When they impacted on the wall of force instead of being resisted, the wall shattered inward like a hundred magic missiles. The concussive force of the fire missiles, which were essentially tiny fireballs, worked perfectly, and both the drake hounds were shredded into bloody masses of hamburger. Both slumped to the ground dead.

  Mira looked around to see if there was any more need for her assistance, but the melee types had already beheaded and dismembered all the zombie hounds. Of course, that didn’t stop bodiless heads from twitching across the floor in an attempt to bite them, or limbs from flopping around. As she watched, though, the animating force seemed to slowly drain out of the severed parts.

  The signal sounded to show the first wave was finished, and the fallen foes were reabsorbed by the dungeon as the alcove was sealed back up.

  “Wow, that was a pretty intense first wave. I think core is taking our levels very seriously,” Dad said.

  Daichi asked, “Is anyone injured?” Everyone waved him off as they prepared for the next wave, so he simply said, “Back in position, everyone. It’s only gonna get rockier from here.”

  Mira relaxed. That had been a very useful wave for her. Learning how to turn an enemy’s shield into a weapon against them seemed beyond effective. It wasn’t likely that Altracia would send a second wave that was similar to this though, so she needed to be on her toes.

  After another minute the stone ring began to pulse, signifying the beginning of another wave. She gripped her staff. Her new whip was coiled at her waist, but things would probably have gone pretty badly if she was forced to rely on it.

  An hour later, Mira pulled her whip back, recoiling it, as she had just used it to tangle up a sluglike creature that had been crawling onto her dad’s back. The last of them finally dissolved into a puddle on the floor. Dad said, “Thanks,” as his eyes swept over the dungeon, looking for more enemies.

  The signal sounded again, marking the end of the sixth wave. Everyone was panting. Mira made rounds casting healing spells on the worst of the injuries. Daichi called out, “Status check. Are we continuing or not?”

  Everyone looked at each other before turning towards her dad. “I’m good for another one, maybe even two. I think it should be unanimous though. I know we wanted to push as far as possible, but it makes no sense to die here.”

  “I’m at half mana, and we still have potions if need be,” Mira said. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

  Daichi laughed. “So like her mother. I guess one more, then.”

  They all wiped the slime from any exposed skin and checked weapons or spell cooldowns. After the first wave, they had faced treants, animated armors, elementals, a quartet of wyverns who drove them over a booby-trapped floor, and finally the slugs, who were resistant to most physical and elemental damage. Mira could only wonder what the next stage would be.

  The ring started to spin faster than ever before, as they were the first to move on to the seventh wave. The excitement of doing something new was racing through Mira. She ran through her inventory of abilities. Her stored spells had been expended other than the shield from her staff. Still, she was ready, and either way it didn’t matter, as the circling lights of the ring came to a stop.

  A fog began to flood the room until Mira wasn’t able to see more than ten feet in front of her hand and then only vaguely. They heard movement out in the fog. Daichi shushed them. Mira tried to control the magic in the fog. She hoped to be able to part it, but it wasn’t that easy. Even though she could feel the magic, she couldn’t budge it. It was like trying to push against a tree with her bare hands. This was dungeon magic in the dungeon. Even a meta-mage held no sway.

  “I can’t cancel this spell. The fog is here to stay,” Mira said.

  Daichi shrugged, then closed his eyes for a moment before saying, “Two teams of three. They are coming from multiple sides.”

  Immediately she fell in behind her dad, with Daichi next to her. The other three grouped up in similar fashion. Dad said, “My Ablative Armor spell will be off cooldown in about thirty seconds, so we need to make it till then.”

  Then the attack was upon them. A man-shaped tiger lunged at them, only to be knocked down by a punch from the monk. It wasn’t a pushover though, for it scrambled back up, and quickly the two of them were in a deadly duel. In front of her, her dad was engaged with two of the creatures. His sword moved just fast enough to stop the heavy metal staves they swung.

