The air was hot and humid; the faint sound of chirping could be heard in the distance. The trees surrounded us, their canopy's so thick you couldn't see past them, however rays of light shone through small cracks from where the trees canopy stopped not touching each other. The trees were thick at least ten feet wide climbing fifty feet into the air. The ground around us was dirt with the tree roots popping out of the ground creating very uneven terrain. I had already started to sweat; my shirt clinging to my back. We had traveled down the spiraling stairs not that long ago. The stairs went down and down and down once we had reached the bottom we could no longer see the top of the stairs. A door was recessed into the wall down it was a plan wooden door one you would on display in a vintage museum or old television shows that romanticized the time before the calamity. Once we stepped through the doorway our scenery completely changed. It was so drastic and jarring. It gave me a sense of vertigo. I could tell the other from feeling the same as Liliandra and leaned into her staff hand over her mouth. Douge had his hands up behind his head and was breathing heavily, while Sophia looked visibly paler. I wasn't sure I could speak for the others however I had completely expected to end up inside another cave or tunnel system like before, but this. It was incredible and everything I had ever dreamed of when I wanted to become an adventurer. I felt a strange sense of adventure. The door we entered through was no longer behind us, just a gnarled tree truck with large burls all around it. There was a howl in the distance followed by a few more that sounded eerily close.

  “ Everyone get ready, it sounded like a pack of Canis.” Sophia said, drawing her blade, her body tense as she was ready to leap away. Douge and Liliandra ready themselves as well. I drew Malice using a water shell to form a blade. The cold air that radiated off of it. It felt wonderful. And sure enough not even a few moments later the ground shook as five massive shaggy beasts burst from the trees. These monsters were large, almost the size of a bear, their long brown and black multicolored hair bounced up and down as they ran towards us. Their faces were snarled, large canines dripped gore.

  “ I've read about these.” Liliandra said “ There Tibemases Town rank for sure I can just feel the mana coming out of them.” Unlike Douge who would push his mana out in a wave of threatening aura to grab the attention of monsters, Liliandra had managed to keep her control and was now constantly pushing a wave of calming mana over all of us. This allowed her to sense the mana of monsters. The physical mana manipulation called aura would apparently push against another aura and from that interaction you could gauge the strength. The first Tibemases was most likely the pack leader. It held scars all over its body leaving patches of furless skin exposed for us to see. Douge roared, pushing his aura over the monsters; however , the alpha roared in reply.

  [ Debuff: provoked has not taken effect. Debuff resisted by skill magically inept.]

  [Debuff: berserker has not taken effect. Debuff resisted by skill magically inept.]

  The provoking didn't work on me but I could feel the weight of the monster's mana pressing down against me. The faint tingles of anger were there. A scream next to me sounded out as blades of wind cut past me landing ineffectively against the leader. Liliandra must have successfully been provoked. She was sending windblade after windblade at the pack leader screaming her head off.

  “ Douge get the attention of the other four if you can time it for when the pack leader is distracted. Rin cross attack.”

  Sophia was shouting orders. Cross attack was a tactic she named. It wasn't complicated and it was very similar to what we did against the Hirus.

  Sophia moved forward taking the left side of the pack leader. One of the subordinates attacked her, giving her a nasty gash on the leg but she didn't stop. I followed suit immediately, attacking the leader's face with an upward slash. The monster dodged that attack easily but that was planned. As the Tibemases jumped away coiling its body to reduce its size Sophia stabbed into its neck. A windblade crashed into the leader's face doing nothing but causing Sophia's hair to flap around her face. just as Douge roared again. The approaching subordinates quickly turned anger emanating from them as they attacked Douge. I watched the pack leader in amazement as it began to shrivel up like a grape turning into a raise. Sophia had activated her weapons skill tongue of the caprid. I had wondered for a few days now if this was even possible and apparently it was. The blade drank in the monster's blood and the gash on Sophia's leg healed instantly. The Tibemases wasn't dead even after having a liter of blood draining from its body. I stabbed the monster. There was a moment of tension as its flesh resisted the blade. I had plenty of water shells now and didn't mind wasting one to end a fight fast. I visualized the sword exploding forcing the mana to be expelled at an incredible rate. This wasn't overclock but something else. Over the past few days I've been getting better and better about controlling the output reducing the potency of my attacks but that was a two way street and I broke the valve holding the mana back. My ice blade still inside the Tibemases exploded and a shards of ice could be seen pressing against the skin trying to break through but unable. Another windblade from Liliandra came flying in hitting me in the shoulder. I let out a strangled grunt of pain as it ripped my flesh open.

