Author’s Corner: Hi guys! To those of you not wanting just another report chapter, I apologize, but this one actually has some important stuff hidden in it! I think. Maybe. I’m not really sure myself. Read and find out!

Crew Member: Aelsgwynn Fallem

Position: Chief Chef

Incident Injuries: Substantial

As part of the third dungeon expedition, we were tasked with fighting in one of the newer dungeons. The Vice-Captain conducted a preliminary scan before our entrance, and was leading this team personally. According to her report, the dungeon in question was filled with plant life. This did not cause us to relax our guard at all, as we knew just how dangerous certain species of plants could be.

My class was Mage, and after some trial and error I managed to create Fire Magic with the help of Officer Bradbury. With this, I at least had some confidence going into this dungeon. Moreover, I was often praised within the crew for being the first among us to discover a field of this new magic. In the process of doing so, I was actually able to unlock the Sub-Class ‘Researcher’. Although it would have been nice to have a class that compliments my position within the crew, this is still a good role.

When we entered the cave, we were greeted with a tunnel of thick foliage. These plants can’t all be monsters, right? Looking to the Vice-Captain, she gave me a nod so I stepped forward, using a weak fire spell to send a ball of flame at the nearest batch of plants, before stepping back. We all watched that patch of plants as the flames burned at it for a few moments, waiting to see if it would have any hostile reaction. However, the plants offered no reactions, simply burning into ashes after a short while.

This gave us both relief and concern, because we knew there had to be some monsters hidden among these plants. But now, they could be hiding anywhere, perfectly blending in. The warriors in the front of the party slowly advanced with their swords drawn, ready to strike at anything that moved. Behind the three warriors were a pair of gunslingers with a single hunter, who was accompanied by a large wolf. Behind them was my group, a pair of mages, a healer, and the Vice-Captain.

Every now and then, the warriors in the front would chop away at a plant that was blocking their path, in order to clear a trail for us to move in. At first, we made it through three large rooms without encountering a single monster. However, in the fourth room, our troubles began.

Roughly halfway through the fourth room, there was a scream from the front of the party. I wasn’t able to see the source of it, because a large leaf from a plant had blocked my view, but the scream stopped abruptly. When I managed to get a clear line of sight to the front, I saw two fighters standing back to back, looking around and trying to find the source of the attacks. The third vanguard was nowhere to be seen.

We waited there for over a minute, but there was no further attack. So, we continued forward. Just as we were nearing the end of the room, I caught a glimpse of thick vines shifting atop a tree that grew from the floor all the way into the ceiling. Before I could shout off a warning, those vines had already lunged out like a snake, and grabbed our team’s healer. She barely had time to utter a cry before the vines yanked her into the air, and pulled her out of our view.

The thought of saving her came to our minds, but the Vice-Captain told us that she had already been killed. Was it by design or chance that the vines targeted our healer? I do not know, but that was not the end of it.

After reaching the hallway between the fourth and fifth rooms, we took a break, and I discussed a plan with the Vice-Captain in order to potentially clear out the next room. I had been developing a spell, which could potentially set the entire room on fire. However, I needed some time to properly prepare it, as this was my first attempt to cast it in actual combat.

The Vice-Captain approved of my plan, and even gave me a small red bead, something she told me would make my fire spell even stronger if I used its energy. She said that was the only one she had, but this experiment would be worth it if it worked.

With her approval, I moved to the entrance of the next room, and prepared my spell. As part of our lessons on magic, the Vice-Captain had told us that associating words and phrases with spells was a good method of memorizing them. I had chosen to use this method to prepare the spell, which if it worked properly would release a sea of fire in front of me.

The phrase that I used for this spell was: “Fires from the heart of the sun, flame that burns creation, manifest and devour all in your path.” I then said the name of the spell itself “Emperor Flare”, while channeling the spell through that bead that the Vice-Captain had given me.

The little red bead shattered, and flames exploded out in front of me, with an even greater strength than I had imagined. There was an audible roar, not from the plants being burnt, but by the sudden emergence of flames scorching the air. The fire continued burning for a long time, and we could not see anything within the room for over a half hour. I was amazed by the power of my own spell, but also exhausted. That single casting had taken every bit of my mana, and for some reason it was not recovering like it should have been.

After another ten minutes, I discovered that it was not that my mana would not recover, but that the spell was still using it as fuel to continue burning. Thanks to that, I had no mana to do anything with, and my exhaustion from exerting so much energy would not fade away. However, the Vice-Captain nodded, seemingly satisfied by this experiment.

Calming down, I tried to focus, and found a small link between the flames and myself, which was constantly draining away my mana. After severing that connection, the flames finally died out roughly another fifteen minutes later. We could finally see the results of nearly an hour of burning.

