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Chapter 105: B2: C5: The Dark Era

Gilbert drank like a fish in water. Naomi knocked back as many as Zarian. Bianca and Hannah sipped on their drinks lightly, but they were a few mugs deep.

The Light Princess was still a mess, clinging onto the nearest person with a shoulder to cry on. That was Naomi right now, but at least her psionic abilities helped calm Bianca down. Para reached over with a veiny, leathery hand to keep patting Bianca on the back.

It was evening time. They hadn’t picked up the kobold bodies outside the fort. Zarian knew that would lead to a problem, but it was easy to ignore that while inside the dungeon. He just couldn’t convince himself or anyone to care right now.

Reiki and the dungeon didn’t seem heavily affected by recent events. They kept operating as normal.

The Freedom Leaders weren’t the only ones occupying Reiki’s dungeon coffee bar. Soldiers huddled in one corner, keeping to themselves. Acolytes took another corner, keeping to themselves.

Even while on the farthest outskirts of their kingdom, the gender divide remained strong. Maybe they were naturally reverting to what felt normal after having their entire reality shattered and toyed with.

The Floridians had a section to themselves as Reiki flitted back and forth, playing barkeeper, food giver, and venerable host to the shell-shocked humans who’d died and came back to life.

Granted, now that Zarian thought about it, Reiki and her dungeon monsters existed in a perpetual cycle of death and rebirth already. It was no wonder that they weren’t heavily affected.

Was all of reality just a bigger dungeon in the backyard of his lineage?

Man, that’s screwy. I’m definitely drunk, Zarian thought.

The others sitting away from the Floridians had their own opinions after enough gossip had gotten around retelling Zarian’s story. His hearing was sharp enough to eavesdrop. He could still hear them sharing their reactions.

“Lord Zarian destroyed all of Infinita and everything beyond just to call down his ancient ancestor to create a new alignment,” said a soldier on the side for boys. “And all I get is waking up an orphan and getting sent off to be sacrificed to gnolls before the Floridians arrived.”

“If the business of universal destruction is true, does that mean Lovewar died to Lord Zarian? Is she back to being alive again? Is our goddess okay? Do we still follow her decree to follow the Floridians? What do we do? I don’t know what to do,” an acolyte said, growing stressed at the girl’s side.

“We should’ve stayed behind the walls and waited to be picked,” another acolyte said.

Over at the boy’s side, one soldier grumbled with existential dread. “What’s the point of life? What’s the point of the Star System? What do we do if Lord Zarian destroys everything again because the gods enraged him? What if we don’t get another reset?”

“I wonder how things are going back down in our old neck of the woods,” a different soldier said. “Everyone saw it. Before the end of everything, before the darkness, the suns changed into Lord Zarian’s eyes. How’d that affect things down south in the kingdom proper?”

“Evil will reign,” another soldier claimed with a drunken slur.

All the soldiers and acolytes hushed down.

Zarian and his fellow Floridians perked up. All eyes were on the last soldier who’d spoken.

The young guy trembled from the attention, especially when he noticed Zarian looking at him. The guy looked like he was about to vomit from sheer nervousness.

“He’s got a point,” said a familiar, feminine voice.

Looking back, Zarian saw it was Amabel. Garden green eyes. Freckles. Petite. She was the bold little fourteen-year-old who’d worked in the spa area back in the Lovewar Mansion.

She’d been getting bolder lately as a Level 32 War Spy Trainee. She’d netted the most kills on Level 40 kobolds among acolytes, which had leveled her up fast.

The highest level among the soldiers and acolytes was Roland who was Level 39. He could achieve his First Class Advancement at any moment.

That reminded Zarian that they should deepen the depths of the soldiers’ and acolytes’ training before their advancements. The unfortunate part of leveling them up fast was their shallow vitality and shallow options when they advanced.

They would need more time. They would also need to stick with the Floridians, if they were willing.

Zarian waited to see what more Amabel had to say. She was working up to something significant.

“It’s Mid Autumn, 1532 of the Dark Era,” Amabel said. “This is the era where grand kingdoms forged by adventurers of the last era fall like bundles of sticks. This is the era where evil and villainy are predicted to reign the strongest and those who are supposed to be good fall to corruption and betray their good alignment.”

