"Oh, hey, look! Fake dragons!"
Wyverns have only their hind legs, with claws at the tips of their wings, their skin grey and lacking in scales. They're not much larger than Kyron or I are in height, and we can see them flying around the area we need to head into. Judging by how spaced out they are and based on what Volzaminat said, we'll likely only need to fight one at a time rather than a flock of them, which is pretty decent.
"Stop calling them that!" Kyron laughs, his voice reaching me through our [Flight Wind]s just as mine had reached him. "They're not fake dragons!"
"They aren't," Volzaminat says. "Wyverns are a bipedal, inferior version of a dragon whose power primarily comes from their resilience and might rather than magical abilities. This Dungeon doesn't have any wyverns with magical ability. It is, of course, entirely possible to complete this Dungeon without encountering the wyverns, but based on your current level of power, I'm sure the two of you would manage to breach their defenses and kill them."
"This is also the fastest way to the second Secret Boss," I say. "Ky, you want to take out any?"
"We're not on the ground," Kyron says. "And my magic won't do anything against them. You go ahead and handle them."
According to Volzaminat, the wyverns have around 48 Strength and 53 Constitution. That might seem odd considering the Dungeon Boss only has 50 Might, but it's not unheard of for some monsters to exceed the Dungeon Boss a little in some aspect. This is more true when said monster is purely a physical one, such as wyverns.
They can bite, they can claw, they can body-slam, and they can slam with their tail. Piercing their skin is the hard part, especially as both it and their muscles and bones are dense enough that attacks need more oomph.
The Dungeon Boss will still be more dangerous than these, which is why they can be in this Dungeon. If a party can kill the Dungeon Boss, then they can kill a lone wyvern, maybe even battle two.
"Alright," I tell Kyron. "According to Volzy-"
"Don't call me that!"
"-the passage to the second Secret Boss is over there," I indicate a section of cliffs in the mountain. "No matter which way we go, we'll need to fight at least three wyverns, based on the flights I've observed so far. Six if we go a more stupid route."
"So what's the plan?"
"Challenge time!"
"NO!" Kyron exclaims, but it's already too late.
The winds around me die down as an [Air Barrier] forms under my feet, and Volzaminat lets out a "what?" just before a dozen [Air Arc]s fly forward. Wisely, my husband moves behind me, even without seeing the attacks.
"The wyvern is right there!" Volzaminat exclaims, clearly able to detect my [Air Arc]s. "How did mi-uh… HOW DID YOU MISS THAT BADLY?"
The four wyverns I struck all turn to fly toward me, and I raise my hands in front of me.
"He didn't miss," Kyron comments "Caleb's gotten excited and-CALEB, NO!"
"Too late!"
Electricity crackles around my outstretched arms, then bolts of lightning begin shooting forward. Magical lightning at this tier isn't as fast or as powerful as natural lightning, but it's still rather fast. The thunder resulting from it doesn't tighten our lungs and rattle our heads and deafen us, but it's still loud enough that Volzaminat complains.
Not that I can hear him too well, as I'm not shooting just one bolt of lightning. The wyverns attempt to dodge the bolts of lightning, and they actually manage to avoid a couple. I do catch the spirit asking me how I'm able to use [Air Arc] without creating a slashing motion, but I ignore him.
Those [Air Arc]s are used to strike the wyverns as they dodge. The spells are slower, but it's easy to figure out the beasts' patterns, and they clearly can't detect the spells until it's too late. Gashes and burns form across the four wyverns, but none manage to make it closer than fifty feet. Two try to loop around to strike me from behind, but I keep them from managing to go that far.
The beasts screech at me, they try to dive-bomb me, they try to speed past my attacks, but I slowly whittle away at their bodies while keeping them from getting close. One by one, the wyverns begin to fall, their bodies turning to ash that dissipates in the air, the loot caught by winds I send out to grab them and pull them to me. Due to the electricity wrapped around my hands and forearms, I simply set the loot on the [Air Barrier] supporting me.
"I gained a Level!" I exclaim once the fourth one dies. "That was fun!"
"You. Are. Absolutely. Insane."
"Insanity would be drawing in even more wyverns than I can handle," I scratch the spirit behind the ears after letting the electricity vanish. "I only used up a third of the Mana I had remaining from when the fight began."
