The New Bond

Void

Once again, He looked at the Screen, reading it.

[Time Remaining until realm integration relative to the current spatial realm: 5 days, 21 Hours.]

[Time Remaining in integrating realm until event: 9 Months, 21 Days, 14 Hours.]

[Time remaining in Aquilion Realm until integrating realm is adsorbed: 5 years, 9 Months, 16 Days, 2 Hours]

Time was sped up in this place by a multitude most races would have a hard time understanding. Not many were privy to the thoughts of gods, after all. Still, the timer seemed to go by achingly slowly. Five days to go out of the decades upon decades he'd spent waiting wasn't long, especially not for him, but it would feel like a century.

Resting a hand on his chin, he flicked through the updates that were pending for each system. The movement was something he didn't need to do, but after spending time only being able to watch mortals, it had rubbed off. The two systems that were being used were both based on the same design but had altered slightly because of different events that had taken place.

One of his eyebrows twitched as he saw the most recent update pertaining to the goddess of the hunt and animals and what she had done. The choice to be put in this realm was one based on his nature; he could hold the realms together for the longest, but he still was upset that his influence on the system and events had dwindled in both realms in the millennia he had been here, not that he'd made many movements while doing it. He wondered if some of the gods had even forgotten about their brother. The thought was appalling.

He’d have to change that during the upcoming event, but without being able to intervene himself, he'd have to move carefully, or one of the realms might become a wasteland with runaway magic.

Aster

[You have entered a dungeon.]

[Five out of Five participants, the maximum party reached.]

I felt a shiver run down my spine at the screen, and the feeling that ran down my spine was the same odd sensation I felt when I knew one of the wolves was stalking me for practice or someone was watching me from a distance. The sensation left a moment later, but it was still slightly unnerving.

Light from the sun faded away as the entrance vanished behind stone when we turned down the tunnel that seemed to twist. Fernand whispered something, and a moment later, two orbs appeared. They were small enough to hold in my fist but glowed bright enough to illuminate the cave all around us.

The track down was slow. We were probably more cautious than we needed to be. We all had our weapons out, my bow was in my hands, and I was ready to fire at anything that dared to move. The only problem was how small the tunnel was; it was barely manageable to fit two people side by side while still giving them room to swing. So, shooting any arrows past them was something I didn't even want to attempt.

My worries ended up being forgotten as the tunnel slightly widened out, and I was able to see a glow from ahead, small and distant at first but rising. The heat that was slowly building had sweat dripping from my forehead, telling me a shower would be a priority in my future. Mentally, I made a note to find out if there was a way to clean yourself while adventuring. I'd also wanted to find a way to keep cool, especially now since I seemed to be immune to anything above unpleasant. Both the reason for heat and glow were given answers when the tunnel finally opened up into a large room. Well, large wasn't right, but it was big, at least a hundred feet circular and dozens of feet tall, with stalagmites hanging from the ceiling and a large pool of what I knew from reading was magma in the middle that bubbled slowly.

“Woah..” Kat said, wiping her forehead, and I blinked, my eyes watering slightly at the density of the mana in the air mixed with the heat. They were both equally as stifling. Even with the new expanse of the cave taking most of my attention, my ears twitched, moving slightly as I heard the shift of talons on the stone above me. It was a noise I was used to, but in a completely different circumstance and only when Umbra was with me.

Angling my bow at the same time I looked up, I let the arrow fly with a quick drawback on the string.

The monster, because it definitely couldn't be normal to have two heads growing out of one neck, looked like a deformed forest salamander. Instead of the general forest brown that was usually on them, it had a gray, pebbly, bumpy-looking skin that blended in with the stone behind it. Its eyes were an amber red that glared at us with malice and hunger.

I didn't think as I pulled back the string, letting the arrow fly, which was probably why my arrow didn't hit it straight on; instead, it hit at an angle, but it still managed to sink into the flesh of its torso. It let out a half hiss, half croak before it fell from the roof, landing between me and a startled Fernand with a splat. The creature lay motionless, yellow blood oozing out of the hole.

[You have killed A Dungeon - Fire Ember Salamander Level 34]

[You have defeated a Monster, Grade 1, Normal Experience is awarded]

For a second, there was silence, and then the cavern echoed with a multitude of burping, popping noises and hisses.

“Remember the formation! Keep your backs to the entrance. There's no way we missed any passageways with how narrow it was. Kat, keep an eye above us so no more can sneak up on us.” Fernand was quick with his words, appearing calm as the hisses grew in volume, even pulling out a potion, which he threw towards Kat. He then started to whisper to himself, casting a spell as we all got ready and into our positions. It was awkward and obviously unpracticed as Wren raised his shield, stepping in front of us, blocking my sight, and Fernand got too far to the side. I might have been wrong, but we felt too open

The next salamander appeared from out of the magma with the thick liquid dripping from its skin. It was followed by three more. Now that the creature wasn't hanging from a ceiling above me, it appeared a lot smaller than I'd first thought, only coming up to just above my waist. It was definitely dozens of times larger than it should be, but not as big as I'd first thought. Wren thought the same thing as he let out a sigh that sounded relieved, disappointed, and upset all at the same time and started to walk forward.