Curious of where this was going, Zarian held his silence. He let the crowd respond in murmurs and hushed conversations. Eventually, a soldier piped up.

“Are you saying a bunch of evil bastards are going to take over?” a soldier asked. “Who’s going to do that when the biggest evil – er – lord is right here?”

“Evil doesn’t have to have a purpose or plan to spread,” Gilbert said drunkenly. “That’s just how it is when the Devil’s out to get everyone.”

I’m pretty sure I have a few Christian jokes I can make, Zarian thought. But I’ll wait for the mood to lighten up first.

“What Lord Gilbert says.” Amabel bobbed her head up and down. “I believe this is a sign that the Dark Era is fulfilling its purpose.”

“What purpose?” a different soldier asked.

“Evil will rise with the coming of the dark. It’s up to us to war against it and survive,” Amabel said resolutely. “Even if that means we must use evil to fight evil.”

“Or,” Zarian said, interjecting now.

The entire coffee bar area fell silent. Zarian took his time to look over the banisters and at the huge rows of bookcases and spider librarians shuffling about. He glanced down at a fresh mug filled to the brim of beer Reiki had placed down for him.

“We spread freedom,” Zarian said.

“I’ve been curious about that, milord,” Amabel said demurely. “What boon do you grant us after having us destroyed and reborn? What is this freedom of yours?”

Zarian ignored the shudders, shivers, and uneasy shifts from most of the soldiers and acolytes. Even Roland and Lora were keeping away from him and the Floridians.

“Free good. Free evil. Free for real. Under the freedom alignment, you can bring forth the power of good or evil however you want without outside influences. And if you’re neutral, the free for real sub-alignment protects you from influences better.”

“Why wouldn’t we want our gods’ influence?” a soldier asked.

“Wouldn’t this separate us further from the path? Is this new alignment born from the corpse of Lovewar?” an acolyte questioned.

“I’m scared,” another acolyte said.

Zarian grunted in frustration and drunkenness. The coffee bar patrons fell into a meek silence. Their fear of him was more animalistic and primal now.

It wasn’t this bad before. It was kind of annoying him, honestly. He liked for his enemies to fear him greatly, not the people he worked alongside and watched over.

The buzz he was under from drinking a lot of uncommon-quality beer was hitting fairly strong. His patience was shorter than usual. It was unfortunate, but he couldn’t deal with the kids right now.

“I’m going to peruse the library.” Zarian stood up and walked out of the coffee bar. “Thanks, Reiki.”

The glamorous dungeon boss spiraled around and waved at him with three of her six arms. She looked like a drider even though she was the biggest personality of the dungeon.

The author’s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Since the dungeon was set to the base option, Reiki could act as a friendly proprietor, while the dungeon monsters played as librarians. Sometimes, if anyone looked around the bookcases and lounging areas, they could catch the librarian spiders dancing secretly in the corners.

To his surprise, the other Floridians trailed after him.

Naomi caught his look and raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t say you wanted alone time. And we haven’t run an update yet.”

“Yeah, sure, let’s do that.”

It took more time than usual, since they were all slurring their words a little, but they ran an update on each other’s gains. Zarian had a better idea of how much each of his party members had grown and what areas they needed to improve on.

His Sophisticated Monocle had a new upgrade from Hannah, allowing him to use it as a mini-journal and recorder. With a thought, he updated his mini-versions of the others’ profiles.

Now that Zarian had everyone’s information, and they had his, he realized there was a problem with their current profile setups. He looked up while they were in a lounge area with standing tables and decided to make a request.

“Hey, System, can we get Stats Per Level as a permanent addition to our profiles?” Zarian asked.

As of now, that wasn’t a thing, and Zarian had to look back at notifications and do the math consistently instead of having it displayed automatically in their profiles.

The System responded with a blue notification above their heads and a soft ‘ding’ in Zarian’s mind. He was sure the others heard the same.

<Okay.>

Zarian saw the new change pop up in his profile now, right between the skills and the stat list.

Stats Per Level: +2 Willpower, +2 Wonder, +3 Mysticism, +7 free.

“The Star System seems to serve at your beck and call now,” Hannah commented while steepling her hands on one of the standing tables. “Can’t we just ask for whatever we want now?”

The System didn’t respond.

