“Ooh, you found a cheat?”

  Mira laughed. “I swear you get so excited about this stuff. I don’t know how you ever landed Mom, being such a geek and all.”

  Her father donned an expression of mock outrage. “What’s that supposed to mean? I got her with my rugged good looks.”

  “Whatever you say, Dad, but just look at the buckle,” Mira said as she continued to laugh.

  Mira already knew what he would find when he looked at it. She was particularly proud of it even though she would never have been able to enchant the item without Hiroto. As he had said, she supplied the raw power and basic foundation, while he had added his power and then guided her to new heights.

  The buckle contained the Mage’s Mantle spell in it and could act in the stead of having to cast it. She realized that the spell was very complex and might actually serve better as the template for an enchantment. Her handiwork proved that. Of course, it helped to understand what the mantle did. Understanding magic was what meta-mages did.

  Mage’s Mantle: Creates a virtually undetectable lattice of magic around the caster. The lattice may be infused with the energy of up to 9 spells second tier or lower. Each additional spell added to the mantle creates a cumulative 10%/spell that the mantle will fail. This chance can be reduced by 1%/average level in the seven primary schools of magic.

  Spells stored within the mantle may be activated instantaneously. Once the mantle is cast, no new spells may be added.

  Mana: 100 +100/spell added + cost of the spell added. Cast Time: 1 minute per spell added—casting must be complete within 1 hour of commencing. Cooldown: 24 hours. Duration: 10 days—1 day per spell added.

  From that spell she’d built the gift she had made for her dad:

  Imbued Buckle of the Mage’s Mantle

  Quality: Epic

  Weight: 1.0

  Active Effect: 3/sunrise. User may swap a spell slot in the mantle with another spell. New spells may be cast by user or another so long as the caster is in physical contact with the belt.

  Passive Effect: Item syncs with the user after being worn for 1 hour. After that it can sync within 1 minute of being put on again. It may not sync with any other living being so long as its original owner is alive.

  Passive Effect: May hold up to 6 spells of the second tier or lower in a lattice formed by the Mage’s Mantle enchantment. Once expended, a spell can only be restored by use of the Active Effect.

  Current spells: Lesser Regeneration, Lesser Heal, Frost Wave, Lesser Fear.

  As she watched her dad’s face light up while reviewing the item, a thought crossed her mind. What if she could create a mantle that not only held spells but also could hold other types of skills with their own requisite energy whether that be Stamina, Fury, or whatever? That really got her mind racing, but would have to wait. Now she needed to make her ask while he was in such a good mood.

  “This is amazing. I’m not sure if I should take this, though. Maybe you or Sara or even your mom should have one first. I guess that begs the question. Can you make more of these?” Dave asked.

  “I can, but it will be six days until I can make another one, and I want you to have this one. I made it as a gift for you. The next one can be made for Sara if it will make you feel better.”

  “Okay, well, thank you. I mean, you know I want it. It does, however, worry me about what you are going to ask for as a favor.”

  “Simple, I have a team ready to go into the survival mode, and I really want you to join us.”

  “I don’t know, sweetie, with your mom gone. It probably isn’t a good idea for us both to be inside a closed dungeon floor like that at the same time,” Dave said.

  Mira tried a new tactic. “Speaking of which, why did you let Mom go on this mission?”

  Her father frowned and then said, “It’s not like I could stop her. She is a grown woman and makes her own decisions. Heck, I can barely stop you from doing things. I am not happy about her going, but it may prove very beneficial for Eris’ Rise. And, well…”

  She waited as he trailed off, but when he didn’t continue, she asked, “And what?”

  “You’ve seen how different she has become. She has embraced not only living in Eloria but also what it means to be a moon elf. I think in the long run this is a good thing.”

  “It’s about time, if you ask me. I know I wasn’t happy at first, but if this is life, then why fight it.”

  “You know your mother. She is a force of nature. I swear sometimes she gives me whiplash with how quickly she can change directions, but one thing you have to say for her is that she never does anything halfway.”

  Mira rolled her eyes. She just couldn’t hold it back. It was a reflex.

  “And there is my teenaged daughter again,” Dave said with a laugh.

  Mira made a hmmphh sound and then said, “I don’t think you have to worry about Sara. Mom arranged for her to spend some time training or playing or whatever it is she does with Altracia. They are gonna be inside the dungeon today because of the freezing rain outside. So she will be perfectly safe.”

  She watched as the scales within her father shifted back and forth. She knew darn well that he wanted to do another dungeon run. He was probably more fixated on leveling than even she was. He would be worried about Sara, but that was put to rest. He would worry about her, but she had proven she could handle herself inside a dungeon.

  “So who exactly is on this team that you want to take in? You know that survival mode keys off of the average level of those in the group that enters.”

  “Of course I know, and that is why we want you.”

  “‘We’ is it now? So who else?”

  “Daichi, Eisuke, Jaselm, me, and, uh… Tode.”

  Mira watched her father frown. “And let me guess, this was Tode’s idea.”

  “That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea,” Mira replied defensively. “Besides I really want to hit the fourth tier.”

