The first thing Zoe noticed, stepping onto the two hundred meter long square platform was the heat that radiated from the purple flames. It felt like stepping into an industrial bakery’s oven, even with all of her resistances that worked against the heat. Like the door they were stepping through was a portal to the inside of an active volcano.
Moments after they stepped through to the inside, the purple flames that surrounded the platform intensified. Flames rose up from each of the entrances to the surrounding trees, hiding the lounges from sight. Timothy’s voice came through the roaring flames as a distant whine, begging to be able to see what was happening.
The purple flames began to swirl around the arena as more and more colours twisted in to them, forming an awe inspiring display of power. Colourful flames raced around the arena, twisting into each other far above the center of the arena and dripping down like burning oil to the middle of the wooden platform.
Flames continued building up in the middle of the arena as the dense colours that surrounded the platform combined together at the top and dripped down. The purple flames that once blotted out the sky and surrounding city were pulled to the top, and flowed down into the form that was being created on the platform.
Zoe looked over the edge of the platform at the city. Several groups were fighting elementals of their own on the outskirts of the dungeon, two had even made it almost to the base of the library. But all stopped to watch the spectacle of flame at the top of the library. She waved to them, laughing to herself.
Timothy stared at the scene from the lounge, mouth agape. Jeffrey and Emma both stood next to the lounge, trying to comfort him as the flames continued coalescing, and the heat continued building up.
“You two sure about this?" Zoe asked as she teleported back next to them.
“Absolutely not. You think you can keep us safe?" Jeffrey asked.
“Hah!” Zoe laughed. “Maybe. Hopefully. Like I said, anything can happen.”
Emma nodded. “I’ll be fine. Just keep Jeffrey safe if it gets out of hand.”
Jeffrey cursed, and even without her Vampyric Empathy Zoe felt his anxiety peak. His heart was racing, like a thunderous drum slamming against the inside of his chest as he watched the last of the flames drip down into the form in the center of the arena.
As soon as the last bit of dripping fire reached the form, it erupted outwards. Flames were sent flying in all directions. Zoe created a dense wave in front of her and her two companions, with a thick wall of earth just behind it. The water flashed to steam as soon as the fire reached it in a deafening crash. Her wall of earth stood, with bits of molten rock and dirt dripping down along the sides.
“Oh my god.” Jeffrey said. “This is insane.”
Zoe nodded and dismissed the wall of earth to see behind it. The entire arena was covered in colourful flames, burning into the floor and walls. It clung to the canopy far above and fell down as branches and leaves fell from the trees.
“Holy shit.” Emma said, staring at the elemental in the center of the arena. “It’s bright red.”
Zoe identified the elemental — bright red level two fifty four.
Another explosion of flame rattled the arena, as a targeted beam of concentrated fire shot out from the elemental towards Zoe’s group. She grabbed her two friends and teleported them to the other side of the arena.
The beam smashed into the wall where Timothy was watching, sending colourful flames racing along the wall, crawling along the walls and up the open air where the doors were as though the doors were closed.
“Okay, the lounges are safe at least.” Zoe said. “Timothy should be okay.”
“But what about us?" Jeffrey said, his heart continuing to race.
Zoe shrugged and summoned several fist sized balls of Frost, flashing her powerful water enchantment onto them. They flew at the elemental and exploded in a puff of steam. The elemental’s flames reached out where the projectiles impacted it, sending waves of heat that seared into Zoe’s skin.
Health: 85342/88200
“How are you two for health?” Zoe asked.
Jeffrey summoned a vial of red liquid. “I can heal myself in a pinch.”
“I should be okay. I’ll let you know.” Emma said as magic flooded out of her. Space warped around the flames that clung to the wood around them, and then the flames vanished. Wind rushed in after to fill in the space that Emma ripped away. “I can handle the flames.”
The elemental’s flames roared and sent another barrage of fire out at the arena. Space warped in front of Zoe’s group, and the flames that would have hit them appeared on the other side of the arena, exploding far away from them. Emma took a deep breath. “I’ll be fine.”
