I cast Basic Blood Drain on every lowbie zombie we came across as I walked with Aeris on the way to our destination. It was powerful enough that I didn't have to bother killing them. The spell dealt close to two hundred damage. The stronger the enemy I cast it on the less damage they would take. Outside of the newbie area the spell would do little more than fizzle out until after I had killed stronger enemies.

Sending out my Skeleton Warrior, he picked up all the loot and stored it in a large pack I had bought for him that was strapped to his back. It might seem like a waste of a level 170 Skeleton's abilities, but the convenience was worth it. Where was Olivia and her Nature Magic when you need it? He was great for collecting the little odds and ends Lydia would need for her alchemy.

I only had to Drain a humanoid creature once every seven days to keep my drain bonuses, but it had become such a habit I probably did it a couple hundred times each day. There was no experience bar for the skill, but I was pretty sure the more I used it the faster it would level. These were too low to give me any additional stats, but they could sustain me. I hoped Intermediate Blood Drain would give me a big boost in the stats I could earn once the spell leveled up.

“I never thought I would say it, but I really want to be able to drain zombie blood too.” Aeris said with a pout.

She wore her polished platemail that shone dull in the subtle light of the Mistress's Dungeon. Her black cloak swept about in gentle waves as we strolled forward. I wasn't sure if the cloak's movement came from her forward motion, or, as I suspected, an invisible aura of air that surrounded her. As her Wind Magic grew more powerful I wasn't sure what to expect. Neither was she.

My eyes met hers as I snickered. Her helm was deposited in her inventory, so her large eyes, that had once been a deep blue, but had changed with her magic to a cloudy color, were pleading with me.

I simply shrugged.

She sliced the head off one of the last zombies with her Wind Slash with little effort as we entered the next section of Skeletons.

We didn't slow as we killed all of them that got in our path as we marched through the labyrinth. We didn't have to. She was able to sling her Wind Slash spell so quickly now that the Skeletons fell in two at the spine with little more than a look from her.

After the vampire Lord Darius had attacked our fear of even the mid-level skeletons had become non-existent. We had all started to realize how powerful we were and ultimately, how powerful we weren’t.

Once a day, all my fellow captors had agreed to start meeting at the Skeleton Sentinels for a few hours of group tactics training. Yesterday had been our first day. Only two days had passed since Skyler had been returned to us from the Mistress’ clutches, but with my ability to heal exhaustion, we had all tried to make the most of our time.

Except for my solo hunting, most of my time had been spent with Aeris. It wasn't just because we enjoyed each other’s company, although, I wasn't exactly hiding that fact any longer. We were on another errand for Russ who was determined to collect as much rare ore as possible before the new forge was finished in about twelve days.

Travis had taken to mapping out the Mistress's Labyrinth. A Labyrinth was a type of dungeon with numerous tunnels and sections, often with different creatures in each region. There were even different grades of dungeons, but it seemed that type of information was only available to those with the right examination skill. Thankfully Travis had the skill. Even then, it wasn't simple like examining an item. A dungeon had to be explored to a certain extent before its level was made known. It didn't seem like a very useful skill if we had to find out the hard way what kind of danger there was before Travis’s skill told us anything useful.

His real usefulness was found in other areas. If it wasn't for him, we would have never found the Rock Lizards. They were ugly little buggers that looked a lot like gators with the heads of a hairless beaver. No surprise that they mostly munched on rocks and your occasional skeleton that lost its way. Not only did they drop rare ore and the occasional gemstone, but they also had a knack of finding the best cavern with a good supply of the best stuff.

They didn't respawn like the Mistress's undead minions did, so once we cleared them out they were gone. It also meant that they didn't follow spawn patterns, so we found them scattered out all over the place. Our fellow humans with mining skills had taken a break from clearing the area that would become our new home to pick clean a cavern we had cleared of Rock Lizards just yesterday. There was a new spotting of Rock Lizards that Aeris and I were heading to now.

“Bacon jerky?” I asked, removing a gauntlet and retrieving a half-eaten bag from my inventory. We both had our shields and weapons put away as we traveled back and forth. I was also helmless and wearing my green rune covered platemail.

“We just ate breakfast. You're still hungry?” Aeris asked amused.

“This is dessert.”

“Bacon for dessert? Really?”

“Now that I can afford it? Yes!”

She rolled her eyes, but her grin was clear as day.

“Okay. Just one piece though.” She replied.

Handing a generous strip over to her, I watched as she tore off a large chunk.

“It almost makes you feel sorry for the rock-beavers, doesn't it?” I asked, using the nickname I had given the lizards. “Can you imagine going all of your life and never trying bacon?”

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“Do you think they even half taste buds?” She asked, turning her head up in question.

“How else can they tell the difference between rocks?”

“Texture. They probably just like the way certain things...”

“Crunch?” I replied, finishing her sentence.

“Yup!”

“I don't know. I like my bacon every way. Both crunchy and slurpy.”

“Ewww,” She replied, scrunching up her nose, “You got to at least cook it.”

“I'm not saying eat it raw, but there is nothing wrong with it coming with a nice dose of bacon juice!”

“That's disgusting. It needs to be a little crispy.”

“It’s startling that you share so much in common with the rock-beavers,” I said with a sigh, “Are you sure you aren't part beaver?”

She stopped and huffed out an abnormally large amount of air for a single breath.

Suddenly, I found myself stumbling forward from the gust of wind that struck me from behind.

With a chuckle, Aeris replied. “Are you sure you aren't a rock-beaver? You share so much in common with them crawling around on all fours.”

