Rupegia 23 Depths

Alissa frowns but she accepts. We start climbing the spiral staircase, it goes up the 3 floors and ends up on the cupola.

In the middle of the way, we hear footsteps above. A large woman in plate and leather comes out with a tower s.h.i.+eld and behind her is a dog wereanimal woman archer in monster leather.

"Who are you and why are you here," The archer tells us, arrow nocked.

"Wolf Ryder, adventurer, just like you. I'm here because one of my companions sensed one of my friends, Nour Asaf.

The archer expression lightens and pulls the s.h.i.+eld woman upstairs. More footsteps and in a minute Nour appears.

"What a coincidence! Never thought we would meet again inside a dungeon," Nour says with arms open wide. He is wearing his black leather again, this time he has a pristine black scaled s.h.i.+eld hanging on his back.

He goes down the stairs and we shake hands.

"Was bound to happen, right? Neither of us can resist the call of the dungeons," I smile.

"How are you doing, Wolf?" His eyes turn warm.

"The same as always, very happy. You?"

Even though we have the problem with Darean my mood isn't bad.

"Just starting my adventure, let's say that I'm very excited, no marriage proposal to take me away from here this time," he smiles, "Come upstairs, the view is wonderful."

"This is Iana, a tracker we hired," he points to the wereanimal woman.

She has skin black as night and curly, short, boyish hair. Her black ears are nearly camouflaged among her hair.

"This is Bellatrix, a Blood Slave," he points to the other woman.

She removes her helmet. Bright red skin, two small protrusions on her forehead and swept back, glossy black hair that reaches the shoulders. Her grin shows some very pointy fangs. She's a devil-type demon.

"So, you are the Wolf Ryder?" Asks Iana, her pretty eyes open wide.

Oh boy.

"W-well, what do you mean by this?"

"You know, the one who killed the Symbol and the one the town criers announced some time ago."

"Yes, that's me."

"Wow! Amazing," she shakes my hand vigorously.

"I never thought you would be so small, some stories tell of your cold, killer eyes, of your booming commanding voice, your hundred spells you can call on a whim," she looks at the girls," But the other parts are true, just what is so special about you?

The spells is partially true.
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"Nothing, really," I smile wryly.

She holds her head in her hand and pouts cutely. I feel 2 of the girls are getting very annoyed. I hurry and continue the introductions, Nour lifts his eyebrow.

"Another fiancee?" He laughs.

"Look who's talking," I rebuke.

Midori and Bellatrix smirk.

"Anyway, let's go to the top of the tower, the view there is pretty good," Nour swiftly turns around.

"Let's bring everyone, I can leave my elemental here as a guard."

"Wonderful."

­

The view really is nice, though just a bit windy, perhaps I should summon a wind elemental if it gets worse. We can view the entire island, we are on corner of a once marble town, possibly filled with living armors, not really a good place to go. There's the corner of an abandoned farm covering a good part of the island, in there we will be too exposed to the flying monsters of this level. Near the path we came there's the light forest, the safest place to go through, we will take a spiral stairs there and go to the next island, there are no stairs for the next level on this island.

We look up the blue sky, the lights slowly dims as the sun sets outside the dungeon, it's weird not seeing a sun and not having an orange sunset to appreciate. As the light dims little stars can be seen very far in the distance, the mana crystals still retain some light, giving us the same light as a moonlit night. The little stars that surround us gives me a chill, I feel as if we are drifting among stars.

I see Ciel smile in a way she didn't smile before. It's a daring smile, one you do before you jump from the plane and open your parachute. A smile of nostalgia, adventure was something she missed and now she's getting it back.

We set up camp on the cupola and decided to spend the night together. Safiya, Alissa and Ciel got in charge of dinner, although Iana knows how to cook an adventurers cooking is far too rough for our sensitive palate. I force my disgust away and help butcher 2 harpies that Nour shared with us, my [Dismantling] getting its rare use. Then the girls fry the bird parts, tastes like turkey with a mustard aftertaste, something on their fat does this.

Even though people here eat orc and goblin, only when it's explicitly part human they don't eat it. Cannibalism really is a taboo here, but it has a line much further than that of Earth.

After the gruesome butchering the girls responsible for the dinner don't need our help anymore. Lina and Bellatrix start maintaining the weapons and armor while Iana talks to them about enchanted bow maintenance. Hana and Midori go fawn over Aoi, tickling her belly, she seems to love the new dragonkin acquaintance. Roxanne comes to my side, she's having Ted and Suzy try to dance, I can see some jealous glances from Ciel towards the golems. Nour sits in front of me.

"Say, Nour, you might have some more experience on this type of thing so I want your opinion."

I tell him of Darean.

"Wow, well not that surprising, some people can be vengeful. I agree that he doesn't want to kill you, most likely have you sent as a slave somewhere, I know some circle of magi use illegal slave mages," he says to me.

Roxanne shudders.

"I was afraid Dawn of Fire was involved in something like this. I feared what they would do if I traveled alone so I ran from Goloria and went to Rabanara, which seemed a place not under the influence of the circles of magi," Roxanne says.

"Yeah, some of them are really bad, but you just need someone to vouch for you and they run away. They don't want to suffer through an investigation so they keep away from people that can bring them trouble," Nour says while nodding, "But anyway, I really think Darean has backing."

"Backing?" I ask.

"Yes, that rogue s.p.a.ce mage is not cheap and it's not easy to find, you know the empire is very protective of [Gate]. This is not something a simple adventurer can find with just money, he needs connections and someone to vouch for him, though he's seriously misusing his power."

"Who would back him, then?"

"I don't know. I don't have connections in the underworld, at least not here..." He cleans his throat, "So I don't know much about the factions that work here, I just know who to avoid. But we can try to make a deduction, do you know if he has allies and enemies?"

"I only know Vanea Anara seems to dislike him."

He winces at her name. Roxanne looks at him concerned, she hasn't met the little devil.

"So she could be his enemy. Perhaps he's the one who's blocking her."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know that Vanea wants the emperor to recognize the efforts of her family, right?" I nod, "To do that she's gathering allies, people who can owe her favors, people she can buy, people she can protect so they will swear loyalty to her, all this stuff, this being the reason she's one I want to avoid. The thing is, she can't get anyone near her, someone is blackmailing or buying out any ally she can get, most likely some faction from the capital."

"So, Darean is position 1, he likely has a close relations.h.i.+p to the Lord and by extension he can get near Vanea rather easily, he seems to be showing he's romantically interested in her, though that could be fake. Being an adventurer means he most likely works for money so he can be bought, he's the perfect spy on the Anara family," I say.

Rabanara's closeness to adventurers seems to be backfiring on this part.

"Exactly, at position 1 Darean might as well be considered a knight working with the Lord, I hear they fight together a lot. This is only guesswork but it's the closest you have. Sorry, but I can't help much more, since I don't have connections all I can do is get you bodyguards, but I don't think that's the kind of help you want."

Roxanne nods in agreement.

"Yeah, I don't want to live in fear. I was only looking for advice anyway. Say, if you have a name, body description and a possible quirk, like the smell of the hair product someone uses, how easy can you find this person? Though I know she could be using [Ignorance] to keep low."

"That depends a bit, but the smell is a good thing, sniffers don't care about illusion spells. If the town doesn't suffer with smuggling then it's rather easy to lock down the town and make a sweep. If this person is in Rabanara then I think the Anara family can find them. I a.s.sume you got a lead?"

