The Ruby Magician

Wyn stood with the rest of his team in the portal room at the base of Alistair. He played with the ring on his left hand, hoping to the gods above that it worked.

He knew that it would, but he hated having to test it out firsthand. Water was something he hoped to avoid, and now it was required to traverse the tower.

It was early morning, and the six Climbers prepared themselves to take on the eleventh floor. It was their first trip into the third tier since upgrading their classes, and they were all nervous. Only Cal had climbed higher, but he told them he still was cautious with any third tier floor. They were all inherently dangerous with both monsters and traps, and this one was no different.

Nigel had informed them of the first two floors in the third tier and given them recommendations, to all of their thanks. His team still hadn't cleared the twelfth floor, but they had gotten a better grasp on the layout after several days of climbing it. From what Wyn knew, it took multiple days of clearing each floor in the third tier, requiring them to learn the floor's patterns, then going in on a day that was a favorable layout.

After Nigel told them what to expect, though, Wyn was having second thoughts about trying it for the season. It was a combination of cavernous rooms and tunnels with underwater lagoons and pools.

Wyn's fear of water was rearing its ugly head.

Something touched Wyn's shoulder and he jumped, then sighed in relief seeing it was John's hand.

"Sorry," John said, his face scrunching apologetically. "Just trying to be supportive."

"It's alright," Wyn replied. "I'm just nervous."

"We'll be okay," Cedric said. He held up his right hand. "Having enchantments that give bonuses to swimming and breathing underwater are huge boons. Just think of it like another floor."

"Easy to say in theory," Wyn muttered. He knew Cedric was right, and he was grateful he had his own magic ring that allowed him to do exactly what Cedric said. But the thought of being underwater still gnawed at him.

"Let's just take it slow," Marcy said. "Remember what we agreed?"

"Today is just exploration day," Wyn said. "We likely won't clear it for a few days, I know. Not having a Mapper really does hinder us."

"There aren't any in the third tier, unfortunately," Cal said. "Those are all employed by guilds."

"And hopefully we'll have some, too," Tasha said. "But for now, Cedric and I will be enough. We go slow, we map it out, we come back. Easy."

"Easy," Wyn repeated. He stared at the portal that glowed with powerful magic. "I just have to step through."

"We're right here with you," Marcy said, lightly squeezing his shoulder.

Wyn nodded in solidarity, took a deep breath, then stepped through the portal.

That was when everything went wrong.

Normally the portal had a brief few moments of black void, a singular experience of nothingness followed by an immediate rush of the new environment. After Wyn stepped through the portal to the eleventh floor, he felt the familiar hollowness followed by a rush of heavy, all encompassing weight against his body and continued blackness.

He immediately panicked, frantically lashing out with his arms and legs. Blinking constantly, he tried to focus on anything, but all he saw and felt was darkness.

And water. Complete submersion in water.

Wyn forced himself to extinguish his fear and embrace the unknown. He had been a Climber for nearly a year, experienced plenty of strange, magical environments and monsters, and was an experienced soldier with several additional years of training and surviving tough conditions.

So why was it always so difficult to push through water?

A dull light slowly drifted into view, and Wyn honed in on it. He steadied himself after realizing he was breathing. Instead of water rushing his lungs, it felt like breathing normally on land. Which was a strange sensation. But it helped him remember his ring.

He stopped panicking and studied his surroundings. All around him was water, and there was no clear end to it. There was an obvious up and down based on how he was floating, and he used that orientation to carefully swim up.

Thanks to his ring, swimming felt effortless, and he was relieved beyond understanding that he didn't have to struggle for breaths. It felt unnatural to continue taking breaths while in water, but each time he realized he was holding air in his lungs he mentally forced himself to breathe.

After nearly a full minute of swimming, Wyn broke through the water's surface, his hands lurching out of the water as his body and head shot free into the air.

"Fucking hells," Wyn said, blinking rapidly while looking around. He saw Marcy swimming away from him towards what looked like a small patch of rocky ground.

John tore through the water's surface next to Wyn, quickly followed by the others. One by one they emerged, as though waiting in line, each of them wading.

Floor Eleven

Group: 6/6

Quest: The witch controlling the goblins that descended on Bog's Hollow is gone. The larger threat lurking in the nearby mountains has also been discovered and eradicated. But the mountains lead further to something that possesses a magical aura even stronger than the Worm Queen. What other dangers lie in wait? To protect the village and surrounding lands, you must continue on the path ahead to make sure no additional threats remain.

"Come on," Marcy called, emptying one of her boots of water while on the ground.

They each swam over and Wyn followed Marcy's lead by trying to dry as much of his clothes and equipment as possible. The enchanted armor and backpack didn't stay wet, easily shedding the water and drying in seconds. But his clothes underneath remained soaked.

After confirming there weren't any enemies nearby, Wyn asked Marcy to keep watch while they changed clothes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Cal threw his pack onto the ground and started shuffling through it. He never kept the magical pack he used when working as a Packer, but he quickly secured another one that was a happy balance similar to John's. It easily fit over his back while staying out of the way of fighting, but also held enough supplies and extra equipment to nearly match a small wagon's worth of items.

