"I'm sorry," Kyron says. "Could you repeat that?"
We're currently finishing up our rest before heading north to take on the fire zone of this Dungeon. I was laying with my head on Kyron's stomach, but he had me sit up after asking me about a couple of the things that I had planned for his death back when we first met five years ago.
Not out of annoyance, but so that we could look in each other's eyes better. Instead of looking in those gorgeous blue eyes of his, I've been admiring that body of his. Kyron took off his vest and tunic for the rest, and I quite like the view. Just to make sure he knows it's not just those abs and nipples of his I like, I do meet his gaze every now and then. Those eyes of his are pretty nice, too.
"Repeat what?" I give him my most innocent look.
He just convinced me to tell him about one of my plans for killing him that involved a dragon, so I know exactly what he wants me to repeat.
"You were going to tell Rezovekk what?"
"That you told me my singing was absolutely horrible and that I should be put down for it, because it's more akin to a banshee's shriek than anything."
Kaden rubs the bridge of his nose as he stares at his lap. Dragons love the sound of a boy's song, so they have a habit of kidnapping young boys and making them sing for years, until the boy's voice is no longer like a celestial melody. They usually eat them after that, as thanks for the music. If the boy's not actually that good at singing, or their songs are terrible, then the dragon usually ties them up and lets them be eaten by whatever wild animals show up to eat them
Alive.
"Caleb," Kyron says. "You and I were both boys back then, and my voice hadn't broke yet. The moment you said that, he'd very much want to hear both of us singing. Knowing you, he'd enjoy your voice but kill you for the song."
Kyron freezes.
"Wait," he looks at me, eyes wide. "Did you say Rezovekk?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Rezovekk, the Lightning Terror?"
"He's not that much of a terror."
"He showed up in the Fire Fields when we were nine, Cay," Kyron says. "And promptly killed six other dragons to establish his dominance and territory among the dragons of not only that region, but those around it. No one had ever heard of him before then, and no one knows where he came from – especially since he was clearly at least half a millennium old, which meant he should have been well-known.
"Then," Kyron continues. "He begin kidnapping a boy or two a week, and he never stopped! He built up a choir of boys to sing for him, and most dragons only keep one or two around! Every attempt at retrieving the boys ended with the would-be rescuers tied to a post and feasted upon by other monsters! There were even reports of a group of lightning elementals that took to killing them, and by pressing their bodies against the warriors and mages repeatedly until they eventually died! If you went to him, we wouldn't die an easy death, Caleb! You were willing to go that far just to get rid of me?"
"Rezovekk loved my song so much, he let me go free," I smugly tell Kyron. "He started the choir thing to try and create a sound as beautiful as my singing voice. If I told him someone thought my singing was terrible, you'd be strapped to a post for lightning elementals to kill in a most painful way faster than you could blink!"
To be fair, Rezovekk also didn't kidnap me. I asked him for a favor and promised to pay him back – and I did. He was more than pleased with the metals, jewels, and magic crystals I gave him. He was also quite happy that I came back to visit every now and then to sing for him some more.
"Damn you, Caleb," Kyron groans. "Of course you would charm one of the most powerful dragons known to man! I'm willing to bet he didn't even kidnap you, you'd gone to him just to try something."
I grin at my husband.
"Let's get going," he stands and starts to pull on his tunic. "Wait. You know, I've never heard your singing before. While I'm not sure what it would sound like now, I can't help but wonder how your voice sounded when we were nine, if a dragon wasn't willing to keep it locked up."
"If Rezovekk is still alive," I tell Kyron. "You can ask him and find out! Now hurry up! We should finish this so I can get some sleep."
"Weren't you going to make me uphold the whole sleepless night agreement we had?"
"And the faster we're out of here, the faster we can do that," I tell him.
Kyron starts to say something, but chooses not to in favor of finishing getting ready. Once he is, we set off for the northern section of the Dungeon.
