It took only moments for their ride to reach the edge of the forest. Upon their arrival, the platform was lowered, and, for the first time since they were lifted so high into the air, Loki was able to see the construct that carried them all this way.

  It was a giant.

  Well, it was a construct made out of rock and dirt that took the form of a giant. It was in the shape of a very muscular man, though it was missing some key parts. They physique it had was incredible, putting most men to shame. The oddest part of the construct was its face, particularly its mouth. The being lacked lips, exposing its entire set of teeth. The jawline was elongated, and the teeth themselves were more square and numerous than on a normal person.

  As Loki watched, the being that could only be an earth golem grew larger in size. After a brief moment, he realized it was due to it absorbing the platform into its body, adding to its mass. Once the platform he was standing on disappeared, he and his traveling companions fell the remaining distance to the ground. Loki and the leader of the Axe-a-lot-el adventuring party were the only two to remain standing, the others having fumbled and fell.

  Loki watched in awe as the earth golem started to disintegrate, starting slowly from its head. The giant was turning into sand that was getting blown away by a rather strong wind stream that he couldn’t feel, almost certainly magical in nature. The disintegration process sped up rapidly once its torso was gone, and its legs disappeared in an instant. The whole scene lasted maybe 10 seconds.

  Loki whipped out his notepad and started writing down everything he had witnessed, as well as a few speculations he had.

  “Nature spirit. Granted one reward upon completion of its puzzle. Answer to vine cage was to strike every third vine, ignoring completed vines. It escorted the entire group through the forest back to the road as our reward.

  Escort took the form of a giant earth construct. Upon completion of its task, construct rapidly eroded and its remains were flown off back into the forest, likely to return to its starting location. No golem core was spotted, likely an advanced application of Earth Magic, probably Epic grade, possibly Legendary.

  While riding the construct, a giant tree was spotted. Minimum of 200 feet tall, possibly larger. Possible favored spot of the nature spirit. They have been known to grow favored trees to ridiculous portions.

  Spirit does not seem hostile. Despite entrapment and obvious teasing, Spirit almost seems friendly. Fog prevents the use of magic, but the spirit doesn’t seem to take advantage of that fact to cause harm. I’m unsure if Spirit is the cause of the fog, or if it’s the byproduct of its extended presence in the area. Spirit seems capable of using magic in fog zone.”

  Loki went on to write a few more notes, mostly about the clues he found while partaking in the “vine cage/puzzle/trap”. He likened it to a dungeon a few times, but knew that dungeons would be a lot more hostile with more monsters present. The lack of Orcs they encountered was also noted, of course.

  He ended up scribbling for a few more minutes, but when it reached the half hour mark, the grumbling of his companions reached a point that he knew they should move on. As they started heading north, he decided they earned the right to converse with him. The group’s performance was adequate during their excursion.

  “With how impatient you lot are, I’m surprised you haven’t fallen for any dungeon traps yet. Do none of you seriously take notes?”

  The leader of the Axe-a-lot-els laughed at that.

  “We don’t take notes. We read the notes of others that have gone before us and go from there. So far, we’ve only visited previously known dungeons that fit our brand. The goblin dungeon over in Swampsta, for instance. That was a fun one while it lasted. We even beat the Hobgoblin boss while 3 levels under the recommended minimum. We would have been 4 levels under if we hadn’t reached 20 just before we reached it.”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Loki was actually impressed by that. He had been to Swampsta city many years ago as a solo adventurer to train in that very dungeon. He ran it 5 levels over recommended level and still had some difficulty with the traps. Of course, he used it as an opportunity to learn some basic skills rather than as a way to level himself up. It was where he learned the Short Rest skill, as well as the Swimming skill. And it was also where he earned his favorite wand.

  “I see. What other dungeons have you lot been to?”

  Loki was starting to warm up to this group. If they changed their stupid name to something less obvious, he might even consider them a decent group. He decided now was as good a time as any to start learning their names as well.

