I was falling again in darkness, and it took a moment before my surroundings became brighter. I could make out trees rushing by me before landing on soft ground. My feet had sunk into the grassy terrain up to my knees. A little pulling was all it took to free myself. It was dark out but there was enough light to see by being emitted from mushrooms growing on the sides of, well everything, but mostly trees.
“By the forge fire I hate falling! Drop slides are meant to be quick. We must have been falling for close to an hour!” Burin complained as he struggled against the earth. He was currently buried up to his waist.
“Good thing we landed on soft ground and not stone.” Miko said as she finished pulling herself up.
I offered my hand to Burin who took it with a smile. A small tug and I pulled him out like a turnip.
Around us were tall wide trees. The branches did not start until a few metres off the ground giving us plenty of space to move in.
The grass around us was pristine and looked perfectly maintained. I could not see a fallen leaf or branch anywhere.
“Forest gnome territory.” Burin muttered.
“What? Did you say Gnomes?” Miko was looking between me and the surrounding area.
“Aye. Not hostile unless ye attack first. A bit different to the city Gnomes.”
I couldn’t see any signs of Gnomes around us. “Different how?”
“They be incredibly sneaky and never show themselves to outsiders. They migrated here and are not native to the tower.”
Miko gave me a stern look. “Try not to drop kick any that might come out to say hello.”
I frowned and looked around. I was unable to see any signs of the glowing tower as the forest blocked any view of the horizon. “How far from the tower do you think we are?”
Miko pulled something out of her pocket and turned in a small circle before pointing. “The tower is over in that direction, but I couldn’t say how far away we are. Damnit, Yui is going to kill me.”
I gave a small chuckle “Yeah, I doubt we will be making the meeting point on time.”
“Sorry but I be needing rest before I can do any more walking.” Burin had propped himself against a nearby tree. It looked like his wound opened at some point as blood could be seen through the bandage.
He summoned a ball of water and held it over his injured leg. The water was changing colour from a clear blue to a dark red. After a moment Burin tossed the ball of water to the side where it splashed on the ground.
A sigh of contentment came from the dwarf as he leaned his head against the tree behind him.
“I think its best we all share my tent tonight. Reigner, can you handle the campfire? The added recovery will help.”
“Sure.” I was happy to have an excuse to use my magic. I am still disappointed that it’s not an awesome fireball but at least the campfire provided some benefits.”
Miko pulled out her tent and tied it down between some trees. I focused on the area just in front of the tent opening and summoned the campfire.
+1 to Summon Campfire Spell rank.
Nice. That reminded me I still had three attribute points to place. I decided to go with two points in wisdom and one in intelligence. Bringing my total intelligence to 16 and wisdom to 14. I felt that it’s important to increase my maximum mana alongside it’s regeneration. I would hate to have a massive mana pool that required hours to fill.
I couldn’t tell if it was night or that the tree’s branches were so dense they were blocking the sun. Either way I wanted to take a quick walk around before turning in.
Miko was still doing something inside the tent and Burin was still resting against the tree.
“I’ll take a quick look around the area before joining you in the tent.” My mana pool was back to full, only needing about twenty minutes to fill to max from zero.
“Wait a second” As I took a step forward, I heard Miko’s comment followed by the sound of my shirt ripping. I looked down and saw that the front of my shirt had ripped almost completely from the neckline downwards. Only a few threads held it together preventing it from fully opening from the front. Looking behind me I could see Miko still half inside the tent with her hand reached out far enough to grab on to the back of my shirt
This damn woman. What is her obsession with ruining my clothes? Is this a cat thing? I have no idea since I never spent much time with cats. The urge to break something, other than my clothes, raged inside me. I decided to instead take a few deep breaths before turning around and asking the nagging question on my mind. “Why?”
Miko held her face downcast and looked up into my eyes like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. She said a quiet “sorry” before letting go of my shirt. “It’s not a good idea to go out by yourself. We don’t know how far from the tower we are. I can tell when something enters within seven metres from us as long as they don’t have a stealth skill higher than my detection aura, which I doubt anything on this floor has. Your campfire is providing enough mana regeneration that I am able to keep the aura up indefinitely.”
She looked down at my bare chest and bit her bottom lip. I waved my hands in front of her “Hey Miko. My eyes are up here.”
