Given that I felt it was likely for this area to be another dungeon, there was ultimately no other choice but to head in. The ever-growing trait for exploring new dungeons was precious, to say nothing of the EXP and loot we could find within. Every magical item I came across was valuable, even if it was one none of us would use. In that case, it gave me something to analyse, even if it potentially meant the destruction of the item, allowing me to learn more about permanent enchantments. While I doubted I’d come close to replicating my cloak, there were lesser items that I could create.

With the Magic-rune, I had made a few more enchanted rings, increasing my skill in Enchanting by another two points. Only small increases in new attributes, nothing game-changing, but valuable and interesting nonetheless. Sure, an extra point of Intelligence was awesome, as was the slight increase in my Astral Power regeneration, but it wasn’t giving me anything new. Just a small increase but if I could add multiple minor improvements together, it would become a major one. Maybe I’d be able to recreate the enchantment and weave it into my actual clothing, the greater surface area would hopefully improve the effect even further. But that was something I had to work on a lot more before I could make it a reality. Now, we had an industrial park to explore.

Just walking across the strangely distinct boundary reinforced my suspicion that we were dealing with a dungeon. While there was no notification about us entering one, that only meant the dungeon wasn’t contained. Or it might just be an area of Wild Magic around a contained dungeon, or just a random one, there were multiple ways such things could come into existence. But whatever the case may be, I could feel the heat in the air, both as a physical presence and as a magical taint. This place wasn’t welcoming, especially not to me.

It wouldn’t kill me, at least not within a day or five, but I knew I wasn’t at my best, my efficiency reduced by a not insignificant margin. Not a large one, sure, but a measurable on that I didn’t appreciate in the slightest. Which, most likely, made matters only worse, as knowing I was weakened made me irritable, further distracting me.

Forcing my thoughts aside, I focused on the environment. There was danger here, of that I was fairly certain, but I wasn’t sure what sort of danger it might be Maybe some sort of fire elemental or animated slag piles, everything was possible. Or maybe some sort of animal, adjusted by the fiery environment to become some sort of proto-dragon, a salamander or something along those lines that eventually if a few hundred years passed, might become something more.

Amusingly, that thought only made me want to find such a being and ensure that it died a quiet, cold and very final death, the desire surprising me with its viciousness. Though, maybe I shouldn’t be, I was well aware of my dislike for fire and given that dragons were supposedly territorial creatures, it made sense that I wouldn’t want there to be another being that would eventually become a dragon. Not if the Dragon-Touched trait and my Draconic Sorceress class were to be taken seriously, as both indicated I might, or maybe would, become one. I wasn’t sure of the mechanics but some of the notifications had strongly implied it.

But the future would be dealt with once it arrived, for now, I had other things to worry about. Mainly, what might lurk behind the corners and whether or not I should try to remain invisible, leaving Luna open to potential attacks, or show myself and be prepared.

The biggest problem was that I could already tell that the lighting in this area was too inconsistent to provide me with sufficient shadows to comfortably remain invisible. There were many flickering flames all around us, more than I had thought when looking in from outside or scrying through the construct, meaning I’d have to be careful or make my own Darkness. The second would always work, but the advantage of invisibility was that nobody knew you were there, nobody would even know to actively search for you. If I conjured up Darkness, that advantage would go away, even if I had a somewhat sizable patch of Darkness to hide in.

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In this case, I decided to openly hold down the rear, with Silva taking up the front, Lia covering for her and Alex and Luna staying in the middle, somewhat protected. Our usual formation, though I added a shroud of fluttering snow around me, exchanging Astral Power for comfort and additional versatility. Whatever enemies might be waiting here for us, I doubted they’d be accustomed to freezing cold and a slurry of snowflakes would rapidly chill down anything, especially if I channelled some additional Ice Magic into it.

It didn’t take long for the first opponent to arrive, a skittering noise warning us just in time to get ready. Moments later, multiple rodents of unusual size, rats that could have cosplayed as cats, came scurrying towards us. That alone, a group of eight huge rats, would be uncomfortable but given that the things were also on fire, things were worse.

Reflexively, I channelled a burst of Ice Magic into my shroud, striking the small swarm with it. I could see tiny amounts of vapour condense in the air around my attack, making me wonder how close to Liquid Moonlight I currently was before the snowy attack struck the rats. The effect was surprisingly effective, the first snowflakes that made contact were explosively vaporised, the expanding steam battering the struck rat aside, allowing my attack to hit them all with similar effects. None were dead but neither were any of them unscathed. And, as a bonus, their fires were greatly doused, steam rising from their fur as they tried to get rid of the water the snow had melted into.

As Lia and Silva made their own attacks, I realised that the water was still made from my Astral Power and, thanks to some of my traits, still connected to me. With a grin on my face, I channelled another burst of Ice Magic into the water, right as my two companions struck. The effect was quite impressive, the conflict between my Ice Magic trying to freeze the water clinging to the rats and their own internal Fire Magic was violent enough to cause some strange, eldritch sparks to light up the air around them but at the same time, it was also powerful enough to paralyse the rats for a few seconds. Making it impossible for them to dodge the attacks coming at them and reducing their numbers from eight to four and, moments later, down to two.

Even if I had wanted to try, I doubted I could have kept my smile concealed at that moment. The hateful fire wasn’t able to overcome the cold and thanks to my companions, it would never flare up again. Even better, the two rats decided that my existence was the worst thing possible and tried to move around Lia and Silva who were having none of that and easily tore the remaining two apart.

With combat over, notifications came flooding in and now I was starting to be positively gleeful. The rats had the highest level I had seen thus far in mass enemies, ranging from sixty-one at the low end to sixty-four at the high end. They were like manna for my poor soul, precious sources of EXP, just waiting for us to harvest them. Even better were the levels I got in Ice and Water Magic, bringing the two skills to fifty-nine and twenty. Less pleasant was the fact that the rats had burned away the moment they died, leaving nothing but ashes and a few strangely glinting bones and some teeth behind. When Alex checked the bones turned out to be some strange, unknown metal while the teeth were fairly ordinary.

“Okay, keep an eye out, we don’t want to get caught in a swarm if there are any. These things are bound to have some nasty surprise if they have such a high level and go down that easily,” I warned the others, getting a nod from Lia.

“Maybe they’ll explode,” she suggested, the idea sounding far too realistic to make me comfortable, given the way they burned away after their death. If they did, it would mean this was a dungeon, as normal monsters couldn’t really rely on suicide attacks unless it was some sort of swarm or hive species, as they would die in their first combat, making it impossible to gain levels..

With the first encounter out of the way, we had a slightly better idea of what we were dealing with, giving us a bit more confidence as we continued forward. Still, careful was the watchword. These things might not have been stealthy but they might be able to set ambushes and those could always be devastating. We should know, after all, we had used those tactics to great effect against the Withered.