Burn to ash!

  - Inferno [The ing Fme]. Unique Fire Elemental.

  Malika

  The tinual burning of Malika’s skin, hair, eyes, lungs, or basically every part of her exposed to the air, left her feeling drained and exhausted. She sat cross-legged in the pool of va, simply because the wretched Path of the Earth: The Defes had clearly indicated that she could learn defensive skills by meditating oure of the damage. It had sounded quite straightforward when she had first read it, but after days of sitting in poison traps while meditating, she had made no breakthroughs – and sitting to meditate while her flesh bed and burnt from the magic of the dungeon’s fire and va was easier said than done.

  “You look toasty,” Mato said.

  “I’m busy, Mato,” she said, her prior irritation making her words sharper than she liked.

  “Mhm,” he offered unhelpfully.

  She pulsed another heal, regeing the burnt flesh and feeling a fresh rush of pain from the newly regrown hat instantly began to char again in a never-ending cycle, and tried to force her mind to bee calm.

  You ’t force it. The words of her father’s teag, guidihrough her first meditation, sprang clearly to her mind and she sighed as she let go of her o make anything happen. Instead, she focused her attention on the incredible pain and the sensation of her flesh cooking from the magical energy and molten rock. To her surprise, her mind quietened, settling into the waves of alternating burning and healing. As she pted the rhythm, she began to notice how fire felt different from the poison of her prior study subject matter. Then another cycle flowed by her steady awareness, and she began to sehe distin between fire and va.

  So that’s what it meant…

  “I’m ready,” Ali said, her voice eg from the small side chamber.

  Malika released her meditation after finally having achieved something resembling calm, reminding herself to also release her annoya being interrupted by Ali’s voice right when she was making progress. Progress will be there when I return. At least she had ied heavily in her endura was certain that without it, her rather extreme training would not have been accessible to her, even with healing. The founded book clearly stated the importance of a calm aive mind.

  The aors had pretty messed-up trainihods, she decided, getting up and reequippiored equipment straight from her ste entment with a thought – a handy trick had taught her. Ali emerged from the side chamber with her repoputed army following her about like a brood of dugs.

  “I found this while destrug the corpses,” Ali said, summoning an essend bang it on a small disk of her barrier magic.

  Clever.

  “Thank you,” Malika said, taking the ever-burning fme and instantly notig just how different the essence felt from the ambient fire and va as it bur her skin. Something to iigate ter, she decided, st it in her Seal of the Quartermaster ring.

  ’s voice echoed from beyond the far entrance, “Lots of side passages up here.”

  They headed out, Malika taking her spot he front, resting a hand on Mato’s furry shoulder and pulsing her healing stantly to keep them both topped up. At least with the be of Mato’s aura, her stamina regeed faster, and her healing would take some of the burden off Ali’s Acolytes.

  She hopped over a va flow, nding lightly oher side, and then fronted a much rger pool that filled the tunnel, spilling out across into a side passage. Rock crackled and popped stantly from the fluctuati of the va stream.

  “Dead end,” said, emerging from the passage, and flying over the va.

  While she could have simply Diviepped over the rge expanse of molten rock, she chose io ato and waded through it, healing them both stantly while the holy magic of Ali’s acolytes ticked her health up. I really hope this is worth it, she thought, waiting till Ali had finished ferrying her minions across before tinuing.

  The tunnels tio meander randomly with excavations of many different sizes aents brang outward. It took ages tress with each side passage needing to be iigated, explored, and deemed safe, rather than risk monsters adding from behind when they least expected it.

  “There’s a difficult pull up ahead,” said, raising his bow and aiming with a grimace. “I’ll try to split them.”

  They were clustered up in a wide bend iunnel. Up ahead, Malika saw the glow of two Shards of Fme, gliding bad forth between the main tunnel and what looked like it might be a passage to the side in a plex weaving dahey vanished and re-emerged as their paths took them into and out of view, causing the angry red glow to dim and brighteically. She held her breath, tension building as studied their movement, aiming for the perfect shot.

