Mage Tank-Chapter 269: The Not-So-Forbidden Forest

“Right,” I said. “Is this Dungeon the entire Less-Than-Habitable Forest?”

Tavio paused with his mouth open, then grinned and nodded. “It is, yes. The Forest has always been an area of significant mana concentration. It is not much of a surprise that phase two designated the entire area as a Dungeon.”

Tavio stood and produced a large linen map of the southern half of the empire, then placed it against the wall. A hint of mana ran through the thick paper, and the map held itself in place, then various regions lit up with distinct colors and notations marking what skills could be trained in different areas. It made it easy to see how far the Littans had gotten with their exploration, and they had a good idea of what could be found for about a third of the place, all around its outer edge. Everything closer to the center was unlabeled.

Tavio turned to us and folded his arms behind his back. “Before I explain our current evaluation of the Forest’s Dungeon zones, there is a related matter that I would like to address first. It is the reason we are having this meeting now, rather than waiting until we are in Nohrrin.”

“Are you worried about information security?” I asked.

“Always,” said Tavio with a shrug. “But our growing relationship with your party is unique. You have openly provided us with much valuable information, and the empress is in favor of reciprocating without demanding any strict confidentiality. Obviously this means there are things we will not reveal to you, but anything we do share, you are welcome to distribute. We hope that you will do so discreetly and only when necessary, but we are willing to take the risk.”

Tavio watched me for a second to evaluate my reaction. I just gave him a nod and gestured for him to continue.

“To say it simply, what I am about to tell you changes the risk analysis for this venture. I insisted that we share it with you before we set out so that you have the opportunity to withdraw, should you wish. If you do, it will not be held against you.”

“Well, that only makes me more curious,” I said. “Please go on.”

“Of course,” said Tavio. “One of the information packets you shared with us included projected locations for what are being referred to as “monoliths”. Those projections place one such monolith within the borders of Connas.” Tavio pointed to a landlocked nation in the empire’s south-central region. “Specifically, the projection places the monolith very close to the Temple of Yara.” He glanced back at me. “How familiar are you with the Littan faith?”

“I believe Nuralie and Xim are familiar with your scriptures,” I said. “Personally, I’d say I have a moderate understanding of the religion. I’ve only had one chat with Godqueen Yara, but it was brief. She seems like a lovely goddess.”

Both Tavio and Captain Pio stared at me for a moment. Pio then looked at Tavio with the type of expression that probably meant something like, “should I go ahead and kick this blasphemous guy’s ass?”

Tavio held up a hand towards his subordinate and gave her a subtle shake of the head without taking his eyes off of me. “You are being serious,” he said.

“I have a relaxed attitude towards the gods, but I wouldn’t intentionally insult your beliefs,” I said. “Unless they were, you know, really bad beliefs. Like child sacrifice or something.”

“I see,” said Tavio. Captain Pio looked like she was struggling to accept what I’d said as the truth, but her confidence in her CO’s abilities won out in the end. The result was that she began watching me with much more intensity. “I will respect your privacy over the nature of that communion,” said Tavio. “Such things are often very personal.” He collected himself and moved on. “To put things into perspective, while Litta is the seat of the empire’s government, the Temple of Yara in Connas represents the seat of the empire’s religion.

“Given the claimed purpose of these monoliths, such an object would be considered highly profane to the Godqueen. Our theologians believe that if such a thing were to exist anywhere near the temple, it would stand out like a beacon to our seers. Yara would not stand for such corruption so near her main temple.”

I glanced at Xim, who considered Tavio’s words with a contemplative expression. “It’s possible,” she said. “We’ll have to trust your experts, but I’m comfortable assuming they’re correct for the moment.”

Tavio paused to evaluate Xim before continuing. “Your source provided her reasoning for choosing these locations, and if we assume that the monolith cannot exist within the sacred lands around the temple, it alters the projected locations for all of the monoliths. Fortunately, your source provided us with several alternative criteria if her initial estimates were proven incorrect. Using those, we have formulated new predictions.” Tavio tapped the map, and the ink shifted until it displayed all of Arzia.

“The Temple of Yara is approximately the same distance from Hiward as the Timan city of Canotha,” Tavio continued, “which is allegedly the location of one such monolith, and the reason why Canotha was destroyed. This is also the same distance to the central mountain region of Davah, where your source believes a monolith was awakened to serve as an anchor or focal point for the other five monoliths. The projected location near the temple follows if we assume Hiward is at the center of this formation and that ordinary principles of mana weave construction are used. That is to say, a geometric analysis overlaying places of global importance. More or less.”