  She saw him phase his blade so that it passed right through one of the weapons and took off the arm from the beast man wielding it. That left him open though, and he was knocked backward by the stave of the other. That second tigerman tried to do a follow-up lunge at her, but she released a spell into him, knocking him back with a set of magic missiles.

  This didn’t do much damage but gave her enough time to uncurl her whip. She wanted to be able to use her more powerful attack spells, but there was simply no way that she could. Not with the fog. Mira lashed out with the whip and ordered the tails to strike the tigerman in front of her.

  He knocked two of the whip tails out of the way with his staff before the third entangled his arm. The end of the staff lit up, and a fire bolt burst into her abdomen. Mira screamed, as it felt like a hole was being burned through her. Two-thirds of her health were wiped out in that one attack.

  She cried out for help, only to see Daichi holding his own but only barely against a tigerman who moved with the grace of the monk. Her father couldn’t help either as the one-armed monster that faced him had dropped its staff and cast a spell. She saw a lightning bolt leap from its hands to sear her father. His body spasmed on the ground, and she feared he was dead.

  Mira quick-cast Minor Electric Shock and then channeled mana into enhancing the spell as she sent the charge down her whip. The searing smell of flesh filled the area as the coils around his arm not only shocked him but burnt deep scars into his arm. With her own opponent temporarily immobilized, she quick-cast again and hurled a lightning bolt.

  She was so excited that she finally had this spell, but now all she was thinking about was a way to save her father. The tigerman, who was apparently also an accomplished mage, stood over her father’s now still form and prepared to cast a finishing spell. One that he never finished, as he was flung back into the mist by the force of the charge.

  Mira turned and saw Daichi had finally gotten the upper hand. A low sweep took the tiger off its feet, and contrary to the saying, apparently all cats don’t land on their feet. This beast man landed hard on his back. She could hear the expulsion of air from his lungs. Daichi’s hand glowed a brilliant orange briefly, and a raw jet of dragon fire burst from his hand inches from the face of his prone foe.

  Three seconds later when he pulled his hand back, there was nothing but a white skull left where the head had been, and his foe was done for. Unfortunately both her opponent and her father’s had made it back into the fog. Dad groaned on the ground, and she rushed to him, quick-casting Lesser Heal. Then she followed it up with Heal and a Lesser Regeneration afterwards.

  As he rolled over, he said, “Thanks, I wasn’t expecting him to be a caster. That staff must have had an insta-cast spell. My bad.” His eyes then got big as he saw the wound in her midsection. “Sweetie, you need to heal yourself. Stop worrying about me. Actually, never mind. I have a potion for you. It’s the epic potion that I have been saving.”

  “I’m okay,” she said weakly.

  “No, you’ve fought bravely, but I can’t lose you. Take this before you bleed out.”

  “The wound is mostly cauterized,” she replied.

  “Stop arguing and drink this,” Dad said.

  Jaselm, Eisuke, and Tode stumbled into them. The blue-robed mage was clutching his back. She heard Daichi ask, “What happened?” as she downed the expensive potion.

  “One of them got away, but we downed two. The mage played hero, though, and rushed one of them after his spells were gone. It worked because the thing didn’t know what to expect, but he slipped in some blood and injured his back in the fall.”

  The mage chipped in, “It’s all good. I scared that pussycat away.”

  Daichi said, “There are three of them left out there, but I have used all of my special attacks until I get time to rest for a while.”

  Jaselm and Eisuke confirmed that they too were out of options even as the forest warden launched an arrow into the fog. It was greeted by a snarling screech of pain. Jaselm said, “I can still swing a sword. Let’s end this.”

  Dad said, “So no special attacks, our healer and mage are out of mana, and I’ve got enough for a couple of spells. Not sure that I can protect you all.” He paused for a moment, staring at Mira before asking her, “I know you are out of mana, sweetie, but think you could shape one of my spells?”

  Mira felt the confidence her dad was placing in her, and was proud that he saw her like that rather than as an irresponsible teen. “That’s what meta-mages do,” she answered.