"Yeah, do you know hair products that use Ranja?"

"Oh yes, from the High Forest, one of the few things they export, those elitist b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Safiya loves it, bit expensive though," he whispers and then smiles, "How did you get that information? You should have gotten very close to smell a hair product."

"Well, I talked to a spirit of one of the kidnappers, he gave me a very good description of the one who lead me to the trap."

Nour knits his eyebrows in worry

"You didn't mess with him, right?"

"No, no. I still have my blessing, I didn't do anything bad."

Nour's expression relaxes in relief.

"Dealing with spirits of the dead is very... dangerous. Lots of n.o.bles got their lives ruined by going too far and the temple getting a whiff of what they have done."

"Ciel is a former priestess, she helps me keep in line."

He chuckles.

"You got some good companions, I see. Rather, good wives-to-be."

Roxanne chuckles.

"Just what a good husband-to-be deserves," she gives me a kiss on the cheek.

I smile. A productive conversation, now I know I actually got some bargaining chips for Vanea.

"How did the 9th floor go for you?" Nour gives a pained smile, "It was a nightmare for us, those d.a.m.n spiders kept crawling up to me and Safiya. Then we met two minotaurs, luckily for us one fell on a crumbling piece of the floor and disappeared a few levels below. But we ended up meeting it again before we found the stairs."

"Oh, well I just met a Shadow Satyr on the floor we arrived, behind him was the stairs so it was rather quick."

Nour's mouth hangs open.

"T-that's unfair, you and your d.a.m.n good luck."

­

After dinner comes time for the bath. Safiya is a fellow mage who knows how to make a bath in a few seconds, though I saw Nour's bathtub was smaller than ours. With the summons, we have the added cheat of not needing to keep guard.

Bath ends up being Alissa's time, can't really make too much noise so Hana and Roxanne are left for bedtime, the gag will get used again with them. When Lina tries to "practice" Ciel sighs.

"Even you, Lina?"

"I... I…"

"She just wants to make me happy," I say.

Ciel rolls her eyes but she keeps watching Lina with the corner of her eye.

I spend some time reviewing our coordination tactics. I decided to teach them a few commands in English, it's a good thing to be able to yell orders without the enemy knowing what they mean.

The living armors occasionally patrol the lower floors but none came up towards the cupola. The anti-monster stone should have some effect on them too.

­

Today is the 28th.

A silent storm called Hana's mouth wakes me, Roxanne wasn't awake yet so she just swallowed all by herself.

"Better this way, I get it all for me," Hana smiles.

"Shameful, she's also your wife-to-be, you gotta share everything," I say.

I actually got Hana, she looks away and blushes.

My [Summoning Magic], [s.p.a.ce Magic], [Sword Use], [Andraste Language] and [Dismantling] increased by 1 (now 11+11, 14+18, 9+7, 8+2 and 0+3)

Lina is leveling up nicely, now she's level 18. With this amount of extra skills points her learning rate is very fast.

Hana increased her [Block] by 1 (now 8).

"Why is your block so low? I would expect someone experienced like you to have it higher. Especially when your style is about blocking and countering," I ask Hana.

"Well, I don't really have the... delicacy, to learn how to block so effectively. Besides, with my strength and endurance I can just take the hit, even if it's not on a s.h.i.+eld. If an attack can't penetrate my skin or scales, why block it? These things aren't just for the fetis.h.i.+sts like you," she smiles and points to the scales on her cheeks," You know, these things already deflected a few blades.

She really fights like a barbarian. I see Midori has a two-hander with her, she might be even worse than Hana.

For breakfast, we share our charcuterie with Nour.

"So, where are you going after this?" He asks.

"We will go to the 13th floor."

Nour and Safiya grimace.

"Ugh, I might as well pay for someone to help me skip those floors. Why are you going there?"

The Shadow Satyr was just an entree of what I really want. Two special monsters from the 13th floor.

"Well, there's a monster I want to fight, for magic research. Though the description of that floor sounds interesting."

"The monsters of that floor do have some very good uses for poison and dark magic," Safiya says.

"Something like that, mostly poison, I don't deal with dark magic," I say.

"You sound just like Rania," he smiles nostalgically.

"What would she research?

"Alchemicism. She had a very peculiar habit of trying out acids. You know, the Orc Headhunter was really lucky, she had just used all her acid," Nour makes a pained face, not because of the orc, but because of the image of what acid does.

Lina's Trivia: Alchemicism is a magic school where alchemy is combined with spells. I can learn it with the skill system but I can't use it since I need to ingredients before I can cast a spell and the skill system does not give me the knowledge of which ingredients I need.

"I, uh, I would rather not fight with acid, I'm having Roxanne create some poisons and venoms, though. I mainly want paralysis, some monsters are quite valuable if you get them intact."

Roxanne looks at me with an evil smirk.

"I would rather create healing potions but poison can be fun too," she says.

"I see, well we rarely bring the bodies back, don't really need the money so Rania had no reason to hold back, besides for the effect it has on my mental health."

"Well I, I also don't hold back, the less time fighting a monster the better," Safiya smiles a bit painfully.

"The girls are the same, sometimes they hold back for me, I just do not do well with gore," I scratch my cheek, shyly.

"Don't be ashamed of that. Everyone has a weakness," Alissa says, tapping my shoulder.

Thanks, honey.

"My weakness is invisible enemies," Hana says.

"My weakness is swarms," Ciel says, frowning.

Dream Eaters attack in swarms.

"My weakness is spiders," Safiya says.

Nour shares an understanding look with her.

"My weakness is heights," Lina says, lowly.

"My weakness is cute enemies," Midori says.

Everyone raises an eyebrow at her, she chuckles.

"I simply can't kill the Rabid Rabbit," she shrugs.

Ciel puts a finger in her chin.

"Understandable," she says.

Roxanne nods in agreement.

"Some people say you are not a proper adventurer if you can't handle gore," Nour says.

"To h.e.l.l with them!" I yell

Nour laughs.

"To h.e.l.l with them!" He yells too.

­

We break camp and say our goodbyes. Nour is going to a bigger island while we are going upstairs to the closest stair for the next dungeon floor.

We meet some proper Living Armors this time. A trio that looks like plated knights, they all use long swords.

"Let's test our melee again. Lina, Wolfy, you two fight together one of them, you may have skills but it's not the same as having experience," Hana says.

We nod. I give the warbow and bodkin arrows to Alissa, she won't be able to do much with just her normal bow. The nature elemental will be ready, any sign of blood and she will restrain the armor.

The Armors are in the street walking towards us. We move out of our hiding spot and they immediately charge towards us.

"I can handle the first strike," Lina says.

I kinda agree, my "Strength" isn't rising quickly enough even though I have been doing strength exercises, [Stonebody] is a cheat.

The Living Armor slashes sideways towards Lina. It was smart enough not to go all-in on a single strike. She grunts and deflects the blow upwards. She counters with strike on the knee and the armor gets dented, forcing it to kneel for a second.

I strike the bevor on the neck of the Armor, there aren't many openings in the armor so I have to create one. Nothing visible happens to the bevor but a few more strikes will be enough.

Hana is not using her s.h.i.+eld, she deflects the first strike with her sword and kicks the Armor away. She summons her wings and charges towards it.

