But for a Slime

* * *

Joe was a couple strides away from the slime now, but found himself at an impasse, unable to push closer for fear of lacking the reaction time to dodge the next strike, but too far to have any meaningful combat with the slime. Can barely poke it here… and no point in fighting a slime with a spear… need to reduce its mass so I can get to the core. His thoughts whirled through possibilities and struggled to find an option.

He even attempted a few thrusts, timed to happen immediately after a rock shot. He would thrust while he leapt to the side. As he feared, his thrust would just puncture the creature’s side, but then slip out and do nothing, the slime simply closing up the wound without any apparent harm. With exceptionally done thrusts, no slime could even be extracted, his thrust sliding in and back out without the slime losing any mass. Joe growled in frustration as he leapt to the side once again, accomplishing nothing.

Joe began considering his options and turned to studying the slime first. Any hint there? What can… Joe blinked and then frowned. It’s … transparent… can I see the core? His eyes searched the depths but found that it was somehow difficult to find what was what within its depths. The few times that he was certain of catching a glimpse of the core revealed it to be what he expected: a two core crystal of a muddy brown color. The difficulty, however, was in being able to keep his eye on it. Somehow, the core seemed to fade into and out of observation and Joe wasn’t certain if this was some kind of core defense or something unique to this slime. Freakin’ irritating!

Joe grimaced as he narrowed his eyes in an attempt to pierce into the depths of the slime then froze when another rock carved from the floor and began to float into the air in preparation of another strike. Joe’s eyes immediately honed in on the rock, preparing for the strike, blinking once as his eyes flicked over to the stone.

Joe’s eyes opened, and everything changed! Hovering in the air directly above the slowly rising rock, a strange twisting never settling ever morphing symbol formed, deep dark brown. It was the rich deep brown of alluvial dirt; sometimes black from damp richness of water, sometimes the deep brown of dry dirt, sometimes the thick cream of light brown clay, sometimes the loose coarse tan of sand, sometimes the bland mottled grey of river stone, sometimes the hard burnt reddish sandy grit of iron, sometimes the hard deep ever shifting rainbow of colorful transparency of crystal. Joe found his eyes widening in avid wonder, pupils dilating and attempting to suck in all light before it. His focus sharpened, the image of the never the same symbol growing ever greater in his vision as it twisted before him, the chunk of rock below it rising slowly, ever upward. The rising rock slowed and slowed, its speed reducing each moment, cut in half for each moment that passed, its rise rapidly turning to a turtle’s pace of graceful magnificence.

But Joe saw none of this. His gaze was lost in the shifting twists visible before him and he found it beautiful! All other thoughts grew subordinate to his desire to see! The very secrets of the vastness of the universe available before him. He recognized almost immediately, a similarity to what he’d seen before on the beach to what he was seeing now. Yet, simultaneously, there was a absolute uniqueness to it that could not be captured or understood by what he’d seen on the beach.

The thing he’d seen on the beach flowed! This seemed to be like static on a TV with poor reception, yet with crystal clarity for each image that was shown. The thing change and morphed in shape, size, position, and any other possible orientation or shape he could think of, and it did so with a smooth lazy perfection, identical to the one on the beach. But where the beach symbol also shifted between that which was liquid with slow lazy turbulence, this one snapped between each of its representations like a stuttering video on a poor bandwidth connection. One moment, it was the deep brown of alluvial dirt, the next it was the hard grey of stone. Yet, each change was normal, perfect, and completely expected, despite occurring with such rapidity that his eyes couldn’t actually capture the moment of change when it shifted from one form to another.

The beach symbol flowed. This symbol crackled with the precision of perfection, each movement and shift exact and exactly right. Joe sighed, staring in wonder.

* * *

Kalia watched as Joe pushed forward, closing in on the Master slime with ease and cursed her mortality. Once again, she struggled to hide her own bitter greed, seeing Joe flowing with the perfection of an immortal, if a quite low and weak one. But… young! This she could tell with ease. To be such an accomplished immortal at such youth was incredible, and she found herself consider what she’d never thought to ever consider. She would tie her return to his rise. Her enemies would pay, if she could ever return. Much of her vitality and youth was wasted, even lost. And she did not know how much she had left, especially with the loss of her immortal status. Not enough time! I must have time! But… without my mana points! Just need a hundred mana points! I’m still young! If I can get some ten thousand… I’ll have my thousand years… I’ve already spent five hundred… My natural life span… She grit her teeth and didn’t think about the consequences of being past her natural life span, but she would age quickly, and soon be no more. Decades… if I’m…

She blinked in surprise, curiosity quickly replacing fear when she saw the eccentric seem to be stunned, staring at the stone slowly rising in preparation of being fired. The eccentric, however, did not react to it. He simply stared in slack jawed wonder at the space there. She cursed. Not good! Some kind of mesmerizing skill? A hypnosis? Distraction!? Gwenvair called beside her, yelling out his name and she cursed, knowing it was most likely useless. As stun or mesmerize that could be broken with a simple shout was incredibly weak, and the eccentric wouldn’t fall for such as that. But, she had no other option as well, and fear drove her.

“Joe! Wake up!”

“Joe! What are you doing?!” Gwenvair shouted out.

Even Stephliquen began wildly shout out, leaping and waving her hands, and Kalia grew ever more concerned as the rock rose silently ever upward into the empty air above, prepared for its shot.

“Joe!”

* * *

Joe heard a commotion in the background, including shouts for his name, but he found himself enthralled, amazed by what he was seeing and in complete wonder. He was learning so much even as the stone continued to rise, but the stone meant nothing. Only the ever evolving never ending symbol that danced in front of him. After a few more moments, the rock danced up into the symbol and Joe frowned, unhappy to see it blocking his vision. He reached out to swat it, but his hand didn’t move and he realized that would only get his hand in the way, too. Focus! So much to learn! So much…

The rock rose higher, obscuring portions of the image as it traversed in and through it until it settled into what Joe would guess was the exact center. While the rock had been floating up, Joe found it quite irritating, so he simply turned his gaze to other portions of the amazing symbol. However, when the rock arrived at the center, everything somehow became perfect. The orientation and position of the rock was perfect. It completed the symbol with exact precision even as the symbol now twisted and morphed around the rock at its center. Joe stared in awe, and was certain he was learning so much.

Suddenly the symbol was gone, erased and replaced. Another strange symbol appeared and Joe’s eyes widened in even greater wonder as it appeared, its crystal clear appearance one of perfect force; the embodiment of speed and movement. The symbol seemed to never change or move; never morphing or changing shape yet simultaneously was always different and never the same. Unchanging change or changing rigid inflexibility; the concept fascinated Joe and he dove into it head first before suddenly freezing with incredible shock when a massive spike of panic and fear swamped through his mind, pounding into his curiosity and replacing it immediately with primordial terror. Everything that evoked terror flooded his mind even as adrenaline dumped into his system so fast he feared his heart would freeze at the sudden influx.

His thoughts struggled to comprehend what was happening and then he suddenly focused on the center of the symbol at the little rock that lazily rolled in perfect synchronicity with the symbol. It’s perfect… exactly whe… no! Joe yanked his thoughts back to the danger and considered the stone twisting lazily in midair. He blinked and the strange symbol disappeared and all he saw was the twisting rock and then he knew!

Joe cursed wildly under his breath and threw himself to the side. The rock exploded from its location and Joe could only be thankful for his luck. He’d chosen to leap to the left, collapsing his left leg under him so he began to fall to the left before buckling his right knee to allow for a faster drop while tilting to the left. When he felt he’d collapsed to the left enough, he leapt as hard as he could and his shield came up to his shoulder, giving him something very uncomfortable to land on even as he flew through the air. The rock blasted right through where his chest would have been, striking the twisting spear in his right arm. The spear rocketed around, twisting his hand painfully but he was able to keep his hold on it even as it spun around to slam into his shoulder before rebounding off his head.

Pain roiled through his head in waves as he lolled on the ground, unable to stand or react. Stand! Fast… coming… something! Bad… can’t… Spear! Move… that’s… Coming… Move! Joe slipped, his hand sliding across the rough floor even as his head slapped down on the floor again, luckily bouncing off his arm and not the hard stone of the floor. He struggled to rise again and then stared in wonder when he saw a floating rock slowly rising into the air. Lif… floating… Rock! Wow… float… up?! Going… helium? Air… this? Aaggh… ouch!