“Ordinary?” I said. “From my understanding, mana weaves don’t scale to that size. We were surprised when we ran into the weave that covered this entire base, back when it was mostly a scorched mud pit.”

“Yes, this is true,” said Tavio. “However, the empire has made many recent advancements in mana weave integrity at scale. We believe your source is using similar principles, although at a much higher level. Unfortunately, her information only explained enough to lend credence to her claims.” Ꞧἁ𐌽Ｏ𝐛Ё𐌔

“Sounds generous,” said Xim. “For Avarice, anyway.”

“That intelligence wasn’t cheap,” I said. “The least she could do is inadvertently reveal fundamental secrets about the nature of magic.”

Etja raised a hand, and we all waited until Tavio realized he was meant to call on her. “Yes, Lady Nothosis?”

“Just call me Etja, please.” Tavio nodded, and she gave him a bright smile before going on with her question. “Can we get copies of the analysis the empire did on that information? If Avarice gave out some hints about mana weave structures, we might be able to build on your work.”

“I… will see what I can do,” said Tavio. He cleared his throat and prepared to move on, but hesitated when Pio stood from her seat. “Yes, Captain?” he said.

“Apologies, Major,” said Pio. “I wanted a point of clarification.” frёewebnoѵēl.com

“Go on.”

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“I was never briefed on the identity of Fortune’s Folly’s source in this matter. From what I am hearing now, it sounds as though that source is someone named Avarice.”

“That is how it sounds, yes,” said Tavio. “Was that your question?”

“No, sir,” she said. “Is Avarice a code name? It sounds similar to… the names I have heard for certain types of entities in other briefs.”

I decided to field the question on Tavio’s behalf. “Avarice is an avatar. But of the five we’ve met, she’s probably the most agreeable.”

“Five?” said Pio, a bit too loudly.

“Is that all, Captain?” asked Tavio. Pio gave him a stiff nod and sat back down. “Does anyone else require a clarification?” He looked around, but we kept our silence. “Very well.

“If the temple cannot be the location of a monolith,” he continued, “then we believe the mana weave theory becomes flawed. Avarice suggested that the next most likely scenario is that the monoliths will have a distribution that encompasses the largest number of living creatures, cross-referenced with areas of high mana concentration. This conforms to what we know about the anchor monolith in Davah and the first connected monolith in Timagrin. It does not change the projection for monoliths to exist in Ayama and Hiward, although it broadens their potential locations.

“As for Eschendur and the empire, this approach radically changes the predictions. Rather than one monolith for each, a single monolith can be placed along the border to encompass both. The Eschen Gap is likely, but there are several places along the center of the Right Hand mountains that would work.”

“That’s pretty far from any major population centers,” I said.

“Humanoid life is not the determining factor for this scenario,” said Tavio. “It is concerned with living things in general. Regardless, such a location is equidistant to both the Eschen capital of Eschengal and the Littan capital of Tarras. Avarice was silent about the implications of each monolith having a range of several hundred miles, or even what effects being within range of a monolith might have on a person. Outside of Canotha, Timagrin and Mittak appear unaffected. Even so, this has led to many analysts losing a great deal of sleep.”

I was fascinated by what Tavio was telling us. The party hadn’t done much work on the information Avarice had handed us in exchange for personal interviews and a few answers from Big Dread. While we were competent, we were nowhere close to being the right people for that job. This kind of thing was exactly why we’d handed it off to Hiward and the Littans, since each of the global superpowers had high-Level Delvers dedicated to dealing with this kind of thing.

Nuralie tapped a claw against the tabletop in a thoughtful rhythm. “What about the oceans?” she asked. “There is much life in the sea.”

“An excellent question, Inquisitor Vyxmeldo’a,” said Tavio. “This distribution accounts for all major reefs around Arzia. The majority reside in the waters around Hiward. There are many off the southern coast of Timagrin as well, which is why we believe Canotha was chosen, despite being an awkward location if one were trying to encompass all of Timagrin and Mittak. While Mittak is the home of two sentient civilizations, life in that area is sparse.”

“All right,” I said. “That leaves one monolith unaccounted for, and one major landmass without a monolith.”

“It does, yes,” said Tavio. “Despite its name, the Less-Than-Habitable Forest is quite habitable. Not so much for people, but mana monsters and fiends take quite well to the environment. If anything, it is the densest area of living entities on the planet. That we know of, of course.”

“Hmm,” said Varrin. “The Forest is the size of the empire and Eschendur put together. Even if there is a monolith within, it is unlikely to be found.”

