You have entered the [Frozen Hopes] Dungeon

The following challenges are available:

- Trial of Strength

- Trial of Agility

- Trial of Stamina

- Trial of Magic

- [Dungeon Hunter]

Select your challenge.

Challenge Selected

Your party has selected the [Trial of Strength] challenge. Do you wish to take on this challenge with them?

YES / NO

The entrance to the dungeon had been a vertical crack in the side of glacier. Kestra barely had time to take in the oddly luminous quality of the ice cavern before the two notices flashed across her vision.

"Trial of Strength?" she asked.

Graemire said, "It will be the most straight forward. One creature per room. We will defeat the first, and then we can spend as much time as we wish in the room. There will be medallion. After we clear a room, the dungeon system will award us points that may be used to claim prizes. The more rooms we clear, the more dungeon points we earn. You'll gain experience with us as long as you provide some kind of support. Ah, do you have a support spell?"

"I have a bow and hunting arrows, and the Minor Healing spell," Kestra said.

"Oh! Shoot the creature after we hit it, then," Graemire explained.

Kestra confirmed that she wanted to join her party, and a moment later they were teleported to an icy field. A boar easily three times Kestra's height lifted its head, nose twitching before it turned to face them.

A pedestal with four medallions stood to their right. Graemire passed out the medallions, showing them how to snap them, then turned to face the giant boar. It was pawing at the ground, its breath turning into steaming clouds around it.

Vostler opened the fight by throwing out a fire ball. Kestra followed up with shot at the boar's eye. Her arrow struck, but didn't penetrate, though it did get caught in the closing eyelid.

Graemire turned into his new draconic shape and roared. The grass of the field shot up and tangled the boar before it had a chance to charge them.

Yorgin, too, transformed, turning into a green, horned snake that looked about of a size to eat the boar. He hissed, spitting a globule of a silvery substance that made the boar squeal in pain. The substance also damaged some of the grass holding it still, and the boar got a few steps to the side.

That was as much as Kestra was able to follow. Seven level up screens and two skill grade advancement notices blinded her. She quickly dealt with the level up notices, and paused to read the notices for her two skill advancements.

Congratulations!

You have successfully advanced your [Stealth] skill to the [Apprentice] Ranks! You will receive one skill related item to mark this occasion!

+ Scroll: Fade Spell

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Stealth

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A smart person knows when not to fight, and how to avoid being drawn into conflicts.

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When you stand still, your can suppress your presence for the duration of your concentration.

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Congratulations!

You have successfully advanced your [Marksman] skill to the [Apprentice] Ranks! You will receive one skill related item to mark this occasion!

+ Blueprint: Repository Arrowhead

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Marksman

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When using ranged weaponry, hitting what you aim for is always a good thing.

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When sighting for a shot, your gain greater visual acuity.

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"No loot?" Vostler asked, poking the dissipating monster corpse.

Kestra glanced up, then blushed. "Sorry, I've got an auto-loot perk. Um, just a sec."

She pulled out the items that came from the boar's stele. A multi-colored stone the size of her head Inspri quietly identified as a High Celestial grade elemental core, and the slightly burnt hide of the boar, its tusks, a few significant chunk of boar meat, bones, sinews, and heart.

Yorgin stretched out his snake body before resuming a humanoid shape. "Mind if Vost gets the core?" he asked, looking at Graemire.

"We'll fight a few more before we stop, in that case. The others may also need better sustenance. Not to mention the anchor's toll to return to the Divine Horizon."

Yorgin glanced at Vostler, then nodded. "I am agreeable to this. Vostler?"

The Fire Elemental nodded. "Just let me eat, and I'll be ready!"

The remaining fights went pretty much the same way. The trio of Divine Creatures with her held back enough for Kestra to contribute to the fight, then obliterated the challenges. Just to pick up a few more skills, Kestra tried mixing up her attacks, or actions.

