by Brent Tyman
We were all more than a little surprised to see that none of the spikes broke off when the stone hit the ground.
“Sturdy little things,” Clarissa mused with a smirk.
“Do you intend to throw objects through the cloud to increase their potency against your enemies?” Aurielle asked. A small lock of crimson hair drifted in front of her eyes before she tucked it back behind her ear.
“Probably not. I doubt some pebbles, even if they come out the other side covered in these tiny spikes, would do much damage,” I said.
“I am surprised it is still here,” Juliana mused, indicating the translucent icy cloud. “Most magic dissipates rather quickly if the mage doesn’t intentionally keep feeding it more magic.”
“Maybe Alex’s slim yet sturdy form has persuaded the Icy Cloud to stay?” Clarissa offered with a giggle.
“I doubt an inanimate spell could possibly be compelled to this degree,” Aurielle said, which caused a sly grin to appear on Clarissa’s lips.
“You would be surprised with how enticing our handsome Alex can be.”
As the blonde snickered, a small yet noticeable blush crept up Aurielle’s cheeks, but she said nothing more.
Interesting…
In any case, I needed to figure out a way to turn this Icy Cloud spell into something I could use to improve my magic stats. With how much easier it was to cast this spell over Blast Currents, incorporating this spell into my grinding might be just what I needed to kickstart my magical stats’ growth.
I needed to be as efficient as possible with the tournament right around the corner, after all.
The women talked about potential ways to use this spell on monsters, with the most popular method being my getting up close and casting it right on top of the monster. I suppose that would probably do the job, especially if it encased the monster in ice spikes that pierced it, but when I had envisioned myself using magic, I’d envisioned using it for more ranged attacks.
Heck, if I was going to get that close to the monster, then I might as well use my sword and take advantage of my crazy high Strength stat.
Another idea came to mind, but I wasn’t entirely sure if it would work.
“Let me try something,” I said, letting out a deep breath. Juliana and Clarissa could tell I was going to try something reckless again, and they hovered close by my side. Even Aurielle stepped closer to me, a concerned look on her face.
Raising my ice covered arm, I willed forth as much power as I could and aimed it towards the closest Rat I could see. It was snarling at one of its buddies and generally not paying attention to what was going on since no one was in its aggro range.
The air warped in front of me, bolts of air zipping forward with a powerful force that sliced through the Icy Cloud and kept on going.
Taking the cloud with it.
Since I could manipulate how the Blast Currents would form, this time I didn’t envision them as a singular gust of wind, but as multiple strands of air, instead. I wasn’t entirely sure what I expected to happen, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to shift the Icy Cloud according to what little I did know about the spell.
I wanted to experiment and see if using smaller strands of air with the Blast Currents spell might increase its range. The second thing I was looking to test, was to see if I could send my wind magic through the Icy Cloud, as it would be important to understand how the two spells reacted before I ended up using the Icy Cloud spell defensively.
What happened next was completely unexpected.
The tiny crystals in the Icy Cloud formed around the strands of wind I had generated. This created long icy spikes that shot through the air and kept going long after the wind current reached its paltry maximum range and cut off.
From the multiple strands of air, I had created seven ice spikes that zipped towards the pack of Rats. This time, they acknowledged the attack, but with how fast the spikes were going, none of the rats could react in time.
The by now familiar feelings of dizziness and nausea returned with a vengeance. This time, it was even worse than at first. It felt like my chest was being squeezed from the inside and wasn’t pleasant at all. Thankfully, Juliana and Clarissa quickly steadied me with their arms as I tried to focus on the magic.
Two of the spikes struck the Rat I had targeted, ending it in an instant. I had thought the other spikes would miss and simply strike the ground, but something very strange happened. Three of the spikes veered off to the side, seemingly curving in midair. I had no clue how to explain what happened, but I watched as a second Rat ended up with several spikes piercing its body.
One spike ended up striking the ground where it shattered into several pieces, but the final spike veered to the left and stabbed into the last Rat standing, slicing right through its head.
Just like that, the Rats in this pack had perished, and they hadn’t had a chance to react to what was coming.
Jeez…
“How did you do that?” Clarissa almost screeched. “I didn’t know you could develop your magic this quickly, handsome. To be able to curve your magic in midair is… well, it’s incredible.”
“In… indeed,” Aurielle said, a touch of awe in her voice. “It is quite impressive.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said, holding my hands palm up and panting a bit, since I still felt shaky from the lack of Magical Capacity. “I was just testing to see what would happen if I used several smaller Blast Currents, instead of one big one, and to see how the two spells would react if I sent them through the Icy Cloud.”
“Even I did not foresee something like this happening,” Juliana said as she stared wide-eyed at the fallen Rats. “To be able to inflict such damage with a one in both magical stats…”
It seemed all of the women were impressed, with Anny simply gaping at me while slowly blinking her big, dark eyes.
“How did you curve the magic, Alex?” she finally managed, lightly hopping in place.