Between my [Ice Spears], my [Ice Bomb]s, and Kyron's skill with a sword, the fire boars and blaze stags we encounter in the earlier stages of this section go down easily enough. When the terrain shifts, it begins to contain mudpits and scalding geysers.
One of the monsters we encounter are more of the floating fish that have whisker-like protrusions and large fins coming off their heads, similar to the ones over in the southern zone. These fish-like monsters float around where the geysers burst up and instead of water magics, they wield fire magics, shooting flaming rays at anyone who gets in range and burning the air around them if someone gets too close.
Kyron and I counter those with water and ice magics, using water as barriers to allow our attacks to pass through. That also helps protect the attacks from the fire of the beasts, which keeps my spells from melting too fast and helps protect Kyron's sword. That weapon actually benefits from it, as the water freezes a little, adding a little extra oomph to his attacks.
Another monster we encounter are sun snails, which are snails up to six feet in height, possess the ability to shoot flaming rays from their eyes, and absolutely love using that to turn the ground molten, making traversing it even more difficult than it already is. To make them even more dangerous, their eyes are able to focus on different things at once, which means that a group of two can't just divide and conquer – it can still attack both of us.
Kyron simply uses his [Ice Arc] attacks from a distance to try and disrupt the rays and cut off the snail's head, while I cast homing [Ice Bolt]s. That effect allows me to cast them off to the side, and they'll curve around to attack. I can utilize that to create swarms of [Ice Bolt]s the slug can't just take out on its own. Out of every five I cast, at least one hits it.
While it would be nice to use [Ice Bomb]s against this thing, adding the homing effect is a lot more difficult and I can't cast them as rapidly, so the snail would destroy them all. As for [Ice Arrow]s, that would be ideal for this in theory, but their faster speed makes homing spells basically useless over a short distance – they can't adjust as quickly.
Just as with the other zones, we also have to deal with snakes, this ones with fiery bites and flames dancing across their scales. Those are, in fact, the easiest of the monsters we encounter as we near the hills, simply because they don't have any real tricks to them.
Something else I like about this zone is that it's absolutely abundant with resources to harvest. The water zone was as well, but this one has even more, likely because it was the "intended" path, and the test run for a Specialty Dungeon has the best stuff on the intended path instead of elsewhere. To top it off, Specialty Dungeons have a four-times resource growth rate, just like their four-times loot drop rate.
Which means the herbs and minerals and other things we find here are even more abundant.
"So," Kyron says as we reach the hills, where we can see the occasional fire elemental but no boulders, geysers, mud pits, or otherwise unusual terrain. "Think the boss is up there?"
On one of the hills – which is in a straight-north line from the Dungeon's entrance, is a series of stone pillars. They're each about fifteen feet in height, and while I can't see them all, there's probably thirteen of them. By my estimates from down here, it's probably an area around a hundred feet in width.
Should we go up there, we'll likely find a stone floor with the pillars forming a ring at its edge. That's pretty typical for a Dungeon like this, and the Dungeon Boss will be up there, waiting for us.
"I think it's gonna be bathing in a mud pit," I tell him. "We just had a difficulty increase a little bit ago, so we should be good for killing fire elementals until we gain another Level. You're at Level 23, right?"
"Yeah," he answers.
"Awesome!" I say. "I just reached it a few fights ago, so depending on how the fights go, we could probably reach it in two or three battles, maybe four."
A feature of all Dungeons that grow more difficult the more monsters which are killed is that they actually start to give more Experience in more difficult fights, too. That's why Kyron and I are gaining between 10-20% Experience for tough fights, instead of less than 5% Experience. A normal fight will still yield about the same amount, but as the fights grow tougher, an exponential bonus is applied.
That's another reason for us to go as much as we can in here. Thankfully, we didn't start hitting the rapid growth of monsters yet, or we'd have had to cut short our grind. The exponential Experience growth wouldn't be enough to keep us on-par with the monsters.
