Syl

Chapter 152: First Floor

"So what's this holy pool you mentioned?" I asked as we continued to move forward. "If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"I don't mind. It's a bit weird, and as the group healer, I want you to believe you're in good hands," Eliza responded. "So, imagine I have two buckets. When I use Dark healing on someone, I fill up the one bucket with Dark Energy. Then I can use that Dark energy to cast offensive spells; you might have seen me casting [Dark Bolt]."

I nodded.

"Right. So when I damage something with Dark energy, it gets 'Purified' into Holy energy, which fills up my other bucket. I can use that energy for big or quick heals." Eliza explained.

"That sounds incredibly useful," I responded. "What's stopping you from just keeping them both full?"

"Well... Both buckets have holes; if I don't use them quickly enough, they start to leak into me. When the Holy bucket leaks, it heals me like a soft regen. Which is pretty great, in all honesty. However, when the Dark bucket leaks, I take the injuries stored in it. You had your stomach cut open? My stomach starts to rupture."

"Holy shit. That sounds dreadful." I replied in honest shock. Talk about a brutal healing method.

Eliza nodded. "That's why I try to spend the Dark pool as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I can't heal normally without spending my Holy pool, so I'm incentivized to generate it as quickly as possible."

"And let me guess, you need Mana to access the buckets?" I asked, after puzzling together how I felt like her class worked.

I pulled off my Mana Regeneration ring and handed it to her, "You can borrow this for the dungeon."

She looked surprised, then shocked. "Are you sure? What about your own Mana?"

I chuckled. "Not to brag, but Mana is one of the things I seldom have to worry about."

"Is that an elf thing?" Pelopi asked, her ears perked up.

"You could say that," I said with a wink.

"Damn. I want to be an elf." Pelopi said, her tail swishing frantically.

"Heads up! Next room ahead." Jet interrupted our conversation.

Surprisingly, there were only two monsters this time, but they were both huge. They looked like giant bullmen, except one looked like he was made out of bark. The other had the lower half of a horse; it looked absolutely ridiculous.

"Minotaurs?" Ian asked.

"I think so," Eliza replied.

"That one looks like a treant," I said, pointing to the wood one.

"And the other one looks like a Centaur. Which is kind of funny considering Minotaurs are half bull and half man, so we have half bullman and half horseman."

"So half man, quarter bull, quarter horse?" I asked.

The group muffled their laughter. Even Jet smirked.

"Tanking both might be a problem; those giant weapons look dangerous," Ian admitted.

"Let's focus on the half-tree one. I'll debuff it, and it should go down quickly. I'll also try freezing the other one to maybe give us more chance, but no promises how effective that will be."

"I can also help try to restrain the horse one." Jet admitted.

"Sounds good, like a good damage race to me," Pelopi said excitedly.

"Our specialty." Eliza winked.

I started casting all my debuffs from outside of the room before we entered. [Hex] and [Erode] for both monsters and then [Flammable] and [Frigid] respectively. Then I gave a thumbs up, and Ian rushed into the room and charged towards the treetaur. He ignited midcharge and tried to slam his axe into it, but the monster blocked with its own weapon.

Pelopi joined the fray and started trying to hack into its rear with her claws. Meanwhile, Jet and I had to tie up the other one quickly. I began casting [Ice Patch] to hopefully ruin its traction and then began firing [Icicle] spells from behind. It bellowed in rage as the ice slowly crawled over it from the piercing icy projectiles stabbed into its body and galloped forward with fury. [Ice Patch] weirdly didn't seem to be affecting it much, and that was when its own shadow seemed to reach out and trip it.

"Damn, it's a lot sturdier than it looks." Jet grunted as I saw him looking like he had just run two entire marathons.

'Yay for cool Umbral skills,' I thought before firing a few [Water Orb] spells to soak the horsebullman and then firing more [Icicle] spells at its four legs. When I saw how well the combination of water and ice worked, I mentally thanked Trixie.

I glanced at the other group and saw Ian's arm knitting back together, but thankfully, the treetaur looked even worse. Looking more charcoal than wood at this point, Pelopi was ripping it apart limb by limb, and Ian kept hacking at it with his axe held in one hand.

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Eliza brought down a black spell that looked almost like a scythe on the enemy, nearly hacking off its head entirely before dissipating and gushing out a large burst of that golden holy energy. I briefly wondered if the type of damage she absorbed affected the form and appearance of her offensive spells.

Ian let out a roar, and with clearly practiced maneuvering, both Pelopi and Eliza backed off before he literally exploded. As the flames died down, there were only a few smoldering remains of the treetaur, and Ian was immediately wrapped in a golden light as his numerous and severe burn wounds began to vanish. The three turned and began to rush over to join us before pausing and staring at the almost entirely frozen other monster.

"Well, shit. That's terrifying." Eliza chuckled. "Remind me to never get on the bad side of a Cryomancer."

"Super elf magical assassin," Pelopi murmured.

"Yes and no." Jet said. "I've worked with a Cryomancer before, and I've definitely seen them do similar things, although I admit it usually takes longer than this."

"It's my debuff; it makes them weaker to both ice damage and freezing," I answered.

"Yes! That was amazing!" Pelopi cheered. "I've never seen my claws do so much damage before."

"My axe and flames, too; that monster might as well have been made of paper and coated in flammable oil." Ian nodded.

"I'm glad to see you are learning the power of having a good support class. Combining debuffs and buffs can make or break a party." Jet started explaining before a notification interrupted him.