  Suddenly, his b twahe arrow fletg buzzed loudly over the soft sizzling and creaking of superheated rock. The white, glowing arrow smmed into the core of the elemental as it popped into view, and it immediately turned, surging toward their group with a hissing roar like bellows fanning a fe. It glided over the rock, clearing pools and rivulets of va without slowing.

  But a sed roar echoed from within the side tunnel and the other Shard of Fme emerged right behind it.

  “Fuck, missed that,” swore.

  Mato answered the challeh a roar of his own and immediately charged forast to intercept the elementals. Right. A time. Malika sprang forward, alongside Mato, keeping pace with his tremendous speed. But as soon as she ehe auras of fme the elementals were emitting, she realized the problem. Her body immediately ignited as she ehe two overpping auras of ravenous ing fme. No way! Urgently she unleashed a flurry of blows, supplementing the sudden demand for healing magic with her Soul Strike.

  “We aren’t doing any damage. They’re healing each other!” Ali yelled.

  Malika spped Mato, unleashing a torrent of healing into his burning fnk, and then whirled to do the same for Ali’s Hobgoblin. But the instant her hand touched the crimson, burning skin, the powerful goblin colpsed, reduced to a heap of rapidly charring flesh and dense coils of smoke. Crap, too slow!

  “Split them!” shouted. “Malika!”

  “I’ll take the left one,” Malika said, immediately taking on the role of the sed tank aing Mato know whie she wanted him to ignore, so she could peel it off him. He just grunted, never letting up his focus on his attacks.

  I even do it? Malika had no fire resistance because of her css’s frustrating gear restri, and she was already struggling to keep up with the damage, but there was nobody else. The only differeween her and the Hob was that she had a healing skill. So, she leaned into her attacks, pung harder and interleavitacks with rapid kicks and brutal krikes, imbuing every single oh her mana-stealing Soul Strike. It took several long seds and more than a dozen hits before the elemental whirled about and punched her with its strangely insubstantial fiery arm. She brought up her forearms in a cross-guard block, but it was only partially successful, most of the damage smming through her defense and crushing her ribs. She doubled over from the sharp spike of pain, feeling her health drop precipitously.

  Right, dodge those, she thought, reag instantly with a full heal, ign the stamina cost, and began to back away from Mato. And here she entered her sed problem.

  “Where I take it?” The brawl had erupted in a tunnel – broad if one were merely walking through, but strig for a fight. If she moved away from the group, she would be isoted and likely die on her own. But, if she moved toward the group, she would bathe them all in fire. Making the safer decision, she began to draw it away.

  “N it here,” called, tering her decision decisively. “We o kill yours first.”

  “Ok.” It was not the decision she would have made, but she trusted him to know what he was doing. At the very least, a coordirategy was far better than arguing about which might be the ‘best’ one. She spriraight up the tuoward Ali and , leaping va streams, dodging firebolts, and even occasionally managing to avoid the magical damage from the auras themselves with her advanced Enlightened Evasion, but never enough to give her a moment’s pause. She was burning through stamina rapidly, and now that she was beyond Mato’s aura it wouldn’t regee nearly as quickly.

  “More,” Ali said, making golden fshes as she wielded her barrier magic, remi of the time Rezan had blocked the entire seventh form’s punch sequeh just his palms. “You’re still in the aura. Another five meters. Uh… fiftee.”

  The elemental hit her with a staggering blow, followed by a firebolt, her of which she mao dodge, and her health dipped instantly into dangerous territory. Somewhere behind one of Ali’s barriers, a pilr of holy light shone forth, but she poured her stamina into her healing again, unwilling to risk waiting for the Acolyte. Her health shot up and instantly vanished as the Shard of Fme nded a heavy blow on her back. The gentle embrace of holy healiled onto her, but with a rapidity and force that had been empowered.

  She dragged the elemental further and further dowunnel in an effort to escape the aura of the other elemental.

  “That’s good,” Ali called out. “Right there!”

  Malika breathed a sigh of relief as the iy of the overpping fire auras halved. She gnced over to see Mato still fighting over by the distant va stream, and she hoped the little Kobolds would be able to keep him safe from that far.