He lolled, his head staring up at the rock then noticed a large brown wobbling slime also lolling just to the side of the rising floating rock. Joe stared at it and blinked.

“Slim… jello!”

Joe pointed at it then blinked, staring at the spear in his hand. Spear? Fight! Joe stared back at the slime, struggling to focus. Fight… core… ooh… too hard… infuse! No… infuse… last… ok… then… Oh! That…

He poked his spear forward, sliding it into the slime’s body and missed, his spear falling to the ground with a metallic clang. Joe sighed, looking down at his hand and noticed his hand at about the half-way point of the spear. Oh… more range… ok! Then…

He dropped the spear, its shaft still on his hips so he was easily able to slide his hand back along the shaft until the very end. He lifted it, grunting with a groan. Heavy!... ooh… His vision blurred and his thoughts roiled. What? Wh… oh… slime… poke! He shoved the spear forward and the tip pierced into the slimes body, sliding into place and Joe stared at it dumbly. Why… need… should die… oh… infuse!

Immediately, mana points zipped into his spear shaft, even if some of them seemed to fly in a rather circuitous path, twisting and bouncing on their way into the spear shaft, but the half a dozen that made it proved enough and the slime spasmed in wild pain before collapsing in death. Joe’s hand dropped as well, exhausted and he simply lay on the floor for a time, thoughts drifting lazily in twisting incomprehensible twirls.

I… ow… hurts… ooh… heal. Joe waited for a time, blinking then narrowing his eyes in confusion. Heal… Nothing happened and Joe wondered in confusion, dazed and lost in thought. Around him, faces appeared, concerned with worry even as his thoughts floated like leaves on a breeze. Hurt… heal… oh… Status… Everything blurred, twisting violently, then punched straight down into his gut to rip out any semblance of stability and he turned to the side violently vomiting on the floor. Ooooh… yeah…… that’s…

He stared at his own vomit for a time, head lazily drifting side to side until he recognized what he saw and then felt his stomach clench a few more times. That’s… not good… I need… He suddenly noticed his status before him, glowing red zeros showing for his HP but he dismissed it as it wasn’t what he needed. He lost himself in thought for a bit, then refocused. Need… current jobs… ahh.. The current jobs appeared and he noticed that his current job was one of the mage jobs. His eyes closed as his head lolled forward and something shook his shoulder. He turned a bleary gaze towards someone, their gaze staring down at him with concern and he blinked a few times before sighing deeply. Hurts… stop shakin… ooh… heals! Change job… healing mage…

His status flickered and he blinked, shouts and worries drifting around him for a time before his eyes focused on his screen again and he saw healing mage now in place. He grinned, or thought he grinned, he wasn’t sure, but he turned his thoughts to his mind. Kinda screwed up now… real bad… need… heal! Heal… head…

Joe’s MP rapidly declined but Joe found his thoughts yanked out from under him, black emptiness sweeping in and taking all thought from him as he lost consciousness. His status showed his mana points rapidly depleting, continuing down and down before finally slowing at about a sixth of his mana pool with a little over five hundred mana left. It did not stop, however, ticking down a mana point per second for a time, regaining another mana point every ten or so seconds in that time. It continued in this way for another ten minutes or so until it finally stopped with less than a dozen points left. And Joe slept.

* * *

Stephliquen saw Joe go down, the ringing bang of the spear slamming against his head causing her to wince. However, his lolling sprawl and inability to get back up brought intense fear and she immediately sprinted forward. She watched with some worry as he stabbed at the slime, missed, reset his grip, then succeeded. Then she slowed with consternation when the slime seemed to explode or implode on itself, collapsing and dying almost immediately with a simple poke of his spear. She wondered at what he’d done or at the anatomy of the slime to die from such a superficial wound, but ignored it all to focus on Joe, his lolling head and obvious concussion greatly increasing her worry.

She settled in at his side, calling out to him, but he was unresponsive, speaking odd one or two word phrases while lost in whatever memory he was experiencing. She worked hard to settle him, elevating body parts as needed and hoping that her medical knowledge would be close enough for an alien from another planet. She spoke to him insistently, knowing he needed to stay awake and only hoping, as before, their two species shared similar recovery methods for concussions.

However, despite her efforts, his words slurred out and continued to be his focus, not noticing or interacting with hear at all. Then, almost suddenly, he black out and fell to the make shift pillow she’d prepared. Come on… come on… please, wake up! Wake up!

* * *

Gwenvair huddled over Joe with fear, dithering between checking him and turning to the other two who could speak with her. She watched as Stephliquen worked, and the certainty of her actions giving her both pause and comfort that the woman knew what she was doing. Leaving Joe to Stephliquen, she turned her focus to the other two. They fell into an argument, attempting to act but driven to uncertainty. The drive to seek out healing for him warred with his certainty to continue on into the dungeon, and all three struggled to find some form of solution that would be acceptable to Joe. After a few moments, the finally agreed that seeking a healer for the man was the best option.

As they began to seek out a way to carry him from the room, he stirred, and Gwenvair could only feel relief as she settled by his side, anxious.

* * *

Joe woke, only slightly dazed. He blinked at everyone before smiling, “That wasn’t very good, was it.”

Gwenvair grimaced and lightly slapped an arm, “No! It wasn’t!”

Stephliquen interrupted with a business like urgency, “All ok? How many fingers am I holding up?”

Joe glanced over and easily counted three which calmed Stephliquen who quickly nodded, “Any nausea? Upset? Dizziness?”

Joe shook his head, “No. Things seem to be pretty good.”

She calmed more and sat back, “Try sitting up?”

Joe looked at her with a sigh and a groan, rising to sit on the dungeon floor before moaning. Stephliquen moved forward with deep concern, eyebrows furrowed.

“You OK?”

Joe nodded, “Yeah. Not dizzy or anything, don’t worry. Just… very very tender head.”

Stephliquen snorted, “You rung your bell pretty freakin’ hard, so… that would make sense.”

Joe glanced up at her with a smile, “You have that saying, too? Rung your bell?”

She grinned at that, “Yeah… you, too?”

Joe nodded then slowed before continuing then speeding up, “Yeah. And it seems my head isn’t as bad as I worried. I’m doing pretty good.”

Stephliquen frowned, “Well. Not sure about that. You were talking to yourself and your head was kind of rolling around without any control.”

Joe sobered significantly at that, “Oh! That’s not good.”

“Very not good.”

Joe frowned then slowly stood, Gwenvair coming to his side and deeply concerned as she attempted to grab a hand and help him up.

Joe glanced over at her with a soft smile before shaking his head, “I’m fine… but not yet. I’m trying to make sure I’m OK. Let me stand on my own.”

Gwenvair stepped back, concerned, and Joe looked at her, relenting, “OK. But … ok, but let me try to get up alone, but try to make sure I don’t fall again.”

She rushed back with a smile and a nod, laying a hand on his shoulder and another hovered at his side; neither offered him any strength. He nodded and slowly stood. As he did so, he began looking around and found himself reasonably in control. His head felt a bit tender, but as he began to move and walk, there was no significant feedback that he’d received any kind of major damage. If anything, he just felt a bit like he had a stuffy nose or something. He frowned and opened his status, finding his HP ticking back up slowly but already a third returned and his eyebrows knit further. Stephliquen stepped up.

“You OK?”

Joe looked at her and nodded a bit more firmly, “Yeah. I’m not really feeling any kind of headache or dizziness. I feel like I have all my faculties. I’m not… yeah…”

Stephliquen frowned a bit at that, “Are you exceptional with head wounds?”

“I’m… not sure. Concussions are very dangerous until enough rest is received.”

Stephliquen relaxed at that then grew more confused, “But you seem fine.”

Joe nodded, “I’m surprised, too.”

He turned to his status again, finding his mana points quite low and narrowed his eyebrows, “Why is my MP down?”

Gwenvair replied quickly, “I think you were healing yourself. At least, I heard you say something about healing.”

Joe’s frown grew. I don’t remember that at all! That’s…

“Not good,” Joe muttered quietly to himself.

