CHAPTER 92.

The adventurers had taken great displeasure at her attempt because according to them she was trying to steal their job just like the foreign adventurers, that and coupled with the receptionist reasoning that she had absolutely no way to track some of those gathering requests, made Amber only take five quests or so.

And now, an hour or so later, Amber found herself pondering as she walked through a forest.

She wasn’t pondering about the future, or ongoing things, but rather about herself. She found it… interesting how she had changed, perhaps it was also odd. She had gone from being preoccupied about what other people thought of her and feeling shy when showing off to… not caring all that much.

Perhaps it was due to everyone that had hammered into her that she was in fact not normal, but at this point she had no shame to do certain things such as taking a bunch of requests from the Guild. Or even argue with nobles or any of the recent things she had been doing. While she tried to stay humble, the truth was that she had quite the big ego at this point.

And while Amber felt it made sense, she also found herself wondering about herself. After all, she was well on her path towards becoming an eccentric and annoying god, and now seeing how she felt, she realized that their personalities were beginning to make sense. With ego, with power, with all of that came change. Sure, she wasn’t planning on being disrespectful or use people for her amusement, but she definitely felt a lot more disconnected in regards to what strangers thought about her.

It was weird but also normal? She didn’t really know what to make of it, and thinking of everything ⁠— what she had experienced, what she had become, and how she currently felt about things ⁠— made her laugh.

“I am practically living my dream, and yet I’m sure past me would want to bury her face on a pillow after hearing some of my interactions…” It was a fun thought. “Well, that’s fine.”

Amber shook her head. For now she was simply relaxing, once she was done here she would head to the Sacred Forest. She wanted to explore the region, and also find out more about the visions she had seen back in her advancement, and she had a hunch that Asil’s family could help her with that.

As for trying to go to Ill’hine?

She wasn’t stupid, she’d still die if she went. So, the general goal of growing stronger remained. And with that, came understanding her Essence further.

Amber looked over at a tree and swiped, there was no flash, no anything and yet⁠— a laceration exploded upon the bark. It carved a mere couple of centimeters but it was still something deadly. It wasn’t Fulminating Slash, but rather a better slashing attack to what she had. And she wanted to perfect it given it was well… invisible.

She had taken the chance to experiment with Essence every now and then, and while Asil had tried to teach her more, she refused him for the most part. And that was because she felt it important for her to learn by herself.

Amber made a knife of blue fire, and played with it. It was something that Advanced Blue Fire Creation allowed her to do. But at the same time, the uses of the technique felt limited. She could make constructs out of blue fire and apply it to other things she did, and… yeah that was about it.

She needed new skills, and while the imagination was the limit, Amber didn’t really get it. She pointed her finger and blasted through a tree branch with the water in the air. She was practically a mage at this point, so perhaps trying to dig into how mage classes worked would yield some results?

A sigh left her. “I’ll figure it out when I go to the Sacred Forest, aren’t elves incredibly good mages anyway?”

That was what Thieney had said. Well, he said they had affinity towards magic, but either way it seemed like a good spot to start with.

Shaking her head, she summoned one of the many request she had taken.

[Assess danger of the Sapphire Dungeon.

Those capable enough may clear it, if not report back to the Guild.

Request time: 1 Day to 1 Month.

Estimated level: 120+

Reward: To be discussed.]

It was the highest level request she had on hand. And now, she was about to arrive at the dungeon. A very on edge merchant had directed her towards it. She looked ahead, at the dark tunnel that wasn’t too far away from her, and after taking a deep breath, she readied herself.

After all, it was probably going to be the only chance that she would get to polish her Essence properly for today.

Though as she entered, Amber couldn’t help but wonder what Velda and Deer had been doing, since according to Liz they should have long returned.

Well, hopefully they’re on their way back now.

* * *

Velda and Deer were in fact not on their way back. Instead, both of them were trying to grow stronger, all to surpass the person that had a pivotal effect on their lives:

Amber, the Demonkiller. The hero of Cytel, a duchess of the kingdom, and friend of the primordials.

And now, they were both nearing the level 100 barrier. Slowly but surely, going one challenge at a time, and just like many other challenges, today they were facing a new one.