She had a few ceramic bomb forms. Having the Holding ring had opened up her carrying more as the ring made retrieving them from a safe location much easier, and she threw a few of them, the first filled with a flammable oil. Yorgin's venom turned out to be inert to non-organics, though the bomb forms weren't glazed and the venom did seep through them quick enough that Kestra wasn't comfortable with directly handling the bomb forms he filled for her. Her Control Water and Control Fire spells, though, gave her just enough of a barrier that she could still toss the latter ones.

She tried tossing out one of her delaying traps, and though it went off, it mostly just confused the Celestial Badger they were fighting at that point.

When her Mana Manipulation skill advanced into the Journeyman ranks, she received a scroll that allowed her to pour mana into an object to reinforce it, so she switched back to her bow for the next fight.

They stopped after the eighth fight, more because Kestra's head was swimming from the rapid leveling than because the fights were getting challenging for her companions. They did thoroughly search the room before Graemire and Yorgin set up a serious set of shields around Kestra.

"I'm just a bit paranoid," Graemire said. "I doubt the dungeon will react to opening a gate to a personal realm, but I haven't seen anyone do so in a dungeon before."

Kestra appreciated the concern. She cataloged her gains from this power leveling excursion while they did their magics, starting with pulling up her Skill Book.

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SKILL BOOK

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Alchemy: 47

Blades: 7

Mana Manipulation: 60

Marksman: 61

Meditation: 22

Stealth: 52

Throwing: 61

Tracking: 5

Traps: 18

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From Mana Manipulation, she gained the Journeyman Imbue Mana technique, and an item called a Training Orb of Distractions.

In addition to the Repository Arrowhead blueprint, her Marksman skill Journeyman item was a High Apprentice grade Frostbite Compound Bow that would allow her to add cold damage to projectiles she shot from the bow. The metal wheels and metallic string of the bow intrigued her.

Her Journeyman item for Stealth was a technique for removing her tracks called, unsurprisingly, Traceless Steps.

For Throwing, she gained a Low Apprentice grade sling staff at her Apprentice rank transition, and a scroll for the Extended Range Toss technique. The technique was of an Apprentice grade, too, but she thought it the more valuable of the two.

Graemire and Yorgin finish as she was just considering how insane it was that she tripled her level, reaching thirty, in less than an hour, and most of that time had been spent piddling around the rooms after clearing them. Graemire had mentioned that some dungeons hid additional treasures in trial rooms, and Vostler had enjoyed hunting for them, despite that they didn't find any. She estimated she had at least ten hours worth of stat boosts to apply, if each boost took five minutes to work through her system.

However, it was time now for Kestra to open the way into her private realm. She found that opening her gate was significantly easier than before. Perhaps it was the dungeon, or perhaps the mana shields, or maybe the increase in her skills, mana pool and recovery rate. She wasn't sure, and it was an interesting thing to experiment with. Later.

Nothing happened outside of their mana shield. Graemire and Vostler ducked into her realm, the first with a curious enthusiasm and the second seeming more to be enjoying his expectations in advance. Yorgin, though, paused.

"You will not cage us?" he asked.

"That would be asking for a whoop-ass of trouble, now wouldn't it?" Kestra asked. "No, I will not intentionally trap you, and if something makes the gate close, I'll do what I can to open it as soon as possible, if I can't just pull you out directly. You have all been incredibly kind to me; insulting that kindness is inimical to my nature."

Yorgin bowed to her, saying nothing else before he walked through the gate to her realm.

Kestra put herself in a meditative state and turned her attention to her realm, trusting in the shields.

Vostler was quite fascinated with her sky, and was watching the goings on with the others from up near her realm's light. It never truly went dark, merely dimming down for a restful night's sleep, and to provide a diurnal cycle for her plants.

Yorgin looked around with interest. Having seen what had been, he had a better appreciation of the changes the others had wrought, though Graemire made many an appreciative noise as his friends led him about.

