Chapter 58-Conundrum (Patreon)

            Four humans moved through folded space into the mage tower near the Great Black Tree Labyrinth. As they did so, the labyrinth human yelled out, “WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE ARE WE? IS THIS PART OF THE LABYRINTH?”

            Claude was disturbed, and he told the tier-two mages, “I will mark your mission as complete, as a speaking labyrinth human takes precedence over the mission we were both given. Go get medical treatment.”

            The couple said, “Thank you.” They quickly left to get their injuries looked after and fill out the forms necessary to allow Albert to get the attention of a tier-three mage capable of regrowing his arm.

            As they left, the essence human yelled out, “CAN YOU HEAR ME! WHAT HAPPENED?”

            Claude turned to him and said, “Will you be quiet for a moment?”

            “No, I will not. Who are you? Why can't I feel the nudging of the dungeon anymore?”

            Claude paused for a second. There were many ways for him to deal with this disrespectful upstart, but most of them were fatal, or would make this thing unconscious for a period of time. After a moment of consideration, Claude decided to use his growth magic to grow a piece of vine to gag the labyrinth human.

            As soon as the essence creature was gagged, Claude bent space and began looking for one of the five-thousand-year-old tier-three mages. It wasn’t too difficult as each one had a staff to handle their day-to-day affairs, and Claude knew the location of several of their offices. That said, all tier-three mages, especially ones so old, were busy people, and so it still took a few tries to find one that was working with their staff.

            Eventually, he found Athur, who looked rather surprised when he saw Claude’s face through folded space. Athur asked, “What is so important that a third-tier needs my attention?”

            “I am sorry to bother you, but I have stumbled upon a situation that is way beyond my authority to handle. In fact, it’s a situation that may need an immortal's attention.”

            Athur frowned and asked, “Is there rebellion, or perhaps a dungeon is poisoning the land?”

            “No. A dungeon has produced a labyrinth human with the ability to speak and think on their own.”

            Athur’s eyes went wide, then he stepped through folded space and said, “Show me.”

            Claude pointed to the labyrinth human, and Athur responded by using his growth core and wand to make the gag disappear. Then he asked, “What is your name?”

            “I am Ernest. Where am I? Who are you?”

            The mage smiled and said, “I am Athur. You are in the mage tower outside of the Great Black Tree Labyrinth.”

            “Wait, I am outside the labyrinth. Is that why I can't feel the dungeon?”

            “Yes.”

            “I want to go back.”

            “Why?”

            “The dungeon was my friend, and I have family back in there.”

            Athur was shocked, and didn’t think he understood, so he asked, “What do you mean the dungeon was your friend? And what do you mean that you have family?”

            “Whenever the dungeon wanted to talk to us, he would nudge us, and then talk to us through the face bear. The face bear could speak, and it taught us many things. As for family, that was my mom and dad, and brothers and sisters. I also had friends in the dungeon as well.”

            Athur and Claude looked at each other, and Claude was the first to speak, “This is incredibly abnormal for a dungeon.”

            Athur turned back to Ernest and asked, “Did the dungeon tell you why he was teaching you things?”

            “Yes. He said that in the world he comes from, they had machines that were able to do math, and once a machine is able to do enough math, it can think. He wanted to make some thinking machines, but he said he didn’t understand things well enough to make them by himself, so he wants our help.”

            Athur turned to Claude and asked, “Thinking machines? But it’s a lightning dungeon, not a steam dungeon.”

            “The labyrinth had a machine that seemed to move with electricity; perhaps the same principles can make a thinking machine.”

            “I think we need an immortal to weigh in on this. If it were just the talking labyrinth human, we could leave them alone. You know the prevailing theory on how humanity got our first spells was that a dungeon made a human millions of years ago before the immortals came about, and eventually they developed speech, and in time produced immortals, and those immortals are trying to bring humanity to new heights. That said a dungeon making machine intelligence is new. Only the immortals have the authority to weigh in on this matter.”

            Claude nodded and said, “I agree.”

            With that, Athur warped space, and in a few minutes, he was talking to an immortal, “I am sorry to bother you, Immortal Athelstan, but I thought the immortals needed to know what was found in the Great Black Tree Labyrinth. During an excursion, they found a labyrinth human with the ability to talk, and this labyrinth human told us that the dungeon was trying to make a machine intelligence.”

            Athelstan walked through folded space and said, “That is new.” Then he turned to Ernest and said, “An earth and wind core. No electric core yet. You also have some interesting adjustments to your flesh, but that’s not important right now. Why does the dungeon need your help making a machine intelligence?”

            Ernest asked, “How did you move like that?”

