“Mia freeze the water!”

A large tentacled beast sat in the middle of a marshy dungeon’s boss room, pools of shallow water surrounded it, causing uneven footing for those that dare tried to approach its central maw “Hsaaaw!” it let out a hissy scream, its tentacles rising into the air to strike the approaching Ria.

Suddenly, Ria leaped into the air, as a wave of freezing cold swept from under her. Ria landed on the now solid ground, not slippery due to how Mia formed it “Thanks sis!” she darted forward, her speed increased now that she wasn’t trudging through water.

“Mn, easy.” Mia stood up from the ground, her job finished she raised her hand, launching a steady stream of small fireballs at the creature, each ball igniting where they hit, burning the creature.

The two’s battle ended without issue, with Ria cutting down its thick viny hide and tentacles, while Mia delt damage to the main body. It was simply overwhelmed by the two who had been conquering the low-level dungeons all day.

They had progressed from hole to hole, each one having a different interior than the last. The one they currently were in was a marshy cave, filled with plant like beasts, but with it being in haunt 1-A, it was all no match for the two. All the bosses had been markedly weaker than the boar, but Mia couldn’t complain too much, it was good skill progress. Her fire magic was already at level 5, all she had to do was wait for it to evolve…if only her other skills shared that growth.

“Another one down!” Ria casually walked over to her sister, drenched in sap, while holding a small core “We still have room in that thing?”

Mia nodded “Mhm, not full.” She said, adjusting the large ice box on her back with the contents able to be seen by the transparent ice, the box was packed with cores. Mia’s item box had long ran out of space.

Ria tossed the new core inside the box, the lid closing behind it “Really wish you’d let me carry it when we are not fighting… that thing is huge on you.” Ria nervously laughed, staring at the juxtaposition of the small girl carrying a box that was nearly the size of herself on her back.

“Told you, skill, packer “ She adjusted the box once more, jumping this time to emphasis her point “doesn’t weight much, besides.” She pointed to another, smaller, box that was filled to the brim with miscellaneous stuff, ranging from unknown potion bottles, weapons, gems, rocks, and unknown bobbles, all of which they had gotten from dungeon boss chests.

“Speaking of.” Ria flicked her thumb behind her, pointing past the fallen beast to the newly appeared dungeon chest “This is the last one, I am starving, it is late, and we still have to sell all this.”

“…one more?” Mia asked, turning up her eyes, begging for just one more.

“No, not working this time.” Ria crossed her arms “I leveled up a few times, I want to actually use those points without passing out or feeling sorer than I already am.” Ria sternly said “Plus…” she raised her weapon, the poor thing abused and tattered “preeeeetty sure this will break if we fight another boss.”

“…fine…” Mia sighed and slowly walked over to the chest, she was trying to put off tonight as long as she could, she was getting cold feet about telling her but didn’t feel like she could keep putting it off, she’d make a mistake sooner or later.

She knelt beside the chest and began checking for traps, none of the chests she had interacted with had been trapped so far, but better safe than sorry. Not finding any, she pried the chest open and took a look inside “potion and rocks.”

“Again?!” Ria groaned, grabbing the potion “I hope these things worth something…” she picked up the rocks as well, throwing them into her box and lifting it up “Ready?” Ria asked, nodding towards the newly appeared glowing circle.

“Yeah.”

After stepping into the circle, the two found themselves outside, a few steps away from the hole.

Ria took a deep breath “Ok, back home.” she adjusted the box in her hand, checking on her sister one more time “…that still freaks me out.”

“Hm?” Mia followed her gaze “Oh.” One thing Mia had started doing to practice her magic was create a floating ice pillar with a flat top, the top part incased in a transparent ice case, and inside the case was a drop of water constantly moving in a circle along the flat top, and above it was a floating flame fueled by her magic. It was a glorified floating lamp the size of her head that used all of her elements. “Always active, good for training.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“I get that but…” Ria shivered “It’s just floating there…doesn’t that take a lot of magic?”

Mia nodded, looking over and glaring at the drop of water “the water is using more mana than 3 fire balls.” She said, annoyed at that fact “constantly.”

Ria raised an eyebrow, looking at everything Mia was currently using her magic for “…do the boxes use a lot?”

“No, almost free.” Mia puffed out her chest.

“And the fire?”

“Hmm….” Mia opened her status, keeping an eye on her mana and the flame in the lamp “hard to tell, less than the water.” She stopped the movement of the water, the blob freezing immediately “Ah.” She replaced the water, and let it spin again “Hard to tell.” She said, giving up.

