A sea of glowing colors surrounded me to all my sides, threatening to overwhelm me with just how vivid and bright they all were. Compared to the world outside of the dungeon the landscape that awaited me inside of it was almost equally intimidating as it was fascinating, with even the tiniest blades of grass being saturated with elemental mana so pure and rich that most alchemists could only dream of working with it.

The green color, nature magic, was easily found in every single plant that grew in the dungeon, all of which were more or less filled to the brim with the attributed mana, but there was also an unexpected discovery awaiting me in each single one of their silhouettes; an untainted white that was almost perfectly hidden by the seemingly much stronger color.

All of the monsters we had met so far had shared this white hue, meaning every single living being in this dungeon was of divine origin - at least partially - or had been blessed by a deity in some shape or form. Both options were entirely unheard of. There was no such thing as a holy aligned dungeon, after all.

White magic was a rather rare sight, all things considered. Sure, almost all of the members of the clergy had at least some of it to be seen inside of their bodies, ready to be used at a moment’s notice, but most adventurers and common folk never actually wanted to see it in action, as that would inevitably mean a friend or a family member was sick, wounded or, much worse, at the verge of dying.

The leader of the raid himself carried a lot of the glowing white deep inside of his body, narrowly exceeding the light the paladin that had stepped in to protect the dungeon’s avatar had in his, but it was said girl herself that was the most breathtaking, as she had appeared to me as a pure, untainted silhouette of brightly shining white that easily confirmed her story about both being a goddess’ daughter as well as a dungeon avatar.

Even the newly anointed champion had stood out to me, although in a much different way. Sure, she had holy mana woven into her being just like all of the clergy, but hers seemed to be different somehow. Simply looking at it was enough to make me slightly warm, just like the thin veil of white did that surrounded my own body and most of the raid's, meaning the two were similar in some regard. I knew the veil was the blessing doing its work, but I had no way to tell just what it was about. Some of the raid members were still letting their guesses heard even by this point, with not a single of us any wiser.

Other than the white that was likely an unknown blessing making itself known and not her own strength and ability, there were many more colors to be seen in the woman's body, meaning she had access to several schools of magic, with even two being rare. But instead of just water magic, which I had seen her use in action when she tried to help those hit by the lava monster's attack, there were fire and earth magic to be found as well, meaning she could function not only as a healer but also as a mage and, to some extent, even a front-liner if she was experienced enough. As if that wasn't enough, there were also advanced elements to be seen, such as lava, steam and a shiny black I had never seen before. I could only guess what this color was about.

I had heard the champion was just a normal priestess before being chosen by the goddess, with her being limited to faith based magic alone. Seeing what she looked like now, this was rather unbelievable as it easily shattered almost everything that I seemed to know about mana and the limitations of ones' body.

Aspen hadn't told me about the former priestess beforehand. He didn't even ask me to tell him what exactly we were dealing with in this dungeon, despite him knowing exactly what ink magic was allowing me to see. He instead solely relied on his close friend Deluc, who, by now, had almost emptied his entire pool of deep purple mana by filling several way too precious artifacts with it. Still, I made sure to add notes on almost everything I saw with my weird eyes, hoping it would be of some help later on.

Just like all other schools of magic, ink magic also influences the body in sometimes positive, and sometimes negative ways. A very common occurrence was your mana pool increasing the stronger you got, with other types of mana increasing one’s reaction speed, muscle strength, endurance, or resistance against scratches, slashes, or stabs. There were hundreds of these effects known to scholars, with some appearing almost always and others being rare even in more experienced users of a school of magic.

I, myself, was forced to adapt to two major side effects of the rare school of ink magic, one of them very common, the other one almost unheard of. Not only could I now store all kinds of mana inside of my body by simply eating meals or drinking potions infused with them, but I had also lost my normal eyesight around my thirteenth birthday, only to instead gain the ability to see mana in its various colors and forms as I recovered over several months. This not only cursed me to never see the real color of a flower with my own eyes ever again, with all of their blossoms, leaves, and stems appearing entirely green to me now, but also allowed me to become a painter of all things, although one that could only ever hope to use the ink I could now summon out of thin air and control with my thoughts alone. I could even make it dry on the spot!

Despite looking pure black by nature, this ink of mine easily fused with the mana I had stored in my, to my weird eyes at least, rather vividly colored body. This resulted in it not only changing the ink’s color in the process of me painting, allowing me to draw pictures that depicted the real thing even for my own eyes to see. It went even further as working with ink magic also meant I would infuse my work with the magic in question, causing viewers of the pieces to experience various feelings from anger and fear over tranquility and even lust. Naturally, this meant quite a few prospective customers were willing to pay quite a sum for some rather specific portraits and paintings.

Today I was using a more satisfying, albeit worse paying aspect of my magic, as I had used a short break to draw bluish-white circles on every single raid participant’s clothes or armor, front and back, using most of the ice magic I had stored in the process. Just looking at the shapes would fill the men and women with a deep sense of calmness, allowing them to temporarily shake off the things they had been forced to see while delving into the dungeon. Washing the clothes would naturally get rid of this effect, and it would also wear off over time, but as for now, it gave the raid the strength to continue on.

My next task awaited me when we reached a weird ritual site even Deluc could barely make any sense of. Runes featuring four elements were carved into its nine round pedestals, and I could see the colors of water, fire, earth, and air swirling in each single one of them. The middle of the magic circle, where a much bigger pedestal was waiting, was almost entirely flooded with holy magic instead once again revealing to me that Cilia had her hand in its creation.

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Naturally, I immediately told the raid leader about my findings, but he only nodded before instructing me to paint and map out the whole thing.