  [Wind magic damage has been reduced]

  “ Sophia.” I grunted “ How do you cure a berserker state?”

  “ Liliandra can cure it but.” She trailed off. “ We will just have to wait for her to calm down.”

  “ A little help her” Douge called out he wasn't in his rock armor like he should have been. One of the Tibemases had its mouth open in a soundless growl, the ground around it appeared to be undulating. The ground Douge was doing the same. Their magic is competing against each other and canceling out that could be a good or really bad bad. Sophia was already on the attack. She tackled one of the Tibemases just as it tried to bite onto Douge the monster yelped as the two of them rolled. I rolled the chamber over to a fire shell shooting out a small oblong ball of fire. I attempted to compress the mana as it left the barrel. Fire mana was a lot harder to control compared to water mana. Icy star was almost instinctual compressing the mana into a frozen state and simply allowing it to explode one it impacted took little effort however fire wanted to expand and spread this resulted in an unstable attack. The ball of fire bulged and bubbled rapidly as it crossed the distance. Not even a second after the spell left Malice's barrel it exploded only half way between me and the soundless Tibemases. I was blown back by the force landing on my back notifications flashed across my screen

  “Shit” I groaned out dismissing the notification my ears rang, sounds became muffled. I hope that interrupted the monster. I thought as I tried to get back to my feet only to stumble down to my knees everything was spinning. I pointed Malice at one of the Tibemases the monster dropped dead before I could shoot. Spikes of rock and stone sprouted out of its body like a meat skewer.

  The fight was over by the time I was able to get back onto my feet, Liliandra and I sat slumped against each other leaning against a large root as Sophia scolded me after what happened when my spell blew up.

  “ I don't know what the hell you were thinking. Fire magic is the most volatile and dangerous elemental magic to cast!” She yelled.

  “I thought If I could compress the mana down then I could do something similar to an icy star.” I said

  “You tried to compress fire mana?Don't you know anything about Energros and Argos mana? And what the hell is an icy star.”

  “ Uhh” I glanced to the side looking at Douge. He shrugged giving me a look that said. You are on your own man. “ Well icy star is what I named the exploding ice shot. I like to name them so it makes it easier for me.” Sophia groaned, wiping her hand across her face.

  “ I don't know why I thought you had proper training.”

  “ I've been making it up as I go.” I said with a grin

  “ We don't have the time for this so once we are in a safe location Liliandra will teach you why what you did was such a bad idea.” Liliandra looked up to Sophia and just gave her a simple thumbs up. I knew Sophia was only upset because I endangered the team but I couldn't help but feel angry at her for scolding me.

  Once Liliandra and I had recovered enough we got moving. This floor felt claustrophobic, despite being wide open with more than enough space to move around freely the canopy made it feel more closed in, the hot humid air felt suffocating. Nobody complained about it but you could easily tell it was bothering everyone. Douge was dripping sweat and in the eerie silence I could actually hear the fabric of his clothing rub against his tacky skin. My own clothing clung to me chaffing me in spots I didn't even know existed. The forest’s dark gloom permeated around us, deep crevices of darkness lurked around every corner. With patchy splotches of light only creating darker shadows. The stench was another thing all together. It reminded me of the time I did some maintenance on an old Lift station down in the slums the whole crew had there envirosuits and SCBA on so we didn't smell anything while we did the actual work but when we made it back to the yard and removed all our gear the putrid smell of rot lingered on our gear.

  We wandered around marking each tree trunk with a number as we walked past. There was no way to tell what direction we were walking and had ended up walking around in a few circles. Once we came across a tree we already marked we would check the surrounding trees to see if we had already marked them and pick one to walk past marking that tree with a number and letter. It wasn't a perfect system but it seemed to work for us. Tibemases harassed us at every step and just like the Hirus we became proficient at disposing of them despite the amount of fighting I had been doing my level didn't go up it seemed the required experience for the next level increased exceptionally. My interface blinked with a new notification. This was an alarm I had set up to alert me once night time hit and despite the current time being around ten o'clock the forest didn't change.

  “Sophia!” I called out. She was taking point with Douge while I brought up the rear, Liliandra was set in the middle. The humidity wasn't doing any favors for both the girls. Sophia's typically long and blond hair was kept in a ponytail. Her hair was puffed out and frayed giving her a large puffy bun. Liliandra's fur wasn't in any better condition; she looked like a wet dog, her ears laid flat and tail curled around her body.

