Chương 483: B7—Chapter 59: Loot Is a Matter of Perspective

The metal-versus-stone arena was different again. The biggest difference was that it wasn't an arena, but a maze of tunnels with flowing rivers of lava. It was hot in there. No, it wasn't hot. It was boiling. We had to cross the mud arena to reach the opposite door, which we did in flight. None of us wanted to drown in mud again. For a moment, I thought the frogs and dragonflies would be back, like the frogs returned after the first fight, but their defeat held. There was only mud.

We flew through the door, through another metal room, and out the opposite door. The minute we crossed it, I almost choked from the heat. The air on the other side was boiling hot and so dry that my nose and eyes dried out in less than a second. The less said about breathing in this inferno, the better. Two seconds later, I was melting like an ice cream in August, sweat running down my face and body. My cloak made things more bearable, but not by much.

Every millimeter of exposed skin transferred the heat to every other part. Basically, I was still melting, but now like an ice cream in autumn. Not much of an improvement. Mahya and Al also looked sweaty and miserable. Rue, on the other hand, looked fresh as a daisy, his tail swishing. Just to be on the safe side, I cast Healing Touch on all of us at intervals and actually felt it doing something. When I cast it on Rue, though, there was zero reaction. The heat really didn't affect him.

We flew through the tunnels, searching for the monsters, with little success. Thankfully, the tunnels were wide and high enough for flight. The ground below was crisscrossed with lava rivers, and with every empty tunnel, my gut clenched more and more. I suspected the activation would be like in the mud arena, touching the lava, but I really didn't want to do it. Mahya and Al also kept throwing the lava stink eyes, but didn't brave touching it. Finally, Rue saved the day.

He didn't touch the lava, but instead threw in an empty beer barrel from his Storage. It hit the surface, bobbed for half a second, and then vanished with a hiss and a puff of steam. Strange shapes rose from the lava. They had a form that was a cross between a snowman and a human, rounded segments stacked into a bulky torso, thick arms, and stumpy legs that flowed into shape as they climbed out.

Half of them looked rough and heavy, their bodies uneven with various protrusions, like broken rocks held together by lava streams that leaked orange light through cracks that opened and closed as they moved. The others were smooth and blindingly bright, their surfaces flowing like molten mirrors that reflected the lava and tunnel walls in warped flashes as their limbs formed.

"I think the cracked ones are stone and the others are metal," Mahya said, angling slightly in the air as she watched them below. I didn't say "no shit, Sherlock," and was very proud of myself. Instead, I nodded toward Rue and said, "Good job, buddy." Al hummed in agreement, adjusting his position midair. It wasn't clear if it was for the distinction or for the compliment.

"Do you have any strategies for combating them?" Al asked. He and Mahya flew back and forth along the tunnel, their swords in constant motion to keep them aloft, while Rue and I hovered above the strange golems, watching them shift and rise from the lava.

"Suck the heat out of them like you suck it out of metal in the forge?" I suggested to Mahya, squinting down at the glowing shapes.

"I'm not touching them," she protested in a scandalized tone, and rose higher.

"Can't you suck out the heat without touching them?"

"Can't you?" she shot back, glancing over her shoulder. I shrugged, palms up.

"I can try, but it's something you do constantly, so I figured you'd be better at it." She flew in slow circles around the golems, head tilted, watching how their surfaces moved and reformed. After a minute, she shook her head.

"Not without touching them." The final golem took shape, pulling itself free of the lava, and immediately the two sides began hurling lava balls at each other. They still ignored us, giving us time to hover and watch the fight unfold. The balls did some damage, but not much. The brighter ones chipped black chunks from the cracked bodies, while the darker balls slammed into the smooth ones, leaving dents. The damage never lasted long. The cracks closed, and the dents filled out.

After one of the smooth ones took five hits in a row, it looked a bit smaller, but that was all. Al cast his freezing spell on one of the stone golems, and its outer shell cooled, cracked, and shed chunks that splashed back into the lava below. Mahya whooped, then cut the sound off halfway. Half the stone golems turned toward her and Al, hurling lava balls at them. I shot toward them.

"Continue, I'll protect you," I said to Al, and cast Fortify on him. Al answered by casting the freezing spell from both hands, weaving through the air to stay ahead of the incoming fire. He dodged a lot of the shots, but not all of them. The golems themselves were slow, but their lava balls moved fast. Every time one of them was about to hit him, I snapped up a Protective Shield and absorbed the impact. Those balls were heavy-duty. Each one drained almost 700 mana.