A wind pulls the loot to my ring, then the [Air Barrier] vanishes as [Flight Wind] wraps around us once more. Kyron and I soar down to the location Volzaminat indicated, a space between two cliffs. The entrance we're looking for is behind an illusion that makes the cliff seem unbroken, though I notice the opening before Volzaminat points it out.
Volzaminat directed us almost directly to its entrance, and my [Flight Wind] kicks up some dust that drifts through what appears to be a cliff face.
"The gloves you made were really nifty," Volzaminat says as we pass through the illusion. "With the lightning. That didn't seem like a structured spell, though."
Normally, something like an aura spell or an enchant spell is needed to make casting a spell of the same element easier – the element is already there and being fueled, so that stage is skipped for the casting process. When repeatedly casting spells of the same element, skipping a stage allows for it to go even faster.
That's why enchant and aura spells exist – they're a structured spell that maintains a presence of the element to draw from. It's cheaper and easier for someone with lesser casting spells to perform it. All they have to do is cast the spell and devote some of their attention to maintaining it.
"It was raw elemental conjuration and manipulation," I tell him. "I have more flexibility with what I can do that way."
"Doesn't that require more attention, then?"
"Depends on your casting skills," I answer. "For someone like Kyron or an ordinary mage or warrior, yes, it would. However, aura and enchant spells limit how flexible you can make a spell when casting. They can bolster it a little, but the power is pretty much set.
"With a strong enough casting ability," I say. "Maintaining raw elemental conjuration and manipulation is just as easy and takes just as little effort, even less if you're good enough."
"It also allows you to alter the strength to your whims," Kyron adds. "Which is why Caleb prefers to use it. Now that his casting ability has recovered enough, it's as natural as breathing for him."
"I see," Volzaminat says. "What about the [Air Arc]s? Those seemed to come out of nowhere. Doesn't the spell require performing a slashing motion, to create the arc they form from?"
"Ordinarily, yes," Kyron says. "But it's possible to skip that step if you know what you're doing. You weren't sensing close to his body. Caleb had winds swirling around his torso during the fight, similar to [Flight Wind] but as a form of raw elemental conjuration and manipulation. When he needed an [Air Arc], he simply compressed and detached the air he had moving."
"The motion is more of a guide for the spell," I say. "Though most mages do need to perform it as well if they want to cast it. The reason for this is the shape – it's not simply a rod or a ball or a cone or a beam."
I hold up my right index finger, and a flat, thin piece of stone an inch in length and a quarter of an inch in width forms, a fifth the width in thickness. Then, it begins to expand, soon becoming a three-foot-long blade of stone three inches in width (from front to back), a quarter of an inch in thickness at the back, and with a razor-sharp edge at the front. The arc then shoots forward, slamming into the stone cave wall ahead of us, digging into it a little.
"You can cast arc spells without needing the slash, as you can see," I tell Volzaminat. "It just takes more effort without the slash in most cases, because you have to focus on doing more than just 'bam, it's done'. This is what happens when a normal person tries to cast it without a slash as quickly as they would with a slash."
I point forward and a [Stone Arc] forms in the air, but it's more triangular in form, and is also somewhat thicker. It blasts forward, and breaks against the [Stone Arc] I cast before.
"When you cast a bolt spell," a bolt forms in front of me. "You're simply making a short rod. A simple, basic shape. That's why it's a more basic spell. Bomb-type spells are simply orbs that explode, and orbs are typically the first spell learned because they're the easiest."
"Because it's simply a conjuration of the element in a single spot," Volzaminat says.
"Yes," I nod. "And a bolt is just an elongated version of it. Arrows are a slightly more advanced version of a bolt as they're longer, thinner, and have a pointed head. Still only Tier II, but also simpler than an arc, which is also Tier II."
"I still don't see the difference," Volzaminat says.
"Because it's not a basic shape," I say. "With the aforementioned spells, you're creating a basic shape that goes in one direction – either an orb, which is just the element conjured in a single spot, or a bolt, which is an elongated version of it. An arc is a longer, thinner, shaped version of it."
"Let me take over," Kyron says. "Volzaminat, when you create an orb, you simply conjure the element around a single point. When you cast a bolt, you simply create it in a single point that gets lengthened out a little into a bolt, typically from an orb origin that gets stretched out.
