777. At the Bottom

"J-Jess? Are we...alive?" he asked gasping, quickly regretting taking in the horrible air.

"Yes! Yes, we are alive, you big idiot," she said in a hushed voice, with big tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Urgh, you are hugging me too tightly, I can't breath... maybe that's for the better," he joked.

"Stop talking, I will help you get out of there. I guess we survived because we fell in all of this loose garbage," she explained while shoving away the loose, stinging dirt.

"Where are we?" James mumbled. It was clear that he had taken the greater hit and still had a hard time grasping the situation.

"I think this is the very bottom of this dungeon. Well fell past a lot of stair..." Jess said, remembering their tragic fall. After removing the dirt down to his waist, she tried pulling him out, but the knight hurriedly stopped her.

"Ah! Wait, wait, this won't work. I think my legs are broken, " James pressed out, resisting the urge to scream. Who knew how deep they were and what creatures inhabited this floor? Screaming here, in this situation could still mean their end. It would be bitter to die after surviving that fall.

What were they supposed to do? This thought filled his brain. He didn't know how long they had been down here, but his skills were already off cooldown, so it had to have been quite a bit. His legs were broken and the next priest was several hundred or even thousand meters above them...

"Where are your thoughts wandering again? Here, drink the high potion first," she brought him enlightenment. She also helped him drink the health potion, but they quickly found that it didn't have its usual effect. James' Health only regenerated slowly.

"Maybe it's this place?" James asserted. At least his head started clearing a little after drinking a potion.

"You really think there could be a place that hinders the effects of potions?" Jess asked doubtfully.

"Well, this is also a dungeon where the mobs can simply leave their floors... What's weird about hampering the power of potions?" James shrugged.

Jess had to admit, that there were many different dungeons. She remembered the briefing the guild people had given them before coming to the holy land. They said that the stronger a dungeon was, the further it would stray from the generic templates they knew. The more bizarre it was, the higher the difficulty for the pioneers that faced it first.

"Take my ring," Jess suddenly told him, holding up her legendary ring.

"Why would I take your ring? Keep it, who knows what lurks around down here? It's not like I can use magic anyway..." James denied her request, having difficulty grasping why she even said that. A flick to the forehead focused his attention back on her.

"Doofus, I am not telling you to wear it and cast magic. It grants the trait "Nurtured by Flames". If you wear it, I can technically heal you through fire,"

Seth had explained to her that the trait was similar to a skill called <Flame Absorption>, except that it effects were more varied and supple. The trait allowed the user to slowly absorb the fire in the surroundings to increase the stats, such as health regeneration, mana regeneration, defense, and magic attack. As a matter of act, this also meant that the fire element would not harm the wearer.

This was not the same as casting a healing spell but was the only way she came up with to heal James, by increasing his health regeneration. James was still not fully convinced when he heard her explanation, but he still took her ring and put it on his finger.

At this moment, Jess was just glad the ring was not soul bound. Although she had signed a soul contract that she could never hand the ring to anyone, it actually made an exception for sharing it in a party.

Jess proceeded to sit down behind him, laying her hand on his shoulder like she was going to massage him. Without the ring, she started chanting a long spell that created a sphere of fire around them. Here she left the trodden path of the system.

As a magician specialized in fire, her <Mana Sense> skill was dialed in on fire elemental mana. A mage could also cast a spell without relying on elemental mana in the air, but doing so did not only strengthen the power but also lowered the costs. It was a principle of advanced spells, that could also be used on simpler spells, once mastered.

Now, she was using this to keep concentrating more and more fire elemental mana around them, using the fire sphere around them as a framework. Sweat started pouring down her skin and drenched the inner layers of her armor as the temperature rose.

A fire mage had a high resistance to fire, but without the ring, she was not immune. Even when it was her own spell, the elemental mana was not hers.

"It's working, Jess! My health has started regenerating much faster. I should be able to get out in a few minutes," James whispered excitedly. The effect of Nurtured by Flames he currently felt was exhilarating.

"Good," she pressed out, having a hard time breathing in the sweltering heat. Her sweat evaporated the moment it appeared on her skin and the armor she wore felt more and more constricting, like wearing an oven.

"Jess? Are you okay, Jess?" James called out in a slight panic when he saw her suddenly struggling to even sit upright. His heart started racing when he saw the tip of her hair starting to smoke and fizzle out

"Can you hear me? Stop the spell or skill! Whatever you are doing, you have to stop!"

He struggled to get out, despite his broken legs. He tried to turn around, but her hands clamped down on his shoulder. As he was hectically trying to make her stop, he got another reason for his heart to drop.

Maybe it was the light of the fire sphere, maybe it was his frantic struggle to stop her, but he suddenly heard a rumbling in the darkness. The shuffling of something massive, slowly grinding over the ground. Then he hear the deep cry of metal echoing in the air like something really big and metallic was being abused.

"Jess, Jess! You have to stop! We have to hide! Please, come to your senses!"

"S-Shut up, I am in my senses. I can take it. Just a moment longer, just a little bit more," she kept repeating.

"Shit!" she was not in her right mind at all. His legs were already healed, but she wouldn't let go of his shoulders. Looking behind, he saw her hair burning in a blaze. Dozens of thoughts swirled through his head as he panicked about what to do, but it all stopped when he heard a distinctive sound.

His body followed its muscle memories as he jumped out from the dirt, pulling her along, her hands still clamped on his shoulders. Once again all kinds of lights flashed around him, as he activated all the skills he had to protect her life.

The next moment a rusty pillar of metal smashed into the flame sphere, crashing into the shield James created. He and Jess were pushed through the loose dirt all the way to solid ground, where James got to experience a second, even worse impact.

"Urgh!"

he felt his bones break and his muscles rip, but at the same time, he felt the power surrounding them flow into him. Jess' hair was burning brightly, but it didn't harm her, instead, her life was constantly filled up through his skill <Noble Sacrifice>, while his own health was recovered through her fire and Nurtured by Flames.

Keeping up the shield was the only thing that dominated his mind, as he felt his bones crack and heal under the pressure. Even when his skill broke, and the metal thing crashed directly into the Cerberus Shield, he held up.

They were caught in a loop as the fire sphere grew constantly hotter and denser, both kept alive through their shared health and the legendary ring. It grew to the point, that he felt the pressure wane, and drops of molten metal started falling on the floor below them.

Even when the weapon rose back up, Jame was frozen in his stance, not lowering his shield, convinced Jess would die, if he dared to lower it.

<Ding! You and your Partner have been chosen by Lohe and Klinker.>