Kyron and I begin to approach the nearest fire elementals. At a glance, a fire elemental is just a floating orb of flames. The reason for that is because, while in a resting or observing state, they are just a floating orb of flames. All of the ones here are roughly eighteen inches in diameter, and we can feel their heat even before we draw within range. Despite being orbs of flames, they aren't as dense as the ones I can make right now, but some fire elementals do reach a state of density which gives them a liquid-like form.
Once we're close enough, the fire elemental shifts, becoming a six-inch-wide sphere at the core with ribbons of flames flowing around it before transforming into a series of circling and rotating rings, three layers of them in total. What makes fighting one of these annoying is that they're more flexible than even a water elemental is on top of being able to cast a spell out of any part of their flames except their core.
With stone elemnetals, we have to deal enough damage to take them out and avoid healing them with our magic – or letting them heal if their environment can provide that for them. With water elementals, we just have to destroy enough of their water and make sure they don't heal enough to make up for our damage. With air elementals, we just need to either break their center core or deal enough damage to the rest of their crystallized air.
A fire elemental is different from all of those in one extremely important way: their core needs to be completely destroyed, and taking out the protective rings isn't an easy feat. Existing as pure fire magics instead of a physical component like stone, water, ice, or crystals, their rings are the same as normal fire magics – fueled as long as there's Mana for it. Damaging a ring only lasts for a few moments before it's restored, and with no loss to elsewhere on it.
Damaging the core weakens it, but as long as any of the core is still around, the fire elemental will still exist. Not only that, but its core will restore over time as well.
There are two main reasons we're going to deal with some instead of just ignoring them. First, for the loot we can possibly obtain from them. Second, because if we try to make up the lower Experience gains by fighting more monsters, we might bump the monster difficulty up a little bit more. Enough elemental kills for two or three Levels wouldn't be enough to do that, so going up just one will be fine.
Kyron and I begin approaching the elemental, and it immediately fixes its attention on Kyron, no doubt due to his sword being clearly crafted with its bane. Well, it attacks both of us, but most of the attacks are focused on Kyron. The elemental's attack consists of spikes forming all around each of its rings, which then shoot out as [Fire Bolt]s that swarm at us.
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I perform a few motion with my hands, conjuring up plenty of water and creating a barrier of it to tank the attacks. This is a proper [Water Barrier] as well, so it quickly repairs itself while drawing on my Mana.
Most of those [Fire Bolt]s were focused on Kyron, who's either evaded them or stopped them using his sword. I trust him to handle the attacks against him, so I focus on dealing with the fire elemental. A shift of my hands brings the [Water Barrier] between myself and the monster, then a push of my hands sends fast-moving blobs of water toward the monster.
The elemental attempts to stop those blobs using a [Fire Barrier] of its own, only to learn that the blobs contained [Ice Bolt]s within them. I'm also sending multiple waves, and it's decided to create a second [Fire Barrier] while extending the first one to deal with Kyron's [Ice Arc]s he's sending toward it.
Maintaining my [Water Barrier], I spread my hands out and conjure ten [Ice Spear]s. I'm finally getting back into the swing of casting spells, and this is more than a little fun.
A flick of my wrist, and the spears punch through my [Water Barrier], a thick layer of water coating the spears as they fly forward. I'm fighting semi-blind due to the [Fire Barrier], but it's not hard to make guesses – the fire elemental is keeping it centered on them. The homing effect I'm adding into the spears helps a little, but only if I already have a good estimate of where to send them.
My combination of [Ice Bolt]s and [Ice Spear]s sent with a nice coating of water and Kyron's own [Ice Arc]s and occasional [Water Arc]s is enough to wear down the fire elemental. It realized after the first wave of spears that I'm the bigger threat, so it keeps attempting to take me on while ignoring Kyron. Thankfully, my husband deals with the [Fireballs] thrown at me and is enough of a nuisance the elemental does its best to keep him away as well.
"Cay! Now!" Kyron calls out after awhile.
Shifting tactics, I focus on just casting [Ice Bolt]s shielded by water drawn from the [Water Barrier], but in lesser amounts. As I do that, I split my attention on casting another series of spells. Without the practice I've had so far, I wouldn't be able do to this yet – in fact, this stretches the limits of my screwed-up casting abilities.