  “ What?!” She yelled back irritation in her voice.

  “ Where at ten o'clock planetary standard time we should find a place to hold up and get some rest.”

  “ I don't want to camp out here, let's keep looking for a suitable camping location.”

  “ Ughhh I'm just gonna bury myself. Death would be a better rest than camping in the humidity.” Liliandra said we all stopped and turned to her she didn't seem to notice and kept walking she made it past Douge before realizing we all weren't moving.

  “What?” She asked

  “ That's the best idea today.” Douge said he turned to a tree with a rather large root coming out of the ground.” I'm going to dig us a hole.”

  It was surprising how fast Douge worked. Using his magic he formed a solid tunnel under the tree, the spungy ground becoming hard earth as he worked. He created a round room at the end of the tunnel only making it large enough for our tents, a seating area for us, and a spot just for the portable restroom. By the end Douge was laid out flat on the ground his breathing was heavy. Under ground the humidity was too bad however it was still there. Sophia and Liliandra were having some kind of discussion on how to reduce it so we could rest in comfort while I got started on dinner for everyone.

  “ We still have a few water crystals. I'm sure we could rig up a ritual to pull the moisture out of the air.” Liliandra said.

  “ No. That won't work. Well it would work but only in the short term but after a while the humidity will just come back. We need to make a magical device that runs on its own.” Sophia said

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “ I don't know how we can do that. We would need a fire crystal to supply the mana to the inscriptions in order for the water crystal to run on its own. And even then we might need a second fire crystal to draw in heat to convert that to mana just so the original crystal could last all night long. Sophia, we might just have to live with this humidity.” They both groaned at the thought but then Sophia turned her head towards me. It was then I realized I had stopped work and was just staring. I smiled quickly then turned back to dinner.

  “ Heyyyy Rinnnn.” Sophia said her voice was sickly sweet and I could tell she wanted a favor.

  “ What is it?” I said

  “ How many Fire crystals do you have?”

  “ Ummm.” I opened my inventory and then opened the box where I keep all my ammunition. “ Five now I have five broken crystals as well. Why?”

  “ Oh no reason can we maybe.”

  “ No.” I cut her off. I was actually willing to give up some of my fire shells to help create some kind of A/C dehumidifier unit but this felt like the perfect time to get something out of her.

  “ You didn't even let me ask.” Sophia said, crossing her arms.

  “ I know what you want and the answer is no. Unless you're willing to negotiate.” I said

  “ Negotiate for our own personal comfort?”

  “ Yup I'm completely fine sitting in my own sweat.” I was not. “ So I want something from you.” I pointed at Sophia after ripping open the last MRE. “ I currently owe you a debt in cash.” I could see Sophia's shoulders slump.

  “ I'll cut your debt by a quarter. How about that?” She said I shook my head. Her body language may have changed but she answered fast. A mistake on her part she should have considered it first before answering.

  “ Not good enough. I want all of it gone. I don't like being in debt.” I replied

  “ Can't do the whole thing. I'm not trying to make a profit off you but I have principles and I just couldn't see myself just giving it to you for free especially for you.”

  “ Then no deal.” I placed the can of enchiladas to stop the heating packs letting the food warm up in the can.

  “ Sophia I'll just pay the whole thing for him if it means we can get out of this sticky hell.” Liliandra said.

  “ No.” Both Sophia and I said Liliandra held both her hands up like she was about to be arrested.

  “ Okay, just a suggestion.” She said

  “What's the lowest you're willing to go?” I said she considered it for a moment.

  “ Half. That's the most I'm willing to give up.”

  “Half? Hmmmm.I suppose I could settle for half but I want two percent of your share when we finish the contract and from any money earned from selling monster parts.”

  “ Done!” Liliandra clasping her hand around Sophia's mouth. “She agrees.” Sophia just rolled her eyes then nodded. I pulled the fire shells from my inventory and handed them over.

  “Hey Rin, wake up!” Somebody was shaking me and yelling. My whole body was freezing cold. Groaning, I rolled over blinking the sleepiness from my eyes. Ice flaked off my body as I moved. My vision was filled with warning notifications and status notifications.

  [Warning: body temperature has dropped below recommended temperature for functionality.: Warning]

  [Debuff: Sleeping Frost has been resisted.]

  [Debuff: Frozen has taken effect, you are now frozen.]

  [Debuff: Frozen has been resisted.]

  What the fuck! I thought my eyes no longer filled with sleep shot wide open to see Douge standing over me. His skin was blue, his lips bleeding from his skin cracking open.