After handing out dry clothes to everyone, they each took a few minutes to replace their wet clothes, choosing a spot on the rocks while facing away in different directions for modesty.

"Nigel never mentioned the portal starting in a damn pool," John said. He angrily put his clothes on, rushing the process.

"Portals can spawn just about anywhere," Cedric said. "It was just terrible luck that ours was deep in a lagoon."

Wyn saw Cal drop a waxed bag in the middle of their group. Everyone was dressed in clothes but still donning their gear. He added his wet clothes to the bag and started to add everyone else's before putting the bag in his magical one.

"I'm just glad we had the enchantments for the floor," Wyn said while putting on his boots. "I could have died being in water that deep. I'm a terrible swimmer."

"With that ring you're not," Marcy said. "I wouldn't be surprised if it became your new best friend."

Wyn couldn't help but laugh. Marcy was right. His one fear was traversing water, and the ring all but removed his fears of drowning, both with providing the ability to breathe underwater and giving him the means to swim.

Getting his armor on wasn't overly difficult. Wyn wore a thin pair of regular pants under his enchanted Sage's Trousers, part of the Sage's Set he still was working on completing. He had the pants and the belt, but was missing the robe, which would give him the lowest set bonus and make him complete with his magical gear.

Only have two of the pieces didn't give him the set bonus, but they each were beneficial. They helped with his lack of magical benefits from his class that other mages normally possessed. Even Arabelle had benefits to her magic power, mana pool, and extra spell slots. But Wyn wasn't quite as lucky. The Sage's Set was his attempt to overcome that deficit.

The problem was that it was an incredibly hard set to find, as the set was popular among mages to further increase their abilities, and it usually traded fast the few times it was being offered in the trading district. He had been lucky securing the pants and belt, but unfortunately had to trade at a ridiculous loss to obtain them. The blue rarity leather armor he wore just wasn't the same, though it did offer him moderate protection against both physical and magical attacks while improving his strength.

Sage's Trousers – Part of the Sage's Set, these relatively simple pants are anything but. Made from a dense but flexible silk weaved together by magical artisans, they provide a moderate increase to magic power while improving the wearer's mana pool by half of the base maximum. They also provide moderate protection from magical attacks and give a less than moderate amount of mana recovery.

Sage's Sash – Part of the Sage's Set, this sash was weaved with a fine silk from various, high rarity monster parts to create an everlasting and always fitting belt. They give the wearer a moderate increase to magic power and can magically store up to four potions in a spatial pocket that can be drawn with a thought. Gain one additional first tier spell slot.

The two items didn't give any abilities but their magical benefits were exceptional. With the pants adding to his already high mana recovery from Lucidity, Wyn could recover his mana from empty in an incredible twenty minutes.

If he could secure the robe, which also gave mana recovery and provided a set bonus for more recovery, that time would be reduced to less than five minutes.

He'd basically never run out of mana with the set, which was a major goal of his. He only wished he could have it sooner rather than later, especially if they were going to be climbing the third tier regularly.

The last item he wore was his hat, and he embraced the sensation of magical power when all of his equipment was back on. It truly was a wondrous thing to wield such power.

Staring at the water, though, he was reminded that even the simplest of environments could still be fatal. Without the enchanted ring, drowning would be a real possibility, even with all of the magical gear he possessed.

His attention was pulled while the others finished getting their own equipment ready. The water, which was previously still and calm, rippled ever so slightly. He didn't remember any fish as he swam to the surface. In fact, the whole area was completely clear. Just dark.

"Shit," Marcy suddenly said. "I'm sensing enemies! Hurry and get your gear on!"

Wyn summoned his weapon in the form of a spear with an elongated blade and waited. He had a feeling he knew where the monster was going to appear.

The ripples in the water grew, and then a figure jumped out of the water, easily clearing the surface. They were mere feet from Wyn, and immediately focused on him.

The monster was exactly as Nigel described – frog-like but huge, being just a big bigger than an average person. It looked to be a similar height as himself but was round and bulbous like a typical frog, with thin arms and legs that were long.

Worse, it was holding two wicked-looking daggers, one in each hand. They were black and jagged like carved river rocks or broken stones. The creature sailed through the air quickly, its hands outstretched and aiming directly at Wyn.

Wyn immediately jumped backwards while casting Shield in the path of the monster. The barrier erected quickly on the ground, and the monster smashed through it with ease.

Stabbing forward with his spear, the monster avoided the blow with a nimbleness that belied its seemingly uncoordinated form. In a quick series of spear jabs, the monster completely dodged all of them, ending by rolling to the side and again swiping at Wyn with one of its daggers.

The weapon bounced off Wyn's expanded shield, but the creature didn't stop. It immediately moved to try and attack around it with uncanny speed. Wyn changed his weapon to a long sword and stabbed at the monster's side.

It parried the hit and sliced Wyn in the leg, completely through his pants. A shimmer distracted Wyn as he tried to move his body to avoid another blow.

