I warmed my hands near the summoned campfire. The tower became surprisingly cold during the night. Miko was in her tent recovering from a food coma. I wanted to rush off to gain more levels, but I ended up using all my mana experimenting with the new spells. I resummoned the campfire stone when I could and have been gazing at the landscape and night sky while my mana regenerated. Still blows my mind that I’m inside a tower. Makes me wonder what the other towers are like.

Surprisingly no roaming creatures approached our camp while Miko rested. I would have appreciated the free XP delivery. When my mana maxed out, I started summoning and storing mana marbles. I would only summon a marble whenever I reached my mana cap, currently 475. The marble costed 60 mana to summon and would return 25 when used at its current rank. I was just putting away the fifth marble when Miko stepped out of her tent.

She stretched her arms out and yawned before coming over to sit by the glowing stone.

“Have a good rest?”

She gave a small hum in response. I summoned a cup of sweetened coffee and offered it to her. She accepted the cup and brought it close to her lips. She smiled as she breathed in the scent and had a sip.

I summoned my own cup and after taking a drink gave a contented sigh. It’s been too long.

“This is nice. Tastes like coffee but sweeter.” Miko hugged the cup against her chest.

“It is hazelnut coffee. Well, a slightly milder version anyway.” I don’t really know what my spell rank does to taste.

She took another sip. “I like it. Hot and tasty. Dad always said that there were lots of different types of coffee on Earth.”

“Does he miss earth? I only met him once and he seemed to be happy here.”

“Oh, he loves it here. He told me he would never go back if he was given the choice. The only thing he misses are his lost loves.”

“You said that before. He had three partners?”

Miko looked up from her coffee and giggled. “He never said what they were. He would only tell me he did not want me to grow up in a world knowing that they could exist only to never experience them. He only told me their names.”

“That’s quite dramatic. What were they?”

She lifted a hand and recited off three fingers. “Dr. Pepper, Frozen coke, Big Mac.”

I let out a laugh and was about to respond but was interrupted by the sound of a large explosion in the distance.

Miko dropped her coffee and stood up to look out in the direction of the explosion. A few hills away there was a large pillar of smoke, glowing red and orange from beneath it, rising into the sky.

Miko took a step forwards “The fort is over there.”

A bright red flare shot out from the smoke and into the night sky. The flare was also emitting a high pitched squealing sound and Miko flinched at the noise. “That’s a signal flare. Someone needs help.”

Miko walked over to her tent and placed a hand against it. The tent quickly collapsed into a small compact form which she picked up and placed in her storage. “I should go. I am higher level than anything on this floor.”

“What about the Tower Knights? Don’t they respond to this kind of thing?”

“Yes, but if there is no one close by it could take them a while to arrive. We are too close to just ignore it.”

I stepped over and stored my own tent. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“You can’t. Yui would kill me if she knew I put you in danger.”

“Then we just won’t tell her. Come on.” I started heading for the glowing pillar of smoke at a jog. Miko appeared next to me a moment later.

We travelled over a few hills before we reached a peak overlooking the fort. Everything was on fire. We could see directly into the fort, from our vantage point, and could see a bunch of people fighting in the courtyard. “There is more than just one group.” Miko commented before stepping forward,

We hurried down and could see Torva and her group were facing off against a group of elves. Five elves were standing back while one was in front, yelling at the dwarves. Torva’s group responded and must have said something the elf disagreed with as the elf summoned a large ball of fire and launched it towards the dwarven group.

The dwarves ducked behind their shields. The fireball exploded against the shields and knocked them off their feet slamming them against the stone wall. The spell was so hot I could feel the heat from the open gate. It had also set everything near the impact on fire. One of the dwarves summoned a ball of water that splashed over a dwarf that was on fire. Such destruction from a single spell.

“Hey Asshole! Stop showing off!” The words had left my mouth without thinking. All I knew was that I was angry. Angry at the elves for attacking my friends. And angry at them showing off fire magic in front of me.

The elves turned around and looked towards us.

Miko took a step in front of me and pulled out her shield. “Reigner, shut up and stay behind me.”

I felt a wave of energy flow over me several times.

“They just used identify on us. A fight’s coming.”

“Well, we might as well return the gesture.”

I focused on the elves and rapidly cast identify on each of them.

They all returned the same result.

[Unknown Elf]

Health: ??? / 100%

Class: ???

Level: ???

Race: Elf

+1 to Identify spell rank

Miko looked around us. “This is bad. We need to move to somewhere more defensible.”

“Agreed, we should try and group up with Torva.”

The elf that threw the fireball walked past his group to get a better look at us.

“Look what we have here. A baby human and abomination-kin.”