  “Douge what's going on?!” I jumped to my feet to look around. Liliandra and Sophia were both dead asleep covered in a layer of frost their skin was blue as well.

  “ I don't know. I can't get Sophia or Liliandra to wake up. I just.” He bit his lip causing more blood to be pressed out of the cracks.” I fell asleep while on watch and then just woke up to see the whole area covered in ice.” Shit I wish I could see Douges stat menu. I could feel the anger boil at my own inability.

  “ I think we're under attack by some monster. My interface said I resisted a debuff called Sleeping Frost. I was frozen but I think I eventually was able to resist it. That sleeping frost debuff this probably will cause you to fall asleep so don't feel bad man.” I placed my hand on his shoulder and it was freezing. We got to do something about this ice. I looked over to the little ritual circle that the girls made to see both fire crystals had shattered. So it's not that.

  “ Douge first thing we need to do is increase the heat here. Any Ideas?”I said

  “ If we had fire magic we could use my earth magic to make a furnace.” His teeth were chattering together as he talked. I pulled out Malice and changed it to one of my three last fire shells.

  “ You handle the earth magic, I got the fire, just tell me what to do.” He nodded, placing his hands on the ground talking as he worked forming a large square with vents.

  “ You will need to create a small but strong fire inside this furnace the smaller and hotter the better.” He paused as a tubing and chamber formed inside the large square. “ It should suck in the cold air and pump the hot air out if I made it right.”

  “ Making it small and hot sounds like I need to compress the mana used to make the fire.”

  “ Yeah it's dangerous. Did Liliandra explain Energos and Argos energy to you yet.” I shook my head. “ Okay crash course they basically mean active and interactive each element has an assigned active or inactive value to it. Fire has the highest active value along with light and wind. Water has the most inactive value along with dark and earth mana. The reason ice is so easy for you to control is because it has such an inactive mana value that you can easily manipulate it. Same with earth magic. now fire and wind mana both want to move so the act of compressing the Mana creates a violent reaction.” Douge said.

  “ I don't understand,” I said.

  “ Okay basically. Water and earth magic are poor people that will do more for less while fire and wind magic are rich people that need you to give more to get less.” He finished creating his furnace.

  “ That is such a screwed up way to describe that.” I said

  “ But you understood it, didn't you.” I sighed and nodded, placing the barrel of malice inside the furnace. I pulled the trigger lightly, barely depressing it.imagining it was a simple lighter with a small flame flickering to life. Inside the furnace heat started to bounce around heating up the stone Douge used. I could already feel warmth radiant from it. Okay I need a stronger flame but I can't give it too much mana just yet. I pulled a little more on the trigger and the flame grew bigger but not hotter. My hands and face were starting to hurt. I could see my finger tips slowly turning blue. Hypothermia is just around the corner. I wanted to rush this, my patience thin with the pain. With a mental command I tried to compress the flames even more, turning it to a small ball a few inches from the barrel. The furnace started glowing red hot with the heat as I compressed even more mana into the small area. The sharp stabbing burning sensation was replaced with a blanketed burn feeling as the heat seeped into my body.

  “ Keep going Rin! The girls are regaining color.” I barely heard him as I was taking all my concentration to control the flame, I realized how stupid I was to try to do this in a combat scenario without any training. I was still only a half the strength I tried using during the fight and I could already feel myself losing control. A notification popped up

  [Warning: Mana has reached the maximum control threshold. To utility and control more mana. More Wisdom is required.: Warning] That was strange why didn't I get this notification before. Maybe I did it all too fast.

  “ That's all I got Douge bring them closer!” I shouted through gritted teeth. I hadn't realized how much I was straining until I heard my own voice. I turned to Douge and in that moment I realized something very important. We should have checked the room for monsters. There floating right in front of me was an ethereal form of a woman. Her face was blank save for a large gaping mouth. It looked like she unhinged her jaw and was about to bite down on me. Her body was nothing more than a long flowing robe with an icy blue color and two long thin arms that look like they were made out of pure skin and bone.

  “ Oh fuck.” I said as she shot a beam of ice from her mouth. I quickly pulled malice out and blocked the beam causing malice to be frozen solid and knocked from my hand. The force of the attack sent me stumbling.

  “Douge!” I cried out. The monster was already moving towards me with another attack, a faint blue light growing brighter in its mouth by the second. I dove, dodging the next attack. Quickly I got up and rushed the monster throwing a right hook.