“Well…” I said as I thought about it. “The sticker on the Icy Cloud spell book did say it would seek to latch onto anything that came into its range. Maybe it had something to do with that. Come to think about it, that sticker also said the spell couldn’t be moved from its initial spot, but that is obviously not true.”
I looked around for the Ice Cloud, but it had been blown away by my wind strands.
“Hmm. Could it be that it the strands of wind carried it with them, bringing it into range of its target, which it tried to move towards?” Juliana mused. “Perhaps Karl would know more about this.”
“The one with the glasses?” Clarissa asked, before rolling her eyes. “That one has been sitting in a far corner of the library since before I met up with Alex. I doubt he will be of much use to anyone until he figures out that artifact scroll of his.”
Karl had been in the library? I hadn’t seen him there at all.
“If this is the type of results I can get already, then I’m certain I can level up my Magical Power pretty quickly,” I said, grinning. “Let’s go find another pack and see if we can get similar results.”
We headed towards the Rats still corpses, mostly so that I could loot their pelts to sell. I’d grabbed my backpack from the Golden Bear before we had left for the Dungeon and planned on filling it before we went home.
After spending forty gold coins, I sure as heck was going to do everything I could to recoup what I’d spend, bit by little bit. Plus, if I wanted even more powerful spells, then I’d need to earn a whole lot more coin.
I had walked out of the library with what I had considered to be fairly average spells, but clearly if I used them right, they presented a much more efficient way of dispatching monsters than relying upon my Strength and my sword.
Sooner or later, I would level up my Magical Power stat enough to really make these attacks pack some serious damage to them. I just needed to keep testing to see what worked best. And, of course, keep grinding it out for those juicy stats.
It was all just a matter of time.
18
Since we had started our Dungeon dive later in the day, we were only able to grind on the first floor of the Dungeon. In terms of results, I was fairly sure that I had dispatched more Rats today than I’d ever managed to do before.
We had found a section of the Dungeon that had several packs of Rats situated quite close together, which led to minimal down time between eliminating packs. Plus, it turned out ice magic was extremely potent against them.
As had been the case with the first Rat pack, my Blast Current produced numerous ice spikes once sent through the Icy Cloud spell that almost seemed to have a mind of their own. It was strange to see them curve in midair again and again as they sought their targets, but it was damned efficient.
And extremely tiring.
I wasn’t sure if I needed to get a night’s sleep before either of my Magic stats showed any increases, but casting Blast Currents did not get any easier over the course of the afternoon. Clarissa had tried using her healing magic on me, and while it helped me recover more quickly, it only mitigated the physical effects of my drained Magic Capacity. I wasn’t able to cast any more magic until I’d fully recovered my limited Capacity.
Once I had confirmed that my method of combining both spells resulted in such a potent combination, the rest of the party had joined in and we grinded until sundown.
I had noticed that Aurielle didn’t use her Ethereal spears at all, opting to focus on her gravity magic. It got the job done, but I had to wonder why she rarely used her Ethereal Spear spell.
With both her and Juliana using magic, I was sure I’d be able to get my Magical Power stat leveled up quickly, now that I had figured out an effective method to use my limited spells to attack monsters. I only hoped my Magical Capacity saw an increase, if only a little, to relieve some of the dizziness and nausea I felt when casting Blast Currents.
With Anny quickly dispatching any monsters that survived Aurielle’s initial gravity magic with her Speed and daggers, and Clarissa providing support, I was pleased with our rapidly developing cohesion as a party.
When we left the Dungeon for the day, Clarissa mentioned that classes had been suspended for the students, since it was expected they would train and then participate in the tournament. That worked out well for us, and we agreed to do some more grinding starting first thing in the morning.
Clarissa wanted to sleep with me at the Golden Bear, but Juliana somehow managed to convince the blonde to return with her to the Academy, by literally dragging her off to the side and having a few terse words with her.
I really wondered how Juliana had done it. Clarissa had been quite set on spending the night with me—and to be honest, this was the first time I could recall Clarissa not getting something she’d seemed set on. Well, other than getting the artifact back that Stephania had ‘stolen’ from us in the dungeon.
When we arrived back at the Golden Bear, Aurielle lost no time and immediately set to work teaching me the basics of her gravity magic. The process was apparently a fairly long and involved one, especially when compared to my simply opening a spell book, being blinded by a flash of light, and then just knowing the spells.
But hey, it cost much less gold. Plus, the Academy didn’t have any gravity magic spell books. These spells were unique, and I intended to learn them as quickly as I could.
Aurielle walked me through a number of mental exercises, such as envisioning what gravity actually was, and envisioning pushing and pulling it. I thought it a little odd when, after a few minutes of such exercises, Aurielle opted to hold my hand while sitting next to me on the bed. I startled at her touch, turning to find her next to me with her eyes closed.
She had changed into the same white nightie I had seen this morning. I had to admit, as I stared at how her chest rose and fell rhythmically as she meditated, she looked damn good in it. I too had taken my armor off, to get more comfortable while doing this training, but after several minutes of silence and us holding hands, my curiosity got the better of me.
