The archers fired their arrows, the Emberdread didn’t seem to be too concerned about it, the arrows either went straight through or burned in the creature’s body. The two warrior spiders, being the fastest, got to the fiery creature first and hacked at its body with their axes. The axes disrupted the liquid fire distorting the humanoid shape and breaking whatever spell the creature was about to cast next.
“Get Off.” It spat fire sidestepping the attacks. “Fire BaRaGge.” Little balls of fire rained on the attackers.
The archers had to back off to avoid the projectiles and the others just used their shields. The Spider King, ran through the barrage, the [Spell Deflection] perk deflected some of the fireballs. The Embedread was in the reach of his spear so he jabbed at the vaguely humanoid form.
The Devouring Spear glowed in red disrupting the creature's shape. “Arg!” The Emberdread backed off; the wound leaked droplets of fire. He tried to get the creature again, but it was very wary of the spear now and was expertly avoiding it. The fire monster, whenever given a chance, was still shooting stray fireballs.
Fire Resistance wasn’t Fire Immunity, so the damage started to accumulate and it was mostly the feet which was affected. Parts of the body were scalded already at with time it could only get worse.
He couldn't get close to the creature anymore, so he took out all of [Mana Spring Water] out of his inventory and threw it at the Emberdread. The water doused its flames and the fire surrounding it.
“Ha-Ha, Fool. It’s Nothing!” It roared turning its flames back to full intensity.
The Emberdread was just too strong. He was running out of tricks, and with all the flame surrounding the creature his Dark Magic spells weren’t of much use. But maybe he was, wrong because a cloud of darkness emerged from the tunnel and then clung firmly on the head of the Emberdread, blinding it. The fireballs flew in random directions trying to disperse the darkness, but they had little effect. The monster couldn't see him coming this was his chance.
“ExPloS…”
He wasn’t going to let it finish invoking the spell. “Take that!” He thrusted the spear with all his might skewering the creature.
“Bah!” the spell was broken. The Emberdread flailed with its hand trying to get him. Then that didn’t work it tried moving away to dislodge the red glowing spear, after all, its body was semi-liquid.
“No. You. Don’t.” The spider warriors pushed the vague shape with their shields trying to contain it in one place and keep the spear in its body.
“Sorry.” The cloud of darkness chirped and flew away from the Emberdread’s head and back into the dark tunnels; the passive flames most likely had hurt it badly.
The spearmen ran bravely towards the Emberdread encircling it with their shields.
“Good, we have it trapped.”
The Emberdread having its sight back glared murder with hot fiery eyes. “ImmoLate.” It uttered a spell in a load pained voice.
The whirlpool of fire exploded from the creature. However, an interesting thing happened, it was likely because of the Absorb Fire and Deflect Fire perks, but the scorching flame just bounced off the Drow and was concentrated in a single spot instead. A huge column of concentrated fire magic shot up from the shielding cage slamming on the high ceiling. It was so hot it melted the rock above making it drip with lava.
[Fighting +25000exp] He was greeted with a message. The fire died down, and in Its place was just a red glowing tip of his spear, he was very happy it didn’t melt. The other equipment wasn’t so lucky, even with Reinforced +3 enchantment the shields were ruined, some were so hot they dripped liquid metal on the ground.
The Drow dropped the scalding shield on the ground, his fingers had visible blisters and burn marks. “I’ve leveled my Spearmanship to level 2.” He boasted to another Drow happily
“Me too!” It seems that everyone gained good exp from this.
Despite the injuries sustained everyone had a jovial mood.
“I reckon we should go back before another like this one shows up.” He urged.
A glint of fear flashed in everyone's eyes.
“King.” One of the spiders was pointing to the ground.
He’d almost missed it. There was a fist-sized cube lodged in the scorched ground where Emberdread died. He pried it off the ground with his spear and put it in the inventory, [Fire Essence].
“It dropped Fire Essence.”
The Drow simply nodded seemingly unsurprised.
“Congratulations.” A spider chirped.
With that, they urged back into dark tunnels, there was a glimmer of light likely coming from the Glowing Spider. Indeed, the guys there. The Kobold leader was happily eating off Mushroom Spider, it was likely he had already forgotten all about the Emberdread.
