every little insignificant detail. Simply write them down in a report somewhere...

The infinity dungeon 94

Chapter 94

While Michael and Travis were away, people worked hard to keep Site 00 going. One such person was David, who had been asked—kindly, but with not much room to wiggle himself out of the assignment despite being the CEO of the whole company—by the head of Candle Light to oversee the happenings at Redbud Ridge. The town was being swallowed up by mana, the invisible cloud engulfing more and more of the scattered houses and homesteads by the moment.

Travis should have bee...

The infinity dungeon 93

Chapter 93

“Think you can replicate it?” Travis asked on the way out. They crossed the shield again, causing some tingling in their skin but nothing more, a sign of a clear escape. Now that they were out, there wasn’t much danger to them anymore.

“I don’t think so,” Michael replied. They were talking about the shield, and only because they knew that the sound dampening magic on their car made sure nobody could hear them. “I would need blueprints. I know the magic mak...

Little delay

No chapter today, sorry, and possibly even tomorrow. Will resume almost-daily chapters afterwards for sure 👍🏻

The infinity dungeon 92

Chapter 92

The black SUV slowly approached the compound, under the careful watch of armed guards. There were two checkpoints on the dusty road leading in and out, while barren brown soil surrounded them, with occasional plumes of dust reaching into the car through the rolled-down window. It wasn’t a problem for either of the two occupants, who could simply brush the dust away with their auras. It was pretty much the extent of what the driver’s aura could do, and a simple exercise fo...

The infinity dungeon 91

Chapter 91

“You skipped the last two sessions together, is everything okay?” Stephan’s voice was strange over the phone. The man had an old model that barely qualified as a smartphone, but he refused to get a new one unless his current phone stopped working. “Phillip, of all people, has been asking about you.”

“He has?” Michael was surprised.

“He has. You made quite the impression last time.”

Despite months of personal-time having passed, Michael reme...

The infinity dungeon 90

Chapter 90

They continued sending teams and men into the dungeon until there were none left. The pace at which they sent people in, which had been frenetic at first, soon became dictated by the speed with which they managed to process the people coming out. Throughout it all, Michael kept playing his role well into the night.

In the end, three people failed to re-emerge after the ten-minute window out of more than fifty Operators they sent in. One was a member of a squad who fell ...

The infinity dungeon 89

“The Elements?” asked Michael. “What do you mean?”

“Unlike higher forms of energy, the Elements appear to need less structure to convey meaning. My preliminary tests with Elemental stones seem to confirm this.”

“Really?”

Johanne nodded, “Indeed. There was a whole team of programmers trying to figure out a language to make the stones do our bidding, making inscriptions with crushed mana crystals or using electrodes to stimulate the stones, but they kept fail...

Little timeout

Here right now, chilling a little bit today and tomorrow. See you this weekend with more chapters!

The infinity dungeon 88

Chapter 88

After spending the morning with his sister, Michael returned to the Valley. The road was finally completed, and going to and from the dungeon was finally smooth enough to make it even pleasant. There were trees and moss covering the sides of the road, where concrete had been poured to stabilize the gravel, making the sight much less aggravating than expected. The poles and railings looked like they had been swallowed by the forest as well, a sign that Johanne had been busy. 2024-09-17 10:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post

The infinity dungeon 87

Chapter 87

Site 00 never slept.

Travis could confidently say that this place was quickly becoming a sight to behold. Behemoths of concrete, rebar and steel were being born of the earth, hiding unspeakable things beneath their peaceful façade. The earth itself was a tomb of alien and magical things, only some of which would one day come out of hiding, becoming rays of hope for the human race as a whole. The rest, better to leave it there. Not forgotten, but hidden.

It would ...

The infinity dungeon 86

Chapter 86

Jennifer sat at her desk, back held upright despite the uncomfortableness of her simple chair in the middle of the spartan room she worked from. This was just a temporary accommodation, she told herself to stave off the discomfort, until the actual offices were completed. She had looked at the plans for the Security Division buildings, and she had to admit she couldn’t wait for all the structures to be completed.

She thought back to the first interaction she had with ...

The infinity dungeon 85

Chapter 85

Michael stood in the middle of a storm of magic. Arcane energies swirled in a vortex around him, mana and Qi and Intent clawing at each other in the air like hungry beasts fighting for supremacy. The storm, while fierce, was centered around a thin bubble of calm, like the eye of the storm. Where Michael’s aura touched, things were still. The energies obeyed his commands, they respected each other’s domains without trying to encroach upon each other. Outside of his control...

Chapter 84

Chapter 84

“Tell me about aura masking again,” Michael said as he and Johanne approached the threshold leading into the dungeon. There was work to be done, and time inside the dungeon had a whole other meaning compared to time in the real world.

The cave entrance was a yawning mouth, full of jagged rocks and vines that looked like they belonged in a tropical forest. All efforts to clean it up had turned out to be in vain, the cave returning to its default state after a while n...

Chapter 83

Chapter 83

As he lay flat on the ground, feeling the stones embedded in the soft earth beneath the yellowing moss poke at him in uncomfortable ways, Michael thought back to the chain of events leading up to this moment. Travis was beside him, scouting the compound with his binoculars. They were on a vantage point atop one of the gentle hills this side of Kentucky, overlooking a hollow several miles away. At its center, Carmela was currently holed up, thinking she was safe. She would hav...

The infinity dungeon 82

Chapter 82

The morning was a blur of activity at Site 00. Some of it was normal administration by now, construction crews and occasional feats of magic bent towards raising the many buildings that would make up the bulk of Unity’s headquarters for the foreseeable future. There were literal skyscrapers being built, with designs that seemed to be plucked out of some science fiction novel. They were only possible thanks to three factors: magic, money and the vision of some quite crazy pe...

