Astrum Irae

Eureka awoke from her slumber with a faint feeling of grogginess clutching onto her. She recoiled slightly and grasped her head, attempting to alleviate her headache.

She struggled momentarily to reconcile with her brain to figure out what, exactly, had happened to her. She vaguely remembered that she had fallen… somewhere, and had landed in water.

Eureka shook off those residual thoughts and stood up, worrying more about the present than the past. The area immediately around her was quite plain, much like the second room she and… Rigel had entered.

With that thought, Eureka immediately recalled that Rigel was missing. She looked around herself, but couldn't seem to put an eye on him. She wanted to call for him aloud, but feared any uncanny fellows or monstrosities rearing their ugly heads at the prospect of killing her.

Conflicted, Eureka adjudicated for staying silent and looking for him based on sight.

With the grueling headache withstanding, Eureka considered using some healing magic to at least temporarily fix it, but then decided not to lest the headache itself was from mana overload.

Mana overloads were surreal and abstract; their symptoms were hard to pin down and explain. Some cases led researchers to believe that the intensity of the symptoms were directly correlated with 2 things: how experienced the mage was, and how powerful the spell was.

However, flaws and holes were soon discovered in this theory, and many of the mages researching the subject up and dropped it.

Eureka was not sure how dated the information in her memories was, but if they were updated to the present time, then the intricate mysteries and enigmas of mana overloading were still not solved.

Perhaps some of it was nuance, for the first general, established theory still held mostly true, it was just that there were always some exceptions.

For example, is a headache considered worse than a marginal intestinal pain? If not, how could the 2 possibly be considered? Raw pain output? There had also been cases of high-level mages utilizing basic spells like [Fireball] and various styles of [Earth Formation] until they experienced a mana overload. Some of them were let off with a minor aching, others with migraines bad enough to put them down for the next week.

Hence, even to this day, millennia after the discovery of mana and magic, not many people, if anyone, knew about the secrets of mana overloading.

Thus, Eureka had no way to tell the cause for her headache and didn't want to risk it. Even if it was a mana overload, using healing magic to heal such a thing would only lead to serious damage. This was because, even though at the critical moment of converting mana into a spell the amount of energy skyrockets, the drawing of mana comes before the spell, so it is possible for one to knock themself out before even casting the spell.

One would have to be a prodigy favored by the gods to ever even consider seriously using healing magic to counteract symptoms of a mana overload since then the amount of energy needed for a healing spell wouldn't be enough to harm someone that doesn't get affected by the mana flow much.

In the meantime, Eureka had managed to walk down the hallway she had awoken in and found a normal-looking door at the end of it.

She cautiously grabbed ahold of the handle and gently turned it as quietly as she could. Ignoring her trepidation, the handle squeaked loudly, jarring her progress. Eureka let go and hastily hopped backwards, preparing for any traps or someone barging through the door.

After a moment of silence, Eureka once again went to open the door, this time ignoring the aggravating squeaking sound produced. The amount of anxiety welling up in her chest was no small amount, and she took a deep breath or 2 accordingly.

Eureka popped her head inside and glanced around, trying to possibly see signs of any beasts or humans. To her, beasts were preferable. At least beasts emanated an aura and leaked residual power according to their rank. If she was within a few hundred meters of a godbeast, she would most certainly know- the pressure would likely cause her orifices to bleed out.

However, humans are different. A Verus Mage, or perhaps even an Anima Mage, could be in the room over and Eureka would have no idea, since humans keep their latent mana radiation low to conserve power. The only way someone could tell how powerful an inactive human is would be to scry them with a spell.

Eureka, still looking inside of the room while information and thoughts shot through her head, finally opened the door and stepped in after deciding that the room was clear of any lifeforms.

The room was dimly lit by a faint rune carved onto the back wall. In the middle, there was a dusty, old table carved from what seemed like just a single piece of rock. It was surrounded by 4 chairs of similar material.

Besides that, the room seemed desolate at first glance. Eureka wandered around, looking for clues as to where Rigel may have gone. Alas, the young girl found no such things in the barren room.

She changed her focus over to the rune drawn up on the wall.

"A basic light emission rune, with a touch of space magic," Eureka murmured aloud. The rune looked to have been carved with quite a bit of brute force- perhaps not with a carving knife at all. It was a wonder that it was even functional, but the low amount of light showed that the roughness came with a cost.

Eureka theorized that, initially, this room wasn't lit at all, but someone in the past came through and carved the rune out in the dark and without a proper tool.

Eureka was no runemaster and was unsure how old the rune was, so she dropped the subject. She turned around and left the room, going back to where she woke up and continued down the hall.

She approached upon another simple door and opened it without any caution; she had deduced that there shouldn't be anything dangerous in the room from a quick scrying spell.

Inside, Eureka found a matching room, complete with a rough rune carved into the back wall. However, upon entering this one, Eureka soon noticed that a doorway was carved out against the wall she had entered from, just off in the corner.

With this, trepidation filled her heart, for why was the prior room empty? Eureka quickly thought back to the prior room and browsed through what she had seen mentally, deducing that there, indeed, shouldn't have been any way of escaping or progressing in that room.

The realization only made her think harder about why there was a doorway just sitting in this room out in the open. Albeit, she did have to walk in a few feet to see it, but that was far too simple of a trial as compared to what she had experienced previously with the opening room of the dungeon.

Eureka sighed and decided that it was most likely where she would find Rigel, if anywhere, and stepped through the doorway and into another hallway. Upon entering, nothing of note happened, much to Eureka's immediate relief.

