Some city-based adventurers hate forests almost as much as they love dungeons. Both were filled with monsters and filled with dangers. A forest didn’t have limits, or so it seemed to the city folk, there was always just one more tree for a monster to hide behind, another plant that looked for meat instead of compost. And most frightening of all, you couldn’t conquer a forest and escape while it was disabled.

#Levyna’s Perspective

Levyna did end up cooking the meal, it was a simple stew made from some of the dried rations they had brought with them. She had no idea how they dehydrated everything and then wrapped it for long term storage, but it reminded her of stuff she had to eat in her previous life. At least this stuff wasn’t meant to survive a nuclear war and still had some taste.

The preserved food they had was in blocks, that could be eaten as a portion of dried food, or tossed into some water and then turned into a stew. At least that’s what she did with it. Four of the blocks went into the cooking pot they had acquired from the elven armory. The pot also came with a tripod, and the human magic-user was glad they had those magical packs, so they could carry all of this stuff. This world was going to be short on high tech camping gear, so they had to go old school.

“What do you use for pack animals around here?” Levyna raised an open question.

The elven princess and the other human shrugged their shoulders and Mariya answered the question, “Either a slave, or some four-footed animal. I think they’re called donkeys, horses, mules, and asses. I did see a magic-user use some sort of disk a few times, but mostly it was something living pressed into service.”

Levyna nodded her head and frowned slightly. “I do not like the idea of slavery, but we may want to pick up some friendly packhorse or animal if we can find one. It might help us make some better time. Or hirer a wagon.”

She stirred the stew in the pot as she thought about it, doing her best to keep out of the smoke of the fire, blowing out her cheeks in frustration as no matter which side of the fire she tried to work from the wind would always seem to shift and start to blow in her direction. For some reason, this greatly amused the elven princess. Her lack of control over the elements that she could command was a source of great humor.

She did her best to keep the pot at the right temperature, first by raising the pot and then lowering it closer to the coals as the wood burned down. This was not something she had experienced before, but she knew that if she could keep the thickening stew from settling at the bottom of the pot it shouldn’t burn too badly.

“Lauq? I do have a question for you.” She inquired of the smirking elf.

“What would that be Levyna?”

“As an elemental user, you say I should be able to control the elements. I would be able to control the heat from the fire, and the way the air blows the smoke, right?”

“You should.”

“That’s good.” She concentrated and puffed out a breath, willing it to blow the smoke towards the princess. Without using her daggers, or her other tools it was a gentle breeze but it was enough to get the smoke out of her face.

Feeling elated at that she lost the little control she had and a gust of wind blew the smoke towards the elf. It could be said it was more than a little gust of wind as Lauq fell over backward from the log she was sitting on. The trees behind the elf swayed and Levyna was sure she heard a crack. She stopped the flow of magic as quickly as she could, and then winced as a large branch fell from a tree.

“Sor—” She started to apologize but then she heard a yelp of pain from the forest.

She quickly drew her daggers and moved towards where she heard the yelp. The others hadn’t even stood up as she was already on the attack. She scanned the dark, trying to what was around, her daggers blazing with illusionary fire, giving some light, but mostly lengthened the shadows.

She looked back and forth, and went over to the branch she had broken, it was a fairly large branch, and something was struggling underneath it. Whatever it was, it froze as the Elementalist came closer.

A soft whine, of both pain and terror, emanated from the creature. ‘[No Hurt, please….]’ She didn’t know how she understood it but the whines translated to her from the creature. She looked at it closely now that she could see it, and tried to identify it.

[Horned Shadow Wolf - Puppy]

Some puppy, it’s the size of Betty. She thought to herself and then looked down at the puppy.

“What are you doing here?” She asked in a higher-pitched voice, squatting down a little.

‘[Hungry, hurt, alone.]’

“So you came, wanting some food?” She could hear the tummy growl from the puppy. The others from the camp had arrived, weapons out.

“It’s a Shadow Wolf!” Lauq cried out, “We have to kill it!”

