[Since the Fall: 10/22/809]

  As Dei’s group closed in on the third piece of equipment, Dei’s guard raised more and more. Something about the way the cave system around the piece of equipment was shaped bothered him, so Dei told Fendrascora to stop for a moment. He didn’t want to repeat his previous mistake of ignoring a scratch in his mind and falling straight into another trap.

  Jumping down from her back, he got an even clearer view on the area

  Dei long suspected that the way the cave system was organized was too intentional to be natural. Fendrascora also told him of The Mother, a being which claimed to be the mind of the entire planet. If Dei had to guess, this Mother somehow controlled the ways the caves were organized, turning them into what he saw around him.

  It was important that there was intelligent design behind the shaping of the caves, because it was this design that was now interrupted. In a wide, circular area around Amaya, the chest piece, the design of the caves seemed to glitch.

  Looking through his [Tremor Sense] showed that most of the cave system wasn’t necessarily uniform, but it had the same design to it. Like the architecture style of a massive building. Sure, the rooms were all different, but the decor was the same.

  Now, though, the caves weren’t nearly the same. The Mother, if she was the one that decided how the caves were created, tended towards horizontal surfaces, making it easier for landwalking creatures to move. It was different for the massive underground river, but that wasn’t important right now.

  What he saw now was… not horizontal surfaces. The new pattern of the cave system surrounding Amaya’s imprisonment seemed like a hundred different mish-mashed patterns slammed together.

  Caves ending in abrupt flat walls, perfectly vertical semi-circular tunnels, intersections that were completely disconnected from everything else.

  It was unnerving to say the least. In the very center, disconnected from everything else, was a blurry vibrational void in the shape of a half-buried chest piece.

  They were still a ways away from the circular disruption of the natural cave formations, so Dei told Fendrascora to take them even closer.

  Slowing to a stop right on the edge, Dei jumped down to investigate the clean change in caves.

  In front of them, the cave abruptly ended, and another one began. The floor of this second cave was around two feet lower than the one Dei and his group came from, with not even the slightest slope to indicate a lowering in elevation.

  Gingerly, he brought his finger out to the line where he saw the disrupted cave system begin, careful to not bring it any further than he needed to. When he brought his finger over the line and into the disruption… Nothing happened.

  Slowly, he pushed his hand further and further in, until he was up to his forearm in the second cave system.

  Quickly yanking it out, he tried seeing if anything changed, but nothing jumped out at him. The cave systems were completely silent.

  He pondered for a moment. Should he keep going? Or come back to this spiritual piece of equipment later?

  When Dei first realized that the crystals were laced with tracking marks, he told himself that he would have a week and a half at least until someone found him, because that's how long it would take to travel from his home village to his current location. It was true that it was highly unlikely for his pursuer to find him before then, but the time frame after “a week and a half” was unsure.

  Every day after “a week and a half” was a gamble, with potentially his life on the line. Dei wanted to be done with this area before that time frame, but it was already almost up. On the twelfth day of the month, the tracking mark was placed on him, which meant the twenty third was the final day for his self-imposed deadline, and it was already the twenty first.

  Dei groaned in exasperation. If he wanted to get all four pieces and get back to Aloran before the twenty third, he couldn’t just circle back. He couldn’t even wait for his soul to heal! He’d have to do the run for the rest of Alorans set in one go, otherwise he wouldn’t make it in time.

  More than just Alora, Dei still had multiple things he had to quickly finish, involving a pair of demon-kin and a once-dangerous Spiritual Frog that had almost killed him on the first day outside of his bubble.

  Dei had never forgotten that, and he never would. Not until that frog was dead.

  While it might be smarter to wait for his soul to fully rejuvenate, Dei knew that it would be dangerous to take longer. All of Alorans equipment so far hadn’t been directly lethal, only dangerous when he overstepped his boundaries. The memories he got from Lani- the helmet- about Amaya- the chest piece- also seemed to think that Amaya was more of a reactive person than an active person. She didn’t attack things unless in retaliation.