Observing her surroundings with a keen eye, the girl took a few steps forward and felt a dense humidity come over her. She wiped the sweat and moisture from her face and felt the bogginess drive her down. She quickly felt the moisture grip her clothes to her skin tightly and started breathing heavier. Heat, as well, soon converged around Eureka.

This entire situation happened within a mere 10 steps of the doorway. The sudden transition from cool, musk air to humid, warm air in such a short period of time amazed even Eureka, who was blessed with many a magical knowledge.

She stumbled down the hallway, attempting to adjust to the temperature, but wasn't looking too keenly to where she was stepping. The small girl suddenly slipped on something slick and tumbled down into a pit that appeared out of nowhere. She shrieked slightly and quickly landed in a dense and warm liquid.

Eureka immediately tried to stand up to get her head out of the stuff, but the slick bottom was not helping. She slid around underwater, just trying to get stable footing. She soon managed to stand in a precarious, awkward stance, but could at least breathe and see once again.

Eureka rubbed the gunk off of her eyes and looked around herself. She was in a bonafide tropical swamp, it seemed. There was a plethora of rooty trees littering the place; Eureka couldn't even see 60 feet away from herself in an arbitrary direction.

Most of these trees were sickly or already dead. Few leaves were seen- and the ones that were around were completely black or dark brown- but the roots sprouting out of the water were at times thicker than the trunks themselves. These roots tangled around themselves and other roots, creating intricate, wicker-like patterns. It was to the point where it was hard to tell if they were actually roots or vines.

There wasn't, unfortunately, any ground to be seen. It seemed like the entire area was completely flooded. Eureka decidedly grabbed onto a root and climbed upwards. She kept on climbing and grappling whatever she could grasp, but she could never break through the canopy.

After a few minutes, Eureka looked down to see if she could see any of the ground beneath her, and surprisingly saw the water where she fell down into. She contemplated what to do for a few moments and then started climbing upwards while concurrently looking at the ground. This stunt led Eureka to promptly slip and fall back down into the water below.

Now familiar with the muddy basin, she quickly got up and out of the muck. Hopping from tree to tree, root to root, and vine to vine, Eureka made decent time, considering the terrain laid out, running across the swamp, looking for something or somebody.

She happened upon a relatively large, yellow and orange python basking in the water below. It was hard to judge its exact length, but the creature was probably a chaosbeast. It was difficult to assess, though, since creatures of that level didn't radiate mana.

Eureka thought about slaying it, but decided against it. She needed to find Rigel or someone who could help her find Rigel. The lack of food may prove troubling and she may regret this decision, but Rigel mattered more now.

Even if the snake was merely a chaosbeast, no ranked creature could be easily trifled with. It would most likely take Eureka tens of minutes to kill the beast, and then she would have to worry about either carrying it whole or cutting it up into edible segments, neither option being desirable.

Hence, Eureka once again took off in her search, leaving the python behind her. She could definitely feel her stomach grumbling in protest, but the small girl firmly refuted it. Rigel was more important than her own well-being.

Her searching led to more awkward encounters with various beasts, the most powerful of which were some desolatebeasts. No sovereigns were to be found, it seemed. That was to be expected, though, as sovereignbeasts were truly powerful creatures who could wreck the entire ecosystem of this swamp, magical or not, by themself. An imbalance of them would lead to the total collapse of wildlife and perhaps only leave one supreme monad as the victor of it all.

Most importantly, Eureka never found any other humanoids. She roamed the seemingly endless swamp for hours with no change of scenery. Her gut was gnawing at her intensely, and the poor girl's willpower was finally starting to break. The extraneous activity for hours on end was really taking its toll on her, so she finally decided to try and kill something to eat.

In her journey, she had never once seen any sort of berry or edible-looking plant. The roots, while they could be edible, were not something she preferred to try right now, especially when there were plenty of juicy animals about.

Eureka soon found her target: a large, amphibious, deer-like creature. By her judgement, it was most likely a chaosbeast. The hide looked to be a curious mixture of fur and scales, so Eureka prepared for a tough fight. The rewards should be worth it, though, for the deer looked very plump.

After stealthily approaching, however, Eureka soon noticed that the deer was not alone. No, a humanoid was also eyeing it, from across the glade. This humanoid possessed dark, green scales and a long, toothy maw. It was a lizardfolk.

Eureka vaguely knew of such creatures from her imparted memories and knowledge, but knew nothing about them other than their physical appearance.

She silently gazed across the glade and made eye contact with the lizardfolk. It covertly made a subtle head movement, but Eureka could not discern its meaning. She chose inaction over action and silently watched the lizardfolk.

It seemed confused at her inaction and turned away from her, once again eyeing the deer. It then slowly, steadily, brought its arm back. Eureka could observe a spear being held in it.

The lizardfolk's arm suddenly launched forward and flung the spear forward, instantly flying through the air and slamming into the deer's neck, dropping it to the ground.

The lizardfolk hopped out from behind the roots it was hiding and earnestly jogged over to the deer. It easily picked up the large animal with one arm and turned over to where Eureka was.

"Who are you?" it asked with a thick accent.

"Eureka," she replied succinctly. "I am looking for my companion, a skinny human male with long black hair."

The lizardfolk nodded along with her words and calmly responded, "Yes, yes. Come, come, your friend is with us. He wanted us to find you."

Eureka, while skeptical, didn't have the energy to make any further inquiries and calmly followed along with the lizardfolk.

The lizardfolk turned around and looked at Eureka. "Welcome to the swamp, outsider," it said. "The domain of us scalebacks."