Wyn grunted in pain from the movement as an arrow caught the creature in the side. It yelped in surprise but quickly recovered, stabbing back at Wyn. Cal was there, now, moving his shield to intercept the attack and then hitting back using his hammer with impressive force.

The weapon thumped against the monster's body, cracking its arm and side. It fell to the edge of the water before scrambling to retaliate.

It never had the chance as a bolt of lightning struck it with such force its head and upper torso exploded, showering the area in green gore. Its body then slowly dissipated.

"What in the fuck," John said, running to water's edge.

Tasha was beside Wyn, healing and inspecting his leg. "How did that dagger get past your pants? It's purple rarity! It should have easily blocked it!"

Wyn looked at his pants. They were already starting to mend themselves back together, and the wound underneath was already healed thanks to Tasha. "Because the dagger was magical."

"Gods," Cal said. "It had a magical item?"

"It could be a skill," Marcy said. "Not necessarily a magical item."

"Though monsters have been known to carry them in this tier," Cedric added. "Nigel didn't mention that, but it could have been an oversight on his part."

"Regardless, it looks like we need to treat every monster as a serious threat," Wyn said. "No more easy climbs. I know we've been climbing in the second tier a lot and it's been pretty easy all things considered, but let's not forget where we are. Any threat that comes we should activate abilities right away and be swift."

"Kill or be killed," John said. He squeezed his hand into a fist. "I didn't expect to be challenged so quickly, but… time to gear up."

Wyn agreed. Normally they had a brief reprieve after entering the floor before the challenges came, but apparently the third tier was different.

Now he knew. And he'd be prepared from now on.

The group finished their preparations and started pushing into the floor. They quickly learned why it took so long to cover an entire third tier floor, too. A small group of the frog monsters flew from the water in the same lagoon where they started, only on the other side of the small patch of rocky ground. It was three total monsters in a surprisingly capable combination of abilities. One of them carried a small but dense wooden shield and sword, and was nearly as big as Cal. The second was quick and wielded two daggers like the one who fought Wyn, while the third carried a wand and cast both attacking and supporting spells.

It took more effort than normal, expending copious amounts of mana while also taking some hits, but they were able to take the trio of monsters down. They dropped some meager silver coins and a single purple monster drop, which was… average.

After killing them, though, they realized that the path forward was going to be a difficult one. The cavern around them curved to the right, though the ground wasn't solid the entire way. It was mostly water, and Wyn knew they were going to have to swim a good portion of the way to continue.

Everyone looked at each other, then Wyn sighed. "Might as well keep these clothes dry."

Another ten minutes passed while they put back on their wet clothes, then Marcy led them along with Cal. They swam in the water while several globes of light hovered overhead thanks to Tasha, and rounding the corner they found another stretch of rocky ground.

The cavern continued the pattern of small sections of loose rocky land followed by longer areas of deep, dark waters for nearly an hour. They met a half dozen groups of monsters during that time, ranging from duos of sneaky and quick frog creatures to groups of four that had mages in their numbers. The group was able to deal with them but took injuries that could thankfully be healed and expended mana at an alarming rate. Wyn didn't mind, of course, but the others were drinking mana potions with far more regularity than normal. At their current rate, they'd be at a loss for the rewards received and potions spent, as they didn't expect to get the floor reward their first time climbing. That was beside the amount of injuries inflicted on them. Despite the ability to be healed, it was still a difficult thing to be injured so much, both physically and mentally.

"Let's break again," Wyn said, after finding yet another mass of land from the dark waters. Cedric and Tasha pulled out their parchments to map out the turns and path they had taken while the others kept watch. They were making decent progress all things considered.

Marcy stopped her scan, focusing on something on their path. Wyn caught her and staring and tried to see to no avail.

"What is it?" Wyn asked.

Marcy shook her head. "Not entirely sure. I'm getting the sense that there's something dangerous ahead but I'm not getting any more information than that. Not monsters."

"A trap, then?" John asked.

"Yea. Along those lines."

Wyn stepped forward. "I'll go with you to see what it is."

"Stay right behind me, then. Hopefully it's the typhoon trap."

When Nigel told them about the floor, he mentioned they had found two types of traps: a typhoon trap and a suffocating trap. The typhoon trap was one where a swirling pull of water trapped and tried to drown whoever was inside. It was deadly, but with a simple water breathing enchantment became less so. The one problem was swimming out of it, but everyone had enchantments that provided both the ability to breathe underwater and improved swimming capabilities.

The suffocating trap was far, far worse. It didn't just try to drown, but also crushed by means of large rocks from the cavern wall.

As Marcy stalked forward, Wyn felt something shift in the air. Then a rumble shook the walls causing dust to fall and the loose rocks under his feet to shift.

"What's happening?" Tasha cried.

Marcy backed up as the island they were standing on began to crumble away into the surrounding water. The walls then started to creak and move, narrowing as though the entire chamber was shrinking.

Wyn stared in horror as their entire environment suddenly started dwindling in size.

"Suffocating trap!" Marcy yelled.