  It bothered him that he couldn’t wait and be more prepared for his confrontation with Amaya, but ultimately it would be safer to get it done fast, and he already had a good idea of her abilities, none of which involved direct attacks. Even in Lani’s memories, they could never get Amaya to form direct offensive attacks. It almost seemed that flat-out harming something was antithesis to her being, perhaps as her purpose in Alorans formation.

  Whatever the reason, Dei knew that she couldn’t just attack him, so he wasn’t in as much danger as he was with Lani and Jasmine. That didn’t mean he would throw caution to the wind, just that it wasn’t a massive risk to face her here, while it would be a massive risk to wait.

  As he decided on the course of action, he conversed with his group, updating them on everything he saw and everything he knew about Amaya in general.

  Amaya was clever and tricky, with the Greed, Rebound, Enhancement, and Fusion affinities, so that's what they would have to watch out for.

  “For what reason are we assembling these pieces again? They seem quite the dangerous hassle,” Fang asked.

  “Because when I was first brought down to these caves, Aloran protected and saved me. I want to do something to repay that and help him back.”

  “Did he ask you to do this?”

  “No? He hardly said anything to me at all.”

  “Did he expect you to do this?”

  “No?”

  “Then why are you… doing this? What compels you to ‘help’ him, as you are so determined to do? Does it benefit you in any way?” Fang asked, genuinely confused.

  “Because I want to? I don't get the question.”

  “I don't get that. Why do you want to? It seems as if this entire debacle is a hindrance on you entirely! It's not only dangerous and unrewarding, but you’re actively going to become weaker at the end. If what you say is correct, you are going to lose your other sword at the end of this! That sword is, dare I say, sturdier than even I! Little could ever damage it, and it is something of a legendary artifact, yet you are going to give it up for no reason! I just don’t get it.”

  “It’s just reciprocity? He saved my life, should I not be grateful?” Dei asked, trying to understand why Fang was getting so heated about this.

  “Reciprocity… Reciprocity. I don’t get that word. I don’t understand it…. I don’t…” Fang said, still frustrated. Dei didn’t think she was mad per se, but she was tense.

  Being kind was so clear to him… ‘Ah, but there’s the issue, isn’t it? Fang is a plant, she doesn’t understand human emotions because she doesn’t have the connections to the virtues and vices. Since humans have a Kindness affinity, reciprocity is built into us, but Fang is a plant. She has no sense of Justice, Kindness, or Love. She can’t understand companionship or relational bonds…’

  This entire time, Dei was seeing Fang as another of his friends, without even considering that she likely did not see him as the same. She physically can’t understand his point of view, because it’s not coded into her like it is to him

  He almost wanted to ignore it and move on, but he had to ask. “Fang, once you have enough Soul mana from me, what do you intend to do?”

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  Confused at the change of topic, she responded “What do you mean? Whatever I want.”

  “Yes, but will you continue along with me?”

  “No? Of course not. Why would I continue on with you if you serve no purpose?”

  Dei sensed Fendrascora and Clever wince at the same time as Dei’s shoulders slumped. “I think I get it. Different beings have different emotions and goals. For me, Aloran is a friend, and so are you. Since you both are my friends, I would do things at my detriment to help you, and I would want to continue holding a friendship with you, even if it wasn’t monetarily beneficial to me. You can’t understand that though, because you don't have a connection to Kindness, or one of the other Virtues that helps with thinking like that.”

  Fang was silent for a while, processing what he was saying. “Explain it to me.”

  “Explain what?”

  “Virtues. Kindness. Explain them. I hold a connection to Sloth, as all plants do, and I understand the logical use of Vices, but every time I hear of you deepening your connection to a Virtue it seems… nonsensical. What is the logic behind it?”

  Dei sighed. “I cant explain that, Fang. There’s no way to explain it. Look, sometimes I can glean information from studying individual pieces of mana. I’ll give you a point of Fortitude and Kindness mana, and you can study those.” He said, quickly Sectioning off and sending over the two individual points.