“What’s not good,” Stephliquen interjected.

Joe glanced up, “I don’t remember that last few moments before I blacked out. I guess I healed myself and used my mana.”

“You healed yourself?”

“Yeah. But I don’t really remember it.”

“That might explain your crazy recovery.”

“Huh,” Joe considered. Might… probably. And… Joe glanced at his current jobs and noticed he’d swapped his job to the healing mage. Mana’s at a third, so… Heal… my head and brain.

His mana began dipping down again, evaporating a couple hundred MP in a single chunk then rapidly slowed to an MP spent every few seconds, then thirty seconds, then every minute or so. Joe watched it carefully for four or five minutes while he spoke and gave reassurances to the others until it stop ticking down every minute. Once it had stopped, the stuffed sinuses feeling disappeared and he was able to return to what he felt was normal conditions.

But… if I had a concussion, I should probably head home and rest! It’s a really bad idea to keep on with this, but… He closed his eyes and ran some numbers, going over his schedule and scowling when he came to the end of his calculations. No time, though! I gotta get this done… now… Only a day or two left, then … Joe sighed, feeling both relief and anticipatory glee at what was coming but also concerned for his health. As he began to succumb to the need to go home and rest, his mind flashed to the memory of Garnedell, smiling proudly and excitedly up at him, desiring nothing more than to learn what Joe was teaching and thoughts evaporated beneath a deluge of rage! Joe cursed wildly and rejected the safe option. Yeah. Nope! Screw this town!

He stood and turned to the next stairwell. Stephliquen stood as well then looked at him with concern before schooling her face when she saw his.

“You sure?”

He snapped his gaze to her, feral rage twisting his grin, “Very.”

She stared at him for a time before sighing and following after, “You’ll have to tell me sometime why.”

Joe nodded after thinking for a bit, “Just not now.”

She nodded, “Of course.”

Gwenvair had seen Joe marching to the next exit and padded after him, worry gnawing at her. They all soon vanished into the stairwell to the next floor before finding a place to rest at the next rest area. Joe did take a measure of rest, his leg bouncing with nervous energy and somehow counting the time until what he was fairly sure was a half an hour had passed, rage having flattened but now was a slow burn that ate away at his patience. Gwenvair hovered at his side the whole time, seeming to be uncertain, her hand rising and falling back to her side a few times which Joe found odd as she’d never really kept herself from laying a hand on his arm or shoulder. Despite her concern, Joe mostly found he couldn’t care. Only one thought was on his mind. Let’s get this done!

Joe marched own the hallway to the next floor, again without pause, and immediately entered when he was able to. He didn’t even wait for the others, the rage simmering beneath the surface and driving him to his next task. The others followed quickly after him, scrambling to keep up.

When the door opened, he found himself staring around the ‘room’ with some interest. It appeared to be a village of some kind. A large empty area in the middle accounted for the village square, most of it a beautiful grassy field with low uncut grass with the grass not even reaching the ankles in most places. Some places had sparse knee high stalks of some grain like grass growing, usually in places that Joe guessed would lack traffic. A wooden fence enclosed the entire area with small round wooden huts embedded in and acting as part of the fence. The wooden fence was topped with a pile of dried hay almost a foot tall, speared through by the wood posts and kept in place. Likewise, the top of the round huts had conical grass roofs with the grass dipping over the edge of the round walls and drooping quite low to the ground, leaving only about four or so feet beneath them. The entrance to the huts were also quite low, and would require that he bent over if he wanted to enter. The entire edge of the fence showed no gate or obvious entrance, and Joe found himself searching with more diligence for it. However, there was no way through the fence.

He turned around to look behind him after he stepped in, thinking an entrance might be located where the doorway into this floor existed, but after the others stepped in and the dungeon door disappeared, he saw nothing but fence all the way around. He frowned then quirked an eyebrow, noticing a ‘bald’ spot in the fence without any of the foot deep dried tan hay on top. Leaning against the fence was a short tree stump cut to about high shin height with an odd tree branch twisting of and turning to the left. The branch was jammed into the fence and extended above the cutoff of the stump by another shin height from the stump. Huh… cool… a staircase up to and over the fence. Guess no entrance or exit… just climb over.

He heard a low growl and quickly snapped back around, castigating himself for getting lost in exploring the small village. Behind him was a goblin, looking not much different than the ones on the first floor of the beginner’s dungeon, if a bit larger and somehow more refined. He wasn’t sure if it was refined by intelligence or if he was simply sensing something that pinged his danger sense a bit, and he hunkered down to greet the goblin as it stepped fully out of the hut opposite from where he’d entered.

It finished exiting the hut, its short stature allowing it to step out from under the swooping tan grass of the roof with only a deep dip of its head. In its right hand, it held a spear of rough make, purely wooden without any special tip beyond the sharp and quite smooth wood. In its left, it held a rough made shield of wood. The shield had no meaningful shape, having been formed as it was grown on the tree; a roughly circular if jagged and swooping edge around the whole thing sized to cover most of the goblin’s torso. It was obviously worked with great effort and care, but purely to finish the shield and not to create any kind of defined shape.

It stepped out and did an odd shake that Joe quickly recognized as an effort to stretch its limbs and torso. Seeing that, Joe grimaced, concern sweeping through him and twisting his lips into a scowl. Knows something of what he’s doing…

Joe squared himself as well, eye’s narrowing and all emotions dropping behind an iron door. Time to fight. His face blanked, no emotions or thoughts shining through and he simply prepared. The creature saw this and scowled, then also settled and Joe’s concern only spiked further, his eyes crinkling slightly, narrowing in thought. Very experienced.

The two remained in this stance for a long time, eyes staring and unflinching. Both took some time to catalogue weapons, stance, and defenses before settling on each others’ eyes and remaining. Joe didn’t know how long they stared. It didn’t matter how long they stared. Not yet. Not yet… wait. Time stretched and he did not move, simply staring across the way, waiting.

* * *

Xylarnae watched on as they followed the boundless in. The growl of the goblin across the field gave her pause, and she shuddered in worry. There was little she could do to defend herself, now, if the man was unable to take the beast out. She was, in all meaning of the word, essentially helpless, and she shivered in fear. No! A master! Fear spiked through her and worry quickly furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at the Master goblin. Oh Goddess, please!

Suddenly, the Master goblin stilled and stared at the boundless. Her eyes flickered back to the boundless and found calm rushing through her, the boundless staring with an intensity that cried competency. Her eyebrows furrowed with some confusion even as concern swept through her. Both were frozen, unmoving and staring at one another. The goblin took a moment to gaze at Joe’s equipment before turning his gaze to Joe’s face, then falling silent and still. She could not see Joe’s face, but the man also remained frozen, obviously focused on the beast. For a time, everything seemed to still, even the air and she found her own breath coming to a halt, all existence frozen. Then, they moved!

Joe disappeared in a flash even as the Master goblin vanished from its spot as well. A massive clang echoed throughout the village drawing her eye to the middle where the two clashed, the two weapons slamming into each other with an echoing metallic and wooden crash. The goblin was definitely on the losing side of the clash, stumbling back as the two spears slammed into each other and Joe somehow turned the Master goblin’s thrust into a parry and hard slam against the Master goblin using Joe’s spear and shield. Maybe? I think… what did Joe do? I saw nothing, but the way he is holding his spear and shield… that might explain the goblin’s stumble!

Her breathing hitched and sped up at seeing the fight and its outcome before suddenly freezing for the next thing she saw was Joe vanishing from her sight and then arriving in a massive single handed lunge at the goblin, Joe’s hand holding the spear midway up the spear with his arm threaded around it such that he held it on the outside but the shaft rode up his arm and nestled in his armpit. The spear tip was embedded into the goblin’s chest, punching through and out the other side, the goblin gaping at Joe, wide eyed and jaw gasping open and closed for a few moments before the goblin finally collapsed and died, dragging the spear tip down. Joe shook his spear a couple times, dislodging the corpse from his spear before sweeping his spear to the side to sweep the blood from his blade before turning away and marching directly to the next stairwell. Xylarnae stared after him, fear trilling up her arms and legs before she grit her teeth and ran after him. He is powerful… but angry… She ground her teeth and considered.