It took a while, but finally, there were no stone golems left, but there was also no loot. The metal ones waved their arms in victory.

"I need to regenerate before we address the metal monsters," Al said.

"Me too," I said.

"My mana's down to its last dregs." We flew to the next tunnel, but as we entered it, shapes began to rise from the lava. The next tunnel was the same. We retraced our steps back to the door of the metal room, leaving behind one partially cleared tunnel and four uncleared ones. Yeah, we still had a lot of work ahead of us. While Al and I regenerated, Mahya paced back and forth with a disturbed expression, and Rue whined about the "stupid dungeon with stupid monsters Rue can't fight."

After a few minutes, Mahya's pacing slowed, and a sly smile crept onto her face.

"You thought of something?" I asked.

"Maybe," she said. She pulled out the propane forge and disconnected the gas cylinder.

"I'll go check it out." With that, she turned and headed for the door.

"Wait," I called.

"Don't go alone; it's dangerous." She waved me off.

"I'm fast enough." I shrugged and continued to regenerate. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Ten minutes later, she flew into the room with smoking clothes and her face twisted in pain. I cast Healing Touch on her without getting up from my spot. The level-20 Ranged ability was truly outstanding. It took three casts, and Mahya's face finally relaxed. Without a word, she turned back toward the door.

"Again?" I asked. She beamed and nodded. I shrugged and let her go. The same scenario repeated four times. By the fourth, I couldn't hold my tongue anymore.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Collecting top-grade metal," she said with a smug smile, which looked completely out of place after all the burns I had healed. She pulled out the propane forge and tilted it so I could see inside. It was full of molten metal, slowly cooling as it clung to the walls.

"Huh," I said, pretty much speechless. After the sixth time I healed her, she looked pissed, jaw tight, and shoulders stiff.

"What's the matter now?" I asked.

"They're shrinking," she said, and crossed her arms with an angry huff.

"The metal monsters?" Al asked. She nodded and huffed again.

"Well, it's one way to defeat them," I said. She didn't look encouraged. The next time she came back for healing, my mana was full. I rose into the air and followed her out the door. She glanced over her shoulder.

"You're coming too?" I shrugged.

"If you insist on continuing, I might as well heal you while you do it."

"Thanks," she said quietly. Al boarded his sword, took out a strange square contraption etched with runes, and followed us. Mahya smiled at him and nodded, but didn't say anything. In the first tunnel past the metal room, a strange sight greeted me. The stone golems still looked the same, but the metal ones were shorter, about gnome height. Before, all the golems had been around two meters tall. Now the metal ones were closer to a meter. The moment they spotted Mahya, they started hurling lava balls at her.

She caught what she could with the forge and evaded the rest. That gave me an idea.

"Store the balls," I called to her and Al. She stared at me, and it almost cost her a lava ball to the shin. Thankfully, she twisted aside at the last second.

"Remember how I stored the mana bomb in Tatob?" I added.

"You are the only one who can store items without touching them," Al told me telepathically. Right. From that point on, it turned into a strange game of catch. Mahya and Al caught the lava balls with the forge and the contraption, weaving between the golems at top speed to avoid getting hit. I flew straight at the golems, drawing most of their firepower. It took an unbelievable amount of concentration. I had to actively store each lava ball with intent.

A few times, I almost got hit, misjudging how many were coming at me, but I managed to evade them at the last second. Less than a minute into the fight, if it could even be called that, the golems stopped paying attention to Mahya and Al and focused entirely on pelting me. I weaved and dodged, storing ball after ball, until the golems ran out. Literally. They shrank more and more, until the last part of each of them flew at me as a lava ball. After that, there were no more golems.

The stone ones waved their hands in victory and stomped in the lava, spraying it all around.

"Take care of the stone ones with freezing?" I suggested. Mahya was already at the entrance to the next tunnel.

"Metal first," she called, then disappeared around the bend.

"Reckless," Al said in an annoyed tone as he flew after her. I brought up the rear. That was how we cleared all the metal golems. All of us got hit by lava balls now and then. The golems hurled them at unbelievable speed, but it wasn't terrible. It hurt, sure. Burns are very unpleasant. Still, all in all, it wasn't too bad. I needed only one or two healing spells to handle the burns, and now I didn't even need to touch the target. After a while, it was down to just one spell each time.

Healing Touch 25 / Ranged 10 Did I say that the Range ability was awesome? I'll say it again. It's awesome. There was only one small fly in the ointment. Once the last metal golem flew at me as a lava ball, there was no loot. We flew through all the tunnels, searching for more metal golems, but came up empty. Eventually, we headed back to the metal room so Mahya could regenerate her mana.

