It was the following morning of the beautiful day, which had been Gabriel’s previous day. Meeting Syandra had been the best medicine for his bouts of souring moods. The disappearance of his mother kept waiting heavily on his mind, just like he considered his fault that the Dungeon had taken Sato and the others as prisoners.

Gabe and Liz had bolted to the Ravenous Wilds. They intended to try Spirit Fusion and implement Channeling on something, maybe finally try Skill Trap too.

They now bolted through the planes, passing by teams of what felt like Tier 2 parties headed for the same zone as he.

Wait, though; that’s the wrong way.

Gabriel stopped his running, the party near which he stopped was washed over by a gust of wind.

“Hello there. May I ask where you headed, guys?”

They were young; they could be still in their teenage years, the oldest among them seemed to be the caster because of his hipster beard and eyes that communicated an ample wealth of experience.

There was a heavy-armored half-black Elf; her other half was indeed human, Gabriel could recognize it by the lack of Spirit. Well, as it seems it was luck of the draw that dictated the presence or lack of a Bond Spirit when a Druid, and thus a human, had a child with a different species, in Gaia’s case for example, it had resulted in her being born with a Spirit. The long but blunted ears similar to what Gaia sported, and her charcoal complexion. The others were shorter than normal green Orc. Orcs were not unnaturally big, usually taller than humans, but their build was not what some video games used to portray; he had a big ax and was dressed in leather tassets armor; he was fully shaved.

Finally, the last one of them looked definitely still a kid, a human who could barely be fourteen; his scepter and shield set made him definitely a supporter or healer. He looked a lot like the brown-haired hipster; they might as well have been family.

“Hello-” said the Orc, before widening his eyes.

“I know you! You are that guy mother Garena always talks about!”

“What? You are Garena’s son!?”

It was the Orc’s time to ask, “What?”

“What what?” Gabriel asked.

“What about what?” The Orc asked back, even more confused.

“Already, do I have to reboot you, Pollark?” Said the half-elf to the Orc.

“I’m not following, anymore,” admitted the little man.

“Neither am I,” said Gabriel, “Let’s start over… Hello there! Where are you going?”

“Not your business, I’m sorry,” said the hipster with a lack of interest.

“Rob, this is the damn Herald, be respectful!” Said the Orc.

“What!?” he asked.

“Oh, enough you and your whats!” It was the half-elf. “We’re going to Water Dungeon, and I’m Elly. Are you really the Herald people talk about? Galadriel?”

“What!? No… I’m Gabriel, Gabriel Walker. It’s still unclear if I’m the Herald or not, but I’m definitely not Galadriel, that’s for sure.”

She laughed, “Well, hello, Gabriel Walker. Say, would you like to join for this run?”

“Elly!” said the hipster.

“Yes!” said the Pollark.

“Really?” asked the little man.

Damn, what should I do now?

“I don’t know, guys, I’m flattered, really. But the last time I entered a Dungeon, well LargeLeaf Dungeon thing happened. And it doesn’t even end there…

“Wait, you were in there? You are one of the two escapees? Wow!” Said the little one, “I’m William by the way, this one is my brother Robert, don’t listen to him, he’s just grumpy because his girlfriend left the party. She sucked anyway.”

“William, come on!” Robert.

Gabriel couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh, trust me, dude, with that kind of beard, you’re gonna find a lot more girlfriends. Don’t fixate on one; it isn’t healthy. I wish I could grow such a wonderful beard myself.”

“Really? Well, thank you…”

“Is it true that your Lizard can take on an entire party by herself!?” Asked the bald Orc.

“What? Where did that come from? Well, I don’t think she could, but here she is, you can ask her yourself,” said Gabriel, as Liz came out of hiding from behind him.

Looking at her, they were rather perplexed, then Liz opened her frills, then Pollark opened up into a big smile? “What does the crest do? Does it give you the ability to shoot laser beams that can take down Behemoths!?”

Liz nodded with pride.

