Five: solo 1

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Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

November 17, 1994.

Jasmine potter side as she sank into her bed. The first task was now only one week away, and she still had no idea what she would be facing. She and Parvati Patel had been training using their elemental powers every chance they got, but still she worried it wouldn't be enough to overcome whatever challenges had been set out by the organizers.

After they had left their first dungeon the two of them had gone back to the Gryffindor common room, and had quietly discussed with lavender what the two of them had gone through.

Lavender brown still did not want to join the party, but she said it would be soon. To Jasmine that meant that lavender wanted to see what would happen at the first task before she decided to join the party. Jasmine had no idea what element lavender would turn out to be, but she knew she still needed to find three more to join her team.

The 1 thing she had decided, since lavender would be the third Gryffindor in this elemental team, was that she would look at the other houses to try and find more people to join the party.

As Jasmine leaned back on her bed she was surprised when there was a bright flash of light. Followed immediately by the thud of a small book landing on her bed.

Opening the book Jasmine saw that it was a diary similar to the one that she had destroyed back at the end of her second year. However, unlike Tom Riddle's diary, this one already had lines written at the top.

"This Jasmine is an elemental 2-way diary. We cannot meet face-to-face anymore, as you are no longer allowed to come back to the elemental's world. We do not know actually why that is. The creator of all things has said that you were allowed one visit, and now it's up to you to make the world that you live in better using the powers that you have been given. However, there was one thing that we never did go over and I really should have told you about it.

This subject is solo dungeons.

Solo dungeons are just that. They are dungeons designed for one of the members of a team to make their way towards their long-term goal. Nobody knows what form these dungeons will take, because they are designed by the gaming system itself to challenge the elemental, and to help them discover what is needed for their long-term goals completion.

Since I know what your long-term goal is, I have an idea of what you'll be facing in the dungeons. Thankfully you will not be facing any of our elemental fiends. Be thankful for that Jasmine, because those things can be really over powered."

Jasmine wanted to snort when she read that one. She and Parvati had already run across what she guessed were 2 elemental fiends. Although she wasn't certain of this, after all the 2 of them could talk, and they had human like features. Still, she wondered how they were able to access the gaming system. She knew however that that was not grounds for calling them machines. Jasmine looked back down at the diary.

"These solo dungeons should take no more than half an hour to complete. The only way that they'll take longer than that, is if your goal is so complicated that the system has to find ways of making it simpler. I do know thanks to the creator, that you will be facing seven solo dungeons throughout your journey. I know one of those has to do with Tom Riddle, however I do not know for a fact with the other six are four. I would guess that at least one of the six, maybe even three of them, have to do with the tournament that you have been entered into. I am saddened that I will not be able to see you anymore. however, I give you the blessing of earth, and you can write back to me in this diary if you have any questions about your elemental training.

Your mentor and friend

Pre Starfield"

Jasmine closes the diary thoughtfully, and put it in the drawer of her bedside table. Since the first task was only one week away, she suspected that her first solo dungeon would be coming up very soon.

She was not ready however, when without warning a portal appeared directly under her in her bed, and she vanished into the darkness. This however did not go unnoticed, as Hermione Granger had been looking over at Jasmine's bed while she read the diary. Hermione had seen Jasmine place a small book in the drawer, and had been about to ask her about it when the portal appeared and she vanished. Worried about one of her roommates, even if she and Hermione were no longer on speaking terms through her own thoughtless actions, Hermione jumped out of bed, through on a rope, hurried out of her room, down the stairs and out of the portrait hole to go see their head of house.

– Separator –

`solo dungeon start`

`Dungeon length, 5 rooms`

Jasmine awoke to 2 new messages flashing in front of her. She groaned as she sat up. Cursing her luck stat as she realizes she had been right. Her solo dungeon had started as soon as her mentor had informed her about them. She hadn't even had time to look for any artifacts to place on her world map yet. How was she to fill out her world map if she wasn't given any time to find artifacts.

Sighing to herself Jasmine climb to her feet, and looking around headed towards the only door at the end of the room.