  “Okay, the rest of you protect us but stay close. Mira, try to shape this spell so that it affects the entire dungeon floor but us,” Dad said.

  She then heard him start casting a spell. It was rather long and not one that she knew, so it must be a Tier 4 spell. She felt the power gathering and could see from the threads of the spell that it was a Conjuration spell. Mira placed her hand on his arm so that she could feel the flow better and then began to change the form of the spell. Then she activated the shield from her staff. It was only big enough to protect her and Dad, but that would have to do.

  It was intended to be a long drawn-out spell that pelted an area over an extended period of time. That wasn’t what they needed though. They needed some shock and awe in one fell swoop. So she restructured and began weaving the spell into something new even as her dad was casting it. A couple of times she saw one of their party lash out at a tiger that got too close, but she didn’t have enough focus to care about that.

  Finally the spell came to an end, and she could feel the power that it gathered preparing to pelt the entire room with wintery destruction. Not if she could help it, though. She had seized the spell and pushed out with it.

  Each of the waves of the spell were stored into one form, which was ready to burst. Till she released it with freezing cold, icy spears, and pelting hail. Instead of coming downward from the sky, though, the elemental power burst out all around them in a point-blank AoE. Only those within the ten-foot circle were spared. Even the fog itself was frozen solid.

  The siren sounded, and they knew the wave was over. She collapsed to her knees, completely spent, and didn’t even see Daichi rush to the door to hit the button, bringing the dungeon to an end.

  The next thing that Mira knew, she woke up in one of the beds set up for people to rest in the dungeon. Dad was sitting in a chair next to her, with Sara sleeping in his lap. He held his finger up to his lips to signal for quiet before slowly standing and laying Sara in one of the other beds.

  He and Mira then walked a short distance away but where they could still see Sara’s sleeping form.

  “How long was I out for?” Mira asked.

  “Only about six hours. I think I could have woken you earlier, but you seemed so exhausted I figured it was better to let you sleep,” Dad answered.

  She looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “Have you been sitting here the entire time?”

  “As soon as I got Sara. She was worried about you but eventually fell asleep in my lap.”

  “You have to be as spent as I was. Shouldn’t you have gotten some sleep?” Mira asked.

  “Bah, it’s my job to worry. I’m a dad. You don’t think I could sleep until I was sure that my baby girl was safe and well.”

  His answer confused Mira for a moment. “What? Did something happen to Sara?”

  Dad smiled. “No, she was fine. Apparently had a grand ole day with Altracia, even while the core of her friend was busy torturing us.”

  “Then what did you mean about your baby girl?”

  “You silly,” Dad answered.

  “I’m not a baby anymore,” Mira protested.

  That same smile came back to his face as he said, “You will always be my baby girl. You were the first, the one who made me into a father. Even now, when I look at you, I sometimes see that little crying bundle that the nurse handed to me in the delivery room.”

  “Ah, I love you too, Dad,” Mira said.

  Dave looked around before saying, “Okay, I’m proud of you, but enough sentimental stuff. I wanna know. Did you hit Tier 4? Then I have some pretty good loot for you.”

  “First, is everyone else okay?”

  “Yes, a little worse for wear, but they will all be fine. I swear that Tode’s back was the worst injury of all. Even after healing he was still a little hunched over. They said it will take time, or he will have to wait for a better healer like your mom to get back.”

  After hearing that, Mira closed her eyes and looked at the notifications flashing in her mind’s eye.

  Consolidated XP Notifications

  Your party has defeated:

  10 level 15 drake hounds, 6 level 18 zombie drake hounds, 2 level 25 Alpha Drake Hounds—caster variant (981 XP)

  6 level 19 lesser treants, 4 level 26 scaled treants (563 XP)

  8 level 28 animated armors (672 XP)

  8 level 25 elementals, 4 level 29 elementals (1,264 XP)

  4 level 25 wyverns (250 XP)

  10 level 27 radiant slugs, 2 level 32 radiant slugs (1464 XP)

  6 level 34 Draken Tundra Tigermen (765 XP)

  Total XP Gain: 5,959

  Congratulations! You have gained enough XP to reach levels 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.