“What are you doing?” Kat whisper yelled. She was a dozen steps to the side, one hand holding the potion Fernand had thrown her and the other hand holding a dagger.

“I don't see how anyone could have had trouble with this. Look at them. I mean, she killed it with one arrow.” Wren gestured to me with his shield in a ‘Look how small she is’ motion. “There's only three anyway. This will be as easy as hunting a wild boar.”

As if waiting for that moment, another salamander dragged itself out of the lava, then another and another.

I lost count after nearly two dozen. Wren, who had looked so prideful a moment ago, had lost his sneer and carefree attitude and taken a step back. The heads of the salamanders, which ranged from one to three, with more heads meaning a bigger body, were snapping and drooling the magma they had just come out of.

I didn't wait to see how many more came out, breaking what felt like a prolonged moment of sizing up from both sides. Pulling my bow back and this time taking the half-second required aim, I let loose an arrow. One of the first three salamanders who were the closest dropped like a stone, the arrow sticking out of its eye.

As if a howl from a wolf to start a hunt, the tide of salamanders moved forward as one. Wren raised his shield and backed up, keeping the same pace as the fastest salamander. I shot a second arrow, downing another of the malformed monsters, and a burning blade flew into another. It didn't burn it, but the sharp end stuck out of its head, sending the yellow blood splattering to the ground. There was whispering from behind, and in front of it, a thin white line no higher than a few finger widths appeared on the ground in front of the small horde. It didn't stop them, but it did trip them up, causing the front row to stumble and the others to collide with them. It didn't last long, but it helped give me time to thin the numbers with Kat. Wren, this time thankfully staying out of the way of my arrows but still positioned in front of us, started to fight as he stopped backing up.

I had a small, tiny moment of admiration for him. Not many humans or elves I'd met, which wasn't saying a lot, would face a swarm of these things, even with as low a level as they were, without panicking. The grin on his face showed the complete opposite emotion of what I'd come to expect

The salamanders who had reached Wren were more manageable. Still, I expected him to stumble or even fall when four collided head-on with him, but a slight blue glow from his feet and shield showed the use of a skill, and he didn't budge more than an inch. Another slightly darker glow emitted from his sword, and he sliced cleanly through one of the salamanders, the return swing taking off the tail of another.

I wasn't going to aim at him as I readied another arrow, instead taking the spare moment to reposition to look past the remaining salamanders.

Fernand had raised a white, mostly translucent wall that was keeping part of the cave clear of the last few, so I was able to move on a small cluster of stones without any difficulty to get a better view of the lava. Kat was busy behind the now dozen or so salamanders, luring one away, fighting them one at a time, or backing off if more than one followed. Pulling back the arrow, I started to pick off the salamanders in the middle. It reminded me in a strange way of how I first started practicing my bow back in the forest. I'd get on a stone, making sure I didn't cast a shadow, and use the fish as practice.

The fight, which had started so quickly, ended just as fast, with Wren plunging his blade into the last salamander's head. The only noise left in the cave was the bubbling of the lava and the panting from all of us.

The first words after were from Fernand: “Did anyone receive any injuries, burns, or cuts?”

I checked myself over, but I knew I was fine; none of the salamanders had even gotten close. Kat had received a light burn across one of her arms where her skin had rubbed against a salamander, and Wren had a cut that had burned enough to stop the bleeding that should be happening on his hand. He appeared not to be fazed by the injury at all, but before I could ask why, Kat must have seen the look on my face and whispered in my ear quietly, “Pain resistance, it's a skill a lot of front line fighters aim for, it dulls the pain of any injury gained while fighting for an hour or longer if the class that gave it is rare.”

I nodded my head, ear twitching. It sounded like a skill that would be useful for almost anyone but might also pose problems. If you broke a bone, how would you know? Could you just turn the skill off?

My thoughts were pushed aside as Fernanad spoke up, “I think we were lucky. Compared to all of the other groups who have another frontline, we have more people who fight from range. Usually, that's bad in dungeons, but if all the creatures on the first floor can hurt us by just touching us, I think our group composition will be a preferred choice in the future. “

Crouching down, I looked over one of the salamanders with a frown. Earlier, they had emitted a boiling heat to the point where, after their death, the cave actually felt like it was cooling down. I heard Wren say something, but I ignored him, instead holding my head above the creature's skin. It still let off a lot of heat, but not like before.

Taking out an arrow, I laid it on the salamander with a thought. The arrow warmed up, but the wood portion didn't burst into flames or get scorched immediately. I wished for a moment I could speak to Umbra. She seemed to have an innate sense of how creatures worked. Looking up, I started listening back into the conservation.

“Well, I don't want to leave them. There are at least twenty cores here. Do you really not know a way to collect them?” Kat asked

Fernand looked down at the corpse I was messing with. “Wrens right, I think there's no way to harvest them safely or collect their cores. They do appear to be cooling down, though, so it's possible we might be able on the way back.”

“You know the dungeons going to absorb them before we get back,” Kat said but didn't seem to have another argument.

