Rules of Biomancy: A LitRPG Healer Fantasy

Elijah didn’t mean to delve into his mind, to remove his consciousness from the physical realm and look within, but it happened regardless. Maybe it was some primal defense mechanism, perhaps it was the years before he’d sealed his core where he had used it to relax, or maybe it was just regular fear that made him want to do the mental equivalent of going into the fetal position.

Whatever it was, it didn’t keep him safe.

The eye of the Dungeon looked upon him, the floating pupil floating above him in his mental realm. It was massive, bigger than a mountain, bigger than the world, bigger than anything could conceivably be, and it was looking down at him. He felt like an ant, a creature able to be crushed with nothing but a thought.

Maybe he could, while he was here. Elijah didn’t want to consider the possibility.

‘Won’t crush. You’re not unwanted.’

At the very first syllable heard, he could feel the headache growing into something worthy of splitting his skull in half, yet it faded as quickly as it had appeared. The Dungeon realized what it was doing and scaled back its presence into something that wasn’t immediately painful.

‘And here I thought I’d adjusted to hearing your voice without nearly dying from it,’ Elijah commented, idly noting the nosebleed he’d gained in the physical realm. He briefly connected to his shell again, assuring the others it was fine and he would need some time to talk to the Dungeon, before returning to the entity that floated above him. ‘Is there a chance you can keep it to this level next time we talk as well? I don’t want to bleed out of my eyes if I have a choice in the matter.’

‘Maybe. Voice louder closer to heart. You were far away before. High above. Now you are close,’ the Dungeon replied. It was… surprisingly eloquent compared to the previous conversations he’d had with the entity. ‘You stand where the unwanted stood. No unwanted have visited here. Are they removed?’

It searched through his memories, but the dungeon couldn’t find what it sought until Elijah pointed it toward the night of the summoning. He could feel its glee at the sight of Harper slicing the throat of a Royal Mage that it recognized, as more and more of the traitors fell in battle, and when the final moment came where Rubeus was struck down by Phillip, it could barely contain itself.

‘Calm yourself,’ Elijah requested when he felt blood vessels on the brink of bursting once more. The Dungeon, realizing this, toned it down again. ‘The people who caused all of this are gone, I can promise you. I watched most of their deaths myself and the remaining were executed not long after. The people who harmed you are dead.’

‘I know. I’m happy. This is good. Unwanted are gone. Soul is whole again,’ the Dungeon said in quick succession. It returned to his mind once again, freezing at the moment where the Ancient Tarrasque had looked at Elijah and the others. ‘I wondered. The Void took her. New experience. She has been claimed.’

Elijah was granted the experience of watching the Tarrasque be swallowed up by a hive of black ichor at the bottom floor in the Dungeon. Seeing it from every angle at once was a disturbing experience, and even more when the entity had tried and failed to stop the darkness consuming the boss. It had felt fear of losing control, of losing its oldest creature, of losing one of the pillars of—

He was pushed out of the Dungeon’s memories before he could fully understand what he saw and heard. The Dungeon hadn’t meant for him to see all of that, Elijah hadn’t tried to dig deeper. It’s just… happened.

‘You are not human,’ the Dungeon stated. For a third time, it delved into his memories of that dreadful night, now looking at the near-death experience that had occurred in the alley. Elijah felt tense as he relived the spear of blood piercing through his body, how he felt the life drain from his body while Dawn tried to force him to do something. He could even remember it from her perspective now, how she had been desperate, how she’d wanted him to stay above everything else, and she had forced that into reality by replacing the flesh lost. ‘You’re an extension. Anomaly. Different. Unresponsive to the call. One of the pillars?’

‘He’s mine!’

Dawn?

‘Link of a link? Anomaly of an anomaly? The pillar to what isn’t meant to be?’

‘I’m a duck.’

‘How strange.’

‘Would you mind explaining what you’re talking about?’ Elijah asked, not having a grand time being the medium between the two non-human entities. While Dawn’s words could travel through him without any consequences, the Dungeon’s resounded inside his Core with a heavier touch than what he was comfortable with. Already, the surface of the magical structure was starting to show signs of strain. ‘What you’re saying doesn’t make sense.’

