Adventuring is more than just fighting monsters, saving damsels in distress, and collecting rewards. The journey is important as well, cities and towns are often far apart and take more than one day to reach. Inns are expensive, so many adventurers learn to make camp and do their own cooking. When new companions are cooked, experienced parties often rate the cooking skill more than the fighting skills.

#Levyna’s Perspective

The sun was setting, moving the day towards a twilight, they had barely moved around seven or eight miles from the city when they started to lose light. The road had lead northeast towards a forested area. The ill-repaired road became even worse when they got beneath the canopy of trees. The gloominess of the trees and long shadows cast from the setting sun decided for them.

“Time to camp I think.” The elven princess suggested, “The road is disappearing in the night and I don’t think we will be able to follow it. I don’t think we want to be caught by anything that might be in the trees either.”

“You’re right.” Levyna responded to the elf princess, “We brought a tent I hope.” She had forgotten to pack one in her supplies.

“I did,” Irina responded to the inquiry, “Two, in fact, you never know when you’ll need a second one.” She set down her pack and started to fish through the magically compacted contents and then pulled out the heavy canvas cloth that made up the tent.

“Though I’m not sure how to put one up,” Irina said almost helplessly.

“Let me have a look, I went camping when I was younger. You brought the poles I hope?” Levyna offered, Mariya also wandered over.

“No, I didn’t, it didn’t look like there were poles in the supply area.”

Levyna looked through the supplies again and found some rope and some stakes. “Ok, I think I know what we can do. Spread the tent out between some of the trees, get it nice and flat. The four women pulled the tent out on the ground. “Mariya I think you’re probably the strongest here. Can you hammer some of the stakes into the ground by the four corners of the tent, about a foot away?”

The oversized elf started to do as instructed as Levyna found some lighter ropes in the supplies, a halfway between string and the heavier rope. She tied one end of part of the rope to the grommets at the corner of the tent, and the other around the matching stake. She tied the rope with some slack in it.

“Ok, girls. Now that we have it mostly centered, we start at the opposite sides and tighten the rope down as much as we can. Mariya, I think it’s you again.”

It took them a few moments but they were able to get the bottom of the tent into a rough sort of place. “What now, Levyna?” Irina asked as she watched with interest, learning as the task went along, she would be able to pitch the tent in the future if she had anything to say about it.

“Now we have to get the top up since we don’t have any poles. Tie some rope to the grommets at the corners of the top and tie it around a tree fairly high up. I think.” She looks at Mariya again, “I’m sorry, but can I stand on your shoulders, or can you give me a lift up so that I can tie the rope up higher?”

“Of course.” The elf said and moved to behind the human and lifted her up easily onto her shoulders, holding onto her thighs to keep her balanced. Levyna tied the first rope in place on one of the trees they selected and then moved to the other.

“That should do it. That should at least keep us until morning when we’ll have to take it down, shake off any dew and then pack it up again. We may want to bundle it up in the morning and carry it between us, to let it dry before we pack it away again.”

“Why’s that, Levyna?”

“We don’t want it to rot if it gets wet.”

“Can’t you dry it with your fire magic?” Lauq asked.

“Oh.” The Elementalist hit her head with her palm.

“I’m not sure I have that much control over the magic, I just kind of go all out. Never really thinking of control.”

“What? You’ve never tried to control it?”

“No, I was summoned here by the world yesterday. I haven’t had any experience with it. Where I come from, there was nothing like this magic.” Levyna commented as she found a large trunk to bring over towards the space in front of the tent. Large enough for all four to sit on it.

“Where do you get the variety of spells from if you can’t control it?”

“They’re from the weapons I wield. Each weapon allows me to cast different spells. The daggers are good for hit and run tactics. Get in, hit hard, and get out. The staff I use is for ranged combat, slower casting, but heavier hitting skills.”

“What about your sword, Levyna?” Mariya asked as she moved her stuff into the tent. She was taking a few moments to stretch. The Elementalist felt her eyes drawn to the tall elf, the style enchantment on the armor pushed a few of the human’s buttons.

