The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 122: Labour

Chapter 122: Labour

I think I’m starting to get it…

(“ You’ve been working on this for days; as mentioned, this is not useful for you  ”)

Yadayadada, keep saying that. I still want to learn.

It had been four days since the soul-marking ritual was performed, and I was entranced by the function of it. Of course, it was not the only thing I did at that time. I spent my nights still searching outside the wall or within the walls in the small cave system that was below the surface of the village but didn’t search down far enough to actually be below the ground level at the bottom of the wall.

That was how I spent my night; on the other side of the spectrum, I spent my days learning the runes and constructions of the rituals. Out of the two, my interest of course lay heavily in the second ritual, the Adjustment ritual, but I took it upon myself to learn the basic rituals as well. Learning their secrets and how they functioned would only improve my knowledge.

The base Vocation rituals were for [Wind Mage], [Striker], and [Smasher]. In human terms, it was a Mage and two Enhancer Vocations. Espr referred to one of them as Scout Vocation, likely the [Striker] ritual and it could’ve been registered as a [Scout] in the databases. Espr knowing the full list and classification humans use wasn’t that surprising of a thing, but for me, it leaned more towards Enhancer than Scout. I didn’t know whether that was just because the human classification system was shit–which I was willing to believe it was–or whether there was a difference due to the physiology of the different races.

While the latter reason would be fascinating, I had a strong suspicion it was the former, and that was the reason Espr even mentioned their classification, because it was a way to laugh at humans. The classification system was quite old, but no one thought about changing it due to the impact being minimal. The only people who really used the system were those looking at the list to figure out what Vocation to choose in the first place, or businesses asking for a [Carrier] in the job description, usually for their storage skills. Rarely other situations do occur when a business requests a certain classification type, but that was uncommon and far between. The classification system was more of a historical work than a perfect system.

Overall, the three of them were quite simple… in compassion to the Adjustment ritual. Each of them was large, but the formations themselves weren’t too complicated. Still, it was hard to understand the effect of the rituals. I knew it granted a Vocation, but the how exactly was strange. The markings that flowed into the soul to complete the process and the formation made on the ground covered the order part, but the transferring in soul aspects was confusing.

Cole-Ra-Cu was my teacher in this field, and I was honest enough to tell him that I didn’t know how these rituals worked and that I would like to learn. 

From my general perception of the Nelatta and the ones I interacted with, they were under the assumption I underwent something similar, but the process was less open and community-driven like theirs.

I wasn’t going to deny those preconceptions, as they overall helped me.

Cole-Ra-Cu couldn’t teach me everything, but he happily showed me what the four formations looked like. They were what he and his apprentices would paint on the ground with their mana, and then he as the elder would activate them. 

While [Wind Mage] was useless when it came to combating the monsters that attacked their home. The utility of having a high mana pool didn’t have the same impact in their society as it did in the human world, where everything was powered by mana. There was still a reason to choose it for the Nelatta. Only those who learned the art of mana painting could even set up the rituals, and to activate them also required a large portion of mana. To reach the point where that was feasible, a Nelatta needed to be a [Wind Mage] and train to the point where they would gain the skills for their mana painting act and have the man to afford it.

[Wind Mage] didn’t have any skills like that by default, but a requirement to learn that skill was a certain level of mana control that was only obtainable for the Nelatta race with [Wind Mage]. Likely, one of their strongest warriors could maybe do it with a lot of practice and training, but at the same time, they might not be at a level high enough where it was truly possible. 

I learned that Cole-Ra-Cu had fought a lot to defend their meraimaka, as in their words, ‘only through combat does the body learn to grow’, so they did have some understanding that hard work and challenge increased their power. 

No… this is still wrong.

I tried editing the rune I made on the mana crystal in my hand, but it wasn’t working and cleansed the crystal of every rune I had carved on it.

I of course had the ability to create these mana markings on the ground; the natural sand actually was what allowed the markings to stay on the ground longer than normal. Keeping the mana contained so everything could be completed. I had already mastered the ability of painting the formations on the ground; that was the easy part for the three basic ones. For the adjustment formation, I still hadn’t mastered the precise size and angle of all the strokes required and how they overlapped each other on the ground.

The complexity of setting up the ritual is part of the reason they don’t do the Adjustment ritual often, outside of the fact they had their own system to figure out if someone was ready for it. Initially, I thought they made the ritual completely fresh after the kids' adolescence ritual, but in actuality, the basis for that more complex ritual was there. The reason they did the Vocation ritual first was, in their words again, ‘let mana rest in the air.' Basically, the first ritual made mana stick in the air, which made the efficiency of the Adjustment ritual far higher. From what I was told, the chance of the ritual was far higher otherwise.

(“ Such a waste of time ”)

Espr was very unhappy with my time usage. In their words before the Adjustment ritual would not be of use to me. They eventually gave me the explanation that ‘your soul is too damaged for it to even work’ and ‘normally it would only improve in the direction you lean towards, but it has its limits, and your strength has far surpassed those limits’. I understood what it meant in the first point, but they didn’t give any specifics for the second. My only guess was that any ‘adjustment’ to make my Vocation suit me more had already basically been done through my actions of levelling up skills.

Still, if I could learn everything from it, then it would be worth it.

I spent a few more hours on this day before the night fell working on my studies, then a few hours earlier than my previous sessions I stopped.

“I think I am done here for today.” I placed the mana crystal I carved some of the runes into back in my bag. 

The biggest downside of this project was that I did use a portion of my mana supply, but I aimed to recycle some of the old crystals by carving the runes of them for expiration purposes and even found it was cheaper to create the runes on unused crystals then drawing myself on an empty one. That did basically greatly reduce the effectiveness of the crystal if I wanted to use it later to absorb mana, but what I had learned was worth it.