* * *

Joe marched down the stairs into the next rest area and immediately passed it. He wasn’t tired at all, the fight not much of one in any case. The initial clash had revealed just how weak the goblin was and he was able to easily stun it, disrupting its stance and causing it to stumble back and leaving it open for his thrust. It had died immediately after. It hadn’t even been worth his worry, despite how it had acted. Joe grimaced, angry that he’d been so easily bluffed, but then berated himself. Better safe than sorry… cost me nothing to take the fight seriously.

The came to the next door and the massive palm shrunk and shifted down towards just below his right shoulder. Let’s check the next one. The doors creaked open and Joe found himself staring into what amounted to be a long hallway maybe about a hundred long paces. Joe sighed, looking at the other end seeing a slightly larger spark than he was used to. It was barely able to survive within the hallway, it’s tendrils of sparking electric discharge just shy of hitting the wall, floor, and ceiling. Well… this is going to be easy… and boring. Joe sighed then cocked his head around in surprise when Kalia cursed.

He looked at her with some confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Kalia grimaced, “If we go in, the door behind us will close and then we are trapped in the hall with that Master spark. We would need to kill it before it traps us in a corner and kills us all. This… will not be easy.”

Joe grinned at that, a soft smile on his lips, “Is it Elemental lightning?”

Kalia frowned at that, “If it is, were screwed, but,” she paused and chewed on her lips as she stared hard before shaking her head and continuing, “It doesn’t seem like it is.”

Joe chuffed and nodded, “Then it should be pretty easy. Heh. Come on.”

Joe marched in, pulling out a spark killer from his inventory and stomping on down the hallway until he was a few feet from it. He dropped it to the floor and pulled out the wooden handling staves and slipped them through the rings in the side, lifting the whole thing off the floor before marching forward the last few feet. He ignored the cries of the others behind him and then plopped the thing down once it was buried in the lightning tendrils of the spark. He then backed off, a little nervous. That was… a lot closer than the one core sparks… guess I’ll need a way to maneuver these things closer with higher level mobs. That’d be… He blinked, frowning in consideration before looked down at the ground. Or maybe… singular spikes… lightning rods that I can throw into and bury in the ground? Although… He glanced at the stone floor with a frown. Not sure with stone floors… even if I have the strength to dig into the stone, chipping it won’t set it too well. Could I create some kind of… drill magic? Heh!

Joe glanced up and looked at the others, seeing Gwenvair smiling and Stephliquen grinning in understanding before laughing softly. He smiled back and she glanced at him before shaking her head.

“Is this how you leveled, sneaky bastard.”

Joe grinned, “Once I arrived in this town, yeah. But before this I had to do it the hard way with slimes.”

She shuddered at that, her grin twisting to a frown. He noticed and cocked his head to the side, questioning.

“What’s wrong?”

She looked at him and shuddered again, “Eaten alive in acid, slowly melted while you choke.”

Joe nodded and grimaced, “Yeah. Unpleasant.”

Kalia interrupted at that point, cutting of Stephliquen and pushing into his face, “What did you do?!”

“Lightning … electricity grounds.”

She stared at him, her eyebrows flickering into furrows, “What does that mean?”

Joe sighed, “Uh… maybe earth… or the ground is like a natural enemy to lightning, sorta like fire and water maybe?”

Understanding flared then confusion returned, “I have never heard of this.”

“Do you use elect… lightning at all, even a little?”

“No.”

Joe frowned at that then continued, “Any companions? Friends?”

She considered that before nodding slowly, “One.”

“Did they ever complain about how metal or the ground seemed to want to pull their power into it?”

“Not… complain so much as had to be cautious of any companions using many metals in their equipment.”

Joe nodded, “Well, there you go. Lighting will stick,” Joe added some air quotes with the word, “well… not the exact right words, but yeah. It will stick if it touches metal or ground. It takes a lot of work to ‘unstick’ from metal touching the ground or touching the ground itself. Did you notice how the spark stayed away from the walls, ceiling, and floor?”

She frowned at that before looking up, “But the floor is stone, not earth.”

Joe nodded, “Not earth so much as ground. And we call it ground because it… electricity, that’s lightning, seeks to go to the ground. But it will also do so by passing through anything that is touching the ground as well. Now, some things are good at blocking electricity and some things help it pass very easily. Metals often help it pass very easily, so if there is…”

Kalia interrupted and sat back, looking at his spark killer bathed in electric power beneath the screaming spark, “If metal is touching the ground… then touching the spark, the … electricity? Yes? OK. The electricity escapes the spark and seeks to go into the ground.”

Joe nodded at that, a greater grin obvious on his face, “Yes. It goes to ground and since the spark seems to be living electricity… it is much like bleeding to us. It dies when it loses all it’s ‘blood,’ or electricity.”

Kalia stared at it for a time before glancing back and Joe with narrowed eyes, “You know the dao of lightning quite… well.”

Joe grinned, not noticing her stare, lost in the sparking brilliance of the dying spark, “Not as much as the nerds who know about voltages and all that stuff. I know next to nothing.”

“Yet you know this?”

Joe’s grin grew and he glanced up at Kalia before turning back to the spasming spark, not noticing her piercing look, “It might not be exactly common knowledge amongst my people, but it is simple and easy to know and learn for those willing to listen, so many of my people would know it.”

Kalia fell silent at that and turned to look at the spark. Stephliquen settled in next to him and simply laughed, looking at what was happening. The two spoke for a bit before Gwenvair settled in by his side, Xylarnae with her, and the two began bugging him to learn reading and writing again. Gwenvair with avid desire and Xylarnae seeming to follow along with Gwenvair simply because she was doing it. Kalia ignored everyone, lost in thought as she stared at the spark.

Joe began teaching Gwenvair and Xylarnae who both listened avidly and Stephliquen soon joined in, not understanding what was being taught, but was able to quickly practice the association of symbol and sound. Once Gwenvair and Xylarnae were able to practice alone, Joe turned to Stephliquen.

“You understand?”

“Not the words, of course, but I’m getting the symbols and related sounds.”

“Not going to try to do it with your language?”

She grinned and looked at him, “No point. Why waste making an entire alphabet for my language when I can get ‘common’ just as quickly and easily with the polyglot job.”

“Private journals?”

Stephliquen stared at him a bit then chuckled, then really started laughing, “OK… true. You got me there, but I could just as easily use this same alphabet.”

“Got all the sounds mapped?”

“Most… there are a couple in my language you’re missing, but most of them. Only so many sounds a human mouth can make. I was actually more worried about all the new sounds some of the … odder races could make.”

Joe frowned at that, eyes furrowing, “Huh. You’re right… but I haven’t noticed anything like that. All the basic sounds are linked… formed from? I’m not even sure what language to use here, but they are formed from the full ‘base’ human form.”

Stephliquen pursed her lips at that and then looked at Joe, “Artificial.”

“No… it’s got a lot of weird exceptions and strange things, when I’ve thought about it. But it does seem uniquely purely human.”

Stephliquen fell silent and the two remained so in their own thoughts until Stephliquen broke from her thoughts when Gwenvair turned back to ask more questions of Joe. Joe turned and began tutoring again, Stephliquen this time joining in and learning, focused primarily on identifying the letters and their related sounds instead of actually learning common. All three practiced writing words, using the new letters then had Joe offer his opinion on their efforts to spell. Of course, Gwenvair and Xylarnae used common and created spellings of common words. Stephliquen, for her part, created Qaenar Imperial words with the symbols he’d stolen from the English alphabet, inserting a couple new temporary symbols for any new sounds he had accounted for as it had no equivalent in common.

About half way through the Master spark’s death, Gwenvair encountered a new odd sound that Joe had never noticed or at least heard before, and the three took their time to explain it to Joe who then took another letter from the alphabet closest to the sound and assigning it to that sound. Wasn’t even using Y anyway. Didn’t know they had a ‘ya’ sound. Must be rare?

Joe retreated into silence once again while all three returned to playing with their reading and writing until the spark finally died, a perfect Master core, or dual core, plonking down on the metal star weapon before clanging to the ground. Kalia turned to stare at Joe before stepping forward carefully and picking up the core. She played with it in her hands, staring at Joe with narrowed eyes, deeply lost in thought as she carefully considered him. She then grimaced and, without taking her eyes off him, passed mana through the core. Her grimace evaporated, replaced by a gasp of surprise as her gaze was ripped from Joe down to look at the core in her had.