It mildly surprised Kestra at first that he showed more interest in the rarer metals Nicada had subdued than the grand sculpture Ralouf had made of her abode. Then she remembered that he was an Elemental first, and that plants made use of trace metals, water, soil, and sunlight.

The Nature Sprite had started out hugging its tree with a kind of bashful panic. Graemire gave it time to calm down as it watched him be shown all about before he approached.

"Hello, Little Brother. May I aid your tree?" Graemire asked, his voice pitched to sooth, his words spoken with the mild, well intentioned condescension of an adult to a toddler.

Apparently, the Nature Sprite was male. He nodded, then said, "Yes, Emperor," and bowed.

Graemire turned his attention to the Short Dagger Bladed Leaf Tree. "Only Ten Year?" he asked, looking at the sprite with interest.

"Second sprout," the Nature Sprite declared, his stance and tone one of pride. "Grew first to Fifty Year!" The pride shifted to anger. "Fighting fang tigers broke first sprout. Hard, hard work to sprout second."

"Yet you did it," Graemire stated, sounding less like a bachelor aunt addressing a toddler. While they were speaking, Kestra felt the change in the mana of the tree, and the tug on her mana well as the barked over stump once more began to grow, this time more fully regenerating the original tree.

"I did!" the Nature Sprite proudly stated. There was more of a resigned quality to the way the Sprite pointed to Vostler. "Then big burny kicked my tree and broke bad-bad. Nice Soul give Bargain. She heal tree, I care-take her plants. Good Bargain. Big soil move tree to good-grow. Need more plants, but good-good ones here, and new-strange seeds!"

"Will you show me, little brother?" Graemire asked.

The Nature Sprite hesitated. He muttered, "Not-mine."

Kestra cleared her throat, then said, «Mister Nature Sprite, would you please show Honored Divine Emperor of Wood Graemire the plants of my realm?»

"Yes-good!" he answered and happily began towing Graemire all over the place. The two conferred with the pleased seriousness of craftsmen enthusing over their craft.

During their tour, Eilith wafted a light misty fog over the plants, and Kestra realized that all of the plants in her realm were growing, basking in the aura of the Emperor of Wood.

When the tour was over, Kestra asked, «Honored Divine Graemire, would you be interested in examining the whole of my seed stock, and planting that which can find a good home in my realm, under Mister Nature Sprite's care?»

The two wood aligned elemental beings looked like she was giving meals made with Advanced Cooking to beggar children.

"Please!" Graemire answered, and Kestra sent over all of her seed stocks, and a few of her whole nuts and fruits from her rations.

The last of her to-plant goodies she sent over was an orb fruit with a lightly pocked rind. The color of the fruit was often called blushing gold, though she had heard orange applied to similar colors. Orange, however, implied a uniform color, while the orb had some variation between a more golden hue and a rosy one. «This is a Five-Seed variant of a Brumi tree. Back where I'm from, the lore is that when the five seeds are planted together, they grow into a single tree whose fruits will range in taste. The more yellow the fruit, the more bitter while the more red, the sweeter. More importantly, the tree can thrive in any mana density, and skilled Botanomancers can easily commune with the tree to grow living tools in exchange for feeding them mana. Plant the seeds individually, though, and you'll get more finicky trees that produce crops of fruit which have a spicy, bitter taste to them. The leaves of the brumi are used as a mild nose-clearing spice, and the fallen branches, too. The later are sometimes used as a substitute for salt. The peel of the fruit is a favorite addition to breads as either a fresh grate or dried and crumbled. I was originally thinking it would do well by the mana well, but I have a lot to learn about the local plants, and I'm concerned about how territorial the Brumi trees can be. Mostly only salt-loving plants grow around mature Brumi trees.»

"I think, with Little Brother's tree's connection to your mana well, that it can now be safely moved to a region of your realm with more hospitable soil and mana circulation. Shall we confirm that first, Little Brother?"

"Hokay!" the Nature Sprite said, darting off. Graemire gathered up the mana-formed crate of seeds and fruits before following after.

