Chapter Twenty Progression and New Dynamics

Sunlight streamed in from the window, and Arlie stretched a little. Feeling the warm press of naked flesh against her own. A reminder that they had finally gone all the way last night. She blushed and shifted a little, revealing the tangle of limbs she remained in. She’d been using Rose as a pillow, and Lily’s head remained nestled between her legs. Her skin felt a little sticky with dried fluids, they were going to need a bath.

Arlie jostled the others and they soon stirred. It wasn’t long before Lily looked up, “Um, good morning Arlie.” The girl blushed, “Um, sorry!”

Arlie giggled, “It’s perfectly fine. I rather enjoyed last night.”

Rose commented, “I did too! We should do it again.”

Arlie slipped out of bed, feeling the cool morning air on her bare skin. It had been a good night alright, “We should!”

Lily sighed, “Am I the only one who thinks we should think about this?”

Rose blinked, “Why should we think about it?”

“Um, we grew up together, we lived under the same roof, we are practically sisters and we just had...” she trailed off.”

“The most wonderful wild sex of our lives? Come on, we all knew it would happen, Arlie has been lusting after us for years.”

Lily fidgeted, “Really?”

“And I’ve always found it cute. Glad you joined in!”

Arlie sighed and dragged her... what were they now? Sisters? Friends? Lovers? She wasn’t really sure, but she pulled the twins into the bath with her. They could use a good rinse. Her belly rumbled, and a proper meal. The bath came first though.

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After a nice bath, and a filling meal served by a pair of naked golem ladies, they dressed and returned to the dungeon, where they found the boys waiting for them. Horon noticed them come in first, “Hey Arlie, took your time this morning.”

Thron blinked, “Hmm, you three have a glow around you. Did something happen?”

Arlie blushed, “No, nothing happened. Right girls?”

Lily nodded, “Um, yeah, nothing happened.”

Horon and Thron shared looks, “Yeah, yeah we believe you.”

Arlie gestured to the next floor, “Why don’t we just check out the next challenge?”

Some more chatting occurred as they slipped into formation and headed out onto the floor. It wasn’t too long before they encountered their first monsters of the day, golems. Rather than the lesser Earth Golems they’d faced yesterday, these were proper Earth Golems. Roughly humanoid shaped with bodies of stone instead of hardened earth. Blades wouldn’t do much to an Earth Golem, and they were highly resistant to Fire and Lightning Magic. Some of her higher-powered fire spells might do some damage but she wouldn’t call it mana efficient. Her Earth spells would be more effective but she only knew a couple of those. Arlie wasn’t that practiced with armor-piercing earth spells. Lightning usually bypassed plate armor, and fire could burn right through, so she didn’t really need earth that often.

For a moment she regretted that, but she started to channel a spell regardless. Horon and Thron took up positions in the vanguard, while Lily and Rose drew the blades they had obtained since entering the dungeon. The twins took up positions on watch like usual and the battle was on. 

There were three golems, golem number one charged with a powerful swing, that Horon narrowly ducked, its arms slammed into the walls kicking up dust. Horon countered with a quick blow from his hammer, striking the golem where a human would have knees. The hit reverberated powerfully, but unlike with a lesser golem the monster didn’t go down. Its stone leg cracked but that was about all the damage he’d done. The golem shifted into a new stance and tried to strike again, only to take a bolt of stone to the shoulder, her spell only cracked the armor but it had enough force to send the monster onto its back.

On the other side of the corridor, Thron was engaged with two golems. His mace slammed into the first as he ducked under a blow, before transitioning into a strike with the second. A heavy blow across the chest that cracked the stone armor of the golem. It was a dance of blow and counter-blow, each step carefully made as they danced a dance of life and death.

Arlie supported the boys from the rear, every time she saw an opening she struck with a bolt of stone. Each one struck with deadly force, yet the golems kept fighting, even as their bodies cracked and broke. In a way they were terrifying foes.

Finally after several finger spans of battle the first golem fell, its battered legs broke, then it collapsed, a final bolt to the chest broke its core, ending the threat. The second fell soon after when Thron hit it over the head with a powerful blow and the last one was finished by Horon.

Panting the group took a moment to catch their breath. Horon sighed, “I hope we don’t fight too many more of those, this hammer is looking a little worse for the wear.”

Thron lifted his mace, now missing a few spikes, “Yeah my mace isn’t looking too hot either.”

Arlie commented, “I’m not sure my spells did much.”

Horon spoke up, “Maybe try a different element? I know Earth isn’t your strong suit.”

“Lightning spells don’t really work on Earth Golems.”

“What about fire? We saw you melt a hole through a fort,” said Rose.

“That was a siege spell. Sure it has a lot of power, but it's slow to cast and takes a lot of mana.”

“Maybe there is a spell with the right mix of power and speed to cast? Don’t you know one?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Leaving things at that, the group headed deeper into the floor.

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Arlie peeked around the corner, they’d fought several groups of golems and solved a couple of puzzles since they started the floor, but hadn’t received much in the way of good loot. They’d found a replacement mace and hammer for the boys to use, made from better materials as well, but that was the only thing they had found. Having weapons made of steel did help the boys though, since bronze and iron hadn’t been the best for fighting golems. Their stone bodies were highly resistant to blows after all. Steel held up much better from the stress.

“Path’s clear, looks like there is a door on the left.”

Horon spoke up, “I’ll check it.”