As expected, most of the plants in the room had been reduced to ash, or would crumble up as soon as they were touched. However, a few plants remained untouched, as if the fire had never been there in the first place. One of these, which was also the perfect example, was a tall, three meter flower with red petals. Since it was not moving, we believed it to be safe. As such, the others began to move closer, wanting to pick it and take it back for the Captain or Officer Bradbury to put in their groves. If this was a rare plant that happened to be created here, that would only help us.

During this, I stayed back, because my mana had yet to fully replenish. However, doing so allowed me to see what happened next. Very slowly, the petals on the flower began spreading apart, as if the flower itself were blooming. I shouted out a warning to them to be careful, but they didn’t seem to notice.

The moment the flower fully bloomed, I was utterly amazed. There was an explosion of fire almost identical to the one I had just released into the room. Aside from myself and the Vice-Captain who had stayed behind with me, the rest of the team were engulfed in these flames.

The Vice-Captain next to me noted that this flower likely absorbed the essence of my fire spell, and stored it for a set amount of time before copying it. As far as she could tell, the flower was not a monster, but rather a special kind of flower able to mimic magic cast at it. After saying that, she suddenly flew into the flames.

I didn’t know if she had some method to survive in that hell, but sure enough, the flames stopped a few moments later. Where the large flower had been, the Vice-Captain was now standing with a proud smile. The flower itself was nowhere to be seen, likely meaning that she already collected it.

Looking to me, she gave me the option of continuing forward alone with her, or ending the expedition here. Although I had gained a significant amount of experience from clearing out this room, and had even gained a couple of levels, I chose to continue forward. Really, I was the best suited for this dungeon out of our previous party, and I wanted to see if there were other unique plants that we could bring back to the ship.

With only myself and the Vice-Captain here, I was forced to use my spells much more frequently. This helped to raise my skill level, as I became more accustomed to using my magic, and even managed to develop a few new spells. However, it also meant we had to take breaks much more frequently.

Thanks to our continued journey deeper into the dungeon, we encountered many strange plants. There were some that emitted pink spores that caused me to hallucinate for a short period of time, some that responded to my fire magic with sprays of water, and some that even seemed to speak. However, the voice they used were either my own or the Vice-Captain’s, and they did not say any words that we had not spoken ourselves, so we were easily able to spot them.

Now, using the method of switching between my flames and the Vice-Captain attacking the hostile plants, we managed to work our way to the boss room. This is where things really got complicated. Before we entered the room, the Vice-Captain ran an initial scan to see what we would be up against.

From her information, all of the plants in the next room would actually be a single, massive entity. As such, it would be entirely possible that an attack could come from any direction. And since some of the plant bodies were naturally underground, I could not even use my ‘Emperor Flare’ to destroy the boss in one go.

At this point, the Vice-Captain chose to explain something to me regarding my magic, as she deemed it would help us in our coming fight. Until now, I thought that Fire Magic was all about unleashing fire to damage the enemy, like how the Captain or Officer Bradbury fought. However, she explained that that was only the druid method. The mage method of Fire Magic was able to create any effects conceptually associated with fire, based on the user’s imagination.

After that, she told me to take all the time I needed to prepare a new spell before we fight the boss. Though, I did not know what I wanted to create. If I was not limited by just blasting fire around, then what would I make?

I spent a little over an hour sitting down and thinking of the perfect spell that could burn away a massive plant all at once. In the end, I did come up with something, but had to focus for a little while to figure out how to make it work. My plan was to create a spell with all of my mana, which embeds itself in my target and spreads throughout the entire thing before activating, burning every scrap of it together.

The idea for this spell came to me because I thought about cooking. When cooking, it is often best to make sure to evenly heat the entire meal as you prepare it, so that no part is left uncooked. Naturally, this kind of spell fit me the best. The Vice-Captain also seemed to agree with this method, and offered me a reassuring smile.

Before we entered the boss room, I went ahead and prepared my spell. Again, I used the method of associating it with a phrase to memorize it properly. This time’s phrase was: “Fires that can burn the world, solar flares of pure destruction, spread, defy, destroy.” As I said the name of the spell, which I decided to call “Kitchen Fire”, a red ball of light formed in my hand. I pushed every ounce of mana I had into it before moving with the Vice-Captain to enter the next room.

This room seemed almost identical to the last few, with a variety of plants scattered throughout the area. However, the ones here were even more densely packed, which only served to make them a better target. I randomly tossed the red sphere in my hand at one of the plants, and watched as it sank into it without leaving a trace. I could feel as the magic spread throughout the room, and waited to watch it engulf everything in fire.

I wasn’t sure if the Vice-Captain had already considered the weakness of my spell, but I only learned about it after casting. Apparently, the size of the target determines how powerful the flames are. Since this one had to spread throughout the entire room before activating… there was only a small puff of smoke as the spell activated its final step.

Before I could even react, I had been pierced through by over a dozen sharp roots that shot out from the ground, and felt as they quickly ripped me apart for my attempted attack. Well, at least this wasn’t a total loss. I managed to learn a good spell for cooking, and got quite a few levels.

End of Report.