‘There is no sense in this. You are an anomaly,’ the Dungeon replied, its sentences growing longer. Was it… learning? ‘Human speech is weird. Overly complex. Old better. But you don’t understand the old. You need more words to understand that I don't understand.’

‘So this is entirely new to you as well?’

‘Yes. Humans are food. Humans are not to be talked to.’

‘But you don’t see me as human anymore.’

‘I did. You changed. Now I don’t,’ the Dungeon explained. ‘My mistake. You heard me. Humans shouldn’t hear me.’

‘Is that some ancient rule for Dungeons?’

‘Not sure. Humans die when I talk to them. Spoils them. Gives no food. No point in talking.’

To illustrate their point, Elijah was forced to experience the dozen early attempts by the Dungeon to contact the humans that entered its domain. It was before the grand city above had been built, with dirt-covered men cautiously stepping into the darkness. The Dungeon had spoken, they had screamed, their eyes, noses, and mouths had bled, and they all succumbed to the presence of the entity. There was no mercy, nothing gained from the actions.

It hadn’t felt the euphoria of a kill, of attaining another slice of energy for its stores. The Dungeon had seen no point in contact, had seen nothing to gain from it, until the instant the unwanted had settled into their domain. It had seen as they traveled through the body, had seen as they fought the toughest of battles, as they resisted its attempts for a juicy meal, but the first years had still proved worth it. Enough died to replace the costs of luring in the food, enough came that it could expand its reservoirs, that it could feed those who had been most loyal, that it could feel its heart grow stronger.

Thoughts had started to give rise to nuance, and it had started to recognize humans as being different. It saw the strong and weak, saw the outfits, saw the ways they fought. The Dungeon copied it as the guardians were mutated, as they became mirrors of what it saw, what it absorbed. It grew… curious about the food, even if they would succumb if it contacted them.

But then the food lashed out. The Dungeon accepted that the food took the lures back, that the shining rock was dug out and the guardians hollowed. It was a way of its existence. But that they cut out a chunk of its own body? That the food forced the entity to feel years upon years of torture, as a part of its very being was removed from its control? That could never be forgiven.

And when a small smidge of food, an old weak one had changed into something that could talk to the world? It got curious. The Dungeon had seen those flashes of war in those instants; it had looked into the mind of the curiosity, and it had understood that the slice of food hadn’t succumbed to its presence alone.

An anomaly. One to be used to gain back what was lost.

‘But now you’ve regained your body, and we’ve both changed because of it,’ Elijah concluded, the Dungeon agreeing. Elijah had gained the ability to sense the presence of the entity in much more detail than Alin could hope for. When compared to the fact that Elijah was positively blind relative to Alin’s usual magical senses, it was clear something was different. ‘Do you want to try reversing it?’

‘I don’t think I can,’ the Dungeon replied, giving off waves of dissatisfaction because of it. ‘We are changed. We are altered. Can’t go back. You are a pillar now.’

Elijah wasn’t a fan of the cryptic title.

‘What does being a pillar entail?’ he asked.

‘Unsure. You have the breath of creation now. Somewhat. Will fix. Linked to a link. An anomaly. A pillar.’

‘Well, that’s just great,’ Elijah cursed, the Dungeon radiating confusion as it had to figure out the intricacies of sarcasm. Was this just a bigger version of Dawn all over again? He wasn’t sure he could handle that. ‘Can I ask what you’re planning to do, now that you’ve gotten back this part of your body?’

‘Return it to what it was. Return to original path. Become ideal.’

‘You want to grow bigger?’

‘Yes. No. Maybe? The path has not yet been decided.’

‘But you know if you’re on it regardless?’

‘Yes.’

Once again, Elijah felt his head start to ache, as concepts not meant for human minds were forced into his brain. The Dungeon was trying to explain with words he’d never heard, words he would never understand, showing him more figures in more dimensions than there were meant to be. It nearly broke him, yet the fact he had a smidge of understanding by the end scared him even more.

‘Humans want to grow,’ the Dungeon mentioned once Elijah calmed down again. ‘You are no longer human. You think like a human. You want to grow.’

Was it meant to be a question? Elijah couldn’t tell anymore.

‘I want to fulfill the promises I’ve made,’ he explained. ‘Since that seems to include growing more powerful, I suppose that’s one of my goals.’