Ciel keeps the Armor away, it tried to force itself into her guard but she forced it back with a strong thrust towards its chest, denting the armor.

Our Armor steps back and slashes downwards towards me, I dodge backward and feel the tip of the blade get slow down by [Wind Armor]. It immediately slashes sideways towards Lina, she deflects upwards again and strikes the s.h.i.+n. The leg gets lifted with the strike and it jumps back to keep its balance.

Hana strikes the Armor's sword upwards, opening its guard and hits it with her shoulder, sending it flying backward. She lands on top of the arms of the Armor, preventing it from getting up, then she grabs the bevor and rips it away. She thrusts her sword into the neck and it pierces the coif, the Armor struggles for a few seconds but "dies".

The Armor tries to charge again and Ciel finds an opening on the armpit of the Living Armor and disables the arm. The Armor tries to strike with a single arm but Ciel blocks the strike with her small s.h.i.+eld strapped to her forearm, then she jumps backward and gets ready for the next attack.

Lina charges forward and strikes downwards, the Armor parries and tries to twist its sword to pull the hammer off Lina's hand. She goes with it and bashes the Armor's hand, making it wince. I slide my blade below the bevor and it gets snagged into something, I pull my sword with all my strength and something snaps. The Armor recovers from the wince and kicks my s.h.i.+eld, keeping me away.

Ciel deflects an awkward blow from the Armor and slides her blade past the Armor's neck, she turns it around and uses the hook on her glaive to snag the bevor and pull it. The Armor stumbles and Ciel sweeps his legs, making it fall face down on the ground. Ciel thrusts and pierces the Armor on an opening at the back of its waist, making it desperately spasm. The Armor turns around and grabs the blade when Ciel tries to thrust again. She wrangles it from its hands and jumps backward.

The bevor is hanging from our Living Armor's neck, exposing the mail coif behind it. One of its legs is lame and it can't walk properly. I feint and strike the Armor towards the neck but it deflects my sword away. Lina charges and gets her s.h.i.+eld kicked, I feel mana flowing through her, she holds her ground. She uses the hook on her hammer to pull the good leg of the Armor. It falls back on the ground.

Ciel's Armor struggles to get up, it draws a dagger and lunges towards her. Ciel easily deflects it and sweeps its legs again. The Armor falls and Ciel drops on top of it. She draws a dagger and jams it on the opening of the bevor, the Armor tries to struggle but "dies".

I step on one arm and Lina steps on the other. She smashes the helmet of the Armor and it caves in, the Armor loses most of its strength. I thrust with all my strength and pierce the coif, the Armor slowly stops struggling and "dies".

I raise my head and look around, we are the last to finish. Hana is looking at us with a smirk. I just take a look at her work and smile.

"You fight like a barbarian," Ciel says.

"Only Hana could do such a thing," Lina says.

Hana laughs.

"I rather have magic than just muscles," Hana says.

"Let them be envious for a bit more," I say.

Magic really makes things much easier.

The remaining metal of the Living Armors corrodes and turns rusty, parts of it turn to dust. This is why their metal isn't too valuable, it quickly ages when the spirit dies, even when the Armor looks new it's going to degrade a lot after killing it.

We leave the small ruins and move towards the light forest.

­

I'm glad it's daytime and bright, there's a chance Shadow Satyrs appear in dark places. Even though they are rare and valuable I'm not so eager to find one again.

Alissa stops and stares towards the sky, her eyes narrow and then she smirks.

"A Kite Dragon, looks young."

"Oooh, how big?" I ask.

"Looks to be around 2 or 3 meters long.

"Can you hit it?"

"Just gonna p.r.i.c.kle him at this distance, but it will certainly get his attention."

Time for the real test of the warbow.

"Let's get to a clearing and set the trap. Roxanne, how's the paralysis venom?"

"On a Kite Dragon it should take a minute or two to act," she taps her chin.

"Perfect we can certainly hold it down until then."

Screw Shadow Satyrs, a Kite Dragon is even more valuable. This dragon is flat and long, it has no wings but long flipper-like limbs on its side, it swims through the air like a flatworm, its head is flat and triangular like a crocodile's but its eyes are on the sides of the mouth and move independently like a chameleon's. Its scales make high-quality scale armor, even better than ours.

I look up and don't see anything, the dragon has some camouflage, he lights his own scales to look bright enough you mistake it for the sky. I take 5 points from [Parry] and put it in [Electric Magic].

Alissa nocks an arrow on the warbow, she waits, her eyes glued to wherever that dragon is. With nearly inhuman speed she draws her bow and releases the arrow. It flies high and I see a small blur on the sky, the arrow hits this blur and I finally manage to spot the outline of the dragon.

Silently the dragon comes, its entire body snakes towards us in a fast zig"zag pattern.

Hana is in the middle of the clearing while everybody is hiding behind a tree.

"COME HERE LITTLE WORM, I WANNA USE YOU AS BAIT FOR FIs.h.i.+NG!" Hana taunts and strikes her s.h.i.+eld."

"UROOOOO!" It answers.

Its crocodile mouth opens and light comes out of it. A huge clump of ice shoots out of his mouth and towards Hana. She dodges sideways and the ice scratches her s.h.i.+eld. The clump explodes in the ground, covering everything with an unusual chilling thin layer of snow.

Hana breathes fire around her, she would quickly get frostbite otherwise.

"URAAH!" The dragon screams again.

Using its side flippers it swipes at Hana, the attack sends flying multiple emerald scales of her s.h.i.+eld.

I cast [Discharge]. Low voltage, high spread. The entire dragon gets covered in sparks coming out of my fingers. Unlimited Pow-...

The dragon turns to me with anger in his eyes. He opens his mouth again and mana gathers.

f.u.c.k! More power!

An arrow pierces the top of its mouth and it stops charging mana. It turns to Alissa.

f.u.c.k! EAT MORE POWER!

"[Wind Hammer]!"

"[Torrent]!"

It gets disrupted again and with another arrow on its mouth it decides not to open it anymore. It turns upwards and starts to leave.

MAXIMUM POWERRRR!

My head hurts and my MP drops like a waterfall but finally, the dragon starts convulsing. This is what [Discharge] is all about, disabling the enemy.

An arrow pierces its head. d.a.m.n thick skull, it didn't penetrate much.

Another set of attacks from Ciel and Roxanne. Scales break off its head, I feel tears forming at the coins disappearing.

My head hurts, overuse is setting in, my mana is super low.

"NOW!" I yell.

The nature elemental throws its vines at the same moment I stop using [Discharge]. I fall behind the tree and drink an MP potion.

The vines wrap around the body and keep it from leaving. The dragon tries to fly upwards and the elemental is dragged a meter before it wraps more vines on a tree.

Hana flies and pierces its throat with her spear. Not enough "Dexterity" to hit the head while it's flailing about.

Hana rides the dragon by holding on the spear and her weight lowers him near the ground. Dust and dirt gets kicked about as it struggles. Aoi flaps her wings in excitement, through [Animal Tongue] I feel she wants Hana to ride her.

"IRAAAAH!" The Kite Dragon shrieks desperately.

The dragon uses its last strength like a whip and throws Hana upwards. She spreads her wings and gracefully touches the ground.

The elemental now has full control of the dragon. In a few seconds, it loses the last of its strength and falls on the ground.

"Careful, he's only paralyzed," Alissa says.

"Let me do the honors," Hana says.