A sphere of ice four inches in diameter forms between my hands, then shifts off to the side as I conjure another, then another, then another. Once all four of these are prepared, I send them through the [Water Barrier] and give each of them a nice, two-inch coating of water. After they've been coated, I send them toward the fire elemental, but don't send them at it.
Instead, I position them around the elemental, focusing my energies that were sending [Ice Bolt]s on maintaining the personal [Water Barrier]s on the sphere. Alarmed, the fire elemental begins burning the air everywhere within ten feet of it, and I drop the larger [Water Barrier] protecting myself. While the monster doesn't know what's going on, it knows that this won't bode well for it.
I watch the flames as Kyron moves to regroup with me, and once I detect the shift of them lessening, I stop repairing the [Water Barrier]s over the four spheres. If I have the timing right, then it will burn through them right… now!
The burning air stops right before the outer spell under the [Water Barrier]s is triggered: only one inch of the water was actually the barrier. The inner inch of it was a modified [Water Bomb], and it sprays water in all directions, dousing the flames still lingering. Any water that actually contacts the elemental evaporates, but that's fine.
Without the water protecting it anymore, the ice melts slightly from the heat still in the air, and that triggers the one-inch layer layer of an [Ice Bomb]. Shards of ice fly in all directions, with a fair few of them hitting the elemental.
Floating within those [Ice Bomb] shells were three-inch [Water Bomb]s, and those are triggered by ice shards that fly from another.
The flames of the fire elemental are flickering now, its core reduced down to only three inches in diameter. A core which is then pierced by a [Water Spear] with a thicker shaft that the core. Though the spear evaporates as it flies into the core, there's enough of it to completely douse the core by the time the last of it has turned to steam.
+16.82% Experience!
"There we go!" I skip over to the loot and collect it – a three-quarter-inch fire monster core and a decent sized fire crystal, with a third piece of loot in the form of a half-ounce vial of a [Potion of Fire Resistance].
"It took longer than I expected to bring it down to the point you could do that," Kyron says. "And I'm fairly certain you did most of the work."
"I did do most of the work," I tell him. "Melee fighters aren't too useful against elementals, especially not fire or lightning elementals. I can't see any of the latter here, sadly."
"It's a good thing, too, because I am not bailing your ass out of a fight with those," he says. "They're irritating to fight against unless you're overwhelmingly strong compared to them."
"Awww!"
"Shush," he rolls his shoulders a little. "Let's rest up, then take on another.
Kyron and I wait a little bit longer than it takes for our Mana to recover, then we approach another of the fire elementals we can see and battle it. Reaching Level 24 only takes me three total fire elementals, but we fight against two more due to Kyron not gaining as much Experience as I am due to me doing most of the work.
Once we're recovered and ready, we ascend the hill and make for the pillars. As expected, the ground is made up of stone blocks, with a three-foot-wide one in the center and then six-inch wide ones forming rings around it, all the way to the edges. We can't actually see the center until we're closer, but I can make out the rings at the outer edges of it the moment we're on the hill.
We could also see the Dungeon Boss the moment we're able to see over the hill. Though my husband groans when he sees the it, I get excited.
"A lava golem! That's going to be fun!"
The golem is roughly humanoid in shape, but with a thicker body and limbs, with no neck for its head. It stands about eight feet in height and is made up of a stone shell with sizable cracks in it, lava visible between the gaps. On its head are a pair of eyes made up of reddish-orange cores, and I can make out its mouth.
"For you," Kyron groans. "You can take that thing on by yourself."
"Really?" I ask. "You don't want the Experience?"
"Even with the buffs to the sword," Kyron tells me. "And me using [Enchant: Frost] and [Enchant: Water] on it at the same time, there's not a chance the sword will survive against it. That means I'll have to use [Water Arc] and [Ice Arc] against it, and only the former will be useful. Considering the current difficulty, even that might not hold."
All of those are fair points.