Zoe focused on the elemental’s form and pushed mana into her Cosmic Rift. Space and time twisted around the elemental’s form before a chunk of the elemental was ripped away, dissipating in the air. The elemental flared, and the heat rose once more. Bits of wood and leaves that hung from the canopy began combusting from the heat alone, even if fire hadn’t reached it yet.
Jeffrey chugged his healing potion and tossed the vial to the side, then summoned another blue potion and handed it to Zoe. “Here, take this.”
Zoe drank the potion.
*Ding* You have drank a [Regenerator] potion. Increased mana regeneration for one hour.
She smiled. Mana regeneration wasn’t what she needed here, but it was a nice gesture. “Thanks.”
Jeffrey nodded, and summoned another vial of clear liquid that he threw at the elemental. It shattered mid air, and the liquid rained down on the elemental, popping with puffs of steam as the flames flared up.
The elemental twisted, flames spiralling above it and coalescing in the canopy far above before a thin beam of fire was shot out at Jeffrey. Space warped in its path and the beam was sent to the other side of the arena where it continued to burn in to the ground on the other side. Another beam of flame raced out of the coalescing flames at the twisting space on the other side of the arena, and Emma rushed to shove Jeffrey out of the way before it reached through the portal she made and smashed into the ground behind them.
Zoe fired off a few more of her fist sized frost projectiles which smashed into the twisting flames in a powerful blast of steam, interrupting the flames that were coalescing in the canopy above. She covered Emma and Jeffrey in suits of Earth then lifted them from the ground before she pushed all of her remaining mana into her Torrents skill.
Water rushed out of her and flooded the arena. All few hundred square feet of it were drenched in several feet of water in moments, with tumultuous waves crashing into the walls of the trees and the invisible barriers that surrounded the platform.
The elemental’s flames flared as the water crashed into it, flashing all of the water that touched it to steam in moments, creating a dry pit that reached out by a foot on all of its sides. The water continued crashing around the room for a few moments before it was all evaporated under the intense heat, though the elemental looked much worse for wear after Zoe’s barrage of water.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Flester’s Might came to life as colourful flames erupted around the city and were pulled towards the floating platform in the trees.
“ZOE!” Emma shouted. “It’s calling for reinforcements! Can you do that again?”
Zoe nodded, and continued dumping all of her mana into her Torrents skill, flooding the platform with water. The elemental flared to life, burning into the wood and evaporating the water. Every few seconds, it would launch a fireball at Zoe or her friends, and Emma would redirect it elsewhere so it would crash into the waves in an explosion of steam.
Just as the elemental seemed to be reaching the end of its wick, the first reinforcements began to arrive. Colourful elementals that crawled along the walls and floated through the air to combine with the large central elemental Zoe was fighting.
She tried to block them with her Torrents skill, which worked at first. But every moment she let up her torrential downpour was a moment the elemental took to retaliate. Bursts of flame raced out at Zoe or her friends and overwhelmed Emma’s defenses, forcing Zoe to switch to the defensive as she tried to keep her friends out of danger and regain the advantage.
And after the first few elementals raced in, dozens more began pouring in. Even if she didn’t have to keep her friends safe, there were just too many to be able to block every one. They combined with the elemental, and its flames flared to life once more as it went on the offensive.
Fire poured out of the elemental like lava, dripping onto the floors and crawling along. Zoe’s water evaporated before it even reached the fire, and the heat rose even further. Steam began to rise off of Zoe’s body as her sweat and saliva evaporated from her, forcing her to use her Water skill to keep both herself and her two friends from becoming dried out husks.
Emma’s magic twisted and warped around the elemental, diverting some of its flames to other less important locations or ripping off bits of its fire when she had the chance. While Jeffrey began dumping healing potions into both himself and Emma to keep them alive without wearing even more on Zoe’s mana.
She chuckled at the thought of increased regeneration not being needed. Maybe that was arrogant. With a little more regeneration, she might have even been able to fit in some Cosmic Rifts to chip away at the fire even more, but keeping the elemental at bay with her Torrents was barely possible even with however much of an impact Jeffrey’s potion had.