She draws her sword and with all her strength pierces the skull of the dragon. Now it's dead.

"Without the warbow I wouldn't have even dented it," Alissa says.

Lina looks away shyly and Alissa sneaks behind her.

"It's all thanks to you!" She pounces and hugs Lina.

"Whwh... oh, y-you welcome..." Lina mutters.

"You okay, Wolf?" Roxanne comes to me.

Alissa freezes and her head snaps to me, she hadn't noticed my struggle.

"Had to use all my mana on [Discharge], didn't think it was that immune to electricity."

"Well, yeah, dragons are kinda like that," Aoi chirps happily, "Though I think it's just that your 'Magic Power' is not high enough, even I wouldn't be able to contain him for long if I knew [Discharge]."

I sigh.

"Gotta keep training my mana."

"Well, we all gotta do this, with [Increased Growth] I think we can get a significant increase, even if it didn't show much with skill training," Ciel says.

Roxanne groans, "You know, I'm the only one bringing stable income to us, can't I just continue making potions?"

"No," Ciel answers flatly.

Roxanne pouts.

"Learn [Redirect Mana] and it won't be as bad. With one or two points in [Mana Overuse Resistance], the headaches won't appear easily," I say.

"Cheater," Ciel silently mouths to me, then she shows me her tongue.

­

The forest had a few more Ploms but nothing else. Aoi started to notice them and fired a few fireb.a.l.l.s before they approached. She seems much more active and happy when we are outside of town.

We reach the spiral stairs and Lina stops on her tracks. There are railings on the wooden stairs but you can easily see the blue abyss if you look down. Even I am concerned with the safety of this thing.

"If we put a blindfold on you would you feel better?" I ask.

Lina s.h.i.+vers and looks at me with fear.

"Ok, bad idea... what if I carry you?"

She looks pensively.

"What if I carry you," Ciel says, smiling.

Lina smiles faintly.

"What if I carry you," Hana says, smirking.

Lina squirms and looks away, then she nods.

"What...?"

"Don't look too deep into it, Wolfy," Alissa pats my shoulder.

We go through the stairs with a confident Hana in front and a scrawny Lina trying to disappear in her arms. I realize the error of my suggestion, no way I would have been safe carrying Lina, with every step the wood creaks, with every blow of wind the stair sways, with every second the blue abyss comes closer. I give a quick prayer and hurry upwards.

The new island is very long and has a mountain on it, a grey, unremarkable conical mountain, in the middle of that mountain is our exit. There are only woods around here so the outside is safe, I just hope we don't meet a group of Shadow Satyrs inside the mountain.

As we walk through the long field of pink willows, the soft breeze and warm, uh, mana crystal light tickles my skin. Soon I feel like simply closing my eyes while walking.

"What's that, old man, is it time for your nap?" Ciel smirks.

I'm pushed back to reality, there are still other monsters in the sky that could attack us.

"Just enjoying the breeze."

"The view makes you forget you are inside a dungeon, huh?"

"Yeah, you enjoying our little vacation?"

Ciel laughs.

"Sure, with you around this really feels like a vacation."

"Imagine what we are gonna be like in a few years when our levels are much higher," Alissa joins in."

"Ridiculous," Ciel answers immediately.

­

We reach the edge of the mountain.

"Dwarven architecture," Lina says.

"How can you tell?"

"The tunnel is wide and not very tall, the lines are perfectly straight, not much use of rounded edges, none of your silly drawings on the walls, the stone is smoothed to perfection, and the lights are embedded in the stone. It feels... feels like home," she says with bittersweet happiness on her voice.

"Silly drawings?"

"Well, murals depicting events are only for the most important of events. You can only carve a wall once, if you make a bad mural then you have soiled a good piece of wall, better to just hang a painting and not risk it."

"Dwarves value good planning and carving things on the stone. The most prestigious buildings are entirely carved on stone, instead of constructed with bricks or cement like we do," Alissa says.

Lina nods in agreement. Alissa seems to know a little about everything.

The more you know.

Like Lina said, there aren't rounded surfaces here, the tunnels all either branch on a grid or on an angle, they never curve. This makes it easier for us since we just go straight to the heart of the mountain.

The lights on the walls get dimmer and eventually we have to use [Spirit Light]. I believe we are very close to the exit.

"Four Living Armors," Alissa says.

"Coming towards us?"

"No, they are standing in line on our path."

"Well, let's just attack them when in range. I will use [Discharge] while you girls charge something powerful."

As we approach we see these armors are a bit different.

"Dwarven men-of-the-line," Lina mutters.

4 metal squares block our way. Black s.h.i.+elds with a boss and a small opening for a spear.

"Let's see how they like this," Roxanne says and starts gathering mana.

The s.h.i.+elds immediately move forward followed by the clanking of heavily armored men.

I cast [Discharge]. Same as the dragon, UNLIMITED POWWEEER!

One s.h.i.+eld falls, a fully plated and short Living Armor is behind it. It immediately receives an arrow that penetrates its helmet and "dies".

"[Wind Hammer]!"

A burst of mana flies beside me and hits another Living Armor on the top of its head, making it fall forward on top of its s.h.i.+eld with a large dent on the helmet.

A large and long [Ice Lance] flies beside me and pierces the s.h.i.+eld of another Living Armor, I don't believe it's dead but its chest could have been pierced.

"Lina! Get the downed one!" Hana yells.

"NOW!" I scream.

My head hurts a lot, overuse is stacking.

The nature elemental stretches its vines and holds the s.h.i.+eld of the last Living Armor. Hana charges towards it with her wings, her spear pierces the Armor, it lets the s.h.i.+eld go and it falls on the ground. Her spear breaks but she grabs the part that's stuck and drives it harder on the Armor.

Lina charges forward and destroys the helmet with a savage overhead strike.

The Armor with the [Ice Lance] drops its s.h.i.+eld and staggers backward, there's an opening on its chest. It receives an arrow on the face and "dies".

I ma.s.sage my forehead. Overuse keeps me from reaching my full potential with magic, guess if it weren't for that magic would be unstoppable.

"...-tyrs!"

What? Alissa yelled something. I hear clopping.

"AAARGH!"

Pain fills my s.h.i.+eld arm and I drop it, I cast [Heal] on it and nothing happens. I feel "death" approaching. In reflex I lift my left shoulder and arm to protect myself, even though I have no s.h.i.+eld in hand anymore.

A shadow covers my sight and I feel immense pain on my side. A hand pulls me away and I fall back a meter.

Ciel kicks the shadow and it jumps backward, dodging it. It then charges forward again with such speed it nearly gets inside her guard.

I cast [Lighting Bolt] and it teleports sideways, my head hurts even more. It charges Ciel but has to immediately stop as an arrow flies where its head was supposed to be. A [Fire Arrow] pierces its shoulder and lights a small fire.

It looks to the fire and nearly fails do dodge Ciel's thrust, she makes a wound at its neck. Ciel twists the glaive and uses the hook to grab the neck of the Shadow Satyr, she pulls it and it tumbles forward, only to be met with her knee. It falls down on the ground and an arrow pierces its face.

I hear Lina scream in pain.

She clutches her s.h.i.+eld arm while Hana stands in front of her, parrying a blow from another Shadow Satyr. A vine tries to wrap around its leg only for it to teleport backward, safe from harm.