Opening the door Jasmine blinked and surprise. She figured that she was indoors, and yet looking out through the door she was standing in front of all she could see was a desert.

"I'm an earth elemental" she thought to herself. "And the first solo dungeon they give me is in a bloody desert. Oh well! Let's see what this has to offer."

Jasmine stepped through the door, and to her surprise the door not only closed, but disappeared into the Stonewall. Jasmine groaned as she realized there was no going back. If there were dangers in this room, she would have to face them without any way of hiding, before she could move onto the next room.

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Hermione Granger knocked on the door of their head of houses office. She had run here all the way from the tower, and even though it wasn't really all that far, Hermione was just not in that good of shape. She was gasping for air as she waited for a response.

"Come in" Hermione heard Minerva McGonagall safe from the other side. Taking one last breath Hermione open the door and walked into her head of houses office.

"Professor McGonagall something is happened to Jasmine."

Minerva straightened up.

"What do you mean something is happened to Jasmine Miss Granger?"

"We were in the dorm room all of us in our own beds, when there was a bright flash of light that lit up the entire room. When the light had died down a small book had appeared in front of Jasmine. She opened the small book, read something in it, and after putting it in the drawer of her side table laid back down. The strange thing is however, that right after she had laid back down a black portal opened and Jasmine vanished into thin air."

Minerva looked up and surprise. Unlike most of the rest of the school Minerva knew what had happened to Jasmine. She too had experienced the power of the elemental gaming system; she had used it to her advantage to become the best transfiguration teacher that the school had ever seen. Minerva thought she even surpassed the headmaster when it came to transfiguration, but she had never wanted to test it out.

"I will come up to the dorm room in a minute" she said giving Hermione a look. "We will examine everything we can, and we will see if we can discover what has happened to Jasmine Potter."

Hermione nodded to her professor, and turning walked back to Gryffindor tower.

Minerva side as she watched Miss Granger leave. She had had high hopes for Miss Granger this year. After Hermione had used a time turner the previous year to take all the classes, even though two of them were so unnecessary that she could've spent more time catching up on the subjects that she did want to take, Minerva had thought that Hermione had been over her need for worshiping authority figures. However, it seemed that Minerva have been wrong.

Hermione had been at the top of Minerva's favorite student list, but had been steadily dropping every year. Now with how Hermione had turned her back on her very first friend, she had nearly slipped off the list entirely. Minerva hoped that Hermione's wanting to help Jasmine in this way meant that she was coming back around to being friends with Jasmine. Standing Minerva headed for Gryffindor tower.

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Jasmine nearly screamed in frustration as the latest path she had selected proved to be incorrect.

Jasmine had quickly determined that her objective in this room was to find a safe path across the sand to the door that she could see in the distance. The problem was that even with her powers of earth that she currently had she couldn't turn sand into stone, and that was making it difficult to find a path across the quicksand that the room she was in was littered with.

Jasmine knew the quicksand on its own wasn't that deadly. After all you couldn't be sucked under quicksand like you could all those movies, however the fact that she was alone in this dungeon meant that she had nobody to help her if she got stuck, and that meant that if she got stuck in quicksand she would die of dehydration.

Jasmine knew that nobody could come into the solo dungeon until she completed it, and maybe not even then. After all Jasmine didn't know if the solo dungeons disappeared after they were completed.

Groaning to herself Jasmine studied the sand again.

"There has got to be a path across the sand" she thought to herself as she studied the sand again.

It was then the Jasmine had a thought. Checking the robe, she was wearing she was surprised to find that her wand was in her pocket. Cursing quietly to herself she made a gesture with her wand, and stone walls began to rise slightly out of the sand.

Knowing that they wouldn't last very long Jasmine hopped up on the first stone wall that she had raised from the sand, and looked across the room. The walls were spaced at about 3-foot intervals.

The top of each wall was smooth almost as glass. Even though Jasmine knew they were made of stone. The top of the wall was wide enough for her to stand on them comfortably. Thinking she had been on the wall long enough, Jasmine quickly jumped to the next wall in front of her.