The last of the reinforcements finally poured in after several minutes of dumping all of her mana into flooding the platform with water, and the elemental’s flames began to die as they fought back Zoe’s devastating barrage of water. Fire exploded from the elemental, but anything that threatened Zoe or her friends was blocked by either a wave that rose from the several feet of water on the platform or Emma’s space magic.
After another minute, the elemental looked like little more than a bonfire in the middle. Zoe smirked as her torrents overcame the elemental’s final dying struggle, and they were rewarded with a notification.
*Ding* You have cleared the Flester’s Might dungeon. Would you like to claim your reward?
Zoe let her two friends down, and urged the system to give her the reward.
*Ding* You have accepted the Flester’s Might dungeon reward. Flames will erect in 60 seconds… 59… 58… 57…
*Ding* For being the first to clear the Flester’s Might dungeon, you have been awarded with the [Trailblazer] feat.
Mana swirled in front of the three of them, coalescing into three massive piles of coins, two orange bracelets, a purple woolen hat and an ornate silver short sword.
“Woo!” Jeffrey shouted. “That was incredible! How much mana did you have to dump into that? I’ve never seen anything like that!”
Zoe chuckled. Her current mana cap with the extra five levels into intelligence was three hundred thirty thousand, and even with that she still recovered the entire capacity in just over half of a second. The fight took three? Four minutes maybe.
“A lot. I don’t even know. Millions. Maybe a hundred million?” Zoe shrugged.
“A hundred million!?” Jeffrey shouted and shook his head. “You’re nuts.”
Zoe laughed. “I’ve begun to realize that myself recently, but don’t go around advertising it too much. I already get annoyed enough at Diana harassing me for a spar.”
“Alright, alright. Whatever you say boss lady, I’m just happy to get two new feats today. How much of the loot do I get?”
“You can keep your pile of coins, Emma and I will split the items. Actually, Emma you can just take them cause I’m never going to remember I have them. Let me know if any are fun sounding though, or if those bracelets are storage items.” Zoe said.
“All of this!?” Jeffrey shouted, pointing at the coins in front of him.
“Yeah. Also, grab it and lets go, like, now. Or we’ll have to fight it again probably.” Zoe said.
25…24…23…
Jeffrey grabbed his pile of coins and raced across the very wet wooden platform to the other side where Timothy was waiting. Emma and Zoe both teleported across after they stored away their loot, arriving next to Timothy as Jeffrey cross through into the lounge a few seconds before the timer was finished.
“I must say, I didn’t expect you to be successful.” Timothy said.
“You thought that little of us?" Zoe laughed.
Timothy shrugged. “I think highly of dungeons.”
“That’s fair.” Zoe said, and sat down on one of the chairs. It was quite comfortable, and the flames that licked at the sides of it weren’t hot to the touch at all, lending to the blistering ambience of the fire dungeon.
“Did you see my heroism?” Emma asked. “Gonna make a good statue? I was doing all the spacey stuff. Mostly.”
“I had potions. Make sure you make me look like I was prepared.” Jeffrey said.
Zoe tuned out of their conversation to check the description of her new feat.
[Trailblazer]
You delve into the unknown, tackling challenges and dangers none have faced before. Others stood back, carefully watching but you charged in, eager and brave, or perhaps reckless. All classes gain a bonus to quality. +1 stat point for each dungeon cleared.
“Hey,” Zoe said, interrupting the quiet argument about how the statue would be built. “Have you two read this feat yet?”
“Feat?” Timothy asked.
“No, I haven’t had the chance to because this guy keeps saying he’s going to make me look scared.” Jeffrey answered.
“You WERE scared!” Timothy shouted. “Even I could hear your heart racing from over here.”
Emma’s eyes glazed over as she read through the system message. “Woah, that’s really interesting. What’s class quality mean, anyway?"
“I’m not sure.” Zoe said and checked her vitals. “All of my class bonuses seem to be the same. Maybe we’ll be offered better classes now? I had another feat that said it too, but I’ve never thought about it much.”
Emma hummed as she tilted her head back and forth. “Can’t be bad anyway. Couple extra stat points doesn’t hurt either, but I don’t think even you will be clearing enough dungeons for that to end up mattering at all.”