As I began cleaning up the area, an individual who had been wanting me to finish showed up.

“What’s your plan now, Ceella?” Lu asked. She stayed around me a lot these past few days when she got the chance. She did have her own responsibilities to take care of her family home and garden and play with the even younger children; she was also an expected apprentice of Cole-Ra-Cu, which was why they got along so well.

While at the moment she did prefer to learn more about my ‘old destroyed world’, she was still intrigued by my current work.

“Well, there are still parts of the world I want to explore, but I might need some help with that,” I said truthfully.

“Hmm… I don’t think any of the warriors will agree.” 

“I’m going to ask them.” I smiled from under my mask. “I already got Cole-Ra-Cu permission, but I can take out the two captured individuals.”

“Wardened for safety.”

“Sure.” I shrugged. 

Lu fiddled around for a few moments thinking about what to say next while I had successfully cleaned up everything.

“Al-Roo would probably like to speak with you; he is security.”

“In charge of the guards?”

Lu’s head titled, confused at my question, “Security?”

Damn translations.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I will talk to him.”

I could only wish the conversation wouldn’t be too troublesome.

“Why?” Al-Roo asked when I told him I wanted to release the captured individuals. 

“I got Cole-Ra-Cu’s permission, and I want to expand my research area.”

“You’re exiting of the meraimaka?” 

“Yes, my exiting of the meraimaka. I know this world doesn’t seem strange to you, but it is vastly different to mine, so I at least want to explore the surrounding area to figure out where it is safe.”

“Nowhere is safe besides the meraimaka.”

I questioned, “Doesn’t your tribe explore the lands?”

“It does.” He replied, “Doesn’t mean it's safe. We travel every day, avoiding pursers, then rest at night.”

“But why?”

He answered, “Because it is us. We refuse to give up our way of life unless we all burn out.”

“I see.”

(“ Harassing the poor little lizard man? ”)

Little? Please.

From my continued talks with Lu, the Kelroo tribe lived on their own before the world got ‘worse’. It was a bit of history where the details weren’t clear, but apparently, the world used to be a less fucked place at least one point in time. However, no matter who I talked to, no one was exactly sure what the old world exactly looked like; the records were vague at best or straight up nonexistent. Which wasn’t that surprising considering how primitive the Nelatta overall was. Part of Cole-Ra-Cu's role was to preserve history through markings and speech.

“I understand, but I still do want to let them out. It is better to have them stretch their limbs, and it is safer for them to do it than your people. Plus, it will get them more used to this world.” I said, before adding, “Worst case, if they do cause trouble, you can just kill them.”

Al-Roo paused, “Hmm? Didn’t you want them freed?” 

“I did, but if they are causing your people harm, then well, don’t you have a job to do?”

“Cole-Ra-Cu won’t like that approach.”

“Based on my interaction, he seems keen on keeping survivors alive.”

“History.” 

I shrugged, “Sure.” 

My conversation with Al-Roo ended, and so I moved on to my main objective for the day.

“Hello again.” 

Breaking some criminals out of jail. Upon visiting the two love birds again, they seemed about the same. Not too good, not too bad.

“Hello…” The security guard replied first. “It’s been a while.”

“Yep, been busy, but I can finally let you two out.”

The D-Hood idiot asked, “What’s the catch?”

“Well, I can get you out on a few conditions.” Once again, I appreciated the fact I was wearing a helmet. It made it much easier to keep a poker face when my face couldn’t be seen. “First you are to not harm any of the Nelatta, the lizard people.”

“So we are supposed to sit back as they attack us?”

“Someone has issues; no, you are not going to be attacked by them, the elder was clear in his claim that he wants you two alive. Apparently, they try to keep anyone who is trapped here and rescued alive, but surviving is not always easy.”

The man replied again, “Yeah, food is terrible.”

Did his attitude get worse from the last visit?

I wasn’t sure if this was just how he was or if it was a deliberate act, but acting like the bad guy was certainly useful for me.

“I was more referring to all the skeleton monster things that drain your mana, but everyone has their problems.” I shrugged, “Anyway, added on to that first point, don’t destroy the city either. There isn’t much available land as it is. 

“What happens if we break them?”

“Well, it depends on who is around. If Cole-Ra-Cu is around, expect to be captured alive and thrown back in here again; if Al-Roo is around, expect to be killed.” 

“Which one is that?” 

“...” I said seriously, “I won’t tell you, I’m not going to jeopardise my mission further by your willingness to poke bears.” 

The guard spoke up, “Don’t worry, we won’t do anything. We are just a little tense.” 

Hmm… that seemed a bit too well said.

Something about the guards' words felt off to me. Seemed a little too rehearsed.

“That’s fine, but I have a job to do.”

Hehehe… well, at least this should be fun. They are going to be test dummies after all.

“Is… there anything else?” The guard asked.

“No specifically about the rules, but I did say I would get your help to explore the surrounding area.”

The guard nearly jumped up. “But what about the monsters?!” 

“They only appear during the day. You can travel fine throughout the night. From personal experience, it's pretty peaceful.”

There was a brief window of silence as the two men glanced at each other.

“You… are still looking for the dungeon core.” The D-Hood guy asked.

“Yeah, I’ve crossed off a few locations now, but I am also investigating the way of the land. This is a pretty funky world.” I said, I walked closer to the door. There were runes on it to strengthen it, and there was a sprinkle of the mana draining sand in the cell. I had barely seen the sand up in the meraimaka as it looked like they did their best to remove it if it ever did land here. It only dropped from what I knew from the undead creatures. “So, are you two willing to accept those terms?”

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