Outside Quartz City's walls
“Finally it's over!”
Martyn ughed to the skies, taking deep breaths of the cold air to cool his strained body. He y back on the snow with Jade making snow angels beside him.
After their quick break, they returned and lifted the third anchor to the isnd, a daunting task that took just as long as the first one, pushing them into the evening. Now they rested in the snow fields; the knights returned to the city, continuing their duties.
“Yes, it is. You did great, dear,” Amber kneeled, pecking Martyn.
“Thank you.”
“Nice work,” Donald said, keeping his eyes on the isnd. “I think Kallie should be finished with her anchor now.”
“I can’t believe more flying serpents came at us,” Jade said, sitting next to Martyn.
Quickly all four faced a swirling vortex of mana; out of it appeared Kallie in a bck mage's robe with her staff in hand.
“Finally, the isnds are descending. They’ll be down at an acceptable level by tomorrow.”
“The same time as the beast tide,” Amber said.
“Yep, and since you won't be taking part. I’ll send you a message when you can hop on the isnd; until then, we’ll see you ter.” Donald said, stepping into the magic circle with Callie.
The trio bid them farewell before they teleported away.
Martyn sat up, shaking the snow out of his hair. ‘What should we do?’
He looked around; Jade was back to making snow angels, and Amber was standing idly. Locking gazes with her. She tilted her head with a small smile.
‘Cute,’ Martyn smiled back.
“Anyone up for a snowball fight, or do you want something else?”
“I don’t mind so long as we do something; I’m up for it,” Jade said.
Martyn nodded and faced Amber, the girl in question, who fidgeted in pce.
“Amber?” Martyn squinted at his partner.
“Hmm?” Jade sat up, seeing Amber fidget and act weird.
“Oh, it's nothing. We can have a snowball fight.”
“Amber?” Martyn stood up, walking towards her.
“Ah, it's nothing,” Amber said, stepping back.
“I don’t believe that, Jade.”
“Yep, she’s lying.” Jade gave a knowing nod. “Pry it out of her.”
“Gdly, Amber, what’s so embarrassing that you won’t tell us?” Martyn said, walking up to her.
Amber stepped back, blushing, finding herself pinned against a tree.
‘Ah, I can’t leave,’ Amber gulped, seeing her path blocked by Martyn’s arms pressing against the tree.
“Amber?”
“It’s nothing embarrassing,” Amber mumbled.
“I guess we’re doing this the fun way.” Martyn smirked, ‘Engaging tickle mode.’
“Ah! Wait, don’t you dare. I just... I want..." She mumbled the rest.
“Speak up.”
Amber’s face reddened. “I want us to make a snow castle; I read up on all the fun we could have.”
Martyn raised a brow. “Was that it?”
“Really?” Jade said from the back, disappointed.
“Yeah, why?” Amber asked.
“You’re such a worrywart; thank god you’re hot,” Martyn said before hugging Amber tightly with a grin.
“Huh?” Amber's smile faded as he lifted her. “Wait!”
It was too te. Martyn fell back into the snow with her; he rolled with her, ignoring her pyful protest while Jade ughed from her spot, quickly gathering snow in her palm.
“You jerk,” Amber shivered, shaking and brushing the snow off her with her tail.
Martyn chuckled, still holding onto her; he was about to stand when a shadow covered him. His pupils widened, and Amber got out of the way as Jade, with a grin, dropped the pile of snow on his face.
“Karma,” Jade said with pride.
Giggling, Amber stood up. The two girls shared a nod as Martyn sat up, shivering, shaking the snow off him, his panther ears fpping to get the snow out.
“Alright then, snow fight first, castle ter. It’s on.”
The remainder of the day was spent having fun, for the girls at least; they had settled on rules in their snow war, as Jade ter called it: no magic of any kind because that would make Martyn untouchable and Jade a hazard melting all the snow.
Which was fine for Martyn, as he was still more agile and had experience in snowball fights.
“Not to brag, guys, but back at the orphanage I was the snowball turret,” he said proudly, forming a snowball with his tail in quick succession.
Jade looked at Amber’s tail; the kobold girl shyly tucked her tail in.
“I can’t do that,” Amber said.
“Well, damn it.” Jade muttered, “Then one more rule.”
“Make as many as you’d like; I’m still going to win.”
His cocky attitude dug his grave; it was boys vs. girls. The moment the snow war began, it was over. Even with his athletic abilities, Martyn was weak to them, especially when Jade sacrificed herself, hugging Martyn tightly and letting Amber bombard them with snowballs.