I grab my s.h.i.+eld and walk backward towards Roxanne and Aoi, I'm disabled until I can at least use my s.h.i.+eld. Thankfully the scimitar didn't cut through my scale armor but my shoulder hurts like h.e.l.l.

Roxanne and Ciel prepare a spell. The Satyr momentarily looks at them, then it disappears and appears in front of Hana, she barely has time to react and receives the blow with her s.h.i.+eld.

Hana yells as a dark bullet hits her s.h.i.+eld arm at point-blank, she doesn't drop it and remains in front of Lina. But she couldn't counter so the Satyr moves to strike again.

An arrow flies and the satyr teleports backward. Silently, a [Wind Blade] cuts at its flank, sending black blood flying. An ice spear lodges on its chest and it staggers backward. It looks at us in what seems to be confusion.

An arrow hits its face and it dies.

Ciel relaxes and comes to me, she chants a heal.

"Better?"

"Better, thanks."

I feel a light head chop.

"You overused your mana and because of that you got distracted," Roxanne says to me, her mouth distorted in annoyance."

I feel another light head chop.

"You overuse your mana too much, you need to be more careful," This time a very angry Alissa looks at me.

"I'm sorry…"

I just wanted to test [Discharge] on the Living Armors but I guess I was a too reckless.

Alissa mellows out and kisses my forehead.

"You said the 13th floor was even worse?" Hana asks with her hands on her hips.

"Well, yes…"

"You gotta compensate us for that, this s.h.i.+t hurts and I'm not gonna let myself o.r.g.a.s.m to a monster."

"What...?" Ciel looks bewildered.

"She has [Pain Conversion], it lets her convert pain into pleasure, but still feel the pain," I answer.

Ciel facepalms.

"You know what, screw it, I don't care, if this is the champion the G.o.ds want then who am I to judge."

She throws her hands in the air and starts walking. We share a few looks and smiles and then follow.

Soon after we find the stairs.

­

We reach the 11th floor.

This is a weird floor, it's called Trial for the Reckless. Hundreds of island surround a large island, floating tunnels connect the smaller islands to the central island. Each tunnel section is dark and closed off and between each tunnel, there's an exposed wooden spiral stair.

We are thrown into one of the smaller islands, nothing but empty blue void around our island, except that above the central island the sky turns dark.

We are on a marble road, there are only a few houses before the island suddenly ends. It is as if this piece of land was cut directly from a town.

I'm quite happy that an elemental can go to the next floor if I order it. I thought the floor selection prompt wouldn't appear to it but it does, saving me from wasting mana dismissing and re-summoning it.

Our mood was a bit dark until we sat down and filled our stomachs, it's difficult to be grumpy when satisfied.

We force ourselves to move otherwise our mood will make the situation quickly degenerate into a cuddling session, possibly progressing even further.

We reach the first tunnel and dwarven architecture is seen again. We push the heavy stone double doors and move forward. The light doesn't reach far so we invoke our [Spirit Lights].

Each tunnel section we have to fight once. The first time it was a single Living Armor, then 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 so I summoned an earth elemental to help. With our experience it was a very simple fight, some of them lack s.h.i.+elds, making them easy targets for Alissa.

Lina had to be carried by Hana every spiral stair but she seemed to be less afraid each time.

We fought 6 and then 7 Living Armors, then we get something new, a Nalusa, threat level 5. It's a two meters tall human-looking monster that looks like it's made of charred flesh with missing pieces of meat and exposed bones, it smells like burnt meat. It has hair on its back with white bones protruding out of it, it moves very fast and it swings sharp claws. Its face contains 4 eyes with a large white sclera, it's nose and mouth are mere slits that are almost invisible. It controls blood and turns it into projectiles, either their own or of their prey.

It immediately charges forward.

"Protect Alissa and Roxanne!" I order the nature elemental.

The earth elemental stands beside Hana. Ciel stands between them and Lina and I are at the flanks.

The monster slashes at the elemental, the s.h.i.+eld on its left hand gets scratched and it counters with a spear stab. The monster dodges sideways and gets in range of Lina, she smashes one of its feet and it jumps backward. A small clump of blood floats in front of it.

It dodges an arrow and turns the clump of blood into a shard. It flies towards Alissa and the nature elemental intercepts it, getting stuck on her vines. The Nalusa tilts its head and dodges backward again when a [Water Blade] flies towards it.

"The blood has venom, talk to us if you get hurt by it!" I yell.

I'm not sure about the physiology of the nature elemental. Hopefully, it is immune to poisons and venoms.

A tense minute goes on. On this small corridor we risk too much friendly"fire to fire our ranged attacks wildly, besides, the monster is too fast for most of our ranged attacks but at least it can't get close due to our solid line.

"Let's move forward, push it back to the wall!" Hana yells.

"Understood! Keep the line!" I answer.

The monster looks at us expressionlessly, its eyes blink out of sync. We slowly inch forward and it slowly inches backward.

It charges Hana.

She strikes downwards, the monster parries it with a hand and the other sc.r.a.pes by her s.h.i.+eld. The elemental and Ciel pierce the chest lightly. It jumps backward.

A ball of blood floats beside it.

"Tch, it will get more powerful if we only scratch it," I say.

"No other way around it," Ciel says.

Another minute and the ball gets bigger. It charges towards me.

I cast [Entangling Vines] in front of me. The monster swipes at me and I block with my s.h.i.+eld. The attack pushes me backward, brutish strength but little sharpness on the claws.

Hana strikes and wounds the arm, the bone is too tough, the sword can't cut through it. The vines wrap around an ankle. Another arm comes towards me.

I rest my sword on my s.h.i.+eld and it slides between the fingers of the monster, nearly splitting its hand into two. Hana tries to combo a thrust but it immediately jumps backward and falls.

Hana's thrust turns into a slash and cuts into its belly. I pierce a leg with my sword. It cuts the vines and rolls backward.

The blood ball is much bigger now, fortunately the monster seems to be slowing down. We keep inching forward.

The monsters bleeds for another few minutes, I'm very concerned over the blood ball.

We reach the end, the light shows the door at the end of the tunnel.

The blood ball turns into hundreds of little spikes and they all fly towards us.

I hide behind my s.h.i.+eld, I lower down into the floor to reduce my exposed profile. I hear multiple shattering sounds as the solidified blood breaks into my s.h.i.+eld. A spike pierces my boot and I feel a sharp pain in my foot.

I look up and the monster is swinging at me. My position is bad, the arm hits my s.h.i.+eld and I fly backward.

Hana strikes him but he defends with the other claw, it forces him down and he slips away forward. Ciel slashes at his leg but it feels nothing.

I feel sick, I feel something moving inside my body.

He covers his face with his claws and an arrow pierces his chest. He ignores me and charges towards Alissa.

The nature elemental jumps in front of it and it gets torn to shreds by the claws, but it's not dead. The monster jumps towards Alissa who's drawing her sword.

A torrent hits its chest and it falls back into Hana's sword. She lifts it up and changes the direction of her charge midair, she swings her sword down and the monster crashes in the floor headfirst.

The monster trashes and pushes itself off the ground, Hana loses her sword. I cast [Lightning Bolt] on it and my muscles tense, making me immobile, it's the venom Mage's Trap. Let's see if it was worth it.

The monster convulses for a second and Ciel pierces it through the chest sending it back down.

Alissa jumps sideways to get a clear shot and an arrow flies into an eye. It loses a brain, it still has another.

