Electricity coiled between the ten fingers of each hand on the keeper. Its fingers purposefully bent to boost the spell's potency. I was mid air, in water that was under the keeper's control. The second the spell leaves its hands I'm done for.
I quickly bursted out as much fire as I could from my body. Overpowering the keeper's water and obscuring myself. Shaking off a headache I increased my weight by a lot. The lighting bow shot and flew over my head. My increased weight hit the floor, sending clouds away from me.
I flicked my arms back and lowered my weight. The keeper started firing spells at random all around him, unable to see me within the steam. I enhanced my speed, slinging myself around spell after spell.
I popped out of the steam, the keeper turning to lock on me. I twisted to the side and pulled myself and him together. The keepers feet slugged forward by my gravity spell.
I cut in an x shape and slid behind him and hid under smoke. The keeper, released from the spell, turned around looking for me. It raised a hand to cast a spell and the whole thing came off. It tried to raise the other but it fell off. Lastly the eyes widened before the head fell off.
All the pieces of the keeper clumped back together and formed a small swirling blue cloud. I poked my head out of my hiding spot. Confirming it was gone I skipped over. The cloud was stained with some black mass from the keeper. The atmosphere got hotter from the intense fire released.
The clouds smelled like s'mores from the burned keeper. Strangely sweet for the monster. What was in the blue cloud was a small ring. Putting it on, the ring resized to fit my middle finger.
"Ouu!"
The ring was silver with a few swirling patterns engraved on it. Parts of the ring were cut out following the flow of the engraved ring.
Well pretty decent find for my first solo dungeon. Pretty dicy too, I thought while skipping along the clouds.
…
Getting the reward and a promotion for the feat of a solo dungeon I was pretty happy for the day. Hiding and taking out all the monsters in there was challenging and because of the keeper I wanted some s'mores.
Stella's parents let me into their guest room to stay with them in Spirit. It was close to Stella's room. I didn't bring much but either way I took a shower and changed. While her parents started off to bed I went and knocked on Stella's door. Of course she didn't answer so I let myself in.
She laid passed out in her bed. I walked over and sat down on a nearby chair.
Her face was pale and frozen to the touch. She looked dead, and without a heartbeat anymore felt dead. I laid my head down on her body. The lack of noise made perfect conditions to sleep, and soon I did fall back asleep.
For the next few weeks I stayed here at Stella's parents house. I'd go on quests and make some money. While I was here I paid Stella's parents for rent, but they would try not to take it.
Over and over again everyday I would exhaust my magic. Burning up more fire than my new large reserves. I had pushed so hard to maintain my performance every hour. Quests I went on didn't ever get as risky as the first. I stayed on lower end ones waiting for Stella to wake up.
While I slept with my head on Stella's bed I wouldn't have the nightmare. Instead my dreams were filled with much warmer experiences that I'd forget by the morning.
Things fell into a nice routine here. I'd wake up and greet Stella's parents. They would make me food and head off to work. I'd also leave with them, going to the guild. I'd pick a tedious long mission to take up the day. Then head back and eat with her parents. At the end of the day I'd lay my head on her bed and fall asleep next to my sister.
The uncomfortable way I sat in a chair next to her bed I didn't mind. In fact it felt warmer — Though, sometimes I'd wake up with a blanket — I liked it more than my own bed. I'd warm up her cold skin with my own.
I couldn't explain it to myself, simply I cared for her. For my friends too. In fact when I thought of fighting Baydí that day, I wasn't doing it all out of obligation. I wanted to do it for Stella. I wanted my friends in Fayha to be alright. It felt different to me than anything else I've ever felt and it put me into a better dream each night because of it.
I texted with Herika and Angel, keeping up with them. The two were going on multiday trips up the large dungeon in Tober till they had to come back down for supplies. They would send updates about what they were doing. They had been fighting on the second wave of floors. Specifically fighting monastiks, which are giant arm muscles ascensionally. They have two legs, one weaker than the other, and a head that's tilted to the side. But their whole body is an elongated and enlarged muscular arm.
I wanted to be there but I wanted to be with Stella more. Ezree and I had finally gotten back in touch after a day or so in Spirit. She had told me that her brother was freaking out about her fighting Baydí and was trying to keep her inside. She eventually got him to 'chillax' as she put it.
Given that both me and Ezree, the only dragons there that night, didn't get hero syndrome it was looking good for us. Angel's special case excludes him from getting hero syndrome. Even if it didn't he was also fine.