A bead of sweat fell down Velda’s forehead as she steadied her staff. A gray flame wisping at its tip. It trembled for a moment threatening to extingusih, and then she slammed it down, calling out the fitting word to channel her spell⁠—

“Cinder⁠!”

The flames exploded forward, like a barrage of gray that engulfed the Sapphire Ardrid before her. The walls charred, and some of the stone disintegrated into nothing but flakes of coal. The blue spider itself reeled and screeched, unleashing a howling scream of pain before it simply melted away.

[You have defeated a [Sapphire Ardrid. Lvl. 112].]

For defeating an enemy 30 levels above your own, you have received bonus experience!

Less experience for defeating an enemy as a group.

[You have reached level 83. 5 stat points awarded.]

Velda let out a deep breath, she was close to surpassing her sister already, and yet she was so eternally far from Amber, who was 50 levels above her… at the very least. But still, she resolved herself to try harder. Part of it was because leveling up allowed her to make her feel in control of her own life, another part was surpassing Amber, and another was that she truly enjoyed it.

She had long resolved herself to this path of life, and while it was supposed to be a lonely one, it wasn’t the case for her. All thanks to Deer, the monster that Amber had frankly miraculously tamed, but also Deer was special⁠— according to a monster tamer and a summoner ⁠— because she was pretty smart.

Velda smiled as the gigantic monster coddled up to her, while Deer was about ten levels behind, it wasn’t an issue. With their teamwork even this dungeon was an easy thing to deal with, all they had to do was isolate the encounters and take monsters one by one. While both of them would have loved to have Amber’s recovery abilities, neither of them could get close.

At most, Deer could regenerate a limb after a few hours, and Velda herself could at most, re-attach a lost arm, at most. It most certainly wasn’t something that compared to what the berserker was capable of.

“Now, what should we do?”

Deer whined, trembling lightly. She wasn’t scared but it conveyed an important meaning.

Rest.

Velda blinked. “Oh, we’ve been here for a day straight, huh?”

She got a nod in affirmation, and that was enough for her to agree with Deer’s suggestion. And so, after a moment they both got to moving to exit the dungeon. Right now, they were on one of the branching paths from the main path, where most monsters were, and unfortunately sneaking out wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t something they had never done before.

So, they got to work. Velda took out two necklaces ⁠— artifacts to see in the darkness ⁠— and wore one and gave Deer the other. The two of them moved towards the main path, weaving within the mantle of darkness as they avoided the passing monsters through crevices and cavities. That was until they encountered two. Hearing their footsteps the two tensed.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

They shared a glance and then Deer acted. She threw a projectile of bone at a distant wall, exploding it with a loud bang. Instantly, the spiders ahead hissed and rushed in that direction, enough for them to pass through.

Getting out is always so stressful… Velda frowned as she walked forward.

The two of them continued on their path to the exit, and avoiding a few more spiders and when they were finally getting towards the main path of the cave, they heard screeches. Hundreds of them, and all of them were furious as if they were in a frenzy.

The two tensed, even though they were less than a minute away from the exit, this was bad given every single monster in here could undoubtedly kill them. Velda and Deer hesitated but the screeches from behind immediately spurred them into action; they bolted into the main path and rushed.

And the screeches grew closer, Velda looked back only to see a burst of acid coming her way and hurriedly cast a barrier. The barrier exploded on impact and sent her reeling back from its force, Deer also barely dodged a different acid blast, the two of them picked themselves up but further venomous acid was shot forth, missing them yet enveloping the cave in it.

Velda and Deer turned only to see dozens of eyes, in the darkness and then one of them burst forward. A piece of bone hit it and Velda used Repulse in tandem, sending the spider deep into the darkness, but this did not last long for another spider immediately pounced.

“Blast.”

A burst of silver flames engulfed the spider, but it did little to stop it as Velda had to get roll out of the way as it landed. Then, more spiders pounced. Velda reeled back, but thankfully Deer intervened with a powerful blast of exploding bone that repelled the spiders. Some, got through but⁠— they did not pounce on her.

Velda picked herself up as she called to Deer.

“Cover me.”

