Fanfic (Azarinth Healer)

Chapter 9 - Back to the Start

I flew back to Stormbreach and spammed small rifts downwards till one found the Temple of the Void Dungeon.

Breathing in the musty stale air made me feel nostalgic. Months spent searching these halls with nothing but a short range teleport, some void magic, and a flameless torch. I grabbed some void root for old times' sake, it was as tasteless as I remembered.

I rifted down to the corpse of the potato and found it had vanished beneath the rubble. I scouted with rifts, the structure kept going down to a massive lake, with an alter before it. That sounded like the home of a really nasty creature but the in between was crawling with weird slug squids that oozed void magic. They were level 190.

I stripped naked to not ruin my combat robe and rifted it to me. It got a little kinky trying to eat me with void tendrils but it wasn't killing me which was good. I have no idea why my sorcerous Grace leveled up from that but it did. I just sat there scouting around with rifts while it tried and failed to eat me.

There it was! Now I got to wait on the null forged body to level. I sat there wondering if actual sex was this dull. I never had much interest and having my body explored like this only made me less interested. It was weird because I definitely wasn't Ace. I liked girls, so I couldn't be Ace. I had once chalked up my disinterest to dysphoria, but I hadn't experienced any since the poison dungeon. Hmmm.

Fucking finally, I was so bored I was introspecting on my sense of self. I turned my shroud on and hurled some ice at the slug-squid. It wasn't even strong enough to level me. I also got dressed in my priestess robe.

What was left on the list, void manipulation to 20 and do something impressive, possibly another three mark kill. I formed my void halo and started killing things exclusively with my manipulation. I got two levels in my ice magic class by the time my manipulation hit 20. Over half of my void skills were at max which was perfect.

Against my better judgement it seemed like that lake would have something impressive and dangerous, which is what I wanted for my last check box. So I rifted to that alter. The flow of space around the water here was... wrong. I was getting dizzy trying to spot what was off. Space folded into itself at angles that don't exist, and in those infinite folds was the void as if reality was a piece of paper that ceased to exist when you looked at the wrong angle.

The water began to churn. I tried to open a rift to leave but the space here was too unstable to tear open and stitch together. A pressure began to build in my mind weighing me down. I created a black hole in the lake, to erase it, to erase this place. Blood dripped out my nose, out of my tear ducts, and even out of my ears. I collapsed watching a tentacle the size of a hotel reach out of the lake and grab my singularity and move it.

---

I was screaming. I was screaming and I could not stop. My healing kept me alive but my mind was being crushed from all sides.

My existence was small, I could not understand my own thoughts, my body convulsed on the ground.

I stood. My throat hoarse and painful my sense of self slowly dragging the fragments back together. Who am I?

I am human. From... Ȅ̵̞́̈́̋a̷̺͌̈́̂ŗ̵̝̳͙̋͌̕ẗ̷̻̤͗̋̚h̸̥̣̒͝. But I elsewhere.

I'm a girl. I was born... Ẅ̸̖̩̓͜r̸͕̪̋͜ŏ̶̡͉̞̮̊̈n̷̠͇̰̲͑̿͒g̷͎͚͋ͅ. But now I am right.

Hello Mother

Mother waved void tendrils through folded space at me, I waved my own void tendrils back at her. She patted me gently on the head, her many eyes looked at me.

Daughter. Child. Greetings

Who am I?

Mother's mind touched my memories and I slowly remembered. I was from earth, I had a job and friends. I had finally gotten my doctor's appointment at a clinic that covered transgender health care. When I walked back I was... here in this temple. I fought and survived, I became... strong, I became me. Magic slowly altered my body until it was me. I came back here to... train. I wanted to fight... mother. Mother greeted me but I was not... strong enough. The void held me together and mother awaited me.

I am Raven, and I am a child of the void

Daughter. Rise. Leave. Grow. Return

I nodded and obeyed. I opened a rift and left to the upper part of the dungeon. I set up my bedroll in the room I slept in my first night on Elos. I sealed the door with ice and left my shroud active while I drifted off to sleep.

My mind was a bit more recovered after a night of rest. I just sat there staring at the wall. What the FUCK was that?! It had four marks! I could have died from its presence. I think I actually went braindead for a bit. FUCK. I hugged myself with my tentacles.

Eventually, I broke from my self-hug, unfurling my tendrils of void magic. I stored my bed roll and went back to the surface. That was enough dungeon for now. I wanted a frosty bath in a passable inn. My tendrils shifted into wings and I flew over to Stormbreach. I landed and shifted my wings back to tendrils, and made my shroud non-harmful.

Upon walking up to the gate, I got a spear pointed at me. "The fuck are you?" That was not the reaction I got when I last visited. I didn't recognize the guard.

I'm Raven? I said confused as to what he was shocked by. His eyes went wide.

"Get out of my head." I was confused for a second.

What do you... OH "Oh! Sorry I recently got telepathy that was an accident." I apologized. "Um what's with the spear?"

A familiar face had spotted the disagreement and headed over. "Hey James, she's just an adventurer. They're a bit weird sometimes." Adicus turned to me. "I see you've been real busy."

"Hey Adicus, yea I have been doing nothing but training and small breaks for the occasional shopping trip." Wow, he had gained two whole levels.

"Sounds rough but I can see it paid off for you. So I do have to ask are the black tentacles necessary? They are a little eerie." He was looking at something right behind me.

I looked around with my void sight and saw nothing amiss. Wait did he say tentacles? I looked with my eyes instead of my magic. "HOLY FUCKING SHIT! When did those get there?!"

Adicus and James first looked startled and then laughed at me as I freaked out over my own magical tentacles. The laughter was not helping. After a moment I figured out how to make them disappear. "Stop laughing!" I pouted. "I didn't know they were there!"

"I guess that sort of thing happens when you gain over a hundred levels in a couple months." Adicus said having gotten his laughs under control.

"No they weren't there the other day. I don't know when... " Thinking about yesterday that hard caused a tear of blood to leak out. "Oh yea... Fuck."

"Are you okay?" Adicus asked humor replaced with concern.

"Almost definitely not, and I don't want to talk about it. Can I get to an inn? I need a bath."

They both nodded but Adicus' worry did not go away, if anything it got more visible. I left for that bath. Only happy thoughts. I got mental resistance, that seemed really essential. It would have been nice to have had that before... Anyway, I don't think I'll get another three mark before level two hundred so I should just finish leveling and see if I get a class evolution.

The bath was nice even though I accidently froze the water and had to teleport out. It was only midday so I went down to get some food.

Eventually the mundanity and boredom threatened to leave me to dwell on things, so I instead took off towards Dawntree. Just a few more levels...