One he accepted with some reluctance, “I just went easy on you guys since it's your first time.”
“Sure thing.”
“Whatever you say, dear.”
The two wore grins on their faces.
Making a snow castle was a much simpler event for them, doing it without magic, taking their time to enjoy the winter together making a human-sized castle.
“I’m curious about something, Amber. Since you lived in the dungeon, do you go through hibernation if you’ve never been exposed to the elements?”
“No, we don’t,” Amber said, focusing on condensing the snow.
Martyn chuckled at the quick response, letting her focus before turning to Jade, “And you?”
“Yeah, we do, and it requires us to eat a lot beforehand, but it's optional for me, as a hobgoblin needs to make sure no threats wander into the cave.”
‘Alright then,’ Martyn nodded in understanding.
They spent the rest of the day building snow castles before calling it a day. As they readied to leave, Amber gnced up at the floating isnd.
“Something wrong?” Martyn asked, drawing his spell circle in the snow.
“Not, well, I’m not sure. Let's talk about it after we get back.” Amber said.
The circle lit up, and in an instant, they were brought back to their room in the inn.
Muddy Boots Inn
“So something feels off about the isnd?” Martyn mumbled, rexing in his chair.
“Yes, but I think it's nothing,” Amber said, sitting on the bed, her fingers dancing through Jade’s hair, braiding it as the goblin girl rexed, shutting her eyes.
“No, it isn’t. If something’s warning you, then it’s serious… I wonder.”
“It’s not a warning; it’s more of a cautious feeling like I need to be wary,” Amber said.
Martyn nodded, pulling up the status.
“It’s just a theory, but I think I know why you’re getting this feeling,” Martyn said, summoning her status.
Highlighting what he believed was the cause of her feelings.
[Titles: Leviathan Descent, Bonded, (D) Adventurer, Water Mage]
“You think my bloodline’s reacting to it?” Amber asked.
“I think it's reacting to the mana.”
Jade chuckled, gncing at the status screen. “It's like a generational hatred.”
Martyn snorted with a growing ugh, “I wonder if you’ll react the same near the corpse of a titan. Regardless, though it's a possible theory, it just means we'll have to be careful when on the isnd.”
With that discussion out of the way, the trio in their sleepwear went to bed early. Tomorrow and the following days would be hectic as the monster wave was incoming.
Curled up in bed with his two partners radiating warmth, Martyn pulled them in, giving them a goodnight kiss. They had conversed and agreed to their pns for tomorrow. They were close to levelling up, which was an issue if they killed any monster or beast when guarding the city.
For that, they agreed to only weaken the monsters and have others finish them off.
“I don't like that they’re only 10 levels; it feels like we could have more,” Jade mumbled, cosying into Martyn.
“Maybe it was intentional,” Amber muttered.
“Regardless, since we can’t take part in the monster wave, how about we clear the 9th floor tomorrow? And just focus on getting our attributes as close to thirty as possible and finally have some of that dragon meat.”
Both girls nodded off, falling asleep.
“There’s only one kind of meat I want,” Jade muttered, giggling.
Martyn rolled his eyes, rexing into the bed. ‘Soon we’ll be on that isnd.’
Subterranean dungeon, 9th floor
The following days went by smoothly. The wave of monsters and beasts was handled by the combined forces of the guilds and knights; no monster broke through the city's barriers as they were primarily attracted towards the isnd.
It sted three days and granted a wealth of monster resources to the city that was still undergoing processing.
At that time, Martyn, Jade, and Amber had kept on with their training. The intensity increases greatly with Martyn’s newfound understanding of gravity magic.
In those three days, they gained explosive growth in attributes, with Martyn and Amber's natural healing factor doing favours.
This brought them to today, making the second week of the tenth month within the dungeon’s ninth floor the st hurdle before they’d earn the right to become C-rank adventurers and gain eligibility to purchase their own home or piece of nd.
“Martyn!” Jade called out, stretching her bow.
Martyn ducked as an arrow flew by, stabbing into a stone bat. The beast shrieked but kept itself afloat before Amber blitzed behind it, stabbing it with her spear.
Martyn pulled out his bde from the greater stone lizard.
“How’s everyone’s experience looking?” Martyn asked.
“Looking good so far,” Amber answered, and Jade nodded.
Nodding, Martyn summoned everyone’s status to check on their growths. They were close to reaching the limit on what training could provide.
