Chapter 169 - A Small Challenge (1)
A trip to Morrowind was certainly unexpected. Jon was greatly taken aback but he didn't let the surprise ruin his sense of adventure.
How usual was it for someone to blink their eyes and in the next second they find themselves halfway across the continent? Even though it was mysterious and all, he still insisted to see the outside of Tel Fyr.
"This is the Hall of Fyr, and down there is the Onyx Hall. You can only access here through the 'Levitation' spell but I guess teleportation can be counted as ab access." Alfe explained the whole place in a few words with annoyance.
"Oh! So this is in the Hall of Fyr. How amazing! But to think one of the legendary Fyr sisters is my Grandmaster. I am not sure what is more amazing around here." The sparkling in Jon's eyes was increasing by every realization he comes across.
"Nurina, you disciple is glowing."
"Yes, he is always like that when there is a new thing to discover."
"How could a gloomy kid like you bring up a glowing kid like him?"
"It depends on the teacher, someone like you wouldn't understand." Nurina replied coldly at Alfe who snorted in disdain.
"Can I see the place?" Jon asked.
"Don't climb any higher level than this, beyond this room is Lord Divayth's personal area." Alfe gave Jon a warning before he gets out.
"Wait! Great Grandmaster Divayth Fyr is here?"
"Yes, he gave me some candy." Nurina replied with a smile.
"I told you it is a hundred years old thing."
While the two Dark Elves started arguing, Jon wandered off to see the rest of the place.
"So, what do you think?"
"He is a brat with a good talent indeed. His path in magic may be smooth because his innate Hero ability but he has more to that as you said."
"Fufu! I am glad you noticed, I raised him to…"
"Shut up, dear. I am talking about the formation on the armor he came with."
"Formation?"
"Didn't you know? He made a runic circle using a magical conductive material. I didn't know where he got the idea from but it is something that is a secret technique between the magic craftsmen."
"You are talking about these wires coming out from that armor?"
"Yes, it is not bad but he didn't put any effort to protect them."
"Maybe because the product wasn't complete yet."
Nurina started explaining the situation of Jon's inventions and the weird creativities he comes up with. She also explained the situation about Winterhold and how Jon became the king of the turf.
"For a Hero, he is acting more like a scoundrel. Even though he is doing some good deeds here and there." Nurina said, "Was the other Heroes like that?"
"Not sure, they all had the same pattern of the Hero thing but it is not really or field of interest, go ask some historian."
Nurina nodded and started thinking for a while.
"What about the Heroes other than the Nerevarine and the Hero of Kavach? How did they end up?"
"Interesting question! Let's see… Many Heroes had an unknown fate as they all disappeared as if Nirn itself swallowed them, the Vistage, Cyrus the Redguard, The Eternal Champion, The Apprentice of Battlespire, The Master Tunnel Rat, The Hero of Dawnstar and the Soul of Conflict. These were the one that got confirmed as Heroes who passed through the nine stages and finished their labors."
[A/N: All Heroes are from the Elder Scroll game series.]
"That many? But… isn't there anything that states how these people lived after their labors?"
"Not a single thing I am afraid. Not even a single person came and claimed to be the descendant of any of those."
"If I were you, I wouldn't keep this to myself. Make the kid understand what kind of a situation he is in."
Nurina fell silent but nodded in the end.
***
Later on, Jon returned to Nurina and Alfe accompanied by two Dark Elven women. They both looked like Alfe.
"So, we have fourth generation disciple, haven't seen one in years." One of them spoke directly to Nurina.
"Uupse, did Jon cause any trouble?"
"No, he is as polite as a little child." The other woman spoke while holding Jon's arms.
Jon himself looked a bit awkward.
"So, have you seen the place?"
"Yes, it is impressive beyond belief. The fungi growing everywhere and the Dunmeri style is sure amazing!"
"Good, I am glad you got along with Uupse and Beyte too." Nurina made a relieved face.
"Well, he rather asked about something strange." Beyte spoke.
"The Corprusarium." Uupse said.
Alfe and Nurina looked at Jon with wide eyes.
"How did you hear about that?" Nurina asked.
"Are you kidding me? Those who know about Tel Fyr must know three things; Lord Fyr, the four daughters of Lord Fyr, and The Corprusarium."
The Corprusarium is an underground series of caverns found beneath Tel Fyr. This was where citizens affected by Corprus can go to live with other similarly affected people to get treated by Divayth Fyr back in 3E-426. It also served as Divayth Fyr's playground.
Any 4000 years old person [A/N: needs verification if one was found] will soon develop a hobby to pass their time with, Divayth Fyr was a collector and he loved sport, back then the Corprusarium was a dungeon where he hid some of his treasures, he then invited thieves from any place to come and plunder his dungeon… if they could of course. As one can expect, the Corprusarium was filled deadly traps on the standards of a 4000 years old mage and no need to mention the ones afflicted with the corprus who were pretty much like those biohazardous zombies.