"The basis for an arc," Kyron holds up his right hand, and a [Stone Blade] forms in it, a small knife made of stone. "Is the blade spell. It's a thinner spell, but it also simply creates the element starting from a single point, stretching it out. Have you ever noticed that most people take a bit to cast a bigger spell, like [Stone Spear] or [Air Spear]?"
"Of course," Volzaminat says. "The spell is larger and requires more focus than just casting a [Fire Bolt] or [Fire Arrow]. Ah! That's why! For [Fire Arc], you're just casting a [Fire Blade] continuously, making a very long one! But because it takes so long to cast, you shorten the casting by using a slashing motion and simply casting it over the path!"
"I guess that's a simpler explanation," I say, and Kyron snorts. I reach up and scratch Volzaminat behind the ears. "Yes, that's why the slashing motion is needed. A skilled enough mage or warrior can skip that step, as we're good enough to just cast it with speed."
I point in front of me, and a [Stone Arc] forms in only a second, then shoots forward, cutting into the previous two I'd sent.
"Since the spell overall needs less of the element," I say. "It's something that you can cast speedily without sacrificing form, instead of needing to stretch it out from a single point."
"Just draw the path and you're golden," Volzaminat says.
"Exactly!" I give him a pat on the head.
"Now I under-hey! Don't pat me on the head!"
"We've been here for three and a half days now, and you only now noticed that?" I ask as Kyron starts laughing.
"You've been… hey! Stop doing that! I'm not some pet!"
"You know you enjoy it," I scratch him behind the ears again, and he grumbles under his breath that he hates I'm right.
"So you're simply good enough at casting," Volzaminat says. "To be able to skip steps and just cast them directly?"
"Yeah," I nod. "Though knowing the Truth helps me out. The fragment that mages learn relates to the very basis of how magic works. Once you know that, your casting ability improves greatly. It's part of why I'm able to recover my casting ability much more quickly than Kyron."
"Kyron's not recovered his casting ability?"
"I'm at about half of what I was before we died," Kyron says. "Caleb's already back to about ninety percent, I'd say.
Stolen novel; please report.
"Eighty-seven-point-four. Rounded down."
"Wouldn't that be eighty-seven percent, then?" Volzaminat asks.
"I'm rounding to the tens place."
"Weirdo."
I ignore his comment as I examine the cave we're in. It's about thirty feet in diameter and fifteen feet in height, and there's nothing in here. We can see out of it, the illusion concealing the entrance only one-way. At the opposite end of the cave is an opening into another cavern, which seems bigger based on what I can see from here. The Secret Boss is floating in the center of the other chamber, and if it's like the one I battled yesterday, there's nothing else in its chamber.
Though the other one's cave was just hidden behind some stuff, not concealed through an illusion.
"This cave is the perfect spot to recover," I note.
"There's no tricks here," Volzaminat tells me. "Just this cave and the Secret Boss's, and just like the one you fought yesterday, there's nothing else in there. Are you fighting it alone again? Or with Kyron this time?"
"Alone," I answer. "He got to fight both lava golems."
"Aren't you fighting the Dungeon Boss alone?" Volzaminat asks.
"Yes."
"Why not share this one?"
"Because I want to fight it alone."
"We aren't doing it for glory or anything," Kyron tells Volzaminat. "Caleb just finds it fun. After this, we'll break for lunch, and spend the rest of the day grinding out to Level 40. Tomorrow morning, he'll take on the Dungeon Boss. As long as we both get stronger and Caleb has fun, I don't mind him taking on Bosses by himself."
"What about your fun?" Volzaminat asks.
"I enjoy watching Caleb fight."
"I enjoy watching you fight," I pull Kyron in for a kiss.
"Yeah, but you find absolutely dominating fights against monsters to be fun," Kyron says. "And I don't, so I let you handle that."
"What do you find fun, then?" Volzaminat asks.
"Going on adventures with Caleb," Kyron answers. "And watching him battle monsters. It's very sexy, especially when he's bare-chested like he is right now."
"You don't actually need to be bare-chested," Volzaminat says. "I already told you that, but you won't put any on."
"Because we had an agreement," I state. "It was a fair agreement, so we are holding to it."