Out of everyone, Jade had gained the biggest growth in the short three days.
“There is no reason for us to reach thirty points exactly before eating the dragon meat just as close as we can get before eating. The bonus is three points, which would have us break through the limit, and that’s before levelling up.”
[Martyn, Level 2 (2,201/2,700), Css: Monster Tamer, Points: 0, Titles: (D) Adventurer, Bookworm…(3)]
? [Mana: 744/744] [Strength: 28] [Agility: 28] [Vitality: 29] [Arcana: 31] [Psyche: 30]
[Amber, Level 2 (2,154/2,700), Css: Knight, Points: 0, Titles: Leviathan Descent, Bonded, (D) Adventurer... (1)]
? [Mana: 744/744] [Strength: 29] [Agility: 27] [Vitality: 26] [Arcana: 31] [Psyche: 28]
[Jade, Level 2 (2,058/2,700), Css: Bcksmith, Points: 0, Title: Artisan, Bonded, (D) Adventurer...(1)]
? [Mana: 825/825] [Strength: 28] [Agility: 27] [Vitality: 27] [Arcana: 33] [Psyche: 27]
Martyn hummed in thought.
“Do you want to put it to a vote?” Amber asked.
“I think we’re as good as is,” Jade said, nodding with Amber.
Martyn took a moment to think and agreed; it was challenging enough for them to reach this point. Training would require more intensity than they wanted to go through.
Martyn wanted to bring the girls to his city and before that wanted to become C-ranked so he could stand proudly in the orphanage. Not that the gold sent to them on his behalf was more than enough reason.
But more it was the pleading eyes from Jade that got to him.
“I’m a bcksmith, not a warrior; please stop making me train like a madman,” Jade muttered, trying her hardest to look cute.
And it worked.
“Hold on, I take offence to that.”
Or not.
“You had her do push-ups with a stone on her back while under your gravity magic,” Amber said, avoiding eye contact.
“Fine, I get it. After we clear the boss room and enter the tenth floor, let’s head home and eat some dragon meat. I’ve been wanting to cook something new for a while.” Martyn said.
“Finally!” Jade cheered, jumping on Martyn and hugging him tightly, “It's over!”
“Was I that bad during training?” Martyn asked Amber, who nervously chuckled.
The ck of support hurt his pride; “betrayal,” Martyn faked hurt hugging Jade back.
Afterwards, they ventured further into the luminous caverns, soon arriving at the boss chamber.
The trio stood in front of the giant doors, taking deep breaths of the saturated air. Martyn pced his palm on the door, pushing some of his mana through the carvings, which lit up the door, creaking open.
They marched in, bow, spear, shield, and scimitar drawn.
The door shut behind them, the rge cavern hummed with luminous light, and in the centre, there was no monster.
“What the hell?” Jade muttered.
“Stay alert; move forward slowly,” Martyn ordered.
Water dripped from the stagmites above. Martyn’s spatial awareness expanded, and he could feel everything moving. Coupling it with his mana sense and appraisal, the influx of information was a lot, but the panther-kin managed well.
It was then something probed the bottom of his spatial awareness bubble.
“It’s a worm! Brace yourselves!” Martyn’s mana lunged at the girls, instantly blinking away from their spot as the earth exploded; a massive, stone-skinned worm decimated the earth.
Reappearing across the cavern, they inspected the monster, Martyn calling out its status, revealing what he could.
[Stone Worm, Level 3, Css: Warrior, Title: Floor Boss, Earth Dragon Descent]
? [Mana: 560/560] [Strength: 30] [Agility: 25] [Vitality: 28] [Arcana: 21] [Psyche: 12]
The boss roared, its height twice that of Martyn, and its body stretching more than ten meters from its exposed half, its stony, scaled skin rotated back and forth as its body swayed, looking at its fresh prey.
“We have more mana than it individually,” Jade mumbled.
“It’s just as if not stronger with a frame like that, not to mention its defence,” Amber added, readying her spear.
“But we can kill it.” Martyn finished sharing the same glint in his eyes.
It roared, and they charged. Amber jumped back, unleashing an array of exploding arrows and fming bullets at the stoneworm.
Martyn fshed, appearing right in front of the boss as the fming projectiles shone behind him, his scimitar glowing in a blue fme. He sshed at the boss’s stone body before blinking away as it was lit up with Amber’s attacks.
It roared, and with a wave of mana, the fmes vanished.
‘Seriously, I didn’t even cut through its skin.’ Martyn frowned, skidding back.
