8 Climbing The Tower

*BANG*

The sound of the gate closing behind Shizuka echoed as she took a look around. They were standing in a large cylindrical room. The walls around the room were filled with pulsing red lines, making it look almost like it was alive. On the far side of the room were a set of stairs going higher up into the volcano. In the center of the room there was a large lava waterfall pouring into a large pool in the center of the room. Other than that the room was surprisingly empty.

"The calm before the storm?" Nori pondered, looking around.

"I think it's a small respite before the next floor. We did just defeat a mini-boss after all." Lusha replied.

After taking a minute to investigate the room, they discovered that it really was just an empty room.

"We'll we might as well eat something, we don't know if we will get another chance after this." Lusha said, pulling some meat out of her inventory.

While Lusha was cooking, Shizuka decided it was time to get used to using her swords again. It would be stupid to be rusty going into an area where she might need to use them at a moments notice.

Creating an ice sword in her hand, she walked up and tapped Klyn on the shoulder. Looking over at her, Klyn noticed the sword in her hand, raising an eyebrow he looked at her curiously. She pointed at Klyn's sword then pointed at herself.

Pausing for a second, Klyn slowly nodded his head as he stood up and took his own sword off his back. Standing a distance apart Shizuka created a second ice sword in her other hand before motioning in a 'Come at me' fashion to Klyn with a smile on her face.

As Klyn rushed at her swinging, Shizuka could already tell the difference between his and Aurora's fighting style. Aurora focused more on speed and jabs, while Klyn focused more on power and slashes.

Ducking under his slash, Shizuka went to counter attack but widened her eyes when Klyn followed up by kicking towards her chest. Barely dodging the kick, Shizuka backed off a bit. She hadn't thought about incorporating anything other than her swords into her fight style. A glimmer of excitement shot through her eyes at the possible things she could do if she added this to her arsenal.

Meanwhile Klyn had a surprised look on his face, as he didn't expect her to be able to dodge. Rushing back at her he had a smile on his own face, showing an obvious 'this might actually turn out to be fun' expression.

***********************

As Shizuka sparred with Klyn she quickly adapted to her increased height and was beginning to incorporate martial arts into her fight style. At first Klyn had been easily pushing her back, but now it was more evenly matched as Shizuka was quickly learning and adjusting to each of Klyn's moves.

They sparred for about an hour with neither gaining the upper hand.

"Let's eat now, we don't want to use up all our stamina here before we even start fighting, yes?" Lusha said smiling.

Embarrassed, Shizuka scratched her head as she dismissed her swords. She had ended up having so much fun she completely forgot that they were staring death in the face right now.

"It's fine, it's fineee! At least now we know that Shizuka can handle hew own as a vanguard. Even I can't fight evenly against Klyn, I end up having to use my skills to match up to him in a fight." Nori said grinning. "I've never seen anyone fight with two swords before, it looks quite fun! I would ask where you learned it but with you not being able to talk that makes it a bit difficult..."

Shizuka pondered on it for a second before an idea came to her mind. She could read the status window and each notification... Could she not just write down what she wanted to say?

Flicking her finger, ice started to form in the air.

[Does this work?]

"Oh hey, that totally works!" Nori exclaimed.

"Oho that's a pretty neat trick." Lusha said, looking over.

Sighing in relief, Shizuka dismissed the ice. She was worried if she just innately understood what the system wanted to say rather than it being a form of writing.

"So where did you learn how to wield two swords?! Did Aurora teach you?" Nori asked, her eyes sparkling.

[I guess you could say it came to me naturally while she was teaching me.. I don't really understand it myself.]

"Ehhhh.... that's pretty cool, I guess you're a natural then huh?" Nori said teasingly, poking Shizuka on the cheek.

Shrugging, Shizuka tried to focus on eating, her face flushed slightly from the praise.

***********************

After eating, the group wrapped up and moved on, climbing up the stairs. Upon reaching the top, Shizuka and the party were greeted by another gate.

"Ready?" Nori asked, placing her hand on the gate.

After confirming everyone was ready, Nori pushed the door open to reveal a room similar to the room they just came from. The only difference was this room had piles of bones littering the ground.

'Well that's not creepy at all...' Shizuka thought as they walked into the room cautiously.

*BLOOP*

Looking towards the direction of the sound, a red sphere jumped into view, jiggling like jello as it hit the ground.

[Lava Slime - Level 41]

"A slime?" Nori scoffed. "What's the weakest monster doing in a place like this? Even kids can kill a slime."

Walking over, Nori pulled out her sword and slashed the slime in half.

*KRRREEEEEEEE*

The slime screamed as it was cut in half and died instantly.

"This floor should be a piece of---" Nori was cut off as the ground suddenly started to shake and lava started dripping from the ceiling.

*BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP**BLOOP*

Each drip of lava that hit the ground morphed into another slime. Soon the party was surrounded by what seemed to be well over a hundred slimes.

"..... well in the end, if we just take our time--" Nori was cut off yet again.