“Perfect!” she whispered in startled ah before turning to look at Joe.

Joe looked up at her and said nothing, but his face blanked cautiously as she stared back. After a few moments, she sighed deeply then grimaced.

“How many perfect cores do you have?”

Joe pondered before looking to the side at his storage inventory then back at her, replying with a carefully neutral face, “A couple thousand.”

She staggered back, awe, greed, horror, and utter terror twisting across her face in equal measure, “You… do you kno… I don’t want to know. No… Can you ge… no… I shouldn’t… You cannot keep them!”

Joe’s carefully neutral face broke into a bit of confusion and soft worry, matching his curious and soft tone, “Why?”

“They will hunt you and kill you!”

“They?”

“Anyone. Everyone! Even the guards of this gods-forsaken cradle.”

Joe blinked at that, thoughtful before continuing, “Strong?”

“They’re Immortals! The only ones on this cradle!”

“They’re in my inventory.”

“And you think that will stop the torture.”

“They’ll never know.”

“You gave some to servants and bought us with perfect cores.”

I did? Ok… then… just wo… nope… lying is not an option. Priests can detect it easy. I’d have to think … oh… my knowledge of getting them… that’s what she was asking above. Do I know how to get them, or if I could get more… right now, she still doesn’t know, and can truthfully say that. And I’m too weak right now, if what she’s saying is any indication. Hmm… I can just get one if I need one, but… not good. Joe turned his gaze to Gwenvair and she nodded softly in agreement with his thoughts and Kalia’s statements. This… is bad…

Joe ground his teeth and opened his inventory and pulled out all the perfect cores. The appeared above his palm, spilling out of a nonexistent hole in space before filling his palm. The hole rose slowly so it was always above the highest last core to come out of the inventory space then stopped rising as the cores began spilling from his palm and falling to the floor. They all tumbled out at a rapid pace and Joe grimaced as the scattered everywhere because they bounced off his palm and onto the floor.

He flipped his palm over carefully, and the hole in space rotated through space with his palm until he was holding his hand down and the hole dumbed cores directly onto the floor in an ever rising pile. Kalia began breathing heavily as she watched, reaching out a hand to pull cores in and sending mana through them. Core after core passed through her hands and mana stream after mana stream exited from each one in perfectly smooth laminar flow. She cried out softly under her breath each time, claiming their perfection as he spilled them all over the floor.

In the hallway, next to the still glowing and heated spark killer, thousands and thousands of perfect cores tumbled to the floor and made a small pile of densely packed cone of an absurd value. And Joe raised his foot, and smashed it down, crushing hundreds of cores beneath his boot with ease. Stephliquen simply looked on with some confusion, picking up a couple to stare at them but doing nothing else. Kalia and Gwenvair stared at it with both awe and consternation and no little amount of bitterness, soft whimpers actually escaping Kalia’s lips as she watched hundreds and thousands of cores be shattered under foot.

Xylarnae actually watched with a carefully neutral expression, but the soft flush on her cheeks and slight panting accompanying gritted teeth revealed her own consternation at Joe’s actions. However, she did not deny it, taking a shuddering deep breath before closing her eyes and nodding at Joe after she tore her gaze away.

“That is very wise. Kalia is not wrong.”

Joe glanced up at her and saw her serious gaze before nodding as well, “Thank you. I will be cautious in the future.”

“Until you are capable of defending yourself, at least.”

“And when would that be?”

Xylarnae seemed uncertain at Joe’s question and turned her gaze to Kalia, “Kalia?”

Kalia jerked up, still playing with a couple perfect cores in her hands, holding a few double and even triple cores, “Ah, what?”

“The eccentric wishes to know when he can keep these cores safe?”

“Never?” Kalia giggled almost hysterically and Xylarnae frowned.

“No. Truthfully.”

Kalia sighed and looked up from staring at the cores in her hand to look at Joe with a bitter twist before turning to continue gazing at the pile of cores still covering the floor, “Truthfully, I was not wrong. Never. It would be wisest that almost none ever hears of this. You would be… hunted by one and all, but if you seek strength, then imperial clan are Sovereigns with some few Monarchs. It will be difficult.”

Joe pondered that, glancing over to see Gwenvair also a bit confused and hoped he could pass off his confusion to the uniqueness of this cradle but then grit his teeth with the realization that they all knew he wasn’t from here. That said, it seemed obvious to him that differing cultures and peoples wouldn’t necessarily label the same concept similarly. Maybe I can pass it off that way?

“Could you explain what a sovereign and monarch is?” questioned Joe before quickly continuing, a new idea to explain his ignorance suddenly popping into mind, “I’m not catching its meaning. These are simply rulers of a people, or leaders. Leaders usually are not exceptionally stronger of their people. Do leaders have intrinsic power amongst people?”

Kalia frowned, eyebrows furrowing, “Leaders are leaders because they have power. Power makes them leaders.”

“Hmm. But then what does the leadership position the people have relate to their power? The words translated for me simply mean leadership, or ruler, not power.”

Kalia frowned even more in thought, “All people of power become leaders, to some extent, although I could see how your people might distinguish the two. Do your people have many powerful who choose to simply become hermits or retreat to isolation? I have heard of some amongst the greater cycle doing so. They feel it gains them great power.”

Joe hid a swallow with some difficulty before continuing, “Some of my people have retreated to the wilderness or deserts, believing it gains them great spiritual strength.” Not what you’re thinking, but…

“Did it work?” she asked curiously.

Joe shrugged with uncertainty, “I’m unsure whether your people would believe so. Some who did thought so.”

“Hmm… then, as a measure of power for you to understand. A monarch or sovereign is over a thousand levels. You are likely similar to be an eccentric, although you are… incredibly young. In any case, a Sovereign is over a thousand and a monarch is over a thousand one hundred. Sovereigns and Monarchs have captured and controlled so many mana points!”

Joe paused at that, then nodded saying nothing. And she lost all hers coming here… so lets not beat a dead horse… but … a thousand levels. Is it the same as the levels here? I’m barely forty in mine. And something’s blocking me at fifty, so… Yeah… a thousand levels would be… a huge difference, but the way she describes it, the levels are linked to mana points, so… doesn’t seem to be the same. Maybe…

“So the level of strength is related to the number of mana points gained?”

Kalia nodded, her bitterness not enough to stop from replying to him, “Yes.”

So not the same as here. Huh. I wonder. But… I think I’ll drop it here.

He offered his thanks to Kalia, ending the conversation and she took it with relief, turning away and returning to her writing and spelling practice. Gwenvair joined her, but left her alone although Xylarnae strayed to her side and began to comfort her, silently beside her but without questioning or doing anything else. She simply sat at her side practicing her own reading and writing without interacting with Kalia. Joe noticed and sighed with some relief.

He went back to crushing all the cores on the ground until all were gone. The others stopped their studying to watch him and he saw their pained looks and struggled not to smile, not wishing to make it worse. After he was done, he leaned against the wall and simply waited. The others stared at the dust of the cores for a few more moments then sighed and returned to their studies once again.

He frowned and turned his focus to the next issue, looking at the glowing spark killer. He sighed and looked at his inventory, finding a couple full water flasks left and decided to waste one on cooling it, then stopped. Huh. Maybe?

He swapped to his ice mage and instead generated an ice point using the system instead of trying to generate the symbol himself. A point of piercing blue cold came into existence and he sent it towards the spark killer, then slowed, pausing. Kinda small… single point… not going to want to insta-cool one side, so… how do I … hmm… He wondered for a bit, maintaining his mana grip upon the point and frowned. Well… gotta test. He sent it forward and let it get closer and closer until he noticed the brilliant orange glow noticeable cool as a snowflake pealed off the point and drifted to the spark killer. He grunted with some shock as mana rushed from his core, streaming to the point. OK. Not free… but cool, still… or maybe this is some kind of channeling thing? Can I ‘tie off’ spells and leave them running?