Volzaminat hops off of my shoulder and walks a couple of yards away before stopping and turning to face me. He examines me, and there's a clear frown on the fox-like spirit's face.
"You know," he says. "You don't look like most mages. Most of them are slender, slim. You're lean. Not defined, like your sexy husband there, but still lean."
"You'll find out why tomorrow," Kyron tells him.
"Well, whatever the reason, you're still attractive," Volzaminat says. "As much as I hate to admit it."
I snort, then walk a little further into the chamber before lying down to relax as I recover my Mana. While waiting, I pull some items out of my ring and start making something, holding it above my head. Since I'm actually trying to recover Mana at the moment, I make this without using very much magic.
Volzaminat hops up onto my chest and curls up on me, watching me work. The rings worn on the cord around his neck are an interesting sensation. One is warm while the other is cold. I normally remove that effect from items that have it, but must have forgotten to while making them.
His attitude really distracted me. I guess he doesn't mind it, though, since he hasn't mentioned it at all and I'm sure he's feeling it. The feeling of hot and cold right beside each other on my chest is pretty weird, but it's not bothering me so I just work on my little project.
Kyron decides to lie down with his head on my stomach, occasionally reaching up to pet the spirit. After about half an hour, I finish the item and set it on the spirit's head.
"What does it do?" Volzaminat asks. "I didn't get to inspect it before you put it on my head."
"It looks pretty."
"You made me a crown out of leather and lava crystals, and all it does is look pretty?"
"So you don't like it?"
"No, I like it," he says. "But… why?"
"I don't know, it's you who likes it. Why do you like it?"
"That's not what I meant," he huffs.
"If Caleb wasn't trying to recover at the moment," Kyron says as I start rubbing his stomach with my left hand and playing with his hair with my right. "He'd have probably made something a lot more magical. He did make it resistant to burning and melting, though."
"So I can take a bath in it, good to know."
"What do you bathe in?"
"Liquid fire."
And he calls me weird.
We relax for a few more minutes, then I move Kyron off of me so I can stand. Volzaminat jumps back up onto my shoulder, then I stretch for a minute before heading into the next chamber. The Secret Boss is floating in its neutral state in the center of the chamber, though I can tell it's observing us.
Kyron remains behind in the other chamber to observe, though he'll jump in if I actually need help. I shouldn't, though, considering I'm a little stronger than I was when I fought the one yesterday and I've learned its patterns. My husband's staying in the other chamber mostly because there's an invisible barrier in the entrance – attacks won't pass through it, so he doesn't have to worry about avoiding or blocking any attacks.
"You gonna punch it in the face?" Volzaminat asks after I pass through the entrance.
He asked me this with the last one, too.
"Why do you want to see me punch it in the face?"
"Because I think it'd be interesting to see what happens."
I roll my eyes, then hold up my hands. Water begins to flow around them, streams of ice flowing through them as well.
The moment I conjure the water and ice, the monster reacts, immediately closing its shell, the markings across it glowing. I thrust my hands forward and [Ice Arrow]s and [Ice Bolt]s shoot out of the elemental gloves. With stellar accuracy, the spells strike into the monster's shell.
My attacks don't do too much, but I can see some slight dents and cuts forming on it. I maintain the assault for about a minute, then stop as a [Water Barrier] forms in front of me. Five seconds after my attack ends, the monster opens up its shell and sends out a [Fire Ray], a dense beam of flames that slams into my [Water Barrier]. The water sizzles and evaporates, but I continue to fuel it to ensure the beam doesn't breach.
As with the one yesterday, this monster's beam only lasts for fifteen seconds, then eight orbs of fire form around it, each one an inch in diameter. I know that Volzaminat said they were three-inch orbs, but it appears that completely stopping the beam changes the monster's plan. Even the spirit was surprised when he saw that yesterday.
Miniature [Fire Beam]s shoot out of the orbs, and I move my hands out to the sides. Orbs of water and ice shoot out and around the [Water Barrier], weaving between the [Fire Beam]s. The monster attempts to breach the barrier and stop the orbs at the same time, with half of the beams aimed at the barrier and the other half swinging around in their attempts at striking the orbs.
"Odd," I mutter.
"What is?" Volzaminat asks.
"Don't worry about it."