“Uhh, Aurielle, what are you doing?” I asked.
“I am training you, Alex,” Aurielle replied.
“Training me in… hand holding?” I couldn’t stop the grin that spread across my face.
Her eyes opened, and she smiled at me.
“This is a technique the Seers taught me. If you allow it, my magic will connect with yours and eventually, you will find yourself learning my gravity magic much faster this way.”
“Huh,” I said. “Is this how they teach magic here in Tringall, too?”
“I do not believe so. I didn’t hear mention of it or see students meditating together when Clarissa showed me around the Academy,” she murmured, her eyes closing once more.
“Oh, okay. What did you think of the Academy, on the whole?” I asked, curious to see if she’d found it as gaudy as I did.
At this, Aurielle cracked an eyelid just a tad.
“Gold is a luxury in my homeland. To see it in such vast quantities is unheard of, let alone for it to be wasted on such extravagance as uncomfortable furniture or garish decor. I can’t really understand it; the cost of such indulgence must be immense.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her wry tone. Finally, someone other than me who found the Academy’s flashy show of wealth to be highly questionable.
“By the way, I forgot to thank you for agreeing to join us in this tournament. I’m sure we’d have a much tougher time without your help,” I admitted.
Aurielle seemed content to relax, sitting next to me cross legged on the bed, but I did spot a small smile on her lips.
“It is only right I support your efforts while furthering my own power. I consider this a necessary step I need to take in the fulfillment of my duty,” Aurielle said.
The woman had been pretty tight-lipped on the specifics of her ‘duty’ but from what I had gathered, she wanted to rid her homeland of both its monsters and end the succession war.
I thought that would have been easy, given her amazing stats post-curse and her ethereal magic, but clearly there were some things in this world much stronger than the Chosen beside me.
That made me realize I’d need to get stronger, too. I vowed to do so.
Whatever it took…
Although I still found it strange that Aurielle had me meditate there in silence with her, as she did… whatever it was she was doing with her method of teaching me her gravity magic. It was another hour before she declared that I’d had enough ‘training’ for the day and that it was time for both of us to rest.
I didn’t feel even the tiniest bit different, but I took her word for it that something was happening, something that enabled me to pick up her gravity magic much quicker and easier than learning a couple books worth of magical theory.
As I got ready for bed, I hoped it wouldn’t take me too long to learn Aurielle’s gravity magic. The tournament would be easy enough at the start, but something told me I’d need all the help I could get before it was over.
I decided to check my stats to see what improvement, if any, I’d had today. We really had dispatched a lot of Rats, more than I’d done in a single day’s grind before.
The red window of the Clan Management interface appeared before my eyes.
Stats
Strength: 146
Speed: 3
Defense: 97
Magical Power: 4
Magical Capacity: 1
Luck: 1
Nice! My Magical Power stat had gone up by three levels. That was awesome for a single day’s worth of grinding. I was a little disappointed that my Magical Capacity hadn’t budged, but prayed it would over the course of the next few days.
I certainly hoped it did so sooner rather than later, as the chills and dizziness from casting Blast Currents really sucked. I couldn’t wait till I could cast my magic and avoid experiencing the nauseating effects of my Magic Capacity running dry.
I had plenty of grinding to do in the meantime, though.
A w
hole lot of grinding…
Our party of five spent the next few days grinding through various levels of the Dungeon as fast as we could.
Unfortunately, this meant we had almost no chance to relax, as time really was of the essence. Our progress, though, was incredible.
The small boost in Magical Power I had developed that first day was great, but sadly the Red Ravens on the second floor didn’t care about it at all. The ice spikes I generated by combining both of my spells had a difficult time latching onto something that was so small and agile.
Even Aurielle’s gravity magic wasn’t much more effective in dealing with the rather energetic Ravens. As she could only affect one Red Raven at a time, it was just as quick to use my proven methods. We managed to push through all the way to the eighth floor on the day before the tournament was supposed to start.
If that wasn’t amazing progress, I wasn’t sure what was.
We did end up skipping a few floors, but it wasn’t like we had a choice in the matter.
The Spiders and Foxes on the third and fourth floors were there, just as I remembered them. It gave me an opportunity to show Anny and Aurielle more of my monster behavior analysis methods in action. However, the fifth floor—that had held the Lizardnoots I had wanted to see, given their ability to communicate and the fact that they used weapons such as spears, remained a tremendous disappointment.
When the Demons had run amok on that floor several weeks ago, they had eliminated every single Lizardnoot in the dungeon. As far as adventurers were concerned, floor five was now just a resting floor.
I wasn’t entirely sure I’d want to stay on this floor any longer than I had to, thanks to the heat pulsing from red veined walls that likely had lava seeping through them.
The black smoke that billowed all over the place also made this place a less than ideal spot to rest. I remembered that there was supposed to be a Boss monster, perhaps some kind of jacked up Lizardnoot, to serve as a final challenge on the fifth level. Just before we reached the exit that led down to the sixth floor, we passed through a large room that very much looked like it was intended for such a battle.
