Silvie swooped down on the drake that dared trespass in her skies. A storm built in her wake and lighting sparked in her feathers.

Level 2+

(Essence Drake)

Health 41%

She circled the beast, peppering it with steady attacks while keeping out of range of its jaws.

The drake flapped higher, chasing her, its frost nipping at her wings and tail and dragging her wingbeats into a sluggish rhythm barely able to keep herself aloft.

It would take more than a little chill to stop her.

By pursuing her into the sky, it had made one fatal miscalculation.

Behind her, around them, the storm built and built, a circle of blue light and dark clouds that crackled with potential. This was no ordinary storm. This storm was hers, and the monster didn't recognize its danger.

A blazing arrow fired up into the drake’s face, scoring a line of heat across one eye. Snarling, the drake hovered in place a moment, attention diverted between two threats as it glared down at the archer below.

It should have fled.

Silvie gathered her storm and threw it down, the disc of blue light coalescing in an instant and crashing down on the monster.

The drake didn’t even have time to try to evade. The stunning force slammed it to the ground, paralyzed and helpless for the small warriors to finish off.

Silvie left them to it and turned toward the distant call of her master’s mental tug. There was one more enemy to deal with this day.

The whole team ended up grouping slowly together as the word of their final boss encounter spread. With the smaller enemies cleared steadily and the Essence itself no longer a threat, the final drake was almost trivial to finish off in the end.

It wasn’t easy, but no one else died. Better yet, nearly everyone leveled from the whole affair.

Gordon even tried his best to tame the thing, once it was low enough on health, but the Tame ability didn’t even register it as a valid target. Unlike with resistant monsters, it didn’t even deduct the mana and stamina costs, simply not activating at all.

The bigger surprise came when the last monster was finally defeated. As the dead drake dissolved it left behind a tiny vial of teal-glowing substance that Gordon recognized immediately.

He’d never seen creatures drop items before. Items were always piled up in treasure rooms at the end, but in this case there was no dungeon or treasure room. Ice essence. There was a difference between the active attempting-to-destroy you Essence and the crafting essence, but what the nuance was he didn't need to know. The stoppered vial of essence wouldn’t animate or try to attack anyone.

He also knew that Levi was collecting these like they were essential puzzle pieces, so he pocketed the Essence from his drake before moving on to checking his minions list.

Turned out, killing Essence creatures was really good for the leveling.

Congratulations Riana Blake!

You have 1 level available.

There was no need to double guess her decision. The level went straight into her primary class. She may want to multiclass eventually, but for now, spellcaster all the way.

Mage level increased to 10.

Mage threshold 2 reached!

+16 health, +21 mana, +16 stamina

Unassigned Stat Points: 3

Unassigned Ability Points: 3

No time like the present! She could hardly wait to see what was in store.

Mage Abilities

Stability

Spell integrity, accuracy, and range are increased.

Spell Focus

Increases focus spell slots by one every ten levels.

Firebolt

Single-target fire attack with minor splash damage.

Sear

Designated location is imprinted with a circle of fire, dealing moderate fire damage to those within its radius over a short duration.

Riana once thought Spell Focus seemed like a silly power, back before she knew what it really meant. After unlocking her first focus slot it became incredibly obvious that she’d been under some serious misconceptions. Never mind that she already got one every five levels, adding another at half the speed wasn't a waste of time at all.

Focus spells could be cast at a ridiculously reduced mana cost. She wasn’t going to pass up the ability again.

It also seemed she had unlocked the fire element at some point, because there were both single-target and area damage options with fire.

Her initial impulse was to take them both, but she only had the three ability points. One was definitely going into spell focus, so that would give her a third focus spell. If she took both, that would mean one of her spells would need to be unfocused at all times. She didn't want that.

But she wanted all the spells.

She cursed her level 5 self, going for augmentation. Why had she thought that making her spells stronger was the best idea? Cheaper was superior to stronger in almost all cases. She could fire fast enough that it wouldn't matter.

But then there was the fact that whatever was behind unchosen abilities hadn't been unlocked, which also meant that if she wanted to go down the direct damage spells and area damage spell trees, she'd need to get on it now. Otherwise, she'd be behind the curve when the next threshold hit.

She also wanted to upgrade some of her existing spells. Each had options for increasing its power, range, or other attributes, and she wanted it all.

Why would there be only three points per five levels when there were so many great options to choose from?

Reluctantly, she assigned her three points to unlocking Spell Focus, Firebolt, and Sear.

Firebolt was a single-target spell with minor splash damage, and Sear was a ground-targeted aoe. It would effectively superheat the ground within an area, dealing moderate fire damage to those unfortunate enough to be within its radius.