“Sword? Oh, Dyrnwyn. I hardly ever use him. It looked like it would be a good set of skills to set up, but they were really lacking. The sword was supposed to be a good melee weapon, but the casting time is too high and leaves you too vulnerable. The skills hit hard, but they’re one-hit wonders. If you don’t take down your opponent with the skill then you’re left open to a counter before you can retreat. The daggers don’t hit as hard, but you can get away faster and not take a counter-attack.”

“So you need better durability so you can take a hit.” Lauq said quickly, “You can’t put all of your attributes into attack, you’ll be too vulnerable.”

“Yeah, I know. But the class is a glass cannon by design, I think. And taking lots of durability will rob it of its purpose.”

“Maybe. But you should still be able to control.” Lauq said, “You’re different from other elemental users I’ve known. Novice of Elements is just a starting class, and people usually focus only on one element. You seem comfortable with four of them.”

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“Are there more elements than just Fire, Air, Earth, and Water? You could say I specialize in all of them.” She watched the other girls. Irina was finding some firewood, and cutting up some kindling. Mariya had finished her stretching and retrieved a shovel to dig a firepit with. She was careful to make sure it was deep enough.

“Fire, Air, Earth, and Water are the main ones. It depends on the school of thought. Another school has Wood, Metal, Earth, Fire, and Water.” The princess removed her cloak and placed it inside the tent. She looked for some other clothes to wear. Her robes were not the best for resting around a campfire.

“I’ve heard of something similar, but that didn’t make much sense to me. Nothing to represent air, and you could take Wood, Metal, and Earth to be almost the same thing, right? An aspect of Earth.”

“Yes. There are other elements that are a mixture of different ones. Steam, mud, and storm are all hybrids of water and another element. Many elemental users will become proficient with a two elements and then specialize into a single hybrid. Becoming a storm wizard, a lava mage, or a lightning witch.”

“Can not other elemental users use lightning if they know air?” The human looked a bit confused, still watching Mariya as she dug out the fire pit.

“No, they can’t. They have to be proficient in Earth and Air first and then specialize in Lightning. And you seem to have many different spells that are a combination of different elements. That meteor storm you like seems to be a combination of Earth and Fire. And that’s the Lava specialist’s domain. I’ve never seen anything as powerful from one of them though.”

“Can any of you cook?” Levyna asked after a moment. She sighed a little as they all shook their heads, “Ok fine. What about firestarters, do we have any of those? I’m not sure I want to use my fire yet without practice.”

She settled in for what was going to be a long night before a meal. She knew the basics of cooking, but she was not going to do the cleaning. Who was she kidding, she’d probably end up doing that as well, since she would most likely be the source of water.

#Demitri’s Perspective

His head hurt, he should have known not to try the local firewater. It felt like there was a lightning storm going off in his head. At least the walk towards the boss room was helping to settle his balance. The meal was good, and it seemed like the storm folk had put a lot of effort into it. Considering the two adventurers were the first visitors they had had for years they might have been starved for outside contact.

Having an escort of eight giants, or close to giants, was a big difference than just the two of them taking the trip. Monsters came and were quickly cut down by the warriors. He didn’t even need to cast a spell, which was good since he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to with the headache he was suffering from.

Their plan to fight the air elemental was the same as the fight with the fire elemental. Find it, find a way to pin it in place, and get Warnik to disrupt its magic, or whatever the dungeon was using to control it. Once it was defeated they would work on the next level.

The chamber was like they expected, empty, with an open door leading to the next level. He rubbed the sides of his head and then concentrated.

“” He looked around the cubic room as the two left the storm folk behind and walked towards the exit to the next level.

The door quickly closed as they got within ten feet of it. So far everything has gone as they hoped, but he couldn’t see the elemental yet. And then he spotted it coming towards them.