Hana draws her dagger and falls on top of one arm, digging the knife on its shoulder. She covers her face and a blood spike pierces her arm. The other arm strikes her and pushes her off its body.

It swings its hand again and Ciel jumps backward not to get caught in that, the earth elemental pierces it and pushes it to the ground again. Alissa fires another arrow and it blocks its face with its nearly ruined arm.

"HAAAH!" Lina screams.

She rushes to the monster and does a savage overhead strike, the hammer buries itself into the head of the monster. A large blood spike flies and pierces Lina on the waist, an exposed part where the leather s.h.i.+rt ends.

The monster drops its hand, it is dead.

I'm sweating cold, I feel like something horrible is running free inside my body. Lina is hunched over, clutching her belly. Ciel rushes to her and starts chanting.

"Wolf?" Alissa asks me.

I can't answer.

"He, he's paralyzed!" She yells, desperation on her voice.

Ciel looks at me concerned but keeps chanting, Roxanne rushes towards me and pokes me all around. It hurts, my muscles are sore, stop it!

"Mage's Trap, he got paralyzed because he used mana, the venom uses the mana of a spell to produce the paralytic substance. Only Ciel can heal him now, he can't drink anti-venom," Roxanne says, adjusting her gla.s.ses.

Lucky for me using directly on the body of another person is very hard so there's no venom inside my brain or heart, though it's difficult to breathe I won't die.

"C-Ciel!" Alissa calls her.

"Lina takes priority," Roxanne puts a hand on her shoulder.

Lina's wound is a bit problematic, it's deep. Ciel is taking a while to chant a proper heal.

"We should have gotten her a hauberk," Hana says.

"Wouldn't have helped, the blood spike would have flown through the openings of the rings just like it did on your arm," Alissa says, rubbing her arm, looking uncomfortable.

Alissa comes to me and touches my cheek. Roxanne grabs her hand.

"Better not, his muscles must be sore and sensitive."

Alissa looks even more dejected, she sits down and holds her knee staring at me, worry in her eyes.

Ciel finishes her chant and runs to me. She starts chanting [Purify Body].

Another minute of that horrible feeling and she finally finishes. My muscles relax and I collapse, I feel exhausted.

Alissa runs to to me and grabs my body. She lowers me and gives me a lap-pillow.

Ciel instantly cast [Refresh] and much of the soreness goes away. Putting the spare points in [Light Magic] she can cast this level 25 spell.

"That took a lot of mana," Ciel says.

"Bring me the monster," I ask.

Hana drags it to me and I immediately store it on "Items", can't let that precious blood run away. Alissa chuckles.

"Greedy little man."

I pout, feelings hurt.

Lina walks to me and hugs my arm. I don't feel like pouting anymore.

"You okay?" I ask.

"Yes. Only a bit uncomfortable."

"Cuddle puddle!" Roxanne drops on the ground and hugs me.

"How romantic..." Ciel rolls her eyes and chuckles.

The smell of the blood and burnt meat of the monster is still in the air.

Hana scoops Roxanne and lays down beside me, with Roxanne on top of her.

Ciel sighs and lays down on my other side. Lina releases my arm and moves over, laying down on my belly.

I cast [Purify Body] on Lina and Hana.

"Thank you, Wolfy," Lina says and curls up.

"Muuch better, that thing feels horrible," Hana says.

I sigh.

"Getting myself paralyzed wasn't such a good idea," I say.

"Eh," Hana shrugs.

"I'm not that good at improvising."

"That's why we are here," Alissa says.

"To clean up your doo-doo's," Roxanne pokes me.

Alissa plays with my hair and we spend some time like this. Life or death situations are the best for forming bonds.

When we move it's 6 PM.

­

That was the last of the tunnels. After another spiral bridge, we enter the central island. It's a place with very few monsters so fellows.h.i.+ps camp here. Though not many fellows.h.i.+ps come here in comparison with the other floors, the Nalusa being one of the reasons why.

I would rather not camp here, it's always going to be tense meeting other fellows.h.i.+ps with the number of women ours have.

We move inside the marble ruins and look for a clock tower. It's like the entire town simply petrified into marble. There are carts, people, guards, animals, furniture, everything is made of marble and glued to the ground.

We find a specific house and enter, the stairs are there.

­

We reach the 12th floor.

This floor is called Faded Glory. There's two huge roots going in a spiral, they are as thick as Rabanara's castle. There are multiple islands stuck on those roots, simple marble bridges connect each island, and Marker Kites show when it's safe to move, multiple are swinging about.

Around us, there's no more blue sky, only a sandstorm a dozen meters away from the roots. The sandstorm is the only source of light, it produces a weak light that flickers, once in a while the sand sparkles.

Above and below a black mist slowly blocks our view, preventing us from seeing too far up or down.

Our island is a piece of a town, we find a walled-off house and set up inside, ignoring the statues(?) of people, I pull our tent in the backyard.

The first thing we do is take a bath.

"Say, Hana, you said you wanted a reward?"I grin.

I pull out a leather belt. She looks at me with hunger.

I wrap the belt on her neck. Bypa.s.sing the tip through the buckle the more I pull, the tighter it gets. I put on my "s.e.x Maniac" build.

She doesn't even say anything, she just turns around and spreads herself for me, I thrust immediately.

With both hands, I pull the belt in sync with my thrusts. She grabs the belt to give her a little more air but it's not enough, soon enough her strength starts to vanish, eventually she can't hold the belt anymore and lets it go.

Her back arches and she chokes, trying to breathe. Little by little she loses her strength and her eyes go white. I loosen the belt and she gasps for air.

When the gasps reduce a little I pull the belt back and resume thrusting.

I slap her a.s.s, again and again, she c.u.ms again and again, every time she c.u.ms her legs shake more and more. I feel like I'm riding a bull, I wonder if [Riding] would help here.

I let her breathe two more times until I push her to the limit. She stops moving and uses all her strength to pull the belt back a little to breathe. As her desperation grows I feel her insides tighten more and more.

I take my points off and c.u.m inside her then I let the belt go and she collapses, barely any strength to let herself from drowning on the tub. Roxanne pulls her to the edge of the tub where she wheezes and coughs.

"Don't... heal me..." She mutters in a rough voice.

Alissa looks very frisky so I take her next. Slowly from behind, I thrust, one hand on the base of her tail, the other arm wrapped around her throat. I choke her lightly and bite her ears, making her squeal.

She claws on my arm as her desperation grows. I relent and she coughs. Once we continue, I hold it in until she's desperately out of air, then I c.u.m inside.

After she regains her breath I keep my tongue inside her mouth during the rest of the bath.

­

Hana has been getting better at roasting meat with her fire breath, though I had to heal her throat for this dinner. Aoi is trying to help but her flame is still too unsteady for roasting. We eat some nice Minotaur meat with not-potato and not-onion soup.

"So, what do you want for your reward?" I ask Lina.

She makes thinking sounds and fidgets about.

"I... don't know…"

"How about a ma.s.sage?"

Ciel, who was almost falling asleep suddenly opens her eyes.

"S-say, Wolfy, I'm gonna be on the front line too, d-don't I deserve a reward?" Ciel tries to sound as innocent as possible.

Alissa mutters something to Roxanne.

"M-me too! Using spells is tiring, you know! Walking around all day on those boots that you like makes my feet sore, you know," Roxanne says, nodding and grinning.