It was a good thing she did too, for just as her feet left the wall it sank back down into the sand crumbling into stone fragments. The wall she was on also started to shake. Deciding she had no time to waste, Jasmine jumped from wall-to-wall until she was nearly at the door.

It was then that problems arose. Or rather one major problem. The wall she was on was shaking and breaking apart as she was standing on top of it, and the wall she was going to jump to in front of the door had already sunk back down into the sand. Jasmine tried making the same gesture she had beforehand, however this time nothing happened, And the wall she was on was almost ready to collapse.

Growling in frustration Jasmine backed up slightly, and made a short run and jump at the door. She landed in the sand in front of the door, and just as her feet began to slowly sink down, she reached out, grabbed the handle of the door, and using it as leverage yanked herself up out of the sand.

This action also pulled the handle down, allowing Jasmine to pull the door open, and slide through to complete her first challenge.

– Separator –

Minerva McGonagle, transfiguration teacher, deputy headmistress, and head of house for Gryffindor at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, arrived in the common room five minutes after leaving her office. She spotted lavender brown, and Parvati Patel standing by the stairs up to the girls' dorms.

"Is something wrong girls?"

Lavender not it.

"Somethings wrong with Jasmine's bed professor" she said pointing at the stairs. When she first walked in anybody could get near the bed if they needed to, although they couldn't do her harm. But now ever since she disappeared, for some reason her bed can't even be approached. Not even her desk."

Minerva frowned. She hadn't heard of this before, but she remembered that when she'd gone to her first solo dungeon, she had also been alone, and so she didn't know what may have happened while she was in there.

"Well let's go and see what we can fine" she said climbing the stairs with the two girls on her heels.

Entering the fourth-year girl's dorm Minerva glanced around.

Miss Granger was standing as close to Jasmine's bed as she was allowed.

Fay Dunbar who was a quiet girl in Gryffindor house was actually sitting on the bed of lavender brown which was right next to jasmines.

Oddly enough Parvati who have been spending the most time with Jasmine lately, couldn't get near her own bed either.

Marlene Smith, who was a Muggle born just like Hermione, was standing looking into the mirror that she always carried. Minerva didn't know what that mirror was about, but she knew that Marlene never went anywhere without it.

The final girl, Christine Holt was standing by the door as Minerva walked in.

"Any idea what's going on Professor" Marlene asked looking up from her mirror.

"I have some thoughts girls" Minerva said making her way towards Jasmine's bed. "But this is rather new to me, so let's see what I can discover."

Drawing her wand Minerva waved it over the bed that Jasmine slept in, and was surprised to see an elemental barrier blocking off not only Jasmine's bed, but Parvati's as well. Did this mean that Parvati was part of a team that Jasmine had started? If so, why was Parvati not with her?

Minerva turned to Parvati. "I need to know Miss Patel. Have you and Jasmine undergone any changes recently?"

Parvati looked up at their head of house in surprise. "Yes. Why do you ask professor?"

Minerva smiled. "Before I can answer that, I need to know or either of you told to keep your ability secret?"

The other girls in the dorm looked up at Parvati in surprise, except Minerva was surprised to note for lavender Brown.

"Not from what Jasmine told me" Parvati said sitting down on lavenders bed alongside Fay.

"Very well then" Minerva said walking over, and sitting beside the scared Parvati. The other girls, realizing that they were about to learn something new, made their way to their own beds, and sat down.

"One final question Miss Patel" Minerva said looking at her kindly. "Am I right in assuming that either you or Jasmine have become an elemental gamer?"

The girls gasped at Minerva's question.

"Yes ma'am" Parvati said wrapping her arms around herself. "Jasmines the leader of our team, and she's an earth elemental. I was the first one she recruited for our team, and I'm an air elemental."

Minerva smiled brightly at Parvati.

"It's just as I thought" she said patting Parvati on the shoulder. "That around Jasmine's bed, and yours as well Miss Patel, is an elemental barrier. Meaning that Jasmine is going through one of her solo dungeons."