He pulled back the point and had it rest there for a time, then tried to let it go on some form of autopilot, but nothing happened and he frowned. After fiddling for another few moments, he gave up on it for now, his MP steadily trickling down. He sighed and sent the mana point instead to spiral around each of the legs of the spark killer and around the central area where they were welded. It zipped away, almost as fast as Joe’s own mana points and he found that satisfying. The zero dimension point of ‘cold’ zipped up and down the each leg and around the core, over and over, leaving behind a trail of snowflakes that drifted towards and adhered to the spark killer. Joe found his eyebrows rising at the number of snowflakes, wondering but allowed it to happen as it drained the heat from the construct, quickly turning it from brilliant orange to dull red, then even further to where it wasn’t glowing at all, just radiating heat enough for subtle waves could be seen emanating from the spark killer. At the same time, his mana dipped rapidly and Joe watched it all work with a soft smile.

* * *

Kalia watched the eccentric send out ice mana as a singular point, a rather useless tool, then command it to zip up and down around the strange iron construct he’d made. It never touched the iron, staying equidistant from the legs and core, draining the heat from the construct with incredible precision and prowess. She felt her breath hitch to see such perfect and exacting use of mana, and found herself growing both excited and concerned. Such prowess… and control… how much training has he had… but his youth… Is he a genius? How…

* * *

Soon, his mana bottomed out, and he winced as a soft pain slithered across his head. Ouch… that… The zero point of ‘cold’ disappeared in a puff of nothingness and Joe stepped forward, ignoring the waning headache and waving a hand across the spark killer cautious. It was still warm, but seemed to have been drained of heat rather uniformly to the point it was warm to the touch bordering on too hot, but it was easy enough to grab and pop it into his inventory, although he would have to remember when he pulled it out to not hold on to it. With that thought, he pulled it out again to make sure he had the right one, and the heat from it proved it so rather quickly, and he put it back into his inventory but off by itself in the corner in its own slot. I should be able to remember that. Heh.

Joe then led them on directly into the stairwell that had appeared behind where the spark had died. They marched down and Joe did take some time to rest in the rest area, his mana low. It only took ten or twenty minutes, but that was enough time for the others to gather together once again and practice their reading and writing, urged on by the tenacious excitement of Gwenvair. Xylarnae followed along easily enough, as did Stephliquen who simply memorized the symbols and matching sounds in preparation of when she could use it with the polyglot skills. Kalia proved uninterested, but found Gwnevair pushing her until she agreed.

After the time was up, Joe stood and looked at the others, all three nodding before he led them on. Right. Lets get this done.

They marched up to the eleventh floor quickly, the door imprint sliding down quickly and lining up in front of him with ease. He paused a few moments for it to reach the right height, then pressed his whole palm in. The door shuddered, then opened slowly. OK. Almost done… just two more, then I want to get out of here! Let’s do this. Combat display up. His condensed display with only the three pools, mana, health, and stamina, showing popped up in the bottom right corner of his vision, in the far outskirts of his peripheral vision where it blurred slightly. His mana was essentially full. It dropped a single tick and he glanced at it but saw it refill almost immediately and he stared at it for a few moments. Nothing occurred for another minute or two so he took a deep breath of relief and turned back to the scene before him.

“Sorry. Thought I saw something.”

“What?” Kalia asked with concern while peering ardently into the room.

Joe shook his head, “Just something on my status, not out there.”

“Oh. OK.”

Gwenvair interjected, looking at Joe with concern and Joe glanced at her, smiling softly and shaking his head no, letting her know he was alright. She smiled back tremulously but then nodded in agreement and turned back to the room, studying it carefully.

It looked like a deep desert, with sand everywhere. Dust devils blew in the air, but mostly twirled along the ground, kicking up dust and twirling it inside. Oddly enough, even the ones in the sky had significant dust particles twirling through them, making Joe wonder how the dust devils captured and maintained the sand particles. The sandy soil stretched off into the distance and deep in the center, a massive singular rock thrust up into the sky a good five or seven hundred paces. Several sides were steep, almost vertical, in their climb to the rounded top, but the closest side on the right had a longer slower rise to the top before dropping vertically just right before it merged with the sand around it. About… what… a little taller than me? We supposed to climb it? Or something… reminds me of… oh! Yeah… that rock … the giant big massive boulder in Australia… can’t remember the name. But… kinda got that vibe! Thinks starts with a oo or something Ooroonoo. Ooloodoo? Huh… can’t remember, but something like that.

It looked massive off in the distance, but it was the only other thing in here besides the twisting dust devils and Joe found his eyes drawn to it. Weird, but… His thoughts stopped and his eyes snapped to the dust devils before looking back at the big boulder. He stared around at everything else, looking for anything else but found no obvious enemy. Then… what’s the dust devils for, they seem…

A twinkle of sun light caught his eye and he snapped his gaze over and up. He found himself looking at a dust devil a bit far away and frowned, staring at it carefully before finding something glinting in its depths. What… special dust devil? Key to the next level, or… His eyes flickered away from that dust devil and stared at another closer one, and quickly realized what had caught his eye. A core… so… another elemental, right? Bit like the sparks and snows. Wind elemental? Or… then why the sand? Or…

Thoughts plagued his mind and he wrestled with what kind of elemental he was looking at. Off in the distance, movement and change caught his eye and he stared closely then began to groan. No… not cool… not cool at all!

On top of the massive boulder, a twirling twisting shape came into existence, pulling up sand and debris before it was ejected from the top of the rock. Dust devil… and… yeah, same as these. Joe stared at the rock in deep thought. So… something like the magnetic elemental thing that also spat out sparks. So this is … what… a stone elemental? Earth elemental? Spitting out wind elementals? That… doesn’t make sense, though… so… Joe turned to look at the others.

“So the giant boulder out there… an earth elemental?”

Kalia narrowed her eyes at it but said nothing, “Maybe.”

Joe frowned, “Is it making wind elementals?”

Gwenvair shook her head, “No. Wind and earth do not play well together.”

“But all these wind elementals floating everywhere and it ma…”

“These aren’t wind elementals.”

“Oh. What are they?”

“Wind and earth… Dust elementals.”

Joe frowned, “I thought earth and wind don’t… play well together.”

Gwenvair snorted, “They don’t play well together, but these are not wind or earth elementals.”

Joe sighed. So much to learn. “So earth and wind together create … dust?”

Gwenvair nodded, “They can.”

Joe hid his second sigh and nodded, “Then a good way to kill these things?”

“Stab them till they die.”

“Stab wind… and dust,” Joe replied with despair.

“Yeah?” Gwenvair nodded and Joe stared at them for a time, considering.

“What if we took the dust out of the whirlwind?”

Gwenvair paused at that, staring at Joe then looking to Kalia. Kalia, too, looked at Joe with some consideration and was the one to reply.

“How would you do that?”

“Well, I could… wait, first. What would happen?”

Kalia replied quickly, “Probably kill them. Quickly. They’re dust elementals. If they do not have dust, then…”

Joe pondered that with pursed lips then thought of his water mage job. Maybe… could work? But I want to level, so … got a good chance here... Joe looked over at the couple hundred dust elementals before turning to look at his inventory then smiling. Well… I could use up a massive number of the wooden arrows. Still got a couple thousand left. That should be easy… infused arrow.

“Then how about that big rock in the middle.”

Gwenvair fell silent at that, staring up at Joe with consternation. Kalia came to the rescue.

“Use a mace, or hammer. Some form of blunt weapon, but there is a reason that elementals of this type are so… terrifying. Stone elementals are not something you wish to anger.”

“So infusion isn’t really an option.”

“You could infuse your hammer.”

Huh… then what do… “What does that do?”

“Your strikes are much more powerful and greatly harm hardened defenses such as this.”

“So not a one shot one kill thing?”

Kalia nodded, “Yes, but infused blunt strikes are devastating.”

Joe grimaced and nodded, “Good to know, then.”

The beginnings of a plan formed in Joe’s mind, but it was nothing as sufficient or quick as what he’d done before. Long… and tedious! Why… Joe swamped his HUD from showing the compact pools to the detailed status display and swapped it to his current job’s display before sliding it to the side and out of view, hovering in his peripheral vision. Might as well get a couple jobs, then. Those mage jobs are useful… so maybe that, although I think I’ll need something a bit higher up the chain. The points aren’t too useful. Well… no… but maybe something bigger… more? Not sure.