When I caught myself, I looked up with all the fabricated offense I could muster and glared at her.

We shared a laugh.

Humor was something we both fled to as a coping mechanism to the totally messed up situation we found ourselves in. But, I could feel that there was a difference now that hadn't been there before Lord Darius had come.

***

“Are you ready?” I asked, taking a step out from behind the boulder that stood between us and about forty Rock Lizards.

My Darkvision spell had reached level 18, so I could see about 90 meters in the dark. This cavern that Travis had found was simply a naturally formed cave that had been uncovered when the Mistress's dungeon had first been excavated. It was connected to a side tunnel that had held Skeleton Archers. It was in the very back of the side tunnel, so we had walked about three miles just to reach the cave. From there in had taken us a few minutes to get to a place where the cave opened. That is where we first spotted the Rock Lizards. It looked like they had been here for months, for the wide vein in the cave had turned into a large cavity that could probably fit a small house.

“I never thought you would ask.” Aeris whispered.

I hesitated for a moment as I considered whether I should cast from my mouth or just use my hand. Casting from my hand gave me the ability to keep my eyes on what was around us, but it lacked style points.

Already making that mistake once, I chose to go with what was the most practical and raised my hand in the air above my head.

“Now!” I called, slipping out of Invisibility at the same time I released a jet of flames into the air.

Aeris's Wind Magic met my stream of fire. The additional oxygen fed the flames, like pulling the trigger on a giant cannon. Surging forward, the fire exploded into the room devouring everything in its path. My Flamethrower merged with her Gale spell and turned into something I could only describe as Dragon's Fire.

The Rock Lizard's scaly hides were just as solid as they sounded. Instead of burning them to death, they melted.

It wasn't just a burst of a magic inferno, but what had been a cool cavern turned into a raging furnace. Every Rock Lizard caught in the blaze found no escape.

“Bacon jerky?” I asked as I lowered my hand.

“Are you trying to get me fat?” She teased. “Sure.”

The experience was barely measurable at this point. I had gained one level yesterday. One. After ten hours clearing the Skeleton Sentinels not to mention all the other mobs I had killed or drained, I had basically out leveled the Mistress's dungeon. It shouldn't bother me, but that meant that everyone was starting to catch up.

My level wasn't the only avenue I had to get stronger though. Finding new creatures to devour or steal abilities from with my Blue Magic gave me a huge advantage, but I knew now that it wasn't enough.

Mel, our necromancer, was building a small army that was able to fight for him as he slept. Because he could focus his attention on other things, he technically had the greatest ability to level up out of all of us, even if it would be a few weeks before he had enough Skeletons to get the most out of the ability. And that was only one example. Olivia, our Nature Mage, could fill an entire room with Skeleton devouring plants and clear them repeatedly as they spawned.

In other words, if I didn't do something I would get left behind.

I sat about the work of cooling the cavern down, which was more difficult than killing a lot of Rock Lizards. Instead of casting Ice Shard, I manipulated the spell to make a large ice cube of sorts and just cast about ten of them around the room by the walls.

Aeris went about helping by creating a wind vortex swirling around in the center of the room. It was nowhere as powerful as a tornado, but I suspected she was almost to that level of power if she went all out.

Stepping back into the passageway to get away from the loud howling of the wind, I leaned against the wall to think.

Aeris had climbed faster in levels than anyone else besides me. At first it was because of my help, but as she came into her magic, she discovered a speed to her casting that I doubted anyone could match. At level 181 she would be the next to reach level 200 and with that she would soon reach 1000 Wisdom. I knew what that meant and how much of a power boost it would give her.

“What's wrong? You look like you've seen a giant melted otter.” She said with a snort.

I found her standing there with her hand on her hip. Instead of her flirtatious grin, she had one serious brow raised in question.

“I'm still thinking about opening up the Bone Palace and giving the first floor a go. I know its selfish. I should wait for everyone to catch up to my level, but I also feel like I'm wasting time. I'm just not sure what to do next.” I replied.

“You could always go with Travis and help him map out the labyrinth to steal all the Blue Magic you can while you're waiting.”

“That's true. I could also try enchanting, mining, even botany.”

“Definitely botany. Although, Olivia might take that as flirting.” She chuckled, walking over and leaning against the rough cavern wall next to me.

“We can't have that.” I replied.

“Poor Russ?”

“Poor Russ.”

We shared a laugh.

“I don't know what the right answer is Lucius.” She said, leaning against my shoulder. “I'd say try to go power level the others, but honestly they are killing fast enough in their groups that you would just be an experience drain on them.”

I shrugged.

“Your desire isn't completely selfish.” She said, turning to look me in the eye.

I met her gaze.

“Without you going off and power leveling as you did when we first got here we would have died more than once. Give it a day and if you find nothing else to do, then I say go for it. You're going to bring me, right?”

Immediately, I wanted to reject her request. The danger was unknown. Who knew what strengths and levels the mobs behind those boney doors possessed.

Shaking my head to myself, I finally replied. “Of course.”

“Took you long enough to respond. I was getting worried.” She replied.

“I was just thinking I should charge you to come with me.”

She offered me a fake chuckle and didn't even bother to roll her eyes, before saying. “Whatever. I know you only see me as an incredibly attractive girl that can't protect herself.”

“No.” I said, shaking my head.

“No? To which part?”

“Oh look,” I said, walking past her. “Things seemed to have cooled down. Let’s get our loot.”

My Skeleton that had been standing guard at our rear came trotting up to help with the haul.

I didn't have to look back to see her expression. The gust of air that pushed me forward told me all I needed to know.