Stretching out in the soft, morning light, Fel rolled over Siyla's outstretched wings. Before he could fully wake up, the wing shunted him off the bed, right onto the cold floor below. By the time Fel got up, he was met with Siyla's vicious glare.

"Err, your wings were... soft..."

"Of course. I can't be shredding the bed while I sleep. Although, I guess you wouldn't mind the full treatment?"

"It's kinda hard to not lay on your wings when they cover half the bed! Besides, they're made of bloody steel, it's not like it hurts or anything."

Fel got the silent treatment for the rest of the day. He never figured out why.

While experimenting with his power armour after lunch, Fel heard a knocking at the door. He quickly finished up and opened the door, inviting the guest inside.

Gorn shook Fel's hand, "Good afternoon, how's it been?"

"Nothing really, we don't have much to do."

"Well, I've got news for you. Some adventurer's discovered a new dungeon, hidden under the Cursed Fortress, a-ways west of here."

"What's so good about it?"

"Here's the thing. While the Cursed Fortress only has a mortal danger rating, they estimate that this dungeon has a Level 1 true Mage rating! There would be all sorts of things there; energy crystals, artefacts, perhaps even spell models!" Gorn's eyes burned with fervour, this dungeon seemed to be of great value to him.

Fel turned to Siyla, "Should we go?"

She flicked her hand in response, still unwilling to speak to him. Fel figured that the decision was up to him.

"Are there any dangers?"

"Yes, most definitely. However, with the three of us true Mages, it shouldn't be life-threatening."

After a moment of thought, Fel agreed. They needed to have good relations with someone in this world anyway. This adventure would be a great opportunity to learn more about his surroundings.

Gorn clapped his hands and grinned, "Great! I was worried you wouldn't come. We set off in two days, you should go to the marketplace to get supplies. Let's meet up in the morning at the gate."

They exchanged a few more pleasantries before Gorn left, leaving Fel and Siyla to their devices. Of course, Fel's spacial ring was chock full of goodies, so he didn't need to purchase any supplies. In the end, he went down to the marketplace to buy two backpacks and supplies to go with them. This was all in order to conceal his spacial ring and got back to fixing up his power armour.

There were many issues remaining with it, chief among them being the lack of strength enhancers, inertia and the makeshift energy distribution system Fel put in place. It was a mess, but Siyla still couldn't create the complex mechanisms and Fel could only experiment with the energy system.

Two days later, Fel and Siyla were waiting by the gate, both wearing full plate armour. Fel bore a shield and war hammer on his back, though he didn't have much practice with them, they had a good threat level.

With a little coaxing, Fel convinced Siyla to modify his armour. She created concealed vents that allowed Fel to redirect energy outside the armour. Previously, he could only rely on the conductivity of his armour to 'externalize' his energy. But now, he could fire out high concentrations of energy that massively increased his damage output.

Even better, Siyla had finally forgiven him and started to talk to him again. She got around the wing issue by wrapping them around herself and pinning them to the bed. Apparently, it was rather comfortable.

Five minutes later, a large carriage pulled up alongside them. A hulking, furred lizard took the place of a horse in pulling the coach. It had thick, matted, grey hair and looked similar to a Komodo dragon.

The ropes that bound it to the coach allowed for it to maintain a large distance from the coach to compensate for the lizard's long body. As soon as the lizard came to a rest, the door was thrust open, revealing the rough face of Harth.

"Sorry, we got here late. There were, unexpected, delays when we tried to hire the coach. But anyway, get on! Unless you want to walk all the way."

Fel laughed, "Unfortunately, I'm wearing this armour. I doubt that there'd be much space left in there if I came in!" Though Fel had his spacial ring, no-one else he saw seemed to wear anything similar to it. Remembering the bitter looks from the dryad, he didn't feel it would be fit to reveal it either.

Harth fell into contemplation, "You're right, I didn't think of this."

"It isn't much of an issue, I needed some exercise anyway."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep!"

"You'd have to walk for 300 kilometres."