The infinity dungeon 81

Chapter 81

Family for Michael had always been a difficult thing. Ever since his father, and then his mother soon after, threw him out he felt as if he had no ties with them anymore. The only exception to this was his sister Maggie, who he still loved dearly, but didn’t see nearly as much as he thought he should. She was the island of sunshine in the storm that was his family, and gut clenched every time he thought about her, knowing that she was in an even worse situation than he had ...

The infinity dungeon 80

I decided to release my full backlog on Patreon, one chapter every day until I run out. Of course, I also aim to write one chapter a day so in theory i should never run out. We shall see...

Chapter 80

“Different from the dungeon, eh?” Travis asked. They were surveying the area, the dark of the night banished by one of Michael’s Spirit Guardians. The skill had upgraded to the second level, granting more flexibility and longer duration, and pushing the Unity skill clo...

The infinity dungeon 79

Chapter 79

“Get in the car!” yelled Josh, shoving the shivering woman in the back of the vehicle. “And shut your damn mouth!”

He raised his hand, ready to deliver yet another slap when a shiver ran through his body and had him clutch his chest in pain. Cursing, he turned to see the Bulgarians drag the older woman out of the building and into the second car of the convoy. Others had cut the traffic, but a crowd was gathering. He quickly blurred, snatching the phones out of ...

The infinity dungeon 78

Chapter 78

Six people and a monster emerged from the dungeon: the team at its full. Drullkrin was wearing a glamour, magic that was nothing more than a little trick of the Fae that made it so he could appear something he was not: a human. It was a trick he could not perform himself but one that a friendly Fae had taught to Johanne so that she could apply it to the goblin. Of the original party Michael had crafted while in the Valley, the Golem was the only missing member, too big to hid...

The infinity dungeon 77

Chapter 77

“I have to ask,” Trevor said as they walked their way through the icy tunnels of the glacier. “Why don’t you just hoard all the skills? All the useful ones, at least.”

“A fair question,” Michael said. He was using Fire energy to subtly keep the cold of the glacier at bay, countering its Ice element and understanding more about it in the process. “Do you know why Travis does not absorb all the cards he sees?”

“Because he has a limit?” asked th...

The infinity dungeon 76

Chapter 76

Trevor checked his own skill list for the last time before approaching the staircase leading back to the first floor of the dungeon. He had two common skills that were of the more classic kind, at least according to how the boss saw them through his video game interpretation of magic, which were [Mana Shield] and [Water Whip]. He had trained them up to the first bottleneck, level 5, increasing their power significantly: he could use the shield to negate any damage coming at h...

The infinity dungeon 75

Chapter 75

“The laptop?” Michael said with a chuckle, “I had Bob help me bring a setup down here. Yep, he was given access to this floor before you all did.”

He took momentary pleasure in the shocked reactions.

“No,” he then said, predicting the question that was coming from Travis, “I did not have him come in here alone to see what prompt the dungeon would give him after the first floor. He’s too much of an asset.”

“Making him into a Level 2 operat...

The infinity dungeon 74

Chapter 74

They stood at the threshold of a doorway leading down into a dark, foreboding staircase. The steps were carved stone, but they were so uniform in their making that it was like they had been cut with a laser, with no imprecisions or veins showing, nor even a layer of dust. At the end of the stairway light could be seen filtering in, although Jennifer was pretty sure that the light had not been there when the doorway had appeared.

Michael ushered them in, following behind...

The infinity dungeon 73

Chapter 73

It felt good to be back in the dungeon. Michael felt like he was more at home in here than outside, nowadays. He had slept more times in his treehouse in the Misty Valley, the former residence of the Forest King that he repurposed as his own house, than in his real home lately. He had no love for his actual home, but still. Plus, it was too far away from the base of operations. He had thought about sleeping at the HQ somewhere, perhaps commandeering a sofa or something, but i...

The infinity dungeon 72

Chapter 72

Travis was walking from the new prefab building attached to the temporary HQ to his car to grab a quick bite, feeling like he was back at the beginning of his career, when he suddenly saw the plume of smoke rising from the forest. Already several people were pointing their noses at the sky, and orders were being shouted from the heads of the security division while soldiers armed with guns and shields took position.

They were still in the process of testing what sort of...

The infinity dungeon 71

Chapter 71

Michael took careful steps inside the large cavern. In the middle of the room, the Throne of the Ice King was like a shining beacon of azure, blue and white energies bright enough to outshine the light of all the torches in the room, at least when seen through magical means. It stood there empty, testament to a powerhouse that was no more, the tool of the dungeon slain to gain its power and rule.

Michael approached the throne gingerly. The elements were a swirl around t...

The infinity dungeon 70

Chapter 70

Michael struggled to keep his aura under control, feeling its edges begin to flay and fracture after absorbing way too much mana from the air and the coins. He couldn’t do anything about it though, surrounded as he was by a raging inferno. The forest had caught fire all around him after Josh had carelessly lobbed fireballs everywhere, and the dry shrubs cooked by the summer heat were perfect kindling for the fire. It was spreading fast, sending plumes of dark smoke up in th...

The infinity dungeon 69

Oops, i seem to have posted an empty chapter. Pretend it never happened

Chapter 69

Michael studied the man who was shouting obscenities at him. Suddenly the realization struck him like a physical blow.

“Josh?” cried Michael, “is that you?”

Josh’s face was twisted with rage, “Michael!” he said with an exaggerated tone. He clearly wasn’t as surprised as Michael was about seeing his friend here. “Fancy seeing you here. You on a hike?”

“I should...