“So what was that?”

They were walking for five minutes, following the frozen river but staying just on the side, when Liliei decided to ask. She had been making a dagger until then and had just finished it.

“They’re monsters that appear in some of the second floor danger area, but there were none near where we were, so either it was a stray one and there’s no problem or one of the danger area spilled and we’ll have more problems before getting to the exit. It’s probably the first, but we’ll try to avoid going in the middle of the frozen water if possible. And when we can’t, if you feel a tremor, immediately jump aside in direction of the nearest shore and run to it.”

They walked a moment again in silence before Liliei broke it with another question.

“How did you make that strange lightning? It’s the first time I’ve heard of something like this.”

“It’s my third Ability Level that allows me to merge multiple element into one spell, but it’s quite hard, and I’ve only been able to get two at once, and even then only if their compatible. Still it packs quite a punch so it’s good if I know I have enough time to regenerate my mana afterward, or I need to hit fast and hard.”

Liliei wished she could do the same, but when Nalaine had tried to teach her, they had quickly found out that she was unable to convert mana. She could manipulate it perfectly fine but was completely unable to transform it into the energy needed to power spells. This meant she would never be able to use spells like a mage. However, as she had recently found, she could make mana take a material form, and as proven by her first ability, she could still create interesting effects without converting mana. But she had no idea how to do it and no one that could teach her so for the moment it was useless.

They had approximately done half of the distance to the exit when something else happened. The ground shook once again and the two girls immediately rushed to the solid ground. The monster didn’t come out from where they had been – probably too close to the side with not enough depth for it to pass – but after it jumped out, a second one came out from the hole in the ice. Liliei had immediately activated her First Ability, hiding herself from the monsters that just appeared.

She powered her Ability enough to move slowly and started walking around to get to the side of the monsters that were focused on Nalaine. The Demon girl was clearly preparing a spell, and this kept the monsters from rushing straight at her. These were clearly more intelligent than the rest of the rabble on this floor that they had fought at the lake. The two side were looking at each other warily, and this gave Liliei the opportunity she needed. She wasn’t moving very fast but the monster still were rather close and she got to them before one of them broke the stalemate.

She went to the side of the rightmost one and prepared herself. The beast looked even more dangerous from this close and its skin looked quite resistant. She took her dagger in her hand, and thought for a bit. She had weakened her body to hide, so if the beast monster’s skin was as tough as it seemed, she wouldn’t be able to pierce it – her dagger also probably wasn’t that sharp – so she would need to find a way to hit it hard. She had thought about that problem already but hadn’t tested her idea.

She slowly reduced the mana in the rest of her body to put more of it in the part that she would use for the hit, reinforcing them as much as she could – mainly her arm and her back – then she used her Ability’s second Level, and hit as fast as she could. The speed and strength of the hit took even her by surprise and the monster didn’t get any time to react when it finally sensed the incoming blow. The dagger took it straight in the head, piercing the skin and the bone beneath it and completely crushing it.

At the same time, the blow completely destroyed her own arm, and, taken by surprise at the pain, she fell down and couldn’t dodge the monster falling. She just had the time to see a flash of light as Nalaine released her spell on the second monster before the one she had killed fell on her legs that were just too fragile to bear the weight and she fainted under the pain.

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw were the two huge moons circling the smaller one. Then she felt the pain and she flinched. She had already had her arm destroyed multiple times – by herself but still – but it wasn’t half as bad as that. It wasn’t as bad as when it just happened but the remaining pain was nothing to scoff at. Her legs and arm were starting to repair but it was slow so she concentrated on it. She sent more mana into the stream that went through her body, forcing it to stick to the part that were broken and rebuild them. It still wasn’t that fast but considering that she was effectively rebuilding a limb from nothing a few minutes really weren’t long either.

She had been completely focused on it as it helped her ignore the pain and so it was only when she had finished that she heard the sounds of fighting. She looked around and discovered she had been laid down on the side of the river in an area cleared of snow, just a few meters from there Nalaine was shooting fireballs at more of the strange sharks, keeping them at bay. Her bracelet placed just beside her and she put it on. The thief then jumped to her feet, and from the feeling of lightness of her body, she deduced she had earned some Levels. She didn’t check and went instead to Nalaine’s side.

“Okay I’m back in shape. What’s happening?”

The mage raised a large ice wall between her and the monsters before turning to Liliei.

“Great, it seems it was one of the danger area spilling and we’re probably near the center, so we’ve got to go to the exit. I’ve been able to defend but I’m starting to get low on mana, so it’s best if we avoid them. I’ll put a charm on you to help you walk on the snow. And then we run to the light.”

The Demon placed her hand on Liliei shoulder and she suddenly felt herself lighter, then they turned to the side and started running. The spell was effective and they could just walk over the snow without sinking at all or getting hampered by it. Nalaine ran in direction of the light, following the river at a small distance. After a moment running without anything happening, they slowed down and walked. Liliei profited of it to ask a question that had come to her mind.

“Why didn’t we go back on the side like this from the beginning, we wouldn’t have been attacked no?”