"Well, I do like them but you use those high heeled boots because you like them too, I'm not forcing you," I answer.

"T-that's not... I still walked a lot, and, and-and-and..." She loses her train of thought.

I smirk.

"I will do all of you."

I put 20 points in [Ma.s.sage], that's the maximum. I start with Aoi and ma.s.sage her little body, she has a bit of meat to knead and seems to love having her scales pressed, I do it until she sleeps. Then I do Hana so she learns how it's supposed to feel, I mix some kisses and a few licks and get plenty of giggles in return, who knew that even Hana would be ticklish. I do Ciel as Hana copies my every move while doing Roxanne. As her reward, I did Lina for twice as long as any.

Ciel got frisky after all that, she might have a slight foot fetish.

­

Today is the 29th.

Me and Hana gained [Ma.s.sage] with 1 point. I increased my [Sword Use], [Electric Magic] and [Summoning Magic] by 1 (now 9+8, 11+12), my [Light Magic] and [Mana Control] by 2 (now 6+6 and 0+9).

Lina is now the same level as me, though she has less experience. I left 5 SP on Lina so she can grow her skills with more ease, like enchanting.

­

­

Lina Skill Report

Physical

Hammer Use: 6+8 Parry: 2+3 Dodge: 1+3

Block: 3 Muscle Explosion: 2+0 s.h.i.+eld Bash: 1+0

Battlefield Perception: 2+0 Dwarven Pride Style: 2+0 Enhanced Speed: 2+0

­

Magical

Sense Mana: 1 Mana Control: 3 Mana Efficiency: 1

Fire Magic: 1 Earth Magic: 5+0 Light Magic: 1

s.p.a.ce Magic: 1 Conjuring Magic: 3 General Enchanting: 3

Magic Tool Carving: 1

­

Miscellaneous

General Blacksmith: 4 Sewing: 4 Housework: 1

Cleaning: 1 Was.h.i.+ng: 1 Math: 4

Riding: 1 Stonebody (innate): 3

­

­

With this we remove the Rings of the Servant. After a few more levels I think the girls are going to use it again except me and Lina, we want everyone to be on a similar level. Currently, the other girls are suppressing their skills growth so we have some extra skill points to use on what's necessary, like resistances.

I switch the girls extra points to [Enhanced Speed] except Ciel because [Refresh] is going to be useful here. These enhancements skills aren't pa.s.sive bonus to our status, they give you "intuition" and muscle memory of how to improve such status, though there might be a slight amount of magic involved into those skills. If I concentrate I can think of ways of moving faster and more efficiently but it takes a mental toll, it's impressive that Hana has so many of these enhancements skills.

If the last floor was unpopular this one is deserted, it's because there's only a single type of monster here, Symbol of Envy, threat level 6. It is disgusting ball of meat, its eyes secrete a petrifying liquid, and it's black and white tentacles are long and sticky. Thankfully they don't move unless an enemy is found, otherwise, we wouldn't be able to casually spend a night on this floor.

Lina's Trivia: There was once a rich and xenophobic kingdom of chimeras during the Age of Oppression that left others to fend for themselves. The envy the others felt birthed this horrifying monster and eventually the kingdom fell to it, so the legends say. It would hide in their wells, making people unknowingly ingest the secretion and it would spread through the air once the water dried like when used for cooking or was.h.i.+ng. Once the contamination reached a critical ma.s.s a bit of mana was all it took to start a chain reaction and petrify everyone and everything.

is it Valuable? Yes. is it worth the risk of getting petrified and dying? No.

­

We move out of our campsite and walk towards the edge of our island, there's a bridge that leads us to an island embedded into the roots. The Marker Kite shows only a slight turbulence.

"Can you do this?" I ask Lina.

She fidgets and I grab her hand. She slowly calms down and breathes deeply.

"Yes," she says, resolute.

As we pa.s.s the bridge Aoi flaps her wings and closes her eyes, feeling the wind.

"Please don't even think about trying to fly here," I tell her.

"Kweh!" She chirps as if she's offended.

"Just making sure," I shrug.

We move into the new island, a few pink willows and a lake cut in half. The water flows down into the nothingness but the level of the lake's water does not change.

We reach the root and see a staircase carved into it. It leads us to top of the root. It's windy so I summon a nature elemental.

The nature elemental turns it's arms into vines and we tie the vines to our belts. Tied to one arm are Hana, Roxanne, and Ciel with Aoi on her shoulders; and on the other are me, Lina, and Alissa.

It's a long climb until the next island. The wind starts to change and I wonder if this path was a good idea.

"Oh no," Alissa mutters, "IT'S COMING, IT'S ROLLING DOWN!"

Alissa points forward, there's a small ball on the distance rolling down the root. Ah s.h.i.+t, terrible place.

"PUSH IT OVER THE EDGE. WAIT FOR MY SIGNAL," I yell.

I summon a wind elemental.

Hana moves to the front and readies her s.h.i.+eld. We huddle up behind the nature elemental.

The ball rolls rapidly. It's 2 meters tall, full of disgusting tentacles covering half of the surface, and small eyes covering the rest. There's a mouth somewhere but that's not important.

I wait until it's around 50 meters from us.

"Elemental... now!"

The wind elemental swipes her hand sideways with great strength and a strong gust of wind hits the rolling ball. It flies sideways and rolls off the root. Mid"air a black tentacle shoots towards the root and gets stuck to it.

"NOW!" I yell.

"[Wind Hammer]!"

"[Torrent]!"

I cast [Earth Bullet].

An arrow flies into the tentacle that grabbed the root. The tentacle releases the root and it flies away towards the nothingness with great speed.

"Alright, move forward quickly!" I order.

"Is the fall not gonna kill it?" Asks Hana.

"The book tells to never underestimate it, that ball of horrors is tenacious," I answer.

"It was like a horror story," Alissa says.

"O-ok, let's go then," Ciel looks backward repeatedly in worry.

We quickly jog upwards. Ciel and Alissa keep glancing back every once in a while.

"Kweh!" Aoi yells.

I follow her gaze. There's a second root that twists around the one we are at. Over at the distance, there's a ball that's shooting tentacles and using its momentum to swing forward very fast. It's coming at us.

"Well, I'll be d.a.m.ned," Hana says.

We run with a spring on our step. Nothing like being chased to give you renewed vigor and a horrible chill on your back that only gets stronger.

The monster gets closer. The root it is on will pa.s.s right on top of us, at this speed, it will intercept us.

"Elemental, again!"

It swipes and the monster gets. .h.i.t with another strong gust of wind. It swings towards the root and it disappears behind it. I bought us a few seconds.

We pa.s.s by the root above us and I hear a disgusting sound of meaty flesh.

"Above!" Alissa yells.

The ball swung behind the root and now it's coming down directly on top of us. I cast [Earth Bullet] on it and it stops in the middle of the air. An arrow flies and pierces an eye.

"Niroahoaho!" It screeches in a distorted voice.

We keep running and the sound of wet, meaty flesh reaches our ears right behind us. Ciel cuts the tentacle that grabbed the root. Aoi throws a fireball and Hana fires her breath.

*FOOOM!* The air behind us turns into flames.

"NIOOROROROAHO!" The distorted screeching gets louder.

We see the ball flying back, a tentacle grabbing further away from us. Multiple tentacles got charred but the monster has fast regeneration, it's a complete cheat, not that I'm not a cheater too.