Tavio nodded along with what Varrin was saying, then looked up like he was trying to decide if he’d forgotten anything important. He turned to the map and poked it until it returned to an illustration of the Forest. The silence stretched on awkwardly until Captain Pio started looking between me and Tavio, probably deciding whether she should say something to fill the space.

Xim broke the silence and waved at the map. “Does this remind anyone of the presentation Umi-Doo gave us before heading to the Ravvenblaq mountains?” she asked.

I thought back on our meeting with Hiward’s Director of Central prior to the ill-fated venture that led us to The Cage. “Huh,” I grunted. “These locations line up with the places Hognay was kicking around before we ran into him in The Toxic Grotto.”

“We have actually conferred with Hiward’s CDA,” said Tavio. “Director Umi-Doo is cautiously optimistic about this analysis.”

“Sounds like his kind of thing,” said Xim.

“All right,” I said. “You’re telling us all of this so we can make an informed decision about whether we want to proceed or back out?”

“This is correct.”

“Well, I appreciate the warning, but we were already prepared to head into a mega-Dungeon located in one of the world’s most dangerous natural habitats. Might as well throw in the potential for running into an avatar or army of Davahns while we’re at it.”

“We haven’t fought an avatar or any divine spawn in six months,” said Xim. “We’re practically overdue.” Captain Pio looked at Xim with a strange expression before regaining her composure.

Tavio just gave us a smile. “I did not expect this would scare you off,” he said. “But now my ass is covered, so to speak. Besides, as Lord Ravvenblaq has said, the Forest is very large. Right now we are very close to the Gap and the potential monolith there. Unless our expeditions are an unprecedented success, we will never be as close to the center of the Forest.”

“Tavio, are you tempting fate on purpose right now?” I asked.

“I have never sparred with an entire forest,” he said with a grin. “Perhaps I am trying to agitate fate.” No one returned the man’s smile. He sighed and moved on. “Any questions, or shall we proceed to discussing what we know about the Forest itself?”

Varrin spoke up. “Does this change the overall mission?”

“No. Much of this is speculative, and our priority will remain Dungeon exploration. If we smell anything out of the ordinary, we will be expected to report it. No one will be questing for a hidden totem of power, just taking advantage of the Dungeons and documenting what we find.”

“Then I think we’re good to proceed,” I said.

“Excellent,” said Tavio. He turned back to the map and pointed to one of the empire’s vassals, abutting the Forest’s northeastern side. “The kingdom of Nohrrin sits on the Forest’s border, so we have much experience traversing the Forest’s outer edge. The deeper areas are not well-charted, and very few have ever travelled to the Forest’s central region. Among those we know of are the late Emperor Valerus, King Ayamari, and Matriarch Heronwyte. Needless to say, these are all very powerful individuals. None have been to the center since its transition into a Dungeon.

“For the last century, the Forest has been the empire’s primary source of mana-rich materials,” Tavio continued. “But as you just mentioned, it is very dangerous. Until now, it was deemed more trouble than it was worth to send out any significant military expeditions. There is, however, an association of independent Delvers who operate out of Nohrrin’s capital, Krimsim. They have been responsible for harvesting what they can from the Forest for many decades.”

“I assume the Dungeon designation has changed that,” I said.

“It has,” said Tavio. “The Forest is now not only a territory rich in resources, but also an incredible training ground for advanced Delvers. Littan Delving is managed by the military, which means the Forest is now an asset that falls under our authority. Even if we had no interest in it, the Forest has become our legal responsibility. That would be true even in absence of this speculation about the monolith.”

“How do the adventurers in Krimsim feel about that?” I asked.

“Adventurers,” said Tavio. “An interesting way to describe them. They are still operating, but are more restricted. There is some chafing, but enough opportunity exists for everyone to stay happy at the moment.”

Tavio ran his finger along the Forest’s edge, which was cleanly labeled. “The regions which border the empire contain five primary zones, each of which corresponds to one of the five magic schools. It is deadly for those with low skill levels, but nothing that your party or Team Pio should struggle to traverse.” He traced his finger inward, where the areas were smaller, more numerous, and still had names. “After that, there are various Dungeon zones dedicated to crafting. This is where many valuable materials can be found, most of which require the relevant skill to safely extract or use.”

He traced his finger further inward, about one-quarter of the way to the Forest’s center, where the map only had about half of the regions filled in. “After that are the combat zones.” He glanced back at us as he tapped the map. “This is where the true danger begins.”