Carrying Gabriel did make it faster - slightly. It didn’t change the number of Giant Waves they had to face, but it meant that Gabriel was able to attack the cuttlefish that tried to grapple Naomi and Daryl without having to worry about his own footing; on the other hand, it meant Serenity’s sword wasn’t available. It wasn’t really needed, so Serenity didn’t mind being a transportation device for a while.

The Giant Waves themselves mostly served to slow things down as they forced a retreat up the beach, then left scores of giant cuttlefish that were surprisingly mobile in the temporarily wet sand. Serenity was very useful there, since his Zonal Evocation spells could clear out large groups. They weren’t high Tier Skills, but against Tier Three monsters, a Tier Three Path Skill backed by Tier Eight attributes and unusually high Affinities was more than sufficient to badly hurt a bunch of cuttlefish. Cone of Lightning was especially effective; it could outright kill one that was close enough to Serenity while ones at the far end of the cone would still only take three hits to kill.

The end of the third level was another large circular stone platform raised less than an inch above the sandy beach. By the time they reached it, Serenity had eaten through half of his mana pool. Gabriel was in better shape, since he’d limited himself to individual Fire Bolts and hadn’t had to do any healing. Both Naomi and Daryl were low on stamina; they’d run the last part of the beach to avoid a fourth Giant Wave.

The waves stilled and the water became flat, without even the occasional cuttlefish breaking the surface. It was a profoundly unnatural scene, but Serenity knew that was not that unusual in some dungeons. It was acknowledging that they’d passed the challenge and telling them that they were safe from the level’s monsters.

This was definitely an odd dungeon with its focus on environmental effects and lack of large set-piece battles.

A moment after he thought that, Serenity heard something that almost sounded like the dungeon laughing at him. He must have projected the thought, because the dungeon gleefully showed Serenity the hidden monster of the floor. It was a giant cuttlefish the size of a house far from the shore in the deep water, surrounded by a trio of cuttlefish that were “only” the size of a pickup truck. Each of the three truck-sized cuttlefish had its own trio of fridge-sized cuttlefish; past that, the groupings were blurry, but Serenity was certain the trend of increasing numbers and decreasing size continued. The prize was probably very good and the monsters were only Tier Three, but Serenity was just as happy to leave them alone.

While they rested, Daryl pulled heavy winter gear for all three of the Silver Blades out of his pack. It was far too warm on the beach, but Serenity knew it would be necessary for them on the next level. Serenity didn’t have winter gear that was as good as theirs, but he also probably didn’t need something as good.

He manifested a heavy coat, snow pants, gloves, and a warm cap with holes for his horns using his Potential of the Rift Skill; they might degrade a little in the next few hours, but they’d last long enough to get through the level, which was all he needed. He couldn’t manage advanced materials since he didn’t know them well enough, but “thick and fleecy with a flexible slick water-resistant coating” was within his skill these days. He’d spent a lot of time over the past few months practicing the Skill.

Thoughts of the Skills he’d been practicing brought to mind the one he hadn’t yet had much time to practice, Quickrune. He’d used it; casting was indeed quick, preparing the rune wasn’t. The great thing about the runes was that they degraded far slower than Infused spells and while each use accelerated the degradation, they were reusable to an extent.

It seemed like having a reliable way to safely warm someone up if something went wrong would be a good idea, and Serenity did know a runescript for that. He started the preparation work for it, setting it into the flesh of his left hand since he’d found that he needed it to be accessible if he wanted to trigger the rune on someone else. The Quickness rune he’d established the day before the delve wasn’t on his skin but anything that affected someone else needed to be unless he wanted it to affect him the most and everyone else with a secondary effect.

Serenity managed to finish the Quickrune before the others were ready to move on, but only barely. As it was, his mana wasn’t fully restored. It was, however, high enough to move on into the fourth level; he shouldn’t need to cast any of the expensive Zonal Evocation spells there. He’d use mostly physical attacks, so he expected to gain mana rather than lose it as they went through the level.

They dressed in their warm clothing, then roped themselves together with plenty of slack before they accepted the transition to the fourth level of the dungeon. Serenity had expected cold and snow, but when he was instead met with a wall of blowing whiteness, he realized that they hadn’t overstated the matter when they said the fourth level was “blizzard”. It was one of the worst conditions Serenity had ever seen on a Tier Four dungeon floor; the only one he could think of that was worse was a sandstorm.