"You're honestly calling that support work." Eliza pointed at the now-dead monster and giggled.

"Well... She's a bit special." Jet admitted.

"A bit," Ian said with emphasis, staring blankly at Jet.

"Jet tripped and restrained the monster for me with his shadows. It basically ignored my [Ice Patch] spell." I pointed out. "Also, my advanced class has been a massive power jump for me."

Jet cleared his throat. "Indeed. Thank you for pointing that out. And yes, you're all still in your intermediate classes."

"So what can we harvest from them?" Pelopi asked; I was grateful for the subject change.

"Probably just their weapons. Maybe their horns?" Ian suggested.

I gave a lookover with [Dissection] and nodded in confirmation. It was a little grim decapitating and throwing in a frozen minotaur head into storage, as well as the charred remains of the other head. At the same time, I managed to throw in a few other frozen chunks while the others were coordinating the giant weapons into their storage bags. I was really hopeful for a new profile.

Also, I gained a level from the first minotaur the others killed. I looked over and frowned at my notification.

On the one hand, I was happy that it looked like I'd gain trait points for those owed levels. On the other hand, I was slightly concerned that I didn't gain a level in my class. I knew it was an advanced class and needed more experience, not to mention sharing with the party, but surely it would have gained one level by now?

'Is Gramps stealing all my experience towards my owed race levels? Is he upset I spent all that time enchanting?' I wondered to myself. I hoped I would be proven wrong after the next fight.

"Hey, we got a chest drop!" Pelopi shouted excitedly.

"The first floor rarely drops loot, though?" Ian asked curiously.

"Looks like Syl's emblem is already strongarming the dungeon." Eliza joked.

"I'll check it for traps," Jet said. "Syl, come help me double-check since you used to be a rogue hybrid."

"Sure." I agreed and joined him at the chest. I watched him pull out his set of thieves' tools and inspect the box.

"Looks like the others don't even realize the real surprise." Jet said in a hushed voice.

"What do you mean?" I whispered back.

"I had my suspicions when you cast those [Ball Lightning] spells in the first room, but all your [Icicle] spells from behind the minotaur really sealed the deal." Jet explained.

I tried to puzzle out what he meant, then realized he was perhaps talking about my changing the origin point of my spells. "Do you mean moving the anchor point for my spells?"

"Is that what you call it?" Jet asked with genuine curiosity. "Well. It definitely wasn't on your guild file. Admittedly, I don't know too much about spellcasting, but I've definitely seen Lisa cast [Ball Lightning] and my share of [Icicle] spells, but they've always originated from the Mage."

I opened my mouth to respond, but Jet held out a finger to pause me. "You aren't in trouble. I'm just letting you know that only elite members of the Mage's Guild usually do something like that. Hell, it's one of the things they brag about against the Adventurer's Guild. I assume you haven't joined their guild in your floating island absence?"

"No. I didn't join the Mage's Guild." I replied.

"Which means you figured it out without being legally bound by them," Jet replied, releasing a soft chuckle as he shook his head. "You could earn a lot of clout if you shared that within the Adventurer's Guild."

"I... I'm not sure if I can." I said hesitantly. I probably could share it; Trixie hadn't said to share that, only my class. However, I didn't want the knowledge and learning methodology of it to somehow link back to the pixie. I owed her that much, at least.

Jet nodded. "I understand. I just thought I'd put it out there, especially if you might have shared it for free. Rather, at least earn your worth, ya know?"

"Thanks for the suggestion and the advice."

"No problem. Lisa is a good friend who told me to look out for you. I can sort of see why now." Jet chuckled. "Anyway, let's pop this bad boy open. There are no traps, but it is locked."

He twisted his tool with a single fluid motion, and there was a multitude of satisfying clicks as the chest opened.

"I can cheat with my shadow." Jet said with a wink as he walked away from the box. Inside was a singular bracer.

I picked it up and chuckled as I tossed it towards Ian. "I know you have the whole take damage thing going on, but I think this might stop you from losing your arm next time."

He clumsily caught the bracer, not expecting the toss, and looked it over. Eliza looked it over and then nodded in agreement.

"Please do. I don't want to see your arm lopped off." Eliza admitted.

Ian nodded and put it on, and with a flex of his arm, a transparent tiny buckler of a shield appeared floating near his arm.

"Woah! Ghost shield!" Pelopi said before throwing a rock at it.

"Hey! Watch it!" Ian complained just as the rock struck the shield and harmlessly bounced off.

"It kind of reminds me of the [Aegis] spell," I said, demonstrating it. "However, it doesn't look like it costs incrementally more mana the longer you hold it."

"It doesn't look nearly as strong as that spell either." Eliza pointed out.

"Still better than nothing. If it saves your arm even once, it's worth it." Jet said.

"You guys sure I should have this?" Ian asked.

"I'm not the one on the frontline," I admitted.

"Don't look at me. My arms turn into bear claws. I can't wear something like that." Pelopi said.

"Guess it's settled then," Eliza said, patting Ian on his bald head.

"I just hope it doesn't burn and break," Ian muttered.

"It shouldn't... It's enchanted for defense and durability." I said.

"Plus, it's dungeon loot, which makes it extra special." Jet added. "They usually have extra effects even our best enchanters can't replicate yet."

"Huh... Cool." Ian said, looking at the bracer with some newfound awe in his eyes.

"Less talking, more killing! We gotta kill the boss before Eliza empties herself." Pelopi shouted and started heading towards the exit.

"Oh shit. Right." Ian said and started hurrying after her.

We rushed after the crazy druid.