The three of them had a grand time with the plants. Kestra thought she recognized a similarity in the way that they helped the plants to maturity with how her Minor Healing spell helped her body, and having Ambrose and Nicada around helped as they adjusted the nutrient balance in the soil that simply pouring mana around didn't address.

«I should definitely see if I can't entice more elemental sprites to take up residence here, for when you Honored Divines return to the Divine Horizon,» Kestra mused.

"Oh! I can help with that!" Vostler said. "Sprite of Light, right? Maybe a Flame Sprite for the forge that Ralouf built, too?" and before Kestra could respond, he shaved off two small bits of his flame serpent form and began a kind of flickering, interpretive dance with them.

Eilith spoke through her mist, her voice teasing. "How odd that our hot-head shows such generous wisdom. I think Sprites of Mist and Current shall be my legacy gift."

Ambrose popped his head up out of the ground and plucked off a Soil Sprite and a Stone Sprite.

Nicada sighed over where she and Ralouf were working putting in copper piping throughout the tower, but brushed off an Ore Sprite. Ralouf glanced over, but Nicada spent a moment making high pitched screechy sounds at the Ore Sprite before resuming the pipe molding and placement. The Ore Sprite ran off and began to swim through the stone as it nosed around the various metallic deposits throughout her realm.

"They'll need to be bound to your mana well to survive when we're not present," Eilith warned, and then helped Kestra do the binding with the sprites she had shed. Kestra repeated it with all of the shed sprites.

Graemire opined, "It will be many decades before these newly formed sprites are as capable as Little Brother, and the Stone and Ore Sprites might fight. Even if one consumes the other, both will continue in the new whole. I would feed them only one Base mana stone a week until their first Enlightenment. No need for them to grow beyond their ability to reason."

"Yum-yum stones!" the Nature Sprite interjected.

"Little Brother can handle ten a week," Graemire added.

"Yum!" the Nature Sprite cheered.

«Where I'm from, we're given to understand that Nature Sprites do not claim names. Is that true here?» Kestra asked.

"It is a step of Enlightenment for a creature or elemental to claim a name, as you put it. When Little Brother is ready to do so, he shall be ready to leave behind his sprite nature. It would gladden me if he were to continue on the Elemental Path, but he may prefer a more physical existence." Then Graemire paused to look around her realm.

When he finished his survey, he said, "It is a rare opportunity for an Elemental to have such a foundational role in establishing environmental harmony, and one that we require to gain deeper comprehensions. This becomes especially important as Elementals reach the Divine Horizon. I will not say you have not benefited from providing this opportunity, but for my friends, they are now that much closer to achieving their own Enlightenment breakthroughs into the Emperor stage. It is not my place to thank you for this, and yet I am deeply grateful."

Kestra picked her words carefully, sensing the attention of all the Divine Creatures after Graemire's words. «We call it Fortuna smiling upon us when such fortuitous meetings occur, and they come with the caveat to be gracious when Fortuna uses us to bestow her smile on others. Also, the proverb, 'Those who bask in Fortuna's smiles soon end up the penitent in Elamshaq's tribulations.' I say that so you understand I am not dismissing the benefit given by the benefits I have received when I tell you that I am grateful for the harmony brought to my private realm.»

Vostler said, "You've also fed us, and gave us all way more creative freedom in your own territory than we can achieve in even our own domains. That's still largely we owe you."

Nicada stalked to a window in the tower to glare suspiciously up at Vostler. "Did you become a Water Elemental all of a sudden?"

"Hey!" He cried, sounding deeply hurt.

Yorgin said, "Enough, Nica! Fire is the element of propriety, even if Vost's passions have occluded that on occasion. Just as your ambitions are currently occluding your righteousness." He hissed a bit on the sibilant sounds.

She hrumphed and returned to laying in pipes with irritated vigor.

Graemire very carefully did not sigh with abused patience.