Gabriel hit her on the head with his knuckles, “Don’t go around talking bullshit! You’ll get us in trouble,” he turned toward them, “She can’t, obviously,” the lizard started slightly growling at him; she was ready to prowl, “But she will! She definitely will, with time!” Gabriel hurried himself to add.

She snorted but nodded.

Two ponies came out from the two boys’ bodies; more than ponies, they looked like miniature horses, but they were really cute. They closed in on the lizard sniffing her.

I hadn’t seen those before. I wonder which Basic Skill they are tied to.

“What the hell! I’m in! But I think Dungeon has something against me, so if I say pull out, we pull out, okay?”

“You’re not the party leader!” Said, Robert.

“Neither are you, Rob. I am,” it was the half-black Elf.

“Yes!” Pollark shouted, “I can’t wait when I tell Mother Garena of this!”

They got back on their path while making small talk and getting to know themselves and their roles.

“Why do you call her Mother anyway?”

“Mother Garena? Well, she’s our Matriarch even if she doesn’t like the role. She and Commodo have saved my entire clan from a Wight-captained incursion,” he paused as his gaze lost himself in remembrance, “we thought we were done for back then. I was barely six back then.”

“Garena and Commodo have told me about that; it must be utter chaos in there.”

Pollark nodded.

“Let’s talk about something less mood-killing. Gabriel Walker, tell me, how does it feel to be the Herald?” Elly asked.

“What? Well,” he laughed, “like shit, really. Coming to Alter has been the worst,” he gazed at Liz, “but at the same time, the best thing that has ever happened to me. But I could do without the Herald part, that’s just a damn burden,” he sighed involuntarily, but it was enough to let them exchange confused glances.

“Are there a lot of responsibilities?” William asked, walking faster to join their pace.

“Responsibilities? I guess so. Nothing that I can currently fulfill, I think. But let’s say people ask a lot of me, people, Spirits. Whoever has something to ask of me does. No mind what my problems are… anyway, what about Water Dungeon? Is it by the Rapids?”

Elly nodded, ”Yes. Closeby.”

***

After an hour, Gabriel and the teenage part reached a massive gully that had been entirely desiccated from the Rapids of Water. Inside of the deep gully that seemed to descend into the earth, he could see a tenuous blue light, typical of Mana.

Wondering the places were a few weird… creatures.

They looked like blocks of ice with a reversed conical structure with a head and two massive handless arms.

I guess we’re there.

Gabriel thought about activating Mana Shield for the day, just to give it a try, but he was still not sure about it. He fought mostly melee for the moment, so there was no need for it for the moment, but he was sure it would help him greatly.

“It’s a level 15 Dungeon. But we’ve found monsters up to level 21. They have time to grow because it’s not that popular, or at least it wasn’t until LL Dungeon entrances were barred,” said William.

“Yeah, why is that?”

“Well, people go from Ant Dungeon directly to LargeLeaf Dungeon. And Dungeon is good to get you to level twenty, it’s slow but safe, and there are a lot of monsters, like a lot. Water Dungeon is way harder; it has a lot of Water and Ice elementals, they all use Magic, so it’s quite harder to deal with. It was easy finding a spot before, now it’s become much harder, but we had a reservation. Actually, we have a reservation for almost the entire month,” he admitted chuckling.

“The entire month? Really?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes. Dad answers directly to Jackson Reevers; it has its privileges,” he admitted.

“William, don’t go around saying those things; you’ll make us look bad.” Robert couldn’t help but keep with his downcast act, well, maybe it wasn’t an act, but it was still mood-breaking.

Elly and Pollark laughed at that.

As they descended the gully and headed toward the blue light. Gabe noticed that the party wasn’t even worried about the blocks of walking ice. He chose that they were worth an Analyze.