“Uh, sorry. After all we went through, I’m feeling a bit hungry and I’m sure Burin could use some food too.”
“Aye I’m famished. My votes with her.” Burin said still resting against the tree.
Miko smiled towards me. Her eyes almost bouncing between mine and my exposed chest. “Want to summon us some more Earth cuisine?
“Fine.” I stepped around her into the tent and roughly pulled my shirt closed, only to feel it rip against my back. Miko let out an excited “eep!” and I could feel her eyes glued to my back.
“Need a hand to the tent, Burin?” I eyed the campfire and pushed down the urge to kick it into the distance.
“I’m feeling a bit better. That campfire is doing wonders for my health and mana. I should be able to help with your burns within the hour.” Burin pushed himself to his feet and limped into the tent in front of me.
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I felt a bit better about not kicking the firestone.
Miko’s tent was still a wonder to me. Being able to look out of the thick fabric while also keeping the wind out was quite the enchantment. It was large inside the tent and there was plenty of space for the three of us to move around. I took a seat by the middle and summoned some sandwiches and cup noodles for us. I also conjured up some Dr. Pepper that was recently added to my list of summonable drinks.
“Bleh! Yuck, what is this? I think it’s gone off” Miko asked after taking a big gulp of the drink. She quickly opened the tent and tossed it outside.
Laughing I replied “Jace would be crying blood after seeing what you did to one of his lost loves.”
Miko’s eyes widened, and her head snapped to me. “What lost love? That? How could anyone love that?”
Burin pulled the cup away from his mouth and let out a deep burp. “Great drink! Could you summon me up some more please Master Reigner?”
“Master Reigner, is it?” I chuckled and summoned another drink for him “How could I refuse such a kind request?”
“What? Are we drinking the same thing?” Miko grabbed the drink from Burin’s hands just as he lifted it to his lips. “Argh, Damnit woman! Don’t ye know you should never steal a drink from a dwarf? Who raised you?”
“Bleh. How can you drink that?” She pushed back the glass to Burin who snatched it back with a frown. “Ye have an uncultured tongue.”
“Maybe this will be more to your taste.” I summoned two milkshakes, one strawberry for Miko, and one chocolate for Burin. “Since we are just going to rest for tonight, I am going to get some sleep.” After pulling them out of storage, I placed my bed roll by one of the corners and wrapped my blanket around me.
“Before ye sleep. Did anything good drop from the named orc? That was a rare spawn, a named with a title. Normally it’s just a titled goblin.”
I pulled out the small bag from my storage and emptied it in front of me. “Named title? What does that matter?”
Items a bigger than the bag fell on the floor. A steel helmet, dagger, pair of boots, some coin, and a green gemstone with the number 1 glowing inside. The bag vanished after being emptied.
“Huh, that’s cool.”
Burin and Miko scooted over to get a better look at the loot. Miko picked up the green gem and handed it to me. “This is a tower key, you should store it in your TKS device that you received when you registered. I assume you have one already Burin?”
“Aye, got the second drop in my group. Torva and Ol’pr- … already had one.”
Burin’s face turned down and seemed to focus on nothing. “Hey Burin, you were talking about named titles or something?”
He looked up to me with a sad smile. “Aye, so there are the normal creatures in the tower. They are the common types that you see everywhere. Uncommon mobs are elite versions of the common creatures, might be a little bigger, more health, and more aggressive.”
He stopped to take a sip from the milkshake and looked at the glass. “Is this a dessert? Ahem, anyway. After that there is the named and titled creatures. They are rare and usually the end creature in a dungeon or leader of a pack. You might see them as Goblin Fort Captain or a goblin named Nart or something. They are much stronger than an elite creature and require a small group of the same level to kill them.”
Miko was nodding along to Burin’s explanation while enjoying the milkshake. “Lastly there are very rare creatures that both hold a name and a title. They be much more powerful than just their named or titled counterparts and require a large group to take them down. I am still honestly amazed that we took it down so fast. Ye sure can toss your weapons with strength.”
“Launch.”
“What?”
“Launch. I Launch my spells with strength. I’m a caster after all and casters don’t just throw things.” I chuckled. “No no. I launch my spells, straight towards my target.”