  “There was the Snowbold dungeon up in the mountains, though we had to leave before finishing it since Franny hates the cold.”

  Loki took note of the man who shivered in disgust. The leader smirked at his reaction and continued talking.

  “We’ve been to the Firey Caverns by the volcano near the southern part of the continent. The one on the west, not the east. The eastern one was too high level for us at the time, and I forget what it was called. The lava wasn’t a problem since we had gear to resist fire, as well as earned the Fire Resistance skill in the Firey Caverns, but we couldn’t get past the first group of fire sprites.”

  Loki was well aware of every dungeon he spoke of. What he wasn’t aware of was how well traveled this group was. Very few people could claim to have been to half the dungeons he mentioned, some of them being on different continents entirely.

  As the leader, Mark, talked, Loki made sure to note every member’s name down, as well as their levels, as mark talked of them.

  Mark was the highest at level 50, and the lowest level and the youngest was Franny, at age and level 45. There was Darius, who wielded an axe called the “Hand of Noxus”, which he earned from soloing a mini-bosses in one of the dungeons they ran through, was level 49.

  He still hadn’t gotten the last two member’s names yet by the time dusk arrived, but they still had another day of travel ahead of them before they reached home. They would have plenty of time to talk.

  The fear in their eyes as they were lifted high into the air was AMAZING, even if I didn’t get the upgrade to Iron Bark like I was hoping.

  When the leader of the group Loki was with asked to be escorted out, I knew I only had one last chance to mess with Loki. I took that opportunity to flex my Earth Magic. I created a large half bolder underneath them and piloted a humanoid earth puppet to carry them to the edge of my territory. During the travel time, I molded my humanoid creation to look more like a specific giant character from an anime I used to watch.

  Once the group was properly plopped down, I decided on an epic departure rather than a dramatic stroll off. I started by rapidly grinding the dirt I used to create my carrier-titan and summoned a strong gust to carry the now sand-like dirt away. I used the remains to fill in the dirt that was used to create everything. When I was done, it was like they were never here.

  “I do hope they come back. Humans are fun, and by how short those axe men were, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some dwarven ancestry there. Heck, that might be why they chose to go with axes instead of swords, bows, or magic. Hmm… I wonder if they have guns here? Ooh, Should I create a gun?”

  Eager to start in a new project, I whisked myself back to my experimental clearing and got to work.

  For starters, I would need metal. I reached down with the nearby roots and pulled up as much iron as I could from the ground, using my body as a traveling medium. I bit of Metal Magic helped it travel faster, and soon enough, I had a few pounds of the stuff up on the surface.

  As I was about to heat the metal to form a proper ingot out of it, I realized that I didn’t need to heat it when I was bringing it up from the ground. In fact, I still didn’t need to heat it up once it was out, either.

  I examined the iron dust and wondered what exactly was going on. As I moved the dust around, I came to a realization.

  Metal Magic was a combined effort from both Earth Magic and Fire Magic, yet I didn’t necessarily need either magic to use Metal Magic. I had previously used fire to soften the metal to make it more mailable and easier to forge into the desired shape, but I didn’t use Fire Magic to directly work on the metal. Earth Magic was more of a base for how to move metal, rather than the magic that was actually moving it. Metal Magic, while using principals of the two baser magics, was its own thing.

  I focused on the pile of iron dust in the clearing and added some mana to it. Then, using the mana as the softening agent, I molded the dust together, creating a singular block of iron.

  Through reaching a critical insight about your skill, [Metal Magic (R)] has been upgraded to [Metal Magic (R+1)].

  The insight I had, which I learned from my experimentation with learning Lightning Magic, earned me two whole skill levels, completely skipping “R+”. It made me want to explore other avenues of magic almost immediately, but I held off for now. I wanted to try my hand at gunsmithing.

  It had potential to be a world changer, after all.

  Discord Here!