“!” He called out quickly, making a shield that was larger than intended. The glowing bit of air ran into the shield. He heard an audible thump as the glowing form of air ran straight into the shield. If it had bones, they would have been shattered.

“It’s fast Warnik!”

“We expected it to be. See what we can do to pin it?”

“It’s circling to the left!” Dimitri yelled and pointed. “At ten o’clock.” Warnik took a quick horizontal swing with the poleax, slicing through the glow that Dimitri’s spell showed him.

The elemental pulled back again, looking a little less glowy. The poleax did some damage to the magic that the creature was using to hold itself together. He prepared to cast another spell, one of the spells he got from the spellbook they looted liberated from the first level.

“Sparks of Fire // Motes in the wind // Shine in the light // Show the foe // ” He swept his hand in front of him as the elemental moved into attack. Little motes of light spread out from his hand and were sucked up by the creature, outlining its shape.

He could almost hear Warnik’s grin as the air elemental was revealed to him, and the barbarian was able to attack it directly. His companion was able to hold off the air elemental now that it was lacking one of its biggest advantages. His mana pool was barely drained by the two spells he had cast. He was ready for the next spell.

Both of them moved away from the door towards one of the corners of the room, they stayed about ten feet away from it, far enough away that the monster could attack them from behind. Their plan was based on it.

He stayed behind Warnik, with his back to the corner. And started to recite the spell. “Air come to me // Gather towards my hands // Towards my foe // Like a breath…” He held the spell in his mind, ready to cast and his mana ticking down.

The air elemental charged towards them making a frontal assault. Warnik took a wild swing at the monster, forcing it to dodge high and go over them. The swing was wild and left the warrior open to attack. The elemental moved to attack through the opening.

The opening was a feint, and Dimitri turned quickly and pointed his finger at the air elemental and called out, “” A gust of air erupted from the tip of his finger and pushed the elemental back towards the corner, and held it there.

The spell wouldn’t last long, but it lasted long enough for Warnik to drop his poleax, turn around and charge at the air elemental. The forsaker wrapped his arms around the trapped elemental, disrupting both the burst of wind and then the monster itself.

- You have defeated a level 60 air elemental boss. For defeating a boss more than 45 levels higher than yourself you have gained bonus experience. For acting in a party your rewards have been reduced

- You have gained seven levels in Warlock

- Status enhancements are locked until you exit the dungeon

He looked at the messages and then frowned as he saw the last one. They only had one more level to beat, but he wouldn’t be able to change his level or select new skills until they left. He should have used up all of his attributes before now.

“What’s wrong?” Warnik saw his frown. “The door is open, we got a chest and only one more level to go.”

“My status is locked until we exit the dungeon. I can’t level up, or assign any attributes.”

“Oh, that could be bad.”

“Yeah. But I get xp based on the lower level. So it’s all good my man.” The warlock looked around and gave a wave to the watching storm folk. “Can you guys enter here now that the boss is gone?”

The first one tried to enter but he was repelled by some force. Something like another wind gust. “[No it seems like we are still stuck on this level.]”

“There should only be one more level, and then we’ll conquer the dungeon. That might help. But before we go we should see what’s in the chest.”

The two went over to the chest and didn’t bother searching for a mimic. None of the boss chests so far were mimics, so they were confident as they opened the box to have a look inside.

He scanned through everything, “[Boots of the Zephiri], [Feathered Cloak], [Lightning Crossbow]… Too bad it’s magical. Oh, that’s nice, [Helmet of Breathing], if this room did turn into a vacuum that would have been helpful.” He used the identify skill on all of the items before they were put away. They decided that since the crossbow was on the lighter side and magical that Warnik wouldn’t use it. The rest of the chest had some miscellaneous coins and gems.

“Ready for the next step?” Dimitri asked his companion.

“This plan worked, let’s hope the next one does as well. Give me about an hour.” Warnik picked up his poleax and went through the door to the next level. Dimitri could feel the cold coming through the open doorway now that the air elemental was gone.