NOVEL NEXT 127- Clearing the Dungeon.
"Let's continue," I tell them once Vincent returns the salamander to her owner. "Oh, and don't worry about the traps; the golems are great at bypassing them."
As always, they go ahead, and when they reach the first crevice, the prince nods appreciatively, seeing both their levitation and the bridge they form.
"You have really good ideas," he tells Ronan.
I'd protest, since he assumes Ronan was the strategist. But better not. It clearly wasn't me who came up with it.
When we reach the end of the labyrinth, Vincent stops for a few moments to take in the cavern's vastness.
It's not snowing. We briefly tell him our plan as we head toward the nearest village. Ronan says something about how we could fly on some blankets he brought, that he'd tie to several golems, and the bats would push them while they levitate, supporting our weight.
Vincent seems to consider it, even mentions something about being able to employ his wind magic to do it himself if he uses a sail. I cut them off and tell them we'd lose more time with preparations than we'd gain. The forest and villages are close.
My argument about what if it starts snowing and doing that would let us skip the wolves is what makes Ronan nod.
Good.
We walk. It's not snowing; there are no wolves. We quickly reach the first village.
The truth is that with the first two, we already have the fifty worm egg sacks for the commissions full, but we end up clearing all five villages on this floor to gain more experience.
The poor pup does nothing, but at least he gets that small percentage of the XP I get.
Vincent lunges with his sword to fight beside me against the trolls trapped by my earth control. He uses his magic offensively, as support. When he sees me channeling my sword with the air element, he looks very surprised. Without spirit magic, no one can empower themselves or their weapons with magic. Honestly, I feel like I'm cheating. The truth is, I do less damage with air than with fire, but I get a notification that makes me happy after the fourth village. So, in the fifth, I use water.
Congratulations. Your level of channeling with the air element has leveled up. The channeling with the air element goes from minor to low.
The channeling with the air element costs two mana points and lasts 3 minutes.
I have to admit, Vincent is also blown away by how Bob, Joe, and Tom dedicate themselves to collecting blood, hides, and any other materials. No meat. I don't know, nor do I want to know, if there's a market for troll meat — I'm sure there are monster-eating gourmets everywhere — but they wouldn't let us take that much material out of the dungeon anyway. Because its core needs time to recover between dives.
From the chests in the village council huts, we get a total of 20 small health potions and 18 mana potions. We split the health potions, and Vincent agrees that Ronan keeps the mana ones.
Oh, the wolves haven't attacked us this time. I guess it's because it's still not snowing in the cave.
I take the opportunity to look at my experience bar. I see it's gone up a good chunk, about 40%, having moved from a little over halfway to being very close to full. Discreetly, while Vincent is distracted watching Ronan raise several trolls, I pretend to bring the pup closer to my face for cuddles and ask him to share his stat sheet with me.
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He still hasn't leveled up, but I'm satisfied. He's at 87% toward his next level. Of course, if I calculated that trolls give about 20 to 25 XP each and I've actively helped clear five villages, it makes sense that this boost came from his 5% share. This increase also includes his portion of what I earned from the golems, naturally.
Doing the math, assuming he needs the same experience as me to go from level 6 to 7, which is 403 XP, since I remember he was at 40% before, he has gained 190 XP. All of which, by the way, he took from my experience points. So I actually gained 3,801 XP total: 190 went to the pup and 3,611 stayed with me.
"How much mana do you have? How much does a zombie troll cost you?" I hear the prince ask Ronan after he has raised five.
"Sixteen, and if they are not too big, one point per two zombies. Skeletons are cheaper."
I know that before his spell leveled up, it was one point per zombie. No wonder I've only seen him take one mana potion in the entire dungeon.
As for Vincent, he seems to be increasingly questioning his utility and worth in this group. I get it. At this rate, Ronan is literally going to be a one-player army.
And Vincent... I almost feel sorry for him.
Educated as the king's son with no less than two magic affinities. I wouldn't be surprised if he's spent his whole life hearing how great he is. (And hey, I'm not saying he isn't great. In fact, I think he is, if only because it hasn't gone to his head.) But now some sinister, weird guy who spent more than half his life locked in a basement shows up, along with me—and I'll admit I'm way too impulsive—and just like that, we show him we fight on a completely different level.
Poor guy.
He still hasn't seen the dragon and doesn't know about my contract...
"Bianca, we left the academy at five in the morning. It's not even eight-thirty, and we've already cleared two floors," Vincent comments to me, I think trying to grasp how fast we've progressed.
Undoubtedly, much faster than he expected.
"No, there are still wraiths left," I correct him.
"You're not thinking...?"
"No, we're not crazy. They're very tough and don't give loot."
"You say that as if you'd checked it instead of just reading it in the quest information," he begins to suspect.
"Well, I don't know why, but a few attacked us..."
"What?"
"Don't worry, Petunia saved Ronan, and channeling with fire saved me. But seriously, it was a very close fight. I'm not going near the lake again. Should we grab a bite and head down to the third floor? I'm eager to see what might be in the boss chest."
The prince goes from stupor to resignation. I smile at him. He takes a deep breath and presses two fingers to his forehead as he exhales.
"Bianca, sometimes I can clearly see the mix of magic you have. Especially the fire."
"It shows in you too. Air and water. See how calmly you're taking this?" I joke.
But the truth is, yes, he's handling it well.
The young man shakes his head and offers a resigned half-smile.
Right there, in the last village we cleared—but far from the spawning zones—we sit down to eat.
Well, given the time, it's more like breakfast again. The pup, even though he hasn't been able to stretch his legs outside my backpack, devours his food with as much enthusiasm as ever. Honestly, I don't know where he puts it all.
I take advantage of the pause, while they rest, to meditate for forty minutes and recover some mana. Unlike Ronan, I didn't bring any potions.
Congratulations. Your meditation spell has leveled up and becomes low-level meditation.
Low-level Meditation: Through the perfect union of body and spirit, accelerates the recovery of health and mana. Recovers 2HP and 2MP for every 20 minutes of meditation.
Great! I'm happy reading the notification. It was about time.
Once we're done, we pack up and head to the stairs that lead down to the third and final floor. They're not far—about a five-minute walk from this village and right up against the wall of massive cavern.
The zombie ice golems, as they roll, leave a bloody trail in the snow.
In fact, they've been doing it since the bombardment in the first village. Since they were slowly cleaning themselves, their trails were clean by the time we reached the next one. And the cycle of blood and gore repeated every time.
Upon reaching the stairs, I observe that they're spiral and as narrow as the access stairs to this floor. It starts to snow.
"Ready?" Vincent asks us.
For a moment, I consider telling them to wait and going after some wolves. But then I'd use up my remaining mana. And although I could always ask Ronan for one of those small potions, I'd rather go down.
Wolves, another day, I think.
"Sure, let's go," I reply, and we begin the descent, with Tom in the lead.
What awaits us below is a tunnel carved into the rock, much wider than the labyrinth's walls and also taller. Good thing, or Ronan's trolls wouldn't fit.
We have a map of the floor, but there's not much to follow. It's just a few corridors and rooms.
We start walking.