A low growl escaped from Miko’s throat. “Do you understand what you are doing? This is the first floor. A Knight will be here any mo-“

“Silence mutt!” The elf’s voice was venomous. “Roll over like a good animal and maybe I will let you die quickly.”

I felt another wave of mana wash over my body. “Or maybe I should thank you.” The elf started laughing. “You brought the human carnate right to me.” The elf’s laughter was interrupted by a deep voice.

“Having a party without me, Zelphar?” Up on the wall of the fort was a large orc looking down into the courtyard.

“Khemrok.” The elf looked up to face the orc. “Just what are you doing here on the first floor?”

Khemrok chuckled and pulled out his dual axes. “I heard rumors of some elves making their way down the tower. I thought it would be fun to see what you were up to. I did not think that even you would come down to bully first floorers.”

The elf, Zelphar. Looked around the other walls of the keep before replying. “Curious that you are here without your babysitters, Khemrok. You always did have the bad habit of sneaking away from your guards.”

The elf said something in a low voice to his team and they spread out, two moved towards Torva’s group while the other three moved towards me and Miko.

“Tonight just keeps getting better. Your head is going to make the perfect gift to my father.” Zelphar summoned a fireball and launched it towards the orc.

Khemrok jumped away just before the fireball hit the top of the wall and exploded. A large chunk of the wall was destroyed and rained down into the courtyard. Zelphar then conjured fire beneath his feet and launched himself over the wall, going after Khemrok. Damn, that looked like a fun spell to have.

The three elves in front of us started to slowly approach.

I cracked my knuckles and flexed my fingers. “Is killing frowned upon on the first floor?”

Miko positioned herself into a more defensive stance. “Not really but you might earn a bad reputation that can make things difficult. Better to avoid killing them unless we have no other choice. Just be careful. The one on the left is level 11 while the other two are level 10.”

“Got it.”

The elf on the left lifted his hand and summoned his own fireball. A beautiful glowing mix of orange, yellow, and red, illumined the elf and the nearby surroundings. I watched in envy as the spell was launched into the air. The bright orange ball moved in a perfect arc and left a glowing trail behind it.

It reminded me of a firework going off. A feat of controlled destruction, creating a beautiful display. It’s everything I should have had, if only the spell book did not change into a bloody hand warmer. I’m so sick of being mocked by magic.

“Piss off!” I summon a hammerbolt and sent it flying right into the smug bastard’s face. The elf was falling towards the ground just as Miko intercepted the fireball with her shield. The health bar above the fallen elf’s head showed me he had lost half of his health from my spell. While his spell exploded harmlessly against Miko’s shield. It did not even nudge us backwards.

The other two elves glanced towards each other before splitting off in different directions. The one moving to our left held a bow while the one to our right was wielding a metallic staff.

“I’ll take the one on the right.” I said to Miko. I’m pretty sure this guy is another caster and will soon be inviting himself to a hammerbolt to the face.

Miko positioned herself so she was facing the archer, making sure the elf could not easily aim towards me. “We should move towards Torva and her group before that other guy comes back. My identify could not get his level. He could be level 23 or 80 for all I know.”

“Sounds like a plan. We can distract the other elves by attacking their backs. That should give the dwarves an opportunity to crush them.”

I heard an arrow ping off Miko’s shield as she spoke “Only one problem. My class gives me strong bonuses when I’m stationary but once we start moving, I am going to lose them.”

The staff wielding elf had yet to cast any spells and was just watching me while maintaining a defensive stance. I summoned a hammerbolt into my hand and held it ready to launch. The elf’s eyes widened and jumped back, bumping into the stone wall behind them.

“Okay, can you still hold a shield?”

“No problem there. I have been maintaining a skill that slows targets in a five metre radius around me. Once we move it will drop and will allow them to rush us.”

I glanced over my shoulder to get a better look at the archer. They seemed relaxed as they loosed arrow after arrow towards us.

“I don’t think we have to worry about that. They might just be trying to play for time. Let’s start moving. I’ll match your pace.”

Miko gave a grunt of affirmation and started moving while keeping her shield between herself and the archer. As soon as she started moving the elf with the staff ran straight towards me. So, not a caster after all. I launched the hammerbolt I was holding towards their legs. He jumped backwards and dodged the hammerbolt easily. There was an explosion of dirt from where the hammer impacted the ground. This could be bad. This guy is nimble and might force me to engage in melee. No. That life is behind me. I am a caster now. Fighting in melee is behind me. I glanced down at my robe. I refuse to get covered in blood and muck.

I needed to slow him down so my spells could connect. I could throw… er launch the spell faster but I don’t want to end up killing them. This elf has no idea how kind I am towards them. “Miko, how long does it take for you to use that slowing skill?”