Zarian shook his head as he leaned back against a standing table. “That’s too cheesy. We wouldn’t grow properly if we made requests for any little thing. That and I think the System is only accommodating the simple stuff for me. It still has its own parameters to follow.”

Hannah huffed. “You destroyed all of us just to have a change in the alignments. That was far outside of its parameters. Maybe you have it leashed further now.”

“We’re all back alive now. Maybe life and death when Zarian loses control isn’t too big of a deal,” Naomi said, while still holding onto a sorrowful Bianca.

Zarian grimaced. He didn’t like that mindset. But he had no way to dispute it. His family lineage was powerful enough to reverse things.

So why couldn’t they do it again and again?

Gilbert shook his head. “We can’t treat our lives like cheap commodities. That’s the wrong attitude to have.”

“And this isn’t the original me,” Zarian said.

Everyone’s attention turned to him sharply.

Zarian explained further. “I’m in a loop along with my sister. I don’t know how many times I’ve looped, but apparently I’ve messed up multiple times before.”

“Do you remember the past loops?” Hannah asked.

“I don’t. I only remember this life and how I grew up. But the Funnest Granpapa described a version of me who once grew up rich and was a raging asshole. I don’t remember that now. Who knows how many versions of me there were. How many times have I failed?”

“What happened to everyone in your past lives?” Hannah asked with some heat and determination. “Relationships? Friendships? Followers? Worlds? Did they extract you so you can start anew in another universe before you unleashed untold damage? Or was there so much damage that it couldn’t be reset and they had to shuffle you and your little sister off to another loop? Depending on the answer to that, Zarian, it’ll explain how dire our situation is.”

Zarian didn’t know the answers to any of that.

He looked up. “Granpapa?”

There was no response.

“You know my thoughts on this,” Gilbert said. “We should act like this is our last chance. Miracles happen. We’re living them every day. But the same miracle happening again and again? Even I find that foolish to rely on.”

“You don’t want to get stuck in a jar do you?” Naomi asked Zarian.

“No.”

“Is it simple for them, the super ultra gods of your lineage?” Hannah rubbed her finger down the spine of a book that contained old cartography. “Or is there a cost? I can’t comprehend exactly, but I want to think there’s a cost. Or there wouldn’t be a reason for there to be loops. If there were no costs, you can let your progeny reset again and again in the same area, in the same loop, can’t you?”

Nobody said anything and let Hannah cook. She paced back and forth from between a bookcase and a standing table. “The fact that you don’t remember past versions of you suggests that there needed to be an even harder reset. So, what happened to those around you when you outright failed to where a new loop must start from scratch? Do they still live on? Or have they been thoroughly destroyed with no way of returning?”

Hannah stopped and looked dead into Zarian’s eyes. “What if you’ve destroyed countless worlds and universes again and again to the point of no salvation? If I’m wrong, then I’ll appreciate this Funnest Granpapa of yours to step in and correct me.”

The Funnest Granpapa didn’t appear.

That didn’t mean Hannah was right.

But they had no idea if she was wrong, and that was horrifying.

Zarian opened and closed his mouth.

The others gawked at Hannah.

She wore a cold face, lips presses tight with focus. Then, after a while, she continued. “I don’t want to feel so insignificant again. I don’t want my life to be a mote of dust on the currents of much larger forces. I just can’t exist like that. So I’ll do whatever it takes to ascend past my mortal limitations, which means I’ll ask you the hard questions, even if they are uncomfortable.”

“I don’t have the answers to those hard questions,” Zarian said. “My old, old man says I have to deal with the consequences. I guess not knowing is one of those consequences.”

“Whelp, I say the answer is simple.” Gilbert shrugged. “This is the best we have it now. Let’s make the most of it.”

“The jars are waiting after this,” Naomi said, petting Bianca’s back still. “What happens to us? Dunno. But Zarian’s going to be stuck if he fails again.”

Hannah huffed. “Naomi, I know your devotion has you head-over-heels as playing the loyal Marine, but we should worry more for ourselves, too. That doesn’t mean I don’t care for Zarian, but it does mean I won’t stand by and accept things as they are without some reassurance.”

Naomi looked at Hannah for a while, the two women having a heated stare off.

Zarian let out a whoop of a breath. “Okay. Let me say this. Your success is my success.”