  “Healer down!” Ali yelled, urgency making her voice shrill.

  Gng backward, she saw the kobold Acolytes all on fire, healing rapidly. As she watched, a sed origgered its potent desperation magiing a new pilr of brilliant holy light. One of Ali’s rogues colpsed, followed shortly by one of the shamans.

  This is bad. She filled her own body with a stant stream of healing, fog ily on dodging as much as she could to take the pressure off the beleaguered kobold healers. It was clear that Ali was forced to make them stand in the fire aura to reach Mato. If only ace to separate them properly.

  “Another healer down!”

  “Recall?” Malika yelled.

  “Not yet,” said as he lit the tunnel with his powerful Righteous Fury skill, unleashing a hail of arrows to try to burn the monster down as fast as possible.

  Ok, your call, she thought, going all out with Soul Strike, trying to match and hold the Shard of Fme against his prodigious damage. She didn’t have a taunt skill like Mato’s roar to recover it if she let it get away from her. Several more of Ali’s melee minions colpsed in burning heaps as the healing throughput dropped dramatically.

  Suddenly she found Ali beside her, standing on a ptform of barrier magic.

  “What are you…” Malika’s voice cut off as the elemental puhrough her guard and hit her iomach.

  “Don’t move from here,” Ali said, and then something flickered almost imperceptibly in Malika’s Soul Sight – as if Ali’s energy was, for the briefest of moments, in several pces at ohen she felt the pulse of magical restoration c through her body.

  What skill was that? She couldn’t see the runic circle that Ali had made in that instant, but she most certainly reized the feeling of the spell that rapidly healed her, taking the pce of the fallen healers. Grateful for Ali’s quick thinking, Malika diverted some more mana to stamina and focused on pig up the remainder of her own healing so that the two Acolytes could help Mato instead.

  In the zone of tinuous pung, dodging, healing, and blog, Malika became aware of the fading of ’s light, but her Soul Strike suddenly came up empty, and the Shard of Fme imploded with a dull whoomph and colpsed to the scorg rock.

  She turo charge over and help Mato, but brought her up short. “Mat it back here to the runic circle.”

  Smart. Malika thought, waiting in the circle, letting it top her up before she yielded it to the burning Bear. With two healers down, the Acolytes had to be running low on mana, and they still had a sed Shard of Fme to deal with.

  The iy of her self-healing dropped dramatically as she no longer found herself tending with fiery punches bsting through her defenses. Instead, she unleashed her martial arts upon the fire-spewing elemental, dodging in and out to heal Mato whenever she could. It was just her and Mato, and the only remaining shaman Ali possessed, and uhe potent effeato’s aura, her stamina began to recover. More and more, she wove heals iween the forms of the hs, shouldering a progressively rger burden of healing now that he was taking care of the tanking.

  With Mato in the circle and her own increased output, the flow of battle suddenly reached a precarious stability.

  Aliandra

  Ali surveyed battered and burnt remnants of her minion army, with a frown that provoked feelings of uneasio spill over through her e to her few remaining kobolds. It had taken a mere two Shards of Fme and her minion army had been wiped out. The overpped auras of fme, bined with the underlying fire of the dungeon’s domain, had proved all too deadly for her forces.

  The Hobgoblin had died almost instantly, caught in the crossfire of the auras and both volleys of firebolts. Without any fire resistance, her highest-level monster had proved to be worthless, ied like so much kindling on a bonfire. Even her Acolytes had rapidly fallen once exposed to even one of the elementals’ auras – a y for them to reach Mato with their healing skills given the fines of the tunnel system.

  “Deep thoughts?” asked.

  “My minions don’t have enough health,” Ali said.

  “Even with the Studded Jackets I got?” asked.

  “Those are fantastic! Vitality aahey’re the reason the rogues survive at all,” Ali said. However, being dragged uhe va by the crushing grasp of a va monster while still taking fire damage from the ambient dungeon domain proved far too much for a level twenty kobue, regardless of his natural racial boosts to fire resistand the quality of his gear. “The Hobgoblin was useless, and I didn’t eveo test my Brine Oozes properly before they disied.”