The puppy whined and tried to hide, but was still pinned under the branch. Levyna turned to the elven princess, her daggers flared again, “You’re scaring it! Back off!” The human Elementalist seemed to be truly angry.

“You don’t know what those beasts are! They can decimate an entire village with their packs.”

“And this one is a puppy. If it is dangerous we’ll deal with it later.”

She turned back to the puppy, though she kept her senses trained towards the other three women, making sure they didn’t get any closer. “Someone go back to the stew, and give it a stir, please.”

Her tallest companion just shrugged and turned back towards the camp to tend to the stew. She was hungry and didn’t see what the elven princess was so upset about. Irina just stayed around out of curiosity, she had already put her weapons away.

“Do you have a name, little one?” She asked,

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‘[Terror of the Forest!]’ the proud bark was definitely male.

“And where is your pack?”

‘[They gone, mom dead, pack no want,]’ Levyna couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pup, and she reached out with her hand. There was a startled gasp from the princess.

“Oh don’t worry. He’s hurt, hungry, and alone.” The human let the animal get a proper sniff of her before she rubbed it behind the ears.

“And how do you know that?”

“He’s telling me. Not very intelligently of course, but he’s smart enough to have a language. Wish I could talk to Betty like this.” She said absently.

“What are you planning on doing?”

“Nothing much.”

‘Take!’ She heard what sounded like a drumbeat under the branches and leaves.

“Could also take him with us.”

‘Yes! Please, pack! Lonely!’ It was a bunch of barks and whines.

“No, they’re dangerous, and we can’t feed him.”

Levyna looked back to the elven princess. Her eyes were blazing, and it turned into a battle of wills.

“We’ll find a way. He’s probably big enough to be weened. We’ll teach him to hunt if we have to.” For some reason, she was feeling contrary when she spoke to the princess. She didn’t want to be the leader of the party, but the princess rubbed her the wrong way.

“Fine! But he’ll be your responsibility.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She turned back to the monster, “You’re coming with me, but you’ll need a better name.”

‘Like name!’

“Yes, but I’m not going to call you Terror of the Forest, or even Terror. Now hold still.” She stood back and flicked her flaming daggers at the branch, cutting through it in three places. She then reached down and grabbed the pup by the scruff of his neck and drew him to her breast. ‘Good thing I put some points into strength, he’s gotta be at least fifty pounds.’

She held him, “There we go.” She carried the wolf pup back to the camp ignoring the princess as she went back to the fire.

- You have acquired a pet: Horned Shadow Wolf – Level 15 (Puppy)

- You have acquired the title: Bleeding Heart

#Warnik’s Perspective

It seemed so long ago that they had come up with the plan for conquering the last level of the dungeon. The plan would come down to trust. Was the trust they put into Hermosa, the ice nymph, worth it? Or would they find themselves betrayed?

The level was dedicated to the element of water, and its aspect of ice. As he thought about it, this reminded him of the description of the eighth circle of hell from the tabletop games he used to play. A place that was so cold that you needed magical resistance just to survive.

He felt the cold more and more as he walked down the stairs to the level. “Cold as a witch’s teat,” as his father in law used to say. “But is it as cold as Saskatchewan in the winter?” He made it down the stairs and donned his crampons.

He felt the cold start to settle into his skin, thinking that the first stages of frostbite wouldn’t be too far away, but he was a Mountain Man here, not a human. While cold, the environment didn’t feel frozen.

He pulled a the hastily drawn map from his pouch and had a look at it. His eyes focused on the words, the English glyphs familiar, drawn by his own hand so that he would know what it said. He blinked a few times, ‘Firan Iene Gcesttor’ was not what he had written. He blinked again and tried to hold the paper up to the light. ‘Gece Fiat Icrstator,’ this made no sense to him, he wrote the words, he knew what they said, but he couldn’t figure out the words. Every time he took his eyes from the page, the letters changed.