She informed me on many different tours she was giving. Including exclusive crude king tours where she'd explain the history in all the parts in nightmare. She even thought of giving a tour from where the Baydí fight happened. For some reason I had to talk her down from that, as if it weren't obvious.
Of course I told them about what I did. They asked about Stella and her condition. We couldn't tell if she was improving but I had faith she'd come back. There was probably just too much for her to comprehend. I couldn't imagine it.
Using anything from Universal Being was different from magic entirely. When I used Universal Destruction it just happened when I wanted it to. No drawbacks or anything. Looking at my face when I did it I found out I didn't need to place the rune itself on my body, my eyes would work. When I used it, my eyes would grow sharper and brighter. The shape was a lighter orange than my eye color, almost yellow.
I had gotten some extra magic points to experiment with Universal Helper.
The small increase magic points already give made it harder to confirm it worked. I had tried to increase the range I was able to make spells. I also tried to make myself better at wielding swords and increasing the heat of my fire. The magic points disappeared so it must have worked, right? My range after repeatedly increasing it seemed to actually increase when I really tried.
I had gotten more magic items from a few dungeons. Usually I sold them for more money. The ring was quite the perfect thing I could have gotten. It worked how I was treating the segmented sea. I could control water better by pointing the ring in the direction I wanted. These rings were rare to get and would break easily so I saved it for whenever Stella was up.
In the capital apparently dungeons were spawning more frequently here and in other large cities. Fayha's problem with a boatload of dungeons dwarfed the rest of the world. I and many other online believed that dungeon keepers had to be an anomalied monster with a condition we didn't know because there was just so many.
Week three arrived and I followed steps I was getting used to. Sliding off the chair, eating, heading to the guild. I had been mentally mapping out the city these weeks. I took another different path than I normally did while still arriving at the guild.
There were always quests in a big city like this. Derstboils were common. Another common one are marífts. Their anomalied conditions were the magnitude of sleep in the area. Thankfully they are pretty harmless, not just because they don't attack often but because they're pretty dumb.
A quest was put up with around a month's worth of nights in Fayha to clear out a hoard that had conjugated in a nearby town. Marífts are also known for their wool which is very high quality and plentiful, because of the conditions to sleep. They are sometimes seen with teleportation magic so it could be hard to eliminate a hoard for me.
"This town though…" I took the quest off the board.
Given my trouble with nightmares I had watched strange videos. One listed good places to sleep. Oddly the town of Marine had a lot of sleeping reviews on sleep related apps —that I totally don't own— but I read about.
I shrugged my shoulders looking at the paper. Most of the reviews are really old though. After what they did to themselves not many people went there. I was already surprised someone made their way out to even offer up a quest to eliminate this hoard.
On the other hand, there were tons of quests put up for the city surrounding the tower in west Mila. Specifically for the tower dungeon, more than usual or more than I saw throughout all of West Fayha if you exclude dungeons.
I reached for a different quest but the ground shook. I dropped the Marine paper and looked around. It did it again. Then another and another. It felt like the whole city was shaking. I and many others rushed outside.
Unlike those around me, I found an empty window and went for it. I lowered my weight and shot out with goblin sling in the direction they were originating. The second I saw the outside I saw smoke. Thankfully it was on the outside of a barrier in Spirit. It spiraled within itself unlike normal smoke until it was overtaken by more.
It wasn't smoke, it was ash. It sparked and exploded against the barrier before spiralling into itself unnaturally. Seeing the explosion halted me. I was already flinging towards the edge of the barrier but I didn't know if I should. The explosive ash was covering the entire city, the barrier was holding it back.
But then the shield started to crack. Obligation fueled my speed. My horns coiled into my head. But then all the ash disappeared.
My feet skidded and stopped at the edge of the shield. Far off from Spirit was a small black figure. It moved but I couldn't tell how. Something appeared above its head, and a bell's ringing shattered the air towards me. Following the sound was a cloud of ash. It barreled towards the shield. Becoming more violent as time slowed to a crawl.
I didn't move. I'd be wiped out from this and there was nothing I could possibly do. I thought fast trying to think of anything.
A hand was placed on my shoulder and pulled me back as it stepped out the shattering barrier. The tall black haired man with tally marks lining his body stood proudly against the ash that started to spark on its journey to us. He simply swiped his hand and all the ash disappeared.
A real hero appeared to stop whatever was happening. It was Rex. He appeared just in time and easily got rid of the giant spell.
In the distance a giant cloud of ash spawned around the man again. This time it exploded immediately. The explosion's radius nearly hit the city if not teleported away. I guess the person would rather die than face Rex.