Next, he summoned Elida. The mana cost was reduced as promised, but the real boost was that it took only 20 seconds to cast the spell. Elida looked around before facing the Wizard and cocking her head to the side. “Did you want me to scout again?” she asked in her high melodic voice.

“No,” Vultressant replied. “Are you able to tell me if your stats or abilities have changed since the last time I summoned you?”

“I have not gained a level since then,” she replied as if that were answer enough.

“You can level here?” he asked, surprised by the idea. He had not believed that she would gain experience as a summoned creature.

“Of course,” Elida replied.

“Hmm. Well, could you check to see if anything has changed, just in case?”

She gave a little shrug, but she appeared to be checking, and a few moments later she said, “Nothing has changed.”

“All right, sorry to bother you,” he said, dismissing the Sprite.

He now had a clear choice for his upgrade. The summoning spell was unchanged by the rank increase, and the resistance spell was more situational, whereas the bolt spell was good against anything not immune to fire. He chose to upgrade bolt of fire. Looking at the spell information, he saw that it was now classified as a rank two spell; when he focused on the rank, it stated that the spell’s damage had increased by 50% and its range was extended by 20%.

A notification light had begun flashing as soon as he had finalized his choice, and he accessed the message related to it. He was now being offered two additional fire magic spells from a list of five choices. It would have been nice to pick his new spells before choosing which to upgrade, but he supposed it made sense that he could only upgrade spells that he had been using. Two of the spells, blazing retribution and conflagration, were for use on a target. The first was only useful against something that had damaged him, and he strived to avoid all damage, so that was out. Conflagration allowed him to burn a target creature or object. The base mana cost was a whopping 130, but it dealt 30-40 damage over ten seconds. The bolt of fire spell had a better mana-to-damage ratio, but this spell packed a larger punch.

Another offered spell was jet of steam, which was a directional attack that emanated from his hand. The effect was to super-heat anything that the steam came into contact with, and it was usable under water. Vultressant had never thought about what would happen if he sent his bolts into the water, but he vowed to test whether they stayed flamey when he got the chance. He postulated that it might be possible because, well, magic allowed for special things to happen.

Another spell was called endure cold, and it was a long duration spell that rendered the enchanted target impervious to cold conditions around them. There was no mention of the spell being able to prevent any magical cold attacks or otherwise, so it would be useful if they had to go back to the mountains, but was probably not good as a combat buff.

The final spell option was light globe, a light source that lasted 30 minutes unless he cancelled it earlier. The mana cost was only five per cast, and he could spam the spell to quickly light up an area. He immediately thought about several instances where it would have been very helpful in some of their previous encounters, so he chose it for its utility. He immediately ruled out blazing retribution and endure cold—they just wouldn’t be useful very often. Ultimately, he decided upon jet of steam over conflagration. His bolt of fire spell was too similar to conflagration, and it was unclear whether his aim would be any better. If he could be sure there was no chance to miss, it might be different, but there was no point in wasting a choice on something without clear benefits.

Having decided upon his tenth-level choices, he turned to Vanya to see how she was doing. The Elf was resting her head against the rock wall that she was sitting against, and her eyes were closed. “Vanya, are you awake?” he whispered to her.

She tilted her head towards him. “Yes,” she whispered back without opening her eyes.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. I feel a bit tired, but I can go now.”

“Please don’t use those potions again,” he said with concern.

Vanya opened her eyes and smiled. “I appreciate you worrying about me, and I won’t use another again today.” Vultressant started to protest, but she held up a hand. “I will try to be safe, but if we’re in trouble, then I intend to use any powers at my disposal—including the frost breath potion.” Vultressant suppressed his urge to argue with her, and he simply nodded in acquiescence. It felt strange to him to simply cave like that. Normally, he would dig in his heels until there was at least some compromise that he could live with. His feelings for Vanya had changed some of his deepest ingrained habits. It was odd, he thought, that he had never given in with anyone else he had dated. He put the thoughts out of his mind and tried to get some rest himself.

After an hour, Vanya was ready to travel, so they went back to the cavern at the entrance and tried the passage to the south. The path was dark, and Vultressant cast his new light globe spell as they walked. He attached one to Isla’s shield, and he threw others onto the cave wall as they walked. This way, if they needed to retreat, the way back would be well lit. The cave forked several times, and many of the passages terminated in a small cave or became too narrow to follow. Vultressant’s cartography skill was mapping the area well enough to show those areas, and it even accounted for the depth of each tunnel compared to the surface. The full picture of the tunnels began to resemble an ant farm. His skill was also useful in guiding which path to take once they had explored enough of them to grasp the general layout. In one such tunnel, they began to see the telltale light of crystals up ahead.

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Taloc signaled for the rest of them to stop, and he and Ewtain went ahead to scout the area. After a few minutes, they returned. “There’s a large cave with one of the Devourers in it,” the Ranger whispered. “It’s larger than the others, so it might be tougher than they were—especially if it grows like they did. Maroftis, see if you can use your assess ability on it right away, and let us know how it compares to the other two.”

