Reborn With a Magic System

Five quests completed for 2,500 credits and 500 experience. Damion had no complaints about the end result of the short battle. Especially not when you consider that they were only a third of the way through the Crimson Waste dungeon. There should be more C Rank Demonic Beasts to come, not to mention some B Rank ones and the dungeon guardian at A Rank.

The best part was that all Damion had to do was sit back and reap the rewards. Unless his life was in danger, there was no need to lift a finger. Sure, the others would like it if Damion pitched in a little, after all, they had a healer that liked to bash things with a pair of shields, but no one would fault him if he did not.

Most of the spells that increased in mastery came as no surprise to him, but Silver Tongue Ranking up did. He would have thought that all the trades he was making would have increased the spell in mastery already, but that was not the case. Damion was not sure if the spell needed an element of combat to advance, like so many of his others, though he thought it might be that the trades did not count for as much since the terms of his contract removed negotiation. Or maybe he simply needed to interact with higher Ranked individuals. Whatever the case was, Damion felt he would figure it out eventually.

"We should get moving," Mage Phinn said, looking at Mage Young, who was using a cloth to clean the blood and gore off his armor. "Rodney, you really should get a Belt of Purification."

"What for?" The healer asked.

"To save us all the time of you cleaning your armor whenever you smash something's brain in."

"Not to mention us having to watch," Mage Abney added.

"Are those things really that useful?" Mage Young asked with a look that told the team he really did not see the point of the artifact.

Mage Phinn let out a sigh and tried to explain better.

"Aside from cleaning up after a fight, a Belt of Purification can pretty much instantly get you clean in any situation. It can even dry you off if you get soaked by the rain, or fall into a river."

"Really? So, I can use it to dry off after a bath?" Mage Young asked.

"Yes," Damion cut in when he noticed Mage Phinn getting an annoyed look on his face. "But I think Mage Phinn's point is, if you have and use a Belt of Purification regularly, you won't need to bathe nearly as much and cleaning your armor after a fight is as easy as a quick channeling of mana into the artifact."

"Well, I guess I can look into getting one," Mage Young said, rubbing his head. "Unless you want to let me borrow yours?"

"I'm rather attached to mine," Damion told the brawny healer.

"Where to next?" Mage Abney asked, trying to get their group back on track.

"To the petrified forest," Mage Phinn said. "Since we encountered the Balaurs this far out, either there is something big in the there this run, or there are even more Balaurs."

"More?" Rodney asked, sounding rather hopeful at the prospect of fighting more of the large reptilian Demonic Beasts.

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"Possibly. It could be that one of the B Rank champions is in there."

"Doesn't going into the petrified forest incite everything in the dungeon to come after us?" Mage Adney asked.

"Everything but the guardian and champions, those are usually on the other side of the petrified forest."

"Then shouldn't we clear out some of the other zones first? It is a lot easier to take out the remaining Demonic Beasts in their small groups than it is to fight them all at once."

"We've cleared out the Balaurs, they are usually the only challenging C Rank Demonic Beasts of any number in the dungeon. It will save us a lot of time if we head straight in and let everything else come to us. You and I can slaughter them all and if we finish the run in under 12 hours, we get to keep an extra five percent of the spoils."

"If you think this is the best approach, I'll go along with it," Mage Adney told him.

"Anyone else have any thoughts?" Mage Phinn asked.

The Lightning mage looked to each of his teammates' faces and no one brought up any objections. Deciding no one speaking up was good enough, Mage Phinn started towards what looked to Damion to be an oddly textured hill. As they moved closer, the hill turned out to be a dense grouping of what looked like stone trees. Some had fallen over, while others were standing tall like pillars. A few even had branches, but none had any foliage. The color of all the petrified trees were a mud orange, but on the broken ends of some, there were noticeable rainbow patterns that Damion thought were rather fascinating.

The group came to a stop at the edge of the petrified forest and everyone began checking their gear to make sure they were prepared. Once the team stepped into the petrified forest they would trigger the rest of the Demonic Beasts and they needed to be sure they were ready for that onslaught.

"Do these petrified trees have any value?" Damion asked.

"Some people will work parts of them into furniture or even jewelry," Mage Adney explained. "I even once saw an entire table made out of the it. However, the material is not magical, so it doesn't have much value outside of having unique color patterns."

"Are we fighting out here, or going into the petrified forest?" Simon Beck asked.

"It is better to fight without the obstacles," Peter Beck said, referring to the numerous fallen petrified logs and standing trees that covered the landscape in front of them.

"You would think that, but with the number of Demonic Beasts that will likely be coming our way, having the petrified forest act as a break will assist in the fight," Mage Phinn explained.

"Until something big comes through and starts knocking the stone trees down on us," Mage Young grunted.

"Which way will most of the Demonic Beasts come from?" Damion asked.

"Hard to say for sure, but most likely, from every direction except the one we have come from," Mage Phinn asked.

"Then wouldn't it be better to keep the petrified forest in front of us, after all, we have cleared out everything we encountered on this side of the forest, that should mean there won't be as many or any Demonic Beasts coming from behind us."

"True," Mage Phinn commented. "But there may still be some, and it is hard to know how many."

"What if we move some of the fallen trees out here and use them as a wall to slow any beasts coming from this way down?"

"Once we step in, we won't have the time to do that. The Demonic Beasts will rush to us as fast as they can. We might be able to move one or two, but never enough to form a proper perimeter."

"Will the Demonic Beasts charge at us if I use a spell to move the fallen trees out of the forest?"

"I don't… you want to use Telekinesis to move enough trees to give us a perimeter?"

"It shouldn't be that hard," Damion said with a smile as Mage Phinn figured out his plan. "Even if my spell does trigger the Demonic Beasts to attack, you all can still be ready to fight while I start creating our defenses."

"Alright, let's give it a shot."

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