*CRASH*

Shizuka turned to see an absolutely huge slime. Almost the size of the golem guardian they had fought outside.

[Magma Slime Guardian - Level 42]

"I'll stop talking now..." Nori said, backing up.

"The floor guardian is with the mobs on this floor. We have to be extra careful... Luckily the guardian seems to be a bit slow." Lusha observed.

Suddenly the guardian squeezed itself up, making it look like an hourglass before 'spitting' a fireball towards them. Barely getting out of the way in time, the party looked to see a melted hole where the fireball had hit the ground.

"See? This is why I stopped talking!" Nori protested.

Looking around, Shizuka tried to come up with a plan as fast as possible. Getting hit by that blast would instantly kill one of them, and the regular slimes were closing in. Thankfully the regular ones were easy to kill as shown by Nori earlier. So the best course of action would be to avoid the guardian while killing all the regular ones first. They could then move their attention to the guardian slime.

Nodding her head to confirm her course of action, Shizuka quickly summoned two ice swords.

While she could kill all the slimes quickly if she used her ice magic on the whole room, it would be unwise to go through that much MP just yet. She didn't know if the guardian was hiding any tricks up it's sleeve.

Dashing forward, Shizuka dashed from slime to slime, cutting each of them in half, quickly making a pathway away from the guardian.

"Follow Shizuka's lead!" Lusha shouted while buffing the party.

Shizuka continued to cut through slime after slime with the others following behind her. Lusha would watch the guardian so that she could warn the team when a fireball was incoming, giving them enough time to doge before continuing the massacre.

It didn't take them long before the room was mostly cleared of regular slimes.

Glancing around the room, Shizuka could see a few slimes hiding behind the guardian. She didn't want them attacking at a bad time so she summoned a few ice spears, sending them flying into the few remaining slimes, killing them instantly.

Now that the trash mobs were clear the party could focus on the guardian. As Lusha buffed them again, Klyn rushed forward, slashing towards the guardian slime, aiming to cut it in half.

However just as his sword struck the slime, he quickly halted his strike before jumping back.

"What's wrong?" Nori asked.

Looking at Klyn's two-handed sword, Shizuka could see that the blade itself was half melted.

"Well that's going to be a problem..." Nori noted. "I'm sorry to say it but I think this one is going to be on you Shizu. Klyn and I both use melee attacks, our ranged attacks are weak as hell.

Nodding, Shizuka was thankful she had saved her MP. With her regen speed and Lusha's buffs she was back at full MP.

Dismissing her swords, Shizuka raised both her hands into the air. As she did this, several trees made of ice grew up from the ground around the guardian. Snapping her fingers, hundred of ice daggers formed on the branches before shooting towards the it.

The guardian recoiled as a continuous stream of ice daggers started riddling it full of holes, red goo flew into the air as it screamed in pain.

Keeping the assault up, Shizuka narrowed her eyes as she saw each blob of goo morph into another slime as it hit the ground.

"We'll take care of the slimes, you just focus on killing the guardian." Nori said, nodding towards Klyn, who nodded back.

Pulling out a spare sword, Klyn and Nori rushed forward to clean up the regular slimes that were being created.

After a few minutes of repeating this and dodging the occasional fireball, Shizuka could tell the guardian was on it's last legs.

*KRRRREEEEEEEEEEE*

The guardian shrieked out in pain as it once again squeezed itself up into an hourglass shape. However this time no fireball was formed. A sense of danger washed over Shizuka as she saw the guardian start to slam its body back down to the ground.

Shizuka quickly summoned two ice hands that flew out and grabbed Nori and Klyn, pulling them back towards her. She then slammed both her hands out the ground as she created a thick ice dome around them. She continued to reinforce the creation, pouring shadow magic into it as well.

*SMASH*

The guardian's body hit the ground as a wave of lava rushed outwards from it, crashing into the walls of the room and the ice dome protecting Shizuka and the party.

"That was a close call, thanks Shizu!" Nori said as she caught her breath.

"Grrr!" Klyn growled nodding his head.

After the wave of lava rescinded, Shizuka gathered a large portion of her remaining mana. She couldn't let an attack like that happen again, it took a large chunk of her MP to protect them from it.

Dismissing the dome of ice, Shizuka took a deep breath before slamming her hands on the ground again.

A wave of ice crashed towards the guardian, just as it was recovering from it's attack. Shizuka could see it try to get out of the way but the guardian was too slow. The wave crashed into it, and went through it, leaving a frozen solid slime guardian and a wave of cold mist behind it.

Motioning her hands Shizuka gestured towards the former Magma Slime Guardian turned snow globe.

"I swear... are we just here to break things you freeze?" Nori laughed as she and Klyn once again ran at the now snow globe guardian, smashing it into pieces.

Collecting the the body of the guardian the group took a look at the loot.