We are reaching the end of this root, it turns upwards suddenly but there are a small arch and stairs carved inside the root.

We hear another wet, meaty sound and I look back, nearly at our side the slightly charred monster is flying towards us at a frightening speed.

A huge [Ice Lance] pierces it and it flies back from where it came from.

"NIROOONIO!"

It swings around and in a few seconds it's on the other side of the root. We reach the entrance and move up the stairs. The entrance gets covered by the monster and a long white tentacle waves upwards towards us.

Alissa dodges the tentacle and it gets stuck on Lina's s.h.i.+eld. With a single motion and the help of [Telekinesis] I draw my sword and cut the tentacle.

"NAAAARIAAAA!" The monster screeches in anger.

Roxanne hurriedly pulls a potion and splashes it on Lina's s.h.i.+eld, the tentacle stuck on it fizzles and melts, the petrification that was starting to appear stops and slowly recedes.

"Don't stop!" Hana yells to us.

We quickly move upwards and get out of reach.

­

The stairs go up for a long time, the small mana crystals giving just about enough light that we don't trip during our run. Suddenly the stairs turn into marble.

Our stairs end into a castle room. We push a very small door and we are into a hall, this was a secret exit, camouflaged into the wall.

This castle is filled with statues(?) of chimeras. Most have legs of bulls, chest of humans, arms of lion-type beastfolk, wings of dragonkin, heads of dog-type wereanimals, and tail of a succubus. Chimeras have many variations but this is the most common among soldiers. Their armor is light, delicate scale. They carry spears, short swords, and bows.

We go upwards, towards the highest tower. Hopefully, the Symbol of Envy won't catch up, they have more trouble moving upwards then downwards.

The guard-like chimeras change into softer, smaller and well-endowed women chimeras wearing very light and risque clothing. If I were to guess it was once semi-transparent.

"The chimeras are very good painters, too bad we can't see anything now that it is petrified," Alissa comments.

"True, it almost seems like there's no decoration at all," Ciel says.

With a bit of difficulty, we navigate the confusing castle and reach the correct tower. When you can fly everywhere it seems that walking distance is not of much concern to the castle engineers.

After another long climb we reach the top. I switch my points so me and Ciel can cast [Refresh] on everybody and regain some lost stamina. The spell doesn't produce energy, it only speeds up the replenishment so we have to take a quick break to eat some snacks.

The room at the top is rather fascinating, it's full of trinkets, gadgets, multiple telescopes, and books. Though I can't read any I see the name of a few has the t.i.tles written in relief on the book. With a little bit of luck messing with the skill system, I learn that the language of the chimeras is called "Reo".

With a bit of pain in my heart, we leave the room, on the only window of the room there's a bridge connecting to another staircase inside the root.

Alissa looks down for a few seconds and squints her eyes.

"It's still chasing us and it's almost completely regenerated, it seems."

We start running again, the spring on our step comes back.

­

This time the stairs are short, we come upon the plaza of a town. A quick look into the map and the compa.s.s and we find the way to the bridge we need.

Alissa stops us all.

"There's one right where we are supposed to go."

"Go around then?"

"Yes, but we have to be quiet."

We all look at Hana.

"You better just put some points in [Quiet Steps]," she says scratching her cheek.

Even [Quiet Steps] is not enough to completely silence Hana's stomps.

We take a turn and move two blocks down, then we turn back to the direction we should be going. We move more blocks forward but we hit the town wall. The exit is a block to the side, we might be exposed to the monster if we leave this way.

"Can you cast [Ignorance] on all of us?" Ciel asks.

"No, too much mana and I don't have all my mana due to the elementals."

Alissa's ears twitch.

"Oh no," I say.

"Oh yes," she smiles wryly, "It's coming directly towards us."

"Run."

We run from behind our cover and dash towards the gate. Outside is a brick road into thick woods.

We reach the woods.

"Faster! They are both coming!" Alissa yells.

"I can't!" Lina yells back.

Her small legs are taking its toll. I slow down and move beside her. With a yank, I grab her by her armpits.

"Put your weapons away!"

She stores them inside her [Item Box], she's much lighter now. With this, I can carry her like a princess.

We are reaching the bridge. The Marker Kite is flapping wildly, fortunately, the wind elemental helps protect us.

"Hanaa...!" Roxanne complains.

Roxanne stores her staff in her [Item Box] and Hana puts her weapons away. Hana slows and sweeps Roxanne off the floor.

I put all my strength in running. The sounds of wet, meaty flesh get louder.

"Elemental, now!" Roxanne orders.

A gust of wind flies by us. Roxanne chants hurriedly.

"[Torrent]!"

The sounds of chase wind down.

"Nature elemental, after this bridge you stay and hold them down!" Roxanne orders again.

The sounds of the chasers increase again, I glance back and see both of them swinging upwards from below the bridge. I throw an [Earth Bullet].

"[Wind... Hammer]!" Ciel manages to cast something while breathing heavily.

The nature elemental unwraps from us and stays behind. I feel it immediately getting hurt by monsters.

This new island is a cave, it's too large, it won't stop the monsters.

We run uphill, pebbles roll down all the time and it's hard to keep your footing. My legs ache but I trained for this, all that strength training wasn't for nothing, I can hold on much longer.

The nature elemental dies.

The stalagmites and stalact.i.tes increase in number and size. I get an idea.

"Roxanne...! Explode... the stalact.i.tes!"

"The what?"

"Pointy things... on the ceiling!"

"Oh, right. Hold onto your b.u.t.ts! This will make a mess!"

I feel mana gathering, a lot of mana. The fleshy sounds are increasing rapidly.

"Wind elemental... hold them!" Ciel orders.

The wind elemental explodes in a storm of wind. The fleshy sounds decrease.

They quickly increase again. I see a dark shadow coming.

"[EXPLOSION]!"

The blast was too close, I fall down and twist my body not to fall on top of Lina. My vision gets covered by dust and steam.

I hear the sounds of flesh hitting stone but they are m.u.f.fled.

"The rubble is going to disappear soon, keep moving!" Roxanne orders.

We don't have time to catch our breath, we run again.

The sounds of flesh die down and only our echoing footsteps and quickened breaths remain.

The cave finally opens up into another small wonder. A mana crystal cave. Twinkling lights, rotating shadows, rainbows of colors, small sounds of cracking and tinkles, all this creates a slightly psychedelic show. Most crystals are transparent, only a small number has other colors besides green. The green crystals have waving forms with multiple curls and turbulent points, they grow in many directions but mostly upwards.

Lina's Trivia: Mana crystals are solidified mana that grows in manheavy places, mostly places where there's danger of a mana storm appearing. They can acquire an "affinity" to a magic type, we say that this crystal has "attuned". While most crystals naturally attune to the most prominent element of the environment they can also attune to any magic school, including spells or magic types not covered by the skill system. Attuned Mana crystals gather environment mana and turn it into the mana of its affinity, aiding in casting any spell related to that affinity.

Unfortunately, these crystals are all part of the dungeon. If we break them they simply disappear, but their effects are very real. This place would make a very good place to practice [Wind Magic]. Ciel looks around with a pained expression.

"If only we weren't being chased," she mutters, which echoes on the cavern.

We let Roxanne and Lina down. At the center of the crystal room there are our stairs.

­

We reach the 13th floor.

I drop down on all fours to catch my breath.