  “Of course, Tode often has good ideas, but my concern isn’t with helping the Adventurers’ Guild, it is with protecting my family and my people.” There was a pause left in his words, so Mira applied a lesson that many a daughter has learned when asking her father for something. Sometimes persistence is the way to win and other times patience. “I will admit that I would feel better if you hit the fourth tier. Same thing for your mother and even Eisuke and Jaselm, who are likely very close.”

  “So you’ll do it?” Mira asked, striking when she saw an opening.

  “Yeah, fine, but we have to get started soon.”

  “Everyone is already waiting. I told them I would bring you,” Mira replied.

  “Oh, you were that sure, were you?” Dave asked.

  “You are my daddy, after all.” Then she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

  She heard him mumble the words wrapped and finger. “What did you say, Dad?”

  “Nothing, I will need an hour to make arrangements; then we can go. I will meet you at the entrance to the dungeon. Agreed?”

  “Of course. Besides, you need that long to sync with the belt. And don’t forget to add two more spells to the belt. I only put four in when I was enchanting it so that you could add two that you wanted,” Mira replied.

  It was closer to two hours later when her dad showed up. Mira used to get so angry when he would be late getting to events from work. Then gradually over time had stopped caring, as her expectations had simply hit the floor. Now, though, she’d witnessed up close his work ethic, and that observation alone had changed her. Once combined with the realization that she possessed the same drive, it made her feel a connection with him that hadn’t existed since she was a little girl.

  That didn’t mean that Mira was above a little manipulation. It was the natural order of things, as she saw it. The frog shouldn’t ask the scorpion why he stung it. That was simply his nature.

  Now it was paying off, as this party was the highest average level that had yet entered the dungeon. She was actually the lowest at level twenty-eight. Eisuke and Jaselm were both level twenty-nine and on the cusp of hitting Tier 4. Tode was level twenty-nine but didn’t have the patron blessing, so was stuck in Tier 3. Daichi, like her, had not had as much time to level as he might have liked given his duties but was already level thirty-six. Her dad was somewhere in the low thirties.

  Then Dad arrived. After a little small talk, they jumped right into strategy planning. It wasn’t really her nature, but she had to admit that they all knew more about this than she did, so she just listened. Everyone was assigned a role and a backup.

  She was to be a healer first and a damage dealer second. They stressed that she always had to keep enough mana available to heal. That should be easy now with her vastly increased mana pool.

  Jaselm wanted to be the tank but eventually bowed to her dad, especially given that he would have to be the backup healer in the event that something happened to Mira. What surprised her the most was that her dad made Daichi the leader of the party. Tode argued that his experience with dungeons and the fact that he would be back from the actual combat made him a better choice to call targets and provide direction. Her dad simply replied that Daichi’s oath to his family and Eris’ Rise meant more to him than Tode’s experience.

  “Oh, before we go in, I almost forgot,” Dad said as he dug into his bag of holding and pulled out a large tray covered in what looked like rice balls. He continued, “You have to try these.”

  Mira looked at him in shock as she asked herself why he would be bringing snacks to a dungeon raid. All that confusion disappeared as she took the first bite and got the buff notifications.

  Dad said, “I figured these couldn’t hurt.” As he spoke, everyone gobbled down five in order to get the full buff.

  Once the basic plan was in place, they entered the dungeon, ready to put their lives on the line. Each had been advised that if it seemed prudent, they could hit the control to pause the dungeon after a wave, but she knew they all wanted to make it as far as possible. This was just the way of Eloria.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Rush, rush, the rapid beat of hearts, the pulse of blood, the call of life.”—Minotaur coliseum chant.

  Bastion of Thralls Dungeon—Mira Nelson

  As quickly as they entered the dungeon, the team rushed to the center. They had all done survival mode at least once. Maybe it hadn’t been in this configuration, but this wasn’t anyone’s first time.

  Dad had his sword in hand and practically glowed with the aura of the Mage’s Mantle active around him in addition to his armor spell. Opposite him, Jaselm had both sword and shield up. Daichi had his fists up but had fighting batons ready as a backup. On the far side of the circle, their fourth member Eisuke had a bow at the ready with his twin blades on his back. Inside, protected by the melee classes—well, and her dad—she and Tode tried to scan the entire room to see which side danger might come from first.

  Under their feet the ring of stone began to pulse, marking that the first wave was about to begin. It would be interesting to see what the core threw at them. Typically it was only drake hounds, thumpers or similar forest creatures. If the party was strong enough, they might have a twist added by the dungeon, but the first wave was just supposed to get everyone warmed up. Mira grinned as she realized the first wave was also likely a way to test the party out.

  A door opened in the far wall on Eisuke’s side. Out of it rushed a dozen drake hounds. An immediate flurry of Eisuke’s arrows and magic missiles leapt out from the three casters. No one wanted to expend much effort on killing something as simple as drake hounds, but likewise they were all anxious to get onto the more challenging floors.

  The forest warden’s arrows had an insane degree of accuracy, and three in rapid succession hit the hounds in eyes the size of quarters at more than seventy feet away. The magic missiles thudded in their targets unerringly and dropped another three hounds. Jaselm and Dad shifted to that side while the archer slid to a side and dropped another hound.