  “I see,” said. “Fire resistance really is that good? Maybe we see if Thuli craft something for your Hobgoblin once we collect more essences?”

  “That would help,” Ali said. Even with fire resistance gear, the rogues and shamans had struggled. Higher-level monsters like the Hob were at less of a disadvantage against the elementals and had more vitality and therefore health.

  “Maybe we find you a few higher-level monsters in here?” Mato suggested.

  “As long as they don’t have fire,” Ali grumbled. “Even my Scalding Slimes have enough of the fire trait in their steam that they’re healing the elementals.”

  “Nice save during the fight, by the way,” said.

  “I had to use Are Recall to inscribe that restoration circle,” she admitted. They o know her ace skill had been burned and she would not be able to pull off that maneuver again – at least for today.

  “Ok, if I see a potentially tricky pull again, we go home instead of risking it,” suggested.

  “You mean to tinue?” Malika asked.

  It was the question on Ali’s mind too. Just being in the fire dungeon was dangerous enough, not ting the elementals, or the va oozes, and who knew what else lurked up ahead.

  “I think it’s worth expl a little further unless you all would prefer to stop here,” said. “I have a better idea of their range now, so I be more precise.”

  “Ok,” Ali said. “Let me resummon my minions.”

  Her friends waited patiently while she rebuilt her little army. When she was finally done, she put her Grimoire away, knowing that she had scoured it for ideas and e up wanting. She knew every option she had and uood the limitations she faced, but it was not like she had maer choices.

  I really need higher-level monsters. It always came back to that. In particur, a more robust healer would be fantastic. For various ued reasons, all her highest-level monsters were unsuitable for this dungeon in some critically important way – from the fire vulnerability of her Forest Guardians to her frustrating inability to summon most of her elemental imprints. She could only imagine how effective a Radiant Brawler or a Corust Ray might be down here. Burning down the Shards of Fme with beams of intense light from the far end of the tunnel would be so easy.

  At least she might find some success with her Hobgoblins if Thuli was able to turest batch of Essene into some det pte armor like suggested. The only problem with that approach was colleg enough essehis excursion into the mines had so far added two to their haul, and delving deeper had the potential to earn more. Alternatively, they could just wait for her boss to kill enough of the mohe dungeon spat out, but that seemed frustratingly slow. Not to mention, she o earn experience so she could grow her mana pool.

  What a mess! Ali sighed and announced, “I’m ready.” If there was ohing she had in abunda roblems to solve.

  “Ok, follow me,” said.

  Even giveruggles of the prior battle, Ali found herself surprisingly curious about what y ahead. When they had first explored the Ruins of Dal’mohra she hadn’t known she was a dungeon, and for at least the initial exploration, she hadn’t even had her Are Insight skill to see mana. Now with so much more information under her belt, from personal experiend finally studying Nevyn Eld’s book on dungeons, she found it extraordinarily educational to study the domain of the Emberfe Mines.

  They pressed onward, following through the twisting miunnels and expl the frequent side excavations. Occasionally they ran into isoted Lava Lurkers – mostly in va-filled chambers off the tral path – but, true to his word, mao pull each of them separately, allowing them to overe the threat with minimal danger.

  Ali spent most of her time between battles trying to ighe oppressive heat and the weight of tons of rock overhead. It surprised her that it felt so unfortable, given her entire dungeon was underground, but somehow the rock ceiling being so close overhead spired to prevent her from ign it. Iingly though, the best way she found to mahe incipient custrophobia was to keep the point of view of at least one of her slimes. With their strange amorphous biology, they perceived space vastly differently, and small crevices and rge openings seemed intergeable within their otherwise simplistids.

  As she rouhe bend, Ali’s eyes were instantly drawn to a jagged sliver of dark gray rock jutting out of the ceiling overhead. Up in a er, by a small opening, a set of cobwebs hung loosely from the bare stone. What caught her eye was the fact that they were on fire. Nothing down here could be on fire for long without being utterly ed, so the fact that the cobwebs were still there meant they were either very new, or…

  Fire affinity. Fog on the sense of the mana, she struggled to parse it out from the background of the domain itself, but the web was clearly burning on its own. It seemed to be spun by winding fire affinity into the substance of the silky webbing itself.