“There's only a few gold for all of these cores put together; it'd be a waste to collect them anyway,” Wren said disdainfully.

I was ready to leave the cores as well. I didn't need any money from what I understood about finances, but I did want to bring as many cores as I could to Umbra.

If Umbra had been here, she probably would have cooled down the bodies in a few seconds.

I looked at the arrow as that thought crossed my mind. Picking it up, I rolled it in my fingers as I thought. My skill, Frosted Arrow, was as simple as putting frost mana into the arrow tip, with the frost affinity being added by the skill. When it hit a target, it transferred the mana into the creature, freezing it. My mana was still full from the fight because I hadn't needed the skill.

Holding the arrow, I imbued it with frost, watching as the tip of the arrow frosted over cold vapor drifted off of it. The talking witch I'd started to ignore again stopped as I stuck the arrow into the salamander's corpse.

The little I'd learned in my classes so far wasn't a tenth of what I wanted to know, but I had learned that it was hard to force mana into a live creature but nearly effortless to do so to a dead creature. So when the skin of the creature hissed and steam rose, I was excited.

“What did you do?” Fernand asked as he crouched down next to me. I looked over, then up at the three of them, a grin on my face as I explained the basics of my skill. It wasn't anything unique besides having an affinity, which was obvious, so I didn't see a reason to keep quiet about it. I was quite proud of having come up with the idea, actually.

Fernand examined the process with fascination as the salamanders cooled. The body grew darker in color, and cracks formed in its skin. Once it had stopped steaming, we backed up. Wren, grumbling but also with a bit of curiosity, used his shield as a hammer to hit the corpse of the salamander. It broke apart like a rock, pieces of the body crumbling into bits no bigger than my fist. In the middle, a soft red glowing gem no bigger than a fingernail lay in the rubble. Kat stepped forward, picking it up on the blade of her dagger, and after a moment, touched it. She kept her finger on it, her eyebrows lifting. “It's warm, but it's definitely not as hot as the body of the salamander. It is the core, though.”

At her words, and as she passed it around, I identified it.

[Fire Ember Salamander Core - Grade 1 - The core of a fire affinity dungeon monster in Grade 1.]

As I held it, I was pleasantly surprised by how it sparkled in the magma’s light. It was almost like the gems I'd seen on display in the market, but clearer.

“Aster, do you have the mana to cool the rest of the bodies down? I'd be more prudent to keep more than half of your mana available if you don't for the next rooms. Even without the cores, the levels made this room more than worth it.”

I blinked at Fernand's words. One of the main reasons we were in here was to gain levels! It had gone out of my head the moment I'd thought of the cores.

The adventurer's course leading up to this had given several tips regarding fighting and exploration. One of those was hiding all notifications and setting a priority list. I was used to notifications popping up and injuring them until the fight was over, but with fighting this many creatures at once, it was obvious the change was worth it. Focusing on the slight pressure on my mind, I opened the notifications and started sifting through them after raising my hand in a one-second gesture.

[You have killed A Dungeon - Fire Ember Salamander Level 27]

[You have defeated a Monster, Grade 1, Normal Experience is awarded]

[Notice: You have killed multiple similar dungeon monsters ranked in grade 1. Would you like to see the complete list?]

It was a pleasant surprise that the system gave the option to skip all of the kills, and I gratefully used it, moving to the next window.

[You have gained Multiple levels.]

[Race Class: Daughter of Kulni has increased from level 32 to level 35]

[Free Points + 6]

[Constitution + 3]

[Strength + 9]

[Endurance + 6]

[Dexterity + 18]

[Charisma + 6]

[Intelligence + 3]

[Wisdom + 9]

[Second Class: Bonded Ranger has increased from Level 25 to Level 27]

[Constitution +2]

[Strength + 4]

[Endurance + 6]

[Dexterity + 8]

[Charisma + 4]

[Intelligence + 2]

[Wisdom + 4]

[Through practice and action, you have gained the skill Archery - Rank 1]

[Having used the bow from grade 0 and showing expertise with it, Archery - Rank One has increased to Archery - Rank 7]

I grinned. I knew archery was a skill I'd get eventually, but gaining the levels from what I did in grade zero was a nice bonus. I wondered what other skills would also jump from what I did in grade zero.

After that and a quick glance, I noted that my mana, which had dropped forty points from the skill, had already topped off.

I was tempted to look at my updated character sheet, but a rather pointed cough from Fernand had me putting it off and deciding to assign my free points later.

“I can cool down all the bodies, but I think it'll take a bit,” I said, picking up the arrow that had been used to freeze the body and checking over for any splitting or splintering.

“Let's do that then. Kat, can you keep an eye out for any monsters that might come out of the lava? I'll watch the entrance to the other room. Aster and Wren can collect the cores.”

I wanted to complain, but somehow, though an unsaid vote, Fernand had become the group's leader, and even Wren didn't seem to mind it for some reason. Taking a look around, I spotted Elyssa near the room entrance, watching it with a look I couldn't read. She had stayed out of the fighting and hadn't intervened when Wren had gotten hurt to try to heal him. I wondered what would cause her to step in.