Amber dashed past him, picking up pace, her body covered in an aura of water, the tip of her spear slicing through the dirt floor; she reached the base of the boss before swinging her spear.
Purple blood spilt, and with a shaking cry, it lunged at Amber, who jumped to the side, avoiding it.
The boss burrowed through the earth, and earth spikes rooted up towards Amber, who had to jump back and use her shield, bearing the force of the earth spikes smming into her shield, sshing them with her mana-coated spear, only to be forced into defence again with more coming at her.
Martyn avoided them easily with his levitation spell, looking to see the boss's movement patterns.
“Fuck!” Jade cursed as she sent her bow away to the inventory; her palms lit up in fmes, and, coating her body in mana, she leapt up, bsting fmes out of her hands for extended jumps, avoiding the earth spikes.
‘I’ve got you.’ Martyn, opening a palm, concentrated his mana into a swirling mana arrow; he shot the spell, and it sunk into the ground.
With a mixture of his spatial awareness and magic, he guided the bst towards the boss. The explosion shook the floor, revealing the boss smouldering, rising from the rubble.
As the earth spikes stopped rising and Amber stopped jumping about, a fsh of mana appeared next to the boss; Amber, with gritted teeth, sshed at the boss's neck.
Purple blood gushed, pain filled the air, and following her rough nding, fming arrows smmed into the boss's back, inciting more pain, with Martyn appearing right next to it, unleashing a barrage of magic bsts.
Mana surged from the boss's body, its stone scales brimming with blue light.
"?!?" Quickly, Martyn fshed next to Amber, pulling her with him, appearing to Jade, and without a word, they formed a barrier.
The boss's body shone in blinding blue light, and with a skin-crawling roar, an explosion overtook everything in the cavern.
With all their mana, they protected themselves from the explosion; pouring in more mana, the bst hit them.
As the smoke cleared and dust settled, they looked to the boss's location, finding nothing but ashes.
“No fucking way. It chose to self-destruct?” Jade said aghast, “Are we that strong we forced a boss to rage quit?”
“I wouldn’t say so; it was more like it was a poor matchup and didn’t see its victory.” Amber said with deep breaths, “Those earth spears were not a match for me.”
Amber winced, clutching her shoulders and stretching.
“Everyone gained experience, right?”
“Yep, forty experience points,” Jade answered.
“Well, guys, we did it; we cleared the 9th floor. A bit anticlimactic, but not every day is an adventure. So let's get to the next one, get that C rank badge, get some dragon meat, and hm?” Martyn paused.
He felt the tug in his inventory; he pulled out his scroll and read the message from Donald.
“Well damn, perfect timing.“ Martyn chuckled.
“What is it?” Amber asked. Martyn only smiled at her before rereading the message.
LesserCodex
[Martyn, Level 2 (2,520/2,700), Css: Monster Tamer, Points: 0, Titles: (D) Adventurer, Bookworm…(3)]
? [Mana: 744/744] [Strength: 28] [Agility: 28] [Vitality: 29] [Arcana: 31] [Psyche: 30]
? [Skills: Mana Veins (4) Agility (6) Muscurity (4) Swordsmanship (4) Basic Magic (5) Strong Mind (6) Soulbond (3) Monsterous Talent (3) Biology (3) Appraisal (3) Cooking (4) Fast Healing (2) Spatial Awareness (4) Inventory (4) Extrasensory (2) Space magic (3) Iron gut (1)]
[Amber, Level 2 (2,504/2,700), Css: Knight, Points: 0, Titles: Leviathan Descent, Bonded, (D) Adventurer... (1)]
? [Mana: 744/744] [Strength: 29] [Agility: 27] [Vitality: 26] [Arcana: 31] [Psyche: 28]
? [Skills: Mana Veins (4) Tough Scales (5) Fast Healing (4) Spear and Shield Mastery (4) Focused Mind (3) Water Magic (4) Linguistic (4) Physicality (3) Extrasensory (4)]
[Jade, Level 2 (2,528/2,700), Css: Bcksmith, Points: 0, Title: Artisan, Bonded, (D) Adventurer...(1)]
? [Mana: 825/825] [Strength: 27] [Agility: 26] [Vitality: 26] [Arcana: 33] [Psyche: 27]
? [Skills: Mana Veins (5) Tough Body (4) Iron Gut (5) Tinkering (3) Archery (2) Enchantment (2) Fire Magic (3)]
[colpse]