Two new focus slots. Her first instinct was to go with the two new fire spells, leaving Air Blade to its full cost, but Air Blade actually did a little more damage per mana spent than firebolt, assuming a single target. The splash damage would more than make up for it in groups, but if she needed single-focus damage Air Blade would remain the better option.

Gust was a completely different use-case from Sear, since it was a cone attack that spread out from her person. When attacked and surrounded, Gust would be far preferable. Sear was best used at a distance from oneself, given there was no verbiage about protecting the caster from the results of the effect's heat.

But Firebolt was just plain cool. She may not need two focused damage attacks, but she needed a far distance area attack less. If she had time and space to cast Sear to maximum potential, it would be in a situation where scraping and scrounging for every last mana point wouldn't be important.

Hopefully she hadn't just jinxed herself.

She slotted Firebolt and Air Blade into her next two spell focus slots, dropping their mana costs to less than half their default.

She couldn't help but grin. She did love being a mage. Sure, anyone could unlock any ability in theory, but only mages could do this.

She cast a firebolt straight upwards just because she could. The tiny dip in her mana pool hardly registered, and it would refill itself in under a minute.

Speaking of mana...

She flipped to her stat points. She still hadn't spent the one from leveling to 8, giving her three to spend there as well. Feeling giddy and reckless, she put them all into Psyche. That brought her mana total up to 195 and her regen to 8 per minute. She could cast Firebolt twice and Gust once every minute and never run out of mana.

Granted, in any normal combat situation, she’d be casting them closer to every two seconds, but even so. With a full mana pool she could cast Firebolt over forty times.

Look out dungeons, now I have fire.

Flomper has reached level 10!

Cynomis Burrower threshold 2 attained.

Evolution threshold advancement progress: 2/3

Flomper has 1 stat point available.

Flomper has 3 ability points available.

Gordon looked over her options for abilities first, since he wasn't sure if they'd change how he wanted to advance the rest of her level.

Cynomis Burrower Abilities

Stone Caller

You no longer require stone to be already present, creating it on a temporary basis to manipulate.

Trapper

Allows active triggering of effects at will without waiting for their passive conditions to be met.

Shielder

Stone protects its own. Reduces damage from anything that can be physically blocked.

Diver

Movement speed and flexibility are increased while underground.

Stone Caller gave more freedom in shaping the terrain to her advantage, though its starting range was low and quantity limited. Trapper would increase her flexibility in disrupting and holding enemies. Shielder wasn't Flomper's style, and Diver seemed redundant.

Though he was also pretty satisfied with Saboteur and Earth-Shaper. He might just increase those.

"Any preferences?" he asked, crouching down and extending his hands for Flomper.

She tapped out their code alphabet, typing on his fingers with a speed that would make most transcriptionists envious.

It'd taken them a long time to perfect their communication system, but now he didn't even have to think to translate the sequence of taps into words immediately.

Power over earth best power. More, more, more!

He grinned at her enthusiasm. "More into Earth-Shaper, you mean? Or advance to Stone Caller?"

Yes!

Gordon assigned one point to each of those, unlocking Stone Caller and bringing Earth-Shaper up to 3. "And what for the other one?"

She hesitated, eyes distant as she stared at her menu, then hesitantly tapped out all faster.

"Diver?"

ALL faster.

"That costs two points, you don't have enough left."

Patient. Slower faster is still faster faster. She crossed her furry arms immediately after saying that, looking away as though to say that the subject was closed.

Gordon considered assigning one of the points anyway, it seemed a waste to leave it lying around unspent, but the temptation was fleeting. He locked in the selections, leaving one point unspent, and patted Flomper on her fluffy head. "You did really good today, girl," he told her.

She perked up, head tilting as though listening, still not looking at him.

"When you say 'all faster,' you mean you also want me to get more Cynomis to add to the team?"

Flomper hesitated, her mouth twitching as though she were nibbling something very rapidly, then nodded. She reached out one paw, and Gordon extended his hands again.

Me not enough. More. Yes. The hesitance in her tapping made it clear this was a difficult decision for her, and Gordon could understand why. They'd been in such high level dungeons lately, collecting creatures who started out far more powerful than their starting minions had been. It would be easy for any new cynomis to be Flomper's superior in combat strength. He might even get some plusses, which would further exceed her own abilities.

But she was used to interpreting the whole battle, going where was needed, and directing the other minions as necessary.

Gordon rubbed her head again. "My little tactician. Don't worry, I won't replace you. No matter who we get, you'll still be number one."

She puffed up her chest proudly, sitting back on her haunches in a way that looked more adorable than intimidating, but he could only smile fondly.

"Never change."