  You have reached Tier 4!

  Gained Stat Points: 29

  Unspent Stat Points: 37

  Character Points Gained: 298

  Unspent Character Points: 484

  She grinned from ear to ear as she read off the notifications to her dad. He smiled back and said, “I assumed you would get a ton based on how much I got. Just remember that after this, those Tier 3 creatures will be worth only half as much, and the Tier 2 are worth nothing. To show you what I mean, I got 3,261, which is by far the most I have gotten since reaching Tier 4 but only a little more than half of what you got. Welcome to the big leagues, apparently.”

  After a minute he said, “I will be happy to offer any advice about your build, but you seem to have a pretty good idea of what you are doing by now. Make sure that you update Talvenicus with any class and skill information that you gain. Now I need to get some sleep.”

  “Wait. Did we get any loot?” Mira asked as he started to move towards one of the empty beds.

  “Oh, yeah. I’m sorry. That just shows how tired I am. Altracia left another note saying that she had been generous to us and wanted to show that it was very easy for her to make challenging waves with traps or swarms of low-level monsters that would give us very little XP. She said that we should consider her generosity to be a result of her being in a good mood since she got to play with Sara all day and that she was including extra loot. She even marked the loot for who it was given for. Then at the end threw in a barb about bringing her more high-level monsters like the tundra tiger because it allows her to create the best monsters.”

  He then dug into a bag of holding and pulled out two items. One was an odd-shaped fitting that looked like it went on the end of a staff. It had a large ruby on the end, grasped in the claws of a dragon.

  Mira’s Whip Butt: Attached to a whip, this item will provide a replacement for a magical staff and allow for a much more butt-whipping mage. Inspired by a persistent little mage who wouldn’t stop.

  Mira’s Whip Butt

  Quality: Epic

  Weight: 0.5

  Attached to a whip, this item will provide a replacement for a magical staff and allow for a much more butt-whipping mage. Inspired by a persistent little mage who wouldn’t stop.

  Active Effect 1: Mage Shield—may conjure a shield with a radius of 5 feet to protect caster and those close by. Shield can absorb up to 600 damage. Mana may be channeled into the shield to increase damage absorption at a ratio of 3 damage per 1 mana. 2/moonrise.

  Active Effect 2: Fire Bolt, 2/sunrise—may fire a close-range condensed beam of fire. Bolt’s range: 20 feet. Damage: 200–300, 10% chance to cause burning condition. Bolt’s cast time is instant.

  Passive Effect 1: Staff may store up to 300 mana for use by its wielder.

  Passive Effect 2: +4 Necrotic Damage to whip.

  Treant Sap Earring

  Quality: Excellent

  Weight: 0.1

  Active Effect: Restore 600 health +100/tick for 6 ticks to wearer. Cooldown: 1 week.

  Passive Effect: +100 health.

  Mira whistled as she looked at the two items. The earring was an obvious response to her near-death experience. It looked like the branches of a tree holding a small green gem in the shape of a drop of sap. Using it would have to be a last-ditch effort, but it could definitely save her life. Even if it didn’t match her other earring, they both provided benefits she didn’t want to be without, so she wasted no time in putting it on.

  The other item had even been named after her. Altracia must have truly been in a good mood today. That was fine. She wasn’t gonna look a gift horse, or gift drake, in the mouth. The whip was growing on her, and this would allow her to keep her staff in her spatial bag. One less thing to carry was a good thing. The shield was even upgraded, and while it didn’t have the versatility of being able to store three spells that she could choose, the bolt was very powerful, and its insta-cast ability was nothing to sneeze at.

  Now, though, she had some decisions to make. The first thing she would worry about was the Watcher’s Ongoing Preparations.

  She still only had four skills that could be doubled and wouldn’t have to make a decision about what skills to upgrade and just triggered all of them.