Chương 288: Crimson Waste Part 1

"Here he is now," Zachary Phinn said to his team as their last member arrived.

"Mage James Picard, I'm the team leader for this run, Zachary Phinn." Damion looked over the team assembled to go into the Crimson Waste dungeon. Zachary Phinn, A Rank Lightning Mage, was tall and well-built with brown hair and brown eyes. He wore dark leather armor and carried a sword on his hip, telling Damion this mage liked to be in the midst of the action. The next person was Lois Abney, A Rank Water mage. She looked quite different from most Water mages Damion had encountered.

She had red hair, cut so it did not go below her ears, and while she did not wear armor or carry a sword, she had a thick and knobbed staff that she seemed ready to whack everyone with at any moment. The next two people were both knights and were apparently brothers. Simon and Peter Beck. Both were C Rank knights and as luck would have it, Damion had recently upgraded both of their armors to C Rank, just a few days ago.

The two knights were weaker than everyone else, but they would likely do the bulk of the fighting. This dungeon was A Rank and the Demonic Beasts inside could be anywhere from F Rank to A Rank. However, as with most dungeons, typically only the guardian would be the top Rank with the majority of creatures being somewhere in the middle, which meant most creatures would likely be C Rank. The final member of the party was Mage Rodney Young, C Rank Light mage, the group's healer.

Mage Young was quite different from most healers he had interacted with before, most of them had appeared almost delicate. Rodney, though, he looked like he enjoyed a good brawl, and his muscle mass rivaled that of the two knights in their party. If not for True Sight, Damion could have easily mistaken the healer as another knight, especially since he was wearing plate armor and carrying a heavy looking pair of kite shields, one on each arm.

"Nice to meet you Mage Phinn," Damion returned the greeting while the rest of the team sized the newcomer up.

"Ever been in this dungeon before?" Mage Abney asked.

"No. I only recently advanced to B Rank, and it has been sometime since I was in Saung last. I have done the Graveyard dungeon here, but that was years ago."

"B Rank Spatial mages are hard to come by, how come none of us have ever heard of you?" Peter Beck asked.

"I've spent a lot of time doing research and otherwise keeping a low profile."

"You aren't too rusty are you?" Mage Phinn asked.

"I should be fine, so long as you don't expect me to take on the guardian by myself. I've fought B Rank Demonic Beasts before, but never anything stronger than that."

"Well, that isn't exactly a surprise right?" Simon Beck cut in.

"I mean, who goes around fighting above their Rank?"

"Sometimes you don't have a choice," Damion replied with a smile and turned to Mage Phinn.

"Are we set to go in?" This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Yes, the dungeon reset a few minutes ago when the last team came out. Apparently, they were using up all their time inside because they had one of those new spatial artifacts from Fletcher. Can't believe the Fontane's are losing out on the spatial artifact market."

"You can't really expect them to compete with an S Rank Spatial mage," Mage Abney shot back.

"Mage Fletcher never tried to compete before, but I guess with rumors about the Fontanes having made a breakthrough she just couldn't resist," Mage Phinn reasoned.

"Ever met them?"

"I've met Dorian Fletcher and his apprentice Arica Miller, but not the senior Mage Fletcher," Damion answered. Mage Phinn nodded and started leading the team towards the dungeon entrance. Most of the team still chatting amongst themselves and as Damion followed behind the group with Mage Young, he mentally called on the Magic System.

'System, status.'

[Magic System] [System Level: 3] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 19] [Magic Talent: EX] [Magic Affinity: Ice EX, Water E, Poison D, Spatial D, Fire A, Earth A, Shadow A, Holy C] [Mana: 4, 387/4, 387] (10%) - 4, 825 [Magic Power: 10, 079] (10%) - 11, 086 [Mana Recovery: 212 P/S] (10%) - 233 [Strength: 116] [Dexterity: 120] (10%) - 132 [Vitality: 252] [Intelligence: 147] [Experience: 6, 000/20, 000] [Store Credits: 623, 038] Looking at his status, Damion could not suppress a smile when he looked at his credits.

He had not made as much as he would have liked, but it was still progress and in less than a week, making more than 100, 000 credits without finishing a quest was pretty good.

'System, show me the status of my kill quests.' [Quest Status] [Kill C Rank Ferocious Beasts or Demonic Beasts – 4/35 (Repeatable)] [Kill B Rank Ferocious Beasts or Demonic Beasts – 0/10 (Repeatable)] Completing his kill quests would not earn him many credits, at least not by his standards now. The C Rank quest only gave him 5 credits per complete and the B Rank one would just give him 10. The real gain would be experience. Each time he finished the kill quests he would get 100 experience.

Level 4 of the Magic System required 20, 000 experience and he was well on his way. If he could get there, he could unlock the System's ability to give him hints on his quests. And maybe then he would not be blindly guessing at what the System wanted him to do.

"Hey, Mage Picard, I've always wondered, how do Spatial mages store things?" Simon Beck asked. Any of the mages present would be able to answer the question, as the knowledge was taught to every mage student. Thankfully, Damion not only knew the answer, but also had the Spatial affinity to back up his answer if needed.

"Spatial mages have a small personal storage space that expands as we move things into it. The heavier a thing is the more mana it requires to store."

"What about when you take things out? I heard it costs mana to take things out too."

"When something is removed, our space shrinks and that shrinkage requires mana to control, otherwise our personal storage space could be damaged by shirking too fast. But as we master the Spatial Storage spell, the cost to store and retrieve things goes down."

"How much does it cost you?"

"Don't worry, I can store anything we come across."

"Even an Arcdotus?"

"Is there likely to be an Arcdotus in the Crimson Waste? You moron. Leave Mage Picard alone," Simon's brother Peter said, giving the former a slap on the back of the head in the process.

"Alright, here we go folks," Mage Phinn announced when they reached the dungeon entrance.

"Simon, Peter, you two will be upfront. Take down everything you can. Lois and I will focus on the bigger threats and make sure nothing happens to James and Rodney."

"Right," responded the knights.

"James, grab whatever you can, let me know if you start running low on mana and need a rest. Rodney, I know you can look after yourself, but this run you are a dedicated healer, so make sure to keep Simon and Peter in top shape."

"You are no fun," Rodney replied with a grin and something told Damion this healer really did like to brawl.