“That doesn’t give any specifics,” Hannah said.

“But that’s the truth of the matter. Your success is my success. And I want to say the reverse is possible, too. My success is your success. I can’t say if any of this around us will continue existing if I screw up again, but I don’t want that. I want to be there with all of you as you rise and become greater. In return, I need help to control my Overwhelming Darkness, especially before we continue the kobold wolf dragon stuff. Before anything, really, I need some serious control measures.”

A notification appeared over their heads just when Zarian finished.

<The Wolf Dragon Mythical Regional Event has been delayed until Late Winter, 1532 of the Dark Era or later. As of now, many regional, continental, and world events are delayed across all of Infinita. Why? There are certain issues the Star System must mitigate after recent universal events. Please be patient. Go train and cultivate the land. Please stay within the regions of your event.>

“Honestly, that’s perfect,” Zarian said, picking himself up despite everything. “Hannah!”

“Yes?”

“I need your help to develop seals or ability dampeners for Overwhelming Darkness. Maybe that can also expand your enchantment toolbox.”

“Interesting.”

Zarian nodded before turning to the others. “Naomi, I want you to go back to training like crazy and helping the kiddos whenever you can. Gilbert, I want the same from you. If you’re serious about being my wingman in staying righteous, you need to develop yourself further. Bianca, I want you to take some time to … well … look deep inside of yourself and sort things out.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Got it, chief.”

“Si.”

Zarian nodded. He looked around him. There were reading materials of all types. “I wish Reiki was here.”

“Yes?” Reiki appeared from around the corner.

Zarian turned to face her, not reacting much to how the dungeon boss could pop up almost instantly in her dungeon. He imagined this was only a thing for the base setting.

“All of these books you have. How useful are they?” Zarian asked.

“Some have some tangible magic. You can learn traits if you read enough books on the same thing and drill what you’ve read with practice,” Reiki said, leaning dramatically against the edge of a bookcase. “But it doesn’t always work if you have too many traits.”

Zarian caught Hannah’s widening gaze. She had the epic Lore Eater trait just like him. The both of them could run through volumes of books faster than anyone else. She might actually be faster since she also had the Swift Research trait.

“We should get everyone to read some stuff in the library,” Zarian said.

“The soldiers can’t read much other than Roland and some rare others,” Naomi informed.

“The acolytes can teach them,” Hannah offered, sounding less cold. She was warming up again now that they had stuff to work toward. “We need them to be self-sufficient if we want to leave them on their own.”

“Hm,” Gilbert hummed.

“What is it, big guy?” Zarian asked.

“It’s only a week going back and forth from Bramblevale, right?” Gilbert asked.

“And Late Winter is four months away,” Zarian said. “We can get stuff delivered as needed, honestly.”

The dungeon could provide a lot. Food. Drink. Equipment. Knowledge. But the Dancing Librarian Dungeon wasn’t the type to provide seeds or anything farming related for a community to persist on their own.

Additionally, they were heading from fall to winter. It was too late to grow crops for spring and summer. Hell, they were mostly relying on meat made by the dungeon, which Zarian didn’t want to question even though he had a dark idea of where it came from.

Zarian slowly nodded, feeling a semblance of a plan and direction finally setting in place. He was shaking off his buzz, too, so he felt like he had more solid ground under him now.

“We have time for once. We can focus on developing ourselves. This is what we need most of all.” Zarian looked at the other Floridians, his fellow Outsiders. “Lots will change because all of Infinita had its existence questioned. But our objectives remain the same. We go on adventures and be the best that we can be.”

“Okay,” Bianca squeaked.

“Yes,” Hannah said. “That’s the most logical action.”

“Yup.” Gilbert nodded sagely.

Naomi took a while to respond. “I’m going to have to up the ante in my training. Hell, you might see less of me depending on what I’m doing if I’m not instructing the kids. I have a lot of hurdles to overcome because…”

Naomi trailed off.

Everyone waited for her, Zarian especially.

She sighed. “I want to be so strong I can survive beyond the universe. Now that I know there’s more out there, everything I do now matters more. So, wish me luck.”

“I share the same sentiment,” Hannah said.

“That’s all understandable.” Zarian nodded. “I give you all my blessing.”

Naomi looked satisfied by that.