The good news, such as it was, was that the monsters also had to survive in the same conditions. In this dungeon, that meant they’d be facing ice sprites and cold elementals. The cold elementals were almost like willowisps in that they let off a cold, usually circular, glow, but they were far less passive. Dungeon cold elementals would approach a group and attempt to touch people; anywhere they touched was chilled. They would actually freeze someone into a person-shaped block of ice if they were allowed to remain in contact.

Fortunately, they were more scary and unpleasant than actually threatening if you were prepared. While they could freeze through warm clothing, they were easily dispersed with force; while magic would have little effect on them in the favorable blizzard conditions, even Gabriel could dispel them by hitting them with a staff.

Ice spirits, on the other hand, were similarly resistant to magic in the blizzard but they were far harder to destroy. At Tier Four, the Tier Nine Gabriel would have trouble beating one down without resorting to his reduced-power Fire Bolt, but the other three could still manage them fairly easily. Despite their sturdiness, however, they were weak with limited magic and had trouble actually harming people; instead, they would trick and mislead.

The real threat of the level was the blizzard itself, especially with the assistance of the ice spirits. If a group got separated from each other or turned around, they could wander until they died of exposure from either the blizzard itself or the cold elementals. Finding your way in the dungeon wasn’t hard as long as you paid attention, but nothing in a blizzard was easy. Not even figuring out the wind direction, which was the key to the fourth level.

The wind blew from the exit. It eddied and seemed to shift direction sometimes, depending on the terrain, but the overall movement was always from the exit. If you ended up without the wind blowing into your face for any distance, you were going the wrong way.

Serenity was far less bothered by the snow and the cold than any of the Silver Blades. Not only did he have the benefit of both high Cold resistance and his warm armor-self, he could actually see through the snow as long as he used Eyeless Sight. When he combined it with Vital Sight and the active form of Magesight, it made his eyes glow but he could see the cold elementals and ice sprites as well as the terrain with only a small amount of degradation from the weather.

The level was unpleasant, but Serenity made himself useful and they made it to the level’s exit in only a bit over two hours. It wasn’t a record, but it was still a quick clear of the level. Serenity didn’t stop to find out what they’d missed; he was certain there was quite a bit, but he didn’t care about it.

Level Five was warmer than the beach, but not warm enough initially to completely shed the cold-weather gear. They stood on a steep slope, surrounded by forest; it seemed peaceful. Serenity didn’t trust it. “Didn’t you say that the fifth level was fiery?”

Naomi chuckled. “I asked the same thing my first time, but the first mountain-shake won’t happen until we move away from the entrance. That’s when it starts, with the rain of embers and ash, the burning forest, and the rivers of fire. We have to make our way uphill into the heart of the fire-mountain and find the fire-heart that set it off. Well, there’s more than one exit, but the fire-heart’s a huge prize so we’ll find it if we can. If not, there’s always the fireglass exit; it’s not so valuable outside, but having some fireglass makes this level much much easier.”

“Fireglass?” Serenity wasn’t familiar with the term. It was possible it was something he knew by a different name, but it was just as likely that it was a dungeon reward that had a specific use when taken back into the dungeon. Some dungeons did that to reward additional trips through the dungeon.

“Fireglass freezes part of a fire river when you throw it in so you can walk across it,” Gabriel explained. “It doesn’t last that long but if it starts to unfreeze you can add more fireglass. We’ve never made it to the fire-heart without using fireglass. We’ve got plenty, so we’re planning a fire-heart run this time.” He glanced at Serenity, then over at Daryl. “We’re planning to keep the fire-heart; Daryl’s sister is an enchanter and she uses them to add Fire essence to her work.”

Serenity perked up at the term “Fire essence”. Did it really mean essence the way he used the word, as the companion to mana? Or did it simply mean Fire attuned mana? “Do you know what Fire essence is?”

Daryl laughed. “Not if I can avoid it. Lori and I have an agreement: I give her stuff from my delves that she can use to make stuff for me, she makes it and doesn’t tell me how.”

Serenity could understand the attitude, but he didn’t want to let the thread go that easily. “Would you introduce me to her after we get out of here?”

“Only if you promise to talk to her about enchanting and not try to date her.” Daryl frowned at Serenity. “I mean it, guys who approach her pretending to be interested in her work just because she’s pretty are the worst.”

Serenity waisted his hands defensively. “Hey there, I don’t even know what she looks like; I really am interested in learning what Fire essence is. Anyway, you met Rissa; why would I look at anyone else?”

Daryl grunted. Even without words, it was obvious that he didn’t trust Serenity’s faithfulness. “It’s true you’ve never seen her. Fine, come with me after we register the delve completion and I’ll take you by her shop. I’ll need to drop off the fire-heart anyway.”