            “Folding space.”

            “Can you teach me how to do that?”

            “I am afraid not. Although we look the same, you are an essence human, and I am a mana human. I would not be able to create the essence channels you would need to learn folding space. Furthermore, you would never be able to cast tier-three spells because of how cluttered your essence channels already are.”

            Ernest sighed and said, “Aww man.”

            “So, Ernest, I am told the dungeon wants to make machine intelligence.”

            “Yes.”

            “And you are supposed to help.”

            “Yes.”

            “How?”

            “The dungeon wants us to help with the math.”

            “Math.”

            “Yes. He called the math binary, and he wants us to help him make it practical, but he admits it will take decades at least.”

            “How does electricity make the machine think?”

            “I don’t know. The dungeon said there were electrical machines in his world that used binary to think, but he was still trying to figure out how to make it work.”

            Athelstan turned to Claude and asked, “Did you come across any electrical machines?”

            “I think so. One was around a bear, and we think it was using electricity to allow it to float in vacuum, and the other was a fast-moving piece of metal, similar to a cart but far larger. I have them in my storage space if you want to see them.”

            “I do.”

            “There isn’t enough room in here for the metal cart.”

            Immortal Athelstan flared his folding space mana for a moment, and the room grew significantly larger. This was the spell Claude needed to master if he was going to have his familiars be bigger on the inside. It was also the spell that immortals used to make themselves bigger on the inside. One of the advantages of it was that it allowed them to carve every spell they knew into their body, allowing them to cast every spell without a cane or a wand.

            Once the room was finished growing, Claude said, “Thank you.” And began reaching into his storage space.

            Before he could pull out the two items, Ernest yelled out, “WOW, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!”

            The immortal smiled and said, “Lots of mana, and a folding space core. And no, unfortunately, you won't be able to learn it.”

            Ernest just said, “Aw, man.”

            Then Claude pulled the bear and subway car from his storage space, and both fell to the floor.

            Ernest yelled out, “WOW, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!”

            Claude said, “You can’t learn this either.”

            “Aw, man.”

            Immortal Athelstan ignored their conversation and pumped some lightning into the bear, and was surprised to see it begin to float into the air slowly. He then made a vacuum bubble around it and was impressed that it continued floating up.

            After a moment of consideration, he said, “That is impressive.” Then he turned his spell toward the carriage. At first, it did nothing, until some lightning hit the wheels of the carriage and they began turning. Then he said, “I think I will take this with me. I want to learn what principles make this work.”

            Athur asked, “What do you mean?”

            “Steam makes machines move through pressure. I don’t understand why lightning makes the wheels on this carriage move. If I understand it, then I may be able to find a use for lightning warriors.” Then the immortal turned to Claude and asked, “Was there anything else of interest in the labyrinth?”

            “Yes. One of the essence creatures was able to use a spell so powerful that it moved faster than I could perceive with haste times twenty. The essence creature used hit a wall with it, and it moved so quickly that it broke through the wall, turning the wall into very fast moving, dangerous chunks. I think this spell was a mixture of spell and machine, but I can’t know because the spell was so powerful it melted half of the essence creature.”

            “Sounds like this labyrinth will be dangerous for mages. That’s good. As for the spell, or spell weapon combo, it's useless to us until the dungeon makes it so that it doesn’t kill its user. I am sure that sooner or later, the dungeon will figure it out. That said, this dungeon will need some personal attention. I will assign an older tier-three to supervise the evolution of the labyrinth, and to try and make sure that only mages who can survive its dangers can enter. Do you have anything else to add?”

            “No, sir.”

            Ernest asked, “What about me?”

            The Immortal said, “Ernest you don’t have a lot of information that I want, but your flesh is very interesting. Did you know some of humanity's best improvements have come from labyrinth humans.”

            “I didn’t know that. Although to be honest I am not sure what you mean.”

            “Do you know what sex is?”

            “What parents do to make babies.”

            “Yes. Well, I want to see how well my warriors do with your particular improvements, and so you will be having sex with many of my female warriors. Those tasked with having your children will be glad to know that you have a mind, and they won't have to tie you down before forcing you to impregnate them. And yes, whether you had a mind or not, whether you had a demonstrably useful ability or not, we would do this just to see what came out, as occasionally the offspring of labyrinth humans produce useful hybrids. I hope that your children improve our race as a whole.”

            “Will my children be able to learn your spells, or will they be essence humans?”

            “Only creatures made by the dungeon, or born in the dungeon, are essence creatures. Your children will be mana humans, and so they could possibly become mages. If enough of them do, I will personally supervise this labyrinth.”