It was one of the many reasons he had wanted to delve into the depths with Alin and the others. While the density of energy inside the Dungeon was much higher than what the outside could ever hope for, the requirements for him to grow his Core grew exponentially each time he did it. The density found on the first few floors no longer fulfilled those requirements.

But down here, on the precise halfway point to the bottom of the Dungeon? That was no longer a problem in the slightest.

‘Inefficient,’ the Dungeon commented, looking through the technique’s methods. It had better ideas, but it likewise could not fix what had already been started. Nobody could. ‘If you want power, I can give it. Boon for removing the unwanted. Start the process.’

A reward for his work? Elijah saw the implications for accepting it, but he knew it hardly mattered anyway. Whatever this connection was, it had already been forged. He was closer to the Dungeon than any other human had ever been, and he had to work with that fact if he wanted to progress with his abilities.

Giving a muttered warning to those who sat around his body, watching him intently, he dived back into his mind and brought out the Core. It shined brightly while inside the Dungeon, energy not his own cycling through with rapid speeds. His body loved the abundance of Mana to take from, harness, and use in his flesh. It was as addicting as it was dangerous in the long term, his flesh ready to cry out when he left the depths behind again.

No matter.

‘Do you do this every time you grow?’ Dawn asked as she floated beside him. The two watched as the surface of his Core was pushed away from the rest. A thick layer had already been created to keep the former crystal formations in place, while he expanded the space able to be used. ‘Looks sharp.’

‘Crystals usually are,’ Elijah replied, holding Dawn in place to stop her from floating closer to his work. The duck seemingly had no qualms about trying to poke at the delicate operation, something he had no intention of letting her do. ‘This is my Core, Dawn. If you touch it, this can go very badly.’

‘The link can touch. I will not allow the growth to collapse.’

Right. Elijah felt his domain shake as the great eye above materialized once again, the foreign influences steadily growing stronger as it kept his work in check. While he personally thought he was doing a fine job of creating an even sphere that would become the new surface for his Core, the Dungeon made it perfect.

Near-perfect, at least, the small flaws were wiped away as it made a thousand small adjustments in the span of a single breath. Elijah almost tried to fight it, but he stopped his own manipulations from happening. The Dungeon understood what he was trying to do. It had read his mind, read his memories regarding the technique. While he thought himself somewhat experienced in the natural paths of Mana, he was nothing in comparison to the Entity that floated above him.

‘Accept the boon.’

Elijah did his best to do as much, as he watched the swirling of Mana steadily enter from outside his physical shell. Going by the pressure on his skin, actual wind might’ve even manifested outside from the focus that the Dungeon was giving him. It was… Elijah didn’t know how to describe it.

What was an ant supposed to feel, when the sun said its name?

Time became an illusion as they worked. The space between the old layer and the newly forged surface was filled with the ambient Mana, curated by the Dungeon and filled to the point of absolute perfection. Elijah could feel himself grow wary of the density, but the entity thought it safe. Everything was controlled to such a degree that he couldn’t help but trust it.

Crystalize.

The first time he’d used this technique to grow his Core, it had created jagged crystals with little in the way of an overarching pattern. It was pure chaos, Elijah having used the ambient energies of the world together with the residue gained from the killing of monsters. No balance, but it had worked regardless and allowed him to grow stronger.

The second time, it was inside the Dungeon. It had proven slightly more systematic in the way everything crystalized, but the variables of chaos were still present. The final product had shown off some amount of systematic growth, but it had still been random and uneven in the end.

And now, with the third repeat of the technique? Elijah hadn’t expected much difference in comparison to the last one, but… he was wrong.

Very wrong.

This wasn’t random. There was nothing random about these structures, about these lines that ran across his Core, but he couldn’t understand what they were meant to do. These were sigils, the kind of runes that the Royal Mages spent their days drawing in the Academy, and yet they were also so distinct in comparison. This… it didn’t look like something meant to be made by human hands.

‘It’s not,’ the Dungeon confirmed, as it continued to guide the crystal formations into a shape only it could understand. Such control was meant to break the rules of the growth technique since nature was meant to decide the final shapes by itself, but Elijah supposed that the Dungeon was close enough as well. ‘Nature is different. Human touch is just wrong.’

‘Care to elaborate? I know there’s several Royal Mages around me that would love to know.’

‘You almost broke when I started. They would not survive.’