  “ I'm coming Rin.” I could hear Douge call out as my fist connected with the monster there was a soft give before my fist passed completely through.

  [Debuff: Frozen has taken effect.]

  My entire arm froze solid only stopping right below my shoulder. I jumped back dodging a swiping attack the monster made with its boney fingers. Douge was on me the next second blocking another beam of ice.

  “ What is that? My arm froze the moment I punched it.” I asked

  “ I think it's a wraith of some kind.” Douge created a tent of stone around us leaving the back open so we could flee if needed. “ Do you still have Sophia's old sword? Its enchanted and should be able to damage the monster. Or spells work.” I looked at my empty holster and grunted. A pair of ethereal hands reached into the stone tent attempting to grab one of us. We both moved out of the way as quickly as possible. I pulled up my inventory and pulled out Sophia's old sword. It still had rope wrapped around the scabbard and hilt. But that didn't matter right now. I started attacking quick light jabs and slashes trying to stay back and give Douge enough room to block attacks for me. He tried getting the monsters aggro but was unsuccessful. Douge and I kept on the offensive for as long as possible, both of us suffering light hits and scratches that would instantly freeze that portion of our body's. Both of us were getting slower while it felt like the wraith was getting faster. The scabbard on my sword would pass harmlessly through the wraith but the sword inside would still cut. I wanted to grab malice and use magic but I had lost track of the gun. Douge we he could was sending out small chunks of spinning rocks they would hit but dealt no visible damage.

  An ice beam shot out at both of us and I dodged while Douge blocked. The beam of ice ricocheted off his shield right into me. I can't believe it ricocheted and hit me. I thought as I began to freeze. My body was mid air and I slammed against the ground landing right next to Liliandra frozen body a notification popped up. I waved it away with a thought and reached out towards the beastkin. Surprisingly my left arm was still unfrozen and I was able to touch her. She was cold. Way too cold. I could hear Douge cursing behind me as he fought the monster alone. I turned to look at him. He was standing over all of us. He lost his sword somewhere and was bashing his shield into the wraith as it attacked. Spears of rock would grow from the ground impaling the monster but they would quickly freeze and shatter. Douge was muttering something, his voice low with the familiar guttural tone.

  “I need to get up.” I felt myself saying “Something… I need to do something!” Notifications flashed across my screen

  [Attempt to break Debuff: Frozen. Has not worked.] This single notification filled my vision as I tried to stand. I used overclock and could feel the rush of energy as my wounds started to heal but I was still frozen in place screaming. A new notification appeared.

  [Debuff: Frozen. Has taken root and begun to spread due to environmental conditions. Resistants failed.] I screamed even louder anger at myself for not opening up with overclock. I could have ended this but now we're gonna all die.

  Douge moved into the wraith attack trying to knock it off balance with his shield only to slip on the icy floor. The wraith capitalized on the moment grabbing out punching its hand straight into Douge's chest. The monster, despite being incorporeal, lifted Douge up into the air. His legs flailed around searching for purchase.

  “ Douge! Gods damn! Douge!” how fast everything turned to shit I thought. Not even three weeks ago I was cleaning sewage pipes and now here I was about to die having been thrusted into events that I didn't understand. We people I had grown to actually like despite my first impression these past couple of days have been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. Hell these last few weeks really. I continued to struggle against my bind trying to break free but even with my increased stats the frozen debuff didn't budge. I watched helplessly as Douge was hoisted even higher, his blood dripping onto the floor and quickly freezing over.

  “ It's not over yet!” Douge screamed as he coughed up blood. I could feel his mana press against me like how Liliandras did but this felt protective and safe compared to her calming aura. His right thigh suddenly began to glow brightly, the light penetrating his armor. Douge grabbed the wraith's arm and tried to pull himself free. How is he touching it. Flames sprouted out of Douge's hands growing to engulf both him and the wraith. I watched in awe as Douge gained a second elemental affinity. The flames continued to grow, blanketing the entire room. The frost around my body melting away. His flames didn't hurt despite feeling extremely hot. I screamed.

  “ I'm coming!” I jumped up the frozen debuff now gone. Douge was holding the wraith as it tried to escape his fire, the silent monster screaming in pain the whole time. Sword still clutched in my hand I ran towards the monster chopping down at an angle cutting its head off. The head hit the ground with a splat, the monster holding its shape for a moment before crumpling to the ground, dropping Douge at the same time. Its corpse slowly disintegrated seeping into the floor revealing a narrow stairwell.