Hermione looked puzzled. "What's an elemental gamer professor?"

"An elemental gamer" Minerva said turning to Hermione Granger, "Is someone who has made contact with the elemental masters of nature, and has been given the power to treat life as a tabletop role-playing game."

There were shocked faces on all but lavender and Parvati.

"Then why didn't she tell us about it" Fay asked looking genuinely surprised.

"It's possible" Minerva said looking over at Fay, "that she wanted to collect her entire team before she told anybody about it. Regardless of that, it's her decision whether she tells anyone about it."

To everyone's surprise lavender scoffed. "It's unlikely that she would've told any of us about it to begin with" she said looking around the room. "After all, the school hasn't exactly been treating her very well since her name came out of the Goblet of Fire, has it?"

That made Hermione, Fay, Marlene, and Christine lower their heads in shame. Minerva also looked down, but not for as long as the others did.

"You could be right about that Miss Brown" Minerva said giving her a nod. "Regardless of this, there is absolutely nothing we can do for Miss Potter until she completes her trial."

"What do you mean trial professor" Parvati said now looking scared.

"The solo dungeons are designed so that the person going through them will either learn knowledge they need, or learn the skill that they require for later."

Looking over at Parvati Minerva had an idea. "Miss Patel, have you seen Jasmine's character sheet?"

Parvati nodded. "I've seen the first two pages of it" she said. "What do you need to know?"

Minerva side. "I was going to ask if you knew what her long-term goal was."

Parvati shook her head. "she told me that neither of us should look at the others long-term goal. She instructed me on how to write it down, but as soon as I started, she closed her eyes so she couldn't look at where I was writing. She even told me that I couldn't speak it out loud like all the rest of the stuff I entered in for my sheets pages."

"I was afraid of that" Minerva said rubbing her eyes. "This means we have no idea what dungeon she's actually going through, and we have no idea how long she'll be in there."

"Well, there's nothing for its" she said shaking herself a little bit. If the barrier is still around your bed when curfew comes Miss Patel, then you can either sleep down in the common room, or if one of the other girls is willing you may share their bed with them."

"I'll be happy to help her if that's needed professor" lavender said looking over at her friend. "I was invited to join Jasmine's team, but I haven't decided if I want to do that yet. I don't see any real advantage to it yet, but I haven't said no either."

Minerva smiled. "I understand Miss Brown" she said giving her a nod. "When Jasmine does come back, please let her know that I would like to see her as well as both of you in my office tomorrow, assuming of course that she isn't gone longer than that."

"Does this mean she's allowed to break these rules?"

Minerva frowned mightily at Hermione Granger. "Miss Granger, I myself went through these trials just like Miss Potter is now. And I can assure you that there are no rules being broken here."

"But professor" Hermione said standing her ground. "This can't be fair to the other champions. It could be argued that Jasmine is getting training in the tasks, and it could also be argued that the training is being provided by the school."

To everybody surprise it was Christine who laughed. "And how is the school providing her training Granger? After all the school did not offer her the power of the elemental gamer, the school did not pull her into the solo dungeon that she's going through, and the school did not give her any instructions on what to do with it. If she is indeed getting training however, wouldn't that also however be right? After all she is three years younger than the other champions, and we've already established that Jasmine could not have put her name in the goblet of fire. She couldn't get past the age line, and furthermore she was with someone all day. None of whom could have put her name in the goblet of fire, as they also could not get past the age line."

"It just seems so unfair" Hermione said almost bursting into tears. "She's learning knowledge that nobody else has access to. And she's not sharing it with anybody else."

The others in the room realized what Hermione's problem was. Jasmine had access to knowledge that she wasn't sharing with Hermione anymore.

"That's quite enough out of you Granger" a voice echoed around the room. "Whom we decide to give the power to is none of your business. Whom they decide to share the knowledge with is none of your business. And from what we discovered when she came to see us, you don't deserve the knowledge anyway."

Hermione burst into tears, and ran out of the room.

"Master rain" Minerva said almost dropping to her knees in shock.

