"What do you think the odds are the town won't be okay?" Kyron asks me, apparently deciding to talk while we fly.
We only spent the rest of yesterday in the town the frauds were at, then left it this morning. While we could make use of the Tier VI – sorry, the Tier 2-2 – Dungeon that's in it, I kind of wanted to go off and do other stuff. Unless something serious happens, we're fine as we are at the moment. Since we don't know how difficult getting to the Temple of Forgotten Hopes will be, we'll find out how strong the monsters in that area are, then reach an appropriate Level to handle the area.
The town the frauds were messing with doesn't have very many people with a Class, but I did make some magic items as gifts for them before we left. That town didn't actually exist until the last few years, when the frauds convinced people to move there to help support them. They took ruins of an ancient town and added to it, which is why it was a mix of stone and ice.
Out of the three thousand residents, only twenty had a Class. With Boraniavos in the area, there aren't any monsters that would attack the town, so their biggest issue would be if they went and pissed something off. As long as they use their brains, they'll be fine.
"Nothing in that area is truly dangerous," I manipulate the wind a little to allow my words to reach him despite our [Flight Wind]. "The people they have now should be enough, and I did leave directions on how to make basic magic items. If the town dies, its their own fault, not ours."
The directions I left are even simpler than the ones Dad gave me when I was five, so it really will be their fault if they die. It's not my responsibility to make sure they survive, and there really is nothing in the area that will attack their town unless they piss it off. Though Boraniavos mostly wants people who can play with him properly, he doesn't want anything too strong coming near his shrine.
Though there's a "need" for someone to be powerful enough to play with him, it's not for their own health and safety – it's so they can actually cast the spells that will let them play with him. Also so that they have enough Mana and Mana Regen to maintain the game for awhile.
A spirit of his age, and with as much divine essence as he has, Boraniavos is more powerful than most dragons. The area around his shrine is quite literally a "safe zone".
"Only fools would lead their town to destruction," I add. "But if I had to actually answer your question… the chance of the town not being fine is roughly forty percent."
"Forty… what?" Kyron asks in shock. "And we're leaving them? What would risk pissing off a high-ranking spirit like Boraniavos?"
"The town itself," I answer. "The residents have accepted that we're the heroes of old, especially since a god did tell them we are, but… they're idiots. And I'm not referring to just them believing the doomsayers. They literally moved to a mountain in the Winter Forest because a couple of guys showed off a flashy tricks and some decent power. Anyone with half a brain would have realized something weird was going on. I've heard some of the stories told about us already-"
"When did you do all of this 'talking with others'?" Kyron asks. "I've been with you pretty much the entire time we've been back."
"I really needed to pee during the night last night, and Tasha was pacing around because she was restless for some reason," I explain. "So we talked for a couple of hours before we returned to our respective beds. Anyway, it was pretty well-known that we were constantly traveling around, sometimes having a base in an area for a few months before moving on. The only time we ever gathered people on our own and brought them to a single area, that was for the battle against the Great Demon King and his army."
When we did that, we also brought them to the area where the main battle would be taking place, which was in a place that was more strategic than where the actual army was coming from.
This isn't even information you need to be a history scholar to know – some of the guards joined in on the discussion and they knew this. They also stated it's fairly common knowledge. This means that anyone who would go "oh, the ancient heroes are back and need us in this isolated area for a long time to support them as they get stronger" is a king among morons.
Which is exactly why I believe that town has a high chance of falling. They're idiots, and will probably try to tough it out there and end up pissing off something that will get angry enough to ignore its fear of Boraniavos.
Who – and let's be honest, here – would actually let it. Boraniavos might want people to play with, but like most spirits, he's a firm believer of karma.
"It's eerie how you can slip out of my arms, and then back in, and never wake me up," Kyron comments. "And you're right, Caleb, but people like those frauds play on the stupidity, ignorance, and fear of others, among other things."
"Maybe," I say. "But a god straight-up came down and told them 'yeah, those guys were liars, these other two guys are the actual heroes of old', so if they don't act with more caution and thought now, it's their own fault."
Kyron decides to drop that subject and ask me where we're going.
"Why?" I ask.
"Because while I'm no expert on this," he says. "I'm fairly certain we're not heading back to the camp. That's a pretty obvious indicator."
We're nearing the edge of the Winter Forest, and Kyron is pointing at a mountain between the forest and some plains. Plains with mud pits, geysers, and fire geysers visible.