Or maybe not. “Hello!” The Kobold greeted with a smile. “I knew you can do it! Yes, Yes!”
“How is the Darkness Spider?”
“Hurt, but Okay.” He pointed into the darkness further in the tunnel.
“[Heal].” The Glowing Spider basked a Drow in white light.
“My wounds!” He looked at his hands. “They're gone.”
“Hey, I didn’t know you can heal.” The Glowing Spider was even more useful than he thought.
“Now. I Can. [Heal]” It healed another Drow and then another. The light of the spider dimmed. “Out. Of. Mana.” It informed the rest to their disappointment.
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“Here.” He offered PurpleM fruits knowing that they helped with mana recovery. “We should start figuring out how to make mana potions out of this. I’ll ask the humans for the equipment and instructions.” He said more to himself than others.
On their way back, they again were attacked by moles and centipedes. They knew how to deal with them so it was no challenge at all. He couldn't put an entire monster carcass in his Magic Inventory so instead he employed Stone Spider and Crystal Spider to carry them. The High Chief will be able to host a feast will all the meat they’ve gathered.
…
“You did it, and so many?” The High Chief was genuinely surprised.
“I reckon, we split it half and half?” He offered.
“This is too generous but I… I can’t say no.” The Drow bowed in thanks.
“You wanted to make a smeltery out of these, can you show me how’s it done?”
“The thing is I don’t know how. I only know that it should work in theory. The Elves never had such things, or even want to…” He had a distant and solemn look in his eyes.
“I reckon we can figure it out.”
The two headed to the designated spot by the wall and began brainstorming. The High Chief already had the Fire Clay needed for the construction. They had to make the clay into bricks. He shaped the bricks and Reinforced them and, then they cooked it on magical fire provided by the Fire Spirit Stones. With the bricks done they began shaping the forge itself. He was working with a rough image he had in his memory.
“We will need holes to funnel air.” He informed the Drow.
“Air, why air?”
“It will make the fire burn hotter.”
“That’s new for me. So you are thinking of introducing Air Magic to the mix?”
“No, well yes. We need bellows.”
The two began working on the design. He used Enchanted Leather, Red Cloth, Iron Oak and remaining pieces of Metal Spider Scales to make them.
[You have crafted a Forge Bellows of superior quality. Crafting +1000exp.]
[Forge Bellows: Reinforced +3. Fire Resistance, +10% smelting speed]
The forge was big, but the bellows were equally so; it will probably take four men to operate them.
“Amazing contraption. Did you… steal it from the Dwarves?”
“What? No, that’s my unique design.” This wasn’t entirely true, but not a lie either. “I’m sure humans have something similar.”
The High Chief shrugged. “I might have a ritual to enchant this with Air Magic, but I can’t promise anything.”
“Really? Let’s do it!”
The High Chief gathered a bunch of drow with Air Affinity, drew an unnecessarily complicated circle around the bellows, and scattered some powdered dust of multiple colours in random places. Some cave plants and rocks were placed in spots marked with a ꙰; the little rocks were carved into shapes of various animals. The ritual took longer to set up than to make the bellows, but it was interesting to observe.
“King, step aside. Your mana might interfere.” The High Chief was about to start the ritual.
The Drow poured their mana lighting up the circle. The circle lines glowed yellow, the dust caught fire and the stone figurines literally melted into puddles of liquid rock. Yellow motes of light concentrated in and around the circle. Meanwhile, the Drow were chanting. “We gather the spirits of Air, follow our voice, take our offering, do as we ask…” The chant was also wordy and long.
The motes began to swirl around the circle moving towards the bellows in a circling pattern. The bellows absorbed the motes, glowing more and more.
“… bestow this item with your Blessing. [Air Enchantment]” The Drow finished chanting.
Everyone released a strained sigh, they looked positively drained.
“Amazing! You can go for the Mana Spring and recharge.” The High Chief told the others. “King, we were successful.”
“Yes, but what does it do?”
