“Wait, that’s why you’ve been so cold? Shouldn’t you, you know, be more friendly?” Evelyn had no clue what Adrith was thinking, she could only ask questions.
Adrith answered while looking off down the path, seeing the group finishing their preparations, “There’s something off about them. Have you seen it?”
Evelyn was trying to think what Adrith was talking about, “See what?”
Adrith sighed as he said, “They’ve been walking on a broken ankle, being winded, slowing from the constant walking, and probably a whole host of unhealed wounds from fighting monsters”.
Evelyn listened as she looked towards Maidrin, she began to inspect them as she began to realize that after being healed Maidrin was standing taller now, and all the heaving that was being done before was now gone. Her eyes widened as she was about to speak, yet the moment she tried Adrith began to walk towards the group. Cutting the conversation where it was for the time being as he looked to the group who’ve just finished the rest of their preparations and had armed themselves, “Seems you’re all ready”
The group nodded to him as the largest of them, a man who stands nearly half a foot above Adrith and wearing a big smile says, “Thanks for the assist back there. If y’all hadn’t come we’d probably be back to square one”. He slapped Adrith’s shoulder as he laughed and extended his hand.
“Name’s Connor, great to meet ya”, the giant of the man extended his hand to Adrith.
Adrith shook his head and extended to take the man’s hand while saying, “Likewise”.
Adrith could feel the strength this man had, no wonder Connor was the first to enter the fighting when he saw assistance and could attack with such strength to cleave through multiple tentacles from the Chimera Dragon, while Adrith struggled with cutting through one.
Connor then turned as he barked to his group, “Let’s head out! I wanna reach the surface before the caravan leaves. I’m not walking 2 days to the city.”
The group seemed to both sigh in annoyance and relief. The trek should be long, yet to hear that they could leave made some joyous enough to march without a second thought. Evelyn looked around as they all began to start walking. She saw that both Adrith and Connor began to walk with each other as she wished to join.
Evelyn came up beside Adrith as Connor noticed, “Oh, well hello there beautiful”.
Evelyn laughed slightly, the first thing spoken to her by someone she met in the dungeon, and they were hitting on her. It almost felt surreal. No more than a week ago she had awoken at the very bottom of this hellish place. She had no clothing except what they could create from magic and scraps of the dead. She had only one person to rely on, and half the time he had kept things about the dungeon and his plans to himself. And she could only believe that they would eventually make their way out.
“Well aren’t you the charmer?”, Evelyn said with a smile as she looked towards Connor, “So, how long do you think it’ll take us to travel up?”
“Somewhere in the range of a week”, Connor said after a few moments of thinking, “Why, you got a boyfriend waiting for you?”
Evelyn waved her hand as she chuckled, “No no, I just wanted to finally see the sun again”.
Connor laughed as he said, “Well, if you are looking for warmth I can-”, another voice cut in, it was the voice of the young woman in a set of loose clothing and carrying a staff. She was the mage whom Evelyn tried to help, “Connor, have we even talked about the split that will be happening?”
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Connor winced as he turned to the woman and said, “Of course, we will Gloria”. Connor then turned to Adrith and Evelyn with a smile, now it felt more like a plea for help. Evelyn turned to Gloria, she seemed to have handled herself well enough, “It’s good to see you’re doing well”.
Gloria looked to Evelyn with a smile, “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about your magic”. Gloria began to walk with Evelyn as she asked, “Where do you derive your power from?”
Evelyn looked to Adrith, “Oh, I believe this is a great time to learn some magic”.
Adrith looked to Evelyn and nodded, “I’m interested”.
Evelyn nodded with a smile, she wasn’t completely sure of the situation. She’d only known Adrith for so long, yet it felt like she was beginning to understand things about him. She noticed he hadn’t made one remark since they made it to these floors. She thought he had been loosening up as of recently since he seemed to even make a friendly comment when they met again after they died and were split up. Maybe it is a simple thing she will only see in him when he is comfortable with those around him, yet it was nice to see he still had that curiosity he had shown multiple times.
Evelyn cleared her throat as she looked to Gloria, “You asked me where I derive my power from? I gain mine through the arcane knowledge of astrology. Through their mysteries, I form theories, ideas, and thoughts that will then be used to invoke imagery and then power”.
Gloria nodded her head, as it took a moment for her to realize exactly what she was doing. Gloria smiled, “I see, I use my belief in Damona, the patron of Fairhaven’s divine lake. Through her I seek strength, guidance, and support, often I use the words that come to me in times of need or sleep to guide my power”.
Evelyn nodded her head to Gloria as they both looked to Adrith, which was given a simple response, “I see”.
Connor then notices something and asks, “What about you Adrith?” Connor slapped Adrith's shoulder as he continued, “They’re trying to teach you, must mean you know some magic”.
Adrith looked to Connor and nodded, “I do know some”.
Connor responded quickly, “Then what do you do for magic? Do you look to some deity? Do you try and invoke the powers of beasts or something? When I saw you jump into the fight, it looked like you grew in size, what was that? Bear Strength or something?”
Adrith shook his head, “No, me doing that fighting wasn’t magic. I was using my energy to enhance myself”.
Connor looked confused for a moment before he said, “So like, you think about being stronger and you just become that?”
Adrith nodded, “Essentially. You know how you are far stronger than even some monsters? That comes from you focusing your energy in strengthening your muscles for it. I can just do it temporarily”.
Connor nodded his head in appreciation of Adrith’s ability, “Nice. So what about your magic?”
Adrith quickly listed off his abilities like a checklist, “Basic spells to mend, fire a bolt of energy, form a magic shield, create light, and enhance my blade”.
Adrith then began to see the three people looking at him seeming to expect something more. He remembered what Evelyn and Gloria said and tried to copy, “Um, I don’t derive my magic from anything. These were just spells I was taught and told to practice to get a singular effect. I understand the general concept of them, and was taught different variations to modify those spells”.
Evelyn and Gloria looked at each other, they realized how rare that was. It was very strange to see someone perform magic with no personal imagery. It was then Evelyn realized why Adrith had such a high-level skill while being mediocre at best with magic, he had never learned what magic was. Only how to use it and wield it.
Evelyn strangely felt saddened, she loved having magic, the study of magic, the pursuit of truths to try and become better with her own magic. She couldn’t imagine herself being in his situation. She could only think it would be something akin to her eating every day the exact same stale bread. Never knowing or even being able to taste anything more.
Connor spoke, “Hey that’s pretty awesome! Being able to perform magic is probably the most important thing to learn. Gloria has been trying to get me to learn, but I’ve never picked it up since I could just hit harder and make any problem go away”. Connor laughed as he slapped Adrith on the shoulder.
Evelyn smiled as she felt like she had found some people with a happier disposition, it felt like a party of dungeon adventurers she was used to. She could remember countless sullen and sad people entering, yet this was a great change of pace.
However, something still felt off to her. As she looked at Adrith, she could almost feel like he was looking at something, waiting in expectation, and she wasn’t sure what.