"Why are we coming to the Fire Plains?" Kyron asks. "Shouldn't we be heading back to the camp for the rest of the day?"
"Well, maybe," I say. "Mind if we make some additional stops first? They aren't expecting us back for a week, anyway."
"And you want to say hello to Rezovekk," he says.
"Well, yeah," I say. "But actually, I want to visit that volcano first."
"That's a mountain, not a volcano," Kyron says. "Trust me. I grew up only fifty miles northeast of here. If it was a volcano, we'd have known."
"You guys never explored near the peak," I tell him. "And it doesn't erupt with smoke and ash and all that, it just… overflows northwest of it. No one near it really knew about it being a volcano, but it's the one the myths claim I made."
"Ah," Kyron says. "Ah! You're going to finally tell me what happened?"
"Let's land first," I tell him. "Your speaking-while-flying skills are even worse than mine, and this is taxing me."
I lead Kyron to an area about halfway up the snow-capped mountain range, snow blasting about from the ground as we land. This time, we didn't bother lightening the wind, and the snow is about four inches deep.
Kyron starts to ask something, but stops as a shift occurs. Reddish-orange and brownish-grey motes of light angrily form and coalesce in the air, quickly taking on the form of a boy made out of lava.
"GET OFF OF MY VOLCANO!!!" The boy of lava screams at me. "YOU ARE BANNED! BANNED! BAAAAAAAAAAAAANNED!"
"I was banned a thousand years ago," I say. "I died, and that rendered the ban invalid."
"I'M BANNING YOU AGAIN! LEAVE! NOW! OR I'LL BLOW THIS PLACE SO HARD, THE SKY WILL FILL WITH ASH AND SMOKE FOR YEARS TO COME AS MY LAVA FLOWS ENDLESSLY!"
Kyron looks extremely nervous, and he actually has every reason to be. Only the oldest of spirits are capable of taking on forms that actually seem solid, rather than appearing intangible. Not only that, but the lava in his form is real. The snow around his feet has already evaporated, and some of the lava has flowed off of him and onto the ground, moving a slow but steady pace.
Though he's ancient, his child form is due to it taking a lot of power to actually take on fully-physical forms like this. The smaller the form, the better.
"Well, I did want to apologize for that," I tell him. "I was only eleven at the time and thought you needed to do something massive to get a Class. I'm sure you heard Ryzavin correcting me on this after I did that."
"Wait," Kyron says. "So the volcano myth… is based off of you pissing off a… why would you do that?"
"I didn't know any better," I answer. "And seriously, Volzaminat, I do apologize for that. Kyron and I are on our way to Rezovekk's domain, and needed a place to let him recover his Mana. As you'll notice, he's almost completely out."
"You have until I reach the count of five," Volzaminat growls. "Before you find out what actual death is like, Caleb. One."
"Caleb, let's go," Kyron says.
"Two!"
I toss something to Volzaminat, who catches it with his right hand. He examines the lava golem core, and I can see the mild curiosity on his face.
"Hmph!" He scoffs. "This is a weak-low quality one. It's from a Tier 0 Dungeon, isn't it?"
"Yup!"
"This doesn't impress me," he states, but the core still disappears into his lava.
Then, Volzaminat takes on his more human form. His lava flows off of him as his body grows, taking on the form of a man about our age, semi-transparent in form. The spirit's hair is an earthy brown, while his eyes are a molten orange, similar to lava. A series of brown and grey bracelets and anklets are on his wrists and ankles, each set with earth crystals and fire crystals. A golden chain hangs around his neck, a one-inch crystal sphere hanging from it, the sphere dark brown, almost black, with reddish-orange glow within it, almost like lava. Above his head floats a halo of stone and lava, flames burning across its surface.
The spirit's scowling at me.
"There's a Tier 2-3 Dungeon only a mile down the mountain that way," he points. "You can stay the night, and in the morning, I expect you to go into the Dungeon. When you come out, you are to pay me a tribute for your actions of three lava golem cores. There are three of those in there in every run. Within one year, you are to return and clear the Tier 3-3 Dungeon two miles that way, and give me the lava golem cores from within it. Refuse to do the first one, and I will kill you. Fail to return and do the second one, and I will release a stream of lava from my volcano for one decade."
"Sir, yes, sir!" I salute, and he glares at me. "Sorry!"
This is at least good, though. It means Volzaminat is willing to move past his anger as long as I help him out a little. I already knew that lava golem cores would appease him because Nizkovi, the God of Earth and one of his fathers, told me. The only reason I didn't try this before was because finding Dungeons with lava golems is a fairly difficult thing to do.