The monster companion nodded and then charged forward, using its strong body to repell the spiders. Meanwhile, Velda raised her staff as a silver flame wisped atop of it. She could still hear the spiders screaming bloody murder, a lot of them in fact were running along the ceiling and going past them, but even then they were surrounded.

For some reason, the Sapphire Ardrids were agitated, and while Velda wanted to run she knew that the monsters in front of her ⁠— the ones fighting Deer ⁠— would kill them if she did so. Which was why, she had to kill them first.

Her mana ballooned at the tip of the staff, preparing her long spell and the hisses echoed before⁠— Deer was blasted.

Velda was hit by her companion and the two rolled further into the tunnel, and then she opened her trembling eyes only to see a lumbering figure standing in the middle of the tunnel. Its chitin was blue⁠— a radiant glowing blue, its legs were armored and dripping with venom, and its eyes were a deep azure color.

It was a…

[Grand Sapphire Ardrid. Lvl. ???]

Velda paled, a monster that was beyond level 150+. And as if heralding its appearance, the screeches and hisses grew stronger, more frenzied, even the Grand Sapphire Ardrid was letting out a deep hiss that sent shivers down Velda’s spine.

Is this how I die?

The spider pounced and⁠— a wave of white passed, before hitting a distant wall and exploding.

Velda yelped as blood exploded in front of her, the two halves of the spider hitting different sides of the wall as she recoiled from the sight. The two parts of the monster were flaming a beautiful azure blue.

But before she could focus on that, the rest of the spiders reeled back and screeched in defiance, but a blue projectile hit and exploded⁠— engulfing everything with the familiar azure blue fire, and it was killing everything in its path, because it was powerful.

In fact, it was the most powerful fire she had seen, and to make it even more impressive? It wasn’t even made out of mana.

She shivered at the implication and then a voice called out to them.

“What are you two doing here?”

Deer yelped and Velda turned on guard only to see, her. It was Her. It was the woman she aspired to overcome.

Amber.

[Warrior. Lvl ???]

And she had grown even stronger.

* * *

Amber tilted her head at the very shy and bloodied Velda. Her golden hair was completely stained with blood and entrails, and her blue eyes showed some guilt. Deer wasn’t any better.

“Y-You see we were…”

Amber raised her brow. “Trying to die?”

“What? No!” Velda sputtered. “We have been in this dungeon for two days now, if we were trying to die we would have already died.”

She nodded at the mage girl’s explanation. “Alright, well, try not to level up in places where normal monsters can kill you.”

The blonde girl blinked. “Isn’t that what you do?!”

“I’m the exception.” Amber grinned.

“Right…”

There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Deer whined and basically pounced on her, all too excited to see her, and much to Amber’s surprise Deer had grown. Both in level and in size. If before she a mere head taller than Amber, now she was two heads taller. A ridiculous notion, yet Amber didn’t point that out and instead embraced the monster, patting its neck.

“There, there, you missed me didn’t you?”

Deer in response whined, meanwhile Velda seemed hesitant.

“Your level is… what is it? Don’t tell me you are…”

“Above 150? Yep.” Amber smiled at her. “It took me an entire day, quite a hard advancement.”

Deer of course, didn’t know what that represented so she just continued on whining in happiness, Velda on the other hand⁠; her eyes went wide.

“W-What… getting the level 150 advancement takes years for a lot of people. Even for talented mages it will take months. What do you mean it took you a day?!”

“Well I beat up a level 202 monster, and I got it.” Amber shrugged.

“202?!” Velda freaked out.

In the end, Amber had to explain everything in great detail to Velda ⁠— conveniently omitting Essence ⁠— and by the time she was done, her jaw had hit the floor.

“H-How…”

She shrugged. “I’m just me”

“You are…” Velda looked at her up and down. “Are you an alien?”

Amber smiled. “Given I’m not from this world, yes.”

Velda blinked. “Uh… huh? Huh… right…”

In the end, no one really believed that claim, but the girl’s reaction still made her chuckle. Still, hearing the screeches far into the cave Amber knew she was far from done.

“I’m going to continue clearing this dungeon, so are you coming?”

Deer immediately let out a resounding yes with a whine, and Velda after a moment slowly nodded. And just like that, they set off again.

