Vol. 7 - Power - Chapter 40 (Patreon)

When he was finished looking over the plans for the sword, Thomas stuck them back into his inventory. After the group finished recovering they continued looking for the fortieth floor while slaughtering their way through the Great Apes. Thomas stayed in the back and focused on increasing the rank of his different elements. He also spent a bit of time trying to think of new elements he could learn and use. He also attempted to use his Gravity Magic but it still rapidly drained his mana and left him with nothing in a short few seconds. Gravity was clearly an element he wasn't anywhere near ready to use regularly yet.

Since he couldn't come up with any new individual elements, he had the idea to try combining two elements for new attacks. The first two he tried to combine were two of the Elements of Life, his highest ranking magics. As they came to the next room of Great Apes, Thomas took a deep breath and pulled on his mana conjuring up both Earth and Fire mana while trying to combine them together. Conjuring two forms of mana at once took a fair amount of concentration. The two elements didn't want to combine and clashed at first but as he poured in more mana he forced them to combine. The two elements swirled together with the red of fire domination while spots of brown accented.

Summoning two forms of magic cost twice as much as a single element already but the moment he combined them the mana cost doubled once more. Not wanting to hold the mana in his hand for too much longer, Thomas called out, "Everyone, get back!"

Everyone looked at him in confusion before doing what he said. Anytime a mage said to get away, it was best to do as the mage suggested. Though the Great Apes tried to pursue, Minerva gave them a powerful shove before retreating. Meanwhile, Aria and Lexiana got away easily thanks to their speed. Once everyone was clear, Thomas lifted his hand and poured more mana into the mixture of elements in his hand and projected them at the Apes. The moment he did a stifling heat filled the room and lava blasted out of his hand like a beam and slammed into the Apes. He waved his arm from side to side covering the Apes in the searing liquid rock.

Screams of agony and the stretch of burning hair filled the room while the Apes were literally burned and buried to death. The other members of the group groaned and covered their noses. Snowlily violently bit Thomas's calf in protest at the stench. Even as the one who cast the spell, Thomas found the smell unbearable. He quickly stopped casting the spell but the damage was already done. The Lava remained for another thirty seconds before it began to fade away. Though the Lava and Great Apes were gone, the stench remained. Thomas quickly gathered the mana crystals using metallic strings before everyone fled to the next room. Selena even went so far as to cast a wind spell behind them to push the smell away.

When they were clear, Selena looked at Thomas, "So, since when can you combine elements?"

Thomas pointed in the direction they came from, "Since I melted those Apes."

Selena nodded, "Just be careful when trying new combinations. Some are more dangerous than others and some..." She looked at the room they left, "Have unholy consequences."

Everyone shuddered at the memory of the scent. Snowlily growled a warning at Thomas. He looked around and nodded, "I'll try not to do something like that again."

Everyone seemed relieved at that as they finished walking down the tunnel and arrived at the next room. As the fight began, Thomas tried to think of another combination of elements to use. He gathered Earth and Water mana combining them together, with some effort, and cast it out beneath the Apes in the backline. He continued to channel mana into it until it became a thick quagmire that began to swallow the feet of the Apes. The monsters were slowly being sucked down into the quagmire as they struggled to try and escape from it. Thomas had to continually channel his mana into the spell to keep it from fading but his effort paid off as the Apes were sucked into the swampy water to their waists. Minerva, Lexiana, and Aria made easy work of the trapped Apes.

When he finally stopped channeling the spell, the bodies of the Apes popped out of where the swamp had been and collapsed to the ground. Selena glanced at Thomas before sighing and moving on. In the next room, he combined Earth and Water again to create a spell modeled after an industrial water cutter. He projected the water at high pressure while mixing in small jagged pieces of rock. The new water cutter spell easily sliced through the Apes and cut them down. Sadly, it did not give him a new element.

As they moved on he tried to think of ways he could combine his elements whether they were mystical or scientific. He thought about combining Lightning magic and Magnetic magic to create plasma but he'd recently confirmed he couldn't use Magnetic magic very much yet. As he thought about it he tried a new combination. He combined Light and Heat magic together. Light magic already generated a good amount of heat when focused but adding the Heat magic to it amplified that to a higher degree. When the two magics combined and were fired from the palm of his hand a blastwave of heat rippled through the room. The beam of magic sliced through the Apes with unbelievable ease and hit the walls of the dungeon behind them. The heat of the beam was so intense that it actually melted the wall behind the Apes.

Everyone was surprised at the power behind his attack, even Thomas. They all stared at him in silence. Thomas cleared his throat before explaining, "I combined Light and Heat magic together..." He looked at his character sheet before he continued, "It became Solar Magic."

They all showed confused looks while Selena asked, "Solar?"

"Ah, basically it's the power of the sun..."

Their eyes widened together. Lexiana practically yelped in surprise. Though she had promised herself, multiple times, to no longer be surprised by whatever Thomas did, Selena was still shocked, "You're using the power of the SUN?!"

Thomas shrugged his shoulders, "Well, I wasn't going for that and was just experimenting but... yeah. Looks like I am."

"Be careful with it Thomas, it looked extremely powerful and dangerous."

Thomas nodded and moved along after collecting his share of the loot. They moved together while Thomas trying another combination by adding Wind to Fire magic. It didn't create a new element but it did greatly amplify the power of his Fire magic. The combination of Earth and Wood magic gave him Forest Magic, which was basically just much stronger wood magic. Combining Water and Fire magic let him detonate steam explosions but didn't give a new element. Ice and Wind combined to form Blizzard magic, something Snowlily immediately copied off of him.