He stared into the room, dropping things back into his inventory and pulling out his bow and a single wooden arrow. OK. Let’s do this.

He sighted on a dust devil and loosed the arrow, adhering a single mana point to the shaft and timed when he would infuse the arrow. His arrow shot from his bow and the shattered a couple feet in front of his face, exploding into pieces and Joe shut his eyes and turned his head away. What happened? That was…

Kalia slapped him across the shoulders, “What are you doing?! You cannot attack before you enter the floor!”

Joe glanced at her then sighed, grimacing. Right. Of course. “Ah… sorry about that.”

Kalia stared at him for a time before snorting and shaking her head, turning away. Joe grimaced and turned back to the room before sighing and stepping in. OK. NOW let’s do this…

He turned to the others and pulled out a hundred or so arrows before handing them around, “Do you mind if you hand these to me as quickly as you can? I’m going to try to thin the dust devil population a bit before we close in on that big rock thing… whatever it is.”

The others nodded and Joe then began teaching them out to hand the arrows to him. It would be faster than pulling them from the quiver, especially if they could put the nock into his hands correctly. They practiced for a time, the dust devils dancing lazily on the wind near the massive boulder. When he was ready, Joe sighed and turned back towards the dust devils and the massive boulder.

He took his time with the first shot, lining it up well before slapping a mana point on the tip of the arrow. He let loose the arrow and followed it up, then commanded the mana point into the arrow when the arrow shaft looked like it was embedded into the whirlwind. The dust devil spasmed, as all creatures do when hit with an infused weapon, then the wind broke apart and dissipated and the dust and sand particles inside drifted lazily to the ground. This… is going to be too long if I have to control each mana point like this. He recalled the mana point and it snapped back into being around him, drifting in a lazy orbit.

He nocked another arrow. Maybe… he snapped another mana point to the arrow and then simply commanded it to enter the shaft when it was in the body of a dust elemental. He shot the arrow, the mana point attached to the arrows nock, and watched as it sailed up and through the elemental. It suddenly spasmed and died just like the first and Joe grinned. Nice… don’t have to control it myself… just give explicit commands and then…

Joe turned to look at the other mana points around him and then began to grin. He recalled the other mana point on the arrow to his side and it popped in to lazily dance around with the others. Mana points. Infuse any arrow that is inside an enemy, then return to my side immediately after the enemy is dead. Joe grinned with some glee then took an arrow and sighted along it at another elemental, loosing it without any mana point attached. He watched the arrow eagerly but also tried to keep an eye on the mana points dancing to his side. The arrow hit the dust devil and a mana point vanished. Joe felt his eyes shoot up when the elemental spasmed and died as if it had been hit with an infused arrow, then the mana point returned as soon as the elemental died, appearing next to his side, floating lazily, if a bit drained from the infusion. Joe’s grin grew feral. Nice! This is what I’m talking about!

Arrow after arrow began to fly rapidly from Joe’s bow, streaking into the sky and striking elemental after elemental. And Joe swapped job after job as they died by the dozens, ten or twenty every minute, and in about five or ten minutes the sky was empty and Joe was grinning up at the empty sky. OK… fun… real fun.

He glanced back at the others, “Did you see that? I hit two at once! Probably my favorite shot!”

Joe laughed, reminiscing in the memory of his arrow streaking into the sky and striking a elemental and the mana point zipping into the arrow to infuse it. The elemental died and the mana point immediately returned to his side, but the arrow continued to fly. It, by chance, clipped another dust elemental and another mana point and disappeared to infuse the arrow, killing that dust devil as well before it returned to his side. That had been a changing point for Joe, and he began setting up shots, when possible, to strike several dust devils in a single shot, but he didn’t sacrifice his speed, as the dust devils nearby to any that died had immediately begun rushing towards him. Their charge, however, did give him a couple times he was able to kill to or three in a single strike, and it was extremely satisfying.

After looking around to check for things, he saw the coast was clear and put his bow and the arrows away, taking them back from the others’ hands. Joe wasn’t even looking at them, too eager to close on the rock before more elementals spawned. Once all were away, he charged rapidly across the sands with his hammer in hand. His grin grew. Time slowed. His steps lengthened to tens of meters in a single stride. His muscles prepared for battle, hardened and powerful. Mana swelled within him, a soft song that seemed to call him to glorious battle, and he found himself swept along with it. Skin hardened. Ears sharpened. Lips rose in a feral smile. Battle!

* * *

Gwenvair stood back and watched as Joe streaked across the ground in power, dirt and debris rocketing up from his rush. Kalia and Xylarnae breathed softly even as Stephliquen huffed in obvious awe. She grinned when she hear Kalia breath out softly.

“His control is incredible!”

Gwenvair said nothing, simply enjoying their awe but then grew concerned as Joe closed in on the massive earth elemental. Mana swelled, and the creature stirred, rising from its rest in a massive wave, dozens of rocks drifting into the air to form four massive legs made of three or four boulders each under the massive body of the earth elemental. A singular massive boulder with a secondary small boulder under it formed the head and jaw, taking on the form of some kind of beast.

Joe suddenly changed directions, speeding directly towards the rear of the beast. Gwenvair frowned, growing concerned by the developing tail at that end. It wasn’t large, relative to the beast, but it was a massive construct compared to any human, and she grew concerned. The tail swiped, air howling wildly at its passing and Joe appeared to simply shift to the side, the tail barely missing him. He ignored it and erupted towards the massive rear foot, passing just to the side of it as he wielded the massive two handed hammer he’d taking from his spatial storage.

The hammer hit with all the force of a boulder, and the ‘foot’ shattered, crunching into hundreds of pieces. Joe continued on passed the elemental as it roared, the sound of rumbling boulders and twisting earth all ground together in painful rage. Joe skidded to a stop, his legs sliding across the sand before he darted towards the front of the beast then turned directly back towards the rear again, looking to target the other leg.

The beast lifted its injured foot, and hobbled, resting all of its rear weight on the other foot; the one Joe was targeting. Again, his passing was like a whirlwind of power and force, debris and dust torn into the sky then drifting back down, and he hit the other rear leg of the elemental even as it twisted around, the head snapping down hard to bite Joe. The rear leg had hopped into the air with that, twisting high and wide and Joe simply leapt into the air, easily swinging his whole body around to smash the hammer into the other massive boulder that acted like a foot. It cracked, the entire thing shattering yet somehow still connected. However, when the elemental landed, the foot shattered and the elemental collapsed to the ground, its rear legs no longer able to support it. Gwenvair huffed in relief. At least, it cannot move anymore…

* * *

Joe shivered with a bit of horror and no small amount of fear. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb! So, so stupid! Joe berated himself, shivering with fear. Jump in the air… good place to be taken out! As he’d drifted through the sky, aiming for the remaining rear foot, his slow arc through the sky hammered home just how dumb he’d been. He had no way to change his trajectory nor be able to dodge if anything had come. His excited glee at the battle was shocked from him with the long graceful arc through the sky, clarity hammering home at his helpless position. The clarity was also quickly followed by a deep concern with why he had so gleefully charged in without thought or concern. Later… focus!

Doing well enough, so… I’ll keep going, but… He grit his teeth and looked at the front paws, lips twisting. Earth elemental doggo… man… The head snapped back down at him, and he slid to the side, easily dodging the chomp even as he soured at the excitement of the fight. The head reared back and came at him again, and he slipped to the side and sprinted towards one of the front legs. Mana surged through him, feeling like a pool inside his skin that sloshed and stirred across all his body from skull to toes. He lifted the two hander hammer in his right hand and grinned again. So light! Gonna need something else? Maybe? He zipped across the ground, his left hand dropping to trail fingers across the dirt to his left as he made a hard left juke to line up on the paw he was aiming for.

His right hand went behind him, pulling back, and after confirming his line up quickly, he glanced back and up, seeing the massive head of the elemental still pulling back from its recent snap. Not a doggo… just a rock, not a doggo!