“[Inspect]” He touched the bellows. “+50% smelting speed. If we had Air Spirit Stones, It is possible that we could bestow some additional magical effect or the other.”
“Interesting. Let's finish this up.”
They attached the bellows to the forge. Then they filled the special compartment on the bottom with Fire Spirit Stones. And the other compartment with metal ores.
“How do we turn it on?” He had to ask.
The High Chief touched a stone pedestal with both hands; it had elven carvings on it. “It needs mana. Like this.” He began pouring the mana in. The spirit stone lit up with Magical Flame.
“I see. Please move the bellows.” He instructed the four drow men.
The bellows moved, and the fire burned brighter giving more heat.
“How interesting, I never thought a mundane air could boost Magical Fire.”
“Now imagine what Magical Air could do…” He was only speculating of course.
“You’re right, the two elements often complement each other.”
“Any idea where we could get Air Spirit Stones?”
“Unfortunately, no. But an Air Mage should be able to achieve similar results.”
He looked expectantly at the chief.
“While most of us Drow are gifted, the gifts are only minor. We don’t have proper casters, people who can concentrate magic in their hands – Magi.”
He somehow doubted the drow’s words, if they had the magical blood, they had the potential to become full-fledged mages then.
“Would Magical Essence help?”
“That… It would. But those things are treasures.”
“I happened to have Fire Essence.”
“Then it could make a Fire Magus.” The High Chief looked directly into his eyes. “Or a powerful artifact. But we have spirit stones already, there is no need for Fire magus here if that’s what you implied. So keep it, King. However, if you happen to stumble upon nature or air essences, I won’t be able to refuse such a gift.”
“Huh, you have your preferences.”
“We’re just most skilled in those. Nature first and Air second. But, with the way we now I recon it might change. Darkness and Earth seem to be most useful. Thinking on it, I take back my words, I’ll gladly take Earth or Darkness Essence if you have any spares, Ha-ha.” The High Chief laughed fully aware of how ridiculous he sounded. “Not that it gonna happen. Those things are notoriously hard to obtain.”
The ores finished melting, and bright orange liquid filled the ingot slots.
“We should quench it.” He knew this wasn’t steel but he wanted to try anyway.
He dropped glowing ingots into a bath of Mana Spring Water. The water bubbled steaming up and the ingots cooled rapidly.
He collected the smelted metal into the inventory.
[Corrundum Ingot] x9, but there was another [Enchanted Corundum Ingot] x1. How was one better than the other it was still unknown.
“We’ve gotten an enchanted ingot? Any idea why?”
“I’m no Dwarf, I wouldn’t know. I guess it has something to do with your contraption and the water?”
“Hmm.. maybe.”
They kept smelting and roughly 5% of ingots came enchanted. He’d gotten lucky the first time.
Soon High Chief ran out of mana and was replaced by another Drow. The smelting process just began, but they were already making good progress. With that Drow will be able to move from stone and fungiwood materials to metal, which was a great leap for their civilisation, or so he thought. The High Chief was so impressed with the forge that he agreed to send the metal ingots to him. The actual deal was, that he traded the fruits to Kobolds, the Kobolds mined him ores then he gave the ores to the Drow and then all of them shared the metal ingots – A nice chain of production.
With the stones acquired and the smeltery done, he wanted to visit the Kobolds. He hadn't seen their camp for a while, and he wondered if there was a way to help them dig more ores.
He went to look for the Kobold leader, and he found the guy casually swimming in the Mana Spring. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that it was full of Drow females bathing.
“Eek!”, “Ahh!”, “No.” Some females reacted and tried to hide their nudity, but not everyone did so. Some puffed their chest to display their assets proudly. “Does, the King want to join us?” One of them offered.
He didn’t know if he should keep looking or avert his gaze. “Sorry for ambushing you.” He apologised to the shy Drow. “And… Unfortunately, no. I am here for the Kobold Leader.”
“Yes-Yes?” He was paddling all around the pool and in between the Drow, splashing them while doing so.
“You see, we will be needing more ores. And I would love to see how’s your camp doing.”
“Oh? Is it time to go?” The kobold seemed somewhat reluctant, but, “Let’s go.”