Reluctantly, I went to work, placing down my oversized backpack to then select a random, empty scroll of paper for me to use. A minute later I had already drawn the whole magic circle, having made sure to estimate its size as well as to note down everything I had seen within its pedestals. Surely, the one combining all of my work into a report would find this information more useful than Aspen did.

Once I had finished my work with the circle, I scrambled for another scroll to do a quick sketch of the mountainside, which had a stream of lava running down on it that seemingly endlessly pooled into a small pond of molten rock at the volcano’s base.

It was at this moment that I noticed a small, two-tailed silhouette appearing on the very top of the mountain. Its body was made almost entirely out of red magic, with a few white flames to be seen here and there. Despite sharing its feature of having multiple tails with the king of the mountain, as the others had named it, I didn’t feel any danger coming from this tiny creature. If anything, just looking at it made me feel warm, comfortable, and welcome, as if somebody had decided to draw it using various colors of ink magic themselves.

Naturally, the men and women surrounding me spotted the very same creature soon after, and before I knew it, I was already shoved toward the back where it was supposedly much safer to be. I quickly stored my equipment back into my backpack, before once again checking on the blessing I had received.

It was still there, enveloping my whole body with a pure white and calming me down almost immediately. Not only did the magic, much like that small monster, make me feel both warm and comfortable, but it also promised me that something good might happen should I only wait, as being entirely enveloped with holy magic couldn’t possibly be a bad thing. With a blessing this strong looking, and the white, flower-like magic symbols on our foreheads, there was no way Cilia would leave us hanging. We just had to wait for the blessing to activate itself…

Panicked voices suddenly forced my attention back onto the mountainside, which now had not one, but almost a dozen monsters just waiting to charge at us. Two of the elementals looked exactly like the supposed king of the mountain, their two-tailed bodies filled with orange-red mana, the others, however, were much smaller and pure red instead, making them the same as the rather weak and inaccurate magic casters we had faced before.

Aspen was already shouting orders, trying to get the raid members and especially the front liners in position, but when the two supposed kings then summoned giant balls of molten rock and sent them rolling down the steep mountain slope to create another deadly avalanche, even my calming magic spell could not keep the paladins from making their escape, forcing me and the other mages to run right after them.

It turned out to be the best possible decision as not even a second after I had made my escape, the avalanche passed the exact spot where I had just been standing, turning the meadow that was flooded with nature and holy magic into a hellscape of fire and ash. Screams could be heard from everywhere surrounding me, with men and women calling out for their friends and comrades, but they quickly became silent once they realized the raid had been merely split into two, as there were neither flashes of holy magic stealing corpses away nor armors and burned clothes left behind in the avalanche’s wake.

I let out a breath I didn’t notice I was holding as I tried to search for a way through the flames and toward the other party members. But before I could even find such a convenient path amid the inferno, I noticed the monsters were running down the mountain, all of them coming to deal with our half of the group instead of splitting up themselves.

A flurry of curses slipped my lips as I rushed to the frontline, intending to greet the monsters with my magic while we still had some kind of advantage. Within seconds, I was already shooting torrents of ink at the smaller of the beasts, desperately trying to get rid of their magic attacks before they could become an issue.

The monsters had almost reached us, when a barrage of blue balls of magic suddenly came from behind me, impacting right in front of the elemental’s path and forcing them to a rough stop. I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Jona, who was making no secret about having the worst day of her life, having not only lost her lover due to the combined attack of several earth monsters but also two friends due to the first avalanche. All of that didn’t even account for her losing her hands which couldn’t possibly be healed by any member of the clergy living in Abervale. No, it needed famous men and women to bring them back. Just being forced to relive that incident was enough to tip her over the edge, and the supposed healer quickly emptied most of her mana within seconds, cursing and screaming as she did so.

With me and the supposed healer going at it with all our strength, there was little the paladins had to do other than holding back the attackers at least somewhat and getting themselves healed over and over again. And it somehow worked out for us, as the number of monsters soon dwindled to three, only the two-tailed foxes still struggling against our makeshift formation. And struggle they did, with their shields and swords being highly vulnerable to the monsters.

The men made the best of the situation they found themselves in, dodging over and over again as they tried to limit the damage dealt to their equipment and comrades. They could only place their hope into mine and Jona’s trusty hands as, even though we had several mages at our side. This was just how strong these monsters were against seemingly most schools of magic one might think of.

I sprayed the two fighting monsters with ink over and over again, while carefully watching the tiny monster further in the back for any move or change, not that there were any right now.

We had already besieged the monsters for several minutes, burning most of our mana and causing layers upon layers of rock to be formed and chipped away from the monster’s slowly shrinking bodies. Despite all of this happening, we didn’t manage to deal the killing blow either, as the monsters seemed to be too strong at defending themselves.

It was only when one of the men bashed the monster against its head with his shield that something changed. The monster went to the ground, seemingly at the end of its strength, only to be suddenly set ablaze with flames both red and white in color. Before I knew it, the monster hit by the attack was already back on its feet again, seemingly taunting us for our weak attempt at bringing it down. I quickly turned around only to find the small healer already preparing its next magic, ready to rekindle the other beasts again and again should need be.

Jona didn’t allow for this to happen. Squeezing out her last bit of mana, she summoned a giant ball of water before hurling it at the beast, which promptly exploded into a cloud of steam.

The other two monsters looked at the cloud in shock, unable to move. It was only when they found their fellow monster alive but severely weakened, that life returned to them. Both monsters suddenly lifted their heads into the air, before barking, screaming, howling, and generally making a lot of noise. A cold shiver ran down my skin as I realized just what this could mean. And sure enough, when I looked up to the volcano’s peak, more and more red silhouettes seemed to grow out of its crater, until it was more than a dozen of them, with each single one of them featuring two long, fiery tails.

We had messed up.