Ria started to walk towards the entrance of the haunt “how much mana do you even have? You’ve been firing it all day.”

She eyed her mana “About 1 thousand left, am good. Can still fight bosses for awhile.” With the rate she was using it, and if she stopped supplying the training lamp, she could fight another 5 or so bosses, the dive down to them included. Of course, if she stopped using fire and ditched the lamp, she’d start regening mana and could go on for much longer, but that would be almost pointless.

“1 thousand out of…?” Ria asked, pressing the question.

“Hm, will answer if you tell me yours, all of it.” Mia said, trotting up to her sister.

“Fine, later.” She sighed, then straightened herself up and tried to look cool “You saw how amazing your sister was today, right? We got pretty well in sync to.”

Mia nodded “yes, worked.” Her only complaint was that it was working too well, she was lower leveled than she was but could keep up, it felt somewhat frustrating, especially since she didn’t know the reason. “All of it, later?” she asked, wanting to reaffirm that all meant all.

“Yeah yeah.” Ria brushed her off “Yours to-“ she narrowed her eyes at Mia “-right?”

“…right.” They had both shown their hands to each other, and it was obvious to them both they wouldn’t let the other hide what remained much longer.

“Good, now let’s get this stuff sold and celebrate!” Ria shouted, running forward.

“H-hey! Wait!” Mia ran after her, both heading back to the transport.

***

“42 silver and 78 copper.”

“That little?”

“That is still a lot of money, especially coming from 1-A, just what did you two do?”

The two had returned from the haunt and stood in line for about an hour, ignoring all the glares they were getting from their luggage. Then once it was finally their turn, the receptionist took 30 minutes sorting their stuff, thankfully more staff came over to appraise the items.

“Faught a lot of dungeon bosses.” Mia added, standing on one of the now empty boxes “All day.”

“what she said.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong.” The receptionist raised her hands, waving them nervously “I have seen your cards, I believe two-“

“AAAAAH!!!” Ria screamed, nearly jumping the desk as she leaned over to cover the lady’s mouth.

The receptionist glared, clearly not amused, having a dirty hand covering her face, Ria quickly withdrew her hand, bowing.

“S-sorry! We uh, haven’t gotten that far yet.” She looked up, pleading with the lady.

“…?” Mia was confused, she tilted her head to the side. She also noticed a few more eyes were on them now

“…please reframe from doing that, ever again.” The receptionist took out a clean cloth, wiping her face with it “No matter, we can see with the boss cores you two have been, busy.” Another receptionist came over and put a small tray down on the desk in front of them. The one attending them nodded, then slid the tray in front of her “42 silver, and 78 copper, for the cores and relevant quests completed.” She then slid the tray forward.

“Wait, that was just the cores and quests?” Ria asked “What about the items.”

“Mine.” Mia made a pole with her ice with a hook on one end, she slapped it down on the table and slid the tray towards her, stashing the coins in her inventory.

“…” the receptionist shook her head, choosing to ignore that “Yes, the potions will take longer, and the ores need to be tested for purity.”

“Ores?” Mia perked up, when did they pick up ores?

“Oh, the rocks.”

“Ah.” Mia wished she kept some. She didn’t know the first thing about smithing, but she wanted to see if her fire could melt them.

“Yes, depending on the purity and type you will receive higher rewards and quest completions.” She reached down, taking a small slip of paper and presenting it to them, once taken by Ria the receptionist pointed to a different desk “Please check in at that desk anytime after tomorrow afternoon for an itemized list of the potions you might want to keep, and for your additional rewards.”

Ria read the slip, then nodded “Got it, thanks.”

“My pleasure, please do not dump a bunch of useless cores on us again.” She said with a smile, her eye subtly twitching.

""...""

“R-right, come on Mia!” She reached down and grabbed Mia’s wrist, dashing away with Mia in tow.

‘My boxes!’ Mia quickly willed them to melt away into nothing as she was dragged through the air, disappearing without a trace. She thought she had to do the same with the lamp, but it was floating right beside her, keeping up with them.

“Hm, this works better than I thought.”

Watching her training lamp float beside her, ideas started forming inside her head, several magical ideas that could solve some of her worries about magic and what she wanted to do.

‘This… could work…’ she thought, she’d have to remember them tomorrow.

[But tonight, you tell your sister, right?]

…

Crap.