Five hours later, Fel was jogging through the endless, flat plains of the underground. His feet crushed the resilient, midnight-blue grass beneath his feet, exposing the rocky earth underneath. Every so often, he tripped on empty air, almost falling over.

At this point, he was relying on his internal energy to keep him going. In front of him rolled a large, classy coach, from which he could hear leisurely, joyous laughter. But, while it didn't look like it, Fel was having his own fun, chatting with Aerl. Though, somewhere along the line, it had descended into girl talk.

"So Aerl, could you tell me about the crush you had on that other book spirit you mentioned before?"

"Mhm, her name was Ismira, and she was the book spirit of the grand library. She was cute and err... really nice!"

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"Eh, so what happened?"

"... She got together with the book spirit of the neighbouring library. He was an absolute asshole! He always had this stuck up, douchey aura around him. Whenever I tried to talk to Ismira, he always found some way to humiliate me!" Aerl ground his teeth, veins popping up on his immaterial body. "Why do the nice girls always go for the assholes?"

Fel felt like he had dug too deep, from the sounds of it, this wasn't an isolated event. To his relief, Aerl salvaged the situation.

"Enough about me. How about your love life?"

"Let us not dwell on such dark times. More importantly, I want to read the Manual on Devata Cultivation and Techniques!"

"Suspicious... I'll let you read it when you spill the beans."

"No. Please. There's something I need to read in there."

Holding the book in hand, Aerl continued to extort Fel, "I'll give it to you once you tell me everything. It's only fair."

Defeated, Fel could only oblige, "My love-life was as non-existent as a desert mirage. By the time I cared about romanticism, everyone thought I only had an eye for machines, some rumours even said I was sexually attracted to them!

The girls always hid behind corners at glared at me from afar, they were so disgusted with me they were red as tomatoes! Ever since then I kept a clear line between me and machines, but at that point, not a single girl around me would look me in the eye."

Tears welled up in Aerl's eyes as he tossed his book into Fel's mental space, "Traitor!"

Aerl didn't speak to Fel again for the rest of the trip. Fel never figured out why.

Fortunately, the coach before him ground to a halt and the passengers hopped out for a break. Fel sluggishly trudged over before collapsing down by the group.

Siyla walked over to him and sat by his side. She had discarded her armour to fit in the coach and instead wore a dashing waistcoat with a pair of smart pants. With her metal manipulation ability, she had an essentially infinite wardrobe.

"How did it go?"

Fel groaned, "I feel like I've lost a few pounds, why does this armour have to be so bulky?"

"To increase the stability, structural integrity, -"

Fel crashed to the ground, opening up his face-plate. "-I know, I know. How was your trip?"

Siyla's face froze for a fraction of a second, "Well, they had fun... but I... kind of sat in the corner and answered the occasional question. But I guess you didn't have much to do either"

Fel felt it was far worse than that, though he wouldn't ever admit that he, in fact, had a rather talkative companion for the journey. In fact, Fel was right on the ball. Siyla had curled up her wings around her and pretended to sleep for the entire trip. If Fel knew that, he would never let it go. While Gorn and his friends had listened in to the conversation, they wisely kept silent.

Harth strode up to Fel and gave him a small vial, "A stamina potion. Even though you can keep yourself going with internal energy, your body still gets tired, this'll patch you right up." While it wasn't an incredibly expensive item, it wasn't cheap either. Harth only offered it because Fel's physical performance impressed him.

Even among true Mages, few could match the pace of a stagecoach for five hours straight. Stagecoaches travelled much faster than a horse driven one, 20 km/h on average to be exact. In those five hours they had travelled 100 km, if Fel didn't have his internal energy, he would've long since collapsed on the road.

"Cheers." Fel took the vial, opened his face-plate, and gulped it down. Sure enough, his weary muscles regained their vigour and colour returned to his face. Although his mind was still worn out, his felt much better than before.

Grinning, Harth didn't forget to leave a comment, "Don't forget, you still have another ten hours of walking for the day."

The group burst into laughter while Fel looked as if he had his living soul wrenched out of him. Half an hour passed by and Harth lifted himself up to get into the coach. Ferri and Gorn got in too, but Siyla stayed behind.