  He sensed the frustration in Fang at being unable to understand Dei’s reasoning, and he felt the same. Though it was hard to process, she physically could not feel companionship towards him. Dei likened it to when people kept reptiles in his previous world. While the reptiles couldn’t feel love or gratitude, the humans still loved them nonetheless.

  Even if Fang didn’t consider him a friend, he would watch out for her and make sure she was okay for as long as she was under his care. When she wanted to part ways, he would make sure to plant her somewhere she could flourish and be safe.

  He sighed. The thought of leaving one of his new friends behind was just… sad to him. He was sure he’d make it back to society somehow and make new friends, but those he cared about right now were few and far between.

  Glancing at Clever, he asked “You like me, right buddy?”

  “Yes! Love you!” He said happily, rubbing his head against Dei’s cheek from his spot on Dei’s shoulder. That made Dei smile, and he pet his little friend.

  “What about you Fendrascora, do you understand why I’m doing this?” He asked, though he knew the answer based on her memories.

  “Yes. While I’m not a Sapient Race as I don't have a connection to all the Virtues and Vices, Embodiments are still connected to a few. Kindness is one.”

  “What are the others?” Dei asked.

  “It differs for all of us, but I personally am connected to Justice, Kindness, Patience, Greed, Envy, and Gluttony.”

  “I see… that’s still a well-rounded set of feelings, though quite mild. Things like Wrath and Love tend to spike ones emotions.”

  Fendrascora sent back a mental nod “Yes, from the messages you send, I imagine that your emotions are much more… intense. Despite my natural affinity to Envy though, I do not envy you. I enjoy the peace of my mind.”

  He wanted to ask Clever too, but didn’t think he would actually know. Fendrascora knew her own natural affinities because The Mother directly told her, and it didn’t seem like Fang really knew hers at all, just the logic behind Vices. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter to him what Clever had. As long as he thought they were friends, Dei was happy.

  Getting back to the task at hand after their little side-fiasco, Dei brought his attention to the sphere where Amaya was. With Fendrascora’s permission, he was placed upon the back of her peripheral body once more, and they walked towards the messed-up cave system.

  “Alright, brace for anything!” he sent to the others, getting confirmation from each of them as Fendrascora carried them across the threshold into the disjointed caves.

  [You have entered the Convergence of Geometry]

  The notification popped up in front of him, and he immediately told Fendrascora to back out as they had to revise their plans.

  When they were outside of the Convergence, Dei quickly reworked it all with his group. Convergences tended to have monsters around them, so now they had to worry about something other than Amaya attacking them. More than that, when Dei sensed the vibrations in the Convergence, he realized that his outer view of it was improper. When he glimpsed the inside of the Convergence, the caves were much differently shaped.

  For whatever reason, the vibrations were not traveling how they normally should in the convergence and gave him inaccurate information, until he took a step in. The caves on the inside were still weirdly shaped, but easier to move around in.

  “Okay guys. Basically, we see how strong the monsters are and potentially work our way to the center. If they’re too strong, we run. Yea?”

  Again they said they understood it, and they moved back into the convergence. Now though, he walked on the ground with his own two feet, leading the way in front so that he could face any monsters that came at them, rather than risk Fendrascora getting hurt. He’d withdrawn Homeostasis from her as well because she no longer needed it to move around, and re-activated it. He might need the healing, and it would help him adjust to any unexpected developments.

  It was good that he’d reactivated Homeostasis, because the moment he stepped across the threshold, the world literally spun around him instantly, and he was now facing ninety degrees to the left of the direction he’d originally faced. Almost immediately he lost his balance, but Fendrascora held him up, making sure he was alright.

  When he was rebalanced, he saw that now the entire world outside of the Geometry Convergence was disjointed and wrong to his Tremor Sense, while the inside looked… still odd, but continuous.

  Now that he knew what he was working with, he could plan out where to go. It was strange though, Dei couldn’t see monsters at all with his Tremor Sense.

  Was it possible that there were no Geometry Monsters? It was true that the affinity was unusual… but surely not impossible to take advantage of. Life flourished everywhere.

  There were sparse few plants around the cave, so he knew it was possible for life to exist.