"I believe it is the double benefit restriction," Al said, folding his arms as he leaned against the wall.

"I'm not sure it applies to dungeons," Mahya said, rubbing her temples.

"I don't think so either," I said.

"Maybe there was nothing left to break into mana motes and create the loot." They both looked at me with thoughtful expressions and nodded slowly.

"Drop some of the balls and see?" Mahya suggested.

"Okay," I said, then flew out of the metal room. Outside, I released three lava balls from my Storage. They dropped, splashed, and pulled themselves together, coalescing into a small metal golem that immediately hurled a lava ball at me. I stored it. Then the next one. Then the last. Mahya growled behind me. I hadn't even noticed they followed me out. Back in the metal room, Mahya kicked the wall, then hopped on her other leg, hissing. I cast a ranged heal on her, and she exhaled hard and slumped a little.

"Yeah, fine," she said.

"The metal is loot too." Rue padded up to her and licked her hand.

"Mahya need to be happy. Mahya have monsters to fight. Rue can't fight the monsters in this dungeon. Rue is not happy adventurer."

"I have an idea how to battle the stone golems better," Al said. I looked at him, one eyebrow lifting.

"Please cast the fortification on me. I shall use it to freeze my shield and cast the freezing spell with my other hand." I gave him a thumbs-up.

"Good idea. I have one of my own." Now he looked at me with the same raised eyebrow.

"I'll pour water on them from the house core and freeze it with my ice affinity." Mahya slid down the wall until she sat on the floor and waved at us.

"Have fun, boys. I'll regenerate." Well, our ideas worked as intended. It still took a while, and we still had to dodge and weave to avoid getting hit by stone lava balls. I still needed to heal Al and myself more than once, but it felt more like a mop-up job than a real fight. At some point, I pulled out a construction hammer and brought it down on one of the frozen golems. That hastened its collapse into chunks that slid back into the lava. Al noticed and joined me, but had to stop almost immediately.

He still needed to hold his shield, and swinging the hammer with only one free hand was awkward. I, on the other hand, could cast Protective Shield while hammering, which made things a lot easier. We had to fly back to the metal room twice to regenerate, but all in all, it wasn't really a fight anymore, just a clean-up job. The last two golems broke into motes of mana and coalesced into a large square stone. Authoritative Stone of Enthusiastic Compliance This is a stone. A very large stone. It knows it is a stone.

When mana is poured into it with sufficient intent and confidence, the stone agrees to belong to exactly one person and then refuses to acknowledge anyone else ever again. This agreement is binding and extremely personal. Other users may push, poke, kick, threaten, or politely ask. The stone will not care. Once bound, the stone may be instructed to become something else, provided the request makes sense from the stone's point of view.

It accepts sensible stone-based configurations such as forge, anvil, table, bed, wall, shelter, platform, slab, barrier, or other arrangements of stone that stay put and do their job. The stone understands concepts like flat, solid, hollow, supportive, and "good enough." It does not understand aesthetics. Transformation occurs by internal rearrangement. The stone moves itself around on the inside until it is satisfied with the result. This may look smooth, blocky, inelegant, or surprisingly tasteful.

Complaints will be ignored. The stone does not gain magical properties beyond obedience and extreme cooperation. It will not float, glow, explode, have moving parts, assist in any way or perform tricks. It is very good at being what it is told to be and deeply offended if asked to multitask. Once bound, the stone cannot be affected, reshaped, or improved by anyone except its chosen person.

If the stone is instructed to become a forge and a fire stone from this dungeon is placed inside it, the two recognize each other as professionals. The stone provides structure and a place to sit properly, while the fire stone provides enthusiasm and heat. Together, they argue less, work better, and achieve results that neither could manage alone. Heat control becomes easier, temperature stability improves, and prolonged use is no longer accompanied by excessive conflagration, cracking noises, or dramatic failures.

This cooperation is intentional, mutual, and deeply satisfying to both stones.

"Mahya?" I asked Al.

"Mahya," he nodded, a gleam in his eyes. I stored it, we flew back to the metal room, and I dropped it in front of Mahya. Her eyes unfocused, and after a few seconds, they snapped back to us, along with a stink eye thrown at Al.

"You can give him the egg." Al kept an impassive face, but by this point, I knew him well enough. The small twitch at the left corner of his mouth, the jump of his left eyebrow, and the slight movement of his right shoulder said more than words ever could. In his head, he was doing cartwheels and waving cheerleader pom-poms.