Learning magic that seemed to be based on a weather phenomenon gave him an idea. In the next room, he combined Water and Lightning magic to create Storm Magic. The more he experimented the fewer new types of magic he discovered and the more combination spells he found. All in all, he was having a  great time slaughtering Great Apes in creative ways, until they found the stairs leading down to the next floor. The fortieth floor would be the boss floor. The boss, according to the guide, was a Sapphire Faerie.

When she saw the word 'Faerie', Selena paled a little, "Is it really a Faerie?"

Thomas looked over at her, "Seems so, why?"

Selena shuddered, "I hate fighting Faeries."

Minerva and Aria nodded their heads in agreement. Thomas couldn't help asking, "Why?"

Selena sighed, "No matter what kind of Faerie it is they all share a few things in common. They're all small, between fifteen and twenty centimeters. They all fly at high speeds using the wings on their backs. They can all use magic and usually specialize in a single element. Going by 'Sapphire' it's likely either an Ice or Water user. Lastly, the bastard bugs are tricksters. They're more annoying than dangerous in most cases but once you piss one off, it will chase you down and try to kill you with all of its might. Since we're in a dungeon and not the wild it will likely just go straight for the killing."

Thomas nodded along, "Anything special we need to deal with it?"

"They're fast and dangerous but they're also pretty fragile. The best way to deal with them is by using powerful wide range magic in large quantities." She smiled brightly, "Your Lava magic would come in pretty handy against the Faerie."

Thomas grinned. He hadn't used the Lava magic since he first discovered it, the smell of burning hair was just too disgusting, "I'm looking forward to it then. I've been wanting to play with it for a while now."

Selena turned to the melee-focused fighters, "As for you guys, just protect yourselves. Faerie's are too fast to hit with swords and knives."

With everyone set and no one in front of them, they went to the door of the boss room and set the difficulty to 'Normal'. No one wanted to deal with a roided up Faerie. The moment they stepped into the room they heard tingling laughter. The whole group looked around until Aria spotted something and pointed, "Over there!"

Everyone looked and Thomas caught his first sight of a Faerie. The Faerie was probably the single most attractive monster he'd seen inside of AoG so far. Though it was only about seventeen centimeters tall it had the figure of a full-grown voluptuous woman and wore a skimpy light blue outfit that consisted of a bra-like top and short flowery skirt. Fluttering on her back were a pair of sky blue butterfly wings with black lines that gave them a pattern similar to snowflakes. If the Faerie had been at least a hundred and sixty centimeters taller, she would have been a real bombshell.

The beautiful little Faerie tittered as it flew around the room. As the group stepped closer, it turned to face them and hissed. Its mouth opened ungodly wide revealing sharp little fangs. As the group got in formation, the Faerie lifted its little hands and conjured up small icicles that looked like needles. Selena conjured flames in her hands as she called out, "It's using ice!"

Selena sent out a blastwave of flames at the Faerie. Thomas lifted his hands and conjured up his Lava mana before throwing his hands forward. A fan-shaped wave of searing hot lava flowed from his hands, slammed onto the ground, and rolled toward the Faerie.

The Faerie giggled with glee as it flew higher into the air and dashed to the side while launching the tiny spears of ice at the group. Aria and Lexiana used their speed to dodge the attacks while Minerva turtled behind her shield. Snowlily conjured her own Ice magic to create a shield. Selena and Thomas were too busy sending their spells at the Faerie to create defenses. Selena was hit in the shoulder with one of the small spears while another hit Thomas's thigh and shattered on his armor though, horrifyingly, it left a small dent in the Mithril.

Seeing the force behind the tiny projectile reminded Thomas of his own Peace Maker. He quickly turned to check on Selena only to see her ignoring the wound while her left arm hung limply at her side and her shoulder bled profusely. Worried that she couldn't take much more, Thomas poured his mana out and conjured up a towering wall of Lava. With a powerful push, he drove the huge molten rock wall at the small Faerie.

Their Faerie screeched in rage as it saw the approaching wall of Lava. It lifted both of its hands up and case out a powerful blast of ice that slammed into the lava. Steam blasted out and filled the room quickly as ice and lava fought for dominance. Selena redirected her flames and fired them at the wall of lava to prevent it from losing too much heat and turning back to plain rock. The two pushed their mana to the limit and began to overcome the efforts of the Faerie. With a mighty crash, the lava wall folded over and crashed down onto the Faerie.

The little monster let out a high-pitched shriek as it was buried beneath the lava. Selena and Thomas kept their spells up as long as the Faerie continued to scream. They only stopped when the Faerie's screams finally came to an end. When the remains of Thomas' spell faded away, all that we left was a tiny golden mana crystal. The moment she saw it, Selena charged over and snatched it up. Thomas arched an eyebrow at her reaction. She'd never shown much interest in any of the mana crystals to drop so far so her actions drew his attention, "Whatchya got there?"

Selena clasped the crystal tightly in her hand and hid it behind her back, "I'll tell you if you promise to let me keep it."

He shrugged his shoulders, "Alright."

She let out a sigh and quickly stored the mana crystal inside of her inventory, "It's called a Golden Mana crystal. They're extremely rare and used in some of the most powerful potions that the castle Alchemists can make. They're also good for enchantments."

Thomas found that interesting but didn't think much of it. He constantly purified his mana crystals so he didn't think there was much better. Unless it was from the Legendary realm or higher perhaps. He shrugged his shoulders, "Not interested. Keep it."

Selena let out a relieved sigh. The group gathered up and made their way down to the fortieth floor. They planned to farm there for a bit before calling it a day.