Mana swelled up in his right hand and trickled into his palm and from his fingers, passing to the grip of the hammer. Joe grit his teeth as he frowned. Too much mana? But why not overflowing in other places? Shouldn’t… his thoughts snapped back as the foot he was aiming for started to rise in the air and his thoughts sharpened, calculating everything before concluding he would still be able to get the strike in. He turned his path from beside the paw to directly under it, giving him the reach to be able to really hit the thing. Moving pretty slow… I can get out from under it!

Joe blasted through under the foot and his hammer pounded into side of the foot, shattering the rock and pulverizing it, sending shards in all directions as his hammer passed straight through the entire boulder. He didn’t have time to bring his hammer down on the second foot so skipped it, jumping over the paw as it was in his way before skittering to a stop across the dusty sandy soil. His gaze was nailed upon the massive elemental, and he watched it tumble to the ground, all the weight on the front right pushing its power. It struggled to remain upright for a bit then succeeded in pushing itself back up. Joe grinned, already setting up his next target and the line of his rush before he’d even gotten his forward momentum under control. Man… this sand is sure slick!

Finally coming to a stop, he punched forward, running to the rear a bit to come at the last foot from the rear side. He lined up and planned his hit, then turned to streak into the elemental. Coming from the rear left side of the elemental and rushing in through under and behind the leg would put the paw of the left leg on his left side, and he transferred the hammer to his left hand, twirling it a few times in his left hand with ease, his smile growing. This is it! This is… His grin grew and he streaked in.

He pulled into the side and come up almost parallel to the body, behind the left foot, hiding from the elementals sight behind the foot. Does it see? Or can it see everything, huh… wonder what… Ooh! OK! That’s not good!

The elemental had immediately reacted once he’d gotten to close, hopping to the left just slightly and revealing the ‘head’ of the elemental streaking directly at him, upside down. Joe froze for a second, but did not stop his rush, his mind swirling with options before picking one quickly. He continued his rush directly at the head, pushing closer and closer. Now! Then snapped hard to the left, juking to the outside of the left front paw. He’d timed things so closely that his juke actually took him close enough to bring his hammer down, hard on the stone that made up the paw. Mana swelled, rushing into his limbs and seeping from his left palm. Well… bit myself in the foot! Joe grumbled. He’d swapped the hammer to his left hand, but his juke and move to go outside instead of inside meant the paw was now on his right hand side.

He didn’t have time to swap the hammer and swung hard to his left, bringing the hammer around his body and smacking home on the paw stone on his right side. He even took a small skip to leap up and allow himself to pirouette into the air, bringing his entire left arm around to smack down on the stone. That said, all the force of his other strikes had primarily been from the speed of his rush as well, and this strike was only from the heavy strike his arm and body could pull off.

The stone cracked; the massive sound of shattering stone echoing past his ear, but it wasn’t enough. The pain had the elemental hopping up on into the air off its paw and Joe frowned. Its stone… and an elemental… pretty sure no nerves in rocks, but… magic? Seems a bit odd.

The hammer strike wasn’t enough to shatter the paw, but the stuttering hops in pain proved too much for it, and on the third hop, the paw hit the ground and shattered, dropping the entire ‘body’ of the elemental to the ground.

Joe grinned to see the beast go down, but the pirouette and massive shuddering of the earth tripped him up and he went down hard. He panicked, worried about what to do with his hammer then grinned, sucking it into this inventory, before frowning with a curse when he remembered tossing his bow to the side in his fight with the bird. Right… gotta learn. I got ‘magic hammer’ space now!

Joe took the tumble as best he could, rolling across the ground before popping back up on his feet, having caught a lucky tumble that got him back up. He grinned and got his gaze back on the elemental. He waited, watching, but the thing did nothing but loll and refuse to use any of its legs. He watched a bit more then began circling it, heading in on the side, staying far from the head, tail, and damaged appendages, although trying to escape the legs was almost impossible. Hopefully this is enough?

He lined up for the side, bending over in the sprinter’s starting position and took off. His hammer came back out of the inventory and he fumbled it a bit, having retrieved it by the head. He had to shift it around to grab the shaft but had plenty of time. He streaked in at speed and the elementals head swung around, but it was too slow. He grinned and took a low leap clnot wishing to take any large leaps anymore. His body rose and twisted, landing on the side of its body and bringing the hammer down between his two legs, slamming into its side. He’d hit hard and fast enough that he was literally standing on a wall, his body parallel to the floor. His legs flexed, taking in the force of the low jump, then he pushed off hard and far out of the reach of the elemental, doing a summersault in the air to land on his feet. He turned around, eager to see the damage he’d done, then frowned. Can’t move now… but don’t want to be too close to that head…

A massive crack ran jaggedly down the body of the elemental, a heavy divot in the center of the crack where he’d struck with his hammer. Hit the same spot? Or… help the crack travel? Joe paused, thinking for a bit while the elemental somehow howled, a deep rumbling of earth and rock that somehow came out as a pained cry. Joe considered for a bit then made his decision, sprinting forward and leaping back into the air once again, aiming a bit higher but making sure his leap was still short distance and protected from either the head or tail. Climbing up the body slowly was something he wanted to stay away from and hoped quick leaps and retreats would keep him safe. Each leap still sent a cold chill through him, but he had to end the elemental so he kept at it.

His aim was almost perfect, and he landed right where the crack twisted up towards the back of the elemental. It was a bit off, but Joe was able to twist his two handed strike just slightly and bring the hammer down with massive force directly on the crack right near where it reached up towards the back of the creature. He grinned as he leapt back, twisting back and around to land on his feet but facing towards the creature. He frowned and leapt back another two steps. Right… still a bit too close. This thing is huge!

Back safely out of range, he took a look at his handiwork and frowned a bit, then crack not having grown too much further up the back. It had gotten wider where he’d struck and back towards his original strike, but it hadn’t extended the length by much. His eyes went back to the location of his original strike. Huh… guess the answer is hit the same spot…

Feeling a lot more comfortable because the location was very easily accessible, he sprinted forward and prepared a third strike. Gotta be careful not to be too predictable, though… so… He glanced towards the head of the elemental as he sprinted forward, cautiously studying its movement but saw it mewling softly and apparently attempting to lick its paws. Joe grimaced, sighing. Not a dog… relax!

He came in and made sure to land with both feet on the body once again, slamming home his hammer before leaping away and running quickly. A whoosh of wind swept over his head and he glanced back, seeing the massive jaws clack shut just over where he’d struck and he grimaced. A bit close for comfort! He continued retreating before taking a moment to evaluate how he was doing, then grinned, seeing that the crack was much bigger and seemed to have gone much deeper. His grin fell a bit with a thought. Does the thing die then? Or will the front still be alive… not really going to bleed to death, so…

He took a deep breath in consideration, evaluated the elemental’s current focus, then sprinted in for another strike, this time option to hit low on the belly, right on the crack that he’d already formed. He propped his hammer up above his head as he came in, then swung it down, timing it to be sweeping down past his waist right when he hit the body of the elemental. He lifted up his left leg, slamming it into the belly of the elemental and used it as a spring, bending it and taking the force of his sprint in and softening it. The hammer which had swept down past to his waist swept down and past his knees, almost like he was swinging a golf club, and arced around and slammed into the already formed crack deep below almost at the edge of the belly.

Joe pushed off and leapt back as quickly as he could even as a deep crackle of shattering stone matched with a deep rumbling how of grinding stone and earth echoed out. Joe’s mad dash to escape turned into a stunned backwards stumbling as he watched the cracks spreading madly beyond what his simple strike should have caused, spreading across the entire body, then passing into the disconnected boulders that made up the head, legs, and tail. How? Joe slowed then stared up in awe as the entire thing crumbled to pieces and crashed to the ground. The feeling of experience rushed into him and Joe grinned, then laughed. He staggered back a few steps before falling down and then falling on his back with a laugh when he saw the stairwell to the next floor appear off to his right. Ha! Massive stone thing taken down just fine… a stupid two core slime almost takes me out. Sheesh. So weird.

* * *

Kalia watched Gwenvair sprinting forward towards the eccentric matched by Stephliquen, the odd foreign statuesque blond. Xylarnae followed lazily after, but seemed to be at ease, a soft smile on her face as she marched towards him. Kalia found herself staring at the boy, wondering. Gotta decide… rather soon.