"So it's cool for me to go in now?" I ask.
"If you feel you're ready," Kyron says. "I'll just be out here, admiring my husband as he dominates the fight like the Saint of Magic he is."
That only means I need to give a hundred percent of effort instead of twenty percent.
"Awesome!"
I charge into the Dungeon Boss Zone – the area within the columns – with water wrapping around my hands. This isn't a spell, just conjured water I'm manipulating.
The moment I'm within the zone, the lava golem holds its hands in front of itself with their palms facing each other. A ten-inch-wide sphere of lava forms between them, not a single drop dripping down. Magic is pretty neat that way, and I love the way this looks.
I'm halfway to the golem when it thrusts its hands forward, sending the [Lava Bomb] at me. This isn't something I dodge to the side. No, I jump into the air while using [Wind Step] to boost myself over it. Not just over the [Lava Bomb], but to boost myself up twenty feet into the air. I use a few more of them to propel me further as well as to perform a flip in the air.
Punching, I launch orbs of water from the water around my fists. The golem gestures with its arms to summon a [Lava Barrier] to shield itself, and I stretch my arms out. My [Water Bomb]s fly to the sides, then they swarm toward the golem as I bring my hands back together.
Utilizing more [Wind Step]s, I continue my path over the lava golem. Punching several more times, I send more [Water Bomb]s its way before casting a new spell from both hands.
[Water Jet] learned!
As expected, the lava golem adjusts itself to cast another [Lava Barrier], this time to stop my [Water Jet]s. The [Water Bomb]s have damaged it a fair bit, their sprays steaming as they cool off some of the lava within the beast. That won't last long, however, as the lava further within melts it once more.
The [Lava Barrier] turns to stone from the spray and effectively stops the attack, but the [Air Spear]s I send in the middle of the [Water Jet]s breaks that. At the same time, I drop down enough that it doesn't really matter, then I use more [Wind Step]s to launch myself up in the air once again.
I cancel the twin [Water Jet]s before shifting the water around my hands to ice – the reason I'm not using [Enchant: Water] on them. Though my hands are coated in ice now, the magical creation of mine manipulates easily thanks to [Water Magic], allowing me to move my wrists, hands, and even my fingers as I please.
My next series of attacks consist of [Ice Bomb]s, before I 'learn' and utilize the [Ice Jet] spell, which sends icicles and a frosty mist forward. This both cools the [Lava Barrier] and breaks it, and I shift out of [Wind Step]s to use [Flight Wind], harnessed finely enough that it won't interfere with my spells.
Even with my recovering casting skills, this isn't too much of a hassle for me.
An [Ice Spear] shoots straight down to meet the [Lava Bomb] thrown at me, the latter conjured immediately after the golem realized its barrier wasn't going to be too useful.
Icy gloves shift to water, and a [Water Barrier] forms to stop what little of the lava actually reaches me. More [Water Bomb]s are already on their way down to the golem, sent out to the sides to come at the golem from all sides except above (and below). I send [Water Jet]s down its way from above, and I maintain that for a solid twenty seconds.
Then watery gloves shift to ice and I thrust my hands forward, dozens of [Ice Bolt]s shooting down. Thanks to the multi-front assault by the water spells, the entire golem has turned solid on the outside, no longer able to move around.
My [Ice Bolt] swarm comes at the golem from all directions, dozens of the spell slamming into it from dozens of angles. The stone cracks and breaks, exposing more lava, which is soon hardened thanks to more [Water Bomb]s I sent, my watery gloves shifting back to ice the moment those are cast.
It only takes three waves of this to reveal the golem's core, a crystal three inches in diameter, reddish orange glowing from gaps within the brownish-grey orb.
An [Ice Spear] slams into the core, and the golem freezes up, then turns completely to stone before the wounds turn to ash, which quickly spread across its body as it dies.
+37.82% Experience! You have defeated the Dungeon Boss!
