At first, it seemed like the nameless figure was not afflicted with the flame as its eye showed no signs of burning but in the next instant as it started walking toward the group, a orange sparked into both of its hand and two orange fireballs were thrown at the group, intercepted by a magic barrier.
The sole nameless figure couldn't do much against such a large organised group and was quickly dispatched by an arrow to the face, it faded away immediately, similarly to how bosses did.
It certainly seemed like the nameless figures were handling the flame much better than the other monsters, as the minotaurs of this floor, much larger and intelligent than the ones of the previous floors, were consumed all the same, same went for the gnolls and knolls and the hoarder spiders, all were pained and driven mad by the flame while the nameless figures seemed to be capable of controlling it without issue.
"Here, this cave-like area only has one entrance, it will be easy to see the monsters coming and defending it will also be easier" spoke EOTHO-1A, pointing at an opening in the wall, indeed from here on out the stone brick walls of the dungeons were no more, even when the area was overgrown with trees and vegetation, the brick walls had still remained but not anymore, now the areas were much more like natural caves.
Due to that, the footsteps and screams of the monsters echoed throughout the caves and could be heard by all that could hear, in this environment, Vlasfimia was able to navigate with ease, even though he himself couldn't see in the dark, the fire could and with the monsters afflicted with it, they didn't attack him, even the nameless figures despite their great resistance of it didn't attack him.
As his goal was to harass the expedition with extreme prejudice but not do enough damage to halt it completely, Vlas started selecting which nameless figures to round up and send their way, one of the greatest difficulties in the dungeon starting from the twentieth floor was the fact that the nameless figures were very unique and could have abilities that wildly differed from one another, some could straigth up be comparable to bosses for no reason, it was the power of randomness.
Putting his arm over one nameless figure shoulders as if they were both on a date, he started moving around with it, as expected it had no contestation to give and they both went on to find another nameless figure, one that could complement the existing one hopefully.
The one he had wrapped with his arm had a sort of see through ball as a head, within the ball was seemingly nothing apart from a small orange flame, the nameless figure didn't seem to have any limbs at all and sensing its mana pool, Vlas could guess that it wasn't necessary for it to have any.
Vlas would have liked to send more than two but he only had two arms and needed to not make himself too noticeable either, so he simply settled with two, at least for this time.
He was looking for a physical oriented one, so that it could provide protection for the one he already had found.
'This might take some time' thought Vlas as he passed by a hoarder spider without paying much attention to the fact that it had human legs for legs and rocks and bones for the rest of its body.
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"Hey Malmiere, you know what we're missing?" asked Imiril as she taped her head with her index finger.
"?" Malmiere thought deeply about it and looked absolutely moronic while thinking, thankfully he was was wearing his helmet.
"A light mage?" he responded with uncertainty.
"No, an appraiser or analyser or inspector or whatever they call themselves" she said.
"Well, I believe they tried to get one but none of the few present in a large radius were willing to do it" he responded.
"But don't worry about that, we can just have the space mage take some samples and take them back and then call for an appraiser" he added afterwards.
"Yeah but I meant to analyse the monsters" she spoke.
"Oh"
"Damn, that would be useful" he muttered under his breath.
"But, I believe that appraiser are usually very specialised in a certain domain, I don't believe their skills are just 'appraisal' or anything but more like 'mineral appraisal' or 'weapon appraisal', you see what I mean?" he then said, earning an eyebrow raised from Imiril.
"I see what I mean, you are just telling me in a very lengthy way that there is no such appraiser anywhere around, right?" she uttered.
"Yeah, that's what I mean" he said as he nodded his head.
"Then say it directly, there is no point in exposing the whole appraiser lore to me!" she said.
As she finished her sentence, they both felt two monsters approaching.
"Everyone! Monsters in approach, get ready!" yelled Malmiere as Imiril got ready to shoot her bow at whatever was going to show up out of the darkness.
"Hmm?" as she did that, something occured to her.
"When did the torches we set up go out?" she wondered out loud, tipping Malmiere that he should look into that.
First, a very kight-like nameless figure emerged from the obscuring darkness, it seemed to be wearing an armor made out of both wood and stone and holding an already bloodied sword but as a nameless figure, the armor was actually its body and so was the sword, unlike many other however, it had all of its limbs.
From behind of it, a small orange glow could be made out in the dark but it was all that could be seen from the monster accompanying it, an arrow pierced through the air, aiming for the unseen monster but the arrow and caught mid-air by the knightly-looking nameless figure and broken.
Its sword suddenly erupted into orange flames and it stood its ground, seemingly daring anyone to attack it, one of the greastest issue of the fire affliction was the fact that it granted abilities similar to magic to all monsters, including some that should be vulnerable to magic but by acquiring the flame, they gained a way to defend against it.
The shadows seemed to rise from the ground and shot out shadow needles at anyone nearby, the monster duo was going to prove difficult to take down.
As this was all going on, Vlas was watching with great interest while chewing on some dried meat.