“Well, these sharks wouldn’t have attacked us no, but as long as I didn’t know if it had been just one or more, the river was still the safer solution. There are other things in the snow that are more troublesome than the them, but they won’t go out for now with the sharks already there. Okay we’re nearly there.”

The base of the light pillar was now only hidden from sight by a large hill which they were currently going around. Finally after another minute walking the place came in sight and Liliei felt her heart sink. They were on the border of a large valley surrounded by huge mountains. Right in the middle was a large red circle that was the exit of the floor, and around it was a huge frozen lake.

“So, how are we going across that?” she asked her friend.

“No problem, we join them and it’ll go fine.”

The Demon was pointing to a small group that Liliei hadn’t noticed. There were four people standing near the edge of the lake and apparently arguing. The two girls walked up to them and the group stopped disputing as soon as they caught sight of them. Nalaine happily walked up to the group, a smile on her face.

“Hey there, how’s it going?”

The group was made up of two Humans, each holding a shield and a sword, one Beastkin – probably from some bird descent as he had feathers instead of hair – that held a bow and a Demon – with a color scheme in the reds – that was most likely their mage. The two humans were mens, probably around fourteen, but the Beaskin and the Demon were girls, and a bit younger than the Humans. They were all wearing winter clothes, which was understandable.

“Hey Nalaine, good to see you, it seems there’s an Elite ice shark going around and we were considering how to go to the exit.”

“Just our luck, an Elite. Well, It should be feasible but first, the introductions, everyone this is Liliei, a friend of my mine, and Liliei, these are Dren, Belc, Slift and Rivsin. They’re a group I showed around not too long ago.”

She had had presented them by pointing while calling their name, first the two Humans then the Beaskin and finally the Demon, each making a sign as they were called, after which they started organizing. Slift had been running out of arrows, so Liliei made her twenty arrows with mana constructs as well as a dagger for herself, while the others were discussing how to fight the monster. It seemed an Elite was a sort of mini Boss, but less troublesome. It made the other monsters agitated but didn’t organize them, so they probably would have to fight only a few of the things in addition to it instead of the large group some Bosses could bring.

Finally they were ready and they started. Dren went on the frozen lake and after a few second he dived to the side as a huge shark burst out from below. It was twice as big as the others and it turned its glare to the Human that was standing on his feet again, his shield brought up. The monster didn’t have much time to do something before an arrow flew out targeting his eye, but it shifted and it bounced harmlessly on the tough skin. It then charged at Dren who barely was able to dodge.

Liliei activated her first Ability and started moving, she was supposed to wait for some of the smaller monsters to come and prevent them from disturbing the others. Meanwhile Nalaine was preparing a spell that looked like an electric fireball and Belc stayed with the rest. Another arrow flew as the Elite was turning to face the Human again, but this time it flew quite a bit faster, helped along by Rivsin’s magic and went straight into the monster’s flank. Which made it turn to the archer in fury.

The fight seemed to have finally attracted some of the smaller shark as two of the jumped from below the ice, on near Dren and the other not too far from Liliei who made her way to it slowly. She got to it before it could start charging someone and, reinforcing her arm but a lot less than before before stabbing it in the head. It was apparently sufficient because the thing fell dead and she didn’t lose her arm. She then turned to see how the others were doing. The Elite had seemingly charged the group only to get blocked by Belc’s shield and, judging from her position like she was pressing something, Rivsin’s magic too. It also had a large part of his back on fire and emitting sparks which was a bit odd.

Another arrow flew and got stuck on its forehead, but not deep enough to kill it. It however seemed to enrage it as it roared before turning – fast – and sending Belc flying with a hit from its tail. This however presented its flank to Nalaine who shot it with a ball of – was that molten rock? – in the flank which made it shriek. It turned and tried to jump forward to bite the offender, only to be blocked by Dren’s shield – where had he come from, Liliei didn’t know.

Liliei saw that a small shark was trying to sneak to the others and went to kill it while staying attentive to the fight. The Elite had tried doing the same trick as before but this time around Dren jumped over the tail – possibly helped by Rivsin or an Ability, she didn’t think it should be possible to jump like that normally – and stabbed his blade in the beast flank just beside the place where the molten rock had now cooled and clung to the skin.

Liliei focused on the small shark to kill it, and then turned to the fight that was coming to a close. The Elite was trying to get back to the hole it had created in the ice to flee but Belc had come back and bashed it in the head with its shield before an arrow took it right in the junction of its leg with its body, causing it to fall before Belc finished it by stabbing his sword in its head.

“Whew, got it!” exclaimed the Adventurer, pulling his sword from the monster, before plunging his hand in the thing’s head which made Liliei look somewhere else in disgust.

When she looked back he hand removed his hand and was holding a large mana stone – half the size of a fist – in his hand. They stayed there a few minutes more, talking and taking what had some value on the Elite – not much it seemed except its teeth and its fin – before they parted way. The group would stay there and hunt more of the smaller sharks while before they calmed while Nalaine and Liliei decided to go back. They would receive their part of the sale by way of the Guild when it was done, but for now all that interested Liliei was going back and sleeping.