  “Do you see that, ?” she asked, pointing.

  “Yes,” he answered, his alert eyes sing the crevices stantly. “I haven’t seen any sign of what made them… yet. Always the spiders, right?”

  “’t wait to smoosh them,” Ali grinned wryly.

  The tunnel led further downward, punctuated by small holes and crevices, some of which leaked va into the main path. As they picked their way over the streams and boulders, more and more webbing appeared draped among the rocks overhead until the entire ceiling vanished behind a de of burning web.

  “Another Shard,” said. “Solo.”

  His radiant arrow made shadows flicker down the long tunnel. A loud sizzle and hiss echoed back as the arrow smmed into the bzing Shard of Fme up ahead.

  Mato roared, as usual, and rushed to meet the surging elemental midway dowunnel. Malika danced in behind him, flickering with soul magic as she healed both of them. Ali’s barriers went up with their golden radiance, easily in time to catch the first volley of firebolts before they smmed into her healers.

  Halfway through burning down the elemental, with her forces fully engaged, she heard something unusual. Well, it was more that she felt it. ected as she was to the senses of her Brine Oozes lobbing water bolts from behind her barriers, she detected an unusual, rapid scrabbling as if many things approached quickly. She shivered despite the heat, unfortably reminded of that Bone Skitterer crawling across her skin. She gnced around rapidly but couldn’t see anything with her eyes or her mana sight, so she focused back, splitting her awareness into both her remaining oozes simultaneously. What do you sense?

  Her eyes so the erratic glow from within the cracks and holes beyond the webbing. “Something is ing!” she yelled. Moments ter, a stream of gleaming bck shapes skittered out of the holes, crawling along the ceiling and the web. Fire mana radiated from each creature, wreathing them in auras of fme.

  Fme Skitterer – Spider – level 12-16 (Fire) Swarm x43

  “Shit, bunches of spiders!” yelled, reag to her warning. “Ining!”

  The endless swarm spilled from the crevices above, attracted to the sounds of bat. Ali’s eyes wide the sight of the growing aura of fme. “If they reach the Shard, we’re going to lose!”

  “Mato, move!” shouted, provoking a roar from the burning Bear.

  “Wall it off,” Ali anded, and her Bone Mages instantly filled the corridor up ahead with their Bone Wall spells. But the ridges and cracks of jured bone began to b uhe onsught of the bined fme of the spider swarm building up behind the blockage.

  “I ’t hold them off long!” Ali shouted, spending a sizeable portion of her preana on a floor-to-ceiling barrier to reinforce the bone wall.

  “Mato, further!” shouted.

  Ali immediately reacted by moving her mages and Acolytes so that they remained out of the fme aura, but still close enough to heal Mato as he moved.

  “Ali, you make a small opening in the barrier?” asked. “We ’t let them build up for too long, we won’t be able to hahe rush when they break through. Put all the ratackers on the hole and leave the Shard for the melee.”

  “Got it,” Ali said, reanizing her minions acc to his dires. I need a tank. She gnced over, but Malika was fully occupied healing Mato, so she redirected one of her shamans instead. When it reached the barrier, she shifted it sideways, creating a gap between the rod her defensive spell. A stream of spiders burst forth from the gap, right into the shaman’s lightning-ented shield. Immediately, volley after volley of water bolts, arrows, and bone spears tore into the horde of spiders as Ali redirected all her minions. She could barely add a single barrier shard, most of her magic tied up in the enormous barrier she was using to block the eunnel.

  For a moment it seemed like they would hold them back, but then spiders began p out from nearby crevices, bypassing the barrier and beginning to overwhelm their arrows and bolts by sheer numbers. responded instantly with Righteous Fury and volleys of triple-jured light-affinity arrows. To Ali’s relief, the horde began to fall back slowly. But then something else came through.

  “Big one!” spat through ched teeth.