Ice Elemental

Race

Elemental

Level 16

Class

Iceling

Level 13

Element

Ice

Dark - 4

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

58/58

5/5

289/300

Attributes

Affinity

43

Bound

Alacrity

12

Unbound

Power

19

Bound

Recovery

1

Unbound

Resilience

12

Bound

Stamina

1

Unbound

Oh, so they’re weak. Although, that Affinity could be troublesome for people of that level. It’s more than double what a level 16 should have.

“Why are they not attacking us?” Gabriel asked.

“Attacking us? Oh, well, they are not noticing us; their vision and hearing range is minimal; think of them as bots, bots with really awkward survival instinct. They become troublesome when their level increases. But their perception expands only to the extent to which you can feel their coldness. If you got closer, you would get their attention,” this time it was the hipster explaining.

“Wait, the Dungeon is a joke then?”

“Oh, no. The cold from the Dungeon is governed by the Water Boss Elemental; wherever there is water, its perception reaches, and really it is just one huge wet environment in there. And all the elementals are linked to it, so whatever he feels, they too feel it, thankfully it’s hard to get swarmed given the Dungeon’s tight tunnels. But it’s a stressful environment. We’re going to be constantly defending from attacks. Not everyone can handle that. And being Elementals, their spawn rate is much faster than normal. However, the place is not only inhabited by them; there are many other creatures as well,” Robert said.

“If it’s your first time, you are gonna have fun,” added Pollark.

“Alright, let’s have fun then. I need to acclimate to my new Perks anyway. By the way,” Gabriel asked. “How does a lightning user fare in it?”

“You use a Higher element!? Damn!” it was William.

“...Lightning is strong but dangerous for the party. The place is full of water, after all,” Robert.

“Of course, if you launch your lightning far, the power reaching us should be almost nill,” said Elly.

“Nah. I cast lighting while fighting, but don’t worry, I’ll use something else.”

“Really? How many Element can you use?” Pollark asked.

“Including Liz’s? Then that’s…” Gabriel counted with his fingers, “Four Basic Elements and two Higher Elements, although one of them is just tied to my Alacrity Skill.”

The party’s mouth gaped, they looked at each other. Then they started hammering him with questions.

***

By the entrance of the Dungeon, was an inn excavated inside of the rock. Its name was The Bedrock. It was a Yggdrasil’s government-sponsored inn, where both guards and Delver passed both time and nights. It was always protected by guards and rune shields because at night, the elementals multiplied and not only became more aggressive, but given the increase in cold, their perception soared explosively. However, given the low level, their presence would not really create any problems.

Right now, The Bedrock was chock-full of parties waiting for their turn at the Dungeon, Gabriel and the party that had yet to decide on a proper name for itself and for the moment went with Robert and William family name “Nicholson” was the next in line. They would be inside from eleven A.M. to four P.M. they would have to be out at that hour or lose their next reservation.

“Usually, it’s not like this, but given the situation, they have tight schedules,” explained Pollark.

Before the party entered, Elly invited Gabriel in, and her eyes grew wide as she voraciously took in her Anchor screen.

Gabriel placed his finger on his mouth to shush her and gulping, she nodded.

When they were finally in, the tight tunnel entrance quickly gave in to a wet environment of frozen patches of water, dangerous-looking stalactites, and vast dark caves that gave into tight tunnels, useful choke points for defending against attacks of a large number of enemies.

The fauna of the Dungeon quickly started showing itself.

“Those are Icy-Crawler,” said Pollark, signaling for a group of six-legged creatures whose skin was entirely covered by a thin coating of ice. They looked like Gollums if it had another pair of limbs and if it had had its face entirely blotted.

“They are not tied to the Water Elementals, but although they can’t see, they can hear really well. It’s ideal for the relative lack of light. However, we can fix that and regain our advantage,” said the hipster.

A small twice layered Magic Circle appeared on his hand, and a blob of fire manifested on it. Robert placed it on his head, and the unmoving goblet of fire soared up a few feet from his head then locked itself in a relative place. It was stable in mid-air and moved wherever Robert moved, a permanent source of light.