There's a deviation. Yesterday's Secret Boss didn't attempt to strike down the orbs. They're small enough that most monsters don't assume they're anything but elemental orbs, so they normally get ignored. It wasn't until after they got close enough that the previous Secret Boss discovered that they were actually [Water Bomb]s and [Ice Bomb]s.
But only some of them. It takes me less effort and Mana to conjure both actual bomb spells and orbs that are just the element than it does for most opponents to take them all out. Mostly because I'm good enough at this trick that they have to make multiple attempts to hit them – if they even succeed.
Once I have fifteen orbs each of water and of ice floating around, zooming around the room, I bring my hands forward. [Water Bolt]s and [Ice Bolt]s shoots out of my [Water Barrier], swarming straight forward.
Rather than conjuring an inferno around itself to shield itself, the monster counters with another eight orbs forming, these ones shooting [Fire Bolt]s at my spells. Since my bolt spells are set to just shoot forward, it's easier for the monster to counter them. The one yesterday simply conjured an inferno to defend itself.
Which would have been a nearly-fatal move. That would have detonated my [Water Bomb]s and [Ice Bomb]s, which would have doused the flames enough for additional spells to break through.
"Very odd," I mutter.
"What is?" Volzaminat asks again.
"Don't worry about it," I tell him. "It's nothing that will hinder things."
Monsters of the same type typically act the same way. Once you know how one acts, you know how to handle it. This one is acting as if it's already fought me before, which isn't possible – yesterday was my first time ever seeing one like this. Even if it hadn't been, Dungeons reset, meaning their monsters do as well.
They can't learn from us between runs. I've never run this Dungeon before, anyway.
I pull my hands back toward me, then thrust them forward. A second [Water Barrier] pushes out of the existing one and soars forward, sizzling as it pushes down the four [Fire Beam]s. I don't bother repairing that one, resulting in four holes forming in it.
The monster conjures a [Fire Barrier] to counter the moving one, that barrier taking over my bolts. All of my orbs and bombs were out of the path for that, so none of them are struck by it. While its attention is focused on dealing with my moving [Water Barrier] and my bolts, four orbs draw close to it and detonate.
Three of them were [Water Bomb]s, while the fourth was an [Ice Bomb]. Caught off-guard, the monster isn't prepared to stop them and finds some of its orbs doused and ice shards cutting into its shell, a few even hitting its flaming core, though those ones vaporize.
It immediately switches the focus of all eight beams to striking at the orbs, sweeping much more hastily and managing to take out half of the orbs, even while continuing to combat my bolts. Since I'm unable to provoke the monster instead its infernos and it's apparently able to endlessly keep up multiple weaker beams, I shift tactics.
"Can I comment that I think I've figured out your strategy?" Volzaminat says after I've spent another few minutes sending out orbs and bombs and bolts. "Or do you think the monster would adapt to that?"
"Just don't say what it is," I tell him.
"I thought you were being stupid," Volzaminat says. "Just sending out more when that was clearly failing. This one is smarter than yesterday's."
Which is odd. It's the same strength monster, and it's acting as if it knows the strategy I used yesterday. Fortunately, it hasn't caught on to my next plan, which is almost ready to finalize. This isn't something I used yesterday, so I'm not surprised that it hasn't realized it yet. Something is off about this fight, and I think I've figured out what it is.
"How long before it's ready?" Volzaminat asks.
"Just twenty more seconds."
I finish preparing this, then inhale deeply before letting out my breath. The moment I've finished that, the attack initiates.
Eight spears of ice suddenly appear in the air, each in a different spot, each aimed straight at one of the monster's eight pieces of its shell from twenty feet away. All eight of the spears shoot forward at the same time. The monster quickly begins to pull its shell back in, and manages to return to defense mode in time.
Or at least, it would be in time, if the spearheads weren't sharp enough, the spears themselves not durable enough, and the attacks not fast enough. Because they were sharp enough, durable enough, and fast enough, the spears pierce straight through the eighths of the shells.
Then radiate thorns of ice all over them, similar to the [Cage of Stony Thorns] I'd invented before. In fact, I used the thorn aspect from that spell for this modification to the spears.
+14.82% Experience!
"There we go!" I exclaim as the monster ashes and fades, a few items dropping to the ground. "That was annoying to prepare!"