Jon showed off his otherworldly knowledge that made the others shake their heads while sighing.
"I thought that place will forever be forgotten!" Beyte Fyr said.
"Forgotten? Why? What happened to the place?" Jon asked.
"After the events that followed the Corprus disease, the place was cleansed to continue and serve as Lord Fyr's dungeon. Not a few years passed and the red year arrived. We had to clear the dungeon from the traps ourselves to provide the place for the refugees that sought shelter on the island as it was protected by our magic. After that, Lord Fyr tried to open the dungeon again but Morrowind was pretty much recovering from the disaster of Vvardenfell's eruption. Not long later, the Argonians invaded Morrowind and House Telvanni almost got annihilated but most of the Mage Lords managed to survive. Tel Fyr was normally not affected by most of these events but from year to year, people forgot who is the lord of the place and some scum tried to take hold of the place. No need to mention what happened to them."
"Oh! I see…"
It indeed was a mess for House Telvanni during the last two hundred years. It faced utter destruction and Jon was very well aware of the stories, he even knew something much better. The last living heir of house Telvanni lives and he is in Skyrim but Jon had no interest in helping the Telvanni or that last heir. More to that, the Telvanni Mage Lords are still alive and that includes Divayth Fyr and Neloth who are both long living monsters.
Jon started talking with the Fyr sister and showed them a lot of respect as one of them was his Grandmaster and the others were people on par with her.
"So, I have a question." He looked at Alfe and she nodded.
"Back when you ambushed us, you used a 'Silence' spell to prevent me from using the Thu'um. Question is; how on Nirn can the connection between the Astral Form and the Physical Form be severed to this extent without killing me?"
Alfe nodded.
"Good question… I am surprised that you noticed. Well, the answer is simple and quite boring. From the beginning, I knew which positions should I strike to cut the link that transfers the Vital Essence in and out of your Astral Body."
Jon was surprised by the daring answer.
"Is Grandmaster trying to say that you have studied these positions that connect the Physical and the Astral Bodies in the living mortals?"
"Yes, they were an interesting subject. Did you try to study them?"
"Yes, I tried hard. Up until now, I only found ten of them and only four are related to the Magic Energy, while the rest were related to the Life Energy and some other form of energy I am not aware of."
"Not bad but that's still too far from the actual number."
Alfe waved her hand and a book flew out of one shelf and clashed at Jon's chest.
"Study this."
Jon held the book and opened the first page, it gave him that same feeling when Nurina gave Jon spell tomes for the first time.
"What is that about?" Nurina asked Alfe.
"It is a book that talks about a network of channels in the body through which Heaven and Earth Energies flows. Just like blood vessels, but for Energies instead of blood."
Nurina nodded while learning new things herself. For a talented mage, she was never concerned with the training of her energy as it grew stronger with age and skill, unlike Jon who had fetish on training anything that can be trained.
"Emm! These drawings…" Jon noticed something about the book and pointed it out.
"What's with them?"
"Aren't these the Acupuncture Points?"
To Jon question, Alfe was taken aback.
"... Only the Psijics of Artaeum call them that. How do you know about that?"
Jon clearly saw similar drawings in his past life but he kept that to himself.
"I read a medicine book once that had a similar drawing and called them by that name. Nothing much!"
He managed to say that lie 'that wasn't completely a lie' as coolly as possible to not draw much attention.
However, in his mind, a storm was raging around.
Words like 'Spiritual Roots', 'Spirit Core', 'Spirit Vessels', 'Eight Extraordinary Channels', 'Twelve Principal Channels', the 'Acupoints' that connected them.
'Damn! This book is a treasure in my hands. This is like putting two jet engines on a dragon.'
His expressions were mixing between smiles and wonder and twitching from time to time.
"Yes, he is as creepy as us." Uupse Fyr said and giggled over the fact.
Unlike Alfe, who was mostly cold and not caring, Uupse was kind and easy going. Beyte, however, seemed to be cunning and crafty.
"Say, Jon. Would you like to go into the Corprusarium and try your luck?" Beyte suggested in a low tone.
"Huh?" Everyone in the room was taken aback.
"Can I?" Jon asked and almost jumped up.
"No, it is dangerous!" Nurina stood up.
"Don't worry, last time anyone had been there was a long time ago. Even Lord Fyr isn't expecting any challengers at all. You may take out something good while gaining a chance to pique the interest of Lord Fyr himself. He would be delighted if he finds out about the talent of his latest fourth generation."
"No, I don't appro…" Nurina was about to break into a tantrum but she soon heard a voice in her head.
"Remember what we talked about earlier? You are protecting him way too much." That was Alfe's voice in her head.
"You don't need to worry! You can have this scroll. If you ever face something you can't handle, the scroll will teleport you out to the Onyx Hall." Beyte took out a scroll.
"It's just a small challenge, kid? Want to show us what you are made of?" Alfe challenged Jon.
"Well, if it was put that way… then I am in!"