There wasn't a single sign of enemies or anything until we stumbled upon a piece of light, reflecting down the cave, or at least I did with my wickedly high intelligence giving me immensely acute vision.
"You see that light down there?" I asked, pointing further into the tunnel.
"Nope." Fulcrum said flatly.
"Ah, well, there is some."
"Okay."
We followed the tunnel round and lone behold, there was light, a lot of it. The light came from lava flows, pouring out of the side of the rock walls. The chamber in which these lava falls were was a large room made from volcanic rock, with a central walkway in the middle and two large rivers of lava on either side. The room must've been over sixty feet high, forty feet from center to wall and over a hundred feet long.
"What's up with those flames?" Fulcrum asked, he and his summon, hiding behind me. I looked forwards, studying the flames he was talking about, they were pillars of fire along the central walkway in the room. Funny thing was though, they didn't have anything to burn beneath them, and they had faces made of flame.
The first one came flying at us, beams of fire blasting from its form. I pulled the mana around us into a force-field, conscious of my need to protect Fulcrum. The mana solidified into the spell, a notification came up that I swiped away and the flames coming off of the elemental crashed into the barrier, moving as if pushed to the sides. Not even the faintest amount of heat seeped through. I then turned from the defensive to the offensive, creating a ball of mana in my palm and unleashing a beam of magic at the elemental, through the shield. The beam tore through the elemental, and those behind it, and then the cave wall. Luckily I stopped before I could do immense damage to the wall, only a small glowing crack appeared.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - FLAME ELEMENTAL
YOU HAVE SLAIN - FLAME ELEMENTAL
YOU HAVE SLAIN - FLAME ELEMENTAL
YOU HAVE SLAIN - FLAME ELEMENTAL
YOU HAVE SLAIN - FLAME ELEMENTAL
YOU HAVE SLAIN - FLAME ELEMENTAL
YOU HAVE SLAIN - FLAME ELEMENTAL
YOU HAVE SLAIN - F...
The notifications came until they reached the number 16. Strangely enough, no level up messages came, I had expected at least one.
"Ha! Hahaha!" Fulcrum was laughing while looking into the air in front of him.
"What is it?" I wondered whether he had snapped from such a small fight.
"Ha, it just... I- I leveled up four times, four times!"
"Ahh, so now you're what?"
"Level 41."
"Well done." I turned my attention back to the wider room, there were no other elementals in sight.
"It's thanks to you though, you destroyed those elementals."
"Thanks, let's continue though." I dropped the force-field and started walking forwards.
After reaching the end of the walkway, the wall opened up into another passageway, this one had small cracks on the walls to provide an orange glow. At the end of the hallway it split into two paths, one the mana was flowing down and the other, was glowing brightly.
"Let's go down the brightly glowing one."
"Sure."
Inside was another large chamber that had this massive floating ball of lava in it, surrounding the ball were about ten or so fire elementals and several more humanoid shaped piles of rock and black crystal. Earth elementals I assumed.
"I guess this is one of those magma cores." I whispered to Fulcrum.
"Yeah, but how're we going to take down all of those elementals?"
"Simple. I'll take them down."
"How?"
"Well I figure that I can make an explosion spell at the orb and take out them all, so that way I guess."
"Okay... I'll just hide back there." He started creeping back the way we had come and sneaking round the corner.
I turned my attention back to the elementals and the orb. Thinking over my plan, then tried it.
A small portion of the mana in the air was sucked into a position inside of the magma core, I then pictured an explosion that would echo outwards from it, vaporizing everything in its radius. I then unleashed the spell.
A grey shock-wave echoed out from the core, making everything inside monotone, then a second one accompanied with a low roar came out, turning everything that was grey to ash and then to nothing. Both stopped within arm's reach of me.
An onslaught of notifications came by including one level up.
'Yes!' I thought 'Its just really slow now.'
"Woohoo!" Called Fulcrum from down the hallway. I walked over to where he was.
"How many times now?" I asked. He looked elated.
"Eleven! Eleven levels, I unlocked a new job skill as well!"
"Nice, what is it?"
"Greater Summon. Instead of summoning a weak summon with one ability, like my glow fish there. I can summon something that can do multiple, I've heard of sorcerer's that have this level, they can summon small dragons, or even elementals to serve them."
"What are you waiting for? Give it a shot then." I grinned. He shoot his head though.
"Can't. Haven't got enough mp left. Should have enough in half an hour or so."
"Give me a sec and you'll probably have it back."
Before he could say 'what?' I quickly pushed some mana into him.
"Wha-ohhh... I've got my mp back." He looked astonished this time. "How'd you do that?" He asked.
"I pushed mana into you." I said flatly.
"You.. it's alright, I'm not even going to ask anymore, you're an ascended, of course you can refuel my mp." He shook his head and then proceeded to start muttering an incantation, small traces of mana moved to him and then flowed out in front of him into a small orb. When he was done chanting, the orb materialized in the form of a glowing body of water. The body of water reared up as well, moving.
"Water elemental?" I asked.
"Yup, a powerful one at that."
"Sweet, hopefully it'll work against the fire elementals."
"That's the aim."
We both turned around and started making our way down the alternate path.
--
Rn'd Golnor
Rn'd strode into the small town's registration office for adventurers, flanked by his two best party members, the elementalist Helena, a breathtakingly beautiful high elf who preferred slim outfits and the party's barbarian, Brim, a massive wood elf. The small time adventurers gawked at the diamond ranks as they strode in.
"Who is the mage in charge of appraisals?" Brim called out. Most of the adventurers shrunk into their seats. Suddenly, the door behind the counter swung open and a human woman in purple robes walked out, declaring.
"I am." She strode with a confident air, though Rn'd couldn't see why.
"We've come to ask about a new applicant. Could you show us the records of a man with white hair and yellow eyes please?" Rn'd asked, but his tone didn't sound that way.
"I'm sorry sir." The woman responded, a pleasant smile on her face. "I cannot reveal the appraisal of an applicant without their permission."
"We are here under the direct order of his majesty, the king. That overrules the constraint." Rn'd stated.
"Actually, it doesn't. That law was put in place by the previous king, it is a law over which the current king has no power." She smiled smugly. "So you can stop asking and get out."
Rn'd turned to his companions and nodded.
"Everybody get out!" Shouted Brim, using his skill commanding roar to make the majority of the crowd to move. The rest followed, filing out behind them. The mage didn't move, she just stood, certain of her authority in this matter.
"Now," Rn'd stepped towards the woman ,"you will tell us this man's details."
"I will not." She spoke with a strong voice.
"Be careful." Helena warned from behind, and Rn'd stopped his approach.
"You will show us it." Rn'd activated his skill as he spoke, Commander's Order. The mage flinched, then scowled, an arcane light flashing in her eyes.
"I will not." She said resolutely, smiling warmly. "Even if I did, you wouldn't believe it."
Rn'd sighed, looking back towards Helena, who had been subtly casting a spell.
"You know, we really wanted to do this peacefully." Rn'd shook his head as he spoke. "But, you've really forced us to this route."