[Slime Goo x100]

[Fire Dust x35]

[Lava Crystal x10]

[Magma Essence x3]

[Magma Cleaver (Blue)]

[Magma Razor (Blue)]

[Lava Queen's Robe (Blue)]

[Lava Queen's Gown (Purple)]

'Four items from one mini-boss, tower dungeons really are tailored towards loot..' Shizuka thought, pulling the equipment out of her inventory.

The Magma Cleaver was a two handed sword with a jagged blade. It was black with red carvings going down the blade that radiated a menacing aura.

[Magma Cleaver (Blue) - Level 40

Requirements: STR above 250

+100 STR

+50 Sharpness

+30 Fire Damage

-30 AGI

Skill: Magma's Wrath - Cover your blade in a layer of magma, cutting down everything in your path. +100% STR , +100 Fire Damage , -60% Movement Speed

Duration: 3 Minutes

Cooldown: 30 minutes]

Magma Razor was a dagger that looked much like the sword, black with a jagged blade and red carvings on the blade itself.

[Magma Razor (Blue) - Level 40

Requirements: STR above 150, AGI above 150

+50 STR

+50 AGI

+150 Sharpness

+15% CRT Chance

+30% CRT Damage

Skill: Razor Blade - Line your dagger with red hot energy, your next attack will ignore all defense. +100% CRT Chance, +50% CRT Damage

Duration: 1 attack

Cooldown: 5 Minutes]

The Lava Queen's Robe was a black cloak with a hood and had red trimming that looked like flames.

[Lava Queen's Robe (Blue) - Level 40

+100 INT

+1000 MP

+40 VIT

Skill: Lava Queen's Mercy - You bestow upon you and your allies the blessing of the Lava Queen. +50% Fire and Heat Resistance, +200 PDEF and MDEF, all cooldowns reduced by half (May only cast once per battle.)

Duration: Until battle is over

Cooldown: N/A]

The Lava Queen's Gown was what interested Shizuka the most though. It was completely black with dark red lines scattering across it. Not to mention that it was a purple rarity.

[Lava Queen's Gown (Purple) - Under Armor

+10% All Stats

+100% Mana Regen

+20% Fire Resistance

+100 PDEF

+100 MDEF

Skill: Lava Queen's Benevolence - Once per battle, upon death you recover with full HP and MP.

Duration: N/A

Cooldown: N/A]

The stats and no level requirement were the icing on the cake, what Shizuka was most excited for was that she could replace her current tattered white dress with this! She wouldn't look like a ghost anymore!

Looking at the party with pleading eyes she pointed at the gown and formed words in the air.

[Please, please, please, please, pleeeeeeeaaasssseeee!!]

"Ahaha! Shizu you basically killed the boss by yourself, of course you can have it!" Nori said chuckling.

"Of course, go change out of that tattered thing now." Lusha smiled, patting Shizuka on the head.

Shizuka grinned and picked up the gown, rushing over to a corner before erecting a wall of shadows for privacy. Storing the tattered white gown in her inventory, she put on the new dress and let out a sigh of relief as the heat resistance kicked in.

Taking a look at her status, she noticed that she got another level after the fight.

[ Name: Shizuka

Race: Snow Girl

Titles: Beginner Monster (3/10 Humans killed, +10% all Stats), Path Finder: +50% Points per level

Level: 37 -> 38

Class: Snow Specter, Enslaved

HP: 4,500/4,500

MP: 9,300/9,300

VIT: 100 -> 130 + 20 (180)

STR: 150 + 20 (204)

INT: 290 + 20 (372)

DEX: 100 + 20 (144)

AGI: 150 +20 (204)

MDEF: 300

PDEF: 200

Unassigned Points: 30 -> 0

(): Finalized stats after factoring in equipment, titles and buffs (Rounded down).

Effects: +10% All Stats, Fire and Heat Resistance +30%

Skills:

Tier 2 Ice Magic, Tier 2 Shadow Magic, Shadow Dispersion, Shadow Travel, Frosty Aura (Passive)

Equipment: Lava Queen's Gown (Purple), Fire Resistance Ring (Blue)]

After adding her points, Shizuka dismissed the wall of shadows and rejoined the party. They had already split the other equipment among them, Lusha got the robe, Klyn the sword and Nori the dagger. They had also gained a level during the fight.

[Klyn - Wolf Fang Knight - Level 39]

[Lusha - Apprentice Elven Sage - Level 39]

[Nori - Viper Assassin - Level 38]

Lusha and Klyn were almost level 40 and would hopefully hit it on the next floor so they could equip some of the equipment that they now had stockpiled.

Nori was sitting down and caressing her new dagger across her cheek while making a purring noise. Klyn and Lusha were taking a look at the stairs that led to the next floor.

Shizuka walked over and sat down next to Nori. Looking at her new dress she couldn't suppress her smile, it felt amazing to be wearing something new. This might become a new hobby!

Coming back over, Klyn and Lusha sat down next to them.

"We're safe for now. Let's take a quick break to regen before tackling the next floor." Lusha said.

Agreeing, the group took a short break.