  Fme Spinner – Spider – level 54 (Fire)

  Oh, that’s a big boy. Big was an uatement. Ali had no idea how something rger than her had mao crawl through that tiny tunnel, but it emerged, unfolding long spindly legs of shiny bck chitin, bzing with powerful fme. It tipped its abdomen toward them, and with a wet thump a blob of fire arced overhead, sizzling as it unfolded into a fming web. With her barrier magic fully itted, Ali could only watch as the web smmed into her and her ranged minions with a spt. The weight of it knocked her ft and pinned her to the ground. She struggled against the tough silk, her skin blistering and bing wherever the sticky fming silk touched, but she had nowhere near enough strength to break free.

  But the same was not true of her oozes, they slipped free of their bindings with ease, heading for the walls. Ali picked one and switched pces with it, freeing herself and putting the oht bato the trap, from which it promptly escaped once again.

  No bones is a handy skill…

  A surprising chime sounded, followed by the sight of Malika sprinting right up the wall and into the fming silk web on the ceiling to punch at the huge Fme Spinner, freeing to trate otle spiders once again. Mato stomped into the ter of the tunnel and roared, provoking most of the spider horde to swarm him.

  “Heals on Mato,” Ali instructed, wing at the sight of fire verging toward him on far too many legs. She left her Acolytes webbed, choosing io use her barrier shard to saw away at the threads binding her archers, but it took mere seds before she realized it was futile. Instead, she reached out with a hand and began to destruct the binding web, strand by strand.

  While she worked to break her minions out of their fme bindings, she studied the deluge of monstrous spiders swarming the tunnel. Her mages’ walls were creaking uhe weight of the spiders building up behind them. If I ’t tain them…

  “Wall on that side,” Ali anded, pointing to where she wa. “And you do the opposite side,” she added. Still bound by the fming web, her Bone Mages threw up their walls. She did not io block the spiders, instead, the new walls formed a series of baffles to el the tide, funneling them through the ter el and serving them up to Mato’s cws and ’s arrows.

  “Lightning Nova totems in the breach,” she said, lining her shamans up behind Mato, and makiain that they were deploying their lightning effectively through the bulk of the spider horde.

  “Good work, Ali,” said, nodding his approval and unleashing a fresh volley of arrows.

  With each archer she broke free, she added a stream of arrows to help Malika with the oversized spider still ging to the ceiling. Fortunately, Malika had drawn all its ire, and the bsts of the burning web were exclusively aimed at her. Even more fortunately, Malika had mao dodge all of them.

  The chimes tio ping as the smaller spiders died in droves.

  Sparkling oozes would be so ght now, Ali grumbled, ahat she hadn’t thought of it earlier. The strangely glittering oozes with their light-affinity area damage would have decimated the clumped-up spiders in seds. Certainly more effective than them, she thought, the Brine Oozes trying to bst the spiders o a time.

  The crawling bck tide slowly began to ebb. Bunched up as they were by the bone walls, Mato’s cws killed them by the dozen as he sshed furiously bad forth. ’s new multishot, jured arrows seemed simirly effective, killing three at a time, which left Ali feeling more than a little jealous. Typically, she brought the area damage, and taking care of a swarm like this would have been her job. But, without her Fire Mages, she was relegated to the sidelines, making do with shamans and barriers, and just taking care of the bulk of the healing.

  Enough grousing. Instead, she switched her attention to the giant spider on the roof a her barrier shard slig upward to assist Malika.

  ***

  Yroup has defeated Fme Skitterer – Spider – level 12-17 (Fire) Swarm x311Yroup has defeated Shard of Fme – Elemental – level 36 (Fire)Yroup has defeated Fme Spinner – Spider – level 54 (Fire)

  Imprint: Fme Skitterer pleted.Imprint: Fme Web pleted.

  “What are you looking at, Malika?” Ali asked. Her friend was bent over poking at some burning web on the ground.

  “This stuff is insanely strong,” Malika said, shaking her hand vigorously as she got a bit stu her fingers. “Appraise says it’s a valuable crafter resource. How about we collee and see if Lydia use it?”

