The Knightly Elven… Spider?

“Magical hides, huh?” Cellestra said as soon as we were inside.

“Yeah. Magic seems to be the theme of the floor. Hides infused with magic, though…”

“Sounds expensive,” The brunette said cheerfully.

“That’s what I thought. Also sounds like they will be quite tough to deal with, depending on what those hides do for them.” I turned my head to her. “Unless you know more, of course.”

“If it’s not medicine, or something plant-life related, chances are I don’t know a whole lot about the subject, unfortunately.”

“I’ll take that as a no,” I said with a chuckle. “But that’s fine. We’ll find out, I suppose.”

Cellestra nodded as I started our journey to the end of the floor. The grass in the lioness area was still flattened, and once again, not a single one of the creatures showed up. I wasn’t about to look for a reason, perhaps we were just lucky.

Due to the other creatures on this floor being passive in their behavior, we had no trouble reaching the tunnel leading towards the second floor. There, we did start with a slight problem.

Where the rest of the floor was wide open with plenty of room to circle around the dungeon’s creatures, the wolf area was like a bottleneck. We were forced to either fight, or run our way through.

We chose for the latter, knowing that my speed was unmatched, and even as they gave chase, there was no real chance of them catching up, so they soon halted their pursuit and returned to where they were resting before.

“How is your mana pool, by the way?” I asked, running through the immense caldera.

“I’m not sure,” Cellestra resplied. “Your venom did quite a number on me. I think it’s not entirely out of my system.”

“And you tell me this now?” I asked, surprised she hadn’t said anything. “You know I have a spell for that, right?”

“Oh, crap. I completely forgot. Does that work on this?”

“No idea, but I’m going to use it either way,” I replied before casting my detoxification spell on her, hopefully getting rid of the last remnants that impaired Cellestra’s mana recovery.

“Did it work?” I asked when I finished.

“I think it did,” She replied softly. “I feel less burdened in a way, more energetic.”

“Good. Let’s hope you recover a bit before we get to the action part. If you need, we can take a bit of a break once we’re on the third floor. You know, for safety’s sake.”

“I do think that would be smart, yes,” The brunette said with a nod.

And so we did. We snuck past everything by simply running and ignoring everything. It didn’t take long to reach the third floor, where we sat down and watched the beautiful landscape as we took our break. Cellestra had me conjure up some hot water, to which she added some leaves for tea.

“This is such a gorgeous place,” She said as we both sipped our tea.

I was constantly on the lookout for danger, but right here where we were, at the entrance to this area, there was none to be seen. The same ‘rule’ counted for the second and first floors, where next to the entryways, nothing dangerous roamed.

“Hey, Kealyna,” Cellestra said softly, looking down at her tea.

“What’s the matter?” I asked kindly.

“While I am all for you getting more skills, your latest addition feels a bit… I don’t know how to put it.”

“What’s with it?”

She took a deep breath and let it all out before talking.

“I’m worried you might change beyond recognition. You know, with all the changes this blessing makes to your body. I like how you look now.”

I looked up from my tea and smiled warmly.

“That’s sweet of you, and don’t worry about it too much. I’ve come to like how I look and I’d hate for it to change too, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Remember that I can choose what to evolve and what not to.”

Cellestra nodded and sipped her tea in silence. Several minutes passed, even after we finished lunch in which we just sat and watched the green fields. I noticed with my keen eyesight that the trees we’d previously dispatched had reappeared in the distance, as inconspicuous saplings, at least at first sight.

Plenty of space to go around those. The question I was asking myself was where exactly these lizards roamed, something which was made more complicated due to their invisibility. If they were spread out all over the place, it could definitely make things harder. I reckoned this was as good a time as any to find out, given we were here for those creatures anyway.

“Alright, whatcha say? Shall we get going?” I asked after a while.

“Yeah,” Cellestra replied with a nod.

Thus, we started our hunt for the lizards once more. Soon enough, a spot of red appeared on my thermal vision, and I immediately hurled an elemental blast in its direction, while casting a flame shield to keep me safe from the incoming attack.

I missed terribly, but for a brief moment, the creature became visible, and in that fraction of a second, Cellestra managed to cast an earthen spike, and impale it. The lizard lost its ability to disappear and showed itself fully as it remained stuck on the spike, bleeding out.

“Nice shot,” I commented. “By Elysa, that was fast.”

“Thank you,” The brunette replied happily.

The beast stopped struggling and went limp, and I walked over to it, but took a good look around to see if any more of them were around. I didn’t see any, but as soon as I lowered my head to start eating, I heard a sound behind me, and felt something impact on my magical barrier.

“Crap,” I let out as I quickly turned around to see where the attack had come from.

The damage was insignificant, thanks to my defenses, but I was nonetheless annoyed I got hit without knowing where from. These lizards sure were annoying.

Then, a flurry of icicles was fired at me, just after they materialized in the air to my left. I barely manage to summon a new fire wall to stop them, while casting icicles of my own, that I fired over a spread area, hoping to hit the creature by chance.

There was no luck for me as all my attacks missed. However, when the air changed colors, I saw my chance, and I summoned an earthen spike as quickly as I could.

This time, I did hit. Another lizard was impaled and died in the same way, causing a giggle from Cellestra’s lips.

“Nice shot,” She exclaimed.

“Why thank you. It seems we’re starting to get the hang of these things and how to fell them.”

“Yep, and now I get to see your face twist with disgust,” She said mischievously.

“Well, at least one of us enjoys it then. I suppose that makes it worth it.”

She giggled as I sank my fangs into the first lizard’s revolting meat. To add to her amusement, I made sure to show exactly what she was looking for when I turned my head to her. When she saw the expression on my face, her giggles grew into full-blown laughter.

“By the goddess, Kealyna.”

“What?” I said. “Isn’t this what you wanted to see?”

“I mean, yes, but, you know…” She let out before chuckling. It would seem she didn’t know what to say.

“Be happy you don’t have this blessing,” I said. “The things that come with it aren’t always so nice.”

“Yeah,” She said softly. “I’ve noticed that.”

“Should we go further into the dungeon once I’m done here?” I asked, changing the topic.

“I don’t know,” She said. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“Well, you got some mana back, and I can always run. I’m kind of curious what else we can find on this floor.”

“You want to see those magical hides, don’t you?” Cellestra asked in a most evil way.

I shrugged. “Perhaps.”

“Then, sure. Let’s have a look, but be careful.‘

“Always,” I replied.

I’d made my way through most of the first lizard, but there was no notification of any kind, leaving me mildly disappointed, but I knew I could expect this to happen. I sighed as I moved to the next animal and started the same process.

“‘No luck?” Cellestra asked.

“No luck.”

“Stupid blessing,” She let out. “How  does that even work?”

“You think I know?” I asked with a grin. “None of it makes any sense, and to be honest, I haven't bothered to break my head over it, either. Elysa explained a thing or two, but the rest is still a mystery to me.”

“I guess it doesn’t make sense to worry about it too much, does it?”

“I just accept it as it is, and I’m happy with that. I have other things to worry about.”

Cellestra merely nodded at my last statement, while I took some more bites. Then, at last, something appeared.