“Why don’t I just go check it now?” he asked.

“You lack the stealth skill, so if it detects you, we’re stuck fighting it here in the passage.”

“Why not just pull it here?” Maroftis asked.

The Ranger motioned to the walls of the passage. “I don’t want you to draw it into this small passage. If we fight it here, we won’t be able to avoid the lightning. At least in the cave we can spread out.”

“They were able to aim in different directions,” Isla reminded Taloc.

Taloc nodded. “Yes, but they only shot at us if we were in front of them, and there could be a limit on how far away from each other their targets can be. If not, then at least in the cave, some of us can get behind the thing.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Vultressant asked.

“You and Vanya can stay near the entrance and shoot arrows and spells at it. There’s enough of a bend that you should be able to hide from the lightning. The rest of us will try to surround him.”

“We also need to try to cover our ears,” Ewtain said. “Covering my head earlier was helpful against the howling attack. I cut some strips of cloth while we were resting. You guys should put them on.” He passed around what he had and did his best to fasten them to Maroftis in a way that would cover his ears. When they were done, he pointed to the glowing ball attached to Isla’s shield and waved a hand next to his neck in a cutthroat gesture. Vultressant extinguished the light, cast his fire resistance spell on everyone but Maroftis, and then put up his shield. Between his and Vanya's buffs and the benefits they were receiving from party leader Isla, the group was pretty well equipped to fight—at least for now.

They slowly walked towards the cave, and if they made any noise, the ear wraps prevented Vultressant from hearing it. Maroftis peeked around the bend to assess the monster, then quickly turned to the group. He pointed towards the cave and then at both of his eyes to indicate that they had been noticed. Then the Korak made a fist with one arm and grabbed his bicep with his other hand; this Devourer would be very tough. With that, Maroftis charged into the cave, followed by the other non-casters.

Vultressant hurried around the bend so that he could ready his first bolt of fire spell. As he charged it, the Crystal Devourer began to increase in size as the other two had. After the transformation, it was massive: only slightly taller than the others had been, but much thicker. The previous Devourers had seemed fat and sluggish, but this one almost looked like a bodybuilder at a competition. Even without the assess other ability, Vultressant could see that this would be a far more difficult fight. He had continued feeding mana into his spell as the creature transformed and the others ran towards their foe, and when he fired it, the bolt was larger and brighter than any he had ever cast. It connected with a shoulder, and the hulk staggered back from the impact. The noise was muffled but was loud enough to hear through the wrappings around his ears. He was amazed at what rank two could do for a spell: that one bolt of fire had taken away just over 5% of the creature’s health. He had assumed that Isla was using her offensive party leader buff, but he quickly checked his buffs and found that she was using the defensive one. Also, his bolt had struck a heavily armored area with many crystals protecting the creature, so the damage he had inflicted was even more impressive. Imagine what he’ll be able to do at rank three!

As the Devourer began to recover from the impact of the spell, one of Vanya’s arrows hit it, bouncing off of one of its crystal protrusions. The creature began to glow in the same way the others had before casting the lightning spell. Vultressant ran back into the passage to avoid any lightning that might be coming his way, and Vanya did the same. There was a bright flash and what sounded like a muffled whip crack; once both had faded, he peeked into the cave. His friends had fanned out as they ran towards the monster, and he saw that Isla and Ewtain were now both behind the others. Isla was hunched over trying to stand, but Ewtain was still running at it. Isla had been struck by the lightning. Vultressant hoped that this Devourer only had one lightning spell, like the others had. He cautiously stayed next to the passage as he charged his next spell.

The melee fighters did their best to surround the massive creature, and Maroftis attacked it far more recklessly than the others. This resulted in the Crystal Devourer trying to focus all of its attacks on the Berserker, which was very likely what Maroftis had hoped for given his bolstered health points and regeneration ability. The Korak was their tank, and he was playing the role in superb fashion. As the Devourer landed strike after strike on the tank, the other three were able to make cautious attacks on its flanks and rear; Vultressant even saw Ewtain use his cleave special attack in the melee. The Wizard’s second fire bolt streaked towards the hulk. An instant after it impacted into the chest of the beast, once again causing it to stagger back, the three flankers all attacked.

In response, the Devourer unleashed its scream attack, which prompted everyone to cover their already protected ears. The noise was still very loud, but it was nowhere near as potent as it had been earlier. Vultressant had attended a heavy metal concert as a teenager. He had put cotton in his ears to help protect them from the deafening sound. The lack of ringing in his ears hours after the event had made him glad that he had protected himself. He felt much the same now: the wrappings had done the job, and he made a mental note to thank Ewtain if and when they got out of this. Unfortunately, the noise attack had come much sooner in this encounter than in the previous one—it didn’t bode well for the rest of the encounter.