He knew the path to the first generator, he put the map away in the pouch and started to move in that direction. He tried to go quietly, but a several hundred-pound warrior wearing spiked footwear doesn’t move silently.

The plan was for him to disable the generators, and then get his companion. The area was so cold that the monsters would have to be very close to elementals, and should rely on their magical senses to find prey. Any adventurer who was down the low would be glowing to their mana senses, and draw them like a moth to a flame.

One thing they over-looked was that was exactly what it was. Warnik’s body temperature was that flame.

As Warnik walked along the path, an ice wolf came to investigate the sound. The wolf’s body looked to be made of half fur, and half ice. Its breath steamed from the tooth-filled maw. The drool rolling off the teeth and freezing before it hit the floor.

Going with the plan, Warnik stopped moving and watched the wolf as it tilted its head and looked down the corridor. With slow steps it moved forward, stalking towards the forsaker. Five feet away it stopped and looked straight at him, growled then leap.

Warnik wasn’t ready for the charge and took it full in the chest as the wolf went for his body. If he was human the teeth of the wolf would have found his throat, instead, the jaws found the armored strapping that covered his chest.

He dropped his poleax, it being useless at this range, and grabbed the neck of the wolf. Both bodies started to tumble, and it turned into a contest of strength. The barbarian released control of his emotions and started to fight as a man possessed. He didn’t care with grace or tact, he fought with all his strength.

He felt his body heat up from the action, chasing away the cold that had invaded his muscles. His blows became stronger, and faster. It felt like he could go on forever, for the first time since coming to this world he could fight all out and not worry about the heat. The cold helped him more than hurt him.

As he fought, he seemed to lose track of time. It was only later when the fight was over that he wiped the blood from his mouth, and looked down at the remains of the ice wolf. He had torn off its limbs, and the throat had been ripped away. The meat that wasn’t ice was shredded, and the ice was cracked and broken.

He felt his last meal want to escape from his stomach as he looked at the carnage that he had caused. Unlike the other monsters that he had fought, this was not a clean kill. He turned his head away and grabbed his poleax. He needed to use the weapon for support as his body was wracked with dry heaves.

“I need to get going.” He commented, “I need to get those generators. And I can’t trust that the monsters will remain ignorant.”

The first generator was guarded by another ice wolf, just as large as the one he fought in the corridor. He didn’t wait for this one to sense him, he just charged forward and trusted that his crampons would keep him steady.

That wolf died before it knew he was there, the poleax biting deeply into it as the warrior charged into the room. The recently sharpened axhead sliding through the torso and finding vital organs, and shattering the armor if ice it had.

“Now for the generator.” He went towards where the generator was. A pillar of ice surrounded a glowing diamond that was at least two feet across.

“This is going to take some time.” He focused on the durability of his ax, concentrating on it, and hoped his forsaker abilities would protect it. He set to chopping into the ice until he could see the generator. His hand reached out, and bare fingers froze as he touched it.

The shattering of the crystal was a surprise to him, “Gah!” He sucked on his bleeding fingers and jumped as he tried to get rid of the pain. “I hope they’re not all like that. But one down, seven to go.”

The map helped him greatly, he didn’t have to search for the generators and Hermosa, could sense the layout of the entire level when they made their plans. He avoided as many monsters as he could. Keeping himself back as much as he could when he encountered a wandering monster, hoping that his body heat wouldn’t draw them to him.

There were some fights he couldn’t avoid, and those he charged in recklessly to end them quickly. To him, it seemed like hours before the eighth generator fell, and he started to head back to the entrance of the level. About halfway there, he took off his crampons, as the rock of the tunnel was already uncovered and the ice had disappeared.

⸘⸘⸘ For clearing an end level except for the boss room you have been granted the title – Lone Scout. Exception Caught: Title queue ⸘⸘⸘

⸘⸘⸘ For clearing a level, by conquering its unique mechanics you have gained 5 levels. Exception Caught: Level queued. ⸘⸘⸘