Horon rushed up to the door and glanced inside. “Clean, no monsters, looks like a chest and puzzle.”

Arlie moved up as the others moved into position. Slipping into the room, she looked about noting the puzzle and the chest behind a grate. No obvious way to the chest, so that implied it was locked behind the puzzle.

Arlie approached the plaque and smiled, this one was much more pleasant than some of the others. It wasn’t a question about the Abyss or Drava, or Rylarks, instead this one was right up her alley. The question was on magic. According to advanced magical theory, spells are formulas that apply the power of the mind to bend the world to the wielder’s will. This brings forth the idea that spells can be modified to achieve a greater effect than originally intended. Using this theory, modify the following spell structure for firebolt to have bluefire and penetrate steel plate armor.

Lily commented, “That’s a rather serious question.”

Arlie scoffed, “It’s easy!”

Then to prove it, she took the writing tool and started scribbling magical formulae into the provided space. None of the others really understood what she was doing, but they weren’t mages. Hell, she’d been studying this stuff since she was five years old. Well actually a little before that, she’d started to exhibit magical ability at a very young age. That was normal for her family line though. The Contrey family was blessed with strong magic, but that came at the cost of having no men, the women of the Contrey line only ever gave birth to girls. It was why they traced their lineage through the matriarchal line rather than the fathers like other lines would. It helped that those of their blood were easy to spot, much to her chagrin. She was reminded of Hikaru mistaking her for a young girl and accusing her of stuffing her chest.

She sighed at those thoughts and put them aside. Finishing the last keystrokes, the tablet glowed, the text vanishing and proclaiming her answer to be correct. Arlie wasn’t surprised about that, the question had been so fucking easy. Then suddenly the text said something more, Quiet the impressive answer, not many would answer it so flawlessly. I present to you a memory of the Kinsara as a bonus.

She grasped her head as the world dissolved and suddenly she was elsewhere. The ground shook, fire rained from the sky and screams echoed. It didn’t take her long to realize she was on a battlefield. Someone charged at her, their face and body hidden in full-body armor. It was impressive stuff, not plate, something different, thicker, sturdier-looking. Arlie didn’t focus on it, instead, spell formulae bloomed in her mind, something different from the usual.

She raised her hand and lightning shot out, striking the armored man in the chest. He staggered but seemed otherwise unharmed. Arlie struck again, this time the bolt hit harder, the third strike finished him. What happened after she didn’t know, the world returned to the present, the only difference was a new spell locked in her mind; Ancestral Lightning.

Rose frowned, “You okay Arlie?”

“Sure, just had a strange experience, got a new spell out of it though,” she glanced at the chest, noting the grate was gone.

Slowly she closed on the chest, it didn’t seem to be trapped so she threw it open. A mystic light spilled from inside it revealing... a book, with magical symbols on its front and a bag. Arlie blinked, she didn’t often see grimoires outside of her family library. Obviously the book was for her, so she flipped it open and started reading.

Lily frowned, “Um, is this the time to be reading?”

“I’m getting a feel for what’s in here. It might prove useful, I’ll give it a more thorough look when we get back to the inn,” she replied while noting the book seemed to deal mainly with fire and earth elemental spells.

There were some very interesting spells in here. It would be something to help her, just maybe not right away.

“So is it any good?”

“Looks to be, I saw a few good spells in there.”

Arlie pulled the bag out, it was a shoulder-styled pack, quite useful and with space for the book. She stowed the book in it and headed for the door. “Let’s get going.”

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A couple of days later they had made their way down to the fifth floor, by then she’d been studying the book pretty thoroughly alongside two other grimoires she’d picked up. The new lightning spell had so far proved useless, nothing in this dungeon was vulnerable to lightning. Just lots of ever-stronger golems, and more recently they were starting to face pseudo-dragons, specifically a variation of Drake. Wingless with a strong connection to earth and fire. They were tough foes to fight but thankfully not immune to blades like a golem was.

Turning a corner, she noted the murals on the walls. Placed prominently on either side of a massive double door at the end of the hall. Her gaze swept over the murals. The imagery was largely the same as what she’d see at a temple, it depicted the meeting of mortals and skylords. The mortals were naked, all of the ones in this scene were girls, not a man to be seen. In one panel a young girl entirely naked knelt before a winged figure whose glowing hand was pressed against her chest. Several figures, all naked as well, watched on.

Thron commented, “These girls are kinda cute.”

Arlie sighed, “Don’t you know what this depicts?”

“Um? No?”

Lily fidgeted, “Isn’t this the gods, blessing mankind with magic?”

Arlie grinned, “Yup, it depicts the gods granting mankind their first gift.”

Horon blinked, “First gift?”

“The Skylords gave us more than one gift, the ability to wield magic was the first. The second was a gift of knowledge, they taught us how to wield fire, forge weapons and make armor. Then there was their third gift, they blessed the great families like my bloodline, and the Greys who even today rule the kingdom.”

“I see,” said Horon.

Arlie approached the door, sensing the mana behind it. Arlie had sensed mana like it only at the temple, it was divine mana. The uninformed might try to assign an element to it, often light, but they were wrong. Light mana wasn’t inherently holy, the gods weren’t so cut and dry either. They could be one of three different elements referred to as the holy trinity. But there was something special about divine mana, something that made it more.  Not that she knew how to articulate what that something was. On the door she noted a warning, there was a boss behind this door, a test.