* * *

Amber slashed, splitting a spider in half as she tilted her head. She had gotten way better with the invisible cleave, but for some reason it wasn’t being recognized as a skill. Then again, its cutting power wasn’t any better than Fulminating Slash’s. She was now riding atop of Deer, who seemed more than happy at the occasion.

Amber slashed another spider, having to slash twice this time to kill it. Neither Deer nor Velda wanted to leech levels, so they just let her murder her way through the dungeon.

Velda looked at the dead spider. “I’ve been meaning to ask but… what’s that… thing that you’ve been doing. What was the fire as well?”

Amber smiled. “They are just curses.”

At that, the mage looked at her incredulously. “Do curses get that powerful at level 150?”

“Mine do.”

It was a total lie. Sure, her curses were strong now, but not blow up an entire dungeon strong as Primordial Blazing Bolt could. Amber turned to see another spider inching towards them and she smiled.

“I can do this too.”

She pointed her finger, and with a ‘bang’ in her mind, a burst of water perforated the spider and crippled it instantly. And Velda, once more stared in nothing more than amazement.

“That was… water…” she said after a moment. “You… what⁠— that’s not…”

“I can also do electricity,” Amber said, showing a crackling between her fingers.

“What the…”

Normally, she wouldn’t show off that hard, but she had a plan for this, and namely it was to talk with Velda.

“I’ve found that my curses have reached a new level, but at the same time they are weak and most aren’t recognized as skills.”

The blonde mage paused, evidently taken aback by her random statement. “Right… I’m not sure what you mean.”

“So I wanted to ask: do mages create their own spells sometimes or are they all given by the System?”

“We can create them,” Velda said after a moment of hesitation. “In fact, when we reach 150 we are given the option to create a new spell for our class, one that is required to be stronger than all the other spells. Upon managing to do so, we may acquire our advancements.”

Amber listened and quickly had a realization. So that’s the reason the advancement for mages is easier.

“Have you made a spell yet?”

She expected a resounding no, but to her surprise, Velda meekly nodded.

“I have, it’s called Barrage of Cinders. I estimate it’s around level 100 in strength,” she said lifting her staff as a silver flame flickered onto its tip. Trembling as it began to charge with mana. “It takes me multiple seconds to cast it, but it’s what Deer and I have been using to kill the spiders.”

“Huh interesting.” Amber took a moment. “That’s impressive.”

“It’s… yeah…”

Velda seemed shy at the sudden praise, but Amber was genuinely surprised. However, she didn’t let that derail the conversation. Instead, she returned to that. All while she slashed an incoming spider.

“I think my curses are similar to schools of magic, so do you have… suggestions or things I should try?” Amber asked slightly, swinging.

Velda winced as the entrails splattered in front.

“Well… is your slashing thing wind magic?”

“It is not…” Amber paused, thinking about how to explain it. “It’s closer to concentrated mana, just made incredibly thin so its invisible.”

Velda was once more awed, and then she collected herself. “Right, you aren’t manipulating mana, those are curses… Have you thought about adding wind curses to make it more powerful? Wind magic can cut in a similar effect so…”

Amber tilted her head at the suggestion. She hadn’t even considered wind at all⁠— in fact, she didn’t think she had even seen wind magic in the past. Though there was one problem, and it was the fact that Amber didn’t have any base of reference for how it should feel. So, she turned to Velda.

“Can you use wind magic?”

“I should be able to use a very weak version of it yeah.”

Amber nodded and stored her armor, showing her arm to Velda.

“Use it on me, cut my arm off if you can.”

The mage blinked. “I… Liz did tell me about your electrocuting requests, but I don’t think wind magic will help you⁠—”

“Just do it,” Amber said. “It’ll help me, a lot. If you do it, I’ll let you test spells on me later.”

At that, Velda immediately nodded and lifted her staff as it was channeled with mana, and moments later the rather weak attacks begun. And Amber, in turn, focused on truly mastering that feeling and translating it into Essence.

Amber knew it was important for her to learn this, because if she did she could apply it to Fulminating Slash and Primordial Blazing Bolt to increase both of their projectile speeds as well.

Not only that but as she absorbed the Essence from the felled enemies, she also realized that by the time she finished this dungeon she would gain an Essence skill no matter what.

She was going to level up her core from this dungeon after all.