"I've never seen a mage skilled enough to do that before," Volzaminat says as I finally release the rest of my spells, ice and water dropping to the ground. "Maybe prepare one or two, but you did eight of them – and it seemed like you were making up aspects on the fly, too."
The spears didn't truly appear out of nowhere. I prepared their spell formulas, but prevented them from completing until I was ready for them. Only a true master of magic is capable of doing it so well, and in such numbers, without losing hold and just wasting the Mana.
"That's one of the many perks of being me," I tell him. "Even twenty percent of my casting ability is superior to nearly all other mages you'd ever have a chance of meeting. I'm nearly back to my full casting ability."
I walk over to the loot drops and send three of them into my ring before picking up the fourth and examining it. It's a sphere that seems to be made out of crystallized fire. Not a crystal containing fire, not a sphere of fire, not a fire magic crystal – a sphere of actual crystallized fire. It's an unusual sphere, and it contains golden markings similar to the ones on the monster over its surface.
Mysterious Fire Core Grade: Master This is a mysterious fire core.
Just like the one from the Secret Boss I fought yesterday. There's only one reason why a loot drop has a name and description like that.
Information about it isn't known enough. Most people know what a fire crystal is, so even someone who's never heard of them before will have information on it when they inspect one. Not many people know what a golem core is, but enough know about them and how they work that the information shows up.
When information about an item is known to almost no one, then the description says basically nothing. Only those who actually know information about the item will get its proper information. While that seems a bit strange, it seems very strange.
I'm not sure the purpose behind it, but it does help encourage people like me to study the items and try to discover things about them on their own. Though if I'm entirely honest, I'm probably going to just ask the next god I see about it.
There was too much weirdness with this fight.
"Caleb," Kyron says as I send the core into my ring, my husband having approached as I examined the core. "Something is on your mind. You've had a look of focus and thought since the battle ended."
"Yeah," I answer. "The core's the same as yesterday's – no information."
"That's not what's on your mind, though," Kyron says.
"Right," I look at him. "The monster knew my attacks."
"Knew your attacks?" He raises an eyebrow. "I know it didn't fight the same way the other one did, which is odd, but what do you mean, it knew your attacks?"
"The monsters shared information," I tell him.
"…what?"
"This one knew about my fight yesterday," I finally turn to face him. "It knew how I fought yesterday. It knew what my initial attacks would be and adjusted immediately. That's why it didn't summon an inferno – it knew that I'd nearly killed the one yesterday doing that. It knew that I'd no doubt learned from that and would adjust my attacks for a faster kill."
"How would it have shared information?" Kyron asks. "It never came into contact with the other one."
"I don't know," I shake my head. "But it definitely knew how I fought yesterday. It knew my moves. I tested it with some of my attack patterns, and it was prepared only for the ones I used yesterday."
"How is that possible?"
"I have no idea," I reach up and poke Volzaminat in the cheek. "Did you know?"
"No," Volzaminat answers. "That sounds stupid. It's a Dungeon monster that was stuck in its cave here. It couldn't have learned from your fight, since it didn't see it."
"Yet it learned my moves all the same," I say. "Somehow, the other one shared the information of our fight with this one, enabling this one to adapt to my fighting style. Fortunately, I don't have just one way of fighting and can adapt on the fly. Volzy, did you notice them doing that with the others you saw fight them?"
"No," Volzaminat answers. "Maybe. I didn't care too much to watch, they usually started having their asses whupped. I just assumed they were being overconfident due to having beaten the other. You people are all weird."
So Volzaminat witnessed this in the past, but didn't think much of it because he doesn't really pay attention to the finer details of how things work for people. Not unless we've annoyed him or it's benefiting him. If he'd seen a few more groups fight the Secret Bosses, however, he might have started to notice something weird about the fights.
"I did convince them to give me the cores after they left the Dungeon," Volzaminat says. "None of them cared too much about it since it was an unknown and I am a great and powerful spirit to be worshiped."
They probably just assumed Volzaminat knew something about the cores and decided to offer them to him as thanks for safe passage in his territory. The rest of the loot from the strange monsters are rather good, so that would make up for giving up an unknown item that they'd probably not be able to sell for much.
"Alright," I say. "Let's have lunch now, and after we rest a little, we'll finish our grind for the day."