Chapter 152: First Floor

Chapter 152: First Floor

"So what's this holy pool you mentioned?" I asked as we continued to move forward. "If you don't mind me asking, that is."

"I don't mind. It's a bit weird, and as the group healer, I want you to believe you're in good hands," Eliza responded. "So, imagine I have two buckets. When I use Dark healing on someone, I fill up the one bucket with Dark Energy. Then I can use that Dark energy to cast offensive spells; you might have seen me casting [Dark Bolt]."

I nodded.

"Right. So when I damage something with Dark energy, it gets 'Purified' into Holy energy, which fills up my other bucket. I can use that energy for big or quick heals." Eliza explained.

"That sounds incredibly useful," I responded. "What's stopping you from just keeping them both full?"

"Well... Both buckets have holes; if I don't use them quickly enough, they start to leak into me. When the Holy bucket leaks, it heals me like a soft regen. Which is pretty great, in all honesty. However, when the Dark bucket leaks, I take the injuries stored in it. You had your stomach cut open? My stomach starts to rupture."

"Holy shit. That sounds dreadful." I replied in honest shock. Talk about a brutal healing method.

Eliza nodded. "That's why I try to spend the Dark pool as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, I can't heal normally without spending my Holy pool, so I'm incentivized to generate it as quickly as possible."

"And let me guess, you need Mana to access the buckets?" I asked, after puzzling together how I felt like her class worked.

"Yeah. If I'm ever without Mana, I can be in for some trouble if my Dark pool isn't empty." Eliza admitted.

I pulled off my Mana Regeneration ring and handed it to her, "You can borrow this for the dungeon."

She looked surprised, then shocked. "Are you sure? What about your own Mana?"

I chuckled. "Not to brag, but Mana is one of the things I seldom have to worry about."

"Is that an elf thing?" Pelopi asked, her ears perked up.

"You could say that," I said with a wink.

"Damn. I want to be an elf." Pelopi said, her tail swishing frantically.

"Heads up! Next room ahead." Jet interrupted our conversation.

Surprisingly, there were only two monsters this time, but they were both huge. They looked like giant bullmen, except one looked like he was made out of bark. The other had the lower half of a horse; it looked absolutely ridiculous.

"Minotaurs?" Ian asked.

"I think so," Eliza replied.

"That one looks like a treant," I said, pointing to the wood one.

"And the other one looks like a Centaur. Which is kind of funny considering Minotaurs are half bull and half man, so we have half bullman and half horseman."

"So half man, quarter bull, quarter horse?" I asked.

The group muffled their laughter. Even Jet smirked.

"Tanking both might be a problem; those giant weapons look dangerous," Ian admitted.

"Let's focus on the half-tree one. I'll debuff it, and it should go down quickly. I'll also try freezing the other one to maybe give us more chance, but no promises how effective that will be."

"I can also help try to restrain the horse one." Jet admitted.

"Sounds good, like a good damage race to me," Pelopi said excitedly.

"Our specialty." Eliza winked.

I started casting all my debuffs from outside of the room before we entered. [Hex] and [Erode] for both monsters and then [Flammable] and [Frigid] respectively. Then I gave a thumbs up, and Ian rushed into the room and charged towards the treetaur. He ignited midcharge and tried to slam his axe into it, but the monster blocked with its own weapon.

Pelopi joined the fray and started trying to hack into its rear with her claws. Meanwhile, Jet and I had to tie up the other one quickly. I began casting [Ice Patch] to hopefully ruin its traction and then began firing [Icicle] spells from behind. It bellowed in rage as the ice slowly crawled over it from the piercing icy projectiles stabbed into its body and galloped forward with fury. [Ice Patch] weirdly didn't seem to be affecting it much, and that was when its own shadow seemed to reach out and trip it.

"Damn, it's a lot sturdier than it looks." Jet grunted as I saw him looking like he had just run two entire marathons.

I tried to puzzle out what he meant, then realized he was perhaps talking about my changing the origin point of my spells. "Do you mean moving the anchor point for my spells?"

"Is that what you call it?" Jet asked with genuine curiosity. "Well. It definitely wasn't on your guild file. Admittedly, I don't know too much about spellcasting, but I've definitely seen Lisa cast [Ball Lightning] and my share of [Icicle] spells, but they've always originated from the Mage."

I opened my mouth to respond, but Jet held out a finger to pause me. "You aren't in trouble. I'm just letting you know that only elite members of the Mage's Guild usually do something like that. Hell, it's one of the things they brag about against the Adventurer's Guild. I assume you haven't joined their guild in your floating island absence?"

"No. I didn't join the Mage's Guild." I replied.

"Which means you figured it out without being legally bound by them," Jet replied, releasing a soft chuckle as he shook his head. "You could earn a lot of clout if you shared that within the Adventurer's Guild."

"I... I'm not sure if I can." I said hesitantly. I probably could share it; Trixie hadn't said to share that, only my class. However, I didn't want the knowledge and learning methodology of it to somehow link back to the pixie. I owed her that much, at least.

Jet nodded. "I understand. I just thought I'd put it out there, especially if you might have shared it for free. Rather, at least earn your worth, ya know?"

"Thanks for the suggestion and the advice."

"No problem. Lisa is a good friend who told me to look out for you. I can sort of see why now." Jet chuckled. "Anyway, let's pop this bad boy open. There are no traps, but it is locked."

He twisted his tool with a single fluid motion, and there was a multitude of satisfying clicks as the chest opened.

"I can cheat with my shadow." Jet said with a wink as he walked away from the box. Inside was a singular bracer.

I picked it up and chuckled as I tossed it towards Ian. "I know you have the whole take damage thing going on, but I think this might stop you from losing your arm next time."

He clumsily caught the bracer, not expecting the toss, and looked it over. Eliza looked it over and then nodded in agreement.

"Please do. I don't want to see your arm lopped off." Eliza admitted.

Ian nodded and put it on, and with a flex of his arm, a transparent tiny buckler of a shield appeared floating near his arm.

"Woah! Ghost shield!" Pelopi said before throwing a rock at it.

"Hey! Watch it!" Ian complained just as the rock struck the shield and harmlessly bounced off.

"It kind of reminds me of the [Aegis] spell," I said, demonstrating it. "However, it doesn't look like it costs incrementally more mana the longer you hold it."

"It doesn't look nearly as strong as that spell either." Eliza pointed out.

"Still better than nothing. If it saves your arm even once, it's worth it." Jet said.

"You guys sure I should have this?" Ian asked.

"I'm not the one on the frontline," I admitted.

"Don't look at me. My arms turn into bear claws. I can't wear something like that." Pelopi said.

"Guess it's settled then," Eliza said, patting Ian on his bald head.

"I just hope it doesn't burn and break," Ian muttered.

"It shouldn't... It's enchanted for defense and durability." I said.

"Plus, it's dungeon loot, which makes it extra special." Jet added. "They usually have extra effects even our best enchanters can't replicate yet."

"Huh... Cool." Ian said, looking at the bracer with some newfound awe in his eyes.

"Less talking, more killing! We gotta kill the boss before Eliza empties herself." Pelopi shouted and started heading towards the exit.

"Oh shit. Right." Ian said and started hurrying after her.

We rushed after the crazy druid.