I did know about the two here (there are actually three) because Ryzavin told me about them, but I wanted to have at least a basic peace offering before actually coming.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Another good thing is that spirits tend to perceive time differently than we do. Volzaminat is over three thousand years old, and he's probably basing the year-long deadline on how long he thinks it would take a talented person to be strong enough to do the second Dungeon. Kyron and I could probably be ready in just two or three weeks.
At Level 24, we're of about suitable Level to take on the Tier 2-3 Dungeon. I have 6 Magic lower than the "average starting" might of the Dungeon, and we can probably reach around Level 35 if we do the full thing. Level 50 is the "average starting might" for a Tier 3-3 Dungeon, if my math on its equivalent is correct. Kyron and I would just need to do a Tier 3-1 Dungeon to prepare, as long as that nets us another 10 Levels.
So it's good that he perceives time differently, because it means we can come back here at our leisure to do the second run, as long as Kyron doesn't open his mouth and mention we can do it sooner. I'd rather take some time to do this than have to rush things. With the war over, I want to go back to doing things for fun, not out of necessity.
We would have ended up running a Dungeon around Tier 3-3 at some point within the next year, anyway, so this would just take over that role. Well, actually, we'll probably run several there, with some of them just being fun runs to gather resources or runs to help others get stronger.
The bad part about spirits perceiving time differently, however, is that the spirit no doubt thinks that ten years is a suitable incentive, and not something that would be absolutely cataclysmic for the region. He wants to make sure that a problem is caused if I don't appease him, but doesn't realize that the amount of time he's stated would very likely get one of his fathers involved.
They'd actually probably get involved within a month, to be honest. The destruction of a town or two from him doing that probably wouldn't cause them to intervene, but the massive destruction of the area and the continued endangerment would. Back when I was seven, the gods didn't stop an air spirit's tornadoes until after they'd destroyed four towns.
I also was not to blame for that incident, I only know about it because of travelers telling stories to entertain me when I was a kid. My dad always joked that it was a good thing I wasn't in that area, as I'd have probably attempted to see what it was like to be picked up by a tornado.
Considering I cast [Air Vortex] as soon as I was strong enough to get one that lasted more than a few seconds, just to see what would happen when I got picked up by it after releasing it from my grip, he was probably right.
Fortunately, Kyron doesn't let him know that it's an extreme amount of time, probably because he knows we'll be back to take care of things in time for that.
"Isn't there a third fire-earth Dungeon with lava golems in these mountains?" I ask. "What Tier is it?"
"It's Tier 5-3," Volzaminat answers. "And in the last thousand years, it has only been run by four different groups. While you are, indeed, two of the greatest humans to have ever lived, that does not mean you can gain Levels at an absurd rate. Even as you are now, the Tier 2-3 Dungeon will take you time to complete and you'll likely only gain a few Levels. That is why I have given you a full year to prepare and return for the Tier 3-3 Dungeon. As each Level takes more than the last, especially at higher Tiers, it will no doubt take you boys a century to become strong enough to undertake the Tier 5-3 Dungeon. I would very much like you to do it, but human memories are fleeting and you'd no doubt forget by the time you were strong enough to take it on."
It's possible to gain around 5 Levels for every Dungeon Tier at or above our current might level during a Dungeon run, which is where my math was coming in before. There are three circumstances to essentially guarantee that.
The first is to run it in a group of no more than five, regardless of the Dungeon's capacity. The second is to not have anyone too much stronger running it and killing things, as that will leach away Experience and reduce how much one earns. The third is to not use magic items that boost the might of attacks too much or which cast the spells, as that also reduces the amount of Experience earned.
Following those three rules is why we were able to reach Level 500 at Mythical-Tier in such a short time. Well, also going into Dungeons way beyond our might level and using items to help bridge that gap. The sheer amount of raw Experience from the monster kills can easily be a significant chunk of a Level when doing that.
Kyron and I would only need to be around Level 110 to take on that Dungeon. We could probably manage that within a decade if we do things more casually.
"Alright!" I say. "That sounds reasonable! Thanks, Volzaminat! And again, I really am sorry about that, I really didn't know any better."
"I'm still not even sure what your idea was!" Volzaminat exclaims. "Just that you were hoping for a Class from that!"