"Only a projection of my voice Minerva" The Voice said. "Though we are not allowed to bring anybody else to our world right now, we can still listen, and we can still give advice to someone other than Jasmine and her team."

"It's so wonderful to hear from you master" Minerva said getting to her feet.

The voice chuckled. "And it's wonderful to speak with you again Minerva. Have no fear about Jasmine Potter. She's doing quite well in her solo dungeon, and she should be out before curfew. That is assuming of course that she doesn't run afoul of the last part of the trial."

"Thank you master rain."

"You're welcome, Minerva. I'll speak with you another time."

With that the voice faded out, and the girls rose from the position that they have found themselves in without realizing it.

"You have all heard what is going on" she said looking at each girl individually. "We cannot interfere, and we know that she will be back with us soon. I don't want any of you asking her about this, and no pressuring Parvati, or Lavender either."

No one noticed that Minerva head referred to the two girls by their first name, as opposed to their last like she usually did.

"Understood Professor" the girls said giving her a bow.

With that Minerva McGonagle left the fourth-year girls' dorm, and descended back down to the common room to speak with Miss Granger.

– Separator –

Jasmine stared in surprise at the lake of water that extend it out from the platform she was standing on. She hadn't expected to run into a water element test yet, but even if she had she hadn't expected it to be this big.

"How do I get across this?"

Gazing around Jasmine noticed that there were levers placed throughout the lake. There were also platforms that she could jump to in order to get across, although she couldn't see the door that led out. Maybe it was underwater, and she simply had to find a way to get the water to lower.

"Nothing for its" she said quietly to herself. "I'm not going to pass this test by standing here."

With that Jasmine started running and jumping from platform to platform to make her way around the lake. It took five minutes, but she finally reached the lever that stuck out of the water. Reaching out she pulled the lever down and to her surprise watched as the water began to sink.

"Well, that's going to be fun" She thought as she watched the water recede downward. She also noticed that she could hear what sounded like pumps. It had been a long time since she'd heard anything like that in the magical world, and she wondered if this dungeon was in a different dimension from Hogwarts, or if she simply didn't know of all the ways to drain water.

Regardless as soon as she saw platforms starting to appear below her, Jasmine jumped down to a platform that was next to the lever that she had originally pulled.

"I'm going to bet that lever won't bring the water back up, and I have no desire to be underwater if I can help it."

Looking around Jasmine spotted another lever that was sticking out of the water on the other side of the lake.

"Sigh". "I'm not looking forward to doing this" Jasmine thought as she began to run for the next platform.

For the next 30 minutes Jasmine ran and jumped from platform to platform. As she reached each lever, she would pull it down and watch as the water in the lake would descend even farther.

At last, she reached what looked like the bottom platform, because of the lake bed that she could see under where she was. However, she still had a problem. She could see no door leading out of the area she was in, and she spent a couple of minutes running around the platforms on the bottom looking for the door out.

"Well, this isn't good" she thought to herself as she leapt up to a platform above her. "I've drained this lake, so now how do I get out of here?"

It was then that she realized that somebody else was above her. Looking up Jasmine spotted whom she would assume was a pirate, given the fact that he was wearing the same clothing that she had seen in pictures of pirates in the fantasy books that she like to read. He was carrying a cutlass, and he was staring down at her.

"Ar me Maity" he called looking down at her with a smirk. "Are you the one who drained this lake?"

Jasmine backflipped up to another platform, thankful to Pre for helping her with her gymnastic training.

"Yes, I am" she replied gazing up at him. "Why do you ask?"

The expression on the man's face changed to one a fury.

"Ar!" "Because I control this lake, and no young wench is going to take it from me."

With that he jumped from the platform he was standing on, and swinging a sword down attacked Jasmine.

`Combat start`

– Separator –

An: I hate leaving it here, but I just can't seem to write anymore. This will be the last chapter for a little bit. I suffer from depression, and it has made it very difficult to write anything. I'll do my best to get back into writing, and bring you all the next chapter of "The Elemental Spell Gamer" as soon as possible. Untill then, take care every one.