“Aye… Well its mighty impressive either way. What else dropped? Can I see that helmet?”
“Sure, not like my appraisal skill gives much information.”
“Aye, it sucks at low levels. Once you get it above ten it starts providing more information, including a small description. I’ll read out this item.”
Miko picked up the dagger to look at, which left the boots and coin. There looked to be about thirty or so silver, so I took ten for myself and placed them into storage. I picked up the boots and used my appraise item skill.
[Enchanted Boots]
Quality: Rare (Magical)
Weight: 2 kg
Value: 10 silver – 2 gold.
+1 to Appraise Item Skill rank
I dropped the boots back between us “Identify these when you can too.”
“This helmet has decent protection. It increases health by 20 but also increases the chance a creature will focus on you over others. You should use your skill on it anyway. Every use on new items goes towards gaining ranks.”
I took the helmet from Burin. It covered the top, sides and back of the head and had an open front. There were no designs on the armour and looked bulky. A quick appraise item gave me.
[Smooth Helm]
Quality: Rare (Magical)
Weight: 1.5 kg
Value: 5 silver – 1 gold.
I offered the helmet to our feline companion. “Sounds like it might be useful for you, Miko”
“Mmm, I have better. I doubt there would be any upgrades for me until floor five. You could always sell it to the guild when we get back.”
Shrugging, I placed the item into my storage pouch.
Miko held up the knife. “This dagger gives a bonus to skinning. Self cleaning too.”
“Keep it. Mostly pointless for me since I can just summon a dagger whenever I need one.”
That just left the boots. Burin was looking them over while humming to himself.
Miko nudged me on the shoulder. “Hey. Can I have another one of those milk drinks? The one you gave Burin this time?”
Smiling I summoned a chocolate milkshake and handed it over to Miko. Magic sure was cool I really enjoyed casting spells. I could however, see that this might quickly get out of control. I don’t want to end up as the party vending machine. Eh, who am I kidding, it’s more reasons to show off my magic. If only Lilly was here. I would so rub my magic in her face. If she could conjure more than just water, then we wouldn’t be stuck having mushrooms and monster meat.
“So Burin, how are the boots?”
“Quite good. They be called Boots of the Forest. Wearing them won’t leave any trackable marks in forests or fields. They be magical so would be very comfortable to wear.”
I looked down at my own boots, purchased from the elf lady with the weird earth and wood companion. They felt fine to wear but were very basic and offered no benefits.
“Mind if I take these?”
Burin passed me the boots. “Nay, take them. They are too light for my tastes.”
Looking over to Miko she seemed too absorbed in her drink to protest so I took off my old boots and slipped these on. The difference in comfort was immediate. While the other pair were fine these formed around the shape of my foot and hugged my feet perfectly.
Burin and Miko split the rest of the coin and we then spread out in the tent and got comfortable for the night.
Miko stretched out before laying down. “Don’t worry about keeping watch. My skill will alert me if anyone gets close.”
“No complaints from me.” Burin said while yawning.
I laid down and looked out through the transparent fabric to the blue glowing forest outside. It did not take long before I fell asleep.
Something woke me up a few hours later and it took a moment to realise what it was. There was murmuring in the distance.
I sat up slowly, being careful not to make sound and looked around. Miko and Burin were still sleeping. Looking through the tent there were some shadows, maybe four people, about ten metres away from us.
I focused and started listening carefully. It was easier than I expected. They did not seem to care if they could be heard or not.
“There is some skill beyond this point. Likely from the halfkin.”
“I sense three, one is awake watching us.”
“Doesn’t matter, we are not here for them. No sign of the elf or his drove. Let’s move”
“Wait, maybe they know something.”
“Are you a fool? We are in the uncharted areas. They are likely to attack us once we step within that detection net. Besides, one of them is dangerous.”
“That can’t be right. The halfkin is the most experienced one here and has yet to step on floor six.”
“I don’t understand it either but there is someone or something very dangerous inside that tent. Likely the one watching us. I agree with Tel, we leave them alone.”
“You agree with me? I’m the team lead dumbass, you follow my orders in the field. Now let’s go. If we sprint, we might make it back before lunch.”
I don’t know how much time was left until morning, but I still felt exhausted from our recent activities. I waited a moment to make sure they had left and then let myself drift back into sleep.