"Well," I say. "I'd been told that you have to kill a lot of monsters – or help kill a lot of monsters – to gain a Class. That our method of doing so would influence if we were a warrior or mage, and that the stronger the monsters were and the more of them we wiped out, the faster it would happen. So I figured, if I convinced a fire spirit-"
"I'm a lava spirit!" His body forms cracks and small streams of lava start to flow out of them.
"-to kill a bunch of super-strong monsters that might be getting ready to rampage in a nearby area," I continue while admiring the way the flows look natural and how the lava actually turns real once it drips off his body, steam rising up from it in the cold air of the mountain. "That it would net me the fire element as a mage-type. I found a bunch of frost titans that might be endangering a nearby town that were also near a fire spirit!"
"Lava!" The lava flowing out of his cracks 'burst' for a moment, and some air magic deflects the droplets away from Kyron and me.
"They were also currently in the path of your flow," I continue. "So I thought I'd ask you to do it. You were ignoring me, and I figured, whether you did it because I asked or because I annoyed you into doing it, it didn't matter, I'd get the class for killing frost titans. They're extremely powerful monsters, and there were about two hundred of them. Nobody told me you actually have to kill the monsters yourself, and that using magic items in Dungeons is basically the fast way to do it."
"So that's what happened?" Kyron asks. "Jeez. I grew up not far from here, and I never knew there was a volcano here! Didn't even hear about the incident, so I'm surprised it became a myth."
"I complained about how the punk died before I could exact a proper punishment on him to another spirit," Volzaminat shrugs as the cracks seal up, the lava that was out but not turned fully real yet disappearing with them. "He probably mentioned it to a human. That's the origin of several of the human myths about this brat – a spirit mentioning something to someone, usually to try and put them down."
"That explains how they knew about the air titan incident, then," I mutter.
"The one on the floating islands?" Kyron asks. "That's known?"
About a year before the end of the war, we found some floating islands that didn't have any people on them. There were plenty of spirits, Dungeons, and monsters, as well as ruins. We suspected they were the remains of an ancient civilization, but didn't spend very long up there. I did wipe out some air titans as a favor to the spirits up there, who found them annoying but weren't powerful enough to take care of them themselves.
None of the spirits there were older than a few decades in terms of being higher spirits, which meant they were all still young and weak. The air titans couldn't kill them, but they were still a major nuisance. Naturally, the moment the spirits saw people who were strong enough to do something, they asked us to.
My estimation of the strength of air titans was much too high, and I killed them far faster than I'd expected. I'm not surprised that was used by spirits who heard about the incident to belittle people they found annoying.
"Hey!" I exclaim as I remember the sky islands again. "I want to rebuilt the Explorer at some point! It can be the Explorer II!"
The Explorer was an airship that I constructed, though it sort of fell apart when we returned to the surface from the sky islands. After that, we were too busy with the war for me to rebuild the ship. It had already taken a lot of time to construct, and I'd had it built so that we could navigate more freely to help deal with the war and to help recruit people.
"If we can find the materials for it," Kyron tells me. "There's no guarantee those trees haven't gone extinct in the last thousand years."
"What kind of tree?" Volzaminat asks. "We always found that airship interesting. It was a shame its defenses weren't strong enough to withstand that fire storm. I'm not sure why my brother thought to try and test its defenses."
A thousand-year-old spirit's fire versus an airship enchanted by a Level 275 Mythical-Tier human spellsmith using resources he gathered from Dungeons. The answer to that match was pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain. My airship was sturdy, but not that sturdy.
Any I make now would be inferior to it in terms of strength, but I could give that a pass in favor of just having one. Seeing as we don't have airships in this era, I doubt anyone was able to replicate my great feat – and it's not even something banned by the laws of the universe for here.
"Firewind oak," I answer. "Which might be why he wanted to give it a test. The wood's only in one forest that I know of, though, so if it's no longer around, I'll have to find another suitable air-imbued wood. That was key to making it fly."
"The Firewind Forest still exists," he nods. "Deep within it is the place currently known as Temple of Forgotten Hopes. It was sealed by the Golden Knight after he discovered it a few years after its construction, though I'm not sure why. I don't know much about its design or what it is, or why it's called that. That's a more recent name, actually. Its original name, back before it was forgotten for centuries, was the Temple of the Lustful Flame."
So it was a more sexual temple, then. It was probably built in honor of Ryzavin, there are a few places like that around the world. There's a belief that having sex in a temple devoted to the more sexual side of a god can increase one's fertility and chances of a strong baby, especially if both parents have their primary affinity in the god's domain. Whether or not that's true, I honestly don't know and I've honestly never asked.