  “Oh, that’s a great idea,” Ali answered, not having sidered the crafting a all. She was debating whether to it the Fme Web imprint trimoire solely orength that she might be able to make some good traps with it, but if Lydia could use it, that would be so much better. And I got my spider imprint, too! It wasly what she had had in mind, but she was excited to see if they had some good perception skills she might put to use.

  Her Grimoire had the space right now, so she added both new imprints while Malika burned herself colleg as much of the burning web as she could find. “How did you get it off your fingers?”

  “I stored it in my ring,” Malika said, grinning as she produced a still-fming k of web and then made it vanish.

  “Where did the big spider nd?” Ali asked. While there had only been one, she wao make sure to get it so that she could learn the variant as soon as possible. If the little spiders proved useful, she just khe big one would be far better. Maybe not in here, though, she thought, recalling the fmes and burning web.

  “Over here, Ali.” poio where it y, a thick carapace jutting out of the middle of a heap of hundreds of Fme Skitterer corpses.

  “I vote we call it here; I have a lot of stuff to sell,” Malika said, and everyone agreed.

  “Yep, I’m getting tired too,” Mato said.

  “Hungry, did you say?” piped up.

  “Always. Besides, your mom told me to help you put some skin on those bones.” The half-elf’s eyebrows lifted, whereupon Mato said in a terrible falsetto, “Mato, please look after my poor little and make sure he eats three square meals a day, because no girl wants to marry a stio matter how handsome he thinks he is.”

  “As if!”

  Saving their potions, the quartet shared a few more pyful insults as they retraced their steps back through the tunnels. On the way out of the mine, Ali couldn’t help notig that the domain of the fire dungeon ran up against the opening she had bored through the rubble of the fallen city, but without Shards of Fme drawing the domain out, the only fire mana that escaped was a dense flow of ambient and unstructured mana, simir, but not as chaoti nature as the inal mana that pervaded the juself.

  “ we take a moment here?” Mato asked, stopping their group. “Ali, how about pnting some of those fire pnts we collected? That way I harvest some and see what kind of potions Eliyen make for our rip.”

  “Oh, yes,” Ali said. It was a great idea actually – the shers at least required some ambient fire mana, and this was the only pear her domain that had any. Pulling out her Grimoire, she pnted a giant Lirasian Oak outside the entrao the mine, close enough to extend her domain through the tunnel, but not too close that her mana would overp with the dungeon within. With that t detail taken care of, she filled the cracked and burned ground with Fire Grass and grew a couple of dozen Fme Lashers up the rubble walls beside the tunra took a while for her to finish, but by the time she was done her domain had recimed the space, and using that, she blocked the entrah a series of dense barriers that she attached to the domain itself, hopefully sealing the fire elementals inside in the event that the dungeon respawhem.

  It was a tricky tradeoff. Blog the entrance would preserve her domain from the Shards of Fme, but that meant her boss would no longer be killing them and geing a steady stream of essences. Perhaps I’ll open it again after Mato’s done, she decided, watg him harvest the pretty fire flowers and samples of grass.

  ***

  Race: Spider

  Css: Fme Skitterer – level 16- Fme Bite – level 11Stamina: Bite your target. Bite does additional Fire damage. Raouch.Fire, Physical, Dexterity

  - Fme Aura – level 10Mas an aura of fire doing damage to everything in range. Aura bines with overpping auras of swarm members. Range: 1.3 feet. Reserve: 100%Fire, Area, Swarm, Intelligence

  - Fme Sight – level 10 see heat sources directly. sense nearby fire.Fire, PerceptionAptitudes- Mana (Affinity): Fire- Immunities (Racial): Fire- Vulnerabilities (Racial): +50% extra damage from Ice or Cold- Swarm Spawn (Racial): Spawns in groups of 12- Swarm Tactics (Racial): +6.5% to Accuracy per Fme Skitterer attag the same targetAttributes- Vitality: 23- Strength: 15- Endurance: 19- Dexterity: 39- Perception: 34- Intelligence: 11- Wisdom: 19

  Armor: 112Physical Damage Redu: 20%Evasion: 134Dodge: 23.02%

  Health: 230/230Stamina: 190/190Mana: 0/190 (190 Reserved)

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