“Wow… that’s very useful. Hey, Liz. Can you emit constant light from your frills? We might have a similar benefit then,” he asked.

And Liz did indeed so, but after not even a minute, she shook her head. It wasn’t something she could continuously keep up. Not while being in an environment that didn’t allow light through. It seemed her light powers were still very limited. She sulked for a while at that.

“Don’t worry, you’ll do better when we evolve your Skills. You’ll see,” Gabriel encouraged her.

“So, our standard strategy,” Elly started as she raised her big kite shield and took up guard with her mace, “Is simple, yet effective. I tank, Robert imbues Pollark with Fire element, and he unleashes hell amid the monsters as they swarm us. William supports him, healing him up and boosting his Power. What can you add to the strategy?”

“First, there was something I wanted to ask; this is called Water Dungeon, but why is it that I see mostly Ice creatures here?”

“That’s easy, it’s because the truly dangerous creatures are Water Elementals; there are Elite Salamanders too; they are as big as carriages. But these creatures protect the various chambers of the Dungeon, the more chambers we clear, the closer we get to the Boss and the Paragons, not that we would ever dare face one, not at this level anyway,” Elly explained.

“Alright. Now answering your question, I can think that if you imbued me with fire element too, I could help Pollark in unleashing hell on those motherfuckers!” He said, mimicking a young Samuel. L. Jackson.

They did exactly so.

As Robert had said, they were immediately swarmed by ice elementals, there were a few other creatures too, but ice elementals and a few regular water elementals made the bulk of the enemy forces.

Nicholson's party's strategy was straightforward, Pollark danced around in the bigger rooms, cutting down creatures with barely one ax attack each, while Elly defended the rest of the party by placing her and them in one of the tight tunnels. Ice elementals were so weak to Fire element that even though their attacks were too strong to be received head-on, a fiery shield, courtesy of the brothers, was enough to stop any of their icicle projectiles or breath attacks. Pollark’s flaming strikes utterly melted them.

The only troublesome creatures were the Water Elementals, they did not do much damage, but they were very annoying. Their attacks focused on quelling the Fire shield and lowering the strength of Pollark’s flaming attacks.

“Are you ready to go in?” Robert asked Gabriel, who wanted to take a look at their attack pattern before diving in.

Gabriel nodded, “This will be child’s play.”

Robert summoned an orb of fire, which Gabriel touched with the tip of the Sk’rayr spear. William then linked the orb to it, effectively enchanting her momentarily with the Fire attribute.

The spear’s Analyze results showed, in fact, a Fire Element enchantment. From what he had learned, it would increase his damage by two hundred percent, given the Fire - 3 typing of the Ice Elemental. It would be a massacre.

Gabriel joined into the fray and started unleashing hell on the creatures by merely dancing around while bearing his spear. He did not consume a single point of stamina. However, he refrained from using any sort of Katas because the water-tainted Mana would suppress the Fire enchantment placed on his spear.

His unaugmented Attributes, although surely lower at least in Power than Pollark since the warrior had definitely chosen to be blessed with a Power enchanting Basic Skill, was enough to lay waste to the creatures with double speed. When only water monsters remained, Gabriel made sure everybody was safe and not standing in puddles of water, then he unleashed one single wide sweeping attack with his spear, and Kata of the Tempest activated. Lighting exploded forth in every direction reaching all the monsters in the cave, vaporizing them.

“That was… fast. That’s usually the part in which we lose more time. It speeds our farming enormously!” Elly noted.

That first wave had netted them with two Ice Essences and one Water Essence. It wasn’t bad at all. But they admitted that usually, the drop was higher, now the monsters had lower levels since they were farmed continuously, so the drops’ quality lowered too.

“Alright, I guess the next room is mine. I need to try something,” Gabriel declared after they had cleaned another entire portion of the cave.

“Alright, but we should skip that cave; there’s usually a Champion there.”

“That’s exactly what I was looking for,” said Gabriel with a knowing smirk.