The only one I want to actually ask that is Adzamvi, but I'm not sure how to approach that subject with the God of Life.
"Sealed?" I realize that part of his statement. "What do you mean, he sealed the temple?"
"He used some sort of magic items," Volzaminat shrugs. "It created a powerful, but invisible, barrier of wind that prevents entry. I don't really know how it works, but it doesn't stop me from going there to visit my my brothers."
"So you know what the Temple of the Forgotten Hopes is about?" I ask.
"No," the spirit answers. "The barrier itself is over three miles in diameter, and the temple's not that large. Two of my brothers live close to it, and I sometimes have to go through it to visit them."
"We heard a rumor that Durazmaki was last seen there," Kyron tells him. "At the temple itself, but much more recently than a thousand years ago. Do you know about that?"
"Durazmaki?" He asks. "I don't know what that is, but I do know that one of my brothers has talked about a shield that the Golden Knight put there some centuries ago. He's not sure why the Golden Knight did that, but he likes to go to the weaker areas of the forest and challenge adventurers to retrieve the shield."
I'm going to assume he's referring to his brother and not the Golden Knight. The fact that the Golden Knight can pass through the barrier does imply they're connected to the original somehow and knows the way through. Or at least, the one who put the shield there.
"Alright," I say. "How strong are the monsters around there?"
"Most in that area would find themselves worthy of the Tier 6 range of Dungeons," the spirit answers. "So it'll probably be more than a century before you could hope to take on my brothers' challenge. They're offering a big reward for whoever can. Something about a lost relic."
Kyron covers my mouth before I can blurt out that he's a dumbass spirit. Naturally, I remind him that I still have access to my tongue, and he quickly jerks his hand away.
"What was that about?" Volzaminat asks.
"Caleb was going to say something inappropriate, so I stopped him," Kyron answers. "He has a tendency to blurt out what he's thinking. He thinks you're attractive, but this was neither the time nor place to say that. Would you be willing to show us to the Dungeon we're to go to in the morning?"
At least Kyron also knows how to handle that.
"It's this way."
Volzaminat begins flying toward the Dungeon he wants us to run, and we quickly activate [Flight Wind] to follow. The Dungeon he wants us to run is inside of a decent-size cave that I'm one hundred percent certain was decorated. There are lava crystals everywhere in its walls and ceiling, and I doubt they're here naturally.
I also doubt that they form stalagmites and stalactites on their own. Or, well, structures similar to those – and there are quite a few of those in here.
The magic crystals glow faintly, as any lava crystals charged with a small touch of Mana do, and that will provide a gentle light in here even at night. Another effect of the slight charge of Mana is that they're warm as well, keeping the cave nice and cozy without being too hot. Considering that a spirit like Volzaminat wouldn't be a good judge of how warm is "too warm" for people, I'm going to assume that he adjusted the charge in the crystals to be a more comfortable level for people.
The floor of the cave is clean and smooth, though there's a pit in the floor, with traces of an old fire in it. Burnt slivers of wood, a charred ground, and a few ashes. Since the fire's cold, there's no telling how long ago it was made.
"You made a reception room for guests?" Kyron asks Volzaminat.
"I know how you humans need to rest before going into Dungeons," the spirit says. "So I enlarged the cave and prepared it. That was too hot, though, so I had to turn down the crystals. I also made a pit for cooking food on, as humans seemed to need an actual fire to cook foods."
"It's beautiful," I tell him, and he scoffs at the compliment.
This cave really is, though – the crystals aren't excessive, carefully placed to be just-enough to count as decorations and not enough to count as absurdly high in number. The structures made with them are well-placed as well, not taking up too much space while still seeming natural.
"Have you ever had a proper meal cooked by someone?" Kyron asks.
"As if a spirit has need of eating," Volzaminat scoffs. "Our bodies aren't as flimsy as a mortal body, especially for those of us who've received a portion of essence from a god. I have essence from two."
"Doesn't mean you can't enjoy food!" I tell him. "You're missing out, Volzzy!"
"Don't give me stupid nicknames!"
"We're hungry, so I'm going to go hunt something," Kyron tells him. "Once I return with it, Caleb will make us a meal. Give it a try – he's developed a pretty good sense for cooking on the road over the years."
"As if I'd like anything that brat makes!"
Volzaminat sits on the air and waits, anyway.