Several items clink to the ground, including a completely undamaged lava golem core. I float down and collect the loot, and Kyron approaches me. The moment my feet touch the ground, my husband pulls me against him for a long, tongue-included kiss.
"That was incredibly sexy," he tells me.
"Neither of us hit Level 25," I tell him.
"You sound so disappointed," he grins. "Why? Because that means no sleepless night."
"What? No! I just wanted to hit that before leaving, and I expected the boss to give me more Experience!" I tell him. "And besides, you didn't take me up on that bet, so I wouldn't have gotten a second one in a row, anyway. Besides, we're going to have one because of the bet from before we killed the ugly dude."
Kyron sighs.
"Can we at least have tonight fine?" He asks. "I'm extremely exhausted from running this Dungeon after dealing with the Great Demon Army and killing the Great Demon King. I just want a nice meal and then a good sleep. I'm sure you'd enjoy the sleepless night even more if you weren't exhausted from all of that, too."
"Alriiiight," I say, then release him and take a few steps back. "By the way, how awesome was that? I didn't expect to get to feel this amazing so soon after coming back from the dead and finding myself at Level 0 again! And the way I just totally overwhelmed the-"
"Yes, I saw," he snorts. "And that was the sexiest thing I've seen you do since we came back from the dead. Now, are you checking out the Specialty Dungeon's form, or are we heading back?"
"The form!" I answer, then quickly scoop up the loot and send it all into my ring.
It's time to check out the future of this Dungeon.
The center stone has completely cleared of the lava that was conjured, and then cooled – a feature of Dungeons like this. Now, a glowing purple formation is on it, which will allow us to teleport straight back to the Dungeon's entrance, making leaving easier. That's probably added in to make returning easier for people who haven't turned off the void, but it can appear in Dungeons that don't have them.
Instead of stepping into the magic ritual, I strike the four elemental crests within it with their respective elements. The strikes are simultaneous, and the moment I finish, the ritual turns green and the ground begins to shake.
Kyron and I quickly step onto the platform, which then begins to descend. It drops almost a hundred feet, ending in a chamber with a massive, floating purple crystal in it. I'm already off the platform before it stops, and I place a hand against the crystal.
Instead of joining me in accessing this, Kyron just approaches and watches. I never told anyone about this, but there's a decent chance it's been discovered.
When a Specialty Dungeon has been completed, there's a way to access this chamber, which allows us to view what the form it will take will be. It also allows us to influence it to a degree, and that degree varies from Specialty Dungeon to Specialty Dungeon. I never did find a way to do this with any existing Dungeons or Specialty Dungeons that have been cleared once, so it's probably not possible.
"Oh, cool! There will be at least one lightning elemental in every run for it!"
"Did you set that after seeing it was possible?"
"No," I tell Kyron. "I checked to see elemental possibilities, and found that already there. I can reduce it down to a minimum of zero, or a minimum of four that are guaranteed to spawn. If the minimum is zero, the maximum is one. For all others, it's double the minimum. Loot is set for the standard quadruple, and I can adjust by a hundred percent. Same with resources."
That's pretty normal, though – I haven't found one where it was different.
"What changes are you making?" Kyron asks.
"None," I answer. "I actually like the setup I'm seeing for what it'll be. By the way, it's a Shifting Specialty Dungeon."
Shifting Dungeons rotate between Tiers after each completion. They're actually pretty rare, too. Including this one, I only know of four Shifting Dungeons.
"Tiers and time?"
"Three days between it being completed and it opening up again," I answer. "And… it'll start at Tier VI, then go to Tier III, then Tier I, and back to Tier VI. I'm going to change that over so it starts at Tier I and goes up."
"A triple?" He asks. "Aren't the others we know only double?"
"We did theorize it might be possible for more," I tell him. "Okay! Not seeing anything else I want to change, so let's leave!"
I strike the four crests in the ritual on the platform with their opposing elements, and it returns to glowing purple. Kyron and I step onto it, and we're immediately teleported to the Dungeon's entrance.
As always, I step through the portal first… and find myself falling because the platform, steps, and pier are completely gone.