  He’d just have to keep an eye out.

  Clever said that he, too, had significant trouble with the transition between the normal world and the Geometry convergence, as the flow of heat in the air abruptly changed. Fang was unbothered, but Fendrascora cried out in glee as her EXP shot up from simply walking into this Convergence. It was such a wildly different experience that it was finally enough to push her past her first evolutionary threshold.

  [Corrupted Damaged Careful Embodiment of the Flow - Level 117]

  And not by a small margin either. The “Crippled” adjective was replaced with “Careful,” meaning that she could now leave Dei’s body without dying if he managed to find another source of flowing water. That was good because he didn’t want a repeat of the Lani situation, where he dragged her somewhere that only he was built to survive.

  “Everyone fully adjusted?” Dei asked, once more getting yeses all around.

  Finally making some progress after being stuck outside of the convergence for an hour, he began to note the different oddities of the convergence.

  For one, the floor and walls were just barely stretched out wrong, making the tunnel longer than it should be

  As he watched the outside world with Tremor Sense, he saw that he was not traveling as objectively far as he would normally be. The area inside was bigger than the area outside.

  After walking a distance, he took a left and once more nearly fell on his ass as the world reoriented itself to his Tremor Sense, making him now completely vertical.

  ‘Ugh. I think I’m gonna throw up.’

  Slowly getting back to his feet and seeing that Clever was struggling too, it frustrated him how easily he was being completely debilitated, and not even by a monster! He’d fought monsters hundreds of levels above him, swarms of creatures, he was wearing the skin of a creature that looked straight out of the Cretaceous period, yet he couldn’t walk forward in a weirdly shaped tunnel.

  When he was once more adjusted, he started walking forwards again but Fendrascora stopped him.

  “Fang says she senses something. She told me to stop you while she searched around.”

  He scoured the entire tunnel but nothing really popped out to him… something did bother him though,but he couldn’t pinpoint what, and he didn’t sense any vibrations from movement, other than Dei himself and his group.

  Luckily, fang quickly spoke up. “There is a magical signature in the wall forward and to the left” she said, beaming the exact distance into his head.

  He didn’t see or sense anything, but he trusted her to be correct.

  “Got any suggestion of what to do?”

  He asked

  “I am unsure. I specialize in manipulating the emotions of others. Perhaps I can force it to panic and show itself? I don’t believe we should run, as it does not seem particularly powerful.”

  “Well, as good a plan as any. Go for it.”

  Half a beat later, the wall in front of him and to the left rapidly expanded outwards, like a balloon being inflated. With his Soul Sight, he observed that a soul exited the wall, but he was only able to get the general outline of it, as it was quite blurry. Physically, he saw no body at all, but he quickly cast a Wrath-powered Identify, fighting through the wave of hatred that flowed through him the moment it was cast.

  The spiritual defenses of the creature fell immediately, and its blurry soul shape became much clearer for a time. Ignoring that a moment, he tried to glean what the hell he was looking at.

  [Trosk - Level 65

  Trosks are unique creatures composed entirely of mana, taking on the properties of whatever mana type they are formed from. They tend to be harmless filter feeders that actively avoid fighting whenever possible, absorbing and sustaining themselves on their chosen mana type. This particular Trosk is formed of Geometric Mana, giving it a more angular shape and allowing for it to manipulate the shapes of objects]

  ‘Composed entirely of mana, the one thing I can't sense! What are the chances that I’m attacked by my only weakness in an environment that is already actively working against me. At least it says they avoid fights.’

  He watched it crawl out of the wall, and he was now able to get a better look at its shape. It looked kind of like Gargeth, the Body Melder he’d met after killing the Wraith. There was a central orb to it with four tentacles that held it up, but the tentacles also looked mildly crystalline in shape, with sharp angles and edges all along it. The central part was perfectly spherical, but the limbs were spikey.

  Once it was free of the wall, the Trosk paused for a second and he thought it was looking at him. Contrary to its description though, the Trosk ran straight towards him, whipping its limbs at his head.

  ‘This Convergence is bullshit.’