… Elijah decided not to force the topic, instead watching silently as the final sections of the crystals were completed. He still couldn’t understand the sigils that glowed of their own volition, but some enlightenment could hopefully arrive further down the line.

With the crystals put into place, and the surface of the Core hardened, the last step was to slowly cycle his own Mana through the new growth. This was the easiest part, the Dungeon not interfering as Elijah allowed the new shapes to assimilate with his touch. It was a strange experience, the crystals felt different compared to the previous rounds of this, but he followed through regardless. There wasn’t any chance of stopping now regardless.

And, when he finally felt safe with his new modifications, he returned to his physical shell and opened his eyes.

The darkness that surrounded him was the first sign something had changed. His limbs felt dead from how long he’d been settled on the ground, but that hardly mattered as he blinked out the tiredness from his eyes.

With a mild groan as his back arched, Elijah started to get up before he froze. His hand had touched the floor, where he expected that white marble from before but instead he found nothing but rough rock.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Alin’s voice, accompanied by a fairy light turned on once again. It allowed Elijah to see the natural cave around them without using his magical senses. The others were there as well, though Aleksi was currently providing cushioning for Grace’s sleeping figure.

“How long was I out?” Elijah asked, noting the cold air as well. It was such a drastic change compared to the living room temperature that had filled the cavern before, but he supposed the Dungeon didn’t normally provide such luxuries.

“Close to five hours, if my watch hasn’t been broken by the Mana down here,” Alin replied, chuckling at the look on Elijah’s face. “When you said you could talk to the Dungeon, I wasn’t sure how much I believed it. You had been communicating with something, there was no question about that, but this… it’s an incredible sight.”

“Was it painful?” Tina asked, the old Mage looking at him with pure curiosity. “You were muttering several times through your trance, and those initial nose-bleeds can’t have come from nowhere.”

“Not painful in the physical sense,” Elijah explained, looking at his hands. They were surprisingly sensitive to the rough texture of the stone, everything feeling like pins and needles. “It was closer to having to survive to a powerful presence while you can’t shield yourself in the slightest.”

“I’ll believe that,” Alin commented with a chuckle, continuing at Elijah’s confused look. “The Dungeon doesn’t usually manipulate the area where people are, but this far down you can see that it does subtly change around other parts of a cavern if you wait long enough. And yet… halfway through your trance, your friend decided to pick up the slack and change, well, everything.

Looking back, the spiral staircase that could lead them away from the Dungeon was still there, but it was hidden behind a curve in the tunnel. A classic method used.

Which begged the question of why Elijah knew it was still there when he could readily recognize that it was hidden from his eyes.

‘You have become a pillar. This is expected. Consider it a part of the boon.’

“How strange,” Elijah muttered, making the eyes of the others grow even more curious. “My work is done, and I’m guessing you can all accept the removal of the hidden workspace as well?”

“... Quite,” Alin agreed, rising from his position. The others looked like they wanted to bombard Elijah with another thousand questions, but the leader of the Royal Mages still needed to be respected. Thinking of Elijah before all else, the Earth Mage ordered silence regarding this connection. “Let's hope this new growth spurt of yours can prove valuable to the cause.”

Elijah agreed, following the others out of the cavern. Grace wasn’t awake through any of it, the young woman’s previous habits of skipping nights of sleep knocking her out cold during the hours of darkness.

And maybe that was for the best. If she’d been awake, he didn’t doubt she wouldn’t have respected Alin’s wishes about not pestering him about what had happened.

… But, she isn’t too wrong either.

Even if he was tired, he had grown a little curious as well. And, from what he could see on his Status, that curiosity could only grow stronger.

Name: Elijah Caede

Affinity: Biomancy

Mana: 1041

Spells:

[Accelerate Growth](Tier 1)

[Plant Bond](Tier 1)

[Animal Bond](Tier 2)

[Plant Storage](Tier 2)

[Breathe Life](Tier 4)

Titles:

[Dungeon Pillar]

A hefty upgrade to his Mana, a Tier 4 spell, and a Title of all things? The first was expected, the second better than he could’ve ever dreamt about, but the third… It was a frightening thought that the world deemed his connection to the Dungeon worthy of a Title, something only meant for the few who caused drastic changes in the lands.

I’m not sure this can end well anymore.