I could hear the pings of arrows deflecting off her shield. “I need to be stationary for at least three seconds.”

We were about fifteen metres away from Torva’s group. They were engaged in melee against the other two elves. Surprisingly, the two elves held the upper hand. They were able to slip between the dwarves’ formation with their mobility and wreak havoc on them. I suspected that Miko’s slow will help them just as much as us.

“Okay, once we get within range of Torva’s group activate that skill again. Are you able to move any faster?”

“I can but I won’t be able to intercept any arrows aimed your way.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll be right next to you.”

She increased her pace and I made sure to keep her between myself and the archer. The staff wielder rushed through the dust cloud but had to stop for a second to locate us. He started sprinting right towards us and I could see a grin plastered on his face. He was really starting to annoy me.

I summoned a spearbolt as I did not want to cause another dust cloud for him to hide in. After launching the spear, I quickly summoned and threw a second one at twice the speed. I was still conscious of not killing the elf so had aimed for their legs.

The elf easily dodged the first but had to swing his staff around to deflect the second. The spearbolt shattered to bits on contact with the staff, but fortunately, the elf’s weapon was sent flying out of their hand. That should buy me some time.

The elf glanced towards his flying weapon before turning back towards us. Instead of going after his weapon, he touched the small pouch on his belt and pulled out another staff. Damnit, he was gaining ground faster than I could cast my spells. I launched an axebolt towards his legs and glanced towards the archer.

I had to position myself in front of Miko as the archer had started moving behind us. I stumbled over something and had to stop running to regain my balance. Below me was the elf that I knocked out earlier. Miko’s foot landed awkwardly on the prone form and she started to trip. I managed to catch her before she fell over and pushed her back upright just in time for her to shield us from another arrow.

I summoned a hammerbolt and positioned myself to launch it towards the staff user. As I went to throw the hammerbolt, I quickly changed my aim and launched it towards the archer instead. They had just nocked an arrow as the hammerbolt hit their outstretched arm. I realized then that they were female as they let out a girlish high pitched scream. She got lucky. I was aiming for the face but her arm got in the way.

“Hold here a sec.” Bending down to the unconscious elf, I wanted to see if they had any items I could pilfer. I felt no remorse taking their gear since they were the aggressors. The elves were all wearing brown robes with green flowers embroidered into the fabric, it looked like this world’s version of camo.

I decided to just grab the storage pack and tossed it into my own storage. I held my breath for a second and recalled the dangers of placing dimensional bags into each other from roleplaying games back on Earth… Luckily, nothing bad happened.

“Okay let’s move.”

“No need.” Miko slammed her foot down and a pulse traveled outwards from the ground at foot height. Miko let out an evil sounding giggle “Let’s see him dodge your attacks now.”

The elf was close. Almost too close for comfort, only a metre away. Their face had changed from glee at seeing us stumble to fear as their speed slowed significantly.

The elf’s eyes widened as I summoned another hammerbolt. “Piss off, fake mage.” I gave a feral grin and launched the spell at their leg. They were not able to completely dodge with the slow in effect and the projectile caught them on their ankle. The impact made a terrible crunching sound and was quickly followed by a cry of pain from the elf.

I glanced over at the archer and saw that she was on her knees holding her broken arm to her chest. “I think these two are done.”

The dwarves did not need any more assistance as Miko’s ability managed to reach them. Torva’s team were brutally bouncing the two elves back and forth between their shields.

“Cloth wearing ninnies” and “Dirty tree rats” could be heard between the clunk and crunching noises of the elves against shield.

Miko deactivated her skill and walked up to them. “Everyone okay? We saw the signal flare and came over fast as we could.”

“That’s enough lads.” At Torva’s commanded her team let the two elves crumple to the floor. “Looks like we are in your debt again. God knows where the tower knights are. They should be here by now.”

I surveyed our surroundings. We were in the courtyard opposite the gate and close to a doorway leading deeper into the fort. Smoke, fire and the occasional explosion came from behind the wall where the elf chased Khemrok to. Torva’s team were looting the elves and the female archer was still cradling their hand while looking blankly into space. I watched the staff wielder as they had just pulled something out of their pack and stared talking into it.

“Are there communication devices on this world?” I had a feeling nothing good came from his actions.

“Aye, though they are not-“ Torva was interrupted by a flaming meteor landing right where the staff welder was laying.

The impact was massive and the force from it knocked us backwards. I landed against the doorframe while Miko managed to fall directly through the doorway along with one of Torva’s dwarves. I sat myself up and looked towards the impact site.

Standing in the middle of a small crater was the elf that had chased Khemrok. He looked furious. I couldn’t make out his face as the elf’s robes were burning around him. He did not seem to care or notice. Now that was a badass entrance.