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 shields, 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 shield 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 scrapes by her shield. 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 shield. 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 shield 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 shield, I lower down into the floor to reduce my exposed profile. I hear multiple shattering sounds as the solidified blood breaks into my shield. 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 shield 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 shirt 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 glasses.
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 fellowships camp here. Though not many fellowships 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 fellowships 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. Bypassing the tip through the buckle the more I pull, the tighter it gets. I put on my "Sex 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 ass, again and again, she cums again and again, every time she cums 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 cum 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 cum 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 massage?"
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 [Massage], that's the maximum. I start with Aoi and massage 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 [Massage] 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
Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level
Hammer Use: 6+8 | Parry: 2+3 | Dodge: 1+3
Block: 3 | Muscle Explosion: 2+0 | Shield Bash: 1+0
Battlefield Perception: 2+0 | Dwarven Pride Style: 2+0 | Enhanced Speed: 2+0
Magical
Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level
Sense Mana: 1 | Mana Control: 3 | Mana Efficiency: 1
Fire Magic: 1 | Earth Magic: 5+0 | Light Magic: 1
Space Magic: 1 | Conjuring Magic: 3 | General Enchanting: 3
Magic Tool Carving: 1
Miscellaneous
Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level
General Blacksmith: 4 | Sewing: 4 | Housework: 1
Cleaning: 1 | Washing: 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 passive 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 washing. Once the contamination reached a critical mass 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 pass 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 shit, 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 shield. 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 damned," 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 pass right on top of us, at this speed, it will intercept us.
"Elemental, again!"
It swipes and the monster gets hit with another strong gust of wind. It swings towards the root and it disappears behind it. I bought us a few seconds.
We pass 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 shield. 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 shield, 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 titles 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 compass 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 stalactites increase in number and size. I get an idea.
"Roxanne...! Explode... the stalactites!"
"The what?"
"Pointy things... on the ceiling!"
"Oh, right. Hold onto your butts! 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 muffled.
"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 mana-heavy 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.