She lifted Fel up and smiled towards Gorn, "Don't worry, I'll keep this loaf going."

"Well, if you get too tired, you can just hop back in. Have a nice trip!" Siyla didn't notice his forced grin as he shut the door and urged the coach on.

Inside the coach, Ferri glared at Gorn who smiled hopelessly in return, "It's just a passing interest alright?"

Ferri lay back in her cushioned seat and gazed out the back window, looking at the armoured duo walking behind them. Every step propelled them multiple strides forwards. Although it looked like they were walking, they were travelling at a running pace.

"I hope it is. I'm sure you realise that you don't stand a chance."

Harth chipped in, "Yea, and you've seen how hot that guy is right, your serious face doesn't stand a chance."

While Ferri shot a dirty look at Harth, he had his facts straight. Gorn had a long, plain face with an almost eternal serious look. Even as he laughed he had a 'serious guy' aura about him.

"Also, she only talks to Fel, if we put the two of you in a room, it'd be a one-way conversation. Think about it for a moment." At this, Ferri nodded in agreement.

Gorn grumpily kicked back his feet and got into a more comfortable position, "I'll take a nap, see you later."

Ferri and Harth could only sigh. Gorn was a lost cause.

In the next three hours, Fel learnt a new movement technique from the manual, allowing for him to easily keep up with the coach. It worked by compressing force energy underneath his feet and tilting himself forwards. This propelled himself forward and looked like he was rollerblading. He could only do this much, as the more complicated techniques would've required much more time to comprehend.

Although Fel's rapid development surprised Siyla, she went with the flow and used her own movement technique, extending her wings and emitting wind energy from under them; causing her to hover above the ground. When Ferri looked out the window, she nearly choked on her saliva.

Such techniques weren't rare, but lightning or metal Mages shouldn't be able to use them. She concluded that they had dual attributes. Perhaps only 1 in 15,000 would have dual attributes and only 1 in 30,000 would have a high affinity with their second attribute.

"Now he has even less of a chance," muttered Ferri under her breath.

She lazily flopped her head onto the headrest and gazed out the window. Endless, flat, night-blue plains, disturbed only by the dry dust kicked up by the carriage and the thumping of the large lizard. As she kept gazing out the window, she noticed hazy shadows pop out from under the horizon. They closed in, and in ten minutes, Ferri could make out their details.

A band of twenty men on lordly horses, wearing complete, heavy, black plate armour with long lances at their sides. Ferri recognised them. They were Void Knights, an elite regiment of the nearby Kingdom of Collesti.

Each of them was at least an Initial apprentice Mage, but their powerful equipment boosted them to the strength of a peak apprentice Mage. Although Mages were powerful, even they would struggle to defeat ten of them, let alone a group of twenty.

By that point, everyone had noticed the band of Knights approaching them. The coach crawled to a stop. Ferri and Gorn lept out of the coach, gripping their staffs while Harth loosely held an elegant shamshir at his side.

Siyla and Fel landed on the ground, where Siyla congealed a complete set of plate armour while Fel put his power armour into standby and equipped his shield and hammer, ready to leap into action at any moment. It never hurt to be prepared.

The group skidded to a rest around twenty metres away from the group while the lead Knight cantered onwards, stopping a metre or two from the group. Back, straight as a poker, he called out with a deep voice, "Greetings Mages, we are the Void Knight's of Collesti, from where do you hail from?"

Gorn stepped forwards, "Greetings Knight, we are Mages of the Onyx Tower while the two over there are loose Mages. We all hail from Seiral and are headed to the Cursed Fortress!"

Nodding, the Knight replied, "Aye, we are headed that way as well. There are rumours that there's a new dungeon. It is our job to investigate it. I suppose that you are also seeking the new dungeon?"

"Yes, we are, do you have any new news of it?"

"That we have. We hear it is an accursed place, teeming with devils and eldritch horror's. Though, to the common folk, I guess any old skeleton would be an eldritch horror, haha!" The Knight guffawed before extending a hand,

"While our mission is to investigate the dungeon, additional help is always welcome. Do you wish to join us?"