  This was pathetically easy with the kind of firepower they had, and she raised her hand to cast another spell when she noticed a glow spring up around the first set of fallen drake hounds. Instinctively she traced the trail of magic, which had caused the glow of an alpha who had hung back in the opening and hadn’t yet entered the survival floor.

  “Caster,” she cried out and noticed Tode had just completed a spell that brought the remaining drake hounds to a standstill. They all moved around like they were distracted and didn’t realize the party was there. Daichi dashed out and smashed one dead with a single punch, followed up by a kick that snapped the neck of the next one. Twin arrows brought down two more on the other flank while Jaselm stepped forward and slashed open the neck of the final hound.

  Her father had followed the direction she was looking, as the rest of the party did when they finished their respective attacks. Dad began a spell aimed at the caster, who appeared to be trying to heal the dead drake hounds. The flash of lightning sprang from his fingertips.

  It was always the same. Electricity traveled so quickly that to the eye there was no actual progression. In one instant the bolt appeared both at its source and endpoint. Only the impression that it began at his fingertips remained.

  Mira began to smile as the forked bolt struck a shield. The light of the discharged spell eliminated the alcove in the dungeon wall from which the drake hounds had emerged. There was not just one alpha caster but two. Somehow her dad had seen them and split his bolt to strike both. Unfortunately while the first one was still attempting to heal the dead, the other had erected a powerful magical barrier.

  The defense shattered with the fury of Dave’s electrical attack, but it diffused the brunt of the attack, and neither of the drake hound casters took much damage. To her senses the shards of mana from the broken shield were like pieces of shattered blue glass flying in every direction. As she focused on the mana and spell forms, she noticed something was horribly wrong with the caster’s healing spell. It was perverted and twisted in a way that appeared ugly to her.

  Suddenly the first six beasts they had slain all stood up, shuddering. Arrows still protruded from their eyes. Horrible wounds caused by magical missiles that had ripped holes in their chests remained. There was clearly no life in these monstrosities, and it dawned on her that the spell had animated the dead not healed the living. It was still Essence Magic but twisted in a way she had never seen before.

  Daichi shouted instructions. “Undead. Shift, everyone. Jaselm is the tank. Dave, off-tank and focus on damage. Eisuke, switch to blades. Tode and Mira, deal with those casters.”

  No one complained, and even though this was their first time, the four in front all shifted. Dad to the paladin’s left, Daichi and Eisuke to the right with fighting batons and swords in hand, respectively. Jaselm’s shield began to pulse with a golden light, and instantly all the charging zombie hounds aimed straight for it. Something about his shield enraged them beyond whatever intelligence animated the dead husks.

  Dad slashed out from his side, and because the hound was distracted, the blow severed its head. Eisuke’s blades did the same from the other side while the monk’s batons were less effective but still pushed the beasts back. Broken bones, though, didn’t seem to be much of a hindrance. Still, they all attempted to ravage the glowing shield, which Jaselm held with all his might.

  Mira stopped watching their battle as she let fly a set of spinning ice blades towards the casters still hiding in the alcove. Her attack shattered on another magical shield a second after an attack from Tode. She growled, “We shouldn’t need to use stronger magic against first-round opponents.”

  The blue-robed mage next to her snapped back, “Shoulda, coulda, woulda. We need to use what we need to use. Can you reach out and shatter that shield on my mark? If we time it right, I can take them both out but only if the shield is down.”

  “Okay,” Mira replied. Now wasn’t the time to be upset with his remarks. So she reached out to find that the caster had not just one shield but two. There was an Inferior Wall of Force, which he seemed to keep casting, protecting both of the casters. Around him was a smaller personal shield.

  She explained her observation to Tode, who said, “Good catch, but can you take both down at the same time?”

  “I think so. I hope so,” Mira replied.

  She focused on them, ignoring whatever dark spell the necromancer drake hound was casting, and wormed her way into the wall of force spell. There was power in it but no finesse. She realized it would be easy to subvert. Her mind then touched the personal shield. It had less power but was more tied to the caster.

  Still Mira laughed inside her own head. She was a meta-mage, and this was just an uppity dog. She would win this fight. Ever since the battle with Seimion, she had been practicing her class abilities to steal and shape magic. She was determined to outdo herself this time. She might not be a match yet for that dark mage, but she would own these two.

  “Ready,” Mira said and heard Tode begin casting a spell.

  She wove her influence into both shields. The first was simple, and there was no resistance from the caster. It was like he had no idea she was even seizing control of his spell or the way in which she had altered it.

  Mira moved a bit slower with the personal shield. She was worried that he would notice what she was doing as she spread her control. Again, the worry was misplaced, as she couldn’t detect any sign he was even aware of her actions.

  Tode slashed his hand down to signify she should break the spells. Instead of simply ending them, Mira turned the wall into a weapon and shrank the personal shield into a vise. The casters were both so stunned as the one began to choke in her grasp that they didn’t even notice the fiery missiles that struck out from Tode’s spell.